art on the deck! sunshine! new freckles! rice pudding!

today was lovely. sunny, warm and fabulous! it seems that for the last couple months we've had so much cloud and so little sun - so it was awesome to soak up the rays today! i've been feeling so much better and that mixed with the great weather made for a perfect combination. 

i started bread night before last, making today bread day. i kneaded it last night, put it in a cool room to rise overnight and got the fire rocking' first thing this morning to bake the loaves, 6 to be exact. the sun doesn't rise above the mountains until around 10:20am. it actually pops up just after nine, but only for about 5 minutes, then it goes behind the mountains again, before coming out for good just after 10am. so i was almost done baking bread before the sun came beaming in the windows, leaving the whole afternoon to spend outside! travis caught a couple trout ice fishing the other day, so dinner was already figured out - i had the day to play! i took a nice long walk down to the river and along the frozen shore - no hats, no mitts...it was lovely! i spent the rest of the afternoon on the deck finishing up this piece of art while listening to the coast on cbc. it was a great great day! schooner and dixie were sprawled out on the deck enjoying the shine too, i could hear the chickens clucking and feel the new freckles emerging! 

i started this piece yesterday - its been ages since i got my sketch book out! i only had one good page left in my old book, so that was part of the reason. but when we were out last week i picked up a new book and there's nothing like 50 crisp white pages to get the creativity juices going. i feel so much better when i keep up with my art, so it's nice to finally be back in the grove. being able to sit on the deck and enjoy the sunshine sans gloves, hat, winter boots and jacket makes it all the more wonderful. 

i was trying to remember last night, if i'd posted about rice pudding before...and i still haven't checked to see if i have not for sure, but i'm pretty certain its a no. the recipe comes from fine cooking and its definitely our favourite yet. i've always been a fan of rice pudding, but it took awhile to find a recipe that i was really thrilled with. this is it. i've made a few variations of it, depending on what i have on hand. it calls for evaporated milk, the point of which, in the first place, i'm not really sure of. i almost never have it, so i just substitute regular milk. it also calls for cream, which i always make sure to have, but most of the time i half it. it calls for 1.5 cups worth and most of the time i double the recipe and 3 cups of cream just seems like a lot, even for me! it also calls for brown rice, which i have to say is very lovely, but i have made it with white rice and its totally fine too. the nut topping i almost always don't make, even though its completely fabulous... just not necessary. 

For the pudding: 
1/2 cup raw brown rice 
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar 
1/4 cup raisins 
1 tsp. vanilla extract 
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon 
Pinch ground nutmeg 
Pinch salt 
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk 
1-1/2 cups heavy cream 


For the topping:
1 Tbs. unsalted butter 
4 oz. (1 cup) walnuts, chopped medium coarse 
2 Tbs. sugar 




Put the rice in a medium saucepan and cover with water by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the rice is tender, about 30 minutes. It should still have a little bite to it.

Heat the oven to 300°F. Have ready a shallow, 2-qt. baking dish. When the rice is cooked, drain it well in a fine-mesh sieve and put it in the baking dish. Add the brown sugar, raisins, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt to the rice. Wipe out the rice saucepan and add the evaporated milk and heavy cream. Over medium-high heat, bring the liquids barely to a boil and then pour them into the baking dish. Stir the mixture a few times until the ingredients are well dispersed and the sugar has dissolved. Bake until the top is browned, the liquid is reduced and thick, and the rice is tender, 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

i'm going to put my loaves of bread in the freezer and call it a night! tomorrows weather looks like its going to be fabulous too! maybe i'll get my skis out...

a cure for a cold day

when we were little mum used to make doughnuts on the "coldest" day of the year. of course we never really knew for sure when exactly that day was, but, when it got real cold, we made the call. we had a wood stove, so it was a hot affair making doughnuts, not as hot as when bread was made mind you, but that had to happen every week and it just wasn't as fun as doughnuts. we have a wood cookstove where we are living now and since it's been below -35 for almost a week so i decided today was the day. the sun rose at 10:20am and i soaked it up, reading inside, then later going outside for a walk. but when it went down around 3:15pm i went back in to make doughnuts.

these aren't yeasted, but they are family tradition so of course the primary doughnut of choice.

sweet milk doughnuts

(joy of cooking)

beat:

2 eggs

add slowly, beating constantly:

1 cup sugar

stir in:

1 cup milk

5 tablespoons butter

sift before measuring (who really does this anyway!?):

4 cups flour

resift with (and again?):

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

combine the wet and dry ingredients. pat out on a lightly floured surface and cut into doughnuts. let sit uncovered for about 20 minutes. fry until golden, flipping once in 375 oil. 

i put a little white sugar and cinnamon in a paper bag and toss them one at a time once they've cooled just a little. you can toss then in powered sugar too, but i forgot about that this time.

horchata blanca!

...so i happened upon this recipe a while back (saveur.com) so i bookmarked it. its not really a "heidi" recipe at all... it has nothing good in it really, but it sounded interesting. after spending most of the day on the couch feeling a little under the weather, i decided to give it a try. its almost like eggnog...minus all the eggs and christmas flavour...actually it's like a fabulous rice pudding in a glass! maybe next time i'll give a more traditional horchata a try...one without all the odd milk, one a little more "heidi" like...but the idea had to come from somewhere...

horchata blanca

1/3 cup medium or long grain rice

1 1-inch piece Mexican cinnamon

½ teaspoon vanilla

12 oz. evaporated milk 

14 oz. condensed milk

freshly ground Mexican cinnamon, to garnish

instructions:

Toast the cinnamon and rice in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat until they release a nutty aroma. Remove from heat and transfer onto a blender; blend into a fine powder. Add the vanilla, evaporated milk, condensed milk, and 4 cups of water. Strain mixture through a wet cheesecloth into a serving pitcher. Chill completely, and serve over ice, or heat and serve warm. Top with freshly ground cinnamon right before serving.

roasting peppers, wood stove style

buying roasted peppers is easy, but doing it yourself is way funner! i've roasted peppers on a gas stove but this was my first time roasting one inside the firebox of a wood cook-stove. i took a whole pepper, gave it a good wash and then placed it on top of a chuck of wood inside the stove. i had recently put a piece of pine in the fire box, so there was a good sturdy piece of wood for the pepper to rest on while it roasted. 

you want the pepper to be in the flame, so it can become completely chared and black. you'll have to get a pair of tongs and keep turning it ever once in a while so that it char evenly.

once its all black, take it out and place it in a glass bowl and cover with plastic warp. you'll need to let it sit for about 10-15 minutes so that it can sweat. this will allow the the skin rub off very easily. once you have all the blackened skin off you're ready to go! 

i have a super awesome recipe for a roasted eggplant and roasted pepper soup that i'll have to post one of these days. the texture and the flavor is amazing! 

carrot pickles

                     

mum and i pulled carrots the other day. its a job that i've always liked. they are fun to pull ...and then you have piles of bright orange amd green! a quick twist of the top and they are ready for the root cellar. we set aside all of the little ones and i made a whole bunch of pickles. seven quarts yesterday and seven today.

12 cups water
4 cups vinegar
1 cup pickling salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
12ish pounds of carrots (3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket)
7 cloves garlic
dills sprigs
dill heads

mix the water, vinegar salt and cream of tartar in a large pot. heat just until the salt has dissolved, set aside. in clean quart jars, place one clove garlic, a few sprigs and one head of dill. fill the jars with carrots and pour in brine. process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. 

turkey soup & angel slices

...the angel slices are in the oven and the batter was so good that there is nothing left in the bowl. so at the moment there is no proof. but soon there will be. i'm dealing with a new oven these days. it is a wood stove, an old pioneer maid. its a fabulous heater and it has a large oven in which i've made two three things in it so far: date squares, our thanksgiving turkey and gingerbread to go with dessert. what i've noticed is that it's confusing. i've put two different thermometers inside as well as used the one that on the outside of the oven to try to figure out a current temperature and i'm still not sure what exactly is going on in there! the ones on the inside always say a different and colder temp then the one on the outside, which has to be converted because its in celsius. i had thought, right off the bat that the outside thermometer was hooped. its an old stove, it must have gone by now. but i'm thinking now that it might be alright still. i know one thing, there is definittly more heat coming from the top of the oven then the bottom. i use a baking stone for bread, so i leave that in the oven all the time which i would think would help to regulate the heat, but who knows? maybe it doesn't. its a learning process. i'm used to wood stoves and ovens, but every one is different.

i don't know if i've mentioned angel slices before but the original recipe comes from the joy of cooking and in the blurb before the recipe it mentions how st. peter gives these to little kids on their way into heaven, so they don't miss their parents so much. i can't vouch for that one, but they are pretty tasty.

angel slices

they worked!!!

for the shortbread bottom:
cream until well blended:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
beat in well:
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
combine:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

pat into a greased 9x13 and bake at 350 for about 15

for the topping:
mix and spread over bottom:
2 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cups chopped pecans
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

bake at 350 for 25 more minutes.




while i have the stove smokin' hot to bake, i've put our leftover thanksgiving turkey bones on to simmer for soup tonight. i've going to make carrot pickles after lunch...and if i'm still feeling ambitious i'm going to make pasta for soup. but we'll see if i get to that. i have a 5 gallon bucket full of little carrots that need to be washed and trimmed, brine to make, dill to pick, garlic to peal and jars to sterilize...we'll see how it goes.

The Drive North

We drove back home from Smithers last week and I thought that it would be interesting to take road pictures from my view in the passenger seat. These are nothing of great quality, but are interesting nonetheless. The pictures start around Cranberry and end in Telegraph creek. It was a rainy, cloudy drive so the mountains aren't all there, but it gives you a good idea of the drive...