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.