Getting an ice cream which has a big blueberry taste is something I’ve never really found. You can find big chocolate taste or big peanut butter taste in ice cream. After making the blueberry syrup, I had a new ingredient in the fridge. Not common in grocery stores and not liking waste, I needed ideas to aid in it’s consumption. I always trying to make posh ice creams. I might try to resurrect an old passion and make soda. Anyways if I only use it for pancakes the syrup will last a long time. I’m guessing it’ll probably last 6 months or so in the fridge.

Ingrdients:

• 1 cup Blueberry syrup
• 1 2/3 cup skim milk
• 1 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups blueberries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Instructions:

1. In medium pan cook blueberries, sugar, and about a cup of water.
2. Cook until mixture thickens like jam trying to leave berries as whole as possible.
3. Place jam mixture in refrigerator for 1 hour.
4. In 2 quart bowl mix blueberry syrup, skim milk, and cream with whisk until frothy.
5. Prepare mixture in ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
6. After ice cream has been prepared stir in jam loosely with rubber spatula.
7. Either serve immediately as soft serve, or package and freeze as hard serve to be enjoyed later.

This might seem like a simple recipe. There’s only a few ingredients, but it is not a common ingredient in grocery stores so I am including it here. The syrup comes together fairly easily. The blueberries keep the syrup from becoming candy, by having too many particles which are non sugar in the mix. You can remove a larger portion of the water and still not have candy than you can in a mixture which is mostly sugar. I remember my parents making a blueberry syrup when I was a kid, and I purchased a souvenir bottle from a Blueberry festival in a town a lived in for several years, which I still have. This is great on pancakes, however I used it in a blueberry ice cream recipe, which is forthcoming, as the sweetener.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs fresh blueberries
• 4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup Karo syrup
• Enough water to cover the blueberries in the pan by a half inch

Instructions:

1. In large pan bring blueberries and water to a boil over medium high heat.
2. Cook until softened 30 to 40 minutes.
3. With immersion blender puree blueberries and water until you have particles smaller than sand.
4. Add sugar and Karo syrup.
5. Reduce heat to medium.
6. Cook, stirring when necessary, until you can see the entire shape of your stirring utensil left behind on the bottom of the pan. You may have to reduce heat and stir more often as the mixture thickens in order to avoid burning.
7. Allow to cool.
8. Package or serve.

A coworker of mine has a fig tree. She asked me if I wanted to have a portion. I thought they might be a good source of inspiration. I wanted to make something completely new to me, but I’ve made my share of preserves so I started by turning the figs into preserves. A Google search of layer bars gave me an oatmeal strawberry bar recipe that was made out of strawberry preserves from which I could work with. I added more flour and oatmeal. Then I split the dough into two parts. The bottom I added a couple of eggs to to make it more cakey, and the top I made like a streusal. I also added sweetened condensed milk as an additional layer. On to the recipe…

Ingredients:

Bottom:

• 1 cup all purpose or cake flour
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Streusal top:

• 1/2 cup butter kept refrigerator cold and cubed (about 1 cm)
• 1 cup all purpose or cake flour
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Additional ingredients:

• 8 to 12 oz fruit preserves
• 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

Instructions:

1. Grease 9 x 13 inch pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In medium bowl combine one cup flour, one cup oatmeal, baking powder, and salt with whisk.
3. Set aside.
4. Using room temperature eggs and butter, begin by making the bottom.
5. With mixer beat butter until whipped.
6. Add sugar and beat for at least a minute.
7. Add eggs either pre beaten or one at a time until each is fully incorporated.
8. Add dry ingredients a little bit at a time until all of them are beaten in.
9. Pour cake mixture into pan and spread evenly over the bottom.
10. Spread preserves in a layer over cake batter.
11. In medium bowl using a pastry knife or in a food processor combine one cup flour, one cup oatmeal, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Mix well.
12. Add cubed butter and either cut in or pulse depending on your method until mixture forms clumps.
13. Sprinkle half of streusal mixture over layers already in the 9 x 13 inch pan.
14. Pour sweetened condensed milk over first half of streusal mixture.
15. Sprinkle remaining streusal mixture over sweetened condensed milk.
16. Bake in 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes.
17. Allow to cool completely. Portion and serve.

The hardest thing about soups in my opinion is the broth. For the solids of a soup it’s just about cooking them optimally, which might mean for me to never cook them with the soup. The broth is trickier in that not many things make a good broth without a lot of manipulation. I’ve found the immersion blender to be very helpful in creating broths, but here I just use a regular blender. Soups might have been even more common in times past. To me it seems very plausible that many of a hunter’s kill would not need a lot of attention or creativity to end up as a soup. Basically add some water and cook the kill over the hearth fire and stir occasionally. Add some of the vegetables from your garden to make it even better. Anyways on to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• One large can tomato sauce
• One large can peeled tomatoes
• 2 medium cans great northern beans
• 2 medium cans diced tomatoes
• 10 cloves garlic
• 1 habanero
• 2 bags spinach
• 1 pound smoked sausage
• 2 cups water

Instructions:

1. Puree peeled tomatoes, garlic, habanero, and salt and pepper to taste in blender until smooth.
2. Pour pureed mixture, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, beans, and water in large crockpot.
3. Mix and cook on high for 4 to 5 hours.
4. Slice smoked sausage in thin disks and fry. Set aside.
5. Unplug crockpot and add spinach.
6. Cook until wilted.
7. Add smoked sausage to pot and serve.

I make lunches for myself at work attempting to have better food and save myself some money.  A pan of lasagna will feed me nine times and microwaves extremely well, which is the method to apply heat to food at work.  I have tried many variations.  This one is fresh with several ideas I’ve never seen elsewhere.  Anyways on to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• Two bottles of your favorite pasta sauce
• 1 24 oz container cottage cheese
• 1 7-9 oz package sliced roast beef
• 1 7-9 oz package sliced ham
• 1 7-9 oz package pepperoni
• 1 lb of your favorite summer squash
• 1 large fresh tomato
• 2 Tbsp sriracha sauce
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 10 dry lasagna noodles

Instructions:

1. Mix pasta sauce, cottage cheese,  garlic, and sriracha in large bowl.
2. In 9 x 13 pan place 2 cups  of sauce mixture over bottom of pan.
3. Next place 5 lasagna noodles over sauce with slight overlap.
4. Place about half of your roast beef over noodles in thin layer.
5. Next do the same with the ham over the roast beef.
6. Do the same with the pepperoni over the ham.
7. Slice your summer squash the long way into thin slices.  I used a mandoline.
8. Make a layer of the summer squash over the pepperoni.
9. Repeat a second time with 3 cups of sauce, followed by noodles, followed by what you have left of the meat, followed by the summer squash.
10. Place the rest of the sauce on the top.
11. Place slices of your tomato on the top.
12. Place in a 350 degree oven for 125 minutes.
13. Note:  you may wish to place a large cookie sheet under the 9 x 13 in order to keep your oven clean.

Now that I have apple butter and since I have a lot of it, I’d like to find something to make out of it.  I was going to my standbys and thinking ice cream and cereal bars.  Anyways my only complaint with these is they make your jaw sore if you eat a bunch.  The flavor is excellent.   Anyways on to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup Apple Butter
• 3/4 cup Cajeta
• 1/2 cup white Karo syrup
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 6 cups rice chex
• 6 cups corn chex
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions:

1. Place cereal and pecans in large bowl.  Mix well.
2. Place butter in medium saucepan and melt.
3. Add Karo syrup, cajeta, and apple butter.
4. Bring to a boil and boil about 7 minutes.
5. Allow to cool slightly.
6. Pour over cereal and pecans coating evenly.
7. Now you need to dry out the bites.  For this I used a food dryer.  I would think you could also use a big pan and cook it on a low oven temperature like carmel corn.  In my experience the oven method is more likely to burn, and I have a food dryer and patience.  Ii will continue the rest of the recipe the way I did it.
8. Using a screen on each shelf of your food dryer, place a thin layer of the coated cereal on each shelf.  The entire batch should fit on 4 shelves.
9. Dry on 115 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 to 24 hours, or until desired texture.

I like to experiment with jams and jellies with an outlook into candy and other sweet creations.  I live in Texas where they don’t grow one apple except maybe in a greenhouse.   However a coworker told me apples were priced well a couple of weeks ago.   So I decided I was going to try apple butter out.  I had had it in a breakfast restaurant once or twice, but that was my only exposure to it.   I read through about 5 recipes that came to the top of my Google feed.  This is what I came up with.  I think it’s excellent, but in all honesty I didn’t grow up on the stuff.  Anyways on to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 to 5 lbs of apples – I used Kanzi – was looking for tart
• 2 cups orange juice
• 3 small limes
• 2 Tbsp molasses
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• Water

Instructions:

1. Core apples and cut into eighths.  I left the skins on for flavor, but if not to your taste they could be removed.
2. Place apples, orange juice,  and juice from limes in large pan.
3. Add water to pan to cover apples and boil at medium heat until soft.
4. Take immersion blender and blend until smooth.
5. Reduce heat to low and add molasses, sugar, cinnamon,  and cloves.
6. Stir to incorporate spices.
7. Reduce by about half, or until mixture has the texture of butter.  This will take a significant amount of time.
8. Remove from heat and package as you prefer.

This is a recipe I’ve been exercising the gray matter with for awhile now. It takes premeditation because I’m a teetotaler and don’t have alcohol in the house. Chalk it up to the impetuosness of youth. My past indiscretions aside this was a good idea. Anyways on to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Karo syrup
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cups rum
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
• 6 cups rice chex
• 6 cups corn chex
• 11 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tsp salt

Instructions:

1. In large bowl combine cereal. Set aside.
2. In frying pan melt 3 Tbsp butter over medium heat.
3. Add 1/2 tsp salt. Mix well.
4. Add pecans coating with butter.
5. Cook until toasted.
6. Add to bowl with cereal.
7. In medium saucepan melt remaining 1 stick (8 Tbsp) butter. Add rum and remaining 1/2 tsp salt.
8. Add sugar and corn syrup.
9. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
10. Allow mixture to boil for approximately 6 minutes or until mixture reaches about 235 degrees on a candy thermometer, stirring the entire time.
11. Take candy mixture off of burner and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
12. Pour mixture over cereal bowl attempting to coat evenly.
13. Pour into large cookie sheet.
14. Spread into thin layer and allow to cool.
15. Cut and serve.

It’s been a little over a month since I last published a recipe. It’s been nice outdoors in Texas and I have favored another hobby at this one’s expense. It takes time to try out and test original ideas. Trying to favor the outdoors I’ve been doing mostly variations of things I’ve tried before, but I feel I’ve come upon two noteworthy new ideas I’d like to share. This is the first. Anyways on to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 batch Pineapple Orange Jam
• 1 1/2 cups skim milk
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 3/4 cups pineapple juice concentrate

Instructions:

1. In medium sized bowl combine skim milk, cream, and juice concentrate.
2. Mix well.
3. Prepare mixture in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions.
4. Add jam and mix in loosely with a spatula.
5. Serve immediately or partition and save in ice box for later.

I realize jam isn’t the most complicated of recipes, but I’ve never seen this variety for sale so you would have to make it from scratch. Anyways long time no talk. On to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 7 medium sized oranges
• 1 large pineapple
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

Instructions:

1. In large pan, I use a copper jam pan, clean up the oranges intending to only save the pulp and the juice.
2. Remove the skin and core from the pineapple.
3. Blend cleaned pineapple with 1 cup water for 1 minute or until pureed.
4. Add pineapple to cleaned oranges.
5. Add remaining water and sugar.
6. Turn burner to medium high to start and boil down.
7. Stir and check mixture every 10-20 minutes until almost no liquid remains.
8. Turn burner to low and stir frequently until spatula or spoon leaves trails behind it.
9. Remaining on low heat stir an additional 3-4 minutes.
10. Remove from heat and process to preserve.