Recent Recipes

It seems the past few weeks I have been trying to use up some of our stored foods from last season.  We stored up massive amounts of fruits and vegetables in the freezer and as well as wild game that Jason hunted last year.  Last week I made a soup that was delicious and this weekend I made barbecue goose sandwiches.  I have been using the crock pot a lot these past few weekends.  It’s not the most energy efficient way of cooking, but I can start dinner in the morning and be off doing chores around here and not have to worry about it.  It’s wonderful to be able to sit down to a meal and know that a majority of what is on our plates was grown in our garden, hunted on this land or gathered nearby.  Here are some recipes that contain our locally gathered ingredients.  Please note that these recipes are just guidelines!

Crock Pot Morel Mushroom, Wild Leek, Wild Rice and Chicken Soup

I have no idea where I got this recipe idea, it’s a concoction from other recipes I saw online.

3 stalks celery, chopped

¾ cup dehydrated morel mushrooms, crumbled

Bunch of wild leeks (about 40 pinkie sized), white and green parts chopped

48 oz. beef/mushroom stock combination

1 tsp. of mushroom stock, I use the ‘Better than Bouillon’ concentrate in a jar (or 1 bouillon cube)

½ cup wild rice, rinsed

¼ cup long grain white rice

1 cup water

1 Tbsp. sugar

7 twists freshly ground pepper

1 tsp. salt

2 chicken breasts, cut up into small bite sized chunks

Place everything in a crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours

This recipe was good, but it was missing something.  The recipe that I adapted this from, some people used a packet of onion soup, but since I added the fresh wild leeks and the leek greens I did not add the onion soup packet.  If someone out there knows of a seasoning that would accentuate a soup like this, I am all ears.

Crock Pot Barbecue Goose Sandwiches

(I adapted this recipe from AllRecipes.com, By: SHIVERDEN)

2 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium yellow onion, sliced

1 large goose breast

1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 cups chicken broth

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Add goose breast and brown on both sides for about 5 minutes, or until browned.

Place goose breast in slow cooker and add Worcestershire sauce. Add chicken broth to cover (approximately 2 cups) and cook on high setting for 6 to 8 hours, or until meat can be pulled apart. remove the excess liquid from the crock pot, shred the goose with a fork and mix with your favorite barbecue sauce.

Serve on toasted buns with homemade potato chips, dilly beans and dill pickles!

Dilly Beans

4 lbs. green beans

8-16 heads of fresh dill flowers

8 cloves

½ cup pickling salt

4 cups white vinegar

4 cups water

1 tsp. hot red pepper flakes (optional)

Clean beans, remove the stems and wash well.  Prepare jars and canner.  Sterilize jars for 10 minutes.  Heat up lids in a separate small sauce pan.  Prepare liquid by bring the following to a boil – salt, vinegar, water, pepper flakes.  In hot pint jars - pack 1-2 dill heads, 1 clove of garlic and the green beans.  For quarts double the dill and garlic.  Pour vinegar solution into hot jars, leaving ½ inch head space.  Beans should be covered with ½ inch space left.  Process for 5 minutes.

Last year we made a large batch with 11 lbs. of beans and used 4 batches of liquid. We got 9 quarts and 6 pints. Somehow the math doesn’t add up based on the recipe above, but we were making a very large batch and knew we needed more liquid because we were using quarts.  It’s always a battle to get a good ratio of liquid to veggies when pickling.  It’s better to have too much liquid than not enough!

Zucchini Bread

(This is a recipe from Jason’s parents)

Note about frozen zucchini: I used frozen shredded zucchini from last year’s garden.  I shredded 3 cups and stored it in Food Saver packs last year.  When it thaws, there is a lot of liquid and the zucchini amount significantly decreases.  There are some that say to drain the liquid and some that say to keep it.  This batch I thawed 2 packs of 3 cups frozen shredded zucchini.  I drained about half the liquid and it all came out to about 4 cups loosely packed zucchini. The bread was really moist and took a lot longer to cook (an extra ½ hour).  I would drain most of the liquid next time.

4 cups coarsely shredded zucchini (measured very loosely, do not pack the cups)

3 cups flour (I used 1 cup wheat, 2 cups white)

2 ½ cups sugar (I used 2 cups white sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar)

1 ¼ cups vegetable oil (I used ½ vegetable oil, ½ homemade applesauce)

4 eggs, beaten

1 Tbsp. and 1 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 ½ tsp. salt

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground cloves

½ tsp. baking powder

1 cup chopped nuts

Heat oven to 325 degrees.  Generously grease 2  9x5x3 bread pans. Beat all ingredients for 1 minute on low speed, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute.  Pour into pans.  Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour.  Cool 10 minutes.  Remove from pan and let cool completely before slicing.  Store in the fridge.  Store the extra loaf in the freezer.

Piña Colada Kale Chips
(I cannot find this recipe online, but this is what I sort of remember doing!)

2 bunches of kale (1-2 lbs)
1 cup (or more?) of pineapple juice
1/4 cup (or more?) coconut oil
Agave nectar
Hemp seeds

Pull the leafy green parts of the kale off of the large stem and rip the leaves into bite sized pieces.  Soak the kale overnight in the pineapple juice and coconut oil mixture.  Place the kale on the dehydrator racks.  Drizzle the agave nectar over the kale.  Sprinkle the hemp seeds on the kale. Place the trays in the dehydrator and set to 115 degrees F.  It will take about 8 hours or more before they are ready.

If you would like to store them in an air tight container for a long period of time, the kale has to be thoroughly dehydrated, not limp at all.  If it is completely dehydrated, the chips will keep for months in an air tight container. 

If anyone tries to bake this recipe and it turns out, let me know the temperature and how long you baked the kale chips.