This was a lot of fun, so I wanted to share.

This is what I made for dinner tonight, Pumpkin Stew, IN the pumpkin!

Here it is in the oven!



All done cooking.



Don't mind the horses and scenery in the background lol, it was too dark in the house once the stew was done to get decent photos.



Here's the kids, waiting to dig in. It was too dark to get a decent shot indoors and I didn't have time to play around with the camera.



Here's the recipe I used, but there are TONS of them. Just google, or go to cooks.com and you'll find many to suit your own personal tastes. Cooking your stew IN the pumpkin adds a REALLY nice flavor. I highly recommend it!

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1848,156172-253206,00.html

I meant to share this recipe with you all much sooner, after Christmas actually. It's a great recipe for using up left over turkey and if you make a big batch, you can freeze the croquetten and use for quick dinners in the future!

First off, the simple list of ingredients:

• finely chopped cooked left over turkey meat

• butter

• flour

• chicken broth

• salt

• pepper

• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

• egg

• dry bread crumbs

• oil for frying

Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over low heat.

Stir in enough flour to soak up the butter and stir it until smooth.

Gradually stir in chicken broth to make a smooth thick sauce.

Add the cooked finely chopped turkey, and season with the salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce to your own taste. 

This is what your mixture will look like:

Stir to blend well. Remove from heat, spread out in a large baking pan, and set aside to cool to room temperature.

When the meat mixture is cooled and slightly firm, shape into 'logs' 3 to 4 inches long, and 1 1 /2 inches wide.

Beat the eggs in a shallow bowl that is large enough for dipping your croquetten.

Place bread crumbs on a plate.

Coat croquettes with breadcrumbs, dip in the beaten egg mixture, then roll the croquettes in the crumbs again to coat.

Heat oil in a deep fryer.

When oil is hot, fry croquettes until golden brown on all sides.

Remove to paper towels to drain, and serve hot.

Lay the croquetten on a slice of bread, slice open through the center and spread your choice of mustard over it all.

Yummy!

If you want to make lots, and freeze the extra, simply lay them on a cookie sheet in the freezer until firm, then slip them into a container or freezer bags to keep them fresh until you're ready to use them. I freeze mine into family size servings. For our family of 7, I put 14 in each bag and that usually leaves a few extras for a couple of people the next day.

I think I'll pull some from the freezer this week for a quick dinner!

Tonight for dinner I treated the family to a true Indonesian meal.

In Canada, and the US, Chinese food is very popular. In Holland, Indonesian food is VERY popular. During my childhood years I ate many many Indonesian dishes. They are very tasty, lots of flavor, yet amazingly inexpensive to create.

Bahmi Goreng with fried eggs and kroepoek.

I don't have any photos of my own. I didn't think about posting the recipe until after dinner. lol I will share from the net instead.

Here is the recipe, and a photo, for Bahmi Goreng:

http://www.recipezaar.com/110266

When I cook Indonesian foods, I cheat and use the Conimex packages, like this one:

http://www.olddutchstore.com/product_info.php?products_id=577&osCsid=28667c6e694ea607a5a03c7c66ccd988

For the noodles, I use these:

http://www.olddutchstore.com/product_info.php?products_id=79

We eat it with fried eggs.

And with Kroepoek

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kroepoek

This year, has been a little different for us when it comes to our Christmas baking. You see, 95% of my cookbooks are packed, in a storage unit 20 minutes away.

So this year, I've had to search the net trying to find replacement recipes which are similar to the ones I normally use. I thought I would share the list of what I found here on my recipe blog.

Snowball Cookies
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/print?id=16496
 
Dream Bars
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/print?id=260987
 
Dream Bars #2
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/print?id=128886
 
Shortbread
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/print?id=229676
 
Easy Christmas Cookies
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/print?id=4127
 
Easy Christmas Cookies II
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/print?id=4128
 
Christmas Mint Cookies
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/print?id=48641
 
Now here's what the girls are making right now:

Peanut Butter Balls III
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/peanut-butter-balls-iii/detail.aspx

BUT, I'll let you in on our little secret. We make these and dip them in white chocolate instead, then we drizzle melted dark or semisweet chocolate over them. With white chocolate, these are SUPER SUPER yummy!

One year I helped a friend make chocolates for a large craft fair. I came up with a recipe very similar to this one, just by playing around with the ingredients we had on hand. They became our VERY favorite, with the white chocolate. They sold very well too! What could be more tasty then white chocolate, with peanut butter and rice crispies?! LOL

That year though, I had access, through her, to real Belgium chocolate, white and milk chocolate. Ohhhh.... that was sooooo yummy and made all the difference in my chocolate treats that Christmas. I was able to buy the chocolate through her supplier at wholesale cost. I bought two huge SLABS of the chocolate. I've never been able to find a way to get that chocolate again.  <~ I truly cry real tears over this! (not really, but you know, really good chocolate is hard to find, especially really good WHITE chocolate!)

Do you need a simple way to cook a roast? Need a quick meal that you can fix in 15 minutes and then not think about it again until dinner?

Pot roast!

I didn't grow up on Canadian/American staple meals like pot roast, so I'm really not sure how others make it. This is how I made mine today.

*I'd love to hear how others make their pot roast! If your way is different from mine, please share it with me. You can email me at pietrastodo AT gmail.com . Let me know if it would be alright to possibly share your recipe in a future post*

Last night I pulled out a roast.

This morning, about 11:00, I peeled and cut up potatoes and carrots.

Put the roast in the crock pot, filled half full with water to cover the roast.

Added some onion soup mix, and a little beef stock.

Added the peeled and cut up potatoes and carrots.

Added one can of V8. (will explain about the V8 below)

Put the lid on, set it to high, and let it cook all day.

If I have time, I take a bit of the meat 'juice' from the crock pot and make it into a thick gravy by adding more beef stock and some flour (mixed with cold water before adding to the hot meat juice). I sometimes add other spices but I won't get into gravy making right now).

Now the bonus is, when you're done your meal you have left overs which are great for Beef Barley soup!

Again, I didn't grow up on these staple soups and such, so I'm not sure what the 'proper' way to make beef barley soup is. This is my 'cheat & cheap' way.

The meat 'juice' that's left in the crock pot, along with the leftover carrots and potatoes, remain in the crock pot. I shred up the left over roast and add it as well.

Then I added some more water, to fill the crock pot 1/2 to 2/3'rds full.

Added about 1.5 cups of barley, and you can add any spices you might like in your soup.

Now I'll let that just simmer in the crock pot overnight on low, or put it in the fridge and turn it back on in the morning.

Serve with fresh baked bread or warmed buns, and always butter. Don't use margerine, it's not good for you!

About the can of V8.

There was a sale on cases of V8 one time, and hubby thought he might like to have it on hand for times that he's working and wanted a quick, relatively healthy, 'snack'. He never did drink it, so I wondered what to do with all this V8? I started adding it to our soups, and it adds a nice extra flavour. I don't know if I'll buy another case just to add to soups, but it has been 'fun' having it around. Even our youngest two who are 7 years old, our twins, made thier own veggie soup on the stove using a bit of water, a can of V8, and some cut up celery and carrots. I really encourage all my children to cook, so this was a great, easy way for them to feel like they made a soup all on their own!

On the topic of encouraging your children to cook.

Please do it. When I became married and had a home of my own I was almost 'scared' to cook. Actually, when it came to many kitchen things, I WAS scared, literally! I decided then and there that my children would be encouraged to cook as much as they wanted to, within reason of course. I decided that I would not allow anything to discourage them, such as getting upset about them messing up the kitchen, or me having to stand there and watch them when I might rather do it myself and get it done quickly.

Because of this, our 16 year old will cook, and bake, anything! She's made everything from pies and cakes from scratch to souffle! She's really not scared to try anything that sounds like it would be tasty. lol Our son is the same way, but doesn't share her great desire. He makes a great Boterkook (buttercake) though, and he's my Gouda grilled cheese expert. He also makes bacon and eggs, or sausages and eggs quite often for the family.

Our 3 younger girls also love to cook and so far they've become very good at making grilled cheese, their own 'soups', fried eggs, french toast, etc..

Children do make a mess when they cook, but the confidence they recieve while being in the kitchen and the healthy love of good foods, is well worth it! They learn to understand more about food then it just tastes good. They develope a healthy 'respect' for it. It's not just something to shove in your mouth to fill your tummy, it's something that should be made with care. Care about the ingredients used, care for the best fruits and veggies and other ingredients etc..

Kids in the kitchen is a good thing. Even if it means your kitchen often looks like it was hit by a tornado!

Of course, that only lends itself to teaching the children all about cleanliness.  

Our main staple in our home during the winter, and spring and fall, is soup. Hearty soups. Full meal soups usually with as many food groups as possible.

I usually make these soups in the crock pot, but I was unorganized this morning and didn't begin cooking until noon, so today I made my soup on the stove top.

First off, let me confess that I really did try to get a 'pretty' photo of the finished soup, but there just wasn't much hope with bad lighting (it was dark) combined with pea green... You'll have to forgive me for the unappetizing appearance of the bowl of soup above. I promise you it tasted MUCH better then it looks.

First, the water. I usually fill my pot or crock pot over half full. I don't really measure this. We have 7 in our family, so I try to make enough for one full meal, seconds if they want it, and possibly enough for lunch the next day. If I'm sure everyone will want more, I'll fill the pot 3/4's full, being sure to leave enough room for all the additions to the soup. I put the water on to boil and begin adding everything else. If I'm using a crock pot, I put it on high and add everything else the same way.

Then I add a soup 'base'. I cheat this way. I really enjoy the taste of the soup base I use and I am sure to check my labels and only buy soup base that I can actually read. You'll have to use what you feel good about. This is my little cheat and it's the base of almost all my soups, whether I'm using chicken soup base or beef soup base.

I simply add soup base by 'instinct' but the package will usually give you a good guide line to follow depending on how much soup you're wanting to make.

I stir the water until the soup base disolves.

Then I grab my bag of dried split peas.

Because I knew I would be sharing the recipe, I actually measured out how much I put in this time. lol

I poured in about 4 cups of the split peas.

Then I added some cubed ham. Every time we eat ham, I make sure I cook up extra, then I cube some and put it in the freezer for future pea or bean soups. This was still frozen when I put it in because I hadn't pulled it out last night like I meant to. It worked out fine though.

Then I chopped up some celery, especially the leafy parts.

Then I chopped up some onion. About 1/3 to 1/2 a large onion.

Thew them both in the pot.

Then I added about a 1/2 teaspoon of celery salt.

Stirred everything up real good, and this is what it looked like.

Now, I simply put the lid on and let it boil for a bit. I stir it once in a while to make sure nothing gets stuck to the bottom of the pot. Once I feel it's boiled long enough, and everything is beginning to soften, then I put it on low and let it simmer for the rest of the afternoon.

Be sure to stir it occasionally, especially stirring up the bottom or it can get stuck there. This is why I usually make my soups in the crock pot because I can simply turn it on, and leave it for the whole day. When I want to make my soup in the crock pot though, I need to be more organized and begin first thing in the morning.

In the meantime, while I got the soup ready, 'Beth' made lunch.

Today for lunch she made herself a grilled cheese sandwich and 2 fried eggs.   

Sia made up some bread in the bread maker to go along with the soup. We always have bread, or buns, preferably fresh, with our soup, and always with butter.

One day, I hope to be grinding our own grains to make true fresh bread.