Zesty Macaroni & Cheese

3 cups uncooked whole wheat macaroni
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
8 oz shredded Cheddar cheese
2-3 tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup shallots
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup Italian bread crumbs
2 tsp olive oil

Cook and drain macaroni according to package directions.  Heat oven to 375.  Heat buttermilk, mustard, salt, and pepper to boiling.  Reduce heat; stir in  Cheddar and whisk until smooth.  Pour sauce over macaroni.  Stir in tomatoes and shallots.  Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish.  In a small bowl, combine Parmesan and bread crumbs.  Stir in oil.  Sprinkle over top of macaroni mixture.  Bake uncovered 20 minutes or until edges are bubbly and top is golden brown.

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Chocolate syrup is a staple in our house.  Not very healthy, I know, but we eat far, far less junk food than most, so I'm not too worried about it.  The kids like it in milk or on ice cream, my husband likes a more complex sundae, and I like it in coffee or on ice cream.  The ingredients on the typical store bought chocolate syrup are pretty scary, especially if you are trying to save money by buying generic.  Here are the ingredients from the generic chocolate syrup our regular grocery store carries:

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, WATER, CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, WHEY, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), EMULSIFIER (MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, POLYSORBATE 60), PHOSPORIC ACID, XANTHAN GUM, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, PRESERVATIVE (SODIUM BENZOATE, POTASSIUM SORBATE), SALT.

Yuck!  Fortunately, I have firmly entered chocolate syrup into the list of things we won't buy any more.  Not when I can make it with much higher quality ingredients for much less money!  I was hoping when I was researching this that it could be canned for long term storage and gift giving, but apparently it can not be safely home canned.  It does require refrigeration.

Chocolate Syrup

1/2 to 2/3 cup cocoa powder, according to taste

1 cup water

1/8 tsp salt

2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix the cocoa powder, salt, and water in a saucepan.  Heat and whisk until cocoa is dissolved.  Add sugar and whisk to dissolve.  Bring to a boil over medium heat; reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.  Add vanilla.  Remove from heat and continue to whisk mixture until it settles down.  Let cool for 1 to 2 hours.  Store in a flip top bottle or canning jar with screw top. 

 

Homestead Happenings--What's going on at YOUR place?

I've been keeping people informed with what's going on at the Trailer Park Homestead since it was first created and people always tell me how inspiring it is to see what I'm doing.  I figure if others share what they are doing on their homestead or garden, that should crank the inspiration up another notch or two.  Hence this linky.

Homestead Happenings linky guidelines:

1. Please provide a link back to this post in your post. Or if you're like me and don't care to add links into the post, grab either my main button from my sidebar or the Homestead Happenings button below (or both if you want! I won't stop you!) and stick it in your sidebar to show you were here.

2. Please link to a specific post in your blog, not your blog’s home page.

3. If you link a recipe, please use real foods that mostly can be actually grown or made on a homestaed and avoid highly processed ingredients.

4. I reserve the right to remove any posts that I deem inappropriate.

5. If you don’t have a blog, please leave a comment to share what what's been happening on your homestead or in your garden this week.

<a href="http://adventuresofathriftymama.blogspot.com/p/button.html" target="_blank" title="Adventures of a Thrifty Mama"> <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlLMfVqNr8AN-YcAwiAB3r7dPzFIpQgCC1Tj0w-Y8LJKL2YJK2CbUJ68gqKUIVdT6ngliZJiSRJr6PUMiVxiEoMmuzsXrAdOOPwhFTOR1oQ7r2NNevF8OOV8YWdfu7Q92ZUqM5YTn8524I/s1600/Homestead+happenings+button.jpg" alt="Alternative Name" /></a>

Homemade Hot Pockets

Last night's dinner was a rare epic fail.  Last time I had my husband stop at the store for a few things on his way home from work, egg roll wrappers was on the list.  He apparently didn't remember that they would be found in the refrigerated produce section and looked in the shelf stable ethnic food area instead so he brought home spring roll wrappers instead.  Not. The. Same. Thing.  Rather than complaining, since I appreciated the effort, I figured out how to use them and attempted to make chicken spring rolls rather then my chicken egg rolls.

They exploded in the fryer.  

I'm grateful that A) it didn't cause a fire and B) I didn't have all the non-egg rolls in one basket.  I was able to extract the filling from the failed spring rolls to be frozen and saved for sometime when I have actual egg roll wrappers.

But what to do with dinner for that night?  My husband got sent off to work with an empty belly and leftovers from another night and some blueberry muffins, but what about the rest of us?  We needed to eat quickly so the kids could get their bath and get to bed since we needed to get up fairly early this morning to get my daughter in dance class, so making a whole 'nother meal was out of the question.

Frozen homemade "hot pockets" to the rescue!  I'd originally made them for my husband to take to work since they are something he could eat while working if he didn't get a chance to take a full lunch, but they came in handy for this situation too. 

These hot pockets contained some seasoned ground venison, mozzarella cheese, onions, green peppers, and tomatoes fresh from the garden.  The possibilities for what could go in them is endless:  broccoli and cheddar, provolone and tuna, pizza toppings, whatever strikes your fancy!  Because of the endless possibilities, in the actual recipe, the filling will just be referred to as "filling". 

Homemade Hot Pocket Sandwiches

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

4 1/2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp yeast (or 1 pkg yeast)

1 cup + 2 tbsp very warm water

1 1/2 to 2 cups all-purpose flour

4 cups filling

Mix the wheat flour, sugar, salt, butter and yeast in a large bowl.  Add water.  Beat quickly by hand (or on low speed using a mixer of some sort if you want to be like that) for 1 minute, scraping the bowl frequently.  Stir in all-purpose flour one cup at a time, to make the dough easy to handle.  

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead about 10 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl with the greased side of the dough up.  Cover and let rise 40 to 60 minutes or until double.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces.  Roll each piece into an approximately 6 inch circle.  Scoop about 1/2 cup filling into each circle.  Fold over and pinch tightly to shut.  Let rise in a warm place 20 to 30 minutes.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  May be served immediately or frozen after cooled.  To reheat after frozen directly from frozen state, heat in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until hot or microwave.

Pumpkin Bisque

With fall hitting me with a vengeance, I'm always open to guest bloggers, so if you have something wonderful to share, please send me an email and we'll discuss it.

Today's guest blogger is Cheri Weeks from Mocha Martha's Musings.  If people like her Facebook page and sign up to follow her blog by 1:00pm PST on Friday 9/16/2011, she will hand pick one of her vintage cookbooks to give one of them. The winner will be picked randomly on Monday morning.  She can also be found on Twitter.

This year I planted a garden, I didn’t want to be one of those people who overwhelm the neighbors with squash so I just planted two… WOW! Squash are prolific things. Next year, we may need to cut that down, I see my kids plotting against me.

If you feel my pain, or your pumpkins are starting to look like my squash, this recipe may be a great one for you to try. A few years ago, I did something… well some would say it was a bit cruel, I say it was delicious! I cooked my children’s holiday pumpkin. My husband received a pumpkin from a friend for Halloween, my 5 year old very excitedly said, "Hey are we going to carve that?" My immediate response was "No, we're going to cook it!" Yes, I know …the stuff nightmares, and therapists careers, are made of. At any rate, I had been saving a recipe for baked pumpkin for a long time, but because I live in a home with squash haters, I needed to take it up a notch, i.e., they were not going to eat baked squash.

Since then I have modified the original recipe, this would work in a Crockpot with just about any squash, trust me my garden is full of it right now….

Pumpkin Bisque

Ingredients
1 2-3 pound pumpkin
4 cups chicken broth (canned or made from saved bones)

2 cups cream or half and half
1 head garlic peeled

1 shallot peeled and chopped
1 T salt
½  pepper
thyme
dash of nutmeg
1 pinch cayenne

Preheat oven to 375. Cut the top of an approx. 3 lb gourd and set aside, clean the inside, (save the seeds, they are great roasted with cinnamon, cumin and butter, and salt). Add, 4cups of chicken broth, 1 head of peeled garlic cloves, 1 peeled and chopped shallot, 1 teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of pepper, and a sprig of thyme. Pop the top back on and place it in a baking dish and roasted the recovering jack-o-lantern for 2.5 hours on 375.

After baking remove the gourd, ladle the liquid, other ingredients and scoop the flesh into a blender and blend until smooth. Add the cream and stir in. Adjust the seasoning with salt, cayenne and nutmeg to your taste. To modify this recipe for your Crockpot, just add peeled chopped pumpkin to the crock with all ingredients except cream, puree when tender. The children didn’t hold it against me!