Tuesday, March 29, 2011

A Snow Storm and Lots of Cooking





Over the last week we got a huge snow storm! I love it when we get lots of snow. Snow is so beautiful to watch fall on the trees and so much fun to play in. I always feel like the earth is wrapped in beauty when I look at the trees covered in fresh snow. It’s such a precious, delicate thing. I love it when spring comes, but, for me, winter is managable as long as there is lots of snow.


I took lots of pictures of the beautiful snow. My little Munchkin and I went to my parents house and my mom, Munchkin and I went for a walk the day after the snow storm. We put Munchkin in a sled and it was a lovely walk with the sun shining and the snow still everywhere.


It was a great week for cooking, with all that snow outside! I made all kinds of yummy things. A venison roast, pulled venison sandwiches with the leftovers, homemade applesauce, more braised cabbage, asparagus, a yummy panini, and lots of other goodies, too.




With all the snow we kept ourselves very busy: Spent the night at my parents, play dates, story time at the library, Friday night fish fry with the whole extended family, church, volunteering, dinner with the in-laws, cooking and more!




Here are some of the recipes from the last week, with more to come!

Crockpot Applesauce
Make approximately 1 quart applesauce

3.5 Lbs apples (I used Braeburn)
1 C. water (approximately)
1.5 tsp cinnamon
PAM
Sugar, to taste (optional)

Peel, core and chop or slice the apples. Spray crock pot with PAM. Add apples plus enough water to cover the bottom of the crock pot completely. It’s okay if you don’t use the whole cup of water, or if you need to use a little more. Place the lid on the crock pot a little crooked, so that it doesn’t cover the top all the way. This will allow some of the liquid to evaporate as it cooks. Turn crock pot to low and cook apples for 5-6 hours, or until soft. Stir a few times during the process so the edge pieces don’t dry out. Once soft, mash the apples up. If you would like a thinner sauce, let the apples cool a bit then use a hand blender, food processor or blender and pulse until it reaches desired texture.



Venison Roast

2 Lb venison roast
6 large tomatoes diced, or 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
1 Tbsp. Worchestershire
1.5 tsp. salt
½ tsp. fresh-ground pepper
¼ tsp. ground chipotle chili pepper, or cayenne
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
5 large garlic cloves, whole or chopped

Put all ingredients in crock pot on low for 8 hours (or on high for 5 hours), or until roast is fall-apart tender. Yum!



BBQ Sauce

¼ C molasses
¼ C + 1/8 C cider vinegar
½ C ketchup
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp liquid smoke
1.5 tsp soy sauce
1.5 tsp. Worchestershire
1 tsp ground mustard
½ tsp ground chipotle chili
fresh-ground pepper, to taste
3 garlic cloves, minced

Throw all ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. It’s now ready to use!


To make pulled venison sandwiches, shred the leftover venison and add as much BBQ sauce to it as you like and heat on low heat in a small pot on the stove. When hot, serve on buns. I had a little over 1 Lb of venison left over and used approximately 1.25 cups BBQ sauce.

1 comment:

  1. hi katie - i was reading comments from the homeschooling discussion over @ pioneer woman & came across your blog. i could relate with what you said about maybe planning to homeschool. i also think your name is too cute :) we love making homemade applesauce, too & my little guy would eat it by the gallon if we let him!

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