Your Practical Guide To Self Reliant Living
Traditional Brunswick stew is made with small game, namely squirrel or opossum. Since they don’t generally sell squirrel meat at the grocery store, these days most recipes substitute dark meat chicken instead. In truth, most people do have access to squirrel. The hitch comes in turning a squirrel into squirrel meat.
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Dutch baby oven pancakes are the perfect hands-free breakfast for a busy morning. Quickly whisk up the ingredients and have breakfast in the oven in 2 minutes flat, and ready to eat 20 minutes later.
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Growing up we always shared the holidays with my grandmother (Omma) and she’d spend days in the kitchen preparing all her favorite traditional (and not so traditional) recipes. Apfelstrudel and mohnstrudel were my father’s favorites, but as a child, I couldn’t get enough of the holiday danish butter cookies.
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Single purpose specialized kitchen tools are more often than not a waste of kitchen space, and hardly ever used. While don’t have a big kitchen with a lot of space for extra tools, but I do have a cast iron aebelskiver pan. I blame my irrational love for all things cast iron, but in reality, there are a lot of different things you can cook in an aebelskiver pan.
Cultures around the world have their own version of aebelskiver, many savory, and some exotic versions stuffed with things as crazy as a pickled octopus. Just about all of them are cooked on a pan that’s pretty much identical to a Danish aebelskiver pan. Beyond that, I’ve found that the little divots are convenient for a number of staple foods we cook all the time, from cornbread to baked doughnut holes.
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Danish aebleskiver are traditional holiday dish in Scandinavian countries, and they’re sold as a street food during the busy holiday shopping season. Also known as Æbleskiver, ebleskiver, danish pancake puffs or simply pancake balls, these light as a feather round pancakes are impressive enough for big gatherings but simple enough for weekday mornings at home with my toddlers.
Learning to make them was easy, and after my first batch, we’ve had them at least once a week since, no holidays required.
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Quince jam is my husband’s very favorite preserve, and until now I hadn’t ever even seen a quince. He grew up eating homemade quince jam from a backyard tree and dreams of one day having our own quince to harvest. We’ve planted a few trees, but they just can’t stand up to our cold winters. When I saw quince at our local store I knew I just had to make his very favorite quince jam, and now it’s our daughter’s favorite jam too!
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Citrus curd is one of the few ways to safely can up eggs at home. There’s plenty of high acid citrus juice which means that it’s safe for water bath canning. Canning lemon curd is specifically approved by the national center for food preservation. Canning lime curd works just as well, and they’re both perfect homemade gifts for the holidays.
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Tiny cinnamon sugar roasted baby apples are just the right size for a weeknight dessert or a cozy teatime snack. They’re incredibly easy to make, and they’re a great way to use up smaller heirloom apple varieties.
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Canning apple pie filling at home means you’re just minutes away from having a pie in the oven. The apples are already peeled, chopped, seasoned and thickened. That allows you to just pour the pre-made apple pie filling into your favorite crust and bake. Next time you need something quick for a potluck, you can still bring a homemade apple pie.
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Sometimes you just need a little bit of sweet, but you could do without the extra calories. Artificial sweeteners contain some pretty scary stuff, and they taste downright horrible. Stevia is different. It’s a simple plant that you can grow right in your backyard, just like I did. It’s hard to imagine a green leaf tasting that sweet, but take one nibble of a stevia leaf and it’ll blow your mind.
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