There's Just Something About Food

On Saturday, this guy got hankering for some good food.  He found a really great recipe for blackberry rib sauce, and was all over trying it out.  With ribs already in the freezer from a good deal a while back, he was in business.

Shortly after the cooking was over and we were beginning blackberry rib bliss, this guy came home from being a pioneer for 3 days with some of our homeschool friends.  We got to hear some of his stories in between bites.

When that was gone, it was proposed that maybe s'mores were in order.  That was quickly seconded (and thirded and fourthed...)

(Hello chickens in the background!)

In the picture below you can see our favorite s'more method.  Those Keebler striped cookies with the marshmallow are much easier and in my opinion better than the traditional graham cracker and chunk of chocolate.  The chocolate is well-spread and melts nicely, and the cookie breaks without being getting really crumby.

This is my favorite picture of the evening.  Looking at the picture above, I was sitting in the chair next to Jamie with Isaac on the grass between as, as you see him above.  While I was getting pictures of everyone, I turned the camera to get him but couldn't see what I was getting very well.  After taking this, I pulled my phone up to see if it took very well.  Jamie quickly started telling Madeleine to get her s'more away from Isaac, but apparently his quick little fingers had already grabbed enough to get marshmallow.  By the time I turned again (seriously, seconds), it was on his hands, shirt, and blanket.  I ran in for wipes, and by the time I got back his pants were involved too.  I love the pre-chaos captured here, with Madeleine's hand tempting him with the perfect s'more.

Today after church I asked Adam what he wants to eat this last week before he heads off to camp again.  After dutch oven cooking on the pioneer trail, dutch oven potatoes topped the list.  Knowing today was probably more low-key than the rest of the week, we dove into that and had most of the pre-cooking preparation done when Jamie got home from after church meetings.  He quickly set us straight on the appropriate dutch oven potatoes recipe ingredients, and the men folk got to cooking.

Delciousness again.

This picture is actually after that meal was over and the dutch oven berry chocolate cobbler was about to be partaken of.  Melanie has the serving spoon at the ready.

Multiple times both evenings the words "wholesome family recreation" came to mind.  It's lovely sitting around a campfire or a dutch oven, filling our tummies with great food, laughing, and sharing that time together.  An important piece of what helps "establish and maintain" successful families, but so simple.

Dragon Meat

My sister introduced us to a great way of making roast that our family LOVES.  The blog she got it from calls it Mississippi Roast, but my sister renamed it Dragon Meat and we're sticking with that.

I've made the mistake of believing I could go to a blog for a recipe forever before, and then suddenly the blog was private and there was no way I could track down the recipe until I remembered that it was a friend that told me about it in the first place and she had printed it.  So I'm reposting Dragon Meat here as a backup to their blog and to my printed copy.  AND so anyone that happens to check this out can try this amazing recipe too.

So Good.


DRAGON MEAT

Put your roast (or two - you'll want leftovers, just adjust ingredients accordingly) in the crock pot.

Sprinkle one packet of Hidden Valley Ranch mix over the roast.

Sprinkle one packet of Au
Jus gravy mix over the roast (apparently brown gravy mix works too, but I haven't tried that).

Place a whole stick of butter on top of the roast.

Put 5ish peperoncini peppers on top of the roast.  (If you don't know, these peppers are pretty mild and come in a jar.  The last time we did this we didn't have any, so we used yellow hot chili peppers.  A touch more spicy and a touch more yum.)

Don't add water.

Cook for 8 hours or so.



(In posting this, I realized the recipe originated at Laurie's Life, then was posted with pictures at a Perfectly Lovely Ordinary Day.  Now they both have credit for the awesomeness.)

* The picture, and the story behind the picture, came from here.

Feeling Adventureous

Wanted to share, I just made myself a green smoothie with spinach and frozen pie cherries. Wow. It's very different. I doubt my body will know what to do with all this wholesome goodness.

Sammy and Erin had some too (less than an inch in their cups) and both said it was good. Erin wanted more, Sammy didn't.

I thought about chasing it with a brownie, but decided that would defeat the purpose.

Sweet vs. Bitter

I grew up eating apricot pits. My brothers, cousins, and I would hold big rocks at grandma's house and crack them by the dozens and dozens.

Probably the first time I had any inkling that that's not always possible was years later, eating them at my parents' house. My sister-in-law said, "Apricot seeds have cyanide in them, I'm not eating any." I thought, whatever, we've been eating them for years.

Later I heard grandma mention to someone that she had planted a new apricot tree and that it had edible pits, but that another somewhere else on the farm didn't.

It wasn't until after ours were bought and planted that I wondered if our trees had edible pits. We've had one for five or six years, and we planted two more last year. The older tree is loaded with apricots this year and I've been drying and freezing apricots. With all those pits hanging around, I hated the thought of throwing them away if they are edible.

I went searching for apricot pit information and learned that the bitter pits are supposedly cancer fighting, but they also contain cyanide. Eating 10 can kill a child, eating 40 can kill an adult. But if the seeds are sweet, or rather have an almond flavor to them, they are safe to eat.

So I did some checking. We only got a few apricots off the two little trees, some of which fell before I could even get to them. I went and grabbed a couple seeds from under the tree and tried one. Bitter. So those two are anti-carcinogenic according to ancient and alternate medicine, but also cyanidogenic (if that's not a word yet, I get credit for making it up).

I was going to wait till the older tree seeds dried before I tried one, but got impatient. Grabbed the hammer, cracked it - ALMONDY!

So yee haw, looks like I've got one edible, two non-edible.

From the table at the bottom of the bitter pits article, it says 'wild apricot pits' are superior sources of the good stuff, and that 'apricot pits' are excellent sources. I wonder if the non-wild ones are the sweet pits?

Edamame

Our family has a new favorite veggie - edamame, or soy beans. Jamie discovered it first, and I must admit my first try at it didn't impress me much. I love them more every time we have them. A few months ago we discovered them in pod in the frozen veggies section for about $1.50/bag, and just the other day Jamie brought some home from Smith's already shelled in a bigger bag.



From foodreference.com, "Some call edamame the super or wonder vegetable because it is the only vegetable that contains all nine essential amino acids. This makes edamame a complete protein source, similar to meat or eggs. Edamame also contains isoflavonoids. They are found in all soy products and are being studied for their health benefits."

Everyone in the family likes them except Adam, who has a tough time with anything green anyway. He finally decided to try lettuce here and there, so maybe one of these days he'll warm up to these too.

It's great everyone likes them since they are so healthy, but we almost have to divvy out the unshelled beans to make sure everyone gets their share. The shelled bags were an excellent find. They come with a LOT more, and hey, no shells to deal with. After eating our fill with dinner, we even had leftovers we pulled out and heated up the next day. Almost unbelieveable, kids walking by the kitchen counter, tossing BEANS down the hatch for a snack. But I swear, it is true.



Either way they are easy to cook. Pop the whole bag in the microwave for the set time and voila, that's it. We like to sprinkle coarse kosher salt on them. YUMMY!

This article talks about some silly celebrity diet using the beans, but it has a lot of info about them, including their recently found 'posh-ness.'

Have you tried them?