Category: Recipe of the Week

Debra P.’s Homestead Beans With the shorter and colder days of winter, our thoughts here out in the country turn to making sausage, preparing for deer camp, readying the barns for winter & finishing the fall harvest.  One recipe that we like uses the last bits from the garden, allows us to use some of our food storage items and makes use of whatever meat leftovers we might have at hand. This is a great item to practice using your cast iron dutch oven or any large heavy pot.   You will use both the cooktop and the oven or bury …

Linda U.’s Cream of Peanut Butter Soup The peanut, goober  peas, salted roasted and butter. Good stuff. Packed with protein. But the peanut is really not a nut. It is a legume in a shell that grows in the dirt. Originally from South America the lowly peanut made its way to Spain via Spanish explorers then went to Africa. From Africa it was sent to America as food on the slave ships.  Not much was done with peanuts until the Civil War. Oil and food shortages meant a new appreciation for the little legume.  Around the same time, the people …

R. in Colorado’s Strudel A lady of German ancestry at my church gave me a strudel recipe which had no measurements and can be varied according to what is on your pantry shelf.   I estimated and measured to replicate and came up with this basic recipe:   Chopped dried fruit – 1/2 cup of each: apricots, prunes (or what you have).   1 cup apples – fresh, dried or canned.   Rehydrate dried fruit in a small amount of water until soft.   You can use fresh apples. I used canned with the liquid, and mixed with the chopped …

S.A.’s Chicken Casserole While there are multitudes of chicken casserole recipes out there, this is my version which is very flavorful and a crowd pleaser. I remain convinced that in the future we may be eating lots of soups and casseroles which can easily be extended so people don’t feel deprived. Some may say that this recipe has lots of preservatives, salt, fats, and such. I maintain when we are living in harder times, those characteristics may not be considered such bad things. Serves 4-6 1 cup chicken, cooked, de-boned, and cut into small pieces, about 1 breast 1 can …

Connecticut Tim’s Home-Canned Hot Pepper Relish This recipe makes a big batch (approximately 22 pints) of Hot Pepper Relish that can be home-canned.      4       lbs      Jalepeño peppers    4       lbs       Long hot or cherry peppers    7       lbs       Green sweet  peppers    4-1/2  lbs     Onions    5-1/2 cups   Sugar    9        cups   White vinegar    3        Tbsp  Salt    1-1/2 Tbsp   Cinnamon    9        Tbsp   Alspice   Chop peppers and onions to desired size.    Add balance of ingredients and boil for 20 minutes     Pack hot in boiled jars   Useful Recipe and Cooking Links: Relish Recipes Pepper Recipes Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest …

Robin H.’s Bread Pudding This is a simple, easy to make recipe for a quick dessert or breakfast item. It is my mother’s version of Bread Pudding. 1 large mixing bowl 1 loaf of cheap, sandwich sliced bread (or your leftover breads that haven’t been eaten yet) 1 cup of sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tbs vanilla extract Milk 9×9 ish sized baking dish Take your bread and tear it into pieces and place into mixing bowl. Dampen with a splash of water to wet the bread, don’t soak it. Add in your 2 eggs and vanilla and …

Homeschool Mom’s Cheesy Chili Mac Soup 1 T. butter or oil 1 lg. onion, chopped Saute the above for a few minutes. To it, add: 1 lb. ground beef or other ground meat 1 T. chili powder 1 t. cumin Cook until browned. Then add: 2 1/2 C. milk (use fresh or canned reconstituted, I find soups are a good way to rotate storage milks) 2 C beef broth (I like to store the little Knorr Homestyle tubs that you reconstitute, no MSG in them) 1 8oz. pkg cream cheese Stir together, bring to a boil and add: 1 1/2 …

Old Kimber Girl’s Freezer Slaw DRESSING: 1 cup vinegar 1 tsp. mustard seed 1 tsp. celery seed 2 cups sugar ¼ cup water Combine the above dressing ingredients and boil 1 minute.  Cool SLAW: 1 medium head cabbage, shredded 1 tsp. salt 1 carrot, grated Mix cabbage with salt; let stand 1 hour Squeeze out excess liquid and then add grated carrot COMBINE: Dressing and Slaw.  Place into freezer containers, canning jars or freezer bags.  Freeze. This slaw remains crisp. Useful Recipe and Cooking Links: Coleslaw Recipes Cabbage Recipes Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest …

Old Kimber Girl’s Pear Honey 12 pears (14 if they are small) 4 large apples 2 large oranges 3 pounds of sugar Peel apples and pears. Remove core and seeds.  Grate orange rind and set aside. Peel orange-remove excess pith, remove seeds. Grind pears, apples and orange. Add sugar and cook 20 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add orange rind. Cook until thick. Process a you would any other jam. Yield:  Approximately nine ½-pint jars Useful Recipe and Cooking Links: Pear Recipes Spiced Apple and Pear Pie Recipe Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? …

Old Kimber Girl’s Sweet Pickle Relish 6 quarts ground cucumbers (medium sized) 8 to 10 medium sized onions 3 large sweet red peppers 3 large sweet green peppers ¾ cup salt Wash cucumbers and grind.  Add salt and mix.  Let stand 2 hours. Drain well.  Grind onions and peppers.  Add to ground cucumbers. In a large pot, combine cucumber mixture and: 2 quarts vinegar 8 cups granulated sugar 3 tsp. turmeric ¼ cup mustard seed 2 tsp. celery seed Heat mixture to a light bubble.  Pack into hot, clean canning jars.  Adjust caps.  Process in hot water bath 15 minutes. …

Old Kimber Girl’s Canned Apple Pie Filling This recipe makes 7 quart jars of filling. You need to have 7 one quart canning jars, with rings and lids prepared before beginning. Ingredients 2 1/2 cups white sugar 2 cups brown sugar 1 cup cornstarch 3-4 tablespoons ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspoons salt 1 gallon + 2 cups apple juice (you may use 10 cups of water—the apple juice is best) 3 tablespoons lemon juice (or use vitamin C crystals) 7 pounds apples, pared, cored & sliced [JWR Adds: Reader J.M.L. mentioned that Jackie Clay and other experts …

J.B.’s Creamy Rice Pudding Take 1 cup of white rice and add 2 cups of water in a pot capable of holding at least 9 cups.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer for 6 minutes.  Stir once or twice. Cover pot, turn off heat and go milk the cow or goat.  While you’re at it, go check the chickens for a few eggs. Return in no less than 30 minutes. Fluff the now cooked rice and add 3 cups of fresh milk and sweeten to taste. Stir well.  One to two cups of sugar is plenty …

Mr. Anon’s Southwestern Corn Pudding   Ingredients:   1 14-oz can cream-style corn 1 14-oz can whole kernel corn or niblets, drained 1 to 3 4-oz can(s) diced green chilies, to taste  (or sub 1 can diced jalapeños for one of chilies for more spice, or sub lightly sauteed fresh diced peppers if available, to taste) 6 large eggs 1-1/2 cups soft fresh cheese (ricotta or quark) 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 lb to 1 lb diced or shredded pepper-jack cheese, depending on your taste and calorie requirement (or sub medium cheddar cheese for part of pepper-jack cheese.  Using all …

Venison Pork Sausage Porcupines (from Mama in Texas) We hunt each deer season, and make our own seasoned ground sausage.  This is a great make-ahead recipe for busy evenings.  This also freezes well.   Our 3 year old son loves helping me make these, but enjoys eating them even more! 2 lbs ground venison pork sausage (seasoned) 1 cup water 1 cup white rice uncooked 1 14.5 oz can tomato sauce 4 tsp Worcestershire sauce   Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9×13 dish and one smaller dish as well. Combine meat, rice, and water in a large bowl.  Mix …

Naomi’s Chili With Fresh Tomatoes I don’t use tomato products that are in cans because of my concerns about BPA, an endocrine disruptor found in the plasticized lining of canned food cans, which is particularly bad in tomatoes.  However, this poses a problem when making chili, because most recipes call for canned tomatoes or tomato paste. I developed this recipe to use fresh tomatoes in making chili.  It does involve a jar of salsa (which is in glass) and frozen veggies, but those can easily be substituted for fresh stuff or omitted all together. Chili from fresh tomatoes Ingredients 2 …