Outdoor Cooking Experiments

I think Facebook has taken a toll on my blogging. Sorry!
Recently we have been experimenting with some simple outdoor cooking methods.
We have made Penny alcohol stoves. They need some more experimenting and perfecting to get them to work well for us. We are also working on Buddy Burners. And this week, we made a Hobo stove. I hope to put some more detailed instructions of how to make them with your family. Here is a picture of ours. We fixed bacon and eggs with it and it worked but we discovered there are some kinks to work out still. I hope to be bosting some tutorials with what we have learned.

My Best Friend

On this day, fifteen years ago,

I married by best friend.

He is still my best friend.

Dad's Amazing Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

Among the many things my dad was amazing at, cooking was one of the most interesting. He tried to be a shiterein cook. However, he didn't always achieve the desired results and some of his more famous dishes were "frope stew", and "last trip to Tulsa" (if you have ever tried to navigate from East to West through Tulsa you would understand). However, when he did get it right, he got it right and I would make him write it down before he forgot. My favorite things that he cooked were his hot pudding, rice pudding, Spanish rice, chop suey, Dad's old rashioned oatmeal cookies (my kid's favorite too), instant fudge, whole wheat bread, blender madness, and fresh strawberry ice cream. The ice cream became an institution of it's own. In it's day it was pretty much expected at all family and church put luck gatherings.
Well with the plethora of strawberries DH purchased for me this past week, I HAD to break out the old recipe and introduce my children to it. I am also going to share it with you because I promised some nieces and nephews that I would post it so they too could carry on Grandpa's tradition. (my mother also made this ice cream and I highly suspect her influence in the recipe)

My Dad's Amazing Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream
(OCB)
3 pints fresh strawberries
1 (3 oz) pkg. strawberry gelatin
1/2 cup hot water
3/4 cup lemon juice (fresh, frozen or bottled)
1/2 (6 oz) can can frozen orange juice concentrate
1 quart milk
1 pint half and half
1 pint heavy cream
3 1/4 cup sugar

Clean and wash the strawberries and whirl in blender until liquid. Strain out the seeds if desired. Dissolve the gelatin in hot water, then combine with the remaining ingredients. Freeze in a 6 quart ice cream freezer according to manufacturers directions. Pack to ripen. Serve the same day.
You can also use fresh black berries and raspberries and substitute raspberry jello for the strawberry jello.
To pack the ice cream, remove the dasher, put the lid on and cork it. Then pack more ice around the ice cream canister and wrap blankets around the whole bucket. It is a long wait but so worth it in the end.
My mom and dad would bring this to church socials at the creek with their hand cranked ice cream machine. People would take turns churning while the meal was being prepared and people gathered. Then it would be packed and ripening while we ate and played. Then at the end of the social my dad would break out the ice cream and it was divine.
I have taken this mix and frozen it it solid and then cut it into chunks and sent it through my champion juicer and have instant soft serve ice cream for my family. They love it! I think the flavor it the best when you make ice cream immediately but the frozen stuff was still the best strawberry ice cream ever!
Enjoy!

Thanks Givings Past

I was digging though some old treasures this week and stumbled on an old book of my mothers that was printed in 1905. It is "The Economical Cook Book" by Mrs Sara T. Paul. Click on the link and you can see the whole book yourself. You can see it here too. You can buy it here.

I love this description of the book!

This is an illustration from the book of the "Ideal" Kitchen. I love it!

In case you can't read it, here is what is says.

"The two views show a model kitchen arranged for convenience, for health, and economy. The floor covered with oil cloth for tiles, the walls papered or painted, plumbling easily accessible, pantries and cupboards ample -- range of the latest pattern, and sinks with hot and cold water."

In looking through this treasure of a book, I found this recipe for Roast Turkey and thought I would share it with you. It is interesting to see how things have changed, and how they haven't in the last 100+ years.

Roast Turkey

"Singe the turkey with burning paper, pick out all the pinfeathers, wash it clean and wipe it dry; then draw out the entrails, and wash the inside of the bird with several waters; prepare a filling as follows: bread-crumbs sufficient to fill it loosely (it should never be packed in any kind of poultry or birds), season with half a teaspoon of sweet basil, one of sweet marjoram, and onion chopped very fine and stewed for five minutes in a quarter pound of butter, which pour over; pepper and salt, and if convenient two dozen oysters chopped fine, fill the bird with this, reserving a little to put in where the craw came from, put the ends of the legs through the opening you made when you drew it, letting the joint come just through the vent, turn the wings back and run a skewer across through them, securing it with a string, skewer the legs in the same way, season the outside of the turkey with pepper and salt, dust with flour, and place in a dripping-pan, pour round it a cup of water. If the turkey is a very large one it will require three hours, one of ten pounds will roast in two hours, and a small one in an hour and a half; baste it frequently. For the gravey, when you first draw the turkey, put the liver, gizzard, end of the wings, and place the neck, and the heart into a stew-pan, with half a large onion cut in two, pepper and salt, cover with cold water and simmer for several hours; when perfectly tender, take out he liver and gizzard, chop the latter and put it back, rub the liver to a smooth paste with the yolk of a hard boiled egg and a piece of butter as large as a walnut, moisten with some of the broth, add a heaping tablespoon of flour, stir this into the sauce-pan, boil up once, when you dish the turkey, pour the contents of the sauce-pan into the dripping-pan, stir it round until brown, pour a few spoonful over the turkey after you have removed the skewers and strings, and serve the rest in a gravy-boat."

Isn't that wonderful!! This is how my grandmother cooked and I would hear directions like this from my mother as I grew up. I love it when recipes aren't bound by measurements and lists of detailed instructions.

This book was found in the attic of the cabin where my parents lived when they were a young married couple. My mom thinks it belonged to her mother-in-law or more than likely my dad's maternal grandmother . We will never know! It is a treasure though and I think I will see how much of this I can try this year.

I would like to take a minute to tell you my peeps that I am thankful for you and your comments and the friendships that have sprung up for me here through this wonderful medium of blogging. I hope each of you has a wonderful week and if you are celebrating Thanks Giving, I hope you have a lovely time with family and friends, remembering the many things you have to be thankful for.

Love, Mama Byrd

Harbingers of Fall

It has been the coolest Summer that I can remember in 20+ years of living her is Missouri. We had one week or so of really hot humid weather. The rest of the time has been very tolerable.
Well now we are starting to get the tale tale signs of Fall. The little trees in the fence rows are turning orange and red and that never happens till the first of October or late September at the earliest. Makes me wonder if we are going to have an early winter too.

Here are some shots of life here in the MO Zone this month.

My brother Sam planted a bunch of seeds I bought a couple of years ago. Well the grew!

I can't wait. I can smell baked squash with butter and salt, pumpkin custard, pie, bread, and muffins. I think our skin is going to turn orange from all the pupkinness that is going to happen around here.

The garden as also yielded a bumper crop of Zucchini this Summer, as usual, so I looked up some recipes and made a tasty zucchini quiche. I used Joyful Adobe's recipe and added some onion and ham.

We have had the most rain this summer that I can remember in 20 years. This is a picture that my 10 year old daughter took after a big storm last week.

With all the rain this year it has been the year of Frog and Toad. We have seen at least 100 of these this summer. Who knows how many we didn't see around the house.

This is another of Caroline's photographs.

School started this month too.

Isn't that Cherry Red truck of my neighbor's the sweetest ride ever! He used to have it painted yellow with purple trim. It looked pretty fabulous then but now I have to admit that my heart skips a beat when I see that truck.

With school back in full swing come early breakfasts and home lunches. These are our favorite breakfast muffins. They are banana oatmeal muffins. They are super tasty and they fill you up. We have set a breakfast schedule for the week to help cut down on the chaos in the morning. I have a hard time thinking of what to fix and so now each day of the week has an assigned breakfast to help us cope with the morning rush. Muffins is one of them. I will have to post the schedule for you and the recipes that go with it. There are several things that I bake and freeze in advance to make the week run smoothly. It is really helping us get a good start to the day and get on our way on time.

Muskogee Ren Fair Fun - Picture Heavy

We finally got to go to a Renaissance Fair. Muskogee Oklahoma is only 2 1/2 hours away from us so we were able to make that festival. It was worth the ride in the car with five kids and the fee to get in. We were able to go on Memorial day because we only get National holidays off. Lucky for us it was a Monday too. We had so much fun and decided that this would be our Memorial Day gig for a while.

Here are the obligatory Family photos.

Sorry you say cheese and these boys start hamming it up!

Sting gave him courage!

They had a children's land where it was totally kid oriented. They kids loved it!

They had a pony ride that the girls and bubby just loved.

Just look at that face. He was in little boy heaven. I wish I could have heard what he was thinking. His eyes were so big all day with all the knights, pirates, and real armor everywhere.

The archery booth was a big hit too.

Man I wish my corset fit like that! She also had pretty good aim. I was impressed.

The bow string was so tight he couldn't pull it back so bubby decided to just chuck his arrow over the barrier at the target.

There were three times Joe lost his cool guy face; at the archery booth, at the armor shop, and at the knife shop. It was so funny watching him battling being 13 and being in such a groovy place.

Isn't that a total Lucy Pevensie face?!? She was dangerous though because she would get distracted by us and turn to look and accidental let arrows fly in our direction. SCARY!

Bubby picked these up right after we got there. Everywhere we went he had to have them in his hands and would hold them up every time we passed a knight just to show he was one of them. It was so fun to watch his face. One of the shop owners just about died laughing watching him eye a knight's sword. His eyes were so big and his mouth was wide open. He had only seen things like this in movies. He was so thrilled to find out they were "REAL". Oh to be three again!

The place was covered with beautiful ladies!

Even their dad got in on the fun. He actually enjoyed the "Nerd" Fest. Hmmmm.... Somehow going to Ren Fest wasn't as dump as someone had once thought. hee hee hee

I had a lot of fun too but lucky for us all I was behind the camera. It was bad enough that we saw pound of giggly flesh there that day. Mine was not necessary to see. :o)

I do have to give a plug for the best corset shop ever. Our friends Michelle and Jill were there all month with the Damsel in this Dress corset shop. Check them out. Their stuff is fabulous.

Happy Easters

Happy Easter

To all my peeps.

From my little peeps.

Happy Birthday Bubba

My little bubba turned Three this weekend.


He had two requests for his birthday this year.

One -- he wanted a Choo Choo train cake.

Two -- he wanted a birthday card.

I love how innocent and uncomplicated he is!



Bryan got him a Thomas card which he loves. My mom saved the day an picked up a card that plays the chicken dance. He stopped opening his present when he saw the card and spent the next five minutes opening it and listening to the music over and over again. It was so funny to watch his face. Pure delight.




Of course it was all finished up with some loud singing of "Happy Birthday To You". All in all a very happy day!

Pumpkin Day at the Byrd House

We have had a very fun week celebrating Pumpkin day yesterday, aka Halloween. We love Halloween and all the fun dress-up play we get to do. The kid's school usually picks a theme that the kids can dress up to. This year is was your favorite G rated Disney character.

The teachers dressed up like characters from 101 Dalmatians. My brother and sister are there in the photo.


The kids just loved it especially Cruella. She works in the library. She was fabulous!



My children dressed up as ... Walt Disney (Joe's idea including a Sharpe mustache), Brier Rose (sleeping beauty), Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Ridding Hood, and Jeb is simply himself (he dressed up as a Robot on Wednesday and wouldn't wear it again).

We also did the traditional pumpkin carving.


We planned out our pumpkin faces,


drew them on the pumpkins,


had dad carve them out, or ....


carved them ourselves.


Then we took them outside and lit them up with candles.





Instead of going Trick-or-Treating which is pointless when you live in the middle of no where, we stayed home and had some family fun. Joe built us a fire and we roasted Weenies and marshmallows. We tried to make biscuits to wrap around the hot dogs but they turned out nasty. So the dog ate the biscuits instead and we ate the hot dogs.


Joe made roasting sticks for everyone. Thank you go for having such good camping out skills. hee hee


Toshi came over to check it all out and helped Hannah and JEB make sure the fire had plenty twigs, grass and such to keep burning well. No campfire can burn properly if little kids aren't throwing junk on it all the time.


Jeddie simply bunt his biscuit rapped hot dog. It turned out ok though. He peeled off the charred biscuit and ate the warm hot dog inside. :o)




Sorry I couldn't resist the hat. I just love this little hat. He wore it all day yesterday. It was a treat from Vea for being so good at the store while we looked at kitchen cabinets with mom. She made it from a pattern she got off Etsy. It is fabulous for Jeddies poo bald little head and he is so stinkin' cute in it!

Last we came home and made traditional popcorn balls.


We went to our neighbor's house and delivered some of these to celebrate the day. Popcorn balls are my all time favorite Halloween treat, well that or sugar cookies with orange frosting and candy corns.
I hope you have enjoyed fall as much as our family did. Now on to Thanks Giving! My next favorite holiday!