Wildcrafting Wednesday – Dandelion Jelly

This was a post from a few years ago.  It was the first time we made dandelion jelly.  I thought I’d repost it today and link up to the Wildcrafting Wednesday hop over here.

After leaving the animal park (see field trip post below), we went to the teacher’s house for a picnic lunch. My eyes were all over the field of dandelions! I went to town, so to speak, and picked and picked. Here’s a tip-never put a lid on dandelions for a couple hours in your hot car! Unfortunately they were all closed up when we got home and I had to send the girls into the neighbors fields to pick more.

Once picked the fun part began! I cleaned a pair of scissors (no, we don’t have kitchen scissors but I’m thinking we probably should!) and started cutting the yellow petals (ours had a little hint of purple on a few of the petals) from the rest of the flowers. I needed enough to make two cups of petals. Here’s another tip-the bigger, more open the flowers the better.

After getting my two cups I had to infuse them with boiling water. The recipe said 30 minutes to 24 hours. We let our sit overnight as it was already around 7 when I started mine.

This morning I strained the infusion and tossed the petals into the compost bucket I keep in the house. I read somewhere that you can keep the petals in the jelly but my kids don’t like chunky jelly. It would be pretty though. I finished up as the recipe stated and wahlah (sp?) we have dandelion jelly! I did not use the food coloring and mine came out the color of honey. Why use it if its not needed.

Mae ate it on her toast before it actually cooled. I did too. I would have to agree with other comments that I’ve read, it does taste sweet like jelly. We’re thinking of making a bunch to can for winter and have as our jelly supply. We eat a lot of pb&j. The only thing I’d like to change in the recipe is the amount of sugar, it uses quite a lot. Here’s the recipe I used.

Chicken Fried Rice

I thought I’d share this recipe as it’s so easy to make and one of our favorites! You could definitely make it vegetarian if you wanted to. First I chop up an onion (food processer works great!). Then I chop up whatever other veggies we want. I usually use celery, bell pepper and carrot if it’s chopped really fine because J doesn’t like carrot all that much. If you’re going to use meat be cooking it up too. I throw it on the Foreman Grill while I’m doing everything else. And, of course, you need rice (a couple cups at least but whatever looks good depending on the # of people and amount of vegetables you’re using). Rice made & refrigerated from a previous day or earlier in the day works best but sometimes I forget and have to throw it in the freezer to get it nice and cool. It needs to be cool. I throw the veggies in a pan w/ a pinch of oil and cook them up a bit. I like the onions soft but the peppers and celery still a little crunchy so make it to suit your tastes. Once the veggies are cooked I throw in my rice and some Bragg’s liquid amino (soy sauce would work fine too). Once it’s all heated through I add in my cut up chicken and serve. You can also scramble up an egg and mix that in. I do sometimes and other times I’m honestl just too lazy! This tastes great with some homemade french bread!

Cinnamon Basil and Lemon Balm Cookies

Yesterday my oldest made some really good cookies – lemon balm and some cinnamon basil. They were both very good. The lemon balm cookies, I couldn’t keep my hands off of! Unfortunately, the heat has really taken its toll on the lemon balm. Of course, my favorite right? We still have a bunch more cinnamon basil & other herb recipes that I want to try. Next up is jelly and tea! I’ll post our favorite recipes. I’m gonna leave you with the recipes we used yesterday. I’m sure that you could substitute lemon basil for the cinnamon. ~Tina

Cinnamon Basil Cookies

1/2 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cinnamon basil, finely chopped
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine cornstarch, basil and flour in bowl. In a food processor, pulse the butter with 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar. Add flour mixture. Pulse until a soft dough forms. Transfer dough to a work surface and divide it into 4 equal pieces.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece of dough into a 12-inch rope. Cut each rope into 12 pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Transfer the balls to the baking sheet. Bake cookies on the center rack of oven for about 20 minutes–until cookie bottoms are golden but the tops are still pale.

Sift remaining confectioners’ sugar into a bowl. Add 8 warm cookies to the bowl and toss to coat. Transfer the cookies to a clean baking sheet. Repeat process until all cookies are coated with sugar. Allow cookies to cool completely before serving.

LEMON BALM COOKIES

2 tbsp. minced lemon balm leaves
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 c. butter, softened
2/3 c. sugar
1 egg
2 1/3 c. all-purpose flour
Whole lemon balm leaves for garnish

In small dish, combine first 2 ingredients, press mixture with back of spoon to blend. In large mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and lemon mixture. Gradually beat in flour and salt. Cover and refrigerate 3 hours or until firm. Roll in wax paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On wax paper slice into slices about 1/8″ thick. On ungreased cookie sheet bake 8 to 10 minutes. Will brown slightly around edges. Yield: about 60 cookies.

Summer Squash Salad

I made this last week. It was sent to me by a friend and we really enjoyed it. I left out the onions used cherry tomatoes from the garden and added pasta in it but other than that I pretty much followed the recipe.

A hearty fresh zucchini, yellow squash & ripe tomato salad with a
splash of Parmesan dressing.
1 /4 C. grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 C Raw Apple cider vingar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Pepper
1/4 tsp. Basil leaves
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1/2 tsp. minced fresh Garlic
1/2 C. thinnly sliced Red Onion, separated into rings
*2 C. (2 med.) sliced thin *Zucchini
*2 C. (2 med.) halved lengthwise, then sliced thin *Yellow Squash
2 Med. to Large Ripe Tomatoes, cut into wedges
In a large bowl stir together first 7 ingredients. Add zucchini,
yellow squash, onion and tomatoes; toss to coat.
* you may boil the squash if desired…in a sauce pan bring a quart of
water to a boil. Place squash in the boiling water for 2 to 4
minutes, drain, rinse with cold water then add to the bowl with the
other 7 ingredients.

Vegetarian Meatballs

I recently attended a vegetarian cooking class at a local church. Homemade vegetarian meatballs was one of the recipes that they gave us and we had the pleasure of trying. They used Ritz crackers in the one I tried but I’m making them using healthier, whole-grain crackers. I must say, the possibilities are endless as these would taste great used like ground up meat in chili too!

1-1/4 cups crackers, crumbled
3/4 cup ground walnuts
1 finely chopped small onion (food processor works great)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3-4 Tablespoons italian seasoning
2 cloves of pressed garlic
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 eggs (start with 2 eggs and add more as needed)

Mix together and brown in olive oil. Bake @ 350 degrees until done. They also used V8 juice with onions, celery and peppers as the sauce and it was delicious. Enjoy and leave a comment if you try this recipe letting me know how you liked it.

Sweet & Sour Sauce

I sent this out today to some friends in an e-mail and received a suggestion that I add frugal recipes here on the blog. Not a bad idea I thought so here goes. My sister-in-law made this when we were up for a visit last week. She used it as a dip for meatballs but we liked it so much that I made it w/ chicken & rice tonight. The great thing is that it’s super easy and cheap!

1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple in juice
1 can (8oz) tomato sauce
2 Tbls. cider vinegar
1 Tbls. sugar

Heat through by either microwaving or in saucepan on the stove. Enjoy

Zucchini Bread

Ash made zucchini bread today with some of the zucchini from the garden. Since I’ve been asked for the recipe and since its the best zucchini bread I’ve ever eaten I thought I’d post it here. And yes, it uses shortening!

2/3 c. shortening
2-2/3 c. sugar
4 eggs
3 c. of shredded zucchini
2/3 c. water
3-1/3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
2 tsp. vanilla
Optional- 2/3 c. coarsely chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans. Mix shortening and sugar in a large bowl. Add in eggs, zucchini and water. Blend in flour, b. soda, salt, b. powder, cinnamon, cloves and vanilla. Stir in nuts. Pour into pans. Bake until wooden pick comes out clean about 60-70 minutes; cool slightly. Loosen sides from pan, remove and enjoy

Update: This is the recipe we’ve always used and my family thinks its great but I personally think its too sweet. I would suggest reducing the sugar a bit and plan on having the girls next time they make it.

Dandelion Jelly

After leaving the animal park (see field trip post below), we went to the teacher’s house for a picnic lunch. My eyes were all over the field of dandelions! I went to town, so to speak, and picked and picked. Here’s a tip-never put a lid on dandelions for a couple hours in your hot car! Unfortunately they were all closed up when we got home and I had to send the girls into the neighbors fields to pick more.

Once picked the fun part began! I cleaned a pair of scissors (no, we don’t have kitchen scissors but I’m thinking we probably should!) and started cutting the yellow petals (ours had a little hint of purple on a few of the petals) from the rest of the flowers. I needed enough to make two cups of petals. Here’s another tip-the bigger, more open the flowers the better.

After getting my two cups I had to infuse them with boiling water. The recipe said 30 minutes to 24 hours. We let our sit overnight as it was already around 7 when I started mine.

This morning I strained the infusion and tossed the petals into the compost bucket I keep in the house. I read somewhere that you can keep the petals in the jelly but my kids don’t like chunky jelly. It would be pretty though. I finished up as the recipe stated and wahlah (sp?) we have dandelion jelly! I did not use the food coloring and mine came out the color of honey. Why use it if its not needed.

Mae ate it on her toast before it actually cooled. I did too. I would have to agree with other comments that I’ve read, it does taste sweet like jelly. We’re thinking of making a bunch to can for winter and have as our jelly supply. We eat a lot of pb&j. The only thing I’d like to change in the recipe is the amount of sugar, it uses quite a lot. Here’s the recipe I used.

Flat bread

Here is a recipe for flat bread (the name actually is naan, its an indian bread) that we recently found online. They are simple to make and we all love it. Ash makes it anytime we need to take food somewhere, Mae makes banana bars. I’ll post the recipe for the banana bars another time. Here is the link:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Naan/Detail.aspx

Tip: the first time we made these they tasted the best. We used the little bit of white flour that we had left, but mostly wheat or whole wheat white, but we didn’t measure the flour. We just threw it in til it was the texture they said and I put a little oil in a pan on the stove and made them that way. We didn’t use the garlic either, actually we’ve never used it yet, and these taste like the ones you buy at the grocery store. If you want them to be big enough for wrap type sandwiches use two of the golf ball sized balls together and stretch them pretty thin they puff up a bit. Enjoy and let us know what you think if you try these. -Tina