A Soulin'

A soul, a soul, a soul cake

Please good Missus a soul cake.

An apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry, Any good thing to make us all merry.

One for Peter, One for Paul, One for Him who made us all.

Today is All Soul's day, the day we remember the dearly departed.  Traditionally this is where Trick or Treating comes from.  This year I thought I would try making Soul cakes.  This is an adaptation of an old recipe from the 1800's.  It's very simple ingredients lead me to think it's a much older recipe.  It's almost like a spiced shortbread/sugar cookie.  Traditionally they should be round with a cross cut into them, but I made them heart shaped since we are remembering our loved ones.

Soul Cakes -makes about 3 doz. 2 inch cookies

1 2/3 c flour                 1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t allspice                 pinch of nutmeg

2/3 c white sugar        3/4 c butter

1 egg                                 1 1/2 t vinegar

Mix together dry ingredients.  Cut in butter.   Beat egg together with vinegar and combine with dry ingredients.  Dump out onto table and knead into a soft dough.  Roll out 1/3 inch thick.  Cut out cookies and place on lined cookie sheet.

Bake 350F for 15 minutes.

Yarn Along -22 December 2010

Almost forgot to join Ginny in her Yarn Along this week.  Well it's still Wednesday, so here it is.

We're reading from Ella's Family Bible Classics.  We'll be reading this story tomorrow.  On my needles I have something for me!!!  It's a cashmere mobius.  Elizabeth Zimmerman knew what she was doing when she invented knitting a mobius.

We were making cookies again today.  Here's my princess doing most of the work.  Don't worry, she doesn't touch the Kitchenaid when it's moving.

It's an invasion of hedgehogs.  Ella helped put the chocolate sprinkles.  These are very easy and yummy.

My Day

Not much cleaning got done today. It was so beautiful and Ella wanted to play outside. So outside we went. I did get most of the smocking done for Ella's new sundress. Ella had a grand time. Daddy and I decided she was big enough to have the slide that goes with her swing set. Daddy attached it after lunch. Ella was excited after her nap. She loves to slide.

I did get a load of barn clothes washed and dried. Finally caught up on laundry. Bread day today, I made some oatmeal bread. I like to pretend it's better for us than regular white bread. I just can't seem to get us switched over to brown bread. I must admit, I'm the real die-hard white bread eater -I really hate to admit that I like store bought bread the best (unless it's warm, fresh homemade). I also got some cookies made.

Healthy Oat Chocolate Chip -makes about 5 doz. Colin got into them before I counted :)

1/2 c applesauce 2 eggs
4 Tbsp butter 2 tsp vanilla
2/3 c wt. sugar 1 cup br. sugar
1 tsp salt 2 tsp bk soda
2 tsp cinnamon 1 1/2 c quick oats
1 1/2-2 c chocolate chips

Combine all the wet ingredients. Add in the dry, adding the oat and chips last. Drop onto lined cookie sheets. Bake 350F for 10-12 min. Let cool completely before removing from liner.

Since these have little oil/fat I would keep any extras in the freezer, they might go stale quickly. Though the rate cookies disappear around here, that will likely not be a problem.

Cropping Starts Today

Colin has lately started supplying a restaurant in Pembroke with pork. It's called JJ's if anyone's nearby. Grandma took Ella for a sleepover (she was having Ella-withdrawls), so I decided to take Daddy out for supper -likely our last real date night until the end of summer. I was right, today he started injecting the "organic soil conditioner", aka piggie pooh, today and has already said to eat without him.

On the house front, things are going well. We were at the Home Show in Petewawa on the weekend. We found another modular home builder, Guildcrest, that is actual based in Ontario. A definite plus. Also, their homes arrive complete, inside and out (except of course for the "seam"). Their prices are equal to or less than the company we were thinking of using. And those homes were completely NOT finished inside. Colin would have months of work to do before we could move in. We even got a quote for the new septic that was half of what Colin was expecting. Getting quotes has been the hardest part of all this -except the waiting. I'm getting so excited, I just hope we can work mortgage payments that we can afford.

Here's the floorplan we're thinking about. Room size is subject to change because I don't know what I'm doing :)

Cookie day today (in between loads of laundry). I made Bushel Cookies. I made the 1/4 batch because it's a new recipe. The 1/4 batch made 8 dozen cookies, plus 4 "Daddy size" cookies. I hope you've got a scale. Next time I make them I'll measure my ingredients and update the recipe. Also hope you've got a cookie scoop, the dough is rather slack and sticky.


Bushel Cookies
Full Batch 1/4 Batch 1/2 Batch
Brown sugar 5 lbs 1 1/4 lbs 2 1/2 lbs
Lard 2 1/2 lb scant 3/4 lb 1 1/4 lbs
Eggs 12 3 6
Maple Syrup 1 c. 1/4 c. 1/2 c.
Baking Soda 2 oz. 1/2 oz. 1 oz.
Baking Powder 2 oz. 1/2 oz. 1 oz.
Milk 1 qt 1/4 qt 1/2 qt
Flour 6 lbs 1 1/2 lbs 3 lbs
Oatmeal 2 lbs 1/2 lb 1 lb
Raisins and Chocolate Chips, mixed 2lbs 1/2 lb 1 lb
Ground salted peanuts 1 lb 1/4 lb 1/2 lb

Mix as you would any other cookie. Cream shortening and sugar. Mix in eggs and syrup and oatmeal. Alternate milk with flour and leavenings. Then gently mix in raisins, chips and peanuts. Bake 350F for 10-12 min. on greased cookie sheets. Let cool 5 min before removing from sheets or they will stick.

Personally, next time I will save the maple syrup for my pancakes, as you can't really taste it in the finished cookie. I may put in at least 1/2cup (per 1/4 batch) of peanut butter. I also did not put in the ground peanuts. I don't like nuts in things so I didn't have any around. I did have some sunflower seeds in the freezer, so I added some of them.

I always keep my nuts and seeds (and yeast) in the freezer. Please don't keep them in your cupboard, they can go rancid very quickly.

More Cookies

So much for our warm weather. It's very chilly again today. The cold east wind is blowing through the house. At least the water has stopped pouring into the basement. This spring Colin has to get the culvert near the house replaced. Every time it gets backed up/frozen the water heads for the house. Colin figures he dumped out about 100 gal (Cdn) -not fun with a cement/dirt floor.

Made some more cookies today. I really like these ones, they are called Double Oat Chocolate Chip cookies. It's a smaller recipe and makes 4 doz.

3/4 cup margarine 1 cup brown sugar

1 egg 1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup flour 1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1 cup oat bran 1 tsp baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips

cream margarine and sugar, add egg and vanilla. Add in dry ingredients and mix. Drop onto lined/greased cookie sheet. Bake 350F for 10-12 minutes.

I made some raisin bread too. I used the oatmeal bread recipe from the other day and added a teaspoon or so of cinnamon and a couple hands full of raisins.

More Cookies

I'm making cookies again. No, Colin hasn't eaten all the chocolate chip ones, these are more for Momma and Ella. These are my favourite sugar cookies. I make them whenever I have some extra sour cream. They puff up as they cook and are more cakey than most cookies. If you are looking for a crisper sugar cookie, try Tasha Tudor's in her Christmas book "Take Joy", it's a nice big recipe too.

Sugar Cookies

3 cup white sugar 1 cup margarine/butter
5 eggs 7 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar 1 cup sour cream
2 tsp baking soda

Cream together sugar and margarine. Beat in eggs. Separately, mix flour and cream of tartar. Dissolve baking soda in sour cream. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture, alternately with the sour cream. Refrigerate overnight. Roll out 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick, cut as desired. Bake on lined cookie sheets 400F for 10 minutes. Makes about 15 doz, depending on cutter size.

If you have peanut butter lovers try this one. It's peanut butter cookies with chocolate ganauche in the middle. I've seen other recipes like it but they cheat and use Kisses. I think these taste better. It is out of this book Rose's Christmas Cookies this is my "bible" when it comes to great cookies, for Christmas or anytime.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The fastest way to make my husband not angry with me is to bake these cookies. He's not angry right now, but there has been some grumbling about the lack of snack variety. I thought I'd best get some new stuff made. These are my favourite version too, though I prefer the cookies that have less chips in them. Enjoy, but be warned, the recipe makes about 10 dozen, depending on size. I hate to admit how fast they will disappear if I don't hide them in the freezer.

Cream 4 cups brown sugar, 2 cups margarine. Add in 4 eggs, 4 Tbsp water and 1 1/2Tbsp vanilla. Separately stir together 6 1/2 cups flour, 3 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt and 3 cups chocolate chips. Mix into creamed mixture. Drop onto lined/greased cookie sheets and bake 375F for 10 minutes. Let sit on cookie sheet for a couple minutes before removing to cooling rack. Don't over cook.