Laurie's borscht

Today I thought I would post my borscht recipe for you.
I absolutely love borscht but never seem to make it often these days as I don't care for it after it has been frozen due to potatoes and swiss chard don't seem to have the same texture after being frozen and I tried canning it a few years ago which I thought was going to be a great idea until one night I was laying in bed and heard the cat making odd noises. I went downstairs to find him  ready to fight whatever was in my kitchen cupboard. I opened the cupboard to find my jars of borscht overflowing and the lids tented up , picking up the ones that were already leaking was messy but nothing like moving the ones that were actually rocking on the shelf, I put welding gloves (up to my armpits) and carefully carried the rest of the jars outside, luckily only one exploded and it was out on the patio.
That was quite the mess to clean up and the oil cloth kitchen flooring was permanently stained from the beet juice.
I since have only made this soup in small batches unless I have company to share it with.


                                                  Laurie's Borscht
1 cup of beef boullion
1 dozen beets scrubbed and boiled and chopped keep the water used to boil beets as base for soup with the boullion ( chop beet tops finely and set aside to put in borscht)
1 large can of tomatoe paste
2 bunches of swiss chard chopped fine
1 red cabbage  and chopped
1 red onion chopped
1 white onion chopped
2-3 parsnips chopped
2-3 carrots chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic minced
1 small turnip chopped
3-4 potatoes chopped
1/2 cup dill pickle brine
1 can tomatoes with herbs diced
pastrami or brisket leftovers chopped (  about 1/2 pound)
add 2 caps full of apple cider vinegar  thyme and cardamon, dill weed and dill paste to taste
boil on stove until all is cooked down and serve with a dollop of sour cream and a few caraway seeds on top as well as a sprig of dill for garnish.
Enjoy!

Snow ,Snow, Snow ....Rainfall warning?

After a winter full of  many snow falls we were to expect another but the temperatures have been hovering around the 0C mark and now as I look at the weather report we are under a rainfall warning.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/alerts/high-alert/CAON0491?ref=wxnetappalertsV5&var1=537121792

I don't know about anyone else but I would rather have the snow then the rain...after all it is only February and old man winter is far from finished with us this year.
The rain will cause much flooding as well as the higher temperatures will cause melt off and places that usually have spring flooding will have much more than they bargained for.

Will you need to put pontoons on your house?

Pork Rub Recipe

Today I thought I would make a pork loin roast.
 I searched the internet and found a recipe from one of my favourite sites it is the BBQ Pit Boy's recipe for dry rub for meats....what a nice recipe I definitely will be eating it again and it just so happens to make enough to cover a few roasts.  If you get a chance pop over  to the BBQ Pit Boy's website http://bbqpitboys.com/

Pork rub   BBQ Pit Boys Recipe

Ingredients:
1/4 cup Paprika
1/8 cup Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1-2 tablespoons Garlic Powder
1-2 tablespoons Onion Powder
1 tablespoon or more Cayenne Pepper
1/4 cup Coarse Salt
1/4 cup Brown or White Sugar

This will coat up to 6 lbs. Pork Ribs and 10 lbs. Pork Shoulder or Pork Roast.

Strawberry Scones and Tea

I am sorry for being absent again, it seems friends and family are ill and dying at an alarming rate.
I know that is happens more often as we age but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with .
My love and prayers are with them all .

Today I had a rare home alone day so took advantage of it by walking around the house in my unmentionables and playing the guitar and singing as loud as I like.
I decided to make a nice treat to have with tea this afternoon.
I baked some strawberry scones.

I will leave the recipe just remember to toss your strawberries in some flour if they are thawed from frozen.
Mine were frozen from the summer when Gretchen and I picked strawberries together at Little's Berry Farm.
I thawed them slightly and chopped them and tossed them in flour as they were a bit moist.
The mixture is a bit sticky due to added moisture from frozen berries just flour knife before cutting.

                                                          Strawberry Scones                      Preheat oven: 400 F
In a large bowl add:

2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
combine these four ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
4 tablespoons butter
Cut butter into the flour mixture until like crumbs.
3 eggs
Beat 1 of them in small dish with a tablespoon of water and set aside (this is your egg wash for the top of scones).
In another bowl beat the remaining 2 eggs and 2 teaspoons of almond extract.
 Stir eggs and almond  extract into dry ingredients.
Add 1/2 cup of  heavy cream (I used sour cream sometimes yoghurt adding it a spoonful at a time  until it holds together, don't over work dough they will be tough ) then add 1 cup of chopped strawberries.Turn dough onto floured board .
Roll out dough to 1" thick and flour knife and cut it into 8-12 scones.
 Place on a prepared baking sheet or use parchment paper.
Brush the scones with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar (I use Sugar In The Raw).
 Bake 15 minutes until golden brown
Then enjoy with a  lovely cup of tea!

Tea Time Favourites

Tea Time Favourites

                                                                    Laurie's Poundcake

3.5 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Mix together in bowl and set aside

In large bowl cream 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of sugar gradually add 4 eggs 1 at a time beating well between additions.
Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla
Blend in dry ingredients alternating between dry and wet ingredients. Adding 1 cup milk  beginning and ending with dry ingredients .
Add any flavouring you like, sometimes I use lemon or orange rind and extracts and juices instead of milk.
In this particular cake I added dehydrated cherries and it was a hit!
Pour batter into 2 greased and floured loaf pans bake in 325 degree oven for an hour. Once nicely browned and cooked through set pans in freezer for 45 minutes in the pan right from oven, be sure to place on wire rack, then wrap cakes this makes them moist.
This winter it was so bitterly cold it only took 20 minutes to cool outside on the table on the back screened in porch.
I served this up with my favourite Ahmad Tea- English Afternoon Tea in my new tea mug.
I hope you enjoy this cake as much as my family does.

An Unexpected Pleasure

I got a message from a dear friend asking me if I was available to go to a friend of ours 70th birthday surprise dinner at a new restaurant in town called Jack's.

I accepted the invitation and will be going on Sunday afternoon.

I have been waiting all week to go shopping for a gift for her and today the weather was good enough that I ventured out to purchase a gift for my friend.

I had my heart set on a new china tea mug for her and I knew the local store that carries some of the nicest ones I have seen all done up pretty in gift boxes.

I drove over to the next town to purchase one and when I got there all the shelves were empty that use to hold all the beautiful tea mugs.

When I enquired about them the lady at the front counter explained that today they were getting ready to put out the Valentine's Day display and everything that had been out was now put away in storage until spring.

So with the shelves empty I left disappointed and having to scour the other stores in town.

Nothing was what I ended up coming home with so off to Campbellford in the morning in hopes of finding the perfect birthday gift for my dear friend.

Have you had your heart set on one thing and have to change mid stream?

Frost Quakes

I can honestly say that I hadn't heard of frost quakes at all until the last few years.
Have you heard of them?
Well the temperature drops and the moisture in the ground freezes and the ice cracks and then BOOM!
Water expands in the frozen soil and it put lots of stress on the it and will release the energy all at once causing the frost quake much like an earthquake releases energy and shifts the ground.

This is what we have been experiencing quite a bit this winter so far also the house makes loud cracks and booms like someone is trying to break in or the house is going to fall in or something big hitting the house.
It is cold enough the back room here has cracks in the plaster from it shifting from the cold.

We are quite use to cold winters but this one sure is starting out to be one of the coldest I have experienced.
Today is warming up it is -30C.
I will keep warm inside and hope that everyone else does too!