Welcome to The Country Orchard where Eating Healthy Should Be FUN! We grow blueberries, pears, apples and other native edibles as well as grind our own flour from various organic grains. Floral designs for holidays and memorials are also created at TCO.
Now that you know how to cook pumpkins from my previous post here is a favorite pumpkin recipe. Sort of a modified "Dump Cake". Thanks Brenda for introducing me to this easy, yummy dessert! Enjoy! Anne
Pumpkin Dumpster (Brenda)
1 large can pumpkin, or
4 cups fresh
1 13 oz. can evaporated
milk, or 1 cup vanilla ice cream
3 eggs
1 c sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
In a large bowl, mix above
ingredients together - mix well. Pour into 9 x 13 cake pan.
1 box yellow cake mix -
sprinkle on top of pumpkin mixture in pan.
3/4 c to 1 c walnuts -
sprinkle on top of cake mix
1 stick butter or margarine -
melt and drizzle over entire pan
Bake at 350 degrees for
50 minutes if margarine is used. Bake an extra 20 to 30 minutes if
butter is used. Cake should be golden brown. Using a toothpick, when inserting it in the middle of the cake, it should be clean when done. If there is any really moist batter sticking to the toothpick then let the cake cook abit more.
If this is too sweet, the sugar may be cut in half!
Tis the season of pumpkins and squashes. One of the easiest, best tasting, moistest pumpkin pies is made from fresh cooked pumkins. Cooked pumpkin and the pumpkin pie mix both freeze wonderfully. Prices are great and I've seen many stands with Sugar Pumpkins which are smaller and the best pumpkins to cook for baking.
This first video shows you how to cook a raw pumpkin and the second one shows you how easy it is to make a pumpkin pie using the cooked pumpkin "meat".
Pumpkin seeds are easily cooked by
1) boiling the raw seeds in salty water for about 15 minutes followed by baking them at 250 degree until brown and crispy...about 40 minutes depending upon your oven.
2)spreading the raw seeds on a cooky sheet, adding oil and salt to the seeds then baking them like above.
3) frying seeds in a skillet or microwaving them .
TIPS: Always spread seeds in a single layer when baking them.
Use sugar pumpkin seeds (smaller) if you want to eat the whole seed, otherwise you'll need to peel the shell away to eat the green seed inside the husk.
This 7 minute video shows you how to cook squash blossoms.
I used zuchinni blossoms bought at Carpinitos. The funny thing is that I actually saw squash blossoms for sale in Waialua Hawaii at a Farmer's Market!
My friend Brenda introduced me to this "melt in your mouth" delicacy several years ago! Then the cashier at Carpinitos introduced me to stuffed blossoms! Thanks, Brenda!
The basic steps for both recipes are:
Preparing the blossoms by either 1)soaking the cut flowers in salt water. This crisps the blossoms which is best for the flour coated ones OR
2) Snipping off part of the stem and putting the bouquet of blossoms in a tall mug of water. I usually cover the flowers with the plastic bag they came in, then refrigerate the flowers. This is best for stuffing the flowers as the petals are softer and more wilted.
Preparing the blossoms for frying
1) flavor some flour with salt, pepper and your favorite seasonings. Mix it all up in a bag. Toss a couple of blossoms into the bag and coat each flower with the mixture. Continue to coat all of the flowers.
2) Stuff the center of the flowers with mozerella cheese OR your favorite stuffing. Twist the blossom tips to seal it shut. Continue with all the flowers.
3) At this point, the blossoms may be frozen and deep fat fried later. I froze mine on a cooky sheet then transferred them to a freezer ziploc bag.
Cooking the blossoms, best to eat the prepared blossoms when hot!
1) Basically deep fat fry the flour coated blossoms until cooked. They cook quickly because they are so thin. Drain the oil from the cooked blossoms and place on absorbent napkins.
2) Coat the stuffed blossoms with tempera batter, your favorite fried batter or flour, scrambled egg then bread crumbs or panko. Deep fat fry in a healthy hot oil for about 2 minutes on each side. It's done when it's golden brown. Drain the oil from the cooked blossoms and place on absorbent napkins. SO delicious warm!
This is the best artichoke recipe ever!!! Simple ingredients and delicious.
A Carpinitos customer gave me this recipe since I bought artichokes off their clearance table.
1. Prepare the artichoke by cutting the top, tips and bottom. Scoop out the thistle center (the Choke). I'm using a grapefruit spoon, knife and fingers.
2.Mix together the stuffing*. (cheese, bread crumbs & cooked meat such as sausage, beef**...)
3.Stuff the center of the artichoke and between the leaves.
4.Cook the artichoke on a rack in boiling water for about 40 minutes or until the center is soft.
*you can substitute your favorite stuffing.
**You want just enough bread crumbs to hold the cheese in place and not very much cooked meat but just enough for flavor. I used sausage.
If you requested any berries... please contact me asap as some bushes need to be picked this week. Yeah for sun!
Carpinino Corn arrived Aug. 31st! Yum!
I LOVE Carpinitos!
Their corn is finally in but prices are higher (10/$5) this year. All that rain, I guess. It's so much fun shopping there because people are so friendly and eager to share their recipes. It was at Carpinitos that I learned to cook and enjoy brussel sprouts! This week I have been buying squash blossoms and frying them up. Yesterday, a staff shared with me how to stuff them with cheese then batter fry them. Fried them up last night. They were SO good!
Also, customer's husband told me about stuffing artichokes as we were checking out the clearance rack. He found his wife who gave me the instructions. I made them last night and they were absolutely delicious!
Stuffed Artichoke with bread crumbs, cheese and meat.
Delicious!!!
Next week, I'm going to try to make a video about cooking the squash blossoms and stuffed artichokes...stay tuned! Sign up as an e-mail follower on the left side if you want a timely update when I post it.
Hi! Everyone seems to be wondering WHEN my blueberries will be ripe...as you can see on the main photo, the berries are barely ripening this year with all the cold wet weather!!! WE need more hot sunny days.
So, as far as my bushes go, the ripening is very slow with most of the berries still green... I don't think that my berries will be ripe for several more weeks. You can e-mail me if you are interested in berries later in the summer.
Sea Vegetables of the Pacific Coast by John Kallas, PhD.
The setting was Lincoln City, Oregon.
Exposed rocks are normally many feet under water!
Sub-low tide was at 8am but I awoke early and hit the beach at 5:30am! The beach was deserted.
Starfish and sea anemones were everywhere!
It was wonderful, exhilarating and fun to explore the tide pools, see the HUGE mussles & barnacles, to watch the seagulls eat crustaceans, the starfish eat mussels and smell the clean ocean air.
Mussels were almost as big as my shoes! Large mussels are as tender as little ones. We could gather 75 but all I could carry in my 5 gallon bucket was 15! They were SO huge and heavy.... I later cooked them on the BBQ.
At 8am John Kallas led our group to a northern more remote area. He had us taste,evaluate & gather many edible seaweeds. We found nori and kombu. John showed us a poisonous seaweed which contained traces of Sulfuric Acid. Seaweed poisonous? What an eyeopener.
John Kallas, wearing the brown hat, talks to us during our lunch break.
I had bought a shellfish permit, tough gloves and a 5 gallon bucket so I was able to gather mussels. At home I rinsed and dried the gathered seaweed to preserve it for future use.
Dried seaweed with ebi.
Dried seaweed.
I was quite impressed with John's teaching style and expertize in edible wild plants. I plan to attend more of his plant foraging workshops.
Check out his website and book for more information.
It's hard to starve in the NW if you know what edibles may be gathered off the land. Anne
My M.Ed specializes in Gifted and Talented preschoolers. That being the case, I was always on the look out for outstanding educational toys that were fun, stimulated learning, practical & developmentally age appropriate when my children were young...being cost effective was a plus!
I'd like to share one of my favorite puzzle companies...LAURIE PUZZLES!!!! Along with the puzzles, their other ed products are great for supporting your child's development!
The sewing cards are wonderful!
I absolutely LOVE Lauri puzzles. These kid friendly puzzles are wonderful. The best part is that lost pieces are replaceable making these puzzles a great buy that will last through all your children and their friends!!! Go to the Lauri website and click and drag the Customer Care menu on the top for Replacement Parts.
This was my #1 favorite!
Laurie was acquired by Patch Products in 2008 however, free replacement puzzle pieces may be obtained by calling Patch at 1-800-524-4263. Be sure to have your puzzle title and piece description ready.
I'm not going to write why these puzzles are great (very age appropriate, durable, sanitizable, multi-skilled..) because if I get started this blog will be incredibly long! E-mail me if you want the whole "in and out", very detailed educational and mom perspective. Anne
PS Did you know that the material used is the same thing that flip flops are made of. That's why the pieces are so durable and washable!
