CRUNCHY GRANOLA

 I love being able to make things you would normally buy at the store.  I don't make my own cheese or anything, but granola I can handle.  I originally found this recipe in a Family Fun magazine, and have tweaked it to suit our tastes and what we keep around the house.  Our favorite way to eat this is on top of yogurt, so we leave the dried fruit out, but you can have as much fun with this recipe as you like!  Let me know how you like to make yours in the comments. 

Crunchy Granola

4 cups rolled oats                                   1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup wheat germ                                   1/3 cup honey

1 cup chopped walnuts                           1/3 cup water

1/4 cup brown sugar                              

1 teaspoon cinnamon                              6 ounces dried fruit of choice (optional) 

1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 325 degrees.  Stir together dry ingredients in large mixing bowl.   Make a well and add wet ingredients.  Toss the mixture until the ingredients are well combined, then spread it evenly on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 40 minutes, or until lightly brown, stirring every 10 minutes to keep from sticking.  Allow to cool completely, then stir in dried fruit.  Makes about 7 cups.

Approximate time to make*: 1 hour
Approximate cost for supplies*: $6 per batch 

*Please remember that these are just approximations. CopyCrafts makes no guarantee of their accuracy.

MICROWAVE CARAMEL POPCORN

I love caramel popcorn.  Rather, I should say I love eating caramel popcorn - making it, not so much.  Boiling the sugar with the candy thermometer, and then having to bake and stir and bake and stir . . . such a pain.  This recipe for microwave caramel popcorn lets you skip all the fuss and go straight to the fun part (which also makes it a very dangerous recipe - dieters beware!).

Microwave Caramel Popcorn

20 cups popped corn (about 1 1/4 cups unpopped kernals)

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. butter

1/4 c. corn syrup

1/2 t. baking soda

1 t. vanilla

Put brown sugar, butter and corn syrup in a glass bowl and microwave 3 minutes on high.  Meanwhile, put half of the popcorn in a clean paper grocery bag or large microwave safe bowl with lid.  Keep the other half of the popcorn in a bowl ready to pour.  Remove syrup from the microwave and stir in baking soda and vanilla well - it may separate but that's okay.  Pour half the syrup over the popcorn in the bag or large bowl, add the rest of the popcorn and pour the remainder of the syrup over it.  Close the bag (or put lid on the bowl) and give it a good shake - at least 80 times.  Open bag or bowl back up and cook in microwave for 1 minute on high.  Take out and shake 40 times.  Put back in microwave for 30 seconds on high.  Take out and shake a bit, then pout out onto clean counter.  In less than one minute you'll have dry popcorn.

Approximate time to make*: 10 minutes
Approximate cost for supplies*: $3 per batch

*Please remember that these are just approximations. CopyCrafts makes no guarantee of their accuracy.

GOLDEN NUGGETS

These little guys are possibly the best thing that EVER happened to soup. Period.  At our house, clam chowder without these little crackers, affectionately dubbed "Golden Nuggets," is downright unacceptable.  They are great in just about any soup, and quite frankly don't last long after the soup because they are so addicting to munch on by themselves. I'm not sure where the original recipe came from - we've been using it in our family for years, and I've made a few minor tweaks. 

Golden Nuggets

1 package (1 oz) ranch salad dressing mix

1/2 t. dill weed

1/4 t. garlic powder

1/8 t. pepper

3/4 c. vegetable oil

1 package (about 5 c.) plain oyster crackers

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.  Whisk together all ingredients except crackers.  Pour oil mixture over crackers and stir to coat.  Pour onto ungreased baking sheet.  Baked for 20 minutes, stirring once halfway through baking. 

Approximate time to make*: 5 minutes plus baking and cooling
Approximate cost for supplies*: $5 per batch

*Please remember that these are just approximations. CopyCrafts makes no guarantee of their accuracy.

SALSA

It's canning season, so we thought we'd share another of our favorite canning recipes: salsa!  We first heard about this in a church class when the teacher was going on and on about how fabulous his wife's salsa was.  What that had to do with the lesson, I don't remember, but I figured if a man is going on like about anything his wife makes, it must be worth trying.   So I got the recipe from his wife, and it is definetely worth the effort!  Because blanching and peeling the tomatoes takes the most time, I do those the night before, and then cook and process the salsa the next day.

World's Best Salsa

22-24 medium to large tomatoes, blanched and peeled

3-5 medium to large onions, diced

6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

6-10 jalapeno's, seeded and diced (leave the seeds for hotter salsa)

2 large bell peppers, diced

2  6 oz. cans tomato paste

1/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. salt

1 cup vinegar (5% acidity)

Combine and simmer for 40 minutes.  Process 15-20 minutes in water bath canner.  

Resources: Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving (our go-to book for canning)
Skills required: water bath canning
Approximate time to make*: 3 hours start to finish
Approximate cost for supplies*: ours worked out to be about 50 cents a pint
*Please remember that these are just approximations. CopyCrafts makes no guarantee of their accuracy.

DILL PICKLES

It all started when I had the thought, "Next year I should plant cucumbers and make dill pickles."  Sounds innocent enough, right?  We try to plant one new thing every year so that we can grow our garden and food storage gradually, and why not pickles?!  My grandma always makes really yummy dill pickles, and frankly I was tired of store bought.  That's when we come to mistakes #1 and #2 - I went to the garden store and bought 4 pickling cucumber plants.  So things seemed to be going great, and apparently cucumbers love our garden because they're growing like crazy.  We're thinking - great!  Cucumber salads, sandwiches, we can put cucumbers in everything once we get our pickles done.  Little did we know, pickling cucumbers are not meant to be eaten raw.  Ever.  They are totally disgusting unless drowned in vinegar and salt.  So, what do we do with the piles of unedible cucumbers?  Not to be wasteful, we make more pickles.  14 quarts of dill pickles later, we still have them coming.  So, when we make these again (which will not be for a couple years I think), we will plant maybe 2 regular cucumber plants.  I learned after the fact that's what my grandma uses anyway - oh well.  On the positive side, if you are ever pregnant during a food shortage, you will know where to come to fill your pickle craving!  So here's my grandma's recipe for dill pickles.  Enjoy!

Grandma's Dill Pickles

 Wash cucumbers and soak in ice water for 1 hour.  In the bottom of each quart jar, put 1 clove of garlic, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 t. alum, 1 large dill head or 1 1/2 t. dill seed.  Pack quart jars with cucumbers - you can put them in whole, sliced, or speared, however you like them.  Make a brine with 1 quart of vinegar, 3 quarts of water, and 1 cup of salt.  This is enough for 6 quarts of whole dill pickles, slices and spears will take less.  Bring the brine to a boil, and pour over pickles.  Seal jars, and process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes.  (Now comes the really hard part:)  Wait 6 weeks before enjoying.  

Resources: Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving (our go-to book for canning)
Skills required: water bath canning
Approximate time to make*: 2 hours start to finish for a 7 quart batch
Approximate cost for supplies*: ours worked out to be about 50 cents a jar
*Please remember that these are just approximations. CopyCrafts makes no guarantee of their accuracy.