In the Kitchen

49°f/9.4°C, mostly clear. Full moon last night, foggy during the night and heavy dew this morning.

It's been a busy day in the kitchen, and it only 2:00 pm as I sit down to rest.

It started early, with breakfast. I made one of our favorites: English muffins with mashed avocado, a slice of ham, and slice of tomato, topped off with a fried egg. I fry my eggs in very little oil, turning the heat low and putting the lid on the skillet so that the tops cook at the same time as the bottoms. We sometimes top this stack up with sour cream. 

Next was stove-cleaning. Canning makes a mess of my stove no matter how carefully I am. The burner tray on my old Tappan get especially bad with cooked on whatever. They are stainless steel, fortunately, so I can scrub away! It was good to get it clean; even though i clean it between canning sessions, I don't always get to those burner trays. But now I am canning more green beans, so more scrubbing is in my future. Never-ending,  folks, just never-ending.

Before getting into the beans, I put together a batch of spaghetti sauce, to use up an accumulation of tomatoes--too many to eat, not enough to can, so spaghetti it is. That meant chopping up lots of stuff--peppers, onions, garlic,  celery, and a jar of canned COW mushrooms. I sautéed all that, and browned the ground venison while the tomatoes cooked.  Then I used the immersion blender to puree the tomatoes,skins and all, and added my herbs and spices. Now everything is together and simmering away. I used up the rest of the celery, cutting it into sticks for Larry's snacks, and put the basil I had dried last month into a jar for storage.  

Next was green beans. I got the canner ready for another 8 pints, then put a pot on to cook, to go with the spaghetti.  I added chicken bouillon and garlic, and let that cook on low while I washed dishes and cleaned up the counters, then came in here to my chair to put my feet up a few minutes and write.

Now the canner is calling me back to the kitchen. And the dried kaundry needs to brought in and the next load hung out. And so it goes in this little house in the hills.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Around the Kitchen: April Food Blog

59°f/15°C, clear after a stormy evening.

I took a few photos that I meant to use for the April food blog, but then forgot to write it, but here they are anyway. I mostly forgot to take photos or keep a record in April. It was a busy month.

This is our Berkey water filter. It will filter a gallon and a half or more at a time. We love it..our well water, while plentiful, has a taste we don't like. The Berkey takes care of that.

A friend gave me this delightful wire half-basket, perfect for storing fruit.

Larry dates our eggs so we don't accidentally leave some in the fridge too long. Our hens are laying 6-8 eggs a day so it's important to know which ones need to be used first. 

Asparagus! Our season is almost over sadly, but we have had many meals from our scattered plants this year.

A pretty gift from another friend.

And just because I like soft lighting, I added this little jug lamp to my kitchen. It makes me smile.

 

I have written before about canning "marinated salad", but I don't think I have shown a photo of how it looks in the jar. So pretty. And tasty! Layers of cucumbers, onions, and red and yellow tomatoes in a pickling solution. The recipe called for cherry tomatoes but I had slicing tomatoes that needed to be used. I just chop this up and mix with pasta and dressing, maybe some shredded carrots and chopped celery and have a quick pasta salad. Delicious.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

In My Kitchen: February 2025

A review of February in my kitchen:

A new-to-me tea cozy by April Cornell. It's reversible!

I chopped and dehydrated most of the remainder of last year's bumper garlic crop.

Valentine's day dinner by the fire: steak, loaded baked potatoes, and salad. Simple and delicious. 

My Valentine's cake effort: chocolate cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting.

A cobbler made with fruits from the fridge that needed to be used up---canned pears, cherry pie filling, blueberries, peaches, some cranberry sauce. Yum.

Orange-cranberry scones.

And a stew made with all sorts of leftovers and bits and pieces as I was cleaning out the fridge. It was the best stew I think I have ever made, and I will never be able to duplicate it. 

Made but no pictures: banana chocolate chip bread, canned apple pie filling, canned pork, canned black beans, and I used up the rest of the apples in the cellar to make and freeze fried apples.

I think that was about it. Linking to Sherry'sPickings for the first-time! 

Now I need to remember to take photos this month for next month's roundup.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Visitors

23 this morning, clear as a bell. Warmed up to 32 but that was it. Colder expected tonight.

It certainly feels like winter. Friday it flurried all day; yesterday was sunny but so cold, about 37 for our high. Today...brrrrr. 

But weather didn't stop friends and family from visiting. Friday evening my oldest son George arrived for the coming week's hunting season. He stays over at his friend's hunting camp, but he was here for dinner Friday and yesterday, and breakfast today.

Yesterday our good friends from Sistersville drove down to visit. It was so nice to see them, as it has been several years since we last got together. The pandemic kind of intervened. We met them and our oldest son at the place where I have my newest booth for lunch---this place has a small cafe and serves a limited menu of good food. It's another new favorite place for us to stop when we're out. 

So I have been doing some cooking, since my third son also came over Saturday night for dinner. Friday night I was thankful to have some frozen ravioli and French bread, so I could simply heat some of my pasta sauce, bake the bread and cook the ravioli to add to the sauce, pull out a leftover salad and a pie from the freezer, and dinner was ready. I wasn't expecting my son so early, as he usually comes on the Saturday before season but he decided to come sooner. I was working at my booths in Ravenswood, and had to finish up so I didn't get home until almost 5. It worked out perfectly though.

Last night I got some venison from the freezer and 2 jars of vegetable soup, combined them all and added some spices and other things and made probably the best vegetable beef--well, venison--stew I have ever made. Thick and hearty, and served with bread and a salad it was a perfect meal for such a cold day.

This morning I was up early to make biscuits and gravy and fried eggs, an old country standard, for my son. I guess the last time I made this breakfast was last December when our granddaughter visited. Too full of carbs and calories for us old people, but a nice treat from time to time.

I'll be cooking dinner again tomorrow night, probably a pot of chili, and cornbread for the hunters. Hearty, spicy and warming. The weather should improve this week, so they won't be too miserable out there.

The last time the family all gathered for Thanksgiving, November 2018. It gets harder and harder to get everyone home at once as the grandkids grow up and scatter across the country. At this gathering, we had 27 people around the table.

I've been mentally planning Thanksgiving dinner too. I think I can prepare it almost entirely from the freezer, pantry and cellar, which is really nice. Venison roast with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, corn casserole,--I think my lettuce is still making it--Waldorf salad, cranberry sauce, maybe beets, green beans perhaps, and apple, cherry and pumpkin pies. I have frozen rolls to fix too, and will buy things to make crudites. And of course I have to make eggnog, a family favorite. I think we will have plenty.

How are your Thanksgiving plans coming? Do you cook, go out, or just not worry about it? This year there will be 8 of us for dinner, so no big crowd, but still fun.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Journal, Day 308: Back Online

31 this morning, felt colder. Some clear skies and sun today in between clouds, but no precipation. We've had little flurries here and there for days it seems. I like them.

The internet is all fixed! The repairman came as scheduled yesterday and found that not only did my dish have an issue, but the modem had got fried too. Apparently water got into the something-or-other on the satellite dish, and that shorted out the modem. So new modem, and all is well. Fortunately I pay monthly on my bill for any repair work or this would have been pricey.

I spent the morning yesterday in the kitchen, cooking and listening to the inauguration. I was surprised to find myself close to tears as I listened. It seems that for many of us, yesterday was the release of 4 years of stress. It was comforting to hear people speaking civilly, not crowing about themselves and not denigrating others. Now if only that can continue. We need an end to the hate and vitriol that has plagued us for the past 4 years. I have to admit, however, that I don't hold out hope that this will happen any time soon. There are too many angry people, and too many who have decided that maybe violence is the way to get what they want. So while yesterday was uplifting and hopeful, I still worry about what may come next. I don't think we've seen the last of the para-military groups.

I know people are as disappointed and unhappy as I was after the last election, and will be making that known. That's okay. That's normal. But let us all hope that it stays verbal, and not turn to violent action.

But enough of politics. I've been a little housebody lately, just cleaning and sorting and cooking. It's wonderful to have time for these simple things--even though they wear me out! Yesterday I made noodles again, a double batch so I'd have plenty to store away for later use. 

I'm trying to use as many eggs as I can since our hens are laying like crazy.  I've made quiche and deviled eggs too, and bread that calls for eggs in the recipe. Still, they do pile up so we give away quite a few.

This is honey oatmeal bread; another batch is rising as I write. I think it's our favorite. And below is the turkey broth I canned last Thursday. It is totally tasty. Can't wait to make soup with it.

My garden seeds arrived, and the new greenhouse is on the way. It seems incredible to be thinking about gardens already, but here we are. I'll be seeding lettuce and cabbages in less than a month. How the time does fly. Have you ordered seeds yet? 

Larry managed to unclog the septic line, thank goodness; now we wait to be sure that's all there was to the problem. A stinky job! I'n fortunate to have a man who tackles such things without complaint. Now he's found a leak in the drain from the sink, so that's on the list to be dealt with next.

I'm back to painting too, and have almost finished a little table and a small dresser with mirror. No photos as they're in the back room and I can't get a good picture there, but maybe tomorrow I'll be able to.

I was so glad to hear from my cousin Julie in England that Aunt Grace has had her first Covid vaccine. Aunt Grace is 99 1/2, and still in good health overall. I had hoped to be able to go to England this summer for her 100th birthday, but it may have to be a Zoom visit if the virus is still on the loose.

That's about the news that isn't, to quote Garrison Keillor. 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Covid Journal, Day 199: Putting Away the Pears

A nice 56 this morning, and a beautiful day with a high about 77. Windy and sunny. We could use rain, again. Everything is so dry.

Larry picked what pears he could reach with the apple picker and brought them in for me to wrap. 

Our pears are the old-fashioned Bartletts that must be stored a while before they ripen. For the past few years my Octobers have been so filled with storytelling that I had no time to deal with the pears. How sad is that, when we both love canned pears? So this year I'm taking care of them, wrapping them individually to ripen. We have about a bushel--which became two bushels once all the paper was added.

I finally got this little set ready for the booth yesterday, opting to retain the original, beautiful wood finish and just cover the chair seats. The table is about 36" square, and when the leaves are down it's only 12" by 36" so it can be stored away easily without taking up a lot of space. 

I used the blue toile fabric just because I wanted to display these dishes with the set. Silly, right? But so pretty.

I spent most of today working on ebay listings and setting up a 30 percent off sale in my ebay store. I hope that stimulates sales; I've been doing pretty well but would like to reduce my backlog of inventory. So fingers crossed.

And I cooked. A few days ago Larry shot two rabbits that had pretty much ruined my late cabbage. No kraut because of those two--so today, one of them was dinner. I made it like I usually make squirrel: I cooked the rabbit in water with onions, chicken broth, salt, pepper and bay leaves. I left it to simmer for about 3 hours, to get the meat nice and tender. Then I removed the bay leaves, picked the meat from the bones and put it back into the broth while I made a roux with canola oil and cornstarch; then slowly added the broth and meat, some mushrooms, rosemary and thyme, and cooked until it thickened into a nice sauce. 

I cooked some homemade noodles to go with it, along with green beans, and fried apples from a few fallen fruits from our trees. Delicious and pretty much all from our land. 

I love to cook like this. There is just something satisfying about knowing that your land is providing for you, isn't there?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Covid Journal, Days 117-118: Firepit Time, and Finally Rain

70 this morning and cloudy. Rain started just after 10, and lasted about an hour. Still not nearly enough but we and the plants are so grateful.

Since we (finally) had some rain we decided that today it was time to do some inside work. We were lucky enough to have breakfast on the deck before the rain. It was cool and breezy, a perfect start to the day.

Yesterday was booth work, restocking our Marietta booth. We took the leisurely way home, along the Ohio River. It was such a pretty drive. When we got home, we decided to cook out. We cooked squash, zucchini, and onions in foil on the grill, with butter and seasoned salt, and Larry grilled a couple chicken breasts while I cooked new potatoes and dressed them with butter and parsley. Dinner on the deck in the cool of the evening was just delightful. We finished up the day with a fire in the firepit, and stayed out talking until pretty late. It was a good, restful day, and much needed.

Today Larry has been working on finishing up the area behind the new fridge. There was a gas line still there from when we had the gas refrigerator, a hole in the drywall, and a few other issues. He's almost finished. It won't be perfect, but much better. He also took the dryer apart and cleaned out the dust from around the fan and vent. Both jobs required much mess but that's how it goes.

I cleaned. Sweeping thoroughly, mopping the floors, washing rugs, changing the bedsheets, etc. All unexciting work, but this was a good day to get it done. Then I priced items for the booths, and now I'm packing ebay. Such an exciting life we live these days!

But you know, it's okay that this is what we're doing now. I miss traveling and seeing family and friends, and we had planned a trip to Ireland and maybe Scotland this September, so there's that disappointment. My storytelling calendar was rapidly filling for the year, faster than it ever has, so that was pretty cool too. But now our days seem to be food-and-home-centered. Gardens and cooking take up most of our time, and it seems that food has become the most important thing to occupy our time--growing it, cooking it, putting it up for winter, and tracking down items we can't grow. I would bet we're not alone in this.

And speaking of food, we found a local source for fresh milk! I am so excited. I have been looking for someone who would sell us milk for years. We had milk goats and then milk cows for about 10 years, and I miss that good milk. So this week we'll be going to meet the farmer and buy a "share" in his herd, which will entitle us to a gallon of milk a week; we can get more if we want to buy it for a slightly higher price. The share is $30; then we pay $25 a month for the milk, plus about $6.75 a gallon for any extra we need. I think I have all that correct. It isn't cheap, certainly. But I think it will be worth the expense. And it's Jersey milk, so we'll even be able to make butter if we want. I'l post more after we visit the farm and make sure this is what we want to do.


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Oh My That Pie

I made a cobbler today--peach and raspberry from fruits put up last summer. I had a hankering for it, and we needed to use up some of that summer goodness. And another reason? Read on:

After working in our booths the other day, we stopped for dinner at Bob Evans restaurant. Bob Evans is a regional chain, started not far from where I live, and their menu features good "home cooking" kind of items--meatloaf, fried chicken, breakfast all day, things like that. It's always well prepared and delicious.

I'd ordered a light meal, and thought I'd have a piece of pie to finish up. I got a shock when I looked at the pies listed, though: the one I wanted, a "triple berry" pie, had 600 calories per serving! And that was without ice cream. Needless to say, I passed it up and went dessert-less. I don't usually order dessert anyway, but a pie made with strawberries, blackberries and raspberries just sounded good, you know?

I have been thinking about those calories ever since, and posted a bit about it on Facebook. How in the world could Bob Evans pack 600 calories in one slice of pie with a tiny dab of whipped cream on top? According to the website Nutritionix, one slice of fruit pie has about 296 calories. So how does Bob Evans manage to pack twice as many into their pie?

I decided to try to figure out how many calories are in my homemade berry pie. I use about 3 cups of berries--so a total of about 360 calories at 120 calories per cup. I add about 1/2 cup of sugar (190 calories), a couple tablespoons of cornstarch (62 calories), maybe a jot of lemon juice (10 calories). The crust, according to various websites, has about 600-700 calories, depending on size. I'm betting mine has less, since I make smaller pies and add no sugar to the crust.

So adding all that up, my berry pie has 1222 calories. Give the benefit of the doubt anyway, and round my pie up to 1300 calories. If I cut the pie into 8 pieces, that's only 162.5 calories per slice! Even cut into six large pieces it's still 216 calories per slice.

How then does Bob Evans pack so many calories into their pie? Did I mis-read the menu, and 600 calories meant for a whole pie? I went online and checked their menu. There was no berry pie listed online, but their double-crust apple pie was offered: 530 calories per slice, or 2990 for the whole pie!

Did I misfigure somehow? I don't think I did--the numbers are the numbers.

I guess I won't be ordering any pie when I go out, certainly not at Bob Evans. Homemade is best anyway, and after this little investigation I felt almost virtuous about the cobbler I made today--after all, it's only about 163 calories per serving  😊


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Cabbage Dill and Egg Salad, Snickerdoodles and Doodling About

Another day at home, doing homey things. I could get very used to this.

Biggest thing on the to-do for today was planting the big garden, and it's done: three rows of sweet corn, two and a half of tomatoes, a half-row of squash, a row of green beans (Tenderettes, my favorite) and a row of sunflowers.

I've got several painting projects in progress too, so that will be the focus for the rest of today. While I waited for Larry to get back from town--he had to get some electric fence wire and chicken feed--I made salads for lunch and cookies. The salads were delicious. I served them with chicken I fried yesterday and homemade lemonade. We truly eat like kings here.

One of the salads was potato salad, pretty much the standard recipe of cooked potatoes, chopped celery, fresh dill, chopped dill pickles, chopped chives, mustard (I used spicy brown), salt, pepper, and mayonnaise.

The other was a new recipe. I remembered a book my mother gave me years ago that had a recipe for cabbage, dill and egg salad. I went from memory and we loved the result.

Here's my recipe. All measures are approximate.

Half a small cabbage
3 small green onions
3 boiled eggs
fresh dill (about 1/4 - 1/2 cup)

Chop the cabbage as fine as you like. Chop the onions and dill; slice the boiled eggs.
Mix all together. Then dress to your taste with:
homemade mayonnaise--or use a vinegar and oil dressing. I used my homemade mayonnaise and we loved it. Homemade mayo has a different flavor and consistency than the store-bought; it's lighter and not as thick.
Also add to your taste:
salt
black pepper

The cookies were Sinckerdoodles, an old standard and a favorite. I posted the recipe here almost ten years ago, even before I got my beloved Tappan range. I have been making cookies about once a month, and they are such a nice addition to the mid-morning coffee break.

I packed up a bag of the cookies for Larry's physical therapist when she came for a visit today, so we will consume a lot less of the calories! We will miss the visits from these bright young home health workers when he is released from their care. It's been a bright spot in our days, something that surprised us both.

Red Spirea, Marguerite daisies and Stella lilies

Next week my routine will be changing as the summer storytelling schedule begins in earnest. for right now, I am enjoying the daily small joys of housekeeping, gardening, and domesticity. This is truly the good life.

wild daisies

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Noodle Day

Larry wasn't feeling well today--he's been working hard on several different things and I think it's catching up with him. It could be a cold trying to catch hold, so I decided on that time-honored tradition of making chicken noodle soup for him.

Except I had no chicken and no noodles. But I did have turkey frozen from Thanksgiving that needed to be used up, and I had eggs and flour.

So it turned into a noodle-making day. I can make noodles in less time than it takes to get to town to the store anyway.

An hour later, the noodles were hanging to dry and the soup was underway. And when it was done, a grateful husband ate a good bowl or two before heading off for a nap.

He's feeling better this evening, so you see? It works! I have plenty left over for more soup too.

I used my Kitchenaid mixer to mix the ingredients (4 eggs, 2 tablespoons of water and 1 1/2 cups of flour), then kneaded by hand for a few minutes, then let it rest 10 minutes before cutting into 5 sections and rolling each one out to go through the pasta machine. So easy. And so good.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

25 Cents a Dozen

My friend Joy at A Vintage Green recently posted about a sign she had made that said "Fresh Eggs 25 cents a dozen", and those few words reminded me of 1972.

My two oldest sons in 1973, a little after this story

In the winter of 1971-1972 I had two sons, and the third was on the way. I was not quite 20 at the time, my husband had changed jobs and money was so short that we had only $10 a week for groceries for our family of four.

But tuna was cheap, culled apples could be had for $1.50 a bushel, honey was $25 for 5 gallons, and the drive to get these things was a beautiful one through the country to Front Royal, VA . Closer to home, milk was $1 a gallon with the cream on it from a local dairy farmer. I bought day-old baked goods by the bags-full for $1 a bag. I made butter, learned how to make applesauce, and somehow we ate well on that budget.

One of my favorite memories is of the day I learned to make white bean soup. I had a cookbook given to me as a wedding gift called Fine Old New England Recipes. I still have it. It had a recipe for cooking white beans, and I tried it out. I do not remember ever eating bean soup before, certainly my mother never made it. The cookbook also had a recipe for deep-dish apple pie and I was making that too. Both dishes came out perfectly.

It was early spring by then, an April day. We were still broke and I was eight months pregnant with my third son and in the kitchen of the little log house we lived in at the time, near the banks of the Occoquan River in Virginia. The trees were just budding out, and the plum tree in our backyard was in bloom. I had the Dutch door (one of those that opens at top and bottom) open to the back porch, and my two little boys were playing outside. The pale blue and yellow calico kitchen curtains I had made by sewing by hand were blowing gently in the breeze.

 We had good food, a cute little house in the country, healthy little boys, and we were happy. What more could a person ask?

Ten years, another son and a move to West Virginia later, the marriage was over; we were two people who had married too young and no longer knew each other. But that one day stands out in my memory as a day of complete content, a day when I found a self-confidence I had not known before. It would perhaps not be earthshaking to anyone else, but I believe it was the starting point for my journey to both self-sufficiency and self-discovery.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Happy April! Random Pics from the Past Week or So

Happy April, friends! Isn't it good to see this beautiful month come around again? It is one of my favorites, with the grass so green but the trees still mostly bare, flowering shrubs both wild and cultivated in bloom, and the birdsong filling the air. It's a time of hope, when we plant seeds and dream for good harvests, when we ramble the woods looking for wildflowers, wild mushrooms and the tasty ramps.It's also National Poetry Month and once again I'll be trying my hand at the poem-a-day writing challenge called NaPoWriMo. You can see how I do on my other blog, Mountain Poet.

Here's a few things we got into during the last week or so. It's time to do a little catching up:
This old cabinet was about the death of us, I swear! It was in really bad shape, so restoration to original was not feasible. Instead we took it shabby but it was a long process because a lot of repair had to be done first. And it's heavy! Oak, of course, at least the frame. The glass is old wavy glass, so cool.

I'd had the mirror for sale for a while with no interest, so home it came for a re-do. It was natural wood and had 4 holes drilled in the corners. I added another hole and put knobs on for hanging things like jewelry, and covered the top holes with a couple pieces of wood trim before painting and distressing. I like it much better now, for sure. I hope someone else will too.

I started painting this set just after I got sick and it really took forcing myself to get it finished. That cold going around kills your energy and my feet were seriously dragging. But now it's done and in our Ravenswood booth. The fabric on the chairs is a coffee print. I asked on Facebook what people thought: the print or leave the white covering that was on them. About 80 people weighed in with opinions and it was a pretty evenly divided crowd. My original intention was to use this fabric, so I stuck with that plan.

Larry tried his hand at making a few primitive ladders, since we're fresh out of the old ones we were selling.

In Marietta, a few coal mining items,

and a white rocker that was also a painting project last month, with an explosives box on the seat.

And then there are always finds!

The three deer in this photo are actually pretty cool. They are from the 40's-50's and made in a California pottery by a designer named Robert Simmons. The largest is about 8" tall. They have names! The big one is the mama deer and is called Dear Me. The next one is called Cry Baby, and the littlest one is called Miss Innocence.

The green dishes in front are Hazel Atlas, probably 1940's judging by the color.

These plates, I learned, are fairly rare. The are by a company called Booth's, made in England in the 1930's and the pattern is Netherlands. It's called "Silicon China" but I am not sure what that means, exactly. Maybe just a modernistic sounding name for the finish?

Metal wall art from the mid-century period is popular these days! I found this, with a companion piece, for $4, and listed it for $110, which is mid-range for the selling price of these pieces. It's pretty big, over 24" long, and will be a challenge to pack.

These bowls are also rather rare. I found none for sale anywhere, and no sold listings on Worthpoint. These are called Tally Ho, made by T.G. Green & Company in Church Gresley, England, also from the 30's.

And cooking! I've been having fun trying new recipes. This one was for herb-roasted chicken, made i a crockpot. While it wasn't exactly roasted, it was falling-apart delicious. I made a rub of salt, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, winter savory and paprika. Then I put some of the onions we dried last winter and a little minced dried garlic into the bottom of the crockpot with about a cup of water (to rehydrate the onions), put the chicken in and cooked on low for a few hours, then on high until the chicken was 185 degrees. Easy and so good! Homemade mac and cheese too. Made for happy tummies.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.