For the third year in a row, I coordinated the United Way campaign here at Ogden Publications. Each year, I try to think of new and exciting events to raise money for the United Way in our area. This year, my committee and I came up with an apple recipe contest. At a dollar a vote, our employees enthusiastically tasted each entry and voted on which one was the best. It was a hard decision because all the entries were quite pleasing to the palate. They were also pleasing to the eye, but you’ll have to take my word for it. I didn’t think to take pictures until it was too late.

We had 10 entries. They were: Ozark Apple Pudding, Humble Apple Bread, Sweet and Sour Ravioli (yes, it did have an apple product in it), Apple Crisp, Spectacular Apple Bread, Apple Crunch, Easy Apple Cake, Apple Cobbler Cake, Easy Apple Coffee Cake and Caramel Apple Cream Cheese Cookie Bars.

One of our marketing managers won for her Apple Crisp recipe. It had a unique flavor that everyone loved. Several people wanted the recipe for it and others that were in the contest, so I compiled all the recipes and made copies for anyone who wanted them.

These apple dishes were so delicious, I thought I would share some of them with you.

Apple Crisp

This one won the contest.

FILLING:

• 5 granny smith apples, cored, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

TOPPING:

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1½ cups light brown sugar
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1¼ cups quick-cooking rolled oats
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
• Dash or two of allspice
• ¾  teaspoon salt

To make filling: Preheat oven to 375˚F. In a casserole baking dish, toss apples with brown sugar and cinnamon. Add cornstarch, lemon juice and vanilla to the fruit and stir well.

To make topping: Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, mix ingredients together until large crumbs form.

Sprinkle topping evenly over filling and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325˚F. and continue baking for about 30 minutes longer, until fruit filling is bubbling and topping is nicely browned. Let set for 10 to 20 minutes before serving.

Apple Cobbler Cake

This one was taken from the pages of CAPPER’s.

• 6 cups sliced apples
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 box cake mix, yellow or white, divided
• ½ cup chopped nuts
• 1 stick butter or margarine, melted

In a bowl, combine apples, sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle with ¼ cup dry cake mix and toss until apples are evenly coated. Spoon mixture into a buttered pan and cover with foil, securing edges firmly. Bake at 350°F. for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven.

Combine remaining cake mix with nuts and drizzle with melted butter; mix until large crumbs are formed. Sprinkle over partially cooked apples in pan. Return to oven and bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes, or until topping is puffed and golden. Cool slightly. Serve warm with whipped topping or ice cream.

Apple Crunch

This was mine, taken from our church’s 100^th anniversary cookbook.

• 5 cups flour  
• 4 cups sugar
• 3 to 4 unpeeled apples, sliced                 
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 cups oatmeal                                     
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon               
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg                              
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups butter, melted

In a bowl, combine 1 cup flour with sugar. Arrange apples in buttered 9x12-inch pan and cover with flour mixture. Add a little water. Mix together remaining flour, brown sugar, oatmeal, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; pour over apples. Drizzle melted butter over flour mixture. Pack down topping. Bake at 350˚F. for 45 minutes or until apples are tender. If desired, melt a bag of caramels over a low heat and drizzle over the top of apple dessert. Serves 20 to 25.  

Sweet and Sour Ravioli

Our most unusual entry.

• 1 box dehydrated mincemeat
• 1 box phyllo pastry
• 1 egg white
• ¾ cup apple cider or juice
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons honey
• ½ cup corn syrup
• Melted butter or nonstick spray

Leave phyllo in refrigerator until ready to use.

Prepare mincemeat as per directions; cool. Prepare one sleeve of phyllo as per directions. Take half the layers and carefully place them one layer at a time on waxed paper. Brush with melted butter between layers. Immediately cover with a damp towel. Repeat steps with the remaining sleeve of phyllo.

Spread mincemeat on top of one layer of phyllo, leaving about a quarter of an inch space at edges. Brush egg white on top sheet of other half of phyllo. Carefully invert brushed layer on top of mincemeat, keeping edges aligned. Using fingers, mash down where cuts are to be made in the phyllo (this also pushes the mincemeat into the middle of each square). Carefully cut into pieces with a ravioli cutter or knife, pinching edges to seal. Using a fork, place each piece onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 375˚F. for about 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

To make glaze: In a saucepan, heat honey and corn syrup over a low heat until thin. Add apple cider and lemon juice, stir until blended. Bring to a boil until mixture thickens (about 30 minutes), stirring constantly. Glaze should be thick enough to pour easily. Once ravioli is removed from oven, drizzle glaze over each piece; cool.

I got a lot of positive comments after the contest (anything that involves food usually goes over well here). I’ll have to think of another food contest for next year’s United Way campaign.

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we did! If you’d like the other recipes from the contest, you can email me at bkipp@odgenpubs.com.

It took daughter Alaina and me a while to get to the place where we really felt like eating one of the broiler chickens we processed last week. We finally succumbed to the idea of a succulent, moist, broiler – slow cooked in the oven – on Saturday. Alaina had the presence of mind to put the bird out to thaw early in the morning. By the time I had beaten myself to a tired, sore mass from working around the farm all day, I didn’t have the energy to smoke the bird in the Orion smoker, which was our original plan. We’re both glad now that the smoker never got lit.

I’m a firm believer that awesome food can stand on its own; I find that holds true particularly with clean, healthy, home-raised, free-range meat. I don’t put sauce on my steaks and as much as I like smoked chicken, I love heavy broilers roasted simply too.

Since I was out of steam and fading fast, I took the thawed bird, gave it a quick rinse and patted it dry with a paper towel. I took one fresh lemon, cut it in half and squeezed the juice onto the breast-side of the bird and rubbed it in a bit. I then stuck the lemon halves into the broiler’s body cavity. Normally, I would chop a few cloves of garlic and some rosemary, mix it with olive oil and put it under the broiler’s skin – but I was just too beat to mess with the garlic and we didn’t have any fresh rosemary around so I just skipped that step. Ah, the life of a bachelor – no recipe police in sight.

Even though I knew there wasn’t any rosemary to be found, I cruised the fridge for something green and found a small bundle of almost done cilantro. Yep, I just stuffed that bundle of flavor into the cavity behind the lemon halves. The last seasoning step was to sprinkle a little Kosher salt over the entire broiler. I don’t know why I do that, but I have always done it. Perhaps it’s my way of rebelling against my physician – he’s always brooding about my blood pressure.

I don’t have a proper roasting pan so I set the works into a 12-inch ceramic pie plate (the tail stuck out and made a bit of an oily mess in the oven) and shoved it into a 350-degree oven. And there the broiler sat until the juices ran clear and the meat thermometer that Alaina stuck in the breast said the meat was safe to eat. I can’t report on the actual temperature because it just says chicken on the thermometer’s dial.

Once we let the broiler rest for a spell – while picking and tasting beautifully golden morsels – we served ourselves some generous helpings of the most delicious meat. Light or dark, the broiler’s gift was one of juicy, pleasing sustenance. We managed to eat about half the bird on Saturday night.  It really went well with the squash soup and spinach salad that Alaina made earlier.

On Sunday we cleaned the carcass of the remaining meat and boiled the bones. The meat went into the crockpot with a mess of dried herbs (poultry seasoning, sage, and some other grey-green stuff), a pinch of salt, one yellow onion diced and half-dozen stalks of celery sliced. Next we dumped a cup of long grain rice into the slow cooker and added sufficient chicken broth (from the boiled bones) to cover the works. We set the crockpot to high for a few hours and then to low. We forgot to time it – but it was on low overnight. The rice was a little on the soft side, but it reminded me of chicken dumplings a bit. In any case, the slow-cooked chicken and rice was positively delicious – no doubt because of the broiler and not my slow-cooking prowess.

As I reflect on the entire raising, processing and eating of that broiler chicken, I can only conclude that it was entirely worth it. Alaina and I both agree that home-raised broilers are positively delicious. With food that good, it’s not a chore to use it up, which makes me feel like that creature’s life was well celebrated and not wasted. I know we’ll smoke one of those broilers soon. Stay tuned.

Photo: iStockphoto: adlifemarketing

Goats are quickly becoming a common sight along roadsides and on small farms all over the United States. Since we raise goats, and raise them for meat, we often are asked why. Beef, chicken, and pork are more widely consumed at the American family dinner table, but goat is actually the world’s most popular meat.

Approximately 75 percent of the world’s population eats goat meat. With America’s rising population of ethnic groups, demand for goat meat has risen sharply. American producers are struggling to keep up with the growing demand for a product that was virtually unheard of 15 years ago. In addition to the ethnic population that regularly consumes goat meat (also known as cabrito or chevon), many Americans are discovering the benefits of eating goat meat.

It has a good flavor and is very healthy. It is low in fat, cholesterol, calories, and saturated fat. In fact, goat meat is over 50% lower in fat than our American beef and is about 40% lower in saturated fat than chicken, even chicken cooked with the skin off!  The following meat comparison (per 3 oz. roasted meat) table is from the USDA Handbook:

            Calories            Fat (g)               Sat. Fat (g)      Protein (g)       Iron (g)

GOAT    122                2.58                     0.79                 23                   3.2          

Beef        245                16.0                      6.8                  23                   2.0

Pork        310                24.0                      8.7                  21                   2.7

Lamb      235                16.0                      7.3                  22                   1.4

Chicken  120                  3.5                       1.1                  21                   1.5

Since goat meat is so low in fat, this makes cooking more of a challenge. Goat meat must be cooked slowly and at low temperatures, or it will dry out and become tough. The best ways to cook goat are roasting (in the oven, in a smoker, or on the grill) or braising (cooking with added liquid such as water, wine, or milk). Marinating will help retain moisture and tenderness as well. Old-fashioned smoking has, in our opinion, produced the best-tasting goat meat of all. What I have had was even better than smoked beef or pork! Of course, most of us do not have the time required to smoke our meats daily, so I am including a few less time-consuming recipes for you to try. Enjoy!

Goat Meat Loaf

2 lb ground goat meat
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 envelope Dry Onion Soup/Dip Mix
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup water or milk

Directions: Mix 1/2 mushroom soup, goat meat, onion soup mix, bread crumbs and egg. Place in 8 inch x 4 inch loaf pan and shape firmly into loaf. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 min or until done. Mix remaining mushroom soup, 1/4 cup water or milk, and 2 tablespoons drippings from loaf in bowl. Heat in microwave 2 min or until heated through. Spoon over slices of meatloaf.

Jamaican Curried Goat

3 lbs goat meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 limes
1 large onion, sliced
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp thyme
2 Tblsp canola oil
1 tsp sugar
5 green onions, chopped
2 tsp curry powder
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Directions: Squeeze limes over goat meat and let stand for 10-15 min. Rinse with cold water. Place meat in sealable container. Add onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme. Rub spices into meat. Cover and let marinate in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Next, in large pot over medium heat, heat the oil and sugar. Stir until sugar is brown. Add goat meat with marinade, green onions, and curry. Stir. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Simmer slowly, stirring occasionally until meat is nearly tender, about 40 min. Add potatoes and 1/4 cup water and stir. Cover and simmer for another 15 min until potatoes are cooked but not soft. Crush potatoes to thicken sauce if desired. To make more sauce you may add a little water and cook for 10 minutes more.

I have longed for years to master the art of making bread. Like gardening it has eluded me for quite some time. I have tried numerous times to no avail. It has always seemed to make me so nervous, how to get the yeast to “bloom,” what is luke-warm water anyways, how and for how long to knead the dough, has it really doubled in size??? The questions would send my nerves into a tizzy and that is why I think I just couldn’t do it – or so I thought! I have found a recipe that has given me the courage to try again, and at last SUCCESS!

I followed the direction to a tee, using exact measurements and preciously timing my every move. I watched in amazement as my dough rose perfectly, filling the pans that held it. When the final timer signaled that the bread had completed its baking time, I cautiously opened the oven door and what to my wondering eyes should appear but two loves of perfect bread. Had I really accomplished this feat, had “I” really conquered this thing they call bread making? Indeed I had.

I had to make sure that this was not just a fluke thing, that I could actually do it again. So began the process and timing again, and the end result matched my previous success, and I have to say it was the best bread I have tasted.

I think the reason it was so tasty is because I had finally made bread that both my parents are masters at making. My mother can whip up loaves of bread without a recipe, only by look and feel. She has spent many, many nights trying to teach me. The bread was okay, but nothing like hers. I can vividly remember my father mixing up bread in a huge yellow earthenware bowl that had a blue stripe around it with the biggest wooden spoon I have ever seen. He always made the process look effortless, which it is not, it takes some strength to stir that last cup of flour in and then the kneading process is a whole new set of muscles. The smell would reach us kids all the way out in the fields and it always stopped us in our tracks. We knew what was in store for dinner and we could not wait.

So on this journey I have begun, I can now cross Bread Making off of the list. I am by no means a master, but I can most certainly put a warm loaf of bread on our dinner table. I will share the recipe because it is just too good to keep to myself!

Sixty Minute Bread

2 cups of luke-warm water
4 Tablespoons of sugar
2 Tablespoons yeast
2 Tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons salt
4 1/2 - 51/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place water, sugar and yeast together in a bowl and let sit for 10 minutes. Stir oil and salt into yeast mixture. Add flour by 1/2 cup full until the dough forms a ball. Turn out on a floured board and knead for 5 minutes. (I actually do this in my stand mixer.) Divide the dough in half and place into greased loaf pans, set aside to rise for 30-40 minutes. Bake for 20-25 minutes, let cool, and then ENJOY!!

I hope everyone who tries this recipe has the same success I have had, because there is nothing like a piece of homemade bread.

I love to cook and bake this time of year. There’s just something about cold winter days that makes the kitchen so inviting. I have cherished memories of my mother cooking special meals for Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as everyday meals for the family.

Mom also loved to bake. She baked cookies, brownies and cakes. Usually the cake was for a family member’s birthday, but sometimes it was just for fun. The cookie jar always seemed to be full. Anytime my nieces and nephews came over, one of the first things they did was head for the cookie jar (my brother-in-law did, too). Mom loved sending cookies and brownies to me when I was in college and Alaska. She also sent cookies and brownies to my nieces and nephews when they were in college. Years ago, when I worked at a bookstore, Mom used to bring in goodies for the staff on Fridays (that was the day she got her hair done and the beauty salon was next door to the bookstore).

Mom is elderly now and can no longer stand long enough to cook or bake. In fact, she doesn’t even go into the kitchen anymore. Since I live with her, I prepare the meals and I use some of the same pans, dishes and utensils she used when I was growing up. Each item brings back pleasant memories.

I began doing all the cooking when my Dad was still alive. Even though sometimes the last thing I wanted to do was be on my feet in the kitchen, it brought me pleasure to make a meal for my parents. I came to understand why my mom put so much love into the meals she prepared. She was doing it for her family. I consider it an honor to prepare meals for the woman who made countless meals for me and the rest of the family.

My sister inherited my mother’s talent for cooking and baking. I consider myself a good cook and a mediocre baker, but my sister is great at both. She’s always trying something new and it seems like everything she makes turns out perfect. Mom always said my sister must have inherited her ability to make flaky pie crust from our paternal grandmother because she didn’t get it from her.

My sister and I used to swap recipes, but since we both have access to the Internet, we don’t do that much anymore. A lot of the recipes in my collection are from my sister. I can’t help but think of her when I make a recipe she gave me.

Being a creative person, I like to try new recipes and sometimes modify them to my liking. I have some tried and true recipes that I use frequently and keep handy for easy access.

One of my favorite recipes to make this time of year is Captain’s Soup. It’s easy, nourishing and makes enough for an army (well, at least a large family). My mom got the recipe from a lady we met while we were vacationing in Colorado. She and her husband rode the train from Durango to Silverton with us. We got acquainted and they invited us to stop by for a meal at their home in Buena Vista. We did stop at their house on the way back to Kansas and the lady made this soup for supper.

Captain’s Soup

1 pound ground beef  

1 can (46 oz.) vegetable juice

1 small can cream of mushroom soup

1 small can cream of celery soup

1 package frozen vegetables

In a skillet, brown ground beef; drain and set aside. Combine soups in a crock pot. Simmer on low heat and stir until well-blended. In a medium pan, cook vegetables until tender; drain. Add beef and vegetables to soup mixture. Heat on High for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Serve with crackers or bread.

Do you have a favorite kitchen memory? Do you have a recipe that has an interesting story behind it? Please share it with me.

Venison Chili Trial One went over well last night. It’s hard to say if it was more the quality of the meat or the mixture of ingredients I used, but the combination of the two made some dang-good chili. I do know this: Even though I didn’t shoot a big, old buck this year, last night’s meal – and today’s lunch, actually – made me very thankful for doe meat in the freezer.

I’d planned on using a Southern Venison Chili recipe, but once I got into the grocery store, the amount of green pepper – it calls for one large green bell pepper, cut in strips – and the inclusion of 2 tablespoons of sugar kind of turned me off to it.

So I kind of combined that recipe with another one to arrive at the one below. The only problem is, I estimate and add a little of this, a little of that when I cook – no matter my intention – taste as I go and make adjustments, so this is only my best guess as to what was in that chili.

The Amateur’s Venison Chili

1 ½ pounds ground venison
½ large white onion, diced
½ large green bell pepper, diced
2 tablespoons cumin seed spice
3 tablespoons chili powder
8 ounces tomato sauce (I went with the Kroger brand, inexpensive, and already peeled and in juice – “Chili Ready”)
8 ounces water
½ cup light-red kidney beans
½ cup ketchup

Now bear with me.

First, you obviously brown the meat.

You can sauté the onion and green pepper while you do this, but mine turned out tender and cooked enough in the end without doing so. The reason I didn’t is because I forgot – kind of a shaky start – and was in too big of a hurry to see how much grease the meat would make. It was very lean ground meat … just what I’d hoped for. After I diced the onion and green pepper – I didn’t have a knife for dicing so I was using my skinning knife that I hadn’t used since the GRIT sharpening experience – I added it to the halfway-browned venison.

Sometimes I feel like I get into some intense situations when I’m cooking.

After the meat had completely browned, I added the cumin spice and chili powder. Then I emptied tomato sauce and water in, added the kidney beans and hoped for the best (i.e., hoped the vegetables would cook to tender). On medium heat, I let the mixture simmer for 1 hour, tasted it, added some ketchup and somehow it turned out really good. Gwendolyn Marie did say she snuck in some more of the spices.

The whole thing was rather fun, despite my methods.

I’ve got plenty more meat, so the next venison-cooking experience for me will either be another chili recipe, or Lori’s homemade Summer Sausage recipe. Her recipe can be found at the bottom of this blog post. I’ll let you know how that one goes.

Anybody else this hectic in the kitchen? I feel like I’m in the weeds most times.

Bottom photo by Gwen Salmon.

Mike, from CRM Distributing (1-877-276-3478), recently sent one of their Ohio-made, heavy-duty steel fire pit/grills ($289 direct from manufacturer) to Kansas for us to try. I was immediately impressed by the unit because its box, which seemed impossibly small, weighed over 60 pounds. Obviously CRM’s Backyard Fire Pit was no lightweight.

As it turns out, the box was relatively small because the Backyard Fire Pit ships flat … or nearly so. The innovative design consists of a flat base with legs, 8 pit side pieces (four with vents and four without), swing away grill and grill support post. The pieces were beautifully crafted of heavy-gauge mild steel with stainless steel grill mesh, air controls and fasteners.

Assembling the Backyard Fire Pit took a bit of effort … arranging the pit sides was made easy with their unique bottom-clamp design. I struggled for about a minute to get the last pit side installed … along with the grill support post. The entire project took me about 40 minutes … mind you I set the thing up outside, on the ground, on a very cold, windy day. I probably spent 5 minutes chasing the instructions, all told. Once it was fully assembled, Kate and I moved it to our bare-ground fire pit and fired it up.

The CRM Backyard Fire Pit preformed very well. Its approximately 26-inch diameter fire box was ample for burning some scrap cardboard along with some Osage Orange billets we collected during various post-harvesting excursions. In fact, the Backyard Fire Pit makes our campfires a little safer … and helps me reign in my temptation to build the fire ever larger.

Since we had a couple of wax-impregnated fire starting aids from CobLites (www.bynaturellc.com) and Holy Smokes (www.nermanlockhart.com), we gave them a try too. The wax impregnated corn cobs from CobLites were slightly easier to light in the wind than the wax impregnated sawdust wafers from Holy Smokes. However, both were easy to light and worked well to start the cardboard and other kindling on fire.

Stay tuned for a long term report on the Backyard Fire Pit. We will put it to good use this winter. If you want more information, please give Mike a call ... he doesn't have a website.

This year, for the first time in recent memory, I have been tasked with bringing something to Thanksgiving dinner. When I announced this in our staff meeting last week, everyone was quite impressed, until I told them I was making the two JELL-O/Cool Whip–related salads that we always have at a Nemec family holiday dinner.

One year we only had one of the two, and my little brother (not so little anymore) just couldn't handle it. So, these two must be there. The names are what we call them, and I'll have to check with Mom to find out from whence they came. (I'm pretty sure I remember the first time we had the apricot one, but the cherry seems to have always been a staple.)

The first we call "Apricot Salad," which is a bit of a misnomer, because it's not very "salad-y." It's made with only 3 ingredients: apricot JELL-O (1 package), apricot nectar (2 cups – I found this in the juice aisle at a local grocery store), and cream cheese (1 brick, 8 oz., softened).

The nectar takes the place of water in the directions on the JELL-O package. First heat one cup of the nectar and then dissolve the JELL-O in it.  Place the softened cream cheese in a medium-sized bowl, and then with a whisk (or an egg beater), slowly add the nectar mixture to the cream cheese. Then add the additional cup of nectar in a similar manner. (If you find it too sweet, you can switch out some of the nectar for water.)

This salad turns out differently depending on how earnestly you wisk/stir the creamcheese into the JELL-O. If you're a bit lackadaisical, you end up with slightly creamy JELL-O with a cottage-cheese-looking topping. If you are more serious about getting the lumps out, the whole thing turns into creamy goodness – though don't go too far, or you'll end up with foam on top. All of these versions taste great, and I'm pretty sure my brother prefers the cottage-cheese-y version.

The second salad (which my brother's been making lately) is the "Pink Fluff." This one is even easier, because you don't have to heat anything up. In this one you have a can of cherry pie filling (my dad's favorite), a can of crushed pineapple (don't get the "in syrup" kind), a can of sweetened condensed milk, and a container of whipped topping. Drain the pineapple juice (into a glass -- yum), then mix it, the cherry pie filling, and the condensed milk together in a rather big bowl. When those three are good and combined, slowly fold in the whipped topping. (This is where you can get in trouble with this one, when "folding" becomes "beating" you end up with a soupy mess.)

Most of my family eats these as "dessert" rather than with the meal, and a little goes a long way. When the pink fluff and turkey sandwiches are gone, it's time to head home.

When I was in college, I had a nightmare that involved my boyfriend taking me home to his family Thanksgiving and his mother asking me to make the gravy as a test... I woke up screaming.

Since then, I've advanced (much more than I let on). I can make many wonderful meals in my wok, I love quinuoa, and I'm learning more every day. I likely won't be involved in the turkey basting process this year (or maybe ever, one of my brothers has a restaurant management degree and is pretty territorial about the bird), but . . . I made the salads.