Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2
Week 51: December 24, 2022

What with the Christmas baking, chimney cleaning, and restarting the indoor salad garden we are as busy as Santa’s elves! What a busy and blessed week at Chocolate Box Cottage!

Indoor Salad Gardening

Let’s start with salad gardening. Growing salad shoots in cereal bowls keeps us in salad greens all winter, right up until the outdoor garden is producing.

Traditional “sprout” seeds like broccoli and peas join microgreen seeds, buckwheat and tendril peas. In about a week, they are ready to harvest with scissors.

By planting a batch of bowls every few days, the indoor salad garden keeps producing. Enjoy beautiful gourmet salads with just a little work.

Christmas baking

Looking for an easy, festive drop cookie?

Mix up a batch of Confetti Cookies; they’re simple, colorful, and fun! A delicious vanilla cookie batter is shaped in balls, rolled in sprinkles, pressed with a glass, and baked. The satisfying cake-like flavor of these cookies will grab you!

Granola is always a welcome gift. This batch of Pecan Promise Granola will be divided: 1 tray gifted and 1 tray kept.

There’s nothing quite like homemade pies for Christmas and it’s (almost) as easy to make two as one. One for Christmas Eve and another for breakfast on Christmas morning with coffee, tea, and cottage bacon (ham). See my recipe for Butter Pie Crust.

Miriam and I enjoyed an old-fashioned Christmas baking day which included these delicious apple pies and a batch of Confetti Cookies.

And since I was not planning to bake bread, I decided to use up the accumulated starter in my jars by making a batch of German Bread-Spice Crackers this week. What is bread spice? A mix of spices used in German breads; brotgewürz in German. It varies, but mine includes caraway, anise seeds, fennel seeds, celery seeds, and coriander seeds, ground to a powder.

I added most of the sourdough from the jars to the Ankarsrum mixer bowl, leaving enough behind to feed and maintain my starter. Whole grains were milled into flour in my KoMo grain mill, including whole wheat, spelt, rye, einkorn, and millet.

Cracker dough was rolled very thin – the thinner the better – then cut in squares with a fluted pastry wheel or crinkle cutter. Docking the crackers with a fork releases air bubbles. And don’t forget to sprinkle with salt! I don’t have an exact recipe for these, I go by feel.

Sam’s projects

Samuel has been mysteriously busy in the barn. I’m not sure what he’s up to, but I am sure it will be good. We agreed to give each other practical gifts this year, and I asked for a pantry makeover, while Sam hinted at a backpack leaf blower. The “economy” leaf blower he has been using for years is giving out – it’s requires tinkering each time he wants to use it.

We both could use new wheelbarrows. A stout metal one for Sam, capable of hauling firewood, hot coals, rocks, dirt, and manure; a plastic one for me, to tote compost, potted plants, and garden harvests to the kitchen for preserving.

Samuel climbs the ladder to the roof for several tasks: blowing leaves off, cleaning out gutters, and cleaning the chimney.

In addition to cleaning the chimney, Samuel disassembled the stove pipe, carried it outside and cleaned it out; vacuumed out the elbow in the brick chimney; emptied the wood stove of ashes; cleaned the glass window.

Christmas Tea

Weekly tea at Mom’s took on a Christmasy theme this week. Granddaughters Miriam and Savannah + Emberly joined us for non-alcoholic Holiday Wassail, homemade clam chowder, fruit salad, carrot sticks, and Confetti Cookies. So thankful to have Mom and Rolly to celebrate with.

Gift baskets

I whipped up a triple batch of Maple Vanilla Syrup and added jars to a couple of Christmas gift baskets. This basket for my son Clayton includes Hot Cocoa Mix + a bottle of mint extract, dried Paragon pear slices, Pecan Promise Granola, gourmet coffee, Vanilla Lace Pear Jam, Vanilla Maple Syrup, Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde, and a half gallon jar of Goldenkraut (not pictured).

This Christmas gift basket for my sister’s family includes a full dehydrator batch (9 trays) of blackberry applesauce fruit leather along with a variety of pear preserves: dried, jam, and butter + Crock Pot Apple Butter + Maple Vanilla Syrup nestled in paper shreds in a thrift shop picnic basket.

Fermentation

I finally got around to straining my made-from-scratch Persian basil vinegar. It tastes and smells delightful and the color is captivating! After straining the herbs out, the resulting young vinegar was transferred to a boiled jar with a lid to complete fermentation.

In about a month to 6 weeks it will be ready. I can already envision Persian basil vinegar used in salad dressings and marinades for meats and vegetables.

Christmas Eve dinner included Old World Roast Beef and Vegetables, like my Grandma used to make. The roast is first soaked in clabber or cultured buttermilk for 1-3 days, then drained and baked with root vegetables.

I love this spattered yellow and white enamel roaster! I use it for roasting meat and veggies and for baking bread.

Family pictures

Bookshelf

In honor of Christmas, I encourage you, dear reader, to read the story of Jesus’ birth in the Bible. You’ll find it in Luke chapter 2. Like many families, we cherish the tradition of reading this story every Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas, dear reader! I wish and pray for God’s best for you this Christmas and in the coming year.

Blessings,
Michele and Samuel

Note: This post contains links to products and vendors I use and appreciate for their quality and usefulness. Some are affiliate, some are not. I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases when you use the links I provide; this does not change your price.

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2
Week 43: October 29, 2022

This week brought a huge blessing in the shape of a quilt, made especially for me by my Mom’s best friend, Joy. I already refer to it as the hymn quilt because the floral-framed blocks contain lines from old hymns ad songs we sang in church when I was growing up. I can hear my Dad’s voice in my mind singing Amazing Grace and I cannot describe what a comfort this is. He has been gone nearly 20 years and I will miss him so!

The hymn quilt is large enough for both Sam and me to cuddle under on the couch and already feels like it “belongs.”

I am a quilt maker and I appreciate all the love and effort that goes into the making of a quilt. The fact that Joy would make one for ME is amazing. And in the picture below, you can see she made TWO hymn quilts! One for me and one for her, which makes it even more special.

“This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior, all the day long!” This lovely quilt provides so many reminders that I know will bring me comfort in the years ahead.

Joy brought lunch to “my” weekly tea at Mom’s. I say “my” because I am the one who brings lunch! It was nice to have a a break from preparing the food and just enjoy the company. The fact that she gave me a quilt was the icing on the cake. This week Mom was especially delighted when four granddaughters joined us: Alyssa, Savannah, Miriam, and Amelia.

Sam’s projects

Garden gems

My hard-working man wheel-barrowing firewood from wood shed to house.

The garden is quietly winding down for the season. Winter squash have been harvested along with the last of the tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, zucchini, and cucumbers. Cheerful little Red Gem marigolds are still blooming, plus a few others.

The teepee was a surprise star in the garden this year. Mayo bule gourds, cover the bulk of the willow pole frame and if you look closely you might be able to see a few large gourds peeping between the leaves, including one resting on a chair. There are also Heavenly Blue and Candy Pink morning glories and cinnamon vine growing vertically, with nasturtiums and herbs clustering around the “skirt.”

Mayo Bule gourds in all their green glory. Ranging from 8.5-11 inches (22-28 cm) high with belly measurements (circumference) of 23-28 inches (59-71 cm) these beauties are smaller than those I harvested from the garden of our previous home, but are still quite respectable. Gourds will cure to tan or gold.

A closer look, so you can appreciate their peanut-like warts and the way the light glistens on their skin.

I have made quite a fuss over Sadie and her ducklings; here is a picture of dad Sylvester with the little dumplings. They are sprouting tail feathers now!

You’ve met Lavender, my garden hen before. Her leg was broken in a stampede of small chickens and I separated her to give her a chance to heal. I wasn’t sure she would ever be able to walk, but within a 4 weeks she was attempting to put a little weight on that leg and by 10 weeks she was walking fairly well. After a few rain showers, I decided it was time for Lavender to rejoin the flock for the winter. It would be selfish of me to keep her separate.

I set Lavender in the henhouse early one morning while it was still dark to give her the best chance of integrating without being picked on. She stayed in all day, sitting by the food and water. Good – this gave her a chance to imprint with the henhouse and recognize it as “home.”

The next morning she filed out of the henhouse along with the rest of the chickens and I was glad for her. Success was unfortunately short-lived. Soon a commotion was heard in the henyard and when I went to check, Lavender was gone. I tramped all over the hen yard and pasture, even the swampy areas, in my muck boots, to no avail. I could see no sign of her.

And then, I saw this: a clump of lavender-gray feathers. My heart sank, because I knew what it meant.

Preserving

Still working on the second box of Paragon pears. I used a vintage apple slicer to core and slice a mountain pears. What I especially like about this handheld slicer is that the coring circle is very narrow, wasting little fruit. It also cuts fruit in 12 slices rather than 8, which is a better fit for the space between trays of my Excalibur dehydrator.

Cores from several batches of Vanilla Laced Pear Jam were used to start a new jar of fruit vinegar. The last of the elderberries went into another jar for elderberry vinegar. I stir both jars daily twice and am looking forward to tasting these gourmet fruit vinegars.

Bookshelf

Olwes Miaken’s Creatures is my new favorite sourdough book. Diana Brüggemann, who happens to be a friend of mine in Germany, corralled her menagerie of “creatures” (sourdough starters) into a book! Covering 20 distinct sourdough creatures, some of which aren’t even sour, you will enjoy getting to know each one of them and seeing what they can do. 

The book is nicely organized and well formatted, making it easy to read. It is full of great recipes for bread and other baked goodies. Diana even shows you how to swap one type of starter for another and offers tasty ideas for ways to use “discard,” a useless term since she doesn’t advocate throwing anything away. No, no – you’ll start your own Monster Mash jar as soon as you get this book, trust me!

Note this post contains links to products and shops I use and appreciate. Some are affiliates, some are not. Thank you for supporting my writing and these businesses!

Blessings,
Michele

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2
Week 38: September 24, 2022

Where preserving season is the culmination of a summer’s work, a freshly baked pie is the reward of an afternoon’s effort. Start with Butter Pie Crust for a delicious pie!

If you have ever gardened or baked a pie from scratch, you know exactly what I mean.

Pantry shelved don’t fill themselves, and a slice of pie with a cup of tea or coffee doesn’t magically make itself!

Preserving

Herbs, fruit, seeds, and vinegar from small harvests.

Sweet Raisin tomato bore a good crop of small Roma-type grape tomatoes, despite unusual summer weather. I picked several quarts into a pretty McCoy pottery bowl and sat in the garden teepee to sort them for seed saving, keeping only the best. I am so glad I saved seeds as the variety has been discontinued. The others were halved and went into the Excalibur dehydrator to dry for the pantry.

Another small batch of crushed tomatoes with herbs. Notice the jewel-like colors! From left to right: Japanese Black Trifele tomato (purple/black), Japanese Plum tomato (bright pink), and Dad’s Sunset tomato (yellow). Home-canned crushed tomatoes are one of the BEST and most convenient meal starters to have in the pantry.

See how small they are? I mistakenly bought a packet of miniature butternut squash seed, a variety called Brûlée.

Hoping for enough Amarylla tomatillos and peppers to make another batch of Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde.

Wintergreen grows as a low ground cover in the corners of the garden teepee. The bright pink berries are deliciously minty!

Having grown both Lemon and Tangerine Gem marigolds in the past, I suspected I would like Red Gem. The blooms are bright and edible, with a citrusy flavor. Zloty Lan chamomile is another favorite I mention frequently. The larger-than-usual size flowers mean more cups of chamomile tea! Nestled in the island of chamomile is a young pawpaw tree grown from seed, the only one to survive nibbling of the millions of big-eared field mice that share our homestead.

Someday I will study smartweed and learn all the wonderful uses it has beyond just being a cute pink volunteer flower in my garden beds, but until then I will enjoy seeing it as it pops up!

Persian basil plants and small abundance: sage, basil, hollyhock seeds, and a big jar of Persian basil.

Nearly a week old, this jar of homemade Persian basil vinegar is fermenting nicely in the warm early autumn weather.

Sadie is nesting again. How many eggs are in the nest and how many do you think will hatch? Leave your guess in the comments!

Saving seeds always reminds me of God’s abundance. One volunteer hollyhock produced thousands of seeds. (Which is a good thing because weevils often help themselves to most of them.)

Everything being late, I was pleased to get a second cutting from yarrow. The glowing yellow blooms of Kelway Golden chamomile are like eye candy! This variety is grown for dye rather than tea.

Tea at Mom’s

Weekly tea at Mom’s. Mom’s best friend Joy Longiotti brought rustic fruit cookies finished with a thin glaze and a fruit salad to enjoyed with Zuppa Toscana, or Olive Garden Soup as my kids call it. I used local Italian sausage along with kale, potatoes, garlic, and fennel seeds from the garden. Homemade broth distilled from leftover chicken bones adds deep nutrition and flavor. Joy also brought a newly finished quilt to show!

Unexpected goodbye

Utterly sweet and adorable Charla, on a walk at Mill Creek Falls on Sept 13. She was perky and energetic and we had no idea we were about to lose her. Charla died suddenly and unexpectedly 10 days later, despite massive emergency vet intervention. She was the shared love of Miriam and I, and we are both bereft. Please give your pet an extra dose of love and attention today. And tomorrow. And every day.

Bookshelf

Two fun books:
The Plant Sitter by Gene Zion is a charmingly illustrated children’s story of responsibility.
Nature Printing with Herbs, Fruit, and Flowers brims with simple ways to get creative with nature.

I can’t say we are ready for winter yet, but we’re getting there.

Somehow I didn’t end up with pictures of Sam and his projects this week. He spends evenings after work doing small chores to make our place winter-proof and spent many hours over the weekend working to locate the source of a small antifreeze leak in his 2004 Ford truck. To his frustration, he still has not found it.

Have a pleasant week, friends.
Michele and Samuel

Note: From time to time I recommend products and business that I use and/or patronize. Some are affiliate links, some are not. All are ones that I use and have confidence in. Qualifying purchases may earn me a small commission at no cost to you, so thank you for using my links!

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2
Week 37: September 17, 2022

They are four to six weeks behind, but we finally have tomatoes for canning. We have watched and waited, praying that we would have a harvest to preserve. It is small, but we are thankful. There are more yet to ripen, if the weather cooperates.

As we harvest tomatoes, I evaluate both plants and fruit for seedsaving. We grow mostly open pollinated heirloom vegetables instead of hybrids, which makes it possible to save our own seeds for replanting next year. Or imperative, if viewed through the lens of genetic posterity; some of the veggies, fruit, flowers, and herbs we grow and eat are no longer commerciallly available as seeds.

The Japanese Plum tomatoes featured here are becoming quite rare and have disappeared from seed catalogs. I would be saddened to see this sweet, meaty canning tomato disappear!

Evaluating Japanese Plum tomatoes for seed saving. The colander holds the true-to-type fruit with characteristics I am selecting for: size, shape, color, no green shoulders or cracking.

Note: From time to time I recommend products and business that I use and/or patronize. Some are affiliate links, some are not. All are ones that I use and have confidence in. Qualifying purchases may earn me a small commission at no cost to you, so thank you for using my links!

Seeds to be fermented, washed, air-dried, and saved for replanting.

Washed, peeled, blanched, and cubed tomatoes simmer briefly before being packed in jars with lemon juice, salt, and one of 3 herb seasoning blends. Juices from the pot are added to bring the contents up to proper headspace measurement, rims are cleaned, and lids applied – with bands fingertip tight. At last, the jars are placed in the steam canner.

Click the highlighted link to learn which tomato varieties are best for canning, plus tips for canning what you’ve got, even regular salad and beefsteak tomatoes.

Small apple harvest

We also had a small apple harvest this week. Beautiful, crisp, delicious, unsprayed apples. Unusual hard late freezes killed fruit production on most of our dozen or more apple trees and all of our plums, peaches, apricots, pears, and cherries. Only the very late flowering trees escaped the frost. Two more apple trees will supplement the buckets pictured, hopefully providing enough for us and some to trade with a friend.

Note the damage to the trunk of the apple tree. This apple tree is a fighter. At some point it suffered an insect infestation that was taken care of by woodpeckers and it survived.

Homemade botanical vinegars

After 4 weeks of fermenting and daily stirring, vinegars are strained through a cloth-lined colander into a clean bowl.

This jar will be aged until it reaches a pH of 2.5-3 and the flavor matures. (Though I will likely utilize this one as an ingredient in my homemade cleaning products, such as All Purpose Cleaning Spray or as an all natural fabric softener.)

Update on Lavender

About 4 weeks into convalescence, Lavender is able to put a little weight on the broken leg, briefly. She enjoys her private quarters with her own dish of food and water and no competition. And on hot days a chunk of watermelon!

Soup season begins

Knoephla, German egg dumpling noodles, dried and frozen last autumn during an egg glut, were made into the first pot of soup of the season.

Sam required biscuits, so I baked salted herb scones. He did not object. I used my regular Cream Biscuits / Cream Scones recipe, adding a generous 1/4 cup freshly chopped herbs and salted the tops before they went in the oven!

The elegant, textural beauty of Queen Anne’s lace umbels, dried.

Samuel’s projects

The winter’s wood is in and woodshed is full. The final bit came from the three beetle killed pines in our pasture and Sam worked on cutting and moving the wood as time allowed. It is done and we are relieved and thankful.

Though the weather is still pleasant, autumn is making herself known with shortening days and a few drifting leaves. There is a tang in the air which speaks of change. Truthfully, I live for summer. I am not a big fan of autumn, and have to work hard to accept it. I’m working on it.

New video

Pizza Night | Homemade Pizza with Frozen Bread Dough

You will be surprised how easy it is to make a large, delicious, homemade pizza with dough you have prepared ahead and frozen! You will have your pizza in and out of the oven and on the table quickly – and everyone is going to love you for it!

Miriam and I took a spontaneous walk to nearby waterfalls in the company of this little canine angel, Charla.

Basil cuttings rooting in water to provide fresh basil leaves for winter meals.

Soapmaking, here I come!

Thanks for visiting Chocolate Box Cottage!

See you next week,
Michele and Samuel

Chocolate Box Cottage, Volume 2
Week 36: September 10, 2022

Perhaps you have heard about World War II Victory Gardens.

In the 1940’s the US government promoted home vegetable gardening as a means to increase production and consumption of fresh veggies and fruits at home and at school to improve health, raise morale, relieve wartime stress, save money, and for community beautification. Lofty goals, attainable with gardening.

Victory Kitchen

Learning and employing good storage and preservation of surplus fruits and veggies was encouraged. These skills ensure year round availability of quality nutrition, save money, and ensure the health and and strength of individuals, families, communities, and the nation. This part is what takes place in the kitchen, the Victory Kitchen.

The kitchen can be a center of production instead of just consumption. Have you ever thought about this?

Turning leftover meat into tacos

Simmering bones and veggie scraps into broth or soup

Soaking beans to cook into chili

Rooting basil cuttings

Growing sprouts

Fermenting cabbage into sauerkraut

Drying herbs to refill your spice jars

Crafting tea blends from herbs grown in a flowerbed (see fleabane tea below)

Creating herbal remedies

Turning backyard fruit into fruit leather

Keeping and baking with a sourdough starter

Composting or keeping a worm bin

Making jam

Canning tomatoes from your garden or the growers market

Brewing kombucha

Culturing buttermilk for baking and cheesemaking

Giving gifts from your kitchen

Kitchen basics

You can grow salad greens simply and productively in cereal bowls with a sunny window.

Preserving

Dried tomatoes store at least a year in a cool pantry. These will be tossed in soups and casseroles and whizzed in the blender with boiling water for pizza sauce. I recommend the Excalibur 9-tray dehydrator. Mine is 20+ years old and going strong.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde made with garden veggies, charred, simmered, and jarred in half pints. After processing in a steam canner, they are shelf stable, delicious, and highly gift-able.

Herbs

Fleabane, a common weed in the aster family with flowers that somewhat resemble chamomile, makes a lovely floral tea for free. It is important to correctly identify any wild plants used for tea, food, or medicine. I love my Chantal tea kettle with 2-tone train whistle!

Two gallon jars of made-from-scratch vinegar: Scented Geranium and Mint. These were made with trimmings from my plants that needed cutting back. The Scented Geranium vinegar in process retains the scent of the rose and citrus-scented plants so far. And the mint vinegar smells clean and bracing. I anticipate using them both as ingredients in homemade cleaning products.

A glycerite is an herb tincture made with vegetable glycerin instead of alcohol. In the case of a tincture that I need to take long-term, I find it easier to take a glycerite since it tastes sweet. The herb, St. John’s wort, Hypericum perforatum, grows wild and abundantly on our property and locally. I am so thankful for this plant that helps restore my mood equilibrium during the dark months of winter. I no longer buy commercial capsules of St. John’s wort, instead I make and take my homemade remedy.

Packets of homegrown saved seeds and seeds on a plate from a “new” heirloom variety of tomatillo I grew this year that was a real winner. Amarylla tomatillos from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. are a Polish variety with a very sweet, fruity flavor. Good out of hand as a snack and in salsas.

Instead of buying orange peel spice in a jar, zest your oranges before you peel them with a microplane zester. Air dry the bits of peel on a plate and add it to your spice jar for free.

Thrifting

Watch thrift shops for deals on glass containers and cannisters. These are over-priced. A new-to-me flannel, sadly over-priced at Goodwill, but still in good shape and costs less than new.

Gift from the victory kitchen: ingredients for a stir fry lunch at Mom’s. (And a big thank you to my friend Lifan Irwin for the handmade utensil!)

1. Saving seeds = saving money. These black seeds shaped like tiny lemons are from a special flower: Cameo Joy Four o’clocks.

2. Found in my pocket at the end of the day: flower seeds and…an egg. How it survived, I do not know!

Bookshelf

A trio of cookbooks to learn basic cooking skills and other kitchen magic.

The Pioneer Lady’s Country Kitchen by Jane Watson Hopping is my very favorite cookbook. The late author was a true modern day pioneer. Her book sings with the romance of cooking and country life. It is out of print, but you can find it at my favorite online used bookseller. (Once you arrive at the site, type the name of the cookbook into the search bar. If it is not available, simply create a wish list and add this title to it. The company will email you when it is in stock.)

The Joy of Gardening Cookbook by Janet Ballantyne is an excellent primer on cooking from the garden, including tips on how to use an abundance or take advantage of less-than-perfect product. It is also out of print, so I invite you to check my favorite online used bookseller.

Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen was an instant classic. It is a large tome with plenty of illustrations and a comprehensive education in from-scratch cooking skills.

Seemingly small tasks like these (and so many more) add up to a productive kitchen. One that takes food resources and multiplies them. It’s work, but it’s also magic.

Start small. Learn one new skill. Get comfortable with it and add another skill. Then another. Before you know it, you too will have a victory kitchen! I welcome any comments or questions about the concept of victory kitchens.

*Goals for WW2 era Victory Gardens per the USDA are listed here:

https://www.nal.usda.gov/…/victory-gardens/victory-goals

Note: From time to time I recommend products and business that I use and/or patronize. Some are affiliate links, some are not. All are ones that I use and have confidence in. Qualifying purchases may earn me a small commission at no cost to you, so thank you for using my links!

Blessings,
Michele