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 42: October 22, 2022

The weather caught up with the calendar, bringing good conditions for deer hunting at last. The ducklings are growing into gangly juveniles, and pears are ripe and ready to preserve.

Sam watches the weather forecast with intensity and rain means the deer are moving around, improving our chances of bagging one for the freezer.

The views were spectacular and the air was damp and delicious.

While plodding along behind Samuel, I had a thought. The finest carpets in the finest hotels can’t compare to walking on moss.

Fall webworm-infested manzanita bush. Wild turkey surprised me by posing for a portrait!

We tramped through miles of forest over moss, twigs, and leaves silenced by rain, got our pant legs soaked, and picnicked on hot soup. We even ran into snow flurries. In the end, we saw a lot of does, but just had a glimpse of a spike.

We ran into snow at 4,500 feet (1,372 meters) elevation.

Hot, homemade Chicken Noodle Soup on a cold day felt luxurious and we enjoyed it with a spectacular view.

Back home, Sam made me a perfect Enchanted Forest Chai using my homemade mix and I paged through a favorite cookbook to unwind and warm up.

The ducklings are doing fine. Each day they grow a little bigger and braver – within sight of their parents.

Preserving and cooking

Italian oregano and strawberry mint hang in bunches from the kitchen beams to dry. Strawberry mint really does smell and taste like fresh strawberries and makes lovely tea. I like to use my Chantal stainless steel tea kettle for tea.

Meanwhile, I was fortunate as a Master Food Preserver (MFP) to be able to purchase pears for preserving from Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center (SOREC).

Most of our fruit trees did not produce this year which highlights our gratitude at having pears. The Rogue Valley is pear country, or used to be before wine grapes, hemp, and cannabis became hot commodities, so I have many delicious pear recipes and I’m using them all!

From left to right: Michele, Carole Evans, Vickie Belknap, Margaret Crow, Jeanne Prince.

Left to right: Vanilla-Laced Pear Jam, Pear Cider and Paragon Pear Vinegar.

On another hunting day we enjoyed Beef Stew with Vegetables cooked right on top of the wood stove. Cooking on a modern wood stove took some practice and experimenting to master, but once you figure out your stove it’s easy. Learn more by reading my 10 Tips to Cooking on a Modern Wood Stove.

Is there anything better and more comforting than Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup? Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup with Homemade Knoephla, fluffy German egg noodles.

Tea at Mom’s

Tea at Mom’s this week included a lovely lunch made by Mom’s best friend, Joy: buffalo sloppy joes on homade buns and Italian Almond Cookies.

Earlier in the week Sam completed the sale of the sheep. Our original dream was to raise Painted Desert sheep for a few reasons: to keep the pasture mowed, sell enough to pay the annual property tax bill, earn a modest income in our future retirement years, and harvest a few extra males for meat.

We never were able to rebuild the bloodline after the losses to the mountain lion in 2020, unfortunately, so when Sam’s truck required expensive repairs he wasn’t equipped to do, we knew we would have to sell the sheep.

I have to be honest, it was disappointing to see that dream die. We invested so much time, effort, care, and money to get started with the sheep and now have nothing show for it. Life goes on…

God has new dreams for us and for you.

Bookshelf

A new book at my side: Wildcrafted Vinegars by Pascal Bauder. I have only skimmed it thus far, but can already tell it is a good one! Having played with making vinegars from scratch with a variety of fruits, berries, herbs, flowers, peels, cores, and pomace, this is an exciting addition to my bookshelf.

Blessings,
Michele and Samuel

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2

Week 30: July 30, 2022

As Sam’s weather station registered 100 degrees and above day after day, the cats held a meeting. An unlikely ringleader presided. “Dog days of summer” was deemed pointless, as the dogs are indoors, so the hottest days of summer were renamed: Cat Days of Summer. (Caps necessary)

Committee members

1. Jasper, the unlikely ringleader, used my own planner against me
2. Pearl appears soft and sweet, but she means business
3. Toby likes to throw his weight around

Cats are very persuasive, so of course they had their way. They are naturally making all kinds of unreasonable and excessive demands:

1. Supplemental rations of tuna, as “cat days of summer” are too hot for hunting

2. Revolving door policy. Fancy way of saying I must open the door to let them in/out at their whim

3. Fresh running water, continually available

4. No petting or brushing of fur, whatsoever

Etc, etc, ad nauseam

Goodbye July

We say goodbye to July; the surrounding landscape turns tan and crisp.

Bunnies were relocated to the kitchen…in cat carriers. The frozen milk jugs just couldn’t keep them cool enough.

Hands down the most amazing fruit salad I have ever had, street food style. This man started with perfectly ripe fruit: pineapple, cantaloup, watermelon, cucumber, and mango. He peeled everything and cut it in bite-size chunks, layered it all in clear deli cups and added a generous amount of chili sauce and fresh squeezed lime. Oh. My. Goodness.

Hot summer supper of mostly watermelon with a little cold chicken and bread and jam. Homemade Bread and homemade Vanilla-Laced Pear Jam!

Hello zucchini!

We say hello to zucchini; the squash plants turn up the volume!

A honeybee visits a squash blossom; tiny spaghetti squash are forming.

Fortunately I have an endless supply of delicious but non-cat-approved recipes that use zucchini: sautéed, zoodled, julienned, fried, stuffed, frittered, and more – all perfectly scrumptious! Above is the simplest treatment of zucchini: Tender Crisp Sautéed Zucchini with onion and garlic. Mmmm!

Julienned yellow crookneck squash and zucchini join sliced radishes in the salad bowl with a mustardy vinaigrette that is down-right crave-worthy.

Grilled squash are always welcome with steak or any kind of grilled meat! These 4H/FFA steaks were the best we have had in a very long time.

Zucchini Fritters with a bowl of garden fresh salsa make a welcome evening meal in the heat of summer.

Garden view

On my belly in the garden, seeing things up close. That is Persian basil on the right. The vintage A-frame greenhouse is behind me.

New video

A recipe for you Ankarsrum Assistent mixer owners, perfect for summer! Mix up a big batch of freezer bread dough with your super-mixer and divide it into 1-loaf portions to freeze. Later you can thaw, shape, and bake one loaf each week and have a fresh loaf each week for a month!

Mean roosters

Two mean roosters had to be culled. They were too mature for good eating, but will make excellent soup or broth. We raise chickens for eggs and generally purchase broiler chickens from local producers, so we do not have chicken processing equipment. The simplest way Sam has found to process a bird or two is to skin it. This way we can avoid plucking.

Bookshelf

The Vegetable Butcher by Cara Mangini.  If you want to learn knife skills for vegetable cookery, this is your book. All the cuts are illustrated clearly and lots of great recipes using veggies!

Check my favorite online seller of used books using my sharebooklove link. Click the highlighted link in the previous sentence and then type the title of the book into the search bar when you get there. If they don’t have it in stock, create a wish list and add this book to it. Using my link earns us both points towards free books! Thank you for supporting my business, I appreciate it.

*Please note this post contains links to products and businesses that I use, trust, and appreciate. Some are affiliate, some are not.

I hope you enjoyed this lighthearted view of a hot summer week at Chocolate Box Cottage. If so, you might enjoy following Chocolate Box Cottage on Facebook.

Thank you for reading and God bless you!

Michele