Posts Tagged ‘powdered sugar’





Fair Food At Home!!

Thursday, September 20th, 2012







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You Can Have Your

Fair Food And Eat It Too!


Well, it’s that time of year. Fair time…and in Oklahoma, as the song states over the radio, ♪♪ It’s a great state of a-fair! ♪♪ Okies look forward to the Oklahoma State Fair. Even in this hoity-toity, modern world, the exhibit buildings are still full of canning and garden entries, photography contests and the tasty baked goods from home cooks itching for a ribbon and winner cash. The barns overflow with show cattle, sheep, pigs and horses and the drone of announcers instructing showmen in the rings permeates the agriculture part of the fairgrounds. And of course, every tornado shelter company, shop building firm and hot tub emporium has a display of their particular pride and joy features, not to mention the thousands of home product hawkers housed in the fairgound’s numerous, spacious expanses of concrete and skylights.


This year, Mr. Fix-It and I got to spend a day at the fair with the daughter, son-in-law and 9 month old granddaughter. Now THAT was a trip!! Watching my little grandbaby taking in all of the sights was pretty funny. And sights there were. Oh my goodness. I crawled out of my cave and noticed today’s fashions, evidently for the first time. I’ve decided that the fair is the excuse for any human being to leave home without ever looking in a mirror or even opening their eyes to judge their clothing before walking out the door. Older men and women in jeans obviously from a time when they were in high school and 200 lbs lighter, thought nothing of leaning over to expose bare buttocks and rotund waists. Lace shirts over brightly colored underwear and shorts with holes so big that I wanted to run to the rescue with a safety pin to help them avoid any humiliation – which they obviously felt none. We giggled at men with the dumbest hats, won at various arcades, and they wore them proudly to the chagrin of their wives or girlfriends. Of course, the callers at the arcades wore the same, dumb hats.


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The strangest piece of clothing we saw came in the form of boots worn by a boatload of men. I’ve never seen them before. Back in “the day” here in the midwest, we used to have pointy-toed cowboy boats called, “Roach Killers” because one could trap a roach in a corner and squash it with the very pointed toe of the boot. But these new boots defy explanation, as the toes are so long that the longer worn, the more they curl back toward the ankle. We saw one pair of candy apple red and cream boots that curled so much, they looked like jester’s shoes. And I thought our 70’s fashions were weird!


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These boots looked brand new and had obviously not been broken in to the curled toe yet. And these weren’t even as long as the red ones!



The dirty little secret about going to the fair, though, is that inside every fair-goer’s heart is this lame excuse to go berserk over foods that no ordinary individual would consider logical, let alone healthy! And my daughter is the fair-goer food officianado. She enters the front gate, brushing past the ticket taker with a wave of her receipt and a single-minded purpose in her eyes – heading toward the various food shrines like a teenager preparing to pay homage to Lady GaGa. My daughter walks the entire length of kiosks that stretch for a 100 miles (it felt that way to my feet anyway), to assess what kind of damage can be done to one body in the form of calories, grease and salmonella. Then, she maticulously makes a list in her mind ordering which confection will be first and which will be last. Sweet always comes first and protein comes last.


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People storm the expanses of food kiosks



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At least strawberry crepes are kind of healthy. They have fruit, right?



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Everybody’s got to have a smoked turkey leg, especially if it’s jumbo!.



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And you eat bacon for breakfast, so how bad can that be? Even chocolate covered. Ewww.



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This little jewel comes with its own penance instructions for afterward – a battered and deep-fried snickers bar.



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One of the fair treats that is of lesser offense to the health conscious psyche is the funnel cake. The batter is very basic and if cooked in a healthy fat and dusted with just a little powdered sugar, one can share a fair-sized cake with nine or ten people and really feel smug over the idiot eating the chocolate bacon!


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The batter is poured into a funnel and then evenly distributed in concentric rings into a deep vat of hot peanut oil to achieve the characteristic pile of crisp and tender bread dusted with powdered sugar. For extra money, the cooks will add fresh strawberries topped with whipped cream to make this confection so much more healthy. I said that it’s fruit, right?!! Well, funnel cakes are something that this cook has been making at home for years. The kids loved them and it was a treat that I could give them on occassion without having to fork over $100 for tickets to go have someone else make them at the fair. I thought that I’d share my recipe with you and that way, you can have your own fair experience at home, just in case you don’t make it to the real thing!!


Funnel Cakes



Ingredients:
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp melted butter
2 to 2 1/2 cups sifted flour


Printable Recipe



Directions:


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Add milk to eggs and beat until frothy. I use my small, electric hand mixer.


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Add salt


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And vanilla


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In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup of flour with baking powder.


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Add the one cup of flour and baking powder, a little at a time, to the egg mixture and continue to beat.


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Continue to add second cup of flour, slowly, until batter has the consistency of a thin pancake batter or pudding. Add more if needed, but do so slowly so as to not add too much.


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Beat in melted butter


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Pour batter into a medium sized funnel, keeping the tip of your finger over the funnel end to prevent any batter from running through.


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Over a skillet of 1/2″ to 1″ oil – peanut or coconut oil is good – heated to 350º, remove finger from the end of the funnel and move the funnel around to create concentric circles in the hot oil. After getting the size cake you want, bring the batter back over the cake to add more circles.


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Turn the funnel cake when browned and cook the other side.


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Remove and drain on a paper towel. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, using a shaker or sifter. Serve hot. For an added tasty treat, put fresh, sliced and sweetened strawberries on top and a dollop of whipped cream.


I hope the fair is coming near you!!



Happy Fair Food!



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MB
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Christmas Cookies

Sunday, December 12th, 2010




And VERY Good They

Are – Jum-Jills!




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Everyone has some traditional and tasty treat that is made year after year at Christmas. The internet is full of blog posts describing a favorite candy or cookie that is included in decorative tins, mason jars or pastry boxes for friends and neighbors. All of them are good and all of them make wonderful gifts.


My family is no different and I decided that I might as well join the flood of internet recipes with a family delicacy of our own. However, I will venture a bet that few other traditions are QUITE like ours. Ours is more than a cookie that has been part of our family world since I was a little girl. Our tradition is also a story about the cookie, with a happy ending, and, I’m quite sure, a moral which I have yet to figure out even over these past 5 decades!

Captain Kangaroo used to include a book on his show about a little old man and a little old woman who just wanted a little cat. They wound up with “hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats”. (That was before ‘quadrillion’ and ‘google’ were invented) It is a predicament we rural folk seem to find ourselves in all the time. Children all over the country were glued to the television as strains of an oboe and flute accompanied the pictures from the book one could swear were moving. A deep, pleasant voice intoned the story line. The book was written in 1928 by a German author, Wanda G’ag, and was a favorite in many households. A second book she had written in 1929 , however, does not seem to be as well-known. That is the one my family absolutely loved and it has now been read to grandchildren with an eye on great-grandchildren. The title? The Funny Thing.


The Funny Thing “looked something like a dog and also a little like a giraffe, and from the top of its head to the tip of its curled tail, there was a row of beautiful blue points.” He called himself an “aminal”. He ate good little children’s dolls. “And very good they are, good little children’s dolls.”


There is a little old man of the mountains named “Bobo” who is the hero and Bobo makes some little round balls from nut cakes and other items. He calls them “Jum-Jills”. Bobo tells the Funny Thing that the “Jum-Jills” will make his blue points bluer and his long tail longer. The vain Funny Thing gobbles them up and pretty soon his tail is so long that he has to sit on the top of a mountain, curling his tail around it, while the birds fly by and drop “Jum-Jills” into his mouth. The day is saved and no more good children have to suffer the loss of their precious dolls!


And so, when my mother was making the cookies in the recipe below, they immediately became “Jum-Jills” in our household and have been ever since. It is fun to take a batch to a group of young children, read the story and then hand out the cookies. It thrills them every time. So here is the easy recipe for “Jum Jills” so that you too can include them in your traditions! The recipe is also in our family cookbook along with other traditional recipes.




Ingredients for Jum-Jills



1 cup flour
1 stick real butter salted
3 tbsps powdered sugar
1 cup finely chopped nuts
powdered sugar for covering



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I am using home ground, soft, white pastry, whole-wheat flour here, but you can use all purpose flour. I sift my flour because it is freshly ground. Also, I am doubling the recipe here because I was making a large batch. Here I am adding 2 cups of flour instead of one.



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Next, add the powdered sugar. Because I am doubling, I am adding 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup instead of the 3 tbsps.



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Have butter at room temperature and cut into chunks to make mixing easier and more uniform.



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Mix until the butter is cut into the flour and powdered sugar mix, much like cutting shortening into flour for biscuits. The result should be a mixture of course crumbs.



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Chop nuts in the blender or food processor or by hand. We use pecans, but almonds and English walnuts can be used as well. If using almonds, add 1/2 tsp. of almond extract per recipe to make almond “Jum-Jills”. Add the nuts to the mix and mix until the nuts are thoroughly incorporated.



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Because I use the whole wheat flour, I have found that I need to add 1 tbsp of water per recipe. I am adding two tbsps here because I have doubled the recipe. If using regular, all-purpose flour, you can add a tsp of water if you find that your dough is not coming together.



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The dough is ready when it forms a shaggy clump. The dough will seem dry, but that is ok because the butter is what makes the cookies soft and crunchy.



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With a spoon, dip out a little bit of dough and roll it in the palms of your hands and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. You do not have to space them very far apart. Bake for 20 minutes in an oven that has been preheated to 350º.



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It is great to make a lot of dough at once because it freezes well or keeps in the frig well for a quick bake. Just bring to room temperature and form your cookies.



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When the cookies are done, let them cool slightly and then place several in a container with a tight lid that has been filled with powdered sugar. Shake carefully so not to break the cookies and coat the cookies with the sugar.



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A plate of Jum-Jills will not last long around your house. And you might check to see whose points are bluer and whose tail is longest. You’ll know your culprits immediately!



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A wide mouth canning jar makes a wonderful vessel in which to put cookies for a gift. The cookies will last even longer if you have a vacuum seal system that vacuums jars. Put a lid and ring in place and cover with brown paper or cloth. Attach a rubber band to hold the cloth or paper in place and cover it with a decorative ribbon. You can add a tag to wish your friend, neighbor or family member a Merry Christmas!



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Happy Cooking!

MB
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