Blackberry Cordial with Cream and Chocolate

Every summer we pick blackberries. We pick a lot of blackberries. We make a lot of cobblers, dumplings, and of course jam and freezer jam.

Every year after the standards are made we also make something a little more unusual. One year it was a drink concentrate, blackberry shrub. Another year we let the berries ferment into blackberry vinegar. Last May when I saw the post Berry Cordial Making over at Not Dabbling in Normal, I knew what we'd be making that summer.

Creating the berry cordial is simply a matter of mixing the berries and vodka in a jar. Then you wait. Strain, and mix the berries with sugar, and wait again. After a month you strain again, enjoy the berries over ice cream (they were so good!) and let the cordial sit again for a few months. It is an extremely simple process that just involves quite a bit of wait time. For more specific instructions see Berry Cordial Making.

When it was finally ready I couldn't wait to taste it. The first taste was with the cordial over ice. It was good, but a little strong. My sister in law suggested serving it with a little cream, kind of like a white Russian. It was a very good suggestion. We filled a glass with ice and then filled it about 3/4 full of the cordial, and topped it off with cream. It was quite delicious, but what really put this drink over the top was a squirt of chocolate syrup. So good.....too good...

I still have a few quarts of berries in the freezer. I was planning to use them to make some more jam, but we may just have to forgo the jam and make more cordial. We can make jam in July when there are more fresh berries to use!

Carnival #153

It is Tuesday, and that means carnival time! This week the carnival can be found at Glory in the Clutter. Here are a few of my favorites this week.

Homemade Dehydrator
This is such a clever idea. For almost nothing Penniless Parenting created a food dehydrator. If I didn't already have one to use, I would definitely be looking at making something like this.

Peanut Buttah Cupcakes
Peanut butter cupcakes with peanut butter cream cheese frosting?! Oh I will be trying these!

Cocoa Banana Nut Bread
I love banana nut bread, but it could only be better with cocoa in it.

Be sure to check the entire carnival at Glory in the Clutter. Get your submissions in by Sunday to be included in next week's carnival that will be hosted right here at Make it from Scratch!

Kitchen Secrets to a Healthier Wastline

One of my resolutions for 2010 is healthier living without sacrificing the "good" stuff. I want to eat healthier but I have no interest in munching on diet bars that taste like cardboard. I want to loose weight but I don't want to be a slave to the gym. I've been perusing the internet, library and taking notes when interesting information hits the TV and now I want to share a few kitchen secrets I've learned over the past few months with you. My most recent "Ah Ha" moment happened while watching Joy Bauer's Diet SOS segment on the Today Show last Friday.

You can actually convert high fat ground beef into the same quality as lean ground chuck.  Brown the "cheap" higher fat ground beef, drain then rinse with super hot (almost boiling) water to remove excess fat. I would think you could also boil the meat, breaking it up into chunks as it boils, and drain well through a colander. Talk about making it from scratch! With all the ground beef dishes I make, especially during football and NASCAR racing season, this will definitely help me trim extra fat and calories off the family's waistline!

It should be noted, you pay for both ground beef and chuck by the pound (fat and all) so you need to assess the cost of the ground beef vs chuck in order to maximize your food dollars. If ground chuck in on sale for a great price, then I would go ahead with the purchase but most of the time ground beef is overall cheaper and worth washing some of the fat down the drain! 

Complex carbs (brown rice, whole wheats breads and grains, etc) are also recommended versus their simpler carbohydrate cousins like white rice, pasta and breads. Complex carbs take longer for the body to break down which gives us more energy for longer periods of time. They also fill us up faster so it takes less complex carbohydrates to feed a family. It is also suggested we eat complex carbs with a protein. This further slows the break down of those carbs which prevents a blood sugar spike. I've heard both Joy and Alton Brown talk about this on their respective shows. Now I can have my bread and eat it too!!!

Reconstituted non-fat dry milk, skim or 2% milk can be substituted in MANY recipes calling for whole milk or cream. Reconstituted non-fat dry milk contains no calories or fat (per the label's nutritional data) so I use this in most of my recipes. I've also used skim milk PLUS a little non-fat dry milk powder to give a creamy boost to my dishes.

Vegetable and fruit purees added to recipes give a valuable nutritional boost to your dishes with little impact to the taste and total calories or fat content of the recipe. In some situations, you can actually reduce the calorie and fat content by substituting purees for some of the ingredients like oil and sugar. Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld's wife and mother of three) published a cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, I borrowed from my local library a few months ago. She purees all sorts of veggies and fruits without any added spices or oils, places the liquid in ziploc baggies by 1/4 cup measurements and freezes them so they are ready at a moments notice. Simply boil them in hot water for a few minutes to thaw and use. I know this isn't an original idea and may not even constitute a secret to some of you but after seeing her amazing recipes for wonderful treats like Blueberry Oatmeal Bars (with Spinach), I was certainly enlightened!

What are some of you kitchen secrets to a trimmer healthier dinner?

Jenn also blogs about family, food, and crafts at Frugal Front Porch.

10 Kid Made Valentine Ideas

I am not exactly sure where January went, but I do know that it is almost gone. Soon I will turn around and it will be Valentines Day, and the kids will need Valentines to share with their friends.

They always enjoy creating the Valentines that will be given. It doesn't have to be anything complicated. A couple years back, we simply cut out hearts from construction paper and used doilies to decorate them. Then the kids wrote a message on the back. Simple and fun.

I'm not sure what we will be doing this year. While I am gathering ideas, I thought I'd share a few of them with you.

Patchwork Heart (There are several ideas on this site. Scroll down for this one.)

Woven Heart Basket

Fused Plastic Valentine

You're All-Write Valentine

Valentine Airplanes

Valentine Aliens

Printable Valentines

Printable Cards Especially for Boys

Valentine Snow Globe

Will you be making Valentines this year? Please share your ideas.

Carnival #152

Take a trip down under for an Australian Holiday. Today's carnival is at Frill in the Hills, hosted by Liss who is celebrating Australia Day today.

Here are some of my favorites this week:

Reuse and Save: Plastic Bags
Some great ideas to a get a little more use out of those plastic shopping bags.

Bread Bags Upcyled into Drink Coaster
Speaking of using plastic bags, here is one from the queen of reusing them. These drink coasters are really cute!

Homemade Hostess Cupcakes.
Yummy! And really not much more work than your average cupcake.

Thanks for joining us this week! Be sure to check the entire carnival at Frills in the Hills.

Crowd Pleasin Chili

Chili is one of those go to recipes I use on cold days or when I need to feed a crowd. Chili is also a great dish to serve on game day. It's versatile and goes with lots of other different dishes. Serve it over hot dogs. Top it with cheese and crunchy tortilla strips. Wrap it in a soft tortilla shell with some sour cream. Make it spicy or sweet. Meatless or with different meaty combos. Chunky or saucy. Canned tomatoes and red kidney beans make it so much easier and FASTER to make chili.

Here's how I make mine. It's chunky, meaty and makes enough to feed a small army.

Ingredients
3 cans diced tomatoes any brand
1 pound ground beef browned & drained
1/2 pound other ground meat browned & drained
2 cans light red kidney beans drained and rinsed well
1 onion diced
2 green bell peppers chopped
2 red or orange bell peppers chopped
salt, pepper & other spices

Directions
In a large pot, combine meat, onions, peppers and a dash of salt over medium heat to lightly sautee. Once veggies start to loosen up a little, add the diced tomatoes with juices. Allow to cook over medium heat for approximately 20 minutes. Reduce heat, add kidney beans, one can of water plus salt, pepper, and spices and simmer another 15 minutes.

Chili Cooking Tips

• The amount of salt and spice will vary depending on the flavor and type of tomatoes, meats, and beans you use in the recipe. Home canned beans and tomatoes will have a distinctly different taste than mass produced canned goods from the store. Using spicy sausage instead of ground turkey will add a different flavor too.
• Taste the chili once you've added all your ingredients - minus any spices. Slowly add spices, one by one, mixing well with the chili and tasting after each to get a sense of how each spice affects the dish.
• Start with lower amounts of hot spices like red pepper flakes, paprika, and cayenne. Once the chili simmers, it opens up those spices so the flavor increases as it simmers.
• If you end up with chili way to spicy to eat. Try draining some of the liquid and adding plain hot water till it's diluted to a reasonable "heat" level.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.
Jenn also blogs about crafts, food, and family life at Frugal Front Porch.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups (Allergy-Friendly!)

Kellie is a tree-hugging mom to three who's learning to cook from scratch. She blogs regularly at Greenhab: The Browns Go Green and the Green Phone Booth.

I never stopped to think about how peanut butter is made, or what's in it, until last week when we realized that our 4 year old might have some food allergies. Luckily he's not allergic to nuts, but we have taken him off milk and we're thinking about gluten as well. It's gotten me reading the labels on absolutely EVERYthing and thinking about GFCF treats I can make for him.

This week I decided to try my hand and making peanut butter since it seems to be a staple in our house. I can safely say that I will never buy peanut butter from a store again! It was SO quick and easy.


I bought about a pound of dry roasted peanuts from the bulk bin at the grocery store, although I only used about 1.5 cups in this first batch. All I did was throw the peanuts into the food processor, drizzle a tiny bit (maybe a tablespoon) of peanut oil on top and blend for a few minutes until it was creamy. You can adjust the amount of oil depending on how thick or thin you like your peanut butter.

While I was feeling all domestic, I decided to make some peanut butter cups too.

The pan I used is like a mini muffin pan, but the cups are not as deep. I don't know what it's really for (so much for pretending to be domestic!) but it was perfect for this project.

I simply melted some gluten and casein free chocolate chips (you could use regular of course) and put a dab in the bottom of these mini muffin cups. I put it in the freezer for a few minutes to let the chocolate harden a bit so that the peanut butter would sit nicely on top when I added it. I topped it off with more chocolate and threw it back in the freezer for a while.

Most of them popped right out like muffins would, but I did have to extract a few with a knife. The only thing I'd do differently next time would be to keep the peanut butter to the middle, so that the chocolate drips down the sides and completely encases the peanut butter.

So there you have a gluten free, casein free treat...and we have a good amount of peanut butter left over for the peanut butter and jelly granola bars I'm planning to try over the weekend.