Far I Kal ( Lamb & Cabbage )

Lamb & Cabbage, or "Far I Kal " in Norwegian, is delicious! We cooked our lamb & cabbage in a crock pot and found this is a perfect way to cook this meal. Far I Kal is very easy to make, and given we have a home grown supply of lamb this recipe is a natural for us.

• To make Far I Kal you will need ~
• 1 1/2 pounds of shoulder or breast of lamb
• 2 Tablespoons cooking oil
• 3 cups water
• 1 head of cabbage
• 3 Tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• peppercorns, as many as your taste dictates

( We doubled this recipe for our large crock pot.) Cut the lamb into 1 inch cubes. Heat the oil of choice in a large saucepan , dredge the meat in flour seasoned with Johnny's all purpose seasoning, or seasonings of your choice and brown. Then put in the crock pot . Discard outer leaves of cabbage , quarter the cabbage, then layer on top of the lamb. We did this 4 times. 4 layers of lamb & cabbage. Sprinkle liberally with peppercorns between the layers then add the water. We then left the crock pot low for 4 to 6 hours and busied ourselves with all the activities a busy weekend day offers.

Finally ~ time to eat! Look at this lovely dish filled with lamb and cabbage, seasoned with peppercorns.

We served our lamb & cabbage over rice, but most Norwegian Americans choose potatoes for this honor. I s'pose you could use noodles too. This is a versatile dish.

Yum! Home raised lamb and cabbages, easy-peasy and affordable too.

"This dish is said to be better every time you re-heat it. The nineteenth- century Norwegian cookbook writer Olaug Kauken claimed it was best the 7th time around.". Andreas Viestad ' Kitchen of Light'

Thai Chicken with Lemon Grass & Cellophane Noodles

I love this soup! Great for winter time and great for digestion! Here's what you'll need:

• 2 oz cellophane noodles, tied together


• 2 1/2 pints unsalted chicken stock


• 8 oz skinned, boned chicken breasts


• 1 oz cloud ear mushrooms, soaked in very hot water for 20 minutes, then cut into thin strips. ( I used shitake mushrooms )


• 3 stalks fresh lemon grass, bruised with the flat of a knife and knotted, or 1 and 1/2 tsp grated lemon rind.


• citrus leaves or 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice


• 4 thin slices fresh ginger root


• 10 garlic cloves, peeled


• 2 tsp fish sauce

Pour the stock into a heavy bottomed fireproof casserole and bring it to a boil. Add the cellophane noodles, the chicken breasts, the mushroom strips, and the lemon grass and citrus leaves if you're using those. Thread the ginger slices and the garlic cloves on to skewers or wooden toothpicks, and add them to the stock with the fish sauce. Cover pot and remove it from heat. Let the chicken stand undisturbed for 30 minutes. Remove the chicken from the stock and set it aside to cool. Remove the lemon grass, ginger and garlic from the stock and discard them.

When the chicken is cool, break it into shreds with fingers. Remove the noodles from the stock, then untie them and cut them into 2 inch lengths. Reheat the stock; add the chicken, noodles and 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce if so desired. If you are substituting lemon rind and lime juice, add them now. Ladle the mixture into individual bowls and serve.

Grandmother Bread~ Deliciously Easy!

This bread recipe came from Suzanne McMinn, and I first read it on her blog 'Chickens In The Road'. Since I discovered this recipe I have successfully made Grandmother Bread more than a hundred times. There are many variations of this basic recipe too. The bread dough makes the best pizza dough ! As there is no dairy in this recipe we use it frequently so everyone in the family can enjoy a thick slice of deliciousness , hot, soft, yummy - right out of the oven. Here is one of our granddaughters, learning to make this bread we will be using for communion in our home church gathering. Granddaughter is excited to begin !
Here is our granddaughter kneading the bread dough.To make this bread you will need :

• 3 cups warm water
• 1 tablespoon yeast ( 1 packet )
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 7 cups all purpose flour
  

"In a large bowl combine the water, yeast, sugar & salt. Let sit 5 minutes.Then stir in three cups of the flour. I use a whisk to do this. When the mixture is too thick for the whisk I use a strong wood spoon. Keep adding flour and stirring until the mixture becomes too thick, then you'll need to use your hands.Now is a good time to put the dough on a floured surface to begin kneading .When the dough is smooth and elastic roll it into a ball and place in a big greased bowl, cover with greased plastic wrap, and place in a warm place.In about an hour the dough will be doubled in size. This is when we punch the dough down, divide in half,knead and roll the halves into 2 balls. You may prefer to shape the bread into loaves, and this works well too.
The sun room is very warm this day so I placed the 2 round loaves our granddaughter punched, kneaded, and shaped into 2 pie pans and set them in the sun room to rise again.After rising double in size, bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Isn't this a happy face? Her first home made bread is a success!

I had such a good time baking with this precious granddaughter and I hope she is always reminded of good times with her Grandma & Grandpa when she smells home-made bread baking. And by the way, this bread was delicious, and she did almost all the making & baking by herself! ~"The best things in life are nearest : breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life." Robert Louis Stevenson

CHOCOLATE PIE ( by Miss Ellie)

Hello...My name is Eleanor but my friends call me Ellie.

Today I will be making a Chocolate Pie.

We start with a Graham Cracker Crust. You will take one package of graham crackers and smash them up but dont forget to help yourself to one to snack on while doing this task. Now add one cube of butter melted and a couple of Tablespoons sugar. Mix this altogether and put it in a pie pan then bake for 6 minutes at 350 degrees. You need to have a grown up do the oven part or you might get burnt. Grammy always tells me the oven is hot, hot,hot.

Now you take a package of Instant Chocolate Pudding mix with two cups of milk and mix this for two minutes. It needs to go in the refrigerator for 5 minutes, you can lick the beater while you wait, or finish that graham cracker you started while making the crust

We now add a cup of cool whip to the pudding mix, grammy says to fold it in don't beat it up. When it is all mixed you put it on your crust and spread it around. If you want to taste it that is ok but you really shouldn't use the spatula again.

You may add the rest of the cool whip on top and then be sure to put some chocolate sprinkles on the cool whip. Grammy had to help me a little cuz mine all went into one clump

I really had fun doing this with my grammy

Thank you for visiting

~~~~PLEASE ENJOY~~~~

SNOWBALLS

Snowball Cookies

1 cup butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups sifted flour

1/4 teasoon salt

1/2 cup-1 cup chopped pecans

Cream butter in a large bowl. Add sugar cream until light. Stir in vanilla.Add flour and salt mix until blended. Stir in nuts. Shape into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake about 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven or until bottoms are golden(light brown) cool 10 minutes and roll in powdered sugar after they cool roll again. They look like little snow balls. I think they are best if you make them bite size between 1/2 and 1 inch. I also use a cookie scoop and it makes it very easy, just scoop and drop on your cookie sheet bake and roll and you are done. These go quickly so I always make two batches a few days apart.

~Merry Christmas~

CAPPUCCINO CARAMELS

This is a favorite at our Thanksgiving. I don't make them every year but pretty close to it. If you make candy often you get to know the look and feel of it which I should have paid attention to this time. You cook them to the firm-ball stage but my new candy thermometer had it lower than the temp on the recipe so my caramel came out harder than I would like. Still very delicious but at my age you have to watch all those crown,you paid so much for, don't come off.

1 cup butter

1-16 ounce box of brown sugar (2 1/4 cups packed)

1-14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)

1 cup light corn syrup

3 Tablespoons instant coffee crystals or instant espresso crystals

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon vanilla

In heavy 3-quart saucepan melt butter over low heat. Stir in brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk, corn syrup, coffee crystals, and orange zest. Mix until very well blended.

Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture boils. Clip on candy thermometer. Cook until it reaches 245 degrees or firm-ball stage. This should take about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in walnuts and vanilla(remove thermometer alsobefore stirring)

Quickly pour into butter pan any one around 8x8 or 9x9 or 10x7 will do well. If you put buttered foil as a liner it will come out eaasier. Cut when firm and cool into desired sizes, one inch is recommended. Wrap in wax paper cut to size.

~Enjoy~

NOTE: do not get distracted you must pay close attention the cooking of these . I dont' even answer the phone. Allow about one hour from start to finish and they make a great gift.

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ORANGE SNOWBALLS

This recipe came from a cookbook, the name has slipped my memory. I do not know who to give credit for this recipe and this is the first time I made these. It has been snowing here so I thought my guests at Thanksgiving dinner might like them.

2 3/4 cups finely crushed vanilla wafers

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup finely chopped almonds

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, defrosted

Flaked coconut ( I used between 1-2 cups)

Line airtight container with wax paper. Set aside. In large mixing bowl, combine wafers, sugar , almonds, butter and concentrate. Stir until well blended (mixture will be crumbly).

Shape mixture into 3/4 inch balls. Roll balls in coconut and place in container. Store in refrigerator. Makes about 3 dozen.

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I thought if you wanted to make them more of an adult only version ( like burbon balls) you could substitute orange liqueur`. I have not tried this but thought it might be a nice Holiday gift idea. ENJOY!