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Swirly Cinnamon Chocolate Rolls with Whiskey Vanilla Cinnamon Buttercream Glaze

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 17:53:54 GMT

These chocolatey rolls are a such a decadent treat

that it's hard to eat just one.

Oh Yeah. They're good.

This recipe is an edited version of the recipe first posted in December of 2017 that was also published in our local digital news source, The Washington County Insider . You might enjoy reading what Christmas was like at the Farmhouse that year. Needless to say, we still have little guests who bat their long eyelashes at us once in a while; we live in a farmhouse after all.

There is nothing like the early morning scent of cinnamon and chocolate to greet you as you wake, and this Christmas the house smelled of that yeasty goodness already at 6:00AM. I couldn't wait to make them.

Swirly Chocolate Cinnamon rolls with Whiskey Vanilla Buttercream Glaze

Try them and let me know what you think; they take some time, but really are not difficult to make and are worth the trouble. Trust me on this.
This recipe makes about 24 rolls, so plan to make them when you're expecting a crowd, or make ahead and freeze in smaller packets for a month of Sunday mornings. Or just make half the recipe.

Equipment you'll need: A large mixing bowl, a whisk, a wooden spoon (or use what you've got!), a towel, parchment paper, and large baking sheet or two 13"X9" pans. Measuring cups and spoons, a table knife, and a smaller bowl to mix the filling and then the glaze.
Time to create: Overall, about 3 hours, but each step is done in just a few minutes and then the dough rests. Just stick around the house so you can check up on things every once in a while and can move things to the next step when ready.
Time to bake: 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees F / 200 degrees C.

What you’ll need to make them really tasty:

For the sweet roll dough:

1 T. active dry yeast

4-5 cups of flour, plus more for dusting I like to use King Arthur bread flour; 1 cup = 120gms. However, don't get too worried about measuring the flour.

As you'll see in the instructions, you'll add the flour until the dough looks and feels "right." No worries!

2 c. milk

4 T. butter

¼ c. sugar

1 T. salt

2 eggs

For the filling:

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 t. cinnamon

1 t. espresso powder (optional – the espresso makes the chocolate flavor pop!)

4 t. melted butter

For the frosting:

4 c. powdered sugar

1 t. cinnamon

2 T. Whiskey or whiskey vanilla …. Or just plain old vanilla…. This amount seems like a lot, but you'll get the whiskey flavor coming through in the glaze. If you use plain vanilla, decrease the amount to 2 t. and add just a bit more of the milk

2-3 T. (plus a little more) milk or cream or half & half -or even buttermilk, if you'd like a little tang in your glaze

2 T. softened butter

Here we go:

Make the sweet roll dough : Heat the milk and butter in a saucepan over low/medium heat until just a little too warm to the touch and the butter is melted. You might find it helpful to remove the pan from the heat as the butter melts in the warmed milk. Alternatively you can heat the milk and butter in the microwave.
Place the yeast and about 2 cups of the flour into a large mixing bowl, add the sugar and salt and stir together with a wire whisk.
Pour in the warm milk and melted butter and beat the mixture with the whisk until well blended. Add the eggs and beat it again for about a minute, or until the eggs are blended in well and the mixture looks slightly bubbly. Give it an extra whip around with that whisk for good measure. This mixture should be very well blended and you should see a few bubbles form as you finish whisking.
Add 1 cup of the remaining flour, stirring it in with a wooden spoon- then add more flour, about a half-cup, just enough to create a shaggy, sticky mass of dough. Some of the dough will be sticky and in some areas the flour will not be completely incorporated. Sprinkle a little more flour over the top, cover the bowl with a towel, and let it rest for about ½ hour to allow the flour to absorb some of the moisture from the dough.
After about 30 minutes, scrape the sides of the bowl with the wooden spoon to loosen it. Sprinkle several Tablespoons flour on the dough and begin to knead it right in the bowl, adding dustings of flour to keep the dough from really sticking to your hands or the sides of the bowl. Knead about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is soft and slightly sticky, but is also smooth and lightly dimpled.
Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a towel and allow to rise until doubled in size – about 1 hour. It may take longer if your kitchen is a little cool.

Make the pretty rolls: Once the dough has risen, punch it down to release air bubbles, divide it in half and place one of the halves on a flour-dusted board or dough cloth. Roll into a flat rectangle about 1/8 inch thick with a rolling pin.
While the dough was rising, you were of course mixing up the ingredients of the filling so it would be ready when you are – which is right now! Make the filling: Place all the filling ingredients into a small bowl and mix thoroughly. The filling will be like a thick paste and you'll find it easier to use your hands to crumble half the filling onto the rolled out dough, dispersing it evenly and using the warmth of your hands to gently press it into the dough. Don't worry if it doesn't completely cover the dough as it will spread as it bakes.
Starting on the longer side of the rectangle, roll the dough tightly to create a log. Pinch the opposite side to the main log to keep it from unrolling and gently turn the log over so the seam is underneath. Now, you can cut it into 1 ½ inch pieces with a knife,or you can use my little trick of sliding a long piece of dental floss under the log at the point you wish to cut and cross the ends of the floss tightly together to swiftly cut the log into round, swirly slices.
Place the slices cut side down (and up!) on parchment in a large baking pan with sides. Do the same with the remaining half of that dough. Cover the pans with a towel and allow the rolls to rise for another hour until doubled.
Bake at 400 degrees F. / 200 degrees C. for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown. If they brown very quickly, cover with foil part way through the baking time.

Allow to cool completely, then add the glaze.

Whiskey Vanilla Cinnamon Buttercream Glaze

Place all the ingredients except the softened butter into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Stir until the sugar and the liquids create a thick paste. If the ingredients seem too dry, add more whiskey vanilla to the bowl ½ t. at a time, stirring the thick mixture until it creates that stiff paste. Add the butter and work it into the stiffened paste, then stir it quickly to create a smooth buttercream frosting. Once the buttercream has been made, thin it a little with milk, cream, or buttermilk to make a glaze of about the consistency that you see in the video above. Glaze the rolls and enjoy!

Yum.

How to make Whiskey Vanilla:

Ingredients:

1 vanilla bean for every half-liter of whiskey (or other alcohol, such as vodka) You can reuse beans; just refill the container with whiskey and allow to steep for several weeks. Always add more beans when you top up the whiskey.

I like to make this in a canning jar, then decant to a pretty bottle when ready. You can make it right in the whiskey bottle if you'd like.

Split the vanilla bean(s) lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Place the bean(s) into the whiskey, replace the cover, and shake vigorously. Allow the bottle to sit on the counter - more to remind you to give it a good shake every day than anything else - and shake it daily for about three weeks. Decant to a pretty bottle. The vanilla makes a wonderful gift, and is used as you would use commercial vanilla extract in baking and cooking.

A Winter Simmer Pot Recipe

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 15:43:23 GMT

Infuse your home with the cozy scents of winter.

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Autumn 2024 soaps are coming soon. Watch for them!

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 17:20:23 GMT

New scents and old favorites: see the release schedule below.

In the Century Farmhouse world, autumn is about more than going for a good tromp in the woods or cozy-ing up with a cup of cocoa. It's about creating the next season's scents and designing beautiful soaps. This year I have brought back a few old favorites along with our usual best-selling soaps, and I hope you'll be as excited about them as I am. Do you remember the beautiful Vanilla Beans & Lavender Flowers Soap? It's one of the first in the lineup because I couldn't wait to make it.

Follow along on the release dates below for each variety of soap on this season's list. I'll update it as the soaps are made. Which is your favorite?

Lavender Luffa Spa Soap October 1, 2024 (limited number)

Rosemary, Orange, & Honey Soap October 12, 2024

Cinnamon Swirl Soap Maple Leaves October 12, 2024

Vanilla Beans & Lavender Flowers Soap October 15, 2024

Lemongrass Tea Tree Soap October 15, 2024

Lemongrass Safari Soap October 15, 2024

Chai Soap October 25, 2024

Cinnamon Swirl Soap October 25, 2024

Lavender Luffa Spa Soap TBD

Patchouli & Lavender Soap November 17, 2024

The Woodlands Soap November 7, 2024

Lavender & Bergamot with Oatmeal & Honey Soap October 29, 2024

English Fantasy Soap (lavender /rosemary) November 10, 2024

Only Lavender Soap October 29, 2024

Lavender Eucalyptus Soap November 10, 2024

Fir Forest Soap (balsam) November 7, 2024

Honey Oat Soap November 17, 2024

Honey Oat Luffa Soap TBD

Wake Me Up, Rosemary Soap (mint/rosemary) November 4, 2024

Wild Mint & Maple Syrup Soap November 4, 2024

Whiskey Vanilla Luffa Soap December 5, 2024

Malvina's Wish (frankincense/rose/heather) TBD

Spice Cake with Buttermilk Buttercream Frosting

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 23:07:43 GMT

Looking like a pretty valentine with the dried pink apples against the creaminess of the buttermilk frosting, this is a treat that your sweetie will enjoy any time of the year.

The handwritten recipe in the photo above is one that I have been using for decades - as evidenced by my margin notes for changes I've tried over the years. This cake is really delicious with or without the little tweaks.

The recipe is written by Esther Daly, one of the original editors of Our Favorite Recipes , a church cookbook first published in 1949 by St. John's Lutheran Church Ladies in West Bend, Wisconsin. I have used this cookbook for other recipes in this blog and St. John's has graciously allowed me to reprint the recipes and share them with you. They still have cookbooks available for sale; here's the info about where to get them.

Since Esther is counting on the fact that you know all the steps to making a fabulous cake, I've taken the liberty of rewriting the recipe with details about actually mixing it so you don't have to guess. Then farther on in this post I have included the Buttermilk Buttercream Frosting recipe along with instructions for drying the apple slices. Have fun!

Buttermilk Buttercream Frosting with Whiskey Vanilla

4 cups powdered (icing) sugar

3-5 Tablespoons cultured buttermilk

1 Tablespoon Whiskey Vanilla or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

6 Tablespoons butter, softened

1. Place the powdered sugar in a medium-sized mixing bowl.

2. Add the whiskey vanilla and then the buttermilk one Tablespoon at a time, stirring until the sugar mixture is like a very stiff dough.

3. Add the softened butter and stir vigorously, making sure any little lumps of butter are incorporated into the frosting.

4. Keep stirring until the frosting is really smooth.

5. Frost the cake.

*Notes: Change the flavor of the frosting if you'd like! I am dreaming of this slightly tangy frosting flavored with almond extract. Or it could also be sublime with a little orange blossom water. What would you flavor it with?

*You could use a hand-held or stand mixer to get a really smooth frosting, but really, I just use a bowl and a spoon and it couldn't be simpler! Let me know how you like it.

Dried Apple Slices

What you'll need:

2 apples - I was able to find pink-fleshed apples at the grocery store, and they're perfect for adding that Valentine touch of color to the cake. You can do this with any apples.

juice of one lemon mixed with a about 1/4 cup water in a little bowl

a cloth towel or paper towels

a sharp knife and a cutting board

cookie sheet with parchment or a wire cooling rack

oven

What to do:

Wash the apples thoroughly and dry them with a towel
Set an apple upright on the cutting board (flower end down, stem end up)
Carefully slice the apple into slices that are a little less than 1/4-inch thick. I save the ends with more peel on them for a snack.
Dip the slices into the lemon water quickly, then dry thoroughly before placing them on the parchment or on the cooling rack that has been place on the cookie sheet. Place them in a single layer, not touching each other.
Dry the apple slices for 1-2 hours in a 225 F degree oven, checking them occasionally after one hour. It is possible that they may need a little longer than 2 hours, but watch them carefully for browning - we don't want them to get too brown!
Remove from the oven when they no longer feel damp and allow them to cool. They may have varied degrees of dryness, but any piece that remains moist should return to the oven for a bit.
Place them in an open bowl for a day or two to allow the moisture to equalize, then in a jar or paper bag. These apple slices are not super dry, so use them within a week.

Kings Cake

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 03:06:44 GMT

A perfect accompaniment to coffee or tea, my Aunt Josie's recipe for a rich and fruity German cake is traditionally made in celebration of Epiphany.

I had an epiphany moment on Sunday morning after church. January is National Baking Month and January 6 is the traditional Feast of the Epiphany / Three Kings Day / Adoration of the Magi / The Twelfth Day of Christmas. In many parts of the world this final day of the Christmas season is celebrated with cake. Clearly I needed no other excuse to bake and I knew exactly where the recipe for an authentic German cake, perfect for this week's celebration was kept.

My father's cousin Josephine (my godmother; we called her Aunt Josie ) immigrated to the US after World War II at the age of 28 and brought her family traditions with her. Often at Christmastime we'd troop to her third floor apartment in an Old World German-style building in downtown West Bend to exchange presents and eat ourselves silly with her fruitcakes, rum balls, cookie curls, and Koenigskuchen, a rich, fruit-filled cake that I particularly loved to eat because we only had it once a year. Aunt Josie's Koenigskuchen (in German, Königskuchen) was something to be savored with a glass of milk when you were ten and a cup of coffee when you were older. Oh yum.

Unlike the Kings Cakes that are made with yeast in the south of Germany, this cake is rich with butter and eggs and filled with dried fruits, particularly raisins and currants. It is rather like a sweet quick bread or pound cake and it pairs perfectly with a cup of coffee or tea.

When Aunt Josie wrote out the recipe for me long ago, she converted it to American measurements. I converted it back for my international friends so everyone can enjoy it. Also I should tell you that I made a few tweaks to it in the cake I made today. For example, I didn't have all the dried fruits the recipe called for so I used just currants and raisins, adding a bit more of each to the bowl. I also didn't have rum or lemon extracts, so I used almond extract. This cake will taste wonderful with any flavoring such as vanilla, almond, rum, lemon, or orange extracts. The flavor differences between them are subtle but each flavoring will create a cake with a distinctive flavor to go along with all that glorious butter.

Do you see all the little crumbs on the cake in the photo? Sorry, I couldn't wait to taste it and I cut it while it was still a little warm. If a single taste of something could bring back memories, that first bite tasted like Christmas at Aunt Josie's.

Let the cake sit overnight as it will become more stiff and cut cleanly and easily into thin slices. Traditionally served with butter (more butter!) and currant jelly, I prefer to offer plain and simple slices with a cup of good coffee.

The Lemonades: Blueberry Lavender, and Raspberry & Mint - so refreshing!

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 19:17:15 GMT

Good old-fashioned lemonades with twists and turns. Think of these as lemonades that dance!

Lemonade.

Even the word sounds refreshing, doesn't it? Simple, real lemonade is surprisingly easy to make - and I'll give you a basic recipe in a minute. That recipe can be made to sing and dance too, and that's the reason I'm so excited to be writing this blog post today. Old-fashioned lemonade is going to twist and shout!

Real Lemonade - the old-fashioned, really yummy kind.

Equipment:

2-quart pitcher, long handled spoon, measuring cups, paring knife, juicer, teaspoon, glasses

Ingredients:

juice of 2 lemons (Don't have lemons? Try combinations of other citrus fruits, decreasing the sugar a little bit with oranges).

3/4 cup sugar (or a little more to your taste)

2 quarts (2 liters) water

Make the lemonade:

1. Wash the lemons, slice in half and juice them, removing the seeds from the juice with the teaspoon if necessary.

2. Put the juice and the sugar in the pitcher, fill the pitcher with water to about half, stir until the sugar is dissolved, then continue to add water to fill the pitcher completely.

3. Chill, pour over ice, or do as I do and drink it right away anyway. Simple, right?

Now, let's dance:

Blueberry-Lavender Lemonade

The subtle flavors of blueberries and lavender combine in a simple syrup to create a fruity, sweet, slightly floral flavor that mixes well in many drinks, but especially so in slightly tart lemonade. The blueberries tint the lemonade a party-pink too. Fun!

Equipment:

bowl, small saucepan, fine strainer or sieve, 2-quart pitcher, long handled spoon, measuring cups, paring knife, juicer, teaspoon, glasses

Ingredients:

For the simple syrup:

equal parts sugar and water - I used 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water

1 cup blueberries

2 Tablespoons dried culinary lavender buds

For the lemonade:

juice of 2 lemons

1/2 cup blueberry-lavender-flavored syrup

1/3 cup sugar (or up to 1/2 cup if you want a sweeter lemonade)

2 quarts (2 liters) water

Begin by making the simple syrup, which can be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator for up to a week. I used one cup of sugar and one cup of water which yielded 1 1/2 cups flavored syrup, enough for 3 batches of lemonade.

Make the syrup:

1. Place the sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a slow simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

2. When the sugar is dissolved, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the blueberries and the dried lavender buds. Mash the berries as they soften in the hot liquid, then steep in the saucepan until the mixture is cool. If you wish to have a stronger-flavored syrup, cover the pan and steep for 6-8 hours or overnight.

3. Pour through a strainer into a small pitcher or bowl, pushing the fruit and lavender into the strainer mesh to squeeze out the remaining liquid.

4. Use 1/2 cup syrup for each 2-quart pitcher of lemonade; store the remaining syrup in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Make the lemonade:

1. Wash the lemons, slice in half and juice them, removing the seeds from the juice with the teaspoon if necessary.

2. Put the lemon juice, the 1/2 cup of reserved syrup, and the sugar into the pitcher, fill the pitcher with water to about half, stir until the sugar is dissolved, then continue to add water to fill the pitcher completely.

3. Serve chilled. Garnish with lemons, frozen blueberries, and/or mint leaves.

Raspberry & Mint Lemonade

Raspberries have to be my all-time favorite fruits - except of course for mulberries, but that's another story.

Raspberries are sweet-tart, juicy, and their flavor blends beautifully with mint and with the tartness of lemons. You don't even have to make a simple syrup to use these berries, but warming them with a bit of sugar will help release the juices. You'll need to make a little mint tea too, so be ready to scrunch up the mint leaves and make both your hands and your kitchen smell amazing.

Equipment:

heatproof bowl, fine-mesh strainer, 2-quart pitcher, long handled spoon, small saucepan, measuring cups, paring knife, juicer, teaspoon, glasses

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh raspberries (if you use frozen raspberries, you'll only need about 3/4 cup)

Fresh mint leaves (about a handful, or 1/2 cup tightly packed leaves)

1 cup boiling water

juice of 2 lemons

3/4 cup sugar (or a little more to your taste)

a little less than 2 quarts (2 liters) water

Make the lemonade:

1. Measure the sugar and set aside.

2. Place the raspberries into the saucepan, sprinkle about one Tablespoon of the reserved sugar over them, add one - two Tablespoons water and begin to warm them over medium-low heat. As the berries begin to simmer, crush them with the back of a spoon and simmer gently until they are very liquid. Do not boil. Remove from the heat.

3. While the berries are warming, crush the mint leaves in your hands, place in the heatproof bowl, and pour the boiling water over them. Allow them to steep at least 10 minutes or until cooled completely.

4. Now you can assemble the ingredients into the pitcher: wash the lemons, slice in half and juice them, removing the seeds from the juice with the teaspoon if necessary. Place the lemon juice and the reserved sugar into the pitcher. Pour the mint tea into the pitcher through the strainer, catching the mint leaves. Discard the leaves.

5. Carefully place the warm, crushed raspberries and liquid in the strainer - over the pitcher or another bowl - and push against the berries, squeezing the juices through the strainer into the pitcher. Continue to do so until no more juice slips through the strainer. Discard the berries - or do as I do and eat them! If you have strained into another container, add the raspberry juice to the pitcher.

6. Fill the pitcher with water to about half, stir until the sugar is dissolved, then continue to add water to fill the pitcher completely.

5. Chill. Pour into glasses over ice as desired and serve with garnishes of lemon slices, mint, and raspberries as you wish. The lemonade will be party-pink and taste of raspberries with a hint of mint. So delicious!

Maple Sap soaps I've known and loved. Now it's your turn.

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 23:04:19 GMT

Help us design a new maple sap soap!

The maple trees are dripping sap and we are sugaring off a few gallons of maple syrup for family use and gifts for the next year. This maple sugaring season is one of my favorites, and long ago when I decided to craft our soaps using natural ingredients from the earth such as snow and rain, it was a simple extension to add maple sap to the mix. Although the amount of naturally occurring sugar in the sap is quite small (about 4%), like honey, it is soothing to the skin. I use the sap in the same way I would use any liquid added to the batches, and the resulting soaps are as lovely as the others.

The pretty limited edition Maple Sap & Roses Spa Soap pictured above was one of my favorites. The luffas were organically grown for us in Elizabethton, TN, so even the scrubbiness of the soap was from the earth. See those pretty roses in the photo? I begged them from the grocery store's floral toss-out bin because they were a little blown and perfect for the picture. That pretty soap was designed in 2012, along with Sugar Moon (sweet orange & vanilla), the Maple Sap & Roses bar without luffa, Maple Sap with Oatmeal & Vanilla (just like breakfast!), and our gorgeous Witch Hazel & Mint soap, which contained dried witch hazel flowers from Washington State. Here's a photo of them. Can you guess which is which?

There have been others, such as our very first maple sap soaps: Primrose & Peppermint, Bees in the Clover (unscented honey & red clover) with walnut oil, and Lavender & Maple Sap soaps, created in 2004.

Or how about a Maple Sap, Citrus, Oatmeal, & Mint bar from 2010? Or 2014's Geranium and Nettle Soap?

In 2007 we crafted Walnut & Maple Sap soap, superfatted with lovely walnut oil.

So here we are in the springtime of 2021, the crocuses are in bloom and the sap is running quickly. There is maple sap to be had and I want to make soap! This year, why don't you tell us what kinds of essential oils you'd like added to a batch created by you and for you. I can't wait to see what you'll come up with!

Pssst: As always, if we use your ideas to craft this soap, we'll send you a bar of your very own!

Make Peat Pot Gift Cups at our next Saturdays in the Farmhouse Kitchen event on March 20.

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 21:48:16 GMT

I'm excited to share how to make these cute little gift cups. Join in the fun!

A few years ago I posted a little Hands-On Makerie project for our Sunday Project: Peat Pot Gift Cups.

Fast forward almost two years and pick Saturday instead of Sunday, and we're going to revisit that endeavor; and YOU can now participate in the fun of making these from your own home. Invite a friend! Have cupcakes!

Welcome to March's Saturdays in the Farmhouse Kitchen event! Let's get together and make some cute, inexpensive, unique little treat cups that can hold anything from a pretty flower plant for Grandma's garden to Easter eggs for the little ones. Use them as gifts or as party favors, or anything your little heart desires!

Since I have already written a tutorial about the peat pots, you can find more info in this blog post . Check it out!

Don't forget to sign up below to join in the fun in our Farmhouse Kitchen on Saturday, March 20 at 10AM CST (Chicago time).

We'll gather via Zoom again, which means you can be with us from anywhere in the world! There is a small fee this time too, but where else can you have an hour of fun and learn a new craft, perfect for springtime celebration favors and gifts?

February

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 18:33:03 GMT

Take time to connect.

Warm up to January with a cup of cocoa the Century Farmhouse way!

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 19:24:21 GMT

Do you dream of a rich cup of cocoa - not too sweet - and a cozy afternoon?
Click on the link below for the downloadable recipe page. Isn't January wonderful?

Since January is one of my favorite months of the year (I LOVE winter!), I want to share my favorite cozy cocoa recipe with you so you can warm up to the postcard prettiness of the snow and the snappy nip of chilly air. I deliberately take an hour at the end of my day to step outside on my snowshoes and spend some quality time with snowflakes and icicles. Then I come back inside to warm, cozy jammies, a snuggly blanket, a good book, and a cup of not-too-sweet cocoa.

When our girls were small, we'd make a big pitcher of homemade, cook-it-on-the-stovetop cocoa that we'd use for chilly morning breakfasts and end of day warm-ups from October to April. There is nothing quite like the comfort of warm cocoa, don't you agree? I'd mix cocoa powder and sugar and a dash of cinnamon with water to make a thick syrup, and add creamy milk to the pot, then pour it in the cocoa pitcher so we could help ourselves to a lovely chocolate drink easily warmed in the microwave later.

The girls are quite grown up now and a full pitcher of cocoa can sometimes languish in the fridge if we don't make it a point to have a cup every day or so. So I created a recipe for a cocoa mix that is not as sweet as commercial mixes, but dissolves as easily as they do in your cup of hot milk. The trick is to use superfine baker's sugar (or caster sugar if you're in Europe), and use a bit less sugar in proportion to the cocoa powder you add to the mix. I also like to use a high quality cocoa powder, but in truth, nearly any cocoa powder will work as long as it is unsweetened when you buy it. You can enhance the flavor of the cocoa by treating the mix as you would a flavored sugar, so why not add a bit of vanilla bean and/or a dried anise star to the cocoa jar? Mmmmm. You can also make store-bought marshmallows into a fancy treat: just slice off the very outer layer of the marshmallow to make a sticky cube and toss in a teaspoon of the cocoa mix to coat.

Click on the link below for the recipe:

Gift Tags Printables Just for You!

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 01:17:30 GMT

Just in time for gift-giving!

If you've seen the photo of my front door in the Home Page slider, you'll have seen the pictures of European-style houses drawn on the windows of said door. It's all the rage on Instagram, you know, and because I do love an opportunity to doodle, whether on window glass or scrap paper, I've spent a few satisfying hours creating imaginary European-style villages . What's really fun about these images, is that I used the drawings to create gift tags to share with you, just in time for the Holidays!

Click here to download the images and craft your own gift tags. Use cardstock paper in light colors. Consider finding colored pencils to doodle away an hour or so by coloring parts of the tag images to make them even more special.

Dried Orange Slices for Holiday Decorating

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Thu, 26 Nov 2020 01:34:06 GMT

New! Download the instructions and have fun!

The Holiday Season is nearly upon us and while we don't usually rush to decorate for Christmas at Century Farmhouse, this year it seems right somehow to begin things a little early. Perhaps we all need a little light in the murky darkness that 2020 has become.

This morning I decided to make some dried orange slices. They are easy to make and add so much to any holiday decorations you might want to add them to. String them into a garland, tie them to a wreath, or hang on the tree. You can top gifts with a handful of slices or add them to the potpourri bowl. Click on the link below for complete instructions that you can even download to make referring back to it easier. Have fun!

Make a Fall Leaf Garland - free printable included!

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 19:41:05 GMT

Leaves from the grounds of Century Farmhouse tell stories about the trees they came from and provide inspiration for a leaf garland to add an autumn touch to your home.

After winter , autumn is one of my favorite seasons. Perhaps it is something about the light, or the colors of the trees in our beautiful northern clime. Perhaps it is the fleeting nature of those colors that makes me want to hold on to them a little longer. Collecting a few leaves and pressing them flat to dry is fun! This year, however, I decided to collect a few choice leaves from the Century Farmhouse yard and woods and use them as templates for a garland. I love that each of the leaves I chose can tell a story about how the tree came to be in our yard. The snowball bush was planted circa 1910 by my great-grandmother Anna Tennies Wagner before she moved from the farm in 1912. The maple tree was planted near what we call "the duck coop" - the garden house our farm kitties call home - around 1970. It was moved from the woods because my parents wanted to add a few more trees to the landscape around this old log cabin. The oak tree was similarly moved from a fence line where it was in the way. Instead of cutting it down, my mother dug it up and replanted in outside our front door around 1978. That tiny oak leaf is a bonus, found in our woods on a walk last week.

Make the garland!

Materials: printable (below), colored papers, scissors, hole punch, string or twine

1. Simply print the leaves on the printable (link below) onto colored papers or even on to papers with patterns or designs.

2. Cut the out the shapes - this takes the longest time, but I find sitting with a cup of tea and some soft music helps to set the mood and makes the cutting a little more fun. It really doesn't take long unless you've printed enough leaves to fill a tree.

3. Then punch two holes about 1/2 inch apart on the leaf.

4. Use twine or string or a ribbon to weave the leaves into a garland. String two leaves together to create interest.

5. Knot loops onto the ends of the garland and hang from window locks or nails, over windows, doors, your mantel, or on a wall.

Have fun!

Well-Seasoned Dishes

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 22:48:24 GMT

Hand-me-down dishes hold memories and family history lessons.

Great-grandma's recipe for Hermits is included.

The tines are bent and uneven and the wood handles show more than a century of wear. They live in the far recesses of the silverware drawer and hardly see the light of day anymore, but I cannot bear to part with them because they belong here in the house where they came as new forks to be used by the farming family who became my great-grandparents and grandparents and mother.

_________________

Its top edges are pocked a bit and if there ever was a lid it is now missing, but you can still see the swirls on the inside bottom from having been thrown on a pottery wheel many, many years ago. Its outside is roughly salt-glazed in an uneven earthy brown and the inside is colored with dark, smooth, brown slip. Great-Grandma Anna’s salt crock is still intact and I guard it carefully even as I use it to hold springtime pussy willows and late fall dogwood and spruce branches. It belongs here too, having been used day after day as she cooked and baked on the wood stove in the tiny kitchen of this tiny log cabin.

_________________

It is not unusual for me to reach into a cupboard and grab a pot or a spoon or a bowl or a cake plate that once belonged to someone on my family tree, and every piece has a story or it would not have ended up in my kitchen. I crawl deeply into the back corner of a lower cupboard with a flashlight twice a year to find the salt crock, each time holding it in my hands, carefully filling it will pretty branches and setting it on a table or deep windowsill, touching and imagining. I never knew my great-grandmother, but I can almost see her, and later my grandmother, reaching into the cellar almost without thinking as they seasoned the meat or vegetables cooking on the wood stove. That wood stove sat just about where my kitchen table now stands and the crock was nearby and used every day.

When I was growing up I would see those old forks in my grandmother’s kitchen utensil drawer. They made fine holders of meats that needed to be held still for cutting, but they probably had outworn their use as everyday tableware. I chose to bring them home with me years later, and they now are seen really only when I get around to cleaning the kitchen cabinets. They are over 100 years old and saw a lot of use at the farm table in this cabin. What I learned when I brought them back after my mother had a good clear out of her drawers, was that they were used by my great-grandparents and their six children and were left behind when they retired and my grandfather took over the farm. I look at them and think of stories told about the house and farm and about my grandfather before he married.

My grandparents married in 1920, but just a year or so earlier my grandfather became ill with the Spanish Influenza. No one was certain how he caught it because as a farmer, he almost never went anywhere. It was said that WWI soldiers brought the virus back with them from the front. Was he sneezed upon by someone at the feed mill or the hardware store? Could he have caught it at a dance, perhaps? Family lore still speculates, but he was very ill for three months. His unmarried sister Mary came to keep house and nurse him, and his brothers helped with the farm work. I am pretty sure he ate with those wood-handled forks left behind by his parents because he didn’t yet have a wife to change the silverware style.

Somehow September and the start of autumn makes me want to nestle into home. I cook and bake and reminisce about the times shared in the kitchen around tables seasoned with family recipes and stories that keep us connected and cozy. It somehow is important to me to touch the things that family before me touched and those links to the past make the present warm and the future inviting.

_________________

Now seems like a wonderful time to share Great-Grandma Anna’s recipe for little Hermits - a treat my mom remembers well, and a recipe Great-Grandma no doubt made here in my kitchen when my grandfather was growing up. Perhaps our oldest family recipe belonged my great-grandmother, Anna Tennies Wagner , who made fruity cupcakes she called Hermits. According to my mother, she made them all the time as after-school treats for her grandchildren, but they also were on the cookie plates among other treats at holiday celebrations. We don’t know exactly when she started making them - perhaps she made them as a child, growing up in the mid-1800s.

Great-Grandma Anna’s Hermit Cupcakes

1 pound seedless raisins

Boiling water

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons ground cloves

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

1 ½ cups sugar

2 egg yolks or 1 whole egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ cup milk

In a saucepan, combine raisins and boiling water. Simmer until raisins are tender and plumped. Drain, reserving ½ cup water in a 1-cup or larger measuring cup. Let water cool to just warm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Sift together flour and spices.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg.

Add baking soda to the ½ cup warm water; it will foam up.

Add flour mixture and milk alternately to batter, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in water and raisins.

Divide batter evenly among 48 greased or lined mini-muffin cups.

Bake at 350 degrees 10 minutes if using a dark pan, 12 minutes for a light-colored pan.

Let cool 10 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Sift powdered sugar over the top, if desired. Makes 48 mini-cupcakes.

Note: This recipe was originally published in The Flavors of Washington County Cookbook, page 292, submitted by my mother's cousin, Rosemary Gundrum, of West Bend, WI. My sister Carol and my mom reworked the recipe to fit today's baking standards and that was published on May 23, 2017 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. These Hermits are wonderfully soft and fruity. Yum.

Plum Kuchen with Streusel Topping

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 18:20:46 GMT

...and this recipe can easily be adapted to be gluten-free - just substitute any 1:1 gf flour! Yum!

T his morning's adventure (and any outing is an adventure right now, isn't it?) was a trip to the Farmers' Market to pick up some glorious peaches and blueberries and garlic and eggs... everything I just don't have on hand right now! I was overjoyed to see beautiful, ripe plums and we picked up several quarts of them to savor in the next few days, if they last that long.

One of the things I love to make with seasonal fruit is an old-fashioned kuchen (pronounced "KOO-hen" with a little rasp in the back of your throat on the "hen" part), and my favorite recipe of all time is an old one too. If you have seen my earlier blog posts about mulberry kuchens and gingerbread cookies and you'll know that I can wax poetic about vintage church cookbooks . The recipe I always come back to for luscious, not-too-sweet fruit kuchens is one by Esther Klein. I am repeating the recipe below and the changes I make to it for the plums and to make it gluten-free, if you'd like. I use 1:1 gf flour all the time and have experimented with three different brands - King Arthur Baking , Bob's Red Mill , and Cup for Cup . Each has resulted in wonderful crusts and streusels!

So, let's get going!

Esther Klein's Fruit Kuchens from Our Favorite Recipes , published by the St. John's Guild, West Bend, WI

Ingredients:

2T. butter

1 egg plus milk to fill 1/2 cup

1/4 c. sugar (or a little less if the fruit is sweet)

1 1/4 c. flour (substitute 1:1 gf flour, if desired)

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt (I use only a shake of salt)

1 quart plums, pitted and sliced/halved/or chopped

For the crust:

In a medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients, then cut in butter as with pastry.
Beat the egg slightly and add the milk, then combine with the dry ingredients until a dough forms.
Roll or pat 1/8" thick in greased coffee cake pan (about 8-inch square - the recipe will line the bottoms of two 8-inch square pans or 8" diameter pie plates).

Prepare the fruit:

Place the pitted and sliced plums in rows on the dough, arranging as you'd like. Cover with the streusel (pronounced STROI-zel) topping (recipe follows below).

Streusel for Coffee Cake by Mrs. Elmer E. Tews

1 c. sifted flour (substitute gluten-free flour, if desired)

1 c. sugar

1/2 t. salt (I use one dash)

1/4 lb. chilled butter (1 stick), cut in pieces

Blend in a bowl using your fingers. Use on a fruit kuchen or on coffee cake. There will be extra streusel left - it can be kept in the refrigerator for weeks. Think about sprinkling some on your next batch of blueberry muffins!

Squash Casserole with Homemade GF Cornbread Topping

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 21:36:22 GMT

The recipe for the cornbread is included! (GF Cornbread Muffins)

Squash Casserole with Homemade GF Cornbread Topping

Living in Wisconsin, we don’t readily associate squash casserole with the zucchinis and yellow summer squashes that proliferate with abandon in our late summer gardens as folks do in the South. I tasted some amazing squash casserole a number of years ago when I was in Atlanta with the Country Living Fair and have thought about it ever since. Drooling, because that casserole was that good. I am a pretty adventurous cook, but whenever I have mentioned making squash casserole in the past my family would make weird faces and funny noises and I would desist. Earlier this week I gathered some summer squashes and announced that the casserole was finally going to happen - just giving fair warning - and I could almost hear the eye rolls.

So I baked some lovely, crispy-topped GF cornbread muffins, sliced up the squashes, onions, and garlic scapes, and found some roasted red peppers in the freezer to use up. Once there was an eggy, creamy sauce swirled through and crumbled muffins on top, I started to hear how wonderful the kitchen smelled and how pretty the casserole looked. It hadn’t even baked yet! It's a fabulous accompaniment to any summer meal, and is also great on its own with a salad.

This recipe is easily cut in half or doubled depending upon how much summer squash you have piled up from your garden! It freezes well too, so go ahead and make several if you have a lot of squash. Freeze one for a quick and easy side dish later on.

Three crumbled cornbread muffins make a great topping and the corn bread recipe is included below. If you don’t have time to make muffins, crumble up a sleeve of Ritz Crackers on the top - not gluten-free, but traditional.

Fills a 13X9 inch pan or large casserole dish.

Ingredients:

6-8 cups very thinly sliced yellow or green summer squashes (zucchini)

1 medium onion, chopped finely or sliced thinly

1 small red pepper or ¼ cup roasted red pepper, chopped in small pieces

Toss in a little green pepper too, if you have it. Chop it into small pieces.

3 cloves garlic, chopped finely, or 4-5 garlic scapes from the garden chopped finely.

1T oil

8 ounces cheddar cheese (or use mozzarella, if that’s all you have!), grated

1 cup mayonnaise

1 egg

½ cup heavy cream (can substitute ½ cup half & half + 4T. butter)

Salt and pepper to taste.

*Notes on the squashes: Zucchini and yellow summer squashes work the best, and you can also slice up tiny patty pan squashes - but don’t bother with patty pan squashes larger than about 2 inches across - they are too bitter and get as soft as they cook. Slice with a sharp knife to about 1/8-inch thickness or use a mandolin - just don’t slice your fingers!

Here’s how you put it all together:

1. Prep: make the muffins ahead of time, chop the vegetables and place in a large mixing bowl, grate the cheese, preheat the oven, grease the casserole dish with softened butter.

2. In a large frying pan on the stovetop, heat half the oil and saute half the vegetables together until softened and partially cooked. Place these in the buttered casserole dish and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and with half of the grated cheese. Saute the remaining vegetables, sprinkling that layer with salt and pepper and cheese after adding to the casserole dish.

3. Pour the heavy cream into a small saucepan or into the frying pan used for the squash and heat until bubbly and slightly thickened. Let cool. (If using the half & half and butter, melt the butter into the half & half and heat until slightly thickened. Cool.)

4. Beat the egg and mix into the mayonnaise in a small bowl. Add the cooled cream and pour over the veggies in the casserole dish. Toss gently with a spoon until the vegetables are coated. Spread evenly in the dish. Top with the crumbled muffin bits.

5. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until brown and bubbly. If the topping starts to look dark, cover with foil for the remainder of the baking time.

6. The squash casserole is delicious hot, warmed, at room temperature, and even cold.

Variation: Add a can or two of tuna or chopped chicken or ham before baking to make this into a full meal.

Gluten Free Corn Bread Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup stone ground corn meal

1 cup gluten-free 1:1 flour

1 T. baking powder

½ t. baking soda

½ t. salt

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk

4 T. softened butter

Let’s make ‘em:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg slightly and add to the buttermilk, then add to the dry ingredients, stirring until smooth. Add the butter and stir again until smooth, but do not overbeat. The batter should be somewhat lumpy.

3. Fill greased muffin tin cups to ¾ full. If any cups remain empty, fill those ½ full with water to keep the pan from

4. Bake at 425°F for 18-20 minutes or until the edges of the muffins are golden brown.

5. Take from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes, then circle around the muffins with the edge of a knife to loosen. Allow to cool to just warm and enjoy with butter and/or jam.

Crumble muffins for the Squash Casserole topping as described above.

Note: These muffins can also be made with all-purpose wheat flour if gluten is not an issue.

Century Farmhouse Lavender Butter Cookies

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 21:49:42 GMT

These light and buttery cookies are a perfect foil for sweet culinary lavender, and the recipe can also be used as a tart shell for other wonderful lavender desserts. Try it!

As I write this, the warm July sun is shining and lavender is on my mind. I love lavender. The scent of it, the color, the feel of it in my hands, and the taste of it in desserts and main dishes just mean summer to me. Here is one of my favorite recipes - the first recipe I ever made with lavender, and the one I use and share when I teach and speak about using culinary lavender. The cookies are light and buttery and the dough is versatile enough to be used as a tart shell crust .

Century Farmhouse Lavender Butter Cookies

Recipe by Ann Marie Craig

Before you start, whir the culinary lavender with the 3/4 cup sugar in a food processor. This step is not completely necessary, but the bits of lavender are smaller and the cookies will take on a slightly lavender tinge of color. You can also make extra and save it in an airtight jar to sprinkle on muffins and cookies.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup (155gm) butter, softened

2 teaspoons culinary lavender (use 1 tsp. if making tart shell)

3/4 cup (150gm) sugar

1 egg

2 cups (295gm) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon (6gm) baking powder

1 teaspoon (5ml.) vanilla

dash salt

1. Beat butter in a large mixing bowl until softened, then cream the butter, sugar, and lavender until smooth.

2. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat until combined well.

3 . Beat or stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Divide dough in half, cover, and chill about 3 hours or until easy to handle.

5. Roll each half of the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Using cookie cutters, cut dough into desired shapes. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

6. Bake at 375° for 7 - 8 minutes or until done - do not brown the cookies. Cool on the cookie sheet for 1 minute. Remove cookies from the sheet; cool on a wire rack. Store in air tight container. These cookies freeze well for up to three weeks.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream with Lemon Curd Swirl

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 00:53:06 GMT

You will want to be first in line with a spoon, ready to taste this lovely and easy to make dessert.

Easter was a little simpler at Century Farmhouse this year. Fewer eggs colored, baskets hidden, and napkins ironed. We stayed home for church services and listened to familiar voices speak from pulpits far away yet in our home. Connecting with those who matter is made easy, but it all seems so impersonal.

Yet sitting around the big table with those who live here in this old farmhouse was a treasure. We shared an Easter ham and homemade biscuits, baked potatoes, roasted carrots with maple glaze and sea salt, roasted peaches sweet from last summer’s trees, and homemade ice cream - the treat we were looking forward to all week.

Food does bring people together, and its flavors hold memories of golden hours and better times. We will be there again, maybe not soon, but we will be together again.

The recipe for this simple yet glorious dessert is below. Be ready to defend the bowl from invaders with spoons, waiting to taste this sweet-tart confection.

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream with Lemon Curd Swirl

If you are making the whole recipe - including the curd - start a day or two before you want to serve it so all the components are thoroughly chilled.

For the lemon curd:

The day before, whip up a batch of lemon curd (You can use other citrus fruits or a combination of them too!) using your favorite recipe. My favorite lemon curd recipe is by Ina Garten .

For the ice cream:

Keep everything chilled, and pop the bowl you will store the ice cream in into the freezer.

Ingredients:

In a large bowl, whisk together:

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

3 cups half & half (half milk/half cream)

2 Tablespoons Whiskey Vanilla or vanilla extract

vanilla bean seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean

1. Pour into the frozen bowl of your ice cream maker and process until whipped and doubled in amount.

2. Transfer to the container you had in the freezer, layering it with the chilled lemon curd.

3. Give the mixture one or two swirling stirs with a spoon or spatula, cover and freeze to cure the ice cream for at least four hours.

4. Lick the churn dasher and any accompanying spoons and spatulas, getting every little taste.

5. Serve as desired after curing, if you can wait that long.

***Serving suggestion: top a scoop of the ice cream with fresh fruit and garnish with an herb leaf and powdered sugar

Let's Bake Together: English Tea Scones

Thu, 09 Apr 2020 23:32:13 GMT

Welcome to my kitchen!

Scones are some of the easiest quick breads to make and some of the most delicious to eat, and eat, and eat, probably because there are endless ways to make them special, from the jam or honey you top them with to the fruits and chocolate bits that make them chewy and sweet.

Often here in the States we think of scones as crumbly, creamy breads that are overly sweet and rich. More traditional scones are a little less rich and a little more like biscuits and our recipe, whether made with wheat flour or gluten-free flour, makes scones that are wonderfully fluffy. While the rise of the dough while baking is a little less, the flavor and texture of the gluten free scones are nearly the same as those made with wheat. Especially when they are just baked and warm from the oven.

If you'd like a glimpse into Century Farmhouse's kitchen and a blooper or three to entertain you, pull up a chair, fill your cup of tea, and watch our how-to video before you make your first batch.

The ingredients and the recipe are below. Happy Baking!

English Tea Scones

A hundred-gazillion years ago, my sister studied in the UK and brought this recipe back. I adjusted it to the US standard of measurements and have made at least a hundred-gazillion scones since then. This recipe is easily adjusted to be gluten-free and I have included those instructions below. Bake a batch. Put your feet up. Enjoy a scone with that cup of tea you deserve.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose or bread flour OR gluten-free flour (1:1 gf flour works the best with this recipe)

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda (only if using gluten-free flour)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup (1/2 stick or 4 ounces) butter, chilled

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk or substitute milk + 1 Tablespoon lemon juice

a little extra buttermilk or milk

1/2 - 1 cup dried fruit such as raisins, currants, cranberries, chopped apricots, etc., chocolate chips, or any combination

Here's how they're made:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl and quickly cut in the chilled butter with a pastry cutter, knives, or work it in with your hands as if making pastry.

2. Beat the egg and mix with the buttermilk.

3. Make a well in the flour mixture. Pour in the egg and buttermilk and mix lightly with a fork until blended.

4. Stir in the fruit and/or chocolate chips.

5. Knead the dough with a touch until smooth (about 4-5 times).

6. Pat the dough to about 1 inch thick and cut with a knife, or a glass dipped in flour.

7. Place on a buttered cookie sheet or line the cookie sheet with parchment before placing the scones on it, leaving about 1 inch between the scones.

8. Bake about 18-20 minutes at 420 degrees F. Check the scones at about 15 minutes. If they appear to be browning, cover lightly with foil for the remaining baking time.

9. Remove from the pan immediately to a cooling rack and keep your hands off of them until they cool to at least a warm, not hot, temperature.

10. Enjoy a warm scone with that cup of tea. You can also open the scone and top it with honey or your favorite jam and/or cream. Mmmmmm.

Flavored butters made with what's on hand

Sat, 04 Apr 2020 21:48:18 GMT

Make a pretty addition to any meal in simple steps that use ingredients already in your kitchen.

Welcome to the Century Farmhouse Kitchen!

Grab a cup of tea, put your feet up, and get a glimpse of the kitchen in our pretty farmhouse!

If you look at the date of this post, you will realize that we are in the midst of a public health crisis of massive proportions. It is little wonder then, that many of us are staying at home for our own health and for the sake of others.

All that staying at home is giving us time to rethink family routines and to explore more creative ways to make closer family life more special - at least it is at our house. With springtime holidays approaching and everyday dinners in need of a boost or two, why not craft a simple addition to mealtimes and make flavored butters that can be used both on that biscuit or toast and in dishes such as roasted or fried vegetables and meats? Or maybe to fry your breakfast eggs? Watch the video below for some ideas to get you started, then dig through the fridge and the cupboards and maybe even your emerging gardens for flavors to add to your own table.

Share your ideas in the comments section below to inspire others to try it too!

Just a quick shout-out to the small, creative businesses that craft the beautiful pottery I used in this video tutorial. I am not paid in any way for saying this, but I LOVE the pottery created by TG Green Cornishware of England, and by Heather Lane Pottery of Ada, MI. -Ann Marie

Do you know how to wash your hands?

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 02:36:53 GMT

Now, more than at any other time in recent history, we are being told to wash our hands and to wash them well.
What does this advice mean?

For years we have been told that the best way to avoid getting colds and flu is to thoroughly wash our hands. Now it seems almost daily that we are reminded of the quick spread of COVID-19 and influenza, and that one of the best ways to avoid becoming ill is to wash our hands. Squirting a little soap on our hands and rinsing them is not enough to really get them clean, and as a soap maker with a nursing background, I'd like to offer some advice for thorough hand washing techniques.

Bar Soap or Liquid Soap? Actually, it really does not matter! Liquid soap may be easier to dispense into one's hand and a little less messy at the sink, but bar soaps clean just as well - and maybe better, because they are far less drying to the skin than liquid soaps which are more likely to be made of harsh detergents and alcohols. If you are sharing a bar of soap at the sink, simply rinse the bar off under the running water before rubbing it on your hands.

It appears that soap also will kill the Covid-19 coronavirus by destroying the fatty outer layer of the virus. Soaps work with surfactant action; in other words (very simply put), they break down fats that bind the "dirt" or germs to our skin. Taking the time to work the soap over the backs and palms, fingers, knuckles, and nails of our hands for at least 20 seconds, using friction, then rinsing thoroughly, will go a long way toward removing and potentially killing the virus that could be lurking on our hands.

Washing your hands:

-Turn on the water and wet your hands under the stream - use warm, not hot water, as hot water is quite drying to the skin.

-Rinse the bar of soap or place a squirt of soap in your hands and begin to lather your hands thoroughly.

-Rub the soap into a lather on the palms of your hands, then scrub the backs of your hands and pay special attention to the areas around your knuckles, nails, and between your fingers.

-Lather and scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds - about the time it would take to slowly sing the Happy Birthday song or the Alphabet song two times.

-Rinse thoroughly, again paying attention to all areas of your hands.

-Dry thoroughly on a clean towel, or on disposable towels.*

-Turn off the water using the towel(s) before discarding it. If using a cloth towel at home, change the towel frequently, especially if several people use that sink area.

-If you are in a public area, you might also want to use a clean paper towel or tissue to open the restroom door as you leave to keep your hands clean.

*No towels available in a public restroom? Take the time to thoroughly dry your hands with the air dryer, as wet hands are more likely to pick up germs again quickly.

When to wash your hands?

-Before eating.

-Every time you use the bathroom.

-Anytime you have touched your face: eyes, nose, mouth.

-Before you touch your face: eyes, nose, mouth.

-After using your phone or computer - or frequently while using them. Consider also cleaning the keyboards at least daily.

-Anytime you have been in a public area, opening doors, touching table surfaces, shopping carts, etc.

-After driving the car - a steering wheel is notoriously full of germs. Maybe give that a wipe-down too...

-Anytime your hands feel like they need a wash!

What about hand sanitizer?

Hand sanitizers do their best work with bacteria, not viruses, and while they can help clean your hands in a pinch when soap and water are not available, they should not be relied upon as a replacement for good hand washing. It has been found that sanitizers that contain at least 60-70% alcohol can be effective against the Covid-19 coronavirus if it is rubbed over the hands with friction until completely dried. Take the time to use a sanitizer correctly, then wash your hands when you can.

A note about coughing and sneezing:

If you are coughing and/or sneezing, it is a good idea to use a tissue to cover your mouth and nose. If you don't have a tissue readily available, cough or sneeze into your elbow/sleeve.

In any case, whenever you cough, sneeze, or blow your nose, WASH YOUR HANDS!

That's all.

Thank you.

Have I ever shared with you the story of how I began making soap?

Sat, 22 Feb 2020 23:06:54 GMT

It took me a while, but I did it!

Have I ever shared with you the story of how I began making soap?

My grandmother - the grandmother who lived in this pretty log farmhouse - was a soap maker, probably because she had to be. A farm woman was frugal, and with animal fats readily available it was a given that she would make soaps at least for doing the laundry. Grandma's soaps were made primarily with chicken fat as that was what she had an abundance of all year round.

When I was growing up, my mom and my grandmother made laundry soap together; most of my sisters do not remember this, which makes me wonder if I dreamed it?? I remember that Grandma would pour the soap into wooden fruit crates lined with freezer paper, then cut it into hand-sized chunks, perfect for scrubbing stubborn stains on children's clothing. With my grandmother's daily work as my creative inspiration, you might understand why learning to make soap was on my bucket list before bucket lists were a thing, but I pretty much taught myself how to make it.

When I finally decided 20 years ago that I had better get busy, I hounded our local library for information on how to get started. One of my tricks was to find a book I really thought helpful and repeatedly put it on hold at the library so I could keep it for months. The librarians now roll their eyes when I mention doing that, but at the time the catalogs were not as automated as now and I could get away with it.

The very first batch of soap I created was Lemon & Poppyseed, and I poured it into an old enameled pan that my father had used for photo enlarging. Imagine my horror when two days later I could not get it out of that pan except by scooping it out with my hands and making snowballs of soap. Yikes! That was a learning experience I had not anticipated and I still cringe at the thought. I do remember my father handing me $20 and telling me to go buy soap, but the process was so intriguing, and the results so much fun to see that I just kept making it. Each new batch and new scent I created had me asking more and more questions until I finally had a house full of soap and needed to sell it to be able to keep making more soap. ....and you know the rest of that story.

At the time I was starting out, I would have loved to have attended a class where I could not only learn the process, but could ask questions along the way and have a contact point for future questions. Did you know that if you take one of our classes, you can always and forever contact me with questions about soap making? You can’t often get that kind of personal attention from online how-to videos and classes.

Registration is now open for our classes on March 7 and November 14 at the beautiful Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend, Wisconsin. Think about learning a new life skill!

Watering the Christmas Tree with a Plastic Pipette and Other Christmas Adventures

Sat, 28 Dec 2019 20:54:18 GMT

Life in a vintage log cabin is never dull - especially at Christmas time.

Life in this tiny log Farmhouse is never dull, and at Christmastime it can be downright entertaining. Take, for example, the mouse that was indeed stirring on Christmas Eve - probably stirring up a Christmas pudding for friends and family. There was a rustling in the front entry, and then I heard a rustling in the little room off of the kitchen where the dishes’ cupboard and the piano live. Do you suppose that little vagrant was intent on snitching a raisin or two from our homemade brandied fruitcake? One wonders.

This year we decided to celebrate Christmas in a simpler fashion: fewer presents, fewer cookies, a smaller tree, and more time with family. So when I dragged out my grandparents’ vintage 1930s cast iron tabletop tree stand from its hiding place under the desk and proclaimed it splendid for a smaller tree, Mr. Century Farmhouse took it to heart and found a diminutive branch. At three feet tall with a trunk of less than two inches in diameter, that perfect Christmas tree just fit into that perfect tree stand. Success! We stood it on several stacked boxes near the log wall in our living room and decorated it simply with tiny white lights, glass baubles, hand-blown glass icicles, and candy canes. It is quite pretty, if a little lopsided, and needs to be watered with a plastic pipette because the space between the tree trunk and the edge of the tree stand cup is so tiny. Can you imagine a tree so thirsty that it guzzles thirty-seven pipette squeezes of water several times a day? I can.

Our pretty log cabin farmhouse has seen many a Christmas in the 135 years it has been in my family, and probably several decades-worth more in the years between the time it was built and when my great-grandparents moved in.

A large room was purposefully built in this house as the parlor and this was where the Christmas trees stood and where family, friends, and neighbors would gather for celebrations and dancing. As we have worked on restoration we have found that the interior surfaces of all the logs were - in every room - covered with a lime plaster which was whitewashed and sponge painted with cobalt blue dots. I like to imagine this large parlor with walls covered in the blue dots, a big Christmas tree cut from the home woods and covered with candles and homemade decorations, candles in the three windows, a fire in the wood or coal stove, and a noisy gathering of family and friends. There might have been tables of cookies and other homemade baked goods in the kitchen, and singing and dancing and sharing of stories.

The reality of course was probably not quite so romantic, but we do know that Grandpa would cut a big tree in the woods and stand it in the parlor. It was decorated on Christmas Eve Day and the family would celebrate Christmas simply. During the days between Christmas and the New Year, families, friends, and neighbors would visit each other to see the Christmas trees and swap stories. On one memorable New Year’s Eve when my Grandpa was growing up, one of the visitors got so excited he went outside and shot off his gun at midnight - the evidence of which can still be seen embedded in a log on the east side of our house and the story of which has become something of family lore.

So as the Christmas of 2019 is past and we look into the future of the next decade in this lovely log cabin farmhouse, we build more memories and celebrate what was and what is to come. With family, of course.

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In the weeks leading up to Christmas my grandmother would bake and make candies that often were the treats shared at the celebrations between Christmas and the New Year. We have a few of her recipes, but perhaps our oldest family recipe belonged to her mother-in-law, my great-grandmother, Anna Tennies Wagner , who made fruity cupcakes she called Hermits. According to my mother, she made them all the time as after-school treats for her grandchildren, but they also were on the cookie plates among other treats at holiday celebrations. We don’t know exactly when she started making them - perhaps she made them as a child, growing up in the mid-1800s.

Great-Grandma Anna’s Hermit Cupcakes

1 pound seedless raisins

Boiling water

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons ground cloves

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

1 ½ cups sugar

2 egg yolks or 1 whole egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ cup milk

In a saucepan, combine raisins and boiling water. Simmer until raisins are tender and plumped. Drain, reserving ½ cup water in a 1-cup or larger measuring cup. Let water cool to just warm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together flour and spices.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg.

Add baking soda to the ½ cup warm water; it will foam up.

Add flour mixture and milk alternately to batter, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in water and raisins.

Divide batter evenly among 48 greased or lined mini-muffin cups.

Bake at 350 degrees 10 minutes if using a dark pan, 12 minutes for a light-colored pan.

Let cool 10 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Sift powdered sugar over the top, if desired.

Makes 48 mini-cupcakes.

Note: This recipe was originally published in The Flavors of Washington County Cookbook, page 292, submitted by my mother's cousin, Rosemary Gundrum, of West Bend, WI. My sister Carol and my mom reworked the recipe to fit today's baking standards and that was published on May 23, 2017 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. These Hermits are wonderfully soft and fruity. Yum.

Warm and Delicious Century Farmhouse Hot Cocoa

Thu, 26 Dec 2019 15:52:19 GMT

Need something warm and cozy to sip? This cocoa mix recipe is easy to make and nice to have on hand to quickly make a comforting mug or to give as a gift.

Don't you love to curl up with a mug of something warm and comforting at the end of the day or after a chilly time outdoors? Sometimes a cup of tea or coffee just won't do, and a sweeter, creamier treat is just the thing.

At this time of year it is also nice to be able to whip up a quick gift for a friend, and this homemade mix tastes so much better than a packaged cocoa mix. Stir up a batch or two, pop it into a pretty jar and tie that with a bow. Someone somewhere will thank you.

Century Farmhouse Hot Cocoa Mix

Stir up a cocoa mix that will make a really delicious cup of warm chocolate-y goodness this season. The mix works well with milk and with a non-dairy milk substitute such as flax, oat, or almond milk.

Here’s how:

For an 8 oz. jar of mix, whisk together 1/2 cup each of a good quality unsweetened cocoa powder and ultra-fine granulated sugar. The ultra-fine sugar dissolves quickly in the hot liquid - and I sometimes back off just a little on the sugar so that it isn’t so sweet. Then I shake in a little cinnamon (about 1/8 tsp.) and put a small piece of vanilla bean or a tiny bit of vanilla bean seeds in the mix. You can reuse the vanilla bean with your next batch!

Cover tightly.

Make the cocoa:

1. Place 2 Tblsp cocoa mix in a 12 oz. mug.

2. Warm 12 ounces (1 3/4 c.) milk or dairy substitute to scalding or 1-2 minutes in the microwave.

3. Pour about half the warmed milk over the cocoa mix. Allow to sit for about a minute and whisk carefully until smooth and add the rest of the warmed milk. Stir gently.

4. Top with a marshmallow or whipped cream if you wish.

Mmmmmmm. Giving this as a gift? Tie a pretty ribbon on the jar and add the recipe.

Love the pretty mug? I do too! The mug is made in England at T.G. Green Cornishware Pottery and you can learn more about them at this website: https://www.cornishware.co.uk/

Tie Up a Century Farmhouse Bow!

Thu, 12 Dec 2019 19:15:08 GMT

A trunk show of bows and soaps this weekend.

Rosemary Butter Sandwich Cookies with Orange Blossom Water Buttercream Filling

Thu, 12 Dec 2019 03:43:43 GMT

Rosemary is the perfect foil for the sweet buttercream. Mmmmm. Wouldn't you love these on your Holiday cookie plate?

Christmas is coming, and at Century Farmhouse that used to mean baking a lot of cookies: gingerbread, sugar cookies, pinwheels, shortbreads, snow-on-the-mountains, and pfeffernuss, but we just don't eat the cookies as much now and prefer a few really wonderful desserts to tins and tins of cookies. I have been playing around with some cookie recipes though, adding herbs other than lavender to my butter cookie recipes for example, and I have been getting some striking results. Here is the result of playing with rosemary and citrus - two of my favorite flavors!

Rosemary Butter Sandwich Cookies

These sweet and buttery sandwich cookies are the perfect foil for savory herbs such as rosemary. Paired with the orange blossom water buttercream (recipe below), they are decadent treats!

Ingredients:

2/3 cup butter, softened

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 Tablespoon milk

2 teaspoons dried rosemary, finely chopped or broken

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

dash salt

Let's make 'em! Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

1. Beat butter in a large mixing bowl until softened. Add about half the flour and mix well. Add sugar & rosemary, egg, milk, baking powder, vanilla, & salt. Beat until combined well. Beat or stir in remaining flour.

2. Divide dough in half, cover, and chill about 3 hours or until easy to handle.

3. Roll each half of the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a knife or cookie cutters or a glass dipped in flour, cut dough into desired shapes. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 7 minutes or until done - do not brown the cookies. Cool on the cookie sheet for one minute. Remove cookies from the sheet; cool on a wire rack.

5. Thickly spread the back of one cookie with the Orange Blossom Buttercream (recipe below) and top with the backside of a second cookie to make a sandwich.

Makes about 2 dozen - 2-inch round sandwich cookies

Orange Blossom Buttercream

This luscious frosting is made richer with the addition of a little melted white chocolate. Use this buttercream to frost your favorite cupcakes or cakes too.

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups powdered sugar

2 - 3 Tablespoons milk or cream or half & half

3 Tablespoons butter, softened

3 squares white chocolate, melted (use real white chocolate, not a palm oil substitute)

1 teaspoon grated orange rind - organic orange is best, wash any orange thoroughly before grating

dash of salt

¼ teaspoon (plus a tiny drop or more to taste) Orange Blossom Water

*** A note about the orange blossom water: It is quite concentrated, so don't be tempted to put a lot of it into the frosting or you'll be eating a mouthful of flowers. You can temper some of the sweet floral flavor by grating about 1 teaspoon fresh orange rind into the frosting.

Let's make it!

1. Melt the white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl for about 1 minute or until it stirs smoothly. Do not over heat.

2. Put all the ingredients except the softened butter and the melted white chocolate into a medium sized mixing bowl. Stir until the sugar and the liquids create a very thick, stiff ball. You might find adding a bit more milk to a very dry mixture helpful, but add it carefully as the frosting thins quickly.

3. Add the butter and the melted white chocolate to the stiff sugar mixture and stir or mix to create a smooth buttercream frosting.

4. Frost the cookies and eat one! They are delicious.

Gluten Free Gingerbread Doughnut Holes

Tue, 08 Oct 2019 04:11:37 GMT

Made with apple cider and roasted pumpkin. Oh my!

Don't you wish you could lick the sugar off the photo? Don't you wish you could pop one of those doughnut "holes" into your mouth and savor it? I can tell you that they are light and fluffy and indescribably delicious - they are buttery and sugary and have a little zing of ginger when you plop them into your mouth... and they are gluten free! Let me tell you how I came to be making these melt-in-your-mouth treasures; it all started with a photo I saw on Instagram.

I can spend a lot of time on Good Old Instagram, and last week when I saw a beautiful photo of gingerbread doughnuts, I was pulled in and HAD to make them. The photo was posted by the magazine Where Women Cook , celebrating the Gingerbread Donuts created by Haley D. Williams who writes the blog If You Give a Blonde a Kitchen . Here's her original recipe. Many thanks to Haley for her permission to credit her work here.

In my true style of not being able to leave a perfectly good recipe alone, I started playing.
In our house we have found that gluten free baking is easier to digest, and I have begun adapting recipes to fit our changing eating habits. Below you will find my adaptation of Haley's doughnuts, and they are utterly delicious. As a matter of fact, before I had finished baking the batch I had eaten at least one of the precious yummies and about 4-5 of her little friends as well. I had no willpower. I apologize for my pigginess in advance. Ha.

Here's my recipe...
Gluten Free Gingerbread Doughnut Holes made with Apple Cider and Roasted Pumpkin

Planning an extended baking session included stopping at the Farmers' Market on Saturday morning to pick up some fresh apple cider and a few pie pumpkins. I started by roasting a pumpkin. Here's how:
1. Wash the pumpkin, cut it in half with a very sharp knife, scoop out the slippery guts and the seeds (save the seeds to roast later!).
2. Place the pumpkin halves cut side down in a roasting pan and add about 1/2 inch water
3. Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 2 hours (depends on the size of the pumpkin, this one was about 8 inches in diameter)
4. Poke a fork into the pumpkin to test for doneness. If the fork slides in easily, remove the pumpkin from the oven and allow it to cool (at least to be able to touch it) before scooping the flesh from the peel.
5. Mash with a potato masher to a smooth consistency. It is now ready for pies, cookies, breads, and doughnuts!
6. Don't want to fuss with the pumpkin fresh from the field? Open a can!! This recipe doesn't need much pumpkin, so have a plan for the rest of it too.

OK. Let's get serious about the doughnuts - that's why you're reading this, right?

Equipment: two mixing bowls, whisk, measuring spoons & cups, teaspoons, table knife, mini-muffin tin, cooling rack
Prep time: 10 minutes (after that pumpkin-roasting marathon)
Bake time: 10 minutes
Yield: 36 doughnut holes (mini-muffins)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill 1:1 gluten free flour (Nope, I don't have a deal with Bob's Red Mill, I just really like working with this flour)
1/4 cup instant dried milk powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 / 4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup molasses - full flavor
1 large egg
1/2 cup apple cider
3 Tablespoons mashed roasted pumpkin

The Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and here we go:
1. In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: flour, dried milk powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a separate larger bowl, whisk together the melted butter, molasses, brown sugar, egg, cider, and pumpkin until it is smooth.
3. Add the dry mixture to the larger bowl and beat with a whisk again until smooth. The contents of the bowl will be much like a cake batter.
4. Scoop with teaspoons or a small ice cream scoop into the greased compartments of a mini-muffin pan, filling them about 2/3 full. Don't use muffin papers as you'll want to roll the entire little doughnut "hole" in the butter and sugar coating. Depending upon the size of your pan, you may need to fill the pan and bake several times to use up the batter.
5. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F, until the little puffs are slightly browned at the edges or until a toothpick inserted in one of them comes out clean.
6. Immediately after removing from the oven, loosen the puffs from the compartments by slipping a kitchen knife around them and tipping them up to expose the bottoms of the puffs.

Now comes the fun part of coating them with sugar and eating them while they're warm!

The sugar coating:
1. While the doughnuts are baking, melt the 1/2 cup butter and place in a bowl (or melt it in the microwave in the bowl!) Mix the sugar and cinnamon and ginger in a separate bowl.
2. When the little doughnut puffs have been loosened from the pan, roll them first in the butter and then coat with the sugar before placing on a rack to cool. Once they are cooled, store in an airtight container for up to a day.

These little doughnut holes taste the best when warm, and are wonderful with a cup of tea or coffee, or chocolate, or cider anytime. They probably won't last a day, but if you have any left over, freeze them until you are ready to eat them.

Make Chalk!

Mon, 29 Jul 2019 02:19:58 GMT

Making sidewalk chalk is easy and fun for all ages.

The Museum of Wisconsin Art hosted their third annual Art & Chalk Fest this weekend, and I had the awesome privilege of making chalk with market-goers at the West Bend Farmers' Market yesterday morning. We worked with about 135 kids to create pieces of chalk using simple ingredients. The warmth of the nearly-90-degree sunshine helped to harden the chalks pretty quickly, so the kids were able to use their treasures later in the day.

If you have never attended an art and chalk festival, imagine Leonardo da Vinci drawing the Mona Lisa in chalk on baking concrete, and thousands of people gawking and having a wonderful time watching him. I hope you check the link above to see what all the fuss was about in West Bend this weekend.

Jess Wildes, the marketing director of the Museum, came to the market and filmed the clip above. As a matter of fact, her parents volunteered to help me with the chalk making, and I couldn't have done it without them!
That video above moves pretty quickly, but you get the idea - it's easy! I love to make chalk because it is quite inexpensive, and the range of colors you can create is endless. Here's how it's done:

Let's make chalk:

Materials:

Plaster of Paris
Water
Tempera Paint

Paper cups (we used 3-ounce cups), wood craft sticks, a flat mold, cookie cutters (the mold and cookie cutters are optional)
(I'll share my thoughts about the molds, etc. at the end of this post).

Here's how to make the chalk:

1. Scoop the Plaster of Paris into the paper cup. We used 3-ounce cups and filled them to within about 1/4 inch from the top rim. The resulting chalk fills about 2/3 of the cup.

2. Add water and stir with a wood craft stick to create a plaster slurry that is the consistency of thin toothpaste . You might have to play with the amount a little. We used about a tablespoon of water for the 3-ounce cup as described above, and you might have to add a little water or even a little more plaster as you work with the chalk. You'll get the hang of it when you've made a few chalks. Be sure to stir to the bottom of the cup so all the dry plaster is incorporated.

3. Once you have created a smooth, pasty slurry that is the consistency of thin toothpaste, add small squirts of the tempera paints. You can mix colors or go with just a plain color, but work fairly quickly as the tempera causes the plaster to thicken rapidly. If it gets too thick, add a little water so you can just stir it. Play with marbling the colors by adding a small squirt of paint again and stirring just enough to swirl the color in, but not enough to completely mix it. Be sure there is no un-stirred paint as this will dry just as paint, not chalk, and may stain concrete when it is rubbed on it later.

4. Once you have achieved the color you want for your chalk, allow it to dry thoroughly right in the cup. The small pieces we created in the 3-ounce cup dried in just an hour or so in the warm sunshine. It might take a few more hours or even a day or so to dry thoroughly.

5. Peel the paper cup away and you have fabulous sidewalk chalk that you made yourself! If a little paper sticks to the chalk it is of no consequence. Just draw on the sidewalk with it anyway and the paper will wear away almost immediately. Have fun!

Notes:
You can make your chalk in nearly any container. I like to use the paper cups for ease of creating multiple pieces quickly. The paper peels away easily and is mostly biodegradable. Certainly the chalk can be mixed in a recycled container such as a yogurt cup or cottage cheese carton and poured into a mold. Try using the top of a plastic (not styrofoam) egg carton. Add multiple colors and cut it into sticks while it is still soft. Or pour the chalk into a pan and cut it with cookie cutters into fun shapes. You are bound only by your imagination when crafting your own chalks.

Mulberries

Sat, 06 Jul 2019 13:54:58 GMT

My favorite summer fruit.

That photo of freshly picked mulberries is making me hungry.
But I will never share the secret hiding places of some of my favorite trees because as soon as I tell someone, I don't have berries to pick any more.
When I was growing up we had one venerable and prolific tree at the north end of our farm and we would gather bowls and buckets and a creaky ladder and climb onto the old Ford tractor for a ride to pick mulberries. What a treat!
That land and the tree were eventually sold, and while we would still occasionally stop for a handful of berries while on a walk, the berries from that tree were feeding chickens and children that belonged to someone else.

Since we have moved into the old log farmhouse it seems that mulberry trees have been springing up all over our property and we couldn't be happier. The birds sow them and we reap! Yummy.

In 2011 I wrote a post on a now defunct Century Farmhouse blog about the berries and included one of my favorite berry tart recipes. You certainly don't need mulberries to make the tart, but this dessert is one way to enjoy this elusive but very tasty fruit.

Here's what I wrote in June of 2011:

All Around the Mulberry Bush

A sure sign of late June is the purple stain on my lips. A certain sign that I've walked past all the mulberry trees along my four-mile walking route is the fact that all the ripe berries reachable by a 5'4" person are gone.

I LOVE mulberries and they are in season now!

At the end of our driveway is a mulberry tree and it is loaded. Well, it was , but I couldn't pass it without stopping for a handful or three.

My husband and I formally picked mulberries this evening --- by "formally," I mean we took a bowl with us. He brought the ladder. I carried the bowl --- more berries to snack on that way.

When I was growing up, the nearest mulberry tree was one-half mile away, at the northernmost spot on our farm. We'd hike there or sometimes take the tractor that had the front-end bucket to stand in. (That tree is now owned by our neighbors, and don't tell them that the tree is on my regular walking route morning and night during mulberry season)! For a jar of mulberry jam, another neighbor even now allows us to pick from trees on his land. It is very good to have neighbors.

The first taste of mulberries reminds me of my grandmother's kuchens. (If you're German, kuchen is pronounced KOO-hen with a throaty little cough-like sound from the back of the throat on the "h" of the second syllable. I tell you this because my father MADE us pronounce it correctly when we were growing up. He is from Germany. He knows.) And the perfect recipe for any fruit kuchen comes from true Americana: the local church cookbook.

Our Favorite Recipes was published by St. John's Guild of West Bend, Wisconsin in 1949 by
the Ladies of St. John's Ev. Lutheran Church. The book is known in our family as "The St. John's Lutheran Cookbook" and truly has been our favorite cookbook for generations. My grandmother had the 1949 edition, my mother has the 1959 edition, and my battered copy was published in 1976; our older daughters each have a copy of a more modern edition.

Esther Klein's Fruit Kuchens recipes are on page 35 of my 1976 book. (By the way, if you ever find a copy of this book, all of Esther Klein's recipes are winners!)

Esther Klein's Fruit Kuchens

Dough: 2T. butter

1 egg plus milk to fill 1/2 cup

1/4 c. sugar

1 1/4 c. flour

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt (I use only a shake of salt)

Mix dry ingredients, cut in butter as with pastry. Beat egg slightly and add milk, combine with dry ingredients until a dough forms. Roll or pat 1/4" thick in greased coffee cake pan (about 8-inch square - the recipe will line the bottoms of two 8-inch square pans).

For apple, peach, raspberry, or other sweet fruit (mulberries!):

Place sliced fruit in rows on dough, or arrange smaller berries. Cover with a streusel (pronounced STROI-zel) topping (recipe follows) or cover with the following custard :

Beat 1 egg, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 T. cream. Pour over fruit. Sprinkle with cinnamon (optional). Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees F. Reduce heat to 325 degrees F. and bake another 15 -20 minutes.

For cherries or plums (tart fruit) Use the same custard recipe as above, but use 1 1/2 c. sugar on the fruit.

Streusel for Coffee Cake by Mrs. Elmer E. Tews, pg. 43, 1976 edition:

1 c. sifted flour

1 c. sugar

1/2 t. salt (I use one dash)

1/4 lb. chilled butter (1 stick), cut in pieces

Blend in a bowl using your fingers. Use on a fruit kuchen or on coffee cake. There will be extra streusel left - it can be kept in the refrigerator for weeks.

A Grand Old Flag

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 00:25:26 GMT

A Flag and a Family Story for the Fourth.

A few years ago (eight, to be exact), I wrote a post for a now-abandoned Century Farmhouse blog that I return to every year, just to remember. Since I wrote that piece we have lost four members of our family across three generations, the kids have grown up, one more married, another of my siblings had a little girl. Life keeps moving on but what I have learned in all of this is that the continuity of family continues. The lessons we have learned and the values we hold dear as a family move on from generation to generation seamlessly.

My father was one of those we lost shortly after this piece was written. I am so grateful that he shared so many stories about how he came to live in the States as a small child; about how important it was to his parents that they have the opportunity to raise him in a place of freedom and safety. They worked very hard to get to the United States and endured hardships along the way - it was not easy. They never took one day of their lives here for granted and worked hard to make that new life for themselves and for future generations - which includes me and my own children - one that valued respect for one's family and one's country.

So today I would like to share with you that first blog post. I still have that beautiful old flag, and whenever I take it out I think of Grandma and Grandpa and this little bit of their story.

A Grand Old Flag

Independence Day 2011 is nearly over. The kids have thrown candy from floats and wagons in the neighborhood parade - a slice of true Americana that we never miss - the boat has made numerous circles of the lake with various cousins tubing and skiing, and the grill is heating up for the quintessential cookout before the big Bang of fireworks closes out the day.

A few weeks ago, I found my grandmother's 48-star flag. (Not the soap-making grandmother - the other one!) You know how things get put away, and then you come across them while looking for something else? The box with the old flag in it was right there, so I opened it. This is no raggedy-old flag. It is pristine, constructed of cotton, and the seams are double-stitched. It is from my grandmother's store, which is a story in itself.

Somewhere in the history of all families in the US is an immigration story, and our family is no different. Germany in the 1920s was experiencing severe economic woes. My grandparents made the difficult decision to move to America, and they and my father, who was four years old at the time, immigrated to the US in 1925 from a tiny village outside of Bendorf, Germany. After settling in West Bend, Wisconsin, my grandfather found work at the West Bend Company (think pots and pans) in the tool & die division. Eventually they saved enough money to build a house on North Street in West Bend - and to teach herself English, my grandmother opened a neighborhood grocery store in the front room of that house. Mueller's Cash Store supplied the neighborhood with groceries through the Great Depression and into WWII, 1932 - 1944, and the flag was used at the store during that time. I love the old photo above with the curtains in the store windows and the sandwich board advertising Consumer's Homade Ice Cream . If you look closely, you can see my father's fox terrier Jimmy, peeking through the door at the camera. That's my grandmother, Maria Dielentheis Mueller (left), my father, William Mueller (center), and a family friend from Detroit on the right. My grandfather took the photo from the street. In the photo below, Grandma & Grandpa (Maria & Henry Mueller) stand at the store counter.

Grandma's flag was flown outside the store on special occasions and was carefully put away when the store closed in 1944.

To my grandparents, the United States represented freedom and opportunity and unending possibility. It is easy to forget the courage and hard work of those who made life in the United States their dream and their reality and did it as much for the future generations of their families as for themselves. That beautiful old flag isn't just a symbol of the freedoms fought for in 1776 and beyond. For me it is also a symbol of the love and hard work and sacrifice it takes to build a family and a nation.

Happy Fourth of July!

The Sunday Project: Pear Jam with Lavender & Vanilla Bean

Tue, 21 May 2019 20:24:54 GMT

Think of jammy pears that taste of the sweetness of vanilla and just a touch of flowery lavender. This jam makes breakfast toast into a celebration!

I know, I know, the season for pears is in the fall of the year when the harvest is drooping from backyard trees and just waiting for the cooking pot, but I am in a bit of a jam here. Or at least I was until a recent Sunday afternoon.

When the Milwaukee District Director of the Wisconsin Garden Club Federation asked me to speak about cooking with lavender at their meeting on May 23, I wanted to wow them all with not only the lavender and blueberry dessert I am planning to make onstage, but also with this glorious jam. Lavender adds just the right floral touch to the sweetness of fruit and vanilla is also wonderful when paired with lavender and with pears, so I spent Sunday afternoon breathing in all the luscious, simmering scents coming from the Century Farmhouse kitchen. I am planning to give away several jars during my talk and I made sure to make enough to have on hand for special gifts. And for me.

I know you'd like the recipe too, so here you are:

Pear Jam with Lavender and Vanilla Bean

Ingredients:

3 lbs. pears, peeled and seeded, and chopped into small pieces
5 cups sugar
juice of 1 1/2 lemons (or 2 small lemons)
1 vanilla bean
1 package (4 ounces) liquid pectin
1 T. whiskey vanilla (or real vanilla flavoring of your choice)
1 t. dried lavender buds

1. Wash, peel, and seed the pears, and chop them into small pieces, about 1/2 inch in size. I used Bosc pears because they are my favorite grocery store pear, but any flavorful pear will be great in this recipe. I cannot wait until fall when I can use pears straight from the tree. Place the pears in a large, heavy pot.

2. Add the lemon juice to the pears and stir to prevent browning. I like to add the pears to the pot as I chop them one by one and stir the lemon juice into them as I go along. The pears stay more white in color that way.

3. Begin to cook the pears over medium heat until they are soft enough to mash with a potato masher into a sauce similar to a rough applesauce. Remove from the heat to mash them. If you wish, you can cool the pears a bit and whir them in a food processor to a smoother consistency, but I love the chunkiness of the pears in the jam.

4. Add the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved into the pear sauce.

5. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds and the vanilla bean to the pear mixture. Return the jam pot to the stove and continue to cook over medium heat - stir it! - until the mixture reaches a full boil (unable to stir the boiling down). I had extra vanilla bean pods that had been soaking in my whiskey vanilla jar, so I took two smaller ones out of the jar and used those. There were still some seeds in the pods, and I scraped those out and added them to the pot.

6. Allow the mixture to boil (that rolling boil) for about a minute, stirring constantly. Add the pectin, stir it well, and bring the pear mixture back to a rolling boil for another minute. Remove from the heat. Remove the vanilla beans, stir in the whiskey vanilla (or vanilla extract) and the lavender buds. I use the whole lavender buds, but you can chop them in a clean coffee grinder, if you'd like.

7. Ladle into clean, hot jars. Wipe the tops and add the lids, then process in boiling water for 15 minutes. Remove from the pot and allow to cool. Check that the jars have sealed, then store in a cool, dry cupboard.

The Sunday Project: Peat Pot Gift Cups

Sat, 04 May 2019 21:37:41 GMT

In just an hour or so, you can create unique and inexpensive packaging for a small gift, perfect for the little treat you're giving Mom this Mother's Day. With a little supervision, this is a fun project for kids as well.

The peat pots I had stashed when I closed up the Century Farmhouse Studio two years ago were eluding me. Again. I knew what kind of box they had been stashed in and I knew they were not with the soaps and other projects I have been working on for the past two years...... You know how things get put in a place that you KNOW you'll remember? Ha. Mother's Day is coming quickly and panic mode was beginning to set in.

It wasn't until I had purchased more peat pots and more paint and more glitter that I came upon the whole project in a flat box on the top shelf in my mother's basement. These cute little painted pots are the perfect packaging for little springtime treats, and I was determined to share them with you whether I found the original ones or not. Now you get to see several options for decorating them and you will have so many pretty peat pots that you'll need to have a garden party!

The little gift cups take only about an hour or so to complete and use materials that just might already be around your house. They are not expensive to create and can be used as a spring decoration for months - even years - to come. Follow along and I'll show you how to create a pretty peat pot gift cup, just in time for Mother's Day.

Peat Pot Gift Cups
Find gift ideas that are perfect to tuck into these little peat pot cups at the end of this post!

This really is a kitchen table sort of project.
Here are the materials you'll need to create your own pretty Peat Pot Gift Cups:

peat pots of any size
acrylic paint - I like to use white or ivory, but you can experiment with other colors
spray paint in a light, springtime color
glitter, clear or white color
glue
a foam brush
paper to cover your workspace
gloves to protect your hands when spray painting
wrapping paper in your favorite design (optional)
fine tulle in a coordinating or white color (optional)
glue/varnish such as ModPodge in matte or gloss finish (optional)

Here's how to make them:

1. As in the photo above, paint the peat pots inside and out with the acrylic paint. I have found that the foam brush works best for getting into the textured finish of the pots and to create a more uniform color. In upcoming photos you'll see some peat pots with a more shabby texture/color. The peat material absorbs the paint quite quickly, and you may find that you'll need to paint several coats to obtain an opaque finish. If the shabbier look suits you, go for it!

2. Once the base coat has dried, take the pots outdoors to spray on a little colorful accent. The easiest way to do this is to wear the gloves and hold the bottom of the pot to add color around the top edge. Allow to dry, then put the peat pot over your gloved hand and spray around the bottom of the pot. The idea is to get a little edge of color on the top and on the bottom, with the base coat peeking out between. (If doing this project with children, this is the part where the adult takes over for a few moments).

3. As you can see in the photo above, you can also add a whimsical touch to your peat pot by decoupaging pretty paper clippings onto it. The examples above are taken from wrapping paper, but other lightweight paper prints can also be used. Attach the design onto the painted pot with glue or with a ModPodge type glue/varnish. Use the ModPodge to add a finish coat to the peat pot if you wish. Once it is dry, continue with adding a shimmer to the edge with glitter as described in the next section. A square of netting can also be glued into the bottom of the peat pot, but wait until you have completely finished with paints and glitter and the pot has dried thoroughly.
Cutting the tulle: The size of the piece of tulle is roughly square; its length and width are twice the height of the cup, plus two to three inches more. For example: if your peat pot is 4 inches tall, the tulle will be approximately 10 inches square or a little more, depending upon how much tulle you'd like to show above the edge of the pot. (4 inches x 2 = 8 inches, plus 2 inches = 10 inches square).
Attaching the tulle to the pot: Once the paints, glue, and glitter have dried you can easily attach the tulle. Place a drop or two of glue close to the center bottom of the inside of the peat pot. Fold the tulle into fourths and place the folded corner in the glue. Gently open the tulle and use your hand to press the center of the tulle square into the glue. Remove your hand and allow the glue to dry for at least a half hour before placing anything into the pot.

4. Sometimes a little glimmer of shine adds a pretty touch to a work of art. If you'd like to add a glittered edge to your peat pot, simply drizzle glue on a napkin or piece of paper, dip the edge of the peat pot in the glue, then into a little pile of glitter that you've poured on another piece of paper. This glitter step is optional, but be sure to do it before adding tulle or you'll have to stuff the tulle into the cup to add the glitter! (I know this because I have done this!)

Now comes the really fun part! Fill the cups with tiny gifts, such as those listed below.

Here are some gift ideas that will be a perfect fit in a 4-inch peat pot:

-wrapped candies in brightly colored paper shreds (like your Easter basket).
- a single, small plant/bloom in a 3-ounce paper cup; top with sphagnum moss.
- gardening gloves rolled tightly and tied with pretty ribbons. Lengths of curled ribbons in bright colors can be used as a nest for the gloves.
- packets of seeds.
- packets of tea.
- a tiny jar of honey or jam wrapped in crinkly paper and tucked into the tulle or into paper shreds.
- small pictures of flowers drawn by small children, rolled up and tied with ribbons.
- paper flowers created by small children, glued to popsicle sticks and stuck into a ball of crinkled brown paper in the bottom of the cup

What would you put in a Peat Pot Gift Cup? Tell me!

The Sunday Project: A pretty springtime wreath

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 17:11:04 GMT

Made with twigs and branches foraged from the Century Farmhouse woods and fields, this pretty wreath will grace the front door of the farmhouse for the next month or two. Or three.

The Farmhouse door was in need of something besides a new coat of paint.

Periodically I get crazy ideas of projects that are fun and add a nice touch to things, all the while the supper dishes need washing and the laundry folded and the floor swept of crumbs from yesterday. I understand that that's how it is in houses of creative people, and if that is so, our house is no different. This past Sunday I dreamed up "The Sunday Project" to get out of clearing off the stairwell of a few still-hanging-around Christmas decorations. Ha. They'll get put away this week when I am looking for the Easter baskets. I hope.

About a week ago I went for a walk around the farm, hoping to catch a glimpse of pussy willows in bloom. I often am quite busy in the spring, and by the time I get to looking for them they are long past blooming and are gone. This year I am in luck - and so are you! Below you can catch a glimpse of the "Back Forty" - land that was part of the farm when I was growing up, and which now belongs to one of my sisters. As her land abuts the acreage surrounding the Farmhouse, it was a short and very pretty walk to find the pussy willows.

I did actually create a bouquet of the pussy willows, but they also had me thinking about what else I could make with them. The front door of the Farmhouse certainly needed some cheer and a wreath was the perfect solution. On Sunday I took another walk around the farm - through the maple woods, across the east fields, and then back to the wildlife pond and the willow trees to pick some more pussy willow branches. Because I was going to create a wreath, I wanted branches of varying colors and textures and collected green willow branches, red dogwood, brown maple tree shoots, and even some prickly wild raspberry canes along with the fuzzy pussy willow branches, as you can see in the bucket below. That photo and a few of the others are from the Instagram story I posted on Sunday as I did the project.

The wreath was actually quite easy - if just a little messy - to make. It took longer to collect and soak the stems than it did to assemble them into something pretty for the door. Here's how I did it:

I foraged for the stems, looking for various textures and colors. I also wanted lengths of stems that could be twisted into the wreath shape, so the stems I cut were around a yard (a meter) long. The few shorter ones were tucked in as I wove the wreath or were used in another bouquet. You certainly can purchase stems from a nursery or even a grocer or gift shop that sells them at this time of year. Look for natural ones, as stems that have been preserved might not tolerate soaking or twist well.

After the stems were collected, I placed them in a deep sink of warm water and allowed them to soak for about 30 minutes. Soak them up to about an hour if necessary. If you don't have a large sink available, you can use your kitchen sink or even a large bucket; allow the stems that fit into the container to soak in the water until they are pliable, and then bend the part that has soaked to allow more of the stems to get wet until the whole stems are soaking. That process just takes a little more patience.

Question: Do you get the fuzzy pussy willows wet? Answer: They get rained on, don't they??

Since the green willow stems were the longest, I started by twisting them into a circular shape to use as a wreath base.

Then the stems are added as desired by tucking the heaviest end between the stems in the ring and weaving through the ring and around it, tucking the lighter stem end(s) into the ring or just leaving the interesting ends loose off the side of the wreath for interest. Here's a look at the wreath in process:

This is the part of wreath making that I find the most fun. As I am weaving, I am looking at the overall composition. I might remove a stem completely and try another one. I might try having the fine ends of the stems tucked in and then decide that they look better left out a bit. I might trim longer, larger ends as I tucked them through a little too far when I started weaving with them. And all along the way I am shaping the wreath with my hands, making it more round and smoothing out the stems to create a pretty final product.

When the wreath was about the size and shape I was looking for, I began adding the pussy willow branches. Some were longer and required weaving around the wreath and some could just be tucked in. Again, I shaped the wreath and did a little more trimming before I proclaimed it complete. It turned out pretty well, don't you think?

As the wreath dries, those pussy willow fuzzies will probably drop off, especially as they get brushed against as people go in and out of the door. That's OK. I'll get around to sweeping them up off the floor. The wreath will have a little different, more rustic look, and if I don't like the empty branches, I can soak the wreath and tuck them in, trimming if I have to. As the season progresses, I might add a bow or dried flowers to the wreath and quite possibly have it last all summer long.

Here's how it looks on the door right now:

Let me know if you'd like to learn how to make a wreath like this one.
I'd love to teach you how to make one that could last through the seasons!

Cinnamon Orange Waffles for Breakfast

Mon, 04 Feb 2019 03:45:46 GMT

Lazy Sunday mornings are made more special with these waffles. The waffles are made more special with real maple syrup.

Sunday mornings at our house are usually the time for bigger breakfasts, as we don't usually have the time for them during the week. After church this morning, Mr. Century Farmhouse requested waffles and bacon and eggs, so we had a full brunch, complete with real maple syrup made last year from the sap collected in our maple woods. It is almost time to make syrup again, but that's another story.

I've been playing with different flavors in waffles for a while. Cinnamon waffles are wonderful, and the addition of spice means you really don't need to add sugar to the batter. The flavored waffles taste rather sweet, and then the syrup, and maybe some powdered sugar to dust your plate add sweetness as well. There was a plate of oranges on the kitchen table so I added some orange peel and orange juice to the mix today. The flavors were subtle, but sooooo good.
Mr. Century Farmhouse requested that I post the recipe so he could find it when he wanted to make a batch himself. Here you go:

Cinnamon Orange Waffles

This recipe makes a family-sized batch - about 9-10 waffles, depending on the size of your waffle iron. Don't worry if this is too big a batch for Sunday morning, because the waffles freeze well and the extras are perfect for middle of the week breakfasts. Just pop them in the toaster!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour (I like to use bread flour, but all-purpose flour is fine).
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. grated orange peel
3 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cup warm milk
6 T. melted butter
Juice of 1/2 orange (about 2 T.)
1 t. whiskey vanilla (or plain vanilla is fine)

Serving suggestion: dust with powdered sugar, serve with real maple syrup, and butter if you choose.

Let's make 'em:

1. In a medium/large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cinnamon, soda, and salt, and add the grated orange peel.

2. Gently warm the milk (not hot) on the stovetop or in the microwave and add the butter to melt, or melt the butter separately. Add the orange juice to the warmed milk (yes, it will curdle a little - the acid in the orange juice will combine with the baking soda to make the waffles a little lighter and fluffier).

3. In a small bowl, separate each egg, one at a time, and place the in a medium-sized bowl and the yolks in the warmed milk. Whisk the egg and milk mixture and pour into the dry ingredients. If you have melted the butter separately, add the butter to the dry ingredients now too.

4. With a clean whisk, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form (about 2-3 minutes). You can use your mixer for this, but why make more clean-up work? It doesn't take much effort to whip a few egg whites!

5. Gently fold the egg whites into the waffle batter, taking care not to stir too much. You don't want to lose the puffiness of the batter!

6. Bake the waffles according to your waffle iron's instructions and serve immediately for a crispy waffle, or keep them warm on a platter in a low oven and the waffles will be soft when serving.

How to freeze your waffles:

This is a pretty big-batch recipe, so if you have waffles left after breakfast, you can freeze them for a weekday treat. Here's how:

1. Place the waffles (or break them down into sections that will fit into your toaster) onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or waxed paper. Place in the freezer just until they are hard, perhaps an hour or so.

2. Remove from the freezer and quickly wrap in foil, placing a square of parchment between each waffle to keep them from sticking to each other. You can cut up the parchment they were frozen on to do this. Wrap them in a double layer of foil and place back into the freezer. Remove as many as you need and toast them for a quick waffle breakfast or a snack in the middle of the week. Toaster waffles also make great sandwiches; just use them as you would use bread. In our house, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are always better on a waffle!

Potato Print Valentines

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 18:59:12 GMT

Grab a potato and an ink pad or paint, a little paper, a marker or two, and the kids can make cute valentines. A perfect project for a snowy day!

Wisconsin is closed.
It has been snowing since 10PM last evening; it is nearly noon now and still the snow is falling. The wind is picking up too. I was outside a little while ago and it was not too cold so wandering around in fluffy, foot-deep snow was actually fun.
It's a great day to get crafty too, so I want to share a project that I've been playing with. You probably have everything you need for this at your house already, so find the kids and find the materials and have a grand, not-too-messy time making valentines for everyone you know!

Materials:

- Potatoes! Each one will make at least two stamps.
- A knife to carve with: If children are carving, a not-too-sharp table knife works pretty well, although it is tricky to get really tidy lines and sharp indentations. If you are doing the carving, a sharper paring knife will make cleaner cuts. Just be careful!
- Stamp pads in your favorite valentine colors
- Acrylic, watercolor, or tempera paints also work for this project but are a little messier
- Calligraphy pens or markers
- Glitter and glue (optional)
- Construction paper or heavyweight multimedia paper or cardstock

Let's get started!

1. Wash the potatoes and dry them as thoroughly as possible. You might let them sit and air dry for about a half hour while you gather the rest of the materials and the kids.

2. If you wish, cover the work area to protect it from ink/paint spills or work with large sheets of paper or newspaper as placemats. This is not a particularly messy project unless you break out the paints and glitter, but still.....

3. Slice the potato(s) in half. You can start carving right away or you can outline the design you wish to create on the flat side of the cut potato with the tip of a pencil. The pencil lead won't show up well, but if you press a little into the potato as you draw, you'll have a faint outline of the design you'll carve.

4. Holding the knife perpendicular to the flat side of the potato, push the tip of the knife into the potato about 1/4 inch deep and either move it in and out along the design edge or slide it along the line you want to carve. There is no need to go deeper than about 1/4 inch.

5. When you have outlined the design, hold the knife horizontally along the side of the potato (parallel to the flat, cut side of the potato but about 1/4 inch below that flat side), and gently work it into the side of the potato to meet the perpendicular cuts you made first. In other words, you carve the design into the top, flat side, then carve away the sides to reveal the design. If you've carved the shape deeply enough, the side pieces should just fall away as you cut them.

6. Now comes the fun part!  Dip the potato design into paint or rub it gently in one direction on the stamp pad, then stamp the design onto the paper or cardstock. Allow to dry - which should only take a few minutes - then continue to decorate the card as you'd like. Voila! Pretty valentines!

Other ideas for stamping:

Create wrapping paper by stamping newsprint, lightweight papers and tissue paper sheets.
Carve other designs as you'd like. Simple designs are the easiest to carve, but the sky is the limit as far as design ideas go. Stamp cards for Easter, Mother's Day or Father's Day, gift card enclosures, Christmas cards, etc.
Have a potato print party! Adults pre-carve potatoes and set up the stamping table. Kids can stamp and decorate as they'd like. If the weather is nice, do this outside and break out the glitter! Kids love projects that are messy.

Vanilla Apple Cider Syrup - a cordial

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 03:19:02 GMT

The sweet cider flavor of this syrup is deepened and brightened with just a bit of star anise and lemon.

This past Saturday morning our kitchen was the meeting place for The Breakfast Club - teachers who used to work with Mr. Century Farmhouse and with whom we have been sharing breakfast - or supper - several times a year for more than 25 years. Along with the eggs and bacon and gibassier - inspired sweet rolls, we served some straight from-the-apple-farm cider. Oh, so good!

Of course there was some cider left over, and rather than let it turn hard in the fridge, I had the scathingly brilliant idea to make a cordial syrup that can be used equally as a pancake syrup or a base for a fizzy drink. It also is so good that we may need to have everyone join us again for refreshing drinks and a cheese board!

This morning I played around in the kitchen with the pot of cider wafting aromas of vanilla and apple throughout the house. I know you'll want to know how to make this syrup, so read on...

Vanilla Apple Cider Syrup
a few notes: I had some vanilla/star anise-infused sugar on my counter, so I used it as part of the sugar total. If you have vanilla sugar in your cupboard, don't be afraid to include it in the pot, just figure the amount into the total sugar the recipe calls for. I a lso weighed the ingredients as I added them to the pot; I have included the cup measurements here as well. Use whichever style of measurement you are most comfortable with.

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups (1.0 kg.) apple cider (I used unpasteurized cider from the orchard; pasteurized cider from the grocery store is fine).
2 cups (0.400kg.) sugar (part or all of this sugar can be vanilla- and/or anise-infused)
1/2 vanilla bean pod
1 star anise pod
About 1/4 of a fresh lemon to squirt juice into the syrup (about 1 tsp or so) - don't you love these exact measurements?

Let's make it!

Measure or weigh the cider and pour into a medium-sized heavy saucepan, add the vanilla bean and star anise pod and begin warming over medium heat. When the cider is close to the boiling point, add the sugar slowly, stirring constantly to dissolve. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved. Lower the heat and simmer for about 30-40 minutes, stirring often, until the cider begins to look a little thicker. Cut off about 1/4 of the lemon and squeeze a good squirt or two of the juice into the syrup. Remove from heat and allow the syrup to cool to room temperature with the vanilla and anise pods still in the syrup. Taste a bit of the syrup, and if it seems a little too sweet, add just a little more (half-tsp.) lemon juice, stir, and taste again. The syrup should be quite sweet, but have a bright flavor thanks to that lemon juice!

Remove the pods and pour into a clean jar and cover tightly. Refrigerate and use within two weeks.

Ways to use the Apple Cider Syrup:

- Place a Tablespoon or two in a 12 oz. glass and fill with ice and seltzer for a sweet, refreshing drink.
- Pour over pancakes or waffles with butter or whipped cream for a caramel-like breakfast treat.
- Drizzle over ice cream.
- Add a Tablespoon to whipping cream for topping your favorite dessert - apple pie, perhaps?
- Add a Tablespoon or two to amazing homemade marshmallows for a subtle cider flavor, then make s'mores!

Want to make the star anise/vanilla sugar? See below!

The Star Anise / Vanilla Sugar Recipe:
Measure about 1 cup of sugar (superfine or regular) into a small bowl. Add 3 or 4 whole star anise pods and 1/2 vanilla bean pod. Stir, then carefully pour the sugar and pods into a small jar or bowl with an airtight lid. Cover. Stir or shake the sugar every day for about a week, then stir it around whenever you think of it - use it to top muffins or scones, as a filling with butter in a sweet roll, or add it to the cider to make the syrup above.

**I used a half vanilla bean pod that had been flavoring the whiskey vanilla I had made this past summer. I removed it from the whiskey and allowed it to dry, then added it to the sugar. Eventually I'll use that pod to flavor something else before discarding it.

Chocolate Wafer Cookies

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 02:06:21 GMT

Homemade wafer cookies that are crispy and filled with deep chocolate flavor are the kind that keep your hands reaching for the cookie jar.

Chocolate is my weakness, and so is a crispy cookie. Or three. Or ten, for that matter.

These crispy, chocolate-y rounds take a little time to make because the dough needs to chill, but they are not difficult to make and the result is a pile (7 dozen!) of crunchy bites that go equally well with a glass of cold milk, a cup of hot coffee or tea, or a mug of cocoa. Eat them as they are, dunk them, make them into sandwich cookies, or craft a S'more with your favorite homemade marshmallow and some fabulous chocolate. I have included my buttercream frosting recipe at the end of this blog post and added some flavoring ideas in case you want to get crazy with sandwich cookie fillings.

I played a little bit with the flavors of this cookie. Dark cane syrup is not unlike molasses in color, but the flavor is a bit lighter. The cane syrup adds a deep background flavor to the cocoa. You can also use a golden cane syrup such as Lyle's - the same syrup that I use in these amazing marshmallows - and you will get a more intense chocolate flavor without the deep notes that the dark syrup adds. Vanilla and espresso powder also enhance the chocolate flavor; exactly why I LOVE these cookies!

Chocolate Wafer Cookies
This batch will yield about 7 dozen 2 1/2-inch round cookies. This may seem like a lot, but they disappear quickly!
Don't want to make so many right now? Freeze leftover unbaked dough for up to a month = thaw in the refrigerator to keep chilled, then bake when you are ready for more.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) slightly softened
1/2 cup cane syrup (dark or golden)
1 large egg
1 t. whiskey vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t. espresso powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt

Let's make 'em!

1. In a medium sized bowl, sift together the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, espresso powder, soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and the butter until smooth.
3. Add the cane syrup, egg, and vanilla separately, mixing thoroughly after each is added.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture and stir until completely incorporated. The dough will be a little dry and crumbly.
5. When the ingredients are well mixed, use your hands to form the dough into a ball or log, wrap in parchment or waxed paper and chill for at least one hour.

The dough is chilled, so let's get those cookies baked!
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Cut the log or round of dough into thirds and work with one third at at time, keeping the rest chilled.
2. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll to 1/8-inch thickness.
3. Cut out cookies with a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter and prick the centers with a fork to keep them from rising during baking.
4. Place the cookies about 1 inch apart on a greased cookie sheet or on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 6 minutes at 350 degrees F or until the cookies appear baked but the edges are not browned.
5. Allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes before removing them to a cooling rack.
6. When completely cooled, place in an airtight container.
Yield: 7 dozen 1/8-inch thick cookie wafers

Serving ideas:
1. Create sandwich cookies by frosting with a flavored buttercream frosting (recipe below) and topping with a second cookie.
2. Toast your favorite marshmallow and sandwich between two of these crispy chocolate wafers along with your favorite chocolate bar for an unbeatable homemade S'more treat.

Buttercream Frosting
This frosting is so versatile! Use it on cakes and cookies as well as on pastries such as cinnamon rolls . Play with flavor additions for unique frostings.

Ingredients:

2 ½ c. powdered sugar

2 T. Whiskey or whiskey vanilla …. Or just plain old vanilla….

1 T. milk or cream or half & half

2 T. softened butter

If you'd like a flavored frosting, before adding the butter add one of the following for a uniquely flavored frosting - perfect for cookie fillings and pastry toppings as well as on your favorite cake:

Chocolate Frosting: 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder in place of 1/4 cup of the sugar

Cinnamon Frosting: 1 t. ground cinnamon

Lavender Frosting: 1-2 drops (only one or two!) culinary lavender essential oil

Orange Blossom Frosting: 1/4 t. orange blossom water (omit the vanilla) The orange blossom water is quite concentrated, so don't be tempted to put a lot of it into the frosting or you'll be eating a mouthful of flowers. You can temper some of the sweet floral flavor by grating about 1 tsp. fresh orange rind into the frosting (or a little more to taste). The sweet blossom flavor and brighter orange rind flavor combine very well with the chocolate cookie.

Here's how to make the frosting:

Put all the ingredients except the softened butter into a medium sized mixing bowl. Stir until the sugar and the liquids create a very thick ball. If the ingredients seem too dry to create the ball, add more whiskey vanilla or milk to the bowl ½ t. at a time, stirring the thick mixture until it creates a stiff ball. Add the butter and work it into the stiffened ball of sugar, then stir it quickly to create a smooth buttercream frosting.

The Gorgeous Gingerbread Cheesecake

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 02:41:08 GMT

Our signature design to celebrate the art of pairing unusual flower garnishes and tastes of the Holidays.

Imagine a Gingerbread Cheesecake glazed with dark chocolate truffle ganache and drizzled with white chocolate, finally embellished with cinnamon sticks, star anise stars, and sugared cranberries. Then style it with evergreen fronds and a variety of kales - purple and white, large and small, curly and flat-leaved.
Oh. And toss a few more of those sugared cranberry jewels on it and around it and on the table.

Ooooh. Yummy!

Gingerbread Cheesecake

This recipe will make one lovely 8 inch cheesecake. Bake at 350 degrees F.

Let's make it!
Ingredients:

Crust:
3 cups gingerbread cookie crumbs. Here's my favorite cookie , but you can use any gingerbread cookie you'd like.
1/2 cup (one stick) butter, melted

1. Crush cookies with a rolling pin or whirr in a food processor until the cookies are fine crumbs. Put them in a medium bowl.
2. Melt the butter and pour over the crumbs, mixing until all of the crumbs are coated.
3. Press the crumbs into a greased 8-inch springform pan.
4. Bake for 5 minutes at 350 degrees F to set the crust. Cool.

Cheesecake:
3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 t. whiskey vanilla or regular vanilla
2 T. finely chopped crystallized ginger*
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream

*Slice the crystallized ginger pieces into very fine strips, then chop them cross-wise into tiny pieces. Toss the ginger pieces with a Tablespoon of sugar to coat them; work them apart with your fingers to be certain that each piece is coated.

1. Beat cream cheese and sugar until very well mixed and the mixture is soft.
2. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
3. Add vanilla, crystallized ginger, heavy cream, and sour cream. Mix very well.
4. Pour into crust. Bake until center is set, about 55-60 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely. Refrigerate.
5. To remove cake from the pan, run a thin knife or spatula around the sides of the cheesecake to loosen from the pan, do the same at the bottom of the cake when the side of the springform pan is removed. Transfer to a pretty cake plate or cardboard cake round.

Glaze:
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 ounces (about 1/2 bar - dark (55% or better) chocolate (consider adding an ounce or two of really dark (85-99% cacao) chocolate to it. Ooooh - Decadent). If you add a little more chocolate, you'll want to add a drop or two more of the cream to make the ganache smooth and spreadable.

1. Pour the cream into a small saucepan and heat to scald (just before boiling). Remove from heat and allow to cool for about 1 minute.
2. Add the chocolate to the cream and stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.
3. Pour the mixture onto the chilled cheesecake and spread around the center area of the cake.
4. Allow to cool and stiffen. Refrigerate.

White Chocolate Drizzle:
2 ounces white chocolate - do not use the white chips as they will not melt smoothly. Baker's brand melts well.

1. Melt the white chocolate by microwaving it for 60 seconds then at 30 second intervals until it is creamy and stirs well.
2. Using a spoon, drizzle the white chocolate over the cake in any desired design. I love to make an off-center starburst or flower petal design.
3. Refrigerate cake until the white chocolate is hard.

Style it:
Gather the following pretties to style and decorate the cheesecake or work with what you have at home.

Cinnamon Sticks
Star Anise
Sugared Cranberries
Ornamental Kale of various varieties
Evergreen fronds
Powdered sugar

Add cinnamon sticks and star anise and cranberries on the cake, concentrating in one area off-center and fanning out on the cake. Arrange evergreen fronds around the cake plate. Arrange the heads of kale as if a bouquet at one side of the cake in varying heights. An egg cup or very small cup can hold a kale upright to add height. Play with the look till you like it!
Add more sugared cranberries around the cake plate itself and on the table to extend the display.
As a final touch, sprinkle powdered sugar over all to give it a unified, polished appearance. Place a few tablespoons of powdered sugar in a small strainer. Shake lightly over the display, just to add a slightly snowy dimension to it. Be careful not to use too much powdered sugar... less is more!

Sugared Cranberries

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 03:27:20 GMT

A cranberry treat just in time for Holiday celebrations.

The 2018 Holidays are just around the corner and if you're like me, you're looking for some new and creative ways to use the lowly, sometimes much maligned cranberries sitting in the back of your refrigerator. There are so many ways to use them: jams, jellies, salads, and more.
But right now let's focus on those little round, red, jewels of sugary goodness in the photo above.
You're right.
They're the juicy, sweet-tart sugared cranberries, and they are super-easy to make.
Here's the recipe:

Sugared Cranberries

Ingredients:
As many crispy, fresh cranberries as you'd like to make. The following amount of sugar syrup will easily steep about a cup of berries, but you can reheat the syrup and steep several batches, one after another.

Equal amounts of sugar and water. For the 1 cup of berries, use 1/2 cup each water and sugar.
Extra sugar, about 1/4 cup

Equipment:
Medium heavy-bottomed saucepan with lid
Slotted spoon
Cooling rack covered with parchment

Let's make 'em!
Place the 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar in the saucepan, stir to dissolve the sugar and heat just to boiling. Remove from heat and place cranberries in the sugar syrup, give them a stir, and cover with the lid. Allow to steep about 10 minutes. Remove the berries from the syrup with the slotted spoon and place on the rack covered with parchment to cool.
Once they are cooled, place them, a few at a time, in a bowl of sugar and toss to cover. Remove to a parchment-covered plate and refrigerate. You can put them in an airtight container for a short time, but they will get weepy, so if you're planning to use them the next day or beyond, leave them uncovered on that plate.

Eat them one-by-one like candy! They have a tart and juicy squirt of flavor tempered by the sugar. Or use them as garnish on desserts, salads, or that Thanksgiving turkey. Yum!

Save that sugar syrup to use in drinks recipes.

Let me know how you like them!

A Quick Dry for Fresh Herbs

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 16:26:16 GMT

Or, how to rescue the last of the herbs in your garden before the big freeze.

It's supposed to freeze hard tonight, so I just zipped out to my garden to snip a few last stems of thyme. I know I can cover my herbs and I probably will, but in case I forget I wanted to grab that last little bit of summer. I seem to use a lot of thyme in my cooking and my baking, and the thyme from the garden seems to have a rich flavor that cannot be matched with grocery-store thyme. It flavors everything from hamburger and turkey soups, meatloaf and fish, to fried apples & onions and lavender-thyme shortbread.

I have tried growing a few herbs indoors for culinary snipping during the winter months, but either the light is too low in our little log farmhouse, or I have a black thumb when it comes to house plants. The herbs never make it to December.

A long time ago I discovered the quick and easy beauty of drying herbs in my microwave. It works best with small handfuls of herbs so I dry them periodically throughout the growing season rather than all at once - bigger batches end up drying in the oven. One of the things I really like about microwave drying is that the color of the herbs is retained as well as the flavor and the bright green reminds me of the fresh herbs I pick from the summer garden.

Here's how to dry fresh herbs in the microwave:

Try to dry the herbs soon after picking to retain the most color and flavor. If necessary, rinse and refrigerate the leaves on the stems for a few hours till you can get to them. You will need:

Plain white or natural paper towels or a clean pure linen or cotton
Microwave
Storage jars such as canning jars or a bowl and reclosable plastic bags

1. Pick a handful or two of fresh herbs. Rinse them and pat dry.
2. Smaller-leaved herbs such as thyme can be dried right on the stem. Larger leaves such as mint dry better if they are removed from the stem first and placed in a single layer on the towel. Rosemary leaves can be dried on the stems and removed later.
3. Make sure the herbs are placed in a single layer - or as close to that as you can manage - and cover with another towel or fold the fabric over the top of the herbs. Place the packet in the microwave.
4. Microwave it for approximately 45 seconds to 1 minute on high, watching the packet carefully. Check the herbs for dryness and remove any dry pieces to a bowl or open canning jar; you might need to place the remaining leaves or heavier herbs onto another paper towel and microwave them again for 20-45 seconds. You may need to repeat that again, depending on the dryness of the herbs.
5. *** When drying herbs past the first time in the microwave, be especially careful about the amount of time they are heated. Rosemary oil seems to flash suddenly and you might have a little bonfire in your microwave if you're not careful. This is experience speaking... I'm just saying....

6. Stir them with your fingers when they have cooled and re-microwave for 10-20 seconds if the leaves/stems feel cool or damp.
7. As the herbs feel dry, remove them from the towel or cloth and place them in a bowl or canning jar and allow them to sit at room temperature for a few hours to a day before capping tightly in a jar or plastic bag.
8. Store in a dark, cool, dry place such as an spice drawer or pantry cupboard.
9. Enjoy them!!

Let me know if you'd like a recipe or two using the thyme I dried today.

Soap Making 101 for the Holidays!

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 19:50:11 GMT

Now's your chance to learn to make soap and to create beautiful handmade gifts too.

You can learn to make soap and create your own beautiful handmade gifts at the same time!

The final cold process soap making class of 2018 is scheduled for Saturday, November 3 from 10AM - 3 PM at the unique and gorgeous Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend, Wisconsin.

We'll explore recipe design and make soap using a pre-measured kit of materials so that you can concentrate on the process and not on the fine details. The recipe of the day is included in a booklet designed so that you can keep notes specific to your very own batch - you'll learn to create scent and can design your very own fragrance using fine essential oils. If you have special ingredients you'd like included, such as dried herbs or flower petals from your garden, bring them along! See the info below. Feel free to share the information with friends and family!

***You don't need to be a member of MOWA to attend the class you'll be able to tour the Museum while you're there!

Whiskey Vanilla

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 15:17:30 GMT

Like the vanilla extract available commercially, but much, much better.

How to make Whiskey Vanilla:

Ingredients:

1 vanilla bean for every half-liter of whiskey (or other alcohol, such as vodka)

I like to make this in a canning jar, then decant to a pretty bottle when ready. You can make it right in the whiskey bottle if you'd like.

Pumpkin Orange Raisin Muffins

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 21:12:33 GMT

A handful of breakfast that doesn't need a dab of butter or a spoon of jam.

One of the perks of having friends who have big gardens is to be gifted with the produce they grew but cannot use. Because I was working on Washington Island for most of the summer, our garden is a kind of pitiful mess, and we grew no squashes or pumpkins this year. That's why when our friend Mary offered squashes, I took them. Mr. Century Farmhouse roasted two Hubbard squashes earlier this week and today I made multiple goodies with their creamy insides. First I made two large pans of custard - think pumpkin pie without the crust - and then I made a super-dee-duper batch of Pumpkin Orange Raisin Muffins. There are enough muffins for us to enjoy for breakfast for weeks to come. Thankfully they freeze really well! I'd like to share that muffin recipe with you because they are just that good. If we don't stop nibbling at the muffins on the counter, there won't be many to freeze and I'll have to look for bigger clothes. Ha.

You'll also want to read all the way to the bottom of this post, as I include instructions for roasting pumpkin or squash for baking and also for tasty roasted pumpkin/squash seeds. There are a couple variations listed there too. Have fun!

Pumpkin Orange Raisin Muffins

This batch makes 3 dozen muffins - a lot! - but they freeze well and will keep you stocked with breakfast yummies for quite a while.

Variations and directions for roasting your pumpkin and for enjoying the seeds are at the bottom of this post. Have fun!

Ingredients:

1/3 cup oil

½ cup butter, melted

2 cups sugar

5 large eggs, lightly whisked

4 cups pumpkin or squash (see note below)

4 t. whiskey vanilla or plain vanilla

¼ cup orange juice or juice of one orange

1 T. orange zest

5 cups bread flour

1 t. salt

2 t. baking soda

2 t. baking powder

4 t. cinnamon

¼ t. cloves

¼ - ½ cup crystalized ginger finely chopped

2 cups raisins

Let’s make the muffins!

Use a big bowl - this batch makes a lot of muffins! Everything pretty much goes into the bowl and gets stirred around in the order listed.

Oven temperature 350 degrees F. Makes about three dozen 2 ½ inch muffins.

1. In a large bowl, combine the oil, melted butter, and sugar and stir until well mixed.

2. Add the eggs, pumpkin, vanilla, orange juice, and orange zest. Mix well.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients - except for the fruit - and stir together until well mixed. Add to the pumpkin mixture and mix that really well. By now the dough will fill the bowl and be rather stiff -ish Is that a word? and sticky.

4. Add the fruit and stir into the dough. If you have used a mixer to this point, take the bowl off the mixer stand and stir the fruit in by hand.

5. Grease a muffin tin or line with muffin papers. Spoon dough into each cup, filling about ¾ full.

6. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes, then place a piece of foil lightly over the top of the muffins and bake for 5 minutes more. Muffins will be lightly browned on the sides and a toothpick or straw used to test doneness will come out clean.

7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the pan and allow to cool completely on a rack. I don’t let them cool because I cannot wait to eat them, but I have to say this so you don’t burn your tongue eating them right out of the oven!

8. Wash the pan between batches if paper muffin cups are not used. Re-grease and repeat from number 5 above until all the dough has been baked. If there are unfilled cups during the last batch to bake, put about ½ inch water in the empty cups so the muffins bake evenly.

Variations:

Chocolate Chip Ginger Pumpkin Muffins: Replace the raisins with chocolate chips! The dark chocolate chunks are my favorite in this recipe.

Pumpkin bread loaves: Grease or line three bread pans or 6 - 8 washed 16+ ounce tin cans. Fill about ¾ full of dough. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes, check for done-ness and bake 5-10 minutes longer. Cover lightly with foil if the breads are browning too quickly. Breads are done when a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool before removing from pans.

*Note: Prepare your own pureed pumpkin or squash for this recipe:

Carefully cut a pumpkin or large squash (Hubbard, butternut, acorn) in half and scoop out the seeds. Save them for another great snack later (see below). Place halves of the pumpkin or squash cut side down on a metal pan with sides such as a jelly roll pan or on a glass pan. Pour a small amount of water - about a cup or so - onto the pan, just to keep the pumpkin from sticking to the pan as it bakes. Place in 350 degrees F oven and bake for about an hour or until a fork pierced into the skin of the pumpkin goes in smoothly and the interior flesh is soft. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Scoop the flesh into a bowl and mash with a potato masher or puree in a food processor until smooth. If the squash or pumpkin is rather dry and mashes with difficulty, add just a little water, perhaps 1/4 cup at a time to moisten it. You'll know you've added enough water when the squash puree is looser and just smooth. Use in any recipe calling for canned pumpkin.

Want to snack on the seeds? As you remove the seeds, collect them in a bowl. Rinse in a colander under cool running water to remove any stringy flesh from the pumpkin. Dry on a towel. Return the seeds to the bowl and toss with a teaspoon of oil such as grapeseed oil. Place on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment or directly into a cast iron skillet and place into a hot 425F degree oven. Stir every 5-10 minutes until the seeds are browned and starting to “pop”. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Toss with salt or parmesan cheese if desired, then eat ‘em up!

Let me know how you like them!

Gingerbread Figgy Bars

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Wed, 19 Sep 2018 04:22:47 GMT

Once again a good recipe is made better because I can't resist- and the good recipe is from a vintage Country Living Magazine.

The dust has settled on the trip Mr. Century Farmhouse and I took to the Ohio Country Living Fair. The Not Just a Gingerbread Cookie demo was fun to do, and there were lots of people there to taste test the goodies. What fun!

When I start putting ideas together for a talk, especially a talk that involves recipes, I begin with what I know. And I knew exactly what I wanted: I dug out my favorite gingerbread recipe and I dug through the stacks of old Country Living magazines that fill the extra cupboard in my kitchen. You know, like the stacks you probably have stashed in your house, and that you dig through when you are looking for just the recipe you know is there. Somewhere.

Ha! I found it after digging through only three stacks.
There are several very vintage Country Living magazines that I use over and over, and this is one of them. Think of it: March 1986. What were you doing then? I was living in a log house on a farm about 35 miles north of Century Farmhouse, had two little girls and was getting ready to move to Montana to work on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation - but that's a story for another time.
Anyway, the Country Store cookie and cracker recipes in this March 1986 issue of Country Living Magazine are fabulous. I love the raisin pies and the cheese crackers and the soda crackers and the graham crackers, and I have made them many times over the years. For this demo I needed the fig bars recipe though, and I needed to change it.

That filling recipe was perfect for the gingerbread figgy bars, but it needed to lose the nuts and get jazzed up! Nut allergies are too serious to play around with when people want to taste the samples and gingerbread dough has a lot of flavor going for it already. The filling couldn't be overpowered and needed to complement the cookie holding it. So here is my version of the fig filling and the actual Gingerbread Figgy Bars recipe:

Gingerbread Figgy Bars

Mix one recipe of the Gingerbread Men cookie dough from the Our Favorite Recipes book. Here's the link. You will use about 1/3 of the dough for this recipe. Freeze the rest of the dough for future cookies or use it in another way. Or not. Maybe you want to make more filling to make more Figgy Bars! Have fun.

Filling:
1 cup coarsely chopped dried figs
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
1/4 cup honey plus more if needed
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon whiskey vanilla or vanilla extract
heaping 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Put all the filling ingredients into the bowl of your food processor and chop very finely or use the puree setting. The filling will still be quite coarse when finished.
2. Add more honey a tablespoon at a time if the filling seems dry. It should be quite sticky; should not fall apart and should not be drippy.
3. Set this mixture aside and prepare the cookie dough wrapping.

4. On a piece of parchment paper, roll out the gingerbread dough into a rectangle and cut it to about 6 inches wide by about 9 inches long. Of course you can play with these sizes, making the final cookie log bigger or smaller as you'd like. The dough should be rolled quite thin (about 1/8 inch thick); this will make it somewhat difficult to work with, so after rolling the dough, set it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to stiffen back up.
5. Using a sharp knife or a bench scraper, cut "fringes" about 1 3/4 inches long and about 3/8 inch wide along the long edge of the dough rectangle. This should leave the middle section of the dough (a little more than 2 inches wide) uncut.
6. Pick up a handful of the filling mixture and shape it to fit the middle section. You may have to do this several times to fill the middle section of the rectangle completely. The filling should be about 3/4 inch thick.
7. Now taking a fringe strip from each side one at a time, "braid" the fringes over the filling until the entire filling is covered. The photo at the top of this post will give you an idea of how the log will look.
8. That cookie log should still be on the parchment paper, so slide it onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes. Check the log at about 12 minutes and cover loosely with foil if it seems to be browning too quickly.
9. Remove from the oven and slide the cookie log on the parchment onto a cooling rack. Cut into slices with a bench scraper or knife while the log is still slightly warm. Store in an airtight container.

Not just a Gingerbread Cookie

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 00:52:00 GMT

My favorite recipe from Our Favorite Recipes - the recipe book I grew up with.

The third Country Living Fair - in 2008 - made its home in Columbus, Ohio, and I don't think I have missed one of those Fairs! Once again I will be speaking at the Ohio Country Living Fair and this time I'm going to be playing around with gingerbread. I also will share the story of the cookbook I grew up with and now own and have gifted my children with. Our Favorite Recipes was compiled and printed by the St. John's Guild in West Bend, Wisconsin in 1949 . MY favorite recipe is on page 217: the Gingerbread Men recipe and I am going to play with my own variations of that recipe onstage on Friday September 14 at 11:30 at the Ohio Country Living Fair. Hope you can join me!

English Tea Scones with Chocolate & Currants

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 02:34:09 GMT

Tea scones made with luscious chocolate chunks and dried currants. Pour me a cup of tea, will you please?

I love scones.
I love scones that are flaky and warm from the oven with a taste of chocolate and/or fruit in every bite. I love them with a cup of tea, I love them with a friend or three. I do love these scones you see. Gosh, I'm an awful poet.

All goofing off aside, scones are my favorite go-to for breakfast, and a batch is a snap to whip up. I began playing with this recipe more than 30 years ago when my sister returned with it from a student-teaching semester in Scotland. The original recipe does not call for buttermilk or currants or chocolate or even lavender. They are pretty plain, but pretty wonderful with butter and honey. Over the years I have varied the recipe enough to have them consistently turn out flaky and delicious. This recipe will make 16 good-sized scones, or more if you make them smaller.
Pssst!: I have included the lavender variation at the end just for you!

Let's make 'em!
Preheat the oven to 420 degrees F. Trust me, you want the oven HOT!
Prepare the baking pan or cookie sheet by greasing with butter or placing parchment paper on the pan.

Ingredients:
4 cups bread flour / unbleached all-purpose flour will work as well, the scones will be a little stiffer
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (one stick) chilled butter, cut into chunks
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup plus 1-2 Tablespoons cultured buttermilk (or whole milk plus 2 Tablespoons lemon juice)
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks (or semi-sweet chocolate chips)
1 cup dried currants (or dried fruit of your choice)

Ready to mix them up?
1. Measure the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir together. Quickly cut in the chilled butter as if making pastry. I use an old-fashioned wire pastry cutter, but you can pulse the dry ingredients and butter in a food processor until the butter is fully incorporated into the dry ingredients and looks like very fine bits.

2. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and beat them with a fork until they are pretty well mixed. Mix the eggs with 1 cup buttermilk.

3. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the egg and buttermilk and mix lightly with a fork until blended. If the dough seems too dry, add the extra buttermilk one Tablespoon at a time as necessary to have all the dry ingredients incorporated. The dough should not be very wet. Stir in the chocolate chunks and currants. Knead the dough right in the bowl with a light touch 4-5 times.

4. Divide the dough into two equal portions and gently roll each into a ball and pat flat to 1-inch thick flat round on the prepared baking pan. Use a knife or a bench scraper to score/cut each flattened round into 8 equal pieces.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the scones are lightly browned and completely baked through in the center. If the edges are browning and the center is still gooey (don't you love that professional word?), cover the dough with foil for the last few minutes to allow the center to continue to bake without burning the edges. My oven runs a little hot, so I usually bake them about 20 minutes.

Style variation: Pat the dough into a a rectangle to about 1 inch thick on the prepared baking sheet. Cut into 16 squares and move them to about 1 inch apart on the pan. These scones will bake faster and may be ready by 15-18 minutes.

The scones are fabulously delicious served warm from the oven, but will freeze well for later. Serve warm or at room temperature with a cup of tea or coffee or hot chocolate. You can never have too much chocolate!

Chocolate and Lavender Scones Variation

This past summer I had the amazing opportunity to work at the largest lavender farm in the Midwest - on Washington Island, Wisconsin, of all places! I lived, breathed, worked in, and ate lavender. Oh my.
You can make the luscious Chocolate and Lavender Scones pictured above simply by adding 2 1/2 Tablespoons of ground culinary lavender flowers and omitting the dried currants. Keep that chocolate in the recipe. Chocolate and lavender are wonderful together!

The best homemade marshmallow you have ever tasted.

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 01:45:03 GMT

They're golden!

The Best Marshmallow You Have Ever Tasted

A marshmallow is not a marshmallow is not a marshmallow.

Have you ever tasted a homemade marshmallow? Inspiration struck about 19 years ago - about the time I started to make soap - to try to make homemade marshmallows for a family winter sledding party. I made gingerbread cookies in the shape of cows (we’re from Wisconsin after all), found some luscious milk and dark chocolate bars, and made homemade marshmallows with Martha Stewart’s recipe so we could have S’mores around the campfire. They were fantastic.

A few years later - why did I wait so long? – I made another batch for Easter, swirling them in pastel-colored sugars instead of white powdered sugar. They were so pretty and the colored superfine dredging sugars made the marshmallows more like the colored chickies we call Peeps – only better! This time I used Ina Garten’s recipe and it didn’t disappoint either.

I suppose it is because I have worked with scents so closely for the past two decades that I am very sensitive to tastes and scents, but those recipes just didn’t taste as good as I thought they should have when I played around with them again about 5 years ago. I made so many batches as I was playing around that I even managed to burn out my mother’s electric mixer in the process and now I have to go farther afield to borrow a mixer. Ha! I suppose at some point I will need to break down and buy one of my own. My little farmhouse kitchen has very little room…

Commercial marshmallows are made with corn syrup, and most homemade marshmallows are too. I actually found that the corn syrup is what gives that rather “tinny” edge to their flavor. So I began to play with other possibilities to replace the corn syrup . Are you beginning to see my habit of changing every recipe I touch coming through here??? Yup! I did it again, and Oh Wow, they are good!

The recipe below is the result of some serious playing around and S’more eating and I think you will find they are worth the effort!

Let’s make ‘em:

Golden Syrup Marshmallows – They’re golden!

* Note: Lyle’s Golden Syrup is a sugar cane syrup. If you can find another brand that is pure cane syrup, go for it! You will find it most easily in more upscale grocery stores – or request it. Or, order it online.

Equipment:

Mixer – large bowl, whisk attachment

Medium saucepan

Depending on desired thickness of the marshmallow: 9X9” / 8X12” / 13 X 9” non-metal pan

Scale or measuring cups & spoons, stirring spoon, rubber scraper, strainer, kitchen knife, bench scraper, cutting board

Ingredients:

3 packages or 3 leaves of unflavored gelatin plus ½ cup cold water

1 ½ cups minus 1 Tablespoon sugar (I like to use caster sugar or superfine baking sugar because it dissolves more quickly, but regular table sugar is fine).

1 cup (8 oz.) Lyle’s Golden Syrup *see note above

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup cold water

1 Tablespoon whiskey vanilla, cacao brandy, or plain old vanilla

Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

It’s all good, isn’t it? I can’t wait to have you try these amazing marshmallows!

Here we go:

1. Prepare the pan: sprinkle confectioner’s sugar over the bottom and sides of the non-metal pan. You will note that the sugar doesn’t like to stick to the sides of the pan. Here’s my trick: You don’t want to grease the pan as there shouldn’t be grease of any kind on the marshmallows, but…. Place just a dab of neutral-flavored oil such as grapeseed onto a napkin or paper towel and wipe it around the pan bottom and sides. Then take a clean part of that towel and wipe over the pan again so that there is an extremely thin film of oil on the pan. Using the strainer, evenly sprinkle the confectioner’s sugar. Tip the pan as necessary to coat the sides. It works!

2. Place ½ cup cold water in the mixer bowl and evenly sprinkle the gelatin on top. The gelatin will stiffen quite a bit but it melts quickly when the hot syrup mixture is added later.

3. In a heavy, medium-sized saucepan, stir together the sugar, ½ cup cold water, salt and syrup. Over medium heat, bring the syrup mixture to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar, then pretty constantly to avoid scorching it. This is the part that takes the longest and tries my patience! Stir and cook that mixture until it reaches the soft ball stage (240° F / 115° C) on a candy thermometer.

4. Remove from heat, add the vanilla and stir to mix it in thoroughly.

5. Now take that syrup mixture carefully over to the mixer and pour a little bit onto the gelatin. Begin to slowly beat the syrup/gelatin until the gelatin is completely softened and combined with the syrup. Pour the rest of the syrup mixture carefully into the mixer bowl as you increase the speed of the mixer to medium. When all of the syrup has been added to the bowl, add the vanilla and increase the speed to high (I usually go to just below the highest speed) and beat the marshmallows for 15 minutes. Yup! It really will take that long for it to become an amazing treat!

6. Use the rubber scraper to clean off the gooey stickiness from the whisk attachment right into the pan, then scoop or tip the rest of the marshmallow into the pan. Lick the spatula and save the bowl and whisk for later. Use a kitchen knife to spread the marshmallow mixture evenly in the pan. Using the strainer, sprinkle the top of the marshmallow with confectioner’s sugar. Now you can lick that bowl!

7. Allow the giant marshmallow to dry for 12-18 hours.

8. Loosen the marshmallow from the pan, place a cutting board over the pan and tip upside down. With luck your marshmallow will drop right onto the cutting board!

9. Cut with a bench scraper or knife (or cookie cutters!) into desired shapes and sizes. Store in an airtight container. These marshmallows will keep up to a month, but they won’t last that long!

Homemade Maple Syrup Marshmallows

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 01:31:43 GMT

I'm telling you, they are soooooo good!

...The maple trees stand as silent guardians, ushering Spring into our corner of Wisconsin. Over the cacophony of birdsong the prehistoric rasp of the Sandhill cranes on their northward journey fill the air. The squinch of my snowshoes in the deep white stuff languishing on the ground assures me that winter still has its hold on Wisconsin; but the quiet plop of sap, one of my favorite sounds of Spring, celebrates for me the rebirth of the earth. It happens with gentle dignity. It surprises with sudden greening. It delights with warmth and welcome, sunlight and showers...

Unforgettably Gooey Maple Syrup Treats – Homemade Maple Syrup Marshmallows

As you probably already know, the Century Farmhouse maple trees are tapped every spring and the sap is made into wonderful syrup with a deep, dark color and a smoky edge to the flavor. We make it for ourselves, but we have been known to share it once in a while…

I’ve been on mission lately to create a most magnificent marshmallow, and I think I have succeeded. Try that recipe here . If you know me well, you know that my mind is continually coming up with scathingly brilliant ideas about how to make recipes better or how to use unusual ingredients in more unusual ways. So after creating the Golden Marshmallow (not really golden in color –just in flavor!), I began to think of new ways to create marshmallow-y gooeyness with other ingredients. “Why not maple syrup?” I said to myself.

Oh. My. Gooey. Goodness.

Here we go:

Ultra-Maple-y Homemade Maple Syrup Marshmallows

You can absolutely use store-bought maple syrup, but be certain that it is the real stuff from trees and does not contain any filler syrups or sugars. These marshmallows have a slightly grainy texture from the little bit of maple sugar that forms as you heat the mixture to add to the gelatin. And watch out when you toast them up for S’mores – they get brown and gooey very quickly!

Equipment:

Mixer – large bowl, whisk attachment

Medium saucepan

Depending on desired thickness of the marshmallow: 9X9” / 8X12” / 13 X 9” non-metal pan

Scale or measuring cups & spoons, stirring spoon, rubber scraper, strainer, kitchen knife, bench scraper, cutting board

Ingredients:

3 packages or 3 leaves of unflavored gelatin plus ½ cup cold water

1 ½ cups minus 1 Tablespoon sugar

(I like to use caster sugar or superfine baking sugar because it dissolves more quickly, but regular table sugar is fine).

1 cup (8 oz.) real maple syrup *see note above

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup cold water

Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Let's make 'em!

1. Prepare the pan: sprinkle confectioner’s sugar over the bottom and sides of the non-metal pan.

You will note that the sugar doesn’t like to stick to the sides of the pan. Here’s my trick: You don’t want to grease the pan as there shouldn’t be grease of any kind on the marshmallows, but…. Place just a dab of neutral-flavored oil such as grapeseed onto a napkin or paper towel and wipe it around the pan bottom and sides. Then take a clean part of that towel and wipe over the pan again so that there is an extremely thin film of oil on the pan. Using the strainer, evenly sprinkle the confectioner’s sugar. Tip the pan as necessary to coat the sides. It works!

2. Place ½ cup cold water in the mixer bowl and evenly sprinkle the gelatin on top. The gelatin will stiffen quite a bit but it melts quickly when the hot syrup mixture is added later.

3. In a heavy, medium-sized saucepan, stir together the sugar, ½ cup cold water, salt and maple syrup. Over medium heat, bring the syrup mixture to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar, then pretty constantly to avoid scorching it. This is the part that takes the longest and tries my patience, and it will take a good bit longer for the maple syrup to reach the correct temperature than for other homemade marshmallows. Stir and cook that mixture until it reaches the soft ball stage (240° F / 115° C) on a candy thermometer.

4. Remove from heat.

5. Now take that syrup mixture carefully over to the mixer and pour a little bit onto the gelatin. Begin to slowly beat the syrup/gelatin until the gelatin is completely softened and combined with the syrup. Pour the rest of the syrup mixture carefully into the mixer bowl as you increase the speed of the mixer to medium. When all of the syrup has been added to the bowl, increase the speed to high (I usually go to just below the highest speed) and beat the marshmallows for 15 minutes. Yup! It really will take that long for it to become an amazing treat!

7. Allow the giant marshmallow to dry for 12-18 hours.

8. Loosen the marshmallow from the pan, place a cutting board over the pan and tip upside down. With luck your marshmallow will drop right onto the cutting board!

9. Cut with a bench scraper or knife or cookie cutters into desired shapes and sizes. Store in an airtight container. These marshmallows will keep up to a month, but they won’t last that long. They will seem a bit more powdery than the regular homemade marshmallows. That is because a little bit of maple sugar is created as the syrup mixture is heated beyond the temperature at which the sap becomes syrup.

S'mores, anyone??

Let me introduce you to my neighbor!

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Sun, 08 Jul 2018 02:04:36 GMT

And there's a lavender wand class opportunity in this introduction...

Sometimes chance meetings are really meant to be. Sometimes they even should have happened long ago. An opportune encounter I had earlier this week with the neighbors who are one-half mile away from Century Farmhouse, but who live in the Milwaukee area took place 190 miles from West Bend in Washington Island, Wisconsin.

Let me explain.

I was innocently working in the warm Island sunshine, assisting visitors to the lavender farm to cut bundles of lavender and to make lavender wands. A couple stopped by the field and we began to chat about where we came from. What a surprise! But what is more surprising is what they do with that farm and the fact that they've been doing it for a while and I had no clue. They are one-half mile from my house and I had no idea that their farm is actually a farm school. Am I really that clueless?? Don't answer that.

So, long story made short, I have now scheduled a lavender wand making class for Friday, July 27 from 6-8PM at the Paradise Farm School in West Bend, Wisconsin! You can see their beautiful log house and barn, giggle at the goats that entertain me every time I go by, and laugh at the antics of their delightful chickens. We'll make the wands in the barn if it rains. And best of all? This is a lavender ice cream social, complete with cookies and lemonade.

Click here for more info about the farm school, and see below for the wand details! Register directly with Paradise Farm School. And please know that a portion of the registration fee will go to support programs at the Farm School. See you there!

Creative Fun for Kids!

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Sat, 07 Jul 2018 13:56:59 GMT

July opportunities for kids to create!

Wow! The summer is moving on quickly - there is so much to do and so little time!

One of the things I like most to do is to create with kids. They have so much enthusiasm for the world around them and they love to explore and make things. This summer I am very into making chalk - a fun kid-thing, right? - and there are several opportunities in the next few weeks for kids to play with chalk in a number of ways. Who doesn't like to mess around drawing on sidewalks?

Wednesday, July 18: At the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend, WI: A day camp exploring the science of chalk and chalk making. We'll make white chalk and colored chalk. We'll make chalk paint and exploding and fizzing chalk. We'll draw all over the Museum's sidewalks. We'll print on paper with floating chalk. In other words, we'll get chalky. And dusty. And dirty. And have fun! Here's more about that!

Friday, July 27: Camp Create at Xpressions Beads 'n Yarn (see poster below) in downtown West Bend.... you guessed it!... kids can make chalk as part of the day camp, then have lunch and do wool felting projects in the afternoon with Kathryn from Thorntree Pass .

As part of the Museum's second annual Art & Chalk Fest on July 28 & 29, kids will also have the opportunity to make a Chunk of Chalk (don't you love it?) at the West Bend Farmers' Market on July 28 from 7:30-11AM - as long as the plaster of Paris lasts!

Lavender Wand Class

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Tue, 03 Jul 2018 13:03:24 GMT

This summer I am working at Fragrant Isle Lavender Farm on beautiful Washington Island, and am bringing lavender home to West Bend to share. If you're going to be in the area, sign up and join us!!

New! A mid-week soap making class!

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 01:50:39 GMT

Now you can save your summer Saturdays for family and fun.

Want to learn to make soap but have too many busy weekends during the summer? For the first time, we are offering a mid-week class just for you! Here's the info:

Contact me directly with specific questions and to sign up today!

Wrapped in Quilted Love

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 19:33:38 GMT

The fabric of family.

It was another age; another time. Grandma Rosa lived in the house I now call home and created beautiful but useful things of fabrics that caught her eye and fabrics she had stashed - edges of mostly-worn cotton sheets, 1930s feed sacks, cast-off and worn shirts and dresses, and trimmings from other sewing projects. She died when I was 19, and one of the last things she asked me to do was to finish a tablecloth she had barely started, using circles of fabric remnants placed in threaded squares. "Your Momma's busy and won't have time to finish it," she said to me. "You can do that."

So I threaded a needle with the orange cotton from Grandma's sewing machine drawer and carefully embroidered a blanket stitch around circles and more circles until her pretty tablecloth was complete. My stitches looked so unpracticed next to hers, but I loved the fact that we had in a way created that tablecloth together. I remember fingering the little fabric pieces, choosing colors and designs that appealed to me because of the memories they invoked and because they looked just right in their places on the cloth.

Forty years later, nearly 700 fabric circles remained in the box my mother took home from Grandma's house.
Yikes.

On this past Easter Sunday, my mother gifted me and each of my five sisters with gorgeous quilts collectively created with all of Grandma's remaining fabric circles. Mom created the design herself, and signed each quilt with Grandmas Flower Garden. I know, I know, that title is actually a recognized quilt pattern, but it is the perfect name for these quilts since they contain flowers made with Grandma's fabric circles, and they were made by my mother who is now a grandmother herself. ( Does that make this a double-heirloom)??

So many of the fabric circles included in my quilt have precious memories associated with them, and if you look closely you will see several that are found both on that pretty tablecloth and on the new quilt.

One of my sisters had a pair of shorts made of this fabric. I remember those butterflies! I wonder if Grandma made the shorts or if my mom or sister did and Grandma took the remnants for quilting? I'll have to ask.

Grandma Rosa both made and wore aprons. This fabric made its debut as an apron and other bits of it were incorporated into other quilts she created as well as that tablecloth and now this quilt.

My favorite circle of all is this pretty piece. It brings back a lot of memories of Grandma, and it is part of a very special quilt she made for me when I was about 15.

Grandma Rosa made a quilt for each of her 15 grandchildren. When I was about 14 or 15, she handed me a book of quilt patterns and asked me to pick out one that she would make into my quilt. After about 10 minutes of searching for just the right pattern, I handed the book back to her and said, "I want the Crazy Ann pattern."
She threw back her head and laughed out loud (my grandma didn't laugh out loud; it wasn't lady-like) , and said, "That fits!" She was quite tickled by my choice and then asked for my color request. A few months later she gave me this beautiful quilt and 2 pillowcases that were embroidered with blue and yellow birds.

See those tiny stitches? The fabric was cut at the Duncan Phyfe-style table in her kitchen and the pieces were sewn together on her 1920s treadle sewing machine, then quilted by hand while stretched on a homemade quilting frame that just fit into her living room. Look at those tiny stitches!

Times have changed a bit. My mother quilted our blankets with her computerized sewing machine - it would have taken her a very long time to hand-quilt them; think of all those circles! One thing has not changed however:
When you wrap yourself in a hand-made quilt, you wrap yourself in the love of the person who cared enough to make it.

Thank you, Grandma.
Thank you, Mom.
I feel very loved.
And I love you back.

Tiny Treasures from the Heart

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 03:32:19 GMT

Learn to make a tiny, pretty Valentine card with a secret pocket for a treasure!

I LOVE tiny cards, especially ones with hidey-holes for secret messages or tiny gifts. The intrigue of tiny-ness must be universal, since everyone I've gifted with these cards loved to see what they contained and kept them just to look at.

Confession time: I didn't design them. Too bad, because they are really fun to create and even more fun to pass on to others and I'd like to take the credit. A number of years ago I was up late working on soap (what else?), and to entertain myself was watching late-night Create Channel (PBS) TV. The show was The Spotted Canary , and these cards, along with other interactive cards, were the highlighted demonstration during that segment. Since then I've created gift cards, birthday cards, Christmas cards, thank you cards, and again, this year's Valentines. Using pretty papers and details that you can create yourself or purchase or collect, you can make gorgeous cards for just pennies. Follow along below to see how they're made. If you think you've seen all this before, you have! The first time I posted these instructions was in 2012 on my old, old blog at www.welcometocenturyfarmhouse.typepad.com .

The trick to making these cute little cards is to start with an envelope or three. Truly, working with an odd number of envelopes will result in a card that opens and closes correctly. While you can make these cards with any size envelope, the tiny ones use the least amount of materials and are the most intriguing & fun. The ones used for this project were letterpress envelopes purchased at a local hobby store and were about 3.25 X 3.25 inches square.

So, you will need the following materials:

envelopes of your choice - an odd number of them

pretty papers, ribbon, stickers, buttons, glitter, use your imagination! (even old newspaper can make an interesting card), scrapbooking odds & ends work very well

adhesives: glue dot rollers, glue sticks, spray adhesives work best. Liquid glues can make the paper wrinkle, so use sparingly. hot glue

scissors, paper cutter, crafting shears with decorative blades

patience

If you've chosen to use just one envelope, you can skip this next step. One envelope will result in a card that opens and closes with one pocket for a treat or a message.

1. If you'd like to create a larger card, begin by attaching the flap of one envelope to the lower front of another, and so on, so that all of the pockets are on one side and the glued flaps are on the other. It will be necessary to use more adhesive than the gluey strip on the flap edge, as the entire flap needs to be attached. The bottom edge of the envelope should be lined up with the fold of the next envelope's flap. There will be one flap that is free...which will eventually become the front cover.

2. Next, choose the papers you'd like to cover the envelope with and cut them to fit the overall exterior dimensions of the main envelope body. You will need one for each side of the envelope, two to cover the envelope flap, and one for the lining. Actually, the lining piece needs to be only about 1/2-inch (about 1.3cm) wider than the back of the pocket opening. Apply the adhesive to the back of the paper lining. Glue the liner into the pocket, first lining up the top edge of it with the fold of the envelope flap, then smoothing it into the pocket. If you are creating a card using multiple envelopes as shown in the top photo, insert the lining piece into each envelope before beginning to cover the outer surfaces. Believe me, it is easier to insert the liner first!!

Apply adhesive to the outer side of the pocket and apply the paper covering. Turn the card over and trim the edge of the paper to the edge of the envelope.

Next, apply adhesive to the entire inside of the flap, and line up the paper with the flap's fold line. Smooth into place. This is now the inside of the front cover. Turn the card over and apply adhesive to the backside of the flap and the paper. Apply the paper you've chosen for the front cover. Fold the card closed and trim the papers to the edge of the envelope for a neater look. Open the card and attach the paper chosen for the back cover to the flat side of the envelope; trim it, and you're ready to decorate your card!

If you've chosen to create a card using multiple envelopes, insert the pocket liners on all the envelopes first as described above, then cover the pocket sides of the envelopes. Trim as necessary. Create the front cover of the card with the papers attached to the remaining envelope flap as described above; trim. Cover the remaining backs of the envelopes - each one individually - trimming to the edges of each individual envelope by folding the ones around it and cutting any excess paper away carefully.
Finish by accordion-folding the card, starting with the front of the card. If done correctly, the outer edge of the front will line up with the outer edge of the back of the card, with all the envelopes folded accordion-style within the booklet. Open the card up to decorate.

3. Now comes the fun part! Use stickers, glitter, cut-outs, computer-generated designs, etc. to decorate the card. Create a secret message or find a tiny treasure to include in the pocket of the card. It does help to attach a ribbon to the treasure or note to facilitate removing it from the tiny pocket. Decorate the outside of the card, both front and back, and don't forget to sign and date your artwork.

4. To keep your card closed or to make it seem more of a treasure, you can attach a system to keep it closed. A frog -type closure could be attached on the outsides of the front and back. A ribbon loop attached on the back could slide over a button sewn onto the front. Hide the ribbon ends by attaching them between the paper covering and the envelope back - before you put that paper covering onto the envelope! I chose to hot-glue an 18' length of ribbon to the front and another to the back of the card, securing each with a glittering tab or a button. To close the card, wrap the front ribbon over the back, and the back ribbon over the front, and twist back and forth as if you were wrapping a special gift package. Tie with a tiny bow at the front of the card and trim the ribbon.

Who wouldn't love to receive a card like this? Who needs a gift??

No Recipe Raisin Bread

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 04:10:16 GMT

The loaf of artisan raisin and walnut bread on the bakery shelf called to me and its voice was loud and clear. It is amazing what you will hear calling to you in a grocery store on Saturday morning when you haven't yet had breakfast or even an early morning cup of tea. But I resisted. The January Freeze's temperatures hovered around minus 10 for the past week and I wanted a cozy Saturday at home with the aroma of baking bread making the house seem a bit warmer. There is nothing like it.

I call this bread No Recipe for a reason. Thirty years ago we lived on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana, a 125 mile drive from anything resembling a bakery. So I learned to make a pretty good loaf of bread and baked it once or twice a week - so often that I learned to craft it by how it looked and felt and not by what a written recipe told me to do. I suppose that is why I still play with perfectly good recipes created by others and why I just throw the ingredients into the mixing bowl and let it become bread. It is so much fun!

Although I have included measurements for the ingredients, please know that the flour amount actually depends on how the dough feels and how it responds to the kneading process. Too much flour will result in a very heavy, dry loaf. Not enough, and the dough will be quite sticky and make a very soft and small loaf. Pay attention to how the bread dough looks and feels as you work with it (I describe below) and your loaves will turn out beautifully.

Let's bake!
No Recipe Raisin Bread - makes 2 very yummy loaves that you'll want to eat as soon as they come out of the oven.

Ingredients:
2 cups raisins
1/2 cup liquid to plump the raisins. I used orange juice and a splash of that whiskey vanilla I like to make. You can use water if you'd like, or apple cider, or even a wonderful sweet red wine.
1 pkg. dry yeast or about 2 1/2 tsp.
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tblsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup dry milk powder
4 - 5 cups bread flour plus a little more for dusting
4 Tblsp. (1/4 cup) butter, melted
2 cups warm water
2 Tblsp. butter, melted to brush the loaves after baking

Let's get started!
Place the raisins and the liquid in a saucepan and heat them gently on low for about 15 minutes. Cover the raisins and allow to plump up as they cool.
Heat the water and butter until warm (about 100 - 110 degrees F). The butter will melt in the water.
In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and the dry milk powder, and whisk it around a bit to mix. Pour in the water and butter and whisk it vigorously or beat at a medium speed for about 2 minutes until the batter is well combined and begins to bubble. Add the raisins and any remaining liquid to the bowl and stir. Then stir in just enough flour to create a sticky, shaggy dough (about a cup or so). Sprinkle the dough with a bit more flour and cover. At this point the dough needs to rest for about 30 minutes to allow the flour to absorb the liquid. The dough may rise a bit while it is resting. No worries!

After the dough has taken its 30 minute nap, stir in another cup or so of flour and when it is too difficult to stir well, start to knead the dough right in the bowl, adding flour a handful at a time - just enough to help the kneading process and keep it from being too sticky. Knead for about 5 - 7 minutes until the dough is a soft, smooth ball.
At this point, I put the dough on a floured towel for a moment while I wash the bowl and grease it with a little butter or oil. The warmth of the bowl from washing it will also help the dough to begin to rise or proof. Place the dough ball back into the greased bowl, cover it with a towel and allow to rise until doubled in size, for about an hour or so.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and divide it into two equal portions. Roll each piece tightly on a lightly floured surface, then fold over and tuck in the ends to create a high dough ball, perhaps 4 inches across and 5 inches high. Place each on an 8-inch pie plate or baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Cover with a towel and allow to rise again until doubled - for an hour or so.

Bake at 400 degrees F for about 40 minutes or until golden brown and the loaves sound hollow when tapped. Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter. Allow to cool on a rack if you can wait that long to try a piece!

Century Farmhouse Christmas Jam

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Sun, 17 Dec 2017 22:55:45 GMT

Made with cranberries, figs, candied ginger, & vanilla. And whiskey. Don’t forget the whiskey...

Every Christmas I make a pot of cranberry jam. This recipe is one of my favorites as it is crafted with fruits that I don’t often include in jams and it also contains whiskey vanilla which adds a piquant touch of sweetness.

Lest you think all I do is add whiskey to every bit of my food, please know that that whiskey is actually a vanilla extract that I not only make, but use to flavor all kinds of foods. As a matter of fact, it is so easy to make that I have included the recipe below. It makes a great gift as well!

How to make Whiskey Vanilla:

Ingredients:

1 vanilla bean for every half-liter of whiskey (or other alcohol, such as vodka)

I like to make this in a canning jar, then decant to a pretty bottle when ready. You can make it right in the whiskey bottle if you'd like.

Let's make the Christmas Jam, shall we?

Ingredients :

2 lbs. cranberries

1 c. finely chopped dried figs

¼ c. finely chopped candied ginger

1/3 vanilla bean

1½ c. water

4½ c. sugar

1/3 c. whiskey vanilla (recipe below) or plain whiskey

Rinse the cranberries in a colander and sort them as you put them in a large, stainless pot removing soft or discolored berries. Add the figs and candied ginger and the vanilla bean (I just cut off part of the bean that has been soaking in the whiskey vanilla on my counter. If you use a bean straight from the tube, split the piece lengthwise and scrape out the seeds and add them to the pot too). Add the water, stir the fruit, and begin to heat on medium heat until the cranberries are splitting open and the fruit mixture begins to boil. Use the back of the spoon to press unopened cranberries to the sides of the pot to split them.

When the mixture is quite thick and has begun to boil, add the sugar all at once and stir until it is dissolved. Cook over medium heat until the jam is thick and shiny. Remove from the heat and stir in the whiskey vanilla. Allow the jam to steep for an hour or so.

While the jam is resting, begin to assemble the equipment needed to process the jam in pretty jars.

Reheat the jam to boiling. If it is particularly stiff, add about ¼ c. water and a splash or two of the whiskey, then stir to incorporate the liquids into the jam. Eventually you'll find that vanilla bean as you stir - remove it when you find it and discard it. When the jam has started to boil, pour it into hot jars and process in a hot water bath according to safe canning standards. Remove the jars from the water and allow to cool, then check the seals. Label and share as gifts or save to eat on Christmas Day. What a treat!

Merry Christmas from The Farmhouse to your house!

Swirly Cinnamon Chocolate Rolls with Whiskey Vanilla Cinnamon Buttercream

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 04:45:41 GMT

Like a warm, sweet cinnamon roll, only better. I promise.

Oh yeah. They're good.

There is nothing like the early morning scent of cinnamon and chocolate to make me want to get out of bed in the morning. In the case of yesterday morning however, I was the one getting everyone else going. I needed some comfort food in the form of sugar and yeast, so I looked up a story I wrote nearly a year ago for the Washington County Insider . I knew I'd find the recipe I'd created for these amazing rolls - thank goodness, because I had forgotten to save the recipe in my computer. Ha! Try them and let me know what you think; they take some time, but really are not difficult to make and are worth the trouble. Trust me on this.

Swirly Chocolate Cinnamon rolls with Whiskey Vanilla Buttercream
This makes a HUGE batch of rolls, so plan to make them when you're expecting a crowd, or make ahead and freeze in smaller packets for a month of Sunday mornings. Or just make half the recipe.
Time to create: Overall, about 3 hours, but each step is done in just a few minutes and then the dough rests. Just stick around the house so you can check up on things every once in a while and can move things to the next step when ready.
Time to bake: 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees F.

What you’ll need to make them really tasty:

For the sweet roll dough:

2 ½ t. yeast

7 - 8 cups of flour, plus more for dusting

2 c. water

4 T. butter

¼ c. sugar

¼ c. powdered milk

1 T. salt

2 eggs

For the filling:

1 c. sugar (I use Turbinado sugar. Plain sugar is fine.)

¼ c. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 t. cinnamon

½ t. espresso powder (optional – the espresso makes the chocolate flavor pop!)

3 t. melted butter

For the frosting:

2 ½ c. powdered sugar

1 t. cinnamon

2 T. Whiskey or whiskey vanilla …. Or just plain old vanilla….

1 T. milk or cream or half & half

2 T. softened butter

Here we go:

Heat the water until just a little too warm to the touch – about 105 – 110 degrees F., place the 4T butter in the warm water to melt or melt it separately. Place the yeast and 2 cups of the flour into a large mixing bowl, add the sugar, powdered milk, and salt and stir together with a wire whisk. Pour in the warm water and melted butter and beat the mixture with the whisk until well blended. Add the eggs and beat it for about a minute, or until the eggs are blended in well and the mixture looks slightly bubbly.

Add 1 cup of the remaining flour, stirring it in with a wooden spoon- then add more flour, about a half-cup, just enough to create a shaggy, sticky mass of dough. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it rest for about ½ hour to allow the flour to absorb some of the moisture from the dough.

After 30 minutes, stir in enough of the remaining flour to create a slightly firmer dough – soft, but not too sticky. Sprinkle flour on the dough and begin to knead it right in the bowl, adding dustings of flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or the sides of the bowl, but don’t add a lot of flour at this point as the dough will get too stiff. Knead about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is slightly soft, not sticky, and is smooth and lightly dimpled. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a towel and allow to rise until doubled in size – about 1 hour. It may take longer if your kitchen is a little cool. *a trick for rolls with chewier texture is to mix this at night and allow the dough to rise in your refrigerator while you sleep!

Once the dough has risen, punch it down to release air bubbles, divide it in half and place one of the halves on a flour-dusted board or dough cloth. Roll into a flat rectangle about 1/8 inch thick with a rolling pin. While the dough was rising, you were of course mixing up the dry ingredients of the filling so it would be ready when you are – which is right now! Brush the rolled out dough with melted butter, and spoon-sprinkle half of the dry filling ingredients onto the dough, spreading out to within about ¼ inch of the edges. Starting from the shorter end of the rectangle, roll the dough tightly to create a log. Brush the other short edge of the dough with a little water and use your fingers to stick it to the main log to keep it from unrolling as you cut it. Now, you can cut it into 1 ½ inch pieces with a knife, or you can use my little trick of sliding a long piece of dental floss (center it under the log at the place you want to cut) under the log and criss-cross the ends of the floss tightly together to swiftly cut the log into round, swirly slices. Place the slices cut side down (and up!) in a buttered 13 X9 inch pan or large baking pan with sides. Do the same with the remaining half of that dough, and when you’ve filled up the first pan, fill another, smaller greased pan with any remaining slices you might not have room for. Cover the pans with a towel and allow them to rise for another hour until doubled. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden brown. If they brown very quickly, cover with foil part way through the baking time.

Allow to cool, then frost – or not!

Whiskey & Cinnamon Frosting:

Put all the ingredients except the softened butter into a medium sized mixing bowl. Stir until the sugar and the liquids create a very thick ball. If the ingredients seem to dry to create the ball, add more whiskey vanilla to the bowl ½ t. at a time, stirring the thick mixture until it creates a stiff ball. Add the butter and work it into the stiffened ball of sugar, then stir it quickly to create a smooth buttercream frosting. Once the buttercream has been made you can thin it a little with milk or cream to make a glaze if you’d like. The rolls in the photo are frosted with the thicker buttercream. Frost the rolls and enjoy!

Yum.

How to make Whiskey Vanilla:

Ingredients:

1 vanilla bean for every half-liter of whiskey (or other alcohol, such as vodka)

I like to make this in a canning jar, then decant to a pretty bottle when ready. You can make it right in the whiskey bottle if you'd like.

Cranberries for Thanksgiving

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 18:28:38 GMT

Fresh. Sweet. Crunchy. Fun.

Cranberries are the mainstay of our fall table: cranberry bread, cranberry & apple jam, cranberry juice, cooked cranberries, and fresh cranberries with oranges. The uses of those little red berries to brighten up the table or a lunchbox are endless. I want to share my favorite - and the most easy - recipe for cranberry salad. I make this at least once a week as long as I can get my hands on fresh cranberries. And oranges. And sugar. That's all, folks!

But before I go into all of that, I learned something a few years ago. Cranberries grow in bogs, and there is an area in West Bend, of all places, where cranberries used to be grown. There is not much written about the bogs, but if you wander off of the Ice Age Trail just north of the University of Wisconsin - Washington County campus, you can see the remnants of bogs; the low-lying, rectangular fields where cranberry plants were flooded and harvested, and which now are pretty grown over with prairie plants and small trees. I didn't know that West Bend had a cranberry history, did you? I will see if I can find out more info for a future blog post. Just because I am interested in it.

OK! Here's the scoop on how to make this crunchy, sweet, cranberry freshness:

Ingredients: For every 12-oz. bag of fresh cranberries, you will need 1 - 2 oranges and about 3/4 - 1 cup of sugar.
Equipment: You will need a bowl, a spoon, a paring knife, a colander, a food-processor, & measuring cup

Rinse the cranberries in the colander and allow to drain for a few minutes. Place the fine-chopping blade on the food processor and begin to chop the cranberries, a few handfuls at a time. Peel the orange(s) - I like to use the back of a spoon to do that; it is so much easier! Roughly chop the oranges into about 1-inch pieces and also put them into the food processor, chopping the chunks into tiny pieces as well.

Now, pour the chopped fruit into a large bowl. Remove larger orange pieces that did not chop finely. These can be cut up finely with a knife, or eaten by the cook, or discarded. Whichever you choose!

Next, add the sugar. If you used two oranges, you can use a little less sugar, and of course, you can add more or less to the overall recipe as your tastes desire. Stir the sugar in thoroughly. Refrigerate at least one hour. Serve slightly chilled. This salad will keep for at least a day, so you can make it ahead of a big dinner, such as Thanksgiving, and give yourself a break! Unless of course, you have to "taste" it a lot. Then you just have to make more.

This salad is wonderful with the traditional chicken or turkey dinner, but it will brighten a sandwich lunch or a simple soup supper. Yum.

Company's Coming

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 15:23:10 GMT

Or, I was so bored that I made breadsticks...

Company is coming for supper tonight.
When Mr. Century Farmhouse was teaching at a small village school quite a few years ago, he and two other teachers began meeting for breakfasts every three months or so. They gathered at each other's homes or occasionally treated themselves to breakfast out on the town. Those little gatherings evolved into inclusion of spouses and families and now are not just for breakfast anymore. It is our turn, and I am cooking dinner tonight.

The menu:
We'll start with Apple Slices dipped into homemade caramel sauce a lá Pioneer Woman and goat cheese with homemade Rosemary & Garlic Breadsticks. I was bored last night, so I made some before I went to bed. Ha.

The Main menu:
Pork Roast cooked slowly with apples, onions, garlic, homemade sauerkraut, and garden thyme.
Baked Potatoes with sour cream & garden chives
Roasted Applesauce with Raisins and Ginger
Chunky Roasted Butternut Squash with our own maple syrup & garden sage
Roasted Beets
cherry tomatoes, pepperoncini, etc......

The Dessert:
Roasted (I love to roast, don't you?) Peaches with Whiskey Vanilla and whipped cream
Sugar Cookies edged with cinnamon-sugar

With all this yumminess we'll have local Wisconsin wines and coffee.

It is going to feel like Thanksgiving and Christmas wrapped into one fabulous meal shared with fabulous friends.

Why don't I share that Breadstick recipe with you? Who knows? You might decide to make some too!

Rosemary & Garlic Breadsticks with Sea Salt
I have had this recipe for years and have used it to make a crispy pizza crust once in a while too.

Ingredients:
1 pkg dry yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp. yeast)
2 T. butter or oil of your choice - Olive oil is a good substitute
1 1/4 c. water
3-3 1/2 c. bread flour
1 1/2 t. salt
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 t. fresh rosemary, chopped finely - or 1/2 t. dried rosemary
Egg wash:
1 egg white
1 T cold water
Topping about 1T. total:
Sea Salt, crumbled fine-medium texture
Fresh Rosemary, chopped (dried rosemary is fine here, too).

Heat the water and butter until the butter is melted. Allow to cool enough that you don't burn your finger testing the temperature, but it is still pretty warm.

In a large bowl, combine 2c. of the bread flour, salt, yeast, garlic, rosemary bits and the warm water. Mix thoroughly. I use a heavy wire whisk to do this and I mix for about 2 minutes, stopping to rest and to watch the suspenseful parts of Antiques Roadshow on PBS. You can use a dough hook on your mixer if you'd like. The dough should look like wrinkly skin or orange peels at this point. Sprinkle it with a little flour, cover the bowl with a towel and watch the rest of Antiques Roadshow for 1/2 hour or so.

Knead in the flour sprinkles and add more flour, kneading it in to create a dough that is elastic and smooth, but not stiff. Place in a greased bowl, cover it, and allow it to rise to double in size - about an hour. Perhaps an episode or two of This Old House or Inspector Lynley will get you through this time.

Now comes the fun part! Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F (very hot!). Grease a large cookie sheet or two or cover with parchment. Punch down the dough and divide it into 4ths, and form a roll, cutting that into equal pieces about 1/2- 1 inch wide. With floured hands, roll each piece into a long breadstick that is no wider than 1/2 in diameter. Place them on the cookie sheet.

Mix the egg wash in a small bowl and the rosemary & sea salt in another small bowl. Use more rosemary than salt if salt is an issue and you love rosemary. If you are not a big rosemary fan, use a little more salt. Whatever, the breadsticks will be yummy!

Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash on each breadstick and sprinkle on the sea salt and rosemary mixture. Pat it gently into the breadstick. Bake for 15 - 22 minutes until the breadsticks are golden brown and a little dry. Cool on a rack and store in an airtight container or freeze. Before serving, pop them back into a hot oven for a few minutes to crisp up.

Voilá!
Bon appetit!

Vegetable Beef Soup - It's What's for Supper

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 01:00:51 GMT

Or, what to feed the family or a crowd...

The TV is reverberating with cheering crowds while a football is being tossed hither and yon on the field. Or is it a player or two being tossed? Never mind. Mr. Century Farmhouse's family is visiting from The Dakotas, it is a glorious fall day in Wisconsin, and a pot of soup is being built while the game is on and the family is gathered in our kitchen. After a trip to the Farmers' Market this morning and an afternoon walk in the woods on the farm - accompanied all the while by one of the kitties - it is time to make the soup we've been talking about all day. Well, I've been talking about it anyway. I love this soup and I plan to share the recipe with you as it is a winner! I always consider a recipe just a plan, so use whatever veggies you have if you don't exactly have what I list below. The soup will still be pretty fabulous. Here you go:

Vegetable Beef Soup a la Century Farmhouse
This recipe makes a BIG pot of soup. Feed a family. Leftovers for the week will taste divine. Enjoy!

About 2 lbs. stew meat
3 T. butter or oil
1 large onion, chopped in 1/4 inch - 1/2 inch pieces
5 cloves of garlic, pressed or chopped finely
1 large green pepper chopped into 1/4 inch - 1/2 inch pieces
1 large red pepper chopped into 1/4 inch - 1 /2 inch pieces
3 - 4 large carrots, quartered lengthwise and chopped
3 medium potatoes, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
3 ounces tomato paste
6 cups roasted tomatoes (directions below), or two 28 oz cans of your favorite roasted and diced tomatoes
5 cups beef broth
1 T. sea salt
1 t. ground black pepper
2 T. fresh flat Italian parsley, coarsely chopped
1 t. fresh oregano, coarsely chopped
1 t. fresh thyme, finely chopped
1/2 t. fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 splashes (about 2 T) white vinegar
extra salt & pepper to taste

*Roasted tomatoes: At this time of the year, I always have an overabundance of fresh tomatoes, so whipping up a pan of roasted goodness takes only a little effort and a bit of extra time. Once roasted, the tomatoes can be used in sauces or soups and can be frozen or canned in jars according to safe canning standards. Butter or oil a flat pan (13 X 9 works well). Wash and roughly chop up fresh tomatoes to generously fill the pan. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Roast for about 2 hours at 400 degrees F. until the tomatoes are very soft and the tops of some are a little charred. There you go!

Let's make soup!
Melt 2 T. of the butter (or warm 2 T. of oil) in a large soup pot. Add the stew meat, sprinkle with a pinch or two of sea salt and brown the meat for about 10 minutes. Remove the meat from the pan, pour the remaining pot liquor into a bowl and reserve it for the moment. Add the last T. of butter or oil to the pot and begin to brown the onions and garlic. While they are starting to cook, cut the meat into smaller, bite sized pieces if they are larger than about 3/4 inch square. Set aside.
When the onions and garlic are becoming translucent, add the chopped peppers and allow them to cook for a minute or two. Add the potatoes and carrots. Return the meat to the pot and stir it all around; now add the tomato paste and stir it into the veggies and meat to coat them. Add the sea salt and the ground pepper. Stir it all up! Pop the tomatoes, the reserved pot liquor, and the broth into the pot and let it all begin to simmer on the stove.
This is the point at which I step outside to my garden to gather some of the last of the summer's herbs to enhance the soup. For this soup I picked a handful of flat Italian parsley, a few stems of thyme and rosemary, and a few more of oregano. After washing them, I chopped them roughly into tiny pieces and added them to the pot, and oh my, did the kitchen smell heavenly! Of course you can use fresh herbs or dried herbs - if dried is what you have, use about half of the amounts listed above. Splash in the vinegar and let the soup simmer for about an hour. Check the taste of the soup and adjust the salt and pepper/herbs seasonings.
This soup is rather rich and thick in the bowl - not stew thick, but this is a substantial soup - not brothy and thin. If you'd like a thinner soup, add another cup or two of beef broth or water as it is cooking.

Make the meal:
I like to serve this Vegetable Beef soup with crusty bread or corn muffins and a salad. We had some lovely roasted peaches flavored with whiskey vanilla for dessert, and I added some homemade sugar cookies to the table as well. Serve with a dry red wine or beer if you'd like. And trust me, the leftovers of the soup will be even better the second time around.....

Lavender's Blue Tart

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 18:05:46 GMT

This recipe is easy! You can use the tart/pie crust of your choice, top with blueberries or any subtly-flavored fruit or jam.

Serves 8 generous pieces.

Ingredients

For a 9” tart pan

Crust:

1/3 recipe Lavender Butter Cookie Dough ( see the recipe here)
Filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
8 oz. whipping cream
5 T. powdered sugar
1 (only 1!) drop culinary lavender essential oil

Topping:

1 ½ cups blueberries (or more to taste)
3 oz. white chocolate, melted
½ t. lavender buds
stems of fresh culinary lavender for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Use a pre-baked tart shell or bake your own. My favorite is made with Lavender Butter Cookie Dough recipe link above . Press the dough into the tart pan, making certain to fill into all the curves and crevices of the pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 10 minutes, or until the cookie crust is lightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

2. Prepare the cloud filling: In a small mixing bowl, combine the softened cream cheese, 1/4c. whipping cream, and 3T powdered sugar, mixing until the cream cheese is soft and smooth like a frosting. In a separate bowl, whisk together 2T powdered sugar, 3/4c. whipping cream, and 1 (only 1! Warning!*) drop culinary lavender essential oil. Whip the cream until stiff. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese, one large spoonful at a time until all is mixed together. Do this very gently, taking care not to beat them vigorously. Keep repeating, “Gently, gently.” as you fold.

*The culinary oil is very concentrated and one drop will flavor the cream subtly and wonderfully. If you accidentally have two drops leave your bottle, it will be a stronger lavender flavor, but it is quite pleasant, so don't worry! If you want a much more subtle flavor, shake the drop(s) into a tiny bowl or a large spoon and use a toothpick to transfer bits of the oil to the cream mixture and taste and repeat until you have the flavor you'd like.

Assemble the tart:
3. Remove the tart shell from the pan and place on a pretty plate. Pretty is always better, don’t you think? Gently spread the cream cheese mixture in a cloud-like fashion in the tart shell. Top with the blueberries. Melt the white chocolate by microwaving it for about a minute on HIGH in a microwaveable bowl - stir and heat it again for a few seconds and stir again - repeating until it is smooth and creamy. Drizzle the white chocolate over the berries and sprinkle with the lavender buds. Refrigerate for about 15-20 minutes. Garnish and serve! This tart will keep in the refrigerator for a day or so, but is better eaten within several hours after making it. Serve slightly chilled or at room temperature. It is so good, there will be no leftovers to share!

Ⓒ Copyright 2017 Ann Marie Craig / Century Farmhouse® All Rights Reserved.

Lavender Butter Cookies

annmarie@centuryfarmhouse.com (Ann Marie Craig) — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 15:15:12 GMT

An Original Recipe by Ann Marie Craig

Before you start, whirr a little more than 1 Tablespoon culinary lavender (we use organically grown Royal Velvet lavender) with the 3/4 cup granulated sugar in a food processor. This step is not completely necessary, but the bits of lavender are smaller and the cookies will take on a slightly lavender tinge of color. You can also make extra and save it in an airtight jar to sprinkle on muffins and cookies or even on chilled fruit such as watermelon balls.

Ingredients

2/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tablespoon milk
1 1/2 Tablespoons culinary lavender
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
dash salt

Directions

Beat butter in a large mixing bowl until softened. Add about half the flour and mix well. Add sugar & lavender, egg, milk, baking powder, vanilla, & salt. Beat until combined well. Beat or stir in remaining flour. Divide dough in half, cover, and chill about 3 hours or until easy to handle.
Roll each half of the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a knife or cookie cutters or a glass dipped in flour, cut dough into desired shapes. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 7 - 8 minutes or until done - do not brown the cookies. Cool on the cookie sheet for 1 minute.

Remove cookies from the sheet; cool on a wire rack.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Ⓒ Copyright 2017 Ann Marie Craig / Century Farmhouse® All Rights Reserved.

White Peaches on a Lavender Cloud

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 15:15:12 GMT

An Original Recipe by Ann Marie Craig

This recipe is easy! You can use the tart/pie crust of your choice, and for variation, top with berries or pineapple, or any light-flavored fruit or jam. Serves 8 generous pieces or 16 smaller "tastes."
Here's another variation of this tart using blueberries and white chocolate.

Ingredients

For a 9" tart pan

Crust:

1/3 recipe Lavender Butter Cookie Dough Recipe here.

Filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
8 oz. whipping cream
5 T. powdered sugar
1 (only 1!) drop culinary lavender essential oil

Topping:

8 oz. peach jam (recipe below for White Peach Jam or purchase your favorite kind!)
½ t. lavender buds

Directions

1. Prepare the White Peach Jam (recipe below) if desired. Allow to cool.

2. Use a pre-baked tart shell or bake your own. My favorite is made with Lavender Butter Cookie Dough, recipe here.
Press the dough (1/3 of the recipe) into the tart pan, making certain to fill into all the curves and crevices of the pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 7-8 minutes, or until the cookie crust is lightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

3. Prepare the cloud filling: In a small mixing bowl, combine the softened cream cheese, 1/4c. whipping cream, and 3T powdered sugar, mixing until the cream cheese is soft and smooth like a frosting. In a separate bowl, whisk together 2T powdered sugar, 3/4c. whipping cream, and 1 (only 1! Warning!*) drop culinary lavender essential oil. Whip the cream until stiff. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese, one large spoonful at a time until all is mixed together. Do this very gently, taking care not to beat them vigorously. Keep repeating, “Gently, gently.” as you fold.

*The culinary oil is very concentrated and one drop will flavor the cream subtly and wonderfully. If you accidentally have two drops leave your bottle, it will be a stronger lavender flavor, but it is quite pleasant, so don't worry! If you want a much more subtle flavor, shake the drop(s) into a tiny bowl or a large spoon and use a toothpick to transfer bits of the oil to the cream mixture and taste and repeat until you have the flavor you'd like.

Assemble the tart:

4. Remove the tart shell from the pan and place on a pretty plate. Pretty is always better, don’t you think?
Gently spread the cream cheese mixture in a cloud-like fashion in the tart shell. Top with the peach jam
and sprinkle with the lavender buds. Refrigerate for about 15-20 minutes. Serve! This tart tastes best at room temperature or very slightly chilled. It is so good, there will be no leftovers to share!

Make the jam:

If you decide to make the jam, blanch, peel, & chop 5-6 peaches into ½ - 1-inch pieces. Measure/weigh the chopped peaches and place in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucepan. Add an equal amount of sugar and
stir until the sugar is thoroughly mixed into the fruit. Cook the fruit mixture on medium heat and allow it
to simmer until it is thick and jammy, about 10 minutes. It may take a little longer if the peaches are very
juicy. Once the mixture is very thick, transfer it to another bowl and set it into cold/ice water to cool.
You will use about 1 cup (8 oz.) for the tart. Use the rest on your morning toast or process it in a pretty
canning jar or two.

Ⓒ Copyright 2017 Ann Marie Craig / Century Farmhouse® All Rights Reserved.

centuryf

Swirly Cinnamon Chocolate Rolls with Whiskey Vanilla Cinnamon Buttercream Glaze

These chocolatey rolls are a such a decadent treat

that it's hard to eat just one.

A Winter Simmer Pot Recipe

Infuse your home with the cozy scents of winter.

Autumn 2024 soaps are coming soon. Watch for them!

New scents and old favorites: see the release schedule below.

Spice Cake with Buttermilk Buttercream Frosting

Looking like a pretty valentine with the dried pink apples against the creaminess of the buttermilk frosting, this is a treat that your sweetie will enjoy any time of the year.

Buttermilk Buttercream Frosting with Whiskey Vanilla

Kings Cake

A perfect accompaniment to coffee or tea, my Aunt Josie's recipe for a rich and fruity German cake is traditionally made in celebration of Epiphany.

The Lemonades: Blueberry Lavender, and Raspberry & Mint - so refreshing!

Good old-fashioned lemonades with twists and turns. Think of these as lemonades that dance!

Maple Sap soaps I've known and loved. Now it's your turn.

Help us design a new maple sap soap!

Make Peat Pot Gift Cups at our next Saturdays in the Farmhouse Kitchen event on March 20.

I'm excited to share how to make these cute little gift cups. Join in the fun!

February

Take time to connect.

Warm up to January with a cup of cocoa the Century Farmhouse way!

Do you dream of a rich cup of cocoa - not too sweet - and a cozy afternoon? Click on the link below for the downloadable recipe page. Isn't January wonderful?

Gift Tags Printables Just for You!

Just in time for gift-giving!

Dried Orange Slices for Holiday Decorating

New! Download the instructions and have fun!

Make a Fall Leaf Garland - free printable included!

Leaves from the grounds of Century Farmhouse tell stories about the trees they came from and provide inspiration for a leaf garland to add an autumn touch to your home.

Well-Seasoned Dishes

Plum Kuchen with Streusel Topping

...and this recipe can easily be adapted to be gluten-free - just substitute any 1:1 gf flour! Yum!

Squash Casserole with Homemade GF Cornbread Topping

The recipe for the cornbread is included! (GF Cornbread Muffins)

Century Farmhouse Lavender Butter Cookies

These light and buttery cookies are a perfect foil for sweet culinary lavender, and the recipe can also be used as a tart shell for other wonderful lavender desserts. Try it!

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream with Lemon Curd Swirl

You will want to be first in line with a spoon, ready to taste this lovely and easy to make dessert.

Let's Bake Together: English Tea Scones

Flavored butters made with what's on hand

Make a pretty addition to any meal in simple steps that use ingredients already in your kitchen.

Do you know how to wash your hands?

Now, more than at any other time in recent history, we are being told to wash our hands and to wash them well. What does this advice mean?

Have I ever shared with you the story of how I began making soap?

It took me a while, but I did it!

Watering the Christmas Tree with a Plastic Pipette and Other Christmas Adventures

Life in a vintage log cabin is never dull - especially at Christmas time.

Warm and Delicious Century Farmhouse Hot Cocoa

Need something warm and cozy to sip? This cocoa mix recipe is easy to make and nice to have on hand to quickly make a comforting mug or to give as a gift.

Tie Up a Century Farmhouse Bow!

A trunk show of bows and soaps this weekend.

Rosemary Butter Sandwich Cookies with Orange Blossom Water Buttercream Filling

Rosemary is the perfect foil for the sweet buttercream. Mmmmm. Wouldn't you love these on your Holiday cookie plate?

Gluten Free Gingerbread Doughnut Holes

Made with apple cider and roasted pumpkin. Oh my!

Make Chalk!

Making sidewalk chalk is easy and fun for all ages.

Mulberries

My favorite summer fruit.

A Grand Old Flag

A Flag and a Family Story for the Fourth.

The Sunday Project: Pear Jam with Lavender & Vanilla Bean

Think of jammy pears that taste of the sweetness of vanilla and just a touch of flowery lavender. This jam makes breakfast toast into a celebration!

The Sunday Project: Peat Pot Gift Cups

In just an hour or so, you can create unique and inexpensive packaging for a small gift, perfect for the little treat you're giving Mom this Mother's Day. With a little supervision, this is a fun project for kids as well.

The Sunday Project: A pretty springtime wreath

Made with twigs and branches foraged from the Century Farmhouse woods and fields, this pretty wreath will grace the front door of the farmhouse for the next month or two. Or three.

Cinnamon Orange Waffles for Breakfast

Lazy Sunday mornings are made more special with these waffles. The waffles are made more special with real maple syrup.

Potato Print Valentines

Grab a potato and an ink pad or paint, a little paper, a marker or two, and the kids can make cute valentines. A perfect project for a snowy day!

Vanilla Apple Cider Syrup - a cordial

The sweet cider flavor of this syrup is deepened and brightened with just a bit of star anise and lemon.

Chocolate Wafer Cookies

Homemade wafer cookies that are crispy and filled with deep chocolate flavor are the kind that keep your hands reaching for the cookie jar.

The Gorgeous Gingerbread Cheesecake

Our signature design to celebrate the art of pairing unusual flower garnishes and tastes of the Holidays.

Sugared Cranberries

A cranberry treat just in time for Holiday celebrations.

A Quick Dry for Fresh Herbs

Do you dream of a rich cup of cocoa - not too sweet - and a cozy afternoon?
Click on the link below for the downloadable recipe page. Isn't January wonderful?

Now, more than at any other time in recent history, we are being told to wash our hands and to wash them well.
What does this advice mean?