Just like Mom used to make... Quick and Easy Clam Dip and a bonus stuffing recipe

For Thanksgiving we were invited over to my brother John's home again this year for the holiday. They put out the spread, and my husband and I brought a few snacks and such to share.  The challenge this year was dairy. My sister-in-law has given up dairy because it seems their newborn son has issues digesting it.  Before hand we were discussing the menu, and our Mom's recipe for stuffing came up.  We figured it was safe because only one substitution would have to be made (they used butter substitute.)

This is Mom's basic recipe:

1 - 2 bag(s) of bread shredded by hand
1 small onion diced
2-4 eggs
1/2 - 1 stick of butter
A few  good shakes of Bell Seasoning
A dash of salt and pepper

Mix well with your hands and cook inside the bird!



Now for snacks we came up with the idea of deviled eggs, since eggs and mayo are not considered "dairy," and thanks to our chickens producing about 5 eggs a day now (we have one holdout) we have tons of eggs. (Expect future blogs with egg recipes!) Beyond that I was a bit stumped, but after discussing the stuffing, Mom and some of her recipes were on my mind.

In March our Mom passed away after a very long and heartbreaking cycle of strokes and a surgery that did more harm than good.  It's around the holidays that the pain is a little more present because these are the times when families gather, and memories come a bit closer to the surface. Also, I kind of suspect Thanksgiving was one of her favorite holidays: family and food being two of her favorite things, so the feeling of loss is a bit stronger.

Without getting too sappy, I'll tie this all together and get to the main recipe.  For the record our Mom was a junk food lover.  She of course wasn't supposed to eat it post diabetes diagnosis, but a bag of Jax or potato chips was one of her guilty pleasures.  I too am a bit of a junk food junkie, but I am pretty good about not buying it. However, the other day my husband and I went to a local deli and with our awesome sandwiches they gave us a little bag of chips, which was like giving recovering addicts a sample of their favorite drug. With dairy free Thanksgiving, chips and Mom on my mind I knew what I had to make: Mom's Party Clam Dip!  This addict needed some Ruffles or some Wavy Lays and some Clam Dip, bonus that it's dairy free!!

This is the quick and easy recipe that my parents used to bring to parties.  I have no idea where this recipe came from, it's just a party staple that I can remember all throughout my childhood and beyond. I occasionally bring it to parties too, mostly so I can eat it, but also because it's quick and easy to make. It may not be exactly how Mom used to do it, but this is how I remember and make it.  Enjoy!

The Lazy Diva's Quick and Easy Clam Dip Recipe

Ingredients:

3- 4 cups of Ketchup
1 can of chopped clams with about 1/2 the juice retained
1/4 cup of Horseradish or more (we had some homemade)

*These measurements are not exact, this is a taste as you go recipe.

 STEP ONE:

Squeeze about 3 cups of Ketchup into a bowl.

STEP TWO:

Pour about half the liquid from the can of clams into the bowl, then drain the rest.

STEP THREE:

Add the clams.

STEP FOUR:

Add the horseradish.

STEP FIVE:

Stir it well, and taste to see how it is...  I could see that the consistency was a little watery and I like it with a bit more bite, so I added more Ketchup and horseradish.

STEP SIX:

Serve with chips or crackers and enjoy. 


So, that's the Party Clam Dip!  I don't want to confess how much of this I ate myself!!! 

Also, I guess a kind of third recipe, if you omit the clams and juice, this is our homemade cocktail sauce (well, we probably add a larger amount of horseradish). Ketchup and Horseradish, that's what we use when we serve shrimp, I haven't found a store bought sauce that measures up to that simplicity. 

**NOTE: I just got a new point and click camera, and it's probably partly user error, but although it's 6 megapixels better, I do not think it takes pictures as well as my old camera.  If the coloring is a bit off, or a tad blurry in the pictures, that's why.  I need to work with it more to see if I can get it to cooperate better... or I'll go back to using my old, battery dropping out, nice, user friendly auto/manual camera.

As always, thank you for reading!  Hope you and your families have a wonderful holiday season!

Here we go again.... Pickles Galore! Recipe for Bread and Butter Pickles with Curry (Instead of straight Turmeric)

Cucumbers!  Boy, did we get cucumbers!  We planted a six pack of cucumber pickles and those babies produced, so we canned at least 20 jars of pickles this season, and we may do a few more with the garden remnants.  We used the original Garlic Dill Pickle recipe I posted last year, did some variations on that, and we also pulled out the Bread & Butter Pickle recipes as well.  So, 2014 was a pretty good canning year.

One of the big issues when we were starting to look through recipes is that many recipes called for turmeric.... well, we don't have turmeric, I forgot to look for it, and later when I did, I didn't find it.  It also did not help that we kept forgetting the name 'turmeric' and ended up buying (and borrowing) tarragon, which we did not use. Seriously, we went to the super market the other day and hubby picked up tarragon and tried to buy it again...I told him to stop looking for the elusive turmeric, we'll find it when we need it least! Anywhooo... I looked online and found some supposed 'substitutes' and right at the very top of the list was Mr. Lazy Diva's favorite seasoning, CURRY.  That was all he needed to hear, and so instead of turmeric, we used curry and a pinch of ginger.  I honestly didn't notice that big of a difference, they tasted great!  I was told they taste just like store bought, so I guess that's a compliment...lol!  So in the future I'll probably stick with the substitution, I've lived this long without straight turmeric, I can probably go at least another 35 years, right? 

NOTE: I wrote this post a couple of weeks after we canned because I didn't want to share an untested recipe.  I have a horrible memory, and after I posted the blog, a friend pointed something out that I forgot to explain.  WHY is Curry a good substitute for Turmeric?  BECAUSE TURMERIC IS IN CURRY!  SMH!  That's why I used it!!  lol!!  So when I say a recipe without turmeric, I don't mean I didn't use any, I just mean I didn't go to the store and buy a bottle.  I used a Mild British Curry from my husbands collection that contained the spice.  Thank you, Emma for reminding me about that!!   


Well, without further ado, here's one of our newer recipes:

The Lazy Diva's Bread and Butter Pickles with Curry

INGREDIENTS:
5-10 (or so) Cucumbers
1 Bell Pepper
1 White Onion
3 Garlic Cloves

2 1/2 cups of White Vinegar
2 1/2 cups of Apple Cider Vinegar
4 1/2 cups of Sugar
3 tbsp canning salt
2 tbsp Mustard Seed
1 tsp Celery seed
1 tsp Curry powder
pinch of Ginger

PHASE ONE: SLICING AND ICE BATH

 Slice Cucumbers about a 1/4" thick
Slice Bell Pepper into thin sticks
Slice Onions into thin sticks
Slice Garlic into Thin little sticks

In a large bowl add a layer of ice, put a layer of cucumbers, peppers, onions and garlic on top, sprinkle with canning salt, and repeat, layering until you get to the top of the bowl. 

Place a bowl over top, weight it down, and let it sit for 2-3 hours until most of the ice is melted.  Drain and rinse before filling the jars.

PHASE TWO: PREPARING THE BRINE

When Phase One is complete (or nearly complete) you can star the brine. In a pot add the vinegars, sugar and all the other ingredients and bring to a boil.

PHASE THREE: ADDING IT ALL TO THE JARS

Put the rinsed pickles, peppers, onions, and garlic into clean sterilized jars.  This batch we filled 5 wide mouth pint jars, if I used a bigger bowl and sliced more veggies, we may have been able to do about 7. 

At the last minute I did add a dash of pickle crisp to the jars just to try to keep them a bit crunchier.

Fill the jars up, try to pack them full, then pour in the hot brine mixture.  You'll want to leave about a 1/4 inch of space at the top.

PHASE FOUR: CANNING

Using the Water Canning method, boil for 10 minutes, and voila! you're done.

Let them sit, and cool,and make sure the jars sealed. (If any didn't, just put them in the fridge and use them up within a couple of months.) For the best taste wait at least a week before opening and enjoying.

Well, it's taken me a while to post this, but obviously I finally got around to it, hopefully it will help those as turmeric challenged as us, make some yummy bread and butter pickles.  I erred on the side of caution with the use of the curry, but if you're a fan like my husband, feel free to add a pinch or two more.  I'm not  a huge fan of the seasoning myself, so I was a bit glad it didn't overpower or really stand out. 

For my next blog I'm going to try and not use the word TURMERIC 20 times....

Thank you as always for reading, and happy canning!

When your husband hands you a bowl of Blackberries and Raspberries.... Add Some Sugar and Make Jam

When we bought our house several years ago, one of the added perks was finding out we had lots of wild blackberries and raspberries growing all over.  We've had to cut them back a bit, and some of them were choked out, but this year we had a pretty good yield.  Other than picking them, and maybe adding some whipped cream,  we've really never done much with them.   So I was kind of surprised when my husband called me at work and said he had picked a bowl of berries and was wondering if I'd like to make jam as my next blog project, or if I wanted him to go ahead and make it himself.  Obviously, I chose to blog it!  I've never made jam before, but I figured now was as good a time as any to learn.... besides, all the hard work was done!  (Thank you to my hubby for spending all the time picking the berries and then waiting for me to make the jam!  After the 'You made all the apple sauce without me! I was going to blog that!' incident of 2013, he's learning!)

Now that I had a bowl of berries, I needed a recipe!  At the time I started this I completely forgot I had gone on a pectin buying spree last fall, so I searched for recipes that did not need it.  Every recipe was pretty much the same, and for my first time out, I figured I'd go with the most easy and basic. I had no idea how much sugar was in jam!!  Since we didn't have a huge yield... I decided to do refrigerator jam and leave the canner in the basement.  I also decided to leave the strange grinder/seperator mechanism in the cabinet, and just leave the seeds in, why make more work.

So here is the super easy recipe:

The Lazy Diva's No Pectin Raspberry and Blackberry Jam

4 cups of berries 
(we didn't have a ton of raspberries, so we just mixed them in with the blackberries)
4 cups of sugar
A splash of lemon juice (Some recipes called for it, some didn't. The ones that did would say a tsp. for each cup of berries.  I didn't think it was necessary, but I added a splash in anyway.)

Heat on High for 5-10 minutes, then reduce heat to medium and cook an additional 10 minutes.

STEP ONE:

RINSE BERRIES WELL

STEP TWO:

ADD BERRIES AND SUGAR TO A POT AND HEAT ON HIGH FOR 5- 10 MINUTES.

MASH AND STIR AS YOU COOK

STEP THREE:

REDUCE HEAT TO MEDIUM AND COOK FOR AN ADDITIONAL 10 MINUTES. IF THERE IS A LOT OF FOAM, SKIM THE TOP.

STEP FOUR:

I used half pint jelly jars, and with about 6 plus cups of fruit, I ended up with about 3 1/3 full.

POUR INTO JARS, LET COOL AND THEN REFRIGERATE.

STEP FIVE:

ENJOY

NOTES:  

~ Do not walk away from the pot because this bubbles right up to the top if not stirred.
~  It's molten hot, so don't try to sample with your finger, or try to move the jelly jars without a pot holder for quite a while.
~ This leaves a layer of jam on all the dishes, and it looks horrific. If you just soak it for a little bit it comes right off.

Had I known that jams and jelly were this easy, I probably would have tried them much sooner!  Next time I will probably can them to keep them for an extended time.  This time we gave some away and kept the partial and a full jar for ourselves. With 3 full jars that would be enjoyed sooner rather than later I couldn't see dragging out the canner. 

Bottom line, first attempt at Jam was a delicious success!  Once again, a huge thank you to my husband for picking the berries and also for supporting my blog and creativity!

Thanks to you as well for visiting the blog!

A Solid Way to Moisturize and Massage Your Skin using LOTION BARS

Years ago I found a recipe for Massage Lotion Bars.  Out of everything I have made these were, and still are, one of my absolute favorite items.  Knowing and loving these bars as I do, I've often marveled at how big of a mystery they seem to be to other people.  

For a few years I tried selling products at a little craft fair, and while I sold a few items, the Lotion Bars did not really sell.  Part of the issue was packaging.  I would wrap them up in clear plastic craft bags with a label, and that didn't work that well.  I tried tins, and they did a little better, but still I barely sold any. (I still haven't found a great way to package these.) One year I took some of the scraps and put them out on a tray as samples, I spent half the time stopping people from eating them, and explaining what they were. People just didn't seem to get the concept.  However, in my years of making these I have introduced and successfully converted a few friends and family members over to the Lotion Bar side.  Some are still confused.... but maybe someday they will learn!

For those not familiar, Lotion/Massage Bars are supposed to melt at skin temperature.  You do not add water, you just rub them onto your bare skin and let them work their magic. It's like body lotion and massage oil combined into a solid form. Since they melt on your skin they absorb nicely, and they are great for softening and moisturizing with less mess. They also smell amazing! I can understand why people wanted to eat them!

The formula for making these bars is fairly simple, and it's all about melting points:

1/3 Hard (Beeswax, Soy)
1/3 Medium (Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter )
1/3 Soft (Apricot, Olive Oil, Sunflower, Avocado, Coconut, etc...)

Here is my recipe for a small batch (about two bars):

Veronica the Lazy Diva's Cocoa Butter and Coconut Oil Lotion Bars

Ingredients:
2 oz Beeswax
2 oz Cocoa Butter
1 oz Coconut Oil
1 oz Apricot Oil
3 drops Vitamin E
Essential Oils (optional)  (I used 3 drops of Jasmine and 2 drops of Orange)

You'll also need some sort of mold to pour these into when finished.

I have 'craft' designated crock pots and that's what I personally use when I make these.  You can do these in a double boiler, or even in the microwave one at a time starting with the hardest items and working down. 

STEP ONE:

I came across a bag of smaller pieces, so I used this instead of cutting the block.

ADD THE BEESWAX AND LET IT MELT COMPLETELY

STEP TWO:

ADD COCOA BUTTER AND STIR UNTIL IT IS MELTED COMPLETELY

STEP THREE:

ADD COCONUT OIL AND STIR

 STEP FOUR:

ADD APRICOT OIL AND STIR

STEP FIVE:

ADD VITAMIN E AND ESSENTIAL OILS (if desired) AND STIR

These three ingredients are optional, half the time I leave the essential oils out.  The Cocoa Butter and Coconut Oil have such an enticing natural smell you don't really need to add scent,  I just added a few drops to bring them up to the next level.  The Vitamin E is also a go to ingredient in most of my projects, it ups the moisturizing and is a natural preservative.

STEP SIX:

I did this batch just for me, so I just used a couple of random molds.
The silicon one is actually a muffin mold I got in the bargain section of a department store.

POUR INTO MOLDS AND WAIT UNTIL COOL

These set fairly quickly, but you can stick them in the freezer to speed up the process.

STEP SEVEN:

The beeswax leaves particles that settle to the bottom, but I think it adds to the design.

ENJOY!

So, those are my lotion bars!  I hope I have enlightened you and inspired you to give them a try!  There is a bit of trial and error as you experiment, but the nice thing about them is you can always remelt them and add more oil or beeswax if you need to.  They're also fairly quick and easy to make. Once the beeswax melts everything else goes quickly.  They make nice gifts as well, but you may need to explain or include a note about how to use them.   

NOTES:  
I have not done much experimenting with Soy, but I believe it has a slightly lower melting temperature, so if you try to make these without Beeswax, you may need to adjust the hard/soft ratio ever so slightly.

You can also make this more of a salve and pour directly into tins.  I would just add about 1/2  or 1 more oz of oil to the mix to soften it up.

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR CHECKING OUT THE BLOG!!