Grape Juice

1. Pick grapes.
2. Prepare quart bottles. I washed mine in the dishwasher on a sani-rinse. Mom just cleans hers and doesn't do anything extra to sanitize them.
3. Fill basin of steamer approximately 3/4 full of water.
4. Rinse grapes, picking out leaves or debris. Leave grapes on the stems.




5. Place grapes into steamer. Pack, but don't press.
6. Bring water in basin to a boil. Turn down to medium heat.
7. After about 50 minutes, you will be able to fill one or two quart bottles.
8. Place flats on full bottles and finger-tighten the rings. Mom preheats water to sterilize the flats, rings and jars.
9. Check water in basin. Refill if necessary.




10. After an additional 20 to 40 minutes, you should be able to fill approximately three or four more bottles. Place flats and rings.
11. The USDA says to process in a water bath. They also add sugar and an additional step of refrigerating, straining and reheating the grape juice in order to reduce the tartaric acid. Here is a link to official water bath times: UGA - Grape Juice. Mom does not do this.

Also:

A. Don't stir or push the grapes or you will get debris in your bottles.

B. After filling my quarts, I did stir the grapes in the pot and then let it cook a little longer. I saved that juice to strain and serve. Approximately two total quarts were taken after the grapes were stirred and needed to be strained.

C. I had an apple box and a full shopping bag full of concord grapes. It yielded about 20 total quarts.
D. I typically got 5 1/2 quarts per batch.  I saved the extra 1/2 quarts into two bottles and served grape juice that night.

Fruit Leather

Basic Instructions
Cut parchment or freezer-wrap paper (glossy side up) into the shapes of your cookie sheets or Pyrex cake pans (do not use plastic wrap or waxed paper – they will melt and stick). For fruit leather, cut the paper to overlap up the sides of the pan. It's helpful if you lightly spray (and wipe to spread) a little vegetable oil spray to coat the paper. The dried food doesn't store as long, though, if you use oil. [In a pinch, when I didn't have any paper to line my trays with, I've used vegetable spray directly on the cookie sheet. The leather didn't peel off neatly, though.] Thinly slice fruit or vegetables or puree for leather (recipe below). Place slices or fruit puree onto the trays and place in your car or in the dehydrator (see below for instructions).

Easy Fruit Roll-Ups
Blend any combination of fruit in blender.

Optional:
berries (for color)
applesauce (for sweetness or to extend your fruit)
lemon juice (to keep fruit from browning)
honey (to balance the tartness of the lemon juice or to add sweetness)

Pour into pan or trays (at least ¼ inch thick). You want it to be thicker than you think! Wrap finished fruit leather in plastic wrap. Store in a dark, cool place. (Mine never makes it to storage – my family loves it!)

Car Drying Method
Trent thought I was crazy the first time that I did this – but he’s a believer now. He laughed as I made apricot fruit leather and carried the trays out to place in the back of our old yellow Toyota Celica. He laughed until I carried beautiful trays of perfectly dried apricot leather into our house the next day. I remember Mom doing this in our old brown Subaru. It MUST be a completely sunny, warm day to do this (85 or above). If it is overcast at all, it won’t work. Move your car out into a sunny place on your driveway or in the street. If your car has tinted windows, then make sure you put the trays in the front seats. The trays do not have to be in the sun. Leave your windows up and leave the trays alone. I've even driven around town with trays in the back. Your car will smell wonderful! It can take up to 2 days for items to dry. If after 2 days, items are not done, then move to oven method to “finish.” This method doesn't work in very humid climates.

Oven Drying
Set your oven on the lowest temperature. The ideal temperature is 130 to 150 – any higher will cook it more than dehydrate it. Open your oven door slightly. Place oven-safe trays inside oven and check regularly. Oven drying can take many hours. Several times I've had to turn my oven off while I go to bed and turn it back on the next morning. I only use this method to “finish” dehydrating if weather turns overcast with other methods.

Dehydrator
Mine cost about $45 and came with 4 trays. I have added trays and have purchased “fruit roll trays” because we use them so much. Instructions are included. This is an easy method – but has more upfront cost.

Puree any variety of fruit in your blender. Spray or wipe fruit roll-up trays with Pam or vegetable oil. Pour fruit into trays until full. Turn on dehydrator to recommended temperature. It takes about 24 hours until they are dry. Don't bother to roll and wrap with plastic wrap if your house is like mine. I made my first batch two days ago and it's already gone.

These trays have (clockwise from the top) peaches mixed with applesauce, only peaches, and strawberries mixed with applesauce. I added 1 T. of lemon juice per blender-full of puree to help slow browning. Applesauce is a great extender. I buy it in #10 cans at Costco for about $4.

I dried this batch too long and it crackled apart. It still tastes good, but is harder to roll onto plastic wrap.

Grandma Coombs' Original Bread Recipes

These are Grandma's Coombs' actual original bread recipes (as copied and remembered by Mom):


Quick White Bread – 2 loaves
(Mom's comments are in red)
2 pkgs active dry yeast
½ c. warm water
¼ c. sugar
¼ c. shortening (this one she eventually changed to margarine, and I used margarine until I stopped using it and went to butter.)
1 T. salt
1 c. warm milk
¾ c. warm water
6 to 7 c. Pillsbury all purpose flour
(add a little flour before you add yeast)
Soften yeast in ½ c. warm water. No need to sift. Measure up lightly spooning into cup, leveling off. In bowl blend sugar, shortening, salt, milk ¾ c. water and 2 c. flour. Beat till smother (with spoon). Add softened yeast mixture. Gradually add remaining flour to form a stiff dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and satiny – 7 to 10 min. adding flour as necessary. Place in greased bowl. Grease all sides. Cover with towel. Let rise in warm place 85 to 90 degrees until light and doubled in bulk – 1 ½ hr. Punch dough down. Cover and let rise for 30 min. Place on floured surface. Knead for 1 min. to remove air bubbles. Divide in 2 portions. Cover. Let rest 10 min. Shape in loaves. Cover in pan, rise for 1 hour. Don’t rise too much. Bake at 400 for 35 to 40 min. to double, double all but yeast – only use 3 pkgs. (she never shaped the loaves, she always rolled them out. I suspect that this was a recipe she had gotten somewhere and I copied it)


Quick White Bread (Variation 2)
4 loaves
½ c. shortening
½ c. sugar (save about 1 T. to put in yeast)
2 T. salt
2 c. warm milk
Scald the above 4 ingredients
3 pkg yeast
1 c. warm water
Little sugar
These 3 make the yeast mixture
After milk is scalded add 1 & 1/2 c. cold water to help cool scalded milk.
Add 4 c. flour, beat with beater, then add yeast mixture. Then add 2 more c. flour and beat with beater. Knead with hand after adding 4 more c. flour.
Raise till rounded
Knead
Raise 30 min.

Quick White Bread (variation 3)
Scald: 1/4 c. margarine
1/4 c. sugar
1 T. salt
1 c. milk
Mix 2 T. yeast and 1/2 c. warm water
After milk is scalded, add 3/4 c. cold water to help cool scalded milk.
Flour - 6 to 7 cups
Add 2 cups flour, beat then add yeast mixture, then remaining flour a little at a time. Knead, raise til rounded, knead, raise 30 min. Roll out and put in tins, raise, bake 350 for 30 min.
Makes 2 loaves

Quick White Bread (variation 4)
Scald: ¼ butter or margarine, ¼ c. sugar, 1 T. salt, 1 c. milk (skim doesn’t work as well)
In a separate container mix ½ c. warm water and 2 T. yeast. Add about 1 to 2 t. of sugar to this mixture. (If when you are ready to add the yeast mixture it has not raised at all, you need to discard this mixture and try again. You yeast is dead). When milk mixture is scalded add to it ¾ c. cold water to help it cool. Then to that mixture, add 2 cups loosened flour – a little at a time. Then add yeast mixture and mix. Then add the remainder of the flour. Total flour is 6 to 8 c. Don’t add it all. Sometimes you don’t need all the flour. The difference is how packed or loose the flour is in each cup. Loosen is the key.

Knead the bread about 5 to 8 minutes, or mix with bread hook. Spray a pan with Pam, put the dough in it, cover it, and let raise until it is double in size – and rounded. This usually takes around an hour but the house temperature makes a lot of difference. Knead the bread down, cover, and let raise 30 more minutes. Divide dough in half, roll out in a rectangle the width of a bread pan. Roll up. Spray pans with pam or coat the sides with shortening. The dough needs to be rolled in the pan so it is slightly coated with the Pam or shortening. Let raise – probably about 30 min. Mother had a cardboard measure that she used to see how high it should raise. Bake 350 for 30 min.

*I only notice slight variations in these recipes. Obviously the change from shortening to butter is the first change. Also, the original recipe had a higher oven temperature and cooked for a longer time. Variation 2 is a double batch which is almost the same as variation 3.

Grandma Coombs' Quick White Bread

I've been searching for the perfect sandwich-bread recipe for probably three or four years now. I can't tell you how many recipes I've tried. I've been looking for an even crumb and good heavy slices for sandwiches (i.e. not so fluffy that it falls apart when you spread peanut butter). Really I've been searching for the homemade bread of our childhood.

A few months ago, I went searching again in my cookbook of Mom's recipes and found a "Quick Bread" recipe that I hadn't tried. Surely this couldn't be the wonderful bread that I remembered! But I was willing to try anything. So I pulled out the recipe and started mixing. Even as I began the first kneading cycle, I could tell that something was different about this bread. It takes an extra rise and requires heating the milk (which many cookbooks label as "old-fashioned and not necessary"). I suspect the difference comes from heating the milk (though I'm not sure why) so don't skip that step. When the loaves came out of the oven, they quickly disappeared and my family proclaimed this to be the best bread ever. My search is over and I had the recipe the whole time.

Grandma Coombs' Quick White Bread

Ingredients:
1/2 c. warm water (with a little sugar added in)
2 T. yeast
1 c. milk (I use whole)

1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. butter [Grandma used shortening]
1 T. salt [I use 2 teaspoons]
3/4 cups of ice water
6-7 cups of flour

Directions:

Mix sugar and yeast into warm water until dissolved at the bottom of the mixing bowl.

In a different glass bowl or measuring container, mix the milk, 1/4 c. sugar, butter and salt. Heat until butter is melted and milk is scalded (about 2 minutes in my microwave). Add the cold water to the milk mixture to reduce the temperature.

Add milk mixture and 2 cups of flour to the yeast mixture in the mixing bowl.

Mix until combined.  [I add an autolyse (sitting period) of 20 minutes here.]

Add 4+ cups more of flour until dough starts to form into a ball. Knead for 5 minutes in a mixer.

Let raise until double. Knead again for several minutes and raise again for 30 minutes.

Knead for a minute more - to work out bubbles. Put into pans, raise until doubled.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Makes 2 loaves.

Mom told me several days ago that Grandma Coombs once won the Grand Prize at the Utah State Fair for her bread.  It's a great recipe!

Pecan Caramel Rolls

OVERNIGHT RECIPE
* 1 package dry yeast (about 1 T)
* 1 cup warm water
* 1/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons melted butter
* 1 egg
* 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 cups flour
* 1 cup butter (more)
* 2 cup brown sugar (more)
* 4 tablespoon corn syrup (more)
* 2 T cream
* 2/3 to 1 cup pecan halves
* sprinkle of Cinnamon if you like

In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast with the warm water. Stir in 1/4 cup sugar, salt, 2 tablespoons margarine, egg, and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. With spoon or hand, work in enough remaining flour until the dough is easy to handle (if it becomes too sticky, dampen your hands with cold water). Place in a greased bowl. Cover tightly and refrigerate for a few hours.

In a non-stick sauce pan melt butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and cream. Pour half of the caramel into greased oblong 9 by 13-inch pan or two round cake pans. Sprinkle pecans on the bottom of the pan. Place the rest of the caramel on stove on low to keep soft. On floured board, roll out the dough into about a 9 by 15-inch shape. Spread rest of the caramel over the dough and sprinkle with Cinnamon. (The last time I made this I actually had to make the caramel a few times because I wasn't able to cover all of the dough so you may want to double the amount of caramel you make). Begin rolling the dough up tightly starting with the long side. Seal the edges when the dough is rolled. Cut into 1-inch slices (I use string or floss) and place in the 9 by 13-inch prepared pan. Spray plastic wrap with non-stick spray and then cover the rolls. Place in refrigerator overnight. In the morning take it out of the refrigerator while you preheat the oven. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes. For the last 5 to 10 minutes, cover with tin foil and put on the bottom rack. Remove from the oven and IMMEDIATELY turn upside down onto a platter.

I found the basics for this recipe here and then adjusted it and tweaked it over a few times to make a gooey -sticky caramel roll. We use it for Christmas morning so I make the whole thing and then refrigerate it overnight. Then I just take it out and pop it in the oven in the morning. It's even better if you use mom's Cinnamon roll recipe and add the caramel instead of her filling, but I can't spin it like she does when I have caramel inside.

Frog Eye Salad

1 c. sugar
2 T flour
½ tsp salt
1 ¾ c. Pineapple juice from cans
2 beaten eggs
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1 box small bag acini de pepe pasta
2 tsp. Salt
1 Tbsp oil

3 cans mandarin orange, drained
2 (20 ox.) cans pineapple chunks, drained
1 (20 ox) can crushed pineapple drained
9 oz cool whip
1 c. miniature marshmallows
1 c. coconut (optional)

Combine and cook until thick the sugar, flour, salt, pineapple juice, and eggs. Cool this, then add lemon juice.

Cook pasta with salt and oil. Drain, rinse, and cool pasta. Add mandarin oranges, pineapple chunks, and crushed pineapple. Add sauce to fruit and pasta mixture, then add cool whip, marshmallows, and coconut.

My Roommate Lindsay Payne

Classic Belgian Waffles

I got an awesome Belgian Waffle maker for Christmas, but I had a hard time finding a recipe that would rise to the top and still be light and fluffy. After a bit of investigation this is the one I settled on as being the best. It's a little involved (you have to separate the eggs and beat the egg whites), but it makes light crispy waffles. Don't use this in a regular waffle maker -only a Belgian one.

• 2 cups cake flour - OK this is 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour and 1/4 c. corn starch - give or take a few
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 cups milk

Preheat the waffle iron. In a large bowl, beat together the egg yolks and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved and eggs have turned a pale yellow. Add the vanilla extract, melted butter, and milk to the eggs and whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients and whisk just until blended. Do not over mix. In smaller bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, about 1 minute. Using the rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the waffle batter. Do not overmix! (It's easier if you add 1/4 of the egg whites and mix it in really well. This will lighten the batter and so folding in the other 3/4 of egg whites works pretty well) Coat the waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray and pour enough batter in iron to just cover waffle grid (I can fit about 1/2 c batter in each waffle without overflowing and still having enough to rise to the top). Close and cook about 4 minutes until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Mushroom Sauce

2 cloves garlic - minced (I push through garlic press)
6-7 T oil or butter
3/4 lb mushrooms, minced
salt and pepper
whipping cream (about 1 cup)

1. Gently saute garlic in butter until it starts to color.
2. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper. Cook slowly until mixture softens and darkens. This may take up to 15 minutes. Don't burn.
3. Discard any liquid and add enough whipping cream to make a thick sauce.

Put on pasta - this is especially good on home made ravioli.

Double Pie Crust

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1/2 c. cold unsalted butter - cut up
1/2 c. cold vegetable shortening
1/2 c. cold water

Measure out the vegetable shortening and place in the fridge. Mix dry ingredients. I usually omit the salt because use salted butter. Add the cut up butter and cut in to the dry ingredients. Then add the cold vegetable shortening in small chunks. Since I don't have a food processor I mix this using a beaters until it resembles coarse crumbs. Then pour the water in and mix with a fork. Divide the dough and make into two round disks (I usually split it 3 ways if it mixes well). Wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 400* and place pizza stone on bottom rack. The oven and stone should be very hot when you put the pie in the oven. Roll out dough on 1 sheet of floured wax paper. Transfer to pie plate. You could refrigerate again, but I'm always too lazy to do this.
For baked pie, add the filling and cook according to directions. Place it on the pre-heated pizza stone so your bottom crust is crisp and not soggy
Cook at 400* for 15 minutes lined with foil and beans (or pie weights).
Lower to 375* and then cook for additional time listed below
10-12 minutes for partial pre-baked crust
15-17 minutes for full pre-baked crust

Red Velvet Cupcakes

1 package (18.25 ounces) Red Velvet Cake Mix
1 package (3.9 ounces) chocolate instant pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat Oven to 350.
Combine everything except chocolate chips. Mix it all in electric mixer on low for 1 minute. Then mix on medium for 2 more minutes. Then fold in the chocolate chips making sure they are well distributed. Fill cup cakes 3/4 full and place pans in oven. Bake for 23 to 27 minutes.

I frosted these with cream cheese frosting. Great for Valentines day
I got the basics for this from the Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor, although I tweaked it a little bit.