Thanks for showing us that it really does work Shelby. I finished the 9 book series and will be posting some observations soon. The biggest overall impact to my kitchen has been to give me an even stronger will not to waste food and not to just run out and get an ingredient when I could try a substitute with what is in the house.
Little House series reading group (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Started by
Shelby
, Jan 25 2011 08:30 PM
73 replies to this topic
#62
Shelby
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Posted 11 March 2011 - 09:41 AM
Thanks for showing us that it really does work Shelby. I finished the 9 book series and will be posting some observations soon. The biggest overall impact to my kitchen has been to give me an even stronger will not to waste food and not to just run out and get an ingredient when I could try a substitute with what is in the house.
Me too, Heidi.
I also find myself wishing that there were more of the series to read. I've read all of the biographies written by other people about Laura and Rose (her daughter). I didn't really enjoy that, though, because it painted a different picture of how Laura and her family were...seems that all wasn't as rosy as I'd like to think.
Oh, and I was just looking at my cookbook. Laura said that she never learned how to make vanity cakes. She said that she knew they were mostly egg and were fried like a doughnut.
#63
heidih
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Posted 11 March 2011 - 09:46 AM
For some reason those vanity cakes never spoke to me. I loved that the girls were so excited about them but I did not have a taste image of them or a craving.
I was going to read the other books as well but even the last book "The First Four Years" that was published from her notes did not have the same feel or joy to it so I decided to let it be.
I was going to read the other books as well but even the last book "The First Four Years" that was published from her notes did not have the same feel or joy to it so I decided to let it be.
#64
PopsicleToze
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Posted 11 March 2011 - 12:32 PM
Re the vinegar, could you use Bragg's vinegar? We use it all of the time, and it's so much better than the other stuff. I checked their site, and it says, "Certified Bragg Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar is unfiltered, unheated, unpasteurized and 5% acidity. Contains the amazing Mother of Vinegar which occurs naturally as strand-like enzymes of connected protein molecules."
Rhonda
Rhonda
#65
cookingofjoy
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Posted 11 March 2011 - 04:11 PM
I just did maple syrup candy with the kids last week! The Joy of Cooking said to bring syrup to 230-233 for sugar, so I figured that would be close (since Grandma pours it in the snow before she pours it for the sugar). I took it off the heat and whisked it til it looked like it was just starting to thicken, and then I poured it - no pretty designs, though :) The kids did pack the snow, and I think you're right that packing keeps it a little easier. I was amazed that the snow didn't seem to melt. The candy turned out very sticky, and anything that wasn't taken out immediately started melting into the snow. But it was still tasty!
The little left in the pan did turn to sugar, and that was very good! I'd like to make just the sugar in the saucers like at the dance.
I've found wintergreen in northern Wisconsin, and it does look like the wikipedia picture, except that what I've found is lower to the ground, more like this. I don't think I've ever tried the berries though, just the leaves.
The little left in the pan did turn to sugar, and that was very good! I'd like to make just the sugar in the saucers like at the dance.
I've found wintergreen in northern Wisconsin, and it does look like the wikipedia picture, except that what I've found is lower to the ground, more like this. I don't think I've ever tried the berries though, just the leaves.
#66
suzilightning
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Posted 06 April 2011 - 01:23 PM
i emailed melissa the other day. i noticed on one of the sites i monitor that there is a new book coming out called The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure. it is about her infatuation with Laura Ingalls Wilder and how she grew up.
me... i'm a Jean Stratton Porter girl. though i disagreed with my mom who preferred Freckles and i preferred Girl of the Limberlost. as well as Lucy Maud Montgomery and Anne
me... i'm a Jean Stratton Porter girl. though i disagreed with my mom who preferred Freckles and i preferred Girl of the Limberlost. as well as Lucy Maud Montgomery and Anne
The first zucchini I ever saw I killed it with a hoe.
Joe Gould
Monstrous Depravity (1963)
Joe Gould
Monstrous Depravity (1963)
#67
toolprincess
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Posted 06 April 2011 - 01:35 PM
i emailed melissa the other day. i noticed on one of the sites i monitor that there is a new book coming out called The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure. it is about her infatuation with Laura Ingalls Wilder and how she grew up.
me... i'm a Jean Stratton Porter girl. though i disagreed with my mom who preferred Freckles and i preferred Girl of the Limberlost. as well as Lucy Maud Montgomery and Anne
I just saw someone reading this Wilder Life book on the Metro and I made a note in my iphone so I would remember to look for it!
#68
Shelby
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Posted 20 April 2011 - 11:18 AM
i emailed melissa the other day. i noticed on one of the sites i monitor that there is a new book coming out called The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure. it is about her infatuation with Laura Ingalls Wilder and how she grew up.
me... i'm a Jean Stratton Porter girl. though i disagreed with my mom who preferred Freckles and i preferred Girl of the Limberlost. as well as Lucy Maud Montgomery and Anne
I got this book in the mail yesterday and I can't put it down. It's really, really good. Many references (so far) to all of the food in the cookbook.
#69
Kouign Aman
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Posted 20 April 2011 - 11:50 AM
Glad to hear the syrup candy works, because the munchkin is on my to try making it. We'll have to use shave ice instead of snow. There's a dearth of that in these here parts.
Not a lot of sources for sour in that diet. There's an entire eg thread on how a bit of sour brightens and brings out the fullness of flavors. We use white wine, lemon, verjuice, etc. They had vinegar.
Not a lot of sources for sour in that diet. There's an entire eg thread on how a bit of sour brightens and brings out the fullness of flavors. We use white wine, lemon, verjuice, etc. They had vinegar.
"You dont know everything in the world! You just know how to read!" -an ah-hah! moment for 6-yr old Miss O.
#70
heidih
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Posted 20 April 2011 - 12:06 PM
Little House on the Prairie (starting at page 269 in my new softcover)
Pa had gone all the way to town and came back with a treat of a bag of crackers and glass jar of little green pickles. "Laura's mouth watered, and Ma's eyes shone. He had remembered how she longed for pickles". I swear I could not get my mind off of the pickles and had to get to the market for a pretty jar of them!
Pa had gone all the way to town and came back with a treat of a bag of crackers and glass jar of little green pickles. "Laura's mouth watered, and Ma's eyes shone. He had remembered how she longed for pickles". I swear I could not get my mind off of the pickles and had to get to the market for a pretty jar of them!
#71
emilyr
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Posted 22 April 2011 - 09:32 PM
I just remembered this morning that in 6th grade we did a project on LIW because she wrote all the books in Missouri where I live. Our teacher actually had us read "Farmer Boy" as a class (I think so the boys wouldn't be too loud in their disapproval) and she made us the apples with bacon and onions! Yum!
"Life is a combination of magic and pasta." - Frederico Fellini
#72
Goatjunky
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Posted 22 April 2011 - 10:56 PM
Sorry if this has been touched on already. But anyone reading The Wilder Life? I just ordered it. Author is like us, and loved the original books. Commentary on them
#73
Shelby
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Posted 23 April 2011 - 07:58 AM
Sorry if this has been touched on already. But anyone reading The Wilder Life? I just ordered it. Author is like us, and loved the original books. Commentary on them
I just finished it! It was really good. In fact, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. She had so many of the same thoughts that I did about Laura and what her life was like later after she was married.
#74
azurite
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Posted 18 December 2011 - 07:52 PM
Plenty of hickory nuts in my mother's backyard on Long Island (NY). She has several hickory trees & I can remember stepping on them (hurts if you're barefoot) in the autumn. I think one reason there's a fairly large population of squirrels in the area is because of those trees. We used to see squirrels burying some of the nuts in the ground.
Requires some time & preparation after picking before you can shell & eat them. http://www.ehow.com/...ckory-nuts.html
Requires some time & preparation after picking before you can shell & eat them. http://www.ehow.com/...ckory-nuts.html
