How much do you love your spouse?

Do you love your spouse enough you'd give up your citizenship? My grandmother Anna Reimer did. I mentioned on Facebook I would be posting the story of my father's parents and how my grandfather came to the United States.

This post is a "teaser" to what will be written in later posts. My grandfather came to the United States from Russia when he was just 13 years old. He was not allowed to enter due to an illness and was sent home without his parents. When he finally got to America, he fell in love with Anna and they were married. Only one hitch.....she had to give up her citizenship for 6 months until my grandfather became naturalized. When he became a citizen, she got her status back.

This is definitely the short version of the story, and I will be posting the longer version in the weeks to follow.

One of the dishes my grandmother would make from the "Old World" was Keelka or something similar to spatzle. Here is the recipe for an old Menonite pasta favorite.

Keelka

3 eggs, beaten
1 cup water (cold)
1 teaspoon salt

Add enough flour to make a stiff dough, (manageable with stirring spoon). Then place a portion of dough on a saucer and cut off (into bite size pieces) over edge into a kettle of boiling water. Keep at a slow boiling point until all the dough has been cut. Boil 1 minute longer and drain.

Gravy - use ham or bacon pieces and fry in a skillet with 1 large size onion. When browned, add 1 cup of cream and heat but do not allow to boil because it will curdle. Add the Keelka and serve hot.

Enjoy....This will probably serve about 4-6 people as a side pasta dish.

Growing up on a farm definitely had its advantages. My family lived off the land from our garden to the livestock that fed us. I've mentioned before that I had the opportunity to help out with the dairy portion of the farm plus I got to drive a tractor off and on during my years growing up but I haven't mentioned the tree orchard next to our house. There were pear trees, apple trees, cherry trees, walnut trees and filbert trees. There was a neighbor down the road that grew strawberries, green beans and of course cane-berries so we had an abundance of fruit. Now I'm not a fruit person, but the rest of my family is and so for them having fruit for supper was a treat.

You'd often find my dad having berries and fresh raw cream for supper. Did I mention that I started picking berries and green beans when I was probably only 8 or 9 years old? Since our neighbor had strawberries, my brother, sister and I would walk up to their farm and pick berries all day and then come home in the afternoon.

The trees next to the farmhouse gave us some amazing apples during the fall and the walnuts and filberts I picked gave me the needed money for Christmas presents for our family. As a sidebar...My mother was ingenious when it came to drying nuts and would use old panty hose, fill them with nuts and then hang them in the furnace room where it was warm and dry. The nuts would eventually dry out providing us with nuts all year round.

A friend of one of my daughters posted a picture on facebook the other day of a pork chop covered in peaches with green beans and coucous. The picture reminded me of growing up on the farm and also of a similar dish using apples, pork stuffing mix and cinnamon. Thanks for bringing back the memories....dear friend...

Apple Pork Chops with stuffing

4 pork chops
1 box Stove Top Stuffing (pork)
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups of chopped apples
1/4 cup butter plus 1/4 cup butter for the apples
1 cup hot water
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar

Put the chopped applies in a saucepan and add the sugar, cinnamon, and butter, simmer until the apples are semi-tender. Place the apples in a 9x13 pan that has been buttered.

In a food processor, pulse the stove top stuffing until it is like bread crumbs. In the first half, melt the 1/4 cup butter and heat the water until its hot. Sprinkle this on top of the apple/cinnamon mixture.

Use the other half of the stove top stuffing and dredge the port chops in this. Brown the pork chops on both sides and place on top of the apple/cinnamon mixture.

Bake the dish in a pre-heated oven at 350 until the apples are heated through and the pork chops are still tender. This will take about 30 minutes.

Serves 4. Serve with a salad and vegetable and you've got this incredible apple/pork chop dish.

Muffins for breakfast.....yum..

This morning when I got up, I thought to myself, "Let's do something different."

Growing up, I got hooked on baking for breakfast. I think that's why I still enjoy it today. Some mornings mom would let me make muffins for breakfast or even one time, I made homemade donuts. I got to the point where I'd mix the dry ingredients the night before and put the dry mix into the fridge. In the morning, I'd turn on the oven, then grease my muffin pan. By the time I was done mixing the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients plus baking time, I'd have muffins in 15-20 minutes. Not bad since I had to catch a school bus or help with chores in the mornings like feeding the calves, stock or moving hay into the bins for the stock.

The family enjoyed eating fresh muffins even though I'd make them for myself. No leftovers ever made it back to the kitchen.

Since I love to create recipes, I decided to create a new muffin recipe this morning. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Orange Almond Muffins

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
Orange zest from two large oranges
1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup milk
1 egg

Zest the oranges into the 1/2 cup sugar. Mix the zest into the sugar. This flavors the sugar and infuses the orange flavor throughout the mix. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and make a well in the bowl.

Mix together the wet ingredients and pour into the well of dry ingredients. Fold in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until the mix is just moistened. Drop by spoonfuls into either a 12 cup muffin tin or 6 cup muffin tin that has been sprayed with a non-stick spray. Bake for about 15 minutes until done in the center at 425 degrees. Makes 12 small muffins or 6 large ones.

If you want to dress up the muffins - before they are baked add a streusel topping of 1/4 ground almonds, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 3 tablespoons flour and 3 tablespoons of cold butter. Sprinkle on top of the unbaked muffins.