Quad Cities News Center: August 2015

Saturday, August 29, 2015

A Traditional Farm Life - Stove Hot Cocoa

A Traditional Farm Life

By Shasta Hamilton

Greetings from Enterprise, dear friends! Partially hidden and around the corner, I am listening quietly as exotic place names waft through the air to my chair.

“Where is Bangladesh?” one asks. Necks crane, eyes squint, looking closely at the new world map on the wall. One after another, places our children have heard about are named, and the map is searched until the location is found.

It’s the first day of school at the Hamilton’s. Our “scholars” are getting acquainted with two new wall maps—one of the United States and the other of the world.

Our Geography lessons will be informal, but hopefully interesting to the students, as they find the places they read about. The same friend that gave us the maps also generously furnished an outdated Junior High Geography textbook for our perusal.

We can’t afford to take our family of eight on a trip around the world right now, so the world must be opened to our children through the pages of a book.

Our children are voracious readers, so the Geography textbook is already in high demand. (Perhaps a lesson on sharing should come first?)

Through this book’s pages our children are “meeting” children from China, Russia, Mexico, etc. Full color pictures of a day in these featured children’s lives leap up from the page. Perhaps surprisingly to our youngsters, these children in far-flung countries don’t look too much different than folks we see around town every day.

It’s a lesson worth learning.

How can we understand our own small world without an understanding of the big picture?

For our family, the “big picture” is formed by family discussion and directed study. What better place to start than with a book?

It takes a lot of “food” to feed this family of bookworms. If we don’t have what we need in our own family library, we head to a public library. Simply put, books are an integral part of our lives.

You can imagine our surprise when we heard recently that the books are disappearing from the public schools around us. It is our understanding the good old-fashioned, plunk-down-in-front-of-you textbooks are being rapidly being replaced with electronic versions on personal student computers. Not being particularly tech savvy ourselves—by design—this is hard for us to digest.

We just love books, particularly the old ones. Reading an old book is a full sensory experience—the smell of yellowed paper, the crackle of the page turning, stories read drawing you so near to a forgotten time you can almost taste it . . .

Dear friends, I know the wonders of modern technology are seductive, but please don’t relegate the printed page to a musty, old, forgotten closet. A book never runs low on battery, and is a suitable companion for all seasons.

Please call me old-fashioned. . . I can’t imagine curling up in my favorite chair of an evening with a cup of hot cocoa, staring at a glowing screen for hours on end. I’m getting a headache just thinking about it!

The extent to which you use modern technology is, of course, a personal choice—your choice.

It is safe to say you won’t find me leading a charge against your favorite glowing screen, for I have quietly retreated to my favorite chair with a beloved, musty smelling, crackly sounding, dog-eared relic of literary history—an old book.

As summer turns to fall, cooler evening temperatures make a late night cup of hot cocoa while snuggled up with a good book sound tempting.

f you’ve only had the kind of hot cocoa where you put powder in a mug and add hot water, you’ll be amazed by full-bodied, rich flavor of hot cocoa made on top of the stove. It’s kind of like the difference between a glowing screen and a good, old-fashioned book.

Top of the Stove Hot Cocoa

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup Hershey’s Cocoa

Dash salt

1/3 cup hot water

4 cups milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Mix sugar, cocoa and salt in saucepan; stir in water.

2. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils; boil and stir 2 minutes.

3. Stir in milk and heat. DO NOT BOIL.

4. Remove from heat; add vanilla.

Yield: 6 servings.

Shasta is a fifth generation rural Kansan now residing in Enterprise, Kansas. She and her husband own and operate The Buggy Stop Home-Style Kitchen with their six home-schooled children. You can reach The Buggy Stop by calling (785) 200-6385 or visit them on the web at www.thebuggystoprestaurant.com.

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Sunday, August 23, 2015

A Traditonal Farm Life - Buttercream Frosting

A Traditional Farm Life

By Shasta Hamilton

Greetings from Enterprise, dear friends! This morning it was downright chilly outside. Is this really August in Kansas? Now, don’t get me wrong. We are definitely NOT complaining.

The change in the air also brings to mind crisp, clean notebooks, the smell of a freshly sharpened pencil, and the promise a new box of crayons brings. Our children are eagerly (maybe not!) awaiting the beginning of their school year next week.

Everything was ready to start this week, but 20 dozen cupcakes have a way pushing everything else aside. However, by the time you read this, those newly sharpened pencils will be put to work.

Even though no grade will be given, baking and frosting 20 dozen cupcakes is an educational experience.

Math skills have been sharpened by the doubling of recipes and multiplying the number of times said recipe needs to be doubled in order to reach the total number needed. Planning was done in advance in order to buy all the supplies needed at one time for the whole project.

An A+ cupcake does not just “happen,” we’re discovering. In fact, there has been quite a learning curve.

Until we moved here last fall, I had always used an electric oven. In this house I now have a natural gas range. As we tested different cupcake recipes here at home the differences in baking soon became painfully obvious.

As the heat source now comes solely from the bottom of the oven, using two racks yielded burned bottoms on the bottom rack and underdone cupcakes on the top rack on our first attempt. (I was afraid to shift racks half way through for fear the cupcakes would deflate and “fall.”) We’ve now found that oven “sweet spot,” but it means only baking on one oven rack at a time.

Our first batch of chocolate cupcakes were overdone and dry. I’m now taking the cupcakes out just a bit before my intuition tells me to--when the top is just a bit sticky but the center is done.

So far, so good.

Now, we turn to the task of frosting 20 dozen cupcakes. As we are of the opinion that butter makes everything better, a buttercream frosting is our first choice for cupcakes. Bakery frosting recipes generally use either part or all shortening.

Why, you might ask?

Because butter melts.

A frosting made with shortening, even in part, has the ability to better hold its shape in the face of higher temperatures. I’m no professional cake decorator, but I can imagine that if I were to spend all that time decorating a cake, I would NOT want to see it melting in front of me on a hot August afternoon.

That said, we tried a compromise. It was half butter, half shortening. It tasted just like—you guessed it--bakery frosting. It was OK, but it just didn’t have the extra “umph” in the flavor department that only butter can give.

All things considered, we decided to go for flavor and hope for a cool August day. Strangely enough, we might just get it!

Buggy Stop Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

3-3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3 to 4 tablespoons milk

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Place butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 30 seconds. Add powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, vanilla, and almond extract. Blend on low speed until sugar is incorporated, about 1 minute. Scrape down sides of bowl. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute more. Blend in up to 1 tablespoon more milk if the frosting seems too stiff.

Yield: 31/2 cups frosting, enough for a 2-layer cake or about 18 cupcakes.

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Sunday, August 16, 2015

Account Executives Needed for Information/Content Technology Company.

Location: Quad Cities

HBT Productions is a new mobile phone app and digital media solution company. The focus is to build community pride and connect businesses to a larger consumer base. HBT Productions is seeking independent, motivated outside sales to support our ongoing expansion in the its Kansas marketplace. Responsibilities include: Demonstrating products, Selling business memberships and advertising options, Maintaining client relationships with excellent customer service. Commission position.

Candidates should have customer service experience, Exceptional presentation and communication skills, A smart phone or tablet is required to be able to demonstrate products.

Candidate's for the positions should enjoy helping others to succeed, being able to build rapport with people, and interested in problem solving.

Will train the right person with a positive attitude.

If you want the ability to make above average income and are willing to work hard please call me at 785-200-7738 or email michael@hbtproductions.com

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A Traiditional Farm Life - Yellow Butter Cake (Cupcakes)

A Traditional Farm Life

By Shasta Hamilton

Greetings from Enterprise, dear friends! We’ve been enjoying unseasonably cool weather for August in Kansas this week. Anything under 100 degrees this time of year definitely makes us count our blessings.

We are also counting cupcakes these days. I’ll be helping my oldest daughter this week and next with an order for 20 DOZEN cupcakes. You read it right, 240 homemade cupcakes for some wonderful folks we met through our restaurant. Our friends are celebrating the 40^th anniversary of their farm, and decided the portable nature of cupcakes was just the thing for their big upcoming celebration.

Never ones to take the easy way out, we’ll be making all of these cupcakes from scratch, 4 dozen at a time. We’ll cool them and freeze them, frosting them when party time approaches.

Why not use a mix?

Have you ever tasted a homemade cupcake? It’s a little more trouble while standing at the mixer, but what comes from the bowl sure beats what comes from a box—if everything goes right. If it doesn’t, well . . .

We enjoy the convenience of boxed cake mixes from time to time, and their foolproof nature speaks volumes, particularly for the beginning baker.

However, if you’re ready to take a few extra minutes with some simple ingredients you probably already have on hand, prepare yourself for something extraordinary.

A word of caution, however, friends. Following each step of the recipe is critical to achieving a light cake with an even crumb. Needless to say, I’m speaking here directly from humbling experience.

When baking the “cupcake trials” of this recipe here in The Buggy Stop Test Kitchen last week, we made the same Yellow Butter Cake recipe two different ways. First, we followed the directions to the letter, creaming the butter and sugar, adding eggs one at a time, etc. After getting the first batch in the oven, we mixed up the second recipe commercial cake-mix style, adding all the ingredients to the mixing bowl at one time and beating for 2 minutes.

Alas, instead of triumphantly introducing an easier foolproof method, I became the fool instead.

My cake-mix version was a distant second in taste, texture and crumb. While the taste was somewhat similar, the texture was very dense which caused it to taste “doughy” and underdone. My cake-mix version also had an unusual dome in the center while the traditionally made cake was flat—perfect for icing a two-layer cake.

A homemade yellow butter cake will never have the same feather light, spongy “Twinkie” texture a commercially prepared yellow cake mix can give you. It’s completely different. Expect something more substantial, more like pound cake (a close cousin of butter cake, by the way).

The final thing we’ve learned in the Test Kitchen is to not over bake your homemade cake. Our greatest difficulty so far has been finding that “sweet spot” when the cupcakes are done—but not too done.

Just as with a commercial mix, the top of the cake should be dry to the touch and spring back when lightly touched. A toothpick inserted near the center should come out clean. Cool completely before frosting, preferably with homemade buttercream frosting. Be sure to serve at room temperature, as refrigeration hardens all that yummy butter in the cake and changes the cake into a butter cake brick. (Don’t ask me how I know.)

Hope all this detail didn’t scare you out of the kitchen into the baking aisle at your local supermarket. Before you grab Betty’s box off the shelf, at least read through the following recipe. Don’t underestimate yourself--you can do it!

Yellow Butter Cake (Cupcakes)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter,

room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups (12.75 oz.) all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 24 cupcake liners in muffin/cupcake pans.

2. Place butter and sugar in large mixer bowl. Beat until color lightens and mixture looks fluffy--about 5 minutes, scraping down sides occasionally.

3. Add eggs, one a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Beat in extracts, baking powder, and salt.

5. Add flour and milk alternately in three parts: 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup flour. As soon as the last bit of flour is incorporated, stop mixing.

6. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake 22-25 minutes, or until top springs back when lightly touched and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks to finish cooling. Frost with buttercream icing. Yield: 24 cupcakes.

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Monday, August 10, 2015

A Traditional Farm Life - Turtle Lip Soup

A Traditional Farm Life

By Shasta Hamilton

Greetings from Enterprise, dear friends! This week we celebrate our oldest son’s fourteenth birthday. Where do the years go? The youngest of our six children is now four, and the days of diaper bags now seem a relic of the past.

The challenges of young adulthood lay before us, but with God’s help, we shall make it through. It is only by the Lord’s great mercy we’ve made it thus far, for our six children have two very human parents.

So, this week we will take a moment to savor the joys of still having young children in the nest. The last several weeks we have had the privilege of enjoying several “childisms.” You know what I mean, those out of nowhere comments that leave parents chuckling.

First, a little background. You may have guessed this already, but I was named after the Shasta daisy. My children are, or course, familiar with this story.

A week or two ago, my 8-year-old daughter brought up the fact we had not planted any Shasta daisies here on the farm after we moved. I replied we just didn’t have time this year for flowers, but maybe next year we would. After a moment’s thought, she replied, “It sure was nice of them to name the Shasta daisy after you.”

This same daughter was helping me water my woe-be-gone herb patch last night. Around our house, my lack of skill in the green and growing department is legendary. I often refer to myself as having a “brown thumb.”

Apparently my daughter rates her own skills in the same category. As we were watering last night she solemnly told me, “I guess I just have a brown hand.”

Our next childism didn’t even come from our own children, but highlights the nature of children near and far. A young boy and girl recently came into the restaurant, the girl hanging back by the door and the boy cautiously approaching my husband behind the counter. “Are you still doing that special thing for birthdays?” the boy asked.

He was referring to the free cookie we give children on their birthday. Catching the drift, my husband responded, “You mean cookies? Why yes we do, “ and he handed the boy a couple cookies for the pair to enjoy on this momentous occasion.

The boy accepted the free cookies, and turned to leave. As he reached the girl at the door and handed her a cookie, he told her, “I told you it would work!”

Our move here to Enterprise last fall put us between one and two hours away from both sets of our children’s grandparents. We have been fortunate enough to have several retired couples in the Enterprise area help fill in the gap. Met through the Farmer’s Market, our restaurant, and our church fellowship, with time we have drawn close to these kind folks, and we and our children have developed a real rapport with them.

One of these fun-loving friends will call the restaurant, and when our ten-year-old daughters answers, will attempt to disguise his voice and order “Turtle Lip Soup and Scrambled Buzzard Eggs.” The first time this happened she about fell for it, but recognized something familiar in his voice. With time it’s become a running joke between them.

Last Friday night at the restaurant she answered the phone and the caller asked for—you guessed it—Turtle Lip Soup and Scrambled Buzzard Eggs. After some consultation with her oldest brother and her dad, she was ready to fulfill that request.

Saturday morning she was hard at work at the stove, creating her best version of “Turtle Lip Soup.” She started with a base of chicken broth and threw in some ditalini pasta. Then she added a can of cream of chicken soup, some pickled jalapenos (the turtle lips) and an outrageous amount of Louisiana Hot Sauce (our friend likes it hot, you know).

About the time she was ladling it in a wide mouth quart canning jar, our friend and his wife pulled into the drive—perhaps a little cautiously, as my husband had sent our friend over to pick up his “carry out” order.

She handed him the jar with a big smile, he opened the lid and took a whiff, closed it, and something very unusual happened—our fun-loving, prankster friend was speechless.

While we don’t recommend you try this at home, we can’t resist passing on our daughter’s recipe for . . .

Turtle Lip Soup

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup ditalini pasta

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/4 cup pickled jalapenos, with liquid

Louisiana Hot Sauce, to taste

Bring chicken broth to a boil; add pasta. Boil until tender. Add cream of chicken soup and jalapenos; bring to a simmer. Add Hot Sauce to taste. Serve to your favorite heat-loving prankster with a smile.

Cowboy Poet

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The was a great event. EVER Wanted to be a cowboy? Abilene Kansas CT(Chisholm Trail) 150 event Start in 2016.

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Sunday, August 2, 2015

A Traditional Farm Life - Coconut-Pecan Frosting

A Traditional Farm Life

By Shasta Hamilton

Greetings from Enterprise, dear friends! You’ve probably heard it said there is something therapeutic about gardening. This I can believe.

You see, I’ve been an “absent gardener” this year. The few hastily planted herbs I have in my little herb garden have largely been left to fend for themselves. Timely rains have kept them alive, at least, and thankfully there have been few weeds.

I stepped out the door into the cool of the morning this day, saw the hoe, and a plan formed in my mind. Why not now?

It was only a matter of 10-15 minutes to hoe around those woe-be-gone plants and redefine the border of the bed. I felt an unexpected sense of justice—an old wrong had been righted by simple act.

I always think I don’t have time to spend out in my little garden—and I probably don’t—but a 10-minute random act of kindness toward my poor little herbs gave me a mental boost to go on about the tasks of the day. There are many other wrongs to be made right around here, as I have also been the “absent homemaker” this week.

Extra time was spent early this week in preparation for our Wednesday visit from the ROMEO Riders (Retired Old Motorcyclists Eating Out).

ROMEOs gather every Wednesday from points all over central Kansas to share camaraderie and a meal while supporting a Mom and Pop restaurant. We were honored to be this week’s choice.

The day dawned with rain, but by the 11 a.m. meeting time the road was dry, yet the skies were still overcast. It was a pleasantly cool morning for late July.

We welcomed 25 motorcycle riders in neon yellow ROMEO T-shirts to Enterprise, and fed them a meal featuring BBQ Pulled Pork or Chicken Sandwiches across the street from our restaurant in the Community Building.

Planning for the event was tricky, as riders descend upon their destination from their own hometowns spanning a large geographical area, with no way for the restaurant to know how many will come. We had seating for 56 prepared, and probably would have filled more seats had the morning’s rain not deterred folks from the Lindsborg area.

We felt it was a very positive experience, and it gave us another opportunity to learn how to serve large groups of people. One success builds upon another, and we look forward to serving more large groups in the future.

Now, I suppose you have spent the last week patiently waiting for the recipe to top your German Chocolate Cake with luscious Coconut-Pecan Frosting. Well, friends, the wait is over!

The following recipe makes quite a bit of frosting, but it is my preference because both the whole can of evaporated milk and package of coconut are used. How many times have I thrown out a half-used can of evaporated milk weeks later from the fridge, or found a little bitty bag of something in the back of the freezer?

If you have more than you need for the cake, you might find another use for the leftovers. If I were you, I’d try crowning a dish of vanilla ice cream with your extra Coconut-Pecan Frosting and topping it all off with a generous squirt of chocolate syrup. I confess I have not tried this, but I’ll also admit I’m salivating at the thought. If you try it, let me know how it turned out!

Coconut-Pecan Frosting

4 egg yolks

1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1-1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter

1 pkg. (7 oz.) fancy flaked coconut

1-1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped

Beat egg yolks, evaporated milk, vanilla in large saucepan with whisk until blended. Add sugar and butter and cook on medium heat 10-12 minutes or until thickened and golden brown, stirring constantly to avoid scorching. Remove from heat. Add flaked coconut and pecans; mix well. Cool to desired spreading consistency. Fill and frost cake.

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