A Snowy Day is Good for Popcorn!

Today it is snowing!  Yes, I said snow.  We don't need any more rain or snow during this harvest time!

It is snowing today at Two Squaw Lake

So I thought I would process the popcorn that we have been drying in the basement.   Harold built a large screened box and we put a fan underneath to dry the popcorn.   We've had the fan running 24/7 for about 2 weeks and the popcorn is ready to put through the sheller.  The basement is nice and warm, too, because we've had the heat on for about a month now. (We have radiant floor heat).

I'm putting the popcorn ears through the hand-cranked corn sheller.  I put a sheet on the floor to catch stray kernels.  The kernels that fall outside of the sheet into the corners of the kitchen become bird and squirrel food.  Sometimes the kernels have a mind of their own and fly everywhere!

The shelled ears become compost.

I've only done 2 buckets of popcorn ears, and have already filled up about 1/3 of the tub.  I have about 4 or 5 buckets to go yet.   We won't have as much popcorn as last year, but it will still be a goodly amount.  It was a bad summer for growing things - too much rain, early frost, and the hailstorm last month.

The next step in the popcorn process is to dry the kernels further in trays until they are ready to pop.   We "test pop" small batches until most of the kernels pop well.  Then we know it is about the right moisture.   I then put the kernels in wide mouth glass canning jars to store.   In the early spring when our market booth begins again, we will have popcorn to sell. 
     Now...........back to cranking out those ears!.................

Backyard Critter

This morning I looked out of one of the kitchen windows and saw something dark moving on a piece of roofing tin that my husband had measured out to put on the roof.   Grabbing my trusty camera I rushed out to see what it was.   It was a salamander!  Searching through my Audubon series field guide books, I discovered this was a species of Tiger Salamander.  There are hundreds of species of salamanders, and the coloring of Tiger Salamanders can vary a lot, too.  This little guy (gal?) was about 7 inches long and about 2 inches wide.   I got some good photos of him/her and was glad that I got a chance to view some backyard wildlife.   So often we miss these small moments in life.  If I had not taken the time to look out the window and observe things, I would have missed seeing this little creature!  It was learning experience anyway.

A Tiger Salamander on a piece of roofing metal in the back yard.  Kind of a "cute" little guy/gal eh?

Another view from the other side.   It looks like a piece of grass stuck to its body towards the rear.

A close up of the little critter.  I wonder if this is a male or female? 

After I snapped the pictures the salamander crawled off the metal and onto the grass to.....? wherever it came from in the first place?   I sometimes see these crawling across the highways up here, but I haven't seen them in the yard.   We have had a lot of rain lately, and they like to eat earthworms and beetles in moist areas.  Besides all the deer and larger mammals around here in the woods, we have had many snapping turtles, owls and eagles and now salamanders paying a visit to the yard!  I always consider it a treat to observe nature close up like this.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

It has been snowing all day long, a very wet and heavy snow.   It's way too early for this kind of weather!  The weather guys are predicting 3 to 5 inches of snow by tomorrow morning for us.  We are also supposed to have low temps tonight in the mid 20's.  I had to bring in all the pumpkins and squash I had on the porch so they would not freeze.   I had no real place to put them except in the living room by the bay window.   Our basement is not cold as we have our radiant floor heat down there.    It is supposed to warm up in about a week, so I'll be able to put the pumpkins and squash back out on the porch soon.   I gradually bake and puree the pumpkins to put into the freezer for future baking.  Meanwhile my living room looks like a pumpkin patch! (To quote Charlie Brown, is it a "sincere pumpkin patch"?)

Just some of the pumpkins in the living room.  These are Winter Luxury pie pumpkins.   I think they make the best pies. 

With all this pumpkin to use up I began to search my recipe files for good ideas on how to use them.   I already made a pie, but I wanted to do something else today with pumpkin.  So I decided to modify my cinnamon roll recipe and make Pumpkin Cinnamon rolls.   This is the time of year when everything seems to have pumpkin in it, right?
     Well, the rolls turned out delicious.  It was a good thing to do on a cold snowy day.  It warmed up the house and made it smell "homey and cozy".

One of the pumpkin cinnamon rolls.   The dough took on a yellow-orange tint from the pumpkin in the mix.  And the rolls were nice and moist. 

The rest of the pan of rolls.   Yum!

In case anyone is interested, here is the recipe:

PUMPKIN CINNAMON ROLLS

1 T. (or 1 pkg) yeast 

1/4 c. warm water 

1/2 tsp sugar

Let this proof until foamy. 

Meanwhile, in a large non-metal bowl, 

1/2 c. milk

1/4 c. sugar

1 tsp salt

4 T butter (half a stick)

     Microwave this mix until hot, to scald.  

Then add 3/4 c pureed pumpkin 

2 eggs 

1 tsp vanilla 

Add bread flour about 3 to 4 cups until you have a soft dough to knead.  Knead on a floured board for just a few minutes gently.  Sweet roll dough should never be kneaded very long or very strongly as that toughens the dough.  Knead just enough to make the dough not sticky.  Let rise in an oiled bowl until double.  Then punch down and roll out into a 12 x 15 rectangle (about, this isn't exact!)

     Spread the dough with 2 T of softened butter.  

Mix together:  1/4 c. brown sugar, 2 T. white sugar, and 2 tsp cinnamon  and sprinkle this mix over the buttered dough.  

     Roll up and cut into 12 pieces and put into a greased 13 x 9 pan.  Let rise until almost double and bake in a 375 oven for 23 to 25 minutes. 

Make an icing with 1 c. powdered sugar, 2 T. softened butter and 2 T. milk.  Mix well and spread over the rolls. 

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My next pumpkin recipe to try will be pumpkin dinner rolls or a yeasted pumpkin bread.   When cranberry season arrives, I love the combination of pumpkin and cranberries in breads and muffins.   Pumpkin is also good eaten like a vegetable, topped with brown sugar or maple syrup and pecans.  Of course my husband thinks pumpkin "only belongs in pie" - and his favorite pie is pumpkin!

  I will probably end up giving away many of these pumpkins.   We had a bumper crop of them and I don't think we need 29 pumpkins' worth of puree in the freezer!

Popcorn Harvest Day

After weeks of rain and cold, we finally had the chance to harvest our popcorn for the year.  From the sound of the weather report, we only have today and tomorrow and part of Wednesday before we are back to rain, cold and...........dare I say it?..............snow?  This has been a very difficult harvest season not only for us, but for the area farmers trying to gather in the sugar beets, soybeans, edible beans, and corn.   The fields are just swamps with standing water.  Harold usually has been doing the sugar beet harvest for almost a week by now, but this year nobody has even started, as the fields are completely wet.  
     But we are enjoying our 2 or 3 days of sunshine!   A couple weeks ago the big hailstorm we had damaged everything and shredded the popcorn stalks.   But the ears seemed to survive and from the looks of the harvest we will have a good crop of popcorn this year. 

The recent hailstorm shredded the corn stalks and beat down the plants.  But the ears survived.

Harold sits on the tongue of my little "zippy wagon" and shucks popcorn.   We ended up with a pretty good crop in spite of the weather this summer.

We both spent a couple hours in the fall sunshine shucking (or is it husking?) corn ears.

We had a very full wagon load plus -  of corn to shuck.

The popcorn ears looks very good, nice and full!

Harold is still happily shucking popcorn ears!

When we have all the ears shucked, we put the ears into a large screened box with a warm fan blowing air into it.  When the ears are dry enough, we put them through the corn sheller to strip the kernels off the ears, then dry the popcorn further in trays until it is ready to pop.  Then we store the popcorn in wide mouth quart jars until we sell the popcorn at our market booth early this spring.