Tim got up this morning and headed out. It is the last day of deer season. His one last chance at a buck. He went with his son, who wanted his doe, having already gotten his buck. Neither of them got anything but dinner out, so that was nice for them, and really, we did not need the meat, to be honest. Our freezer is well stocked.
I spent the day home baking two fruitcakes, one to go down to my son's house for the family celebration. One to go to the Amish Christmas. I still have two more to make. One as a gift and one for ourselves. I will make them sometime this week.
The fruitcakes take two hours to bake in a slow oven, and so I used that two hours to wrap gifts. I have one box to mail out Monday morning. My next focus will be getting the Amish wrapping done. Not sure when we are doing that for sure yet.
So that was today. It was a quiet day in, but I made quite a dent in my to-do list.
LATE EDIT:
Grandma Violet's Fruitcake Recipe
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 28 oz jar of mincemeat
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
2 cups of mixed candied fruit.
1 cup of walnuts.
I beat together the flour, the soda, the eggs. I add the mincemeat, the milk, the fruit and the walnuts. I divide that mixture between two loaf pans which have been greased and lined with parchment paper. Bake at 300 until they are 'set', about 2 hours.
This is a recipe from my children's great grandma. My ex-husband's family always raved about their grandmother's fruitcake. Grandma Violet was such a dear woman, and we were close. So I asked her for her recipe, and she told me a secret. Her secret recipe was lifted from the back of a jar of NoneSuch Mincemeat! (I had the same experience with my daughter in law. My son had raved about my cinnamon rolls. He wanted her to get that recipe. I had to confess that my secret bread recipe was not special at all. It was from my kitchenaid mixer cookbook.)
Anyways, I got to wondering how old that recipe was. Short answer: I couldn't tell you. I found a Nonesuch recipe dating back to 1922, but it has molasses or brown sugar. If I remember correctly, it does not have flour. So...it appears that the recipe has evolved through the years. If Grandma Violet was simply making it from a recipe on the back of a jar from one year to the next, she probably did not notice the changes. I got the recipe from her circa 1990.
There is never a dull moment in your house Debby. It's good to keep busy at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteI think that we all need to see a picture of Diesel decorated in holiday finery. That mug was adorable.
DeleteI am sorry not to have left a comment for so long or posted on my blog. I have been very ill and only now feel more able to use a keyboard - albeit on a phone! But I have been reading and it helps to see me through. Today I am posting similar comments on many favourite blogs I have read. From a hospital in France…
ReplyDeleteMark! So good to see you here. I've been wondering what's become of you! You go some time between posts, but I became concerned not to see your comments on other blogs. So many seem to be dealing with some sort of struggle right now. Don't worry. I am still keeping tabs on you.
DeleteI am eagerly awaiting my gift in the post, but you have left it rather late for sending.
ReplyDeleteI used to make boiled fruit cakes but I didn't not cook them for that amount of time.
I heard of boiled fruitcakes. I don't believe I've ever eaten one though.
DeleteBoiled fruitcakes..the best!
ReplyDeleteAsk Mattie about apple butter and cheese?
I used to make applebutter all the time. I have never heard of apple cheese, but I am going to ask her. That intrigues me. So you just cut it up and eat it like a block of cheese?
DeleteI bet she means homemade cheese 🧀, not "apple cheese" ... whatever that is; and then homemade apple butter!
DeleteNo. It is Lithuanian. I am pretty intrigued.
DeleteThink apple butter, but with a higher proportion of sugar...1:1 by weight cooked down pulp:sugar...if you put it in straight sided jars you can slip it out and cut like a cheese made from milk..other wise you manage to cut slices out of a wide jar!
DeleteThere are traditions of this all across Europe..one famous one is Jersey Black Butter, made with dark sugar and possibly molasses?
Glad everyone is getting round to their fruit cakes boiled or otherwise. But anything with dried fruit in it has everyone turning their noses up around here.
ReplyDeleteI've heard of boiled fruitcake. I've never eaten one. The thing that I love about Grandma Vi's recipe is that people will tell you that they hate fruitcake. And then they taste this. The closest that I ever got to a criticism was, "This isn't bad at all..."
DeleteYou are so well organised and productive. I'm a lifelong procrastinator.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel productive.
DeleteLists are important at this time of year. Life does get busy for an old man's brain to cope with.
ReplyDeleteHa!!!! I don't even have an old man's brain...
DeleteMy fruitcakes also take a very long time in a very low oven. I'm still pondering the sweetened condensed milk though.
ReplyDeleteI only have one recipe for them. It's so delicious that I have never felt the need to try another recipe. I thing I will post the recipe.
DeleteOh, haven't we all been there! It sounds like you made a wise choice is switching doctors.
ReplyDeleteI haven't made fruitcakes in a while. My sisters and I used to getbtogether to do it, but its just too far for me to travel in winter, over the mountains. I miss that gathering. Maybe I will stir up some cakes today.
It's really very easy. I should post Grandma Vi's recipe.
DeleteWow! Four fruit cakes! You do extremely well to make that much.
ReplyDeleteWell, I make it clear...I make my fruitcakes in a bread loaf pan. A whole tube pan is too much cake for us at this stage of our lives. A fruit cake recipe makes two 'loaves'. I can wrap them in plastic and foil and seal them in a plastic bag and tuck them in the freezer until I am ready to use them.
DeleteYou don't age them in rum soaked cheesecloth? My mum loved her rum soaked fruitcake:)
DeleteI will make a confession: I have NEVER liked the taste of rum. Blechhhhh!~
DeleteYes! Glad to find somebody who agrees with me about rum! I was always so disappointed at university when what I thought was good old pound cake turned out to be rum cake!!!!!!
DeleteLol. We leave the rum for everyone else then!
DeleteMy mother made fruitcake every year, she used None Such mincemeat, don't know if her recipe was the one from the bottle, but man it was good! Wrapped hers in rum soaked cheesecloth. Gave me three of them every year.
ReplyDeleteMy mother used brandy on a fruitcake one year. I don't remember liking it though.
DeleteI make 9 small loaves at a time. I give them away at first, but the last couple of batches get frozen for Art. He loves fruitcake.
ReplyDeleteDoes your fruitcake use the same ingredients as we do or do you have some sort of Hawaiian version of it?
DeleteI am the only fruitcake eater in my family. I've loved it since I first tasted my great grandmother's fruitcake, seventy five or more years ago.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see that recipe. It seems like the very oldest ones did not use flour.
DeleteI've always liked a good fruit cake. My MIL made a good one she wrapped in cheesecloth and aged in brandy though otherwise was a teetotaler from alcohol.. You are ambitious!
ReplyDeleteMy wife gets asked for her cinnamon roll recipe all the time. They are actually frozen ones that you thaw out and let rise overnight and just bake in the morning. We just tell people that it is a family secret that we have sworn to protect.
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing out the recipe! I was so curious. This is really nothing much at all like the recipe I use. Here's a little history of "mine" and a recipe too: https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1991/12/12/a-fruit-cake-that-forever-endures/
ReplyDelete