I need to make a big batch of onion cookies; I've been out of them. What I did make was a batch of hamburger do-nuts.
I don't hunt deer any more; I cannot bear to shoot my deer "pets". So, the friends who have permission to hunt here give me some venison. I decided to be lazy & bring a big pail of boned, cut-up venison into Crystal Falls to Sommer's Sausage shop. Wow! It took them only a few minutes to grind it into hamburger, instead of a few hours for me to do it at home.
So ... I made my batch of:
HAMBURGER
DO-NUTS
I like my hamburgers just "hot & dead" ... easier to achieve if you work a little hole in the middle of the patty, so it cooks more evenly.
This works doubly fine for me, because I take a big batch of hamburger & patty it up myself... then... these get individually frozen on a cookie sheet. The do-nut hole helps them thaw more quickly, esp. if you're tossing them into the frying pan frozen.
To make nice, even patties, I measure out a soup-ladle full of hamburger, cover with wrap, then, pank it with a saucer.
AT THE END OF A WORKDAY ...
who would feed me? .... ME ...!
From many years of feeding ravenous helpers at the end of a looooong work day, and, feeding ravenous drunks who want to eat NOW ... I've developed techniques to get a delicious, stick-to-the-ribs meal on the table in seconds. I've found out that I have no "wife" to do this
... so ... I freeze portion size food in zip-lock bags. Quick nuke a potato or whip up extras ... Instant Gourmet! I always called my Crockpot my "electric housewife" ... mmmmm... work hard all day ... and have a nice hot meal all ready!Somedays, when I was hungry
& miserable, I would need to be creative. FOR EXAMPLE:
In the microwave, I heated up some delicious frozen turkey
with some frozen gravy (too lazy to dig for turkey gravy- I used venison gravy) .... and some pre-cooked garden carrots. I found some instant potatoes (too lazy to go dig some out of the garden), added some frozen chicken stock cubes & frozen onion/carrot cookies for flavor. I thawed out a chunk of chocolate cake to use with ice-cream for dessert. My meal was yummy-delicioso ... and, for a beverage I had some hot toddies to relax my miserable back ... using MAPLE SYRUP for sweetener. I had made this maple syrup
last spring ....
I never was able to change from "oldest in the family", and later, in my
own home "feeding teen-agers" way of cooking to cooking
smaller batches ... thus ... developed the tactic of
cooking once ...
eating all winter
Some of my fav tactics:
- Onion Cookies
- Hamburger Donuts
- Perpetual tomatoes
ONION COOKIES:
Chop once, use for months ... you only have to cry once!
These are such a time saver; add one or more cookies to your ordinary cooking, even ramen noodle, mac-n-cheese, soups, pizza for extra
flavor.
Chop up onions, add grated carrots for color. Sometimes, I add a lot of my own chives (dried or fresh).
Be fancy & add different color bell peppers! Make the onion "cookies" on a saran-wrap cookie sheet, freeze, & put into zip-lock bags.
PERPETUAL
I either can or freeze my tomatoes. I put these up all seasoned & ready to add to various food projects, casseroles, spaghetti sauce, chili, etc.
blender.
Sometimes, I put the tomatoes into small ziplock bags, freeze the bags flat on the cookie sheet ... so the bags stack nicely in the freezer.
THIS WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO SHARE A POTATO PANCAKE RECIPE E-MAILED TO
ME BY A FRIEND. It was his Mother's recipe.
Here is a recipe from my Lithuanian Mother's cookbook. I'm sure the Finn's must have a very similar recipe:
BLEENIES (fried potato pancakes)In Europe and Russia, bleenies are regular flour pancakes and are served with caviar. In the Coal Region of Pennsylvania, a bleenie is a potato pancake. Few people make them at home since they can create a huge greasy mess in your kitchen (and
your whole house). That's why they are popular at block parties and church bazaars. Bleenie lines have been known to circle halfway around the block.
- 8 medium potatoes
- 1medium onion, grated
- 1 egg
- salt & pepper
- 4 level tsp. flour
Peel potatoes. Grate the potatoes. Mix potatoes and all other ingredients together. Flatten like pancakes. Fry. Add salt to taste after cooking. Some people put vinegar on before eating, others smear on some grape or strawberry jelly.
My version of potato pancakes is similar ... OF COURSE ... I use my home-made Maple Syrup on them. I also might add a thawed "onion cookie" ... and use Bisquick instead of flour.
IT'S DEER-HUNTING SEASON HERE.This is a picture from the past, when we lived by Suamico, WI ... our deer-hunting gang ... about 1998 ... Johnnie's last season hunting.
You know you’re in da Nort when:
- The mosquitoes have landing lights and the most effective repellent is a shotgun.
- You have more miles on your snow blower than on your car and sometimes it gets stuck on the roof.
- You only own three spices – salt, pepper, and ketchup.
- You know which leaves make good toilet paper.
- You clean grease off your barbeque so the bears won’t prowl around.
- You use the trunk of your car as a meat freezer.
- You wear your snow boots to weddings and keep them on through the ceremony.
- You actually get these jokes.
- The National Transportation Safety Board recently divulged they had"covertly" funded a project with the U.S. auto makers for the past5years, whereby the auto makers were installing black-box voicerecorders in 4-wheel drive pickup trucks and SUV's in an effort todetermine in fatal accidents, the circumstances in the last 15 secondsbefore the crash.In almost all the states, the recorded last words of drivers in fatal crashes were, "Oh Sh*t!"What were the final words in the Michigan Upper Peninsula? "Hold my beer, I'm gonna try somethin’.”
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