For the Birds

Suet Cake from The Egret's Nest
(adapted from several sources from the Internet!)
Ingredients:

• 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1 cup lard
• 1 cups quick oats
• 1 cups cornmeal
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• Additions - bird seed, dried fruit, chopped peanuts, etc.

Tools:

• pot large enough for ingredients.
• containers that are about the same size as your suet holder.

Directions:

1. Assemble ingredients.
   
2. Heat peanut butter and lard in pan on stove, stirring until melted.
3. Remove from heat.
   
4. Add oats, cornmeal, and whole wheat flour.
5. Pour into containers.
6. Freeze until hard.

Note: In the winter, suet does great but in the summer, this recipe will melt and make a mess. It also has a risk of going bad. Watch it carefully!

Chicken Pot Pie

My husband's family are of German/Mennonite background, and this recipe was made often for supper. The noodle dough is stiffer than spaetzle and is rolled out thinly and cut into squares before it is put into boiling soup broth. My mother-in-law would cook chicken in broth (about 8-12 cups of liquid) and added only onions and parsley. After the chicken was cooked and deboned, the soup was brought to a boil and the "pot pie" noodles added. To me, chicken pot pie is made with pastry or biscuit topping, but this Pennsylvania Dutch recipe is made with noodles.
I add a few more vegetable to my soup. I took a picture of my last batch and there are onions, portabello mushrooms, parsley and cauliflower in the mix.

Soup

Cook a whole chicken or parts in 8-12 cups of salted water with a large diced onion
Cut the cooked chicken in chunks. I add 2-3 cups of chicken to the broth after the vegetables and noodles are cooked. Skim any fat from the broth.
Bring the broth to a boil and cook any vegetables you wish to add.
Place fresh noodle squares in the boiling broth and simmer for 5 minutes.
Season to taste.

Noodles

1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1-1/2 cups of flour

Mix ingredients into a smooth, elastic dough. Add enough flour to make a ball that is not too sticky to be rolled out. (Do not make the dough too stiff)
Roll out thinly with a rolling pin on a floured surface and cut into squares with a knife or pizza cutter.


Note: I learned a lot of these recipes from people who never used measuring cups or spoons. Creative license is allowed!

Spaetzle

Beat 2 eggs

Combine them well with
1-1/2 cups of flour
½ cup milk or water
½ teaspoon of salt if you use water
¼ teaspoon baking powder

Mix ingredients into a medium thick batter. (You may need to add a little more liquid)
Bring 8 cups of salted water or stock to a boil. Put the batter through a colander or press and simmer until done. (about 3 minutes) Drain and place in a bowl with ¼ cup of butter. I make this recipe in three batches, using the same water and remove the cooked noodles with a slotted spoon.

See this post on my main blog for the story behind this recipe.

Hot Milk Sponge Cake

Mrs. North was our neighbour on Piedmont Road in Durban, South Africa. She will never be forgotten because of her recipe for hot milk sponge cake. Light cakes are an essential part of the gracious British tradition of afternoon tea. This recipe makes a wonderful base for strawberry shortcake. It can be split and filled with preserves. It can be served simply with icing sugar sprinkled on the top. It is also perfect for a trifle. Recently, I wanted to make a Black Forest Trifle for guests, so I added 1/4 cup of cocoa to the dry ingredients. The results were perfect, and I will no longer buy chocolate jelly rolls for the trifle.
The following recipe is low-fat and very quick to make.

2 large eggs
1/2-2/3 cup sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter or oil

Grease a 9-inch square or round cake pan.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. 

In another bowl, beat eggs, adding sugar gradually. Beat egg and sugar mixture until it is doubled in volume. Add vanilla. 

Put milk and oil in a pan or in the microwave and heat to just under a boil. 

Add dry ingredients alternately with the hot milk mixture to the beaten egg and sugar mixture. 

Bake in a moderate oven (350F) for about 25 minutes.


Variation: Chocolate Hot Milk Sponge Cake
Add 1/4 cup cocoa to dry ingredients. Do not cut back on the sugar.