Tag: heirloom offerings

Heirloom Offerings :: Rice Pudding
This offering to Heirloom Offerings :: The Grandma Project was contributed by Kris Antonius. Are you interested in sharing? Read our submission guidelines and get started.

It’s almost effortless to conjure up the sweet aroma of grandma’s rice pudding baking in the oven. It was a smell that occupied her entire home, and still occupies my memories. Thanks to my grandma and my mom, my little ones will grow up sharing this memory, but in the context of our home.

Little has changed in how we make our rice pudding, from the original that was enjoyed in grandma’s kitchen so often years ago. She baked; we cook it on the stove top most of the time. She added eggs; we have a little one with an egg allergy, so unless we make two dishes, we go egg-free. A few tiny subs or additions here or there, depending on the day – but in the end, it is still the warm, homey, comforting dish I recall from my childhood.

What’s great about rice pudding is that if you’re not using refined sugar, if makes a wonderful dessert or breakfast. We’ve even had it for lunch. And snack. It’s just that good. Especially when it’s made in Gran’s casserole and eaten out of her fancy dishes.

Grandma Amey’s Rice Pudding

Ingredients (our updated substitutions in parentheses)
- 3 cups cooked rice (organic whole grain brown or wild rice)
- 1 apple, chopped (unpeeled)
- 1/2 cup raisins (organic)
- 1 1/2 cups milk or cream (organic milk or cream, or homemade almond milk)
- 1 egg (from a local farm)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons sugar (honey or panela)
- 1/2 teaspoonCinnamon
Our Additions:
- Virgin coconut oil or coconut butter
- Sometimes a combo of: sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, hemp seed
Instructions

As far as I recall, Grandma never used a recipe. She simply made a pot of rice, and added the other ingredients by sight or intuition. I don’t think she ever heard a complaint!

1. Cook rice according to instructions (or use leftover rice – I often cook extra rice when making a meal for this purpose)

2. Chop the apples. Grandma would have peeled them. We leave the peel on.

3. Mix the rice, apples, raisins, milk, egg, sweetener and cinnamon in a casserole dish and bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

OR

Place the rice, apples, raisins, milk, egg, sweetener and cinnamon in a pot and heat on medium-low for 15-25 minutes.

4. Serve warm or cold with fresh milk or cream or a dollop of real whipping cream.

Kris Antonius has a crew of four budding gardener chefs, ages 3, 6, 10, and 13, and is passionate about good food and learning. She enjoys exploring sustainable farms, food, and recipes with her family and nurturing the seeds that are planted on their numerous food and learning adventures.

*Photo of Kris by Pauline Boldt.

For more tips on eating well affordably, check out this post: Fitting Real Foods into the Budget – tips from myself on eating REAL food on a budget and links to some of my favourite posts on this topic.

For time and sanity saving menu planning help, grab our Tiny Peasant Menu Planners & Resources!

This post was shared as a part of Thank Goodness It’s Monday, Natural Living Monday, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Unprocessed Fridays, Fight Back Fridays and Simply Natural Saturdays.
November 13, 2013
Heirloom Offerings :: Mennonite Zwiebach
This offering to Heirloom Offerings :: The Grandma Project was contributed by Maria Epp. Are you interested in sharing? Read our submission guidelines and get started.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my Grandma. She loved to share her skills with us in baking, sewing, crocheting, preserving and house-keeping. Now that I live far away from her, I cherish those childhood memories that much more.
Maria learning to bake in Grandma’s kitchen

Coming from a Mennonite background meant that there were a lot of traditional foods that we would look forward to each time we visited Grandma’s. Roll Kuchen, Perishky, Wereniki, Borscht and more. I’ve tried making many of them on my own, but of course, they never come close to Grandma’s!

The traditional bun was called Zwiebach. Watching my Grandma make the beautiful white dough and squeeze the little balls through her greased fingers was so fun. Trying it myself as a kid was often humbling as I fumbled along, not nearly as fast as she was. These have always been a treat and now that I’m gluten-free I can’t enjoy them any longer.

Her tricks of the trade were marvellous though. She would use potato water and bacon fat to make them fluffy and rich! Re-using a meal, rather than throwing those parts out. This type of thrifty cooking was not only tastier but meant that there was a rhythm to each week. There was no money to buy a quick loaf of bread. Everything was made from scratch, over and over again. The recipes were tried and true and the routines were depended on and cherished.

As a kid, I was comforted by the familiar. The same recipes became our favourites. It may not have been the healthiest, but I still long for the simpler, more grounded life that was shared by my Grandma. No surprises. No doubt, that the food was good, the home welcoming and the love strong.

Passing on the tradition to the Great Grandchildren

Here is the Zwieback Recipe (unaltered):

1 package yeast

2 cups warm potato water

4 cups milk

2 eggs

2 level tbsp. salt

1 cup shortening (or bacon fat)

1 cup margarine

Sprinkle yeast into warm water, cover and let stand 10 minutes.

Scald milk.

Beat eggs well, and after milk has cooled somewhat, add eggs and salt slowly.

When still warm, add yeast mixture and beat in enough flour to make sponge.

Cover and let rise until light, 1 to 1 1/2 hours in warm place, free from draft.

When light add shortening, which has softened at room temperature, and enough flour to make a smooth elastic dough.

Knead well.

Cover and let rise until double in bulk, punch down and let rise again.

Punch down and set buns on greased cookie sheets (You pinch off round pieces, and after your pan is filled you pinch off somewhat smaller pieces and put these on the first bun, and put your thumb in the centre right down, to hold these two balls together.)

Let rise until light and bake in 375°F oven for 20-25 minutes.

{Kris}: I love that Maria’s family recipe can get a quick whole foods boost without compromising the recipe by simply using butter in place of margarine, sea salt instead of table salt, and perhaps experimenting with different flours.

Maria Epp is mom to two beautiful girls, partner to Nathan, and creative explorer with a passion for nature and working with her hands.

{Kris}: Those photos are oozing with sweetness! What a special experience for your girls to bake with their great grandmother and carry on the traditions of your family. Our family bread tradition is for all the women to gather to make paska (easter bread) each year. Thank you for sharing this!

Share your family’s traditional foods in the comments. What do you remember your grandmother (or other significant person in your life) making when you were a child?
November 6, 2013
Heirloom Offerings :: Get Frugal with Fat

This offering to Heirloom Offerings :: The Grandma Project was contributed by Kris Antonius. Are you interested in sharing? Read our submission guidelines and get started.

My grandma was one of the most generous people I knew, and was also quite frugal. When she used Crisco lard for baking, she tore off the wrapper to open the block and used it to grease her cookie sheet, muffin tin, or cake pan. If the piece was large, she’d tuck it back into the box in the fridge for the next time.

Though we use butter or coconut oil in place of Crisco, we have learned from my grandma and save our butter wrapper in the fridge for the same purpose. I also melt coconut oil for use in recipes now and then, and have started to use the tiny bit left in the pot to grease the muffin tin – there always seems to be just the right amount!

This photo of us baking was taken about twelve years ago! Based on the yeast package on the counter, my guess is that we were making Paska (Easter Bread).

Kris Antonius has a crew of four budding gardener chefs, ages 4, 7, 11, and 14, and is passionate about good food and learning. She enjoys exploring sustainable farms, food, and recipes with her family and nurturing the seeds that are planted on their numerous food and learning adventures.

*Photo of Kris by Pauline Boldt.

This post was shared as a part of Simple Lives Thursday at My Humble Kitchen, Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, Unprocessed Fridays at Girl Meets Nourishment, and Simply Natural Saturdays at The Pistachio Project, Thank Goodness It’s Monday at Nourishing Joy, Natural Living Mondays at Natural Living Mama, and Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager.

October 30, 2013
Heirloom Offerings :: Hospitality + Commitment

This offering to Heirloom Offerings :: The Grandma Project was contributed by Kelly Bernardin-Dvorak . Are you interested in sharing? Read our submission guidelines and get started.

In French, grandmother is Grandmère. Grandma is Memère. I’m thankful that I still have both of my Memères not only in my life but near enough for visits.

Here’s me a couple years ago with one of my aunts and my mom’s mom, Cecile. This Memère taught me hospitality from the heart. When I’d visit, she’d haul out all sorts of things for me to eat. Soon, the spread in front of me consisted of something like this: left over mashed turnip, cut up tomato, a few pickles, a garden salad with lots of different veggies, maybe a wiener without a bun, and always: tomato vegetable soup. Over time I saw through the mis-matched-ness, and realized that she was sharing everything she had with me. For her, hospitality wasn’t about performing or perfection. I started to see her heart in this array on the table. She didn’t want to withhold a single thing that I might enjoy, and everything she had was for sharing. Thinking on it, I’m reminded of the old Sunday school song – you know the one about banqueting tables and banners of love?

Here’s my dad’s mom, Henriette, in a photo taken just a few months ago. This Memère has taught me commitment to family and community as a way of life. She had 11 children and helped run the family farm; responsibilities she managed with incredible efficiency and no shortage of love. When people remark that I have a habit of taking on a lot, I’m thankful that I am my grandmother’s granddaughter. At 89, she is still active in her community, dearly loved by extended family and many friends, and has close relationships with their children and grandchildren. She is leaving an inspiring legacy.

Kelly Bernardin-Dvorak is a French Canadian woman who hopes to live these examples of hospitality and commitment. She wrote this post on (Canadian) Thanksgiving, 2013. She also writes at www.abidethree.wordpress.com.

{Kris}: Thanks so much, Kelly, for sharing these meaningful life lessons from your grandmothers! It’s easy to forget about true hospitality and what that means – simply offering what we have and who we are.

Share your memories and experiences of hospitality from the heart and commitment to community as a way of life in the comments…

October 23, 2013