Merry CHRISTmas
Luke 2:8-14
8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
While we are visiting with family, filling our bellies with great food and opening presents lets not forget to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour, giving HIM thanks for everything.
HE IS THE REAL REASON FOR THE SEASON!!!
We at Southern Gals Cook want to wish everyone very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
What am I preparing today, you ask?
Deep Fried Turkey (actually hubby did this), mashed potatoes, corn, dumplins, fresh homemade yeast rolls and peanut butter fudge.
What’s going on your table today?
GOD BLESS
SGC
Vacation Bible School
Galatians 3:23-26
23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Our church family starts its yearly Vacation Bible School tonight. This is a four night event that brings about eating, learning God’s word and crafts.
We love this time of year as we get to see many familiar faces, those we rarely see, and some new faces as well.
I (Dana) and my Aunt Tenito (pronounced Ta-ni-ta) is in charge of feeding the multitude. Tangi will be teaching the 5 and 6-year-old class and Laura will be capturing all the action via still photos and videos.
Proverbs 31:10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
This year we will be learning about Proverbs 31 – The Virtuous Women. Our writers chose Women in the Bible that exhibited different traits described in Proverbs 31.
Monday night we learn about Hannah, an example of a Faithful Woman.
Tuesday night we learn about Abigail, a woman of beauty and wisdom. And Deborah, whom was both a prophetess and a judge.
Wednesday night we learn of Compassion from three women, Lydia, Ruth and the Shunammite Woman.
Thursday night we learn about Esther, an orphan girl who became queen. She was also a woman of Courage and clear judgement.
Friday night we learn about Purity and how Mary, the Mother of Jesus exhibited this trait.
We hope to bring you all the action, plus a little learnens’ about God’s wonderful word, cooking and craft making!
Hopefully, you will find something along the way that will help you in your life and possibly with your VBS.
Sound exciting?
Let’s get started!
Good Bless ya,
SGC
Tomatoes: From Frozen to Canned
I have a confession to make.
I. Am. A procrastinator… There! I said it.
It’s a sad truth and one that I am always trying to overcome.
But I have to say that sometimes it’s not my procrastination that gets in the way of my “want to’s” or “need to’s”– sometimes it’s just life! And nothing makes me more sick than having to throw away tomatoes that went bad before I had the chance to do anything with them. It takes time to can them and there are times when it will be more than a week before I have enough time to can a bushel or two of tomatoes. What is a girl to do?!
Needless to say, when I found out that you could FREEZE whole tomatoes to can later, I was elated! I have done this many times and each time I’ve canned them, the tomatoes taste as fresh as they did the day I picked them.
All you have to do is to wash them and let them dry completely. When they are dry, seal a single layer of tomatoes in a gallon-sized freezer bag.
I did notice that a lot of the tomatoes split when they froze, but as long as you get to them before they are freezer burned, you’re in good shape.
This weekend, in anticipation of the garden coming in and needing to freeze more veggies, I decided to free up some freezer space by canning the last of my tomatoes.
Here is how I take my tomatoes from the freezer to canned. In this case I made our favorite salsa {this recipe can also be frozen or eaten the next day}:
I used-
10 cups pureed/hand crushed tomatoes {most people use Roma, but these were beefsteak tomatoes}
1 pouch Mrs. Wages Medium heat Salsa mix
1/2 cup Bragg’s Organic Raw Unfiltered Apple Cider
2 tbsp Granulated Garlic Powder
1. Take out your precious rubies and inspect them. Make sure they aren’t freezer burned.
2. The coolest part– when you run the frozen tomato under hot water, THE SKIN SPLITS AND PEELS RIGHT OFF!! It’s so much fun to do AND it saves a lot of time!
3. After you have gotten the skin off of the tomatoes, you have to let them thaw. You don’t have to let them thaw completely, but do let them thaw mostly. I set them out at 11:00 a.m. and they were ready to process at about 7:00 p.m.
4. Once your tomatoes have mostly thawed, drain the water off of them, remove the stems and any unsightly spots. Now you are ready to puree and crush! Some of you may prefer diced. That’s fine. We like ours to be a little chunkier than what they serve in Mexican restaurants so a combo of pureed and hand crushed is perfect.
5. In a large stock pot and over medium high heat, pour in your tomatoes…
… and stir in 1/2 cup of 5% Acidity vinegar {I chose Bragg’s ACV but the recipe on the Mrs. Wages package calls for distilled white} and 1 pouch of Mrs. Wages Medium heat Salsa Mix and granulated garlic powder. Bring to a boil and then back the heat down to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes and then you are ready to can! Be sure to add a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice to each jar if you are canning. As mentioned above, you could also freeze this or put in an airtight container, refrigerate, and serve the next day.
I got 2 quarts and almost a full pint from this batch. I didn’t have quite 10 cups of tomatoes– more like 9, but that’s okay. It still tastes great! You can add in some jalapeno if you want to.
A couple of side notes–
1- Since your tomatoes lose a lot of liquid in the thawing process, it makes for a thicker salsa. We love it!
2- 
We are not endorsed by Mrs. Wages, but I love the product. It’s all natural AND it doesn’t have cilantro in it. I do not like cilantro. You could add it if you wanted to. The ingredients are: DEHYDRATED VEGETABLES (ONION, GREEN BELL PEPPER, JALAPENO, CHILI PEPPERS, GARLIC), SALT, SPICES. It tastes so, so, so, good. We add a pint to our chili instead of diced tomatoes!
3. 
We are not endorsed by Bragg’s, but again, this is a product that I love and believe in. Not only is it awesome in recipes, but the health benefits are incredible!
If you have any questions about this recipe, leave it in the comments section below or email us at SouthernGalsCook@yahoo.com
We’re linked up!
Why We Cook From Scratch {Most of the Time}
Genesis 3
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
We believe in Intelligent Design. We believe that our Heavenly Father created the world and everything in it in six literal days.
In those 6 days, God created everything that Man would need to survive: food, medicine, shelter, water, and He created them in a way that we would receive optimal benefits.
After the 1950s, we have seen an unnatural alteration in our food culture. Consumers wanted food to be easier, faster, cheaper, and more of it– so, the food industry ramped up their scientific approach for production to keep up with the demand.
Food has been broken down, dehydrated and ground up, fillers added to make it go farther, not-your-grandmas-preservatives were added to make it last longer, colors were added to make it prettier, pesticides are sprayed on it so corporations would have bigger harvests so they would make more money…more, more, more, MORE… Should I even start on what’s happened with our meat and dairy?! …UGH!
Now look at us. We are a generation of disease ridden, obese, malnourished people. {Myself included– but I’m working on that}
Coincidence? I think not.
Over the last few years, my idea of food has evolved. I see the need for Back-to-Basics-Living and am slowly working my household over to that. Not ‘hardcore’ back-to-basics. I’m not a purist’s purist, but I do try to limit the amount of processed foods that come into my home.
The Wheetshire Garden 2013
The first steps that I have taken are to cook from scratch and grow some of my family’s food {check out my 2014 garden here}.
Cooking from scratch it isn’t really a huge change, it just requires more meal prep and planning.
Now, before you start thinking that I am one of these haughty, granola crunching {mmm..granola}, tree hugging {not that there’s anything wrong with that}, out-of-touch-with-the-real-world people, I want you to know that I DO live in the real world and I know that sometimes the budget doesn’t allow for gray sea salt, gluten-free this, free range that, organic everything… and blah, blah, blah. I don’t get them all time. I can’t. That’s why I say ‘when possible’. Cut yourself {and me} some slack. We do the best we can, when we can. Most of the time, the best I can do is buy whole foods and staple items for “from scratch” cooking. I can’t always get organic, either. It’s Oh. Kay. I don’t always have time to make my own cream ‘o soup, so I get it from the store.
Wheetshire Tomatoes 2013
Did I mention that I am also a working mom? Yeah. I have a work schedule and a $50 to $60 a week grocery budget. How’s that for “in touch”? 😉 Cooking from scratch is possible in a working mom’s schedule– we just have to plan a little better.
For funzies, let’s look and compare sandwich bread– Factory made vs. Homemade.
Homemade bread has: flour, yeast, honey, water, extra virgin olive oil and salt. That’s a total of 6 ingredients.
Homemade Sandwich Bread
Sunbeam Bread Ingredients:
Enriched Bleached Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Folic Acid), Water, Wheat Gluten, Cellulose, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Yeast. Contains 2% Or Less of Each of The Following: Whole WheatFlour, Salt, Wheat Bran, Yeast Nutrients (Monocalcium Phosphate, Calcium Sulfate, Ammonium Sulfate), Dough Conditioners (May Contain One Or More of The Following: Mono- & Diglycerides, Ethoxylated Mono- & Diglycerides, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Ascorbic Acid, Azodicarbonamide, Enzymes), Corn Starch, Calcium Propionate (Preservative), Distilled Vinegar, Caramel Color, Soy Lecithin, Soy Flour. Contains Wheat and Soy.
**Um, dough conditioners? Caramel color? What the what?!
Now, let’s get real. Right now, there is a half eaten loaf of store-bought bread in my pantry. There is also a mostly eaten loaf of homemade sourdough bread on my counter.
I have homegrown organic vegetables in my freezer, as well as non-organic, non-free range chicken.
I have a box of raisin bran next to a jar of homemade granola.
You see where I am going with this? This is a gradual, do-the-best-you-can-with-what-you’ve-got process.
If we want to live a more natural, wholesome lifestyle, let’s take it one step at a time. Do the best you can with what you’ve got. Some improvement is better than none. I’ve heard this called “imperfect progress” and I feel good about it.
Roots- A Brief History Lesson on Southern Cuisine
I’m kind of a nerd. I start thinking about things and wonder how they started, where they came from, who made it, why, why is it called what it is– and then I study. Not because I have a project due or a deadline, but because I’m a curious person that likes to learn.
A couple of years ago someone asked me what my favorite kind of food was. I jokingly responded, “The kind you eat.” The thing is, I’m not a picky eater by any stretch of the imagination. I’m very adventurous when it comes to trying new foods. After I giggled at my smart aleck remark, I answered seriously with, “home-style southern food”. If you put a five-star restaurant plate with something exotic and beautiful next to a plate with collard greens ‘n ham hocks, fried fat back, corn bread, and black-eyed peas, then told me to pick a plate–I’d go for the latter.
Click for recipe
I got to wondering about why Southern cooking is different from other places in the country and where our southern food traditions come from. So, being the nerd I am, I got to reading up on a little Southern Cuisine history.
As I figured, influences stemmed from the multicultural population, crops, livestock, wild game, and necessity. After all, necessity is the mother of invention. Is it not?
The influential multicultural groups included African, English, Scottish, Irish, and Native American, just to name a few. Not only did their style of cooking form our roots of southern cuisine, but also the ingredients that they brought with them from their native homes largely affected the culinary style we know today. The BIGGEST influences of Southern food, in my opinion, were the Africans. I’ll get more into this in a minute.
Because the growing season weather is hot and humid, and because most of the dirt in the south is clay, some crops thrived in the south while others had to be imported from surrounding regions.
Click for the recipe
Now, the part that I found to be the most interesting was the huge influences that the slaves had on the foods that I love so much. One of the things that I read told how the slave owners would give the slaves the parts of the butchered pigs that they found inedible, such as pig ears, pig’s feet, ham hocks, etc. The Africans would use those piggie parts to season their cooking. That is why, still to this day, we cook down a mess of greens with a pork product. They also breaded some vegetables and fish in cornmeal, such as squash, okra, and catfish, then deep-fried them in pork grease. {Yum!} They introduced okra, black-eyed peas, and many other things to the Southern table.
Greens- A Southern Staple
Barbecue is a Southern tradition that can be traced to our Native American ancestors. Barbecue varies in every region and every region “has the best and only way to eat bbq!” HAHA! I’m not kidding! People get crazy competitive {and snobby!} with it! Everything from the wood used to smoke it, the sauce to baste it, the rub to massage it, and the way to cut it is up for debate! Don’t even get me started on the different sauces!
Our love of pies and cobblers go back to our European ancestors that showed us amazing things that can be done with flour, butter, sugar, eggs, fruit, and imported vanilla and cocoa.
Click for the recipe
I enjoy knowing my Southern heritage. I like knowing why we do the things we do. I love being Southern. I’ve enjoyed sharing with you. And, as the southern comedienne, Minnie Pearl, would say “I’m just so proud to be here”.
southerngalscook.com 
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