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I like to make cranberry oatmeal muffins a lot and the batter gets real thick and hard to stir with one of those thin kitchen spoons so I have been thinking of making a wooden one that is more comfortable in my hand and is strong enough not to bend. I had this piece of Birdseye maple left from the salad spoons I made so I turned this spoon and carved out the head. It is finished with Behandla salad bowl finish from Ikea.
It worked just fine last night, too….........Jim

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Jim,
So along with being an inventor, wood turner and mentor you are now a baker!! Wow you are sure talented!! Seriously, great lookin spoon and I hope the muffins tasted as good as the batter looked!

Thanks for Sharing!
 

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Hi Jim,
It's looking good, great idea to make a good handle for a kitchen spoon instead of those tiny sticks.
Can we have the recipe?
Best thoughts,
Mads
 

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Great looking spoon. I've got some figured maple that's too short to do much with it, so I may carve some kitchen tools with it.
 

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Mads, I send you all my recipies. they are in a Word file that I don't know how to attach here.

Chuck I had an apple pie in the oven when I was mixing the muffins. They both came out great.

Hal, that is what I thought of the short piece of maple. Doug Scot gave me that board of his trips here and I used up every bit of it!! They are pretty much water proof.
 

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Looks like you are starting to enjoy carving Jim. Nice work
 

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Mads, here is the recipe list for all to use!

My Favorite Recipes….............

Wild Rice Soup at Timbers restaurant (Recreated by Sue Keith).
1 Large can (26 oz) cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk - possibly more to keep it from getting too thick
1# bulk sausage, cooked and drain fat
16 oz can northern beans
16 oz can of carrots
2 cups cooked wild rice ( boil for 10 min to cook)
Salt, pepper and onion to taste
Simmer for 30 minutes and stir often

Rhubarb Sauce ( from Sandy Bugge)
4 Cups of Rhubarb cut to 1"
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup water
Simmer 20-25 minutes and stir often

Swedish Pancakes( From Sandy Bugge)
Serving for 2:
2 eggs
2 Tbls Butter - melted
2 Tbls Sugar
1-Cup Milk
1/2 Cups flour & add to get desired thickness

Apple Pie
2 Pie Crusts
8 Cups Apples (Spies are best)- about 5 big apples
1/3 to ½ Cup Sugar
2Tsp Cinnamon
1/8 Tsp Nutmeg
1Tbls flour
Bake 450-15 min
Bake 400-45 min

Rhubarb Pie- (Old Slovenian Recipe)
2 Pie Crusts
8 cups Rhubarb cut to 1"
1/3-1/2 cup brown sugar (depending on tartness of rhubarb)
1 Tbls. Tapioca
1 Tbls. flour
1 lump of butter
Mix ingredients and pour in pie shell
Bake @400 for 1 hour

Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins ( from Jan Olexa)

1 Cup Old fashioned Oatmeal
1 Cup buttermilk-Combine these 2 in a small bowl

1 Egg
1/3 cup Canola Oil
¾ Cup Brown Sugar
¾ Cup /flour
1 Tsp Salt
1½ Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Cinnamon Mix all this stuff together
THEN mix in the Oatmeal mixture
Add ½ cup crushed walnuts
Stir in ¾ Cup ground Flaxseed
And fold in 1-cup diced or chopped Cranberries, blueberries or strawberries.

Bake in 12 paper cupcake cups at 400 degrees for 20-25 min. till toothpick will not stick.

Pie Crust (makes 2){ from Gretchen Brinks}

2 cups flour
½ cup canola oil
¼ cup cold milk
In a medium bowl, put in the flour and then the oil. Mick together with a fork
Pour in milk and mix till you have a ball of dough.
Cut the ball in half to make top and bottom crust.
Wet the counter. Put down a piece of waxed paper. Put pie dough in center. Place another piece of waxed paper on top and roll out the dough.

Cherry Pie

4 cups sour cherries
¼ Tsp Salt
2 Tbls Tapioca
¾ to 1 ¼ Cup Sugar
Combine ingredients and then add cherries and toss to coat cherries.
Fill one pie shell and then add the top crust and cut slits in top crust.
Butter top of pie and lightly sprinkle sugar on top.
Cover rim of crust with tin foil or edge cover
Bake at 425 for 30 minutes
Remove edge cover and bake for another 15 min or until brown on top

Venison Chili ( From Larry Brinks)

1 ½ Lb Ground Venison (or venison/ground beef mixture)
1 Tbls Mesquite Liquid Smoke
1 Tbls Worchester sauce
1 medium chopped onion
¼ Tbls Garlic powder
1 ¼ Tbls Seasoning salt
Brown the venison in kettle and add above spices. And Add following:
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 1/8 tsp chili powder
2 Large (chopped) Anaheim or Cubanette peppers (Mild green/yellow peppers)
2 Jalapeno peppers (chopped)
1 14oz. Stewed tomatoes
2 14 oz diced tomatoes
2 14 oz Kidney beans
1 14 oz tomato sauce
Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 1½ Hrs. Taste and season more if needed
For EXTRA HOT add ½ tsp Cayenne pepper& ¼ tsp Ground Habanera pepper

Scottish Eggs ( From Cori Jakosh)

4 hard boiled eggs - peeled
Wrap each with ¼ lb. Jimmy Dean sausage
Bake on cookie sheet for 1/2hr @ 375 degrees
Slice each into quarters and serve hot

Applesauce

Wash apples - Quarter and cut out any bad spots.
Fill Kettle with 36 apples and add 1 ½ cups of water
Start on high for 10 min then turn to med and cook for 30 min or until apples are mushy
Load mushy apples in Foley Food Mill and crank out the sauce.
Add 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 tsp nutmeg and 4 tsp cinnamon or more for taste to large bowl of applesauce .

Sweet Potato Pie (for 2 pies) ( from George Nelson's Wife)
4-5 Med Sweet potatoes 1 stick of better
1 cup sugar 5-6 eggs
¼ cup brown sugar 1 ½ Tbls. Flour
½ tsp baking powder 2 cups milk
½ tsp nutmeg ¾ tsp cinnamon
1 ½ Tbls vanilla ¾ tsp salt
¼ tsp cloves 2 unbaked pie crusts

Boil whole sweet potatoes until tender. Place immediately in cold water. Peel potatoes while still hot. Put peeled potatoes in large bowl and add butter, sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder. Mix on med speed with elec. mixer. Add milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, salt and cloves. Whip on high speed to a fluffy consistency.

Pour mixture into two pie crusts and bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. Then lower to 250 degrees for 25 more minutes or until crust is golden brown
 

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Now I have to go to the kitchen my friend.
The Rhubarb pie is high on my list, will see if I can get Rhubarb.
The applesauce is used with?
Thank you, it is wonderful to see that we can cook also here on LJ.
Best thoughts,
Mads
 

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Wow Jim, not sure whether to head to the shop or the kitchen :))
nice spoon by the way :)
 

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That's a Sturdy Stirrer Jim, you're a Real Renaissance Man my Friend… :)
For mashing apples, we used to use a conical strainer (what they call a "China Cap" in the business), and a Pummel (sp.?) It looked like this, only with a rounded point…Apple Pummel(sp)...
Now if i ever had a lathe, a pummel would be near the top of the list of things to try to make…
In my kitchen here at home, my go-to spoon is my Grandmother's…Nanny's Spoon...
 

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Mike, my mother had one of those conical strainers for making applesauce but I found something a whole lot better. It is called Foley Food Mill. It is like a saucepan with a lot of holes in it and there is a wiper inside that is turned with a crank on top. It fits over a bowl. You just dump the hot boiled apples in it with peels and seeds and turn that crank until all you have is seeds and peels. Then dump it out and add more apples. I can make 5 batches a night with that thing. You can find them around here at resale shops but they are not much brand new. Try and you won't go back to the old way!!
I just wash the apples and cut them into quarters and boil them that way.( cut out the worms if you see them) It is simple and quick.
 

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I really like that spoon. My wife always asks me to mix her cookie dough and my hand cramps from using one of those thin wooden spoon. A real handle like the one on your spoon would sure make the job easier.
 

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Great work here…...love the design. Way to go!
 

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Jim, I had to go thinking about this, trying to recollect…
Only one of the Moms owned one on our street growing up, and it was always on loan to somebody!! So I didn't see it very often…
But some research turned up this…Chinois...
I learned that the real word is a Chinoise (shin-wah) for the "China Cap"... I honestly didn't know that…
And the "Pummel" (which must be a cross-memory from a comic book I read back then?!) is actually called, very aptly, a Pestle…
I've seen Food Mills like the one that you have in a few kitchens and they work very well… for what they were intended…
They don't grind peppercorns very well! Don't ask how I know… :)
 

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Now I know the secret to good muffins !
It's the spoon that I am missing
Now I have to learn how to carve one for my wife !!!!!!

Kiefer
 

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Hi Kiefer. I have to wait to get to use my spoon now. My wife took a liking to it!! Maybe make 2!!
 
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