The Wilkes Team

Here is a real tasty and fruity dessert! 

This is a family favorite over here for the 4th of July. From the thin crust, creamy filling to the delicious fruit on top! We thought some of you might enjoy it too!

Pizza Crust:

Cream spread:

Then add your favorite fruit toppings and enjoy with your family and company!

5 Comments » | posted in Family News, Recipes

Earlier this winter, Mom and I found a home made hot cocoa recipe. We tried it out on the family and there were oohs and ahhs over the delicious taste. After a snowy adventure or game of soccer in the cold outdoors, this recipe is one every one will definitely enjoy!

Homemade Hot Cocoa 

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1 cup of sugar

2/3 cup of cocoa

1/4 teaspoon of salt

8 cups of milk

2/3 cups of water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine the sugar, cocoa and salt in a large pan. Stir in milk and water. Cook and stir over medium heat until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat and stir in extract. Serve in your favorite mugs with a few little marshmallows on top to finish it off. Yields: 10 servings (some of you may have to double it )

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Virginia’s large game hunting season ended January 5th. The men of our household were planning to go to a hunter’s dinner at a local church. This did not work out so we decided to have our own with everyone. Markie and I worked together on decorating the room with hunting gear. There were antlers around the table, arrows on the wall, gun shells, and more. Markie was a big help!

Mom prepared a family favorite casserole of venison burger and vegetables. When everything was ready, we dressed in hunting gear and sat down for a scrum-dilly-licious meal.

We learned a lot of valuable lessons this year. Several people gave us advice on how to hunt better. As a result, this was our best hunting season ever.

Venison Burger Casserole

In a 13×9x2 glass pan, spread 1 ½ pounds of ground venison, put in 2 small cans of green beans for the layer number 2, pour in 1-2 cans of tomato soup depending on how runny you prefer, and then spread about an inch of mashed potatoes on top. Sprinkle a little paprika seasoning for additional flavoring and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

5 Comments » | posted in Family News, Recipes

Over the past weeks we have been VERY busy in the kitchen cooking up cookies, fudge, lemon cream loaves, snicker doodles, chocolate crinkle cookies, candy cane bark, and more! A favorite family tradition of ours is giving out Christmas goodies to family, friends, and neighbors. We all enjoy making the special treats. This year I was able to make fudge for my very first time. It can be very tedious work and requires that you don’t give up!

When everything was finally ready we piled into the car and spent yesterday afternoon making the special deliveries. There was not enough time to make it to every house we wanted to so we may do a New Years Delivery too. I was encouraged by all the effort that was put into baking and shopping for needed supplies. Thank you Wilkes Team for the joy that you put into this special tradition. I can’t wait till next year.

NEVER FAIL FUDGE

5 cups of sugar
1 can of evaporated milk (12 oz.)
1/4LB. butter of margarine
12oz. Marshmallow puff
1 teaspoon salt
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1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 large packages (12 oz.) of Semi-sweet Chocolate chips

Combine first five ingredients in large sauce pan. Stir over low heat until blended.

Bring to boil over moderate heat  being careful not to mistake escaping air bubbles for boiling, THEN BOIL SLOWLY , STIRRING CONSTANTLY FOR 5 MINUTES.(use soft ball test)

Remove from heat, stir in chocolate and vanilla until chocolate is melted. Pour into 2 buttered 9 by 9 inch pans and cool.

Tips: I usually put the fudge in a 15 by 9 inch pan instead of two 9 by 9 inch pans. This will yield approximately 5 pounds.

2 Comments » | posted in Family News, Recipes

Lately, I have been trying out different recipes for ice cream. Here is one that I’d like to share with you. What is nice about this recipie is you do not need an ice cream maker.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup of milk (any type of milk should be fine)

2. 2 tablespoons of sugar

3. 1 teaspoon of vanilla

4. 3 cups of ice cube

5. 1/4 cup of salt (any type of will work)

6. Add any extra flavors at this time. We like to add either strawberries or crumbled oreos.

In a quart size ziploc bag, mix together the milk, sugar and vanilla. Seal the bag tightly, without leaving lots of air inside (If you are a little concerned about it leaking out, feel free to tape it up!). In a gallon-sized ziploc bag, mix the ice and salt. Place the sealed quart-bag inside the gallon-sized one.

Now comes the teamwork part. For the next 10-15 minutes thoroughly shake the bags (the more the better). Continue until you have a milk-shake consistency. I have been blessed to have many helpers every time I make the ice cream. Everyone works hard for the tasty treat at the end. Usually, the end result is more like a milk-shake but still extra tasty!

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This week most of the family is diligently attending a Hunter’s Safety Course. Joshua, Hannah, and I are staying home this week. We have had fun coming up with exciting things to do each night. This evening we decided to make an extra special dessert. Hannah put together the list of ingredients. They are: 1 Apple, 1 Pear (including the seeds), 1 thin Carrot, a small handful of corn, Pineapple chunks, and a box full of toothpicks.

With Thanksgiving coming right around the corner, all three of us decided to create our very own ‘Turkey.’ Using delicately sliced fruits and vegetables with toothpicks, we were able to construct a scrum-dilly-licious looking turkey. We learned some fun things about the turkey:

The frontal caruncle (the large growth that appears from the base of its bill) and the waddle (the skin underneath the turkey’s throat)change colors depending on their mood. When the male turkey struts around the waddle and caruncles become a bright red. When scared, the head take on a pale blue color. When the bird is butchered the head changes to a whitish blue.

The turkey demonstrates availability by preparing itself for the needs and demands of others. Early in the fall, the male turkey spends much time eating and storing up food in its body. Later in the fall, as the hens begin to lay their eggs, the male turkey sets aside his own agenda and needs so he may assist the ones he is called to serve. It listens for a yelp or cluck and then quickly runs to help. Later, after all the eggs have been laid, the Tom can begin to take care of his own needs once again.

That’s all for now – Joshua, Hannah, and Markie signing off!

Availability: Rejecting ambitions that hinder us from being where we are needed.  

7 Comments » | posted in Outside the Box, Recipes

Around this time of year as summer is coming quickly to a close and fall is approaching quite rapidly, canning seems to come to the forefronts of the Wilkes Team minds. Seeing peaches, apples, green beans, tomatoes, grapes etc. just seems to get us all excited about gathering and canning!

Before she passed away, Mommom ( mom’s mom) was always canning somthing and getting us to help her in the process when we were little. Grandpa and Grandma have told such fascinating stories about their growing up years living on farms and how they would provide just about all their food from off the land they tilled. We don’t want these next generations to lose these basic skills that our great grandparents and grandparents knew. We need to take action and ask them questions and seek them out and learn from them. 

Each and everyone of us are blessed with ones that have gone before us yet we seem to take them for granted. It is not until they are gone that we realize we did not take the time to glean from their wealth of knowledge. So lets take the time and learn from those who have gone before us! And if you have never learned to can fruits, meats and veggies here’s a great opportunity for you to ask your great grandma, grandma, or mom how they did it! I’m sure you will have a blast doing it, and maybe this could be your first recipie??

Peach Butter

18 medium peachers

4 cups of sugar

Wash and blanch peaches. Peel, pit, and slice in peaches in half. Put them in blender until  it reaches the consistence you want (Chunky to very smooth).

Put blended peaches in a large pot. Add the sugar. Cook until thick enough to round up on a spoon. As mixture thickens, stir frequentily to prevent sticking. Ladle hot peach butter into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch. headspace. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 min. in a boiling-water canner. It yields about 4 pints. 

5 Comments » | posted in Family News, Recipes