New Spiced Apple Drink

Recently our children Jenny and Justin discovered a drink that they felt tasted a lot like Snapple 'Apple Pie', (which isn't carried in our area any more).  At Wal-Mart they found "Old Orchard" brand, "Limited Edition Apple Pie Flavored Juice Drink From Concentrate". "With a hint of vanilla and cinnamon".  We bought some and brought it home. They enjoyed it so much that on a return trip to Wal-Mart, I bought 8 more bottles of the drink as Thanksgiving was over and it's fate was doomed.  Today while working in the kitchen I thought I would try it. YUCK! The taste wasn't bad, but Boy was it Watery! It was like drinking water that apples might have been washed in, that was about the amount of taste in it.  So, since I had a 64 oz. bottle of "Great Value", (Wal-Mart) 100 % Apple Juice, I added spice and made up my own 'heartier" version of the Old Orchard brand drink.  My daughter tasted mine, then tasted the commercial one and told me that I had ruined it!  She meant the commercial one! She said it doesn't taste any good anymore!!  My son asked me why I had added water to the Old Orchard brand!! Now they want to know if I can 'fix' the commercial brand!  I guess my new recipe passed the test!

Just Visiting a Victor Countess!

     Today we read about another wood cook stove for sale locally.  Even though it was after dark and in a snow storm, with icy roads, we went to go look at it.  We had asked before we drove, almost an hour, if the stove would also burn coal, or just wood.  We were told it would burn both. I wasn't sold on the price, $1,500.  A bit too high priced for a stove that has only been used as a decoration for more than the past 15 years.  But, we did drive out to see the stove. 
     Upon arriving at the rural farm house we were ushered into the room where the stove sat in a corner, unused.  It looked small to me.  A REAL stove, but for some reason, small.

The outside of the stove looked clean and fairly well taken care of.

 

The inside of the oven just seemed small to me. It also didn't have as many levels for the oven rack.  Roger said that the oven door seemed to need tightened. I also noticed that the stove didn't have a lot of clean outs under the oven area, although Justin did find one I hadn't.

 

We looked in the fire box and it didn't have any fire brick, (which is needed for burning coal), nor did it have ANY fire grates at all, (neither wood nor coal), and therefore, as it sits, it isn't set up to burn either wood or coal.

 

 

Inside the clean out door the bin area didn't have any ash bin, or bucket.

Rog and Justin checked over the stove, under, over and inside of it!

 

The stove was missing the right side shelf.

 

 

Although the stove looked small to me, the numbers cast on the stove were 8-20 which were the same as the stove in Rhode Island.  The 8 stands for the size 'lids' or 'eyes' on the stove stop and the 20 stands for the oven size.

 

 

Looking down into the top of the cook top, see what we saw? A comb! (Wonder if the draft slide works)

Roger was using a flashlight to check out the stove, looking at several spots that the man in Rhode Island told us to look for defects!

 

There was an oven door thermometer in the door, unknown if it worked.

We decided to leave the stove where it sat as the price was too high, even though the stove was in  basically good shape, it needed work and needed to have several parts replaced.

 

So, we left and traveled the hour back through the Pennsylvania winter weather to go home.  On I-79 the traffic was traveling at a top speed of 35 mph due to slick roads.

 

Basically all you saw were brake lights

 

And a long line of slow moving vehicles.

 

 

Looking back at the highway from our exit..

 

We made it home safely, Thank you Lord! And it was fun to see another cook stove and to know and to practice somethings to look for!

Wood Cook Stove?

Many of you who truly KNOW me know that quite a lot of my thoughts are not of present days. My number one passion is my family. FAMILY FIRST is my motto, (after GOD of course), and it always has been. Friends tend to find that once I label you as a friend you are a friend for life. Others may just be acquaintances. I am friendly to them, BUT I tend to hold my friends a bit closer to me and treasure them. That said ... I ENJOY living in the past. Mid 1700's would be my all-time favorite time.  Fireplace cooking and a slower kind of life. Visiting the Greenfield Village, (right next to The Henry Ford - America's Greatest History Attraction, in Dearborn, Michigan), brought me face to face with my passion, THE DAGGETT HOUSE!! And this was how I discovered that my passion was 1750's as that was the time period this house was actually built.

The house itself is of a salt box type:

 

Inside the house is a cook-in fireplace! I LOVE it! Every time we visit Greenfield Village my family KNOWS that we MUST visit MY DAGGETT! :)  The interpreters inside the home must cringe each time we visit as I find myself compelled to stay as long as they will allow me.  It is as if it were a drug that I really need to absorb and stock up on until my next return visit to Michigan from Pennsylvania.

 My favorite room is the one with the fireplace, as you first come in the front door, because it is where the main fireplace is located.

My second favorite room is the summer kitchen.  I think I like it second because it doesn't usually have a fire going in its fireplace.  But it is where some of the food prep takes place and the herbs are dried. So I do like that room as well. In fact I DO love the whole house. :)

 

The herbs come from the gardens outside.

We like to walk through the outside garden area to see what is growing when we are there.

When the village wasn't busy, as in the off season, and in rainy weather, and when the interpreters weren't busy, I was even lucky enough to be able to catch a glimpse of the Daggett house cookbook!

 

I LOVE the old way of life.  The more simple way of life.

 

I cook over the outdoor campfire during our Civil War re-enactments, and would like to cook in my own fireplace one day if I am ever so lucky.

 

But even though my love is in the Early American period, I also have an interest in cooking over a wood and coal cook stove. (Even though it is from a more modern time period!)

Greenfield Village also has several of these stoves for us 'visitors in time travel' to drool over.  Such as this stove in the kitchen of the Firestone Farm...

 

 

 

 

 

The stove intrigues me.  I have made pies, such as apple and lemon meringue, campfire side, and I have baked bread, rolls, and cookies in dutch ovens, and in our reflector oven, at Civil War re-enactments.  I enjoy cooking over and beside campfires.  I can hardly stand leaving a good bed of coals and burning embers without using them for cooking something ... anything! So, even though a 100+ year old cook stove is almost too modern for me, I would like to own one and to attempt using one to cook. At the same time I think it might be cool to be able to warm our home with one.

 

 

After dreaming of a fireplace, which seems at this time quite a far off dream, I added a cook stove like this one to my desired list. With a stove like this one I could cook like they did 100 plus years ago.  I could warm our home when the winter winds howling outside cause a power outage.  I could attempt to master a new concept in cooking. 

 I had heard that cooking in a wood cook stove imparts a flavor like none other to breads and other foods cooked on and in the stove and I knew that I wanted to try it.  My newest quest was to obtain a wood cook stove of my very own.   I talked about my new idea with my husband, Roger, who was in agreement from step one!  Of our six children, our two youngest children still live at home.  Jenny, now age 20, and Justin, now age 18, were also in full agreement with obtaining such a stove!  I am so very blessed. Our youngest daughter, Jenny, follows my passion for cooking over wood heat, and youngest son, Justin just likes fires, and I think is just looking for any excuse to be allowed to light a fire in the house!

 

And so our quest for a 'real' wood cook stove began. 

 

Anyone who 'really' knows me also knows that I tend to research something to death before I move ahead with an idea. ..... Well most of the time anyway! I do have my 'let's do it now' moments too! :)

I checked out the stoves that were listed on Craig's list.  Let's face it ... how often are wood cook stoves for sale at your local Wal-Mart or Target stores? I didn't find any close by to go look at, but, this didn't stop me! We happen to live near Amish communities in our area.  Surely they would be able to help me to find my dream stove! We have an Amish 'grocery' store near us named "Chupp's" where we shop from time to time.  I had a burning desire to learn all that there was about cooking on a wood cook stove in addition to locating one.  We stopped at Chupp's and I talked to a young Amish lady there in the store. I asked her if she thought it was hard to cook on a wood cook stove.  Her answer? "I really don't know.  All I have ever cooked on is an electric or gas stove". Hummm ... New Order Amish, too modern for me! Oh well!

 

We traveled to the 'Old Order Amish' community just down the road.  Here I hoped that I would find some answers and perhaps even a stove!  We went into the Amish 'general' store where they sell wood cook stoves! We looked around and the Amish man showed me a few booklets of the new stoves that I could order and told me that coal stoves were the way to go.

 

Let me just say that, putting it mildly, I was NOT impressed with the stoves. I'm sure that the stoves were as efficient as he had said and that they would 'hold a fire over-night and for a long time if using coal'.  BUT, where was the cast iron? Where were the warming ovens? These stoves were made of...gasp ... sheet metal! THEY WERE MODERN for heaven sake!  What is the world coming to when you can't even trust the Amish to stay old-fashioned? The man assured me that I probably would really like the black, totally enameled, stove if I were to stop at his house to see one in action.  His wife was at home and we would be more than welcome to stop in for a visit.  I asked him if he didn't have any non-enameled OLD, cast iron stoves for sale.  "No", he replied. "We used to have them come in for awhile as trade-ins, but no one really has them around any more and they are hard to find. Every now and then you might find one sitting on someones porch, but even those are hard to find now-a-days".

 

On our way back home we did take the opportunity to stop at the man's house and visit with his wife.  The stove was large, black and enamel.  It was warm, and IT WAS ENAMEL. The reservoir was a rectangle section across the back of the stove, just above the cooking surface, and the cooking surface was even enamel.  The lady was cooking using stainless steel pans. I had expected at least cast iron pans!  Guess I am more primitive than the Amish?  The lady was very friendly and we enjoyed our visit.  She told me how much she enjoyed her stove and that it is fueled with coal, which makes it easier on which to cook. She told me that way back when they were first married that she had cooked on a wood cook stove. (My guess was about 40 or 50 years ago).  She also explained that you have to be careful not to slide your pots and pans, (and they are only stainless, remember), across the enamel finish as you might scratch the finish. (So much for my using my cast iron pots and pans, I thought).  I looked at the black enameled stove and thought, HOW MODERN. :0(   As I walked by the stove to look at the water spigot on the back of the stove, I looked at the TOO smooth cook top and ran my finger across the enamel on the edge of the cook top.

 

 

OUCH!

I waited until I was outside before quickly popping my injured finger into my mouth! 

Note to self: .. Wood and coal cook stove surfaces DO get hot! Don't touch! :0)

 

I was disappointed to say the least.  But I was determined. There MUST be a stove maker that makes a stove that still has that old world style. Back to the Internet to research more about stoves.

 

It was then that I FOUND a stove!  My heart lept. MY STOVE!  I had found a stove at Lehman's in Ohio.  An Amish store that sells to the Amish, as well as to the 'English'.  A Heartland Oval was an old fashioned type stove, but it's base sat on the floor and the stove was $7,400.  But I was in love with the Sweetheart model stove, the one with four short legs!  I was in cook stove love! This stove looked every bit like an old cast iron stove! It also had a reservoir and a warming oven!  This stove, I told myself would be our next stove. But the price of the Sweetheart model stove was still close to $6,000.  It was enamel, but you could get it in black.  Happily I searched out Heartland Sweetheart stoves on Craig's list trying to find one at a more reasonable price.  Roger also searched the Craig's lists and together we did find one! It was over in Ohio and I emailed him to 'talk' about the stove.  It seemed perfect! 

I called the next day, (which was Sunday), to see if we could drive there right away! The man had e-mailed me, so I did know in which city he was located, but now he wasn't home, and I didn't have the exact address ...yet.  He lived 5 hours away.  I was excited and talked Roger into a road trip. The kids also enjoy road trips with us, and this was one of my, 'let's do it now' moments! So ... it was my plan to drive towards the man's city and along the way make contact with the man for his address. I would then somehow convince him to show us the stove that day, then buy the stove and bring it back home!! Well ...sometimes I just lead with my heart instead of with my head.

About an hour and a half into our trip I did manage to contact the man!

But he preferred that we see the stove that next Friday.  We agreed and then changed course and went to visit my son's family in Coraopolis. So, all was not lost and we did have a nice visit.

 

I HAD to see my stove, or at least one that was going to be just like it. I called a stove place, about 45 minutes away, up in Erie, PA.  They had closed their doors forever their message said on the phone. RATS!  I called another place about an hour away from here.  They too had gone out of business. Double rats!  BUT I did find a kitchen design business with MY stove on display, about an hour and a half away from our home! AND they were open! At last I would be able to actually stand beside my future stove! My stove that would be the massive stove that would both cook my food and warm practically my entire home!  I could almost smell our 24 lb Thanksgiving turkey cooking in the oven as the wood fire crackled in the fire box and the fresh baked bread kept warm above in the warming oven. I couldn't wait.  The drive seemed to take too long.  Anticipation.

 

At last the drive was over and we arrived at the store.

 

At last !

 

We hurried in the store to see the stove.  The store was set up to show examples of different kitchens. It was kind of like a maze and we looked in many different 'kitchens' until my children announced that they had 'Found it'! I hurried over to fix my eyes on what would be my new pride-and-joy !

 

WHAT???

This can't be it .. there is a mistake! THIS was my new stove? It was nothing like what I had thought it might be. It was a mere toy stove pretending to be a real stove. It wasn't even as tall as the counters on either side of it. I was so disheartened. I couldn't believe that this was the stove. It looked like it was made by Fisher Price. ..and maybe not even that good a quality. I took some pictures of our kids next to the stove for comparison.

 

 

Jenny is about 5 ft 3" tall.

It was like playing with a toy stove.  Not at all what I had in mind.

My husband is 5 ft 6" and my son is 5 ft 8".

 

 

The oven was shiny

But it probably wouldn't hold my 24 lb. turkey. Maybe a chicken, or perhaps a Cornish hen?

 

It might not even be big enough to hold a cowboy hat.

 

The top of the stove was so small. It was hardly even worth having the 'eyes' at all.

Funny, (not really), how in this next picture you can just about see the top of the whole stove with my son's hand larger than one of the stove's eyes.

 

 

I now knew that my new old stove was not going to work.

I contacted the man with the used stove for sale and cancelled our appointment. I was glad that we had only traveled an hour and a half instead of 5 hours to find out it wasn't what we had wanted.

 

Back to the drawing board!

 

So ... we went back to Craig's list to look at additional stoves.

 

As I looked at the stoves I knew deep down that I wanted the look and the feel of an antique stove.

A massive, black, cast iron stove.

I continued to look on Craig's list at the antique stoves.  Many of these, "just needed" some 'small' item fixed.  How would we be able to fix these? Many more advertised their stove as a display item. The people selling them stated that the stoves hadn't been used for cooking for the last 40 or more years.  Were these stoves for us?

 

 We kept looking.

 

 I decided to look at the antique stoves to at least see which brands and models I liked.  I used a 3 ring binder to hold all of the information I was gathering. I added pictures of stoves that we liked.

 

 

  In looking up pictures of antique stoves I happened to come across a website for a company that rebuilt antique wood and coal cook stoves.  It was located in New England.  Rhode Island to be exact!

 About the same time that I found that website I found out that some antique cook stoves were made with 3 layers. Cast iron and sheet steel with a layer of asbestos in between.  I knew that I didn't want a stove with asbestos. 

 I emailed the company in Rhode Island to ask if stoves did indeed have asbestos in them.  The man emailed me and let me know that there were stoves that did have asbestos. In addition to that, some of the modern ones are also only trimmed in cast iron to make the buyer think that it is a 'REAL' cast iron stove. :0(   But he also told me, "New England stoves weren't made with asbestos.  The stoves we have do not contain asbestos and are all cast iron". 

I looked at his website, printed off pictures of stoves and added them to my book.  I talked to Roger and we decided that a refurbished antique cook stove, like this company had seemed to be just what we would like.

 

Road trip!

We had to wait until Jenny and Justin were out of their college classes for the weekend.  Since neither of them had classes after Thursday that week we decided to leave for Rhode Island early on Friday morning. It would be between 10 and 11 hours to drive there. We knew that there was a chance that the stoves that we were going to see might not be what we would want either, but we enjoy road trips and who knows ... perhaps we just might find what we were looking for.  It was worth the chance.

We left early that Friday morning.

We drove from Pennsylvania with the four of us and my 3-ring binder of gathered hopes!

 

It was about 5:30 when we arrived in the very small rural town and it was getting dark.

 

As we drove into the driveway the owner was just closing the door of the shop.

We got out to talk to the man who opened the door and showed us inside.

He showed us several stoves he had finished that were waiting for delivery to customers.

 

 

Wow! The stoves were just what we had been waiting for! Cast iron, REAL size, black and some even not enameled! 

 He showed us the stoves in his show room, and the shop where he works on stoves, and even a lot of cast iron pans and other items he had.

After visiting with him for some time, he explained that we should come back in the morning so that he could show us what stoves he currently has that would be available for rebuild. He told us a place to stay for the night and a place to eat for supper and for breakfast, if we would so choose.

 

The next morning we arrived and met the man and his son.  We were shown around their stove yard and in their barns and garages where they helped us to narrow down our choices for a stove.

 

 

 They suggested that we stick with the stoves that were a more common variety so that we wouldn't have any problems finding parts for the stove, should the need occur.  They also said that if we didn't see a stove that we liked they would help us to find one like we wanted.  It was recommended to us not to get a reservoir as these will rust the stove from the inside out. But he would help us to get a stove with one if we so chose. 

 

 He was very friendly and very helpful. He answered all of our questions and didn't even mind our video taping and taking tons of pictures.

We were told that using coal in our stove increases the length of time between fueling and increases the heat from the stove. We can opt for a wood and coal burner and they will install fire brick in the fire box.  Also burning coal means no creosote so insurance companies are much happier. If you have coal grates you can burn coal or wood.  If you have wood grates you can only burn wood.

We decided to go with a coal and wood stove.

 

.

It was a bit hard to keep all of the different kinds of stoves straight. Trying to pick a stove from all of the dismantled stoves outside was tricky too. The man also let us know that any enamel would be removed during the sand blasting and didn't have to be reapplied if we didn't want enamel.  We finally picked a stove like one of those we saw inside the show room.

This is the one we picked. (It has the right side shelf laying on the stove top as there wasn't enough room in the showroom to leave it attached to the stove)

 

 

 

 

On the left side of the stove is a 'broiler opening'.

 

Using this opening, which is open to the fire box, you can cook your meat directly over the wood fire.

You place the meat on a rack like this one and slide it into the stove.

 

 

There is a rod at the back corner of the stove which pulls out and attaches back into the same hole perpendicularly.  It becomes a drying rack to hold a dish towel, or other item.

 

 

 

 

 

Just above the lower shelf is a curved piece. It has a series of holes that can open as a draft to allow additional air into the fire box.  This part also slides open to reveal the ash pan which is where you remove the ashes.

 

 

 

The stove we picked seemed to have the largest oven of the ones in the showroom. We measured the ovens with a tape measure the owner let us use.  Also look at all of the different adjustment levels that are available within this oven.

 

And of course for something even larger, you can remove the rack and place your pan directly on the oven floor.

 

The man's son, (about 30 or 40 years old), showed us what they use to polish the nickel plating on their stoves, purchased at an auto parts store.  I have also read that a bit of water mixed with wood ashes does a very good job. Guess we will have to see!

They at this time did not have any warming ovens for any of their non-cabinet stoves.  If we wanted to we could wait for a stove until they located one. We opted for the shelf units instead.  They told us that if we decided on a stove that we could possibly have a refurbishes stove in about 4 weeks time.  We would definitely have the stove by Christmas and possibly even by Thanksgiving! (But no promises.)

The man we talked to said that he prefers heating and cooking over coal.  You can't cook directly over coal due to its poisonous gases.  Cooking on a closed stove top or in the oven would be okay.  They have a display there telling good and bad coal types.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then went outside to see what OUR stove looked like in it's 'raw' state. 

Our stove will be totally dismantled and each piece will be gone over.  Any broken pieces will be recast, new pieces made. It will have the nickel trim all redone.  The enamel on this stove will be removed with sand blasting.  The whole stove will be sand blasted and then the outside of the stove will be painted with black stove paint.  The in-the-door thermometer will be refurbished also. (Even though it really only tells the temperature of the oven door!)

We were given 3 choices of stove top finishes.  We could have the cook top painted in black stove paint, or the top just sand blasted, or sand blasted and then milled.  Having it milled will leave it with a smooth surface.  By not applying the stove paint it will allow the cook top to be safe to cook upon directly, if we so choose.  The milled cook top was the one we chose.

It will look like this one;

The milled and non-painted cast iron stove tops are protected by occasionally wiping them with oil, such as canola oil, much like a cast iron pan.

 

The cost for our antique stove fully refurbished was quoted as $2,900.  Which was MUCH less than the new 'toy' stove! 

We will be notified when our stove is finished. (He said definitely by Christmas, and possibly by Thanksgiving!) We will then have the option of purchasing it or opting not to purchase it. They prefer NOT to take any deposits and will accept payment only after you have checked out the finished stove and decide if you would like to purchase the stove.  If we do not wish to travel back up to Rhode Island he will send us "a lot of pictures" of the finished stove for us to decide.  If we want to travel back up to purchase and to pick up the stove he will show us how to run and to cook on our stove.  If we wish to just have the stove shipped to us it will probably only cost us about $150. to have it trucked to us. (Probably less than the cost of fuel for the round trip to Rhode Island). 

Oh, and look at the size of the eyes on a 'REAL' stove!

And it takes more than one picture to show the whole top!

 

And the oven -

 

Yep! I may have to remove the rack and set the roaster on the oven floor, but I do believe our turkey will definitely fit! :0)

 

 

 

At Long Last, Possibly a REAL stove! :)