• Oct. 4, 2009 - Feeding the Crew
• Sep. 20, 2009 - How to Prepare Chicken Feet
My friend, MotherofBlessings raises chickens for meat and eggs, and also allows me to purchase some and she raises them for me. She blesses us so much! When butchering time comes, we come out and help with all of them.
This year, we used a different approach to the butchering and just skinned and pieced the birds. It was quicker since we didn't have to scald or pluck the birds, or mess with gutting them. However, since they weren't scalded, we had to prepare the feet at home. I took pictures, so you could learn how to prepare feet for using in broth. They really are the secret ingredient for a truly mineral-rich broth!
Here's my plate of feet before processing:
First you need to scald the feet in boiling water. Boiling water loosens the outer layer of scaly skin.
Next, remove the feet and let them cool just a bit. I only scalded two at a time, since they need to be hot for the next step.
Rub the foot and leg briskly with your thumb and forefinger. The thick yellow layer should peel off very easily. Also, remove the sheaths that cover the claws. You didn't know the Lord made removable covers for chicken toes, did you? Everything that touched the ground while the chicken walked comes off and you are left with a sparkling clean foot. The white thing on my ring finger is a toenail sheath.
Repeat till you have a plate of clean, ready-to-use feet. Some people clip off the toes with a sharp knife to allow more gelatin to escape. This is optional. I get a great, solid broth without that step.
To make broth, follow the directions on my recipe blog.
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• Jun. 27, 2009 - Farmer's Market Bounty
I have three extra kids today, and had to wait for them to arrive, so I got a late start on my Saturday plans. I went first to get my eggs and milk from my friend, Tammy. She has such a nice little farm! We spent a couple of hours there seeing all the animals (for the sake of the visitors. My kids have seen them often). We came home to potty up, put away the food and then left for the Farmer's Market and plum picking.
It was noon, and the farmer's market was closing up for the day. There were only a few places still there. I ran to the first one, and swooped on the remaining green beans. She asked $13 for the table full. Of course I'll take that!
Then down the way, another man had a wide variety of fruits and veggies. I asked how much the corn was. He said 10 for $1. I asked how much for the whole basket (LOTS). He said, give me $5 you can have them all. Then he loaded me up with all sorts of other goodies.
He also said that if I came at closing time every week he'd make me the same deals. WOO HOO! I gave him another $5 (that's all I had) and got all of this for $23:
In fact, I forgot to add another full bag of corn to the picture. The kids all had two or three ears raw with lunch and the bag had been forgotten on the counter.
We also were able to get the two buckets of plums from a tree in a friend of a friend's elderly mother's home for free.
We got to see Tammy twice today. I asked her to share in the bounty. So I have been doubly blessed!
Praise Jehovah-Jirah!
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• Mar. 17, 2009 - How to Store Eggs
'Tis the season for an abundance of eggs! My friend has a large flock and regularly gives us fresh eggs. Here is the proper method for freezing eggs for later use:
Preparation – Select fresh eggs and break each separately into a clean saucer. Examine each for freshness and remove any pieces of shell before mixing with other eggs.
WHOLE EGGS — Thoroughly mix yolks and whites. Do not whip in air. To prevent graininess of the yolks, add 1-½ tablespoons sugar, 1-½ tablespoons corn syrup OR ½ teaspoon salt per cup whole eggs, depending on intended use. Strain through a sieve or colander to improve uniformity. Package, allowing ½-inch headspace. Seal and freeze.
Another method of freezing a whole-egg mixture is to use ice trays. Measure 3 tablespoons of egg mixture into each compartment of an ice tray. Freeze until solid. Remove frozen cubes, and package in moisture-vapor resistant containers. Seal and freeze. Three tablespoons of the egg mixture (one cube) equal one whole egg.
EGG YOLKS — Separate eggs. Stir yolks gently. To prevent graininess, add 1-½ tablespoons sugar, 1-½ tablespoons corn syrup OR ½ teaspoon salt per cup of egg yolks, depending on intended use. Strain through a sieve. Package, allowing ½-inch headspace. Seal and freeze. One tablespoon of the yolk mixture equals one egg yolk.
EGG WHITES — Gently mix whites; do not whip. Strain through a sieve. No sugar or salt is needed. Package, leaving ½-inch headspace. Seal and freeze. Two tablespoons of the egg-white mixture equal one egg white. |
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• Feb. 28, 2009 - Apple Butter
When you're making applesauce, it's well worth the time to make some apple butter as well. It's super easy, if not quick, and tastes SO good on fresh bread. Begin by getting out your crock pot and filling it to about 1/2" of the top with applesauce.
Add in the spices. You'll use sugar, cinnamon and ground cloves. Begin with 3 cups of sugar, 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 3/4 tsp cloves. The amounts you will use really depend on your tastes and how sweet the apples were. I used granny smith apples, so I used about 4 or 5 cups sugar total. I ended up using about a tablespoon of cinnamon and 1 1/2 tsp cloves. Some recipes will also call for apple cider, apple cider vinegar, or various other spices. There are many variations of apple butter. I am making a simple one.
Cook the sweetened, spiced applesauce until bedtime on high, uncovered. Stir it when you walk past, so it doesn't develop a crust on top which prevents steam from escaping. You are in the 'cooking it down' stage. At bedtime, set the lid on at an angle, or propped up with a couple of wooden spoons, so steam can continue escaping. Set it on low, since you aren't going to be stirring it . In the morning, there will be a crust you will need to remove.
You will find that it has cooked down quite a bit. Remove that thick layer that developed overnight. You can add more applesauce and spices at this point, if you want. Cook it again on high, stirring occasionally. You can cook it for as long as 40 hours, according to some recipes, but I think 24-30 hours is just right. Don't worry about timing it exactly, just taste it. You'll know when it's done. It should be thickened, smooth, deep and dark colored, and luscious!
Doesn't that look simply delicious? You might want to can your apple butter for longer storage, or transfer it to jars and store in the fridge for several weeks. Some people also freeze it. Make sure to leave some headspace so it can expand as it freezes without overflowing or bursting the container.
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• Feb. 27, 2009 - Making Applesauce
I found a great deal on end-of-season apples this week. I bought 120 pounds. Besides eating them, we're making applesauce and apple butter. My friend asked me for pictures, so here they are.
First, wash your apples well. Use a drop or two of your favorite dishwashing detergent if your haven't any veggie wash. These are all Granny Smith apples.
Then quarter enough apples to fill a large pot.
Add 1/4 cup or so of water and cover. Bring to a boil for about 20 minutes. Make sure the apples are soft. When the apples are ready, they will look like this:
Take your handy-dandy Christmas immersion blender and liquefy.
Strain the applesauce from the peels and seeds. You can use a sieve or a food mill. My food mill doesn't have a fine enough screen, so I do it like this.
Scoop the peels, seeds, and remaining pulp into a container and freeze it. Add any cores or peels from eaten apples and you can make apple peel jelly. It's really good, especially spiced up a little with cinnamon and nutmeg!
Next time, I'll show the method I use for apple butter. You will start with applesauce, so get cooking!
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• Nov. 30, 2008 - Just thought you'd want to know....
Ingredients in a McD's chicken nugget:
Chicken, water, salt, modified corn starch, sodium phosphates, chicken broth powder (chicken broth, salt, and natural flavoring (chicken source)), seasoning (vegetable oil, extracts of rosemary, mono, di- and triglycerides, lecithin). Battered and breaded with water, enriched bleached wheat flour (niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, bleached wheat flour, modified corn starch, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, dried whey, corn starch. Batter set in vegetable shortening. Cooked in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, (may contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated corn oil and/or partially hydrogenated canola oil and/or cottonseed oil and/or sunflower oil and/or corn oil). TBHQ and citric acid added to help preserve freshness. Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an anti-foaming agent.
And the sauces to dip it in:
Hot Mustard:
Water, high fructose corn syrup, distilled vinegar, soybean oil, mustard seed, sugar, mustard flour, salt, egg yolks, spices, modified corn starch, xanthan gum, turmeric, sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate (preservatives), annatto extract, caramel color, extractive of capsicum, paprika, calcium disodium EDTA to protect flavor.
BBQ:
Water, high fructose corn syrup, distilled vinegar, soybean oil, mustard seed, sugar, mustard flour, salt, egg yolks, spices, modified corn starch, xanthan gum, turmeric, sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate (preservatives), annatto extract, caramel color, extractive of capsicum, paprika, calcium disodium EDTA to protect flavor.
Sweet and Sour:
High fructose corn syrup, water, fruit concentrate (peach and/or apricot), distilled vinegar, salt, modified corn starch, soy sauce (water, wheat, soybeans, salt), dextrose, soybean oil, xanthan gum, mustard flour, sugar, sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate (preservatives), garlic dehydrated, spices, natural flavors (vegetable source), cellulose gum, malic acid, onion dehydrated, caramel color, succinic acid. |
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• Nov. 12, 2008 - Jars, oh jars!
I've been canning this year and was blessed by a friend, Lori, with a good number of jars. I was actually able to fill them all up! A couple of weeks ago, I went to the store to buy some jars and was surprised by how reasonable they were. I put two boxes of pints jars in the cart. Later in the trip, I bought something unexpected, and ended up putting the jars back, expecting to get them the next week. When I went back, the price has risen by three dollars a box! I changed my mind, that's for sure.
I went home and put another wanted ad on Craig's List. I had previously asked, and received a half dozen quarts and a dozen and a half pints. This time, someone answered in a huge way!
Joe, a man in his mid-70's, wrote that he had about 60 quarts and 60 pints that he'd let me have for free! I drove out and met him, and collected the jars. He had a real-and-true in the ground fruit cellar, a rare thing in these parts. He and his wife canned often, over 25 years ago. These great jars had been waiting for me all that time! They were quite dirty, but after being washed, I only had to throw out two for damage to the rims. WHAT A BLESSING!
The final count was 71 quart jars, 9 pint and a halfs, and 118 pints, along with several neat old glass Gatorade bottles with lids that will store kombucha well. I think I'll have enough jars for a little while!
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• Oct. 22, 2008 - Canning 2008
We have been busy around here learning the art of food preservation by canning. Remember the plums? The ones that avoided been eaten raw have all been preserved as fruit roll-ups, jam, syrup and spicy butter. Sixty pounds of apples became applesauce, marmalade, and apple butter. Over twenty more pounds are being eaten raw. Eleven pounds of green beans gifted by a friend (thanks, Tammy!) became thirteen quarts of side dish.
Next week I'll be making extra soups, stews and sauces to have on hand for those busy days when a premade meal will be a blessing!
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• Oct. 14, 2008 - Plums, apples and pressure!
I was so blessed this week!! We were able to glean from a plum orchard and collected hundreds of plums! This was from our first visit. We collected more a couple of days later.
I have learned to can recently and have been putting all my knowledge to the test (Thanks, Camille!!) I have made jam and preserves, fruit roll-ups, and spiced plum butter. I was almost sad when they were all gone!
Here's is my dear friend, MotherofBlessings, gleaning with me. Isn't her son adorable?
My wonderful husband took me into the foothills and we purchased several big boxes of apples. I'll be making some goodies from them this week. I have also been blessed to be able to borrow a pressure canner from my friend, Lori. I'm so excited to learn how to use it! Pizza sauce is first on the list of things to preserve with it.
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• Sep. 25, 2008 - How to brew Kombucha without a SCOBY
Many people are interested in brewing kombucha, but have a hard time finding a source for a scoby (mother, mushroom...they are the same thing). Here's how to do it without spending a fortune!
Buy a 12 oz bottle of prepared Kombucha tea from a health food store.
Prepare the sweet black tea as follows: Boil just less than a gallon of water, pour into a gallon size jar, add 2 cups white sugar (do not use anything like honey, or succanat, etc), add four Lipton black tea bags.
Steep tea fifteen minutes. Remove tea bags and discard.
Let tea cool to room temperature.
Pour in the entire bottle of kombucha.
Cover with a clean, thin cloth and secure with a rubber band. Let culture undisturbed about 2 weeks. Then you should have a mother on top and the tea should be ready to strain and enjoy!
Keep back 2 cups of the tea to add to your next gallon of sweet tea, along with the mother, of course. The next brew only needs to be 7-8 days long.
You will grow a new mother with each batch.
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• Sep. 23, 2008 - Omnivores and other ponderings...
I am blessed to have omnivores for children. For the most part, they are just as happy eating chicken and beef as rice and beans. I am also blessed to have a husband that enjoys cooking sometimes. Here's a picture of him making some delicious fish and chips. We got the recipe from our very favorite TV chef Alton Brown, but we changed it a bit. I didn't want to go out and buy beer. We retained his superior technique and dinner turned out wonderful!
A few days ago, while cleaning up after the children went to bed for the night, I came across this:
It's a radish, eaten just like an apple would have been. Silly children!
Today I have had no energy...my father-in-law was here and accidentally set off the house alarm by going outside at 4:30 AM. What was he thinking?? I am not a morning person, and nothing I did helped my lack of drive. We did get school done, but it was a struggle for me today.
Meals were simple and easy today:
Eggs with bread toasted with and spread with peanut butter, and homemade granola cereal for breakfast. (granola eaters did not eat eggs and toast, I just allowed them to choose).
Sardines with saltine crackers for lunch.
Parmesan Noodles for dinner.
Green smoothie for snack.
Carbs, carbs, carbs. Alas, they did no good. We'll try again tomorrow. Luckily, we look at our nutrition over an entire week, not daily. |
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• Aug. 11, 2008 - Menu Planning Idea
I'd like to share today about one of my very simplest, but favorite-est meal planning strategies. I created a form for my Home Management Binder that makes planning much more simple. I sat with my recipe box and a notebook and wrote down every meal that I make with hamburger as the main ingredient. Then chicken, then fish, then vegetarian, then bean and rice, etc. I typed it all up nice and added extra lines for new meals we liked.
Now I have a great tool for those times I need to make a meal plan with just what's on hand. It also greatly assists my tired brain when I haven't planned (bad, Momma, bad!) and it's nearing meal time. "I do have a package of chicken thighs. What can I make with it?"
We never end up ordering pizza due to lack of a planned meal anymore.
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• Jul. 11, 2008 - Frugal and Nourishing
Kimi at Nourishing Gourmet is hosting a frugal and nourishing carnival! What a great way to get some healthy and inexpensive meals! This carnival is focusing on main dishes. Can't we all use some tried and true help there? The next carnival will feature sides, salads and desserts and will be here.
My entry is here.
See the others here.
Join in!
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• Jun. 10, 2008 - Frugality at the Table
| Frugality is all over the blog world right now, as prices rise on food, gas, utilities and almost everything else. The grocery budget is one of the places most people can save a few dollars. Frugal Upstate is hosting a Frugal Food recipe exchange. This week is highlighting that wonderful, healthy food: the egg. I've shared a recipe. Will you share one, too? |
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• Jun. 10, 2008 - Crema, The New Raw Dairy Consumer Group
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137 N. Larchmont Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90004 • email us |
| Raw Milk Friends and future members of CREMA,
We are pleased to announce that SB 201 — the "Fresh Milk Act of 2008" — was introduced on Friday, June 6, 2008. This is an exciting time for raw milk consumers in California as we also invite your participation in the new raw dairy consumer group, CREMA: California Real Milk Association.
CREMA was born out of the positive consumer turnout legislators observed at the Assembly and Senate Committee hearings in January and April. These are the voices that the legislators want to hear. That means your voice!
We are beginning the process of forming a non-profit organization and are in the infant stages of establishing websites, letterheads, email networks, etc. We will be able to raise funds through Weston A. Price Foundation and will begin doing so soon in order to cover startup costs. This, along with our work with SB 201, will be taking up a lot of time so we ask for your patience.
Your support will be crucial!
The Assembly Agriculture Committee hearing on SB 201 is scheduled for mid to end of June. Your attendance and support is crucial. Because SB 201 will be designated an urgency bill, it will go into effect immediately after being signed by the Governor. The challenge of an urgency bill, however, is that we need a 2/3 majority, rather than a simple majority, for the bill to pass. This is why your support is crucial!
As we get more information, we will continue to forward it to you. Once CREMA is online, we will post everything here for easy access.
We can do this! Let's get behind this with everything we've got!
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The California raw milk supply is threatened by AB 1735. If SB 201 is not passed and signed into law, your ability to buy raw dairy products in California will be in jeopardy.
WHAT CAN
YOU DO?
» ATTEND the hearing mid to end of June in Sacramento. We will forward details when they became available.
» CONTACT your state Assembly member AND Senator asking them to support SB 201.
» WRITE letters to Editors of news papers, post on blogs, and voice your support for SB 201 in the media.
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• Jun. 8, 2008 - Menu Plan Monday
• Jun. 3, 2008 - Green Smoothie Recipe
Have you done it yet? Have you just tried a Green Smoothie? I have heard from some of you that want recipes. I'll post a couple here. I have others on my recipe blog. Try one for breakfast or lunch tomorrow and see the difference!
Basic Green Smoothie
1 ripe banana
2 cups purified water
1 Tbsp. honey (raw and local is best)
2 Tbsp. flaxseed oil or coconut oil
a handful of ice
a blender full of greens
Blend in a good blender on high for 30 seconds, then max for 30 seconds, then high again for a few seconds until smooth.
Berry Green Smoothie
1 ripe banana
1 cup frozen berries (mixed blackberries, blueberries and raspberries are good!)
1/8 head of cabbage
4-5 spinach leaves
2 cups milk
honey to taste
2 cups water
1 cup ice
Blend till smooth
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• May. 29, 2008 - Green Smoothie Hints and Tips
Have you been drinking your greens? I have a few tips to share with you.
Many people do not have the powerful blender that most GS recipes assume you have. If you've got the $20 Walmart special, you can still drink your greens! Try these tips to make it work while you're saving for the blender you.really.want.
Cut out the main rib of the green leaf. Your blender will better be able to handle the load. Save the ribs in a bag in the freezer to add to your next batch of stock.
Make green juice rather than green smoothie. Don't use ice, since it will ruin your blender. Use kefir, raw milk, filtered water or fruit juice instead. If your machine can do it, use a frozen banana or two instead of ice. It will thicken (and sweeten) without straining the motor.
Freeze your greens. Really! I buy greens in bulk wash them well, dry the and rough chop them. Then I freeze them in gallon size bags. I don't have greens wasted in the back of the fridge any more and they blend up fine. They are pretty brittle, so they are much easier on the motor.
Let me know if you have any questions and share your green smoothie stories!!
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• May. 26, 2008 - Why Drink Green?
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