Posted in In My Kitchen
Posted in In My Kitchen
Posted in In My Kitchen
Posted in In My Kitchen
Posted in In My Kitchen
Posted in In My Kitchen
Posted in In My Kitchen
Posted in In My Kitchen
Posted in In My Kitchen
Posted in In My Kitchen
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A few weeks ago I stumbled onto this video series on YouTube. I really enjoyed watching these videos and lessening to Clara share about growing up in the depression. The recipes sound pretty good to! Much like how my Grandmother cooked and I do also.
Enjoy! |
Posted in In My Kitchen
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Well it's that time of the year again. Yes, time for maple syrup!! We only have two maples on our property, but that is still enough for a yummy treat. We tapped one yesterday and the biggest one today. Here is a little clip of us making syrup.
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Posted in In My Kitchen
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Chewy Brownies
12 TBS unsweetened Coco
3/4's cup butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 flour
Place butter and coco in a heavy sauce pan and melt over low heat. Stirring constantly until melted and smooth. Take off heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.
Add salt, sugar, eggs and vanilla to the chocolate mixture. Beat until well combined. Add flour and mix well.
Pour into a buttered and floured 8" square pan. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes.
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The night before our Thanksgiving in early October our oven died. The dial that sets the temperature broke. It would turn on but you couldn't tell what setting it was at. Eventually we figured out were to set it for most baking. But then a few weeks before Christmas it started surging temps. cold one min to hot the next. We have already had the thermostat, 2 oven elements and many burners replaced on this thing...We decided not to try and have it fixed again. There must be something wrong with it that causes the burners and thermostat to keep burning out. We searched every were looking for used stoves. We finally found one place. They must be in high demand right now! Dh looked and they had this very old yellow stove. The store thinks it's from the 60's. But I tell you it cooks better then any stove I've ever had!! They sure made things to last back then. It also has an extra broiler oven on top. I LOVE it!! This pic is just after dh brought it in the house.
First batch of cookies as a "test". Bakes great! My other stove was alway burning everything or under cooking.
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I'm REALLY tired today, so that calls for an easy supper. Tonight will be: Chicken balls and cherry sauce, Rice, Stir fried veggies. |
Posted in In My Kitchen
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Our garden is finally starting to produce so I've been canning today. Todays totals are: 7 pints yellow beans 8 pints cherries in light syrup 6 half pints and 1 pint of cherry jam There are lost of beans ready and waiting in the garden so I know what I'll be doing this weekend. LOL! |
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Well I'm up to my neck in meat LOL!! Yesterday afternoon we discovered the freezer had been unplugged since last Sat. All of our fruit and veggies are goners. I also have a turkey cooking right now and a few racks of ribs and 15 pounds of ground beef left to do. It sure smells good around here LOL!! This is one of the reasons we like canning so much better then freezing! We are working at canning ALL of our meat and using only the small freezer on top of the fridge, instead of our two large ones. |
We thought all the meat was to but after a closer look I was able to save most of it. 
So last night was spent doing a LOT of cooking. I cooked up a large pork roast, 35 pounds of ground beef and a roaster full of chicken parts. The ground beef and chicken have all been bagged and refrozen. The pork is in the fridge for a stir fry latter and some casseroles this week.Posted in In My Kitchen
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This is one of my favourite summer time drinks. It's so easy to make and is very thirst quenching on a hot day. Mint Ice Tea 6 cups boiling water 4 tea bags 1 cup packed fresh mint 3/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate drink Pour boiling water over tea bags. Cover & steep for 5 minutes. Remove tea bags Cool for 15 minutes and add mint. Steep and strain. Refrigerate until cold. |
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I posted this over on my other blog Around The Homestead and thought I'd share it here to. How many times does it happen to us, in the middle of making supper we find we are missing an important ingredient. We rush to the store for just ONE thing and before we know it other “extras” have found there way into our cart. Soon the one item has cost you 30.00 plus and a lot of wasted time. So how do we avoid falling into this trap? 1. Make a Menu ListWrite down all of your family’s favorite meals, and include the ingredients. 2. Make a Master Shopping ListYou can set this up how it best suites your family. For ours we made a 3 column chart. One each for freezer, fridge, and pantry. We then listed each item we used on a regular bases in the proper column. We decided how many of each item we wanted to keep on hand. Beside each item put the desired number of check boxes. Now this is the important part. EVERY time you open something that is on your list check it off right a way. No you might not NEED it this week but now that you’ve opened that jar of mayo you should buy another one to replace it. Then when you are getting low you don’t need to make a trip out to buy another. Preparing our list this way has saved us a lot of money and time. It’s stopped the quick trip to the corner store for 1 item. And since our local store has a minimum purchase amount to use debit that 1 item would always cost us 10.00. Our other alternative was to drive to the next town for one thing and spend the difference in gas and time. |
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Feeding our families healthy food at a good price is always a parents concern. With the rising food and energy crises in the world prices are jumping sharply. While we have seen the increase in food prices in North America it is the developing countries that have been hit the hardest. In North Korea the price of rice is up 186% since April 2007, its overall food price has soared 70%. In Pakistan wheat is up 66% and it’s overall food price has gone up 35%. Many countries are in a similar or worse position and I believe that it will soon be affecting our families more. The bulk store/flour mill I buy from has been affected by the grain prices. For years I had been able to by a 10 kg bag of unbleached white flour for about 4.50, this was half the price the grocery stores charged and the flour was much fresher. Now the same bag is almost 12.00 and the price of name brand flour in the grocery store is around 15.00 for 10kg. It is not only wheat that has been effected but all grains including corn and rice. Many areas of the world have been hit by repeated years of drought and now much of the grain crop in Africa is being damaged by a new stem rust Ug99. The rising prices of grains will effect all areas of our food. As rabbit farmers we have seen the price of our feed jump. Many farmers are dumping pigs and other livestock on the market because of the high price of feed. This is causing a temporary surplus in meat and lowering prices farther. However in a year or so we could see a sharp jump in the price of meat due to both feed cost and a shortage of supply. The best way to find out how venerable your family is to food supply inflation is to ask your self some questions. When most people think about food we tend to think : Am I hungry? What sounds good? What will it cost me? But we need to get much deeper then that. Where does your food come from? Try thinking about the individual items you buy. Where does the tomatoes and lettuce come from? What about your bread, potatoes and other staples? How much of your food comes from your garden? How much does your garden produce? Keeping a garden journal is a huge help here. A small investment in seeds often under 20.00 will return hundreds of dollars in fresh, healthy vegetables for your families table. In your garden journal record what varieties you planted and were. Keep notes on what mulch you used, what the weather was like and how many pounds of harvest you had. Your journal will help you to see what varieties grow and produce best in your location . How much food do you eat in a year? According to the FDA Americans eat 1500 pounds of food per person each year. Do you know were the local farm markets and stands are? While many of our family farms have disappeared, taken over by large factory farms. There has been a resurgence in fruit stand, farmers markets, pick your owns and CSA’s. Find out what is in your area and take advantage of what they offer! Like produce from your own garden it will be much fresher and use less natural resources (transportation and preservation) then items purchased across the country or across the ocean. How much food could your family produce? If you put in a little more time in the garden, how much would your production rise? What about grinding your own flour, baking your own bread, canning and freezing your harvest. All of these things will increase your families food supplies. Does your community work together? Many areas have empty lots, try working together to start community gardens. Working together shares the work load and will increase the amount of potential harvest. It helps neighbours to form close bonds and keeps young people busy and out of trouble. How large is your pantry? Lets suppose that a natural or economic disaster cut off your normal ability to shop how long could you feed your family on what is in your house right now? With world wheat stores at it’s lowest in a decade and prices jumping, countries putting export bands on grains so they can feed their own people each of us should be prepared. Keeping a pantry is not a fad thing nor is it a crazy thing. It is a very practical thing to do and our grandmothers before us relied heavily upon them. A few years ago a major black out hit the Eastern USA and Canada, some areas were with out power for days. Many people lost everything in there freezers (that’s why I prefer canning), people who had gas in there cars were driving long distances hoping to find ice. Not only for there freezers but the temperatures were in the high 90’s F. Most gas bars were shut down, you can’t pump gas with out electricity and generators were almost impossible to find. Many people had little food in the house because they like to shop every day and had no way to cook. Grocery stores were forced to destroy there supplies of meat, dairy and frozen items along with much produce. I remember it was weeks before the stores started to be normally stocked again. Why did it take so long? Because it was a wide spread problem! ALL the stores needed to be restocked, so supply was limited. These things really do happen! Maybe not every day but we still need to be ready when it does. How much energy does it take to produce your food? It takes a small amount of labour to care for a well planned garden. But commercially prepared food takes 10 kcal of energy to produce just 1 kcal of food, not including home cooking energy. That means that the USA food production system uses 10 times more energy then it produces in food energy. This is only sustainable while fossil fuels are cheep. Making a huge difference in your families food bill and health is not as hard as it may sound. Even in a small lot or patio you can use intensive method to get high yields. Wide rows, square food gardening, mulching are all things that help to reduce the work load and get the maximum potential from your soil. Learning to use whole grains, cooking your foods from scratch will all help save you money and boost your nutrition value. |
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Cooking oils quickly go rancid. To save money and quality buy cooking oils when on sale and store in the freezer. Unlike water and milk, oil contracts when frozen so you do not need to poor some off before freezing. |
