Dinner and a sneak peek

On Tuesday, we had wild mushroom ravioli and I made alfredo sauce to go on them. Homemade alfredo sauce is so easy and yummy! Once you have it, you will never settle for canned alfredo sauce again . I havent bought any since first making this several years ago. I actually made 1 1/2 batches so I would have enough leftover for the next meal, a soup that calls for canned alfredo sauce.


Here's the recipe in case you're wanting to give it a try:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup cream
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (doesn't taste nearly as good when made with Kraft parmesan)
salt and pepper to taste (and I usually use dried parsley as well)

Melt the butter in a sauce pan, add the cream and cheese. Stir occassionally while the cheese melts. Add spices and salt and stir. Turn off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes to thicken.

See, super simple.

The soup I made is one we've had a few times and I love it...Adam likes it too but not as much as I do. Adsam got his broccolli on the side while I mixed mine in my soup...and cornbread on the side.


Hot bean soup

1 garlic clove, minced
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cans (16 oz. each) white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups cooked fresh cauliflower florets
1 jar (17 oz.) alfredo sauce
2 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
2 Tbsp chopped basil
grated pamesan cheese

In a saucepan, lightly saute garlic and red pepper flakes in olive oil. Remove from heat. Coarsley puree beans and cauliflower in a food proccessor or blender. Add puree, alfredo sauce and chicken stock to garlic. Cook over low heat, stirring occassionally until heated through. Add fresh parsley and basil before serving. Serve with parmesan cheese.

I tried a different cornbread recipe. Adam complains about me using wheat flour in the cornbread and this one doesn't use any flour or sugar at all. Adam said he couldn't taste the corn...but that is the majority of what's in there. I could definitely taste it. I liked it. So now I know 2 cornbread recipes by heart.


2 cups cornmeal
1 tsp baking soda, baking powder and salt
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients together. Make well. Add beaten egg and 1/4 oil. Add enough buttermilk to make cake batter consistency. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes.

In my bakes goods, I replace the oil with homemade apple sauce. You can't taste the apple. It cuts out fat and also make things fluffier. Weird, I know. But we decided we didn't like it in brownies because we likely them thick and fudgy and applesauce makes it cakelike, more airy.

Another thing I finally got around to making is my lacto-fermented ketchup. I haven't had any for a couple months and just haven't gotten around to making more. I finally did and got to enjoy some on my eggs this morning. :o)


Makes 1 quart

3 cups canned tomato paste, preferably organic (comes out to be about 4-5 cans)
1/4 cup whey (the liquid drained off of yogurt)
1 Tbsp sea salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/8-1/4 cup fish sauce (found in Asian markets)

Mix all ingredients until well blended. place in a quart-sized jar. The top of the ketchup should be at least one inch below the top of the jar. Leave at room temperature for about 2 days before transferring to fridge.

So, now that dinner is over, here's your sneak peek into our next major project. I am kind of dreading it. I think I would be more ok with it if the last major one was finished (the kitchen). I believe it's next month that this one is supposed to happen. Pretty details.

40 miles

Ok, I interrupted myself with that last post. I still only have my camera phone for my rides so I decided to play around with some of the photos a bit on the computer after snagging them off my phone.

Last November, or possibly as late as December, I cant recall, I collected as many rose hips as I could find. The fall was short last year and froze the vast majority of rose hips before they could ripen. I milled them in a food mill and took the pulp and added an equal amount of honey and mixed. It came out to about 2 sandwiches worth. I read about this method of preserving fruit (rosehips specifically) and wanted to see if it would actually work. I just love learning about old ways of preserving, especially when no heat and sugar is involved...though I do regular canning too and enjoy tha food as well. I put it in a cabinet and left it to see how it would be in 6 months. I forgot about it until Saturday when I was thinking about what I could eat on my bike ride. No white or brown sugar so this was the only "jelly" I could think of to put on my pb&j sandwich. I dug it out of the back of the cabinet and gave it a sniff. Seemed alright. I gave it a taste. Tasted alright. I figured I'd know if it was bad if I got sick. I didn't get sick and it tasted fine so I was call that experiment a success. I hope to collect a lot more this year...maybe I can get a whole jar's worth this time. This may be the first thing that came out right on my first try.


So, after collecting enough food for a ride, I took off. I thought it would be a cooler day since it had been but summer has returned. I had no idea where I was going...it was a day for exploring. I changed my mind about where to head to and wandered around until I ended up on these dirt roads I discovered last year. Not a single car passed me the whole time and I even got to see a deer dart off into the woods.


About an hour into my ride, I stopped at a small, wooded park to eat an apple and rest. The trees were bizarre with hollow trunks, bent in weird positions and leaning precariously.


I ended up getting kind of lost and when I saw a Subway, I stopped and sat inside, ate another apple and drank as much ice water as I could manage...then napped intermittenly for about 30 minutes. I found a way home and took off down that road.

About 30 minutes from home, I saw this old, abandoned house. I had seen it years before but forgotten about it. Each time we'd pass it, I always wanted to stop to explore the house but there's nowhere to pull over so I didn't. But on the bike, you can stop anywhere you want. :o)



The front door is in the middle of the house with a window on either side. On each side of the door was a cool painted pattern. I am thinking that it may have been used as a general store or a restaurant at some point and these are the remnants of their hanging signs.

I didn't dare go in since the porches were completely dissenegrating. But I found a couple of windows that weren't boarded up and I peeked in. Look at the floor in this kitchen. I just love the way they painted the wood.

This is one side of what was once a bedroom.

And here's the other side. That was all I got to see of the inside. If only I were 12 feet tall so I could see in the upstairs windows.

This is definitely the cleanest abandoned house I have ever come across. The floors are in such good shape, the paint isn't peeling off the walls either. It's in exceptional shape for something its age.

Once I was only about 10 minutes from home, I went to make my final turn and there was an accident on that road and it was completely blocked off to all traffic, including cyclists. I rode just past the cops and went through a grassy field past the accident and got on the road. Another plus for biking. It was a fun ride but I was so glad to get home.

Corn relish

Here's another fermented thing I like. This one didn't last too long so I need to make another jar.

Corn Relish

3 cups fresh corn kernels

1 small tomato, peeled, seeded and diced

1 small onion, finely diced

1/2 red pepper, seeded and diced

2 Tbsp cilantro leaves, chopped

1/4-1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

1/2 Tbsp sea salt

4 Tbsp whey

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients. Pound lightly with a wooden pounder or meat hammer to release juices. place in a quart sized Mason jar and press down with a pounder until juices cover the top of the relish. The top of the vegetables should be at least one inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and leave at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to cold storage.

This goes particularly good with eggs...my favorite way to eat it. I usually eat it on my morning eggs.

Like magic

What if I told you you could take all the excess veggies from your garden and preserve it all without ever having to turn on the stove and heating your house? Sounds too good to be true? Well, it doesn't have to be...although you might need a root cellar with how much space it would all take up, or a second fridge.

What is this magical proccess that would allow you to not have to can any veggies? I have talked about it before and I will talk about it again. It's been such an amazing discovery for me, for my digestive tract, that I need to keep telling others.

I first started doing this as just another experiment in a long list of "old world" ways of doing things that I wanted to try.

It's called lacto-fermenting. The easiest way to describe it is that you are inoculating food with probiotics which also preserves the food...magically. The Greek word for this was alchemy. "Like the fermentation of dairy products, preservation of vegetables and fruit by the proccess of lactofermentation has numerous advantages beyond those of simple preservation. The proliferation of lactobacilli in fermented vegetables enhances their digestibility and increases vitamin levels. These beneficial organisms produce numerous helpful enzymes as well as antibitotic and anticarcinogenic substances. Their main by-product, lactic acid, not only keeps fruits and vegetables and fruit in a state of perfect preservation but also promotes the growth of healthy flora throughout the intestine." (from the book "Nourishing Tradition")

There are limitations to this proccess though. Fruit can only be kept this way for about 2 months because the sugars in the fruit eventually will turn alcoholic. Some have claimed that their veggies are still just as edible after one year so it's a longer term storage for veggies but not fruit. If you recall, my favorite lactofermented food so far is mango chutney. Delicious!! It didn't last two months because I ate it all so no worries there.

Unlike canning, you can do either large or small batches. You can do a single pint jar or a large crock full with 20 jars worth of sauerkraut all at once (without heating your house up, remember).

It's a very simple proccess. In a nutshell, you chop up your veggies, put into container (usually a jar), add spices, mix whey with filtered water and salt, pour water mixture over veggies (making sure the water is higer than the level of the beggies and seal the jar. Leave it on the counter for 2-4 days before putting into cold storage. Cold storage is either the fridge or a root cellar. I don't have a root cellar so I am pretty limited on how many jars of fermented foods I can have going on at once. I have half the bottom shelf reserved for them and part of another shelf. Once I have my root cellar though, I can make as much of whatever I want.

The two most important parts are the whey and salt. I make my own whey. I empty a container of plain yogurt into some cheese cloth and hang that to drain the liquid out. The leftover solids is now very close to cream cheese and the liquid (which is quite yellow) is the whey. The salt is used to keep putrification at bay until enough lactic acid is produced to keep the bacteria away by itself. You should use sea salt or some other salt that hasn't been iodided. (And when it's called for, you should use filtered water because the chlorine in water straight from the tap can kill the good bacteria.)

Bubbling food is nothing to be concerned about during this process. It stops bubbling when the fermentation levels off. Sauerkraut can be eaten after the first few days but imrpoves over time, becomes more mellow flavored. Some say the optimum time is 6 months. I gave a jar of sauerkraut to my SIL recently and while we were visiting, it was sitting on the table. After a few minutes, bubbles started escaping out under the lid and my SIL looked at me like I was trying to poison her. lol...it's ok. It's all part of the process.

When I buy ginger, I am buying it for just one recipe so inevitably, the rest of the ginger ends up going bad in the fridge. But with this method, that doesn't happen anymore. I just cut it up, put it in a jar with the water solution and I use that when a recipe calls for fresh ginger. Little costs like that can add up so this can save you a bit of money as well.

If you are interested in learning more about it there are a couple books I would reccomend: "Nourishing Traditions" and "The Wild Fermentation".

In the months I've been making these, I haven't shared a single recipe with you. So here's my favorite, Mango chutney.




3 cups firm mango, peeled and cubed
1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger
1 red pepper, seeded and cut into a julienne
1 small onion, chopped
1 jalapeno chile, seeded and chopped (optional)
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, cut into pieces (I didn't use that so I can't say how it tastes with that)
1/8 cupe sugar or honey
1/2 cup lime juice
2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 cup whey
1/2 cup filtered water

Mix mango with ginger, peppers, onion, mint and cilantro and place in a quart sized, wide mouth mason jar. (I followed this recipe and ended up with the three jars instead of just one.) Press down lightly with a wooden poubder or a meat hammer. Mix remaining ingredients and pour into jar, adding more water if necessary to cover the fruit. (I ended up having to make up a lot more water mixture to accomodate the three jars instead of one.) The chutney should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and leave at room temperature for 2 days before transferring to fridge. This should be eaten within 2 months.

It's really simple, really. Give it a shot and see how your body responds to it. I didn't know what I was getting into when I started but I am glad I stumbled upon it!

2nd try at vinegar

I found some apples in a field. They had already fallen off the tree and had lots of deformity and holes pecked in them. Also, being this early, they aren't ripe. But I decided they would be good for trying my hand again at making vinegar. This time, they're staying in my kitchen instead of the garage so I can keep an eye on them and not forget about them...at least until the smell gets too strong.

jar brain

I just had to show this to you! You see that one jar with a whitish thing on top of the orangish stuff? That is what I have dubbed "jar brain". It's from the seal breaking and little beasties getting in and multiplying. I have no idea what organism makes this monstrosity but I know I don't want to eat it!

Well, let's take a close look at jar brain, shall we? It is so wrong!!! It's thick and fleshy...feels like a tongue, only much more slimy.

So, yesterday's count was 97 jars and 155 cans. Plus a bunch of empty ones that will get recycled. We're hoping that we can take the metal cans to the recycler for a little bit of money.

The cans are interesting as well. Some have burst open and there is nothing left in them. Some have gotten tiny pin prick holes in them over the years and the contents have dehydrated in the can....some come out black and moldy. The apple sauce dehydrated and came out in this little discs.

The mold on some of these was so bad that the cans were actually fused together.

This jar project has definitely been an interesting adventure!

compost and canning jars

Adam's friend's mom has a room in her house called the fruit room. It's basically where the food storage has been kept over the years. It was abandoned for some reason and they started storing their food somewhere else in the basement. Adam has been helping James clean out the house after his father's death a month ago. Adam mentioned the room to me. He told me there were 200-400 jars of home canned food that is no longer any good. Ann wants to get rid of it and did I want the jars? Who would turn down that offer? Not me! The catch was that we had to empty out the jars before I could use them. Luckily, Adam built me that much bigger than planned on compost bin. It will make fine compost! The oldest jar we've found so far was from 1964!!!

We went one evening after work to collect the first round of jars. We got 244 jars and that was only about 1/3 of the total jars in that room! Unfortunately, a lot of them are old condiment jars that she reused, even with the original (not canning) lids. I won't be canning in those so they are no good to me.

We carried just over half the bins over to the compost pile and started working. Adam unscrewed the lids and bands. I pried the canning lids off and emptied. We worked at it for about 4 hours.


Look at how old and vintage these lids are!


These 3 are my favorites. I have a couple of the sliver ones. I am hoping they come off in one piece because I have a DIY project in mind for those.


We had a wedding reception to go to so we quit before finishing. We had about 40 jars left to open and empty. But this is what food from 200 jars gets you. Much less than we were expecting... Well, we still have 400 more to add to that. Oddly, nothing stunk. Some came out like molasses, others had already turned to dirt inside the jar. Almost every jar still smelled exactly like what it was. I wouldn't have expected that since most of the jars were from the 60's to 1970.


We sorted the jars to keepable and those to be recycled. The recycle ones went in one large bin while the keepable ones got a quick rinse off from the hose. I think I got to keep about 40 of them.

Poor Adam got a giant blister on the palm of his hand from opening the stuck on lids and bands and he was wearing thick leather gloves! I tried taking over but I was much too weak to get those open.

apple butter recipe

I actually lost this recipe before I posted it on here. I finally found it and I will not make that mistake again! This is so good and I plan on making it every fall. The whole house smells so good while it's cooking. Last Oct., I only had one crock pot to use but now, I have this one, another I had but forgot about that is almost as big and three smaller ones. So hopefully, it won't take me all month to make it this year.

My favorite thing to do with it is to just spread some on a piece of bread. It's a great snack, and even dessert.



12-14 apples
2 cups apple juice
1 tbls. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. cloves

Wash, core and quarter apples (don't peel).

Combine apples, apple juice and spices in large crockpot. Cover and cook on low setting 8-10 hours. What works for me is to start it in the morning before work so when I get home, I can finish it up on the high setting. Then, I collect the batches in the fridge until I have enough for a canning session.

When fruit is tender, I use a stick blender and puree it right in the crock pot. Cover (with the lid cracked open) and cook on high setting for 6-8 hours, stirring about every 2 hours or so.

fermenting (and other ramblings)

I have gotten really bad about updating my blog. So here's another nutshell, but all on one topic. Well, all on one topic except for a tiny little intro with something that makes me very happy. I got to use my clothesline for the first time this past weekend. It's just so pretty to see clothes/blankets flapping in the wind. They dried during the first 2 hour session of conference.

I have a lot more room on the lines than I thought I would. I was so sure it was going to be cramped...but then I've only ever had a single line, or 2 at times so I underestimated just how much I can fit on there! I was pleasantly surprised. That's a queen sized quilt and two loads of laundry. I don't think I'll ever run out of room.

And one more note. This weekend, I was able to watch General Conference. While I was watching, I was able to feel His spirit and that allowed me to forget, for a time, the heartache that has come with a stressful time for my family. He loves me. I know He does because he allows me, an unworthy, imperfect being, to feel His love for me and to recognize the numerous small things that He has given me to bring me joy, like watching a bird peck the ground for food, clothes flapping on the line that my loving husband built for me, a pantry full of food and too many other things to list but also, He has placed me in a family that is amazing. I often don't feel like I belong because there is nothing too special about me as there is about everyone else. They are such good examples to me about unconditional love and being there to support each other through life's trials. I am unworthy of all I have but He blesses me continually anyway and I am truly grateful!

So, back to the purpose of this post. Fermenting. The book I started following to change my eating talks a lot about fermenting fruits and vegetables (though mostly veggies since fruit turns to alcohol after just a couple months whereas veggies last anywhere from several months to a couple years.

Why would anyone want to ferment food, you wonder? I'm glad you asked. Fermented foods are loaded with lactobacilli, the same probitotic found in yogurt. Also, the veggies go through enzymatic changes that makes the food easier to digest. Strangely though, when eaten with meat, it actually helps to digest some of the vitamins in meat that would otherwise be unavailable to the body. Easier digestion means the whole digestive tract works much more efficiently. I wouldn't have believed that one except for that I know first hand how wonderfully that actually works!

There is that reason, but also, fermenting food is an ancient form of preserving foods for the winter when there would be no fresh produce. Sure, there's canning nowadays that wasn't available back then. But the high heat kills a lot of the vitamins that would be available in the fresh veggies, or fermented veggies. Anyone who knows me, knows I like to learn the "old ways". It truly makes me happy to learn these things.

Of course, these kinds of foods aren't without a downfall. The taste is not the same as the fresh/canned varities we're used to. I don't mind tastes I'm not used to but there are people who fight anything different and they are a hard sell! But I'm continuing to try to break through that barrier.

One thing to note: you lose the probiotic effect of these foods if they're heated...so that traditional dish of boiled sauerkraut and hot dogs, if the store bought stuff was even fermented to begin with, which is unlikely, wouldn't offer any probiotics unless some unheated sauerkraut was put on top of the dish. Anyway, you only need a small amount to get the effects so that would work.

Some of these experiments have been SO tasty and some have been downright disgusting but most are somewhere in the middle. So without getting into recipes on this post, I will show you what I've made and what I thought of them...recipes will come in another post, another time.

Asian veggie medley. This is the last one I made and I haven't actually tried this one yet but I like the dark color.

Orange marmalade. It's very liquidy (which the book warns you about). I could have handled that but the taste was so disgusting that I couldn't handle it at all! I read on someone's blog that it was too sour. I made one jar with peels and one without. I figured the peel is what made it sour. They were both equally disgusting...and bitter, not sour. I won't be sharing the recipe on this one ever.

Corn relish. I liked this one well enough.

This is called cortido..it's a spicy, Latin American version of sauerkraut. I prefer sauerkraut but this works well with Mexican food.

Sauerkraut. Adam likes it well enough when it's completely fermented but when it's under-fermented, he says it tastes too much like cabbage for him. I really like sauerkraut. The sauerkraut needs about 5 months to really mature so I really need to do a whole crock full to actually keep it around long enough to reach 5 months.

Salsa. I made this one without onions for Adam. He hasn't tried it yet but I like it...not too spicy.

Pickles. Not a fan of this recipe but I've eaten them a couple times.

Ketchup. I like this! I pretty much stopped using ketchup (except for fries) because of the high fructose corn syrup. I don't like how sweet storebought can be anyway. This one has a little sweetner in it but you don't notice it really. It's more of a robust flavor...I like it.

Mango chutney. I commented on this in one other post. This is, by far, my favorite ferment so far...except for the bubbles (which is normal for chutneys and many other ferments). I just love it! It's sweet, spicy, salty, tangy...everything except bitter.

Now, here's the problem with fermenting...everything is supposed to stay beneath the liquid or it can mold. Her's those weird pickles a few weeks later. Only the portions above the liquid are affected but I haven't been able to bring myself to try the portions below the surface just yet. So far, this is the only one I've had problems with.

mango chutney

I saved this post as a draft almost a week ago, I think because I didn't have the recipe for the chutney in front of me and I wanted to include it...but I never have it when I am ready to sit down and blog. So I will just have to come back another time and include the recipe (which I got from NT).

This recipe caught my eye after we had fish tacos with mango salsa. That was so yummy. So, I got what I needed and made up these 3 jars of mango chutney. The recipe said it would all fit in one jar...they lied. If I had known it was going to be so much, I would have made half of it without onions so Adam could eat some too.

I really think the ginger monster is so cute! Do you see him too?


This is a lacto-fermented food. So you incoluate it with lactic acid (the whey from yogurt) and let it sit on the counter for 3 days. It's bubbly...like soda. So that part I don't like but I don't notice it when I eat it on food.

I grilled some talapia on the George Foreman grill and topped it with some mango chutney. Yum!! Adam said to me, "Ewww, is that your onion chutney?" He has no idea what he's missing. I'll have to make the next batch without onions for him.

I've been making/eating a lot more lacto-fermented foods lately because of the health benefits they have. They loaded with probiotics (as long as you don't cook them) and bacteria for your intestines and colon. Also, I learned that they help break down something in the meat (though off the top of my head I can't recall what it is) that is hard for bodies to digest.

Butter

Adam bought some cream to make caramel that he never got around to making. There are 3 quarts but there was only one that needed to be used up now...the other 2 have use by dates a little further out. But I needed to use it or lose it...and since we were nearly out of butter I went to work on it.

You can only fill the container 1/3 full since it expands as it becomes butter. I use a quart canning jar so that meant three different batches to finish off the quart. I just shake, shake shake until it finally turns into butter. I tried a few different techniques and what seemed to work best was to just shake up and down for about 20-30 minutes until it gets to the point where it becomes so stiff it doesn't feel like it's moving anymore. Then, you take an end in each hand and shake side to side kind of forcefully. In a minute or two, the buttermilk suddenly separates from the butter.

Here's different stages of the cream. The square tupperware had whipped cream in it. The jar had the stuff that was so stiff, it felt like it wasn't moving, just minutes away from being butter.

Once you have butter, drain the milk into one container and the butter will go on a board (though I show it in another container because I was working batch by batch collecting it all before I worked out the buttermilk).

Put the butter on a board and work the butter with a paddle (had to use a wooden spoon) pressing as much buttermilk out as possible. I collect this milk too. Then, you put it under the faucet and work it some more with the water flowing over it. It's important to work as much of the buttermilk out as possible to keep it from going rancid sooner.

Once you are satisfied that the buttermilk is out, sprinkle some butter on it to help preserve it. Work the butter in, then you're done.

I got the instructions from "The Self-Sufficient Life and How To Live It" which is a great book with instructions for all kinds of things like this.

In a BIG nutshell

So I have really neglected posting here on the blog since I've gotten back...which is ok since it's not like people are dying to see what wonderful nugget I will write next. I've felt so busy in the month since I've been back. Mostly, it's been self induced. Here's a snippet of what I've been up to in the last month. Beware, it's kind of long for a nutshell. If things slow down, I'll probably go back and touch on some of the things more but for now, this post will have to do.

I was supposed to go for a weekend backpacking trip with a friend of mine. Neither one of us ended up wanting to camp out though so we made it a day hike. We hiked to a waterfall and went for a very cold but fun swim.


The dogs were all very excited to see me again. Tucker still tears apart all cardboard he can manage to round up. Often, while I'm working in the evening, he comes into the kitchen and tries to get me to play. Sometimes I will and sometimes I don't...but he never gives up.


Bear is behaving much better with Tucker nowadays. There hasn't been a fight between them in a couple of months. It's been rainy this week though so he's been sad and hiding a lot.


Jasmine had to go back to the vet. I didn't feel like she was making the progress she should be making after her surgery. She was resisting the vet when she was trying to move her knee to get a feel for it so they had to sedate her. She's on a new medicine that is really helping a lot. It's supposed to be a "use as needed" medicine but I am using it for 10 days to get the inflammation down first, then I can use it as needed. She has full blown arthritis now and her knee has healed well from the surgery. That's why she's been limping.


Jack is Jack. He lays around all day until it's time to go for a walk or to eat. He's getting a lot of white fur on his legs and neck. He loves to be cuddled on the couch for a couple minutes in the evening and gets very cranky if he doesn't get it.


I decorated for fall. I go all out, huh?


Adam, Lanette and I went to the apple orchard and I got a bushel of gala apples to make some apple butter with, and some to eat of course. I ate some of them but most were made into yummy apple butter. Then I bough another bushel of Fuji's for apple sauce and apple juice and a 1/2 bushel of granny smiths for fried apples and apple pie filling. I am almost done with them!


Later, I went to another apple orchard with Aaron, Katie and Issac. There, I got to milk a cow. Here she is, Buttercup. :o)


Each Thanksgiving, we make the turkey and we brine it overnight. In the brine is a small bottle of crystallized ginger. That little 2 oz. bottle costs $8-9. I had a bright idea that I could make it for a lot less. I bought just over a pound of ginger at the Asian market for $1.29/lb. I crystallized the ginger and the leftover liquid is called ginger syrup. You can use it on ice cream or brownies, or quick bread as a glaze. But the thing it will probably be used the most for is homemade ginger ale. Ginger is really good for soothing upset stomachs but I refuse to drink carbonation so I can mix this with plain water, instead of the carbonated water I would use for Adam and I can benefit from the ginger too. I got a quart jar full of crystallized ginger. Now I can use it for when I roast chicken since it's so cost effective this way.


At the same Asian market, I picked up some pig's ears for the dogs. I started cooking them on the stove but the smell was literally making me sick so I put it in the crock pot and plugged that in in the basement. The resulting gelatin was pretty fun to play with. The dogs LOVED it.


Someone on freecycle was giving their fallen walnuts away so I asked for some. They gave me a 5 gallon bucket's worth. After taking off the outer husk that's much less...and it will be even less once I actually get into the meat.


This piece of floor is where the fireplace used to be. It was missing the top layer of wood to bring it up to the same level as the rest of the floor. It was all filled in with another layer at one time but Adam and Barry ended up using some of the wood for something else so you would take one step at one level and the next step would be higher or lower depending... I finally filled in all the missing pieces. Now when I vacuum the rug on top of it it's able to get all the dirt, not just the parts of the rugs on the upper level.


With all the apples I have around here, I decided to try my hand at making apple cider vinegar. Actually, I used the cores from a couple batches of apple butter.

Here's the vinegar after about a week and a half. The apples have been removed. Now it just sits, with an occasional stir, for a couple of months. Then it's supposed to be vinegar...but it could take longer in cold weather...which it will be soon.


I found my costume at Goodwill. Here's a sneak peek of it. Mom should love the color. ;o)


More about the apples (since they have been part of my everyday life all month now). I made apple sauce for the first time ever. But we're not big apple sauce eaters here. We are doing an experiment. We'll be using apple sauce in place of oil in the baking. I've done it before...just don't add it to brownies unless you like cake brownies. It really fluffs it up. The food mill came from a thrift store a few years back. I finally used it.


Cooked apples hanging to let the juice separate.


On the house front, the mast that holds all the electrical wires coming from the street into the house was being pulled toward the street. It was ripping the roof as it got pulled further and further. We had water coming in every time it rained...and it rained a lot in the last year. Also, we had squirrels getting in and living in the attic. One day, the electric company came out and took the electric lines off our house. Adam and Barry spent the whole day fixing the problem so it wouldn't happen again and repairing the roof and putting on new shingles. Adam also cleaned out the gutters (on that side of the house) and put gutter guards on them. As you can see, they are not low enough to get to easily, so hopefully the gutter guards work. The electric company guys came back at about 11:30 PM to put the lines back on the house. The freezers stayed frozen and the fridge stayed cold since we didn't open any of them until after the power came back on. There's still the soffit to replace so the squirrels can't get in the bottom hole but that will wait until another time.


I just got a book for Christmas (last Christmas)...with the Amazon gift card from Tom. In it it talks about the importance of broth so I've been trying to use it a little more often. I made some from smoked turkey neck. Then I threw in some beans and cooked it. It took the meat off the neck (a surprising amount) and made a pan of cornbread. Yum!


I got a gift card from Valerie's blog. Thanks again Valerie. :o) With it, I bought a food dehydrator. That's the gray rectangular thing. While I've been canning, I've also been drying some things. In this picture, I was drying apples ad the crystallized ginger.


Katie and I are in charge of Maria's bridal shower which is a couple of weeks. We'll be using our gold flatware we got for our wedding. We have only used them a couple of times. I looked through every box that still has stuff in it. It took me about 2 1/2 hours. Then when there were no more boxes to look in, I remembered unpacking them and putting them in the dining room cabinet. Sure enough, there they were. Frustrating! I need to get this house organized and all the boxes unpacked!


I mowed the lawn last week (for the last time this year, I hope). I noticed a few patches of wild onions. I carefully mowed around them and went back a few days later and pulled a couple of the patches out. I'll be cleaning them and drying or freezing them for later use. I figure it might actually be enough to last me for 6 months. They are little onions though!


Making apple juice from scraps.


In that same book that talked about broth, it also talks about lacto-fermentation. Fermentation of fruits and vegetables (such as sauerkraut) activates all these cultures that help digestion and makes your body able to absorb nutrients that it would otherwise have trouble with. I made sauerkraut before and it took a couple of months. But following their directions, it only take 3 days...and you can then let it age in the fridge for a stronger taste if you want but you don't have to. So I thought I'd give it a try. It's in the fridge aging now...I'll report back on the flavor. Very cool book, thanks, Tom!


One of the first things I did when I got home was to pull my sourdough starter out of the fridge and feed it. I thought it might have gone too long and was dead. I fed it and it bubbled up over night so I made some yummy bread with it.


Tucker likes to cuddle but the other dogs don't so he has taken to sleeping with one of his toys. How cute!


Here's apple butter ready to be canned. That stuff makes the house smell so good while cooking! Thank goodness for crock pots!


I found this little end table at Goodwill for $7. It's much smaller than the bookcase that I had there so I was able to push the couch over as well as the recliner. Now the recliner isn't in the walkway so much. Much better. It still allows the vent to breath and Jasmine still has the space she needs. That's where she lays most often.


I've started doing some foraging. One of the first things I found were these puffball mushrooms. They are edible and supposed to be the easiest for beginners to identify. The other little mushroom I wasn't able to identify so I didn't eat it. The largest one was almost 1 lb.


I got these mushrooms the day after my dehydrator came in the mail so I chopped them all up and threw them in. :o) We've already eaten some. They're pretty good.


This is a bucket of yogurt draining. I was seperating the whey from the yogurt. The whey is what is used in lacto fermenting. The leftover yogurt is pretty thick and can be used as cream cheese. I reluctantly gave it a taste. I eat plain yogurt mixed with frozen fruit but I can't stand it with no sweetner. I was surprised by how much it actually tasted like cream cheese though! It was good!


I finally figure out a way to keep the sugar from settling in the jug of lemonade...make a simple syrup then add the lemon juice. Worked perfectly!


More foraging. These are sumac berries. Red sumacs are edible, white ones are poisonous. These are used in Indian and Middle eastern cooking a lot. They have a lemony flavor to them. I was initially interesd in them because of a recipe I got from a Native American museum I visited while out in Utah. It calls for the berries. So now I can make it...whenever I find that recipe card.


More broth, chicken this time. This one turned out very gelatious too, but not as thick as the pig ears one. It's supposed to be better for you the thicker it is. I guess I made a good one. I used some of it in a soup but most of it is in the freezer now.


A pic of the new kitchen floor, from the laundry room. We really like it. And I never thought I would enjoy being to sweep so much but I love how easy it is to clean. Plywood is not easy to sweep or mop. It's very nice and Adam did a really good job.


I found a really good oak tree on one of walks. So I went back on Saturday and gathered about 4 gallons. The two other things in there is a hickory nut (still in its husk) and a sweet gum ball. I brought them home to check them out. The hickory nuts aren't ready yet but they will be soon! The sweet gums, I read have edible seeds if they're roasted but I couldn't get into the ball so I gave up on that idea.


And here's a picture of some of my work all together. 2 quarts of dried, foraged mushrooms, 2 jars of ginger syrup, 16 pints of apple butter, 2 jars of dried apples, 1 quart of crystallized giner, a jar of marinating plaintain leaves for a salve (I forgot about the last ones and they were rotten when I remembered about them), a jar of sumac berries, not sure how many pints of apple sauce or juice though. The larger basket has the walnuts, the smaller ones is holding hickory nuts I got while on the hike with my friend. The jar next to the baskets is holding the pecans I have been picking up off the sidewalk on our walks. One of the neighbors has a pecan tree. The two baggies are dried plantain leaves and the other is dried mint leaves to add to my baking soda tooth paste. I need some mint in my toothpaste. It's just not the same without it.