Category Archives: In the Kitchen

Mysterious Funk

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With all the endless projects we’ve got going on around here, there’s times when our house can become over taken with funk. Sometimes that funk can be mysterious and we have no idea what it’s from; other times it can be pretty obvious and easy to remedy. Like recently for example, we had the baby chicks in a brooder with a heat lamp in the house. For the first week it’s fine; they’re small, don’t eat that much and their brooder can be changed every few days without becoming too smelly. Then once they reach a week old, things start getting a little stinkier, to where the litter needs to be changed once a day. Then, with each day that goes by, they grow bigger, eat more, poop more and by the end of the week… wowzers… no matter how many times a day you change the litter, there’s that never ending, lingering little chick funk. At that point, it’s a sign that the chicks should have been moved out of the house like 5 days ago.


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What’s That in the Vinegar?

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The other night after I tucked Miley in bed and the older kids headed to bed, I decided I needed a little drink before I went to bed. As I was trying to decide what to drink, I saw the apple cider vinegar sitting on the cabinet and decided that it sounded good mixed with a little orange juice. I like to drink a little of it every once in a while because it’s supposed to have some good health benefits. Also, surprisingly, it’s pretty good mixed with a little orange juice as long as I don’t get the vinegar part too strong. As I picked up the bottle and glanced in it, I noticed a layer of white, slimy looking gunk on top. I was thinking “Eeeewww!” so I dug it out of the jar to get a closer look.
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Fermented Sauerkraut

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Well, you remember that big jar of fermented pickles I made before New Year’s? The one that I was thinking would last us at least through the end of January? Well, it barely lasted 2 weeks before it was gone. Yeah, those pickles were that addicting. Other than being all out of pickles it’s really not a bad thing they’re gone. Actually it’s a really good thing we devoured them considering all the health benefits that come from eating fermented vegetables. (Here is a link to an excellent article explaining more about the benefits and how to of eating fermented foods.)  Another good thing is it means I get to make more! I always find fermenting fun, plus it’s educational and interesting for the kids to watch the foods change as they ferment. It’s a science experiment that ends with something yummy to eat!
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Fermented Pickles

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Pickles… oh how I love to eat them, especially around the holidays. A plate full of a little cheese ball with crackers, veggies with dip, and summer sausage with pepper jack cheese just isn’t complete without a crunchy, sour pickle on the side. Unfortunately, since we try to avoid eating a lot of foods with added dyes because of allergies, we aren’t able to buy pickles from the store anymore. Most all brands have yellow dye added. It’s really kind of irritating that it’s added because the yellow dye doesn’t actually add any taste or nutrition value to the pickles. I don’t even know why they have to put it in… but that’s a whole other rant for another day. Not only do they have dyes, but they also usually have other ingredients that we try to avoid, like high fructose corn syrup.

So whenever I buy pickles, they’re one food I always buy organic. Not only do they not contain dyes or high fructose corn syrup, but most of the time they are made with more nutritious ingredients, like apple cider vinegar and sea salt. Plus they taste a lot better. The only down side to buying organic pickles is they’re expensive, so I don’t buy them that often. Because of that, I’ve been trying really hard to master the art of making them myself. During the summer, I’ve made several different attempts to can them but I’ve always ended up with mushy pickles. I do plan to keep trying because it would be so handy to have some canned pickles in the pantry to pop open when the mood for a good pickle strikes.
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Figuring Out Just How Much…

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Pork, it’s what’s for dinner… and breakfast… and supper… and snacks… yeah, we’re going to be eating pork for a while. Today I picked up our pig from the butcher and spent a few hours rearranging and organizing the freezer. We still have a lot of pork left from the other pigs, so now the freezer is stuffed full of pork. That’s definitely not a bad thing; in fact, it’s a really good thing. It’s just kind of hard to gauge how much food you will actually get when you grow your own, especially when first starting out homesteading. We’ve made plenty of mistakes in that area, so I thought I’d tell about the mistakes we’ve made and what we plan to do differently.
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Easy Way to Freeze Apple Pie Filling

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Pies…oh how I love to eat them, but when it comes to making them, you can count me out. I’m just not a good pie maker at all; my pies usually don’t turn out very pretty. Plus, pie making is just way too time consuming. By the time I peel and chop up the fruit, mix up the dough, roll it out, try to lift it up to put it in the pan, rip it, roll it out again, rip it again, piece it together in the bottom of the pan, roll out the next half, rip it, roll it out, rip it, and finally piece that one together, I’m just so over the pie that I don’t even want to eat it.

So… when I asked my family what they most wanted made from the apples and they all unanimously yelled “PIE!!!”… I was thinking, “wonderful, just wonderful.”
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Apple Picking Time

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Last weekend we planned on getting some chickens and the turkeys processed. After running to town to get ice and a couple of big tubs to put them in, we determined it was too hot and windy to process them, so that will be next weekend’s big project.  Hopefully the weather will be cooler then.

Since our apple tree was loaded…


those tubs were filled with apples instead.
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Easy Veggie and Egg Skillet Meal

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IMG_1926-002When we started homesteading one of our main goals was to see how much of our own food we could grow and raise. So far we’ve raised hogs, chickens for eggs and meat, goats for milk, two turkeys a year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, grow a large garden and have an apple tree. As time and money allows, we have plans to add grass fed beef, more fruit trees, and a larger variety of vegetables in our garden. Right now every meal we eat has at least one homegrown thing in it, and most meals average at least 50% to 70% homegrown. After all the hard work that goes into growing your own food, it’s very rewarding to sit around the table with the family enjoying it all.
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Easy Pork Chop Meal

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Easy Porkchop Meal

Today I spent a little time in the garden getting some much needed maintenance done. With the weather being cooler and me being busy, I’ve been neglecting the garden lately. There’s a lot of picking to be done out there and I plan to get to it in the next couple days. While I worked in the garden, Miley did some picking and got a nice little bunch of goodies, perfect for supper.
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