Our Greener Pastures

Creamy Veggie Pasta

2012-01-25T16:39:00.001-05:00

OK I used to make a version of this years ago, but that one contained milk, sour cream, and gluten full pasta. So I stopped making it. This version is much healthier with more veggies.

~1 TBSP Olive Oil

~1 onion diced
~2 celery ribs chopped
~2 carrots diced
~2 cups green beans (these were green beans I had canned from last year's garden)
~1 package Quorn Chicken-Not chunks or you could easily use 2 chicken breasts cooked and cut into 1/2 inch pieces.
~1/2 bag Tinkiada gluten free pasta (that is the brand I like the BEST) cooked.
~2-1/2 cups plain almond milk
~4-6 ounces of goat cheese crumbled
~1 TBSP tapioca starch
~S+P

Add olive oil, onion, celery, and carrot to a pan on med-high heat. Stir for about 5 minutes, until onions are translucent. Add Quorn Chicken-Not chunks and 2 cups almond milk. Let this heat until the Chicken-Not chunks are thawed and hot. Now add your green beans and goat cheese to the mixture and bring this up to just a boil, stir so the goat cheese is all melted in there. Next, in a small bowl, stir your tapioca starch and 1/2 cup almond milk. Add the starch/almond milk mixture to the pan, along with the cooked pasta. Bring the pan back to a boil and it will thicken. S+P to taste.

Everyone in my family loved this. I didn't have any veggie broth on hand but I think next time I make this dish I will add 1/2 cup of vegetable broth to the pan when I add the 2 cups almond milk. I just think it will give it a little more dimension.

I am also enjoying blogging my recipes. And so are the boys. It is so easy and fun to look through my recipe index, check out everything we have eaten and make our weekly meal plan. So much easier to have the picture to go with the dish. When my boys say "mom I want to make that dish we had, you know...that had the green beans in it...." We can go to the blog and look at the pictures.

Turnip Cabbage Soup and Cabbage Rolls

2012-01-23T12:10:00.000-05:00

This soup was made from things I had on hand and from my garden. I do still have a few things hanging on in the garden. :-) It was delicious, not a spicy soup, but a warm comfort soup.

-1 turnip chopped

-1/2 a head of cabbage chopped

-1 onion diced

-2 celery ribs diced

-2 carrots shredded

-2 TBSP pesto

-3 cups cooked Garbanzo beans

-3 potatoes diced

-4 cups vegetable broth

S&P to taste

Add turnip, cabbage, onion, celery, carrot and vegetable broth to a stock pot. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat back and let it simmer, covered, about 30 min, until the turnip and cabbage are knife tender (they take the longest to cook). Next add the pesto, garbanzo beans, potatoes and let that simmer, covered, another 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are knife tender. Add S&P and it is ready to eat!

I served the soup with stuffed cabbage leaves. This is from a book I just bought, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Gluten-Free Vegan Cooking. I am really enjoying this book. Have read through many Gluten-Free cook books but with so many meat recipes, I might find 1 or 2 recipes to try. And I have also looked through a few plant based diet books, which are great, and pretty much stay away from gluten as well. But those books tend to have really simple recipes. Don't get me wrong, those are good in a pinch, but with only 4 ingredients I can imagine how it is going to taste, and quite frankly, so many of those recipes are bland. But this book is full of easy, and not so easy recipes. So many flavors and textures, I can't wait to try more recipes.

OK so the Cabbage Rolls are on page 196 of that book! A reminder to myself of where to find it when I want to cook it again.

Spring Garden

2012-01-20T08:59:00.000-05:00

I just ordered most of my spring planting seeds. By Spring I mean those that I will plant mid February. I know that doesn't sound much like SPRING to many of you, but here it will be just starting to warm up, and it will be warm enough to plant a few things. I planted last year around mid February and loved getting some fresh veggies out of the garden at the same time I was planting my summer crops. love Love LOVE that!! Fresh deliciousness.

I ordered:
Cabbage
Carrots
Kale
Lettuce
Radishes
Peas
Spinach
Beets
Swiss Chard

I need to order:
Onions
Asparagus

I used my favorite seed company of all times, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Just a wonderful company to use. And the cover of the new 2012 catalog is just too cute:

Goat Cheese Frosting

2012-01-10T13:37:00.000-05:00

Yes GOAT cheese, LOL. I know it sounds horrible but it taste delicious, like cream cheese frosting. I don't do well with cow milk/dairy, so I often use goat cheese, and the soft goat cheese has that tangy-ness you get from cream cheese, I just had to add a couple of things to my recipe to make it come out tasting the same.

-5-6 oz softened goat cheese
-1/2-3/4 cup softened earth balance
-1 tsp vanilla
-just a dash (less than a pinch) of salt
-1 TBSP plain almond milk
-3 cups confectioners sugar

cream the goat cheese and earth balance with a mixer, until well blended. All the vanilla, salt, and almond milk and blend well. Add confectioners sugar, 1 cup at a time, until it reaches the consistency you like for frosting. You might need a little more if the earth balance is at all melted, a little less if the goat cheese or earth balance is still firm.

Now that I have tasted this I will not be missing my cream cheese frosting any more! May make a cake for the gathering coming up this weekend ;-)

Crockpot Squash

2012-01-09T09:24:00.000-05:00

This dish was so simple it makes me crazy that I have not done it before. And delicious to boot. To see where I pulled this "recipe", if you can call it that, just click the blog page here.

And I followed the recipe with one exception. I used earth balance instead of butter. I am copying the recipe below in case that blog page disappears in the future. I want to be able to keep the recipe :-) This blog is one of my FAVORITE Slow Cooker blogs, I adapt most recipes as we do not each much for processed foods, but the ideas are invaluable.

1 acorn squash
2 TBSP Earth Balance
sprinkling of Brown Sugar

Cut the squash in 1/2 and scoop out the seeds. Then cut just a little bit of the skin off the bottom, so that the squash will sit flat in your slow cooker without tipping over. Use a fork to poke some holes in the squash. Sprinkle just a little brown sugar over the squash, and add about 1 TBSP Earth Balance to each 1/2, cut the Earth Balance up into several small pieces. Cover and cook on low for about 7 hours. Once it is done just scrape the nice tender squash off the sides and mix it all up inside the shell. It is DELICIOUS!! I am making this recipe again tonight, squash was on sale at the grocery store!

Spaghetti Sauce

2012-01-06T08:28:00.000-05:00

This is a wonderful vegan spaghetti sauce that I have been making since we lived in Germany, years ago. LOVE IT! So rich, and thick and delicious. But it does have to cook for a few hours, so I only make it once or twice a year. I think the next time I make it, I will make a double batch so I will have some left to can. Jackson and I really enjoy it, the boys not so much, they like a plain (can't see the vegetables) sauce.

Recipe:
2 TBSP Olive Oil
1 Large Onion
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Green Bell Pepper
4 Cloves Garlic minced
1 Carrot diced
1 Turnip peeled and cut into small chunks
2 Cups Mushrooms Sliced (I usually pick up a box of whatever mushrooms look good at the grocery store)
2 tsp Dried Basil
2 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Dried Thyme
S&P to taste
6 Cups tomato sauce (I use my own canned tomatoes) You could also use 6 cups of diced canned tomatoes instead of sauce
1 Cup nice red wine
2 TBSP miso
1 tsp tamari
3 TBSP dried parsley

Cook up the onion in a pan with the Olive Oil until onion is slightly browned. Add the onion and all the other ingredients to a large stock put and let it simmer for at least 3 hours. Stir occasionally, you will know it is done when it is the right thickness for you. Some like a thinner sauce, I like mine nice and thick, so it simmers for around 5 hours.

Cathedral Cookies

2012-01-06T08:13:00.000-05:00

This is my grandmother's recipe. Delicious. She used to make these every year at Christmas, and even when we were not living near home she would mail some to me, wherever I happened to be.

Cathedral Cookies, and you can see why they are called that.

Recipe:
1-12 oz bag chocolate chips
1 egg
pinch salt
3 cups colored mini-marshmallows
shredded coconut

Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler. Once melted add a pinch of salt and take off the heat. Let it cool for a few minutes. While the chocolate is cooling get out the mini marshmallows. Also lay out some waxed paper and spread some shredded coconut down the center. Now back to the chocolate, we want to add the egg, but don't want it to scramble, so in a separate bowl beat your egg just a little. Then you will add a couple of spoons of warm chocolate to the egg, and mix. Do this again. Now the eggs are warmed, and you can add the egg/chocolate mixture into the pan of chocolate and the egg will not scramble. Mix it well. The next step is to add the marshmallows to the egg/chocolate mixture. Stir until the marshmallows are all coated in chocolate. Spoon about 1/2 of this mixture onto the coconut that is already spread out on the waxed paper. Now add more coconut to the top and fold up the waxed paper around the sides and press. Making a "log" shape. Twist the ends of the waxed paper and put into the refrigerator for a hour or so. Unroll and slice.

The picture below is how it looks when I lay it out on the waxed paper. You can see the coconut under the chocolate/marshmallows. From there I just add more coconut on top and roll. This is 1/2 the recipe. I make two "logs".

Kombucha....again

2012-01-05T10:12:00.000-05:00

I rarely take pictures of my kombucha scobys. But today I am sharing a scoby with someone else, so I took pictures so she could see what they look like before she gets one. I thought I would share here as well.

My quart jar, the one I am giving away:

Here is my gallon jar:

And last but not lease here is my 2 gallon jar:

I think I need to separate them out, maybe add some to my septic system, and the compost bin. Think I will do that today!

Black Bean Veggie Burgers

2011-12-28T09:56:00.000-05:00

I have been craving a great veggie burger, and just not finding it anywhere, so I got into the kitchen, looked at what I had on hand and came up with my own recipe. I love it and the boys love it, we had it for lunch yesterday and these veggie burgers are delicious! It is hard to buy a great veggie burger that is gluten free and dairy free. I haven't found one yet, so having this recipe now is just so wonderful for me! I hope you enjoy it as well!

1 1/2 cups mashed black beans
2 cups cooked rice (brown or white will work fine)
1 shredded carrot
1 small onion minced
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 cups corn
1 large egg
1 TBSP tamari
1 tsp dried parsley
1/4 cup tapioca starch
S&P to taste

Saute the carrot and onion in about 1 tbsp Olive Oil until onions are just lightly browned. Add the cooked onion and carrot to a bowl with all the other ingredients. Stir well and let sit for just 2-3 minutes to set up a little. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and form the mixture into about 5 large patties. This is NOT hamburger so you will not be flattening it out in your hand like a regular hamburger. Just take a spoon and spoon some on the pan and form it into a round patty on the parchment paper.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 min, then turn them over and bake 15 more minutes. Delicious!

One note: For the black beans, I did not want a paste, so didn't want to use the food processor, and the hand masher was just not working so what I ended up using was my pastry mixer. I use that little item for so much, it also works great for prepping the boiled eggs for an egg salad.

Chocolate Truffles

2011-12-22T09:20:00.000-05:00

OK this is an easy peasy recipe! A friend shared it with me and I am SOOOO glad she did, the boys loved them and loved making them.

Chocolate Truffles

2-12 oz packages of semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cups heavy cream or whipping cream
cocoa powder/shredded coconut/sprinkles

On med heat add the chocolate chips to a small sauce pan and melt. I did not use my double boiler, this was fast and simple. Might even be able to melt in the microwave, I didn't try that. Once melted reduce the heat to Lo. Add the cream and stir until it is well incorporated. Take off the heat and let it sit until cold and almost firm, I just put it in the refrigerator for a while. Form into balls and roll in your favorite coating. I really loved the cocoa. Bite into the truffle and you get that bitterness of the cocoa followed by the sweet of the soft inside! My boys enjoyed the coconut ones but said the ones with sprinkles were just "OK". YUM!

Pasta Pie

2011-12-17T08:28:00.000-05:00

I have several recipes to post, older recipes that we have not eaten really since we moved back to the States in 1997. But I am digging out old recipes and bringing them back. The boys love them, Jackson and I love them, it's a win-win!

This one is Pasta Pie. The original recipe is from a cookbook we bought in Germany, Low-Fat Vegetarian Cookbook. But I have adapted the recipe, just a little, to suit our family.

Here is our recipe:

1/2 cup milk
4 eggs
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 cloves garlic minced
3 cups cold cooked spaghetti
pinch S&P

Preheat a 9 inch glass pie plate (or I have a shallow baking dish I use) in a 500 degree oven. I just stick the dish in the oven while it is preheating. By the time I have the ingredients mixed, it is all hot.

Mix all the above ingredients well. Oil the pie plate just a little, be careful it is hot. I use an oil sprayer I bought from Pampered Chef to spray O Oil around the dish. Pour the mixture in the pie plate, and put it in the 500 degree oven for 25 minutes. It will be a little brown on top. You probably don't "have to" preheat the dish, but it really helps to get a nice crust on the bottom.

While this is cooking, in a sauce pan add:

3 cups tomato sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
2 minced cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1-1/2 tsp sugar
pinch S&P

Heat this up. When the pie is cooked, slice and top with a little of the sauce. Delicious!

Turnips

2011-12-10T11:44:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in a while so thought I would show you what I have been up to lately. As I mentioned before I have turnips in the garden, so I harvested the larger ones and decided to try preserving turnips. What I will do with these turnips is yet to be determined, since I have not been able to find "wonderful" recipes for turnips. But I hate to see them go to waste. In searching out the best preservation method for turnips, I found some people can turnips, and most freeze them. Freezer space is limited so I decided to freeze only about 1/2 and then can the rest. Shelf space is more plentiful. I will see which method I prefer. But I had a LOT of turnips!!

I still have many more fresh in the garden along with lettuce and radishes for the moment.

Fall Harvest Chowder

2011-12-01T12:54:00.001-05:00

This is NOT my recipe, but I am copying it here in case the page disappears in the future. This is so delicious. I doubled the recipe, except the vegetable broth, I used 6 cups of broth total. I also used 4 carrots, so more than doubled. I also used 4 sweet potatoes since I had some from my garden! And dh really enjoyed just a spoon of sour cream on top with some tortilla chips, and I used tortilla chips, and a little crumbled goat cheese in place of the sour cream. The soup without the sour cream or goat cheese was just really sweet. Too sweet for me. But with my changes I LOVED IT! You can find the recipe at THIS web site. And here is the youtube video of the complete meal, including this dish.

1 ~ Fall Harvest Chowder*

Serves 8

6 cups vegetable broth or water
1 small yellow onion, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
2 small zucchini, diced
1 (16-oz.) package frozen corn
2 small garnet yams, peeled and diced
4 bay leaves
2 tsp. dried thyme
4 cups fresh baby spinach leaves

1. Over medium-high heat, sauté onion, carrot, and celery in [1/2] cup vegetable broth until slightly browned, approximately 5-10 minutes.

2. Add remaining vegetables, broth or water, bay leaves, and thyme. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30-40 minutes.

3. Remove bay leaves from soup and blend with immersion blender until mostly pureed. Add spinach leaves and turn off heat. Serve hot.

*Original recipe by Julieanna Hever, MS, RD, CPT

Quick Quinoa Salad

2011-11-22T08:18:00.000-05:00

I had some left over quinoa in the refrigerator so I decided to whip up a quick salad type of dish for lunch one day. It was delicious and I will be making this again!

1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
1 onion minced
2 celery spears chopped
1/2 red bell pepper chopped
1/2 green bell pepper chopped
1 cup corn
2 cups cooked garbanzos
1/2 cup veggie broth
2-3 Tbsp your favorite Italian dressing

Cook the onion, celery and bell peppers in the vegetable broth, covered on med/high heat, for about 5 minutes, until onion is translucent. Add corn, garbanzos and quinoa, stir and cook for just a couple of minutes, covered, until everything is hot. Take off the heat, and add Italian dressing. Mix well and serve warm (also great cold).

Potato Pancakes

2011-11-15T08:36:00.000-05:00

We had this dish with a salad last night for supper. A new recipe for us and the boys, all 3, loved it. So this will go on our menu list. The original recipe came from a book that has been on my shelf for a long time. The Complete Book of Vegetarian Cooking. I just looked and the copyright is 1997, I think I picked this up at the post book store in Germany. I like the book a lot, every recipe has a picture. I so enjoy cookbooks with pictures, I guess I eat with my eyes long before I taste the food, LOL. I find it hard to read a recipe and be able to see what I think it will look like when it is finished.

Anyway back to the recipe, I changed it a bit so here is my adaptation:

1 small onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 TBSP Olive Oil
3 medium potatoes grated
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 tsp oregano
pinch S&P
2 eggs
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 TBSP Peanut Oil

First I heated the O Oil in a pan and cooked the onion and garlic just a bit, maybe 5 min. I did not brown the onion. Then I added the potatoes, thawed corn, oregano, S&P, eggs and 1/4 cup cheese into a bowl and stirred. Then add the onion and garlic to the bowl. Make sure this is all mixed will. Add the peanut oil to an oven safe pan. Heat on the stove at a medium heat. This mixture will make 4 large "pancakes" or fritters, not sure exactly what to call them. Spoon 1/4 of the mixture into the pan and shape into a pancake with your spatula, do the same until you have 4 good sized pancakes in your pan. Let this cook covered for just a couple of minutes, then decrease the heat to Lo, and let it cook, covered, for about 10-15 minutes. I used a lo heat so the bottom would not burn but the potatoes would be cooked through. Check a couple of times to make sure nothing is burning. When the top is soft to touch, OK so be careful, but this was the only way I could test to see if the potatoes were cooked, add the last 1/4 cup cheese to the top of the pancakes and put the pan in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes until the cheese is melted. Serve hot. They were delicious!

Turnip Side Dish

2011-11-08T07:23:00.000-05:00

With this dish I was actually searching out turnip recipes. I have turnips in the garden now and want to use them, but know they can be a challenge. I do remember that much from my childhood. My mother would cook them up and just add a little butter and some S&P, and I remember choking down that strong vegetable.

So I looked at a few recipes and decided to sort of follow the recipe on this page. Although I did alter it a bit. Here is my adaptation:

-about 3-3 1/2 cups of turnip, peeled and cut into bite size cubes
-2 carrots sliced
-water to just cover the turnip and carrots
-1 1/2 cups of the cooking liquid
-1 diced onion
-2 tbsp O Oil
-1/2 cup milk
-2 tbsp flour
-s&p to taste
-1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Simmer the turnip and carrots in water for about 10-15 minutes until done. Strain and reserve the liquid. In a pan, add the O Oil and the diced onion, cook until the onion is translucent but not browned. Add the flour, S&P and mix well. Now add 1 1/2 cups of the hot reserved cooking liquid. Mix this well, let it come to a boil and it will thicken. Add the milk and stir. Now pour the thickened mixture back over the turnips and carrots. Add the shredded cheese and turn to mix everything. Let it sit for just a few minutes for the cheese to melt and serve.

It was delicious, my dh really enjoyed this dish. Phil liked it and Dallen did not. I think for Dallen the taste of the turnip was just too much for him, it still has that bite to it, but not nearly as strong with the cheese mixture in there.

Why Lovin' the McRib Isn't Heart Smart

2011-11-07T15:07:00.000-05:00

An eye opening article for my meat loving friends. Although really the meat loving friends I have are not "into" McDs. But if you are...you should read this first, just so you know what you are putting into your body!

In part the article reads:

"Blink and it's gone. The ephemeral McRib sandwich appears at McDonald's infrequently and only for a limited time. If you haven't indulged in one yet, here's what you're missing: azodicarbonamide, ammonium sulfate and polysorbate 80 — those are just three of the 70 ingredients (34 in the bun alone) that go into the BBQ pork sandwich, according to the restaurant's website...."

But please visit the site to read the entire article.

More Chicken Tractor

2011-11-07T08:52:00.000-05:00

As promised, here is a picture of the completed Chicken Tractor in use. They are really enjoying it!

New Chicken Tractor

2011-11-06T14:01:00.000-05:00

We have a small chicken tractor, but it really isn't meant for cooler weather and we can't keep baby chicks in it, just not warm enough. So Jackson and I put our heads together and came up with this new design. It is strong enough to hold up for at least a few years, light enough to be pulled by our tractor. It is water tight, so no wet chicks! And has just a bit of ventilation at the top. So no cold breezes! It is tall enough for me to stand up in, in the center, and we can add a heating light if we need it (which we do right now). Easy to clean out (bonus!), and the chickens are loving it. We recycled a small trailer that a guy had for sale for very cheap, it used to hold an old generator. It is a bit taller than I wanted but the chickens are having no trouble getting in and out.

Right now we have broilers in it, and we are using the mesh poultry fencing to keep out dogs. The broilers will be old enough to be processed in about another 3 weeks. And I am hoping in the spring to use it for chicks, I will need to get more broilers, followed by more layers. So this is a great addition to the farm. The boys and I just need to get out there with paint brushes.

I will take more pictures later on today so you can see the "chicken steps", and see the tractor in use!

Hummus

2011-11-03T13:42:00.001-04:00

OK so today my oldest son, Dallen, and I wanted some hummus, and since I just cooked up garbanzo beans yesterday decided to make our own. Here is what we came up with after looking at lots of recipes online, and adapting them to our own tastes.

-5 cups cooked garbanzo beans
-3/4 cup tahini
-1/2 cup lemon juice
-2 1/2 tsp salt
-6 crushed cloves of garlic
-3 TBSP Olive Oil
-1 pinch paprika
-1/2 cup water (add water until you reach the consistency you like)

Dallen really loves the lemon flavor, if I were making it just for me, I would probably decrease the lemon juice just a bit. He took 1/2 of the mixture out of the food processor for himself at this point. Then I added:

-1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
-1/2 tsp onion powder

Banana Bread

2011-11-02T15:54:00.000-04:00

OK I am giving out my mom's Banana Bread recipe. Everyone always loves this bread (well except Jackson, he doesn't like anything with bananas). So here it is. It is simple, and (I think) the key is to bake it low and slow:

3 mashed bananas
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter, I use earth balance and that works equally well
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup walnuts, optional (I leave these out)

Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour - 1 hour 15 minutes. My mom's recipe says 1 hour, but my oven takes 1 hour 15 minutes.

If you have small bananas use 4.

Very moist and tasty!

Vegetarian Fajitas

2011-10-25T12:53:00.000-04:00

I wanted to make fajitas the other day and didn't want to use the prepackaged seasoning mix. I wondered if I could find a home made recipe that would be equal to or better than the restaurant mix. For my family it does have to taste good. :-) So I searched out a few recipes and then adjusted to fit our family and came up with a great seasoning. Last night we had veggie fajitas! YUM! This recipe could easily be adjusted for any vegetables you wanted to toss in or even chicken. But green peppers are plentiful in my garden right now so that is primarily what I used!

-2 red bell peppers sliced
-2 green bell peppers sliced
-2 med sized onions halved and sliced
-2 cups cooked black beans
-2 cups vegetable broth
-3 TBSP homemade fajita seasoning
-1 tsp corn starch in about 2 TBSP water
-flour or corn tortillas
-toppings (we used lettuce and sour cream)

Combine the sliced peppers, sliced onions and vegetable broth into a large saute pan. Cover and simmer about 10 minutes. Add the black beans and fajita seasoning. Bring up to a simmer and add the corn starch mixed in the water. Stir for 1 minute, it will thicken just a little bit.

Serve with the toppings and let everyone make their own wraps.

This is a picture of the pepper mixture, doesn't it just look delicious! And the second pic is my sons fajita! The family loved them, will definitely be making them again.

Here is the fajita seasoning mixture:
2 TBSP Chili Powder
1 TBSP Salt
1 TBSP Paprika
1 TBSP Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Onion Powder
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 tsp Cumin

(if you like it spicier you can add more cayenne)

Fall Garden

2011-10-21T12:38:00.000-04:00

I have had such an abundant summer, loved the garden, loved being in the garden, loved all the fresh veggies! And Fall is turning out just as wonderful. I have radishes ready for harvest, and beets as well. Turnips that are almost ready and lettuce for salad. That is what has grown from the seeds I planted a month or so ago. YUM! Now I am looking for delicious turnip recipes to try.

From my summer garden I am still harvesting peppers! Gotta love the peppers, and in the picture you can see 4 different varieties of peppers from my garden this morning. I also picked a colander full of fresh basil. Will make pesto with that later on today. I think I will freeze some of the peppers, that has worked well in the past. I do need to go back out today and pick all the green tomatoes I have. I can sit them on my kitchen shelves and watch them ripen. It is getting cooler at night and we will be having a frost soon, so I want to harvest everything that needs to be picked before then. Hmmmm, now what to have for supper, so many possibilities!

A River of Waste

2011-10-20T18:45:00.000-04:00

I have been happily staying home the last couple of days, enjoying time to just be...in the moment. Have finished up a couple of knitting projects, worked on a Halloween costume for one son, and watched a couple of documentaries that have been on my queue for a while. Today I watched River of Waste: The Hazardous Truth about Factory Farms. I have known about the CAFOs, thought I knew quite a bit about them. As a result of my knowledge we have decided to raise our own chickens for eggs and meat as well as purchase local grass fed beef, etc. We have opted out of the industrialized meat industry.

But watching this movie really opened my eyes even wider. This movie goes over every aspect of CAFOs. More than I ever expected. There are a few scenes of chicken processing, but all in all not a much visual "grossness" at all. But the details are very "gross" and will definitely make you think. I highly recommend this movie if you want to know more about CAFOs. Or if you eat meat from CAFOs. You should know what you are eating. This movie is on Netflix, instant watch.

Here is the blurb from Netflix: "Learn the shocking truth behind factory farms -- gigantic breeding grounds for meat and poultry -- in this documentary that details how the practice wreaks havoc on the environment and on consumers' health. Through disturbing footage and interviews with experts, director Don McCorkell paints a disturbing portrait of a food system that uses hormones, antibiotics and arsenic to increase its output with little regard for the damage it causes."

Deconstructing Supper

2011-10-19T17:45:00.000-04:00

I just finished watching another documentary about food. This was from the perspective of a chef who starting out knowing very little about genetically modified foods, and what he gains from the whole learning process, how it changes him, on a personal and professional level. If you are new to the concept of GMOs this is a great movie to start with, it gets down to the basics of science, and agriculture.

Here is the little blurb from Netflix: "On a personal quest to understand our food choices, acclaimed chef John Bishop travels around the world exploring where genetically modified crops come from, whether they may be harmful and what alternative options currently exist. Through interviews with farmers, scientists and activists, this thought-provoking documentary offers substantial insight into the nuts and bolts of global food production."

It is a short film, but informative, and instant watch on Netflix.

Quick and Easy Slow-Cooker Mexican Dish

2011-10-19T13:05:00.000-04:00

I don't have a name for this dish and am trying to remember exactly what I put in it. I was on my way out the door, and knew I wouldn't be home until supper time or later, so I threw some things in my crock pot that sounded like they might go together and go well over rice. This is a "left over" picture. We were so hungry when we *did* get home that I forgot to take a picture until my son wanted it for lunch the next day.

1 package Quorn fake chicken chunks
2 cups pinto beans
1-1 1/2 cups kidney beans
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
1 jar salsa
1/2-3/4 cups ranch dressing
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup shredded 4 cheese Mexican blend of cheeses
1-2 TBSP home made taco seasoning

Slow Cooker on low for 4-6 hours.
I added about 1/4 cup of sour cream and stirred that in right before serving. Serve over rice. It was delicious, and VERY easy.

Abundance

2011-09-25T15:58:00.000-04:00

It is such a feeling of abundance to be eating the "fruits of your labor". Just knowing that the family is getting the very best food we can provide, food we have grown, raised, harvested, processed ourselves. No preservatives needed. So last night was a ZERO mile meal, everything we ate (with the exception of any salt and pepper) came from our own property, from our garden, from our chickens.

Chicken, green beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes and beets. YUM! Delicious meal!

Vegetarian Masa Slow Cooker Dish

2011-09-23T11:12:00.000-04:00

This dish is an easy dish that my family loves, although this last time my oldest said it was a little too hot for his taste. I toss it in the crock pot around noon and it is done by supper time.

1 onion diced
2 celery stalks diced
2 carrots diced
1 red bell pepper diced
2 TBSP olive oil
3 cups of chopped broccoli, I use stems and all
1 potato diced
2 cups crushed tomatoes
3 cups vegetable broth
2 TBSP garam malasa mix
1/8-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, depending on your taste for heat
S&P to taste
3 cups cooked rice

Saute the onion and olive oil in a sauce pan (this step isn't essential but I like to brown up the onion just a bit before adding it to the Slow Cooker. Add onion and all other ingredients, except rice, to the slow cooker, mix, cook for about 5-6 hours on low. Serve over rice. I used just under 1/2 tsp of cayenne with this batch, husband loved it, youngest son said it was good but maybe just a little "hot", oldest son said it was too "hot" for him. So next time I think I will use 1/4 tsp and let my husband add just a pinch more to his own plate.

I also like to substitute cauliflower for the broccoli, you could use any number of veggies.

Garam Masala

2011-09-22T13:38:00.000-04:00

This is my Garam Masala mix, I don't have access to the "seeds" for the most part so I use ground spices, and keep it mixed in a small plastic dish ready to use when I want it.

4 TBSP coriander
1 TBSP plus 1 tsp cumin
1 TBSP black pepper
1 1/2 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp cardamom
3/4 tsp cloves
3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp crushed bay leaves

Corn and Bean Salsa

2011-09-11T15:29:00.000-04:00

-I wasn't sure what to call this. I wanted something quick for the boys and I for lunch, didn't want to go to the grocery store so just hunted around for what we had in the house. It is a salsa, but not in the hot and spicy variety of salsa.

-1 1/2 cups corn
-2 cups cooked black eyed peas
-2 cups cooked black beans
-1/4 cup chopped tomatoes (I think it would be nice with more, but my boys are not a fan of tomatoes)
-1 diced onion
-3 garlic cloves minced
-2 TBSP chopped cilantro
-2 TBSP good Italian Dressing

Toss it all up and let it sit for at least 30 minutes. I served it with corn tortillas and tortilla chips. We ate on it all day long. Delicious.

Black Bean Burritos and Spanish Rice

2011-09-07T08:30:00.000-04:00

Let me see if I can remember how I made these, they were delicious! It is another recipe I cut out of a magazine about 15 years ago, adapted and used quite a bit then it just kind of faded, I stopped making it. Not sure exactly why, but I am renewing it now. :-)

Black Bean Burritos
2 cups cooked black beans
1 1/2 cups corn
1 onion diced
1 celery stalk diced
1/2 bell pepper diced
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce (I used my canned tomato sauce which is a little chunkier than store bought tomato sauce)
2 TBSP chili powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
tortillas (flour or corn would work)
about 1/4 cup 4 cheese blend, or cheddar cheese
2 TBSP Olive Oil

Saute the onion, celery and green pepper just a bit until onions are translucent. In a bowl combine the onion, celery and green pepper mixture along with the tomato sauce, black beans, corn and spices and mix. Spoon onto tortilla, add just a small sprinkling of cheese (or no cheese if you are dairy free) and wrap. Line on a baking sheet and bake 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until hot.

Spanish Rice
1 onion diced
1 celery stalk diced
1/2 bell pepper diced
2 TBSP Olive Oil
1 TBSP Home made taco seasoning
1 1/2 cups rice (brown or white)
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

Saute the onion, celery and bell pepper in Olive Oil just until the onion is translucent. Add to a stock pot, along with the taco seasoning, rice, water, and vegetable broth. Cook according to rice package directions. White rice will take only 15-20 minutes to cook, where brown rice will take longer.

Multi Grain Pancakes

2011-09-06T06:52:00.000-04:00

This is a recipe I found YEARS ago, like maybe 15 year or so. I used to make it all the time, and somehow got out of the habit. But it is so delicious. So I dug it out from my recipe archives and the boys still enjoy it as much as they used to. It will once again be a "go to" recipe in this house.

1 egg
2 TBSP olive oil
3 TBSP honey
1 cup milk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup corn meal
3 tsp baking powder

Just mix all the ingredients together and let it sit for a few minutes. If you find that the batter is a bit too "thick" just add a little more milk.

That's it, easy to make, delicious and much more nutritious than a pancake mix.

Slow Cooker Chicken Wraps

2011-09-05T07:52:00.001-04:00

This was a "wing it" recipe. I knew what I was going for, something sort of like tacos, that could be done in the slow cooker and made up as the boys came in from the beach. Overnight I cooked a whole chicken, in the morning I took the meat off the bones and pulled it apart. Then add to the slow cooker:

-pulled chicken meat
-4 cups tomato sauce
-1 can diced green chilies
-1 onion diced and sauteed just a bit
-2 TBSP home made taco seasoning

Cook on low for 2 hours. I had out cut up tomato, lettuce, sour cream, cheddar cheese and flour tortillas. So they could make up their own wraps when they wanted. I turned the slow cooker onto the warm setting to keep the meat warm. I had a small taste and it was delicious!

Slow Cooker Vegetable Broth

2011-08-22T08:41:00.001-04:00

When we lived in Germany I made home made vegetable broth all the time, I never bought broth. Not sure how I did it with a toddler and baby, but I did and I loved it. I guess as the boys got older and we were out and about more, doing activities, going on hikes, etc, I just didn't have as much time to do those things. I started buying organic vegetable broth. It became easy. But I am back to making my own now. I had forgotten how lovely it is to smell the broth brewing all day, how much I love the flavor. So here is my recipe:

Really I have no recipe, LOL. I use whatever vegetables I have on hand, what looks good in the garden, the farmer's market or the grocery store. I generally always start with onion, celery and carrot, I always have that on hand. Yesterday I also added a turnip, a green and a red pepper, some garlic and mushrooms.

I chop everything up into large chunks. With the garlic I use the whole head, in this batch I used two. And I cut the head in 1/2 across the cloves, so that the cloves are all cut in half. Hope that makes sense. I oil a cake pan with some olive oil and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes, until the veggies are a little brown and smelling delicious. Dump all the veggies into a 7 quart slow cooker and add enough water to bring the level up to 5 quarts. Cook on low for about 7-9 hours. The whole house smells so delicious after this! Strain out the veggies. Pour the broth into clean, hot, quart canning jars and pressure can at 10 pounds of pressure for 35 minutes. Makes 3 quarts. I use my broth in so many things, soups, when I am cooking and need just a little liquid, instead of water I grab broth. So handy to have already prepared. You could also pour into ice cube trays. Freeze, then put the broth cubes into a baggie to crab when you need them.

BBQ Pulled Chicken/BBQ Tempeh Sandwiches

2011-08-20T09:30:00.000-04:00

I wanted to try something new, and had been watching Food Network, so I decided to do BBQ type of sandwiches for supper a couple of nights ago. Didn't know if the boys would like it, but they loved it!! Let me give you my recipe for the filling here and I will post my roll recipe another day.

Here are pictures of the sandwiches:

For the first sandwich, I cooked a whole chicken in the slow cooker for 9 hours on low, I have the recipe for that here. Once that was done I used my fingers and a couple of forks to shred the chicken and I put it into a smaller slow cooker with 1 1/2 cups of my BBQ sauce for another 2 hours on low.

For the second picture, when the chicken was almost all done I took a package of organic Tempeh, and cut it into small chunks, then stir fried it in about 3 TBSP Olive Oil, I added about 2 TBSP of oil to the pan to start the stir fry, but the tempeh does suck up the oil, so I added a little more about 1/2 way through. I just kept turning the tempeh until it was golden brown. Then I added about 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce, tossed it all together and it was finished and ready for sandwiches.

Here is my BBQ sauce recipe:
3/4 C diced onion
2 TBSP olive oil
1 C ketchup
1/2 C vegetable broth
1/2 C molasses
2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
1 TBSP lime juice
1 TBSP tamari sauce
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
1 TBSP mustard
1 TBSP thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
pinch of nutmeg
couple *shakes* of hot sauce

This is a mild sauce, if you like it hot you could add chopped jalapenos or more hot sauce. In a sauce pot add onion and olive oil, stir fry the onion just a bit, then add all the other ingredients. Let it come to a boil, stirring continuously. Remove from heat and it is done! Really easy. Makes about 2 cups. Be sure to read ingredients! If you are eating gluten free, there is a gluten free Worcestershire sauce out there, use organic ingredients when you can. If you have time, make your own ketchup. I really wanted to make my own but didn't have the time that day.

My Chai Recipe

2011-08-19T10:45:00.000-04:00

2 quarts water
4 cinnamon sticks
8 slices ginger (thinly sliced)
16 whole cloves
1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
dash of nutmeg
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
6-8 of your favorite black tea, tea bags (I use 8 but that might be too strong for some), if it is a combination of black and another tea use 8. If I am using loose tea, I generally use 3 TBSP of tea leaves.

Bring all of this to a boil in a large stock pot, reduce the heat just a bit and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain immediately. I use 1 part chai with 1 part soy, almond or coconut milk. This recipe is so easy to adjust to your liking, if you like it sweeter use a bit more honey or sugar. Like a stronger ginger flavor just add more ginger etc.

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Brownies

2011-08-19T10:32:00.000-04:00

I love this brownie recipe, it is easy, and tastes so delicious. And today I used dark chocolate cocoa so they have such a cool look. The dark chocolate cocoa with the chocolate chips is a wonderful combination, rich taste with a sort of stained glass look when you cut into them.

Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 C sugar

3/4 C Cocoa powder

3/4 C flour

3/4 C chocolate chips

3/4 C butter (I use Earth Balance)

3 eggs

Mix all ingredients, spread in 9X13 pan, bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting (that is the hardest part)

Chicken Broth

2011-08-19T07:43:00.001-04:00

I generally make chicken broth whenever I cook a whole chicken. After I have cleaned all the meat off the bones I take that extra step to make the broth. I use it when I make chicken soup, and you can use it in other recipes as well. Here is my chicken broth recipe.

Two onions quartered
2 large carrots cut into chunks
2-3 celery spears cut into chunks
6-8 garlic cloves

Place the vegetables on a cookie sheet greased with a little olive oil, bake at 350 degrees for about 45 min-1 hour, until they are nice and brown.

Add vegetables and chicken bones to a 7 quart slow cooker, add enough water to bring the level to 5 quarts. Cover and cook on low for 9 hours. You should have a delicious smelling broth that is golden in color. Strain out the bones and vegetables. Skim the fat off the top, you can see it and what little is there is easy to skim off with a spoon. Pour the liquid into quart canning jars (makes 3 quarts). Process in a pressure canner 10 pounds of pressure for 35 minutes.

You can also freeze the broth in ice cube trays until frozen then pop them out into a zip lock baggie and store in your freezer, nice if you need just a little for a recipe, you can take out a cube or two and be all set.

Sweet Pickles

2011-08-19T07:22:00.000-04:00

Another of my mother's recipes. I am not a huge pickle fan, but if I do eat pickles these are the ones I love. Sweet but not too sweet, delicious.

4 quarts cucumbers sliced about 1/8 inch thick
6 C. Vinegar
3 TBSP salt
1 TBSP mustard seed
3 1/4 C sugar
2 1/4 tsp celery seed
1 TBSP whole allspice

in a covered pot simmer cucumber slices in 4 C vinegar with salt, mustard seeds and 1/4 C sugar, for about 15 minutes, or until the slices turn slightly yellow. Drain and discard the cooking liquid. Spoon the slices into clean, hot pint jars.

Bring to a boil, 2 C Vinegar, 3 C sugar, celery seed and whole allspice. Pour over the pickles. Adjust the lids and process in boiling water bath canner for 5 minutes. (makes 5 pints)

These take a bit more time but are so worth it, so good.

Government Bail Out of Confined Poultry Feeding Operation

2011-08-18T20:28:00.000-04:00

Here is just a teaser from the article:

"As demand for chicken meat remains far below the number of birds who are actually being raised and killed, rather than allowing the market to adjust to basic supply and demand principles, the federal government Monday announced it will buy $40 million of unwanted chicken products that will be dumped on our nation's school kids and others in federal food programs.

In short, chicken-meat companies have continued increasing the number of birds they raise for food while demand has remained flat. Normally, in a free market, an industry that produces beyond what consumers want will contract. But not the poultry industry. It instead relies on regular government support in times like these—and by that I mean nearly all the time...."

You can read the whole article here.

Wow! I don't even know how to wrap my brain around it. Although it isn't really that surprising. I was always taught that if you don't like something don't buy it, don't support it, send letters, express your concerns and if enough people do just that, things will change. So we have opted out of the Confined Poultry Operations. We raise and butcher our own chickens (prior to that we bought only organic, free range chickens), boycotting the more traditional cheaper meat in the stores. And it seems so many of my friends are doing the same. Now to find out that I CAN'T OPT OUT! Even when we work so hard to opt out of THAT system, trying to change a destructive practice, the government is using our tax dollars to support the confined poultry operations beyond that which we already support. How sad that supply and demand is not allowed to play out. So chickens will go the way of corn, soon the tax dollars will pay for chickens that are not even consumed, just over production. The chicken over production will end up in all sorts of places we never imagined, just to try to make use of it (wonder if you can make a sweetener out of chicken parts....).

Bare Minerals

2011-08-18T12:44:00.000-04:00

OK some moms were having a discussion about make up at the park yesterday, me included. Actually the discussion lasted about 5 minutes before we moved onto another topic, LOL. I don't wear make up, maybe once or twice a year. But I happened to mention a young adult, within our extended circle of friends, who had become a Mary Kay consultant. I just mentioned that maybe we could have a Mom's Night Out with Mary Kay, and throw a little business her way as she is just getting started.

One mom mentioned Bare Minerals. I had NO idea what it was really. I am so uninformed where make up is concerned.

So I did just a little research on the mineral make up trend. While mineral make ups do not use some common ingredients found in other make ups, they are still using some scary stuff. And although the name implies that they just take minerals from the ground, grind them up and, wow, there you have it...make up for your face, some of it goes through some pretty heavy refining to take it from completely toxic to "less" toxic.

The first article I found gave me a great starting point. So this is where I started. Now in reading the small paragraph, I also googled the ingredients listed. If you are concerned about your "all natural" make up, I suggest you google too, google is amazing isn't it?! You can find different articles on the ingredients and make an informed decision. I think I will continue to go my own version of "all natural" and just not wear any. :-)
on

Article on Contaminated Honey and NON Honey, Being Sold in the USA

2011-08-18T12:11:00.000-04:00

This article is very informative and eye opening for me. It is amazing that we pay a government agency to monitor foods, they enact different legislation and then can't even begin to enforce the laws they have spearheaded. Personally, I would rather not have the legislation to begin with, it leads to a false sense of security for so many, and they come to rely on *that* agency to look out for their best interest. PEOPLE no one can look out for your best interest better than YOU. Be informed, know where your food comes from!

OK down off my soap box, here is a little snippit of the article but please follow this link and read the whole thing.

"A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals. A Food Safety News investigation has documented that millions of pounds of honey banned as unsafe in dozens of countries are being imported and sold here in record quantities.

And the flow of Chinese honey continues despite assurances from the Food and Drug Administration and other federal officials that the hundreds of millions of pounds reaching store shelves were authentic and safe following the widespread arrests and convictions of major smugglers over the last two years....

Another favorite con among Chinese brokers was to mix sugar water, malt sweeteners, corn or rice syrup, jaggery, barley malt sweetener or other additives with a bit of actual honey. In recent years, many shippers have eliminated the honey completely and just use thickened, colored, natural or chemical sweeteners labeled as honey."

Wonderful article! Please read!

Master Tonic

2011-08-18T09:50:00.001-04:00

Many of you have probably heard of master tonic but have you tried it? A friend of mine (thanks Robin D.) introduced me to master tonic a couple of years ago. She makes it and swears by it, drinks an ounce or so when she is feeling low on energy, or like she might be getting sick. Her husband is a convert to the healing power of master tonic. I started out a skeptic. And the *smell*...WOW, it smells HOT. And, as everyone knows, I do not *do* hot. Robin brought her master tonic to a gathering of friends once and offered to share. But I "respectfully" declined, LOL. My friends tried some.

It wasn't until last year that I made my own batch if you "click here" you can find the basic recipe. But if you google Master Tonic you can find many, many recipes out there, all basically the same. And the action is, at the most basic level, to increase circulation throughout the body, which in turn helps detox and heal. OK you can find out all kinds of information if you google Master Tonic.

The recipe I used:

2 large white onions
2 large ginger roots
2 horseradish roots
About the same amount of garlic that "looked" like it was equal to how much onion I used (more than is in the picture)
A large handful of hot peppers from my garden, a couple of different varieties.
Cider vinegar

I cleaned the garlic and horseradish but did not peel just cut into quarters to fit in my food processor. I did peel the onion and garlic. I just snipped the tops off the peppers.

Then little by little I put it all into the food processor and emptied into a large bowl. Once everything was chopped up, I mixed it in the bowl, making sure it was all well mixed up. Then I filled quart canning jars about 3/4 full of the mixture and topped it off with the vinegar. I let it sit on top of my refrigerator for 3 or 4 weeks and just turn the jar to mix it every day or so. Once it has time to sit, strain using a cheese cloth and you will have liquid gold, spicy liquid gold.

I made a LARGE batch this time. I still have some left from my last batch, so I will keep one quart for me, and give 4 away to friends. We should be all set for the winter colds that seem to come along!

The picture above is the batch I made yesterday, it needs to sit for a while. The picture below is from the batch I made last year, after it was strained.

I will say that after I made my first batch I did try it when I thought a cold was coming on. The cold was short lived. I took one ounce, 3-4 times a day. I want to add that Jackson said he could smell the concoction coming out of my pores, LOL. Oh Yeah! the smell of garlic, onion, horseradish, ginger and peppers all mixed together, I was certainly safe from vampires!

Slow Cooker Lentil Soup

2011-08-17T10:06:00.001-04:00

This is a stand by recipe for our house. Easy to put together in the slow cooker when we have a busy day ahead. I totally love coming home to the house smelling so delicious and knowing that the meal is only minutes away. About a year and a half ago I found that we were eating out more, and it was on days when we were out of the house. I couldn't even wrap my brain around getting home at 6 or 7 in the evening, and cooking a meal, then having that meal ready in a reasonable amount of time. So I turned to the slow cooker and that has just made such a difference. I really enjoy feeding my family healthy meals that I know are good for them.

OK this is not a slow cooker advertisement this is a recipe for Lentil Soup:

1 pound of dry lentils
2 quarts vegetable broth
2 cups water
1-2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1-2 TBSP home made taco seasoning (depending how hot your taco seasoning is, and how hot you like your food)
1 onion
2 celery ribs
2 carrots
1 TBSP Olive Oil

Dice the onion and saute in the olive oil. (this pre-cooking is not necessary but I love to brown up the onions just a bit before adding them to the slow cooker) Dice the celery and carrots. Add celery, carrot, onion S&P, taco seasoning, broth, water, and lentils to your slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-7 hours. Delicious!

Here is the taco seasoning recipe. A friend (thanks Lisa) shared this with me several years ago, and I have been using it ever since. It is Gluten free and Dairy free:

1/2 cup and 2 TBSP chili powder ( read the label to make sure there are no additives)
2 1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 1/2 tsp onion powder
2 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (I omit this)
2 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 TBSP and 2 tsp paprika
1/4 cup and 1 TBSP ground cumin
3 TBSP and 1 tsp sea salt
3 TBSP and 1 tsp black pepper

Slow Cooker Stuffed Zucchini

2011-08-10T09:11:00.000-04:00

Ever since Phil picked that giant zucchini, he has been asking to have stuffed zucchini. So a couple of days ago I made up a recipe and it was delicious. I actually used a bit smaller zucchini, one that fit into my slow cooker when cut in 1/2 lengthwise. Here is my recipe, adapted from a couple of stuffed pepper recipes and changed to fit our family:

1 Zucchini, cut lengthwise with the seeds scooped out
1 egg
2 cups cooked rice
1 onion chopped
Olive Oil
2 cups cooked cannellini beans
1 cup cooked ground beef
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup goat cheese
1 cup tomato sauce
2 tsp basil
S&P
2 cups pasta Sauce

First add just a little Olive Oil to a pan and cook the onions until translucent.
Add cooked onions, egg, rice, beans, tomato sauce, and basil to a bowl and mix well. Add S&P to taste. Divide mixture in 1/2 in two separate bowls. Into one bowl add cooked ground beef, and 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese. To the second bowl add goat cheese. (of course you can omit the goat cheese and make the zucchini all the same, but for our family and my dairy issues I make two separate stuffings)

Put your zucchini into a greased slow cooker, top one of the zucchini halves with the meat mixture, round it up (you will have a little left over). Then add about 1 cup pasta sauce on top and sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella cheese. Top the second half of the zucchini with the goat cheese mixture. Also top with pasta sauce.

Cook in slow cooker on low for 6-7 hours. The zucchini should be tender when it is all done.

Cut and serve. Delicious! My son loved it and we will be having this again!

Fresh Chicken and an Okra Recipe

2011-08-09T09:11:00.001-04:00

The garden is booming, and we have processed our broilers. I haven't had much time to blog but have 10 minutes now before I get back to the garden, so I have a couple of recipes for you.

I know the plate looks a little "sloppy" but I snapped the picture right before my husband dug in. The chicken in the picture was 24 hours old when we cooked it. I am not a fan of chicken so I did not have any but Phillip and Jackson said it was delicious, moist and fall off the bones tender. Here is what I did:

Chicken
Bundle several rosemary, oregano, and thyme stems together and add them to the chicken cavity, along with about 5 garlic cloves. Truss the legs together. Rub the skin with Olive Oil and a bit of Organic Poultry Seasoning.

Once this is done I crunched up 4 pieces of aluminum foil and placed them in the bottom of my slow cooker. Place the chicken on top of the aluminum foil, this elevates the chicken off the bottom of your slow cooker. Cook on low for 9 hours.

Okra
4 cups okra
1 onion diced
2 cups tomato sauce
1/2 cup pesto

cook the onion in the pesto until translucent, add okra and tomato sauce. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. DELICIOUS! This is my favorite okra recipe so far.

Dill Pickles

2011-07-23T08:02:00.000-04:00

My oldest son, Dallen, really likes dill pickles on his veggie burger. And that is all he likes on it, no mustard, no ketchup, just veggie burger, pickles and a bun! So this year I decided to try my mother's dill pickle recipe to see if he liked that. I generally buy organic dill pickles but home made from fresh cucumbers has got to be so much better...right. Well he agreed, the dill pickles were a hit and I have made about 15-16 quarts, and hopefully they will last through the year...we will see.

My mom had a canning cook book with a whole bunch of her hand written recipes stuffed inside. So I have been looking through these recipes and trying some. I remember a few, that I enjoyed, from my childhood but I also remember as a child NOT liking some, that I might actually like now. This year is a summer of trial and error, figuring out what the family will like and not like, make again, or throw the recipe away. :-)

This is my mom's dill pickle recipe:

I did not cut the cucumbers lengthwise, but instead sliced them for ease of use on the veggie burgers. Another change I made was to use quart jars instead of pint.
And here is the finished product, as well as some canned tomato sauce.

Genant Bruschetta

2011-07-05T09:52:00.000-04:00

We eat a lot of fresh Bruschetta here at our house during the summer. YUM!! But we have created our own recipe that takes advantage of the abundance of cucumbers in our garden, plus is just the perfect yummy flavor for us!

Here is the recipe:
1 large cucumber julienned
1/2 onion finely chopped
2 large tomatoes chopped
1/2 cup chopped basil
2 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
S&P to taste
let it sit for 10 minutes or so, really lets all the flavors blend
We toast up some nice home made bread in the oven (and I toast up some Udi Gluten Free bread for myself) and serve while the bread is warm. Very yummy and garden flavor-FULL

"Out of the Garden" Pasta Sauce

2011-07-01T07:49:00.000-04:00

I had this idea this morning, that so much of what we have in the garden would be so nice as a "topper" of some sort. So pasta was it. I didn't want to cook the pasta in with the veggies in case the boys didn't want to try my veggie mixture, so I kept the spaghetti separate. We had spaghetti and veggies, cucumbers and zucchini parmesan.

I bought some delicious mozzarella cheese for the zucchini, the boys love that.

For the spaghetti topper (since it isn't really a "sauce"):

One onion and one green pepper diced and cooked in about 3 TBSP Olive oil for just a few minutes.

Then I added:
2 cups fresh green beans, snapped into about 1 inch pieces
1 cups chopped collard greens
1/4 cup chopped basil
About a dozen cherry tomatoes, quartered, and one large beef steak type tomato chopped
S&P to taste
3 cups vegetable broth

I let that simmer for about 30 minutes until the greens and green beans were almost tender

Then I added about 3 cups of chopped red velvet okra, and let it simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Add more vegetable broth if you need to, but I didn't want mine to be a sauce so I kept the broth to a minimum. You could also add tomato sauce if you wanted more of a spaghetti sauce.

It was so good, all that veggie flavor. And the okra really pulled the topper together.

Radish Pickles

2011-06-30T07:59:00.000-04:00

Jackson loves radishes, he is the only one in the family. Yes, I can make a radish soup, which is tasty, but there isn't a whole lot I can do with radishes that the rest of the family finds appetizing. This year I decided to try radish pickles. I searched different sites looking for a recipe, but they were all refrigerator pickles, and I just don't have room to store jars of pickles in my refrigerator. Then, I found this one recipe. It looked like something Jackson would like, not a lot of sugar, more of a savory pickle (if there is such a thing). So please visit this blog for the recipe.

We did adapt the recipe a bit. I doubled the brine, and I had no idea how many radishes were in three bunches, so I just guessed at 30. Jackson, who loves "hot" and also garlic, actually sliced up three jalapenos for the pickles as well as put in a handful of garlic cloves. The whole mixture is supposed to sit for four days before you process but I had to cut that short (I just could not stand the smell) and processed them after two days. The color had permeated the whole mixture and everything was a nice shade of radish pink. It made 4 pint jars. I do think next time I might try slicing the radishes. I had one radish left over, that I just couldn't squeeze into a jar, Jackson ate that one. And he loved it, of course his breath was a little "strong" for a couple of days after, LOL.

I want to warn you to open the jars outside, and only eat them if everyone else in the room is also eating them or you have a pack of gum on hand for "emergencies".

No~Can Green Bean Casserole

2011-06-28T09:55:00.000-04:00

This is another dish from the Zucchini Parmesan supper we had a couple of nights ago. I love green beans but wanted something different from just plain, cooked green beans. So I came up with this.

I took about 4 cups of green beans and steamed them until knife tender. While those were cooking I diced up one onion and stir fried that in about a TBSP of olive oil. In an oven safe dish add 3/4 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup milk, 1 TBSP potato starch (or corn starch or flour), S&P to taste. Stir that up so that everything is blended smooth, then add 1/2 cup cheddar cheese and mix. Once the beans are done, drain and add the green beans and onions to the dish. Mix thoroughly and top with a sprinkling of cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes until everything is all bubbly and the cheese is melted.

My boys loved this dish so much they asked for it for lunch yesterday.

Zucchini Parmesan

2011-06-27T13:09:00.000-04:00

OK so not really parmesan, but this is our take on eggplant parmesan. I like eggplant just not the texture once it is baked in the oven, seems like it gets cooked too much and is soft, I don't like soft veggies, prefer my eggplant to still have *some* form to it. So we make Zucchini Parmesan.

Here is a picture of our supper, mostly from the garden, well the zucchini, cucumbers and green beans were.

To make the zucchini I took a fresh zucchini and sliced it in about 3/4 to 1 inch thick slices. Here is where Jackson took over, while I made the green bean dish. He mixed up a bread crumb type of mixture, started with crushed gluten free crackers, I think he used a vegetable flavor cracker but not 100% sure, then he added dried basil, oregano, S&P. The cracker crumb mixture went on a plate and in a bowl he beat three eggs. Dipped the zucchini slices into the egg and then into the cracker crumbs. He added those to a preheated pan on the stove with just a bit of olive oil in the pan. Just pan fried them a bit until crispy on both sides, only take a couple of minutes per side.

Jackson then arranged those in an over safe dish. Next step is to top them with your favorite spaghetti sauce, either home made or store bought.

Top with a little bit of mozz. cheese and bake at 350 until the cheese is melted and a little brown on top. Delicious and I love the flavor of the zucchini.

Supper Tonight

2011-06-24T12:44:00.000-04:00

OK so let's start with a tour of our upper garden, we have a garden that is down the hill a bit but today I will show you our upper garden, it is producing so well this year!! I give credit to the composted horse manure we added last year,courtesy of our friend's horses. That and a lot of hard work, planning, weeding, watering and tending.

First I have to have my chair, there is nothing more peaceful to me that working in the garden then taking a short break, looking at everything in the shade of the apple tree, eating some cherry tomatoes. So my chair is up in the garden.

Doesn't it look so nice and comfy and shady! Below is a picture from my chair, it is a shelling bean plant, the plant at the end of the row.

And here is a view, from my comfy chair to the right, looking at the edge of my tomatoes, my zucchini and beyond are my hubby's grape vines.

A view to the left of my chair, you can see all my bean plants, shell beans and bush beans, below those toward the road are some sad looking corn plants, I only planted a few, just not my favorite.

This is looking at the okra and beets, to the right, just out of the picture are radishes and greens. The okra is a little sad, hot out today. They will perk up later on this evening. They are just starting to flower now, I love okra blossoms, so beautiful in the garden! Beyond the okra are cucumbers, and just in the front of the picture you can see the tops of some onions.

Here is a view of my pepper plants, not growing as well as I would like this year but producing well already! And my tomatoes. LOL. Jackson and I disagree every year about how far apart to plant the tomatoes. I vote for further apart, so that I can get in between the plants to weed and harvest, he always wants them closer together. Then when they look like this he says next year we will have to space them further apart, and the cycle starts again, LOL. What you can't see in the front of the picture just before the peppers are my eggplant. I planted I think 6 or 8 seedlings, and the VERY next day bugs had eaten them to the ground. It was funny and NOT funny. So we have two there now. That will have to do for this year.

Here are my zucchini. And I picked one good size zucchini off today, for supper tonight. Still have a few small ones that will be ready in another couple of days.

Here is one of the smaller zucchini, isn't he cute! Must be a "he" right?

Cherry tomatoes. I have NEVER enjoyed eating tomatoes raw, only cooked in things like sauces or soups. But last year I developed a new found LOVE of tomatoes, so last year and this year it has been a treat to pick a handful, take a break, sit in my chair and eat cherry tomatoes, YUM!

Oh, my pretty butterfly bush, and the butterflies love it. It sits on the hill just past my garden. Lovely.

Today's harvest included a colander of green beans. I am going to put those with the colander I picked yesterday and can beans today. I will save out some for supper and can the rest. I have plenty more where those came from, another YUM!!

And some cucumbers, that looked so pretty. While I was up in the garden today I ate some green beans, a cucumber, some tomatoes and lettuce for my lunch. It brought back memories of when I was a kid and used to go pick fresh veggies out in the garden and just stand there eating. Delicious and warm! I went from there to the raspberry patch, which has increased 10 times since we planted the few plants last year, and picked a handful of raspberries for dessert! I need to go back out to the raspberries and pick all the ripe ones later on today. And I think I will be having a zucchini parmesan tonight for supper, with a side of cucumbers and maybe a side of green beans!

On the way into the house today I heard this chirping, and I couldn't find where it was coming from. I looked and looked and finally found this nest. The brick is our house, the wood is a railing along the edge of our back deck. There is a HUGE crock sitting in that corner and on the floor behind the crock was this nest. You can only see one little birdie in the picture but he must have siblings in there somewhere, cause there was a lot of noise coming from that corner. Just too cute, and the perfect find for a perfect day.

My next chore is to go out and sit with my hens. The last few days they have not been laying well at all, so I need to go sit with them and talk to them about that!

Beet Risotto

2011-06-23T18:20:00.000-04:00

I know it doesn't look real appealing in the photo, but it is DELICIOUS! This was another side dish for our father's day meal last Friday. If you like beets you will LOVE this dish it is so creamy and good, and really simple to make YUM!

1 onion

2 large beets
1 cup rice
4 cups vegetable broth
Olive Oil
S&P to taste
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese

I can't remember where I saw the original recipe, but I morphed that into something I thought my family would enjoy!

Add a couple of TBSP olive oil to the bottom of a stock pot on medium heat. Dice the onion and add to the O Oil. You are just going to cook the onion to soften and add that nice cooked onion flavor (plus it makes my whole house smell delicious). While the onion is cooking, peel the beets if they need it, if the skin is not tough you could leave the skins on the beets. Then quarter the beets and add them to a food processor. "pulse" until the beets are all chopped up pretty fine, but not a paste. (there were a couple of larger chunks left in mine, I just tossed those into the compost bin) Add the vegetable broth and beets to the pot with the cooked onion and let that simmer, covered, for 12 minutes. (LOL actually that doesn't have to be exact but I was cooking the frittata in the oven and the timer had 12 minutes left so that is how long I cooked the beets).

Next you add the rice. I think I used a cup of an organic jasmine rice but you can use any rice you want just remember that if you use a brown rice it will need to cook longer. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes (40-45 for brown rice) or until the rice is tender. S&P to taste. Next add in the goat cheese and stir until the cheese is melted and you have a nice creamy texture. Serve and enjoy!

The Dirty Life

2011-06-21T08:02:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball. What a wonderful short read. Great for your summer reading. I loved the authors descriptions of food! Just made you want to start farming so you could make the deliciousness for yourself! Oh yeah, I do a little farming myself, will have to try a couple of the dishes she elaborates on in the book. :-)

I especially loved this clip from the book:

"You can't really own a farm, no matter what the deed says. It has a life of its own. You can love it beyond measure, and you are responsible for it, but at most you're married to it."

Just a loving account of getting started farming, the ups and downs, as well as getting started in a new relationship. How the farm and the relationship develop in this new community.

If you love farming or reading about farming and farmers you will enjoy this book.

Always Busy

2011-06-20T11:34:00.000-04:00

Once the garden really starts growing it seems like there is so much to "blog" about but so little time to sit and write. LOL. Good news is that the gardens are all weeded and a good part mulched. Whew! Never ending, wonderful seasons. I do have plans for more fall planting this year, but that is for another post. Today I wanted to share Jackson's Father's Day meal. Much of it from our mini-farm. It was comprised of collard greens, a frittata, beet risotto, and a nice salad. Lettuce, collards, beets, radishes, green peppers all from the garden and eggs from our wonderful hens.

OK I have the recipe for the frittata for you today and will post the recipe for the beet risotto on another day.

Dice up one green bell pepper and one onion, stir fry for just a bit until soft. Dice one potato into about 1/4-1/2 inch chunks, and boil until knife tender. Let these cool just a bit. Meanwhile, add 10 large eggs, 1/4 cup Romano cheese, 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese to a bowl and whisk. Add how much S&P you like, stir. Then add your onion, pepper and potato to the egg/cheese mixture. Stir that all up. Pour into a greased pie plate, and bake on 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Until the top is nice and golden brown. Let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving. Delicious!!! I think I like this frittata better than the collard green and onion frittata!

Enjoy!

Saving Seeds

2011-06-07T10:26:00.000-04:00

Do you all save seeds from year to year? I have, but only a little, like last year I saved okra, tomato, pepper, and watermelon seeds. This year my goal is to save so many more seeds. I mean the seeds are out there, sitting in my garden, I just need to take the time to harvest them.

Now my peas are dying off, just too hot. The peas were great while they lasted. It has taken me a few years to have successful peas. Being from the north, I was not used to planting things in Feb, I mean up there the ground is still frozen. LOL. This year I planted earlier than I ever though I would, mid-February, and had a very successful season of early produce. Next year I will plant a lot more peas. But as I am pulling the peas I am harvesting those last few, wilting pods, to save the seeds for next year. Here are just a few. I am "hoping" to be well organized, label everything and have lots and lots of seeds waiting for next year. We will see if that happens.

Green Smoothies

2011-06-02T08:05:00.000-04:00

I was just reading another blog about smoothies. On this blog there were two categories of smoothies, one was just for fun, and in that you couldn't taste the vegetables, the other was nutritious and wouldn't contain things like honey. Of course there was more of a description, but those two things stuck out at me. I don't believe that for something to be nutritious you have to taste the vegetables. Or that not tasting the vegetables is somehow less nutritious. Also I believe honey to be very health-FULL. And I have, probably in the past 6 months or so, started including honey on purpose in our smoothies so that we reap the benefits of local, great, raw honey.

In our smoothies, which I make almost daily, we each get probably 1 1/2-2 servings of vegetables. Which is so important for me, that is one area that is probably most lacking in my diet. I love vegetables, just don't eat enough. We also get probably 1 1/2-2 servings of fruit as well. Sometimes you can taste the delicious vegetables and sometimes you can't, but either way they are nutritious and fun!

Honey has so many health benefits. I guess I have known that all along. It's healing properties. But this morning I just googled "health benefits of local honey" to see what came up. It is amazing. And as I said, I have started adding honey to our smoothies on purpose, probably about 1 Tbsp per person. Our daily dose of great, local raw honey, nutritious and fun. Here are a couple of links about honey if you are interested in reading more:

Local Honey and Allergies The whole blog is amazing, Local Honey Blog
and
Raw Honey is Not Only Tasty

Of course there is more out there if you want to look for it :-) I just really believe that smoothies can be "both in one", nutritious and fun! And for my boys, I love that they don't see food as fun OR nutritious, but can see that food can be all in one, and that we have the ability to make it so.

Fire Wood

2011-06-01T11:56:00.000-04:00

Yes firewood from unexpected places. This spring has been a turbulent spring. The weather went from 80s one day to 50s the next, terrible rain on almost a daily basis. Thunder storms and more tornado warnings in one season than in all the years we have lived here put together. We lost 4 tree limbs to the weather, 4 more than ever before. So this past weekend Jackson and our youngest son, Phillip, spent one day just cleaning up the limbs and branches, chipping the smaller stuff for mulch for the garden and cutting up the larger stuff for firewood. It has plenty of time to dry and will come in handy when the chill hits the air, but this was not what we had in mind for firewood.

The trees are doing OK, a little bare in spots, but nothing they can't recover from. No damage to person or property, thankfully.

Pasta~Pea Salad

2011-05-31T08:21:00.000-04:00

My shelling peas are ready for harvest. This is the first year, since moving to NC, that I have been able to grow peas. I planted mid-February, and now the shelling peas are ready for harvest. My first bunch yesterday, and, in total, I had about 2 cups of peas. I WANT MORE! I love peas. I want enough to eat now and freeze for later. I do have about the same amount left on the plants, they need to fill out more. But the heat will take them first. My plants are starting to die in the heat. I think next year I may add a hoop frame over the peas and plant more shelling peas. Maybe the hoop frame will help them germinate and grow earlier, we will see. But now that I know I can grow peas here with some amount of success, I am going to work at it. LOL. My mission MORE PEAS.

So with yesterday's harvest, I made a nice pasta and pea salad. I started with a recipe online, but with all the changes, I only kept three ingredients, the peas, balsamic vinegar and mayo. I kind of morphed that recipe into something I knew my family would love, and they did!! So here it is:

Ingredients~
2 cups fresh peas
3 cups cooked rice pasta
1/4 cup diced chives
1 package fake chicken chunks (or real 2-3 cups chicken if you eat meat)
3/4 cup mayo
fresh ground pepper to taste
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Fresh lettuce
1/2 cup goat cheese crumbled

For me the lettuce, peas and chives all came straight out of the garden.
boil the peas for just a couple of minutes, so they are still nice and crunchy, then run under cold water to cool. Thaw the fake chicken. Add all ingredients to a bowl and toss. Let sit in the refrigerator for an hour or so, taste so much better if the flavors have a chance to get to know each other.

It was such a nice lunch for a HOT day, nice and cool. And everyone loved it so I will definitely be making it again. Not sure the goat cheese added anything so will probably leave that out next time. Also might add some chopped basil, that would be a nice flavor.

Jackson's Wine

2011-05-17T10:26:00.000-04:00

Jackson enjoys making wine, he really likes researching yeasts and talking to other wine makers about the process. He has been planting different varieties of grapes on our property for about 10 years now, specifically for making wine. He also likes to experiment with different fruits and mixtures, as well as different yeasts.

This past weekend we bottled some of Jackson's wine. It was made from grapes and rhubarb he harvested back in 2006, so it has been a few years in the fermenting. He said it was delicious. I did not taste the wine, figured it wouldn't be fair, as I have a cold, to judge a wine based on a sample I could not taste or smell. So I will judge once the cold has passed. He and I have different taste in wine, he likes a dry wine, woody taste. I personally like a sweeter wine. Sometimes he will ferment a batch especially for me. :-) Nice and sweet.

The process if fun for both of us, although I don't have the same passion for wine as he does. And it is made from produce readily available on our property.

From the Garden

2011-05-06T09:48:00.000-04:00

I planted a few things in the garden back in mid-February. Advice from a local farmer, and I am so glad I did. I know I will be adding to the early planting list next year. But as I am just finishing up planting the rest of my summer garden we are enjoying the bounty of the early plantings, lettuce, spinach, radishes and soon...peas.

One favorite of ours is green smoothies. I make these probably 3-4 times a week as a mid day snack, so refreshing and a great way to bring more greens into my diet. I also ordered a new blender as mine was leaking terribly and I have not been able to fix it. So I bought a kitchen ninja, yes that is what it is called...LOL.

Today's smoothie is made of local strawberries, we had so many that I froze quite a few, thought they would be great in smoothies, also frozen honeydew melon, fresh-from-the-garden spinach, blueberry juice, a banana, and about a tsp of honey. It looked so delicious just sitting there in the new blender waiting, that I snapped a picture.

Also from the garden is this radish, I just thought it looked so cute I had to snap a picture. :-)

I thought it looked like a heart, the boys thought it looked like a butt.

Chickens

2011-05-03T09:35:00.000-04:00

OK many updates to come, I have so much to blog about on the farm here, so little time. But now it is time to slow down. I don't enjoy being on the go so much, I have one very social child and one that is more social than I, so finding that gentle balance, where everyone is happy, can sometimes be tricky. Sometimes I get caught up in the whirlwind before I know what happened.

Anyway, things are coming along so nicely here, after a slow start.

All the roosters are "taken care of". We ordered chicks from McMurray Hatchery, great company, last year and we ordered 25. With that purchase you have the option of a "Free" chicken. I unchecked the box for the free chick, as I know you usually get a rooster, and I did not want a rooster. But I got the free one anyway, and yes it was a rooster. OK I can handle one rooster. We then (July last year) adopted some chicks from a friend that was moving. Great, MORE eggs. Well she didn't have the number of hens she thought she had. What she had were 8 roosters, LOL. YES 8. And a few hens.

We knew the roosters were not staying, I have one son and a husband that eat meat, so the roosters would make great soup for them. And knowing where the roosters came from, how they were treated, what they ate, that they were not vaccinated, and how they died, somehow feels more peaceful. Like I am feeding my son, good~happy meat. If he is going to eat meat, I want it to be the best I can give him, yes I am that mom.

I have not slaughtered chickens in many years, since I was a child. Not sure if I could do it. I saged the area, and offered a message of thanks to the chicken for nourishing my son. I could NOT even watch the rooster be killed. I know it is quick, but I couldn't watch and I cried. Jackson, dh, had to do this part. He didn't mind at all. But it was just too much for me. Once it was dead I could process the bird, it somehow seemed different with all the life gone. So dipping and plucking and ...well you know what all comes next, you know what chickens look like in real life and what you buy in the store, I could help with all of that.

We processed I think three roosters a few months ago, and were waiting for the rest to get a bit bigger, so we waited until just a couple of weeks ago to process the rest. I now have a freezer full of meat for soups. As well as happy hens that are giving us lots of eggs. We also purchased a chicken plucker. That made the process go so much quicker. Although hand plucking isn't that bad, it does take time.

Here is a picture of the first rooster we processed:

And here is Jackson:

The soup that Phil loves:

And here is the plucker:

Now Phil wants to raise his own chickens for food, so we have ordered some chicks, due to arrive mid-month. And we will have some extras to sell to friends. We will see where this takes us.

Corn Bread

2011-04-06T10:09:00.001-04:00

I have a recipe to share today, not my own recipe but one I adapted from one of the best Gluten Free sites EVER!! I found the recipe on Gluten Free Girl. But as I am also dairy free I had to adapt the recipe just a little, it turned out beautiful and delicious. I did get a picture but sadly the bread was almost gone at the time. My boys did say they thought it was just a bit too sweet, so next time I will cut back the sugar just a bit.

Please visit the recipe on the Gluten Free Girl web site for the complete recipe. I want everyone to visit the site :-) I will just post my adaptations.

My changes:
~I did not have sorghum flour so instead I used 1/4 C of Bob's Red Mill GF Baking mix. I don't use this a lot because of the bean taste, but only using 1/4 cup, you couldn't taste the beani-ness at all.
~Next time I would use only 1/8 C sugar
~I used Spectrum Organic Vegetable shortening
~Instead of milk I used Almond Milk.

And I wanted to mention that once everything was mixed, there was no "pouring" this into the pan. But I went ahead and patted it into the pan anyway, and I am glad I did.

GREAT!! And I will definitely be making this one again and again.

Note: January 25,2012.
I wanted to add the recipe here and my adaptations so far, just in case the recipe ever disappears from the original blog. My family loves this so much:

1/4 cup sorghum flour -I use Bob's Red Mill GF Flour mix
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup potato starch
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
¼ cup sugar - I use about 1/8 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder - I use 3 tsp baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
¼ cup shortening (not butter) - I use Spectrum Organic Vegetable Shortening
2 large eggs
1 cup milk - I use 1 1/2 cups plain almond milk
1 cup yellow cornmeal

Preheat the oven to 425°.

Place mixture in a pie pan and bake 20-25 minutes.

Garden Beginnings

2011-04-04T13:49:00.000-04:00

OK so I did get a few early seeds planted a few weeks ago, peas, greens, radishes, beets. BUT it has been chilly and WET ever since, making it very difficult to get up in to my garden. I did take a few pics about two weeks ago and things were progressing nicely. And I need to take pics now as things are growing more!! YAY!! I love to see things popping up in the garden.

Our asparagus patch was just starting to show signs of life again a few weeks back, so now I should have spears ready to pick. Will go up to the asparagus later on today to harvest those!! And yes I will have pics of the lovely stalks. :-)

I also have some recipes to post....just need to catch up on my blogging!

Rescue

2011-03-12T12:09:00.000-05:00

For a while now we have been helping out with transporting dogs. Dogs that are being rescued out of Shelters here in the south and heading north to different rescue organizations. So more dogs are being saved. This is something the boys and I are really enjoying. We get to snuggle with some awesome dogs/puppies, and help them along their journey. Today was one of those days, amazing day, we drove two dogs from Hickory NC to Asheville NC, where another family picked them up to drive them on the second leg of their journey north. Today's crew was composed of two very sweet girls, young in age, but obviously bred at least a couple of times already in their short lives. Still very sweet and so content to just sit and be patted and loved.

Very early start for us today, but after we transport the dogs we have breakfast in Asheville, then head back home.

Collard Green/Onion Frittata

2011-02-04T08:17:00.000-05:00

This is a "go to" recipe in our house, when I don't have anything else, I always have the ingredients for a frittata. I keep collards from our garden in the freezer, and our chickens lay plenty of eggs. Sheep and goat cheese are staples here, so I can always throw this dish together.

-Bunch of Collard Greens, I know that isn't specific but this recipe can handle 2-3 cups of cooked collards.--1 onion
-1/4 C slivered almonds
-10 eggs
-1 1/2-2 C shredded manchego sheep cheese
-6 ounces goat cheese, more or less
-S&P
-O Oil

Dice the onion, and cook in O Oil for just a few minutes, then add the chopped collards and about 1/4 C water, cover and cook until collards are tender, about 20-25 minutes.

In a bowl combine eggs (beaten), and manchego cheese, goat cheese, S&P. Add in your collard/onion mixture and stir. Add in slivered almonds (this is totally optional. I like the sweetness of the almonds, but some don't like nuts in their frittata).

Add the mixture to an oiled pie plate, cook at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. The top will be browned. Let it sit for a few minutes, then cut and serve. My boys like a dolop of sour cream on top.

GMO Alfalfa

2011-02-01T11:01:00.000-05:00

Again another dilution of what the US calls "certified organic". So how much of that label can you trust any more? And how long before we don't have any idea what goes into the food we eat or the seeds we buy, and lose complete control over our own diet. We "think" growing our own is better, but how long until it is not? We "think" the organic food label is helping us choose our food wisely, but is it really?

"Got organic milk? Maybe not for long.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced its approval of "unrestricted planting" of genetically modified alfalfa sold by Monsanto, according to The Atlantic. So what does that have to do with organic milk?

Cows eat more alfalfa hay than anything else, and as a crop, alfalfa is what The Atlantic calls "notoriously promiscuous." Bees and other insects can spread alfalfa pollen for up to five miles, meaning it's only a matter of time before the unrestricted GMO alfalfa cross-pollinates with non-GMO varieties.

It makes for a strange conundrum: The USDA's own regulations prohibit the use of genetically modified organisms in certified-organic products, yet by allowing such a fast-and-loose crop to be planted anywhere, the department is virtually guaranteeing that cows used to make organic dairy products will end up eating some mutant strain of GMO alfalfa...."

Please read the rest of the story HERE. And share the link.

Jerusalem Artichokes

2011-01-27T09:36:00.000-05:00

I think it was two or three years ago that we planted just three Jerusalem Artichoke roots in a a bed in the yard. Three small roots at that, didn't know if any of them would grow at all. This was after a friend and I split a crate of Jerusalem Artichokes and I really enjoyed the flavor. So Jackson and I decided to try planting our own. I mean the worst thing that could happen is they didn't grow right?!

Well they have taken off. We have left them alone for all this time so the bed can establish, now we have approximately a 6 foot by 10 foot bed.

These are beautiful in summer with bright yellow blossoms, looks like a bed of small sunflowers. But with all my garden vegetables now coming out of the freezer, I was craving something fresh from the garden, and eager to get my hands in the soil. Our mild winters are perfect for that. So Jackson and I headed out to the Jerusalem Artichoke bed and dug some up. Here is a picture of them fresh out of the garden.

The skins on these goodies are so thin that I just washed them off and sliced them up. Added them to an oven safe dish with a little plain soy milk, about 6 ounces of goat cheese crumbled, a little salt and pepper. Mixed it all up and put it in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes until tender.

They have the texture of potatoes, but a sweeter flavor (although I have read that these are sweeter in the winter so they might be less so in summer...more like a potato), and much thinner skin. It was delicious.

Winter Green

2011-01-25T08:13:00.000-05:00

Winter seems like a time when everything green from my garden is coming out of my freezer. We do have some collard greens in the garden and they lasted well into December. But now everything is frozen and snow covered. So this is when I get out my sprouts. I enjoy sprouts in salads, in stir fries, and I want to try bread for the boys using some sprouts. It is a treat, so I save my sprouting for winter. Here is a picture of some of my mung bean sprouts. I love mung bean sprouts as they are crisp, and sprout in only a couple of days.

You can see the lid I use on the canning jar, it has mesh in the top, I picked it up some place for like $1. But I recently saw a picture where someone used some of the plastic canvas you can get at walmart in the craft section, it was cut to size to fit into the round canning jar lid (minus the lid insert). You could get many jars for $1 that way, so I am eager to try that out and sprout a few things at the same time.

They are just so nice and green, and crispy and I even have a few left sitting in my fridge. In the jar right now are some alfalfa seeds, sprouting, those take a bit longer.

To sprout I just add a couple of tablespoons of seeds to the jar, add the special lid, and soak overnight. Then rinse the next morning and shake out all the water. That is the benefit of the mesh lid, you just fill the jar, shake it around a little bit and drain. Every time I walk by my sink I rinse and drain the seeds. In a couple of days you have mung bean sprouts.

Seems Like Forever

2011-01-04T09:51:00.000-05:00

...since I have blogged on here. My energy dwindles once harvesting is over. It is work work work toward the end, cooking, freezing, harvesting, cooking, freezing.....you get the picture. Then it is done and I am tired. We did get all the leaves from fall up into the garden, they are decomposing nicely as we speak, and in a month of two we will start hauling composted manure from a friends horse barn up into the garden, till everything in and start all over again. :-) By then I will be itching to get my hands and bare feet into the soil.

What I wanted to share today was my kombucha scoby. It is just too beautiful. I have been fermenting kombucha for myself for maybe a year now, love it, and love experimenting with different teas to see what flavors I come up with.

I did have a couple of 1 gallon jugs that I was using and one of them was my scoby reserve. That is what I called it anyway, it was FULL of scoby, solid. So a month ago I decided to break that up and see what I can do with it. I bought a nice 2 gallon jug and put about 6 inches of scoby in that one with some nice green tea and a bit of a fruit/green tea mixture. I left a few inches of scoby in one of my gallon jars. I flushed a couple of inches into the septic system, and the rest I put into my other gallon jar with some tea to save for friends. I have had a couple of friends want to try fermenting kombucha.

So this past weekend I "harvested", is that what you call it?, the tea (and it is so yummy!). The scoby that was growing on the top of my 2 gallon jug was just so pretty, so I took a picture. In the picture you can see the scoby that are underneath, they sort of turned sideways. Those are from the gallon jug so you can see just how much is in there, and believe it or not that was only part of that giant colony. And the new scoby is on the top and "fits" the 2 gallon container. Isn't it so nice and white and pretty.

So today is scoby sharing day. I am bringing the gallon jar that has about 8 inches of scoby in it with me to our Homeschool Art Day, and anyone that wants some can have it. I can share how I ferment kombucha and just how easy it is. Any that is left I will bring home and that will give me two gallon jars plus my big 2 gallon jar. It just grows so fast and I feel bad about "throwing" scoby away, so it either goes in our septic system or the compost bin, either way it is "used".

Lemon Layer Cake

2010-10-07T08:52:00.006-04:00

Another recipe from the Usborne Card Collection, is this Lemon Layer Cake. This is something that Phillip and I made together, love those "working together" times. It was delicious, I only had a tiny slice as it does have gluten and dairy in it.

Here is the recipe:

Cake:

1 lemon (use juice and rind in the cake)

1- 2/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup and 2 Tbsp sugar

Lemon filling:

2 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

1 lemon

1/4 cup butter

Lemon icing:

1 lemon

1- 1/4 cups powdered sugar (I used more)

The recipe calls for 3 round layer cakes, I used 2 as that was all I had. No problems there, bake at 350 for 20 min or until done.

For the filling I used 1/2 the recipe since I only had the 2 layers. Use a double boiler add eggs sugar, lemon rind and the juice of the lemon, plus the butter cut into chunks. Stir the mixture until butter melts and the mixture thickens, about 20 minutes, (a lot quicker for us as we had 1/2 the recipe). Let it cool just a bit then spread 1/2 on top of one layer of cake, add the second layer of cake on top of that and spread the last 1/2 of the filling on top and add your last layer of cake.

For the icing use the rind and juice of the lemon (the recipe says juice from 1/2 the lemon but when we mixed all the icing up there wasn't much...so we used the whole lemon and even added about 2 Tbsp of lemon juice from the bottle I had in the fridge). Add the powdered sugar and stir. I used more powdered sugar than the recipe called for. I just found that the icing the recipe made was not enough to cover the cake and drip down the sides, so I think I about doubled the recipe to make enough, but I didn't measure the powdered sugar, I just added until it was the consistency I wanted.

The cake was delicious but the boys wanted me to mention that the cake itself does not have a "strong" lemon flavor, only slight. The filling and icing DO, so that really makes up for it. Personally I think if the cake itself tasted more like lemon it would be overpowering.

Vegetable Goulash

2010-09-22T08:05:00.004-04:00

Dallen made supper the other night, delicious, so I thought I would share the recipe.

The original recipe is from an Usborne Card Collection called 30 Healthy Things to Cook and Eat, but we adapted it to fit our needs.

1 onion, diced

2 carrots diced

1 medium cauliflower cut into small pieces

2 medium potatoes diced

Olive Oil

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 tbsp paprika

4-6 cups vegetable broth

1- 14 oz can chopped tomatoes

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

S&P to taste

Cook up the onion and carrot in olive oil until onion is translucent. Add everything else except potatoes. Cook for 15-20 minutes until Cauliflower is almost cooked, add potatoes and cook another 5-10 minutes until everything is cooked. Serve hot.

Sunrise on the Farm

2010-09-06T09:05:00.002-04:00

Peeking through branches

A new dawn enters my life

with warmth for my soul

A Growing Family

2010-08-30T20:48:00.003-04:00

I know our family keeps getting bigger and bigger, but when you see the pics of our newest additions you will know why, how could anyone resist these little cutie pies. The are from an all breed rescue organization in South Carolina, Canine Shelter Rescue. These people do amazing work, and Barbie, she was the foster mom for our pugs, is just the best. With a house full of dogs she manages to keep everyone under control and happy.

These two are around 8 weeks old, sisters. The black one is Violet and the fawn one is named Penny. Their personalities so fit their names. :-)

We are really enjoying watching them play, and roll around together, they get along great with our current dogs. Ellis has made it his job to keep an eye on them at all times, making sure they aren't getting into trouble. Just a joy to have in our lives.

Cantaloupe

2010-08-04T17:31:00.004-04:00

OK so the garden is bursting at the seams. It is so wonderful to be back with a huge garden full of delicious goodness. Here is some cantaloupe we harvested yesterday. I had intended to take a picture just after I cut it in half, but got carried away cutting and realized, as I finished, that the camera was still on the table beside me.

But here is a picture of all the juicy goodness. So delicious, I love it warm, fresh out of the garden. Right now we have an abundance of melons, and I thoroughly enjoy melons so I am in bliss this time of year. Yum Yum.

Cinderella

2010-07-20T11:13:00.003-04:00

OK so this is our adopted addition, Ellis aka Cinderella. When I am working in the dining room he loves to be in the fire place, maybe it is just cooler in there on the brick. Too cute.

New Additions

2010-07-12T07:39:00.010-04:00

Here are a few pictures of the new chickens we added to our farm. Some are very CUTE, some not so cute, 5 are roosters (so far). All seem to be happily adjusting to our place. They have their own coop and hen pen now and hopefully in another week or two we will start letting them free range during the day.

Yesterday Jackson heard a lot of dogs barking on our property so he drove down to the corner of our field and saw a pack of about 10 dogs all barking at *something* he guessed they had cornered an animal of some sort, although he could not see anything. These were not hunting dogs and had no collars on, but were like some wild pack of "former" pets. He said he was glad he drove down there and didn't walk as he started out. They were just really scary looking and not "friendly".

He is going to talk to animal control today to see what can be done, if anything, about them. We have never seen them before but we have a good deal of woods by our house. So we aren't sure if they are passing through or "here to stay". They were not out there last night so we will see what happens. But it makes me nervous to let my animals out. I hate to fence in our field with electric fence, I don't want to keep out other critters, but we may have to. Time will tell.

Anyway here are some pictures of our adopted chicks:

Random Garden Photos

2010-07-08T13:12:00.008-04:00

New Additions

2010-07-06T08:34:00.003-04:00

Over the past weekend we picked up some new additions to our family. 14 chickens from a friend that was moving out of town and needed to rehome them. And 5 sugar gliders that were rescued by an employee of Chimney Rock Park, they needed a new forever home as well. My hope is to take more pictures as we go along but here is the first instalment of "Our New Additions".

This is a female sugar glider. She is very friendly and has taken a liking to Phil. He loves playing with them. Isn't she just beautiful. We also had out the daddy of the bunch, also a handsome boy but not as friendly, he does love grapes though. And we took the baby out for just a minute or two, to find out he was a "he" and just hold him for a minute. They are so cute. We stayed by the cage with the baby so that mom and dad could see him. And they just kept looking through the wire at their baby boy. Then when we put him back in his "nest", all 4 other sugar gliders went running in to make sure he was OK, before they came back out to eat.

More from the Garden

2010-07-06T07:58:00.003-04:00

We have been harvesting so much from the garden this year. Living on fresh veggies is such a delight, and I feel like we live in such abundance when I can put so much into the freezer for winter. Pictured are just a sampling of what we are harvesting. I also have a huge box of tomatoes I am working through. Already have some spaghetti sauce and tomato sauce in the freezer.

Tonight I think I will make some of Phillip's favorite, eggplant sauce, so yummy over pasta.

Organics in the news again

2010-06-25T18:16:00.004-04:00

I know I have blogged about the word organic before and how, in the US, it is becoming a less than trustworthy label. For me, I have stuck to buying foods that have been labeled organic, produced, manufactured, by companies that have been organic, for years. With all the changes in the regulations of the word it seems like every company now has an "organic" line. Am I supposed to believe that they have changed their purchasing, growing, manufacturing policies overnight....I don't think so.

Anyway here is just more proof that the word "organic" is meaning less and less every day. I am not going to post the whole article, in hopes you will visit the original source to read. I do not want to steal the authors thunder in any way. So visit the site and read the complete text and listen to the audio available.

"...The organic label is meant to signify that a food is relatively environmentally friendly: Organic producers are forbidden from using many synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. When that organic food comes from China, that label may not mean much.
"When I see organic food from China, I question," environmental journalist Michael Pollan told PRI's The World, "how organic is it?" Organics are a $26 billion industry in the United States, and an increasing amount of that is coming from China. Pollan points out, "organic is a very big global business now. People don’t realize it.
"In 2006 alone, China added a staggering 12 percent to the world’s organically farmed land," Global Post reports. With the market growing that quickly, regulations are lax at best. A Chinese grocery chain owner who spoke with Global Post estimated that "maybe 30 percent of farms that put the organic label on their food produce the real thing."..."

How Does the Garden Grow

2010-06-18T08:31:00.007-04:00

It grows by leaps and bounds. This year has been the best gardening year. I have the weeds totally under control, the whole garden is mulched with grass clippings, making it so soft to walk on in bare feet. And I am thoroughly enjoying spending time up there. Everything is growing like crazy, we have plenty to eat and plenty for the freezer. Right now we have cucumbers, lettuce, green beans, greens, a couple of peppers, beets, and radishes. So many squash ripening on the vines, and huge tomato plants with so many tomatoes. I can't wait for those to ripen so I can begin making sauce for winter. YUMM!!!

Here are a few pics of our harvest and one of Jackson's last pizza creation. It was so delicious, gluten free, dairy free crust with lots of herbs and greens from the garden.

Radishes

2010-06-05T08:17:00.004-04:00

Jackson's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and he loves radishes, so I decided to try a couple of new radish dishes, just for him. (none of the rest of us are that fond of radishes) with radishes from our garden. I made a radish salad, simple, shredded radishes, chopped cauliflower, cooked, diced potato, celery seed, S&P, a little dill, and mayo. It tasted heavy of radish, not my favorite.

But the dish that was fabulous was radish top soup. I read about using radish tops, the greens not the root, in a soup and adapted it to our dietary restrictions and it was so delicious. Who new you could eat radish tops, they are almost prickly when picked, but so nice and tasty in soup. I think you could make this soup with any green and believe I will be making it this weekend using collards that are ready to harvest fresh from our garden.

Recipe:

Dice up an onion and cook up in a little olive oil.

Add 3 diced potatoes, 3 large hand fulls of radish tops (just clean them you don't need to cut them up or anything) and about 4 cups of vegetable broth. Cover and simmer until everything is cooked and potatoes are mushy.

Now use a blender or I just used my immersion blender, and blend all of this up. Add more vegetable broth if you need it. Then add a can of coconut milk, S&P to taste, thyme and chopped parsley. Let it all heat up, you should have a nice creamy soup. And it is delicious. I did add a little shredded radish on top of the soup for garnish, without the shredded radish it does not really taste of radish at all.

You could substitute cream for the coconut milk and butter for the olive oil if you like.

Garden Goodness

2010-05-25T09:04:00.003-04:00

My first dish with ingredients from the garden. Greens, so far that is what I have that is ready for harvest, Kate and Collards. YUMMY!!

So last night I made a frittata with local eggs, creamy goat cheese, Collards from our garden, S&P, and onion. It was delicious, everyone loved it, even my pickier eaters.

I think in another week I will have beets to harvest, and of course the radishes are ready. Those are for Jackson, he is the radish eater in the family.

Chicks and Spring

2010-05-16T17:45:00.003-04:00

Ahhh it's spring, the garden has come alive and the chicks arrived in the mail. They are just so adorable and in a few short months we will be eating our own fresh organic eggs, YES!!

Second best is the local organic eggs I have been buying, very good indeed but not from our own hens. I can't wait, they are all doing well. We ordered from McMurray Hatchery again this time. And we purchased; Buff Orpingtons, Silver Laced Wyandottes, and Black Australorps.

Garden 2010

2010-05-04T08:59:00.006-04:00

I am a little behind in posting pics of our garden this year, so I better get started. Things are growing so fast but let's start at the beginning. My Aunt was chatting with me on the phone a month or two ago about gardening. I mentioned how I wished I lived closer and I would come haul off her horse's nice manure for my garden. Just seems like here in the south the soil is so hard, clay, and depleted of nutrients. We have used different things to try to loosen up the soil, as well as amend it with organic ingredients. BUT a nice heaping of manure would really be useful.

Then it clicked in my head, I DO have a friend, that lives close and does have horses, so I contacted her and she was very happy to get rid of her composted manure. So Jackson and I hauled about 8 trailer loads of manure and mixed that into our garden this year. The soil is already looking darker and richer. Here is a pic after being tilled and one as we are starting to plant.

We do have another garden down in the field a bit. The plan is that after harvest this year we will lay down another layer of composted manure, and the leaves from fall, and see if we can amend this soil a bit.

Rhubarb

2010-04-29T14:07:00.005-04:00

I meant to post about this last week but was so busy time slipped away, a weekend at the beach with friends and now I am back and yumming up the rhubarb. I grew up with rhubarb but it seems to be taking to North Carolina nicely. The plants I have are from my grandmother's yard.

Last week I harvested our first batch or rhubarb. But I can see so many small stocks and leaves that this will be the first of many. My oldest son Dallen helped me and we managed to get it all inside. I had enough to make a rhubarb crisp and freeze enough for 12 more crisps (or whatever I decided to make with it) in the future. I love seeing my freezer filling up over the summer it just gives me such a feeling of abundance and accomplishment.

Asparagus

2010-04-20T06:43:00.006-04:00

Our asparagus is doing so well, we planted a small square of asparagus maybe 4 or 5 years ago, and it has seeded itself so we get more and more each year. This is the first of our harvest this year, although when I was mowing yesterday I saw maybe 7 or 8 more stalks waiting for me, so today I am going to go pick some more and see what we can make with it tonight. YUM!!! Gotta love asparagus. This isn't something that I grew up eating, never tried asparagus until I was probably 24 or 25 in North Carolina.

Also so lucky to have a husband that loves to cook, so usually he cooks at least one meal on the weekend. He is very good at just winging a meal with what we have in the house, me...I need at least a vague idea in my head before I start cooking. So this is our asparagus and what Jackson decided to do with it, can you say YUMMY!!! It was delicious.

Potato Bake

2010-04-01T09:01:00.003-04:00

I am not sure about a name for this dish, I kind of winged it from ingredients I had on hand, for a pot luck supper we were heading to. So I am calling it Potato bake. Actually I boiled the potatoes first.

-however many potatoes you want, cubed and boiled until knife tender....do not over cook or they will be mushy.

-an onion chopped

-O Oil

-1 1/2 cup soy milk

-1 1/2 cup vegetable broth

-4 ounces (approx) goat cheese

-2 tsp corn starch

-1 can organic green beans, or a couple of cups of chopped zucchini, or chopped cauliflower, whatever veggie you would like to use.

-S&P

-dill about 2 tsp

First cook up the onions in the oil, add to a casserole dish with potatoes and cooked vegetables. In a sauce pan add the soy milk, vegetable broth, goat cheese (sometimes I will use a nice herb goat cheese if I have it on hand), corn starch and whatever herbs you would like. I just use some S&P and dill, but feel free to improvise with your favorite herbs.

You want to heat this dish until it comes to a boil, it will thicken a little and you are done. Add the sauce to the casserole dish and mix up all the ingredients. I put some goat cheese crumbles on top but you could use any goat cheese or no cheese on top. Then I cover and put it in a 350 degree oven for just 20 min, to give everything a chance to work together. Once everything is nice and hot you are done.

I think next time I am going to add in some fake chicken chunks but you could add in real chicken, multiple veggies, try it with sweet potatoes, add in green peppers.....you get the picture. It is delicious!! Dairy free, wheat free, sugar free and meat free.

dietary issues

2010-03-29T17:20:00.006-04:00

OK I have blogged about my stomach and weight issues before. I have always had an iron stomach, I could eat anything and it would not bother me. But the last few years I have become increasingly bothered by certain foods. It started with carbonate beverages, wow that was probably 5 years ago, it took me a while to figure this out, I didn't drink soda much at all, but I had a soda one day at Taco Bell and I could feel it burning as it went down. That was the last carbonated beverage I had. Next came dairy, so I eliminated all dairy from my diet, well cow dairy that is. And I found that easy, I could still eat sheep and goat cheese and have found cooking with Earth Balance and soy milk equally easy without sacrificing texture or taste.

Things seemed to be going well as long as I didn't slip. If I accidentally ate a tiny bit of dairy, hidden in something it seemed to be OK but any more than a tiny bit and I was suffering, major digestive issues that I am sure you DO NOT want the details of ;-)

Then more things seemed to bother me but I couldn't pin them down at all. For the last 6 months or so I have been very frustrated and confided in a friend of mine, as I sat almost in tears, that I felt like I just needed to stop eating. I didn't know what I could or could not eat, what bothered me, what did not etc. VERY frustrated. I soon collected my thoughts and just plunged myself into a little research. Read online about food intolerance.

My research has led me to a complete change in my life style and my life. What I believe to be true in my case is that the things I crave are the things I eat all the time, which lead to more cravings and more eating. Anyway over time the things I eat all the time have been rejected by my body, I have developed an intolerance to these things.

What I have done over the past month is to eliminate them from my diet, wheat, sugar, dairy. I am also a vegetarian (but that is by choice, not an intolerance). The idea, after reading the Food Intolerance Bible, is that after a period of elimination I can add these items back into my diet on a rotating basis, just not to have them closer than 5 days together, so if I eat something dairy, I have to wait 5 days to have it again. What I am doing is different, I just want to be able to eat when we go out to a restaurant. It is hard to go to Moms Night Out and have a salad with no cheese, no meat, no croutons etc. You get the picture. So at home I have been meat free, dairy free, sugar free and wheat free.

I have tested this once, we went out for Mexican food, and I had something with dairy and wheat. And then went right back onto my elimination diet. NO PROBLEMS, I was so happy. I feel so much better and I have NO CRAVINGS. This is the first time in my life I haven't had cravings. I so love it that my home baked bread doesn't call to me from the kitchen.

All these years I have read and read about weight issues, weight gain. And everything says you need to get to the reasons you are eating, do you eat when you are happy?...YES, do you eat when you are sad?...YES well then I must be an emotional eater. So get to the heart of that. Well I have never felt like there was a heart...sure I have had my ups and downs in life, but that is life. I don't feel like I "hang onto" things. I deal with things and move on, remembering my past but not being controlled by it at all. Now I think for me it is just the cravings, I crave those things I love to eat. I don't think it is emotional eating, it is just eating.

I haven't done any more "work" on the things of my past but the pounds are falling off. My cravings are gone so I am just not eating as much. When I feel hungry now...I have to tell myself, "hmmm I'm hungry, maybe I should eat something". I also look at what I am eating more. It is more about what my body needs instead of what I am craving. I know that might not make sense but in my head it does. And it is working, it will be 4 weeks tomorrow. And I am just so happy right now. I know that if I stay with this diet plan, my stomach issues will continue to stay in check, which is big for me. I don't want to have ulcers or anything, I want to be healthy. I also know that I will be hiking with my boys and feeling good, that is HUGE for me, what I want so much, to just continue to feel better and better and enjoy life to it's absolute fullest.

Garden Excitement

2010-03-27T11:18:00.002-04:00

I always get itchy to get into my garden this time of year. It is about time too, seems like this winter was particularly snowy and cold (two reasons I left Maine). But the sun is out and time to get crackin'. This year I will have Phillip helping me in the garden, he is excited to get started as well. We made our planting list this morning and are also planning a double layer deer fence, to keep out our lovely intruders....

Here is our list so far, in no particular order:

-sweet corn

-popcorn

-bell peppers

-jalapeno peppers

-tomatoes

-collard greens

-kale

-carrots

-green beans

-radishes

-beets

-okra

-cow peas

-black eyed peas

-potatoes

-sweet potatoes

-zucchini

-egg plant

-chamomile

-basil

-oregano

-dill

-cilantro

-parsley

-lettuce

-cucumbers

-lemon balm

-watermelon

-butternut squash

-onions

And looking at things we have quite a few in seeds, some we will buy at the feed store as seedlings and I will only have to buy three of four as seeds this year, always a bonus.

My ankle is feeling great so that won't slow me down this year. We are ready to get started!!

Pizza

2010-03-13T11:12:00.004-05:00

Well this is gluten free, dairy free, and sugar free pizza. Long story but I am getting those things out of my system, a one month detox, then will reintroduce them occasionally, I just have to feel better. :-)

The crust I used was recommended by a friend, and it is from the gluten free pantry. It is the french bread, pizza crust mix.

The pizza in the picture is actually the one we made for the boys. Mine is topped with onion, sauce, and sheep cheese. It was delicious.

Soup

2010-02-01T09:39:00.003-05:00

I can always count on Jackson to pull a meal from nowhere. He can take whatever is left in the fridge and cupboards and make a delicious meal. This weekend it was a soup. Delicious!! Just a broth base, herbs and cabbage in the broth, then a bunch of things you could add in, sort of like Ramen soup. He got this idea from the movie Ramen Girl, which we both enjoyed. Here is a pic of some of it. As you can see it is the end of the soup, last bowl and last of the additions that go into the soup. The additions to the broth included, noodles, soy beans, carrot, celery, sesame seeds, peanut sauce, onion and cilantro. So when you are finished you have a bowl of personalized soup. Everyone here really enjoyed the soup and we used Dallen's dishes he got last Christmas as a present. So that was a plus and just made Dallen smile. The soup was so delicious Jackson is making it again this coming week. YUM~

Brown Rice Pizza

2009-12-27T09:47:00.003-05:00

I made our brown rice pizza yesterday, yum!! We all love it here. Pizza is our Christmas tradition, so on Christmas we had just regular home made pizza and Saturday was Brown Rice Pizza.

Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 cup brown rice, cook in 3 cups water, simmer with lid on, takes about 30-45 minutes for brown rice to cook up.

mix together in a bowl:
1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese (can substitute sheep cheese)
3/4 cup sesame seeds
2 eggs

add the cooked rice and mix thoroughly

spread on a pizza stone, will be about 1/2-2 inches thick, just make it pretty evenly spread. Cook in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes, it will be slightly brown on top. Top your pizza how you like, put it back in the over for about 10 more minutes. Cut and eat. YUM!!

The picture is my pizza, I use sheep cheese, topped with onion, sauce and more sheep cheese.

Pumpkin Pie

2009-12-21T13:30:00.004-05:00

I have made a few pumpkin pies this year. Hadn't tried a dairy free one though, this was a first. It just seemed like there was so much milk in a pumpkin pie that to replace that would somehow effect the pie, either in taste or cooking. But really it enhanced the pie. I just replaced the milk with vanilla silk, next time I am going to try the VERY vanilla silk, or silk nog, those would be YUMMY!!

Very delicious. So for all my dairy free friends out there, give it a try!!

Banana Pancakes

2009-12-19T10:16:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I made banana pancakes for me and the boys. I had bought some nice organic bananas ( I love bananas) but when the boys were taking the groceries out of the car for me, the bag split and the bananas fell to the ground on the ends, so all the bananas were bruised and sort of mashed, perfect for cooking.

I haven't made banana pancakes in quite a while, not sure why, but they are one of my favorites. We all enjoyed them, dairy free. Here is my recipe:

1 1/4 cups four

2 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

3 Tbsp O Oil

1 egg

3/4 tsp salt

1 mashed banana

enough vanilla silk to make the right consistency batter

DELICIOUS with some *real* maple syrup.

Ellis

2009-12-18T09:23:00.004-05:00

I posted a while back about our latest foster puppy, Ellis. Well he went to his new forever family yesterday, such a nice energetic family for a wonderful, smart, energetic dog. We were all in tears, Ellis is such a great dog, he will be MISSED!! It seemed so sad last night with no puppy chasing tennis balls around the living room, losing them under the couch and whimpering for us to fetch them out.

It is amazing how a puppy gets you to open up your heart just a bit further than you thought you could. Such an amazing experience. The boys were so wonderful, sad to see him go but happy to think of the life he will have with this wonderful family. I have such great boys, they are ready to do it again. Here is a picture of Dallen with Ellis waiting for his forever family to show up. And you can see that Ellis has spotted them as they are driving in behind me. :-)

We foster for Blue Ridge Boxer Rescue, so if you are thinking of fostering or adopting a boxer and you live in NC, SC or VA, check out the BRBR web site.

Chicken and non Chicken Soft Tacos

2009-11-17T08:24:00.005-05:00

I had a menu planned out for the week but a high school friend posted a link to a recipe for soft tacos. Not a difficult recipe, but the picture looked so delicious I decided to abandon my plans and make soft tacos. It had been a while since I had made home made tortillas, I knew the boys would love it. The recipe for the tortillas is easy:

4 cups flour

2 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp shortening, I use the spectrum organic vegetable shortening

1 1/2 cups warm water

Mix and use about 1/4 cup of the dough to roll out and form tortillas, use an non-greased frying pan on medium heat to cook, it only takes a minute or two on each side to be done, so watch your tortillas. Stack them in a towel and you can microwave them for a few seconds to heat back up when you want to use them.

Here is the link for the soft tacos

I winged it with the spices, so I don't have a recipe for that, I did leave out the crushed red pepper flakes.

Topped with lettuce, sour cream, cheddar cheese, cooked onions and salsa. YUMMM!! I used organic chicken for Phillip (you can see his artwork on his hands in the picture...those are not cuts..LOL), and I used a chunked non Chicken for the rest of us.

Wolf Sanctum

2009-10-22T08:52:00.002-04:00

I have been following the trials and tribulations of the wolves in the Rockies for some time now. How different states are dealing with the release of wolves back into the wild, and the battles/struggles. So it was interesting to go visit this little wolf sanctuary here in the Mountains of NC. Run by one woman, this little place is just full of great things. She is just so knowledgeable about wolves, loves to share her passion. A few of the wolves would come up to greet, many stayed at the far end of their enclosure. And her little gift shop...by little I mean tiny, is just so jam packed with all kinds of hand crafted items. Because, not only is she a champion of the wolves, giving those that have been discarded by their owners, a place to live out their lives, but she is an artist...a very talented artist.

She is amazing. She has 16 wolves on property and runs this with very little help. She shared with us that she has no "staff" and only occasional help from volunteers. She receives no monetary help from any of the wolf conservation organizations, very few donations from the community, no discounts at local stores for the chicken she feeds the wolves, and very few monetary gifts. The only real monetary income is from what she sells in the gift shop. She said it is really a labor of love on her part, and she pays for just about everything related to the care of these wolves. What a blessing for these great creatures, some of whom she can't even get close to. No thank yous, just a deep love of the animal and passion to help.

I could have stayed there longer but we had to leave....a must see for anyone in this area or traveling through this area. Again it is the Wolf Sanctum.