Barbeque Sauce

Home-made Barbeque sauce tastes so much better than what you can buy at the store. My mom used to make barbeque ribs every Memorial day and to say her sauce is strong is an understatement. One whiff of that sauce and your sinuses are clear for months. I prefer, however, a sweeter sauce. I made ribs last night for dinner and I used a sauce recipe that I got from Craig's uncle. When you eat the ribs cooked in that sauce it's like eating dinner and dessert at the same time, as someone once told me.

1/2 c molasses
2 c ketchup
12 T vinegar
1 1/2 c brown sugar
8 t liquid smoke
1 t onion powder
1 t dry mustard
1 t garlic powder
1/2 - 3 t dried cayenne pepper
1 t black pepper

Heat ingredients together in a sauce pan. Mix 1 T of cornstarch and 1 T of water. Add to sauce and heat until bubbly.

The sauce is easy to make and you can give it just a little kick, like I do, with the 1/2 t of cayenne pepper, or add a lot to make it really hot, depending on your preference. I've also used this sauce with a pork roast and it was just as delicious.

To make the ribs, I used a rack of pork spareribs. I sprinkled a little bit of tenderizer over the meat before I cooked it. I put the rack in a 9 x 13 baking pan with 1/2 c vinegar at the bottom, covered it with foil, and cooked it at 350 for 2 hours. Drain the liquid and cut ribs into individual pieces. Pour sauce over ribs and cook for another hour, uncovered. Then you can enjoy them with lots of wipes and/or napkins.

Someday, I would like to try this recipe with all fresh ingredients, but I don't think I'm quite there yet. I like to think of it as taking baby steps toward true Amishness.

Meat Packing

I bought these 2 packages of ground beef today. Normally, I wouldn't have, because they were 2.99/lb, but I'm out of ground beef and I haven't seen it below two dollars a pound for a while. Boo! But I digress.

I like to stock up if I can get a good price and then I freeze the meat until I need it. Since I bought these in two pound packages, I decided to divide them up into one pound portions. I like meat, but not enough to put two pounds in one meal. I learned this trick from my sister-in-law. It's a great way to freeze ground beef so it's ready when you need it and it defrosts quickly.

I put the meat in the quart size freezer bags and flatten it out. This way, it stacks nicely in your freezer (always good, if you're like me and don't have much freezer space). Because it's flat and thin, it doesn't take much time to defrost. I have found it a practical and easy way to store my ground beef.

Beans, Beans, Beans

Now that is what I call a pot of beans! When Craig and I first got married, I couldn't make a pot of beans to save my life. I think I tried to cook some in a crock pot and they were a dry, disgusting mess. Flash forward six years, and now I can make some pretty good beans, if I do say so myself. The key, I have learned is chicken stock or bouillon. I use the bouillon because it is salty. I have also learned that you can put any number of vegetables in beans and you either can't tell a difference or it enhances the taste. The beans you see above have celery, carrots, zucchini, jalapenos, and tomatoes in them. Now, whenever we make beans, which is usually once a week now, we throw in whatever vegetables we have lying around. It makes for a healthier recipe and uses up vegetables before they can go bad.

My favorite kind of beans are re-fried, but you don't have to do that for them to be awesome. Here's how I made the ones you see above:

1 lb pinto beans
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery, finely chopped
1 zucchini, finely chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
1 bulb garlic, minced
2 quarts of water or more
8 t chicken bouillon

Throw all of these ingredients into a pressure cooker or crock-pot. Make sure there is plenty of water in there for the beans to soak up. If pressure cooking, cook the beans for about an hour, once the regulator starts jiggling. In a crock-pot, cook for at least 5 hours on high, if not longer. (It's been a while since I've done it in a crock-pot) Once they're done cooking you can eat them just as they are, or if you would like to re-fry them, transfer the beans and left over liquid to an iron pot or dutch oven type vessel. You must keep the bean water! We put our pot over the stove, put a large scoop of lard (yes, lard. If you're not to keen on that idea, you can put a handful of shredded cheese in there. The fat makes a huge difference in taste. Trust me on this.) and mash it all with a potato masher. We just keep mashing it and cooking it until it's the desired consistency that we like. We prefer our beans a little on the runny side.

The dutch oven is great to re-fry in, not only because you can do large batches at a time, but also, because it is made of iron, it adds some iron to the beans, a mineral we need in our diets. (Craig wanted me to make sure I put that in.)

These beans are great because they're good for you and they're super cheap to make. You can add whatever veggies you want to it, make it as hot or mild as you want, or even just keep it simple with just the beans, garlic, and bouillon. In my own humble opinion, they taste better than the beans you get at Mexican restaurants. (That's saying a lot, coming from a native southern Californian.) Once you start making your own, you will never want to go back to the canned re-fried beans from the store. Blech!

The Whole Chicken

I love me some chicken. Whole chicken that is. I like it because it's cheap and I can do anything I want with it with a little extra work. (Seriously, it is way cheaper. A whole chicken at Stater Bros is 79 cents a pound right now!) If you are so inclined, you can de-bone, marinate and grill it, you can roast it, you can divide it up into several pieces and have your drumsticks, thighs, wings, and breast. My favorite way to cook it, though, is with a pressure cooker. To prep it, I take out the giblets and rinse it well. Then I mix some dried thyme with some salt and pepper and put it between the skin and the breast meat and sometimes a little on the legs. Then I pour enough olive oil to coat the bottom of my pressure cooker and brown the chicken on the outside. When I 'm done with that, I make sure it's sitting in the cooker with the breast side up. I fill the cooker part way up with water and bouillon so it covers about half of the chicken. Then I put the lid on and once the pressure is up, I cook it for about 25 minutes. After the pressure drops enough for me to open the lid, it is done! Viola! It would have taken me over and hour to do the same thing in the oven. The meat is more tender and juicy with the pressure cooker too.

Whenever I make this, we eat it like we would a roast chicken. There's always some leftover meat, so I pick it off the bones and use it in the next night's meal, like for chicken enchiladas. (I'm not posting any recipes for that until I can master home-made enchilada sauce) After I've cleaned enough meat off the bones I use them to make chicken stock, which is also super easy. Here's how I do that:

I save the drippings and liquid from the pressure cooker and combine it with the bones in a stock pot. Then I put enough water in to cover the chicken and add the giblets. After that, I cover it and let it come to a boil and boil it for at least 30 minutes, more if I want stronger stock. Once that is done, I strain the liquid into a soup pot and put it in the fridge. I usually leave it there over night (mostly because I don't have time to can it the same day). After it has cooled, I skim the fat off the top and bring it back to a boil. I then pour the hot stock into clean quart jars and pressure can them. Every pressure canner is different, so you should follow the instructions that come with yours.

This is the end result. Delicious homemade stock with no added salt and it tastes a whole lot better than what you can get at the store. I can get 3-4 quarts of stock from 1 chicken, not to mention dinner for 2 nights. I'd say that's a lot of stuff you can get for around $5.

Pressure Cooking

Can I just say that I love pressure cooking? Craig bought us our first small pressure cooker about a year ago and I think I can safely say that I use it at least once a week, if not more. Last night I used it to cook a whole chicken and tonight I'm going to use it to make a big pot of beans to go with some enchiladas. It cuts the cooking time of anything in half, so if you forget to put something in the crock-pot in the morning - no worries - the pressure cooker has got you covered.

I was a little scared of the cooker at first, what with all that steam and the regulator moving around, but now that I know chances of it exploding are slim, I'm happy to use it. It's a great investment in cooking. I have this one. I think tomorrow I'll post how I pressure cook my whole chicken and why I love getting whole chickens as opposed the separate pieces. Stay tuned!

Creative Gardening

It's no big secret that I want a garden. Unfortunately my entire yard looks like this.
Doesn't really foster a great area for gardening, does it? I had to get creative so I could grow at least a few things. We already have an orange and lemon tree planted. We didn't want to plant anything else until we have bought a house. Well, that was 2 years ago. (It is taking us a loooooooooooooooong time to find and actually purchase a home we like.) We have several fruit trees still in their pots waiting to be planted. But the good news is, the apricot and peach tree that we have had for 2 years are now producing. Yay! We're still waiting on the avocados, cherries, pomegranates, and blueberries.

The lack of yard has not stopped us from planting vegetables either. We just had to get creative. My parents left a bunch of buckets that they had used to store wheat when they moved to their new house. My mom made the suggestion that we should use those to plant a garden. So we did. We drilled holes in the bottoms of the buckets for draining, put some of our lovely rocks in the bottom and topped it with soil we got from Home Depot or someplace like that. We planted the seeds and now we will wait to see what happens.
Last year we were successful with tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumbers, although they didn't produce as much as we would have liked. We'll try again this year and see how it goes. Do you have any creative gardening ideas?

Eggplant Lasagna

Using vegetables as a substitute for pasta is a great way to sneak in some extra veggies into your meal. I have a friend who has used dried zucchini. You can find that recipe here. I found this recipe for eggplant lasagna in a cookbook made by WIC and First 5 Riverside. Craig brought it home from work one day and we have used several recipes from it. It was basically a cookbook that focused on cooking with fruits and vegetables. I altered the recipe a bit to suit our families needs, like adding meat.

1 T olive oil
1 medium onion
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb ground beef or turkey
5 large tomatoes thinly sliced
1 1/2 t dried basil
1 1/2 t dried oregano
1 1/2 t salt
1 medium eggplant, thinly sliced
8-16 oz mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese to top

Preheat oven to 425. In a skillet over meduim high heat saute onions, garlic and brown meat in olive oil. When the meat is brown and the onions are tender, drain liquid. Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, and salt. Saute until tomatoes are tender. They will fall apart a bit. Spread half of tomato mixture into greased baking dish (I usually use cooking spray) Place one layer of eggplant over tomato mixture. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Layer one more time, finishing with cheese. Top with a little bit of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes or until eggplant is tender. Uncover and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until cheese is light brown.


There is a lot of moisture coming from the eggplant so don't be too concerned about all the liquid in the pan. It doesn't affect taste or flavor. I really like this recipe because all the ingredients are fresh and it tastes really good. My kids will eat it up, except my 4 year old who knows she doesn't like what's for dinner before I even make it. Enjoy!

My unhealthy devotion to the weekly ad

This is my weekly bible. It tells me what I'm going to have for dinner during the week. Since I do not have a giant garden or any livestock that can provide food for me, I take a look at the weekly ad from our local grocery store. Based on what is on sale and if it is a price I'm willing to pay, I use whatever I buy to prepare meals. For example, this week eggplant was on sale, so I will be making eggplant lasagna. I also try not to pay more than $2/lb for meat. (I'm looking into buying a side of beef, so more on that later) I've gotten to the point in my shopping where the only thing I buy at the grocery store is diary, eggs, produce, and meat - no packaged products. Occasionally I'll get some staples like yeast or sugar. It's reduced my weekly grocery bill and keeps things healthy. I hope to eventually not need the produce or eggs, whenever it is that we get some land to make our own. How do you save money on grocery shopping?

Borscht

There's a local farm here in town that sells organic produce. I went there last week to check it out and scored these two monstrous beets.
The first thing I think of when I see beets is borscht. Borscht is a soup common in Russia. I have a brother and a brother-in-law who both lived there for an extended period of time serving missions for our church, so I was introduced to it and learned how to make it from them. It's actually pretty easy to make and tastes good if you can get past it's looks.


Here's how I made it:

2 T olive oil
1 onion , chopped
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 giant beets, peeled and chopped
5 potatoes, cubed
1/2 head cabbage, chopped
1 T vinegar
1 1/2 quarts turkey stock
6 oz can tomato paste
sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion, carrots, and celery in olive oil until tender. Add beets and potatoes and continue to saute for about 5 minutes. Add cabbage and vinegar and saute for 5 more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add stock and boil until veggies are tender and a spoon stuck in the soup stands up. Top with a dallop of sour cream and serve.

I used home-made turkey stock because I had it left over from Thanksgiving. Chicken stock would be interchangeable or you could even use bouillon. I have to say that even my eleven month old son liked it. He ate two bowls all by himself!

Homemade Bread

Mmmmmmmmmmm...homemade bread. Not only does it taste delicious, it makes your house smell delicious. This is a loaf I recently made. I stopped buying store-bought bread a while back, mostly to save money and I'm glad I did. It's a lot more work to make your own bread, not even counting the effort it takes to resist eating it all right out of the oven. We have lowered our grocery bill and it's reduced the time I have to spend in the grocery store with my kids in tow. I prefer the long loaf pan because it makes this long loaf that lasts a lot longer. The one I have, I got off of amazon. It is a Pain de Mie pan from USA Pans. You can find them here. They're cool because they have a sliding lid if you want the bread to be a perfect square. I don't use the lid much, but I sure use the pan a lot.
I also bought a Lock & Lock storage box for my bread so I wouldn't waste bread bags. I really like it because it keeps the bread pretty fresh and the loaf fits perfectly inside. We have a meat slicer that we inherited from Craig's grandma that we use to slice the bread, which makes it super convenient when you need to grab a slice for a sandwich or for toast.

The recipe I use is my mom's. It originally was for white bread, but she adapted it so it could be 100% whole grain and I'm glad she did. Here's the recipe:

1/2 c milk
3 T sugar
2 tsp salt
3 T butter
1 1/2 c warm water
2 1/2 t yeast
5-6 c flour
2 T orange juice
2 heaping T dough enhancer (optional)

Microwave milk on high 45 seconds. Stir in sugar, salt, and butter. Cool to lukewarm and add orange juice. Meanwhile, pour water into large bowl or mixer. Add yeast and a small pinch of sugar and stir. When it starts to foam, add milk mixture and 3 cups of flour and dough enhancer if using. Beat until smooth. Add 2 cups more flour and mix until incorporated. Knead or use dough hook until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Form into a smooth ball and place in a greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Punch down and let rest for 15 minutes. If using standard bread pans, divide dough in half and shape into 2 loaves. If using the long pan, shape into one loaf. Place loaves into greased loaf pans, cover and let rise until double, about 1 hour. Bake at 400 for 5 minutes and then reduce to 375 for 25 minutes more. Remove bread from pan immediately and let cool.

I usually grind the white wheat and use that for the flour in this recipe. The orange juice does something amazing for the texture of the bread. Our family usually gobbles up a long loaf in a few days, we like it so much. What I love most is that there are only a few ingredients in it, and in the winter I can use the oranges from our tree for the juice. Now that's fresh!

Wheat Grinding

If you want to start being Amish, the best thing to do is to get your own wheat grinder. This is the one I have. It's the Blendtec Kitchen Mill. Granted, it is electric, so it's not 100% Amish, but I'm not quite ready to be done with electricity. Craig and I got this for our wedding over 6 years ago, and I didn't use it much until about 6 months ago, when I started making my own bread (more on that later). If you make your own bread instead of buying it, you go through a TON of flour. I realized that it would be significantly cheaper if I started grinding my own wheat since I already had the grinder. Keep in mind that this grinder costs around $200, but it is an investment well worth the price. You can grind enough wheat for 2 batches of bread in about 5 minutes and when you make your bread with it, you know it will be 100% whole grain and it will have no additives or nasty chemicals in it.

Now, if you grind your own wheat, you will need to know where to get wheat. I bought mine from Honeyville Grains in Rancho Cucamonga. I buy the white wheat - it has a much milder flavor than red. You can buy a 50 lb bag for $20. 1 bag for us lasts about 3-6 months, depending on how often I'm making bread and other baked goods. I don't store it in the bags because little critters can get in there. I put it in heavy buckets with lids that close tight.



I inherited these from my mom and dad so I'm not sure where you can buy them. There is one bucket from emergency essentials in Utah. If you're up that way you can get them there.

Now you not only will you have grain stocked up in case of an emergency, you will also be regularly using it so it won't go bad. It's a win\win! Stay tuned for the bread recipe that I use. I got it from my mom so it must be good!

Home-made instruments

I know this looks pretty ghetto, but who didn't LOVE making these as a kid? I don't know how my daughter and I even got on the subject, but we ended up with this. She calls it a guitar and I call it a ukelele (it sounds more like that). Potato, Po-TAH-to. I liked this because it re-used an old Kleenex box and provided lots of fun for my kids. The Amish in me was quite proud.

Butter Garlic Shrimp with Fried Rice

One thing I hate is wasted food. I hate it when fruits or vegetables go bad before I eat them. To remedy this, I have started adding whatever leftover veggies I have to whatever I am cooking for dinner. This was last night's dinner. I threw in the fried rice any leftover veggies we had in the fridge as well as the old rice from another meal. I was pleasantly surprised at how yummy it ended up being.

Fried Rice

1 T peanut oil
1 T sesame oil
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 shallot, chopped
handful of sugar snap peas
1/2 lb frozen mixed veggies
1-2 cups old rice
1 egg
soy sauce to taste
dash of oyster sauce

Heat up the oils in a large skillet or wok. Add the carrots, shallots, peas, and mixed veggies and saute until tender. Add rice and saute until rice starts to get crispy. Crack the egg into the mixture and stir it around until cooked and blended. Add soy sauce and oyster sauce and heat through.

*Any oil will work for this if you are allergic to nuts or seeds of any kind. I've used Canola oil with good results. Also, if you don't happen to have any oyster sauce lying around I'm pretty sure it can be omitted. It does add a nice richness to the rice though.

Butter Garlic Shrimp

3 cloves minced garlic
1/4 c butter
1 lb shrimp, peeled and de-veined

Saute shrimp in garlic and butter until they're that nice pink color.

*I like to stock up on shrimp when they have the "buy one, get one free" sale of the bags of frozen shrimp. I always get uncooked because I like the texture of freshly cooked shrimp. They tend to be a little rubbery when you buy them already cooked.

Not too shabby for a meal that takes maybe 20 minutes to make and uses up all your old veggies!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! I started it to document my foray into homesteading. A friend of mine and I joke about how we're becoming Amish, so now you can watch and read about the madness that is the Amish lifestyle. I plan on posting recipes and ideas for home-making things and the attempts I make to live off the fat of the land.

I started making things from scratch initially to save money and to lead a healthier lifestyle. I had seen a tv show, probably Jamie Oliver's food revolution, or something similar, in which it posed a question to high-schoolers. It showed them an ear of corn and they were asked to say where it comes from. To my utter shock, a lot of them said cows! It became my mission to make sure my kids knew where their food came from. I wanted them to plant seeds and watch them grow and turn into food. I wanted them to know that all food comes from somewhere and it didn't come from boxes or packages.

Having a husband that is a dietitian has been helpful. I consult him occasionally when I need information, since he has access to all the dietetic journals. So I plan to have a grand time writing this blog and I hope you enjoy!