My Favorite Pantry Item

Of all the things in my pantry, I think flour is myfavorite pantry item. Why?  Flour is used for so many fabulous things and it isthe basis for most of my scratch cooking. I can make sweet, savory, hearty,fried, crispy and smooth/creamy-all with flour.

My favorite type is unbleached white. Yes, I admit that myfavorite flour is not some sort of hippie wholegrain. It is a simple, soft,unbleached basic white flour. Of course, as you get to know me, you will learnthat I never leave well enough alone. I also like to play with whole wheat flour andother types, tyring to get the perfect ratio of white flour  to whole grain (which is notorious for makingbricks instead of bread). One of my flours that I use quite a bit is a Bobs Red Mill,10 grain flour. If you don’t mix that high test with white, you canhammer a nail with the resulting bread.

Flour means comfort. It is perfect for those rainydays when a loaf of bread and a bowl of soup tastes perfect. It’s also a pickme up when the family has to get up early to work on the harvest and I canpresent them with homemade donuts or cinnamon rolls when they first come up tothe kitchen.

Flour is my old friend when we are out of food. As long as Ihave flour, I can make sourdough and then bread. With sourdough, I can make allsorts of baked goods without needing yeast or other leavening. Of course, I useextra yeast or baking powder or vinegar/baking soda when I need to, but itsgreat to have my sourdough waiting to help out.

I also make a mean pancake with flour. When I lived in mycabin, pancakes were almost a daily food. I never used a recipe and played withratios there too. Sometimes I had eggs, sometimes not. Sometimes I hadsourdough or other leavening and sometimes it was flour, water and a greasypan, with a side of black coffee. Anyway you look at it, flour certainly savesme many times over.

I make it a point to buy a bag of flour, any size, ANY timeI go shopping. I have purchased 1 pound bags from the pharmacy and often buy 25pound bags at the warehouse store. If you are starting a pantry, I recommendgetting a handle on your flour totals. Use a 5 gallon food safe bucket and fillthat baby up with flour! A 25 pound bag fits nicely.

Then you have to learn to use your flour, but that’s anotherblog post. 

My Family Hates My Tamales

I tried to cook something new tonight and it was an abjectfailure: Tamales. The wound is still fresh but let me explain.

I found a simple recipe for shredded chicken tamales and wasable to work the cornhusks and dried chilies, and tamale masa into the budgetlast week.

So, three hours before my dh was due home, I started makingthem. It took a lot of steps but nothing was really hard, per se. The chickenwas fresh from our farm(we had just butchered all 50 of them a couple of daysago) so I cooked a package of breasts. Then I mixed the Masa. Then cleaned,roasted, soaked and blended the chilies, soaked the corn husks and startedworking.

Making tamales took forever. By this, I meanfor-flippin-eva! I ended up with 25 of them, all nestled into my metal colanderthat I had jammed halfway down in a stock pot as a makeshift steamer of sorts.

I cooked them for 40 minutes, while I made brown rice with onions and green peppers/seasonings. Man, I was so proud of my self! I thinkthat was the problem. One can not get too cocky when cooking for family.

With a platter of tamales and a big bowl of Mexican ricewaiting, I called the troops to the table. The 4 yr old was horrified and toldme they smelled of mouse poop (unsure how he made THAT connection) the 9 yr oldstomped up the stairs, took a look and stomped right back down again. The 13 yrold ate one tamale out of pity, taking the entire dinner to gag it down and the16 yr old just ate a couple but told me they were awful. He has a hollow legand is like that rat on Ratatouille who eats stuff without caring if it is goodtasting. He is just hungry, man…The baby was asleep but she had already eatenone so she got a free pass.

I thought they were tremendous! My husband thought they wereboring and plain. He said they needed hot sauce(which he was more than welcometo add, but for the kids? Puleeze).

I cried. It was just sad.

NO more tamales for our family.

L

So much excitement around the farm, my poor personal blog is gathering dust. Fall has arrived here, which means pumpkins and squash to process. Last year, I wrote a blog about how to process fresh pumpkins for pie.
On to the news.
Tuesday, I went to the Martha Stewart show, in NYC. It was a mad undertaking, but worth every minute and every penny. My oldest son and of course the babygirl, went with me, as I can’t leave her overnight.
We flew over on Tuesday, went to the taping Wednesday morning, and flew home that afternoon. Please talk me out of doing that again.
Rebekah was extremely well behaved. All she required was the iPad and lots of snuggling with mom, to keep her from going nuts. Nathanial was as bored as a 16 yr old is with anything not directly related to them.

I didn’t get my 5 minutes of fame, but did get my basket of dried and canned things on MS’s site, and the family saw me multiple times from home. I guess there won’t be any agents knocking at my door just yet, wanting to represent me and my brand.

Second, my next book is out! Well, it’s in my hands. Canning and Preserving all in one, is a humongous book of recipes and how to’s. Make sausage, make kefir, ferment things, bake things, freeze things…It is like I dumped my recipe book right into the pages, errr actually, I did. Hopefully, it will help out some people, inspire others and even lift a toddler up to the table a little, when placed under his or her bum. It’s that thick!
So, that’s all for tonight. It is 2 am, and I hear the baby rustling around behind me. Night all!

Gone To Fair

Here is Bekah, picking apples from the kid’s display at the Nebraska State Fair, 2011. She had quite a good time, doing the same chores that we do on our farm, only this was with pretend food.

Clearly, she has tending the land in her blood. 🙂

It was a sunny day, and somehow she misplaced her floppy hat that I had packed. We ended up buying this cowboy hat, just so she could be outside without burning. It’s pink in real life.

So, we are back home and off to do the same darn chores here. Such is the life!

Help In The Kitchen

Bekah is almost 18 months! She is such a peach and loves to help me cook. Here she is waiting to scrape the extra flour off the measuring cup. Awww.

We have been having quite a bit of kale lately. It is one of the first things ready in the garden, so I try to serve it as much as possible. Last night, we had it on the grill, with baby onions and Portabella mushrooms. Delish!

If you haven’t already, check out my new foodie blog at www.foodista.com. It’s been such a great opportunity to share all the recipes that are a regular thing around here.

Nothing Difficult About Oats

This post is the result of a link about McDonald’s serving pseudo-oatmeal now. I realize that we all have a choice about food. I get that. My issue is them selling this as a healthy alternative. It is akin to their lies  marketing choice of words, saying that their chocolate milk is healthy. Not-so-much. 


My beef is with their lies in advertising. Hey, I know how good the fries are! 


So, to the oats…….

If you are frugal or stocking your pantry, it is more than likely that you have oats in there. Oats can thicken, bake up into fabulous desserts, breads, crisps and cookies, soothe the skin(and your inner bits too), keep you full and so much more. They are incredibly versatile and have I mentioned inexpensive?

Although I would love to go all *Organic* on you, for most of us our food dollars are stretched as far as they can go, and just keeping everyone fed daily can be a challenge. If you want to add a wholesome food to the diet, have a quick snack available at all times, and stock up on a hearty, easy food…oats are for you!
Buy regular oats, from regular companies and feed the kids.

Buy them every time you shop. If you prefer oatmeal that has a smoother texture, buy quick cooking oats. If you prefer a heartier version, with discernible oat bits still visible, try Old Fashioned oats.
To save money, do NOT buy instant oatmeal. It is a marketing gimmick, and you are paying for packaging and additives you don’t need.

Measure out 1/4 cup sized scoops of oats into snack bags. Seriously. Just add the oats. Sure, you can get fancy and add all sorts of yummy bits to the bags, or simply add them when you are stirring your bowl of oats.

•  Measure out the oats into bags
• When you want to eat  oatmeal, pour measured oats into a bowl and cover with water. 
• Microwave for 1 minute
• Stir and add your extras. 

We like so many things in our oatmeal, that I thought I would just make a list to throw some ideas out there:

Peanut butter

Jam

Butter

Cream

Milk

Dried cranberries

Any dried fruit bits

Maple syrup

Brown sugar

Cinnamon

Nuts

I know, these are not premade packets of fancy, sweetened oatmeal, but why bother? It takes mere seconds to add the good stuff when you are stirring. 

When you are feeling industrious or particularly foodish, cook them on the stove. This post is to illustrate how forgiving (and yummy) oats can be! 

Do you eat oats?

Are We Full Yet

Week 7 is here, and there is 13 pounds less of me. That may seem strange, coming from someone who obsesses about homecooking and comfort foods. The truth is, I still eat everything I used to, only a whole lot less of it.
As far as my health is concerned, I am 41. I am now a  size 14 and that is a snug 14. Despite what advertisers say, this is not grossly obese. I do not have any medical concerns that make me want to lose weight. I have never been thin and that isn’t my goal. I simply am an older mom of very  young children, who did not drop the weight after this last baby, and now I am threatening to move up a size in clothes.

Not~Going~To~Happen

Recently, someone was talking about the new guidelines for the American diet. Because there is so much emphasis on no junk food(we don’t eat it for the most part) and tons of dairy(we don’t go nuts there either), I really pay little to no attention. This time, however, something struck me.

Why is there so much emphasis on what we should or shouldn’t eat, and nothing said on how much we eat? Hear me out.

I am a food lover. I love food, good food, real, full fat, natural food that I create in my own home, from ingredients that I probably grew myself. This is fact. If someone said that I had to eat this or that for the rest of my life, I would start out all inspired and then by week 2, be throwing up my hands at the impracticality or unhealthiness of it all.
It’s time to start the Whole Nutrition Diet. Here are the rules:

Let’s eat whatever the hell we like, make every bite rich and satisfying
Eat until you are NOT hungry
Eat only when you ARE hungry
Drink water. Period
Eat a whole lot less.
If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it.

I’m done.

Your turn, do you do some wacky diet thing that makes you nuts?

Herbal This and That

The weather is warming up! I am so glad that winter is on its way out. Not that we can put the snow shovels away anytime soon, but the greenhouse is calling out to be filled, and the animals have lost their accusing stares, when we go out to do chores. Truly, they still think we are responsible for the below zero temps. As if.

No matter what the groundhog says, our guard is not down, and actually the warm/cold cycle of late winter days can wreak havoc on the livestock. That and the dusty nature of their feed, makes me, the Dairy Maid, stay on high alert.

Yesterday, I had to the unglamorous job of cleaning off gunk from one of my dairy does’ nose and then treat the resulting *diaper rash* area around her nostrils. Yes folks, I said nostrils and diaper rash in one sentence. Ugh.

She gets stuffy, runny nose from the alfalfa dust in the bagged alfalfa pellets(yet another reason to go with simple alfalfa hay instead). On the dairy stand, the girls get alfalfa pellets to give them something to do.

I used a warm washcloth and, errr..removed the mess. her mucous  membranes and skin directly around the nostrils, was irritated and slightly weepy. This is a job for salve!

To make a good salve, start with a good herb infused oil. Dont have any? Consider making your own. It is simply a matter of warming olive oil and soaking herbs in the oil for a few hours. Melt in some bee’s wax and your good.  Really. That easy.

Right now, I am doing paperwork and planning for next weekend. I will presenting my talk: The Farmer’s Herbal,  at the Healthy Farm Conference on the 18th, in Columbus, NE.  If you have a chance to attend, it should be an amazing learning experience.

Digging Out The Recipes

So, I am working on the new book’s TOC (Table of Contents), and this means dragging out my cookbooks. When I say cookbooks, I mean books, magazines, strips of paper, napkins with jottings on them and other various ~crazy woman~ clippings from years of playing with my food.
If they were to be stolen by some equally crazy thief, he or she wouldn’t be able to make heads or tails of them. They are in code. Special, flour covered, sticky code. Only I am a privy to the code.

The names of my recipes are not mere names of dishes. For instance, I have *In Labor Nettle Onion Soup*, and *You Are 4, So Stop Growing Carrot Cake*.

No lie. I am weird like that. Food is not just for feeding the stomach. It is also for feeding the soul. My IL Nettle Onion Soup, brings me back to laboring in the kitchen, making a warm dish for after my baby arrives. I relive that anticipation and excitement just by reading that recipe!

Do you enjoy cooking in the same way? I like to read about recipes, play around with them, try out new ones and just fall to sleep listening to other people talking about food. I think in a past life, I was a loaf of bread.

So, do you have a favorite cookbook? How do you keep  your recipes together?

Fun Leftover Tips

Did you make too much whipped cream? I found out through nervous experimentation, that if you freeze piles of whipped cream on wax paper lined cookie sheets, they store in freezer bags just fine. Then, when you need a dollop on a pie or whatever, you take them out one by one and place on the dessert. They thaw in a just a few minutes-perfectly.

Also, if you scoop all your leftover stuffing into a bread pan before placing into the fridge, the next day you can slice it nicely to fit those turkey sandwiches. Oh, you have never tried stuffing on your turkey sandwich? Well, there  ya go. I make wraps with a little mayo, a slice of cranberry sauce, some stuffing and then the turkey. Roll tightly and slice in half. The kids LOVE how cool all the ingredients look rolled up.

Too late to put your stuffing into a pan? Add an egg and some extra seasoning to cold stuffing and mix well. Using that ice cream scooper I recommended you buy, scoop balls of stuffing mixture out and fry in a pan with a little oil(I use butter). Press down to flatten slightly as the first side browns in the pan. These little patties are wonderful and the perfect size for a toddler to eat as a snack.

I am behind since writing my Nanowrimo novel all month, but I do have blogs up and coming about canning turkey soup, making crepes and more. Stay tuned!!