The garden looks good so far

So far, my garden looks good.  We've gotten a few cherry tomatoes to eat, a couple of green peppers, a few jalapenos, some cilantro, onion tops and basil.  I'm really hoping for a good tomato year because I have NO home canned tomatoes left.  I need to restock.

Its my first time growing herbs so its a learning experience.  The basil is beautiful.  I have been drying it but a friend said I should freeze it instead so the next batch I pick I will freeze and see which way I like it best.

I have been trying to spend a little time in the garden each morning before it gets too hot.  That is hard to do because it gets hot pretty early here.  Its 8:30 am right now and its already 77 degrees out.

I have been trying to eat healthier so this week I made zucchini spaghetti.  It was really good.  I think I like it better than spaghetti pasta because it has a good flavor and doesn't sit heavy in my stomach.

I used nutritional yeast and shredded cheese on top along with a few sprigs of basil from my garden.

I also bought a spaghetti squash which I will cook this weekend and eat with the meat sauce.

Not much to report

     I spent the last week out of town with Jeff for his work.  Now that the girls are grown up I am able to go out of town with Jeff occasionally.  I am involved with the Agri life extension and belong to the local club where I am the vice president and treasurer.  I enjoy it and attend one meeting a month with our club and one meeting with the area association because I am an officer.
      I also attend the Ladies missionary club from the Mathis Baptist church.  We meet once a month for a luncheon and to discuss who we are going to help.  We also maintain a small food pantry at the church.  There are a few of us who crochet hats which a lady sends to Franklin Graham's Samaritans purse where they distribute them.  I also crochet hats for other groups.
     Anyway, if I don't have any meetings and Jeff has to go out of town I sometimes join him.  This past week we went to Plano which is near Dallas.  Jeff had work to do there.  I spent the time in the hotel room crocheting and doing other crafts.  Its boring but I do like to be with Jeff.
      I've been working on a fancy baby blanket which I had hoped to enter into the fair but alas, I did not get it done in time as the entries are due tomorrow.  Oh well. 

     Today I am making bone broth.  Right now I am roasting the marrow bones.  Then when they are good and browned I will add them to the crock pot.  I have the vegetable parings I have been saving in the crockpot already.  I will add water and 3-4 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to the crockpot to allow the goodness from the bones to come out.  I will cook this on low for a couple of days.  Then I will strain the broth and keep it in the refrigerator.  I love cooking with this fresh beef broth.  I could can it but I tend to use it fast enough that it isn't necessary.

      No bake cookies sound good too.  Maybe I will stir up a batch of them today as well.

I pray that all of you who read this are blessed and healthy.

Its apple time again.

This is the third year I have bought apples by the box to put up.  I have plenty of apple sauce left and pie filling. Last year we ran out of dried cinnamon slices right away so I am doing a lot of those this year.  Now that I have two dehydrators I can do about three times as many at a time since my new dehydrator is so much larger.

I use my apple peeler, corer, slicer on the apples, then I drop them into a dish pan that has water and lemon juice in it.  I put the peels and cores right into my crock pot with a few whole cloves. When the dish pan is full, I take a few apples at a time out and place them on a tray.  I slice once down through the slices to separate the rings and place them on the drying trays.  I hold the tray over the crockpot and sprinkle cinnamon over them, moving the tray so that the extra cinnamon drops into the crockpot.  Once the dehydrators are full I set them to the correct temperature and add clean water to the peels and turn the crockpot to high. 

Its pretty humid where I live so it takes about 48 hours to dry the slices to my liking.  With the peels and cores in the crockpot set on high it only takes about 6-8 hours for them to become soft.  I turn my crockpot off and let it cool for a while.  Then I put a big strainer or colander over a large bowl and pour or ladle the apple scraps into it.  This sits for thirty minutes or so to drain.  I carefully discard the now used up peels by putting them into a container and placing them into the trash.  I may bury the rest in my garden in unused areas.

Then I use the resulting spiced apple juice to make spices apple jelly.

Last year I made several gallons of apple cider vinegar so I don't need any more right now.

I think I may also make some cinnamon spiced apple rings and can them.  I have been easing up on the quantities of my canning since there are fewer of us at home and I don't like to throw out old and spoiled food.

I hope you are having a productive fall.

Dinner Tonight

Last evening, Hannah, Kaitlyn and I went to a cooking show called Dinner tonight.

 They featured a local chef from a fish restaurant and a food blogger.

 The chef, Jeremy Lee from Redfish Willie's Waterfront Grill made fish tacos, a sour cream avocado sauce, a mango salsa, rice and a watermelon pizza.  He was not very entertaining because he had made everything but the fish up ahead of time.  We thought he would demonstrate how each dish was made.  That's what they do at most cooking shows.  They chose from the audience 4 people to be taste testers.  We thought oh well until they brought out samples.  Our first sample dish was a fish taco with the mango salsa and sour cream avocado sauce on it and some rice.  It was a good size sample.

Next up was a local food blogger who did an excellent job showing how to make Cilantro-lime grilled shrimp, and Mexican street corn salad.  Her name is Vianney Rodriguez and her blog is sweetlifebake.com.

Our second sample plate was the watermelon pizza and the street corn salad.  Everything was so very good.  I had never had a fish taco but I sure will eat them now. 

Between demonstrations they had drawing for  items the venders had donated and I won a book by Vianney and a jar of Picklesmith watermelon-jalapeno jelly.  That's what we are making today.  It was so much fun.

The room was decorated very nice with cloth table cloths and beautiful table decorations.

We were also given a tote bag with recipes, a cutting board, measuring spoon, another tote bag, a silicone oven mitt among other things.

 

There were several venders there.  We had a great time and they said this was the first annual Dinner tonight event so we are hoping that they continue this.  It was great.

Making tortillas from scratch

I have been thinking about trying my hand at making tortillas again for a while.  So yesterday Hannah was off work and we had a little time so we decided to give it a go.

I mixed the ingredients up in my kitchen aid mixer.  We followed the directions and made the tortillas.

 

First we mixed and divided the balls of dough like the recipe said to.

 

 

After letting the dough rest and rolling them out Hannah fried them on a dry skillet like the directions said.

 

 

After frying the tortillas we put them between paper towels and placed them in a large zip lock bag.  We didn't close the bag until they were cool.

The tortillas we ate right off the grill were ok but kind of bland.  I decided to look at YouTube to figure out what I had don't wrong.

I found this video.

 

Not only does this lady know how to make great tortillas, she is funny.  She isn't trying to be funny I just found her to be funny.

After watching her video I realized I needed to use very hot water.  And her idea of saving part of the dough for the next day is great because then you can have fresh tortillas each day.  I am going to make them her way next time.

Prickly Pear Cactus Jelly

Today I had the great fortune to help a friend make Prickly Pear Cactus Jelly.  She did all the prep work.  Picking the prickly pears, burning the tiny pokey things, boiling the pears and making the juice.

The juice was a beautiful rich color.  We ended up making 3 batches with a total of 47 jars.  31 quarter pints, 10 half pints and 6 pints.

                                                    Here's Andi doing all the work.

 
                                             Me sitting down stirring the pot.

This is Pamela

My friend Andi lives on Mt. Echo ranch.  They have a very historic place.  The stage coach used to stop right there on the land they now own.  Andi said we can make Muscatine grape jelly and persimmon jelly from fruits grown right there on their land.  Isn't that neat?  We had a good day.

Saltine candy

http://passionatepennypincher.com/2012/12/christmas-crack-aka-saltine-toffee-candy/

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (NOT margarine - original recipe calls for unsalted butter but I've used both)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 40 saltine crackers

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 400.
2. Line 12x17 cookie sheet with foil and spray well with cooking spray.
3. Layer the saltine crackers on top of the foil.
4. Heat butter and sugar on stovetop and heat until gently boiling, stirring constantly.
5. Reduce heat to very low boiling and cook, uncovered, 3 minutes, until the mixture is thickened and sugar is dissolved. (Be careful to avoid burning the butter and sugar- that will ruin the recipe!)
6. Pour butter and sugar mixture over crackers and spread evenly.
7. Bake 5-6 minutes in oven.
8. Remove pan from oven and let cool 3-5 minutes, then sprinkle with chocolate chips.
9. As chocolate chips melt, carefully spread into an even layer over the toffee layer.
10. Let cool completely (refrigerate to cool more quickly.)
11. Break into bite-sized pieces and serve. . . yum!
12. Store covered in refrigerator.

Apples, apples every where

Last year I bought three bushels of apples and put them up.  They were and are quite tasty.  I made apple pie filling, applesauce, apple cider vinegar and apple butter.

This year I again bought three bushels of apples and shared half of a bushel with a friend.  I am making dehydrated apples, apple cider vinegar, apple pie filling, applesauce and spiced apple rings.

I canned the applesauce in quart jars last year and this year I plan to can several in half pint jars so they can be taken in lunches.  I am also canning some of the spiced apple rings in half pints as well.  Those things are more of a treat for us and we don't eat tons of it so it made sense to use smaller jars.

I also plan to dehydrate the apple skins and powder them for flavoring foods.  I think I might also make some apple peel jelly.

I've been keeping the dehydrator going for the last few days and it will continue to run until I get done with all these apples.

I think I will take a break from apples next year.  We will see.

I just wish I could get peaches by the bushel.  You would think I could since they are grown not too far north of here.

Bone broth

I am making bone broth for the first time.  My daughter picked up bones from the butcher for .25 a pound.  So for ten pounds it was $2.50.  They wont all fit in my crock pot and its not enough for my roaster so I will make some now and freeze the rest of the bones.  I had a little bit of onion and three carrots to add to the batch.  The bones are roasting in the oven right now and then I will put them in the crock pot on low with some water and a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and let them cook for a couple of days.

My mouth is already watering for some good food made with beef bone broth.  I will also now get in the habit of saving my vegetable peelings to add to the next batch.

How many of you make bone broth?

22 wick kerosene stove

https://youtu.be/IvD7AT0eqfE

This is the 22 wick kerosene stove I bought to use for canning.  I have a smooth top cook top and worry about using my heavy canner on it.  I have used my presto canner on my stove with no problems but now I have an All American canner and its a lot heavier.  Now I wont have to worry about cracking my stove top.

Kaitlyn learns to sew

Kaitlyn and Sammy came to Meemas for a visit.  Its Kaitlyns turn to learn to sew.

 Kaitlyn's first sewing project was these fun hot pads.  There is a tutorial for them under sewing.

 After she sewed, trimmed and checked them she turned them right side out and poked out the corners.

She made two hot pads to give to her mom.  Shhhh, dont tell.

Sammy's just been playing and having fun.  First order of business was to get a hair cut, doesnt he look handsome now?

Sammy and Kaitlyn made pigs in a blanket for lunch one day.