Category: Cooking

Things I don’t buy anymore

Tortilla’s for tacos and enchiladas

Ricotta cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Pasta noodles

Bar soap, shampoo, laundry detergent

Eggs

Chicken

Tomato products, salsas, jams, chutney

Mustard

Yogurt and cream cheese

Hand and body lotion

The longer we homestead, the more products have been eliminated from our shopping list, more products are made at home. As the garden and orchard grow and my desire to be more aware of what goes on and into my body, the more items are removed. Hopefully, the day will come when we are growing a couple of pigs on our land and at least some of the lard will replace the oils that I buy for cooking and soap making. If Son #1 or 2 raise bees, we will be able to have honey and beeswax too (I am allergic to bee stings, so I can’t tackle that task.)

I love being able to make these items, our bread and chicken feed, grow most of our vegetables and have the health and time to do it.

January 27, 2015
First Meetings

Early this morning, Son #2 arrived with his family. The eight year old boy cousins haven’t seen each other in several years and the 3 year old girl cousins had never met each other or the boy cousin.

The girls hit it off immediately this morning. They are about 5 months apart in age. The boys have been running and playing chess with each other all day.

While this has been ongoing, I decided to learn to make Ricotta cheese. . .

A gallon of milk first made into mozzarella and a second gallon into about 4 to 5 cups of Ricotta. Two balls of pasta dough made and a pound of sausage cooked and a fresh homemade lasagna assembled.

Son rolling out the noodles.

A baking and a salad and we will have dinner for 9 tonight with two new lessons learned, Ricotta and Pasta. Three products I will no longer buy. In a day or two, daughter and I will make homemade tortillas. I used to make them when Mountaingdad and I were newlyweds but with kids I switched to commercial ones. Daughter bought an 8″ cast iron tortilla press so we will make our own.

The dogs don’t know what to make of all the activity and want to be in the middle of all of the play. The girls escaped. . .

It seems safer inside the dogs cage than out.

January 24, 2015
OLIO 1/19/2015

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things

This has been the birthday weekend for the 8 year old grandson now living with us. His Dad flew in from Florida to be with his family for the weekend. The celebration began with three generations bowling, 6 of us. I can’t remember the last time I bowled and in spite of sore stiff joints, it was fun. From there we were off to the birthday boy’s favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse for steaks and ribs, then home for a birthday cake that took his Mom 3 hours to decorate while he was in school on Friday. He wanted a Corvette Stingray cake and she managed it nicely, placed high enough that he couldn’t see it until serving time Saturday night. Sunday they went out for family time and lunch together and today, his actual birthday was supposed to be a school holiday, but ended up being a makeup day for a weather missed day last week.

Before he got home from school and while his Mom was taking Dad back to the airport to fly back to Florida, I finally cleaned up the garage from the move in night when we quickly unloaded their trailer into the garage. Son #1 had left his butchering station cleaned up, but left in place after we did fall chickens in hope of the deer he never got this year. I dismantled it and put it back in storage until it is again needed. The box of outdoor toys was finally opened, the crate shelf moved to a more convenient place, the bins of balls, bats and helmets filled, bikes lined up until we can get wall hangers for them.

Toys are now accessible and I can walk through the garage to get to the outside.

Also today, 10 gallons of whole grain chicken feed was made and stored. Before grandson got home, I made 18.6 oz of homemade Mozzarella cheese, solo this time, in preparation for homemade from scratch pizzas, his request for a birthday dinner.

In 20 minutes, I can make this cheese with a gallon of milk at a cost of about half of the price of 8 ounces of “fresh” mozzarella from the grocer.

It was a beautiful day for all of these tasks. This gorgeous sky was seen while awaiting his school bus to arrive. Once he got home, I stayed outdoors with him for a bit of archery practice with his bow and arrows that he got for Christmas.

The pizzas were made and savored, followed with left over birthday cake and ice cream. The end of a busy and full birthday weekend for the young man.

January 19, 2015
Baking with a Grand

This was another morning where the freezing early temperature was the high. It was foggy with occasional freezing drizzle, not enough to affect the roads or school, but enough to warrant hunkering down in the house for the day. Daughter woke with a bad cold and after taking her son to the bus stop nearly half a mile away, she got in a hot bath then back in bed. Once granddaughter awoke, I decided to entertain her to let her mom sleep.
After we had breakfast and I did chicken chores, we decided to bake crackers together.

She put on her apron, helped measure, pour, mix and cut. After they baked, her job was to put them in the jar.

I think she ate one for every 3 she put away, but it kept her entertained for a while and she made a glorious mess playing in the flour.
This afternoon, we used two very ripe bananas to make a loaf of banana bread and now a pot pie is baking. The warm oven has helped the fire keep the house warm and cozy for sick daughter and the healthier crew that just didn’t want to be outside today. Except for bringing in wood and doing chicken chores, I have stayed inside. If it is going to be cold and damp, I wish it would snow.

January 13, 2015
Pizza from scratch

Today was girls day out while Mountaingdad and Grandson watched a movie. We ventured to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get a lidded glass jar for compost as the newest canine addition to the house puts his feet on the counter when no one is watching and steals from the compost bin. We also needed a broad strainer spoon to make cheese and a cake pan to make grandson’s birthday cake next weekend, then off to the natural food store and grocery. During our outing, we decided that tonight would be an excellent night for homemade pizza and we were going to have a cheese making session to make Mozzarella.

This cheese lesson was without the son that gave me the first lesson and was a lesson for daughter.

A pound of delicious cheese. Then we made dough for two pizzas. Cooked down a pint of my homemade pasta sauce for the pizza sauce, chopped red onion, some of the frozen green pepper strips from last summer’s garden, some chopped garlic, cooked a couple of Italian sausages and assembled them for dinner.

One was special for the adults, the second with just sausage, sauce and cheese for the kids.

We still have a few more ounces of our cheese, so we will look for another dish to have in a day or two to enjoy the rest of our success.

In a day or two, we will have a soap making lesson, after making a batch of laundry detergent today, the soap supply is low and after all, it does take several weeks to cure.

Lovin’ life on our mountain farm and having part of our family here.

January 11, 2015
Merry Christmas to all

The pies were made, from our homegrown pumpkins, cranberries cooked with a bit of honey to sweeten them, cooked mustard made for the ham. Mountaingdad asks for it each year, a simple recipe really.
Mustard
1/3 c sugar
1/4 c dry powdered mustard
2 beaten eggs
1/4 c vinegar ( I use raw cider vinegar)
1/4 c butter
Mix sugar and mustard in a small saucepan. Stir in beaten eggs and vinegar and mix well. Turn heat to low and add butter. Cook stirring until mustard thickens. Store in the refrigerator. It will keep for a couple of weeks.

The roll dough mixed and stored in the refrigerator until this morning. Rolls to bake, turkey to roast, potatoes to mash. A late afternoon feast will be enjoyed.
Another tradition with our kids and carried on to grands is the reading by Mountaingdad of Clement C. Moore’s poem, “The Night Before Christmas,” which will be read over the phone or by Skype to the Florida family while we join in from the living room. Stockings will be hung and eager grandson put to bed.
Wishing my readers the most wonderful of holidays however you celebrate. Enjoy your family and friends.

December 24, 2014
Christmas Eve’s Eve

Another gloomy but not as cold morning, no sunshine predicted for today. Sausage is cooked, biscuits await the oven, all waiting for other faces to show themselves before baking and making the gravy. The morning treat is fresh hot biscuits with sausage gravy.

Today will be baking day, pumpkins pies, dinner rolls, maybe one batch of cookies if I can get grandson on board with the idea of helping. We traditionally, all my life and my children’s lives, we have had Christmas dinner on the eve, so some prep will be done today.
Christmas morning we will have huevos rancheros, my hubby hails from Texas then after the morning gift exchange, the kids will leave for Virginia Beach to spend the rest of the day with the other Grandparents.
For now, the house is quite, stirrings about are beginning, a second pot of coffee will be needed soon and the biscuits must be baked, the gravy made.
Have a peaceful eve of the eve and enjoy your friends and family.

December 23, 2014
A quick peek

Last night I finished grand daughter #2’s sweater for Christmas, that leaves her brother’s sweater on the needles. It was saved for last because it is going to require more fiddling to get the size right. He is tall enough for a larger size, but so thin, he requires a smaller size. Daughter is sending me length measurements and I am using a smaller size to go around his thin frame. If his takes only slightly longer to make, I should have them all done and the mittens too by deadline. Granddaughter#2’s sweater was given a wash this morning and is now blocking on the dryer top.

The pattern is Cottage Creations Wallaby, the yarn Universal Yarn’s superwash worsted. This is the 5th or 6th time I have made this pattern for a grand, they love it and the areas that I found frustrating the first couple of times are a cake walk now.
Big brother, is also getting a Wallaby in a darker shade of blue.
Now I’m off on a round trip to Northern Virginia to pick up Son#1 and family for Thanksgiving. I hope the bad weather holds off until we are safely back here and tucked under warm quilts for the night. Tomorrow I bake pies and more rolls, I wasn’t happy with the first batch. The bread was perfect, the rolls not so much.

November 25, 2014
Treasures

The beds were all made with fresh sheets, blankets, and quilts in anticipation of our family. The house vacuumed and dusted, bathrooms scrubbed, and even organized and cleaned up my “space” for crafts. That space is one of the dormers on the front of the house, the other two are in the soaring ceiling of the great room. A couple of years ago, we contracted with a local wood artist to make me a walnut table to fit the space for my use as a desk and a sewing table. The lamp on it, a Christmas gift from Mountaingdad years ago, is hand thrown pottery.

We like Trev’s woodworking so much that once the basement was finished, we bought another of his tables for there.

Much of our furniture is loved family pieces, handed down, or local craft work. The basement also has 3 walnut burl stools made by Phoenix Hardwoods, also a local craftsman.

The little narrow wall hiding the side of the refrigerator from the front door begged for this little cedar bench, handcrafted in Appomattox, Virginia.

It sits beside an antique treadle sewing machine with a leather drive band and it works, even when the electricity is out. We have Mountaingdad’s mothers cedar chest as a coffee table, a little pine chest from my grandmother’s family as a side table and other similar pieces with stories of our family attached. The great room also has a handcrafted rocking chair of reclaimed woods and an oak jelly cupboard from a Tennessee craftsman that we bought to store my pottery at least 30 years ago.
I love the warmth of wood, it’s a good thing since we live in a log home with log and wood siding interior walls.
The morning was spent cooking pumpkins for holiday pies. The small Seminole pumpkins we grew are perfect for pie, sweet and a good texture. Unsure how much one would yield, I baked 3 and ended up with 8 cups of fresh cooked pumpkin.

Way more than I need for a couple of pies so the extra was frozen in 2 cup bags. Four cups seasoned with freshly ground spices await the eggs, sugar, and milk to be poured into pie crusts and baked on Wednesday afternoon. The aroma of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves mingling with the vanilla scent in the simmer pot and the Morrocan spice on the slow cooking pork has made the house smell so of the upcoming holidays.
We look forward to having one of our children and family with us for Thanksgiving.
Lovin’ our mountain farm life.

November 24, 2014
Doing What I Love the Most

An early start to a busy day, fueled by my super oatmeal with chia seed, walnuts and honey, I’m saving the eggs for the family visit and to send some home with our student family. Prep work for their visit requires a good house scrubbing as Son#1 shows signs of allergy to the pups. Beds which are left unmade to discourage stink bug hiding, must be given clean sheets, blankets and quilts. They are threatening us with accumulating snow on Wednesday or Thanksgiving, so wood must be stacked on the back stoop for the wood stove and the garage or front porch for the fireplace.
While Mountaingdad still slumbered, bread was started. I had nearly forgotten what a pleasure it is to make bread. I used to make all of our bread but we have been buying artisan loaves at the Farmers’ Market for a while now, but it is up to $9/loaf and with five of us eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 4 1/2 days, it seemed much more economical to make it. Two loaves and a pan of rolls are in the works.

The kneading bowl was a Christmas gift from Mountaingdad, handmade in November 2006 of cherry wood by Glendon Royal. It was often used in the past and brought out of display for bread making today. There is too much dough in it to allow a good initial mix and rise, so another treasure was put back into use.

This enormous hand thrown pottery bowl was thrown by Rob Podd of the Poddery. It is one of my early pieces from them. We met them at a craft show as they were just getting started and with our purchase of a small dish were given an invitation to their first annual kiln opening to be held the weekend before Thanksgiving which falls on or near my birthday. It became a tradition to go for my birthday and let me pick out a piece of pottery as my gift. There are mugs, a honey pot, plates, bowls, pitchers, and casseroles added a piece at a time over the years, all treasured, used and loved. This piece isn’t dated. Later at the request of the opening guests they began dating each piece. The scramble to get a piece warm from the kiln was fun as folks leaned and shouted to be able to have first refusal on the next piece touched. I don’t know if they still hold the openings or not, we live too far away now for the annual visit and I have all the pottery I need. We only missed two openings, the year I was over due with our daughter and hubby dared not take me 2 hours from home and the hospital and the year they didn’t have it because Karen was due momentarily with one of their children.
Such memories. The bread is rising for most of the day to make it light enough for the grandson’s tastes. Sandwiches, French toast, dinner rolls for Thanksgiving, I await drooling over the thought.
It is time to get back to mopping, scrubbing, sweeping, bed making all while enjoying the bergamot and vanilla infused water in the tiny sauce size crock pot simmering and filling the house with delightful scents until the bread can fill the house with it’s enticing aroma.

November 23, 2014