Smoking Meat

At an auction last month we purchased a new Brinkmann Charcoal Smoker for about $30.   Ron has wanted one for a while now and this is a nice size one and got it for a pretty reasonable price.  Ron and I smoked one of the turkeys we butchered this winter, a chicken I butchered last week, a corn beef tip brisket roast that I picked up yesterday and some fish filets.  When you smoke something you might as well fill up the smoker. There will still be plenty of space but for the first time smoking something I think we will stick with these 4 items.  We had the turkey today along with some pasta salad, quinoa salad and spiral cut baked garlic butter potatoes.
We will have the other meat during the week for supper.  All I will have to do is add a side dish with the meat and have a really nice meal.
This was a first for us, we have never smoked anything before and I can see we really missed something all these years.
Of course I taste tested everything and there will be a lot more fish done, the brisket is soooooo good and all the meat was nice and juicy.

The smoker.

The turkey, 7 lbs.

Fish filets.

Chicken and boneless corn beef tip brisket.

Beautiful Sunny Sunday

Wow what a difference just a few days make.  It is a beautiful day, sunny and 41 degrees out.  I didn't put on a jacket when I went out to tend to the chickens.  They are all out enjoying this nice day.  When we were shopping yesterday I picked up 2 heads of cabbage at Aldi for $1.29 each and Ron hung one of them in the run for the girls to eat.  I try and do this every couple of weeks, it gives them something to do and some good greens to eat.  It took them about 2 hours and it was gone but they had fun picking at it while it lasted.  I told them to enjoy this day because tomorrow the high will be 1 degrees, no not a typo, it will be one degrees for the high tomorrow.  Mother nature has a way of building our hopes up and then knocking us down real fast.
On this nice day I have a small hen turkey that we butchered last month baking.  I also have a nice pan of dressing in with it.  At Thanksgiving I made a huge amount of dressing and then portioned it out in containers and froze it for times like this.  We've used some already and have 2 more containers in the freezer.  After I use that up I need to make some more of the dried dressing mix that I made last year, that stuff was simply delicious and so easy to make. 

The chickens out enjoying the sunny day.

My turkeys.

The 3 males, brown one which you can only see part of and the 2 black ones.  The white one is 1 of 4 females.

Several of the chickens in the coop, the brown and white one is my favorite and she lays green eggs.

More of the girls decided they wanted their picture taken too.

Front yard, can you tell where the septic tank is?  Your correct it is the big bare circle up at the front of the house.

Easy Pantry Meal

Most Friday nights we have breakfast for supper and last night was no exception.  I fried up a jar of bacon, then browned a pint of potatoes in the bacon grease.  I also added a cut up onion that was from my garden last year.  After this was all done I added 6 fresh eggs that I had beat and some cheddar cheese.  Cooked until done and a wonderful hearty meal.
I try to have eggs for supper at least once a week.  I have also made for supper omelets, fried egg sandwiches, bacon and eggs, quiche and just plain scrambled eggs.  With the abundance of eggs from my girls it is a great way to use some of them up and they are delicious and good for you.

Egg Muffin Freezer Day

Yesterday I made up 2 dozen egg muffins for the freezer so that my husband and grandson can have a quick healthy breakfast item.  First I fried up the eggs, fresh from my wonderful girls. Then I put them in the fridge to get cold. 

 After the eggs were cold I assembled all the items need to make the egg muffins.  Half of the muffins had ham and the other half did not.

I then made up all the sandwiches and put them back in the muffins bags and put them in the freezer.

 

After they were frozen I made up the vacuum seal bags and proceeded to vacuum seal each muffin.

After all were completed I put them in the freezer and when the guys want one from breakfast all they have to do is take one out, cut open the bag and put it in the microwave to heat up.  A good healthy breakfast at very little cost.

Next time I will try making some with bacon since that is the grandson's favorite meat.  You could also use sausage patties.  

Asian Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

With the cold weather soup is so good and so easy to make.  With no recipe in mind I decided to create one myself so I went to the pantry and pulled out 2 quarts of chicken broth, 1 pint of shredded chicken, wild rice and a bag of Asian vegetables out of the freezer.
I opened the broth and chicken and added to the soup pot and brought to a boil, turned down the heat and added the rice.  Simmered this for about 30 minutes and then added the frozen vegetables and simmered for 10 minutes.  Done and ready to eat, it was very good.
If I had some soy sauce this would have been great in this or even some chow mein noodles    sprinkled on top when served would have been good.  If you don't care for wild rice white rice would also work.  

The ingredients.

My bowl of soup.

The pot of soup.

My Canning and Conveinent Mixes

I am so glad that last year I canned a lot of convenient types of items and made up some convenient mixes.  Yesterday I made a pot of Vegetable Beef Soup and used a jar of the soup veggies and a jar of tomatoes.  Since I retired we eat a bigger variety of meals because I have all the stuff ready to use.  If you remember in December I made up some stuffing mix so we could have stuffing through the year and not just at holiday times.  We've used 2 bags so far and when I get down to the last bag I will for sure be making more.  I didn't have a recipe but came up with my own and I have to say I did an excellent job.  There is nothing I will do different the next time I make it.  Both times I just poured the bag of stuffing in a baking dish, added a quart of turkey broth, mix it well and then put some butterfly pork chops on top.  I cover this with foil for the first hour and a half and then remove the foil for the last 20 minutes or so. You could also do this with chicken but Ron likes it better with chops.  Another thing that I canned was new potatoes and we use those all the time too.  The other night I poured the liquid off of a jar of potatoes, put them in a baking dish, drizzled some olive oil on them and then sprinkled them with garlic powder, salt and pepper and baked them for about an hour.  Oh so good and easy.   My favorite is the potatoes and carrot mixture, I use when we have roast or when I make stew.  All you have to do is cook the meat in the crock pot and about 2 hours before you eat add the jar of potatoes and carrots.  Before I canned these things we ate a lot of meat and very few veggies with them.

Stuffing Mix

I've been wanting to make some homemade stuffing mix so when we want stuffed pork chops or chicken and dressing we would be able to have it.  So on Thursday I cut up 3 loaves of home made bread and let it sit out overnight.  Then I put 1/3 of the bread cubes into a bowl and stuck them in the dehydrator.  I dried them for about 10 hours stirring them during that time; I did this until all the bread was good and dry.
I was able to get 6 bags and this is the ingredients that went in each bag:

10 oz dry bread cubes
2 Tbsp dried celery
1 Tbsp dried onion
1 Tbsp chicken base
2 tsp sage
1 tsp dried parsley

When we get ready to have some I will add some canned chicken or turkey broth.  This was so easy to make and will taste so good.

6 bags of stuffing.

Homemade stuffing.

Spices/seasonings used.  The celery and onion were some I dehydrated, the sage and chicken base I got at the Amish bulk food store and the parsley I purchased.

Checking Pie Crust off of my To Do List

Today I made pie crusts, lots of pie crusts.  I started out by mixing up 5 batches of crusts, 4 batches I used lard that I had rendered this spring and the 5th I used shortening.  After mixing up all the batches I put them in the fridge to rest before the long task of rolling them out.  I ended up with 14 double crusts, 4 single crusts and 4 small double crusts.  Two of the double crusts are made with shortening and the rest lard.  I package the crusts in zip lock bags and put one double crust per bag and the single crusts have 2 in each bag.  I have a couple bags of single crusts already in the freezer so these should last until next fall except for the small crusts.  I will need to make more of that size if I make some potpies.  Doing this many at one time makes for a back breaking day but I would rather make one big mess than several throughout the year.
After making the crusts I made a pot of chicken a la king and baking powder biscuits for supper.  We haven't had this in several months and it was very good.  There is enough leftover to freeze for another meal which will come in handy when I have surgery.

Roll the pie crust on the rolling pin and then transfer it to the pan.

The edger/cutter.

I turn a pan upside down and use it to cut the top crust.  I just cut it about 1/2" larger all away around.

4 single crusts, 14 double crusts and 4 small double crusts.  The top crust is wrapped in plastic wrap then laid on top of the bottom crust.

http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/2012/10/barn-hop-84.html

Cooking for the Busy Weekend

This weekend my daughter Renee and I are having a yard sale so I thought I would make up some snacks for everyone.  Plus it is rainy and cool and the heat from the oven feels good; that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.  I baked a batch of chocolate cookies using the brownie mix that I posted about on May 31st.   I also made a batch of pumpkin cookies using my canned pumpkin.  I was on a roll so I baked a peach cobbler, apple cobbler and raspberry cobbler.  I used a quart each of the peach pie filling, apple pie filling and raspberry pie filling that I canned this year.
I also have a pot of chili started that I will put in the crock pot Saturday morning so we can at least have something a little healthier and hot for the cool day.  Sunday we will have shredded BBQ pork sandwiches for lunch.  I have some in the freezer so all I have to do is add a little more BBQ sauce to it and put it on low in the crock pot to heat it up.   All the canning I did is sure coming in handy.  I used 2 qts of the chili beans that I did earlier this week and 2 quarts of chopped tomatoes I did this summer for the chili.   I love to cook for others so I don't consider it work; just some love.  After all the cooking for this weekend I will have some empty canning jars.  :)

Pumpkin Cookies

1 Cup shortening
2 Cups white sugar
2 Cups pumpkin
2 eggs
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger

Cream shortening and sugar.
Add eggs and pumpkin.
Combine dry ingredients.
Add to shortening and sugar mixture.
Mix well.
Drop by teaspoonful onto greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15-17 minutes.
I mixed some powdered sugar with a little cinnamon and sprinkled on the cookies as I removed them from the oven.

Cobbler Topping

1 c flour

1/2 c sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1/2 c oil

Combine all ingredients, it will be very thick and you might think this isn't going to work.  Drop by spoonfuls over the fruit and bake for 45 - 50 minutes at 375 degrees.

Peach, raspberry and apple cobblers.   My daughter Gina was over so I sent a piece of each home for my son in law Ali.

Pumpkin cookies, cake type of cookie and oh so good.

Chocolate brownie cookies.

Chili for Saturday.

Canning Split Pea and Ham Soup and Dehydrating Tomatoes

I had a long busy day today in the kitchen.  I canned 15 quarts and 1 pint of Split Pea with Ham Soup, have 3 trays of cherry tomatoes drying to make into tomato powder and baked 2 loaves of Banana Bread.  It was another nice day out with the sun shinning and a nice breeze.  I have just one load of clothes hung out today and love to watch them blow in the breeze.
For the soup, I cooked the beans with added seasonings in one pot and the cut up ham, onion and ham broth in another pot.  I added 1 ladle of the ham into each jar and then filled the jars with the split peas.  It smells so yummy in the house right now.  The soup will be a nice welcome to a cold day this winter.  When we have ham again I will use the left over ham and can some Pinto Bean and Ham Soup.
I have a lot of zucchini in the fridge and need to come up with something to use it in tomorrow.  I'm thinking of making several loaves of Zucchini Bread and then freeze it.  I made 2 loaves of Banana Bread today to use up some past their prime bananas.  I left one loaf out to eat now and froze the other for later.  I have several frozen bananas that I put in the freezer when they were past their prime earlier this year so maybe I'll take them out and use them up also.
Brandon is here for a couple of days, I picked him up when I went in to town.  When he is here he is the one who takes the pictures for the blog; he likes photography and is planning to take some classes in high school.   I was going through some old recipes and came across the Banana Bread recipe that I used today.  I have not used this recipe in at least 25 years.  Here is the recipe I used:

Banana Bread

1/2 c butter

1 cup of sugar

1 egg

2 large bananas smashed

pinch of salt

2 TBS milk

1 tsp baking soda

2 c flour

Cream together the butter and sugar, add the egg, smashed bananas and milk and mix well.  Mix the dry ingredients together and then add to the wet mixture.  Pour into a greased bread pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until a tooth pick stuck in the middle comes out clean.

Banana Bread

Tomatoes ready to go into the dehydrator.

First I added a scoop of ham and onions to the jar.

Then I filled the jar with the split peas.

15 qts and 1 pt of Split Pea with Ham Soup.

Canned Bacon Results

I posted yesterday about canning bacon and that we were going to try it before I canned more.  I decided to have it today instead of Thursday and the verdict is excellent.  It came off of the paper very easy, fried up really nice and we thought it didn't taste as salty as some we had a couple weeks ago from the same package.  Would I do it again, yes.  Why would I do it again, easier storage, no freezer burn, if the freezer would go out less meat wasted, longer storage life, it is cooked and all you have to do is brown it.  If the worst would happen we would have meat that was cooked and ready to eat.  I would hope I never have to eat it right out of the jar but if I had to I could.

I fried some Yukon Gold potatoes that I canned last month and also some fresh eggs to go with the bacon.  Don't eat fried foods too often and they were all very good.

Ms. Noel, I'm not sure why you said it seems really gross.  It is fully cooked meat in a jar instead of a can.  Canned bacon was sold many years ago at K Mart and we used it when we camped because it needed no refrigeration.  You can buy canned bacon on line but it is cost prohibitive.  Long term storage in the freezer will alter the taste, long term storage canned will not.  U R 2 funny.

24 hours after taking the bacon out of the caner this is what it looks like.

Bacon unrolled out of the jar.

Bacon after peeling the paper off.

Bacon frying.

Delicious Bacon.

Some of the Yukon Gold potatoes I canned last month.






 

http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2008/07/introducing-carnival-of-home-preserving.html

Corn on the Cob

A couple of weeks ago my sister-in-law Gale who lives in Texas called with a perfect way to cook and clean corn on the cob.  Take a ear of corn that is still in the husk and stick it in the microwave, cook until done.  Microwaves differ, I put 2 ears in for 10 minutes and they were perfect.  Remove from the microwave and cut the stem end on the cob off, make sure you cut at the very bottom of the ear.  Hold the top of the ear with the silks and squeeze the ear of corn out.  You will end up with a steamed ear of corn without any silks on it.  I also noticed that the whole kernel of corn came away from the cob and zero waste.  Thanks Gale for the wonderful tip. 

Corn right out of the microwave.

Cut off the stem end at the very bottom of the cob.

Grasp the silk end and squeeze out he corn.

Corn almost out of the husk.

Not a single silk left on the corn.

Zucchini Bread

My daughter Renee gave me some shredded zucchini and 2 fresh zucchinis last night.  I grated the 2 she gave me, froze 2 cups and made a batch (2 loaves) of Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread.  I took the grated zucchini and made a batch (2 loaves) of Zucchini Bread.  After they were all cool I cut each loaf in half and frozen 3 bags of the bread with a half of loaf of each kind in the bags.  The other 2 halves I have in a container so we can enjoy them this weekend.  The recipes I used came from pauladeen.com  I tried a smidgen of both and they are very good.  I did not use the nutmeg because I really don't care for it; I just doubled the cinnamon instead.
Thanks Renee now we have some zucchini bread in the freezer and some frozen zucchini that will make another batch sometime.

Ham and Cheese Bread & Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Ham and cheese sandwiches are a favorite in our house and when I can bake it all together it makes it super easy and delicious.  Every week I bake bread for the week and I use the Amish Loaf Bread recipe that I found over at http://chickensintheroad.com/ upper right hand corner, Farm Bell Recipes (I use 1/2 the sugar that is called for).   I also use this recipe to make ham and cheese pull apart bread.  I make the recipe (makes 2 loaves) and after it has risen I cut the dough in half.  Then the half I cut into 6 balls of dough.  Pat each ball out into a rectangle, add your favorite cheese, several slices of deli ham, fold the ends to meet in the middle, then fold in half and out them in the bread pan.  Bake it at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.  Cool for about 1/2 hour and then pull apart a section to eat.  You can add some mustard or your favorite condiment.  This stuff is delicious.  I wrap the leftovers and can reheat in the microwave the next day or eat it cold. 
I take the other half of the dough and have another loaf of bread for the week or pat it out, butter it, sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar over it, add some raisins and have bread for breakfast.  This time since I just baked 2 loaves of bread a few hours ago I made Cinnamon Raisin Bread with the other half of the dough.

Dough, ham cheese

The ends are folded to the center.

Then fold in half.

Put them in the bread pan.

After rising and ready for the oven.

Out of the oven.

L to R; Ham and Cheese, Cinnamon Raisin Bread.  These are ready to be eaten.