Fresh Cabbage for Coleslaw

We just harvested our first fresh cabbage for coleslaw. It's fourth of July and we are going to a picnic. I can't think of a nicer way to celebrate than eating fresh coleslaw. I usually only use recipes as guides and I rarely measure so I will tell you how I make my most requested recipe. I use about 1 cup of miracle whip (mayonnaise works too, but you have to up the amounts of vinegar and sugar), 3/4 - 1 cup of milk, 1 T of vinegar, 2 T sugar (or to taste...I like it a little more sweet), 1 pound of shredded cabbage with a little grated carrot for color. When you use fresh cabbage for coleslaw, you may not need to add so much milk because the fresh cabbage has more juice in it. If you have a few hours before you serve, then add less milk initially and add more if you need it later. This variety is the Early Jersey Wakefield variety. I love growing this cabbage in the spring. I plan to grow the Brunswick and another variety for fall. I'd better get those seeds started!

Turnips with Beer Cheese Sauce

I was out weeding the garden today. You know how sometimes there are areas you just avoid and hope they'll just take care of themselves? Well, onions is one of those areas for me. I have three different onion areas and each one of them has been properly neglected up to now.



Nonetheless, today I set my sites on one of my onion rows. This double row is tightly sandwiched in between one row of beets and a double row of turnips. As I was weeding I couldn't help but notice some nice size turnips. I pulled a few. Here is how my row looked when I finished (recipe follows)






Turnips with Beer Cheese Sauce

1 - 1/2 lbs. turnips, thickly sliced ( I washed these but did not peel)
2 T butter
2 T flour
1/2 t salt
1 C milk
1 C sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 C beer

Cook turnips in boiling salted water until tender, drain. Over medium heat, melt butter, blend in flour, salt and dash of pepper. Add milk all at once while stirring. Cook until thickened. Turn off heat and stir in cheese. I add the beer after the cheese is melted. Combine cooked, drained turnips and cheese sauce in 1 quart casserole. Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes (or until bubbly). Sprinkle with paprika and serve. Serves 4

Note: I needed this recipe to serve more, so I added extra turnips and it turned out great.

Lamb Leg Red Wine Recipe

We just ate lamb leg for the first time. It was unanimous. We all loved it. In fact I should have taken a picture of it....it looked sooooo good.

I grew up living in the country on a couple acres, but my family never raised any animals other than a pet dog and rabbit. When I think about it I kind of wonder why we didn't.

This lamb leg was small from one of the whether lambs we had processed this fall. When we told our families we were raising sheep, they all said yuck about the meat, but I doubt very much that they ever even tasted any kind of lamb meat. The leg of lamb roast we ate tonight would be considered real gourmet fare. Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1 cup red wine
4 cloves minced garlic
1 t thyme
3 T minced fresh rosemary
a pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 T extra virgin olive oil

Put all the ingredients into a ziplock plastic bag along with the lamb leg and marinate. I put the lamb in the refrigerator and marinated all day. Before I baked the leg I rubbed it liberally with plenty of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. I baked it on a small rack in my roasting pan and because I couldn't find anything on-line that was consistent with how long you should cook your roast I cooked mine until a thermometer read 140 degrees in the center. I wanted the meat done a little more than medium rare and I have to say it was perfect. I had a bone-in leg so that usually needs a little more time than a boneless leg. One of the directions I read said to start with a hot 425 degree oven for 20 minutes and then turn down to 300 degrees so that is what I did and I have to say for my very first time I was delighted it turned out so delicious!

It's Time to Wake up America!

I accidentally (or maybe it wasn't a coincidence) ran across this web page while I was checking into the safety and reputation of Seventh Generation Cleaners. I clicked on this link that advertised Five Food Films that Deserve an Oscar. Now I have already watched one of these films and ordered one other, but three of these films were totally new to me. I can't wait to order them from the library, or net flix, or I'll purchase them.

When I was first married, over twenty years ago, I gave a donation to a door to door person who was fund-raising for Green Peace. When my husband came home he was horrified that I would give a contribution to such an extreme organization. I mean this organization supports saving the whales and owls. They are tree huggers. They picket and protest. They try to save the planet. Really.....they are doing what we have the right to do in America. But most Americans don't exercise their right to stand up for what is just and what is right. We fear our government and big businesses and as a result big agri-business has taken over our entire food industry with the help of our federal government. They are in the process of taking over the entire world food supply too.

I do tend to have a tree hugging instinct. The basic difference between me and many other tree huggers, however, is that I worship the Creator, and not the "created." I marvel at the diversity and beauty of this incredible world our Lord God created -- every single day. It could be the reflection of the sun off the shining snow, or the incredible palette of colors in a sunset. There are so many marvels each and everyday! But I also feel this deep need to protect and preserve this beautiful world the good Lord has made.

So I would encourage you to watch these Five Food Films that Deserve an Oscar. Not only will you be awakened to what is being hidden from the American people, but I guarantee you will feel the moral outrage that I do that we are being subjected to poisoned food and a one world agenda for total control.

It's time to wake up America!

What are the Pros and Cons of high frutose corn syrup?

The movie, King Corn, does a good job laying out the pros and cons of high fructose corn syrup. Basically our country is using up all of it's good agricultural land to produce a non-edible genetically modified corn. Over 50% of this corn is used to sweeten soft-drinks in the form of high fructose corn syrup. Have you ever wondered why we have an obesity and type II diabetes epidemic in this country? Could it be because more and more Americans choose soda as their drink of choice? This choice is loading piles of empty calories into our bodies in the form of high fructose corn syrup.

Another large portion is going to feed the cattle who are penned up in huge feed lots. Cattle are not meant to eat grain. They get very sick if they are confined more than 4 months in these pens because corn is all they are fed. Cattle are meant to eat grass and hay. So why are we doing this to cows? Because Americans want cheap food and this is the fastest way to fatten cows for slaughter. Most of this meat goes directly to our fast food market sector (can you say McDonald's?).

Now I wonder.....what would happen to our country's food supply if we had a disaster strike? Farmers are not in the business to produce locally grown food any longer. What would we do? I pray that we Americans wake up to what is happening to our food security and diversity in our country. We could end up with a tragic food shortage. We need to change what and how we eat in this country.

So I would summarize.....there are many more negative points than positive points in supporting a diet high in high fructose. If you doubt me.....just watch the DVD, King Corn, and see for yourself.

I challenge you to do what our family is doing.....boycotting high fructose corn syrup!

Making Chicken Soup with Cooked Chicken

Tonight I will be making chicken soup with cooked chicken. I cooked a roasting chicken last night in the crock pot. I took all the bones after the meal and put them in a pot of water and started boiling them. I let them boil until the liquid was reduced by half (so I probably started with about a gallon of water and cooked it down to about a half gallon). I then added the juice that was left from the crock pot and poured all the broth into Mason Jars and put them into the refrigerator. Today I will skim off most of the fat (I leave some for flavor) and use this in my soup.

To the broth I will add:

• cut up cooked chicken
• diced carrots
• diced parsnips
• diced rutabaga
• minced onions
• cut up celery
• dehydrated parsley
• noodles or cooked rice

and anything else I have laying around that sounds good. You can add pretty much whatever you have on hand (veggies from the freezer are fine too.....like green beans, peas, corn, etc.).

These are just the items that I have on-hand at the moment that I want to use up.

You really don't need a recipe for making chicken soup with cooked chicken. Really all you do is dice the cooked chicken meat, add broth, add vegetables and noodles. Simple!

I always plan 3 meals from a roasting chicken. First I serve the whole chicken. Then I make a broth and serve a soup. If I don't use all the broth for this I save the broth and make a different soup later in the week using the broth....like potato soup. Then I make a casserole type of dish or chicken stroganoff. I love that one chicken (usually 6-8 pounds) will feed my family of 7 over and over.

If you are not feeding so many people you get get even more meals than this. Just put your leftovers into meal size portions and put them in the freezer for real slow-food convenience foods. There really is no reason to resort to bad tasting frozen food from the grocery store when you can easily create your own from scratch with good organic ingredients.

How Long Does Chicken Need to Cook

How long does chicken need to cook? I usually cook my chicken like I cook my turkey.....15 minutes per pound. But I do like to cook at a very low temperature (300 degrees or less) so I usually add a little extra time to my cooking. I generally add a little moisture to my chicken and seal the pot up good with tinfoil so the bird basically steams.

Tonight I served up a whole chicken roasted in the crock pot. I love to serve chicken this way as then I don't need to worry about how long the chicken needs to cook. I usually defrost the bird a day or two ahead of time and it is ready to go in the crock pot in the morning. By evening the meat is ready to fall off the bone and it is moist and delicious.

A few tips in crock pot cooking. I usually put 1/4 - 1/2 inch of water in the pot. Then I put a small grate on the bottom of the pot followed by some tinfoil on which I place the chicken. Sometimes I put celery/apples/garlic/onions etc. inside the bird's cavity. Today I didn't. But instead I crushed some cloves of garlic and mashed them into some butter with a little fresh rosemary and sea salt. I then rubbed this under the skin of the breast of the chicken. I applied a few more sprigs of rosemary and salt and pepper on top and that was it. I turned the crock pot on LOW and let it cook all day. Boy did the breast meat taste great!

I cooked a roasting chicken we raised ourselves this year. The big thing I noticed about how it was different from a conventional chicken was that there wasn't a ton of extra fat on that chicken. After eating dinner I cooked all the bones in a pot of water for stock. I added the juice left from the crock pot to the boiled down stock so I didn't waste a drip of that delicious chicken broth. Chicken broth has great immune building properties so be sure to get all the mileage from your chicken that you can. I noticed that there was very little fat from the broth....a great incentive to raise birds again next year for sure.

Remember, add extra time for cooking if you cook on low temps. The benefit of low temperature cooking is that your meat will be soft and fall of the bone. So that's the long winded answer for how long does chicken need to cook.

Lamb Meatballs

Tonight I am cooking Lamb Meatballs with buttered Spaghetti Squash and salad. This is the first recipe that I am using all lamb meat rather than a lamb/beef combo. It is the second to last spaghetti squash I have left from the autumn harvest. We got to eat several squash, but many of them froze in my breezeway. That was disappointing, but I am hoping that next year they will be stored in my new root cellar. I am forgoing any vacation this year for a new root cellar where I can successfully store all my root crops and apples I grow this year.

Lamb Meatball Recipe

1 lb. ground lamb
2 eggs, beaten
2 T cornmeal
1/4 C oat bran
2 T cream
2 T parsley flakes
1 T paprika
1/4 t black pepper

Combine all ingredients and shape into golf-ball size meatballs.
Coat with olive oil and bake in an uncovered casserole dish at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
Serve with hot buttered spaghetti squash with freshly grated nutmeg.

The More with Less Cookbook

The More with Less Cookbook is my All-time favorite cookbook. It was written by Doris Janzen Longacre who was a prominent Mennonite Woman. There are several reasons why no other cookbook has ever beaten out this cookbook as my all-time favorite. First, the book is written in 1976, and yet, it is as though it was written just today. The condition of the American diet and lifestyle has improved very little over the course of 30+ plus years. In fact it has taken a backslide in epidemic levels. There are relatively few nutritious convenience foods available and convenience is today's key ingredient. No one know how to cook anymore.

Second, the recipes are truly from scratch recipes. You will not find casseroles where you dump in a can of cream of soup here and a packet of seasoning mix there. You find true meals based on whole grains, vegetables, basic meats and healthier snack and dessert recipes.

Third, there is a lot of very informational thoughts on why we need to reduce our consumption and modify our eating habits. Now remember....this was written over thirty years ago. I think Doris would roll over in her grave if she saw where America is today.

Also, there are a lot of tips included through out the book, There are ideas on how to modify or improve certain recipes.....now this is my kind of cooking! I rarely measure, frequently improvise and most often totally reinvent recipes. I think it is the exception rather than the rule when I follow a recipe exactly....I'm not even sure I remember how to do that anymore.

So these are a few of the top reasons this book is my all-time favorite. Check the More with Less Cookbook out of the public library....or better yet....just buy a copy and see for yourself!

Homemade Cracker Recipe

I am looking for a tasty and nutritious homemade cracker recipe. For far too long have I relied on convenience snack crackers. I want to make my own homemade snack crackers for a couple of reasons. First, I can control what ingredients go into these snacks. I will not put ingredients I cannot pronounce into the crackers. I will also not used hydrogenated oils, high-fructose corn syrup or any other potentially hazardous materials....just wholesome fresh ingredients.

Second, this will save me money. The money I save on making my own snacks using a homemade cracker recipe can be turned back into purchasing organic ingredients. This is a double bonus. I get healthier snacks and no possible hazards from those wholesome ingredients.

The first recipe I am going to try is from the cookbook Hopkins' Healthy Home Cooking published by Diane Hopkins. This is my second all-time favorite cookbook when looking for healthy tasty food. The recipe, Graham Crackers, is on page 39. It seems easy enough. If the kids love them I will probably bake dozens and dozens and then put them in the freezer for my own slow food "fast/convenience food."

Snack food is my greatest hurdle to cross in moving to an organic diet primarily because snack foods are expensive and organic snack foods are doubly so. So if I can get an array of snack foods my kids love and I have them in abundance, I will not need the crutch of convenience foods.

Okay.....off to cook!