For Lack of a Better Post

Ya see, I have about 3-4 posts that are half written. And I just haven't had the time to finish them to publish! So, for lack of a better post, you'll get a whole lot of pictures and not so many words. A picture is worth a thousand words anyway so I'll let them do the talking for me.

In no particular order.........

Enjoy your week!

camping + organic homemade marshmallows

We had a great time camping this past weekend.


The solitude, the creek, the family, sleeping on the hard ground (oh wait, that wasn't one of the highlights!) and...........the marshmallows.

Now I like s'mores fairly well. I'm certainly up for making one but that's about it. Maybe I'm lazy and the actual roasting part takes too long, or maybe it's the knowing that I'm ingesting all kinds of horrible yuckiness that is a store bought marshmallow that makes 1 my limit. I'm going to say that it's a combination of both.

So I decided to try my hand at making my own. I think the first words out of my mouth around the campfire on Saturday morning were, "Is it too early to make s'mores?" Seriously people. They are THAT GOOD. Here's why:

1. The roast incredibly fast. You can nicely brown them and get them to a good smooshy consistency.

2. They don't catch on fire. Kinda makes you wonder about what's in those store bought ones that's so flammable, 'eh?

3. They taste sooooooooo much better!

4. They're super easy to make!

5. Your kids (or you) can eat 10...... I mean 2, without feeling that guilty, "I shouldn't be eating this/feeding this to my kids" feeling. Well, sort of. Granted you are feeding your kids a bunch of sugar, which really is never good but the occasional campfire treat isn't going to kill em.

The verdict?

YUM.

Here's the recipe I used,
3 TB unflavored gelatin
1 cup ice cold water, divided
12 ounces organic granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
1 cup organic light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons organic vanilla extract
1/4 cup organic confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup organic cornstarch
Organic butter
(you can omit the cornstarch if your confectioners' sugar already has cornstarch in it)
Directions
Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water. Have the whisk attachment standing by.

In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.

Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping. While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans as follows.

Combine the confectioners' sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Lightly coat a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan with butter. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and move around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use.

When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into the pan. Dust the top with enough of the remaining sugar and cornstarch mixture to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the confectioners' sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining mixture, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Enjoy!

Butchering Rabbits and a Recipe For Them!

Earlier this week some friends of mine and I butchered 3 rabbits. I had never processed rabbits before but figured it couldn't be that difficult. I've done deer, hogs, turkeys and chickens so I was somewhat confident. What I needed help with though was the kill. I'm a wimp. Seriously. Ask me to shoot a deer at 100 yds and I have no problem but when you can't shoot an animal and you have to kill it another way, I just get creeped out. So I called in reinforcements for support! We each did one rabbit. I'll totally admit though that I waited till the last one to muster up the courage for the kill. *Thanks Kristy and Ida for giving me the courage!*
I got the basics of the process from here and here. Both were extremely helpful.
Gavin was gone at work, the little kids were sleeping and we three gals had an "afternoon on the farm."

*The next few photos may be graphic to some. There is very little blood in them but if you're squeamish then you may want to stop reading.*

The finished product.

I have never cook rabbit before so I went searching for recipes. Then a friend reminded me of my Little House Cookbook. How could I have forgotten? I took the recipe for Stewed Rabbit and adapted it a little. It seemed a little too plain for my taste- but Caroline Ingalls didn't have easy access to all the things we have today so I can see how it would have been basic. Plus, I didn't have any Salt Pork. I did have bacon though and used it instead.

Here's my recipe for:

Stewed Rabbit and Dumplings

1 3lb butchered rabbit (cut into 8 pieces)
6 oz bacon
½ onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 c chicken stock/broth
2 Tb butter
2 Tb flour
1 c water
salt and pepper

Dumplings:
2 c flour
1 heaping tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
3/4-1c buttermilk
Dice bacon and cook it in a 3qt chicken fryer. When cooked, remove pieces and leave fat in fryer.

Season rabbit pieces with salt and pepper then fry rabbit in bacon fat for about 10-15 minutes.While rabbit is frying, saute onion and garlic with butter in small saucepan, until tender.

After rabbit has been fried, add chicken stock/broth and sauteed onion/garlic into fryer. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes on medium to medium-low heat.

Meanwhile, brown flour in small skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, making sure not to burn it. Flour is done when it resembles cocoa powder. Leave flour in skillet but remove from heat and allow to cool. Once it has cooled down, stir in 1 c water to form a thin paste.

Make dumplings mixing all ingredients together just until blended.

Uncover rabbit, add in flour paste and bacon pieces. Then drop by spoonfuls, the dumpling dough, covering the top of the rabbit.

Cook uncovered for 10 minutes and then replace cover for the last 10 minutes.

Serve with a vegetable and mashed potatoes.

I did broccoli with ours and didn't think of the mashed 'taters until we were eating our dinner... but thought it would have been great to pour the gravy over some fluffy mashed potatoes!

I was very happy with the way it all came out. The rabbit tastes very similar to chicken so if you don't have any rabbit on hand you could use this same recipe with a whole, cut up chicken.

I purchased these rabbits for $6 each. I believe that the final cost came out to just over $2/lb. If I had raised the rabbits myself, the cost would have been significantly less. Rabbits are raised till about 12 wks old for butchering but aren't weaned from their mother until 6-8wks, so there is very little "raise" time in between. To raise them you must keep a buck and a doe (preferably 2 does) year round. The gestation time is just under a month, very similar to chickens. I'm not sure that I want to take on raising rabbits right now with everything else we have going on, but it is certainly something we'll be thinking about.

This post is linked to the Barn Hop!

a simple homestead breakfast

We've got quite a few eggs around here right now. Our girls are laying like crazy (I've got 3 dozen in the fridge to prove it.) So, we eat eggs quite a bit for breakfast these days. This recipe is really one of my favorites. Super easy to make and it can use leftovers so that you're using up what you have! I don't have exact measurements on everything that goes into this because I usually end up just throwing in the amount that I have on hand.

Homestead Egg Bake

*1 dozen eggs

*cooked chopped ham, bacon, sausage or the meat of your choosing

*cheese, of your choosing

*some type of bread....english muffins, leftover cornbread, leftover biscuits, peasant bread, or even just the heels leftover from that loaf you've been using for sandwiches

-First, I would recommend toasting the bread to add a nicer texture. In the case of cornbread though, its not so easy so toasting is something that is completely optional.

-Next, chop the bread up into bite sized pieces and lay it in the bottom of an ungreased 13x9 pan.

-Grate the cheese (maybe using somewhere between 1-2c of grated cheese depending on how cheesy you want it)

-Beat the eggs in a large bowl and add in the grated cheese. Then add whatever type of meat you have, again, the amount it to your discretion.

-Pour egg mix over bread, cover and bake for 15 minutes at 350, then uncover and bake for another 30-45 until cooked through.

If I have cream on hand I'll make gravy to pour over each serving. And when it's just the kids and I, if Gavin has already left for work, I'll scale the recipe down and bake it in an 8" round pie plate. If you're a little shy on eggs you can add some milk to the egg mix as well. Add veggies if you'd like! Really, this recipe is one of those "no fail" recipes that is easy to whip together.

I hope you enjoy it!

the proof

Made today. Inspired by my last post.

the food police

People that know me personally know that I'm pretty picky about the foods that my family eats. Some may even say worse things than that. (I'm not pointing any fingers though!) But the truth is, I AM. And unfortunately, I think the way we eat seems quite foreign to most folks.

In one of our more recent conversations, hubby and I were trying to figure out how many families in our community, that we know, eat the same way that we do. We could only name 5. No wonder our health food store is itty bitty! No wonder Safeway's organic produce section is only about 1/8 of the produce department! There's no demand for it here.

I've heard folks talk bout the 80/20 rule. It's where you eat "healthy" 80% of the time and then you allow for 20% of the time to be "not so healthy." The occasional, "We're on the run so let's hit McDonald's" or "Corndogs at the baseball game are just going to have to be our lunch." In my mind, I guess I can find that reasonable. Reasonable if you're not part of my family that is.

See what I mean about being picky?

I like to abide by the 95/5 rule. I'll skip Mc Donald's- AT ALL COSTS and really? I'll pack a lunch for the baseball game ahead of time so we're not caught hungry without healthy food to eat.

How do we abide by the 95/5 rule? Well, for starters we don't eat out. At all. I think the last time we did (actually, I know) was at a friend's son's birthday party. It was at a pizza place and the pizza was great! That was back in August of 2010. Meal planning helps tremendously with this. I'm usually never caught in the "hmmm, it's 4pm, what's for dinner tonight?" scenario. Then we pack food where ever we go. We pack a lunch for the drive home from church. We pack food to go up to the snow. We pack food for the long drive down to Grandma's. It's really not that hard. Then we buy healthy food. Grass fed meats and butter. Raw and non-homogenized organic milks. Organic produce......and so on. We don't do juice. We try our best not to do processed foods, and if we have to, we buy organic ones.

So, what's the 5% then?? DONUTS and the occasional trip to the ice cream shop.

But mostly, donuts.

I love donuts and guess what? So do my kids...and my husband. I'll happily turn my eyes away from things like brownies, even "homemade" out of a box Betty Crocker ones. I'll turn a cheek to pies made with partially hydrogenated soybean oil (yep, that's Crisco.) But some things, like a sweet, round glazed donut should never be left uneaten. Ever.

What do you give in to?