Scented Vinegar

This was quick and easy peasy. Just fill a jar with citrus peel, and cover with vinegar. Then wait.

You can use lemon or orange peel, anything you like. Next time you clean, your house won't smell like a salad. Well, maybe a fruit salad... Anyway, it smells pretty. =)

Preserving Lemons

This one came from Food in Jars, and it looked easy enough. So I tried it.

Washed my lemons well, cut off the ends.

Salt in the bottom of the jar.

Cut slits in lemons, poured salt into the cuts. (Not as painful as it sounds!)
And stuffed cut salted lemons into the jars, with more salt between them.

I had a two pound package, about 10 lemons, and I filled 3 jars. The first one more than the others.

 

The longer they sit, the more juice comes out of them. You can see that the left jar was made first, just by the amount of juice in it already!

I think a comment left on the Food in Jars page, by Kitty Morse is important to mention here.

"The most important ingredient in making preserved lemons (citrons confits) is PATIENCE. Wait at least 3 or 4 weeks (with jars on a kitchen shelf) until the rind is soft enough to cut with a fork.
Then you have a PRESERVE. Then, and only then, do you refrigerate the lemons. Lemons
floating in water are NOT preserved, merely pickled in brine."

I'll post an update in a week or so. Wish me luck!

Because Homemade is Better

My daughter had a day off from school today. So we made some waffles.
But first, we had to make homemade bisquick mix. =)

 

 

This half-gallon jar is half the recipe.

 

Homemade Bisquick Mix

 

8 c Flour

1 1/2 c Powdered Milk

1/4 c Baking Powder

1 tbsp Salt

1 1/2 c Shortening or Lard (Lard or butter will go bad, so store it in the fridge if you use them)

 

Using a pastry blender start mixing it together, until the shortening is in small pieces.

Substitute this mix for the same amount of Bisquick in any of your recipes.

 

We just add water to make waffle mix.

 

And they're happiness on a plate!

 

Preps!

I love antique, consignment, and thrift shops... So today I went shopping with my girlfriend, and picked up a few things that make me happy. =)

A fair-sized crock for only $5. (For that fermenting thing... Ulp, no more excuses!)

Bacon Press, oink!

And, a bee pin. Because, you know, "bee". =)

But then, we did some grocery shopping on the way home.

Most of this stuff was mine already, but I picked up a few calamata olives to add to my regular olives for making that tapenade I wrote about earlier. And I grabbed some lemons for another new project, that I just read, and that I'll write about when I make it. *wink*

New Bee Name

Bazinga!

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Here it is:

 Isn't it lovely? I was surprised at how good this soup is, since there's very little in the way of spices. Just onion really. But it was simple and fairly quick, With practice, this will be an easy go-to recipe for sure.

 

The recipe came from Granny Miller again, I swear I read other blogs! I do! But this one is new for me, so I'm catching up on it. Enjoy! (#20.3 done!)

Resolutions?

My New Years resolution list is more a list of "Stuff I Haven't Finished" amd "Stuff I Want to Do". And that's OK! I know I need to lose weight, I don't need to resolve to do it, I'll just keep plugging away at the gym.
So I've set goals that are more reachable, and fun.
Some of these were my own ideas, and some I borrowed from Granny Miller. Many run along the same lines. =)
In no particular order they are:
1. Learn to make soap. I have some molds, I have some books. I just need to do it.
2. Make laundry soap with homemade soap. Not necessarily my own homemade soap, I have some that I bought and that will work fine. =)
3. Learn to make saurkraut or kimchi. Just ferment something!
4. Learn how to read my Almanac. Seriously, why keep buying it otherwise?
5. Knit socks. Yeah, I need to learn more than just knit and purl.
6. Refinish kerosene heater. It would be so great to use it!
7. Make mozzerella cheese. I bought the stuff, I just need the milk from Bina. =)
8. Make mead. I have some of the equipment, but not the 24lbs of honey. (Yet!)
9. Take a drop-spindle lesson at New Pond Farm. (I just took a spinning class on a wheel.)
10. Finish sewing my apron. Shouldn't be too hard.
11. Learn how to crochet.
12. Tap the maple trees and make maple syrup. Which will involve learning which ones are maple trees, without the leaves to tell me. *sigh* I should have marked them in the summer.
13. Take a yarn dying class at New Pond Farm.
14. Work on starting a fire with my flint and striker.
15. Finish the denim quilt.
16. Learn how to use the pressure cooker. Well, really, just use it.
17. Trim goat hooves the next time you sit for them.
18. Finish something on the beading loom.
19. Make recycled glass into birdbaths.
20. From Granny Miller, learn 10 new recipies. I've made a list, subject to change.

1. Broccoli Cheddar Soup. Already changed to Cream of Broccoli Soup, and I made it once already. Delish !
2. Tapenade I love it so, and I got myself a food processor for Christmas.
3. Tomato Sauce
4. Ketchup
5. Mayo
6. Pasta
7. Guacamole Kind of basic stuff so far... But if I add the things from my list above,
8. Saurkraut or kimchi
9. Mozzerella cheese
10. Mead

There! I'm done! Time to get started.