Meg In the Kitchen

I've been putting our garden veggies to use, this week!

First up: a freezer meal.

There's a restaurant in Gilroy called OD's Kitchen that serves an awesome breakfast dish called The Kitchen Sink.  It's basically homefries with ham, onions, and peppers with cheese and an egg fried over medium on top. You get the crispy savory goodness of a breakfast skillet, but the eggs and cheese add a heavenly gooey heart attack that makes it the best breakfast over.

So, why not have the Kitchen Sink in my own kitchen?
#1 The Kitchen Sink:
I diced up some peppers and onions from the garden, and gently boiled the potatoes and diced them up. I froze everything on a large cookie sheet for a couple hours so it didn't stick together, then separated it into freezer bags in serving sizes for our family.  Now, I can just dump the bag onto a hot skillet with some oil or butter, wait 15 min for it to brown, then add the cheese and egg.  Dinner in less than 20 minutes! I made four bags plus a bag of plain diced potatoes and the only thing I had to buy was a package of ham for a few bucks.

#2: Pickles!  Homemade pickles are sooooo good.  I haven't made them in a few years, but if you want the recipe, click here for the 2009 post when I made a fazillion pickles with Jerushia.  One thing we learned is to NOT process them. The batch we processed in a waterbath got really mushy and the batch we left alone stayed nice and crunchy.
The best part about homemade pickles is that they are fast to make.  We whipped up 10 quarts of pickles tonight in about 45 minutes from start to finish, and it would have been even less time if I had done them by myself. Fast, easy, delicious, free!

#3 Veggie Pesto Pizza. 
Pizza dough recipe found here (CPK pizza dough)
Pesto recipe found here (Elena's recipe)

Seriously, how good does that look?  And y'all know I am a terrible photographer, especially when it comes to food pics.  This is actually as good as it looks and even my kids ate it.

For the perfect garden pizza, thinly slice up garden veggies. We used bell peppers, green and yellow squash, onions and tomatoes.  I thought about adding spinach, but forgot to get it out of the freezer to defrost in time.
toss with a little EVOO in a bowl.
Spread a thin layer of pesto sauce on pizza.
Top with veggies.
Now, add drained black beans (optional) and mozzerella cheese. Fresh mozzerella is better. All we had in the fridge this time was homemade gouda and white cheddar, so that's what we used, and it was still awesome.

Bake.
Chiffonade  some basil and throw it on the hot cheese right when it comes off the stone.

Eat.
Pat yourself on the back because dinner was great.

Worth Waiting For

Four months ago, we made a giant wheel of white stirred curd cheddar...

 ...and tonight, at book club, we busted into that bad boy!  I don't know why I am always surprised, but I was a little shocked that it actually had the sharpness of cheddar to it.  We were nervous whether or not it would "turn out" as we tucked it away into the cheese fridge for aging, but here it is, four months later, a perfect medium cheddar.  Totally delicious and a totally different flavor than the buttery gouda we also snacked on.

4 months is a long wait, but totally worth it for some cheesy excellence.  This is turning out to be a pretty fun little hobby.  Time to make more!

What's Cookin?

4 more lbs of gouda...
BTW, we did the math for homemade vs store bought gouda and the price difference is pretty ridiculous. Plus, homemade cheese tastes pretty incredible. We'll be cuttin' the cheese up in here on Valentine's Day!

and homemade greek yogurt!

I was pretty shocked at how easy, delicious, and frugal this is. Click here for full details, but here's the basic recipe:

1) Mix 8 TBS plain store bought greek yogurt (1 single serve container) in a small bowl with 8 TBS cold milk. Set aside.

2) Heat 1 gallon of milk (1% or 2%) in a heavy bottom stock pot on the stove.
3) Remove just before it reaches 200* (begin stirring constantly once it reaches 180* to prevent scorching).

4) Set the pot in a sink that is filled halfway with cold water, and watch the temperature of the milk drop.

5) If you want to sweeten the yogurt, stir in 1/2 - 1 cup of sugar now, while the milk is still hot.

6) When the temp of the yogurt reaches 105* - 100* stir in the yogurt/milk mixture. Then, put a lid on the pot, and wrap the entire pot with a large bath towel and place it in the oven with the light on.

7) The light in the oven + the towel should keep the temp in the oven around 100*. (it helps to warm the oven for 3 or 4 min before you add the yogurt, but don't let it get over 105* or the temp could kill your yogurt cultures!
Keep the yogurt in the 100* oven for 16 hours.

8) Remove pot from oven, and strain the yogurt in a colander lined with cheese cloth in the fridge for 6-8 hours (or until desired yogurt thickness is reached.
9) Add nuts, granola, jam, fruit, chocolate, whatever, and enjoy!

10) Make more when you run out. I'm going to add vanilla beans to the next batch.

Don't forget to pat yourself on the back for saving a load of cash. The cost of one little serving of store bought Brown Cow or Fage greek yogurt is how much it costs to make 10-12 servings at home, and you can control the flavor, thickness, and amount of sweetener in it.

Worth it? YES.

Tomatoes

Remember me crying, a few years ago, when I killed our smoothtop stove?
Learn from my (expensive) mistake and don't ever can on a glass stove. Ever.
I discovered the perfect solution last week. Two portable single electric coil burners.

Boo. I just typed out a fab tutorial on canning tomatoes, and my internet crashed when I tried to post it. I had to reboot my laptop and nothing was saved. Meh. I'm too tired to type it out again. If you want to know how to can tomatoes, just come over and I'll show you how.

Hootenannies!

Hootenannies! Puffy Pancakes, Dutch Babies, German Pancakes, whatever you want to call them, these bad boys are delicious. Aaron ate 3 before he stopped to come up for air and announce that these were the best breakfast ever.

No, really. These are so good that Aaron interrupted breakfast to call his mom and tell her how good they are. Those of you who know how much Aaron loves his mama know that this is quite a compliment for me. Lynda, come visit! I'll stuff you will all the hootenannies! you can stand.

These are the perfect Sunday breakfast, since we have eggs coming out the wazoo (??) right now.

I combined two recipes (thanks Angie and Sheena)

9 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 tsp salt

2 TBS white sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

blend in food processor (I used a blender).

Preheat oven to 400*

Melt 2 (additional) TBS of butter in a 9x13 pan.

When the butter is all melty and the oven is hot, pour the eggy mixture into the pan, place on the BOTTOM rack of the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

It will puff up deliciously and the top will look crackely.

When you remove it from the oven it will collapse a bit.

Slice into squares.

dust with powdered sugar.

eat with:

-bananas and nutella

-maple syrup

-peaches (that I canned myself, thankyouverymuch) and whipped cream

-peanut butter

-berries

-anything and everything or nothing at all.
Enjoy!

She's like a 1950's housewife

On Monday, I haggled a roadside fruit stand and scored a box of peaches for 75 cents a pound.
So, this week I baked a peach pie and a peach crisp, took a break to kill the raccoon we trapped,
and canned 14 pints of sweet memory peaches.

Family and friends, come visit me! I will feed you!

peaches and pies... not raccoons.

Bummer

Corbin's little bickies are about to go all natural.

If you had asked me 6 years ago if I would ever consider cloth diapering, I would have laughed in your face and called you a hippie.

Right before Corbin was born, I started to actually consider cloth diapering, but I looked around at the mountainous supply of diapers that I already owned (thank you, wonderful friends of mine), and didn't see a need to purchase diapers, since I had almost 6 months worth of disposables waiting to be used.

Fast forward to when the supply ran out. I considered it again. The upfront investment is $75-$100 to get started. Um, yeah at that point, I was spent on both energy and cash and it just wasn't worth the investment just to "try it out".

But now, we're sinking into a nice little groove. Corbin is 20 months, and I probably won't even attempt to potty train him until a year from now.

So for the cost of 3 boxes of diapers, I bought enough to "try it out". 4 Bummi covers, 6 prefolds, 3 snappis, and a box of disposable liners (because solid poop in your washer is nasty).

3 boxes of diapers would last us about 2 months.

So I figure, If I can do this for 60 days, I'll have broken even with what I've spent, so far.

Anything after that will be money still in my pocket. If I continue, I'll spend another $20+ to get another dozen prefolds for the diapers, and maybe some other diapering supplies I don't know about yet, but I think that's still worth it, considering I currently spend that amount every few weeks on disposables.

Even if it is totally gross and more work, I think I could stand to see these little rockets on Corbin's bum for 60 days.

So, the adventure begins.

I will use disposables at night.

I will use disposables when I send my baby to a friend's house, have a sitter, or go on road trips, because I still have a box of them to use up.

And also because I am not 100% certain what I have gotten myself into.

But I can do anything for 60 days.

If I hate it after 60 days, the cloth diapers will be lovingly tucked into our 72 hour kits, and I'll never look back.

As a bonus, I won't have to worry about replacing the diapers in my 72 hr kids every time my babies grow into a different size.

Is it worth it?

We'll see.

Stay tuned.

It should be noted that I gave myself a few pats on the back for purchasing these online. Whaaat?!

Go me.

Today

1) I taught preschool this morning, and consequently, I keep forgetting that it is Friday, and not Wednesday. It was a great day, as always. I'll post pictures and curriculum later.

2) When Quincy woke up from her nap, she playfully crawled into the kitchen, pawed my feet, nuzzled her head and neck against my calves, and made an animal-like whinny.

Me: "Hi, you're awake! Are you a kitty or a horse?"

Quincy: "I'm a Quincy!"

3) Miss Reese was awarded as Terrific Kid at her school assembly today. The assembly was first thing in the morning, so Aaron surprised Reese and drove her to school, then stayed for the assembly. Reese was really excited. We are proud of her for being selected as a Terrific Kid!

4) I took both her and Corbin to the doctor yesterday. I was pleased to hear that Quincy's ears are clear, without a lick of infection. This is big news in our house, since we often wonder if her ears ever even heal 100% between one infection and the next.

Of course, both of Corbin's ears are infected, but hey, at least I have a reason for why he wasn't sleeping at night.

5) I just made 2 loaves of white bread to go with the gumbo I'm making for dinner. Like WHITE white bread. Rolls in loaf form. Though I am normally a big fan of the nutritional benefits and nutty taste of wheat bread, the babys cooling on my stovetop have got to be the most absolutely delicious, fluffy, wonder bread of breads I have ever made. I feel like I have conquered the world. I feel like a rockstar. I feel like Betty Crocker. ---
which is sort of cute because it is a Betty Crocker recipe.

I wonder if Betty Crocker still has yesterday's laundry piled on top of her bed, waiting to be folded.

On a Snowy Day

Dough is rising, chicken is marinading, black beans are cooking, and my mouth is already watering for some CPK pizzas tonight.
The fire is keeping our house at a comfortable 72*, even though the wind chill temp outside is 1*.
All 3 children that were pretty crabby an hour ago are now napping.
I have a batch of citrus blueberry muffins (from scratch thankyouverymutch) in the oven that will be ready to glaze in 9 minutes.
Aaron is working from home.

I'd be selfish to ask for anything more out of this perfect day.

"Oooooooh In Ma House"

This is the home I grew up in
Isn't it beautiful?
Houses have been on my mind for weeks.

My parents moved into a new home last week. I am so excited that they are happy and that they are getting settled someplace that they love.

Today on the phone, my mom said, "oh Meg, I can't wait for you to see my house. It's really cute and it has a craft room. You'll love it."

Of course I will love it, my mom is the queen hostess. It will be no surprise to anyone who's met her that her new place is just darling.

I lived in the same home (shown above) from birth until I left for college when I was 18. My parents did an excellent job of creating a home where everyone felt welcome, safe, and loved.

Since then, they have lived in large homes, small homes, rentals, and their RV. Even in stages of transition, their homes have all housed a Spirit that can be felt by anyone who enters.

I'm striving to develop this same feeling in my home.

The talk, Building Your Eternal Home by the Prophet, Thomas S Monson was just what I needed to read, today. It is right in tune with many of the recent thoughts I've been having about my home and what my aspirations as a wife, mother, and homemaker are for this new year, and forever.

Here's an excerpt from the intro
"the Master counseled, 'Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.'

Where could any of us locate a more suitable blueprint whereby we could wisely and properly build a house to personally occupy throughout eternity? Such a house would meet the building code outlined in Matthew—even a house built “upon a rock,” a house capable of withstanding the rains of adversity, the floods of opposition, and the winds of doubt everywhere present in our challenging world."

Just what I need for my little family.
My goal is to create an environment that both envelopes and projects love.
I want my children to grow up feeling the same comforts of security, acceptance, affection, and safety, that Aaron and I were both blessed to be raised with. I found inspiration in the words from our Prophet and the scriptures he cited. The entire talk is wonderful.

"Organize". "Prepare". "Faith". "Learning". "Order". "Build".

These words are literary nuggets of chocolate to me, right now, and I cannot wait to begin my feast.

Happy New Year!

Don't tell me I look tired. Just say, "You look like crap today." Cuz it's the same thing, but at least I won't feel the need to respond politely.

I just remembered a promise I made with my kid today. Now I am up at 1:30 am baking blueberry muffins. Good thing I love her so much.

Jam Session

A pint of blackberries costs around $3.
There are 8 pints in a gallon.
Self-reliance = after we ran Saturday morning, we waded through bushes and briers, and between Tia, Kasey, and I we picked 4 gallons of HUGE, fresh, wild blackberries.
That's $96 worth of blackberries.
For FREE.
When I got home, I turned my berries into blackberry jam.
Twenty jars of jam.

Blueberry Morning 2010

Remember our little blueberry picking adventure last year?
We went blueberry picking early this morning. We might gotten a little carried away. I picked two gallons, and my parents also picked two gallons. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it...especially Corbin, who gave me a little "thank you" present in the form of a blue diaper this afternoon.

We spent the afternoon using recipes from this site to make blueberry syrup and blueberry jam. Yummy.Uh, never mind the shiny face. We're in a heat wave, it's humid here, and it was 1,000 degrees in my kitchen.
Ta Da!

I've gotta get some pancakes in me!

We also canned Hatch Green fire roasted green chilies (that my parent's brought with them from Colorado. Looks gross, tastes awesome.)

Mmmmm......

155 lbs

How 'bout them apples?

WHY oh WHY did I not make baby food for Reese and Quincy when they were babies?
So other than green beans, I had pretty much ran out of the baby food I made last round (remember that post?), and I got lazy, so I just bought a bunch of food this time.
With coupons, I still spent $28 and it was gone in a week!
My baby is such a hoss!

-I have 2 quart sized bags worth of peas and carrots and after my coupon it cost me just over $1 for the bag of frozen veggies.

-1 butternut squash made another quart size bag full.

-I used up the last 6 slices of a $2 package Farmland ham (that I purchased for a different recipe) and pureed it with 1/3 of a jar of homemade unsweetened applesauce for another bag of food.

-2 sweet potatoes and the last cup of baby carrots were also blended together and filled a quart bag

The last 1/2 cup of the beans, rice, corn, or turkey breast from dinners, that ordinarily gets thrown out because it's not quite enough to save in a tupperware is now getting pureed, frozen, and fed to the baby.

I love that we aren't wasting so much food.
I love that Corbin gets variety in his diet.
I love that we are not spending $100 a month on store bought food. I was reading the labels and a ton of them have apples as the main ingredient. Everything is "peaches and apples, bananas and apples, strawberries and apples, blueberries and apples, pears and apples, chicken and apples, ham and apples". WHY?

Apples are cheap. How much of the store bought stuff is actually chicken? Even with a coupon, the markup on baby food is ridiculous.

Also, one of my goals for 2010 is to recycle. I'm not going to go all crazy and recycle used kleenex or anything, but I find myself throwing away a LOT of stuff that could be reused in one way or another. Corbin eats the equivalent of 6 jars of baby food a day. That is a lot of wasted glass.

I also started composting kitchen scraps. (more on that later)

So, of course I purchase some jars. It is convenient for when we're on the go, and I like having a small supply in the cabinet, should we lose power or something.
But for the most part, homemade food has become the majority in our house. I can't believe I didn't even attempt this with my other babies.

Next week, I going to make him spinach.

or should it be "spinach and apples"?

"...and I say Hey Y'all and Yee-Haw..."

Well, MiMa, we did our best.
There were many entries.

Due to the fact that the Benton County Fair indeed, does NOT taste the entered goods, your Jalapeno Jelly Recipe did not bring home the bacon.

It did sport a cute little sticker, labeled "Blue Award"...but no one seems to know what that means, exactly.
My Salsa was donned with the same sticker:
As was my Grape Jelly (does every entry get one of these? I saw some "red awards" on jars, too. Which is better? Does it mean one jar is more beautiful than another? Should I be excited?)

But wait! What's this?

2nd PLACE: Sweet Memory Peaches...

2nd PLACE: Pickles

....and (drum roll please...)

FIRST PLACE: Applesauce! What are the odds?!

I think I'll spend my $7 whoppin' dollars of prize money on funnel cake.
...and hand sanitizer to wash the fair off me. I still feel like I've just been licked by a goat.

On Being Prepared-Summertime

A friend of mine worked out a deal with a local grower that if she purchased more than 50 dozen ears of corn, she could get it at a discounted price. So this morning, we shucked, blanched, and cut the kernels off of dozen and dozens of ears. Nancy had it down to a science, so we had a little assembly line going. She even had little blocks of wood with a nail sticking up to hold the cob in place while we cut. Brilliant!
I ended up with 10 bags of corn to freeze. It is SO yummy, and about 40% cheaper than buying the corn myself...plus it is preservative and additive free! I just want to thank Nancy for inspiring me to preserve more of the foods I have grown myself. She is a rockstar! She even makes her own cheese-who does that anymore?! She has been so generous to share her knowledge and her water bath canner with me.

So if you haven't guessed,

I am focusing on food preservation for the summer months.

So far, this summer, I have canned a total of:
5 pints of blueberry syrup
5 pints of blueberry jam
14 quarts of garlic and dill pickles
36 pints of homemade salsa
7 quarts of whole tomatoes.

Aren't they so pretty?!

It is missing something orange. If only my peach tree would give us something. One peach. That's all I ask. I still want to do another batch of tomatoes, freeze basil in olive oil, more pesto, more bell peppers, make my own baby food (gonna wait until Corbin gets closer to baby food eating age to do that), applesauce, and jalepeno jelly. We'll see how much of that list I actually get around to doing!

Remember all those green beans? Hillary and I canned 14 quarts and I blanched and froze the rest in 5 gallon ziplock bags. Thanks to Sherry-who I bought the canning jars from in the first place-for lending me several home gardening and food preservation books and her pressure canner.

I have 1 bag of frozen green peppers that I hope to add to.
I am drying cayenne pepper
Now I have 10 bags of corn
I've also made 2 huge batches of Elena's Incredible Pesto Sauce, divied them up into 6 small bags (enough for 1 small box of bowtie pasta in each bag) and froze it...but I am going to have to make more, because it's already gone. Homemade pesto is a yummy crowd pleaser, filling, and very frugal if you grow your own basil. A box of bowtie pasta is what? $1.50 give or take? If you grow your own basil, the pesto sauce is only the cost of 1/4 c olive oil, a handful of walnuts (I buy the little $1 bags in the baking section of WM, you can use pine nuts, too), and 2 cloves of garlic. Add a sliced tomato from the yard and some steamed zucchinni and ta da! Dinner. So Delicious. So cheap.

Wow, this post is really boring. Congrats if you made it to the end. I guess the only reason I blog about stuff like this is so my kids won't grow up and ask me what I did all day (other than take care of them, of course). Plus, there is something about posting goals online that drives me to actually do them.

Seriously? Another post with pics of a bunch of jars and Meg in an apron?

YES!

Jerushia and I made dill pickles today! Who knew homemade pickles we so easy? I got this recipe from my friend, Darcie. I don't think I'll ever go back to store bought without feeling slightly disappointed. These bad boys are freaking awesome. We sat around with a fork at Darcie's daughter's birthday party, eating an entire jar of her pickles. I just had to make my own.

Dill Pickles:
-Wash jars, and place lids in a saucepan filled with water on the stove top to simmer.
-Wash, dry, and slice about 12 large cucumbers (compliments of Jeru's garden=free!)
-Pack into quart mason jars (fills about 8)
-Add about 1-2 tsp dill weed and 1 sliced clove of garlic to each jar.

-Boil together:
3 quarts water
1 quart white vinegar
1 cup canning salt
-Pour boiling solution over cucumbers.
-Wipe rims of jars clean with a damp dishcloth and top with a simmered lid and ring.
-Wait about 30 minutes and you will hear a POP! as the jars seal themselves.
-If jars don't seal after an hour or so, turn them upside down.
-If any still don't seal, keep refrigerated and eat them!

Mmmm, I can't wait to grill up some burgers and throw one of these on it! Delicious.

"Because they like to say, 'SAL-SAH'..."

What to do with 30 Tomatoes , 7 Bell Peppers, 6 Jalapenos, and 3 Serrano Peppers all ripe at the same time?

Make 9 QUARTS of SALSA!

Things I learned:
Don't cut your thumb open on the first bell pepper.
Don't cut your thumb at all, you idiot.
Canning anything takes forever.
It is more fun with a friend.
It is even MORE fun with 80's music.
Canning while the husband is out of town is an excellent idea, because even if you start the process at 8:00 pm, you will be canning salsa until 2:30am and end up sleeping over in said friend's guest room with your kids.
BLT's with avocado are awesome.
The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of canning salt. NOT to be mistaken with 1 cup. Oopsie!

Stay tuned for ROUND 2, where I make another batch (minus any salt), open every bottle of salsa that we made last weekend, mix it with the new batch, and re-bottle everything.
What a pain!
Good thing I have more vegetables.
And a good friend to do my canning with.
I actually glad I screwed it up, because now we get to play Suzie Homemaker again.
Thanks for your kitchen, Kasey!
I'm so glad you take everything I say 'with a grain of salt'.

"Oh-Oh-Oh The Sweetest Thing!"

I canned my first batch of homemade syrup this weekend!
I was nervous about the canning method, since I had never done it before, it turned out to be much easier than I'd thought it would be. I hope it tastes as good as it looks!

The recipe I used is from the Ball Canning Cookbook:
2 quarts blueberries
6 cups water, divided
1 TBS grated lemon peel
3 cups sugar
2 TBS lemon juice
wash berries and make sure there are no stems left on any of them.
crush berries
combine berries and 2 cups water and lemon peel in medium saucepan. Simmer 5 min.
Strain berries. (check out the cool strainer my down-the-street neighbors Doug and Gloria gave me! They gave it to me and said, "Here, take this, we want jam. Make some" ....will do, Gloria, will do!)
Combine sugar and 4 cups of water in a saucepan. Boil to melt sugar. Add berries and Boil 1 minute. Stir in lemon juice.

Ladle into sterilized pint sized canning jars. Heat canning lids in small saucepan of simmering water until gummy. Wipe edges of the jars with a damp, clean rag. Put lids on and secure with rings. Turn jars upside down and let sit on counter top for about 10 minutes or so. The heat from the syrup will sterilize and help seal the lids.
Turn back over and let cool. Remove rings to wash and reuse. Store on shelves, don't forget to Label, Date, and Rotate your Jars! Enjoy!

Got Pancakes?