Recipe Test Tuesdays - Wild Violet Jelly

Never made it before but so far so good.

Gathered my wild violets out of the yard then rinsed them under cold water. I'm surprised I got 2 heaping cups of these bad boys for the recipe I found. Took a while to get them picked. Who knows what people thought I was doing out in the yard.

So I boiled water and poured it over the top of the violets in a pyrex bowl to steep. I'll put them in the fridge and pull this out in the morning and make my jelly from the violet tea I made.


So I took the violets in their 'tea' and poured them through a strainer into a glass measuring cup. I added 1/4 C of lemon juice and it turned a purple color from this sick looking greenish color that it was. Poured it into a non-reactive pot. I set aside another bowl and put the 4 Cups of Sugar and 1 box of Sure Jel pectin and stirred it up. Poured it into the pot with the Violets and warmed it up to medium high and stirred it up. When it tried to foam I cut back the temperature to medium.

When I got done making it, I ended up with 3 1/2 pints of jelly. Mine turned a pinkish color at the end. Next to try a dandelion jelly.

Eggs? What do I do with them all?

So anyone who has gotten chickens for getting eggs will know that most happy and healthy chickens will lay one egg each day. We forget in our infinite wisdom that we add more chickens to that mix and say... 5 more in my case will drop anywhere from 4-6 eggs a day. So instead of 'chicken math' issues, we see a new problem of 'EGG MATH' hitting our little homesteads. What do we do with all our extra eggs our families won't be able to consume? Just imagine it... in 7 days time you will have at least 3-4 dozen eggs. How many do you eat or use each day? Don't rely on selling them as you always have one  person to undersell you in your area. Pfft on $1.50 a dozen as it doesn't even cover your feed costs and even shelter for your chickens.

I got a little behind on mine last fall and donated some to a local food pantry. I cut egg cartons in half so it could help more folks. Then after I brought my eggs to a more reasonable amount, I hit the search engines to find recipes and how to store my excess eggs. I was surprised to see how long FRESH from the chicken eggs last even at room temperature. Two months or more depending on if I washed them or whatever. So I found some great recipes and uses and will share an awesome one in this post today.

Egg Noodles

2 eggs
1 C Flour
1/2 tsp salt

Mix the flour and salt together with a fork. Make a well in the center and put two eggs in the center. Beat the eggs first and then bring in the flour from outside the well to mix into the eggs. When fully mixed it is a sticky mess. You will put this out onto a lightly floured board and knead it. Do this about 5 minutes until it is a nicer shaped ball without any clumps left of dry flour. Let sit for about 5 minutes or so. Cut this in half and roll out SUPER thin 1/16" or less on a floured board. Then take a pizza cutter or a sharp knive and cut whatever size noodles you want them to be. (Think lasagna to linguine sizes too) Then lay these cut pieces on a wire rack or pasta rack to dry at least 30 minutes. No more expensive Amish noodle packages or the frozen packaged noodles! You can totally dry these things and put in the freezer if you have any left. (but you won't)
To cook these noodles, toss them in boiling water or soup and cook until al dente.

I've had to cut mine into smaller lengths so people don't steal too many out of the pot and leave others without. If you are gluten free, you can substitute your own gluten-free flour that works best for you. You do not have to use semolina flour to make good noodles. Just jump in and give it a try. You can make spaghetti, wide noodles, linguine, lasagne, ravioli, and even pizza rolls from this stuff. The trick is 'thin' to make a nice noodle. If you have a picky eater in the house, let them help you make this and they will eat their work.

Have a great day!

Canning to Save Time and Money - Getting Started

I just started to can things with a serious goal in mind last year when I got a call to come 'help yourself' to a bunch of green beans, corn and blackberries that got away from the folks who planted too much. Since we all know that we really can't snarf down mass quantities of green beans several days in a row without massive groaning from the family members, we have to do something with our tons of food we bring home from the store, pick your own produce places, or from your own garden. Many of us waste too much money on food from spoilage and those items we could have frozen, dehydrated, or even canned them for use later on. I'm guilty of this and I know I'm not the only person in the world to lose something in the fridge that would later become the fuzzy science experiment. So in order to get started on canning I had to have the basics. So here's the general start up list for canning:

1. Jars (Wide-mouth & Regular)
• Pint
• Quart
• Half-pint
• Half-gallon
• Gallon
• Pint and a half
2. Lids & Rings
3. Waterbath (Acidic, Fruits, Tomatoes)
4. Pressure Canner (Low Acid, Meats, Beans, Vegetables)
5. Canning Jar Tongs
6. Plastic headspace measure and bubble remover thingy
7. Free online study course & food preservation materials
• https://spock.fcs.uga.edu/ext/food/nchfp_elc/
• http://nchfp.uga.edu/index.html
8. Join various Facebook Canning and Preserving pages
9. Utilize the local county 4-H Extensions in your area for testing used pressure cookers or getting a specialist to come teach you how to can safely if it is available in your area.

Take advantage of food sales at the different times of the year and save your fruits, veggies, and meat in jars so that when their cheap season is over that you will have a stash to hold you over. We buy our hamburger on sale at the local grocery store, brown it and then can it in pint jars for use for any hamburger dish meals to add to a mix or pasta/sauce combinations. By storing meats in jars, you free up your freezer and also prevent that sad occasion when electricity is lost or your fridge or freezer dies and your food has gone bad. Trust me, it's more than canning for the Zombie Apocolypse. You worked hard for your money and don't just throw it down the drain with spoilage. We are far too reliant on our appliances and need to know how to handle a crisis before it happens, even if it is deciding whether to eat chicken or hamburger while trying to get to a dance class in 45 minutes. Grabbing the jar of whatever and heating it up in 5 minutes and tossing other ingredients to create a meal with it to be ready in 15 or so is better than sitting in a drive thru for 10 and still waiting for the special order to be done in another 5 or so. We've made our own lives hell with being slaves to fast food and restaurants. Time to wean ourselves from this and know what we are eating and where our money is going. 

I'm just at the beginning stages of this blog and will hit these main topics first and then throw in my recipes for the day if there is something new I haven't posted yet. Thanks for stopping by and maybe joining in this back to the basics movement. :-)

Diving in and going back to the basics

You never realize how you come to a point in life that you feel like you aren't getting anywhere until you reach it. Times now demand so much of our money to even feed our families or just have the basics with never a chance of frills and total fun frivolous things. We watch our neighbors swapping out cars every two years while we drive old beaters with over 200K miles on them that are paid for. We see fancy gadgets, jeans, power tools, and even kitchen appliances that we might hope to have, but will not be able to afford unless we work more hours or cut back on our spending to SAVE for it. Just recently we decided to make more items from scratch so that we aren't getting all the preservatives AND to just save money. No coupon clipping, as that was a fruitless venture of actually spending more money to buy the items that I probably WOULD NOT have bought had there not been a coupon for it in the first place.

So, while hitting this little time in my life of new recipes and adventures in baking, cooking and even making my own cleaning supplies, many times I've been asked for recipes that I've been making. So this little blog will become my journal AND my go to cookbook for anyone and everyone to follow along. I encourage all who read this to take a little time out of their day to make their own things. Quit relying on large companies to make your things for you and never know what all the ingredients are or if they are safe for you to eat. Remember just recently that a nationwide sub sandwich chain decided to take a certain ingredient out of their recipe after it was found it was also used to make yoga mats? Blech! Do you really want to eat that? What if I told you that bread is actually easy to make by hand? You don't need an expensive KitchenAid stand mixer or an expensive bread machine... all you need is a large bowl and a fork. So you say yeast packets are expensive? I agree with that, but if you buy it in the little jars and use 1 Tablespoon of yeast in the recipe for each package a recipe calls for, you can make bread for at least 1/2 the price of buying store bought.

Also, I hear people complain that it takes too long to cook a meal when their families are hitting all the after school or evening family activities and want to hit a fast food place because it takes too long to cook. Well, guess what... canning, freezing, or precooking meals on a day that you aren't running like mad will SAVE you time, money, and stress. In this blog we will look at living on a dime, learning how to cook, learning how to can, learning how to bake, how to care for chickens, gardening, and just tons more bits of info so you can survive the great recession without near as much fear. Feel free to interact and share your favorite recipes, garden plans, or whatever has helped you through the rough times. Welcome to the blog!