I didn’t know how to tell you, so I’ve put off this post for some time. I killed my vinegar mother—the gelatinous substance that turns wine into vinegar. Over a year ago I acquired a mother from Jackie Dill, the self-sufficient, wise wildcrafter of Coyle, OK. And since I was so grateful that Jackie shared [...]
Archive for the ‘Back to Basics’ Category
I killed my mother
Posted in Back to Basics, Beer and Wine, Experimenting, Preservation on August 8, 2010 | 7 Comments »
Meal Planning
Posted in Back to Basics, Blogs on July 8, 2010 | 2 Comments »
I think an impediment to the prevalence of whole, fresh food (and thus, local food) in our diets is the lack of home cooking. And one impediment to home cooking is reluctance and intimidation toward meal planning. This is an easier obstacle to tackle compared to lack of time or money. Though, as meal planning [...]
Regarding Lard
Posted in Back to Basics, Bread, Fat, Pizza on November 12, 2009 | 2 Comments »
2.27 pounds of lard from Rowdy Stickhorse Wild Acres + 2.07 pounds of lard from Downing Family Farm = 7 cups of rendered lard Here’s how ya do it: Fresh lard Cube the lard and add about one cup of water. Slowly melt the fat over low heat for a couple hours.* Once the lard [...]
Jammin’
Posted in Back to Basics, Preservation, Sweets on June 29, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Ooh, yeah! all right! We’re jammin’: I wanna jam it wid you. Were jammin’, jammin’, And I hope you like jammin’, too. -Bob Marley Homemade Jam 64 ounces of strawberry jam for $29 5 pounds of organic strawberries from Peach Crest Farm = $25 Sure-Jell pectin = $1.44 7 c sugar = [...]
Rendering Chicken Fat
Posted in Back to Basics, Fat, Meat, Recipe on April 27, 2009 | 4 Comments »
According to Fat by Jennifer McLagan, schmaltz morphed in the 1930s from a Yiddish noun meaning “rendered fat” into a description for anything excessively sentimental. Schmaltz usually refers to poultry fat, but in Germany schmaltz usually means pork fat. “Unlike other rendered fats,” McLagan says, “schmaltz is often flavored. Sliced onions are the most popular [...]
Baking Bread
Posted in Back to Basics, Bread, Co-op, Community on March 19, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Perhaps this war will make it simpler for us to go back to some of the old ways we knew before we came over to this land and made the Big Money. Perhaps, even, we will remember how to make good bread again. It does not cost much. It is pleasant: one of those almost [...]
Garden Upgrade
Posted in Back to Basics, Experimenting, Garden, Goals on March 6, 2009 | 8 Comments »
One reason I love gardening is repeat opportunities for improvement, learning, and tweaking. As each season passes, you learn what worked and what didn’t, and right away you can implement these lessons. I don’t put much pressure on myself to get it right the first time (or second, or third…). Last year we gardened in [...]
Biscuit Bloopers
Posted in Back to Basics, Bread, Breakfast, Fat, Flops on February 11, 2009 | 8 Comments »
Sunday was a crazy day in the kitchen. I am tempted to say I would have been better off avoiding the kitchen all together, but I learned (and re-learned) a few things. I was very excited to attempt to make biscuits with rendered lard. I found a couple recipes online. I find it annoying that [...]
Lard, Take Two
Posted in Back to Basics, Fat on February 8, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Undaunted by the last try at rendering lard (when I burned it), I recently gave it another go. Once again I used pig fat from Rowdy Stickhorse Wild Acres. Sliced it into chunks, added about 1/2 cup of water, and slowly melted it over medium-low heat. Slow and steady. These are cracklings. Fresh rendered lard. [...]
Putting Food By
Posted in Back to Basics, Co-op, Experimenting, Preservation, Recipe, Tomatoes on August 1, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Let me preface this post by saying that the National Center for Food Preservation is the bomb. They make food preservation so simple! If an unfamiliar method or term is listed in the recipe, you can bet it’s hyper linked to a full description, often with accompanying photos! So, this mad day of canning all [...]
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