In the Kitchen | Northwoods Homesteader

Yum, Chicken for Dinner

MerrieAugust 8, 2015July 26, 2015Leave a comment

Our first try at Red Ranger chickens for meat has been a success. We butchered our first group and of the 40 we ordered we had 36 go to butcher. That is a loss of only 10% unlike last year when we had a terrible time with the Cornish Rock and a huge loss. We also got two of the above with our chick order of Red Rangers. They look like a cross between a Ranger and Cornish but I am not sure. I'm going to send some pictures to the hatchery and see what they have to tell me. These actually raised up very well. Those are some of my new Americana laying hens in the back ground. They are three months old now so hopefully they will begin laying eggs in October or so.

We took a week of vacation to take care of many things on the farm including the butchering. Fun things like having the septic tank pumped, cutting wood, chipping wood for mulch and getting ready for the next round of poultry. The baby turkeys and more Red Rangers arrived at the end of the week.

After a morning of butchering the chickens need to cool for 24 hours before being vacuum sealed and put in the freezer. For the first time ever we kept one fresh for us to eat. I found a recipe in Better Homes and Gardens for a brine and it was fantastic. I don't normally read BH&G but it came in the mail to me because I purchased some other item.

Grilled Feta-Brined Chicken

4 cups water
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (I used sea salt)
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
2-3 pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs (I used a whole cut up bone in chicken)
1 large lemon, halved
1/4 cup olive oil

In a blender combine water, feta, oregano, salt and cracked black pepper. Cover and blend until smooth. Place chicken in zipper plastic bag or container. Pour feta mixture over chicken; seal or cover. Chill 8 hours or overnight.

Remove chicken from brine; transfer to a towel-lined tray. Discard brine. Pat chicken dry. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

Grill chicken on the rack over a covered grill over medium heat 12-15 minutes (longer if you use whole bone in chicken) until interior temperature reaches 170 degrees, turning once.

Transfer chicken to a platter. Squeeze lemon over. Drizzle with oil. You can top with additional crumbled feta if desired but it was great without it.

Dinner was wonderful and it is so nice knowing where your meat comes from, what it has been eating and the fact that the chickens lead a happy life while they were with us.

So in 12 weeks or so we will do it all over again with our second batch of pastured meat birds. This is the first year that we have done two batches but now that we have a separate building and the movable fencing we have the room.

Our next project will be getting a out door run for the turkeys built. We are having some fill brought in to level out an area next to the barn that we can make a outside area for them. I'm not sure it will get finished this year but oh well, there is only so much time in a day.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

MerrieJanuary 1, 2015Leave a comment

It has been awhile since we have visited. My husband and I were able to spend a week with our family in the Dallas, TX area early in December. Our son lives there as well as my brother in law and his family. My dear sister in law repurposed her fall pumpkins and turned them into this cute snowman that sat outside their door during the Christmas season.

Being gone for a week in December seemed to put me behind in everything for Christmas. Although I had my shopping done before we left, since we celebrated a early Christmas while we were in Texas, there was still so much to do when we got back. We did not put the tree up right after Thanksgiving knowing that the cat might want to climb it while we were away so that still needed to be done. I also do some special cooking for Christmas gifts. I traditionally make what my mother called "Crunchy Confection" which is a jazzed up version of Chex Mix. Besides the Chex cereal there are other cereals and pretzels in it. This mix is put into bags and given to all my coworkers. There are around 40 so I have to make a really big batch. I use both parts of my turkey roaster to bake the mix in. I usually make some fudge also but that just did not happen this year.

We ate at a fantastic place called Babe's when we were in Texas. They serve only two things fried chicken or chicken fried steak. With that they serve, family style, creamed corn, salad, mashed potatoes with white gravy and to die for biscuits. They are light and fluffy and delicious with their "Texas Brush" honey. It was great for all nine of us to sit around a round table with a huge lazy susan in the middle with all the food on it.

So the biscuits were so good I have been looking for a recipe to try to replicate them. Mine of course will not be quite as light because I will be using whole wheat flour. I found a recipe in Southern Living Magazine called Angel Biscuits and I have a batch going right now. The thing about this recipe is that it has baking powder, baking soda and yeast in it and after mixing they are refrigerated for 2 hours up to 5 days before rolling, folding, rolling then cutting. My dough is in the refrigerator right now so I will be getting them ready to bake shortly. The other secret is that they are baked in a cast iron skillet, which always makes everything taste better. I hope to get a good picture of the results for you.

My prayer is that all of you have a happy and blessed 2015. Talk with ya'll soon.

Fall Early Snow

MerrieNovember 15, 2014November 15, 2014Leave a comment

Well, we had our first snowfall of the year on November 1st and it was a doozy. It started during the overnight and just kept snowing all day Sunday. When it was over we had somewhere between 12 and 15 inches of heavy wet stuff. It was hard to tell because besides the heavy snow the wind blew really hard. There were times during the day Sunday that I looked out the window and the snow was falling sideways. Our power went out around 2:00 Sunday afternoon. Thank the Lord for the generator and that we have extra fuel. Since the ground was not frozen yet we could not plow for fear of digging up the ground. My wonderful husband used the bucked on the tractor to back drag it in critical areas so that we could get around in our vehicles. Besides our long 440+ foot driveway we plow out our Uncle who lives next door and Mom and Dad who live a 1/4 mile down the road.

Life goes on and we ran the generator in the mornings and evenings to get showers, animals fed and watered and to catch the news. Both my husband and I went to work as usual. I never lost power at my work and my husband has a generator where he works so we were all set. Finally Tuesday mid afternoon the power came back on.

Fortunately, the weather warmed back up for a little bit. Enough to melt off the rest of the snow except where it had been piled up. It has now gotten cold again and we had another couple of inches of snow on Thursday into Friday. Not much over 35 degrees here today but the chores must go on.

The pigs went to the butcher at the end of October but the turkeys have another week before their time so cleaning had to be done. Wrapped warmly my husband and I cleaned out the turkey pen and put down fresh bedding for them. We have had to shut off the automatic water system to barn as we do each fall so now we have waters with heaters under them for the poultry. Right now we can still use the outside faucet to fill the waters but soon it will be too cold for that and we will be using gallon jugs filled in the house to haul water.

I also got 34 pints of applesauce made and canned last week. The house smells so much like fall when applesauce is being made. There is a fresh batch of yogurt incubating right now. Made with fresh milk with the cream still on top. This yogurt comes out the consistency of greek yogurt without even taking any of the whey out.

I would like to with everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving may you be blessed to spend it with family and friends.

Beans and Rice for Food Storage

MerrieAugust 24, 2014August 24, 2014Leave a comment

Well if you are going to store extra food you need someplace to put it. Here is my additional pantry. As I have said before I do not have a basement so when our son left home I took over his bedroom. Since the regular closet was already repurposed as storage for things other than foodstuffs I had to come up with a different idea. What I did was build a additional storage space in the room. As you can see by the photo on the right there is a heavy duty shelf and on the left is a corner shelf. I have described this to you in a previous post but I thought I would share some pictures since we were talking about food storage again.

We talked last time about how you can build up your storage a little at and time and that you should store what your family will eat. Now that you have kept your list for a week or two I'm sure you realize that there are many things your family eats that can be made a part of your food storage. So how about those staples that you hear about all the time: beans and rice? Should you store them if your family does not eat them? Well, yes and no. Beans and rice are really cost effective for what you get and they will fill you up if you are hungry. However, if your family does not normally eat beans and rice and you do not know how to cook with them there is not much point to having a five gallon bucket of each in your storage.

But wait, now may be the time to introduce your family to beans and rice and experiment with cooking both. Rice is fairly simple to cook it is just two time the water as rice with a little fat, either oil or butter, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes until all the water is absorbed. Cooked just like this rice is fairly bland but goes really well if you have a meat and veggie mix with a little sauce to go on top. It is really easy to flavor plain white rice with just some herbs and spices. Try some different combinations and flavors that you know your family likes. I add garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper for a little southwest flavor. Curry can also be added for a Thai flavor. Just adding a can of tomatoes with basil and garlic or chilies will make the rice delicious. Rice can also be substituted for Don't be afraid to try different things.

Beans on the other hand are a little more involved to prepare. They have to be soaked then simmered in order to get them soft enough to eat. It is not complicated, just time consuming. I would suggest that you pick up a bag of dry beans at the grocery store and read the directions on the back. Some packages may also have a recipe to use your beans in. Some of the most popular are baked beans usually made with navy or pea beans. Black beans are really popular right now in many southwest recipes. They have a great flavor and I use them in my tortilla soup recipe. Pinto beans are the basis of refried beans just smash them up add some bacon grease, garlic powder, salt, pepper and a dash of cumin and there you have it.

It may take a little more convincing to get your family to eat beans than rice but it is worth the effort. Beans are a good protein source if meat is not available or if you want to have one meatless dinner per week. This will not only be delicious but it will also help with the grocery budget.

The one thing that was mentioned for both beans and rice was some of the herbs and spices used to flavor them. We haven't mentioned it to this point but storing these items in your pantry makes meal preparations so much easier not to mention more flavorful. Next time let's talk about what and how to store these great items.

Food Preservation and Storage

MerrieAugust 18, 2014Leave a comment

Fall is coming quickly and the garden is producing well. So, what to do with the surplus. Sharing with family and friends is great but if you are fortunate you should have enough to put some by for winter. I use several methods to preserve my garden produce. Which method depends on what the fruit or vegetable is. I regularly use canning and dehydration for food preservation. I can green beans, tomatoes and jam. I like to dehydrate fruit, some vegetables and potatoes. Having these fruits and vegetables on hand either canned or dried makes meal preparation fun and easy. There are many days that as I'm leaving for work I ask my husband to get something out of the freezer for dinner, meaning the meat part of the meal. I don't know until I arrive home from work what I will be working with for dinner. I know for some of you this will not work for you but I like the challenge of figuring out what to make to compliment whatever meat is waiting for me for dinner. Being able to pull canned green beans, applesauce or pears out of the pantry to go with the meat that we are having for dinner is a great feeling. No trip to the supermarket needed.

Now, maybe you don't can or dehydrate but you can build up your pantry so that you can be creative on a moments notice. You can start small and build your pantry slowly. The most important thing to remember is to store what you eat and eat what you store. There is no point to putting cans, bags or boxes of food that your family will not eat. It is a waste of space and money.

So, let's get started. Keep a list of what you and your family eat for a week or so. Now, what ingredients from those meals would keep in your pantry? Make a list of the staples from each meal that you made. These are the items that you should begin to fill your pantry with. These are also probably already on your shopping list. So when you head to the grocery store instead of just getting one jar of pasta sauce, green beans, soup or whatever, buy two. One will be for your weekly meal and the other will go in your pantry. Each time you use one of the items in your pantry put it on your shopping list and purchase two. After several weeks your pantry will start looking good.

Over the next few weeks I will talk more about food storage and being prepared if you cannot get to the supermarket. So please check in often. Sign up and receive notice of the next post.