Tag: food

in the kitchen, Seasons

Next time, I’ll know better

 , ,

If you can get your hands on 4 lbs of fresh peaches (a bit unlikely now that it’s October, but there’s always next year!), you want to make peach butter. I found the recipe over at Smitten Kitchen and was instantly obsessed. Like, I thought about it all the time and I hadn’t even tasted it yet. I got too excited and bought too many peaches, then had to borrow a scale from a neighbor to avoid mucking up everything. I even planned out when I was going to make the peach butter, at a reasonable time on a Saturday, …

homesteading, in the kitchen

Harvest Review

 , , , ,

The garden suffered this summer from the weather and neglect. I didn’t make it out as often as I might have to really maximize production. I should be grateful we didn’t have a scorcher of a summer; I barely watered and things still limped along, more or less. On the other hand, I did assemble a checklist early in the year to guide me through the various harvests so I would know how much of what I was planning on putting by for winter. I may have only coaxed three whole carrots out of the garden this year, but I’ve …

homesteading

Taking Inventory

 , , ,

With the return of our farmers’ market, it’s time to take stock in the pantry and start planning what will be put up this year, even if the weather is acting more like late March than early May. Excepting the jam, which I apparently made in large quantities two years ago, and the apricots, which Caitlyn refuses to pack for her lunches, I think we actually did really well in eating through much of what I put up last year. We have tomatoes left, but probably just enough to get us to tomato season in a few months. The same …

homesteading

My New Surrogate Cow

 

I haven’t made cheese or yogurt yet with it, but I think I may have found a replacement milk! Golden Glen stopped producing bottled milk back in January and I’ve been searching for a comparable substitute, or at least hoping one would materialize for me. PCC replaced Golden Glen pretty quickly with Straus, although I did have a week or two with Organic Valley‘s paper cartons. Organic Valley’s milk, though, is ultra-pasteurized. Straus’ isn’t, and the milk comes in glass bottles, but it comes from California – which works great when I’m visiting California, but it’s a bit far for …

in the kitchen

Pie Night!

 ,

Chicken Pot Pie. Shepherd’s Pie. An underspiced but worth improving tomato-zucchini pie. Followed by Peach Pie Pops (they look like lollipops, but they are tiny, personal pies on sticks!), Lemon Meringue Pie, Peach Pie, a triple layer lemon/peach-pear/cream pie, and a Butterscotch Pie. Oh, and ice cream. No, I didn’t make all of that. Just four of them. Which was two more than I originally planned. Because sometimes Pie Happens. I’d post pictures, but we’ve eaten it already. Yes, we had help. And yes, there are leftovers. But they aren’t so pretty any more. Thanks to all the Pie Night …