Rutabaga... Easy to grow and yummy when cooked

I planted Rutabaga for the first time.  They did wonderfull!!  They are an easy to grow root crop and the root bulbs are easy to cook.  The goats love them too!!!  I pulled some of mine yesterday to thin them and this is what I got

Now the big question... What to do with them!!!

Okay so I peeled them and then cut them into cubes.  Doused them with olive oil, added some italian seasoning and some garlic salt then put them into the oven at 375 for about 45 minutes and this is what I got

Even the picky kid liked them! 

Corn... Corn... Canning it

It has been a while as my family has been busy with Church camps, fences, etc....  I got 2 bushels of corn to put up and so we canned half of it.  The rest went into the freezer for corn on the cob....

Canned Corn

I forgot to take pictures of the shucking and cutting process.

So first shuck your corn and remove the silk.

Then for whole kernal corn cut the kernals off the cob with a knife or a corn cutter.  My oldest daughter prefers just to use a knife.

For cream corn you will need a corn cutter with a shredding attachment.  We did whole kernal.  We prefer to hot pack our vegetables.  You have less jar breakage when you drop the jar into hot water.

Put all of the cut kernals into a pot and water enough so that it comes to the top of the corn and just a little over it.  Put the pot on the stove over high heat and bring the corn to a boil. 

Using a slotted spoon fill your jars to within an inch of headspace then add the cooking liquid to the top of the kernals.  Add 1 tsp salt for quarts and 1/2 tsp salt for pints.  Use canning salt or plain salt.  Do not use the iodized table salt.

After you have all of your jars filled then wipe the rims with a clean cloth (this is a very important step) and place sterilized lids and rings on them.

Then put them in the pressure canner and process at 10 lbs of pressure.  85 minutes for quarts and 60 minutes for pints.  These times are for my altitude in Arkansas.  You may have to adjust the time for your altitude.
After they are done with the time, remove the canner from the heat and allow to cool.Remove the jars and place them on a towel.  Do not let the jars touch.  If you are using Tattler lids then this is the time to final tighten the ring

Let the jars sit until they are totally cold, then remove the rings and check for completion of the seal.

You have just made corn with no preservatives or additives.  Also if you grew your own corn then you know that the corn itself was not treated.

Canning Italian Zuchinni

***Note*** The USDA does not reccomend canning squash of any kind, I have been canning zuchinni for decades and no one has ever gotten sick. I am giving you this information on my own personal experience.  I am not telling you to do it nor am I telling you not to.  With the information you can make your own choice.  It MUST be pressure canned as it is a very low acid food...  In the 80's a lot of political mumbo-jumbo happened with the USDA and they took out their reccomendations for squash, pumpkin etc.  I use the book "Putting Food By" which was published in 1973.  This was the book that my grandmother and mother swore by when canning.  Because it was published prior to the lobbyists getting involved it still has the reccomendations.  I say this to show: In the mid 80's Libbys came out witheir pumpkin pie mix in a can.  All you have to do is add the eggs and milk.  That is the same thing as Pumpkin Butter.  I make my pumpkin butter and it can be used in the same way to make a pie.  The very same year that the new product was released the USDA decided it was not safe anymore to home can pumpkin or pumpkin Butter.  Coincidence????  I think not....
Zuchinni is a summer squash and does not store well like a winter squash does, nor does it freeze well since it just gets all mushy.  Canning is the best way that I have found to store it for the long term.  Unless you are just grating it and freezing it to put into bread or cake.  Mushy does not matter then.....

Italian Zuchinni

You will need a 5 gallon pot to do this and a long handled spoon

4 gallons of sliced Zuchinni-Do not peel only cut off the stem and flower ends, slice about 1/2" thick.
4 large onions peeled and quartered
1/4 cup minced Garlic (my family all loves garlic)
1/8 cup italian seasoning (or to taste) remember it WILL get stronger as it cans
Water to the top of the squash and onions in pot.

                                                        add your seasonings

                             Cook on the stove until the Zuchinni is just soft enough to bend.

                                         Fill your jars leaving about one inch of head space

 Wipe rims of jars off with a clean towel and then place the lids on

 Process in a pressure cooker for 40 minutes at 10 lbs of pressure (for my altitude in Arkansas)




When you want to cook this for dinner it is wonderful made this way:

2 jars of Zuchinni drained well.  Place them in a baking dish, add some melted butter and sprinkle with parmesean cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees until the cheese is melted.

Sweet pickle relish

Sweet Pickle Relish



I hate giving the store money for things like pickles when they are so easy to make.  For the last 2 years my cucumbers had not done well.  This year they are putting on like crazy.  We use a lot of relish in this house so making some is definately in order.  This was the first batch for the year.  We will need about 36 pints of relish to last the year just for our house. 

This recipe originally came from a web site called heritage recipes and then I tweeked it to my taste.  This is going to be very similiar to store bought pickle relish.

run all these veges thru a grinder with the blade that has the largest holes

10lbs cucumbers (do not peel but do cut the big ones in half and remove the big seeds)
2 green bell peppers
1 large red bell pepper
1 large or 2 small onions

Put 2 qts of water in a large pot and 1 cup of canning salt , bring this mixture to a boil.  Then add the ground veges to the pot.  Cover and let sit for about 2 hours

After soaking then drain the mixture the best that you can by ladling it into a strainer and allow the juice to drip out

Put the mixture back into the pot and add the following:
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp tumeric
2 cups apple cider vinegar
5 cups sugar
1 TBS corn starch

Stir well and heat to boiling.  Allow the mixture to boil for 30 minutes while stirring freqently to avoid scorching.

After boiling once again drain the relish or use a slotted spoon to fill the jars leaving 1 inch of head space.

Wipe the rims of the jars and place clean sterilized lids on them with rings
The process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes

Remove the jars and tighten the rings if you are using tattler lids.  Allow to cool without disturbing them.

Enjoy the relish and also enjoy not giving your money to the big grocery store corporations.....

Bambi Burger

My oldest daughter who is now 28 started calling ground venison "Bambi Burger" when she was small... She was about 5 or so.  Yesterday I made Bambi burger.  Venison has very little fat and in order to have a good tasting ground meat you need a little.  I buy the cheapest hamburger I can and then I mix it about 50/50, that gives you about a mix of 87/13 which is going to be real close to ground chuck. 

How to:
Start out with boneless venison that has had all of the facia (shiny white coverings on the muscles), fat (it is gamey tasting), and tendons (the stringy, tough, white things) removed.  Cut it into small enough strips so that it fits into your grinder easily.  I use a grinder attachment for my KitchenAide so I cut them into about 1 inch strips.  first I run it thru with a course blade (it has the bigger holes).  Then I runb it thru with the fine blade.

  As I run it thru with the fine blade I also run the hamburger thru at the same time. I take handfulls of hamburger and put it into the bowl of course ground venison and then get a piece of hamburger and a piece of the venison about the same size.

When you are all done your burger should look like this:

freeze it in 1 qt zipper bags or make into patties and then freeze.  You can make your patties and place them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet.

Put the whole sheet in the freezer.  After they are frozen then take the patties off the tray and put them in a big bag.  Then you can take out how ever many you need for dinner and cook them the same as you would the store bought frozen patties.  The ground venison you can use the same as you would any other ground meat.

Culturing Buttermilk and Sour cream-Kitchen Microbiology

Have you ever tried to make something and it called for buttermilk?  Of course there is the old standby of adding vinegar or lemon juice to regular milk and letting it clabber.  That just isn’t as good as that nice thick stuff they sell at the store, nor is it any good for the late night southern treat of buttermilk poured over cornbread, crackers or biscuits.  Then of course in many areas of our country stores do not even sell buttermilk or it is very hard to find.  The south it is pretty common but in the north? Many recipes call for buttermilk: Pancakes, biscuits, cornbread, etc.

Once you have started your buttermilk it is as easy as keeping a batch going in your fridge indefinitely.  Just make sure you save 12 oz of the cultured buttermilk to add to 32 ounces of fresh milk for the next batch.  My first culture was bought over a year ago and I still have fresh buttermilk in the fridge.

Here in Northwest Arkansas a quart of Buttermilk at Wal-Mart is $1.57, which would equal $6.28 a gallon and a gallon of regular milk is $2.  If you have a cow then the price would be that much better!  So we can get over the sticker shock of $6.28 a gallon by making it ourselves for the cost of a gallon of regular milk.

Different kinds of Buttermilk:

Old Fashioned Buttermilk:

This is the left over fluid from when you make butter, hence the term “Buttermilk”.  It will have small chunks of butter in a tart whitish fluid.  As you churn your butter it creates a lump of butter.  Once it is drained and dried what is left is old fashioned buttermilk.

Cultured Buttermilk (store bought Buttermilk):

This is made with a culture of Streptococcus Lactis.  The fresh milk is the growing medium for these beneficial bacteria. You will need to inoculate your fresh milk (medium) with cultured buttermilk (bacterial start) and allow it to grow at room temperature. 

Definitions to help explain:

Bacteria:  is a micro-organism.  We all know about the nasty ones that make us sick.  There are however good ones that do a job for us.  We have all heard that streptococcus causes strep throat.  No fears the term Streptococcus means that it is a type of bacteria that resembles little balls (cocci) under a microscope and is in the strep family.  The last word Lactis is what determines the strain of streptococcus it is.  Strep throat is caused by “Group A Beta Hemolytic Streptococcus” (GAS), see the difference in the name?  And there is a huge difference in the type of bacteria.  So don’t worry you won’t catch “strep throat” from this.

Medium: This is whatever you put the bacteria in to grow.  In a lab it would be a Petri dish with some kind of gelled medium like chicken broth.  In our kitchen lab it is fresh milk, it can be raw or pasteurized (store bought)

Inoculate:  This is to introduce a starting batch of bacteria into your growing medium.

How to make Buttermilk:

First you will have to buy 1 pint or quart of buttermilk at the store in order to get your bacterial start.  If you keep it going then it will be the last time you have to buy it.

You will need fresh milk (regular whole milk tastes best) and a glass jar with a lid.  I like ½ gallon or 1 gallon jars.

Measure 12 ounces of buttermilk and pour into the jar.  Then if you have a ½ gallon jar fill it to the top with fresh (sweet) milk.  If you are using a gallon jar than measure 2 quarts of milk.  Add to the jar with your starting culture.  You are inoculating your fresh milk with the culture at this time.

Screw the lid on tightly and shake it up.  Now leave it sitting on your counter either over night or all day. It should clabber in 12-16 hours.  As the bacteria multiply and grow, you will start to notice the milk beginning to clabber.  Usually it is separated more but my hubby got into it last night and shook it up for his cornbread and buttermilk snack.

When you shake the jar it will coat the inside with a smooth white coating.  That is when it is done.  See how it coats the side of the glass.

Place the jar in the fridge at this time.  If you notice the buttermilk separating and looking curdled it is fine just shake it up.

How to make Sour Cream:

Sour cream is made the same way except using heavy cream instead of milk.  You would combine 4 oz of buttermilk to 12 ounces of heavy cream.  Leave it sitting on the counter.  Instead of clabbering and separating it will get thick.   When it is ready you will not be able to shake it but instead will have to stir it.  I like it creamy like in the picture below.

Recipes:

Ranch dip:

 12 ounces sour cream

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed

1/2 tablespoon dried chives

1/2 tablespoon dried parsley

1 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

Mix together and enjoy

Cornbread with buttermilk:

This is a light and fluffy corn bread that is a favorite in my family

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

¼ cup melted bacon grease or oil

1 ½ cups buttermilk

2 eggs

Spray 9x9 pan with cooking spray.  Mix all ingredients together and pour into pan.  Bake at 450 until golden brown and the edges pull away from the pan.

Variations:

Bacon cornbread: crumble a couple slices of crisp bacon into the batter

Mexican Cornbread:  Add chopped onions, whole kernel corn and chopped peppers to taste

Muffins: Pour into muffin tins instead of a pan

Onion Cheese:  Add ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese and 3 chopped green onions

Southern Midnight snack:  break up cornbread into a cup and cover with buttermilk.  Enjoy!!

Granola Cereal

If The SHTF then the stores will be closed and your nightly bowl of Raisin Bran will come to an end unless you can make a substitute out of your pantry.  Here is one alternative for a tasty cold cereal that is limited only by your imagination.  It is great as a cold cereal with milk, on top of yogurt, mixed into trail mix, or just as a snack that is healthy and nutritious.

 Strawberry (or raisin, or date, or plain, or prune, or peach, and on and on) Granola for cold cereal or a healthy snack.  I make a double batch since all my kids and grandkids love it.

 You will need

                                                    i.     6 cups old fashioned oats (Not quick oats or you can roll your own oat groats if you do then do it on a pretty thick setting on your roller)

                                                  ii.     ½ cup oil (your choice, I use plain old vegetable oil)

                                                iii.     ½ cup honey

                                                iv.     1 cup of your choice of pureed fruit Or for plain increase above to 1 cup each

                                                  v.     Any seasonings you want like nutmeg, cinnamon etc

                                   Nuts, dried fruits, candy chips, etc if you choose



  In a pot place the honey and oil heat it on a medium heat until you see it start to bubble

Put the oats in a big bowl

  When the mixture on the stove begins to bubble remove it and mix in the fruit

 Pour the mixture into the oats and mix well breaking up any large clumps.

   Spread the mixture onto cookie sheets and bake at 300 degrees  for  about 50 minutes.

Stir it every 10-12 minutes so that it toasts evenly.  When the granola has toasted to your liking, remove and cool. You can stir in any dried fruit, nuts, candy chips etc you want at this time.

  Store it in an air tight container.  I can not tell you how long it will last as it does not last long here in my house.