Hello everyone! I am starting this funding campaign, www.givesendgo.com/okieranchwife to get my vehicle (a one ton Ram 3500 diesel) back on the road. You can see some free range foraging by the truck. It has been down for about three weeks and is my only transportation I have to get to town which is 25 miles away. My elderly brother lives with me and depends on me to take him to town for appointments, banking and groceries. I also have animals on my homestead that need feed and other supplies from town. I have an initial estimate of $7K for diesel injector repairs and maintenance. The garage (who I trust) stated it could be more than that if a cylinder is blown or if there is metal pieces in them.
I am an Army veteran, a senior citizen, a widow and am humbly asking for help from my community of YouTube friends, readers of my cooking blog and fellow Believers. I started this cooking blog in 2011 just to share recipes. It is a tiny blog that was never meant to make money for me. I pray that if anyone has enjoyed a recipe, please consider a small donation to my truck repairs. I also started a YouTube channel where I will be posting videos about my homestead.
My country neighbors and local community have been helping to get me to town and I am grateful, however, they have jobs and homestead work also. Some of them are retired and senior citizens like me. I understand the economic hardships people are going through right now and any donation will help. The initial funds will be used to hire a tow truck to trailer my Dodge to the garage.
Thank you so very much for stopping by to learn about my campaign. I give you my pledge and promise that any funds donated to this campaign will only be used for the vehicle repairs. I pray that you are all safe and have a wonderful day. God bless you all.
So far I have harvested two pounds of asparagus from my patch. There will be more to gather this week. Last spring I shared a recipe for asparagus and potato soup.
Here is another one. This one has less ingredients and may be better than the first version. This recipe has no chicken broth to dilute the soup. Pairs well with Irish soda bread or sour dough.
4 Tbsp Butter
1 bunch Green Onions, sliced, use both green and white parts
4 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
1 ½ Tsp Sea Salt
¼ Tsp Black or White Pepper
3 cups Milk
2 pounds Asparagus, chopped, reserve the tips for garnish
3 medium Potatoes, peeled and cubed
¼ cup Heavy Cream (optional)
In a medium pot heat water to boiling and reduce to a simmer. Add potato cubes and asparagus pieces. Reserve the tips for garnish. Simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until potatoes are tender.
In a medium soup pot over medium low heat, melt butter and add green onions. Sauté for about 4 minutes or until soft. Do not brown. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low. Add milk, stirring to thoroughly blend. Simmer over low heat until smooth and creamy. Stir frequently.
Drain the cooked asparagus and potatoes and process in a blender or food processor into a puree. Work in batches and add puree to the milk mixture. Season to taste with Salt and pepper. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with asparagus tips and a dollop of heavy cream if desired.
Hey everyone, I have arrived in social media! If you want to see my recipe for Mexic@n Hot Chocolate you’ll have to search for it on here. I guess WP doesn’t like the country name in the post. I may have to go over to sub stack.
Happy Resurrection Sunday! This is a pantry friendly dessert for this holiday! I found this recipe in my Southern Country Cookbook printed in 1972 by the editors of The Progressive Farmer Magazine. Please ignore the chocolate drips on my pie dish. Hey, it’s real life. And by now you know that the photos are mine. No glossy food designer pix here. Enjoy!
2 squares unsweetened Chocolate (I used Ghirardelli 100% cacao Chocolate)
4 c scalded Whole Milk (I used 2 c milk and 2 c of the whey liquid from my Easter Cheese)
2 c Bread Cubes (I used plain bagel cubes from my pantry)
¼ c Butter, melted
½ tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon, (I used Kirkland Saigon Cinnamon)
½ c Sugar
2 Eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
½ tsp Allspice
¼ tsp Nutmeg
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Scald the milk. Put the chocolate in the warm milk and heat gently melt the chocolate. Beat thoroughly. Remove from heat. Soak bread cubes in the milk mixture. Allow to cool. Add other ingredients to the bread milk mixture. Mix thoroughly.
Pour into a buttered 2 quart baking dish and bake for 1 hour. Top with whipping cream or ice cream!
Yes, indeed. I said pantries. Plural. You need a couple different pantries. Daily and long term. This is a photo of my daily go to pantry that is right off my kitchen. You can see that I need to do my seasonal spring stock up on some items. Now don’t judge! Yes, those are ramen noodle packs. You don’t have to use the chemistry experiment that is the “flavor” packet included with the noodles. The noodles can be added casseroles or other dishes as a pasta. And bonus they are inexpensive. I don’t use them a lot, but I like to have some on the shelf.
These are several long term pantry cookbooks in my library. There are also many canning and preserving guidebooks that have recipes using the home canned items included. Food prices probably will not drop down to the prices from 2 or 3 years ago. Please do yourself a favor and stockup the next time you go to the grocery store. Even buying just 5 extra cans of food will help.
To all of my Christian readers I wish you a Happy Resurrection Sunday!
Easter Dinner 2021 Hrudka cheese is between the deviled eggs and ham slices
This is a repost from Resurrection Sunday in 2022. I don’t eat pork anymore so that protein won’t be on my table this year. I’m making my hrudka today. Hopefully there will be some for Sunday.
My family is from Eastern Europe. My mom always made this egg cheese for Easter. And I have been making this for more than 20 years. It is an easy cheese to make at home no special procedures or rennets. If you have backyard chickens the cheese will take on a wonderful orange color if you let your chickens free range. All you really need is milk and eggs with only a couple additions. The photo is from last Easter. I will make my cheese this Friday. Most of it will remain for Sunday lunch.
You will need cheese cloth and twine to complete this recipe. You can also use a leg from clean pantyhose or knee high stockings. I use cheese cloth.
12 large fresh Eggs
1 quart Whole Milk
1 Tsp Kosher Salt (use ½ Tsp if you use fine salt)
1 Tbsp Sugar
2 Tsp Vanilla
Using a heavy bottom 2 quart pot, add all ingredients and beat thoroughly. Cook slowly over low heat. Stir constantly. This will take at least 20 to 30 minutes. Don’t hurry the process. You will appreciate the end product. The egg mixture will separate into what looks like yellow cottage cheese curds and liquid whey. Keep the liquid. You can use it place of milk in waffles or pancakes.
Line a sieve or small colander with the cheese cloth. The sieve should be over a large bowl to collect the whey. Be careful to keep the edges of the cheese cloth above the lip of sieve so you don’t lose the egg curds. Gather the edges of the cheese cloth to form a ball and tie off with twine. Suspend the cheese cloth ball over the bowl and allow to drain. I tie the ball off one of my cabinets. Let it drain for about 2 hours. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate overnight. To serve, remove the cheese cloth and slice. This fresh cheese will last about a week in the fridge.
So the morning started out at 35 degrees. The afternoon is supposed to be in the upper 60’s. Morning weather demanded a soup. So I was watching a video from Vermont and reminiscing about skiing at Stowe while in college. Thought about chowders but wanted something different. Did a search and found a bean chowder recipe on the Randall beans website. So I totally stole the basic recipe and made it my own. Here’s the link to the original recipe if you would like to see what I changed. https://randallbeans.com/2015/12/17/new-england-bean-chowder/ After you open the cans of beans, just drain the liquid and set aside to use later. I did not rinse the beans. In an emergency situation, why would you drain and rinse? Nutrients are lost down the drain. I hope you like this recipe.
3 Tbsp Butter or Olive Oil
1 Onion, small dice
2 ribs Celery, small dice
3 medium Carrots, shredded
5 cups Bean Liquid and Water
2 medium potato, washed with skins on, cut in 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup Tomatoes (I had an 8oz can of sauce)
1 4 oz can Green Chilies
1 1/2 Tsp Salt
½ Tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
2 Tbsp Liquid Smoke (I used Apple)
2 15oz cans White Beans (I like to use White Kidney Beans/Cannellini Beans)
1 1/2 cups Milk
1 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast, optional
In a heavy bottom soup pot or Dutch Oven heat oil or butter over medium heat. Sauté onion, celery and carrots until tender. Add bean liquid/water mix, potatoes, tomatoes, green chilies, salt, pepper, cayenne and liquid smoke. Bring to a boil and reduce to a low simmer. Cook for 20 minutes.
Remove 1 cup soup, add one can of white beans and purée. Stir the milk and optional yeast gradually into the purée, then slowly stir this back into the soup pot. Add second can of white beans to soup pot.
Cook over low heat uncovered, stirring until soup thickens slightly and is heated through.
Season to taste. So good served with homemade bread.
This such a delicious rice dish. Kudos and a hat tip to one of my friends back in the northeast. Almost four years I and a couple friends from up there were on a vacation in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. My friend made this dish for us. It was so wonderful that I needed the recipe. It is an actual Costa Rican recipe she got when on a vacation several years ago. It is so easy especially if you have leftover rice and a can of black beans. It is a complete protein with the rice and beans. It can be used as a main vegetarian main dish or it can be a side for grilled chicken or grilled fish. Both of those meat proteins would be a traditional Costa Rican meal. I do like to top with rice with taco beef and homemade Greek yogurt. I make the yogurt in my Instant Pot. If you don’t have or can’t find Lizano Salsa you can substitute Worcestershire Sauce. But try to find the Lizano. I’m sure you’ll start to use it in other dishes and as a marinade. And a bonus, this is a pantry friendly meal for emergencies. I hope you like this an much as I do.
2 cups cooked Rice
1 15 ounce can Black Beans, drained and keep the liquid
3 Tbsp Olive Oil or Coconut Oil
3 Garlic cloves peeled and pressed or fine mince
1 small Red Onion, small dice
1 Jalapeno Pepper, fine dice
2 Carrots, small dice
1 rib Celery, (or more) small dice
1 Sweet Pepper (red, orange or yellow) small dice
½ cup of liquid from canned Beans
1 ½ Tsp ground Cumin
1 Tsp ground Coriander
1 Tsp grated fresh Ginger or ½ Tsp ground Ginger
2 Tbsp Lizano Sauce
½ Tsp Liquid Smoke (I used Apple Wood this time)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Lime
½ cup chopped Cilantro
Optional toppings are sliced Green Onions, Sour Cream or Greek Yogurt.
Drain beans and reserve the liquid for adding to pot later. Do not rinse the beans.
In a cast iron or heavy bottom pot over medium heat warm the olive oil. Add onions and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add garlic, peppers, carrots, and celery. Sauté about 10 minutes. Add rice and beans and mix. Add bean liquid, cumin, coriander, ginger, Lizano salsa and liquid smoke. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat and cook for about 10 minutes.
If desired, grate some of the lime zest and add to pot or just cut in half and add the lime juice.
Serve as a main dish or a side with meat proteins.
The following is my opinion. I’m not a health practitioner. I don’t play a doctor on TV and I haven’t stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in years..
Folks, it’s salt. There are more than 30 references to salt in the Bible and countless references in secular literature common culture.
Leviticus 2:13 (The Scriptures) Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your Elohim to be lacking from your grain offerings. With all your offerings you bring salt.
Matthew 5:13 (The Scriptures)You are salt of the earth: but if the salt becomes tasteless, how shall it be seasoned? For it is no longer of any use but to be thrown out and to be trodden down by men.
Isak Dineson, “The cure for anything is saltwater: sweat, tears or the sea.”
Salt of the earth…
Worth your salt…
Salary…
For centuries salt has been used flavoring, preserving, sterilizing, sacrificing, destroying and fertilizing.
If you are reading this post I can safely assume you have traveled around the sun more than a couple of times on this planet called Earth. I can also assume that you as have I heard all of the white noise regarding salt. “Experts say… blah, blah, blah…Low salt diets. Heart healthy diets. Eat less salt to lower your blood pressure.” Starting in the late 1970’s, government suggested guidelines advised restricting salt intake. Only now 50 years later researchers and consumers are realizing that salt is not the boogeyman threatening our health. The real white granular threat is sugar. An in-depth exploration of sugar requires a separate post.
Humans and animals crave salt. I have a small salt lick in my south pasture where the cows and wild game gather in summer. I put three different types of salt blocks in the lot where my horses are pastured. They visit the different blocks as needed. The 50 pound cubes are plain white salt, brown mineral salt and yellow/green sulfur salt. Horses instinctively know what they need. Unfortunately, most humans have had their instincts “educated” out of them and turned over their health to people with letters after their names.
Chapter two titled, We are salty folk, in Dr. DiNicolantonio’s book, “The Salt Fix” perfectly explains our need for salt. The last section in the chapter explores the salt and sex connection. He cites references of reduced birth rate and litter size, reduced mating and reproduction failure in livestock. Dr. DiNicolantonio references the book, “Aphrodite, sex and salt – from butterfly to man”, when he states, “ a low salt diet seems to act like a natural contraceptive in both animals and humans”.
So salt is essential for metabolic processes. Now the question is refined or unrefined. Refined salt is just that refined through harsh chemical processes that remove impurities, i.e. minerals. The end product is dead lifeless substance consisting of sodium and chloride along with anti-caking chemicals and possibly iodide added. This is not a substance that I choose to ingest.
Unrefined salt has not been subjected to chemical processes so it retains the minerals and trace elements which are advantageous to the human body. Three major brands of unrefined salt are Celtic Sea Salt, Pink Himalayan Salt and Redmond Real Salt.
Celtic Sea Salt which has more than 80 minerals and trace elements is collected on the southwestern coast of France. The sea water is allowed to gently dry in the sun and the wind. I started using Celtic Grey more than 14 years ago. I would order 25 pounds at a time. Currently, I using up the remainder of my Celtic Grey. I do have concerns about micro-plastics in oceans. It may not be a valid concern but so be it. They do sell a very fine finishing salt called Flower of the Ocean that I continue to buy. As a finishing salt very little is used on any single dish. Please visit www.selinanaturally.com for more product information. I receive no compensation for any clicks or products you might make.
While I was using Celtic Sea Salt I was also using Pink Himalayan Salt. Although called Himalayan, it is actually mined in Pakistan. The salt is mined and sold in bulk to many companies and then retailed under many different brands. Some are unrefined while others may undergo a refining process and have iodide added. I looked for brands that featured the NON-GMO Project label on the package. I also have several of those Himalayan salt lamps scattered around my house. If worse comes to worst I’ll wash the dust off those and start grinding!
Currently I am using Redmond Real Salt, coarse and fine grind. It is unrefined and has more than 60 minerals and trace elements and is sold only through the Redmond Real Salt company in Utah. Their salt is mined from an ancient underground dry sea. It has none of the concerns of evaporated fresh sea water. I appreciate that they are an American company. Please visit www.redmond.life for more product information. I receive no compensation for any clicks or products you might make.
Other types of salt in my pantry are Kosher Salt, pickling salt, Black Hawaiian salt, smoked salt, and Prague Powder #2 curing salt. Kosher Salt and the curing salt are the two I use the least for differing reasons. When I first started cooking most recipes and cooking shows recommended Kosher Salt. Now setting aside the religious Torah requirements of drawing out the blood from the meat, I find the taste of commercial Kosher salt a little harsh. I’m talking Morton’s Kosher. It is an industrialized salt that is cheap to buy. That is a consideration for a restaurant’s bottom-line. I still have a small container of Kosher salt but it is not my go to anymore.
The reason that curing salt, Prague Powder #2 is one of my least used salts is because I have not done a lot of home curing meat. However, I have included a recipe for homemade beef summer sausage at the end of this post. Curing salt is a salt to treat with respect. DO NOT eat this pretty pink salt raw sprinkled on food. It can be deadly. It is used for dry curing meat. It penetrates deep into the meat to kill botulism.
On to pickling salt. If you have done any hot water bath canning of pickled “anything” you probably used pickling salt. Pickling salt should be free of any chemical addictives such as anti caking agents or iodide. These chemicals can react with the vinegar and cause bitterness or discoloration in the pickled product. I have used fine grind Redmond Real Salt in my pickled recipes with no ill effect. If you are unsure about the salt you have to use in pickled recipes, buy some Morton’s Pickling Salt.
I have not used Black Hawaiian Salt or Smoked Salt very much but they are awesome as finishing salt right before you serve your dish.
The range of flavored salts is limited only by your imagination. Dehydrated fruits, herbs spices etc can be paired with your choice of salt to add flavor to your dishes. I have made small jars of flavored salts to give as gifts.
This simple post is just a first level introduction of salt and the ones I use regularly. In my opinion the book “Salted, a Manifesto on the World’s Most Essential Mineral With Recipes” by Mark Bitterman is an exhaustive tome on salt. It is my go too reference. Now I will leave you with the recipe for homemade Beef Summer Sausage. This is a two day recipe. It follows the references.
“Salt Cooking With the World’s Favorite Seasoning”, by Valerie Aikman-Smith
“Salted” by Mark Bitterman
“Salt Your Way to Health” by David Brownstone, M.D.
“The Salt Fix” by Dr. James DiNicolantonio
“Salt, Sugar, Smoke” by Diana Henry
“The River Cottage: Curing & Smoking Handbook” by Steven Lamb
“Cold –Smoking & Salt-Curing Meat, Fish & Game” by A.D. Livingston
“Preserve Meat, Fish and Game” by Ken Oster
Keto friendly, no carb homemade beef summer sausage
4 pounds very lean Ground Beef (at least 90% lean)
¼ cup Curing Salt
2 Tbsp Liquid Smoke
2 Tsp coarse ground Black Pepper
1 Tsp Garlic Salt
In a large bowl mix 4 pounds of ground beef with the curing salt. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate overnight. At least 12 hours.
The next day add liquid smoke, black pepper and garlic salt. Mix well.
Divide the meat mixture into 4 equal portions and shape into 8 inch long logs.
Set the sausage logs on a wire rack in a roasting pan or on a cooling rack in a baking sheet.
Preheat oven to 225 degrees F. Bake sausage for at least 4 hours.
These can be refrigerated for immediate use or they can be frozen.
Being here in East Central Oklahoma we have a lot of grocery products from Mexico and I have really developed a taste for Mexican Hot Coco. In the first photo you can see hot chocolate wafers you can buy to mix with warm milk. They are convenient and I do like them but I want to know exactly what is in my beverages. This my recipe for a premixed powder that can be mixed with warm milk or water. It has a little hit of cayenne that adds some warmth. It is a nice treat on a winter’s night. I hope you like it!
2 ½ c Powdered Milk
2 ½ c Powdered Sugar
1 ½ c Baking Coco powder
1 tsp Cayenne
1 tsp Fine Sea Salt
1 tbsp Ceylon or Saigon Cinnamon
Dash of Almond Extract or Vanilla Extract optional added to the warm liquid
Sift all dry ingredients to remove lumps and mix. Then store in an airtight canister. I use 3 heaping tablespoons for a 16 oz tumbler cup. And about ¼ teaspoon extract in the drink container.
reddirtcooking 