Blog Archives - Changin' Thymes

Farina and Canned Meats

1/31/2015

The last day of January. Wow!! Time certainly is flying by. There is a great possibility for snow in the next couple days from the weather reports in our area, then it's supposed to get cold again. Tis the season - but I'm a die-hard Spring fiend!!

It was 18 degrees at 8:00 a.m. when I went out to feed the chickens and horses. I was not too very excited. The ground was so heavy with frost it looked like it had snowed last night. I was in one of "those moods" and having to go outside in the brutal air was not my cup of tea. I don't know, I must have got up on the wrong side of the bed. I've been doing exceptionally well with these morning feedings, even through all the yukky weather; but this morning I was way, way grumpy!! After I got back in the house I fixed hubby something a little different for breakfast. I prepared Farina. What is Farina you ask? Check my Did You Know? page.

I intended to can up some meats Thursday or Friday but the meat had not properly thawed yet so today's the day. Meats take 90 minutes to process. They are not at all difficult to can but the processing time and then the cool-down time can become extremely monotonous. I'm terribly old fashioned and keep a close eye on the gauge. I'm probably a little overly cautious but, be that as it may, I have a hard time leaving the kitchen while I have a pressure canner on the stove. I take a nice book into the kitchen and get a lot of reading done while waiting on the meat to finish canning so it's not all bad!! After having the pork last night for supper I'm even more entrenched in the idea of this being a knock-out way to preserve meats. The freezer is my go-to but I had no idea how good canned meats really could be and what a great emergency food too! I've already forewarned hubby that it's soup and sandwiches tonight. I've got some leftover roast beef and leftover pork for the sandwiches and some canned vegetable soup. I know I'm going to be super tired by the end of the day so I figured I'd better be prepared.

I have 3 quarts of pork and 3 quarts of beef in the pressure canner - cooling down.

Four quarts of chicken and 2 quarts of beef waiting to go into the pressure canner.

Canned Pork Loin

1/30/2015

It's another fairly nice morning here in Southwestern Indiana. Yes, it's overcast and cold but it could be much, much worse. So far we haven't gotten any rain or snow but the skies look as though they are ready to burst!

Me? I'm running around getting ready for one of my busiest times of the year and that's seed planting time!! I have a tendency to let my garage get out of control. If there's overflow that's where it goes. I've got boxes of empty canning jars, packing boxes and all of my planting paraphernalia along with my pumpkins and squash sitting in the garage. That's fine - but every Spring I have to get things a little more organized and clear space for planting, because this is where the tiny miracles begin.

I got my plant grow light out, dusted off and rolled it into the basement where it's warmer and am washing up any containers that I may have skipped over last year. I want to be totally ready to go when the time comes. It was my greatest of intentions to save all the seeds from my veggies this last season and I did save some, but this year I really want to make a concerted effort to save them. This requires careful labeling, of which I am TERRIBLE about doing!! I start out really well. I then plant the seeds and plant way too many because I'm afraid they won't come up. Then most of them come up and I panic and just start transplanting them as fast as I can and always seem to lose track of which is which. If indeed I do manage to keep them all labeled the exact same scenario occurs when I'm transplanting them to the garden. I just get way too excited and in a giant hurry; so this year I need to try and stay very calm and tell myself I have plenty of time, no rush, do it right and label or mark everything. I simply cannot mess this up and I am NOT going to plant so many seeds. You heard me here - now, I've got to hold myself to it!!

I've used some of the beef, venison, and sausage that I canned this past year but I've not tried canned pork loin or chicken. Tonight I'm going to try the pork loin. I know it will taste fine but I want to figure out a tasteful way to fix and present it. I'm wanting to keep it somewhat ordinary but I'll need to prepare it a little differently, coming from a jar. The meat is already cooked but it's pale and any cook knows a pale meat generally isn't considered visually palatable. I'm thinking that I need to very gently get it out of the jar, since it will literally be ready to fall apart and then transfer it to a pan with some oil that's already very hot and brown the meat. I'll sprinkle on some of my Pork Herb Blend which has that delectable cumin as one of the ingredients and fry until lightly brown. I will then take it out, put it in another dish and put it in the oven on low heat, take the juice from the can put it in the pan and make a nice gravy. It could be any type of sauce or gravy really. I could use broth, lemon juice or wine or make a milk gravy. So it's pork and gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, deviled eggs, and applesauce. Wish me luck!!

Three pork loin halved and canned.

I layed the pork in the very hot pan and sprinkled Pork Blend and salt on top.

The pan was very, very hot and did its job perfectly. The pork browned just right. Meanwhile, I fixed green beans and boiled up the potatoes for mashed potatoes.

When I took the pork out of the jar the tender meat started to crumble. Those little pieces in the sauce are the pieces of pork that fell apart. It was very good over the mashed potatoes!

Fairytales

1/29/2015

What a morning!! No sunshine, windy and very much overcast but . . . above 40!! After feeding and watering the chickens and horses I simply had to walk out to the herb garden and dream. This is my "fix" until Spring actually gets here. Oh, but it was wonderful and to top it all off, I'm one of those people who loves a windy day. I feel, as strange as it sounds, free as a bird on windy days. I sometimes feel like I could fly!!! On days like this I dream of magic carpets and hidden mountain caves, huge forests of luscious green, hillsides of fragrant lavender and baskets of heather. Crazy me - I suppose I dream of fairytales!

I came in the house and opened all the windows. I got a little preoccupied and before I knew it the thermometer had dropped to 65 so I scurried around the house and shut all the windows and turned the furnace back on. I don't want it to get too cold in the house but my goodness, the fresh air was delicious!

I put a beef roast in the crock pot with some homemade dried Ranch Dressing mix and some homemade Savory Blend sprinkled on top. It is smelling glorious right now!! What in the world would I do without my herbs?! I don't think I fix a meal without some kind of herb or spice involved. For instance, this morning, since I had some polenta leftover I fried up a couple pieces, drizzled a little Agave Nectar over them and sprinkled on some Dessert Blend. I wonder sometimes if I could even cook anymore without herbs. They are just second nature to me, ingredients that are a must!!

Today I was downstairs cleaning up the kitchen closet. Well, that's what I call it but it's actually a catch-all. In that little closet is another whole set of dishes, silverware, you name it - just in case stuff, PLUS everything else!!! I've got everything from Christmas wrapping paper and canning equipment to empty egg cartons and unused corks!! It's straighter than it was, but a far cry from what it should be. I do think that at least now I can find things I'm looking for . . . maybe.

Microwaves

1/28/2015

Want a good laugh? Back in approximately 1985, when my youngest went to school, I was nearly going out of my mind. After 11 years of not working outside the home, and trying so hard to be a good stay-at-home mom, I felt I needed to go back into the workforce. I loved working at the law office, meeting people and also contributing economically to the family. I became a much better person.

Back then microwaves were fairly new and early on I knew that there was one thing I was going to buy with my very own money. Well, I did and I bought a really nice one too. Needless to say, it was huge compared to the tiny ones they have now. It auto defrosted and had preset buttons for thawing and cooking your meats and veggies. It was top of the line - at least for a newbie like me. I've kept that very same microwave all these years. When we moved to our current home the previous owners left their old microwave so I used it and put mine in the basement kitchen where it got almost no use. Last night the upstairs microwave bit the dust and we brought up the old gal. She's awesome!! I simply love her. In truth, I don't use a microwave all that much anymore. I sometimes melt butter or heat water, sometimes thaw a little something or give it a quick reheat. Other than that, I rarely use it - but it just felt right having the old girl back in the kitchen!!

Polenta

1/27/2015

Did you get snow? We got about a half inch or so. So far this year Winter has not really been too bad. Of course, there have been years it snowed on Easter in this area too so Winter is not over - but I'm certainly keeping my fingers crossed.

Gosh, I was so proud of my girls yesterday. Eight chickens/Eight eggs!!! Doesn't get any better than that!

I have no idea what I'll be doing today. I'm doing the laundry a day early and am trying to decide what to have for supper. I'm leaning toward T-Bone steak with stir-fried onions, green peppers and garlic, baked sweet potato and something else. Haven't figured the something else out yet. We are supposed to get another beef for the freezer next month and I still have quite a few steaks from last year so I've been trying to eat more steaks here lately. This is one of those times when I facetiously have to say, "Oh BooHoo!!" Where is my violin when I need it! LOL!!

Today I want to talk a little about Polenta. Polenta is simply water, cornmeal, a little salt and a little butter. A very cheap side for those of you thinking about stretching your dollar but also versatile. I find polenta somewhat drab tasting yet a very comforting food. It's not hard to make and can be used as a savory or a sweet, a cereal or fried side at breakfast, a meat replacement on the grill, can be paired with onions, mushroom, peppers, or chutney. You can even sprinkle it with powdered sugar. Last night I made polenta to go with pork loins. The pork loins were covered in a luscious mustard, lemon and half and half sauce, with hints of dried ranch seasoning and garlic salt. The sauce was so rich it would have made me sick but I was considering it as a meal all by itself (just kidding!). It was really that good. I wanted a bland side and fried polenta fit the bill. I made the polenta in a 9 x 14 glass dish, put it in the frig to cool then sliced 4 servings out of it and fried it in the electric skillet, getting it nicely crisp and browned outside. Now at this point I could have covered it with marinara sauce, grated Parmesan or even smothered it in onions, mushrooms and peppers but I chose to just lay it beside the pork loin drizzled with the sauce and then drizzle just one end of the polenta with sauce - then sprinkled parsley on top. It was a beautiful plate with a side of buttered carrots and quite delicious. Polenta can also be made with ingredients like dried tomatoes and herbs mixed in and also can be made with milk. It's, as I said before, versatile, very economical and a really nice change for a side dish. This morning I got up, fried a couple squares and put a spoonful of chutney over it for breakfast. I'm going to be fair here. Hubby is not crazy about it because it actually is just too bland for him but last night he ate 2 pieces with the pork and sauce. This morning he really was not crazy about the polenta and chutney. I liked both! Try it, you may be well surprised!

This is my "plain polenta" made with water.

This is a pic of polenta with herbs and it looks like it was also made with milk. I did not make this one.

Here's what polenta looks like fried up.

Here's a pic of it before you let it sit and solidify. This has probably been left thinner purposely.

Honeoye & Parsley

1/26/2015

I forgot to tell you all that I received some of my garden seed in the mail on Saturday. I am beyond chomping-at-the-bit to start gardening but I might as well pull the reins in because we've got awhile yet before we can scoop up a handful of that luscious dirt out of our gardens. We can dream though, huh?!

Also, last year's Winter, as I have mentioned before, was really rough on the gardens around here. I lost almost all of my Surecrop strawberries, which truly makes one want to cry . . . so I ordered 25 more plants this year and they will arrive in March. I've always grown Surecrop but this time I ordered Honeoye. These are June bearing and are supposed to be very Winter hardy. They are also touted as holding a lot of their fruit up off the ground. This was a difficult change for me because I'm totally sold on Surecrop but I'm trying to be a little more adventurous and open to new varieties. They look like a great strawberry and we will see. Have any of you grown these? I'd love to hear your results.

I have a lot of flat-leaf parsley in my herb garden but no moss curled parsley. That's the parsley that you see on your plate at the restaurant that looks pretty but gets tossed into the trash. Such a waste!! Moss curled parsley, while not nearly as tasty as flat-leaf, is still wonderful and it too is quite flavorful. Not only that, it is an amazing plant for your flower garden. It's totally lovely and a great attractant for butterflies. I try and plant loads of the stuff and put it everywhere I can. Last year I was remiss in not planting any and I couldn't have been sorrier. It's a plant that once you get used to planting year after year, you would truly miss. This year I'm going to be planting a lot of this seed in hopes to get an early start. I just love the stuff.

Flat Leaf Parsley

Curly - Moss Leaf Parsley

Rib-Eye Steaks

1/25/2015

Last night I fixed the best supper!! It was just awesome! We had rib-eye steaks, potato patties and applesauce. Now, come on, don't say, "Oh no, not potato patties again!" These were fantastic potato patties! I had all those leftover potatoes I had shredded for the potato starch and used about a third of what I had. It looked to be about 4 cups, added 2 whole eggs, salt, pepper, 1-1/2 Tsp. garlic granules, 1 Tbs. dried onion flakes, 1/4 cup gluten free flour (could use regular flour) and stirred it all up. I dropped it by the spoonfuls onto hot canola oil in my electric skillet and let it just fry. I covered it with the lid for a couple minutes to make sure the potatoes would fully cook inside and of course, would turn them a couple times, but I fried them until they were golden brown. Oh my gosh!!! I had to make Hubby quit eating! I'm sure this must be something that someone has done before because it's too easy, simple and well, IT'S POTATOES; but it's the first time I've fixed them this way and I'm going to do it again. I think they were so good because of the garlic granules, I really do!

The steaks were fixed in a cast iron skillet. First I took the steaks that had been sitting out of the refrigerator for about 30 minutes or so and rubbed into them on both sides, salt and freshly ground pepper. I also put 1 Tsp. dried Rosemary, and 2 Tsp. dried Thyme in a bowl together. I cleaned about 6-8 garlic cloves and also melted 4 Tbs. butter. I poured oil in the skillet and when it began to sort of shimmer I put the rib-eyes in. I cooked the steaks on high, oh, I don't know, maybe 5 minutes but until they had this beautiful dark brown crust on them on the one side (but don't let them burn); then I turned them over. I then threw in the herb mixture and garlic, poured in the butter and let them cook until that side was nice and crusty brown. At this point Hubby's steak was ready. Me? Well, I've got to absolutely kill mine, no red, pink, nuttin' honey! I cook every once in a great while with wine and this just seemed to call for pumped-up flavor so I added maybe a quarter cup of white wine and let my steak cook a little longer in this lovely acidic mixture. I am fairly sure you could probably use a little broth with a tiny bit of vinegar in it for the acidic addition but I'm telling you the steaks were next to perfect!! I did let the steaks rest for about 5 minutes too. (All this was courtesy of a similar recipe I saw on the Food & Wine site.) Hubby loved the garlic on the side too. I have instructions to make him a bowlful of the delicious garlic cloves next time!!

Today I took the rest of the shredded potatoes, cooked them up, poured off some of the hot water and left some in there for mashing. Then I spread the mashed potatoes out on the dehydrator shelves and they are dehydrating as I type this. I knew that I could make instant mashed potatoes this way but after googling potato flour I realized that after this is dehydrated and I give it a good whirr in my food processor that not only can I jar it up and put it in my stores as ready-to-make instant mashed potatoes I also have potato flour. Works for me!!!

I made paleo/gluten free tortilla dough for the chicken burritos that we're having for supper. They are now sitting, resting. I'll let you know how they turn out. Since we're having a guest for supper I'm also making flour tortillas too. I've made flour tortillas before but I'm not so sure about the gluten free ones. The chicken is finished and sitting in the crockpot and tomatoes, onions, cheese, beans, shredded lettuce and sour cream are all sitting in the frig. This evening right before I'm ready to serve I'll make the tortillas fresh. I've got salsa and chips and for dessert I'm going to put a square of brownie on a plate with a dollop of whip cream and a dash of Dessert Blend on top. I hope that works for the guys!!
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By the way, the white flour tortillas were absolutely perfect. The whole recipe came together beautifully, they didn't take long to make and they tasted magnificent . . . the gluten free tortillas never got off the ground. I went to roll them in balls and they fell apart and crumbled. I don't know what I did wrong but it whatever I did was evidently not even close. I'll figure it out sooner or later!!!

Brownies

1/23/2015

Hubby and I were talking this morning and I told him I'd like to add about 4 chickens to my flock next Spring, 2016. I want to add 2 Marans and 2 Araucana/Ameraucanas (Easter Eggs Chickens), or maybe 4 Araucanas. I'm not sure yet. The Marans lay the darkest brown chocolate-looking egg and the Araucanas lay colored eggs. Hubby was afraid there wouldn't be enough space in the chicken run for 12 chickens but he said he was giving serious thought to putting a goat pen right next to my chicken coop. The goat pen would be for the young goats and as they got older he would let them out into the rest of the pasture . . . but the cool thing is he said he would cut a door in my chicken run and the chickens could run in that area with the baby goats and later it would be there for them while the older goats were outside in the pasture, during the day. Cool, huh!!!!! I have been checking to see how well they would co-habitate, taking into consideration diseases, feeding, etc. There are a lot of little things to consider. I want to be prepared as I can be. Now, what I have to do is quash all this excitement and let Hubby get his head wrapped around everything and let him think. Oh, I'm so excited. This is going to be difficult!! Calm . . . calm . . . calm . . .

I made Hubby brownies today. He loves my brownies, but they've always come from a box. I know, I know, but for some reason he says mine are always better than anybody else's. I tell him they're just a box mix but he says mine are the best! Go figure!! Anyway, I tried brownies from scratch today. Of course, I did add pecans. We don't do brownies without pecans. They smell great, they look good and I'm waiting for Hubby to taste test. I'll let you know and if they past the "Hubby Test" I'll have another recipe from scratch under my belt . . . and yes, I'll share!!
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Hubby gave it the "thumbs up". He actually gave both thumbs up. Said that there was no need for me to bother buying the box stuff again. TeeHee! I'm smiling!!!

Potato Starch

1/22/2015

I made potato starch today and I'm really proud. It is the very first time for me. Now, to be perfectly honest, I would have probably added one more piece of equipment (my metal bowl strainer), but I wasn't thinking. It really didn't make THAT much difference but it would have made it easier, probably, for me. I had heard you could make potato starch and wanted to do it all on my own - THEN I went to the internet to see how off I was and I wasn't that far off at all!! I had always noticed when I cooked potatoes that milky substance in the bottom of my pan and kind of knew it was starch but since I'm not really too great about thinking outside of the box it never occurred to me that it was starch-starch and would work in a similar manner as corn starch and flour. Sometimes even I amaze myself as to how little I actually think!! Anyway, in talking to one of my sons, he was telling me that he was using potato starch and I got to thinking about why I couldn't make my own. So I did!! Well, since it's my first time I haven't perfected it yet but here's what occurred -

I started with my homegrown potatoes. I used the ones that were starting to wrinkle or go bad.

I then peeled them and put them in plain cold water.

I drained, then ran them through my food processor with the shredder blade. Put cloth over my other pan that had been filled about half full of water and dumped my shredded potatoes in it.

I actually had to do this in 2 batches. It was too much to handle for one person in just 1 batch. I show you this pic of my processor bowl so you can see the filmy stuff on the inside. That is the starch.

The next time I do this I will put my bowl strainer inside the pan first and then lay the cloth down over it. It would help the whole straining process.

I let the potatoes sit for a couple minutes and make sure the potatoes are all mixed up in the water and then you pick up the ends and squeeze the life out of it! I do this about 3 times or until the water runs clear.

I wanted you to see the pan with the water and the starch. If I were to do this again I would probably let this sit for awhile so more of the sediment could settle on the bottom and maybe even pour this water into a bowl a second time and let it sit for awhile again to see if there was more starch that would fall to the bottom.

See the starch? It feels EXACTLY like cornstarch after you have put the water in it.

I put this in my dehydrator and put in on a low setting, I think about 115 and will check it until it has dried into a powder.

After leaving it in the dehydrator approximately 1 hour I put it in a coffee grinder and gave it a little grind and that was it!

I realize it didn't make a whole lot of potato starch but it is free!! The potato peelings went into the compost bin and the shredded potatoes went into some water with lemon juice and then into the frig. I'll fry some of them and do whatever I want to do with the rest of the shredded potatoes. Absolutely, no waste! I love it!!! Yes, a little trouble - but just think about all the things in the world that take your time, your efforts and actually do cause you trouble. This is rather a drop in the bucket!

Mr. Skunk

1/21/2015

Whoooeeee! We definitely had a visitor last night. Mr. Skunk must have been looking things over in our barn. We've had skunks hole up under our barn before and we're hoping that any future skunks decide to build their den somewhere else because we've not figured out a way to get rid of them yet. A few years ago we had skunks, but after a year or so, a fox family moved in and the skunks left so it worked well for us; but I'm hoping this time it was just a casual walk-thru! Skunks like chicken eggs and fox like chicken eggs . . . and chickens. We don't think they can get to my chickens but if I were a chicken they would sure make me nervous!!

I've been doing laundry today and have had my head in figures most of the day. I made a new order to Mountain Rose Herbs for some of the oils, teas, herbs and spices I cannot grow myself. Then I figured my order for vegetable seeds. After that I figured my herb seed and herb plant order. Whew!! One at a time you can swallow but all three at one time is tough. But, it's done and I THINK I'm all set for this coming Spring planting.

Other than all that there's not been a whole lot going on here at the ranch. I'm going to fry ham and scramble up some eggs for supper and call it a day.

Have a good one!!

Author

My name is Nina. Southern Indiana has been my home since 1952. I've been a legal secretary most of my adult life and for my leisure time I enjoy everything connected to the world of herbs and cooking is almost like a "fever". I am also quite opinionated but try not to push my opinions on others. My family is grown and I'm left with a wonderful hubby sharing life with me. I'd guess you'd say my passion is living that life to the fullest.

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