Charcutepalooza January – Duck Prosciutto.

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I like these blog challanges, Looking forward to canning a recipe per month and now I am going to aim for one or two new recipes per month in regards to Charcuterie, or in layman terms the ” craft of salting, smoking and curing.” meat.

I am planning on using meat raised from our own farm if at all possable. but I am certainly  willing to also use wild game traded with the local hunters/farmers around me.

Each month, we will be given a challenge and our reports, recipes that we used the project in with photos to show you the results. So the first one is Duck Prosciutto.. stay tuned..

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Girl in training

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

So here is Girl taking a walk with me on the road this past weekend, she did really well,  of course as fate would have it, we had four of the folks that live around here all pass by while we were out training, she did really do with the passing vehicles, and held her stand while expressing interest but not fear.

She did well with the different footing and responded well to her voice training, overall we walked 1.5km on lead and worked off and on the whole time.. she was more then ready to have her halter off and be put back into her stall in the barn with a little reward

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Frugal Tip in regards to Fruits or Veggies

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Here’s a great little tip for you, if you are looking at Fruit or Veggies that are at a set price, this weeks examples where Pinapple and Bags of Apples for a dollar each..

The ladies at the pinapples where shaking their heads at me, but I was picking out the ones that I liked the looks of in terms of shape/color but of equal importance was that I weighed them.. The price was set but the amount was up for grabs, I found up to a almost 1/2 pd difference in the pinapples.. that means that because I weigh them, compared to the average weight, I got an extra half pd.

So if you are not in a hurry, give those bags of onions, or carrots or pototo’s or any other set price fruit or veggies and get it on that scale to get the best bang for the buck.

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Do you like food?

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Today is a thinking day, I burned though my workout this morning, it was for upper body strength and carefully did the most basic Kettle Bell move, called the Swing, while watching in the mirrow with the photos on the computer having been stared at and practiced without the weight. It seems easy but the body says not..

So as I planned bread for the week, what hubby will take for his work meals and then started prepping and planning for tonights dinner, I realized that I do the opposite of what Dr. Oz’s says to do.. which is “Auto” your food.. Eat the same thing or the same basic thing at meals, so that you don’t have think about it..

I get it, if you are tired and hungry, they are wanting you to not pull out the phone book and call for a pizza or stop at the fast food joint for a burger, or throw your hands up and go out for a meal..

But what about someone who eats with the season’s and out of the garden, this advice does not work so well, I doubt very much that Dr. Oz puts big black buckets over certain spots in the garden to force the stinging nettle to come early in April so that he has fresh greens to use in the kitchen, I am willing to bet that he just goes and buys regular greens at the store.

I think that following the season’s and trying become tuned to fresh food is a good thing for our overall health, and I think it is a good thing to reach and stretch ourselves in regards to our menu’s.

So here is one of the things that I have found to help over the past year, eat a little before the meal.. now this is a VERY tricky thing for me, as sometimes it can send me wanting to go back again if I am really hungry but I am fast eater, and that is something that is not really likely to change, because I like to eat food that is meant to be hot, while  its hot.. I can eat food that is cold or room temp much slower then I do hot food.

However if I eat a little (and I do mean little) bite about 20 to 30 min before the meal, maybe 6 walnut halves or a small 2 oz peice of cheese or any other kind of protein, only protein seems to work in this regard. I will eat less at the meal itself, and will feel full, I think? that its possable that my body needs that extra time to get the hormones kicking in.. What about you? How are you at figuring out those full que’s and have you figured out any tricks to help you in this regard.

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Whole Grains and my “shhhh” Secret

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Ok, I will admit that this DD Challange has me reaching out and researching more local grains and suppliers, which is awesome, but I am going to own up to a little Secret of mine..

As I was just making a Banana Flax Cake for DH’s Work Week while my Rye Buttermilk Batter Bread is cooling having just come out of the Cast Iron Fry Pan in the oven,  I reached into the freezer and pulled out my Flax for fresh Grinding an my Bran.. and just stopped and looked at it..

So here it is folks, I watch for the big 3 or 4 sales of unbleached white flour that happen at our local store, I do buy a canadian product and the company tells me it is all Canadian Wheat and I buy it in bulk and freeze the bags of flour in one of my big Freezers, and then I buy fresh bulk Flax, Bran, Rye Flour, 12 grain Flour, Barley Flours and I use Red River as a Base alot in my “Whole Grains” and I keep these limited shelf whole grain products in the freezer and then mix them with the unbleached white flour to create my own whole grain.

I tried buying Whole Wheat but sometimes I want alot more Bran and sometimes depending on the product I want alot less Bran and in our warm summers, it goes bad so easy, which meant that I was having to keep the big bag in the freezer and then trying to remember to pull out and fill a bucket for house use, which when you make everything from scratch, it seemed like I was always out, and then the flour would so cold.

Someday I would like to have a hand grinder and grind my own grains, its on the list, but for now, this is how I deal with my needs for the farm. So if you are tired of having flour go bad, or if you are like me, you like to buy in bulk but also don’t like to waste anything.. consider the above as a way to have a good middle road.

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Our Workout.. Shoveling Snow..

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Its funny, most folks don’t hand clear a lane as big and long as our’s and to be fair, if we get a really bad storm/drifting, we hire a friend down the road to come and plow it out and make the parking and turn around in the yard, but most of the time, we do it ourselves with DH taking the brunt of this work.

So this year its been a bit different, I have lost a good amount of weight, and I am stronger so I have been shoveling out the front of the lane and mail box way a number of times already and today was able to work side by side while we did the lane, AWESOME!

But what truly made me do the “Dance of Joy”  was that I fit back into my snow pants from the Artic today, I have not been able to fit in them for SIX years, and there were the odd time I would try them on.. groan and put them back, they are in perfect condition and I didn’t want to give up that someday I might get there, and TODAY it happened..

Now they are still a bit tight, but that just gives me more reason to work a little harder this week to get a little more give in them, but they are a great fit for walking, and that will make it better with that cold winter wind we have been having.

The second thing that has been great this winter is that we have not had to shovel the snow path from the house to the barn, because we are feeding and putting out the fresh water behind the little barn, just across from the house, the herd keeps the pathway’s stramped down for us, they go back and forth a couple times or more a day and we have so far not had to shovel even once..

Well, we are warmed up and need to go back out of Round 2 to clear the pathway from the road to where our hay gets delivered so the tractor won’t get stuck.. and to give us a turn around an extra parking area if needed.

Both of us looked at each and said.. Don’t need to do the wii today an then laughed.. so true, so true..

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Winter Challange Meal #6

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Dark Day Challange Meal #6

This weeks homegrown food is Pea’s, I opened a bag of fresh frozen green Pea’s from the summer and what I can say.. heavenly with fresh local mushrooms. We planted pea’s three times over the past summer and had our best crop to date, having said that very few made it to the freezer, so this is a treat for sure.. Next year, I need to expand the amount of pea’s grown again..

  • Roasted Leg of Lamb (with Red Wine, Onions an Garlic), Then the meat was taken off and cut into stew peices, the sauce cooked to be reduced-Then add the cooked Mushrooms and Green Pea’s Butter and Spices touched up and ready to go over the mashed.
  • Mashed Potato’s
  • Green Pea’s and Mushrooms

Dessert -Chuncky Apple Sauce with Cinnamon

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Salmon Coucous Meatloaf

Posted on January 15, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Salmon Meatloaf with Green Beans/Mushrooms and Mashed

Salmon Coucous Meatloaf Recipe

  • 3 cups Baked Fresh Salmon
  • 2 Farm Fresh Eggs
  • 1 Heaping TBSP of Horseradish
  • 1 clove Garlic -shedded
  • 1 small onion-Diced-Ok I  Diced, but I would recommend Finely Diced
  • 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
  • 1/2 cup of dry coucous
  • Salt/Pepper/Basil/Dill to taste (start with 1/2 tsp of each)

Mix together and bake at 350 for 40 min, and let rest 5 min before cutting into and serving

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We are in the 30 coldest days of the year..

Posted on January 15, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Brrrrr, and I can tell it, its bitter bone chilling cold out there, its the wind and the damp that makes the cold seem so much more, I was raised in cold country but it was a dry cold, with many days of bright blue sky’s, now I live where it is in fact mostly milder but its a damp cold and the wind blows daily..

Thank goodness for layers but even so, I find myself doing the chores in sets and warming up in between, today it was cold enough to make my nose run and my eyelash’s freeze..yuk

So if I can’t have blue sky in real life, I can at least remember what it looks like on the blog.. ahhh, blue sky, you make even the coldest day seem better.. come back soon..

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Oil pulling for your mouth/teeth health

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

http://www.oilpulling.org/oil-pulling/

Please note that I am not recommending this, I just read about it, and wanted to give it a try, and I was asked for a little more info on what it is.. but I can’t see any reason that it would be harmful, and so it fell in line for me as a “why not”

Here is the idea-

The practitioner rinses their mouth with approximately one tablespoon of oil (sesame and coconut oil are the most recommended) for 15–20 minutes on an empty stomach (before eating/drinking) then spits it out.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_pulling

This process makes oil thoroughly mixed with saliva. As the process continues, the oil gets thinner and white. The oil is put in the mouth, with chin tilted up, and slowly swished, sucked, chomped and pulled through the teeth. The oil changes from yellow and oily consistency to a thick viscous consistency. One must ensure that the oil is spit out before the purported toxins get re-absorbed by the body. If the oil viscosity starts thinning while swishing, it should be a sign that toxins are getting re-absorbed. A second round of oil pulling may be done with fresh oil for further cleansing. The oral cavity is then thoroughly rinsed and washed with normal tap water and fingers or tooth brush. This procedure is typically performed daily.[6]

There is some scientific literature on the use of oil pulling therapy, like one study that reports on the effect of oil pulling therapy with sesame oil on the oral health status. In this study there was a definitive reduction in the S. mutans count in plaque and saliva after oil pulling therapy. The mechanism by which oil pulling therapy causes plaque inhibition and reduction in S. mutans is not known. The viscosity of the oil could probably inhibit bacterial adhesion and plaque coaggregation. Other possible mechanism might be the saponification or the ‘soap-making’ process that occurs as a result of alkali hydrolysis of fat. [21] Sesame oil is a vegetable fat and when acted upon by salivary alkalis like bicarbonate, the soap making process is initiated. Soaps are good cleansing agents because they are effective emulsifiers. Emulsification is the process by which insoluble fats like sesame oil can be broken down into minute droplets and dispersed in water. Emulsification greatly enhances the surface area of the oil, thereby increasing its cleansing action. [21] But more studies have to be done to prove the antibacterial effect of the components of the sesame oil. Cited from Asokan S. Rathan J. Muthu MS. Rathna PV. Emmadi P. Raghuraman. Chamundeswari.

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