Oatmeal Cookies

Posted on February 10, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Amazing so yummy Oatmeal cookies for lunch box’s or after chore snacks. My hubby is really liking that my mom likes to make cookies, its not something that I tend to make a lot of.. they are more a treat then not. I make muffin’s, loafs, Cakes and such to have in the house at pretty much all times.

Cookies.. not so much but last week he got mom’s favorite cookies called Rocks, a nut-raisin filled not so sweet cookie.. This time I made Oatmeal Cookies, I about cried at the amount of fat and sugar in these. I had to cut the sugar down by half a cup.. and I will not lie I would like to see if I could remove some of the fat and replace with apple sauce and see how close I could keep the cookie the same in texture and taste. I will give you the full recipe, but note I lowered the brown sugar by half a cup with no issues.

None the less, at least it has five an half cups worth of old fashioned oatmeal in there..

Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

  • 1 cup of butter
  • 1 cup of lard
  • 2 cups brown Sugar
  • 2 large eggs or 3 medium eggs
  • 2 cups of flour
  • 5 an half cups of oatmeal
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking soda

Preheat your oven till 350.

Mix the butter and lard together and cream it well, then add brown sugar and blend together till fluffy, then add eggs and repeat..

Then add the flour, salt, baking soda and the oatmeal, it will be a hard stir at first but keep going, it will pull together.. if its to dry, add one tsp of water at a time and then mix well again till you get a stick together dough..  I included a picture of the dough when it was ready so you can see it once it comes together right 🙂

Two ways to prepare them, as seen in my photo, drop by teaspoon full on your baking sheet, slightly flatten and bake for 8 to 10 min till golden brown on the edges, cool and move off baking trays to cool on wire trays or counter.

Or drop by Tbsp, take a small glass cup.. dip the bottom in sugar and press the cookie out flatter and with a sugar top, bake 6 to 8 min till golden brown on the edges of the cookie.. you will get a much crispier drier cookie this way.

Both ways are good.. but a different result with the same dough 🙂

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Snow Cream Recipe

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

We had company come yesterday for a quick but lovely visit and I made Snow Cream for the three of us as our dessert. It was the first time my guest and as it turns out my mother had every had it. It was a hit! It’s always a hit..

I got asked where I had learned about it and I had heard about it years ago when I lived in Iqaluit, Nunavut because it was so costly to buy “store Ice cream” I made both homemade ice cream (with a machine) and I made homemade Snow Cream.

However doing some digging after being asked about it yesterday in regards to its history, it is pretty hard to track down, it does appear that is a much-loved treat in the southern states of the US and strangely it’s not very common knowledge in Ontario Canada.Its a simple three things recipe. Its my understanding that you can make it with milk and sugar, but the use of the Condensed Milk means that it’s already got both and in a nice thick sauce.

Snow Cream Recipe

  • 12 to 14 cups of fresh snow, if its heavier snow got with the 12 cups if it’s really Fluffy go 14 into a big bowl or steel pot.. Chilling the bowl or the pot will help give you an even better result but it’s not required for it to work.
  • One can of Condensed Milk (the better the quality of this, the better the overall result)
  • 1 tsp of the Best Quality of Vanilla you have in the house

Fill your big bowl with your fresh snow, Take the top two inches off the snow if you can and then take fresh snow after that. Try not to take the first hour of your snow storm as it will have the most “dirty” snow of the storm.  Then drizzle your Vanilla and your Sauce over the snow and mix it together with a big wooden spoon.. I always use a wooden spoon but I am sure other would work as well..

Blend it together until it comes together into a nice snow cream slushy. Which when you eat it will melt in your mouth with a texture that is so much like regular ice cream it will truly surprise you 🙂 If possible only use fresh fluffy snow, if your snow has more pellet or more icy, it will give you those harder icy bits in your Snow Cream and it will affect the mouth feel

But don’t just stop here.. Try Chocolate Snow Cream. Melt some hot Chocolate mix into your Condensed Milk and then cool it back down and make Chocolate Snow Cream.

Try it with Lemon, Orange, peppermint flavourings..

 

 

Posted in frugal | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Asian Inspired Brawn (Amazing Head Cheese)

Posted on February 8, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Another favorite thing to do with an overabundance of piggy parts is to make this Asian-inspired brawn. If I call it tête de fromage or souse, no one knows what I’m talking about, and “headcheese” puts people right off, so brawn it is. This recipe is modified from the one for souse in Tim Byres’ inspirational cookbook, Smoke, but the Japanese and Chinese ingredients take it in a whole different direction.

Recipe by Laurance Mate

Found at the awesome Facebook Group The Salt Cured Pig

For the brine:
One whole pig’s worth of head (with jowls), hocks, and trotters (approx. 20 lbs)
1.5 gallons of water
300g salt
25g cure #1
200g palm sugar with ginger

For the pickle:
2 bottles mirin
1 quart cider vinegar
water to cover
1 bunch celery, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
1 white onion, quartered
1 bunch parsley
6 bay leaves
4 oz Dijon mustard
¼ cup white peppercorns
2 Tb whole coriander
2 Tb Szechuan peppercorns
12 whole cloves
6 star anise
1 cinnamon stick

For the final mix:
2 quarts of pickle, reduced to 1 qt
2 bunches parsley, chopped
4 oz hot Chinese mustard
4 oz soy sauce or as needed for sodium
6 oz Sake
6 oz rice wine vinegar

Heat the water to dissolve the salts and sugar. When cooled, add the head, hocks, and trotters, and soak for at least a week, refrigerated, jiggling or stirring the brine once a day. (Since it’s roughly an equilibrium cure, two weeks or more won’t hurt.)

Drain off the brine and put the piggy parts in a stock pot with all the pickle ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until the meats are falling-apart tender, approx 4 hours. Strain the pickle, saving 2 quarts to reduce for binding the headcheese.

When the meats are cool, coarsely shred all the skin and meat into a bowl, and mix in the other ingredients, bit by bit, to taste. If the meat is a little undersalted, salt the reduced pickle enough to compensate.

Pack the meats gently into loaf pans lined with cling film (this makes it much easier to remove when set) and pour in enough of the reduced pickle to come up to the top. Refrigerate until set, then slice and enjoy!

Posted in odd bits | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Cherry Pie on a cold snow bound winter day..

Posted on February 8, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

We got nailed with a good little snow storm and we are back down into bitter cold temps right now.. got 8 inches of snow yesterday, more coming today and woke up to -25 without the wind chill added to that yet..

So it was delightful to have a pop of color and boost of fat after all that shoveling and extra hauling that needed to be done. hot cuppa coffee and pie is a great stopping point and reward but I see that I will shoveling my deck and walkways this morning again.

egg numbers are slowly increasing daily but I broke a few coming in last night.. the hound got them with their dinner and licked the bowls extra clean.. making turkey stock and the cats got the skins after they were cut up and they loved their treat as well.

Last week we had a warm snap, got up to 1 and sunny and grabbed this photo of sofie (behind) and river kitten in front. She is growing up well over the winter and is slowly learning to be a indoor-outdoor kitty and how to hunt in the outbuildings..  We are heading into 2018 with a most younger 2 to 5 years farm pride of purr pots. they have been very busy this winter, so many mice this winter.

Posted in Canning, pie dough | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Rabbit Tenderlion Pot Pie

Posted on February 7, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

I made a batch of lard based pie dough, it’s the tender Flake Recipe on the Box, it’s so simple and if it’s worked properly, it’s a very nice flakey pie crust

If you want to learn more about pie dough in detail check out this pie dough making post.

Now I had intended to make a proper rabbit stew and all fresh but the day got away from me, come on.. you know it happens to you as well and by the time I got to the pies it was later in the afternoon and I needed it to happen much faster then normal.

I grabbed a pint jar of home canned Rabbit Tenderloin and used the juice for  in the gravy and chunked up the amazing rabbit meat and then hit the freezer.. diced potato’s and a veggie mix along with two cups of gravy, onion powder and Montreal steak spice and I am game (as it turned out, I needed more gravy) o well.. everyone loved it anyway..

It turned out to be very quick and easy pie to make because I used my canned rabbit meat, the joy of the tenderloin is that its all boneless white meat.. it retains its flavour in the rabbit in a outstanding way.

Posted in pie dough, rabbits | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Lamb Chili Recipe

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Lamb Chili Recipe

  • 1 pound ground lamb
  • 2 med onions
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 4 stalks celery
  • 1 box mushroom (or not if you do not like them)
  • 1 jar tomato juice or v8
  • 1 large jar(quart) or big can diced tomato’s
  • 1 small can tomato paste
  • 2 cans brown beans or a pint home canned
  • 1 large can mixed beans or one large kidney or one canned mixed pint of beans
  • 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper and half a cup of chili powder, more if you want 🙂

Cook your onion, garlic in a touch of oil at med heat then add celery and mushrooms, cook for a few more min then added burger, break up well as the meat cooks till its cooked though and in crumbles, add all the rest and let simmer at least 20 to 40 min, with the odd stir to keep things from sticking to the bottom. can be served as is, with sour cream and green onions or cheddar cheese grated etc

Even better reheated the next day, chili is a perfect dish to introduce mild Ontario ground lamb to your family or friends

Posted in Soups and Stews | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Winter Sprouting of Fresh Eating Greens 2018

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

I love the sprout mix I get for the house its a mix of Broccoli, Clover, Radish and Alfalfa certified Organic Blend that I buy, I have saved home grown radish seed, Home grown and saved Bloody Dock Seeds and Home grown and saved Pigweed seeds and TONS of home grown and saved mustard seeds.  Its nice to have a different choices but my home grown do tend to do better as micro greens then sprouts.

I like my sprouts smaller then they say to grow them, I have been known to eat them straight out of the dish with just a fresh water rinse on them while they are still so small and tiny but I also have times when they get ahead of themselves and they create the nice thick mat of roots. I find they work better to be added to things once they are chopped up.

 

Its nice to have a mix of kinds and at different stages, I currently have eight trays but I am thinking about increasing it to 12 trays going now that my mom is in the house? Do you sprout, if so how many trays do you run for how many people in your household? Do you buy your sprouting seeds? or do you grow, harvest and save your sprouting seeds? if so what is your favorite kind to do so on? or are you like me.. do you do both.. buy some and grow and save some?

If you do not sprout, what is your favorite way to get your winter greens? Do you grow mircogreens under lights? Are you one of those lucky readers that lives in a area that you can grow and harvest mustard greens year round or do you live a colder area but have the bigger set ups with the double layers and you winter grow your cold hardy greens and harvest all winter long?

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Happy New Year 2018

Posted on January 1, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2018..  Man 2017 was a wild ride in many ways.. the aftermath of a major drought year combined with some of the worst flooding in a hundred years and now we are having record breaking cold..  tell me again that the weather is not being effected by those hotter and colder then normal ocean currents.

The farm’s livestock and gardens had adjustments in 2017, some that were heart breaking to me and others that I just dealt with.. the first and I hope only year where we had massive predation. It does not matter to me that we have a program for some funding at the losses, it does not matter to me that it happened at all the other small farms around me..

What does matter is that I failed as a livestock owner in that animals in my care felt fear at their ends and that the only way I could make it stop was to barn them and allow very limited outside time (something that I hate to do to any of my critters) This spring will see us making a new outside corral with hot lines so they can at least loaf around under the tree’s, doze in the sun and feel the breezes as all animals should.  On a side note.. it was brutal on the budget.. when you have pasture for your livestock, you expect to be able to use it and not be buying and feeding hay due to the local coy-wolf pack

The Reno’s seem never ending and far more costly then expected but when do they not..  I was doing so well on the farm tracking and the blogging and I am sad that I was not able to keep up.  However for me at least Blogging, photos, writing and so forth are a creative force and I found when I was so tired that I could barely do more then keep up and crawl into the bed the very idea of writing created a “blank”

So upward and onward.. Its a new year and normally I write out all the things I want to do on the farm, in my life and on the blog..  but NOT this year folks.. This year I am free flowing it! 😛

Here is what I am offering up for 2018 (a much more relaxed list to be sure for those that have been my readers for years)

  • I will plant less gardens if needed in order to keep up on what I have and I will NOT break a new garden until I have my older gardens fully cleaned up and planted.
  • I will not buy new tree’s bushes or fruiting canes until I have cleaned up, pruned and replanted all the babies from my current bramble of goodies on the farm. Unless I can get them free from the local wild area’s. (example I want more High Bush Cranberries)
  • I will not expand any of my breeding programs, I will focus this year on repairing infrastructure and culling to improve the quality of my current programs.
  • I will work to produce enough meat, eggs, milk for the farm needs
  • I will work to produce enough fresh eating and to put up at least 400 jars worth of garden produce.
  • I will work to produce enough seed to save from at least my top twenty favorites this year. I will offer seed from at least my top ten favorites.
  • I will continue to work with and promote local plant, garden and food farms
  • I will continue to work with an promote and teach locally in regards to canning, preserving and wild edibles.
  • I will continue to give talks and presentations on all kinds of homesteading things.
  • I will blog as often as I can and we will see what that means by the end of next year
  • I will work hard to continue to get healthier for 2018

Everything else is a bonus..

Posted in At the kitchen table, Blogging | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Happy New Year’s Eve.. BRRRRRRR

Posted on December 31, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Well, the Polar Vortex is settled over our farm and its cold folks.. bone chilling, eye lash frosting, come in and warm up between chores, run extra heaters, and check the pipes (don’t you dare freeze) COLD!

We have hit daytime highs of -21 with evening hitting -30 to -35’s but that is before wind chill, add that wind chill and we are into the -40 to -45..  I have lived in worse and we have buildings and barns for the livestock even so.. the very young, the stupid and the old have been hit in this extended deep cold.

Do not think for a moment that we have not done thing’s right, we have extra bedding out, extra hay, adding in more grains, added extra water and water checks (frozen water does not a drink make) we have added in extra goodies to the water and we have checked for drafts and put up extra plastic and boards and more..

None the less, we have had loss’s.. our oldest ewe coming 13 in just a few months who was in the barn(the sheep get to come out for walk about during chores and then are happy to follow us back in again for their grain) only showed that she was off in that she did not want her grain with the rest, she was drinking and eating her hay on one chore and check and we went hmmm.. and she was in her stall, sleeping on her bedding and gone on the next check..

I posted on facebook and got very kind comments from a lot of my fellow sheep owners and they are right.. 13 is old for a ewe and she had a great life and passed in a safe and bedded pen..  and in that way, I get it.. most livestock animals are not lucky enough to be born and pass in old age on the same farm. Most are shipping or butchered by the age of eight as they are not as productive past that age.

But I like most critter owners, would have like another year or two yet.. we are greedy in that way.. she had a name, she was a look you in the eye and talk to you kind of sheep, she was a lover to treats and a sniffer of pockets, she adored apple or fresh carrots but her true favorite was the Baked Apple Treats for the horse’s.  She was a great mom and a even better leader sheep for many years. Rest in Peace Mocha Sheep

Now for the dumb, the ducks think that if you fill the water dish with warm water, they should bath in it.. if you can fill the smaller pans, you can keep them snow bathing (which is what they need to do in this cold) but NO.. the young buggers decided to have a full bath and then with waterlogged feather (no down, no lift, no warmth) stay out in the outside pen and freeze to death..  Two died and the other one we got in time and moved back inside in the pen (which they have full access to) and under the heat lamp and is doing well

One of the rabbit kits decided that it was a good idea to stay out on the outside part on the wire which is only wind proofed on two sides  instead of going into the inside and full bedded wind proof area and of course froze to death..  its siblings are all fat, warm and grunted at me from their bedding when checked on..   There was lots of room for the other one in the box.. part of me just pissed it died and other part says..  the smart live on, the dumb do not..

I have been keeping a close eye on my oldest farm cat but so far, we appear to be doing well, because she is smart enough to say.. I am moving into the house mom.. in fact they all did LOL.. I only have seven farm cats at the moment and every single one while willing to go out for a hour or two to the barns to hunt, come back to the enclosed porch and come back into the house for the rest of the day and the evening..  I am finding it to be a lot of cats and the litter box is getting a work out but everyone is warm and safe..

The farm dogs are going out and then even they are coming back in.. their pads are getting to cold, so if I wanted them out for longer like normal in regards to chores and such they would need have boots put on. Its just not worth it.. so they get their runs and much shorter outdoor time then normal.. I could not figure out where my Dezbot had gone and I found her sleeping in the feather quilts on the bed.. she rolled over for a belly rub and gave me a half hearted guilty look.. but its so warm here mom.. LOL

The horse’s are not happy about being asked to go in the barn as much as they have been and I do let them have some say in it.. they can choose to be out during the day but at night I want them in.

If you are warm, enjoy it.. if you are being hit with this cold.. stay safe, stay warm, keep the home fires burning and hunker down.. because they say its going to get even colder yet.. Do a little extra prep work, makes sure you have extra water put up, I hope you have a weeks or more of feed, grain and hay-straw put up.. I hope you have enjoy till spring on some of it but at least enough that you can stay off the roads, not need it if the tractor’s or the trucks will not start! Don’t just prep for your farm.. regardless where you live if you are in this cold.. prep a 72 hour kit at a min for in case of power out.. bring extra wood in for your stoves, make sure you have camping fuel to make a hot cuppa coffee or tea if need etc

All week long the headlines in the news across this amazing huge country has been tens of thousands without heat or power or both..

We had been invited to a outstanding party in the city.. (amazing people) but it will not really surprise you that we are staying here on the farm and doing our best to makes sure everyone and everything comes though yet another cold one..

Posted in At the kitchen table | 9 Comments

Using your Canning Storage- Canned Rhubarb Crisp Recipe

Posted on December 26, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

It was requested that I make a Rhubarb Crisp for Christmas and I nodded yes, and then I started looking for frozen rhubarb.. and I looked and looked and shook my head.. how could we have used it all up..

Hmmmm well that was a surprise, I normally have a few (or more like a dozen) put away for just crisp’s.. O well So be it! Down to the cellar we went and two pint jars of Strawberry Rhubarb fruit came up.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Pour 1 Quart of Canned Rhubarb or Mixed Rhubarb Fruit into the bottom of your Baking Dish.

Make your Topping.

Topping
quarter cup of butter
half a cup of brown sugar
1 cup of flour
1 cup of oatmeal
Pinch of salt..

Blend the dry together first, then cut the cold or room temp butter into the dry and rub it though, in the end it should be loose and well blended but hold just a touch if asked.

Put the topping onto the fruit (slightly higher in the middle then at the edges) and into the oven till the edges are boiling up and over the crust and the crust is a light or med golden brown.

Serve hot with ice cream or serve cold as is, with ice cream or whipping cream.

Posted in Baking, Canning | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments