These are the types of plans I set aside for the day when I have my own animals that produce milk (or find someone who just has too much)!
http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/make-a-diy-cheese-press-zbcz1401.aspx
DIY Cheese Press
Category Archives: Food Storage
How Anyone Can Be More Self Sufficient
I have always felt this way. As much as I dream about it, you don’t have to live completely off-grid and make all of your own items, to be self sufficient (or live a sustainable life). Just do whatever you can to not HAVE to rely so much on the outside world.
http://www.littlehouseliving.com/how-anyone-can-be-more-self-sufficient.html
Homemade Andouille Sausage
And then, there would be me, huffing and puffing away with my manual Corona meat grinder! lol
Some Great Links
I have about 30 tabs open, trying to remember to post information (or save recipes) so here are some of the links:
Great Low Carb recipes
http://www.sugarfreesheila.com/RecipesPage.html
Here are some Diet/Low Carb recipes
http://whatscookingamerica.net/RecipeIndexDiet.htm
This one especially spoke to me (*grin*):
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beverage/MochaShake.htm
Check out these Southwestern Recipes:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/RecipeIndex_Southwest.htm
Here’s one that has Old Recipe Books:
And, thanks to Anthony Bourdain (“No Reservations”), here where you can order the book “Foods of the Azores Islands”:
Low Carb Food Storage
Well, since my switch in eating, I’ve been thinking about all of my food storage. Boy, I have some adjustments to make! Flour, sugar, jams and jellies (sugar-made), beans, white rice, oats, etc. So, I went searching for suggestions online. In addition to this playlist in which I show you how to can various items like chicken, beef, and pork, I found some links I think you will enjoy.
I don’t usually like “about.com” articles, this is a good basic one:
Must-Have Items for Your Low-Carb Grocery List
A One-Month Long-Term Food Supply from a Low-Carb Perspective from Claiming Liberty:
A One-Month Long-Term Food Supply from a Low-Carb Perspective
Here is a video about dehydrating spaghetti squash:
Paleo Prepper: I have barely looked through this website but it’s intriguing!
Here’s a post by The Low Carb Prepper (good stuff):
Here’s a thread at The Survival Podcast Forums:
Roasted Peppers In Oil
Well, I have finally concluded that my peppers are not going to produce anything this year. It is now September 11th and they STILL only have their second set of leaves. So, I had to purchase some. What I usually do is dice them, lay them on a cookie sheet, and freeze them. Once frozen, I place them in a Ziploc bag so I can just grab a handful anytime I need some. This works especially well for breakfast, when I’m usually starving and just trying to throw some quality food together.
This time, I’ve decided to do something different. I’m making roasted peppers in oil:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/roasted-peppers-in-oil-peperoni-arrostiti-sotto-olio/detail.aspx
I’ve read of people doing this with vinegar but since my husband doesn’t like vinegar (and that might clash with whatever I am cooking) I will leave that out. I’m also going to leave out the salt. That way, anyone who needs salt can just sprinkle some on themselves. I read somewhere that if I want to store these, I can put them in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes to seal the jars.
So, once hubby is fully awake and can fiddle with the electric ignitor, I’m going to broil 4 pounds of mini bell peppers! I can’t wait! 🙂
Serving Size 1/6 of a recipe
Servings Per Recipe 6
Amount Per Serving
Calories 270
Total Fat 28.2g, Sodium 196mg,** Potassium 132mg, Total Carbohydrates 4g, Protein 0.7g
Growing Your Own Herbs/Spices
I spend most of my day thinking about food. Just take a look at my blog, website, Facebook, Twitter, and anywhere else I post and you’ll know I’m typing the truth! When I ran out of Cumin, I realized I didn’t even know what plant that comes from. While I’ve been planning to grow more of my culinary essentials for quite a while, lately I’ve really been researching. I thought I would share with you some links with fantastic information some may not already know. We all can find basil, thyme, oregano, etc. Here’s some information on herbs/spices you may not have thought about growing:
Black Pepper
http://www.kew.org/plant-cultures/plants/black_pepper_plant_profile.html
Cayenne Pepper
http://www.botanical-journeys-plant-guides.com/growing-cayenne-peppers.html
Coriander (is Cilantro seeds)
http://www.gardeningpatch.com/herbs/growing-coriander-cilantro.aspx
Cumin
http://www.plant-biology.com/Cuminum-cumin.php
Turmeric
http://www.gardeningblog.net/how-to-grow/turmeric/
Here is a .pdf article with much more:
“Spicing It Up” by Dr. Lynette Morgan
http://www.growingedge.com/magazine/pdf/GE_1906_p46.pdf
And this website? Wow! Look at all the information:
Home Canning Milk
Update: May 2020: What a difference 10 years makes! That’s how long it has been since I found the website below and never tried it out! I’m glad! I just recently canned my first batch of milk and used a completely different method.
After researching, I discovered a much easier (and more appealing) method (which I found here).
Home Pressure Canned Milk
Notes
Fill your pressure canner with about 2 inches of room temperature water. Do not turn on your burner yet. Then fill your clean and sterilized room temperature jars with just about room temperature milk. Wipe the rim of the jars with vinegar (to eliminate any possible fats or liquids). Place your lid, then ring on the jar, hand tighten, then place in your pressure canner. Once the canner is filled, put your lid on and turn the burner on medium-high to high. Once a steady stream of steam is shooting through the vent, set your timer for 10 minutes (if you want to always can properly. I almost always forget this step and just put the weight on the vent). Place your weight on the vent, then when it gets up to pressure (sea level is 10 pounds), turn off the burner (if you have an electric cook top, move the canner to a cold burner) and let the pressure canner sit until the pressure gauge reads zero. Remove the weight, the lid, and place the jars on a towel covered rack to cool. After 24 hours, remove the rings, wash the jars, label and store in a cool, dark place. These should be good for 1 year.
Now is the time to learn techniques that have been safely used for decades before the USDA eliminates this knowledge altogether.
Here’s the original link for canning milk (which produces a much more “cooked” milk).
Wendy Dewitt’s Food Storage Seminars
Disclaimer: I originally posted this 11 years ago but felt the need to update it and include more information.
Whether or not you have your food storage in place or are just beginning, there is so much to learn from Wendy Dewitt (Everything Under The Sun). I always thought Wendy Dewitt had a great food storage plan on her website but it’s even better because she has video taped a few seminars based on her plan. She does love her Sun Oven (I do not have one yet) and if you choose to purchase one or any other type of alternate cooking device, I suggest you use it NOW! There is a learning curve to alternate anything (whether that’s cooking or baking with sourdough) and you do not want to be learning (and failing) when you are operating from a place of scarcity.
Despite the fact that she is Mormon )and speaking to Mormons), she is not overly religious in her presentation. I am only mentioning her religion for those who may be offended by anything religious (or not of your religion).
I have found three (2 older ones and 1 updated version of her seminar) on YouTube and the quality of them shows (the oldest one was recorded in 2008). I downloaded them, did my best to adjust the quality (there is only so much I could do with the audio), and uploaded them to my channel.
Here are the download links for the handouts for the first two videos:
EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN 2010 word
Todo-de-una-manera-sencilla-dewitt-in-Spanish
Filmed in 2005 in Gilbert, Arizona:
Filmed in November of 2008:
And this is her updated seminar (and handout), “Sensible Food Storage” from 2011
Canning Potatoes
Yesterday, I canned my first batch of potatoes. I will be canning both red potatoes and sweet potatoes. I purchased two 10 pound bags of red potatoes (I figured this was the best choice, since the only other option was russet potatoes) and two 10 pound boxes of sweet potatoes.
This was one of the easiest things to do! I left the skins on, cut them in half or quarters (depending on their size), and followed the directions here: http://jordansfarm.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/canning-potatoes/. They all sealed beautifully and only two sucked up some of the water (the jars are about half full of water) so those will be used first (miss paranoid here).
The 20 pounds of red potatoes filled 19 quart jars (with a few left over so I could enjoy them with dinner) and 20 pounds of sweet potatoes filled 14 jars (actually 16 but I did not want to pressure can 2 jars so mashed sweet potatoes were for lunch and dinner the next day).
Further down on the web page above page is instructions for canning sweet potatoes. That is how I will be doing the sweet potatoes tonight:
Sweet Potatoes canned:
Boil first for about 5 min. so as the skins will rub off.
Leave small ones whole/ or cut,
Pack into jars
Fill with water or med. syrup (med. syrup: 3 1/4 cup sugar and 5 cups water= 7 cups syrup)
Leave 1 inch head space, remove air bubbles
Pressure can 10 pounds for:
Pints: 1 hour 5 minutes
Quarts: 1 hour and 30 minutes
I packed in syrup but a light syrup instead. I went looking around for light syrup recipes that would allow me to incorporate honey. I found this page (http://www.pickyourown.org/sugarsolution.htm), and it turns out you can replace half the sugar with honey! That’s what I did!
I love fresh sweet potatoes but after seeing how the red potatoes bleached out (no longer red) I am afraid of blah, bland sweet potatoes. I have not tried the sweet potatoes yet but last night we had corned beef hash with the canned red potatoes. I cubed them, put plenty of oil in the pan, let it brown without moving it around much, then removed them from the pan. We added them back right before the eggs were set. They tasted wonderful! They did not have that canned potato smell when we opened up the jar, and tasted just like boiled potatoes right out of the jar!