Try Something New: Week Seven

This week we tried a recipe for Catalina Salad Dressing that has honey instead of sugar.

I found this recipe on Completely Nourished website. This was my first time visiting their site. I think I will enjoy exploring some of the things they have on their website in the future.

I thought this dressing needed to be a little sweeter. I added an extra tablespoon of honey. The finished product will take a little getting used to. It does not taste like a factory made Catalina Salad Dressing. The olive oil and the tomato paste are strong flavors and they can be distinguished  as you taste this dressing. 

I think I will probably make this salad dressing again. I may find some other recipes, though, and do some tweaking for next time.

Here is the recipe how I made it with the extra tablespoon of honey:

Catalina Dressing Without Sugar

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup raw apple cider vinegar
  3 TBSP raw honey
2 TBSP tomato paste
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
¼ tsp dry mustard
¼ tsp chili powder
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Whisk ingredients together in a bowl.
Use a funnel to transfer to a storage bottle.
Enjoy!
This recipe makes about 1 cup.

Denim Skirt Sewing Project

 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.

Deuteronomy 22:5

 

 I wear skirts/dresses all the time, but I am kind of picky about the ones I wear. I like the durability and versatility that denim skirts offer. 

A good denim skirt should be:

Long,
Quite Full,

and have
Deep Pockets.

  

I rarely find all of these qualities in a skirt. That is why I end up making my own a lot of the time.

I recently finished a denim skirt that I sewed for myself. Here are some pictures I took along the way.   

This is the wrong side of the fabric before I sewed the final seam.

This is the right side of the fabric.

I made pockets and belt loops.

I put a zipper closer in the back.

This button is just one that I used because I already had it. I may replace it when I have the chance. I almost always wear my shirts un-tucked, so, in any case the button won't be seen.

I top stitched all of the seems. 

This is the finished product! I am pleased with the results and will, hopefully, get plenty of use out of this skirt! 

Try Something New: Week Six

 This week we tried the Light and Fluffy Soaked Cornbread from Cultures for Health.

 This is a rather rich cornbread, using 3 eggs and 1/3 cup of honey. 

I could easily taste the honey, which I thought was nice, but I generally don't like cornbread that is this sweet.

I wouldn't describe this cornbread as, "Light and Fluffy," I thought it was on the dense side, but it was quite moist.

This cornbread uses 1/2 cornmeal 1/2 whole wheat flour, and does not have a very corn-y flavor.

I think this cornbread was okay, but not great. It was a little too rich and bread-like for my taste.

INGREDIENTS:

1½ cups cornmeal

1½ cups flour

2 cups buttermilk

2 Tbsp. lard or coconut oil

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

1 Tbsp. baking powder

3 eggs

⅓ cup honey

¼ cup melted butter

INSTRUCTIONS:

Combine the cornmeal, flour, and buttermilk in a bowl, mixing to moisten everything. Cover and leave in a warm place for 12-24 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Place a 12-inch cast-iron skillet in the oven with 2 Tbsp. lard or coconut oil.

In a small bowl, mix salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

In another small bowl, whisk eggs and mix in honey and melted butter.

Pour wet ingredients into the soaked flour and fold in just a couple of times. Sprinkle the dry ingredients over and continue mixing until thoroughly combined.

Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven, swirl the melted fat around to evenly distribute and cover the edges, then scrape the batter into the hot skillet.

Place skillet in oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool at least 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Sourdough Coffee Cake

This recipe is one I came up with last summer. I am sharing it now for the Sourdough Surprises challenge of the month.  
This is a really tasty coffee cake. I could not taste any of the sourdough flavor in the finished cake, but it still has the health benefits that sourdough offers.

Sourdough Coffee Cake

1/2 c. sourdough starter
1/2 c.+2 T. kefir or buttermilk 
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. melted butter
1 egg
3/4 t. salt
3/4 t. baking soda

Strussel

1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. whole wheat flour
2 t. cinnamon
3 T. melted butter

 Mix starter, buttermilk and flour. Cover, and rest overnight. 
In the morning mix together the strussel ingredients in a bowl. 
To the flour/kefir mixture add the egg, butter, sugar, and salt. Beat until the batter starts to come together and resembles cake batter.
Sprinkle baking soda over the batter and stir briefly, but, well. 
Pour 1/2 of the batter into a greased 8x8 inch pan. Sprinkle 1/2 of the strussel over the top. Pour in the remaining batter and top with the remaining strussel. 
Bake at 350* F. for 40-45 minutes. 

Promoting A Giveaway At Precious Moments

I am excited to share with you all that,
Ashley from:

 is hosting a giveaway!

The prizes include this beautiful leather bound KJV Bible:

and these lovely note cards:

To enter the giveaway all that you have to do is visit her blog and leave a comment with your name, favorite Bible verse, and your choice of the Bible or cards.

Please visit Ashley's BLOG.

She is always posting encouraging scriptures, hymns, and quotes.
I would recommend checking out her posts on Creation Moments in the archives. HERE is one about how spiders are able to lure insects their webs.

Cloth Diaper Wipes

I have been having good success with cloth diapering. I may do a post later on the type of cloth diapers I have used and how I have liked them. 

But, today I will share how I have used cloth wipes. Sometimes, I do it the, "old fashioned way," by just grabbing a rag and wetting it at the sink before a change. It is very convenient to have a wipe already, wet, and waiting to be used, though.

 

Cloth Diaper Wipes And Wipe Solution:

15-17 Rags (I use cut up t-shirts. Baby wash cloths work great,too.)

A Container For The Wipes

1 1/2 cups water

1 tsp. Baby Oil

1 tsp. Baby Soap

Fold the rags and place them the in the container. Mix the soap and oil into the water. Pour the water solution over the rags. Let them soak for several minutes and then flip them over. It will take a little while, (maybe 30 minutes), for the water to get soaked up all the way.

Try Something New: Week Five

**update: Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015. I have now added the pictures that I promised. BMW is feeling much better. Thank you for your prayer for his good health. :) **


Yesterday, BMW came down with a head cold and has developed an ear ache today.
He has been hard to make comfortable or console. So, he has been in my arms almost every minute of today. (As I type this on my phone, he is sleeping on my chest.) Poor little guy.  :(

I have not been able to upload pictures for this weeks new recipe, but I can share a link to the recipe that we tried.
I can add pictures to this post later, when BMW is feeling better.

 This Monday we tried Lemon-Garlic Chicken Thighs from the food network website. I had some chicken thighs thawed out and wanted to use pasta with supper. I did a quick Google search for, "chicken thighs with angle hair pasta," and THIS is the first result that came up.

I had all of the ingredients on hand, so I decided to give it a try. I am really glad I did! This dish is yummy, yummy, yummy!

We really liked this recipe. It was very savory. The garlic, lemon, and black pepper, were the main flavors, but they were all very balanced and didn't over power one another.
The coating on the chicken was very simple. I normally wouldn't have used as much black pepper to dredge chicken thighs, but for some reason it really complimented the lemon. It tasted like the lemon-pepper seasoning blend that I never buy, but, really like.
I, also, normally wouldn't use as much garlic as this recipe calls for either; two bulbs, (bulbs, not cloves)! And, just like the pepper, the garlic was not over powering.

I will be writing this recipe out in my quick reference cook book. I am sure this is going to be a family favorite.

Lemon-Garlic Chicken Thighs

8 chicken thighs with bones and skin, about 3 1/2 pounds
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cups thinly sliced onions
30 cloves (about 2 heads) garlic, peeled and smashed
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 pound angel hair pasta
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves, plus more for garnish
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Season the chicken thighs with 1 1/4 teaspoons of the salt and 1 teaspoon of the freshly ground pepper.

Place the flour in a shallow dish. Lightly dredge the chicken in the flour and set aside.

In a large wide saute pan with 2 to 3-inch sides, heat the oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking, add the thighs and brown well on both sides, about 6 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

Add the onions to the oil and cook, stirring to scrape up any browned bits from the chicken until wilted, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, crushed red pepper, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the bay leaf and cook 1 minute. Add the lemon juice, chicken broth, and browned chicken thighs to the pan. Bring the mixture to a simmer, cover tightly, and place in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, remove the lid and cook an additional 15 minutes, or until cooked through and tender.

While the chicken is baking, cook the pasta until al dente, 4 to 5 minutes for dry pasta. Drain well and toss in a large bowl with 3 tablespoons of the parsley and the butter.

To serve, place a portion of pasta in the center of 4 large plates. Arrange 2 thighs around each serving of pasta and drizzle lemon garlic cooking liquid over the pasta. Garnish with additional parsley and serve immediately.

Recipe courtesy of Emeril Lagasse

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/lemon-garlic-chicken-thighs-recipe.html?oc=linkback

How I Use Bones In Recipes!

I rarely  throw out bones without making broth with them. 

•  Ham bones get used to make delicious broth that I cook beans in.
• Chicken carcases from roasted chicken get made into nutritious chicken broth.
• Bones from de-boned chicken thighs or breasts get boiled.
• The day after Thanksgiving, the turkey carcase and neck gets boiled and the broth becomes turkey noodle soup.

• If I find a marked down beef soup bone I boil it and make French onion soup with the broth. 

 
Broth made from animal bones is very healthy for you and full of minerals and vitamins when prepared properly and especially when made from the bones of grass fed, organically raised animals.

I am not going to go into detail writing the benefits of good bone broth in this post. There are really good explanations from naturally minded doctors, though, and I would recommend reading THIS article from Dr. Axe's web site. HERE is a quick article on Dr. Mercola's web site, and
HERE is a very weighty article from the Weston Price Organization.

These articles talk about the fact that parts of animals which can not be consumed, like, bones, marrow, cartilage, and ligaments, are full of nutrients, including, collagen and gelatin proteins, amino acids, and more.

Besides all of the health benefits that come from eating bone broths, they are full of flavor and really enhance the recipes that they are added to.

You know how yummy, dehydrated chicken and beef bullion  powders are? That is how much flavor your broth made from boiled bones should be. 

 This how I make chicken broth:

1 chicken carcase
1 onion
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
4-5 cloves of garlic
Your choice of herbs - I used fresh sage
A splash of vinegar
1 quart+ filtered water

 

Corsely chop the vegetables. Leaving the skin on the onion will give the finished broth a rich, dark color. 

Place the bones and vegetables in to a large pot; cover with water and pour in a splash of vinegar. The vinegar with help to draw the minerals out of the bones. Bring to a boil over high heat. Turn heat down and simmer for 3-6 hours, adding water, as need, to keep covered. The goal is to cook ALL of the flavor out of the vegetables and bones/meat. 

 Strain the bones and vegetables from the broth. Pick any remaining meat off the bones and use in the dish that you make with the broth.

I used this batch of broth to cook some beans and rice.

Broth can easily be frozen and used at a later date. 


 

 

Try Something New: Week Four

This week for our new recipe we tried Sweet and Sour Chicken from Mel's Kichen Cafe. 

From Mel's Kitchen Cafe

The chicken was pretty easy to prepare.

I used de-boned chicken thighs cut into pieces instead of chicken breasts.

The chicken pieces are coated in corn starch and then dipped in some beaten egg.

 The battered chicken pieces are then briefly fried in hot oil just until a crispy crust forms and then placed in a baking dish.

You mix together the sauce ingredients and pour the mixture over the chicken pieces.

The chicken is then cooked for an hour, stirring a couple of times to evenly coat with the sauce.

The nice thing about the hour long cooking time is that you have time to wash up most of the dinner dishes and make some brown rice while the chicken cooks.   :)

 

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Yield: Serves 4-6

Note: if you like extra sauce, double the sauce ingredients – pour half over the chicken and follow the recipe instructions; pour the other half in a small saucepan and cook the sauce on the stovetop at a simmer for 8-10 minutes until it reduces and thickens. Serve it on the side of the chicken.

Ingredients

Chicken:
• 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs(preferably), or breasts (about 2 pounds)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup canola, vegetable or coconut oil
Sauce:
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons ketchup
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Cut the chicken breasts into 1-inch pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Place the cornstarch in a gallon-sized ziploc bag. Put the chicken into the bag with the cornstarch and seal, tossing to coat the chicken.
3. Whisk the eggs together in a shallow pie plate. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until very hot and rippling. Dip the cornstarch-coated chicken pieces in the egg and place them carefully in a single layer in the hot skillet.
4. Cook for 20-30 seconds on each side until the crust is golden but the chicken is not all the way cooked through (this is where it's really important to have a hot skillet/oil). Place the chicken pieces in a single layer in a 9X13-inch baking dish and repeat with the remaining chicken pieces.
5. Mix the sauce ingredients together in a medium bowl and pour over the chicken. Bake for one hour, turning the chicken once or twice while cooking to coat evenly with sauce. Serve over hot, steamed rice.

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/sweet-and-sour-chicken-updated/

What Is Different Is Not The Same: 003

Matthew 5:44

KJV

 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

 

NIV

 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

ESV

  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

NRSV

   But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Hymn Of The Day: Come, Christians, Join To Sing

 

Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.

Psalms 67:3-4

BMW, (Boy in the Mid-west), usually does not like to sit in his bouncy seat while I work at the kitchen counter. I mean, he REALLY does not like to watch me do anything in the kitchen. He just cries and cries until I pick him up. 

I am not sure why it upsets him so much. I suspect that it has something to do with him not being able to see anything because the cabinets are like walls on both sides. (He likes to sit in the bouncy seat when I am doing laundry in the basement, so, I am sure the problem is not the seat.)

Anyway,  yesterday afternoon while I was washing some dishes I started to sing the hymn, Come Christians, Join To Sing, and he really liked it. I usual try singing to him to no avail, but for some reason he really liked that song. He actually was smiling and, "singing along".

Eventually he grew tied of it, but I was able to get most of the dishes done without him wailing, which never happens, unless he is sleeping. :)

Without farther ado, today's song of the day is:

Here is nice recording of the song that I found on You Tube:

I hope you find yourself singing along!

Have a nice day!

Try Something New: Week Three

This post should have been up yesterday. Sorry, about this post being late. 

picture from: Alsum Farm and Produce website

 This week we tried German Potato Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette. I found this recipe on the back of the bag of red potatoes.

I did not grow up with a special, heirloom German Potato Salad recipe. If you have a German Potato Salad tradition I would suggest that you drop the, "German," in the title of the recipe and just call it, Potato Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette.

I really liked this potato salad. The dressing was delicious and would taste good on any salad, in my opinion.

CLICK  to go to recipe on Alsum Farm website

 I went to to potato farm's website and found that the German Potato Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette that they have on their site is slightly different than the one they have on the back of the potato bag. I thought that was funny.

Here is the recipe that I followed:

 German Potato Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

Salad Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds Red Potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces

3 oz. Red onion, finely chopped

3 oz. Green onion, chopped

5 oz. Cherry tomatoes, halved

1 1/4 TBS. Parsley, chopped

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette:

3 TBS. Lemon juice

1 1/4 TBS. Honey

1 1/4 Sherry wine vinegar

1 1/4 TBS. Whole grain mustard

3 TBS. Olive oil

Salt and pepper, as needed

Preparation: 

In medium saucepan, cover potatoes with water; bring to a boil. Continue to cook for 20 minutes or until fork tender. Drain and cool.

In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, honey, vinegar, and mustard until well blended. While whisking, slowly drizzle in oil until completely incorporated. Season with salt and pepper.

In large bowl, mix potatoes, Honey-Musard Vinaigrette and red and green onions. Just before serving mix in tomatoes and parsley.