Handmade Homemade Holidays

at the risk of sounding Cliché. I LOVE this time of year. The gardens are sleeping, the bees are tucked in , and my sewing machine has been dusted off after months of neglect. A time to warm myself by the woodcookstove, cook comfort food, bake treats for the family and prepare for The Holiday Season!
Of course, like any mom with a little girl, I succumb to some commercialism to make the little gals Christmas morning nothing short of spectacular. Although it is kept to a minimum, and I really enjoy focusing on handmade and homemade, and teaching Norah to enjoy these things too, as they really are the most special and genuine of all Christmas moments.

Here are some things we have been working on the past week.............................



Homemade
Chicken sausage

 17 lbs to be exact... we processed birds last week , froze some whole, and decided to make sausage with the rest. We ended up with ; Italian, hot Italian, Breakfast style, and Bratwurst,, all equally tantalizing!
Sounds like a good addition to Christmas morning breakfast, to me ;)


Handmade Bows ( and arrows)

My husband made these, and they are AMAZING. He made enough for the whole family , plus a couple more for Christmas gifts. Norah loves hers, and boy is she a natural! I just am not as good a aim, she told me I just didn't have the skills .. haha
He made arrows to go with the bows, but also bought some. The handmade ones are made with doll rods, and eraser tips.
I had a lot of people ask how to make these! I did say I would blog about it, but we just haven't had time .. I do promise to edit this blog and post a link on how to make them soon!


Handmade Quivers

I stitched up these quivers so the kids have somewhere to put their arrows.

Handmade Basket

I had so much fun making this and do believe I have found yet another hobby ;) after a walk through the woods yesterday morning, I decided to collect some ( what I believe is) Honeysuckle vine, and gave a try at making a basket. not to shabby for my first one. Ill be making more for sure. This may to go someone with some handmade gift in it, as it would make a lovely gift basket.


Handmade Hot pad

 

 These Hot pads are they result of a Rug gone wrong.. I braided miles and miles of fabric to make a rug last year. Well the rug was not turning out as expected. The larger the rug became,the harder it was to keep it from "waving" despite my efforts to wet the rug and set something heavy on it,, the large the rug got the less that worked.. SO, I turned these braided beauties into hot pad. I made one for myself and love it, and will be making a few for gifts.





Handmade Snowmen

We will be making these every year !! free, fun, and earth friendly :) Oh,and they won't melt ;)




and last ( well last for now) but not  least.. Handmade Snowflakes!

 I was a bit addicted to these this year. Norah and I spent a good couple hours experimenting , trying to cut out the perfect snowflake, A great craft to try with your kids!!!



From our Homestead to yours

Have a most blessed Holiday Season..

The Cools ~

Pressure Canning On your Wood Cookstove

So Ive been Pressure canning ( and water bath canning) our garden harvest for near 7 years now, about the same amount of time I have been cooking and baking with our wood cookstove. So you think I would be totally comfortable Pressure canning on my wood cookstove, right?? wrong.

Any body who has or is learning about pressure canning knows that it can be extremely dangerous. I mean you are essentially building up steam in a large pot, letting little bits come out at a time.. to much pressure and *BOOM ( not sure that's the sound it what make, haha but you get my drift) you could have an exploding canner.

In the winter I do all of my baking ( its actually our only way to bake) and stove top cooking on the woodcookstove. But if I have something to pressure can I use my propane top stove.
Well awhile back our propane stove top ran out of propane and we just haven't gotten around to filling it back up. which why the hurry, we don't use it much anyway..
Until yesterday, when I realized I had boiled down some bones from a chicken and had stock to can.

I have often thought about what if.. what if something happened and their was a gas shortage? would I be able to preserve our  food without propane or gas?

That question was answered today and the answer is YES! Successful pressure canning session on the wood cookstove... and I am going to share with ya'll just how I did it

PLEASE NOTE: if you are not familiar with pressure canning or wood stove cooking, I suggest you try these things separately for awhile before attempting this. This IS or atleast CAN BE dangerous and you should have some experience under your belt first.....


KNOW YOUR STOVE

so Basically, when you get your stove or if you already have one and know your stove, you know that there are Hot spots and cool spots on your stove top. Obviously the hot spot would be right above where the fire is blazing.
My stove has a fire box on one side and then an oven on the other,, anything I have ever needed to boil goes over the fire and then if I need it to simmer just slide it over as needed, the further you push it over/away from the fire the cooler it usually is.

If I am trying to bring something to a boil ( in this case the water in the canner) I usually open up the firebox door and take a quick look to see where the fire is biggest.. then move the canner accordingly, placing it directly over the first.

                canner before I added the weight, you can see its almost directly over the eye and firebox




HOW I PRESSURE CANNED ON MY STOVE

So basically, I placed the water directly over the fire.. I had a good fire roaring ... one mistake I did make,, or one thing I could have done differently, was take the eye ( the metal circle you see on the stove top is removable so you can set your pot directly on the fire) off, my water probably would have boiled a lot faster.
I let the canner exhaust steam for 10 minutes
I then ( this is where it gets tricky) Placed the weight on the canner .( I have a weighted gauge canner)
Once the weight started rocking,, I moved it over about half way,between the firebox and the stove..it was still rocking pretty fast,,(you want a slow and steady rocking motion) so I moved it so I was about 3/4 of the way over ( near the oven)...

So here you see I have it about in the middle,, I ended up moving it over to the right about another 2 inches and that seemed to be the perfect spot for a gentle rocking motion.. if I felt it was slowing down , I would slowwwly move it back over an inch,, etc..

REMEMBER if the weight stops rocking,, that's ok, you just have to start you "time" over, but you DO NOT want it rocking like crazy,, that makes me nervous and should make you nervous too,,lol
once I had a steady rocking motion I only had to move the canner a couple times, and only like 2" to the left or 2" to the right depending....
I choked the fire off to keep a steady burn..


and that's it,, that's how I did it !
again, I am not sure this helps,, but for anyone that is familiar with cooking with wood, I can tell you  if you are confident in your woodstove cooking abilities this will be a BREEZE!

For those of you who haven't cooked on wood,, and want to can with it,, start with less explosive things like soups etc,, haha
LEARN your stove ( as they are all different) , then maybe pressure can on a regular stove for awhile
Then once you feel comfortable with both, maybe you are ready to give it a try!


Any questions?? you can ask them here and I will be glad to help!!


Blessings
Jaime

Chicken Sausage Take two

So, last weekend the weather was warm enough to butcher our birds..... Being off The power grid we have very limited freezer space.. With a completely empty freezer to start with, I think we would be able to fit maybe 10 birds in there , which is close to what we butchered.. We decided to make more chicken sausage, A) because its delicious and a change from just regular ol chicken, and B) it takes up way less space....

This year is our second attempt and chicken sausage,, we made it about 3 yrs ago and I am not sure what we did wrong ( maybe we didn't add enough fat or the broth?) but it was dry.. edible, but dry....

Chicken Sausage TAKE TWO:

 So Chicken Sausage involves a little bit of work , but the end product is so worth it.
The General steps are : Debone the meat ( a bit tedious) , run through the meat grinder ( ours is hand crank so we have the little on help, and she loves it! ), add the seasonings and broth, grind again and use stuffer attachment to stuff during the second time grind.

I thought I would share the recipe for anyone interested.. I have to say its REALLY GOOD. This is a country sausage..

CHICKEN SAUSAGE: COUNTRY STYLE

-  5lbs of chicken deboned ( about 2 birds) including all that fat ( this will make the sausage moist and not dry)
- 2 Tbsp Salt
-2 Tsp Pepper
- 2 Tsp Ground Sage
- 1 Tsp Ginger
- 1 Tsp Thyme
- 1 Cup cold Chicken Broth ( we added a pint both time we made this (2cups) and it turned out great..

Be sure to add all the fat and the broth, which is what gives it its moisture , since chicken does not have the fat content that pork does..

I give this recipe an A+ and the ingredients are pretty basic so most of them can be found in your kitchen cupboard.


Enjoy!

Autumn chores

Another Beautiful yesterday in the holler allowed us to get some outside chores done. We anticipated butchering 13 birds, but once we did 2 realized that they indeed need another week or 2 to fatten up... The last batch we did were 11 weeks old. This batch is 11.5 weeks.. I do believe the cold is making it harder for them to gain weight, as they are eating like pigs!
On the bright side, getting 2 done allowed me to take some photos , so I can blog about how exactly you go about butchering a chicken, for those who are interested in possibly raising meat birds ( I will have this post up soon I promise!)

We decided to take 2 birds we were able to butcher and make some chicken sausage. Norah loved helping grind it up, and nearly did the entire 5 lbs herself. It was funny watching her use all the muscle to turn the handle . I am so glad she is able to participate in this and see where her food comes from!
11 More birds to process next week....




Robb was able to do a quick inspection through some of the hives, see which ones ( weak ones) needed feeding ( I will also be blogging soon about the dry sugar method of feeding bees)  and which were ok... Most hives looks fairly strong and only have 2.5 more months until they can start bringing in pollen.. c'mon bees you can do it!!

 

 

Our Garlic is starting to peek through the soil..

Love seeing signs of life near December,, its the little things that get us through the Winter here....

The Cools

 

Canning apples ( and other fruit)

Good Morning! A chilly 26 Degrees this morning so I figured I would keep my bones warm by the Cookstove and post  on the  Blog today.
I have had lots of people who wanted me to blog about Canning. There are so many variations when it comes to canning. 
Low acid foods need pressure canned ( beans, potatoes, corn etc)
Foods with a higher natural acidic content ( like peaches, apples, tomatoes( which are borderline) etc. can be canned with a water bath canner.
You can purchase a Water Bath canner at most any local store ( I hate to say Walmart, because I despise that place,, but hey if you gotta go there, so be it :) I honestly can not remember what mine cost.. maybe 20-30 dollars.
You will also need a canning Utensil set like this

http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Utensil-Set-Colors-Vary/dp/B001NNJ42I

this had everything you need to can safely without burning yourself.
Jar Grabber- for grabbing hot jars out of your canner
Magnet- for picking up hot canning lids and placing them on your jars
Funnel- for putting food and liquid into canning jars without making a complete Mess,
 plastic too-l to measure headspace on jar

 

OK , today I will talk about *CANNING APPLES FOR BAKING*.. peaches and pears are pretty much canned the exact same way, and at  the bottom of the blog, I will post the variations of sugar syrup and how much times the others need in the canner, as these things may be slightly different.


1. Get yourself some apples, whether its from an apple tree in your back yard or from a local market.. ( we have 5 apples trees that are not producing yet, so we usually do pick your own or a local market/farm). You can get a much better price picking your own and its a fun way to spend the day with the family!!!

2. STERLIZE JARS AND LIDS, this is very important as you want to eliminate germs bacteria dirt from the jars and then keep at that way. Fill up your canner about a little over half way and place on the stove heat on high.  Wash your Jars In hot hot soapy water and rinse thoroughly. Place the jars in the canner of hot water . This will keep the sterlilized while you are tending to the apples.
Place the Lids and Rings, in a small pot of hot water *** BE SURE NOT TO LET THE WATER BOIL AS IT WILL RUIN THE LIDS* keep it at a small simmer or just below that.

3. Make your sugar syrup solution... This recipe calls for 4 cups water 2 cups sugar and 2 tbsp. Lemonjuice. place in a large pan and heat to a good simmer...

4. Peel and slice apples. I Have this apple slicer, nothing fancy, but it works wonderful, just place it on apple and push down,, :) these are only a couple bucks..

 



4. Once you all your apples peeled and sliced ( I would say probably about 3 apples per quart jar?) place them in the sugar syrup so they are in a nice single layer ( ok I kinda stuff mine in there, just make sure they have room to move around and are covered in the syrup.) Let simmer for 5 minutes...


5. Take your jars out of the canner using your jar grabbers and line up on a towel, Place funnel on top of a jar and fill with hot apples.. Make sure you pack them in there good, without squishing them.

6. Ladel the hot syrup over the apples leaving 1" headspace,, remove air bubbles from jars using a flat tool of some sort.. wipe the rim of the jar with a clean towel and place the lid and ring on jar.

 

 

 

 7. Place jars in Canner of Boiling water ( it should be close to boiling at this point) making sure this is 1-2" of water covering the jars,, place lid on canner. Process Apples 20 Minutes in boiling water bath.. Remove from heat, set on towel and listen for the *PING* sounds, it means your jars are sealing! Do not touch jars or move them for about 24 hours,, then you can push on the top of the lid to see if the jars sealed. if it makes a popping sound when you push on it, it did not seal. you can place these in the fridge and use them in the next week.

These apples are great for Pie, apple crisp or apple crumble!
*NOTE: Granny Smith apples are recommended for this recipe, but I have used all sorts.


VARIATIONS:

Peaches
Sugar Syrup:
 light syrup2 1/4 sugar to 5 1/4 cups water,
 medium syrup 3 1/4 sugar to 5 cups water
Process time Pints 20 minutes Quarts 25

Pears
same as peaches :)

If I wasn't clear on something please feel free to comment with any questions or suggestions.

Autumn: Stocking up and winding down

well, We are Finally caught up on the wood situation. Robb spent 2 weeks bringing home truck loads of wood. We live in a National forest with a 12 mile gravel ride through it, so he is fortunate enough to be able to grab a down Tree off the side of the road ( or sometimes in the road, and yes that happens often; he always carries a chainsaw with him) cut it up and bring it home. and it only costs us 20.00 for a wood permit to legally get wood throughout the forest.. pretty cheap heating bill ;)

We heat entirely with wood, with NO back up. all of our hotwater is heated with wood, and we solely cook and bake with wood. So its kind of important to have the woodshed stocked.
AND after 5 yrs of splitting wood by hand or trying to borrow a wood splitter we were fortunate enough to be able to buy one. This has helped Tremendously in saving time. We are by no means done hauling and splitting but feel we have a good handle on it.

The pantry is pretty well stocked too. I still have some more to do . I am hoping we get around to building more shelves. I want to extend the pantry on the right hand side, ( L shaped) by putting more shelves up there. I am running out of room! 

The fall garden is in. I planted Kale, lettuce, carrots beets, broccoli, cabbage, and spinach. My spinach had a heck of time germinating, so I have reseeded it for the 4TH TIME. 

I have more Beans flowering and hope to get a good harvest before frost sets in.

Sweet potatoes still need dug, and I am really trying to be patient and let them grow a little bigger , but am really tempted to go out there and tear things up ;)

Robb did a hive inspection and all the hives look pretty good. Its probably the last inspection for the year before winter sets in.

 Hope everyone is having beautiful weather! Its been an absolute Joy to work outside these past couple weeks. Enjoying every second before the cold sets in!!

Happy Autumn!!!!
The Cools

Save those Heirloom Tomato seeds!

Yep , its that time of year.. .Tomato season is coming to an end *sniff sniff............. I am thoroughly enjoying the last of my daily tomato sandwiches, canning some salsa, and   of course....saving my seeds!

Saving most seeds is fairly easy, you scrape out the seeds and set them out to dry,but tomato seeds require a couple extras steps, on account of the tomato that is stuck to the seeds.. To save heirloom tomato seeds you need to seperate the tomato flesh from the seeds.. And today I am going to tell ya how to do that ;)

What you will need
* Your favorite heirloom tomato ( this is a big rainbow in pic)
* a small glass ( I have a shot glass in the photo)
*knife
*spoon
*saran wrap or plastic bag

*Cut tomato in half and scoop out the seeds, place in glass..

*Fill Jar with about 1.5" of water

Cover Jar with either saran wrap or plastic bag and place rubberband over jar. Poke holes in the top of the plastic to allow air circulation.

Stir mixture once a day every day for about 3-5 days until you see a fairly thick film on top of the water. It will aslo have an unpleasant smell, don't panic,, haah, this is normal..

Rinse seeds with water while dumping out the yucky water.. the yuck will dump out and the seeds will stay at the bottom of the glass.. Pour SLOWLY so you don't dump any seeds out.
Place on napkin or plate and let air dry!!
THATS IT! place in envelope , label and seal.. place in a cool dry place..

No more buying heirloom seeds! Ok who am I kidding,, no matter how many seeds I save, I always buy another variety the next year ;) But this is a great way to save money and grow those heirlooms you love!!!

**Fermenting the seeds will  also help kill any disease present, but please beware that it will not kill all disease. so try to stay away from infected plants.

What is your favorite Heirloom tomato?? I am always looking to try new varieties!

Blessings
The Cools

How to: canning Grape Juice

Labor day weekend, I was lucky enough to be invited ( by a friend) to go pick some grapes. A fella she knew apparently had TONS of grape vines that his grandfather planted ( so yeah these are some old vines), and being near 80 he just didn't really have use for all of them.. Best of all , they are all ORGANIC! never been sprayed.
Needless to say we picked A LOT of grapes.. we each came home with about 40 lbs worth !

I knew I could make Jam (but my canned goods cubbard is plum full of jam ) but wanted to make something else. I thought about grape juice and what do ya know..........
My friend Tree from www.TheEnchantedTree.blogspot.com posted a recipe for me, from her blog. She did say it turned out a little sweet.. So I decided to look around online and found a wonderful recipe for Grape Juice Concentrate.

What you will need:
Grapes: Concord are probably the best for juice, but other varieties will work too.
-sugar
-Boiling water.

1. wash and sterilize Quart Jars.. then place in canner in hot hot water for atleast 10 minutes.
2. remove Jars from canner.
3. Fill each Quart Jar with 2 Cups grapes and 2/3 cup sugar

4, Pour boiling water over mixture and stir up. Leave 1" head space.
5. Wipe rim, add lids and rings and boil for 20 minutes in a water bath canner...

THAT IS IT.. It is probably the easiest canning recipe I EVER encountered!

One jar boiled over a bit when i took it out of the canner, so that gave me the wonderful opportunity of trying the juice,, and it is going to be DELICIOUS!

I am not sure as to how long you should let the Jars sit, but I am going to bet a couple months would be good, the longer they sit the more concentrated and flavorful they will be :)

When you are ready to open and serve:
strain out Juice through Cheescloth and discard grapes into compost. Add 1 qt Cold water and serve!

Next up:  WINE :)

Blessings
The Cools

When life gives you Potatoes

This year was a fine year for Potatoes at our lil Homestead. Thanks to our Kitty "Bluegrass" there was minimal damage from the moles (They prefer to sample each n every potato, taking only one bite.. just enough to ruin the potato for storage, but still edible in the next few days )


We ended up pulling about 120 lbs of potatoes this year.! which is great,,, as long as you have a place to store them ; root cellar, basement.. which we have neither of. In the years past I have stored them in my pantry, which usually works great, although I have never had this many, so they usually got eaten before they had the chance to go bad.


So what do you do, when life gives you 100+ pounds of potatoes?
Make PIEROGIES of course!! In addition to canning potatoes, and canning stew, it would not be a winter at the Cool residence if Pierogies were not on the meal plan atleast a couple of times a month....

WHATS A PIEROGIE??
Ive been asked this quite a bit. so to make it easy,, here is the official definition

Pierogi (Polish pronunciation: [pjɛˈrɔɡʲi]; also spelled perogi, Börek, pierogy, perogy, pierógi, pyrohy, or pyrogy) or Varenyky are boiled, baked or fried dumplings of unleavened dough traditionally stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, ground meat, cheese, or fruit. Of central and eastern European provenance, they are usually semicircular, but are rectangular or triangular in some cuisines.[1

I have only ever made mine with potato and cheese, but plan on making some saurkraut ones this yr. You can really add whatever you like.. Hubby likes me to add Jalapenos to the potato n cheese ones. Ive even thought about taking this dough recipe and filling these babies with apple pie filling.. fried up and served with ice cream, yummmmmmmmmmm..

Ok, on to the RECIPE.... I have used other recipies in the past, but this one ROCKED, the dough was very easy to work with. and the end result was fabulous.


Potato and Cheese Pierogie
Dough
4 Cups All Purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 Cup Plus 2 Tbsp cold water
3 Large Egg Yolks

Potato Filling
4 Medium potatoes peeled and cut into small chunks ( I would say more like 6)
2 Tbsp Butter, plus extra for frying
1 Small Onion
1/4-1/2 Grated Cheddar Cheese , or more, depending on what ya like

1. TO make the dough, combine the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.
2. Make a well in the center and add the water and egg yolks. With a wooden spoon, stir constantly, until the dough holds together, adding a litte more water if necesary.
3. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for 2 minutes. Put the dough back in the bowl , cover it with plastic wrap and set aside
4. For the filling, boil the potatoes in a large saucepan of salted water for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are soft
5. Drain the potatoes and mash them by hand
6. Meanwhile, melt 2 tbsps of butter in a small skillet. add the onion and saute for 5 minutes, stirring often.
7. add the Onion, cheese and salt to the potatoes and mash them in.
8. Break the dough into quarters. Roll one out thin on a lightly floured surface
9. Use a biscuit cutter or a water glass, cut the dough into 3-3.5" circles. roll out and cut the scraps, repeat until all dough is used.
10. Put a heaping teaspoon full of filling in the center of the circle.
11.. moisten the edge of the circle with a wet finger tip, then fold it in half and press the edges together firmly to seal

***IF YOU ARE FREEZING THE PIEROGIES FOR LATER USE, place them on a cookie sheet, place in freezer until frozen, remove, place in plastic freezer bag. remove air with straw( to prevent freezer burn) label, date and put in freezer. If you are ready to enjoy,, continue on to step 12 :)

12. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
13. Drop the Pierogies 8-10 at a time, into the boiling water, simmer until they rise to the surface, and continue to simmer for an additional 4 minutes. remove from water and set aside on papertowl or kitchen towel.
14. Melt a little butter( we use olive oil) in a large skillet ( we prefer cast iron;). using a slotted spoon place them in the skillet and fry lightly over medium high heat for several minutes.
15. Serve hot with melted butter, sour cream, or extra cheese, if you so desire! Comfort food at its finest.........
Enjoy!