Wow! I had the opportunity to attend the RegeNErate Nebraska conference in Fremont today! It was amazing! Subjects discussed today...the health of our soil, the future of food production and the problems which exist in our current industrialized food system. Thanks to all who coordinated and sponsored this event! Lots of information I look forward to sharing soon!
Thank you to Pfanny’s Farm and the Randolph Library for co-hosting yesterday’s pressure cooking class! We did lots of pressure cooking, talked about fermented foods and opened up some fantastic conversations about knowing your farmer and where your food comes from! Julie Pfanstiel and her family grow amazing produce for their CSA customers on their farm! They have some great events planned for this summer including some farm to table dinners and I’ll be traveling back to Randolph in June to teach a fermenting workshop. If you have friends or family in the area please have then check out Pfanny’s Farm on Facebook! An extra bonus to the day was spending some quality time with friend Mary Lou before our lives turn totally crazy with spring planting...if spring ever decides to get here!
Time to get all those bones and veggie scraps out of the freezer! We put the Instant Pots to work yesterday making 14 quarts of delicious and healthy bone broth then cooled it overnight. The Instant Pots are great for bone broth. They do all the work while we accomplish other projects. This morning we skimmed the fat and used our Presto pressure canner to can it into jars. Bone broth can also be frozen in freezer-safe bags. Freeze the bags flat in baking dishes to contain any possible leaks. This method will also help to save precious freezer space! Here’s a link to the recipe!
http://www.tlcinthekitchen.com/instant-pot-bone-broth
We’re craving something tropical to get us through this dreary weather! Lacto-Fermented Pineapple Salsa is an easy, fast ferment and it’s so very good! Here’s a link to the recipe!
http://www.tlcinthekitchen.com/lacto-fermented-pineapple-salsa
We just harvested these beautiful Bay leaves from our organically-grown Bay Laurel tree! Bay leaves add extra flavor to recipes and contain the ‘tannin’ properties necessary to ferment cucumbers into crisp pickles. We should have plenty to share in the shop this spring!
Another one of my experiments! I planted these Mini Belle tomato seeds on December 22. Their compact size make them perfect for planting in a container and they produce fruits about the size of a quarter. I was concerned if they would grow during our short winter days but they are thriving and have started to bloom! I can almost taste that first tomato!
We’re always thankful for the food we serve on our table, the huge harvest from our vegetable garden and the relationships we have built with our local family farmers who choose to raise their products in a humane and sustainable manner. We’ve had quite a few new people visit our website in the past month. Welcome! We’re here to help you on your journey to grow your garden, source local foods and prepare healthy ‘farm to table’ meals. Last night’s feast...Chicken from our neighbor’s flock, hash brown potatoes and carrots from the garden. Kale salad from our greenhouse dressed with yogurt-based blue cheese dressing and home baked Ciabatta bread. Check out more of the recipes on our website!
Pressure Cooking 101
Date: March 10, 2018
Time: 10 to 11:30 AM
Location: Dodge County Extension Office
1206 West 23rd, Fremont
(402) 727-2775
’Pressure Cooking 101’ featuring the Instant Pot. Tricks, tips and taste testing. Learn how a pressure cooker can make healthy eating simple and quick! Limited seating. Register at the Dodge County Extension office. Class fee $15.00
Celery is easy to grow in our Nebraska gardens and it is a plant that continues to give back! We dig a plant or two after our fall harvest and plant them in a pot. After a short period of time the plants begin to regrow providing us with access to fresh, fragrant celery during the winter months. We keep our plants in the greenhouse but a sunny window in your house will work just as well. Celery can be diced and frozen for use in recipes. Larger pieces with leaves can be used in bone broth. Celery leaves can be dried for use as a seasoning or used to make homemade celery salt. Combine celery with water in your Instant Pot. Add veggie scraps, garlic and your choice of seasonings. Program the Instant Pot for 60 minutes on manual/pressure cook and allow pressure to naturally release. Strain through a colander, add some milk or cream and thicken with corn or potato starch for homemade cream of celery soup. So many uses! Celery plants will be available in our greenhouse this spring!
‘Instant Pot Shrimp With Pasta And Vegetables’ is a favorite recipe in our house. Good quality seafood can be expensive so we don’t waste a bit of it. This recipe calls for ‘Instant Pot Shrimp Stock’ which is made with the normally discarded shells and tails of the shrimp. It adds so much flavor! Click on the links for the recipes!
http://www.tlcinthekitchen.com/instant-pot-shrimp-stock
http://www.tlcinthekitchen.com/instant-pot-shrimp-with-pasta-and-vegetables
Our giant cottonwood trees are home to an entire community of raccoons. Occasionally a young one will wander up to the house under the cover of darkness to play on the front porch. They really aren’t a nuisance but they make it impossible to grow sweet corn in our garden. We’re so grateful to our friends Bob and Mary Lou Pycha for sharing their harvest with us! The corn from our freezer tastes just as fresh as the day it was picked! A pat of butter, some salt and pepper and the taste takes you back to summertime! In turn, we pay it forward by sharing the abundance of our cabbage and pepper harvest with others who do not have those crops growing in their gardens. We are blessed by this community of gardeners we call friends!
Have you been wanting to try fermenting foods in your own kitchen? The early spring asparagus harvest is showing up in the grocery stores. What a great opportunity to experiment with a jar or two! You’ll be a pro by the time your own garden harvest is ready and our local farmers markets are open! Fermenting is easy and affordable. There is no cooking or canning and every jar of fermented foods contains the probiotics necessary to maintain our gut health! Here’s a link to our ‘Lacto-Fermenting 101’ tutorial. We’ll walk you through the process. I’ll also post a link to our favorite fermented asparagus recipe. Happy Fermenting!
http://www.tlcinthekitchen.com/lacto-fermenting-101
http://www.tlcinthekitchen.com/lacto-fermented-asparagus-with-dill
The Instant Pot is great for cooking a tough cut of meat until it’s fork tender. Chuck roasts are delicious! It can also take a lean round or rump roast and turn it into shoe leather in the same amount of time. Before experimenting with my own method, I checked in with some of my favorite websites and found this recipe. No worries if your Instant Pot doesn’t have a low pressure setting...mine doesn’t, either! Simply halve the amount of time the roast is cooked on manual or high pressure.
We cooked a 3.29 pound rolled rump roast on manual/high pressure for 3 minutes then allowed the Instant Pot to remain on the keep warm setting for 1 hour and 40 minutes. At that time we opened the lid and the temperature of the roast read 125 degrees. We removed the roast, tightly wrapped it in foil and allowed it to rest for an hour before slicing. My taste tester (and meat loving husband) said it tasted just like prime rib!
https://thisoldgal.com/pressure-cooker-roast-beef-instant-pot/
We’re getting a head start on the vegetable garden. The onion seeds we’ve sown are beginning to germinate. We’ll continue to grow these in the flats until it’s time to transplant them directly into the garden. They’ll be harvested in plenty of time to use that garden space for a second crop of onions or another root vegetable. Our favorite varieties of onions to grow are ‘Candy’, ‘Walla Walla’ and ‘Red Bull’. Spring is coming!
Garlic cloves fermenting in raw honey for one week. It’s a month long process but worth the wait! This is going to be good!
http://www.tlcinthekitchen.com/honey-fermented-garlic-cloves
It’s going to be a comfort food kind of weekend! When we bought our first Instant Pot we found it hard to believe you could pressure cook a meatloaf without it being a soggy mess. We created this recipe and it comes out perfectly every time! There’s a little tip included in the recipe so that your meatloaf cooks evenly, too!
Aronia Berries are higher in antioxidants than many other berries. There is scientific research which indicates that they can lessen the effects of a cold and certain strains of the flu. This Aronia Berry Syrup is a great tool to have in our arsenal of homeopathic remedies when there are so many illnesses in our midst!
Aronia Berry Syrup
3 cups filtered water
1 cup fresh or frozen Aronia Berries
1/4 to 1/2 cup raw honey to taste
Combine water and Aronia Berries in a saucepan and simmer for about 30 minutes on the stove while crushing the berries with the back of a spoon. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth to filter the juice. Cool juice completely. Whisk in raw honey. Store in refrigerator.
Juice must be cooled before combining it with the raw honey in order to preserve the healing properties of the honey.
Locally raised Aronia Berries are available at the Roots To Wings store located in Arlington, NE.
Quality time spent in the kitchen with dear friends. Great conversation, lots of hugs and memories made. The fringe benefit is the healthy, fermented foods we created for our families! Yes...my honey garlic jars appear to be a bit overfilled but no worries! I used some crystallized raw honey and it may take a day or two for it to liquify to reach the proper level in the jar.
We harvested our pineapple today. It’s most likely the world’s smallest as it fits in the palm of my hand. We started it from the top of a grocery store pineapple three years ago. It’s tender, sweet and a delightful treat on this January winter’s day!
With flu season in full swing, there was a subject we discussed at yesterday’s class that wasn’t pressure cooking related at all! There was a lot of interest in the fermented foods we consume to boost our gut health and immunity. We will get our June fermenting class scheduled soon. In the meantime, here’s the link to the recipe to get you started!
http://www.tlcinthekitchen.com/honey-fermented-garlic-cloves
