Sunday, October 13, 2024
Menu Plan: October 13 - 19
The peppers are finished! We still have a lot in our fridge, but we are using them in cooking. Unless we get another crate, we are finished with freezing and drying them. We are still working on apples. I want to get enough applesauce and dried apples and apple scrap vinegar made so we only have apples to fill a couple drawers in our produce fridge. I still need to make the salsa, though, and we are going to smoke some more tomatoes to preserve and turn the skins into more smoked tomato powder (which is fantastic in rice dishes, soups, sauces, added to meatballs, or in sour cream based dips). We also just picked up 50 pounds of yellow onions and 25 pounds of red onions which store really well, so mostly they are just going into storage for us to use over the next few months, but we are also going to dry (outside) some of the yellow onions to put into an onion dip mix that I will be making as part of our Christmas presents this year.
This week is the anniversary of Rich and my first date. It is 30 years since we count our first date. I don't remember if I've shared that story here, but we started that night not on a date and ended it on a date. Since times are tight, we are using a bunch of gift certificates that we have to have a progressive lunch date. Then, I am making a special dinner for us at home.
God is so good to us. With all the continually rising prices, He keeps providing for us in markdowns at the store, things we need from our gleaning group, and even produce that is still coming from our garden. One thing I have learned, too, is that apples that aren't that great (sorry, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Gala apples) can be made much better through drying them. I don't know why, but even the most bland and sad apples taste really good when dried. So, that's your tip for what to do with apples you aren't thrilled with and don't want to waste. Also, I was surprised to find that Honeycrisp apples, which are really tasty fresh and taste more than sweet enough, need a little sugar when turning them into applesauce. I've never added sugar to applesauce before using Gravensteins, Yellow Transparents, and Fujis, but this year we had a lot of Honecrisps from our gleaning group, and when I cooked them down, they just didn't taste as sweet as those apples usually do. It is only a little sugar, and I am using brown sugar, but about a quarter cup to about 25 apples seems to be enough.
Last night was our local crisis pregnancy center's fundraising dinner. Rich and I attended again (I think we have only missed it one year since living here), and two of our girls helped serve and clear away the dishes. It was a great experience, and we were so proud of our girls for helping. The work they do at the crisis pregnancy center is so crucial to helping men, women and children in need in our community, and we are so glad to help them in their mission. Part of being pro-life is being active about supporting the people in crises who are in a position to choose other than life. Please pray that all life would be welcomed and supported.
- Sunday - Feast of Saint Edward the Confessor
Breakfast: Leftover Roulette, Sliced Apples, Tea and Coffee
Dinner: Ouzi Lamb and Rice, Sides/Salads/Fruit/Desserts brought by Church Family - Monday
Breakfast: Sausage and Potato Hash with Salsa, Plums, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Kofta bil Bayd, Rice Pilaf, Moroccan Beet Salad*, Sah'awiq, Apple Pies and Vanilla Ice Cream - Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal with Chopped Apples, Raisins, Brown Sugar and Spices, Milky Tea
Dinner: Lemon Pesto Pasta (Gluten free for Jerome), Italian Sausage Meatballs, Truffle Butter Baguettes, Green Salad, Fruit - Wednesday - Feast of Saint Longinus the Centurion
Breakfast: Apple Coconut Breakfast Bowls with Almond Butter Drizzle, Tea with Honey
Dinner: Bouktouf, Khoubz Zeitoun, Tomato Salad, Fruit Plate - Thursday - Feast of Saint Hosea the Prophet
Breakfast: Fried Eggs, Toast, Sliced Apples, Tea and Coffee
Dinner: Papas con Chorizo, Salsa, Sour Cream, Chopped Avocados, Salad, Fruit Plate - Friday - Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist
Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Fruit, Tea with Honey
Dinner: Spanish Farmer's Rice, Spanish Poor Man's Potatoes, Fruit Plate - Saturday - Feast of Saint Joel the Prophet
Breakfast: Savory Parmesan French Toast with Hollandaise Sauce, Fruit Plate, Bacon, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Pasta Bolognese Sauce (Gluten free for Jerome), Green Salad, Torta Dominguera
Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Preserving the Harvest, Romance and Relationship, Tales from the Kitchen
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Recipe Round Up: Florida Style Black Beans
This is a general guideline. If you want to change it, you can. Once, we had about three tablespoons of salsa verde left in the fridge, so I tossed that in, too. I use our instant pot type pressure cooker. You could do this on the stove or in a slow cooker, but do sauté the vegetables first. In a pot on the stove, it will only take about an hour and a half to two hours, in a slow cooker, it will take six to eight hours on low. I like lime juice in it, too.
4 cups black beans, rinsed and soaked for at least 4 hours or overnight
Safflower/sunflower/avocado/olive oil
4 small onions, or 2 large, peeled and diced
8 bell peppers, seeded and sliced
24 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 or 2 hot peppers, minced
1/4 cup ground cumin
3 tablespoons dried oregano
3/4 cup tomato paste
28 - 32 ounces diced, roasted tomatoes with their juice
6 cups vegetable broth (or water)
3 bay leaves
2 tablespoons kosher salt
Use the sauté function on the pot to heat it up, and add enough oil to coat the bottom. Sauté the onions and peppers until they are soft, then add the garlic and hot peppers and cook a minute more. Add the herbs and tomato paste and stir to blend with the vegetables. Cook the mixture a minute or two. Add the diced tomatoes.
Rinse out the cans (if you used cans) of tomato paste and diced tomatoes with a little warm water to get the last of it and put that in the pot. Add the broth, bay leaves, and salt. Pressure cook on high for 5 minutes. Allow to naturally release for at least 5 minutes, or all the way (they will be softer if you let it release completely), then release pressure. Serve with rice.
Labels: Fasting as a Family, Homemaking, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen
Sunday, October 06, 2024
Menu Plan: October 6 - 12
We are still putting up apples! And peppers. And tomatoes. The freezes have meant that everything is coming in to be prepped for winter. We are supposed to have a carrot glean, and i am looking forward to that, because they store so well without a lot of extra effort on our part. Also, we had an opportunity to buy two 50 pound bags of onions for less money than the three to five pound bags are costing at the grocery store, and we use a LOT of onions. We are hoping for a potato glean. We live in prime potato growing country, and potatoes are usually plentiful. Unfortunately, the flies and black widows are also trying to prepare for winter, so we are killing a ton. We are seeing more black widows in our area than is the norm, which is probably because of our milder winter and weird summer.
Because of our church schedule last week, we were just too tired for our bonfire and Michaelmas dragon, so we did it last night. We had the dragon guts with an almond crumble for Jerome, so he could avoid the bread. We have a family birthday this week, but it is for an adult son who is out of the house, so, we will see what their plans are.
My experiment with freezing the falafel mix and also freezing some of the falafel shaped, then frying them worked beautifully. Both worked equally well, but freezing them shaped and frying from frozen means less work at the fryer. So, now we have a plan of attack for the kebab fest next year.
We are still cooking our way through our freezers and pantries and making room. Also, thank God, saving some money because of this. We hope to stock our freezers with some geese and are filling it with peppers and other lovely ingredients for the fall and winter and early spring. Now that I am not afraid of my pressure canner, I have been canning any new stock we make and using the frozen stock to empty the freezers. This gives us shelf stable stocks to use in our cooking, and frees up even more space in our freezers for other things.
- Sunday
Breakfast: Chorizo and Potato Hash Burritos, Salsa, Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Garlic Herb Roasted Pork Loin, Sides/Salads/Fruit/Desserts brought by Church Family - Monday
Breakfast: Battatas ou Bayd, Toast, Apples, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Thai Style Ginger Chicken with Eggplant, Stir Fried Bean Sprouts, Jasmine Rice, Sliced Watermelon - Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal with Chopped Apples, Raisins, Brown Sugar and Cinnamon, Milky Tea
Dinner: Korean Style Beef with Patty Pan Squash and Bean Sprouts, Jasmine Rice, Sliced Apples - Wednesday
Breakfast: Apple Coconut Breakfast Bowls with Almond Butter Drizzle, Tea with Honey
Dinner: Fried Cauliflower, Arabic Style Rice Pilaf (without the vermicelli), Taratoor, Tomato Salad, Fruit Plate - Thursday
Breakfast: Overnight Breakfast Enchiladas with Egg and Chorizo, Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Green Chile Pork, Salsa Rice, Corn Tortillas, Fruit Plate - Friday
Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Fruit, Tea with Honey
Dinner: Florida Style Black Beans*, Rice, Fruit Plate - Saturday
Breakfast: Pancakes (Gluten free for Jerome) and Raspberry Syrup, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Wedding Pork (leftover in our freezer), Salsa Rice, Tortillas, Fruit Plate
Labels: Birthday, Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Preserving the Harvest, Tales from the Kitchen
