Sherri Lynn

Jay:  I am definitely not planning to do that (mush).  I am a creative person who loves variety.  I am just weeding out which things seem to be worth it, and which ones don't.  I am only posting a few meals that I have a strong reaction to.  Most meals are working out fabulously and feels like we are eating gourmet meals.  I am finding ways to do double duty on things, but it is a strong learning curve.  First time I have done this though, so I do expect a lot of that.

For example, I made some blackberry syrup for my grandson (2 years old) that was having some problems with loose stools.  I knew he would love the blackberry syrup to flavor his water and not realize he was actually taking a medicine.  The berries that I strained out of the syrup ended up on our breakfast plate with some battered and fried squash.  This was not a meal we were used to, but it was amazingly good.  Trying to get outside the box of what routine does to us.  It really is a great learning experience.

We are a month and a half into no grocery stores.  Yesterday I picked 5 1/2 gallons of cucumbers and was exploring new recipes to utilize them.  For lunch I made some cucumber salsa and wanted some corn chips to dip them with.  I happened to have some Masa Harina in the cabinet, so I proceeded to make some corn tortillas, then fry some chips.  This is pretty time consuming.  Those stacks of 100 corn tortillas at the grocery store are worth every penny.

I just read somewhere that all the commercial dairies in the United States has issues with Crohn's disease.  You would have to study for yourself to see if you think that's true.

I know this isn't the answer to the question asked, but I was wondering if you considered not having leftovers?  For me, all of my meals start with leftovers from the last meal usually still in the pot I cooked them in.  For example, leftover vegetables often become an omelet, an ingredient on a pizza, a quiche, burrito, etc.  For any leftover, instead of thinking of it as the final product, I think of the ingredients.  For example if it is a fruit, it might become pancake syrup or popover, or muffin ingredients.  If I am tired of it, it becomes, either chicken food, dog food or pig food.  Or, I used to have an ice cream bucket in the freezer where all leftovers got dumped in together and when it became full we had refrigerator soup for dinner with biscuits or corn bread.

One thing I like about having less is that you better use what you do have and I am more creative.  In our year of not buying groceries, we had a few things from the grocery store lurking in the back of the cabinet.  One day I was hunting for something sweet to eat and ran across a box of Swiss Miss cocoa.  We must have bought it one time when we were going camping.  I did not look at the expiration date, but wasn't worried as it was a dried good.  While I didn't want any hot cocoa, I was thinking I could use this to make chocolate pudding.  So I put 3 pouches of cocoa mix, 2 cups of water, 1/4 cup of flour, 1/3 cup of sugar and 1 heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder in a kettle and cooked it until thickened.  Then I pour some into a cup with three (small) egg yolks and put it back in to cook for 2 minutes more.  This made four servings of pudding.  Yum!

The other thing I found was a small box of potato flakes.  On another day I put 1 1/3 cups of water in a kettle and added some salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper.  After it came to a boil, I turned it off and added a teaspoon of lard and a cup of potato flakes.  Mix.  Then I added about 3/4 c. of flour, and a very large egg.  Mix.  Fry in a frying pan with some melted lard in 1/3 cup portions.  Patting it down when you first put it in, then pushing down with the spatula when you turn it.  Served these potato pancakes with a little maple syrup.  Yum!

Surprised at those two items made without the milk they usually require.

Five days into month two.  Man I was glad when the broccoli came in.  Asparagus was getting old (believe it or not).  We have now run out of cooking oil, but we still have plenty of lard from our last pig harvest and our current two pigs are growing up a storm.  I am worried about not being able to make mayonnaise mostly.  I am learning more about foraging.  For example a friend told me thistle stems taste a lot like celery, but you have to peel off the fibrous outer covering.  I tried that, but I am obviously not peeling off enough outer covering.  Will have to work on that.

The last few days we processed 37 Cornish Cross chickens.  My husband decided we needed to clean out the freezer of last year's chicken crop so we don't mix them.  I contacted my daughter to ask if she wanted some leg quarters and chicken wings and was surprised when she turned us down.  However, my husband came up with a brilliant idea.  His grandmother used to use up all the prior year's stuff by making a big pot of soup.  So we ended up with 17 quarts and 1 pint of soup for those days when we are too tired to cook.  Go Granny!!

By the way, after the meat got cooked a little, I took it out, deboned and cut it up and put it back in.

I can see an arched opening to a secret garden. . .

We used a similar shape to create our hobbit garden shed.

I saw a youtube video where a guy used trampoline springs to hold together cattle panels for his pigs to forage in a wooded area, so he could rotate locations.

More food entries:

Last night's dinner:  hamburger patties with gravy made with garlic scapes and water instead of milk (really good), rice (still have some left), and fresh picked and steamed broccoli.  Today's breakfast:  Sweet potato pancakes.  Yum!

Anita:

We currently have two working honey hives and have planted a large field of sorghum for sweetener.  Now this is our first time of actually counting on sweeteners we cannot buy at the grocery store, so I hope everything works out well.  Also, I am going to have to figure out preserving fruits and pickles without sugar.  Wish me luck!

As far as slip on muck boots, I have had the same trouble with them not lasting.  So far I am quite impressed with the polish military boots that I bought from Sportsman's Guide last October.  No holes or cracks and they look just like rubber boots and didn't cost much.  The key to slipping them on and off easily is buying them a size larger than you need.  Big enough to slip on and off easily, but not so big you will lose them in the mud.  Surprisingly, they are also not icicle cold in the winter.