Pastie Pie

I thought it might end up a disaster... 

Pastie pie is a favorite recipe of ours, and while the recipe allows for some alteration, it's best not to mess with perfection. But, sometimes you have to! 

All my lard was frozen solid in the freezer, so I went with the tallow in my fridge. What's the difference? Lard is made from pig fat and tallow from beef fat. 

I also didn't have any meat thawed, so it ended up a veggie pie. I shredded potatoes, carrots from the garden, onions from the garden, and turnips and rutabaga from the garden. Eggs from our chickens were the binding agent. Salt and pepper to taste. 

To check if it was finished cooking, I broke through the crust in the center to check the tenderness of the potatoes. 

Once it had finished, it seemed a bit dry, so I used chatgpt to come up with a quick sauce. We actually had a half cup of goat milk cream languishing in the fridge (it had definitely turned to clabber, the precourser to cheese), so it gave the sauce a delightful tangy flavor!

Apple Cider Vinegar

I finally have enough apple scraps collected to make apple cider vinegar. 

As I've made dried apples, I've been storing the scraps in a ziplock bag in the freezer. I know that'll make good stuff. The jar on the right is full of the peels and cores from the last batch of applesauce I made. I'm not sure how it will turn out using apples that have been cooked. 🤷‍♀️ If it turns out bad, I can always use it to catch fruit flies. 

I'll let it sit in a dark place for two weeks, stirring every day. Then strain it, let it sit for 1-3mo, then pH test it. It's ready when it has a pH of 2-3. 

Quest for a Cake #3

Recipe #3 is No Sugar Added Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes. This recipe is the easiest one yet. At least, the batter is. Three ingredients - smashed bananas, almond butter, cocoa powder. That's it! 

No rising agent, so they stayed pretty flat, more like disks. I guess that's why they're brownie cupcakes. 

The frosting is what's complicated with these bad boys. Avocado, sweet potato, and dates. Steam the sweet potato, let the dates soak in boiling water... 

We opted for homemade whipped cream to top them when Jaron celebrated his birthday with G's parents. They won't be around for his actual birthday, so they celebrated early. Got some pretty cute pictures of Jaron enjoying his birthday cupcakes. 

I'd say this recipe is the winner! Someday I'd like to make the frosting. That's a lot of chocolate for a baby, so I'd also like to try the recipe without cocoa powder. 🤔

Quest for a Cake #2

Recipe #2 Healthy Baby Smash Cake No Added Sugar. Basically, banana muffins in cake shape. Somehow in my expansive and well stocked kitchen I don't have any cake pans, so I made these as cupcakes. 

The base is almond flour and the sweetener is banana and apple sauce. They baked nicely and are fairly moist. Not the greatest texture in the world. I'm beginning to think I don't enjoy the texture of baked almond flour - too grainy. 

Still, the taste of these muffins is pretty good. Just the right hint of sweetness. Stored in the fridge they remain moist. I will keep the recipe!

Buckwheat Pancakes #3

Same recipe as yesterday, but with added spices on a different pan. 

Again, they taste great. Again, they still stuck to the pan. 

I made sure the pan heated up plenty ahead of time. It helped a little but it didn't seem to matter. They stuck even when I put oil or butter in the pan. 

The spices were a great addition! I put in cinnamon and cardamom. So what to do about the sticking? Could adding some oil help? Flax seed? Hmm...

Buckwheat Banana Pancakes

New recipe for buckwheat pancakes. I had seen this earlier and wanted to try it, but I didn't have bananas at the time. 

Great flavor, easy to make- just buckwheat flour, a ripe banana, and almond milk (or other milk). The downsides- it doesn't make many and my pancakes kept sticking to the cast iron. Granted, I had cooked some potatoes in it previously and didn't wipe the pan out, so the sticking might not be the recipe's fault. 😅

Will I make it again? Yes. I'll add spices next time and try cooking in a different pan. 

Freeze Dried Apples

I used a different apple slicer to make my freeze dried apples. They don't fit together as nicely. I have them slightly overlapping.

These are golden delicious from my brother's apple tree. 

Subbing in 7th

G and I decided that I could step away from my homesteading/homemaking/mom duties every once in a while to sub for a local school, the same one I did the long-term subbing for two years ago. 

Today is the first day subbing and the longest I've been away from Jaron since the NICU. I'm excited to be back in the classroom while also being leery of leaving Jaron for so long. G is taking charge of Jaron for the day. They dropped me off at school in the morning so I could show him off at staff devotions. The whole school prayed for Jaron and me our entire time in the NICU, so everyone was very excited to meet him, students and staff.

The students I taught today were the same ones I taught in fifth grade for the long-term subbing. We were all glad to be back together again. It was a pretty simple day lesson wise. The teacher had me administering mostly tests. I did have to teach a math lesson which was also very simple. 

G brought Jaron over the lunch hour so I could feed him and remind him I didn't completely disappear haha (and also so I could see him 😅). The kids were still eating lunch when they arrived, and when the students saw Jaron, they immediately lit up and wanted to high five him. He was a little overwhelmed by all the hands, but he didn't cry or fuss. He mostly stared at everyone. 

In the afternoon, my 7th graders asked to see pictures of Jaron, so while they took their English test, I figured out how to project from my phone to the smart board. We had about five minutes to see pictures. 

Overall, the day went very well, for Jaron, G, and me!

Honey Tallow Balm

Found this recipe on Pinterest. 

A friend gifted me some rendered tallow, so I thought I'd whip up a batch. Seems like I could use this as a cloth diaper friendly diaper cream. 🤷‍♀️ 

First, I melted down the tallow. I strained it through cheesecloth to remove the last remaining impurities. 

The honey, oils, and essential oils stirred right in. I chose 5 drops of lemon, 10 drops of lavender, and 5 of roman chamomile. The recipe calls for more essential oils, but I don't want them to irritate Jaron's skin. We'll go less is more for now. 

I put it in the freezer with timers set at 15min intervals to check. It only needed 15min! The edges were solidifying and the center was runny, but stirred together was a perfect consistency. I could pour it into my balm containers. Low and behold, one batch fit perfectly in all of these! 

 

Quest for a Cake #1

Jaron's first birthday is coming up. Since he'll be the adjusted age of 8.5mo old on his birthday, we're maintaining our no added sugar rule. I've been on the hunt for a cake recipe that fits the bill and I've found three I'd like to try. 

Fun fact from my research - the USDA recommends no added sugar for all children under two years old! Does anyone follow those guidelines these days? Apparently by two years of age, a child's gut microbiome has been established, and if they haven't had much sugar, their gut is full of the bacteria that eats fruits/veggies (which is generated by eating fruits/veggies), and that's what the child tends to crave. Interesting, very interesting. 🧐

Recipe #1 is a lemon poppyseed muffin recipe using spelt, a starch on the first 100 foods list Jaron hasn't tried yet. I did modify it a bit in my attempt. It calls for 1/2c of maple syrup/honey, so I substituted applesauce. If substituting apple sauce, Google says to reduce the liquid by 1/4c for every cup of applesauce. 

I had everything mixed together and it smelled wonderful. Last step was to add the poppyseeds. Mine were rancid. 😣 No poppyseeds next door either. What to do? I thought about putting the batter in the fridge, buying poppyseeds, and baking later, but when I looked at the batter, big bubbles were already forming from the baking powder and baking soda. I figured if I waited longer, they'd be completely flat. 

So, I made a few plain lemon, a few blueberry lemon (with frozen berries), and a few lavender lemon (with dried lavender flowers). 

They turned a nice brown, but it was hard to tell when they were done. The innards seemed doughy still even after the full cooking time. Of course, the recipe calls for muffin tins, not loaves, so that could be a factor. 😅 I wanted something more festive than a muffin shape, but in hindsight, I probably should've stuck with the muffin tin. 

I did sample a corner of each variety. Gotta taste a new recipe before offering it to guests on a birthday! They did firm up as they cooled. The flavor is nice and tart. You can really taste the fresh lemon and the Greek yogurt. Not sweet, yet not savory. I think Jaron will love them. 

They don't look very impressive. Pretty flat in fact. Maybe if I baked them sooner after mixing they'd have more height. I could stack three on top for a little layer cake effect... 

It's definitely a keeper recipe. But is it the final recipe for the birthday? Stay tuned! Two more recipes to try!

Pasture Plants and Goats on the Loose

It's been so windy the past few days, leaves are blowing off the trees. The goats love it. Their pasture has been eaten down quite a bit and all that's left is their least favorite grass. They have been vacuuming up leaves as they fall, casting a wide net across the pasture to catch them all. 

G had some time to plant a few trees in the backyard pasture, crabapple trees from the garden center that weren't going to make it. He put a fence around them to keep the goats out. 

It didn't take too long for Svetlana to find a way through the fence. We think she pushed on the fence until it was low enough to jump over or she pushed on it to raise it up enough to sneak under. This goat is determined. 😵‍💫 Either way, it worked. G couldn't get her out, so he opened the fence. Soon, the other goats wandered in to nibble the fresh, young bark. 

Our goat fencing is great for the long fence stretches but too flimsy for smaller enclosures. We need something sturdier to encase our trees. 

The goats, specifically Svetlana and her kids used the same pushing against the fence tactic to escape the pasture. There's a loose place on the west side with tall grass on the outside. The goats push against the fence to reach the tall delicious grass on the outside, which pulls up the bottom of the fence enough for a goat to slip underneath. They enjoy eating the tall grass for a while and then they work their way up to the front yard where they can hop into the garden or munch on the unplanted trees sitting up by the front of the house. Thankfully I've caught them before they have done too much damage. But it's happened waaaay too many times. 

Maybe it's time for Svetlana to hit the road. Get rid of the bad influence before it's too late. Or maybe it's too late already...

Science Experiment Consultant

A former coworker of mine messaged me yesterday to ask my opinion on a science experiment. 

"Emily, we are doing this experiment with celery, food coloring, and three temperatures of water. After an hour, nothing has happened. Do you know what should happen?? Thanks"

I did a quick Google search just to make sure that my instinct was correct. The hot water should cause the food coloring to be absorbed quicker and the cold water should go slower. But I didn't think one hour would be long enough to show any results. The textbook said to do the experiment for an hour checking every 15 minutes. 

Another issue I thought of: over time, the water temperatures would become the same, especially if it were going to take over an hour to complete. How to maintain the integrity of the experiment?

The cold one could be kept in the fridge. The warm one could be kept in the oven with the light on. But this particular school's oven wouldn't be able to do that. Back to the drawing board. How about putting the cup in a crockpot of water on warm? For that matter, you could set the cold water jar in a bowl of ice cubes. Room temp obviously on the counter as a control to compare. 

I wasn't sure you'd be able to see the color creeping up through the celery. My friend said the book's picture showed colored leaves, but he worried because his celery leaves were wilted, it wouldn't work. I assured him the wilted leaves wouldn't be a problem. 

Maybe slicing the stalk horizontally would show the color moving up? You could take an inch off each stalk to measure the distance the dye traveled. 

My friend decided to wait it out. "Update: after the soccer game, I put the celery in cold water in the fridge. I left the other 2 out. They can both be room temperature examples, or I may add hot water to the one in red."

Another update this morning: "This morning, the room temperature celery is noticeably colored."

Salsa Round Two

I had enough tomatoes to can another round of salsa. This recipe is from a blog, but the author said it was verified and tested for safety, she talks about possible substitutions you can/can't make, and she cautions against altering the ratios (because it will change the acidity to potentially unsafe levels). So, I figured this was a safe recipe. 

The recipe recommends cooking it in a 10 quart saucepan or splitting the batch into two. I chose to split it into two, and I made one saucepan with vinegar and one saucepan with lemon juice. The author recommends using vinegar over lemon juice because she likes the taste better, and I actually agree with her! 

G hasn't tried the salsa yet, so I don't know if this recipe is a keeper. I will have to try this salsa side by side with the previous recipe to see which I like better.

To me, this batch tastes sweet. Now I'm wondering if that's from the variety of tomatoes we have. Guess next year we'll do a different variety. If only I could remember what kind we grew. 😅 I think it they are Amish paste tomatoes which Google says are a sweeter variety.

Oil Shelves

For years I have wanted a shelf for my essential oils so they can be out and easily accessible. G didn't like the idea of having a shelf on the wall in the hallway (thought it would look too cluttered), so we compromised by agreeing they could go on a magnetic shelf stuck to the fridge. 

Both of us scoured the Internet and drew a blank. There are tons of shelves for essential oil bottles, but none magnetic. The best thing I found was to go in a locker for lipstick /nail polish and could only hold three oil bottles. It was too expensive to buy enough for my entire collection. 

So the idea was put on pause. G has a co-worker whose husband 3D prints stuff, and G thought we could get him to design and build something for us. It took a while to get connected with him and send him the specifications. Right around that time, his wife became pregnant, and since she was our go-between, the project stalled again.

It recently occurred to me that one of my former students 3D print stuff. He actually makes farm toys and sells them. I figured he would be able to build me a shelf for my fridge. I was right! It only took him a few weeks to buy supplies and find magnets strong enough to hold up all of those bottles. 

His printer isn't big enough to make a shelf that stretches across the entire side of the fridge, so he planned to make two shelves that could go next to each other. Since I wasn't sure how they'd turn out, he made two and if I was satisfied, he would make two more. Here they are! 

The big challenge was making sure the magnets were strong enough to hold all of the bottles that would go on the shelf. They seem strong enough! I did a test to make sure they weren't slipping over time. I put a magnet next to the shelf at the same height. A few hours later, I checked if the shelf had slid. 

Neither had! I messaged him to request two more shelves. 😎

Duck Door Update

Well, the duck door fix keeps the goats from getting inside... But it's big enough for Brighita to put her head through and get stuck. 

You'd think she'd learn after the first two times. Nope. She's gotten stuck at least four times. 🙄

Basically, every time we open the duck door to let them forage in the pasture, she gets her head stuck. I've taken to counting goats whenever I peek out the windows that overlook the pasture. If I don't see her, I know I have to go rescue her. 

Really, we should kick the ducks out and shut the door so no one can get back in, ducks or goats. We can open the gate back up at night to lock the ducks in. 

Sneaky Goats

Once again, the goats surprise me at how they can sneak through tiny holes. Today, four goats found their way into the trampoline. I couldn't see an access point from my window view, but once I got up close, I found the culprit. 

Yes. That little opening. 

Since they'd eaten all the chicken feed and wanted a drink, they walked out the door without complaint. 

I refilled the chick's water and feed, and once I did, the lure of feed brought our boss goat sniffing around again. 

I fixed the opening by weaving twine through the broken chicken wire and the trampoline pole. 

That ought to keep them out! Although, I've said that before... 😅