BACONAISE

The delicious Condiment that may just shorten your life by a few years...but it will totally be worth it when you taste this on a cheeseburger or....anything!

WHEN YOU NEED TO TASTE BACON...ON EVERYTHING!

Now I realize that not everyone has a vat of bacon drippings just sitting around with nothing to do.  BUT...if you religiously save that precious grease from every BLT, or weekend breakfast, adding to the jar in the fridge each time, you should be able to pull off this amazing condiment off in a few weeks of saving up.  (You could also reduce the recipe by 1/2 to get there faster!)

Here ya go:

In your food processor or blender, add 2 farm fresh eggs (don't use the nasty store eggs ewww!)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dry mustard

2 T White vinegar

Blend this until mixed well, on a lower setting on your machine.  I have a Vitamix and use about a 3 on it.

2 C. Bacon drippings melted

Open the top and slowly drizzle melted but not HOT bacon drippings (I strained mine first to keep the burnt bits out, but hey, I'm not going to judge...it's totally your call)

Keep blending or processing while drizzling until the consistency is like pudding...or mayo! Cuz it is.

Store in a container in the fridge and put it on everything you can think of.  

Glorious Healthy Beef Tallow!

I embarked on the age old method of rendering and preserving an all natural fat for cooking, baking, and soap making.  Using the fat, or suet, from around the beef kidneys from a beef we recently had butchered, I ended up with 6 lbs of pure white fat with no smell to it whatsoever.  It has a very low burn point, so it makes the best french fries you will EVER taste...yes, better than peanut oil.   This is similar to leaf lard from hogs, but you sure get more for your efforts.

How to Render Tallow

First you must obtain the suet.  Contact a local butcher and ask if they have any on hand, most will not, but will usually save it back from future slaughters and call when they have it.   Once you have it, keep it frozen until ready to render it.   When you are ready, just chop it into small pieces, and toss into a crock pot...set on high for a couple hours, then reduce to low for 4 more hours or so. 

Mash it with a potato masher to break up the fats that are still intact to help them melt faster.  When you feel there is more oil than bits of meat, gristle etc, then ladle it carefully into a paper towel lined colander/mesh strainer.  Return all the bits to the crock pot for a couple more hours on low...you will be surprised how much more oil will render out!  Repeat the straining.  When your oil is hot, pour into cake pans, loaf pan, whatever you have on hand.

I like the tin foil pans, they are flexible and easy to pop out the finished hardened tallow.  Once it's cooled to room temp and semi hard, put into the fridge or freezer to harden it.  Once it's hard, I remove it from the pan/mold and place into zip lock bags for the freezer.  Take out what you need for cooking or soap making and leave the rest in the freezer so it doesn't go rancid.


UPDATE:  I recently rendered the tallow from 4 cows, and netted close to 9 qts.  So I would estimate a couple qts per cow.
  Also, instead of freezing the tallow, I canned it...just pouring hot tallow oil into hot jars with heated lids and letting them self seal.

                  We Quit Cable & Satellite Dish Services

 

It can be done!  About 5 years ago or so, I wondered why we were paying for satellite dish service when there was absolutely nothing decent to watch on it.  The bill was outrageous...and for nothing!

I wondered why I couldn't watch movies and shows on the TV though the computer.  At the time, the TV set we owned didn't have the right connection. You need an HDMI port on the TV to run the HDMI cable from the computer to it.  We bought a nice plasma flat screen with the correct ports.  I then purchased a computer which I dedicated ONLY to TV watching and some casual web surfing. NO GAMES OR DOWNLOADS.  I wanted it to stay fast and not bogged down with junk.  After a few years...we needed the computer for the kids home school work...so I ended up getting a Roku box...which is NOT as fast and spiffy as using a computer...but way cheaper...$79.00 for it, vs. $350 or so for a computer.  You can decide which suits you best. (For the occasional movie, I will hook up the laptop if I can't access it via Roku.

Heres how to do it with a computer:  Make sure you have a HDMI cord, hook it up from a computer (laptop will work), get a wireless mouse and keyboard...and you can surf for shows from the couch! Just be sure to keep your virus protection up.

We signed up for Hulu.com  to watch TV shows that are pretty current, and if you want the lastest episodes right after they air...you can pay $7.99/month for HuluPlus.com...we also love YouTube for cheap entertainment.  We also use Amazon streaming for movie rentals. Roku has tons of movie channels as well.  If you get the box, you can scroll through them and set the ones you like on your home screen for easy access.
We also signed up for Netflix streaming  for $7.99 I think.  In addition to those...you can access the Discovery Channel, History Channel...any one with a website.. However, they do not post full episodes right away.  If you are hooked on something you might have to live without it for a while.  
For HBO/Showtime movies and series, as well as a ton of other shows...I watch them after they air, like the next day...at http://www.cokeandpopcorn.ch/tvsection.php   It's a little tricky...they have a million pop ups and tricky ways to get you to click on ads.  If you want the inside skinny on how to get around on the site...message me on FB and I will try to walk you through it.  But we have watched all the Game of Thrones episodes, Dexters, Downtown Abby's etc.  You CAN NOT access it though Roku though...only a computer.

My thinking...Roku is the way to go.  They are getting better and better with their channel selections too.  Music channels are awesome on there as well.  Some things are free, some are by subscription...you just need to pay attention.

Your TV is probably new enough that it has a digital antennae, which is going to pick up local networks for news etc.

 
 

 

Micro Dairy...back in business! 

      So maybe you've heard, I hurt my back in October, so I've been very limited in what I can and can not do.  It was all I could do to just get through each day for a while...then as I began to heal, my thought wandered to milking and making delicious dairy products for my family.  I didn't expect to have to milk Bossie until later this spring, and hoped I would be all healed up by then.  But, as life sometimes does, it threw a curve ball. Poor Bossie lost her calf in early January.  So...before I wanted to...we began milking her daily so she wouldn't dry up, leaving us without a source for fresh raw milk this year.  My dear husband helps each evening, so I don't have to lift anything when we milk.  Bossie is giving us 1 gallon per milking, which is enough for us to have a 1/2 gallon of ice cream, 2 lbs or more of fresh mozzarella, a couple cups of Ricotta, some cottage cheese, a couple gallons of 2% or so milk for drinking, and a lb or more of Farmer's Cheddar in a weeks time. That is plenty of dairy for anyone!  Once Goldie, our Jersey heifer calf is fresh, next summer, we will be drowning in milk!

How to Make Homemade Noodles

2 Cups All Purpose Flour and 1 T salt, put in mixer with dough hook (if you don't have an awesome mixer with a dough hook, just put in a med or lg bowl.

In a measuring cup, add one egg, a couple tablespoons of oil, and enough water to bring it to 2/3 cup.  Slowly pour this into the flour as you mix, either with the hook or by hand.  Don't add all the liquid at once...just keep  mixing and adding until it's a nice workable, not too sticky, not to crumbly texture...like playdough. If you get it too sticky, just add more flour until it's right.

Divide the mixed and kneaded dough into 4 parts, roll each one to the about 1/4 thick, using flour on the counter and on top of the dough to keep it from sticking. With plenty of flour on top, then roll the noodle dough up into a roll, like a log, and cut the noodles into the width you want (like 1/2" or so). Unroll each noodle you cut and let it dry, either hanging on a dryer rack, or on a cookie sheet. (Make sure you toss flour on them or they will stick together...try to keep them from laying on top of each other too, they need air to dry)