Freezing Eggs

OK this challenge has really got me thinking and researching ways to put up perishable items when they are on sale for future use.  I had heard of freezing eggs but have never tried it.  Well yesterday was the day.  One day a week our market puts medium eggs on sale for $.89.  All well and good but we eat very few eggs but use a lot of them in baking.  Now most recipes call for large eggs so have never purchased medium eggs before.  I think large eggs here are around $1.89 a dozen.  In my research I learned you could freeze egg whites which I have been doing for years but also whole eggs which are suppose to be fine for cooking.  There was also in the article an equivalent to use once the eggs are cracked and beaten together.  It said a large egg was 3 tablespoons.  Well being the doubting Thomas that I am I measured a medium egg and it was 3 tablespoons and a large egg was 4 tablespoons or 2 oz. or 1/4 cup.  I was suggested to also put 1 teaspoon of salt to every cup of eggs to be frozen.  One word of caution when beating the eggs together was don't get any air in them.  Well do I listen no.  I put a dozen into the blender and gave them a whirl.  I did let them set until they had all settled down.  Out of the 12 medium eggs I got my equivalent of 10 large eggs.  Therefore instead of an egg costing me over $.15 it cost me $.09.  With all the baking I do that is a big savings.

I also waste a lot of egg making egg wash for breads.  I plan to freeze some eggs in ice cube trays which should be just enough to make an egg wash for a couple of loaves of bread.

A personal challenge

I have made a personal challenge to live off the land and from savings I can get from the market.  I have spent all spring and summer tending my garden and putting up of what I grow as well as enjoying fresh vegetables all summer.  Now the time has come to tighten the belt on spending and making do with what I have squirreled away and buying with great discretion what I buy for food shopping sales and discount stores.  Having only one market it town there is definitely no discount shopping but there are sales and managers specials of food that is to become outdated.  It is 45 miles to get to numerous markets and discount stores so maybe a trip every 2 months to stock up on what I can't make.  I plan on using this blog to record my success or failure at this challenge and hopefully some will gain from reading it and others will give support with ideas I haven't thought of to save on feeding 2 people.

Harvest Monday 11/07/11

Well the outside garden is officially done.  I dug the carrots this past week.

This was the last of them, an 8 quart grape basket full.

Canned all but this 4 1/2 pounds that I will use fresh from the refrig.

 I can't keep up with the basil in the aero garden.  I ended up freezing this which I already have plenty frozen in the freezer.

I am afraid this will be my last Harvest Monday as all I will have is basil and parsley from the Aero Garden until spring when it will be time to dig the horseradish and pick the rhubarb.  I am sad as I sit here knowing the end of my gardening 2011 is over.  Not to worry though as I will be checking in on Mondays with envy to see what everyone has fresh to eat.

Don't forget to check our host's site

Daphne's Dandelions

to see what everyone else has harvested this past week. 

Do you make lists then loose them

I am a list person but half the time I can't find the list after I make it.  I hate sticky notes they are too messy.  I found a new solution quite some time ago.  Of course to have to not mind things stuck to the front of your refrigerator.

I have a bad habit of putting leftovers in the refrig and forgetting about them.  All of a sudden the refrig looks like an experimental lab growing all sorts of cultures and wasting good food.  I also try to keep a running grocery list of what I am running short on but can wait until I see it on sale.  And then there is the to do list which I don't have up right now as it ran out of paper which might tell you a little bit about how long my to do list is.  For that I use a small pad the size of the one with refrig contents but it has a sprial top so I can flip through the pages.

I have a coil of magnet tape that has a peal off back.  Stick it to the back of a pad or small notebook and you have an instant refrigerator magnet and your notes don't get lost.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 11/3

It has been a busy week in the kitchen both putting up and taking out of the cupboard.  Hate when I have to start taking out of the cupboard.

 One nights supper had a lot from the root cellar (my cool workshop 40 degrees) Potatoes and cabbage for hot Italian Cabbage, from the pantry canned tomatoes and from the garden fresh parsley.

 Yep into the freezer meatloaf TV Dinners.  These will be handy when I have dinner meetings.  Since I am a caregiver, I have to fix supper for my DB who lives with me before I leave.  I place plastic wrap over these and put them in the microwave until it puffs up about 40 seconds and when you take them out the plastic wrap will collapse around the food almost like a vacuum wrap.  Let them cool, cover with aluminum foil and freeze.

 Weekend lunch.  Turkey noodle soup made from Turkey stock in the Pantry.

 4 1/2 pounds of carrots from the garden to the root cellar

 3 1/2 quarts of Chicken Stock to the Pantry to make soups and gravies from.

 Clarified Chicken Fat to the freezer check out All but the cluck

 Chicken pot pie with potatoes and carrots from the root cellar

 14 pints of Carrots

 3 1/2 pints of pumpkin

 Zucchini/Carrot muffin  

Made 1 1/2 dozen large muffins for the freezer this week for DB's Breakfast including these, blueberry and Bran.  All reduced sugar recipes.

Zucchini/Carrot Muffins

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

2/3 cup granulated sugar (substitute splenda)

1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed (I make my own brown sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups finely shredded unpeeled zucchini

1/2 cup finely shredded carrot

Preparation:

Grease and flour 12 muffin cups. Heat oven to 375°.

In a mixing bowl, beat the oil with eggs, sugars, and vanilla extract.

Combine the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; add to the wet ingredients; stirring until blended. Fold in the shredded zucchini and carrots.

Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or granulated sugar, if desired. Bake for 20 minutes.

I do alter this also by filling the centers with cream cheese.  Only put part of the batter into the muffin tins then place a heaping tsp. of cream cheese on the batter than finish filling the tins with the batter.

Now if someone could tell me how to get your tally of things put up or harvest quantities  on the side board of your blog I sure would appreciate it.

Don' forget to visit our host of Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

The Gardener of Eden 

And see how others are storing and using this week.

Using all but the cluck

I am sure you have heard the expression of using all but the squeal of the pig.  Well I think I have almost accomplished that with a chicken.  I was lucky to find whole chickens for $.98 a pound the other day which is cheap for here.  Pay more than that for legs or thighs.  These are name brand and weigh about 5 pound so are more than enough for 2 meals for my brother and I.  I like them because unlike most chicken you buy today it actually has fat on it.  Great for making gravy which we love.  Well to keep it short I did the usual, simmered it for chicken, biscuit and gravy.  Saved just enough of the broth to make enough gravy for that nights supper and enough for a chicken pot pie later in the week.  The bones, skin, etc. then went back into the a bigger pot with the leftover broth, some carrots, onions, celery stalks, bay leaves and rosemary to cook up a fresh stock.  Once the stock is strained I always put it into the refrig to gel up and for the fat to set up on the top to be skimmed off before canning.  Yesterday I skimmed the fat but didn't throw it out as usual.  I thought, they save duck fat for cooking why not chicken fat.  It would be good to make a rue for a nice chicken gravy with my canned stock.  So I canned up the 3 1/2 quarts of stock then warmed up what I had skimmed from the top of the stock so I could pour it.  Now when you skim you always get some gel and I other things from the stock and I wanted pure fat so strained it through a coffee filter into a clear tall narrow measuring  glass and let the fat come to the top.  Put it into the freezer until it set up and was able to lift the fat from the liquid very easily.  I got 4 tablespoons of pure fat.  May sound like a lot of work but didn't take that long and it will taste so cook in gravy at a later time.  Put it into 2 T containers in the freezer and it will now be removed to a resealable vacuum sealer bag for freezer storage.

After straining through coffee filter and separating.

Harvest Monday 10/31/11

I didn't harvest much this past week.  Got the community plots cleaned up and there were quite a few little green peppers and since I didn't need anymore in the freezer, I put them in the dehydrator.

Had my first harvest of basil on the aero garden so made a batch of compound basil garlic butter.

Wanted something to brighten up my meatloaf dinner the other night so went out in the snow and picked a little parsley from my small places to chop and sprinkle over the plate and ended up with a little more that I needed so it is now dried.

Still have carrots in the ground that I hope to get to today and an still hoping the brussel sprouts will get bigger but not sure there is any hope on that.

Don't forget to visit our host of Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelion to see what everyone is harvesting.

Cooking with less sugar

Most of my adult life I have been cooking for a juvenile diabetic so am used to exchange diets etc.  I would make special desserts for my son that were geared specifically to his exchange diet.  However now my brother who I care for has been diagnosed being a borderline diabetic but has no set diet just watch the carbs and sugar intake.  I have been working on my regular baking recipes to reduce but not totally eliminate all sugar.  I plan on posting some of my recipes and how I have adapted them and still enjoy them myself.  I had some lemons that were getting old and DB loves lemon are so this is what I made and I even liked it with no sugar.

5 cups water divided
1/2 cup splenda
1 cup of lemon juice

Since the original recipe called for 1 cup of sugar with one cup of water made into a simple syrup, I put the splenda into 1 cup of water but it dissolved immediately I didn't have to heat it.  Added the lemon juice and 4 more cups of water and it was just perfect.  Not too sweet, not to tart.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

It was yet another good week for putting away for winter.  Still not quite done but with snow on the ground this morning I am afraid it will be winding down soon.

Picked the first basil from the Aero Garden this week so made a compound butter with it.  It is great on pasta.  I store it in the freezer and when I want it just take it out and cut off what I need.

Basil/Garlic Compound Butter

2 oz Fresh basil leaves (about 2 bunches)

10 oz Butter, softened (2-1/2 cubes)

1 tsp Garlic, minced

1/4 tsp Salt

1/8 tsp Black pepper

3 T Grated parmesan cheese plus additional for garnish

1 T Grated romano cheese

1 lb Fresh Linguine or angel hair pasta

1 lb Medium shrimp, shelled and deveined

Wash and dry basil leaves.  Remove the leaves from the stems and discard the stems. Place basil in food processor and process until finely chopped. Process in two batches if necessary to get a uniformly chopped basil. Remove from processor and reserve.

Place butter in small mixer bowl. Using an electric mixer, whip butter until whipped. Add garlic, salt, pepper, parmesan and romano cheeses, and basil; mix until incorporated.

Basil butter can be used immediately or stored covered in refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.

Shrimp Scampi over rice with the Basil/Garlic Compound Butter

Fried hot Italian Cabbage from the cabbage I picked this week.

Hot Italian Cabbage

Olive oil

Garlic chopped fine

Cayenne Pepper

Shredded Cabbage

Tomatoes

There is no set recipe for this dish.  I was taught to me by an Italian friend who was an owner/chef of a local restaurant.  It was an old family dish.

Saute the garlic and cabbage in the olive oil until the cabbage has started to wilt.  Add some canned tomatoes that have been squished in your hand or you can us fresh peeled tomatoes.  Add cayenne to taste as well as salt and black pepper.

  

First batch of carrots canned  5 pints.

 

Finally process the sauerkraut

 

The rest of the beets 

 

The last of the tomatoes that had ripened in the house made into tomato juice.

I was also able to pick more peppers when I cleaned up the community Plots this week and put them in the dehydrator.

Marcia also asked that I post my Cabbage Role Recipe that I should last week coming from the freezer.

Cabbage Rolls

1 large Cabbage

2 eggs

4 tsp salt

4 T Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 C Chopped Onion Sauteed

1/2 Cup of Milk

2 Cups Cooked Rice

2 Pounds of Ground Beef (I prefer 80/20 for taste and moisture)

Leaving the cabbage whole remove the core and drop into boiling water to slightly soften the leaves.  Remove the large leaves and set aside.  I find it necessary to dip the cabbage in boiling water more than once.  

Mix the rest of the ingredients together and put in the refrigerator to chill.

Cut the tough stem from the middle of the leave then overlap the leaf from side to side to make a solid leaf again.  Place some of the meat mixture in the leaf at the stem end and roll up like an eggroll.  Place seam side down in a slow cooker.

Sauce

1 large can of tomato juice or about a quart and a half of homemade

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 6 oz can tomato paste

3 tsp onion powder

3 tsp garlic powder

1/4 C Worcestershire Sauce

Pour over rolls and cook on low 6-8 hours

I know that some folks bake them and they shred the leftover cabbage that is too small to use for rolls and place some under the cabbage rolls and some on top before they pour the sauce over them.  Cover them with foil and bake at 350 degrees but I don't know the exact timing.

Be sure to check our host for this week 

Spring Garden Acre

And see what everyone else has in their cupboard. 

Harvest Monday 10/24/11

Well the temperature here on the mountain finally fell to 32 degrees for the first time this morning but still no frost.  However I picked down and pulled most of the garden over 2 weeks ago when we were threatened with frost.  This week I did finally harvest the rest of the beets which I have cooked and need to get canned today.

 Shelled the dried cannelloni beans.  Ended up with 1/4 pound for seed next year.

 

Also did the shelling beans 3/4 pound

 Dug half the carrots.  9# 14 oz. Was very satisfied with the experiment of the modified square foot method of planting I used.  First time I have had carrots to harvest since I have been planting here.

 

Last of the cabbage 10 # 12 oz.

I also harvested the first of the basil in the aero garden.  Had enough to make a batch of cheese/basil compound butter which is now in the freezer for future use.

Don't forget to visit our host of Harvest Monday

Daphne's Dandelions

And see what everyone else has in their basket this week. 

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 10/20/11

It is that time of the year unfortunately when many more things are coming out of the cupboard than are going in.  Did put up a couple of things this week.  Made clam chowder and vegetable beef soup.  At least the carrots and the potatoes came from the garden originally.

 Buckwheat Pancakes

 Since a recipe for pancakes make many more than enough for one breakfast the rest to into the freezer for future breakfast.  They are wrapped in wax paper and stacked in a bread bag so the stand up in the freezer and take up less space.  Good recycling also.

 

Spaghetti sauce made and canned earlier with tomatoes, basil and peppers from the garden with a cube of basil from the freezer to give it a fresh flavor when heated up.

Texas Garlic Cheese toast to accompany the spaghetti and meatballs made of fresh homemade French Bread and spread with a garlicky cheese spread.

--Black Angus Garlic Cheese Bread--
1 loaf french bread
1/2 cup butter
1 cup shredded jack cheese
1 cup shredded asiago cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, pureed
Split french bread loaf into halves horizontally. Mix butter, cheeses,
mayonnaise, green onions and garlic in a bowl, blending well. Spread the
cut side of bread with spread. Bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes, then
place under broiler about 3 minutes longer. Cut into slices and serve.

Vegetable beef soup

Clam Chowder

From the garden to the freezer to the table.  Gilumpkis and Spaetzle

Don't forget to visit our host of Thursday in the Cupboard

The Gardener of Eden

and see what others are doing with their harvest. 

Harvest Monday 10/17/11

Sadly the garden is coming to a close as fall has arrived and with it come cold nights.  Still no frost however.  Yesterday I did go out and dig a few carrots for soups I was making.  I was pleasantly surprised to find I actually had carrots the size they were suppose to be.  I have never had any luck with carrots here before.  Only problem is I need to get them out of the ground as it seems either the mice or the voles has also discovered I have carrots.  I would like to keep a lot of them for fresh carrots during the fall and into the winter.  Does anyone have any ideas how I might do this.

My 2 lonely butternut squash

Totals This week

Carrots 1 lb 1 oz

Squash 2 lbs 7 oz

Don't forget to visit our host of Harvest Monday

Daphne's Dandelions

And see what everyone else has in their basket this week. 

Gathering and putting up 10/13/11

First thanks Robin at The Gardener of Eden for starting Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard.  I am sure there will be many to share how they preserve the bounty from their garden and how they use them during the long cold winter months that many of us endure.

From Mid July until late October my steam canner, pressure canner and boxes of canning jars become permanent fixtures sitting in their boxes on the floor in my kitchen.  It seems they are in uses a number of days away during that time.  But I can and freeze year round not just while the garden is going.  I love to cook and still do everything in big batches as I did when my family was growing up even though there is now only me and my brother that I am the caregiver for.

Hear are a few of the times that made their way into jars this week.

 I am still canning tomatoes.  Did a couple of batches this week.

 My lonely 2 pints of cannelloni beans.  Hope to do better next year but did get enough dried for my seed for next year.

 One of my favorite tools.  The Squeezo.  At the end of the tomato season I use the scrubs to make tomato juice.  The gadget makes it so easy.  No peeling, coring, just cut them up and cook them down.

 This pot was full before cooking.

 This is after my buddy the squeezo

 Total waste from the pot of tomatoes

 Final product

Finally braved the task and got 2 pints of pickled Hungarian Wax Peppers.  Since I am allergic to the oils in hot peppers it takes me a while to get my courage up to do them.  Took a benedryl then dropped the peppers into boiling water for just a minute and came through the process without the throat swelling shut.

Also had a chicken to stew up for dinner the other night so made stock from it at the same time.  Canned two quarts of the stock for later use and made creamy chicken soup with one quart.

Creamy Chicken Soup

1 quart of Chicken stock

1 Carrot diced

1 Potato diced

2 Stalks of Celery Diced

1 Small Onion Diced

1 Pint Canned Tomatoes

1/2 Cup Condensed Cream Soup Mix Cream of Condensed Soup Mix

Cook soup until vegetables are tender.  In a bowl add enough water to Soup Mix to make a slurry then slowly stir into the soup.  Allow it to come to a boil and thicken.

(Note I do not add the Chicken Bouillon to the mix when I make it)

Happy cooking.

Harvest Monday 10/10/11

Well with the threat of 20 degree weather this past week I pretty much stripped the garden.

 Raw zucchini marinating.  Goes great with cheese and crackers.

Totals for the week.

Zucchini the little ones weight in at 10 oz.

Also picked to large ones that weighted over 5 pound each

1 1/2 pounds Hungarian Wax Peppers

5 oz. jalapeno peppers

2 lbs 1 oz green peppers

Cannelloni Beans enough for next years seed plus canned 2 pints

Shelling bean enough dried for next years seed.

About a 1/4 of a bushel Paste tomatoes that are still green

Don't forget to visit the host of Harvest Monday

Daphne's Dandelions

And what everyone else has harvested.

De visit to the Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day and a perfect day to take the DGD and DGGS to the pumpkin patch for a hay ride and to roam through the pumpkin patch to find that just perfect pumpkin.