April 2019 - Simply Me DIY

April 30, 2019April 29, 2019

Homemade Potato Salad

Okay, so homemade potato salad isn’t so over the top or different, but it is practical and better yet, it’s customizable to suit your own tastes.

My husband loves potato salad, specifically dill and red potato potato salad. We actually only found it in a few places and he really didn’t like those. He didn’t think they had enough dill in them.

So I set out to make my own.

This has several spices in it as well as real mayo. I think next time I make it though, I might exchange some of the mayo with sour cream,maybe about 1/2 cup, just to see what it’s like.

As I was making this it occurred to me I didn’t think to weigh the potatoes, but I did count them. We started out with 16 new red potatoes that were smallish to medium size.

We don’t peel our potatoes, so I just chopped them into small pieces before I boiled them. It would be easy enough to peel your potatoes if you don’t like the peel. You could also use another kind of potato if you wanted to. Maybe you have a preference.

In this recipe I used dijon mustard. You could use regular mustard or whatever suits your taste best.

I also used lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar, which I think I’ll try out a little later. I’m curious to taste the difference.

I used the spices we like the most that I thought would suit this recipe, paprika, garlic and onion powders, dill of course, and salt and pepper. Pretty easy and straight foward.

I also found that mixing the mayo and the spices before adding to the potatoes made sure that everything was mixed evenly and actually made everything that much quicker. I just mixed them all together while the potatoes were cooking.

I have to say when I added the mayo to the potatoes I was a little nervous. As I mixed it up it seemed like there was way too much mayo mixture. But as it turned out after it cooled in the fridge for a while, it was just right. My husband like a creamier mix, so it was fine. Again, this is something you can adjust to your own liking.

I will say it does taste much better after sitting for several hours.

Homemade Potato Salad

Ingredients

Please think of these as suggested measurements. Suite them to your family’s taste.

2 Cups Mayo or salad dressing, your choice
1 Tsp. Paprika
1 Tsp. Garlic powder
1 Tsp. Onion powder
2 Tsp. Dill seed
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Pepper
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
16 small to medium red potatoes, peeled or unpeeled, your choice.

Directions

Cut the potatoes in smaller pieces. I tried to get mine cut to about 1/2 pieces or smaller. I don’t want them to go to complete mush when you stir them up. We both like chunky potato salad.

Add them to your sauce pan and cover with water. You can see I didn’t get a big enough pan. I made a mess I had to clean up later. Boil your potatoes to fork tender.

While your potatoes boil, mix all your spices together and pour into your mayo and mix well.

Once the potatoes are done, drain well and put into your bowl. Pour your spiced mayo over your potatoes and mix well.

Put in the fridge to cool and to allow all the flavors to mingle.

When I was growing up, my mom made homemade sweet pickle potato salad all the time. I learned to do that as a matter of course. I’ve never measured anything I ever put into it, I just knew what was there.

This homemade potato salad was a little different. We didn’t use dill much for anything except for the canning mom did and I didn’t know much about that.

I’ve discovered I really kinda like it. So I planted some dill. I know it’s only an annual here where we live, but I’ll be planting it every year from now on, I think.

I hope you’ll give it a try. Mix it up and make it your own. Let me know what changes you made, I’d love to hear them.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, now’s a great time to do that. I have some good stuff coming up.

Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

April 23, 2019April 5, 2021

Making Dandelion Jelly

I love making dandelion jelly. Besides the fact that it tastes great, people just look at you funny when you tell them you got some dandelion jelly made this weekend.

It makes a bright yellow jelly that’s almost as bright and yellow as the actual flower and has a slight honey taste.

It’s really good and really easy to make. Here’s how.

Ingredients

About 3 cups of dandelion flowers
6 Tablespoons of pectin
6 Cups of sugar
3 Tablespoons of lemon juice

Instructions

You’ll want to pick flowers that are fully open, at least I did. I picked about 3 cups or so.

I didn’t really measure, I just filled the bowl I had.

I’ve seen recipes that say you need to pull the petals out of the green bottoms and only use the petals because the green parts can taste bitter.

I’ve never separated the flowers when I made it and I’ve never had an issue with bitter. But to each his own, I suppose. So you can do try which ever way you want. I would guess you would need more flowers if you’re going to pull the petals.

Side note: Did you know each “petal” is actually it’s own flower? Cool hu?

Once you’ve picked the flowers, you’ll want to wash them well, of course. Tiny little bugs get down into those petals and sometimes, they don’t come out easily. I use the sprayer on my faucet and it usually works pretty well.

After thoroughly washing your flowers, put them in a sauce pan and cover with about 3-4 cups of water. Bring your water to a rolling boil and let it boil well for about 10-15 min.

Straining dandelion flowers — Straining your flowers. I’ve used a strainer and a coffee filter to ensure no floaties.

Then strain your flowers from the water. Make sure to squish all that liquid out of the flowers. Then you can compost the flowers. You’ll notice the water that’s left isn’t that pretty yellow color. That worried me the first time I made this recipe. Don’t worry, it’ll look better later.

Let the water cool back to room temperature. I’m not real sure why this is, but I’ve seen it in more than one recipe and I just haven’t tried it another way yet. It’s always been convenient to let it sit while I got something else done so it’s not been an issue.

Dandelion juice in a cooking pot. — 4 cups of dandelion juice.

In the end you’ll want 4 cups of liquid. If you didn’t get 4 cups from the boil, you can add some kind of apple juice or just add more water to make 4 cups.

Add your liquid back into a sauce pan or a stock pot and add your sugar, pectin and lemon juice.

Dandelion juice, sugar and pectin in the cooking pot. — Melting the sugar and coming to a boil.

Heat this up slowly to melt the sugar and once you get to a boil, boil for 2 minutes while stirring constantly so it doesn’t scorch or burn.

Foam from the cooked jelly. — This is the foam I removed from the top of my jelly before I put it in jars.

After this boil, there may be some foam that forms on the jelly. If so, just spoon it off into a bowl. You don’t want that in your jelly jars.

Filling jelly jars with dandelion jelly. — Filling my jars and getting ready to can them.

Now it’s done. Pour it into your jelly jars.

And now you’ll notice the pretty yellow color. I told you it would look pretty later.

Jarred jelly ready to be canned. — I canned 3 pints and put the rest in the fridge.

At this point you can add it to the fridge, give it away or can it. If you don’t can it, you’ll want to refrigerate it and share with others, cause this recipe makes about 4 pints. That’s a pretty big batch of jelly for me anyway. I’m the only one in the house that eats jelly.

The pretty color of dandelion jelly. — Look at the beautiful color.

I water bath canned most of this jelly, and put the rest in the fridge to use. I’ll give some away and have some sweet golden goodness for later too.

For canning I water bathed them for 15 minutes.

I’ve talked before about how great dandelions are here. I hope you’ll learn to love them as much as I do.

Let me know if you’ve ever made dandelion jelly, and if so, how it turned out. Did you like it? Did you separate the petals or did you just use the whole flower? I’d love to hear.

Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

April 16, 2019August 7, 2019

Making Homemade Chicken Broth

Did you know you could use all the stuff you don’t eat from your roasted chicken to make some awesome homemade chicken broth?

Jars of broth. — Homemade chicken broth.

When you make some kind of a chicken dish and you have all those left over chicken parts that you generally don’t eat, don’t throw them away. There’s a lot of goodness left in them parts.

Besides chicken parts, chicken broth really doesn’t take much of anything to make except time and a few vegetables. Throw everything in the crockpot and let it sit on low for a few days and you’re done.

Step by Step Homemade Chicken Broth

I actually bought a roasted chicken at the store because I just didn’t have time to cook supper after work.. But if it’s one of your own or one from a neighbor it’s even better.

Scraps from a roasted chicken. — Chicken parts and pieces.

After making as many meals from your whole chicken you can get, pull out the crockpot and dump everything that’s left, bones, skin and everything else. into it.

Add Your Veggies

This time I used some celery heads I had in the veggie crisper of the fridge. I eat celery a lot and in the summer I’ll cut those celery heads off and add them to a salad. But I haven’t eaten much salad over the winter months.

Cut veggies for the broth. — The veggies I used. Remember you can use whatever you like. I forgot to put a clove or 2 of garlic in this batch.

I had saved from the last few batches of celery I had bought knowing I’d make some kind of broth soon.

Tip: If you wrap your celery or just the celery heads in foil, they’ll last longer.

I also had some baby carrots and a few onion scraps. The onion ends just weren’t enough onion for me, so I decided to add another small onion too. Be sure to add in any herbs you may want too. I added a few peppercorns and just a touch of salt.

Veggies wrapped in cheese cloth for the broth. — A bundle of veggies.

I bundled all those veggies up in a cheese cloth, tied them with some cotton string and dropped them into the pot as well.

Add Water

Cover everything with water. Put your lid on and turn your crockpot to low.

Crock pot of chicken stuff and veggie packet. — Add enough water to cover all your stuff.

Now we wait. I let it simmer on low for about 48 hours, give or take, I didn’t watch the time that closely.

Strain Your Broth

I suppose there are several ways to do this. I used a ladle and poured into a fine mesh strainer. Whatever works easiest for you is perfect.

Dipping out the broth. — Scooping it out of the crock pot.

Straining the broth. — I use a fine mesh strainer when putting it in the jars.

I strained it all into mason jars, let it cool and put one of those jars in the fridge and the rest in the freezer for later use. This broth can be canned in a pressure canner too. How you preserve it is entirely up to you.

What's left from a whole chicken. — There’s not a lot left over to throw away when you’re finished.

There’s really not much left after you’re done. This recipe is so easy I hope you’ll give it a try. The good thing about this is you can use the veggies you love the most to create the broth that is perfect for you and your family.

Finished Homemade Chicken Broth

I’m sure if you look you can find an exact recipe for this broth. But the reason I enjoy making it is because it’s so versatile and I can make it different if and when I want.

Do you make your own broth? What kinds have you made and what did you add?

It’d be great to compare recipes and get new ideas, so I hope you’ll share. Let me know in the comments what you use when you make chicken broth. I’d love to hear.

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Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

April 9, 2019June 17, 2019

Homemade Frittata Anyway You Want It

I’ve told you about how I look to clean out the fridge when I cook, so I don’t unnecessarily waste food. This homemade frittata is the perfect example of that.

A frittata is basically a Quiche without the crust. It contains eggs, a meat, veggies if you want them and generally some kind of cheese.

The perfect part of this dish, is that the ingredients are anything you want them to be.

You always want to use an oven safe pan, because after you saute the veggies, you’ll add the rest and put it in the oven. I use my cast iron frying pan. I love that thing. Nothing beats cast iron.

The Basics In a Homemade Frittata

Eggs

I always use a dozen eggs. When I make a homemade frittata I make a big one. This way, we eat it as breakfast throughout the week or it can be a breakfast for supper kind of thing, which is always good too.

There are only 2 of us at home, so a frittata of this size will last a few days.

The final frittata mixture just before stirring it all up and adding it to the frying pan.

Meat

I’ve made homemade frittatas with bacon, sausage and ham. I’ve not used chicken or beef or venison, but I don’t know why you couldn’t.

I generally use about a pound of meat. Some people may not want that much meat and that’s okay. But my husband is a meat and potato kind of guy and he like a lot of meat. But, so do I really.

Veggies

This list could be almost endless. Any kind of veggie you like can go into this. I always start with onion, but the list can vary greatly depending on what you have in the fridge and what you like most.

Here’s a list of all that you can use in a frittata. It’s by no means all inclusive, there are just so many things you can use.

Green peppers
Hot peppers
Mushrooms
Squash
Spinach
Any other kind of greens
Green Onions
Asparagus
Tomatoes
Potatoes/hash browns

Sliced potatoes. I never peel my potatoes, I just scrub them. These make great tiny french fries too.

And the list can go on and on. Just look to see what you have in the fridge that needs to be used up, or what you like, chop it up and add it to the skillet.

Cheese

My family loves cheese. I say family because my grandkids LOVE cheese. I refer to my granddaughter as a cheese monster and she agrees.

You can use pretty much anything you can grate, from cheddar of all kinds to Parmesan, goat cheese or ricotta.

Depending on the blending of veggies, meat and spices will depend on the type of cheese you would like to add.

Building Your Homemade Frittata

1. Cook whatever meat you’ve decided to use first. As a rule, a pound will do. If you’re cooking bacon, you’ll want to crumble it after it’s cooked.

2. Chop your veggies and saute them. If you’re using onions, saute them until they become clear. For other veggies, you’ll want to saute them until they just become soft. Remove from heat.

3. Whip the eggs with a whisk. Sometimes I add a little bit of milk because it adds a little bit to it and can make it fluffier, but it’s not necessary. Then add whatever spices you like into the eggs. This could be thyme, basil, rosemary or just salt and pepper.

4. Add your meat and cheese to the eggs and stir just to combine well.

5. Pour your egg mixture into the skillet with the sauteed veggies and then just kind of smooth it out on top spreading everything out evenly.

6. Hopefully you’ve read this whole article before you started so you know to preheat your oven to about 350 deg. Once the oven is ready add your skillet to the oven and cook for about 35 – 40 min. When you insert a knife in the center and it comes out clean, you’re good to go.

Now your homemade frittata is done – what about a topping?

A slice of homemade frittata just waiting for a topping.

After you remove your frittata from the oven, you can add more cheese, or gravy or even salsa, if you like. Be creative. I bet there are a ton of toppings I haven’t even thought of.

A homemade frittata is not exactly a quick breakfast, but is really good and really easy to make. I like that I can run through the fridge and find a way to use up all the little bits of left overs. Therefore, eliminating allowing them to go bad and having to throw them out.

When you make one, let me know what you put into it and how it turned out. Or if you’ve made them in the past, let me know what all you added to yours. How did you do it differently? I’d love to know, so please let me know in the comments below.

Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings – Tracey

April 2, 2019March 31, 2019

Beyond Homemade Lasagna

Homemade lasagna is always good, just like every other homemade goodness. This lasagna is “Beyond” because not only is the lasagna homemade so are most of the ingredients.

This won’t be a recipe in the conventional sense. In my usual fashion, there really isn’t precise measurements for the ingredients. It’s really all about what you like which determines how much of each you add

Lasagna is generally a layered pan of meat with sauce, cheese and noodles. The order and amounts are entirely up to you.

I follow that rule with most recipes, hence, I’m terrible with precise measurements.

The Homemade Ingredients of the Homemade Lasagna

The Meat

Lasagna usually contains a meat of some kind, but not always. (We like veggie lasagna too.) The meats used can range from hamburger, sausage or as in this case venison. My husband hunts so we don’t buy hamburger, we use the ground venison from his deer.

I also can venison so when I don’t have time to cook, which generally means I don’t have time to thaw meats too, I can open a mason jar of already cooked meats and mix it however I need to.

I can meat in quart jars and that comes to about 2-1/2 to 3 cups of meat per jar. Again, not an exact measurement but close enough for government work (as my dad used to say).

The Cheese

If you’ll remember a few posts back I had a failure in my homemade mozzarella cheese making. You can see that failure here.

I told you then that the ricotta that came from that would be lasagna soon. And here you go.

I did figure out that I should have salted the ricotta cheese. I rarely salt things, but this is one of those “note to self” things for next time. That was something i didn’t add to the post either, but again, I should have.

The Sauce

The sauce is made from home canned tomatoes. Several years back we planted a lot of tomato plants and almost none of them grew, so we got nothing out of them.

Because of that we planted a LOT of tomatoes a year later and they all produced copious amounts of tomatoes. I can’t even tell you how many pints I canned that year. Thus, I’m just now using up the last of them.

All I did was drain the liquid from them, mash them up and add some salt, basil, rosemary and garlic. I had a partial jar of spaghetti sauce in the fridge that I added too, just to use it up.

The Noodles

I bought them. I haven’t had the pleasure of making that kind of pasta yet. I’ve made the noodles for chicken and noodles, but that’s a different recipe.

The Process

Mixing the Sauce and Meat

As I said before, I drained the liquid from the tomatoes, added salt, basil, rosemary, the other sauce from the fridge and a few teaspoons of garlic (sadly that was from a jar too).

The amounts of each of those are entirely up to your preferred taste, depending on how much you like each. I would generally start on the lower side, tasting every so often to make sure it suits you.

Then I added the meat, mixed it in completely and again allowed it to come to a simmer until all was thoroughly mixed and heated throughout.

The Noodles

As soon as I added the meat to the sauce, I started a large pot of water to boil. After the water came to a rolling boil, I added salt and then the lasagna noodles 3 or 4 at a time. In the end I used 12 noodles.

After they boiled about 8-10 min, I pulled them out and laid them out on wax paper.

Building the Lasagna

Lay 3 noodles in the bottom of a 9 X 12 pan, then layer on the meat and then the ricotta cheese. I also layered in mushrooms in ours, just cause I really like mushrooms. You could add onions, green peppers, carrots or even a spinach or kale if you wanted to. Use your imagination.

If I had it to do again, I would have made more meat sauce, just to make that layer a little thicker.

After the last layer of noodles, I added the remaining meat on top, then the last of the ricotta cheese, then sprinkled about 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese. Again this was a little bit that was left in a container in the cheese drawer, so I used it up.

The finished build with parmesan cheese sprinkled over the top

Cover with foil and bake in the oven at about 400 deg. for about 40-45 minutes. You’re not really cooking this, but you do want it to heat completely through enough to melt the cheese in the center.

The finished product. Sorry for the fuzzy picture.

After that, I pulled it out of the oven, removed the foil and added shredded mozzarella over the top and placed it back in the oven for about 10-15 min. Long enough to melt and brown the cheese.

We love broccoli. And yes, that is a paper plate. We love them.

Using up Leftovers

Throughout this recipe you’ll notice a theme. I’m a master at going through the fridge and using the last bits of things that seem to fit a recipe. I hate wasting food so when I can find a way to use it, I will. If it fits a recipe I’ll try and find a way to use it.

Although this really isn’t what you would consider a conventional recipe I hope you found some use in it. If nothing else, I hope it inspires you to look through your fridge and figure out how you can use all those little bits of ingredients in a homemade meal of your own.

Do you have a piece mill dish you make? Let me know how you use up the stuff in your fridge. I’d love to hear how you piece mill meals.

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Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey