September 2019 - Simply Me DIY

September 24, 2019January 15, 2020

Homemade Snack Crackers

Every time I go grocery shopping, I look at snack crackers that I can munch on that will side track me from something sweet. Everytime I refuse to buy them telling myself I can make my own homemade snack crackers.

I looked for all kinds of recipes and found several that looked good, but just kept putting it off, because, well, you know, it was just so much easier to just buy them.

One night while watching YouTube I came across a channel called Living Traditions Homestead and they were making homemade snack crackers. He kept talking about how easy and quick it was.

After watching it several times I found that it really is pretty easy, just like he said it was. It’s also pretty easy to change it up if you want.

I’ll give you the recipe he gave and then I’ll talk about how you can change it up.

Homemade Snack Crackers

Ingredients:

1 Cup oat flour
2 Cups all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
4 TBL oil
1 Cup warm to hot water.

Instructions:

Combine flours, salt, and sugar. Mix together well. Add oil and mix. I used my stand mixer for this, using the whisk attachment.

After the above was mixed well, I changed the attachment to the bread attachment.

You may or may not need an entire cup of water. So add about 1/2 to 3/4 of the water to the flour mixture and blend until well mixed.

I only used about 3/4 of a cup of water for this batch.

Rolled out dough. — Rolled out dough on wax paper. Helps keep the mess down.

From here add any additional water you may need a tablespoon at a time. You want a dough similar to bread or biscuit dough.

It’s easier to add water than it is to remove it. So go slow in how much you add at a time.

Roll out your dough on a floured surface as thin as you can get it.

Use a pizza cutter to score the dough into the size of crackers you want.

Bake at 425 deg. F for 7 minutes. Then remove them from the oven and spray or brush oil on top of the dough and sprinkle with salt or sesame seeds or whatever else you like. Then put them back in the oven for another 7 minutes.

After you’ve removed them from the oven, let them cool. If you scored them they will break at those scored lines.

Here’s some lessons I learned.

Scored dough. — Scored dough, ready to make.

I didn’t get the center thin enough, so the center wasn’t as crunchy as I would have liked. Around the outside of the dough it was nice and crunchy though.

When I make my next batch I’ll roll it out in much smaller batches so I can get the inside much thinner.

I’ll also score the dough all the way through next time. It seemed to cook better that way.

The other thing they mentioned in the video, that I actually tried, was to add dried herbs or spices to the dough along with the dry ingredients.

You can add herbs and spices to mix it up a little.

Powdered ingredients with spices and herbs. — Powdered ingredients with spices and herb.s

I used 1 tsp garlic powder and 2 tsp oregano.

There’s so many things you could add. You could add basil, dehydrated tomatoes, thyme, rosemary, onion powder, etc, etc. Be creative.

After all was said and done they really were good.

Previously, I tried this recipe using whole wheat flour and they were really hard. Either whole wheat is too dense for crispy crackers or they were too thick. Honestly, I think it was a little bit of both.

Since this mixes different flours, I think I’ll change that mixture up next time, trying something different. Maybe using some coconut or almond flour. That might add some good flavor too.

You can make your own oat flour if you don’t have any.

Oat flour is not something I have hanging out in my cabinets, so I had to make it. The Living Traditions Homestead video showed how to make it.

I used quick oats but you could use whatever kind of oats you have in the cabinet. Then just blend it using a blender, a bullet, a ninja or one of those personal smoothy makers.

I put a cup of quick oats in a regular mouthed mason jar. The mixer blade fits perfectly on the regular mouthed jars.

So I attached the mixer blades and just used it on the blender for make an oat powder or flour.

Let me know if you give this a try.

Tell me how you liked them. Even the uncrispy (is that a real word?) ones taste good, they just don’t have the crunch.

Let me know what herbs or spices you used. I’d love to hear what you come up with.

Hope to see you next week.

Until next time –

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

September 17, 2019September 17, 2019

Never Enough Time

Do any of you feel like there’s just never enough time? Between the day job and taking care of the garden, taking care of what comes out of the garden, keeping up laundry and the house, oh and cooking some supper and having dishes to eat on, that leaves about 30 min to sleep.

Okay, maybe it’s not that bad, but sometimes it feels like it.

Last weekend, I took one day with my grandkids. We played, watched moves and then went to my company party.

Me and the grandkids at the co party. — Having a snack at the company party.

We had a ton of fun just hanging out and watching movies, brushing hair and just doing “stuff” last Saturday. They always make my weekend, no matter what we’re doing.

That left Sunday as the only time I had left to get stuff done over the weekend.

Many jars of infused oils. — Infused oils. I love just looking at them.

Calendula infused sweet almond oil. — Calendula infused sweet almond oil

I started by straining the infused oils that were ready.

These oils had sat and infused at least a month and some of them as much as 3 months.

I think they turned out beautifully. Most of the golden ones are calendula and sweet almond oil, 1 pint is calendula and coconut oil and the green one is lavender and coconut oil.

I’ll make some salves, lotions and maybe some chap stick with these. I’ll probably leave a little bit as it is and use it just as an oil too.

We discovered this year that we really like breaded, fried okra. I grew up with the old boiled okra, and had learned I hated it.

After the boiled stuff, I never had the nerve to try it any other way, until this year.

So this year, we grew some okra for my daughter-in-law and decided we had to try it. Wow, is that better than the boiled stuff.

This weekend we had about 6 gallons of okra that needed to be processed. My plan was to dry some and bread and freeze some for use in the winter.

That way we could just use however much we wanted at a time.

I only have chest freezers so I could only freeze one tray at a time. They need to freeze in a single layer. So that took all day.

Left over fried okra. — Guess what was for supper tonight. Well, at least part of it.

While the breaded okra was freezing, I cut and set some up on the dehydrator. I filled 8 of the 9 shelves in my new dehydrator.

Using the time I had tonight to get a couple more things done.

Freshly made sweet pickles. — Making more pickles.

Tonight I made more sweet pickles for my husband’s sandwiches. Boy, did I start something. He loves those things and reminds me regularly when he’s getting low.

From the dehydrator I jarred up a little under a gallon of dried okra.

I now have enough okra to probably last us the winter. But…..it’s still growing. I’ll be giving some of that away this weekend.

This dehydrated okra makes a pretty decent snack. If you salt it a little before you dehydrate it, it’s a nice crunchy snack. My mom would have really like it.

Time or the lack thereof.

Anyway, my point here is, once the garden starts coming in and you have to start putting up the goodies, time runs away from you. It feels like there’s just never enough time.

I try really hard with “to do” list, to make sure I’m not running in circles. I’m even crossing stuff off my list. But it feels like I’m adding as much as I’m crossing off.

I guess that’s just how it goes. Mark off 1, add 2.

Extra days

I’m taking off this coming Friday to catch up on things that I can’t get done on the weekend. I’ve done this several times this year.

It used to be taking vacation time to work, even at home, would have really irked me. But not anymore. These days it makes me smile.

I really enjoy putting it all together, trying to put up more and more of our own food every year. And I really don’t mind just getting stuff done here at home, whatever that might be.

Now if I can find a way to ditch the day job…..

How do you get everything done. Or do you? If you have a secret on how to find more time, I hope you’ll share here. I know there has to be some kind of cool method out there…..maybe.

Let me know what you’re up to in these last days of summer.

I’m really hoping to get back to some kind of trial and/or error next week. Maybe a cracker or maybe even some mustard. I’ve been working on both.

Until next time-

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

September 10, 2019January 24, 2020

Elderberry Syrup

If you’ve never had it, you’ve probably heard of it, Elderberry syrup is almost the stuff of legends. And for good reason.

Umbels ob elderberries. — An elderberry umbel.

Elderberries have immune enhancing properties and strong antiviral properties that are helpful in preventing and shortening the life of viral infections like the flu and shingles.

They’re also good for upper respiratory infections and can help alleviate allergy symptoms.

This is one of those easy “insurance policies” (and one that tastes good too) to help keep you well during cold and flu season.

I won’t tell you it will prevent you from getting sick, but I will tell you IF you get sick the symptoms will be less severe and the duration will likely be a much shorter length of time.

Berry hunting

My husband had several places we’ve been watching since elderberries flowered in the late spring and early summer, just waiting for the berries to come on.

Bowls of elderberries. — Picked elderberries

So last weekend we decided it was time. We went to the spots we’d been watching, took a large paper bag, some utility scissors and picked berries.

And we picked a lot of berries. We got a little over 3 pounds.

I’ve made elderberry syrup from concentrate before because I’ve not been able to get the berries from anyone. That worked great too, but I wanted to use real berries.

The places where I buy my herbs from were sold out of the dried berries and I don’t have another place to get fresh ones from.

Elderberries make a really great syrup. I’ve heard of people making a great jelly or jam from them too. I’ve not done that yet, but I do plan on trying it someday.

A cup of elderberries in a sauce pan — A cup of elderberries

I’ve made this syrup several years running now. And, while I have caught a cold about once a year, I’ve not caught the flu.

I don’t do flu shots (shots aren’t an option for me.)

When I did catch a cold, I didn’t take any over the counter cold remedies. I just drank my teas and took my elderberry syrup and it was still gone in less than a week.

I’m a big believer that when my body says stay home and rest, I do it. I truly believe that’s a big part of getting well too.

Back to the elderberry syrup.

Now, I’m excited to see how much syrup I can get out of the 3 pounds of berries we picked.

Honey, masher, strainer and large bowl. — Basic supplies needed.

For your basic recipe you actually only need elderberries, water and honey. That’s it.

You can add other herbs or spices, based on your taste and desires, if you want. But for a basic syrup, these 3 ingredients are all that’s necessary.

For this recipe I added cinnamon and ginger root. You could add cloves if you wanted to.

Elderberry Syrup Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup fresh elderberries or 1/2 cup dried elderberries
3 cups water
about a half inch of ginger root (more or less if you like)
1/2 stick cinnamon (more or less)
About 1 cup of honey or to your preferred taste.

Instructions

Add elderberries, and your herbs and spices (except the honey), to the 3 cups of water in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer on low for 30-40 minutes.

All ingredients except the hone. — Elderberries, cinnamon and ginger root.

Turn off your heat and mash the mixture with a potato masher.

Stain through a cheese cloth and remove all the plant and spice material. You can add all this material to your compost pile.

At this point, if you wanted a tastier syrup, you could reduce this liquid a little, up to half.

Let the liquid set until just warm. Then add your honey and stir until dissolved.

Elderberry syrup before adding the honey.

You don’t want to add your honey to a hot mixture. You don’t want to add the honey to anything above about 100 degrees (less heat is better) or you’ll destroy that benefit it provides. (I’ll cover that in a separate post.)

Almost 4 cups of elderberry syrup. — Almost 4 cups of completed elderberry syrup.

It will dissolve pretty easy with a luke warm mixture.

Now bottle your syrup and put it in the refrigerator. Take a teaspoon or 2 everyday.

I’m taking about a half a shot glass in the mornings. That’s easy to measure and I’m less apt to spill it.

This recipe made almost 4 cups of syrup. That will be more or less depending on how much honey you add. This was really sweet, so I could have gone with a less honey. Maybe just 1/2 cup next time.

Best part is it’s an herbal recipe that really tastes good and the grandkids like it too. Can’t beat that.

If you’ve ever made elderberry syrup, I’d love to know what spices you used.

Do you know someone who could benefit from having a little of this in their fridge this winter? Share this post with them. They’ll be happy you did.

Until next time –

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

September 4, 2019January 24, 2020

I Lost Track of Time.

I have to say, having a full time job can really get in the way of harvesting and preserving my veggies.

Monday's harvest. — Monday’s harvest (with a side of homemade chocolate chip cookies).

We had a holiday this week and it threw my whole weekend off.

I also got to play with my grand kids over the weekend, so I was a little distracted. I was so busy with them and with harvesting and preserving and picking berries, I completely lost track of my days.

I didn’t even realize Tuesday was Tuesday until about 10 pm Monday night. Oops.

I’ve been canning.

Jar of canned tomatoes. — Quart of canned tomatoes

We’ve been harvesting and preserving our garden goodies.

We don’t have a ton of different veggies, but we have enough of the few we grew. I’ve given some to family and now I’m preserving for later.

Of course, we’ve been eating them too….daily.

This weekend, I canned 10 quarts of tomatoes and 3 quarts of chicken broth.

I’ve been saving up tomatoes through the week and froze them. Then I thawed them this weekend. The skins come right off when you thaw them. That was something new I tried and it worked great.

We bought a few chickens from a farm down the road a few weeks ago. I cooked them and used the meat last week.

Then I cooked what all was left from the chicken along with some veggies and some rabbit parts I had saved in the freezer. You can read how how I make broth here.

We’ve found that the rabbit makes the broth a bit darker than usual. I’m guessing that will make it more flavorful too.

I’m dehydrating too.

Dehydrated veggies in the dehydrator. — Dehydrator and dehydrated veggies.

I dehydrated some of the banana peppers and okra. I’ll be able to add the peppers to meatloaf and maybe some meatball and the okra to soups and gumbos during winter.

I also dehydrated the last of the radishes we had. They were so good roasted, I thought dehydrated, they would be really good in soups and stews. We’ll see how that goes.

Since they lose their bite when they’re roasted, I’m counting on the flavor without the bit in a soup or stew too.

We went berry hunting.

We also went berry hunting Monday morning. I’ll be coming up with some elderberry syrup soon. Stay tuned for that one.

With cold and flu season just a few weeks away, you’ll want to make some of your own elderberry syrup.

I have a few cool things in the works. You’ll see those soon.

I’ll catch you next week with something new.

Until then –

Health, Wealth & Blessing ~ Tracey