Blog - Page 4 of 12 - Simply Me DIY - Make it instead of buying it.

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

August 27, 2019April 1, 2021

Dehydrating Veggies

A few things in the garden exploded and we have tomatoes and banana peppers running out our ears. So, I’ve been dehydrating veggies, a lot of them.

The tomatoes

We planted a lot of tomato plants this year because we weren’t real sure they would all grow because the seeds were so old. We planted all these plants with the idea some wouldn’t make it.

We were wrong.

tomatoes to be cut up for dehydrating — Mortgage Lifter tomatoes

These Mortgage Lifters don’t get as big as I thought they would, but they made up for it in sheer volume.

They’re beautiful and really good, but there’s so many of them.

They’re called “salad sized” tomatoes. Too big to eat like a cherry tomato, small enough to cut up for salads, but too small for slicers.

And the perfect size for dehydrating.

We got some cherry tomatoes, but not as many as I expected. I’ve just been eating them from a bowl right off the counter like snack food. They just don’t last long here.

Banana Peppers

When we bought these banana peppers, we weren’t sure we liked them. I was pretty sure my husband would, but not too sure about me.

Like the rest of the garden it was an experiment.

After cooking several and just eating them right out of the garden, we both discovered, they’re really pretty good.

We like grilling them with what we’re having for supper.

The little plants look like they have Christmas light on them, there are so many little peppers on them.

They were slow to start, but once they got started….watch out! They went to town and we have quite a few of them now.

Dehydrating Veggies

My Dehydrator

If you remember from a post or two back my dear hubby got me the dehydrator of all dehydrators for my birthday. And I’ve been using it almost constantly since to dehydrate veggies.

A dehydrator full of tomatoes. — Getting ready to dehydrate my tomatoes.

I’ve dehydrated so many tomatoes and Lemon Balm leaves, I have enough to last several months.

Dehydrating veggies is so much easier than canning. The actual amount of time it takes is probably a little longer, but it’s much easier.

I turn on the dehydrator and walk away.

And it holds so much, I can get a lot done at one time.

Dehydrating Tomatoes

Dehydrated tomatoes. — Powdering my dehydrated tomatoes.

I slice the tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick and filled all but 1 tray, using parchment paper on the trays to hold all the juice. This makes clean up a lot easier.

Once they’re dehydrated, they pop right off the parchment paper and are easy to grind up.

I was originally using my mortar and pestle, but couldn’t get them powered enough so I started using my spice grinder.

Peppers & Okra

I used the dehydrator from my dad for the banana peppers and a few okra. I was trying to do as much as I could all at once.

I sliced the banana peppers about 1/2 inch thick, the same with the okra.

The peppers and okra are pretty dry and don’t take very long to dry. Dehydrating the tomatoes took about twice as long because of all the liquid they contain. They’re really juicy.

Storing my Dehydrated Veggies

Dehydrating veggies takes up much less space in my opinion. You can seal the Seal-a-meal attachment in canning jars or in the sealing bags. Or you can crush or powder, like I did with the tomatoes.

I’ve dehydrated our garden goodies before, but only had four trays, so it took a while. Now I have 13. YAY!!

Next…

I’ll be canning the pink brandywine tomatoes this weekend. I like choices when I’m cooking.

I’ll be freezing a few things too, like breaded okra. Makes frying up okra this winter quick and easy.

I hope you got a couple of ideas here. There’s a lot of things you can dehydrate to help preserve your garden.

Just last weekend I found a book on dehydrating food and of course, I bought it.

I can’t wait to see what I’ve been missing.

If you have ideas or have tried something I didn’t mention, let me know. I’m always up for trying something new.

Until next time –

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

August 20, 2019August 19, 2019

Homemade Catsup (or Ketchup)

Grilled burger with homemade catsup and grilled banana peppers. — Homemade catsup on my grilled burger with my homegrown grilled banana peppers.

Either way homemade catsup is really easy and really good.

Recently, I’ve been on this theme of trying almost everything I can find homemade. Hint – coming soon, mustard and crackers among other things.

My goal is to make as much as I can from scratch and buy as little as I can from the store.

Just like garden grown veggies have so much more flavor than their store bought counterpart, in my opinion so does homemade condiments like catsup and homemade sweet pickles.

Regardless of what it is if it’s homegrown or homemade, it’s always so much better than what you get in the stores.

And if it’s homemade it’s a bonus, or maybe it’s the point of it, that you know what every single ingredient is you put into it.

Store bought tomatoes or home grown

In this spirit, every homemade catsup recipe I came across called for tomato paste. I rarely have tomato paste since you usually only use a tablespoon or 2 and I end up throwing it away.

But, this year I have a garden and I’m beginning to get a TON of tomatoes.

A batch of tomatoes getting ready to dehydrate. — Tomatoes that I’m getting ready to slice and dehydrate.

And, this year for my birthday, my awesome husband bought me the Cadillac of dehydrators, an Excalibur Dehydrator. I’ve wanted this thing for years, but it costs so much I wouldn’t buy it for myself.

Anyway, this means I’ve been dehydrating tomatoes. I knew there had to be a way to use those for this recipe.

So I searched the net and finally found a ratio method for mixing dehydrated tomatoes to water for paste and for sauce.

Just so you know…..it’s a 1:1 ratio for paste and a 2:1 water to dehydrated tomatoes for sauce.

So now I’m excited. Dehydrated tomatoes take up WAY less space than canned tomatoes. And this means I don’t have to can so many tomatoes….BONUS!!

Okay, back on track for homemade catsup.

To ferment or not to ferment

A jar of catsup with a fermenting lid. — My jar of homemade catsup with one of my new fermenting lid.

Most of the recipes I found said I could ferment them or not. As a general rule, we don’t use a lot of catsup, so I kinda wanted to ferment just so it would last longer.

Recently, I also bought myself some fermenting lids so I could ferment more. So since I had those I thought I would go ahead and give the fermented catsup a try.

From what I was reading, the recipe is no different either way. So, that made it easy.

Homemade Catsup

Making homemade catsup truly is one of the easiest things you could ever make. And best of all it can be made to suit your tastes. As you mix the ingredients, all you have to do is continue to taste it and adjust it to what you like best.

Although I read through about 3 or 4 different recipes, this is the one I settled on. First because I liked the ingredients and second, because I’ve liked most of the recipes I’ve found on her site so I trusted it would be good.

This recipe comes from theprairiehomestead.com. If you haven’t been there yet, you should check it out. She had a ton of great stuff there.

Ingredients:

12 oz or 1.5 cups of tomato paste
3 TBL of maple syrup or raw honey
3 TBL of raw vinegar
2 TBLS of whey or brine from an existing ferment***
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp allspice**

*** You only need this ingredient if you plan on fermenting your catsup. I had just made some sauerkraut, so I used some of the brine from that.

**I didn’t have allspice, so I found a mixture you can use to make a homemade version. To make 1 tsp of allspice you use 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground clove and a pinch of ground nutmeg.

Instructions:

Mix all of your ingredients in a bowl. If you are not going to ferment it, then put it in the refrigerator and your done. I’d let it sit for a few days just so all the flavors blend well.

A bowl full of ingredients to make catsup. — Mix all of your ingredients into your bowl and mix well.

If you’re going to ferment, then put your catsup in a pint jar, cover it with a fermenting lid, an airlock or a regular lid. If you use a regular lid, you need to remember to burp it either daily or a few times a day to let the fermenting gases escape.

Let it sit on your counter for about 3 days and then put a regular lid on it and move it to your refrigerator.

That’s it. It just doesn’t get any easier.

Another thing you’ll notice with this recipe is there is no sugar. I suppose you could use sugar if you wanted to in place of the honey or maple syrup. I wouldn’t know why, but you could if you wanted to.

You can adjust these spices to whatever taste you like. You could even add a touch of hot sauce if that’s something you might like. The possibilities of the different tastes you could come up with are endless.

So there you have it, really easy homemade catsup. I hope you give it a try. I know I’ll not be buying it from the store anymore. You may decide the same thing.

If you find you want to make your own catsup, let me know in the comments below how it turns out. If you change up the recipe, I’d love to hear how. I’d love it if you would post pictures of what you make.

Be sure to subscribe to get something new in your inbox every week. Canning season is coming up, I have a new dehydrator and I have several new recipes I’m itching to make, you won’t want to miss what’s coming.

Until next time-

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

August 13, 2019August 13, 2019

Making Bead Sun Catchers

So, these Bead Sun Catchers turned out way better than I expected.

Pony beads used for project. — I got these beads from Hobby Lobby. They had glitter in them that looked great when they melted.

I these sun catchers on Pinterest several times and thought it looked like something Zoey would enjoy. She loves bright pretty colors and being crafty.

So I got the beads some time ago, thinking we would get to this pretty quickly. That was probably 2 months ago.

This weekend I had both grandkids and one of the cousins over to spend the weekend. It seemed like the perfect time.

I told the girls about the bead sun catchers and pulled out the bag of beads. Showed them the muffin tin I planned to use and told them to create whatever design they liked. They were thrilled.

Then I remembered some aluminum pans I had in the cabinet. You know the kind you buy 3 or 4 in a pack that can be thrown away after you use them? I had 8 inch square pans. But they have several different shapes and sizes to choose from.

Girls designing their bead sun catchers. — Working hard at their designs.

The girls had a ton of fun creating and re-creating. They mixed the beads and then separated them and then mixed them again.

They made designs and then dumped them then made new designs, until they finally came up with something they liked.

Once they had the first batch done, they had a better idea of what they would look like. Then it became easier for them to come up with new designs.

Heating the sun catchers outside instead of in the oven was a better idea.

When I got ready to melt the beads for the sun catchers I used the gas grill. I’d read in a few articles of people using the oven inside and it turning out bad. I decided I didn’t want to try that.

Completed sun catchers. — As you can see, we don’t even have to make a hole to hang them with in a few of them.

I tried to find what temp they needed to “cook” at looking at different websites to find a temp. I couldn’t find anything.

So I faked it and started at 450F. One article I read said it took about 10 minutes. At 450F it took about 30 min. I figured I was doing it wrong so for the second batch I let the grill get to 550F.

That worked much better. It still took longer than 10 minutes, but was still much faster.

Once they’re melted, just set them to the side to cool. I was worried about getting them out of the pan, but didn’t need to be. They popped out real easy.

There are a few things to remember next time.

I did discover, however, that while all the scalloped edges of the pan were a cool part of the design, the writing on the bottom of the pan also transferred. Not the cool design I was hoping for. I’ll have to figure a way to make that not show up.

Square pan sun catcher. — Here’s the square sun catcher. Can you see the writing in the center?

If you can think of a way to get rid of the raised writing in the bottom of those pans, please let me know in the comments. I haven’t been able to figure that out yet.

Some of them melted smooth and a few didn’t. The ones that still had a little texture from the lump of the bead looked really cool I thought.

But those all came out of the same batch, so I’m not sure what the difference was so we can recreate the effect. Next time I’ll try and pay more attention to that to figure it out.

Give this one a try when you get a chance. I guarantee your kids or grandkids will enjoy it. Share your creations here and post your pictures in the comments. I’d love to see them.

Until next time-

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey