Homemade Archives - Page 2 of 4

February 11, 2020February 11, 2020

My 5 Favorite Anti-Viral Herbs

It’s cold and flu season and using an herbal anti-viral can be an easy step in helping your body fend off an illness.

A jar of honey. — Adding honey sweetens anything.

If something as easy as drinking tea can help, you’ll want to choose the best herbs for the job, right?

There’s a ton to choose from. Some are really tasty, others not so much. But everything is sweeter with honey, right?

I’m not going to tell you’ll be safe from a virus using an anti-viral herb, because herbs just don’t work that way. But I will tell you, that it will help support your body in fighting off a virus and if you do catch one, it can help your body fight it off.

It’s not a cure all, but it’s one more barrier between you and the virus.

What is an anti-viral or antimicrobial herb?

An anti-viral kills or inhibits the replication of a virus. An antimicrobial is something that kills microorganisms. Microorganisms includes bacteria, virus and fungus. They’re the heavy hitters, not harsh, just tough.

Herbs aren’t like the drugs of modern medicine. You don’t just take this herb for that problem. What may work for one person, may not work for another.

So if the first one you try doesn’t work for you, find anther one. There are tons of anti-viral and antimicrobial herbs out there.

Here’s a list of 5 of my favorite, easy to find anti-viral or antimicrobial herbs.

This list of herbs are ones you can find really easy. That makes it super simple to use them as often as possible. Drinking 2-3 cups of tea a day is really the best way to use herbs in a preventative way.

1. The Elder Tree

Elderberries are an anti-viral. — Elderberries.

One of the most popular anti-viral herbs is the elderberry. Actually the leaves, flowers and berries are all anti-viral, but generally the berries are what everyone knows. I wrote about making elderberry syrup here. This is great because kids like it and it’s easy to get it in them.

You can also make jam with the berries. I haven’t done that yet, but it sounds good. I kinda think with all the sugar added to the jam, while it would taste good, might negate some of the benefit….but maybe not. Who knows.

2. Lemon Balm

This is another one of my favorites. I put this in a lot of my teas because of its benefits and because I think it tastes good. It’s also a relaxant so I love that extra benefit too.

Lemon balm is also an anti-viral herb — A bunch of lemon balm

It’s super simple to grow. It’s part of the mint family so you probably want to plant it in a container or it will eventually take over your yard. I wrote a whole article about lemon balm here, if you’d like to know more. There’s some really cool folklore behind this herb.

3. Lavender

The Lavender plant is an anti-viral herb

Lavender is an antimicrobial.

Lavender is great to cook with, like these Lavender Shortbread cookies and in all different sorts of tea. And it smells divine. But I’ve found a little goes a long way. Too much in your tea and that’s all you can taste. It can overwhelm if you’re not careful.

If you’d like more information about lavender, you can read about it here. It’s another one that has a ton of uses, so I hope you’ll check it out and find all kinds of ways to use it.

4. Rosemary

Dried Rosemary herb — Organic dried Rosemary

Yep, that’s right. The same stuff you have in your spice rack. Besides adding it to your favorite dish (I like it on my eggs), you can also drink it as a tea.

But you don’t have to drink it as a tea to get its antimicrobial benefits.

I’ve found most recipes call for a teaspoon of this or a half teaspoon of that. Try adding more than what it calls for. Though, you still want your recipe to taste good, I’ve found adding more than what it calls for can add more than just flavor. Just add small amounts at a time so you don’t overwhelm your food.

5. Thyme

Again, here’s another one from your spice rack. Who knew?

Thyme is another antimicrobial with an added benefit of being an expectorant.

Lore says that in ancient times soldiers drank it as a tea and used in their bath before going to war to increase their bravery and courage.

I have to admit it wasn’t too long ago that I actually tried these kitchen herbs like a tea. And I got to say, I was kind of surprised that I liked them. I didn’t expect that. Putting them in food is one thing, but you just never think of drinking them like a tea.

Get your anti-viral brew started.

Have a couple cups of tea a day or a good long soak with a bundle of herbs in your bath (or even pour a strong brew of tea in your bath) or just cook with them, or better yet a combination of these. Any of these methods will work to support your body in fighting against a virus.

Do you have any herbs you use to help fight off colds and flus? If you do, share them in the comments.

These are just my favorite, I’d love to know yours.

Subscribe and like if you liked the information here today. And I’ll talk to you again soon.

Until then –

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~Tracey

Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This article is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or illness. It is for educational purposes only. Please do your own research to find what is best for you and your family.

October 1, 2019September 30, 2019

Aroma Therapy and Pickling Spices

At first glance you wouldn’t think these two things have anything to do with each other. How can aroma therapy have any relation to pickling spices?

Yeah, I was kinda surprised too. I’d never pickled anything before the refrigerator pickles I learned about this summer. If you haven’t seen that, you can find that recipe here.

But this pickling is different than the refrigerator pickling.

I found a recipe for picking in a book I’ve had for years, but hadn’t really ever used yet.

The reason for the need

The okra in our garden this year has exploded. By the end of the week, I’ve got 2-3 gallons of okra that I have to process. And while we’ve discovered we love fried okra, you just can have that every night.

We’ve never grown okra before, so we had no idea how much we would get.

I finally counted my plants last week and we have 21 okra plants. I think that’s about 19 plants too many, unless you plan to sell them at the farmers market. That might just happen next year.

So I’ve been drying a ton of it. I’ve frozen a few gallons of it, but I need to save freezer space for after hunting season. So I’m sticking to dehydrating.

But I wanted to try something different.

A friend of mine suggested pickling it. I’d seen some recipes, but really wasn’t sure about it. She kept telling me how good it was. She told me how her mom used to make it when she was a kid. And she also remembered how long they had to wait for it to be ready to eat.

Pickling spices in a jar. — Just sitting around in open jars would be great too.

So I got my books out (I love cook books and have a ton of them) and started looking. I found one pretty quickly.

The recipe called for pickling spices with a recipe for making your own pickling spices mix in the book too. I knew I didn’t have any pickling spices in the house, so I checked the recipe. I had almost everything called for and hoped the few things I was missing wouldn’t be a big problem.

The recipe talked about making adjustments for your own tastes, so I figured it’d be fine.

I put the recipe together in a mason jar and shook it to mix it all up. Then I opened the jar. Holy smokes!!!! Does that ever smell awesome.

I’ve used the spices twice now to make pickled okra and will probably try it with something else in the future, just not sure what yet. But I think what I’ll actually use it for next is to boil in water on the stove top for the incredible aroma of it.

The aroma therapy of pickling spices

This stuff smells like Thanksgiving Dinner and pumpkin pie all wrapped in one. It’s warming and homey and the smell alone will make you feel cozy. Like you’re wrapped in a warm blanket on a cold day.

I’m pretty sure you can pay money for stuff from the store that smells like this. But I say, why not make your own.

It’s really simple. You probably have most, if not all, these spices in your kitchen cupboard already. It’s easily adjustable, if you want to make any changes, although I think it’s great just as it is.

Pickling Spices Recipe Mix

This recipe is from the book Food in Jars, Preserving in Small Batches Year Round, by Marisa McClelan. This book has some really great recipes.

3 TBL black peppercorns
3 TBL crushed bay leaves
3 TBL whole allspice
3 TBL corriander seeds (I didn’t use this)
3 TBL mustard seeds
3 TBL juniper berries
1 TBL whole cloves
1 TBL dill seeds
1 cinnamon sicks, broken into pieces.

Shake herbs and spices. — Shake your jar to mix.

Put all ingredients in a jar and shake to mix.

I’ll be trying this to scent the house when it cools off a little. Probably should wait until we aren’t running the air conditioner on a regular basis.

I hope you check this out. I was greatly impressed and I think you will too.

Let me know what recipe you have a recipe like this. Sometimes a little aroma therapy is all it takes for a relaxing evening at home after work.

Until next time –

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

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 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

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