Recipe Archives - Page 2 of 4

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 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

July 16, 2019July 29, 2019

Berry Jam

I love berry jam. Don’t you? It goes good on everything, in my humble opinion.

This is where I found my berries.

Early this year I bought a few blueberry bushes because I eat a ton of blueberries. They’re my favorite.

My blueberry bush with berries. — One of my 3 blueberry bushes.

I’d always heard or read, can’t remember which for sure, that, like strawberries, it would take a year or so to start getting any berries.

Apparently, that’s not true. I was happy to see that these bushes were going to produce lots of berries. They didn’t produce a lot at one time, but as they matured, I harvested them and put them in the freezer.

Then one day I was out walking around the yard and found a mulberry tree. My husband had been hacking at it with a machete for quite a few years trying to kill it. Of course, we all know you can’t kill a mulberry tree, at least where I live. They grow like weeds.

Ripe mulberries in a bowl. — Mmmmmm mulberries.

There’s been a large mulberry tree on the property for years and I never got a berry from it. The birds ate them all before I could get to them. There’s always been purple bird poop on everything, every year.

But, this year, this tree, which is now a bush, continued to survive. And not only did it survive, it was covered in mulberries. Beautiful, ripe, purple berries, that tasted awesome. I couldn’t believe the birds hadn’t noticed this bush!!

So I started picking berries daily. I only got about 1/2 cup of a mix of the two at a time. I collected them, washed them and let them set out to dry overnight and then put them in jars in the freezer the next morning.

Me and My granddaughter discovered frozen berries make a great summer snack. Note to self for next year.

I decided when I got to 5-6 cups of berries I’d make some berry jam. It did’t take too long to collect about 5 cups. That seemed to be the magic number, because at about 5 cups both bushes finished their production.

I’m not complaining, I’m totally happy with what I got from them. Beside the 5 cups worth, I also got to eat some too.

Now it’s time to make some berry jam.

I found a non-pectin berry jam recipe on the Farmer’s Almanac web site. This is what I loosely followed. I’ve looked but I can’t seem to find the same recipe again to post a link.

I say loosely because that recipe used a different kind of berry and didn’t add lemon juice. I wasn’t sure about the acidity level of berries, so I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

Better Homes and Gardens Canning Book. — The canning book I used as a reference for this recipe.

This is one of the books I use for my canning.

I have several, but this happened to be the one I used.

It has a chart that lists the acidity levels for several different types of foods.

If the acidity level is high you can water bath can your jam for preservation instead of pressure canning.

But if the acidity levels are lower you need to use a pressure canner to be sure you kill any kind of nasty bug that may make you sick.

Acidity levels for different types of food. — Acidity levels from the book.

As you can see, lemons and limes are at the low end of the pH levels which you would expect, and the berries are kind of in the middle.

There probably wouldn’t have been a problem, but since I had lemon juice, I decided I’d go ahead and use it.

Since I had the time I still decided to not use the pectin.

All I had to do was cook it a little longer. Actually, I probably cooked it a bit too long, cause it’s really, REALLY thick. But I’m okay with that.

It’s the first time I’ve made jam without the pectin. I wanted to make sure it got thick enough. I’ll call it an experiment instead of a mistake.

So I started with the 5 cups of berries I had been picking and freezing over the past month or so. It was a mix of mulberries and blueberries.

Frozen berries beginning to cook down. — Cooking down my berries.

I poured them into a stock pot and heated them on low until the blueberries began to break and the mulberries got mushy.

Then I added the 3-3/4 cups of sugar. The recipe I found said 3/4 cup of sugar for every cup of berries. That seemed easy enough to remember and it’s less sugar than some of the recipes I’ve got for jam. I cooked this slow and stirred a lot so the sugar didn’t burn at the bottom. It won’t take long to melt.

Mashing cooked berries. — Mashing the berries as they cooked.

Cooking berry jam. — Cooking the berries.

Then I mashed them with a potato masher. You can mash these down as much as you want. I like the larger chunks so I didn’t worry too much about it. I knew the blueberries would cook down to pretty much juice, but the mulberries, which are sweeter, didn’t break down so much.

The recipe I read said without using the pectin you needed to cook it about 1/2 hour to 45 mins. I decided to go about mid way and cook them about 40 min on low. Next time I’ll probably just cook them about 25 min, maybe 30.

Make sure you stir a lot. I couldn’t get my burner down low enough, in my opinion, so stirred it almost constantly.

Now it’s time to can the berry jam.

Sterilizing canning jars. — this is an easy way to sterilize your jars. Put them over the water in your canner while you wait for it to come to a boil. I just put the lid on it and let it go.

I began by boiling water in the water bath canner. Then I put the jars in the canner while the water boiled to sterilize them.

Once the water boiled and the jars were sterilized, I filled each one.

Filling jars with berry jam. — Filling the canning jars.

While I fillied the jars, I boiled the canning lids. I’ve heard recently that that is a step that you don’t have to do anymore.

I’m not sure if there are new lids that don’t require boiling or if Ball just changed the rules. But since my lids are older, I’ll continue to boil them until it get new ones that read that it’s not necessary.

Cleaning the jar rim. — Make sure the rims of your jars are clean.

Once your finished filling the jars, you want to make sure the rims are clean. This will ensure there is nothing to obstruct the sealing process.

Then add the lids and rings. You don’t want to crank down the rings. Just finger tight. When you add them to the canner you want about an inch or 2 of water to cover your jars.

Jar of jam ready to be canned. — My canner has a rack in it. I set the jars on the rack and then I can just lower the rack into the boiling water.

I waited until the water was at a rolling boil, then I lowered the jars into the canner. You can add them sooner, but you don’t want to start your timer until your water is at a rolling boil.

Then I processed them in the boiling water for 15 min.

Now they’re done.

Now you can turn off the heat, and raise your rack.

The best part about this is hearing the lids seal. They’ll begin to ping one at a time. In my opinion, this is the best part. Makes me smile every time.

Now you just wait for them to cool and you have preserved berry jam.

I put one of them in the fridge without processing it, so I could have some berry jam to eat now. I wanted to try it out. Then I labeled the rest and put them in the pantry.

If you have the equipment canning your own jam is really easy. Do your research and be sure to follow the best safety rules when canning. They are listed in all the canning books. Don’t be afraid to it a try. It’s really not as scary as it sounds.

If you have canned your own jam, let me know what kind. I’d love to hear what you’ve been preserving. Add your pictures to the comments.

Be sure to subscribe and comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time –

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

June 25, 2019June 24, 2019

Homemade Sweet Pickles

A quart and a pint of homemade microwave sweet pickles

I came across this new recipe for how to make homemade sweet pickles just in the last few weeks. These things are AMAZING, if you like sweet pickles anyway.

Quart of homemade sweet pickles — A quart of my homemade sweet pickles.

We had a Memorial Day party and my cousin brought these to share.

Sweet pickles from the store can’t hold a candle to these homemade sweet pickles. This is a cucumber and onion mix with a simple mix of spices and sugar poured over them and then heated. The best part about this recipe is that it’s a 10 minute recipe. You just can beat it.

They have such and awesome flavor and they make such crisp sweet pickles, you’d never believe it only took 10 minutes to make.

You can make these pickles a sweet and spicy mix too if you like by just adding some jalapeno peppers. I’m not real keen on spicy, but I know several people who would love that.

It’s deceptively easy and amazingly fast. You’ll be pleasantly surprised, I promise.

Measuring cup with the spices needed for these homemade sweet pickles. — What you see here is all that’s needed for this easy crispy sweet pickle recipe.

Mary, my cousin, sent me a photo of the recipe she uses. From what I can read, a lady named Esther submitted this recipe in a contest to something called “Cooks Connection”. I couldn’t find anything local relating to Cooks Connection so I’m not real sure what that relates to. I couldn’t find a date on it either, so I’m not real sure how old it is or who to credit it back to.

So, in lieu thereof, I’ll credit my cousin Mary for this fabulous recipe.

I hope you all enjoy these as much as I did. I’ve made several batches since then and so far they have been a hit with everyone I’ve shared them with. I plan to make many more in the future.

Homemade Microwave Sweet Pickles

Ingredients

2 cucumbers, thinly sliced – not peeled
1 onion also thinly sliced. I’ve actually used 2 onions before just because they are so good in this recipe.
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Tumeric. A note on tumeric….it stains everything. My bowl stays yellow for a while after using it. Just keep that in mind and don’t spill it.
1/4 tsp Mustard Seed
1/2 tsp Celery Seed
1/2 cup Vinegar. I also used my Apple Cider Vinegar in this recipe. You can find out how to make that here.
1 cup sugar

Instructions

Mix the salt, tumeric, mustard seed, celery seed, vinegar, and sugar in a large microwave safe bowl.

A large bowl with sliced cucumbers and onions and the mixed ingredients to be poured over them. — The ingredients are mixed and the cucumbers and onions are sliced.

Slice the cucumbers and onions thinly and add to the bowl. Mix well to cover all the slices with the mix above.

Sliced cucumbers and onions with all the ingredients poured, mixed and ready to make sweet pickles. — Pour your mix over your sliced cucumbers and onions and stir well to cover every slice.

Microwave uncovered on high for 5 minutes.

Remove and mix well, again making sure you stir well to cover all the slices.

Mixed cucumbers and onions with the mixed poured over them for sweet pickles. — The beginning of best sweet pickles you’ve ever made. This is after the first 5 min.

Return the bowl to the microwave and heat again, uncovered, for another 5 min on high.

Remove from the microwave and let cool. Once they’ve cooled, refrigerate until cold. Now they’re ready to eat.

This recipe makes about a quart of pickles. I wasn’t able to get all the liquid in the quart jar along with the pickles. So I filled it all the way to the top and just added as much as I could

A quart and a pint of homemade sweet pickles ready to put in the refrigerator. — This recipe of sweet pickles had an extra onion added to the mix.

If you add an extra onion like I did, you’ll probably need another pint jar. With the extra pint jar you can get all the liquid into both jars.

Some people may think a cup of sugar is just too much. And that can be true, depending on your taste. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ll be adjusting the amount of sugar and spices just out of curiosity in future batches. I’m curious to see how they turn out.

That’s really all there is to homemade sweet pickles.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did. If you do, share it with everyone. This is just too good not to share.

Do you have a simple recipe for pickles? Did you try this recipe and adjust the ingredients a bit? Share in the comments below, I’d love to know. Or if you tried it just the way it is, leave a comment and tell me what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for coming by.

Until next time.

Health, Wealth & Blessing ~ Tracey

June 4, 2019June 26, 2019

Sunburn Gel

Hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day Holiday Weekend.

Today, I had planned on writing about making your own bug spray this week, but after working in the garden this weekend, I thought I would write about sunburn gel instead.

Bet you can guess why.

I’m not one of those people who tan all nice and pretty brown. I can eventually get there after lots of time in the sun with oils and water to cool you off. But that was in my younger days, not so much now.

We were finally able to get into our garden this weekend and finish planting. I know it’s late, but we had about 30 inches of rain during the month of May. That’s an entire years’ worth of rain in a month. It was crazy and a muddy mess.

This is my Chinese Yard Long Bean trellis. I can’t wait.

It’s also been fairly cool so far this spring. Usually by this time we are getting temps in the mid to upper 90’s and it’s miserable. And while it was pretty warm this weekend, it wasn’t near what I would consider “hot and miserable”. It was simply a beautiful sunny weekend.

We had a nice breeze blowing through the garden and I was determined to get some stuff done. And it was great to just be able to get outside without drowning.

By the time we got done my husband told me I looked like a lobster. I was pretty red, but it really didn’t hurt. We did finally turn the AC on this weekend.

The Recipe for Sunburn Gel

A few years ago I made this mixture just cause I thought the ingredients would work well on a sunburn. It actually surprised me how well it worked. It’s perfectly natural and very easy to make and it will cool your skin like no other.

What’s left of my mix over the last few years. I love this stuff.

It’s made 50/50 coconut oil and aloe vera gel. Super simple. I just shake it before each use.

Coconut Oil

I know they say not to put oils on a burn as it may cause the burn to continue to worsen. I also know this can be true from first hand experience.

But I’ve been using it mixed with aloe vera gel for a few years now and have had nothing but relief.

I’ve even used this mix on a burn my husband got from work on his arm and it relieved that pain too.

So you may want to mix just a little and test it on yourself before you use it on anyone else. Everyone I’ve ever suggested it to has loved it, but everybody is different too. So test it out first in a small spot before rubbing it all over you or someone else’s back.

Aloe Vera Gel

Everyboby knows aloe vera is good for burns. You can just cut a leaf from the plant and use it on a burn. But I actually buy aloe vera gel in bulk and use it in several different lotions I make, but I have it around most of the time.

Our newly replanted aloe vera plant. My husband is so proud of this plant. We’ve had this plant since it was a baby, about 10 years ago. We’ve just replanted it again.

I buy my aloe vera gel at Mountain Rose Herb or at Bulk Apothocary. I’m sure there are plenty of places to buy it, but these are my favorites.

Aloe vera is an anti-inflammatory, it promotes circulation and inhibits the growth of bacteria, all of which are great for burns. BUT, it also just cools a burn, which is what we are all looking for after a sunburn.

My new little garden buddy. He loves grub worms.

Now, we have to use some common sense and not stay out till you blister. When my husband told me I looked like a lobster, I was pretty red, but it didn’t sting to just touch my shoulders. They weren’t comfortable in a shower though, by any means.

But after I used this mixture on my shoulders and arms, I instantly felt relief and by the next day I was in the garden again with no pain. I did remember to use sun screen before I went outside this time so I didn’t repeat the process.

The Sun and Your Skin

I used to lay out in the sun for the perfect tan when I was younger. I always did and I still do think that tanned skin looks healthier than untanned skin. But I know now there is a difference in how much tan is healthy and that too much is really too much.

Today, I’ve discovered all that hours and hours in the sun was probably not the best way to go. While exposure to the sun can help the skin manufacture vitamin D, too much exposure to the ultraviolet rays from the sun can be too harsh.

This is the beginning of my cantaloupe hill. Be sure to use your sun screen when you make these.

Excessive exposure to the sun can reduce elasticity and cause premature skin aging. It can also damage or even kill skin cells. I don’t think that’s the best way to go for my older skin. Worst of all it’s the chief cause of skin cancer too. No thanks.

So now I still enjoy the sun, but I try to remember to use sun screen and limit my time out in the hot afternoon. I still like the look of tanned skin and still feel it looks healthier than untanned skin, but I’ve also altered my opinion of how much tan that needs to be.

Do you have a remedy for sunburn, (other than not going out in it, of course)? Share it in the comments. I’m excited to see what you’ve come up with.

Thanks for coming by and Until Next Time –

Health, Wealth & Blessing ~ Tracey