I pulled out Italian sausage links for a last minute supper today. I pulled them out this morning with no idea how I was going to use them.
At some point around noon I did a Google search “recipe Italian sausage onion pasta”.
I knew I didn’t want a tomato base recipe, so I looked for anything without tomatoes. I found a recipe called Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta.
It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for because I didn’t have all the ingredients the recipe called for. But I decided I could adjust. When you’re looking at “last minute” you look at how you can improvise for this last minute supper.
Substitutions
This recipe called for penne pasta. I already had a different type of pasta open, so I use it instead.
Cooked, strained pasta
The recipe called for a ground Italian sausage but I was using link. I just cut it up in small slices and used it instead.
The recipe called for adding cream. I did add cream, but my husband likes a gravy so I added about 2 1/2 Tbls of flour first. I didn’t drain the grease, added the four and then added the approximately 2 cups of cream to make a roux, then a gravy.
Local raw cream
I buy whole raw milk from a neighbor weekly and usually make butter out of the cream. I’ve been putting the butter in the freezer, so I decided I could use the cream for this instead this week.
Once I made the roux, I shredded a little more than a cup of shredded parmesan cheese. I stirred it in until it was melted.
Then I added steamed broccoli and cauliflower instead of the called for spinach. I really love spinach. But I didn’t have any, so I improvised.
Improv for a last minute supper
The best part of this last minute supper is to improvise the ingredients you don’t have or don’t want with what you do have or what you like better.
Broccoli in pasta
Don’t be afraid to try a new recipe, with your own twists. You’ll be surprised how good it can be.
Tell me how you improvise on recipes and share with the rest of us.
I hope you’re all doing well, staying health and washing your hands a lot.
So what’ve you been doing while you’re at home?
Have ya been doing some cooking, trying some new recipes or experimenting with old ones? Cleaning closets, dusting corners and catching up on a “to do list”?
Or are you like our family, is your job an “essential services”? Are you working non-stop to keep us all going? Let me know in the comments what you’ve been up to the last several weeks.
Our jobs are considered “essential services”. We’re both still working full-time. I’m lucky enough to get to work from home most of the week. But my husband still has to go out every day.
We leave the house as little as possible to get what we need. But being home a lot doesn’t bother either of us. We both really enjoy having so much time at home.
But that means while I’m at home I get to experiment a lot with new things.
I have celery growing from organic celery scraps bought from the store.
Just a few days in.
Can’t wait to see how this turns out. I can tell you it’ll be a while before I know.
This was my first one, planted about 3 weeks ago. That’s Big Princess in the back ground enjoying her pillow.
I have sweet potato slips in the works started from organic sweet potatoes from our local organic market.
Baby sweet potato slips.
I’ve canned everything from cornbread to meatloaf to beans. All of which are new to me. I can’t promise any of it is approved by the USDA. But it all worked for me. And it was fun.
I’ve started making my own tortillas. They’re so easy and good
A fresh batch of tortillas on a rack cooling.
And I’ve got a mess of seedlings started in the house, ready to plant in the garden soon. I started a few things too early and they need to be in the ground, but the garden isn’t ready yet. Hopefully they’ll hold on for another couple weeks.
And….I dehydrated marshmallows!! I know, it sounds so easy, and it was. But who actually thinks to dehydrate marshmallows? So Good!!
One of three jars of dehydrated marshmallows.
Let me know what you’re doing while you’re staying at home. I’d love to know what you’ve been experimenting with.
If you are working at one of those “essential jobs”, thank you for what you’re doing. Please know you are appreciated.
Happy New Year and I really hope the first part of January has treated you great. I know I’m a little late, but better late than never.
You may or may not have noticed, but I’ve been missing for a few months. Sorry about that. The end of the year stuff gets crazy.
We had family stuff and home stuff and grandkids’ stuff and on and on. I’m sure you all did too.
What’s been happening?
Let me know what’s new and good in your life. I’d really would love to hear.
Let me tell you what I’ve been up to recently.
So, I’m starting this business.
I’m making handcrafted skin care products as well as handcrafted herbal tea blends and spice blends. These products have the least amount of ingredients to make an excellent product for your skin.
Right now I’m making lotions and creams, salves and infused oils, facial scrubs and body scrubs. I have ideas of adding more products later.
Enchanted Herbals
For the lotions and creams I’m starting with the basic lotion/cream recipe I’ve posted here. I’m boosting it by infusing oils with specific herbs and infuse the water portion with those herbs too. I guess you could call it a kind of turbo cream.
Those infused oils will make the salves and be the oils as well.
Rose petals infusing in oil
I’m consigning my stuff out of a local shop in a small town near where I live right now and will try and find a few more local shops for that as well.
I’ll start going to the local farmer’s markets and craft shows and such when spring starts. The markets and craft shows are what scare me most.
I’m kind of a home body, not a real fan of busy public places. While I love to teach, I’m just not real great around a lot of people. So the thought of that much interacting is a bit scary for me.
I’ll get over it and do okay, but I’ll have to work at it.
The up side is I have a niece that loves social media. Social media is not my forte. So she’s volunteered to help me. YAY!!! I love my niece.
She’s created an Instagram page and Facebook page so I can write stuff and put it together and then just put those things where she can get to them. Then she can post pick and choose where and when to post something. That works for me.
I’m excited to see where this takes me.
Plans for the coming year.
My plan for the year is to get back to this website more. I’m terrible about taking pictures. I’ll start a new project and get half way through and realize I haven’t taken any pictures. My goal is to get better with that.
Garden vegetables
I have some stuff in mind I’d like to get together for later. Admittedly, most of it is cooking. That’s because I’m cooking more than doing anything else right now.
My grandkids come over and we do crafts, but because most of my cooking is from scratch, I still do a lot more of that than anything else.
I’d like to add some gardening stuff. My plan is to grow as much of the herbs for this business as I can. So there will be a lot of that.
And my husband and I would like to grow as much of our own food as we can. My goal, in time, is to grow and can all of our own veggies. That goal will probably take a few years to get to, but we’ll be working on it.
I’d like to ask a favor, please.
Canning green beans
Let me know what you would like to see. Is there anything specific you would like me to try? Any specific recipes, or canning or anything else. Your suggestions would really help me see where I need to go with this to give you want you want.
I’d love to hear from you.
What are your plans and goals for 2020? Do you have some fun things happening? Are there big plans for your new year?
I look forward to hearing from you and having conversations with you about your plans for the new year.
So, here’s to 2020!!! May it be the best year yet for all of us.
If you’ve never had it, you’ve probably heard of it, Elderberry syrup is almost the stuff of legends. And for good reason.
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.
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
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.
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.
Elderberries, cinnamon and ginger root.
Boiling elderberries.
Turn off your heat and mash the mixture with a potato masher.
Straining elderberries.
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 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.
Finished elderberry syrup.
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.
Today’s post was supposed to be all about how to make easy 30 minute mozzarella cheese.
I’ve had the citric acid and rennet for some time. So I got an extra gallon of milk from the store.
I didn’t want to use my good farm fresh milk, just in case something went wrong. I’m pretty sure that was a premonition.
So now I have everything I need. I’d been reading several recipes over and over again for the past week, just to make sure I had it down.
Everything you need for mozzarella, except the water.
This was the recipe I settled on. It’s kind of a combination of several different recipes and information pulled from several websites and videos.
Mozzarella Cheese
1-1/4 cup water
1 gallon of milk
1-1/2 teaspoon Citric Acid
1/4 tablet Rennet tablets or liquid
Directions:
Measure 1 cup of water and add the citric acid to it and let it dissolve.
Measure the remaining 1/4 cup of water and add the 1/4 rennet tablet to it and allow it to dissolve.
Pour your milk into a stainless steel stock pot and stir in your citric acid mixture.
Heat the milk over medium/high heat to 90 degrees, stirring gently.
Once the milk reaches 90 degrees, remove from heat and gently stir in the rennet solution. Stir to the count of 30. Then stop, cover the pot and let it sit completely undisturbed for 5 to 15 min.
After 5 to 15 min the curds should be set to the consistency of a real soft tofu. If it’s not there yet, let it sit a bit longer.
Once it’s set, cut the curd into a grid pattern, top to bottom and left to right, cutting all the way to the bottom of the pot.
Now return it to the stove, medium heat. and warm it back to 105 degrees. Stir slowly trying not to break up the curds too bad. They should begin to clump together and separate more completely from the whey.
Once it reaches 105 degrees, remove it from the heat and continue stirring gently for another 5 min.
Ladle the curds into a micro-safe bowl using a slotted spoon.
Microwave for 1 minute and drain any additional whey off.
Begin to fold the curds over onto themselves. You’ll probably want to use rubber gloves. A new set of yellow kitchen gloves is what was recommended most, to protect your hands from the hot cheese.
Continue to microwave in 30 second increments and continue stretching. Using the microwave is actually about separating out more whey.
Stretch it until it takes on a glossy sheen. Overworking it can make it stiff and it might not melt as well as it could, so don’t over-do it.
You can add a bit of salt now if you want and store it for about a week in some cooled whey in the refrigerator.
It’s not a hard one.
I read over and over that if you are using vegetable rennet, you have to use more than you would if you’re using animal rennet.
I looked over my rennet and didn’t find anything on the label that said one way or another. So I went for it.
I was wrong.
At that point, I went back to Amazon and looked up my previous rennet order. Note to self….ALWAYS check FIRST. Yep, it was vegetable rennet. Instead, I should have used about 2 whole tablets instead of just 1/4 of a tablet.
Not a Complete Fail
Okay, time to step back and punt. So, what can you do with a failed mozzarella. I wasn’t sure yet, but I wasn’t ready to throw it out just yet, either.
I strained it in a tight weave cheese cloth and hung it while I worked at figuring out what I was going to do next.
Then, I started thinking about what I’d read before about making ricotta cheese and I started looking it up.
I’d tried it before with the whey I get from the yogurt I make, but it hadn’t worked.
But this whey was different.
How Mozzarella Becomes Ricotta
I started looking for different recipes for ricotta. What I found out was, there really isn’t a recipe, just a process.
The whey left from the cheese fail.
Just gently heat the whey until it reaches about 180 degrees. You don’t want it to come to a oil.
Now you can strain the whey in a fine cheese cloth and let it drain. I tied mine up and hung it overnight.
Ricotta Cheese
It came out a beautiful crumbly ricotta cheese. It’s going to be lasagna soon.
The Mozzarella That Wasn’t Mozzarella
My original batch of “not mozzarella” that I strained anyway, turned into a very thick Greek-like type of soft cheese.
It could have easily had some herbs added to it and be used as a spread for crackers.
But, I’ve actually been using it as a breakfast with some granola and honey. It’s yummy.
Because it didn’t work like you thought doesn’t mean it’s a fail, you just have to look at it in a different way.
Let me know about one of your saves, something good that came from a perceived fail. I’d love to hear about it.
Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey
