Living in the Wyoming countryside
Step 1: purchase breeding stock and breed pigs.
Step 2: Butcher pigs.
Step 3: Prepare trimmings for grinding
Step 4: Grind sausage
Step 5: Prepare filling and refrigerate.
Step 6: Prepare pasta.
Step 7: Fill pasta with pork sausage filling.
Step 8: Enjoy the perfectnss of your home made ravioli
Step 9: Cook in a white wine garlic sauce.
Step 10: Enjoy!
I’ve cooked a lot of beef roasts and there weren’t that many of them I was proud to claim, until now. This recipe has never, ever turned out poorly. I have essentially dumbed down a beef bourguignon recipe. This recipe has a few less steps and way less active cooking time required. You can vary the recipe with the variety of wine you use and how much of each ingredient you use as well.
Start by thinly slicing a large yellow onion into a dutch oven with some olive oil in the bottom. Add salt and cook until golden in color.
Next add mushrooms, carrots and cut bacon. Cook until the mushrooms start to brown. I don’t have an exact on any of these ingredients. It’s whatever I have and feel like cutting. I only had 2 carrots when I made this roast. The roast before it I used 5. Completely up to you.
Remove everything from the dutch oven, season the meat and brown on all sides.
I use a Hudson Bay Beef Spice mix from Savory Spice Shop.
Make sure you flip the meat. You may add butter at this time if the pan is dry.
Perfection! Add the onion/mushroom/carrot/bacon mixture back to the pan with the meat.
Now add the wine. Whatever red variety you have on hand. I have used Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet, etc. Red wine and beef, you pretty much can’t go wrong here. I add wine until there is about a 1/2 inch in the bottom of the pan.
Cook the wine until slightly reduced and add beef broth until the roast is covered.
Bring to a boil.
Cook in a 275 degree oven for about 6 hours. You can do longer or less time. I’ve never had it turn out badly.
Bon Appetit!
Our new island is a true thing of beauty. The kitchen is almost 100% done. All that is left is a new floor and putting base boards on all the cabinets. This is a big deal for me. I started this entire kitchen remodel so I could get a big, beautiful island the kids would be able to access better. Our old island was…gross.
Small and oddly angled it just wasn’t that functional. If I was rolling dough on it there was no way the kids could get up and help me out.
I used the IKEA Algot system and cut it up to make the perfect fruit and vegetable storage baskets in the island.
I was able to fit five large baskets perfectly into the island frame.
I find the baskets extremely useful!
I router-ed two of the 4×4 braces to fit the electrical wire inside the island frame. I also sneezed, can you tell?
Island framing has begun. Can you see the dirty outline of the old island? I was excited to add an additional outlet to this island.
A thing of beauty!
I decided I wanted the planked look on the island as well. There was a big debate about whether to stain or paint the island. I decided I wanted to paint.
The color was not what I intended but it works just fine.
I ordered 8′ maple boards. As the island is 8′ long I planned to glue cross pieces onto each side. It covers the rough edges and gives the counter top the over hang it needed.
I glued the maple planks together with Titebond III Ultimate. I also managed to glue some of the tarp in. I’m talented!
This is how I bypassed using a clamp to glue the edge pieces on.
Then the planing began. I planed for about a month.
Then it was time to sand. To help flatten the butcher block island I screwed it down before I began planing and sanding. As such I was not able to take it outside to sand. I got a little creative.
It worked. No one was more shocked than I. I barely had to clean dust off of the rest of the kitchen.
Then the sealing began. Well first you have to wash it, several times. Then I scrub with lemon and salt. Then clean again. Then oil, many times. Four regular coats of oil and one coat of oil that is mixed with beeswax.
Doesn’t the edge look great!
Now the kids, the dough, the machines and whatever else I want can fit on the island.
This recipe is simple, easy and delicious. It is also amazingly healthful. The Asparagus was picked moments before from the garden. The eggs were from our chicken flock and scarce hours old. Exactly what the Dr. ordered. Dr. Mark Nyman I mean.
I have a secret, I’m fat, kind of. I consider not being able to fit in my pants close to the end of the world. So, time to get healthier. I’ve always figured we ate well. I cook almost all of our meals from scratch. We do eat a lot of grain products though. From Meuseli in the morning to home made pasta and bread. We are a grain loving family. Vegetable loving, not so much. I love them but no one else does. It makes cooking them a trial.
Back to what I was saying, we are modifying our diet. No more gluten. No processed foods (how the kids will live without peanut butter and nutella sandwiches I don’t know). No dairy. No refined sugars. No alcohol. I keep telling my husband we are on a veggie and meat diet. He’s ok with the meat part, the veggie part might kill him. His body will go into complete shock and I could see him keeling straight over. So, 20lbs is my goal and meals like this are what will get us there. Simple, delicious and free of our long list of don’ts.
For those on the Paleo diet or those who cannot consume gluten or dairy, this is amazing!
Crustless Asiago, Parmesan and Asparagus Quiche
Ingredients:
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients but asparagus in a bowl with a whisk and pour into a pie pan. Add the chopped asparagus spears. Cook for 20 minutes. Enjoy.
Piggybacking on my last egg-periment we made delicious omelets for breakfast. I have a preference for more Mexican flavors, hence the onions, olives and such. Any omelet filling could be used though.
The Perfect Buttermilk Omelet
Ingredients:
Directions:
Preheat your skillet until smoking hot. Add all of the ingredients to a chopper/blender and blend until bubbles form on the top. Add all at once to the skillet and cook until the edges are firm. Flip the omelet and cook to desired consistency. Add salsa and enjoy.
I do love our Ninja. It does everything. Very multi-purpose. I just add everything in and voila!
Of course when the children help things get a little….messy.
They are so thrilled about it though, makes all the mess worth it.
The key to fluffy scrambled eggs is a simple one, air. The more air you can get in your eggs the fluffier they will be.
Now, I do not claim to be an expert whisker but I’ve whisked plenty of things in my life. I whisked and whisked the eggs but I can’t beat the blender for adding air.
30 seconds in the blender and the eggs are airy and light.
These are hand scrambled eggs. Now, it should be known the eggs got a bit overcooked as we were having photo problems. Thankfully our first two eggs were equally over cooked so the experiment was still good.
Eggs in the blender. Noticeably fluffier.
Once I picked which method made the airiest eggs, I then tried adding a teaspoon of water and a teaspoon of milk to see which would would assist in further fluffing.
This is eggs poured into a hot and oiled pan after being blended with water.
Eggs blended with milk.
There wasn’t a very noticeable difference between the milk blended and water blended eggs. I do not believe it affected taste either. So I suppose that’s a personal preference thing. I will say that adding water or milk to thin down the eggs did produce lighter eggs.
So get out your blender and blend some eggs.
Oh, as an added note all of the eggs were laid that day so they were all the same age.
