Sunday, April 24, 2011

Interesting article

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2006/08/14/raising-a-family-on-one-income-part-one/

Monday, April 18, 2011

What to do with sour milk

I had about a 1/4 gallon of milk that was getting old, which led me to look up ways to use sour milk.
Although my milk wasn't quite sour, it was old enough that I didn't want to drink it straight.

Just use a search engine, and you will find several different ways to use sour milk (not super-spoiled milk).

I chose to make some cheese. First heat the milk to boiling, then start slowly adding vinegar. As soon as it starts to "curd up" turn the stove off and keep stirring. I then poured off the liquid and let the cheese drain in some cheesecloth (hung  on a large spoon over a pitcher). The recipe said to then flatten all the juices off with a heavy pan or book, but I choose to just salt it and eat it. The texture and flavor was something like tofu. It would be good herbed up in a salad I think, or used as meat in a stirfry. Liam and I ate it up.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Violet Sugar

Another blog suggested making violet sugar.

I plan to try it this weekend if I can find enough violets. My yard is quite tiny, but there are usually a lot at my dad's house where I grow my vegetable garden.

Garden update. Sad. I am not very good at gardening  yet. Part of the problem is I have to turn the ground with a shovel. I don't mind, but I can only do a bit at a time. My seedlings didn't prosper either. Next time, I will spend the extra bucks for the little peat pellets. That has always worked best for me. I was hoping to save money by using old egg cartons. The seeds grew fine, but they didn't transfer well. Maybe if I followed the rules for hardening it would help. I set them out on a such a windy day.
Perhaps I need to be more patient and stop rushing it. It's hard when I have to work during the week and need to get everything done on the weekend. But! I will keep trying. I can do this.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Jelly making, take 2 Violet Jelly

After the dandelion jelly/syrup incident, I decided I was not going to let a few flowers, lemon juice, sugar, and pectin beat me. So this weekend, I tried making violet jelly.

Here is the recipe I used:  violet jelly.
The only difference is, I used the juice of one lemon and powered off-brand pectin.
It turned out  more pink than the one pictured, but I used white violets as well as violet ones.




I think it tastes suspiciously like the dandelion syrup. Lemony and tangy. Maybe less lemon juice or a stronger infusion next time..

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Dandelion Jelly Making!

I am not going to do the whole schpeel (how do you spell that?) because it is on my wanna-be homesteading blog, which I am trying not to link to anyone on facebook-sorry, but all I can say is it didn't gel! I ended up with five jars of sweet dandelion syrup!!

But! I did get the chance to practice canning with the boiling water method. That was fun!