Busy Homemaker

January 31, 2008

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I’ve been a busy homemaking momma over the last few days.

Several days ago I went to a local dairy to get some raw cow’s milk and buttermilk. So in addition to drinking really good (don’t tell the Feds!) raw milk, I used some of the buttermilk to make whey and cream cheese. The cream cheese is mixed with oat flour right now and in the morning it will be rolled out into rugelach. (With butter and nuts baked in. Mmmmmmm….)

The whey will keep in the fridge for months and is good for soaking grains overnight, as well as for making sauerkraut and other fermented veggies.

I soaked and dehydrated a ton of nuts (it deactivates enzyme inhibitors and makes them easier to digest, and tasty too!)

I was also inspired to make homemade salsa (which incidentally calls for a little whey to get the lacto-fermentation process cookin’). I love love love salsa and there’s just nothing like homemade.

I baked wheat free rolls (ok I used a Pamela’s GF baking mix. But I still had to mix it and bake it people!).

I went to the store and bought every kind of bean our family uses on a regular basis, in large two pound bags: pinto, kidney, garbanzo and great northern. I soaked and cooked them all and then froze them in family size portions. Now when it’s time to make hummus/minestrone/chili/refried beans/baked beans etc, I can just grab a container from the freezer and cook.

I needed coconut and coconut milk but forgot it at Whole Foods the other week (duh!), and the brands at the local grocery stores have sulfites, which I’m allergic to, so I bought two whole coconuts. We had fun cracking them, draining them, cutting the flesh out and peeling off the brown skin. Then I made homemade coconut milk and coconut cream, and have two containers in the freezer of grated coconut.

Today I made raw chocolate candy. I followed a recipe that called for carob but I was out and it’s not time to go to Whole Foods for a couple more weeks, so I did cocoa. They called for almonds, cashews, coconut ground with raw honey, cocoa and vanilla. I spread that in a buttered cooke dish and chillled. They’re yuuuuummmmy.

I made beef broth from bones I got from the last Whole Foods trip. And fish broth from fish heads (you ain’t lived until you’ve cooked fish eyeballs!) I bought from Whole Foods. And chicken broth from chicken bones I’d saved from the last chicken I cooked. And turkey broth from the turkey bones I got from the turkey we cooked last week. (Tip: put a little vinegar in the cooking water, it helps get calcium from the bones and makes the broth more nutritious, and the vinegar taste will cook out.) So I have tons and tons of homemade broth in the freezer. Made minestrone with some of the chicken broth last night for supper, and used a little of the fish broth to cook salmon night before last. I’ll use some of the rest to make clam chowder next week.

Tonight I made apple crisp, one of my rare desserts I actually cook. I’ll share the recipe below. :)

Carrie’s Apple Crisp

4-6 Tart Apples, sliced (I like to use Green apples)

Place apples in a baking dish.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine:

1/3 cup Rapadura or Sucanat (can also use brown sugar)
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup flour (I use oat because of wheat sensitivity)
Pinch cinnamon
Pinch sea salt

Mix the ingredients with your fingers, it’s the fastest and easiest way to get the right texture. Then sprinkle on the apples. Bake at 350 until apples are soft and topping is browned and crisp/chewy.

Dang. I think I should win some kinda award for all this, don’t you? I’ve been seriously channeling Caroline (”Ma”) Ingalls, I swear. Time to put the Little House books down. And step away from the kitchen. Very carefully. ;)

 

 

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Comments

6 Responses to “Busy Homemaker”

  1. Annette on January 31st, 2008 2:03 am

    Man- I wish wish wish I could find a place for raw milk!

  2. carrie on January 31st, 2008 2:05 am

    http://www.realmilk.com/where.html Are you sure Annette? There is a raw milk yahoo group you could join and search too…..

  3. Tiffany on January 31st, 2008 1:55 pm

    Wow! I am tired just thinking about it. I love to eat but I don’t love to cook so much. I outsource that, LOL.

    But I did do some major house cleaning and carpet cleaning with a new line of organic cleaners I was sent to test. I am in love with them. I like to clean.

    Oh…I love homemade salsa too. I never eat the stuff from a jar…yuck. I am looking forward to a salsa garden and a pizza garden this spring/summer.

  4. Tiffany on January 31st, 2008 6:47 pm

    Oh! Share that raw chocolate recipe. It sounds like I have everything to make it.

  5. carrie on February 1st, 2008 4:00 am

    Ok I will Tiffany hang on until tomorow.

  6. Homemaker’s Done List | Natural Moms Talk Radio on January 22nd, 2009 10:35 pm

    [...] before you go thinking I’m this Caroline Ingalls-y everyday, I’m not. The busy homemaker urge strikes occasionally. And one must strike while the iron is hot, [...]

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