Homemade Worcestershire Sauce

 Homemade Worcestershire Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup soy sauce or coconut aminos 

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground mustard

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, combine the apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, water, lemon juice, ground ginger, ground mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, black pepper, and cayenne pepper if using.

Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Reduce the heat to low and let the sauce simmer gently for about 10-15 minutes, or until it has thickened slightly.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the Worcestershire sauce cool completely.

Once cooled, transfer the sauce to a clean glass bottle or jar with a tight-fitting lid.

Store the homemade Worcestershire sauce in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

No Bake Granola Bars

 No Bake Granola Bars

5 c rice crispies

4 cups oats

1 cup raisins or chocolate chips

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup honey

1 cup peanut butter

2 tsp vanilla

Combine cereal and oats (and raisins if using) in a large bowl. 

 In saucepan, combine brown sugar and honey. Bring to a boil, turn off heat. Add in peanut butter and stir until melted.  Stir in vanilla. 

Pour liquids over cereals and mix well.  If using chocolate chips, stir in after mixture has slightly cooled.  They will melt quickly. 

Press firmly into two ungreased 9x13's. Let cool completely and cut into squares. 

Dirty Keto Cajun Rice

Dirty Keto Cajun Rice

2 green bell peppers, diced 

2 yellow onions, diced 

2 celery stalks with leaves, diced 

3-4 cloves garlic, minced 

2 Tbls of avocado oil 

1 lb ground pork 

About 1/4 cup chicken stock

1 head cauliflower, riced

2 Tbls fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 Tbls paprika 

1/2 Tbls garlic powder 

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried thyme 

1/2 tsp dried basil 

1 Tbls Redmond’s real salt 

1/2 tsp white pepper 

Sliced green onions  

2 lbs shrimp 

A pack smoked sausage 

Optional heat:

Add diced jalapeño to veggie sauté 

Sprinkle crushed red pepper after plated 

Sauté peppers, onions, celery, and garlic in the avocado oil over med/high heat. Once it’s done to your liking add the ground pork and all spices, including fresh parsley, cook until the pork is done. Add the chicken stock to deglaze pan. Add the cauliflower and mix it all up then put the lid on and let it cook until ready, stirring occasionally. While the caulirice is cooking, cook the sausage up in another pan and the shrimp, to your liking, in another one. Shrimp was seasoned with old bay seasoning, smoked paprika, Redmond’s garlic salt, and butter. When everything is done, mix it all together, top with green onions, and enjoy!

Depression Salad

This is a coleslaw with an oil and vinegar dressing.  Very refreshing and tasty, and inexpensive, as it was developed during the Depression! 

1 head of cabbage, 2lbs

3 carrots

2 green bell peppers, (I use the red & yellow)

1 large red onion

4 cucumbers

1 white onion

1 bunch radish 

1/2 bunch celery

Dressing-

1 cup olive oil

1/2 cup warm water

1 1/2 cup white vinegar

10-12 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon salt

1 Tablespoon garlic powder

2 Tbsp Monterey Steak Seasoning

Thinly shred the cabbage, slice all other vegetables, mix all in a large bowl, make the dressing and toss with the vegetables. Pack into glass jars, if any dressing remains pour a little into each jar. 

Tex-Mex Buffalo Chicken Soup

Tex-Mex Buffalo Chicken Soup

3 tablespoons butter, divided

1 cup diced yellow onion

1 cup diced celery

1 cup diced carrots

3 cloves minced garlic

sea salt & fresh black pepper

1 lb boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces or ½+ rotisserie chicken

1½ quarts low-sodium chicken broth

1½ cups corn

1 can black beans, drained & rinsed well 

¼ cup hot sauce, like Cholula, plus more for serving

4 ounce can diced green chilies

For serving

shredded white cheddar cheese

sour cream

chili cheese corn chips

In soup pot or Dutch oven heat 2 tablespoon butter over medium heat.

Add onion, celery, carrot & garlic; season with salt & pepper. 

Cook, stirring often for ten minutes.

Remove veggies to a bowl. Add remaining tablespoon butter to pan.

Season chicken with salt & pepper & add to the pan. 

Cook, stirring every few minutes to sear on all sides.

Add veggies back in with broth, corn, beans, chilies, ½ tsp salt & ¼ tsp pepper.

Bring to a simmer & cook 25 minutes, stirring often.

Place cream cheese in small mixing bowl & add 2 ladles of broth. 

Mash together with a spoon, adding more broth a ladle at a time until cream cheese is completely melted & smooth. Use small whisk at the end if needed. Pour it into soup & stir well. Mix in hot sauce. 

Serve with more hot sauce, a handful of cheddar, a dollop of sour cream & chips for scooping.

Cacciatore Marinara Sauce

 This is an excellent sauce to serve over noodles or veggies! 

1 Tbsp EACH oregano, basil, onion flakes

1 tsp EACh thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper

1 cup chicken broth

3 cups tomato sauce

28 ounce can diced tomatoes 

1 cup water

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped,

1 stalk celery, chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 6 oz jar tomato paste. 

Stir all together and simmer till done, about 15 minutes. 

Sloppy Joes for Canning

This is a very tasty recipe!

4 pounds ground beef

3 cups chopped onion

1 1/2 cups bell pepper

2 cups tomato sauce

2 cups ketchup

2 cups water

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp prepared mustard

1 tsp pepper 

Chop all veggies to preferred size. Cook beef till done.  Add all ingredients together and bring to simmer. Cook five minutes.  Prepare 8 pints jars and fill, 1.5” headspace, and pressure can for 75 minutes. 

Taco Soup for Canning

Taco Soup for Canning

Yield 7 quarts, plus a little for lunch

1 dry cup each of pinto beans, red beans, Peruano beans, and black beans, soaked overnight and rinsed, or boiled and soaked for one hour,, and drained and rinsed. 

3 pounds ground beef, cooked and rinsed

Mix together:

2 green bell peppers, diced
1 yellow onion, diced small
6 Tbsp taco seasoning
32 oz tomato sauce
28 oz canned diced tomatoes
2 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp salt

32 oz frozen corn

2 cups water or broth

In each jar, layer meat, tomato/spice/veggie mixture, corn until almost 3/4 full.  Add broth until 1.5” headspace.  Clean rims, add lids and rings. Pressure can at 10# pressure for 90 minutes.  

Monkey Jam

Monkey Jam

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
6 Tbsp lemon juice
3 1/2 cups mashed bananas
1/8 tsp ground cloves 
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp calcium water
2 tsp Pomona pectin

Mix pectin in sugar and set aside.

Mix together and bring all other ingredients to a boil.  Whisk in sugar and pectin mixture. Taste for sweetness and add more sugar if desired.  Do a frozen plate test.  If the jam sets, then add jam into prepared jams and do a water bath for 10 minutes. 

Cranana Jam

Cranana Jam

3 cups cranberries
1 1/2 cup water
2 cups mashed bananas
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup sugar
2 tsp Pomona pectin 
2 tsp calcium water

Mix pectin into the sugar. Set aside.

Bring cranberries, bananas, water, lemon juice and calcium water all to a boil. Whisk in the sugar and pectin.  Bring back to a boil. Taste for sweetness and add sugar if desired.  Do the frozen plate test.  If it sets, pour into prepared jars, add lids and rings, and water bath can for 10 minutes. 

Forum BBQ Sauce

Trying this BBQ sauce found on an old forum. Will BWB for 15 minutes.

Becker's Best BBQ Sauce :

Ingredients

2 cups ketchup
2 cups tomato sauce
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 1/4 cups red wine vinegar
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
4 teaspoons hickory-flavored liquid smoke
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Directions

In a large saucepan over medium heat, mix together the ketchup, tomato sauce, brown sugar, wine vinegar, molasses, liquid smoke and butter. Season with garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, paprika, celery seed, cinnamon, cayenne, salt and pepper.
Reduce heat to low, and simmer for up to 20 minutes. For thicker sauce, simmer longer, and for thinner, less time is needed. Sauce can also be thinned using a bit of water if necessary. Brush sauce onto any kind of meat during the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Tomato Soup

This tomato soup is so rich and has layers of flavor. Try it! It’s so much better than opening a can. 

Tomato Soup

2 Tbsp oil

1 cup chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup chopped carrot

1/2 cup chopped celery

56 oz. canned tomatoes (or 8 fresh tomatoes diced and seeded)

7 cups chicken broth

2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 

2 tsp salt

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp pepper

8 drop Tabasco

Sauté garlic and onion in the oil u til tender. Add carrot and celery and cook 7-9 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients.  Cook and bring nearly to a boil.  Cover and simmer 20 minutes, stirring frequently.  Use immersion blender to make a smooth soup, or leave chunky, if desired. 

Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins

In a bowl, cream together butter and both sugars. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla.
Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cloves.  Stir into the creamed mixture.  Mix in oats.
Cover and chill dough for one hour.  Do t skip this step!

Preheat oven to 375. Spoon out dough and flatten with a sugared fork (I don’t do this, but the original recipe called for it.)

Bake 10 minutes, cool a bit, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Makes about 3 dozen, depending on how big you make the cookies.

Super Sweet Green Smoothie

This smoothie isn't for a low carb diet, but it is a delicious way to get your greens! We made it up just this afternoon. 


Super Sweet Green Smoothie 

1 farm fresh egg, raw
1 cup cream
4 cups power greens from Costco
1 banana
2 cups frozen tropical fruits
2 1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp Stevita
2 scoops Orgain vanilla protein powder 

Blend all in your VitaMix or BlendTec and enjoy! 

Nightshade Free Taco Seasoning

My husband has been less able to tolerate nightshades as time goes on.  Here's a nightshade-free taco seasoning that he liked.  Tostadas are back on the menu! 

Nightshade Free Taco Seasoning

1 tbsp pink Himalayan salt, ground fine

½ tbsp onion powder

½ tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp oregano

Mix all spices and use as desired.  I used one tbsp of mixture to a pound of ground beef. 

Pomona Mixed Berry Jam ~ Large Batch Tutorial

We love having Mixed Berry Jam on hand, and we are almost out. That isn't acceptable, so jam making is on the docket!  I thought I'd take pictures this time and post up this little tutorial.  Enjoy! 

Pour your 4 pound bag of Costco Mixed Berries in a large stockpot.  I measured about 12 cups of fruit.

We like strawberries in it, too, so I added a 2 cup measure of frozen berries, too.  That makes 14 cups of fruit, in total.  That's just an estimate, since it was measured frozen, not thawed and crushed.

Put your jars on a half sheet pan and heat them in the oven to 250 degrees.  This helps to prevent the jars cracking when you add molten hot jam.  

Next I added 8 tsp. calcium water to the berries.  Then I mixed 8 tsp Pomona pectin with 2 cups of white sugar. Whisk them together well! This was not added to the berries until they were at a boil.  That takes a while, since you are starting from frozen.  Be patient and don't burn your berries by heating them on too high of a temperature!  

When adding the Pomona pectin, use a large whisk and WHISK that fruit and add the pectin/sugar mixture slowly.  You don't want pectin clumps! 

At this point, you could add more sugar, but 2 cups was plenty for the entire batch for us.

Heat the berries back to boiling and boil of one minute.  Add hot jam to the hot jars.  Use a canning funnel.  Headspace is 1/4"for jam.  Make sure to wipe the rims of your jars with a damp cloth. If you dampen with white vinegar, the rim gets even cleaner!

Simmer lids, if needed.  Newer lids do not call for the simmering step, I have read.  My lids were bought some years ago, so they are not new-fangled and weird. 

They were simmered like a proper lid should be.

Add rings and process in a  water bath canner for 10 minutes. (Check your elevation to make sure the time is the same for your elevation!)  I use a steam canner rather than water bath. 

Remove your jars to a dry towel.  Use a jar lifter, not your hands!  Let sit overnight.  Remove rings, note the contents on the lid, and store out of direct sunlight. 

Jars can have flaws and when they do, they let you know.  Boo for flawed jars! 

I'll make this recipes another two or three times to make enough jam for the year. I put some directly into the fridge without canning, but it won't last long.  This recipe made 12 1/2 pints.

Decadent, Opulent Brownies

      I hobbled this recipe together from a couple different ones on AllRecipes.  I made 2 pans worth and brought them to church for an after service treat.  They were well enjoyed. 

Decadent, Opulent Brownies

Grease and flour a 9”x 13” pan. Preheat over to 350. 

1 cup butter, melted

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Mix together with wooden spoon.

Mix in, gently and only as much as needed:

2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.  DO NOT OVERBAKE 

Cool slightly and frost with this mixture: 

Frosting: Boil together 6TB butter, 2/3 c sugar, 4TB milk for a minute, remove from heat and add 2/3 c chocolate chips and stir until melted.

Homemade Breakfast Sausage Spices

I used this recipe to season 15 pounds of ground pork today. I found it at Food Renegade.

Homemade Breakfast Sausage Spices

2 tbsp of dried sage
1 tbsp + 1 tsp of salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp dried marjoram
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 pinches ground cloves
4 lbs of ground pork

Mix spices thoroughly through ground meat. Form into patties, if desired and freeze. I just pack evenly and flat in a zippy bag. It thaws so easily in a sink of warm water. 

The Refresher

I have been on a smoothie kick lately and this one just has to be shared.  It was really wonderful!  This made enough for my son and me, so I would double or even triple it if the rest of the kids wanted some, too. 

The Refresher

4-inch piece cucumber, cut in half
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup fresh mango, pineapple and papaya chunks
1 cup spinach, kale and chard leaves
1/2 cup coconut water
1/2 unsweetened almond milk
1 scoop Orgain vanilla protein powder
1/2 tsp Great Lakes kosher gelatin
3 ice cubes

Makes about 4 cups

Beef Bacon and Barley Stew

I made a very good stew from leftovers last night.  I didn't use a recipe, but created as I went. Here's the rundown. You can always use freshly cooked meat if you don't have any in the fridge. 

Beef Bacon and Barley Stew

1 1/2 pounds leftover smoked tritip (if using other beef, add a few drops of liquid smoke to the liquid portion of the recipe)
1 cup crumbled leftover bacon
1 pound bag of mixed vegetables
4 quarts water 
1 1/2 Tbsp beef broth powder
1 cup pearled barley
salt and pepper to taste
spices of your choice (I use an MSG-free rub we buy from a small local supplier.  They do not sell online.)

For roux:
1 cup milk
1/2 cup flour

Since my meat was already cooked, I simply threw everything into the pot (except the roux) and just brought it to a boil, then simmered for about an hour.  If you are using fresh meat, I would add lard to the empty pot and brown the meat (cut into chunks and seasoned with spices of your choice) before adding anything else. 

After simmering, bring the stew back to a boil.  Mix milk and flour together to make a roux.  Don't let it be clumpy!  Whisk into boiling stew and cook until thickened. Adjust the seasonings, adding more salt, pepper and seasonings until you like the taste. Now it's ready to serve! 

I love how the house smells when I am simmering soup and making bread.  I paired this meal with 40 Minute Rolls, and it was SO satisfying!