Earth To Eats

Meow, Meow, Meow…. and Meow

18th July, 2011 - Posted by shawn - No Comments

Ronnie... meow

I was up before the alarm today at 4:55am.  You can see the seasons changing now since it takes longer for sunlight to reach our bedroom windows.  Sure it is still 90F and up outside and feels like summer, but fall in sneaking in just around the corner and winter isn’t far behind.  Funny how when you get older these things happen much faster.

I had some cereal and watched the weather forecast (with the TV on mute to keep people from waking up) and then the sofa called me and I answered.  I come from a family of snoozers.  We don’t sleep much or well during the night but oh do we love a good nap on the sofa!  I had time this morning since not much is going on before I have to drive the oldest to school so I set my timer for 50 minutes and got comfy on the couch.

About 15 minutes later someone jumped above my head and looked down, “Meow.”

Ronnie.  It’s always Ronnie.  He roamed the back of the sofa and jumped off and I thought, “Good, now I can finish my nap.”  Nope.

Right next to my head on the floor, “Meow.  Meow.  Meow.  Meow!”  Ugh!!!  I try to reason with him pointing out he’s had his snack and his morning can of icky cat food, the water dish is full and the patio door is open so he can watch the birds.  There isn’t possibly another thing he could want.

But there is.  He wants me off the couch.

So here I am writing much earlier than I expected to because of Ronnie.

Thanks Ronnie!

A rather slow week this week which I’m thankful for after the last few and before marching band camp starts and Scott leaves for Oregon for a week.  Come the middle of August I will be very tired.

Pulled two trays of plums out of the dehydrator last night and need to put them away.  I have to go to the grocery store this AM and then come home and make a phone call this PM.

Have you ever had the chance to meet someone you didn’t know who was kind of a role model to you?  A public figure, an author or someone like that?  Well, that is what is happening to me this afternoon.  One of my writing projects involves amusement parks and I’m going to be working on a newsletter for the National Amusement Park Historical Association. The person I’m calling publishes the newsletter and he wrote a book that I have read cover to cover on amusement parks.  It’s quite an honor (to me) to be working with him, but I’m a little nervous.  I know he’s just a regular person – and very nice from his emails, but I’m still in awe that I’ll get to work with him.

It’s time to start planning fall crops here.  Spring was a mixed bag of horrible weather and not much happened in the garden.  I know I want to get in peas, lettuce and spinach.  I really  have never planted a heavy fall crop so I’m not sure what all I can plant or when I should do it. Time to hit the books!

Off to get dressed and get the rice pudding going in the slow cooker.  I’m trying it with brown rice this time to make it healthier.

Gluten Free Rice Krispies have arrived!

17th July, 2011 - Posted by shawn - No Comments

They're here!

Yes, it is true.  All those celiac patients out there can now have rice krispie treats!  General Mills has developed a brown rice based Rice Krispie that is gluten-free.  This is one cereal we thought at the beginning that Scott would be able to have in its regular form, but not so, it had malt in it.  In fact most breakfast cereals have malt in them.

I haven’t found these at our stores yet but we will be trying them. Brown rice is better for you for sure, but I’m not convinced it will pass my taste test in the marshmallow squares.  We’ll see.

Here is the website for Gluten Free Rice Krispies - with recipes of course!

Sunshine Dill Pickles – make them in your yard!

15th July, 2011 - Posted by shawn - 1 Comment

Perennials waiting to go into the ground

It’s 5:30am here and I’m trying a new posting scedule for Earth to Eats. I’ve been reading The Amish Cook’s Anniversary Book: 20 Years of Food, Family, and Faith
and it has inspired me to try writing early in the day.  This book is an enjoyable read for me and helps me keep my work in perspective.  Reading all about an Amish family who get up at 4am and all they do before leaving for work or school motivates me to get more done.  It is just amazing all they accomplish – and it is important things too like cooking, preserving and keeping their homes clean.  It isn’t watching TV or playing video games.

I made some pickles last week in our front yard.  Yep, in the yard.  I forgot to take a picture of the jar, but they turned out good enough that I want to try them again.  I just put dill in and not garlic and something was definitely missing.  A little too much salt went in too since I didn’t have a gallon jar.  I’ll adjust all that next time.  You can find the recipe here.

I’ve been chatting with some folks from Paperbackswap this week and that is what pushed me to try a different writing schedule here.  The discussions and ideas we are sharing there would benefit so many people if they were put here in this public forum so hopefully I’ll get more posts up.  I especially want to thank Jamie G for chatting with me about frugality and making a better life for our families.  You’ve been inspiring Jamie so keep up the great work!!

Above you see a picture of perennials I purchased at our local flower shop for .99 a piece.  These are the ones she hasn’t been able to sell and it is a great way for us to extend our garden without spending much money.  I got 40 plants for $39 or so and put in a perennial bed the other night.  I need to take pictures of that and explain how I did it in another post.  Yes these plants are pot bound something awful, but if you bring them home and soak them and then break up the root ball they do just fine.  I even picked up one of my favorite plants – lemon verbena.  MMMMMM…..  Not a perennial sadly, but at least I’ll have it till frost.

Must get things moving here.  Hope everyone has a great day.

Crock Pot Caramel Rice Pudding Gluten Free

15th April, 2011 - Posted by shawn - 1 Comment

Makings of a Great, Easy Dessert

I’m not sure how I stumbled across this recipe, but I am so glad I did.  It is super easy, tastes like a dream and has very simple ingredients.  The original recipe appears here, but we eliminated most of the ingredients because we like our pudding pretty plain.

Crock Pot Caramel Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

• 3 cups cooked rice (cooked a day ahead if possible)
• 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 12 oz can evaporated milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients in the slow cooker and heat on low until rice absorbs most of the liquid.  We like to stop it while it is a little “soupy” which makes it nicer when we reheat it later.  If you cook it the whole way initially it can get a bit dry if you reheat it.  It’s also delicious cold.

Using day old rice give you grains that don’t stick together.  Leftover rice is fine.  I have made it with newly cooked rice and it tastes fine, it just is clumpy.

I find my canned milk and sweetened condensed milk at discount stores for under $1 each which makes this recipe really reasonable – less than $3 for twelve or so servings.  And very satisfying.

Download my Natural Egg Dyeing ebook

10th April, 2011 - Posted by shawn - No Comments

Learn how to dye eggs naturally

I finally finished compiling all my notes from my egg dyeing experiment together with photos and am now offering it to you as a downloadable ebook in PDF.  There are 14 pages here of information with pictures on the various successful natural and easy dyes that I tried.

Download the ebook here: Naturally Dyeing Eggs 2011

If you download and use this document, please let me know if it was helpful to you and how it can be improved.  One of my goals for Earth To Eats is to share the information I’ve learned with others so we hope to publish more of these guides.

Happy Dyeing everyone!

Dye Eggs with Kool-Aid

9th April, 2011 - Posted by shawn - No Comments

During my natural dye experiment I remembered that you could dye fabric with Kool-Aid so I thought you could probably dye eggs as well.  I mixed one packet of cherry Kool-Aid with one cup of hot water and one Tbls. of vinegar.  I added and egg and this is what I got after 1 minute:

One Minute Cherry Kool-Aid Egg

Pretty impressive and VERY red.  This is what it looked like after 10 minutes:

10 minute Cherry Kool-Aid egg

I do have a few words of warning with this process:

1. This stains your fingers for about two-three days.
2. This will stain your counter and anything it comes in contact with that is pourous.
3. The eggs will absorb a slight amount of the fruit flavor.  I made a deviled egg with this egg and I actually liked the cherry “essence” it had.  If I hadn’t known what it was, I wouldn’t have been able to figure it out – it just was a little something extra.
4. The eggs may look tie dyed when peeled – but we kinda liked this.  This egg had no visible cracks in it and we still got some color on it. See photo below:

Tie Dyed Egg effect with Kool-Aid

I didn’t have any other colors of Kool-Aid but red, but I’m sure this would work with any flavor/color since it is so concentrated.  If you still have any of the invisible Kool-Aid hanging around that might be interesting to play with.

So while this is not a natural dye by any means, it is very simple and neat for the kids to do.  The fruity smell of the dye and slight fruitiness to the egg afterward might get kids who normally don’t eat eggs to try one.

My Deviled Egg Recipe – gluten free

7th April, 2011 - Posted by shawn - No Comments

These fly off the plate at family gatherings… I kinda like them too.  I’ve not given definite measurements here since that depends on the number of eggs you are using and personal preference for the amount of mustard.

• Hard cooked eggs
• Mayonaisse
• Horseradish Mustard

Cut eggs in half lengthwise, scoop yolks into a bowl.  Add enough mayo to moisten slightly.  Mix in horseradish mustard to taste – we like our bitey so add a couple tablespoons.  Add enough mayo to finish to the consistancy you like.  Spoon or pipe back into eggs.

As long as your mayo and mustard are gluten free, this recipe will be gluten free too.

Natural Egg Dye Experiment Day 4

6th April, 2011 - Posted by shawn - No Comments

Blueberry Stain on my counter

I finally found my blueberries at the very bottom of the freezer so my last batch of dyed eggs for this year was blueberry.  I put 1 Cup of frozen blueberries into 1 1/2 C water with 1 T vinegar and boiled them for 15 minutes.  I also stuck an uncooked egg in with them to see what would happen. 

Well, the uncooked egg both cooked and dyed and came out like this:

Egg cooked with blueberries

It looks much more purple in the picture than the grape juice one did, but actually they are very similar in color.  It was a mottled color though and I’m not sure if that was because of how it was dyed or if it was the eggshell itself.

After removing the egg, I strained the blueberries and squeezed out the remaining juice to get my dye.  I dyed an egg for 1, 5 and 10 minutes like all of the other ones.  Here is the final product:

Blueberry dye bath - 10 minutes

The egg was less mottled than the one cooked with the blueberries and it is a little lighter in color.  Still more gray than purple to me, just like the grape juice, but Scott thought it was a nice color.

Since I had one egg left I tried the Turmeric again, this time with 2 tsp of tumeric cooked in 1 cup of water with 1 T vinegar in the microwave for 3 minutes.  While the egg colored up faster at the 1 minute point, the end color was exactly the same as the less concentrated version I tried back on day 1.  A very pretty yellow, just not a rich orange like I was hoping for.  Here’s the egg after 10 minutes:

Turmeric egg at 10 minutes

So that concludes the dye experiment for now.  I think I’ll continue this throughout the year as I often have hard cooked eggs on hand and I have a lot of other dyes I’d like to try.  Right now I’m busy writing up my findings and suggestions for a small ebook we’ll have here to download.  If you look below you can see all the eggs I dyed.

From l-r, top to bottom: beets, turmeric, spinach, paprika, coffee, tea, grape juice, blueberries

I did find that when you put them together like this it was a very unique group of eggs and pleasing to my eye.  Not the garash colors of store-bought dye or Kool-Aid, but definitely neat to look at.

Gluten Free Taco Bake – and several reasons to shop Amelia’s Grocery Outlet

4th April, 2011 - Posted by shawn - 1 Comment

Frugal, Fantastic Taco Bake

Well, that picture kind of looks awful, but let me tell you it tasted wonderful!  I found this recipe in Cook’s Country magazine back when we subscribed and four years later I finally tried it.  You can see a picture of it on their website here but can’t view the recipe unless you are a member (which costs money.)  I made major changes to the recipe and it was still great.  They used Ro-Tel tomatoes which we don’t like and more cheese and meat than we needed.

Those of you going gluten free know that Mexican food is your friend as long as you skip the flour tortillas and find (or make) a gluten free taco seasoning.  The only gluten free taco seasoning that we have found in the store is Ortega.   We used to make our own taco seasoning to make life easier but when we had the last baby we kind of ran out of time.  We’ll go back to it eventually and I’ll post the recipe.  It is cumin heavy and that is pricey.

Here is the recipe as I cooked it:

Taco Bake

• 2 11 oz cans organic diced tomatoes (purchased at Amelia’s for 50 cents each)
• 2 cups refried beans (from our freezer, recipe can be found here)
• 1 T hot sauce
• 1/4 C salsa (whatever you like)
• 2 C shredded cheddar cheese (purchased for $2/lb at Amelias)
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 pkg Ortega taco seasoning (we never use the whole thing, only half)
• 12 El Paso Taco Shells (.99 at Amelias)

To make:

1. Preheat oven to 475 (yep that high.)
2. Drain juice from one can of tomatoes and save.
3. Combine one can tomatoes, beans and hot sauce and spread in bottom of 9×13 pan.  Sprinkle cheese over top.
4. Cook beef until brown.  Drain off fat and add tomatoes, salsa, taco seasoning and tomato juice.  Cook again until mixture is nearly dry – about 8 or 9 min on my stove.
5. Place taco shells into bean mixture upright so you can fill them.
6. Put in a little cheese and top with meat mixture.
7. Cover pan with foil and bake for 10 minutes or until bubbly.
8. Remove foil, cover with remaining cheese and bake until melted – about 5 or 6 minutes.  Enjoy!

That’s it.  Not a hard recipe and it makes a lot of food.  We had it with homemade apple sauce, skilled cooked apples and peas.

So I saved a bundle with finding these ingredients at Amelias and using homemade refried beans.  All the kids ate it and hubby and me!  Here is what was left at the end after 5 people had dinner (you can see my Christmas kitty trivet through the glass pan):

Leftovers for lunch!