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 This is so easy that it barely qualifies as a recipe, but the shrimp turn out so delicious when they’re cooked this way. They’re much tastier than boiled shrimp, and I think this preparation method is easier too (no boiling water pot to contend with), so it’s a winner all around. Just add some spicy cocktail sauce and you’ve got the best homemade shrimp cocktail you’ve ever tasted. I like to use the largest, wild-caught (not farm raised), shell-on shrimp I can find at the store, and adjust the cooking time by size. This makes enough to serve 6 – 8 as an appetizer [...]
Continue reading Roasted Shrimp
 These natural pine cone ornaments are not only beautiful; they’re easy to make and inexpensive as well. All it takes are some pinecones (gathered for free in our case), spray paint, ribbon, and a glue gun. I chose to make them using metallic gold paint and gold ribbon, but they could be made in whatever color suited the decorating situation.
Simply spray the pine cones with the paint, let dry, and attach the ribbon with the glue gun so they can be hung from the tree. I used prefab ribbon hangers – they were inexpensive and it was worth it to me not to deal with creating [...]
Continue reading Beautiful Natural Pine Cone Ornaments
 It’s very easy to make this soft cheese; and it can be used in so many ways - it’s the one homemade cheese that I think anyone with dairy animals should know how to make. It can be used in any recipe that uses cream, farmer, or other soft cheese; and it freezes well so you can make cheese when milk is plentiful and preserve it for use when there’s no milk. It can be made with milk from your own dairy animals (if you use goat milk then it’s soft chevre cheese) or with whole cow milk from the store.
To make this cheese, you do need to obtain DVI (Direct [...]
Continue reading Making “French-Style” Cream Cheese
 Thanks to my sister-in-law, Laura, for teaching me this super easy and delicious recipe for Key Lime pie. I’d always thought that making this kind of pie was going to be a major effort, but it’s actually so quick and good it’s ridiculous not to consider it for your next summertime party. It was great for the 4th of July celebration!
1/2 cup key lime juice
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks, beaten
1 9″ graham cracker crust
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Combine the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and lime juice. Mix well. Pour into unbaked graham cracker shell. Bake in preheated oven [...]
Continue reading Easy & Delicious Key Lime Pie
 I swear this is the easiest fudge recipe I’ve ever made (it’s cooked in the microwave), and it turns out perfect every time. I found the recipe because I was looking for goat milk fudge recipes, but whole cow milk should work too. It can also be varied to make “dark chocolate” fudge by using ¼ cup regular cocoa and ¼ cup “special dark” cocoa instead of the ½ cup regular cocoa, or to make a peanut butter version by substituting peanut butter for part of the butter. The batch shown is a batch made with the “special dark” cocoa – [...]
Continue reading World’s Easiest Fudge
 The propane torch shown below is the best $29.99 I’ve ever spent for weeding (I found it at Harbor Freight) - it’s awesome what I was able to accomplish in very little time.
This is what it looked like as I started using it to remove the weeks on the bank above our new rock wall (see Bramblestone Wall).
And this is what the bank looked like less than an hour later – weeds eradicated! It would have been difficult and time-consuming to do this using other methods.
After torching, we were able to immediately plant with Ivy to start getting a ground cover established. We got the torch with the electric [...]
Continue reading Best Weeding Investment
 This is the time of year when things are coming in from the garden so fast that it’s hard to keep up – I’m putting the corn, beans, squash, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and raspberries into the pantry or freezer in various forms as fast as I can. So, sun-drying tomatoes is a nice method of preservation because it requires little work, they’re a lot less expensive homemade than from the store, and there are a couple of recipes (like Sun Dried Tomato Dip) that I like to have them on hand for.
The only problem is, we live in Ohio, and sometimes there’s very little sun - so I make [...]
Continue reading Homemade Sun Dried Tomatoes (oven dried really)
 For the past two years, we’ve used the “Lazy Bed Method” for growing potatoes; and been relatively satisfied with the results. The potatoes were very simple to plant and maintenance was non-existent - just lift the potatoes when the growing season is over; however, the potato quality seemed to suffer somewhat from being grown above ground – insects nibbled on a few, some rotted, yield seemed a bit low, etc. So this year, I decided to modify the method just a bit, and the potatoes turned out great! I think we’ve got a method now that produces great potatoes with very little work [...]
Continue reading Growing Potatoes: The Lazy Bed Method “IMPROVED”
 This pot pie is terrific made with homegrown heritage* chicken, but it’s also delicious made using store-bought chicken breasts. It’s really a thick chicken stew covered with a puff pastry, so it’s very easy to do too. It’s quickly become one of our favorite ways to eat heritage chicken because it’s got so much real chicken flavor.
*Heritage chickens are traditional chicken breeds that are raised over a longer period of tme than today’s factory raised chickens, and therefore develop more flavor (see Heritage Birds for Real Chicken Flavor).
2 whole heritage roasting chickens (app. 4 lbs. each) or 3 whole, bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
5 cups chicken stock [...]
Continue reading Heritage Chicken Pot Pie
 We’ve got a bumper crop of sugar snap peas this year (see Growing Sugar Snap Peas), so we’re actually beginning to tire of eating them straight from the garden. This is an easy, flexible, and delicious variation that everyone seems to love.
1 lb. raw sugar snap peas*
Dark sesame oil
Black sesame seeds (white or toasted white may be substituted)
Kosher salt (optional)
Wash, remove the stem end, and “string” each pod. Then toss the snap peas in a bowl with the sesame oil (a little goes a long way), sesame seeds, and kosher salt (if desired). Serve at room temperature. Obviously, the recipe can [...]
Continue reading Sesame Sugar Snaps
 Today, we went for a hike with our friends Dave & Doris; and found wild morels!
We’ve found morels before (in a yard), but never found them growing in the wild before – these we found along a lightly wooded trail as we hiked. Folks have been finding morels in the area for about a week, and the weather we’ve been having is perfect for them. It’s been wet and rainy, with temperatures in the upper 50′s to 60′s – just prime conditions for morels. With these conditions, morels can pop up just about anywhere, so we’ll be keeping out eyes peeled – they’re so tasty.
Morels are [...]
Continue reading Wild Morels!
 We’ve been making this mustard for years; and when the current batch is gone, it’s not long before someone’s whipping up another one – it’s that terrific and that easy. Supermarket varieties seem insipid and expensive compared to this. It also makes a great gift for friends and family; everyone seems to love receiving it. The recipe is adapted from Good Food Gourmet by Jane Brody.
¼ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup mustard powder (mild and/or hot)
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons mustard seed (yellow or brown – we like brown)
1 ½ tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon drained prepared horseradish
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Combine [...]
Continue reading Doubly Hot Horseradish Mustard
 This is an easy, versatile, and flavorful chili that my Grandma used to feed Grandpa and four growing boys. She’d mix it together, and then let it simmer to develop flavor while she worked on other things. It’s versatile because you can use ground beef, venison, or turkey; or any combination depending on what’s available. And, you can vary the heat by using mild, medium, or hot chili beans, use more or less jalapeno pepper (either seeded or unseeded), and add chili pepper if desired. The condensed tomato soup gives it a slightly sweet base, so the heat of the other ingredients hits you slowly. I regularly make several different chili recipes, but this [...]
Continue reading Grandma’s Chili
 We kept our chickens in a 10’ x 10’ stall in the barn; but, since we’ve ordered 25 day-old chicks and are planning to give the stall to some Dwarf Nigerian goats, new chicken housing is in order. There are so many options it’s hard to choose what to buy or build, but there are a few things I think should be considered (books told me I needed roosts, nesting boxes, ventilation, etc. but didn’t necessarily mention these things):
Chickens are dusty! And our entire barn is now incredibly dusty due to the chickens. I never noticed that every [...]
Continue reading Chicken Housing Basics
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