Confiture de concombre à la vanille

 French style jam for those special mornings working in the garden. Cucumbers are more versital than just raw.

• 1 ¼ cups peeled, seeded, and grated cucumber (from 2 medium cucumbers)
• 1 cup jam sugar or 1 cup of cane sugar plus 2 teaspoons of no sugar needed pectin
• seeds from one vanilla pod

1. Place all the ingredients in a medium pan and stir well.
2. Marinate for two hours.
3. Over high heat, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes or until the jam coats the back of a cold metal spoon.
4. Transfer to a clean jar, close the lid and allow the jam to cool upside-down.
5. Chill and keep in the fridge.

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Wood butter

Wood butter
A type of butter used to recondition wood. Mine is key lime flavored.
It makes a good wood Polish and it is homemade.
1 ounce beeswax
quarter cup olive oil
quarter cup coconut oil
one small bottle of key lime oil

Melt together in the microwave and let cool. It could be used as a lip gloss is well. Simple living simple solution.

Come Follow Me!

As of Late with new job and busy planting schedule my posts have been few. I plan to rectify this month with a fuller planned schedule. In the meantime please follow me on Pinterest. http://pinterest.com/suburbhomestead/boards/ To find anything you might need.

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2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 17,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 4 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas to all!

 

Crusty Bread

 

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon yeast

1 1/2 cups water

 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast. Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 – 18 hours. Overnight works great. Heat oven to 450 degrees. When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating. Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough. Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes. Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Crock-pot Potato Soup

 

• 8 to 12 Red Potatoes and Yukon gold potatoes, diced
• 8 slices of Bacon, fried and crumbled
• 3/4 of a Large onion, chopped
• 1 quart hot Water and 2 huge tablespoons chicken soup base
• 2 heaping Tablespoons of minced Garlic
• 1/4 cup Butter
• 1 peeled diced parsnip
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup Medium Cheddar Cheese, shredded
• Salt and pepper to taste

 

1. Combine potatoes, parsnip, bacon, onion, water, soup base, garlic, butter, salt and pepper in the crock pot.
2. Cook on high for about 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
   (or until potatoes are tender.)
3. When potatoes are tender, use the back of a big ladle to mash some of them up.
4. Next, add the milk and cheese. Cook until heated and cheese is melted.
5. Serve with crackers and extra cheese.

   

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Vanilla Bean Pudding Mix

 

Vanilla Bean Pudding Mix

 

• 1 1/2 cup instant whole organic dry milk
• 1 cup vanilla sugar ground into the coffee grinder
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp pink salt
• 1 4 inch piece of dried vanilla bean ground in the coffee grinder

Measure all ingredients into a large bowl, blend well until thoroughly combined.

Store in glass jar with the following tag.

Attach Tag

 

• 1/4 cup of mix
• 1 cup of whole milk
• 1 teaspoon of home made vanilla
  

  Combine all in a small saucepan, whisk constantly over low heat until thickened.

 

What can I say? This tastes like grandma made it. It has a mellow sweet vanilla flavor. Not unlike an ice cream base in smell and look. The small specks of vanilla give it a vanilla boost and look like a high end chef did it. It banishes the thought of making instant. Heck it was good hot right out of the pan. I would have taken a picture but I ate it all. This is not a super sweet imitation instant pudding but an upscale downtown dessert that went back to the farm. I plan to try it in pies, trifles, and frosting.

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Cake release

It invariably comes to pass that ingenuity meets necessity. I never have the extra coin to buy cake release.  Life hacker has a DIY cake release using 3 ingredients flour, vegetable oil, shortening. Since I am not a fan of hydrogenated oil and rancid vegetable oil blends. A rework was on the top of my mind.

• equal part coconut oil (1/4 cup)
• equal part rice flour (1/4 cup)

 Gluten free, lasts 6 months in cupboard in a covered jar, and works astoundingly well. 

1. heat oil until it melts and whisk in flour.
2. Store in covered jar.

Homemade Nestle Quik Recipe

 

• 2/3 Cup vanilla cane Sugar
• 1/3 Cup dark dutch processed Cocoa (get the best do not skimp)
• 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt

1. Combine the three ingredients, pulse in coffee grinder and store in a sealed glass container.
2. Add to milk to taste. Repeat.
3. Gluten free, soy free, and preservative free. This is childhood in a jar. *Could be made sugar-free. Anyone want to try this in almond milk? Please let me know.

 

Disinfecting Wipes

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup bleach
• ½ teaspoon tea tree oil or Favorite Essential Oil
• 2 1/4 cups of water

Directions

Mix together a half a cup of bleach to two and a half cups of water and tea tree oil.

Pour that over paper towels. *Tip use 2 ply best quality.

Let sit 20 minutes then use and store in container.