Homestead Cooking with Carol: Bountiful Make-ahead Meals
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Homestead Cooking with Carol - Carol J. Alexander
Homestead Cooking with Carol: Bountiful Make-ahead Meals
© 2014 by Carol J. Alexander
Cover by Melissa Jones
© 2014 by Melissa Jones
Headshot photo by Sarah Ann Layne
©2013 by Sarah Ann Layne Photography
All rights reserved. This publication may not be shared, reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written consent from the author. The purchaser of this book may print one copy of the text.
http://CarolJAlexander.com
ISBN: 9781483518954
From one homesteading homemaker to all of you who do the same, this book is for all those times when you just cannot seem to feed hungry bellies and get all of your chores done at the same time. I hope you enjoy it.
Table of Contents
Introduction
I. To Can or to Freeze? That is the Question
Vegetables in the Mix
From Dried Beans to Perfection
Potatoes on the Ready
II. From Big Game to Chicken: Processing Meat
Butchering Large Animals
Scrapple
A Tip for Tastier Wild Game
Processing Poultry
III. Creating Healthy Stock: Feet and All
How to Make Stock
Cleaning Chicken Feet
IV. Mix and Match Meals
V. Complete Meals in Jars
VI. Eighteen Meals from One Ham: The Fine Art of Stretching Meat
VII. The Essentials
Our Daily Bread and More
Great Crockpot Granola
Yummy Yogurt in the Crockpot or Cooler
Carol’s Favorite Hummus
VIII. An Apple a Day
How to Can Apples
How to Make Applesauce
How to Can Applesauce
How to Make and Can Apple Butter
IX. The Sweet Stuff: Unbelievable Make-ahead Desserts
X. Meal Planning Made Simple: The Necessary First Step
XI. Additional Recipes
Appendix A: Carol’s General Canning Tips
Appendix B: Carol’s General Freezing Tips
Appendix C: Food Storage Safety
Appendix D: Equipment for the Homestead Kitchen
Appendix E: Specialty Supplies for the Homestead Kitchen
Appendix F: A Well-stocked Homestead Kitchen
Appendix G: Resources for the Homestead Kitchen
About Carol J. Alexander
Introduction
As a homesteading homemaker, producing your own food is important to you. After all the energy spent in the production process (e.g. weeding, spreading manure, milking, butchering), I bet I know how you feel about coming in and cooking the evening meal. You are exhausted, right? When you have gallons of milk in the fridge, with more coming at the next milking, bushels of tomatoes and peppers sitting too long on the kitchen floor, and rows of green beans that must be picked and put up, just getting something simple on the table makes the local drive-through look inviting. But, I bet the drive-through would not even be on your radar if you had meals prepared in advance for those hectic days.
In the next few pages I will show you how, with a little extra effort now, to create a simple menu plan so that you can put up or preserve meals for an entire year. I will show you how you can have healthy staples for quick and easy breakfasts and lunches that kids and husbands can make themselves—with just a little forethought every few weeks.
Even though I have a few recipes here to give you ideas, this is not a recipe book. This book will show you how to take the meals you already know and love and prepare, or partially prepare, them in advance. Likewise, this is not a book to teach you how to can or freeze your food. If you do not already have a basic knowledge of food preservation, see the books I’ve listed in the Resources section.
If you enjoy cooking, trying new recipes, or just hanging out in the kitchen baking, that’s wonderful. What you will learn in here will be for those days when you do not have the time or luxury to spend hours in the kitchen. You do not have to be a foodie to love good food. Homesteading families enjoy tasty meals too. After you read, Homestead Cooking with Carol: Bountiful Make-ahead Meals, you’ll learn how to eat like foodies without exhausting all of your time, money, and energy each day.
I. To Can or to Freeze? That is the Question
Having meal plans in order before harvest and butchering time helps the homesteading homemaker make decisions on how to preserve her meat and produce. We will discuss creating those meal plans in Section X. First I want to show you how you will use those plans in the preservation process.
Some folks fear the pressure canner and prefer to throw everything into the freezer. But freezing doesn’t produce the instant meals that I like to have on hand. Canning as much of our food as possible helps me avoid being stuck at 4 p.m. with nothing thawed for supper. However, for some items, freezing is the best choice.
Take stir-fry for example. You do not stir-fry canned meat and vegetables. So if your family likes stir-fried meals, freeze meat and vegetables for that purpose. Freeze the vegetables separately, as each one will require a different blanching time. When assembling the