dehydrated onions is a technology that we'll incorporate into our life forever. the onions keep better and are simple to use. a solar dehydrator is in my near future--this summer.
best of all we have been eating the soup from our new set of bowls from annie--also thanks for the tomato seed btw.
it is like drinking a specific wine from the proper glass designed for that wine. the bowls complete the soup into a final product, the sum being greater than it's parts. it is like garden fresh tomatoes and home made cottage cheese, the sum being greater than it's parts. there are many things where the sum being greater than it's parts but they are usually experienced infrequently in life.
the kids are really growing fast these days.
rome is especially breaking the time-speed-continuum. he is so-almost crawling.
we all huddled in front of the imac camera the other day.
our chickens laid twelve eggs yesterday. tomorrow i'll make morning-cake aka french toast. it is a very popular breakfast around here. we buy real vanilla and maple syrup from the natural foods store. given our farm fresh free range eggs and the result is heavenly. i'll try to capture the excitement on camera tomorrow morning once they know what i intend to make for breakfast.
i have officially gone through 2/3 of our wood queued for this winter. i have some other back-up wood that we could burn this year. i guess everyone is burning more wood than usual in this area. i'm not sure what the factors are that cause this. we are burning an inordinate amount because a baby needs a really warm house to crawl around in.
i bought bees yesterday. three pounds of russian and marked queen. i pledge to take better care of the bees this year. i need to get my Ch'i groovin' with these bees this year. we love them and are willing to go to great lengths to have them here. the russian queen will be an experiment. people either love or hate them. we'll see where our cards fall regarding them. i'm excited for this new adventure.
i need to get tabitha a bee suit. it will be better if we do it more closely together. we balance out each other in life and approaching the bees together will be one further example of how we do things better together. we can play off each others strengths and achieve the sum being greater than it's parts. isn't that what life is about?
12 comments:
Oooh, semolina noodles... Do you just sub the semolina in for the regular flour?
We're many states away, but have most definitely been using a fair amount of firewood. It's just been a crazy, crazy winter - and now we're really happy that hubby went out and went bonkers wood-cutting the last few years. :)
Love me some soup. We canned some the other day(our first time canning). Getting ready to crawl you say? all mine does is role to the left or right.
I think we've used more wood than we expected to use, also, but we've attributed it to the fact that we're trying to heat with JUST wood for the first time, ever. So, far, we've only had the furnace come on a couple of times ... and today, my husband told me that the cold water pipe had frozen up on the bathtub (we seldom use - mostly we use the shower in the other bathroom). It's been an interesting winter, so far. That's for sure!
The chicken soup sounds awesome. I think I'll try dehydrating my onions next year. It sure beats having them rot ;).
Glad ya'll are enjoying the bowls and putting them to such good use! I love to see people actually using my stuff. Hadn't forgot about the mug you want. Sorry I didn't have more variety of seed to send but mine didn't do really great themselves. Ha! Maybe this year will be better.
tabitha had a few requests regarding her soup. she posted this to face book. cut and pasted here:
here is how i make bone broth and subsequent soup at our house. i do this about once a week, after cooking a chicken. we raise our own meat birds so these are precious to us and we do not waste any part of them.
sometimes i have baked the bird, sometimes used the crock pot, and sometimes i have de-boned the bird and i am working with a raw carcass (in the case of a raw bird you may want to break the larger bones with a hammer or pliers. or maybe you don't, but it can help things break down better). if the carcass is cooked, i take off any meat i can. then i break up the skin and bones into a large (i have a 6 gallon) stock pot with about 4 gallons of water. this can be done with less water too, of course. i add 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, two bay leaves, two strips of kombu, a tablespoon of whole peppercorns and a handful of dried nettle tea. if the bird was baked with vegetables i add all of the leftovers, and especially add the drippings or gelatin in the pan. rinse the pan with water and pour that water in! if at all possible add an apple or pear or the core of an apple or pear to the broth. it is magic.
i boil this broth for 24 hours or more. sometimes even 48, depending on when i start the broth i often turn it off late at night and let it coast, hot and lidded, turning it back on for a few hours in the morning. once you have boiled it as long as you can (adding water as necessary but do try to keep it at a low boil) turn off the heat and allow it to cool a little. you must strain it, and when you do you may see that the bones are disintegrating. that's good! strain it with a large colander and then again with a fine sieve.
however much broth you have, decide what to do with it. make rice, cook beans, use it however you like. but my favorite is to use it all to make soup right there in the same pan.
if you have saved aside meat, add it back. add onions (i use our own dried onions) and carrots and any other vegetable that suits you. i always add 3 heads of garlic, whole cloves peeled. these cook down to soft yummy garlic cloves and are delightful. you can soak & cut wakame or use wakame flakes, or add more kombu. i do this is i don't have greens to add. the best greens are kale and chard, roughly chopped and added. a slice of ginger root is good. depending on our mood, rosemary or thyme or lemongrass can be added.
what makes the soup is the noodles. earlier in the day, i make egg noodle dough. the dough sits, wet, all day at room temperature.
egg noodles are eggs and flour, maybe some salt, nothing more. i use my kitchen aid and the dough hook to mix about 4 cups of organic durum semolina with about 6 *room temperature* eggs. add the eggs one at a time to make a dough that is thick and wet but not sticky or slouching. it will be firmer than bread dough but it must be pliable. room-temp ingredients increase success at the perfect dough. still, sometimes it will be too dry or too wet. too wet is better of course, because it is easy to knead in some flour but difficult to add more wet to hard dough. do your best. if it is dry, i wrap it in a wet towel for the soaking period. if it is wet, it will often soak & sort itself out by the time you make the noodles so just let it be. you can add flour later.
so when it is time, and your soup is boiling on the stove, make noodles. f you do not have a hand-crank pasta maker i really suggest you get one. still, it can be done by hand pretty easily. by hand you roll out the dough with plenty of flour (don't use semolina for this, use regular whole wheat or white) and cut the noddles, adding them to boiling soup. in the machine you roll portions of the dough, floured, through the largest flat setting folding them in thirds after and turning... well you may have to see a picture tutorial. i presume that if you have a machine you know this. cut the noodles after they are the desired thickness (i have an Atlas Marcato and make setting 5 wide linguine for chicken soup. kassi prefers small linguine) drop them into boiling soup, cook a minute and voila! salt to taste and eat soup. i store gallons of leftovers in big 1/2 gallon jars in the fridge.
Glad to hear you got more bees ordered...I am in the hate 'em category for Russian queens...but I hope your experience is great!
Morning cake...cool words!
I hear that the arctic chill is coming to the midwest today or tomorrow... here in California, it's gone from a slightly chilly upper 50s /low 60s to a windy, balmy 70 or so and it is only 8:30am... I think they said the jet stream was curving way up north above Washington and going to drop like a rock into the midwest and south, maybe even bringing snow, if moisture in the area holds out.
So, maybe some snowfun? Better get that wood ready!
Great photos! I was thinking too bad we can't see K's face in the first photo and scrolled down to see a photo of all of you! Love it!
It sounds like things are getting back to normal at the pile. I am glad to hear that.
Take care.
K
Oh, I forgot to say that we have used more wood than usual here in New England. I know, for us, the weather has been crazy cold here.
we're baaa-aack. and i'm so relieved.
what a great post. it's always a pleasure to hear and see photos of your lovely family. it sounds like things are moving along as they are want to do, hope all is well and glad to be back in the circuit.
Those are beautiful snowflakes on the window, behind rome on the bed. Did the kids make those?
Here in New England too it's been exceptionally cold. Unfortunately we don't have a wood stove (yet - though we have three cords of wood!) and we are heating with oil. Our forced hot water system is set up such that we need to heat the whole house (1200 sq.f.), bedrooms included. Once we have the stove in the living room we can heat just the parts of the house we use during the day...
Karl- I just saw this one! Didn't know you had bees too... very cool. Mine are russians also- started with two three-pound packages. They overwintered fine, but I wrapped them with insulation anyway. So far they've been very gentle. Keeping my fingers crossed...
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