Breakfast and Lunch

Tomorrow breakfast and lunch. I'll heat the frozen buckwheat pancakes and blueberries. Top with cottage cheese and 2 hard boiled eggs on the side.  Lunch will be reheated frozen meatloaf and toasted homemade bread.  I pre-toast my bread and put in a sandwich bag the night before. I don't seal in fully until the next morning so the steam escapes. 

I pre-cook big batches of buckwheat pancakes.  Pre-package my lunch the night before.  Breakfast is usually pancakes and cottage cheese or egg sandwiches, sometimes with some dubliner. Lunch is something I made the night before, or something I had extra and froze.  I've been having sliced cucumbers with my lunch this week but I'm out for tomorrow and I'm tired. It's Thursday.  I have zucchini in the fridge but just can't do it.  :-). Cheers!

I'm showing the pancakes frozen invthe background. The cottage cheese and blueberries from my bushes. I also freeze the berries on cookies sheets. Place them in a ziplock and use the same. 

Finding corn free food - Tree Squirrel

My first tree squirrel first shot to the head! I guarantee it's corn free!

First Signs of Spring

I'd add a picture of my lettuce sprouts popping up, but you can't see them in the picture. I also saw a few spinach sprouting too. I may reseed the peas, since I am not seeing any of those sprouting, and their germination is less than the others. It could be that it hasn't been warm enough.

What a beautiful day. It's suppose to hit 70 today. I put up my back screen door, and turned off the furnace. Good thing right now I am seeing a bumble bee on the outside.

Kitty Mae likes being able to come and go.

I let the chickens out to roam.

I took the cover off the artichoke plant.  Nobody can believe it lasted all winter.  I got it from our local hardware store, Leeper's, last year.  I have been posting its progress on their facebook page.

Soaked 4 pounds of beans last night to can 16 pints today.  They must boil an hour before canning.

One Awesome Mop

I am very frugal as most already know. I never wanted to try any of those disposal mops. This O'Cedar mop is the most awesome mop because of the reusable mop pad. I tend to throw it in the wash with my jeans. I don't like the idea of throwing it in with the towels, because I don't want floor dirt on my wash cloths. That might sound weird. You can put whatever cleaner in the reservoir.  I use diluted WhiteHouse apple cidar vinegar.  For years I thought that these kind of mops wouldn't get all the dirt up.  I was wrong.  To test the theory I mopped with my regular mop after using the O'Cedar.  The floor was clean.  Very Awesome!

Not Good For Me - Applegate Farms Natural Turkey Bacon

I got up the courage to try the Applegate Farms Natural Turkey Bacon.  I think its ok!!!  Very good! 
The ingredients:  Turkey, Water, Contains Less Than 2% Of The Following: Sea Salt, Celery Powder, Maple Sugar, Onion Powder, Spices.

It has Maple Sugar and not Cane Sugar.  Hickory Smoked turkey thigh meat.  Yum!  I ate 1 piece and will try more tomorrow.  I do believe it is corn safe.  I eat their beef hot dogs all the time.  Others can eat their Sunday Bacon, but it has cane sugar.
http://www.applegatefarms.com/products/natural_turkey_bacon.aspx

******UPDATE 1/3/2012
I AM GETTING AN ALLERGY REACTION TO THIS BACON.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Its a great day!  Yesterday we found out that Hubby is getting a promotion.  I got a call for a job interview.  He said he does want to hire me!  After 19 months since moving to East TN things are starting to lighten up!  Thank you Lord!

What corn free foods am I having for Thanksgiving dinner?  Prime Rib from the grass feed beef we bought this year.  I scavaged about 2 - 3 cups of broccoli from the garden, and 1 gallon of spinach.  I think I might make some fried onion / garlic quinoa, and some roasted sweet potatoes with sour cream mixed with roasted garlic, green onion powder, kale powder, and salt.

Sliced Beef Bacon

I eventually smoked for 4 hours.  The final internal temperature was 150 degrees.  I decided to just go with that because when I had checked them a couple times before taking them off, there were small spots of fluid on the surface.  This made me fell I was drying them out and would end up with beef jerky instead of bacon.  After taken them off, I wrapped them in foil and refrigerated them over night.  The following morning I cut them against the grain at an angle.  I started using my favorite non-serrated knife,

then I tried the one serrated one pictured under the meat.  It didn't do so well.  I went back to the non-serrated knife.  I had to stop and sharpen it a few times.  I am so glad to have my grandma's sharpening stone in the picture.  After slicing I layered the bacon on a cookie sheet inbetween layers of plastic wrap.  After its frozen  I will put it in gallon size freezer bags.  This way I will be able to take out just what I want at any time.  I freeze just about everything in layers on a cookie sheet like this.

I fried up a couple pieces.  Tastes like the best smoked bacon or ham I ever had.  Be sure to slice it thin, because it is a bit chewy.  My cow was very young and grass feed, so he didn't have much fat at all.  Oh so good though!  I haven't had anything that even resembled bacon in a very long time!  I ate a couple slices with 2 fresh eggs that had very yellow yokes!  I have been letting my chickens out to roam lately, so they have been getting more greens, which make their yolks almost orange.

Today is Bacon Smoking Day

This morning I heard that we may have showers tonight and again tomorrow, so I decided it was time to take the beef out of the fridge and rinse it for 20 minutes.  The meat is gray looking because I didn't use nitrites.  I would fill the sink swish the meat around until the water was frothy then drain and fill again.

I put the meat on racks in the fridge to dry.  I used a flour sack towel to get the excess water off.  I read that they are suppose to be dry when smoking.  The smoke is suppose to attach to the layer of dried film. 

I built a fire in the smoker box using an electric charcoal starter.

I closed the drawer a bit after I saw a little flame, so it would air draft the coals.  The chimney was wide open. Note the the grill has a temperature gauge on the lid.

  After the coals started flaming I took the starter out, closed the drawer, and made sure the vents were fully open.  When the temperature reaches 200 you can put the meat on. 

I soaked my Full Circle Hickory Chips in a bucket of water.  You should do this hours before.  You can even do this overnight.  I made a pouch of wet chips with foil, and put a few holes on top.  Then threw a few wet chips on top of the hot coals then add your pouch.  You might have to check that you didn't smother the fire with the pouch.  Keep the grill at 200 degrees.  

Here's what I used: 

On went the meat.  First I had it too close to the right side.  You can see the top of the piece on the right got a lttle browned.  Oops....   

Close the vents if it is to hot.  Lump coal burns hotter.  I had to open the top a couple of times to cool it down.  Open the vents if it starts getting to cold.  Add more coal if it continues to cool down.  I had to turn the grill around, so the natural breeze flowed into the smoker box to get the fire going again.  Then I turned it back around, and closed the vents a bit when it was back up to 200 degrees.  Constantly watch the grill to maintain your temperature between 175 and 200.

Continue smoking for 3 hours.  When the meat reaches internal temperture of 160 its done.  One site said that after smoking for 3 hours you can finish getting the meat to 160 in the oven.  I am guessing at 200 degrees.

I am listing a few sites that I used as a reference, but actually there are many, many, more sites about how to make bacon.  I read and read to try and get it right.:  http://www.deejayssmokepit.net/BeefBacon.htm, http://letsmakesomethingawesome.com/2011/03/home-cured-bacon-without-nitrates/, http://ruhlman.com/2010/03/corned-beef-how-to-cure-your-own/,