Wednesday, October 10, 2012

A Day in my Kitchen...

I've had a lot on my mind lately, and sometimes the best thing I can do to get grounded is to spend a whole day in the kitchen.  Fortunately, today, I was able to.  When I went in the kitchen early this morning, I saw this... if you look closely, you can see two quart jars of sprouting wheat over there.  On the counter is a little paper napkin with 4 persimmon seeds drying. (That is from my first EVER persimmon off of our young persimmon trees.)  On the stove is a bowl with a batch of the crock pot sourdough rye bread that has been fermenting since yesterday.  Sitting on top of the toaster is an African violet pot.  I want to get one to plant in it, so I set it there to help me remember.  In the foreground is my little sourdough crock.
 I decided to make some Vegetable-Beef soup. Here are some of the ingredients gathered together... frozen tomatoes, green peppers, onions, frozen cooked lentils, a couple of large garlic cloves, 2 carrots, 2 pints of frozen stock, some frozen corn, a cabbage and some frozen shank bone sections.
 The crockpot bread is done!
 The Essene bread is baking:
 Here are the shank beef bone slices in my stainless steel pressure saucepan.  Can you believe it?  I bought that at a thrift store for $10 !!!  I was thrilled.  I've wished for one for a long time.  Cooking the beef in here with a quart of water not only makes very tender beef, but also some more broth for the soup.
 Here it is, on the flame:
 And here is the soup pot with most of the ingredients in it.  I think that is a beautiful sight!
 The beef shanks are cooked nicely.  See the yummy and healthy bone marrow there?  I cut up the meat and set it aside to put in the soup at the end, so it wouldn't just fall apart.  The broth went into the soup pot and the bones and fat went into a jar in the freezer where I collect things to make stock.
 8, 1/2-gallon jars that I just emptied of fresh goat milk... We save it up until there are 4 gallons and then I make a batch of my cheddar cheese.
 Here's all that milk in my huge pot I use for making cheese:
 Now the jars are clean!
 Stirring the curd as the pan sits in a sink of warm water before draining:
 Here is the lovely curd from all of that milk!
 Now the cheese is in the press.  It will stay there until tomorrow morning.
 And here is the Essene bread and the crock pot rye cooling:
Today was a soup/bread/cheese day.  I feel like I accomplished a lot, and it was very therapeutic. What do you do to take your mind off of your worries?

8 comments:

  1. Hi Yolanda! I hope all is well for you and yours. You were a very busy lady today! Everything looks so yummy!

    I too have been cooking up soups as of late. I made three big pots over the last week and put them into the freezer for easy meals. I am going to have to try the crock pot bread.

    My plan for this winter is to learn to make cheeses and breads from scratch. There is just nothing better than good homemade soup other than good homemade soup with home made bread and cheese!

    I sure do like your stainless steel cheese press. Can you tell me where you got yours?

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    1. Hi Carol! Thank you and I hope you are doing well also. That is a really good idea about doing several soups and freezing. I did freeze about half of what I made this time, and of course some of the bread gets frozen. I wish you lived next door and I could share what I know about cheese and bread making, but you can find some info on my blog. Just use the search thing up there on the right. :) We bought the cheese press through Hoegger Goat Supply online. Nice to hear from you!

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  2. I too wish you lived next door. I would love to learn from you! Remember when we first met I said you were my favorite neighbor who lived way too far away. ;)

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  3. Oh this makes me miss home so much... Love you mom!

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  4. Wow, you are a busy lady, I bet it smells very good at your house.
    debbieo

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    1. Sometimes it really does. And then... the occasional rotten potato or onion hides somewhere... ;)

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