Crock Pot Beef Short Ribs (and homemade bullion cubes)

These are SO good!  I have to share how I made them.

Crock Pot Beef Short Ribs

5 pounds beef short ribs

1 cup homemade beef broth

3/4 cup Tamari (that is soy sauce made with just soy, not wheat, but you could use other soy sauce)

1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger

1 large garlic clove, peeled

1 smallish onion, peeled and chopped

1 fresh apple, cored and chopped

1 Tablespoon honey

Broil the short ribs on a baking pan, under high heat and close to the broiler for 4 minutes on one side, then turn them over and cook for another 4 minutes.

Place the ribs in a crock pot.  

Combine the broth, Tamari, ginger, garlic, onion, apple and honey in a blender and puree.  Pour that over the ribs in the crock pot.  Put on the lid, plug it in and turn to low.  Cook for 7 - 8 hours.

Retrieve the ribs and place them on a platter to serve.

Here is what will be left in the Crock pot:

All that yummy, richly flavorful broth can't be thrown away!  So, what I do is freeze it in ice cube trays, pop the cubes into freezer bags and use them like bullion cubes...  They are nice to add to soup, sauces, gravy or even to dissolve into boiling water to drink.

Delicious and no MSG!!!

I am saving the bones for the next time I want to make stock.  They are in a freezer bag in the freezer.

Shared at Simple Lives Thursday #132

Something small and green...

This is a carrot top.  I cut it off the carrot and put it in a little jar with water.

'nuf said.  :)

Shared at Clever Chicks Blog Hop #19

Oatmeal Honey Goat Milk Soap

I blogged about soap-making HERE, and HERE.  Yesterday, through a blog hop, I found a recipe for Oatmeal Honey Goat Milk Soap.  Of course, now I can't find it.  Their method is a little more complicated than mine, but they did say they are fairly new to this, and I think my straight-forward procedure is the result of many years of making soap. Like with anything else, you learn what is important, and what isn't.

It just so happens that I have quite a bit of frozen goat milk right now, and so thought I'd give this a try.  Goat milk contains "capric acid" which is very good for your skin.  Oatmeal, of course, is also very soothing as well as honey.  A perfect combination!  I almost never add scents to my soap.  It costs more to do that, and also some people are sensitive to essential oils.

Here is the batch of soap as it looked this morning.  I have a nice wood box my DH made for me, and I lined it with a damp cotton birdseye diaper.  

In my previous posts, particularly the first one mentioned above, I describe in detail, the method for making soap.  Here I will just give you the ingredients in case you might like to try this kind.

Oatmeal Honey Goat Milk Soap

33 ounces goat milk, frozen in cubes

12.7 ounces lye

42 ounces olive oil 

28 ounces coconut oil

18 ounces palm oil

1 cup finely ground oatmeal

1/4 cup honey

 When I turned out the hardened soap, it looked like this.  For some reason, some of the honey settled in the bottom!  Not a big deal, I just scraped that part off.

The scrapings:

See?  It's all gone now.

I used a sharp knife to cut it into bars.  I really admire those long skinny boxes that some people have to mold their soaps.  It makes the cutting more precise, but it won't affect the usefulness of it.  :)

Isn't it beautiful?

I will leave the bars on this tray, covered lightly with a dish towel, for a week or two before I use any of it.  2 or 3 of the bars had little pockets of honey that I trimmed out. 

It looks and smells SO nice!

Hey, Baby, It's Cold Outside!!

Finally!  Some Real Winter Weather!  Last winter was extremely mild, and although pleasant, we paid for it all summer of 2012 with increased numbers of noxious insects, like ticks and soft scale on the Tulip Trees.  The scale was so severe that I couldn't even hang my laundry out to dry because it would get sticky!  But TODAY.... YAY.  Above, you can see my wood-powered clothes dryer.  I love it.

It also provides a very nice place to let my sourdough bread raise...rise.  Which is it?

It's only about 17 degrees outside this morning.  That's not too bad, actually.  I remember once, in December, when our children were all young, and it was 28 degrees below zero one morning.  I wouldn't let them help me haul wood in.  I was afraid they would freeze their toes and fingers!  I heated bricks on the wood stove, wrapped them up in towels and wrapped the children up in blankets with the bricks at their feet.  They sat there all day watching television, which to them, was Heaven, as I didn't allow much of that.  The dog's water bowl froze in the kitchen.

I know some of you have seen worse than that.  Please stay warm and safe this winter!

Quilt progress report...

Here are 540 blocks I cut out for my quilt.  They are separated by pattern into little stacks.  Each block is 4.5 inches wide and long.  That allows for a 1/4 inch seam all around each one, leaving a 4 - inch block.  I will make 25 strips, each with 22 blocks, and sew the strips together, so that part was a little challenging.  This is going to be a Very Simple Quilt.  I think they look pretty here, with the sun shining in the window yesterday afternoon.

I "collated" the blocks into 25 bunches, each having 22 blocks.  I did not have the same number of blocks of each fabric, as much of what I am using is from leftovers I've accumulated for years.

Here I'm sewing the first strip.  I put two blocks, right sides together, and sew a 1/4 inch seam, then add another and do the same, until all 22 blocks are joined.

Here's one strip ready for pressing.  (Pay no attention to my stained ironing board cover. ;)

I iron the seam allowances all in one direction.  The next strip will have them ironed in the opposite direction.  That way, when I sew the strips together, it will not be too bulky in the seams.  Also, rather than iron the seam open, I do it this way, because it is sturdier.

Pinning the first two strips together for sewing...

Here you can see the wisdom of the pressing technique.  Each seam allowance avoids doubling up with the one it joins.

Another view of the back of the first two strips, joined and pressed.

That's it for now!  I will post again when I get the top all sewn together.  It is a miracle to me how much faster this is than making the crazy quilt.

Linked to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday

Making Gifts and Making Do

A dear friend of mine is having her birthday today.  I wanted to make her a gift, and ended up making 3 from things I already had on hand.  I made a little scrapbook, a lavender blossom sachet and a monogrammed linen handkerchief.  

Here you can see the binding on the scrapbook.  I did it with bamboo skewers.  They are very inexpensive.  And HERE is the link where I learned how to do this!  I used some scrapbook papers I have that I bought on sale a long time ago at JoAnn Fabrics in a "stack."  They come in very handy.  The cover is decorated with pieces of fabric that I sewed onto some cardstock and then sewed the cardstock onto the cover. 

This is the sachet.  For those of you who might not know what that is, a sachet is something that smells very nice and you can hang it in your closet or tuck it into a clothing drawer to make everything smell lovely.  This one is made just with two layers of cotton fabric that I sewed together.  The easiest method I have found is to lay two pieces of fabric, right sides together, then draw the heart shape on it.  Then, either by hand or on the sewing machine, I sew all around on the drawn line, leaving a couple inches open on the straight side for stuffing.  Trim the seam, turn it right side out and press carefully.  Then I put the lavender blossoms in (Thank you, April and Eva) and stitched the opening shut.  Next, I sewed a ruffled lace all around and put on a ribbon for hanging and a ribbon bow for decoration.  Voila!

Here is the hankie.

I have some handkerchief weight linen I bought several years ago.  I cut out a 10 inch by 10 inch square and sewed all around using this decorative stitch.  Then I just trimmed off the excess.  I found a pretty letter A online, printed it out, and then drew it on the fabric and embroidered it with two strands of embroidery floss.  I am pleased with the result.  

For Christmas, we received a gift through Amazon.com that came in this nice box.  The top was damaged by the note card taped on, so I just used rubber cement and put on a piece of pretty scrapbook paper to cover it up.  I added a personal note and a rubber band.

I hope she will like it!

Linked to Simple Lives Thursday #131 

And the Homemaker Hop!

Oats.... again :)

If you've read my blog for very long, you might recall that I LOVE oatmeal.  When I was a young teen, my sweet grandmother gave me a copy of An Old-Fashioned Girl, by Louisa May Alcott.

The main character, "Fannie," is a wonderful young girl and I was fascinated by her.  She ate oatmeal for breakfast every day.  That is why I learned to love oatmeal.  :)

Here is my "new" way to make it:

Real Oatmeal - 2 servings

1 cut oat groats (that is just the oat grain, not rolled or steel cut or anything.)

1 Tablespoon whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon live whey

nice clean water

pinch of salt

Rinse your oats and place them in a stainless or glass bowl, covered with at least 2 inches of water.  Add the whole wheat flour and whey.  Stir together, cover and let it soak for 24 hours.

Drain in a colander and rinse well.

Put the oats, the salt and 2 cups of water in a crock pot and let it cook on low all night.

In the morning it will be ready to eat.  It's very tender and nice.

I eat mine with butter and a little maple syrup.

I think you'd like it too if you enjoy oatmeal!

Leftovers can be eaten on subsequent days, but also make a nice addition to meatloaf or bread.