Pad Thai ish Noodles (AKA Warm Toes Noodles)

It was - 14.4 degrees Fahrenheit when I got up this morning.   Yeah, a tad nippy.

I had just 2 pints left of my thyroid broth and was wanting something "saucy".  I used a little too much liquid for the amount of noodles, but it was still yummy and effective, even if a little soupy.

Soak the Thai style rice noodles in hot water for 8-10 minutes while cooking the sauce. Drain, mix with sauce and serve with fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice.


Sauce Ingredients: 
1 pint broth (1 cup would have been better in hindsight)
1 glop coconut oil
.5 oz dried shitake mushrooms, crumbled (they fell out of the cupboard when I was grabbing the coconut oil)
6 TBS Sucanat/Cream of tartar mix
6 TBS Beef unflavored gelatin
2-3 glops of unsweetened ketchup (to help use it up)
1-3 TBS red pepper flakes (to taste )
1-3 TBS Dried Lemon Grass
1-3 glugs of rice vinegar
Salt to taste

I noticed my bare toes were non icy feeling about 20 minutes after eating, hence the name.

Gluten Free Wednesday
Pennywise Platter Thursday 
Simple Lives Thursday 
Tuesday Twister

Thyroid Broth (Chicken Necks)

I ordered 40 lbs of "natural" chickens necks for making broth.  The necks still have the actual thyroid in them, so are a good source of the hormone.  There was some skin still attached too.  The 40 lbs was divided into 4 frozen SOLID chunks.  Fortunately, I had a SS pot large enough to accommodate the mass.

Ingredients:
10 lbs chicken necks and skin
onion peels
dried parsely
ACV
water to cover
(a few goat ribs stuck in because they were in the freezer)

I put the full pot on the wood stove and let it do it's thing for a few days, until the necks fell apart and fat melted all the way.  It became the base for many soups in the following COLD days and nights.  It made a HUGE difference for me in staying warm at night.

Fight Back Friday

Cheese and an Apple

Food doesn't have to be complicated or fancy to be tasty, nourishing and balanced.  We came in from a walk to day, hungry, tired and HOT.  Yeah, it's only 50 degrees...but compared to the 10 degrees we've been having, it's a little warm.

We sliced up an apple per person and about 2 oz of cheese.  I had a super sweet Arkansas Black Apple with 4 pepper Chevre spread on each slice.  Fabulous!  I love the combination of the sweet and savory.  For those that aren't familiar, Chevre is the goat version of Cream Cheese...without the guar gum and other fillers usually added to commercial versions.

Also good with the Arkansas Blacks is a nice chunk of Havarti.

Cheese and an apple is also  my go to food for traveling as good cheese doesn't need to be refrigerated, just kept from getting too hot.

P.S. I am so impressed by the keeping qualities of the Arkansas Blacks.  We brought home a box of them and they got left in the back of the truck too long and the chickens discovered them...unbeknown to me.  They got stored in the basement in their box, hen pecks and all.  All of them, except for one, are still in great condition...aside from the pecks of course.  We just cut those parts off and enjoy a sweet, crisp, DENSE apple going on 2 months later.

Simple Lives Thursday
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Fight Back Friday

A day in the life...of a pig

 Full tummies means nap time in the sun.

Can't have MY apple!

Happy Chicken, Happy Pig!

In hot pursuit....

Any more goodies?

Let them eat grass....

Eating like a pig.

Heart and Soul Hop

Slow Roasted Goat Ribs with Black Raspberry BBQ Sauce

Forage Fed Goat Ribs and Home made Cottage Fries

1.  Bring a rack of ribs up to room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
3. Slice a fresh clove of garlic and wipe cut side all over ribs.  You may cook the garlic slices in slits in the fat if desired.
4. Place ribs on rack in a broiler pan or other open pan.
5. Immediately turn down oven temp to around 150-175 degrees F and cook for 30 minutes per pound.

While the ribs are cooking, prepare the sauce.




Black Raspberry BBQ Sauce
10 oz black raspberry preserves
10 oz vinegar (Apple Cider, Wine, etc.)
1 small can tomato paste
1/2 cup unflavored beef gelatin
1/2 cup cane sugar/cream of tartar mix
1-2 TBS unrefined sea salt
1 TBS lemon thyme (optional)
1-2 TBS red pepper flakes (optional)

Mix the ingredients together and heat low and slow, stirring occasionally.  When the ribs are done, slice between the ribs into appropriate serving sizes and drizzle with sauce.

We had to hose ourselves down after our meal...but it was worth it!

Update: Ketchup Boy has been using the leftover sauce to pour over his fries on a regular basis now...it MUST be good. ;)

Monday Mania 
Hearth and Soul Hop 
Tuesday Twister 
Real Food Wednesday
Gluten Free Wednesday
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Full Plate Thursday
Star Recipe Collection

Wild Blueberries and Cream

Ahhh, nothing so delightful for a snack as berries and cream....rich, yet light and refreshing.

I used about 1 cup of  Wyman's frozen wild blueberries and sprinkled with a dusting of cane sugar/cream of tartar mix, a pinch of sea salt and a dash of vanilla. 

Miss Swiss was extra generous with her cream yesterday, so I poured without shaking... giving me a nice half and half mix of heavy cream and milk as it came out of the jar. 

I love how the cream forms a slight slushy texture when mixed with the frozen berries.  Berries and Cream is what makes milking in winter WORTH IT!

Monday Mania

Pan Fried Goat Chops with Potatoes and Glazed Onions

Looks like a huge amount of food but the plate is only 6" across.

It has always puzzled me that there is a large portion of farmers and ranchers that don't actually eat what they grow...I guess they know what's in it, eh?

Pictured here is a 1" thick section of the loin of  "Whitey" or "Todd". Yeah, we name our food.

These boys were dam raised, forage fed dairy goats, a yearling buck and a 2 year old wether.  The oysters are still in the freezer, I admit, I am not sure what to do with them.

I like my meat seared in coconut oil on the outside and rare/raw on the inside.  Raw meat is easier to digest than cooked and the inside of a steak is sterile....so no worries on contamination.

Ingredients:
Goat chops (approx 1/4 lb/person ) 
Coconut oil
Onion
Potatoes
Gelatin (1 TBS/person)
Sugar/Cream of Tartar (approx 1 tsp/TBS vinegar)
Maple Syrup/Cream of Tartar (1 TBS/onion)
Apple Cider Vinegar (2 TBS/person)
Salt

Directions:
Any meat cooks better at room temperature.  These were frozen, so I soaked in warm water while I loaded the dishwasher and started on the onions.  The onions sautéed in coconut oil while I prepared the potatoes.  I added the diced potatoes, stirred to coat with oil and cooked covered for 7 minutes on medium low (egg temp).  Meanwhile, I preheated some oil for the meat in a separate pan.  After 7 minutes, I stirred the potatoes to unstick them from the bottom and covered again for another 7 minutes.

While the potatoes were finishing, I prepped the glaze and started on the first chop.  The chops cooked one at a time for about 1-2 minutes per side on medium heat.  In between flipping, I soaked the gelatin with the sugar mix in the maple syrup mix with the ACV and salt and stirred.  When the chops were done, I added the glaze to the potatoes and mixed in.  It doesn't take but a few seconds to melt the gelatin.

Quick and easy, what more could you want?

I saved my scraps from the meal (bones, onion skins etc.) in a baggy in the freezer for making broth later.

Hearth and Soul Hop 
Tuesday Twister 
Gluten Free Wednesdays 
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Fight Back Friday

Power Outage Peaches

A few years ago, we had a nasty ice storm that knocked out power for 9 days in my neighborhood.  We spent 9 days with the wood stove being the ONLY source of heat.  Along with melting icicles in 5 gallon buckets for water for us and the animals, the stove had to keep us warm and heat our food.  I learned a bit about emergency food storage that winter. One is that food storage needs to be easy, in appropriate serving sizes and something you actually eat.  Canned food is generally most appropriate as water is precious and extra water for re-hydrating may not be practical.

Since that storm,  I have started cooking/heating on top of the wood stove as much as possible.  I have been learning what is practical and what isn't, how things cook on my particular stove...pans to use, timing etc.  Here's a recipe I have been "practicing"...just in case.  It's really yummy and satisfying.

1 can of peaches (avoid HFCS)
1-2 TBS gelatin per person
1 -2 TBS sugar/cream of tartar mix
1 large pinch of sea salt
1-2 TBS coconut oil, butter and/or cream
dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla (optional)

I used to drain the liquid off, but now just leave it in for a nice peach soup.  Brown sugar or sucanat is really tasty with peaches, but plain ol' cane sugar works too.  The nice thing about gelatin is that it will dissolve at fairly low temperatures.  If you use coconut oil or butter,  put a glop on top.  When it is melted, the gelatin will be too.   This can be a light snack or a complete meal depending on the portions sizes and amount of gelatin used.

Gluten Free Wednesdays 
PennyWise Platter Thursday

Oink, Oink...Ossabaw Island Hogs

Picked up two Ossabaw Island barrows and a gilt today.  They are a small heritage breed...leftovers from Spanish exploration of the New World.  

You can read more abut them here: Ossabaw Island Hogs  and here:  On the trail of fine ham 

UMMMM.........Can you say "Bacon"?


 

According to my processor, they have a higher proportion of bacon to hams than conventional breeds and are NOT white meat.  They take to "no nitrate" sugar cures very well.

These will be raised in rotation on pasture/hay and extra milk.  They seem to have an affinity for  ummm, "predigested" grass AKA goat berries, so may become a valuable assets in sustainable parasite control for the goats.

I expect these to be ready late spring/early summer.

They are cuter in person...but not TOO cute, if ya know what I mean!




Hearth and Soul Hop 
Real Food Wednesday 
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Pennywise Platter Thursday

New and Improved GF Chocolate Chip Cookies

We have tweaked the original recipe to suit our specific nutritional needs....basically doubling the rising power with the additional cream of tartar and baking soda.  This makes a thinner, lighter, crisper cookie...wafer like.  If you prefer a chewier cookie, reduce the cooking time. Yum!

Ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter
1 cup cane sugar/cream of tartar mix
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup rice flour
4 TBS potato flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp unrefined sea salt
1 cup lecithin free chocolate chips 

preheat oven to 375*F

Beat eggs and blend in sugar and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients separately and then add to wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips (or substitute broken pieces of a 70% chocolate bar or 2.) Drop from spoon onto cookie sheet and bake for 7-9 minutes.

Gluten Free Wednesdays 
Simple Lives Thursday