Cowgirl

Zero point foods? Interesting. I have been losing weight this year. Lost quite a bit. I need to find out about these.

Oh yum. I should try making pasta from scratch. Sounds delicious!!!

@mommato3boys sourdough is super healthy, though cheaper. This is a great old thread! Thanks for bumping it. About 30 years ago, my dad gave me a little 2 quart Dutch oven. It was really too small for most things, but I hung onto it through several moves. Recently I have gotten into sourdough. And then I saw references to baking in the Dutch oven as the bread pan, which helps with the crust. Most recipes I saw called for preheating the larger Dutch oven and then transferring the risen bread loaf to the hot oven very carefully. No, I am too much of a klutz to pull that off! But then I came across a suggestion to let my bread do its final rise in the Dutch oven and I remembered my little Dutch oven, which is a perfect round, covered bread pan. And so I have used that a few times. Nice crust! If you like to make wet, no knead loaves, a pan like that is nice, giving the loaf more form. I have been pre-heating the cooking oven to 450 while my bread is doing the final rise in the Dutch oven. I put the dough into the well-oiled Dutch oven and put on the lid, setting it in a warm place for the final rise (lately that is the front porch). After the 1 hour rise, I put the Dutch oven into the pre-heated cooking oven with the lid on. I reduce the heat to 400 and bake for 20 minutes. Then I take the lid off and bake for another 40 minutes. Nice crust. Nice texture of bread.

Oh @Mt_Rider that is concerning! I hope they get the fire put out and that the monsoon starts soon. We had a somewhat similar data problem here recently. Our phones alerted about a tornado, telling us to take cover immediately. Our satellite internet was out, of course, as was our satellite TV. Therefore we scrambled to get the animals into shelter while we were trying to get the weather to load on our cell phones. Cell internet was painfully slow, probably also due to the storm. The twister, as it turned out, was quite a long way away, although the thunderstorm around us was intense. Good data is critical. I downloaded a new app that is supposed to give me more localized data on severe weather. And it should load faster, I HOPE. I hope this app will help the next time. Good news, @Jeepers!!!!!!! Our well failed the test when we were buying this house. They were going to shock the well and re-test. Common around here. I said they could shock it to pass the test for the bank, but I wanted money for a filter, as clearly the water would eventually develop bacteria again. Thus, the house closing came with money for a black Berkey. Better to have good water, though!!! So that is great news! I agree about wishing fireworks would be banned. Hate them. Hate the fear they cause in animals. Hate the risks they pose.

All the critters are fed. Double checked their waterers as it is predicted to be nasty hot today. With the high humidity it will not be a day to work outside much longer. Headed back out to work on the cherry trees. Need to get the nets off so I can harvest. Will be sunny today, in addition to the heat, so I plan to cook in the solar oven today. Getting a propane delivery today. That will be painfully expensive, as the tank is very low on gas and we will be getting it filled. We do that usually twice per year. The rising cost of energy is another good reason to learn to bake in my solar oven! This prep item will, I hope, save some money in gas and electric use. I have watched a couple of You-Tube videos on baking with the solar ovens. My first experiment with the sourdough in the oven was OK, but the crust was not superb like what I can get in the kitchen oven, which I can get hotter. So, I will try a different technique today and see how the crust turns out. I am sure I can master this, but it will probably take some time. Eventually, I want an outdoor bread/pizza oven. THAT would make AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL bread. The zucchini soup turned out really GOOD the other night, starting with a base of zucchini smoothie. I added a bit of chicken and a variety of veggies - mushrooms, carrots, new potatoes, black beans, corn, celery, spinach, garlic and a couple handfuls of a variety fresh garden herbs. Added a bit of salt and pepper and a little filtered water to thin it out a tad. I served with a dollop of sour cream on top. DH was skeptical of the creamy green soup, and had a small bowl. He went back for a bigger second helping, and when he does that, I know it is a hit. It paired nicely with fresh sourdough bread and butter. I think we have a new favorite. Anyhow, that was another great use for the hidden monster zucchini — we have had muffins, a Crockpot full of delicious soup and more in the freezer. We will be eating that for awhile!

Happy birthday to MrMomo! Hoping his health improves. Jeepers, things are moving fast on the house! The warranty sounds great - I have never gotten one via an inspection. It was a lovely day today. But my energy level was lower.

@TheCG most of us have been there. I have used up preps before (one reason we have them, right?). But you have an advantage in knowing what to do, and as a member of this site you have great resources. But wow, congrats on the weight loss! That’s wonderful! @Jeepers CONGRATS!!!!!!! How exciting!

Unreliable electricity, crazy winters, tornado season — these are all reasons why I originally got interested in prepping. It is difficult to live in rural Illinois and not prep, at least on some level.

@Jeepers you are in my prayers. May you find a new home where you can really feel at HOME. We downsized on the house 5 years ago. I really like it. Big enough for the 2 of us and occasional guests. Easier to clean, cheaper to heat and cool. Small is good and cute. @Annarchy that is wonderful news! WOOT!!

Grrrrr. Second time this month to lose power due to a storm. We have plenty of preps for it. But really -- this power grid is so unreliable! In a real emergency it is a certainty that we will not have power.

So, I cooked down the zucchini in a big stockpot and got it nice and soft. The idea of mashing it all by hand was not appealing. I pulled out the blender and began blending it, one load at a time. The blender made short work of it. It came out looking like a green smoothie. I put up some in the freezer in 2 cup amounts for future muffins, and 2 cups into a bowl for immediate muffins. Then, looking at the rest of that warm green smoothie, I thought of soup. I have never processed zucchini this way before. But it looks like soup — very creamy. I tasted it. Nice. I imagined it herbed up, a bit of salt and pepper, with some other veggies added for interest. Oh wow. It was a EUREKA moment. I know what I am making for dinner soon! Creamy zucchini soup!

I hope all goes well with your mom, @Annarchy. I ended up cutting up the zucchini and I am cooking it over low heat. Once it is soft, I will mash it. Shredding that much zucchini is more than I want to tackle. I will be freezing most of it. While I am waiting for them to cook down, I am looking up sourdough muffin recipes. Hmm. Another use for my starter! Our zucchini plants are going great guns right now. Hard to keep up with them. Zucchini finds its way into every dinner lately. I need to harvest cherries and process too. Eep.

Zucchini. Those big leaves can hide monsters. I missed one. Size of a softball bat. Wowzers. I will be shredding it for muffins. Many, MANY muffins in our breakfasts. ?

This is the recipe I made tonight: Basic Clafoutis Recipe I studied German in school, so I am clueless on French: How to Pronounce Clafoutis My DH can’t pronounce it to save his life, but he really likes “that egg thingie” that I have been making.

Clafoutis sounds fancy, but it is simple and quite tasty. A homesteading friend introduced me to them. She has all kinds of recipes that use eggs!

Tonight I had a hankering for something breakfast-y for dinner. I decided to make a blueberry clafoutis. Mmmmmm. Hit the spot!

Yeah, I knew it was going to be a nightmare, so for the past 2 months, every time I boot it up, it told me it needed to update and asked if it could do it now. And for 2 months, I hit the “later” button. Today, however, I had to run outside briefly while it was booting up. Apparently it took the opportunity, when I wasn’t there to hit “later” to go ahead and do the update. I returned, fully believing I was going to work, only to discover that it was 1% done with the update. GAH! Happily, our brutal heat wave with high humidity was broken by a great thunderstorm. With the thunder and lightning we got a really nice rain. WOOT! Another storm front is moving through now, so no twilight walk tonight. That’s OK. NEEDED more rain.

I have been using my phone to access, mostly, as my computer got hi-jacked with an update from Hades. The phone access seems normal.

Safe travels, @Annarchy. I need to accomplish several things outside, but it is sprinkling rain and there is lightning in the area, so I came inside. Meanwhile, inside, my computer decided to do a long, LONG, LOOONG update, so I can't get any work done. I am afraid to unplug the computer due to the update. I hope the surge protector is sufficient.

Night kayaking sounds amazing! I used to go for moonlit horseback rides --haven’t in a long time though. We do go for evening walks, not super late night for those — just twilight walks mostly. We count the white tails we encounter. Sometimes we stay out after twilight for star gazing. But kayaking sounds fun.

In an on-going quest to find cheaper organic foods for both storing and using (I am still a big believer in store-what-you-eat and eat-what-you-store), I recently stumbled on Breadtopia. https://breadtopia.com/ I went there for a sourdough recipe, as I developed a starter and have been on the hunt for recipes. It turns out, they have some of the best prices I have found for things like organic whole white wheat in a bucket. They also sell flours at prices lower than local stores. I am going to submit an order. Has anyone else tried them?

I do deep, slow breathing to fall asleep too. I visualize my body being heavy and sinking into the bed. I tighten muscle groups and then relax and let go. I visualize letting go of everything that happened during the day. I visualize breathing out my thoughts, letting go of thought with each breath. It helps to get me out of thinking, to-do lists, etc. Good way to relax and ease into sleep

Annarchy, dinner turned out OK. Not outstanding. I think I will need to practice with the solar oven a bit to master it. But it was OK for a first time use experiment.

Testing out our new solar oven. This experimental dinner is sourdough bread and baked fish. [I hope!] I have read about converting recipes for solar cooking. Tonight’s dinner was researched, but there is nothing like real world experience! And I am quite hopeful these will turn out well. Once I get used to cooking in the solar oven, I expect it to reduce costs: — no propane or electric used — does not add to A/C load or heat up the kitchen AND, it is a good emergency cooker as well.

Thanks!!