What's cooking?

Someone asked me recently what happened to my goal of cooking 52 new recipes this year.  That made me think how I haven't shared anything food related on here in a long while. I have been slowly working on my goal, even though I haven't shared them here. And many of them have turned out quite yummy! 

1.Fermented Veggies: I'm just starting to get hooked on these!  I had a cabbage, some golden beets, and green onion in the fridge which I tossed in a salt brine for a couple days. Seriously, it felt so empowering to be able to just toss veggies in for a couple days, see the bubbles rising up, and know that I was increasing the bacterial activity.  See this blog post for the books I've been reading about our gut microbiome system and how eating fermented foods really promotes overall health.

2.  Broccoli Cheddar Potato Soup: I have both the From Freezer to Cooker and From Freezer to Table books.  They both provide easy meals you can make and eat, or make and freeze for later. The first book provides options for the instant pot and the slow cooker.  This soup was family approved!

3. Buttermilk Biscuits and Sourdough Biscuits. 

While this may not fit in the new category this year, I have used them to invent a cream of chicken over buttermilk biscuits delicious dinner. Every recipe I've tried in the Prairie Homestead Cookbook has been delicious!  I love how the author uses real ingredients from her garden and homestead to create wholesome meals for her family. :-)  Here's the recipe from her site so you can try it too!  To substitute for the buttermilk (which I never have on hand), I add 1 or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to regular milk for about ten minutes until it starts to curdle. 

https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2011/02/soaked-buttermilk-biscuits.html

4. Kimchi: Somethings I make are 'family approved' and other things are 'family tolerated'.  They tolerate the smell, that is. Kimchi is fabulous for the gut microbiome and I've heard that the combination of onion and Korean Red Pepper help to fight viruses. I'd love to try it again and adjust some of the seasoning.   Kimchi made with Korean Red Pepper. 

5. Sauerkraut: Being my first attempt to ever make sauerkraut, I learned some lessons in this process. Namely, don't shred your cabbage with the food processor.   It will be too small to stay under the brine, and will expose itself to oxygen and go bad. I'm hoping I'll be able to harvest cabbage from our garden this fall, and try this process again with better success. :-) 

 

Cleaning out the junk

If you recall, last fall we moved to an old farmstead. We had been very busy finishing the inside of the house during the winter, and now we have started working outdoors on the property. There was an old farmhouse garage on site that had seen it's better days. The ceiling was falling in and I'm sure it had many stories to tell from the last 100 years

We had it burned down, and started work on cleaning up the site.  Hours were spent on cleaning up. First, the steel beams, metal pieces, and chunks of insulation had to be gathered. Then the ground had to be gone over with a magnet bar to lift hundreds of nails out of the ashes. I feel like no matter how many times I go over the site....I still find more nails. The weekend we worked on cleaning it up , I had so much quit in me.  I wanted to pack up and move back to town. I wanted the easy life of zero outdoor maintenance and food from a box. This road was hard. But something drew me on.....

After cleaning out the garage site, I started tilling the area around the old garage. History kept being dug out of the dirt. First I tilled the area, then I picked up all the junk brought to the surface. Bits of glass, a licence plate, insulation, and metal pieces were brought to the surface of the previously "clean site".  After raking it clean, it looked good again.  Until I used the magnet bar to pick up the hidden nails, bolts, and metal shards hiding at the surface. 

As I did that, I kept thinking of our women's Bible study lesson. In Ezra 9 and 10, the people are dealing with issues of repentance. Issues they would have rather stuffed under the rug. Repentance is messy labor intensive work. It's dirty and hard. But nothing of beauty will come unless we go through it. 

Seeking forgiveness isn't a one time clean up of the big sins/wrong doings in our lives.  Our lives might look pretty good after that. But just as with that old garage site, the Holy Spirit comes in with his 'tiller' and digs up everything underneath.  The junk from the past comes to the surface, things we never remembered were there. Then after we seek forgiveness, God comes back with his 'magnet bar' to clean out the small hidden sins there. 

You guys I hate cleaning things up. I hate sifting through ashes to find glass bits and metal wheels. I would much rather plant flower seeds. 

But I can't do the working of building, until the site is prepared. 

God wants to create things of beauty in our lives. He wants to build something new and use us to bless others in His kingdom. But it's not enough to look good. The strawberries, potatoes, and endless flowers I desire to grow will never thrive trying to wrap their roots around metal wheels, and hundreds of screws. No, the soil of our hearts must be cleaned out and the junk removed in order to make room for new life. 

If you could see this site through my eyes, you would see the fence line covered in flowers, a border of flowers and herbs along the 103 ft fence, and a strawberry bed planted next to a large garden area. I have soooooo many flower and vegetable seeds that I worry if I'll have room to plant them all!

God delights in restoration.  

As I looked at the junk being pulled out from below the surface, and looked forward in anticipation to how God wants to restore this piece of dirt into something beautiful......I just kept thinking.....

"Me too, Lord. Do this in me too."

Sojourning with you, 

Felicia