|
Camille and I found some grapes in the fridge that were a little "borderline" - you know the ones, a little soft but you hate to throw them out because they cost you an arm and a leg??? Yeah, those. So we made raisins! These were just organic red seedless grapes, not a dark variety so they look more like a golden raisin but when I tasted it I loved it! Different flavor but very fresh! Can easily be worked into baked goods or just eaten plain. Here's how! We blanched the grapes in boiling water for 30 seconds and dropped them into an ice bath, just to soften the skins. We lay them out to dry and patted them with a paper towel. You can use a very low oven or a dehydrator - my oven goes no lower than 170* so I opted for the dehydrator. Timing will vary - just keep watch over them. Ours took about 18-19 hours. I ran the dehydrator with herbs as well on other shelves so as to multi-task! Once dry, they will feel slightly sticky but definitely dried, let them cool off and the keep them in a covered container in your pantry! Enjoy!        
0 Comments
Now is the time of year that you want to give your body an extra boost to help stave off any germ-y germs that will make you sick with cold and/or flu. A great way to do that is with a hot drink of lemon juice, honey and ginger in water. This will soothe a sore, scratchy throat and help calm coughs. Add a little cayenne powder and apple cider vinegar and it will also help with a stuffy nose and phlegm build-up. Honey has wonderful qualities - it is a natural energy booster, immune system supporter and antibacterial among others but we will concentrate on these for our purpose today. Ginger is a warming agent for your lungs and throat and will help with sinus congestion and pain, sore throat and upset tummy. Lemon is high in vitamin C, is an antioxidant, antiviral and antibacterial and tastes great! Here is a great way to get all of those in one easy to use jar! Gather your ingredients together, slice up the lemon and the peeled ginger into good size slices. Add these to an old sterilized jar (this is why we keep old jars - canning season is coming up and I need my masons!) Pour your LOCAL honey over it to cover, label and keep in the fridge. I cannot stress local honey enough. Making sure you and your family have local honey helps alleviate, and often eliminate, allergy symptoms. This should be used up no problem but if not, it should keep for a few months stored in your fridge. To use you just take a teaspoon to a tablespoon and add it to hot water and make a tea of it. Drink often throughout the day. You can drink this once a day as a preventative or if you already have a cold/flu then drink 3-4 times per day and make sure you get your fluids to help flush the sickness out of you! Enjoy!      We have had such great luck with tomatoes so far this year. Although I know we are not done yet, we already have quite enough for a sauce; but that comes later.... For now we need to process these babies so that we can make and can the sauce later. Tomatoes go bad quite fast so what we do is peel and freeze them. There is a very easy way to do this and it is a great job for two people - Camille and I have a system that makes it quick work! You will need a pot of water (close to boiling), a bowl for ice water, another for the peels and final one for the tomatoes and a slotted spoon. Once your water is ready you can start plopping your beauties in a few at a time; you are waiting for the skin to "pop" or "crack" open. Once that happens you immediately remove it from the water and drop it into the ice bath to cool off. Once cooled then you can easily peel the skin right off! Place all of your naked tomatoes in freezer bags and into the big chill until you are ready to use them! Stay tuned...canning season is right around the corner!    |
Archives
February 2024
|