Nancy's Kitchen Adventures

I love fresh veggies and fruits! If I didn't like meat so much, I could be a vegetarian! LOL!

I sometimes hear people say that they can't afford to feed their families with fresh foods, so they buy packaged foods, or just go through the fast food drive-through -- horse puckey!

Buy produce that's on sale, and buy small amounts. Watch for coupons and discounts -- Kroger's just had a special where you could get $4 off your bill by buying $30 worth of produce. You can get A LOT of produce for $30! Check out the misfit bin in the produce department, too! So many ways to save $$$.

You know, it doesn't take a lot to create some wonderful dishes (see below). Also, keep some fresh fruits and veggies handy for snacking -- far less expensive than snack foods, and better for you!

A little reminder as canning season approaches...

You CAN poison yourself and others if you don't follow proper SAFE canning and preserving guidelines!

Botulism Outbreak Linked to Home-Canned Cactus Salad Strikes Fresno Family Party A botulism outbreak linked to a home-canned cactus salad at a Fresno family party leaves 10 hospitalized, with two sisters in intensive care.

Classic!
Happy Birthday, America,
and may God bless!

Red Skelton - Pledge of Allegiance http://www.usamericanfreedom.com/

I love just throwing a meal together using whatever I happen to have on hand, like this very quick, very easy, very frugal, very yummy stir fry!

SHRIMP SCAMPI! YUM!

This is a favorite of mine -- to prepare and to eat! Not difficult at all, and it can be quite frugal! Shrimp is on sale frequently, so buy it and throw it in the freezer till you are in the mood for this deliciousness!

CHEESECAKE!
I do love a good cheesecake, but I like it to be creamy and smooth, and neither gritty nor too firm, so I developed a recipe that includes a bit of Greek yogurt, and Neufchatel cheese in addition to cream cheese. I also add some ginger snaps and almonds to the graham crackers when I make the crust for an extra kick of flavor. YUM!
Helpful hint: BE PATIENT! DO NOT try to remove the outer ring of the springform pan before the cheesecake has sufficient time to cool and set up! LOL!!!

I love egg rolls! I make them every now and then, and tend to use whatever I happen to have on hand -- always lots of veggies, a bit of meat and some rice. I use my air fryer if I make a small batch, or am reheating them, but bake them in the oven when I make a big batch like this one. Sauces, too, are whatever I have in the pantry -- personal preference is a drizzle of honey and a bit of mustard. YUM!

So, a couple of special people in my life happen to love my baked beans! Because they are special to me, I had to make some of this deliciousness to share with them.

Love you.

Today, I made some homemade catsup. Why? Because I can!

I like to make a lot of my own sauces, dressings, and other condiments from scratch so I can control the amount of salt, sugar and other ingredients.

Normally, I would make a big enough batch to can a few jars of this deliciousness; however, I prefer to use fresh tomatoes when I do that. Most of today's batch will be used in the next few days for a big ole pan of baked beans! Stay tuned...

Anyone else love French Onion Soup? It's been a favorite of mine since I was a kid, and my mother used to make an amazing one. This dish is reminiscent of that comforting dish, with a few "Nancy" twists...

I have a LOT of cookbooks and I love browsing through them for inspiration. I also enjoy scrolling through recipes for inspiration at a few of my favorite websites.

These two recipes were inspired by some I found (and modified a little because I can't help myself) when looking for ways to use some very ripe bananas...

We don't want to eat the same old meals all the time -- who does, right? One of the wonderful things about casseroles is the ability to change recipes to make them different each time you make them. Start with a few basic ingredients, and play with flavors and textures to come up with meals you like. Some people may shy away from casseroles because you can't easily make a little one, so...leftovers. That's one of the best excuses to have a freezer! Don't feel like cooking, or don't have time? Pull one of those meals out of the freezer, heat and eat!

FRUGAL TIP:

If you have a freezer (always a great investment), and want to save money at the meat counter, consider buying beef (or pork, or chickens, or whatever) "on the hoof."

We buy our beef from a local producer one-half a beef at a time. It cost us a little more than $1550 to purchase the beef, then about $450 to have it processed. All in, the 432 pounds cost us around $2000. That came to $4.63/lb.

That $4.63/lb. covers the ground beef (80/20), steaks, roasts, soup bones/meat, offals -- and includes those prime cuts you would pay prime $$$ to purchase! Heck, you would pay $6 to $7 a pound for just plain old ground beef at the grocery store!

BONUS! I was able to tell the butcher exactly how I wanted the meat processed, the special cuts, the size and weights of packages, and so on...

We always have leftovers when I fix a meal like this one!
This time, the leftover Short Ribs with Veggies turned into Beef and Noodles!

The following day: I removed the meat from the bones and picked it apart. I pureed the sauce and veggies into a gravy, and dumped the meat back into it. I made a small batch of homemade noodles, cooked and drained them, then added the meat and veggie gravy into the pot with the noodles.

A good stir, a little heat, and a whole new meal was ready!

Happy Easter! Have a BLESSED Day!

Seemed like a good day to bake some cookies! Besides the yummy taste, the kitchen smells so good!

A few days ago, I made some sausage from a pork butt to stash in the freezer; today, I tackled the other end of the pig!

You know I am all about frugal, but good quality cooking!

Ground sausage currently is about $5.50/lb. around here. I paid about $10 for this 7.5-lb. hunk of pork butt. This project took me less than 2 hours (it's not "work" if you love what you are doing) and saved about $23.00. Added benefit: This sausage is seasoned exactly the way I like it!

I'll take it!

Holy Week is upon us.
It's not about bunnies or eggs.
It's about the supreme sacrifice...

BIG DITTO!!!

As I have been saying for months, many of the trendy canning practices are NOT safe! Just because the jar is sealed, it doesn't mean the food inside is safe! Learn proper and SAFE canning practices, or take the risk of poisoning yourself and your family!

In this week's episode of unsafe canning practices, I present "dry canning." Dry canning - or canning vegetables without liquid in the jar - has recently taken the Internet by storm. Proponants of this method claim the resulting veggies are less mushy...but what they don't tell you is that the method doesn't create adequate heat to kill off harmful microorganisms.

When liquid is in the jar with the veg (as all tested safe recipes call for), convection heating happens. The liquid swirls around the jar, causing the contents to move, which allows even the coldest part of the jar to heat through more quickly.

When no liquid is added to a jar of vegetables, conductive heat occurs...which is much slower to heat the coldest part of the jar. No one has lab tested dry canned veggies to see how long they must be processed to kill harmful microorganisms. In other words, those who practice dry canning can only guess how long they should process their jars.

In addition, botulism spores are killed more quickly in a wet environment (such as a jar containing liquid and veg). Dry canning may not kill these spores and the environment in a canning jar of low acid vegetables is ripe for causing botulism toxin to grow. Botulism poisioning is rare, but deadly, and all recent cases in the U.S. that are tied to home canned food came from not following tested safe recipes.

You can find tested safe recipes for canning veggies in any recent Ball or Bernardin book or at The National Center for Home Food Preservation's website. If you think canned veggies are too mushy, use a different preservation method, such as overwintering winter crops in the garden, cold storage (with or without a cellar), freezing, dehydrating, or freeze drying.

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I have had a lot going on this week (and for the past couple of weeks), so I took time out to fix something fairly quick and easy, and oh, so satisfying!

Craft friends! Apparently, there are a lot of things you can create with canning jar rings. If you are so inclined, and need some rings, I have a ton of them you can have!

Soap Box Time!

This has been bothering me for quite some time. I have seen way too many posts from people who are getting into homesteading and/or preserving foods who are using antiquated methods of canning that are not food safe. These include water-bath canning low-acid vegetables and meats, or oven canning, or open-bath canning -- and using any old jars and lids, including pickle jars and the original lids.

🙄

If you want to learn to can, learn to do it properly! Water-bath is fine for high-acid food; pressure canning is necessary for low-acid foods, including meat! ALWAYS use approved jars and lids!

Sure, there may be a chance that you won't poison or kill yourself or your family, but WHY would you take that chance?

What do you do when a friend gives you a bag of hazelnuts?

If you also have a bit of dark chocolate on hand, and you enjoy that expensive chocolate hazelnut spread, you make a delicious treat!

You know how one project sometimes can just lead you into another?

Well...

You know I enjoy comfort food!
Well, on a blustery day, that comfort food has to be hot soup!