Ghee at home

When the cowshare is in milk we go to the farm and get a gallon or so a week. That gives our family about 3 liters of milk and a healthy dose of cream. Sometimes the cream is clotted, sometimes I culture it for Crème fraîche and sometimes I make butter.

We end up with quite a lot of butter in the refrigerator and freezer so I decided, about a year ago, to try making ghee. With the milk solids no longer there, the ghee lasts for a long time just sitting out on the counter. It’s great for cooking and smells like wonderful popcorn.

To make Ghee …..

I place the butter into a sauce pan over medium/low heat.

I let the butter melt and start to foam as the milk solids begin to separate. The foam gets skimmed off into a container to use for cooking (within the next day or two)

With a bit more cooking, the ghee will foam a second time as the milk solids begin to brown and drop to the bottom of the pan, leaving the clear, golden ghee liquid.

Once the liquid ghee is clear, I remove the pan from the heat and filter the ghee through a couple of layers of fine cheesecloth into a bail-top jar for storage.

Summer Vacation Day 23: Beeswax Wraps

I purchased a beeswax fabric food wrap a few months ago and loved using it to wrap up my sandwiches for lunches at school. The draw back was the price. I had tried making some a few years ago using wax melted in the oven on a cookie tray – what a huge mess. They were thick, not flexible enough and the tray was really difficult to clean. I found a new method and it works really well…….

First, cut the fabric to the desired size using pinking shears to help prevent fraying.

Lay the fabric down on a sheet of parchment paper with an old bath town folded underneath to act as an ironing board.

Place shredded beeswax (I think this it should be beeswax so that it stays flexible when cooled) over the fabric. I also found that using small piece of beeswax sheets for candlemaking worked well.

Lay a second sheet of parchment over the top and iron gently with a medium iron.

Iron gently, pressing sideways to distribute the wax into the unwaxed fabric. When all of the fabric has been covered, remove and hang to dry.

20 Weeks of Food Storage – Week 2 – Sauce

This week $15.00 – – – Total spent $15.00

This was one of those weeks that I decided to start bulking up the pantry for emergencies, went to the grocery for one thing, and found a great deal on something different. I went looking for beans or rice but the grocery was clearing out some pasta sauce – marked down from $3.94 to $1.00 each. We went ahead and bought 15 jars for the pantry.

20 Weeks of Food Storage – Week 1 – Planning

I was popping around some blogs about preparing a food store and ran in to the WeeHavyn blog and her ideas about creating a food store, not for the end of times, but for a cushion against unforeseen happenings – house problems, unexpected bills, illnesses.

The basic idea is to make a list of items and amounts and, each week, to purchase and store those item. I will also be using my store and replacing as need be.

I decided to use this week to take a look at what I already have in storage and figure out where my needs are.

We have quite a bit of flour stored away in canning jars – white, whole wheat, pastry. I dry canned and sealed it in the oven so it should be good for quite a while. We have about 35 quarts in total.

We also have a number of pints of tomato sauce – it looks like about 23 pints

My To Do List – from based on the article: 20 Items to Kick Start Your Food Storage Plan.

1. 20 pounds of Rice.
2. 20 pounds of Pinto Beans.
3. 20 cans of Vegetables.
4. 20 cans of Fruit.
5. 20 cans of Meat.
6. 4 pounds Oats.
7. 2 large jars of Peanut Butter.
8. 2 large jars of Tang or other powdered drink mix.
9. 5 pounds of Powdered Milk.
10. 5 pounds of Salt.
11. 10 pounds of Pancake Mix.
12. 2 pounds of Honey and 2 large jars of Jam.
13. 10 pounds of Pasta.
14. 10 cans or jars of Spaghetti Sauce.
15. 20 cans of Soup or Broth.
16. 1 large jug of Oil.
17. Spices and Condiments.
18. 5 pounds of Coffee or 100 Tea Bags.
19. 2 large bags of Hard Candies.
20. Mini LED Flashlight and Extra Batteries.

Food Storage on a Budget – April 2012

Planter’s Peanut Butter:

This is on sale at Albertson’s through Tuesday 2/$6.00. I used two $1 off 1 coupons found at this site and then used two Albertson’s double coupons from the Sunday paper to bring the total cost down to $2.oo for two jars. Even better, when you buy two you get a $1 coupon back to spend on anything you would like at Albertson’s. That makes the long term out of pocket only 50¢ per jar. Time to stock up.

Food Storage on a budget – 2012

I keep thinking that I should get back to working on my food storage, but the couponing has not been terrific for me lately. Even over the holidays, that last year were fantastic for baking supplies, the deals were pretty ho-hum. I thought I’d try again as this weeks’ prices on sugar from Albertson’s are really good.

There is a store coupon that brings the sugar from $4.29 /4 lb to $1.99. I combined it with a printable coupon from smart source ($1.00/2) to get each 4lb bag for $1.49. I think I’ll try to get 40 – 50 pounds. I know this is above my $5.00 per week limit, but in these times of good-couponing-famine I think I need to strike while the iron’s hot.

The total should come to $14.99 for 40 pounds of sugar.

Food Storage on a Budget – Week 14

August 17

Purchase: This week was went to Albertson’s with a few coupons for Peanut Butter (4), Spaghetti Sauce(4) and Salad Dressing(2).

The Peanut Butter was on sale for $1.99
The Spaghetti Sauce was on sale for $1.49
The Salad Dressing was on sale for $1.49
There was a store special taking off $.50 each if you bought 10 items from the list.
I had coupons taking $1.00 off two on both the Peanut Butter and the Spaghetti Sauce.
I had coupons taking $.50 off on both the Salad Dressing

I had to purchase 10 item, so my total this week went over budget by $6.40.