Preparedness 15.0 / Back By Popular Demand! Cranberry Orange Cream Scones

 

Preparedness 15.0 / Back By Popular Demand!

After all the great comments I decided to keep on keeping on. Watching things I am still seeing more shortages and price hikes. I decided to buy a small beef roast for the weekend to roast and got major sticker shock. I went ahead and bought a smaller one, since there's only two of us, and just wanted some for a few meals. I used this basic recipe Bottom Round Roast but left out the broth and wine-

Next time I will thaw one of mine out! I think the beef prices from the spring have almost doubled from what I can see. I made the roast with veggies, then made French dips the next night! 

Still spending time dehydrating tomatoes, almost down to the very end-

I'm happy to have them but will be glad when that is done and I can put my dehydrator away. We have a reasonably small kitchen and not a lot of counter space. The kale and collard greens are holding on well since it's cool weather, will mulch them and see if I can winter them over. Last year my collard greens actually survived the winter without mulching. I just fed them to the chickens in the spring. This year I'm going to mulch them both and see what happens. I also have my Kohlrabi that never produced the little sputniks, so I will let them winter over also.

As far as purchasing I'm just filling in a few more gaps here and there. I've been hearing with the grain shortage there may be a major pasta shortage in the not-too-distant future. Luckily pasta is still pretty cheap so I've been buying a few extras here and there, as well as extra flour when I see it on sale. I could always make homemade pasta if needed! Years ago I bought a used Perfection kerosene heater at a thrift store cheap. I'm going to fire it up this weekend since I've never used it. With fuel shoratges looming better to have it working and not need it-

Kerosene is much safer than gas, etc. because it is so less flammable. Kerosene heaters made by Perfection company go way way back, they also made cookstoves. It is always important to have a carbon monoxide detector on hand if you're going to use them inside in the closed space and to crack windows so be warned! I would also never use one when I'm sleeping.

I'm still buying more cat food and stockpiling some since Anya a sensitive stomach. It's easier to buy two little boxes at a time instead of one and stash it. It's nice when you can buy the cans in the small shallow box because they're easier to stack. I've decided to get back into baking now that the garden is winding down. Bread-making is on the horizon soon, I did go ahead and start with a new scone recipe. They were fabulous! Recipe below.

Cranberry Orange Cream Scones-

I used to always loved getting these scones from a certain coffee shop years ago (Starbuck's). Not too sweet and a little tart. Then the recipe changed, yuck, no whole cranberries, more like a jam filling. After buying some of Trader Joe's scones (which were nice) I read the label, way too much sugar! I decided to start making my own cran-orange scones. Scones are nice because you really can flavor them any way you want. I found this recipe The Yes Chef Kitchen, and the dough was a little dry, so I added more cream. I baked a batch and we loved them! Slightly crisp on the bottom and very tender and moist inside. I used frozen cranberries, that's the ticket! I think I would add more orange zest next time, since I love citrus. It's a keeper! 

Favorite Frugal, Easy Baking Mix & Biscuit Recipes, Home Office Re-Boot/New Job! Fun Summer/ 4th of July Decor

 

 Recipe here Mother Earth News Baking Mix

Favorite Frugal/ Easy Baking Mix & Biscuit Recipes-

Given food prices going up and the need for simpler foods, (that you can modify) here a couple things I've used! In the course of my reorganizing some of my office things I was looking at my cookbooks. I also had a few printouts from some older blogs, one that is now defunct, Lazy J Bar C Farm. Years ago I printed out her Baking Mix, which was basically the recipe above posted on Mother Earth News. I did modify the recipe using half whole wheat pastry flour so it wasn't all unbleached, for a little bit more nutritional value. It's basically like Bisquick but cheaper, homemade and fresher.  You can use this in all kinds of recipes! You can make biscuits, cookies etc. Sadly Candy's blog is no longer accessible, as had a huge Norton block that red flagged it as a dangerous website. I very rarely see that with Norton so I did not open the site. Here's few recipes from the author Candy that you can make with the mix, ones I had printed and kept-

Cheesy Biscuit Sticks-

2 cup Baking Mix, 1/4 cup cold butter cut into small pieces, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 3/4 cup grated cheese (I liked Cheddar) , three quarter cup buttermilk. Preheat oven to 425°, place baking mix, butter and cayenne pepper in a bowl and cut in butter. Stir in grated cheese. Make a well in the center and add buttermilk all at once. Stir together until a soft dough forms. Turned out onto a well floured surface. Dust the top with additional flour. Need gently 8 to 10 times. Pat dough into a rectangle about 12"by 8" and about half and inch thick. Cut into sticks separate and place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

And another one-

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.

2 cups Baking Mix,, half a pound (two sticks butter) softened, one and a half cups of granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon of molasses, two eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla,  one teaspoon cinnamon, three cups old fashioned oats, 1 cup raisins. Heat oven to 350 degrees, be together wet ingredients and butter, add eggs and vanilla beat well. Add baking mix and cinnamon, mix well. Stir in oats and raisins mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet, bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet, remove to wire rack to cool completely, makes about 4 dozen cookies.

You can really play around with that basic recipe! 

And another fave are these amazing biscuits! 

Recipe Pioneer Woman at Heart Biscuits

Again you can modify with WW pastry flour, tender and oh so flaky! Another great recipe here Beyond Easy Beer Bread, great with soup or leftovers! 

Home Office Re-Boot/New Job!

Well, I quit my job! I am so happy! I was bored to the extreme, in a great job market (huge shortage of workers here) and I had a great tool belt so to speak. I decided to target an industry that I already had a lot of experience in. I applied with a couple very large organizations and did a Zoom job interview, a first. I accepted an offer with a group whose vibe I really like. Thursday was my last day on my old job (was told to work in the office) and ironically the A/C was glitchy, again. I kept thinking I was the only one who was HOT until I started seeing all the IM's, "I'm melting!", etc.  It was 80 degrees inside and dead air. Glad I won't be working there again! It was an old retrofitted building, always had AC/heating issues. Ant then there was leadership, no comment. Will simply say I found myself in a dead end job after promises of growth were made. I took Friday off since my PTO is getting cashed out. Time for a 3 day weekend!!!

I decided to deep clean the home office and reorganize a bit with the new job starting. When I started working from home last year I never thought it would last this long! My new job will start off working from home and may start working in the office in the fall. They have pushed that out a couple times already, so time will tell. First thing I did, of course, was turn in all my old equipment to my previous employer. After that I decided to get everything up on the desk. Dave and I pulled it out and vacuumed-

 I had a printer on a canning rack that I decided to move. That went onto the top of our little cabinet-

We had a file tote in the corner for paperwork. I decided to get it out. When we moved the file tote out I was able to put the two space heaters we had in that corner. One was one that I bought for the office for the winter, since I'm on two outside walls. The other was one we bought for a grandson River, but his parents have a new furnace so they didn't need it. They were going to donate it so I asked for it! I figured it would be nice in our kitchen in place of our noisy space fan heater-

Nice parking space, clean 

We had a filing tote in the corner of the room, which I realize we could put the contents of in the kitchen. Basically I had a filing drawer full of cookbooks in the kitchen at our desk. I realized that I can put my cookbooks under the kitchen counter I can get to them and see them. This cart previously had Covid supplies, masks, sanitizer, etc. Then I filed the paperwork in the kitchen cabinet drawer-

Cookbooks, many thrifted, some homemade, on wheels! 

New home for files, good location! 

All better, space for new canned goods coming soon! 

Some fun decor, love my faux barn door

Fun calendar

I wiped off the desk really well, now nice and clean. I'll be bringing home new equipment Monday. Still have my fun decorative stuff on the walls. The space is much more organized, clean and less cluttered. A nice space to start a new job in! Excited!!!

Fun Summer/ 4th of July Decor-

With all the job hunting changes I didn't get much up til this week! Here's a look around!

Dining room shelf

Nice pops of yellow! I made the topiary

Made the chunky flag

My fave basin on the coffee table, easy! 

I added a few flags outside, that's it! Off to the mountains tomorrow for the day, for Father's Day! 

Making Irish Ballycotton Fish Chowder & Spotted Dog Soda Bread

Photo from cookbook 

Making Irish Ballycotton Fish Chowder & Spotted Dog Soda Bread-

I'm part Scotch/Irish and have wanted to explore some traditional cooking.  I'd run across some recipes by the author Rachel Allen with some really classic Irish Family Foods, but ones that were a bit healthier-

I bought a used copy of her book on eBay. After browsing a bit the first one I decided to try was her Ballycotton Fish Chowder (named after her village).  I really liked the fact it didn't have just dairy is the base for the liquid since Dave and I have to take it easy with dairy products. It has a lot of chicken stock in the chowder, but no chicken flavor. This was actually a fairly inexpensive dish to make. I did use some smoked salmon that I found on sale, ditto some small salmon fillets and the Whiting fish I used is also pretty reasonable. We already had some bacon in the freezer, milk, fresh herbs and potatoes. I made a double batch so we'd have some leftovers. I was really tempted to put in some finely diced celery and carrots but decided to follow the recipe instead. This is hands-down the best seafood soup I have ever made ! It was actually pretty easy just a lot of dicing of the potatoes. Really wonderful flavor, cook's pretty fast since you're cooking small pieces of fish. The recipes pretty flexible too.  I used Whiting because it was easy to find but you could use the other recipes listed like the Pollock, Haddock or Cod listed. Garnish with crispy bacon and fresh herbs! Nice on a chilly night! 

 I also wanted to try Rachel's recipe for Spotted Dog Soda Bread  which is basically Irish soda bread with raisins. Hers is a little bit different because it does not use any butter, which is very traditional. Instead she uses an egg. I did substitute 1 cup of WW Pastry flour for the white flour, a little healthier! Next time will use just the WW. The bread had a nice crunchy exterior and very, very moist inside. It also keeps really well. I had a slice today with my morning tea break and it was great! I'm looking forward to trying more of her recipes. 

Spring Is Here & So Is The Corona Virus, Irish Soda Bread With Currants

Spring Is Here & So Is The Corona Virus-
We've been having really nice mild weather, then this weekend we had some heavy rain which we needed. New snow on the foothills which is good for fire protection later. Little green shoots and flowers are coming up all over the garden in the front and back yards! The hens are still laying which is so wonderful, having FRESH organic eggs! I made whole grain pasta, poached eggs, steamed asparagus with Parmesan cheese, for dinner Saturday, oh so good!

So now we have five cases of the corona virus in Idaho, that we know of. The first person traveled to New York and then realized she was infected, bringing it into Idaho. She was smart, she went and got tested as soon as she had symptoms and is now self isolating. Don't know much about the other cases.  Almost all of the school districts closed school yesterday thru the state, for the next 2 weeks. That would be til the end of Spring break. That left parents high and dry for child care since they need to go to work. My employer has lots of patients calling in, panicking. There's been a lot of panic buying in Idaho which I shake my head at. We have a full 55 gallon rain barrel and a filter if we needed to filter it for drinking or washing. We also have bottled water stored. That's just part of our normal mode. We also have food stored and lots of toilet paper! It's really funny that people are panicking about not being able to buy toilet people paper, because so many places are out. Find a box of tissue people and cut it up (not for septic tanks). It's funny to me that there's no run on cold remedies and cough syrup? I mean if you're sick for 14 days and can't go out, wouldn't you want some on hand? We bought some groceries yesterday, and interestingly enough they were sold out of bananas and potatoes. Why?

The Press isn't really talking about anything about keeping your immune system healthy. That would be boring news. Vitamin D3 is really great to take to keep your immune system healthy. Do all the other normal things to keep yourself healthy, so that you will be less likely to become infected. This is always a good reminder to be prepared for the unexpected. I have some long-term food storage as well as short-term, we have a freezer, our hens are laying and I am planning on getting three more chicks in a few months. We have three fruit trees and perennial beds that are edible. We have home canned goods and we'll be planting our summer garden soon. I always keep homeopathic remedies and essential oils hand for colds, cough and the flu. Ironically, ahead of the Corona virus, I had a terrible stomach flu bug early last week.  I had terrible vomiting twice in one day and no energy. I told my husband he didn't need to take care of me and stay home, so I just drank the fluids that I could and slept. Hubby brought me home some ready to eat Jello on his lunch break, a life saver!

The good thing was we had all kinds of  OTC remedies on hand that I actually didn't need to take. I stayed home for two days and rested. To me this is just a real wake-up call, hopefully, for people to in general be more prepared. The Red Cross for years who said that everybody should have several days worth of food and water on hand. I heard a co-worker say his relatives back east were out of food. Since they lived 4 blocks from their grocery store they always shopped there. Now the store is empty, and they'll drive way north to buy supplies. Most people just don't listen. RESILIENCY to me is a really good thing in this kind of a situation. Be flexible, think outside the box, do something nice out in the Spring weather that doesn't involve being around other people. Sunday, when other people were panicking about the Corona virus, I made some Irish food! Go bake my friends!!!

Irish Soda Bread With Currants-
In early celebration of St. Patrick's Day I made Ina Garten's Irish Soda Bread. It came out great, moist, a little subtle orange and the currants were a nice addition-

I served it warm with corned beef, baby Yukon golds taters and carrots. Fabulous! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Thrifting Scores! DIY Lawn Thatching, Ski Soup for A Wet Day, Dark Chocolate Steel Cut Oatmeal Biscuits

Thrifting Scores!
I hit two thrift stores and a clearance store this weekend. I hadn't been out thrifting for a while and got some great deals! Here's the first thing, a solar garden lamp jar, added new re-chargeable battery, will see if it works, $3.00-

Next two brand new spring work blouses, a new athletic jacket for spring walks, total $15.00. I found an old silver plated (?) teapot, $2.00. Top photo, was filthy inside, but two efferdent took care most of that. Then I scrubbed with a soapy bottle brush. It's a bit rusty, so I don't know that I will use it for brewing. Probably holds about 3 cups of tea. Next, I found this pretty glazed egg, $1.50, lovely crazing on the finish-

A book/photo holder, $1.50, great for my smaller cookbooks-

For spring, a bunny spoon rest $2.00-

Bought two new bath hand towels/wash clothes, $5.00 total, new shower curtain liner, $3.00, shower mat $3.00.  Sorry no photos. I bought a nice sized, cheap plastic faux terracotta pot for the back deck, $5. I will probably plant some extra herbs in it since they usually do better in pots. Scored a cute little mini camping-style candle holder, $1.50. Overfilled with wax, but lots of hot water cleaned it up. Perfect for my summer camping vignette-

Bought 2 heavy, recycled tire rubber mats for deck pots.  $2.00 each. I will probably hang them on the fence for yard art! 

All in all, great deals!!!

DIY Lawn Thatching-
After looking at rentals to thatch our lawn Dave and I decided we might as well buy our own thatching rake. They are a really great tool when you have a relatively small area of turf. Thatch is basically the dried bits of turf/ dead leaves//debris that falls down into your lawn. It can interfere with the absorption of water and fertilizers. In a really hot, dry climate like ours it's good that thatch it periodically. It has a nice wooden handle and very sharp blades. Stores easily, a lot easier than trying to rent a big machine and get it to and from the rental place. For $35 it will certainly pay for itself in  a few years. More to come, got rained out Sunday!

Ski Soup for A Wet Day-
I was in the mood for some soup this weekend. I made this before, very nice! It's  E-i-e-i-omg Blog  I did modify a bit.  I don't use "condensed soups", too much sodium and fillers. I used about 7 cups of organic beef broth, an onion, thyme, garlic powder, some Worcestershire and a bay leaf.  I browned the beef in a little oil, then tossed in the tomato paste. Once coated I put the browned beef in the crock pot. I added the rest of the ingredients and put on high for about 3 hours. Last time I made this I served it with Easy Beer Bread Great stuff, so I made a loaf, beer bread came out super moist-

When I was making the soup I got out my homemade clotted cream. Smeared a little on couple of lemon shortbread cookies. OMG, so good!

Dark Chocolate Steel Cut Oatmeal Biscuits-
I made a double batch of these this weekend and they are wonderful! Not very sweet, chewy with the steel cut oats and moist. Make a double batch because they don't last! Recipe here Dark Chocolate Steel Cut Oatmeal Biscuits. These are great for anytime and keep well. Enjoy!