sparrowgrass

Slightly off-topic, but. . . .never feed your dogs the raw salmon scraps. There is an amoeba in raw Pacific salmon that will kill dogs--I lost one this way, and almost lost another.

I don't like the rainbow ones--they look like catfood.

I could find the crema, and if it was fall, I could go outside and pick all the sumac I wanted. I am in Eastern MO, about 70 miles from St. Louis, so if I really needed it, I would go to the big city.

I just did this. We had about 5 inches of sleet and 3 inches of snow on Jan. 25, which kept me stuck on the hill for about 5 days, and when I did get out, I couldn't get my truck back up my quarter mile driveway for another week. I have a bad knee, so I wasn't about to haul groceries up--it was all I could do to get up and down empty handed. I had everything I needed--flour and yeast for bread, home canned green beans and tomato sauce,frozen corn from the garden, some packages of chicken and many, many small containers of soup and chili. I think I ran out of celery and onions before the 2 weeks was up, but I survived. The dogs and chickens had it a little rougher--the dogs were down to eating milkbones by the end of the second week, and the chix survived on sunflower seeds and leftovers.

I don't know anything much about keeping kosher, but I do know eggs. Brown eggs will have a higher percentage of blood/protein spots, because they are harder to candle. White eggs and brown eggs taste exactly the same, and are indistinguishable once you crack them into a bowl. So buying white cagefree eggs will probably solve your problem. Commercial eggs from large producers are never fertile. Egg producers have no reason to keep roosters. No boys, no fertilization. If you buy your eggs from me, or some other back yard chicken keeper, you might get fertile eggs. If the egg is fertile, and if it is incubated 3 days, the yolk will look like a bloodshot eyeball--not at all appetizing, and very obvious. If it is fertilized and gathered immediately after laying, the yolk will have a white donut shape on it, a little smaller than the size of a pencil eraser.

Now, if you would just drop by Sparrowgrass Hill for some good eggs!

I cut mine in half, steam til almost tender, then brown in butter or olive oil. I mix the cooked sprouts with about an equal amount of wild rice that I have cooked in chicken broth with celery and onions. Something about that crunchy wild rice and the soft buttery sprouts--mmmmm.

It's a little late for this year, but what I have done in the past to make a new bed is to lay cardboard over the whole site, then cover with straw or leaves, about a foot deep. Over the winter, the grass will be killed, and the cardboard will break down. Just plant thru the mulch. This method works best for planting plants, not seeds. I hate black plastic--the sun breaks it down, (or the dogs dig in it), and then you have shreds of plastic everywhere.

I work for University of Missouri Extension, and I can tell you for sure that more people are gardening in my rural area. We are, in fact, planning a series of 3 lessons on beginning gardening this month, and expect good attendance. If you are starting a garden, your local extension office is a great place for information. We have a guidesheet that tells you how much to plant per family member, when to plant, how deep, how far apart, what varieties are good for certain areas of Missouri, and so on, and I am sure other states have the same kind of info. We diagnose insect and disease problems, test your soil to tell you how much fertilizer to use, and we have instructions on constructing raised beds and compost bins. To find a local office, just google "your state, extension" . Most of our publications are on-line, so you don't even have to come into the office--though we would be glad to see you!!

I was going by memory--I used 2 pounds of flour and 3 and 3/4 cups of water. Regular old cheap AP flour. The dough was way too wet--I made pizza the first night, and just kind of poured it onto the pizza pan. Tasted good--crunchy and light--but it was hard to work with. The "ciabatta" was made from dough that had been in the fridge for 2 days. It was too wet to shape--I just piled it up on the well greased pan, let it raise for about an hour before baking. I am going to stop at the store this evening for some ham and cheese--I think it will make nice panini.

I think I should not try to mix up this bread from memory--I made ciabatta instead of a nice round loaf. Tasty, however, and I will be mixing up some more tonight, with more flour.

Please don't put any oil, cooking or automotive, into the storm drains. Those go directly to the nearest creek and eventually end up in the ocean. Not good for the birdies and beasties and little wigglies. I suppose the best ecologically would be to save it in a jar or can and take it to your local restaurant and ask if you can put it into their waste fat collection.

But really tasty!

I just got back from my son's house in Bloomington Indiana, and we ordered pizza from Avers the first night there. My DIL ordered lambda gyro pizza--lamb, tzatziki sauce, onions and tomatoes. The boy wanted their crimson and cream pizza--alfredo sauce, cheese. red potato, fresh garlic and dill. Topped off with bacon, cheddar, and gorgonzola cheese. Both pies were delicious. But I am not sure they really were pizza.

Now, Jaymes, my stuffing is not gummy. I bake a good sturdy bread to cube and dry, lots of butter, celery and onions cooked in the broth from the neck and gizzard, and 3 or 4 raw eggs, beaten and stirred in just before I put it into a casserole or stuff the bird. Oh, and sage, salt and pepper. You would like it.

I love to butcher deer--that is the only part of marriage that I miss, I guess. I always boned mine out, and marked it just like yours, by how I planned to cook it. I think we had one done by a processer--not good, like you say. Of course, the year I had to do 4 all by myself, I was ready to send one or two off. I like deer ribs barbecued, like pork ribs, especially if they come from a nice fat doe. Too bad I don't like getting up early in the cold darkness--if I could hunt on a nice spring afternoon, I'd go get my own.

Must have been some bad mojo going around yesterday afternoon. I made that same recipe, and for the first time, the butter and sugar separated. Mine set up, but I must have taken a quarter of a cup of butter off the cookie sheet About crystalization--I have a tried and true peanut brittle recipe from my Aunt. She taught me to put a lid on the boiling syrup for the first couple minutes to allow the steam to dissolve any sugar crystals. I forgot that step the last time I made the peanut brittle, and sure enough, the candy seized on me. I added a little bit of water and got it to come back together, but the candy was not up to my usual standards.

A chip or bump could prevent a good seal. I just run my finger over the glass as I wash them out after use, and discard any that are not perfect, and check them again before I reuse them. I also inspect the flats (lids) before I put them into the hot water--I have found a (very) few that had gaps in the rubber. Other things that might cause a problem is an air bubble in the jam, filling the jars too full, or a bit of jam on the rim. Again, I would like to say that USDA/Extension would tell you to toss any jars that you find in the pantry with a bad seal. And, I guess it is always better to be safe than DEAD.

These are jams and jellies with lots of sugar, right? This is not the USDA answer that I have to give at work, but our grannies mostly didn't water bath their jams and jellies. My grandma sealed hers with parafin and a screw on lid, and never killed anybody. (That I know of. ) You might get some mold on an unsealed jar, but the sugar and acid take care of the bacteria and botulism. Toss the moldy ones--they will taste bad. Another reason for bad seals is imperfect jars. Be sure to run your finger around the rim to check for chips or bumps. You are doing well to have so few bad seals!!

Our local feed store has a big selection of Amish foods--noodles, preserves, baking mixes and popcorn. They sell red popcorn, which makes a little crunchy kernel, blue popcorn that puffs up big and chewy, and white popcorn, which is kind of intermediate size and crunch. I buy a bag of red and one of white, and mix them half and half. I put it immediately into quart canning jars, and pop it up within a month or two, then go back for more. Stale popcorn smells and tastes musty.

You can also make a rack out of jar rings--just layer them in the bottom of the pot.

I tried a number of different varieties this year--the best tasting ones were Golden Sunray and Ananas Noir. I also grew Egg Yolk, Green Zebra, Red Zebra, Sioux, St. Pierre, German Johnson, Sungold, and White Currant. And some others, but I don't have my list with me. I have canned about 8 gallons of salsa (Christmas gift shopping is done!) and a couple batches of roasted tomato sauce, as well as freezing 6 one-gallon bags of whole tomatoes for my sister. (If you wash the tomatoes and remove the stems, you can just toss them into plastic bags. Come the snows of winter, just take out what you need, thaw them for a few minutes and the skins will pop right off. Chop the tomatoes and use them in your favorite recipe.)

If the center of the lid is depressed, and if you can pick up the jar by the lid, it is sealed.

I use a metal sieve lined with a paper towel (I am not a coffee drinker.) I have found that the oil goes thru much faster if it is still hot when I pour it into the strainer.

The little "beans" are technically called meat spots. They are bits of reproductive tract that break off while the egg is being formed in the oviduct. They are not harmful, just not esthetically pleasing. Older hens and ducks are more likely to lay eggs with meat spots. Fertilized eggs are hard to tell from unfertilized eggs. If they are incubated, it takes about 3 days for the blood vessels to form--before that, you have to look for a white donut shape on the egg yolk, a little smaller than the end of a pencil eraser.