Monday I was home by myself. It was extremely cold, so I tried to get chores over with early in the morning so I wouldn’t have to dread them any longer. I drug a hose out of the building and everyone got fresh water, fresh salt and mineral, and I Everyone was doing well. The sheep and llama don’t seem to mind the cold very much.
I got a slow start on housework when I returned indoors. It was just one of those days I was really dragging. I baked bread, walked on the treadmill, worked on our taxes, and did some reading and note taking.
In the afternoon I made another loaf of bread called:
I used all olive oil (4 T.) instead of butter just because it was easier, whole wheat bread flour, and sucanat instead of sugar.
Any tricks on how to measure out flour without having to sifted would be wonderful. I think I would make this again if I didn’t have to sift three cups of flour. It’s not bad. Mine didn’t need 40 minutes to bake, however.
I also whipped up a pot of Broccoli Soup that was really good. I used “fresh” cream I had frozen and it worked great. We had Sloppy Joes and Broccoli Soup for dinner. It was a perfect day for soup since it was so cold and yucky outside.
Sloppy Joes:
½ lb hamburger
1 cup beans, cooked (I use leftover pinto, black, whatever I have)
Ketchup, Mustard, and Sucanat to taste
Served on homemade bread with canned sweet green tomatoes, Yum!
As promised, here is the ketchup recipe I used this summer to can homemade ketchup from tomatoes out of our garden.
Ketchup:
2 gal. tomato pulp
*This consists of the juice, ran through a food mill, and boiled hard for one hour, you should have 2 gallons remaining once it’s boiled.
1 cup cane juice crystals
1 cup sucanat
3 cups white vinegar (could possibly be decreased so it’s thicker)
1 t. ginger
1 t. allspice
1 t. ground mustard
1 t. cinnamon
3 T. sea salt
Tomato Paste
Once you have boiled the tomato juice hard for one hour, add one add sugars, spices, and salt. Boil for another 30 minutes. Bottle and seal.
I canned mine in pint jars although it was still pretty thin in consistency. When I was ready to use it I took two pints of the ketchup, put it in a pan, added one 6 oz can of tomato paste, cooked on low until the tomato paste was dissolved, and then placed in a quart jar in the refrigerator.
Hope everyone is staying warm and had a nice weekend.
A Simple Prairie Life 