Living From Scratch

Learn the “How” and “Why” to make it happen!

Free download of a small booklet outlining the benefits and myths surrounding cooking from scratch, including information on how to stock your pantry and kitchen, as well as a long list of ingredients and items you can make in your own kitchen rather than buying at the store.

Download at www.motherhoodnaturally.com/store in the ‘freebies’ category.  Download a free issue of From Scratch while you’re at it, and consider subscribing for a year - it’s the newsletter for making, doing and cooking from scratch.

When my firstborn was getting ready to start eating babyfood, my mom bought us a food processor so I could make my own babyfood for her.  For a while, I thought that was the only thing it was useful for was making baby food (which was alright, because I was making her babyfood almost daily). Since then, I’ve used it to puree vegetables to hide in our foods, or to powder or chop nuts for recipes, and even use it occasionally to make pie dough, it’ll “cut in” the butter on it’s own instead of me doing it by hand. You can also grate cheese, slice tomatoes and potatoes, shred cabbage for sole slaw, make smoothies, powder candies to add into cookies or hot drinks (like peppermint in hot cocoa), make babyfood and applesauce, and much more!

	When grating or chopping hard items like cheese or nuts, it’s normal for the processor to hop around on the counter top.  Keep a firm hand on it!
	When blending drinks in your blender, add liquid first before other things like ice.
	Meats and cheeses should be chilled prior to being used in the processor.
	Pour ingredients off-center through the hole in the top so they don’t land on top of the blade in the middle, which will take much longer (if ever) to mix below.
	To get better performance and mixing of your ingredients, ‘pulse’ the power button or turn it to a higher speed.
	Cook vegetables before pureeing, to get the smoothest consistency.

Did you know you can use a food processor to make bread dough?  You will need to check the cups of flour in your recipe and compare it to the bowl size and motor capacity to make sure it’ll all fit.  If it won’t, divide your recipe into smaller batches then combine to rise.

• Proof the yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water in a separate container.  Add some sugar to feed the yeast.

• Put your dry ingredients into your processor and pulse to mix thoroughly. Just a few pulses is all you need.

• Add any cold liquids to your recipe.  Any excess water beyond the 1/4 cup you are proofing your yeast in should be cold.  The motion of vigorous blending will actually heat the ingredients to the desired temperature.   Pour the cold liquids through the hole in the top with the processor on.  Keep a steady stream, but only as fast as the flour will absorb it.  You don’t want to saturate the top of the flour, because if you over-process trying to mix well, your dough will not turn out well.

• In less then a minute (about 30-40 SECONDS) your dough will be combined and you can continue with your recipes instructions for rising.

Note: If your dough consistency seems too wet or dry, you may add additional flour or water (1 tsp. at a time, in the hole, with the processor on) and check consistency after 10 seconds.

Second Note: Any seeds, fruit or additional add-ins should be added in at the last few seconds just long enough to distribute through the dough but not so much processing that you can’t tell what those items are anymore.

 This is from the ept 2008 issue of From Scratch.  Download your FREE issue today.  From Scratch is the newsletter focusing on making, doing, and cooking from scratch.

Yes, yet another thing we can do that not only saves money but help keep our family healthy too.  One bite from a home grown tomato and you’re sure to get hooked!   A garden takes a bit of time to plant and maintain depending upon the size of it, but the rewards are great.  Children and adults can ‘graze’ off the vine each day eating vegetables full of that ripe nutrition goodness.  Produce bought from the store is lacking in nutrients to begin with because it is picked before its ripe.  It is also lacking in the taste and texture ripe vegetables acquire. Ideally, use fresh picked vegetables as quickly as possible either as a snack, in a meal, or preserved in some way.  Preserving (by way of canning, freezing or drying) does cause your vegetables to decrease in nutrient content, but it’s nice to have a bit of summer remaining through the winter as a home-preserved vegetable is used in a meal.

It’s hard to plan for your exact harvest needs because sometimes seeds don’t germinate, plants don’t produce well, or a soil or bug problem can kill your already-established plants.  But it’s never a bad thing to over plant and end up with more than you had anticipated, either.  Friends and neighbors who don’t have a garden will appreciate home grown vegetables, shelters and food pantries will often love the donation, and if you live in a city you can probably leave your vegetable excess in front of your house for your community to pick up.  Otherwise you can preserve everything in one way or another.  Many city dwellers, like the countryside folk, can grow a self sustainable garden right in their backyard.  A garden that will provide for their family’s needs year-round (incorporating indoor container gardens through the winter, or at least using their preserved harvest in meals through the winter, eliminating the need to buy canned goods).

Gardening does not need to start off expensive.  You’ll need a plot of land (you can hand till this with a shovel), seeds and perhaps a small shovel to help dig holes for seeds.  If the season is dry, you’ll need a way to water the garden every few days.  Some seeds, like tomatoes, are best started inside in the early spring but this isn’t essential if you don’t have small planters and seed starting soil.  You can probably find small planters in the form of plastic containers in your home – yogurt or sour cream containers, even milk jugs cut in half, or any plastic or hardy container (that didn’t previously have toxic chemicals in it) with holes in the bottom for drainage will work just fine.

In most areas of the US, it is possible to grow nearly everything you’d typically buy from the store.  I know this year I was able to plant tomatoes, cucumbers, acorn and butternut squash, yellow squash, zucchini, leeks, onions, peas, green beans, beets, lettuce, spinach, corn, jalapenos, green peppers, carrots, celery, and a bunch of herbs.  Everything is growing well.  We will be adding to our garden next year with grapes and berry bushes and perhaps a dwarf apple tree or two.  We rent our home, so I don’t want to plant anything that would need to remain in the ground, and everything that is being planted berry or tree wise will be kept in containers (which is possible with dwarf varieties—but that’s for another newsletter!).  For us, this is nearly everything we buy from the store, with the exception of oranges once in a while, and peaches and plums.  But those are a once in a while type of thing!

For some, an in ground garden is not possible.  Gardening from containers or even bags designed for plants has made fresh garden produce possible for apartment dwellers, renters, and those living without a backyard.  Container gardening is also practiced by many who also have in-ground gardens, including myself!  All of my herbs are kept in containers to prevent wild spreading of herbs like peppermint and spearmint, and so I can bring them inside when the weather gets cold.  I also grow fresh produce in the winter, in the form of tomatoes, peas, green beans and spinach.  Those vegetables self pollinate, eliminating the need for bees.  That makes them an excellent candidate for indoor gardening, providing you feed and water them, and provide adequate sunlight.   Last year was the first year I had a garden indoors over the winter, and it was so very nice to eat crisp, fresh, ripe green beans off the vine in January!

The ‘from scratch’ lifestyle lends its self well to gardening, because there are many things you can do from scratch to help you save your money and maximize your gardening experience!  Here are a couple good ideas:

Make newspaper planters

You’ll need a straight-sided glass and black and white newspaper.

- Take a full sheet of newspaper and fold it in half once, lengthwise.  Line up the edges, then fold in half again.  Ideally you want the paper about 4-6 inches wide. 

- Lay your glass at one end of the paper, with the open end resting about in the middle (about 2-3 inches).  Roll the glass down the length of the newspaper, rolling the newspaper around the mouth of the glass with half of the width sticking out. 

- Once the newspaper has been rolled around the glass, smoosh the edge that is sticking out inside the glass.  Then pull the newspaper off the glass, set it down and smoosh down the edge you just rolled inside the glass, forming the bottom.  Use the bottom of the glass to flatten the overlapping edges. 

- Put your soil in, plant your seeds, water lightly, and when the time comes to transplant your seedling into the garden drop the whole planter – newspaper and all – into the hole.  It’ll decompose in no time!

Article from Sept. 08 issue of From Scratch, the newsletter focused on living, cooking and making things from scratch. Download your own free issue today at www.motherhoodnaturally.com/FromScratch

Food Preservation

                 It’s been mentioned a lot so far: food preservation.  For a die hard “from scratch” cook, preserving your own garden harvest or that of someone else’s (through farmers markets and orchards) is a great way to save money and provide a healthier version of canned vegetables or canned convenience foods.  While freezing and dehydrating are common ways of preserving food, I want to talk a little about canning.  Typically, store-bought canned goods are laden with salt and packaged with vegetables that have not ripened.  While store bought canned goods are typically affordable, you can provide a much healthier version at home – and after the first few years it begins to pay for its self.  Additives like salt and sugar are not necessary to can with and only work to enhance the flavor of foods.  Typically sugary goods like jams and jellies can be canned with healthier sugar alternatives.

Buying the initial equipment needed to can anything your heart desires can be pricey.  You’ll need a big pot for a waterbath canner (or use your pressure canner as a waterbath, following directions from the manual), a pressure canner (not a pressure cooker!), jars, lids, bands and you’ll probably want a funnel, ruler, and a jar-grabber.  Everything mentioned can be re-used with the exception of the lids that seal the jar.  Those will need to be replaced each time you can.  With any luck, you can find the rest of the equipment free from a friend, low cost at a garage sale, or at least on sale at the store you buy from.  Even if you buy everything at full cost, and you use the equipment regularly, you’ll begin to see savings within a few years.  What can you can?  Anything you find in a store, for starters.  Vegetables, fruits, pie filling, soups, stocks, relish, baby food, sauces, meats, and so much more.  Canning requires no electricity to store the finished product, and only the space in your pantry for storage space.

It’s pretty easy to determine if your canning was a success.  Check the seal – if the button on the lid can be pushed down or you can easily remove the lid, your seal didn’t set right. If this is checked before your jar is stored, you can go through the process again with a new lid to set the seal correctly. If you open your canned good and it has slime or grime around the edge or smells bad, don’t use it.

Now, the other methods of preservation aren’t nearly as pricey to get started, but they each have their pro’s and con’s also.  Freezing is an all around great way to preserve food – it maintains a lot of the nutrient value (providing you can steam the vegetables prior to freezing, instead of boiling) but it will require storage containers, freezer space and a constant supply of electricity to keep frozen.  Fortunately with today’s freezers,  electricity use is minimal.  If you plan to do a lot of freezer cooking, and stock up on bulky things like meat, a deep or chest freezer is a good idea to consider so you have enough space to do all you want to do!  We actually have two deep freezers in our basement now.  They are both newer, Energy-Star units that don’t use a lot of electricity.  One is a smaller model that we first started off with.  When we decided to start buying meat once a year in bulk, we realized it was not going to be big enough.  We found a really good deal on one of the largest models in the store we were shopping at, and ended up taking it home.  It will not only hold a years worth of meat, but all of my husbands bounty from hunting.  And if he ever gets that deer he’s been chasing after, we’ll have room for it too.  The smaller freezer is used for freezer meals, frozen vegetables, bones I save for stock, fat scraps from beef I save (and collect from a friend who is a butcher) to render tallow, frozen stocks and soups, and anything else that overflows from the other freezer.  The large freezer contains our meat and when there is room we stock up on milk when it’s on sale.

Drying can be done in several ways: using a dehydrator (a nice machine can cost about $30-$30, so it isn’t too bad to get started), using a gas oven on its lowest setting, really hot and dry days outside, or you can even make your own dehydrators.  If you like jerky, fruit rolls, dried fruit, or drying your own herbs this is the way to get it done.  The downside to dehydrating is the time it takes to get the job done – it can take anywhere from 4-12 hours, sometimes longer (and sometimes shorter).

So how do you go about getting enough produce to preserve?  It does take more than just a few tomatoes to make canning sauce worth your while!  If you can’t grow your own garden big enough to produce what you’d need to preserve, consider visiting a farmers market, family orchard, or a produce stand.  I’ve even seen offers on a group called freecycle (www.freecycle.org) asking for people to come pick their excess fruit and vegetables for free before they go bad.

No matter how you do it, make sure you are using good quality (no holes, bruises, discoloration, etc.), FRESH produce to preserve.

In future issues, we’ll tackle topics like the following:

· Where to find preserving equipment and how to use it

· How to prepare food to preserve

· How to store preserved food

· Determining if your canned or dried food is safe to consume

· Many recipes to share for fruits, vegetables, soups, stocks, meats, convenience foods, side dishes and more

· Common questions and problems

· Much more!

 Food preservation is covered in EVERY issue of From Scratch!

For most, if not all, of these ideas you will need to research the laws, licenses and regulations for your county and/or state.  Many states prohibit home baked goods to be sold when it’s made in your home kitchen unless it’s an approved kitchen, home-grown meats need to pass inspection, etc. 

Homesteaders are pretty crafty people.  When they know their skills and have enough space they can feed and clothe their own families, and often sell their wares, produce and/or meats to provide an income for their family also.   Here are some ideas to get you started:

Sell at farmers markets, local stores, from your own homestead, craft fairs and flea markets.

Follow me on Twitter!  FromScratchGirl is my user name there.  I’ll be posting updates as I go through the day, whether that be an issue relating to homesteading, mothering, cooking, ministry, Christian life or other issues in my life.  Tweets will also be included here, a few at a time.

Crockpot Cookery

The crockpot is an amazing tool for a busy person.  Crockpots require little to no preparation for a home cooked, wholesome meal that will be ready by dinnertime. If your home is anything like mine, dinner hour chaotic even when you don’t have dinner to prepare.  Imagine the feeling of satisfaction you’ll have all day knowing dinner is being cooked and there will be no long time standing in the kitchen to put dinner on the table.  When I wake in the morning, one of my first thoughts are: what’s for dinner?  It is such a relief to put together a meal in the crockpot (most meals are put together in less than 10 minutes) and know all day that dinner is cooking.  I don’t’ need to worry about when to start preparing dinner, or if I need to run to the store for anything, and I don’t need to be home by a certain time in the afternoon to begin preparing dinner. Aside from the ease of use, crockpots also use less energy than your stove or oven, and can be used overnight to prepare a nice breakfast, make yogurt, or special sauces that require a long cook time.

Some tips:

• Leave the crockpot lid on the entire time you’re cooking if at all possible.  It takes 15 minutes to build back up to the temperature it was at each time you open the lid!

• Recipes found online that call for canned soups and processed ingredients can be easily converted to a healthier alternative by finding other recipes online to make those canned soups and whatnot.

• One hour on high = 2-2.5 hours on low
• If dish is too soupy, remove cover, set on high and allow liquid to cook away.
• High = 300 degrees.  Low = 200 degrees.

The Chart of Times:

10 hrs cook time =complete by 7am for 5pm dinner

9 hrs = 8am for 5pm dinner

8 hrs = 9am for 5pm dinner

7 hrs = 10am for 5pm dinner

6 hrs = 11am for 5pm dinner

5 hrs = 12pm for 5pm dinner

4 hrs = 1pm for 5pm dinner

3 hrs = 2pm for 5pm dinner

Cooking from scratch

One of my all-time favorite kitchen activities is to cook from scratch.  My favorite meals are those that are prepared with home-grown, home-made ingredients.  Ingredients such as cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, mayonnaise, buttermilk and more can all be made at home.  Baking mixes, graham crackers, crackers, pop-tart taste-a-likes and your favorite snacks can all be made at home.  You avoid the preservatives and if you prepare it well yourself you know it won’t be recalled!

If convenience is the reason you buy processed foods, I can excitedly tell you that you can cook meals and snacks ahead and freeze or can them so you can use them without any preparation next time.  Bread and pie dough can almost always be found in my freezer.  I pull out a loaf of bread dough at night and let it thaw all night and bake in the morning.  Cookies can also be frozen.  Babyfood can be frozen in individual portion size cubes using a ice cube tray.  If you have a FoodSaver, you can cook a variety of meals, snacks and sides, FoodSave them and have them last much longer than food stored in typical storage wraps and containers.  You can pre-make mixes and store them in jars or bags.  The ideas are simply endless.

Meals made with home-grown vegetables and herbs simply taste better.  Being able to use produce grown in healthy soil, right off the vine, and prepared in ways that preserve nutrients, homegrown meals are hands down the healthiest options.  Can your produce, soups, meats and fruits.  Produce home made meals and freeze them.  Freeze excess veggies, fruits, meats and soups.  Dry vegetables, fruits and meats for yummy snacks.  Eat meals consisting of raw vegetables just picked from the garden! Mmmmm!  Take the kids out to help you harvest from your garden and let them sneak a few vegetables in as a snack!

My goal is to cook once a month to save a deep freezers worth of meals, doughs and other home-made ingredients (we have two - a smaller deep freezer used for my homemade ’stuff’ and a much larger one to hold our bulk meats, poultry, wild game and other ‘main parts’ of our meals.  The smaller freezer on top of our fridge is used to hold ‘daily use’ items so I’m not opening the deep freezer on a daily basis). My garden planning is done in an attempt to harvest several times during the season and feed my family fresh veggies and fruits all season long, while having enough excess to use in meals (to freeze), and can or freeze the rest so I have produce from the garden year round.

Anything that alters the raw, natural state of fruit and vegetables is going to reduce the nutrition value.  I believe produce is healthiest in this order: raw/unaltered, frozen, dried, then canned.  Because vegetables and fruits rot if not eaten in time, the next best thing you can do with them is preserve them. 

Ready to get started?  Pick your favorite store-bought item.  Then google (or use whatever search engine you like) it’s name and find out how to make it!

Cooking with Cast Iron

I used to be intimidated by cooking in cast iron.  The first thing I tried cooking in it was pancakes - not a pro at pan cakes at that point (and still not!) I ended up burning every pancake and smoking us out of the house.  I decided cast iron wasn’t for me and put them under the stove.  Then when we discovered the dangers of Teflon (what I had always cooked on), I decided I might as well try cooking in cast iron again and asked my husband to teach me about using it. 

Interestingly enough, food picks up different tastes depending on what it’s cooked in. Cooking in cast iron can liven up many meals!  Once you get the hang of it, cooking in cast iron becomes very successful and easy - they are excellent as a heat conductor and the heavier the pan the more evenly heat is distributed.  On a health-related note, you can also add iron to your diet by cooking in cast iron, because as you cook the iron molecules are absorbed into the food.

Care of and seasoning your cast iron:

First things first.  Taking care of your cast iron is not like other pots and pans.  You don’t want to soak your cast iron or scrub it to clean.  You’ll encourage rust and remove the natural non-stick surface of your well seasoned cookware. Because of the heat you’ll be using to cook it is not absolutely essential to remove every bit of food from the cast iron - any bacteria will die off the next time you cook. The best way I have found to season cast iron well is to cook bacon in it a few times!  That’s it!  Warm your cookware up a little bit before seasoning to open up the pores.  The idea behind seasoning your cookware is to fill the pores so your cast iron doesn’t rust.  This also provides a wonderful, safe, nonstick surface. If I notice my cast iron is looking like it needs a ‘pick me up’ (acidic foods, such as tomatoes, can deteriorate your seasoning after some time) I always cook up some bacon in it.  Also - don’t let your cast iron sit out to dry.  If you’ve been cooking and the oven is still warm (or stovetop), pop your cast iron in the oven or on the stove to dry.

Other ways to season your cookware include coating it with a thin layer of oil (vegetable oil, olive oil, corn oil) or shortening over every surface of your cookware. Stick it upside down in a 350 degree oven for 1-2 hrs. Either way, the finished result will be a dark, nonstick, hard coating.  Some cast iron cookware comes preseasoned.  Personally, I like to do it myself (and love to hunt out the neglected cast iron nearly given away at garage sales!)

When properly taken care of, cast iron can list a lifetime!  You can also easily bring neglected cookware back to life.

When cooking, let your pan warm up before you cook your food.  Check the temperature by dropping a few drops of water in the pan.  If the sizzle and dance around, you’re ready to start cooking.  If they immediately disappear, your pan is too hot.  If they just bubble, it’s not warm enough.  Also, if your pan starts smoking that’s a really good indicator that your pan is too hot. Remove from the heat to cool.

To store, you can lightly grease the pan with oil and stick a piece of paper towel between the stacked cookware to absorb moisture. I store mine in the drawer under the stove.  Because cast iron is so heavy, I’m nervous about hanging them on a wall however if I can find a free stud in the kitchen area I will see about hanging them because I use them so often!

Bread Recipes

Here you will find the bread recipes my family and I enjoy.

Note: all purpose flour can be used in place of bread flour, but you may not get as nice of a rise or texture.

White Bread

6-7 cups unbleached bread flour
3 Tablespoons of sugar (or Rapadura)
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons of melted butter
4.5 tsp regular yeast
2 1/4 c. very warm water (hot to the touch - about 120-130 degrees)
Extra butter to coat loaves with when they come out of the oven.

Combine water, yeast and sugar and let the yeast proof for a bit.  I let mine sit about 5-10 minutes.

Add 3.5 cups of flour, the butter, and salt to the yeast/water/sugar mix.  Beat with a hand mixer (or mix by hand) on low for 1 minute then medium for 1 minute.  Add flour, about 1 cup at a time, while mixing until dough forms a ball.  Knead, by hand or with machine, until a smooth, elastic-y ball forms

Grease a big bowl and roll your dough in it on all sides.  Cover with a hand towel or a piece of plastic wrap (loose!) and stick in a warm place to rise until double - about 40-60 minutes.  Once double, punch dough down, turn out on a slightly floured surface and shape into loaves.  Grease two bread pans and stick each shaped loaf in them. Cover with the same plastic or towel you used before and let rise until double again which is about another 35-50 minutes.

Heat your own to 425 degrees (pull your loaves out of the oven about 10 minutes before you need to heat the oven, if you’re using your own to let dough rise).  Place pans on the bottom rack of the oven so that the top of the pan is in the middle of the oven.  Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 5 minutes.

Remove from oven, rub a butter stick over the top of the bread and turn out into wire racks to cool.

White Bread #2

5.5-6.25 c unbleached bread flour
2.25 tsp. yeast
2.25c milk
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp butter (not melted)
2 tsp salt

Combine flour and yeast in a big mixing bowl.  In a saucepan, heat milk, sugar butter and salt until just warm - 115-120 degrees), stirring constantly until butter almost melts. Add to dry mixture.  Mix until smooth.  Stir in enough remaining flour to form dough, knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Grease a bowl, grease all sides of the dough, cover and let rise for double - about 1 hr 15 minutes.  Punch down, shape into loaves, place into greased pan, grease loaves and let rise until double again - about 45-60 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

3 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 c honey
1/4 c melted butter
1 tablespoon salt
4.5 tsp regular yeast
2 1/4 c water (about 120-130 degrees F)
3-4 cups of unbleached bread flour
Butter to brush loaves with once cooked.

Combine water, honey and yeast and let proof.  Add about 2 cups of bread flour, salt, butter and mix until smooth.  Add whole wheat flour and mix until well blended.  Add remaining flour, 1/2c at a time, until dough forms.  Knead about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic.  Coat a big bowl with butter, slide the dough ball around in the bowl to coat all sides of the dough, put plastic wrap or a towel over and let it rise 40-60 minutes or until doubled.  Punch down and shape into loaves, grease bread pans and place loaves in each pan.  Grease all sides of the dough again. Cover and let rise 25-50 minutes or until double.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 40-45 minutes.

Whole Wheat Bread

3-3.25 cups of unbleached bread flour
2.25 tsp. yeast
1.75c warm water
1/3c brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. salt

Combine water, sugar and yeast. Let proof.  Mix 2 c bread flour, salt and butter until smooth.  Add whole wheat flour, then continue adding the remaining bread flour until dough forms.  Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.  Place in a greased pan and grease all sides of the dough.  Let it rise 1.5 hours or until double.  Punch down, form into loaves, place into greased bread pans, cover and let rise another 1.25 hours or until double.  Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes.