Homemaking on the Homestead

I baked a ham last week and with only the two of us to eat it, I had a good amount leftover. My ham was a bone in ham and weighed about 7 1/2 pounds. We had ham dinner for two nights. I removed as much of the meat off the bone as I could and cut it up, then made stock from the bone.  I made it in my Instant Pot. You could also make it on the stove top or in the crockpot.  I put the ham bone and the juices from the pan that I had baked it in into the IP.  I added about 10 to 12 cups of water. I didn't add any salt because ham is usually salty enough. You could also add extras to the stock such as onions or carrots or what ever you would want. I was fine with the stock as is. I put the lid on the IP, turned the knob at the top to "Seal" and set the timer for 60 minutes.. When the time was up I let the pressure come down on its own. Then I removed the lid and took the ham bone out of the pot.  There was still a bit of meat on the bone that I removed ...

This was my first time making beef bone broth in my Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Pressure Cooker, 6Qt/1000W (IP) (aff link) . It turned out great. I simply love the fact that I can have nutritious bone broth in 2 hours, plus time added for coming to pressure and cooling down - but still something that can be done in an afternoon rather than taking 2 days or more.   I used the basic same method as I use for chicken broth. I started with 3#'s beef bones. I used some beef rib bones and beef marrow bones. To ensure that my broth gelled I added 3 chicken feet. I also cut up one onion and about 3 carrots and several chopped cloves of garlic. I put these ingredients in the IP. I then gathered together 6 cups water, 1 tablespoon salt and 2 tablespoons vinegar (helps pull out minerals from the bones). I added this to the IP. Put the lid on, set the sealing knob to “Sealing” and pressed “Manual”. I set the time for 120 minutes. I...

 My son was sick on Sunday. He felt horrible. Running a fever, achy muscles, stuffed nose, cough.. all clear signs of the flu. I jumped into action :). I got some bone broth out that I had in the fridge, peeled a few large cloves of garlic and cut up some of the chicken I had from making the broth. I chopped up the garlic, heated some water up and poured that over the garlic to let is soften up. Then added some bone broth (it's pretty concentrated so it needs the extra water added). I added the chicken and at last minute threw in a big scoop of my homemade cream cheese (for the probiotics). He drank that down and said he was feeling a bit better. His nose and head were cleared up a bit more. On Monday he stayed home from work because he still did not feel great. That afternoon I made him another big cup of the same mix. After that he slept for about 3 hours and woke up and said he had sweated up a storm and felt so much better. Yesterday was day 3 of th...