Homemaking on the Homestead

Good morning friends! Here is my most recent grocery haul.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjEpruXdzqQ

Do you have leftover turkey meat to use up and need some ideas?  We usually eat Thanksgiving dinner the day after but by the 3 rd day we are ready for something different.  I find just about any recipe that uses cooked chicken works quite well with cooked turkey.  The recipes below are actually chicken recipes but you can just sub turkey in place of the chicken:  Turkey Enchiladas Fill corn or whole wheat tortillas with chopped up turkey and cheese. Roll them up and place in a 9x13 pan (or 9x9 or 11x15 pan, depending on how many people you are feeding). Pour your favorite enchilada sauce (canned or homemade) over all, top with more cheese and bake at 350 until all is hot and bubbly and cheese has melted. Sweet and Sour Chicken (Turkey) Crystal Miller 2 cups cut up chicken pieces, cooked 1 T olive oil 1 cup celery, chopped ½ cup green pepper, chopped 1 small to medium sweet onion, sliced thinly 1 20 oz. can pin...

Good Morning! In today's YouTube I share how to make a great fall/winter meal, Dutch Oven Cranberry Pork. It's easy to make and delicious! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHyAqCw_x28

If you are in need of some side dish recipes for Thanksgiving here are a few that might help you out.. My Favorite Sweet Potatoes Crystal Miller 5 to 6 large yams or sweet potatoes ½ cup butter ½ cups orange juice ¼ cup real maple syrup ¾ cup chopped walnuts Cook sweet potatoes until tender.  Drain and cool to touch.  Peel.  Chop into small pieces and put into a 9x13 pan.  Melt butter and add orange juice and maple syrup.  Drizzle this over the sweet potatoes and stir it up to mix it up.  Sprinkle the copped walnuts over the top and bake at 350 for about 30 to 45 minutes or until it is hot and bubbly.   Green Bean Side Dish This was my own little rendition of the cream soup/green bean/dried French onion dish I have had so many places. I just had the girls throw this together one evening with what I had on hand. It was a great success! 2 qts. Green beans (4 cans would be the same), drained 2 cans cream of mushroo...

I am sure a lot of you reading this already know how to cook a turkey.  But I also know that many ladies have never done it before.  I was in my late 20’s before I cooked my first turkey.  My grandma or mom or mother in law had always done that part.  When I went to cook my first turkey I was reading lots of cookbooks and talking with my mother to learn.  It is not like we have the opportunity to practice turkey roasting too often!   I thought I would just share from my own turkey roasting experience how I have done it.  There are lots of ways to do this and tips, etc..  and I am sure I won’t cover them all but will share what has worked for me.  First is the actual buying of the turkey.  I typically have purchased frozen turkeys.  The week before Thanksgiving you can find turkeys at the best price of the year.  In fact I usually take advantage of these great prices and buy another turkey or ...

Good Morning! :) Today is my first grocery haul video. The camera moved around to much, LOL I need to work on my camera skills :D I'll get the hang of this video stuff in time! :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2RgHMTnLXo

Calculating the Cost After making tonight’s low cost meal I thought I would share how you calculate the cost of food items that are a little trickier to figure out.   I am referring to things like pasta, rice, beans, etc..   how do you determine what a cup of pasta or beans cost?   You will need a small scale to do this.   Having a scale in the kitchen is very handy.   I bought a small postal scale from ebay years ago and have put to good use!   The first thing you need to know is the price you paid for your item and how much it weighs.   Let’s use pasta for this example (I had to do this today to calculate how much I spent on my dinner, so it is an easy one for me to share).    I bought a 10lb box of whole wheat elbow macaroni from my food co-op Azure Standard.   I paid $21.35 for it.    The next step is to find out is what 1 cup of dry elbow macaroni weighs.   I put it on my scale and it weighed ...

Good morning friends! In my newest video I show you how to make my favorite jam, Strawberry Cranberry Jam. My family really enjoys this jam and if you make it I hope you do to!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTpY9Ffadng ***************** Strawberry Cranberry Jam  Makes approx. 13 half pint jars 3#’s frozen strawberries  12 oz fresh or frozen cranberries  1T lemon juice  2 boxes pectin  1t butter  8 cups sugar  Put strawberries, cranberries, lemon juice, pectin and butter into a large, 6 to 8qt, stock pot. On medium heat slowly bring to a boil. Stir to prevent it from sticking. Simmer and stir until fruit breaks up. If you want to hurry the process you can use a stick blender to smooth it out, or leave the fruit a bit chunky, the choice is yours. Turn up the heat to high and add sugar. Stir to dissolve sugar. Bring it all to a hard boil (a boil that cannot be stirred down) and boil and stir for ...

The Family Homestead Archives #2 ***********  How to use 10lbs of Chicken On a recent trip to the grocery store I found 10lb packages of chicken quarters (these are the leg/thigh pieces) on sale for an exceptionally good price. I bought 3 packages of them. I put two in the freezer and cooked up the remaining package into meal starters. A meal starter is simply something that has been prepared ahead of time to make your cooking time go smoother and more quickly.  This month I thought I would share some basic info and recipes on how and what to do with a bulk amount of chicken. There are a couple of different ways you can cook the chicken. I have put all the chicken into a roasting pan with chopped up veggies, covered it with a lid or foil and then let this cook for several hours at about 325 degrees. The easiest way and my most common method is to simply boil it. Doing it this way means you will end up with some yummy chicken broth. To boil the chick...