Podcasts, Patreon, and Recipes, Oh My!

We have been freezing here on the ol' homestead. Literally.  We may have slightly underestimated how cold it would get in our new home, and how the RV would do.  So we have been distracting ourselves with other things.

First and foremost, with our podcast!  We have been enjoying this so much!  This week we reminisce the foods of summer, in particular, tomatoes!  Who knew we would have so much to say about tomatoes! You can find the podcast on your fav podcast listening thing-y-mo-bobber (like iTunes, Stitcher, etc) or you can click on the image to go listen directly. And please make sure to hit the like button and if you can, rate and review!  It helps us get seen by other folks!

And speaking of, we have created a Patreon account!  If you are not familiar with Patreon, it is an awesome site that helps people support artists, including podcasters like us! For as little as $1/mth, subscribers/supporters can get exclusive content!  Check it out here!

In our podcast, we talked about a few recipes that we created this week out of necessity.  One was Ric's special winter warm up drink (with rum), which you can find here on our FB page.  Make sure to follow us there for other fun stuffs, too!

We also talked about how we sort of ran out of propane and had to make due with the microwave.  I created my own "Mexican style omelettes in a bowl" and they turned out awesome! We had to share this recipe.  If you don't feel like dirtying extra dishes, or you are living a simple lifestyle or just feel like a quick meal, here you go!

Fiberton Acres Microwave Mexican Style Omelette in a Bowl

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• Splash of milk (dairy or non)
• 1 hot pepper, diced
• 1 tomato (yay!) or 1/4 cup of canned diced tomatoes without the liquid
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder (or if you have Adobo seasoning, use that!)
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• Some Parmesan cheese (or even better is cotija!)
• Cilantro to garnish

How to make this lovely dish:

1. Crack eggs into microwave safe bowl
2. Beat eggs and add splash of milk and spices and whisk well.  If you are at work or something, use a fork to whip that up.
3. Add tomato, pepper and a small handful of cheese and mix well.
4. Put in the microwave on high for 3-4 mins (start with 3 and check center to see if eggs have set.  My microwave I have to do 4 mins.)
5. Chop up a little cilantro to throw on top, toss on a little more cheese and enjoy! Add salsa if you like, too!

Last, but not least, we referenced the Ball Blue Book Canning guide!  Here is a few shots of our 1983 guide and the things we referenced...

That's it folks!  

-Ash and Ric and the Fiberton gang

3 Ways to Use Your Apple Harvest

As I mentioned in my previous post, we have lots of apples! In Fall, I think that when it comes to food, pumpkins try and take center stage, but I feel that the apple is too often overlooked.  (I am biased, while I do love pumpkin and I love the idea of eating seasonally, I am definitely a huge proponent of the apple and all you can also do with them.)

So, yesterday, I worked on the first of 3 ways to use your apple harvest.  (Don't worry, I will share more as I try out recipes.)

First, my go to way of putting up apples is always apple butter.  I LOVE apple butter!  It makes me think of my great grandmother.  She was always canning and her apple butter was just the best.  Unfortunately, her recipe wasn't passed down to anyone in the family, but I have found a recipe that I feel is pretty close (or at least as much as I remember...)

I used this recipe from the lovely food blog Simply Recipes.  

I follow pretty much everything they do.  I would suggest that if you have a dutch oven, it works wonderfully for this task.  Mine is a 3 quart dutch oven by Gourmet Living which is very affordable for a dutch oven. 

Post apple softening in cider vinegar and water.

I like using our second hand food mill to reduce the apples to create the puree.

I know there are a lot of crock pot versions, and I am sure they are also good, but I just like the hands on approach and I have a lot of say over how thick and how it sets up and I can do the whole process from start to canning in about 3 hours.

Just after canning.

They make really good gifts. I always make sure to make myself plenty and then have at least a few jars for gifts.

Cut out some small squares of cute fabric and viola! A lovely gift for the holidays!

Ok, enough on apple butter.  So, while I had apple simmering, I found a recipe through Pinterest (hey, speaking of, follow us on Pinterest here) for a crockpot apple crisp.  

I found the recipe for the slow cooker apple crisp over at Chrissy's blog called The Taylor House.

I only changed one thing, due to not having just old fashioned rolled oats.  Instead I used my package of Bob's Red Mill Rolled 5 Grain Cereal. 

Was a great substitute for the regular old fashioned oats!

I quite enjoyed this recipe...actually the hubby and I enjoyed it so much that we forgot to take a photo before we ate it all...

Finally, another fun idea I saw on Pinterest was on my mind while working away.  That was a great way to use the old unwanted rinds and peels. (As you will see, you actually use these in the apple butter, but not in the crisp.)  I love trying to use everything, so you can imagine how excited I was to find a recipe for making your own apple cider vinegar from the remains.  

I found the apple cider vinegar recipe at Annemarie's blog, 

Real Food Real Deals.

I will note that this is the first time I am trying this recipe, and results won't be in for quite some time.  But it was easy, and we use apple cider vinegar for all sorts of things here, including upset tummies, recipes (like apple butter! Ok...Ok...I will stop going on about the apple butter...) and even to help keep the angora rabbits healthy.  So I was all about giving this a try!

My apples making us some vinegar.

So in about a month and a half I will be letting you know how it worked out.  But if I understand, this is basically a form of lacto-fermentation so I am sure it will be quite nice.

I still have plenty of apples, and plan on getting many more from our local you-pick over the next couple of months, so keep an eye out for some more ideas for these little gems.

How do you like to use your apples?

Ash

It's Fall! That means apples and yarn!

Guess what? It is Fall now!  Today!  (Even though the temperature it is still in the 100's here...) And to help usher in the new season, this past Sunday we went out to our local 'you-pick' orchard and collected a bunch of apples!  Which means soon I will be making and canning apple sauce, apple butter and apple pie filling.  Although I may have to go get more apples if I want to do all that....

Our local 'you-pick' orchard...we braved the 105 degree
afternoon for our apples.

But oh, Sundays really are quite lovely for a drive in the country!

The hubby enjoyed the drive, too.

Not a bad haul for our quick afternoon out.  

Fall is also the perfect time for lots of cuddly yarn!  We have been trying to spin up a bunch and I just loved this nice plush pile of freshly plied and washed alpaca yarn.

Cozy, comfy yarn!

I am trying to spin a bunch up for a show that we are heading to in mid-October.  You can, of course, find our selection of yarn here at our etsy shop!

And we recently gave these little cuties a trim so I now have some super soft baby angora fiber to blend into our yarn.  Look at this face!

Little Jet is too cute! 

Soon I will share our stacks of yarn and pics of our freshly canned goods with some recipes, too!

Ash