Kitchen-ness and Tidbits

 

Crockpot Queso

8 oz. organic pepper jack cheese, shredded

8 oz. organic Monterery Jack cheese, shredded

8 oz. organic cream cheese

1 4-oz. can organic green chilis, drained

2 herb garden green onions, sliced thin

1/2 cup organic whole milk

1/2 tsp. homemade garlic powder

Stir together all ingredients in a crockpot.  Cook on low for 4 hours or until melted.  Note:  Some organic canned chili's may differ in size, and you could cube the cheese too, but it will take a bit longer (block cheese makes a creamer dip vs. buying already shredded cheese).  Sorry for the bad photo, but my husband was gobbling it up, ha ha!  I do think it needs maybe a jalapeno next time.

Not sure if this is the reason my biscuits are flaky with layers, but it may be.  I watched a cooking show and if you "shred" the butter vs. cube you get a better rise with the biscuits.  I cube, but them use a butter blender to cut the butter chunks up a bit more.

I baked up some whiskey sticks for snacking.  I needed to use up some organic pretzels I had.

Not the best photo, but I finally got around to making biscuits and gravy for dinner one night.  I could not find my recipe for "fried" apples, so I used a new one and love it.  It's a "copycat" recipe and baked in the crockpot.

So thankful for the rain we got.  My garden and flower beds got a nice soaking.  The rainy days have also helped me get caught up with laundry and other indoor tasks.

One dose of Mother Nature's rain and the garlic ramps were one.  Now, if my radishes come up fast, I see some dip in the making.

I hope everyone is doing well.  I seem to see such a lack of blogposts lately.  Our state is back to normal thankfully.  All restrictions have lifted.  It has been so nice to see people's faces and beautiful smiles again.  I hope your weekend is fabulous!

Pie Pumpkins ~ Interesting Tidbit ~ Stocking up and Preparedness

(2018 photo, the last time we grew them on the homestead)

There was a point when organic butter at the grocery store became horribly high priced.  It's still high, but I try to stock up when they have coupons or a sale.

However, I learned something new!  I have not tried it yet, but I have pie pumpkins planted this year.  

There are concerns all over this country dealing with certain foods, shortages, price hikes and the like.  

Most people are aware you can substitute unsweetened applesauce for oil when baking, but this next tidbit is new to me.

You can substitute pumpkin puree for oil or butter when baking, using 1 to 1 ratio.  Meaning if your recipe calls for 1 cup oil, use 1 cup pumpkin puree.

At harvest time, I roast the pumpkins (cut in half as shown in the photo), and let them cool down.  I scrape out the pumpkin, puree it in the food processor and freeze it in freezer containers.

Of course there are many other uses for pumpkin puree, and we even make a macaroni dish with pumpkin and sage.  

I hope you enjoyed this tidbit, and I hope to learn of many more as our country attempts to heal all the massive damage that was done to it.

Providing we have a  nice garden year and a nice harvest, we'll have them this year.  

My blogger "featured post" gadget is not working.  I will only pick up most recent posts, so that's frustrating.  I'm trying to update it.