trombonish

A few years ago I bought 10 lbs of beef kidney fat (8 packages) from the local meat co-op (this was while I was raising chickens for them). It has been sitting in my deep freeze ever since, being mildly annoying because all the packages were really oddly lumpy and don't stack well. The original intent was a soap making experiment, but, well, life.

Yesterday, with the mixer alive again, and a day at home to stir, I decided to finally get around to rendering it. There was also some motivation around making freezer space. *Eyes the yard full of turkeys*

The first 2-3 packages (each package is a cow's worth), I chopped it smallish and fed it into the meat grinder that fits on the front of the mixer. This spat it out in little pellets that then went into the midsize kettle from the bottom of my steam juicer (heavy bottomed, about 2 gallons. Also, at the moment, clean, which none of my big tomato processing pots were). This went on the stove on low, which all the guides were QUITE adamant about, so it would not scorch before melting.

The little pellets melted VERY fast! But feeding it all through the meat grinder was very very slow, and heavy work for the grinder, because of the hard texture. The fat, even thawed, was very solid, almost powdery in texture. I don't know if all beef fat is like this or it is what is special about the kidney fat. It was interesting but also kind of a pain - the temperature of my hands was enough to start it melting, so handling it left a greasy layer all over my hands and stuck under my nails, even though a bowl sitting on the counter would go solid.

In the interest of speeding things up, the rest of the packages I gradually chopped into roughly half inch cubes and added them to the pot, over the course of the day (omitting the meat grinder). I did eventually learn to wear gloves to reduce the endless greasy hands. As things simmered I ladled out fat through a colander into bowls, returning the solids to the pot, as it didn't all fit in the pot at once. I ended up with maybe 6-7 quarts of liquid fat, maybe a couple pounds of trimmings and cracklings/waste that went to the chickens.

I did offer J a crackling, as we've been reading Little House in the Big Woods and there's a part in there about Ma rendering lard. J looked at them and refused, and also observed "they ate some weird things back then, didn't they?". Yes kiddo, they did.

It also had a definite Smell. Not as unpleasant as I was thinking from the various warnings on the guides I was following, but definitely sort of an overcooked hamburger smell. J came home and wrinkled his nose and said "what is that SMELL". Vs my dad coming in and saying, "Smells like dinner!"

Eventually I got down to just grease in bowls, which I poured back in the main pot to reheat before a second straining. The second straining was rather obnoxious - I was trying to filter out the very fine particle bits left behind by the regular strainer. Cloth lining a small strainer was awfully slow - seemed like it clogged up quickly. Coffee filter seemed even worse, and also flattened and threatened to spill. I finally did paper towels, which worked pretty well, but split at the very end when I was trying to squeeze it out and spilled just a bit of coffee grounds looking oil into the last pan.

I also in retrospect should have reheated the grease hotter the second time - I don't think I actually got it to boiling so I'm worried I might have left water. On the other hand, part of the appeal of the kidney fat is that it's supposed to have very low water content.

For a final step, I poured it in 9x12 cake pans to freeze up. It was rather fascinating to watch them transition from golden and clear liquid to white solid fat - they would kind of get streaks on the top, meeting with white on the edges, and eventually turning a solid white. Once they were middling solid I scored lines in them, then set them in the garage to get quite cold overnight. Then this morning I snapped them apart into bar type things, and bagged them to return to the freezer. But now they are at least consistent shaped and stackable.

Future plans are homemade soap! And figuring out how to clean all those bowls and pots with a thin sheet of solid fat, without clogging my drains with grease.

So last week I had another evening of staying up way too late dismantling mixers. I started by cleaning the remainder of the tilt-head (main housing, planetary). Then I got overly curious about how different taking apart the bowl lift one would be. Answer: MUCH easier than the tilt head. You could definitely see the additional 20 or 30 years of design for manufacturability and maintenance that went into the second one. The gear housing much much smaller and more contained, with a form-fitting cover inside the main body. The thing comes apart very logically (I didn't have to consult the internet until I was well into pulling apart gears, as I was befuddled by a retaining ring that I didn't have the correct tool for). The circuit board screws in right behind the speed knob, and comes off easily.

I got it all cleaned up, and determined that yes indeed there was grinding happening on the gear that leads to the external attachment slot. It has a very interesting wear pattern with the teeth matching nicely on both sides for part of the circle, and being quite worn away on the other side. It was getting to the point of slipping on that side, even with no load on the attachment port.

New gears ordered, along with new packing grease for both mixers. Which comes with new primary gaskets which is good because I tore this one all up somehow.

Warped off my first weaving experiment on the rigid heddle loom last night. Very much a learning opportunity. The result was not super impressive, and I'm trying to not be disappointed as it used 3.5 small skeins of handspun (inherited from Morgan), but I learned things and using up yarn is kind of a plus as well since I have three milk crates of yarn, mostly her handspun. It was supposed to be a scarf, in white/foresty greens combo, but it's definitely weird in texture for a scarf. Maybe that will improve when I block it (assuming you're supposed to block weaving?)

Warping learning:
- warp in EVEN groups of strings (I was doing groups of 5, which I was... problematic)
- warp in larger groups (10 would be better)
- be more careful about not missing a thread, gah. I ended up pulling out an opposite thread to avoid having two warp threads together all the time, but it's still quite noticable that there's a gap. Hopefully blocking will help even this out a little too.
- do SOMETHING to more evenly manage the tension when rolling it up. Some websites said something about using a chair back. My attempt at pressing with the heddle resulted in a varied tension from right to left, so tightening as much as I could got the right REALLY TIGHT and the left not really tight enough

Weaving learning:
- I was surprised that it came out with both warp and weft visible, though I shouldn't have - that's the standard with plain weave! But I was picturing something like my inkle loom, where one direction is basically hidden under the other (though on the inkle it's the warp that shows and the woof that's hidden, but for some reason I expected it to be the opposite here). Those warp threads were also SO close together, which I think was related. My next project, using the thick blue yarn, I want to try much fewer warp threads (every 3rd instead of every 1) and looser weft, to see if I can get it to only show the woof. This will be particularly important when the different directions have considerably different yarns.

- I also need to do better/differently about how tight I beat down the weft. Or maybe just be more consistent. The first part is all loosey goosey, especially where I was still working out the motions of up-shuttle-beat-shuttle-switch hands. Then in the later part I got the weave MUCH tighter which I thought would be a good thing (and it does look considerably more square), but it makes such a thick fabric that it's all wrong for a scarf, it's too rigid. Again maybe blocking will help? But that's not going to solve the differences between the start and the end.

- I ALSO also struggled with the appropriate tension on the woof. I was very used to the inkle, where you shuttle-leave a loop-beat-pull through to eliminate the loop. But that's part of what makes the inkle only show the warp, having the weft that tight. Various tension problems here mean the whole thing is kind of weird on the sides, an inconsistent total width, sometimes there's a bit of extra loop on the outside, and there was a section where I WAS pulling it too tight and I got a stripe of warp that always got pulled to the front (on the left side where the warp was too loose anyways)

So next time I get a chunk of time for fun crafting (probably not for a few weeks), going to warp it up with a wide spread, tight warp in the blue cotton (I think? It was Annie's), and then weave in the thick blue yarn. The goal will be like a warm single piece shawl.

2 lbs/4 cups diced chicken (or dismantle a rotisserie chicken)
1 sliced onion
2 sliced bell peppers
Small (like 6oz) can of jalapenos that has been sitting in the pantry forever
1 qt chicken broth (from said chicken)
2 cans corn, drained
2 cans white beans (random pantry cans said "cannelloni" I think)
1-2T taco seasoning (cumin, salt, chilli powder, onion powder, garlic, thyme is what I used)

Stir to combine
Instapot all together for like 15 min, but slow cooking would have been better (and not as liquidy as mine)

Add 1 brick cream cheese (8oz)

Stir to melt/combine

Decide it's still awful watery, add 2T cornstarch to 1/2 cup cold water, vigorously combine then stir into soup.

Yom.

I'm making a cheesecake for Easter dinner tomorrow, but have no graham crackers for a graham cracker crust. They can't be that hard, right?

Graham Crackers:
2 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 t baking soda (I don't know-how WHY, it's not like they are supposed to rise. But it's what the recipe I modified said, so I did...)
1/2 t salt

Stir together

Add:
1 T vanilla
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup honey (if you measure the oil and honey in the same cup, and the oil first, the honey slides right on out)

Stir to combine - now it will be in a very crumbly format

Add while mixer is running (on low/stir)
1/3 cup white flour
1/3 to 1/2 cup water, slowly, until your dough starts to actually stick together

Let it knead for a minute or two - it still won't be completely cohesive, but will actually attempt to stay together.

Plop about half the dough on a piece of baking parchment and roll very thin (like 1/8"), and as square as you can manage. There is no way you will be able to lift it off the parchment so transfer the parchment to a cookie sheet. Repeat for other half.

(I pressed a goodly portion of the first half into a cheesecake pan and baked it that way, for a crust)

If you want uniform squares at the end, score or cut the dough on the sheet before baking.

Bake for about 20 min at 350 - for the pie crust 20 min was a bit short, for the crackers it was a bit long.

After they've cooked and cooled a smidge, break them apart on your previous score lines.

There are plenty of alternatives for cinnamon/other flavors, or doing a crumble on top, but I'm really liking them just plain! Very crispy, the right flavor.

Adapted from:
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/crispy-whole-wheat-graham-crackers

I shall endeavor to not be "that person" who won't shut up about their instapot.

But I just got one (shopping on black Friday for the first time ever), and so far I love it. My Crock-Pot crock developed a hairline crack in September, and have been largely limping along without it ever since, shopping for what to replace it with.

Tonight did chili in the instapot, and did dried beans -> cooked beans -> really good chili in a smidge over 2 hrs, including pressure up/down times. My usual method is in the Crock-Pot, and that's a 36 hr meal (morning: soak beans -> night: cook beans -> morning: start chili). Tried chili stovetop a few weeks ago but that turned out really disappointing. This chili was much better though the beans were a little al-dente.

I need to practice more on how much water goes in, both for beans and the chili I didn't get quite enough in once you considered what it needed for pressurizing.

Broccoli: I am VERY much in favor of growing broccoli! This was my first year at it, and we had some Issues, but certainly intend to do it again next year! I started with 8 "stir fry" broccoli plants from Zamzows, which mostly died on me before actually making broccoli. One of them did survive, but I've been disappointed in how it makes tiny broccoli springs rather than a nice tidy broccoli head. Only now upon googling have I discovered that it's SUPPOSED to do that. Meh. Too late to eat them now, it's all gone to seed.
I got a 6-pack of "Lieutenant" bonnie-brand broccoli from Home Despot to replace the dying plants, and much as I am Generally Opposed to Bonnie (overpriced, few interesting varieties), the Lieutenant ones are doing VERY well. They are not inclined to bolt, and both the primary head and the "side shoots" are big and yummy! So probably going to do those again next year. And MORE of them. 6ish plants pretty much keeps us current in broccoli but not producing any extra to freeze.

Onions: one big bed of onions. Ugh I need to weed the onions (persistent state). Continued to have problems with onion seeds, so fell back on onion sets. They continue to be not very big (probably because they need weeding!). Some experiments with planting last year's onions - some split into interesting onion clusters. A couple I let go to seed (I am bound and determined to learn to grow from seed...)

Peppers: A full bed of peppers. Mostly King of the North bell peppers, interspersed with Anaheims that I bought to replace the spots that didn't take. DEEPLY PLEASED with my peppers! I am ACTUALLY GROWING proper sized bells this year, and a lot of nice Anaheims. Am particularly happy with the bells as I grew them from seed. The secret to bell peppers is apparently the deeply obvious DON'T PICK THE PEPPERS. And then they get bigger! Huh. I think we will end up with slightly more peppers than meeting current needs, but definitely still will buy a few cases from Blue Barn to freeze enough to get us through til next year.
I will note, however, that even my peppers doing Quite Well by pepper standards, I had a couple volunteer Roma tomato plants in this bed that COMPLETELY overwhelmed the peppers they were planted near. Poor peppers. Happy tomatoes.

Potatoes: potatoes are SAD PANDA. They were going gangbusters til about mid June when they all fell over as if end of the growing season. I am not sure what their problems was, though I am finding they are smallish but still split as if overwattered. Deeply mysterious. I'm still digging them up as I need them, though presumably they aren't growing anymore.

Tomatoes: Oh how I love thee. Please don't take over the world.
Something about my garden pen grows absurdly rigorous tomatoes. I am pleased! This is good! But AUGH it is nearly solid masses of tomato plants and actually a bit difficult to pick because I can't hardly get to the interior of the plants. I'm picking about a 6-qt bowl of tomatoes every day (or two, if I wait a couple days). It's a lot of tomatoes.
We need to do SOMETHING different next year regarding tomato cages. This year's attempt of pole-and-wire for the two main tomato beds (4 rows of 8) is really not worth the time. It sorta works for the cherry tomatoes, who can be persuaded to climb them. However the various flavors of Big Tomatoes are so heavy they are pulling the wires down, or just giving up and flopping on the ground. I've been wrangling with string to try and tie them up to the wires, with limited success. We really are talking bear sized tomato plants here.
In the auxiliary tomato bed (over by the lilac bush), I used the Very Large cone shaped tomato cages, and they are mostly working. There are 8 Better Boys over there, which aren't getting TOO big (nice and compact bushes about 2' across, 3-4' tall - respectable! No world domination plans.). They actually seem properly spaced (18", which is the same as the other tomatoes! It just works better for them), so I can actually get to the whole plant. One of them has managed to uproot their cage and is now propped up by 2x2s, but the others are standing fine on their own. This bed is suffering slightly from blossom end rot, where none of my others get it, but I am mostly pleased at the accessibility.
In the main tomato bed I have a number of Random varieties from the tomato sale at the fruit stand. I have 8 labeled "lg red rnd" which I believe might be Abe Lincolns. They make HUGE tomatoes but the plants are quite short, and they seem EXTREMELY opposed to trellising. I would need something much, much, MUCH sturdier for them. I'm losing some of them to bugs and being on the ground, since they are just flopped about, so have taken to picking them rather underripe and ripening them on the windowsill.
Also in that bed are "sweet 100s", which I am decisively meh about. They're all right for a cherry tomato, but nothing special. I'd much rather grow Juliettes again.
The other main bed is full of randomness. I have 3 "sun gold cherries", which are yummy and pretty if not particularly prolific. There is a weird teardrop shapped one which is purpleish that I think is a Russian Zebra Cherry that I am also not impressed by (partially because it's a pain to tell when it's ripe). There are salad sized gold and red tomatoes which are doing fine though hard to tell because they are quite drowning in other tomato plants. Bumblebee cherries are pretty but also not particularly holding their own in the tomato jungle. Then there are the Cherokee Purples, which are the biggest contributor to the jungle! DEFINITELY growing these again. With better spacing. And cages that can contain a lion. They get absolutely enormous, and even though they are a beefsteak they are almost solid meat inside, not all ooze and seeds like most of the big red tomatoes I encounter.
To round out the tomato herd, I have the aforementioned 2 or 3 Roma's volunteering in the pepper bed, that I am amazed how large they are considering they were (unintentionally) grown from seed right in the garden. Then I have 3 of unremembered variety growing on the end of the onion bed that are still all green but nicely filling out their cages. Another 4 are "patio golds", a nice salad sized tomato, 2 actually in containers on the porch (which are sadly tiny, like 16" tall, but they have each produced a tomato or two), and 2 which I plopped in the failed asparagus bed that are ENORMOUS plants but haven't made anything ripe yet.
Yes, I have tomato plant problems. Mostly that I can't turn them down. But 50 seems to be about the right number to make it through the year in tomato products!

Cucumbers: I have belatedly discovered I am not a cucumber fan. Which is a problem as I am producing them in QUANTITY. LARGE ones. I originally planted little pickling cucs but they didn't come up. So I got starts but of course they were all ordinary sized cucumbers. I thought I could just pick them small for pickles, but apparently they don't grow that way! So now I'm up to my ears in cucumbers, and they've also gotten all up into the lilac bush so I'll randomly come across a leg sized cucumber. The chickens get the big ones and otherwise I'm giving them away. Maybe I'll make some relish or something.

Beans:. Beans are fun! And prolific. And I haven't bought seeds in AGES because they save and start so easily. The DebbieBeans (bush) are splendid for picking and canning, I've got about 4'x10' bed of them. I didn't particularly keep up with picking them the past few weeks so yesterday I went out and picked a half bushel, most of which I will dry and shell as they are TOO BIG to eat. But I've still canned a couple dozen pints this summer, plus given many away and eaten as many as we want.
I also have a bed of about 4'x6' in pole beans. I can't quite figure these out - no matter how early I pick them they seem too tough to eat. So I'm just letting them go and will dry/shell them later. I'm all on board with dried beans, though will need to figure out a more effective way to shell them in quantity. Also a more effective way to provide poles - I bought a 24 pack of 6' bamboo poles which work quite well, but would clearly not be the optimal solution for growing these in quantity. I'm vaguely imagining a pole-and-rope setup for next year, like what people use for hops.

Things that didn't happen:
Asparagus - I made an asparagus bed! I planted them! But quite late, and I think they all died.
Squash/Mellon bed:. I attempted to convert the rocky area downhill from the auxiliary chicken coop into a vining plants bed. It didn't work.
Zucchini - I don't know how one fails to grow zucchini, but I did. Planted two hills, nothing made it.
Melons: didn't come up. But they were old seeds.
Winter squash - planted a couple hills of old pumpkin seeds, not too surprised they didn't come up. But also planted about 10 hills of butternut squash with this year seeds, and only one came up! It's puttering along, but the whole plant is only about 18" across so clearly not actually going to DO anything this year. Maybe the area is too shady. Or something.

Next year: better spacing on tomato plants. More peppers, more broccoli. Maybe attempt a bulk dried beans area. Clearly I'm going to need more garden area :D. Also have plans for some winter glazed beds, and would like to actually grow salad.

I did one of my fall honking-large food shopping days (again). We had another a week and a half ago where I bought 120 lbs if peppers (to split with a friend), a case of peaches, and some miscellaneous squash (came to something like $110). There will be at least one more major food weekend when I go pick pears and plums! Buy this weekend was particularly good, a trip out to Caldwell for more salsa ingredients, coinciding with a case sale at Albertsons. So I get to brag about Idaho food prices (and my deal-hunting) for a bit.

Spent: $244.29, across six stops.

75 lbs tomatoes ($45)
50 lbs peaches ($30)
50 lbs onions ($17)
45 LARGE green bell peppers ($15)
5.67 lbs bananas ($2.54)
1 lb mushrooms ($2)
1 medium watermelon ($1)
1 smallish cantaloupe ($1)
2 lbs mini bell peppers ($2)
3 doz eggs (commercial) ($2)
3 lbs shredded cheese ($6)
3 gal orange juice ($6)
2 gal vinegar ($5)
1.68 lb celery ($1.33)
12 oz bag baby spinach ($1.99)
1 head iceberg lettuce ($1.59)
4 boxes club crackers ($3.96)
6 cans Mandarin oranges ($5.94)
2 cans sliced pears ($1.58)
1 can pineapple ($0.99)
2 boxes Horizons cow-grahams (organic) ($1.94)
2 loaves whole wheat bread ($1.98)

Case sale:
12 boxes brownie mix ($9.48)
12 cans black beans ($5.88)
48 cans tuna ($24)
12 jars peanut butter ($15.48)
12 boxes swirly pasta ($7.08)
12 yogurts ($3.96)

Misc bathroom stuff ($9.67)

Yes, we do eat meat occasionally, but I rarely buy it - we are still working on the half cow from several years ago, and every November I huck 3 or 4 turkeys in the freezer for our annual poultry consumption.

So off to chop, can, dehydrate, and otherwise squirrel away this mountain of food (before the baby puts teeth marks in EVERY INDIVIDUAL PEACH)

We're thinking of hosting thanksgiving this year, I'm trying to recall what all we usually eat at thanksgiving.

Things we usually eat at thanksgiving:
Turkey
Stuffing
Gravy
Mashed potatoes
Ham
Sweet potatoes
Green beans (possibly casserole)
Pumpkin pie
Grandma's Torte
Fruit salad

Needs more veggies... Maybe roasted carrots?


http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/broccoli-and-cheddar-casserole-with-leeks

Freezer Cooking Day:
~4 gal gumbo simmering - translated to 5 - 10 cup containers for the freezer, another 8 cups in the fridge for us
-1 holiday ham reduced to components:
-- 3 lbs chopped,in the gumbo
-- 2 lbs cut down to steaks, freezing
-- 1.25 lbs chopped, bagged (2 bags) for future use, freezing
-- ham bone and scraps, freezing for future stock making (not today!)
-1 - 22 lb turkey is roasting, tomorrow will be chopped for bags of diced turkey, and bones/bits made into stock
-4 cake pan sized spaghetti lasagnas made and freezing, plus 4 meals of leftover spaghetti

Tomorrow will be chopping turkey, making pizzas, reorganizing the freezer so everything fits/sits right.