Drying Basil

Basil is one of our favorite herbs.  We grow a lot of it.  We make a number of batches of pesto and freeze meal sized servings of it as it is an easy meal to cook some pasta and thaw out some delicious pesto.  Basil produces a copious amount of seeds.  A couple years ago I dried and saved a quart sized mason jar full of basil seeds.  Well, basil just comes up volunteer every year, so I never really use any of the seed.

In addition to making pesto, we dry some in the food dehydrator that we use in cooking during the winter when our basil dies off.  I go out to the garden and pick a good amount of the young leaves off the basil plants.

Fresh basil in the bucket

Mrs. Tricia will pick off the stems and cull any leaves that are substandard.

De-stemming and sorting basil leaves

We've learned that it is very important to wash the leaves pretty good.  Even though you might not be able to see them, it is amazing the number of little critters that will float to the surface of the water when you submerge the leaves in water.  

Soaking basil leaves in water

Once we spin the leaves dry in the salad spinner, we lay the washed leaves in the food dehydrator.  We have two separate trays in the unit, so we space them out to achieve uniform air flow.

In the dehydrator they go

We'll put the cover on it and plug it in.

About to fire it up

Here are what the basil leaves look like after one night in the dehydrator.

After one night

Here they are after the next day.

After two days

When Tricia checked on them today, the basil leaves are completely dry, so we'll turn it off.  It is difficult to say how many hours we left them in the dehydrator because we turned it on and off intermittently for a couple of days.  I would say it took less than 48 hours to complete the job.

They're done!

We bag it up and put it in the pantry for use later when cooking.  Mrs. Tricia, the CEO of the kitchen, says that the dried basil really holds its flavor.

Bagged up to store in the pantry

Two thumbs up for Our Maker's Acres Dried Basil.  Easy & Delicious!

The Archer

Psalm 127:3-5

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord,

The fruit of the womb is a reward.

 

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,

So are the children of one’s youth.

 

How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;

They will not be ashamed

When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

When I was a young boy I took some classes on Archery while attending two summer camps: Camp Attakapas Boy Scout Camp in Jena, Louisiana, and Camp Grant Walker 4-H Camp in Pollock, Louisiana. I wasn't much good at it.  I remember getting stung by the string because I wasn't wearing the guards that you put on your forearms when pulling back the string and and it left some red marks on my arm.  My aim and ability to hit the target were, I'm sad to admit, lacking. 

Since that time, other than accompanying my sons to the archery range at Cub Scout & Boy Scout Camp at Camp Edgewood in Gillis, Louisiana, my experience at shooting arrows from a bow has been very limited.  I know people who bow hunt for deer during the fall.  They will set up targets in their yard in anticipation of the season opening and will practice dutifully, shooting arrow after arrow into the target in order to hone their skills in preparation for when they shoot their arrows at a real target.

Photo Credit

You may be skilled at archery or you may be a novice like me.  However, one thing is sure: if you are a parent, You Are An Archer and Your Children are your Quiver of Arrows.  I've been thinking about archery since we just released two of our "arrows" and the parallels of being a parent and being an archer releasing arrows are impossible to miss.

Photo Credit

One of your jobs as an archer is to keep your arrows close.  You have them near you, within arm's reach, everywhere you go.  You don't want to entrust your arrows to other archers.  Your arrows are your possessions and you've spent a lifetime shaping, sharpening and practicing with them.  It is your job to take care of them.  An arrow is a delicate thing.  The feathers on the opposite end of the shaft than the point is called fletching, and they work to stabilize the flight of the arrow.  Should the fletching get damaged, the arrow will wobble and go off course.  An arrow shooting off course is not desirable and can even be dangerous!

Photo Credit

Arrows require some sharpening.  That is one of your jobs as an archer.  You don't want a dull arrow.  Dull arrows aren't effective weapons in battle.  If you don't believe we're in a battle, you're not paying attention. Keeping an arrow sharp is a labor intensive process and must be repeated, for our arrows are constantly striking against hard targets and the edge will get dull over time.  Arrows can also rust from disuse and must be sharpened to be useful in battle.  Hmmmm.  Sharpening is an intentional, deliberate process, performed by the skilled archer.

Proverbs 27:17

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Iron sharpens iron,

So one man sharpens another.

Photo Credit

Arrows don't just hit the target by themselves.  First, we have to identify what we're trying to hit.  There are many targets out there.  You've heard the old saying, "Pick your battles."  This is true.  We have a finite number of precious arrows in our quiver.  We want to make sure that we don't fire them off casually.  We want to ensure that the target is worthy of our arrow.  Next, we must focus on the target and not be distracted by everything else going on around us.  You've seen, I'm sure, marksmen control their breathing so that their aim is accurate.  Nock your arrows, archers!

We need to still ourselves and prepare for the final step: Letting go of the arrow!  This is hard to do.  You're releasing the arrow.  It is a dangerous thing.  When the arrow is still in our quiver or at least in our hands as we take aim, we have control over it.  When you draw the string back and let go, where the arrow will go is largely out of your control.  You are aiming for the bulls eye, right?  We want our arrows to hit the mark!

Photo Credit

But perhaps the wind will carry your arrow off target or your arrow will fall short or over-shoot the intended target.  There are times where it may hit a target that you weren't even intending on hitting.  The archer must lovingly walk out on the field of battle, pick up his errant arrows and inspect them.  Perhaps some of the fletching is broken, causing the flight of the arrow to wobble off course.  Spend time mending the arrow and re-sharpening it.  It may even need to go back in the quiver for a while prior to being released again.

Photo Credit

The bottom line is that being an archer requires years of work.  It is a costly undertaking, but it is a worthy calling to be an archer.  Archers spend lots of time and money preparing for the time that comes in which they'll release their arrows on the world.

Photo Credit

An archer's work is important.  An archer is on the front lines of battle.  More notably, an archer is teaching and molding young, apprentice archers who will one day release their own arrows on the world.  If our technique is defective, we risk passing along bad habits and poor fundamentals to future archers and we diminish the ability of our arrows AND their arrows hitting the bulls eye.

Photo Credit

Take aim.  Focus on the target.  Shoot your arrows.  May they fly straight and true.  If ever the world needed some good archers, it's now.

Making Pickled Peppers

When I opened the fridge and rummaged around on the condiment shelves for some pickled jalapeno peppers rings, I emerged with this in my hand.  This, my friends, is not good news.  One simply cannot run out of peppers.

The last few pieces in the last jar from last year.

There was none in the pantry either.  Time to get busy.  We've cored and seeded a multitude of peppers so far this year and put them up in the freezer.  Whenever we cook any dish requiring peppers, we grab a handful of the frozen ones if fresh aren't available.  Today, I'm going to make a batch of pickled peppers - both sweet and hot.  Russ and I like to eat them on top of red beans & rice, black-eyed peas & rice or other such dishes.  The tangy heat compliments beans & rice.  Let's go out to the garden and pick some peppers.

Poblano Peppers

I didn't pick a peck (a peck is a unit of measure equaling 2 gallons), but pretty close.  It is a mixed bag of poblano, chocolate, cayenne, and jalapeno.  We'll get them all washed up.

I love peppers!

I always like my peppers cut in rings for pickling.  They're just easier for scooping out of the jar with a fork.

Slicing up the peppers

Here are the sliced up sweet peppers:

Sliced and ready

And here are the sliced up jalapenos and cayennes.

A visual feast

The first thing you want to do once you have them sliced is to stuff them into some jars.  Really cram them in there.  Here is the batch of sweet peppers:

Sweet

And here are the hot ones.  Note to self:  We're gonna need more of these.  Much, much more.  But it's no problem as long as the peppers continue to produce and there are several months left in the growing season.

Hot

Then fill all of the jars up with water.  This is a neat trick I learned off the Internet somewhere that tells you a great way to calculate your liquid needed and therefore, your pickling spice ratio.

Filling jars with water

Use your hands or a colander to pour out all the liquid from your jars into a measuring container.

Pouring out the pepper liquid

In all it took 9 cups of liquid to fill the jars we're pickling today.  Pour out half of this and reserve the other half of the liquid as we're going to use it as part of the pickling liquid.

Pepper juice

Now we'll put together the pickling spices.  The recipe below calls for 2 cups pickling liquid (apple cider vinegar + water).  Remember, we have 9 cups of total liquid, so adjust the other spices up accordingly.  

Basic Recipe:

• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon peppercorns
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed a bit to release the flavor
• 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Apple cider vinegar in a big pot

And here are the ingredients to add to the pickling liquid.

Everything you need

Add all of your ingredients, bruising the garlic so that the flavors escape.  Let this heat up and then simmer for five or ten minutes.  

Simmering spices

Then we simply pour the liquid and spices into the jar.  The liquid amount should come out exactly right.

Filling the jars with pickling liquid and spices

There are many recipes that say just to put these in the fridge and that is fine.  That's what we do once we open them.  But we eat a lot of these and I don't have room in the fridge for them.  I store numerous jars in the pantry to eat over the winter.

I'm not certain this step is necessary, but I do it just to be safe.  I put them in a water bath, ensuring that I have a rack on the bottom of the pot to keep the jars off the bottom.  I make sure the jars are covered by an inch of water and then I bring the water to a boil.

Water bath

Once the water is at a rolling boil like below, I set the timer for 12 minutes.

We're rolling

When the time is up, I'll use the canning tongs to pull them out and allow them to cool totally.

Pickled peppers

Pickling peppers is easy.  We'll be making more over the next couple of months, but I'll put most of these in the pantry.  The quart jar is going right in the fridge to begin eating on right away!

One more month for Maggie Mae

Magnolia will be delivering her first calf in a month!  She's a good looking heifer that looks more and more like her mother, Rosie, every day.  We're all looking forward to calving time and we're hoping for a little heifer and not another bull.  The last two calves (Stryker & Bully) have been bulls.

Maggie will be on maternity leave

As we watch Maggie, she seems to be growing quickly and spends time eating grass out on the pasture even after Daisy and Rosie have had enough.  Her body is telling her that she's eating for two, I guess.  As the time gets close, in addition to wondering whether she'll give us a heifer or a bull, we wonder if she'll produce a good quantity of milk.  Every cow is different.  Daisy doesn't provide the quantity of milk that Rosie does, but this is partially due to the fact that Daisy only has three good udders.  What Daisy doesn't give in volume, she makes up for in quality.  Daisy's milk has a higher butterfat content than Rosie and you can tell immediately by the amount and color of the cream that rises to the top.

One clue that delivery time for Maggie is approaching is that their "bag" will start to grow.  Here is a shot that shows the evidence.

One month to go!

And speaking of expectant mothers, here is the big galoot, Rosie.  She's expecting a calf around the first of November.  We dried her off on August 1 and she's been using all her energy to fully develop the calf she's carrying.  A cow's gestation period is 285 days long, which is about the same as that of a woman.  It is noticeable that Rosie is "butterball" fat right now.

Another expectant mother in our pasture

Last Fall, Rosie gave birth to a stillborn bull calf.  We don't know what caused it.  Sometimes things like that just happen.  We're praying for a healthy baby this time.  Tricia mentioned to me just yesterday, "Kyle, how are we going to handle milking 3 cows at once?"  I don't know at the moment, but we'll manage.  

Right now I'm giving Tricia a break and I just milk Daisy every morning.  Daisy's calf, Bully, gets the milk that Daisy produces during the day.  Bully can probably be weaned right now as he's been eating grass, but once we wean him, that means twice a day milking.  It is kind of nice to have him as a 'safety valve,' so that if we need to get away, we can just put Daisy and Bully together and he'll keep her milked down.  

Bully is growing up

We'll keep a watchful eye on the pregnant mamas out in the pasture.  It's always an exciting time once calves start dropping!

Making Homemade Chocolate Souffle

This post is going to be a little long and picture heavy, but we wanted to share one of our favorite desserts with you.  This was a dessert that our 'kids' asked us to prepare prior to them heading off to college. Chocolate Souffle is a decadent, smooth, delicious dish that you normally get in a nice restaurant.  Don't let that intimidate you into thinking you can't do this at home.  You CAN!

The recipe we use is from the good, old Betty Crocker Cookbook.  It gets lots of use around our house. Here's what Betty says you need to prepare it:

• 4 large eggs
• 1/3 cup Hershey's Cocoa
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons butter (at room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 3 tablespoons sugar

Ingredients all laid out

In a 1-quart saucepan, stir in the sugar, flour and cocoa until mixed and then gradually stir in the milk. Cook over medium heat, while stirring constantly, until the chocolate mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Stir and remove from heat.

Separate three eggs, placing the egg white in one bowl and the yolks in another.  Those pastured eggs are so nice and yellow.  When separating the fourth egg, place the yolk in a separate container to use in another recipe - tomorrow's scrambled eggs, for instance.  So you'll have four egg whites in one container and 3 egg yolks in another.

You gotta break a few eggs if you wanna make an omelet souffle

Here is our chocolate mixture looking good...

Beat the egg yolks with a fork until thick and then add in 1/3 of your chocolate mixture.  Mix well and stir back into the rest of the chocolate.

Stir in the butter and vanilla and let it cool slightly.

While we're waiting on the chocolate to cool, grease the ramekins with some butter.

Then pour some sugar into the ramekins and swish around.  Some of the sugar will stick to the buttered sides.  Pour remaining sugar into next ramekin and repeat until done.

Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites...

And add the salt to the egg whites...

Begin beating the egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy.

Then add 3 tablespoons sugar, one tablespoon at a time and continue beating until the whites form stiff peaks when beaters are lifted.

Add about 1/4 of the egg white mixture into the chocolate

And stir.

Then fold the remainder of the egg whites into the chocolate:

Pour the batter into the ramekins, using a rubber spatula to get every last drop.

You'll notice the ramekins are situated in a stoneware tray.  Pour some hot water in the bottom of the tray.

Place the tray into the oven.

To be specific, you'll want them in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit to cook for 18 minutes.

Oh my, look what we have here!  The souffle has risen nicely.  The aroma of chocolate beckons everyone to the kitchen so that we're circling the oven like buzzards over roadkill.

How about a closer look?

Confection Perfection!!

Well, let's not just look at it.  Let's have a bite, shall we?

Over the lips and past the gums...

And finally, the money shot!

Fork view of hot chocolate souffle

So it would be an understatement to say we all enjoyed the souffle.  If you paid attention, you saw that the recipe makes 6 souffles, meaning there was one left over that we sort of fought over.  You really want to eat it while it's warm as it will deflate and not retain the same level of delectable decadence once it cools. Now that Laura Lee and Russ are in college, Benjamin astutely noted that we'll each get to eat two souffles now! Smart boy.