homegrowing

Humble thanks to you sweet friends.   Thanks for the love regarding my post Stumbling A Child, last week.    I debated whether to post or not-to-post.  After I clicked publish,  I wanted to delete it.   I’m thankful we are journeying together.  Thank you for your words of relating, understanding and encouragement.  It’s wonderful to know you aren’t a figment of my imagine, and that you really do exist on the other side of my screen!

I strive to live transparent, so my children, myself, and others can see Jesus sparkling-radiantly throughout my yuckiness.   I need Him.  Every. Single. Second.    I want God to be glorified through this blog, yet what is sharing too much?  (Praying on that one.)

At  times I  wonder that my blog may elude a tad skitzo-ness …  too many birthing-babies-in-mini-van posts,  birthdays, curriculum discussions,  kid-isms,  homeschool days, family scrapbook, grief,  or a view into my not-so-impressive cooking!     Yet, darci-world is just that.  Polk-a-dot-ish.   I cry cleavage tears, although those days are fewer and far between. (Thank you Jesus!)  Darci-world can be inpatient, chaotic, loud, scheduled, rainy, germy, whimsical, random, humorous,  a tad sassy,  zoo-y, heavy, and sheer fun.

“Darci, do you have a specific purpose for your blog?” I was asked recently…

I’ve thought about that question this week.  I want to be real… to live for my audience of ONE.  Homegrowing is darci-world.  I like the blog name homegrowing better though, don’t you?  This is my place to record my journey of being a follower of Christ,  help-meet to Irv, motherhood, homeschooling,  and welcoming the gift of babies.   My living scrapbook of His abundant grace.  No wonder darci-world is polk-a-dot-ish!

I pray Homegrowing is  welcoming, encouraging, entertaining, and always a blessing in some fashion.  May it draw your heart towards, and fix your eyes on Jesus.  May we all be encouraged to love bigger and embrace longer the blessings in our lives.

And after all that… here’s a recipe … hehe

I was just looking over the upcoming week’s schedule and to-dos.  Meal planning…

With the wonderful prices on turkeys last month, I have four in my freezer and one  defrosting in the fridge.  It should feed us for awhile.  Monday: roasted turkey and fixings,  Tuesday: turkey soup,  Wednesday: hot turkey and gravy, Thursday: leftovers, and lunches will be turkey sandwiches.  By the weekend I imagine we will desire pizza and beef!

In preparations for soup making,  I searched for this recipe I created earlier this fall.   Irv nominated it for my “best soup ever”, so I wrote it down as a draft post.   He recently requested the “soup with spinach in it”.    I am  thankful I wrote it down, as now it will be easy to reproduce….

Salisbury  Spinach-Basil-Poultry Soup  (chicken or turkey)

20 Qt pot

1 whole roasting chicken 8-10# ish  (or turkey carcass)

4 – 28oz cans of petite diced tomatoes (Super Walmart)

6  large onions diced

12 tsp of minced garlic in jar (12 cloves)

4 frozen 10oz packages chopped spinach

18 large carrots – shredded

1 fresh basil plant – all leaves cut up with scissors into soup

5-6 TBSP salt

2 TBSP pepper

20 QT pot

Place whole chicken in pot, and fill pot with water to 80% full.  Bring water to a boil, then allow to simmer for 2 hours.

Remove whole chicken from pot and any bones or parts.  Allow to cool.   When cool, remove all chicken from bones, and shred meat (in food processor).

Add all above ingredients to the broth in the pot, except the chicken.   Fill pot with additional water until it is 2/3 full.

Simmer for 45 minutes.   Add shredded chicken and simmer for 15 additional minutes to allow flavors to belnd.

Ready to serve… yum.  (Over ditalini pasta is you’re a Salis-kid.)

Makes about 5 meals for my gang.   Freeze in the Rubbemaid 3.25 qt containers or in gallon freezer bags.

Happy next week preparations to you sweet friends…

Fancy chefs (or wanna-bees) beware, I am not a gourmet cook.  Serious.  I’ve been know to have kitchen-issues.

My kitchen abilities have grown slowly these past 15 years.   I had little training as a younster, lived the physician-assistant-busy-career-life early in marriage, and when children arrived, so did food allergies.

Ving’s food allergies have stunted this not-so-daring-chef … no dairy, beef, pork, gelatin, tapioca, lamb, buffalo, sheep, lamb.   For me, not having much confidence in the kitchen makes it difficult to take a recipe and alter it to make it VS (ving-safe).   Then, when it doesn’t taste good, I feel more deterred to try again… sad, but true.   Also, the boundaries of these allergies removed most of the recipes I did know to cook…dairy and beef.   I have  purposed to invest time in learning to only make meals that are Ving-safe  (besides toppings).

I also have a bent to not follow a recipe.  I don’t have that, so I’ll add this.  Even better, we’ll just leave it out all together!   Or, I like ____ ingredient a lot, so I’ll add more of it.   More is always better, right?  I know NOT, but I have to fight my rebellious spirit to not follow the “rules of the recipe”.     Recipes have had the tendency to not work out so well for me.

I’m happy to report that I am a great work in progress and I’m building confidence.   My forced – creative bent in the kitchen has begun producing yummy results.  I’m improving.   Since it takes me time to augment, doctor, taste and multiply amounts for recipes,  I plan to post a few of my favorites so I have them recorded for the next time I want to more efficiently reproduce the meal.

Homegrowing most likely will not be known as recipe savy… but perhaps if you also have “kitchen issues”, you will be encouraged to keep on, cookin’ on!

Turkey Chili (ving-safe, and feeds a crowd)

1 big crockpot – 6 quart

Aldi ingredients:

3 green peppers diced

2 cans kidney beans (half of us don’t eat these, so I only use 2 cans.  If you like beans, you should use 4 cans.)

2-3 onions diced

2 TBSP minced garlic

2-3 small cans mushrooms, diced

1 bag baby carrots, diced

8 cans of 14 oz plain diced tomatoes

2 cans tomato paste

4 pounds of frozen ground turkey (completely thawed)

2 boxes (32 oz) of small pasta (Have cooked and set aside for those who like it mixed in their bowls.  I find the Littles eat more chili if I add pasta.  The adults prefer none.)

optional topping: 1 bag of shredded sharp cheddar cheese

optional topping: 1 bag of corn chips

Wegmans ingredients: 4 packets of Simply Organic Spicy Chili mix (You can just use your own seasonings.  I don’t know what those are yet. I already had these packets in my pantry.  Next time, I might try using my spice cabinet, but these mixes were tasty!)

Option: I have added potatoes and corn to our chili before and it was great.

Cost: approximately $22.00 – $24.00.

Directions: Combine all ingredients into crock-pot.  Cook for first hour on high (or until you see it bubble), then on low for 6-8 hours.  Serve sides of  pasta, chips, and cheese.

Makes about 6 meals for my family of six eaters.  Invite friends over,  take a meal-blessing to a friend, or freeze for future easy dinner nights.

What ingredients do you add or prefer in your chili?  Any other veggies?  I’m curious.  Toppings?

And, for this amerature, is there a preferred bean to use in chili?  I assume kidney, but there were options…  light and dark?  What’s the diff? Do tell.

Sweet cooking blessings to you….

The flu and H1N1 have hit our area.  Many friend’s families have been hit hard.

Everywhere I turn there’s questions, vaccinations, anxieties and hand sanitizer.

I am thankful we have not contracted it, yet we haven’t been 100% either.

I think the seriousness of the flu has made me laid-back about our cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough!

We’ve had cough or boogers of some sort in our home for the past six weeks.  Perhaps if the flu wasn’t the main topic of worries, I may be more concerned with our cold symptoms.   We’ve just kept going along, being thankful.

Remembering to pray, get good sleep, minimize sugar, take our vitamins and inhalers, breath fresh air and make some soup.

Recently this recipe arrived in my inbox.  I love to make soup.  I’m a huge work in progress in the kitchen, and soup has become one of my favorites and specialties to make.  It is usually loved by all.    I keep an eye open for Ving-Safe recipes.   I usually use basil and tomatoes in  most of my soups,  so  I was excited to try some new ingredients!  I added sage, marjoram, and poultry seasoning to my shopping list.

I  tripled the recipe, and made my own adaptions from the original.    If you don’t have a big pot or need to feed a smaller crew, don’t use my adapted version below, click here and use the original.

Cure-All Chicken Soup
(Jewish Penicillin)

12th century Egyptian physician, Moses Maimonides, was the first to prescribe chicken soup as a cold and asthma remedy. Now researchers at the University of Nebraska have found that homemade chicken soup really does make you feel better! Chicken soup boosts the immune system, clears clogged airways, and reduces congestion and inflammation by limiting the movement of white blood cells that produce infection-related mucus. So you have less sniffles. Garlic and onions are a natural decongestant, too. Plus this soup is super-comforting and easy for a raw throat to swallow.

12 QT pot….

1 whole chicken (5-6 lb. You could go up to 9-10, but I thought 5-6 was fine.)
4 onions, diced in food processor
6 cloves garlic, (I used 6 tsp minced garlic in water, in jar)
10 big carrots (up to 15), shredded in food processor (or could use 3-4 bags matchstix carrots)

10 celery stalks (up to 15) including leaves, diced in food processor
6 tablespoons dried parsley (fresh would be even better)

12-16 large potatoes diced into dime size pieces.   (If you’d rather do noodles  than potatoes, I prefer ditalini pasta, cooked, tossed with oil, and set to the side.  Serve soup over when done, don’t mix into pot)

3 tsp. poultry seasoning or 1 tsp each of sage, rosemary and marjoram  (I might have even added a  bit more, will pay attention next time!)

3 bay leaves, broken in halves

1 TBSP Pepper (and add more to taste as desired)

4-6 tablespoons salt.  Start with four, then only add as needed…. Salt is an important ingredient for flavor, but don’t overdo it!  If the soup doesn’t have a lot of punch and flavorful when I’m done, I always try adding a bit more salt to the pot, and it will often make a huge difference!)

Directions:

Rinse chicken under running water, removing giblets and rinsing out cavities. Put chicken into a large stainless steel soup pot  12 QT,  and add water to just an inch from the top of the pot …   Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer on medium low heat for an hour or more (~2hours) until chicken separates easily from the bones. (Can use a frozen chicken, but must boil longer)

Lift chicken out of the pan and put on a tray to cool. (If you want to remove the fat, pour the cooking liquid into a pitcher and put it in the fridge so fat can congeal on the top of the broth for easy removal. I DID NOT DO THIS) Remove chicken from bones and shred by hand or in food processor. Set aside for later, to add last.

Add onions, garlic, carrots, celery, (potatoes), parsley and spices to the broth and simmer until the carrots (and potatoes) are tender… about 20 minutes. Stir in the chopped chicken meat.   Simmer 5 more minutes to blend flavors. Serve steaming hot and inhale the steam to break nasal congestion.

If you have the Ditalini pasta,  put the cooled or room temperature pasta in soup bowls / mugs and serve steaming soup over the top.  Stir and enjoy!

Note: I really liked the potatoes in this soup.  I wasn’t sure at first, but it was a huge hit!

When we were first married, Irv sold LifeTime Cookware and we therefore inherited our sample pots and pans.    I use the 4 QT and 6 QT on a daily basis for general cooking.  For example, the 6 QT allows me to boil two boxes of pasta at the same time.   As we were blessed with more children, he purchased me a 12QT and a 20QT dutch oven pots for making soup.

When I make soup, I use these larger pots so I can freeze soup for future meals.  I don’t believe it is much additional work to make a bigger pot, and the extra meals are great!  ‘This recipe above, using the 12QT, provided about four meals worth.  I froze them in Take-A-Long Rubbermaid containers that were 3.25 QT’s each.     When I roast a whole 20-25# turkey for the purpose of making soup, I use the 20QT and get many more meals.

When a meal is needed,  I  pull the soup from the freezer, warm it up on the stove.  At the same time, in another pot, I boil a box of noodles.  Lastly, I serve the heated soup over a handful of noodles  (preferably Ditalini) in a bowl.   I personally prefer no noodles, but the Littles like them a lot.  I’ve found that my kids will eat any soup now as they associate the Ditalini pasta with yummy soup.  And as long as the veggies are diced or shredded, they’ll eat anything!

We have a favorite soup recipe from the Gaglio family, called PEEPEE soup.  I will post that in the future, but the recipe calls for Acini De Pepe Pasta. Since we aren’t Italian, but rather 3-1-5-ers, and cannot pronounce Pepe correctly,  we named it PEEPEE soup.   Later, when I started using Ditalini pasta instead of the tiny balls of Acini de Pepe, the kids would say, “This isn’t PEEPEE soup!”   Since the Ditalini noodles are small, little, donut, round-like noodles, and it wasnt’ PEEPEE soup, we named it POOPOO soup.  So now, all soups with Ditalini pasta in our home are called POOPOO soup!

If you get sick, my kids might just feel led to cook you up a big batch of POOPOO soup – don’t be scared!  It’s  delicious.

Any favorite soup recipes to share with me?  I’d love to hear from ya…

Praying for healthy blessings on us all!   Happy Sunday sweet friends….