Easiest Lemonade Ever!

Wow! This lemonade is my new favorite drink to make for hot weather, and sooo easy!

I have tried making lemonade from scratch before, and it has either involved juicing a whole bunch of lemons which are not grown in my area and therefore trucked in and expensive. Or it meant making a syrupy concentrate to mix with water.

Both were more work than I wanted to go through…and more lemons

So for years, I bought the frozen concentrate instead. But it never tasted quite right.

One scorchingly hot day this summer, I thought, “It really can’t be that hard to make lemonade,” and came up with this recipe. Sheesh, it’s so easy, it’s hardly a recipe lol! I invented the easiest lemonade ever, I think.

Here’s all you need: a lemon, half cup of sugar and water…and ideally a quart jar.

Cut the lemon in half and juice it. You can strain the juice to get rid of seeds if you want to, but I don’t because I want the pulp. If I have seeds, I pick them out of the juice with a fork.

Put the lemon juice and—and this is key!!—the lemon halves in your jar. Add the sugar and water to fill the jar. Shake or stir to dissolve the sugar, then put it in the fridge for a few hours and the lemon halves will give your lemony flavor a boost.

You can easily double this recipe and use a half-gallon jar instead.

I was so excited about this lemonade recipe that I posted a how-to video on TikTok. My TikTok profile says I’m “Just an idealistic nature lover hoping to save the planet by sharing insights :)”

So…how does making lemonade from scratch save the planet? By changing how people think, I hope.

Here’s what I mean: When people get reconnected to making food (or drink) from scratch, when they are empowered to cook for themselves, to realize they don’t have to go to the grocery store or Door Dash for every little thing, perhaps they will start to rethink packaged foods, convenience foods, foods that show up on the doorstep as prepared meals, and so on.

Maybe, just maybe, making lemonade from scratch will lead to making yogurt from scratch (also super easy!). Maybe it will lead to packing a lunch rather than going through a fast-food drive through. Maybe it will lead to cooking dinners instead of eating takeout.

And maybe moving people from processed foods moves people one tiny step closer to paying attention to what they eat and drink…and that might lead to paying more attention to the world around them, and what is happening to it.

There is so much work to be done to turn this train around and save the planet. It will take much, MUCH more than some homemade lemonade, I realize that. But it’s a tasty place to start.

Lemon photo by Lukas: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photography-of-lemons-1414122/

August 26, 2024 0

Yes, It IS This Easy to Make Your Own Yogurt

I told a friend how eating yogurt helps my sensitive stomach and she said, “But there’s so much sugar in yogurt.”

Wait. What? There’s no sugar in yogurt! So as part of my #eatinginplace posts, here’s how easy it is to make yogurt…

Yogurt is simply milk with a starter. The starter can be store-bought or you can save some of your yogurt from your first batch to make your next.

This is all you need to make yogurt: milk, starter and a thermometer. You can follow the directions on the package, but I fudge it to get more because the starter is expensive. I use a half gallon of milk, not a liter, and I use one package for the whole half gallon. That way, I get twice as much yogurt for the cost.

Heat the milk to 180 degrees over a medium or medium low heat. And keep an eye on it. Once it gets past 180, it will quickly boil over and that’s a mess to clean up. Trust me on this. I’ve had to clean up that mess several times.

Then let it cool to between 108 and 112 degrees. Then to cut the cost, I divide one packet of the starter between two quart jars. Add a little bit of your cooled milk and mix it with the starter. Then fill the jar the rest of the way and mix well.

Then put the lids on and put your jars in the oven on a very low heat. My small oven has a lowest setting of 150 degrees and that works for me. Then leave it alone for a few hours.

I put a sticky note on the oven so I remember the yogurt is in there and don’t accidentally crank the oven heat for something else.

After a few hours, you have thick, tasty and sugar-free yogurt that’s good for your gut.

June 12, 2024 1

Get a Morning Buzz With This Canning Mistake

I have made blackberry cordial many times…many, many times. Ask my family, especially my husband and youngest. They will tell you that I am not a blackberry cordial newbie.

Yet somehow in the craziness that has been the past two years, I messed up. And it’s particularly embarrassing because I made the blackberry cordial as a surprise Christmas gift for Bob. He had been asking me to make it and I had pooh poohed him secretly knowing I would make it without his knowing.

So. I made it. And bottled it, one bottle for Bob and one for my mom. The extra I put into a quart jar. You don’t have to process this blackberry cordial. It’s 50% brandy, so no preservation is necessary.

I duly gave both Bob and my mom a bottle as part of their Christmas gifts. And thank goodness they did not dive right in! Why? Because I didn’t make blackberry cordial. I made a highly alcoholic blackberry jelly!

It turns out that I cooked it just a bit too long. If you canned and made jelly or jam (or had a simply syrup turn into candy on you), you know there’s a point you’ll cross heat-wise that means your concoction is going to gel.

Uh…yeah. That is what I accidentally did. And this stuff was potent! I spread it on a piece of toast and a couple of bites in, it was booooiiiiing. As neither Bob nor I have time to start our days with a buzz, and we aren’t likely to eat jelly as a cocktail substitute at the end of the day, I managed (with effort!) to empty the bottle and the jar and to dump this lethal stuff down the drain. (And yes, I warned my mother about it.)

This goes to show how easily a recipe that’s tried and true can turn on you! And it’s one more indication that life has been out of control for almost two years now. But at least we laughed about it.

January 18, 2024 0

Foraging Jelly with Oregon Grape and Blackberries

Bob looooves his raspberry jam, but we have tried five times now (and five different ways) to grow raspberries as part of our small farm, and they simply do not want to cooperate. That means spending what is now about $50 per flat for local raspberries.

Now, I don’t mind spending the money for the raspberries when I put them in the freezer for winter smoothies and raspberry fools. After all, they are raspberries and therefore labor intensive to harvest. I get it.

But I do mind spending that much money to put them in a pot with sugar, to cook them down into jam. It’s seems a waste!

Plus, we are trying to grow as much of our own food as possible over time, and obviously raspberries aren’t going to be part of that.

So I tried making and canning apple butter for a few years, since we have plenty of apple trees. But Bob doesn’t like it. Ditto for pear butter and plum jam, even though we have trees to supply the fruit. Nope, he likes his raspberries!

This year, I tried making what I call Foraging Jelly. As it would be made with blackberries but also Oregon grape berries, I thought the tang might be what Bob has been missing. And this year, the birds and bears left plenty of Oregon grape berries on the plants, for some reason.

So I hoofed it to the logging road with the dogs one day and picked a bunch of the Oregon grape berries. (I already had plenty of Himalayan blackberries since, sadly, our hayfield has far too many brambles along the edges.)

I used a typical jelly process and plenty of sugar to both jell the jelly and to counteract the tart. The result? Success! It has just enough tartness to please his palate…for free.

It’s not raspberry jam, but it makes a lot more sense…and cents!

September 15, 2023 0

The Peace of Shelling Peas

On our small farm journey, we are striving to grow much of our food. This is harder than you might think given the wet clay soils we are stuck with. But despite the challenges, it is joyful, meaningful and educational.

And there’s another benefit: the necessary slowing down required to process and preserve this homegrown food, because that slowing down leads to peace.

On a sunny July afternoon, I sat outside at the picnic table shelling these peas pondering the peace of the process. It didn’t seem like a chore. It seemed like a blessing to be able to sit quietly for an hour with my dog at my feet shelling peas for the freezer while listening to the birds.

Sometimes when I’m doing those kinds of tasks, I think I’d enjoy it more with company, with someone to talk to. But other times, like today, I felt grateful for the solitude and time to simply sit and think and be. My brain was quiet. My heart was full. I was at peace.

All because I had a basket full of peas.

July 7, 2019 0

Stop with the Sterile Shrink Wrap! How to Cook–and Use–a Whole Chicken

basting the chicken — Basting a chicken partway through cooking.

I am working on an article about why we eat so much chicken in the U.S., and in doing so, thought maybe some people could benefit from knowing how to avoid buying the sterile, shrink-wrapped packages of breast meat so sadly prevalent in the modern-day grocery store and kitchen, and opt for a whole chicken instead. It’s really quite easy, I promise! And it’s worth the little bit of extra effort.

Here’s what I do, and trust me, I am a shortcut cook so this won’t be complicated:

roasted chicken before roasting Aug 2012 — Whole chicken tressed, with butter, salt, pepper and sage…ready for the oven!

I start with a whole chicken and roast it for dinner. (You want an easy-to-cook dinner? Roast a chicken!) If you need a recipe, check the Internet and you’ll find lots of choices, from simple to complex. Me? I usually tress it, rub it with butter, and sprinkle it with salt, pepper and stage. Sometimes I stuff it with onions and celery. Then cook it at 350 for as long as it needs (usually 1 1/2 to 2 hours because we usually let our chickens get really big before harvesting!).

roasted chicken — Roasted whole chicken fresh from the oven.

We eat slices of chicken meat as part of our dinner, then I pull off the rest of the meat and chop it into big pieces and put it into freezer bags, usually two or three, so there’s enough chicken meat for a dinner recipe in each bag.

Then I put the carcass and any skin and bones into a soup pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, then partially cover and simmer for 2 to 3 hours. After that cools, I pull out the carcass and usually find another cup worth of meat on it. I add that meat to the freezer bags I already put together.

I taste the chicken stock and cook it down if it needs to be more concentrated, adding salt as needed. After cooking it down, it goes into the fridge so the fat will solidify on the top. I skim off the fat. Then the chicken stock goes into small containers in the freezer.

These chicken enchiladas were made using the chicken leftover from roasting a whole chicken...a much tastier version compared to enchiladas using just breast meat. — These chicken enchiladas were made using the chicken leftover from roasting a whole chicken…a much tastier version compared to enchiladas using just breast meat.

Now I have chicken for at least two more dinners, and it’s already skinned and deboned and ready to go. It will get used for soups, pot pies, enchiladas or some kind of crockpot creation. Plus I have home-made chicken stock for cooking other dishes.

In addition to being cheaper this way, you get more flavor because you have both white and dark meat. And you’re ready to make two meals in a jiffy with your frozen, chopped up, already cooked chicken meat.

Doesn’t that sound better than the shrink-wrapped and sterile alternative??

January 21, 2014 0

Old Fashioned Recipes: Dutch Baby for Breakfast

Try this old fashioned recipe for Dutch Baby, for a very simple, very tasty breakfast.

This morning I wanted to have something wholesome for my graveyard working husband to eat when he came home, something nourishing to fill his empty stomach but something a little sweet too to send him off to sleep with. I was thinking on old-fashioned recipes and what might fit the bill…

Then I remembered the Dutch Baby recipe in my “Lost Art of Real Cooking” cookbook. Perfect!

Nothing could be simpler to make than this Dutch Baby breakfast. And it’s a great way to cook up tasty eggs if your hens are getting ahead of you! (Note: You need a heavy skillet for this old fashioned recipe.)

Old Fashioned Recipes: Dutch Baby Breakfast

1 stick salted butter
4 eggs
1 c. milk
1/2 c. sugar
1/8 t. salt
1 c. flour
syrups, jam, honey to serve

Preheat the oven to 425.

Melt the butter on the stovetop in a heavy skillet, then remove from the heat.

Using a whisk, beat the eggs until well blended. Whisk in the milk, then the sugar and dash of salt, and finally the flour. Mix well. It will be still be lumpy. That’s fine.

Pour this batter into the melted butter in your heavy skillet. Don’t mix it in with the butter or anything, just pour it in. Then put the skillet in your hot oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

The Dutch Baby will puff waaaaay up and look fabulous, but it will fall shortly after you pull it out of the oven. So if you want to impress someone, make sure they are nearby!!

To serve, slice into wedges. It serves 4 but today it served 2 because I was hungry! It doesn’t need any more butter, but slather it with jam or honey or douse it with syrup.

Try it. I promise you’ll like it. It is that easy and that tasty!

January 19, 2014 0

Old Fashioned Christmas Cookies: Poppyseed Thumbprint Cookies

We are tradition bound in our family, I admit it. I’d be likely to waver on some things, but Emma won’t let me. So every year, I make the same Christmas cookies, and they are for us traditional simply because I’ve always made them.

These poppyseed thumbprint cookies are one of the traditional Christmas cookies I bake. They aren’t technically old-fashioned cookies, because I found the start of this recipe in a local newspaper 25 years ago. But they meet my criteria for an old-fashioned recipe because they are simple and use common ingredients. And I made them a Christmas cookie because they fit that criteria too: They are a little fancier than you’d make for the cookie jar during the rest of the year. They use a fancy ingredient you’d likely only splurge on at Christmas time. And they have orange juice and zest, another Christmas-y flavor. (Plus if you go the Grand Marnier route, they are even fancier!)

I hope you’ll make them and enjoy them and they’ll become an old-fashioned traditional Christmas cookie for your family too!

Poppyseed Thumbprint Cookies
(makes 2 dozen)

½ c salted butter, softened
¼ c sugar
1 egg yolk
1 T orange juice or Grand Marnier
1 1/3 c flour
2 T poppyseeds
2 t finely grated orange peel
¼ c red currant jelly

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolk and orange juice (or Grand Marnier). Gradually add the flour, and mix until well blended. Add the poppyseeds and orange peel and mix until just blended.

Shape into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. (You should have 24 cookies.) Use your thumb to make an indentation in center of each cookie. Spoon about ¼ teaspoon of red currant jelly into each indentation, making sure the jelly looks pretty because it will stay in that shape.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Leave on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes after you pull it out of the oven. Then move to rack to cool.

December 23, 2013 0

Snapping Green Beans All Afternoon…It’s All Part of the Dream

It’s 9:30 at night and I am almost done with today’s project: freezing green beans. I picked up 20 pounds of green beans from a local farmer yesterday and, unlike tomatoes, green beans don’t wait. I didn’t like waiting a day even, but that was the timing. I will soon be done blanching the second batch, dropping them into cold water, drying them, and packing them into plastic bags for the freezer and then finally going to bed.

Although my husband is gone, he will be back and I am trying to do what little bit I can to move forward with our dream of eating local food and starting a small farm by getting some things canned and frozen for winter. The green beans aren’t ours, but they are local, and next year we will have time to get the garden going and then yes, the green beans will be home-grown. For now, at least it keeps us eating a little local during the winter months and reminds us of what we’re working towards. When he gets home, I don’t want it to feel like we had to take a year off from our dream…just the six months. 🙂

August 25, 2013 3

It’s Asparagus Season! Enjoy This Old Fashioned Recipe Using Asparagus!

OK, it’s the tail end of asparagus season, but…for us anyway, we can still get local asparagus at the produce stand and I hope to buy, cook and eat more of it before the season is through. I am challenged right now by lack of husband (deployed) and lack of interest (in a picky, asparagus-hating daughter) making me the only one at the farmhouse willing to eat asparagus. But if the season will go just a little bit longer, I will be making this for sure at least one last time.

This recipe technically doesn’t fall into the old fashioned recipes category other than the fact that I’ve been making it for over 20 years. But I include it here because in a way it does belong. Why? Because it’s based on simple, wholesome and local food ingredients. With all of my cookbooks I turn to for old fashioned recipes, I find a common thread of simplicity. Cooking of the past was based on fresh, local, in season ingredients. They didn’t need fancy recipes and exotic ingredients because they had good food. Nor did they have pizza to order in or fast food on the corner, making dinner at home a necessity every night…which made simple cooking the norm because it goes faster.

So no, this isn’t one of the old fashioned recipes from my old fashioned cookbooks, but I think any cooks of old would approve…and for all I know, a farming wife did make this in the past. 🙂

For you, it’s simple and delicious and highly recommended. We never have leftovers when I make this asparagus recipe, and you only need a handful of ingredients and some really good bread. Give it a try before the asparagus is all gone for the year!

Recipe for Asparagus With Eggs

Note: There aren’t really any quantities for this because you either make more or less depending on how many people you’re feeding. These quantities worked for dinner for 3, but you can scale up or down, use more asparagus or less, etc.

2 lb asparagus
4 T butter
6 eggs
1/2 c grated parmesan (or more!)

Preheat the oven to 500.

Next find a pot big enough for the asparagus and get enough water boiling to submerge the asparagus. Cut the tough ends off the asparagus and cook in boiling water for about 4 minutes. You do NOT want them mushy so pull them out early if you need to. You want them tender and soft, yes, mushy, no. Once it’s just tender, drain it into a colander.

In a large skillet, melt 3 T of butter over medium heat. Once melted, add the asparagus and stir it all around to coat it and cook it a little more. Now push all the asparagus to the outside of the skillet, to make a border around the outside of the skillet, if you will. Add the 1 T butter to the middle of the skillet. Crack the eggs into a liquid measuring cup, the kind with a spout, or something else that pours, then pour all the eggs in at once as soon as the butter is melted. Cook over medium heat until the eggs are cooked about two-thirds through. They cook from the bottom up so the bottoms will become opaque while the tops are still transparent. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on the eggs and asparagus. Then put the skillet in the hot oven for just a minute or two. You want the whites cooked through but the yokes still kind of runny. Keep an eye on it!

Serve immediately, preferably with really good toast made from really good bread for soaking up the egg yoke and the buttery goodness infused with the taste of fresh local asparagus.

June 14, 2013 0

Old Fashioned Recipe for Favorite Oatmeal Cookies

old fashioned recipe for oatmeal cookies — Try this old fashioned recipe for cookies everyone will love!

I have been making these cookies for over 20 years, and they are by far my favorite recipe, plus always a favorite with anyone who tastes them…kids and grownups alike.

Two weeks ago I cooked up a batch for Emma to take to her first high school swim meet, knowing they’d have a lot of time on the bus going to and from the meet. She told me that night I’d better plan on baking up a batch for every swim meet because the cookies were such a hit. Since they’re not super sweet and they do have oatmeal in them, I think they are as healthy a snack as a granola bar, at least! Without all the added chemicals of a storebought granola bar.

This might not be one of the old fashioned recipes you’d find in an old cookbook since I made it up, but it certainly could be, because it’s made up of all wholesome, normal ingredients, just like an old fashioned recipe. The recipe follows…

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

1 c sugar
1 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c softened butter
1/2 c lard or shortening
2 eggs
3 c flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 c old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 375. Cream together the sugars, butter and lard/shortening. Add the eggs and mix well. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix well again. Stir in the oats. Using two hands, shape the cookies into uniformly sized balls about 1 1/4 inches in diameter. The actual size is really up to you. I like smaller cookies, but you can make these bigger. As long as they are all the same size! Put them on ungreased cookie sheets about 2 to 3 inches apart. Use the palm of your hand, or the bottom of a drinking glass, to flatten them slightly. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, maybe a little longer if you made bigger cookies. I cook them for shorter time because I like them kind of chewy. If you want your cookies a little crispier, keep them in the oven a minute or two longer. Remove from oven and immediately put on a rack to cool.

They keep for almost a week in my cookie jar, then they get stale. But the only time I have stale cookies is when everyone else is gone, because otherwise these old fashioned oatmeal cookies are gone in a couple of days!

Try these cookies, and I’m pretty sure you’ll count them among your favorite old fashioned recipes…even if you won’t find them in an old cookbook. 🙂

September 18, 2012 1