September #3 biscuits and broth

Good morning 

I’m trying to be more productive.  The pastor in Australia we watch is doing a series on Nehemiah,  where the wall around Jerusalem gets rebuilt For an application now,  he suggested we  all make 5 new goals.  That’s advice I needed as I have not thought about goals since this virus changed everything.  

So today,  I’ve been up several hours.  I did some Bible reading and an exercise video.  (Those are 2 of my daily goals) 

Then I looked on my to do list and thought this was a perfect time to start some freezer biscuits.  

I chose a recipe that used half and half, also known as light cream,  because I had 2 jugs of this cream that needs to be  used.  

I quadrupled the recipe and made the first batch plain.

➡️basic biscuit recipe  ⬅️

  

I added our diced jalapeños and sharp white cheddar to the second batch.  

They are all in the freezer, and when frozen, I will bag them up and bake as needed.  (I freeze them first on sheets and not touching so they don’t freeze together in one big lump.) 

I baked a few of the jalapeño cheese ones and they are delicious!  

In my last post,  I showed the chickens I cooked for taco meat.  

The broth from cooking them in the crockpot had been chilling in the fridge.  

I took the fat off the top and put the broth in containers to freezer for future recipes,  

It is really nice broth with a gelatin consistency and should be very good when I cook with it.  

When I was growing up,  everyone’s kitchen had a can with a strainer to save bacon grease for future cooking.  It was thrifty and Southern cooks like that bacon flavor in so many things. 

When I saw this ad for a local farm store,  I was so surprised!  

They are selling little tubs of bacon grease for $7.99!  

The looks to be the size of a small tub of margarine.  

I don’t cook with bacon grease but if I did,  I would not buy it ready made.  It is a free byproduct anytime bacon is cooked.  

And here’s a cartoon that made me laugh 

Have a good day everyone 

❤️Rhonda 🏠 

 

September #2 - mostly kitchen stuff

Hello 

It’s still just weird around here.  Our little county is now in the Red Zone as classified by the virus numbers.  I’m normally optimistic but this seems to have no end in sight.  

So, we are just staying busy with home stuff, staying at home or in safe places,  and staying busy.  

Here’s my current to-do list

More peppers- my husband’s plants are just producing so much! 

So this last batch,  I sliced the bells into strips along with onions and froze them in meal size bags.  They will get sautéed like fajita style veggies and be eaten on fajitas or any kind of Mexican meal.  

I also diced more jalapeños and froze them too.  

I made a double recipe of the cheddar carrots recipe I shared in my last post and they were so good!

I also made a double batch of Mexican Wedding Cookies/Russian Tea cakes/SnowBall cookies.  I didn’t add the chopped nuts or roll them in powdered sugar.  

Instead,  I made flattened balls of the cookie dough and dipped some in sprinkles, some in mini chocolate chips and topped some with pecan halves.  

They brought big smiles to everyone I shared them with.  

My husband needed a knee X-ray in Oklahoma City this week.  It was near the military Commissary we like so much.  We haven’t shopped there since  March 1st so we went after he had the X-ray.  

The Commissary is huge and I feel very claustrophobic wearing masks, so we only shopped a few aisles and the meat department.  

Their meat prices were so low and they have very nice quality.

Ducky smells the meat.  😀 I like the brown paper sacks so I always them up and reuse them for many things,  

They had these boxes for $30 filled with an assortment of fresh meats.  

  

I didn’t add up the price tags exactly but they would of been more than $40 if bought individually.

I cooked the 4 rolls of ground beef when we got home and seasoned them for taco filling.  

To make room in the freezer for the new meat purchases,  I did a little rearranging.  

I also took out 2 whole chickens and cooked them in a slow cooker.  Then I shredded it and seasoned it for chicken taco filling.  

It’s cooked chicken seasoned with tomato sauce, onions,  cumin, red pepper and garlic to taste.   

A bonus of cooking whole chickens is all the broth - about a 1/2 gallon!  I’ll chill it, remove the fat on top and then freeze in meal size containers.

To save space,  I re-wrapped some of the meat into freezer paper or zipper bags and it takes up much less space then when left of the original trays. 

Two of grandchildren are attending their school everyday like normal.

Three of them are doing in person school 2 days and week and virtual school 2 days a week.  

And three of them are doing only virtual school.  Some of the virtual classes are really good and I commend the teachers.  This situation is probably the hardest on them as they must be so flexible.  

Anyways,  here are 3 siblings all watching a class for 1 of them.  But they were all interested and ready to learn. 

Hope you all are fine 

❤️Rhonda 🇺🇸

Living the red zone 😱