Winter Salsa - Local, Organic, Cheap

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Dear amigos,

Mr H loves salsa.  I make it about every week, sometimes more often, when he is home.  How to keep it affordable, and made from local and organic ingredients even in the dead of winter?  We don't have cold frames for tomatoes and jalapenos won't grow here in winter, so we rely on canned and frozen ingredients from the summer prior!

Winter Salsa
If you like your salsa blended anyway, use a pure home-canned tomato sauce instead of chopped tomatoes; I sometimes use one quart sauce, one quart diced.  

2 quarts diced tomatoes
2 cups chopped, frozen onions
2 cups chopped, frozen peppers
2 cups raw corn, frozen (optional)
1 pint cooked or home-canned black beans (optional)
1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped frozen cilantro or 2 tbsp dried cilantro
1 canned or frozen habanero or jalapeno (more or less to taste)
Sea salt, to taste (several teaspoons, generally)
Freshly ground black pepper
Dried, ground garlic, garlic flakes, or coarse garlic salt
Ground cumin, to taste (2 tablespoons or more, generally)

Thaw frozen items; drain in a mesh strainer.  Drain tomatoes in mesh strainer, letting sit for several hours or pressing with a spoon to remove some of the extruded water.  Drain beans.  Chop pepper or throw in Vitamix with some of the tomatoes or sauce, and about half the onions and peppers.  Stir all ingredients together, season to taste, and serve fresh.

Dipping in,

Mrs H
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Too Much of a Good Thing? Freeze it for later! Why I Take It All

Dear adventurous companions,

I was once again blessed with an enormous amount of bananas. Free!!

After my experience last summer with seven cases of (halved, in peel) bananas, I've learned that if anything, I know my way around a box of bananas!  Not a single one went to waste, and the peels hit the compost pile at our local CSA immediately.

When somebody offers me free food, I take it, immediately.  No questions asked.  I won't turn down anything, or any amount, for two reasons.

First, if word gets out that I'll take anything and everything, no matter how much, I'll be the first person people go to when they have a surplus.  If I turn it into a prepared food that can be shared, I'll bestow them with a package of it to thank them for thinking of me and, of course, to encourage them to think of me again the next time they have a surplus they want to get rid of!  If they knew I would only take part of the food, they might offer it to somebody else first knowing they could get rid of it all in one fell swoop - but since I can take it ALL, always, every time, I hope I will be their first choice!

Second, there is no such thing as too much because there's always a way to save it!  Even if it's something I haven't used a lot of before - bananas, the first time I got them - and I don't know at the moment how I'll deal with them, I take it without blinking.  I can take the haul home and instantly hit the Internet, my books, or call some expert friends to find out how to process large amounts.  Even lettuce can be turned into a blended soup and frozen!  Eggs can be pickled, or separated and frozen, or turned into custard or pound cake or ice cream and frozen and vacuum sealed for later.  If it truly is too much of something or a food that will rot before I can process it all (like when I was given an extended-bed pick-up truck full of sliced oranges on a hot day), I have some immediate avenues where I can disperse it with no trouble to the original giver: urban homesteading groups, church groups, friends and my network in the local community will all hit my doorstep to enjoy the surplus within a matter of hours after I spread the word.

Out of unexpected surplus or blessings others have received, I've been generously blessed with cases of oranges, bananas, cabbage, greens, collards, bunches of herbs, bags of onions, apples, habaneros, boxes of eggs, fresh meat, pumpkins, watermelon, and so much more; let me assure you, I don't take any of this for granted!  It all feeds in to my larger mission of dedicating time and my networking capabilities to feed my family the most nutritious, nourishing diet I have the power to with my own two hands.

Every scrap of food goes to the immediate purpose of feeding hungry bellies.  There have been times I've been generously offered (and instantly accepted!) huge amounts of food that I knew I wasn't going to be able to eat myself, and by nightfall it was on the tables of families interested in the food and sometimes in desperate need of it.  Even though I didn't do anything to earn that food, it still felt good to be able to give it away and see the joy and answers to prayer it brought to others!

I absolutely love free food - honestly, without it, it would be a real challenge to keep our family fed the way I feel I should.  I earnestly pray every day that I can keep a table of real, nutritious food for my loved ones and the transient sailors and their families that we are often feeding in our home, and I know that my prayers are constantly heard and answered in miraculous ways - sometimes within hours of the prayer - and often the day I run out of something.

Do you ever get free food, and what do you do with it?  Or have you been able to give away from your surplus?

Feeding,

Mrs H

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As seen on Fabulously Frugal Thursday

Top Ten Posts of 2012: Salad, Gifts, Kids - and Lord of the Rings?

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Dear gentle and faithful Readers,

It's been a glorious year of blogging for me, as I have have learned, studied, stretched my limits, and watched the blog grow by leaps and bounds.  You, the faithful and cheerful reader, have visited again and again, increasing our readership by several hundred percent over the course of 2012.  You can't imagine how encouraging that is to a simple blogger like myself!  It motivates me to write and write some more, learn and learn again, and try, try harder!

I look forward to another year of growth, vibrant and sustainable living, and of course some more technical learning.  Looking back over my stats from the year, I pulled a list of the most-viewed posts.  Here is our collection of the top 10 reader favorites in 2012, in ascending order ending with the most popular of all.

This guy's favorite things are his toes!

#10  |  Educational Packs for Little Kiddos
I actually shared this post in Christmas 2011, but it has remained a steady favorite.  Download some coloring and activity packs for kids, and get some recipes for a very-homemade hot cocoa night!

#9  |  Fair Careers: Why I Work Full Time
This hot topic stirred up some interesting discussion on the sidelines, and got a lot of positive reviews from readers.  I don't think any two homes needs to be exactly the same, but sometimes I think people wonder why I don't do things "the way everybody else does!"  This post may answer those questions ... and provoke even more questions to follow!

#8  |  Dinner for a Hot Day: Cold Overnight Salad

A family heirloom recipe, I finally broke down and shared it on the blog (my secret is out!).  It stayed solidly in the top two slots for over half a year, and finally slid down as new posts usurped its position - but it remains a huge favorite with you and other readers, and with myself of course, because it is one of my all-time favorite recipes!

#7  |  Barney Fife Nips it in Wyoming 

I really don't know why or how this post made it to the top ten, but it's amusing enough that I guess people find it interesting!  It was a freak occurence during part of my long year of travel when Mr H was going through rounds of training across the country with the Navy; I guess most of you can sympathize, and hopefully got off as easily as I did, in this instance! 

#6  |  A Penny Found is a Penny Saved is a Penny Earned

This post easily scored in the top ten because of the wildly popular recipe for Indian Fry Bread contained in it.  I myself love this recipe - for a while, we were making it a few times a week (we were poor!  I didn't have yeast!  The sourdough starter died!  What was I supposed to do?!).  It's sister post, while not making it into the top ten, is still one of our popular posts and a family favorite.  

#5  |  I Like Convenience: Mind-Blowing

This one seems a little random to me, but we like what we like, right?  This is the post where I found out about reCap ... if you own a mason jar, you will probably want one, too!!  Or ten. 

#4  |  Best 15 Gifts for Homesteaders 

This surprised me a little because I posted it so near to the end of the year; however, I am excited that you all enjoyed it so much and it has become one of our most popular posts!  It lists some of my favorite or most dearly desired tools for the kitchen - all the best and most tested of their kind.  It's sister post, my top picks booklist, is one of the favorite posts of the month, but not the year.  

#3  |  Out of the Mouths of Babes  

"Kids say the darndest things ..."  This post recalls some of the funny things I've heard kids say, weird things we believed as kids, and a few comics for, well, relief.  When I was a kid, I thought pickles grew in the ocean and that's why they were so salty; as a babysitter, I learned what a bobba chaya was.  Did you believe or say any weird things as a kid, or do your kids crack you up with their unfiltered view of life?  

#2  |  Cloth Diaper Detergent: Yeah, We're Cheap

This detergent post definitely earned a top spot in our year review.  My favorite detergent recipe of all time - we use it for diapers and clothes, and my husband takes containers of it with him on deployment - it is easy (3 ingredients!), free of chemicals, fragrances, damaging whiteners, and skin irritants!  

#1  |  If Lord of the Rings Characters Drove Cars

I have to say, this one took me completely by surprise.  The most favorite post of the year by far, it has somehow gone viral and raked in 1,500% more views than any other post.  I don't know why; but I think it's funny.  It's not even related to my general blog topics - it's just a humorous post about Lord of the Rings!  

More favorites:  These recent posts have scored top slots for the recent months, several of them spread via Pinterest and rapidly becoming favorites with many of my beloved readers!

Render Unto Caesar: Orange Julius
Well, it definitely made my nice list.  When I went home for Christmas, I blended up a few huge batches of this drink, much to the delight of my family!  Chill out with a creamy, smooth drink that has no added sugar!

Storing and Using Bananas: Freezing and Dehydrating and other awesome uses
It's not every day you end up with five cases of bananas, but I was happy to acquire them and even happier to use them!  If you want to stock up, save up and use up bananas, this is the post for you.

Nourishing Traditions Book Review
One of my favorite cookbooks and possibly one of yours, I wrote a thorough review (with links to an interview with the author!) and gave away a copy.

Booklist: Top Picks and Recommendations
As mentioned above, when we posted my list of favorite books it became a reader favorite and I can imagine why; I love reading booklists from other bloggers who read and ponder the same topics I do, and I am always eager for new material! I am sure many of my readers feel the same, and am glad I could be of some use by sharing this list.

Off to write again with the hopes of making you a happier reader!

Mrs H

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Booklist: Top Picks and Recommendations

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Dear Reader,

If you are hunting for a last-second Christmas gift, or just in the mood to find some new literature for your shelves, here are my top cookery-book recommendations!  While I love all the books in my collection and many not listed here get used very frequently, these are the books I go to the most.  I keep these ones close to the kitchen, and their pages are oily, splattered, scribbled on and well-loved!

Click here to see a complete booklist of the cookery guides in my kitchen.  

Click here to read reviews I wrote for books we gave away in the past here on the blog, and for the San Francisco/Sacramento Book Review.  

Home Preserving, Canning, and DIY

Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving  A must-have guide for any homemaker.  Not only covering the rudiments of canning - explaining in detail and with illustrations how to both pressure can, and water-bath can - this book also address freezing and dehydrating, the other two most popular forms of food storage.  With recipes that have become our family favorites, and simple, straightforward instructions on everything from jerky to chutney to pickles to flash-frozen kale, this book is a staple for the kitchen shelf!  See the pickles we made here.

Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It: And Other Cooking Projects  A favorite of mine, it has my most-well-loved recipe for lemon curd, an egg pasta I can hardly live without, and a collection of popsicle recipes that saw me through the hottest, sweatiest days of a post-partum summer!  I absolutely love this book, and every recipe I have tried from it has been an A+ winner.  And the sequel, which I don't yet own, is doubtless just as wonderful and beautiful: Can It, Bottle It, Smoke It: And Other Kitchen Projects

The America's Test Kitchen DIY Cookbook  An outstanding book that every DIYer, urban homesteader, home cook and processed-free-fan should absolutely own.  Read my full review here.  If you take anything home today, let it be this book.

Baking and Bread-Making

Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day  If you are one of those cooks like me who wasted untold bags of flour and yeast on bread that came out thick, heavy, ugly, and lumpy ... Welcome this book with open arms.  Regardless of your skill level, Reinhart will perfect and upgrade your bread, bun, pizza-dough, cinnamon-roll, biscuit, baguette and boule skills to the level of artisan.  I always wanted to eliminate store-bought bread items from our kitchen, but my bread wasn't nearly satisfactory and it always seemed so complicated a chore.  After this book came to our home (recommended by Miz Carmen), we stopped buying bread.  See a sample recipe here.  

King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains (King Arthur Flour Cookbooks)  Another recommendation from the Miz, this book is a winner.  It is my particular delight to choose a new item every few days to accompany our dinner, and this book wormed it's way right into the center of my heart.  I love it.  I love it.  Recipes for cookies, bread, cake, biscuits, all the usual plus more - and all using whole grains, delicious, wonderful, comforting, beautifully laid out and with two sections of photos.  See a sample recipe here, and here.  

Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie  My mom got me this book for Christmas and I almost cried the first time I made the crust and it turned out so exquisitely!  A beautiful, thorough compendium on PIE, this book is not only beautiful, but useful.  

The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook: All the joy and variety of baking-the experience and tradition of America's most historic flour company (King Arthur Flour Cookbooks)  My second cookbook ever (the first was this, a book which I still own and LOVE the recipes from), this book has all the important recipes, variations, lessons, tips, tricks and even historical anecdotes for anything Flour that comes out of the kitchen, from doughnuts to butter cake to sourdough starter to waffles! This book is possibly (being one of the oldest in my collection and well-loved) one of the very messiest I own!

General Cooking Guides: All-Purpose In the Kitchen

The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition  Outstanding book covering all the basics of the kitchen: every cook should own this book.  Every recipe is a go-to, trustworthy and successful dish.  I have never had a flop from this book!  See a sample recipe here, sourced from a book that is a shorter selection of recipes from this one.  

Nourishing Traditions:  The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats  An excellent book for everybody learning to make their own yogurt, soak their own grains and brew their own medicine.  Read my full review here.  

The America's Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook: A Faster, Smarter Way to Cook Everything from America's Most Trusted Test Kitchen  This book is so much fun!  I love how the recipes in it can be whipped out in short order (but big flavor!), and it has been my saving grace more than a few times.  Read my full review here.

Soups, Stews, and Big Pots

Twelve Months of Monastery Soups  I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.  My older sister owned it growing up, and when I married Mr H I instantly went and bought this book (actually, I bought it just before we got married, so I wouldn't have to live a day without it).  Whenever I have a quick dinner I need, a long dinner I can start early, or a vegetable I am at a loss for, I flip through this very simple, spare book.  Lots of recipe, very little extra foofoo, it gets straight to the point.  All the soups have been winners, from Avocado Veloute to my age-old classic well-loved dearly-adored Caldo Verde!  See a sample recipe here.  

Recipes from the Root Cellar: 270 Fresh Ways to Enjoy Winter Vegetables  I accidentally left this book at my friends' house and she texted me how she was secretly glad I did!  When I came a few days later to pick it up, she said she was hastily trying to finish reading the entire thing!  Not only have I been stunned and boggled by the quality of the dishes in Chesman's repertoire, but I love her seasonal take on produce, especially useful to me since I prefer to cook with local and in-season foods.  Tackle turnips, love leeks, and krunch kale with all her fantastic recipes! 

Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever with More Than 400 Easy-to-Make Recipes  As you well know, this book has melted into my kitchen with such love that I can't even get it off my kitchen counter.  This is the best slow cooker book available! Read my full review here.  

Cooking Under Cover: One Pot Wonders -- A Treasury of Soups, Stews, Braises, and Casseroles  I "borrowed" this book from my mom three years ago.  Still "borrowing" it.  Can't let her "have" it back .. Ever!  I love how the recipes in this book all go into one pot, and come out like gourmet, way-too-much-work-went-into-this dazzlers.  Whenever I use a recipe from this book, I feel like a fancy chef (the book includes wine pairings, in case you are a fancy chef!) and I've never had anybody turn down a meal from this book, ever! 

Specialty Cooking: Sweets, Drinks, Entertaining

The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments  Don't let yourself head into another summer season without this ice-cream guide to see you through!  No longer can I eat store-bought ice cream (Dreyers?  Please ... spare me the sixty ingredients!), not after enjoying real ice cream.  The chocolate ice cream in this book?  So wicked, you can only eat a tiny bowl.  The cream cheese?  Ginger?  Lemon?  Tin Roof Sundae?  Stop me, please!  I love this book.  See a sample recipe here.  

Homemade Soda: 200 Recipes for Making & Using Fruit Sodas and Fizzy Juices, Sparkling Waters, Root Beers and Cola Brews, Herbal and Healing Waters, ... and Floats, and Other Carbonated Concoctions  Goodbye canned soda.  Hello home-carbonated drinks!  The title just about sums it all up, and you can read my full review here!  

Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust  This book is one of the newest in my collection, so I actually can't say it is splattered yet.  But I wanted to include it here because I truly enjoy all of Ina Garten's cooking so much.  I was introduced to her friendly cooking show when I was working as a hospice volunteer, and one of the patients I sat with wanted to watch her show many times.  I realized how easy her cooking was, how simple, straightforward, and fresh.  Using just a few quality ingredients, she was setting a table that looked out of this world!  Read my full review here. 

The Versatile Vita-Mix  You know why I wanted this book so badly (read why here!), and now that I have it I am loving every minute of it!   From smoothies to johnnycake, this book has been a family standby since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, and I am more than proud to have it join my collection now!

Homeopathy, Gardening, and Lifestyle

Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Fifth Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs and Food Supplements  This book isn't a doctor, but it can help pinpoint the causes of various malaises and offers solutions from the comfort of your home.  

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!  An excellent guide for homesteaders today, this book will get you started on hog-raising and gardening!  Read my full review here.  

Vertical Vegetables and Fruit: Creative Gardening Techniques for Growing Up in Small Spaces  Read my full review here.

Culinary Reactions: The Everyday Chemistry of Cooking  An informative guide that will leave you better equipped for improvising, creating and experimenting with fewer flops in the kitchen!  Read my full review here.

World Cuisine

Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites  Great, simple recipes - all of them delicious; lots of color photographs! 

Where Flavor Was Born: Recipes and Culinary Travels Along the Indian Ocean Spice Route  This is a big fat book with lots of revolutionary (to the Westerners) and flavorful ways to use spices.  I enjoy international cooking for the simple reason that, while not only bringing new flavors and textures to my plate, it also expands my view of certain foods and helps shift paradigms in thinking about say, cinnamon or star anise.  

Ray's Boathouse: Seafood Secrets of the Pacific Northwest  A book from my native Washington state, this beautifully appointed book is a sophisticated treatise on preparing fresh salmon, crab, lobster and more.  

Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets  What a gem this book is in my collection!  It has saved me more than once with an overful refrigerator of produce, while on the hunt for a new way to use some bountiful vegetable.  (Eggplant jam?  Summer squash pasta?) 

Italianissimo: Over 600 Great Recipes From Every Region of Italy  Actual italian recipes (think: not Olive Garden) with lots of pictures, although the pictures are not really my favorite part.  The best, fastest and easiest pizza crust I've seen yet is in this book; pizza bianca and acutal italian pizzas (no cheese!) will please everybody!

Gluten-Free, Vegan and Vegetarian Cooking

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule  Looking to do some vegan baking?  This miniature book has way too many recipes for its size!  Read my full review here.  

Raw Food/Real World: 100 Recipes to Get the Glow  Almond milk, smoothies, cashew cheese and other excellent ways to prepare raw and vegan food: use as a supplement to your already-nutritious diet, to learn some new ways to prepare vegetables and nuts, or if you are a raw foodie it will be an excellent all-purpose "cook" book! 

Fresh From The Vegetarian Slow Cooker: 200 Recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals that are Ready when You are  I love this book - and recommend it to anybody starting a vegetarian diet (or vegan, as any recipes not vegan have alternate ingredient options).  It was a chance find in a bookstore and I am glad I stumbled across it; soups, lasagne, even dessert and appetizers are included - and all of them with ordinary ingredients you can find in the grocery store.  

Gluten-Free Vegan Comfort Food: 125 Simple and Satisfying Recipes, from "Mac and Cheese" to Chocolate Cupcakes  Unglutenites rejoice - lots of recipe titles you will recognize but in exciting - gluten-free - new ways!   Read my full review here.


Mrs H

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Scroll through the books here! 

Holiday 2012: 25 Best Kitchen Gifts for Urban Homesteaders

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Dear festive gifters, 

As we are preparing for the celebration of Christmas, many of us are seeking gifts to present to one another in honor of that glorious holiday.  If you are wondering what to buy for the aspiring or professional urban homesteader in your life, turn to this list of the 25 (or more!) Best Gifts for the urban homesteader's kitchen!  All of these are used and loved by urban homesteaders everywhere; clean eaters, raw, vegan, paleo, whole-foods diets, and natural living are all supported by these excellent kitchen tools.  I say they are "the best" but of course, that is merely the opinion of myself and thousands of others!  On this list you will find fun stocking-stuffers in the range of $5 - $10, all the way up to best-Christmas-ever bangers of several hundred dollars!  If you have questions or comments, feel free to leave them in the comment section below.  You may have recommendations, as well, which we could all benefit from! 

Be on the look-out for our highly-anticipated book list which will shortly follow.  On it, you will find a delightful range of cookbooks, homesteading and gardening books, all hand-selected to delight the voracious homesteader in your life.  Follow us on Facebook for recommendations, reviews, and giveaways!

I found all of these gifts on Amazon, a site which has become my dear friend especially after the birth of our baby - hurray for free shipping and excellent return policies! 

The 25 Best Gifts for the Urban Homesteader's Kitchen

This lid opener is my best friend - saving me many a scraped knuckle and sore, dented finger, it makes opening those 5-gallon buckets of wheat berries a breeze.  Just hook and unlock each of the bucket tabs with ease, and remove the lid freely!  

Sprout broccoli, alfalfa, almonds, wheat berries and more at home - even more conveniently, use the stash of canning jars already on the shelf!  A few of these sprouting lids are a welcome addition to every nutrition-conscious cook's home.  

With my husband away on deployment, I often have to rely on my flexible rubber jar grips to get things open - even my jars of milk are usually screwed on too tightly for me!  Get this pack for the woman in your life who is constantly handing you the pickle jar to open! 

A wooden reamer is so useful for making tonic, pressing nut purees, or juicing citrus fruits with an easy-on-the-wrist twist.  Wooden tools such as this reamer are especially useful in the kitchen when working with acidic applications where metal and plastic are not always recommended!

Alright, I'll admit; maybe I'm mostly putting this here because I want it!  I have a small one, but I wish I had a mini strainer for straining tapioca, jars of kombucha, small batches of ice cream, cans of crushed pineapple, tonic, pots of tea, homemade apple turnover filling, dusting my work surface with flour or the tops of my cakes with powdered sugar ... Yes, I can think of a thousand ways to use this mini strainer!

Heck, get the big strainer, too!  I use the big one for straining broth, big batches of tapioca, family-size vats of custard, pots of pasta- in fact, I use mine just about every day if not more.  I LOVE these firm rubber handles for gripping.  The thin metal handles tend to wobble and swiggle when I least want them to!

Here's another item that I am listing because I, too, want it... My cousin has a citrus zester/grater, and I jealously use it whenever I am at her house for zesting lemons, limes and oranges into glazes, pastas, pies, cookies, cakes, extracts, salads, dressing ...  Large graters not only peel off big amounts that can be unappetizing to eat, but they dig down to the white, bitter pith far too quickly.  With a delicate zester, you can shave off just the fragrant, essential-oil peel of your organic citrus, or even finely shred nutmeg!

For those with a FoodSaver, this wide-mouth jar sealer is a happy add-on.  Seal jars of dry goods or even jars of refrigerated items like salad for the week or grapes, with just the lid and a Tilia FoodSaver tube attachment.  

A nut milk bag comes in very handy when preparing your own homemade milks!

These odd-sized measuring spoons are such fun when doing precise cooking or baking in the kitchen where odd measurements are called for! 

Turn regular-mouth canning jars into thermoses, sippie cups or afternoon iced-tea mugs with this handy Cuppow lid, which attaches with a regular-mouth canning ring.  Buy a few and stuff them into a lucky homemaker's stocking! 

Delight a frugal or BPA-sensitive home canner with a pack or seven of Tattler reusable canning lids.  Having tried them myself, I immediately became enamored and enjoy not having to purchase new metal lids every year! A wide-mouth set fits the wide canning jars, and a regular set of course fits the regular, narrower-mouth jars.  Each pack comes with lids and rubber gaskets for twelve jars, to be used in conjunction with the metal rings every home canner already has.  The lids have a lifetime guarantee.  

Make rice, beans, wheat, flour, and anything else stored in a bucket into easy-access with this airtight gamma seal lid.  The lid locks down like any other 5-gallon bucket lid, but the center screws easily out for pain-free access.  Especially useful for buckets that are frequently opened, several of these lids would spare many husbands a chore or two! 

For the health-conscious, a one-pound sack of Maca root powder will be a delightful gift that will go farther than a Russel-Stover box of chocolates.  Maca root is a powerful source of protein and nutrients, and just a teaspoon in a smoothie is enough for your day.  I use it daily!  

If your homemaker stores wheat, flour, dried fruit or any other dry goods in the pantry, stores dehydrated goods or emergency supplies, they will appreciate these oxygen-absorbing packets, which should be added to all pantry stores.  

Even my large, squat spice jars can't accommodate the round bowl of regular measuring spoons, which is where these long, slim measuring spoons come in handy.  Especially useful for spice bottles with narrow mouths, they keep spice measuring from being such a tedious task of shaking, dumping and rattling.  

If you are starting home soda-making or beer-brewing, a two-handed bottle-capper is just the ticket.  Be sure to include a pack of bottle caps, so you can get started on December 26th! 

The ReCap 3-pack turns canning jars into drinking cups, salad-dressing dispensers, trail-mix containers, milk jugs, and more.  Easy flip-top seal saves the hassle of screwing and unscrewing the lid every time you want to access the jar!  

For the pickling and fermenting cook (and that should be all of us!), get this air-lock kit that fits on all of the wide-mouth canning jars already in your - I mean their - kitchen!

I use all cast iron pans in our kitchen.  No toxin-emiting Teflon in our kitchen, or aluminium either, thank you!   Cast iron can go on the stove, in the oven, or even on the campfire - what's not to love!?  Lodge Logic is one of the best brands in the business (unless you can hunt down some cool antique pans!).  And they are shockingly inexpensive!  I use the small 3.5 and 5-inch pans almost daily (I have five of them!) for blooming spices, frying a quick egg, making a toasted cheese sandwich, reheating beans from last night ... I also use the larger 10" + size skillets for curries, stews, stovetop lasagna, oven frittate, campfire cooking  ... You literally cannot go wrong with any size, shape or iteration of a cast iron pan.  You can also order a cover - something I dearly covet!

Add a sturdy coconut meat knife to a stocking full of useful kitchen gadgets! 

Dazzle a home canner with a Ball 125th Anniversary 1 gallon jar - no, it's not for canning, but it's pretty sweet for making kombucha, storing dried beans or filling with cookies!  One, two or ten make the perfect addition to the pantry shelves! 

If your household is getting started on the road to canning, this Ball enamel waterbath canner and tools set will be the perfect starter kit.  It has all the handy gadgets you need to begin waterbath canning the day you open the package!  

The dream pressure-canner of home canners, this Presto 23-quart canner holds stacked pint jars, and seven quart jars.  The lid is the easiest in the industry with a simple screw-on (no washers, clamps or screws to attach!) and easy-to-read dial.  I have three of these and use them not only for pressure canning but for waterbath canning, and cooking large vats of tomato sauce or fruit purees down.  

Ranked the highest of all tested by America's Test Kitchen, the Crockpot touchscreen 6-1/2 quart slow cooker will introduce your home cook to a fine and classy world of crockpot cooking!  

This Splash-Proof Super-Fast Thermapen Instant Read Thermometer was the highest rated probe thermometer when a gamut of the tools were tested by America's Test Kitchen.  An effective probe thermometer is a mandatory tool in my kitchen for turning out perfectly baked breads and cinnamon rolls, tender and juicy roasted birds, and just-right frying oil.  

Mr H delighted me with this gift last Christmas!  For making home-carbonated drinks like sodas, energy drinks, fizzy teas and carbonated juices, set your kitchen up with a home water-carbonator, which uses a refillable c02 charger (refill at Bed Bath & Beyond, Staples, the NEX, and many other locations), that comes with the machine.  We have this home water-carbonator and joyfully use it almost every day! 

If your homemaker has a Vitamix - or if you are planning to get them one (see end of this post!) - add a dry cup grinder to their arsenal of tools.  With blades angled upward and a smaller, squatter cup, this is the perfect addition to the Vitamix as it enables you to grind flours and knead doughs.  

Home-roasting your coffee?  The FreshRoast not only gets high ranking votes from users, but looks fancy-schamncy, too.  No more burned coffee beans (I love you, Starbucks), but instead roast them precisely, evenly, and exactly how you prefer.

And  if you're really ready to blow your home-maker away, treat them to the world-class, top-rated Excalibur food dehydrator.  The 9-tray edition can be used for drying fruits (raisins, craisins, apple chips), fruit leather, vegetables for soup mixes, jerky, reviving popcorn, making pita chips, almond flour, and any of a thousand other wondrous uses.  Sustained, even drying, and a superior, clean appearance, the Excalibur is without a doubt the final name in home food-dehydration.  

As a final addition to the expert kitchen of your homemaker, blow all other competing gifts out of the water with the gold standard in home blenders.  This Vitamix - the optimum setting version, which I have in my home and is the fastest-selling machine they make - will not only make smoothies, but will grind meat, shred cabbage, knead dough, make nut butters, churn ice-cream, cook soup, and with the dry-cup attachment also make flour out of grains like wheat, quinoa, and buckwheat, and do any other number of excellent purposes.  A must for any vegan or raw kitchen, a necessary tool for any homesteader, this Vitamix will make you a shining star and fill your table with vittles to suit a king! 

Gifting with delight and anticipation,

Mrs H


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As seen on Monday Mania with The Healthy Home Economist, at Simple Lives Thursday with Gnowfglins, at Pennywise Platter Thursday with The Nourishing Gourmet, at the Homestead Barn Hop with The Prairie Homestead and Homestead Revival, at Natural Living Mondays with Natural Living Mamma, and at Motivation Monday with A Life in Balance. Also on Fat Tuesday with Real Food Forager, at TALU Tuesday with Anne's Funny Farm, Hearth and Soul Blog Hop and Penniless Parenting, and Traditional Tuesday at Pickle Me Too!

Nourishing Traditions: Book Review and Giveaway

This is the fourth book in a series of giveaways - click here to see what is next in the lineup!  

Like us on Facebook to stay up to speed with all our giveaways!  

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.  They did not pay me for my review.  As some of you know far too well, the opinions expressed herein most definitely are and perhaps unfortunately always will be my own! 

Dear hearth keepers,

I just love holding giveaways!  I was happy to have so many unique entries for the last giveaway, although due to a freakish code glitch most do not appear on the blog.  Rest assured, all entries were received and counted via my inbox!  The error has since been fixed (although the entries still do not appear), and there is no reason we should have any problems with this one ... so I look forward to seeing many of my cooking friends here today!

Our last giveaway was for Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Moskowitz and Romero.  Congratulations to our winner, Becca M, who will soon be reaping the rewards of her entry with a package in the mail!  I will email her for her mailing address, and then forward this address to the publicist at Da Capo Press, the source of many of my happiest reads.  They will speedily send her book off!

Now, on to our next review, and a new giveaway with a chance for you to win!  

This is one of those books that changes lives.  It changes food paradigms, ways of thinking, preconceived concepts and assumptions, and challenges everything you were ever told about Food.

And if you are thinking to yourself, "But I don't have any assumptions about food," then maybe you will enjoy this book all the more - I know I did.  It blew my mind.

Many of you already know the book of which I speak, and knew you were going to enter the giveaway before you read a single word!  I love that.  This book deserves to be well-read, well-known, and well-broadcasted.

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon is an almost-700 page tome that will be your guide when navigating the new and sometimes intimidating world of whole, healthful, nutritional, and downright nourishing food.  Confused over all this blabber about fermented foods, raw milk, cultures and probiotics and bone-stocks and seasonal produce?  Trust this book to have everything you need, in one place.  You can branch out from there if you wish - but this book will set you on the straight and narrow as far as food is concerned.

Maybe you're a pro - you slaughter your own hogs, grow your own kale, and make your own dish soap.  This book belongs to you, then.  It is written by your people!

Or are you just a kitchen hound on the hunt for an all-purpose cookbook with everything from mayonnaise to cheese to roasted chicken to pudding?  Seek ye no further - we have that all, and more.

The book is divided into twelve primary chapters, and I will list them here.  Let me know if this sets you a-drooling, you homesteading maniacs and urban gardeners!

An Introduction heralds us in to scientific world of food.  Ideally, instead of robotically following any diet or fad, you understand the basic rudiments of food for yourself and make your own informed decision - and this book will give you a great start there.  Understand fats, carbohydrates, proteins, enzymes, salt, discussions on food allergies, and even a fat chunk on kitchen equipment (what's a jet stream oven?) and tips (how do I remove insects from Brussels sprouts?).

Move on to Mastering the Basics and get a firm grasp on cultured dairy products like whole-milk buttermilk and your own kefir or yogurt.  What is whey?  How can I make cream cheese?  This chapter includes a section on Fermented Vegetables and Fruits, a concept that is startlingly ancient in practice and shamefully rare in our modern society.  If you're asking yourself, "Why would I want to ferment vegetables and fruits, for pete's sake?  I'm not running a still out here!" then consider yourself a perfect candidate for entry.  Or maybe you're one of those wild women who already ferments her sloppy joes ... join in for a few more recipes and great ideas!  Sauerkraut and Korean Sauerkraut (more commonly known to us as kimchi) top the list of popular fermented vegetables, but the recipes and reasons go on - ginger carrots, pickled cucumbers, turnips, beets, and more.  Ketchup, chutneys and spreads join the list of nutritious, enriching fermented fruits and vegetables!  Also covering Sprouted Grains, Nuts and Seeds, Stocks, Salad Dressings, and Sauces, Marinades and Condiments, this chapter contains all you need to bulk up your pantry and set a fine table with homemade everything.

Great Beginnings, a very great chapter, brings to us Hors d'Oeuvres and Dips, Vegetable Salads, Soups, Raw Meat Appetizers, and Gourmet Appetizers.  Once again, you will not only please your family's palate with Summer Salad, Garlic Soup, or Duck Terrine, but you will know with each and every recipe specifically why you are choosing these ingredients - not only to satisfy our hunger, but to satisfy a nutritional need and to enrich and strengthen our bodies.  No ingredient is chosen lightly here, and you will be thoroughly educated in every section as to the whys and wherefores of each concept.

The Main Course covers all the meats: Fish, Poultry, Organ Meats, Game, Beef and Lamb, and Ground Meat.  Simple recipes like Chicken Stew sit alongside more elegant meals like Turkey with Chestnut Stuffing.  Quail Masala and Korean Beef join the list of recipes you may not have tried before, and sausages, patties, and various stuffed vegetables introduce us to ground meats.

A Catalog of Vegetables guides us through 36 popularly used vegetables, including kale, corn, tomatoes, eggplant, green beans, parsnips, and sweet potatoes.  Organized in alphabetical order, each vegetable receives a short description, along with basic preparation directions and a recipe or two for each one.

Now we arrive at Luncheon and Supper Foods, which covers Meat Salads, South of the Border, Eggs, and Sandwich Suggestions.  Chicken Enchiladas, Vegetable Chile, and Mexican Eggs introduce us to the flaming cuisine of our South neighbors.  Mix up fritatas, omelets, tarts, and quiche with the Egg section, and use up those random things in your fridge with the collection of Sandwich Suggestions.

Grains and Legumes introduces us to Whole Grains, Breads and Flour Products, Baking with Alternative Grains, and Legumes.  The Whole Grains section includes instructions for Breakfast Porridge, Muesli, Algerian Wedding Rice, Ecuadorian Quinoa Casserole, and more hearty, filling dishes.  Find nourishing recipes for pancakes, Yorkshire pudding, and other familiar basics in the Breads section, as well as instructions for your own Sourdough Starter or Zarathustra Bread.

Winding down to the end of our chapters, we find Snacks and Finger Foods, which will supply you with enough snacks to merit tossing out anything that came in a plastic package an a nutrition facts label.

Desserts include a Guide to Natural Sweeteners, Sweets for Kids of All Ages, Pies and Cakes, and Gourmet Desserts.   Your family may suspect you've strayed from the healthy when you serve them Gingerbread, Coconut Bars, Lemon Sherbet or Lemon Meringue Pie, but you can just smile and tell them to eat up!

Beverages include such favorites as Ginger Beer, newbies like Sweet Potato Soda, and instructions for kombucha.  Feeding Babies (with Tips for Successful Breastfeeding), and Tonics and Superfoods conclude our collection of chapters, including in them instructions for the lauded Rejuvelac, Morning Tonic, and such satisfyingly ghastly-named remedies as Iodine Gargle and Swamp Juice.

All in all, a thorough treatment of the subject of food, with everything you need to know to begin a diet of living, sacred foods.

If you are still curious, read another book review on Pantry Paratus, or listen to an interview with author Sally Fallon Morell.

There is hardly time or space here to give this book the treatment it deserves, but suffice it to say it has risen to one of the most popular books in the traditional foods-world, and will continue to grow in popularity as word spreads.  This new way of eating - leaving packaged, processed, modern food behind and returning to the local, rich, filling, nourishing traditions of our forefathers - is gaining momentum and speed.  Be on the forefront of the movement, and enjoy a free book to help get you there!

Enter the giveaway!  

1. Leave a comment below.  Have you heard of this book?  Are you a nourishing-foods pro adding to your collection of guides, or seeking to win this for a Christmas gift?  What intrigues you about this way of eating?  Use a current e-mail address or Facebook page when you leave your comment, and I will contact you via that route when you win - so be sure it's one you check!  Winner will be chosen Wednesday, December 12.

2. Share this giveaway with a friend!  I'd like to get the word on this book out!  Use Pinterest, Twitter, e-mail, Facebook or any other medium to share this review with somebody, and feel free to add a bonus comment for yourself letting us know you did so.  This isn't required but I would be so honored if you would!

We're still giving away more books!  Terry Hope Romero's Vegan Eats World, Chef AJ's Unprocessed, Ron Schmidt's Untold Story of Milk, and a bonus, edible round from Tropical Traditions - so follow us on Facebook to be alerted to all our giveaways!!! 

Yours in nourishment,

Mrs H

tweet us @_mrs_h for chewy nuggets
Pin us at Pinterest for pretty photos and intriguing articles
Follow us on Facebook for recipes, giveaways, and brilliant flashes of perspiration!