Mexican Style Lasagna

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Jennifer

A fairly new favorite meal at our house is this Mexican Style Lasagna.  I got the idea several months ago from somewhere online, however I have continued to tweak it until we arrived at this recipe.  Mexican Style Lasagna

  • 2 cups diced tomatoes
  • 1 quart pinto beans
  • 1 quart salsa
  • 4 corn tortillas
  • 1 cup mozzarella cheese
  • 1 cup cheddar cheese

First layer: 1 cup diced tomatoes, 1 pint of pinto beans, 1 pint salsa top with 4 tortilla shells Second layer: 1 cup diced tomatoes, 1 pint of pinto beans,  1 pint salsa top with cheese.  Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350* or until warm and bubbly.

Side note:  This is the iron skillet that I just cleaned up!  🙂

This seems to be a fairly inexpensive meal but I really don’t know how much it does cost because the tomatoes, pinto beans and salsa were all home canned. Now if I can just find a corn tortilla recipe that I can make…  Then start making cheese… 🙂

Do any of you have any corn tortilla recipes that are basically no fail?

Blessings,

Jennifer

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Old Iron Skillets

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Jennifer

A few years ago, while rummaging around in my husband’s grandparents’ basement we came across two old iron skillets that were very rusty.  At the time, I thought it would be neat to clean them up but really didn’t know if I could ever restore them to the point of using them.  Well enter a few more years in our basement before I remembered about them and this is what they looked like.

This week I remembered them and thought it would be fun to see if we could restore them.  I decided to start with the larger skillet.  So one afternoon this week I sat in the yard while the kids were playing and worked to get the rust off with a steel wool pad.  With a lot of elbow grease I was able to clean it up pretty well.

Then I coated it with vegetable oil and slid it into the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour to season it.  This process was a little bit stinky. 🙂

I am really pleased with the results!  I have used it a couple times already.  Hopefully soon I will be able to take the time to work on the smaller skillet.

Have you ever cleaned up an old iron skillet to use again?  How did you get along with it?  I am glad I finally tried.  I definitely think it was worth the time and effort.

Blessings,

Jennifer

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More Apple Cider

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Jennifer

Earlier I had mentioned that my husband had improved our apple press.  Well I finally snapped a few pictures while we were pressing apples Saturday.

Apples waiting to be pressed. The blue tub had both red and yellow apples in it.

The new to us motor with new pullies on both motor and crusher.

The apple pulp in both barrels waiting to have the juice pressed out.

Wheelbarrow full of apple pulp after being pressed. Great snack for the goats and ponies.

We were able to get 2 1/2 gallons of juice from those apples.  It is so sweet and delicious.

Since then we pressed more apples and also some pears.  The pear/apple juice is also very tasty!  I hope to get glean some more apples to make apple/elderberry juice before all the elderberries are gone.

It seems this time of year is so very busy, but I am so thankful to be able to add to our bountiful harvest!  God is so GOOD!!

Blessings,

Jennifer

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Red Apples, Yellow Apples, Yummy Apples!

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Jennifer

Apples cider, applesauce, apple pie…I just love apples!

Although the kids and I had picked a few apples and worked them up into applesauce and apple pie in a jar we hadn’t done any apple juice until today.  We were waiting on Scott to get the modifications done on the apple press.

Last year we had borrowed a 1/6 hp motor to run the crusher. This motor didn’t have the power to efficiently run it. We also wanted to get a motor that we could leave on the press.  So after much looking we were able find and purchase a used 1/2 hp motor for $40. There were a few other things he wanted to tweak to make the crusher run more smoothly and efficiently.

Thankfully, Scott was able to finish the modifications Monday evening.  So on Tuesday evening we went as a family to pick apples off two trees.  (We do not have any of our own apple trees.  Thankfully we have been blessed to find people who have extra apples and are willing to share.  I look forward to owning our own land so that we can plant lots of fruit trees!)

Anyway the kids and I were able to get 4 gallons of juice today.  The kids each had a job to do ranging from rinsing apples, to putting them in the crusher, to straining the juice once it made it to the kitchen. Oh they also had to “taste test” the juice to make sure it was up to par.  We are looking forward to picking more apples at another location to add to our stock of apple juice.

We ran out of last year’s juice a few weeks ago so I want to have a big supply on the shelves this year.  Unfortunately I didn’t write down how much juice I canned last year, oops!  So now it is a guessing game as to how much we will need for a year.  This year I am keeping a better record of what/how much we are canning, thanks in large part to blogging about it. 🙂

What is your favorite way to have apples?

Blessings,

Jennifer

 

 

 

 

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Elderberry syrup

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Jennifer

Monday afternoon I picked Elderberries for the first time.  Elderberries are abundant in this area.  I picked about two gallons of berries with the stems attached. I rinsed the berries and removed them from the stems. I put them in a stainless steel pot and covered them with water and boiled them for about 15 minutes and then turned the heat down and let them simmer for a little while.  Then I poured the berries and juice through a cheesecloth lined strainer. At this point, I probably rushed it a little bit because it was getting late ( I had taken a break to go help mow the yard).  So I did gently squeeze the berries to try to get more juice out rather than just giving it plenty of time to drip.  I divided the juice and put part of it back into the pan to add raw honey to it.  However since we will have one child who isn’t 2 yet I saved some juice and made elderberry syrup with sugar so that he can have some if he needs it.  It sure takes a lot of sugar/honey to make the syrup sweet.  Those little berries are pretty tart. I ended up with 9 cups of Elderberry syrup.  I just put it in the freezer so I could maintain the properties of the raw honey.  I think I will try to make some elderberry jelly also.  I have found a couple of recipes that I would like to try.

Blessings, Jennifer

Tots and Me

 

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