Month: July 2015

How to freeze eggs

~ tinycottageessentials ~ Leave a comment
I survived my first week back at work part time!!  

Then I took a really long nap.  It was glorious.  Magical.  I should take this whole “sleep when the baby sleeps” advice people have been suggesting to me for years.

Since I work from a home office and my husband was able to adapt his schedule to be home in the morning to watch the kiddos, it was painless. Literally painless… work from home=no need to pump.  I hate pumping.  

Plus, I get baby snuggles when I step out of the office to top up my coffee.  

And who wouldn’t want a quick snuggle from this little angel?

I just want to eat him.  That’s normal, right?
Also this week, I bought a brand spanking new 11 cup Cuisinart food processor.  Do you know how fast you can shred a zucchini in one of those?  Really fast.

Successful first week back at work and a brand new appliance?  All in all, I would say this week has been a good one.  

Now that you know more about my week than you wanted to, I’ll give you what you came for.  Onward to the farmy stuff…

My backyard flock is laying crazy amounts of eggs.  Around here, we eat eggs like it’s our job.  

Afternoon snack? Hard boiled egg.  

Mid-morning snack? Scrambled eggs.  

Need lunch?  Egg salad or egg and onion sandwich.

Dinner? Quiche.  

Stressed out or just want to eat something? Soft boiled egg smushed with a bit of kerrygold butter.  

It’s a good thing I LOVE eggs.  And yet we still have extras during this time of year.

I know full well the first cold snap of the year will hit and the egg count will drop.  (I’m well aware this could be avoided by lighting the ladies, but there is no power source out by our coop).

The good news is that there are a few ways to freeze eggs for later use.

Mixing eggs together with a pinch of salt and freezing them in 6 or 8 egg blocks (or 3 or 4 duck egg blocks) is a great way to just have what you need all set to pour over your quiche fillings during slow laying weeks. 

Baking often requires just one or two chicken eggs, so the “egg block” isn’t really practical for that application.  This is where ice tray freezing is brilliant!  

16 egg cubes = 8 large chicken eggs
If you have a tray with big spaces, you can just crack a single egg into each compartment and you can freeze whole eggs with ease.    Just don’t try to freeze whole eggs for more than 6 months. I’ve heard the yokes can get an odd texture, although I have never experienced that myself.

Our ice tray has smaller compartments.  A medium egg takes up 1 1/2 compartments.  It’s super awkward.


Not very convenient to have a main cube and an egg white “chip,” so beating the eggs first is a better option for us.
Once they are frozen, I pop them into a gallon size ziploc and label with the date.  For recipes calling for one large egg, 2 “egg cubes” can be used. 
If you don’t have an ice tray, partially filled muffin tins will do just fine:

With our pekin duck eggs, we can use the ice tray to partition them like chicken eggs.  I like that because then it takes away the trouble of converting between duck/chicken egg quantities for baking.  Two “egg cubes” is 1 large egg for most recipes.

Why does Charlotte the duck lay so many eggs?
Duck eggs are a challenge for me to use up, because they are huge and I don’t have many recipes that use them under my belt.  I am working on expanding my repertoire in that regard, so stay tuned and perhaps I will share.  
Alternatively, anybody want a few duck eggs?

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

~ tinycottageessentials ~ Leave a comment

Fact: I love chocolate milk as much as my 3 year old does.  (Although sometimes I combine it with my other love… coffee.)

Fact: Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup’s number one ingredient is high fructose corn syrup.

Oh hello there familiar but unhealthy syrup…

Now why would I take my lovely, pastured, organic milk and fill it with corn syrup?  I shouldn’t.

Fact: During the shopping fever of Amazon’s Prime Day, I bought one thing: cocoa powder.

This syrup recipe is really quick (unless you are juggling two children and trying to make it, take pictures, and blog at the same time.  I’ve inserted my additional steps below just for fun).

I have tried some variations over the years, but this one from Wholesome Mommy made with coconut palm sugar is my favorite.

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

You will need

1 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt

Step 1: In a sauce pan, combine all ingredients and stir with whisk.

Mommy step – take picture of how pretty coconut palm sugar is.  Take a break to nurse a baby.  

Coconut palm sugar.  I love the deep color.  It’s beautiful.

Step 2: Bring ingredients up to boil (on medium high, not high) heat.  Stir occasionally.

Mommy step – change two successive diapers, forget how long it has been since it was stirred, almost burn the syrup.

Step 3: Once it is boiling, let boil for one minute.

Mommy step – go to figure out why your 3 year old is telling your 3 month old “here – take this.  I think this toy is good for you…”

Step 4: Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Step 5: Mix with milk to taste for a delicious glass of chocolate milk.

Mommy step – forget to take a picture of the full glass of milk that you so carefully mixed in one of your husband’s pretty whiskey tumblers.  Sit down to watch “So you think you can dance”, drink the milk, and blog while the toddler naps and the baby plays happily.  A rare moment of peace!  Realize mistake and snap quick picture of half finished glass with cell phone.  

Try it… it should take 10 minutes max for normal people.  I swear you won’t miss that old Hershey’s nonsense.

Not enough time and too much stuff.

~ tinycottageessentials ~ Leave a comment
Recently, we have undertaken a major purge of our stuff.  It has been ongoing since we moved into our house last November.  
The goal: get rid of half of our stuff.  Half of every box we unpack.  There are still boxes we haven’t unpacked, because deciding what stays and what goes takes time.  Judge me if you must.  I judge me for that one too.
We have purged quite a few items from our kitchen. I got rid of 3 of 4 identical mixing bowls.  I have donated/discarded storage containers that no longer have their matching lids.  I purged my 3 identical glass measuring glasses.  I got rid of 30 mugs. 3 small frying pans exited my kitchen.  Dollar store champagne glasses are now a thing of the past.
Had I been more organized, I would have saved it all for a yard sale.  But that requires keeping it somewhere in my house a little longer.  Which I just couldn’t stand.  So to Goodwill it went.
The clear cupboard space has been truly been a relief.  I am no longer shoving things into cabinets where they don’t fit.  Each item has its place.  It makes cooking a bit faster.
I have drawers and cupboards that currently have NOTHING in them.  As in EMPTY.  Nada.  It is a strange and wonderful thing.
That does*not* mean my kitchen is clean.  Let’s be real here.  It just means that with better habits, it could be clean 😉 
Lest you think I’m really good at homemaking, here is my sink at this very moment as I am blogging instead of cleaning:

If you can look past the dishes, you will notice what a pretty new sink and faucet we recently installed.

Don’t you feel special seeing my nasty sink full of dishes I was too in a hurry to properly rinse?

Abe and I work full time, so we find ourselves eating out or eating take out for convenience.  During cherry season, it is not uncommon for Abe to work 16 hour days, 7 days/week.
We both recognize eating take out for convenience is not a good thing for our budget or our waistline, but when we get done with a long work day, frankly neither of those things are on our minds. 
We are just tired, hungry, and want to spend some quality time with the kids.  And maybe have time to admire the wildflowers and goodness growing our property.

Anybody know that kind of flower this is?  It grows along our back fence in white and purple.  They are so dainty and lovely.

Maybe if I was a more organized person with better stamina the semi-frequent take out wouldn’t happen.  I’m positive there are plenty of families with two working parents who avoid this.
But I don’t like to spend time wishing I’m somebody I’m not.

But since the subject has come up, could I just grow a few more inches in height, lose a couple inches off my post-partum waist line, and wake up with fiery, red hair? No?  Dag nabit.

So how do I change the cycle knowing full well that I’m not magically going to be more organized tomorrow?
Well, I have had some time on maternity leave to really take a hard look at our budget and I came to an interesting conclusion:
I should spend my convenience money a single time on nice, family-size appliances that stream line cooking.  I don’t own a lot of big appliances at the moment.  No stand mixer, no blender (not even a small one), no large food processor, nothing that does chopping for me etc.

Why don’t I own those things?

Reason #1: Because the price tag on those bad boys hurts my cheapskate soul.

But then I did the math.  If those appliances cut down on the sometimes daunting task of cooking and save us from getting a few rounds of take out, they will pay for themselves and save us money in the long run.

Reason #2: I assumed I didn’t take that much more time making things without having these appliances.

But when I really stopped to think about it, the assumption didn’t hold up for long…

For example, I currently have a 3 cup food processor.  That means to make a nice size batch of pico de gallo or my slow cooker blueberry butter, I have to empty and run that processor at least 3 times.  When I make butternut squash soup, it takes at least 10 rounds.
If I owned a larger food processor, I could dump it in all at once, run it, and pop it in the dishwasher.  Bam.  Done.  In 1/3 the time.

I already cut the blending step of the cooking process for butternut squash soup down by about 30 minutes by simply buying an immersion blender (okay… my husband bought it for me, because I am cheap and me making a stock pot of soup and then blending it 2 cups at a time in a food processor was getting laughable).

Reason #3 Because, up until recently, I didn’t have the space in my cupboards for such conveniences

Thanks to the kitchen purge, I have space for it.  I could buy this one from Amazon for $80.  It can occupy the space formerly inhabited by 30 extra mugs.  If it saves me from eating out twice it has paid for itself.

Over the next few months, I am going to try to eat out less and take that money to buy nicer appliances.

If you see my facebook posts about my lovely new appliances, don’t think: that girl must have some serious extra moolah to burn.  Because I don’t.  This is just my attempt to save money in the long run and not have a nervous breakdown.

Once my kitchen is stocked, I can take the savings and put it where it should go… into investments, paying down those pesky student loans, and building up other income streams.

Wish me luck!

Eating organic and not killing the planet

~ tinycottageessentials ~ Leave a comment

When it comes to improving your diet, leading a more eco-friendly life, and supporting sustainable farming practices, eating organic is not inherently better.

You might feel like tarring and feathering me for saying that, but please hear me out.

The more I learn about organic farming practices, the more I find that USDA Certified Organic does not mean what many people think it means.  I have also found that it is not necessary to double your grocery bill with only organic products to reduce your consumption of pesticide residue overall and to support more sustainable farming.

In my quest to lead a more healthy lifestyle, I have plummeted into a few common pitfalls.  I’m sharing what I have found in hopes it helps you on your journey and you can skip some of the pitfalls I have fallen into.

Learning is a process, folks, so expect me to form an opinion, to learn more, and then to change my mind.

Use the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 lists with caution and context.

When it comes to moving towards getting the chemicals/pesticides our of your diet, the Environmental Working Group has created the popular dirty dozen and clean 15 lists that look at fruits and vegetables with the highest and lowest pesticide load to support this effort.

Most people (myself formerly included) look at the list and immediately assume that buying organic is the way to get pesticides out of their diet in these foods, right?  Wrong.

I’m always a little surprised by how many folks don’t realize that organic farmers use pesticides too.  They use some synthetic pesticides in restricted amounts and some natural pesticides, but just because something is natural does not inherently make it better for consumption.

Check out this list of pesticides approved for use in organic farming straight from the US Government Publishing Office. (Yay for primary sources!).

While I think that EWG’s intentions are good, their methodology leaves much to be desired:  EWG’s lists are not considering the environmental impact of the pesticides or the level of toxicity of each pesticide when consumed.

Sure some fruit may have residue from a particular pesticide, but it may be one that isn’t as toxic as another pesticide found in smaller amounts in a different kind of produce.  The way the list is constructed, the smaller amount of the more toxic pesticide still puts the produce in question lower down/off the dirty list and the produce with the greater, but less toxic, pesticide further up on the dirty list.  It should be more nuanced than that.

Plus, there is no consideration given to what the chemical does to bees and birds and other wildlife.  Organic farmers can use copper sulfate, for example, which can be highly toxic to fish and moderately toxic to birds (the bees seem okay though, so yay for that!).  Check out the facts on copper sulfate here

One of the simplest ways to not kill your budget with organic produce, but still get high quality product is to buy in bulk and buy direct from the farmer when fruits/veggies are in season.  

A grower will know if what they are selling would pack and go to market as certified organic.  They know what they sprayed with and what kind of pest management system they are using.  All you have to do is ask and they will tell you.  When you buy in bulk, you can preserve the fruit yourself for consumption during the rest of the year (thus also skipping less-healthy preservation options).

By asking questions and buying local and direct, you have done the earth a favor.  You skipped cross-country or even international shipping. Bulk fruit purchased directly is rarely packaged in small bags or plastic clams. Also, home canning jars are used year over year instead of heading to the trash or recycle bin.  The money went directly to the farmer, which is great for them.  It’s a winning situation all around.

Don’t know where to find the farmers?  Start on craigslist and try local farmers markets.  Once you establish a relationship, you can go back to the same sources over and over for great product.  I have an apricot and cherry guy, a blackberry guy, a raspberry lady etc.  A few quick phone calls and I can be swimming in high-quality, sustainably farmed produce.

Familiarize yourself with the farming practices of your family’s favorite kinds of produce.  

Every family has their favorites.  We eat lots of apples, peaches, and blueberries.  I know more about production of these fruits than say, plums, which we don’t really eat that often.  Apples appear on top of the dirty dozen list, but many non-organic producers use great, sustainable pest management systems to avoid needing to use so many/large amounts of pesticides.

Are they certified organic?  No.

Are they responsible and doing good things to not pollute the environment and disrupt the surrounding ecosystem?  Yes.

Is there less pesticide residue in/on their fruit as a result?  Yes.

This goes back to my second point… buy direct and talk to the farmer.  They know what’s on their fruit.  Over time, with some research here and there, you will learn what pesticides are worth walking away from and which growers to go to in an effort to avoid them.

Grow what you can yourself.

What you can grow will vary by year and your life at the moment.  In past years, I have had large gardens, but this year (because of clean up needed on our new property to create good garden space and the arrival of a new baby in the spring) all I could muster was a container garden.

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But it is always worth trying to do something.  Every tomato or head of lettuce you grow is one less item that is mass-farmed, packaged, and shipped to your local grocery store.

Plus, you can probably get away with using very few or no pesticides when growing produce in your backyard and using companion planting.  Here’s a handy chart to assist:

I hope you don’t want to run me out of the blog-o-sphere now.  I appreciate the USDA’s effort to encourage better farming practices, but I don’t think certified organic produce is the one size fits all silver bullet.

Sometime I’ll talk about meat production and the labeling… mass meat production is gross and interesting.