Category: Simple Things

DIY Italian Seasoning for Pizza, Pasta and Sausage

Posted on by

This is an amazing recipe for a multi-purpose Italian seasoning. We mainly use it for Pizza and Sausage but it fits nicely just about anywhere. I started doubling the recipe because I use it in so many dishes. I’ll powder some up in the food processor and leave some in course form to use fresh from a grinder.

Pizza is one of our go to meals. I always think to myself, ugh, pizza again? However, it never disappoints and yet I am somehow always surprised by this. I have to give most of the credit to the seasoning that we use. At some point several years ago, we were purchasing a pizza seasoning that came in its own grinder. Then, all of a sudden I couldn’t find it anymore. So I used the very last of it as a guide to making my own. I never did quite manage to make it taste exactly the same as the one I purchased, but this one holds it’s own none the less. The nice thing is you can probably make it with spices you already have in your pantry. It’s an excellent multi purpose Italian seasoning. As always, feel free to tweak the recipe to suit your own taste. Many of you will want to put more pepper flakes in the recipe. I’m super sensitive to the heat and this is about as hot as I can go. The boys usually just shake hot pepper flakes right onto the pizza slices as they eat them. Before I get to far, here is a link to the pizza recipe Simple Pizza From Scratch.

For this recipe (and all recipes really) here is a quick little list of conversions that might make things quicker for you, especially if you’re doubling the recipe.

  • 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon
  • 2 tablespoons = 1/8 cup
  • 4 tablespoons = 1/4 cup

This is an amazing multi-purpose Italian seasoning. It goes great on pizza or into ground meat.

I get almost all of the ingredients from the dollar store with the exception of the fennel seed. I had to order that from Amazon. It came in the ‘raw’ form so I just toast it real quick in a pan on the stove before I add it. 

Raw fennel gets toasted for best flavor

So I guess this would also be a good spot to drop in a little info on the ground sausage we make. I’m going to try to do a short article in the near future about grinding pork and beef so I’ll keep this short. We started grinding all our meat at home several years ago when I found out there was more than one cow in those packages. We make hamburger and Italian sausage. I use the seasoning in this article to make the sausage. Unfortunately I don’t have a guide for the pork:spice ratio that I can give you. I can tell you this though; it always takes way more seasoning than you think it will! Sometimes I’ll start grinding and cook up a tiny patty to get an idea where I’m at and adjust accordingly.

I used to put the ground meat in a flattened gallon zipper bag and press it into quarters with a chopstick. Now I make balls out of it and store those balls in a zipper bag. Each ball is a third of a pound and three pounds fits in a bag. A third of a pound is about one serving so it’s easier to just take pull out what we need for that meal. I’ve included some older pics here so you can see what I mean.

Each ball is one serving and approximately one third of a pound.

As always, feel free to leave comments or questions. Some of you who are as immature as I am like minded will want to comment on some of the things we touched on like; grinding your meat, pulling your meat out, balls and one pound balls. Believe that none of that was lost on me.

I’m hoping to start writing again, so fingers crossed that you’ll be reading more from us soon.

Until then…Take it simple, Sam and Stacey

Summer Homestead Update

Posted on by

As many of you have heard, our new motto here is “Teamwork makes the dream work”. I heard it somewhere and thought it to be so incredibly perfect for us. There isn’t much around here we don’t take on as a team and well, we are livin the dream every simple day. Later in this post I will share some photos of the many projects our little team has worked on recently. The summer solstice is tomorrow. Longest day of the year and here in California, the hottest. Seriously mother nature, 111 degrees? Really?

There has been so much going on around here, it’s just that time of year. It’s funny, I looked back at the last ‘homestead update’ I wrote and it was June 2015. I’ve written many articles since then, 32 to be exact, but it was interesting to reread that particular one. Seems like June is always a crazy month and it’s not unusual to feel a bit overwhelmed trying to keep you all informed. I didn’t write one at all in June of 2016. So, much like that article from two years ago, this one will be mostly photos. A few photos will become articles of their own at some point in the future.

One of our big team projects was replacing the headliner in the car. I have to give Sam most of the credit for this one. I thought he was crazy to tackle it but it turned out great. It will get it’s own article some day.

We also remodeled this dresser. Sam actually changed it from a chest of drawers to a bench and put wheels on it before he ever showed it to me. He knew I’d want to photo document it and he says that sometimes it ‘kills his creative genius’ hehehe. I did all the sanding and painting and boom! new bench. This will also get its own article.

 

Those are tri-color beans against the fence. I planted sunflowers along the fence as well. I took this picture sometime around April I think. Since then we have pulled out all the beans and replanted a second crop. I also planted some pole beans this time that will grow up the stalks of the sunflowers. Some of our tomato plants are in the foreground.

The new bean seedlings have just broken ground but check out how the gorgeous sunflowers have grown! They are 10 feet tall.

  

Speaking of flowers, I’ve planted zinnias around the garden. Just because I absolutely love them.

I’ve also planted some calendula. I plan on making some first aid salve with it. When it’s done I will write an article about that too.

Here is our goji berry tree. We had to get creative with the bird netting. Those tricksy little birds always find a way in. Our goji berries are really tiny. They should be about 2 to 2.5 cm long. Our blueberry bush is really producing right now too.

Our bell peppers are doing great this year! Best year ever and they are yummy.

Our cucumbers are just getting started and the dill we planted to make the pickles with is coming along well ahead.

The tomatoes are coming on fast. Not enough to can or process just yet but getting close. Right now we can pretty much eat them as fast as they come off the vine. The golden ones are particularly delicious. We also have some potatoes growing. We are experimenting with some from the market that were past their prime. I cut them up and threw them into this bed.

Well that gets us a little closer to caught up. With the weather in the hundreds for a while, I may have a little more time for writing. Seems like I’m always complaining that I’m too busy livin life to write about it. To me, that’s a great problem to have.

Merry Solstice and blessed be!

Take it simple     –Sam and Stacey–

How To Season A Cast Iron Pan

Posted on by

It’s no secret that cast iron is one of our new obsessions. This Christmas we ‘won’ a 12 inch cast iron frying pan during a game of Dirty Santa.  We have since added a 10″ pan and cleaned up an old dutch oven we found. So I guess the rest of the world is also finding a renewed interest in cast iron cookware. You used to be able to find some rusty old treasure in just about every thrift store you entered. And by the way, if you follow my instructions here, you can turn those rusty treasures into shiny new toys that could last forever. These days you will be hard pressed to find any cast iron let alone at thrift store prices. I never really thought I would love cast iron. Other than the obvious ‘need to be a body builder’ to wield the heavy thing, I just always assumed they were a chore to clean and I never dreamed they could be non-stick. Turns out I was wrong on all accounts. So go get those pans, follow along, and lets turn them into your everyday cookware.

The first thing you should do is make sure your pan is well seasoned. The frying pans we got were both new and ‘pre-seasoned’ but we wanted the promise of a ‘Teflon like’ non stick surface. I always thought you could only season a pan through years of use, turns out that’s not the case. To start the seasoning process on pre-seasoned pans it is recommended that you strip off the factory finish and revert the pan to it’s original state. There are a couple of ways to do that. The first being to put the pan in your oven and run the oven through it’s self cleaning cycle, providing it has one. The second, and the one I chose, is to use a mild cleanser and scrub both the inside and outside of the pan. Now I didn’t go all crazy with it and try to strip all the coating off, I just wanted to be able to give my new seasoning something to start with. To tell you the truth the pan didn’t look much different after the scrubbing than before.

The oil we use to season our cast iron is flax seed oil, organic in this case. I guess I should warn you at this point that you’re going to use a lot of paper towels!

Start by putting the pan in a warm 200 degree oven for 15 minutes. Using tongs and a folded paper towel, coat the pan with a thin layer of the oil. Then use a clean paper towel to wipe off the excess. Keep changing paper towels and wiping down the pan until it’s no longer shiny and oily. It should be left with only a satin sheen. Next put the pan upside into a cold oven. Set the oven to it’s highest temp, mine is 550 degrees. Once it reaches temp set a timer for one hour.

At this point, picture me using Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Jedi mind trick “This is not the dirty oven you are looking at”. When your one hour timer goes off simply turn off the oven and allow it to come down to room temp on it’s own. It usually takes a couple of hours. Now here’s the crazy part, you need to do the same process four more times! Now I can’t say what would happen if you only did the whole process three or four times. All I know is five is what worked for me, so well in fact that I will always do the five step process.

We found this dutch oven in a cabinet under the grill. It was in pretty bad shape. I was excited however to try my new technique on an old rusty piece.

Sam took a wire wheel to it and got it stripped down and ready to season. I’m sure I could have just scrubbed it with an abrasive cleanser and a scrub brush so don’t feel like you have to do this step.

After it got cleaned up, I used the exact same five step routine.

All three of the pans turned out amazing don’t ya think?

Once you get them seasoned they do require a little extra care as far as cleaning and maintaining. They are as easy to clean as non stick pans. Contrary to popular belief, you can use a little dish soap to clean them if you want. A properly seasoned pan’s coating won’t come of with a little soap and a scrub brush. The most important thing is to make sure they are completely dry after the wash. I usually dry mine off really well, inside and out, then I put them on a low burner for about 15 seconds to steam off any remaining water. Rub about a teaspoon of vegetable oil on the inside and outside of the pan. Use paper towels to remove enough oil so it only leaves a satin sheen, any more than that and you will eventually end up with a sticky mess. This will keep any moisture from creeping into your pan while it’s not being used.

So dig out those pans and get yourself a good cast iron cookbook. We bought one from Cook’s Country and it has turned out some real gems. Hope you enjoyed the article, let me know if you have any questions or leave a comment if you like.

Take it simple   -Sam and Stacey-

 

 

 

 

Essential Oil Recipe for Immunity Boost, Cold and Flu

Posted on by

This recipe is similar to the Thieves oil blend some of you already use. With cold and flu season in full swing we could all use a little boost to our immune systems. I’m not going to jinx myself by bragging that I haven’t had a full blown cold or flu in years. We don’t however leave the house for work or send children off to school everyday to bring back every imaginable cootie out there. As most of you know we use essential oils for anything and everything around here. From cleaning to healing to pet care. I came up with this blend over the summer and gave some to my mom who swears by it now. I also let my good friend Rachel use it while I was visiting her and my brother Berta in Texas. It seemed to help her pull away from what looked like a really bad cold. I always travel with it especially if I’m flying. A little on the bottom of my feet and/or the back of my neck and I’m good to go.

As with most essential oils and especially blends, you will find that some work better for you than others. Everyone’s body chemistry is unique and react to the oils slightly differently. If you are making your own blends, you should use any recipes you get as only a guideline (whether it comes from here or anywhere else). Tinker around with the ingredients and quantities until you have what works for you and your family

As you can see, our little medicine cabinet has grown a wee bit. On the far left of the photo, in the round container, you will see what is turning into our travel kit. In the future I might do an article on the top eight or ten heavy hitters we use all the time. I use a 10 mil, roller top, glass bottle for this recipe. I also use high quality 100% pure therapeutic grade essential oils. NOT fragrance oils. Do your research people!

  • 20 drops of clove
  • 20 drops of lemon
  • 15 drops of cinnamon (cassia)
  • 10 drops of eucalyptus
  • 10 drops of rosemary
  • 5 drops of peppermint
  • Sometimes I add a few drops of wild orange as well
  • Fractionated coconut oil or carrier oil of your choice

Start with an empty 10 mil container. I like the roller bottle type just because it makes it so convenient to apply. These bottles also travel well without leaking. I got them on Amazon, message me if you want the exact brand. The oils will fill the bottle about 1/3 of the way up (3 mil). Fill the remainder of the bottle (7 mil) with a carrier oil. You can use whatever suits your fancy, I like fractionated organic coconut oil. It’s basically coconut oil that doesn’t turn to solid form at room temp. A few of these oils can be irritating to your skin if applied without a carrier so make sure to dilute it! If you are putting it on children or have sensitive skin, you will want to dilute it even more.

 

At the first sign of cold or flu, apply it to the bottoms of your feet and/or the back of your neck. I also use it as a preventative measure when I travel or even if I’m just stressed. You can apply it as often as you like. I like to put it on the bottom of my feet before my socks and at bedtime.

Feel free to message me or post questions in the comment section. If you have a question, chances are someone else does as well. Hope you enjoyed the article, which by the way, is number FIFTY!! Hard to believe we have published fifty articles, especially with my lack of literary enthusiasm last year hehehe. Oh well, I always say just do the best you can.

Take it simple  -Sam and Stacey-

Beef Jerkey

Posted on by

Beef jerky is not a meal, and for that matter neither is Chex mix. I must constantly reinforce this idea in our house when such delectables are on hand. Seriously, they would sit down and eat an entire bag (of either) until it was gone if I didn’t dole it out over a reasonable amount of time. The deal is, the more you help out with the process, the bigger cut of the goods you get. Seems fair right? Last time Wes did a third of the work. When it was done I gave him a third of the jerky, which he promptly mowed down and ate in its entirety….in one sitting. This is why we can’t have nice things.

All you need to make this recipe is a dehydrator. It’s very simple to make your own beef jerky at home. The following is kind of a loose recipe. I’m not very good at measuring the ingredients but I can give you a jumping off point and you can adjust from there. I usually do a little taste test of the marinade before I put the meat in and see if it’s what I’m looking for. The various brands of ingredients can give you different flavors. Some more salty or more smoky. This is the same ‘ol recipe I have used forever.

I have been getting London broil on sale for $2.99 a pound. This is a perfect cut of meat for jerky. It’s nice and lean and usually a consistent thickness. I cut it into strips between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. Cut off any strips of fat. Try to be consistent so all the jerky is done about the same time. I was so focused on this project I forgot to take photos. Most of these are from the second batch I just did.

IMG_5606

I use about 2 cups of soy sauce, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, a cap full of liquid smoke and a couple tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. Be careful with the liquid smoke! I learned the hard way that just a little too much can ruin the marinade. Put all this in a bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar. Adjust the flavors if you need to and add the meat as you slice it. The meat does not have to sit in the marinade very long! It usually ends up in there for about 15 to 20 min. As soon as I’m done slicing I start to load the dehydrator. I let it sit in the marinade for a couple hours one time and woooo doggy that was some strong jerky.

IMG_5471

Here it is in a bag. I forgot to take photos of it in the bowl marinading so you will just have to take my word on it. This is extra meat that didn’t fit on the dehydrator.

IMG_5473

Load up your dehydrator with the strips of meat. I usually put a piece of wax paper under the dehydrator to catch drips. I can be a sticky mess. While they are still wet, sprinkle them with the seasoning of your choice. I usually just go with the tried and true black pepper. Red chili flakes are also popular around here. Make sure the pieces are not touching each other. We want to have lots of room for the air to circulate and do its job. Jerky is usually done fairly quickly. I start it in the afternoon and by the next morning it is done. I rotate the trays and give them a half turn a couple times during the process so that all the pieces are finished about the same time.

IMG_5466 IMG_5467

Once all the moisture is gone, seal them in an air tight container and hide them from your family. Just kidding, do with them as you please.

IMG_5463IMG_5474 IMG_5477

  • So here are the numbers, you know I love me some stats!
  • I had 5 pounds of beef that cost $15.
  • 5 pounds = 80 ounces
  • This batch of jerky dehydrated to approximately 23.5 ounces which is an almost 75% reduction in product. So in other words you will only end up with about (by weight) 1/4 of the meat you start with.
  • $15 divided by 23.5 ounces gives you a cost of about .64 cents an ounce
  • Jerky from the store is about $1 an ounce and has lots of unpronounceable ingredients

Hope you enjoyed the article. Sorry they have been few and far between but we are busy busy here on our urban homestead.

Take it simple   –Sam and Stacey–