Homemade Seasoning Salt

I love seasoning salt - who doesn't? It's like a little taste party in one convenient jar. Most commercial seasoning salts, however, have more sodium than I'd like to consume, and often sugar is involved! How dare sugar involve itself in a salty party. (There are of course lots and lots of seasonings in this world, many of which are delicious, locally made, and healthy - but c'mon: making things yourself is so much more fun!)

One further note: seasoning salt is a personal thing. I like to add spices and herbs by themselves in different proportions for most of my cooking, so i leave those things out of my salt. But you could certainly make themed salts: dill, basil, cumin, curry, whatever you'd like! About anything that's pretty dry will work well with this method. Things you should avoid are seasonings that can clump or spoil in any way. I help to prevent that by adding uncooked rice to my salt jar - this absorbs unwanted moisture and helps the finer grains maintain their individuality in the mingling atmosphere of our salty party - this is not the time for individual ingredients to get too 'friendly' if you know what i mean.

So, without further adieu, this is how i make my own personal seasoning salt.


Coffee Grinders are great! I despise coffee, but my grinder is a wonderful addition to the kitchen and very easy to clean. Just remember to clean it out really well if you plan on grinding coffee in it every again (or just keep two separate grinders.)

Sea salt is a lower sodium salt than 'that other kind of salt' and it has more minerals and good natural things in it. Be sure and find one that is crystallized good and hard: i used to make this with fresher sea salt that was still a bit damp: no good, no good at all. Clump fest.

Mixed peppercorns are great too. You can use just black, but pretty colors also come in yummier flavors. You can find this in the bulk section of most grocery stores that have such sections, or buy them prepackaged.

Garlic and onion powder: i put garlic and onions in almost everything, so they definately have a place in my seasoning salt. These powders are the one ingredient that can get clumpy - so remember to put rice in your jar!

Couldn't be Simpler:

• fill grinder half full with salt
• add about 1/2 of the remaining space with peppercorns
• add about a dozen dried chile pequins, 1 dried cayenne, a teaspoon of cayenne powder - whatever you have on hand that is spicy and dry.
• about a teaspoon each of garlic and onions powders.

Stick on the lid and grind, pulsing a few times, until evenly ground to a fine fine dust.





BEWARE! Do not open the lid right away, and when you do, do NOT INHALE DEEPLY. This stuff will make you sneeeeeeeze and you wouldn't want to scatter your fresh seasoning salt all over the kitchen during a massive sneeze attack, now would you? no you would not.

So CAREFULLY tip over the grinder, pat pat pat, and remove the lid which also acts as a little dish. Position a funnel over your salt shaker and tap in the salt. You'll have to tap your salt jar a few times to settle the salt down in to make enough room. Stick the holey shake out barrier on the jar, add the lid, and shake shake shake to mix the rice throughought.

VOILA you've got salt! And it's a nice fine salt, so suitable for all types of yummy ventures.

Enjoy!

Rainy Days and Ravenous Chickens

The chickens are growing. Soot and Belina are both clucking. Belina's wattles are pinking up. Soot is getting more assertive and less our darling molestable baby doll. And most of all: They're eating a LOT.
I feed them grower crumbles every morning and it's almost gone by late afternoon. You're killing me, girls! The garden isn't giving me much scraps to throw, so i need to be creative.
These rainy days have brought a 'chill' to Austin. It's Austin, it's not "cold" per say, but the coolest their little chicken bodies have ever encountered. So I decided to give them a cool weather treat. Hopefully it will fill their bellies and warm them into a docile slumber this evening.

• Organic rolled oats
• a few raisons
• a tablespoon brewer's yeast
• sprinkling of frozen corn
• and a smattering of shelled sunflower seeds

Heated on the stove until soft and mushy and delicious (albeit bland). They seemed to enjoy the treat quite a bit, though I feel a little bad for their chicken selves: chicken tongues just don't do the lip-licking trick! Much oatmeal was spattered all about the coop, me, and each others' backs.

Pretty cute, actually.

Lemongrass/ Lemon Basil Soap with Jojoba and Olive Oils

The kitchen smells like lemongrass and clean! i love it.
I made my first batch of soap yesterday. It was rather easy and enjoyable, but i didn't add enough scent so i retried today. Yesterday's had fresh rosemary, sage, dried lavendar and lavendar essential oil.
Today I used lemongrass essential oil and dried lemon basil. Looks and smells neat!
**Disclaimer** I am not using nice, pure soap as my base. I searched the town and couldn't find what I was looking for. After my purchase, of course, i discovered a great site Therapy Garden that sells everything I could need. So after I finish this cough sputter(jergens) cough "non pure" soap, I'll do it up proper.

This was my recipe:

• 2 cups shredded white soap
• 1/2 cup water
• drizzle jojoba oil
• drizzle olive oil
• about 1 or 2 tablespoons dried lemon basil, crushed and dried lavendar buds
• several dashes lemongrass essential oil
  

Pretty easy:
Shred the soap. Put the soap in a pyrex (i would use one larger than my 2 cupper for ease of stirring). Add water and oil. Heat a pan of water to simmer. Put pyrex in pan of water and stir gently. Keep this up for about 10 - 15 minutes until soap gets to a stringy texture (the water and soap have combined). Remove pyrex from heat. Stir in the botanicals. Immediately before hand molding or putting into molds add the essential oils and stir in well.

I used a tin mold lined with a little olive oil, a small glass lined with some petroleum jelly, and hand molded the remainder. The molds will sit around for about 5 hours whereapon I will tap the soap out. All the soaps will rest on my drying rack (aka removable grill from the smoker we never use) for a week or two until well cured - turning every day to prevent warping.
Lather and enjoy!

The scene is set.

Beginning to melt

Meltier

Almost done! (sorry, it's really hard to photograph oneself stirring hot liquids)

Ta DA!

Removed the soap from the 'mold' by tapping it on a wooden cutting board. Now I slice individual soaps with a nice sharp knife. I really like how the sliced chunks look: you can really see the botanicals clearly. I also like how the botanicals ooze some color into the soap. I think it's pretty.

Voila: Curing on the rack. You can see yesterday's soap there on the right. The lavender makes the soap a little brownish, and the basil seems to be making it greenish: yay!

Sunday afternoon planting

And a fine day it is - a bit too warm if you ask me (already 84 at 11 am). Observation found a few germinating kales, snap peas getting bigger, and all the peppers putting on flowers that seem to be actually sticking. There are even some cucumbers not completely shrivelled on the vine! Hot dog.

I bought a few sad looking veg transplants yesterday and hope i can reinvigorate them by planting with some fresh worm castings from my worm bin. Watered everything in well and planted a few more kale seeds here and there. Scattered some pansy seeds also.

The last few seasons I've been super organized with my garden layout: graph paper was involved! This season my plan is to lay out a few rows in the spaces that are open and that i tilled and worked with phosphate, molasses, and compost. But the rest of the garden will be a bit scrimcoached - plants worked into spaces that become free as the season progresses and fall plants lose their productivity.

Here's what i did today:

Update on pea growth. Getting bigger!

Sad little kale transplant. I got to the natural gardener late saturday. You'd think after working there I'd know better. This was the best looking guy in the bunch. I also planted some seeds towards the bottom of the frame by the marker.

Compact Dwarf Sage planted in 'the strip'. It was the only sage other than the variety I already have. Will be used as a divider between my section and the neighbor's section of this native bed. They do not weed. grrrrrrr

New lemon thyme! The old one kicked the bucket. This one is in the basil raised bed that also houses an oregano and garlic and onions in the winter.

Decent looking broccoli transplant.

Like I said, I planted all with a scoopful of worm castings. Let's hope for the best!

Winter Gardening is Beginning

We got a joyous amount of rain last week, the rain lillies are blooming and going to seed (which i scatter about with glee), and the first few veggie seeds I planted are starting to pop. Now we fend off snails and close to 90 degree days to further the veggie development.

Kale seeds planted last wednesday, seeing some signs of germination. Will plant round two next week and water daily to keep moist.

Ichiban is throwing out some shiny new eggplants!

The multiplying onions I planted at the beginning of the month in the pepper patch are really taking off. Not seeing any carrots sprouting yet - though I'm not sure what they look like.

Yum , peeeeas.

I love the rain lillies: they pop up out of nowhere after a good rain like pretty white surprises of happiness. I discovered how they reproduce today, and scattered seeds around the yard.

The natives are also loving the rain: Dallas Red Lantana is blooming like crazy!

And the best news of all - Belina who seemed at death's door last week is back up and running (and flying and clucking)!

It's so fun to watch things pop after a good rain, and even more exciting to be starting a new planting/harvesting season. At the same time that i'm planting tiny seeds and transplants for fall, and successively planting every few weeks, the veggies that have been so sad in the heat are bouncing back and fruiting for my current enjoyment.

The hummus i made last night

Someone called it "African American Hummus". I do not condone such names.

• 1 can organic garbanzo beans
• 1 can organic black beans, drained
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 jalapeno with seeds
• (i used 2 small mariachi peppers from the garden)
• salt and pepper
• one ice cube's worth meyer lemon juice (probably 1-2 tablespoons)
• 3 dashes chilli powder
• short drizzle olive oil

Combine all in a blender and blend until smooth. Add salt and lemon to taste.

Deliciosa! Sorry, didn't take a picture and all was consumed.

serve with bagel chips, pita, carrot sticks. whatever.

RAIN RAIN GLORIOUS RAIN!

Just a brief post to illustrate how the dry scorched earth can turn into a wet and boisterous place.
It rained for the first time in ages yesterday and today again! (Including as i walked to the gym) It's amazing how fast my rain barrel fills, and even more amazing how all the dried up snails come back out of hiding to slime there way this way and that.

Some of our favorite friends, the Gulf Coast Toads.
We see them all the time at night, from teeeeeeeny bug sized
to big ole' fellas like this one. This guy came a'hopping out of the leaves
to wallow in the 'seasonal stream' along side my house.

Over flowing rain barrel.

Cute now. Not so cute when they're eating the brassicas.

Can-O-Worms for sale

Heya folks

I'm selling my Can-O-Worms.
See the Craigslist post.


Vermicomposting is a super awesome way to create high quality compost in the home setting. No odor, convenient, fun to play with worms. Who could ask for better?
Now that i have my chickens and my compost heap, i just don't need to compost indoors. Worm castings rock though, so come and get it!

RAIN!!!!!

This has not been an easy summer in Austin, TX. We've had record heat (July was the hottest month ever recorded here!) and over 65 straight days of triple digits (nearly tying the record set in 1925), massive drought, and very sad veggie crops.
But the end may be in sight!!! It's September, which means it's time to start prepping the beds and planting the seeds for the Winter garden, it almost feels a little cooler, and it's sort of raining outside: amazing.

My to do list for the following few weeks (transplants to wait til the 3rd week of September or so)

• pull old summer plants and till the soil, adding compost and other amendments
• wildflower seeds (successive plantings through the end of October)
  
• plant carrot seeds
• multiplying onions
• sugar snap peas
• pansies
• kale transplants
• broccoli transplants
• end of sept/oct: garlic
• new perennials for the 'strip' of native plants
• i MAY plant some cool weather herbs to fill in where the warm weather herbs will be passing: dill, cilantro from saved seeds of spring.
  

Last year i had a larger assortment for the Winter: but we loved the kale and broccoli most so i'm focusing on that. I'll be keeping all the Fall plants until they begin to die back or quit producing, at which point i'll pull them and fill their empty spot with successive plantings of kale and brocc. This will force me to plant successively so that i don't have to deal with the dilemma of : aaaaah we have too much broccoli all at once!!! When the basil freezes i'll fill that raised bed with pansies or some cover crop. The other side of the raised bed that used to be all basil is now divided by one oregano and a new thyme plant to replace my dead one- and filled with rotating garlic and onions. I may have to switch these two sides occasionally to avoid disease, we'll see.



So, it may not be such a novel concept for everyone: but scattering carrot and wildflower seeds while it rained lightly on my shoulders felt paretty darned amazing!

BUFFALO BURGERS!

Recipe #2 of the day.
It isn't often that i cook or eat red meat. My body cannot digest it, and i'm generally opposed to the feeding of large livestock that give only a small amount of meat back per the large amount of land, sun, air, and overall natural energy they use.
That being said - i support the resurgence of bison into the market, and the lean, healthy, high protein meat that buffalo yield is actually digestible for me. So every once in a while, especially fun for BBQs or camping, i splurge and make buffalo burgers.

Bison Burgers

• 1 package bison (1 lb)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, diced finely
• Worcestershire sauce to taste (5 or so dashes)
• Salt, Pepper, garlic powder, herbs to taste (basil, oregano, chilli powder, etc)
  
• 1/2 jalapeno, diced finely

Chop up all the ingredients and combine in a bowl. Using a glove would be wise as meat is gross, and jalapenos can burn your skin and inevitably your eye (or worse) the next time you scratch it with your finger. Add the Worcestershire sauce to make the meat a little more moist. Form patties and coat each side with seasoning salt and salt and pepper for a nice crust.


I made 2 patties, they are huge. HUGE. We're talking 1/2 pounders here. I will most likely consume half and leave the next for camp breakfast the next day. If you want to be less excessive, form 3 or 4 patties.
Cook until 160 degrees inside - Bison cooks a little faster than beef. Also keep in mind when forming your patties: bison does not shrink like beef. It is so lean that the shape you make it is about the shape it cooks to. Also, don't squeeze out the juices as much as you would with regular hamburger: you won't be squeezing out fat, you'll be squeezing out juiciness.

This is a pretty basic recipe and can be majorly spruced up with things like horseradish, blue cheese, sauteed mushrooms. But i'm camping, let's keep it simple! I am serving them on onion rolls, though: yum! Now i just have to cook and flip on a camp stove without dumping the meat on the coals... wish me luck on that one!
Enjoy!

Pre-camping Pesto Pasta!

We're off to Possum Kingdom State Park for labor day weekend, to camp (amongst too many jerks i'm sure), boat, hike and make merry in a beautiful lake. Before we go, Farm Mama Miranda is Camp Mama, packing the car and getting our goodies together. Camp menu includes grilled bagels, buffalo burgers on onion buns, and pesto pasta salad for lunches.

First thing to do today, after walking the girl and dog, is harvest the sea of basil and begin the tedious task of plucking, picking, and pestoing. Pesto recipe in a previous post, though this batch will include a fresh jalapeno for extra "kick."

Pesto Pasta Salad:

• 1 cup fresh pesto with jalapeno
• almost a pound of pasta (hint: i filled the bowl i planned to use and used just a little less for room to stir, the bowties stayed the same size - though next time i think i'd rather use a spiral pasta to emphasize the pesto flavor more)
• 1 can black olives, chopped
• 4 oz precooked cocktail shrimp
• 3 large cloves garlic, diced
• 1/2 med onion, diced small
• salt, pepper, herbs to taste
• (sundried tomatoes would be great if you have them!)

While heating the water for the pasta, saute the shrimps in a teeny bit of oil with the onions, garlic, salt, and a pinch each of oregano and rosemary. Saute until onions are soft, but not carmelized. Turn off heat.
Cook pasta until al dente or a little softer, drain and rinse.
Place pasta in bowl or storage container and add the shrimp mixture - stir. Add the pesto a bit at a time stirring well until pasta is coated to your preference. Add salt to taste. Toss in olives and sundried tomatoes and stir to coat.
Voila!



It's not the prettiest thing in the world, would be nicer if I had tomatoes, but this will be great fresh and warm, and will keep several days in the fridge (or in my case the camping cooler) for a refreshing cold lunch or snack. Also freezes well. This is a great thing to have in the fridge any time.
Option: serve with a dash of balsamic vinegar.