Rotisserie Chicken

Alright, y’all, you get to see the insanity I got myself into with this Rotisserie setting for my 7-1 machine. Seriously, I dropped the drip pan on my toes and I had to re-tie the bird because it was to lose. Then it still wouldn’t turn. So I had to rotate it manually to make sure it was browned on every side. 

I used Baharat seasoning mix for the bird and it smelled wonderful. What is in Baharat and where is it from? Baharat is a Middle Eastern and African spice mix with cardamom, black pepper, cumin, clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon. I will give you a link to Hilda’s Kitchen Blog. Hilda is originally from the Middle East. Specifically Syria. She has a cookbook out called Mom’s Authentic Assyrian Recipes. https://hildaskitchenblog.com/recipe/baharat-recipe-middle-eastern-spice-blend/

Enjoy the video and the mayhem I get myself into.

February Unboxing

I finally got this video together. It took 5 days y’all for everything to come in. I did video graph the food scales and I have no idea what happened to that clip. Maybe I didn’t hit the record button. I don’t even know at this point.

What took so long was some of my orders came from different warehouses… I can’t believe I didn’t pay more attention to the Wal-mart.com site. I never did get my ground cloves. Those are my only complaints. Things didn’t arrive together on the same day and I didn’t get my cloves. I have been doing so much research on sourdough and how to use it. Amazing!!! Cookies, pastry, cakes, and bread, oh my! 

I will continue to use Wal-Mart for supplies because they are cheaper than Amazon to a point. As for things like spices, I think I will just go and get them in person.

Food Shortage Friday Wal Mart

For those of you who are new to Scratch Kitchen, we are about getting back to the basics of cooking. The kind of cooking our grandmothers did. As much as possible. I understand that some have extremely busy lives. So far we have taken a cake mix and did something completely unexpected. Made waffles with it and mini doughnuts. If you do videos on scratch cooking, please share them. Let’s get people back to basic cooking by showing how easy it is. I also do canning videos. Last month was Jar It Up January, and it was wonderful. Please feel free to go through the videos and watch as many and as often as you like. Promise, there are going to be more cooking videos coming.

I have been going to Wal-Mart all of my life. My daughter’s first trip in public after we were released from the hospital was to Wal-Mart. Not my idea since I had just had her. Showing off her granddaughter was my mom’s idea. In all my life I have never seen Wal-Mart put Clemantine oranges in the dairy section. Nor have I seen them put meat in that area either. Gross! Anyway, this Wal-Mart has started doing this. They started putting the manager’s specials in the dairy section (again chicken, beef, and pork). 

The cereal aisle is odd. They took out four shelves for a huge Cheerio section. Okay, I get it Cheerio is good for the heart. The idea that they did this should make you ask why? Milk had a lower shelf after shelf empty. And a shelf that should have had large bags of rice one was almost empty. Now is this a trend? I suspect its something we are going to have to get used to seeing. 

Thursday Sales

This video I am reviewing the sales for this week. They were okay, nothing worth running over other drivers for. Aldi’s does have a great deal on countertop convection ovens with the rotisserie parts and Dutch Ovens. Meijer has the chicken corner covered. Kroger has the sides and the Deli Pizzas (16 in) on sale for $5 which usually go for $8. Wal-mart is nothing to write home about. Sorry! That’s just the way it is. The links are below.

Aldi’s
https://www.aldi.us/en/weekly-specials/our-weekly-ads/

Kroger
https://www.kroger.com/weeklyad

Meijer
https://www.meijer.com/weeklyad.html

Jar It Up January

Jar It Up January 1-21

Round 3

Caramel Apple Pie Jam

Sutton Daze

Leisa did a variation of the apple pie jam. I have done an apple pie jam and oh my God was it good. If you like caramel apple pie you will love this jam. Caramel and Apples, what is there not to love. Two favorites in one dish, sign me up. 

Leisa goes through the process of cooking the jam. She shows what a rolling boil is. When Leisa says it takes longer to prep for this jam than it does to make, she’s not kidding. You have to peel the apples, core them, and chop them up as uniformly as possible. I will use my Vidalia onion chopper on apples in the future. 

This is a beautiful jam to look at and it’s delicious. The difference between the two jams is the caramel has brown sugar and white sugar. That is what gives the beautiful caramel color. 

Jar It Up January 1-22

Canning Keto Venison Chili

Freedom Homestead

Tangie did a chili with venison which her husband secured. Also, she gives directions for using ground beef. This chili would be great poured over a hot dog with cheese. Or pour it over a flip-flop and it will be delicious. 

Tangie make is clear that she is working with hot food therefore she is heating up her jars and canner. Pints are 75 (1 hr and 15 min) and quarts are 90 (1 hr and 30 min). The jars looked beautiful. 

Jar It Up January 1-23

Blueberry BBQ Sauce

Whippoorwill Holler

Mrs. Lori made a Blueberry BBQ Sauce. I don’t usually go for fruit BBQ sauces personally. However, I may try this one. Lori put everything in a crockpot and let it cook while she was at work. It looked beautiful. The sauce has a deep brown color. 

As Mrs. Lori goes to can the sauce, she shows her layout. Showing the jars and her lids heating up. Mrs. Lori discussed the importance of cooking a sauce over low heat for a long period of time. I agree! The low slow approach is best at making BBQ sauce. Mrs. Lori canned the sauce in a water bath canner for 35 minutes. The sauce was beautiful. I can see myself doing this in the future.

Jar It Up January 1-24

Harvest Apple Relish

2LeeLu Creates

I have enjoyed 2Lee so much throughout Jar It Up January. Along with everyone who participated. I can see why Heather and Leisa choose these folks. 2Lee pointed out that when we buy vinegar you need to make sure you get 5%. Take from someone who made a mistake of using 6%, DON’T. Seriously! 

2Lee has been wonderful to watch. 2Lee pointed out that she had extra jars reading if she needed them. That is great advice. I try to have at least four extra jars. If you can’t find red serranos then use an anaheim pepper. The anaheim will be larger than the serrano peppers. They are the size of a poblano. 

2Lee used her steam canner again. This looks like it would be a good fit for me. This relish looks beautiful. I could see me making it with a poblano and an anaheim as opposed to serranos. 

Jar It Up January 1-25

Hamburger Soup aka Farmer’s Soup 

Moore2Life the pantrylovinprepper

This is Mandy’s last video for this series. I can’t believe this wonderful event is almost over. Mandy is sharing this soup which was the first thing she was taught to can. So there is a bit of nostalgia with this soup. The Farmer’s Soup in the Amish Canning Cookbook by Georgia Varozza was the first soup I canned.  Everytime I look at the recipe or one like it I remember it. 

Mandy took time to measure out everything so there was an even amount of solid food to tomato juice. Mandy takes you through the process of filling the jars and the times she used. Pints are 75 (1 hr 15min) and quarts are 90 (1hr 30 min). Mandy did have some leftover meat and juice which she canned up as well. The soup looked beautiful.

Jar It Up January 1-26

Mexican Beef Garden Soup

Prepper Potpourri

Prepper made this wonderful soup. It looked beautiful. She showed how to handle the peppers. If  Jalapenos are too spicy for you then go with poblanos. They are milder. Make sure you handle the Jalapenos with care. The white membrane has the bit to it. No, don’t touch your face after handling any hot pepper. This soup would be great on a Taco Night with the regular sides for Tacos. 

This soup looked beautiful. Pints are 75 (1 hr 15min) and quarts are 90 (1hr 30 min). Prepper tried the soup while she was on camera. It looked good and had a nice zip to it. 

Jar It Up January 1-27

Mirepoix (Sub for Angie’s Pantry)

Paul’s Rule Of Thumb

Okay! Today was supposed to be Angie’s turn; however , she had a family emergency so Paul being the great guy he is stepped up and produced two videos this week. Thank you kindly. Mirpoix is basically onion, celery, and carrots. It is used across France for many soups and stews. In Louisiana they have what is called the Holy Trinity which is onion, celery, and green bell pepper. It used the same way as the Mirepoix. 

In Paul’s video he is canning the mirepoix. I haven’t thought about canning this wonderful soup and/or stew starter. I have canned onions like vegetable soup. Pints 35 minutes. I don’t do many quarters. 

The jars looked beautiful. Success! 

Jar It Up January 1- 28

Zucchini Ginger Marmalade

Paul’s Rule of Thumb

This caught my eye. I am always looking for different ways to use vegetables. Marmalade! Never thought about it. I have made marmalade before only with oranges. This is completely out of the box. Marmalades take a lot of work. 

Paul is a wonderful instructor on this marmalade. He goes step by step through the process. This is a beautiful marmalade. It would be wonderful over meat. 

Jar It Up January 1- 29

Layered Chicken soup 

Mouse Toes

Mouse layered all the ingredients into her jars. She showed how she laid everything out. Using her ‘pokey joe’ she debubbled the jar. Since she more space in the jar she put in more peas. She pointed out that all ingredients except the chicken was at room temp. She started with cold (and room temp) items so she started with a room temp canner.

There was a minimal siphoning. Mouse pointed out that tomato products can have siphoning. There is nothing wrong with the jars or the canner.

Jar It Up January 1- 30

Pineapple in Apple Juice

The Kneady Homesteader

Heather is another wonderful instructor for canning and I often recommend her to new canners. Heather is very precise in her jar filling. Showing how she loads the jar, cleaning the top and using apple juice to can the pineapple with. 

This is a great project. Kids love the pineapple.

Jar It Up January 1-31

How to Water Bath Can Mandarin Oranges

The Purposeful Pantry

And just like that Jar It Up January is over. Darcy is water bath canning Mandarin Oranges. Darcy is new to canning and she owns it. Great! However, she has learned from the same folks I learned from so I know I can recommend her. Darcy went through the process she uses for cleaning and peeling the oranges.

Darcy used her Presto as a water bath canner. She has a glass top which she can’t use the big water bath canners on. But that’s okay because you can use a pressure canner for water bath canner. When you go to clean you jars, remove the rings. 

Here is a link to the complete playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX5uCbvRhyQ&list=PLEHHxNZcjnIRy84pAr6_PGaxy36Dn2HJU

JIUJ 2019

Jar It Up January 1- 31

This year’s JIUJ is over. So sad…

This year’s Jar It Up January has been absolutely wonderful. I hope y’all enjoyed it as well. I will leave the link to each of their channels on this last day. I am very sad it’s over for this year. But it gives me something to look forward to next year. Each of these wonderful folks have brought so much experience to this project. And great recipes. 

Sutton’s Daze: 

http://bit.ly/39rGkxZ   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_JPNIxSg8llJJTOupC86jQ

Freedom Homestead

https://www.youtube.com/user/mom2mini…

Whippoorwill Hollar

https://tinyurl.com/r8d56z9

2LeeLou

 Creates     https://www.youtube.com/user/2leelou

Moore2Life

https://tinyurl.com/rn6tea9

Prepper Potpourri

https://www.youtube.com/user/prepperp…

Angie’s Pantry

https://www.youtube.com/user/gilletta…

Pauls Rule of Thumb

https://tinyurl.com/rstb6qn

Mouse Toes

https://www.youtube.com/user/MouseToes1

The Kneady Homesteader

https://www.youtube.com/user/jakluk4

The Purposeful Pantry    https://tinyurl.com/y35ty4cb

Extreme Weather’s Chaos

It’s Friday y’all. Time to discuss the food shortages that are coming our way and what big Agri giants like Tyson are doing about it.  First, let’s talk about the effects this insane weather is having on cattle. According to Callie Burnett at AG Daily, this weather is taking its toll on the cattle in various ways (Burnett, 2020). We have infections in their muscles, illness, and like us, complete confusion of what season we are in. In her article, she talks about an illness in the muscles called Backleg. I will leave you a link to the article. The weather chaos is also taking a toll on other livestock as well, but she focuses on cattle here. 

In August of 2019, Smithfield announced on their site they are going into the plant-based protein industry. Think about for a minute. The biggest pork producer is going all-in on fake meat. That should speak volumes about the situation. Smithfield is using Pure Farmland company to do this. They have products that look so much like meat, that if you set them side-by-side with meat you wouldn’t know the difference. I have been a meat-eater all my life. Their ground “beef” product looks exactly like ground beef. 

The next article is on the food shortages Whole Food is having with lentils, rice, and beans. Suppliers are closing doors because they don’t have products to sell. This is serious when a company Jeff Bazos owns can’t fill their contracts. US Dry Bean Council shows which state produces the most beans for Americans. The only problem with this site is you have to be a member to get more information.  

Billionaires are funding startup projects like Plenty which was funding by Softbank Vision Fund. Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son led the way with a $200 million grant for the indoor farm. Eric Schmidt and Jeff Bezos are also going all-in with this startup indoor farm. The produce is grown in a verticle structure which looks like a wall. The amazing thing about this is that it can produce 530 times greater yields than traditional farms. This will be the future of farms and gardening. 

Memphis meat is going on the fake meat craze. Do I see this taking off? Yes especially if the government does decide to tax red meat. According to Sophia Ankel and Jack Derwin, governments around the world are considering putting a tax on red meat. This is being pushed as a climate change issue, I say hogwash. It’s about controlling people and their choices. These governments don’t care about the climate or the living conditions of factory farms or they would have done something about it along time ago. 

Raised & Rooted is a company owned by Tyson Foods. Yep! Fake meat being produced by the biggest chicken company in the world. They are one of two of the biggest abusers of chickens in the world and now they care about the environment. They have been pouring sledge from their livestock in water reserves across the world and now we are supposed to believe they care about the climate. Do you have any idea how awful the antibiotics and hormones they used on their chickens are to the environment that they are now in love with? The damage is so great I don’t think anyone can really calculate the damage. 

The next big corporation that should have a visit with the grim reaper scheduled for them is Nestle. They have been stealing water rights from communities around the world at an unbelievable pass and getting away with polluting water. Wait a minute, they have seen the light and reformed their ways by creating no buying out the competition in the fake meat industry called Sweet Earth. How ironic?  Our last article is on beans again. More of, the dry beans took a major hit this year. This country depends on dry beans for so many uses. As I said earlier, suppliers for Whole Foods has closed their doors.  

Bottom line, this is the future of our food system. Traditional farms are taking a beating, while large companies like Tyson are putting their money in the fake meat industry. These companies know what is coming with the collapse of our food system. They have been betting on fake meat to be their rescue. My questions are this, how long have they known this and why to hell were we not informed about it sooner? 

References:

Burnett, C. (2020) Extreme weather brings increased risk of backleg in cattle. https://www.agdaily.com/livestock/extreme-weather-increased-risk-blackleg-cattle/

Smithfield (2019). Smithfield Foods Launches Plant-Based Protein Portfolio Under Pure Farmland™ Brand. https://www.smithfieldfoods.com/press-room/company-news/smithfield-foods-launches-plant-based-protein-portfolio-under-pure-farmland8482-brand

Pure Farmland (2019) https://pure-farmland.com/

Production Facts (2020). https://www.usdrybeans.com/industry/production-facts/#site-main

Shreiber, J. (2017) Billionaires make it rain on Plenty, the indoor farming startup. https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/19/billionaires-make-it-rain-on-plenty-the-indoor-farming-startup/

 Martin-Hemphill, R. (2020). BRIEF: Is a whopping $161m Series B enough cash for Memphis Meats? https://agfundernews.com/brief-is-a-whopping-161m-series-b-enough-cash-for-memphis-meats.html

Tyson Foods Unveils Alternative Protein Products and New Raised & Rooted® Brand

https://www.tysonfoods.com/news/news-releases/2019/6/tyson-foods-unveils-alternative-protein-products-and-new-raised-rootedr

https://www.raisedandrooted.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAvc_xBRCYARIsAC5QT9k_lycVecb6IBrT37H_F9JQADE0V4Wys6i0ArK4BO1TK7hvvAfquTAaAvVFEALw_wcB

Nestle USA agrees to acquire Sweet Earth. https://www.nestle.com/media/news/nestle-usa-acquires-sweet-earth

https://www.sweetearthfoods.com/

Pratt, S. (2019). Dry beans absorb major hit. https://www.producer.com/2019/11/dry-beans-absorb-major-hit/

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