Making and Canning Applesauce

Tags

applesauce, canning

It’s time to make applesauce here.  Thankfully, the apples are in season for quite a while as I am late making it this year.  I use this recipe from pickyourown.org to make applesauce as when done this way, you needn’t add any sugar to it.  The best part is, it is just as sweet, if not sweeter than the stuff you by from the grocery store.

Start out with several different types of apples.  You’re going to want to stick to the sweeter varieties such as Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Gala, Stayman, Winesap, Honey Crisp, McInstosh and the like.  I usually use a higher ratio of Red and Golden Delicious and then add whatever else I can find at the market.  If you don’t want to add sugar, you should really stay away from Granny Smith.

Before you start anything, get your jars in the dishwasher so it can run while you’re cooking.  If you have a sanitize function, that’s the best.  Choose more jars (don’t forget new lids and your rings as well) than you think you will need so you don’t end up stuck without having any clean jars.

I recommend using an apple cutter if you are going to be making a large batch as it will cut down quite a bit on your time.  If you plan on canning, you should plan on at least half a bushel of apples  as, while homemade apples sauce is excellent, you don’t get a huge amount when all is said and done.  I use my two largest stock pots and overfill them with cut apples (this ends up being just under half a bushel).  Just cut them up and throw them in the pots skin, seeds, core and all.  The skins add extra color and more nutrients and it just saves time doing it this way.  When you are finished cooking them, you will run the apples through a Foley Sieve or, better yet, a food strainer** (if this is something that you plan on doing every year, I really recommend the food strainer.  They make great Christmas presents!)

Next, you’re going to want to add about an inch of water to the bottom of your pot and bring it to a boil.  Once it’s boiling hard, turn the heat down and let it keep boiling fairly hard (the link says to turn your heat down to medium high.  This is too hot on my stove and it boils too hard.  It spits if it boils too hard and you do NOT want to get splattered by this stuff.  It get extremely hot.   I turn mine down to about medium if not a bit cooler)  It will be a bit tricky to stir the apples if you heap them like I do, but they cook down pretty quickly.   Cook the apples until they are all soft.  Some kinds will cook faster than others and the cores seem to take the longest, so when the cores are soft, it should be done.  Your next step is to run it through the Foley Sieve or your food strainer (while you’re doing this, put water in your canner and start it boiling.  It takes quite a while to come to a boil).  The sieve is time consuming, but it does a very good job.  If you use a food strainer, I recommend running the peels and cores through it twice to remove even more sauce from them.  It will also help thicken the final sauce.

Once you’ve strained it, return all the sauce to the stove, turn on the heat to about medium and add your cinnamon (A little ground clove would be good as well, though today I just did cinnamon).

Use your canning funnel (this just makes the process less messy.  You can get by without one) to fill your jar to 1/4 inch of the top.  I actually go between 1/4 and 1/2 and inch as I’ve had these boil over on me before.  You might get some browning on the top over time, but this is harmless and does not affect the flavor at all.  Next, wipe the rim clean with a wet paper towel to make sure the seal on the lid is unobstructed.  Put the ring on and turn in fairly tight, then back off about a 1/4 of a turn.  This is will let pressure release from the can while in the water bath.  

I have just a regular Ball canner and it will fit 7 quart size jars.  Once your water is boiling, put the jars onto the rack and carefully lower the rack into the water.  Once it returns to a boil, start your timer.  The time spent in the water bath will depend on your elevation, so check out the chart for times in step 8 here.   When it’s finished you can use one of these grippers to remove your jars, though my oven mitts have rubber covering the palms and it’s really just easier to use those.  Don’t use just plain cloth mitts for this job or the boiling water will just soak into them and you’ll burn your fingers.   I ended up using just less than 1/2 a bushel of apples and got about 6 1/2 quarts of apples sauce.  ** For those not looking to can, but who just want to make some applesauce for dinner one night (better than anything you can get from the store), follow this recipe.  You’re going to do basically the same thing I’ve shown here, but you’ll peel and core your apples instead. If you don’t mind chunky applesauce, you don’t even need to run it through a sieve.  I actually prefer it chunky.

For similar ideas reading check out Sunshine Mary’s Learning Domesticity in a Post-Feminist World.

Health Benefits of Ginger

Picture from Gourmet Farms. Click to follow link to their page.

Maritus loves sushi.  One of his favorite things about getting sushi is the pickled ginger that comes with it to clean the palate.  Knowing this, I got online one day to see how difficult it would be to make for him at home.  It’s actually surprisingly easy and I have the ingredients to make him some soon (FYI: It says in the recipe that it is the rice vinegar that turns the ginger pink.  This is incorrect as it is the age of the rhizome that will actually do that.  A young rhizome will turn pink while an older one will not).

In reading about this it occurred to me that I should check into the health benefits of ginger.  They are many!  For those pregnant women out there, it is excellent for morning sickness or any kind of nausea.  It’s great for inflammation (knee pain, arthritis pain, etc.), aiding in prevention of diabetes and even kills several types of cancer cells (including ovarian, prostate and colon cancer).  Take a look at the link as it’s amazing what this stuff can apparently help with  . . . menstrual pain, heart worms in dogs, and fighting some serious bacterial infections better than antibiotics.  It even has benefits agains gamma radiation (calling David Banner!).

Each article I take a look at has even more benefits listed.  This one mentions helping with sinuses and the anti-inflammatory as well, which are the main reasons I am trying it out.  There are several different ways you can take ginger.   There are supplements you can take or you can eat it raw (it is very good and surprisingly spicy.  If you don’t like hot food, you probably won’t like it raw).  You can find some recipes and cook with it.  According to some of the reading I have done, pickling it and drinking it in the form of tea are also excellent ways to get the health benefits.  Since I haven’t made the pickled ginger yet, I can’t tell you how that is.  Otherwise, my favorite ways of eating it so far are raw (peel it first just using a spoon.  The skin comes off very easily) and in tea.  To make tea, thinly slice a decent size chunk (about an inch or so) and boil it in about a cup to a cup and a half of water and let it steep for about 10 minutes.  The longer you let it steep the spicier it become, but it is rather nice spicy.  Add to it some raw honey and it is delicious!

*** I am forever amazed at the synchronicity of posts in the sphere.  I have been wanting to write about this for a few days now and lo and behold, I open Viva La Manosphere this morning and the very first post is one about ginger.  Though, it is an article much more beneficial for men.  Have a look.

More Hair Care

Tags

beauty, hair care, nails

Men, heads up, this is a beauty post.  You’ve been warned. 😉

For the past two years, during the winter I have been experiencing a new phenomenon for me.  Dry and itchy scalp (sorry if this is gross).  The thing is, with my hair, in trying to keep it healthy and long, I cannot use traditional shampoos without looking like this:

So I got online and made an interesting discovery.  Our skin is slightly acidic, as is our hair.  I use apple cider vinegar everyday on my skin as a toner, but it never occurred to me it would be good for my hair and scalp.  

I have poured it on my scalp twice now and it has helped quite a bit.  I think it will take a few more times to really help things, but so far it is wonderful and it is cheap!  I would also recommend mixing some brown sugar into your conditioner and rubbing it gently on your scalp after you do the apple cider vinegar.  This feels wonderful and it helps to open the hair follicles as well.  This will help with hair loss (which is an unfortunate side affect of aging, even for women.  We don’t tend to notice it as much in other women as we lose it everywhere, not just in certain spots like men do).  Take a look at the whole link I posted as there are recommendations for more than just scalp treatments, but conditioning as well.  I can’t wait to try some more of their recipes.

I get Braggs Organic Apple Cider Vinegar (this link is the cheapest I have ever seen it.  Bulk is even better)  and I always try to get it from the grocery store.  I have seen it at GNC, though it is $3-4 more there.  If your hair (and/or nails) still need some extra help, I recommend a biotin supplement.  You can purchase straight biotin, and while it is much cheaper, it did not work as well for me as the Hair and Nail formula that one can buy from GNC (my hair falls out much less and my nails are amazingly strong now, while before they were very weak and flakey.)

Hitting the Gym

Tags

diet, weight lifting

I have discovered that over the past few years that I have so immersed myself in certain sub genres of our society that I find it hard to tell how much of the information has slowly leaked out into the world at large.  One of those sub genres is weight management and weight lifting.  Most or all of what I am about to write my regular readers likely already know, but seven years ago I did not have this information and my own weight loss would have been much easier and far less frustrating if I had.  With that in mind, I would like to pass on this knowledge for anyone who hasn’t learned of it yet.

When I started dieting the first time I had about 30 pounds to lose.  This would have taken me down to my lowest weight I remember at my height and athleticism (I played several sports in high school and trained martial arts in college).  When I finally got my head around losing the weight (meaning I finally found the motivation) I started out the no bread, pasta, or sugar route.  I knew nothing of low carb diets, only that weight loss could occur by cutting out these foods.  I didn’t work out beyond an occasional brisk walk.  A good amount of the weight came off but I stalled out 15-20 pounds in.  I then switched to Weight Watchers and lost almost all of the rest of the weight.  I should have been thrilled but looking in the mirror I looked nothing like my former athletic self.  I was very close to the weight but still looked fat in the mirror.  I had little idea why, and slowly started to put about 10 pounds back on.  We talked about joining a gym but didn’t really make a final decision until Maritus just came home with a membership one day as a surprise.  A couple of weeks later, after we had both managed to overtrain, (add to this list flu like symptoms for me) Maritus came home with some books on weight lifting, HIT training for him and Sculpting Her Body Perfect for me.  Thank goodness for that book.  It would be three years before I learned to eat much better, but I was on my way to lifting weights.

Lifting weights is so incredibly important because muscle burns many more calories than fat.  The reason I had become skinny fat is because, while restricting my calories, not only was my body burning fat, it was burning muscle.  I didn’t know this was how the body works.  So, even though the scale was reading what I had wanted it to, approximately 25% of my weight loss was due to burned muscle tissue.  I was skinny fat because I had burned away all my athletic lean muscle.  It dramatically slowed my metabolism and I had to eat even fewer calories to continue to lose weight, which would have led to even more muscle loss.  Then if I cheated, it was so much easier to add the weight back on as I didn’t have as much muscle burning calories throughout the day.  This is why weight lifting is so incredibly important. You will build more muscle to burn even more calories even while inactive.  It was when I finally learned about low carb that I got the closest I have been to my high school/college weight and size.  The important thing with low carb is that you are eating far more protein than a SAD entails.    This protein is vital to muscle growth and diet is vital to weight loss.  Approximately 85% of your weight loss goals will be achieved outside the gym with what you do and do not put in your mouth (I can’t find a link for this number right now and it may be off by a bit.  If anyone has more information on this I would appreciate it.  Just know that diet is key.  Without it, you will never reach your goals, no matter how much you work out).

So now, here we are today.  I’m about 15 pounds from where I want to be, as for the past four months I have been suffering terrible allergies that have kept me out of the gym (and many days made it very difficult to eat right).  Unfortunately, my allergies do not present with the normal itchy eyes and runny nose, rather I suffer from exhaustion, terrible sinus headaches,  and sinus pressure that causes significant dizziness and nausea.  What fun!  While I can still mostly function to get the kids through school, getting to the gym and eating right go pretty much out the window.  I’m too nauseous to stomach all the protein and fat and too tired and dizzy to train.  Last week, this latest spell finally ended and I am back to the low carb and the gym (I have had periods like this for the past 3 years.  Immunotherapy shots help tremendously, however it was just a particularly bad fall).  The good news is, I’ve been here before so there is not even a shadow of a doubt that I will be able to get back to where I was.  The frustrating thing for me is that I tend to get sick right when my goals are in sight but I’m not quite there.  Each time I recover, I tend to work through my old goal only to set a new one, so I really cannot complain.  So, I’m back at square . . . I don’t even know.  I’ve lost count.  I’m slowly getting my motivation back and very much looking forward to getting back into my nice clothes (so is Maritus).  I will get there but it takes patience and a lot of work.  Only, I know that after a couple of weeks I will love the work it takes and I will crave it.  You can get there, too.  Just know, that when you are first starting it takes longer to reach this place.  Give it time and work hard.  It will come.

Originally, this post was going to entail my favorite new training exercises, but I think I will save that for another day.  Today, ladies (and men), just realize how important weight training is to maintaining and losing weight.  You always hear what the scale reads is not important, and in reality this is very true.  It is how you look in the mirror and how your clothes fit that really counts (and, off course, how we look nude for our men).  By all means, use the scale as a motivator if it helps.  I have to weigh myself every day as it keeps me from raiding the fridge (food is my vice).  That’s what works for me.  Find what works for you and use it as best you can to your advantage.  Also, find what you love at the gym.  I was always an aggressive athlete.  I love the discipline of it.  It’s the one place I can go and lay it all on the table, get aggressive (yes, I know, not very feminine, but like I said, I was an athlete.  It came with the territory) in an acceptable fashion and kill it.  If you are lucky, you will be one of those people who gets a wonderful endorphin high while you are working out.  It takes time to really reach that place, but the more you stick with it, the more you will not only love the gym, but crave it.

Start out slowly and stay away from the machines.  Go right for the free weights and the cables.  You need to train your stabilizer muscles as well as the main muscle groups. The machines are too focused on on particular muscle.  However, when you use the free weights, bars and cables you are forced to use opposing muscle groups as well and it works all the little muscles in between.  You will train more thoroughly and be less prone to injury this way.  Also, head to BodyBuilding.com for more information than you could ever possibly hope for as well as hundreds of different exercises for your whole body.  Another favorite of mine is T-Nation.  This is, however, heavily geared toward men.  I go there mostly for motivation to reach for higher goals and to tweak my form or routine.  These things will come with time, but you must first get in there, get base routine started and learn correct form for each new move (this is so important).  Find your favorite exercises and learn them perfectly.  You will know when it’s time to add to your repertoire as you’ll want to learn more (which you will have to do to continue to make gains).

For those of you unable to make it to the gym, there is a lot that you can do at home with very little equipment.  I recommend BodyRock.tv (which has changed quite a bit since the last time I checked in.  It has grown.  Also, if it is still similar to what it was a couple of years ago, the guys will love the videos).   The point is, you want to build muscle.  You must not be worried that you will end up looking like this:

Won’t ever happen.

You cannot.  Women do not have enough testosterone in our systems to naturally look that way.  You can, however (depending on lots of different factors), look like this:

Jamie Eason. A famous female body builder.

One last thing, you can take lifting weights as far as your body will allow it.  However, you should be aware of what your husband finds attractive.  Some men do not like overt muscles on a woman.  If this is the case, use lower weights with higher repetitions.  You will gain tone without bulk or striations.  Some men do find it very attractive and they admire the discipline behind what it takes to achieve.  It’s really up to you (and your genetics) how far you wish to take it.

It’s Hunting Season

Tags

hunting, recipes, venison

Yummmmm

Depending on where you live it is, or is nearly, hunting season.  It’s man season!!  Given that, I thought I would give you all a couple of excellent venison recipes (if you don’t have access to venison, beef would do nicely).  The first is from a website called Deer Farms and it is the best venison recipe I have ever had.

Ingredients:

~ 1 – 1 1/2 lbs Venison Scallops (these are more commonly known as the loin) cut about 1 inch cubes (the recipe says to pound them to 1/4 thick.  I don’t do that as I just don’t see the point) 

~ salt and pepper

~ flour (I know! But I think these would be fine without it.  It gives the meat a nice crust and thickens the sauce.  The flavors would be much the same with out it, but the consistency would be much different)

~3 tbls butter

~ 1 tbls olive oil

~ 2 tbls finely chopped shallots

~ 1/2 dry white wine

~ 1/2 cup heavy cream (You may want to add more wine and cream as the sauce is delicious.  It’s worth it to have extra)

~ Few drops of lemon juice

Directions:

Season the scallops with salt and pepper.  Dip them in flour and shake off the excess. In a 10 inch skillet, melt the butter and oil over moderate heat.  Brown the scallops on each side and then remove to a dish (A big mistake I aways make is to crowd the scallops in the pan.  Don’t be afraid to cook them in separate batches if you need to.  If you crowd them, they won’t brown as nicely). Pour off most of the oil, except for a thin film.  Stir in the shallots and cooks for one minute, or less.  Pour in the wine and bring to a boil, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the skillet.  Boil for two or three minutes until the wine has reduced by half.  Reduce the heat, add the cream and simmer, stirring constantly, for three to five minutes, or until the sauce thickens.  Taste and season with a few drops of lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Return the scallops to the pan, basting with the sauce, and cook just long enough to heat the scallops through.

This pairs incredibly well with the roesti I posted in Man Food.  Use the potatoes to sop up the extra gravy that you made.  It is wonderful!

One of our other favorite venison recipes is to just make a big batch of chili.  I love this Betty Crocker recipe as it is both easy and flavorful.  I love chili but I have never had chili as good as it is with ground venison.  It has the most amazing flavor.  I told Maritus that if he gets more than one deer this year that I would like to take all the meat from one (minus the loins) and grind the whole thing just so we can make a boatload of chili. It really is that good.

To all the Great White hunters reading, may your mornings be cold, the barometer rising, and your skies gray.  Good luck this year!

Low Carb for the Win

Tags

Low Carb

Yep.  Maritus and I do the low carb thing, too.  I can’t recommend it to others enough.  This link is just one of several reasons why we follow this diet.  Both of us, between eating low carb and weight lifting, are in the best shape we’ve been since we’ve been married.  I have even gotten down the the weight I was at when we met.  My body is not the same as three kids and not eating right for several years will do that to a woman, but I am getting very close to being in top shape again and I can’t wait.  I COULD NOT have done this with the typical Weight Watchers low calorie diet.  Been there, done that and I will describe my experience more in another post.

Please Note: I am working on a proper post but it will still be a couple of days.  My family just left early this morning and we are all quite tired and my youngest is sick.  In the mean time, I love talking diet/nutrition/exercise so please feel free to talk away in the comments about this.  I find it fascinating.