Tomato soup

My somewhat kinda famous Tomato Soup!

Ingredients:

ALL ORGANIC

Roma Tomatoes

Carrots

Potato

Onion

Home made Bone Broth

Fresh homegrown Basil

cooking fat: butter, lard, or bacon grease.

Dried Oregano

Salt

Pepper

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Tools:

Emulsion Blender 

Cookie Sheet

Parchment Paper

Veggie Peeler

Knife

Cutting board

8 qt stock pot

Look at how beautiful these Roma's are! 

Take them and cut the top off and then cut once lengthwise down the center

Lay them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and put them in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Pick a good onion a few potatoes I had russet, you can use any kind, even sweet potato works great too and a few carrots and prep them.

I like to cut them into small pieces so I can cook them WHILE I'm cooking the tomatoes in the oven.

Use an 8 quart stock pot and today I used bacon grease as the "cooking fat" because I was making this for people who are dairy free...otherwise I would have used butter.  So, saute your potato, onion and carrots in the fat of your choice on a low heat for at least 20-25 minutes stirring frequently...this should be done while the tomato's are in the oven. 

They smell and look delicious

Oh look the tomatoes are now done!  Their skin is shriveled and you can smell them when you open the oven. Yum! 

A closer look

I use bone broth in almost everything.  I really need to do a new blog post about it!  

Add the tomatoes to the pot with the potato, carrot and onion. 

Top with about 1/2 quart of bone broth.  I had 1 open and took a 2nd one out, didn't end up needing it. 

Season it, cause HELLO, that bone broth aint going to season itself.  Make sure you have your soup on a medium heat to get that broth heated up.  USE SALT, A lot of it, like maybe 2 teaspoons at least...up to a Tablespoon.  Pepper, Garlic Powder, dried Oregano as well need to be in there <---I grow and dry my oregano, and I'll NEVER buy it again from the grocery store.

THEN TASTE the broth and see if it's salty enough.

Mix it all up

Get the Emulsion Blender out and go to town being super careful of course, cause that soup is hot.  It took about 3-4 minutes to get it totally smooth. 

Here is my indoor basil growing in the dead of Winter.  It's January right now!

So I picked some fresh for the soup

And I washed and cut it up

Then added it to the soup

And it's all done and bottled up ready to store.  If you make sure the soup is hot and bottle immediately then you can lid it and it will seal itself.  I do this with ALL my soups.  You can store in the fridge for MUCH MUCH longer then you would if it wasn't sealed.  

As you can see this batch made 5 pints, which is 16 ounces each, a great single portion of soup for lunch.  When you do serve it, if you are able to eat cheese, might I suggest some shredded Parmesan on top!  

The secret to making this taste oh so good.  THE BROTH.  If you are not making broth every other week in your house, you are missing out on the goodness that is!

Shepherd's pie

Shepherds Pie

Ingredients:

Grass Fed Ground Beef

Carrots

Onion

Peas

Corn

Butter

Red Wine

Worcestershire Sauce

Chicken Bone Broth

Salt & Pepper

Thyme

Gluten Free Flour

Mashed Potatoes have in them Milk and Butter.

Egg

Parmesan Cheese

Saute Carrots over medium head in butter for about 5 minutes.

Boil Potatoes for the mashed potatoes that go on top.

After 5 minutes add onion and a tad more butter if you need it

Once the onion are soft add a pound of grass fed ground beef

Go handpick some Thyme off the plant outside. Oh you don't have one.  Your goal for this year is to have fresh herbs of all sorts ready at all times.  Get on it, lol!  

Add the Thyme to the dish, I used about 5 sprigs

once the meat is cooked drain off any fat and then add 1 cup of red wine and about 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce, make sure it's Gluten Free, not all are.  Lea and Perrins is.

Simmer for a few minutes to burn off the alcohol

Add your other quick cooking veggies, peas and corn and about a good cup or so of chicken bone broth, then add in 2 tablespoons slowly of gluten free flour and mix it in

When it's all nice a thick and bubbly then transfer to a baking dish or "Pie Pan"

Top with Mashed potato, Coat the mash potato with a whipped egg and then shred Parmesan Cheese on top.  Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 375-400 degrees. 

The final product on the plate is magic in your mouth.

It's warm, it's delicious comfort food and it's Gluten Free and home made. 

Delicious!  Enjoy!

How I grew broccoli in the fall of 2015.

How I grew Broccoli in the fall on 2015

It all starts with a seed!  I planted a lot of broccoli this year.  I wanted to insure I had a great bunch to choose from to plant.  I knew I was going to be using a whole 8x4 raised garden bed.  I took the above picture July 20th, 2015

I start my seeds indoors under T5 lights, I have 2 set ups, 1 is a 6 bulb that runs super hot and the other is a 4 bulb which is just perfect for starting most seeds.  For soil this time I went outside and filled up the containers with soil from the boxes, nothing fancy. 

I had some good results but not every pod grew a plant.

After a while I transplanted them into bigger containers so they could grow a good hearty root system that would be strong through a transplant to the garden.

I left them to grow

I grew 18 plants total as you can see on the right.  On the left are the brussel sprouts that I also grew from seed.

While I wait for the weather to cool off and the plants to grow a bit more I had to get the garden prepped for the new crop.  Which meant I had to pull the remaining plants from the summer crop and amended the soil again before I could plant in it.  My son helps with all aspects of the gardening that happens here.  And YES he's doesn't have pants on, it was September in North Texas, it's HOT!  

Here is a picture of the plants getting a lot bigger!

It's time to bring them outside to "Harden Off" this is the process where they go from a 75 degree temp all day all night to getting used to being outside and having fluctuating temperatures.  Broccoli are a cool season plants and North Texas is often hot until late September, so it's touch and go with when to plant them in the ground.  

And on September 24th they went into the ground

Here they are just a few days later, getting used to the new home.

9/28/15

10/2/15

So I picked a plant to watch and see a small leaf coming from the center.

10/4/15

The leaf is getting bigger

10/6/15

Wow, it's been 2 days?  WHAT? 

10/8/15

and in 2 MORE days! OK WAIT A SECOND!

10/10/15

Im having to back up now to take the picture

10/14

Insanity that the plant grew this much so quickly!  I blame it all on the minerals I used, Bloomin Minerals from Youngevity.

10/20/15

Here is a wideshot, you can see the 11 plants that were just small a few weeks prior are now really getting quiet large.

10/25/15

First flower!  I got so excited to see the first broccoli, after 3 long months!

10/27/15

More florets and they are getting larger by the day!

10/27

Here is Levi my son playing in the brussels sprouts and broccoli

10/27

Look how big they are now!

10/29/15

More flowers!

11/2

11/4

Grow broccoli grow! 

11/6

11/10

11/12

11/16/15

AND HARVEST!

11/16

Steamed it up with lots of seasoning!

11/20

Got my 2nd head of broccoli harvested

11/20

Isn't it beautiful!

11/20

I prefer to steam it!  I seasoned it again and served it with steak and a Japanese Sweet Potato

So now it's time to put up the greenhouse to protect it from the first freeze which is 11/22/15

11/22

11/22

Everything outside the tent died, everything inside stayed alive.  

I did run a heater to it and had it running all night long.  It got down to 26 outside and stayed at 32 in the greenhouse.

11/24

11/28

11/28

12/7

12/8

 We've enjoyed the broccoli this season so very much, but all good things must come to an end, and on December 21st, 2012, I cut the last broccoli off the plant and took it inside. 

We will be eating it for dinner this evening!