Hand in Hand

 Just a quick recipe. No pictures for you today.   Split pea soup. I know, lots of people don't like split pea soup. But try homemade and you might be surprised. Quick run down of ingredients. I'll grab prices that I find online at a large store that most people have access to.   Dried split peas - 16 oz bag $1.42 Water - you have that at home Carrots - usually less than $2 for a bag Onion - you can use fresh or dried, either one is pretty cheap. I prefer fresh or even frozen. Garlic - fresh or powder, your choice Chicken bouillon - starts at less than $2 a jar Ham steak - $3-5 depending on size of package or brand Salt & pepper   So, basically, if you want to cook your veggies a bit first, add oil or butter to pan and sauté chopped veggies until they start to get tender. Do this in the pot you plan to cook the soup in and its less dishes to clean up. Put peas and bouillon in pot. Add all other ingredients. season to taste. Cook until ...

Groceries are a hot topic right now. We live in a volatile time and really need to learn how to do better for ourselves. With the current state of the world, shopping is a difficult thing for some. A really important thing you can do is to watch the sales at your local stores. Where I live, we have 2 small locally owned grocers and a Dollar General.  Each fall, baking supplies tend to go on sale. I knew this was coming up, so I set aside some cash to be able to stock up a little bit. The little store I shopped at offers digital coupons through their app. The picture below shows part of what I bought. 3 - 5lb bags of unbleached all purpose flour $1.99 each 1 - 4lb bag of sugar $1.99 3 - 2lb bags of brown sugar $.99 each 1 - 2lb bag of powdered sugar $.99 2 bottles of canola oil $2.99 each 5 cans evaporated milk $.99 each I also got 2 dozen eggs. One was free (if you spent over $20), the other $1.99. Two 16oz containers of heavy whipping cream for $3.99 each. So, all of this for less...

It's that time of year when sickness seems to amp up it's spread. Everybody has their own ways of boosting their immune systems to stay healthy. This year, I've made a batch of fire cider and a jar of fermented honey garlic. The picture is the strained batch of fire cider (yep, 2 jars worth) and the honey garlic at it's start.  If you aren't familiar with either of these, let me share. Fire cider was first made by Rosemary Gladstar . Worth looking up, if you want a neat read. Over the years, people have switched up the ingredients, but the base is usually the same. Horseradish, onion, garlic, ginger, cayenne pepper, apple cider vinegar, and honey. You let these ingredients steep, then strain the liquid off and add honey to it. That's your finished product. For the fermented honey garlic, I originally read about it here,  https://www.growforagecookferment.com/fermented-honey-garlic/ . It's super simple, very tasty, and good on so many things. I love using it ...