What's for dinner?

[Mini Horses]

like oven cooking at this time of year. It serves dual purpose. Cooks food and adds just enough heat to the house when I leave the oven open to cool. No fire or heater needed then.

Waiting to cook a turkey breast for JUST this reason. Still too warm but, soon. Been having a few mornings in 50s. When the days get to that, oven works! When winter comes, I often put a pot of something on top the "wood stove look - real flames" propane heater for the day. Summers -- crock pot, instant pot, small convection oven. etc. Like everyone else

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Add fat to help with spiciness. Cheese works well. Hubby doesn't like cheese in his chili, but I do.

We had a nice roast in the oven with onions, potatoes, and carrots. I like oven cooking at this time of year. It serves dual purpose. Cooks food and adds just enough heat to the house when I leave the oven open to cool. No fire or heater needed then.

I love cheese. That's one item that MUST be in my fridge at all times. I prefer not to fire up the oven unless I can fill it up with multiple dishes. Hate to use the propane on just a single dish. I do some cooking on top of my wood stove. The top is tiny (as is the fire box) so it will only accommodate 1 small pot on each side of the stove pipe. I love wrapping potatoes in foil, and baking them in the fire box. They cook super fast, but I can only do so when the coals are burned down to the right size/quantity. Baked potato topped with veggies, cheese, and a dollop of sour cream. Complete meal IMO!!!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

@Mini Horses I've been eyeing a turkey in the freezer. It's not a huge one, so... If I plan well, we should be able to use it up: Several turkey dinners, followed by turkey lasagna (one of my favorite dishes) and turkey soup. Then, the chickens can go to work on the carcass, before I toss the bones into the wood stove to burn down into bone char for the garden. Nothing goes to waste!

 

[Mini Horses]

Nothing goes to waste!

Doesn't sound like it! I don't burn the bones. Maybe stock, then to cats.

When we burn leaves/tiny tree branches from the wood cut, split, etc. Those ashes are spread for the potash...& from fireplace all winter.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

If you stop the burn before it gets to the ash stage, the resulting nuggets can then be used to create biochar. My pH is actually a bit too high from using too much ash in my garden.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I stand corrected. It seems that Biochar will also raise soil pH. So... I'd suggest that you check your soil pH before adding ash, or lime, or Biochar!

http://biochar.pbworks.com/w/page/9748050/Soil pH

 

[Mini Horses]

I have 15 acres of pasture. Hard to get too much on that, especially with the spreader & wind. The grass loves it. It's not used in the garden. Plenty of goat berries, bedding, hay, chicken coops, horse run ins....lot of poo going on around here! Then, there's at least 30 goats/horses peeing all day..... cut grass that rots back into fields. It works. Everyone here is still on pasture, only hay is used for goats on rainy days -- they don't go out in rain. I'll have some amount of pasture until mid December, probably. Then hay use increases. Jan & Feb are our coldest months of winter.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

You have more land than I do! I tend to spread my ash on the lawn till snow blocks the access. By the time the winter is over, I have 2 galv. cans full of ash to be spread.

 

[flowerbug]

chili... just finishing cooking the last pot in the oven and feasted out of the two pots made earlier. i'd tried some for lunch over some left over pasta but it hadn't cooked together enough (but it still was good just different).

now it is all right and the tummy is full up for the evening.

for about $20 (ground beef, two large cans of tomato sauce and tomato chunks and celery) we made about 7 gallons of chili. we'll let it cool tonight and put some of it into quart jars for the freezer and some in the fridge for us to eat.

alas we are already almost out of home grown tomatoes from this past season (we put up some 90something quarts). which is why we bought canned ones. a lot more salt than i'm used to.

we had beans, onions, green and yellow peppers and garlic from the gardens. i cooked up three gallons of beans yesterday, most of the beans were a very small firm bean that stands up well to being cooked and then the rest of the beans (added after the firm ones had cooked an hour) was about half of the reject beans i'd thinned from my collection. so this chili could be called over hundred bean chili as i have no real idea how many bean types are in there but there were a lot of them.

Mom's version of chili is very mild, she can't tolerate much spice at all so for an entire pot she'll use one capfull of chili powder. i have to zip mine up with sriracha sauce if i want some heat.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Sounds good!