Homemade Suet

I've been researching homemade suet. The cost of suet isn't high, low of $.69 per block. However, our birds can go through a block a day!

For suet we would first need the suet, aka: beef fat, bacon/pork drippings, lard, but making sure 'meat' is removed.  I've also found we can add quick oats, peanut butter, honey,  white or whole wheat flour, unsalted chopped nuts, shelled bird seeds, dried fruit pieces, crushed dried eggshells or oyster shells, or degerminated cornmeal.

I'm hoping this weekend or over the holiday break I can find the time to try out a homemade suet with a few of the ingredients added to the collection of drippings I have saved up. Will let you know what I use and how it goes when I find the time!

Have you made homemade suet for your bird friends??



Homemade Pork Stock

I'm going to go a little out of my comfort zone. I have been wanting to make homemade stock to use for cooking and I finally have a day at home to try it! There are a lot of different ways to make homemade stock so it was hard to finally decide exactly what I was going to use. I decide to put everything I read together, (leave a few things out) and wing it. It was suprisingly Here is my recipe for Homemade Pork Stock.

Warning: Your house will smell amazing upon creation of homemade stock. You will have a stronger urge to cook and bake!

Ingredients:
1 pork shoulder bone
1 yellow onion (quartered)
Green onions (cut in chunks)
2 carrots (peeled and halved)
1-2 heads garlic (halved)
Fresh basil
Dried parsley
Handful peppercorns

Yield: approximately 1 gallon - 1.5 gallons (depending on size of bone and desired flavor)

Directions:
1) Place bone in pot, add water to cover 1-2 inches above top of bone.
2) Add all other ingredients.
3) Bring to a boil. Allow to simmer 5-6 hours.
4) Strain out vegetables.
5) Allow to cool, store in the refrigerator over night.
6) Skim any fat off top of stock.
7) Freeze, refrigerate or use it up!

The bone was decent size but I think next time I will add less water and not use the extra strainer piece for my large pot. I would have liked a bit more flavor.

Onions, carrots, garlic.

 

Fresh basil (optional)



Forgot to buy fresh parsley, so I went with dried, not ideal but it worked!

 

Pre-cooked!

 

Just getting started!



After simmering for 5+ hours this is what I had left over. The bone was falling apart at the touch.

 

The finished product, the smell was amazing!

 Plans for the pork stock:
* I used some already in squash soup and crock-pot-chicken.
* Will use in some sort of a meat/vegetable/noodle soup.
* Froze 2 containers (2c each) for uses yet to be determined!

This recipe could also be made 'meatless' by adding extra of each of the other ingredients.

Tonight I saved the bones from a chicken. I am going to wait until I have 2 chicken's worth of bones to try Homemade Chicken Stock. I can honestly say that I will not go back to buying canned or boxed stock/broth. Of course, as most people know, homemade is so much better!

Homemade Repellent Evaluation

I've been using my homemade repellent for about a month now. The first repellent I made and tried was: Natural Mosquito Repellent #1 (water, isoprophyl alcohol, lemongrass and peppermint). 

* Pros: no deet, nice fresh smell, organic. Peppermint oil =  tick repellent (no ticks!)

* Cons: a few mosquito's bites. 

My son, husband and I all tried the spray. The best advice I have for the homemade repellent is: apply directly to the skin; once dried, reapply. Two coats seemed to be the magic number for us. Mosquito's will still hover and may still bite. If you're not in the deep woods (like we are) I think this spray would work perfectly fine. I would recommend it as a mosquito repellent for less swampy areas or wooded areas, and as a tick repellent.

(Our biggest problem in Northern MN is our mosquito's are mini vampires, and usually don't care if you have strong repellent or weak repellent. They'll try their best to suck your blood, the little devils!)

I'm going to be trying Repellent #2 (rubbing alcohol, olive oil, tea tree oil)  in August to see how that compares. Will report back!