Category Archives: Recipes & Cooking

Favorite simple yet delicious recipes in my Texas Homestead kitchen.

Using It All: MYO Tomato Powder

by Texas Homesteader
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Recently I had a large quantity of tomatoes to preserve. In the process of making my sauce I removed most of the seeds and tossed them into my compost before I even cooked the tomatoes down.

When the tomatoes were cooked I used a sieve to separate the cooked tomatoes from the skins so I would have smoother sauce. 

Now I read somewhere that instead of throwing them away you can dehydrate the skins and grind them into powder to use to thicken soups or make your own tomato paste.

Oh yeah, I’m *SO* gonna do that!

Instead of throwing away tomato skins, dehydrate & ground them into powder to use to thicken soups or make your own tomato paste. #TexasHomesteader

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How To Pressure-Can Homemade Pasta Sauce

by Texas Homesteader ~ 

I decided I wanted to make and pressure-can my own pasta sauce. Homemade sauce means you have complete control over what goes in (and more importantly, what DOESN’T!)

I’d already used my fresh garden tomatoes to make homemade tomato sauce. Now I’ll turn some of it into flavorful pasta sauce. Check out how easy it is! 

Now that I had made all this tomato sauce from my fresh tomatoes, I decided to make & can my own pasta sauce! Check out how easy it is! #TexasHomesteader

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Preserving The Harvest: Making Tomato Sauce

Texas Homesteader ~ 

I came across a great deal recently on a large quantity of beautiful fresh tomatoes. So decided I would make them into homemade tomato sauce.

Tomato sauce is an ingredient I use quite a bit in my kitchen. And making these fresh tomatoes into tomato sauce was EASY! 

I found a great deal on fresh tomatoes & decided I would make them into tomato sauce, something I use quite a bit in my kitchen. EASY! #TexasHomesteader

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Preserving The Harvest: Canning Asparagus

by Texas Homesteader ~ 

I grow asparagus in my garden each spring. But even if you’re buying it, asparagus is both fresher and less expensive when it’s in season. Wouldn’t you love to enjoy fresh asparagus throughout the year? Me too!

So I decided to preserve my fresh asparagus by canning it!

Canning Asparagus. I found a great deal on asparagus. I'd love to enjoy fresh asparagus throughout the year so I decided to can it! #TexasHomesteader

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Preserving The Harvest: Dehydrating Bell Peppers

Texas Homesteader ~
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I’ve planted many bell pepper plants in my garden this year. But it’s still too early in the season for them to be producing. So I stumbled upon a great deal on bell peppers at the store recently. Yeah, I mean like 15 peppers for $0.99 kinda great deal! After I fainted and before I could catch a breath I grabbed up about 5 of them. Oh I suppose I could have grabbed more but I only wanted to buy what we would use.

Other than stuffed peppers (which RancherMan absolutely LOVES) I cook with bell peppers fairly often. Once I got home I found that I still had stuffed bell peppers in the freezer. Maybe I can just freeze them to use as an ingredient in my cooking? Hummm… my freezer space is pretty tight so there’s no room to chop & freeze them for later. What to do? I know – I’ll dehydrate them!

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Easy Boneless Breaded Pork Chops Cooked Using The Power Of The SUN!

by Texas Homesteader ~ 

Well it looks like a sunshiny day and the wind will not be high. So I can’t think of a better reason to use my * Solar Oven. I want to bake boneless, breaded pork chops – OUTSIDE!

It doesn’t matter if it’s going to be hot or cold outside. That’s because the outside temps don’t really affect the cooking with a solar oven. I’ve heard it said that ‘all you need is a shadow‘.

Summer or winter – as long as the sun is shining and the wind isn’t high enough to mess with the reflectors, solar oven cooking is a GO!

Today I think I’ll try my hand at baked pork chops…

It's hot & humid outside, but I'm not adding it inside our home. How am I going to cook tonight's supper? You won't believe it! #TexasHomesteader

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Lemon Cookies Made w/Instant Potatoes

by Texas Homesteader ~ 

We were given a package of instant potato flakes. But I don’t cook with instant potatoes since we both much prefer the taste of real mashed potatoes to instant.

But y’all know how I hate to waste food, so I set out looking for ways to use them up. Thickening for soup? Sure. Topping for shepherd’s pie? Ok.

But it’s taking too long to use this bag of instant potatoes. So I set out to find a recipe to use ’em up a little faster.

Then I stumbled on a recipe to make COOKIES with them. Cookies? Really!??  Hummmm….

Cookies made with instant mashed potatoes?? YES! These cookies were surprisingly delicious, lemony & cake-like - check out my recipe. #TexasHomesteader

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