Tag Archives: Cooking

Planned Leftovers: Turkey & Dressing (Stuffing) Patties

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Aaaah the holidays. A special time of the year when friends and family gather to bask in the warmth of their relationships and enjoy some really good food. So much food in fact that oftentimes the day afterward can leave you scratching your head. Wow, there’s so much food leftover! What do I do with it all??

Well when you’re tired of eating the same leftovers over & over again, the freezer can be your friend. Or my favorite: planned leftovers. That’s where you make a whole new meal from those delicious leftovers.

Take that turkey & dressing for instance. RancherMan loves when I make Turkey & Dressing Patties from them. It’s like Potato Cakes, but with turkey & dressing instead. Come see.

What to do with that leftover turkey & dressing? Make it into turkey & dressing patties. Similar to potato cakes, it's crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. And so good. No more wasted food! #TexasHomesteader

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Lazy-Cook’s Quick & Easy Italian Soup

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by Texas Homesteader ~

RancherMan & I were planning a day trip to visit my dad. When we go for a visit I like to take any meal-planning pressure off him. I’ll typically whip up something super easy & portable to bring with us so he doesn’t feel he needs to put on a spread for us. On this day I decided a big pot of soup would fit the bill quite nicely.

We typically leave early in the morning so we can drive the 3 hours for our visit. We’ll stay all day and plan to be back home around 10 that evening.

Since I’ll be whipping up this soup early in the morning I need a lazy-cook’s recipe. You know, a recipe where I can just start with some cooked ground meat, open a bunch of cans, dump it all in a slow cooker’s crock and GO!

Enter this Lazy-Cook’s Italian Soup…

Lazy-Cook's Italian soup. Just cook ground meat, onions & noodles. Dump it all in a soup pot with cans of vegetables. EASY! #TexasHomesteader

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How To Tell If Baking Powder Is Still Good

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by Texas Homesteader ~ 

I was baking some Beer Bread recently.  As I pulled out the ingredients for my bread I noticed I was dangerously low on baking powder. But wait, didn’t I see a large container stashed  way in the back of the pantry just the other day?

I dug around until I found it. Wow, it’s apparently been in the pantry for quite some time. But it seems such a waste to just throw it away. I wonder if it’s still good… So I decided to run a quick test.

Do you wonder if that container of baking powder is still good? Here's a quick & easy test to show you whether it's safe to use or you should throw it out. #TexasHomesteader

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12 Must-Haves For Any Home Cook

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by Texas Homesteader ~
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Do you know someone who loves to cook? Or maybe someone like me, who tolerates cooking and just needs tools to get it all done more quickly or easily?

There are tons of great gift ideas out there to make cooking more enjoyable. (and for me, most importantly – made EASIER! LOL) Here’s a list of my favorite & most-used items in the Taylor kitchen:

Must-Have gifts For Cooks. Come see the most used tools in my homestead kitchen. I always opt for tools that make cooking easier. #TexasHomesteader

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Easy Pressure-Canning For Bone Broth

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by Texas Homesteader~
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Y’all know I love to make my own broth, right? I mean, when I found out how simple it was, and how cheap, and healthy – there was just no reason NOT make it. Just plunk some bones into a pot of water and then cook them until they’re broth. I don’t add veggie ends or seasoning of any kind. Just pure bone broth.

I typically pour that cooled and strained broth into plastic jars and store them in the freezer. But too many times I’ve failed to properly plan in advance & I’ve had to chunk frozen broth from the jars for my recipe.

So now that the weather’s cooler and I don’t mind heat & humidity from the kitchen coming through the house, I figured I’d can it this time instead. Don’t be intimidated by a pressure canner, y’all. Canning broth is easy.

Preserve your homemade broth. Use a pressure canner when canning broth. It's easy and your reward is jars of homemade broth for months #TexasHomesteader

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Quick Dessert Recipe: Spiced Rum Fried Apples

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by Texas Homesteader ~

I try to invite my parents to supper as often as I can. There’s just something about breaking bread together that bonds us. Plus it’s much less expensive to invite them to a simple meal at home than to meet them at a restaurant. And it’s much nicer to visit in a home setting too. So recently I invited them over.

I made a plan to cook a simple Instant Pot Roast as the main entree. A side of green beans and breaded Potato Cakes was planned for sides. But dad loves that I serve dessert when I invite them over. So I also planned a very simple dessert. Fried apples… with a twist.

I made a simple dessert of fried apples, with a twist. I added a little spiced rum for extra flavor & moisture. #TexasHomesteader

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Homemade Bread Shortcut: Faster Ingredient Measuring

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by Texas Homesteader ~ 

Recently I learned that bread machines have apparently changed for the better. Now I find I really love the convenience.

So I tweaked RancherMan’s favorite Honey/Oatmeal Sandwich Bread recipe to make a 2-Lb Loaf for a Bread Machine. I use that bread machine to whip up hot, fresh homemade bread for him several times a week.

Since I’m baking bread so often I went looking for ways to shorten my bread-baking tasks. Let me tell ya, whether using a bread machine or mixing & baking it up the old fashioned way, these shortcuts make homemade bread a breeze!

I've made my own bread machine packets to simplify bread-baking day. My own, inexpensive convenience item made in a flash. #TexasHomesteader

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Easiest Instant Pot Cheesecake Recipe

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by Texas Homesteader ~ 

I love cheesecake, y’all. I mean really, really love cheesecake. But I’ve always been intimidated to try to make it myself. I mean – water bath in the oven? The top cracking if you didn’t cook it just right? The 2-part pan leaking in the water? It just sounded so… finicky.

So instead I always enjoyed my cheesecake at a restaurant table, #thankyouverymuch.

Then I read someone saying that the reason you bake it in a water bath in the oven is because it must have that moisture. Without that moisture you’re doomed to have a dry, cracked cheesecake. This person said that’s why a pressure cooker is the perfect way to make cheesecake. There’s naturally lots of moisture.

Wow, now that makes sense.

Making Instant Pot Cheesecake turns a finicky dessert into pure simplicity. Come see this easy cheesecake recipe cooked in an Instant Pot. #TexasHomesteader

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Instant Pot Makes Homemade Yogurt Even Easier!

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by Texas Homesteader ~
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I’ve made yogurt for years, neigh decades. It was the very first self-sufficient step I ever took. Back then looking at those non-recyclable (in my area) plastic yogurt tubs that I was forced to throw away, I just figured there had to be a better way.

And there WAS.

I started making 1/2 gallon of Stove-Top Homemade Yogurt every week or so since then. I’ve never looked back! But now there’s this Instant Pot craze. So I took the plunge. And there’s a yogurt setting on mine too. Hummmm…

Instant Pot Yogurt - so easy! I'm sharing step-by-step instructions with photos to make your own creamy yogurt. #TexasHomesteader

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Accumulating Okra When You Don’t Have Enough To Fry

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Okra is a powerhouse in the garden. Heat? Drought? Poor soil? It just seems to laugh at it all! My garden struggled this year due to the prolonged cool, wet spring. When the sun finally did come out & the temps warmed, many of the things I’d planted had already given up the ghost. But not the okra.

Now okra will produce you out of house & home if you let it. So I only planted four (count ’em – f-o-u-r) plants! It’s been about right to supply RancherMan & me with okra. But I’ll need to harvest & accumulate enough okra for frying up for us. Thankfully it’s easy!

An easy way to accumulate fresh okra from the garden & prepare it for frying at a later time. A quick mixture of flour, cornmeal & spices. #TexasHomesteader

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