You will need:

• 6 turkey wings
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic chopped or smashed, or a teaspoon of garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons salt (preferably gray/Celtic salt) or 2 tablespoons clear chicken soup powder or “vegetable condiment” (Vegeta or Mivina) or 4 Maggi or other stock cubes
• 1/2 to teaspoon black pepper (depending how you like it)
• 1 teaspoon paprika (sweet or hot depending on your taste)
• 2 cups whatever vegetables you have around, chopped to small cubes
• olive oil, butter, or animal fat
• 1 and 3/4 liters of water
• 1 kg. short grain rice

Instructions:

1. Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the turkey wings, and rub it in a a little.
2. In a large pot, heat about a tablespoon and a half of oil, and brown the turkey wings a bit.  Don’t overcrowd the pot.  You may need to do two wings at a time, and transfer them to a bowl to do the rest, and then put them all back in when you’re done.
3. Sweat the onions in the same oil you browned the wings in.
4. When the onions are just about clear, add the garlic, and stir around for just a few seconds.  Then put the wings, vegetables, and water in the pot.
5. Now add the rest of the salt, pepper, paprika, soup mix, and/or whatever other seasonings you like.  Some like to add a seasoned salt, chicken grill spices, parsley, celery seed and such.  Do it to your taste.
6. Cover and bring to a good boil.  Then turn the heat down to just above low.  You want it boiling but slowly.
7. Let this cook for about an hour and a half, and then return to preheat your oven to about 200° Celsius or 400° Farenheit.
8. While your oven is heating up, line a pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper.  Some like to use both.
9. Take the wings out with a straining spoon or thongs, shake off the excess water, and arrange them on the pan.  Then drizzle them with a little oil.
10. Bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes to half an hour.
11. Meanwhile, in a large sauté pan, heat about a tablespoon and a half to two tablespoons of oil, and then add the rice.  Sauté the rice, stirring gently until at least a third of the grains are opaque white.  The idea is to parch the rice to make it less sticky and more digestible.  You can presoak the rice, but make sure to get it as dry as possible before this step.
12. When the rice is parched enough, stir in the water/soup you just boiled the wings in.
13. Bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally to prevent clumping.  Then reduce the heat to low or medium-low, cover, and allow to cook.  Resist the temptation to touch it for at least 20 minutes before checking for done-ness.
14. When the rice is done, remove it from the heat, and then fluff it a little.
15. Your wings should be done roasting by now, so take them out of the oven.

Serve each person a wing section and a nice pile of rice.  If you have leftovers, it’s nice to take the meat off the wings, chop it, and mix it with the rice for a quick lunch or dinner the next day.

If you dry, can, or have a deep freezer, this is the time to start buying fruits, vegetables, and herbs for storage.  You can get information on canning and other food preservation methods at the National Center for Home Food Preservation website.

Buy dried beans, pasta, rice, and other dry foods when they’re on sale.  Stock up when you can afford to.  Remember to keep them in the freezer for a week at first to kill any grain bugs or moths that may be in them, then store them in an air tight container.  To keep bugs out, I usually put the food in a bag, and put the bag in a container sprinkled with a good dose of rock salt and cracked black pepper.  If anything gets in there, the pepper will irritate them, and the salt will dry them out.

If you, like me, eat a lot of bean soup in the winter, then this is a good time to stock up on full logs of salami for hanging.  The summer heat and dryness gives them time to get nice and hard without as much risk of the bad kind of molds or infestation.  You can later chop the salami into cubes and use them to flavor your soups.

Space heaters, blankets, and winter clothes are cheaper this time of year.  Check your things to see if they need replacing now, so you won’t be in a rush and have to pay more during the winter.  This is also a good time to stock up on candles, and make sure your reading lights are all in working order.  It’s nice to be ready in case of power outages, and to offset some of the cost of heating by not using the main house lights so often.

One thing many people neglect to prepare for in the winter is the effect wearing clothes all the time has on one’s skin.  Get foot fungus treatments as well as extra strength (actually extra greasy) lotions and creams when they’re on sale, to stock up for winter.  Shea butter is one of the best all around protective emollients.  It gets very hard in winter though.  So take some time to mix about a pound of shea butter with a liter of olive oil in your blender or food processor.  Put it in bottles, and you have some of the best lotion on Earth.

If you tend to have nipple pain in cold weather stock up on scraps of silk to insert into your bra or sew together into a body wrap.  If you start now, you’ll have plenty of time to make lots of them.

For spot treatment of chafing due to clothes rubbing against your skin, set aside 5 ounces of your shea butter and olive oil mixture, and blend in a tablespoon of aloe vera gel, and a teaspoon of oblipicha (sea buckthorn) oil.  It is very soothing, and the oblipicha helps to heal it faster.

Feel free to add your winter preparation tips in the comments.

If you eat tortillas often, then it’s definitely worth it to get a tortilla maker.  If you live in Europe, Africa, or Asia, it may be called a roti or chapati maker.  It’s basically a press grill with a handle opposing the angle of the grill, that you can  push to make sure your tortillas are thin without having to push the top down directly.

Choosing A Tortilla Maker

There are a couple of kinds of tortilla makers on the market for kitchen use.  There are large ones that restaurants that make their own tortillas use, and the small ones that make tortillas between 6″ and 8″.  You definitely want to get one that has an anodized aluminum coating or cast iron plates.

How to Use Your Tortilla Maker

If you get one with cast iron plates, they may take some time to season.  Before you use it, wipe it down with a bit of oil, and let it heat until the oil burns.  Then do it again a few times.  Don’t ever clean it with soap.  If something gets stuck to it, wipe it down with a damp cloth, and heat it until all of the water is completely evaporated.

The directions say to just put a ball of dough in the center of the bottom, put the top down and press, but it’s actually not that simple.  If you do it that way it’s harder to control.  So pat down the balls a bit so that you have a kind of a disk shape.  Place them a bit off center, about 1-2″ away from the back edge, and then press.  You may have to look to see how flat you’re pressing it, until you get the hang of it.  If you press them too thin, the tortilla will basically “explode” outward, or come out with holes.

If it doesn’t have a thickness control, which most small ones don’t, then you’ll have to take care about that.  They will be thinner on one side than the other, but this isn’t something to worry over.  Even on the thick side, they’ll be quite thin enough to do the job.

Tortilla Recipe

The recipes that normally come with tortilla makers often have oil in them.  This ends up making tortillas that are too flaky to hold anything.  So here’s my recipe for taco worthy flour tortillas.

• 3 cups white flour (You can use whole wheat, oat, barley, rye, or millet flour for up to half of the flour.) 
• 1.5 teaspoons salt (preferably crushed gray salt)
• 1.5 teaspoons baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
• 1 teaspoon citric acid or cream of tartar  (you can also use baking powder instead of the soda and acid combination)
• about 1.5 cups water
• extra flour for kneading

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Slowly add water while stirring with your fingers or a spoon until you have a somewhat soggy dough.
3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.
4. Knead the dough until it is fully combined, and then for another 5 minutes or so.  You may need to add a little more flour at a time until you have a firm but elastic dough.
5. Put the ball of dough into a plastic bag, or in a covered bowl, and let it set for half an hour to two hours.  I recommend at least an hour because this gives the organic acids time to break down the gluten in the flour and make it more digestible.
6. Heat up your tortilla maker.
7. Pull off some chunks of dough, and roll them into approximately 1.5″ balls.  Then flatten them a bit.  Have them waiting on a floured surface.
8. One at a time, brush off the flour, and then place them into your tortilla maker, and press until you hear the “screaming”.  Then release the pressure.
9. When each one is done, place it in a covered but not air tight dish, lined with a few paper towels at the bottom.  It’s important to keep them like this so that they get soft and flexible but not soggy.

These tortillas will stand up to beans, meat, or whatever else you like to put in them or use them to dip.

To make crispy chips out of them, brush them with a little butter and seasonings and bake them for about 15 minutes in the oven.

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs (medium to large)
• 3 cups cooked beans, preferably pinto or red beans
• 1 cup home made hominy or corn
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper or 2 hot peppers, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil or animal fat
• 1 cup tomato paste or home made tomato sauce
• 1 heaping teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• 1 teaspoon garlic
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce or balsamic vinegar
• a good dash of black pepper
• a good pinch of hot paprika or red pepper flakes

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok, and then add the onions and peppers.
2. Stir fry them until the onions are just about clear, push them to one side of the pan.
3. Add the eggs to the other side of the pan, and scramble them.  It’s okay if they get mixed a little.
4. Add the tomato sauce, and stir it all together.  Bring it just to a boil.
5. Then add the beans and hominy.  If they’re frozen, cover them and give them time to melt while stirring occasionally to prevent burning at the bottom.
6. Bring it to a boil, and add the rest of the spices and herbs, as well as the soy sauce or vinegar.
7. Cook on low heat (simmer) for about 20 minutes.

Serve this hot, with rice, cornbread, tortillas, or whatever you like your chili with.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white flour
• 1/4 cup powdered milk
• 1 and 1/2 cups hot water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, or animal fat, or palm kernel oil, or butter, or a combination
• 1 large onion
• 1/2 cup chopped cooked meat
• 1 level tablespoon vegetable condiment (preferably Mivina vegetable and chicken), chicken soup powder, or crushed gray salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dry parsley
• 1-2 more cups of hot water, depending how thin you want your sauce

Instructions:

1. The night before, put the flour, powdered milk, and 1.5 cups of water into a bowl, and whisk it together well.
2. Cover the bowl, and let it set in the refrigerator overnight or at least 7 hours.  This makes it a “milk roux”.
3. Take it out of the fridge, and let it get closer to room temperature while you chop your onions and meat.
4. In a large but deep frying pan or wok, heat the oil, and then add the onions.  Stir fry them until the onions are almost clear, and then add the chopped meat.
5. Toss the meat around until it’s sizzling a bit, and then add the milk roux.
6. Brown the milk roux very slightly, by using a folding motion with the spatula.  Keep it moving until it looks like it’s turning into a gooey dough.
7. Then start adding the rest of the hot water, a little at a time, combining it with the roux.  You may need to turn down the heat a bit.
8. When it reaches the point that it’s just a bit thinner than you’d like it to be at the end, stop adding water.
9. Stir in the soup mix or salt, and the garlic and parsley.
10. Let it cook a bit longer, about 2 minutes, while stirring occasionally so it doesn’t burn at the bottom.

Now your sauce is ready to put over pasta or rice, or to dip bread into.

This recipe uses chicken wings because they’re cheap but very fatty and tasty.

Ingredients:

For the soup, you will need;

• 1 kg. (a bit over 2 lbs.) chicken wings
• a tablespoon of schmaltz, ghee, or olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 stalk of American celery with the leaves or about 1/8 cup chopped seasoning celery with some root, chopped finely
• 2 teaspoons salt (preferably gray salt)
• 1/8 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• a pinch of hot paprika or red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon sage
• Optionally, a cup each of frozen peas and diced carrots
• 1.5 liters of water

For the dumplings, you will need;

• 1 lb. or 1/2 kg. flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt (preferably gray salt, crushed)
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable ghee (unhydrogenated palm oil), virgin coconut oil, schmaltz, or butter
• 1 tablespoon of whey or 1 teaspoon of vinegar or 1/2 teaspoon citric acid mixed with
• about 1 and 1/2 cups of water

Instructions:

1. Make the dumplings.  Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Cut in the oil with a fork or pastry blades until it resembles a coarse meal.  You can press it in some with your hands if needed.
3. Mix the whey, vinegar, or citric acid with the water, and stir.
4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, and pour the water mixture into it.
5. Stir it around to begin incorporating the flour, and then begin pressing it together with your hands.  You can add a little more water if needed.
6. Knead on a floured surface for about 3-5 minutes.
7. Wrap the ball of dough in a bag or put it in a covered bowl, and put it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
8. Now, to make the soup.  Heat some oil in the bottom of a large pot.
9. Add the chicken wings, and turn them occasionally until they are somewhat browned and begin to give up some of the fat from the skins.
10. Add the onions, and sweat them until they are just about clear.
11. Add the celery and toss them for a half a minute or so.
12. Add the spices, and then pour on the water.
13. Bring this to a boil, and then turn the heat down to low for a simmer.
14. Cover, and let it cook for about an hour.
15. At the end of the hour, scoop out all of the  chicken.  At this point, if you want other vegetables in it, now is the time to put them in.
16. Spread out the chicken so that it will cool just enough for you to touch, and then begin removing the meat.  Put the meat in a bowl or a plate.  Some people like the skin in there too.  If so, cut the skin into small pieces.
17. Put the meat back into the pot, and turn the heat up to bring it back to a boil.
18. If it starts to boil too quickly, turn the heat back down so that you have it at a slow but rolling boil.
19. Take your dumpling dough out of the refrigerator, and prepare it for dropping into the soup.  Some people like their dumplings finger pinched, while others like them neatly cut.
20. If you like them neatly cut, roll them out on a floured surface, and cut them into squares using a pizza or pastry cutter.  If not, then prepare yourself for some fast pinching.  It’s a good idea to have an extra set of hands for that, but not necessary if you’re quick.
21. Turn the heat back up to high, and begin dropping dumplings into the boiling water.
22. When you run out of dough, make sure to bring the soub back up to a boil.  Then turn the heat down so that it’s boiling, but not too fast.  It should be just above a simmer.
23. Let it cook for a half hour to an hour.  Start testing the dumplings for done-ness at the half hour point.

Serve this hot, and be careful because it is addictive.

Contrary to popular trends, you don’t need special “sushi rice” to make sushi or onigiri.  Any quality short grain rice will do.  Short grain rice is the type with rounder grains as opposed to the long skinny grains of Persian or Jasmine rice.  See this page on how to cook rice for sushi or onigiri.

One really inexpensive but very nice thing to put into rice balls is tamago.  Tamago is basically an omelette that is mildly sweetened with honey, sugar, or syrup.  For a savory version, you can use a little salt and pepper and tuna instead.

You can make a Tex-Mex onigiri by putting in some cheese, a dollop of pinto beans, and a slice of jalapeno pepper.  Be creative with it!

For more ideas on Japanese style box lunches, see ModernTraditional.com’s page on Bento.

Ingredients:

• 1 large head of cabbage, halved and sliced to 1 cm width sections
• 4-6 potatoes, diced
• 2 or 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 onion, halved and sliced across the grain
• 1 heaping tablespoon of bacon fat, lard, schmaltz, or butter
• 2 teaspoons salt or vegetable condiment
• 1/8 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• about a liter of water
• optional chopped ham or bacon

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in the bottom of a large pot, and sweat the onions.
2. When the onions are starting to be clear, add the cabbage, potatoes, and carrots in that order.
3. Add the salt, vinegar, and pepper.
4. Pour in about 1 cup of the water, and cover until the cabbage starts to give up some of its moisture.
5. Then pour in enough water to cover it all.  No more than that.
6. Bring it to a boil on high heat, and then turn the heat down to low to simmer it.
7. Let it cook for an hour to an hour and a half.

Serve this hot as a soup or a vegetable course.

Ingredients:

• 100 g. beef jerky, cut up into small pieces (you may want to use cooking scissors for this)
• 1 cup home made hominy or corn
• 3 tomatoes or 3 handfulls of cherry tomatoes, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3 potatoes, diced (peeling optional)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 sweet bell pepper, chopped
• 2 tablespoons rendered animal fat or olive oil
• 1 teaspoon gray salt
• 1 tablespoon balsamic or malt vinegar, or 1/2 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic crystals or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dry parsley
• about a liter and a half of water

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in a pot, and sweat the onions and bell peppers at the same time.
2. When the onions start to clear, add the tomatoes.
3. When the tomatoes are soft, add everything else.
4. Stir, cover, and bring it to a boil on high heat.
5. Then stir it again, and turn the heat down to low to simmer it for about an hour and a half to two hours.
6. If you’d like to thicken the stew, add about a finger full of roux or fried flour during the last 20 minutes, bring it to a boil again, stir, and then turn it back down.

Serve this hot with rice or your favorite flatbread.

Buy salami or other rolled lunch meats by the log or loaf instead of packets.  To get the best price and the best quality, buy online or by phone from the source, or go to your local farmers’ market or butcher shop.  If you live in an area where many people hunt, some butchers who take care of hunters also make and sell salami and jerky made from wild meats.

For regular turkey or chicken breasts, it’s pretty simple to roast your own.  However, if you want them in a nice loaf, you’ll need to use baking or butchers’ twine to secure them before you put them in the oven.

I don’t recommend making your own traditional salami at home unless you have a traditional space to do it in.  I do however, recommend an updated “freezer salami” if you find yourself blessed with a phenomenal sale on quality ground meat.

This recipe originally came from http://blessingsforlife.com/recipes/frugal/homemadesalami.htm and has been archived here just in case the site should ever disappear or change.

Make Your Own Beef Salami

Copyright by Yvonne Quarles 

This recipe was handed down by my Granny.   Salami was too expensive to buy from the market so she made her own salami from ground beef.  It tastes great and is very easy to make.

 Ingredients: 

 

• 5 pounds of ground beef
• ¼ cup of curing salt
• 4 Tablespoons of dry red wine
• 2 Tablespoons of liquid smoke
• 1 ½ teaspoons of garlic powder
• 2 Tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper
• 1 ¼ teaspoons of ground cumin
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• Nylon netting
• String

 

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together with your hands.  Blend the spices in thoroughly.

Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and put in the refrigerator.  Let it stay in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours.  This lets all the seasonings blend in with the meat real good.  

After time is up take out of the refrigerator.

Divide the meat mixture into 4 equal portions.

Roll each portion into a log that measures about 2 ½ inches in diameter by 6 inches long.  

Cut a piece of nylon netting big enough for each log portion, leaving enough at the end to tie with a string (each netting piece will be about 8 inches long and about 8-9 inches wide).  Roll each log in the nylon netting.  Tie each end with a piece of string.  (Editor’s note: If you don’t like to heat plastics with your food, use animal casing for this step.  The best size for this is “beef middle”.)

Put the logs on a rack and bake in the oven at 225 degrees, for about 4 hours.

Let them cool all the way.

Remove the netting.  Dry with a paper towel.

When ready to serve, slice thin.

These logs can be frozen until ready to use.  Then thaw in the refrigerator and slice.

* * *

Yvonne is a wife, mother, nurse, gardener, and writer.  She strives to love the simple life.  Her byline has appeared in various e-zines, and she is a staff columnist for The Kitchen Detective mag. and Living Herbal. Visit her current web site at Inkspillers Attic.

Instructions:

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