Make Your Own Vanilla Extract & Save! Tiny House Cooking

If you cook, especially bake, much at all. Or have ever made a simple batch of cookies one time, you have probably used a recipe that called for vanilla extract at some point. And if you want the real stuff, you probably noticed, it is expensive! There is a reason. Real vanilla extract is made from a vanilla bean which grows from an orchid. And orchids are a bit touchy, slow growing, and only produce so many vanilla beans. They also don't grow in cold places like the Wyoming mountains though they are quite lovely if you care to go look up some photos of the plant. Anyway, much of the "vanilla extract" sold in the world today, up to 99% by some estimates, is artificial. There is a reason it is so popular, mostly the price. While real vanilla beans contain at least 250 flavor and scent compounds that seem to almost universally delight the human senses, those compounds also seem to enhance our enjoyment of other flavors in our foods. Artificial vanilla on the other hand, mostly focuses on imitating a single one of those compounds, vanillin. And does not come from a vanilla bean at all, but is synthesized in a factory from wood pulp or wood-tar creosote. Sounds tasty, right?

Tiny House Cooking - Split Pea Soup

With the snow coming down out there, it's good weather for a nice hearty soup! Like most soups, you can pretty much toss anything you like in a pot together and it will probably be tasty. But this is a version of split pea soup that I enjoy. And it is a good way to use a bunch of root veggies that I have stored from when I cleaned everything out of the garden before it froze solid. First, what you can see in the above photo is

The Best Brownies Ever (And they're healthy!)

Do you like brownies? Especially rich soft almost fudge like brownies? Then this is the recipe for you! You know how most of the time when you see something labeled "gluten free," "dairy free," "vegan," etc you can often assume it's kind of a shadow of the normal version. Less wonderful but maybe edible? At least that's often been my experience. These are not like that. They are better than any other brownie I've ever had!  And everyone

Make Your Own Soda Pop in 12 Hours? Tiny House Cooking - Ginger Ale

Do you call that stuff soda? Pop? Soda pop? I've heard and lived in areas where each was commonly used. Anyway as we are probably all well aware by now, when you buy and consume a bottle of whatever you call it, you are not building your health at all. With massive sugar loads, increasing incidences of everything from diabetes and heart disease to gout and dementia, to obesity and cancer risks tied to soda consumption, clearly none of us benefit from drinking them. But, some of us really, really, REALLY, like them. 

I can't say I do personally, though I have good friends and family members who crave soda at an addiction level. I'm very thankful to have grown up in a house where soda was just something that was not normally present or an option, and I never really developed much of a taste for them. Now something like gummy candies, that's a whole 'nother topic for me! I might even do a whole post just about that sometime.... But back to soda. The only thing in that family that I have ever truly enjoyed is

Tiny House Cooking - Fire Cider

Have you heard of fire cider? This is another thing I like to keep on hand much like my ginger brew I've shared before. Both are tasty and I enjoy them just for that. But they also both seem to have benefits for your health and immune system so I like having them on hand for any time I feel like my body might be fighting some kind of bug. With this one though, you need some patience as it takes four to eight weeks for the flavors to marinate. So the best time to make it was two months ago. 😉 But if you didn't do that, the next best time to make a batch is

Tiny House Cooking - Honey Oat Bread

 I've shared several different ones before, but here's another bread recipe I really enjoy with a nice warm bowl of soup. All the below zero weather recently makes me enjoy these kinds of meals. This one is easier and faster than most breads because it's not a yeast bread, but a quick bread. It only uses baking powder / soda and so does not have any of the "touchiness" of a yeast bread. This bread is really fast to mix up, you do not need to wait for

Tiny House Cooking - Instant "Cheesecake"

Most dessert type foods I can easily pass on. Cakes? Most are dry and I don't enjoy them. Cookies? Eh, if they are really fresh and soft, but otherwise not my thing. Doughnuts? Unless it's within about 10 seconds of coming out of someone's skillet after being home made, don't even really like them. And so on. But I have a serious weakness for anything made with cream cheese. Anything. Like right down to eating a block of plain cream cheese. I really really like the stuff!

 If I'm ever out for dinner with a friend, I'll most likely pass on any dessert offered. Unless the waiter mentions cheesecake. Then I will almost always have a piece. And of course I can bake my own cheesecake. I've made a wide variety over the years and enjoyed every one. One of the best I ever had was a 8 inch high pistachio cheesecake made for me by a good friend as a birthday gift. Truly amazing! But... I don't do this much as my body doesn't seem to digest dairy well. As much as I enjoy the stuff, I avoid consuming it most of the time.

 Occasionally though, I just really crave the rich creamy taste. And if you ever feel the same, here's how I get that cheesecake like fix, in less then a minute, without having a whole cheesecake

Winter Squash

Some of the many squash I helped grow and harvest at a previous job in a different and much warmer location!

 Winter squash (the hard, sometimes oddly shaped and colored ones, not things like zucchini which are summer squash) are a great way to get lots of vitamins, minerals and fiber, among other thing, into your diet in the winter. Check out http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2751/2 or other sources if you want to see a list of all the vitamins and minerals they contain. They also store very well, so are a great winter food. I would love to grow and store my own as they are pretty easy to grow. If you have a warm enough climate. Most varieties take a 100 day plus frost free growing season and here we're lucky to have 50 days without snow. Usually with multiple frosts in that period. But wether you can grow your own or buy them, one of the best things about squash is how easy they are

Tiny House Cooking - Christmas Caroling Chili

With the frigid cold weather we woke up to this morning, with temps a little below zero F, a good hot hearty soup was on my mind. Chili seems to be another of those dishes that most people have passionate opinions about the correct way to make. I never order chili if I am away from home because

Some Interesting and Different Meals

As you probably know, I very much enjoy cooking and sometimes am asked, "what kind of food do you make?" I never know how to answer this question. I make a lot of things. :) I think one of the wonderful things about preparing your own food is not only the quality and knowing what is actually in it, but being able to experiment with different ideas and flavors to make things exactly the way you prefer. So I rarely make two things exactly the same. Above is something like an open faced "egg macmuffin."  The biscuit made with freshly hand ground einkorn wheat, grass fed

Canning Summer Bounty

This summer and fall I was able to preserve a lot of wonderful food for enjoyment through the next year. Canning is one of the ways I store bounty for later enjoyment, and I love looking at rows of beautifully colored canned foods on my pantry shelves! Growing and eating various and sometimes unusual colors is so much fun. The above photo is all carrots

Popcorn on the Wood Stove & some Chores

Everything is good a white around here now, but the snowfall amounts are below average here at my place compared to last winter which was the most snowfall ever recorded in the state of WY!

I'm still doing some cooking on the wood stove thanks to still not having my replacement range. The first one sent out arrived badly smashed by the freight company so I refused shipment. The company I purchased it from, AJ Madison, I really really wanted to be able to recommend to you all as they do have a great selection of tiny house sized appliances along with all their full sized stuff. 

But after being shuffled around for nearly three weeks after the smashed stove arrived, not answering their phones, not replying to emails, saying it was taken care of, finding out later nothing had happened, etc. I can't recommend dealing with them. As of yesterday and yet another long phone call which resulted in finding out they had still not shipped a new stove, I asked them to cancel the order and they said they will refund my money. If not that does not happen, I will dispute the charge with the credit card company. I now have a new stove, same model but costing a few dollars more, shipping though an Amazon seller. It was shipped this morning, and I am hoping I will soon have a range back in that hole in my kitchen.

In the mean time, I am cooking simple things on the wood stove.

And doing other chores around the house. 

And finally, I know it's not a good photo, but this little critter startled me in a tree right beside my house one night well after dark. I'm pretty sure it's a flying squirrel, but I've never seen one before. The cute little guy scrambled up and down the tree peaking out at me for a bit before I was cold enough to want to go back inside. But it was a pretty cool experience!

Crisp and Cold

The sun makes it look warm, but it's been several days now since the temps climbed above freezing. 

So I thought I'd take you all along on a walk around my place looking at all the frost and ice since the snow seems to be lacking so far this winter. 

And another good hearty winter soup to keep warm with.

Horefrost on the deal leaves in the yard.

And a few impressive bull moose I've seen recently. 

With this really old king following.

Post Thanksgiving

After Thanksgiving the weather remained unseasonably warm for a while. So I split a bunch more firewood. 

And discussed some of my thoughts on Black Friday...

And added a new cooking video on my favorite meatloaf recipe. 

All the warm weather melted most of the snow we did have, and then added a bunch of rain. The creek below my house ended up just about as high and muddy as it normally is during spring run off. 

And then the temps plummeted, and coated everything with a glittery layer of hoarfrost. I love when the air just sparkles!