Real Food

Homemade Mayonnaise

First time making homemade mayonnaise. I was surprised at how easy it was to do. It tastes nothing like "store bought" and it LOOKS nothing like store bought. Because I used my pastured eggs it came out very yellow, looking more like butter than the mayonnaise we are use to eating. Because I wanted this for turkey sandwiches I put a bit of dried thyme in.

Homemade mayonnaise this is the link where I got the instructions.

My son and I both like it, we're not mayonnaise junkies and this is very mild compared to the store bought stuff. My husband on the other hand, who is a big fan of store bought  is not fond of it. 

As far as I'm concerned it's earned a place in my fridge. I'll take real over fake processed every chance I get.

Of course, not being a commercially processed product filled with preservatives, it's not going to last a year in the fridge. I'm thinking about a week. How long it lasts is determined by how old the eggs are that you used to make it. My eggs were laid the same day. Having to make mayonnaise once a week is a small price to pay for being able to eat "Real Food".

Fun.. Fun.. Fun



Nesco Dehydrator



Five med/large grated dehydrated potatoes with green onions on a 12" dinner plate



Chives about half done in the dehydrator

I had intended to can most of the garden this year. My goal is not using the freezer for preserving our food. After playin with the dehydrator yesterday and today I think I will be drying a lot of things. From what I have read there is more nutrition in the dried food as opposed to canning.

I re-rehydrated some of the potatoes for last nites dinner and honestly I could not tell the difference in taste compared to fresh. I see this as a way of making more fast "slow" food. Also as a way of saving space which I have very little of.

I've heard you can dehydrate meat, eggs and even milk but I have a lot of research to do before I try that! Also properly dried and stored dehydrated food lasts a long time, serval people said 30 years, I take that with a grain of salt? I still have a lot to learn but this really looks promising and I'm excited about another way of storing our food.

If any of you have tips I would love to hear them!

Slow Food Becomes Fast Food

I’m ashamed to admit this but one of the hardest things about moving here was the lack of "fast food". No Macdonalds, Dairy Queen, Arbys, Burger King! In town they have these places but really, an hour round trip and a wait in line hardly qualifies as "fast food" to me.

So, I finally found a way to make slow food into fast food. I learned to can venison stew meat and broth. Last nite I made a 30-minute venison stew with kale, carrots, and frozen green beans from my garden. Onion and potatoes from the store as mine did not do too well this year. I opened a jar of stew meat and a quart jar of broth, put it all together, added bread I made the day before and had dinner. I can tell you it was the best stew I’ve ever eaten, better than anything you could get "out" and for pennies a serving. Not to mention it was actually good for us!

Yeah, canning the meat takes some time (not that much if you divide the time by the number of jars you can fit into your pressure canner) but there is something very satisfying about having good safe food on the shelf that can become a fast nutritious meal.

This is a link to the article by Jackie Clay on canning meat -

In case you’re wondering it’s been a long time, around 5 years, since I’ve eaten any fast food!