Monday, March 11, 2013

Ham Bone Stock (Bone Broth)

Stock to a cook is voice to a singer.
--Anon.

I have saved vivid memories from my growing years, of the Welcome Home after a long mid-winter's school day. The lengthy, cold bus ride home over jouncy, jutted gravel roads was finally over. Often I would pass the riding home time by pressing my nose and mouth against the frozen and frost-nipped bus windows and breathing warm air on them to make a melted spot just large enough to peek through. The barren Southern Minnesota farm fields fill up with snow so high that sometimes I could, in my imagination, pretend I was somewhere warm, like the dessert, staring at sand dunes instead of blowing, whisking snowflakes forming hills and valleys all over the county. By the time that golden yellow bus pulled up to my driveway the sun was in full sun set mode, falling lower and lower on the horizon. 

When I was young enough my mom was still home with the little kids and it wasn't unusual to open the front door and be comforted by the warmth of the wood stove and the smell of fresh baked bread and soup simmering on the gas stove. It always made my mouth water to see that homemade bread all brown and glistening with fresh butter on the cutting board. The soup though is a thing of beauty all on its own. The big kettle three quarters full, steam twisting, curling, unfurling from the open pot like young ferns do in the spring. 

After stomping the snow off my boots and peeling off layers of outer wear I would hurry over and see what kind we were having. Thick and bubbly split pea with chunks of potato? Chicken with carrots and spaetzle? Hamburger with tomatoes and corn? Ham and Bean? Oh the possibilities were almost endless. 

That steam would warm me right up and to this day I crave warm filling soup on a cold day. It is frugal, versatile, healthy, and easy!

I was given a ham bone after a Christmas party way back at the end of December and threw it in the freezer. Last week I decided it was time to cook that bone down and make some soup. I do not profess to be and expert, just a cook with a bit of experience. So here is my basics for ham stock. :)

Day 1:
Stock Pot
 I like this stock pot. It holds about 8 to 10 quarts comfortably. You want one that is deep enough to hold a chicken carcass and cover it with a couple inches of water.  This is a tutorial for ham bone broth but it could easily adjust for chicken or beef or even veggie broth. It was inexpensive for the amount it is used. On a side note I used it to water bath can some things last fall. It was a good investment.

Veggies and Bone
When I am trimming celery, or peeling carrots I will save those extras and bag them and put in my freezer for soup day. Instead of throwing out the bits of onion or garlic throw them in a bag and place in the freezer. When it comes time to make stock use those veggie bits and pieces instead of cutting up new ones. It is the ultimate in frugal cooking when you can use as much as possible and waste little .

Notice, as well, that the ham bone is fairly meaty. You want a bone that isn't picked completely clean. Those are still usable but make a thinner broth. I will usually try to leave, on purpose, some meat in the bag or on the bone. You will be thankful on soup day that you did. :)

Cloves, Allspice, Bayleaf
Place all those veggie scraps, your meaty ham bone, and some spices in the stock pot. Cover with water. I would use good old fashioned tap water if it is good to drink. Cover those veggies and bone fully, about two inches or so over the top. They need to be fully submerged. 

Apple Cider Vinegar
I learned to add an acid of some sort. This will, so I am told, help to pull all that goodness out of the bones. I have used a lemon, vinegar, red wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar. A couple Tablespoons or a half a lemon should do it.

Now set that pot to simmer on a back burner, cover it up, and ignore it for the most part all day. I check every couple of hours to make sure it isn't dry or simmering too high. If you need to add water now and then, go for it. The idea is to slowly cook down that bone so that the meat will fall off and the marrow will leach out into the water, thus flavoring it. The longer you cook it down the better the broth. The meat and veggie should shrink down and the water should condense almost by half.
Please, do not rush this. Making good stock is an easy, basic, mostly hands off project. It does however take time. Give it the time it needs. A day is not an over estimate. I almost always cook for a day and then pick through the rest on day 2. 
That being said, at the end of the day, I take the whole pot and put it in the fridge over night.

Day 2:
Fat

Take that stock pot out of the fridge. The fat should have risen to the top. I skim the fat off and throw it. My dad would hate that. :) But I can't stomach it.

Strain the broth through a large colander.
Using a large colander, strain the broth through the first time to catch all the veggies and meat and bone.

Strainer.
I like to then use a fine sieve strainer to strain once more. This is preference and really not necessary.

Stock for the Freezer.
This particular time I got enough stock for a batch of soup in the crock pot (5 quarts), and was able to freeze about 9 cups of leftover broth. The picture above shows them in 2 cup Parmesan cheese containers. I mark them and date them before putting in the freezer. This stock is good for cooking beans, for flavoring rice, or adding to stew or soup when it has gotten too thick.

Pick through the colander.
Now onto the messy part. Pick through that leftover veggie/meat/bone mess and save out the meat. If I had more critters I would probably share that leftover bone, but our Miss Ivy Kitty is a Diva Cat and refuses to eat anything but her Friskies. Therefore, I chuck all this leftover in the garbage at this time. :)



I ended up with about a cup or so of meat. Now this is plenty for us as we are having Ham and Bean soup. If you need more, add from another source. 


Add that Ham to your soup stock.
At this point, your soup is ready for all the yumminess you can come up with. Add what your heart desires. Vegetables, beans, lentils, split peas, pasta. The possibilities with a good stock are almost endless.

Part 2 of this series will be my recipe for Ham 'n Bean Soup. It is filling to the tummy and good for the soul. Stay Tuned!

Always Blessed,
Gretchen :)
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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Homeschool~ Poetry Study



Poetry.
Does it make you feel a bit apprehensive?
Are you convinced it is all full of thees and thous and incomprehensible language?
Does the idea of reading poetry bring you to a place of eye rolling and high school style anguish?

It doesn't have to be like that!


Hear me out on this. (Well, read me out on this. :)) Poetry is a valid and wonderful addition to your homeschool. Poetry can build listening skills, reading comprehension, and can be used to explain certain grammar techniques and phonics skills. The trick is to find valid age appropriate poetry that will keep the attention of your student and teach some beautiful literary appreciation as well.


To be fair, I am biased. I love words. I love reading words. I love placing words together. I love word games. You get the idea. When I was sixteen I got my first thesaurus. I think it was for English class. We may have used it only once but I loved it. I found words to look up just to make my diary look more linguistic. I wrote all of my reports using that handy thesaurus. I sent notes to my grandma saying the same thing three different ways using creative wording. Words with hidden meanings and beautiful lettering can make a simple sentence become, well.... poetry.






Here's the thing about Poems.
They come in more forms than:
Little boy blue, 
Come blow your horn,
The sheep are in the meadow,
The cows are in the corn.
~Mother Goose


Or the standard:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning 




Poetry can tell a story. 
The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a beautiful poem broken into twenty-two chapters. It is a story written in poetic form. It is beautiful and also informative. There is much to be learned about this culture and the territory. You can find it free online here.
By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them;
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.
 Can you see it? I can almost smell the lake water and the pine sap. Gitche Gumee is the great Lake Superior. The gloomy pine trees are most likely the beautiful tall logging pines found in Northern Minnesota. Lovely descriptions. Here are the next lines:
There the wrinkled old Nokomis
Nursed the little Hiawatha,
Rocked him in his linden cradle,
Bedded soft in moss and rushes,
Safely bound with reindeer sinews;
Stilled his fretful wail by saying,
"Hush! the Naked Bear will hear thee!"
Lulled him into slumber, singing,
"Ewa-yea! my little owlet!
Who is this, that lights the wigwam?
With his great eyes lights the wigwam?
Ewa-yea! my little owlet!"
~Song of Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It tells us a story. 


Poetry can be moving. 
It can set your heart to feel and your mind to think. It does not need to be picked and pulled apart, but instead appreciated as a whole. It can be a catalyst for great conversation and debate. It can be motivating on  a personal level. 

If  ~ Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
There is some good discussion in there, I think.


Poetry was created by our LORD. 
The Psalms are the original organized poetry. All topics are covered. Lessons of morality are showcased. Commands and love notes are sung to us so sweetly. The Psalms are a favorite for many people for their fluid and graceful quality. The lines roll off the tongue fairly easily and pull on our heart strings.
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
    and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
2 that your way may be known upon earth,
    your saving power among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God;
    let all the peoples praise you.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
    for you judge the peoples with equity
    and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God;
    let all the peoples praise you.
6 The earth has yielded its increase;
    God, our God, has blessed us.
7 May God continue to bless us;
    let all the ends of the earth revere him.
~Psalm 67


Poetry can be a teaching tool. 
My children have thoroughly enjoyed reading Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses and A.A. Milne's Now We Are Six. These are timeless poems written for children. The poems are fanciful and full of childhood dreams and thoughts. The picture above is Sir Bean reading his favorite poem, Forgiven by A.A. Milne. 
Forgiven by A.A. Milne
I found a little beetle; so that Beetle was his name,
And I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.
I put him in a match-box, and I kept him all the day ...
And Nanny let my beetle out -
Yes, Nanny let my beetle out -
She went and let my beetle out -
And Beetle ran away.

She said she didn't mean it, and I never said she did,
She said she wanted matches and she just took off the lid,
She said that she was sorry, but it's difficult to catch
An excited sort of beetle you've mistaken for a match.

She said that she was sorry, and I really mustn't mind,
As there's lots and lots of beetles which she's certain we could find,
If we looked about the garden for the holes where beetles hid -
And we'd get another match-box and write BEETLE on the lid.

We went to all the places which a beetle might be near,
And we made the sort of noises which a beetle likes to hear,
And I saw a kind of something, and I gave a sort of shout:
"A beetle-house and Alexander Beetle coming out!"

It was Alexander Beetle I'm as certain as can be,
And he had a sort of look as if he thought it must be Me,
And he had a sort of look as if he thought he ought to say:
"I'm very very sorry that I tried to run away."

And Nanny's very sorry too for you-know-what-she-did,
And she's writing ALEXANDER very blackly on the lid,
So Nan and Me are friends, because it's difficult to catch
An excited Alexander you've mistaken for a match. 
There is rhyming, punctuation, phonics practice and comprehension that can take this poem to a whole lesson if you wanted. Or you could just enjoy the wonder of children and read Forgiven for sheer love of the realness of it. 

This is just the tip of the proverbial ice berg. There are numerous types, styles, and kinds of poetry. The idea is to just get reading it. Once there is an appreciation for poetry, a child can be led to write his own. When they are older, the works of Shakespeare or Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales will still be challenging but at least familiarly written. Wonderful works like Beowulf will be more easily read and enjoyed if the groundwork is done now. 

We don't do much other than read and enjoy the poems. There are grand discussions sometimes. Mostly though we sip tea and giggle or shed a tear. We compare to our own lives or compare against what The LORD says in His Word. We appreciate the beauty of the words.



Happy Reading!
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Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Tuesday's Gifts ~ Heart Trusting

I am Thankful for the opportunity to Believe.
To Believe in God's Provision in spite of my questioning Mind.

Who provides for the raven its prey,
    when its young ones cry to God,
    and wander about for lack of food? ~Job 38:41


9 He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. ~Psalms 147:9


Thankful for my growing Faith.
For Curbing my Will to His. 
 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! ~Luke 12:24
 Even the sparrow finds a home,
    and the swallow a nest for herself,
    where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
    my King and my God. ~Psalms 84:3


Thanking Him for His patience.
While I learn to let my heart Trust. 
 
31 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” ~Matthew 13: 31-32
Oh! that I would trust with my heart so that I may find rest! Home in those branches with the warm sun-dappled light peeking through those green leafy arms. 
What a promised gift to be thankful for.

Always Blessed,
Gretchen :)


All pictures are courtesy of my sister, Sara Rose Nissen.  
Check out her artwork over at  as seen through my eyes. :)


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Sunday, March 3, 2013

My Hobbit-ness

source

I've been Waiting.

For the words to come...

so I can be a writer again.

With something to say.

I've been avoiding writing because...

then I may have to face some of the stuff that makes life hard...
             and breakable...
                       and hurtful.

I started writing because I felt God wanted me to be honest and let my faulty life, my slip-sliding walk with Him be on display. 

Not because it is comfortable. 

Not because I like sharing my stubborn wrongs. 

Not because I like looking like I've failed more than I have succeeded. 

But, instead, because He wanted me to. 

Perhaps in my messiness others can see that the Christian walk isn't perfect. My prayer is that my translucent life will be comforting to someone who is seeking God's truth. I am a walking Poster Girl for the 'you don't have to be perfect to become a Christ Follower' bit of truth you have heard preached to you. 

So now, back to writing. Or avoiding writing.

We have found ourselves in a bit of a life dilemma. One of those 'one more things' that feels it may just break open a flood of tears that doesn't stop. It isn't a sudden surprise but instead a slowly creeping knowing. Not a knowing I wanted to have. 

We are praying God will give us a clear leading on our next step. I am secretly hoping for a neon sign or a certified letter saying: DO THIS! The Preacher Man has faith that would move hills but even he is feeling a bit mystified.

I am a planning with provision kind of woman. 
I like things to be safe...
                                  and comfortable...
                         and repetitive...
                               and constant.

I am not okay with shifting sands under my feet and moving floor foundations. I get nervous when there isn't a plan in place for our future. I am a creature who loves habit. 

I love my morning coffee and my fuzzy socks. I like the quilt that my grandma made and my comfy spot on the couch. I enjoy lunch with Raspberry Leaf Tea and checking the mail at 1:30. I really like it when my day runs in order.

I guess you could say that I'm sounding a bit like a Hobbit.
“Sorry! I don't want any adventures, thank you. Not Today. Good morning! But please come to tea -any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Good bye!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit 
Adventure is not on my list of great wants. Take your Elven chain mail and Orc sword and be gone with you.

Yet I think in some small (or big?) way God is going to be bringing us to a new adventure. I don't want to face it and would rather hide in my Hobbit Hole having a cup of tea and a biscuit. With some chocolate.
 'I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone.'
'I should think so — in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!'
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Hobbit Hole
The LORD has a plan though. It most likely does include making me late for dinner once or twice. It also includes so much more than that. It is a chance to put my belief, faith, and trust into action. 

In the book Why? by Anne Graham Lotz, she describes it this way:(emphasis mine)
"Because while belief is the consent of the mind and faith is a choice of the will, trust is a commitment of the heart."     
So my heart better get to trusting. Not that it is easy. Not knowing what will happen. Not knowing if we will fall or rise. If it will be harder before it gets easier.
 “It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterward were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
So I think we will begin with the Going On. The taking of a step forward in Blind Obedience. Against what others may think or may say. Against what I would think or say. Does not God show time and again that those that trust Him do not go without His blessings? It is necessary though, to remember His blessings are not necessarily our wants.
 “Where there's life there's hope, and need of vittles.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
His blessings are there for us if we but wade through our shallow whys and why-nots. 
 “The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.
But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now
mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
 We are going to step into the tunnel and see what the LORD has in His plan for us. Not my plan.
 “There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
The best part of the personal pep talk? You have all shared in it with me! So no more not writing because I don't have the words. No more being ashamed of my humanness. You are going to get a bare soul sharing of my inadequacies and on top of it I'll occasionally throw in a recipe or a tip. A beautiful picture and a way to be healthier. God will get the glory because it is all because of Him!

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways    and my thoughts than your thoughts. ~Isaiah 55:8-9

Always Blessed,
Gretchen :)  

Quotes found at: Good Reads and Good Reads
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