Getting your kids to eat vegetables is like trying to get a cow to lay down and roll over. Not an easy feat.
So I have my little tricks to get them to ingest those vitamin packed veggies.
For years I have put spinach in my spaghetti sauce….They think it’s basil….
Ground up carrot in meatloaf….
Zucchini in everything that I could hide it in (we have an abundance in August)
Kale in salad….
My older kids now know what it’s all about and like to eat their veggies, but my youngest son is very stubborn, so I had to really think hard to out smart him…Come to find out it was not that hard at all
Fry your veggies, you heard me….But not in the way you might think
I use my grandmothers 12″ cast iron skillet it has been seasoned for about 100 years so no oil needed.
I chop the ends off fresh broccoli, put in very hot pan, season with a little salt and saute for 5 min until slightly brown.
The sauteing brings out a nutty flavor in broccoli, asparagus, and kale so kids really like it…I tried it on my neighbor “Sweetie” who is a very, very picky eater, she loved it and now asks her mom to saute her broccoli too.
Cameron will eat an entire bowl of broccoli for a snack, I can’t ask for more than that:)
~The real housewives of Maine
It’s a tradition in the great state of Maine to have Maple Sunday…
The third Sunday in March, local Maine sugar houses from Madawaska to Kittery have an early pancake breakfast to sample the amazing bounty produced by Maine maples trees (Vermont has nothing on us)
You can then move on to the store and try some more maple syrup with vanilla ice cream, maple candy and maple sugar… Then move on to the boiling room where all the magic happens.
The local Maine farmers have capitalized on this wonderful day, usually having animals to pet, wagon rides and hay pyramids for the kids to climb
When I was a kids you just went to the farm next door with a bowl of vanilla ice cream and ask for a little on the top…Very fond memories indeed.
My neighbor still boils sap in his barn. We supply him with sap from our trees and we get about a half-gallon worth of Maple syrup, that lasts us about a year.
Maple syrup never goes bad……Just a little FYI
So if your up in our neck of the woods, try some real Maine Maple Syrup, you won’t be disappointed:)
I didn’t realize that making bacon was so easy? Or that It would taste so amazingly yummy!
This was a pretty easy process. It does take a couple of days so don’t get discouraged.
I went to my local butcher and bought a 5 pound slab of pork belly….I just love saying “pork belly”
Made my curing rub:
1/2 cup pickling salt or kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup of pure maple syrup
Mixed dry ingredients and rubbed it all over my pork belly,
Then put it into a 1 gallon zip lock back and poured in the maple syrup, close the bag and make sure the entire pork belly is coated. Put onto a cookie sheet and let rest for 5 days turning once a day.
After 5 days take it our of the fridge, rinse off all the curing salt, pat dry and put back in the fridge overnight uncovered.
At this point you can slice the bacon and freeze it, but I wanted to try my hand at smoking…..I used to smoke but I quite…A little smoking humor…Never mind.
We own a “Big Chief” electric smoker I bought my husband years ago and only used once, so I pulled it out of the barn and set it up under the lean-to
At this point I have no idea what I’m doing…Truly, my neighbor Jed is the smoke/grill master and I am more than happy to let him hold that title.
Thanks to (2) hours of You tube video’s I thought I was pretty educated on the art of smoking on the “Big Chief” electric smoker.
I want to let everyone know that I have a new appreciation for anyone who is proficient in meat smoking, it really is an art.
Anyways…..I fired up the “Big Chief” threw some wood chips in the pan………Then realized that you have to soak the wood.
Lets just say the “Big Chief” is now well seasoned on the inside.
Take 2:
Soak your wood chips!
I did not buy wood chips…We burn wood so I rounded up some maple kindling, chopped it up into pieces and soaked it for a couple of hours.
I then brought the interior temp of the smoker to 220 degrees and added the pork belly…..
The meat smoked for 4-5 hours, putting more wood in every hour or so. Halfway through I turned the meat over.
I covered the unit with a heavy moving blanket to keep in the smoke, because that’s what -Smoker 6598- told me to do.
And he was right.
So all in all this was a pretty easy project…I will certainly do it again when this bacon runs out…..You cannot buy this taste in the store.
And it really wasn’t hard. Just a learning process.
I would recommend getting a meat slicer, I have a really sharp knife from my family bakery days, so I could get it pretty thin, but a slicer would make life much easier….If you like thick sliced bacon then you’re all set.
Guess what I’m getting for mother’s day?
So there you have it, home cured bacon…Yummy!
~The way life should be….
I eat salad for lunch every day and I love salad dressing, the simpler the better. I get bored with the same old same, old like Parmesan peppercorn, Ranch and Italian.
I stepped out on a limb and made something up (this doesn’t always turn out well) But all 5 kids have given it a thumbs up so I know its good.
It’s so light and fresh tasting it reminds me of summer in Maine….Which is several months away:(
Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup of Balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 tbsp. chopped Cilantro
1 pint mason jar
Pour olive oil into a pint mason jar
Add balsamic vinegar
Dijon mustard
chop and add fresh cilantro
Shake well and you are done!
Let sit 1 hour before use, refrigerate up to 2 weeks.
I guarantee it wont last that long:)
You’ll notice there is no sugar in this recipe. I think it tastes great without it, if you wanted to add a tablespoon of brown sugar for a true vinaigrette, that would taste great too.
~Enjoy the Maine way
My beef broth is nothing like you find in the store.
It is made with beef bone, vegetables and herbs slow cooked for the most amazing, gelatinous broth you have ever tasted.
Beef broth is not hard to make, but it does take some time. So if your from the northern 50 states? Wait for a wicked good snow storm to blow in, hunker down and start cooking.
You will need:
Beef bones, whatever the butcher has on hand, around 5lb or 7lb (rib bones, marrow bones, soup bones) If you are not sure, ask your butcher what you would need to make beef broth.
If he doesn’t know what you need, you need to find a different butcher:)
2 large carrots
2 large onions
5 ribs of celery
2 garlic cloves
1tbs salt
Roast bones in the oven at 400 degrees for 40 min.
Put roasted bones in a large stock pot.
Cover with cold water.
Rough chop vegetables
Add to pot with salt.
Simmer for 12-24 hours (I start this in the morning and let cook all day, then take off the stove at night, simmer for the rest of the next day) The longer you simmer the better it’s going to taste.
Put in quart canning jars and process to your area. Or you put in freezer container for easy freezing.
~The Maine Way
I am not a craft person by nature, but enjoy easy crafting such as this little project.
I belong to a Facebook community yard sale in my area. A friend of mine had 5 apothecary jars for sale for 15 dollars. They were just the right size for spices so I bought them.
I had been looking for a while, but I just couldn’t find ones that I liked so I waited and my patience paid off.
I had some oval sticker from Avery left over from one of the kids projects.
And chalkboard paint left over from?……..It’s been in the barn for a while, (a while meaning a good 5+ of years) I didn’t think the paint was any good but it was….
I sprayed one even coat and let dry.
They came out amazing!
Not only did I get them on the cheap….My spice rack is much more organized.
And this project only took about 20 min from start to finish.
And that makes me a happy Maine Mom:)
I wanted my second post to be so profound that all the people would not be able to stop following me….Ever!
And I pick salad dressing. Not earth shattering but It’s really simple…..Salad dressing is so easy to make, I don’t know why people buy it, seriously? I can make a bottle of dressing for .67 cents beats 3.49 all day long!
And I just made Greek Dressing for a Greek salad for lunch.
I have a small journal that I bought on sale for .99 I put tabs in it to keep my condiments, sauces and mustard recipes at easy reach. I then ask the kids what salad dressing they would like that night for supper and a few minutes later it’s made.
Well of course there are the people who tell me that home-made doesn’t last as long as store bought…Well that would be because of the chemicals….And I get the blank stare of…SO??
Barring all that, I have n
ot bought salad dressing in 5 years. Except in the rare case of feeding 100 people for graduation parties, wedding showers, baby showers, etc….I like to live simply but I am not a masochist.
So here are a couple of my quick family favorites that taste better than store-bought. And I bet you can make them faster than driving to the store to buy a bottle:)
Ranch Dressing:
2 TBS cider vinegar
3/4 c. Mayo
1/4 c. Sour cream
1/4 tsp dry onion
1 clove garlic minced
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1tsp chive
1tbs parsely
1 tbs Basil
Mix all together in a mason jar with tight-fitting lid refrigerate for 2 hours before use.
*Hint: To make creamy dressings last a little longer add 1/4 cup of plain yogurt.
Greek Dressing: This is even easier!
1 c. Olive oil
2 Cloves garlic pressed through a garlic press
1/4 lemon juice
1/4 red wine vinegar
2 tbs oregano
1/2 fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp Salt
Squeeze garlic through garlic press (or mince) put the rest of the ingredients into a wide mouth canning jar, shake well. refrigerate for 1 hour before using.
These are some of the many, parmesan Pepper corn, French, balsamic vinegar, Russian….So, so easy:) Give it a try you won’t regret it….
~Keeping it real
Real housewives of Maine 