how to – Another Hatchett Job….

A short time ago, in a blogosphere far, far away, a little red headed blogger got in WAY over her head with a self hosted blog and one day–POOF–it refused to publish or save any more posts. Even her techno savvy friends and family members (hi, Dad!) couldn’t save her beloved blog. Sadly, the girl (who loves to write, but is only minimally techno savvy, by the way) restarted her blog on WordPress (but not the self hosted kind). But, hating to lose her previous 800+ posts that wouldn’t be seen, she came up with a brilliant idea (!) to institute a feature to bring back some of her older posts that she wanted to keep or thought were good. Hence the new feature: Blast From The Past!

So, if you have followed my blog in that other, sadder blogosphere, you have probably already seen this one. But, you might like it even more now… Hey, you never know!

So, from February 8th, 2012….

Every once in a while, I come across a phenomenal recipe. This is the case with the Kale Soup recipe from Annie Tuttle’s Bramblestitches blog. However, this recipe is made for canning numerous pints of soup at one time (which is a pretty efficient way to feed your family healthy stuff, by the way).

Tonight, I found myself feeling icky, but with plenty of healthy kale on hand, so I got a hankering for this soup. But, I wanted to make mine in a much smaller batch. So here is my modified recipe with much credit and thanks going to Annie Tuttle!

Kale Soup

2 parts vegetable stock to 1 part chicken stock (use quarts for a big family batch, use cans for a smaller batch).

1/2 to 1 lb hot chicken sausage.

1 chopped onion

1 rib of celery chopped (plus a carrot if you have it)

1 potato scrubbed and diced to around 1 inch.

1 small can diced tomatoes

1 can Great Northern Beans (any bean will do in a pinch, even garbanzos)

1/2 cup uncooked pasta for small batch, 1 cup for big family batch.

1 large or 2 small bunches kale, cleaned and chopped, stems included. Use 1 small bunch for smaller batch.

Salt, pepper, italian seasoning, red pepper flakes to taste.

Here we go: Combine everything except kale and pasta. Bring to boil and simmer for 30-45 minutes or so. Add pasta and chopped Kale and stir thoroughly to mix. Continue to simmer for another 30 minutes or so. Be sure that the kale stems are tender.

Serve and enjoy! Hubby loves this soup and it is pretty forgiving of amounts and such. It’s not one of those recipes where a little less onion or oops, no carrot today will make it any less tasty! Plus, it is fantastic with just a splash of my homemade “tabasco” sauce…YUM!

What have you been cooking?

Till next time,

So, if you have followed my blog in that other, sadder blogosphere, you have probably already seen this one. But, you might like it even more now… Hey, you never know!

So, from January 13th, 2013….

My kids adore taking fresh fruit, a little sweetener, (sometimes a bit of ice cream) and some Greek yogurt and whirring it all together with my immersion blender to make a custom smoothie. However, all that Greek yogurt, while healthy, was driving up my food bill!

Enter Pinterest and the recipe I found to make what I call Dead Easy Greek Yogurt. Honestly, after all the recipes that I have looked at for homemade yogurt, I was a little bit shocked to see how simple this one is.

Put 1 gallon milk (any kind, but preferably not super-pasteurized) in a large crock pot. Add 2-3 cups of dry powdered milk and stir to combine. Put lid on and heat milk to 180 degrees Farenheit. Turn off heat and let cool to about 110-115 degrees.

Another Hatchett Job blog, greek yogurt, crockpot, how to make greek yogurt, dead easy greek yogurt, recipe, real foods, whole foods — photo by Jan Hatchett

Ladle some of the warm milk into a container and add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt. Stir until smooth. Add to crockpot with other milk and stir gently and thoroughly.

Put in containers and place in your oven…with only the light on and leave it for 8-12 hours to incubate.

When you remove it, place it in the refrigerator and enjoy as soon as it is thoroughly chilled.

Have you ever made homemade yogurt?

Till next time,