Cheeseburger Strata

Ok, kids, gather round.  Weve got a pretty good strata recipe for you this month.  Its partly inspired by end-of-summer hamburger cravings and partly by a staple dish at Katies familys Thanksgiving-time celebration called, appropriately, beef and pickles.  We dont have much beef around here, but we do have some ground venison and a big jar of pickles, so lets get to it!

Well pick up this story near the end of the first set of layers, where weve got bread on the bottom, then a layer of about 2/3 lb. browned ground venny, then half a sliced onion and some pickle slices.  Were ashamed to admit theyre not our own pickles, but our cukes this year petered out before peter piper could pick and pickle them.  So we got a 32 oz. jar of the bread and butter pickles from the grocery store; dills would probably work, too.  It worked out nicely to have half a jar per layer, with a few leftover for snacking.  Dont forget!  A layer of cheese goes on top of the pickles.

Repeat the bread-meat-onions-pickles-cheese layers, then pour on a mix of six eggs, three cups milk, a teaspoon each of salt and pepper, a tablespoon each of onion and garlic powders and rosemary, and five or six squirts of Worcestershire sauce, if you enjoy that sort of thing on a hamburger.

Set it in the fridge for a few hours...

Then bake at 350 °F for 50-55 min until the onion rings make tiny delicious crop circles on the upper cheese layer.

That would probably taste pretty good with some fruit salad and a glass of crab apple-ade!  The strata can be topped with the desired hamburger toppings: ketchup, mustard, sauerkraut, sour cream, bacon, more cheese, etc.  Katie says, "pretty tasty!"

What are your favorite hamburger seasonings, toppings, and side dishes?  Let us know in the comments section below!


The recipe:
~1.5 lbs. ground venison
1 large onion, sliced
32 oz. jar of sliced pickles
1 tablespoon each garlic powder, onion powder,
1 teaspoon each salt, pepper,
10 slices of bread (at least)
1 lb shredded cheese (we used colby-jack and cheddar)

6 eggs
3 cups milk
1 tablespoon each of garlic powder, onion powder, and dried rosemary
1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper
5-6 squirts of Worcestershire sauce

Brown the ground venison in a frying pan over medium heat, seasoning with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper to taste (suggestions above).  The amount of ground meat can be adjusted, too--1 lb gives a two scant layers in the strata, two lbs. makes a very meaty strata.  Layer the bread, browned meat, onion slices, pickles (drained), and cheese in a 9" x 13" pan, starting with bread and ending with cheese, aiming for two layers each. Beat together eggs, milk, and remaining seasonings. Pour over layers and set in fridge for several hours or overnight. Bake at 350 °F for 50-55 min, until senses of sight and smell register awesome. Allow to cool and top with favorite hamburger accoutrements.

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The Deadliest Catch

The Discovery Channel says its program last year, Deadliest Catch, on the king crab fishery in Alaska was the most successful series introduced in ten years. So naturally they want a repeat.

The new series, with the same name, starts on 9 Pm Tuesday March 28. In this new series the film crews accompanies king crab boats fishing in the fishing for the first time under a quota based fishery. The new series drama is more about fishermen, their luck, the skill of finding crab and the industry in general.

I dont comment much on made for tv stuff, but the past series did a tremendous job popularizing crab and fishing in general many people got their first impression of commercial fishing from the show.

Link to the series information

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Bacon!

A while back (way back, like before the Homestead Laboratory), we got half a pig from a local farmer.  The pig was processed at a local meat market, and we got a variety of cuts--chops, roasts, loins, even some bacon.  But, we wanted to try curing our own bacon as well, since the art (and science) of curing meat is something weve been wanting to learn.  Bacon is most commonly made from the pork belly, but other cuts, such as jowl, will work, too.  The meat market made their bacon for us from the pork belly, and our jowl probably ended up in the ground pork pile, so we ended up with one lonely package of uncured side pork to use as the basis of our experiment.  Were happy to report, after concluding our experiment this weekend, that our homemade bacon is what Minnesotans would call pretty good.  Heres how it went down:

Our saga starts with a package of sliced, uncured side pork.  Why they decided to slice it up we have no idea.  Its about twice as thick (in most places) as the thickest thick-cut bacon weve ever had, but not thick enough to qualify for any other type of cut.  Maybe this was the part between the ribs, but it sure looks like it was sliced on a slicing machine.  Most recipes call for a large chunk of meat, so now well have a chance to see if pre-sliced works, too!

We based out recipe mainly off Meatheads maple bacon recipe here (its just a little brown sugar, salt, pepper, and maple syrup), except we ignored the part about pink salt and the water (although our sea salt is slightly pink-colored).  Why did we ignore the part about the pink salt?  Oh boy, here we go...

<begin rant/discussion about preservatives in cured meats>
There are plenty of articles out there on the Internets claiming that theres no reason to fear nitrates at all (or that they may even be beneficial in small amounts).  However, the problem is not primarily from nitrites/nitrates themselves (unless youre susceptible to blue baby syndrome, i.e., a baby too young to eat bacon), but from nitrosamines that form when the bacon is cooked. (See also here.)  There was even consideration years ago of eliminating nitrite preservatives altogether...except that nitrites do a great job of preventing botulism.  Then it was found that adding a second preservative, such as ascorbic acid or an ascorbate salt (vitamin C), inhibits nitrosamine formation.  Problem solved, right?  Not quite.  Cooking conditions seem to play a significant role (not only the temperature, but the oxidative environment, as discussed in the study linked above), even if there should be enough vitamin C to prevent nitrosylation.  Although strong conclusions are incredibly difficult to draw from dietary studies, no one seems to doubt that nitrites heated to bacon-frying temperatures with amines commonly found in meat form nitrosamines or that nitrosamines are almost certainly carcinogenic.  Similarly, the scientific literature strongly suggests that inhibitors like vitamin C may or may not completely eliminate the risk.

For the homestead bacon-maker, theres another catch: hes now got to find two additional (industrially-manufactured) ingredients that he probably doesnt have on-hand (internet availability of pink salt and ascorbates notwithstanding).  Fortunately, neither are really needed, and there are plenty of recipes available that dont require them.  The majority of the flavor comes from the seasonings in the cure and the smoke (whatever the carcinogenicity of the smoke is...).  Note that adding celery salt or juice or other forms of non-standard salt preservatives are usually still adding nitrites/nitrates, just not as a pure component.

So, our take on nitrates/nitrites in cured meats is this: why bother?  Were going to cure the bacon in the fridge, cook the bacon at temperatures high enough to destroy any botulism spores or toxin, and store it either in the fridge or freezer.  Its not an industrial product with days in transit or on a semi-refrigerated grocery store shelf, so the risk that adding nitrites would prevent is negligibly small for us from the get-go.  In other words, the notion that our bacon-handling procedures will not expose us to botulism seems like more of a sure thing than the notion that adding nitrites plus ascorbic acid (if we had them on hand) will not result in carcinogens upon cooking the bacon.
<end rant about preservatives in cured meats>

Hey, look!  Theres almost-bacon on the kitchen counter!

Anyway, we mixed up the cure ingredients well and added it and the side pork to a plastic bag.

And then mixed the cure and the meat together, and gave it a good massage.  The key to good bacon is to have the meat relaxed and stress-free...and also to have the cure evenly distributed across the meat.  Most recipes weve seen call for letting the bacon cure for 7-10 days, but the cure ingredients dont really go into the meat until it gets heated up.  So, why wait for a week when we can get the same effect in a couple hours at elevated temp?  We were going to let it go overnight so the salt would dissolve and disperse, then smoke the next day.  But then we got distracted, left for a Thanksgiving trip halfway across the country, and didnt get back to the bacon until a couple weeks later.  So well try instant bacon on the next round.  In the meantime, if you know of a good reason why we need to wait 7-10 days, leave us a comment below!

Finally, with a little daylight time on the weekend, its smokin day!  We started up the grill with some homemade charcoal (more on that soon, hopefully), with a layer of hot charcoal on top and a layer of cold charcoal underneath.

Then added a couple chunks of cherry wood (apple, hickory, and oak are our other favorites, but cherry is what we had on hand)...

...and set up the grill for two-zone cooking shown here...

...then put on the bacon-elect to smoke.  Ahh! The cherry wood caught on fire!  Put the lid on, quick!

Half an hour in and its lookin good.  We had to keep checking to make sure there was enough wood and charcoal.

When the internal temp of the bacon reaches 150 °F, were done.  It took about 2 hours for us, but in reality, we could have used a little less smoke.

It looks like its already cooked, but it has a little ways to go yet.  On the other hand, it works very well in its current state to make the kitchen smell like smoky maple syrup.  Ladies, take note: perfume with this scent will make you irresistible to men (especially Canadian men).  Men: a word of caution for the same reason.

We decided to finish er off in the oven.  Baked bacon!

This bacon can be highly recommended for use on sandwiches with ranch dressing, cheddar cheese, spinach, and tomatoes, accompanied by Katies buffalo-flavored cauliflower and some apple cider.  As a side note, this bacon may also cure headaches when taken in conjunction with a two-hour nap.

Hey, this is kind of a lunch meat, the production of which is one of our goals for the year! (Half a check-mark for this one.)

Have you made homemade bacon before?  Whats your favorite recipe?  Have you used a meat other than pork?  Let us know in the comments section below!

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The Dunebarrow

Growing up, we were (Jake was) very spoiled, as least in terms of wheelbarrows.  We had one with fully steel construction, 25 gallon body at least 12 gauge thick, and one continuous piece of 1.5" diameter pipe that formed both handles and a rounded bumper in front of the wheel.  The tire is pneumatic, but weve never seen it flat, and the shock absorbance it provides allows one to roll over gopher holes and stray pieces of firewood without spilling so much as a single wood chip.  [Please picture Tim Allen grunting on Home Improvement here.]  The rounded bumper is key because it allows the operator to completely empty the wheelbarrow by tipping it vertical and rotating the whole thing left and right on the bumper, which provides an effective pivot point.  It was only after moving away and searching for a wheelbarrow of our own that we realized just how rare a specimen that old wheelbarrow was.  Fortunately, we were able to find something somewhat similar on Craigslist, but it needed a little work.  Heres how we modified it.

This is the pinnacle wheelbarrow technology, the model to which we strive in this exercise.  Photo credit: Mom.

Heres our starting point.  The bearings in the tire are completely shot and theres no real pivot point other than the tire itself.  Its very difficult to completely empty it, other than picking the whole thing up and shaking it like an angry caveman.

Our initial inclination was to replace the tire with one of those no-flat all rubber wheelbarrow tires and a piece of all-thread rod from Home Depot since the parts were readily available, but then the handles were only knee-high, and we secretly knew that an all-thread axle wasnt really the right way to do it.  Besides, this isnt an episode of Pimp My Wheelbarrow.

We got an actual 8" axle bolt and a golf cart tire.  Having a one-sided tire required that we get a spacer for the other side, which we got from the same place as the axle.  We should have gotten the nuts there, too, because it turns out 5/8" ID fine-thread nuts are somewhat hard to come by.  Home Depot and Lowes dont carry them, and theyre four times as expensive at Ace Hardware (as in like $1.40!) as they were online from OMB.  Also, the original axle was a 1/2" bolt, while we could only find tires to fit 5/8" axles, so we had to drill out the supports.  Apologies to any antique collectors who would have preferred us to keep it original.  Oh yeah, it also snowed while we were waiting for the parts to come.

We made the bumper from a piece of electrical conduit leftover from our row cover project.  The biggest challenge of the project was figuring out how to bend it since the standard 3/4" conduit bender tool has too large a radius of curvature.  We tried to approximate the tool by taking a log with a little larger radius than we needed and cutting a groove into it to bend the conduit around.  It kind of worked, but theres obviously still some kinking.  But, good enough!

The 5/8" axle would be hard to fit through a 3/4" section of tubing, so we attached it to the body of the wheelbarrow and the front support brackets.

The finished product, a.k.a., the Dunebarrow.

Now it dumps wood chips like a boss.  Just in time to clean out the chicken bedding!

How have you modified your wheelbarrow?  Do you know where to find wheelbarrows like the kind we had growing up?  Let us know in the comments section below!

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Tilapia Growth Chart

Bijschrift toevoegen

Tilapia Growth Chart

About 4 to 6 weeks from hatching, fingerlings should be about 1 gram, if culture temperatures are in the mid 80s (degrees F). The following table assumes that warm temperature range, moderate to aggressive feeding, in terms of percent biomass per day, and also assumes that fish stocking densities do not exceed 80kg per cubic meter (about 2/3rds pound per gallon)



This is the target average weight of the individual fish.

Week 1, about 3 grams Week 2, 5 g

Wk 3, 7g

Wk 4, 10g

Wk 5, 13g

Wk 6, 18g

Wk 7, 23g

Wk 8, 29g

Wk 9, 37g

Wk 10, 45g

Wk 11, 60g

Wk 12, 78g

Wk 13, 97g

Wk 14, 118g

Wk 15, 140g

Wk 16, 162g

Wk 17, 184g

Wk 18, 207g

Wk 19, 231g

Wk 20, 256g

Wk 21, 282g

Wk 22, 309g

Wk 23, 337g

Wk 24, 365g

Wk 25, 393g

Wk 26, 422g

Wk 27, 451g......about 7 months, about 1 pound now.

Wk 28, 480g

Wk 29, 509g

Wk 30, 538g

Wk 31, 567g

Wk 32, 596g

Wk 33, 625g

Wk 34, 654g

Wk 35, 683.......about 9 months, about 1.5 pounds now.

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Where Can You Help Out This Thanksgiving in Albuquerque

By Karen Navarro
Every year at this time, Albuquerqueans call up social service agencies asking where they can serve Thanksgiving dinner, a way to give back to those who are less fortunate materially than they are. They may want to involve the whole family.

The truth is, the places that serve Thanksgiving dinner do not have to look for volunteers to serve the meal -- they already have more people offering to serve than they have places on the buffet line.

However, each year La Mesa Presbyterian Church, 7401 Copper Ave. NE (map), which serves a HUGE Thanksgiving meal, is looking for people to help with set-up, clean-up, and delivery of meals to people who are homebound. You can call the church office, 255-8095, and ask: “What can I do to help you out on Thanksgiving Day?”

Also each year, there is a huge project you can get involved with that provides food boxes to approximately 100 families during Thanksgiving week, when many students have inadequate nutrition while school is closed for the holiday. The project is directed by Help Equals Hope, a program of the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization called Americas Children. Visit their website to learn more about this organization. They work with teachers, principals, shelters and social workers to identify those they know who are in need of a Thanksgiving Week food box.

How can you help? By donating Smith’s or other grocery store gift cards for the purchase of turkeys and other food items – OR – by donating non-perishable food items and taking them to one of the five designated drop-off locations:

• !Explora! at 1701 Mountain Rd. NW (map); 
• GN Services, Inc. at 1425 Carlisle NE (map); 
• Sports…Décor & More! at 1001 Yale Blvd. SE, Unit K (map) ; 
• Sol Acting Academy at 5500 San Mateo NE, #114 (map); 
• Outcomes, Inc. at 1503 University Blvd. NE (map). 

The deadline for drop-offs is Saturday, Nov. 21.

Food items requested: turkeys, stuffing, sweet potatoes, potatoes, canned vegetables, cranberry sauce, bread/rolls, chile, olives, rice, cereal, beans, gravy mix, desserts, drink mix, etc.

The easiest way to help organizers get enough turkeys is to buy a gift card at Smiths, Walmart, John Brooks or Albertsons, and drop it off at one of the five drop-off sites or mail it to:

Help Equals Hope
P.O. Box 66765
Albuquerque, NM 87193

Include a note saying “this is for the Thanksgiving food drive.”

Each year Help Equals Hope also holds a school supply drive in August, providing backpacks of school supplies for children whose parents cant afford to purchase them, and they gather monetary and in-kind donations year-round.

(The author worked at St. Martins Hospitality Center for 21 years, including her role as client advocate for much of that time. She continues to network with colleagues in homeless services).

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Celebrating International Day of the Girl by Promoting Gender Equity in Childhood Education

 “Empowerment of and investment in girls are key in breaking the cycle of discrimination and violence and in promoting and protecting the full and effective enjoyment of their human rights” -United Nations Resolution 66/170

Just two years ago, the UN declared October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child to raise awareness about all issues concerning gender inequality around the world. "This is a day when activist groups come together under the same goal to highlight, discuss, and take action to advance rights and opportunities for girls everywhere," said the official U.S. Web site created to promote this day.

What the Millennium Development Goals Achieved

One of the most important ways to uphold the rights of girls is to promote universal childhood education, an area where we saw some improvement between 1990 and 2015. According to Goal 2 of the Millennium Development Goals, the literacy rate has improved globally from 83 percent to 91 percent between 1990 and 2015, and the gap between women and men has narrowed.

That is only modest progress, and significantly more remains to be done in the area of ensuring that all girls around the world are able to have access to primary and secondary education. Two big obstacles remain in the way: poverty and war/conflict. According to the MDGs, In the developing regions, children in the poorest households are four times as likely to be out of school as those in the richest households. In countries affected by conflict, the proportion of out-of-school children increased from 30 percent in 1999 to 36 percent in 2012.

A third obstacle is cultural attitudes.  One of the biggest promoters of universal childhood education is Malala Yousafza, who was shot and almost killed by Taliban militants in Pakistan on her way home from school. Yet,  her survival only made her a greater global advocate for universal education.



Following Through with the Global Goals for Sustainable Development

The Global Goals for Sustainable Development, which replaced the MDGs in 2015, continue to place a high priority on childhood education for all girls and boys around the world. Goal 4 (Quality Education) states some important targets to be achieved by 2030.

• Ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes
• Ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education
• Eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations

CAREs Atlanta Celebration (Photo: Kristi York Wooten)

Beyond Education
While promoting education remains the most important way to uphold the rights of girls around the world, Goal 5 (Gender Equality) of the Global Goals also lists some important steps that individual countries and the global community must promote between now and 2015.

• End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
• Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
• Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

CARE, Catholic Relief Services and other non-governmental organizations put together special activities to celebrate International Day of the Girl. CARE organized its big celebration in Atlanta, The CARE Walk for Lasting Change, on Saturday, October 10. The event began with musical entertainment and activities at the Outdoor Theater in Atlanta’s Historic Old 4th Ward Park, followed by a rally and a one-mile walk on the Atlanta Beltline Eastside Trail. 

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Survive and Thrive The 2016 Offering of Letters

Ending hunger means more than just providing enough food and calories for everyone. Side by side with the need for sufficient food to live an active life is the need for the right foods — for good nutrition. A diet drawing from all food groups that is rich with vitamins and minerals is crucial for the health, growth, and strength of both bodies and minds. Focusing on women and young children is important because these groups are the most vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition. Nearly half of the world’s smallholder farmers are women, with higher rates in developing countries.   -Bread for the World

Our 2016 Offering of Letters Campaign, "Survive and Thrive," urges Congress to prioritize support for maternal and child health programs, emphasizing nutrition. Goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals  is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. It includes targets to reduce global maternal mortality and to end preventable child deaths.

Malnutrition is the cause of 45 percent of all preventable child deaths and contributes to many maternal deaths.

Through the 2016 Offering of Letters, churches would urge Congress to increase funding for the nutrition and health of mothers, newborns, and young children. In 2015, funding for nutrition in the global health account was $115 million—a slight increase from previous years. Bread and its partners believe a funding level of $230 million for nutrition programs is needed for 2016. Increasing U.S. investment in global maternal and child nutrition is central to successful development and helps improve the potential of millions of people.

As part of our campaign, we will urge Congress to pass the Global Food Security Act, which continues U.S. investments in improving nutrition and increasing the productivity of smallholder farmers. For example, food-aid reform will also provide an opportunity to improve nutrition among mothers and children. There will also be an international Nutrition for Growth summit this summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There, governments could decide to make significant new political and financial commitments. Bread is urging Congress to push for those commitments. 

Albuquerque Offering of Letters Workshop
Stay tuned for details about the Offering of Letters workshop in Albuquerque, scheduled for Saturday, March 12, 2016.  Last year, 20 churches generated more than 2000 letters to Congress in support of efforts to increase domestic nutrition programs.  

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The Walipini growing season

This year has been amazing! I can for sure say that I LOVE MY WALIPINI and my Aquaponic system. This has been the first year out here in the sticks that I have been able to provide homegrown veggies. I was able to start the plants much earlier in the Walipini and so far have had multiple growing seasons.
 

Strawberries took off!

Cucumbers and Watermelons are on the right

Baby Watermelon

My first crop from the Walipini veggies

Watermelon started from seed in system

Since I planed so early at night I covered the little ones with cups. Like a mini greenhouse. Worked great!

Above is my full system at the start of the year. Seems a little empty in this photo when I look at it now....because its a jungle in there now! LOL

Thanks for looking!
Kaydi

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