homeade beef broth and a healthier new year

I made homemade beef broth the other day with about 12 lbs of bones, it made about 18 cups of delicious goodness. The only thing is after the pot sat in the refrigerator I pulled off a disc of over 1/2 inch thick solid fat. Not soft like chicken fat but hard to even dent with a spoon. I now know why the Prime rib we had the other night should be a once a year splurge. The bones were from the prime rib roasts at the store. The visual of that fat and thinking of your arteries was a good teaching tool. I wish I had taken a picture. Tonight we are having barley mushroom soup with the broth and homemade bread. We have started walking every morning. Trying to get back into a healthy pattern. All the goodies at Christmas have shown up on the scale. We have been having oatmeal every morning and our new favorite is with orange zest and strawberries from the freezer. Not a combination you would normally think of but I have so much fruit I froze over the summer, I gave it a try.

money saving idea

Today I went to the grocery store first thing in the morning. Every year the stores have rib roasts on sale for christmas and new years. It is a good time to buy beef rib bones to make stock. I bought about 8 packages of beef rib bones with a lot of meat for 99 cents a pound. I will roast and then simmer the bones with celery,carrots,onions,garlic,bay leaves and a few whole cloves and peppercorns. This is a cost effective way for delicious broth. Another tip is to save your celery ends and onion ends in the freezer for when you make soup. This is also a good time to buy roasts for the freezer since the are usually marked down. Also check your stores produce section for clearance on dried fruits from the fancy christmas platters.

a local Christmas tree

This year instead of going to the local tree farm to have our tree cut we decided to use what we have. many years ago we planted some christmas trees on our land. That section of the property is now all overgrorwn and we never paid attention to the trees. They were better looking than I thought they would be I have enough for the next seven years. The tree is not dense but it enables you to put lights and ornaments in the middle also. I love it! Also my husband loves funky hats so i made him a christmas tree hat. The wool was from sheep at Soule Homestead farm in Middleboro. So the hat is also local. I have not been posting my meals between craft shows and christmas baking my time is all taken up. Our meals are still about 75% local and it is becocming second nature.