Lollygagging in Lisa's Larder- March

Well I am a few days behind but that is what happens when you are in NM and return to work within 11 hours of your arrival home.  So here I will post the few food stuff items I have for the month and later this weekend I will post pics of our trip.

Baked chicken, homemade stuffing and fresh asparagus.....  I wish I could say this is ours but this is just plain ole chicken and asparagus from the grocery store with some fresh stuffing I made from some of the leftover bread cubes from christmas.  It was delicious.

Frittata with fresh sausage we got from our doctor. The pig was raised by the family and acorn fed. The nutrition content is drastically different from traditionally raised pork.

Sausage and cheese quiche with the flakiest pie crust I have ever made in my life. You will understand why in a few moments.

Making  bacon.....We seasoned the slab that we received in our pork package, let them sit for a week and then smoked it on the new smoker.  After  it chilled we sliced it up using a slicer from a friend at church. Finally we packaged it up and froze it.We did a taste test along the process. Tastes like bacon!!!

Making lard from our pigs fat........now honestly, which one of you readers would have ever thought your family dietitian would be making lard! I sure didn't.  I left the fat in the freezer for several months before I felt confident doing this.  I did a lot of research before I was convinced that I wanted anything to do with this. Acorn fed, locally raised pork is supposed to be very different nutritionally  so I took the plunge and broke out a few packages and rendered the lard one afternoon.  It really wasn't very hard. A side benefit is my iron skillets are very well seasoned after this event.  I still have 2 more packages in the freezer to do.  I got about 5 cups from this rendering and will likely get another 2 or 3 cups from the next batch. All I did was dice the fat into 1/2 inch size pieces, heat it on low until it melted and as it melted I strained it into sterile jars.  All told it took maybe 2 hours as I puttered in the kitchen. I threw all the "cracklings" away. Some people save it but I am drawing the line folks. There are some things I just can't do. So what do I use this lard for........well thus far I have made biscuits and a pie crust; both of which I was shocked at the difference in the end product. I can now say that the ole timey things from long ago probably did taste different.

Orange bundt cake.....something healthier????? I had a few oranges that were not at their prime any more so I squeezed the juice and made this bundt cake. It was a little dry but a glass of milk on the side fixes it.

So that is all for March. I anticipate new growth items in the next month as I am planting most of my seedlings tomorrow. Cookin', sewin', gardenin', workin'.  ........we stay busy.  Come join us, we can find something for you to do.