2015 Cow

We've clearly gotten a bit spoiled with our purchase of half a cow every year. It's delicious, affordable, and obviously of high-quality. We buy from a random family we found off Craigslist. They have been great to work with it, and haven't even raised their prices in the past three years. Unfortunately, they are reducing their herd and it's unlikely they will have any extra to sell next year. Cue the panic!  This year's cow was slightly smaller than the last. All in all, our half ended up at 268 pounds, hanging weight. We spent a total of $898, which got us: Ground beef - 40, 1 lb packages Stew meat - 8 Soup bone - 5 Heart...

2014 Egg Tally

This year we added four new chickens, bringing us up to a total of 8. We felt that was a few too many for our city lot to handle, so we ultimately rehomed two. Whitney, one of our original Barnevelders, was a frequently talkative lady, and ultimately had to get the boot. She also had some strange summer egg-laying strike, so that was a somewhat easy decision. Annie, one of our new chicks was flat out not suitable for city life. She SCREAMED. You'd let her out and she still screamed. While I had an emotional attachment to Whitney, Annie was lucky she didn't become dinner. Don't worry, our wonderful chicken store was happy to take them off my homes....

2014 Garden Tally

Apples -2 Basil – 3 lb Beets – 22.29 pounds Birds eye pepper – 75 Broccoli – 5 lb 1 oz Bulgarian Carrot – 10 Cabbage – 11.16 pounds Carrots – 10.78 pounds Cauliflower – 4 lb 3 oz Corn – 16.91 pounds Cubanelle pepper - 1.65 pounds Cucumber – 9.71 pounds Garlic  14.9 oz Green Beans – 17.78 pounds Lettuce – 4 lbs Onion - 36 lbs 7.5 oz Plums – 11 Potatoes – 32.85 pounds Raspberries – 1 qt Spaghetti Squash – 29.2 pounds Serrano pepper– 39 Tomato – 26 pounds Tomatillos - 7.03 pounds Zucchini – 39.20 pounds This comes to roughly 270 pounds of food. ...

Beef Stroganoff

Technically, this is actually Best $#%& Beef Stroganoff, at least according to it's original author. This is the only Stroganoff dish I can remember eating, so while I can't vouch for it being the Best $#%& Beef Stroganoff, I can tell you it's damn good.  We've mad a few modifications, most notably exchanging the ground beef for stew meat. I won't lie, venison knocks this out of the park, but regular beef isn't bad either. We typically opt for a chuck roast in this application.  I won't lie; it's not the most appetizing looking dish. You won't care after your first bite though! You can serve this with egg noodles like...

Buying grass-fed beef

Not really our cow. Courtesy of Wikipedia. Having quality food is important to us; it's a major factor in why we have chickens. We know how they are raised, and we can control other factors such as the quality of their food. Unfortunately on our 1/3 acre city lot, that's about all we can do in the livestock realm. We'd eventually like to have our own farm, but we're still searching for other ways to get the quality we are looking for through more traditional outlets. Thankfully we live in a location where many others have similar values, which makes this kind of food readily available. Many grocery stores, farmers markets and even butcher...

Potato Soup

Recently our neighborhood grocery store had a Buy One, Get One Free deal on 5-pound bags of potatoes. The Husband, always eager to strike on a good deal, led us to coming home with 10 pounds of potatoes. So what's a two-member household to do with 10 pounds of potatoes? Make Potato Soup of course! Over the years we've experimented with potato soup recipes, including those with a 50/50 split between cauliflower and potatoes. It's hard to beat the real thing though, 10-pounds in the pantry notwithstanding. Potato Soup A Northwest Homestead original Ingredients 4 large or 6-8 medium-sized potatoes 1/2 pound bacon, diced 1/2 onion, diced 2...

Caesar Dressing

Caesar salad seems to be a popular choice among, well, everybody. Then there was me, eating my standard garden salad with ranch. Not that I minded. I find it quite tasty, actually. But in my nearly 30 years of life, I'd found exactly one Caesar salad in my life I could tolerate...and it's located in a hotel several hundred miles away. However, I've now found a Caesar dressing I can eat at home. I dare say I might even like it! Caesar Dressing A Northwest Homestead original Ingredients 3 garlic cloves, minced 6 anchovy fillets 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice  1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 3...