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...

2013 Final Egg Tally

Now that 2013 is officially behind us it's time to count up the number of eggs our flock produced. First, the good news: There were months where we struggled to keep up with our egg consumption. Now the bad news: It's been a long time since we had that problem. In fact, our ladies haven't laid since October. Even then it only covered one breakfast! Given the age of our chickens they hadn't hit their peak performance last winter. The short number of daylight hours means we didn't start getting eggs until February and nothing of any significance until March. Things were cruising along nicely for a while. Then we got a puppy. His presence seemed...