Dehydrated Sweet Potatoes

There seemed to be a lot of fresh produce on sale this week at the store. We came home with broccoli, turnips, peppers, sweet potatoes, grapes and bananas. Sweet potatoes are not one of our favorite vegetables. I like them alright but Phil doesn't really like them at all. However, sweet potatoes are quite popular here in the South (baked) and came be quite cheap when in season. I have heard about dehydrating them but had never tried it until today. It is pretty simple, just peel, slice, mix up with a little salt and put them in the dehydrator to dry. They taste pretty good though to me they are not as good as dried zucchini snacks but not bad nonetheless.  A good healthy snack anyway. I will be taking them to work with me along with my usual jar of homemade yogurt that also got  made today.
In other news, I did find the lye for soap making! Yeah! I can't wait to try it again. Need a new thermometer and rubber gloves and maybe a stick blender but then I will be ready.

Pasta Salad and Ranch Dressing

I learned to make this pasta salad at a restaurant I worked at for several months. We are spoiled now and don't want any other.
First you have to make the ranch dressing. It is simple: equal amounts of mayonnaise and buttermilk (today I did a quart each) and Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (1 packet per quart). Just mix it together good (use a whisk) and put it in the frig.

Now for the pasta salad you will need:

Your homemade Ranch dressing
Approx 1/2-3/4 cup bacon bits
2 or 3 green onions
1 -8 oz. package shredded cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese
green and black olives or canned chopped olives
1 -8 oz box Rotini pasta

If you have whole olives you will want to chop them up fine (I use a mine food processor). You only need enough for 2 heaping spoonfuls. Put these in a large bowl.
Cook your rotini pasta, then put in a colander and run cold water on it until it is no longer hot. Add it to the bowl. Mix. Add your bacon bits, chopped green onions and cheese. Mix again.

Now add some Ranch dressing. It takes a lot. You want to keep adding until it no longer looks sticky but more creamy. It took 3/4 of a quart for mine today. Mix well and put in the frig for a couple hours to let the flavors blend some.

So good!

Accomplishments of the Day

There was a lot I wanted to accomplish today and I didn't do too badly. I didn't get the crackers I wanted made and I didn't get the fish tank cleaned but I got most everything else done.
I started by making waffles this morning for breakfast and so that I could have some to freeze for Michelle to eat for breakfast during the week.

 

I then got one of my home raised chickens into the crock pot; added some soy sauce, garlic powder and a bit of pepper (I added a few herbs later). It is done now and we are about to eat. It smells SO GOOD! (picture is before cooking).

After that I got out the other crock pot, added the milk, dry milk and sugar for yogurt and got it to heating. There is a blog post here on how I make yogurt. I think it is on the Preservation page but it might be in Recipes. 

I then got out to the pens, gave everyone a quick feed and proceeded to butcher quail. I took six of the males out of the big brooder as they have reached maturity now. I cut the heads off and took them inside in a pail for plucking and eviscerating.  I always dry pluck my quail. Sometimes the skin tears a little but it is a lot less mess than having to scald them and usually they pluck easily.

After these were in their ice water soaking, I started on the brooders. The baby quail have already been moved out of the brooder with the ducks, either the ducks were squishing them or it was just too wet and I was losing quail so they now have a small brooder in the closet of their own. The three big chicks went out to the outside brooder and the chicks and ducks inside had to be separated. A week or so in with the ducks is about as long as I want to leave them as the ducks have started to really wet the brooder. Anyway, both inside brooders had to be completely cleaned out and the babies reorganized.
Everyone in their nice clean brooders again.

I then went on to make Ranch dressing and pasta salad but I will save that for a new post.