Dog House Ranch

Follow the Transformation

You are here: Home / Archives for Recipies

Kombucha – The Healthy Adult Beverage

by

Ginger Kombucha, a health adult beverage
Ginger Kombucha, a healthy adult beverage

Are you looking for a healthy beverage alternative that’s, you know, more interesting than water or juice, and more healthy than soda or wine? Try Kombucha. I’d heard about it, but thought it would be hard to make and wouldn’t taste good. Well I was wrong, on both counts. It’s super simple to make and tastes great.

Swing top bottle

The most difficult step is finding a SCOBY, which stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria & Yeast. I posted a message on our county’s FaceBook page, offering to trade vinegar mothers for a SCOBY, and had several people step up. Problem solved. Next I needed a one gallon jar. I obtained this from the local kitchen store. Then I needed a half dozen swing cap bottles. The local beer brewing store had just what I needed. The final ingredients, and the only ones that aren’t reusable are tea and sugar.

How to Make Kombucha at Home

  • Bring 3/4 of a gallon of non chlorinated water to a boil
  • Add 8 to 10 tea bags, all black tea or all green tea or a combination (you can also use loose tea and strain the liquid)
  • Let the tea steep for 10 minutes or so
  • Remove the tea bags and add 1 cup of raw sugar
  • Still to dissolve the sugar
  • Let the pot of hot tea and sugar cool until it’s just warm to the touch
  • Pour the cooled liquid into the 1 gallon jar and add the SCOBY and a cup or two of Kombucha from a previous batch or store bought is fine if this is your first time
  • Cover the jar with cheese cloth or a clean tea towel and secure it with a rubber band around the top
  • Let it sit undisturbed on the counter for at least a week
  • Make up a new batch of Kombucha and while it’s cooling, carefully pour the previous batch into the swing top bottles, a funnel is handy for this
  • Add the new cooled batch of Kombucha to the jar with the SCOBY and some left over liquid from the previous batch
  • Enjoy

When you pour the Kombucha into the swing top bottles try adding an eighth teaspoon of sugar, this will start secondary fermentation, for a little extra fizz. You can also add flavors at this point, we like to add a little fresh ginger to each bottle.

Breakfast Sausage – Oh so good

by

We like to start our days with a high protein breakfast. And while we like eggs, having them everyday gets boring. Enter breakfast sausage.

DIY breakfast sausage couldn’t be easier. And it’s a tasty alternative to eggs for breakfast.

What do you need?

A Kitchen Aid Meat Grinder attachment (affiliate) for your mixer is the only tool that you need, but once you’ve secured this it lasts a long time. Then it’s all about the groceries.

 

Breakfast SausageI start with a three pound piece of pork butt or pork shoulder. Ask your butcher for an additional half pound of pork fat. It’s usually free, but they won’t always have this on hand so if they do, ask for more and freeze it in half pound packages. If you don’t have a herb garden, pick up some fresh thyme, sage and marjoram. Dried works as well. You can use other spices. Go crazy.

As with most things, quality matters here. Better ingredients equals a better product. It’s that simple.

Once you are home, cut the pork up into thick ribbons. Lay these out on a cookie sheet, the one I use is 10 1/2 inches by 16 inches, with the half pound of pork fat, which you also cut into ribbons, and place everything into the freezer for 30 minutes +/-.

Open a beer and enjoy some football.

“Im not watching football, I’m making breakfast sausage.”

Once the meat is stiff, run it through the meat grinder using the course blade, collecting the freshly ground pork in a large bowl.

Add herbs and spices as follows:

  • 2 – 3 tablespoons chopped fresh sage (1 teaspoon dry)
  • 1 – 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme (1/2 teaspoon dry)
  • 1 – 2 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram (1/2 teaspoon dry)
  • 1 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more (optional)

The quantities listed above are approximate, you will soon get a feel for how you like your breakfast sausage. I wouldn’t increase the salt, you can always add more at the table. Taking it away is tough.

Wet your hands in cold running water, and then gently mix all the ingredients together. Wetting your hands helps stop the meat from sticking to you.

SprBreakfast Sausage - Course Groundead everything out into a half inch +/- layer in a cookie sheet. Score the meat into ribbons wide enough to fit easily into the meat grinder. I use a pastry scraper. Put this back into the freezer.

Open a beer and wait for 30 minutes.

“Honest, I’m cooking…”

After the ground meat has become stiff, run the ribbons through the meat grinder again using the fine blade.

Breakfast Sausage - Fine GroundSpread the meat out again in the cookie sheet. This time score the meat in two and a half to three inch squares. The exact size will depend on the size of your cookie sheet.

Back into the freezer and leave it until the breakfast sausage is quite stiff. Then pop the meat out, breaking it up so that it all fits into a one gallon freezer bag.

To enjoy, place a couple frozen squares in a cast iron frying pan over medium heat for seven minutes a side. We enjoy eating them with home made salsa and a half an avocado.

How do you enjoy them.