Revisiting Past Posts

Lately I've seen several blog posts that reminded me of some of my older ones.  I thought I'd revisit two and provide any insights gained in the intervening years.  The first one is from my other blog and was about that superfood, bacon. Several things have changed since then, especially the price of that 3 lb package of ends and pieces.  It's now about 40% more that in May 2011. Ouch.   I've stopped segregating into three piles, unless there are some really beautiful bacon-like strips that beg to be cooked and eaten immediately. I just chop the whole collection into bits and start cooking. I still do not can the resulting bits for several reasons that include my reluctance to try out my pressure canner. I do pack most of the bits in clean bacon fat and either freeze or store in the fridge. We use them fast enough that they don't show their age, and I'll occasionally add a teaspoon of bacon fat from the bit-storage to the olive oil when cooking for flavor in some recipes.

The second post was about the bread I make for our breakfast. The recipe is more simple now to reduce the cost and because DH likes it that way. Local pecans are in when available, some of the spices are out and he prefers just raisins for the dried fruit. The flours now include rye, wheat and oat.

Local mesquite flour is available now-- the harvest is just being ground, but you need a strong mill for that. This winter when the acorns are ripe, I'll start adding some of that flour as well. I hand crack the little devils, then grind them twice, first to crack the nut meat into pieces about the size of a normal grain and then in a different mill to make flour.  I thought I'd written a post on how to make acorn flour, but I can't find it. The first step is to locate one of the two species of US oaks that don't have the high tanin levels that require soaking and washing. I'm fortunate to have one of those, an Emory oak, in my front yard and right now it is LOADED with nuts. Guess I know what post to write once they are ready to harvest!