Tallow is Not For The Birds Anymore

I am such a "with it" old gal that I like to follow all the latest trends on social media. That's a lie. I am not "with it".  I know this every time I listen to my grandchildrens conversations. I don't understand much of what they talk about. I have to make my own fun by inventing, creating and generally make messes I have to clean up. My latest is a work in progress. 

I watched videos and posts recently about making lotions, face cream, soap and candles from tallow. Tallow is made by rendering the impurities out of beef suet. I have done it many times. It is how I make my outdoor birds food for the winter. I usually melt the suet and stir in a variety of seeds. Then I pour it into a form and wait for it to harden. This is what beef suet looks like before rendering.

That was my intent this time until I stumbled upon other uses for tallow. Making suet into other products is new to me, but I wanted to try. I bought an extra large package of beef suet. There was enough for the birds and for my experiments. I cut it into small pieces because it melts much faster that way. The first time I tried it years ago, I put the whole chunk into the slow cooker. Two days later it was still melting and the house was quite smelly. Imagine having a rendering factory in your kitchen. However, learning the hard way is a good way to learn. I didn't make that mistake again.

A few days ago I did cook some of the suet in a slow cooker for twelve hours. I stirred it now and then but it was an easy process. At the end of that time the suet was melted and the "cracklings" were floating on top. Cracklings are the browned bits left over in the rendering process. All suet has a little meat and debris inside. Rendering cooks out all of that leaving pure fat. For bird food I don't remove them. The birds love pecking at the bits. For lotion or soap the tallow has to be purified. It requires a few extra steps. 

For that I melted the rest of the suet. Apparently grass fed organic suet is the best, but sometimes it's hard to find. I think if it's a choice of not having the exact ingredient or having nothing, I will take the substitute. The slow cooker works great for this but I have found an even easier method. I cooked it in the instant pot. Instead of 12 hours, it only takes 3-4 hours. When finished the cracklings and little bits are strained out. The oil is then cooled in the refrigerator. When it has hardened, it can be broken up and melted again. Then it is strained again either through a coffee filter or a fine mesh sieve. Again it is cooled, melted and strained. This has to be done 4 or 5 times until there is no moisture left in the pan or on the piece of tallow. The piece is white and hardened. It sounds like a lot of work but each process is mostly waiting for the next step.

Finally the piece is ready to be melted for the final time and put into a large bowl mixed with jojoba oil, olive oil or another oil plus essential oils. This product is supposed to smell neutral but I think it still smells a little "beefy".  The essential oil helps but I still have to figure that out. The smell is less with every melting so I just have to determine how many times to do it. After the fat has cooled for about an hour, it is time to whip with a mixer until it looks like frosting. The added oil makes it soft enough to apply at room temperature. If you put it in a clean jar, the shelf life is a year or more.

Now for the experiment. I am not a person to use many cosmetics or make up but old age does dry out the skin. I am going to try this. If you see me and I look many years younger, it's working. If not, oh well.  Apparently tallow skin care products have a lot of good properties. It is a healthy fat. Think about it, we are animals and most of us have fat so this just provides moisturizing with a product natural to us. It isn't like putting foreign chemicals on our skin. It's simple biology. It has a lot of nutrients like vitamin A, B12, D, E and K. It has omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, it is anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial. How can I go wrong? I will only use it at night in case I smell a little like a burger. I don't have a husband to offend and I don't have a dog, so I don't worry about having my face chewed off.  It's all good.

Life is a Double Edged Sword

My life at this older age is a double edged sword. I experienced both yesterday. When you get to my age and situation, you can do whatever you want when you want as long as you are physically and mentally able. I don't run marathons or climb mountains even though I would like to. I do have some brain cells left. I ask my daughters regularly if I have many "dings" in my incompetence file. So far, so good. That is the positive edge. On the other hand things happen where you may need to find the help, advice and expertise of others even if it feels embarrassing and makes you feel not very smart. That's the negative edge.

When I got up yesterday morning, it was exactly the same as the day before. I padded out to the kitchen and made coffee, I made the bed and gathered up some laundry to wash, then I got ready for the day. I put a load in the washer and went to brush my teeth. Thank goodness I hadn't gotten into the shower yet because I had no water. After a moment of panic, I got a grip. I went down to the breaker box to make sure I hadn't somehow tripped a breaker. Then I turned off my washer which was beeping and flashing with red lights. There was no water on the floor which had happened a couple months ago. My next step was to call a plumber. Fortunately I have a really good one who actually answers his phone. He told me he would come over in a couple hours. Maybe it pays to be a gray haired damsel in distress. Since I overthink everything in my life, I had already thought my yard would have to be dug up and the septic replaced or my well pump would need replacing. I usually don't start with the worse case scenario, but I did this time. As it turned out the problem was solved quickly. It was a problem with the pressure tank. I handled it fine but it would have been nice to troubleshoot the problem before going into panic mode.

That was the negative edge of the sword. The other edge is doing whatever I feel like. I have been known to go to Kwik Trip at closing time for ice cream. Last night I was thinking about the Cranberry-Apple pie I made for Thanksgiving. I didn't like how stiff it was so at 9:00 pm I decided to make a pie. I had made chunky applesauce earlier in the day and had that cooling in the refrigerator. I had some leftover cranberry sauce (both jellied and whole berry) and two pre-made pie crusts. The Thanksgiving pie I made used the apple pie filling recipe I posted in a previous blog https://www.thecabincountess.com/2024/11/apple-pie-bread.html mixed with homemade cranberry sauce. It tasted good, but I didn't like the texture. The year before I just used un-thickened chunky applesauce mixed with cranberry sauce. It was much better. By 9:30 pm the pie was in the oven and by 11:00 pm I was eating a slice because I wanted to. It was pretty darn good so I ate a slice for breakfast too. Carbs at bedtime help with my sleep or so I try to convince myself. It's either contentment or a blood sugar thing. Whatever it is, it works.

While the pie was baking I mixed up some dough to make crusty bread. I left the dough to rise overnight, and I baked it in the morning. 

I won't be going out for a Wisconsin fish fry on this cold Friday night. I have chili, crusty bread and pie. 

After writing this I realize everyone's life is a double edged sword. We all have good and we all have bad. How we balance it all is the key.  We can rely on others and still take care of ourselves.

The Tale (Tail) of Two Grandsons

It has been a busy month that involved two of my grandsons. Both were enjoyable, but one was easier than the other. One involved riding in a car for an hour. The other was much more involved. Have you ever made a Centaur costume? Nope me neither.

Last week I posted on Facebook that I attended a performance in the AL.Ringling theater in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Dylan, my oldest grandson, was in a play called “Something Rotten". Dylan has been in plays since he played Oliver in middle school. He continued through high school and college. In this play he was Nigel Bottom for those familiar with the play. He sang and he danced and it was very enjoyable. I had to google the play to see what it was about, but that was my only preparation. We just bought a ticket and showed up. All the work and preparation was done by the Baraboo Theatre Guild, and we had no responsibility. 

My next experience was different. My second to youngest grandchild Jack was in a performance of a Percy Jackson musical called The Lightning Thief. Jack is a junior in high school and this was his third show. It was this past weekend, but the process began a month or more ago. The play is full of mythological characters and a variety of costumes. 

My daughter offered to help and therefore so did I, by default. She ended up getting the title of Costume leader and Props master. She started as a mom volunteer and ended up with a lot of responsibility. She helped organize the set construction, painting and anything else that needed doing. She made a three headed dog,  Medusa headgear, pants to look like goat legs and took care of a multitude of details no one noticed but it made the play complete. 

By far the most difficult project was a Centaur costume. For those who don’t know, a centaur is half man and half horse. We had the young man but needed a horse's rear end.

My daughter had the help of a friend to make the bones of the horse. She works out at a local gym and asked the owner/physical therapist for advice about the anatomy of a horse. He is familiar with human anatomy, but I guess he knows about horses too. They got together PVC pipe, nuts, bolts, chicken wire and foam. They created the framework of a horses rear section. 

The next step was making the legs and covering the body. That's where I came in. She had a basic pattern but had to draw it out to get the size in proportion. Then I made pillows in the shape of a horse leg. These pillows had to fit over the PVC pipe that was jointed. It was trial and error all the way with a lot of error.

In order to cut costs we recycled a lot of supplies and went to thrift stores. Schools don't have a big budget for anything these days. 

I took an old sheet, cut out the shape and stitched it up. Then Sarah, my daughter, stuffed it with the stuffing from an old pillow. I know at this point they look like uncooked turkey legs.

She had to take the legs back to the carcass a few times to see if they were the right size. After some tweaking, pushing, pulling and stuffing/unstuffing, it was good enough.  The hooves were also created.

The next step was covering the legs with fabric. Since that much fabric would cost a lot, we found some old quilted curtains at the Goodwill store. Not exactly horse hair but the color was good.

Now to make the leg pillow covers and figure out how to get them on the legs. It was a two person job, that was for sure. Now they look like roasted turkey legs. 

Some bolts had to be inserted in the top of the leg so they could eventually be attached to the body.  Thank goodness for our special advisor because we had no idea where the joints went. Horses legs bend opposite to a human leg.

At this point it looks like it is almost done. WRONG! Next we had to figure out how to put it on Jack's body and attach the hooves. At first we thought it could be strapped to his waist but it ended up to be too heavy, so we needed a shoulder harness like a backpack. The hooves were just attached with metal strapping material which proved too weak so they had to be enforced with stronger metal, lock nuts and a lot of glue.  Originally we were going to have strings attached so the legs could be manipulated but that just complicated things and we scrapped that idea. We were going to put wheels on the bottom of the feet but gave up on that too. I said trial and error and that's what happened over and over again.

While this body part was being worked and reworked, I had to make pants out of the same curtain fabric. Since everything had to be put on easily between scenes, the pants were simple pull on pants. I sewed fur on the bottom of the pants and the hooves were fit over Jack's own shoes. A little beard and mustache finished out his outfit.

I added some fur to the horse legs, a blonde wig for a tail and it's SHOWTIME.

 

 

It turned out pretty well. By the end of the last performance it was a bit tattered, but not too bad. The horse looked a little tired and wanted to sit down, but we all did.

 

Dry Mix For Scalloped Potatoes

I would love to write about things I think about and recent current events, but it just causes comments that I need to delete. I don't need the stress. Being an older woman already makes me invisible and open to criticism. It's amazing what people can say when they don't know you, so what do I do? I cook, even if it is for myself. I had a birthday a few days ago and wanted comfort food. This is the result.

 

What is this? It is a dry mix to make Scalloped Potatoes. I really like them but making them from scratch requires planning ahead and having the proper ingredients on hand. The scalloped potatoes at Costco are really good, but the carton is too big for me and they don't freeze that well. This dry mix is perfect for me. I can quickly make the portion I need. I would like to give credit to the person who came up with the original recipe but I don't know where I got it. The original recipe included dried chives and minced onion but I left that out. I actually made half the amount in this recipe because I don't need so much. I stirred all the dry ingredients together and stored it in a quart jar. I sealed the jar with a vacuum sealer.

Scalloped Potato Dry Mix

 

2 Cups powdered milk

1 Cup flour

1 Cup cornstarch

1/2 Cup dried parsley 

2 T. salt 

4  t. mustard powder 

2 t. pepper

1 t. garlic powder 

1 t. Italian seasoning 

Put 3 cups of peeled and sliced potatoes in a buttered baking dish 

Mix together 1/2 Cup of dry mix and 2 3/4 Cups water.

 

Pour over raw potatoes. I added a 1/2 cup of diced ham. You could add some diced onion if you like that flavor.

 

Dot with 2 T of butter

 

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

 

Apple Pie Bread

Today I was doing my normal morning chores as best I could, and I noticed I had some apples that needed attention. I usually make my own apple pie filling and these would be perfect. This is how I make it.

Apple Pie Filling

4 apples (different varieties require different cooking times)

2 T. butter  

1 t. cinnamon (more or less depending on your taste)

1/3 cup sugar

3 T. water

4 t. cornstarch

2 T. water

Peel, core and chop or slice 4 apples

Melt 2 T. of butter and 1 t. cinnamon

Stir the apples into the melted butter and cinnamon, then add 1/3 cup sugar and 3 T. of water

Cover and cook them for about 5 minutes or until they are starting to soften

Next dissolve 4 T cornstarch into 2 T water

Add this to the hot apples. Stir until the apples are soft and the filling has thickened. Boil for one more minute.

This filling can be used to make a pie or eaten like chunky applesauce. 

I was going to freeze the filling until Thanksgiving, but I changed my mind. I had seen a Apple Pie bread recipe on Facebook. It called for one can of apple pie filling. I figured my homemade filling would be the same thing. I found one can of filling equals slightly more than 2 cups of filling. This recipe makes about that amount. 

Apple Pie Bread

1 can apple pie filling, mashed (or 2 1/2 cups of homemade filling)

1 yellow cake mix

4 eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup self rising flour

1 T. cinnamon

1 chopped apple

I had purchased a yellow cake mix at Walmart in the clearance aisle.  It was a Dolly Parton edition for $.75. I haven't tried this mix before but it's just cake mix. How bad can it be?

I had eggs and cinnamon plus another apple.

The only thing I didn't have was self rising flour, but that is easy to make.

Self Rising Flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

Just mix all the ingredients together. If you use a mixer, add the apple pie filling and extra chopped apple last and mix in with a spoon.  This makes two loaf pans. Sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar on top before baking.

Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

No Murders in this Building, Just a Carrion Plant

Two years ago a very generous neighbor of mine gave me the starts to some plants. They were a pencil cactus plant, a variety of a snake plant and a type of cactus I wasn't familiar with. At some point I posted photos of these on Facebook. I heard from my uncle Jeff telling me that this type of cactus blooms. It hadn't up to this point so I thought conditions must have to be perfect for that to happen. He told me not to water it all winter and it would blossom, but be aware it doesn't smell good. I waited all summer and it grew well but I didn't see any buds. Then it happened. On October 14 I was looking out the window as I often do. I had recently brought the plants inside because we were expecting frost. I did a double take because there were buds on the plant.  If you look carefully, you can see two buds. I am not sure how long they had been there, but I was excited to see them.

I had no idea what the blooms would look like or how long it would take. I researched the plant. This is what I found. It is a Carrion plant from the species Stapelia gigantea from the genus Stapelia. That meant nothing to me but then I read they are also called corpse flowers or stinking flower not to be confused with the gigantic African corpse flower. Now I understood the warning about the smell. It is actually a spine-free succulent, and it isn't a cactus at all. I waited and waited. Every day the blossoms got a little larger. Two weeks from the day I discovered the buds they were larger than a golf ball and slightly smaller than a tennis ball. They were quite large for the size of the plant and looked a little like a balloon.

I went away for a few days. I was sure it would blossom while I was gone, but when I got home everything looked the same. Patiently I waited. Every morning and evening I checked for clues. Then 30 days from when I spotted the first sign of a bud, I saw a crack in one of the buds.

At this point I set up the time lapse feature from my cell phone camera. A short time later, I captured this happening. 

As I watched both blossoms eventually opened.  One by one the petals popped open. They actually made a popping sound. They are so beautiful.

It has been an exciting day. I don't know how long the blossoms will last. My barrel cactus blossoms last only one day. These flowers already look like they are fading. I only hope I don't get any visitors for a while. They will surely think I have a dead body hidden in the basement. The blooms are pretty but they do smell like rotten hamburger.  I only hope it dissipates quickly. 

My other plants have also done well. The pencil cactus has grown very quickly and is interesting. It only has very tiny leaves. Apparently it is quite toxic which I didn’t know. I don’t have small children and pets so I’m not really worried, however it’s good to be aware. The plant is really large and will need to be trimmed back eventually.

 The other was a variety of the snake plant.  I'm sure it has a scientific name but it's just a shorter version of the snake plant.

 Next summer they will all return to the outdoors. Maybe if I am lucky the Carrion plant will bloom again and the other plants will flourish.

My Bus Trip to Shipshewana Indiana.

I just returned from my third bus trip. The first two were 7-9 days long. They were all pleasant in their own way. The first was to New York City with the Fond du Lac Wisconsin senior center.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2017/10/our-visit-to-big-apple.html This trip was mostly visiting the most popular landmarks and attractions around the city. The next was a trip to Maine. http://www.thecabincountess.com/2022/10/my-nine-day-bus-trip-to-coastal-maine.html This trip was a lot of sightseeing and seeing the beauty of the state. It also included a trip to Niagara Falls. Both of these trips went to areas that would be difficult to drive to for this country bumpkin. It took the stress out of traveling for me. The trips are quite structured so if you are a free spirit and like to do your own thing, this isn't for you.

My recent trip was only three days long. It was to Shipshewana, Indiana. It wasn't as far away but also included activities I would not have done on my own. It did include a little more shopping time than I would have liked. I don't enjoy window shopping. I buy what I need when I need it. However, I did learn a lot the rest of the time.

We left bright and early on a Wednesday. The bus picked up people in two more locations, and we had two rest stops so the trip went quite fast. Since I was traveling single I had a seat mate I didn't know. It turned out to be a fun trip. She was a great person, and we had some fun conversations and learned about each other’s lives. We arrived in downtown Shipshewana in the middle of the afternoon, leaving two hours of shopping. I didn't spend 10 cents. I was under the impression this was an Amish community and the whole town was Amish stores. I was wrong. The Amish and Mennonite populations live in the outskirts. They have many nice businesses but I didn't discover any in town.

After shopping we checked into the hotel and headed out to Yoder's Family Dinner. It was supposed to be a family style dinner at an Amish farm. It actually was, but that population is very wealthy it seems. The story is that the Jayco corporation which makes campers has a big factory in the area. Many of the Amish farmers went to work there and made a lot of money. They were able to buy land and build fancy houses. I expected a homespun house with a wood stove and scrubbed wood floors. Instead it was a beautiful home on a lake. I have only seen white Amish houses with a barn and horses out back. It did have horses and a buggy parked by the lake, but it also had a big pontoon boat. They seem to be doing very well.

The meal was excellent and we all went back to the hotel stuffed with mashed potatoes, meatloaf, ham, green beans, salad, homemade bread, noodles and pie. We were miserable but happy.

The next morning we visited the Silver Star Leather shop where they demonstrated making a belt and answered questions about the process and how they started the business. The shop owner also worked for the camper factory but in recent years after Covid, the camper business is not as strong as it was. This man started the leather business and is successful enough to stop working at the factory either by choice or was forced to quit. The store was filled with very nice leather goods. I don't know for sure but I don't believe he is Amish. He sells on Amazon and has a phone.

Next was little more shopping. We stopped at a little Amish house where the woman made jams and jellies. She used white grape juice for sweetener. 100% white grape juice doesn't contain any added sugar so it was a popular stop. Then we were off to the Daniel O'Donnell show. My parents were huge fans and had most of his CD's. They listened to him everyday. I liked him fine but I really wasn't a big fan. I knew most of the songs by osmosis. I was very pleasantly surprised. He put on an amazing show for three hours. I teared up a little when he sang my mom's favorite song of his, the Green Green Grass of Home. 

Since it was a three hour show, it was dinner time when it was finished. We had another family dinner at a different farm. This one wasn't so fancy but still nice. The host was an Amish man who was about 34 years old. His little children helped him serve and collect dishes. A question and answer session afterward revealed a lot about their way of life. No question was off limits. He was very open about the way they live and had a great sense of humor. The prayer before dinner was in high German. They mostly speak Pennsylvania Dutch and English. The food was about the same and again we rolled out of there stuffed to our ears.

The next day was Friday and we were going home later that day, but before we left we visited a few more cottage industries. The first was Teaberry Wood Products. It is an Amish-Mennonite family run business specializing in handcrafted baskets, puzzles, cutting boards and other items. We were allowed make a small wall hanging out of wood in the shape of a quilt square. It was great fun.

For a short time we were allowed to go into a large grocery store that sold bulk foods as well as other grocery items. There were many Amish shopping in there. It was explained that there are Amish, there are Mennonites who can drive cars and also Mennonites who only drive buggies. So when I say Amish, I don't really know for sure. I can't tell the difference by seeing them unless they are driving a car.

 

 

It was now lunch time. We went to Ben's Pretzels. I hadn't heard of Ben's Pretzels but the owner Ben met us at his restaurant. He told his story of how he started making pretzels many years ago when he was young. He has left the Amish but some of his siblings are still practicing that way of life. The business has grown to 150 locations. They sell in many college and NFL stadiums as well as shopping malls and even Meijer grocery stores. Ben taught us how to make pretzels. I see another recipe blog in my future. He didn't share his recipe but it will be a good challenge for me to come up with one. He prepared the dough and showed us how to roll and twist the pretzel. Then he came along, picked them up in order and baked them. The warm baked pretzel we made was returned to us to enjoy eating.

 

Our next stop was an Amish schoolhouse. We picked up a gentleman who was able to get us into the school while it was in session. No photos were allowed in the dinners or the school. This was a fairly new building. There were 44 students from 1st grade to 8th. They had 4 teachers in one room. They had just sectioned off an area for 3rd grade because there were so many of them, but it was only separated by a cabinet. One of the male teachers told us all about the school system. Children only go to 8th grade or age 15. At that time they find work or help in the family business. The children were very well behaved but they are modernized a little. Some of the families are more liberal and allow fleece jackets, clogs and more colorful clothing. Actually outside next to the building were parked several electric bikes. Even though it is controversial, some families use electric bikes instead of the buggy. We also noticed solar panels on almost all the Amish homes. The school lights were battery operated. I am thinking that the homes are getting away from lanterns and have moved to charging batteries with solar power.

 

After a short tour of the countryside, the final stop was the Casket Company. It seemed an appropriate end. We learned a lot. Caskets and Coffins are two different things. Caskets are rectangular shaped with four sides and coffins are tapered at the head and usually the feet. They have six sides. This is a Coffin, but it looks like it's only tapered at the head. The craftsman builds them to family specifications. These burial boxes only cost $850 compared to funeral home caskets which can be priced in the thousands. This stop was more interesting than I expected it to be.

By now everyone was tired, dehydrated and ready to head home. The average age of my other bus tours was much younger. Many were in their upper 50's or lower 60's. Many were newly retired or still working. I think the average age on this trip was higher although it is hard for me to tell age. It was about 4:00pm EDT when we headed home. I got to my car and after a half hour drive I arrived home about 11:00 pm. 

It was a great trip. We packed so much into 3 days.