How to make Fried Zucchini - with pictures

We have quite a few zucchini plants in the garden and we are getting a lot of zucchini from them!
My family uses zucchini in a lot of different ways. We use zucchini in cakes, muffins, and breads. We cook zucchini on the grill with potatoes and other veggies wrapped in aluminum foil, on kabobs (marinated meat with veggies and fruit on a skewer), and we make Fried Zucchini.
Fried Zucchini is my family's favorite! Not a summer goes by without my family eating Fried Zucchini!

A week or so ago, my aunt, my cousin, and my Granny came over and we fried zucchini together. I took some pictures of the making of Fried Zucchini. I am going to share the pictures I took and how to make it, for those of you who do not know how.

Fried Zucchini

You will need:

Zucchinis - Small, young zucchinis are best for frying

2-4 large eggs

approximately 2 cups of all-purpose flour

Salt

Pepper

Vegetable Oil

A Large skillet for frying - An electric skillet is great to use because it keeps an even temperature, but any other large skillet will also work well.

a pair of tongs

two small bowls (one for egg and one for flour)

a plate lined with a paper towels or napkins

First, wash all of the zucchinis and slice them into medallions. Thin sliced medallions will be crispy on the outside and with a bit of softness on the inside. Thick sliced medallions will have a crisp outside and a soft inside, like a french fry. Super thin slice medallions will be very crispy, like a potatoe chip, but they often burn.

Throw away the tips of the zucchinis.
Lightly salt the medallions.

Now, put enough vegetable oil in the skillet to cover the bottom. Heat the skillet to about 200 degrees farenheit.

Put two eggs in a bowl, lightly salt them, and whip them. In the other bowl, put one to two cups of flour.

Dip a few medallions at a time in the egg.......

< ......then dip both sides of medallions in flour........

....and put in the skillet to fry.

Brown both sides of the medallions. After both side of the medallions are browned, put them on a the plate with a paper towl on it. Serve Fried Zucchini warm.

Tips: If the bowl of egg gets watery from dipping zucchini, it is best to get a new bowl of egg.

If the oil in the skillet gets too hot, it will burn. If the oil is getting too hot, the heat should be turn down to a lower temperature.

If the skillet looks like there isn't enough oil or like it is running out of oil, add more.

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Belle

How to Pasteurize Goat Milk

I do recommend to anyone that drinks milk, especially children, to drink pasteurized milk versus drinking milk raw (unpasteurized). Pasteurizing milk kills bad bacteria that could be harmful to the body.
Many people, who have arthritis, like to drink goat's milk raw because the raw goat's milk contains something that pasteurized milk does not have that is supposed to help the arthritic pain.
For my own family, I pasteurize our goat milk.

The pasteurization process is really simple!

For pasteurizing your own milk you will need -
a Candy Thermometer
a Clean piece of cheese cloth or a flour sack dish towel
a Clean Stainless Steel Pot
a Clean Metal Spoon for stirring the milk

a Bowl of cold water with lots of ice
and clean glass *containers for storing the milk

First, strain the milk through the piece of clean cheesecloth or a clean flour sack dishtowel into the clean stainless steel pot. Straining the milk will catch all of the hairs or other things that might have fallen into the milk during milking time.
Note - The piece of material you use for straining needs to be very clean. It shouldn't be washed in harsh detergents or fabric softeners, especially detergents that are scented. I suggest getting a few towels to keep for straining milk through only! To make sure your towel is clean enough, you can alway dip it in boiling water, that should kill anything that isn't good in your milk.

Attatch the candy thermometer to the pot. (If you don't have a candy thermometer that attches to the pot, dip the thermometer into the pot often to check the milk's temperature.)
Set the heat of stove top to medium high. Stir the milk as often as possible if not constant.

Watch the temperature on the thermometer. When the temperature on the thermometer reaches 165 degrees Farenheit, set a timer for 15 seconds. When the timer ends, put your pot of milk into a the bowl of cold, icey water and stir.
Try to get the pot of milk into the water as quickly as possible. The quick cooling of the milk gives the milk a better flavor.

When the ice in the cold water melts, take the milk from the bowl of water, pour into clean containers, and put the containers of milk into the freezer for further cooling.

It shouldn't take the milk very long to get cool in the freezer.
After the milk has cooled in the freezer, put the milk into the fridge. The milk is now without the bad bacteria and ready to drink. Give the milk a good shake and enjoy!

* Containers - Never use plastic containers to put milk in. Plastic holds bacteria. Don't use any container to store milk in that has cracks, seams, or crevices, those little places are just a place for bacteria to hide.

I have found glass containers are best for storing milk. I like canning (Ball, Kerr, Mason) jars to keep my milk in. Each milking's milk in in it's own container, I never have to worry about milk from different milkings getting put in the same container, and canning jars make giving the milk a good shake easy.

Everything used to pasteurize the milk should be as clean as possible.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog! Please check out some of my other posts and visit my blog again soon!

~Belle~

Please visit my store: http://www.homesteaderbelle.blogspot.com/

Fried Fish, a LaMancha Dairy Goat, and Homemade Goat Milk Ice Cream

Tonight, for supper, my family and I had fried fish. My sister, brother, and dad all went fishing yesterday. They caught a bunch of Blue Gill.
The fish we fried was delicious!



Earlier today, my sister made some homemade vanilla ice cream with all of the goat's milk that she has been getting.
The ice cream was very good!

My sister bought a LaMancha dairy goat about a month ago. My family has had LaMancha dairy goats in the past and loved the taste of the LaMancha's milk. Our last LaMancha doe we had died about three years ago from old age. Since the death of our last LaMancha doe, we have had Alpine goats. The milk from the Alpine does is nothing like the milk from the LaManchas (in my family's opinion). Nobody in the family liked the milk from the Alpines, so the Alpines are now dried up and we drink the milk from my sister's LaMancha doe. My family has found, by experience with dairy goats, that LaMancha goat's milk is much more creamier and has a better flavor than the Alpine's milk. So, for now on, I think that we will only keep LaMancha goats for milk.


My sister had been looking to buy a LaMancha dairy goat for over a year. LaManchas are difficult to find in this area. She did finally find one.


The doe that she bought gives 3 - 4 quarts of delicious, creamy milk a day. The milk has lots of cream in it. My sister has been taking all of the cream from the milk and making butter with it.
I found a recipe online for homemade Mozzerella cheese that I want to make soon. If the recipe is a good one, I will share it here on my blog.



Below is a picture of the delicious, creamy goat milk.

It is wonderful to have fresh milk everyday and to know exactly where it came from.

Thank you for reading and visiting my blog! Please leave a comment if you would like to. Please come back very soon to my blog!

~Belle~

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Pecan Tarts

My Granny's birthday was this month. For her birthday, I made Pecan Tarts. She loved them! The recipe for the tarts is below.

Pecan Tarts

First, make the pie dough. I use a double-crust pie dough recipe.

It seems like the double-crust recipe I use makes just enough dough for the amount of pecan filling.

Pie dough recipe

2 cups of All-purpose Flour

1 Teaspoon of Salt

2/3 cup of Shotening

6 -7 Tablespoons of cold Water

In a mixing bowl, stir together flour and salt. Cut in the shortening till pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle two to three tablespoons of the cold water over mixture. Stir and cut the mixture. Add as much more of the cold water as needed.

Form the dough in a ball and put on a floured surface.

Roll the dough out to the thickness of 1/8 - 1/4 inch.

Lay the tart pan face - down on the dough and cut around it 1/4 inch away from the pan.

Press the piece of cut dough into the tart pan. Apply enough pressure to the dough so that the dough will stay in place inside of the tart pan.

After all of the tart pans have pie dough they can be filled with the pecan tart filling.

Pecan Tart Filling

1 cup of Light Corn Syrup

3 Large Eggs

2 Tablespoons of Butter (not margarine)

1 teaspoon of Pure Vanilla Extract

2 cups of Pecan Halves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheit. In a mixing bowl, mix together using a spoon corn syrup, eggs, sugar, butter, and vanilla. Stir in pecans. Pour pecan tart filling into tart pans.
Put all of the tart pans onto a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 50 - 60 minutes or until the center surface of tart can be lighty pressed against and the surface will spring back.
Cool tarts on a wire rack.

I love to make tarts! When I am at thrift shops and yard sales, I look for tart pans. I recently went to a thrift shop that was out of town and I found seven new tart pans at $0.25 each. I was so excited to find them and to add them to my collection.

Belle

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You can email me @ homesteaderbelle@yahoo.com/

Pistachio Pudding Recipe

Mmmm....I love Pistachio Pudding. My Granny always make this dish for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Pistachio Pudding is very simple dessert to make.

~Pistachio Pudding~
To make Pistachio Pudding, you will need:
1 Box of Pistachio Instant Pudding
1 1/2 C. Miniature Marshmallows
1 (20 ounce) can Crushed Pineapple
1 Large container of Cool Whip
Maraschino Cherries

Stir all ingredients together in a large serving bowl. After all the ingredients are stirred together, put maraschino cherry halves over the top of the pudding, cover the bowl of pudding with lid or with plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator to set up.

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Belle

My Store: From the Past