apple cider vinegar

Homemade Organic Copycat Chick-Fil-A Polynesian Sauce

According to the Chick-Fil-A Polynesian Sauce vs. Marzetti Honey French Dressing video, this recipe will also double as a copycat Marzetti Honey French Dressing recipe.

 Here’s What You’ll  Need:

  • 1/3 cup organic sunflower oil; OR organic olive oil
  • 1/3 cup unchlorinated and unfluoridated water
  • 1/4 cup organic cane sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. raw organic honey (local honey from real honeybees)
  • 2 Tbsp. organic raw apple cider vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp. organic distilled white vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp. organic tomato paste (not heaping)
  • 1 tsp. Real Salt
  • 1 tsp. organic paprika
  • 3/4 tsp. organic dry yellow mustard
  • 1/4 tsp. organic beet juice (from making Homemade Organic Roasted Beets)
  • 1/8 tsp. organic granulated onion
  • 1/8 tsp. organic granulated garlic
  • 1 tsp. organic arrowroot powder

Here’s How I do it:

  1. Mix all ingredients into a 2 quart Chef’s saucepan and whisk until smooth.
  2. Bring to a boil and immediately reduce to a simmer; Stir until thickened, approximately 3 minutes.
  3. This mixture will thicken as it cools.
  4. Allow to cool completely before placing into a pint jar.
  5. Place a tight-fitting lid onto the jar and place into the refrigerator.
  6. This is fine to eat immediately, but tastes even better the next day after being in the refrigerator.
  7. Enjoy!

Homemade Organic Hot Dog Chili Sauce

I have slightly adapted the recipe from Hilah Cooking.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

  • 3 Tbsp.organic pasture butter; OR grass-fed beef tallow
  • 1 medium organic yellow onion, finely chopped
  • 2-3 organic garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1-2 whole Homemade Organic Pickled Jalapenos, finely chopped  [1/3 cup]
  • 1 lb. grass-fed ground beef
  • 12 oz. organic porter beer; OR 1-1/2 cups Homemade Organic Beef Stock
  • 2 tsp. Real Salt
  • 2 tsp. organic red chili pepper powder
  • 1 tsp. organic ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp. freshly ground organic peppercorn blend
  • 1/2 tsp. dry organic yellow mustard
  • 2 Tbsp. organic Worcestershire sauce (Annie’s is great)
  • 2 Tbsp. organic jarred tomato paste
  • 1 Tbsp. organic apple cider vinegar; OR Homemade Organic Pickled Jalapeno brine (optional)

Here’s How I do it:

  1. Heat butter in a large stockpot over medium-high heat until warm and bubbly.
  2. Add onion and saute for about 1 minute; Stir in the jalapeno and garlic and saute for 30 seconds more.
  3. Lay the unwrapped chunk of ground beef on top of the onion mixture.
  4. Pour in the beer or stock, then add salt, red chili pepper powder, cumin, pepper, dry yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato paste.
  5. Break up the ground beef into chunks.
  6. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 1 hour.
  7. Season to taste with salt and pepper, if necessary, and add vinegar if the sauce needs a little zip.
  8. This makes approximately 1 quart of sauce.
  9. Enjoy!

Homemade Organic Jalapeno Pepper Jelly

Here’s What You’ll Need:

Here’s How I do it:

  1. Add the chopped bell and jalapeno peppers to a food processor; Process until finely chopped.
  2. Combine the pepper mixture with the apple cider vinegar, jalapeno vinegar, liquid pectin, and cane sugar; You can make this hotter by adding additional jalapenos or more jalapeno vinegar.
  3. Bring this mixture to a boil, stirring often, until it reaches 210° to 220° Fahrenheit; Take some of the jelly and put it on a cool plate to test and see if it’s the thickness you’d like.
  4. Pour into half-pint Mason jars leaving 1/4″ headspace.
  5. Process using the water-bath canning method.
  6. This recipe yields just about 3 half-pint jars of jelly.
  7. Enjoy!

Homemade Organic Medicinal Pickled Garlic

This recipe comes from Rosemary Gladstar’s book Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide.  For more information about this recipe, please check out Cupcake Rehab.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

  • A glass Mason jar with tight-fitting lid (I usually use a pint-and-a-half, but any size will do)
  • Enough peeled organic garlic cloves to fill the jar.
  • organic apple cider vinegar [Eden’s Organic is awesome]
  • raw local honey from real honeybees

Here’s How I do it:

  1. Fill the jar with garlic cloves.
  2. Pour enough apple cider vinegar over the cloves to totally submerge the garlic.
  3. Place in a warm but dark place for 3-4 weeks.
  4. After a few weeks, strain the liquid and set aside.
  5. Take half of the liquid with an equal amount of honey and add it to a small saucepan.
  6. Retain the extra vinegar for use in dressings, quick pickles and marinades.
  7. Heat the mixture over very low heat until fully dissolved and blended.
  8. Pour this back over the garlic and allow to sit for another 3 weeks in a cool dark place, like your pantry.
  9. You can eat a clove of the garlic whenever you wish, but for treating cold or flu, you should eat about 3-5 cloves a day.
  10. Enjoy!

Homemade Organic Garlic BBQ Sauce

I have adapted the original recipe from Seriouseats.com.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

Here’s How I do it:

  1. Combine all of the ingredients in a nonreactive saucepan.
  2. Slowly bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
  3. Reduce the heat to medium-low and gently simmer until dark, thick, and richly flavored, 10 to 15 minutes.
  4. Transfer the sauce to a clean glass jar and store in the refrigerator. It will keep for several months. (Though it never lasts that long in my household!)

Homemade Organic Big Daddy’s Carolina BBQ Sauce

I found the original recipe on About.com.

Here’s what you need:

Here’s how I do it:

  1. Mix all ingredients (except soy sauce and butter)
  2. Simmer on low for 30 minutes (be careful not to simmer too long!)
  3. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
  4. Enjoy!

Homemade Organic Beef Stock

There are many recipes for making beef broth out there.  Some people add vegetables to their stocks but since I make Homemade Organic Vegetable Stock, I generally don’t add any to my beef broths or stocks.  What I add that makes it so special is a beef kidney!  I swear this makes the stock so wonderful!  I do not season my stocks because I want to be able to do that when I make my dishes since each one requires a slightly different amount of salt and other seasonings.  I generally just add the beef broth or stock to a recipe and some vegetable stock as well.  To each their own, but this works for me.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

  • 1 cow kidney, optional (it makes the stock simply marvelous if you add one, though!)
  • 1-2 lbs. marrow bones (or joint bones, soup bones, or rib bones (it’s really frugal if you make BBQ Beef Ribs, then use the bones for this recipe!)
  • unchlorinated and unfluoridated water

Here’s How I do it:

  1. If you have longer bones, such as rib bones, chip the bones before you begin to cook them.  That way you’ll get more of the marrow in your stock.
  2. Put the bones into a stockpot and fill to 1″ above the bones with water.
  3. Boil the Cow bones and kidney then put on low heat to maintain a simmer.  Cook for 2 to 3 days.  (You may take it off of the heat to leave your house or to sleep at night.  It won’t hurt the stock at all to simply start it up the next morning or when you return from your errands.)
  4. Check your stockpot periodically and stir the marrow bits back into the simmering water.
  5. Once they have cooked, take the remaining marrow out of the bones and place on a plate to cool.
  6. Pour the liquid into glass containers.  I use Ball canning jars with plastic lids.  Place the beef broth into the refrigerator if you’ll use it within 5-7 days or place it into the freezer (Make sure you have left ample space for freezing!) if you won’t use it in that time frame.
  7. Enjoy!

Homemade Organic Sweet and Sour Chicken

This is one of the dishes that I was craving after changing my diet to exclude processed foods and synthetic chemicals.  I scoured the inter-webs but couldn’t find a suitable recipe.  I found this recipe in an old cookbook.  I have modified this recipe and made it my own and I really love it!

  • 4 Tbsp. home rendered schmaltz or organic pasture butter
  • 2 cups Homemade Organic Chicken Roast, cut into 1″ cubes
  • 4 cups Homemade Organic Chicken Broth or Homemade Organic Chicken Stock, divided
  • 2/3 cup organic apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
  • 1 whole organic bell pepper, cut into 1″ cubes
  • 1 whole organic onion, cut into 1″ cubes
  • 4 organic carrots, cut into 1″ slices
  • 1 -2 cups diced organic pineapple (optional — use less sugar when adding pineapple and its juices.)
  • 1 Tbsp. organic white sesame seeds
  • 1 Tbsp. organic black sesame seeds
  • 1/8 tsp. ground organic ginger
  • 1 cup organic brown rice
  • 1 tsp of Real Salt
  • 3 Tbsp. organic pasture butter

Here’s How I do it:

  1. Put 1 Tbsp. schmaltz into a saucepan and melt.
  2. Add the uncooked rice, 1 tsp. of salt and 2 cups of chicken broth or stock.
  3. Once it’s boiling, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.  Do NOT stir or open the lid while the rice is cooking.
  4. While the rice is simmering, cut the bell pepper and onion into 1″ cubes, then cut the carrots into slices.
  5. Heat a medium frying pan over medium-high heat, then add the remaining 3 Tbsp. of chicken fat.
  6. Once it’s melted, saute the carrots for 3 to 4 minutes.
  7. Adding the onion and bell pepper, then saute for 3 to 4 minutes more.
  8. Stir in 3 Tbsp. flour until well blended and smooth.
  9. Add the remaining 2 cups of chicken broth or stock to the saucepan.
  10. Add the sugar, vinegar, sesame seeds, pinch or two of salt, pineapple (if using) and chicken.  Allow to saute for a few minutes to get the flavor mixed with all of the ingredients.
  11. Once the sauce is thickened, the dish is ready to serve.
  12. Enjoy!