Field Roast Grain Meat

I've been a vegetarian for about 12 years now. Wow, that's a long time. Anyway, a friend and fellow veggie recently told us about Field Roast Grain Meat. Now that it is available at our local Co-op we decided to give it a try. Here is what the Smoked Apple Sage sausage looked like when we diagonally sliced and pan fried it in our beloved cast iron skillet:
I then added it to some penne pasta (Adi wanted semolina instead of whole wheat this time. I try to use ww but sometimes I have to please my princess). Some gardeners blend veggies, Earth Balance Buttery Spread and Herbamare finished off this super simple and VERY satisfying vegan meal.
Then Cam made this awesome black eyed pea and "sausage" stew. Wow, it was soooo good! It's nice to have a tofu alternative .Field Roast Grain Meat gets two thumbs up x 3 from the Driscoll household. Yum!

Brewing Beer?

So this activity didn't actually happen in the Driscoll home, it was a fun thing for Cam to participate in during our Thanksgiving trip out to Oregon where my brother Shane and his family live. Here's a photo of the beautiful nugget hops used for brewing. I don't know much about the hops but they smelled sweet and delicious and I learned that they grow well in Zone 5 which might be a fun experiment next year.

This is what Shane's garage brewing station looks like.
Hops are a cookin'
There are a lot of benefits to brewing your own beer: reducing waste by recycling bottles is just one of them. Here, Cam gladly shows off the beer tree where the pressure washed bottles are waiting to be refilled with a batch that Shane started previous to our arrival.
Finally, Cam had a lot of fun bottling the batch that was ready. I think he really enjoyed the whole process and realized how easy it really is. This could become a new homestead hobby, especially if we can grow the ingredients that go into it. Hmmmmm...