A Great Weekend With Family

The weekend before last (nothing like prompt blog posts), my mother and father-in-law and my sister-in-law came for a visit. They live about 8 hours away but never seem to mind a trip down to spend time with their grandkids.





My in-laws live near Milroy Maple Syrup farm. They brought us 3 gallons of maple syrup and we only paid $36 a gallon! I'm hoping the 3 gallons lasts us a whole year. They were also nice enough to make a second stop on their way down to bring me maple cream. For those who haven't tried it before, it's spreadable maple syrup. I toast homemade bread, top it with butter, and then a light layer of maple cream. It's heaven. Let's just say I'm hiding the jar of maple cream in the fridge so no one else can find it.

After opening a gallon of syrup, it's best to keep it fresh one of two ways (though I guess there could be more ways but these are the two that I know). The first way is to can it and the second way is to freeze it. I have the freezer space so I freeze the syrup. It keeps really well this way.

I made a big breakfast of local sausage, homemade peach and strawberry applesauce, local eggs, and of course pancakes so we could enjoy the fresh syrup.

My kiddos are lucky enough to be thoroughly spoiled by their grandparents and aunt. I'm not sure how the Easter Bunny can compete with the lovely gifts they brought.

Aunt Sue made this beautiful dress for Charlotte. It even has a matching purse!

Last Saturday's weather was amazing so we took advantage of it by getting some outside chores marked off of our to do list. We got out the shade sail that we usually put up each year around this time. Because we live in a neighborhood without any trees near the houses, the sun gets very intense in the summer. Our living room has a western exposure and gets very hot in the summer without the shade sail up.

It feels cooler already.

Jon tackled our back gate. It's in need of a paint job. He'll get to that in a few more months but for now, he needed to fix a few pickets and the support board.

He did a great job. Grammy soaks in the sun while holding nails for Jon.

I should know by now that when I just mention a project to my father-in-law hoping for a little advice that not only will I get great advice but he also will go ahead in completing the project in a way that exceeds my every expectation.

I was given these vinyl fence panels by a friend's neighbor who was replacing their fence and was going to throw them out. There was enough fencing to go around my back garden but I wasn't sure how to go about putting them up. I was going to settle for some twine and tomato stakes. I should have known better.

What I ended up with was a beautiful fence that will last for years. He was even able to use a hinge from our back gate so that I'll be able to get into my garden easily. I got very lucky when it came to inlaws.

Now I have to grow a garden worthy of the beautiful fence!

I put down a fluffy layer of new pine straw(needles) in the front flowerbeds.

**My picture uploader is making mad so I'll upload the picture of the finished fence in the morning**

The view of the back garden from under the shade sail. Jon got to cut the grass for the first time this spring. Cutting grass is one of the few household chores he enjoys doing.

It was such a nice day that we all ate dinner outside.

It was a great weekend.

Not The Way I Like To Spend My Evenings....

Last night it was just me and the kids because Jon left earlier in the day to go on a cruise with his high school band. I had the option to go but I'm not quite ready to spend a whole week away from my two, still young, kiddos. So, the kids got into bed and fell asleep. The house was quiet and peaceful except for the distant rumble of thunder and the rain on the roof. Before I headed off to bed I thought I'd check the weather for today. When I brought up my local weather we had a bright red Tornado Warning. Great.... Turns out that a nasty little storm cell was headed for us and there was one right behind that one.
I watched the news (which had broken into all regular programming to follow the storms) to see where the "cell that shows signs of rotation" was.
Our only interior room is the master bedroom closet. As the storm cell got closer to our area, I started picturing making a mad dash across the house to grab the sleeping children and put them in the closet.... by myself. Luckily I came up with a better idea. I decided to move the kids to my bed one by one so that we'd be close to the closet should we need to take cover. They luckily hardly woke up as I carried them to my bed.
I was so glad I had moved them when the meteorologist said there was a possible funnel cloud 2 miles away from our house. They don't seem the least bit concerned, do they?

Luckily though, everything was fine and we didn't even get hail (many towns in the area reported major hail). I was able to move the kids back to their beds after about an hour. The birds are back to chirping loudly outside this morning and all is well.




I wanted to leave you all with an inspirational picture this morning.

Are you inspired??

I've Been Featured On Sustainable Eats!

I've written a guest blog post on Sustainable Eats! Annette generously offered to have any of her readers write a guest post and I jumped at the chance. I've found her blog so inspiring while I've been exploring and learning about eating locally and cooking whole foods. Her Cheese Cracker recipe is amazing, right Mom?
Check out my blog post.

This Week In Food

Wow, I'm really slacking with the blog this week. We've had such wonderful weather that we've been spending a lot of time outside lately. I have a lot to catch up on. I'll start with a post full of food. I like to post the successful new recipes that I try so I can keep track of them. I tend to have a stack of printed out recipes with scribbles all over them with the changes I've made. Posting them keeps them much more organized and readable.


Homemade Ice Cream
adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe

8 egg yolks
2/3 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
3 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla

In a large sauce pan, whisk together all of the ingredients except for the vanilla. Stir constantly over medium heat (I switch to a wooden spoon after the sugar is dissolved). Cook until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the wooden spoon. Take the custard off of the heat and stir in the vanilla. Transfer mixture into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap (making sure the plastic wrap touches the top of the custard to avoid a skin forming) Refrigerate until the custard is cold. Pour it into your ice cream maker... simple as that.

I like to freeze ours in small storage containers so no one is tempted to eat the whole batch in one sitting. Though I know no one in this house (Jon) would do that.

Super Easy Peanutty Snack Mix (from the top of the Smuckers Peanut butter)

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cinnamon

4 cups Cheerios (I used 2 cups honey nut and 2 cups regular)

1 cup peanuts

1 cup mini pretzels (I didn't have any so I used another cup of plain cheerios)

Heat oven to 350* and line a baking sheet with foil.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine butter and peanut butter and microwave until the butter is fully melted. Stir in vanilla and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients. Pour the butter mixture on the cereal and mix well. Pour onto the baking pan and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let it cool and store in airtight containers.

**I also added raisins to this mix AFTER baking. This recipe can be really flexible. I think you could probably substitute any similar cereal for the cheerios. I bet Chex would work well. You could change out the peanuts for another nut... or add other dried fruits. I loved how the cereal stayed nice and crunchy even after 5 days.

"See my cheerio?"

Evan is a good cinnamon shaker.

I'm going to be making a double batch of this before we go on our next trip. It would be a perfect car munchy snack.




Oven Roasted Crispy Potatoes

This is more of a method instead of a recipe. I've roasted potatoes before but have never gotten them crispy. I finally have figured out how to oven roast them so the bottoms are nice and golden brown and crispy.

Potatoes (I like Russet for oven roasting)

Olive Oil

Lard

Salt (I used sea salt)

Pepper

Preheat oven to 450*. Cut up the potatoes in large chunks. Put them into a large casserole dish or on a baking sheet. Pour enough olive oil on the potatoes to coat them heavily. Put little bits of lard around in the pan so it'll melt when the pan goes in the oven. I put about a tablespoon total. The lard was the essential crisping ingredient. Sprinkle liberally with salt and as much pepper as you like. Toss the potatoes around so they're coated and bake for 45-60 minutes. (I stirred the potatoes about 10 minutes after I put them in the oven so that the melted lard would be evenly distributed)

I used this same method over the weekend for french fries but cutting the potatoes into spears and laying them in one layer on a baking sheet. YUM!





Mini Fruit Pies

I had leftover pie crust and decided to use it to make mini fruit pies using a muffin tray.

I used a large drinking cup to cut out circles from the pie crust.

I sprayed a muffin pan liberally with non-stick spray and then lined each one with a crust disk.

I still had a quart sized bag of frozen strawberries leftover from last summer so I tossed them with 2 Tbsp. of corn starch, 1/4 cup of sugar, a little cinnamon, a little salt, and a bit of vanilla. I baked them at 400* for about 40 minutes.

Before

After

The cornstarch left a bit of white powder on the tops of the pies but otherwise I was over the moon pleased with these. The juices gelled nicely so that the pies held together and were easy to get out of the pan. Between Jon and I, these only lasted 2 or 3 days. Very, very delicious.




Whole Wheat Banana Bread (adapted from King Arthur Flour recipe)

(I doubled the following recipe so I could freeze one loaf)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

3 very ripe bananas

3 Tbsp. peach jam (or any other slightly tart jam)

2 Tbsp. honey

2 large eggs

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt (because I use salted butter... if you use unsalted butter, use 1 tsp. of salt)

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

Preheat oven to 325* and grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

In a food processor, puree all wet ingredients (butter, sugar, honey, vanilla, jam, bananas, eggs) until smooth.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients well. Pour in wet ingredients and stir just until combined but DON'T OVERMIX!

Bake for 45 minutes, lay a piece of aluminum foil over the top of the pan to prevent over browning and the bake for 25 more minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes then turn it out onto a rack to cool completely.

*This banana bread is great on it's own but it's heavenly when you toast a slice and top it with plenty of butter.




Peach Pie

Before

After

No recipe to go with this one. I used the same recipe as my apple pie but I used a gallon sized bag full of frozen peaches from last summer. This pie had great flavor but because I left the peaches mostly frozen, the bottom crust didn't get quite done enough. It also leaked all over my oven because the peaches were so juicy. Next time I think I'll let the peaches thaw halfway, drain any extra liquid from them, and definitely put them on the bottom rack of the oven lined with a cook sheet to pick up any spills.

Her cousin, the apple pie behind her, was delicious just the way it was. Miss Apple Pie also didn't leak all over my oven. Not that I'm playing pie favorites....

Honey Wheat Rolls (from King Arthur flour)

I actually didn't change this recipe at all except to make the rolls larger so I could use them as hamburger buns.

These made delicious hamburger buns (they're topped with butter in case you were wondering what that was in the picture). I wanted a softer, potato bread style bun and this was it. I'll definitely be making these again as dinner rolls or hamburger buns.

Lentil Brown Rice Casserole

After reading a few recipes online for various lentil/brown rice dishes, I came up with this one. It was amazing. Jon even loved it and he's not a bean lover like I am. It was healthy, filling, and so inexpensive. It took me 5 minutes to get it ready for the oven. I'm going to be making this a lot more often.

Preheat the oven to 300* (yes, a low oven).

In a 9x13 pan, add the following:

5 cups of chicken stock (I used unsalted homemade stock.. skip the extra salt if you use salted stock)

1 1/2 cups of lentils

1 cup brown rice

1 onion, chopped

3 medium carrots, chopped

1 tsp of salt **see note with the stock.. you may need to reduce the salt**

pepper

Stir all of the ingredients together. Cover with foil. Bake for about 2 hours. You'll know it's done with the broth has been absorbed. Stir in a few tablespoons of butter before serving.

Ginger Snaps (adapted from this recipe)

This recipe makes a lot of cookies. I froze half of the cookies after I baked them.

2 sticks of butter, softened

1/2 cup lard, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup molasses

4 cups flour (I used 3 c. whole wheat pastry & 1 c. All purpose)

4 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

3 tsp. cinnamon

3 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375*.

Cream butter, lard, sugar, and molasses until fluffy. Add eggs one at at time and the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture a little at a time until full combined. Put the batter in the fridge to firm up for a few hours.

Roll the dough into balls about an inch around. Be sure to put the cookie balls about 1 1/2 " away from each other since they spread into discs. Bake for about 11 minutes. Cool on a rack.

The cookies on the left were baked for about 12 minutes and are crispy all the way through. The lighter cookies on the right were only baked for about 9 minutes. They were crispy on the edges but chewy in the center. Either way is perfectly delicious.

These have been a hit around here. They're spicy, a bit sweet, and wonderfully crisp.

Well, I'm hungry now... how about you?

Backyard Chickens... But Not My Backyard

We spent Thanksgiving at my sister's house and before we left, my mom took home some hatching eggs and an incubator to try her hand at hatching some chicks. We used to have chickens when I was a teenager and my mom and I have really missed them. I would love to have chickens in my backyard but unfortunately the city codes say I need to keep them 150 feet from all property lines. Well, I don't think my yard is 150 wide total! Luckily my mom has more room and neighbors that are further away. She is so generous and said that she considers these our chickens instead of just hers.

I spent a recent Sunday over at Mom and Mark's helping them work on the coop. Five chicks hatched successfully (out of 7 total eggs).

This rooster cracks me up! Look at that beard!

Mom was hoping this was a hen but after more research, she thinks she is a he. So she has 3 hens and 2 roosters. Her plan is to try to find 1 more hen locally and try to find a new home for 1 or both roosters.

I love this hen. It's hard to see her but she's a beautiful mix of brown and white feathers.

Looks like I'm working hard, doesn't it? I swear I did more then to "hold up" the already upright walls.

Mom and Mark designed the coop so it would be predator proof and really sturdy.

"What did you say?", Mia asked. These chickens are really Mia's. She spent endless hours watching them through the shower door where they spent their first couple months. Mom says that she herds them around the yard and is good about going to get a stray chicken that's wandered too far. She's a Jack Russell/Poodle mix but you'd swear she had herding dog genes.

Mom putting screws in to support the paneling that would make up the house part of the coop.

We tried sealing the paneling by spraying it with spray paint but the board was so absorbent that you couldn't see the color of the paint.

After I wrapped the door with chicken wire, Mom and Mark put it up with sturdy hinges.

... and put braces in the corners to keep it square.

Power tools... arg, arg, arg (trying to channel Tim Taylor from Home Improvement).

"Where are my chickens?"

"Have you seen them?"

We got a lot accomplished in one day. They've done a lot more work since then so I'll have to post new pictures the next time I have a chance to go over. The chickens will be nice and safe with this space to call home. They're going to have a nice nesting box and roosting area. Mom will let them out to forage and roam around when she's out in her garden. Shouldn't be long until they start laying!

I love the view from Mom's front yard with the lake/pond in the background.

Remember, Crazy-Bearded Rooster is watching.... I had to post his picture one more time. He cracks me up!