Homestead Happenings

It's officially Spring!  In Minnesota, we call this Mud Season.  This year's snowfall was far below average giving way to a mild, dry Spring.  When I say "dry" it's a relative term.  There's still mud.  But it's not deep mud.  It's not don't-slow-down-on-the-dirt-road-or-you'll-sink-to-your-axles mud.  It's still sloppy, but it has been worse.  Far, far worse.

Matt & Joey sawing up a little dry pole they found on the edge of the yard

Along with the mud comes the cleaning up of sticks that have blown loose in the winter and the season's first campfire.  And preparing the garden for the "last frost".  And ordering/starting seeds.  And this year, tapping maple trees.

Seeds, Glorious Seeds!

I ordered seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds this year.  I have never ordered seeds in the mail before.  Just gone to the fleet supply or Wal-Mart and picked up whatever looked fun.  This year, I did a bit of research and decided to go with heirloom varieties in the garden.  I already had some seed left from last year for peas, cucumbers and summer squash that happened to be heirloom varieties.  I purchased new varieties (for me anyway) of carrots, peppers, beans, tomatoes, and lettuce.  

One raised bed down, seven more to go.  Just add dirt.  And plants.

The other new thing in store for my garden this year is raised beds.  Tilling is really a hassle for us.  We don't have a reliable tiller, the weather has to be just right and we both have to be home to get the job done.  And it never fails that I manage to stir up some long extinct variety of weed seeds and single-handedly  bring them back to a thriving population.  So, I'm trying the raised bed method this year.  We have a pile of old pine boards leftover from when we ordered siding for the house a few years ago (This is plain untreated rough sawed pine).  The lumber is no longer in it's prime, but it will get the job done for now.  Natalie and I built the first one last weekend.  We have several more to go, but we've got a start.

Matt putting in the final tap.

Another First for our little homestead is the tapping of maple trees.  Matt and Natalie had been talking about it and he told her that his dad used to tap trees when he was a kid.  So, off to Grandpa's house they went for a hand drill and his homemade taps.  My job was to sort through the recycling and find enough empty milk jugs to put under the taps.  Once we had everything ready to go, they went out and got started.  The neighbors were coming over for the afternoon and soon enough, Matt had all five of the kids (our two plus the three neighbor girls) following him around like he had magic powers.  We have collected about three and a half gallons of sap in our first 24 hours.  I am saving it in my big stock pots in the shed until the weekend and we'll try cooking it down.  Frankly, I have no idea what I'm doing on this.  I'm just along for the ride.  But if the kids want to tap trees, then we'll follow the process to the finish.  We probably will get very little if any syrup, but the kids (and I) will learn another lesson in how to make something.  So, here goes nothing!  Wish us luck!  If you have any insight on this, please share in the comments section.

Random chicken shot.  They're happy to see bare ground too!

Happy Spring!

Winter Wrap-Up: Part Three

This is the last part of my little mini-series.  I'm so glad I can dream up random projects that I feel really urgently need to get done.  Otherwise I might lose my mind in the long dark winters.

This last project has actually been on my mind for a while.  I'm pretty sure everybody has at least one of those giveaway fleece throws with some company or another's logo on it.  We have one that is a really nice size for a picnic blanket and the kids like to curl up in it to watch TV at night.

The problem with these blankets is that they are magnetic.  I swear if there is a cat hair or piece of grass within a mile it will gravitate to these blankets.  So, I decided to cover it with woven cotton fabric.  Essentially, I used the original blanket as the stuffing for a small quilt.

I found some random fabrics in my stash.  About five yards worth.  All woven cotton.  I gave them a quick pre-wash and dry to eliminate any shrinkage.  Then I got out my scissors and started cutting.  I wanted to get this done quickly, so I cut big blocks.  For the front, I used 3 different patterns and cut them all into 1/4 yard blocks.  Approximately.  I do a lot of things by eyeballing.  So, I folded the fabric in half, cut on the fold, folded again, cut again.  Then I laid the pieces out over the original throw until I had enough pieces to cover it.

I sewed the front together in rows.  Each row has 3 pieces.  Two long and one short.  As it happened, I was about 3 inches short on the length.  So, I took some of the leftover orange fabric and pieced together a long strip to attach to the top.

For the back, I just cut two colors of cotton into big rectangles and did a nine patch pattern.  Pretty easy peasy.

Next, I sewed the front on to the fleece. 

Then attached the back by putting it wrong side out over the front of the blanket.  Once I got almost all the way around, I turned it right side out, closed up the seam and ran a simple top stitch around the edges.  Just to give it a little extra strength, I ran a line of stitches across the front about 1/3 and 2/3 of the way down the blanket.  I'll pretend it's my "quilting".

Now we have a nice little fluffy quilt with kitties on it.  The kids like that it's bright colored and cute, I like that it's not covered in cat hair.  Matt likes that the kids aren't stealing his blanket.  Everybody wins.

Now, on to Spring projects.  Just in time too because the weather is warming up.  Time to order seeds and get things going for the garden!

Oh and before I forget, I got featured on a blog that I dearly love called Little House Living!  Merissa has a new series called "Making the Most With What You Have".  I filled out her questionnaire a few months ago and she published my story last week!  I'm so excited!  Thank you Merissa for publishing my story!

Winter Wrap-Up: Part Two

The next thing I crossed off my list, finally (!) was to get all my recipes in one place.  I started a recipe binder about 13 or 14 years ago and it has been an ongoing process ever since.

My original binder was pretty simple. A one-inch binder with the cover that you can customize, each recipe on it's own page, a title page for each category.  Well, then I got more recipes.  Pretty soon they didn't all fit in a one-inch binder anymore.  So I got a bigger binder.  Then Pinterest was invented.  Now, my recipes don't fit in that binder anymore either.  Suddenly, I had recipes stuck to the fridge, inside the cabinet doors, in a file folder and stuffed inside the covers of the binder. So I started a second volume.

In case this sounds like a lot of work and you wonder why on earth I would do this, there are two reasons.  First off, I screw up every single thing I make off a standard recipe card.  I blame the tiny print and all the flipping back and forth.  Secondly.  I'm really OCD about organization.  I like to know where my stuff is at all times.

Here's my original binder.  

And my original dividers.  Not much dividing happening at a glance, but it was the best I could come up with at the time.  (Pretend there aren't tabs peeking out from behind.  I'll get to that in a minute.)

The new dividers. (I totally stole this idea from I Heart Organizing, an awesome blog for compulsive organizers like myself.) I kept the old ones too because I still like them.  This gives me an at-a-glance way to head to the right section of the book.  And these dividers have these neat pockets in them for my loose paper recipes.  

Volume Two.  I had lots more recipes for goodies than I thought.  Clearly, there are no diabetics in my house and we are not on any sort of low carb or paleo diet.   Give me Bread!  Lots of Bread! 

 This is how I set up the second volume.

Some of my favorite pages. Just to give you an idea of what the inside of the books look like.

Natalie likes to make pages now too.  

She brings her own stickers and ideas to the table and creates away!  This is one of her pages.

 I mentioned the cool pockets in these tabbed dividers earlier.  I like these because I have lots of recipes cut out from magazines or printed off of blogs.  I don't automatically put all of them permanently in the book.  I make them for the family.  Then I ask if it's a make again meal or a not so good meal.  If it gets a make again rating, then I make it it's own little scrapbook page in my book.  If not, then I toss it and pretend it never happened.  

The tabbed dividers are made by Avery and I got mine at Wal-Mart.  The pages inside the book are all inside regular old clear plastic page protectors of various brands.  

Winter Wrap-Up: Part One

Over the past several weeks, I have been working on getting indoor things done.  I really wanted to get some things off my to-do list before Spring.  So, in my rare moments of spare time, I've tried a couple new recipes, got some sewing done and finally got a handle on my ridiculous recipe collection.  This would be a crazy long single blog post, so I'll write it in a couple of posts.  

The first thing I checked off my list was using up the half-filled jar of   Salted Caramel Pear Butter that was in my fridge.  Pear butter was not something that had been on my must-try list of things to can.  But, my neighbors asked for help with several pounds of pears they had purchased from a school fundraiser.  It was a little late in the life span of fresh fruit to save many of the pears to can as halves or slices.  We saved what we could, but the ones that were just too mushy were turned into this heavenly jam.   I found the recipe on Pinterest we had the stuff, so we went for it. We were pretty impressed with ourselves on this.  Nothing went to waste, even though the fruit was really REALLY ripe. 

We used pint jars to can the pear butter because that's what we had handy.  Hence, we wound up with one jar that wasn't full and needed to be used right away.  So, back to good old Pinterest for Pear Butter Cinnamon rolls.  I found a handful of recipes that were all slightly different, so I just used them as a guideline and did my own thing.  They were large and sweet and lovely.

Here's the recipe for my version of 
Salted Caramel Pear Butter Cinnamon Rolls. 
(Say that five times fast!)

Rolls:

2 loaves frozen bread dough 

1 cup Salted Caramel Pear Butter (link to the recipe above)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped canned pears

A good shake of cinnamon

2 Tbsp. raw sugar (or plain white sugar)

1/2 tsp. corn starch

Frosting:

Mix canned vanilla frosting with a block of cream cheese, a splash of milk and powdered sugar to taste.  (this was sort of a pinch hit frosting I made for the last batch of cinnamon rolls I made.  It makes a LOT, so I froze the extra and used it on these rolls.  It was perfect.)

The rolls are pretty straight forward.  

Thaw the dough overnight in a greased pan with a dish towel over it on the counter or some draft free place (like the microwave). 

Once your dough is thawed and had a chance to rise, punch it down and roll it out into a big rectangle. 

Fill the dough by  slathering it with your pear butter.  Sprinkle on the brown sugar (and if you're not frantically trying to do 17 other things at the same time, you would also add in the cinnamon and corn starch at this point) and then the chopped pears.  

Roll up dough and slice.  I usually cut my slices about an inch or so thick.  If you want monster cinnamon rolls like you get at a restaurant, cut the slices thicker.  This particular batch of rolls leaned toward the "thicker".  

Set the rolls in a greased cake pan.  I used a 10 x 15 pan, but if you only have smaller pans, just use two.  This is probably common knowledge, but I try to put the outside edges of my rolls (the flappy seam part that never fully sticks for me) facing in toward the other rolls.  This way it can't escape and come undone.

Cover with a towel again, set back in a draft free place and let them rise for about another hour.  They should just about double in size.  

*If you should get to this stage and realize that you left the cinnamon out of your cinnamon rolls, then mix the cinnamon/raw sugar/corn starch together and sprinkle over the top.  It'll be fine.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, depending on how thick your rolls are.

Let them cool almost completely, then glob on the frosting.  I've never ever had a cinnamon roll that I thought had too much frosting on it, so let 'er rip.

Plan to have a pot of coffee and or some cold milk to serve with these guys.  

This recipe is pretty free-form in that I was going a zillion places at once when I made them and wasn't very focused. Frankly, I'm impressed that I even remembered to take any pictures of the process.  I forgot the dough in my microwave for a few extra hours in the morning and it looked scary at first.  But it was OK.  I put the covered dough in the fridge until I got home that night.  Canned pears are really wet.  So I added a bit of corn starch so my rolls wouldn't be slimy.  It also helps thicken up that yummy caramel ooze.  I forgot to put the cinnamon inside the rolls.  So I sprinkled it on top instead, thinking that if I mixed it with a bit of sugar it would melt down into the rolls.  It sort of did, but what happened was even more glorious.  It mixed with the frosting.  Oh. My. Stars.  Best kitchen mistake I ever made.  I'm not always this clumsy in the kitchen, but when I am, I have to tell about it because it's just too funny not to share.  Besides, I did get cinnamon rolls out of the deal and cinnamon rolls are always worth sharing.

A Quick "Jam Session"

So, I've had this jar of chokecherry juice in my freezer since August.  I've been meaning to make it into jam/jelly.  I finally did it today.  Possibly my best chokecherry creation to date.

This is not a true, pure straight up chokecherry jam.  I also had a handful of frozen strawberries leftover from some Christmas Jam I made, at you guessed it, Christmas.

I thought they sounded like a good combo, so I thawed them out and put them in with the chokecherries.  But then I ran into my classic jam dilemma.  Just too much for a four jar batch and not quite enough for a six jar batch.  (I use the Ball brand pectin with the flex-batch recipe on it)  I can't just pour out that extra half cup of precious chokecherry/strawberry mix.  Nope that would be wrong.  Immoral.  Possibly illegal.  So I think for a minute.  I dig around in the freezer.  Then, I find it.  A bag of frozen raspberries.  I add another 3/4 of a cup or so, enough to that my measurement comes up to that magic 4-cup line on the measuring pitcher.  The results are just plain wonderful.  

Here's the "recipe" for my clean out the freezer jam.  I think I'll call it Cherry Berry Jam. That sounds good.

Cherry Berry Jam

makes 6 half pint jars full

2 1/2 cups chokecherry juice

1 1/2 cup total strawberries and raspberries, crushed.

1 cup water

9 teaspoons lemon juice

4 1/2 tablespoons low sugar pectin (I use Ball brand)

1 1/2 cups sugar

Mix everything except the sugar together in a big pot.  A Dutch oven sized pot will do nicely.  

Bring to a rolling boil.

Add sugar all at once.

Bring back to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute.

Ladle into hot jars.  Adjust two-piece caps.

Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Enjoy :)

A New Year Already?

It's 2015.  What?  Wait a sec.  It was January 2014 about 20 minutes ago.  Crazy.

So, yeah, the year flew by.  I really didn't intend to take a break from blogging.  It just sorta happens sometimes.  

Since my last post:

Natalie turned 8.

My girl is growing up!

We made our annual trip to our neighborhood pumpkin patch.

I think I have a picture like this of the kids
from every year of their lives.

Natalie took a picture of us in the corn maze
to mark our 15 year wedding anniversary.

Matt went deer hunting. A lot.  To no avail.  For the first time in many years, we do not have fresh venison in our freezer. Joey tried out deer hunting this year too.  He even helped his uncle Danny haul his deer our of the woods.  It was a long walk for a little guy.

Joey headed out to go hunting,
pointing out deer tracks in the yard.

I started a second part time job as a substitute para for the school district.  I signed up for multiple districts, but have been busier than expected just with the schools right here in town.  I love it.

We hosted Thanksgiving.  My brother and nephew came.  Matt's parents came.  We had a huge turkey.  The whole deal.  It was yummy and fun and relaxing all at the same time.

The kids and I went for our annual Bon Bon day with Auntie Iris.  We made a bunch of different candy which was heartily sampled.

We butchered some roosters.  We wound up with 9 of the 10 chickens we hatched this spring being roosters.  That's way too many for a flock our size.  One went home to the neighbor's coop.  Six more went in our freezer.

We did lots of artsy projects and crafts for various Christmas gifts.  

Auntie Iris's tomato cage tree

Cookie decorating

We spent lots of time with family over Christmas.  Christmas Eve with Matt's family, Christmas Day with mine.  It was calm and relaxing.  Mostly.

The kids watching How to Train Your Dragon 2
on Christmas morning.

Joey gave Natalie a pink tip-up for Christmas.  They got to test it out on the day after Christmas when they went fishing.  She brought home a nice sized pike.  We ate it for supper that night and it was delicious.

Natalie's nice pike.  Caught at an undisclosed location
on a tip-up with shiner minnow bait.

Today the kids went back to school.  It is bitterly cold.  They weren't thrilled.  At all.  When I stopped by Joey's class after lunch to drop off his snack, the room was full of glassy eyed five year-olds.  I had a rare day off today.  Got some errands run.  Did some organizing of my recipes (an ongoing project for the past decade at least) and canned a quick batch of cranberry sauce.  

I don't do much in the way of New Year's resolutions, but if I had to say what my goals are for this year, they would be to blog more and spend more time in my garden.  We'll see how this pans out.

Happy 2015!

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

This morning I finally had time to get around to the basket of little tomatoes I got from my father in law's garden.  There wasn't enough to haul out the canner and make sauce.  I had just a little over a pound to work with.  These are Dennis's own variety of tomatoes that he calls a Long Cherry.  They are bigger than a cherry but smaller than a plum and obviously oblong in shape.  They are nice and fleshy, very little seed goo so they are great for cooking.  Perfect for this particular application.

It's pretty straight forward.  I've found a few recipes for this on Pinterest.  Because my tomatoes don't really fit the criteria of either cherry or plum and they're somewhere in between, I decided to use the recipes as a guideline and not a hard and fast rule. The sites I got the recipes from are oven roasted cherry tomatoes @ Blissfully Content Blog and oven roasted Roma tomatoes @ Food in Jars Blog.

Basically, all you do is wash off any dirt and cut off any shriveled or mushy parts (assuming that you're like me and have had your tomatoes sitting for a bit to finish ripening and then forgot about them.  Otherwise you can skip the whole cutting off the icky parts step).  Then slice them in half the long way.  Arrange in a single layer on a parchment lined rimmed cookie sheet.  Give a generous drizzle of oil and sprinkle of salt.  Most recipes call for olive oil.  I use sunflower oil because it's what I have on hand.  I happened to have a snazzy Himalayan pink salt grinder from Costco, so I used that.  Any coarse salt works.

Put them in the oven at 250 degrees for about 3-4 hours until they have reduced to about 1/3 their original size.  Here's where I'm going out on my own.  Recipes for plum tomatoes say 200 degrees for 10-12 hours.  Cherry tomatoes say 300 degrees for 2 hours.  I'm going to split the difference.  

Let them cool completely then pop the whole pan in the freezer to flash freeze.  Once they're frozen, transfer them to a Ziploc bag and store in the freezer. (The last time I did these, I put some of them in a jar of olive oil in my fridge as the recipe said.  They molded.  I was bummed.  That pint jar had a lot of tomatoes and a lot of good quality -read: expensive- olive oil in it.  I'll stick to freezing them.)

Pull out a few and give them a rough chop and add them to any dish that can benefit from a nice shot of concentrated tomato flavor. I like to toss a few of them in with my carrot/celery/onion at the beginning of making a stew and let them melt in with the other veggies.  If you're a fancy hors d'oeuvres type, you can put them on a slice of baguette with a smear of goat cheese.

Enjoy!

Happy Monday Everyone :)