More from our Garden

Here are some up close photos of our garden. It's been so rainy here lately the weeds are having a hayday.  I love going out first thing in the morning to see what is new and what has changed. It seems like they grow so much overnight. Its really magical.

We still have pie pumpkins, cucumbers, and zucchini to plant. And we are waiting on 1000 red wiggler worms to arrive and take up residence in our compost pile.

When we transplanted our tomatoes, they really looked like they were on their way out. We didn't think they would make it. We scooped out a hole for the root ball and threw in a handful of peat moss and a handful of crushed eggshells ( farm fresh, not store bought) and they look great now. The egg shells give them a boost of calcium from the roots up and they really needed it.We did the same in our strawberry plants too.

All in all, we have 6 raised beds, 20 pots, an onion bed, and a garlic bed.

we planted 5 okras but only 3 remain

our carrot hill

sugar snap peas

we just transplanted 11 strawberry plants

bush green beans

tango, red romaine, and mesclun mix lettuces

Some Thoughts of Being Normal

We are reading Joel Salatin's book, "Folks, This Ain't Normal" and I have to say, it's darn near life changing. The idea that most of us have no idea, and don't care,  where our food comes from is startling, and up until a couple of weeks ago, it didn't bother me at all- I never even thought about it. We are so removed from the agrarian society we used to be. We can run to the store ( and have a myriad of stores to choose from) for just any old thing we want. Shipped in from who-knows-where twice a week or more. There really is no such thing as "seasonal produce" anymore. Whatever we want, whenever we want. As long as we have the money to buy it, its ours. Instant gratification.
One day we hope to live out in the country, but right now we live in town and on the other side of our fence is a small chain store. Every day there are big trucks backing up to deliver dairy products, shelf-stable processed foods, toilietries, etc. Sometimes twice a day. Where is it all coming from? Who is making it all? And when was it made?
The New York Times published an article called The Extraordinary Science of Junkfood that I read recently. Its long but worth the read if you are interested in how food manufacturers produce and market their products. Its also kind of sickening because ultimately, their "food" is really just manufactured tastes and scents, pieces of this and that and chemicals to make us want more, and a pretty package. Which is where I'm torn. Because some of it does taste really good. But I can tell you, I will never feed my kids lunchables again.
Partly because of Joel's ideas and partly because of a class we took at church about re-training our bodies to eat differently, the way God intended us to eat (fresh vegetables and fruit, meats, nuts, etc. Not the processed, manufactured foods we are used to eating) we've been really reevaluating how we come by the food we eat. We've been growing our seedlings and putting in our raised beds. We've been getting fresh farm eggs locally, and next week we are going to get some local raw milk. We eat lots of salad now but are trying to stick with organic non-irradiated fruits and veggies. The HH's brother and his wife are starting a new life as farmers and we hope to be able to support them by buying chickens and whatever other kinds of meat they raise. They are big fans of Joel Salatin too.
 I never thought I would be one to choose the organic stuff or search out butter from cows that weren't given the growth hormones but it feels good knowing that for us, this is the better choice. I can only say what's best for my family, and I like having this sort of a relationship with or knowledge about what I'm feeding them.
You might notice I haven't posted any bread-related recipes lately (except the birthday cake) and that's because we no longer eat bread. Which is crazy I know. I used to eat bread all the live long day. But in our class we learned about how our bodies react to grains and carbs and it was all very sciency so I won't bore you. But there won't be too many bread type recipes here anymore sad to say. But I look forward to posting more to do with the fresh foods. It's kind of a challenge sometimes to make things myself instead of buying them but its also fun and I know the more I can lessen our dependence on the supermarket food supply, the better off we will be.

Homemade Yellow Cake and Chocolate Frosting

Mmmmm. This is my favorite kind of cake. This week we celebrated my mom's birthday and I offered to make her whatever kind of cake she wanted, and she chose this kind. I love the kind in the box, but I didn't have any and I'm so glad I found this recipe because I will never make buy another one. The frosting is a little sweeter than the tub kind, it reminds me of the kind on doughnuts. Yum! I accidentally ate about 1/4th of a cup before I knew what was happening. The cake is a bit more dense but richer tasting than the box mix.

The Cake: ( Mix the following in a quart size bag and freeze up to 2 months, or leave out the butter and vanilla and store in your pantry.)

From: Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Note: the recipe calls for cake flour, which I never have on hand so I substituted 2 3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour and 3 tablespoons cornstarch for the three cups of flour called for in the recipe. It worked beautifully.

Ingredients

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 16 tablespoons butter (2 sticks), cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Process sugar, flours (or flour and cornstarch if making the substitution for the cake flour), milk powder, baking powder, and salt in a food processor for 15 seconds to combine. Add butter and vanilla and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal (you want this much finer than, say, a pie crust). Freeze the dry mixture in a zipper-lock bag for up to 2 months or use immediately.
2. To make the cake, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour your pan of choice (see the note above the recipe).
3. With an electric mixer, beat the prepared cake mix, 1 1/4 cups warm water and 2 large room-temperature eggs until the mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake pan(s) and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-27 minutes for two 9-inch layer cakes. See the note above the recipe for alternate cooking times with other baking pans. Cool the cake(s) in pan(s) for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Cool completely

The Frosting: Chocolate Buttercream Frosting from Food.com

6 tablespoons butter, softened

2 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1/3 cup milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Place butter in a bowl and beat until creamy.
2. Add sugar and cocoa, mixing well.
3. Stir in milk in portions, stirring each time.
4. Add vanilla.
5. Spread on cooled cake or other items needing frosting

I also added a bit of flour to help it stand up a little more- it was very soft and creamy. I probably could have let it cool in the fridge and gotten the same results.

Homemade Poptarts

For real.
My kids like pop tarts but I'm not a fan. I think they look and taste like cardboard, but hey,they have sprinkles, so they love them. But they can get pricey and there aren't many in the box and split between 3 kids is about one box per breakfast.
There are a few different recipes for homemade poptarts, without the ingredients I can't pronounce ( and with sprinkles!) floating around Pinterest, but I found this one on Smitten Kitchen and we tried it tonight. I ended up cooking ours for longer than the recipe says to- about 20-25 minutes. We did half cinnamon-sugar and half (homemade) strawberry jam and they we so good! We also made them mini just for fun. The kids ate a few for a snack and we are saving the rest for breakfast. Next time I will try drizzling them with icing.Yum!

Go here for the recipe ( it's long, but these are so easy and quick to make.) I bet you could even freeze some and toast them later.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce for Canning

I made this sauce this week and really surprised myself- usually my spaghetti sauce turns out either too sweet or too spicy. But this one is just right. And it looks so nice in jars all lined up on the shelf...

Ball's Blue Book Spaghetti Sauce (with some minor adjustments)

-makes 4 pints plus a little left over (I doubled this and made 4 quarts)

2c chopped onions
2c chopped green and yellow peppers (2c total)
1c chopped celery
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp oil
18oz tomato paste
24oz tomato sauce
1-28oz can whole tomatoes, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp basil
1 tsp salt
1\4 tsp pepper

Saute onions, peppers, celery, and garlic in oil until onions are tender. Add remaining ingredients, simmer 1 hour.
Remove bay leaves
To can, follow instructions for WaterBath Canning. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice to each pint jar. Remove air bubbles, wipe rims and process 45 minutes.

*I love to can and do it all the time,but I'm not a "professional". Please refer to the Ball's Blue Book of Canning for instructions and to answer any questions. Canning is a lot of fun, but its also pretty serious stuff so it's a good idea to know what you are doing before you do it!

Good grief. Is anyone else ready for Spring and warm weather and no more sickness? I sure am. I have more posts coming up soon and I am really excited to get back to blogging.

Our seedlings are growing and I can't wait to plant our raised beds and grow our own produce. So far we have a couple different kinds each of lettuce and spinach, a few varieties of tomatoes and some peppers. We are also going to do Amish Pie Pumpkins, potatoes, carrots, green beans, onions and garlic.

Why raised beds?  With raised beds you don't have to till the ground, there are less weeds and you have more control over where everything goes. You can plant things all over your yard instead of one big patch. Plus, we got some railroad ties from HH's brother and we don't have a tiller.

I'm also thinking of using the front flower bed as an herb garden.

And I want to plant lots of these:

Peppermint Stick Zinnias

credit

We get our seeds from Baker Creek- all heirloom, non-GMO.

We have virtually no idea what we are doing so this will be an interesting experiment. Our plan is to grow as much as we can, preserve what we don't eat fresh, and use some to barter for honey across the road, fresh eggs from friends, and who knows what else. The sky's the limit!
Have you ever bartered? Its not such a big thing here but a lot of cultures do it. I would like to do it- I think its a really interesting concept. Plus it would help save some money on groceries.

Speaking of which, I canned up some really great spaghetti sauce yesterday and I will post the recipe this weekend. See you then!

A New Month- Almost Over

Well, call me a statistic. The flu totally kicked our tails this year. Three weeks of jello, Netflix, and tylenol have really taken its toll on our daily routine. But now we are better and back to doing school, laundry and wearing clothes that aren't pajamas.

I can't believe that February is almost over already. Time flies when you are having fun sleeping through a fever. Well, even though its a late start for a short month, I've decided that this month's theme is ...

*Preparedness*

Doesn't that sound fun?

For the first post, we will talk about making a Family Emergency Binder. Basically its a binder for all your important information that you would take with you if you had to leave your home in an emergency. I'm sure there are other things you could call it, but thats what I call mine.

1. What kind of emergency are we talking about here? Well, we live in Missouri and we tend to get a lot of tornado watches and warnings in the springtime. And we don't have a basement, so in case of a tornado threat, we would have to leave the house and go to my in-laws in a hurry. Depending on your location other emergencies could include earthquakes, power outages where you would have to go stay someplace else, fires, floods, train derailment and subsequent evacuation, or any number of things.

2. What is in this Emergency Binder?

In ours, I have a page for every family member with a current individual photo ( for the kids I am also getting an older photo of each one with both parents in it). Each page includes ss# birthdate, hair and eye color, current height and weight, allergies, medications, parent contact info, alternative contact info,identifying moles/birthmarks,pediatrician info,school and work info,

 and I will be adding fingerprints also.

I also have pages for each of the following:

copies of drivers licenses, birth certificates, copies of passports, social security cards

info on doctors, dentists, pediatricians, etc

copies of most current utility bills, mortgage, etc

copy of statements from all bank accounts

current family photos

kids immunization records

copies of health insurance cards

a cd with our wedding photos

a cd of our family photos

a contact list of family and friends, and a special list of who to call to watch our kids if needed

a copy of all our adoption paperwork

car titles

photo documentation of important items around the house

instructions for turning off gas, etc

list of things to take with us if we have time

list of things to do to the house if we have time

some things you could also put in if they apply to you:

current credit card statements

pet info- vaccinations, photo, ver info, etc

lists of medications

rental agreements

copy of last paystub(if you get paper ones)

Basically, anything I would not want to have to rack my brain for in the middle of chaos and confusion is what I have in our binder. This way, I can grab it and go and have everything I need to know at my fingertips. Also, it would be helpful in proving ownership or residency in case of evacuation.

To order a birth certificate in Missouri go here

 Here is an excellent list for emergency binders with printables for child id kits