A Day in the Kitchen

Oh what a wonderful day it was.  The kids went off to their dad's for the weekend, so I enjoyed the morning in the kitchen.  Lately I've been making Artisan Bread, but today I decided to get adventurous and tackle making my own sandwich bread.  And boy-howdy, am I glad I did!

One of my favorite blogs to follow is Living and Gardening in the Ozarks .  The author inspired me and I hope to one day be as self sufficient as this wonderful lady is. 

Not too long ago, she posted her favorite bread recipe. I've been wanting to make it for quite some time. Well today I finally did it!  Here are the results:

It took everything in me not to try and slice into them immediately. The house smelled heavenly.  When I finally did cut into a loaf, it was beautiful, and the flavor was incredible.  When the kids got home, they gave it a taste test and decided immediately that they didn't want store bought bread ever again.  I'm going to have to agree with them.

Once the bread was finished, I decided to use the overripe pineapple someone had given me and make a pineapple upside-down cake, and then decided to make fried chicken for dinner - with mashed potatoes, gravy of course, plus some glazed carrots.  Now we are all fat and sassy, and ready to curl up in bed to listen to a show on The Preparedness Radio Network .  There are some really great homesteader themed shows on there.  I recommend it to any of you out there looking to become more self sufficient.  Everything from food preperation/storage, to wilderness survivial, to herbal medicine.... and the list goes on.  Really great shows.

Well, now I'm just rambling.  I think it's time to turn in for the night. Thanks for stopping by!



Errand day and homeade laundry soap

It had been a busy day full of errands, and planning for opening my grooming salon.  The amount of work ahead of me is overwhelming at times, but simple projects help me keep it all in perspective-

Today I finally got around to making another batch of laundry soap.  I don't know why I always put it off, considering it takes me all of 15 minutes to make it. Yes, I know it takes about the same amount of time to buy it in the store, but after making my own, I'm not sure I'll ever go back to store bought - not to mention the cost difference alone is worth taking the time.  This is how I make mine:

Ingredients:

1 cup washing soda

1/2 cup borax

1 bar pure soap (not beauty bar), grated

3 gallons hot water

1. First bring some water to a boil and dissolve grated soap in it. 

2. While it's melting, fill your container with 3 gallons hot water (from the tap is fine)

3. Add dissolved soap to container of hot water

4. Add borax and washing soda to mixture and mix well. If  you dont have washing soda, you can put baking soda in a glass dish and bake at a low temp for a couple hours, this changes the chemical structure of the soda, making it washing soda by drawing out moisure.

5. Seal container with lid and set in a warm, still place for 24 hours.

A half cup per load should be sufficient to get your clothes clean.  Depending on your water, more or less may be required.  

I hope to get around to making a batch of bar soap this week. I'll try and post pictures of the process, since it will be my first attempt at hot process soap making.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Wishing Everyone a Merry Christmas

It has been a long time since I've truly enjoyed Christmas, for reasons I won't go into at this time.  I always breathe a sigh of relief the day AFTER, because life returns to normal. But this year has reminded me why I used to love it.  Last night I had a small get together with friends (which felt like a huge get together due to the size of my humble home). We spent the evening snacking on treats that I spent the day whipping up, playing games, and laughing until we cried.  The sparkling christmas lights added to the intimate ambience, and we spent the evening thankful for each others company. It's funny, but when you bring together a bunch a people who dread christmas as much as you do and just have some fun, somehow a bit of the holiday spirit creeps back in. At least it did for me.  So much so that I forgot to take pictures. I was too busy having a wonderful time with my dearest friends, and the kids.

The kids went to their father's house last night, so the house is quiet this morning. A bit more cooking and off to Mom's to spend the day.  But before I do, I thought I'd share my favorite recipe for friendly get together's (It's on the back of the Knorr's Vegetable Soup Mix package):

Knorr's Spinach Dip

1 package Knorr's Vegetable Soup Mix
10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1 cup mayo

16 oz. container sour cream

1 small can water chestnuts, diced

3 scallions

Mix all ingredients and chill to let flavors meld.  I like to bake a sourdough boule until crispy, cut off the top and hollow it out, reserving the cubes of bread for dipping, and fill the hollow boule with the dip.  Of course its also a great dip for crackers and veggies.  And it's as simple as that.

Wishing everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A Day for Cooking

Today was a cold, gray day. A perfect kind of day to spend in the kitchen.

The day started at 5:30 this morning, when I got the hankering to make homeade buttermilk biscuits from Greg's Southern Biscuit recipe  found at allrecipes.com.  They didn't rise like I would have liked, but the flavor was incredible. I think I rolled them out a little thin, which probably explains the lack of leavening.  I made a batch of homeade sausage gravy to go with them.

Tanner decided they were so good they made his eyes cross. 

This afternoon I decided to whip up a pot of split pea soup. Let me say that as wonderful as this soup tastes, it is NOT pretty.  But paired with my Hawaiian Sandwich, it is incredible.  

Here is my recipe:

Amy's Split Pea Soup

2 1/2 cups split peas

8 cups water (or broth)

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup diced onion

1 cup diced ham

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a soup pot, bring to a low boil, then decrease heat and cover, stirring occasionally until peas are cooked completely.  

Hawaiian Sandwich

1 Hawaiian Sandwich roll, or 2 slices Hawaiian bread

2 slices havarti cheese

2 slices ham

1 pineapple ring

Arrange ham, cheese, and pineapple ring on bread. Butter outside surfaces of bread and grill in panini press or skillet until cheese is melted and bread is toasty.

We enjoyed a lovely cold weather meal, and then my daughter and her friend decided they wanted to get in the act and bake some chocolate peanut butter chip cookies.  I think there was more goofing going on than there was cooking but they sure had a fabulous time.  

The highlight of my day occured when I received my mail for the day.  Happily tucked into the box were the books that I've been waiting for for about 2 weeks.

The first, More Straw Bale Building: A Complete Guide to Designing and Building with Straw has me daydreaming about building my home... again.   The second is How to Build Small Barns and Outbuildings.  I love to sit with my books on these nippy winter evenings. Can't wait to curl up with these tonight. In fact, I think I'll go and do that now!

Homestead Stuffing

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  We had a wonderful day with friends, old and new.  And for today's meal, we brought two dishes. One inspired the title of today's blog:

I was late getting started making our traditional Sourdough Stuffing last night. Normally it is made using our heirloom cast iron meat grinder.  As fate would have it, we forgot to bring it home from Mom's house last year, which I'd forgotten until I started looking for it. So I decided to use my food processor.... but we couldn't find a vital piece of the equipment.  In the end, I made do with what I had on hand: A knife, a cutting board, and my hands - the way it was done for  centuries.

May I say I liked it better than any other year in history.  From now on I will be making it the same way, and will always call it Homestead stuffing! lol

Homestead Stuffing
3 Sourdough Boules
2 cups milk
2 bunches celery
2 onions
2 eggs
1 stick butter
poultry seasoning to taste

Let bread stale either in room air or in the oven. Put milk in a pan and add bread, allowing it to soak up the milk.  Squeeze milk out of the bread, and tear into small pieces.  Chop celery and onion finely. Combine bread pieces, celery, and onion and mix well. Beat eggs and stir into bread mixture. Melt butter in saucepan and pour over bread mixture. Mix well. Add Poultry seasoning to taste.  Bake in 350 degree oven, covered, for 1 hour.  Uncover and bake until top is crusty.

And of course, don't forget the most important ingredient for a happy Thanksgiving: Remembering to give thanks. Here are just a few of the people I am thankful for in my life:

 My daughter and her best friend

My son

And my dear friend (with his daughter)

Autumn is in full swing again, and I'm loving the color that always abounds.

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of my car accident.  It seems like every day since that day has continued to revolve around that crazy 15 seconds.  Tomorrow will again be another crazy day. Ironically it will also bring an ironic closure to the entire experience.  I won't go into detail, but to say that it will all be over soon.

Unfortunately, I have been so preoccupied by those events that I had forgotten what my ultimate life goals are- To become self sufficient and gloriously happy in the simplicity of my life.  As I mentioned before, I have continued to make me own laundry soap this year. I have also continued to make my own tootpaste.  My daughter isn't easily impressed, but my son loves the stuff and won't use the store bought anymore.  

For those interested, here is my recipe for homeade toothpaste

3/8 cup baking soda

1/8 cup salt

1/8 cup glycerin

enough water to reach your desired consistancy

peppermint or other essential oil to taste (cinnamon, clove, vanilla, or whatever you enjoy)

Mix all ingredients together and pour or spoon into the container of your choice. This recipe fits perfectly into a 3 oz travel container like the pink one in the picture.