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.

A change of direction

My journey to change the way I live my life has taken me in a new direction. I have decided to make a dramatic change in careers.  After 17 years as a nurse, I have begun apprenticing as a dog groomer in my mothers shop. This is the main reason I haven't posted in such a long time.  Between working as a nurse full time (weekend double shifts), and grooming dogs 4 days a week during the week, I have been pretty busy.

 Today, as I sat here at the computer, it occurred to me that this year has just flown away from me.  Last time I posted it was cold and snowy.  Since then we had a turbulent spring, a record breaking heatwave, and unprecedented earthquakes. My weren't those exciting.  No, really!  Having grown up in California, I've actually missed the quakes I'd grown accustomed to.  Now my children have experienced them too!  My son just stood there with a silly smile on his face, and my daughter was completely unimpressed.  She kills me.

I began apprenticing in Mom's grooming shop in July.  It has been alot of fun so far.  

There are days when I wonder if I've just lost my mind. The thought of being self employed is more than a little scary; Especially the idea of not having a guaranteed paycheck. But the pro's are pretty great too, and I think they far outweight the cons. I'm ready to be my own boss!

As for self-sufficiency, I'm am working at that in baby steps.  I am happy to say I haven't bought laundry soap in a year. By making it at home I would estimate than I've saved about $300 this year.  Since my garden never made it into the yard last year, I hope to spend this winter preparing some raised beds, learning to grow mushrooms, and growing fresh herbs in pots indoors.  And of course, research, research, research!