Dreaming of a simple way

A Simple Woman's Daybook

For Today

Monday June 15, 2009

Please stop by to visit Peggy  to peek into the lives of other "Simple Women," and to read the guidelines for creating your own Daybook

A beautiful "bouquet" of gifts from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine!

I wanted to share this exciting news from my schoolhouse to yours. If you have always wanted to subscribe to this wonderful magazine, or if it's getting close to renewal time, this is for you!  In fact, this is also a great time to add on two years to your current subscription.

The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine has a beautiful bouquet of gifts for the first 5,000 people who subscribe or renew and it's going on now!

These 19 gifts are from popular companies like Sears®, Franklin Springs Family Media and more (over $400 value) sent straight to you, no strings attached. (There's even a cheesecake mix!) Not to mention, you'll have two years of the greatest homeschooling magazine for only $39 (U.S. only). Also, 50 random subscribers are going to win a free week membership to a participating Curves®! 

If you are concerned about the number of bouquets that are left, please email or call the publisher and she will give you that information before you buy. This offer is completely risk free. You won't want to miss it! Click HERE to take advantage of this offer and enjoy your 19 FREE gifts from TOS!

Updates from the Homestead

This last week the weather has been cooler and cloudy.. with a little sun.  But despite that the garden seems to be thriving quite well.  There were enough sunny afternoons that allowed for us to get some weeding, watering and mulching done.  I have found that the stirrup hoe is my best friend!     My mother in law was the one to show me her stirrup hoe several years ago and I went out and bought one (I think I bought it at Home Depot).  It makes quick and efficient work of hoeing between the garden rows.  If you are not familiar with them you can see a pic of one here: http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1334167&CAWELAID=109366885  and read a little more about them here: http://aces.nmsu.edu/CES/yard/2005/010105.html   Here you can see Isaac using it.. 

And in the above picture you can my little plants have all come up.  The corn and green beans are doing great.  Speaking of hoes..  I accidentally hoed up half of a little section of flowers..    I was so frustrated with myself.  I had been hoeing up the weeds between the tomato plants and there was one section between the tomatoes I had planted flowers and I guess I was not thinking..  I started hoeing it!!  I will try and replant some flowers there but it might be too late..  but I will try.   

Last week I also spent one whole day in town.  I took the kids (Leanne, Sierra and Isaac) and we were gone for 7 hours, which is not unusual.  I try to limit my trips into town and when I do go I typically have a lot to take care. Sierra had her bangs cut (I think the lady could have taken off a bit more), the dentist, grocery shopping at two different stores, Walmart, Game Stop, and of course a trip to Starbucks was squeezed in there.  The kids thought it would be fun to take pics of our day along the way.  They took several but got tired of picture taking about half way through the trip..  but here are a few of us that were captured …   

Leaving (The ice chest holds everything cold for the long drive back home)

Sierra getting her bangs cut..

Isaac showing off his Strawberry Cream Frappuccino

The dentist (teeth cleaning for me and Leanne)

Smile mom…

Bagging groceries…

And the day continued…  but without the pics..    Next time they say they want to do this again.. and make a movie.. LOL..  Kids.. they are so funny!!   

We came home and I made chicken enchiladas for dinner and while they cooked we watered the garden.  I was definitely ready to put my feet up and relax by evening time.   

Hubby is back to work now (he had an extra day off this last week which was so nice) and it is back to the regular routine for us..  Today the plan is to do a quick run through the daily chores, clean out the fridge and wipe down the shelves, do a little laundry, and water the garden if it does not rain (and right now looking outside at the dark cloudy skies it looks like we may not have to water today).  I am making navy bean soup with the leftover ham bone I saved from last week, a salad and maybe some dinner rolls or bread sticks.   

That is all from the homestead..  hope you all have a great weekend!! 

An Afternoon in the Kitchen

Yesterday I had a wonderfully unscheduled afternoon and decided to spend that time in the kitchen.  It was productive and enjoyable as well!   

I started off by making 6 loaves of bread.  We were completely out of bread and were in crisis mode! LOL.. 

Then while the bread was rising and baking I started working on making a gallon jar of sauerkraut.  I used one green cabbage and half of a red cabbage and 2 onions.  I thought the addition of red cabbage sure made the kraut look pretty. 

Then while the kraut sat in the bowl with the salt and whey I began making a gallon of salsa.  I love utilizing all these fresh veggies and knowing that fermenting means they will last longer and have more vitamin content than if I did not ferment them.  The salsa looked great too.  Here is a pic of both….

For dinner we were going to grill hamburgers and hot dogs.  So after the bread, salsa, and kraut were done I made up a batch of my oat dinner rolls and turned them into 10 hamburger buns and 12 hot dog buns.

Finally Leanne made shortcake, Sierra sliced up the berries and we had strawberry shortcake for our dessert…

Working in the kitchen and making good quality food for my family is very rewarding..  now today.. it is on to laundry and chores!!   

Make Your Own Salad Dressings

I use to buy all my salad dressing from the grocery store. I thought that was how everyone did it. I felt like making salad dressing myself would just be one more kitchen job to do and I wanted the convenience of store bought dressing… Then I became health conscious and started reading labels and well, most of the dressings I found, were, well, yuck as far as ingredients go. Sugar, bad oils, hydrogenated oils, MSG, fillers, thickeners, etc.. When I try and find better quality dressings (which I can find at health food stores and through Azure) I find them to be very expensive, especially considering the rate at which we consume salad in this house (we eat fresh green salad every day).

Sometimes our perception that something is going to be hard or time consuming is just that, a perception. I eventually began making my own salad dressings and found that not only are they a frugal and healthy, they don’t take any time at all to put together. Last night I made a batch of Oriental Salad Dressing and timed myself.. it took less than 5 minutes for me to mix up the recipe and it yielded about 2 cups of dressing. Our favorite dressing of all time is still Ranch. But we also make Italian and a few others when we are in the mood for variety.

Here are my favorite recipes:

Ranch Salad Dressing
Bleu Cheese Salad Dressing
Catalina Salad Dressing
Italian Salad Dressing
Oriental Salad Dressing

Breakfast and Lunch Menu Planning

Just curious. I have big menus for all my meals and I get very tired of cooking all the day long... seems all that I do at times! Just curious what your method for those other meals is... 

Well I am pretty lazy when it comes to breakfast!  And.. my kids are older now and have different schedules so breakfast around here is a pretty simple affair. I don't plan these meals like I do dinners. 

During the summer I make granola.  I quadruple the recipe and it fills up 4 gallon size jars.  My 4 teenagers and 1 one pre-teen go through this in about 4 to 6 weeks.  I also have kefir always in the fridge that is used to make smoothies.  I use kefir, fruit, and a little maple syrup to sweeten. My older girls sometimes just like to have a piece of peanut butter toast and a smoothie or a piece of fruit.  My younger ones will eat the granola and fruit, and a smoothie.  Once or twice a week either I or one of my daughters will whip up a batch of scrambled eggs and bacon or maybe some pancakes.   Occasionally we will make a coffee cake or muffins.  In the winter we eat lots of oatmeal (instead of the granola) and the rest of the menu stays about the same.   

For lunch, the main rule is..  leftovers..  if there is anything left from last nights dinner it needs to be eaten up first.  And most of the time there is, in fact often I will make a little extra of whatever it is we are having for dinner (soup, chili, spaghetti, etc) so I will have some for lunch the next day.   

Other lunch time food:

Whole wheat tortillas used to make wraps
Sandwiches: egg salad, tuna salad, ham salad, pb&j, etc..
Hot dogs (yes I am guilty of buying these unhealthy things now and again..  )
Nachos (tortilla chips topped with cheese and served with homemade salsa)
Homemade soups: Chili bean soup (meatless), taco soup (meatless), corn chowder, vegetable soup, tomato soup.  Soups can also be frozen so if you make one batch it can last for a few lunches.  

I also add fruit to the lunch meals..   

I guess I have always been of the mindset with breakfast and lunch that “variety is NOT the spice of life”..  haa.. haa..  I think simple, simple so I can get on with my day.  My time spent in the kitchen is usually focused on bread baking and making dinner or other projects like making fermented veggies and so on.

Any other thoughts on how you plan breakfast and lunch to share with this mom?? 

and the orchard...

Blueberries have flowered off, looks like we'll get our first decent crop.  The apples and cherries also flowered off, hoping we get something there too.  Pears didn't flower, and only one of the plums, but we are getting there!  Blackeberries and grapes have started to wake up, and the hazelnut bushes look wonderful!  I have to replace one of the pears and lay in one last fruit tree to complete the driveway orchard.  Looks like I have to replace the walnuts and possibly one of the elderberries.  My arctic kiwi may need to be replaced by the nursery ~ I bought them this year, and they don't look so good, we'll see...

good night, off to bed!

val

even quicker on the herbs...

Haven't really gotten fully into the herb patch yet, the quince flowewred, so maybe fruit this year?  I hope so...I did plant ginger mint, and a new peppermint and lemon balm, some wintergreen and lemon grass.  I planted some garlic chives (in addition to the regular chives), and some lemon verbena (hope that survived the last light frost ~ I forgot to check), I planted some basil and some pineapple sage, catmint, and catnip.  Tomorrow I go to the nursery where I usually find some unusual stuff, so wish me luck...lol!

In the "greenhouse" I still have several herbs starting, including Milk thistle, toothache plant, and many other perennial gems ~ hope they all pop up in thyme (pun intended)

val

quick veggie garden update ~

I am back taking classes, Hannah's ready to "graduate" 8th grade, and I am filling in for someone else at work while still doing my job...oh and I need to get VBS ready before June 22nd ~ so I dont have much time right now to get on and keep things updated, sorry for that.  GArden is in full swing now, should have it finished being planted tomorrow except for corn, that may have to wait a day or two...

What I've planted so far: 180 garlic (last fall ~ they are 2 feet tall now), 90 potato starts, 25 cabbages, 20 brussel sprouts, 30 broccoli, 34 navy beans, 17 kidney beans, 24 cukes, 50 rutabaga, 25 turnip, 30 tomatoes, 12 bell peppers, 6 banana peppers, 6 jalapenos, 12 "fooled you jalapenos" (awaiting transplant, 6 "Hannah's choice" melons (picked cuz they are named after hannah of course...lol), 3 early butternut, 12 other various winter squashes, 10 pumpkins, 3 summer squashes, 3 types of lettuces, strawberry spinach, 50 shelling peas, 20 snap peas.  Still to go in...about 400 carrots, 200 corn, soybeans and beets, radishes and parsnips, maybe some okra, but almost finished...whoops green beans still have to get in too.

oh, and a few experimentals to plant ~ red and blue corn, for grinding into corn meal (and for decoration), and maybe a few mangels (sugar beets) ~ if I have the room...nothing too exciting on the "try me" board this year...but getting closer to the enough to preserve to feed us year round goal!

Have a great week everyone!

val

This Weeks Menu