Gingerbread houses

My nieces are of an age where making "gingerbread" houses is engaging them so when they're at my parents' house, my mom provides them with pretzels, crackers, marshmallows and candies and I suppose icing of some sort.

Here is one of their creations from this past week....

Toasters

So we went toaster shopping earlier this year looking for something not made in China. The Kitchen Company had a dandy for upwards of $200. Hmm... probably not going to do that. We finally ended up spending around $30 on a cheap one at Bi-Mart. Yep, they were all made in China.

So in several months of use, it started heating unevenly so halfway through,  one must turn the bread around. Also turns out there is no little door underneath so when the bread gets stuck under the narrow little strip it's supposed to rest on, there is no easy way to get it out.

Cheap piece of crap toaster that worked less than a year

After visiting family in Iowa this summer, the Man was way impressed with my sister's vintage toaster she had found at a thrift shop. She promised to keep her eye out for another. Well... she was in town for a visit this week and brought this along... It toasts bread beautifully, has a little door underneath,  and was made in the good old USA!

American made really cool "thrifted" toaster

We're so happy over simple things... :)

Sleeping Bag Repair

In preparation for the Man's winter hunting trip (white tailed deer, muzzle-loader season), he requested his sleeping bag be repaired since the zipper would no longer zip. 

Busted zipper

A trip to Plaza Sewing netted a 100-inch long zipper.  Yay!  Seemed a bit pricey at $16 and change, but really... it wasn't made in China, so we don't have to worry about lead in case anyone ever chews on the new zipper, ha!  And the fact that this otherwise good sleeping bag was redeemable was worth it.

Nice, new, workable zipper

All it took was ripping off the old one and sewing the new one in place - about an hour's worth of work.  And the Man stayed toasty warm in snowy weather inside their tent with a wood stove.  It's a really large tent.

Making Tallow

We got a hold of some fresh suet from a fellow butchering beef a while back. It's been sitting in the freezer until we could get to it. Now that it's cool enough to use the wood stove and gardening/canning is done for the season,  it seemed like a good time.

First we chopped it up fairly finely. 

Then it went into a large pot with a bit of water to keep it from burning until the fat starts rendering out. The water cooks off as long as the pot is uncovered.

Then.... keep heating at a fairly low temp, stirring periodically. With the amount in our pot, it'll take most of the day.

This is what it looked like after a couple of hours.  

 

After a while, we strained the tallow through a light cloth then threw the cracklings back into the pot and let the fat render some more. Eventually we ended up with a coffee can full plus enough to do a batch of soap. It's a pale yellow color when it's liquid and then turns white when it has cooled off and hardened.

To the right of the liquid tallow, you can see the crackling start to cool and the extra tallow turn white. We fed the cracklings to the chickens over the course of a week and they were happy birds indeed!

Canned Soup

So with the winter veggies yesterday along with some ground beef, tomato sauce, and broth, I made a big pot of "Farmer's Soup" to can. This recipe came from The Amish Canning Cookbook by Georgia Varozza.  I came across this book at the airport when I was returning from a work trip to Spokane last week. The author is from rural Oregon and has a very cool blog at www.georgiaplainandsimple.blogspot.com. 

 

Well, 7 jars of soup plus some to eat this week.... I love convenience food!

 

Winter Garden

The Man and I went "shopping" outside for vegetables this morning.  The onion and potatoes were in cold storage, and the carrots, celery, parsnips, and turnips were freshly picked from the garden. Aren't they beautiful? 

 

Loret and Me

Here's a pic of Loret and me at Wild River Brewing last week after work one night.

English muffins

The Man has been experimenting with sour dough the past couple of weeks. He started with sourdough which turned out really good, has done some bread, and last weekend, a batch of sourdough English muffins. Instructions were found at www.letsmakesomethingawesome.com

We love our wood cookstove!

Trip Around the World Quilt

I finally finished this quilt a couple of weeks ago and got it sent off to my nephew John. It was a nice tribute to the baby quilt I made for him when he was born as it was also a Trip Around the World pattern.

Project Bags

So one of my projects this weekend was to make "project bags."  Mine is the girly one and has knitting inside. The Man's is the manly one and has hunting stuff inside. He calls it a "possibles bag."

There is a belt loop on his...

This week in the garden

Well not bad for mid-October.... Tomatoes, carrots, jalapenos, pepperoncini, a clump of basil, and a ruttabega that was very good cooked and mashed in with potatoes for dinner tonight.

Chickens out

We butchered the rest of the roosters about a month ago and gave the last two laying hens to our friends Andy and Shari in anticipation of the new meat birds we'd ordered up from a hatchery in Iowa. They arrived four weeks ago this Tuesday in the mail and the Man picked them up at the post office.

They were brand new little chicks but they eat nonstop and yesterday we removed the screening from in front of their little door and had to push them out. This morning they all went out by themselves.

Beets

The Man picked me some beets the other day. I had asked him for 6 or 8, knowing they were getting rather large and I only wanted to do a canner load of pints. He brought these in... and said he only picked six since that's all that would fit in the garden hod.

Holy cats those are huge!  Notice the paring knife...



I only peeled and diced three of them and got 7 pints to can and another pint to eat fresh.

Our garden kicks butt!!

This week...

Cast Iron Dinner Bell

Picked strawberries this morning.  Some of them are so small, it hardly seems worth it. But... it's enough for a smoothie.  :)

At least they aren't so "slug-eaten" this year. I think the sprinkling of diatomaceous earth earlier on did the trick.


What to do with so many radishes??

Make pickles!

This is a fermentation from "Nourishing Traditions," putting sliced radishes in a quart jar along with 1 tablespoon sea salt, 1/4 cup whey, and filled with water.  There is a glass on top to keep the vegetables submerged.  Left it on the counter for three days, then refrigerated.  They taste so good!

Next we did turnips with a beet added for color and green onion, garlic-scape, and red pepper flakes added for flavor. All were fresh from the garden except the pepper which was from a couple of years ago.  

The Man really likes these pickles although they are a tad "oniony" for my taste.  

Today I started a jar of fermented kohlrabi, since they're growing like gangbusters. 

Here we see broccoli on the left, kohlrabi in the center, and onions on the right. In the top right-hand corner you can see garlic and in the top left-hand corner are potatoes.  

Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi undergoing fermentation

This is a quilt I made for Aidan when he was little and airplanes were his favorite thing. The printed planes were cut from a piece of fabric and then wonky log cabin blocks made; the solid colored ones were reverse appliqued from a pattern I drew. The whole thing was hand quilted by my Mom and Aunt Mary.  

I decided the dining area would look more cheerful with this hanging on the wall so I dug it out and hung it this morning.

This week in the garden

Planted five raspberry plants this weekend... they are called Caroline and are an everbearing variety. Some of them already have little berries on them.

The orange bit is actually a California Poppy in the background.

Today, Loret and I went to a local nursery on our lunch hour and each bought a bunch of plants.  Here are some of mine: 

When I got home, I gathered the egg...

Hmmm... Is it called "gathering" when there's only one?? Oh well, once the pullets start laying, I won't have to wonder that anymore.  Only about another 3-4 weeks to go.

Then I planted a couple of flowers.

Martha Washington geranium

A purple flower added to the center of an herb pot

A quick walk through the garden revealed broccoli ready to cut a few florets...

And the kohlrabi will be ready soon.

This week in the garden

The cold frame where we started seeds in February. This included onions, turnips, kohlrabi, broccoli, radishes, parsnips... am I forgetting anything?

The Man did some more tilling in the garden and we transplanted a bunch of stuff over the weekend. He also got seed potatoes into the ground.

I went to Loret's house on Sunday afternoon to get tomato starts from her since she had about 100 volunteer plants in her garden. We of course, shared a bottle of wine and ate cheese, crackers, veggies, and okra pickles (I know, right!?)  I did not get any pics... so I will share this one when she came over in February and helped me can sauerkraut.

Canning sauerkraut on the wood cookstove

Yes, we drank wine that day too...  :)

Here are a couple of other random pics from the herb garden:

Sage

Columbine

California Poppies

Rose

Strawberry blossoms

Pears

Asparagus in with the 4 O'clocks

Horseradish

Dinner Bell

Peas

Chia & Cheese

Projects this past weekend included cheese, gardening, and wine with friends. But first, a chia pet update...

The Man's Christmas present from his nephews finally grew a coat, which was much easier when the sun started shining regularly. In the meantime, the poor thing grew mold spots.  

Teenage Ninja Turtle Chia Pet

It's the pottery that grows!!!

Okay, onto Cheese.

I get fresh milk from Rene down the road. This weekend I made a batch of Paneer, an Indian-style fresh cheese.

Bring a gallon of milk up to 200 degrees F.

Add 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice, stir. 

Curds will form; take off heat and let rest about 5 minutes.

Scoop curds into a lined colander, then I salted, and put into the cheese press for a few hours.

Here is the finished firm block on the butter muslin. In the bowl is the ricotta cheese I got out of the fresh whey. 

The remaining whey