Yum smores from the oven

So I've been totally wanting smores but we don't have a fire pit. Every time I do a burn in the burn barrel I wish I had a stick to roast some marshmallows LOL.  So tonight thanks to Pinterest I took a small cast iron pan, a little over a cup of chocolate chips, and marshmallows and baked them in the oven at 450 for 7 mins.  OMG it was yummy.  I'm not a fan of semi-sweet chocolate chips so next time I will remember to get milk chocolate but it was yummy.  We used graham crackers as dippers like chips and it was fun.  The kids and hubby really enjoyed the treat.  Over all took about 10 mins and I was the best mom ever :).

Dishcloths

So after finishing two more afghans I decided to whip up a couple dishcloths. I altered the pattern to a different border. The original border was giving me problems. Anyway it turned out very nice. I made two as a set and gave them to a friend. Probably not the best picture but you get the idea. I will try to post blanket pictures tomorrow.

Glitter

Who doesn't love glitter?!  I mean really is there any other way to decorate?  So I've had some pink and white glitter for months with the intention of making a light switch cover for my oldest. I finally finished it. Super easy. Modge podge the cover, cover in glitter, let dry and spray with sealant.  My oldest daughter just loves it.  Thinking about doing the one in her closet as well.  I should modge podge all the light switches with scrapbook paper.  Pinterest is awesome!

Great Grandmother's dough recipe

I made my great grandma's rolls tonight. Considering all the cooking and bread making I'm doing lately this might not seem like a big deal. But it is. I usually only make them at Christmas time since they are so time consuming to make. Although I'm finding as I make them more they aren't so tedious. My great grandma made them all the time. For any get together and probably everyday eating too. She always seemed to have them. They remind me of her. She passed away in December of 2010 at the age of 99. She was a wonderful woman. Whom I loved very much. Everyone loved her rolls. But I'm the only one who knows how to make them.

So some back story. At the young age of 15 I learned lots. I learned to crochet and knit and I took 3 weeks in a little town called Onalaska, WA to learn how to make my grandmother's rolls. It's actually a dough recipe but everyone associate the recipe with her rolls. That was mostly what she made with the dough. But she told me how to do cinnamon rolls, maple bats and the like. Well as I learn more about breads I'm trying new things. So I did some trials with the rolls tonight. I'm making cloverleaf rolls, bread and cinnamon rolls. The cinnamon rolls I have made before.  Usually I make the rolls by putting butter on the rolled out dough and cutting and folding.  Very simple yet yummy way to have some sweet butter rolls.  Anyway, when I attended her funeral in Dec 2010 I was asked if I wanted anything of hers.  I said if possible I would love her recipes.  A month or so later I got a Recipe box full of her recipes that she had collected thru the years.  I don't know if they went thru them before I got them but I'm assuming not.  Since I found notes and all sorts of treasures in there.  I was also asked for my grandmother's recipe.  And it may sound mean but I won't give it up.  I took 3 weeks out of my summer as a teenager to learn that recipe.  None of those people took the time to learn when she was alive.  They didn't see the treasure that they had until she was gone.  And it's sad.  It's probably rather mean of me to keep the secrets to myself but I'm going to teach my children to make them and pass the recipe along through the generations.

Homemade refried beans perfected

I finally did it!  I made the perfect batch of refried beans today from scratch. I'm so proud of myself. Thanks to a co worker who is a paid chef I found a method that worked great.

Things I did different: soaked for 1 hour then drained and put into the crockpot.  Then I put garlic, dried onions and salt into the water. As they cooked I stirred the pot to ensure flavors where mixing. Tested bean softness until I got to the perfect consistency. Then hubby ladled the beans into a pan, added lard and mashed them up. The flavor was great. Not bland like before and texture was awesome too. 

Banana bread

Who doesn't love fresh banana bread?  Well not everyone loves bananas but most people love fresh bread. I'm loving making fresh bread.  Sadly this might be the last of it for a bit.  I think we need to make some diet/nutrition changes for my son so he can focus better in school.  I believe he is getting to much sugar for starters.  Perhaps I will start with just cutting anything with processed sugar.  We cut a lot of that already with home meals but lunch can be difficult.  I will just have to find a solution.

Thursday Morning Thoughts

I'm sick again this week.  No fun but it's what happens when the kids first go back to school.  All those germs LOL.  Anyway so I was here thinking just about everything and about mistakes I am making or have made on this new blog.  But I realized  that right now there isn't much of a following if anyone at all reads so a few learning mistakes will be ok.  I'm also thinking of other content I could put on our farm blog.  It's a slow time of year right now for us since I'm not able to do a fall garden and the chickens aren't doing much.  Ours aren't even molting yet.  Once we start the move I can blog about the new coop being built, moving the chickens, building the farm, the deconstruction of the other house on the property and planned improvements.  But for now it's spirit week and new recipes.  Going to make banana bread this evening plus the school spirit shirts for tomorrow.  Need to start more homemade bread for sandwiches since the last loaf went bad.  We didn't eat many sandwiches this week.  Fed it to the chickens.  My youngest is watching Little Einstein's talking to the TV, and I am writing this blog.  I'm working on another blanket project, I have four going right now but this new one has to be done by the end of October so it gets priority.  Once the shirts get done I will post pictures of them.

Pretty eggs

I thought I would post a farm related post since I haven't done that in awhile.  And seeing the variety of our eggs really cheers me up.  We have quite the colorful collection of layers. We get light brown, brown, white, blue/green, and brown speckled. Oh it's so fun to go collecting. We get 17-18 eggs a day. And no we can't keep up on eating them. We give away a lot of eggs each week to coworkers, church and friends.  It's a wonderful blessing to share with others.

Crazy hair day

Today was crazy hair day at school.  The kids and I had a lot of fun doing their hair this morning.  Of course my oldest came home with her hair down :( but she brought everything back with her.  My son wanted a mohawk but he just had such thick hair it was just super spiky.  Spirit week has been a lot of fun.  This is the first time my kids have gotten to participate but they are getting into the spirit.

And of course the baby couldn't be left out :).  She naturally wakes up with crazy hair.

Spirit week at school

So I'm filling my days being crafty while we wait on the bank. Last night I made the kids shirts for color wars. It was fun and they loved them. My son's class had blue and my daughter's class had green.  I made both shirts for about $15 with supplies left over for more projects. 

Apprasial ordered

So we are finally moving forward with the purchase of the farm.  We ordered and paid for the appraisal on Friday.  So fingers crossed it all comes back good and we don't have to renegotiate a new price due to a low appraisal.  If all goes well we should be moving sometime in October.  Or at least that is my suspicion.  Meanwhile I need to start looking for boxes again and decluttering the house.  Taking a load to the goodwill tomorrow and hope to pick up some free boxes if I can find any on craigslist tonight or in the morning. 

On an animal related note we have decided to hold off for one year before adding any cows or pigs to the farm.  We are going to get our debt out of the way so we can free up the money we need for the livestock trailer and things of that nature.  It should take 12 months if I can keep us on track.  Then it will be gung ho!  So in the meantime you can follow on our chicken, gardening and cooking adventures.  Also my creative adventures :). 

Started a new blanket tonight that is for a wedding gift at the end of October.  I will post pictures once it is finished.  I finished my 2 blankets for nieces in Oregon a few weeks ago.  I will post pictures of my projects tomorrow.  All good things in our life right now.

Fresh homemade bread

Weekly? Why yes I think I should and can. I found a great recipe on Pinterest and have made it three times. Each time getting better. I'm so happy with how it turned out. I'm also enjoying not needing the store as much. Getting to what our goals our. Cooking from scratch, not a box. Cooking at home and not needing the grocery store. Here is the link to the recipe and a picture of my most recent loaf.

hiccups

Buying property or a house isn't what it used to be before 2008.  There are so many more hoops to jump through.  We are teetering on the edge of losing the property which to be honest has me down in the dumps :(.  But we have a plan B which will have us out of debt in 18 months so I guess that will work too.  Right now I am working on Christmas gifts (crochet afghans) and trying not to worry.  September is a busy month with birthdays so hopefully that will help keep me distracted.  Pray that we get an answer one way or the other tomorrow.  I will for sure try to post when I know something.  If we don't move be watching for posts about a fall garden going in and trying to get us going in that direction.