Deja vu

Why do I feel like I have lived this before?!

Oh yeah- because I have!  Nine years ago!

When Moses was born all scrawny, he favored Andrew.  

Now that he is Mister Chubs, he is Judah's baby twin.

No-Grocery November: week 4

Edibles:

~ Mongolian beef
~ fried onions and eggs for breakfasts most mornings
~ wannabe zuppa toscano soup (Italian sausage, potato and greens soup)
~ bean and cheese burritos with salsa
~ prune tart
~ cornbread
~ roasted delicata squash and onions
~ spaghetti with meatballs
~ BIRTHDAY CAKE!  White cake with peanut butter frosting
~ meringue mushrooms and cookies
~ chicken barbeque dip with quinoa chips
~ buttermilk pancakes with syrup and peanut butter
~ tomato soup
~ chicken salad in tortillas
~ dry rubbed chicken and kielbasa, sauteed cabbage, cornbread casserole
~ cornbread casserole (again! For Thanksgiving)
~ apple crisp
~ pumpkin pie
~ a large bowl of whipped cream (sweetened with granulated sugar instead of confectionary since that was used up a few days before)
~ roasted squash, onions and brussel sprouts with fried cheese curds
~ split pea soup (using canned carrots instead of fresh, celery seed to replace the actual vegetable and the last scrawny kielbasa instead of ham.  I was dubious as to the result- but it was remarkably good!)
~ blueberry muffins and cranberry muffins
~ pizza night- three cheese, onion and lunchmeat (sister in law brought over a lovely mufflata sandwich as a gift that I stole some meat from for the pizza) and ricotta, garlic and tomato (though I have run out of real garlic AND garlic powder so I had to use garlic salt and since the salt- I had to be more reserved with it.
~ pot roast with gravy and mashed potatoes

 Notes: 

~ made lots homemade breads, butter, cheeses and yogurt this week

~ On Tuesday, we hosted a little 'authentic' pilgrim feast using The Thanksgiving Primer with a family we do a class with each week.  The kids made venison, cornbread(s), squashes and prune tart.
Since the pilgrims had very little to go on, it happened I had enough food around to be able to do it. The prune tart was pretty good but to enjoy their cornbread, you'd have to be pretty hungry.  (Think: homemade playdough and you'll have a pretty good idea.)  We made modern day cornbread too- just to compare the two. 

~ It was a birthday miracle!  I had the EXACT amount of confectionary sugar I needed for Adele's birthday cake icing.  I used every particle, so much so I got to wash the container out to get it ready for a new bag.  It was PERFECT.

~ for Adele's birthday, we were expecting a few people to come and share cake with us.  I thought how nice it would be to have something savory to serve our guests and help cut the sweetness of the cake.  I was thinking- "What can I serve that is savory?"  I don't have crackers.  I don't have pepperoni or cheese or pretty much anything salty that I could serve last minute.  I usually try and keep ingredients on hand for warm dip at all times but I had nothing to dip into the dip WITH- no fresh veggies or crackers...  THEN, someone found a bag of quinoa chips my mother-in-law gave me a few weeks ago.  I got to serve warm chicken bbq dip WITH something to dip it with.  Lucky us.

~ I wanted to double the recipe for split pea soup (which called for one pound of peas) so I dumped two bags into the broth.  It seemed odd how many peas there were to such a small allotment of water until I realized I had dumped two TWO-POUND bags in.  I wound up making two huge vats of it then- with just a single kielbasa cut into pieces between both of them.  OOPS.

~ Winter milk from a cow is so delicious and tasty.  I don't love pasture milk as much so I wound up buying a lot of milk products because the taste of everything was so strong.  Now that the cow is eating more hay and making 'winter milk', I can make, eat (and enjoy!) all the wonderful milk products from our cow, Acorn.

The biggest lesson of the month:

If I was hoping to learn the art of contentment and make-do-ishness this month, and to be grateful even in times of want... the reality was there was no hard lesson to learn.  We ate like kings.  We were deprived not a single time. 

There are people today, right now who are divvying up a bit of beans, a bit of rice among their whole family.  There are people today who are wondering if they will even eat.  Unless and until I am wondering how I will find something to feed my children or desperate for a cup of corn or wheat or rice to cook, I will never truly know want. 

I guess that is the lesson I learned most this month.  Not how resilient I can be when faced with deprivation... instead, I realized how I have never once in my life been deprived.  I realized just how ridiculously wealthy we are.  We have never known true hunger.  And even after a month of cooking just from things we have around, we still have plenty of delicious food just awaiting a cast iron pan. The big lesson I learned was that I have been surrounded by wealth and food and ease and comfort and luxuries so much so that my eyes were blind to it. 

There were plenty of times when I would literally look in the cupboards when I hadn't gone shopping in a while and think "There is nothing to eat."    I cringe to think about it.

There is such abundance in my life.  Let me have eyes to see it, Lord.

No-grocery November: week 3

My kitchen helper

Edibles:

~ onions, peppers. homemade cheese, sausage, cherry tomatoes skillet
~ homemade macaroni and cheese with diced ham, peas, and using homemade cheese
~ creamed spinach with potatoes and cauliflower, tender pork roast, home canned applesauce
~ eggs or oatmeal for breakfast
~ tuna wraps
~ peanut butter blossom cookies (I had a bag of hershey kisses from the discount store packed away in a goodie bin.) (Yes, I store candy!)
~ storebrand frozen chicken tenders and fried cheese
~ blueberry scones
~ Mesquite dry-rubbed chicken slices, leftover stuffing, pan of sauteed onions/fried cheese/spaghetti squash.  Homecanned applesauce.  Canned green beans.
~ tomato soup and homemade bread
~ sirloin tip steaks, fried potatoes (homefries we call them around here), acorn squash and a hot vegetable side dish of pickled beets, green beans, sauteed onions topped with feta cheese
~ cinnamon raisin bread
~ pizza night! Three cheese, one with bacon and onion and one with bacon, onion, jalapeno
~ chorizo with peas and roasted vegetables (delicata squash, broccoli and cauli)
~ two batches of caramel ice cream with chocolate flecks (one sweetened with stevia, the other with sugar)
~ leftovers smattered throughout


Notes:

~ My 60% Ghirardelli chocolate chips are no more.  Who's DUMB idea was this no-grocery shopping thing anyway? 

~ I am running precariously close to being out of harvested mint for iced tea.  Someday I hope to harvest enough mint to never have to buy peppermint tea bags ever again.  (I make peppermint iced tea by the gallon and all year round).

~ Matt ran out of hot sauce so I made him a new batch from homegrown peppers, vinegar, garlic and some xantham gum.  (Too much xantham gum!  I ruined it and had to make a second batch.)

~ Made homemade ketchup (it's not the same.)

~ Cleaned out the pantry/dry goods/snack cupboard.  I discovered some nastiness in there (I'll spare you the gross details!) so I was glad to have deep cleaned it.  I also discovered one more container of stevia tucked way in the back- just what was needed since I ran out of my bag!  Good-for-you ice cream and sweet tea can still be in my life! yay!

~ Made bread and queso blanco, mozzerella, ricotta cheeses and butter

~ I've been grinding wheat berries to supplement the flour situation.  I discovered one gallon jar of them had been sitting so close to the freezer that it had been warmed and the condensation over months developed into mold.  Another gross find.  The chickens had a feast that day- an entire gallon of wheat berries!  Anything they don't eat, maybe will reseed their space?

~  I have gone to the grocery store three times so far this month to do errands for homebound neighbors.  A couple times to pick up some things for them and one time I took a neighbor so she could get everything she needed.  I say this only because I was tempted thrice so far this month (and once for 45 minutes straight of wandering around a grocery store!) to buy goodies and ruin the no-grocery challenge- but I didn't do it. That's determination, right there!

No-Grocery November: Week 2

Days 10-16

Edibles:

~ Chicken Pot Pies, whole wheat artisan bread
~ cinnamon apple bars
~ chicken and rice with delicata squash, peas and homemade cheese
~ Loaded Nachos with taco meat
~ lasagna
~ spaghetti with meat sauce  (pasta for kids/ spaghetti squash for Matt and I)
~ Mustard Brown Sugar Pork Loin, Stuffing (using leftover WW Artisan bread), delicata squash and onions, homecanned applesauce
~ Stir fry and brown rice
~ Oatmeal raisin cookies
~ eggs, sausage, peppers and homemade cheese for breakfast
~ cheesy broccoli, and cauliflower using homemade cheese soup
~ homemade pizza night- garlic, three cheese and ham/pineapple/onion
~ homemade ice cream with chocolate freckles

Notes:

~ I used a package of venison from the freezer marked '13.  Yes.  I did that.  And yes, it was great.  (Foodsavers are awesomesauce.)

~ Two whole chickens, roasted at the same time, allowed me to make several meals all at once.

~ we used the last of the storebought sandwich bread which means that homemade bread from henceforth is not a luxury but a necessity.  And guess what...

~ I am running out of all purpose flour!  I have only one 10 pound bag left- which is pretty much nothing in our family.  I have wheat berries I can grind but they produce a much more dense product and that won't be ideal for Adele's birthday cake at the end of the month.  I have to start rationing that.

~ I also ran out of breakfast sausage.  Matt isn't too thrilled about that.  Guess we should get some pigs then, amIright?!  I made that last little tube stretch into three different meals.

~ Finished all the sweet peppers, lettuces, celery and carrots (!!) off.  No more carrot sticks to go with pizza night.  (sob!)   That's okay.  We ran out of ranch dressing for dipping anyway.

~ Have to start rationing the cheddar cheese now too- not much left of that!  Homemade cheese is making that less traumatic though.

~ made homemade cheeses, butter and bread again this week

~ Precariously low on my chocolate chips and stevia.  I don't want to talk about it.

No-Grocery November: Week 1

I tortured my children and gave these away as a thank you for borrowed bee gear

The first week (Days 1-9) of the No-Grocery November had quite a scare!  I realized that I couldn't find any more salt!  SALT, of all things!  In my life, salt is super important.  And not just for seasoning...  I bake bread, yes, but the reason I can't live without salt is for my cheese-making!  It is absolutely essential in this house!  I started using some canning/pickling salt I had left in a box but even that was almost gone!

 I thought I would have to break my no-grocery challenge the very first week until I frantically searched an out-of-sight pantry nook (the one with extra spices and pastas) and found, in the very back, a box of salt!  PHEW!!!  So excited!

I meant to take pictures of the foods I made but the lighting is so bad in the house now that it gets dark so early, the pictures just aren't pretty.   I forgot to write all the meals down but these are a few of the ones I remember:

~ eggs for breakfasts
~ molasses cookies
~ lots of homemade bread
~ cheesy corn chowder
~ mexican chicken pasta
~ cinnamon rolls
~ homemade cheese
~ sweet pan chili
~ kielbasa and cabbage saute'
~ homemade ice cream: vanilla with dark chocolate freckles
~ pizza with peppers and onions and pepperoni, three cheese pizza

There were a few leftover meals mixed in there too.

A few things: 

* I added water to the BBQ sauce to extend it since I have no more after that bottle.

* I cut the pepperoni into quarters because I only had about 15 more slices instead of just plunking them on- and it really DOES extend the pepperoni quite a lot.  (Plus- it was a good job for Ineke- who always wants to help.)

* Made homemade queso blanco cheese, mozzerella and ricotta

* made homemade butter

* cleaned out the (storebought) canned foods area.  A friend often shares with us canned goods on Sundays and because I am often a lazy bones, I dump them in the stairway without any thought.  This area happens to be a stairway down to the woodstove which means I was basically endangering my life everytime I tried to precariously walk down the overflowing steps.  (I only slightly exaggerate.)  I not only cleaned it out (yes, some cans were BAD!)- but organized it by food type and put the closer to expiration cans in the front.  It is very helpful to have everything sorted and inventoried in my brain.  Now I know exactly what we have and what I have to work with.





A frequent sight- a tablet and speaker on the island.   Whenever I am planning to be in the kitchen for a while, I try to put on a sermon or podcast to listen to while I work.  My favorites are these:

Sermons from https://www.christkirk.com/sermons/
Crosspolitic show
What Have You podcast
Apologia Studios 
Hillsdale College
Or I will go on youtube and search for my homies Jeff Durbin, Voddie Bauchum, R.C.Sproul, Greg Bahnsen or Doug Wilson.

There is always SOMETHING super interesting to listen to. I miss 90% of what I hear because I (happily!) don't live in a tiny, clean, quiet bubble...but that's okay. 

I'll take 10%.

Do you like to listen to podcasts?  What are they? I want to know!

Lazy and Gluttonous (a.k.a. No-Grocery November )

I've done it before and it is time to do it again.

Fact is, I've gotten lazy and gluttonous.  (As opposed to glutenous, though that would also apply)

This month I have challenged myself to not buy any food for the whole month.

November is a perfect month to challenge myself to a No-Grocery challenge.  The cupboards are full.  The freezers are full.  I still have lingering garden produce (though it is fast diminishing!).  I have bushels of apples and winter squash hanging out everywhere.  The cow is milking.  Time is needed to devote to h'learning-not running uptown for shopping.  The month is short.  And we need to eek all the extra cash we can from the hidden corners of the budget for the upcoming expenses of too-much-to-think-about.

  Our freezers are jam packed with food that just keeps being stored, month after month.  Cupboards have random, weird cans and boxes gathering dust because what do you do with expired mushroom broth and that lone can of pickled artichoke hearts?  Not exactly inspiring.  Food is cluttering my life!  I haven't been budgeting as well as I ought and so wind up splurging on foods that we don't need (and shouldn't eat anyway.)   I don't utilize the resources we have available to us as much as I ought.  We have a milk cow and I often buy dairy products like butter, for goodness' sake. I have even gotten lazy about doing cost-saving things I have always done; I don't wash and reuse Ziploc bags as fervently as I used to, for example.

I figure it's a good time to shake things up.  I am trying to get myself out of those same-old meal ruts that I get into, time to re-invigorate my cooking with creativity and time to use good old ingenuity and hard work to make things happen.  It's time to be a better steward of the riches we've been given.

Thanksgiving is a perfect time to reflect on the abundance that is all around us.  And frankly, it is a perfect time to reflect on the lack of certain provisions that will no doubt happen by the end of the month.  After all, the Pilgrims showed gratitude that first Thanksgiving even as many of them were struggling with sickness, hunger, exhaustion and still mourning the losses of those they loved.  That is just as important a lesson to learn.  Maybe even more important. 

The Lord provides. And all it, should be received in gratitude. So abundantly, in fact, that we have lost sight of the fact that mustard is a gift.  Cheese and bananas are totally unnecessary for our survival.  We are not promised cookies- and yet we often have them!

This month I am going to work hard to be grateful for both the abundance of provisions in our lives and, as it happens, even the lack of those things I am used to having.

Wish me luck!

Still a Baby

Huh.  A few weeks before birth and a few weeks after birth...and he is still a baby!   Looks like a few more weeks never did make Moses more human.   Abortion is murder.  And I live next to a state that says that the baby in the ultrasound can get murdered, legally. 

A tiny human is still a human.  And humans bear the image of God.   Just like people stood up and protected the lives of slaves- but took too long to get it done!- we should have been ON THIS forty years ago.

We must work to protect innocent humans, no matter their size.  OR location.

Crafty Halloween and a Yarn Along

Halloween this year was a wash-out.  We made it out to ONE place, the Grandparents' church, before heading home, sopped and shivering.  

When you live in the country, though, that just won't cut it for the neighbors.  So the next day, after schoolwork was done, we dressed up again to go a-visiting all the neighbors who request we come every year.

And now you can see the crafting that took place last week:

Halloween night we got to have a good-natured Beekeeper with us.  Good thing, too, that bumble bee of his looked ready to sting us at any moment.

(We borrowed the beekeeping garb from a beekeeping neighbor.  I paid him in cinnamon rolls.)

I used the free Bitty Bumble Bee pattern and some stash yarn to whip up Moses' costume.  The yellow yarn was the perfect color but a weird, fibery type of yarn that I think was pretty itchy.  He didn't love wearing the hat. 

I joked that when wearing the hat, he wasn't a bumble bee but a Grumble bee.  It worked well enough for a one night costume.  And it was FREE!

The perk about trick or treating twice is- daylight photos of costumes the next day!



Judah was a Roman soldier.  I originally was going to crochet him up this hat but time got away from me and cardboard had to do.  (I hope to revisit the crochet version soon.)  I used stash yarn for the red feathery thing on top though!  I *almost* got rid of that yarn SO many times because I thought- "WHEN AM I EVER GOING TO USE THIS STUFF?!"

Man, am I so glad I ignore those inklings right around costume-making time.

Same with the red fabric for the cape.  There was a piece big enough to make scarves for the girls and Judah's cape.  That fabric was a makeshift Christmas tree skirt for Matt's and my very first Christmas!

Andrew was Indiana Jones.  His was the easiest costume ever to put together!    Especially when I found that leather jacket at Salvation Army for $6.00 the day before Halloween.  Lucky us!  We had practically everything else he needed already on hand.

I told Andrew to have an authentic Indiana Jones pose:

Apparently, Indiana Jones is a bit of goof.

That five-o-clock shadow though... now THAT'S authentic!

Matroyshka (or...Russian Nesting) Dolls.  It was my idea to be Matryoshka dolls with my stair step girls.  Some girls went along with it with enthusiasm. 

And SOME I had to coerce (cough cough, CORYNN, cough cough).

I guess she thinks warrior elf princesses are more fun costumes. WHATEVER.

(More fabric from the stash used for apron sewing.  This stuff was given to me by a friend.  I wonder if you think I am a hoarder by now?)

The littlest Matroyshka, in all her glory.

(Makeup!  She got to wear MAKEUP!  If you don't know this about her- she has an affinity for such things.)

And look what I found on the tablet:

It seems, from the looks of these selfies, that Corynn had a better time being a Matroyshka than she originally thought she would!

I attribute it to the dollar store eyelashes.  ;-)

And that was last weeks crafting  Another Halloween, in the rearview.

Now I can resume my regular reading and knitting schedule:

A horribly lit photo, but fitting, since it's the horribly lit truth of when I can actually sit down to knit. 

crafting along and knitting along