Homemade Happiness

I have a few rare minutes of quiet since Riley and Jarret went to the feed store in search of chicken feed, Jack and Molly are sleeping, and Rose is at a friend's house, so I thought I would get at least one of the many blog posts that I've been mulling over down on "paper." Whenever my good friend Kim updates her adorable and creative blog (www.pairslices.blogspot.com) I am motivated to get to mine. I think I will have time to get at least one post up before I have to get to my noodle-making for dinner, which brings me to the theme of my post - homemade!

I have to admit that I am indulging in a bit of bragging here, but I have to say that I am quite proud of my efforts to stretch our grocery budget and keep our diet healthy and local by making as much food as I can from scratch. I have also been working on that Depression-era philosophy: "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without," and learning how to turn leftovers into other scrumptious entrees and desserts, like veggie soups and bread puddings. Some of my latest endeavors include:

A weekly batch of homemade bread. I make two to four loaves at a time. It's easy and so yummy! I am wearing out my kitchen-aid mixer though and have had to go with kneading by hand, which is a great upper body workout!I found a recipe for making English muffins in a cookbook my sister-in-law, Kara, recommended to me : More-with-Less Cookbook. It's wonderful and very helpful for cooking on a dime. The muffins are so pricey in the store and we love them for breakfast. They were not hard at all. You make the dough and let it rise, roll it out and cut it with a glass or a biscuit cutter, and then let them rise again:
Then you cook them in a pan for 5 minutes or so on each side. I love my cast iron!


And here they are - don't let them cook too long! Oops! But it still tasted good.

They even look like muffins from the store on the inside, after being split with a fork. (Those are our farm-fresh eggs in the background.)

I've been making butter from the cream that rises to the top of the milk we get raw from a nearby farm. Put it in the blender for about 8 minutes:

Strain the buttermilk out and press the butter with a spatula while running it under cold water:

And then put it in a nice bowl. I would love to find an antique butter mold to use.



The More with Less cookbook has some great recipes for buttermilk pancakes and biscuits, so I feel I am truly using everything to the fullest. And the food tastes so yummy! My next projects will be to work yogurt into my weekly schedule. I already have made it from time to time, but I would like to stop buying it and just eat homemade stuff. And next month Rose and I are going to learn how to make cheese at our homeschool group Little House in the Big Woods book club.

While the Molly is busy helping me in the kitchen, Rose tends Jack or helps with other chores and Riley has been helping his dad with the wood splitter. Aren't they so cute together?



Well, the timer is going off and it's time to make noodles....For dessert tonight - bread pudding, homemade ice cream, and topped with homemade hot fudge sauce. Enjoy!

Let me just run...

It occurred to me the other day that this is a phrase I should stop trying to wrap my life around. Especially since it now involves clothing at least one child - if not all four - in hats, boots, scarves, mittens, coats, and then fastening them into the car seat; making sure I have diapers and spare pants (for Molly, not me!); making sure the baby has been nursed, that I have my purse, my list and items that pertain to the errand (usually library books to be returned). So you get the idea. I can no longer "just throw on my coat and just run to the library for a minute" while dinner simmers on the stove.

I am trying very hard these days to pay attention to the clock and have a real grasp of reality with regard to time. I am one of those people who drastically overestimates the amount of things I can accomplish in a day or a week or ten minutes for that matter. I don't think this frustrates anyone more than it frustrates me, bless my husband, who is very good about showing up on time, or at least he was until he had to start bringing me with him!

I look forward to the days when I can again throw on my coat and run down to the post office or the library, but for now I choose to embrace the cumbersomeness of my life because those are some awfully cute faces framed by those pesky winter hats. One day, I'll be able to dart here and dart there and I'll be complaining that I don't have anyone for company!

The Blank Page

All through the day as I am doing my regular housekeeping things I think of things I want to blog about. And then, when I sit down to do it, I can't think of anything to write about and am nagged by the thoughts of all the other thousands of things I should be doing (tending the fires, putting away dishes, folding the laundry, playing with the kids, checking my Facebook page!). Of course, this is the case now. So, I'll just post some pictures from the recent festivities around here and spare you my religious ramblings this time! Thanks for indulging me on my previous post, however.

Molly loves her new present from Grandma Jean - Copper Kitty.


Here she is on the phone with Grandma Jean saying thank you.
Our birthday cake...


A trip to see Santa at the Gorham library. Here is why I love this season. Rose truly believes that she chatted with Santa here, and she told him she wanted more Barbies for Christmas. So she was confused when I was looking at some pcitures on Facebook of other people's children with Santa, and heartbroken when she realized that what she really wanted was a Webkinz poodle, and she had told Santa the wrong thing! I reassured her we could send him a letter. Now I just have to remember to have her write it!

I don't know if it's Christmas in the air, a new phase of some sort, or answered prayers (I am sure it's at least a bit of that!), but Rose and Molly have been playing so nicely together for the past couple of weeks. Rose offeres and Molly willingly lets her dress her up and put on her "makeup" some Halloween leftovers I picked up at Wal-Mart for my fashion maven six year old (I don't know WHERE she got that tendency from!). Then I let them play with the camera. It's funny, thought-provoking, and sometimes a bit disturbing what the world looks like through the eyes of a child...


Riley's self portait...

He thought it was hilarious that he took a picture of the back of the cereal box.

All Molly needs is a hair net and a cigarette!

Ah, the beauty of normalcy...

Until next time, life continues on at the homestead...

My First Thanksgiving!

We've been busy here at the farm these last fall months. We've had a trip down to Walden to see friends and family in October (and of course we got in some great yard saling!), our first chicken slaughtering day, the first snowfall, and a wonderful Thanksgiving, celebrated here at the farm, just us. In between all those events has been the usual daily work of school and cooking, and cleaning, and laundry, and keeping the homefires burning (literally!). Life here is good. I am exhausted after preparing our feast today, so I'm going to keep this post short and to the point. Here are some pictures to enjoy. Please come and visit us!



The family assembled for the first Thanksgiving meal which I prepared all by myself. I did a good job if I do say so myself!



The turkey this year was a Butterball, but next year we plan to raise our own!

Last weekend we gathered family and friends to celebrate Jack and Molly's birthdays.


We had a family celebration for Jack on his actual birthday, November 19. Jack got a Radio Flyer bike from Grandma and Grandpa Winum, which he loves. Mimi and Pops sent some balls and wooden trucks and cars, which have also been a big hit (although I didn't snap any pics of those).





Our first snowfall of teh season, and Jack's first trip out into the snow. Last year he was just a wee babe during the winter months...






Chicken harvest 2008. Here is our nasty rooster, who attacked the children on more occasion than I care to admit, on his way to the chopping block. He made the most wonderful chicken and dumplings I have ever eaten! There really is something to be said for grass-fed meat!

Henny-Penny in the holding pen. R.I.P.

More summer highlights

Jack is waiting to for me to get him out of the crib, I need to get lunch on, and we have to wash eggs and take them to the farm where we trade them for milk, but I have to steal five minutes to post the rest of these pictures from the last few weeks or I will never get around to it! So, here are more summer highlights. Enjoy!


Rose and Riley try their hand at croquet at the Genesee Country Museum, one of our summer day trips.

And Jack tries out the game where you roll the hoop with a stick, yum!
Riley and Jarret work the two man saw (Jarret says a prayer of thanks for his chainsaw!).
It was Laura Ingalls Wilder Day at the Museum and their special guest was the actress who played Nellie Olsen. She was hysterical. And let me tell you, it's weird to hear Nellie Olsen's voice coming out of a grown woman!

Molly and Rilley belly up to their Shirley Temples at the wedding reception of our friend Jay Tackabury.

Rose and Ashley Gibbs take a break at the Empire Farm Days in Seneca Falls.
So, we are in the market for a tractor, what do you think honey?
Watching the equipment demos at Empire Farm Days.
Aidan Prendergast oversees the fire starting operation at Camp Winum, this was before the thunderstorm rained on our cookout.

The next day, the kids and Jarret throw in a few hooks at Keuka Lake before we head for home.

Our 4-H club's booth at the Ontario County Fair. Rose's decorated apron, hanging on the wall, went to the New York State Fair!
Her painted bunny and wood cart with zucchini from our garden.

Rose ended the summer by losing front teeth!
Tomatoes and diapers keep me busy these days!