Homemaking on the Homestead

This is tonight's Dessert..  YUM..     (the apple cake from last night is gone already)     Apple Crisp Crystal Miller   5 large apples, peeled, cored, sliced 2/3 c Sucanat 2/3 c cane juice crystals 1 c whole wheat pastry flour 1 ½ c oats 1 c butter, melted 2/3 c water   Butter the bottom of a 9x13 pan.   Lay apples slices in the pan.   In a medium size bowl combine the rest of the ingredients except the water.   Spread this over the apples. Pour the water over the top.   Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until the apples are tender and the top is browned.     Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream  

  Well it happened…   we had our first frosty 32 degree morning of the season this morning.   I knew it was cold yesterday and sunny which usually means cooler temps, and the temps did drop last night.   But boy it really seemed like we dropped from nice fall like temps to very cool…   very quickly!   I love fall, but am not that crazy about winter!     Needless to say, the wood furnace is working away this morning warming up the Miller Homestead ..     and I think I will bake something this morning to help the heating process along!     Yesterday the sing practice went really well.   Funny thing about singing with kids..   We had 5 weeks to practice.   The senior center moved the date ahead on us giving us less practice time than we thought we had…. and we went into a panic (or maybe I was the only one who did.. LOL) .. oh no.. can the kids be ready???   After the first practice with them, well I...

Apple Cake This has been a favorite cake of ours for many years.   It was originally the recipe of a good friend of mine and over the years I converted it to be a bit healthier.   Hope you enjoy it too!       2 cups cane juice crystals 1 c coconut oil ½ c olive oil 3 eggs 2t vanilla 1 t lemon juice 3 c whole wheat pastry flour 1 t salt 1 t soda 1 t cinnamon 3 c apples, peeled & chopped 1 c chopped nuts   Heat oven to 350.   Blend cane juice crystals, coconut oil and olive oil in a mixer until creamy looking. Add eggs, vanilla and lemon juice.   Add flour, salt, soda, cinnamon and mix well.   Fold in the apples and nuts.   Bake in a 9x13 pan for 1 hour or until cake is done.     Frosting/Topping: 1 c Sucanat ¼ c cream or evaporated milk 8 T butter 2 t vanilla     In a saucepan combine all the above ingredients.   Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.   Boil for 2 to3 minutes.   Cool while cake bake...

I was just looking at the Bloggers main page and saw the reminder that was posted a couple of days ago on the Front Porch to change the clocks back ..   well I guess I have not been paying attention to these little details very well! LOL..     So I though I would share this story..   Yesterday morning Tobin woke up earlier than usual and could not sleep (he does not require a whole lot of sleep so this is normal for him)..   The clock in our room said 3:30am and we decided to get up and he would go into work early.   He got ready for work, I got his lunch packed and the coffee made.   We were standing in the kitchen and he was looking at the clock that said 4:10am .   Then he said to me, “Isn’t this the weekend we were suppose to set the clocks back?”.   I went to look at the calendar and sure enough it was.   He looked at me and said,   “So it is actually 3:10am ?”   hee.. hee..   ...

  I am up early this morning as usual.   Tobin just left for work.     I have a load of towels drying right now and a load of hubby’s work uniforms in the washer…. and now I am working on my to-do list for the day.   We have sing practice with the homeschool group this afternoon.   This will be our last practice before we sing for the senior luncheon on Friday.   The kids are sounding good!     Hannah is working for our pastor this morning.   She does data entry type things for him (for the church) about once a month, and usually another time during the month she helps him with other office type jobs.     I need to get school work for the kids organized for the week, send out some orders from my little store , set out some rice to soak for tonight’s dinner, and pull up some hamburger from the freezer to defrost for dinner too (we are having hamburger gravy over brown rice and a salad).     I have a nice box of a...

I made this for dinner last night and it was delicious!   Just about the whole pan was wiped out..   I managed to save a little for Tobin to take to work today.   Thought I would share the recipe.   Chicken Lasagna Crystal Miller       7 to 9 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or equivalent breast pieces), cooked and cubed 1 16oz package frozen broccoli (or 4 cups chopped, fresh broccoli pieces), cooked 3 large eggs 1 T Dijon style mustard salt and pepper, to taste ½ of a large onion, chopped ½ c chopped mushrooms olive oil 2 c mozzarella cheese, or less (also optional) 8 to 10 whole wheat or spinach lasagna noodles, cooked   Chicken Lasagna Sauce (recipe follows)   (Hint: This sauce can be prepared while you are cooking your chicken, broccoli and noodles in preparation for this recipe)   In a large bowl combine cooked and cubed chicken, cooked broccoli, eggs, mustard, salt and pepper.   In a frying pan sauté onions and mushroom...

  Simple foods from your homestead kitchen can look and taste like a feast!   Last week I cooked up two roasts.   One was a goat roast and one was a lamb roast (both home grown by my mother in law and her hubby). But any type of roast would have worked.   We enjoyed these roasts with a pot of Yummy Pinto Beans and some veggies.   Well the next night I still had meat and beans left.   So I chopped up what was left of the roasts and added these to the beans, added more water and a little more salt.   Then made a big salad out of romain lettuce, red cabbage and grated carrots with homemade ranch dressing .   I served the soup and salad with homemade garlic toast  on homemade bread .   The meal was pretty much leftovers revisited and was very inexpensive..   but the best part to me is that it also LOOKED so pretty!!      

  Yesterday Tobin and I spent the day in the big city running errands.   We had a nice day together.   We decided not to do the rest of the shoe shopping and bring kids, but just to have some time together.   We went out to lunch and that was fun..   Went to a place that serves asian food and you go through the line picking out the meat, veggies, noodles that you want (all raw)..   then add your own spices (they have a guide to show you), then you take it to the chefs who have this big open grill and they stir fry it all up in front of you.   Lots of fun to watch and eat!       I was able to get the rest of the yarn I needed to make sure I could finish my shawl.   I wanted to crochet a triangular shawl and had picked out one pattern and then when I searched for the pattern I found another one (in my files) that I had saved and decided I wanted that one instead..   but it required more yarn than what I had purchased.  ...

  Last night I went to post this blog entry and could not log on..   so thought I would post it this morning.   I will update with Friday's happenings later!   Well the days do go by so fast and they seemed filled with so much lately.   Tobin had taken another day off from work today.   I always enjoy it when he is home.   The kids worked on school, Hannah had a house to clean and I worked on labeling some lotion and making bath salts.   Plus dinner…   we enjoyed Ashli’s 5-way Cincinnati Chili again tonight and this time we served it over curly-q noodles.     Emily and Leanne baked 6 loaves of bread today.   Hannah is going to do another 6 loaves soon and do 4 of them cinnamon bread just like I mentioned on another blog entry.   I had a friend call me today.   She was soooo excited because she is getting a couple Nubian does.   Now she and hubby are in a scramble to set up for them.   Animals seem to...

I mentioned in my last blog entry that Emily had made Hannah a pumpkin cake for her birthday and thought I would post the recipe since it was sooo good and pumpkin recipes just seem perfect for this time of year!   Pumpkin Cake   2 cups cane juice crystals ½ cup coconut oil ½ c olive oil 4 large eggs 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour 2 t baking soda 2 t cinnamon ½ t ginger 1 t baking powder ½ t salt 2 c pumpkin puree Cream Cheese Frosting   In a mixer cream together coconut oil and sugar and olive oil and eggs and mix well.   Combine dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.   Add to sugar/oil mixture and combine well.   Stir in pumpkin puree.     Spray 2 9-inch round cake pans with non stick spray.   Line the bottom of the pans with a wax paper circle that has been cut the same size as the pan bottom.   This helps to ensure your finished baked cake will come out of the pan without problems.   Divide the batter between the two pans...

  Hannah had her 18th birthday yesterday.   Hard to believe my third child is 18 already!!   We spent the first part of the day cleaning up the house and doing just basic life things.   Then we went to a homeschool meeting.   The kids in our homeschool group are singing for the seniors in our community at a lunch (given by the community center in our town) next Friday.   Hannah is leading the music with the kids.    She likes playing her guitar and doing this type of thing.   She also leads the music for the Awana program in our church.        We came home from the meeting and Grandpa was already here and had brought pizza.   While we were at the meeting Emily (who had stayed home) baked Hannah a pumpkin cake.   Hannah loves pumpkin so Emily thought she would enjoy this cake.   It was delicious!   She frosted it with cream cheese frosting (made with powdered sugar as I was out of powdered Sucanat).. ...

Gray and wet describes this morning’s weather..   I think it might be like that all day.   Well the rain is very needed so I won’t complain (yet.. haa..haa..)   Tobin took today off and him and I are going into the big city to do some shopping and spend the day together.     The girls will handle life here at home.   Not sure what they will do about dinner.. probably homemade tomato soup and sandwiches of some kind.   We tried a new recipe the other night that was so good.   It was from my friend Ashli over on my message board (and recently a fellow blogger here ).   She has her own rendition of Cincinnati Chili..   now mind you I had never even HEARD of Cincinnati Chili..   but lots of other ladies were very much aware of what it was.   I decided that by growing up and living most of my life here in the Northwest that I miss a lot of what goes on!   LOL..        I thought I would share the reci...

  Today I have been home all day.   I love days at home.   I helped my younger kids on their school work, did some housecleaning and then wrapped and labeled 4 dozen bars of soap.     We have been enjoying tuna wraps a lot lately.   You know how you can eat something till your sick of it and then you go forever without eating it??   Well that is what we did with tuna.   I am sure it had been over a year since I bought a can of tuna.   This last monthly grocery shopping trip I bought it again (well lots of it! LOL).   Now the kids and I are really enjoying it again.   I make up the tuna with lots of finely chopped onions and pickles and mayo and then pull out leftover salad from the night before (or even leftover coleslaw has worked well) and we put tuna, salad (or coleslaw) in a whole wheat tortilla and wrap that up for lunch.   Very easy and very tasty!   This afternoon Hannah, Emily and Leanne did the bread baking for th...

Rain, rain, rain..   lots of it!   And cool temps to match the grey look..   Yes fall is here!   Our water supply has been helped out a lot in the last couple of days.   The weather reports says it will dry up again..   so we will see if we are out of the danger zone yet.   This morning I labeled my nearly 60 tubes of lip balm that I made yesterday, made oatmeal pancakes for breakfast, folded & put away one load of laundry and have another in the dryer (which I think just stopped.. ), one in the washer waiting patiently to go into the dryer and two more still left to wash. I started navy beans for soup for tonight’s diner and I helped Jacob first with some spelling words and gave him a spelling test..   then helped Sierra with the same thing.   I need to get kids moving and get ready to head out the door..   music practice is today with the homeschool group.   We sing for the senior luncheon in our community in November. ...

  Today has been a good day.   It has been raining pretty steadily all day..  and that is a good thing. Our water comes from a spring and things have been very dry here and our water supply was running low.  With the rain here that will help fill up the ground water and our spring will flow with more gallons per day.   The kids and I went to the early service at church.   Tobin left for work at 4:30 this morning..  the usual time.   After church the girls and I picked up the house and then they went to Walmart.   I needed some lunch meat for Tobin’s lunches this week and the girls wanted to buy some goodies for the shoebox ministry gifts we do at our church.   Hannah had some ingredients to pick up for the snack she is making for Bible study at church tonight.   While the girls were gone the younger kids had (still have) friends over and are watching Star Trek the next generation.   So the house was fairly quiet.   ...

  My husband will be home from work shortly and I thought I would take a few minutes out of my day to blog.   I have had a very busy day.   This is what my day has looked like so far:   Up at 4:AM ~Packed Tobin’s lunch, made coffee and gave him a kiss as he left for work ~Worked on my website and packaged up orders ~Kids got up and started with their morning chores (which includes animal chores) ~Started breakfast for the kids: I made the oatmeal and Hannah made the scrambled eggs ~We all spent a few minutes picking up the house and I started a load of laundry ~I washed dishes (my dishwasher needs to be fixed and my poor overworked hubby has not had a chance to look at it yet.. maybe next weekend.. this weekend is already busy ) my youngest kids helped me in the kitchen ~After the kitchen was cleaned up from breakfast I had my youngest kids start their school day. ~I hung the first load of laundry out on the line ~Removed the sheets from my bed to wash and picked u...

Caden Michael Root:     I am home now.. my plane landed a little after 9:pm last night and I am so happy to be back with my family..   but it was SOOOO hard to leave my little grandbaby Caden.. he was so soft and so sweet and is so special to me!!   I wanted to say thank you for all the prayers and support and love you all have shown over the birth of this baby..   It was an amazing experience that God used in many, many ways.. more than what I can go into here and I truly give HIM all the glory for this!     I wanted to just share some of the info with you all and some pictures.   The birth story itself is very long and very involved.. and I will write about this and post it on my website (with a link from my blog) to all who are interested..   One aspect of my daughter’s birth story that I have not shared is that her and her husband came to the conclusion to have an unassisted homebirth.   They did not have a midwife with them. The...