Homemaking on the Homestead

Well about now turkey and gravy and all the trimmings are getting kind of old..   not to mention almost gone!   Well I still have a good amount of turkey left.   So today this is my plan:   ~Slice all the breast meat for sandwiches today ~Debone the turkey and chop up the remaining meat and make Turkey Tacos for dinner tonight..   ~Put the bones and misc bits and pieces into my 14qt stock pot, add water and salt and let that simmer for a good part of the day ~Strain out bones and remove any bits of meat and toss the bones ~Add meat to the pot of broth and put in fridge until tomorrow..   Tomorrow I will finish it up by making turkey noodle soup out of it ~If there is any meat left after turkey tacos tonight it will be bagged, labeled and frozen for use in a meal or I will use it to make turkey salad sandwiches in the next week or so  

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day!   We had a very nice day.   It was low stress and very enjoyable.   I only ended up having 2 extra people here…   my father-in-law and my brother-in-law…     Here are a few pics from our day:                           Now it seems it is on to the next holiday.. Christams!!   I am not a Black Friday shopper..   I did that one time years ago..   I guess so I could have the experience..   my thoughts afterward were..   nah..   no thanks!!   I will sleep in and enjoy my day after Thanksgiving! LOL..   so instead today was a slow day..   I did some laundry, picked up the house from yesterday.. took a nap..   helped Emily and Sierra make some Christmas tree ornaments for Sierra to sell at the upcoming bazaar.   Tomorrow I may finally get to making up some lotion.   I need to get my supply up fo...

  Sierra and Tobin came home with 6 little goldfish to put in Sierra’s birthday aquarium.  You can't really see all 6 fish in the above picture..  but they are there!    She has them each identified, and they have been named:   Finny Floater Gill Spot Scaler Skeeter

  Yesterday was my daughter Sierra’s 11th birthday!   She was actually born on Thanksgiving Day 11 years ago and what a memorable Thanksgiving that was!   She is a tender hearted sweet little girl who is growing up way to fast!!   This was her yesterday with her “Twinkie Cake”..    haa.. haa..   none of my kids   had ever had a twinkie and I was trying to figure out something easy and not too much for such a busy day and she was actually just fine with putting candles in a pumpkin pie..   lol..   but we wanted to do something special and sometimes just being different is special enough!!    Tobin came up with the idea and it was a big hit with her..       Right now Sierra and Dad have gone to buy some fish to put in her new aquarium that she got for her birthday.   Tobin and her set up the aquarium last night and she was very eager to go and get some fishies to put in there today!     Ha...

We have had one very full day today…   aside from dinner rolls, spiced cranberries, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and fruit salad… my girls also made 8 pies…     Here is a pic of them with all their hard work sitting in front of them!!   Pictured: 4 pumpkin pies, 3 apple pies and 1 cherry pie…  

    Today is my oldest daughter’s birthday!   Carolyn is 21 and she and her hubby live in California .   She is the mama of my first grandchild…       Hope you have a wonderful day Carolyn!!   I am thinking of you working on your Thanksgiving dinner today while we work on ours..   makes me remember all the years of you and your sisters and I working on this day together ..     I love you!!   This is the most current picture I have of Carolyn (I posted it not long ago here on my blog.. she is holding my baby Caden )   Have a great day!!

  Aside from my Thanksgiving plans there are a few other updates from my homestead.   Yesterday my kids and I did a major cleaning on the house..   we dusted and move furniture and vacuumed and mopped and swept ..   I actually cleaned my desk!   Tobin brought me home (from his dad’s house that he and his brother are cleaning out) a 4 drawer letter size filing cabinet.   So I was inspired to clean my desk and my little office area and move the filing cabinet into place.   Now maybe that will help me stay a bit more organized..   Hannah did not help with our cleaning yesterday but rather did one of her weekly housekeeping jobs earlier than usual due to the holiday.   While at her cleaning job she also heard a little feedback on her test taking for the job she has applied for (she cleans house for one of our local police officers and his family and he is the one who suggested she give the job a try)..   she scored the 2nd   highest ...

  Today I am doing my shopping for our Thanksgiving dinner and I have my menu made out and the plan that my daughters and I will be following for the rest of the week..   I will be serving my Thanksgiving dinner buffet style.     ******************************   Thanksgiving Me nu   Turkey w/ Spiced Cranberries Stuffing Dinner Rolls  (I will skip the garlic and parmesan cheese that is in the recipe) Sweet Potato Casserole Mashed Potatoes Gravy Green Salad 24 Hour Fruit Salad Pumpkin Pies  ( crust recipe ) Apple Pies   Tuesday ~ Shop for Thanksgiving foods ~ Make dinner rolls and freeze before letting them rise ~ Make bread (so I have enough for stuffing and sandwiches the next day) ~ Pull out special dishes and serving dishes and wash   Wednesday ~ Make Stuffing ~ Make Sweet Potato Casserole ~ Make salad dressing ( ranch , Italian ) ~ Make pies ~ Peel potatoes and let them soak overnight in cold water ~ Make spiced cranberries ~ Ch...

Sunday: Nacho’s for a Crowd , chips, salad   Monday: Salmon Chowder , garlic cheese dinner rolls, coleslaw   Tuesday: Lentil & Brown Rice Tacos w/all the trimmings   Wednesday: Red Bean & Sausage Soup , garlic toast, salad   Thursday: Turkey Dinner   Friday: Leftovers   Saturday: Turkey sandwiches   Sunday: Turkey Noodle Soup      

  It was a really nice Saturday for us today.   I actually slept in.   I rarely do this and was surprised when I rolled over and looked at the clock and it said 7:00am ..   (yes that is sleeping in for me..   I normally get up at 4:am during the work week and 5:am on the weekends).   Tobin was able to fix my dishwasher and load up the truck with garbage for a trip to the dump tomorrow afternoon.     I did some laundry, made some beef stew for dinner, took a nap and generally just enjoyed my day.   I had lotion, lip balm and soap making on my list..   but hey..   tomorrow is another day!   Yesterday Tobin and I went to town..   we almost finished shopping for Sierras birthday which is next Thursday (Thanksgiving).   I have 3 of my children’s birthdays in November.   My son Richard’s is the 16th, my daughter Carolyn’s is the 22nd, and my daughter Sierra’s is on the 23rd.     I still need to pick ...

I make this every year and absolutely love it..   beats anything in a can!!     Spiced Cranberries Crystal Miller   4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries 2 ½ cups cane juice crystals or 1 ¼ cups honey ½ cup water 2 T lemon juice 1 cinnamon stick, 3 to 4 inches long ½ t ground cloves   In a sauce pan add sweetener of choice, water, lemon juice, cinnamon stick and cloves.  Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes.  Add cranberries and boil for about 12 to 15 minutes or until sauce thickens up.  Allow to cool.  Can be refrigerated up to 1 week or frozen.   

  Woo Hoo..   my dishwasher is working again..    My incredibly talented hubby took it apart, found the broken part; the impeller pump, then found the piece of popcorn seed that got stuck in the pump and caused it to break .   Last week he bought the new pump and today replaced it and reinstalled the dishwasher and I have already done 2 loads of dishes!!  I am feeling quite thankful at this point...  we have been without a dishwasher for a couple of months.    I did find many blessings that came by not having one..  most notably was that my kids had the opportunity to be very thankful for the dishwasher as well... so maybe now they will be more careful about rinsing out the popcorn bowls before loading them in the dishwasher..    

    I am sure a lot of you reading this already know how to cook a turkey.   But I also know that many ladies have never done it before.   I was in my late 20’s before I cooked my first turkey.   My grandma or mom or mother in law had always done that part.   When I went to cook my first turkey I was reading lots of cookbooks and talking with my mother to learn.   It is not like we have the opportunity to practice turkey roasting too often!   I thought I would just share from my own turkey roasting experience how I have done it.   There are lots of ways to do this and tips, etc..   and I am sure I won’t cover them all but will share what has worked for me.   First is the actual buying of the turkey.   I typically have purchased frozen turkeys.   The week before Thanksgiving you can find turkeys at the best price of the year.   In fact I usually take advantage of these great prices and buy another turkey or two for...

  Tobin took the day off today..   which was great.   He took Emily to her job (watching Miss Margaret today) and then had a bit of work to do on a rental of ours and then needed to replace flue pipe on our wood furnace.   I filled some orders from my country store and checked school work.   I had a list of little details to get checked off and made some progress on those.   Put my Azure Standard order in.. it is early this month due to Thanksgiving.. next Thursday would normally be my delivery date.  Hannah went to her weekly house cleaning job.     The girls and I sat down and wrote out our thanksgiving dinner menu..   I will have to tone it down some as Emily tends to always plan BIG …     Sooo   I am the balance to this.. LOL..   I told them I am looking at small and simple!   I will only have my FIL and my BIL here..   possibly the oldest son of my friend Sarah and a friend of his.. we will just wait...