Homemaking on the Homestead

As I have become more health conscious in my cooking I have become an avid label reader. I found that something as simple as a box of graham crackers was loaded with sugar and hydrogenated oils. I knew it was time to learn to make my own.  They are amazingly simple to make. Here is a recipe that my family enjoys, I hope yours will too!!   Graham Crackers Crystal Miller   1/3 c. olive oil 1/3 c. honey ¼ c milk 2T molasses 1 t. vanilla 2 ½ to 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour 1 t baking powder ½ t. baking soda ¼ t. salt 1 t cinnamon   In a large mixing bowl using a wire whip mix combine olive oil, milk, honey, molasses and vanilla. In a smaller mixing bowl combine 2 ½ cups of pastry flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon. Add this to the liquid mixture. At some point you will want to switch from the wire whip to large mixing spoon. Add the extra ½ cup flour if your dough is sticky. A lit...

  Well the sky is blue, mostly, and that is a good sign that we may have a nice summery day today! Maybe we can enjoy a little swim and sun time at the pond this afternoon.   Our weekend was busy, Tobin worked and the kids and I caught up on laundry and housework and Emily baked us a couple more pies. She gets hooked on a type of recipe (breads, pies, etc…) and bakes a bunch.. we don’t complain! LOL.. I had purchased 20#’s of organic peaches from my Azure co-op and so we had a yummy peach pie that she made. I hope they still have peaches available next month. That 20# box is almost gone. We have all been enjoying them so much. She also made a strawberry pie using fruit sweetened strawberry jam and it was good too.. I will try and find the time to get the recipes posted here on the blog. Good thing there are enough of us around here that one pie only gives one serving to each of us or my waistline would be gro...

Here is the Peanut Butter Pie recipe I mentioned in my last blog posting. And wow.. this pie was delicious!    Peanut Butter Pie Emily Miller   1 graham cracker crust (recipe follows) 1 ½ cups whole cream 2 oz cream cheese, softened 1 cup powdered Sucanat (can use powdered sugar), sift before measuring 1/3 cup half n half 1 t vanilla 1 cup peanut butter (made with peanuts only, chunky or smooth, your choice) Chocolate syrup (for drizzling on top)   We make this in our Kitchen Aid and have two bowls for it and both were needed for this recipe. You could make this with a KA and if you have hand beaters that would be helpful for whipping the cream. If not, follow directions for whipping the cream and then transfer this into a bowl while you wash the bowl and move on to the second part.   Before you begin put a bowl and the beaters of your mixer in the freezer to chill. When they are cold, whip the cream until it is very stiff.  ...

  Our Wednesday has been much less hectic than are Tuesday was. We started off Tuesday by finding the mama goat that I had figured was not going to deliver this year, had delivered quads! Unfortunately one was dead and was not looking too great. The other two were doing fine. We brought the one that was not doing well up to the house. We hand fed her colustrum from mama with a dropper and it seemed like it was perking up and was doing better but despite all our effort never made it through the night .. so another sad face..   the realities of farm life…  That made a total of 11 kids born on the farm this year. . I still have 3 kids from earlier births that I need to get sold and try and decide if I want to keep these two little does or sell them and the mama goat too. That would certainly thin down the herd which has been my goal this year.   I took Emily into the doctor today. On Monday night her ey...

I apologize to the lady who emailed me asking me for this recipe. I said I would write it out and post it several days ago! I have just been so busy I have not had the time to get it off my scratch paper and onto the computer until now! I had another change in my menu plan last night, due to a crazy day that had some unexpected things happen.. and we decided to make this last night..  so I took a couple pictures and got the recipe finally written down.    Normally I serve homemade egg rolls with this salad, but with my day yesterday there was no way I had the time for that.. so Leanne made some garlic cheese dinner rolls to go with it.. not very oriental.. LOL.. but tasted very good!!   Chinese Chicken Salad Crystal Miller ~this meal feeds 7 of us (2 adults and 3 teens, 2 children)   Coconut oil 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour 3 t salt ¾ t pepp...

  Well my Saturday did not go quite as planned. I did get 25#’s of soap made and my sauerkraut made too (it is now sitting on the counter fermenting and will be ready by Tuesday). But my daughter Emily got a call from a lady she baby sits for and she asked if Emily could come and watch her little twin boys (who are only a few weeks old) for the afternoon. Leanne said she would go and help too. Sooo the chickens never got done! But they are still on the to-do list for this week. I should have been more clear in my post on pictures of butchering the chickens.. I will put this on a webpage.. not directly here on the blog.. so those that are vegetarians, don’t want to see something like this, or don’t think they can handle this, …don’t have to click.    -   I think it was Kitty who said something about how nice it was my girls help me out with this.. haa.. haa.. it is really the other way around!...

- Sunday Baked chicken legs Cheesy rice pilaf Peas   Monday Potato soup w/sausage Cornbread   Tuesday Bbq beef over homemade rolls or brown rice Coleslaw   Wednesday Tuna salad Split pea soup Dinner rolls   Thursday Hamburgers on the grill Potato salad Carrot sticks w/homemade ranch dip   Friday Crockpot chicken and gravy Brown rice Fried cabbage and onions   Saturday Tacos w/all the trimmings Tortilla chips and salsa Salad    

  Today is rainy and gray. Apparently we are getting the tail end of a typhoon that is out in the Pacific Ocean and that has given us several days of gray and wet weather. I know one thing my garden is loving it.. both my plants and the weeds!!  There will be lots to do in the garden when the sunny dry days come back.      Today I have a ton of stuff I want to get done but reality says I won’t get to it all. I am starting my day off by making soap. As soon as I am done blogging I will be getting at it. I am planning on making about 25#’s.    Then my list includes making sauerkraut (I put some yogurt out last night to drain and now have whey to do this), and I really wanted to get a gallon of kefir going too… and the biggest chore for my girls and I today is we need to butcher a chicken or two.. that is the one I am not sure I will get to! Emily and Leanne have caught a couple egg eaters and it is t...

  My daughters arrived home from Mexico safe and sound, exhausted and inspired, encouraged and very tan! More than that they returned seeing how fortunate and blessed they were and all that they take for granted here in this country. They were thankful that they had the opportunity to help these people. One of my daughters said that despite the conditions she saw (incredible poverty and destitute situations) that many of these people were happy, especially the children. That greatly impacted her to see face to face that ‘stuff’ is not what it is all about here on this earth. Both daughters would like to do something like this again. They were blessed by the opportunity to reach out and touch the lives of these people, even in a small way. I have been looking at their pictures and hearing all about it! I am sure when they have recovered they will be posting more about their experience.    This morning I woke up to rain. It ce...

  It has been over a week since I blogged last. What a busy, busy week it has been! My girls will be home late tomorrow night. They leave Mexico today. I have only heard from them once so far. I am looking forward to seeing them again!  I have missed them!   The younger kids and I have managed the farm pretty well in their absence. We have gotten into a nice routine .    Sierra has done a great job helping me in the kitchen and in the house. The boys have done a great job helping in the house too, but they have been doing most of the goat chores and chickens. We let our goats out of their fenced area daily to browse the property and help keep the weeds and grass down. So every day the boys let them out, and then nightly they fill water buckets and round them back into the barn and then open the gate so Dad can get to work in the evening without the hassle of stopping to deal with the gate. Then they fe...

After spending lots of time in the last two weeks in preparation, packing and numerous details.. I finally got my two girls, Emily & Leanne, off to Mexico yesterday morning! Our pastor picked them up at 4:AM. He also dropped his son Andy off with us to stay while they are all in Mexico . There are a group 16 people going; several adults and teens. They will be building houses and doing VBS for about 200+ kids. I hope it is a great experience for them.   Since they left the house has seemed very quiet! The kids are enjoying having Andy here.. he is my boys’ best friend (the one they went to Disney Land with). I have had a chance to catch up on housework and book work and web work. Soon I will get July’s newsletter out (in case you were wondering where it is).    This morning I got up before the kids and made them sausage gravy over whole wheat biscuits, scrambled eggs and fruit for breakfast. They ate all of it...

Honey Glazed Carrots Crystal Miller   The other day I put a roast in the crockpot in the morning to cook all day. In the evening we made up some garlic potatoes and I made these honey glazed carrots to go with the meal. They were a big hit!    1 ½ lbs of carrots (this was about 8 to 10 large size carrots), sliced into coins water ¼ t salt 4T butter 2 T honey   Put carrot coins into a medium sized sauce pan and add water. You don’t want to cover them, you want to steam them. Just make sure there is enough water to keep them from scorching. Add the salt and bring this to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the carrots are fork tender, but not falling apart (approx. 10 minutes).   When the carrots are done, drain the water. In the same saucepan add the butter and honey and put this back on the burner on low. After the butter has melted add the cooked carrots. Gently stir and cook them until they have a nice gl...

  What a week it was. I have managed to get lots of little details done in preparation for my girl’s trip to Mexico . They are going on a mission’s trip with our church. There was a nice long list of supplies that they needed and I think I have all of it done. They have less than a week now to finish packing. I think we have one more trip out to pick up things and then we are completely done. They are very excited to be going and I am excited for them!   The younger kids and I will be managing the farm and the home chores without them. So it will seem very different for the 10 days they will be gone.   One of our trips to town last week was to Good Will. I love thrift stores. The girls on this Mexico trip must dress very conservatively .. clothes can’t be form fitting, no skin showing, long skirts, etc.. My girls are pretty modest in their dress but they are not as modest as the standards of the vil...