Homemaking on the Homestead

I thought it would be fun to give you a look into a week of shopping and cooking for my family for one week. I have thought about doing this in the past but because of the way I shop and buy food, it made it hard to get a sense of “this is what I spent in one week and this is what we ate”. The reason has to do with the way I shop and the way I cook. I buy most of my basic food ingredients in bulk, I buy in advance if there is a good deal on something and I make a lot of my own products that others might buy or use some other alternative. An example of that is when I make my own soup stocks. I will make a chicken or beef stock and put it in the freezer and use this to make soups. So it is not something I purchase. I also will often have meal starters in the freezer made with meats or grains that were purchased in previous months. Regardless of this, I decided I would give you a look into what goes on with my grocery budget for a week as well as what I produce in my kitchen for a w...

I make broth often. I love having it on hand for easy and delicious tasting soups and other recipes. I typically make chicken broth or beef broth. My daughter Leanne was in charge of the cooking one night and asked if I had any vegetable broth. I told her no I did not and that got me thinking how easy veggie broth would be to make. What I did not think about right at that moment was how economical it is to make as well. You can have several cups of vegetable broth sitting in your freezer waiting for the moment you have a recipe that calls for a can of broth for virtually free. I say virtually because, well, you do have to buy the veggies to begin with, but let me show you how it is practically free. What do you do with your vegetable scraps? You know, the carrot peelings, the ends off the celery, the onion skins, the tomato cores, the outer layer off the cabbage and so forth. Well in my house they either get fed to the goats or they go in the compost pile. Now I have another use...

With the nasty wet spring we have had it was making it almost impossible to get my garden in. But thankfully there have been a few dry days in between all the rain and I took full advantage of them! My garden is all planted now. Yesterday the sun was shining and I did some weeding and my hubby was able to rototill the garden. It is looking good and I am encouraged! I took some pics to share with you. I got my 34 tomato plants in the ground about 3 weeks ago. It was getting to the point that I either was going to have to transplant them all again or plant them. Luckily an open window of dry days came and I got them in the ground. They seem to be doing good (other than needing a bit more heat which I hope is now happening).. When it was clear that I could not get my corn in the ground at the time I typically do I decided to plant the seeds in my little greenhouse box hubby made me. I planted about 200 seeds and most of them came up. After two weeks the soil was warm enough to...

Whole Wheat Pie Crust I love making pies! I never use to as much, mostly because of making the pie crust. I was not happy with the whole wheat pie crusts I was coming up with. I did not want to use shortening so at first I subbed butter for the shortening. That was not too bad, but could be hard to work with sometimes. Then I tried olive oil. That was ok too.. but finally I tweaked a recipe and played around with it until I came up with something that I absolutely love now! I use both butter and coconut oil. I also make the pie crust in my Bosch. If you have a Kitchen Aid that will work too. One lady told me she has also done it by hand with success. In my directions below I am using my Bosch. The recipe makes 4 crusts. If this is more than you want at one time, the remaining crusts can be refrigerated for up to two weeks or frozen. Wrap the unused pie crust dough pieces in plastic wrap and store in your fridge or freezer. If you refrigerate or freeze them make sure you let th...

Well I know it is Sunday now, but here is what I did in the kitchen yesterday… Lately our weather has been more like early spring, meaning wet and cool.. so I have been continuing to make soup for these types of days. I like soup (even during the summer) because it is easy, quick and I can make a pot big enough to last my family for a couple of days. Yesterday I made (recipes can be found on my site): Yummy Pinto Beans http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/yummypintobeans.htm Cornbread http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/cornbread1.htm Salad w/homemade Ranch Dressing http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/ranchdressing.htm Here is how the afternoon went: I cooked up a pot of pinto beans and then drained out a good deal of the bean broth. I save the bean broth that I drain out to add back later. I cooked up a pound of hamburger with an onion: When the beans were done cooking I added the cooked hamburger/onion mix, tomatoes, molasses, sweetener (you can use sucanat or brow...