Homemaking on the Homestead

Proverbs 31: 26 “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness” According to the Free Online Dictionary wisdom means: The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight. Wisdom comes from our relationship with God and the study of His Word. It comes from time and experience living a godly life. I find it interesting to note that this is the only verse in this section on the Proverbs 31 woman that is directed at how she speaks to others. The other verses are about what she does in her life as a godly woman. I think there is a connection between doing and working the tasks of our daily life the Lord has called us to and the wisdom this produces in us. I think of all the foolish things I have said over the years and how I have had to learn, sometimes the hard way, the wise thing to say in my communications. I’m still a work in progress. What comes out of our mouths is a reflection of our heart .. "out of the abund...

Well.. Thanksgiving is just one month away! So today my daughters and I got together to plan this years dinner. Wow, is all I can say about having grown daughters.. I love it!! Looks like I won’t be doing all the work to make it happen.. LOL.. so we planned the menu; everyone has their favorite dishes.. then we planned who would be making what.. then it was table settings, center pieces and so on.. Besides planning our Thanksgiving dinner we also celebrated Hannah’s birthday. She turned 23 yesterday. She is a super lady. She was my first homebirth so that is very memorable. Today Hannah is an awesome mommy to two lovely young ladies (Elizabeth is 3 and Rylee is 5 months) and she is a homemaker and just loves it. I am very proud of her!! :) Some pics of our little planning/birthday party.. Hannah & Emily Little Miss Rylee.. It is not to early to start thinking about planning Thanksgiving Dinner if you are hosting. I have a webpage th...

This meatloaf recipe is a great way to add some extra vegetables to your meal. The meatloaf comes out super moist and delicious. My family enjoys it very much. I have even used the same recipe and made them into meatballs. I served buttered spinach fettuccine noodles and a salad with this meal. The recipe below makes 2 meatloaves. If that is more than you need you can cut the recipe in half or freeze one for another meal. Beef & Veggie Meatloaf 2 ½ to 3lbs hamburger 1 onion 3 medium to large mushrooms 1 large carrot, peeled 2 eggs 2t minced garlic 1t salt 1t pepper ½ t seasoning salt Put hamburger in a large mixing bowl. Now take the onion, mushrooms and carrot and puree them in your food processor. Add them to the hamburger in the bowl… Now add the eggs and spices… Using your hands mix everything until well combined… Divide between two loaf pans.. Optionally, if you would like you can drizzle a little bbq sauce over the top before baki...

Are you an avid reader? I am! And while I love the library it is not always convenient for me to get there. So I have purchased a lot of books online over the years. I typically purchase them used through Amazon.com. I had quite a large collection of books accumulating when I came across a great site! It is called Paperback Swap. I have been using Paperback Swap now for about a year or so and love it! The basic idea behind it is that you create an account with them, list the books that you would like to give away. Then when another member requests one of your books you mail it to them, with no shipping charge to the person who requested it (you pay media mail shipping rate and can even print out the shipping wrapper w/postage on their site) . This will give you one credit.  Now with your credit you can request a book from another member, they pay the shipping to send the book to you. You will get two credits for joining the site to begin with so you can request a bo...

We had a nice string of dry days and it allowed my garden to be dry enough to rototill. My son Jacob came and spent a few days with us and while he was here he helped me (along with Isaac & Sierra) get the garden cleaned up and ready for winter.  It took the 4 of us 3 hours to get it all done. I left my cabbage plants and a few pumpkins. Not sure if either will produce much, but we’ll see. I also left my cosmos flowers because they are in full bloom and looking so pretty. The goats got the corn stalks and were quite happy about it!! The rest went to the compost pile. Here are some pics from yesterday’s garden clean up…  

I have my country store stocked with my favorite and popular fall goat milk soap scents!!    Brown Sugar & Spice is a combination scent of brown sugar with a hint of spice and vanilla Oak Leaves & Acorns is a great combo of rustic pine, wild violets and fall leaves! I love these two scents and look forward to them each year at this time!! Check them at Crystal’s Country Store  

One thing I do love about fall is pumpkin!! , I love to light pumpkin scented candles, use pumpkin spice soap and of course I like to bake and cook with it! I wanted to share a few recipes I have made recently. The first is pumpkin muffins. The other night I made a big pot of chili and thought having some pumpkin muffins to go with the chili sounded yummy. So I made 2 dozen of these muffins and my family said they were delish and went great with the chili.  Pumpkin Muffins Makes 12 muffins 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour 1t baking soda ½ t salt 1t cinnamon ½ t ginger ¼ t cloves 1/8t nutmeg ¾ cup dark brown sugar or sucanat 3T molasses ¼ c olive oil 2 eggs 1 c pureed pumpkin ¾ c soured milk or buttermilk In a small bowl combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and brown sugar or sucanat. Set aside. In a mixer bowl combine remaining ingredients. Mix until well combined. Add flour mixture and mix until all ingredients are just combined. Spra...

I’ve spent the last few days dealing with some website issues. I needed to move my website to a new server. It was supposed to be a simple thing. But without going into a lot of boring detail.. it was not! But I do have it up and running again. Yea!! ~smile~ Now maybe I can get back to semi normal around here. The days are getting shorter and cooler in my part of the world! I’ve had a fire going off and on. Yesterday was a beautiful fall day, sunny and mild. Rain is in the forecast for today and the next few days. With my attention being diverted to my website I am off my menu plan. So today I did something simple and made a pot of hamburger veggie soup. It was another “off the cuff” recipe. I also made a couple dozen carrot muffins for my family to enjoy with the soup. My house has also suffered this weekend. So this afternoon I am working to restore some order and plan for the upcoming week. One item on my list for this week will be making another large pot of veggie s...

Since the weather started cooling down here in the Pacific Northwest I’ve started making more soup.   It started one day due to needing to use up some food in my fridge.   So it was just off the cuff so to speak.   I made potato sausage cheese chowder.   My family went nuts over it.   I wish I had a proper recipe to give you but I can give you the basics of what I did.   I measured out 4lbs potatoes.   I peeled them and chopped them into bite size pieces.   Put them in my soup pot and covered with water.    I cooked them until they were fork tender.   I drained off most of the water.   While they cooked I chopped up one onion and cooked this in my cast iron frying pan with about 1lb of sausage (Jimmy Dean).    After the potatoes were drained I added the sausage/onion mixture and 2 cups of frozen corn and about 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese.    Then I added enough milk to make it the right soup consis...

Fall had arrived and so has the cool weather and so this month’s menu has a few more soup recipes in it. Nothing like soup and homemade bread on a cool fall day.    Due to some technical difficulties which I am dealing with my menu calendar is not posted on my main site but you can find it here:  http://crystalscountrystore.com/MenuOct2011.pdf     1 st – bean, sausage & veggie soup, zucchini muffins 2 nd – leftover soup and muffins 3 rd – creamy chicken & veggie soup, cornbread, salad 4 th – beef stew , dinner rolls, salad 5 th – tuna or salmon patties , garlic roasted potatoes , salad 6 th – leftovers 7 th – baked chicken, brown rice pilaf , salad 8 th – sausage potato chowder , dinner rolls, salad 9 th – black bean chicken chili , tor...