Homemaking on the Homestead

…. From Homemaking on the Homestead! I’ll be back in a day or 2 to with January’s Homemaking Challenge!!    

  Monday Sour cream chicken enchiladas , tortilla chips & salsa, Tuesday Homemade pizza Wednesday Jambalaya , cornbread, coleslaw Thursday Leanne is cooking us a Korean meal Friday Lasagna soup, french bread, coleslaw Saturday Crockpot pork chops w/onion & mushroom sauce, roasted sweet potatoes, salad Sunday Leftovers      

  As 2013 is coming to an end I’ve been contemplating my blog and what direction to go with it. I love blogging, I enjoy sharing and find a great deal of satisfaction from it. I’m excited for the New Year and what will unfold, not only in my life but here on my blog, which for me go hand in hand. I’ve always gotten the inspiration for my blog from my own life. I’m not a “professional blogger” and have no desire to be. My preference has always been to share real life. From the beginning my goal for my blog, website, forums, etc. has been to encourage homemakers in their daily walk. And that is what I will continue to strive to do for this coming year. I’ve been blogging now since 2006 (I started my blog in December of 2005 ) and one thing that has gone through my mind a lot is how my life has changed so much in the last 8 years. When I started blogging I had a house full of little ones, tweens and teens. I was homeschooling them all, I raised goats, milked goats,...

The Christmas holiday is behind me … and it was a wonderful time. I absolutely love my family and having a reason to gather together is a blessing. Our time spent was a blessing. Here are a few pics from our time…. And the crazy silly pic... Now I’ll be busy cleaning up Christmas and putting it all away. I know many people leave their tree up until the first of the year, but I prefer to put it all away and start the year out fresh ready to tackle my new year’s goals. I’m looking forward to the New Year… lots of plans and thoughts and goals running through my mind.. I pray you all had a blessed holiday and are ready to tackle the new year! I’ll be back with plans to share on tackling my home and the new year!!  

I pray you all have a blessed Christmas!    

Busy week ahead.. I had a hard time figuring out what to serve after Christmas! :) My mind is focused on feeding 15+ people on Tuesday & Wednesday.. but I got it figured out. Monday Spaghetti, french bread, salad Tuesday Christmas Eve Dinner (posted in previous blog post) Wednesday Leftover dinner from Christmas Eve, turkey sandwiches, veggie platter Thursday Leftovers Friday Crockpot chalupas, Spanish rice, salad Saturday Pork chops, roasted sweet potatoes, green beans Sunday Chicken rice soup, bread of some sort, salad  

I’ve had lots of different ideas for Christmas dinner. I’ve thought of doing things I’ve done in the past, new ideas, new recipes, etc. We don’t really have a traditional meal we always make. However I like to make things that are simple and not require a lot of time in the kitchen because I’d rather be enjoying my time with my family. So after much discussion with one of my daughters this is my menu: Pork loin roast , covered in bacon and roasted (I’ll cook this in my roaster oven to leave my oven available) Garlic roasted new potatoes Sweet potatoes Salad: I’ll be purchasing a salad mix from Costco that I’ve bought before really enjoy. It has a mix of many types of greens as well as dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds 24 hour fruit salad: this is one recipe that makes it appearance at least once during the holiday season French bread Dessert: cookies (the recipes I’ve posted recently), homemade fudge and peanut butter fudge We will have our main dinner...

This wraps up my cookie baking for the holidays. I have one more canning recipe to share tomorrow but then I move onto making fudge in the next day or so and then it is on to planning and preparing for the Christmas Eve dinner for my family. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts I have a few GF family members so I like to make sure I have goodies that everyone can enjoy. So both these cookie recipes are gluten free. The first is Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies . Basically I used the Nestle Toll House cookie recipe and subbed my own GF flour mix for the flour called for in the recipe. They turned out well after a bit of experimenting. I found they browned on the edges before the centers looked cooked enough. So it was a matter of finding the right time to remove them from the oven without over baking the edges. About 10 minutes seemed right (but you will want to check yours as oven temps seem to vary). The centers finished baking without issue and the cook...

Monday Hamburger stroganoff , french bread, salad Tuesday Bibimbap – a traditional Korean dish of rice & veggies (with chicken added) that Leanne is making us for dinner Wednesday Gino’s East deep dish pizza copycat recipe , salad Thursday Pork chops, roasted sweet potatoes, green beans Friday White bean chicken chili , tortillas chips & salsa, veggie platter Saturday Lasagna , french bread, salad Sunday Fish sticks, brown rice, salad    

    Cookies are on the dessert menu for Christmas with my family. We’ve been making a variety of cookies and I wanted to make sure we had a few gluten free options for the GF family members. Sierra made these cookies the other day and they were soooo good!! Had to get them in the freezer quickly to keep everyone from eating them! Ha, ha!!   Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies 1 cup butter, softened 1 ½ cups sugar ½ cup molasses 2 eggs 4 cups gluten free flour mix (recipe follows, if you use a different flour mix that does not have xanthan gum in it you will also need to add 2t xanthan gum to this recipe ) ½ t salt 2 ¼ t baking soda 2 ¼ t ginger 3t pumpkin pie spice ~a little extra sugar for rolling dough balls Optional: 1 ½ cups white chocolate chips & 2T coconut oil (for dipping cookies in) Using a large mixer (such as a Bosch or Kitchen Aid) bowl cream butter and sugar well. Add molasses and eggs and mix well again. Add remaining ingre...

This last week we’ve been making a lot of goodies and I’ve been sharing them as the week has gone by. Today my daughter, Sierra, finished up some cookies that I’ll share tomorrow and I made chocolate cherry sauce.  This is another quick and easy canning recipe that would make a super nice little gift as well. I made up a batch of this sauce this evening and it tasted yummy! I used frozen cherries that I purchased at Costco. Now I have a few jars for giving away and a couple for our own shelf. It will make a great topper for ice cream, cheesecake, pudding and so on. After doing some research on canning chocolate sauce what I found was that typically chocolate sauce on its own cannot be canned. It is a low acid food and not suitable for water bath canning. However with the fruit and lemon juice added it raises the ph level enough to make it fine for canning. Canning Chocolate Cherry Sauce 4-1/2 cups frozen sweet cherries 4 Tbsp. lemon juice 1/2 cup sifted...

  No Christmas at my grandmother’s would have been complete without snowball cookies. They always bring me good Christmas memories when we make them. The recipe is easy to make and tastes so yummy!     Snowball Cookies 1 cup butter ½ cup powdered sugar 1t vanilla 2 ¼ cups flour 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts ¼ t salt Using a mixer combine butter & powdered sugar until creamy. Add the vanilla and mix until smooth. Add flour, nuts and salt. Roll into 1 inch balls. Place on a cookie sheet (I like to line my cookie sheets with parchment paper). Bake for 15 minutes 350. Let them cool for a few minutes but while still warm roll them in powdered sugar and place a cooling rack. After they have completely cooled, roll in powdered sugar once again. Enjoy!!      

  If you’re looking for an easy, fun project that could also be a nice gift this may the answer!! I made a batch of this and it is soooo good!! As a gift it would be perfect coupled with a loaf of homemade bread or rolls, or even just given on its own. What is nice about this recipe is that you can use frozen strawberries and fresh or frozen cranberries. I bought several bags of cranberries in November and put them in the freezer. When I made this jam I used both frozen strawberries & cranberries. This recipe makes a lot!! So you will have plenty to give as gifts and for your family to enjoy. Here is the recipe: Strawberry Cranberry Jam Makes approx. 13 half pint jars 3#’s frozen strawberries 12 oz fresh or frozen cranberries 1T lemon juice 2 boxes pectin 1t butter 8 cups sugar Put strawberries, cranberries, lemon juice, pectin and butter into a large, 6 to 8qt, stock pot. On medium heat slowly bring to a boil. Stir to prevent i...

  Monday Orange chicken, coconut brown rice , garlic roasted broccoli Tuesday Chili , cornbread, salad Wednesday Meatloaf , mashed potatoes, caesar salad Thursday Leftovers Friday No cream soup tuna noodle casserole , green beans Saturday Crockpot bbq chicken, Laurie’s mac & cheese, salad Sunday Fish tacos , w/ guacamole and trimmings      

  Our weather is really cooling down. We had a few snow flurries today but they never amounted to anything, but it was cold out! I had the wood stove going and that felt so nice. My kids were gone for the morning/afternoon. They went to Seattle for the day with a friend. With a quiet afternoon ahead of me I decided to make my family a little treat. I had some pumpkin puree sitting in the fridge that I wanted to use up and pumpkin cinnamon rolls would be just the ticket. I’ve made this recipe many, many times. It is always a favorite. You can find the recipe here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/pumpkincinnamonrolls.htm   or below is a link to print the recipe. It is a big recipe and will fill 2 9x13 pans (or a big jelly roll pan). If that is too much the recipe can be cut in half. Or the extra rolls can be frozen for another day. Or given away later on to friends or neighbors.   Print Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Recipe: This time I frosted the r...

My daughter Leanne met a nice older man during her time of ballroom dancing. He has since become a part of our family. We invite him for family parties, holidays and such. He has no family living close by. He is Chinese and I sense that because of the language barrier most people don’t have patiences to deal with communication issues. Our family however had no problem. When he came to our home last year for Thanksgiving dinner he told us this was his first Thanksgiving (after 20 years living in this country, no one had invited him!). He also told another one of our daughters that Leanne was the nicest person he had ever met. All she did was extend her hand in friendship. Amazing what that can do for a person’s life. Now he is friends with all of our family and no holiday or family get together would be complete without him. But what does this have to do with the title of this article? Well he said to Leanne one time (after meeting many of her siblings), how is it yo...

After a year and 2 weeks my daughter is home from S. Korea. We are so thrilled and she could not be more happy to be home! She arrived home on Saturday evening. We met her at the airport. There were 13 of us there to greet her, mom, dad, siblings, nieces and a brand new nephew, & friends.. waving S. Korean Flags and making a whole lot of hoopla! Lots of hugs, lots of kisses.. we came home and had a welcome home party with lots of food and time to chat and give more hugs.. The next day my family and more friends joined us for our Thanksgiving dinner (18 in all). It was a blessed time for my husband and me. We enjoyed each and every moment with our children and grandchildren. God is good and has greatly blessed us and we are very grateful for it all. Here are a few pics of our time… Getting off the plane after a 10 hour flight to San Francisco and then a lay over and finally arriving at Portland International Airport..  she was shocked to see us all.. we wer...