Homemaking on the Homestead

  This last week was another busy week with no time to blog. This coming week is looking busy as well. My daughter Leanne is coming home from S. Korea for a visit. It will be a short visit but we are all excited as she has not been home in a year. I'm planning a few meals that are her favorites. On Friday my daughter Emily & her hubby will be coming up from California to see Leanne and the family. We have a big family bbq planned over the weekend. So lots for me to do before the family starts rolling on in. Today is grocery shopping day. I need to get stocked up on a few things. So tonight's dinner will be a hamburger, rice, salsa, cheese casserole. It is one of my hubby's favorites. The only twist to it will be that I plan to try it out in the Instant Pot. I also plan on making a double batch for Tuesday's dinner too. I'll serve green beans (from my garden :), chips and salsa along side it. The rest of the week is looking like this.. Pu...

  Hard to believe we are in the second half of July already! That is what happens when you are busy, time just flies on by. :) This last week was a busy fun week with hubby's birthday and having friends from California visiting us. This week, if the weather cooperates I need to get in my garden and do some weeding. Thanks to the rain we've had off and on the weeds have started growing like crazy. This week's menu looks to be pretty basic. I'll be making some orange chicken (from Costco), egg rolls and rice for dinner tonight. The rest of the week is looking like this... Cabbage & Sausage I'll do this in my Instant Pot. I will be using some Jimmy Dean sausage that I have in the fridge and need to use up plus a cabbage from my garden. I plan on adding onion and garlic and cooking it up for 4 to 5 minutes. I'll serve this with some fresh summer fruit and dinner rolls. Summer Pasta This is a one pot meal that I've made several ...

I made this cheesecake a couple weeks ago. But it's been a busy couple weeks with so much going on that it is just now I have a few moments to sit and share this with you. This was so good and so easy to make. I was shocked to see how simple a cheesecake can be. There is one thing you need to know. You will need a 7” springform pan for this. I have 2 cheesecake pans, a 10” and an 8”.. just figures. The 8” will not fit in the Instant Pot. So I found one on Amazon and ordered it. Worked perfect. This cheesecake is an Oreo Cookie cheesecake.. I currently am planning on making a salted caramel one.. as soon as the busyness settles down. The recipe can be found here: http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/instant-pot-oreo-cheesecake/ I gathered together all my ingredients... Ran the cookies through my food processor to grind them up for the crust and prepared the pan. You need to put foil on the bottom and spray the pan with non stick spray. I've been using a cocon...

It's been a strange summer so far. A few hot days then cool days, finally it started warming up only to currently be much cooler. I like the idea of planning summer meals but have to wonder if a pot of soup or chili would be better instead! I for one am trying to be patient and hope for a warm up soon. :) Tonight I am making meatball sub sandwiches. I'll add a salad and potato chips on the side. I have a few errands to run today so I'll put my premade meatballs and spaghetti sauce in the crockpot before I leave. It will be ready when I get home for a quick to serve dinner. The rest of the week looks like this... BBQ Steak My hubby's birthday is this week. I have some steaks in the freezer and we will bbq those to celebrate. Some super good garlic bread from Costco and roasted veggies will be served on the side. I'll make him something yummy for dessert. I may make a cheesecake in my Instant Pot (the last one I made was fantastic and I'...

In this day an age everyone knows if they are having a boy or a girl before the baby is born. But my daughter Hannah and her hubby decided they wanted the surprise. They did this with the last baby as well. I got the call about 1:30 am that she was in labor on Sunday morning. My hubby was at work so I quickly called him so he would know the time had finally come (my daughter was late, but we were all waiting on God's perfect timing). I drove over to my daughters house. She was having a home birth. The midwives were there and she was already in the birthing tub. The house was quiet, the children were asleep and my daughter was doing an amazingly wonderful job with each contraction. It was so peaceful. Her hubby was in the tub with her, rubbing her back and helping her through each contraction. It was a beautiful picture of labor and love. It was also a beautiful picture of birth without intervention, my most treasured type of birth. She pushed for about 20 minutes...

Happy 4th of July!!! It's been a crazy busy week. The best news is we have a new grandbaby!! I'll be sharing about that soon.. I'm still soaking up the newborn phase and helping out my daughter. I also had several of my kids here over the weekend to help do some clean up and repair of one of our fenced areas so we can move the goats and they can start working on the blackberries that have taken over the area. As I sad, busy, busy but exciting.. :) I threw this menu together quickly so I'd have some sort of guide but it is subject to change depending on how my week goes. Due to all the busyness over the last week we've opted not to do anything big for the 4th. Typically we have a big get together with family and friends, but this year we are taking a break. So tonight we will be eating leftovers. Over the weekend with all the extra people here I ended up making enchiladas and sweet pork tacos to feed my crew of workers. We still have some to fin...