Homemaking on the Homestead

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week.

If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic).. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :)


So Far This Week
Good morning! I'm enjoying a hot cup of coffee and a warm home on this cold winter morning. It is warmer then it was last week, which is nice. We get a little melting of the snow each day before it drops back below freezing. Our white winter world is still holding on. For many of you, I'm sure this is the norm. However for us here in the PNW it is not. We do get snow, sometimes a big snow storm. But it melts quickly and we move on. Winters here are typically mild and wet. So this winter has been very different!

It has been a good week so far. My son came for a visit over the weekend. He and my youngest son have been involved…

Oh how good it has been to cook with my Instant Pot rather than a camp stove :). It's been nice to have all my appliances back this weekend. Oh the things we miss when the power is out.

This week I am once again using as much from my freezer and pantry as I can. As I mentioned last week, just trying to keep my food rotated and not forgotten. Having it all written down and organized in my notebook has been helpful.

Tonight I'm making my own chicken dish in my IP. I'm not using a recipe, just putting together chicken thighs (boneless, skinless) and seasoning them with salt, pepper, garlic, dried onion and a few sprinkles of red pepper. Then I'll add chicken broth, orange juice and a little lemon juice. We'll see how it turns out. I'll share more detail if it is a success. I'll serve this with rice, egg rolls (from Costco) and a salad.

The rest of the week is looking like this..

Pork Carnitas
This was a recipe I was going to try last week. After I lo…

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week.

If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic).. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :)


So Far This Week
What a week it is has been! I've been battling winter here and that is why Wednesday Snap Shot is so late this week.

I had a lot of nice things to say about this last week and was ready to put out my post on Wednesday. But, I woke up to no power and the worst ice storm I've ever seen in 20 years of living here. Everything was covered in a thick coat of ice. Yesterday evening we finally got our power on. It had been almost 3 full days.

The ice was so thick that it brought down tress and branches everywhere. It sounded like I was living in a war zone as I saw and heard branches and trees falling right and left with the weight …

The weather here is going to start warming up. It's been below freezing for a few weeks and the transition will most likely bring freezing rain and make driving conditions difficult. So hubby and I are running into town today to take care of a few errands and pick up some groceries in case we are stuck in house for a few days.

Over the weekend I did a freezer and pantry inventory, wrote & organized the lists. I wanted to work on making my menus with the idea to keep my food rotated and not get lost at the bottom of the freezer or the back of a shelf.

With this in mind here is this weeks menu....


Saucy Meatballs
This is a familiar recipe for most everyone. A bottle of chili sauce, a jar of grape jelly (approx the same size) poured over pre cooked meatballs in a crockpot. I'm going to try making it in my Instant Pot. I'll serve rice and broccoli.


Navy Bean & Ham Soup
I saved the ham bone from our Christmas ham and will use this to make soup. I'll serve …

This was my first time making beef bone broth in my Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Pressure Cooker, 6Qt/1000W(IP) (aff link). It turned out great. I simply love the fact that I can have nutritious bone broth in 2 hours, plus time added for coming to pressure and cooling down - but still something that can be done in an afternoon rather than taking 2 days or more.   I used the basic same method as I use for chicken broth.

I started with 3#'s beef bones. I used some beef rib bones and beef marrow bones. To ensure that my broth gelled I added 3 chicken feet. I also cut up one onion and about 3 carrots and several chopped cloves of garlic.


I put these ingredients in the IP.


I then gathered together 6 cups water, 1 tablespoon salt and 2 tablespoons vinegar (helps pull out minerals from the bones).


I added this to the IP.


Put the lid on, set the sealing knob to “Sealing” and pressed “Manual”. I set the time for 120 minutes.



I did a natural pressure release when…

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week.

If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic).. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :)


So Far This Week
It's been a wintry type week here. The big storm that came down from the north and hit most of the country also gave us our share of snow, sleet and ice. On Sunday it was mostly just ice and my hubby decided to not risk the trip to work. Normally he will drive through most anything and rarely misses work, but ice is another story. I for one was happy that both my younger children and my hubby were safely at home when the ice came.

Other than a trip to town to get groceries before the storms hit, I stayed home, hibernating, cooking and cleaning up. Yesterday the roads cleared enough for another grocery trip. We were almost out of …

We are currently snowed & iced in, as I'm guessing a lot of other people are around the country. But on the good side my kids and husband are all safely at home and we are cozy with the wood stove going.

I'm taking advantage of this time and working on my blog and cooking food to keep us going.

Here is what this weeks cooking is looking like..


BBQ Chicken
It's a quick and easy meal in the Instant Pot. I'll make a cheesy potato casserole to go with it and a salad.

The cheesy potato casserole is a easy & quick recipe from my daughter in law and my family really likes it.

1 bag (2lbs) frozen hash browns
1 1/2 cups sour cream
2 cups grated cheese
¾ cup butter, melted
salt & pepper, to taste

Combine everything in a large bowl. Put mixture in a 9x13 pan and bake at 325 for 25 to 30 minutes. You can set aside some of the grated cheese to put on top of the casserole if you would like.


Beef Stroganoff
I'll serve green beans on the side and maybe some b…

I don't know what it is about new notebooks and pens that can make me so happy. :) Every year I purchase a few new notebooks to write, journal and schedule life in. I'm old school in the fact that I prefer paper and pens to write things down in rather than my computer or phone. I do use electronics to keep track of a lot of things, but when it comes to thinking & writing, it has to be paper and pens.


This year I was evaluating my needs for notebooks and thinking about the fact that my life is not super busy like it use to be. I don't need detailed weekly/monthly type planners to keep track of appointments and schedules. I need space to write.

With that in mind here is what I purchased...


I LOVE them! The large one is a 5 subject notebook with dividers that I labeled with the following subjects: Home (all thing homemaking will be written down in this section), Meal Planning (ideas, thoughts, recipes, plans for each month), Projects (this includes all craft…

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week.

If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic).. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :)


So Far This Week
Wednesday Snapshot is late today!  I woke up a little before 6:am and at 6:30am we had a power outage.  We called the power company to let them know and they said there had been several wide spread outages.  Our weather is cold and very windy.  Knocking down trees and limbs and doing damage to many power lines.  By 9:30am it was still not back so hubby and I decided to go to town and pick up groceries and get some hot coffee! :) But all is back on now.  I appreciate our hardworking power linemen so much.  They work in the worst conditions at this time of year.

Other then this mornings little issues, it's been a good week so far. H…

First Monday of the New Year! Time to plan our meals for the week. I think almost the whole country is going to be hit with very cold temps this week. I'm going to plan on foods that fill us up and warm us up.

I'm starting my week off with beef stew. That jut sounds good to me. I have beef in the freezer, some small new potatoes, carrots, onions and mushrooms in the fridge. I'll use my Instant Pot (IP) and see what kind of a creation I can make for us tonight. I'll serve biscuits and a salad on the side. I plan on making a big batch so we can enjoy it for a couple nights.

The rest of the week is looking like this..

Salsa Verde Pork Stew
Last week I had salsa verde chicken on the menu. Due to leftovers and other foods not originally planned, it did not get made. So this week I'm planning on it with a difference, pork instead of chicken. And more stew/soup like. I don't have a recipe exactly so I'll see what I can put together. I'll use my IP f…