Homemaking on the Homestead

Tonight for dinner we had Salmon Patties, Garlic Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans. It was a yummy dinner that my family enjoyed quite a bit! I thought I would share it with you, step by step, today….. Garlic Roasted Potatoes This is one of our favorite ways to eat potatoes, well maybe mashed potatoes runs a close second. It is a very easy dish to put together. You will need an amount of potatoes to feed your family. For the pictures below I used about 3lbs along with some minced garlic, salt, seasoning salt and olive oil.. I chop the potatoes up into bite size pieces… Then I get out my 9x13 pan and some non-stick cooking spray. I spray the pan real well with it. Then add the potatoes and pour on some olive oil, the amount you need is based on how many potatoes you use. You want them nicely coated with the oil.. Next, I add minced garlic. For batch I used one kind of heaping tablespoon along with salt, pepper and some Johnny’s Seasoning Salt (no measureme...

I got it done! I cleaned up my storage area in the basement. I have a bunch of stuff to take to Good Will and I was able to throw away things as well. It feels great. When I went downstairs to start this little project I forgot to take my camera. My mind was focused on the task at hand. But I did take an after picture of the storage tote area. I keep my storage items in Rubbermaid totes that I label and stack against one wall in the basement. It was terribly chaotic and afterward I did wish I had taken a before picture! In any case here is what it looks like all cleaned up… Now, I also have a table that is 8 feet long and has 2 shelves. It sits next to my stacked totes. I store bigger items on this table. I store a lot of soap making oils and equipment as well as other items. It too was very chaotic looking. Things had been piled on the table, set on the floor in front of it and so on.. I was brave enough to take a before picture! LOL.. It is funny to me that I got so m...

This month I am writing about organizing. Aside from sharing about the organizing and cleaning projects I have going on this month I thought I would share about organizing the day. I am writing this mostly for those who have husbands who work non typical work shifts and schedules. The typical schedule to me is something like 9 to 5, Monday thru Friday. In reality I have never known this schedule! LOL.. it sounds really nice however. If you live on one of those schedules than life, I would think, would not be the challenge it is when you don’t. But, I really can’t say for sure because I don’t have any experience with this. My hubby is an aircraft mechanic and works for a regional airline. Aircraft maintenance (and the airline business in general) is a 24 hour, 7 days a week, 365 days a year type thing. There are 3 shifts: days, swing, and graveyard. He works the graveyard shift (all night). He likes this shift because it is the only one that works a 4 day work week. He a...

I got a good start to some cleaning this week. I went through my laundry room again, which was nothing like it had been when I did the big clean in there, so the job was pretty quick.. reorganize the shelves, pull “stuff” out and vacuum, sweep and mop the floors, etc… Then I moved onto my hallway. I have a couple of floor mats in front of my back door so I removed those and cleaned the floor underneath and around the edges, cleaned up the mats well. We get a lot of rain here, which equals a lot of mud and this gets brought into the house and lots of it ends up around and under these floor mats. Then I moved into the kitchen. I scrubbed my stove top, cleaned the vent (it is a center vent between the burners), and did a little cleaning inside of the oven, and cleaned the outside. Leanne and I then spent some time cleaning off the fronts of lower kitchen cabinets and did a good scrub job of the floor. By the time I was done the house was looking pretty nice! I still have m...

Well here is this month’s menu!  I have a few planned leftover days because I wanted less time in the kitchen so I could focus on getting my house organized.  But planning meals for my family is the first step in organization. So here are the meals planned for January…. 1 st – meatloaf, mashed potatoes, salad 2 nd – chili , cornbread , salad 3 rd – egg rolls , chicken chow mien  4 th – fish tacos, Spanish rice , salad 5 th – yummy pinto beans (make extra for tomorrow), homemade dinner rolls , salad 6 th – leftovers 7 th – split pea soup made with ham bone saved (frozen) from Christmas dinner, dinner rolls , salad 8 th – Cajun baked chicken , cheesy rice, salad 9 th – spaghetti, French bread, salad 10 th – kielbasa cabbage & pasta, salad 11 th – salmon patties , garlic roasted potatoes, coleslaw 12 th – tacos with all the trimmings 13 th – crockpot beef stew (make extra), dinner rolls , salad 14 th – leftovers 15 th – t...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I did not get a chance to post before the holiday like I had wanted to. Life just became a whirlwind of busyness. Prior to Christmas day we made a spontaneous trip up to Port Townsend, WA to visit Tobin’s parents. It was such a nice trip and we all enjoyed the break from our routine. It is always great to visit with the family. The girls and I got right to work after we got back to prepare food for our Christmas dinner. Leanne and Sierra handled all the cookie baking and helped me with our Christmas dinner. This year Tobin had to work over the holiday so it was a little different than usual. We enjoyed what time we did have together. We had our big meal on Christmas Eve and then he left for work. We opened gifts in the morning when he got home. We had a relaxing day and munched on all the leftovers from our Christmas dinner. Later in the afternoon the kids all headed into town to see a movie. I got all the Christmas decorations...

Hard to believe the month is flying by so quickly! Yesterday my daughters Sierra and Leanne and I went shopping and I finished up the last of my Christmas shopping. I still have one more gift to get out in the mail and now a lot of wrapping to do! :) I got my daughter Emily’s box packed and took it to the post office.. and spent half my life savings mailing it to her! LOL.. it was not that bad, but it was a bit of sticker shock! What a mama won’t do for her babes.. you know? ~smile~ .. But the best part of it all is she got it in one week and was just thrilled! It was worth it all to know how excited she was to receive all the goodies. We have had a flu bug going through the house. It’s been the cough, fever, achy muscle type thing. I think we are all pretty much past it now. We rarely get this sick; in fact I told Tobin that it has been years since I can remember the whole household being sick with something more than that common cold. I guess our immune systems were due...