The Forgotten Recipe Box
I have fond memories of my mother’s recipe box. A treasured box filled with index cards. These cards were handwritten or typed on a typewriter. I love to look at my mother’s and grandmother’s hand writing! Long ago a recipe box was a house wife’s go to for dinners, holidays, scrumptious desserts and etc. These boxes were past down to generations. Recipes were shared amongst friends too. They brought stories to the recipes and even different cultures to family recipes. Now a days it seems like the recipe box has been forgotten. A lot of people I know rarely seem to cook from recipe cards. Now and then when they get the urge to cook or bake they go to Pinterest. They rarely actually bake it and if they do they hope for the best.
About a few weeks ago or so I picked a bucket full of dandelion weeds and made dandelion jelly. It was my second time making dandelion jelly. I love it! If you have never tried it before it tastes a little bit like honey. I plan on putting this recipe in my recipe box. I hope my daughter will make it someday for her family too. It’s delicious! Check out my blog post on dandelions.
I recently came across the new crave recipe for Cloud bread. The recipe only has three ingredients! Cloud bread has eggs, cream cheese, and cream of tartar. That’s it! It turned out pretty good! It did however have an egg like taste, but I used a little bit of salt in my second batch. The salt made the bread taste much better. The kids loved the bread too! I was happy because 1) It doesn’t have flour, 2) I’m looking for egg recipes (We recently have been blessed with lots of eggs from our layers.) 3) The bread doesn’t take long to bake! I will definitely be putting this recipe in my recipe box. If you would like the recipe send me an email or contact me on Facebook. I’d love to share this recipe with you!
I encourage you to try new and old recipes. Baking can be so rewarding! So let’s bring back the forgotten recipe box. And let’s pass these treasured priceless heirlooms to generations and generations! Please enjoy looking at my photos. God bless!
The Who Knews on owning Goats
Our latest adventure on the homestead recently was bringing four Nubian/Pygmy Kids to our homestead. It has been such an awesome experience. We decided on two males and two females.
A few months ago, we toyed with the idea of having a goat. We wanted to get a bit more self-reliant. Goats, as you know, can be milked. So how cool to milk a goat and have milk to drink and to make cheese, ice cream, yogurt, and soaps. So we did a bit of research. Of course, there was a lot of stuff we didn’t know. For instance, we wouldn’t be able to just have one goat. Apparently, they need at least one buddy. Ok, so we will get two. A male and a female. No, won’t work. You can’t keep a male and female together. That is when we realized we had to have four goats! One to milk, one as a buddy, One Male, and a male buddy. Wow! That is a lot of goats for this suburbanite! Not only that, but who knew that the female goats couldn’t constantly stay milked after being pregnant. They later have to get pregnant again. Crazy as it sounded we decided it was still something we should do. So the hubby made a few wooden weather tents for shelter and we purchased another electric fence. We also made sure we were buying a good breed and goats that came from a good line of goats. I really didn’t know what to expect when my husband and son brought them home. To be honest, I was nervous! Its been over a month now that we have had the pleasure of raising these goats! Our little Kid goats came right after they were weaned off the bottle. They have adapted quite nicely to grazing on fresh grass, hay and Mulberry leave to name a few. My children decided to go with the Chronicles of Narnia theme when it came time to give the names. So we have Susan, Lucy, Edmond, and Peter. I can’t begin to tell you how amazing these goats are! Each goat has its individual personalities. And it has been so fun to see their personalities unravel. I have thought of many ways I could keep them in the house with me! unfortunately, I couldn’t think of any that would work. Who knew that I would enjoy them so much! They are so friendly! I just love to go visit them! They wag their little tales and come greet you. Our Edmond even stares at me with puppy dog eyes! Yes, puppy dog eyes! Who knew I’d have a love for goats!
I pray my family can keep them safe, happy and healthy for a very long life!
Secrets kept about Dandelion Weeds
Such a pretty color!
Picking off the flower heads.
Boiling the flower heads in water.
You need a large stockpot.
Yay! My very first Dandelion Jelly!
Our first experience with dandelions as children are usually great! Children see beautiful round and bright flowers to pick for their mom. But after a few years, they find that while their mom’s do enjoy receiving flowers they don’t really like these flowers. And not only that but these flowers aren’t even flowers! They are much-hated weeds! We grow up finding the word” weed “as something disliked. Weeds that people hate so much they pay to have them removed from their lawns. They pay big money for a landscape service or spend money at the store on weed killer sprays. This is how I grew up anyway just like many others.
Last year when we moved into our homestead, we had these weeds called dandelions. This Spring we have had so many dandelions! I’ve never really thought there was much to do with this weed. I mean I had heard of Dandelion root tea, but even that was not that long ago. Last year I met a lady who told me she makes Dandelion Jelly! Jelly! How in the world could that taste good? Especially since the conversation got started because I was drinking dandelion tea I had bought from a store. And I was complaining how it tasted horrible! Lol, So this past year I have looked into more herbs and plant medicines etc. And I came across Dandelions. To my great surprise, I was finding secrets I’d never heard about the dandelion weed! I felt like I hit a mini homestead jackpot! lol, There were lots of recipes for soap, salves, lotions, fried dandelions, dandelion jelly, dandelion oil, and more! And so many health benefits! I didn’t even know you could even eat one before last year!
So I decided to do some dandelion picking at the homestead! I picked as many as I could! I picked so many I thought for sure my back would hurt the next day!
I bought the dandelions into the house and decided what to make first! I chose the jelly! To make the jelly I had to pop off the flowers. Which left me with a ton of stems. It seemed so wasteful to toss the stems out. So I looked up recipes with the stems. And I found out I could saute them! Of course, I wasn’t quite sure how dandelion stems would taste! That night I made them with some vegetables in the frying pan. Not too bad! I ate it anyway! The jelly did take some time to make, but I made it! And it was quite good! My family loved it!
I am currently making dandelion oil so I can make the dandelion salve lotion and soap recipes if I have enough oil. It takes two weeks for the dandelions to soak in the olive oil. I’m pretty happy about these circular bright yellow flowers ehh, I mean weeds! I love them I really do!
** Caution* *- always check if the dandelions you’re picking. These tips are from Sunwarrior.com. Check out Pinterest too for recipes!
So go look up what secrets that only some know about the dandelion! I’m so thankful for these amazing weeds that so many sadly destroy and kill. God gave us the dandelion as a healthy beneficial gift! I’d say it’s pretty Dandy! Have a blessed day! Continue reading “Secrets kept about Dandelion Weeds”
I say go Vintage!
Yesterday I was doing some thrifting and to my surprise, I found a vintage Fashion Mate 257 SINGER sewing machine! Just a few weeks back I had been talking to some other Moms about how I would love to take sewing classes and buy a sewing machine. Their recommendation was to go vintage! A majority of sewing machines on the market today are nowhere near the quality of the vintage ones. The new ones are made of plastic and are very lightweight. The ladies told me that a lot of people have problems with their sewing machines. They are easily broken due to today’s lightweight sewing machines. The old vintage ones are primarily made of iron! And very heavy! Like 20lbs heavy! But because they are so heavy, they can keep up with the motor and what not. So needless to say I was happy to find such a gem! And I just adore the vintage look as well! Believe it or not, these vintage gems run prominently the same price as a typical average new sewing machine! The only issue when buying vintage is the concern of the sewing machine working or not. I thankfully have three days to return my sewing machine if it doesn’t work. But other people may not be as lucky. So I am happy to say I plugged in my sewing machine and everything seems to be working! Yay! And I only paid a whopping $14.99! How awesome is that! I do need to lube some areas on the sewing machine and clean it up some though. It’s important to maintain vintage items, especially motorized. I haven’t tried to sew anything yet. But I’m ready to learn such an amazing homestead life tool for clothing and such! This suburbanite may not know how to make a dress yet, but I’ll get there! It would be so cool to make my own vintage dresses using old sewing patterns and such! Agh, the possibilities are endless! So if you are in need to get a new sewing machine, I say go Vintage!
My Homestead Spin on Duck Tales
As a child, I loved watching Disney’s Duck Tales! So many adventures! Now as an adult, my family now has its own spin on duck tales! It has a homestead spin to it. But the duck tales’ episodes we are experiencing are a bit different. Here’s a sneak into episode one…
The day had finally arrived! My family and I in the car out to buy our first real homestead animals Ducks! Baby Kahki Campbells! We all had mixed emotions, but mainly excitement! When we finally were in the car going back home from the Tractor and Trailer Supply store, I would peek into the box and look at these cute babies! How we ended up with six I don’t know! Lol, So here we were our little homestead family from the suburbs to create our own version of Duck Tails! And boy did we get a great episode!
Lol. When we got home, we put the ducks in a Rubbermaid large container. And we put the container in a closed spot in our unfinished part of the basement. Yes, my suburban self now has six ducks in her basement! Pretty crazy! The first few weeks were pretty easy. After that few weeks, they started to grow fast! And I mean fast! I couldn’t believe it! After a week or two, they were escaping the Rubbermaid! So my husband set up a baby pool with a high thick cardboard around it. Let me just tell you ducks are messy to have in your house! They currently make a mess with their water and shavings! That mixed with poop is pretty icky. So this week they are a little over a month now and are showing a lot of feathers. Which is fabulous! Because it means they will be out of my basement soon! This week was crazy! My babies have gotten so big! What fit in a handful in my hand of a duckling was now the size of a normal sized duck! So earlier in the week, the ducks were able to work together batting their bills in unison to put an escape hole through the cardboard! Ahh! Ducks running waddling here and there, wet shavings and poop all on the floor in my basement! And the ducks are so fast! Thankfully my husband dealt with putting them back in their pool. My husband fixed the hole with some wiring. They escaped a few times after but are currently in the pool. I think… Don’t get me wrong, I love my ducks! They are so beautiful and will be very valuable to my family and me.
And that was just a few highlights from our country spin of Duck Tails. Stay tuned for more! Great, now I have the Disney’s Duck Tales intro song stuck in my head! “A whoooo Ewwww….”
Winter Days On The HomeStead
Its a very cold day here at my homestead! This is our first winter we have lived here in the country. Last night and today have been one of the coldest temperatures for the winter so far. So how are we doing? Well last night my family and I put on our long underwear under our pajamas, made sure wool blankets were on our beds, left a bit of water dripping in the sink for the pipes and made sure that our newly installed fire stove was a blazing! We survived! Lol! The coldest that I saw the thermostat was 55 degrees. Nobody complained! At the moment, I don’t know the temperature outside because our internet isn’t working today! I have the fire continually going and we have our space heater on in our home school room. I can’t believe I can start my own fire! Pretty cool for what people might call me as a city girl!
I have driven so far this winter but always give myself a few days after a heavy snow fall. These country roads kind of scare me! Just this last week, every time I tried to back out of our driveway, I would get stuck! We recently had a bad rain/ice storm . So the whole driveway was a mess! Luckily almost every time except one my husband was able to was home to help me out of my driveway. And of course he had no problems! Our driveway kinda has a drop in it. But I cannot ever remember being stuck in a driveway before in my life! So to me it was strange and very challenging! Its not snowing today, but like I said it is very cold! But its not like I don’t have anything to do. I am currently sitting here typing away have baskets of laundry to put away, a load or two to wash and a good amount of dishes to hand wash! Yes, I have to wash the dishes by hand. We do not have a dishwasher. My facebook is not working due to the internet, so I guess its helping me stay on task for today. For dinner I am making Pork Chops that we bought this past weekend at the Farmer’s Market in the next town over. Yum! They even seasoned them for me! And yesterday I made a loaf of sweet bread in my bread machine. It has been awhile since I have made bread in the machine. Everyone enjoyed it! Its nice to know that on cold days all I need is flour, sugar, and eggs etc. and I have a treat to eat or can make bread for peanut butter sandwiches and other types of sandwiches too. Its also rewarding to make your own bread from scratch! The bread becomes your work of art to share! Well I am going to check on my fire now!
The Unexpected Homestead Momma
Source: The Unexpected Homestead Momma
There is no longer a microwave at the homestead
About five months or so our beloved microwave past away. Now my usual reaction would be to go to my husband and tell him we are in need of a new microwave ASAP! But this time I started to have questions and second thoughts on purchasing a brand new microwave. I thought “Great, another expense after moving”, “Could I really live without a microwave?”, “Microwaves aren’t very healthy anyways”, “But what about making popcorn?”, “Oh yeah, I used to use a popcorn popper!”, “Maybe I could find other ways to heat up my food or cook foods differently.” I decided to give it a try. My husband found a decent popcorn popper off Amazon and I purchased Farmers’ Market popping kernels.
So we plugged in the popcorn popper and I was glad my husband was making the popcorn, because for a minute or two I had forgotten how to use a popcorn popper! “Wait, how many kernels go in at a time?”, Where do you put the kernels in?”How could this be?” Had I really forgotten how to use a popcorn popper! I then realized it was probably because I hadn’t used a popcorn popper in almost 20 years! I was dependant on my bags of microwave popcorn I threw in my microwave filled with popcorn kernels, butter,salt and who knows what else was in there. So we put the kernels in the correct spot and cut up some butter and placed it on the little tray that sits up on top of the popcorn popper. Then something magical happend! Something else I had forgotten! The way the popcorn pops up and out of the machine and the sound of the popcorn popping. It was actually exciting! The kids loved it too! We then poured the hot melted butter on the freshly popped popcorn. I remembered that lovely taste of real melted butter on my popcorn! Wow! Crazy I know, but try it for yourself!
There was other microwave issues to conquer of course. There were the problem of heating my soup, heating frozen vegetables,making baked potatoes, and fast nachos! I figured out quickly how to still make and warm these foods without using my microwave. I started baking my potatoes in the oven, warming up my soup in a pot on top of the stove, warming up my vegetables in a pot on the stove or roasting them in the oven and making a layered dip in the oven to pour over my chips for my nachos.
The best part of not having a microwave in my kitchen besides the space, is the mess! I no longer have to clean and scrub an icky microwave. I can scratch that off my kitchen chore list and have healthier ways to cook and eat my food!
So ladies and gentleman that’s why there is no longer a microwave at my homestead! Now I have a taste for popcorn!
Our First Summer
Our First Summer was filled with lots of excitement not only our new home but a new life practically! Being from practically no lawn to acres off a farm is pretty amazing! We had so much fun exploring wildflowers, bushes, trees, luscious green grass, a creek, etc. It was such a pleasant surprise to find out we had a BlackBerry bush! Once we found that gem of a bush, we were there every day picking berries! The kids had a blast! And of course, Momma did too! And if the bush wasn’t enough, we also found out we had an Apple Tree! We were able to collect a great basket or two filled with delicious Apples!
We had a great time figuring out where to plant some more flowers. My husband decided with an over 2 acre home, we needed to purchase a John Deere sit mower! I think he really enjoyed driving the John Deere! Who doesn’t want a sit mower?!
We so enjoyed taking family walks around our property and occasionally would see frogs and toads! And they were not in the water! We found this one frog that was such a pretty shade of green! I personally love frogs! So this was pretty awesome to me! It seemed like everyday there were bugs to see. We saw a lot of Grasshoppers, Katydids, FireFlies, different kinds of beetles, ladybugs, spiders, and bugs I’ve never seen before!
One summer night we even saw bats! They were circling up above the roof! It actually was in our favor, because they ate a ton of the mosquitos! Which came in handy when we had our fire pit going! I just love having family time by the fire and under the stars! Roasting Marshmallows, making s’mores! The kids would go find long sticks and use the sticks to put the marshmallows on! Super easy for this Momma, I didn’t have to buy the holders and I didn’t have to wash anything! Win, Win!
Well as you can see it was a great summer we had! It went by way too fast though! I really miss being outside a lot. I miss looking at all the pretty flowers nature put in my yard. It was such a treat to pick the fresh cut flowers and decorate my home with them! I even would get special in-person flower deliveries from the kids! We are so looking forward to next summer! There
is something about being outside, looking at trees and flowers and just being surrounded by nature the way God intended us too! What a precious gift.
The Unexpected Homestead Momma 