Crazy Weather ~ Scaling Back the Holidays

How cold is it?

Cold enough to freeze eggs in the coop overnight.  Not just one, but three.

Breakfast ~ Herbal Journey ~ Jasper

We've been eating leftovers for a few days.  I cooked up a crock pot of organic black beans with onion, and those have been going fast too.  I really enjoy eating the beans with scrambled eggs, home canned zucchini salsa and a bit of cheese, all wrapped up in a whole wheat tortilla.  Youngest started doing this after school, and they really are delicious.

What my kids do to me ~ Sunset and other Tidbits

The other day my younger three girls were raving about muffins I made last year.   I had been discussing making pumpkin pancakes or waffles, so the topic of pumpkin was wafting through their busy brains.

"They were HUGE!"

"They were so good!"

"They were really moist and big!"

Rat, thief, molting? Or just too cold?

We seem to have a situation in the chicken coop.  On October 21st of 2013, this is what we got from the coop:

Garden and Porch Time

I spent about three hours pulling monstrous size weeds from the garden, just so I could get to the potatoes.  Mission somewhat accomplished.  I have about six feet left to dig up yet.  There is nothing worse than leaning down to pull a weed, only to be poked in the eye by five foot foxtail.  Ouch!  And the kids thought they'd get to eat at the table this week, ha ha!  Not.  That photo only shows a portion of them.  My goal is to get all of them dug up before I even start canning the rest.

Tuesday Tidbits

I made my first cabbage and egg omelet.  That is not red cabbage either.  It's leftover cabbage I had previously cooked up with beets from the garden.   I fried it in a small bit of non-gmo organic canola oil, then added a tiny bit of organic soy sauce.  I poured in two scrambled eggs.  I simply used salt and pepper and a bit if cheese in the middle.  Absolutely delicious!    Mama Pea over at A Home Grown Journal, mentioned cabbage for breakfast (with eggs).  I just had to try it.

Yellow Squash Relish ~ Random Tidbits

My sides with breakfast are garden potatoes with onion and green pepper, leftover squash patties, and a cup of organic wild thyme tea.  The only thing missing was a slice of homemade English muffin slathered in homemade Cinnamon blueberry jam.  I would be baking the muffins, but garden duty calls most days. 

This was yesterday's breakfast.  Today?  I'm not so sure.  It's my turn to not get any sleep.  I was woken up by Hubby at 3:30am, who was up for some reason and let a dog out.  In the process he held the door open too long and out went Tiger (youngest one's cat).  We ran around the house a few times and finally got him in.  I never fell back asleep until just before Hubby's alarm went off - 5:30am.   I have a long day ahead (more canning).

Rain ~ Taco Sauce ~ Shopping Tip

We have had a few days of stormy, rainy days, so I took the time to slow down.  For some reason, the busy summer days tend to zap my morning time too quickly. 

Oh, and we got hit by lightening (again).  This time I think the only thing it got was the cable box.  It sounded like a 22 shooting in the living room, and there was a flash of light.  We have a few lightning rods on the barns, but I think it's about time to get a few on the house....sigh...

Raspberry Picking Time ~ Getting Silly with the Thyme

On Wednesday I noticed a few ripe wild black raspberries.  I picked those, and later checked another location.  It took a while to cut down brush to get to them, but I found many more ripe ones.  It was hot, humid and I was picking them in jeans and muck boots.  I wasn't taking a chance this time on getting poison ivy.

Random Tidbits

I said I was not going to use my stove yesterday, but I did.  Hubby brought home some ginger root and club soda yesterday, so early in the morning I made a double batch. This is so refreshing on a muggy day too.  This is one of the recipes I most likely will have ready for when my older two are home.  They have been writing home about recipes they want me to make.

Homemade Angel Food Cake

It felt good to have time to de-stress yesterday.  Even the animals looked so relaxed.  Here is Jasper, sleeping in my kitchen window, hanging his head over the computer printer.

Handiwork Update ~ Southwestern Egg Burritos

My youngest daughter emailed me this photo.  I thought it was so funny I just had to share.  This morning I certainly feel like that dog in the photo - still in my jammies, holding coffee, but with an ice pack instead of a towel.

Ginger Bars ~ National Craft Month ~ Leftover Ham

From Pile.....

. . .to File - Extreme Clean.

I pulled another magazine page from my hoarded pile of recipes, and made Woman's Day magazine's Ginger Bars (Sept. 2010, just Google the recipe and you'll find the site). I'll admit, I had my doubts about this recipe.

We are still experiencing cold temperatures, so baking in the kitchen just helps heat this place up a bit.  Speaking of heat, Hubby installed the new auger on the pellet stove last night and we fired it up.  It is so nice to have heat again.  

Healthy Breakfast Sides

I'm cutting breakfast costs down, by eliminating organic/natural boxed breakfast cereals.  That cuts down on buying organic milk as well.  

That leaves breakfast to some type of egg dish, because our faithful chickens are supplying us an abundance right now.  So, in search for a veggie side (that was not a bread or meat, or a vegetable mixed into the eggs) that I can add to scrambled eggs, I found several.

It's tough to find time to roast vegetables, so I roasted them for dinner, making extra for leftovers.  Then I simply re-heat them as a side for breakfast.

What did we try?

Everything in Abundance ~ Canned Banana Peppers

(canned 8-26-2011, last jar used 9/1/2012)

We haven't been able to get a break this past week.  It seems that the Lord is blessing us in abundance, and all at the same time - eggs, tomatoes, peppers, pears, etc.