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Today I tried two new things Later this afternoon I started shredding cabbage by hand (about 17 pounds). After each head I would put the shredded cabbage in my special sauerkraut crock together with some sea salt and whey and start pounding it with a wooden basher. It took me about 2,5 hours to process all the cabbage and fill up my crock (my arms are a bit tired now Here I am pounding the cabbage (Frank insisted on taking the picture):
The finished product (those are the stones you see, which keep the kraut under water):
The crock in my kitchen:
Tomorrow will be menu making and shopping day, but I would also like to make a curtain for our hallway. And the day after, New Year's Eve (we actually call it Old Year's Day blessings, Ellen |
, I baked a bread in my dutch oven inside our wood burner and I made sauerkraut. It was the first time I used my DO, I had prepared it properly, first by baking it on the bbq this summer, so all the parafine could melt en get wiped off. Secondly, to season it I baked it in a low oven for 2 hours after greasing it. I made my usual ww bread dough and let it rise in the DO. Then I made sure I had some red hot coals in the wood burner and in went the DO. I figured that it would be very hot inside the burner, so I thought it didn't need many coals on top of the DO. We (Frank likes these things as much as I do 
) let it bake for 20 minutes and then took it out. Too bad it was burned at the bottom 
, but overall it wasn't too bad. Next time I have to make sure there are less coals under the DO and more on top, practice makes perfect they say. 
), below you can see the result. Now I'll let it sit in my kitchen for 3 days and then I'll move it upstairs to the attic, where it's cool. I'm not sure how long I will let it ferment, because different recipes give different time frames, ranging from 1 till 6 weeks. We'll see.
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I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We had a lovely Christmas (actually it isn't over yet, since we celebrate first and second Christmas day in the Netherlands), we went to mass on Christmas Eve (and afterwards ate our traditional rice pudding with cherry sauce) and had family over for dinner on Christmas Day. Frank and I took the kids to their father this morning, where they will stay until New Year's Day. We will miss them, but we also cherish our time together. We are going to my mil for dinner tonight, picking up Frank's brother Maarten on the way there. Cassandra and I made our first gingerbread house ever. Here are some pictures:
cookie production
Cassandra at work
our gingerbread house in all its beauty
all the goodies together
I never thought I would hear Cassandra say "I don't want to see any more icing" I hope to make some sauerkraut tomorrow, I'll keep you all posted. Have a great day filled with love and laughter! blessings, Ellen |
, since she has a real sweet tooth. It has been a kind of overkill over the last couple of days, I've said myself "I think we've used enough icing sugar for the whole year".|
Last weekend we had our first snow of this fall/winter, which is very early for us (we usually have some snow in January or February). Only a dusting on Saturday, but some serious snow on Sunday. It was just beautiful, I love snow! Too bad it got all rained away during the night. Now I'm waiting for the next snow. On Saturday I baked one of my pumpkins and later made pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies (all Crystal's recipes) and pumpkin soup with it. Well, I've got to do something with all those pumpkins. I have a lot to do this weekend, work on my surprise for 5th December when we celebrate St. Nicholas' birthday. When there are little kids in the family St. Nicholas brings a large bag of presents usually on the evening of the 5th (reminds you of someone? blessings, Ellen
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We had a nice weekend. Franks started working on the kitchen ceiling, it's already looking great and he will finish it next weekend. I made a big batch of applesauce, but I still have to can it, will do that today. I also made pumpkin puree (from just a few of my pumpkins), of which a part went into the freezer and I will turn the other part into pumpkin pie and pumpkin cookies today. You can find the recipe for the pumpkin cookies here. Today my second study block begins, after only 3 days of vacation I promised to post my November menu, so here it is: blessings, Ellen |
, the poor thing. I made some blueberry muffins to cheer him up and had a nice warm kitchen waiting for him.|
Yesterday I made my menu for November and the shopping list for my big monthly shopping trip. Last month I went over budget quite a bit Making a menu becomes easier with time, but I don't just throw some meals together. No, every week must have a soup, a fish dish, a pasta dish, a 'stamppot' (mashed potatoes with something in it, like carrots and onions or sauerkraut or kale or sprouts), a vegetarian meal and preferably something with beans. I'll post my menu in a few days time. Today I did my shopping and I have almost everything I wanted. I just need some more meat, but I'll wait and see what's on sale next week. There haven't been any reports on rising prices, but I have the feeling they have risen anyway. Lately I have had to pay more money for about the same amount of shopping and that's no fun. I have a couple of busy days ahead, tomorrow I have my final exam for Middlewelsh and I have other classes as well and Friday we are celebrating Cassandra's birthday (she was with her dad last weekend). Which means my parents are coming during the day and other family and friends will come in the evening. Somewhere in between I have to make the cakes (a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and a cream cheese with cherry pie) and clean the house. So, now I'm going to take one last look at my Middlewelsh grammar and then hopefully I will be ready for tomorrow. blessings, Ellen |
I'll manage somehow. After Friday I have to focus on my exam for the Introductory Celtic course next Thursday (I didn't do this last year, because I had two English courses next to Old Irish).
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Yesterday Frank and his brother Maarten were sawing and cutting wood for both homes. It was a lot of hard work, but they did one terrific job. The wood came from an old bridge, which we got hold of through Frank's job. Since the wood if full of very big screws and such, it isn't suitable for anything else and if we hadn't taken it, it would have gone to the dump. Speaking of central heating, when the men were working in front of our house in the street (our garden isn't big enough to do this kind of work), one lady who passed by asked if we didn't have central heating. Another lady passing by said they were 'real men', which I can wholeheartedly agree with. I spent the day keeping the men fed (very important!), doing some shopping and going to the birthday of one of the children of good friends, who happen to live in our street. Here are some pictures of my hard-working men and of our wood storage, we have more wood than would fit in there, but that's stored in the old rabbit pen, where we'll build a chicken coop in the spring.
blessings, Ellen
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My little girl turned 14 today! I'm so proud of my beautiful young lady, who has a big heart. Sometimes she amazes me with her grown-up behaviour and other times I wonder how young she is. Here is a picture of us together from this summer.
I hope you have a lovely day! love, mama
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I've been overwelmed and tired for a couple of weeks now, which resulted in a few colds (I'm still fighting the last one). The busy summer vacation is having some nasty after-effects I have started knitting and crocheting again, I just love the soothing movements. I've crocheted a big triangular shawl, made to a pattern found here: old-fashioned triangle shawl. I knitted a triangular shawl a few years ago and I love it, I use it daily at the moment. On my knitting needles I have the first part of a poncho almost finished. Cassandra wants me to crochet a poncho for her. I just have to find the right yarn, she would like beige or darkbrown, and then I will make her one as a Christmas gift. I have some other Christmas gifts planned as well, but I won't go into them, since I want to keep them secret. blessings, Ellen
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I have been missing, because I was having technical problems with homesteadblogger, for some reason I just couldn't see anything from them, including my own blog. However, Shawn from General Support fixed it for me. My second year at university started at the beginning of the month and is now in full swing. I'm studying Middlewelsh at the moment since this is a Welsh year (alternates with Irish), but also the introductory course Celtic, which I missed last year, because I was taking two English courses besides Old Irish. I still have an Old Irish class for one hour each week during the whole year, so that we don't loose our touch with the language. Did you know that Old Irish is one of the three most difficult languages in the world. The garden is almost over, there are a few things left, like Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbages, endive and some lettuces. I've started clearing some of the patches, but it's a lot of work. Because of all the rain in August I didn't do much and it is showing. My canning isn't finished yet, I still have applesauce, berry lemonade, cooking pears and split pea soup to do. Oh and maybe something with pumpkin, since I have over a hundred kilos of pumpkin. So far I've canned: (my jars are somewhere in between a pint and a quart) 7 jars of french beans, 7 jars of runner beans, 3 jars of runner bean relish, 6 jars brown beans, 5 jars baked beans, 4 quarts bread and butter pickles, 5 jars salsa, 14 jars tomato sauce, 17 small jars jam (blackberry, raspberry/strawberry, strawberry), and 4 jars peaches. I'm very happy with my pressure canner, the first time I used it was time consuming and nerve-wrecking We are still enjoying our beautiful kitchen every day. The counters have been in place for almost a month now and there are still some things not finished yet, but we'll get there. I hope you all have been well! Talk to you soon. blessings, Ellen
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We have had a lot of rain lately and it doesn't look like it is going to stop. This has caused almost swamp like conditions in my garden and over the last week it has had its effect on the vegetables. My green beans have quit altogether, luckily I have managed to get a decent amount of them. Most of my pumpkin plants aren't looking very healthy, but the pumpkins are ok. Actually I have harvested the large ones and taken them home before they would be affected by the wet weather (had to take the car out to the allotment, normally I go on my bike
And here they are in my kitchen with some other things from the garden: zucchinis, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, along with a big bowl of elderberries from the back garden: I took out all my summer carrots, because some of them were rotting in the ground. They were rather small, but I think I'll get two meals out of them. The corn is doing great as you can see (as are all the weeds
Finally, last week between al goings on I did some canning. I made 10 jars of blackberry jam (from our own garden of course), 5 jars of strawberry/raspberry jam (from the local orchard), 4 jars bread and butter pickles and I pressure canned for the first time: 7 jars of green beans. The pressure canning took quite some time, but that's because I had to read the manual again, and I did a dry run (ok there was water involved I have planned to can lots of tomato sauce, some salsa, chutney, nectarines, and applesause of course. For the applesauce I will use some of our own apples, mixed with other varieties from our local orchard.
I think that's it for now, I hope to be back to more regular blogging from now on. blessings, Ellen
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Finally, we're done for the moment, everything is in its place! Frank and his brother Maarten worked very hard and were able to put the floor in on Thursday and Friday. It looks fabulous! We're very happy with how it all turned out, our colour choices, the hardwood floor, which has an oil-finish, because we thought it would be easier for our dog Chip. Before we had laminate flooring and now and then for some reason he was afraid to slip when he walked the floor. Slowly he's finding this floor easier to walk on and is becoming more relaxed. Now we have to wait for the countertops to arrive and a new trim on top of the kitchen cabinets, because it's too short, luckily the company where we bought the kitchen agrees and they have ordered a new one. Because of this, Frank has to wait before he can put in a new wooden ceiling, but that's ok.
Finally, I want to thank you for the nice comments about my pantry, and yes Amanda, you are right, I do smile every time I open the pantry. blessings, Ellen
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Well, the new kitchen is in and it is as beautiful as we imagined! But it's not finished yet, as we knew upfront, because the countertop had to be measured after the kitchen was installed. And because the countertop isn't there yet, part of the wall above it couldn't be plastered. We have to wait at least 3 weeks for the countertops With all this remodelling and redecorating I neglected the allotment a little bit, but I have started with a vengeance again and have planned to go there every day this week, otherwise the weeds will win. Luckily, the vegetables are growing as well, can't complain there. We have eaten french beans this week and they were delicious. Wesley was even disappointed I didn't cook more. I have kept a record off the harvest from my garden: I have picked blackberries from our back garden over the past two weeks and froze them until I had enough to make a large batch of jam and now I do. So I have planned a kitchen session either this afternoon or tomorrow to preserve some of the harvest, but I will tell you more about that when I'm done.
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, since the factory is closed. Frank has to cover the ceiling with tong and groove as well, he will do that after the new floor is in. This week, Thursday, Friday and probably Saturday as well, Frank, his brother Maarten and a good friend will put in the wooden floor. It's a really big job, because all the furniture is in the room 
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and I painted and filled. The weather has been strange, first we had a lot of rain (really a lot) and it was quite cold, the last couple of days it's been hot (and I don't like hot blessings, Ellen
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We're in the middle of redecorating our downstairs floor. So I spent the day sandpapering doors and wallpanels, while Frank sandpapered part of a newly built wall (we moved the door to the living room about a yard two months ago), rebuilt part of the wallpanels and started on the new cupboard in the hallway. I'm really looking forward to this cupboard Yesterday morning I went to the allotment first and did a lot of weeding blessings, Ellen |
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We've had a lot of rain over the past few days, heavy thunderstorms and lots of wind. So when I went to my allotment today I wasn't sure what I would find, but I shouldn't have worried, everything looked great! So I worked very hard today to get victory over the weeds and I haven't won the war yet, but I did win today's battle.
I thought it was time for an updated picture of the allotment, everything has grown so much.
The flowering french beans at the front with my big pumpkins behind them, there are a few pumpkins on the vines, but they don't grow fast. The cabbage patch covered with a net is next. Here's another picture further down the beds:
My other pumpkins (Hokkaido) are growing much faster as you can see. Between the pumpkin and the corn a zucchini is hiding, but producing very well. Yesterday I received my pressure canner, which is a present from Frank and the kids for my birthday on Saturday. I had to order it in the US because we don't have them in the Netherlands, but with the cheap dollar it was really worth it. Unfortunately, I have to wait till the new kitchen is installed to use it, because you have to use it on a gas hob. blessings, Ellen
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I have been pondering or brooding on this for a while and now the time has come to write it all down. For a long time I have had my concerns for the environment, but lately they have grown stronger. We've always taken steps to limit our impact on the environment, recycle glass, paper, clothing, old furniture, composting material, use less electricity (no dryer) and gas, eat less meat, use the car wisely. We even have solar panels on our roof Energy wise we will make progress when the new kitchen is installed. It will have a gas hob, which is better than cooking with an electric hob and I will have two ovens, one normal size and one half that size. So if I have just one casserole or a tray of muffins I can use the small oven. We'll also have a new dishwasher (I couldn't convice Frank to leave it out) and a new freezer, both very energy efficient. Because of our new woodburner (I just love the heat from a wood burner and we have free wood from old bridges and such, because of Frank's work Personally I have made a few decisions, very little tv, I already don't watch very much, but sometimes I tend to watch whatever the others are watching (would like to get rid of the tv alltogether, but I still get outvoted), even if I'm not really interested. I just have to make myself go do something else. Less computertime, sometimes I get carried away and spend too much time on the internet, the problem is that there's so much interesting stuff to find. Use the car only if I can't do it on my bike, because it's too far (ok that's debatable, but I think 12 km or 7,5 miles, one way, is still doable) or if I have to carry too much, and I can haul quite a load on my bike, I have bags on my rear rack and a basket on the handlebars. We have bought a rainbarrel for our back garden, but Frank hasn't been able to install it yet, he will do so in the coming week. I still have to figure out if we can have one in the front garden as well. And we're looking into another powersource, but that's still at an early stage. I'll let you know when I know more. I'll probably think of more things to do or implement in the coming weeks, months or years. I've been very lucky that Frank supports this all the way and even thinks things up by himself, we are a good team. So, let me know what you are doing or planning to help keep our planet healthy! On the garden front I have had a productive weekend, I have spent quite a lot of hours weeding and have planted paksoy, leeks, sellery, kale and my third little rhubarb plant. I still have some broccoli and sellery to plant. Everything, including the weeds, is growing beautifully, I have a pumkin the size of a small football and more to come, harvested several zucchinis and a LOT more to come, the french beans have lots of flowers and there are several kohlrabies ready for harvesting later this week. I just love spending time there. Although we have had rain the last couple of days, it's still very dry, but more rain has been predicted. This morning I picked the first blackberries of the season! blessings, Ellen
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Here are some pictures of our building site.
I know it looks like a good kitchen, but parts of it came loose permanently and the appliances aren't very good, to say it mildly. Besides, the kitchen was very small, not enough countertop space for all my cooking and baking activities. And this is how the french doors look from outside:
You can see the potting table below the kitchen window, where there used to be a door. Oh, I picked the first two zucchini's this afternoon, and so far we have been lucky with the weather. We had some rain, but no hail (yet), alas there is still more to come. blessings, Ellen
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It's been over a week since my last post, longer than I anticipated, but lots has happened. First I passed my last exam On Friday Frank and I started to take down our kitchen and the floor in kitchen and hallway, because a new kitchen will be placed after the wall between the kitchen and the living room has been removed. The wall and new kitchen were supposed to happen this week on Monday and Tuesday, but the builder called last week to tell me the kitchen was going to be delivered later than agreed (not his fault by the way, he was just the messenger). Grrrrrrrrrr, when we ordered the kitchen, month ago, everybody kept telling us how early we were with ordering, but still the kitchen isn't here on time. The garden is doing great! I expect to harvest zucchini, kohlrabi, lettuce and endive (chicory) this week, that is if the thunderstorms predicted for today don't bring too much hail. It has been hot the last couple of days, especially today 86F/30C, and in over here that usually means thunderstorms and back to unsteady weather and 68F/20C. Talk to you later! blessings, Ellen |
9 whole weeks! I have so many things I want to do, but first I always read, read, read (in between chores, remodelling). I've managed to read the latest novel in the Elm Creek Quilt series by Jennifer Chiaverini, the Winding Ways Quilt, the second part of the Courtship of Nellie Fisher by Beverly Lewis and Living the Good Life by Linda Cockburn about tried and tested strategies for sustainable living. Great reads!
The big problem is that our builder is going on vacation next week, so they wanted us to delay the whole thing. We weren't happy with this, because we have to paint, wallpaper and put in a new floor afterwards. I don't want to have to do these things just before I start classes again. So Frank proposed to have the wall taken down (and with it half our kitchen) now and put in the kitchen after the builder's vacation. Frank cut out the electric hob with the cabinets underneath and we put that under the new window, so I can cook. On Monday the builder took out the wall and put in a steel beam, which causes lots of dust, but I had taken precautions and covered everything up. So the clean up was less work, but still considerable. Yesterday he covered the steel beam, but the rest is left like it was and now it looks like we live on a building site. 
Frank will show me tonight, so I'll post the pictures later today.|
Last week was so busy with the remodeling and my exam, that I didn't have time to go to my garden until Saturday. When I came I saw the remodelling some pidgeons and a mole had done on my garden. Tonight dh will finish the new part of our deck in the back garden, which connects the french doors to the existing deck and afterwards I will make some pictures and post them tomorrow. I'm really happy with the small potting table we bought, it's under the kitchen window and I already used it for repotting some seedlings and a few house plants. I used to do that at the garden table and make a mess. I made another batch of elderflower cordial, which you dilute with water for a very refreshing drink. I have been making this for a few years now and dh and I love it when the weather is hot. Today I have my last exam and then I'm done for this year. By the way, I did manage to pass my exam from last week, got the results over the weekend by mail (got to love technology), but I don't have much hope for today's exam. I haven't prepared properly with all things going on last week, but maybe I'll qualify for a resit. We'll see, and if not I can take the class some other time. Have a nice day! blessings, Ellen
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