Laughing Thyme Farm: Living the Dream

Any mother knows that this word rarely becomes a reality for them. This weekend was busy, but productive in many ways. However, none of the productivity was at Laughing Thyme Farm. The environment is coming to a place of rest all around us. The only thing growing right now are my greens and the garlic. (I do need to weed my greens.)

The leaves are off about half of the trees. Pretty soon all the beautiful colors will be gone. The grass will turn brown. Everything will be in a season of rest. It all LOOKS dead, but there is life in the root systems that will issue out when spring comes again.

I always enjoy the changing of the seasons. Tennessee is about as far south as I would want to go. I like temperate climates. I love the freshness of spring, the productivity of summer, the beauty of fall, and the rest of winter.

So autumn, (my favorite,) is drawing to a close. The land is resting for the most part. I’m not doing any more canning or other food preservation methods. And while I am still homeschooling, we all are getting cozy in our house enjoying the small amount of rest that NOT gardening provides.

HOWEVER, I am planning for next year’s garden! I know that once the baby is born that it will be hard to get to the when and what to do. So I’m taking care of it now. I’m also embroidering the baby’s onesies. Two are done so far. I have three left to go. I wish that I were more skilled at it, but they still look cute. We’re also getting the house ready for when Sean arrives. So…..REST? Does such a word REALLY exist in any parent’s vocabulary?

Is anyone else tired of seeing advertisements about how Rachel Ray and Oprah lost so much weight with the Acai Berry diet?  I swear those two women could tell their viewers to eat Meow Mix to lose weight and some of them would actually do it.  Actually, they’d probably use Rachel Ray’s stupid dog food, Delish or Nutrish or whatever dorky-cutesy name she calls it, just so RR could gain some profit from it.  And Oprah too, if she has any stock in it.

As you can see I’m not a big fan of either of them….

I suppose that a lot of people would call me a granola-bar, tree-hugging fool, BUT the more I read about the government’s involvement in the food that is sold at grocery stores, as well as the seeds from garden supplies, I am getting more and more disgusted!

Back in the 80’s, during Reagan’s time at the White House, a bill was passed that allowed seeds to be “copywritten”.  (I’m sure that there is a better term for this, but my pregnant brain won’t work like I want it to at the moment.)  A company called Monsanto has taken advantage of this bill and now has the copyright to thousands of seeds varying from tomato to bean to well, pretty much anything, really.  They use their ”copyright” on God-made genetics to sue successful independent farms.  There is a documentary about it called “The Future of Food”.  It came out in the early 2000’s.  Now there is a French documentary about the company called “The World According to Monsanto”.  What’s scary , but sadly not surprising– is the U.S. government involvement with Monsanto.  Monsanto also genetically-engineers food that is sold in the super-markets….you know with e.coli.  They splice seed genes and insert them with salmon genes and other genes to try to make a genetically “superior” product.  Unfortunately, the genes of the salmon don’t often “stick” so they put e. coli genetics in the food to make them “stick”.  THAT is where all of the sickness is coming from.  Check out the documentaries and you’ll be disgusted.  

The U.S. government has also been passing laws on irradiating foods for many years, the most recent food being lettuce and spinach.  Almonds have been added in the past year.  Irradiation actually removes cancer-fighting properties in these foods.  I know that meat is often irradiated too.  Another controlling government operative is NAIS, or National Animal Identification System.  It’s used to “control disease outbreaks”, but really the whole thing is a help to larger livestock companies and pretty much screws the smaller, independently-ran farms. 

I could go on and on about what our future looks like if this keeps up.  The Bible does forecast famine in the “last days”.  I’ve never been a “last days” fanatic, discussing different dispensations or arguing about who is the current “Anti-Christ”- except to say it’s ridiculous to label a person as the Anti-Christ.  But I have felt for many years to get back-to-basics and try to live off of our own property as much as possible.  This is NOT a fear thing!  To me it’s wisdom and definitely what God has directed me to do. 

I’m NOT saying, however, that everyone has to live in the country and own chickens and a cow.  BUT it’s so easy to grow a tiny garden, no matter how small your plot is.  If you live in the city and think that you are too limited to do ANYTHING, get inspiration here:

I think that the Dervaes are such amazing people.  They thought out-of-the-box and made healthy, green living a real part of their lives.  They don’t just preach it- they live it!  They have really inspired me with their web-sites:

http://www.pathtofreedom.com/

http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/

I recently was reprimanded at a small group meeting for saying that everyone could grow a garden if they really wanted to.  This is my kiss-my-butt response to that.  (I’m getting tired of hyper-religious Christians….REALLY tired of them.)  I wish that I had been in the mood to argue with them then, but I was too tired and had too much on my heart that I was praying about–  hyper-religious Christians being one of the things I was pondering.  

If there is ever going to be any change in this world, in whatever realm….economically, spiritually, environmentally…SOMEONE has to be different from popular opinion at SOME TIME!!  This is more than just jumping on the “environmentally-friendly, green” bandwagon that so many people are doing.  Research WHY you believe what you believe.  I hate those new high-fructose corn syrup commercials that have came out recently, because they are pretty much LYING to the American public, BUT they are right in that people don’t know WHY they are doing what they are doing!  Be informed and know WHY you don’t like corn syrup and organic food and whole wheat products, etc. 

This could and SHOULD be done in light of Christianity and the Bible too.  WHY do we believe what we believe?  Have we searched it the basics of our theology?  Or do we just automatically accept everything that comes from the pulpit or from the media?  God gave us brains to think– let’s use them.  God gave us hands to work– let’s put them to something useful! 

Anyway, after listening to my grouching, hopefully SOMEONE will be inspired to at least grow a tomato plant in a pot on their patio next growing season.  Or you know… READ and research?  And even better is to change the mindset that you have to look like everyone else and act like everyone else and think like everyone else!  I know that I am non-conformist.  I’m glad that I am, because conformists never really change history or their environment.  They merely exist.  Sorry to be so blunt.  I may have stepped on some toes.  But maybe some toes need stepped on?

At the U/S yesterday we found out that Sean is doing great.  He’s not too big or too small….just right! :)   His cheeks were very, very chubby though!  Seeing him again on U/S made me want to hold him.  I can’t wait to see him and neither can the rest of the family. 

While we were in Franklin we did our biweekly shopping trip to save on gas.  Since the dr. appt. was so close to lunchtime we went to Pie in the Sky for pizza.  It was good.  We ordered a large cheese and a medium anchovy and green olive.  (Most people are cringing now….it’s not a pregnancy thing either.  I like this combo even while NOT pregnant!)  Luckily Eric enjoys the combo too!

I was in need of some winter shirts.  I’m not particularly fond of the styles found in maternity stores…not really my thing.  PLUS, since I’m probably going to have Sean in 8 wks or less, I really didn’t want to buy maternity shirts for such a short period of time.  I’ve been wearing half non-maternity clothes anyway.  So we stopped by Plato’s Closet and I found three shirts there that are stretchy.  Two of them are the tissue shirts that I love so much.  The other was one of my favorite brands of clothing that generally sell shirts for $90+. Um, yeah…..don’t own any of those.  Just like the style of them.  BUT they had one that looked barely used at Plato’s Closet for $14!  That’s twice as much as their other shirts, but it’s a nice brand.  I was very happy to find it!  I also found a crochet cap to wear….once again hippy. 

We’re having issues with Daisy terrorizing the neighborhood some more.  She got out of her pen AGAIN and was bugging the neighbor’s horses.  We’re buying zip ties today and using them every other link on the bottom where she has found her means of escape.  I’m frustrated with her because she either is bugging the neighbors…i.e. pooping in their yard, bugging their animals, etc.  or she barks INCESSANTLY, hour-after-hour, if she’s tied up.  I’m not sure which is more annoying– for us or for the neighbors.  I can’t wait until she gets out of the puppy stage.  Sometimes I think that she isn’t very bright, but then again, she IS an escape artist extraordinaire…..

I’m 32 weeks today.  For some reason, it has been HARD being pregnant this past week.  It might be because my lower back muscle spasms have been acting up, but I am really feeling this pregnancy now.  I’m still not very big. 

Last time I was at the dr. I only gained 10 lbs.  But that was almost 3 weeks ago.  I’m sure I’ve gained more since then…..(especially eating the horrible-for-me Halloween candy that I have been this week….whistle. whistle.)  I have a dr. appt. today so I’ll know HOW much that candy has affected me pretty soon.  Generally, I try to eat well though. 

In any case, I’ve been trying to get things ready for his arrival.  Planning the boys’ room….trying to buy things here and there….getting out teeny-tiny baby clothes.  Mostly my BODY is ready for Sean to come!

1. can some tomato juice.

2.  homeschool

3.  laundry

4.  start organizing baby Sean stuff

5.  plant garlic

6.  make a snack for tonight’s small group

7.  retrieve my brain from some far and unknown recesses of pregnancy land!

It’s one of those hair-pulling-out days.  The kids are fighting or whining or doing both subsequently.  Liam’s in a grouchy mood and throwing fits.  I’m in a grouchy mood and feel like throwing one too. 

The stupid dog dug up the rows of fall/winter garden that we worked so hard on last Sunday.  Plus she keeps going into the neighbor’s yard, following neighborhood kids to their houses, and chasing cars.  So I’m determined that she is going to have to be tied up.  At first I hated to do for her sake, because she’s a country dog and enjoys her freedom.  But she has been abusing that freedom.  NOW I hate tying her up because she has been barking incessantly for 3 hours straight since I tied her up.  PLUS, I’ve had to untangle her from the trees and shrubbery TWICE because she is too ignorant to go BACK the other way she came from. 

Another dog annoyance is the fact that when we got Daisy from the pound in another county they said that the voucher for the “fixing” of Daisy would be good in the county we live in.  So we get to the time where it is now necessary to “fix” Daisy and Maury County refuses to do it.  So apparently we have to drive over an hour to the county where we got her to get the job done.  If we had known that was the case, we probably wouldn’t have gotten her in the first place.  Sigh. 

Anyway, I’m hoping that today gets better.  I don’t like being stressed out.  And trust me, no one likes to be around me when I am…..

I am now 30 weeks pregnant!  Since I generally go early, I have less than 10 weeks to go!  (Which also means that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner.)  It’s generally around this time that I realize I need to get out the packed away baby clothes and the crib.  I start doing little baby things like getting plain onesies and embroidering baby-type stuff on them.  We’re wrapping up plans for family to come so that I won’t have to go to the hospital alone.  I need to buy the cloth diapers for Sean….a new adventure for me.  We’re all excited and “ready” in the familial sense to meet Sean, but there is still quite a bit to do. 

We had a little scare last Friday, which is the reason that I haven’t been on to blog.  I just didn’t feel like it!  I woke up early Friday morning with the stomach flu.  I ended up getting sick and also dehydrated, which in turn gave me contractions.  I also had some VERY painful gastritis. 

Eric called a general practitioner who told us to call the OB who told us to call the general practioner who told us to call the OB. (That wasn’t a typo.)  Finally after calling around for over an hour, my dr. let me come in.  After getting there she sent me to the hospital to get hooked up to an IV.  They were able to stop the contractions and get me hydrated.  I still had really bad gastritis for a few days.  Occasionally I’ll still have a pain in my stomach after I eat, but I’m mostly better now.  Sean is very much healthy and better off in my tummy than here in the outside world. 

We’re all thankful to God that He took care of Sean and me.  I generally don’t go to the dr unless I’m in a lot of pain…..and I was.  And Eric usually goes to work even if I am sick, because I can usually handle things at home even if I am.  Luckily, he decided to stay home because I was in so much pain and I was in enough pain with the gastritis to go the dr.  And so Sean stayed safe!

Back in July I ordered by fall plantings of garlic, because I know that certain varieties sell out quickly.  I was supposed to receive the garlic via the mail sometime in September.  It’s now October and I still haven’t received the garlic.  So I’m going to have to e-mail the company and see what’s up. 

I was hoping to get the garlic in this weekend, but it looks like my plans will have to change.  Instead, this weekend we’ll probably work on getting the beets in and hope that the seedlings get big enough before the frost.  We had a lot of rain at the wrong time, so we had to postpone the planting.  I hope that it will work out.  I love pickled beets and I only have one jar left….  I’d also like to pressure can some for borsht.  Mmmm…..

But back to the garlic.  I ordered a decent amount because:

1.  We use a LOT of garlic.  Almost every dinner has garlic in it. 

2.  Eric wants me to try to make this hot garlic stuff he bought at the grocery store a couple of times.  I’m not sure if they are pickled or not, because although I adore garlic I couldn’t make myself eat a whole clove of garlic by itself. 

So….I’ll be writing the company to find out where my garlic is.  I’ll also be looking out for Eric’s mystery garlic recipe, but I’ll have until next summer to find that.

This weekend was a canning festival.  Well, festival was probably a poor choice for wording, because it was HOURS of work.  That topped with church, a party, family visits and many other small, but time-consuming events made for a jam-packed weekend.  SO I guess the appropriate wording for the first sentence would be: This weekend was a canning marathon. 

Aggie and I were butting heads for a couple of hours on Friday concerning her math just because she didn’t WANT to do it.  I, on the other hand, insisted that she must do it.  (Guess who won? Thaaaaat’s right.  Mommy.)  She is perfectly capable of doing it.  In fact, she is a whiz at it.  I guess that she was just wanting to do something else.  So, I wasn’t able to get my water-bath canning done on Friday as planned.  This made my weekend schedule THAT much more tedious.  

Saturday, I canned some more crushed tomato and pickled hot peppers. I can’t remember at the moment how many pints of crushed tomato I made, but I got 1 qt. and 1 pint of the peppers.  I made 4 qts. of cinnamon applesauce. Mmmmm.   I also cut up many, many pumpkins.  So many pumpkins that my hands were orange and ached afterwards. I couldn’t get to pressure canning them until…

Sunday.  I canned 13 qts. of pumpkin, 2 qts. of butternut squash, and 2 qts. of sweet potatoes.  I have the one of the biggest non-commercial pressure canners, but it only fits 7 qts. at a time.  So I had to process each batch 90 minutes, wait for the pressure canner to “chill” for an hour and then start another batch.  I was up until probably 2 a.m. last night getting this done.  My parents were good enough to stay up the entire time with me.  Eric stayed up for a good portion of it, but he had to work today. 

I am writing now at 4:30-ish.  I’m getting rather groggy, but my day is far from over.  I will say that my body longs for some sleep.  However, it is relieving to my mind to know that I have a majority of the canning done for the winter. 

Overall count for my pantry for the winter, (after giving some away and using a few thing already,):

21 qt. pumpkin

2 qt. butternut squash

2 qt. sweet potato

2 qt. and 1 pt. canned peaches

2 qt. and 1 pt. pickled pepper stuff

3 qt. pickled watermelon rind

1 qt. and 1 half pt. peach-ginger jam

2 pt. strawberry jam

2 half pint blueberry jam

1 half pint pickled onion

8 qt. applesauce

14 pt. and 1 half pint crushed tomatoes

In freezer:

lots of chopped onion….don’t know how much

chopped onion/bell pepper mixture….don’t know how much

In storage:

14 small spaghetti squash

The pumpkin, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, half of the tomatoes, one qt. of peppers, and all the onion came from our garden.  I’m hoping that next year we’ll be able to double the harvest.  I’ve learned what to repeat for next year and what to do different. 

I’ll probably buy some more apples at the farmer’s market.  I still have tomatoes producing, so there will be more tomatoes to can.  I love pickled green tomatoes so when the frost comes I’ll get those done too.  We have three walnut trees to harvest a little later on too.  I have some zucchini and summer squash to grate and freeze in the fridge right now.  But not today….

Today I made some bread, as we were out.  I’m going to finish with the kids’ homeschool and then venture onto MORE canning.  Today I’m going to do my waterbath-canning….crushed tomatoes and pickled peppers.  Then tomorrow I’ll have to do my pressure-canning:  pumpkins, butternut squash and sweet potatoes.  On one of these days I also need to freeze some zucchini and summer squash that I got in abundance at the farmer’s market.  I’m not overly fond of summer squash and even less of zucchini, but I try to be a good example to my kids and eat ALL my veggies….even ones I don’t like very much. 

I’ve got a lot to do, so a short post today!

We’ve had many interesting and strange conversations at the supper table trying to figure out what we should call our farm.  There have been a lot of hilarious and out-landish suggestions resulting in a lot of laughter. 

Different suggestions:

Darn Deer Farm- because of the “darn deer” that kept eating our bean and destroyed our fruit trees)

Rocky Hill Farm- because the hill is rocky

Wild Oats Farm- (Aggie’s idea)

Daffodil Hill Farm- ruled out because the daffodils are only here for a short period of time

Grassy Hill Farm- because our hill is grassy

Rocky Spring Farm- Eric came up with this one.  We have a spring and we have rocks, but not in the same place 

Nothing seemed right.  However, the family was having a conversation about love the other day.  Somehow Aggie got on the track of holidays too.  Then she started talking about the holiday where people give the people that are their friends love stuff….”Laughing Times Day”.  We all thought this was hilarious.  Aggie was half-way embarassed and half-way tickled about the reaction. 

So while talking casually to Eric on the couch one evening, I said I wanted it to be something that was a part of our family….who we are and such.  We had tried to come up with ideas related to the environment here, but to no avail.  I jokingly said “Laughing Time Farm.”  As I said it though, it had a nice ring to it.  Then Eric suggested that maybe we could spell it “thyme” instead of “time”, as we intend to have quite a large herb garden here.  (I’m wanting to get into herbal medicine, rather than the chemical junk.)  Then it seemed like an even-more plausible name. 

At first when we suggested it to Aggie she was embarassed, but once again she had that sort-of pleased look on her face.  Now she doesn’t seem to mind so much.  I also wanted to ruminate on the name awhile and see if it didn’t wear off on me.  But I still like it because of it’s connection with family….we have a lot of good times with our large family.  We laughed a lot trying to come up with a name.  Laughing Thyme Farm seems to suit fairly well.

I’m currently in the process of making some homemade cream cheese and whey.  While I’m gathering that MOST people would do this in order to get the cream cheese, I’m odd and am doing this process to get the whey.  No, I don’t want to be Miss Muffet.  I just want to be healthy. 

I’ve been somewhat of a cultured dairy product fan since last winter when we made it illness-free.  I REALLY believe that this is due to the kefir that I had the kids drink at least once a week or more if they “looked funny”.  Last winter I went on a venture of trying out piima culture for health reasons.  I only got to the starter culture process.  I can’t remember what prevented me from venturing further into it than I did.  It may have been my teeny-tiny kitchen at the apt. we were in.  Maybe it was my miscarriage?  I really can’t remember. 

But here are the processes that one can go through in order to get some cultured milk products:

1. Make piima starter culture.  Very easy.  Buy a packet of piima culture on the internet and stick it in some good quality cream that hasn’t been ultra-pasteurized.  It sits out on your countertop for a day or so until it gets thicker. 

2.  Take the said piima starter culture and make:

- piima milk

-piima cream

3.  From piima milk make:

-whey

-cream cheese

or from piima cream make:

-butter

-buttermilk

Of course you can always make a super-healthy smoothie too. 

Benefits of above cultured milk products:

- provides your body with the beneficial GOOD bacteria that kick bad bacteria’s butt. 

- vitamin B and C content are higher than in “regular” store-bought milk

-beneficial lactic acid is increased

-better bone structure found in cultures who have used fermented milk products

-whey helps with digestion

-whey is good for elastic ligaments and moveable joints

-whey is beneficial for stomach ailments

-whey is used in an ancient method of preserving food

That’s enough for now!  But what I have done this time around is make the piima culture and then the piima milk.  Then today I started the process to make the cream cheese and whey.  I put a strainer and CLEAN dishtowel over a bowl and then poured the piima milk on top.  The piima milk had been sitting out for a day.  It was a lot like yogurt in texture.  Today it’s been dripping away.  I have quite a bit of whey, which I’m happy about. 

I’m going to use the whey to make some lacto-fermented vegetables.  My first two trials in this will be Ginger Carrots and Pickled Daikon Radish.  The carrots are because it sounds good.  The radish is because I accidentally picked up the wrong vegetable at the store.  Long story…

But anyway, by the end of today I should have some cream cheese and whey.  I wish that I could post pictures, but once again no camera.  We hope to buy one in a month or so, depending on a couple of things. 

This is all stuff that I learned from the book, Nourishing Traditions.

d onions. I pickled three half pint jars of my too small to cut up onions today.  On Sunday I had cut our onion crop to freeze for later use.  Boy.  That was fun…..

It has been my least favorite harvesting job so far.  I think that I peeled and cut onions for two hours straight.  My crop wasn’t even that large either.  The house smelled of onions.  The kids eyes were watering and they kept on sniffling too.  My only problem was my growing impatience.  Usually I kind of like tedious things like that, but by the end of cutting the onions I was practically huffing in annoyance.  But on the positive side….

There is now one big freezer container of onions and the equivalent size of red pepper/onion mix in my freezer.  Frozen onions are always handy to have around when I accidentally run out or if I don’t feel like making my hands reek of allium. 

And some good news after a very, VERY dry summer here on No-Name Farm, (we probably should find a name for it besides that,) the tropical storm that hit Florida last week has given us two days in a row of rain.  I think that it’s supposed to rain tomorrow too.  We needed rain badly.  Our grass was brown.  We haven’t mowed our lawn for at least a month- maybe longer…. early July?  The only rain that we have gotten was maybe 5 min. here and there. 

The first day it rained I went outside for a few minutes and got wet.  My excuse was to go see if our spring level was up.  (It was.)  The rain felt good.  I’m sure that ground is loving it too.

Last night we had a lovely family night together.  I had a gig at the Frisky Berry in Franklin.  (http://www.myspace.com/friskyberrycoffeeco)  It’s such a cozy atmosphere that I didn’t feel weird bringing my hubby and four children to my gig.  Something that is hard is when I bring the whole FAM-club thinking that it will be a nice place for all of them to come, then find out after travelling with them there that it isn’t at all.  I’ve had a few of those…..  Yeah.  That makes it hard to sing/play. 

BUT!!!!  Last night was one of those times that we “packed” up the whole family and brought them with us with that slim hope of the venue being children-friendly.  And we weren’t disappointed.  In fact, we weren’t the only family there.  The owner had HIS family there too.  I like that.  In fact, I like that a lot.  I wanted to stay longer after my singing debute there, but I could tell the kids were getting restless.  It was about 7:45 p.m.- 8:00 p.m. and none of us had eaten any dinner yet.  And I had a craving for…..

Ravioli.  I’ve had this strange craving for ravioli for a couple of weeks now.  So we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Buca di Beppo.  (http://www.bucadibeppo.com/locations/default.aspx?location=4302)  We also like this place because it is a family-style restaurant.  Our children can be loud and it doesn’t matter because there are other tables that are somehow louder than our large-lunged children.   Okay….and me too.   I’m loud too.  :) 

Anyway, the food here is YUMMY.  It’s “family-style” so the portions are large.  They say their “small” feeds 2 people and their “large” feeds 4.  This is untrue.  And in a good way.  We got a “small” Caesar salad that fed all of us an appetizer.  Arden didn’t like it, but let me tell you– I’m picky with my Caesar salad.  Usually I find it too salty or too bland or too just-plain-nasty or they didn’t put any anchovy in it.  The Caesar salad here was perfect.  There was even enough left over for Eric and I to have seconds.  They also give you bread for a starter. Tip: Use the balsamic vinegar on it.  Always the vinegar. Mmmm.

For our main course we ordered a “large” ravioli with meat sauce and a “small” Chicken Saltimbocca.  The chicken came with three decent-sized chicken breasts.  The kids shared one.  I ate 1/2 of one and Eric ate a whole one.  (Eric- who was full before the main course came to the table.)  The ravioli was the GOOD kind of ravioli, not the nasty-groddily-disgustingly soggy garbage that comes from a can.  I shudder now thinking of THAT kind.  Gross.  This is the kind in which each piece of ravioli is about 4×4″ and filled with fresh ricotta cheese and then slathered with a meaty marinara sauce.  Yes, my ravioli craving was satiated….sort of.  Now I want some more. 

Luckily I can have some more BECAUSE the “large” was so large that it fed all of us, plus we have some leftovers sitting in my fridge.  Guess who’s having chicken saltimbocca and ravioli for lunch today?  That’d be me.  THEN because we can’t go to Buca di Beppo without buying dessert, we stuffed ourselves miserably on some darn-good tiramisu.  Every time I go to Buca di Beppo I think that I’m going to try one of their other desserts, but I always ultimately go for the tiramisu.  It’s THAT good.  And yes, one order fed us all, PLUS some. 

It’s kind of $$$ to go to Buca di Beppo, but we always leave feeling that it was worth the money.  EVEN ERIC says that…..that’s saying a lot.  Trust me.  He said it’s like three McDonald’s eat-outs.  I’d rather fore-go McD’s forever if I can go to Buca di Beppo every few months or so.   We always leave very satisfied and full, with a doggy-bag to go.  There’s always a comfy feeling of family and good times shared together too-  a feeling of home-away-from-home.

Wow. I’m so creative with these subject titles…..

I have a harvest of a lot of onions.  Albeit they are small, but by golly they were one thing that actually GREW at all this year in my garden.  So I will be chopping these up probably tomorrow along with several red bell peppers from the farmer’s market 1/2 bushel of veggies that we buy every two weeks.  (We don’t eat a lot of bell peppers.  Not many of us like them that much.) 

On Monday I made some wickedly good strawberry jam.  The jam is a beautiful scarlet red color and it tastes amazing.  Strawberries aren’t my favorite fruit, but I love, love, LOVE homemade strawberry jam.  I couldn’t help, but whip up a batch of homemade whole wheat buttermilk biscuits to eat with the jam.  Er…..I mean, I made some biscuits that we can put jam on?  :)  

We have so much to do around the property this weekend.  We actually have a weekend at home, so it’s going to be nice to get some things done.  We look like a hillbilly family with dog hair, our hose, a kid’s swimming pool, various toys and lawnchairs out in our front yard.  I suppose that I SHOULD or COULD go out and take care of it myself, but I have been so busy taking care of things inside that the outside has suffered a bit. 

Today:

1.  homeschool.

2.  clean a bit.

3.  laundry

4. gig in Franklin

Tomorrow:

1.  chop up onions and peppers and freeze.

2.  homeschool.

3.  put my stuff on e-by already!!! (maybe I’ll do that one today)

Weekend:

1.  Re-arrange den, because we still haven’t done it yet. 

2.  Clear off front porch.  Most of the stuff is unpacked, just needs to be organized AKA getting off of the front porch. 

3.  Take some stuff to Goodwill.  LOTS of stuff. 

4.  Till some of the garden and plant some beets while crossing my fingers.

5.  Clean the back porch so it is enjoyable to sit in again. 

6.  Fix the apple trees with wire and stuff. 

7.  Fix the dining room chairs?  (Dependant upon my material arriving via mail.)

A few years ago I got into the habit of making homemade organic whole wheat bread.  It tasted good and was healthier than anything I could buy at the store….and cheaper.  Well, that lasted about one year.  About two years ago I was going through some issues that left me feeling pretty down-in-the-dumps.  As a result, I didn’t feel like making bread anymore. 

Fast-forward to a year ago-  I was feeling better and felt like cooking more, but the kitchen in the teeny-tiny apartment we were renting was also teeny-tiny.  So because of the cramped quarters, I still didn’t make any homemade bread. 

Fast-forward to the present time-  We moved to this new house with a nice and roomy, but not too big kitchen.  But I’ve been busy unpacking things and canning and gardening.  Then I went through my first trimester of pregnancy where I was dead tired.  (Just making some bacon and eggs made me exhausted.)  So still no bread.  Then suddenly my energy returned, but I still didn’t make bread.  This is because I was out of the habit of it. 

This past month I’ve decided that I’m only going to make homemade bread.  I’ve been mostly successful in achieving this goal.  I have some French rolls that I make that are good and almost always turn out.  Then about a week ago I tried this recipe that I used to use all of the time when making bread.  Um, yeah.  I forgot to grease my pan.  The bread stuck to the bottom.  I was very aggrevated!  But I’m also kind of stubborn, so I decided to try it again today.  I even was “brave” and made a double batch to save myself some time.  But this time I greased my pans with butter.  

The bread was raising beautifully.  I stuck the pans into the oven and hoped that it would turn out for the good.  Then when they came out of the oven, I waited 10 minutes before the great climax.  I was hoping for the best– my bread coming out without any problems with none of the bottom of the loaf stuck to the pan.  But in all honesty, I was really skeptical….darn slightly pessimistic person that I am.  And both loaves slid right out.  They looked mouth-wateringly perfect.  I put them on a wooden cutting board to cool and went to finish homeschooling the girls.

All of my pride was vain though, as I walked back into the kitchen and looked at the bread on the countertop.  There on the bottom of the loaves were chunks taken out of the bottom of the bread.  Apparently Liam was hungry and the bread looked good.  And I guess that one loaf wasn’t enough….he had to try pieces from both of them.  I would gather that I am destined to have loaves of bread with chunks on the bottom of them, whether from my own baking mistakes or because of hungry little boys.