Monday on the Homestead
Well the weather is just beautiful here in the PNW! We have had several days full of sunshine and heat and I just love every minute of it. I think summer has finally come to our little corner of the world.
For the last few days I have been cooking with my crockpot.. or should I say crockpots.. I have 2 of them a big 6qt and 2 or 3 qt.. I think that is the size. It is an old one that use to be my moms many years ago, but it works like a trooper. I love being able to put both of them to use for a meal. One day I put a beanless chili in the big crockpot and cooked pinto beans in the small one. When the beans were done cooking I drained the liquid and added a little more salt and some butter and smashed them up right in the crockpot to make refried beans (not that they were fried at all..lol..).. Sierra made a salad and the combo was delicious. Another favorite combo is meatballs in the big crockpot and mac and cheese in the small one and serve with a fresh green salad. I have been taking the crockpots out to my husbands shop to plug in and cook for the day to keep the house from getting hot. It has worked great! I make the meal while it is still nice and cool and then enjoy the day working around my home and the afternoon swimming and sunning with the kids..  dinner is ready to go when the family is hungry.
Updates from my daughter Leanne. She is now on week 2 of her two week boot camp. We have gotten one post card from her and the phone call she gave me when she arrived in Orlando and today I got a letter from her. Sounds like Boot Camp is rigorous and full of lots of hard work. She is a hard worker and I am sure she is handling that just fine but I think she is feeling home sick. They have them up at 5:30am and doing KP to prepare for breakfast and then the days are long and hot and sweaty and very busy. The Teen Missions website has been giving updates and posting pictures of the kids and what they are doing. We have been checking in to see what is going on. Emily was so excited today to find a picture of Leanne!! She was swinging across some water with a rope.. Leanne is very strong and from the time she was a little girl she would grab onto the rope swing that is out over our pond and swing and climb that rope, she loved doing that.. So we all had to smile to see this picture of her:
If you want to see more pictures of the 2008 Boot Camp at Teen Missions you can see that here
This last week my daughter Carolyn and her hubby Jonathan and my grandbaby Caden came to town for a visit. They are still here. I have seen them a couple of times and over the weekend they headed to the Oregon coast with Jonathans family. This week we plan to get together again. The highlight of the visits so far was when my little grandson Caden called me “grandma”.. just melted my grandma heart..  Another highlight was going out shopping with all my girls, except for Leanne of course, and she was very missed by all of us! But it was a fun afternoon and it was cute to get a couple of baby belly pictures of Carolyn and Hannah my two mommies to be. Here is a pic of all of my girls:
Tobin and the boys have been working like crazy around the property. They have been trimming trees, mowing, clearing out weeds and I have to say the front of our property is looking like a park! And the great side benefit from this work is that we have about 1/3 of our winter wood already. Jacob has done a lot of cutting and Isaac has been helping with the stacking and clean up. Tobin split all the wood that needed to be split and it is all stacked neatly in the bins… we all smile at it as we walk by.. knowing how important that wood is to our winter time comfort (even in the midst of summer heat  ). Here is a pic of our pond and some of the surroundig area..
Tomorrow Tobin and I celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary! We are going to go out to dinner tonight to celebrate. I have to say that the more years that go by the better marriage gets and the more in love and committed I am to my man.  Maybe I need to follow the lead of my friend Laurie (Abundant Blessings Farm blog and mod of my board and very loved friend of mine  )… she takes the number of years married and lists that many things she loves about her hubby.. if I have time I may do that and post it tomorrow!
That is all for today. I need to get some laundry going and get think about getting ready for my evening out with my hubby.. 
Have a great Monday on your homestead!
New Soap and Lotion Scents for Summer!
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Plus for a limited time you can save 10% when you buy selected soap and lotion combinations.
Click HERE for more information.
Making Healthy and Quick Lasagna
I am a big advocate of cooking from scratch and keeping it frugal and healthy.. but every now and again I need something quick to put together that does not sacrifice health. I know I will spend a bit more to make it healthy but I also know I am spending much less than if I was to buy take out food for my family and with that added expense there would be no health advantages.
This is one meal I make that is quick to put together and I have used the healthiest ingredients I could find.
Here are the basic ingredients:
Healthy & Quick Lasagna
1 lb hamburger
1 onion, chopped
1jar (25oz approx) organic pasta sauce such as the brand Muir Glen
1 container (16oz) organic cultured cottage cheese
8 whole wheat lasagna noodles
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Here is how it is made
Begin by gathering together your ingredients
Put a frying pan on the stove to heat up.
While it is getting hot, chop up your onion
Cook hamburger and onion until hamburger is no longer pink and onion is soft
Add pasta sauce and mix well
You will need a 13x9 pan to make this in. Spray the pan with non-stick spray
Lay 4 uncooked noodles in the bottom of the pan
Spoon half the hamburger/pasta sauce mix over the noodles
Spoon half the cottage cheese over the hamburger/pasta sauce mix
Now cover with half the cheese
Start the process all over again beginning with the uncooked lasagna noodles and using up the rest of the ingredients and ending with the shredded mozzarella.
After you have covered the top with the last of the cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese you will need to cover it with foil. If you want to prevent the cheese from sticking to the foil as it cooks and melts then spray your foil with non-stick spray first and then cover the lasagna.
Cook at 350 for about 1 hour. Pull it out and stab it with a fork to make sure the noodles are soft. If you need to cook it longer you can put it back in for another 15 minutes. When the lasagna is done allow to cool for 20 to 30 minutes so it will firm up and be easier to serve. Then enjoy!!
Saturday on the Homestead
Well this last week has been crazy busy. We were working on all the last minute details to get Leanne ready to leave for Orlando (Teen Missions), CAT testing for the kids and Tobin was working like crazy around the property.
However.. yesterday Leanne left for her 2 month missions trip to Egypt! She will spend 2 weeks in FL at Boot Camp then 4 weeks in Egypt at the Lillian Thrasher Orphanage and then 2 weeks in Switzerland for debrief. She was nervous, scared, excited.. all in one! Her plane left last night at 10:00 and Tobin took her to the airport to see her off (and then he had to head to work which is one reason we did not all go.. and the fact that everyone else would only be able to go as far as security with her anyway.. Tobin could go all the way to the gate with her since he works for the airline). They saw 3 other Teen Mission kids there (you can spot them by their boots.. they arrive in work boots and jeans ). She called me this morning to let me know she had made it safe and sound and was currently with Teen Missions at the airport waiting for the baggage. There ended up being 6 other kids on her flight. I am sure this will be an awesome and amazing experience for her! BUT we are already missing her terribly! Especially Emily.. Emily and Leanne are VERY close sisters and that separation may be a harder part of this trip (for both of them) than anything else Emily took a picture of me, Leanne and Tobin before she left for the airport…
Today has seemed like a relief from all the planning, paperwork, fund raising, packing, shopping, etc… that has gone into this trip. I had a totally new focus today.. I made nearly 100 bottles of lotion (some new scents that I will get up on the site tomorrow along with a couple new soap scents for summer), directed the kids to clean up the basement and house and Jacob and Isaac worked on outdoor projects. It felt almost normal again! LOL..
I feel like I can now focus on summer, menus, housekeeping, summer routines and maybe a garden.. not sure if that will happen. We have had so much rain that it made it almost impossible to get a garden in and then when the weather was cooperating I was so busy I could not get to it. I may see if I can still buy any plants and go from there. If I can’t then I guess I will be visiting the farmers market this year for fresh veggies.
Emily also took another CLEP test last week (History II) and passed with flying colors again!! She now has some time off and has been spending all her time today studying (and plans to spend the next several days doing the same thing) for the next test (American Government) which she hopes to take sometime next week. She is on track and doing great.
Well I need to go and put my feet up….among everything else that has gone on I sprained my ankle last week.. just what I needed.. LOL.. luckily it is not a bad sprain and is healing well.. except in the evening it starts aching.. I need go and elevate it right now.
Hope you all have a blessed Sunday on your homesteads!
Updates from the Homestead
This last week flew by. I kept busy with housekeeping, laundry, updating my website, time on my boards, and time in town.
I was in town twice last week; once with Tobin for our weekly date and later in the week with my girls for grocery shopping. Before we got going on the shopping we went to a local community college so Emily could take her next CLEP test. The test was History I and she passed with flying colors! I was quite pleased. She is now heading onto History II. The course had a lot of dates and wars and info to memorize. She is really putting into practice the study skills she learned when she first got started. She emailed her coach when she got home to let her know she had passed. We received a call last week from her degree planner to make the specific plans for her accounting degree. She will know next week specifically what classes she will be taking. Right now she is working on all her general classes. I am very proud of all her hard work on this, on top of working full time.
Leanne leaves in about a week and a half.. yikes! It is coming up too quickly for me! We need to do a practice packing job to make sure she meets the weight limit and make adjustments if she does not. Our church informed us that they would be giving Leanne the last part of the needed funds for this missions trip, which was a real blessing to all of us and I am very thankful for this.
Can’t remember if I shared or not, but my oldest daughter, Carolyn, is having a boy. They will all be here in a few weeks for a visit and I am excited to see them.
We are still waiting for summer to start here in my little corner of the world. Today is about 60 and cloudy and they predict wet and that is the way it has been, with the exception of yesterday. It was actually sunny. I went out on my deck and just soaked up some of the afternoon sunshine. It was not real warm, but the sun sure felt good. But other than that little bit of sun, we have not seen much. I joked with my hubby that we need to take another vacation so we can have some more heat and sun! LOL.. But I know eventually summer HAS to start.. right? 
Today I have some soap business stuff to do (package and label), laundry (already have one load done), housework and put something simple on for dinner. It will probably be a pot of soup to help warm up the house. Tobin and I will be heading to town later on today for our weekly date.. love those quiet times with my honey..
Hope you all have a wonderful Monday!
Black Bean Chicken Chili In Pictures!
While making another yummy bean dish for my family I took step by step pictures for anyone wanting to try this one out! I received several emails from ladies saying they had tried my Italian Pintos and their families enjoyed it, so I hope this will be another good one for anyone who gives it a try!
You can find the recipe for Black Bean Chicken Chili here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/blackbeanchickenchili.htm
The first step is to assemble your ingredients
Add your beans to a 6qt pot and add water
And salt…
Bring to a boil. Slowly reduce the heat over 5 minutes and put a lid on the pot and turn the burner to low. Slowly reducing the heat over 5 minutes before putting the lid on will help the pot of beans not to boil over.
Let the beans cook for 2 ½ to 3 hours or longer if you live at higher elevations. Check the beans at the end of the cooking time. When you blow on one, the skin should crack. When taste one they should be nice and soft, not hard in any way.
When the beans have finished cooking it is time to prepare the rest of the ingredients. Chop up your onion
And your chicken. My chicken in the first picture was still frozen; I use boneless, skinless frozen chicken thighs and as you can see, after it has defrosted and was cut up it is not as much as it may have looked like in the first picture.
Now add a little olive oil to a fry pan and cook the onions and the chicken
Add the garlic
When it is done add the cooked chicken and onions to the pot of cooked beans
Add the corn
Add the can of tomatoes. I call for Rotel tomatoes in my recipe but have since worked to use only organic tomato products (trying to avoid GMO products as much as possible). The brand I am using is Muir Glen Organic Roasted Tomatoes with Peppers.
Add the chili powder
The Tabasco
Stir and simmer a bit to blend flavors and serve for dinner!! I added a nice green salad with homemade dressing, tortilla chips and organic salsa. My family really enjoys this meal and I hope you do to!
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Updates from the Homestead
Well I am up and running on a new computer! Mine was having big issues and last week my multi-talented hubby bought all the parts to make me a new computer (he admits he is a part time computer geek.. lol..)! Then he loaded Vista, all of which took one evening and most of the following day. Then more major work came, I had to load all my programs up and then transfer all my files from the old computer to the new one. That took up the rest of the week as I got my email reset, my website program and files loaded and working and on and on. This week has been the challenge of learning to use some new programs (some of the programs I was using were not compatible with Vista so I had to buy the updated versions.. I think they do this on purpose ) and learning my way around Vista. I have to say I am quite pleased to be able to be up and running without problem and so much faster now!
On Sunday I enjoyed a huge highlight of the week! I have several moderators on my message board and over time (more than a couple years now) I have gotten to know them all quite well and we have become good friends. Well Erica is one of my mods and a good friend. Her and her family were visiting up here in my part of the world and we arranged for a chance to meet. They came to my homestead and we spent a wonderful morning together. Emily and Leanne made scones and we had coffee and chatted. Jacob showed her boys around the property and they got to check out the wildlife in the pond. It is a great highlight to finally get to meet an online friend in real life! I hope it can happen again sometime soon.
This week Jacob and Sierra officially finished their school year.. YEA!! Isaac is right behind them and should be done within days. Leanne is getting to the finish line with just her Saxon Advanced Math book to finish and then she will be done, just in time to start packing up for Egypt (the days are getting closer to her leaving!).
We have a cold making its way around the house. Jacob had it first I believe (or maybe it was Emily.. who knows), then it hit a couple of the other kids and finally this week my poor hubby got hit with it. He came home from work on Monday with a slight soar throat and within a few hours was coughing and feeling yucky. He is still feeling yucky today, a little better he thinks, but he is not sure if he will go into work or not. I told him it was not a bad idea to let his body heal for one more day. I keep taking Nutribiotic and Emergen-C and so far have only felt twinges of the cold; I hope it is passing me by.
Menus.. I need to get June’s menu made. I put the menu planning calendar on my site this morning. I did it earlier than I usually do because I was testing my new PDF converter (one of the new programs I had to buy because the old one was not compatible).. it worked quite well and process was simplified from what it use to be. So now I have my calendar ready and it is time to plan menus. I am going to be sharing on my site about my 10 - day menu plan that I have been using for several months now. Look for that article very soon. For tonight dinner is very simple (and cooking as I type this).. baked chicken legs, mashed potatoes, salad and maybe some dessert. We will see if anyone has the gumption to make something for dessert. Leanne made a big pan of brownies a couple of days ago. Of course they are gone now, but brownies and vanilla ice cream is one of our favorite desserts. Who knows what it might be .. maybe just some ice cream and tomorrow Sierra can make cookies.
That is all for now, I hope you have had a productive week on your homestead!
Home Study College
I have shared that my daughter Emily is working on getting a degree in Accounting via home study. I have had a few people ask me questions so I thought I would share this again and try and add a little bit more detail in hopes of answering those questions.
She is using a program called College Plus, which is a Christian based coaching/mentoring program that guides and lays out the course for their desired degree. I was not sure about it at first but after researching it, talking with them and spending a lot time at their website I understood what service they were offering. They have certain degrees that can be obtained at home (some can not such as medical, teaching, etc..). They basically guide you as to which classes you need to take, and set up your degree plan, and give you a coach who you speak with on the phone and email with and this helps keep the student accountable and on track. I really like this feature and Emily's coach has been a perfect match for Emily. They get along great and she has been incredibly helpful. She and Emily talk on the phone a couple times a month and email as needed.
Emily started the program in April. She began by going through their extensive study skills materials and doing her Life Purpose Planning (a very good and thought provoking study book). She met her coach and got to know her and together figured out what rate of study Emily would be able to do based on how much time she could devote to studying while still working full time. Then she began her first class.
She purchases the books from College Plus, Amazon.com, Half.com and/or borrows them from the library. The recommended books, study guides, websites, etc.. are very good and helpful. She spends about 3 weeks per class.
Yesterday she went and took her first CLEP test. The program works by having you study for each test (they use CLEP’s and Dante's, which is often how military people obtain their degrees). We chose a community college that is not far from us and Emily made an appointment to take her test. We arrived, paid the fee and she took the test. And she passed very well and now has her first 6 college credits.
After she has taken all her CLEPS and Dante's these credits will be transferred to Thomas Edison University and she will take the last of her classes on line from them and they will issue her degree. She should have her 4 year degree in about 1 1/2 years (for a fraction of the cost).
We feel that so far from what we can see it is a great program that allows young people to get their degrees while still at home (great for homeschoolers, which is a large portion of who uses them). You can even begin this program while your homeschooled kids are still doing homeschool high school. We are thinking of having Leanne begin studying for her CLEPS this next year while she decides what direction she would like to go. I really like this innovative approach to a obtaining a college education.
I'm Home!
I’m back from vacation! I have been for a few days but it has taken that long to get life back to a normal routine.. why is it so hard to come home from vacation! LOL.. Tobin and I enjoyed lots of sunshine and heat and just did a lot r&r poolside (and I came home with a nice tan to show for all that r&r).. very much needed by both of us. My girls kept the home fires burning and my boys were shipped off to a friend’s house. Everyone did fine but it sure was good to see them when we got home. I missed all the hugs and smiles of my sweet kids..
I will be back to my regular scheduled blogging soon. I came home to computer problems. Actually I knew there were a few issues before I left and now it is time to do something about them as these little issues are now BIG ones.. Don’t know how long it will take me to get back online.. should be pretty quick. I am limping along with my computer right now or I can use Tobin or Emily’s laptop if I need to so I am still here to answer emails and send out orders.
If you ordered from me in the past 2 weeks you should be getting your order this week. Almost all of them have been sent out except for a small number which will go out today.
Vacation
I wanted to let you know that any orders placed through my country store starting May 6th will be shipped out on May 19th .
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Thank You
I would like to express a heart felt “thank you” to everyone who commented and sent me emails on the loss of my little Ellie. I appreciate your caring and loving words.
Updates from the Homestead
Life on the homestead has been a little unsettling lately. We have spotted a coyote 3 different times, once it took a chicken. Sadly to say on the third sighting our sweet little Pomeranian Ellie must have challenged him. She would do this to other dogs no matter what their size. She may have been little in size but she had a big dog’s instinct to protect. The coyote killed our little Ellie.  I was just devastated. I don’t think I realized just how much she had worked her way into my heart. It was a very sad day at our house. The days since then are getting better but my how those pets become such a member of the family.
Today is Monday and I have the typical amount of activities going on. The kids are working hard to finish up the school year and I have some writing papers to correct and should get a couple more books printed and bound for the kids. Jacob just finished the Personal Memoirs of General Grant and said he liked it and said he would much rather get his history from the source than history text books. My first year with the Robinson Curriculum is just about over and I have been really pleased with it and will continue to use it next year with maybe a few changes. I have people ask me to give my review on RC and I will do that, but I wanted to use it for a complete year before sharing any more about it.
Bread Baking.. I have had a few blog posts about baking lately and with that came questions that I will attempt to answer here..
busybeemama asked what I cover my bread with when it is rising. I typically put my bread in the oven to rise. I have a “bread proofing” setting on my stove and I don’t cover it with anything. Before I had a stove with this setting I would turn my oven on until it just started to get warm, then turn it OFF and put my bread pans in there and leave them their until they were about 1 inch above the pans. I don’t take them out of the oven, I just turn the oven on and let them start cooking. I start timing the cooking of them when I turn the oven on. If I let something rise on the countertop because my oven is being used I cover it with a towel.
Southernbelle asked how to substitute sugar in my regular recipes.. first I always have to say that I have not made my recipes with sugar and don’t know how they would turn out.. but that being said, you can sub sugar 1:1 in the recipes
I had two people ask if I could post on how I made the cinnamon bread.. it was very easy.. I made my regular bread recipe and added about 1 tablespoon of cinnamon per loaf of dough (for the 4 loaf recipe I added 4T cinnamon when I added in the flour).
April asked what I was grinding for flour.. I use hard white wheat. I also buy organic wheat from Azure Standard. If your bread is not rising as much as mine is there may be other issues than just the type of wheat used. What recipe are you using? You can email me if you would like and I can try and help troubleshoot your bread baking.
And finally to DonnaJoy.. it was so very nice to see here.. I miss you too..
Other updates.. Leanne is still working on fundraising for her missions trip but took a break from that this last weekend to participate in our churches 30 hour famine and went door to door raising donations for that. This is the second 30 hour famine she has participated in this year. I love seeing where her heart is at and her desire to help those in need.
Emily started her first course with her home study college. She is doing interpreting literature and will be ready soon to take her first Clep test. This is a 6 credit course. She is still working full time as a nanny for the little twins. Emily turns 18 in another few days. The day before her birthday we (Emily, Leanne, Sierra and me) will be having a girls day out… she wants to go to the big mall in the city for the day and then we plan to go and have a nice birthday lunch. Everyone is looking forward to that.
In a few weeks Jacob and Sierra will be going for a visit to see my oldest daughter. They are excited.. it will be longest flight they have ever been on. Jacob can’t wait to play xbox with my son in law.. lol.. and Sierra can’t wait to play with Caden and help Carolyn out. She has been over doing it lately and has had to work harder on taking it easy so she said she would love having Sierra there.
Tobin and I will be leaving on vacation next week so I have been busy getting ready for that and getting things taken care of in my home to prepare for being gone.
This week I really need to get some soap made.. we will see if I can make that happen with everything else that needs to get done! But for today.. it is business as usual around our homestead..
Hope you all have a great Monday on your homesteads!
Baking Day in the Homestead Kitchen
Well yesterday afternoon was another weekly baking day here on my homestead. We were out of bread and all baked goods for that matter. So yesterday I (with a little help) made 6 loaves whole wheat bread, a pan of garlic cheese dinner rolls to go with our Navy Bean Soup that was for dinner, 2 loaves of cinnamon bread and 1 pan of cinnamon chocolate rolls.
Here is how it went:
I started the morning off by grinding about 20 some cups of wheat:
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Then in the afternoon Leanne started the baking day by making the 6 loaves of bread:
Then I made garlic cheese dinner rolls. I served navy bean soup for dinner. Whenever I have a big baking day I usually try and make dinner something in the crockpot or a pot of something that can be made earlier in the day so dinner preps and bread making don't end up needing to be done at the same time and resulting in a lot of kitchen chaos . I don’t typically get to baking bread until the afternoon so I do most of my main dinner preps beforehand.
When the rolls were done I went on to make cinnamon bread. I did this by doubling my 2 loaf recipe for whole wheat bread. I divided the dough into 4 pieces. With 2 of them I put them in bread pans and let them rise and bake.
While they were rising and baking I took the other 2 pieces of dough and rolled out each one. To make my chocolate rolls I melted ¼ cup butter and added 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder and ½ cup brown sugar (I was out of Sucanat or I would have used that instead). I mixed this together and poured it out on my rolled out piece of dough. I spread it around and then sprinkled about a ½ cup of chocolate chips on the dough. I then rolled the dough up and cut it into slices just like I would for cinnamon rolls. I repeated this same process with the 2nd piece of dough. This filled up a large jelly roll pan. I baked them for 25 minutes.
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Here are the recipes:
Updates from the Homestead
Well here it is Monday again.. the weeks just fly by. We were so happy last week to enjoy a few nice warmer days. One day was about 75! It was great, but today we are back to cool and wet.. Such is life.. and to top it off my hubby has to attend a mandatory class at work tonight so his weekend will be cut short.. date night will have to wait. That is ok as I have had plenty to keep me busy today.
Last week we had a little too much excitement on our homestead. Our dog Ellie was outside barking as is typical for her, so no one got terribly excited about it. She tends to stand in the front yard and bark at all the ducks that land in our pond. However this one morning she was doing a lot of barking and then Leanne ran downstairs and said she had just looked out the upstairs window and saw a coyote run past our pond and into the woods with a chicken in its mouth!! Right in broad daylight! They have never been so bold in the past. Must be slim pickins’ up in those woods this time of year.
The kids are winding down the school year. They hope to be finished sometime next month. So we have been doing a lot of focusing on school. Tobin and I will be leaving to go on vacation next month so I am also trying to make sure they get plenty done before that.
Last Saturday night my daughters and I had a great evening together. We did feet soaks and painted our toenails (aw the fun of teenage daughters ). Last month for my birthday Emily and Leanne bought me one of those foot bath, whirlpool thingys.. and I had not yet pulled it out of the box. So the evening just seemed perfect for it. We watched some old TV shows and everyone pampered their feet. By the time we were done even the boys had joined us to check out mom’s new toy and soak their feet! LOL.. however they passed on getting their toenails painted.. Afterwards we all made ice cream sundaes.
Update on Leanne: she has raised ½ the funds for her trip, her visa application has been filled and sent in and her plane reservations to Teen Missions and from the drop off point when the missions trip is over have now been made! I feel a great sense of relief to have made it this far and met all of our deadlines. The clock is ticking.. I know June will be here before I know it!
Dinner tonight is tacos. Easy enough… I will get Sierra and Isaac to help me with dinner preps tonight.
Hope you have all had a productive day on your homesteads today!
You Don’t Like Beans???
Beans are an excellent food source. They are full of vitamins, minerals and fiber and they are inexpensive as well. They are a wonderful food source for your body and your budget. One comment I hear often from ladies is that someone in the family does not like beans. I have come to wonder for the most part if this comes from past bean eating experience. Most bean types, by themselves, are rather plain tasting (intrinsically not really enough there to actually dislike). They are not overly sour, hot, sweet, bitter, tart, etc. So how you cook and how you flavor them will have a lot to do with how they taste and ultimately someone’s overall opinion about them. A lot of bad bean dishes made by well meaning people of your past, equals a lot of bad opinions of beans. But a well cooked bean dish may be able to sway those dislikes to likes. ~smile~
I have been serving beans to my family for years and have learned how to cook some really good bean dishes (at least my family, friends, and ladies I hear from via email have told me this). I do have a few tricks and recommendations when you are learning to cook beans. Once you try a really good bean dish your feelings about beans may just change (and/or hopefully your family’s as well).
A few tips…
~Never use canned beans. They are yucky, in my opinion.
~Always add salt at the beginning of cooking them. That is what helps bring out the flavor in a pot of beans
~Never add tomato products (sauce, paste, diced, stewed, etc.) until AFTER the beans have finished cooking. The acid in the tomatoes will cause your beans not cook.
~Soaking is not mandatory. It is great for the optimal nutrition, and I try and remember to do it, but usually don’t succeed well at that task so I cook the beans right from the bag to the pot, no added steps.
Other considerations:
Worried about beans causing gas? Yes they will if you are not use to eating them. Once they become a regular part of your diet your intestinal flora will adapt and the gas problems will diminish.
Best types of beans to try?
My first choice, especially for someone who is new to eating beans is the pinto bean. It is mild and adapts well to a large variety of recipes. I wrote an article on what to do with 25# of beans (buying in bulk is how you save the most money! :). After that I suggest, red beans, black beans and navy beans.
How to Cook a Great Bean Dish:
In the following pictures you will see how I cook one of our favorite bean dishes, Italian Pintos. It seemed I was always seeing how to turn beans into chili and at one point I set out to try something different and this was what I came up with and my family has loved it ever since.
The actual recipe can be found here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/italianpintobeans.htm
The recipe gives directions on how to cook this meal by fist soaking the beans. I, as mentioned above, forgot to do this so the water amount is different (beans expand and soak up water during an overnight soaking). The recipe also calls for optional green peppers. I would have added them except when I went shopping yesterday and Costco was out of the mini peppers that I love to buy. So they are not part of this recipe.
Here are the ingredients needed to make Italian Pintos (I forgot to add the parmesan cheese and garlic to the picture):
The first step is to cook the beans. This will take 2 ½ to 3 hours or more if you live at higher elevations.
Add the beans to your soup pot:
Add 12 cups water (this is the adjusted amount of water because I did not soak them. If I had soaked them I would have followed the recipe accordingly).
Add 1 tablespoon of salt (my standard measurement is 1 t salt for each cup of beans and this recipe calls for 3 cups beans):
Bring the beans to a boil leaving the lid off. After they have come to a boil slowly bring turn the temp down over the next 5 minutes. I usually set a timer for this:
I have found that if I bring the beans to a boil, cover them and turn the heat down they always boil out over the pot making a big mess. When I do it slowly over 5 minutes and then put the lid on and finally turn it down on low, nothing boils over.
Now go ahead and think about any other dinner preps you want to go with this meal. I served a salad and the second loaf of French bread that I made a couple of days earlier and froze. Or go and do something else, as other than side dish preps, there really is nothing more to do until dinner time.
When the time is up, check to see if the beans have cooked enough. Use a slotted spoon and pull up a couple of beans. Blow on them, the first thing that should happen is the skin on the beans should split. This is a good sign. Then taste one. They should not be hard in any way. They should be soft. If they are hard, let them cook a little longer. Another test I do is when I stir the beans is that they should not feel “clicky”. That is my own term (at least I have never heard it used before) and one that I don’t really know a better way to describe, but you should not feel them bumping up against each other when you stir them. Try stirring them when you know they are not done yet to get a feel for “clicky”.
When your beans are done go ahead and cook up the sausage and onions. Begin by chopping up your onions (and peppers, if you are using them):
Get out your frying pan and let heat up:
Add the onions and sausage (this is where you would also add the optional peppers):
And cook these until the meat is no longer pink and the onions are soft.
Now add the rest of the ingredients to the pot of cooked beans:
The sausage and onions:
Diced tomatoes:
Chopped Garlic:
Italian Seasonings:
Mozzarella cheese:
Parmesan Cheese:
Stir and taste and add a little salt if you think it needs it, I never do.. they taste delicious! :)
Serve this up in soup bowls with a nice salad on the side and maybe some French bread, dinner rolls, or even some good quality whole grain crackers:
Then enjoy your dinner!!!! ~smile~
***Last thing I should mention about this recipe is it makes a lot! So if you are a small sized family, feel free to cut it in half or freeze half of it for another meal.
An Afternoon with My Bosch
Yesterday I spent my afternoon baking. I took pictures along the way to share how I was able to get it all done. I baked 6 loaves of bread, 2 loaves of French bread and a large pan (jelly roll size) of cinnamon rolls. I did this in about 2 ½ to 3 hours (due to the fact that most bread recipes only need one rising time when kneaded with the Bosch). I will share the links to the recipes at the end of the post.
Here is how it went:
I started earlier in the morning grinding my all my wheat in my Retsel grain mill. I had other things to do in my day so I did not get back to the baking until later in the day (about 2:00). When I started I began with our weekly 6 loaves of bread. I kneaded up the dough and divided it into 6 bread pans.
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While my 6 loaves of bread were rising I wiped out my Bosch bowl and made the French bread. This is one of my favorite recipes. It is actually a pizza crust recipe but I have found that it makes a delicious bread as well. I wanted to have this to go with our dinner last night which was streak that we grilled out (under the cover of our carport as it was raining ), coleslaw and French bread. I divided the dough into 2 loaves and put them in my French bread pans.
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By this time the 6 loaves of bread were coming out of the oven:
While my French bread was rising, I mixed up the dough for my cinnamon rolls.
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While the French bread baked I rolled out the dough and made cinnamon rolls:
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I set them on the counter, covered with a dish towel and let them rise. While they were rising the French bread came out of the oven:
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When the cinnamon rolls were done rising, I put them in the oven. While they were baking I cleaned out the Bosch bowl and used the wire whips to make some icing to spread on them when they came out of the oven:
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When I had moments to wait in between all these steps I cleaned up the kitchen so it did not become a big disaster to deal with when I was done. When the cinnamon rolls were done I pulled them out of the oven and frosted them:
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By now it was time to switch gears in the kitchen work and think about dinner. The only other prep that needed to be done was make coleslaw. I washed out the Bosch and Leanne came to help. She used the Bosch with the peeler, slicer attachment to slice the cabbage and grate the carrots:
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And here is the finished project:
If I had gotten an earlier start to it all I would have also tried to fit a batch of cookies into the baking day and make a gallon of instant oatmeal (I use the blender to blend my oats for this). But today is another day and hopefully I can get to that.
I freeze the bread that won’t be eaten in a day or so and I would freeze the cinnamon rolls too.. if they ever lasted that long! I freeze my bread in gallon size storage bags (not the zip type). The brand is Hefty Baggies. My bread is never stored for long periods of time and that is why I don’t use freezer bags. If I was to store it for a month or more I might switch to the freezer bags instead.
The recipes:
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Took a Blogging Break
I have taken a break from blogging in the last few weeks. The break was not intentional but rather I needed a computer break and I needed to focus my time on my family and home and business. I always get emails from blog readers or calls from family or friends when they don’t see me blog for awhile wondering if all is well. Yes all is fine, and I thank you for your thoughts.
My time over the last few weeks has been spent helping Leanne with her long never ending list of things to take care in preparation for her missions trip to Egypt. We still need to get her plane reservations made and I am hoping we will get that completed this week. There has been fund raising at our church for her, her visa application that had to filled out EXACTLY right or it would be rejected, clothing, and misc. items that have to be put together. And in all her packing she has a weight limit as well.. so many details! And her departure date seems fast approaching.
I have also spent time with Emily as she is preparing for her first coaching call which is the starting line for her College Plus program. She is very eager to get going on this.
My younger kids are finishing up the school year and doing all they can to get the book work done so by the time the nice weather comes (if it ever comes! ) they can put the books away and enjoy their summer… except for Jacob who announced he wanted to go through the Algebra 2 book over the summer/fall which would mean he will have done 2 Saxon math books this year. He is a smart boy and I am sure can do it. Leanne did the same thing one year.
On top of these things I have been spring cleaning and organizing. My basement has been transformed! I had thought to take a picture of how it looked before I started cleaning and purging. BUT I was too embarrassed! LOL..  Now that I am done with it all I wish I had.. may have encouraged someone who has their own disaster to deal with that it can be tackled!
I have been on a soap making campaign for my little country store too. Since the last week in February I have made about 100#’s of soap. I have soap curing everywhere! I had to pack things away to make room on shelves to lay it all out to cure. I have another 30#’s I want to make before the month ends and then maybe I will take a soap break!
So as you can see something in my schedule had to give and it was blogging and computer time. Soon life will settle down.. I think! LOL.. and I can get back to blogging and sharing more.
Monday on the Homestead
Hope everyone had a blessed Resurrection Day! My girls and I made a nice dinner which consisted of pot roast, cheesy garlic potatoes, coleslaw, peas & corn and a chiffon cake.
Now I am looking ahead at the week and see lots on my to-do list. I have been doing some spring cleaning. I started last week in my basement storage area. I have been going through all my storage totes and purging lots of stuff. I don’t desire to be a collector of stuff yet somehow despite my feelings on this I still end up with too much, and I don’t like it. Maybe after helping to clean out my grandmothers and step grandmother’s homes and last year my father in laws home I saw the huge accumulation of things that they acquired over the years. We gave away and hauled to the Good Will and the dump lots of “stuff”. It made me wonder what is the purpose of “stuff”? How much time have I spent over the years, storing, going through, organizing and dealing with my stuff? I think our fascination with our possessions takes away from simple living. Granted we may need some of the things we hang on to, but how much is reasonable? That has been the question I ask myself with every shelf I clean, and with every tote I open up. Am I really going to need this again? If I feel it is something that has value and that I WILL use again, I keep it but if I question it, I am giving it away. The best part of it all is how free it makes me feel when I do this, showing me that yes indeed.. stuff certainly can be a burden.
Aside from working in my basement some more I have school work to check up on with the kids and with their help we will get the house in nice shape. My older girls are already off to their babysitting jobs this morning so it will be me and my 3 youngest (which really aren’t so young any more.. they are 14, 12 and 10) doing the housework. In the afternoon Tobin and I have some errands to run (which includes taking several large bags of clothing to the Good Will drop off! ) and a few other things are on our list.. one of which is our traditional weekly stop at Starbucks!
Hope you all have a great Monday on your homesteads!
This Weeks Menu
Monday:
BBQ Beef in crockpot over brown rice
Salad
Tuesday:
Tacos w/ all the trimmings
Wednesday:
Salad
Thursday:
Salad
Crackers
Friday:
Salad
Saturday:
Salad
Chips and Salsa
Sunday:
Saturday on the Homestead
I am getting ready to head to our nearest little town with my older girls. Tomorrow the youth group at our church is holding a bake sale to raise funds for Leanne’s mission trip and for another young girl who is going on a missions trip this summer as well. We need a few ingredients that we don’t normally buy and some small size paper plates.
Here is what the girls are making (and none of this is healthy stuff! LOL):
Rice Crispy Treats
Banana Muffins
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cinnamon Rolls
When we get home I think I will be doing some crocheting. I am still trying to find time to finish my basket weave afghan. My afternoon looks rather calm actually. Which is nice because yesterday was very busy. I made nearly 35 pounds of soap and that seemed to encompass most of my afternoon. I was quite thankful that Emily had put crockpot chili on in the morning and Leanne made the coleslaw at dinner time. Sierra helped them do the clean up so dinner was a nice team effort that did not involve me! LOL..
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Dinner tonight is baked chicken legs, mashed potatoes and coleslaw that I have leftover from last night’s dinner. Another easy dinner!
Yesterday we officially enrolled Emily in a program where she will be working from home to earn her college degree. She wants a degree in accounting/business. If all goes according to plan she should have her bachelor’s degree in less than 2 years. She will begin next month. The program we are using is called College Plus if anyone would like more info on this. After looking and discussing all her options during this last year since she got her GED, this seemed to be the most cost efficient and workable plan. She will continue to work her job as a nanny and the money earned there will help to pay for her education and give her time to study while the boys nap and so on. And if she needs extra study time Leanne has agreed to fill in for her.
Emily did arrive home safe and sound last Monday. She decided she likes flying and traveling and can’t wait to do more. I thought I would share a few pictures of Emily’s trip to Maryland, WashingtonDC, New York.
Here are some of her in WashingtonDC:
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And a picture of her with my son in law and daughter Carolyn:
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And one in front of the Wall Street Journal (her favorite newspaper! ) in New York:
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And finally here is an updated picture of my sweet little grandson Caden (his looks remind me A LOT of my oldest son Richard when he was a baby):
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That is all for Saturday on the Homestead… time to head to the store so my girls can keep on baking this afternoon!
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