DIY

Garden Update

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We at the Fagan abode have been out in the garden a great deal the past few weeks, and I must say it is starting to feel like we are actually getting somewhere!  My hubby got out a couple of weeks ago and planted our beets:  Chioggia and Early Blood Turnip.  Last week I planted the rest of our greens:  Lacinato Kale, Silverbeet Swiss Chard, and Georgia Southern Collards.  And my five year old planted carrots:  Dragon and St. Valery.

This past weekend, while my husband had the girls up in Wisconsin fishing, I planted my annuals in my herb garden:  Grandma Einck’s Dill and Genovese Basil (this I had started indoors back in February).  I then added Amish Snap Peas and our beans:  Bountiful, Burpee’s Stringless, Dragon’s Tongue (my girls’ favorite because of the purple stripes), Pencil Pod Golden Wax and Royalty Purple Pod.  And while I was at it I threw in my Black Beauty Zucchini. (I’m hoping these will do alright since it is not quite past our last frost date.)

Then yesterday we escaped to the farmer’s market for a while, and the girls each bought a basil plant of their own with the money they have been saving since Christmas.  They were even lucky enough to get a planting lesson from the farmer who sold them the basil.  This is why I LOVE market…The direct interaction with the farmer.  So, so, so much can be learned!

Makings

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With Mother’s Day right around the corner, the girls and I got to work last night on some cards for the ladies.  Back in December, Santa gave us a great all-natural card making kit by Glob and we had not yet used it. ( I believe the big man in red informed me he purchased this great gift from Nova Natural 🙂

What we loved best about this card kit is that the card stock is seed paper.  So, after all of the mommas are done admiring their creations, they can plant the paper beneath a thin layer of soil and some lovely flowers will sprout…genius…a card and present all in one!

It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the paintings of children turn out.  They have no set idea in mind, they just create, and the result is breathtaking.  I even tried to just “paint” my own creation last night, but found myself with a flower, leaf, etc. every time.  The mind of a child is one I think we all wish we could emulate.  That wild abandon that turns out to be true beauty so much of the time.  Love.

Fruits of Labor

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A while back I wrote about our trip to the Northwoods of Wisconsin and my visit to a fabulous little yarn shop.  Well, I have been working hard the past several days and have a few new pieces to share with all of you.

Here is my two-year old sporting the first finished product:  a little bitty shawl for those chilly mornings in the spring and summer when you just need a little something to snuggle up with.  I am sad to say that I have no idea how to read a pattern, so everything I make I create without a pattern.  But I did get my inspiration from this blog post.  The shawl is made with a beautiful lamb’s wool/bamboo blend, so you get the warmth of the wool without the scratchiness that sometimes accompanies woolen garments.

Next, I made a little something for Mama!  A nice cowl made with toasty 100% lamb’s wool.

More projects are in the works, especially after purchasing that wonderful yarn on our farm visit.  I will be sure to share soon.

I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing, and crafty weekend 🙂

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

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This week I decided to take stock of our basement deep freezer.  I wanted to be sure that we had eaten all of our delicious frozen veg, soups, pestos, sauces and jams from last harvest so I could plan out our storage for this year’s goods.  I had to laugh out load when I looked in the bottom drawer of the freezer to find it filled with bag upon bag of frozen shredded zucchini!  I was immediately reminded of the chapter entitled “Zucchini Larceny” in Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle when she says, “July is the only time of year when country people lock [their] cars in the church parking lot, so people won’t put squash on the front seat.”  I was indeed still finding myself in this position of having an extreme over abundance of zucchini, even though we were far, far away from the month of July.

I struggle to throw any kind of food out, so I racked my brain for something that would utilize at least some of our zucchini stock.  And the idea came to me…chocolate chip zucchini muffins!  I could use a bunch of the zucchini I had stored, and also use my favorite Pampered Chef stoneware muffin pan 🙂

Like I so often do, I grabbed my two year old sous chef, and got to work.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

3/4 cup  stone ground wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

juice of 1/2 a lemon

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (with excess water drained off)

5 oz chocolate chips

(A side note on my recipes:  I use all organic products.  And I use local products when available.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar.  Combine eggs, oil, lemon juice and zucchini in a separate bowl.  Mix wet ingredients into dry. Then add the chocolate chips and pour into muffin pans.  Bake for 20-25 minutes. (Note:  I did bake these muffins in a stoneware pan, which often requires a longer cooking time than a metal muffin pan.)

Enjoy!

Snug House Bug House

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My girls have always loved the children’s book Snug House Bug House.  Last summer the love of this book became so strong that my then four-year old constructed her own bug house.  She worked for weeks on the project, and I must admit that it turned out just fabulous for such a little one’s construction!

This year our backyard is flooded with monarch butterflies.  Now when I say flooded, I mean monarchs flying everywhere…getting caught in our hair, covering our patio table, swarming in the girls’ playhouse…everywhere.  So my eldest little one decided that all of these butterflies needed a place to rest and sleep so she brought out last year’s bug house, added some new embellishments and tada….a snug house butterfly house!

I Scream, You Scream

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The chants of, “Ice cream, ice cream, we want ice cream!” can often be heard ringing through our house.  Yes, I’m afraid my girls have a sweet tooth like their momma and ice cream is one of their favs.

We have taken to making most of the ice cream we consume in our house because I can be assured that there are only five ingredients in the ice cream, and I know where those ingredients come from.  Perfect.

Below is our basic ice cream recipe for vanilla ice cream.  I purchase our eggs locally and buy local heavy cream and half and half from our natural food store.

3 cups half and half

1 cup heavy cream

8 egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla (I also put in seeds from 1-2 vanilla beans.)

Heat half and half over medium heat.  Add cream and bring to a simmer.

Whisk sugar into egg yolks.  Temper eggs with milk mixture.  Let sit for 30 minutes and then add vanilla.

Refrigerate the mixture until cool and then churn in an ice cream maker, following the manufacturer’s guidelines.

Enjoy!

A New Project?

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My husband and I seem to have an ongoing list of potential projects sitting on our kitchen counter at all times.  Some of these tasks get completed, others just slowly work their way further down the list until they disappear all together.

Well, my husband and father-in-law have come up with a budding thought recently that I am extremely thrilled about!  A few years ago my father-in-law obtained a number of beautiful timbers from a century old barn that was being torn down in a nearby town.  He used several of these 100-year old beams for a pavilion he constructed and let me tell you, it is a feast for the eyes.

The remainder of the boards sat unused for quite some time, but now they may be given new life.  My hubby, father-in-law, and a man from a local mill are hoping to take the remaining timbers and cut them into boards to be used as a floor in our dining room.  Now, if you happened to read my piece a few weeks back, you know that I LOVE antiques, so even the prospect of this new project is just thrilling to me.

I will keep all of you updated with any progress that is made.  Fingers crossed.

Jerusalem Artichokes

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After reading an article in Mother Earth News a few weeks ago, I felt inspired to try a new veggie!  The article discussed a variety of perennial vegetables, in addition to asparagus and rhubarb which tend to be the perennial veggies that people are most familiar with, but the one that caught my eye was the Jerusalem artichoke.  I was very intrigued by these perennial tubers.  Jerusalem artichokes (also known as sunchokes because they produce beautiful yellow flowers similar to a sunflower) can prepared in much the same fashion as a potato.

I was thrilled when I walked into my natural foods store yesterday and found a giant basket of Jerusalem artichokes nestled in amongst the locally grown kale and spinach!  I grabbed a bag of these little guys and headed home with an idea in my mind to create some form of soup with them.

So yesterday, with a tiny two-year old sous chef by my side, I started my experimental run with Jerusalem artichoke soup.

I first put 4 tablespoons of butter in a stock pot.  After the butter was melted I threw in one diced yellow onion and 2 diced leeks.

I cooked these veggies down until tender.  Then I added 10 medium Jerusalem artichokes that I had diced (I left the peels on for added nutrition).  I then covered all of the veggies with about 2 quarts of pork stock that I had on hand.  I then covered the pot, and let the veggies simmer for about 20 minutes.

While the veggies simmered, I fried up a pound of bacon. (A note…my girls ate about 2 strips each, so it ended up being a bit less than a pound of bacon that I actually ended up putting in the soup 🙂 )  When the bacon was cool enough the handle, I chopped it up into bite-sized pieces.

Once the Jerusalem artichokes were tender, I ran an immersion blender through the soup.  Then I added 1/2 cup heavy cream and 8 oz Havarti cheese (shredded).  After the dairy was incorporated, I added the chopped bacon to the soup.  I flavored with salt and pepper from there are viola…Jersusalem artichoke soup!

I hope you enjoy this great little veggie that has gone unnoticed for so long here in our house.  The soup had a very similar texture to that of potato soup, but with a slightly sweeter taste.  I would say that this experiment turned out to be a success.

Yummy Yummy Yarn

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On our trip to the Northwoods, Mom had to have some fun too.  I made my way into town to visit my favorite spot:  The Knitter’s Nook.  This quaint shop is housed in a petite white residence, just off the main drag in town.  It is owned by the most lovely of couples, and the yarn in their shop is exquisite!  All fibers are naturally derived, no acrylic yarn here.  This shop is an absolute tactile experience.  I spent the first twenty minutes of my time in the shop just feeling the various fibers they had to offer.

After spending a bit too much time in the shop (my husband was supervising both girls and their two cousins in a toy store..oh my 🙂 ), I emerged with my spoils.  Lamb’s wool, Alpacha, and a wool/bamboo blend, all in the most beautiful of colors. I spent the rest of the trip curled up on the back porch crocheting. Perfection.

Reading and Soapmaking and Gardening, Oh My!

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Last week my husband was in a very minor (thank goodness!) fender bender, so I had to bring the car in this week to get repaired.  This left the girls and I without a vehicle for two days and I must admit that it was a wonderful couple of days!

While sequestered we had the most marvelous of times!  We read a ton, made a few more kinds of soap, and worked a great deal in the garden.  It was wonderful to know how much fun we could have, without ever leaving the comfort of our little home.