DIY

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!

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.

Humbled

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Last week I was incredibly humbled, surprised and excited when Becky from Clover and Thyme honored me with a Versatile Blogger Award!  Thank you so very much Becky for this wonderful honor!  Being new to this whole blogging world, your recognition really brightened my day and reaffirmed why I do what I do.  Thank you.

If you get a chance, be sure to stop by Becky’s blog.  It is a joy to read!

So here are the Rules for Versatile Blogger Award according to their site:

  •  Thank the person who gave you this award.
  •  Include a link to their blog.
  •  Next, select  blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)
  •  Nominate those bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to your post nominating them, or to the Versatile Blogger Blog.
  •  Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

As I said earlier, I am still very new to this whole blogging world, so I am just beginning to explore all of the wonderful blogs that are out there.  Here are the blogs that I follow regularly and I would like to award with the Versatile Blogger Award.  Thank you all for what you do!

Amanda Blake Soule at SouleMama.  I have been following this blog for nearly a year now and it is utterly amazing!  Her posts vary from crafting to homesteading and everything in between.  I also have many of her books which also contain fabulous project ideas for moms and kids alike.

Ashley English at Small Measure.  I found this blog a few weeks ago via SouleMama and it too is just fabulous!  I especially like the amazing recipes she includes in many of her posts.  Yum!

Paola at Love and Cupcakes.  This is a wonderful blog featuring wonderful recipes.  I especially love the desserts that can be found on this site 🙂

Scott and Kim at Aquaponic Family.  This is a great site about an at-home aquaponic system.  It is full of great information!

And here are a few interesting tidbits about me: 1.  I could live on cheese and desserts alone.  2.  I enjoy reading the classics (must be that English teacher in me 🙂  3.  I fell in love with photography when I was a senior in high school when my parents gave me my first Canon Rebel for a graduation present.  4.  I just saw The Hunger Games and LOVED it!  (The books were of course fabulous as well!)  5.  I have been taking on a more active role in my husband’s fitness company and I have been greatly enjoying it.  6.  My girls and I have been enthralled with the Junie B. Jones book series these days.  She is a hoot!  7.  We just returned from a great trip and I cannot wait to share some of our experiences with you!

Have a wonderful week!

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.

 

Diggin’ In

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This week the girls and I have been out working in the garden planting beets, carrots and lettuce.  We are trying some different heirloom varieties this year, so we are all excited to see how they work out.  We have ordered all of our seeds from The Seed Savers Exchange the past two years and have been thrilled with the results!

For beets we planted Early Blood Turnip and Detroit Dark Red

For carrots we planted Dragon (This one we have planted in the past and my girls love it because the outside of the carrot is a deep purple and the inside of the vegetable is a brilliant orange!) and St. Valery.

For lettuce this year we ordered the Seed Savers Heirloom Lettuce Collection which contains Amish Deer Tongue, Bronze Arrowhead, Crisp Mint, Forellenschuss, Red Velvet, and Susan’s Red Bib.

(A quick side note on “Gardener Number 2″…She is currently only wearing dresses because she said that jeans are not “girl clothes” 🙂  This summer should get quite interesting with all of the gardening this gal loves to do.  Love her.)

 

Organization Station

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When we moved into our house, the room that I missed most from our previous home was our mud room.  Our mud room had been the catch-all of our house, and without one in our current home, it seemed that our kitchen had become the place where everything was dropped:  coats, shoes, bags, papers, purses, keys, the works.

Well, after nearly four years I finally have my own make shift mud room!  Last summer my husband’s grandmother gave me an antique mirror and I had been desperately trying to find a home for it with no luck whatsoever.  Finally I came up with the idea to create a “mud room wall” in our garage, featuring the mirror as the focal point.  After a bit of carpentry work by my hubby, a little paint, and a quick visit to an antique mall, the project is complete.

I kept some existing hooks because they were so well fastened to the wall studs, but I needed some extra places to hang all of those coats that seem to accumulate so I used some antique pull-knobs, cabinet latches, a door knob and even a door stop to create a few more “hooks.”

I call my new creation my “Organization Station” 🙂

Soapmaking

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There were many things my husband and I use to do sans children, and one of those is make our own soap.  We loved everything about the entire process:  finding the recipes, making the soap while sipping wine and watching reruns of Friends on our computer, and giving the finished soaps as gifts to our family and friends.

Needless to say once we had kids, our soap making and wine sipping days quickly came to a halt.  But now that the little ones are getting bigger, we have brought it back!  We picked up our oldie but good book, Natural Soapmaking by Marie Browning, gathered a few needed supplies from Brambleberry.com and we were good to go.

Now I must be clear that we have not ventured into the true soap making realm of making our own lye, although we would like to make that jump in the near future. Instead, we start with a natural soap base that we purchase through Brambleberry and go from there.

The process is so fun and even the tiniest of the family is asking Mommy, “When do I get to make my orange and cinnamon soap.”  I love it 🙂

Old Things

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Many years ago (I believe I was in junior high), my extended family gathered at my grandma and grandpa’s home for our annual Easter celebration.  My grandma, who was always filled with creative ideas, told each member of the family sit in a circle in the family room.  She and my grandpa then proceeded to hand each of us a plastic Easter egg.  Once everyone had two eggs each, one from my grandma and one from my grandpa, we were told to open the egg.  Inside each egg was a tiny slip of paper.  On each slip was written one thing that my grandma and grandpa found to be unique to each of us.

To this day, I have not forgotten what Grandpa “Dit” wrote on my slip of paper:  “You like old things.”  Those four words could not be more fitting to describe me.  I have worn vintage clothes from thrift stores since seventh grade, love old music, enjoy antiquing, and I have been especially obsessed with refurbishing old pieces of furniture since I has in high school.

Over the course of the past several weeks I felt that itch again.  The itch to take something old and unique and make it new again.  So while my husband was on spring break last week and he spent his hours relishing in the time he could spend with the girls, I got to work on some projects.

For some time now, I have been wanting to find antique pieces to refinish and then use to redecorate our outdoor space.  We spend almost every waking moment out there come summer time, and I felt like the area needed a bit of sprucing up.  My husband’s grandmother, gave me a beautiful iron garden table that I stripped and then repainted.

I then went to every thrift store and antique mall in the city (and my husband will attest that there are MANY in our area), and finally came upon a fabulous dining room table that had two additional leaves that could be added.  With a little tender loving care I knew it would be the perfect table for our many outdoor summer gatherings with family and friends.  I repainted the bottom portion of the table, my husband fastened the leaves together so that it would stay together permanently, and I then put several layers of outdoor polyurethane on the table top to add some extra protection.

I have a few more projects in the works, so stay tuned…