Late August In the Garden

August 26, 2015August 25, 2015 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

As summer wanes, and the expansive days of summer fade before our eyes, I am beginning to feel that same briefness in the garden. While we still have a great deal coming out of our garden, and the tomatoes are finally beginning to come along, I feel a pull towards the space inside our home. At this time of year, my body grows weary from all the hours spent out in the garden. And while I still adore being in this space, I look forward to the days of nestling in with a cup of coffee, good book and some crocheting. I often think this is why God gifted us with the seasons. They allow us time to recharge our minds and bodies before venturing out again.

This past week in the garden has been quite bountiful. Our second round of strawberries are still coming in the door, along with our long-awaited raspberry crop. The tomatoes are starting to ripen and we have been eating them fresh off the vine, most of them never even making it over the threshold. The lemon verbena liqueur that I mentioned a couple weeks back, is now completed and I look forward to the cocktails and baked goods we can make with this citrusy elixir. More herbs are being dried, and beans frozen. But perhaps our greatest delight of the week has been our apples. As I shared before, the Japanese beetles have devoured the leaves of our apple trees. We reached a point this week that there were more dead leaves than living and I feared if we didn’t pick our apples now we may lose them. So pick we did. And pie we made. It was a great week in the garden.

Mom’s Summer Cucumber Salad

August 19, 2015August 17, 2015 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

From the time my mom was given her diagnoses, her constant mantra was, “Please make sure you continue to tell our stories.” It was so very important to her that the stories of our family remain alive in our hearts and continue to be told and retold, even after she was no longer with us. During one of my vigils by my mom’s bedside, I assured her that I would indeed continue to tell her stories. I assured her I would not only share them with my girls, but with anyone and everyone who would listen. Because it is in our sharing of stories that I believe we truly get to know one another, and strengthen the bond that brings us all together in this great big world of ours. And to be honest with you, so many of my memories and stories seem to revolve around the sharing of food while sitting at a table with those we hold dear to us. I have loved sharing my family’s food stories in the past in this blog space, and it is my absolute pleasure to continue. Today I am thrilled to share with you the story of my mom’s summer cucumber salad.

While growing up, when the days seemed to stretch on forever, my sister and I felt compelled to stay outside all day long, riding bikes all over our neighborhood. It wasn’t until the sky began to turn rosey in the west that we would finally venture home, red-faced and exhausted. We would walk into the house, greeted by a cool blast from the air-conditioner, and find my mom setting the table in the kitchen. On these types of hot nights, instead of heating up the kitchen with lots of pots and pans on the stove and in the oven, my mom would always have a series of cool, fresh dishes waiting for us. My very favorite of these dishes was my mom’s cucumber salad. It was always so cool and creamy, yet tangy and fresh. It just tastes like summer.

Mom’s Summer Cucumber Salad

4-6 medium cucumbers

1 white onion

1 cup sour cream

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon dill weed

salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together the sour cream, apple cider vinegar, dill weed, salt and pepper. Thinly slice the cucumbers and onions. (I use a mandoline to accomplish this task because it leaves you with thin, consistently-cut produce.) Pour the sour cream/vinegar mixture over the cucumbers and onions. Mix until combined. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy!

In the Garden

August 12, 2015August 28, 2015 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

It’s August! This means we have entered the jungle-phase of the gardening season. In order to move about the garden, one must weave in and out of the labyrinth of branches and vines. And while doing so, one may come across our cat sleeping amongst the beans, or perhaps a groundhog who has found his way into our tomatoes. (Talk about a bit of a fright when not expecting that guy. Oh boy.)

But amongst this tangle of vegetation there is a great deal happening, and our kitchen is finding itself brimming with our garden’s bounty. The tomatoes have now grown taller than me (and standing at 5’11” that is saying something), and for the first time EVER we have been able to grow broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage! We planted ever-bearing strawberries two years ago and we are now reaping the rewards of an amazing second round of these lovelies.

A few weeks back, as I mentioned in this post, I hung some herbs to dry. This week my girls helped to take the leaves off these dried plants, grind them by hand, and then can them for the winter months.

Also in the herb department, our basil and lavender are just beautiful this year. I decided to try out Ashley English’s Lavender Lemonade from her book //ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=makofahom-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=1611801281&asins=1611801281&linkId=XB3HIFBW6PW65FC3&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true“>Quench (using stevia to replace the sugar) and it was delicious! I have also been making basil-lime water infusions and it puts a whole new face on my family’s hydration needs.

I pulled most of our carrots this week and tried my hand at lacto-fermentation. So far, there is a lot of fermentation goodness in the form of carbon-dioxide bubbles rising to the surface of the jars when I burp them each day. I am very excited to taste these in a few more days.

Coming up next week, I hope to share with you some of the recipes I have been working on, which feature so much of this garden goodness. Until then, enjoy the remainder of your week!

First Garden Post of the Season

July 28, 2015 / makingofahome / 2 Comments

Friends, I do believe this is the my first garden update of the summer. How is this possible? Oh my. There is so much happening out there right now that I struggle with where to begin. Let us begin with the herb garden…

I am trying out some new herbs in our herb garden this year and, although it appears to be quite “junglish” right now, I am happy with what is coming out of it at this time.

We are growing lemon balm for the first time this year, and I have begun drying it for tea and some other medicinal salves I hope to make this winter. Lemon verbena is also new to our herb selection this year, and I have a liqueur in the works right now. I promise to share the details of this venture as the process nears an end in three weeks. We also grew quite a bit of stevia this season, and this week I ran it through our dehydrator and then our spice grinder. We now have a fine stevia powder to use in drinks throughout the remainder of summer and into fall.

Next, along the south side of our house, we have a raspberry bramble that is booming this year in a way I have never seen. The bees flock to the raspberries each day, and at any given time we can count almost 50 of them swarming the forming fruits. I cannot wait to see the bounty we receive from these plants this year.

Our apple trees are actually producing some fruit this year, which is very exciting. However, the Japanese beetles have slowly began taking them over, and each day I find more and more leaves have fallen prisoner to their wrath. I fear we may lose all our apples before fall.

Finally we move into the main garden space where our beans are also finally coming in. This year we are growing Bountiful, Purple Pod, Golden Wax, and Dragon Tongue (our family favorite) with it’s beautiful purple stripes.

The extreme amounts of rain this summer have led to some of the tallest tomato plants we have ever had, but unfortunately they bear very few fruits. My hunch is the cool temperatures this summer have inhibited fruit production on these plants. My hope is as the temperature rise this week, we may see some tomatoes begin to form.

Thank you for joining me on my first garden tour of 2015! I promise it will not be long until we venture into the garden again.

Cherry Crisp

July 20, 2015July 27, 2015 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

Last week my girls and I, along with my sister, ventured to my in-law’s home and spent the afternoon tangled up in branches and brambles. It was picking’ time! By the time the day was done, we ended up with two giant bowls of tart cherries and black raspberries. Simply marvelous!

The black raspberries quickly became freezer jam, with the help of my six and eight-year old sous chefs. And the cherries, well, the cherries ended up going into an absolutely amazing cherry tart. I don’t often like to toot my own horn, but friends, it was good. Very good. Let me share the recipe…

Cherry Crisp

6 cups pitted tart cherries (This measurement was taken AFTER the cherries were pitted.)

1 cup local honey

2 T Non-GMO corn starch

Mix these ingredients in a large bowl and pour them into a 9×9 baking dish. (I use this baking dish because then I can serve the crisp table-side and it looks as good as it tastes.)

2 cups oats

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 stick cold butter cut into cubes

Mix all these ingredients together in a large bowl (such as one of these sustainably harvested bamboo bowls) using a pastry blender. Pour the crumbled mixture onto the cherry mixture.

Bake at 375 degrees for one hour. Allow 20 minutes to cool before serving. Enjoy!

*A note about all my recipes: I use all organic ingredients, local when available. I use non-homogenized milk, and all of the dairy we use is from animals raised on pasture. I also use oils that are non-GMO verified. All our meat is raised locally on organic feed, and our beef is grass-fed, grass-finished. All our spices and cane sugar are fair-trade certified and purchased through a cooperative.

Need

July 16, 2015July 15, 2015 / makingofahome / 3 Comments

When faced with difficult situations in life, some people need to work out, others need to chat with friends, while others need to indulge in a chocolatey treat. Me…I need to weed. To some this may seem a strange act, but for me there is nothing more therapeutic than crouching down amongst all that green, plunging my hands deep into the soil, and pulling out those weeds from the root. It almost feels as if this simple act helps me to get to the root of my problems, and as each weed falls in my bucket, a small piece of that grief and frustration falls into the bucket as well.

And so I have found myself in the garden a lot lately. Pulling out my struggles, piece by piece. And in the end, I am left feeling a little bit lighter, and find myself surrounded by a beautiful miracle. One that will provide my family with beauty and sustenance for many months ahead. And one that I know my mom is looking down upon with a smile on her face.

Pesto with a Kick

June 24, 2015June 18, 2015 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

I love making pesto with early summer greens. It just makes me feel good. It’s green. It’s a great way to pack tons of vitamins and minerals in my kids’ bodies. And, there is cheese in it, and anything with cheese is a must have in my book.

I have written about making pesto before, like in this post, where I also discuss how I preserve my pesto for those Midwestern days when there is no green growing outside. This pesto is a bit different in that I didn’t use any herbs to impart flavor. This time I used kale and mustard greens. If you have never had mustard greens, they are amazing. They are incredibly earthy tasting, but very spicy. They are also another one of those cruciferous vegetables that have fabulous health benefits. I like to think of this pesto recipe as a cruciferous cancer-fighting bomb of deliciousness 🙂

This recipe made a giant batch of pesto, so feel free to adjust as needed. You may also need to make it in batches, depending upon the size of your food processor.

Here’s what to do:

1. Wash and spin dry (I adore my salad and berry spinner. Summer would not be the same without it. I use it Every. Single. Day.) 5 cups of kale and 3 cups of mustard greens. (Fyi…I jam packed the greens in the cups when measuring.) Set aside.

2. In a food processor, combine 1 cup raw walnuts and 6 cloves of garlic. Pulse them in the processor.

3. Add the washed greens to the food processor. (Again, you may need to do this in batches.)

4. Slowly add in 1/2 cups olive oil while the food processor is running.

5. Add 1/2 pound good shredded Parmesan cheese to the food processor.

6. Slowly add an additional 1/2 cup to 1 cup of olive oil depending on the consistency you would like.

7. Add salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.

Enjoy!

Culinary Inspirations

June 22, 2015September 1, 2015 / makingofahome / 2 Comments

Just to give some forewarning, today’s post is going to be Monday-ish. You know how Mondays are? It’s the day when you wake up and have a million thoughts, plans and lists going all at the same time–that’s this post. Monday-ish.

So, here we go…Give me a good book and an even better piece of produce and I am a happy camper. Last week, I reached for two of my favorite books and some of my favorite spring-time produce, and I was off. I have often talked about this book before in past posts, but Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver is a book that will change your world. Not only is it a beautifully crafted piece about Kingsolver and her family’s journey toward eating locally, but it is also filled with the most delicious recipes! I looked out my kitchen window to find our strawberry and rhubarb bed was overflowing with goodness, so I knew this was the book I needed. I went with one of my favorite recipes in that book: the strawberry rhubarb crisp. This recipe is a family favorite, using very little refined sugar, and I love cooking it up in my small stoneware baker because I can cook in it and serve from it. This time, I chose to dish up this gooey creation in our nourish soup bowls, which I thought looked just lovely because of the matching color profiles. The other reason I have so many of these bowls on hand is because $2 of every bowl is donated to Feeding America.

Also growing in our strawberry and rhubarb bed is asparagus. We didn’t have a great crop of asparagus this year, so we supplemented our own with some from the farmers’ market. I tried a new recipe, pistachio-crusted asparagus with feta vinaigrette, from Ashley English’s Handmade Gatherings to showcase this delicious perennial. It was absolutely divine. In fact, every recipe I have tried from this book has been a crowd pleaser.

Now you may have noticed that when discussing the strawberry rhubarb crisp, I mentioned (and linked to) a few of my favorite kitchen essentials. Please understand, it is not my intention to lure you to my blog with discussions of holistic living and sustainability and then try to sell you something. Instead, I would love to share some of the kitchen items I use every day, because they help to make my life easier. My hope is that in sharing this information, I can also help to make your meal preparation easier.

The other reason in sharing this information with you is to provide a means to contribute to my family financially. After 3 years of debate, I have decided to leave teaching for good and homeschool my daughters. I have wanted to homeschool ever since my eldest went off to kindergarten, but always held back because homeschooling was just too very far outside the box at that time in my life. But as I mentioned last week, I need to do what I believe is best for my family, and for us, homeschooling is where it’s at 🙂 I have never beed more sure of a decision in my life, but the fact of the matter is that there will be a gap in our income. I have worked (or maybe I should say dabbled) as an independent consultant with Pampered Chef for over five years, and I believe it’s business model is one that is keeping with my family’s belief structure. It is based in Illinois (where we live), many of the products are made in the U.S., they provide funding to Feeding America and the American Cancer Society, and they allow women and men to work from home and put their families first. So, from time to time, I will share some products that I use, and it is up to you whether or not you would like to link to them and find out more information. I hope you understand my reasoning in doing this.

Well, if you have followed me through to this point, you have made it thought my Monday stream-of-conciousness post. Books. Produce. Recipes. Pampered Chef. Homeschooling. Lots of Action.

I wish you all a wonderful week, in which you can work through all those thoughts, follow through on all those plans, and check off all those items on your lists. Happy Monday, friends.

Living for the Pockets

February 17, 2014February 18, 2014 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

Well friends, it has been almost a month since my last post. When going back to work full time, I had high hopes of still being able to post each day. Now I’m thinking I may have been in the midst of a bit of a crazy streak to think that would be possible. In fact, for a few weeks there I did feel like I was quite the loony lady, and sure I would never again be able to take part in those “homestead-ish” acts that had come to make up so much of my life since I left the workforce in 2009. I felt like I couldn’t balance anything, and found it difficult to stay afloat.

But as always, my husband was there to tell me two things: 1. You are crazy. But not headed down the path to Crazy Town like I thought. He said I was crazy to think just because I had started back to work full time, that I would have to suddenly abandon who I was. 2. Give it a few weeks, and you will soon be able to figure out where to fit in all you love to do: teach, raise our family and keep our suburban homestead afloat.

So I did as he directed. I waited. And low and behold (and as much as I hate to admit it), he was right. I have found those little pockets of time here and there where I can still do those activities I love. In fact, I didn’t even realize I was doing it until I went to download pictures this weekend and discovered that over the course of the past month I had been able to do quite a lot.

But these activities have taken on a different form. Instead of dedicating several hours in the afternoon to crocheting, I sneak in a couple of rows while sitting at tumbling lessons. Rather than having an entire fermenting-day, I whip up a quick batch of yogurt on Saturday mornings with extra milk that is about to expire, and throw together an attempt at water kefir on a Friday night after the girls are asleep.

And I think my favorite part of all has been the ability to interweave these homesteading activities into my classroom. In the midst of a soil composition unit, we started a worm compost bin, and a chemistry assessment turned into a soapmaking lab. And I can’t forget the measurement conversion unit where we went outside to make ice cream in the snow.

The crazy part of this new life of mine has been how I now live for those pockets. Those pockets of time when I can do and share those activities that make me who I am.

I hope you all move into this week, able to find those pockets in which you can do all that you love.

Balance

January 21, 2014 / makingofahome / 3 Comments

So much of being a parent is a balancing act. Each of us who takes on this role knows that in order to be a parent you must find some sort of equal platform between all aspects of life: between wife/husband and parent, between house chores and playing, between health and the occasional treat. These past few weeks I have found myself trying to find this level ground between work and keeping my home as I have been for the past three and a half years. I am not a stranger to working as a teacher while also playing the role of wife, mother and homemaker. I just need to find that place again.

I truly believe that balance is within my grasp, getting closer each day, and hopefully soon I will find myself in a new rhythm of life that will guide me through these newly forming roles. Until that time, I will just keep inching forward, as best I can, searching for harmony between wife, mother, homemaker and teacher.

Thank you for continuing to visit this space, and taking this new journey with me. And great thanks for your kind words of encouragement on this space and outside of it.

May each of you find balance as you move throughout your week.

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