Thoughts and prayers headed to those who need it today. Wishing you a peaceful start to your week, friends.
garden
Dairy Free Apple Crisp
Despite the fact the mercury is reading 85 degrees tonight as I write this, I am thinking Fall. To help force my most-loved season along, the girls and I decided to pick our first-ever crop of apples from two of our apple trees and enjoy them for dinner in our favorite baked apple form: a crisp.
Because my youngest is still on a non-dairy diet, I continue striving to find new ways of tweaking our favorite recipes to make them dairy-free. This recipe is one of those such experiments. I wanted to substitute the butter in a traditional crisp, without losing the earthy, creamy flavor I think butter brings to the table. I ended up using a combination of coconut oil, for the fat content, and whole wheat flour for the earthiness factor. The crisp turned out quite nicely, without any hint of a coconut flavor that sometimes makes its way into recipes where I substitute butter with coconut oil.
I hope you enjoy this yummy fall treat!
Dairy Free Apple Crisp
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Heat the above ingredients in a small saucepan until the honey becomes runny. Pour this mixture over 6 cups of sliced, fresh apples.
Pour the apple honey mixture into a 9X9 baking pan.
In a separate bowl, mix together:
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cut in 5 tablespoons of coconut oil. Crumble the oat mixture over the apple mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes, or until the top is crunchy and golden brown. 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.
At This Moment
At this moment, I am…
~thankful for a most relaxing weekend spent with dear friends and family, while celebrating a wedding in the most beautiful of settings.
~gearing up for yet another hot, hot day. Trying to get all animals cared for, and plants watered before the sweltering heat is upon us.
~glancing around my house this morning, realizing my day needs to be spent in the throws of cleaning. Being gone all weekend did not bode well for the cleanliness of this place.
~listening to the tomatoes calling out to me. There are not many, but those that are hanging out in the garden are ripe and ready to be processed. (I think today I’ll make some tomato sauce. Nothing like a little sauce simmering on the stove for multiple hours on a ninety degree day, right?).
~enjoying this book in the wee hours of the morning and late at night after the little ones are tucked in.
~staring at the growing pile of laundry in my family room. Apparently, I should be tackling that instead of reading the above mentioned book 🙂
~wishing you all a wonderful Monday, friends!
Home
Good morning, friends! Where has the week gone? I have been deep in thought and reflection of late, and have found it difficult to come to this space and attempt to articulate just what it is I have been mulling over in my mind. So, I must warn you…This post may take on a very stream-of-consciousness-type nature 🙂
The past two years, when this time of year rolls around, thoughts of home seep into every thought in my mind. Summer for our family represents such a time of connection. Connection to each other, our home, our land. And it just seems that each year when we reach that late-August-back-to-school-crazy-schedule-never-leaving-a-second-to-breathe time, those familiar connections are somewhat strained.
Now don’t get me wrong, there is also a wonderful sense of renewal and excitement that accompanies this time of year, but it’s the common societal belief that this fun and excitement needs to take place outside our homes that has me thinking. We are all a bustle with activities beyond the scope of our homes because there is this notion that our homes are confining. But what about the idea of our homes as embracing? Instead of looking beyond the walls of our home for fulfillment and excitement, shouldn’t we be welcoming each other into our homes, to share the love, laughter and learning found within?
Historically, the home was where all activity centered, and it seems that each day we as a culture are moving further and further beyond the home in search of the next big thing. But I just can’t help to wonder, what if all of that greatness we are in search of is right under our noses, in the very homes that we are trying to escape from? For often “a man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.” ~George Augustus Moore
August Action
There has been a lot of action of late in our gardens. It is truly at its peak, and despite the near 100-degree temperatures this week, we find ourselves entwined in vines of all sorts, harvesting all this fabulous veg.
Tomatoes make an appearance at our dinner table each night, for I am not sure there is a better fresh vegetable on earth than a homegrown tomato. Herbs are being dried each day in order to preserve them for the winter months. Onions and beans are being diced and then destined for the freezer. And who could forget our school garden, from which we just reached the 100 pounds donated mark! Yup, the students of Cathedral of St. Peter School have donated 100 pounds of fresh produce to the Plant a Row for the Hungry program at our local food pantry.
So much wonderful August action in the garden right now. I hope all of you are finding yourselves in the midst of such garden greatness as well!
The Making of a Home Shop
I am so incredibly excited to announce the official opening of the Making of a Home Shop! It has been nearly two years since I began writing this blog, and after a great deal of thought and consideration, I have decided to branch off and sell a few of the items I often discuss with you in this space. I am so thankful for each and every one of you who join me here each day, and I hope you enjoy the new and exciting things I have in the works for Making of a Home.
Come on in, and welcome to the Making of a Home Shop!
Our Summer Kitchen
With the garden flourishing, there is a lot of action in our summer kitchen. Thank goodness for the cool temperatures that graced us last week! It made the whole idea of standing over multiple pots of boiling liquid all day a lot more tolerable.
Grandpa Dit’s Bread and Butter Pickles were first on the to-do list. One of my favorite canning goodies.
Preserving sweet peppers for winter. I take the time now to dice the peppers, and then freeze them in plastic freezer bags. Then in the winter I can just pull them out and add them to anything calling for some sweet pepper love.
A new one for us: Jalapeño Jam. It sure smelled good while making it. I guess we will see how it tastes in a few weeks. Fingers crossed.
After harvesting our rhubarb, I chop it up and freeze it in freezer bags so we can enjoy this spring and summer treat all winter long.
Our tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. I must say, our tomatoes are kind of lack luster this year, which is very disappointing because putting by tomatoes is my most favorite produce to preserve. But here is one nice sized basket I was able to garner from the garden last week. I made tomato sauce with this collection, and then froze it in our deep freeze for the winter months when throwing pasta in a pot and adding a jar of homemade tomato sauce is just what those little school girls want for dinner.
B.L.T.s I would be hard pressed to find anyone who does not think this sandwich tops the list of greatest summertime foods. The bread is from Banana Cherry Bakery, the bacon is from the hog we purchased from this farmer, the tomatoes are from our garden, and topped off with a touch of homemade mayo. (I use Jamie Oliver’s mayonnaise recipe from this cookbook.) Oh my. Delicious.
And we all know that when you eat those salty B.L.T.s you need something sweet after, right? We whipped up a batch of this amazing cinnamon sugar popcorn. Wow. It has quickly become a staple at our snack times this week.
The makings of our dinner from last night, and breakfast this morning. I love the fullness that this time of year brings. Such garden abundance is truly a blessing.
At This Moment
At this moment, I am…
~labeling all kinds of school supplies. I still cannot believe school starts this week. Where has this summer gone? My stomach is churning as I think about it.
~harvesting rhubarb from our garden. I’m hoping to whip up some rhubarb squares later this afternoon. Yum.
~transforming a portion of our playroom into a library for my little book-lovers. More on this revamped space later this week.
~re-reading Catching Fire. Oh my. I forgot how much I love this book.
~loading up the van with needed supplies for the school garden. We are setting up an outdoor classroom space today, just in time for the start of the new school year.
~wishing we could add some more days (or weeks really) to this fleeting summer.
~hoping each of you has a wonderful start to your week.
Kids with Cob
This weekend, for my husband’s birthday present, we journeyed up north a bit to the Angelic Organics Learning Center for a “Kids with Cob” class. We had been wanting to attend a class at Angelic for a long time now, and I am so very happy we finally had a chance to attend. We had the most wonderful afternoon, learning about building with cob, getting messy, and playing with the animals.
It’s so amazing to watch the little ones soak in so much information and knowledge, while immersed in creative activity. And best of all…the kids (and adults too) got to play in mud all day. What could be better on a beautiful Friday afternoon?
I encourage anyone living in the Rockford area to take advantage of the Angelic Organics Learning Center and all of the wonderful classes they offer in regards to holistic and sustainable living. You are sure to leave with lots of great information, and even more amazing memories.
Cherry Pomegranate Frozen Yogurt
It seems that it has been some time since I have shared one of my recipes in this space, so today is the day my friends. Today I bring you yet another of our family’s experiments with a cow’s milk dairy free recipe. My girls just love this frozen yogurt recipe I concocted, and I hope you and your family enjoy it as well. It is incredibly simple, so you can whip it up on no time for a fun, summer snack.
Cherry Pomegranate Frozen Yogurt
10 oz dark sweet cherries (these can be fresh or frozen and thawed)
1/2 cup honey
1 cup 100% juice pomegranate juice
1 cup yogurt (We use goat’s milk yogurt, but any yogurt would work great.)
Add the cherries and honey to a blender. Blend until smooth. Next add the juice and the yogurt. Pulse a few times in the blender until combined. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s instructions. 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.
Making of a Home 