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.

Some Garden Bling

January 8, 2014January 2, 2014 / makingofahome / 2 Comments

We, like most in the country right now, are experiencing a major cold snap right now. At times like this, it is so hard to imagine that there was a time when our gardens were in bloom, with produce overflowing from baskets resting in the sunlight. Those days of growth and warmth seem so far away at this moment. My family seemed to need a reminder that our time on this Earth is one of rhythm and cycles, and we will once again be back to those times of basking in the warm embrace of spring and summer days.

My girls were given wonderful stepping stone kits for Christmas, so we decided crafting those stones would be a perfect little reminder of the garden goodness to come in only a few short months.

Once completed, the stones were placed in our three-season room that is now filled with empty pots filled with remnants of frozen soil. But we are already imagining the day when those pots are moved outside and filled with the plants that will add beauty and sustenance to our lives. And our little stepping stones will add just that extra little touch of garden glam that every growing space needs.

At This Moment

November 25, 2013November 24, 2013 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

At this moment, I am…

~recalling a fabulous weekend of crafting and fun.

~returning from a very early trip to the grocery store for our first round of Thanksgiving dinner shopping. A five o’clock (in the AM my friends) arrival time is a sure fire way to beat the crowds at the ole’ grocery store 🙂

~glancing at my stack of Christmas cards, and thinking I may be able to get them in the mail on Friday. Fingers crossed.

~looking forward to a short two days that my girls are in school this week. I cannot wait to spend five full days with my babies!

~preparing for my favorite holiday of the year. A day filled with family and food. What could possibly be better?

~hoping to get some sewing projects wrapped up this week.

~wishing each of you a wonderful start to your week. Have a great Monday!

Dash to the Finish

October 23, 2013October 22, 2013 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

Every year it happens. The mad dash to get anything and everything in the garden harvested and indoors before temperatures dip below freezing for the first time of the year.

That day came on Monday, when the evening’s forecasted low was 27 degrees. So, I spent my day entangled amongst the tomato and cucumber vines, and bending over the multiple herbs remaining in the herb garden. Each year I say I will do this all sooner, so I’m not rushed come late fall when cold temperatures are eminent. But each year I find myself in this position, racing against time.

But I must say, I’m growing to enjoy this dash to the finish line. Because at this time of year, when I’m weary of harvesting, canning, freezing and drying, I see ahead of me a time of rest. A time spent nestled inside, surrounded by projects and crafts. It is at this time of year I am grateful to live in an area where we experience all four seasons. When there is a natural break, and a chance to rest and recharge for the next growing season. This time of rest is so close now. I feel the subtle pull inward, and I cannot wait to embrace all that it has to offer me in the days, weeks and months to come.

Grandma’s Three Bean Salad

October 22, 2013October 18, 2013 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

Isn’t it just fascinating how food memories work? One morsel of food touches your tongue and you are whisked away to times gone by, to the exact moment when you consumed that particular piece of goodness. That’s why each time I task three bean salad, I am brought back to Zanocco family 4th of July celebrations. With this annual celebration always came laughing children singing (and yelling) the words to “Miss Mary Mack”, throw-and-pop firecrackers and sparklers, olive dip, and of course, three bean salad.

I dug through my recipe box last week and found Grandma Zanocco’s three bean salad recipe. Looking over the hand-written recipe card, I wondered if I could perhaps make it a bit healthier, while maintaining the integrity of the dish. With a bit of tasting here, and help from my sous-chef there, I think I’ve done it. I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we did, and I hope it helps to create some wonderful new food memories for all of you 🙂

Grandma’s Three Bean Salad

(You can use canned beans, or dried beans. Just be sure that if you use dried beans, they have already been soaked and are fork tender.)

4 cups kidney beans

4 cups pinto beans

4 cups black beans

Pour all of your beans in a large bowl and set aside.

In a food processor, pulse 1 cup diced yellow onions. Then add 1 cup olive oil, 1 cup Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper and 3/4 cup raw agave syrup. Pulse the mixture a few times in your food processor until you have a reasonably smooth dressing.

Pour your dressing over your bean mixture, and allow to sit at room temperature for about an hour before serving. You can garnish your salad with a little oregano or parsley if you wish. Enjoy!

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