Time to Fire Up the Grill

Apple-Butter Barbecue Chicken

One morning last week, we woke up to some glorious weather (about two days before the strange May snow storm).  The air was warm, the breeze adding just the right amount of coolness and it was suddenly spring.

We sat on the front porch for a while, just soaking it up, deciding what exactly needed to be done that day.

Just like everyone, we had a list of hundreds of things to do, so we tried to narrow it down.  However, it seemed that whatever needed to be done inside was going to have to wait.  We weren't going to waste such a beautiful day inside.

So the day went like this....

Raked and burned several piles of leaves
Sat on the porch and drank some sweet tea
Transplanted at least 100 tomatoes
Sat on the porch and drank some sweet tea
Planted more cucumber and zucchini seeds
Sat on the porch and drank some sweet tea
Prepared some grass fed Highland burger and chicken breasts for the grill
Mowed the yard
Dug through the shed looking for charcoal...
Didn't find any charcoal, so we ran up to the our tiny little country corner store for charcoal
Gathered sticks to start the charcoal (we use a bbq starter for the charcoal)
Whipped up some yummy coleslaw
Put the meat on the grill
Sat on the porch and drank some sweet tea while enjoying the delicious smells
Gathered around the table and savored our first BBQ meal of the season!

Usually my husband does the grilling, which I dearly love, but he's working some really strange hours lately and I've decided that I need to learn how to bbq.  Instead of ruining several meals before I get the hang of it, I began to search around on Pinterest.  Now, I'm hooked!

There are several extremely tasty looking ways to bbq that goes way beyond simply burgers and chicken!  I've known you can cook almost anything on the grill, but I had no idea how and the delicious sounding sauces are my favorite!

Here are a few I've found that are on my list to try:

Honey Cranberry Barbecue Sauce

Chipotle Maple Barbecue Sauce

Barbecue Roasted Salmon

Grilled Chicken with Sweet and Sour Fig Barbecue Sauce

Herb Grilled Chicken with Creamy Broccoli Orzo

Top 10 Grilled Steak Recipes

Top 10 Grilled Vegetable Recipes

Grilled Asparagus Medley

Chermoula Grilled Chicken Pita

Grilled BBQ Chicken Pizza

These are some unbelievable looking recipes!  And since this week, the freaky snow and ice are gone, I am in search of some more great grilling recipes for Mother's Day!!

May you have a blessed weekend!

Pumpkin Bread

For those of you who don't live around these parts, we have had an ice storm and snow the past few weeks.  The ice is pretty, but usually unwelcome because of the fear of a power outage.  The snow around here is pretty too, while it lasts, but usually it will melt off the next day.  That is not the case this time and it feels like we have been living in a snow globe for the past five days.  It is pretty, and we so seldom get any snow that I sure don't want to complain, but I haven't had the heart to romp around in it either.  

Needless to say, if you follow our Facebook Page, you can tell that I have had a little more time on my hands than usual!

I have used the time to organize things, clean, get caught up on household paperwork and try some great new recipes, well, new to me.  

This is about the time of year when I really work at using things that are hidden back in the freezer, or have been sitting in the cupboard for several months.  Some of the things, I have gotten for rainy days and then never used them mostly.  Do you ever do that or are you more organized than I am?

Well last fall, we got a bunch of pie pumpkins from the local Amish community and so there are several bags hidden away in the freezer.  During harvest time, we use a lot of it and preserve a lot of it, but after the initial excitement of fresh pumpkin, the pumpkin that gets preserved tends to get forgotten about until this time of year.  So......guess what!  Oh!  And we just got a gallon jug of raw, wildflower honey and I had to try it out. We have doing most of our cooking with honey and coconut oil and have been pleasantly surprised at how delicious it is!  There isn't a drop of oil in our home except for coconut oil.  Finally!  It was really hard for me to give up all of the other oils even though I truly believed how bad they were for us.  If you haven't made the leap, but really feel you should, just do it!  

Ok, back to the Pumpkin Bread.  

This recipe isn't from one of our local Amish friends, but it does come from a Mrs. Eli A. Mast in Holmes County, Ohio, and it is delicious!  I made some slight adjustments, that I'll share with you, in order to keep to our way of cooking, but here ya go!

Pumpkin Bread

1 c. cooking oil (we use softened coconut oil)

2 c. sugar (we use 1 cup honey and 1/2 cup turbinado sugar)

3 c. flour (we use 2 c. unbleached white flour and 1 c. stone ground wheat flour)

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. cloves

1/2 tsp. ginger

2 tsp. cinnamon (we like cinnamon so I use 3 tsp.)

1 tsp. allspice

2 tsp. soda

1 tsp. salt

2 c. pumpkin 

4 eggs

Now here is the easy part, mix all the ingredients in one bowl.

Nothing like farm fresh eggs!  We have been very blessed to be getting about 10 eggs a day through the winter.  Thankfully all of the hens and Mackey (our Black Copper rooster) have stayed pretty healthy all winter.  Can you believe it's almost time for the eggs in the incubator to be hatching already?  Spring is coming!

Now split the batter into two greased (yes, grease them with coconut oil) loaf pans, bake at 350° for 1 hour.

Your home will smell delicious and you will also have a yummy treat!! 

Easy Apple Cobbler

One of our greatest blessings, is our beloved daughter.  She has such a teachable heart and she is one who lives life whole-heartedly.  Her heart is committed to learning all that she can, to be first, a Godly woman, second a Godly wife and third, a Godly mother.  As any of you know, that is quite an undertaking and a daily struggle for all of us.  She is a joy and truly always has been one.    

Being able to know how to feed your family well, is crucial and these days the sad fact is that the majority of girls are being raised with career goals in mind instead of being taught how to run a home.  Young women are graduating from college with no knowledge or desire of knowing how to run a family.  Chances are, they will have a family, but their family will suffer from their lack of knowledge and so will they.  One of my goals and duties is to equip our daughter with the knowledge and experience of running her home well.  Not only will she and her husband be blessed by it, but our grandchildren will prosper because of it too.  We have to think generationally.  My heart breaks when I hear of the most important goal of a parent being what college their children get into as if their job is done after that.  How sad for the future generations of this country.   

To begin with, start young!  Since she was old enough to dig her hands into a bowl of flour, she has been helping me in the kitchen.  

Were there huge messes?  Yes.  

Has there been great failures (by both of us)?  Yes.  

Did things take three times longer to do?  Yes. 

 BUT......perseverance pays off.  

Since the age of eight, she has been able to be turned loose in the kitchen with great results.  Now don't think I gave her a huge dinner to create back then, we began with simple baking.  The first time I remember challenging her, was with a simple chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I stayed out of the kitchen and when she was done, the cookies were perfectly gooey with dripping chocolate and the kitchen was clean.  I was thrilled and so was she!

Since then she has loved to be the master of her domain in the kitchen.  She can easily fix a full meal now too.  The point of telling you all this is to encourage you to teach your children how to cook.  Find recipes they can help with, and be challenged with.  Let them make messes, let them make mistakes and reassure them that it is perfectly ok to make a mistake.  You will be blessed in the long run and so will they!

Today, she threw something very easy together, but is extremely delicious!  Also, it would be a great recipe to begin to teaching younger children something easy, fun and yummy.

APPLE COBBLER

1 stick butter

Melt stick of butter in an 8 x 11" glass pan

(I find that a 9 x 13 makes the cobbler too thin)

1 cup milk

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix together and pour on top of melted butter in pan.

1 quart of cooked apples

(or 1 quart of blackberries, blueberries etc.)

Sprinkle the apples with cinnamon.

Pour apples over batter.

for

Bake at 350° for 40 minutes.

Be sure to have a serving of it while it is warm!  And, if you can afford the calories, add vanilla ice cream!

The apples we use are from the apples we picked and canned at the peak of apple season.  Find out how we do it by following this link Preserving Apples.  It is super easy.  Canning apples this way is perfect for future use in cobblers, pies, muffins etc.

I hope this inspires you to get into the kitchen with your children and not only make some memories, but give them the important tools they need to help them be self sufficient and may you be blessed for it!

Crockpot Beef Stew with Sweet Potatoes

Another Christmas has come and gone.  The cold air of winter has settled in and nothing warms your bones better than a hearty winter stew!

There is something magnificent about the timing of God's creation and especially the rhythm of eating with the seasons.  I can't seem to get my fill of root vegetables and it got me to wondering about how we just had a heavy harvest of root vegetables, the weather turns cold, the sun is scarce and how healthy those root vegetables are.  They are obviously what our Creator has provided for our health through the bleak months of winter.  It makes SO much sense!

A Simple Christmas

Source

It is that peaceful time of year again.

Yes, Christmas ... peaceful.

Time to enjoy the peaceful rest of the winter season as nature does.

Time to enjoy and treasure family and friends.

Homemaker's Organizer Giveaway

I just had to share with you, who may not have seen this yet, that there is a giveaway going on for this incredible Homemaker's Organizer!

It could also be called a Homesteader's or Gardener's Organizer too because it contains some extremely helpful pages on garden layout, canning inventory, freezer inventory, harvest and preservation records etc.  

Healing our Highland

It is finally time to share with you our journey in healing our Scottish Highland calf.  The struggles and sadness have been great, and on most days we have fought to continue, but hard work is never a waste of time.  We decided that if nothing else, if the end result was terrible, we would at least have learned from it.  Little did we know we faced pneumonia, dehydration, paralysis and a lot of rehabilitation for this little calf.  

Warning:  picture below may be disturbing.