Great Granola ~ Recipe

We love granola!
I don't think any of us can ever quite get enough of it *grin*. I'm forever making it and it is delicious served with a splash of milk, topped with a tablespoon of plain yogurt and some fruit. I found some blueberries in the freezer so that was what we used today but bananas, apples, raisins and more make great tasty toppings for your granola breakfast bowl :)

I had to replenish our supply today and I thought that you might like to have a peak at my recipe and perhaps whip up a lip smacking batch for your family :)

This is for quite a large batch but you can definitely half the recipe!
You will need:

8 cups rolled oats
4 cups barley flakes
2 cups unsweetened coconut
2 cups raw sunflower seeds
2 cups raw chopped nuts (I used almonds & pecans)
1 cup raw sesame seeds

Mix all of the above ingredients, preferably all organic, in a very large bowl.

On the stove top warm:

1/2 cup of raw honey
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of sucanat or brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Just heat the pot until the honey melts enough to easily mix all of the ingredients into a thick syrupy sauce. It doesn't have to be really hot and this is important because you will probably need to use your hands to mix everything together. I find that using a wooden spoon just doesn't cut it :)

Once you have everything mixed together spread it onto 2 or 3 cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and pop it into an oven that has been pre-heated to 300* Fahrenheit.

Pop one of the trays into the oven and cook for 1o minutes then pull it out and flip all of the granola around on the cookie sheet so that the bottom is now the top and put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Keep repeating this for about 30 minutes for each tray or a bit longer if needed until each batch is a nice golden brown :)

Let it cool completely before storing in a large glass jar. I love to use 1 gallon pickle jars and you can usually pick them up for free or less than a buck at any restaurant or diner as they usually buy all of their pickles, mayo & relish in them and they make awesome storage jars in the pantry for rice, noodles, granola, baking supplies or whatever you like. Plus they are a great alternative to plastic!

Have fun making a batch and get creative with the ingredients. If there is something on my list that you absolutely hate sub in something you like. I promise you won't hurt my feelings if you don't like coconut *grin*.

~ Rosina

Mary Mary Quite Contrary....

How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

I thought that I'd share some of the pretty blossoms that are around the yard right now :) I am completely smitten with my poppies! Their coral color and deep purple centers are stunning.

A bee resting inside a rhododendron bloom. I think it must be hiding from the rain shower that just passed :)

Baby apple just starting to form.

A grove of Bachelor Buttons.

Oh my goodness... can you believe the size of the rhododendron bloom? It's huge!

The plums are starting to form up to and I'm dreaming of all the delicious Zwetschgenknödel I'm going to make with them :) Zwetschgenknödel is a deliciously sweet noodle with a plum center and served with bread crumbs toasted with butter and sugar. So delicious and the recipe has been passed down to me from my Omi :) I try to get a bunch of them frozen each summer but they never seem to last long. Gee, I wonder why *grin*.

What's blooming in your yard right now?
~ Rosina

Fishing For A New Door

The boys have been at it again!

Another successful afternoon of fishing at the lake. My dad swears by heading out just before 4pm for the dinner bite... it seems to be working *grin*. K was so excited to share what they caught with me and strung them along the stick to proudly display them for the photo. He claims to have caught the largest one this time :)

We had the chance to head into the city and have lunch with my sister today at her house. It was a beautifully sunny day and we ate on her patio while the kids played badminton and ran around the yard. Just before heading home I stopped off at the re-use store where you can purchase building materials that people donate from houses that are being renovated or torn down. All of the money they make from selling the used building supplies goes to Habitat for Humanity so quite often we will have a browse and see if there is something we need.

I just happen to need a new storm door as the my old one had an unfortunate run in with a disgruntled goat and well long story short he rammed it with his lone horn and left me with no glass or screen :(

So far whenever we've gone looking I can never find one the right size and if there are any they are pretty beat up or missing the framing, but today was my lucky day! They had a newer white one that is all glass with a sliding screen window in the center and all of the framing was intact. The screened part needs replacing but I just happen to have a repair kit already so that can be fixed in a cinch. The downside is that Hubby is still away at work and they wouldn't hold it for me :( I'm a crossing my fingers and toes that it will be there at the end of the week when he should be back home and we can run in with the truck and get it. Oh how I hope it doesn't sell!

~ Rosina

Nosy Cows & Potatoes

Come now... don't be shy! *grin*
My baby just wants to get a closer look at you and perhaps snuffle your pockets for some treats and lick your hand as a light hearted gesture of friendship LOL.

I just love this guy :) We picked him and his brother up last spring as 2 month old bottle babies just starting to be weaned and he is such a sucker for love. Never makes a peep unless you go by and don't pay attention to him and he loves to get a good scratch. Beware though he's a licker teehee.

All three kids headed out first thing this morning to lend a hand with the massive job of hilling the potatoes. I think perhaps someone was a wee bit hungry when they planted this year *grin*. They're growing beautifully though. Very healthy and if all goes as planned we're going to have a bumper crop!

I think they got the majority of the work done before it rained so hard late this afternoon that it soaked you in less than 10 seconds! The kids rather enjoyed the downpour and brought me a lovely fresh batch of grass, dirt and whatever else happened to get stuck to their boots today into the mud room. I swear with all the wet weather we've been having I'm going to start calling it the 'muddy' room! *grin*

No matter how much mud I had to clean today I had this beautiful quote on my mind:


Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~Marcel Proust

Oh how I just love that as my children bring so much joy and laughter to my days :)
~ Rosina

Sunday Strolling

What a beautiful Sunday :) Weather wise it was ho-hum but the rain held off and allowed us to spend a little time just roaming around, dancing under the trees ring around the rosy style and taking in the fresh air.

This time of year always calls for a little bit of self reflection as our homeschool year is coming to an end and I evaluate what worked and what did not. It's a time to think about plans for the fall, what books I want to use and where we need to re-focus.

I came across an interesting article today called 'Our Cluttered Minds'... What the internet is doing to our brains.
.... computers are destroying our powers of concentration. As the blogger Cory Doctorow, a co-editor of the wildly popular Web site Boing Boing, has observed, the typical electronic screen is an “ecosystem of interruption technologies,” encouraging us to peek at our e-mail in-box, glance at Twitter and waste away the day on eBay. And so we lurch from site to site, if only because we constantly crave the fleeting pleasure of new information...

I'll admit I'm guilty of wandering past my desk frequently throughout the day to do a quick mail check and if I'm not careful it is awful easy to get sucked into a half an hour or more of mindless browsing time. Why is it that I can cut the television out of our lives yet I'm a slave to the computer?! It's an amazing resources for educational material for the children, a crafting bonanza for the creative types and yes the social part of it is a great perk especially when you live rural and don't see many people on a regular basis as is my case but holy doodle I can see how it could suck your day away. Thank goodness I've got some will power or I could see myself locked in a room 24/7 with only the glow of the monitor to keep me company. *shudder*.

Oh boy, I've got to shut his baby down immediately before it sucks my last brain cell out through my retina! LOL.
~ Rosina

Outdoor Room Eye Candy

1. Cool outdoor room, 2. Outdoor_room, 3. Garden Room, 4. Outdoor_room

I just had to share some of the great outdoor rooms that I came across while searching on flickr. I can't decide which one is my favorite *grin*.

I mean who wouldn't want the little building that has been converted into such a feminine little outdoor space with it's wicker furniture and floral cushions! Yet the log framed shelter with it's burlap looking roof and rough hewn bench calls to my natural side and screams nature which I just love to :) It definitely doesn't hurt to drool over them a bit but in the end I still have to come up with my own plan.

I have a very rough drawing sitting in front of me with the cushioned bench I want to make covered with round mounding pillows for reading on and the window box planted with fragrant flowers above. Cascading fabric overhead to shelter us from the sun, a table covered with a bright colored table cloth, paper lanterns perhaps for the evening so we can enjoy it after the sun sets and just gaze out towards the vegetable garden and mountains.... Sounds just heavenly :)

I sure hope I can turn my dreaming into reality *grin*.
~ Rosina

A Perfect Afternoon

Well the sun finally broke out from behind the clouds and gave us half a day of scorching hot heat! Oh my goodness I think we have become to accustomed to all of the wet weather because we were definitely wilting this morning *grin*.

We all headed out right after breakfast to take advantage of the dry spell. K and I tackled some more planting by getting the rows ready for our carrots and beets to go in. As he dug little trenches I went behind him filling them with a mix of horse manure, lime and an organic crumble that I picked up at the nursery. We're hoping they are going to grow really big! LOL.

Our homemade seed tape cut the work in half to! All we had to do was lay it all down in the trenches and sprinkle with a covering of dirt and we were done. Gotta love that especially as we started to go limp under the baking sun :)

L & M have been literally dying waiting for the rain to stop so that they could go out and paint so while we toiled in the garden they collected the paint jars and the new canvasses that I had bought at the dollar store and got busy becoming Picasso & Kahlo *grin*. Can you believe that I actually got 12 x 16 inch canvas all stretched on a frame for $1.25?! I'm kicking myself now that I only picked up a couple. I sure hope they still have some the next time we go!

While everyone scrubbed up at the garden hose and had an impromptu water fight I headed in to get lunch together :) A nice big plate of Bruschetta. Oh how I can hardly wait until our tomatoes are ready!!

Armed with the giant plate of bruschetta and another full of vegetables and dip we enjoyed lunch under the shade of the giant hemlock trees in the backyard. While they finished up eating I read aloud from one of our new Sonlight read alouds 'The Golden Goblet'.

Ahh what a beautiful way to spend the afternoon :) I want to create a cozy outdoor spot this summer where we can curl up with books or crafts and enjoy the outdoors. I've got a couple of ideas for transforming our front patio. It has no shelter so I need to make some sort of sun shade but I'm hoping to find some fabric in the discount bin at Walmart and fashion some sails or something. Haven't quite figured out all the details yet but the thoughts are brewing *grin*.

~ Rosina

Planting Flower Boots

I've had a stash of the kids outgrown rubber boots in the closet since last spring as I wanted to do something fun with them. Each pair outgrown and no good for donating to the good will because every single one of them was either cracked somewhere up the sides or had holes in the soles. Can you say hard on their shoes?!

So the last time we were in the city we stopped at one of the nurseries and purchased some colorful bedding plants to plant in them :) Using a mix of potting soil and horse manure they filled up each of the boots right to the tip of the toes.

In each one we could only fit 2 or sometimes 3 flowers depending on how little the top of the boot was :)

They are so excited to see the marigolds, pansies, and snapdragons bloom. I think we're going to put them in the vegetable garden at the ends of the rows. I just hope that the slugs don't get a hold of them! All this wet weather is a making it a haven for the slimy creatures. Maybe we should get some Muskovy ducks again... they LOVE to eat slugs *grin*.

~ Rosina

Herb-a-licious Stuffed Pork Loin ~ Recipe

This time of year always produces an abundance of fresh herbs in the garden and I'm always trying to incorporate them into our meals and this is one of our all time favorite ways to roast up a pork loin using an infusion of thyme, rosemary, and sage and I thought that I would share my recipe with you :)

Just a quick note: If you don't have any fresh herbs on hand you can most definitely substitute dried herbs in their place. A good rule of thumb is to use 1/3 of the amount in dried herbs that you would use for fresh herbs. So for the following recipe use 1 teaspoon of dried herbs instead of the 1 tablespoon of fresh :)



Filling:

1Tbsp fresh finely chopped sage
1 Tbsp fresh finely chopped thyme
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary (bruise it by rolling it roughly in your fingers)
4 green onions chopped finely
3 large cloves of garlic minced
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 heaping tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp sea salt
freshly ground peppercorns to taste
2 - 3 lb. pork loin roast

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combine the first 9 ingredients together in a small bowl.

Next you need to butterfly your roast by cutting it in half but *not all the way through*! You want it to open up like a book.

Spread your filling on one half of the roast and then start from the side of your roast with no filling on it and roll it up and tie it tightly with some butcher's twine or string like shown in the first photo. Don't worry if some of your filling squeezes out, just push it back in or pat it back on top of your roast. Once you have your roast all tied up you can give it one more dusting of salt and pepper and place it in your roasting pan with one cup of water. This will make it super moist :)

I cover my roaster with foil before I put the lid on to just so that I can keep all of that steam and juice inside the pot so that it stays extra moist! Bake for roughly 2 1/2 hours or until well done at an internal temperature of 170 degrees Fahrenheit. It usually takes mine just a little bit longer to reach the right temp but it all depends on your oven and how large your roast is. When in doubt use a thermometer to check it properly :)

When it's all finished you will have a delicious herb infused roast. The flavor really does permeate all of the meat so every bit is herbalicious *grin*.

Bon appetit!
~ Rosina

Seed Tape Update

Okay so I told you I'd update you on how the seed tape making was coming along and it is working fabulously!!

It didn't stick to the table like I had feared with all of the wet newspaper and the seeds stayed put *grin*. So tonight we started another batch and I came up with a genius way to get the flour paste on! Instead of brushing it on with a paintbrush which was a little tedious as the paste is so sticky and doesn't spread especially well we used a squeeze bottle.

I had an old bottle that we used to take camping for putting ketchup in that hadn't made it into the junk box yet and I thought that I would just see if I could get the paste to squeeze smoothly through the spout. I made the flour and water paste the same as yesterday, the consistency of pancake batter making sure that I got as many of the lumps whipped out as I could and it flowed through the tip perfectly.

What a time saver!! Now we can just whip a strip of paste down the strips of newspaper in mere seconds and sprinkle seeds to our hearts content *grin*. We're heading out rain or shine tomorrow to start planting them in the garden :)

How about you, what are you up to in your garden right now?
~ Rosina