Heart of our Home

My kitchen, the heart of our home.... and if I'm completely real with you it's also a mess :)

Yup, it isn't always perfect around here. The sink is full of dirty dishes, I've covered most of the counters with stuff as I grind wheat and make bread, the little guy is raiding the utensil drawer for flippers and other tools to make playdough cookies with, there's playdough crumbles all over the carpet, and if you missed it there's a gingerbread cookie jar up in the top peaking out that just never made it away after christmas. And believe it or not this isn't even as messy as it got today! LOL.

I've been getting back into my breadmaking groove after taking a bit of a break and the wheat berries have been running through my nutrimill double time. Six cups of berries creates about seven cups of flour ready for baking bread, muffins, pita pockets, tortillas, cookies and more. Any extra flour left over is stored in a glass one gallon jar for later use.



Hard red spring wheat berries milled into soft fine flour with every part of the wheat's goodness still there.

My favorite bread recipe rising in the warmth of the preheating oven.

Lunch was a little late as we waited for my oldest son to come in from stacking wood in the woodshed but the aroma of fresh bread and the sight of giant sandwiches waiting for his arrival washed away any tiredness. Plus I made sure his was extra big :) This mama knows what makes her growing boy happy *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Happy Easter

Wow, it has been one crazy weekend and then some! Today is the first day since last Wednesday that I have been home all day and haven't had to travel into the city and it feels SO GOOD. Between swimming lessons, science group, picking up chicks, easter celebrations and an impromptu trip to Costco it's been go go go here :)

We had a lovely Easter though. On Saturday we had dinner with my sister and her husband and then my mom and I had a sleep over at their house so that we could go to the movies and catch a little retail therapy *grin* and today the kids and I went to my parent's house for an Easter lunch.

After the great success I had making ice cream cone cake pops last summer I thought I'd try making some Easter themed ones so last night I whipped up a cake for making the balls. Hubby thought I was nuts *grin*. Out came the fresh cake from the oven and I proceeded to smash it up making a gooey mess with icing LOL.

I love playing with these although rolling the balls in the chocolate was a little trickier as they had a habit of spinning on the sticks. Nothing a little stint in the freezer couldn't cure though and they were good to go *grin*.

We had all sorts of yummy finger sandwiches, vegetables and desserts...

my mom had plenty of treats for the kids...

and I think they ate enough cake pops and pez to induce a sugar overdose LOL. Thank goodness it's all over and tomorrow it's back to normal we go :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter to!

Hugs,
Rosina

Cleaning Out The Freezers

I've been trying to clean out my freezer a bit before we butcher our cow this winter so I've been boiling up ribs for beef soup stock today to make room :)

I always seem to end up with a ton of ribs and soup bones at the very end and not a lick of hamburger, sausage or roasts and since I never know exactly when it will be cold enough for the cow to hang and age before we cut and wrap it I thought it would be best to get a jump on it before it was to late *grin*.

One thing I always find though is that the ribs Hubby cuts are always so fatty and after they simmer all day there is quite an oil slick on top of the stock. A fantastic way to get rid of it is to put your pot of stock after you have strained out all of the meat, bones and veggies into the fridge for a couple of hours and all of the fat will firm up nice and solid right on top so you scoop it out without loosing any of your delicious stock!

Now that I have lunch taken care of for the next couple of days I can focus on tweaking the new bread recipe I've been trying. I found one that I can use the canned pumpkin I made in the fall along with my freshly milled flour but it needs a wee little adjustment. I can't wait to share the recipe with you :)

Happy weekend!
Rosina

Picnic By The Pond

Today was a perfect day for a picnic down by the pond. The breeze was blowing and the fields of hay were rustling around us as we enjoyed lunch :)

A couple of days ago we got rained out just before we were ready to head outside but today despite the cloud cover the rain held off and we had a great afternoon. With the tables and chairs on the back of the pick up truck and the picnic baskets loaded we headed down to set up.

Preparations started early as we peeled peaches and pears to slice along with strawberries for a deliciously fruity pie tucked inside my whole wheat oat pastry and topped with a streusel crumble :) We mashed eggs for egg sandwiches, tossed salads and packed our picnic basket!

Have I told you how much I love my picnic basket *grin*. My mom and I found them a couple of years ago and they came with real plates, glassware and silverware. You've got to love that it's not packed with plastic and the bottom of it has a zippered cooler pouch for keeping everything from overheating :)

My daughter is crazy about using all the fancy dishes when we have little parties so we brought out the best treasures from the china cabinet to dress the table with :) No sense keeping them hidden away most of the year, we really should enjoy them more!

Boys!! Our tea party etiquette mustn't have rubbed off on my oldest. We're definitely going to have to work on this *grin*.

The kids' favorite salad. A combination of napa cabbage, carrot & noodle tossed in rice vinegar, mirin and sesame oil. I think it's just the sweetness of the dressing that they really like the most but if they're eating all that cabbage and carrot along with it I'm all for it :)

While the kids played badminton, watched water skeeters and tried to catch some of the fish in the pond the rest of us read the weekend paper, sipped on our coffee and savored the fresh pie :) Now if only we could do this every day!

How is your weekend shaping up? I'd love to hear about what is keeping you busy or ultra relaxed :)

~ 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

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