Sunday, August 29, 2010

Monday, August 23, 2010

Making the Sauce





This weekend we picked apples from the trees on Uncle Marlin's farm. We decided to make some applesauce and added some different flavors. One batch was made with Apple Pie spice and the other with raspberry flavoring. They both turned out super yummy.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Night Visitor

Rob and I were watching a Podcast yesterday on how to make a bat house. We decided that once we had a place of our own, we would probably build a bat house to help out with the mosquito population. So, last night I went out to grab my mom's cat to take inside. I was looking in the garage when I heard and saw movement in the pop can box. Rob came out with gloves and looked in the box and found a bat trying to get into a beer can. So, he grabbed to can and put it in a box and brought the box out to the back end of my mom's yard. Hopefully the bat just flew away. Here is a blurry pic of the cute little guy.

Friday, August 20, 2010

New Reads and Resources




All summer Rob and I have been tending a rather large garden in Doon at Rob's uncle's house. It has been great working in the dirt and enjoying the fruits of our labor. I have canned so many different things (whole tomoatoes, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, sweet pickles, dill pickles, strawberry jam, salsa, vegetable soup) and frozen different produce too (cherry tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, strawberries, pesto). It has been really fun to see how much produce we have and learning the process of canning and freezing from my mom. All of the work we have done has made us want to learn and do more. Hopefully we will soon own our own small piece of land and will be able to do more. Eventually we want to have chickens, maybe goats, and in the long run be able to brew beer. This book is a great resource. It shows all the steps in order to create a homestead and be able to produce a lot of food for yourself.



If any of you have ever tried to bake bread, check out this book. The authors show you how you can have a fresh loaf of bread everyday. The first book they wrote focuses on the whole process of baking bread and saving the dough in the fridge so that the next day all you have to do is pull a piece off, form it, and bake it. It is full of tons of recipes for different types of breads. I have made boule, pizza, oatmeal bread, pretzels, and sticky buns. A couple weeks ago I went to Minneapolis with my mom and sister to take a class given by the authors. They demonstrated different techniques from the book, and how to have successful bread each time. This book is full of recipes that use whole grains. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but I am excited to get started.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010