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.

Garden Adventures

Now on Etsy

I am trying something new. I have items left from the craft show I did in June, so I thought I would try and sell them on etsy.com. I am not done putting items up, but you can check it out now if you like. If you haven't been on Etsy before it is a place where people can sell their handmade items. It is great place!

Here is the link to me: meganhaan.etsy.com

I hope you enjoy!

Sticky Caramel Pecan Rolls

My first try at making caramel rolls. I haven't tasted them yet... but they smell really good.

Artisan Bread

My mom has a book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The whole idea behind this method of baking bread is that you make a big batch of dough, put it in the fridge, pull off a piece anytime you want fresh bread and bake it. After making bread with my grandma one time, I have wanted to make bread again. Yesterday I made the "Master Recipe" and it turned out pretty good. I am planning to make a pizza tonight with part of the dough and fresh basil from our garden. Carmel-pecon rolls tomorrow.

the old

Yesterday I stopped in Canton to visit a couple antique stores. These places were packed full of beautiful color and objects. It took me a while to get through both places, but well worth it. I found so many things. One booth was full of old Pyrex. There was a set of 4 green bowls that stacked inside each other. There were also tons of old aprons made with vintage fabric. Here are just a few pictures I grabbed with my phone. I only walked out with a small beige and green hankie, but I am sure I will be going back for more.

American Jane

This is my new favorite fabric. It is made by designer Sandy Klop. Moda prints her designs, so you can go to their website to purchase it. I want to make this quilt sometime. I just have to start collecting the fabric.

Here is her website.

Saturday morning at 6:30, I went with my Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle and Mom to pick strawberries by Sanborn, Iowa. We ate a great breakfast at a small town diner, and then got to the patch around 8. I picked one flat (11 lbs) for myself, and everyone else picked two. It was a beautiful morning to do it.

When we got home, my mom and I made strawberry jam. I made mine with no sugar. I came out with 9 jars. I also frozen 5 half pint containers for ice cream topping and sliced a little over four cups for two strawberry pies. Here is the recipe I used for the pies. They are also not sugar added. Instead of making my own crust, I used the philsbury roll out dough (which is extremely easy). The pies are extremely good.

Ingredients:
FILLING
1 pint strawberries (cleaned and stems removed)
2 cups water
1 large package sugar free strawberry Jello
1 tablespoon cornstarch

CRUST
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoon Equal Brand Sweetener for Recipes, or 6 packets Equal Brand Sweetener
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons cold margarine, cut into pieces
10-11 tablespoons ice water

Topping
Lite Cool Whip Non-Dairy Frozen Whipped Topping, thawed

Instructions:
For Filling:
Boil water and cornstarch until it begins to thicken. Add jello; dissolve. Pour over 1 pint strawberries in prebaked crust ( see crust recipe below). Cover top with Lite Cool Whip.

Crust:
Combine flour, Equal Sweetener and salt in bowl; cut in margarine with fork until mixture is crumbly. Mix in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing after each addition. Refrigerate until ready to use or well chilled.

To Bake Crust:
Bake pie crust at 375 degrees F. For partially baked pie shells, bake 10 to 12 minutes. For fully baked crusts, bake 15 to 18 minutes. Instead of using foil or beans to hold down the crust, use a foil pan that is the same size as the pie pan and place in the crust for the first 6 minutes. When crust begins to color around the edges, take the pan out and finish to desired brown-ness.

Fill baked, cooled crust with strawberry filling, and top pie with Lite Cool Whip.

Art Festival

Saturday, June 5 from 9-4 at the Centre Mall I will be selling earings and pouches at the Art Festival. Stop by to see my products and me!

Spare time = Creative time

In four years we have...

1. graduated college

2. moved to Chicago
3. got and conquered diabetes
4. went to a huge handful of awesome concerts, plays, and museums
5. learned an amazing amount about life, ourselves, and cats
6. suffered important loses
7. witnessed beautiful births
8. ate sensational food
9. drank a lot of coffee
10. worked full-time jobs in our fields
11. decided that we wanted to be closer to family
12. moved back to Sioux Center
13. been incredibly happy the entire time

Happy Anniversary!

getting back to my roots....

Rob and I are officially residents of Sioux Center now. He came out to Chicago with my family this past weekend, and we came back with all of our stuff. (For the record - my dad weighed the trailer before and after and our life weighs about 4,500 lbs.) We are so excited and relieved to finally have the move over with.

So... HELLO Northwest IOWA!

Procrastination

Rob is now in Sioux Center. We drove half way yesterday to do a hand off with his sister. He has taken Ollie with him, so now it is just me and Neko here, which means it is very quiet. I have been delaying as much as possible to continue the never-ending task of packing (for those of you who don't know, Rob and I are moving back to nw Iowa because he is now working for Alpha Omega in Rock Rapids).

In my procrastination, I was looking at old Threadbanger Podcasts and found a T-Shirt recon that I wanted to try. It only took about 5 min.

If the video doesn't work, you can try to link:

http://www.threadbanger.com/tb-projects/episode/THR_20090811

Look Mom... I'm on TV!

Rob and I went to a free Willie Nelson concert for the taping of Soundstage for WTTW. It aired the last weekend of February. Here is a clip of a close up.

Try these....

Butternut Squash Fries

1. One butternut squash peeled and cut into thin strips.

2. Cover with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

3. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until brown and crisp at 425.

Flip half way through.

Projects

I have been experimenting with a lot of different things lately and taking the time to make handmade things. Here are a couple things I have done that were really fun.

For Christmas I made homemade chocolate-covered marshmallows. You can make them plain or chocolate-covered, whichever you like. I made both, and they were really good.

Every day when I have to go to work, I drive through an alleyway which is usually loaded with thing people have thrown out. One day I saw this white wicker lamp shade and thought it would look great in our living room. We had to cut a small piece of metal on the inside so that we could get the cord through, but it turned out great! We hung it up last night above our table. Now we can see!

We need to catch up.

Many things have happened since November when we last posted. Here is a picture summary:

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our place with friends who were in Chicago.

In the beginning of December I was admitted into the hospital because I had pneumonia. I first went to an urgent care where they told me to go to an ER because my x-ray was funny. They took a CT and determined it was a really bad case of pneumonia. Within the first 24 hours, I also had an allergic reaction to something they had given me or the sheets, so I had to use my own sheets from home and wear my own clothes instead of the hospital's gowns. Rob took a picture of me with the beautiful flowers everyone sent, and the awesome pj's he gave me. I was there for three days. It took me a while to recover, but am feeling a great deal better.

My siblings and I put together a quilt for our parents. We each made a square to represent us, and we also made a couple to represent the family as a whole. It turned out great! Even though there was a lot of snow over Christmas, we had a good time catching up with as many family members as we could. Becky and Steve had a baby a week before Christmas, and because of weather, we didn't get to see him yet. We are planning to go back for baptism at the end of February.

Cat & Mouse

Rob and I have gone to this game store a lot. A couple times for a Settler's Tournament, and then again last night for a great fall sale. We picked up a game called Pandemic and played it probably 5 times last night. It is a cooperative game, where you work together to find cures for 4 diseases that are spreading around the world. It is pretty fun, and can be played with 2 or more people. There is also an expansion, which we have not yet tired. Click here for a review and better description.

Rob also made this picture for their facebook page. There is a contest to see who can get the most people to "like" their wall post. So far, he has about 80. I think he will probably win.

Willie Nelson

We are going to see him September 28 for a taping of Soundstage for PBS.

Rob got tickets for free.

Family

A few pictures of time spent with family this past week. Grandpa and Grandma Haan came to Chicago and we ate at a really great Bosnian restaurant in Lincoln Square.

A birthday bash, bike riding, and gardening.

Hot Dog! Peanuts! Beer!

New Apartment and Garden

Modern Wing

We spent the morning/afternoon downtown going to the new Modern Wing at the Art Institute. Admission to the museum was free because of the opening. The building is amazing very open and beautiful. There were a lot of areas to enjoy the outdoors as well; a patio area on the ground floor, a deck on the top floor, and a bridge connecting the museum to Millennium Park. If you are planning to go see the new addition sometime, go when the weather is nice, so you can enjoy the outside parts as well! Also, because Target was sponsoring the free admission to the museum, so when we left we got a few free bags of chips and a bottles of water.


We also walked up Michigan Ave to check out any good deals at the stores, and we won a free Hersey Bar from the Hersey store. I guess this was a great day for free things in Chicago!

Settlers of Catan Tournament

Rob and I just got home from playing in a Settlers tournament at a game store called Cat & Mouse. There were 4 tables of 4 each. Everyone played 2 games and the 4 people with the most points went on to play in a final game for the prizes. I won my first two games (20 points) and Rob won 1 and got 8 the second (18 points). We were both in the final game with two others.

It was intense to say the least. Everyone had 9 points towards the end of the game, except for me because I got boxed in. Rob could have pulled through for a win, but did not have the right mix of cards. The other girl won the game taking the grand prize. Rob tied for second with another guy and I got third. We both walked away with a total of $17.50 in gift certificates for the store, and a river expansion piece for Settlers.

All in all, it was a great afternoon of playing with some cool people. The store was really cool too. They have game nights every Tuesday from 6:30-9:30 and then on Fridays starting after Memorial Day. I think we might head over there to play sometime.
( http://www.cat-n-mouse.com/ )

Spaghetti Squash

Rob and I tried spaghetti squash tonight as an alternative for pasta. We were a little skeptical at first, but it turned out pretty good! Since being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, we haven't been eating very much spaghetti because of the amount of carbs in a serving of pasta, but by using the squash as the noodles I cut the amount of carbs down to a more reasonable amount.

Spaghetti Squash - 4.7 grams of carbs for a 1/2 cup serving
Whole Wheat Pasta - 42 grams of carbs for a 3/4 cup serving

Here is how to prepare it:
1. Cut in half and pierce skin several times with a fork.
2. Place cut sides down on a cooking sheet.
3. Cook at 375 for about an hour or until flesh is tender.
4. After it has cooled, take a fork and scrape the inside of the squash to release the spaghetti strands.
5. Cover with your favorite sauce, and enjoy!

april snow brings....

a lot of free things from Craigslist.com.

Rob and I are hopefully moving into a bigger apartment in June and the excitement has gotten us thinking about how we plan to arrange and fill our new space. So we started looking on Craigslist for cheap furniture and then ended up under the "free" section.

This is what we have collected throughout the rainy/snowy day...
- 10 or so painted canvasses
- 20 sturdy boxes for moving
- end table
- shoe rack
- tv stand

I am thankful Chicago people are so generous with their previously used items.

Avery Faye