Making Your Home A Haven

I've been so inspired by a Fall Challenge from Courtney at WomenLivingWell  [follow the link] I stumbled across a few weeks ago, that I had to share it! Last week we were supposed to light a candle every day, but the best part was her suggestion to pray for a peaceful home every time your eye catches the candle's flickering. I have been doing very well, I'm happy to report! Our house is little, so my candle catches my gaze so frequently that I've expanded it to be a reminder for me to talk to God all day long. I'm ashamed to admit that talking to my Lord constantly is not something that flows out of me naturally-I am not accustomed to it. I get caught up in day to day life and forget to pray. However, I am determined to build a habit! I am so excited about this!! I think this will be my favorite week of the challenge, but you never know :o)

Bread Machine Honey&Wheat Butterhorns

1 cup milk or milk alternative

3-4 tablespoons honey

1 large egg

1/3 cup coconut oil

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole wheat flour

( I actually use more wheat flour than that-but it's fresh-ground and very fine. I recommend keeping the wheat.to.white ratio at this level until you are familiar with this recipe!)

2 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons unbleached flour

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (1 pkg.)

Dump all ingredients into your bread machine in the order given, set to dough cycle and start.

When it's done rising, split the dough into two lumps and let rest 5-10 min.

Roll each one out into a circle, like this ^

Smear about 1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons soft butter on each circle with your fingers

Cut each circle into 12 wedges

and roll them up ^

Place on a greased cookie sheet to rise, about 30 min [^ these are not yet risen]

Bake for 15-20 min in a preheated 350 degree oven

Delish!

My 3 boys love these warm or cold and spread with raw, spun honey

[yes, our honey spreads...it's the best stuff!]



Apricot Chicken

Here is my version of this recipe for my freezer cooking day.

2-3 cans (whatever you think equals 1 1/2 lbs!) apricots in extra light syrup (I bought mine at Aldi)
5-6 frozen chicken breasts (depending on their size, use enough for a whole meal)
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 chopped onion
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 -1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1-3 teaspoons Tabasco or other hot sauce
salt & pepper

Drain all but one can of apricots and coarsely chop 1/3 of them. Puree the remaining 2/3, including the undrained can. Saute chopped onion in the oil, once browned add the broth, apricot puree, cinnamon, rosemary and Tabasco. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and lower the heat to gently simmer uncovered for 20-30 min. Add chopped apricots and simmer 5 min.
Now, you can either grill your chicken and serve it with the apricot sauce over rice, or like I did, cook the chicken breasts in the sauce in a crock pot all afternoon. If you do this reserve 1/4 cup of sauce [so 1-1 1/2 cups in all] to pour over each piece of chicken when you serve it over rice.

Matt loved this recipe-the chicken was so tender and the flavor just complex enough to suit both our tastes ;o) Yay!

Whole-wheat Windmill Cookies

    I made these last night, it's my own recipe, tweaked until I got it pretty close to the authentic flavor. For those of you who [gasp!] don't know what Windmill cookies are, these are pretty close to a ginger snap.

Speculaas {Dutch Windmill Cookies}

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons speculaaskruiden
2 tablespoons ground almonds (optional)

Cream butter, sugar and molasses. Beat in egg and vanilla. I a separate bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder, speculaaskruiden and ground almonds. Spoon into a pastry bag with a large round tip and pipe little nickel sized cookies onto a parchment covered cookie sheet. Alternatively you could drop blobs onto the paper with a spoon, just make them small or they won't get crispy.

I baked these for 13 min., but you may have to vary the time to get them just right. They come out chewy any after cooling completely on the pan they should peel off the paper perfectly. Your batter also is going to be darker than the pictures show, because I've increased the spice and molasses content for additional yum :D

The finished product! Half-dollar sized, crispy windmill cookies.



My *Secret* Ingredient

Today is Sunday and I am bored with Sudoku. My house could really use my powers of organization but it always annoys my dear husband when I do such things on a Sunday afternoon. The classic napping option isn't really an option at all, considering I have a toddler who is shunning his nap on account of his getting enough shut-eye on the ride home from church. (seriously? we need either an hour drive or a 5 min. one...) Soooo...I re-designed my blog and added a recipe page, just for fun. :o) I have a couple really yummy cookie recipes I want to post, but I have to start with a recipe for my *secret* ingredient, Speculaaskruiden. I found this about a year ago when I made Speculaas [windmill cookies] Since then I use it in anything that calls for cinnamon and another spice, like nutmeg, cloves, ginger-whatever. I use it in my pumpkin, apple-even a bit in blueberry-pies. Banana bread, cookies, smoothies...mmmm! My hubby is proud of our Dutch heritage, so I like helping the boys develop a love for this Dutch spice blend.

Speculaaskruiden

for a small batch...
Mix together:
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon mace
1/3 teaspoon ginger
1/5 teaspoon white pepper
1/5 teaspoon cardamom
1/5 teaspoon coriander
1/5 teaspoon anise
1/5 teaspoon nutmeg

for the size batch I usually mix up...
Mix together:
6 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
5 teaspoons cloves
5 teaspoons mace
1 2/3 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon anise
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Note:
No, I really don't have special measuring spoons. I just 'guestimate' the portions, i.e. a slightly rounded 1/4 tsp. instead of a 1/3, or a slightly hollowed one instead of a 1/5.

What a Beautiful Morning!

We wanted to spend the day outside! Everyone is getting over a nasty virus here at our house-we are sick & tired of being sick & tired-we were getting out! Matt took the boys outside and after cleaning up breakfast I joined them. All it took was one step onto the porch to realize I wanted more clothes on-it was downright chilly this morning! After spinning around for a sweatshirt and coming to the conclusion that a pair of leggings would be wimpy, I picked up some jackets for my boys (if Momma's cold everybody's cold!) and headed back out.

Our garden has need attention for awhile, it is finished and was as ugly as a garden can get. Weeds up to your middle and it had the smell of a dead garden-though I don't know if anyone but me would ever notice that. We pulled up the chicken wire fence and I rolled it to the tune of Cephas' "Hurry, hurry Momma", "Come on, you can do it!", "Goood Job!", "Hurry up!", "Let's hurry"...I began to wonder if I really sounded like that. Is it possible for a 3 yr. old to exact revenge upon an overly zealous pep-talking mother? Nevertheless, I finished my first roll and called Matt to haul it away to the barn, pretending to pout at his teasing comment about how he remembers it being rolled tighter. As I bent to roll the second, a grubby pair of pudgy little hands appeared beside mine and Malachi began pushing and grunting, so proud to be helping. "What a sweetheart!", I think. "DaDi!", laughs Ce, "you helping Momma? Good boy!", and I smile, thinking how very blessed I am...very blessed indeed.

A Tribute to G.I. Joe

I don't really remember how it all began, there were so many guys we talked to at the G.R. Home for Veterans. All I remember is Dad bringing him home for a barbeque at our house on the "Back Forty". We pulled his wheelchair out of the trunk and I could tell Dad was embarrassed that I didn't remember meeting him-so I fibbed. "Oh, yes!, I remember you..." But then, it's not the beginning that matters, is it? What I do remember were the following Sunday nights when we'd drive out to Grand Rapids and push veterans in wheelchairs down to a small church service. We'd always come home late from listening to stories of Germany and Joe's world travels-how he worked for a radio station at one time and went to Catholic schools as a child. He was always so picky about our grammar, and if we said something incorrectly he'd teach us to say it in German as well! It's a pity I didn't retain any of those German lessons. Mostly though, he'd try to keep us there as long as he could. He loved us, loved talking about world affairs with Daddy and just adored us kids. He'd send us home with armloads of 'loot' he had collected throughout the week; candy, fruit, cards from the nearby school children, warm milk in the little cartons they serve at the cafeteria, stuffed animals, toiletries-even hard boiled eggs he saved for us tucked in napkins in the seat of his wheelchair. Mom always joked that he must be part chicken :) Dad and Mom begged him to stop, but he just couldn't. No matter what we tried we ended up sitting with him in his room until he showed us everything in each bag. It was his way of showing how much he thought of us. It makes me smile thinking of those evenings.
Joe was what most people would call ornery, but it was all a facade. You could see it in his eyes when his heart melted-before he quickly tried to disguise it. I remember when we found out his real name, Leo. His parents had high hopes of his being "Pope Leo", he said, and he got the nickname 'Joe' when he was at war and a group of children he rescued called him G.I. Joe.
Joe took us to the Detroit Zoo and shopping for fruit and Easter shoes at Meijer every year. We took him to our house and served him home-grown barbequed chicken, stuffed green peppers or venison stew-his favorites. We'd bring him tomatoes from our garden, because he tried to convince us they spray painted them at the Home. He made Amanda and me giggle when he bit into it like an apple, with the juice running down his chin. He tried to convince my Dad to let him move us all to Germany with him-he called us his adopted family, and indeed we were. Our biological grandpas have been gone for many years. Most of my siblings never knew either of them, but God gave us Joe. Joe cared more about my family than any other person I know, he gave my sisters, brothers and I something that was missing in our lives. He will always be Grandpa in our hearts, always remembered, always loved and painfully missed.

Freezer Cooking Day

I really should be folding that pile of laundry that is covering my couch, but frankly, I'm tired. I just finished putting the last of the cookies in the freezer. This is the third time I've put aside a specific day for freezing up a month of meals and I have high hopes for it this time. The last two times I reserved a whole day it really flopped. The first time I could NOT get it done. My Freezer Cooking Day turned into Freezer Cooking Week! Not my idea of a time saver, and to top it off my kitchen was a disaster every night. I cook like a hurricane. The aftermath is not pretty. The next time I made too many whole dishes that took forever to thaw/cook. So, for quite some time I've just been chopping a few extra onions when I need one or browning an extra lb. of beef/turkey and freezing the excess. A little at a time is still handy for those last minute dinners, but in order to get the shopping bill down, I've decided to give the 'Day' another go. This time around I adopted a 'short-cut' strategy that it seems everyone has figured out except for me. I Googled 'once a month cooking' and found many wiser women than I, who prepare parts of meals instead of making many finished ones. :)

I started a few things yesterday evening, but this is what I accomplished.

• 20 Brown Bag Burritos I forgot to add the cheese so I had to unwrap a dozen of them to 'fix' my mess :/
• 32 Pigs in a Blanket I used my own whole wheat Butterhorn recipe for these.

-both are for easy lunches on the weekends or when Matt's home, the guy won't eat sandwiches or pasta salads.

• 2 (fully cooked) loaves of yummy Meatloaf
• 2 Chicken Marinades (super fast!)
• 2 bags of Apricot Chicken. I applied the same principle as for the marinade, by pouring the completely cooled sauce over bags of 5 frozen chicken breasts. Each bag will make more than one meal for us, I plan on using the leftovers for a sweet/sour stir fry.
• 2 bags of Asian Chicken (for stir fry, over Udon noodles)
• a batch of whole wheat chocolate chip cookie dough blobs
• 2 quart bags of chopped onions
• 4, 1 lb. bags of browned gr. beef
• enough beef patties (hamburgers) for 2 meals, separated by waxed paper and bagged

My freezer is packed to the nines, which is why I didn't make more cookie dough blobs. I'm going to have to put the 20 bags of shredded cheese I got for $1 a piece this week in Matt's freezer! I have to go make dinner, but I'll be back to post my grocery bill! :)
Mmm! Dinner was yummy :o)
Matt took me to Aldi, where I stocked up on most of my groceries, especially meat/poultry, and then to Wal-Mart, where I could pick up a few things that Aldi doesn't carry. I bought enough for more than a whole month of meals. I have the makings of 40 known meals in my kitchen, and I know I could go a week longer than the 4 weeks I have planned/budgeted. My totalled grocery bill was $263.33. This is an improvement I have not been able to make with all the cheap meal plans I have been trying (except for maybe the starvation plan...and no, it wasn't planned that way) I still have to pick up milk, orange juice, butter, eggs and fresh fruit every week, but that should cost no more than $20 a week. Conclusion: $85 per week. It may not seem so frugal to those of you who are pros at this, but it certainly makes for one happy me, considering I was spending approximately $100-$130 a week-even when buying the 'bare essentials'. :/ I spent literally hours doing housework with Mom over the phone [hey, we can both wash dishes at the same time!] ;) brainstorming for inexpensive meals that Matt would eat, but all to no avail. He is hands down the pickiest eater I have ever met-but that's his only fault ;o) so who's complaining? :o)

In Memory of a Saturday...

Matt loves impromptu outings so Saturday morning he packed the boys into the car and told me we were headed for Devil's Den.
After a few panic attacks from Cephas when he thought we were no longer heading for the waterfall we arrived at the park. We all climbed up the waterfall and saw an ugly Brown Snake (yep, that's what it's called) sunbathing on the rocky wall they are sitting on in the picture when we climbed down!

We all had fun skipping stones across the water, well-the boys' rocks didn't exactly 'skip'-but Matt got one to skip 10 times!

When we felt baked from standing in the hot Arkansas sun, we walked to the little Ridge Runner Cafe and ate lunch.

Matt rented a paddle boat and we saw tons of little, water-skipping minnows and even a water snake! Afterwards we drove to the bridge that Cephas wanted to go see, and we all discovered that if you are sitting in our car while it's running-with the doors locked-never unlock only your own door and shut it behind you. Our car locked us out!! A friendly park ranger broke into our (still running!) Jeep for us about 40 min. later. The boys were happy about the whole thing since they got to play on the playground while we waited for him to get there!

All in all, we had a blast, and it all worked out for good.

...mark it with a 'B' for baby and me!

Lemon Meringue pie~made exclusively with freshly ground, whole wheat flour. I am completely out of the 'store bought' stuff. :)

Attempting to do anything without endless interruption is usually fruitless, yet there are exceptions. This morning I was determined to get things done, and so I set the timer for 30 min. and told the boys when the time was up I would read them a book. It worked! Again, I set the timer and promised another story. Another time, 2 balloons blown up for them and decorated with stickers- even snack time was a good reward. As long as I gave them my undivided attention for a little bit every 30-45 minutes I had (almost!) undisturbed, peaceful time to work on the house all morning! As a result I found time to bake a yummy treat we've been craving since someone else on facebook made it :)

As you can see, I even took pictures!

I love this shot...

Malachi was my part-time happy helper (and snitch!) Ce was sleeping, though he would have loved to help, too!

My Sweet-n-Salty Boys

God is Good, All the Time! He put a song of praise in this heart of mine!...

I have had that song stuck in my head all afternoon, and my boys love it when I burst into a loud, peppy version of it-complete with a little jig. :) Cephas will laugh at the spontaneity of it and Malachi just smiles at me, both love seeing Mommy being goofy.

Being a mom to 2 crazy toddler boys is hectic. I think of how wonderful it would be if we lived by my family again, for my babies to know my family-their family. It makes me so sad some days, when Cephas asks to please, please go to Gram and Gramps, so he can "hug Gram, like 'dis'", and "pschew-pschew! Gramps". I tell him, I'm sorry, that we can't go today and he answers "long far 'way?" Yes, Ce...they're a long ways away. Even when I start sulking, though, God reminds me that He loves me and gives me little gifts~a tight hug from some short pudgy little arms wrapped around my back while I reorganize the books-always accompanied by a loud kiss, my garden plants poking their leafy heads through the dirt, a new litter of kittens in the barn, my little boy telling me "haha! me happy!" just because, and the constant reminder of God's love through my wonderful husband's love. God is Good :)

Cephas is out with Matt getting the truck's window replaced and Malachi is asleep...ah, peace! I spent the morning in my garden picking green beans and cucumbers, and then lying in the hammock with Malachi crawling in and out of it (I hung it low), but always across my head...why!? I'm still grinding the sand out of my teeth, and I'm sure I have footprints all over my forehead. Little goober does the same thing when Matt gets him in the morning and brings him in bed with us...always my head, too. No matter what tricks I pull to try to get him to crawl over Daddy's face-it's all to no avail. He loves his Mommy best of all. It's worth it-he gives the best hugs and kisses you'll ever get out of a 1 yr. old...even though I did want to sleep in.

I gave Ce a haircut a few days ago, the boy's hair is just SO thick! He must have inherited my Dad's hair. Well, you know-before he started losing it. (love you, Daddy!!) :)

Cephas teaches his little brother how to do everything he needs to know. The wisdom handed down from father to son and brother to brother-like how to drive a quad, which bugs are scary and when to fart when it would gross Mom out the most. My favorite thing he's teaching Malachi though, is how to sing. Watching them both march around the coffee table loudly singing their version of 'I'm in the Lord's Army' complete with little jabs to the air at the proper places-it's precious. I am blessed.

God is Good, All the Time.

It's turning into farm life!

It has been forever since I updated this blog! Lots of things have happened since my last post and we've had a few additions to our family as well! A stray cat showed up in our little barn a few months ago and adopted us as her new family. She and Idaho get along swimmingly and I often find them cuddled up together.

Kamiah has been lonely since we moved out here. She was used to being Matt's assistant builder, and even though she readily assumed her new job as "kitty-sitter" we still thought she needed a friend to romp around with and someone to keep her company at night. After combing the internet for a couple days we found a lab/pointer puppy who just seemed perfect. That Sunday afternoon we drove all the way to Oklahoma to pick her up, when we got her home she adjusted right away and she and Kamiah are fast friends.

Apricot (our new pup) was abandoned near a highway in a cardboard box as a pup and was found starving with her litter mates, but she is learning that we always come back. Food, on the other hand, is something else entirely-I hold out hope that one day she'll learn that we won't let her starve! I'm trying to figure out how to train her with out treats, because she completely loses her mind around them!

Last night I figured out we'll be having a few more furry friends running around the farm soon-a quick visit to the vet this morning proved my suspicions to be true-we'll have barn loads of kittens in a few weeks! Both Austria and Idaho are expecting. We are definitely going to have to look into getting them spayed again! Even so, we are looking forward to the kittens arrival with excitement and impatience :)

Matt's barn is up and we finished planting our garden at the perfect time-right before all this rain! I am SO excited!!! I love spring! I feel like Mr. Douglas off of "Green Acres" giving his speech about the little seeds :)

We have drawn up a design for a chicken coop and as soon as Matt gets a chance it will be going up, and as soon as that happens our order for chicks and guinea fowl is shipping out as well!

Being indoors drives me crazy so the boys and I spend as much time as possible outdoors, housework annoys me so much when the weather is beautiful! I keep wondering how I survived living in a subdivision for 3 years! :D My boys just crave being outside, and are usually little mud clumps by the end of the day, but I'll have to publish another post devoted to them ;)