The little things

How is it that whatever is in this cup can give me do much joy!

It really is the little things in life. What gives you joy?

Pop Tarts

I Woke up this morning feeling very rested!  Aside from the fact that Harry was up very early today to head to the track for a day of testing, so I thought I would try to make some home made Pop tarts for breakfast for Kendall.  I absolutely LOVE eating healthy and I have made it a life choice.  With that being said, there are definitely times I feel a bit guilty on the mom front not buying the "good" stuff (as Kendall describes it) for her to eat.  Like pop tarts, sugary cereal, donuts etc.  Yes, once in a GREAt while, like birthday, I will buy the occasional donut, but honestly I can't remember the last time I bought a package of pop tarts.  She used to love them.  See I have slowly weaned her off of that kind of food and she feels so much better and I know I'm teaching her good habits that can last a lifetime.  There are time she comes home from her Dads house and they don't eat like we do.  they still eat a lot of the processed food and she will say, "Wow, I feel horrible mom.  I know it was from all the junk I ate at Dads".  Now that doesn't stop her next time, I mean she is only 11 and after all when I was 11 I wouldn't even touched a lot of the things she eats with me now.  So I figure I'm still coming out ahead when it comes to her eating habits.  Heres the recipe:

Pop Tarts

1 Pie Crust Recipe ( I used 1 cup flour, 1 cup spelt flour, 2/3 Cup Butter, Water as needed to mix)

Jam or jelly of your preference (I used my own home made Jelly)

2T Powdered sugar

1t almond Milk

1/4 t Almond Flavoring (optional)

Candy sprinkles (optional)

This is so Easy!

First mix your crust ingredients together and roll to about 1/4 thick.  then cut rectangular shapes out(I used a plastic container for the shape and as my "cutter")

Next spread your jelly one one of your rectangles

Then top with another rectangle and press the edges together.

I used a fork to "Press" them together

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees or until brown.  These look good like this! but wait it gets better!

Mix together the sugar, milk and almond flavoring and brush onto of the cool pop tarts.  Then sprinkle with decorating sugar to give it the pop tart feel.

Don't they look good?!   Plus they were a big hit.  Not quite healthy but definitely healthier than the ones you buy in the store and they help me think I'm not depriving Kendall of anything.

I Did It!!

I made it!  I can't believe it but I rode the bike ride, the entire 15miles.  I was so excited. Actually we ended up finishing with the "faster" riders.  It was not a competition at all but the faster riders were encouraged to ride in the front.  We ended up being one of the first 25 to finish, and that was out of 500 riders!!  I was super excited about that....competition or not!

Me and Tammy before the ride started.

So after getting home around 2am!!  Ack!! I still was not able to sleep in so I was up and at it by 7:30.  I was ready to freeze my tomatoes.  My sister had told me the night before that I could freeze them instead of canning them so I thought I would try it this year.  You do everything the same except no processing! 

First boil the tomatoes about 3-5 minutes just until...

They start to look like this so that you can peel them easily.

Put them cold water and peel the skins off

Then cute in quarters and put into freezer bags.  There you go.  Fresh, frozen tomatoes to use this winter for Chili, Spaghetti, anything you can think of.

I had some extra ones so I decided to make a pot of homemade tomato soup. It was yummy!

I browned some onion and garlic together in some butter.

Then I added my tomatoes

Then I added some fresh basil.  I roughly chopped it because after it cooks for a while I put the whole thing in my Vitamix and blend it smooth.

I also added salt a whole lot of pepper and some italian seasoning. I then added about a 1/2 cup of Organic Cream to help thicken it up and bring out the richness.

Blended it all in the blender and It's ready to eat.  It was so good!!

Tomato Soup

7-8 Fresh tomatoes peeled, and quartered

1 med Onion

4 Cloves of Garlic (or 2T of the minced in the jar)

2T Butter

6 Leaves of Fresh Basil Roughly Chopped

1/2 Cup Organic Cream

Salt and Pepper to taste

Italian seasonings (optional)

Cook onion and garlic and butter first, then add tomatoes, basil and spices.  Cook on low heat for about an hour.  Add cream and put all into Blender or use an emersion blender in your pan.  Blend until desired consistency.  Serve with croutons or bread and garnish with fresh parsley.

Fall Adventure Day

I love fall.  I don't like pumpkin but in the spirit of early fall, which is what I am planning anyway, I made myself a pumpkin shake tonight.  But first, let me back up.  This morning I went to our local Farmers Market and it was Grand!!  

 Chesterton Farmers Market

The weather was beautiful and the Veggies are in full bloom just bursting with color and flavor just wishing someone would pick them.  Harry is at a race so my Saturday adventure started here.  

I got some tomatoes I am canning tomorrow

Some green beans for dinner one night

And a great new apron.  It has chickens and roosters on it!!  A big bonus....It's reversible!
I can't wait to wear it!!

I then went about 45 mins away to a town called New Carlisie and went to the Village Shoppes.  A great home decorating place.  I had a bunch of gift certificates to spend so I bought some fall stuff for the house...

While I was out a friend of mine called me to tell me about a night bike ride our town is sponsoring tonight, and asked if I wanted to go with her...What?? Really??  Of course!!!!  We just got our bikes a few weeks ago but I have been out on mine almost every day since we got them and I love it!  We needed to get lights for the bike and we were set!  Needless to say I am super excited but also super nervous!!  This will be the longest I have ridden, PLUS I forgot to mention, my friend, she;'s also my trainer so she is in GREAT shape and rides a lot!  She assures me we can go slow and stop any time.  It's a fun ride not competitive so we can go at our own pace, er I mean my pace!  

So after the  Village Shops, I went to where my sisters works about another half hour down the road and bought these cute items for my book shelves.

This is also a small home decorating shop and is filled with cute items.  She has a lot of her stuff there to, you can see her items on Etsy under Woodland Herb Garden.

I headed home and decided for dinner I would make myself a protein shake to get myself ready for the ride.  After a great fall shopping day what flavor should I have?  Well, Pumpkin of course!  It was great!

Super easy recipe, super yummy (and I don't like pumpkin!) and made my day complete!

Pumpkin Protein Shake

2 scoops Vanilla Protein Powder

2-3 T Pumpkin Puree

1 Cup Almond Milk

1 t Cinnamon

Put all in blender and add as much ice as you like and Viola! A great Pumpkin Shake.

I sprinkled a little more cinnamon on top to make it look pretty.

I am off!  Ready to ride under the stars....How cool is that?!?!

Freezing corn

Wow!  What a busy 2 weeks It has been!!  Between Kendalls birthday, Harrys birthday, getting 2 kids ready for back to college and 1 ready for back to school and 1 more ready to live on her own in her new apartment, it has been a whirlwind couple of weeks.  Whew!  I think it will start to slow down.....NOT!

However I did get a chance to try out a bunch of new recipes (which I will share in the next few days) and I got all of my corn put up for the winter.  I ended up having 27 bags of corn to freeze and take out in the cold winter months and enjoy.
Now I may do corn a little differently than others.  But, this is the way I find that works best for me and it tastes absolutely amazing in the middle of January!

Husk corn and put into boiling pot of water

"Cook" corn for only about 3 mins, then take out and immediately immerse into cold water to stop the cooking process.  

Then I use my electric knife to cut the corn from the cob.  (Now, my aunt will freeze some corn on the cob like this and instead of shaving the corn off of the cob she freezes the entire cob with corn and all.  Then she just takes it out in the winter and has fresh corn on the cob.)

I then measure 2 cups per freezer bag and try and get all the air I can out of it.  Then, Viola, I have fresh corn in the cold winter months.

Farm girl chapters

I

So I am thinking about joining the Mary Janes Farms Farm Girl Chapter.  its a group of women from your area who get together weekly, monthly whatever you decide and talk "farm girl".  You can earn bases, share ideas and recipes and just have a group o girls you can form relationships with.




It is like Girl Scouts for adults.  Sounds very interesting tome and actually very fun.  My sister and I were talking about it on the way to Iowa and we were actually talking of starting our own Chapter of the farm girls.  this way we can decide when we meet and etc.  But I am waiting on some more info first.  It sounds like such a great way to make new friends and friends who have the same interests as you in wanting to learn new thing about cooking, farming and crafts.  Here is the link if this is something you want to check out!
Farm Girl Chapters

Pickled Cukes

While in Iowa my aunt made her famous Pickled Cucumbers.  They were so good I thought I would share the recipe with you and tell you about the kick I added to it.

Pickled Cukes

1 Cup Water

1 Cup Vinegar

1 Cup Sugar

Boil top 3 ingredients together in pan on stove.  Meanwhile in large Mason Jar peel and slice 1-2 Cucumbers and 1 small onion.  Pour Boiling hot mixture over cucumbers in jar and add salt and lots of pepper.  Then for my own kick I added about a teaspoon of Crushed red pepper flakes.  It made them a good hot/sweet mixture and tasted so good.  You can serve these right away and reuse the liquid.  When you start getting low on cucumbers just slice another one and add to the liquid.  You might need to add some more salt and pepper but otherwise your good to go!

Iowa

Iowa was AMAZING!!!
It was so much fun to reminisce about times we used to spend there.  Family that would gather and just good times that seemed to never end.  I loved the fact that Kendall got to experience a lot of things I did when I would go there to visit my Grandpa.  We got to show her the Park that we would go to and play and have our family reunions.  She got to see the trails that we walked on with my Grandpa and we got to tell her lots of stories about past gatherings.

Showing Kendall al the trails through Oleson Park

Oleson Park in fort Dodge Iowa

My Aunts gorgeous kitchen.  it is so cute and farmhouse like.  I love it!

All of us after dinner the night we arrived.

Kendall and Aunt Nenie

I love this kid!

After going to Fort Dodge and visiting graves and going buy old houses and eating some food that can only be found there, we headed out to my favorite Aunts house in Lenox Iowa.  We spent time art their new home, visited places there that I had spent time at in my childhood and got to check out some new places also.

Me my sister and Aunt after dinner.

Iowa is beautiful even at night!

This is the new place we found.  The haunted Ax murder house!!

All in all the trip was great!  We got to remember times gone by and make some new memories, some I hope Kendall will share with her family someday.

S'mores Brownies

I'm back from a week traveling to Iowa.  It was a blast ...I will post pictures later but I had to share this FABULOUS brownie recipe with you.  Everyone (but Hillary) made it to dinner last night so I made a special treat for dessert from dinner.  It was rich, gooey, crunchy and best of all Chocolatey, and super easy!

S'mores Brownie

1 Pkg Brownie Mix 8x8 pan size ( I use Namaste Gluten Free mix.  Everyone in the family loves it better than the regular brownie mix now.  It's the only one I use!)

1/2 Bag of Miniature Marshmallows 

2 Hershey Candy Bars broken into pieces

1 Cup Miniature Graham Cracker Squares.

Mix brownie mix and bake according to directions Take out of oven and let cool for only 1-2 minutes while you put your oven to Broil.  Sprinkle marshmallows on top of brownie mix and then sprinkle Graham Crackers on top.  Put in Oven to "Broil" for 1-2 minutes (Depends on how dark you like your marshmallows) Take out of oven and sprinkle Hershey bars on top.  Delish!!  Caution... Wait for them to cool to cut.  They are Gooey!!