Not fast enough

May 10, 2012

I don't know if I'm just so eager to be eating some fresh homegrown veggies or things are just off to a slow start around here.  I had some problems earlier this spring germinating some banana pepper seeds and my squash were slow to germinate as well.  I gave up on the banana pepper seeds and decided to buy some small pepper plants already growing.

  The squash finally were big enough to stick in the ground and have given me a few pickings, and now they are dying out on me!!!!! the squash or rotting before they are ready. 
I think i will be sticking more seeds in the ground.

My green beans, pictured here are doing fine.  I have pole butter beans, as well as purple hull peas and Mississippi silver skin peas also.  I started to see a few rust spots on the leaves of the peas and sprayed them with Maneb fungicide before that got out of control. 

Pictured above is my raised bed which has a few tomato plants, bell peppers, lettuce that's finishing up and my slow growing cucumbers.  Right smack in the middle of that bed some volunteer zinnias and a huge sunflower popped up which was a nice surprise.  It will add color and food for the birds and the bees. 
Last spring i planted fennel after reading it was a good companion plant.  I read somewhere on the Internet that it could be planted with tomato plants and peppers to deter insects.  Well .....in the bed i had these companion plants planted together, i started having trouble with my peppers and they did not produce much at all, the tomato plants did so so....Not sure if it was the fennel or not. Well that fennel went to seed after the summer came to an end, and it reseeds itself well, it grew all winter here, and now i have fennel everywhere.  Had no clue it would become invasive.....i have little baby fennel plants everywhere.

When it flowers in spring it's so pretty, bright yellow flowers before seeds set in.

Here are some i picked in April, still experimenting with it in my cooking.  It has a strong licorice taste that gets milder when cooked for awhile, in my opinion. 

You cut the tops off and slice the bulb parts to cook.  The feathery tops can be used in salads or with fish and chicken, i haven't tryed that yet.  Have you ever grew fennel before???? If so, let me know how you use it in your recipes.

I grew carrots for the fist time this winter.  Wow!!!!! we never imagined them to taste so good,  compared to the store bought ones that have no taste at all.  These were really sweet.  I bet a good beef roast pared with the quartered fennel bulbs and those sweet carrots would roast well together in a dutch oven. Yummmmmmmmm......................

What about that swiss chard?????? I have planted a few plants in the fall......and they are still going strong through April.  These few plants gave, and gave, and gave......you really get alot for your money with these plants.

I was able to put alot of this up in the freezer, by cutting it into small pieces, blanching it and putting it up in my Food Saver bags.

Still discovering ways to use this nutritious vegetable in our meals.  Came across a Swiss Chard Au Gratin recipe and tryed it..... It was really good, well it had lots of cheeses and half and half cream in it.  Cheese makes everything taste good..... I will have to share that recipe with you later.

Well.......that's what's growing here.  Looked out in the garden this morning and noticed a few of my cherry tomato plants look sick.   Ohhhhhh poooooh!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I don't know whats going on this year..........guess i need to play detective and figure out whats going on in my soil........
I remain.....anxiously awaiting the taste of a vine ripe tomato and fresh sliced cucumber.....

Hope your garden is coming along fine...............

Join me and hop on over to Heidi's Country Homemaker Hop #19 lots of interesting stories over at Heidi's place.

                            LIVE SIMPLE............................Sheryl

mason jar cakes

April 18,2012

My baby turned 15 years old last month........She's my only one still in the nest, and I'm blessed, she's such a sweetheart.

She had a few friends come over and spend the night and we prepared hot wings and loaded potato salad for them.  After getting a full stomach, i took them to do what teenage girls love to do most...............SHOPPING.  They had a good time and found a few good bargains.

I wanted to share with you her birthday cakes............Yes......you read it correctly.......Cakes......more than one.  Mini cakes in a mason jar.  I have seen these all over the internet and have wanted to try it for some time.

We chose German Chocolate ......you know.....a girls favorite flavor.....

One box should fill 10-12 half pint jars.  I only had 7 clean and available so i poured the rest of the batter in muffin tins to finish up the batch.

Just mix the cake mix according to package directions and grease and flour jars.  I just sprayed mine with an oil spray and didn't flour mine and they came out fine. 

 Fill the jars half full with the batter, wipe clean any drippings from the sides of your jars.  Place a pan of hot water on lowest rack of your oven, and put jars on a flat pan and bake them for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Oven temp according to cake mix at 350 degrees.

When you take them out of the oven they may look lop-sided, but don't worry they tend to settle when cooled. But if it doesn't settle even, your frosting will cover it up.

I used a cool whip butter cream frosting recipe that's light and creamy, and to die for, it's one of my favorite frosting.

Here's the frosting recipe i used:

2 sticks of butter
1lb powdered sugar
1tsp vanilla
1 sm tub cool whip

cream butter add sugar & vanilla, fold in cool whip. Refrigerate until ready to spread on cakes.

This recipe makes alot, probably enough to frost a whole cake.  Since you are just topping these you can cut this in half or store the remaining in the fridge and use it in a few days on something else.

The jar lids fit on mine perfect without touching the frosting, so you can make these ahead of time and keep them in fridge until ready to eat.  They were good chilled on a hot day.

My daughter and her friends ejoyed there little personal cakes and i enjoyed adding a lil something special to her birthday dinner.

Give it a try.................


I'm linking up to my simple country living for Heidi's Country Homemaker Hop
Please join me to see what other like minded women are doing across the country.


                                 Live simple..............Sheryl

Growing babies.......

April 17, 2012

Wow!!! how time is just flying by, i can't believe we are in the middle of April already, and it has been over a month since i have been on here to blog and catch up with all the homesteading happenings from my fellow bloggers.  I miss reading of all of your happenings and inspirations, but sometimes LIFE just demands things from us, and I choose to blog when i have the time and to make sure the family needs are taken care of.

The babies are growing fast:

Rosie, Jolie & Pepe

Jessie 13 months old (grandbaby)

Oreo & Maggie

merrybelle & Jezebel

We had another calf born yesterday morning to our black cross bred cow we raised and bottle fed.  We assumed she was pregnant and due to deliver around the same time as Merry Belle, back in February, but for some reason she fell behind.  Her traits are not that desirable, so needless to say, she will be the first to be culled from the heard.  We are pretty sure she gave us yet another heifer to add to our growing heard.  

Peanut & first baby calf

It has been fun watching these babies grow.  We feel blessed to be on this journey of becoming self-sufficient and striving to grow as much of our own food as we can.  It's not something we plan on accomplishing overnight, but we keep striving to make changes to assure our diet is as healthy as possible.

The past few weeks we have been working on getting the garden planted, and things are off to a good start, pictures and more blogging on that later.  I just wanted to give you a quick peek at the growing babies.  Hope you are having a wonderful spring on your homestead.

                                  Live simple...................Sheryl

They have names

March 6,2012

Well.....we finally came up with names for our new additions to the farm.
If you haven't been following along with us, Our Rosie the Katahdin sheep had twins a week from this past Saturday.  Then to our surprise, our two year old cow had a calf born the following day,  so the hill has been busy.

This picture was taken that afternoon, poor momma.......she looks exhausted.

Aren't they the cutest thing you have ever seen.   The little girl is the one laying down, her name is Jolie' and the little guy is Pepe', french pronunciation of course.  Pepe' is named after the little Looney Tunes character Pepe' Lepew.


Lepew was a romeo always looking for Love.  I had picked Valentine and Romeo for them before they were born, knowing they would be born in February, the month of Love.  But after having my family here to spend the weekend and the lambs were born while they were here, they all wanted them to have french names.  So this is what we came up with.  Thank you cousin Mary, we took your suggestion for little Jolie'.

The following day our Merry Belle gave birth to a heifer calf.

When this little girl was born she came out full of energy, within the hour she was running around and would not keep still for her mom to finish cleaning her up.  We have not seen a baby calf so active as she was, it was a sight to see.  It was funny to see Mary Belle bellowing out like she was fussing at her calf to calm down.  This went on for 24 hours, the next two days this baby layed around and slept, she was plum exhausted. 

So for this wicked, crazy like, spirted heifer, we named her Jezebel.

She is a high spirited little thing, she is curious and shows no fear to anything.  I'm enjoying looking out my kitchen window to see her and the lambs get acquainted.  Yesterday late afternoon i spotted Jezebel running around and around the field while the other mommas were grazing, and the lambs were just looking at her like what has gotten into her???? all of a sudden the lambs started trotting and leaping and trying to keep up with Jezebel.  It was a sight, by the time i got my camera and got out the door they were already worn out and was laying in the clover. 

Don't you just LOVE spring time, a time of new beginnings.......from new births on the farm to the new sprouts bringing forth beauty to the season.  Most importantly the new beginnings each and every one of us has a opportunity to choose.  I thank the Lord for all these gifts.

                                                                        Live Simple........................Sheryl

Making use of........

March 4,2012

The hog my husband and family roasted for my birthday was absolutely tasty.  After giving everyone a little to take home, we still had some to eat on for the week.  I have made bar-b-que sandwiches and took some of the meat and combined it with some fresh turnips and made the best turnip and pork stew.  It had a little touch of a smokey flavor that was out of this world.  I will share with you my steps at the end of this post.  Another thing i did, was after deboning all the meat, i put the bones in a pot of water to make stock.  I thought.......why waste this wonderful flavor...... make use of these bones...so that i did...

I let this simmer on the stove for an hour or so and enjoyed the aroma, as i relived that day this pig roasted on a fire while family and friends gathered.

After it cooled i was able to skim the grease off the top before putting in the freezer.  It will be a wonderful stock to use in a gumbo or soups and beans. 


Last year our turnips did not do well, so we were pleased to have  a successful bunch growing this year. 

The basis of a good stew is the roux.  I usually brown the meat first then remove it from the pot, then make the roux in the same pot.  But since this pork was already cooked, i made my roux first.  I browned about a cup of flour in a cup of oil until it turned the color of a penny.  Thats the advise i got from my grandmother when i was learning how to cook.  In her 90 years of living she's cooked many a roux in her days.  Bless her heart........she is no longer cooking for herself anymore, as she shared her story with me on my birthday, that she now recieves meals on wheels to deliver her meals.  She adds to that by saying "although I'm thankful for such a service as this... their cooking just doesn't have any flavor like my cooking". She has taught all of us well.  Love you maw maw.......

We like alot of seasoning in our cooking, so i use alot of onion, celery, garlic and bell pepper.

 

                                                                                                                   

After making the roux, i add my seasonings in and wilt them down, adding a little water if needed to prevent any scortching.

After my seasonings have cooked down i add the peeled and cubed up turnips.  Stir them around a few minutes then add some stock.   Since i had that wonderful stock made from the bones, i used it.  I let this cook down until the turnips start to get soft, then i added the pork that was pre-cooked from the pig roast.

Let this simmer until it thickens and the turnips are tender, allowing all these flavors to blend together.  You can add a little parsley and or green onions towards the end.

You can make this turnip and pork stew using other cuts of pork such as boston butt, cut up into pieces, or pork country ribs, which is our favorite.  I just wanted to make use of some of this roasted pork.  It turned out really good, sorry i didn't get a picture of it served up over rice. 

Im linking up to the following blog hops:

The Ole'Saturday Homesteading

Made from Scratch

Country homemaker hop

Thanks for stopping by........

                                                                Live simple.....Sheryl

lil Birthday girl

March 2, 2012

Last Friday my precious grand baby turn 1 year old already,  my.......has she grown.  Friends and family came out on a stormy Saturday afternoon to celebrate with Jessie and her parents.

  
Here mommy baked a personal b-day cake just for her, it was a banana cake with cool whip, cream cheese icing.  This child loves bananas......

She had been practicing blowing out her candle prior to her birthday and was pretty good at it.  When the cake was placed in front of her she was mesmerized by the lit candle.  She would not attempt to blow it out, lil stinker..........

But...She did enjoy her cake.

Maybe daddy would like a taste

She enjoyed her day, and had a blast opening her gifts.

Time goes by so fast, sometimes we have to make a point to slow down and enjoy the everyday moments in our lives.  I'm blessed to be able to live each and everyday making memories with my children and grand daughter. 

You can see pictures of Jessie as she's growing by clicking on the tab at the top of the page.  I have some new pictures to post there.  I've gotten behind on that, been busy taking pictures and not posting them.

                                                                       Live simple................Sheryl 

Couchon De Lait

March 1, 2012

This past Saturday my family surprised me with a 50th birthday party.  It was a wonderful Birthday!!!!!!  Family and friends came to celebrate with me and enjoy a couchon de lait, (roasted pig on a pit fire). 

My daughter crowned me queen of the day..........

The hog was provided by my sister and her husband.  They raise Catahoula dogs and compete in hog bays. The dogs are trained to pen a wild hog.  So this was no domesticated hog...............It was a wild hog that weighed in close to 300lbs.  Thank you Donna and Jim for that.

There was plenty of meat to feed an army. And my husband did an awesome job, it was so tender and juicy.  Not bad for his first pig roast on a pit fire!!!!!  He's the bomb. 

It meant the world to me to have my 90 year old grandmother with me to celebrate my 50th.  She made the two hour trip with my dad and enjoyed the visit with her family.

She stole my crown from me......lol.!!!!! That's ok.......She is our QUEEN

I sure hope i can live a long and happy life like she has...Love you maw maw.

These cute little piggy cupcakes were made by my oldest daughter and the kids.

         My dad, mom, grandmother and my siblings.

My youngest daughter and her boyfriend

My oldest daughter and her husband Brandon

My husband got me a new lap top computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now i can blog from anywhere.  I was tied to my desk top in the office for so long.  I'm excited about having this handy devise sitting in the area of my home where i spend most of my time, the KITCHEN.....Thank you Baby!!!!!  I love you so much.........

Another gift i got, was something i have been wishing for......................

Can't wait to try out my new Kitchen Aid mixer, thank you my sweet Lindsey. Thank you to all who came out and celebrated my birthday with me.  We had a blast, the food was excellent, and thank you to all the cooks that prepared all the wonderful dishes

A Special Thanks goes to my loving husband and daughters, who kept this surprise from me and pulled it off with much success.  Thank you all for a wonderful gift, making memories.

                                                                      

                                                          Live Simple......................Sheryl