Read Aloud

My boys are teenagers. 14 (actually a few months from 15) and 16. Yet I do something with them that I have done since before they were born. I read aloud to them. Nolan has always adored books. Nathan does not like novels quite so much. It is difficult to find a book that they will both enjoy. Nathan has a fascination with time travel, so now that they are both teens, I have started reading The Time Traveler's Wife. There are still a few steamy sections that I modify (the joy of the read aloud) but all in all this is one of my favorite books. I'm looking forward to discussing it with the boys as we read through it.

We have been watching Heroes on Netflix for the last month or so. The boys are SO interested in the characters and what will happen next! It is so lovely to find something that we all enjoy and that gets my Nathan to TALK! Go with what they love, that's my mantra.

I'm hoping to get in a chapter of the book before the boys want to watch Heroes. Aren't we quite the exciting family? LOL.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Deadly. That's my opinion of this book. Well, if you love bread like I do, anyway. I bet I've eaten more bread in the last week than in the last month since I read this book. Do I recommend this book? Absolutely. If you want to make tasty, homemade, easy, daily bread, this is the book for you. If you want to stay slim and healthy, than I'd recommend you stay away from this book! When it comes to bread, I can't moderate. Thus, I'm taking it back to the library this week.

I did want to show you how it works. So here's Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day in pictures:

Here's the last of the mix. I mixed up the batter on Friday night. It rose on the counter for 2 hours then was transferred to the refrigerator. I made bread Friday, Saturday and today from this one mixing.

You do really need to have a few pieces of equipment. Those pieces being a pizza peel (shown with flour on top) and a bread stone in the oven.

Here's the bread sitting for 40 minutes out of the fridge on the pizza peel.

The bread goes into the oven (450 degrees) onto the stone with a pan of water above. About 10 minutes prior to being finished, I move the bread from the pizza stone to the rack above. Otherwise it isn't brown all over.

After 30 minutes, here's the finished product. I highly recommend farm fresh butter to complete the meal.

Putting Up

What a strange phrase that is. It is, however, one used to describe preparing your food for winter when there isn't any fresh garden from which to pick.

Above you can see what we've been doing today. Nolan and Mike went to the Tomato Barn (isn't that the best thing you ever heard of? A Tomato BARN?). They used all of our homegrown large tomatoes, the tomatoes from our CSA (3 pounds) and a large box of 'maters from the Tomato Barn to make a double batch of sauce. Yum! After dinner (which was cooked on our new charcoal grill) I threw on the mass of bell peppers from the CSA. They are lovely and roasted to perfection. My good friend Connie recommended grilling them whole and throwing them in a freezer bag as is. After defrosting, peel and seed before using. What a GREAT idea! Thanks, Connie! This was the easiest ever. Since we already had the grill going, it was a cinch to add the peppers when the food was finished. 


Finally, I mixed up a batch of bread dough from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Of course, this is a library book. According to this book, you can mix up a pot of bread dough in minutes, let it sit on the counter for 2 hours, put it in the fridge and cut a loaf's  worth everyday for fresh bread. Each day the bit you cut off needs to sit on the counter for 20 minutes and then bake for another 20. Wow. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out. It is sitting on my counter at the moment.


Just when I think I can't be a stay at home mom and work full time I have days that so many things get accomplished. Did I mention I cut both my boys hair tonight, too? That's at least a $40 savings. I'm glad we brought those boys up right. They sure do make life easy now that they are teens. 


I'm off for an ice cream run. We're eating healthy but it is summer.....gotta have some 'cream. Have a wonderful weekend. I may hit the sewing room when I get back from the store.

From the Library

I don't know how I would get through life without our library. I have checked out so many delicious books over the year that I never would have had the chance to read otherwise. To be honest, I don't keep too many books at home because I can always get almost anything I want to read at the library. Here are some of my current reads:

 Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a fabulous book by Barbara Kingsolver. Mike and I are really trying to eat locally and naturally as much as we can. This book describes the year that Barbara's family spent eating only locally grown (and mostly home grown) foods. It is also a fantastic wealth of information about America's food industry and seasonal eating. I highly recommend it.

Food, Not Lawns, is a book I've had on hold for a while but only checked out this week. As we are moving to eliminate the grass on our property and turn it into a garden, I was interested in this book. I believe (after only reading a chapter or two) that the premise is to bring community through sharing of locally grown, organic vegetables in your neighborhood.

The Backyard Homesteader is an excellent reference book for anyone looking to add gardens or livestock to their backyard. I don't know that we have enough space for chickens (but I'm thinking on it) but we will use this book when thinking about our rain barrels, compost and garden. A great reference.


I've a few more that are related to food but I think I'll save those for another day. I'm off to sit in a comfy chair and read through some more books. Again I say....what would I do without the library???

Rainbow Scrappy Quilt

I finished my latest quilt. This one was from my very fist quilting book. The book is Quick Quilts to Make in a Weekend by Rosemary Wilkinson. I bought the book so many years ago because it had a log cabin quilt pattern. I've made several quilts from the book but don't think the log cabin was one of them! It is a really informative quilting book with quite a few interesting quilts. When I first got into quilting it wasn't quite as "in style" as it is now and there weren't as many really cool books out there showcasing fabulous fabrics. I'm amazed at the number of sewing and quilting books that are being published right now. I have to really watch out or I start to want to buy them all. What I actually do is go to the bookstore and pull out all the books I think I'd like to buy, look through them and generally I'm satisfied.


Right now I'm itching to look through the book
Block Party--The Modern Quilting Bee: The Journey of 12 Women, 1 Blog & 12 improvisational projects. I used to read the blog as they were making the blocks for each other. Since each of the quilt block makers is a really talented sewer, crafter, quilter, it must have been amazing to be a part of that quilting bee. Last time I was at Borders they didn't have the book but I'm sure they will at some point over the summer. So many quilty ideas.

The above quilt is small sized like most of my quilts. It was made from my stash and backed with that awesome fabric I bought at Lancaster Creative Reuse. I'm always amazed at how little fabric is often used to make a quilt like the one above. It was just a small piece of each fabric but when brought together it makes such a delightful quilt. This will either go down to Building Character or in my etsy shop. Just in case you're interested!

Highly recommended.

"Fiver?" said the other rabbit. "Why's he called that?"
"Five in the litter, you know:  he was the last--and the smallest.  You'd wonder nothing had got him by now. I always say a man couldn't see him and a fox wouldn't want him. Still, I admit he seems to be able to keep out of harm's way." 


From Watership Down by Richard Adams. Our summer read aloud. Often read in the presence of a few rabbits in silflay on the lawn. Read it.

On the Bookshelf

 This is my current read, The Omnivore's Dilemma. I'm almost finished. I'm generally a very fast reader but working full time has really put a cramp in my summer ready style. No more sitting under the tree at the public pool with a book for me. I have been reading it slowly over the last month or so. This book has definitely made a huge impact on the way I think about the food I eat. I highly recommend it. I'm thinking of having Nolan read the version that was written for a younger audience. It has pictures, too!


I just found this one at the library. It's called Slow Food the Case for Taste. Mike and I have really been enjoying our culinary experiences with fresh, local food. We're sort of fighting over who gets to cook! I haven't delved into this book yet and it may have to be renewed a few times before I get to it but it looks to be a good read.


And last, but certainly not least, I just got my library order which is called Home Dairy. It's all about how to make your own dairy products. We love cheese so I think the kids could get into making their own. Mostly I'd like to make my own yogurt. It's fairly easy. I was up at 2 a.m. last night so I started perusing the book. There's a little history and some basic facts at the beginning before she starts delving into the how to sections. We'll see how it goes. If I get into it this summer I'll certainly blog about it. There are so many things I want to do and so little extra time. I'm really working on figuring out how to balance my time at home. I can get myself so obsessed with one type of project (sewing, quilting for instance) that I ignore all else. I walked out into the garden today and saw that weeding is really in order. My tomatoes are growing which makes me very, very happy. So it's all about balance. I guess, like everything else, it's also a journey that we take. I'm taking it one step at a time.

the Weekend never felt so Good

There's nothing like working full time to help you appreciate the weekend. I have a nice long weekend coming up. As far as I know, there is nothing planned. In fact, two of Mike's gigs have been canceled. I'm kind of glad. It lets us just be at home and be together.


We've got a few new things on the horizon. 


We joined a CSA. 

We're looking into buying only grass fed beef.


I want to make my own shampoo.


Yes, you heard me, my own shampoo. Last year at the library book sale I bought a book called Homemade. If you read my blog or know me, you know that I make my own laundry detergent. I love it. It is so quick and easy and cheap. Wait, I think the proper term is inexpensive. (Exact WORDS, Greg.) Anyhoo.....in this fantastic book that I bought for $1 is a recipe for homemade shampoo among other things. Actually, there are several recipes for shampoo. The first is my husband's favorite: Beer shampoo. There's Dandruff treatment, Sun-Streaking Rinse, Chamomile Shampoo, Thick Hair conditioner for everyone (unless you have thin hair like me...) Salad Dressing conditioner, Shampoo residue Remover for Blonde hair (I'm a brunette) and Instant Dry Shampoo (it's just cornstarch). I love it. I think I'll try either the Beer shampoo or Chamomile. There may be a post in the making.


Lastly, I recently bought a bit more leather to make some pouches. The leather was cheap, only $1 a piece. When I went to buy the hardware (magnetic snaps, d-rings and clips) I couldn't believe the prices! Wow. $5 for one snap. No way. I'm re-designing my bags. I hope to have some time to work on them this weekend. I have three and a half days off. 


Ok...remember when I said lastly? I lied, apparently. I'm also reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. VERY INTERESTING. There are some really evil companies and politicians out there. I guess I'm really not surprised. I just want to try to put the best food into my pie hole.