My Christmas List :)

So it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around my parts. I know it's barely November, but I suppose people really get in the spirit around here. It is a great time for my family also. We have lots of great fellowship, great food and fun. I'm also taking off quite a bit of time around the holidays so that will be nice too. My husband always asks what I want for Christmas, but typically we don't really get each other that much. It's totally fine, as if there is something I need I will just buy it. Same with him. We don't need a lot of bells and whistles. But I have ran across a few things that are kind of neat and thought I would share.

The first is a Solar Jar, you leave it outside all day, then bring it inside at night for a lamp! Looks so much fun and I bet the girls would enjoy.

This particular one I found on Amazon and is about $20. Very cute!

There are also a few books I would like. I've checked them out from the Library, but you know you have to give those back, so I would like my own copy.

I make the majority of my bread and dough in the breadmaker right now ( except for things like biscuits and muffins) but I would really like this book. You can find this on Amazon and Ebay normally used for fairly cheap.
Anything that you just are pining away for the holidays?

No TV Week

Well, no TV week has came to a close. It was wonderful I must say.
I would really like to see NO TV ever, in our household, but my husband isn't as on board as I am.
We only have one TV, and it's in our living room, so we always know what the girls are watching. I normally only allow them to watch TV after it's dark outside, kind of a way to wind down before bed. Now that it's beginning to get darker earlier, and also because it was pouring down rain ( THANK YOU) for two days last week, we were indoors more than often.

The no TV week, went incredibly well. It was so nice. The girls would help me make supper, and they helped me bake bread, brownies and such. They played with their blocks a lot, and we read a lot of books. While they were in the living room playing with their blocks, my husband and I were either reading our own book in there watching them, or we were playing right along beside them. I really enjoyed this week, and I think we will do it more often. I'm hoping to wean my husband off it , until we have no TV months, then no TV year, then just get rid of it all together. We live in a rural area where we lose power a lot anyways when it's storming, so we already have batter operated storm radios, which is really the only reason I would want a TV anyhow.

So, I encourage everyone to host their own NO TV WEEK, and let me know how it goes.

Frugal Suppers

I want to post some of my recipes, but for now I'll just do a quick list of some typical suppers we have around my house. We don't eat " commercial" meat, only fish and deer meat that we process ourselves, so you will see many veggie entrees, which is great for your body and your budget!

- Deer chili ( made with ground deer meat, canned tomatoes from the garden, beans and spices)
- Stif fry- Kids and hubby love this! Rice, soy sauce, and whatever veggies we have laying around, cooked in a big skillet.
- Breakfast burritos - scrambled eggs ( from our chickens), homeade salsa, tortillas, cheese, and peppers. The girls skip the peppers, but my husband and I love it.
-Grilled veggie sandwhiches on homeade bread. Made like a grilled cheese, except I add fresh veggies like mushrooms, sprouts, eggplant etc to it. We like it with swiss cheese, or mozzerella.
-Pasta with fresh veggies, and Pesto, PESTO is delicious. I'll post my recipe here in a sec. My 4 year old eats this like it's going out of style.
- Pasta with tomato based sauce, I make this with and without deer meat. I canned a lot of tomatoes back in July and these come in so handy for lots of things.
- Homeade pizza, made with whatever cheeses, veggies etc. we have around.

That is a list of our favorite dinners. There are lots of cheap ingredients in these, and they are easy. I cook a little more complex things ( like Spinach, artichoke lasagna, YUM!!) on the weekends and freeze them sometimes, but above kind of is an idea of a typical week. Beans, grains and ingredients for bread is relatively cheap. The veggies are mostly homegrown, home canned, or bought locally in season, so they aren't too expensive either. Probably the most expensive item we use is cheese, which can be purchased many times on sale and frozen.

Basil Recipe:

4 cups fresh basil leaves

1-2 cloves garlic

1/2 c. parmasan cheese ( grated, not the powdered kind)

Walnuts or Pecans ( pine nuts are traditional, but since we have pecan trees I typically use pecans)

Put everything above into a food processor or blender and then add olive oil until it is the consistency you would like. If I have a lemon, I squeeze one lemon into it, if not, it's okay without it.
This can be put into ziploc baggies and frozen flat, or can be stored in a Jar or airtight container for several days in the fridge.

Great on pastas, pizzas, veggies, sandwhich spread and more.

Sunflowers and Bread

Well these two things don't actually go together ( at least in the context of this post) but I haven't written in a while so I thought I would update on both.

Sunflowers: A few weeks ago , I took the girls to a magnificent sunflower field by our house. It was planted for the birds, Dove especially, and I must say, it was gorgeous.

Bread: I have been trying to make bread every chance I get. My entire family loves the carbohydrate goodness and instead of buying the stuff from the store I've been making it. I got a bread maker last Christmas and although I've used it since then , I really have broken it out this last month. Today I made garlic herb bread and jalepeno cheddar bread. We ate about half of the garlic herb bread for lunch, and will probably finish it off for dinner.
The jalepeno cheddar bread will be relished all week as part of my husband's, and myself's lunch.

Muscadine Jelly

So I tarried through the heat and we picked about 3-4 gallons of muscadines. It was hot, but it was late in the evening so we at least didn't have the direct sunlight. The girls helped me make some jelly ( well they ate muscadines and watched) and at the end of the evening we had 6 pints of muscadine jelly. I had a little left over so I made biscuits and we ate it right then. Here are pictures of 5 of them. Such a pretty color I think.

So......... For my August Quest my goal was to make 20 pints of goodies for the winter. My tally is:

Blackberry jam: 3.5 pints
Muscadine jelly: 6 pints
so I still need to preserve more 1o.5 pints before months end..... wish me luck!

HOT!

I've lived in Arkansas all my life, and I'm sure it's been this hot before, but I honestly do not remember it ever being so hot!

I haven't done too much cooking the last few days simply because it is so unbearably hot. I have been making cold sandwiches, salads and things like that.

Unfortunately I haven't fulfiilled anymore towards my goal for August but I am still optimistic. I would like to make some jalepeno bread and freeze that, it will be great this winter with soups and stews.

We are just getting muscadines that are ready to come off also, and a big portion of my August quest may very well be muscadine jelly. It's delicious.

One of our hens just hatched out 5 new baby chicks. The girls are thrilled and they are so cute. Right now there are 3 black ones, a bright yellow one and a very pretty red colored one.
I'll keep you updated, and one day I will learn how to easily add pictures.....

Update on my August Quest

Well I have been busy and have even been out of town for a few days this month, but today when I got home from work the girls and I started on my August Quest.

A few months back we picked some blackberries but I got busy and just froze them instead. So today, we got out the blackberries and made 3 and a half pints of blackberry jam. It's actually pretty delicious. So...... I have 3 and half pints canned for my August Quest. I'm not sure what I'll do next. I do have pictures of my blackberry jam, I'll have to post it later as it is getting late, and I need to get the kiddos to bed.