Just the words Hearth and Home bring up visions of crackling fires, homey smells of baking bread, and peace and love. I was browsing about the net for things on Hearth and Home and came across this site on old fashioned cookery. There are some yummy recipes I am bound to try. Enjoy!
http://cookbook.vcdesignconcept.com/
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Real American Cooking
I get so tired of people (mostly from other countries) putting American food down. They really seem to think all we eat is pizza and hamburgers! On the other hand I can understand why many people think that. Much of our food heritage has been lost, not from some crises, but from the simple fact of women going to work. Women are the ones who keep family traditions and recipes alive. But for the past 3 generations almost all American women have had to work just make ends meet, and when they get home fast food or convenience food is all they can do. I hear many women bragging, that's right bragging! That they cant cook! I just don't understand that!
If you want to experience real American food you have to be asked to a really good country cooks house. That is really the only place good ol' American cooking can be found anymore on a regular basis.
Yesterday I was feeling in need of some comfort and I wanted to use up some more rhubarb. As I have never had rhubarb pie I decided to make a strawberry rhubarb and a plain rhubarb just to see the difference
Both were very good. Rhubarb has an interesting taste that's for sure. I liked it though, and so did everyone else. The recipe for the crust is from my favorite pie cookbook "Farm Journals Pie Cookbook". And the pies were from my Old Fashioned Baking cookbook.
OK I love roasting chickens. They are the ultimate comfort food for me, and today I will be making chicken pot pie with the left over meat, and tomorrow chicken soup with the racks of chicken. The chickens were on sale so I get three meals for 6 people for less than $10.00. To go with dinner I made homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and then we had fruit.
I also made more Strawberry Rhubarb Jam. Look at the color! It is a lovely bright clear strawberry shade.
If you want to experience real American food you have to be asked to a really good country cooks house. That is really the only place good ol' American cooking can be found anymore on a regular basis.
Yesterday I was feeling in need of some comfort and I wanted to use up some more rhubarb. As I have never had rhubarb pie I decided to make a strawberry rhubarb and a plain rhubarb just to see the difference
Both were very good. Rhubarb has an interesting taste that's for sure. I liked it though, and so did everyone else. The recipe for the crust is from my favorite pie cookbook "Farm Journals Pie Cookbook". And the pies were from my Old Fashioned Baking cookbook.
Spring flowers from our garden
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Are you ready for a Zombie Apocalypse? If not the CDC has a handy guide for you to follow!
This one got me laughing! Who says people in government have no sense of humor?
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/18/cdc-warns-public-prepare-zombie-apocalypse/?test=latestnews
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/18/cdc-warns-public-prepare-zombie-apocalypse/?test=latestnews
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Quote of the Day
"To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it."
- Thomas Jefferson, from a letter to Joseph Milligan, 1816
- Thomas Jefferson, from a letter to Joseph Milligan, 1816
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Quote of The Day- a really good one!
This is a really good quote. Watching our culture I am constantly amazed by the rabid degeneration into hedonism that is not just done in the shadows, but embraced and celebrated. Look at popular TV shows and you see this attitude. This is what people want. Interesting food for thought on where we are at in the collapse.
“Civilizations rise, decay and die. Time, as the ancient Greeks argued, for individuals and for states is cyclical. As societies become more complex they become inevitably more precarious. They become increasingly vulnerable. And as they begin to break down there is a strange retreat by a terrified and confused population from reality, an inability to acknowledge the self-evident fragility and impending collapse. The elites at the end speak in phrases and jargon that do not correlate to reality. They retreat into isolated compounds, whether at the court at Versailles, the Forbidden City or modern palatial estates. The elites indulge in unchecked hedonism, the accumulation of vaster wealth and extravagant consumption. They are deaf to the suffering of the masses who are repressed with greater and greater ferocity. Resources are more ruthlessly depleted until they are exhausted. And then the hollowed-out edifice collapses. The Roman and Sumerian empires fell this way... Civilizations in the last moments embrace a total severance from reality, a reality that becomes too bleak to be absorbed. This time when we go down it will be global. There are no new lands to pillage, no new peoples to exploit. Technology, which has obliterated the constraints of time and space, has turned our global village into a global death trap.” - Chris Hedges
“Civilizations rise, decay and die. Time, as the ancient Greeks argued, for individuals and for states is cyclical. As societies become more complex they become inevitably more precarious. They become increasingly vulnerable. And as they begin to break down there is a strange retreat by a terrified and confused population from reality, an inability to acknowledge the self-evident fragility and impending collapse. The elites at the end speak in phrases and jargon that do not correlate to reality. They retreat into isolated compounds, whether at the court at Versailles, the Forbidden City or modern palatial estates. The elites indulge in unchecked hedonism, the accumulation of vaster wealth and extravagant consumption. They are deaf to the suffering of the masses who are repressed with greater and greater ferocity. Resources are more ruthlessly depleted until they are exhausted. And then the hollowed-out edifice collapses. The Roman and Sumerian empires fell this way... Civilizations in the last moments embrace a total severance from reality, a reality that becomes too bleak to be absorbed. This time when we go down it will be global. There are no new lands to pillage, no new peoples to exploit. Technology, which has obliterated the constraints of time and space, has turned our global village into a global death trap.” - Chris Hedges
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Quote Of The Day
"We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. - Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them."
- John Dickenson and Thomas Jefferson, Continental Congress, July 6, 1775, Declaration of Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms
- John Dickenson and Thomas Jefferson, Continental Congress, July 6, 1775, Declaration of Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms
Calling All Home Canners... We Ride!
It has officially begun! Canning season is here at last! Now begins the exciting time when I begin canning and preserving the foods that will last us from this spring to next spring. My canning goals are very extensive this year to not only include all our fruit, jams, jellies, pickles, and condiments. But this year I am also pushing to can all our vegetables, soups, and salsas.
My first endeavor of the year?
Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
I have actually never have had rhubarb before last year when we moved here. Our rhubarb plant is amazing and huge. People comment on it all the time. So this year I have made a resolution to not only can up lots of rhubarb strawberry jam, but also just plain rhubarb in a heavy syrup for baking with all year long. We have several recipes that we have tried that are very good.
The jam was amazing, but really you can't taste the rhubarb. It just tastes like strawberry jam to me. The recipe comes from my ever trusty Ball Blue Book of Canning.
My first endeavor of the year?
Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
I have actually never have had rhubarb before last year when we moved here. Our rhubarb plant is amazing and huge. People comment on it all the time. So this year I have made a resolution to not only can up lots of rhubarb strawberry jam, but also just plain rhubarb in a heavy syrup for baking with all year long. We have several recipes that we have tried that are very good.
The jam was amazing, but really you can't taste the rhubarb. It just tastes like strawberry jam to me. The recipe comes from my ever trusty Ball Blue Book of Canning.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Quote of the Day
"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual
who can labor in freedom."
Albert Einstein
who can labor in freedom."
Albert Einstein
Things Are Blooming
Now that we have had a couple of days of almost 50 degree weather things are starting to bloom. Last year at this time my lilacs were in full blossom and I filled the house with them for mothers day. This year? Not even close! But so many other things are blooming! I love flowers, especially old fashioned ones like pansys, foxglove, lupines, etc!
My pansies are back, these are vollenteers from last year. I transplanted a bunch to differnet areas of the yard.
Dafodilles are one of my favorite flowers so I planted allot of them.
Blossoms on our apple trees! YAY!
Both our peach trees made it through a very bad winter
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Quote of the Day
"Control the oil and you'll control the nations; control the food and you'll control the people." - Henry Kissinger (1970)
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Words of Comfort
Sometimes I feel very overwhelmed in life.
With milking the cow, gardening,cooking, caring for the family, taking care of my own children and caring for 5 other children sometimes life can be very stressful.
Add into that we just went over our budget with the new gas and food prices. Suffice it to say it was not a "Oh my how great that we have so much money now!" it was more like "Oh crap how are we going to survive this?"
So today I was praying hard for solace from God.
I prayed over my Bible as I always do that God would give me discernment and wisdom and that He would show me what he needed me to see that day.
This is what I turned right too. God is so good! To think I just opened my Bible with my heart full of discouragement and sorrow and my eyes fell on these loving passages. They reminded me first that I must keep my focus on God. If I am striving for something not in his plan it will only bring frustration. The next thing is that my children and my home and my husband are a blessing, not just a obligation or a job, but a JOY! It is so hard sometimes to remember that after a Jonah day. A woman is the heart of the home. And that heart can be full of peace love and kindness, or it can be full of strife, anger, and frustration. It is my choice on what kind of woman I will be.
Also that God has done so much in my life, amazing things, He indeed saved me from death physically and spiritually. Praise Him!
And lastly that to eat of the labor of my hands will bring happiness. That it is good when I produce things for my family.
Psalm 127
Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it:
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows:
For so He gives His beloved sleep.
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one's youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them
Psalm 128
When you eat the labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the very heart of your house,
Your children like olive plants
All around your table,
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
Who fears the Lord.
Psalm 126
The Lord has done great things for them.
The Lord has done great things for us,
And we are glad!
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