You know it’s time to dust when . . .

the children start using the furniture to practice their handwriting. Guess I let it go a little too long!

Blessings,
Nancy

A Finished Project!

I started this project many months ago. I did half of it and just never was able to get around to the other half. What is the project, you ask? Wallpapering my kitchen backsplash with this lovely gingham wallpaper. I had been thinking about doing it ever since we moved here 4 years ago, but wasn’t sure whether it would be too busy with my cabinets. I finally decided to go ahead and I am so pleased with the results – especially now that the job is finally completed. Here are a few more pictures -

(sorry for the blur!)

And yes, I do realize that I have a snowman picture hanging over my cooktop. I originally hung it there at Christmastime (which gives you a clue how long ago I started this project) and I liked the size and frame, so I decided that I would stamp a new picture for the inside so that it could hang there all year – maybe even stamp a picture for each season that I could change out all year round. Well, obviously it hasn’t happened yet – but I have hope. If I can finish one project – I can finish another! And maybe even someday I’ll make some progress on that infinite list of projects that I have in my head to get done!

Blessings,
Nancy

Homemade Mashed Potatoes

This one falls under that category of dishes that probably everyone in the world has made, but I never have – at least up until now. Monday night I made my first ever batch of homemade mashed potatoes.

I found my recipe here, in one of my very favorite scratch cookbooks ~

I liked this recipe because it was simple, using only basic ingredients that I normally keep on hand. The recipe below makes 4 servings – I doubled it plus a little, using a 5 lb. bag of potatoes. Here is the original recipe with a few pictures to follow ~

Homemade Mashed Potatoes

2 pounds all-purpose potatoes (about 5 medium)
1 Tablespoon salt
1/3 cup milk
3 Tablespoons butter, softened
Salt and Pepper to taste

Pour 3 quarts of water into a large pot, add the salt, and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, scrub the potatoes well under running water with a vegetable brush. Remove the skins with a vegetable peeler. If potatoes are very large, cut them into uniform-sized pieces (halves or quarters) so they cook at the same pace. Drop them in the pot, lower heat to moderate, and, depending on size, boil for about 20-30 minutes, or until a potato feels tender when pierced with a fork or cake tester.

Heat the milk slowly on the stove in a saucepan over low heat, or heat it in the microwave in a glass measuring cup tightly covered, for 45 seconds on High.

Warm the mixing bowl by filling it with hot water, then drain and dry it.

Drain the potatoes through a colander in the sink. Cut them into quarters with a small knife and put them in the heated mixing bowl. Mash them with a potato masher, working out as many of the lumps as you can. With a wooden spoon, beat in the softened butter, a tablespoon at a time, then slowly pour in the hot milk, still beating with the spoon. If you want fluffier potatoes, whip them with a whisk or electic mixer.

Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Pile in a heated serving dish and serve at once.

I just love this cookbook because it tells me EVERYTHING, not assuming that I already know some things – which has been a great help to me in learning to cook from scratch. Here are a few pictures I took along the way ~

Freshly scrubbed potatoes ~

Boiling in the pot ~

Ready for mashing ~

Mostly mashed ~

Stirring in butter and milk ~

Ready to eat – I added a few extra dollops of butter on top – just because ~

I will definitely be making these again – they got rave reviews from the family!

Blessings,
Nancy

Grandma’s Apron

The aprons in the picture above are from my collection – the fruit apron was actually my grandmother’s apron, while the other three are some that Jeff bought me – he likes to hunt for them on Ebay for me and usually buys those with hand stitchery or quilting, and, of course, gingham, because he knows how much I love it!

My Mom sent me this e-mail and I loved it so much I just had to share it here.

The History of Aprons

I don’t think our children know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children’s tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the Fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ‘old-time apron’ that served so many purposes.

REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don’t think I ever caught anything from an apron . . . but Love!!

I don’t know who wrote this, but it brightened up my day! I hope it did your’s too! And I’ll certainly be thinking about all of these things the next time I pull out one of my aprons to wear!

Have a lovely day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Shopping Trip

I ran several errands yesterday. Staples were getting rather low and it was time to stock up. This meant a trip to the big “Stuff-Mart”, which is generally exhausting and expensive. A friend and I were commenting a week or so ago that we can’t seem to go into that store without spending hundreds of dollars! I don’t know if it’s because they sell everything you might need want, thus allowing you to make all your purchases at once, or if prices have really just gone up that much – probably both. Anyway, this trip was no exception, but I was, as I said, stocking up.

Since I have begun cooking more from scratch and baking bread on a daily basis (in the bread machine), I have been naturally going through more flour. So, on this day I bought 10 lbs. of all-purpose flour, 5 lbs. of bread flour, and 5 lbs. of whole wheat flour. I also bought 10 lbs. of sugar, 3 lbs. of butter, a huge container of cinnamon (in preparation for all of those lovely Fall breads and desserts that have started entering my mind), a large bag of chocolate chips, an extra large bottle of vanilla, and a dozen and a half eggs. Add in a number of other staple food items that we were out of (peanut butter, salad dressings, preserves, etc.), household paper products (including diapers), and various toiletries from the OTHER side of the store (boy, did my feet hurt last night!), and I finally pushed my brimming cart to the checkout – this should definitely count as exercise, shouldn’t it?

The total, not surprisingly, was high – but I consoled myself by hoping that this would be my only “stocking up” trip for the month. Now I will simply go to my neighborhood grocery store once a week and fill in for meals based on their sales and my menus.

Did you notice I said “hoping”? That’s because this is my first month to be baking so much from scratch and I really don’t know how long these staples will last. If they don’t make it a full month, I may decide to try Sam’s next time, so that I can buy larger quantities for hopefully better prices. I may decide to do so anyway. I think I will plan a trip to Sam’s soon to compare their prices and quantities with what I bought. What do you all do? I would love to hear!

Other errands of the day included dropping Matthew at work, a visit to Bath & Body Works for their hand soap sale – I love to use their foaming Warm Vanilla Sugar hand soap by the kitchen sink, and a run in to Kroger for sirloin steaks (on sale) and blueberries – also on sale, but completely sold out! I will try back this weekend after they restock.

In case you’re wondering if I did all this with children along – no. I didn’t. I usually do most of my “major’ grocery shopping alone (unless it’s just a quick run). I spent many years shopping with children, but now that I have teenagers old enough to care for the littles, I prefer to go alone (this does not hold true when I have a small baby – up to a certain age, my babies go everywhere with me.) – I can focus on the task at hand much better and be done much sooner and with less frazzling of my brain! I generally do my weekly shopping trip on Saturdays, when Jeff is home to watch children, too.

After returning home, we unloaded everything, put it away, and tossed some pizzas in the oven for dinner. Did I mention that I don’t scratch cook on shopping days?

Blessings,
Nancy

Sweet Creamy Homemade Butter . . . Mmmmmm!

Monica at The Homespun Heart inspired me the other day with this post to make some homemade butter. The timing was perfect since I was making Blueberry Banana Bread for dinner with our scrambled eggs and bacon, and homemade butter to spread on our bread just fit the bill.

It was a very simple process. I poured heavy whipping cream into a jar with a lid, closed it up, and started shaking it. Everyone in the house took a turn shaking, until the cream turned into butter. We probably shook it about 30 minutes, but I used a quart of whipping cream. If you used less, it might go quicker.

In the end, the butter separated out from the buttermilk and I knew that it was done. I strained the buttermilk into a separate bowl and added a little salt to the butter and it was ready for spreading on our bread.

The next time I will make the butter first, so that I can use the buttermilk I get in my bread recipe.

Monica’s post also included her recipe for scratch biscuits that looked especially yummy. I will be adding that one to my Scratch notebook, and trying them out soon.

This was a fun activity to try and the reward was very tasty. The other result of my efforts, I must admit, was no fun at all. I woke up in the night with my arm muscles aching so much that I had to take some ibuprofen – maybe I need to make homemade butter more often, to get my arms in shape!

Blessings,
Nancy

Blueberry Banana Bread

I found this lovely recipe at Homemaking 911 last week and decided to add it to my new Scratch notebook. The combination of the blueberries and the bananas make a delicious treat and a nice summer bread.

Part of the educational experience for me was using some of the bananas I have been storing up in the freezer. I had been hearing that if I put them in the freezer when they were getting overly ripe, I would be able to use them to bake with later on. Using them would be a new lesson in my on-going mission to learn to cook from scratch. My report is that it worked beautifully. I let the frozen bananas thaw and then just squeezed them out of the peel and into my batter.

I was just going to post the recipe for you, but Sarah was in the kitchen with me and decided to chronicle my efforts with the camera, so you can thank her for the photo help she provided to this post.

First the list of ingredients –

1 Cup Butter
2 Cups Sugar
4 Eggs
3 Cups Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
3/4 Cup Buttermilk
3-4 very ripe Bananas
1 Cup Blueberries, rinsed and drained
1 Cup Walnuts (optional)

Cream together butter, sugar and eggs -

In another bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda -

Alternate adding dry ingredients and buttermilk to creamed mixture -

Mix well. Beat 200 strokes -

Fold in bananas and blueberries -

Bake in greased and floured (I used cooking spray) pans at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour. This recipe makes 2 loaves -

My family loved this bread – I’m sure your’s will too!

Now for a bonus picture – this little package is all wrapped up and ready to be delivered to the front porch of someone(s) near and dear. You know who you are! Enjoy!

Blessings,
Nancy

Candy-Making Night

Last Wednesday night was our monthly Keepers of the Faith meeting at church. The topic of study this month for the girls was candy-making! We met in the kitchen, where a lovely table was set up with samples of homemade chocolates, books about candy, strawberries with chocolate dipping sauce, dipped pretzels, candles and baskets of candy-making items.

The girls were taught some of the history of candy and played a fun timeline game for candy prizes based on that history.

Next they learned how to make molded candy from candy melts, and actually each got to make some. It was a very simple process –

1. Melt candy melts for 30 seconds in the microwave, stir, and melt 30 seconds more.

2. Spoon into molds, and tap mold on counter to release air bubbles.

3. Place in freezer until solid.

4. Eat and enjoy!

It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Here is a picture of some of the girls filling their molds with chocolate -

We learned that there are many different colors and flavors of candy melts available at the craft store, as well as a wide variety of candy molds for all occasions. It was a really fun night and everyone enjoyed eating the work of their hands.

Here’s one little boy who thought it was a great night. I turned my back for a second and he stuffed some chocolate in his mouth and then proceeded to give me the “cat who ate the canary” look -

The boys had a fun night too – they went off to someone’s home to learn about horses, where they each had the opportunity to ride for a bit as well as learn about horses and their care.

I am signed up to teach the girls next month – and I have no idea yet what I am going to teach them – EEK!!!! Time to start working on that one.

Blessings,
Nancy

Sarah’s First Homemade Apple Pie

Sarah baked this lucious apple pie for dessert tonight. She did everything from scratch, even the crust (which her mother is just now at the ripe old age of 40 something learning how to do). Here is the recipe she used for the crusts –

2/3 Cup + 2 Tablespoons margarine
2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
4-6 Tablespoons cold water

Cut shortening into flour and salt until particles are the size of small peas. Sprinkle in water, 1 Tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork until all the the flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans the side of the bowl. Divide pastry in half. Gather each half into a ball and shape into flattened round on lightly floured parchment paper or cloth. Roll pastry 2″ larger than pie plate. Fold into quarters . Unfold one crust and ease into pan, pressing firmly against the side and bottom. After adding filling, place top crust on pie. Fold under bottom crust edge and pinch to seal. Cut slits in top crust before baking to release steam.

The recipe she used for the apple filling is based somewhat on the recipe for Classic Apple Pie in Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook, with just a few changes –

6-8 Granny Smith apples – peeled, cored and sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 Tablespoons lemon juice (we squeezed 2 lemons)
3 Tablespoons flour
1/4 Cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 large egg yolk
1 Tablespoon heavy cream
Granulated sugar for sprinkling

Toss apple slices in lemon juice. Mix flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add apples to mixture and toss together. Spread filling in prepared pie crust. Dot with butter or margarine. Top with second crust and seal as above. Mix egg yolk and cream together, brush on top crust with pastry brush. Sprinkle granulated sugar generously on top. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 40-50 minutes, covering edges with foil if they brown too quickly. Cool a bit and serve with vanilla ice cream.

We so much enjoyed Sarah’s first pie, both the wonderful aroma while it was baking and the delicious flavor while we were all eating!

Blessings,
Nancy

Quick!! To the kitchen!!

I almost forgot to tell you (in case you don’t already know) – today is National Chocolate Chip Day!!! There’s still time to whip up some cookies, muffins or hey, just sprinkle some on a dish of ice cream. I am in the kitchen as I speak (or write) getting my ingredients out to bake my homemade chocolate chip cookies. (Dad, I’d bring you some, if I lived a little closer!)

So get with it, and see what you can come up with – you know, there’s always Chips Ahoy!

Blessings,
Nancy