Christmas Time 2015

It's been a year since I've posted anything new here!  Life has been busy, that's for sure!  

Thought I would show some photos of our Christmas tree, complete with all the glitter and sparkle and twinkle we love!  Christmas ornaments have a history all their own, being passed down from the generations, becoming more precious since fewer of the fragile ones survive.  When I look at the ornaments on the tree I remember where each one came from.  A friend gave me this one, that one came from a vacation, those big silver glass ornaments hung on my grandmother's tree when my mother was a little girl, all come with memories.

Precious Moments ornaments, purr-fect since we love cats!

Close up of the 2014 Precious Moments girl

An ornament with history.  My mom made these balls by putting glue on the ball, then sprinkling glitter all over them.  Not too many survive since these are made of thin glass.

A glittery sea urchin ornament I bought before I was married.  Inside the urchin is potpourri, which has lost most of its scent by now.  This is a happy reminder of many beach vacations!

A glittery shell I also bought before I was married.  I bought several of these at the same time, most likely on sale after Christmas!

A close up of our Christmas tree.  The white lacy snowflake was tatted by a dear college friend.  The red bows are a finishing touch, a tradition started by my Mom and me when I was a teen.

There you have it, a few glimpses into the memories on our Christmas tree this year!

Veggies

What's Cooking in the Homestead Kitchen

I'm always on the lookout to discover new recipes for cooking veggies to make them more palatable for us.  Some veggies we bake in the oven; some we steam; and some we cook in the crockpot.  Many recipes have been hits.  There have been my share of flops, such as the infamous cream of kale soup that wound up in the compost pile!!  LOL One recipe we've tried recently is Oven Baked Sweet Potato Chips.

Sweet Potatoes

Take about 2 lbs of organic sweet potatoes.  Scrub, then cut in two vertically and thinly slice with a sharp chef's knife or a mandolin slicer so you have thin, round chips.  Put slices in a mixing bowl, put some olive oil on them, enough to coat them but not too much.   Put seasonings such as sea salt, pepper, herbs, etc., whatever you prefer.  We usually just put sea salt on them.  Lay them in a single layer on a cookie sheet, uncovered, baking at 350° for 35 minutes, flipping them over once during cooking.  Do check the cooking time as these can burn rather quickly and set off the smoke alarm!!  LOL We have also made chips with organic White Hakurei turnips, which is a Japanese type that is sweeter than the regular purple-topped turnips.  These turned out quite yummy also.

These are especially good with roasted chicken and hamburger. 

Corn

Another veggie we enjoy is corn.  I roast it in the crockpot.

Husk the corn, put some butter and herbs on it-whatever you enjoy, such as oregano, basil, rosemary, etc.  Wrap it tightly in foil and pop in the crockpot for 2-3 hours on high.  It's much better than steaming it, much more flavorful and moist.  I tried baking it in the oven with the husks still on but it was such a mess to husk and try to get the silk off when it was so hot that I never tried that again. 

If you are short on time, you can also roast the foil-wrapped corn in the oven for approximately 35-45 minutes at 350°.

Potatoes

And, of course, there's everyone's favorite, mashed potatoes!  I make ours with sour cream and butter in them.  I wash, peel and cut up the potatoes, chop onions and steam them both until they are soft, then put in the sour cream (I use a 16 oz container of sour cream for a big pot of them) and butter to taste.  I use a hand mixer to mash them, although you can use the potato masher hand tool, or the food processor also.  It's just easier for me to use the hand mixer.  I make enough to have leftovers, which I either put in the fridge, or if I want to save them for later, I'll freeze them in a ziploc bag.

Reheating the mashed potatoes is as easy as putting the frozen ones in the crockpot, and cooking on low until they are hot, usually about 2 or so hours.

One thing you can put in to give mashed potatoes a new twist is to put pureed, cooked cauliflower in with it. For 4 servings of potatoes I'll put in about 1/2 cup of pureed cauliflower.  You can adjust the amount based on your tastes. It's quite tasty!

Cauliflower

We've steamed cauliflower and added a little butter and salt to it.  That's not bad, but we really like how it tastes when we roast the cauliflower in the oven with olive oil.

Cut up one head of cauliflower into smaller florets.  Put into  mixing bowl and drizzle some olive oil to very lightly coat it.  Put in some salt and other seasonings to taste.  Stir to evenly coat cauliflower.  Bake at 350° for about 30-40 minutes covered.

Popcorn

Such a yummy treat!  We use organic popcorn from our favorite store, Trader Joe's!  Use a big stockpot-I use a steel-bottom 8 quart stockpot.  Heat up approximately a tablespoon of extra virgin coconut oil (this is one of the best oils for you-more about oils in another blog post whenever I get the confusing world of oils sorted out!!   When the oil has melted, put in the popcorn, enough to cover the bottom of the pan, but still room enough to have some space between the kernels.  Put the lid on, and, this is the important part, keep moving the pot back and forth on the stove until the kernels are done popping so it doesn't burn in the pan.  It will be a mess to clean up and the smell is, shall we say, not pleasant?  At the end, when not many kernels are popping, shake the pan with the lid on, up and down a few times to try to get the rest of the kernels popped.  Not every kernel will pop-you will have some old maids left!  Enjoy your snack!

Happy Cooking!

Whole, Traditional Foods Cooking-Bone Broth

Here at the Suburban Homestead we have been moving towards cooking with whole and traditional foods, such as fresh veggies, salads, free range meats like beef, chicken, pork, wild-caught fish, whole grains, etc.  It's a work-in-progress for us, one which I think we will always be working on, especially as we learn new information.

Today I've been cooking beef bone broth to be used in soups, stews, rice, veggies and such.  I've never made this kind of broth before, but I have made chicken stock many times.  These beef bones are from a free-range cow from our friends' farm so I know how it was raised.  The hamburger from this cow has been so yummy!

Bones are cooking with rough cut carrots, onions and celery, plus some salt and garlic.  You can add whatever seasonings you like, such as thyme, rosemary, basil, etc.   I had over 6 lbs of bones, which was too much for one stockpot so I had to split it into two large stockpots.

 I roasted the bones in the oven first at 425 for about 45 min-1 hr. to get more flavor from the bones. I am cooking it all day, and have kept adding water as it boils down.  I will  stop adding water towards the end so it will be a nice, rich stock.  I will then freeze it in small containers.  I will also freeze some in ice cube trays, putting the frozen cubes into ziploc bags to make it easier to use in small batches of food or to heat up and drink.

This is our free-range organic chicken that we are having for dinner tonight.  I put some water in the roasting pan, and stuffed partially crushed garlic cloves under the skin and put some sea salt on it.  I put the lid of the pan on and am baking it at 400 for about 1.5 hrs.  I will then pick the meat off the chicken, then put the carcass and loose bones in the crockpot, along with onions and celery and some sea salt and garlic, to simmer all night long.  The chicken broth should be ready sometime the next morning. 

One book that has been helpful on this journey has been The Nourished Kitchen by Jennifer McGruther.  Here's a link to it on Amazon.  (I am not being paid to endorse this book!! :-) )

The Nourished Kitchen


I'll post more books that are helping along this journey in another post.

Autumn at the Homestead

It's autumn at the Homestead and the leaves are beautiful colors, showing off God's beauty!  I've taken some pics of the leaves around here to share the glory of the season with you.  Enjoy!

Tulip trees

Tulip trees

Tulip trees

Here is our hickory tree when it started to turn colors.  We'd love to eat the nuts from it but we hear the squirrels chomping away in the tree and see the empty shells fall out of it!

The hickory tree is turning more yellow.

Here is the hickory tree in its full glory.  Such a beautiful shade of yellow!

Dogwood tree showing lots of red.

Redbud tree showing autumn colors.  We planted this when it was only 2 feet high.  It has a beautiful pink display in the early spring now.

This is the reblooming hydrangea bush.  Funny thing about this one is that this is the first time it has bloomed all year!

Our first fire of the fall a couple of weeks ago.  It was warm and cozy!

Homestead Canned Goods

I've gathered a selection of pics of the Homestead's canned goods we've done over the summer and fall, starting with the blueberry jam we did earlier in the summer.

Blueberry Jam

Blueberry Jam is one of the easiest fruits from which to make jam.  All you do is wash, pick out the stems, mash, toss in the pot with sugar and pectin and cook up jam!

Blueberries awaiting mashing and cooking.

Blueberries being mashed.

The raw turbinado sugar from Trader Joe's we used.

Blueberry jam cooking.

Checking to make sure the jam is jelling well.

Peaches

We went peach picking again this summer and got over 100 lbs of peaches that we ate, froze, gave to friends, and turned into yummy peach jam and raw pack peaches.  Below we are canning the raw pack peaches.  To do this, you peel and slice the peaches and make a hot syrup.  We used raw, local honey for the hot syrup, added water and boiled.  You tightly pack the raw sliced peaches into the hot canning jars, then pour the hot syrup into the jars, put the lids and rings on, and put them in the canner. As you can see from the photo below there are several jars awaiting the canning process.   These are so wonderful to have in the middle of winter on a cold day!

Raw Pack Peaches awaiting canning in the canner.  You can see the quart jar in the background with the green & white funnel that has the peaches in it.  The hot honey syrup is being scooped out of the pot to be poured into the jar.

Applesauce

My last post was about making applesauce.  Here's the finished jars below.  The darker spots in them are the cranberries.  We may get more apples in early November and can another batch before Thanksgiving. 

Our Canned Applesauce

Cranberry Sauce

This is another easy fruit to can.  Fresh cranberries are only available in the stores late October-November so I stock up and freeze what we don't use right away.  Wash the cranberries, pick out the stems and other junk, toss them in the pot and add water.  Let them boil and add sugar.  I like to use the raw turbinado sugar from Trader Joe's.  When the cranberries boil they make the most satisfying popping sounds!   Let the mixture boil gently for awhile, until a spoonful of the sauce jells up on a cool plate.  You don't need any added pectin like you do for the jams since there's plenty of natural pectin in the cranberries.  Can it up and enjoy eating later and giving as gifts!  I don't have any pics of the cranberry jam we made last year but will take some with this year's batch.

Applesauce

Fall is the time of year to pick apples so that's what we did, went out to the country and picked apples at an orchard near our friends' farm.  We made applesauce from the apples and now a dozen quarts are canned, waiting to be given as gifts and eaten!  I make my applesauce with cinnamon, Trader Joe's organic raw turbinado sugar and the secret ingrediant...cranberries! I don't know how much of the cinnamon, sugar and cranberries I put in-I do it by taste to get the right about of sweet and tart!   I prefer to use fresh cranberries, but frozen or dried work well also.  I will probably do another batch of applesauce in the near future!

This year I tried making apple butter in the crockpots.  I cooked the apples for well over 24 hours on low and the house sure smelled great!  I added some cinnamon and sugar, once again to taste.  My crockpots are 3 and 6 quarts, and when it was all cooked down, I got 4 pints of apple butter, which wasn't enough to can.  It was easier to make it in the crockpots so I didn't have to watch and stir it much.  It was still quite a bit of work for only 4 pints but we have been enjoying it.  Perhaps I will try it again this fall and just can some of it to keep longer.  Right now I have the apple butter in the fridge, where it will keep for awhile.  

One of the apple trees loaded with yummy apples!  

I think this was a Jonathan apple tree if I remember correctly!

I like to mix the varieties of apples I use in the applesauce to blend the tastes.  I like most varieties, except for Red Delicious, which, despite their name, don't taste too delicious to me!  

That's what's been going on in this Suburban Homestead lately!

In which I start a blog about Homesteading in the Suburbs!

If all goes well, this will be a blog about our homesteading adventures in the suburbs of a major city.  Suburbs and homesteading sound like oxymorons, don't they?  Guess we'll find out if that's true or not.  stay tuned for some adventures!