It did this all day....

And they did this all day....

So I did this all day....

Poppy Seed Onion Hamburger Buns.
Please excuse the crappy photo!

2 loaves of sandwich bread

2 loaves of french bread. Wonder how that one loaf
is missing the end????

Confirmation Sunday

May 20th was Confirmation Sunday in our church. The twins, along with 7 of their friends, took the leap and became full fledged members of Sandersville United Methodist Church. It was a very beautiful ceremony and they had a nice luncheon for the confirmands and their families afterwards. The twins took their studies very seriously and we spent weeks quizzing them on the books of the Bible, the 10 Commandments and church history. Our preacher joked that a few adults asked when they would hold classes for adults to learn about the whys and whats of being Methodist. I hope they do because I learned ALOT from the kids taking these classes. I was raised Catholic and didn't join the Methodist church until 6 1/2 years ago so I feel very "behind".
Anyway, I just wanted to share some pics of the kids from that day.

My son in the middle and my daughter on the right

Being welcomed by our wonderful congregation

Our sweet confirmands

Waiting to be done with pics so they could eat!

Lunch!!!

Do you know how old I suddenly feel???

Kombucha Update

We have become some big time Kombucha fans around here. For my first batch, I flavored 3 jars with the following flavors: Raspberry, Grape and Orange. We drank them all. My favorite was the Raspberry. Kids loved the Grape. The orange was okay but not our favorite. With the batch that is currently fermenting, I took some of my blueberries I put up last year and made a syrup. I strained them then added the kombucha to it. Yes, I snuck a taste. Very vinegar-y because I had just removed the SCOBY. It has to sit, flavored, for 5-7 days so the taste can mellow. I like the word mellow....
Every day the kids ask if they can have some, they like it that much. A huge bonus has been that the Mother SCOBY has formed a daughter SCOBY and now the daughter has formed another daughter. The next time I brew, I will do 2 jars at once. Double the kombucha, baby! This stuff is really good and, I don't know if it is the Kombucha or the Kefir, but I feel GREAT! I wake up about 30 minutes before I have to, I have a bunch of energy in the morning and afternoon and, let's just say the digestive system is working like a champ! Plus, I have noticed a decrease in my appetite. I don't know if these drinks have anything to do with it or just the fact that it is getting too hot to eat a lot but I am definitely eating less. Only downside is that I have NO ENERGY after 8pm. It is all I can do to keep my eyes open til 9 so I can go to bed. Oh, and there is still the gas part. I think that is getting better, though. I would recommend both the kefir and kombucha to anyone who wants to take a little more action on their health and well being.

Memorial Day

I hope each and every one of you had a wonderful Memorial Day. I also hope you took some time out to say a little prayer for all our service members and their families. Where would we be without their sacrifice?
And what would Memorial Day be without a cookout? Boy did we have some good food yesterday! Good company, too! My inlaws, my parents and of course, us. We had the usual cookout food, hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, yada yada yada....The real stars of the cook out were the appetizers! I have seen recipes floating around about chocolate chip cookie dough dip. This is right up my alley so I decided to give it a try. Oh, I wasn't disappointed!

This picture can't do it justice! It was super simple to make, too!

INGREDIENTS
8 Oz. Cream Cheese (not reduced or fat free)
1/2 C. Butter
1 C. Powdered Sugar
2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar (I used Sucanat)
1 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla
1 C. Chocolate Chips
1 C. Toffee Bits

Cream together cream cheese and butter. Once smooth, add it the rest of the ingredients and mix until well combined.
We served it with graham crackers but apple slices would be sublime. Of course, baby girl decided to eat it by the spoonful once everyone left!

Another faithful standby is potato chips and onion dip. When I was growing up, there was never a family get together that DIDN'T include potato chips and onion dip. Onion dip is the simplest thing to make and it is sooooo much better than the premade junk at the grocery store!

INGREDIENTS
16 Oz. Sour Cream
1 Envelope Onion Soup Mix
A couple dashes of Worchestershire Sauce

Mix all ingredients together and chill for an hour.

We had this with Kettle Chips. Oh.My.Goodness!!!! I have never been a huge fan of potato chips but kettle chips are amazing!!! So crunchy. I was eating a few on the couch in front of the tv (no, I do not advocate eating chips and watching tv but sometimes a girl just has to!) I actually had to turn the tv sound up because I couldn't hear it over my crunching.
Anywho, dontcha love the star shaped platters? I cannot remember where I got them, only that I think I have had them longer than I have had my kids! There is one more platter in the set but it doesn't have a dip holder section so I used it for.....

There are few things as easy and as rewarding as deviled eggs. Simply take hard boiled eggs and halve them. Take out the yolks and  smash them up and add ANYTHING you want. I tend to stay pretty traditional. I add finely minced onion, sweet pickle relish (if I'm feeling particularly wild, I add dill relish instead!), a little mayo to hold it together, a dash of dry mustard, salt and pepper, and powdered garlic. Mix it until nice and smooth then stuff it back in the egg whites and sprinkle with a bit of paprika. Took me all of about 10 minutes because I already had the eggs boiled and peeled. My inlaws brought a huge platter of summer sausage, cheeses, crackers and (my personal favorite) cream cheese and red pepper jelly! Pops got the HOT pepper jelly this time and can I just say WOW! If you have never had this particular combination, may I ask WHY????? Simply take a hunk of cream cheese and pour a jar of red pepper jelly over the top and smear it on crackers. Oh, my mouth waters just remembering all that goodness! Well, as usual, we ate so much of the appetizers that by the time the grilling was done no one was all that hungry. Oh, it didn't stop us from gorging, we just weren't hungry when we started. Afterwards, we all laid back in the chairs and looked like ticks! Ahhh, good times!
Here's a few pics of the decorations, just for fun....

Good times, good food and the best dang family ever!

Lara Bars

I have to admit that I have never eaten a Lara Bar. I have no idea if this recipe is close to it but it is really good. I "lifted" it from Shaye over at The Elliot Homestead. I LOVE her blog. She is so stinking funny and her recipes are awesome. She swears these bars taste like Lara Bars so I will take her word for it. Here is the link to her recipe because I am too lazy to go find it in my recipe mess file and re copy it. Take a few minutes and look around her blog. You won't be disappointed! I will, however, include a picture from the batch I made, just to prove I really did make them!

These are the coconut ones. They were VERY GOOD! I would make more but I can't seem to find any more dates at the store. Is there, like, a season for dates? And what exactly are dates? Are they a fruit? A nut? I haven't a clue but I like 'em. My daughter thinks they are gross but she loved the bars. As soon as I find dates, I will make the PBJ ones. This batch lasted for a week. Only because I hid them in the fridge!

What to do with all the zucchini I planted...

My name is Tracy and I am an overplanter.
There I admitted it. For some reason, I think that when I get a new packet of seeds, I must plant the ENTIRE THING! Because of this affliction, I have WAY TO MUCH stuff growing in the gardens. Yes, I said garden"s", plural. I couldn't fit everything I started from seed into one garden so I have 2...and a half. I could go 3 but, honestly, that's a bit of overkill. One of the most prolific growers in the garden is zucchini. I actually restrained myself this year and only planted 6 seeds. Ok, there was only 6 left in the packet. Still. They all grew. Sooooooo I have a ton of zucchini. I found a great recipe for it in a Cooking Light magazine years ago but never made it. Until now. YUM! The recipe is a lightened up version of zucchini nut bread. So far I have made 2 loaves and a dozen muffins. I like the muffins better. Easier to grab and go with a muffin than with a slice of bread. Anyway, the recipe is simple and light (bonus!) and I will be making a couple of batches today. It freezes well and I have zucchini coming out my ears!

INGREDIENTS

3 C. Wheat Flour
1 Tsp. Baking Powder
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/4 Tsp. Baking Soda
2 Eggs
1/3 C. Coconut Oil
1 Tsp. Grated Lemon Rind (I added about 1/2 Tsp. Lemon Juice because I have no real lemons)
2 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 C. Sugar (Sucanat)
3 C. Shredded Zucchini (Squeezed dry)
1/4 C. Chopped Walnuts, toasted

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Mix Eggs through sugar in a large bowl until all combined. Add the zucchini and mix well. Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in the nuts. You can either split this between 2 small greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes or put this into the cups of a muffin tin (makes about a dozen large muffins) and bake at 350 for about 30-35 minutes. This bread is so good right out of the oven slathered in butter!

Being shared atMrs. Dulls Nourished Kitchen and Frugally Sustainable

My Mother's Day

I have the BEST kids in the world!!! I know, every mother says that, but mine are pretty awesome. It started Saturday. I had bought my MIL some flowers and pretty pots for Mother's Day and I was planting the flowers in the pots. I had a plant that I had meant to transplant months ago but, like most things, it got forgotten about. So I decided to go ahead and replant it while I had the stuff out. My daughter started to panic. Apparently, I was messing up part of my gift from her. She had bought me a new pot to put that particular plant in and here I was about to plant it into something else. So I got part of my presents early. She bought me an herb container and a pot for my plant. My son got me a wonderful smelling candle (can you ever have enough candles??). Hubs decided it would be easier to go out to eat that night instead of fighting the crowd on Sunday so he took us all to Longhorn (one of my faves). Sunday morning I received very sweet cards from my kids and my daughter wrote me a poem. She wanted to put it into my choirbook so I would find it during church and start crying (She thinks it is funny that I cry over EVERYTHING!) but I didn't bring my book home so she gave it to me while I was drinking my coffee. Yes, I got a bit teary! They are such great kids. They kept the bickering down to almost nothing, they sang a beautiful song in church for all the mothers and then they took us and my parents to a beautiful lunch afterwards. We even had tablecloths on the tables (running joke between my parents and me). I got control of the remote once we got home and we watched Mommie Dearest. Now my kids see just how good they have it! After a wonderful dinner of crepes prepared by hubby and my boy, we relaxed a bit more before going to bed. I went to sleep knowing that I have been blessed with a husband, son and daughter that I love more than anything on this Earth. Thank you Lord for them!

We drank the whole thing? Water Kefir Update

I finished "brewing" my first batch of water kefir. It filled up a quart jar. It lasted 2 days. I'm sad. It was good. I want more. Good thing I started a new batch. It will take a week before I can drink it. I am sad again. *sigh* I could have gotten another day out of it if the twins would have stayed out of it. They loved the stuff. But I made it for ME! It said on the sheet that came with the grains not to drink more than a half cup a day until you see how it reacts in your gut. Nice. Well, the only reaction so far has been a little bit of *ahem* gas. Nothing major. A little more than usual, but I am pretty sure you have no interest in knowing that! Just a warning, if you drink it, you will fart. I'm hoping that part will go away...soon. The taste of the kefir is really, really good! I had some raspberry syrup that I bought when I went to the Biltmore Estate forever ago and mixed it in. Just a little bit to color it. Divine. I cannot wait for the next batch to get done. I think I will hide it in my room and drink it by myself. No one would know...and I would win the fart game every time!

Fish Sticks and Mac & Cheese

I LOVE to cook!!! I also love to eat!!! I love to eat what I cook!!! Now that we have that settled, I want to share a yummy lil treat for ya. I found this recipe for baked fish sticks over at The Prairie Homestead and I was going to link it for you but now I can't find the recipe. It has just been one of those days!!
Oh well, good thing I printed the recipe out!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 C. Flour
2 Eggs, Beaten (I did add a little milk to this because I almost ran out)
1/2 C. Dry Bread Crumbs
1/4 C. Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 Tsp. Sea Salt
1/2 Tsp. Paprika
1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
1/4 Tsp. Black Pepper
3/4 Lb. Cod Fillets ( I used 5 small filets which is a little more than 3/4 lb. and it was fine)

Cut the cod into 1" strips. Set up your coating assembly line like this:
Flour in first bowl.
Eggs and lemon juice in next bowl.
Bread crumbs, cheese, salt, paprika and pepper in third bowl.
Set out a buttered or parchment lined baking sheet after the 3rd bowl.
Coat fish in first bowl, then second bowl, then 3rd bowl. Set sticks on baking sheet. Repeat until all sticks are sitting on the baking sheet. Give them a bit of space between them. You don't want to crowd them on the pan or you will get soggy sticks. Yuck!
Bake them at 400 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes, flipping them over halfway thru cooking time.
These fish sticks taste so good, you will NEVER buy boxed ones again!

What goes better with fish sticks than mac-n-cheese? My son will tell you "NOTHING!" He is a cheesy noodle kinda boy. He's a little cheesy, too, but that is for a different story! I very much dislike mac-n-cheese from a box. Sure, it's quick and easy but that orange cheese is....unnatural. I have a couple of recipes for the homemade kind but it seems that for every area of the states, people have a different idea about what mac-n-cheese should be like. This recipe calls for eggs, which I am on the fence about putting into mac-n-cheese. The recipe turned out okay but hubby, requested it to be creamier and I think there needs to be more salt. You be the judge.

INGREDIENTS

2 C. Whole Milk
3 Tbsp. Butter
2 Tbsp. Flour
1/2 Tsp. Salt (I ended up adding more once it was on my plate)
1/2 Tsp. Pepper
3 Eggs, Whipped (wasn't sure what was meant by this so I just beat mine really good)
5 C. Elbow Macaroni (I used a 16 oz. box) Salt your water!!!
3 C. Shredded Cheese, divided
3/4 C. Cracker Crumbs

Cook noodles until al dente and drain. Top hot noodles with butter to melt it. Whisk flour into milk and add salt, pepper, eggs and 1 c. cheese. Pour on noodles and combine. Pour noodle mixture into a greased 13x9 dish and spread 1 c. cheese and the cracker crumbs on top. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove foil and sprinkle on last cup of cheese and bake for another 10 minutes.

Voila! The finished product!

I swear there was more broccoli on my plate but I ate some before I remembered to take the pic.

Hand Soap Failure

I love a good experiment. Going from being a city girl to a farm girl has been one BIG experiment! When I find a "recipe" for a homemade version of something I normally have to buy, I get all kinds of excited. Thankfully, for the most part, I have been very successful at those "recipes". I haven't had too many flops that couldn't be fixed. Unfortunately, this was one of those flops. I have made liquid handsoap a couple of times. The recipe is easy but the finished product left a little to be desired. To be completely honest, the finished product had the consistency of snot. Then, when you used it from the pump dispenser, a little would leak from the opening and puddle on the counter. Not attractive! So I came upon this little recipe that sounded like it might work a little better. I truly don't remember where I saw this but it was simply 3 bars of soap grated and 6 cups of hot water. Stir until soap is melted and pour into jars to sit for 24 hours when the soap would be at the "perfect" consistency. Sounds easy enough. I grated 3 bars of soap and melted them in the water. I poured the liquid into 2 jars and waited. The next day I checked the jars and was surprised to see that it had formed a gushy solid! How in the heck was that supposed to work in a pump dispenser? I stuck a knife in it and pried it out of the jar into a big bowl. I added some liquid castile soap to see if it would "loosen" up a bit. It did a little so I was hopeful that adding some water would help more. I added some water and whisked and whisked and whisked. The consistency was getting better. The really hard part came when I tried to pour it into the container that I store it in (old refill container for handsoap, makes filling the dispensers a breeze!). I don't have a funnel that is small enough for the opening so I was trying to use a large measuring cup with a pour spout. It ended up all over the container, the counter, ME! It was a huge hassle but I finally got most of it in the container. I haven't filled the dispensers yet so I don't know how it will work but I am completely unsatisfied with the results! I only "rehydrated" one of the jars I made so I will be going thru this one more time but, after that, I am going back to my old "recipe"....until I find a better one ;-)

The Archery Tournament

As I said yesterday, my kids participated in our state outdoor archery tournament this past Saturday at Rock Eagle 4H camp. This is our second year at this tournament. The twins really enjoy archery. It is the only sport they participate in (their choice). I like the fact that the only person they really compete with is themselves. With each arrow shot, they only hope to get a better score than their last arrow. It doesn't matter what the shooter next to you does...until they do a whole lot better. My girl has excelled at archery since the first time she tried it. She has very good aim and has a knack for compensating, very quickly, for wind and target changes. I call her Catniss. (you Hunger Games fans know what that means!) For the last 2 years, she has placed 4th in her division at the state indoor tournament and last year, she placed 5th in her division at the outdoor games. This year, she had to share a target with a girl from another county. Normally, my girl is very focused when she is shooting and nothing really distracts her. This girl did. Or actually, her bow did. What a beauty it was. Professionally balanced with all kinds of gadgets on it. The girl using it shot an almost perfect round. Out of a possible 360 points, she scored 316. There was no other shooter that even came close to that. I think it kind of took the wind out of baby girl's sails. Everytime she made a shot, the other girl made a better one. It kind of psyched her out. However, I think it was an important lesson to learn. There will always be someone who can do something better than you can so you need to stay focused on what you CAN do. Congratulate someone when they best you and try and improve what YOU do. Hard lesson for a 12 year old. She was really hoping to place again but I don't think she did. It didn't help her mood any that it was 95 degrees and they shot for 4 hours with no shade and no breaks. ANYWAY, they did enjoy themselves and are ready to start the whole process over in August. Here's a couple of pics from the day. I only took a few because it was so hot, my phone was overheating!

That's my boy looking at the camera and my girl, on the right, listening to her coach.

Half of my boy and my girl is getting ready to shoot

Catniss taking aim!

Time is Flying Away....

My word, have things picked up pace around here! I do not know where all my time goes or if I am getting anything accomplished, but I sure don't have an ounce of free time. There are so many things I want to post about that I don't know where to start! I guess that is a good problem to have :)

Today, I think I will focus on updates.

I have been brewing a little jar of water kefir grains for the last 5 days. This is a first for me. I have been tasting it ever since the 2 day mark and the taste has changed drastically. After 2 days, it tasted a lot like apple cider. It had a vinegar-y smell but not so much in taste. Day 4 tasted a bit like alcohol! Hubby decided he would be the taste tester for it if it was gonna taste like booze! Today's taste was much more mellow. The sweetness is very light. I think it should be ready to drink in another day or so. Once this batch is ready to drink, I will rinse the kefir grains and get a new batch started.

My kombucha is happily fermenting under my kitchen sink. Every time I open the cabinet, I get a mild whiff of vinegar. Peeeee-u! The mother has split and formed a daughter on top. I just tasted it and it has a bit of a kick to it. I don't think it is ready to bottle yet, though. In the instructions, they say that first timers almost always bottle too soon so I am going to wait for the 2-3 weeks that they suggest.

I checked on my bottles of vanilla extract today. I am at the halfway point in the curing. They are a beautiful dark brown color. I cannot wait to try them. Only 3 more months to go!!!!

On the gardening front, I have picked a few squash and zucchini and we have eaten a couple of salads with my lettuce. This is the first time I have ever grown lettuce and it has come out pretty good. At least I know which kind I do NOT like! There will be no more mesclun grown here. Too spicy and bitter for me. Chickens, however, LOVE it :)  I should be getting some green beans pretty soon and I have gotten a few strawberries. They have me puzzled a bit. The berries have been kinda small. I don't know if it was the brand I bought or what but they are 1/3 the size of regular strawberries. They taste good but I don't think there will be enough to make anything with. Between my daughter picking them and the slugs getting to them, there just aren't a whole lot.

We are on like day 900 of no rain...Okay maybe not 900 but we have not had any rain in a very long time. My blueberries are starting to shrivel and my muscadine leaves are looking a bit droopy. I have no more hose left to get water to them because I am having to daily water all the other garden areas. Hubby promised to buy me more sprinkler stands but his pay this month was a bit less than what he was hoping for. Enough to pay bills (not complaining) but not for much else. *sigh* Maybe next month.

Hubs cooked dinner with our daughter last night and made something VERY unusual. You see, I haven't done our monthly shopping yet so meal ingredients are slim pickens until tomorrow. He was going to make chili but we all protested because it is hotter than h*ll outside. We only had a few tortilla shells for the tacos he decided to make so he improvised on the shell part. He is a whiz at making crepes. When it is just him and I for dinner, he will surprise me with them and they are A-MAZ-ING!!! Well, he used his crepe recipe but left out the sugar and used them to hold the taco stuffins. Let me tell you, I no longer want tacos any other way! Were they healthy? Heck no, but we don't have them all the time so I figure my rear end won't grow too much. Were they yummy? Oh my sweet Lord, they were! I will do a post on his crepe recipe soon so you can enjoy them too. I would post a picture of how they turned out but we ate all of them within minutes! If I had gotten my camera anywhere near it, my camera might have been eaten too! My boy was shoveling them in like his life depended on it. Honestly, he isn't quite a teenager, yet, but he is eating me out of house and home. My grocery bill will be exploding in the next few months, I can feel it....

The twins had their state outdoor archery tournament Saturday. That took a bit of prep work that kept us busy for a few days prior. I will post on that tomorrow.

It's Kombucha Time

Yes, I have finally given in to the temptation of kombucha. I have seen it mentioned in so many blogs and, since we no longer drink any sodas, we needed something different for our thirst. Kombucha is essentially a tea...with a SCOBY...allowed to ferment. When it is done, it will be a naturally carbonated drink, flavored however we choose. It is a live drink, meaning that the "mother" is always growing and replicating as long as you keep it fed. I ordered a kit from Amazon that included EVERYTHING you need to get started (except the filtered water) even the jar to do it in. Seems to be pretty easy. So far, I have cleaned the jar, boiled the water, poured in the sugar and tea bag and am letting it set for 15 minutes.

After it sets, I stirred to make sure the sugar dissolved and removed the tea bag. Once the tea was room temperature, I poured in enough filtered water to fill the jar 1/2 halfway.
Now for the fun part. Adding the SCOBY. I poured the liquid (starter Kombucha) that the SCOBY was packaged in into the jar and then added the SCOBY.

Now, we wait. First we wait a week. The jar stays in a warm, dark place for a week. I periodically need to check the level of liquid as the SCOBY grows so that the jar doesn't get too full. After the 7 days, I get to start tasting it daily. I will be looking for a "vinegary sharpness and a significant decrease in sweetness". This can take anywhere from 14-21 days. Then the kombucha gets bottled and the SCOBY gets set aside to start the process again. Once I bottle it, I can add any flavoring to it that I want. YAY!!! The bottles will sit out for another 5-7 days where the sharp flavor will mellow and it will become carbonated. Then we stick it in the fridge and can start drinking it.
Yes, the process will take awhile but it isn't a lot of "hands on" time so it shouldn't be too bad. Once I start tasting, I will post an update to how things are going.

UPDATE:
It has now been a week and I just tasted it for the first time. It kinda tastes like apple cider. There is a vinegar-y taste but it is very light right now. I am going to taste it daily for the next couple of weeks and see how the taste changes. Oh, and look at what I found floating on the top of my mother SCOBY.....

A daughter SCOBY!!!! How exciting! Yeah, it doesn't take much to excite me these days :-p

Pizza Dough

Awhile back, I posted a recipe for homemade pizza dough. I would provide the link but Blogger and Internet Explorer are giving me FITS today!! While that recipe was good, the one I am about to share with you is extraordinary! The secret is blending herbs in the olive oil and then incorporating it into the dough so each bite has wonderful flavor.  I made 2 pizzas today for lunch. One was cheese and pepperoni for the twins and the other was veggie and cheese for me and hubs cuz mama can't eat that heartburn inducing pepperoni very often!

INGREDIENTS
This recipe will make 1 large pizza. I doubled it to make 2 and had half a pizza left over!

1 Pkg. active dry yeast or 2 1/4 tsp. of bulk yeast
1 Tsp. Sugar
1 C. Warm Water
2 1/2 C. Flour (I used half bread and half whole white wheat)
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Tsp. Salt
Fresh or dried herbs (I used dried basil, oregano and garlic powder~about 1/2 Tsp. each plus a few shakes of salt)

In a small bowl (I used a 2 c. measuring cup), add water and sugar, then yeast. Stir to combine. Let sit until nice and foamy. In a small dish add oil and herbs and stir them up. In a large bowl add flour and salt. You know what's next...Stir it up! Add yeast and herb-y oil to the flour and mix until everything is combined and makes a ball. Let rest for 10 minutes. From here I just plopped the dough onto a VERY LIGHTLY oiled baking sheet and smooshed it with my hands until it covered the sheet. Put whatever toppings you like on it and bake it for 15-20 minutes at 450 degrees.

This dough is a little thicker than the other one I used to use but I like it.