Hands In The Dirt

Yesterday was awesome! My soul was most definitly fed. Yesterday, I worked outside. The weather has been so mild (mostly) that hubby decided it was time for the ivy to come off the house and out of the ground. I couldn't agree more. I have grown to really hate the stuff. It has grown up to the second story window, all over the closest pecan tree and, pretty much, all around the house. I am sure when the previous owners planted it, they had no idea it would take over. At least I hope they didn't plan to drive me completely crazy with the stuff.

Hubby already pulled the lower half off



Ivy growing on this brick column




Ivy growing and growing and growing....


 I have quite a love-hate relationship with the outside of our house. For one, the color is olive green...or maybe it's army green. Not sure. Anyway, it isn't exactly what I would have chosen. Then there is the random bushes, plants, decorative grasses, trees and bricks that don't seem to have been placed with any thought to their growth pattern.

Honestly, WHAT were they thinking??????

We just had an oak tree removed that was planted under the electric line coming into the house AND planted only a few feet away from the house. That is a recipe for disaster if you ask me. Anyway, hubby got started scraping the ivy of the house and the twins and I got busy ripping their sorry little roots out of the ground.  Except for the sore fingers and muscles, I had the time of my life. I love getting my hands dirty in the soil. I am itching to get my garden up and going but hubby hasn't built my planter boxes yet. I am still going to get my seeds started though. I bought some on our last trip to Home Depot. I think I will order some from Burpee too. I love Burpee's catalog. The photos are so pretty and enticing. Great marketing manuever, Burpee! I can't wait for Spring! Of course, by the time the temps are hovering around the 110 degree mark, I will be praying for winter to come back! I don't know what it is about gardening and growing food that excites me. I guess that, even though I have been doing this for awhile, it still amazes me that all this food comes from teeny tiny little seeds. God is great!

Along with the weird planting of greenery, they planted bulbs in odd places too. Now, I know that they multiply all by themselves but you should really see where some of them pop up year after year. Once I get the ivy and other bushes removed, I will dig up the bulbs and replant them in a more appealing way. Some of them are just beautiful but they aren't showcased very well where they are planted. Ahhhh, lots of work ahead but it isn't really work if you love it...and I do!



These are my favorite!!!!



Mexican Stuffed Shells

I love pasta stuffed with virtually anything. Except liver. I don't think I would care for that so I won't stuff my pasta with liver. Everything else is fair game. I found this recipe at Once A Month Mom who reposted it from Food.com. I added my own touch to it and I am going to share this spicy little number with you right now!

INGREDIENTS

20 Jumbo Pasta Shells (this is about 1/2 a box. I use the other 1/2 for Feta & Artichoke Stuffed Shells)
1 lb. Ground Venison or Beef (You could also sub in ground turkey)
1 Envelope Taco Seasoning ( I use about 2 tbsp. homemade taco seasoning. Make it as spicy as you like)
1/2 C. Water
1 Chopped Onion
4 Oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1 1/2 C. Salsa, divided
1 C. Shredded Cheese, divided (Use whatever you like. I used Sharp Cheddar)
1 15 Oz. Can Tomato Sauce
Chili Powder, to taste
Green onions, optional

DIRECTIONS

Add onions to ground meat and cook until meat is no longer pink. Drain. While the meat is browning, boil shells according to package directions, drain. To the meat, add taco seasoning, water, 1/2 c. salsa, cream cheese and 1/4 c. shredded cheese. Stir until combined and cream cheese is melted. In a bowl, mix together the rest of the salsa, the tomato sauce and chili powder. In the bottom of a 13x9 pan, spread a thin layer of sauce around the bottom. This will keep the shells from sticking. Fill each shell with the meat mixture and place them in the pan. Pour the rest of the sauce over the top. Cover with foil. You can freeze it at this point or bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove foil and sprinkle the remainder of the cheese and green onions over the stuffed shells and bake for 5 more minutes, until all melted. Enjoy with a big glass of milk cuz this can be a little hot-hot-hot!!!

Sharing at:
The Way Grandmama Does It
The Prairie Homestead

Banana Chips

I like to buy lots of bananas at once and stick most of them in the freezer for smoothies. However, my smoothie stash was full so I decided to dehydrate them on the dehydrator my in laws got me a few years ago that I have used exactly 1 time before. I made venison jerky and it took FOREVER! I figured it was because I wasn't careful enough in cutting the meat into similar sizes so I was very careful to cut all the banana slices equally. I laid them out, the other morning, on the trays and started the machine up. It was very loud. Kind of grated on my nerves all day but I love banana chips so I figured it was worth it. I checked them throughout the day. Lovely flavor but way too chewy. I kept them drying until we went to bed. Still not finished so the next morning I turned that noisy thing on again. All day long I let it go about drying. I came to the realization that my previous experience had nothing to do with the meat not being sliced correctly. My dehydrator is just not very good.  There is no temperature setting, just an on/off switch so everything dries at the same temp. I finally had enough and turned it off and put the not quite finished slices in a bag. I figured, eventually, we would eat them. Eat them we did! While they weren't as crispy as I would have liked, the flavor was fantastic. I told hubby we were going to get another dehydrator soon because I want to dry lots of stuff, especially more bananas. I would have included a photo of my dried bananas but we, ummmm....kinda...ate them...ALL! They didn't even last 48 hours! Eight bananas in less than 48 hours...The sad part is that only my daughter and I ate them :) Well sad for hubby and son, but not for us. They were pretty good AND they gave our jaws a workout. That has to count for exercise, right????

Another Remodel...

I'm so excited!!!! And I just can't hide it!!!!! Sorry for the Pointer Sisters song just jumping in there but I really am excited! You know how you just wing suggestions out to your hubby, never really expecting him to agree with you much less act on it? Well I did that a few weeks ago and hubby has run with my ideas. What ideas??? REMODELING!!!! When we bought this house, it left A LOT to be desired. It was built in the mid-late 70's and had never really been updated. However, the 25 acres it sits on were fabulous so we bought the house. Thankfully, hubby can build ANYTHING so we have done 95% of the remodeling ourselves. The one area that has completely bugged me is the fact that the front of the house is no longer the front. It used to be but, for some strange reason, the driveway was removed and the back of the house was the only way to comfortably enter the house. Unfortunately, the back door goes right into my kitchen, quite possibly the untidiest room in the house. I am in that room almost all day and it takes a beating. I am also one of those people that cannot stand to have anyone visit my house when it is not spic and span. With the kitchen being the entrance to the house, I cannot simply keep visitors out of that mess so I drive myself nuts trying to keep in presentable. Here is an aerial photo taken late 70's-early 80's showing the drive in the front of the house.

Please excuse the crummy photography! But you can see the drive is in the front. It is no longer there. It has been moved all the way to the right (out of camera shot) so that you drive up and enter right into my kitchen. I casually mentioned to hubby that I wanted to move a wall in the living room and take it all the way to the other side of the house. Our living room is ridiculously small and moving the wall to open the space up would mean that the main part of the house was one big room. If I were cooking, I could still be a part of family activities. Right now, I am tucked away in the kitchen which is only open to the dining room. I never in a million years thought he would agree but HE DID! Then we were discussing how I could put my laundry room in the house (it is currently in hubby's office across the drive) and we were going to close in the porch and make a formal entrance to the house and put in a laundry room. Well, that meant that people would still walk into the house, kitchen first. So I, again, just wing an idea out there. I asked him why we couldn't just add a driveway to the front of the house again and, with the remodel of the living room, make a formal entrance in the new addition? Hubby actually liked the idea! So in a year or two, people might actually be entering here:

Except the front would look a little different with the living room extended across the front of the house. Doesn't it look all pretty with the snow? In the 7 years we have been here, it has only looked like this once! We certainly enjoyed it though. ANYWAY....I may have a normal house someday! Another idea I threw at hubby was adding a 2nd story to tie in with the loft. He very quickly nixed that idea and told me I was nuts. Yeah, probably.

Here's another photo I thought I would throw in just for fun. It's our mama cat, Hobbes sleeping in the bird feeder.  Bad kitty!!!



Soaking Grains?? Not Soaking Grains???

As someone who is relatively new to the whole foods arena, I am having a hard time deciding which is better-soaking grains or not soaking grains. I am currently reading Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions cookbook and there is quite an argument for soaking all grains before cooking or eating them. The idea behind this practice is that when you eat unsoaked whole grains, phytates bind to important minerals and keep your body from absorbing them. Soaking the grains breaks down phytates. Sounds good right? Well, maybe not. While I was doing my morning blog reading, I came across this article concerning soaking. I have to say that she makes a compelling argument against soaking. I think maybe I am secretly relieved. Soaking can be time consuming and, if you tend to be a bit unorganized like me, a real pain in the rear. However, I was determined to soak away for the health and benefit of my family. Could I really get away with not soaking them and just make my breads, pancakes and muffins without having to remember to get them soaking the day before I want to bake? Well, for me, I think the answer may be YES!!!!! My whole goal is to make the healthiest, tastiest food for my family because that is my job and I take it very seriously. I have been reading about how to use food to "cure what ails you" and, honestly, commercial food WILL KILL YOU! I think the best thing for my family is to eat the way God intended us to eat. He gave us all the food we would ever need to grow and thrive. Big corporations gave us all the chemicals, pesticides and man-made poisons, in the name of progress I might add, that is slowly destroying the human race. How many diseases do we need to have to realize that, if we are not eating whole foods, we are killing ourselves? I know it is hard trying to change something that you may have been doing for decades (believe me I know!) but isn't your health and that of your family worth it to you to try? I know it is for me.
So I think I will take a break from the soaking and just enjoy natural, God given food and let the healing begin!

Sugar...The Enemy

I have always had a love-hate relationship with sugar. I don't just have one sweet tooth. I have a whole mouth full of them! I was home alone a lot as a kid because both my parents worked so I didn't have anyone there to tell me "NO" soooooo, I ate a lot of stuff that wasn't good for me. My dad was a truck driver then a broker so he was gone a lot and mom and I would go to dinner quite a bit after she got home from work. It was easier to go to the corner diner and grab something than to plan a meal, cook it and clean up when it was just the 2 of us most of the time. Once my dad was home more often, we would still meet my mom in town after she was done working and go out to dinner so dessert was ALWAYS a part of my dinners (and occasionally a part of my lunches and snacks as well!) Fast forward many, many years and I am trying to undo the damage that I caused by eating all the wrong stuff. I came across this blog and read the article and was shocked by what I learned. Please take a couple minutes and read it. It was an eye opener for me. I no longer use regular white sugar but really, even sucanat, while a healthier alternative, is not without its ill effects on the body if not used in moderation. Moderation-that is the word I lacked as a kid growing up. I ate what I wanted and as much as I wanted because no one ever told me "NO". Now I am the parent and I have to tell my kids "NO"...a lot. Why? Because when they were really little, I let them eat what they wanted, as much as they wanted. Now that I know better, I have to retrain them, and myself, how to eat healthfully and in moderation. It's hard because I passed my mouth full of sweet teeth on to them, especially my daughter. Thankfully, she is quite active and loves to be outside running around. But I still have to say "NO". It truly is because I love them, though. Hopefully, one day they will understand....
   http://realfoodforager.com/sugar-much-worse-than-we-thought/

Strawberries...A Chocolate Wonder

My daughter came up with quite a tasty little snack that she wanted me to share with you.  She likes to experiment in the kitchen (wonder where she gets that from???) so she melted some chocolate chips. Then she stirred in a little shredded coconut. Then she took strawberries and dipped then in the chocolate mixture and rolled them in chopped nuts and more coconut. Delightful!!!

Happiness...on a plate!