Menu for April 30-May 6 and My Kitchen To Do List

Monday
b-English muffins, ham and eggs
l-leftovers
d-baked spaghetti, salad

Tuesday
b-yogurt, fruit and granola
l-cheese, crackers, fruit, raw veggies
d-grilled steaks, roasted potatoes, grilled squash, zucchini, onions, garlic and peppers

Wednesday
b-bacon, eggs and bagels
l-vegetable soup and corn bread
d-pasta salad with steak strips, green salad

Thursday
b-baked oatmeal with apples
l-leftovers
d-baked chicken, brown rice pilaf, broccoli and salad

Friday
b-pancakes and sausage
l-tuna salad sandwiches, chicken soup
d-flat bread veggie pizzas, salad

Saturday
b-biscuits sausage, eggs and grits
l-leftovers
d-black beans, brown rice, tortilla chips and all the toppings, salad and dessert

Sunday
b-cinnamon rolls
l-finger foods at church
d-bbq sandwiches, cole slaw and roasted potatoes


TO DO

Sunday evening-put beef bones on to roast in roaster, put yogurt on in dehydrator

Monday-dehydrate onions, add water, chopped vegetables and apple cider vinegar to bones

Tuesday-strain broth, put on more bones to roast, dehydrate more onions  NO MORE BROTH TO MAKE!!

Wednesday-

Thursday-dehydrate either onions or apples

Friday-dehydrate apples, can broth

Saturday-make grape , either apples or onions in the dehydrator

Where's the Beef?

My uncle and cousin raise Angus cows.  I have often mentioned to my mom that I would love to buy one from them to have processed.  She mentioned it to them in either December or January and, after many phone calls, we now have a freezer full of wonderful  Angus beef.

It is a huge blessing to have all of that tasty meat just ready for the grill, stovetop, or oven, but at the same time it causes a little bit of a problem.  You see, next week we will pick up 100 chickens to raise for meat.  There is absolutely no room in our largest freezer right now!  The chickens will be ready for slaughter in about 8-10 weeks, so I have to get creative.  We had already been trying to eat up most of the vegetables and fruits from the freezer that have been in there since last summer...and some from the summer before.  I do have a large freezer as part of my refrigerator and a 6 cubic foot freezer that we generally use for our home-prepared freezer meals.  I really don't want to purchase another freezer as we would have to put it in our detached garage.  We've had a couple out there in the past, but I find it easy to forget that they are out there.  And then there is the added expense of running them as well.

So, what's a woman to do?  My plan is to can the meat....as much as I can!  : )  I plan on canning chili, spaghetti sauce, beef stew, beef tips in mushroom gravy, sloppy joes, taco meat, and just plain ground beef.  When we ordered our cuts from the butcher we requested he save and freeze the bones for us as well.  We had a large box with around 40 pounds of bones!!  This past week I roasted half of the bones and made beef broth and canned it!  It only took 5 days for the entire process, but we got 31 pints of beautiful, wonderfully nutritious beef broth!  This week I will work on getting the rest of the bones processed and that should definitely give us enough beef broth for the year.  What a blessing!

We'll also make many freezer meals using the ground beef such as this family favorite:

LASAGNA--this recipe has been in my family for about 38 years...we all love it.  My brother who was single for many years also makes this recipe and adds lots of veggies to it.


1 lb. ground chuck 

1 cup chopped onion
2 large gloves garlic, minced 

2 tsp. oregano, crushed
2 cans tomato soup

 ½ cup water
2 tsp vinegar

 ½ lb lasagne noodles (cooked & drained)
1 pint cottage cheese

 ½ lb mozzarella cheese, grated
grated Parmesan cheese

In saucepan, brown meat, cook onion, garlic, oregano. Add soup, water and vinegar. Simmer 30 minutes, stirring frequently. In baking dish, arrange 3 alternate layers of noodles, cottage cheese, meat sauce, mozzarella. Top with Parmesan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes. I usually double or triple as it freezes well.

Mini-meatloaves, meatballs, beef enchiladas and frozen grilled hamburgers are also some of our favorite beefy freezer meals.  If you have more canning or freezer ideas for the beef, I would love to hear them!!

I'm learning as I go on the canning and have Jackie Clay's canning cookbook to guide me.  Chicken ala  king, plain shredded chicken to use for salads, casseroles and fajitas, chicken stew, chicken soup, and chicken and rice soup.  And, of course, I will be canning all that chicken broth as well.  I'll also be pulling out some of our favorite chicken recipes for the freezer, too.  Creamy green chili chicken enchiladas for some reason the link is not showing up, but click on enchiladas for the recipe....I recently found that someone had pinned it on Pinterest!!)  are always a hit on our dinner table, a variety of seasoned chicken strips, cajun chicken, a variety of grilled chicken....oh, I'm hungry just thinking about it!!

If you have any canning tips for either chicken or beef, I would love for you to share them.  And, if you need me, you know where I'll be....keeping my busy hands and busy minds in the kitchen!!

homesteadrevival.blogspot.com

Saturday Prep Post--Jamming with the Chicken Coop

Don't forget to leave a comment on this post to have a chance for a $15 certificate to Lilla Rose.

When I last filled you in on the chicken coop project we left it like this.  And it stayed this way for about three weeks due to Jeff and Jordan's crazy work schedule.  Jeff was, however, able to take a couple of days off and I am so glad to see some great progress being made.  We have one hen who is laying one egg every day in the chicken tractor.  I am sure she will be happy to have a real nesting box and a little privacy in the next few days.

Thursday and Friday the guys headed out back.

It's been bright, sunny weather with mild temps so sunshades were required....At least if you are a cool 15 year old!

The roof work is almost completed.

The doors are finished and the trimwork just needs a coat of paint.

Jeff is sharpening a carpenter's pencil ready to mark some wood.

Jackson is happy to be working with his dad!

Caedmon has already learned we measure twice and cut once!

This is my BABY!!  Can't believe he will be three this next week!

Aaron is cutting some board while Jeff watches on.

My boys have learned so many skills with this project!  Some mistakes have been made and corrected as they have worked all together.  This hasn't been a cheap project, but you can't put a price tag on the skills they have learned or on the time that they have been able to spend with their dad.  Priceless!!

Measuring for another cut.

Jordan putting on the shingles.  I think the older boys did all the shingle work themselves.

And Jackson was there to make sure they did their work well.  Or else!

Digging holes for the fence posts to get started on the chicken run.

Jeff is checking out the work on the shingles.

This is what it looks like this morning.  Lots of progress in the last two days!

Today the plan is to trim the shingles, finish out the inside with nesting boxes and a screened-in wall, and to get the chicken run completed.  Lots to do out there!

And while they are busy outside the girls and I will finish defrosting and taking stock of the the last of the freezers (I did two smaller ones yesterday) and making muscadine jelly.  Jordan has been foraging in our woods the last few weeks and has collected a huge amount of muscadines.  He has been bagging them up for the freezer and yesterday I cooked them down, strained them and got a gallon of juice. 

I wonder how many jars of jelly or jam I have?  No matter what happens we will have a great variety to spread on our fresh bread.   We'll all be busy today so I better get hopping!

Wild frozen muscadines with a few fresh on top

A gallon of muscadine juice

Linked up at homesteadrevival.blogspot.com

Photos courtesy of Kaelan Elizabeth Chamblee

Preparing for September

Other than purchasing 5 cases of rice milk for my dairy allergic children, I haven't been in food prep mode this week at all.  I did purchase 40 pounds of Granny Smith apples for our daily consumption and I will be making applesauce with them as well.  I have several pounds of carrots that need to be dehydrated (loving having dehydrated carrots to toss into some soup!).  The last of the garden tomatoes will also be dehydrated.  I recently dried several trays, put them in a quart jar, added a handful of dried basil (from my garden) and covered with olive oil.  I think they will be a wonderful addition to our Friday night pizzas or to a pasta salad.  The oil will be used as well!  I am letting it sit for several weeks before trying them out.

As soon as the temperature cools down I hope to set up several canning days for seasoned white beans and beef broth.   I recently acquired Jackie Clay's canning cookbook and am eager to can some of the "instant" meals that she includes...soups, stews, meatballs, sloppy joes and more.  We have enjoyed some quick meals incorporating the pinto beans that I canned a month or so ago and I think having even more quick meals ready to heat from the jars will be a blessing on busy school days.

I do have a new food storage system that is helping me to see exactly what I have on hand and how quickly items are being used.  It seems that we are  using olive oil much more than I had anticipated so I will need to keep much more of that in stock.

The men in the family have continued to work on our permanent chicken coop, not to be confused with the chicken tractors.  Our layers have grown and look beautiful!  It's fun to feed them bread and vegetable scraps a little at a time and watch them run after each morsel.  I know they will enjoy having more room to run around once their new home and run are completed.  We still haven't ordered the meat birds, but will soon.

The fall garden has been planted.  I had intended to order more seeds, but I think we will stick with what we have on hand for now.  My 18 year old son is in charge of the garden and has set out lettuce, spinach, turnips, broccoli and cabbage.  The broccoli and cabbage were started in seed starter and are still on the porch.  It will probably be a couple of weeks before he puts them in the raised beds.  The other seeds were direct sown, but we will be using some type of covering to protect them from the sun as we will still be having very warm temperatures for another 5-6 weeks I am sure.

This morning I will be preparing for our next school week and taking care of some household tasks.  Today is my husband's birthday, so while he and the boys work on the chicken coop the girls and I will be preparing a hamburger feast with an apple cake for dessert.  Our oldest daughter and grandchildren will be here as well, so things will get a little chaotic as well.  Aaron's 15th birthday is on Monday, so we will need to prepare his special egg-free dessert tomorrow.

I also started my Christmas gift list for this year.  I always keep an eye out throughout the year and have a box full of goodies already purchased.  With seven children and soon to be four grands, shopping early is a must!

As I sit here I think of so many tasks that need to be completed.  I think I will list them here and then check back next week to see how much I actually got accomplished.

-defrost large freezer
-clean out refrigerator
-organize kitchen cabinets
-take inventory and make a list of needed bulk purchases
-choose colors and buy paints for our indoor projects
-can beans and broth
-dehydrate carrots and tomatoes
-make a list with prices of all curriculum and learning items that I have for sale
-floor to ceiling and wall to wall cleanings of all the bedrooms

homesteadrevival.blogspot.com

There's a lot more to do, but I stop here.  I must be realistic.  These will be good goals for the month of September.  What's happening around your little homestead?

It's Friday!

What does a typical Friday look like at your house?  Today we have tomatoes and okra to can (soup starter!), piano and violin practice, lessons to teach, school work to complete, big laundry day--washing all bed linens today, floors to vacuum and mop and some other major cleaning that will most likely not get completed until tomorrow.

Outdoor projects need to be completed, fall garden needs to be started, lesson plans and copies made for the upcoming weeks, a calendar needs to be revised as several of the children will be involved in a film shoot for Jeff in September which will take up two weeks, building materials need to be purchased, books read, boo-boos kissed, snuggles given, food prepared.....

Just a normal Friday around here!!  LOL!  How does your Friday look?

Life Learning

So much of our education comes from just living the life that God has given us.   Twenty-three years ago when we first started on our homeschooling journey I don't believe that Jeff and I had any ideas of where this walk would lead us.  Visions of two little girls learning to read, write and study God's Word and His creation floated in my mind's eye, but never would I have dreamed that we would still be on this journey 23 years later and still have at least 16 years to go as our family grew to include seven children and now, three grandchildren as well.

Our current life lessons seem to be focused on homesteading activities and I am really enjoying these lessons.  This week we have been canning applesauce and today we'll tackle beef and turkey broths, tomatoes, pickles and more applesauce.  We have potatoes to dehydrate and onions to freeze.  Kaelan made a big batch of dough yesterday for cinnamon rolls and I rolled them out for breakfast this morning.  I spread my own homemade butter over the dough, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon and then rolled them up, sliced and baked.  Topped with icing made with more homemade butter, they were simply delicious.

Jeff commented after finishing his second cinnamon roll that our daughters sure could cook!!  Well, I reminded him that Kaelan made the dough, but I finished them up this morning!  There were/are extremely tasty and he also commented about the fresh taste of the butter.....and that we will soon be getting our own cow!  We have so enjoyed getting fresh milk for the last several months and I admit, have become a little snobbish now about our homemade milk products.  Oh, and we sit around drooling over cheese and soap making products from the Hoegger's Catalog and other products from Lehman's!!

This weekend we'll be busy building our first chicken tractor in preparation for ordering about 50 meat birds.  We're using a trampoline which was given to us just this week!  I'm sure I'll be posting pictures about that adventure soon.

Learning is more than just reading and writing.  Learning from real life is so much fun!  We are so very grateful that God as opened our eyes to learning in new ways with our children.  Yes, WITH!!  Our excitement for life learning is contagious and our children are catching the vision of becoming self-sufficient as much as possible and learning to live a more meaningful life that is not tied to the latest new-fangled toys, gadgets and clothing trends.   And in all this learning it seems that there is a much deeper awareness of the beauty and bounty that God as provided for us and a desire to use our resources for His glory.

So, what is God teaching you as you walk through life with your family?  Has your walk taken directions you would never have expected?  Please share!

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Things Are Hopping!

As usual we had a very busy weekend and this week proves to be just as busy or more so.  I had taken several pictures from out in the garden this morning only to find out when they were uploaded to my blog that the settings were off!  UGH!!  So only a couple of pictures to share here.

Jackson and Jordan weeded some of the in-ground beds this morning.  Mr. Horn Worm has appeared and is seeking to devour our tomato plants.  Jeff and Jordan have resorted to sevin dust, but is there a more organic remedy that will actually work?  I would hate to lose my tomatoes!

We have lots of cucumbers coming in--this is a first for us.  Can I make pickles with regular cukes or do you have to have pickling cucumbers?

This is a partial glimpse of my weekend.  19 quarts of pinto beans are now ready for a quick meal, 19 half-pints of strawberry jam and a dozen pints of blueberries ready for cobblers.  I also froze 7 quarts of blueberries and have a quart of strawberry puree to make fruit leather later.  I have about 28 pounds of peaches to start on today and our blueberries are ready to pick this week as well.  It a blessed and busy time!

Check out more gardening posts at smockityfrocks.com