mmm.... bread

The other morning I woke up and had this hankering for fresh baked bread. Knowing that I couldn't just go down to Safeway, because I loathe that bigbox, grocery hoarding store, I would have to find a recipe that I could work with. I have tried baking bread countless times. I've made all different kinds, some have turned out okay, and others have failed miserly. Not even the local seagulls were interested in picking up the scraps -it has been that bad.

-not saying this one was bad, just doesn't compare

So, my search began. It is no secret that I am a huge fan of The Pioneer Woman. I have been reading her blog/website for over a year and have loved every moment of it. So when The Tasty Kitchen went up I was ecstatic. A site that not only Ree would post her fave recipes on but so would countless other women/men who have this undying love for Ree's site, and the love of food. That's where we are now, I found a recipe for a simple white bread. Of course, as usual with everything, I messed with it-changing amounts, and well, I even added some basil to it by mistake. This has to be the best gosh darn bread that I have ever baked. It turned out just like the picture (hey, we live by pictures here), except better because it was in my frickin' house and I made it!

It was so hard not to carve into it the moment it came out of the oven. When it had cooled just enough we(the kids and I, although I was hoping nobody else wanted any) sliced up the smaller loaf for a snack - holy goodness! The butter melted into the bread and it needed nothing else. And it was gone. The second loaf was gone within two days - I even shared some with the gals down at The Cracked Bean Coffee Co., aren't I nice? This recipe was easy and turned out so good. Definitely a new addition to our recipe book for sure.

While this bread was baking, I asked my #3 in line(the one with the crazy eyes, she gets that from her dad's side) "Do you smell that baby?" She gave me a funny look and said "Did you fart mommy?" in response, without laughing, 'cause that's how I handle everything, I replied "no sweetie, I was talking about the bread." and then ran to my room and cried -okay, I laughed.

turn of events?

I’ve been torn lately as to which direction this blog should take. Originally it was thought that I would share my adventures, ideas, and life by using coupons to live frugally. Here is where I am torn; coupons are typically for items that are processed and mass produced. I enjoyed picking up my cheap often free shit from the grocery stores. But my family has been moving closer to a lifestyle in which we make most food items we consume from scratch and locally grown. We are also planning on turning our little half acre lot into our own food producing mini farm. Mostly gardens to start, and hopefully introducing chickens/goats in the future. Our own little homestead on the Olympic Peninsula.

I still save and double up on coupon circulars, watch the store ads, and even print up coupons on occasion, I just don’t frequent the big box stores that often or crave the processed foods. Really, I only go to Costco -to stock up on things- and a little country store called Sunny Farms. Unfortunately, very few coupons are exchanged at either. So, as we focus our attention on here for a more local feel with recipes and pure & utter homesteady goodness, I will occasionally tell you about deals, steals, good feels I come across.

With much love,

Tory

random thoughts... monday night style

Have you ever just been sitting around, drinking a cup of tea, enjoying the peacefulness because everyone has gone to bed... then this sudden panic and urgency rushes over you? Yep, that's because you forgot that your three year old has been sitting on the toilet for the last thirty minutes.

I walked in (bolted) and asked her if she was done. Her reply..."no." "How in the hell can you not be done? Child, I forgot you were even in here." She simply said, "Get out, I'm pooping." Enough said. And I walked out. Not two seconds later I hear "I'm done." Gaaaahhhh.....

Resolutions.... resolve

I’d love to say that I am confident, that I believe enough in myself to have at least one resolution that I know I can keep, but the fact is, I am not.

I wish I could say, I’d love for this to be the year that I can finally feel well enough to stick to something, anything. Whether it be a new diet, exercise plan, or give more time, anytime, to myself.

I wish that I had enough faith in my doctors, the ones that I trust to care for me, to make the proper decisions in my healthcare.

I’d hope that by deciding that I’m going to put my family first, doesn’t make me selfish. Just because I don’t come visit or call everyday doesn’t mean I’m not thinking of you too.

I’d hope that when I say “I don’t feel good”, or “something hurts” that I be taken seriously and that I’m not trying to drum up attention. I rarely make anything about myself.

I take full responsibility for my mistakes when I was younger and those in the future. Although, I don’t see them as mistakes, just lessons learned.

Now with all of that aside, I can now say...

I will work on my self-confidence. I am worthy, I am imperfect, I am me.

I resolve to lose weight. I miss my tight yoga ass.

I resolve to eat somewhat healthier. Notice the “somewhat”, there are somethings that I will never give up -coffee and breads

I resolve to become more active with my children. I'm with my kids 24/7, but not always mentally.

I resolve to be a better partner to my husband. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to bend over backwards babe, but will definitely work on it.

I will take time for myself. Mama needs a pedicure.

What will you decide to do?

well, dammit.

So much for keeping up with the Joneses.

Yes, I'm lame, but it's been pretty busy here. We've had Lu's 2nd birthday -um, tears- with par-tay; we've enjoyed Halloween, not to mention the hubby and I have been working hard on our new business-not too much longer peeps! Then my birthday came and went in the dark of night-thank goodness, almost completely un-noticed, whew, so glad to be 29 again. We've had sickness, and had to argue our way out of certain vaccinations. Now, we are getting ready for winter in a house we have no idea how it's going to handle it. We have discovered a leak on the roof at our chimney-fixed. Shitty gutter downspouts. Heinous heaters and about to receive our first two cords of firewood since we can't rely on heaters or electrical to the aforementioned heaters. Then last night we found our carpet downstairs was wet -only about a 4ft by 6ft section along a wall and we found the culprit right away. So we think we've fixed why the water was coming in, but need to fix where the water was seeping in and it's where the wall meets the floor. Fun.

My three months of menus was thwarted when a couple of pages went missing and um...someone forgot to save them. So we had nine weeks of menus and they were partially successful. The next six weeks will be a bit more difficult and flexible, I will still prepare a menu, but with options.

Now, I've been using homemade laundry soap since last April and have loved it -there is no strong laundry smell, made from products that you can find in most grocery stores, and best of all YOU know what's in it. Crystal over at the family homesteadhas information on the products that you should use and the recipe that she's been using. I have researched and read tons of recipes and adjusted for our family's needs. Our family has sensitive skin and this has resolved those issues. It's is easy on your clothing and works really well with cloth diapers. Now for all you laundry loving fools, I have put together the recipe and pictures of the process below.

Homemade Laundry Soap
1 bar of laundry soap-Zote, Fels Naptha, Libria, Ivory
1 cup of Borax
2 cups of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 cup of pure baking soda
6cups water
3 gallons hot water
3-6 drops of essential oil -lavender is our fav
5 gallon bucket
*grate up the bar of soap-most other sites only recommend 1/3 of a bar, I use an entire bar because I make nearly 5 gallons of laundry soap at a time, double the amount-remember four kids +one husband whose job requires the occasional jont in the woods + one mama who bakes without concern for mess = very dirty laundry all of the time. *Zote is what I used this time, probably never again -it's a little strong smelling-I've used Ivory and it's very gentle
*boil 6 cups of water in a pot, stir in the grated bar of soap and simmer until completely dissolved -be patient and STIR it.
*Stir in Borax, Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, and baking soda to the water/soap mixture -return to simmer, stir and wait for it to dissolve. If it seems too thick, add a cup or so of water to it, it'll help it dissolve quicker and don't forget to STIR.
*in your 5 gal bucket add 3 gallons of HOT water - I save my milk & vinegar containers just for my detergent.
*add your dissolved detergent mixture to the 5 gal bucket and stir until it is mixed well. Here is where I also add in my essential oil -stir that in and smell the deliciousness that will soon be your laundry!

I have so graciously offered to host Thankgiving-the day after, which we have dubbed, Our Food Celebration. And so it being an open invitation, I have no frickin' idea who is showing up -enter smiley face with beads of sweat or are those tears? no matter. More of that to come, I'll try to post some of my menu and recipes soon.

Oh, if anyone can remind me how to rotate these damn pictures, I'll send you happy thoughts

pork chops & applesauce...minus the lisp

Here I sit in my kitchen, looking out my amazing picture windows at the Olympic mountains. I am amazed at how incredible the weather has been the last couple of weeks and it reminds me of the weather sixteen years ago! It was my senior year of highschool and we had an indian summer much like we are now. I remember spending endless nights down on the docks at friend's houses -and swimming until who knows when. Not to mention partying and missing school, but we can stop there because we don't want to encourage anyone...especially a certain 13 year old who lives in my house. MOM NEVER DID ANY OF THOSE THINGS.

My mom and dad came to visit this last weekend to help us with some winter preparedness stuff. Heaters. We ripped out the baseboards and well, we hadn't replaced them yet. And all be damn if it didn't get cold at night. So that was the man project. Mom and I, we made applesauce. And of course I have no pictures proving that I actually did the process. Shame.

I do however have the end product and it is delicious. It was so much easier than I thought. I was figuring it was going to be incredibly tough because I didn't have a food mill, but we cooked the apples down enough that it wasn't necessary -we even had the peels in there. Out of about 8lbs of apples from our mysterious tree and 8lbs of Fujis from Sunny Farms, we got six quarts and four pints of the sweetest applesauce. The pint sized ones we added cinnamon to it. I really think the mix of apples made it for this sauce. We needed absolutely no sweetner. Yum. Now I have another 20lbs or so of apples in the garage and who knows how much more up in the tree. I also have about 6lbs of pears that I plan on making some apple/pear butter with. Maybe later this week or next we'll tackle that one. Mom also made a couple of jars of this blackberry/raspberry syrup/topping stuff. YUM!

This past week the girls and I spent some time at one of the many beaches near our house. The first picture is of the girls at John Wayne Marina. They loved it there, we were the only ones running up and down filling up the marina with rocks. It was awesome. On Friday, we hijacked the kindergarten/late preschool class's field trip to the Olympic Game Farm. It was great! We actually got a walking tour of the caged animals -sad sounding, I know. It seemed so much more scary then when we just drive through that area- they were right there, the lions, tigers, wolves, sturgeon- right beyond a little chain link fence. Frightening, yet so frickin' cool! Lucy was a crazy animal too! She was climbing that chain link fence that separates you from the carnivorous mammal, and throwing rocks at them. Actually, I was mystified that my girls were more interested in the rocks on the roadway then the snarling, drooling, licking their chops(not really) animals just behind a wee fence.


really if you ever get out to Sequim, WA you must visit this place. It is amazing. We live, literally across the street and a field from the farm. They are remodeling this winter and making bigger enclosures for the animals. Most of the animals are rescues from people that had them as pets when they were babies or they are retired movie animals. They also feed them raw meat-nothing alive, usually just beef & pork, but AMAZInG I tell you!

this was only a couple of days last week, I still need to post about my baking adventures and menus! Next post for sure!

I've been lost, stumbling mindlessly

seriously, the past three weeks couldn't have been any stranger. One week after Zak's chicken pox started, Lucy broke out, uh, that's putting it mildly, the pox unleashed on this child. She was blistered up one side and down the other and places where no one wishes to have them or anything...ever. Then just two days later Natalie broke out, and to not be outdone, Lucy broke with more. Natalie missed her first day of Preschool, actually her first week, but we played it off like it was preschool that was delayed another week. Sneeky, I know. Needless to say, we have ventured out and we definitely get the looks for Lucy -all scabby and cute. Alot of people asking if she's got chicken pox, we just look at the funny and nod. What would they do if we said no? Then this last week, Lucy started breathing funny-wheezing kind of, and her chest/stomach were doing this teeter totter thing. We took her to the pediatrician and they said that she was having an ASTHMA attack! I couldn't believe it. They gave her a treatment in the office and it seemed to help. They assured us that she'd be okay and that was it. No info. No reason. Just scooted us on our way with a prescription for Albuterol.

But no more than two hours later we were sitting down to dinner and she started again. It was frustrating because we couldn't give her more medicine for another two hours. We called the after hours clinic and they told us to take her in to the Emergency room. Well, at about the same time some jackass from California decided to go tearing through Port Angeles in his pick up truck, side swipe a jeep and then cross the center line to drive head on into a commuter bus. What does this have to do with Lu going to the ER, you ask. Well, the commuter bus had PEOPLE in it and they made it to the ER and were apparently in worse off condition than a baby who is struggling to breathe. FOUR hours later babe is seen and multitudes of tests are run and the results are that she doesn't have pneumonia, flu, swine flu, and no bacterial infections. Thanks.

Next batch of craziness is just so crazy that I can't really discuss it yet. I mean, it's just so mind numbing that you would probably just pass out from the thought of it, either that or we'd have to send the aliens over to your place. Or kill you, but I don't want to go there. I will go into further detail after paperwork has been filed and possibly have a website set up so I can send you there.


Lastly, what the hell is it doing? I mean we are already more than halfway through September already! We have volleyball under way, preschool going, and birthdays coming soon! The next three months will be even crazier with all the birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. Which comes to a complaint I have, WHY oh WHY must people be born around the holidays? I really wanted to make some homemade gifts this year and already with the house, school, and now our new big investment I'm finding a bit difficult finding the time for this. Maybe I'll do something little to go along with the other stuff. I have been dying to bake stuff so this past week I've done snack cakes, cookie bars, rolls, bread sticks, a loaf of bread, and more cookie bars. I've also done really well with the dinner menus and will post this past week's and next week's menus tomorrow.

So, I just finished up yet another batch of cookie bars, this time they were oatmeal scotchies and I have sweet'n sour meatballs in the crockpot. Husband and I are going to primer a wall so we can paint it this obscenely dark color, probably to just to mock it and reprimer and paint again. So, I will leave you with just some pictures and probably leftover chicken pox scabs. yum.