Sausage-Spinach Soup

We needed food one night and this is what I came up with from what I had in the house.

Ingredients:
1 lb hot Italian sausage links
One jumbo onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
3 large carrots, diced
5 red potatoes, diced 

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
8 cups of water
4 teaspoons chicken bouillon
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 pack frozen chopped spinach

Cook the sausages in a large pot on medium heat. Prick the sausages so that they drain their juices into the pan. Add the onion to the pan, cook until translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Remove the sausages from the pan to a cutting board. Add garlic to the onion and cook, stirring continuously for 2 minutes. Add the carrots, potatoes, beans, water, bouillon, salt, and vinegar. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until the veggies are tender. Meanwhile, slice the sausages and return to the soup. When the carrots and potatoes are tender, remove the pan from the heat and add the chopped spinach. Stir until it all melts and breaks apart into the soup.

We served it with Saltines. Everyone liked it. Tommy only commented that the sausage was a bit too spicy for him and that maybe next time I shouldn't put so much spice in it. I told him we might try the soup with regular sausages instead of hot next time.

Growing Green Onions

Last spring I planted store-bought green onions in these self-watering buckets I have in my backyard.(I'll post about those soon when I have pictures of the process.) I quit tending my garden last July when I could no longer get off the couch due to my complicated pregnancy (that was being 1 month pregnant then).

In March, when I came out of the house from my hibernation, I was greeted by a pleasant surprise--the onions had wintered over! Now I know why they're called Spring Onions. Not only had they survived the winter, but they were thriving!

Here's what they looked like 2 weeks ago, still without any care from my hand.

That stalk is as thick as my thumb!

Here's what the bucket system looks like:

Green onions are like grass--they keep growing and you can just cut the greens to have perpetual use out of them. I haven't been using them fast enough and now they're so heavy with the pods at the top that they're falling over! I'm excited to see what the pods do. Last year I also planted radishes, and then when my garden got plowed over at summer's end, the seeds spread through the space. Now my whole garden is full of wild radishes! I still haven't done a thing! All those white blossoms are the radish plants.

What are your favorite things to grow? Have you tried anything experimental?

A Proper Sunday Roast

We have a missionary, Sister Atkins, here from England. She's mentioned a couple times how desperately she misses her Sunday Roast and Yorkshire pudding. So when I got the chance to have the girls, Sister Atkins and Sister Draney, over here for their Mother's Day Skype calls and then dinner, I knew I'd have to cook Sister Atkins her traditional Sunday meal.

We had Beef Roast in the crockpot, roast potatoes in the crockpot, peas and carrots, and Yorkshire pudding.

The Yorkshire puddings were the all-around kid favorite!

So then, recipes:

Slow Cooker English Roast, modified from So Wonderful, So Marvelous

• 2-3 pound beef roast 
• 1 large white onion
• 2 carrots
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1.5 - 2 Tablespoons of Spices (I used salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning)
• 1 1/3 cups beef broth
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup balsamic or cider vinegar

Layer the onion, carrots and garlic in the bottom of the crockpot. Put the beef on top and pour the broth, oil and vinegar over it. Then shake the seasonings on top of the meat. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. The meat was so juicy and tender, we didn't need knives!

Slow Cooker Roast Potatoes

• 7-8 red potatoes
• salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard powder, parsley to taste
• olive oil to coat

This is how my cooking looks. Sorry for the vagueness of it. But that's what I did. I don't peel my potatoes, just chop them to a size that I don't have to cut them on the kids' plates. Then I dumped them in the crockpot, coated them in olive oil, and went to town with my seasonings. Cook on high until tender and crisp, 3-4 hours.

Peas and Carrots

I just cooked a frozen bag of peas and carrots on the stove and then seasoned with Lawry's Seasoned Salt.

Yorkshire Pudding, from 12 Tomatoes

• 3 large eggs

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk

• 1 1/2 cups flour

• 3/4 teaspoon table salt

• 3 tablespoons beef fat (drippings from the roast)

Whisk eggs and milk together, then add salt and flour. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 1-3 hours. 

Heat the oven to 450. Collect the drippings from the roast. Whisk 1 tablespoon of fat into the pudding batter. Use the rest of the fat to spoon 1/2 teaspoon into each muffin cup. When the oven is heated, place the pan into the oven for three minutes to heat the fat. Then fill each cup with batter 2/3 full. Place muffin pan in the oven for 20 minutes. (12 Tomatoes says to then turn the heat down and cook another 10 minutes. I didn't do that because Sister Atkins said her family doesn't do that. It also says to pierce the puddings with a skewer to prevent collapse, but they all collapsed anyway.) 

The whole dinner was delicious, and Sister Atkins was in heaven having some English food once again. I should have taken a picture for her and her family. Next time we'll have to try Toad in the Hole. (She doesn't like fish, otherwise we'd go for Fish and Chips.)

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

People ask me for my buttercream recipe all the time. I've used this recipe for 16 years since I went to a Wednesday night church-sponsored cake decorating activity a week before I turned 12. It's really simple and easy to make...and somewhat addicting. Hide the graham crackers!

Wilton's Buttercream frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter/margarine, softened

1/2 cup shortening

1 tsp vanilla

2-4 T milk

4 cups powdered sugar

Whip butter with shortening.

Add vanilla and 2 T milk.

Mix in 2 cups powdered sugar til smooth.

Mix in another 2 cups powdered sugar along with 1-2 T milk, til smooth.

Should look like this:

My KitchenAid can hold a double batch at a time.

Animal Game

We started a fun game to burn off some energy on inside days. All of my (mobile) kids love to play. It's an easy thing for me to do when I'm breastfeeding my youngest, or cleaning up the table after breakfast. It's especially great on days when their energy levels are overwhelming and I'm getting overstimulated.

The game is simple: I call out an animal, and the kids cross from one side of the living room to the other and back, acting like that animal. Favorites include horse (Dancy loves to gallop and say, "Giddyup!"), fairies (Tinkerbell is all the rage in this house), and roly poly. I like to rotate between hopping, crawling, running and flying animals. Or on days that they seem extra energetic, I go through a lot of running animals.

They love the game and it's a great way to get them exercise so they'll actually nap!

All Things Homemade

Several years ago I started down this path of making household and hygiene products myself. It's not about jumping on the DIY bandwagon for me, but a mix of several reasons: I like to save money; I like to reduce toxic chemicals in my life; many of my in-laws are allergic to perfumes and dyes, so making things myself saves me the headache of finding the right product at the right price; I have psoriasis in my hands, and occasionally get eczema in my elbow pits, and homemade products have been helpful in managing that. Here's what I can think of off the top of my head that I make myself, using a few simple ingredients.

 Laundry detergent
1 bar soap (Fels-Naptha is great and only $1 at Walmart in the laundry aisle)
1 cup borax (20-Mule Team is found in the laundry aisle. About $4 for 76 oz)
1 cup WASHING soda (Not baking soda. Found in the laundry aisle. About $2.50 for 55 oz.)

Grate the bar of soap using a cheese grater. The finer, the better. I even break up the shreds when I'm done and it turns into a powder. Add the borax and washing soda. Mix well. Store in an airtight container. Use 1 Tablespoon per load.

I don't know exactly how many loads this does, but I've got 4 kids ages 4 and under, and my last batch lasted me 4.5 months. Totaled around $1.50 and it took me about 10 minutes to make it. I reuse a Blue Bunny ice cream box to store this. I'm not gonna spend $10 for an airtight container! A double batch filled the carton.

Pre-wash spray
1 part liquid dish soap
2 parts hydrogen peroxide

Spray on the stain and rub or scrub in. Let it sit for an hour, then wash.

This one thrills me! I've got hard water, so there had been a ton of white mineral build up on my dishes. After using this, it has stripped all the mineral residue off, and no more accumulates! Yay for dishes without white crusties!
Dishwasher detergent
1/2 c washing soda
1/2 c borax
1/4 c citric acid (I bought mine online) + 1/4 c for hard water
1/4 c kosher salt (for scrubbing action)
1 tsp rice (to prevent caking)
Mix all together and use 1 T per load. Fill the rinse aid compartment with white vinegar.

*This recipe actually doesn't save me money, though it might when I have a water softener and don't have to use twice as much of the most expensive ingredient. I haven't done all the calculations. What has me sold on this homemade recipe is the effectiveness in removing and preventing mineral residue.

Cleaning supplies
For glass and mirrors, I use a microfiber cloth and a spray bottle of water. If the glass is particularly dirty, it can be half water, half vinegar.
Disinfectant spray--This amount fills a 28 oz spray bottle.
1.5 tsp washing soda
1.5 tsp Borax
3 T vinegar
3 c hot water
15-20 drops tea tree oil (optional)
Bleach spray--One part bleach, 3 parts water.

Veggie wash--grab a spray bottle (I reused mine from the last veggie spray I bought from the store) and fill it half with water, half white vinegar.




















Chapstick
*3 T beeswax pellets
1/4 cup sunflower, almond, or olive oil
2 T cocoa butter or coconut oil
1 pea size drop of lanolin
8 drops Vitamin E oil, or 4 tablets worth
15 drops peppermint oil
10 drops lavender oil
Mix all ingredients in a pan (or one cup metal measuring cup) to heat on the stove on medium heat. Use a medicine syringe to carefully fill the tubes. Seriously, be careful! Any sudden burst of pressure sends liquid flying, tubes falling, messes everywhere. This recipe says it makes a dozen, but for me it makes 20-24. I don't know why. Maybe the difference in tubes? Also, I've found that the 3 T beeswax makes a bit of a soft chapstick. It was melting in my pocket all summer, and worse when I'd leave one in the car. This time I made another batch, I used 5 T and it's been great. Had to get used to the harder consistency, but it doesn't melt all over on me. Next time I might try 4 T just to see what it's like in between, but so far I much prefer the 5 T adjustment.



















Lotion
1/2 c almond or olive oil
1/4 c coconut oil
1/4 c beeswax pellets
2 T shea or cocoa butter, optional
1 tsp vitamin E oil, optional
essential oils, optional

Combine all ingredients in a jar. Pour 2 cups of water in a pan. Put the jar in the pan and heat on the stove on medium high. Stir occasionally. When all ingredients are melted into one liquid, remove from the heat and let cool.
*A little goes a long way with this stuff! I use a dollop the size of my index fingernail. I tried mixing in some cabbage juice because that's really good for soft, healthy skin, but it didn't mix well and you can see it separated at the bottom of the jar. It was worth the experiment though.

Exfoliating sugar scrub & Moisturizing cream

Yay! Now I have all my homemade recipes in one place and I might actually start using my blog for myself so I don't have to look through pinterest every time to find a recipe:)

Coming soon: liquid hand soap, liquid dish soap, AND homemade soap...100% with ash and animal fat.

DIY Spice Rack

I always like bragging about my husband. He's freaking awesome.

Back in November (yeah, so I've had other things to do besides take pictures and blog), he made this spice rack for me. We couldn't find anything we liked online, but desperately wanted/needed to replace our spinning two-level bamboo rack. Being DIYers helps if you're compulsive savers/hoarders/scavengers. Okay, I wouldn't say we're hoarders, but we do save old things with the intentions of repurposing them.

Like this spice rack. It is composed of:

1 desk drawer

2 picture frames

1 Scrabble game

1 chicken broth container

Purchased:

white spray paint

1 8-ft 1x4 (he thinks. Remember, this was 2 months ago)

So The Husband took the bottom of the desk drawer to use for the back of the rack; cut the wood to size to make the top, bottom, sides and middle shelf; nailed on the frames and Scrabble tile racks; spray painted in white. The chicken broth container on top of the rack holds the rest of the Scrabble tiles for changing out messages.

And it's perfect for us. No more spices falling off every time we spin the rack, and everything fits! There's even room for more...which I'll probably fill soon. We like food that tastes good, and wide variety of flavors.