..... Our Old Homestead

Monday, April 2, 2012

Parsley Pots

Pin It We use alot of herbs and spices in our kitchen. Occasionally my dear hubby loves to don an apron and cook up a storm and when he does, he throws everything into the pot but the kitchen sink.

He especially likes to use fresh herbs, as do I, so we try to keep them growing all through the year.

The kitchen window ledges we have are perfect for holding little herb pots and well, the parsley pot was beginning to look a little sad. It had been growing most of the winter and I had trimmed it and used it constantly but the plant kept on producing!

It was time to change the soil, add new seeds and start over. We always have two pots of parsley on the go .... yes, we use that much parsley! Taking out all my supplies I notice that I better pick up some more herb seeds next time I am at the feed store ... we are running a little low.

I had picked up these little pots at Goodwill last year and just love them. They are the perfect size, I love how they have 'HERBS' printed on the front and they are green! My favorite color.

Well, now that the second pot of parsley is planted, onto planting the basil and oregano! Doing little things like this reinforces our desire to be as self-sufficient as we can on our old homestead and it is such an easy task!

Remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Surfing Leads to Success!

Pin It I love food ..... and I have the hips to prove it. I especially love food since I stopped smoking on January 1st of this year. Everything tastes better .... my taste buds have come back to life so I am enjoying lots of new-found flavors and savoring the old ones!

These last few days have been dreary and rainy which encourages surfing the web. While surfing, I found this. Well bread is my downfall, especially homemade bread. I have tried making bread from scratch with my own two hands and have been somewhat successful ..... (now I just use my bread machine so I will be 100% successful) .... but I was drawn to this recipe ..... by gosh Country Momma called them Easy Yeast Rolls so they had to be easy right?

After digging out all the ingredients, as you notice there aren't many of them, my darling husband starting drooling with the thought of fresh, homemade rolls to have with dinner.

Setting up the kitchen counter top for my millionth attempt at making homemade dinner rolls the old fashioned way, I was surprised to watch as the yeast actually did start to foam like Country Momma said it would!

This might be good .... excitement was beginning to build and I was anxious to keep at it, following the instructions exactly as to not make any mistakes.

After carefully adding all the ingredients and mixing well ..... unfortunately I do not have a Kitchen Aid mixer, I just use a wooden spoon and lots of muscle ..... I kneaded the dough until smooth, covered it in oil and let it sit to rise for the hour.

The dough rose so nicely! Just perfect. I was so excited but other attempts looked just as good at this stage so I tried not to get too hyped up. I knew it was the taste that mattered when pulled hot out of the oven.

I shaped the dough into twelve small buns and divided them between my 'new to me' muffin tray and my snowman pie plate. Now I know winter is over but my regular pie plate was being used for Shepard's Pie at the time. LOL

The dough seemed to rise faster the second time. I don't think it took any longer than 30 minutes to be double in size. Pre-warming the oven, my taste buds started to jump anticipating yummy dinner rolls.

It was very difficult to let the rolls cool enough before we could sink our teeth into them .... yes, they were VERY easy to make but best of all ....

they were the BEST dinner rolls I have ever made!!!! I HIGHLY recommend this recipe! Just perfect with some homemade dandelion jelly. Don't worry, this isn't an April Fools joke, they really are easy and delicious! LOL

Remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Saturday's Snaps

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Have a great Saturday and remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Friday, March 30, 2012

New Ironing Pad

Pin It I am not like some other lucky women who have a whole separate sewing/craft room ... I envy those women sooo much!

My sewing table is my kitchen table, my fabric is stored on the top shelves of my pantry, my sewing machine has a special place on the floor and my cutting mat is kept neatly slid behind the china cabinet ..... and I have NO room for an ironing board.

Our kitchen counter is a large island. The microwave, telephone and my latte machine (a Christmas gift from my son and it is the love of my life) are the only items that have a permanent residence on the kitchen counter. Everything else is banned! Having a cluttered kitchen counter is one of my pet peeves and since it is also my ironing, cutting and measuring surface when I sew, I insist it stays cleared.

In the past I have laid down a kitchen towel if I ever needed to iron. That method worked well until the other day when I was cleaning up my fabric stash and I decided it was time for a change. I found a large piece of very heavy fabric that I had NO clue what I would ever use it for and decided to make my own ironing pad to protect my beloved countertop.

This fabric almost looks vintage .... I vaguely recall picking up a large box of miscellaneous fabric at a yard sale last summer that was marked 'free' and this piece was part of the contents. It is heavy like denim. There was approximately a yard and a half of the stuff and figured it would be perfect for the ironing pad I had envisioned.

I measured and cut so the pad would be four layers thick. I decided on a double french seam so it will lay flat while I iron.

The finished pad is 22 inches by 28 inches and it is perfect for my needs and it is protecting my countertop. I am enjoying the task of ironing once again!