4 Sweet Sisters

The garden this past fall looked beautiful. We had lots of green foliage but not as many veggies as I had hope for... The reasons are many, but my least favorite would be the Fruit Rats and Squirrels. Yup, the rats ate every single one of our beautiful Cauliflowers and Brussels Sprouts! We had 12 of each plant growing wonderfully. They ate some collards, beans, and onions. I was disgusted. Especially after I saw the night vision videos of the little beasties. Yuck! We trapped and did every thing else we could think of. When I say "we", I mean Superman. If you'll recall I was really not into trying another garden, but my man really thought we should. So I jumped in. I encouraged, bought, planted, replanted, hoed and pulled weeds only to have those little buggers get the best of me. They didn't even care about the shiny things we placed in the garden to scare them away. No, they waited until night fall to have their feast. As you can see it's been 5 months and I...

Tempation has befallen us! This whole wheat pretzel recipe was the easiest I've ever made. And the tastiest! Thanks to Heavenly Homemaker. Here in Central Florida we have been experiencing some mighty fine weather and the baking bug and my spirit is renewed. It has been absolutely gorgeous and we've been able to turn the air off for almost a whole week. Ahhh, but alas the heat will be back on Friday and will be pulling the pool out and trying to keep the heat out of the house. But for now we will enjoy our baking... Here's the Little Chef with some of her cinnamon sugar delights. All buttery and sweet. Farm Girl and the L.Chef rolling out the dough. Wah La! A perfect pretzel. The finished product. There all gone! Have you made anything different and just for fun lately? Blessings, Julie

For years my Babcia has been relaying stories of my Father and Aunts childhoods. One thing that usually comes up about twice a year is the snacks she would make for them after school. One of their all time favorites being doughnuts. Yum! Today I was thumbing through MaryJane magazine (thank you Lora for passing it my way) I saw a recipe for Chocolate Aebleskiver . Basically, an old fashion, unfried doughnut. Well this month I've been trying really hard to find cooking experiences with my little chicks. Ones were it doesn't have to be perfect (a first born mama problem) and it's something we've never tried before. One stipulation. You must be done with your school work if you would like to help! So here we go Babcia. My take on your yummy fried doughnuts! 3 egg whites (called for yolks also mixed in separate with the milk err half and half - I didn't read the directions well enough) 2 cups whole milk (didn't have any half and half) 2 cups whole wheat flour (1/2...

The week before Thanksgiving and the weather is balmy 78 degrees. What's a Mom (who dreams of real falls and mild winters) supposed to do? Make Ginger - Lemon Slushies ! Actually the ginger in these slushies is the gift that keeps on giving. Last year we had a couple of weeks of fresh ginger in our kitchen basket. So I needed to figure out what could be done with it. I made candied ginger. Yummy! I had a small jelly jar of the candy and a 3/4 jar of dark, rich syrup left. Yesterday we attended a Pioneer Harvest Party. We needed a dish to share from the time period. The day before we were reading in a Plymouth Cookbook that the Pilgrims would make ginger tea regularly . Perfect! Here's what I did. I put the candied ginger in the blender with some water and pureed it. I pop it on the stove and simmered it until all the pulp rose and clung to the sides. I then scraped that out added more water, the ginger syrup , and a bit more dark sucanat . The Pilgrim's were said to ...

The apples are about done and I miss them already. I feel like I need another case or two. Crazy? I'm seriously starting to think that I need to open a seasonal bakery. Here's the totals for 5 boxes of apples: 30 apple pies 4 apple crisps 13 quarts of applesauce 7 quarts cinnamon apples (these were supposed to apple filling, but I didn't like the recipe) 10 gallons of dried apple chips 50 apples for eating lots of cores and peels for chicken food I'm hoping to get one more pie out of them tonight! This weekend I'm moving on to a case of pears that are ripening on my kitchen table. Date night with Superman. Outdoor Movie Night with the chickadees. Oooooo and making baby burp clothes for a cutie pie that will be born in the new year! I also probably should clean up craft room which looks like a bomb exploded in it and help make 4 Sweet Sisters Pumpkin Bread! Have a Great weekend! julie

School Girl By my tally we have made approximately 27 apple pies and 2 large apple crisp in the last week! I know what you're thinking, "She's nuts. Doesn't she already have a full to overloaded plate?" The answer is a resounding YES! We Mom's tend to do what we have to do and what we probably don't have to do also. Ahem. The Little Chefs friend Well there were some hectic moments. Like the small fire in the oven that only got bigger when I opened the door to throw in salt. SCARY. Or the black smoke streaming out of the ovens. I'm so thankful we have had a patch of cold weather so the windows could be open! First timers! Some fun times were teaching a gaggle of preteens how to bake their first pies. They were so excited. My own little chickadees and I even had a chance to bake some big ones! Farm Girl's friend. We made 3 different types of crust: -Whole Wheat with butter -White flour with butter -White four and vegetable shortening Flakiness Fa...

Hi Folks. I can't believe it has been so long. The fact of the matter is schooling, girl's groups, play practice and a much needed vacation is kept our family overloaded. All wonderful things, but you know how it is. Right? What's been going on around here? Well unfortunately last night Farm Girl found old Gert ( one of our first chickens) dead. Just before we had a passel of ladies convening on the homestead to make apple pies. Not good timing. She was truly one of my favorites. She had a wonderful life here. Eating spaghetti, hunting frogs, bugs and children. She also gave us some wonderful eggs! Farm Girl was a sad, but seems to be learning the ways of farm life. Saturday she is going to look at about 150 new chicks a friend of ours just got in. Maybe we can persuade Superman to get a couple ;) Our garden is perking along. We are already harvesting collards for the chickens! We put in two rows in just for them. The weather has not been cooperative. We haven't had a...