Pioneer Cooking

The girls have been studying about the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and we have been reading The Long Winter together. We have been having so much fun learning about the lives of the early pioneers. We found some great pioneer recipe books at the library and had fun making some of the recipes from them last week. We made homemade butter, blueberry jam, and some yummy muffins.

To make butter first you shake, shake, shake your cream. E took this step VERY seriously....notice the look of intense concentration on her face lol.

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Then when E got tired of shake, shake, shaking the jar she passed it on to G for some more shaking. Careful, don't drop the jar!


Then when we sufficiently wore G out (who knew making butter could be such a good workout) she passed the jar on to Miss R for some more shaking (who then got tired and Mommy and Grandma got a turn at shaking).


Once the butter was seperated we poured the contents of the jar into a clean linen napkin to squeeze and strain out all the liquid buttermilk which was used to make pancakes the following morning. E loved the squeezing part (squishin' it as she called it) and viola we have BUTTER! :)

The butter after it was chilled for about an hour. Now ready to serve.

Then it was on to blueberry jam making. R mashed the blueberries and added the water and sugar and everyone took turns stirring it while it cooked. (E and Grandma pictured below)

Mmmmm....the finished product! :)

Then it was on to muffin making! We had a slight disagreement whether we should make plain muffins or blueberry muffins so we decided to make both. Yum!

Mmmmmmmm.....fresh from the oven!

The table all set for a little tea party with Grandma and my girls (candlelight compliments of the candle R made at the Heritage Log Cabin earlier in the month).

What a great way to spend a wintery afternoon. :)

Weekend in Review

The past few days we have seen the most beautiful butterflies in the yard. Of course as soon as I go get my camera and make it back to the yard they are always gone. I did manage to get a photo of a pretty monarch though (not as cool as the other ones but still very nice). :)




Since we got our garden in late this year we are still patiently (or is that impatiently?) waiting for something other than fresh lettuce and herbs. Don't get me wrong I love fresh lettuce for salads and herbs for all kinds of things, but I can't wait for fresh tomatoes and other yummy garden stuff to grow. I am so tired of the mealy, bland things that call themselves tomatoes from the grocery store. Blech. So MIL and I headed off to the farmer's market yesterday in search of some yummy farm fresh goodies. I came home with cucumber, zucchinis, tomatoes, red potatoes, fresh green beans, a variegated basil plant (it smells sooooo good) and even a fresh loaf of crusty french bread. Mmmmmm.



Today I made Ella a criss-cross dress using some leftover vintage sheet fabric I thrifted last month. Frankly I'm a bit lazy when it comes to sewing. I hate using patterns or measuring so I just kind of wing it and make it up as I go. Sometimes it turns out great sometimes it's a disaster, but it's still fun so what the heck. Luckily this time it turned out pretty well. Can't wait to dress Ella in it. :)
Love the funky green, plus now she matches my patio cushions LMBO.





We also have a new dove to add to our menagerie of pets. Introducing Miss Gracie (MIL suggested Grace but the kids have taken to calling her Gracie) so Miss Gracie it is. She is a super sweet, gentle little light brown ringneck dove. She is very tame and will sit on your finger and let you pet her. Awwww. Unfortunately Peace doesn't seem to think much of her. Every time we have tried to put them together he tries to peck the heck out of her. Poor little lady. So I ended up having to go buy a 2nd big cage for Miss Gracie. Which kinda defeated the whole purpose of getting a
2nd dove in the first place, but she is so sweet and I am quite fond of her so she is here to stay. Their cages are side by side in my studio and they do like to look at each other and coo and sing to each other. So I guess it's better than nothing.