Recipes

A good green bean harvest meant we could feast on dilly beans this year. This was our first season of pretty good success with beans. At least in our eyes. Success looks different to different people. Let me explain that last year we were only able to save 11 ounces of beans… carefully packed away…

Making bone broth from scratch was much easier than we ever imagined. We’ve been easing into homesteading with the mindset of using what we have on hand and trying new-to-us things as we are ready. We harvested a half-dozen of our first meat birds over the summer. I saved the bones after meals and simply…

“How to make wild violet jelly” or “Another weed not to kill in your yard”. Wild violets usher in spring. The dainty purple wild violet flowers carpet the grass and hint of warmth to come. These flowers come in various shades of purple that are so intriguing at a closer look. At your next opportunity,…

Dandelions begin growing here just before we are about to get serious with the spring garden. They take all of the built-up cabin-fever energy and beg to be picked before the lawn mower hits the ground. There is a large space on our property where we haven’t had much success with growing anything but green…

A peach buzz began to swirl. There was a buzz among the locals that a peach truck was scheduled to deliver in our small town. There is nothing like access to good foods that aren’t typical of your area. A friend called to let me know it was coming and we started thinking about all…

When life gives you chestnuts… you make chestnut jam. When you have more chestnut trees than you can easily count, and they produce an abundance of chestnuts, you find a way to use them, unless of course, you are only using them to feed the local deer and squirrels. Since we have enough nuts to…

As summer’s end brought inconsistent weather, autumn stepped in, and we began to bring in less and less tomatoes. This just about puts a damper on canning tomatoes. We had too many to have for just sandwiches, but not enough for major preserving… What can you do? Use the tomatoes for a refrigerator jar of…

A touch of Lavender adds a delightful touch. This is the first year that I’ve successfully been able to keep a lavender plant AND IT GREW! As my confidence bloomed with more and more purple buds, I started collecting the flowers to dry in order to use in baking. The first time I’d ever had food…

Call it “Candied Jalapeños”, “Jalapeño Candy” or “Cowboy Candy”, it’s just yummy! Our nephew’s family joined us for a gathering and brought a tray, a block of softened cream cheese, and a jar of sliced jalapeños in a sweet, clear syrup, and dumped it over the cream cheese. There were crackers and tortilla chips to…

There’s nothing like garden fresh tomato soup. After a couple sessions of canning tomatoes from our garden, and a few rounds of B.L.T. sandwiches, we needed another way to enjoy them and boy did we find the answer with this tomato soup recipe. Our dining room table has become the place to unload our rolled…

Honeysuckle jelly, a sweet summer treat You’ll know summer is on the way when the thick, aromatic perfume of the honeysuckles embrace you, sending a stream of warm memories rushing through your mind and sending a joyous smile to your face. The nostalgia of bright yellow honeysuckle vining around old fence posts, causing one to…

Mulberry Jam Our garden has taken a little bit of a backseat while the mulberry trees in our area are producing their tender, subtly sweet, red wine colored berries. There is nowhere to hide those bluish stains on chin and hands from nature’s delicious and natural dye…especially when denying that you’ve spoiled your supper. The…

Special Occasion or Impressively Easy Breakfast Recipe A buttery slice of bread on a pan with a perfect circle cut out in the center and a freshly cracked egg dropped into the circle. Season with a little salt and pepper- maybe some jam. Special occasion breakfast or an impressively easy breakfast, it’s perfect for those…

Recipe for Gluten-free Peanut Butter Cookies If there are no gluten-free sweets in the house, our kids gravitate to spoonfuls of peanut butter. I love this recipe for many reasons; it’s delicious, it’s simple and there’s a great backstory. One of our family’s favorite elderly neighbors shared his recipe with me after finding out I…