Winter activities

Since we really couldn't spend much time outside this winter, we created things indoors.  If I just relied on my memory, I wouldn't think we've done that much, but here's the proof in pictures.

Making string ornaments

Our family values list, prominently displayed

The 2nd annual ginger bread house

A 2nd tiered cake, which we made after making one for my sister's shower

My first knitting project (yep, a scarf)

My friend, the lucky recipient of the scarf.

Baby quilt sections sorted out - the squares were cut out by my older sister, and I finished the project

Finishing the top of the baby quilt

A "forest" made of string and construction paper leaves & flowers to encourage spring to come.

Crafty times at Main Street Homestead

Now that my MIL has moved in with us, there's much more going on in the area of arts and crafts.  I'm a much more practical person, and with as much as we have going on all the time, we don't get to many crafting sessions with the girls other than coloring in coloring books.  We generally don't ever make anything.  But, that's changing.  Nini, as she is referred to, is very crafty.  She sews, paints, and other crafty things.  She's already made the girls some adorable tulle tutus.

Here's some of the other crafts that are added to Main Street Homestead now that Nini has joined us:

Painted gourd bird houses

Canvas bags sewn and painted with cute animals

We decided to make some fairy doors too, and here's a picture of our 3-year-old helping her Nini paint them.

Granola

My sister gave Jaimie and me a mason jar of home made granola for the holidays.  After we each ate our individual baggies of it, I mentioned to Jaimie when I got home from work that I couldn't stop eating it and couldn't stop thinking about having more.  We then ate the entire mason jar of granola and labeled it "crack granola."  Yes, it's that good.

I e-mailed my sister and asked her for the recipe.  The recipe goes something like this.

Take a 9x13 pan and cover the bottom with a decent layer of oats (maybe 4 cups or so).  Then add your other proteins.  We added pistachios, almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and a mix of nuts that was almost gone so I used it up.  You can add what seeds or nuts you want.

Then bake that at 350 for 10-20 minutes.  We baked for 15. 

A couple minutes before it's done baking, put your stuff that will become liquid in a pan.  We used peanut butter, honey and molasses.

You can also use other nut butters or maple syrup (I'm hoarding what little maple syrup we have left so none went into our mix).  You will heat it only until it becomes soft and will easily spread over the oat mixture.  If you want chewier granola, add more liquids.  For dry granola, add less. We like it chewy and had about 2 1/2 cups altogether.

Take your oats out of the oven and put your liquid mix in.  Mix it up so it's all coated.

Let it dry for a couple hours.  This is the difficult part because it is nearly impossible not to nibble on some as you are passing near it.

When it's cool, crack it up and then add your fruits.  In ours, we have coconut shavings, dates, figs, craisins, dried strawberries and dried peaches.  Add whatever you'd like, but I think that one of the reasons that the granola we received as a gift was so delicious was because of the figs.

If you are able to resist eating it all as is, you can add it to yogurt.

going against the gift giving grain

I read an article recently that listed the 7 things that people shouldn't give as gifts.  Number 1 was kitchen appliances (yep, we've broken that one at this house, we've both given each other kitchen stuff and loved it).  The article listed gift cards, too.  We've both given and received gift cards, and liked them.  The main complaint is that they are impersonal, but really, if the gift card is to a place that you enjoy, then even gifts cards can be a thoughtful gift.

The article also listed food, saying that there's an overabundance of food at this time of year and no one wants it.  Well, no one interviewed me.  I love food, and I love getting and giving it as a gift.

Another article said not to bother with homemade gifts.  At our home, we LOVE home made stuff, stuff we can make home made stuff with/in, and other gifts of that ilk.  Of course, not everything we give is homemade, but we make a conscious effort to give things that are homemade and handcrafted.  This year, the girls will be getting hand made, hand dyed, hand sewed dolls.  The dolls are from a local artist and it's nice to support her by buying her dolls. 

As for home made food, we tend to give that out every year.  Generally, we give out a gift basket of home made stuff, or maybe just a jar or two along with a bottle of mead.  Giving a gift that you put your effort and love into is almost always appreciated.  (I like to mention that my siblings and I loved it when we got the jam from grandma when we turned 18, rather than getting toys.  We always got the comfy knit slippers but getting jam too, that's just yum.)

Even if it's not home made, food can be a great gift.  I mean, everyone eats.  Giving food as a gift is  creative, both for the giver who chooses what to put in the gift, and the receiver, who gets to make whatever she or he wants with new ingredients.  It's consumable, so it won't take up space in your home for any extended period of time.  It's also thoughtful because, generally, people would put in a gift something that they want to share that they like, or something that they think the other person would like.

Forget the rules that say you should skip a whole category of potential gifts.  If the person likes it, it's a good gift.

baking craziness

We spent most of the weekend baking for yesterday's Auction & Pie Social.  Unfortunately, in the process of getting the boxes for the auction and getting the girls' stuff together, I blanked on actually packing the pies!  Thankfully, there were many pies there anyway and they were all delicious.
We made one box of breakfast goods: pumpkin muffins, whole wheat triple berry ricotta scones, a mini loaf of banana bread and a mini loaf of rhubarb bread.  Another bread box contained zucchini-banana-mint-pecan bread, earth bread (zucchini, carrot & banana), banana bread and rhubarb bread.  The apple box contained a jar of apple pie filling, a jar of apple butter, and a jar of apple sauce.

The hot box contained dried Thai chili peppers (from Jaimie's mom), canned chilies (my mom's), triple hot green salsa (my mom's), tongue tingler salsa (my mom's), and jalapeno jelly (that was ours).

We also donated a bottle of mead.  They all seemed to be well received, so that made us quite happy.
Some of the pies there were AMAZING.  My favorites were the ground cherry pie and the apple pie that had cute little cut out apples for the crust topping.  There was also a water pie, a Depression era recipe that had rum flavoring.  It was quite tasty.  We bid on and won a foursome of mini pies - water pie, lemon pie, pecan pie, and cream pie with raspberry jalapeno topping.  Tonight we'll be enjoying delicious pies made by the Temple of Pie with some of our homemade ice cream.   So yummy.

So what have we done lately?  Jaimie made some pasta with pesto yesterday, which was a delicious pesto that we'd frozen about a month ago.  Basically, it was basil, pecans, nutritional yeast and olive oil.  Pesto can be pretty much any herb with oil.  Nutritional yeast is a good idea, rather than Parmesan, if wanting to freeze it.  In our freezer we have nasturtium pesto and oregano pesto.  I'm looking forward to trying those.  We have more oregano outside still, and some mint, so we'll be making more pesto with those.

Today, Jaimie made roasted chicken, baked potatoes, and corn on the cob.  We'd frozen the corn on the cob when it was on sale this summer for local, organic deliciousness for only $3 a dozen.  We bought 6 dozen (minus what we ate then) so we'll get to eat it throughout the winter. 

This past weekend was also racking time for the two batches of beer.  After so much time, you've got to rack it into bottles.  We get to taste test as we go, so that's enjoyable.  In two weeks, he'll get some more beer to drink.  You've definitely got to plan ahead if you want a beer and have to wait 6-8 weeks.

My mead isn't fermenting as I'd like so I've got to re-pitch the yeast.  It's jasmine flavored, so we'll see how it tastes in a month or two.