Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Lentil Soup and a Birthday Celebration

 We Celebrated Mom, Jamie and Mari's birthday's last Sunday night.


 Jude and Jameson don't like to look at each other.



I tried something new today.
I made lentil soup for the first time.
I was looking for a way to make plain, thin tomato soup, "meatier".
And I found this recipe
I revised it just a little and loved the outcome.
Here's what I did , if you want to try it;


INGREDIENTS:
1 med onion
A dollop of bacon grease
1/4- 1/2 cup lentils
2 garlic cloves
A shake or 2 each of:
red pepper flakes
parsley
thyme
Italian seasoning
oregano
salt 
pepper
2 c. chicken broth
2 c. tomato juice (I used my homemade tomato soup)
1 can Great Northern Beans
Cheese, croutons, sour cream,etc for garnish

Saute the onion in the bacon grease til softened. Add the herbs, seasonings and lentils. And continue to Saute for 5 more minutes. Stirring to avoid burning. Add the tomato juice and broth. Simmer for 30 minutes.


 It'll look something like this





 Meanwhile, I fried cubed bread in bacon grease for homemade croutons

When the soup has simmered for 30 you can blend it with a submersible blender.( Or if you don't have one you can scald yourself trying to use a regular blender, like me. Next time I will do very small portions at a time. Or you could simply skip this step)
 The blended soup will look like this. Next you add your can of beans and continue to heat til they are hot.

Add your toppings and wah-lah:

If you wanted it even meatier, it would be good with pieces of bacon and/or chicken added yet. The red pepper gave it some heat so it would be very good with a dollop of sour cream. We really liked it. Sebastian told me to make it again. It is a very low cost meal! 

I am so anxious to start growing food in the garden! If only I could some how bottle up my current enthusiasm and save it for mid July when it's 100 degrees and there are lots of weeds to pull.
Well no sense worrying about that now, it's 10 degrees outside. :/
Have a good day,
Angie

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Community Supper and Baby Boy

Our church had a free meal for the people of our community..








Some ladies serving up pies








We had some balloon guys there for the kids. 
That was a hit!


A craft and face painting



Some nice background music. 
We had a nice turn out.
 About 60 community people





My baby is starting to sit up!



Sebastian is taking helping me to the next level!



Listening to daddy jam along with youtube. 

THE END

Thursday, December 26, 2013



 Christmas Eve

 He loves holding onto something when he is going to sleep :)









 He has wanted a tool set for , literally, years.


 Needless to say he was feelin pretty big!


 The big kid being excited about his gift :P 







Christmas day 
 Christmas morning bed heads.
Jude is feeling pretty chipper.


 Upon arrival at Grandpa's:


 So thankful for this whole clan!


 Jude got a singing giraffe but I don't think he knows it.





Very proud of his robe from Grandpa and grandma!


We had feasting and fun and gifts and fighting over game cheaters ( not the kids!) and good laughs!
Certainly the Father has lavished good gifts on us! 
Hope you all had a wonderful day!

Friday, August 2, 2013

Baby Room and Baby Chicks

A little bit of our life this week...

So its official. 

We now fit in with the other fine country folk out here in the sticks. 

Recently Grandma told the grandsons she was going to hatch silkie chickens for them.
They started out with like 16 eggs 
and ended up with 3 chicks each. 
A predator thinned our flock to 2.
I told hubby if we have 2 chickens, we might as well get more and make it worth our while.

He was at a job yesterday.
They had baby chicks and chickens running all over the property while he worked.
He came home and told me he found free chickens, if we want them. 
( AFTER a discussion with the owners :))
 
So we went back to the job last evening and the owners gave us 8 Plymouth rock chicks and a handsome rooster!
They are actually quite pretty and the rooster made sure I didn't over sleep today! >: /


 So we now have a total of 11 chickens roaming around here..
and Sebastian has spent most of the day outside with them.

 And here we have the carpenters working hard on the cozy little coup.




Sewing for Baby

And the baby room (aka closet) is almost ready..
clothe bins; made
baby clothes; washed and ready to go
flag banner; made
blanket; pieced (now to quilt it)
and still on the to do list:
wash all windows
can tomatoes (salsa, juice, sauce)
do corn,
house clean,
can grape juice,
the list goes on and on
I should probably get off of here and go work on it!


Sorry about the poor quality pics. My only camera is on my wanna be droid. 
another thing for the to do list:
BUY A CAMERA!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Going out with a bang!

I've come to the place in my life 
when I have quite a few things 
higher on my priority list 
than sewing for people.

Therefore, I am publicly announcing 
my early retirement from sewing :) 


This fall I will be cherishing 
a new born baby!
And I will also be starting my second year 
as a homeschool mom.

Since I don't feel I can give adequate
attention to those areas and my home and husband,
the sewing must go.

June 1 is the big day for 2 girls 
of whom I am making their wedding dresses! 
And their bridesmaids, mothers, etc.



I am cutting the first brides dress this morning and I have 30 days left to finish them all!!
AAhh!!
I just panicked again!!!
Got to go sew! 
Wish me luck! 
When this madness is over
I WILL BE DONE FOR GOOD! :)

Enjoy the sunshine, you all
I'm headed to my dungeon (aka sewing room)

Friday, April 26, 2013

AAAhhh Spring!!




Oh how I love all the first blooming flowers, the budding , trees, the birds
and the lack of snow of spring!















We found that the robin who graced the edge of our porch last year
returned this year and layed more blue eggs.


A puppy in the pea patch.

Enjoy the sunny day, friends!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

 Mama's scarf, Daddy's gloves, Sebastian's hat...


 Sebastian was delighted to wake up the other morning and discover snow on the ground.
He went straight outside after quickly bundling up 
and built this handsome cowboy snowman with no help from me. 


 The little man has been begging me since before Thanksgiving 
to get out our little tree and decorate it.


 He thought the day would never come
Finally the other day we did it. 


Last week us Miller ladies had a christmas crafting night..
Me and Sebastian made these. 
(I'm thinkin about spray painting a few green yet)

Now today it is almost 70 degrees 
And feeling a lot more like garden planting time than Christmas!
I'm definitely not complaining! 
I'm sure that snow will come back soon enough!