I love the convenience of having canned black beans and other dried beans on hand. However, I don’t like the price of buying canned black beans. So one of the first things I learned to can in my pressure canner was how to can dried beans. Every year I buy dried beans in bulk at …
Do you read gardening books and think, “Oh, I need to remember that”? And then later can’t remember what you were supposed to remember? Do you take care to write down what you planted and harvested one year only to not be able to find the paper the next year? When you have a question …
Homemade vegetable stew can be made with pretty much any vegetables you happen to have on hand. I use a combination of fresh seasonal vegetables, home canned vegetables and dehydrated vegetables to make this use-what-you-have vegetable stew. While I do have a real vegetable stew recipe that I share below in the recipe card, I …
Every winter my children start asking for hot chocolate mix, because you can’t have winter without hot chocolate. This homemade hot chocolate mix comes together very quickly and tastes great. Once the mix is made, you can have rich, tasty hot chocolate by just adding hot water. Although, some members of my family like to …
This post contains affiliate links; you can learn more on our disclosure page. The dance company that Phoebe is involved in has a big sister/little sister program. They pair the junior company members with with senior company members so that each girl has someone specific to go to when she has questions or needs help. It also helps the older girls to reach out to …
Welcome to this week’s link up of Handmade Christmas gifts. All the categories will be open for links through Nov. 31st so make sure to go back through and see what everyone is linking up. Also, feel free to link up items as you complete them. The hardest people for me to make gifts …
When my older children were little their Grandpa gave them a finger print art book. They are way beyond finger print art but Esther thought it was so “beautiful” when I showed it to her. (disclaimer: that was the only link I could find to the book. I’m guessing it’s out of print, I know …
Lentils and rice is a super quick and frugal recipe that is hearty enough to serve for dinner. This vegetarian recipe is super flavorful with the addition of onions, carrots and a few warming spices. What’s so great about lentils? For starters, they are a nutritional powerhouse. One cup supplies 16 grams of fiber, 17 …
I’m not sure if it happens with all beekeepers or not, but ever since people have found out that Gabriel is keeping bees he’s had several request to come get bees that are living where people don’t want them. This was one of those adventures. There were some bees living in a old propane tank …
…or maybe I should title this “the bee experiment that every beekeeper we’ve talked to has said is a really, really dumb idea.” But you know, we are just kind of like that. We get an idea in our heads and can’t seem to get it out. We know it probably won’t end well but we want …
wow! I can’t believe it’s week 5 already. The summer is just flying by. We had fun making this dress today. We saw a similar dress in the quilt shop hop we did a few weeks ago and I knew I wanted to include a back tie dress in the sew~along. So we took the …
Yikes, getting the tutorial up late is becoming a habit. Hopefully one I will break next week. This is our fourth week and if you’ve been making a dress each week I bet you’re becoming quite confident in the construction of a pillowcase dress. Also, I hope you are beginning to realize the variations are …
The first time I made Phoebe a pillowcase dress I made it the traditional way and I thought it was pretty cute. It was a little hard to get the ribbon tied without the dress falling off but we eventually got it done. When Christian, who was then about 11, saw it he declared it “inappropiate”. …
This weekend we discovered tomato hornworms in our garden. Can you see it? Carl had to show me several times before I could figure out what he was showing me. This is how he knew something was up…leaves totally stripped from the top of a very healthy tomato plant. So now, each evening we have …
All along the rural roads in Texas there are wild mustang grapes and muscadine grapes that grow. Every summer we go grape hunting and pick enough grapes to make grape jelly and grape juice. Mustang grapes and muscadine grapes are not the same plant, although most of us use the terms interchangeably, but they and other …
So, what exactly do you need to make a traditional pillowcase dress? Fortunately, not much. Here’s the basic list… pillowcase ribbon sewing machine matching thread ric rac or other embellishments (optional) For some of the other variations you will need… 1/4″ elastic elastic thread bias tape (you can make your own, if you want) extra …
For our summer sew-along I thought we’d make some pillowcase dresses. Before you roll your eyes click off this post, hear me out. As I thought about projects that are fit the parameters that I want to keep for a summer sew along I believe that the pillowcase dress and variations of it will fit …
Fresh, zesty black bean and corn salsa, also known as Texas caviar, is the perfect appetizer for summer. Filled with garden fresh tomatoes, onions and corn this salsa goes will with fish and pork tacos and just plain chips. In fact, this salsa is so hearty and flavorful that we’ve been known to just eat …
Summer is the time for light meals that are loaded with summer vegetables. It’s also the time basil plants are huge. One of our favorite meals is pesto pasta with summer vegetables. This summer vegetable pesto pasta dish is loaded with garden fresh vegetables such as yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, onions, and tomatoes. Ingredients Enough …
Cabbage is a staple in our kitchen during the winter and early spring, it’s probably our favorite winter vegetable. Every year we grow enough cabbage to eat fresh and preserve some for the summer. Growing cabbage in the home vegetable garden is relatively easy and a great way to have greens all winter long. Cabbage …