The kitchen is where simple living comes to life. It’s where home cooking meets food preservation—where you turn garden harvests and pantry staples into nourishing meals for your family. In this space, you’ll find from-scratch recipes made with whole ingredients, along with trusted techniques for preserving food through canning, fermenting, dehydrating, and freezing. Whether you’re making soup from fresh vegetables, putting up jam, or planning a pantry that supports your values, these resources will help you slow down, cook with purpose, and make the most of every ingredient. Because feeding your people well doesn’t have to be complicated—it just has to be real.
Welcome to week one of Preserving the Harvest which will be a twelve week series on preserving fruits, vegetables and herbs to use throughout the year. My goals isn’t to teach you everything you need to know about every preservation method or every fruit or vegetable. My goal is to encourage you to not see …
Note: Once a week I share a popular post from the archives. This post was originally published in August 2011. Saturday morning when we woke up was the first day that we were all home, all day together in a long time. My boys were very tired from youth church camp and so they slept …
I have a confession to make. Until a couple of weeks ago I had never made snickerdoodles. {gasp} My family has survived this travesty…but just barely. So when Granite Mill Farms offered to send me a bag of sprouted grain spelt to try, it was the perfect opportunity to put my issues aside and make some snickerdoodles. …
We’ve had a very busy week around here….it’s performance week for our homeschool drama club. This will officially bring our 2014-2015 school year to a close. Oh, we still do math and reading throughout the summer but all of our outside of the house classes and activities are done for a few months. It’s a …
We love having people over to our home. Often my kids will ask if they can have a game night or dance with their friends. We also have things to celebrate with a lot of friends and family, like birthdays, graduations, Eagle Scouts and holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will also often have just a …
Because of having several family celebrations recently, I’ve become very aware of our grocery budget. And Carl has become very aware of how often the “chicken bucket” has been full lately. It certainly isn’t out of control but it could use a little more planning, executing and attention. During our season of unemployment I was keenly …
Creamy broccoli soup is comfort food at it’s best. With garden fresh (or frozen) broccoli, cheddar cheese and cream this soup comes together quickly and uses items you probably already have on hand. It’s been months since we picked the last large broccoli head from the garden but broccoli continues to make smaller heads after …
I love playing around with different ferments. My family thinks it’s weird but that’s okay. I have a slaw recipe that I learned from a friend from Kenya and I wondered what it would taste like as lacto-fermented sauerkraut. It’s tastes great. My family isn’t big slaw or sauerkraut. When I make this slaw I …
Last month was National Hot Breakfast Month and I participated with nine other bloggers and some amazing sponsors to celebrate. It came at a great time for me. I found that I had gotten into a rut of having the same couple of things over and over each morning. But I really couldn’t think of any …
Looking to peel and segment grapefruit to get to the delicious pulp? Using these tips, you can peel a bunch in no time. We love grapefruit and fortunately, we have a great supply from our trees. But I’ve noticed that my kids often grab oranges or apples because they’re easier to eat. So I started …
Welcome to our Wednesday Night dinner preparations – an “omelet bar”, actually these are last week’s but this week’s are pretty much the same. Breakfast foods are usually quick to put together which makes having breakfast for dinner a easy option on a busy night. Wednesday nights we have AWANA and youth group up at …
This year I’m teaching geography at our homeschool co-op and each week two students bring in a food report from the country we’re studying. When we studied Korea a student brought in a traditional snack called Hotteok (Hoddeok) and ya’ll, they were amazing. I made them for my family the next Saturday and they were …
Fermented peppers easy to make and are fantastic for someone just beginning the fermenting journey. Sauerkraut. Isn’t that where everyone begins with fermented vegetables? I think it must be as there are many, many sauerkraut articles all over the place I think one of the reasons sauerkraut is such a great place to begin is …
This week for Hot Breakfast Month our theme is “breakfast in a hurry”. Let’s face it, even with the best laid plans, sometimes our mornings are rushed and while I want to make a hot breakfast for my family I just don’t have time. I’m sure you can relate. Sometimes I know a morning is going …
Growing up my mom did many things that I now realize were not the norm for a mom of the ’70s and ’80s. One of those things was making sure we ate a hot breakfast before going to school. That’s not to say we never ate cold cereal but it was the exception rather than …
Being from the South (Texas specifically) we like our biscuits, in fact I had never heard of a scone until I was an adult. Don’t laugh; I lived a sheltered life. But, oh my, the first time I ate a scone, I knew I didn’t want my children growing up quite as sheltered as I …
Note: Once a week I share a popular post from the archives. This was originally published in March 2011. We woke up this morning to a very bare refrigerator. Just a few days ago you could hardly open the door without something falling out, in fact, Sunday something did fall out on me…. twice. I …
Fermentation is an old way of preserving food – really old, as in before refrigeration and before canning. Back in the day, you either dehydrated or fermented food to keep it from spoiling. Fermented foods include common items such as yogurt, cheese, and sauerkraut plus less common items such as kefir, kvass, and kimchi. Years …
With the holidays approaching you might be wondering if you can freeze cookie dough and bake the cookies later? Yes, you can! There are several ways to freeze cookie dough so that you can quickly have fresh baked cookies whenever you want them. Let’s chat about the different ways, what cookie dough freezes best, and …
One of the important things for me as a parent, is to raise children who have some life skills under their belt. Now, whether they chose to use those skills as adults is their decision but at least I know my kids can cook when they leave our home {One of our new favorites is …