Today I made my own refried beans for the first time. It was a mediocre success. I added a few too many seasonings into my bean mixture, but overall, the consistency was pretty good. I did figure out that I prefer to put them in a blender or food processor to make them smooth, rather…
One of the joys of being a teacher is when it snows and gets very cold, I also get a snow or cold day for us to! I love that I get to stay home with my kids on these days! It even better when I get to see the joy it brings my kids…
Do you make your own chicken or vegetable stock? I have been saving the carcasses and skin of rotisserie chickens, as well as vegetable discards, and freezing them for a while. I did a large grocery shopping trip this weekend and needed some extra freezer space. So, I pulled out the chicken and veggies and…
Are you ready to put all that hard work good use and enjoy home grown ingredients? Now that winter is in full force here, with its cold blistery days occasionally mixed in with what we now consider warm 40° days. It is soup season. One of my favorite things to enjoy during the cold months…
Are you a leftovers family? We often eat leftovers for lunch and sometimes for dinner. I always try to make sure we waste as little food as possible. One way I do that is by freezing some of our leftovers to use in meals at a later time. For example, I bought two rotisserie chickens…
Back in August we harvested our wild plums! The time has come to finally pull them out of the freezer and do something with them. Jam/jelly is first on the list. I’m making quite a bit of plain jam. It has turned out great. We put several into small 4 ounce jars that can be…
I attempted to make salt dough for my kids to the turn into ornaments that they could paint or we could make into bird feeders. It turned out to be a lot of fun for them to roll out the dough and push the cookie cutters into it. The hardest part was waiting for them…
My winter break is here so it’s time to try something new! We were once gifted pineapple jalapeño jam and really enjoyed it. When pineapple went on sale I decided it was time to try and make my own. I had jalapeños in the freezer from this summer ready to be used. Our jalapeño plants…
This year we’re starting something new. Christmas all year. Instead of giving the kids gifts they don’t really need, we are giving them the gift of experiences. A former coworker did this last year with her kids and then created little kits to sell, which are cute and affordable. I plan to reuse ours for…
This year I offered to host Thanksgiving for both of our families on the same day. Since it was going to be a small group, I suggested to my husband and my side of the family that we just have one Thanksgiving at our house. We have hosted my husband’s side of the family for…