Have you had your morning coffee?

We love our Cafe La Llave!!!

Angels sometimes deliver Girl Scout cookies, so be nice to them.

This is Netsanet, my daughter and a Daisy Scout. She was born in Ethiopia nearly 7 years ago. Let me say a little something about this girl. She is a ham and loves the camera. All of these pictures are without prompting or posing, except the one I had her hold the thin mints up but she decided the pose. She is a natural beauty and we love her to pieces. Her name is what was given to her by her birth family and it means Freedom. I couldn't have picked a better name for her.

Muddy Shoes

We stopped by the house today to drop off the fig tree I bought and do a bit of cleaning. My kids are wild, they look wild, smell wild, act wild. While I was nursing Serenity they were wrestling down stairs in one of the bedrooms. I didn't know this and I have told them not to, but what do I know? Suddenly I hear screaming and a gaggle of kids running up the stairs shouting words like broken widow, open door, wrestling. I wake the baby in my haste to asses the damage. Apparently Mason was showing Abby a wrestling move and picked Nettie up slamming her into the mirror closet door shattering it to pieces. Thankfully no one was hurt. I was so mad I couldn't see straight. Thirty years those groovy glass mirrored closet doors have been there. They have seen us and several other people through the years. Three days with my kids in the house and they are broken. That doesn't look good.

I just threw a bajillion shoes in the laundry machine, crossing my fingers the mud caked on the bottom doesn't clog the works. This being a mom thing is messy business.

Lasagna From a Box, But Tangelos From My Tree. Transition.

Today down on the farm ette, we got all of most of our trees planted. Well Gary did the planting I did the watching and nursing (hey someones got to do it and it can't be Gary) A few things I decided today. 1. Lemons suck. They have thorns and when you get the juice in your eye or a cut it can make any good Christian girl want to say a bad word. 2. Why would anyone plant more than one lemon tree? I am personally going to chop the second one down. I think. It is so pretty, (Isn't there a song like that?) I feel everything on this little bit of land needs to be in full force productivity. We don't have time or water to waste on food going to waste. I am over the lemon tree. You can only do so much with lemons. When life gives you lemons, call a friend. Anyone need a lemon or 50?

The last thing I realized when it comes to planting our trees is the stark realization that this will take me being home as a full time job to a whole new level. The amount of food I think I will need to learn to process is certainly going to be a challenge. Let me tell you though, there is something so gratifying about seeing something grow, then to pick it, then to eat it. Such a simple concept but we have lost touch with our food and how it comes to us. I cannot wait for the day you (anyone who is reading this) will come to my house and I will pull out some fresh baked bread with plum preserves and just squeezed orange juice, or maybe you will stop by for dinner and I will defrost some yummy chicken soup with veggies from my garden. I know I know. I am a dreamer, but isn't that the fun of it all?

Some other things I learned.

So we found out tonight that there are a pack of local coyotes just a few blocks down in a vacant over grown lot and they love the neighborhood chickens. We also found out that we have to clip our chickens wings if we want them to stay in our fence. I also learned that 3 pound Chihuahua's will attack full grown horses. Bees sting at night. Mud keeps kids busy for hours on end. Gopher hunting is the bomb diggity and possibly a new family sport. Eating Gatorade powder will give a kid stomach aches. And that when you dig holes for trees and the kids are helping you make sure that as you go keep an eye on the kids. Kids like to fill in holes behind what you just dug out. Actually I just observed the after affects of Gary digging like mad and Abby filling them in without him knowing and Gary cursing under his breath when he looked back and saw the aftermath of an over zealous 7 year old girl.

For an update. The house is nearly fitted with AC. Yes a big and proud moment for this ol' house over 30 years in the desert with no air conditioning. That is a lot of sweat.

There is no recipe tonight. We ate lasagna from a box. We did throw the tangelos in the salad to the side and had grape fruit juice. Slightly disappointed in this dinner but it was fast and easy.

Next......

Today as we continued our work on the property shaping it into a nice little farmette, I had the stark realization that my children will be the fourth generation living under that roof. So I sat down with my dad, who built the house and counted how many people have lived there. Lets just say this house and the barn have been home to more than we can count.

Everytime I visit the property and work on it I feel this very deep connection with the land. We lined up our trees to the places where they will be planted and sat back in the sunset looking on our hard work ahead three years trying to imagine what life will be like. I guess this is what it feels like to dream in real time.

Here is a short list of people who have lived on this property
Grandma Mary, Grandpa Jo
Granddaddy Elgie
My parents
My siblings
My children
My siblings children
My uncle
My friend Heather
3 foreign exchange students
foster kids
Keith (family friend)

I am sure the list will grow as I feel we are forgetting some people.

We were inspired to think of all the things that have happened on the property. We have had people get married in our barn, and my sister gave birth to her 5th child when her and her family lived there. I guess in a period of over 30 years there is bound to be some history. I am feeling blessed to inherit the memories and guard over them.

Tonight's recipe will be an easy one if you don't already know it. It is one I recalled tonight as I heated up left over chicken soup in the kitchen. I am sure by now my husband is sick of me saying.... "I remember when......."

Another croc pot recipe. You take a good cut of beef, pot roast, beef bottom round and brown it on a skillet with some crushed garlic and olive oil. Just throw that sucker in your pot with 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup and 1 can of water. You can add more mushrooms if you want. Cook it on high for 2 hours or so and then add baby carrots and quartered red potatoes or russet, celery if you want. I usually let the veggies sit towards the top so they steam nicely and not get to mushy. Then cook for another 2 hours or until it is shredded. That's it. Freeze the leftovers, if there are any. You serve this with home made biscuits to sop up all the gravy and juice and a yummy salad.

I guess we are next in a long line of people who have made this house and this land come alive. I wander what the future holds for the people who will be served by this food we plant and the doors we hold open.

Chicken Comfort Soup

This process of getting ready to move has left me a little frazzled. I guess it isn't just a move but an entire life style change. Realizing that I would have to get up before the crack of dawn to take care of animals leaves me feeling a yawny ( I may have made that word up)

We got our citrus juice press in the mail today so now I can really take down those lemons. Also today we picked out and paid for a majority of what will someday be our little hobby orchard. We are scheduled to have the land graded and AC put in on Saturday. The Lord has truly blessed us through other Christians. We are able to cut some cost of this little farm thing significantly thanks to friends and family.

We are getting friendly with one of our neighbors and he even stopped by today and let the kids take a ride on his champion show horse he was training. Lets just say the horse was worth more than our Suburban.

So in honor of chickens everywhere and the people who have to get up early to take care of them here is my easy recipe for chicken soup. I made it tonight but it turned out terrible because I forgot to bring some ingredients from our current residence to our future residence where we had dinner tonight.

I don't even use a pot just a croc makes life so much easier.

Take one whole chicken throw it in croc pot on high until the skin starts to come off, about 2-3 hours. Sometimes I just throw mine in frozen, it doesn't really matter but obviously the frozen takes longer to cook.

Add about 1 1/2 cups of water or some kind of broth. I use chicken broth.

1 yellow onion finely diced

2 cloves of cut garlic

pack of sliced mushrooms (optional, I like mushrooms)

let simmer for about 2 hours on high in your croc pot

take chicken out, (skin should be falling off,)

debone it on a plate and remove extra fat and skin from remaining broth with skimmer

put the chicken meat back in the croc and add chopped carrots, corn, peas and celery,

Add salt and pepper to taste, a few basil leafs, oregano and more onion if you like

If there doesn't seem to be enough broth just add some more water or broth to your liking.

Let that cook for a few more hours until the carrots and celery are a nice texture, I don't like mine to mushy.

Cook the egg noodles separate and add to the broth when serving. This keeps the noodles from sucking up all the juice.

Serve crusty french bread and butter, mmmmmm, butter.

Make extra and freeze it. This is a great meal to keep on hand. I don't freeze it with the noodles generally but you can. You may just have to add more water or broth when you defrost it.

So there you have it. I am sure there will be much chicken soup in our house this fall. Who knows I may not even feel guilty for eating the buggars.

Patience Grasshopper, Patience and Blueberry Cobbler

I have never been the kinda gal to sit around and wait. It was hard for me when I was engaged, got pregnant, adopted, house hunted and well you get the picture. Waiting, for me, is like a slow form of mental torture. Perhaps that is because I am a "live in the present tip toe around the past" kind a gal, projecting myself into the future is not something I am so good at doing. My husband on the other hand has a hard time living for the moment. So in a sense we compliment each other as we have all three time dimensions covered.

In shopping for our orchard today I came to the stark realization, as I was presented with tiny, weed stalks my husband dared called trees, that I wouldn't really have an orchard for at least three years. The nice young gardener at Lowes actually said "I figure you will have fruit in three years, if we are all around long enough to see that." uhm, okay. So a fight between the petunias and avocado trees at the nursery of Lowes, between Gary and I ensued in what I perceived to be a matter of life and death. He didn't see it that way. He told me I was making a scene. No.... that would be the five monkeys we brought with us on this fun family adventure of shopping for trees. You know the ones we named and feed everyday. The ones climbing on the bags of fertilizer and running through the misting system. Really, I told him I was close to 40 and I didn't care if I was causing a scene. I needed to be able to feed my kids fruit off of our own trees. I needed good, whole, organic, fresh picked fruit and I needed to have this like yesterday.

After much hesitation I gave in for the cheaper, smaller, younger trees. I am going to pray that God speeds them up though. Gary said I would be so busy with life I wouldn't realize the wait. I hope he is right. I treasure every day and I don't take a single year for granted. I hope that I am around in three years to see them growing and producing fruit. I hope we are all around, not to sound like my friend the melancholy gardener at Lowes. I mean I hope my family is here and whole and healthy. There are so many uncertainties in this life we are given.

To trust in God to cause the growth in me and the trees is Paramount. It is the key.

So neither the one who plants or the one who waters is significant, but God who keeps everything growing, is the one who matters. 1 Cor 3:7

I feel sad. I know all of "this" can vanish in a moment just like it did for the people in Japan. The world is unstable, more so now than I ever remember. My trees are so little, so fragile so young. So are my children. That about sums it up.

So I decided to make that blueberry cobbler (recipe below) I had planned a few weeks ago, I mean what the hay? I have a can of sweet condensed milk in my pantry and if the world is going to end in a few years I can skip that diet!! At least I will enjoy that momentary false sense of security wrapped up in buttery goodness and melting icecream. I get started mixing and get to the end of the directions and as I am licking blueberry and sweet milk off my fingers the box says the cooking time is 70 minutes!!!!! Are you kidding me!!!!! Patience Grasshopper. Well to pass the time Gary and chatted about the chicken situation. He wants roosters and I refuse to eat fertilized eggs so I told him we could put chicken dog houses on the lower acres and have two flocks separated. I think that may have cost me some credibility. But as I sample this lovely blueberry cobbler (it just came out of the oven) I will gain it back again, especially since I will serve it up with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream. This could be how the wait causes weight. uh oh. Well here is the recipe.

1 pint of blueberries (frozen or not)

mix that with 1 Can of condensed milk 14 oz

2 tsp of lemon zest

take 1.5 cups of baking mix and mix with 3/4 cup of butter (get it all crumbly)

combine the two

pour onto a greased 9 inch square baking pan

Mix 1/2 cup of baking mix with 1/2 cup of brown sugar and two tablespoons of butter (nuts if you have them )and spread on top of the blue berry mixture cook at 325 for the very long time of 70 min or until brown and serve warm with vanilla icecream.

Lemonade

Smart girl, Nettie after getting lemon juice squirted in her eyes, ran and got her goggles!

Does anyone dare despise the day of small begininngs? Zech 4:10

I have been "practicing" food storage for a few years now by going to our local food co op and buying in bulk. It is such a satisfying feeling to make and can your own food, in some cases freeze it. Now that we have a few lemon trees and so much fruit I can't give it away I needed to do something with all those lemons falling to the ground.

I gathered them up and took them home. The kids helped wash them off in the back yard in a laundry basket. I then sat down with my little clan and we took to peeling about 50 lemons. (My commercial grade citrus press has yet to arrive) I then threw them into my juicer and got a decent amount of juice. I separated it out into little baggies and added some sugar and tossed it in the freezer. When I defrost it in a pitcher I just add enough water to make it taste great as the lemon juice is pretty concentrated. Now I have enough icy, organic lemonade to feed the family at dinner. I am so excited to get my press and take those lemon trees down. My kids loved it and it cost me a little time, but so worth the look on their faces! They all beg to be the one to have the last bit and more importantly I feel good that the fruit God gave us is not going to waste. I love every little lemon on those trees. In fact my family pretty much devoured the juice from 50 lemons in two days. I hope they grow up with great memories and take the time to do this for their kids.

Lesson:
The bible says to know each man by it's fruit. (Matthew 7:16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is how they act, do you pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?) I think in today's society we have lost touch with the idea of knowing someone by their fruits because in the store our fruit is already sorted, washed and waxed, laid out in nice rows. As I took on the arduous task of sorting the massive amount of lemons, I had to examine each one carefully after I washed the bird poo and leaves off it. I squeezed it, looked at it and cut it open to see if it was juicy and fresh. When we go to judge a person based on their "fruit" we should do more than just look. In some ways you really need to be around that person and know what is going on to see if they are a tree making good fruit. The Lord even says to taste and see that he is good. (Psalms 34:8, Taste and see that the Lord is good, happy is the man who trust in him) There were a few lemons that looked pretty weak on the outside but on the inside they were just fine. So before jumping to conclusions about someone, take the time to know them, to taste and see, to use your senses that is why God gave them to us.

Spring Clean Your Food Pantry Easy Bean Soup

Well this soup was supposed to be a chili, but I messed up. In and effort to rid my pantry of canned foods I threw this together in my croc and it turned out great!

Make an extra batch to stick in your freezer for dinner in 2 weeks.

1 carton of chicken broth
4 cans of whatever beans you have in your pantry. ( suggest different kind of kidneys and Navy)
1 can of green beans or corn or both!
4 carrots (fresh or canned)
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 tbl spoons of Cumin
Salt/Pepper
1 tsp Oregano
1 can tomato paste
1 can of stewed tomatoes or fresh tomatoes if you have them
a dash of chili or Tabasco

Serve with crackers or cornbread and milk :)

I doubled this for our family of six and made enough to save. You can use all cans or substitute for fresh. It is very filling and my kids mostly ate it, some picked out the green beans and some the stewed tomatoes and some gobbled it down and asked for seconds. All in all a recipe that works and that is fast for those kinds of nights!

Taking On Old Fashion Cooking

Part of the direction I have been going in the last few years is to learn how to cook and preserve food like our grandparents did. It has only been in the last fifty or so years that we have gotten away from making our food from real ingredients and whole foods. At this point what used to be normal is now a lost art. Canning, drying, cooking! So tonight I was talking to a friend who just made her own butter and I was so inspired to make my own. She was able to use a Vitamix blender and in the process saved some money. So of course I will be trying that tonight because we love butter over here. In our conversation she asked me to post some of my recipes that I found work for our family here on this blog.

This will be the first one. I love making pizza. Well I don't love making pizza but I love the feeling I get by knowing how to pronounce every single ingredient. This is a healthy crust my whole family loved. I didn't have wheat germ but I did use ground flax seed and chia seed. I also made my own sauce. Simple throw together kind... in my Vita Mix. Garlic, tomatoes, onion and seasoning with salt. My kids loved the fresh taste. I don't have any fresh tomatoes tonight so I will substitute with canned. Anyway here's the recipe for the crust if anyone is interested.