I love checks and I love the color red. So red checks really make my heart go pitter pat. I wanted red-checked curtains for our family room, the coziest room in the house. But I was (and still am) on a tight decorating budget. So instead of buying curtains, I bought red-checked tablecloths from eBay.
One problem: when they arrived, they weren't exactly the same. One tablecloth's fabric is a bit thicker and a tad nubbier than the other. Thankfully, this is not noticeable since they're not hung right next to one another.
Two inexpensive black rods from Lowe's, a pack of drapery clip rings, and we were in business. Himself installed the rods for me because he's fabulous like that.
I'm really pleased with the way they look. The room seems more finished.
We're considering painting the judges paneling in this room, but we can't quite make up our minds. Once it's painted, that's all she wrote. And I kinda like the coziness aspect. If the room got more direct sunlight, it would be brighter. But the screen porch is right through the French doors, and only oblique sunlight filters in anyway since the front of the house faces southeast.
But on a winter's evening with a fire in the fireplace. . . it's the best. I love to read in this chair. (Notice the red checks!) Or I curl up in a corner of the couch under a throw. You can't get much better than that.
We celebrate a BIG Thanksgiving Day at my parents' house with a host of my extended family. At least 60-70 people gather together, and it's my favorite day of the year.
That means we spend Wednesday getting ready! (No, we don't cook all the food. It's potluck -- the best kind of buffet!) So we need something easy for Wednesday night supper. This is when Easy Crock Pot Brunswick Stew shines the brightest.
It also makes a nice dish for Christmas Eve or any other holiday evening when you might be busy, a soup buffet, or a weeknight meal. To make it extra breezy on yourself, put all the ingredients in a gallon-size freezer bag, squeeze out the air and freeze flat. It'll be ready to toss in the crock pot any time you want to do without dinnertime drama. (In the morning, put the frozen bag in a sink filled with cold water to loosen the contents enough to dump into your slow cooker.)
I doubled the recipe, hence the two bags.
This is not gourmet fare, but it's simple, hearty, and delicious. It's a perfect time saver, too. That's really a lot for one meal to deliver, but this stew gets the job done.
Easy Crock Pot Brunswick Stew
2 cans creamed corn
2 cans crushed tomatoes
1 small can lima beans
2 large cans white chicken
1 can Castleberry's BBQ pork
1 can Castleberry's BBQ beef
1 T onion powder (or a small chopped onion)
Mix all ingredients together and cook all day on low. Serve with saltines and hot sauce on the side for those who like a little spice in their lives.
Our backyard birdfeeders get lots of visitors in the winter. Tufted titmice, Carolina chickadees, Carolina wrens (which we've called Jenny wrens ever since we read the Burgess Bird Book), and northern cardinals are our most frequent guests. Song sparrows, house finches, mourning doves, and yellow-rumped warblers show up quite a bit, while dark-eyed juncos hop along the ground just under the feeders, gleaning. Downy woodpeckers and red-bellied woodpeckers enjoy the suet. And in later winter, goldfinches will flock around our niger seed feeder.
Early last week, on one of the many drizzly, dreary days we've had, a flash of bright blue caught my eye. I called the girls to the window and we watched four eastern bluebirds take turns with the suet. Three males and one female. Since then we've seen them every day, as many as five at a time several times per day.
I can see the feeders from the window above my kitchen sink and my study picture window, so I have plenty of opportunities to observe my favorite bird species. The leafless trees in our backyard are the perfect backdrop to their purple-blue plumage. Often two males will perch on swaying branches just near the feeders whiletwo or three others nibble at the suet. Sometimes one or two will glean on the ground beneath the feeders, or snatch up suet pieces that fall on top of the baffle.
This morning, I watched for a few precious seconds as a male bluebird and a male cardinal perched on the edges of our tray feeder. I quickly alterted Miss Priss, who was eating her breakfast at the table. She managed to catch a glimpse before they flew away. What a glorious sight!
Sightings of bluebirds are particular precious to me because I know the birds won't stay around for long. A woman at a bird feeder store told me that if I'd put up a bluebird house, they would stay and raise a brood. But our wooded backyard is not conducive to bluebird houses; they have strong opinions about house placement!
So I'll enjoy them while I can. I'll stop whatever I'm doing to note their dark periwinkle feathers that perfectly complement their burnt range breasts. I'll admire the lovely blue-gray coloring of the females, their buff breasts, and their bright black eyes.
I love all the birds that we see. I adore goldfinches and am always glad to play host for them on their travels.The cedar waxwings that descend upon us, strip our holly tree of berries in a day or so, and then disappear -- their very transience mark them as extra special. In fact, we've actually missed their visits in prior winters! And I'm always excited to see something new.
This week was a bit different from normal (I'm wondering if there's such a thing as a normal week, anyway), what with dreary, chilly weather for a few days; The Elections and a friend of the girls hanging out with us most of the day; a day meeting at church, some theatre excitement; and horse show preparations.
I made a few amendments to our schedule, bypassing spelling, grammar, and memory work for the week. I also stretched out our composition assignments and Miss Priss's Critical Thinking workbook lesson.
Hot chai and composition on a wet day
A breakdown of some things we learned:
Ordinary Genius, a biography of Albert Einstein and AO Year 6 selection. They've been notebooking each chapter, and I was pleased overall with their initial attempts.
In history, we read about events following World War II, such as the Marshall Plan and the building of the Berlin Wall; South Africa and apartheid; and the Communist victory in China.
Dion and Dionysius battle it out in Syracusa in "Dion," one of Plutarch's Lives.
Newton's law of universal gravitation was the focus of our Secrets of the Universe: Objects chapter. I'm telling you, the way natural phenomena can be reduced (if you will) to mathematical equations simply blows my mind!
In It Couldn't Just Happen, we read about the ozone layer of the atmosphere and the greenhouse effect and how termites (!!) greatly contribute to it.
Ulysses (Odysseus) and his men are taking their own sweet time getting back to Ithaca in The Odyssey for Boys and Girls. This week, they lounged and feasted with Circe (after she changed half of the men into pigs and back again) for a year or so until one of them said, "Hey, shouldn't we be thinking about heading home?" (I'm paraphrasing.)
We regularly catch sight of a blue heron at our lake cabin and sometimes one flies overhead here in the South, so School of the Woods delighted us.
On Friday, we enjoyed another Hodgepodge pastels tutorial: Harvest Moon Nocturne. The girls were less panicky this week than they were last week and loosened up a bit.
Tiny Girl's on left; Miss Priss's on right.
One of our Frost poem's this week was "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," one of the best-known poems of the twentieth century. And no wonder. The calm, quiet pastoral scene beckons us in and then surprises us with an unexpected depth. Here is an unmissable link: a video of Robert Frost reciting this simple yet magnificent poem.
On Monday evening, Tiny Girl's theatre troupe's production was announced: Peter Pan! And Tiny herself was cast as Captain Hook. Already she's in the throes of practicing at home with her lines and songs (she has a short solo). Miss Priss's troupe has been rehearsing their production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Miss Priss was cast in several ensemble parts, and she also has a brief solo for one of them.
Petal the pot-bellied pig came to visit us at the barn.
Tiny Girl has a horse show tomorrow, so we have schooling later today at the show venue. We'll also be cleaning tack, polishing boots, ironing jods, etc., tonight. She and Max are going to the show, but here she is with Tuli, who's coming along well with her training.
Not so familiar with the Great Blue Heron? Here's a fun video to watch:
We've had some chilly, windy weather for the last several days. Last night, the temperatures fell to freezing, which is a bit unusual for our region this early in the colder-weather season. Tiny Girl and I were going to spend a few hours outside at the barn, so I thought a warming beef stew would be wonderful for supper.
And it was!
To help me prepare, Himself cut the stew beef into much smaller chunks, and I did the rest when I got home. Upon reflection, we both thought he should have also cut the veggies, just to speed things along. When you make this for your family, consider doing the chopping earlier in the day. That will cut your prep time considerably, and you'll be eating sooner!
Winter Beef Stew
Canola oil (you can also use olive oil)
1 pound stew beef, cut into small chunks
All-purpose flour, seasoned salt, and garlic powder
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup red wine (I used merlot)*
2 cups water*
2 T beef Better than Bouillon paste*
4 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
3 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 medium zucchini, cut into chunks OR 1 cup fresh or thawed frozen peas
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 bay leaf
1/4 t dried thyme
Measure about 4 tablespoons of flour into a plate or pie tin and add some seasoned salt and garlic powder. Mix together. Coat the beef chunks with the mixture. Heat a tablespoon or two of oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat. Add beef in batches and brown, removing with a slotted spoon or spatula as they brown. Add onions to pan, adding more oil if necessary, and fry til softened. Dump in the dredging flour and stir til mixed in. Add liquids, meat, thyme, and bay leaf, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover, cooking 20 to 30 minutes.
Check consistency. The mixture should be soupy. If it's not, add more liquid (I added water). Add the vegetables (EXCEPT peas, if you are using), bring back to a boil, then reduce heat and cover. Cook another 30 to 60 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Add garlic and peas (if using), and cook for another five minutes.
Serve!
My girls are not big eaters, but we had no leftovers. Everyone had seconds. If your family is large, here's a tip: double the recipe.
* You can opt to use water, beef broth, vegetable stock, red wine, or a mixture, as long as you have 3 cups liquid. I used 1 cup red wine and 2 cups water. I also added the two teaspoons of bouillon paste for depth. You could substitute one or two beef bouillon cubes or omit this ingredient entirely, if necessary.
We've been ridiculously (some might say stupidly) busy in the past week that I've neglected both my blog and my blog-reading, heretofore happy habits of mine. I've missed both. I've also neglected housework (hard to do when one is not home), friends, and a responsibility or two. So now I've settled in front of my desktop with a cup of PG Tips and some cold Zaxby's french fries, ready to roll. Folding laundry can wait.
Big News: we found a new pony for Tiny Girl! Yes, after trying eleven -- count 'em, eleven -- we found one we liked enough to bring to our barn for a ten-day trial. Max is a medium Welsh pony, a larger version of Tappy, whom Tiny Girl has sadly outgrown. Since we had only ten days to ride with him at our barn, we spent at least two hours at the barn every day this week. Max had spent a long time hanging out in the field at his place, so he was peach-colored when we got him, thanks to the local clay. A bath was beyond necessary. Thank heaven for OxyClean!
Tiny Girl, Miss Priss (see her head?), and our trainer giving Max a much-needed bath.
Yesterday, we took him out to our nearest equestrian park to school him, just to see how he behaved "out and about," so to speak. He was great.
Tiny Girl schooling Max.
Last weekend, we had a frigid cold front move through. I cut my blooming daffodils to save them from the freeze. Fortunately, they weren't all killed, and some of my creamier varieties are blooming now.
For Valentine's Day, I baked Himself his favorite peanut butter cookies. I'm certain the girls and I ate more than he did.
One day this week, Miss Priss called me to the window to see a small flock of birds in our front yard. They were unfamiliar to us, and all our identification attempts have failed thus far.
They are about robin-sized, black with a small orangey stripe, and orange underneath their wings. Do you recognize these birds?
Miss Priss's theatre troupe is about to roll into crunch time. Their production of Wonderland! begins March 8 through March 10, and the two weeks leading up to showtime (AKA "crunch") begins February 27. She'll be in rehearsals from 4:00 until 9:00 every weeknight except Wednesday and Saturdays from noon until 5:00. AND my trip to the UK is during that same time....
The girls have been reading quite a bit in the last two weeks. Miss Priss has read Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink, Ramona Forever, by Beverly Cleary, and The First Four Years, by Laura Ingalls Wilder (all for the second time), and Caught in the Act, by Joan Lowery Nixon. Tiny Girl has read Ginger Pye, by Eleanor Estes, Crispin and the Cross of Lead, by Avi, and The Last Wilderness, by Erin Hunter. Both girls read Our Only May Amelia, by Jennifer L. Holm.
Thanks to our increase in outside activity, we've had to finish our schoolwork several evenings this week. I've learned this is not ideal for anyone. By evening, we are tired and want to do our own things. But it's served as a good lesson in diligence and responsibility. Even (especially?) for me.
In Sunday school this past weekend, Tiny Girl made what I call an "advent garland." It's now draped across the fireplace mantel in our family room.
It's made of plastic wrap, curling ribbon, ornament-shaped cards with notes printed on them, and Hershey's Kisses.
The notes on each paper ornament include Bible verses to look up and read aloud; good deeds to do, such as "Contribute a toy to a toy drive for children who don't have toys"; specific prayers to say; and many opportunities for family discussions. After completion of the day's "task," the children can enjoy a Kiss.
I found instructions for making a similar garland here at Vanilla Joy; in her version, Kelsey tucks Scripture readings in with the candy, and she only uses one piece of candy per bundle. Tiny Girl's garland attaches the paper ornaments with the curling ribbon when tying off the Kisses bundles, and includes two candy pieces: one for her and the other for Miss Priss.
You might be inclined to have each child in your family make his or her own advent garland, perhaps with different Scripture readings (or individual verses of a reading), good deeds, service opportunities at home and/or in the community, prayers, and topics for family discussion pertinent to the season.
What I love about this advent garland is that it actively engages children in both study and service, making the countdown to Christmas more meaningful.
This has been a super-busy week for us; more on this later. However, one night I threw together a really nice potato soup that began with a recipe and then I changed most of it. Typical. Here's exactly what I did. Feel free to alter at your pleasure.
Potato Soup
Eight cups water
Six heaping tsp Better than Bouillon chicken (a real measuring tsp, not flatware)
5 red potatoes, peeled and chopped
onion powder to taste
cut-up ham (I had some leftover and I just used that; I didn't even measure it)
1 cup half-and-half
2 1/2 generous handsful of shredded Cheddar
Bring water and bouillon to boil and add potatoes. Cook til tender. Reduce heat to low. Scoop out at least half of the potatoes with some liquid and carefully blend in a blender til smooth. Pour back into soup pot. Add ham, half-and-half, and Cheddar. Stir til cheese is melted and soup is heated through. Serve.
If you happened to have any on hand, sour cream and/or chives would be a nice touch. I pureed half the potatoes because I didn't have any (and never do, actually) dried potato flakes, which so many potato soup recipes use as a thickener.
The girls and I loved this; Himself enjoyed it, but pronounced it "very soupy." He prefers his potato soup thicker and chunkier. If you do, too, simply reduce the water (and bouillon) and skip the pureeing.
Ah, soup. One of the best delights of chilly weather, to my way of thinking.
I mentioned in my latest post about book club that I planned to serve a fake cassoulet. It was well received! I started out with a recipe I found online, and then I altered it quite a bit, as I am wont to do. Here's the recipe, which I made up as I went along.
Busy Lady's Cassoulet
This is best made one to two days ahead for flavors to blend.
3 slices of thick bacon, coarsely chopped
2 lbs fully cooked smoked sausages, cut into rounds and casings removed (I used 1/3 Andouille and 2/3 kielbasa. Use all kielbasa for less heat.)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp jarred chopped garlic
1 T chopped fresh rosemary
1 T fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup red wine
3 15-oz cans Grest Northern beans, drained
2 14 1/2-oz cans diced tomatoes in juice
2 cups chicken broth (I used 1 cup water mixed with 1 tsp Better than Bouillon chicken base AND one cup homemade chicken broth I had saved in the freezer)
3 T tomato paste
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 to 2 cups chopped cooked chicken
Panko bread crumbs
2 T butter
Big handful shredded Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook bacon in a heavy large ovenproof pot (I used a cast iron Dutch oven) until brown and crisp. Using a slotted spoon, remove to a bowl. add sausages to drippings in pot and saute until brown. transfer to bowl with bacon. Add onions and garlic to pot and cook until beginning to soften. Stir in rosemary, thyme, and red wine. Simmer a minute, then stir in beans, tomatoes with juices, chicken broth, tomato paste, allspice, and cooked chicken. Return meats to pot and bring to a boil. Cover pot and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover, cool one hour, and refrigerate covered til next day or so.
When I was ready to continue the next day, I transferred the cassoulet to a rustic pottery baking dish I have because I wanted everyone to have some breadcrumb topping; the Dutch oven is deep.
To continue: bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, adding more broth of dry. Meanwhile, melt butter and mix into panko breadcrumbs with a fork. Then mix in parmesan. Sprinkle over cassoulet. Increase oven temp to 400 degrees and bake uncovered til topping is golden.
This makes a delightful fall or winter meal and is much easier than traditional cassoulet. Crusty French bread is a natural accompaniment, as is a nice red wine. I served Bogle Cabernet Sauvignon.
Make plans to try it on a particularly chilly evening!
I make soup a lot. To me, it's the perfect comfort food in cooler weather. Himself told me recently that soup is my "forte"; I'm not sure what that says about my cooking (although I do subject my family to "new" recipes that often fail to rise to my expectations), but I'll take any compliment I can get from him.
Last week, I roasted a chicken in my Romertopf clay baker, which is the best way to roast a chicken, in my opinion. We ate all we wanted for supper one night, and I saved the rest and the juices in a Tupperware container. On Sunday, I dumped the contents in a Dutch oven with enough water to cover and let it simmer for a couple of hours. Then I picked the meat from the bones, discarded said bones, and put the meat back in the pot. I removed some of the broth to freeze for later use. I had some leftover Mexican rice, so I mixed that in the soup pot, along with some medium chunky salsa. I seasoned it a bit with onion, garlic, and sea salt. I let it simmer longer. At suppertime, I served the soup with sliced black olives, chunks of avocado, and shredded Cheddar cheese. Himself added some Tabasco to his bowl for extra kick. It was really scrumptious.
Soup is best homemade with what you have on hand. This means, of course, it's hard to duplicate the results on other occasions, but that's fine by me. But I'm always on the lookout for recipe ideas, so if yuo have any, send them along!
What a fantastic week! In case you didn't see my post earlier this week (though I encourage to take a look at the photos), we had more than six inches of snow this past Sunday night. That might not seem a lot to some of you, but since I live in the American Deep South, it threw us for a loop. Moreover, extremely low temps caused slush and snow to refreeze several days in a row, which made driving treacherous, to say the least. Public school and all activities were cancelled.
Himself was home from work for three days, so we had a fire blazing all day on those days. Bliss! To the girls' disgust, we still had lessons most days, but there was still plenty of time for sledding galore, snow cream, reading in front of the fire, and playing all about the neighborhood.
After reading so many Facebook posts about cabin fever, I discovered that I'm in the minority. I loved being at home this week. I planned and cooked several nice suppers, including a homemade peach cobbler one night. I was able to putter and get a few things done without flying about in a frenzy. I read. I drank a lot of tea. It's amazing what one can do when one has the time to do it! I really do prefer a quiet life.
Speaking of lessons, Miss Priss tackled fractions this week: adding and subtracting, simplifying, and finding equivalent fractions. Tiny Girl studied geometric concepts in MEP. In history, we studied conflict in the New World colonies, such as King Philip's War and wars between French Canadians and the Iroquois. SOTW briefly mentions Mary Rowlandson, who was taken captive by the Wampanoag during King Philip's War and later wrote a book about her experiences. I studied captivity narratives in graduate school and actually wrote a paper about Rowlandson, so I was excited to be able to expand on the topic with my children. In grammar, both studied verbs (action, linking, and helping), and we began our study of the heart and circulatory system. I'm going to post helpful resources for this particular subject very soon. Keep a lookout!
Also, Miss Priss, influenced by a homeschooled friend, told me she'd like to do a report, and Tiny Girl opted for a project. After a bit of discussion, Miss Priss selected Theodore Roosevelt and Tiny Girl chose to create a poster (with a lapbook feel to it) about the ocean. A stop at the library yielded several books on both topics, and the girls spent a large part of this week reading and researching. I did some net surfing and located some great resources for Tiny Girl's poster. I'll let you know what they are in the next few days, in case your child develops a taste for a project.
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