a gypsy caravan

ukrainian eggs

We have an art teacher who comes over one afternoon a week. He is a nice, young man who always has something interesting to teach the children. This week he brought supplies to make Ukrainian Easter eggs. The children had never before tried their hand at making those pretty eggs. I think they turned out beautifully! 

soft the drowsy hours

Sleep my child and peace attend thee,
All through the night
Guardian angels God will send thee,
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping
Hill and vale in slumber sleeping,
I, my loving vigil keeping
All through the night.

~Traditional Welsh Lullaby

newly confirmed

Christopher made his confirmation last weekend. He chose St. John Bosco as his patron saint.  So without further ado, I introduce to you Christopher William John. 

sugar, ah honey honey

 

 

Two of my bee colonies died over the winter. One starved because it didn't have enough stored honey despite my not harvesting any last year. The other hive froze because the queen died.  Normally, the workers cluster around the queen in the winter months which keeps the internal temperature of the hive at about 90 degrees. The reason I know the queen died is because the bees were dispersed throughout the hive and not in a central cluster. There were also several frames of capped honey that remained untouched, indicating they did not starve. 

I've lost hives over winter before but there has never been honey to spare so I was pretty excited to find the "bonus honey". 

I invited some friends over last week to harvest the honey from the empty hives. There were five frames to harvest which yielded a little less than fifteen pounds of honey. The children learned how to tell the difference between capped honey and nectar. They took the wax caps off of the honey with a heated uncapping tool. We put the frames in the extractor which uses centrifugal force to draw the honey from the frames. Each of the children had a chance to crank the extractor. We then filtered the honey through four fine filters, removing any wax, debris or bee parts before bottling the honey. I think everyone had fun with the process and learned about honey production as well. 

As a side note, I love the bottles with the cork tops. I think they are pretty and I plan to order some more this spring. 

wordless wednesday-silly girls

thirty minute dinner rolls

 

I've been making these rolls for years. We make them a couple of times a week to eat with our supper. They truly are ready in thirty minutes from start to finish because of the large amount of yeast. I cannot link the original recipe because the page is no longer in existence. So I will just post it here with our family's modifications. Of course, the recipe can be halved if you have a smaller family. 

(Makes 2 dozen)
2 1/4 c. warm water
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 TB active dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
7 cups flour

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix water, oil, yeast, and sugar together. Let rest for 10 minutes. Add the salt and egg, mix thoroughly. Gradually add the flour. (I'm sure you can use a mixer but I just do it all with a wooden spoon. I then knead it three or four times on a floured countertop.) Divide into 24 equal pieces, and shape into round balls. Place each dozen onto a greased baking sheet and let rise for 10 minutes. Don't worry whether they get very large because they will rise more in the oven. Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown.

snow days

...also entitled,  "In Which We Wear Flannel PJs All Day"

Our town and the outlying areas have had a lot of snow this year. Coupled with sub zero temperatures, local public and private schools have been closed quite a few days. Ben, who attends public high school, has been off too many times to count. Today is yet another snow day. We were supposed to have friends over for the day but they didn't think they could get their van out of their snowy driveway. Plus, several of my homeschooled kids are sick. Nothing serious, just head and chest colds. They are too sick to dress in street clothing, too sick for chores and intensive schoolwork ;) but not too sick to drink hot tea and play poker. They are betting things like pennies, baseball cards, religious medals (there might be some sort of sacrilege there?), unblown balloons, hair bows, Slim Jims, silly bands and fish hooks. My living room looks like this...

I love the pace of a snow day/sick day. It is a welcome respite from the often fast pace of life in a (sort of) large family even if it is filled with kleenex, cough drops and wool blankets strewn about. 

Plans for the afternoon...eat chicken soup, drink more tea (we are currently addicted to this and this), read Snowflake Bentley, look at his photographs and make some more snowflakes for the windows. :) 

I hope you all are staying warm on this wintery, blustery day!     

sausage making

We've been able to do some pretty fun things lately. My dear friend Nicole invited us to join her husband's extended family to make Slovenian sausage. Every year before Christmas, they gather early in the morning, drink Bloody Marys and, by days end, have made several hundred pounds of fresh and smoked sausage.

(I'm a little late in recording the day because Christmas got in the way and then New Year's and then Anne's first penance and then attempting to get a shower every day and...well, you get it.) 

All I can say about sausage making day is that it was a blast.  There were plenty of jobs for the adults--cutting pork off the bone, grinding meat, washing and stuffing casings, weighing and packaging the finished product. Tons. Of. Fun! The kids helped here and there, working a bit and then running off to play in the woods with their friends. The latter half of the day is a little hazy because I switched from Bloody Marys to some fabulous homemade wine. :) Somehow it all worked out because we came home with thirty pounds of Slovenian sausage, most of which, at the time of this post, has been eaten (with the saurkraut we made last summer).  But the best part of the day wasn't the sausage. It was spending time with friends...an incredible family--good, fun, unabashedly Catholic, salt of the earth type of folks that I am very blessed to know.  

almond poppy seed quick bread

 

When I was a student in college, I had a married friend named Marla. She used to have several college aged girls over at a time on the weekends to hang out. She loved to bake and cook for all of us.  Because I survived primarily on beef jerky and applesauce during college, I was happy to eat whatever she placed before me. She made the most delicious bakery. The following is her recipe for almond poppy seed bread which, whenever I make it, is quickly devoured by everyone in my family. 

3 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 TBLS poppy seed

1 1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 1/2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 c. milk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 1/2 tsp. butter extract

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Beat 2 minutes with mixer. Spray two loaf pans with Pam or grease. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Done when golden brown, cracked and knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Sometimes takes an additional 10-15 minutes depending on the oven. 

love is a verb

Last week, I hit some rough spots. Despite my efforts to shield my children from my sadness, they picked up on it with their ever sensitive radar. While I was out running errands on afternoon, they took it upon themselves to try to make me smile. When I returned home, the dining room was set up with board games. My kitchen had been turned into a makeshift bowling alley complete with lanes, pins and balls. The room was set up for musical chairs. 

They had baked a cake... 

and made a card...

I was really choked up by their love and the effort they took to just to make me smile.  It meant so much to me and I wanted to make sure to record it here so I don't ever forget. 

The chocolate cake recipe is my great grandmother Annabelle's. 

Never Fail Cake 

Mix:

2/3 cup shortening

2 cups white sugar

2 well beaten eggs

Add:

1 cup sour milk or buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp salt

1 cup hot water with 2 level tsp soda added

 

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. 

 

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." -Charles Schultz

 

o christmas tree

Felt Christmas Star Ornament

  

Anne had an ornament exchange recently with some of her friends. We followed the directions here. She used winter white wool felt with silver and gold embroidery thread. I think it turned out beautifully!

 

gentle annie

Anne celebrated her eighth birthday last week. She wanted to have a party with friends so we made reservations at our local tea room and invited several friends for a tea party. Quintealia's Tea Room is a lovely, local tea room located in an historic, Victorian home. It's quite a lovely place. The shop owners were so sweet to make food that the little girls would enjoy. They made peanut butter and jelly star sandwiches on straws which looked like fairy wands, a fruit cup and tea pots of fruit punch, hot cocoa or, if the girls preferred, tea. Lastly, they brought out individual doll cakes made in mini bundt pans. The dolls were inserted in the hole of the cake and the skirts were frosted up around them. The ladies had the girls close their eyes while they brought out the cake surprises. It was so fun to see the look on their faces when they saw them! 

I have a hard time believing that Anne is eight. She is simply a joy. She is the first to help when help is needed, the first to hug someone when they are sad and never has a bad word to say about anyone. I love her immensely and am so grateful to be her mom. 

impish

our carrots

I was a bit late in harvesting the carrots from our garden this year.  The nice thing about carrots is that they just sit there waiting patiently until you can get around to pulling them up. Our family went on vacation for part of October and, when we returned, I found the carrots were more than ready to be dug. After much scrubbing, peeling and slicing, and with our bellies full of raw carrots, we have plenty frozen for this winter's suppers, soups and casseroles.  

A couple of cookbooks that have some nice recipes for carrots:

Tender by Nigel Slater

The Practical Produce Cookbook by Ray Hoover

I have to say the latter is one of my favorite cookbooks because it is divided alphabetically by vegetable type. For example, the carrot section comes between cabbage and cauliflower. It contains 21 recipes that utilize carrots. Very handy and, well, practical. :)

Some more carrot reading:

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss

Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens

Carrots Don't Talk by Kathryn Lewis

What Will I Do With All Those Root Vegetables? by Elaine Borish

Carrot Soup by John Segal

The Giant Carrot by Jan Peck