Busy Hands Homestead

I am face down on the floor in child's pose, inches away from the furnace warm air blowing over my body, tears pooling on the floor. Adam took Ivory to the bus stop.   Sylvan is playing.  I am crying.   I have been crying and crying and crying.  I got the day wrong on which I was to deliver the salad to the staff lounge at Ivory's school and it was the last tiny little snow flake to land on a mountain of snow and set off an avalanche.  It is rushing down and nothing will stop the force of gravity until it reaches the valley floor.  I will be the first to admit this is one part hormones mixed in with a million other things:  The feeling of failure that has been building for months.  The feeling that I am okay at many things but not great at anything and not being able to figure out at which skill I am supposed to excel.  The years of sleepless nights.  My constant battle against the natural state of the universe -...

At our house, this has been the summer of marinated salads.   The ingredients sourced from our garden: Sweet and Sour Cabbage Salad, Cucumber Salad, Green Bean Salad. Vegetables chopped and dressed and tucked into the empty spaces in the fridge to be eaten hours or sometimes a day or two later.   Now it is the beet's turn.   Bright and cheery, this salad is going to be tomorrow's lunch.   3 or 4 large beets, roasted, peeled and chilled 1 small onion, very thinly sliced 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil 1 Tablespoon White Vinegar basil, parsley (fresh, roughly chopped) and tarragon (I used dried) salt and pepper (to taste) Cut the beets in half and then the halves into wedges put into bowl and add the thinly sliced onion.   In a small bowl combine the olive oil, white vinegar, basil, parsley and tarragon.  Whisk to combine the olive oil and vinegar.  Pour over the beets.  Stir, or if your container seals, give it a good shake. Chill for...

A few weeks ago I sat in the noisy gym at the Y (during family fun time) listening to a voice mail from one of my WIC counselors asking me to call her back regarding the online session I had just completed.  At my last visit I had been offered the choice between a follow up in office visit or an online session on wichealth.org after which I would just email the office. I took the online choice and all I could think was: SHIT!... because there is nothing like an online, blank, anonymous appearing box to solicit my honest and uncensored opinion on a subject, especially a subject related to food.  And that opinion had NOT been kind.  In my mind the person reading my criticism was not received by the sweet lady I look forward to chatting with every few months but rather the creator of the lack luster content I had found when I clicked through the segments of my Meatless Meals Section I had chosen to complete. When I finally did speak to her, I...

This is my adaptation of the Sweet Potato Salad with Chipotle Chili Recipe found in the cookbook  Best Bite Recipes published by Oklahoma State University Seretean Wellness Center Kitchen.  5 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" pieces toss in oil, spread out on two cookie sheets and roast at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 - 40 minutes place roasted potatoes in a large bowl and allow to cool while making the dressing 1/4 cup olive oil 2 Tablespoons lemon juice 1/2 Teaspoons cumin 1/2 Teaspoons chili powder 1 diced Chipotle Chili (canned)* 1/4 cup sour cream 1/4 Teaspoon salt (or to taste) Pepper to taste combine the above listed ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together  *if serving this salad to children, I recommend adding the Chipotle pepper after a few servings have been set aside  1/8 cup finely chopped onion 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley pour the dressing over the potatoes, add the onion and parsley and tos...

Sunday Cooking Marathon: aka Adam starts his Field Season Rainy day walk through the neighborhood. Look Ma: NO FEET!!!! Today I washed, chopped, cooked and transformed: 5 lbs of Carrots 1 bunch of Kale 1 head of Cabbage 3 Onions 6 potatoes 1 lb of Sprouts 1 lb of Tofu 1 lb frozen Spinach 1 lb frozen Green Beans 3 Cucumbers 2 cups Walnuts 2 cups Raisins  1 lb Shrimp 1 lb Ground Beef 1 lb Italian Sausage 1/2 bunch of Cilantro 1/2 bunch of Parsley  into:  Eggrolls Enchiladas Spinach Soup Tofu Cucumber Salad Moroccan Carrot Slaw  Moroccan Chicken Salad with Green Beans and tonight's dinner: Spicy Shrimp with Cucumber Salad, Cilantro and Flat Bread These dishes, along with a few more ingredients and some other odds and ends, are all of the lunches and dinners that Adam is taking with him on his first BIG planting project of the season.  There is enough for him, for us and a few lun...

Every few weeks I sit down with cooking books spread across the table and leaf through the pages.  I have been planning our dinners approximately three weeks into the future.  I starting this project in November.  "Why?", you might ask.  Well to be completely honest it is because we have food stamps.  In spite of careful shopping I still managed to run low on food stamps by end of the month and it was an unnecessary worry in my life.  We manage to eat varied  mostly organic, fresh, made from scratch meals every single day sitting around the same dinner table (unless Adam is working out of town) sharing our day with family and sometimes friends as well. There are a few patterns that  have developed over the course of this experiment that I try to utilize to make the process simpler: soup and fresh baked bread once a week 2 or 3 vegetarian meals per week seafood once a week a salad centered meal once a week  pizza night ...

When I think about the day in 2003 on which I met my husband, I think guacamole. There are many moments in our lives that I remember by the meals we shared. The last meal he cooked for me before I drove to New York for my summer internship in 2006 was Veal Marsala.  The meal that was waiting, sitting on the table, when I returned was a Spaghetti Squash picked up at the Farmer's market that morning. Even rockiest days of our marriage (so far), I will always fondly remember with side by side concocted candied orange peals and chocolate fudge.  The morning after Ivory was born, we pulled apart monkey bread while we stared across the tiny hospital room at that sleeping bundle.  The day after we came home from the hospital with we walked all over Stillwater, Oklahoma in 90 degree weather.  When we walked out of the door that morning we were full of new parent adrenaline and the fact that I had had virtually no sleep the night before seemed to matter litt...

Time has been getting away from me.  The days jam packed with little happenings that it seems like I have hardly had a moment to collect my thoughts, much less, to put them into writing. So I will back track a few weeks. HUNTING - a success.  Adam brought home a deer. and then THE SICKNESS - we ALL got sick. Almost two weeks ago, Sylvan climbed into bed next to me, whimpered tucked his hands into my shirt, fell asleep and then proceeded to puke all over me... changed sheets..  and again..  changed sheets...  and -  then he and I got up.  We only have three sets of sheets for our bed.  So, at four in the morning, he and I started a load of laundry and curled up on the sofa to wait for the rest of the family to get up.  I wrapped my body around his, frustrated by my inability to make him feel better.  The one thing that I can always count on to make him feel better, nursing, made him violently ill and my refusal to do so made h...

Over our Sunday morning cups of coffee Adam and I penciled a list for the day.  Our list had a few chores around the house, but was mostly comprised of delicious food things to make and bake.  The weather is cool and wet and it is planting season again.  This means our Sundays are full of food preparations and our week days are spent apart.   I ran off to the grocery store to pick up a few things while Adam tackled the first food item: Caramel Rolls.  While Adam picked up things around the yard, I rolled up  my sleeves and crumbled together butter and flour to make pie crusts.  I picked the meat off of the bones of last night's roasted chicken , baked butternut squash, boiled sweet potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and broccoli, wilted kale, crumbled up bacon to make my version of the Big Sky Pie that I found in the Missoula Magazine (Page 10) last winter.     Adam started the Braided Swish Cheese Loaves ...

This recipe utilized the ENTIRE beet plant: the leaves as well as the roots!  3 medium sized beets with greens 2 tablespoons coconut oil peppered goat cheese salted and roasted sunflower seeds salt pepper Roast the beets ahead of time ( directions here ) and let cool.  Peel the beets and cut into cubes. Wash and chop greens.  Heat the coconut oil until hot and drop the greens into the pan.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the leaves are dark, dark green in color and a little crispy. Remove from heat.  Layer the greens, the cubed beets, crumbled goat cheese, and sunflower seeds.   Add salt and pepper to taste.   There are no exact quantities.  Just add all the ingredients in the proportions that look and taste good to you.  Enjoy. 

2 fist sized beets (*roasted) 1 lbs of strawberries 4 (or more) ounces of fetta cheese 1/4 (or more) cup of roasted walnuts arugula dressing: 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup olive oil 2 tbsp agave nectar garlic salt pepper * To roast the beets, set them in a oven safe dish and fill the bottom inch with water cover and bake for an hour or until the beets can be easily poked with a fork.  Let them cool and rub the skin off of them.  They are ready to be used. Place the walnuts in a dry hot pan and "fry" on the stove until the skins darken and they are wonderfully aromatic.  Remove from heat. Chop the beets and strawberries into equal sized pieces. Put on a bed of arugula. Since arugula is a peppery green, use as much or as little as you like.  Sprinkle with the feta and walnuts. Prepare the dressing. Whisk together the vinegar, oil, agave nectar and add garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Pour the dressing over the salad.  Toss and enjoy. ...