My Favorite Finds

We've had a few 40-degree days and all this snow is finally starting to melt. This might be the last snowy pic of the season!

For Your Soul ~

Beth Moore:  An Invitation to Imagine.  Riveted, my chest heaved as I read this fictional portrayal from Beth of Joseph, the Arimathean's, encounter with the deceased Jesus - and Pilate, and Nicodemus - that dark Friday afternoon.



For Reading and Learning ~

On the Home Front:  A review on a book about eating seasonally and locally.



For the Home ~

The Prairie Homestead:  8 tips for adding farmhouse charm to a builder-grade kitchen - She has some good ideas and nice taste.  I like her re-do.



For Your Health ~

Weed 'em an Reap: Real Food Substitutions - Instead of this, Choose this...

Joybilee Farm:  10 dual-purpose (cooking and medicinal) perennial herbs to grow in your garden.



For Your Easter Celebration ~

The Chicken Chick:   Easter egg decorating ideas.  It's not too late, if you hurry!  I'm going to do the polka dot version with Kingston tomorrow (something to do while we wait for the ham to bake and after the Easter basket has been picked through), except we'll use hard boiled eggs instead of blown eggs.  And, of course, Aria will participate to the extent she's able.



"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."  John 15:13 (NKJV)








In the midst of baskets and colored eggs and the family meal, I'll be keeping the eyes of my heart turned toward Jesus, our wonderful, merciful Savior.


John 20
³⁰ And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹ but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.


Have a Happy Easter!

Sugaring Season!

This time of year in my travels (mostly to and from work) I pass numerous... MANY ...sugar houses, with smoke billowing out of their chimneys as they make (pretty much 'round the clock) that delicious, natural, decadent, pancake and waffle condiment; MAPLE SYRUP.

Mmmmm.  Vermont's sweet goodness.

Here's the latest (state of the art?) method for collecting sap:

Where there are tubes wound around, and tapped into, trees for acres and acres, all collecting into this one, massive tub:

And at dusk, you often find pick-up trucks with huge tanks in their beds parked at the edge of the road with folks working to transfer all that [soon-to-be-delicous] sap into those tanks to take back to the sugar house... lots and lots of pick-up trucks to watch out for this time of year.




But this... oh, this.  I love the romance - the wistfulness - of this....

That one, galvanized, bucket tapped into a tree and collecting a steady drip, drip, drip.

Glimpses of yesteryear...

And for some silly, nostalgic reason....

It makes my heart sing-happy that you still find it done this way from time to time.

Just makes me feel kinda dreamy... 


What season is it where you live?



Linking with Homestead Barn Hop, Clever Chicks.

Mozz Balls - Fried or Baked?

I love fried mozzarella and thought I would do a little experiment.  I want a guilt-free version.

Solid coconut oil - preparing to melt it for frying.

Diced mozz ball, egg wash, and bread crumbs.

The half that went in the oven.

The half that will be fried...

... in the coconut oil.

Looking good... and it's coconut oil - healthy - no need to be afraid of the frying!

Looks delish!

Hmmm... the oven version flattened a bit.

The fried and the baked.

Dinner! Hamburger patty with sauteed mushrooms, snow peas, and the mozz balls with marinara. Yum.

Here's how it went:



Ingredients:
One ball of fresh mozzarella, diced
One egg, whisked
Seasoned bread crumbs
2/3 cup of coconut oil (about)

Dredge mozz cubes in egg and bread crumbs. Bake one half at 400 degrees for just under 10 minutes.  (checked at 8, they were still firm. checked at 10, they were melted flat)

Fry the other half in coconut oil.  Just takes two or three minutes.  I did not use enough oil to cover them (pricey), so had to turn them half way through.

I prefer the fried texture, but didn't care for the coconut oil flavor.  It was too sweet for what should be savory, in my opinion.

Both were delicious, but for perfection that suits my taste, I'll have to use a healthy, savory oil, such as tallow rendered from grass-fed beef!

When it's healthy fat... fry all you want!  It's good for you.


How do  you think you'd prefer your mozz balls?


UPDATE:  I just scored 6 pounds of free, grass-fed beef suet yesterday.  It's in the oven now, rendering into delicious, healthy tallow!  I'll post about that next week... and I'll be trying these mozz balls again, soon!

SECOND UPDATE: I have since made another batch and fried them in the tallow.  That's the winner! It was delicious!!  Dipped them in Quick and Easy Tomato Sauce and it was awesome!


Linking up with Tasty Traditions, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Our Simple Farm, Foodie Friday, Weekend Wonders, Fight back Friday, Farm Girl Friday, The Chicken Chick

Romans 1:25-26

The Romans Project:

Offering you scripture pictures to enhance your memorization of The Romans Project.
Feel free to download to your desktop.

For more Romans scripture pictures, click The Romans Project tab, above, and you'll find them all listed. And to be sure you don't miss one... you can have posts delivered to your email by subscribing as indicated in the right side bar. Just add your email address!

The Highlanders

... I'm not referencing anything having to do with Doctor Who or professional wrestlers (google "the highlanders" - a lot comes up!).  No, I'm talking about bovines.

Joe and I visited a farm last week... it's right across the street from the orchard we frequent in the summer and autumn months - and we never realized it was there.  They have just a small, unassuming sign at the edge of the road.

The only reason we knew to look for it was someone told us about this terrific grass-fed-only cattle farm and the approximate whereabouts; and from there, we had to google it for more details.


(Why did the turkeys cross the road?)

(Because our car scared the daylights out of them!  Sorry turkeys.)

Look at how furry (hairy?) these highlanders are!  How do they even see?

Enjoying a lazy afternoon in the sunshine.

I'm not sure how I feel about the nose ring.  They say bulls can be awfully testy (that's a naive way of saying dangerous), and the rings help the handlers keep them in check, if need be.  I wouldn't want any handlers to get hurt, but it still makes me a little sad for the animal.  The two fellas behind this fence seemed gentle as a hound when I stepped up to take their pictures.  And I really just wanted to reach my hand over the fence and tousle that hair on his forehead!

This one was stone-still, watching me!  He let that hay just dangle out of his mouth for a good minute and a half while I captured my shots of him. I wonder what he was thinking. (And notice... this guy doesn't have the nose ring, so I suppose if they only use them for cautionary purposes on the suspicious ones and not by default, that makes me feel a little better.  Still can't imagine, though, that the two that had it were terribly feisty.)

Haha... if anyone was feisty, this one came the closest.  He is the other one with a nose ring, and had situated himself on the other side of the hay bale from that handsome strawberry blond.  And when I say he came "close to feisty," all he did was raise and lower his head, watching me bend at the knee as I determined which rails I wanted to take his picture through, the lower or the upper.  He was laying down, simply keeping his gaze on me and the black thing in front of my face.  I didn't feel threatened - not one iota.  He as actually pretty cute - too bad I was facing the sun.

This past Saturday, we went back and made sure to get there while the farm stand was open.  That is, the door was unlocked, but no one was there.  They use the honor system.  They have half a dozen commercial-sized refrigerators and freezers stocked with beautiful, healthy, grass-fed beef valued at thousands of dollars, and they trust their patrons to come and make their selections, use the calculator to tally it up, and leave cash, check or charge slip in their lock-box. 

Isn't that something?  I love that.

We bought skirt steaks (and farm-fresh, pastured eggs since we were there and they were available).

Joe likes to brown it, slather it in duck sauce, and broil it in the oven.  It's fantastic!  Grass-fed beef?  There's nothing like it.  So tasty.

(Did we have company for dinner?  No, that's just for the two of us. We do love our beef.  But, yes, we did have left overs... that was the plan!)

You know the saying, "Hunger makes the best sauce."  Well... guilt-free selections make a pretty good sauce, too.  We felt good knowing that the animal that produced these steaks was well cared for and fed a nutritious diet of pasture grasses and hay.  These cows feel the sun on their backs and the cool dirt on their bellies.  Not to mention, that because they are healthy, happy cows, eating their meat is not a detriment to our own health!

Now, I just have to come up with a homemade duck sauce.  I found a recipe online which was simple enough, but then I realized I'll also have to come up with a homemade recipe for the apricot jam it calls for.  Seems you can't obtain either of those handy jarred items that aren't riddled with sugar and high fructose corn syrup. 

So, that means my next mission is to find fresh, non-GMO apricots! Oy - what a snowball effect this healthy-eating has!  Baby steps.




Linking up with Fat Tuesday, Scratch Cookin' Tuesday, Farm Girl Friday Blog Hop, Our Simple Farm, God's Growing Garden.


(Anyone have a real food duck sauce recipe to share?!)

My Favorite Finds

The Wellspring:  If you know me very well (hiya, mom, my faithful-est follower!), you know how much I love the sky; in the morning when it's spectacularly fresh and new, midday when it's bright and blue, and in the evening when it's ready to retire and the colors descend with a magnificent hue.  If you know that about me, you'll see why this writing by Laura Boggess of The Wellspring is so stunning.











That's it for this weekend. Just resting there in the wonder of His majesty.

Removing Candlewax from... Your Wall!

We were recently burning a warm, cozy, wintry-smelling candle on the shelf of our entertainment center.  A big glass jar full of dark green, pine scented wax had been burning for hours and made the living room smell like a walk in the forest (with a smattering of thoughts toward Christmas thrown in).

Joe and I happened to both be in the kitchen, when all of a sudden we heard a loud crash.  We cranked our necks to look at each other with saucer-sized eyes and dashed into the living room.

The shelf brackets had given way and all of my beloved tchotchkes; framed pictures, assorted vases, and that jar full of melted, green wax, plunged to the floor.  We don't like excessive clutter, so I don't think it was because it was too heavy.  I'm not sure why it collapsed.  Most was salvageable, I just had to wash the waxy green splatters off.

However, the one heart-breaking thing that broke was my beloved Alvar Aalto vase that I obtained personally while visiting Finland in 2000.  It was one of my favorite take-home souvenirs from that trip.  It smashed to smithereens.  So bummed.

Besides that, the melted green wax splattered all over the wall and dripped down behind the TV.  [sigh]

It was a 3' x 2' dripping green stain that stayed there for two weeks because I absolutely dreaded the chore of trying to get it off.  I was afraid it would require scraping and washing and repainting.  Ugh.

Finally, I worked up the gumption to get it done.  And I remembered seeing (about two decades ago!) a friend of mine use an iron and paper towel on a similar wax stain (though, one tenth the size and pale pink!) on her wall. 

(In the picture above, you can see at the top where I had started the process when I remembered to take a picture... because you just never know the things you may want to blog about and it's always good to have pictures available!)

I figured it was worth giving it a try on my Hulkish stain.  If nothing else, it might at least reduce the scraping I'd have to do.

So, I ironed and ironed and ironed, and went through scads of paper towel.

And it worked marvelously!  Look at that... almost no trace of there having been a stain there at all.  I followed up with just a warm, damp rag - and it was like it never happened.

So, if you ever splatter wax (no matter the color) on your wall, remember you can just iron it away!



Linking up with Our Simple Farm, Homestead Barn Hop, Clever Chicks Blog Hop and Farm Girl Friday Blog Hop.

Romans 1:23-24

Offering you scripture pictures to enhance your memorization of The Romans Project.

Feel free to download to your desktop.



(Today is the first day of spring.  As such, I changed the header picture to reflect what is to come.

  Our reality, however, for this first spring day in northern New England, is reflected below.

Winter had a mighty fit on it's last day of 2013 and left us with over a foot of snow!)

For more Romans scripture pictures, click The Romans Project tab, above, and you'll find them all listed. And to be sure you don't miss one... you can have posts delivered to your email by subscribing as indicated in the right side bar. Just add your email address!

Are there any signs of spring in your neck of the woods?

Covered Bridge No. 21

Joe and I took a leisurely drive Sunday and we found an old covered bridge.

Barricaded from motor vehicles...

...that old tattered sign above the flag says, "Cross at your own risk."

So we did, and saw a lovely creek.

That's really as far as we went - just crossed to the other side and back again.

A Google search revealed that it's called Blacksmith Shop Bridge and it was built in 1881.  It didn't say much else other than providing some structural details.


It was a beautiful day to go exploring.  That was Sunday.

This is today (or what it looks like today).

In November: [giddy] "Yay! It's snowing!!"
In March: [disgruntled] "Ugh. It's snowing."

Two days before it's officially Spring and Winter is going out kicking and screaming.


Well, at least I got a Snow Day out of it!  The good news is my Baker Creek Heirloom seeds came in the mail yesterday, so I'll be spending my day at home sowing more seeds.  The tomato seeds are starting to sprout their tiny shoots!  They'll get two months indoors, then they go to the garden at the end of May. 

Have a terrific Tuesday!

My Favorite Finds

My darling (aging) Dexter enjoying the warmth of a sunbeam.

For Your Soul ~

Karen Ehman:  "Running to God first when I feel overwhelmed has not always been my habit. But making myself learn to do it has made all the difference."

The Wellspring:  "I sit on the steps in the dim and whisper your Name and a gentle wind lifts birdsong into the air around me. A robin hops through the grass and I wonder at his courage."



For Your Garden ~

How to Grow Asparagus:  "If you love asparagus and want to grow some yourself, waste no time in getting started. Even with the best of care, an asparagus bed won't hit its stride for several years. But once that happens, the bed will produce an abundant crop of spears spring after spring for at least the next 20 to 30 years."

Thy Hand Hath Provided:  Where she talks about her garden plan.  It is enviable...  we're not supposed to do that (envy), are we?  {sigh}  "We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden." ~Author Unknown  "The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." Gen 2:15 NIV

 

For Your Health ~

The Prairie Homestead:  If you don't click on another link, click on this one and go read about the Healthy Life Summit coming soon... "I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get overwhelmed with all the “health” info out there…I mean, it’s hard to know which is which sometimes… And what sources do you trust? Or better yet… Where do you even go to find good info?
The Healthy Life Summit is a 7-day online conference that is streaming for FREE from March 24-30, 2013."

Then... get signed up for the Healthy Life Summit!


Wellness Mama:  How to Make Water Kefir... "I started making this as part of my mission to get more probiotics in our diet and it has worked like a charm! The kids love it and ask for it each morning."



Good to Know ~

FoodNetwork Blog:  8 foods you shouldn't keep in the refridgerator...  Interesting. I nailed about 7 of them.  I have a habit of putting my tomatoes in the fridge. 




I stumbled upon a hummingbird live web cam. Check it out!

Hummingbird Nest Cam

It's California time - so consider that when you check in (if it's still dark in the morning for us EST folks).




Here's a YouTube video from a few days ago.  One of the hummingbird mama's egg didn't hatch, and coincidentally, a hummingbird chick about the same age was orphaned.  This is of the chick being added to the nest.  Mama took to him no problem. {Yay}  So, the live cam above is of these two chicks, now days older.  You'll see the little orphan is thriving.

Just Driving to Work

Care to join me?

Bowers - the neighborhood - Bridge

Love how the sun comes up between that crest.

 

This is Murphy's house (the adorable dog).

Just about through the village square.

And now I can go 40 mph instead of 30. 

The sheep farm.

Oh, those wires.

And on and on and on...

The day before yesterday all our snow was gone.  Yesterday we woke up to this dusting.  It's gone again.  C'mon Spring... you can do this!


Thanks to Daylight Savings, I enjoy sunrises on my way to work again.