The Old Fashioned Housewife

Confession of a Recovering Housewife

2012-01-27T11:02:00.001-05:00

Hello ladies! I hope this blog post finds you all doing well and feeling blessed in the new year. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, we had a very nice and relaxed Christmas and New Year, I got spoiled by my dear husband as per usual. :)

I wanted to say to those of you who have been kind enough to read my blog on a regular basis and who actually look forward t my posts that I am sorry i have not been able to blog much in the past few months or take part in your blogs. I do miss it indeed! If I may get a little personal here for a moment or two, Id like to share with you that I have been struggling since I had my daughter nearly two years ago with situational anxiety. It continued to get worse until it reached a peak in the fall of last year and was leading to depression as I felt overwhelmed and disabled by anxiousness, something i have never experienced before in my life with any significance.

Sadly, and somewhat ironically considering the topic and content of this blog, most of my anxiety surrounded my abilities (or lack there of) here at home as a wife, mom, and homemaker. Even though I changed my name to “Old-Fashioned Housewife” and have indeed been trying to be the best wife and mom I can be, housewifery has never come naturally to me and I think my desire since becoming a stay at home mom has been to be perfect at this role. Perfection has been an unrealistic goal considering the steep learning curve I have with my lack of training up to this point, and so the mismatch between expectations and reality led to stress which turned into anxiety.

In November I began attending Celebrate Recovery, which is a Christ-centered 12 step program to help people overcome and get healing with their hurts, habits, and hang-ups in life that keep them stuck and keeps them from living in victory in Christ. I cannot understate the value of this program and how it is changing my life. I wont go into all the details here (although if anyone has any interest and wants to know more about Celebrate Recovery PLEASE dont hesitate to contact me I would love to answer your questions) but I just wanted to say that while my anxiety has improved remarkably, the truth is I simply havent had the time to blog. I’m focusing on my recovery which means a good deal of time in God’s word, in prayer, in worship, attending meetings and step studies. The rest of my time is of course spent trying to keep our home in decent order and caring for my family. There have been times ive wanted to sit down and blog about a meal I made or a deal I found somewhere, but there just hasnt been the time. But i miss it indeed!

Im not saying goodbye to blogging because I hope at some point Ill be able to return to it. In the meantime if I find I have a bit of time and something to share, Ill throw up a post, and hope it might happen to bless someone. I am praying you are all doing well and I am sorry I havent had time to keep up with your precious selves through your blogs. I trust you understand. :)

God bless you all!

Nicole

Homemade Advent Wreath

2011-11-30T20:20:00.001-05:00

Hello Ladies! Two posts in one day- whoa! I’ve been wanting to share the advent wreath that I put together this week and I also wanted to take part in Rednesday, as I’ve missed the last few. I know Im a little late in the game here as its already 7pm on Wednesday, but better late than never, right?

This is our first year really observing Advent and I wanted to have a nice wreath to light when we took time to celebrate the approaching birth of Christ. Traditionally, there are four (sometimes five) candles in an advent wreath, and they are usually purple and pink, and they symbolize Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love (and if you have a fifth candle, Jesus). I had recently read an alternate symbolism for the candles that I prefer more:

Week 1- The Prophets who told of Christ’s coming
Week 2- Mary and Elizabeth
Week 3- John the Baptist
Week 4- Jesus Christ

I like this symbolism better, and we will be reading scripture and focusing on being thankful for each person or group who was an important part of the story of Christ’s birth and ministry.

In the spirit of not buying more STUFF this year, I decided to make my own wreath, and I wanted to use things we already had in the house, or at most something I bought second hand. Instead of the traditional evergreen wreath with taper candles, I decided to use pillar candles on a cake stand. This was super easy and I like the way it looks. I already had some of the artificial winter berry garland and I shaped it to fit the outline of the cake stand. Four candles I already had fit nicely into the wreath. The candles do not match the traditional color palette of purple and pink, but to be honest I dont care much for those colours anyway, and I like the more natural palette of the browns, whites and reds together.

For a final touch, I had purchased a big of pinecones from the thrift store and I simple set them in amongst the candles to give it an even more natural feeling. Im very pleased with how it turned out and we have enjoyed being able to light the first candle in the evenings this week.

Do you celebrate Advent? What are your traditions?

ps- don’t forget to Find me on Facebook!

Curry Pumpkin Soup

2011-11-30T15:38:00.001-05:00

Hello Ladies! First of all, I want to say a big thank you to all of you who have joined me on Facebook. I hope you’re letting me know if your blog has a Facebook page so I can head over and “like” it, too!

I was having a dinner party the other night for our Pastor and his wife and I wanted a tasty, seasonal soup I could share as a first course. So often we make salads as first courses but forget how soups are a great alternative because they are often easy to make ahead and simply reward right before serving.

I had a number of roasted pumpkins needing to be used up so I decided to make a pumpkin-based soup. I found this recipe and decided to play around with it to come up with my own version, which follows:

Curry Pumpkin Soup

2 tblsp butter
1/4 onion, diced
1 1/2 Tblspoons curry powder
1 1/2 tsp garam masalla
1/4 tsp cardamom
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbls sugar
4 1/2 cups cooked, cubed pumpkin (or about 4 cups of canned)
4 cups chx broth,
1/2 cup apple cider (or more chx broth)
1 can coconut milk

1. In a large soup pot, melt your butter and sauté your onions on medium until glassy.

2. Add your spice mixture, distributing evenly over your onions, and sauté until fragrant, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add your cubed pumpkin, and stir very well, seeing to it that the spices cover the pumpkin thoroughly. Continue to saute, stirring frequently and taking care that the pumpkin does not burn, about five minutes. (Note: if you are using canned, already-pureed pumpkin, you might want to add the chicken broth right away to prevent scorching).

4. Add all of your chicken broth. Bring to a full boil for just a moment, and then reduce to simmer. Simmer until pumpkin is very soft, about 30 minutes.

5. Using a hand-held blender if you have one (they are great!), blend the soup mixture until completely smooth. If you do not have a submersion blender, you can mix the soup in a regular blender, but take care to do it in batches and not to burn yourself.

6. Add coconut milk, whisking it in until smooth. Bring just to a boil then reduce to very low, allow to simmer for five minutes.

7. Garnish with a few roasted pumpkin seeds if you have them, and serve with naan bread or even just a nice crusty French bread.

I had compliments all around on this soup, even from my beloved who is not a big fan of curried anything. :) Hope you have a chance to try it out and hope you are taking advantage of the lovely fall pumpkins and other squash available and enjoying the tastes of the season. More pumpkin recipes soon and hopefully a peek at some Christmas decorations, too!

Blessings, Ladies!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

2011-11-28T14:08:00.001-05:00

Hello ladies! It’s been a whole week since I last posted. I’ve had lots of things that I wanted to share but just no time to do it- same old story, right? And I am dying to visit your blogs and see whats up with you, but it’ll have to wait for another day. Im just stealing a few minutes to do this post between Christmas decorating and pie making for a dinner party we’re having this evening.

I’ve been working a lot with pumpkin lately, learning to roast the whole pumpkins and use the tasty orange flesh for various yummy culinary concoctions. I plan to share some of them with you very soon, but as a way of a tease I’ll just share a quick note on how to use some of the bits you might be tempted to throw away when you roast a pumpkin. You know me, I like to try to use up “the Whole Buffalo”, so we dont want to throw out those yummy seeds you get when you are cutting a pumpkin. Instead, here’s how to make a lovely and versatile pantry staple out of them.

Before roasting your pumpkin, you’ll be cutting in half down the middle. Using your hands (come on, ladies, be willing to get a little messy here, it’s fun!) pull the seeds out of the fleshy insides. Place them all in a colander and rinse them well with cold water.

dried pumpkin seeds

Next, dry them on a flat surface lined with paper towels. I forgot to take a photo, but I just used a small baking sheet. Allow them to dry over night (even a day or two later they are still great). This drying process makes them roast better, as when they are wet they are more prone to steam which can make them more chewy than nice and crispy.

Place your dried pumpkin seeds in a medium sized bowl, and coat them with a small amount of melted butter and a generous shake of kosher salt. Im pretty general with the salt, but do to your taste and preference. Place them on a parchment-paper (if you have it, if not, no worries) lined baking sheet in a single layer.

Bake in an 300* oven for a about an hour or until golden brown (dont let them go too long or they’re just too hard to enjoy).

Once they have cooled, enjoy! And if you have any left over, once they have cooled completely you can store them in an airtight container on your pantry shelf. i can’t tell you exactly how long they are good for, but I know at least a couple of weeks as that how long ours seem to last around here. :)

Roasted pumpkin seeds make a lovely snack in their own right, and also are tasty as salad topers, mixed in with trail mix, or as a topping for muffins or breads. Enjoy!

More posts with pumpkin-related recipes to come soon.

Happy Christmas- Decorating, ladies!

One Apple: Three purposes

2011-11-21T16:27:00.001-05:00

Hello ladies! Autumn is such a great time for foods you can do a million things with, like pumpkins, pears, and of course APPLES! Seeing as Im all about “Using the Whole Buffalo”, I thought I’d do a post about how I try to make the most out of your apples. First of all, you wan to…

Take a lovely bin of local (from a farm down the street!) apples, just waiting to be turned into something fabulous…

peeled, cored, sliced apples placed in the crock pot with some cinnamon and a splash of apple cider and you get…

Some delicious, healthy, easily made chunky applesauce to enjoy right away…

or can and shelf for a later day or for a Christmas gift!

But wait! That’s not all you can do with this lovely bin of apples! No, ma’am! Waste not, want not is what we say around here and you’ve got two lovely bi-products from your peeled, cored apples, namely your apple cores and…

your apple peels! Don’t let them go to waste, but instead….

get out your trusty dehydrator and put those lovely apple peels to dryin’ while the applesauce is a’makin’…

and you end up with some deliciously sweet and crunchy apple peels…

They make a delicious snack for adults and older kids (they are a bit crunchy for toddlers and babies).

And what can you use cores for you might ask? Well, on the days that you arent making applesauce or mulling some apple cider and you still want the house to have that delicious fall aroma…

simply put your apple cores in a pretty retro coffee pot (or in any old pot for pete’s sake!) with a few cinnamon sticks and a little water and simmer away! Make your garbage into potpourri!

I hope this post has encouraged you to get out there and buy some fresh, local apples and make good use out of them in a way that will bless your whole family. Blessings, ladies!

How to Spend Eight Dollars (or less) on Four Christmas Presents

2011-11-19T11:26:00.001-05:00

Hi Ladies! Christmas times ‘a-coming, Christmas times ‘a-coming, Christmas times ‘a-coming, and I know I dont want to go broke…. Ok maybe that is a slight change to the original lyrics, but I am sure its a sentiment we can all agree on.

To that end, here is a great way to spend Eight dollars or less and get 4 lovely Christmas gifts (and if you’re a real genius at math, that comes out to 2 dollars a gift!). I present to you:

The Old Fashioned Housewife’s Honey Spiced Pears

Lovely local pears plus some honey, cinnamon and cloves

plus a little time in the Kitchen and you get

Four jars of Honey Spiced Pears

add a decorative bow and a personalized name tag

or add the jar to a larger gift basket of home-made goodies

And Voila!! you have 4 gifts for under 8 dollars.

The cost breakdown:

Pears: $3.50 (2nds from the local farmers market)

Honey and spices: 50 cents (or less)

Jars: $3.00 (or less)

Ribbons, tags, etc: $1.00 (or less)

Each year I despise more and more how Christmas can be such a stressful time because of the money we feel like we have to spend to give gifts to the people we love (and sometimes, those we don’t but feel obligated to anyway!). On top of this, I am moving more and more away from a consumer mentality and am trying to do more home-made, hand-made, local, and using the good old 3 Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle.

As such, the vast bulk of my Christmas gifts this year are going to he be homemade. As I am not much of a crafter is is going to be mean, by and large, food items. I understand that some scoff at the idea of the ubiquitous tin of Christmas cookies or Aunt Nellies old hard-as-a-brick fruit cake, but I think that if you make a quality handmade item that is useful and personalized, your gift should be a hit. Most of our loved ones know that they are likely you get gifts exclusively in this category this year. I hope to be able to share some of these with you here on the blog.

The Recipe

For those of you who do can and are curious, remember to always use safe canning procedures and the amounts of pears and the packing syrup are as follows:

Fruit: About 12-14 cups of quartered, cored, peeled pears

Syrup: About 8 cups of water, 3/4 cup honey, 1 tblspoon ground cinnamon and 10 cloves

Hope this post inspired you that you can both save money AND give personalized gifts this Christmas. Do any of you make homemade or handmade gifts for the holidays? Id love to hear your stories!

Blessings and Happy Gift-making!

I am happy to be linking up with The Seasonal Family’s Homemade Holiday Gift Carnival, check it out!

ps- Don’t forget to hook up with me on Facebook and if your blog has a facebook page, be sure to let me know in the comments!

Can you help me find some blog carnivals/ link parties?

2011-11-19T09:58:00.001-05:00

Hello ladies, Just a quick request: I’d like to take apart in more link parties as a way to find other blogs that are of similar interest and content to mine, but Im not having an easy time doing it on my own.

Wondering if any of you know of any blog carnivals/link parties that deal specifically with either made from scratch recipes or handmade gifts/crafts, etc. Or Id also love one that focuses on repurposing items. If you can help me at all, post in the comments, id appreciate it, thanks!

Blessings!

Am I Violating Copyright? Probably Not.

2011-11-17T23:23:00.001-05:00

Hi Ladies! I’ve had some very lovely feedback on my last blog post, the one regarding how to use vintage images on your blog, and I appreciate all the sweet comments. I did have a few questions and a rude comment or too (ahem…) regarding copyright and so while I answered those concerns in the comment section, as i know most people dont go back and read later comments, I thought I’d answer them here.

I wrote a big long answer but my husband corrected me and so my answer will not be more simple. In fact, it will be his answer verbatim:

Under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), you can essentially post anything online. It's the responsibility of the copyright holder to contact the webhost about infringing material (in this case, Google, because they own blogger), who in turn will notify you to take it down.

So, according to this write-up and the hubs, it looks like posting material online IS different than reproducing in physical form,. so unless I receive a notice from google or a copyright owner that I am infringing, I am not going to worry about. The truth is have no qualms about taking photos of pre-1960 ad illustrations and using them here, especially as I usually remove the name of the product and I am in no way attempting to make any kind of profit from this endeavour. It’s all in good fun.

That being said, if you have any concerns, don’t “do as i do”. But I’m not worried about it. :) Thanks ladies!

Using Art from Vintage Magazines

2011-11-16T10:45:00.001-05:00

notice: I had some comments and concerns about copyright after I published this post. I wrote a post in response to those questions, which you can read here. Thanks!

Hello ladies! One of my favourite things about blogging is using (and expanding) my collection of vintage art and illustrations to decorate my blog. Im not much of a collector, but one of the few things I have enjoyed collecting over the years are vintage women’s magazines from the 30s-60s (or even earlier if I can find them). I love the style and glamour of the mid-century advertising art. Because it was still difficult and expensive to print quality color photographs in magazines in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, advertisers still relied heavily on illustrations to sell their products. And as a result, you have some of the loveliest, homiest images of homemakers and their families. Obviously marketers were trying to reach housewives with their products, and they did a great job of portraying homemaking as a noble and even glamorous calling. Many of the ads are corny by our modern-day standards, but they’re all beautiful!

ironically, i didnt actually take the best photo of the cover! The rest of the pictures following will be better :)

I’d like to give a tutorial on how I go about “harvesting” images from the magazines I find at antique and thrift stores. The example I will be using is the December 1956 issue of Family Circle. It just so happens that Disney did the illustrations for the cover and the Christmas story inside the issue. I got this fabulous find for five dollars at a local antique store. I think ive poured over it about five times already and will likely be reading it again before Christmas this year. :)

Vintage Magazine Art Tutorial

1. You’ll need a digital camera. The better quality camera the better, but any digital camera will do. And important thing to remember is you do NOT want flash on and you want to find the MACRO setting on your camera. Macro is a setting used especially for taking up-close pictures. Most digital cameras have this setting, so you should be able to find it.

2. The best photos are taken in good natural light. As you don’t want to use the flash on your camera, you want to try to take your photos during the day in a decent amount of natural light. That being said, if you have a decent camera, you can do them in the evening under lamp light. The Kodak I used to have was wonderful and I could take photos on macro setting with the flash off and get fabulous photos. With my current Fuji, however, I really have to take them during the day time.

3. Find illustrations you can use. Pour over your magazine slowly. First of all, it’s lots of fun to do! Second, you’ll see more things that you can use for illustrations. Sometimes you can just grab a great colorful illustrating that you can use with very little editing. For example:

The illustrations were so large and perfectly shaped that all I needed to do was take photos of them and upload them right into my blogging software to use. As you can see with the image on the right, I then add a border and a watermark.

Not all images seem so easily used at first glance. Be sure to look for miniature illustrations in advertisements, and dont look past the little ads in margins or in the back of the magazine. Sometimes this is where you can get the best, most versatile illustrations. They might be a little more work, but they are worth it. For example:

Here is a page out of the Family Circle issue. There is a cute ad along the side for Austex Chili. Normally i would not take a photo of the whole page this way, but I did it to demonstrate the viewing process.

With your setting on MACRO, try to lay your surface flat in the best, even light possible, and take a photo up close of the illustration you are interested in using.

Upload all of your photos into a photo editing program. I suggest either Photobucket or Picasa. I am using Picasa more and more as I find it quicker and easier. Access your photo, and put it into edit mode. The most important reason to use these photo editors is that they have an “AutoFix” button that you’ll want to use. This brightens and sharpens the ads. Look at the difference in quality and brightness between the photo above and the previous photo. Auto Fix is a must!

Then simply crop the photo down to a nice, neat illustration. You can also use your photo editor to do all manner of additions and edits like text, color editing, blurring, colorful borders, etc. I usually just save them in the above state, however.

Lastly, you want to add a border and a watermark with your blog name (if you chose). I would highly recommend this last step as otherwise people will grab your images while Google image searching and not understand that you’ve done the hard work of harvesting and editing the photo. You want to try to keep your images original to your blog if you can (or at least I try to). I am able to do borders and watermarking in by blogging program, Windows Live Writer. As I’ve said before I HIGHLY recommend this program for PC users who blog. It is WAY easier and more useful an interface than blogger and it is compatible with Blogger, WordPress, etc, etc.

More Examples:

Sometimes you can use the title pages of articles for your blog, not just advertisements. Here’s a great example of a raw image taken with my camera.

And here is the image after cropping, using “AutoFix”, and importing into Windows LiveWriter and adding a border and a watermark.

Here is another rough photo from the Christmas Family Circle edition. There are multiple things to glean from this ad, Ill show you just two.

Here’s the tree part, cropped, AutoFixed, and a border added.

Next, this is the rough cut of a close-up of the grocery store illustration.

Cropped, Auto-fixed and decorated with border and watermark, it’s ready to use on your blog.

Well, this has been a lengthy post, and I applaud you if you’ve read all the way through it. Hopefully it was helpful to any of you who are interested in using vintage images in your blog. Your blog will always be the most personal and original if you take the time to use original images.

Happy Art Hunting!

This post will be proudly linking up with:
Rednesday at Sue Loves Cherries and

Vintage Thingy Thursdays at Colorado Lady

Mexican Pizza

2011-11-15T16:04:00.001-05:00

Hello, Ladies! Just popping in for a quick post about a meal I invented as a way to use up some leftovers and other refrigerator “orphans”. Don’t know if you’re like me, but whenever I get to the nasty business of cleaning out my refrigerator, i always find things that need to get used up. Yesterday was such a day and I had some leftovers from taco dinner from the weekend, as well as a pre-made multi-grain pizza crust I bought at the store because it was marked way down. I remembered when I was a kid there was a pizza place that made “Mexican Pizza”, and I decided to try to recreate it from memory.

First I had to make some refried beans, as they were the base for the Mexican pizza (instead of the typical pizza sauce). I had a can of black beans in the cupboard so I made good use of those, but if you have a can of already- prepared refried beans you could just as easily use those.

I greased my pizza stone, put the crust on, and put a nice layer of the refried beans down. I then topped this with:

left-over taco beef

lots of shredded cheddar cheese

I baked this at 400* until the cheese was nice and bubbly and melted, about 35 minutes. You want to remove the pizza onto a cutting board where it can cool for five minutes.

I forgot to take a photo of this, but you want to slice the pizza before you put any further toppings on it. Once you’ve done this, add

chopped lettuce

diced tomatoes and raw onion

Serve this pretty and tasty concoction to your family with sides of salsa, sour cream and, if you’ve got it, guacamole. One word of caution: watch the salt in your beans and meat. I added salt to the beans but I really didn’t need it as there was already salt in the meat and it was a bit too salty for my taste (which means my husband loved it.). :) I think this will be a regular staple on my meal planning rotation, its a great way to use up taco dinner leftovers.

Hope you’re having a great week, ladies! If any of you have any creative pizza ideas, please share!

Truly Homemade Pumpkin Pie

2011-11-14T10:09:00.001-05:00

Hello ladies! I hope everyone reading this blog post is enjoying a beautiful fall. I know for my American friends it’s almost Thanksgiving Time. I hope the plans for your big holiday are coming together nicely.

One Thanksgiving staple is Pumpkin Pie. As I have tried to make more foods from scratch, pies are one thing I have not been very brave about trying. The crust intimidates me, and I tend not to try things that takes lots of time and energy in fear that i will have wasted my efforts.

But I decided this week I really wanted to try to learn to make pie, and I wanted to make the whole thing from scratch. I bought a few small pie pumpkin at the local farmers market, and read this great tutorial on how to roast pumpkins.

I used a great pie crust from this beautiful cook book Earth to Table that focuses on local, seasonal eating, and I used the pie recipe from the classic The Joy of Cooking.

The most satisfying part for me, for some reason, was rolling out and preparing the pie crust. I took the advice I read somewhere once and covered the edges of the pie with aluminum foil for the first 40 minutes of baking, which protected it from burning.

I was nervous about how it would turn out, but it turned out pretty great, especially for a first try! It needed a bit moe sugar (I always pull back the sugar in recipes but i think in this instance I needed to add the full amount) and a little more cinnamon, but other than that it was great.

Do you ever make pies from scratch? Do you have a favourite pie you make truly homemade?

Blessings, ladies!

Old-Fashioned Fall Fun

2011-11-10T17:12:00.001-05:00

Hello Ladies! Before I get into sharing some of our fall-time doing, I want to share with you all that I’ve really been struggling with the “to blog or not to blog” thing lately. As you can see, I havent been blogging much at all. The reason? I just dont have the time. The summer was CRAZY busy with learning to can and preserving food. The early fall was busy with similar things and travel to see my family. The past few weeks I have been focusing on how to get back into a better housekeeping routine because it pretty well went out the window in the summer as I spent a disproportionate amount of my time at the kitchen sink and stove and let the basic house-keeping go by the way side. Add to that chasing a beautiful 18 month old, taking acre of my hubs, getting 3 meals and two snacks on the table every day, spending time in God’s word, being involved with church and various ministries, and I just dont find the time to blog. Sometimes I tell myself Im going to do it at the end of the day after my daughter goes to bed, but I usually dont have the mental and/or physical energy to do it. Im sure many of you struggle with this, right?

The problem is I really do want to blog. I have all these ideas I want to share, but blogging the way I do takes time, and I just dont find i have it very often. In addition, an important part of blogging, in my opinion, is not just posting my own content but also being a part of YOUR blogs, being blessed by what you’re sharing and taking part in your conversations. And that takes even MORE time, time I just dont seem to find lately.

BUT Im not ready to totally give up. I know the rarity of my posts these days mean I probably wont have as many regular followers, but we’ll just have to play it by ear. So, now that i have that out of the way… heres a bit about the fun we’ve been having this fall. :)

We kicked off our Fall season this year by attending the 1914 Fall Fair at the local living museum in our area. It was a fun look at life a century ago.

Next, we went home to visit my family in Upstate New York. One day we went out to the local pumpkin patch/fun farm. What a blast!

For Halloween, we dressed our little Bird up as, appropriately, a duck, and had some good friends over for a little Harvest Party:

I made homemade maple popcorn to hand out to the kids in the neighbourhood.

Blessings to those of you who took the time to catch up with me. I keep saying I hope to be blogging more soon, and to be reading your blogs, too, and I surely do hope so. Here’s hoping!

Hope you are having a wonderful Fall!

A Bit of Fall Decorating

2011-09-24T23:23:00.001-04:00

Hello ladies! I wanted to take a minute to say Happy Fall to you all and also to share with you the wee little bit of fall decorating i have done thus far in my home. Some of you may have heard me say either here on the blog or on facebook that I actually developed a very strong aversion to all fall decorations (sad, right??!) during my pregnancy two falls ago. i was deep in the throes of my first trimester of pregnancy (or should I say deep in the “throw-ups?” Too much information? :) ) and I was so sick that anything I was surrounded with at the time triggered a nauseous response in me for a long time thereafter. So, that meant fall decorations, antiques (no joke, sad, right??), and tv shows that I watched while prone on the couch like The Golden Girls and Murder She Wrote.

the little fall vignette I created for my dining room buffet

By God’s grace, most of those things subsided after about a year. BUT the fall decorations thing was really holding on. Even at the end of this August when I was looking through my decorations in the garage and I saw the fall stuff, my stomach got queasy. But I put my foot down with myself and I said I am going to retrain my mind and get back fall decorations. They used to be my favourite, after all!!

I dont have too many open, flat surfaces in our home that I can use purely for decoration, but my buffet (which is situated right in between my living room and dining room) is one such location. I put some fabric fall leaves I bought at a yard sale years ago in a simple white flower vase- nothing difficult or fancy. I filled a white ceramic cornucopia with some gourds from the local farmers market, and paired these very autumnal items with a pear in a cloche jar and a pretty vintage book on an easel. Rebecca from Stony Brook Farm it’s called,and I love the sweet little farm scenes on the cloth cover- makes me think of harvest time and perfect for fall decorating.

On the other half of the buffet, I put some cute mini pumpkins and a few white gourds in my glass cake stand, where they are holding down the fort until I can make some yummy pumpkin or apple cinnamon muffins to go in there. :) Finally, to bring a little light and warmth, I filled two mason jars with coffee beans and a small votive candle. They look nice atop a vintage copy of the complete works of Shakespeare, dont you think?

The other splash of fall is on my dining room table, where I have a simple and functional display of fruit, along with a pretty cloth pumpkin. You may recognize these two white dishes from the post I did about my vacation vintage finds. They have become mainstays on my dining room table since I purchased them, a great showcase for seasonal fruits, making the table pretty and putting delicious, nutritious food in easy reach.

What says early fall better than beautiful Bartlett pears and extra sweet German plums? Yum!

So, in between batches of canning, chasing after a busy toddler, and trying to keep the house in some kind of order,this is the little bit of fall decorating I’ve managed to do so far. I hope you enjoyed, and I am also hoping this post will be the start of my return to blogging more regularly. Summer is gone, fall is here, and canning season in nearly over. Love seeing all your fall stuff on your blogs, too, ladies, Im catching up!

Please stay tuned as I plan to do a post this week on the 1914 Fall Fair I attended last weekend, I think you’ll find it almost as fun to read about as I did to attend. Blessings, ladies, and Happy Fall!!

Introducing the Old-Fashioned Housewife

2011-09-07T22:21:00.001-04:00

Hello ladies! I hope any of you taking a moment to read my blog post are doing well and enjoying the last bits of summer before fall sets in on us. I have been SUPER busy these past couple of weeks trying to get the rest of the summer harvest preserved before the growing season is over. When Im not canning, freezing, or drying something, I’ve been chasing a toddler and trying to clean out some very neglected spaces in our home. In addition, Im just in one of those periods where I am pouring over God’s Word and if my few free moments am more inclined to get ahead on my bible study homework than do a blog post. While I miss blogging, it’s been a pretty good couple of weeks. :)

So, you might have noticed that there’s been a bit of a name change! This is something I have been contemplating for sometime now, but I have been The Armchair Housewife for so long now that it’s been a bittersweet decision. As I explained years ago, the title of the blog was a reference to the fact that I was so often guilty of being an “armchair” homemaker, much like an “armchair” detective or quarterback, one who sits on the sidelines and lives vicariously through others and has strong opinions about something that they dont actually participate in themselves. It was a confession of sorts and a beginning on a new journey to take my responsibilities as a homemaker more seriously. I’ll always have a tender spot in my heart for that phrase as I think it was inspired. :)

However, more and more I feel that it is no longer fitting. I have FAR from “arrived” when it comes to being the wife, mother, and homemaker that I want to be. However, I am no longer sitting on the sidelines. I may still be struggling daily to learn how to do this very important job well, and I have a lot of learning to do, but theres no doubt that, by God’s grace, I am fighting the good fight in the trenches. Proof of this is the fact that I havent blogged for a couple of weeks- there was just too much to do to read or write blog posts, and I’m proud to say I’ve at least come far enough to have made the right decision and no stay parked in the armchair! Praise the Lord!

With this in mind, may I reintroduce myself as The Old-Fashioned Housewife! I plan to write more as time goes on about why I prefer this name, but I am sure than any of you who have read this blog with any frequency can guess that I believe it reflects my desire to be that traditional wife and mother that viewed her role as homemaker as a full-time occupation and calling worthy of her best efforts. My dear hubs purchased the domain name for me, so my web address is now OldFashionedHousewife.com! For the near future I will continue to host at Blogger so as you can see the blog address is still the Armchair address, but if you enter the .com domain name into your web address bar, you will indeed be directed here to my home sweet home. And I would go one step further and ask you kind, sweet ladies who have me listed in a blogroll on your page, if it isnt too much trouble, to rename me and enter the .com address if you are able. No biggie if you can’t, people will still be directed here.

I hope the name change will reflect my desire to be a good old-fashioned housewife, focusing on being a wife, mother, and homemaker to the glory of God. I am so thankful to have so many of you along for the journey and I hope to be blogging more soon (and checking in on all my bloggy friends!)

Blessings, ladies!

Fencepost Friday: What’s Your Biggest Challenge?

2011-08-26T08:57:00.001-04:00

Hello ladies! Wow has it been one full week around the Armchair household.. so busy I only managed to do one short post since my last Fencepost Friday! I am hoping to do more blogging this next week, but the truth is until the growing season (which for me is now canning/freezing/drying season) ends, Im probably going to be pretty busy if I want to preserve some of the harvest for the cold winter months. Sort of makes me actually look forward to winter, though!!

read the fine print in the ad above, ladies… there’s a lot to do!!! :)

This week I’d like us to gather around the fencepost and talk about challenges. Sometimes I think we ladies can put on a brave front and pretend that we’ve got everything all together when it comes to balancing our housework, our social and ministry lives, and being the best moms and wives we can be. But in truth, Im going to go out on a limb and guess Im not the only homemaker who struggles to get everything done in a day or a week, or sometimes feels like as much as I love my job, sometimes i feel like I need two of me to be everything I want and need to be! :)

So, this week I want to hear from you all about your biggest challenges as homemakers. What do you struggle with the most? Is it not feeling like you have enough time? Energy? Direction? Help? Health? Money? Skill? Organization? Ability? Closet space? (OK that last one was tongue in cheek…sort of.) I’m sure we probably feel like we could use more of all of these things, and I dont want this to turn into a gripe-fest, but I’d like to know what are the one or two things you find the biggest challenges to your being the best homemaker you can be? And what do you think the solutions are?

I’d love to hear from as many of you homemaking ladies out there as want to share their stories! And remember, don’t feel you cant participate if you work outside the home… if you’re a lady and consider yourself a homemaker, I want to hear from you! As per usual, I’ll go first. :)

The Armchair Housewife Says: For me, the whole point of The Armchair Housewife is to chronicle my journey to be a better housewife, so I've been pretty open about my challenges along the way. I'd have to say probably the biggest challenge is the fact that I dont come by any of the skills or abilities needed in this job (except for loving my family!) and each ability has been totally self-taught. Sometimes it feels like the learning curve is oftly steep, and I probably expect too much out of myself too soon, and that can lead to frustrations and discouragement.

In addition, I am not a naturally organized person, and I have to really focus in order to be organized. And if its one thing i am learning you need to be a good old-fashioned homemaker, along with the Grace of God, is ORGANIZATION! So this is another thing I am praying about and trying to learn.
Looking forward to hearing from all of you!

The Seasonal Family says: I know that my challenge is to not spread myself too thin. The idea of being super mom and being able to do everything is very appealing but makes me fall short of my goal constantly. I desperately wish that I was naturally talented in every aspect of homemaking which leads me to resent how those skills are not valued any more and are not taught to us. There is so much beauty in being at home and caring for the family, since our families emotional, physical and spiritual well being are crucial for happiness and success.

We do struggle financially as well and there are moments when I believe if we just had more money we would be "better off" but honestly, what does that even mean? We have a house, we have each other, we have food, we are warm in the winter and stay cool in the summer. An effort needs to be made on my part to not fall into worldly temptations and realize my treasures are stored in heaven.

Here is that book I was telling you about! I know that I want to check it out: http://wearethatfamily.com/my-book/

Mom Wald’s Place says: Wow, is it possible to leave a whole book for a comment. This is quite the question.
Most recently being an at home mom has also become being a physical therapist, every day. I cannot imagine having a chronically ill child, and having to spend your life separated from them at an away from home career.
We have to do our physical therapy at the YMCA, so our days are chopped up. I need to find a way to regain the gentle pace we had here before as a homeschooling family.

Housewives Preserve Us!

2011-08-23T14:46:00.003-04:00

Hello, ladies! This housewife has been too busy to blog because she’s been busy preserving the summer harvest. In addition, thanks to the encouragement you ladies shared with me on my last Fencepost Friday, I’ve made myself a new weekly housekeeping schedule and have been working away on getting into a new routine. So thanks for all the inspiration!

Just thought I’d share a few snapshots of what’s been going on around the Armchair Household. Also, if any of you have a good dill relish recipe, share it with me, would you?

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Preparing Fresh Greenbeans for the Freezer

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Canning Sliced Peaches

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Drying Red and Yellow Sweet Peppers

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Pickling Cukes in lots of Dill and Garlic

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And I had a little Bird “helping” me all the way…. :)

Happy Homemaking Ladies!

Fencepost Friday: What is your Routine?

2011-08-19T08:29:00.001-04:00

for photo credit, click on picture

Hello Ladies! Thank you for joining me for another Fencepost Friday! it really touched my heart that many of you responded to last week’s post about finances. I want you to know I appreciated the wisdom that each one of you brought, and your unique stories. So awesome, this is what makes Blogland great. :)

This week I want to talk about routine. My bloggy friend Mrs. Evans did a post about her weekly routine the other day and it got me thinking again about my own routine and how really I could use a more formalized work schedule to help me accomplish more in my day and week. While our little Bird was still tiny, and we were grabbing sleep when we could and nursing all day and she wasnt able to play on her own, trying to get any sort of schedule in place was impossible.

But now that she is sleeping well and I can actually plan stuff (to a degree, anyway!) Id like to get more of a weekly plan in place. I will never be rigid type-A schedule keeper, its just not me. But Id like to at least organize my major housekeeping chores in some order. I think this will allow me not to feel like i have so much to do everyday, because if I can just do what is on the list for a day and know I’ll get to the other things in the rest of the week, I think it could help reduce stress!

So, our question for today is this:

What is your routine? Specifically, what is your homemaking schedule or routine? Do you have certain days of the week that you do specific chores, or do you have more of an ebb and flow to your day and week that just seems to emerge as you go along? If you have children in the home, I am especially interested to know how you balance time with them and getting your housework done. And if you are working outside the home, perhaps you can tell us how you balance getting stuff done around the house and having to work at a job (I know all about that!). Feel free to share either your daily routine or your weekly, or both!

Really looking forward to your responses, ladies. I am thinking that because these answers might be a bit more lengthy (and thats ok, I want the details!), and because I have a TON of stuff to get done today in the kitchen (namely peach jam, pickles, and freezing green beans) I probably wont copy and paste answers into the main body of the text today. Instead, lets just make sure we read the comment sections for everyone’s insights, and you can even subscribe to receive new comments by email if you want to continue to take part in the discussion as more thoughts come in. I’ll start the comments off with my own daily routine, and I’m excited to hear from each and every one of you!

Blessings, ladies, and Happy Homemaking!

More Vacation Vintage Finds!

2011-08-17T10:00:00.001-04:00

Hello ladies, Im excited for this week’s Rednesday and Vintage Thingy Thursday, because I have a TON of cool groovy vintage finds to share with you. You may be just about sick of looking at my vintage finds, but I just got so many recently I have to share them! Almost done! :) Keep your eyes open for lots of Red!

Groovy vintage apron, now hanging on one of my walls (see the display here).

If you remember from my first post on my vacation finds, I was focusing during my “hunt” for pictures and other decorative items for my walls, which have gone largely ignored in the nearly two years since we have lived here (what with a hard pregnancy and the first year of having a baby, decorating went on the back burner :) ). I found this picture and fell in love with it, even though it’s nothing fancy. Look how sweet this family looks. :)

Im not sure what you call these, but you’ve probably seen them around. It’s one side of a wooden crate that has had an old advertisement plastered or modge-podged or something to it. If you look closely, it says “Cosy Homes Make Happy Childhoods” and was an advertisement for the American Radiators company. Isnt that the best? I already had one of these but wasnt using it:

So I decided to make a nice display for the wall above our tv and bookshelf in the living room, and behold:

I think the three pieces compliment each other very well, and am happy with how this turned out (and notice my gorgeous RED walls, if you will! :) ).

Next up is one of the grooviest little antiques I’ve ever come across. I new instantly when i saw it that i had to have it, and when the vendor saw that I kept coming back to it she offered to knock the price down and i got this for 15 dollars, which I happen to think is a pretty awesome deal for such a neat old piece.

If you can’t tell what it is, its a decorative box for the wall that has a pull-out drying rack for dish towels! How CUTE is that? and its still in good enough shape that the rack is sturdy enough for me to use it!

My wall space is actually very limited in my kitchen, so I thought I’d hand it in my main floor bathroom, as it not only looks cute in there but its a place where I often go to hang up things to dry, and i’m already using it to dry Bird’s bibs:

Isn’t it awesome???

And of course let’s NOT forget the awesome 1953 first edition Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook I picked up for a song… if you havent had a chance yet to feast your eyes on my post all about that gem, you can view it here.

Now this next find is actually pretty special. I knew when I saw it hanging in the shop that it was old, but I wasn’t sure how old and I really just bought it because I liked the look of it. Ladies, I got this beautiful framed floral print for FIVE dollars. When I got home I started searching online and I’m just about certain that this is an old, numbered print of J.L. Prevost, a Parisian painter of the late 18th century. From some of the other prints I’ve found online and some of the similar markings, it looks like this print was created by the Paris Etching Society in NYC circa the 30s and 40s. I found a set of three of these prints going for 100 dollars on Ebay, so 5 dollars for one is a pretty good deal. :)

I turned it over and found this darling seal on the back from A.G. Cummings & Son, which was a book store and artistic framer from Oberlin, Ohio that was open in the later part of the 19th century until 1957. The print was likely framed in the 30s or 40s after being purchased from the Paris etching society in New York. It’s neat to trace the history of a piece and picture a lady on vacation in NYC sometimes in the 30s, finding this lovely print and bringing it back to Ohio to have it printed at her local bookshop. For a history nerd like me, this is the best part of antique hunting. :)

I also picked up two more floral prints, one framed and one not. I picked up a frame for the print on the right at a local thrift store when I got back, and with these items and some of the other things I got on vacation, mixed with some other items I “shopped” from my house and already had, I made this display on the large wall in our living room:

I know its hard to see… Im not a good photographer for wide shots, but its a display with all floral pictures and then a print of Christina’s World that I bought years ago at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, and am just now getting around to framing and displaying. I’m happy with the way this turned out, too. :)

And lastly, I got these sweet, cute little plaques with scenes of a mamma with her babes, to hang up with Bird’s room. Again they were nothing fancy, but the sweet scenes of domestic life in them touched my heart, and for a DOLLAR a piece (they were on the stores clearance table), how could I go wrong?

Well, ladies, that sure was a lot of stuff. I hope it wasnt too overwhelming! Hope you enjoyed all the Red and the great vintage finds! Be blessed and know I so look forward to seeing all of your posts over at Rednesday and Vintage Thingy Thursdays!

Happy Homemaking!

Hallway Before and After (with Vintage!!)

2011-08-16T08:14:00.001-04:00

Hello ladies! I did this monster post yesterday and I think it was just plain too long for people to read! So here it is cropped down to the essential bits: a thank you and a show and tell for my recent hallway transformation. :)

First of all, want to say a big fat THANK YOU to all of you who participated in my very first Fencepost Friday! I was super duper encouraged to hear al that you had to say about being a blessings financially to your families. Keeping with the theme of being financially responsible and a blessing to our families, I wanted to share some decorating I did this week using almost all things I found in my garage or around the house that hadnt been used yet. Yay!

This week, among other things, I tackled this wall:

It’s a very easily-ignored wall as its sort of wedged in between my stairway and the bathroom, but I felt like it had some potential. I went into my garage on Friday last and dug up all the pictures, shelves, and other decorative items Ive had for a while but never put to use in our new home for reasons stated above. I found I had quite a lot of good stuff, stuff I had pretty well forgotten about! And after weighing it over, I came up with this:

apologies about the photo quality: this is a rather dark corner of the house without much natural lighting and that is bad for my camera!!

Now, mind you: I am NOT Martha St ewart. I am also no Aunt Ruthie from Sugar Pie Farmhouse. If you want gorgeous eye candy for home decorating, she’s your lady! But I was pretty happy with how this turned out, and helps give my home, I think, that warm vintage feel that I so love.

The shelf was a little cutie I bought at the thrift store months ago but hadn’t hung up yet, and the two aprons are vintage that I got a song each at different stores at different times. I’ve had the red repo lantern forever it seems, but it was just hiding on a bookshelf elsewhere in the house, and that adorable little transistor radio from the 50s, as well as that coffee canister, weren’t being put to use at all! What a sad waste! Aren’t they cute?

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What I really love about the wall are these fabulous Pespi ads from the late 50s. All they are, ladies, are magazine ads that have been removed from some old vintage periodical and sold individually at an antique store for about a dollar or two each. Look for these when you are out antique hunting because they can be fabulous decorative items if framed. In this case, the frames were the only thing i lacked. I did my due diligence and went to not one, but TWO thrift stores looking for frames before I went and bought them retail, but didnt have any luck (although I did find two other smaller frames that I have since put to use that I’ll share with you some other time. So I did buy the two black frames new at Superstore, but the rest I “shopped” for right here in my own house. What do you think?

Well, ladies, this blogging has been fun but I better go get baby up from her nap and get dinner started. I pray you’re all having a sensational day and see you again soon! Blessings!

Fencepost Friday

2011-08-12T06:00:00.000-04:00

Hello ladies, and welcome to my very first Fencepost Friday!! I hope it will be the first of many! Thank you to those of you who have already left some sweet comments on my introductory post to this series, I am so glad that Im not the only one who is looking forward to this opportunity to share!

Our first topic of discussion ‘round the old fence post is this:

What do you, as a home maker, do to help benefit your family financially? Assuming that most of us are not earning a salary, are we still taking seriously our impact on the family budget and bank account? What ways are you a helper to your husband in this area, and do you have any gems of wisdom for me and other wives as we seek to be a benefit to our families in the area of finances?

So, let her rip, ladies! The only “rule” I have about this is I want you to leave a heart-felt answer. I’d like everyone to try to keep it to about a paragraph in length, so we can read everyone’s! I will give my own answer first, which should give you an idea of how the post should look as answers filter in. Don’t be shy, ladies, everyone’s input is welcome and needed!!!

The Armchair Housewife says: I have been praying a lot about this lately and taking seriously my role in our finances. I think my main focus right now is realizing that in so many ways, while my husband is the one who earns the money, I am usually the one who spends it! Meaning, I do the grocery shopping and much of the discretionary spending on behalf of the family (and sometimes, just on behalf of myself!). As such, Im taking more and more seriously my ability to save money for our family by cost-cutting and trying to be efficient in the way we spend our funds on things like groceries, clothing, and other of life’s necessities. I’m even trying to be more mindful about our utilities, using the dryer on the cheaper hours when I can and turning off those lights and the AC when we really don’t need it.

And more than anything, I think I am really trying to be mindful, and prayerful, of how hard my husband works to provide income for our family, and to not take this for granted. The best way I can say thank you to him for how hard he works is take seriously, and develop the art of being frugal with, my responsibility as the spender.

Gail@Faithfulness Farm says:

Well, life has a way of changing things up. When my 4 children were all at home, I was there with them -- homeschooling, homesteading and homemaking. I did everything I could to manage the family finances to keep me in that full-time homemaker position -- cooking from scratch, menu planning, gardening and canning, hanging wash instead of using dryer, etc. Now my nest is mostly empty (only 1 child still at home) and after a long seperation, I am divorced, so no longer a wife -- but still I am a homemaker. I work full-time outside my home -- but I still use all the skills I learned long ago to keep my expenses down and be a good steward of all I've been blessed with. Great question to *kick-off* this feature :)

Jann Olson says:

Call me crazy, but I think it has alot to do with how you were raised. I use to have to really watch my spending when we were raising 5 children. Cutting coupons, shopping sales, babysitting children and working outside the home when needed. You know. really working hard, to stay within our budget. Now we are older and doing well financially I still try to be frugal. Still use a coupon now and then. Just in my blood!

The Seasonal Family says:

I do the same with trying to use the electricity when it is cheaper. We have not used an A.C. this summer, just fans and windows to help keep costs down. We purchase clothes from Goodwill and shop when they have sales too to even further reduce clothing costs, because everyone knows how quickly kids outgrow clothes. We meal plan and try to reduce food costs through buying clubs and bulk purchases. Then we freeze, dehydrate and can when possible. I believe there is nothing more important than staying home and raising my family. Thanks for all the tips ladies :D

Mrs. Evans says:

Through most of our five year marriage we have had "feast" and "famine" times. Sometimes we have more than "just enough", but most of the time, it has been just enough. I have gotten pretty good at making a little go a loooong way. I keep a pantry, and when necessary stock it full to the top at a local discount food store. Then add to it pantry staples that are always fairly cheep (pasta, flour, beans, rice). With a well stocked pantry, we can literally go WEEKS without a big grocery shopping trip because I can just "shop" in my own home. Food is the #2 largest monthly expense. Cooking from scratch, eating less meat, and being creative within a set ingredients list are great ways to limit that expense.

Lillie Mae Acres says:

I have stayed home and homeschooled our son for almost 7 yrs now. I've always been a wise shopper IMO, I research and try my best to save, clip coupons, etc. I cook and serve hot meals here at home, for years we've tried to enjoy one wknd night out as a family. He will grad soon; therefore, I am currently working on my resume to re-enter the workforce. Also I need a new vehicle and am dreading those pmts so am more than willing to bring extra income into our home to help. I love being Home Sweet Home.

So, what about you, ladies?

Introducing Fencepost Fridays

2011-08-11T19:04:00.001-04:00

In the 50s, marketers knew that women gathered around the back fence to chat about all things home-related

Once upon a time, when our society was populated with housewives, ladies didnt need blogs to get together to share tips, stories, and encouragement about how to be the best homemakers they could be. Instead, they simply met around the fencepost out back, having a chat while they hung up the wash or watched the kids play. Or after the morning chores were done and lunch was served and cleaned up, a housewife might invite the other ladies from the neighbourhood over for some coffee, or start up a knitting circle, or have a canning party.

Sadly (and I mean it when I say ‘sadly’… I think we’ve lost a lot in our society with so few women at home today), it can be hard today for the stay at home wife and/or mom to find a community of other like-minded women who have the same tasks and goals as they do. I know for myself, I can count only four stay at home moms among my friends and acquaintances, even those ladies I go to church with. This is not a demonization of women who work outside the home, especially as I know so many women who would love to be home if they could, but it is a call for those of us who are blessed to have home making as full time job to make the best of the community we have here in blogland to encourage and support one another in our work.

To that end, I am introducing Fencepost Fridays. I may not have any homemakers in my own neighborhood to chat with over my back fence, but I do have all of you! And what I want to accomplish with these posts is to share those tips, stories, and encouragement that I really believe we are often missing today as wives and mothers; we all need to share our wisdom and our struggles in order to feel like we arent doing this alone and we are making a difference in the lives of our families, and our communities.

So, how is it going to work? Each Friday I’ll pose a question to you all. Ideas include things like, “what is your go-to meal on a busy day that helps you not buy take out?” or “how do you daily teach your children to walk in faith?” or “what are your favorite homemaking books and magazines” or “how do you balance housework with being a mom and a wife?” and many other things that I would love to hear from you all about. The very sorts of things that we love to talk about with those (often few precious) friends of ours that live the same kinds of lives we lead. Of course all ladies who consider themselves home makers are invited to join in the conversation, not just those that are home full-time! I know so many of you out there would love to be full time homemakers but for various reasons are still in the work world. Please contribute to the conversation and share your wisdom with us!

I really hope to hear from ALL of you. As comments come in I will go back and add them to the post itself, at the bottom of the page, with your profile photo and a link to your blog. I really want these posts to be a community effort, and maybe someday if it is successful enough and ladies want to do their own posts, I could start a link party. But for now, I hope youll add your voice by leaving a comment (our modern day fencepost!) and join in the conversation!

Tomorrow will be the very first Fencepost Friday, and I hope you’ll all grab a cup of tea and join me at my cyber-table for a little encouragement! See you then, ladies!

1953 Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

2011-08-10T00:42:00.001-04:00

Hello ladies and welcome to a very special edition of Rednesday and Vintage Thingie Thursday! Very special because I get to share with you my prized vintage find from my vacation antique hunting. I have spent FOREVER putting this post together, but it’s worth it to share all the goodies ahead with you. Behold, a first edition 1953 Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, in excellent condition:

Can you believe it? As someone who loves vintage illustrations and photos, cookbooks, and lots and lots of red, this book has been so much fun to pour over. It’s going to be an excellent resource for both recipes and a whole new collection of vintage images I can use for this blog! Yay! Without further adieu, enjoy a little taste of the cookbook with me:

As you can see, this edition is 5-ring binder, and its really in fabulous condition. This is the cover page layout- look at the gorgeous 50s “technicolor” photography. And lots of red!

It being 1953, the opening page reads:

LOVE it!!!

Probably my favourite part of the cookbook are the FABULOUS illustrations throughout. Each chapter/section has a beautiful pink, black and white illustration, and each one includes a the well-dressed, happy homemaker the book is addressed to. Here is the housewife planning her family’s meals for the week:

Look how *cute* Mrs Homemaker is while she does her meal planning- look at those hose! Sexy mamma!

One of my favourite sections so far is the one on canning, which should be no surprise to a regular reader of this blog :) . Look at the adorable (and RED!) canning chart:

Other red highlights of the book include:

Page numbers and recipe titles in delicious red!

Don’t you just love it?! Yes, you do.

For those of you that are curious, the “story” of the book is as follows. I found the most adorable little antiques store in Vermilion, OH, where we were staying, and I saw the cookbook right away. I had a budget of 20 dollars a day discretionary spending, and they were asking 20 for the cookbook. While that seemed like a completely reasonable price for such a treasure, I didnt want to spend my whole day’s budget on the book, so I passed the first day. I revisited the shop two more times, however, and on the third visit they were having a sale. The book wasn’t marked down but I got brave (Im not typically very good at negotiating prices) and asked if I could have it for 15. And the lady said yes! I was so excited I just about did a dance (ok maybe I did dance just a little bit on the way to the car…). When I came home I did a little research and for a first edition in the good shape this is in, I could easily get 75 dollars, and I even saw one bid for 200 bucks! Not that I’ll be parting with it anytime soon!!

And to finish up, I leave you with a photo, from the book, of the kitchen in which our happy homemaker would have used this cookbook:

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did! Be sure to check out all the other great entries in the Rednesday and Vintage Thingie Thursday link parties. Be blessed, ladies!

Good Will Goodies!

2011-08-06T16:55:00.001-04:00

Hello ladies! We’re having a great time on vacation here on Lake Erie; in fact we’re having so much fun we’ve decided to stay a few extra days. I just couldnt wait until next week to share my second hand goodies with you all, so I’ll be doing two posts, this one on the goodies I found at the thrift store, and another on the treasures I bought at the antique store in town.

I simply can’t hold out on you and must share first the COOLEST find from Goodwill of the week. I say “of the week” because Bird and I have gone three times now! The fun of being on vacation is you have the free time to just pour over one section of the store each time you go, taking your time and looking at everything, and that way there’s more store to look at another day!

Isn’t she a beauty??? This is a Rival Juice-o-Mat, probably from the 40s or 50s. I was checking out when I noticed this piece behind the glass counter and my heart went pitter-patter. :) I love vintage kitchen stuff, and this fit the bill wonderfully. It is a very solid piece- very heavy and sturdy, and look how great it looks when it opens up:

Im pretty sure if I clean it up I can still use it- its definitely still functioning beautifully and Im interested to see how well it juices. But even if it doesnt work, its going to look *gorgeous* on my kitchen pantry shelf. Now, at an antique store you could expect to pay at least 20 dollars or this, maybe more depending on where you are. But the beauty of thrift stores is that they price things so cheaply, and guess how much I got this piece for?

Yes!! Five dollars!! Oh boy was I excited!

Now on to the other lovely things i purchased… not as excited as the juice-o-mat but still good second hand finds:

I’ll be using these milk glass decorative bowls (what do you calls these bowls on a pedestal?) for displaying seasonal fruit on my dining room table. Whats funny about thrift stores is that they often dont know the value of things; in this case the larger bowl is clearly a made in china milk glass wanna-be, and it was marked two dollars. The smaller one, on the other hand, is an authentic milk glass piece, made nearby in Cleveland, not super valuable but certainly worth more than the dollar they charged me! But thats why thrift stores are awesome. :)

The main thing I’ve been on the hunt for this week are pictures for my walls at home. I found a few cute cheapies at the Good Will:

This one on the right is not the fanciest picture ever but it was just so homey and cute that for a dollar I figured I could find a home for it somewhere on my wall or on a shelf.

These are the two backpacks I bought (2 dollars each), both in brand new condition, because I am switching from my cute but useless Vera Bradley handbag to hands-free set-up because I find Im just having to simplify as a mom of a busy toddler (who is just learning to walk at 15 months so I still have to carry her everywhere!)

While I was in the bag section I also came across this cute thing and had to get it, not to use for a bag but likely to hold towels in my bathroom. Look at the cute red and white pokadot lining- how could I resist for one dollar?

I was able to get a number of books both for little Bird and a few classics for me (Great Gatsby, Cold Mountain). But the real “find” was this sweet science book for kids from the early 60s.

Lastly, I got this cute little set of vintage tins. Im not much for knick-knacky stuff these days as I dont have a lot of space for them and Im not a big fan of stuff that just collects dusts, but at quarter a pop these were too cute to pass up and will look groovy on one of my pantry shelves.

Ok, ladies, well I’d say that was enough feasting for the eyes for one post. Hope you enjoyed reviewing my finds as much as I enjoyed hunting them up. My next post will be even more groovy as I’ll be highlighting my finds from the Antique store in town- cute as a button and *awesome* deals. See you soon!

Oh, and don’t forget to join me on Facebook if you haven’t done so already! And if your blog as a page on facebook, be sure to let me know so I can “like” you right back!

Rednesday- Vacation Edition!

2011-08-03T15:56:00.001-04:00

Hello ladies! As I mentioned in my last post, we are on vacation this week, staying in a cottage on Lake Erie. Here’s a quick glimpse at some red in our vacation so far.

our cottage is super cute and decorated with fun beach and nautical themes

Some thrift store finds from my first few days on “the hunt”… hoping to do another post soon on more groovy vintage stuff!

Theres only a little bit of red in Bird’s bathing suit… but shes so cute it makes up for it! :)

a wee dash of red against a sea of blue

Be sure to check out all the good Rednesday fun over at It’s a Very Cherry World!

Merry Christmas to Our Give Away Winner!

2011-08-02T07:28:00.001-04:00

I asked my husband to help me come up with an alternative to the off-used phrase “Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner” and he came up with the very cute “Winner Winner, Salad Spinner”. But after all of his mental hard work honing that gem, I decided a “Merry Christmas” would be the better title for this post, considering the theme of the give-away. :)

We are staying in a cottage on Lake Erie this week; the hubs has very kindly taken us on a working vacation (meaning he, God bless him, works while Bird and I get to do most of the vacay-ing. Yes, I DO have a good man!), so this is my Give Away Winner: Seaside Edition. So, without further ado, here is the photo showing the winner of the Christmas in July Give-Away, with the pretty lake view in the back:

Yes that’s right that would be Laura from Cleaning House and Baking Cakes! Yay for you, Laura! You are an awesome wife, mom, and homemaker and I hope that you will be truly blessed by these Martha Stewart Handmade Christmas books. And for you ladies who don’t read Laura’s blog, do yourself a favor and check it out. NO other mom in homemaker blogland makes me laugh like Laura… she keeps me smiling and inspired at the same time!

Thanks to all of you ladies for entering the give-away and all your great ideas… I was truly inspired by them! And be sure to stay tuned for more give-aways.. I hope to do one a month or so. It’s fun giving stuff away, eh? :)

Blessings, ladies!

Got Fruit Flies?

2011-07-31T16:30:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you, ladies, but around my house right now it's fruit fly season. I hate those little buggers (pardon my language if you're a reader from the UK) and am so glad I discovered a successful way to rid my kitchen of them.

If you don't know this trick, ladies, discover it. Works like a Charm!

Simply take a small glass and fill it half way with apple cider vinegar. Add a few drops of dish soap to the vinegar.
Set out on the counter and the fruit flies line up to take the plunge.

See how many I caught in only about 30 minutes time? I had double that amount after a few hours and my kitchen has been fruit fly-free ever since.

Hope you’re keeping cool, ladies! Blessings!

reposted from August 2009

Theology in the Kitchen

2011-07-29T22:35:00.001-04:00

Of all the things I have learned in the 15 months since our daughter was born, one that I cherish the most is getting a deeper understanding of our Father’s love for us. There have been so many times when the veil has been lifted for just a moment and I can see more clearly, through my love for my daughter, how the Lord cares so deeply for us, His children. And more specifically, since holding my child in my arms and feeling every tear, every hurt, and likewise every smile or giggle of joy, I have a more abiding faith in the scriptural promise that God hurts when we hurt, and rejoices when we rejoice.

Yesterday I was working away at a recipe in the kitchen, and Bird crawled over to see her Mamma. As long as Im not at a dangerous stage, I let her play at my feet, usually with my big bowl of folded aprons (which of course end up not-so-folded :) ). This was one such day, and she pulled up to the drawer I have filled with plastic measuring cups and spoons for her to dig around in.

I turned my back for just a minute to grab something, and I heard a shuffle, a bonk, and then a cry. Poor Bird had stumbled and hit her face on the corner of the stove drawer. Ouch! She was so upset and I scooped her up in my arms, told her in a loving, calming voice how Mamma knows that must have hurt, and assured her it was going to be OK.

We sat on the couch; I held her close, and I sang to her. Itsy Bitsy Spider... Jesus Loves Me… I’d Like to Visit the Moon... Jesus Loves the Little Children. I sang and swayed gently back and forth until the tears subsided, and she looked up and gave me that pout-trying-to-be-a-smile look. I sang some more. I noticed the camera was in arms’ reach, so I snagged a photo of our cuddle.

I thought of this passage:

The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save.He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over you with singing. -Zephaniah 3:17

What a humbling picture.. the Lord holding us in his arms, rocking and singing to us when we hurt, feeling compassion and empathy for the things that bring us to tears.

I went back into the kitchen and noticed this:

I realized I had that brown paper bag in my hand when Bird fell. I dropped it without even thinking, in order to reach out to my child. I heard the Spirit whispering that the Father has the same focus on us- we are His focus and His primary concern.

If you look closely in these photos, you can see the red spot on Bird’s face. It turned into a bit of a bruise. But you can also see that, with the comfort of a loving parent, there are now smiles and joy; the pain is forgotten. The Lord wants to give us the same peace, despite our trials and pains.

Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. –Mathew 11:28

May you find rest and comfort today in the arms of The Father, and may He give us all the strength to reflect that love to the children in our lives, whether they be ours or others entrusted to us.

participating in Biblical Womanhood Friday here:

Raspberry-Blueberry Jam

2011-07-27T10:04:00.002-04:00

for photo credit, click on picture

Hello ladies! I have so much fun with these Rednesday posts because I love red and I love looking at everyone else’s red highlights of their week!

Today I wanted to share with you the batch of Raspberry-Blueberry Jam (or “Razzbluey” as my hubs calls it!) that I made this week. I bought a flat of raspberries at the farmers market last week but didnt take the time to look at it properly before I took it home, and I realized later that day that more than half the berries were bad. The ones on top looked fine, but underneath many were rotten. I was pretty bummed, but figured I could salvage the good stuff and make a batch of jam.

But then I realized there wasnt even enough (4 cups) for a batch of jam, so I thought, “wouldnt those blueberries in the fridge make a fantastic jam with these raspberries?” And I was right, they did!

I have been trying to make most of my jams sugar-free, because I prefer to preserve my summer harvest in a way that is more nutritionally sound for my family and friends to enjoy (I say friends because guess what people are getting for Christmas this year??!!). With this batch, however, I did not have an appropriate fruit juice to use and I was also out of the sugar-free pectin, so I decided to make this batch “conventional.” I figured it would be a treat for the hubs who prefers sugary jam and a nice gift for people at Christmastime.

It is very important if you decide to do any canning, as I have done here, to read up on proper canning procedures, for sanitation and safety. With that in mind, here is the recipe:

Razzbluey Jam

2 cups crushed raspberries

2 cups crushed blueberries

2 Tblspns. lemon juice

5 cups sugar (yikes! see why I dont usually make regular jam!?)

1 box Certo pectin (this isnt an advertisement, just the kind I used if you’re curious)

1. Crush the raspberries, one layer at a time, with a potato masher until nice and smashed. Make sure you have 2 cups raspberries smashed, not two cups of whole raspberries. It takes probably close to 3 cups of whole raspberries to get 2 smashed, if you know what i mean.

2. If your blueberries are nice and fresh like mine were, you’ll want to put them in your food processor and pulse them justa few times until they are smashed up, but DO NOT turn the processor on full speed even for a few seconds or your berries will be puree and thats not what you want. You want them mashed but not liquidy (see photo above).

3. In a very large either stainless steel or enamel pot (don’t use aluminum), put your mashed berries, along with your lemon juice and the fruit pectin. Stir well to make sure they all come together nicely. Bring this mixture to a boil on high heat. You need to babysit jam and can’t walk away or be distracted, so make sure you do this when you have a few minutes’ full attention available. Stir the jam constantly.

4. Once brought to a boil, add your sugar and stir in completely. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture back up to a boil, and boil hard for one minute.

5. Remove kettle from the stove top and continue to stir and skim for five minutes (this helps prevent floating fruit, apparently).

6. Ladle your jam into hot, sterilized jars. Make sure the rims of the jars are clean, using a damp paper towel or lint-free cloth to wipe them off before adding your sterilized lid. Once the lid is on, screw on your rim.

7. Hot-packed jam like this needs to be boiled in a water bath canner for 10 minutes to prevent any sort of bacteria from growing inside your jars while they sit prettily in your cupboards until cold weather. Do not skip this step, ladies… I know a lot of the old school don’t boil jams and pickles but it’s important; you dont want to take a chance at making your family sick.

View Full Album

8. Once processed, remove from water bath and allow the jars to cool, completely undisturbed, for 48 hours on a flat surface. At this point be sure to label your jars (easy to get them confused if you’re making lots of batches!) and store in a cool, dry, dark place (a basement or root cellar is ideal, but as we dont have that I keep them in a dark cupboard in our dining room).

Happy Jam making, ladies, and Happy Rednesday!

And don’t forget, ladies, to join me on facebook, and, if you havent already, to sign up for my Christmas in July give-away, which is ending on July 31st!

How to Use Bruised Fruit and Peach Pits

2011-07-26T14:26:00.001-04:00

I recently got a fabulous deal on two bags of peach “seconds” at the farmer’s market for only five bucks. Sure some of them were a little dented or bruised, but i knew there was still plenty of good fruit there to make a great batch or two of jam with. As I detailed in previous posts, I am trying to make my jams sugar-free for the most part, using only fruit juice and sometimes a little honey or maple syrup to sweeten my preserves. To that affect, my plan was to do the same process that I used for making sugar free strawberry jam, and make a batch of peach puree first, in order to get the required peach juice to make the peach jam.

But after I cut away the bruised portions of my pieces and proceeded to remove and dice up the healthier peach flesh, I was left with this:

And as you know, I dont like just throwing stuff out. So i thought, “is there anything I can do with this?”

And eureka, it came to me! Sure the bruised flesh is not nice for eating or for making jam, but unless its black or moldy, why couldn’t I steep it in a little water and make a juice? Also, when you add up all the peach flesh still clinging to those pits, you could have enough to make a nice little puree, and at least a cup of juice.

Rather proud of myself, I picked through the heap and removed anything that looked truly scuzzy (you definitely do NOT want anything mold, fungus, other living creatures, etc, in it. And if its so rotten its black, then forget it! Also, if your pit comes apart in your hand that is a good indication it is not healthy enough to use for this method- throw it out.), put the good stuff in a pot, covered it with a little water and a dash of apple cider vinegar (I always use vinegar when making broth as it helps draw the flavor out so I figured it couldnt hurt here), and put ‘er on the stove to boil.

After the pot came to a rolling boil, I put it down to a simmer and let it simmer away for a good hour. It made the house smell fantastic. Once the hour was up and I could tell the liquid was looking pretty peachy, I drained the pot, through a fine-mesh seive, into a bowl.

Now is the important part, where you work just a little but more to get the good stuff. You want to carefully remove the pits from the sieve (the flesh should have totally fallen off them by now), and you should be left with just peach flesh. At this point, use the back of a small metal spoon to push the fruit against the strainer and extract more of the juice into the bowl. Also, be sure to tilt the sieve a little and you’ll notice lots of yummy thick pulp along the underside- be sure to scrape that into the bowl as well. You don’t want to waste a drop!

Doing this gave me exactly two cups of peach “juice”, which in turn allowed me to make two batch of peach jam (recipes to come soon) out of my 5 dollar bag of seconds. Not too bad! You could easily do this with other bruised fruit flesh, especially from heartier fruits like peaches, pears, plums, and apples. Berries probably wouldn’t work as well as their water content is so high that when they bruise they basically mush, but use this technique whenever you can in the spirit of Using the Whole Buffalo!

Blessings, ladies!

Cleaning Out My Pantry

2011-07-25T14:56:00.001-04:00

Hello ladies! First of all I’d like to say thank you to those of you who left thoughtful, heart-felt comments on my post about Amy Winehouse’s death. I was glad to see that I was not the only one to be so touched by her passing, and thanks for letting me share that in this little corner of cyberspace. And thank you to those of you who have joined me on facebook, too! If you haven’t yet, I hope you’ll join me, and if your blog has a page, be sure to let me know!

Hubs and I were blessed beyond merit to be able to buy our first home two years ago. We needed a place that was in our price range and would allow Hubs to have office space as he owns his own small business and works from home. We found this lovely three storey townhouse condo and it was the first place we saw and the one we ended up buying as it just fit all of our needs. I am so thankful for our home everyday, and after years of living in small one and two bedroom apartments, this feels like a palace!

Now all that being said, there is one draw-back to this place, and that is very little in the way of closet or pantry space. My kitchen is great in that it is big and there’s plenty of counter space, but it also doubles as our laundry room, and thus the part of the room that could be taken up with fantastic pantry space is instead the home of our washer and dryer (which of course I am thankful for every day… not only do I have my own machines but because they are in my kitchen i dont have to try to run up and down the stairs to do laundry and look after a baby at the same time! awesome!).

My solution as been to wedge a narrow Ikea bookshelf/pantry in the space between the washer and the wall in the kitchen, to use as pantry space. As this isnt really sufficient space, especially now that I am learning to can and preserve, I have also begun using the bottom portions of the bookshelves in our dining room for extra storage. It may not be “ideal” but it works for me and gives me just enough space to have a good functioning kitchen.

upper and lower pantry, “before”… egaads!

Something that can get me super frustrated quickly is the fact that its actually a bit awkward to get into my pantry because the doors open right where my washer and laundry hamper are. And before you ask, “well couldnt you just move them?” I can assure you I have wracked my brain to figure out a way to move things around but, alas, this is it. And if I go without a hamper I end up with laundry piled up on top of my washing machine, which is unsightly and also stressful. So I wanted to reorganize in a way that would allow me to put the things that I needed access to most frequently ont he right, which is more accessable, and the things that I use a bit less frequently, or which are plain and easy to see and dont need a lot of digging around to find, on the left. This is what i came up with.

Bottom pantry, “after”…. ahhh much better

I have the added incentive to keep my pantry organized because a whole half of it is exposed and open to be seen. Here’s my before and after.

before and after

Is there anything cuter or more homey than glass jars full of pretty things?

As for the extra pantry space in the dining room, I reorganized the shelves I was already using and cleared out some junk that wasnt going to get eaten. I also took all the stuff out of the cupboard I was repurposing for canned goods, and as it was filled with scented candles, I needed to get rid of the smell. What did I use but my trusty white vinegar, of course! Worked like a charm! I gave those candles away to a friend and have since filled those cupboards up with lots of jars of goodies!

Hopefully this will encourage you ladies out there that need to have a good cleaning and reorganizing of your pantry to get on the apron and get ‘er done. Its one of those things its easy to put off, but then you finally just want to lose your mind because things are falling out of cupboards and you can’t find anything.

Happy cleaning, housewives!

Join Me on Facebook!

2011-07-24T14:41:00.001-04:00

Join me on Facebook!

I was on my personal facebook page today and writing a status update about all the food preserving I was working on this weekend and it dawned on me that I really should be sharing that with my homemaking bloggy friends, so I’ve decided to make a page just for The Armchair Housewife! If you are on facebook I would love it if you would “like” the page and this way i’ll have another fun way to communicate with you all. those of you who have facebook pages for your blogs, I love getting your updates on my wall stream- its nice to hear from you in between blog posts. And that’s what i hope this page will be, a way to say brief hellos and share little tidbits of my days in between posts, or to share links to other good things.

So join me, won’t you? :) Blessings, ladies!

Amy Winehouse, Dead at 27

2011-07-23T14:33:00.001-04:00

for photo source and to read the LA Times article on Winehouse, click on photo above

Hi ladies. I know this post is pretty well out of the “norm” for this blog as I almost never comment on current events, and I dont think I have ever commented on anything even bordering celebrity news.

And yet, as I sit down to write my post about cleaning out my pantry, which I will do very shortly, my heart is just aching over the death of the troubled soul singer Amy Winehouse. In case some of you dont know who she is, Winehouse rocketed to pop stardom a few years ago with her unique musical style that harkened back to the girl groups of the 60s. She was praised by music critics and fans alike for her fantastic voice and care for musical detail. And yet all the while this young woman has been in the news repeatedly for her addictions to crack cocaine and alcohol. She has been in and out of rehab for years, and her music career has been pretty well on hold the past few years as she battled the demons of addiction. She tried to relaunch a tour earlier this summer but was booed off stage at her first performance, clearly too high and/or drunk to sing her songs.

I dont keep my finger on the pulse of much of modern music, as I dont care for most of it, and yet somehow this woman touched my heart, and I developed a soft spot for her, not so much as an artist (though I do like her music), but as a fellow human being. I tended to read any story I would see about her, wondering how she was doing, and i would pray for her as the Lord led, praying she would get the help she needed from Jesus to turn her life around and put the clearly God-given talent to serving Him and bringing joy to others.

But alas, it was not to be. Miss Winehouse has joined the ranks of so many other talented young people who have gone before her down the road of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and, like many of them, her years did not number more than 27 (Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison and Cobain all also died at age 27). My heart breaks for her and her family and friends and the waste of the precious life God gave this woman, so short and so full of misery and pain. It’s times like this when I shout out with the Psalmist and ask “Why, Lord?” And it’s also times like this when I humbly confess that, there but for the grace of God, go I. As Paul said, I am the greatest of sinners, and before I met Jesus I was on that same wide path to destruction. If you would have told me as a very lost 16 year old girl that I would someday be writing a blog about Christian stay at home mom and wifery, I would have laughed in your face. But for the intervention of Christ in my life, while I may not have had the fame Winehouse did, I may have had a similarly rocky and short life. Amy’s death brings me humility; my life is filled with so many good things, all owed to the Lord, none that I deserve or merit. God’s grace is a mystery indeed.

I pray that Amy’s life and death will serve, if nothing else, as a wake up call to others who struggle with addiction and purposelessness in their life to see that they can find wholeness, healing, and identity in Jesus, and get off the path that leads to destruction and on the narrow road that leads to life. May the Lord have mercy and give grace to us all.

Quick Note About My Blog

2011-07-22T09:33:00.001-04:00

Hi ladies! If in some of your blog readers it looks like Ive been posting new things like crazy or things look strange, its just because Ive been updating some old posts. I rearranged my online photo albums that I use for my vintage pictures on this blog and as such a number of links have been broken (you may have noticed if you were looking at any of my older posts). They’re all fixed now (I think! If you find a page with a broken link let me know!) but it might have made it look like I did ten new posts today. If so, sorry about the confusion. :)

Three New Recipes

2011-07-20T22:55:00.002-04:00

Howdy ladies! Hope you’re all keeping cool in this monstrous heat. Here are three new recipes using some great local, seasonal ingredients that I cooked up for Loft Organics. Just click on the photo to be directed to the recipe page!

Summer Shepherd’s Pie

Garlic Scape Pesto

Tomato Basil Cream Sauce

Homemade Jello

2011-07-19T23:16:00.002-04:00

Hello ladies! Continuing with the “The Whole Buffalo” theme that I have been pursuing with my posts on Strawberry Puree and Sugar Free Strawberry Jam, I wanted to finish this particular series by telling you how I made some delicious, and dare I even say nutritious, homemade strawberry jam.

As I mentioned in the previous posts, when I made the strawberry puree, I had as a bi product a number of cups of strawberry “juice” (I put juice in quotation marks because the liquid I’m talking about is a combination of the water added to the strawberries as they were being cooked for the puree and some of the juice that came out of the strawberries and into the juice. It is not juice in the strictest sense in that it is not purely the juice of the berry) that were not flavourful enough to use for jelly or jam, but were certainly tasty enough not to let them go to waste.

Jello is not as popular a dessert as it once was, and it is often overlooked for more decadent and sophisticated treats. But you can’t beat it for simplicity and my husband really likes it, so all the more reason to make it! And its SO easy.

Homemade Jello

2 cups fruit juice
1 Tblsp unflavoured gelatine (I believe that is the same as 1 package, but I buy it in bulk)
1 Tblsp honey

1. In a small saucepan, heat 1 cup of the juice and the tablespoon of gelatine, whisking frequently with a small wire whisk, until it it is just about the boil and the gelantine is completely dissolved and clear. I also like to skim the top a bit if theres lot of foam or bubbles.

2. Remove from heat, and whisk in honey until dissolved.

3. Add remaining cup of cold fruit juice, stir, and pour mixture into small cups or jello mold of your choice.

The jello takes a few hours to set properly, and tastes even better with some whipped cream on top! I hope you have a chance to make this easy, delicious dessert that is a great way to make good use of your fruit-canning bi-products and is a much healthier alternative to the commercial variety.

Blessings, ladies!

This post is part of the Rednesday carnival over at It's a Very Cherry World. Be sure to head over and see the rest of the red goodness!

Vinegar in the Wash

2011-07-19T17:54:00.001-04:00

I do a number of loads of wash a week (usually at least one a day), and since we had our daughter I do even more. Not only are there more clothes, but also other sundry linens like towels and rags used to clean up spills and messes, and to clean up Bird herself. I keep a little stash of rags on the kitchen counter that I use to wipe her hands and face after eating, etc. While I try to let these rags, as well as my dishrags, dry out a bit before I toss them in the laundry basket, they usually go in at least damp and as a result, I end up with musty-smelling laundry.

As many of you ladies probably know, that musty, pre-mildewy smell is hard to get out of fabrics. It was starting to drive me batty how I would wash a load of linens with hot soapy water and they were STILL coming out with a bit of musty smell. And the last thing I want to be wiping my daughters hands and face with is a dank-smelling cloth, no matter how “clean” it is from being laundered. I would wash them again and again, and was still getting the odour. I didnt want to use bleach, not only because I dont like the idea of using such a strong chemical on fabrics my daughter will be using, but also because many of the lines that were getting musty werent just simple whites, so bleach wasnt really an option anyway.

About two weeks ago, I decided to try a little vinegar in the wash. I know many people swear by vinegar as multi-purpose cleaner and I’ve been using it more and more lately myself. I figured it couldnt hurt to put a tablespoon or two in the bleach compartment in my washer (i have a front-loader with a pull out “drawer” for soap, bleach and softener).

And it worked like a charm! No mildewy smell, no mustiness. AND, to my relief, no vinegar smell, either. :) I’ve been using plain white vinegar in all of my washes now since, and its been making everything come out fresh and clean. Then yesterday I forgot to add some vinegar and sure enough, when I went to grab what I assumed was a nice clean rag to wipe Bird’s hands after dinner last night- YUCK- musty smell. I had to put the whole load back in the wash today, got the trusty vinegar back out, and they are now fresh and clean again and ready to go. :)

SO, all of this to pass on this little tip to you in case you didnt know about it. Chances are all you ladies out there are so smart you already knew about this, but you know me…. Im not too proud to admit when I learn something, even something basic! Happy Laundering, ladies!

My Trip to Erbcroft Farms

2011-07-19T08:54:00.001-04:00

Hey ladies! My dear friend Kristin from The Seasonal Family very kindly asked me to do a guest post for her this week. We visited the very local Erbcroft Farms together last week, and this post is all about our adventure. Be sure to check it out!

And of course it’s not too late to enter my Martha Stewart Christmas in July give-away! Click on the button below to enter for a chance to win some great resources on making Christmas handmade.

The Whole Strawberry: Sugar Free Strawberry Jam

2011-07-16T10:23:00.001-04:00

Hello ladies! Who does not love delicious, homemade strawberry jam? The store-bought commercial brands don’t come anywhere close to the fabulous taste of jam made at home with local, seasonal strawberries. The problem with traditional jam recipes, however, is that they are LOADED with added sugar.

The first time I made strawberry jam, the conventional way, the recipe called for 4 1/2 cups of strawberries and 7 cups of sugar. Thats almost twice as much sugar as fruit! While it is of course very tasty and sweet, I just couldnt see myself making multiple batches of jam that was so filled with empty calories. I wanted to find a recipe that would allow me to preserve the summer harvest in a tasty way that would offer better nutrition for our family when we eat it throughout the year.

Bernardin, along with other companies, make a pectin mix that will allow you to make jam without sugar. All you need is the pectin mix, 4 cups of fruit, and 1 cup of fruit juice. I was stumped as to what kind of juice I would add to strawberry jam that would not overpower the flavour of the strawberry (apple? white grape?).

In my last post, I talked about making and canning strawberry puree as a means of preserving our local, seasonal strawberry harvest. I also mentioned that I discovered a useful bi-product of the puree-making process, a rich, thick strawberry juice, that I realized would be ideal for making sugar-free jam. As I was able to get 2 cups of strawberry juice from my puree, I was able to make two batches of sugar-free strawberry jam.

For the first batch, I followed the directions to the tee and used only the cup of strawberry juice for sweetening. The jam turned out fabulously, set beautifully, and had a rich, if somewhat tart, summer-fresh strawberry flavour. For my second batch, I decided to add 3/4 cup of maple syrup for sweetening. This extra liquid did interfere a tad with the pectin-setting and made the jam a tad softer, but still adequate and the maple syrup gave it just a bit more sweetness.

I highly recommend the two-step process of first making a batch of strawberry puree and then using the remaining juice to make sugar-free jam. It’s a much healthier way to preserve and enjoy your summer fruits and gives you that extra sense of accomplishment when you realize you’ve even made the juice needed for the recipe! As always, be sure to read up on proper canning and storing procedures. Happy Jam Making!

And don’t forget to sign up for my Martha Stewart Christmas in July giveaway!

Give Away! Christmas in July!

2011-07-09T21:34:00.001-04:00

original photo credit here

When I was a kid it seemed like retailers were all the time having “Christmas in July” sales where they would have Santa on the beach in swim trunks, drinking an icy fruit drink and lapping up the sun. I dont see this term thrown around as much these days, maybe it’s lost its appeal, but I’m bringing it back for this give away!

For the super-organized or the type who likes to give home-made, hand-made gifts for Christmas, July is actually not an unreasonable time to start thinking about the December holiday. If you’re going to be stuffing people’s stockings with hand-made goodies, now is the time to start thinking about what you’re going to be making and how long it might take to make them.

To that end, I am giving away two lovely Martha Stewart Christmas resources on making Christmas handmade. The first is The Best of Martha Stewart Living: Handmade Christmas, a hard-cover, 144-page book filled with directions on how to make everything from candles to ornaments to gift-wrapping to make your Christmas extra special. The other is a special edition of Martha Stewart Living entitled Martha Stewart Holiday: Have Yourself a Handmade Christmas, filled with 120 glossy photos of great ideas for handmade gifts, decorations, and good eats. Both are in excellent used condition (I bought them both new but have used them very gently; the magazine still has tear-out advertisement cards in it!). Truth be told Im almost a little weary to give them away they are such lovely resources, but I admit I have a number of Christmas books and it just took my fancy to bless someone with this lovely holiday collection.

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So, how to enter? Simply leave a comment on this thread letting me know what your favourite thing to make (gift, decoration, or food) at Christmas is (I want some inspiration!), and if you are singing in anonymously, leave your name and email I can contact you if you are the winner.

This contest is open for any lady in Canada or the US (sorry to my overseas friends but the book will weigh enough to make international shipping too costly) and will run until the end of July. Hope I am able to bless someone with this Christmas inspiration!

Blessings, ladies!

The Whole Strawberry: Strawberry Puree

2011-07-08T15:04:00.001-04:00

this poster is part of a fabulous art exhibit on the war art used to encourage women to preserve foods for Allied Victory

check out the collection by clicking on the photo above

Hello ladies! I’ve been trying my hand at food preservation, the strawberry has been one of my main test subjects thus far in my persuit to learn to freeze, dry, and can. In doing so I have discovered that you can get multiple ‘products’ out of a few batches of strawberries, and I wanted to share a few of them with you. I’ll start with Strawberry Puree.

Traditional Jam is delicious, but its SO high in added sugar I just can’t believe it. 7 cups of sugar to 4 1/2 cups of strawberries. Crazy! I was interested in learning how to make sugar-free jam, and planned to pursue it, but I was also curious if I could just find a way to can strawberry puree. Just plain old strawberries, pureed, on the shelf for use in the winter months. This would save me space in my freezer and give me access to just the plain fruit without the added sugar, something I could use for multiple purposes when the need arose.

Many of the canning sources I looked at didnt give you instructions on how to can fruit puree, but I did find one good source, and you can find it here if you are interested in step by step instructions. I really cannot emphasis enough that it is important to take the time to read up on safe canning procedures because the LAST thing you want to do is get something harmful growing in your canned goods that you then pass on to your family. So read up before canning.

I rinsed, hulled, and halved 12 cups of strawberries, using the ones from the flat I purchased that were a bit softer and imperfect for the puree and leaving aside the more firm, just ripe berries to enjoy raw. I put the halved strawberries with 3 cups of water in my extra large stock pot (1 cup of water per every quart, or 4 cups, of fruit), and brought the berries to a boil on high heat.

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As soon as the berries started to boil, I removed them from the heat. Likely with other, more firm fruits you would need to cook them longer, but in this case this was just what was needed. I then pressed the berries through a sieve, saving the rich juice I extracted from the berries. When all the pulp was gathered, I returned it to the pot, brought it just to a boil, and then canned it in sterilized cans and lids. I processed the cans for 15 minutes per the instructions for fruit purees, and voila:

Now, my first thought when I was done with this was: wow, 12 cups of strawberries and all I got was three cups of puree! Not exactly the most efficient use of the berry, I thought at first glance. But then, as I looked at the pot and the bowl of the fruit juice strained out of the puree, I realized that I had two fabulous bi-products from the puree that I could use.

First, a light went off that I had been wanting to make some sugar-free strawberry jam, which requires you to either use a honey-syrup or a fruit juice. I assumed Id have to use a canned juice like white grape to sweeten it, and I thought that both the honey and the white grape could add a flavour to the jam that would overpower the strawberries. But as I looked at the bowl of rich, pulpy, delicious-tasting strawberry juice that I extracted from the berries through the sieve, I realized how easy it would be to use this by-product of the puree to make the jam! I measured what I had and I had exactly two cups, which would be enough for two whole batches of sugar free jam. I was excited and thankful I had stumbled upon this “whole buffalo” idea almost on accident.

Second, I looked at the pot i had been cooking the berries in, and realized here was about four-six cups of less concentrated but still very flavourful strawberry ‘juice’. What could I do with this? I tasted it and decided it would probably not be rich enough to use for jams or jellies, and while we could drink it or add it to iced tea as I had done with some of the extra juice I had from canning cherries, I got a different idea all together. Homemade jello!

for photo credit, click on photo

My husband really likes jello, which I sometimes find strange as its never been a dessert that I gravitate towards, especially as the stuff from the box basically consists of sugar and artificial flavours and colors. Ugh. But what if I made jello from this all-natural juice, with maybe some honey for additional sweetening and some gelatine? I tried a batch and it was a hit with the fam. I’ll post this recipe soon.

I am so glad I decided to make this puree, because not only do I have three jars of pure fruit puree I can use in the winter, but I discovered that by doing one batch of puree, I can then have the juice I need to make two batches of sugar free jam (which I have since made), and about three batches of homemade, naturally sweetened jello. Now thats what I call using all the buffalo! :)

Of Course I Can!!

2011-07-07T14:56:00.001-04:00

this poster is part of a fabulous art exhibit on the war art used to encourage women to preserve foods for Allied Victory

check out the collection by clicking on the photo above

The more we try to eat locally and seasonally, the more I appreciate food. No matter what your thoughts about food politics, its just plain true that our erasure of food seasons from our reality in North America has diminished our appreciation for individual foods. If you can get strawberries all year round at a “reasonable” price (I put reasonable in quotation marks because I could write a whole post about how the strawberries you are buying in Canada or the northern US in the middle of the winter, on top of being terrible in quality compared to the real deal, were grown far away by people making a poor wage in poor working conditions, likely in unsustainable agricultural practices, and thus the price you are paying is a misrepresentation of what it *should* cost to eat a strawberry in the middle of the winter. It should be ridiculously expensive, a rare treat, but instead, due to our demand for such thing, the market has produced sub-par fruit produced by questionable means. But I digress), the joy of that first taste of strawberries in June just isnt as special. I did break down and buy a few cartons of US strawberries this past winter, but i regretted it when I realized how they didnt live up to the real thing, and while Im not going to make a religion out of it, my intention is to buy only local strawberries in season and do my best to preserve some of the harvest to be enjoyed throughout the winter.

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some of our harvest so far

To this end, I’ve been trying to learn to can, freeze, and dry, not just strawberries but all of the yummy local produce I can while the gettin’s good. Im brand new to this, and have not yet figured out how much food I need to preserve if I want to have a variety of foods available over cold months, but its been fun trying to learn. I already documented my first attempt to make strawberry jam, which didnt turn out perfectly but it was still a great learning process. Since then, I have done the following with the ruby red fruit of early summer:

frozen strawberries

dried strawberries

strawberry jam

strawberry puree (canned)

strawberry jello (made with the juice left over from the puree)

canned cherries

cherry iced tea (made with the juice left over from canning the cherries)

sweet dill pickle chips

frozen peas

My plan is to make a post for each of these and go back in as I do and make the list entries live links. It is hard to find time to blog when you’re busy learning to do all of this, and taking care of a home in the process, but we’ll see what I can sneak in here and there. :)

Do any of you preserve food? What do you enjoy doing? Do you wish you could but dont know how or don’t have the time? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Blessings!

Using the Whole Buffalo

2011-07-07T14:20:00.001-04:00

for photo credit, click on photo

I have a confession to make to my environmentalist friends: I can’t get my fire lit to be “green” just for the sake of being “green”. I would not categorize myself as an environmentalist and “saving the earth” is not a concept that appeals to me in itself because, if you’ve read any of your bible, its a fool’s errand in the long run.

However, despite this admission I think many of my habits and the way we live our life might be considered, increasingly, as “green” but those who care to use the label. We try to eat local and organic foods, try to compost all of our food and paper waste, recycle, reuse, and repurpose all we can, try to cut down on packaging, etc. But instead of these actions coming from a motive to be “green”, or to “save the earth”, as it were, they really come from a desire to be a good steward of the gifts the Lord has given us, including the environment we live in, to be compassionate towards other humans who live and work in or world and the animals that live and die so that we can eat, and more and more to simply not be wasteful.

I’ve said it here before, but the older I get the more and more I just dont want to be wasteful. I am FAR from being perfect on this, and I throw stuff away that would make a lot of people who are super down with the three Rs wince, but this conviction is growing in me, and Im finding new ways all the time to be mindful of not wasting what I have, for the betterment of our family, of others, and as a bi-product, to our environment, which is the beautiful creation that God has given us to live in here on Earth.

To that end, I hope to start posting more things on ways to, simply put, not waste. Initially it will probably have to do with food, as Im learning to food preserve and trying to learn to “use all of the buffalo” as the saying goes. Im thinking about maybe even starting a separate blog, attached to this one but a different page entirely, focusing on this, but for now I’ll just post here and label these posts “the whole buffalo”, along with any other relevant categories, so they can be easily found if you are looking for inspiration to reuse, repurpose, and recycle to the glory of God, the ease on your wallet, and the betterment of our planet.

Do you consider yourself “green”? How do you approach environmentalism and the issues of consumerism, waste, recycling, etc? id love to hear your thoughts.

Blessings!

Cookin’ Up a Storm!

2011-07-02T22:27:00.001-04:00

Hello ladies! Hope you are all doing well. We are doing great here- just busy busy busy with more work on my MRS certification in food preparation- namely canning and freezing right now, but guess who bought a food dehydrator today? Yes that’s right, miss eager beaver herself, The Armchair Housewife. I sat looking at my food drying book today and at one point looked at the hubby and said, “you can dry EVERYTHING. I want to dry the world!!!!” Am I getting a little too jazzed over food preservation techniques? Hmm…

So more posts soon on all of that but in the meantime I thought Id share a few recipes Ive done for Loft Organics lately. Great, seasonal, early summer dishes for your yummy local produce! Enjoy!

Cream of Asparagus Soup Strawberry Cream Vinaigrette

Garlic Scape Mashed Potatoes

AHU: Jam 101

2011-06-26T15:31:00.003-04:00

I joked in my last post that I was working on my MRS from Wife College, and I got thinking how I would so love, one day, to start an “Armchair Housewife University” for gals like myself for whom home making doesnt come naturally but who want to be better wives and moms. In the meantime, I can post about my own adventures in education at AHU. :)

I wanted to say thanks to you sweet ladies who left comments on my last post- it means a lot that you “missed” me here in cyberspace. Im hoping to be back at it more… but I dont have to tell any of you about how life comes before blogging! :)

I recently made my first batch of jam. Ever. Im 31 years old and Ive never made a jam or a jelly or canned a thing in my life, but as I focus on eating more seasonally and locally, I look to all the women in the past, and the remnant left today, who took advantage of foods while they were in season and preserved them in various ways for the rest of the year. Jams and jellies are a popular way women have preserved fruits over the years and canning is a skill that can help get food on the shelf for the winter months when fresh, local produce is scarce. Many women have moved towards freezing with the advent of large deep freezers, and while I do intend to freeze produce from this growing season, I only have an apartment-sized deep freezer so I need to consider space available and i think canning will allow me to store up foods in my cupboards.

This post isnt going to be a how-to on making jam, because there is a wealthy of resources online and at the library, not to mention the book store (also, check out thrift stores, I got a few great books on preserving foods there, some in mind condition) and there is a good amount you need to read up on equipment, processing, and food safety before you get started. Instead I just wanted to show some photos from my process, and share the high and low-lights of my first time jam-making.

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The highlights: there is just something satisfying about knowing that I cleaned, hulled, cooked, and preserved these local, seasonal strawberries into jam. Its hard to explain, I think it runs deep in some place that is hard to articulate- that female part of me that wants to carry on the tradition of so many women before me who gathered and preserved foods for her family and friends. Sounds hokey, but there you go.

Also, learning a new skill is very satisfying. The cans did seal properly so I know I got the canning part down right, even if the jam didnt turn out perfectly.

The lowlights: it was hotter than the dickens in my kitchen that day I was doing this from all the steaming hot pots of water, and I told Bear for the rest of the season Ill have the AC on while canning! :) Also, bird woke up in the middle of her nap right as I was trying to start the canning process, so it was a big frustrating to try to juggle taking care of a cranky baby and get this jam made and jarred, but God gave grace and I got it done.

And worst of all: the jam didnt really turn out right. I had a bad case of “floating fruit”, as you can see in the photos above. I did everything the directions told me to do, but I googled it and it looks like I either didnt get my strawberry pieces small enough, or my stirring/skimming process wasnt sufficient (despite doing my best to follow the directions). Im sure its just a case of practice makes perfect, and my husband kindly informed me the jam still tastes great, even if you have to stir it up a bit when you use it. :)

All in all, it was good fun and a confidence-building exercise that I could learn a new skill and preserve food for my family. I am going to have many more opportunities this summer to try both jam-making and canning (I hope to do some salsas, sauces, and pickles, too), and hopefully Ill share some of the AHU journey with you all!

Summer Blessings!

Where I’ve Been

2011-06-23T22:41:00.001-04:00

Obviously I havent been blogging at Armchair Housewife, thats for sure! So what has been keeping me away from this blog which I do so enjoy writing? well, first and foremost, this little cutie keeps me pretty darn busy:

Second, if I have had time to sit at my computer, Ive been doing recipes for Loft Organics. Here are some of the most recent ones posted.

early summer saute

sweet potato soup

jumbalaya pasta

Now that our sweet Bird is sleeping through the night (it finally started happening a few weeks ago once she passed 13 months) and our life is generally more rested and predictable, I am focused on making or house more of a home, being a more well-rounded homemaker and not just a mom, and studying up to earn my MRS from Wife College, to borrow a phrase from another blogger. One particular skill I am trying to learn this spring is canning. I’ve never canned a thing in my life, never made jam or one single pickle. But Im trying- reading up lots of stuff like this:

And of course all the usual daily housecleaning, mom’s groups and bible studies, church, family, friends. Life is full, life is great, and Im hoping to be around here more frequently. Here’s hoping! :)

New Recipes for Loft Organics

2011-04-03T19:33:00.001-04:00

Hi Friends! We are sick here in the Armchair household so I just haven't had the energy to blog. I am hoping to be back to posting more frequently asap. In the meantime, if you are looking for some (dare I say good?) recipes for your late winter/early spring produce, check out the most recent meals I blogged about over at the Loft Organics site. Click on the photo for the recipe and enjoy! And of course, if you make any of the recipes, let me know!!

Parsnip Apple Breakfast Bread

Pita Pizzas with Mushrooms and Fresh Basil

Cream of Parsnip and Potato Soup

Sesame Stir-Fry with Shitake Mushrooms

See you soon!

Laughing At Myself

2011-03-30T14:17:00.001-04:00

Ok- I have to admit, this video just about nails me. It’s good to have principles, but you gotta be able to laugh at yourself. Hope you enjoy this hilarious clip. :)

Easy Cheesy Down Home Biscuits

2011-03-28T12:21:00.001-04:00

I love my adopted country, Canada, but I do have one little complaint: the folks up here just don’t take biscuit-eating seriously enough. You’ll occasionally see biscuits under the label of “tea biscuit”, served at donut shops and the like as a go-with-coffee treat, but what you won’t often find is a nice, hot, homemade biscuit on a dinner table or offered as an alternative to toast at breakfast.

Here’s where you can take the girl out of the U.S. (and the southern U.S. at that), but you can’t take the U.S. out of the girl! And once you’ve tried this quick, delicious recipe for my biscuits, why would you want to?

The following recipe make about twelve biscuits, but you can easily half or double it as needed.

Ingredients

2 C flour

1 T baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or a bit more if you are using regular salt)

1/3 cup cold butter (best if you can put it in the freezer for half hour before baking)

1/3 cup sharp cheddar cheese

1 C ice-cold milk

fresh ground pepper

1.Preheat oven to 450*. In Medium size bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper to your liking (we like ours peppery!).

2. Remove butter from freezer (dont you DARE use margarine!!) and quickly grate it into the flour mixture using a cheese grater (try to handle as little as possible to keep it cold). Add shredded cheddar.

Shredding the butter and cheese and keeping everything cold is the key to perfect, flaky biscuits

3. Add milk, half cup at a time, and quickly mix with a fork, until the ingredients have just come together. Over-stirring with ruin the biscuits and instead of crisp and flakey, they will be flat and gooey.

4. Gently form the dough into loose lumps (dont over-handle them or press them down), a little bigger than a golf ball, and place on a well-greased cookie sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until just light brown on top. Serve immediately with soup, salad, or any other delicious meal, including breakfast. If you have left-overs they can be stored in a cookie jar for two days max, and reheated at 400 for just a few minutes.

Enjoy!

Thrift Store Finds

2011-03-26T09:07:00.002-04:00

Howdy ladies! Hope this blog post finds you all doing well. I’ve had a hectic week and not as much time to blog as Id like, and as I am now doing guest blogging over at the Loft Organic foods blog, that makes my blogging time even more divided! Oh well, life before blog, right? (Right?….)

I had a chance to stop in to one of my favourite new thrift stores this past week- The Bibles For Missions shop in our small city of Kitchener, Ontario. I love this little shop we found last year when we moved to the city- not only are the prices fabulously cheap (earlier in the year I got a large Le Crueset dutch oven there for TWO DOLLARS. TWO. They retail for over 300 dollars!) becuase they are an all-volunteer-run store so that helps keep the costs down, but all the proceeds go to a great cause- buying bibles! Free bibles are available at the front of the store, too, which is excellent. If you live in the KW area, check it out for sure.

So here are the groovy finds I made out with:

all the loot

someone with my exact same taste in magazines donated their stash!! I almost never buy magazines new because they are so bleetin’ expensive- but these were a quarter each!

just in time to get me in the mood for the season!

these were fantastic finds- all 1.50 each and in perfect shape! I have a hard time finding Christian fiction I enjoy, but i do like Frank Peretti and Ive been meaning to give Jan Karon a try. Anyone like these authors?

I am just starting to learn to sew (on a machine I got at this thrift store for 18 dollars!) and I was excited to find this old pattern set for kid’s stuffed animals as Id like to start making them for Bird instead of buying them. Only 50 cents!

we eat a lot food in this house where I need sectional dishes, like mexican food, salad bars, etc. I was excited for find this divided serving set, 2.00!

I also stocked up on cards, 2 for 25 cents, and now have a nice stash instead of paying the exorbitant price you pay for retail

I especially loved these cards with the Japanese woodblock prints on them- look at this detail below of a mother and child- precious!

Thanks for coming along with me on my trip to the thrift store! Blessings, ladies!

Guest Culinary Blogger? Me?

2011-03-23T10:15:00.004-04:00

Yes! If you recall I recently did this post on the local, organic produce we recently purchased through the Loft Organic Foods Box program here in Kitchener. The good folks at Loft were kind enough to ask me to do some guest writing on their recipe blog. I was honored to be asked and have now completed three recipe entries for them.

If any of the recipes look enticing, simply click on the image and it will redirect you to the Loft recipe page. If you like the looks of them, be sure to “like” them if you are a facebook user or leave a comment- who doesn’t like encouragement? :)

Locals’ Only Black Bean Soup

Spring Equinox Salad with Black Radish Viniagrette

Pub Pie of Cider-Braised Beef

Be sure to let me know if you try any of these recipes, Id love to know how they turn out for you!

Blessings!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

2011-03-21T08:35:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to Twyla and Lindsey from Two Crazy Crafters, you are the winners of The Waltons Giveaway! I’ll be contacting you at your blog this morning to make sure you know you are the winner. Ladies, be sure to check out their website, it is super cute!

Thanks for those who entered the contest, and be sure to stay tuned- I like giving away stuff, its fun! So Ill be having more give-aways soon. Blessings!

Last Chance for Walton’s Giveaway

2011-03-20T14:14:00.001-04:00

Hey Friends, just a friendly reminder to anyone checking their blogs today that it is the last day for the Walton’s give away. I’ll be choosing the winner tonight before bed (about 9pm) and I’ll be announcing the winner tomorrow morning. Click on the image below to enter. Good luck!

Armchair Confessional- Yogurt and Dog Edition

2011-03-19T11:29:00.001-04:00

Wow, it’s been a long time since I did an Armchair Confessional! For any of you new to the blog, I have been known from time to time to get brutally honest about my homemaking foibles, and when I do they make it to the blog under this Confessions category. If you’re interested in seeing more of my blunders, you can check them out here.

I was feeding Birdie girl her breakfast of yogurt and fruit puree the other morning, and as I was attempting to refill her dish, I dropped the large container of yogurt and ended up splattering about 1/5 of the contents all over my table top. After I suppressed a curse word or two, I remembered that theres no sense in crying (or cursing) over spilt yogurt.

A confession within a confession: the older I get, the more I hate waste. The more organic and local and seasonal we eat, I hate waste more. The more I try to recycle what I can, compost what I can, and reduce packaging, I hate waste even morer (yes, I said morER).

So with this in mind, I looked at my spilled yogurt and a light went on: when I drop food bits on the floor I call Stuey Dog, our little Hoover with a pulse. So why limit his clean-up capabilities to the ground level? Stuart was about to move on up.

So… as you can see yes I did allow my Maltese to lick up the yogurt off my table top. We can’t get the poor dog to put on any weight, so hopefully the full-fat dairy product will do him some good. And it made a bit less for me to clean up, and a bit less of a frustration in my brain over waste. I was happy.

And so was Birdie girl- she enjoyed the show.

Epilogue:

And what did I do the very next morning? Put Bird’s yogurt dish in arm’s reach of her, turned my back to get something, and got myself this new mess to clean up:

I’m not a quick learner, am I?

Winter Harvest

2011-03-18T11:19:00.001-04:00

I have been studying on the best way to purchase local, organic produce for this coming growing season, and I have been very interested in joining a CSA (community support agriculture), which is a system by which you purchase a percentage of a farmer’s crop at the beginning of the growing season as a way of supporting the farmer and ensuring yourself access to great produce. I am still considering this option, but Ive also found an interesting program that sells local produce and you can purchase the food week to week instead of paying for a crop ahead of time, which might be good for us to get started.

The program is called Loft Organic Food Box, and if you live in KW area, I highly recommend it. Not only is it a great service, but they folks that staff the program are very friendly and helpful. We picked up our first box of goodies last night, and we got this lovely harvest:

The breakdown of what we got in the box :

14 russet potatoes 1 head of garlic

3 heads (greenhouse ) lettuce 8 orange carrots

1lb dry black beans 3 yellow carrots

3 black radishes 4 parsnips

3 sweet potatoes 10 apples

6 onions

I can’t explain it, I guess Im just corny or weird, but it gives me a real sense of satisfaction knowing where all this good stuff comes from- right in our own backyard (well, relatively speaking). And to give you an idea of price, we got all of this for 40 dollars, which is not too bad at all if you ask me, for local, organic produce. I didnt even have to fight a line or a crowd in the grocery store, just picked up the box all ready to go! Im a pretty happy camper!!

Now to get cracking on some menus to make the best use of all this lovely winter bounty.

Blessings!

Apple Pecan Oatmeal with Ruth and Boaz

2011-03-13T13:19:00.002-04:00

One of our favourite breakfasts lately is a nice, big steaming bowl of oatmeal. “Our” being Birdie girl and me- we share a bowl probably every other day these late winter mornings. I like to add shredded apple, diced pecans, and a pinch of cinnamon to the oatmeal as it cooks (Im using up a bag of 5 minute oatmeal but will soon be switching to steal cut), and then I top it with some delicious pure maple syrup and a dash of 1/2 and 1/2 cream. Delicious, and baby girl digs it, too.

Most of the time we have breakfast at the table with Bird in her highchair, but sometimes when mornings come early and we just want to stay snuggled up and comfy, we share our bowl of grau on the couch, cuddling side by side.

nice camera, mom… where’s the grub?

This morning was one such morning. Today’s reading in my read-thru-the-Bible-in-a-year plan was the book of Ruth. Four of some of the most beautiful chapters in scripture, and to my thinking the most romantic short-story in existence. After the rough ride of Judges, the book preceding Ruth in the Old Testament, the tale of the Moabitess, her Israelite mother in law and Boaz, her kinsman redeemer, is like a spring tonic after a hard winter.

It is not only a beautiful story of redemption in its own right, but in light of the dire spiritual estate of Isreal outlined in the 21 painful, gritty chapters of Judges, it serves as a reminder that even in the darkest of times, some faithful men and women do continue to live quiet lives of devotion to the Lord and HIs people, and that He is a God to all nations and peoples, and will meet us in our circumstances, no matter how bleak and hard they may seem.

I love reading God’s word out loud to Bird during my morning devotional time, eventhough she doesnt yet understand anything Im saying. She enjoys being read to no matter what the story is, and because scripture is God-breathed, I feel as though I am blessing her with a benediction simply by reading the words to her. My prayers is that as she grows and learns to understand words and their meaning, she won’t be able to remember a time when part of her daily learning did not come His word.

If you find yourself in a season of not knowing what to read for your devotionals, can I suggest you read Ruth? And if you are looking for an excellent teaching series to accompany the text, may I suggest the Redeeming Ruth series by Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill church. I have listened to it probably three times now and I have blessed each time. Great expository teaching of one of my favourite books of the bible.

Hope you all had a beautiful, worshipful, steaming bowl of oatmeal-filled Sunday morning. Blessings!

and don’t forget about my Waltons Season 7 giveaway- click the picture below to enter :)

Waltons Giveaway!

2011-03-12T18:47:00.001-05:00

Do you love The Waltons as much as I do?

Well, you probably don’t, because I really love them. In fact, if I could be a fictional character, it would probably be Olivia Walton. :) But, assuming that you do like them anywhere near as much as I do, this is potentially your lucky day!

To celebrate my return to blogging at The Armchair Housewife, I am having a giveaway for my faithful “followers”. The complete Season Seven of The Waltons! These dvds are brand new and have never been watched- it just so happens I have an extra copy of this season that was given to me as a gift. And now it can be yours!

All you need do is be one of my followers and leave a comment on this post letting me know that you’d like to be entered in the contest. No need to advertise the giveaway or any of that junk- just leave a comment and I will pick a random winner on Sunday, March 20th. If anyone happens to become a new member between now and the 20th, they are welcome to enter the contest as well.

And, this has nothing to do with the give-away, but if you have a favourite Waltons moment, episode, or character, feel free to share that in your comment, too!

Really hoping this will bless one of my bloggy friends. I am excited about my return to blogging and what better way to celebrate than to share the love with some Waltons?!

Blessings, friends!

14 russet potatoes	1 head of garlic
3 heads (greenhouse ) lettuce	8 orange carrots
1lb dry black beans	3 yellow carrots
3 black radishes	4 parsnips
3 sweet potatoes	10 apples
6 onions