Recipe Friday: Macaroni and Cheese

In honor of Uncle Rob's birthday today I'm giving you the dish that I''m going to bring to his "comfort food" themed birthday party tomorrow.  (Ever since Steve's Surprise Pony Party we've done themes.  One year we made tee shirts.  And people wonder why I love my in-laws!)  This recipe is from The Bride and Groom First and Forever Cookbook by Mary Corpening Barber and Sara Corpening Whiteford.  This is the cookbook that I got as a wedding shower gift and it taught me how to cook.  It's my go-to wedding gift for every wedding we to to now. 

A New Kind of Lawn Care

I think I tweeted this, but I wanted to elaborate on it so here's the post.  Earth Eats tweeted an article from treehugger.com about lawns in America.  The tweet said, "There is an estimated 50,000 square miles of lawns in U.S. Think of all the gardens that could be!"  So I clicked on the link and read the article. 

Stone Cottage Farm and Garden

I was researching chickens all weekend.  I'll probably never actually GET any because I'll never be done reading about what I should and shouldn't do.  ANYWAY, I stumbled across this site in my chicken research.  It's Stone Cottage Farm and Garden and it just sounded so quaint I couldn't wait to share it on my blog. They have bees, chickens, orchards, maple syrup, nuts and berries, gardens, ponds--it seems to be an old fashioned homestead.  I've been reading and thinking about urban homesteading a lot lately (I REALLY would like to keep bees since I LOVE bees, but Ellie is terrified and I could see that attracting bees to my yard *might* irritate the neighbors) and so this place greatly appealed to me.  Ready for the piece de resistance?!?



They have classes!!!!!  On what you ask?  Well, raising chickens for one!  Raised bed sustainable and organic gardening, urban homesteading day and preserving foods are all courses offered.  They are offered at different locations as well, if Cuyahoga Falls isn't convenient for you.  Here's the schedule.

They also have a shop for small farm and gardening supplies.  I'm so excited!  I've been trying to check this out between loads of laundry from puking kids. Sorry it's a short entry and a day late!  I'm doing the best I can...as my blog summary says!

Vince--BEFORE he puked on the couch!

Recipe Friday: Maple "Baked" Custard

I thought that I should be stock-piling recipes using eggs for when I get my chickens!  This recipe comes from Dr Weil, but I couldn't find it on his website anymore.  I've had it for about 10 years and it's a nice dessert to make without a ton of sugar.

It's Time to Start My Garden!

The time has finally come!  I've been looking forward to this since last fall--planing time!  It's still too cold and early to put anything in the ground, but according to SproutRobot, it's time to start sprouting some seeds indoors.  Leeks, broccoli, tomatoes and bell peppers are on the list for this week.  Next week is eggplant.  I'm so excited!   I've been getting organic seeds at Target and Wal-Mart and I'm all ready to get started. This will be the first year that I've sprouted seeds indoors before. I got a seed greenhouse from Target and I'm going to have the kids help me plant. My major concern was that I didn't have room to put something like that where it would get full sun. Then I realized that if I involve the kids, I can put it on the train table. I think they'll really like having it down on their level, where they can keep a close eye on the sprouts. It will also be a good way to get them more involved in the planting process, making the seeds "theirs". 

Amber necklace

Awhile ago I found amber necklaces for babies in a natural catalog I get.  I thought it was a pretty cool idea, but at the time I didn't have a baby.  When Oliva was born, I knew exactly what I was going to get her for Christmas!  Amber is said to have healing properties.  These baby necklaces are supposed to help with teething pain.  I wanted to give you a little blurb from the web about amber, but what I could find seemed WAY out there (I just have a hard time buying into something that talks about it's "magical" powers.)  I did find this short little snip on a baltic amber website.
"Amber is as old as time itself, dating back millions of years. And yet, it is still believed in today and used for its magnificent healing power for treating joint pain, arthritic ailments, and even teething pain for children. Baltic amber is also used in the cosmetics industry and in other fields as well."

I'm a horrible mother!!

I took Abby to the vet to have some tests run because she's getting old and losing a ton of weight. I had a ton of laundry to catch up on from the weekend and I had to make baby food, clean the house, pick up my NEW IPHONE and get the boys hair cut. I had a busy day so when Caden took off his coat and I saw that he had a Happy Birthday ribbon pined to his shirt my stomach dropped. I totally forgot to send a birthday snack with him today to share with his class!!! Yesterday he turned 8 and we had a party for his friends yesterday, a family party Saturday, and took him out to dinner at Outback last night for a special dinner. The whole weekend was Caden so when it was over I pu it out of my mind. So instead of making a special treat for him to take to school tomorrow I'm going to have to just grab something from the store. I FEEL HORRIBLE!!! (This is from Monday). I'm super behind in blogging too!