I'M ON THE CREW!!!!

I'm officially part of TOS Crew! What that means is I will be participating in reviewing curriculum throughout the summer. I am so excited!!! Come join me in this new adventure!

God Bless!

by far the best oatmeal icebox cookies

Today I have been doing a lot of food preparation for our vacation. With a large family, lots of food is needed! We usually take everything with us on our vacations. I do as much food prep, here at home before we leave. Today, I have been making lots of cookie dough. I triple our favorite cookie recipes and store it in ice cream containers in the refrigerator. It's a lot easier to make the cookie dough and take it with us than to take all of the ingredients with us an try to BAKE on vacation. We have two favorite recipes, Oatmeal Icebox Cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies. My friend shared the icebox cookie recipe with me a while back and it is by far one of the best ever!!! Thanks, Jennifer! Here is  the  recipe for one of  our favorite cookies. This is not the original recipe. I had to make it my own adding and changing a few things.

Oatmeal Icebox Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup extra virgin coconut oil

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup organic sugar, or you can use 2 cups sucanat

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups fresh ground hard white wheat

3 cups rolled oats

Cream your butter, coconut oil, sugar and eggs together; add the remaining ingredients. Mix well. Pour into a container and refrigerate. You don't have to refrigerate, you can drop by tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

God Bless!

getting ready for a little vacation

Well, everyone is counting down. We leave for a little vacation Monday! Everyone is very excited. We will be attending our homeschool convention also in the same week. We have been doing lots of things around here getting ready for it.


For one, I had about seven gallons of fresh, raw cream to make into butter. So far, half of it has been done, so, today, I will finish it. We decided to make 1/2 cup balls this time. Sometimes we make logs and sometimes we put it into cake pans and cut it into sticks.

Remember, I am not a photographer, so these pictures are not the best!


Another thing we have been doing around here is raising meat birds. Eight weeks ago we were given, by my in-laws, 30 Cornish X meat chickens. We had talked alot about trying to raise our own meat source for a while. We figured we would start with chickens. We have, since last Friday, have been feeding them  for eight weeks. They are a fast growing breed so at this age are reading for slaughtering. Friday afternoon we slaughtered half of them and Saturday morning, the other half. It was quite the experience. 


A while back I purchased a DVD entitled "Homesteading for Beginners". It has everything from raising chickens, milking a cow, using the raw milk and cream, to butchering chickens. We learned everything we needed to know about cleaning and processing the chickens. It was very informative. I would highly recommend it. You can purchase it from here or here. 


I have put half in the freezer, whole, and today, cutting the breast out of the other half, freezing the leg quarters and make a stock with the carcass. I am not sure if I will grind the breasts and have it for chicken burgers or freeze them whole for homemade chicken nuggets. Remember, I am not a photographer!!! Here is a picture I took of the chickens the first day after processing them.

The picture really doesn't give them justice. Most of them were in the 4 - 5 lb.  weight range. Some were smaller and a few were bigger. We are very happy with the outcome.


We are learning lots about homesteading and enjoying living it each and every day. One of our big reasons for living the way we do is to teach our children how to live off the land and survive and love and give thanks to the Lord while doing it.


     


     Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
~~Colossians 3:23-24