Happy Homemaking!

So, I've had a four day weekend (thanks Uncle Sam!) and boy have I been busy.

For the maple buttermilk pie mentioned last blog, I decided that I would make my own buttermilk and butter (for the crust). Turning heavy cream into buttermilk and butter is actually a pretty easy, but sorta messy. Thus, it is the perfect Michele kitchen project! 1 quart of heavy cream makes the equivalent of 3 sticks of butter and 2 cups of fresh buttermilk via the work of one standing mixer and 10 minutes. If you've never had fresh butter and buttermilk from grade A butter, you don't know what you are missing. It is FANTASTIC. It is also economical.

Andrew and I figured that 1 quart of heavy cream costs $3. 1 pound of butter (if you don't get it on sale) can vary between $2.50 and $4.00. 1 quart of buttermilk (and who EVER uses all of it?) costs $2.50. So, there is a savings right there! And with said standing mixer you can make all sorts of yummy things with the buttermilk (I made the pie and biscuits). The rest of the buttermilk will be used tomorrow in our hot oatmeal for breakfast. And then there is all that yummy butter for toast and things!

In addition, inspired by my mother who has been knitting circles around me for a year now, I picked up my knitting project; a hat for Andrew. I can't believe it took me about 45 minutes to finish. It's been 18 months since I looked at it!! AIGH.

But here are the results of my efforts and my mom's latest!

Suburban Adventures

As part of Plan C in these parts, Andrew and I are going to try to save money by making more of our own food. Thus far, this has created one rather adventuresome afternoon.

For Valentine's Day I wanted to make Andrew a Maple Buttermilk Pie. My dad made one last fall and it was quite yummy. However, the recipe calls for Grade B syrup, which is expensive (though why, as a lower grade than A it is more expensive than A is a bit of a mystery. It isn't like you overcook Grade A to make Grade B). It being February in NJ, I thought I would try to find a local source for maple syrup. Through Local Harvest I located a fairly close producer, got in touch with him and arranged to head out there.

Oh my. Now, while my standards of tidy-ness are not say my mother's or my Aunt Lorraine's, I still believe in keeping things picked up, and I am working on getting in the habit of making the bed every day (it's coming slowly Mom!). However, I am a federal food inspector these days and this place was A Mess as even my dad would label it. Several rusting hulks of cars, 18 wheelers, Caterpillars, and other assorted junk. The house on the property looked like something out of a bad gothic novel. However, I was in uniform (assulting an Army officer is a felony), it was the middle of the day, and I had my finger on Andrew's speed dial.

Thus prepared, I followed the farmer through the gate. Rust colored puddles of oily water mixtures were on the ground. I had previously talked to him about buying eggs and he'd brought 2 dozen with him. While I would like to say that I was so shocked by the conditions of the place that I didn't buy the eggs, I was too embarassed to tell him that I didn't want them. I figured I could always make egg salad out of them.

He told me to come back to the trailer where his production took place. Swallowing hard, I followed him. As we went deeper into the rust piles, through a maze of total junk, I started noticing an odor. Let's call it eau de dead rat. Holy cow. Here I am buying FOOD from this guy! I go into the trailer where he makes the syrup and see what he's offering. I rather feel like an international arms dealer at this point. But, the syrup looks ok, and I buy a few bottles. We walk out and make small talk. I pay for my purchases and hurry out of there.

But, as I write this blog, the pie is cooking in the oven. The making of the pie will be a story for another day though. Suffice it to say that I did just about everything except mill the flour myself.

And here is a belly pic of me at 25 weeks. I am a little stuck out because I am trying to hold my 24 pound son, but good grief! I didn't really know I was that big!

Working around the house

OK, so Andrew and I have now moved on to Plan C. We spent some time talking to architects about possible renovations of the house to create a master bathroom and a larger master suite. The cost is going to be prohibitivly expensive considering what we are going to be able to sell our house for, in any market, let alone this one. So, after considering the opportunity cost of that huge chunk of change, we are going with a new plan! We are going to concentrate on creating an outdoors that we can spend more time in and enjoy.

This fits quite nicely with our concept of "Suburban Homesteading". While, I recieved the nix on chickens from the Department of Health, we are going spend some time and money learning how to seriously garden and grow food. To that end, we ordered seeds today from Seed Savers Exchange and I have started saving cans from the cat food to start seeds in! We bought some fluorescent lighting and some shelving as well, now we just need to find some room in the basement to put everything up!


And of course, Zach needs to help around the house. Here he is before today's nap taking spoons out of the dishwasher just as fast as I put them in!

Fun with spaghetti

I love introducing new foods! Andrew and I had spaghetti for dinner a couple of days ago and Zach has been quite taken with the results!

Many adventures

As many of you know, I love to cook. As part of our suburban homesteading project I am going start cooking a bit more. We figure that bread is a pretty good place to economize. I am a whiz at making it, and yummy bread makes a cold day warmer. This is an example of the 18 hour bread from the Bitten column in the NYT in 2006. It requires very little work, but a lot of time. And boy is it yummy! This is probably the most photogenic loaf of bread I've ever made.

Zach is learning to stand. He can't quite pull himself up yet, but, if one of us stands him up, he will stay there for a long time!

Destructo-Boy. He actually managed to kill the lamp. Fortunatly Dad had the foresight to take out the bulb.

Oh, am I not supposed to eat paper Mom??

Learning and Exploring!

Learning and exploring is for everyone! We've had a good week here. We are settling in to the idea that we are going to be here for a while, and are starting to make plans that will help us to be excited about staying.

Plans we are excited about-
This weekend we are going to start to plan our garden and order seeds from heirloom seed companies (not sure which ones yet).

We are also going to continue on the basement painting project. The hope is that on Sunday we will move our work table to the basement, and that will be the start of my crafting area. I am looking forward to having the sewing machine out and available! My first project is going to be to sew some diaper covers for the new baby. All our diaper covers were a tad large for Zach when we brought him home from the hospital. Ergo, he was in disposables for about a month. We are going to try to save that money this go around and use cloth diapers from the word go.


Zach's new favorite place to crawl around in is our coffee table.

And out we go!

It's February!!

Well, we have had an adventuresome week. Due to market forces and a house around the corner going on the market at a ridiculously low price, we are staying put and not going anywhere for a while. Instead, we are adopting Plan B, and looking into renovating the house and creating a master suite with a bathroom. That way when we re list in a few years, we would relist as a 3bd 3 bath with 2 nice big bedrooms. I am hoping that this makes the house more marketable.

So, in the short term, that means we stop packing, take a look around and figure some things out. Andrew and I are both picking some consolation projects to work on. He's going to brew Plan B beer, and I am really hoping it isn't going to be a bitter! I am going to start a knitting project of some kind.


But mean while, Zach is as cute as ever! He's trying very hard to pull himself up onto anything. He can only get to his knees right now, but standing and cruising is coming soon!

Peek a Boo!

Look Mom! Toys!

Oh, did you want that in the drawer Mom? I was helping.



And some of the new baby boy! He's bouncing around and doing great.