today with Happy Homemaker Monday

G.K. Chesterton says,

“There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place ...”

                                                  one morning at sunrise

Happy Homemaker Monday

In keeping with the dominant calling, or I will even go as far as to call it a dominant purpose/role in my life, which is to celebrate being the woman God created me to be and through the careful study  and instruction of His Word to live as a woman content as being foremost a keeper of the home. I am as an older woman even told to encourage the younger woman in her godly role.

So I decided this was a solid place to post what most of us know to be the best calling. Thank you Sandra for getting us all connected!

*Outside 

It is still hot, yet the mornings give a bit of a reprieve. Only 68 degrees this morning. The weather channel online reports even cooler mornings this week, dipping down in the high 50's. Daytime temps will adjust to high 70's low 80's. Bring it on!!!!

*What concerns me right now in attention and thoughts

Preparing for a major change in my husband and my lives as we forego application for SSA and Medicare. When did this all come to be????? Let me warn you ladies it takes some research and counsel with options and such, especially the Medicare that is not free and is basically a socialist program that has evolved over the years. I do not have enough points to claim SSA on my own, yet our government still allows me to receive half of my husband's FRA and Medicare on his account.

My husband and I have been careful with spending and and we have been able to save for our retirement accounts through the years. We are very thankful. I know how hard it can be when you are younger and everything is so expensive and you have mouths to feed and bodies to clothe and braces and... but you will appreciate any effort you made it in the days ahead. Make a plan and do not get carried away with the culture's idea of "living only for the moment" and the need to be spending money you do not really have to spend. Staying home helps😊. And maybe heavily limiting shopping on Amazon and online sites. Your plan is individual for sure and you might not be able to save much, but do make a plan...every bit you manage to save adds up over time.

Food: Preserving and Daily Preparation

The summer garden is slowing down, that is all but the green beans that have taken on new life with all the rain. I pick about every other day. I pressure can pint jars with the extras, and I am  thinking of making a few jars of dilly beans with the next pickings.  We continue to eat delicious servings of greens beans with our meals.

Today I plan to take some chicken breasts and prepare a chicken fry with onions, peppers, garlic, red, yellow and orange peppers, curry paste, and zucchini. This will be served over rice alongside a green salad.

Breakfasts mostly consist of eggs and toast. Though I am hankering for a bowl of oatmeal. We just have so many fresh eggs from the hens.

Lunch is dependent if my husband is here for lunch, then I must be more intentional. Today was tuna salad with crackers, watermelon and pears.

As for the rest of the week's dinner menus:

Tuesday...Fried chicken  with mashed potatoes/gravy and you guessed it, green beans.

My husband has been asking me to fry some pieces of chicken for dinner. I will cut up a whole chicken and fry half of it saving the other half for another dish. I use either coconut oil or palm fruit shortening for frying.

Wednesday... I thinking of serving a one dish meal that I found on Pinterest. Lemon Ricotta  Pasta with arugula

Served with fruit.

Thursday...salmon cakes/potato salad/greens

Friday...Pizza using this cottage cheese crust.

 Cottage Cheese Recipe

1 cup cottage cheese. Process in food processor until smooth.

Add 4 eggs

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1/4 cup almond flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning. Mix this all together with the smooth cottage cheese.

Spread ins a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees 20-25 minutes. Check as it cooks, it should just golden brown.

 Pull it out of the oven and add any sauce, cheese, and other toppings. I made one using an olive oil base with pesto,  sliced tomatoes, feta cheese. It was quite delicious.

*Reading

I am presently reading two books that are a part of my 2024 Reading List. This list will be posted sometime this week on this blog. If you would like to read the list you might want to check back...

East of Eden by John Steinback

Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss

*Gentle Arts

My hands have been itching to begin some new stitching ventures. But first I must complete several things I have been working on, or at least complete most of the things I have started.

This needle pip that my sewing guild began last spring is first on the list. The embroidery has been done on both sides and the construction of the pip is complete.  I am embroidering Palestrina stitch around the outside.  

Excuse the lighting. A storm had come up quickly. we even lost power for a bit and I had to delay finishing this post.

Also, cotton dish cloths are knitted as I travel in the car on short trips. So easy and mindless and very practical in the finished item. I am knitting them in yellows and blues, using up balls that I had in my stash.

The quilt I hand pieced throughout the cold winter months and began hand quilting just as spring arrived has been existing a dormant life over the summer, but just recently I have picked it up to do some handquilting a few evenings...so much pleasure in that craft.

The natural light from the window in the corner of the dining room was an excellent place to quilt. Here I was also altering Ivy's flower girl dress for Charlotte's wedding. back in April.

I begin most mornings outside on the front porch where many mornings I behold the sunrise.I sing praises to my LORD and I pray and read HIs word. I have been in Hebrews and I Thessalonians. I am memorizing Hebrews chapter 2.

"Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (verse 17).

                                       

  Blessings!

War time Kitchen and Garden

If you are looking for something to give perspective of tough times while also learning about a particular time in history, may I give a hearty recommendation for BBC's Wartime Kitchen and Garden. We watched a daily episode during lunch as part of Charlotte's history study of WWII. These eight episodes enact cooking, preserving, and rationing as well as the huge task of providing food through gardening for the citizens and the military forces in Great Britain from the onset of the war in September 1939 to May 1945. This was told from two people whom actually lived during that time, Ruth Mott, the cook, and Harry Dobson, the gardener. There are also live clips of the war and you even hear Winston Churchill on the radio. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of the things I learned from this series is that the government introduced a bread called the National Loaf in 1942 due to white flour shortages. Today I baked a loaf of Spelt flour loaf bread which is a very delicious bread loaf for sandwiches and toast.

a collation worth mentioning

For lunch I like to consider eating simple, healthy meals, but I certainly want them to be tasty and enjoyable as well. I love it when I find such a meal that makes me anxious for the arrival of lunchtime just because the meal is so good! I would like to share a particular lunchtime meal with you  that falls into that approbative category

 Brown rice is my rice of choice and I prefer soaking the dried rice for about twelve hours before it is cooked. One cup of rice per two cups of water is placed into a bowl and covered until the next day. The soaked rice is then cooked and kept it in the refrigerator until needed for a dinner or lunch dish. A favorite midday meal is reheating the rice and topping it with a helping of homemade kimchi. Lately, I am  also liking the addition of a dash of Braggs Liquid Aminos. I do not usually include soy in my diet, but I have not noticed any problems with the "once in a while use" of this seasoning.  There is a high content of sodium in Braggs and Tamari sauce (but not as high as in regular soy sauce), therefore, it is a seasoning I would use sparingly and not very often.

What do you prepare for a healthy, delicious lunch? 

homemade breakfast cereal

I am at the best of times, a day, and even some times, years, late... on the latest fads.
But I always come around, eventually, if it is truly essential and important to me.
Pleased to know the day and year burst upon my healthy-eating, seeking conscience and I am now taking the time to prepare and make my own breakfast cereal.
If I had two words to say about it other than it tastes good, it would be that it is the cat's meow.
Yes, that pretty much sums up this healthy treat.

The recipe can be found here; I added freeze- dried strawberries to this particular batch. I have used both spelt and whole wheat berries, like them both equally. I always soak my flour in buttermilk.

Healthy eating takes time and preparation. The flour must be freshly ground, soaked for at least eighteen hours, baked as a cake, crumbled into desired sized pieces and then baked in a low temperature oven( I set mine at 175 degrees) for many hours.
The first evening I made this I slid the cookie sheets of crumbled cake into the preheated oven and  by the time I was pulling down the covers to get into bed, the smell of the maple and cinnamon  was wafting clear to my bedroom making the next morning look extremely promising.

I eat mine with organic plain unsweetened almond milk. It crunches so nicely!