Honey

Doesn't matter what brand, what size bottle, squirt top or pour top, honey is a magical substance.  It is a natural sweetener, helps with an irritated throat, health and beauty enhancer.  It really is a liquid as good as gold! 

Raw honey is another incredible find.  Raw honey has anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal properties. It promotes body and digestive health, is a powerful antioxidant, strengthens the immune system, eliminates allergies, and is an excellent remedy for skin wounds and all types of infections. Raw honey's benefits don't stop there. Raw honey can also stabilize blood pressure, balance sugar levels, relieve pain, calm nerves, and it has been used to treat ulcers. Raw honey is also an expectorant and anti-inflammatory and has been known to effectively treat respiratory conditions such as bronchitis and asthma.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035493_raw_honey_health_benefits_antibacterial.html#ixzz29i9mcjD1

After starting to make most of our bread, muffins, crackers, cookies and granola bars, I really wanted to get away from sugar.  It is just not something I want my kids and family to be ingesting in the quantities that some recipes call for.  Honey was my first and only substitute.  I did some research and was floored by what I found.  

http://www.totalbeauty.com/content/gallery/best-worst-sugar-sub/p104202/page8

It's up to 50 percent sweeter than the white stuff -- so your sweet tooth will be satisfied with less!!

This was a definite plus at our house!  :)

Pumpkin Spice Mini Muffins

Sophie is my helper.  Whether I am in the kitchen cooking, the garden working, the flower beds weeding, Sophie is glued to my hip!  I am always looking for new, fun and nutritional things that we can make together.  Since finding out about Henry's lactose intolerance, we have to be super careful with everything that we feed him.  His allergy is very severe unfortunately, so we have started making most of other family's store bought items at home.  Bread, muffins, cookies, crackers, you name it, we make it!  Found a fantastic recipe recently for Pumpkin Spice Muffins.  Since it is getting to be fall around here, pumpkin spice sounded amazing to me!  Oh and the smell ....mmm....definitely worth the time just to have that incredible smell in the house for the day! 

Anyways, we make mini muffins mostly.  Normal muffins are just too big for the littles to consume in one sitting and the mini ones are cute!  Sophie picked out some fun Halloween liners for our project and we got started!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar (I use one cup honey)
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
3/4 cup milk
1 cup pureed pumpkin

Grease 24 muffin cups, or line with paper muffin liners  For mini muffins, this recipe makes approximately 58 muffins. Sift together the flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, salt, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.

 

Beat 1/2 cup of butter, the white sugar or honey, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add the room-temperature eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Stir in the milk and pumpkin puree after the last egg. Stir in the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin cups.


Bake mini muffins at 375 for 8-9 minutes.  If making regular muffins bake at 375 for about 25 minutes.
 

These tasty little treats are a perfect snack, breakfast side or just something yummy to grab as you are running out the door.  They freeze beautifully, thaw in the microwave for about 5-7 seconds, keep moist and wonderful for about a week.  Enjoy!

Chalkboard Paint

Another favorite gem I came across this summer was chalk board paint.  It is amazing stuff!  I know I am a little behind the times, as it has been around for awhile, but I have finally made it to the excitement!  There have been quite a few projects that I embarked on during the rainy days of the summer, but this one is probably one of my all time favorites!  We have an outdoor wood furnace and get a lot of our wood from an Amish man who makes pallets.  So, basically that means, lots of cut off pieces for me to rummage through until I find the ones I want for a new project!  I have accumulated quite a few new decorative pieces in my house from my scavenging!

I picked out 6 different sized boards that had the approximate length I was looking for.  After trimming a couple, I used another board long enough to go across the entire back of the other six boards to attach them all together.

I did one layer of a regular primer on the front and back of the entire thing.  I wasn't sure how well the chalkboard paint would cover since it was my first real project.  I probably didn't need to do the primer layer, but it is nice to have it on the back so it is not as "unfinished".  I added two layers of the chalkboard paint and tada!!  I love it, it is versatile, can be rewritten any time, works with every different type of decoration I have tried.

Happy Fall!!

Ham and Potato Soup

Fall is probably my favorite time of year.  Hoodies, leaves changing and soup weather!  Potato soup is one of my all time favorites.  It is creamy and filling and oh, so good!  This recipe is definitely my all time favorite.  It has enough spices to give it a little kick, but not too much for a potato soup.  Super easy, quick and tasty!

Ham and Potato Soup

3 1/2 cup peeled and diced potatoes
1/3 cup celery
1/3 cup onion
3/4 cup chopped ham
3 1/4 cup water
2 tbsp chicken bullion granules
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
5 tbsp butter
5 tbsp flour
2 cups milk

Combine potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water in a large pan.  Bring to a boil, then lower to medium heat for 10-15 min or until potatoes are tender.  Stir in chicken bullion granules, salt and pepper.  In a separate pan, melt butter.  Whisk in flour with a fork and cook until it starts to get thick.  Slowly, stir in milk, continue to cook on medium heat 4-5 minutes.  Stir milk mixture into potatoes and heat through.  Serve and enjoy!

Home Made Spaghetti Sauce

One of my most exciting projects this summer was making my own spaghetti sauce.  This was the first time I had ever attempted this and was incredibly thrilled with the results!  The recipe is not too complex, doesn't take a TON of time and tastes amazing!  Spaghetti Sauce is such a tame name for this...it should be something like, Chunky Garden Medley Sauce!  There is no need to peel your tomatoes for this chunky sauce. Just chop them up and you're ready to go. The skins get lost in the sauce and you can't even tell you are eating them.  We use it for spaghetti, pizza, lasagna, you name it!

Isn't it beautiful?!?!  We love it and will be doing a ton more next year!

Spaghetti Sauce
one large onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
2 large carrots, shredded
1/2 large green pepper, chopped
1/4 cup parsley
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp thyme
2 tbsp basil
6 cups tomatoes, chopped (I never peeled any of mine and you cannot tell!)
6 oz. tomato paste
1 tbsp honey
salt and pepper to taste
vinegar

Saute onion and garlic in 2 tbsp. oil until tender. Add carrots through herbs and stir well. Add tomatoes, paste, honey and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 15 minutes.  To can, ladle into hot, sterilized pint jars (or quarts if you are canning a larger amount) to within 1/2 inch of top, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar per pint to assure acidity, seal with sterilized lids and process full jars in boiling water bath for 35 minutes.  I used quart jars because a pint is just not nearly enough for us.  This recipe yields 2 quarts.  When we eat it for regular spaghetti, I added 1 lb. of hamburger and a can of mushrooms.  Simply divine!  Enjoy!

Family Project

 One of my many projects from this summer's rainy days was this amazing Family Project that we finally completed last week.  We all sat down together and came up with words that describe our family.  Some words couldn't be included because of a little bit of a need for censoring!!  We came up with some pretty great words and then had an amazing time picking out the boards and staining each one.  I got the project of painting on each word and then Troy and I worked together to get it hung on the wall.  It is HUGE!!  Just a little comparison shot for you on the right, Sophie is about 37 inches tall right now!

Some of the words are hard to read because of the lighting in this room.

Here is a list:

Loving

Confidence

Thankful

Faithful

Play  Hope

Together

Crazy

Enjoy

Respect

Hope

Pray

Naughty

Trust

Happy

Believe

Funny

Family

Summer Insanity

I am a terrible blogger.  I have not had one blog post for months...ugh.  I am going to try harder!  In my defense, summer at our house is a little....ok, seriously, TOTAL insanity!!  Between gardening, canning, mowing, flower beds, swimming lessons, summer school, library, the end of soccer season, the beginning of football season...I could go on!  Let's just say, summer is very busy for us.  I was able to have a wonderful garden this year.  I was so excited to get my gardening gloves on again after having a year off because of our move.  I may have went a little over board in the canning department.  It's ok though, I keep telling myself, maybe I won't have to do so much next year!!  RIGHT!  I kept track of my canning progress this year to see what I had a lot left over of and not so much of any thing else.  My list looks a little like this:

Canned:
Green Beans:  55 quarts
Pineapple Zucchini:  20 pints
Tomatoes:  102 quarts (HOOORAY!!)
Spaghetti:  20 quarts

Frozen:
Green Peppers:  10 quart bags
Shredded Zucchini:  50 cups
Brussel Sprouts:  10 quart bags
Cauliflower:  5 quart bags
Apples:  10 quart bags

Not too shabby for my first year of a garden here at the new house!  I was presently surprised with the production that we got.  What a wonderful way to start my fall and winter!  So much more to blog about, but just wanted to get a little start again!  I have added a few of my favorite pics of my littles for you to enjoy!