Saturday BlogRoll call

Shouting in the Dark comes to us from The Fool. The Fool gives us a miscellanea of thoughts, from the interesting photos to thought provoking activism. Definitely worth a stop.

Simple Katie hails from Montana. Katie host a personal blog about living a more simple life.

Simple Living is brought to us by Emma who is 250 years old. Emma, her husband and 5 kids are still in the learning stages of living a sustainable life.

Country Roads is a personal blog about reducing the clutter in one family's life. Pamela is trying to find simplicity through reducing, reusing and recycling. Stop by and give her some kudos.

I am off to do some shopping. Tomorrow is D-day for turkey-snulurky. She you Monday with all the details.

So many soups to choose from

My camera is done. I did a little searching around at some name brand places and found a great digital camera and printer deal in my price range. It should be here shortly. And I will be able to get you some of those pictures. There are better deals then what Wal-mart is currently advertizing.

It has been getting below freezing here, as well as many other places, and I have noticed a few blogs posting about their favorite stews/soups. Burdockboy has a great looking Sausage and Kale soup, and Cheryl has a creamy vegetable soup. I am going to try out both of these recipes. I have decided to post my favorite soup recipe, that I made last night {no pics, sorry}

Beef Noodle and Dumpling Soup

you will need
2 lbs tenderized bottom round steak, cut up into bite sized pieces
vegetable oil
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
1 celery stock, finely chopped
½ cup dry cooking sherry

heat up 2 tbl vegetable oil in a large, heavy sauce pan or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the vegetables and meat in patches as not to crowd them. Brown all sides, add more vegetable oil if needed, and remove from pan. In same pan, heat the sherry and reduce for 2 minutes, scraping of the brown bits. Return the beef and vegetables back to the pan, and reduce the heat to very low. Cover and allow it to sweat for 20 minutes.

Increase the heat and add 2 quarts of beef stock and a little salt. Bring to a simmer and reduce the heat to a very low again. Cover the pan partially and allow to simmer for 1 hour.

The Soup;

you will need;

1 tbl butter
1 medium onion, diced to your preference {We finely chop ours, the kids eat in better that way}
2 medium carrots, diced to your preference
6 button mushrooms, diced to your preference
2 cups wide egg noodles
Parsley
salt and ground black pepper.

Heat a sauce pan with butter and soften the vegetables {larger diced will take 5 minutes} Add to the stock, simmer for 15 minutes, reserve the pan with any vegetable chunks in it for later. Add noodles {using homemade noodles? cook for 10 minutes before adding dumplings} Salt and pepper to taste.

For the dumpling, use your favorite recipe, but substitute the milk with buttermilk {you will need to add more buttermilk than regular milk to get it to the correct consistency} If you don't have a recipe, I actually do suggest using bisquick with this soup. {I know, sell out} Use the pan that you had cooked the diced vegetables to mix up you dumplings. Add to the soup, and cook uncovered for ten minutes, then covered for ten. Serve and enjoy.

List

I finally brought myself to work on my Thanksgiving menu for this year. I thought I had better do it soon, because I would only be able to get to Yoder Saturday morning. Now why is it I have to go to Yoder for my Thanksgiving needs? Yoder is in my 100 mile range for this years local Thanksgiving Challenge. Another is that I love the bread that comes from there. And one more reason, so many local, organic shops in one area.

Now for the list of item that I did not grow/raise on the homestead, and that I know I can get locally;

Milk
Heavy Whipping cream
unsalted butter
buttermilk
Flour
Salt
{no flour} breads
Pecans
Cheese
Hard Sausages
Cranberries
crackers
Carrots {Out of season, but there is a vegetable green house nearby}
Honey
Marshmallows {lacking that I will make them myself ggrrr..}
Almonds
Edited: I forgot to add Sunflower oil and Bacon

I think that is all. I will be up-front and say, that if one of these locally own stores sells sugar, I will buy it. There is only so much I can do with honey.

I also need to head to Wyldewood Cellars and pick up some wine. I'll have to do that Monday.

Are you ready for Thanksgiving?

well. . .

I'm not sure what to write about today. I am a little frustrated with some non-homesteading going on's right now. Like Nano, the e-book challenge {I wish I had time to edit it more} My parents are both sick, that sort of thing. It's encroaching on my simple life, causing some stress that I would prefer not to be dealing with. The writing things are of my own doing, of course, and I could just drop them out of my plans. But I really don' want to. I actually like where my nano is going.

My camera is still acting up.

Mother Hen and her chick are doing very well. And I need to get to my Brother-in-Laws to get those saplings for the wattle fence. I wanted to this weekend, but instead I will be dressing out a turkey. And then that reminds me, that I need to make a full menu and figure out what I need to buy in Yoder.

I have to go back into the city today, so chores will have to wait once again. My catch up tomorrow will be exhausting.

A day in the city

I spent a full day in the city yesterday, hanging out in the VA. So not too many things happened.

When I got home a package was waiting for me on my deck. The post mark was Texas. Inside was a hardcover book called Build It Better Yourself. My bookcossing friend Texaswren had used it when she was homesteading, and passed it on to me. How wonderful! I am just so completely thrilled about it.

Thank you Texaswren!Also, Bug had a post up yesterday about color blindness. She had a link were you could check to see if your website was color blind friendly, mine was. Go check it out here at VisCheck.

A Weekend in review

I know that everyone is dying to know what my husband got me for my birthday. OK, Ok, He got me. . . you ready? Drum roll please. . . A Kershaw Taskmaster & trout/Bird Shears! It even comes with a bird knife and a holster! The holster is so that I can always be ready because you never know when you have to field dress something, or if another Homesteader might wonder onto your land, looking to test your de-boning skills.

I am being sarcastic, but already ran that by my husband. It is actually a very thoughtful gift. He did have me in mind when he bought it from the Snap-on guy. {Can I ask why a Snap-on guy has hunting gear? I wonder what else the Snap-On guy sells off his truck} Those of you that have been reading for awhile, know of my stupidity when it came to butchering the roosters. {Those that haven't read that part of the journal, It was a spur of the moment decision and I was forced to use tin snips to cut the bird open} The gift is a sweet gesture coming from a work ethical, intellegent, logical man. {Last year I got a foodmill, and the year before a package of socks, so he's coming around}

One of the new chicks died this weekend. We are assuming that it was from the cold. I brought in the yellow chick, hoping to keep it safe this time. My dad {who is now living with us} suggested that we used the empty 55 gallon aquarium. Good idea! It is cracked so we had to move the turtle into a different tank, and we were keeping snakes in this one, until the oldest boy neglected them. I put in some litter, food and water, and the chick. She will be safe in there. But then she wouldn't stop chirping. My husband and I are use to this, but my father isn't. I made the suggestion that we bring Mother Hen in. She had pushed aside the eggs to tend to the chick, and I really didn't want her to be depressed, for having nothing to do now. I went out into the pen and gathered up Mother Hen and place her in the tank with the chick. My word how quiet it is now. {We are thinking about allowing mother Hen to brood all the chicks from now on} They are both content, we just have to allow them to wonder the house once in awhile so that they can stretch out. This is the perfect solution {for us}

The pit bull mix puppy got a hold of my Golden Buff rooster. My husband is asking around at work to see if anyone will take her. I can not have her around anymore. This is the 5th chicken she has killed.

I also made that tempura last night, nummy!

No pictures today because my computer is junk and says that it can't read the camera, grrr.