Saturday, January 19, 2013

Let's Get Popping!

I heard that today is National Popcorn Day and just had to put it out there so I remember in future years!  We love popcorn at this house and for dinner tonight we'll be doing popcorn and smoothies with a movie to celebrate...the kids can't wait!  We will even have a very special (and not very good for us) treat of dessert popcorn.  For Christmas we were gifted the Chocolate Lover's collection of Boy Scout popcorn and there is a bag of white chocolate popcorn and one of chocolate popcorn.  They'll be enjoyed by our little family tonight! 

We've enjoyed popcorn a lot more around here since I found a source for bulk popcorn that is raised without a lot of chemicals and such.  We bought 100 pounds (half yellow, half white) and are enjoying a lot more cornbread (grinding it in the nutrimill) and movie nights with popcorn and smoothies.  We've even gifted a large container of it to my dad who is the ultimate popcorn lover!  I've even been collecting recipes for different spice combinations and ways of making it to enjoy some variety.  I love having a whole grain snack that my kids love and is so reasonable in cost. 

Happy Popping!

Friday, January 18, 2013

Freedom!

Our little family will soon escape the city for the freedom of the country!  We've wanted to find a home with more space and to get into a more rural setting for a while and yet, it seems like it happened so fast.  A couple of years ago Mike and I made a list of steps to get where we wanted to be and set a timeline for when we wanted to have it happen.  So far, so good!  And really, way quicker than the timeline so far...here's hoping that continues.  We still need to close and move, clean up our current home and get it on the market and then sell it!  Once it sells we'll dump all of the proceeds into our current home and pay it off as quickly as possible. After we are debt free we'll be saving up for a big dream vacation for our entire family...we're going to Disney!  Mike can't wait to take us and the kids are very excited as well.  Of course we won't go until we hit our goals and everyone is potty trained :)

Our new home is more than double the square footage of our current home and yet it only has three bedrooms.  It has an office for Mike in the basement, far away from the craziness of our 4, 2 and 1 year olds.  We'll have an acre and half with some young fruit trees, mulberry trees, some hazelnut trees, a raspberry patch, wild asparagus, and two garden areas.  We plan to expand the gardens in a big way, add more fruit trees, get chickens and maybe even ask around about the acre lot next to our home. It is the only other area that could even possibly be developed and we may try and buy it to ensure we have the space to do what we want in the future.  The home is on a dead end road with only a few other houses, but it is very easy to access the interstate which makes things much easier for Mike as he travels.  We have met one neighbor and they have a HUGE garden, bees, chickens and I'm really hoping they will help me learn a lot about all of those things!

I'll post pictures once the home is officially ours, which happens on Feb 1st.  We'll be moving in on Feb 5th and appreciate any and all prayers during those first two weeks of Feb.  We know they'll be crazy as we try and get things done and get our home ready to go on the market.  It is going to be especially challenging because of the travel time between the two homes, as well as juggling the kids and projects.  But we know that once we have the house on the market and get unpacked and settled it will be worth it.   I'm so grateful that my kids will get to grow up as country kids!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Summer 2012 Canning/Freezing

So haven't done so well on the whole 'I'm going to post more' have I?  Ah, well, such is life.

Here is a mostly complete rundown of what I froze and canned in 2012.  I'm hoping these lists help me see what we need more of and what we have a glut of from year to year.  Most of the produce was purchased by the bushel and such at a local farmer's market, but a few things were grown in our little city lot.  (The good news, the exciting news, the unbelievable news is that next year...this year...I'll be growing things in my own huge garden!  Yes, we are moving the country...in less than a month!)

Mustard Greens: 3 bags
Green Beans:  19 frozen bags, 12 pints of dilly beans   (these were crazy expensive this year because of the drought, but we love them so I bit the bullet!)
Dill pickles:  26 quarts
Garlic pickles:  5 quarts
Zucchini: lots and lots chopped and shredded
Salsa: 26 quarts, 8 pints
Cranberry sauce:  about 20 pints
Corn:  22 bags
Tomatoes:  Done with freecycle tomatoes early in the spring, not sure of numbers
Banana Butter: 4 pints, 2 half pints  must do more!!!
Zucchini relish:  6 pints (still had many left from 2011)
Bread and Butter pickles:  4 quarts, 1 pint
Broccoli: 16 bags, 1 bag of leaves
Beets: 11 bags
Cauliflower:  2 bags (still had many left)

So this isn't complete, but I also bought 4 bushels of squash, almost all butternut and about 150 pounds of potatoes, as well as multiple cabbage.

We didn't get any beef this year as the half (bought fall of 2011) will last us for 2 years.  The pig we got in March 2011 was much larger than the previous and we still have a fair amount left.  We are debating ordering another as the butcher is going to be 2 hours from our new home...however we also get our maple syrup there and we don't have enough for another year.  We'll see how the move goes and then take it from there.