Mulching when the Mulching is Good

As you can see from the photos, I'm a little behind on posting... There's snow on the ground now. G and I worked fast and furious to get our property winterized before the snow came and the ground froze, so there will be a few posts from the past coming up.

One of the big winterizing tasks was to put more tree mulch over existing mulch in the orchard and medicinal herb garden. It took many trips with our little black cart.

I recently bought a babywearing jacket with a zipper up the back so you can wear baby on back. It's tricky to put the jacket on by yourself; it has to be centered just so or the baby gets stuck. But nice and cozy once it's on. 

Jaron likes changing it up, so he had a little time in the stroller too. 

While I worked, I heard a strange noise. I looked up and saw first one eagle, then a second, then a third, then a fourth! Four eagles circling in a gentle pattern above my head. 

I worried the eagles would go for our chickens and ducks, but thankfully they kept to the sky. 

Muffin Explosion

One zucchini left in the fridge! Time to make muffins. I heard zucchini can be substituted for apples in an apple pie recipe, so I was going to try that, but then I figured muffins were more bang for my buck. 

Jaron is still doing no added sugar, so I wanted to make sugar free muffins. Chat gpt gave me some suggestions on how to make my favorite zucchini muffin recipe sugar free. Use applesauce instead, skip sweeteners all together, use shredded apples and/or carrots. I decided to make all three plus another recipe for denser muffins to dip in soup. Not sure if I would like these iterations, I decided to make half recipes and made notes to keep them all straight...

Lots of shredding involved. 

On the left is applesauce instead of sugar. The right bowl has no sugar and no substitute. The dough was super crumbly. Maybe adding the zucchini would help. 

Same bowls with zucchini added. Didn't help the bowl on the right very much. 

The finished products. All in all, the applesauce ones were pretty good, not much sweetness at all; you couldn't taste the applesauce. The no additives batch was pretty bitter. You could really taste the baking soda/baking powder. I would probably add some sort of liquid to moisten them up if I made them again.

The next batch used carrot and apple shreds for moisture and sweetness.

They didn't add a lot of moisture, and turned out pretty much like the no additives batch - very crumbly with a bitter flavor. These tasted better just because of the carrot shreds.

The last batch I made required so many substitutions because I didn't have the ingredients handy that the recipe ended up nothing like the original. 😂 I'll have to make it again when I have everything. Here's a list of all my substitutions:

Still, I thought the muffins were decent. They cooked longer than they should have. The only reason I could tell that is because they ended up with a pretty thick crust. If I had taken them out a few minutes earlier, they would have been softer and no doubt more delicious.

The cheese definitely helped save them!.

Two New Breads- Mug Bread and Focaccia

I tried two new recipes from the Brilliant Bread cookbook. 

Mug Bread, which is very simple. All the measurements are done in a mug. 

I used a really big mug so we'd have a lot of bread. It made two loaves. I baked one in a pan and one on a tray. 

 

The loaf pan bread had a super thick crust. Delicious, but hard to cut. I didn't get enough salt in the dough, so I thought it was bland. G said I don't need to save the recipe. 

Focaccia on the other hand... 

So delicious. Easy to put together, easy to bake, tasted delicious. I sprinkled fresh rosemary on top before baking. 

Look at those bubbles! 

I will definitely make this focaccia recipe again!

 

Freeze Proof Chicken Waterer

I came across this video showing how to use geothermal energy to make a "heated" chicken waterer and now I really want to make one for our homestead. 

I don't think we'll get to that this year before the ground freezes. 

I was inspired to use an old tire as an insulated water holder for the ducks and chickens. The opening fits the water dish perfectly! 

I do need to go back and stuff straw inside the tire walls for even more insulation. 

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls- Maple Syrup Sweetened

It's Bekhor's birthday today (our firstborn who came at 16 weeks). To celebrate his heavenly birthday, I whipped together some sourdough discard cinnamon rolls sweetened with maple syrup instead of regular sugar. Chat gpt gave me the recipe. 

The recipe conveniently used up a cracked egg G brought in from the shed. 

I wasn't sure how the maple syrup would spread in the filling, but it handled quite nicely. 

The dough stuck to the counter making it hard to roll, hence the lopsidedness. 

This morning I took them out of the fridge while the oven heated. Then bam, twenty minutes later, sweet rolls! 

I had 1/3c of Greek yogurt to use up. Chat gpt to the rescue again...

I actually really liked the frosting- a little tangy, a little sweet, good consistency. 

Vanilla Extract

Back in college, a friend gave me a small bottle of homemade vanilla extract. I had other vanilla to use up first, and by the time I finished that, I had received a couple other small bottles as gifts. 

Eventually, I mixed them all together and that's what I've used since. When the vanilla got low, I added more vodka to the jar. I think over the years I did that twice.

Now my vanilla stores are low and topping up the bottle with vodka results in a weak vanilla. Time to make a new bottle. 

G sourced some Madagascar vanilla beans online along with some Minnesota-made vodka. 

It's a pretty easy recipe. Slice eight vanilla beans down the side to increase surface area. Put them in a jar. Pour 8oz of vodka over the top. Rest for six months. 

 That's the hardest part...waiting to use it!

Subbing in Fifth

Another subbing day today. This time in 5th grade, the classroom where I did my long-term subbing a couple years ago. It was nice to be in a familiar classroom with a familiar routine. The kids were pretty chatty no doubt because it's a two-day week and tomorrow is a field trip.

My mother-in-law is home from Arizona for Thanksgiving, so she was able to watch Jaron. She brought him to school over lunch, but he had had so much fun playing all morning, he fell asleep in the car right when they pulled up. I got him out of the car seat anyway, but he was so tired he stayed asleep! He ended up going home without any milk. 

I did some actual teaching today - religion, writing rough drafts for English, a social studies lesson on the fur trade. Best part of the day was starting the book Frindle as a class read aloud. I found out from the other 5th grade teacher that she had planned to use that book in a novel study after Christmas. Wonder if she still will. 🤔

I had another little snafu with the other 5th grade teacher... It was the end of the day and I had just finished teaching her class social studies. We finished a little early, and they asked if they could go out for recess. I knew my class had a PE, but I didn't know what their class was supposed to do. They said that they normally have recess while my class has PE and that Mrs. M would take them out to recess and the other fifth grade teacher would take the other class out. So, I let them go out a little early for recess. I went back to my classroom to get my outdoor gear and let my class know that we were going to have outside recess instead of PE. The other fifth grade teacher looked a little surprised when I said her class was already outside.

Turns out they weren't supposed to go outside. She had a different activity planned for them. They were going to watch a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and have Charlie Brown Thanksgiving snacks. But since they were all outside she abandoned that idea and just let them have recess. I felt bad about messing up her plans. She said they didn't know that they were missing out on something fun, but I'm sure she was bummed; she clearly loves all things Peanuts. Her classroom theme is Peanuts, and she even has Snoopy themed eyeglass frames.