At Home My Way

Gardening season is fast approaching!  Hurray!  There was a terrible drought in Missouri last summer so my garden was... should we say "pitiful" to say the least.  Of course, I'm always overly eager so I have added a few ideas to help my garden along.  I'm going to try burying 5-gallon buckets or 2/3 liter soda bottles with  my veges for deep root watering.  I'm also going to try adding a few vegetables and fruits in with my landscaping.  I have a few natural weed and bug killers to try since pinning on Pinterest has been my favorite weeknight lounging activity. Along with making a garden plan this spring, I also like to make at least a mental list of the things I want to can from my garden.  I normally can pickles (like this delicious sweet pickle relish : a special salsa recipe (which I will post soon); a favorite raspberry-beet jelly that is completely delicious filled in homemade donuts or topping Homemade Biscuits ; green beans; ...

Yesterday (Sunday), it was such a beautiful spring day!  We put some burgers on the grill and spent lots of time outside. I knew one thing I wanted to make was my new favorite Ditch the Box Cheesecake !  That recipe is my new go-to favorite dessert for potlucks and just for weeknight snacking.  It's just so incredible that I could go on and on! While cleaning out my deep freezer recently, I discovered a treasured bag of frozen cherries that I had been given by a good friend.  My friend grew up on a farm in a small town closeby and she always brings home magnificent treasures when she visits her folks, like pitted cherries, apricots, and even stories like how her mom planted potatoes or onions.  She shares a wealth of information with me which I treasure since I grew up in the Sunshine State. Our childhood stories are very different to say the least! I was especially thrilled to find this bag of cherries so I could try making some homemade...

Yesterday morning I mixed up a batch of 5 Minute a Day dough for my fridge before I left for work - planning to make Homemade Pizza for supper.  When we got home we ran out to my husband's mom's house for a little visit so we got home a little later than we usually do.  We could have grabbed a bite to eat somewhere but just knowing that delicious dough was in the refrigerator spurred me on to stay with the plan and make homemade pizza.  Once you try this dough for crust and make a pizza with it, pizzaria restaurants just don't seem as wonderful as they once have... because this pizza is just THE PIZZA!  Sometimes I use store bought, jarred pizza sauce but unless I have several people to feed I tend to open the jar, make a pizza for me and Doug, and leave the rest languishing in the fridge to mold.  I hate being so wasteful!  I discovered not too long ago when I was making do instead of running to the store , that a cheapy little can of tomato sa...

I made some very special pillowcases a few weeks ago for a friend at work.  My friend's mom has been battling bone cancer.  She just found out that the battle will now include leukemia.  When I heard this diagnosis, I was so sad for my friend.  It was about that time that I saw some beautiful pillowcases on Pinterest.  I was in the midst of a crochet phase and decided to drag out the sewing machine and see if I could do it.  I decided that I would make them for my friend's mom because if you have to be sick, you should get to lay your head on something pretty and cheery.  I had a great time making these and my friend was so touched when I brought them in for her to give to her Mom.  It sure made my heart feel good to give them away and to know that they might bring my friend's mom just a little bit of comfort. I thought this green and pink flowered fabric was about the cheeriest fabric I could find.  I love it! This is th...

Happy Easter, everyone! This recipe for Strawberry Pie comes from my husband's family.  It's so refreshing and very, very berry tasting!  This week while I was shopping at Aldi I noticed they had Plant City strawberries!  I couldn't resist.  Plant City is in Florida and home to the Strawberry Festival.  I haven't experienced the Plant City Strawberry Festival in years but Plant City Strawberries are ready in early spring for the majority of the United States.  Perfect for Easter! When I was growing up in Florida, we often went to Plant City, .. but not just for the strawberries.  My granny had siblings who lived in Plant City.  It's in the Tampa vicinity and as a child I never thought a thing about the peanut fields, strawberry fields, and roads "graveled" with crushed shells.  That's just the way things were in Plant City.  Now, that I live in Missouri I realize what a unique and special place it was.  I realize that not e...

My daughter, Rebecca, and I spent the day before Winter Storm Virgil sewing.  It was so much fun!  I never expected this child to be interested in sewing.  She and I haven't always had so much in common (she tends to act, eat, and want to do everything just like her father-sigh!... but I guess I picked him out, right?  ). These days (and thankfully for the most part due to Pinterest), I still get to sew FOR her and even better, AFTER I sewed something FOR Rebecca's birthday, she wanted to learn how to make it herself!  We have made fairly simple baby quilts together and she took Home Economics in high school so she has some basic knowledge in using a sewing machine, but I was surprised at how eager she was to take on this project. Rebecca turned 25 this month and for her birthday I wanted to make something special.  She loves to cook (well... I guess we have that in common now don't we LOL?) and now that she works ...

This weekend I was home alone for a couple of mornings as my husband was out of town at a bowling tournament.  I took the opportunity to make one of my favorite breakfasts - French Toast. Who doesn't have a half loaf or few slices of stale bread in their freezer or pantry?  My husband loves really soft, commercially baked grocery-store bread (ugh... LOL) and so I bought him a fresh loaf at Aldi on Thursday.  Saturday it occurred to me that with that fresh, soft loaf sitting in the pantry, he was no longer going to eat any of the not-so-fresh bread that was left from the week previous. My sister-in-law and brother keep me in fresh eggs since they have their own chickens so I decided that french toast was what I was having. Here's a picture of their rooster, "Ringo."  I'm sure he likes eating beetles instead of being a beetle LOL!  My brother says he is a really good rooster and doesn't freak out the hens much. LOL.  However, he does freak me out since...