Some help along the journey...

Want to learn more about parenting and providing? We just learned about a sure-to-be-great new product being GIVEN AWAY (it's a contest, enter today!). It's a webinar (maybe someday I'll get used to that term) hosted by Doug and Beall Phillips of Vision Forum Ministries. Over the course of 20 weeks, they'll cover topics such as...

• Encouraging biblical manhood and feminine womanhood in your children


• How to give your children a love of poetry


• Raising children to be entrepreneurs


• Making mealtime meaningful


• Waging war on sibling rivalries


• How to select the best locations for family vacations

And more!! Lots more! So if you'd like a chance at winning this entire product, go to Kim's blog at Life in a Shoe and enter today!

Spring is on its way!

And one of our favorite resources to get ready for another season of frugal living is Vision Forum. And one of our favorites from there? The Homestead Blessings videos. From tutorials on many things from bread baking to candle making, and quilting to canning, it's a fantastic and entertaining way to learn and be inspired! Check it out here, and think about getting yourself some of these valuable videos...

A trip to the city to hear Joel Salatin!

Bethie and I received tickets to go to Seattle to hear Joel Salatin speak at the University of Washington. His topics included local foods, the downsides of mass-food production, and adopting a victim-free view of farming. This in particular spoke to me, and encouraged me to do what I can NOW, instead of waiting for the almighty local government to see things my way. I learned much about courageous, inventive farming and we came away very inspired to see how much we can do from the five acres that the Lord has blessed us with. (One of the points he made was that for the first time in history, our society has no clue where our food actually comes from...and we don't care! Very eye-opening!)

Bethie and I also were honored to meet Mr. Salatin before the lectures began, which gave us the opportunity to thank him for being a forerunner in the battle against the food police, chemical-laden foods, and over-regulation of farming.

My camera didn't get any good pictures of the inside of the auditorium, but I did take a few before-hand, as I showed Bethie around the UW campus. Generations of Engstroms have attended there, and it was one of the primary places Erik and I spent time before we were married. What a walk down memory lane!

At the fountain just off of Red Square

It was a chilly walk, but after the dinner we'd had (maybe a last-hurrah to fast food?), it felt good to walk briskly for an hour!

What was the last hurrah? The iconic Dick's Drive In, of course! Bethie had never been to the place that her daddy and I spent many dollar-bills when we were in the university district before we were married...A Dick's Deluxe, hand-cut fries, and a fresh milkshake. Funny...I don't think it was even because of the lectures we listened to a couple of hours later, but it just wasn't as good as I remembered it being.

All in all it was a fantastic evening out with my precious daughter. My favorite part of it all had to be the dreaming and scheming we did on the way home, reminding each other of different things that stood out to us as we listened to Mr. Salatin. Good times that I'm grateful for!

Frugal Fajitas

Fajitas are a frugal way to use up leftovers, but have a fresh, interesting, and satisfying meal all at the same time!

Last night I had some leftover pot roast. Now, in a family our size (which comprises six men or near-men), leftover meat of any kind is rare. But I found a great sale on pot roast, and slow-cooked two of them all afternoon for dinner. There was about half a roast left, and so I thought I would try it out in fajitas. It turned out to be a winner.

Fajitas are frugal because you literally can use up any meat you've got on hand - chicken, beef, pork, even fish. And when sweet peppers are on sale, or you grow your own, it makes for a super-cheap meal that most everyone loves!

Let's make up a batch of fajitas...pot roast-style!

First, thinly slice up several different sweet peppers - I used reds, yellows, and orange ones. Also slice up some onions. Toss these in a heavy-bottom fry pan (I always use cast iron for fajitas!) with some oil and toss some salt on them to help them get juicy.

Mix all of the pretty veggies together and saute about 5 minutes. I only cook my peppers and onions half-way. I find that they are sweeter, crisper, and more wonderful in a stir-fry or fajita this way. Sometimes we do what I call semi-raw fajitas, in which I cook the meat but not the veggies at all - it's super delicious! But this night I cooked the peppers/onions...in fact, I cooked them a bit too much for my liking. But that's all a matter of opinion, so you just do what your family will like!

Now we're going to toss in some seasonings. What? You don't have fajita seasoning on hand? No problem! You probably have all of the ingredients (and none of the bad ones they so like to include in the packages!) right in your cupboard. And the good thing is, it's not a mystery - you can add this and that and still come up with a great fajita mix. So let's see what we've got here:


Looking clockwise from the bottom center, we have minced onions, granulated garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, Italian seasoning, and chipotle seasoning. What I didn't picture was the tablespoon or so of cornstarch I usually add, because I also use this as my taco seasoning, and that helps it to all gel nicely together. I also, after it was mixed together, added more chili powder - fajitas are good if they're heavy on the chili! :-) Here you can see the proportions of the ingredients - you can make any size batch based on this! You can also remove things, add others. For instance, maybe you don't have chipotle seasoning. You could add some red pepper flakes or add a dash or two of Tabasco to the finished fajitas! Or maybe you have onion powder, and not dried minced onions. Or no dry onions at all. No problem. You won't miss it a bit. This recipe is flexible!

Stir all of the spices together in a bowl...

...and then add several heaping spoonfuls to the veggies. Toss them lightly, and then remove them from the pan.

Next I sliced the roast up thinly and added it to the pan. I didn't clean it out between the seasoned veggies, just added a bit more canola oil. I sprinkled some salt and a touch of the fajita mix on top of the pieces and tossed them until they were juicy and hot. If I was using raw meat, I would at this point cook the meat up, and add a bit of seasoning. But in this case, it just needed to be warmed through.

Add the veggies into the meat pan...

And give them a good toss...

We served our fajitas with sour cream, shredded cheese, tortillas, and sliced tomatoes (not pictured!).

Wrap 'em on up...and....

ENJOY!


Until we journey together again,

The ducklings have arrived!

The little guys (and gals) are here and cheerping loudly!

Windowsill Scallions

Here's a great frugal farming tip that absolutely ANYONE can do: You can grow perpetual green onions in your windowsill!

All of the onions you see here were store-bought green onions. We only ate the green parts, and left the white bulbs with the roots intact. Into some soil they went (thanks, Tammy, for the wonderful start!), and -voila!- new greens emerged!

Above you can see newly grown greens as well as some white bulbs just recently planted.

Now, I don't know how many times I can cut back on these and expect them to continue to reproduce, but it's certainly worth a try! We eat a lot of green onions in our family, so I predict a beautiful windowsill full of planters with these beauties growing up soon.

Try this soon, and you might find yourself knocking 'green onions' off of your grocery list forever!
(Big tips of the hat to Libby, who tried to get me to do this last year, and to Tammy who convinced me to this year...you both are wiser than I!)

Until we journey together again,

A hard-working little duckling

Once upon a time, there were some cozy little duck eggs. Warm and moist, they huddled together in the borrowed incubator, as faithful hands spritzed and turned them several times daily.
Then, one day, upon quiet investigation, there was a hard-working little duck, soundlessly, hopefully, in full silhouette, pecking away at the only home it had known...
We're rooting for you, little duck. You can do it!

Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

Few things say "Country Farm Fare" more than homemade buttermilk biscuits with sausage gravy! What was once a special treat has become a regular on our frugal menu...and there is such versatility to it, you can make it fit practically any budget!

To serve our family of 10, I made the biscuits large and plentiful. There were even a couple left over, so if you're a smaller clan, feel free to halve it! But these beauties are great toasted the next day, so don't feel like you have to!

SallyMolly Farms Buttermilk Biscuits

In a large bowl, mix the following:

6 cups flour

2 1/2 t. salt

2 T. baking powder

1 1/2 t. baking soda

Cut in 1 cup of butter until the flour mixture is coarse.

Add 1 stick melted butter

Gently mix in 2 cups buttermilk

On a floured counter or board, gently fold the dough into two balls, flatten (or roll) the dough into 3/4" circles. Cut out with a large (2-3") round cutter and place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 10-14 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and the biscuits are cooked fully through.

You're going to want to top these lovelies with delicious, caloric sausage gravy. We learned how to make this several years ago from dear friends, and it's been a family favorite ever since. The ingredients? Simple! Sausage, butter, flour, half and half, and salt/pepper!

Brown up 3 pounds of ground breakfast sausage, remove it with a slotted spoon to a bowl, and add about 5 tablespoons of butter to the remaining sausage...grease. There, I said it. Yes, you keep the grease, and you use it!

:-)

Melt the two together, and drop in 1/2 cup flour. Whisk until combined and then begin adding the half-and-half, one large splash after the other. Stir and stir, whisk and whisk, until you have added 3 quarts of half-and-half to the mixture. It should remain thick if you go slowly! Salt to taste, and add plenty of black pepper. Toss in the sausage, stir well, and taste. Is it good? Thick enough? If it's not looking thick, before I add the sausage in, I toss it with about 1/2 cup of flour...then add it in, and it does some thickening for you! If it's too thick (and this is a problem for you?) add more half-and-half!

Then split the biscuits in half, pour on the gravy, and have at it. You can always exercise in the morning!

Some variations:

• Buy the biscuits in a tube and just make the gravy.
• Use milk instead of half and half.
• Use less sausage and it will be a thinner, but still delicious gravy!
• We made this for dinner, but obviously it makes a perfect breakfast or brunch!

We had some fruit in our fruit cupboard, a pineapple that really needed to be eaten and some oranges, that we cut up into a sweet fruit platter. Trust me when I say that this meal cries out for something light to accompany it!

Until we journey together again...

A bit of life on the farm...

This week was a busy one, and we weren't home much. So sad - I like being home. But we had time for some photography lessons, baking together, and more.

Timmy wanted to learn more about photography, so I gave him free reign for a bit with my camera. Apparently he's decided that still-life photos are intriguing. I found his addition of eggs and teriyaki sauce to be equally intriguing.

But then he went on to find Gusper, who, in taking apart the fridge (faithful homeschooler that he is), proved to be good for a live shot.

Here's Gus playing at our toy shelf. With so many blessed children and critters around, we try to keep toys to a minimum...not only do we not need the extra clutter, but there are always things to be done, aren't there? So we have a small toy-box in our family room, the toy shelf in the hallway, and each child has their own treasure boxes. Gusper just celebrated his first birthday recently, at which he received some new toys. He's having a blast with them!



Getting dinner on: Timmy, EJ, and Abbie making mashed potatoes. A couple of scrubbers, a trimmer, and into the pot they go!

Meatloaf-in-the-making...seasonings and ground beef made for a delish dinner that night, along with the mashed potatoes, of course! Now, meatloaf in our neck of the woods is not a frugal dish, but it was a special occasion, and those deserve special meals!

Until we journey together again...

Welcome to Hobby Farm Tails

Here at SallyMolly Farms, we're just bustling about, getting ready for spring. Spring is the most exciting time on a hobby farm - dreams of gardens dancing in our heads, hopes for new babes to be born, and so much work to do that we wonder if we'll ever catch up!

This year is shaping up to be a productive one - we've increased our garden size (by experimenting with cold frames) and we're gearing up for our first kidding season (if you can call one doe pregnant 'kidding season'!).

Join us on our journey as we frolic with goats and kittens, garden our hearts out, and live frugally in a consumer culture.