December 29, 2023 by maggielane

The Lost Art of “Puttering”

Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄 I hope you all had a joy filled Christmas day! And even if you struggled through the day, which is sometimes our reality with unfulfilled hopes and broken families, I hope that you could focus on the joy of Jesus even if your Christmas was filled with sadness or did not meet your expectations in some way.

Grandma and Grandpa came to our house for Christmas this year and the tree looked like it was going to explode once they added all their presents. The kids had a good day and the day went fairly smoothly for me with meal prep and keeping everyone fed.

What were my best Christmas presents this year? Look in the tree branches and you’ll see one of them. It was such a treat to get Homesteading Family’s new gluten-free book in the mail on Christmas Eve. 📖 Many people put in so much work to bring it about. My contributions of developing the recipes was done over a year ago so seeing it finally come together in print was a such a nice Christmas present!

But as nice as it was to see this book in print, I told my husband that the thing I really wanted for Christmas this year is a week to just be a house wife and putter.

We moved in May and spent most of our summer getting the new house liveable inside. Once the new homeschool year and kids activities were in full swing, I’ve barely been able to keep up with the basics much less getting the house organized the way I want them, or having time just to stop and think for that matter. Most of the unpacking is finally done now but the organization and systems are not in place yet at our new house, particularly in the kitchen, apothecary, and garden areas.

So my husband and I are taking advantage of having grandma and grandpa around and plan to go out to lunch for a planning session between the two of us to set our goals and what we hope to accomplish at the new house for the upcoming year. Then we have planned to delay the start after the first of the year so that I can have a week with no school to just putter! Yay!

The kids will help with some of the meals and I’m on purpose not going to go anywhere so that I can just be at home. I even stocked up on groceries last week so I don’t have to go to the store either. I just want to stay home. I’ve been wanting this for so long and I’m so excited!

I hope some of you have found time to putter a bit over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday as well. I think puttering is becoming a lost art which is sad. Puttering is something that brings the heart of the housewife, her creativity, and beauty into the home.

Merry Christmas 🎄 and Happy New Year 🎉 everyone!

December 25, 2023 by maggielane

Three-in-one recipe: Gluten-Free Egg Nog Biscuits, Cinnamon Roll Biscuits, or Gluten-Free English Muffins

This recipe came about by accident. I was experimenting with recipe that I could use for Christmas morning as a gluten-free sweet roll option, and happily my mistake turned out delicious. The nice thing is that this recipe is really a three-in-one recipe. With the same base recipe you can make a delicious gluten-free sweet roll or biscuit either egg nog or cinnamon roll flavored, but one little tweak and it is an excellent whole grain gluten-free English Muffin.

So if you have any leftover egg-nog from Christmas Eve, pull it out of the fridge and give this recipe, or one of its variations a try.

Gluten-free Sweet Egg Nog Biscuit Recipe:

Combine the following into a bowl:

1 egg yolk

2/3 cups egg nog

3 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp lemon juice

Whisk to combine.

In a separate bowl add…

1/2 cup sweet rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca starch

1/3 cup teff

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp frozen or hard butter, grated into flour

After the butter has been stirred into the flour add your liquid ingredients and stir until all the flour is combined and the batter has a light and fluffy texture. It should be the texture of a thick cake batter. Add more flour or liquid as needed. Cover and let the batter rest for 30 minute. Don’t skip the rest period or the final texture will be sub-par.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Pour into greased crumpet rings laid out on a cookie sheet over parchment paper. (I like reusable parchment paper. Have you tried it?)

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Gently remove from rings and cool on a wire cooling rack.

These are delicious served warm with butter and a little sugar sprinkled on top.

Cinnamon Roll Biscuit Recipe:

For this version make the following changes to the above recipe.

Add 1 tsp cinnamon to the dry ingredients.

Use 2 egg yolks rather than one, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/4 cup of milk, and 4 tsp of sugar in place of the egg nog.

Gluten-Free English Muffin Recipe:

Follow the base recipe at the beginning of this post adding 2 egg yolks and subbing 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 1/4 cup of milk for the egg nog plus 1/2 tsp of sugar.

Whichever variety of these recipes that you choose, they will turn out dark in color due to the teff, so they will have the appearance of whole grain biscuits. If a lighter appearance or flavor is desired substitute millet for the teff flour.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄

If you missed the launch of The Art of Gluten-Free Homemade Bread, this is the gluten-free book that I wrote for Homesteading Family. It was so popular that it sold out in less than a week but you can get the digital copy or sign up for the wait list for a physical copy at the link above.

Other Gluten-Free Recipes You Might Like:

5 Minute Gluten-Free Crumpets

Gluten-Free Popovers or Dutch Baby Pancakes

Gluten-Free While Grain Seedy Bread

Gluten-Free Apple Cinnamon Sourdough Batter Bread

Make Your Own Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter from Scratch!

Note: This Post contains affiliate links.

November 1, 2021 by maggielane

Pumpkin Bread again…

Resurrecting this recipe from the Family Favorites page today. Two loaves are about to go in the oven. If you need an gluten-free version click on the Allergy Friendly page.

Happy Fall everyone! 🍂🍃🍁🍂🍃🍁

June 10, 2017 by maggielane

Easy Roasted Chicken and Veggies

I made this colorful concoction for our Easter dinner this year. It was delicious and so easy to prep ahead when you have guests.

I started the night before by washing and chopping all my veggies, and setting some minced garlic to marinate overnight in olive oil.

In the morning I tossed about 8-10 red potatoes and a handful of carrots in a big bowl with my garlic and olive oil mixture from the night before. Then I sprinkled them with salt and pepper and put them on my baking stone. I coated the chicken thighs (boneless, skinless, about 2.5 pounds) in the same oil and garlic mixture and placed them around and on top of the potatoes and carrots. Then I threw in some chopped onion pieces and celery stalks for flavor and good measure.

Next, I coated all my veggies. I had pre-chopped red onions, yellow squash, red peppers, broccoli and asaparagus. For this tray I chose veggies that were colorful for spring and ones that would roast quickly. (The potatoes and carrots went on the tray with the chicken because they would need a longer cooking time.) I coated them in an olive oil, garlic mix with rosemary and oregano added, and sprinkles of salt and pepper. These all got spread on a second tray.

Before roasting

I baked the chicken first. 45 minutes at 400 degrees. When it was done, I took it out to sit and put the second tray with the veggies in the hot oven (still at 400 degrees) for 20 minutes. Everything was perfectly roasted. It was an easy, delicious and flavorful meal.

Roasted to perfection. 400 for 20 minutes.

We had carrot cake for dessert, but that will have to be another recipe. 🙂

April 29, 2017 by maggielane

Make Ahead Chicken Pot Pie

We had dinner guests planned for a Sunday afternoon a couple of months ago and I needed a make ahead meal. Chicken pot pie wouldn’t normally fall into that category but I’m pleased that I came up with a version that my whole family loved! I even liked it and I’ve never been a huge chicken pot pie fan.

This would be a great meal for holiday gatherings or when you are planning to have house guests as you can do all the prep in advance.

Here’s how I implemented my make ahead plan:

(Note: This made three 9-inch pies. So these proportions will feed a crowd. I even had some filling leftover that served as leftovers on top of egg noodles.)

Two Days Ahead: I cooked up a bunch of chicken leg quarters in my crockpot overnight so that I would have plenty of good meat and broth.

The Day before: I deboned my chicken and strained my broth. Then I assembled my veggies – garlic, onions, celery, carrots, potatoes, corn and peas. I prepared the filling by sautéing the onions and celery in olive oil with salt and pepper. Then I added 4-5 minced cloves of garlic along with the carrots and potatoes. After those had sautéed for a few minutes I sprinkled on about 2-3 tbls of flour and stirred until the vegetable mix was coated and all the flour was absorbed. Then I poured my chicken broth over the mix and added 3 cups of heavy cream. I let it simmer for a few minutes until the sauce began to thicken. Then I turned off the heat and let it cool. The veggies don’t need to be cooked all the way through at this point as it will finish cooking the day of. Once cooled I poured it all in my big crockpot and stirred in my shredded chicken meat. Then it went in the fridge overnight.

Next I prepared the crust. I used a recipe for freezer biscuits that I modified to use as a pie crust topping instead. Mix 6 cups of flour, 2 tbls baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbls sugar and stir in 4 cups of heavy cream. Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes after you’ve mixed it together. Then divide it in thirds and pat it out into three rough 10-inch circles about 1/2 inch thick. Be sure that the circles are big enough to go over the edges of your pie plate. Lay the dough out on cookie sheets and cover with wax paper or greased plastic wrap and freeze overnight.

The Day of: Pull the crock pot out of the fridge and set it to cook on high for about four hours. The veggies will finish cooking and then you’ll only need about 20 more minutes in the oven to cook the dough.

About a half our before you want to eat, fill your pie pans about 2/3 full with your hot, steamy filling from your crockpot. Add your frozen dough topper and cook each pie separately on 400 for 20 minutes. It’s not a bad idea to put a jelly roll pan under your pie plate just in case you accidentally overfill the pie plate and the sauce spills over like mine did. Your chicken out pie should cook up beautiful and tasty.

Now eat up and enjoy your guests! Your work is done.

April 16, 2017 by maggielane

Happy Easter – Handmade Easter Baskets for Everyone!

I made my oldest two crocheted Easter baskets six years ago when they were ages two and three. I finally got around to catching up to the other two. The little girls got some crocheted Easter baskets this year. We had lots of fun hunting eggs, spending the day with family and celebrating the joy of Easter.

I didn’t use a pattern. Just grabbed some scraps of yarn and started crocheting in a round adding stitches every other round. Once the base is as big as you want, just keep going without adding any more stitches and the sides will start to form. Crochet the handle with some rows of single crochets or a chain.

HAPPY EASTER!

The big kids’ Easter baskets

The little girls’ baskets

January 6, 2017 by maggielane

2016 Christmas in Review

I love decorating for the holidays. Fall and Christmas are probably my two favorite. I like to post pictures of what we do each year as it varies from year to year. We like to do themes. This year the theme was an “Old Fashioned Christmas.” We based the idea on a literature book we had just finished in school about a family in the 1800’s. They decorated their tree with cranberries and popcorn. So did we. Here’s a gallery of our Christmas decorations.

January 4, 2017 by maggielane

Our Little Pumpkin Snowman

I found a new use for our tiny pumpkins after Thanksgiving was over this year. A couple of weeks into December I realized I should do something with them. I had seen a post where someone had taken some large pumpkins, power drills and white paint and created a snowman for the front porch. I figured I try it on a smaller scale.

First the five year old painted the pumpkins white with craft paint. Then I glued them together (hot glue or super glue is best, craft glue is gummy), three stacked high. Next we painted a little face and buttons down his front. Then the eight year old crocheted a little red scarf and I whipped stitched him up a cute top hat from some felt scraps (trace and cut a big circle, cut a small circle out of the center and then cut a rectangle to size and stitch the three together).

Isn’t he cute? We’ll have to do this next year too.

November 24, 2016 by maggielane

You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown

Actually, I suppose most of the honor of this title should go to Charles Schultz rather than to Charlie Brown. We watched the Charlie Brown version of the Pilgrim story this evening. Somehow, I had never seen it before. It was a good reminder of the story of the first Thanksgiving.

This little cartoon reminded me that the Pilgrims did not undertake the consideration of uprooting their families lightly. After all they had just done that very thing some 10 years before when they left England for Holland. And now they were considering doing it again. And what was it they looked forward to when they considered moving across the Atlantic Ocean? They faced “…invoncevable perils and dangers.” (Of Plymouth Plantation, Book I, IV).

There was the expense and the danger of crossing the seas, the length of the voyage, exposure to the elements upon arriving in America, famine, nakedness, want, sickness, disease, danger from unknown peoples, and “other cruelties too horrible to be related.” (Book I, IV).

Yet, they made the decision to come anyway.

“It was replied that all great and honourable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both met and overcome with answerable courage. It was granted the dangers were great, but not desperate; the difficulties were many, but not invincible. For, many of the things feared might never befall; others by provident care and the use of good means might in a great measure be prevented; and all of them, through the help of God, by fortitude and patience, might either be borne or overcome. True it was that such attempts were not to be undertaken without good ground and reason, rashly or lightly; or, as many had done, for curiosity or hope of gain. But their condition was not ordinary; their ends were good and honourable; their calling, lawful and urgent; therefore they might expect the blessing of God on their proceedings. Yea, though they should lose their lives in this action, yet might they have the comfort of knowing that their endeavour was worthy.” (Book I, IV

So tonight I would like to thank Charles Schultz and William Bradford for reminding me to persevere and to look ahead to future generations when life feels uncertain. Thanks Charlie Brown for helping me to remember the lessons of my forefathers and not to forget the first Thanksgiving.

October 29, 2016 by maggielane

Fall Baking – Pumpkins + Apples = Pumplekin

So we decided to celebrate one of my favorite holidays today. Pumplekin! What? Never heard of it?

Well, let me tell you about this wonderful New England holiday. Actually, we made it up. Pumplekin was born with lots of laughter around a table full of friends. We took two of our favorite parts of fall – pumpkins and apples and we came up with Pumplekin. We pick a day in the fall, usually in November, to gather together play games and of course, eat wonderful food made of pumpkins and apples. There are even culinary contests and the competition is fierce sometimes. Well, we decided to do our Pumplekin baking today. Here’s what we made. Some recipes are old and some are new. Try some of them to spice up your fall. You could even make your own Pumplekin holiday.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

An old standard at our house: Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread! This has been one of my favorites for years. I can’t get through the fall without making this. Click on Family Favorites for the regular recipe and on Allergy-Friendly Recipes for the modified versions for those with food sensitivities (gluten, dairy, soy, nut and egg-white free).

Homemade Toffee Pieces

Next on the list is a Pumplekin award winner! Apple Pie Cheesecake! This is an allergy-friendly version of a Kraft recipe.

The first thing we did is make our own toffee since the store bought toffee has ingredients that don’t work for us. We used this simple recipe from the Pioneer Woman which had only four ingredients. This was our first successful attempt at candy making. It worked great and is delicious. I made a half recipe and it made a lot. I think we’ll have enough crumbled toffee chips with just this half batch for the rest of our lives. Lol. Also, I didn’t do the chocolate part that they did. I just used the toffee recipe.

Then, once we had that ready the girls and I went to work on the cheesecake.

Apple Pie Cheesecake

Next, we peeled, cut and cubed three small apples (you need about 2 cups). Sautee them in 3 tbs.of butter, 1 tbl. sugar, 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. of salt until the butter and sugar are syrupy. Set these aside to cool while you assemble the crust. Drizzle 2 cups of crushed gingersnap cookies with 4 tbls. of melted butter and press into the bottom of a pie pan.
Now for the cheesecake. Yay!

Pumpkin Butter

Mix 2 – 8 oz. packages of cream cheese with 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 tsp. of vanilla. Then add 1/2 cup of sour cream and 6 egg yolks. Mix until all the eggs are combined with the cream cheese mixture. Then stir in 1/4 cup of toffee bits, 1/4 up of chopped pecans and half of your apple mixture. Pour into the pie pan with your prepared crust and bake on 325 for about 35-40 minutes or until the center is set. Once cooled chill for 4 hours and then top the cheesecake with the remaining apples, some of the chopped nuts and toffee. Yum!

Pumpkin Butter was next on the list. This is an old favorite for us too. You can find the recipe on the Allergy-Friendly Recipes page. It’s great on biscuits or toast. And it lasts a really long time in the fridge so don’t worry if you don’t eat it up right away.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese

And last but not least – Pumpkin Cream Cheese! I saw a tub of pumpkin cream cheese at Trader Joe’s a few weeks ago and had to try it. As soon as I tasted it I knew I would have to make my own. It’s delish. My girl’s want to eat it by the spoonful. I looked at a few recipes online and ended up mixing 1-8 oz package of cream cheese, 1/2 can pumpkin, 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice. Mix and store in the refrigerator.

Other great fall recipes you might enjoy:

Spiced Chai Tea (I call it Christmas Chai, but it’s great for fall too.)

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
And if you know me. fall is my favorite time of year to cook and decorate for. Here are some of our fall decorations from years past complete with leafy twinkle lights.

This is how we get baking done these days. We got lots done while she napped don’t you think? 🙂

Pumpkin bread – make extra and freeze it.

Toffee poured out to cool.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread

Apple Pie Cheesecake

Pumpkin Butter

May 4, 2016 by maggielane

Christmas Chai

Christmas Chai Tea

Drinking my Christmas Chai this week to help me get fight a cold. Cinnamon, ginger and cardamon in this recipe are all helpful. You can Mix some up for yourself. Click the link above for the recipe and brew up your own delicious cup of tea. Mmmmm.

September 23, 2014 by maggielane

Seasonal Decorating: Fall – pumpkins, leaves and scarecrows…

Pretty fall leaves in a basket.

Fall is probably my favorite time to decorate for. I’m not sure why. I just love all the orange, red, and yellow. The pumpkins, leaves and scarecrows are quaint and I get excited as summer winds down and I can anticipate the crispness in the air that brings on fall. Here’s how we decorated for fall this year. It changes every year. I put some decorations in one place one year and in new place another year. I try to buy one new item on clearance at the end of every season so that we add to or decoration stash little by little.