Moving

I decided to move for different reasons, its kinda sad since this has been my home for 4 years and moving around to a different space I think is kinda weird. But change can be a good thing too. I have been pondering this for a few weeks and I think now that I've done it I'm excited.

I hope you follow me over to my new journal if not then I will miss you though most of you I have not "met". Things will be very different at All Good Things and things are very bare right now, like a nice clean slate ready to be written on.

I want to share the things I do and learn more than my personal life and feelings. Our little hobby farm and what I do with it as well as all the different things I do like cheesemaking, sewing, gardening,herbal healing of us and animals, etc. Kinda like I've done just a little less of my family and more of how to and why of something. I love to learn and this is me journaling about what I've gleaned.

So come and visit and see how you like the bare canvas I plan on filling with All Good Things

Recipes

A few years ago I was reading a blog that was doing a cooking challenge carnival that involved the food network chefs. It looked like fun but I never joined in. I thought of this again recently and wanted to try some new recipes so I went over to the food network and read thru there list of chefs. I am going to try once a week to pick one chef and try one of their recipes. There are over 60 chefs so I have plenty to choose from.

If anyone wants to join in it would be fun to see what recipe we each chose and how we liked it etc.

This week I chose Aaron McCargo Jr, I chose his grilled pizza. I have wanted to try this but have never gotten the nerve to do it. I like it but because of the way I changed things it burned next time we will follow the directions exactly like we're suppose to and use a gas grill.

Toppings we used homemade sauce, pepperoni, roasted peppers, fresh basil, and cheese of course. But we didn't use our homemade.

Wyatt had LOTS of fun getting the charcoal ready. And also oiling the pizza crust for grilling. Now I baked the crusts ahead of time since I was also baking bread and banana bread. Don't do this it burns...

See it burned. We made 2 pizzas and the 2nd one was much better and we ate that for dinner the first is for lunch today but we rescued it by making a dipping sauce from tomato paste.

Heres the 2nd looks much better. Wyatt had fun putting the toppings on and I decided next time we would not cook the dough ahead of time.  It does make a crisp crust that I like I don't like doughy thick crusts but this and crispy.

If anyone has tried this let me know how yours turned out and how you did it. I know I want to try it again.  This is where Wyatt found what we needed to do.

Next week I am going to try a recipe from Aarti Sequeira

Relish

Relishes are usually made with cucumber but I have found that a relish is a condiment, which is something we use to flavor or compliment and thru just looking through books they can be made with all kinds of veggies.

This year I have made a couple of relishes from veggies that I had extra but didn't want them to go bad.

I used cucumbers, zucchini, and peppers mostly for now, but you can make chutneys which from what I can tell is another name for a relish but with fruit added.

The two relishes I have made this year are from zukes that were bigger than you would want for a stir-fry but not to big that the seeds were developed to much. I suppose you could use ones like that as well just not the seedy part. The cucumbers I used were ones that I didn't have enough to justify making pickles but I didn't want to go bad.

It is hard sometimes to use every single thing that pops up in our garden and sadly some things can and do go bad before we have enough to make a batch of something or we go out of town etc. A relish is something that is quick I made my 2 kinds while I was also making dinner.

The first is zucchini relish it has a sweet aroma that we all loved.

2 cups chopped zucchini

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped sweet green pepper 

 1/2 cup red sweet pepper

2 T salt

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 tsp celery seed

1 tsp mustard seed

1 cup apple cider vinegar

Combine first 5 ingredients and cover with cold water. Let stand for 2 hours. This smells heavenly while it is soaking. Drain and rinse thoroughly. Combine remaining ingredients in a large stockpot. Bring to boil, add veggies; simmer for 10 minutes. Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4 headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust 2 piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water bath.

Dill Relish

8 lbs  pounds pickling cucumbers chopped

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp turmeric

1 qt water

Place this in a bowl and let stand for 2 hours then drain and rinse thoroughly

1 lb yellow onions peeled and chopped

 add cucumbers and onions together along with 1/3 cup sugar, 2 T dill seed and 1 qt white wine vinegar into a large pot; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Ladle hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4 in headspace. Remove air bubbles adjust caps and process 15 minutes in a boiling water-bath canner.

The dill relish some of the chopped cucumbers were chopped zucchini to round out the 8 lbs. It all turned out yummy smelling and now I am waiting a couple of weeks to let them pickle and then we will see how they taste.

Blessings,

Erika

A Furry Family Walk

The other day we took the furry children to a romp in the field. The dogs love running around in the woods and the field most of the time we have a cat or two with us running with them. Especially the two in these photos.

But on this day we also had the goats with us.

Ms Amelia has a shaved belly for awhile since she was fixed a week or so ago. Pippin really did not like her for awhile but now they are buddies they love playing with boxes and running with the dogs.

Amelia hasn't gotten into to much trouble lately she did get a cactus splinter in her nose while we were in Florida and was stung by something again and had her face swell up.

We love seeing all the babies running around and enjoying themselves in the sunshine and green grass.

What things do you enjoy to see while you walk?

Playing in the rain..

We need rain and boy have we been getting it. It has been so dry and dusty but for a little over a week now it has been raining daily.

The goats dislike being wet ALOT but the ducks think it is the best thing since sliced bread. They run around playing in all the puddles. This is the only picture I could get of them playing. They might waddle but they waddle fast.

I used to love playing in the rain when I was younger now it makes for a great time to curl up with a good book or a nice long nap while I listen to it on the metal roof on the front porch.

What kind of weather bring those deep instincts of napping, recouping, and reenergizing to you?

Growing Up...

Do you remember being an awkward teenager? I do, I remember never seeming to be able to be as good at dressing, fashion, hair,fads, etc as everyone else. I'm still like that but now I just don't care what other do or think of me I just enjoy being me, a beautiful creation.

 This little guy and another has found our birdfeeders on the back porch. While it was raining the day before I saw them I thought that they were two females that were just soaked and a little frazzled.

 Then I took a good look the next day and I saw that he is in that awkward stage all living creatures go through.

 He looked so cute though and just as curious about me behind the glass as I was of him. One day soon he will look like this handsome fellow below. I hope he keeps visiting so we can see him in all his phases of beauty.

I love birds and cardinals are one of my favorites which one is yours?

Meet Cricket

This is Cricket, he is 9 weeks old  and is now Wyatt's new roomie, well at least after hes housetrained.

Sun, Surf, Sand...

And lots of sunshine! Last week we went to the beach and spent the afternoon with my mom.

Even though Mississippi beaches are nothing like the beaches I grew up playing on in Florida there is nothing like a nice long soak in salty water, soaking up the sun, salty breezes while you walk in the wet sand.

Sandcastles, driftwood, shells, and seagulls.

A wonderful day with wonderful people.

What kind of day do you like to spend with the people you love?

What goes in must come out...

Don't they look yummy! I thought they were I made them for a funeral a few months back they were white flour, honey, and honey butter glazed...delish!

Food, its important its keeps us going, gives comfort (especially here in the south), brings people together....I am sure we could come up with more.

I have been thinking lately and I know, I know that ALWAYS gets me in trouble, food is important but the kinds of food is what is more important.

For two years now I have had anxiety I am really and I mean really tired of it. Sometimes I cry because I am so tired of it, feelings of being nothing but a problem and nothing but trouble plague me sometimes. Of course being told this by someone doesn't help at all. I have been told by 2 people that my family and church family are very unhappy because of me. This on top of other things has made me turn in on myself made me reevaluate what I do and who I do it with, who I talk to and now everytime I walk in the temple I cry since I feel I am not worthy to be there because someone else made me feel I was unworthy of every breath I take.

So this post isn't just what we put in our mouths but what we let go into our ears and how it comes out.  I love to cook I am not very good at it but I do love to cook with plain ingredients, real foods, not canned foods creating something out of something basic makes me feel good.

Almost three weeks ago I gave up colas I love them I mean really love them. Coke and Dr Pepper are my favorites unfortunately. I don't drink coffee or black tea, I don't even know how to make coffee but colas are my downfall. One Saturday hubby and I went grocery shopping and we grabbed a coke to share while we shopped about 10 minutes maybe less after I took my first sip the anxiety started and was really bad I just wanted out of the store leave the cart where it was and leave. I pushed on hubby was with me... he always helps and is patient with me.

As I went to take another sip of coke it hit me that I was fine until I drank that cola. So I haven't had one in 2 1/2 weeks and the anxiety hasn't been so bad. It's there but not heart racing can't catch my breath panic attack anxiety.

So I have been thinking alot and colas are the first my next favorite is brownies so they are next probably at least for now. I know to listen to my body and I can figure out what is wrong that way but the last two years I have only heard the anxiety and that has made me blow up what I think I am hearing.

I know that white flour, white sugars, lets just say breads in general bother me not in the way that my health isn't bad but sensitive too. I am actually a healthly person, overweight and feeling old somedays, but healthy. I have been rough on body so I have sore shoulders sometimes, I have heel spurs that make my feet hurt each are just normal wear as we get older.

Now what I let go in my mouth makes me feel weird sometimes, colas for one, breads all kinds, white sugar, fake sugars, desserts, pastas, anything processed to the point of not knowing it started as a food at some point. Weird things happen nerves on fire, feet and hands swelling, etc but this is my body telling me stop putting that in your mouth it doesn't like it. On top of this taking a man made medication for anxiety and wanting to get off it makes you hear all kinds of false things. I know my body doesn't like these things and have known this but with my anxiety has made it bigger than life its self sometimes.

I started on a journey years ago stopped and have recently started again things that are wholesome and God made have never affected me, those things that are man made have always made me feel yucky and out of sorts. Just like sitting inside all day in the AC with all my man made conviences make me feel out of sorts and being outside working to exhaustion and breathing in the hot humid air and soaking up Gods creation makes me feel good, satisfied.

What we let go into our bodies whether its by mouth, sight, ears, or through our biggest organ our skin affect us in more ways than we can ever imagine.  I let myself eat and hear what I shouldn't, I let it soak in so that my body feels it and is trying so hard to tell me to stop.

I had the kids make posters years ago on one side they put pictures man made things and on the other they put things only made by God that side was the prettiest.

Words can be man made or God made as well what we let come out of our mouths can affect people in so many ways. We should think and let the words come that we know our Father in Heaven would want us to say.

I hope that all have a very blessed day and I have been so busy building a goat stall, gates, gardening, canning, sewing, etc that I haven't even thought of blogging. But I will do a plain and simple post before the end of the week. The kiddos are going to youth conference this weekend so we have been sewing skirts for Ashley and 2 new ties for Wyatt.

Blessing,

Erika

The Tale of a Splinter....

My dad has a low tolerance to pain...thats where I get my tolerance to pain as well as many of my mannerisms apparently.  This was my dad and my step-sister while we were on vacation

There all done.

Erika