My first cheese!

Doesn't that sounds fancy! I have been playing around with the idea of cheese making a long time, acid cheeses are really yummy but I longed to be pressing mysterious rounds into yummy things to slice and serve my family and friends. Jim and the kids got me a bunch of supplies about a year ago, somehow, it was too precious to touch. Well, a few weeks ago I gathered up the courage and jumped into making my first cheese!

 I was trying to make a cows milk feta, and I am only slightly successful. I made cheese, it is tasty and most of my family ate it. It is not really Feta, stuck somewhere between a dry ricotta and a feta, it is not what i was aiming to make, and yet, it is yummy and unquestionably cheese

.

More cheese making adventures are in my future. Lots more.

Hope your projects are going well and the your failures are still usable! ~ Julia

Yummy Things

 Getting back into the swing of life here at the MoonBound Home and that means making tasty things. I would show you the finished bread but it was gone before I could take a picture!

 I am trying my hand at fermentation with cool lids my parents got me for Christmas. This will/should be apple cider vinegar when it is done. I have made pineapple vinegar before but not apple so we shall see.

This is something I eat a lot. Basically it is potage. Sort of based on a soup a friend made, hers was very Japanese in style, mine - well sort of. I boil the dickens out of leftover rice, in chicken or beef stock. After the rice has broken down I beat an egg and toss it in then top with green onion and peanuts. The egg thickens the broth. I have been adding other things but always add those things. Lately, I have been cooking onions, mushrooms, and cabbage in with the rice and garlic is especially nice in the beef broth.

Hope you are cooking tasty things!
~ Julia

Mondday Musings

New for this segment next week I will cover how well I met my expectations.

This weekend... Friday night was school movie night, Jim took the girls to watch. Mouse stayed home with me and did homework. He is a brilliant boy but has poor time management skills and is often in some imaginary realm when he should be buckling down and getting the work done. That in combination with advanced topics and the expectations of a self-directed school program lead to many nights of me asking if his homework is done. If one of us sits next to him and re-collects his attention when he drifts off he can get the work done quite quickly, and sometimes we do that, but we want him to learn himself too and notice when he needs to refocus. This makes the lesson less of Geometry and more about self regulation and knowledge.
Saturday was kind of a Jonas day for me, I was woken suddenly and believed it to be in anger. I couldn't shake the idea that those around me were upset with me and mostly for for things I couldn't reasonably be expected to have done. This is on me. I am frustrated with my body and healing - yes it is coming along but it has been so long and so much has been left undone because of it. I ended the day having made everyone around me upset.
Sunday we were all easy with each other, I have a cold and dosed off and on throughout the day, Jim and the kids played many board games and it was nice hearing them play.

Right Now... The bread is cooling. The sauerkraut or rather what hopefully will be sauerkraut is macerating on the counter. My parents bought me some fermentation lids for Christmas. The kids are doing homework, Bunny while signing. I have a cup of honey lemon tea for my cold and I don't intend to leave the house again. Jim is taking the girls to violin. Soon, I will be re-taking all of these duties but not just yet.

Plans... I want to work on my socks and my spilt back tank top. I would like to cut out fabric for a new skirt. I need to darn a pair of Bunny's socks. I want to encourage more music practicing. I need to read another book for my COE - This week Handspinning Art & Techniques by Allen Fannin. I have been refreshing my German on Duolingo and want to continue on with that. I need to get some organization brough back into my business which I mostly have not done much with, in specific to take inventory and make new listings to launch a shop update.I also want to have Nate help with filming a tutorial while he is home. There is also some clean up work I need to do for our 4h club. I am slowly cleaning the house and plan to also slowly de-clutter everything. I want to set a small amount of time aside every week to write a novel that is rolling around in my head. I don't know if it will go beyond getting it out of my head but I want that.

Prayerful Intentions... I pray for understanding and healing. I pray for friends who are struggling with family members terrible health.

Camping with Mom

 Every year Mom and I camp out at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool. Sometimes we have classes to attend, sometimes others join us. We camp in the same spot each year for a few years now and have friends we have met there as neighbors each year. There is a pavilion right where we camp and the bathrooms - with hot showers - are just across the way. We are far from the action at this spot but that has its charm too. After we got out site set up out came the spinning for me and knitting for Mom.

Mom took these pictures to show the family how we were doing. The van was parked there to try to block the wind, it was fairly cold for September.

This is my Mom, Robin.

I got a few shots in myself. We bring a hot plate, a toaster oven and this year a electric kettle and make our meals. We both love cooking and tend to fix ridiculously complicated things for camping. This year's highlights are Mussel stew, crepes, Yorkshire pudding with three mushroom hash, and a steamed lemon pudding, and scones for tea time. The kettle was a great addition helping not just in tea and coffee making but also in clean up time. 

This little guy was also camping out at the festival. These are Shetland sheep. The darker sheep is full grown, the brown and white spotted sheep is a Jacobs and that breed in average sized for sheep. Shetland are tiny.

Food Glorious Food

 Above is a beef and mushroom soup with Parmesan cheese grated on top. It was amazingly yummy, I made enough to save for two more days lunch but over the course of the day ate all of it. I have no clue why it was so good as I didn't do anything strange, brown the meat and onions, add broth and water, bay, carrots, mushrooms, and potatoes. Cook for awhile. It was tasty.

To the right is what my husband calls 'your rice weirdness' it is based on a Japanese dish a friend made for me. Hers had dashi and a bunch of Japanese specific ingredients. I  make this a bit differently. I prefer to use leftover rice, but you can start with uncooked it just takes longer. I cook the rice in chicken stock and water. I cook it in a lot of liquid and cook it to death. I mean the liquid is mostly gone and the rice has broken down and thickened the soup, think porridge. Then I beat an egg and dumb it in, not stirring the soup while you do it. That seems strange but it works, it further thickens the soup and adds protein, but you don't necessarily end up with bits of cooked egg. Just dump it in and wait a moment then stir. Take it off the heat and add sliced green onion and cilantro, stir them in and serve, top each bowl with peanuts. The first time I made this for my dad -he is a bit picky- he saw what I was doing and said "I thought you said you were making soup not gruel." I laughed and handed him a small bowlful, and said in the tone he used on me as a kid "just try it, if you don't like it you can have something else to eat." That got him. Before I had finished serving Mom and me, he was asking for a full bowl.

I have been making lots of bread lately. Banana bread, which I make in huge batches from the last forgotten bananas that I tuck into the freezer until I have a stupid amount of, then thaw and make loaf after loaf thinking we can't possible eat this much, I better freeze some, only to have it gone before I can. My kids have no interest in either soup above but can inhale a loaf of banana bread in an eye blink. Ordinary homemade bread, pita bread, Homemade hard rolls to go with the bbq pork Jim made this week.

What are you cooking?

How does your garden grow... Yes I Know it is January

With mung beans and radish seeds... and seed catalogs all in row...

Okay, the meter is terrible, but the seeds are sprouting and the catalogs are mounting up. It is cold and rainy out but my mind is on garden plans and greening things.

I want to simplify the plan in the garden so I am still thinking about my direction there, but to bring a bit of fresh in the house, I am doing up some sprouts in the kitchen. We use opaque recycled plastic containers one inside another with a bunch of holes punched into the inner one for drainage. I am rinsing them about every three hours or so. Yes, even when I get up in the middle of the night.

The green is the mung beans and tiny reddish ones are the radish. The holes are a bit too big on the radish contain so I have a circle of paper toweling down in there.

New year - old thoughts

A few years ago I decided that instead of making a resolutions list, I would come up with a thematic word for my intentions for the new year. I rededicate myself to that idea.

I would like to work on being a HAVEN for my life.

My mind and body a haven for me. I have set a goal of reading 200 books - and I would like few of them to be pulp fiction. I would like to put into practice more of my ideals of how we should live our lives and less living practically. By which I mean faster and easier not actual practicality. I would like to make my body healthier and stronger. To camp and hike more.

I would like for my company to be a haven for my family and my friends, that they can take comfort and rest in my love. For them to know that I am always there for them, but I also mean that I want to make my life such that dropping everything for a friend in need does not put my family into a tailspin that I must scramble to keep ahead of. I want to focus on showing love to my family and my friends.

I want my house to keep my home a Haven for all who enter, but especially for my family. I want them to feel special and comfortable in a house that is ready for use not one that needs frantic tending before we can let anyone in.

I want to use my resources more responsibly, to focus on our family's goal and dreams rather than on ease for the moment. I don't want this to be a strict diet destined for failure, but rather a change in outlook.

I want to grow as a business owner and writer and to make certain that the choices I make in those spheres of my life enhance the rest of my life.

I would like to do all the things. Make to family cookbook, finish the projects, use what I have, write more, cook more, be more present. Fingers crossed.

Thanksgiving Desert Table - Butter Mints

We haven't made these in years - I think I was in High School the last time - but I decided to do it.

1/4 cup of Butter, softened
8 oz of powdered sugar
1 T heavy cream
1/2 t of mint extract
food coloring

you just work all the ingredients, except the food dye,  together into a ball, work with your hands this goes fast. Split the dough into two batches mix in green and red food coloring one in each. Roll into balls and lay out on a tray to dry over night. Ideally two. We are putting a fan on them over night to help this along as we should have started it last night.

Thanksgiving Desert Table - Mom's birthday

It is always my mom's birthday at Thanksgiving time, so a birthday cake always happens. The girls are using a present Badger - who hopes to be a candy maker and baker when she grows up - got for her birthday. A five part cake pan.


The girls made the cake mix with no help from me, divided the batter into five equal parts, with some help from me. Then they each added food coloring to two bowls and Badger got the fifth bowl. In to bake out to cool. Then I will trim them, layer them with jam and frost them.

Thanksgiving Desert Table - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

This one is my sister-in-laws recipe - modified of course!

Here is her recipe:
 Pumpkin Bread
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Clove
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/2 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Pumpkin
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
2 Eggs
1 Cup Chocolate Chips
Sift together dry ingredients (less sugar)
Cream together wet ingredients and sugar
Add dry ingredients to wet.
Add 1 cup chocolate chips.
Bake in loaf pan at 350°F for 1 hour.
Bake muffins at 400°F for 20 minutes.

I double all the spices and add a teaspoon of cardamon. I also never make less than 3 batches at once. I also add a cup of apple butter or apple sauce to each batch.

This year in honor of Seal (my beautiful, clever nephew) we are doing one small loaf without chocolate. My Bunny helped with the start of this but the girls are running out of steam with the baking day. 

Thanksgiving Desert Table - Chocolate Moose.

I must apologize! I have now pictures for this one. This is a bit more complicated and more so with the girls helping.

This is also from the Doubleday cookbook.

6 oz semi sweet chocolate
2 T hot water or coffee
5 eggs separated
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Melt chocolate and water in double boiler. Beat egg yolks lightly, temper them with some of the melted chocolate, add all the eggs into chocolate mix well return to heat, and cook for two minutes. Beat heavy cream until soft peak stage, add vanilla to chocolate mixture, fold mixture into heavy cream. Beat egg white until soft peaks form. Fold mixture into eggs until no white shows, place into serving containers and refrigerate until service. A dollop of whipped cream goes well on top. Because we are eating at my sister's house almost three hours away I put it into plastic cups, and will top when we get there. I hope to snap a few pictures then!

Also, the kids demanded lunch. In my family we work straight through on special prep days, my Grandma was shocked the first time after marrying into the family that my dad asked what was for lunch went they were prepping for a party. It is sort of a family joke now, but I still do it the old way and am always a bit surprised when anyone wants lunch. My dad, btw, learned to rummage about in the fridge when hungry and grab something to eat, rather than expect a meal in the middle of prepping. My husband faces the same problem, though his solution is just to start taking up space and cooking a meal over the top of my work, though he usually makes enough of whatever to feed everyone. I can however still hear my Nonnie saying "You want lunch? But we just ate breakfast six hours ago!"

Thanksgiving Desert Table - Apple Pie

Moving right along to an Americana classic! Apple Pie!

We are using a variety of apples but heavily leaning to granny smith. We have apple trees so we have this cool gizmo to help us process apples!

You will need two pie crust sheets. (secret I am not much impressed with crust so I use store bought or make my own interchangeably and I never notice the difference, it is to me simply a baking vehicle, but as I cringe when my husband says the same of bread, please I understand it you love it, use your favorite and ignore me!)

Apples and lots of them, we used 10.

1t cinnamon
1t ginger
1/2 t cloves
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
lemon juice - you can use vinegar you just need a bit of acid to keep the apples from browning while you work.
1/4 cup flour
3 T butter, melted
egg wash for brushing the top
sugar for dusting the top - ideally it should be a large grained sugar but regular will work
apple or apricot jelly warmed up.

A peak into the oven shows the Pumpkin too!

Peel, core and slice apples, as you work drop them into a bowl of cold water with a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar. When all the apples are done, drain them, add spices, sugar and flour to bowl with the apples, toss to coat well. Place one pie crust into pan, carefully layer apples into pie, top with second crust. Crimp edges, cut vent holes, brush with egg wash and dust with sugar, carefully pour melted butter into cut holes, bake at 325 until crust is completely done. brush with warmed jelly and sprinkle with sugar.

Thanksgiving Desert Table - Pumpkin pie

I decided to make a series of posts on the recipes we use for our Thanksgiving feast! We are in charge of deserts this year, while my sister is handling the rest of the meal. The girls helped me with all of this.









Pumpkin Pie
Before you start you need to bake the pumpkins. Cut them in half, scoop out the seeds (bake these later to munch on) and place the pumpkins cut side down on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 until they are nice and soft - about an hour. Let them cool, scoop out the flesh, and run through a food processor or squish up with a potato masher.




This recipe is from the Doubleday Cookbook Volume two. This is a go to book for me. I don't know if you can get it still, but whenever I see a copy of either volume, I grab them and give them away. So if you see one at a rummage sale grab it.




I modify nearly everything that comes across my hands.

One pie crust, unbaked
3 eggs lightly beaten
1.5 cups pumpkin
1 can evaporated milk
1 T Whiskey (recipe calls for brandy)
1 T molasses (we used extra as I am using white sugar - this is because I am out of brown)
2/3 cup packed brown sugar




1 teaspoon cinnamon (this is double the original recipe)
1/2 teaspoon ginger (this is double the original recipe)
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves










mix all ingredients together pour into pie crust bake at 450 for ten minutes, reduce temp to 325 and bake 45-50 minutes until filling is set (knife into center should come out clean)






Also I make my pumpkin seeds by cleaning all the pumpkin off, soaking them in salt water for a few hours, then marinating them in Worcester sauce, soy sauce, and a bit of hot sauce for a few hours. Bake them at 300 stirring frequently, watch this as burnt seeds smell bad and taste worse!

Some highlights

 Many - though not enough - days at the beach with friends. Including seeing Giraffe (dear friend's daughter, here nicknamed as they are her favorite toys) experience the surf - dislike - and the sand  - loved it. Mouse built her a little pool to splash in and then we spent a long time building retaining walls and moving water. Even though this is Lake Michigan, the waves where very strong that day.

 Lots of fiber-y fun, this is a camel and sheep's wool blend.

 Homemade tasty treats, my granola shown here.

 Dehydrating food for our backpacking trip. I loved the trip and am attempting to lose some weight and get in better shape to hike more.

 Hiking trip breakfasts, my granola plus dehydrated banana chips, pineapple, blueberries, and cranberries. mostly it took me hours to finish eating a bag. Very tasty but a bit crumbly/messy.

 Gear and packing required a lot of thought I used everything I brought at least once, but in a fit of trying to lighten the pack the night before I left some things behind - long sleeve shirt, pj pants, drawing pad and pencil, flashlight (this was accidental,) hand sanitizer, and honey sticks - that I really could have used. A learning experience and due to friends not a horrific to endure one.

 Tiny little dishcloth I made to bring on the trip the day before!

First day back to school. A new schedule since Mouse is in middle school and has to be there by 7:12, the girls and I get to their school now well before supervision begins, so we play on the playground or in the van depending on the weather. Beaver has a new schedule for his last year in high school and doesn't have to be in until 9. Which makes morning bathroom fights all but disappear. I really think this new schedule is a boon to our family.

~ Julia

Trust mommie

When my great big son Beaver was still my tiny baby boy, I used to say that as I washed his hair. He was afraid to get water in his eyes. So as I tipped him backwards to rinse his hair I repeated "trust mommie." over and over. It actually is older than that, I used to help wash my sister's hair and tried to teach her to float. She is 5 years younger than me and Julia was hard. So she called me "E." Back then it was "trust E."

At bedtime we always read a chapter of some book. Lately, Jim has been getting the girls, each one reading a chapter of her own book to him. Well Badger forgot her book at school, we were eating very late, it was already after bedtime and Mouse was refusing his salad. The rest of us were done. Mouse has been getting harder and harder to convince to eat veggies at all, green ones especially. Jim had had enough and decided to sit with him and encourage the eating of the rest of the dreaded green stuff. I offered to read Badger a story of my choosing. Doubt. Trust Mommie. I got Little House on the Prairie out. "I don't want to read that." Ok you can just cuddle and not listen while I read you the chapter. So down we snuggled on the couch, with the dresses quilt I made her and Goldie the tiger cat stuffie on her lap. I read the first chapter, she did not wiggle the whole time. We were done, but Mouse wasn't. Butterfly had curled up reading her own book waiting for Daddy. And a little voice from my lap said "Mommie, would you read another chapter." Trust Mommie, she knew you would like it.

When Mouse finally gave in and ate the lettuce - he caved on the broccoli much earlier as he actually likes it just not green - it was his turn for a story. We had just finished Magnus Chase and Gods of Asgard  The Sword of Summer so he was lobbing to re-read Biggles Learns to Fly. Nope. Trust Mommie. (Biggles btw is a great read set in WWI England and France.)

I got out Interesting Times. He grumbled. Plain red cover, boring title, what is Mommie thinking?! Well after he got over the sudden location shifts in the story, he was smiles and chuckles. Then I noticed it did not actually have chapters per se. He said "I guess we have to read the whole thing tonight." Trust Mommie, she knew you would like it. We settled on twenty pages each night - unless we are in an exciting part.

Hoping you get to enjoy and maybe even share a good book today!
~Julia

Bits and bobs from this month

This is Badger, we hit a great park to play in while waiting between husband's cousin's wedding and reception. We spent almost two hours playing at North Beach Park in Racine. This is an amazing park.

Mom knows everything. I hope they always think so. They found this feather in the yard. Who lost it? I don't know. Guess who I asked, my Mom.

This is the star jasmine plant I bought myself as a remembrance of my trip to LA with Beaver. He wants to go there for college (not yet!) and had the opportunity to meet some people who might be able to help and have his work reviewed. He wants to do set design/monster creation type work.

Every year I help a friend harvest her grapes and she helps me harvest my apples. I took home a big bag of green unripe ones she was not planning on using. I found a recipe for sour grape pickles. We shall see.

I made jam out of the rest of the unripe grapes, it is tarter that the ripe ones but these grapes are seriously candy sweet so that is not a terrible thing.

Mouse surprised us all with wanting to go out for Cross Country this year. We asked if he knew it involved exercise and being outside... then agreed quickly. He loves computers, and unless we force him would be on them all the time, so this was a surprise. He loved it and worked hard. He came in at the middle of the pack and his school took 3rd over-all. He is the one with the curly hair.

Triangle loom weaving project. I enjoyed it but will need a much bigger loom to make anything not for my girls.

Butterfly reading her birthday card from my sister. I have a beautiful new nephew.

He is moving so he is blurry but that is Beaver. He loves his team.