Nancy on the Home Front

Goal Setting Update Week 10

Here we are in a new month! I’ve always enjoyed the month of March, three of our four children were born this month so we often refer to this time of year as cake season!

Continue to monetize my blog. My ongoing goal. Have you taken the time to check out my page on Amazon? This page is where I put all the items I just love, from favorite cookbooks to gardening tools. Please check it out. Another aspect of this goal involves increasing my readership. If you enjoy reading my blog, please recommend it to your friends. I sure appreciate all my new subscribers!

2. Create a cookbook. You may remember this goal was on my list last year and I finally put it aside. My goal for this year is to have my cookbook ready by November 2019. This is going to be a long process and I hope you don’t get tired of hearing about it. I promise you when the cookbook is finished it will be worth it!

3. Have 20 minutes of exercise at least 5 times a week. Spending time in Portland this week. Getting exercise by watching our grandchildren and looking at more homes.

4. Explore ~~ten~~ 9 parks or hiking trails in the state of Washington we now call home! Didn’t happen. Look forward to the next park we discover!

5. Incorporate 20 12 new recipes into our dinner plans with the focus on healthy eating. The only new recipe this week was a new recipe for black beans and rice. I really enjoy black beans and rice, but I’m sure you probably have your own favorite recipe for this classic dish.

6. Read 35 25 new books this year. Finished my tenth book , It Was Me All Along – a Memoir by Andie Mitchell. It’s a brutally honest story of a woman reflecting on her incredible weight loss journey. It’s well written and tells the story of learning to love herself. She eventually started her own blog and has written a cookbook as well. Even if you’ve never struggled with your weight it’s a real insight to someone who lost 135 pounds and has kept it off.

7. Complete ~~Four~~ 1 knitting or sewing projects this year. The third project is finished. I have put together two more sets of placemats using the material sent to my by a dear friend. Think the next project will involve knitting!

8. Visit family on the west coast. In Portland this week visiting our daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. Always fun to visit. I have to say Portland is my favorite city.

9. Explore ~~Six~~ 5 new museums in the area. The pass for the Tacoma Glass Museum is one popular pass. Still patiently waiting to grab this pass.

10. Find a new home. Frustrated is the key word for this week! Found a house we really liked. Made an offer, offer was accepted and then we had the inspection done. Bottom line we withdrew our offer. There were just too many red flags. Now back to square one. Eventually we will find our perfect home.

“It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.”
Benjamin E. Mays

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For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting Nancy On The Home Front.

Easy Ways to Get Your Garden Ready For Spring

If you’re watching the ground outside freeze, and then re-freeze, you’re probably feeling antsy for when the ground finally thaws for good, with the onset of much anticipated warmer weather. During winter, your garden is exposed to severe temperatures and the elements, and will need a bit of clearing out and care before it’s ready for spring. Now is the perfect time to get your garden ready, even if it may seem a little bit early. By getting a head start now, you won’t have nearly as much prep work next month, and can get right to planting and reviving your garden.

Clean up

Like we mentioned, things get a bit messy during the winter months. So now is the time to clean up your garden, getting rid of debris and anything that found its way into your garden that doesn’t belong. Clean off your lawn while you’re at it! Things like branches and fallen leaves should be removed so the soil in your garden can breathe. This is also the perfect time to prune back bushes, shrubs, and trees, to promote growth once the weather warms up. Dehead any plants that are needing it, so everything is ready to grow!

Prepare your soil

Pull out your rake from the garden shed, and get to work breaking up the soil in your garden. This will help things grow, since we don’t want your soil to be compacted. If you don’t already have a compost heap, now is the perfect time to start one! Composting is not only incredible for your garden and plants, but it helps you waste less. You can put any organic food material into your compost heap, as well as dead plants (those fallen leaves and branches from earlier are perfect for composting!) shredded newspapers, and even other organic materials such as linen. There are so many things you can compost, you’ll be shocked at how little you are putting into the bin.

In addition to composting, you should also lay some mulch down onto your soil, once it’s been broken up. This adds nutrients to the soil(while you wait for your compost to be ready), and will hopefully stamp out some of those pesky weeds in a few months when everything starts growing and weeds become rampant.

Make a game plan for your garden

Do you have any plans to change areas of your garden? Maybe your cilantro consumption went up over the winter months, and you feel like you should expand that area of your garden. Or maybe last summer, you hardly ate any of the zucchini that your garden produced, so you have to either plan to eat more, or maybe replace a few of those plants with something you know you’ll eat more of. It doesn’t hurt to draw out an outline of your garden, and figure out how you will best map out all of your plants for optimum growth and to take advantage of the space that you have.

Keep it maintained until it’s planting time

The reason it’s so convenient to get started on your garden now is because it means it won’t take as long when it’s time to actually plant your garden. Don’t let your hard work right now go wasted, and keep your garden area maintained by picking up any debris when you see it, and plucking away any especially hardy weeds that are making an early appearance.

Clean your tools

It’s recommended to keep your tools cleaned and prepped before you start planting. Clean the tools off with soap and water, and then use mineral spirits on any wooden handles to prevent splintering and to improve the longevity of your tools.

Raspberry Baby Dutch Babies

I’ve been reading through our collection of magazines lately. In the midst of house hunting and dreaming of my next garden I enjoy cooking. I’ve made Dutch Babies before and have always enjoyed them. When I saw this recipe in Sunset Magazine using muffin tins to make Baby Dutch Babies I had to give it a try. I didn’t have any fresh raspberries but I had some of my Raspberry Jam so I used my own jam filling. These Raspberry Baby Dutch Babies would be delicious to serve for dessert or for a breakfast treat. They should be served immediately as they deflate quickly. The recipe makes 12 Raspberry Baby Dutch Babies.

Raspberry Baby Dutch Babies

Ingredients:

4 large eggs
1 cup milk
½ tsp. Kosher salt
1 cup flour
¼ cup butter, diced
1 cup raspberries or use your own raspberry jam
powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 with the rack in the center of the oven and a rack below. In a blender, mix the eggs, milk and salt. Add the flour and continue mixing until smooth. Set aside.

Divide the butter among your 12 muffins cups. Place the muffin tin in the oven until the butter melts and begins to brown, about 2-3 minutes. Pour batter into the cups and add a tsp. of raspberry jam in the center. Set on center rack and put a rimmed baking sheet on the rack below to catch any drips. Bake until the Dutch babies are very well browned and puffed, about 18-20 minutes.

Sift powdered sugar over the Dutch babies when done. Loosen from pan with a knife and spoon and serve immediately.

These baby Dutch babies are as good as the full version. Think we’ll be making them again. Next time I’ll try using fresh fruit as the raspberry jam sunk right to the bottom!

Homemade Seed Tape

This year I’m not starting any seeds inside but I decided there was still something I could do to get ready for the upcoming gardening season. The perfect project was to make homemade seed tape. If I can’t use it I will pass it along to my daughter and she can use it in her raised beds!

I’m sure you’ve seen seed tape for sale in gardening catalogs. Seed tape is designed to help you plant those very small seeds like carrot seeds so you don’t have to do as much thinning. Did you know you could also make your own seed tape at home?

All you need is your seeds, some flour paste and strips of paper to make the tape.

Flour paste: ¼ cup flour and enough water to make a paste. Strips of paper to make the tape: you can use black and white newspaper, single ply toilet paper or brown paper bags.

You will also need something to dab the glue on to the paper, something like a small paintbrush, a toothpick or even a cotton q-tip.

Start by making the paste, combine ¼ cup flour and add enough water until you have the consistency of a paste.

Check your seed packet for the recommendations as to how far apart the seeds should be planted.

Dab the paste onto your strips of paper as far apart as you would plant the seeds. Just drop the seeds into the paste. Drop the same number of seeds that you would plant in your garden.

Allow the paste to dry completely and roll up your tape. You can use an empty toilet paper tube or paper towel tube to roll the seed tape onto. Now you are all ready to head out to the garden!

For most seeds you will just need to lay the tape down in your garden and lightly cover it with soil. Water and watch the seeds grow! The paper will eventually decompose and you’ll never see it again. You may have to do a little thinning, but it will be a lot less than if you sprinkled the row with seeds! Then you can look forward to a wonderful harvest!

Goal Setting Update Week 9

I think I will look forward to moving into the month of March. This month has been so snowy and chilly! We’ve looked at over twenty homes in the last month and it’s been exhausting. Hoping to have some news to share soon!

Continue to monetize my blog. My ongoing goal. Have you taken the time to check out my page on Amazon? This page is where I put all the items I just love, from favorite cookbooks to gardening tools. Please check it out, Another aspect of this goal involves increasing my readership. If you enjoy reading my blog, please recommend it to your friends. I sure appreciate all my new subscribers!

2. Create a cookbook. You may remember this goal was on my list last year and I finally put it aside. My goal for this year is to have my cookbook ready by November 2019. This is an ongoing project, when I have free time I’m busy adding recipes to my ever growing document! I’ll be glad when I can begin adding the photos!

3. Have 20 minutes of exercise at least 5 times a week. Still getting our exercise by looking at houses. We’ve also helped my daughter out and walked her puppy. Having a dog helps you to get exercise each day, we’re just not ready to get another dog yet!

4. Explore ~~ten~~ 9 parks or hiking trails in the state of Washington we now call home! Didn’t happen. Look forward to the next park we discover!

5. Incorporate 20 13 new recipes into our dinner plans with the focus on healthy eating. This week was my husbands birthday. I made him a delicious salmon dinner that was also a healthy recipe! I glazed the salmon with some mustard and honey and it was delicious! I will be sharing the recipe soo!

6. Read 35 26 new books this year. Finished my ninth book , Tapestry of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg. Elizabeth Berg is an author I recently discovered and I’ve really enjoyed her books. I couldn’t resit reading another of her books when I saw it was available at the library!. Wonderful story of a woman making a new start in life. She sells her suburban house and moves into a house with three roommates. The women head out on a road trip to reconnect with various aspects of their past.

7. Complete ~~Four~~ 2 knitting or sewing projects this year. Second project is finished! The third project is in the works. The material for the placemats has been cut out and is ready for the sewing machine. Hopefully I’ll find time this week to get this done! Also planning a trip to see my daughter and do a little sewing with my granddaughter!

8. Visit family on the west coast. We’ll be heading to Portland the end of the week to visit our daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. Always fun to visit,

9. Explore ~~Six~~ 5 new museums in the area. The pass for the Tacoma Glass Museum is one popular pass. We may grab the one for the Gig Harbor History Museum in the meantime.

10. Find a new home. Frustrating to be looking for a house in such a hot market. Several times we have looked at a house we like and by the time we get home there is an offer so we have to immediately decide if we want to place an offer or not. No new home yet but we’re hoping to have news soon! I am encouraged at the number of homes we’ve looked at that already have raised beds in place.

“The thing about goals is that living without them is a lot more fun, in the short run. It seems to me, though, that the people who get things done, who lead, who grow and who make an impact… those people have goals.”
Seth Godin

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For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting Nancy On The Home Front.

Fragrant Shallot Cookies

When we were still living in Vermont a friend of mine gave me a bag of Fragrant Shallot Cookies from Savor Fine Foods. They tasted like shortbread with a savory buttery taste from the shallots. They were so good!

Immediately I thought I need to try and make these at home. After numerous searching on line for shortbread cookies, and adding shallots to shortbread, I found a recipe that I could adapt in my kitchen. It was a success and I can’t wait to make them again. I’m thinking these cookies would be perfect for gift giving around the holidays.

Fragrant Shallot Cookies

Ingredients:

12 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. sugar
Pinch salt
1 ¾ cups flour
1 large shallots, chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. vinegar (optional)

Preparation:

Peel and chop the shallots. In a small sauce pan cook the shallots slowly in the 2 Tbsp. of butter, salt and vinegar, stir occasionally until cooked, about 15 minutes. Set aside and let cool completely. Make the shortbread.

Cream the butter and sugar, then add the cooled shallots. Sift the flour and salt in a separate bowl. Add the flour and salt to the butter shallot mixture until a dough is formed, don’t over mix it. Divide the dough in half and shape into two logs. Wrap and chill for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 F. After chilling the dough, cut the logs into ¼ inch slices. Put on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them. Remove the cookies from the oven when they feel slightly firm to the touch and the edges just begin to brown. You can see that my first batch was in a little bit too long!

Makes about 4 dozen cookies depending on the size. Mine were about the size of a fifty cent piece. You could also roll the dough out and use a cookie cutter.

The Urban Farm Handbook, a book review

Since moving to University Place I have made great use of our local library. I love having such a wonderful library just ten minutes from where we are living. Not only do they offer books and DVDs for your enjoyment but they also offer passes to the local museums. There are also various computers and job search helps for you to take advantage of. I spend my time just searching the stacks for books that might interest me especially gardening books about the Pacific Northwest. Recently I came upon the book The Urban Farm Handbook. It is such a gem of a book I am planning on ordering my own copy from Amazon.

Two people who practice what they preach and actually homestead in Seattle wrote the book! The only downsize about the book is that it was written in 2011 and therefore some of the resources might be a bit dated. However the general information provided in the book is spot on and I’m finding it so helpful as I will be transitioning from a rural homesteader to an urban homesteader!

The tag line for the book is “City Slicker Resources for Growing, Raising Sourcing, Trading and Preparing What You Eat”. This is exactly the type of book I was looking for! The authors talk about their decision not to leave the city but instead deciding to pursue farming in the city. Each season of the year is covered, discussing what you can grow, how to grow it, laws about raising chickens in the city and even having goats in the city!

This is the perfect book for me as we begin this new adventure of living in a much more populated area but still wanting to live with the mindset of a homesteader. If you are looking for an excellent book to read on urban farming this is it. The Urban Farm Handbook also includes numerous recipes (over 100), as well as tips and resources for the Pacific Northwest. I highly recommend it.

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site.

For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting Nancy On The Home Front.

Goal Setting Update Week 8

February, where it currently feels like we’re back in Vermont! We’ve had snow on the ground for the last week! Luckily the nights are finally above freezing and the snow is slowly melting.

Continue to monetize my blog. My ongoing goal. Have you taken the time to check out my page on Amazon? This page is where I put all the items I just love, from favorite cookbooks to gardening tools. Please check it out, Another aspect of this goal involves increasing my readership. If you enjoy reading my blog, please recommend it to your friends. I sure appreciate all my new subscribers!

2. Create a cookbook. You may remember this goal was on my list last year and I finally put it aside. My goal for this year is to have my cookbook ready by November 2019. Still working away at this goal. I have finally started to copy all the recipes into a document. I thought it was a chore to put all the headings in, now I have to put the content of the recipe. I’ll keep working away!

3. Have 20 minutes of exercise at least 5 times a week. Our major form of exercise these days has been looking at houses! Looking forward to the snow melting and being able to get out and about once again.

4. Explore ~~ten~~ 9 parks or hiking trails in the state of Washington we now call home! No new parks this week.

5. Incorporate 20 14 new recipes into our dinner plans with the focus on healthy eating. Made a Creamy Macaroni and Cheese dinner this week with pureed carrots and cauliflower! Very little cheese. I don’t think I’ll share the recipe. We enjoyed it but not sure I’ll make it again. I also made a second delicious vegetarian meal, Senegalese Peanut Stew with Spinach and Sweet Potato, absolutely delicious. I will be sharing the recipe in the future and I will be adding this recipe to our regular repertoire.

6. Read 35 27 new books this year. Finished my eighth book , Call The Nurse. If you enjoyed the PBS series, Call the Midwife or the James Herriot books you would enjoy this book. All about a nurse who goes to live in the Hebrides Islands with her family. Each chapter is about one of her adventures as a nurse.

7. Complete ~~Four~~ 2 knitting or sewing projects this year. Second project is finished! The third project is in the works. Remember all that material I told you I received in the mail? I have washed and ironed it all and cut out three sets of placements. Such fun putting the material together. Now to get them all sewed! Once I complete the placements I will be sewing a dress with my oldest granddaughter. She wants to learn to sew!

8. Visit family on the west coast. We’ll probably be heading back down to the Portland area to look at more homes, unless we find one around here in the next few weeks. No visits with extended family planned.

9. Explore ~~Six~~ 5 new museums in the area. The pass for the Tacoma Glass Museum is one popular pass. We may grab the one for the Gig Harbor History Museum in the meantime.

10. Find a new home. We have looked at so many homes it’s hard to keep them straight! I finally purchased small notebook to keep the houses we look at straight. At least I can jot down the pertinent information, such as acreage, asking price, taxes and how long it’s been on the market. Our realtor had a house she put on the market during the snow storm, by the end of the day she’d received a call that this person wanted the house sight unseen! Talk about a hot market.

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site.

For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting Nancy On The Home Front.

House Hunting Continues

This house hunting business is so frustrating! Everyday we look at the houses on the market to see if any new ones have been listed. We then look at any possibilities so see if they would be worth looking at. Despite various news reports of the market slowing down and houses being on the market longer it is still a very hot market, both here near Tacoma and in Portland, Oregon. We continue to look in both areas.

Our requirements are not outrageous, just enough room for a home office and a little bit of land for a garden. We are looking for a third of an acre or slightly less, just enough for a few raised beds.

Neither of our realtors are gardeners which is a struggle. They know our desires yet have no idea what property would have perfect gardening space. We inevitably check the compass and compare it to the house and have to say no you really can’t garden when the only space is on the north side, in the shade!

We had hoped that we might be able to find something this month. We got very excited when we found a beautiful home with some gardens and there were even beehives, unfortunately the house was just too expensive and it needed a bit of work.

On the positive side we are fine in our little rental and do not have to find something immediately. I couldn’t imagine if we had tried to find a home here on the west coast while we were still living in Vermont! That would have been so stressful. We are looking forward to moving into something with a little more space but we can be patient. Plus I can always help my daughter with her raised beds!

So the house hunting continues, hopefully we will find something in the near future that we can create into our own little urban homestead. Today we will go look at several more possibilities. We have learned that if there is anything worth considering you have to go and take a look. Otherwise the house will be pending before you know it.

Spinach and Tortellini Soup

If you’ve read my post from Monday or have been watching the news you know that the Pacific Northwest has had a very snowy month of February! The roads have been very messy so not exactly walking weather. What’s a girl to do? I made a large pot of Italian Spinach and Tortellini Soup and we’ve been enjoying it for lunch. It was the perfect soup for these cold, snowy days. This recipe has been adapted from one I found on the Weight Watcher site.

The best thing about this recipe is that it takes less than thirty minutes to make. You could also make the soup earlier in the day and add the tortellini shortly before serving.

Spinach and Tortellini Soup

Ingredients

2 tsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ tsp. Italian seasoning
¾ tsp. Salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
⅛ tsp. red pepper flakes
32 fl oz. fat free reduced sodium vegetable broth
14 ½ oz. (1 can) canned diced tomatoes
1 cup water
9 oz (1 package) store-bought refrigerated cheese filled tortellini
4 cups, loosely packed fresh baby spinach
¼ cup, chopped basil
3 Tbsp. grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Directions:

Heat oil in large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to soften, about 3 minutes. Add zucchini and cook, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Add garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 30 seconds.

Stir in broth, tomatoes, and water. Cover and bring to boil. Stir in tortellini and cook according to timing on package. Stir in spinach and cook until wilted, about 1 minute.

Ladle soup evenly into 6 bowls and sprinkle evenly with basil and pecorino.

Serving size: about 1 3/4 cups soup and 1/2 tablespoon of cheese