by Texas Homesteader ~
It’s early in the season and most of us aren’t even thinking about dropping seeds or plants in the garden. Here in Texas planting zone 8 we typically don’t risk planting until Easter when in all probability the danger of the last frost is past. I’m not gonna lie, I jump the gun sometimes. There are times I get away with it, and other times I have to start all over…
But there are still garden tasks to tend to even though actual planting time is still weeks away. Come see…
by Texas Homesteader ~
I typically like to cook from scratch for our meals. But let’s be honest. For all of us, sometimes there are ‘Those Days‘… Today is just such a day. I’ve been busy all week, I’m just getting over being ill and today I really need to play catch-up. So a hearty meal needs to be on auto-pilot today. Easy ’nuff, I decided to make taco soup.
by Texas Homesteader ~
It was gonna get into the low 20’s overnight so I brought in 6 plants I’d had outside. At least they’d be safe from the cold. But they were planted in repurposed red plastic coffee cans. I needed to put them at a southern window in our guest bedroom. But ugh, such ugly planters for inside! Check out this easy Homestead Hack for making it all look nicer… Use Whatcha Got!
by Texas Homesteader ~
It seems everyone wants to tread a little lighter on the earth – I love that! Are you searching for environmentally-friendly gifts for your friends? Handmade items are all the rage this year. If you just don’t have time to make homemade soap or natural beeswax food wraps you can find many handmade gift options at our Online store, and I’d be honored if you’d hop in & check it out. But below are other sustainable gift ideas for your green-minded friends and family.
by Texas Homesteader ~
This time of year we often see shouting from different sides of the fence about the holidays. Some are incensed that someone would dare take Christ out of the holiday, some are angry that someone is pushing for only homemade gifts while others are angry that some families like to shop for their Christmas gifts.
I find this puzzling and oftentimes very much counter to the season itself. A season that typically promotes feelings of joy & peace. You may not celebrate your holidays the way your neighbor does, and that’s OK!
by Texas Homesteader ~
Thank you Lord for food to nourish me, a warm bed for rest, and the love of family to warm my heart. From our family to yours – Happy Thanksgiving!
~TxH~
by Texas Homesteader ~
It’s been a very strange winter indeed this year. Oh we’ve had some blustery cold days alright but for the most part it’s been very mild. Heck here it is the middle of February and it was 80 degrees with sunshine today! But such wonderful weather lends itself well to working in the garden. I want to prepare it for a super-productive harvest this year. Come see what my February chores entailed.
by Texas Homesteader ~
Recently I wrote about the benefit of planned leftovers. That’s the method of cooking when you purposely cook more of an item than you will eat at one time, then bibbidy-bobbedy-boo presto-changeo remake the leftovers into brand new and delicious recipes. Most recently I cooked a huge pork roast in not one, not two but THREE slow cookers. Yeah, that roast really was was that big! I planned to remake the leftovers into new dishes later in the week. I’ll be sure to share some of the fun recipes I made such as Carnitas Tacos, Pulled-Pork Enchiladas and more, but today I’m sharing the quickest & most basic delicious leftover idea: a Hearty Stew!
by Texas Homesteader ~
I’ve written before about how I love the Cook-Once, Eat-Twice method of cooking. And of course its close relative the Planned Leftovers method too. With Cook-Once Eat-Twice cooking you might cook several meatloaves or stuffed peppers so you can freeze it for the same entree later.
With Planned Leftovers you cook much more than you’ll eat at one meal so you can remake the leftovers into something completely new and delicious. I wrote recently about cooking el mucho quantities of pork roast to use for planned leftovers. But today I’ll share the planned leftovers I enjoyed from a recent Slow Cooker Sticky Chicken I made.
by Texas Homesteader ~
One day RancherMan took my hand & suggested we enjoy an unseasonably warm day & take a walk around the homestead. As I often do this time of year when the poison ivy and snakes are (for the most part) dormant, I found myself once again at the location where the previous owners used to take their household discards.
Although our barn and some of the barbed wire on our property dates back to the 1880’s, the last residents before us had their house burn down because of a lightening strike sometime in the late 1950’s. So this area where they tossed their no-longer usable household items so long ago is like a mini time travel for me and I love it!
It seems I can learn about those inhabitants from so long ago from what they left behind, a broken child’s die-cast car, broken household trinkets and canning jars.
