Bird Watching with Baby

As an avid bird watcher, it seems only natural that I would start teaching our little nugget about birds while she is just a baby. It is never too early to start teaching our children about the things we love. She may not understand what I am reading to her, but eventually she will be an expert little bird watcher!

Meet Roberto, our resident Robin. 

 I noticed his arrival earlier this spring when the weather first began to warm. I remember looking outside and being so excited at my first Robin sighting of the spring. I held our little nugget up to the window, trying to point out the Robin and explain to her my excitement.

Foodie Friday: Montana Pizza

A local restaurant serves up a red onion/walnut/gorgonzola pizza; the first time I ate it a number of years ago, I was hooked. Unfortunately at the time I was a poor college student with little money to spare to eat out or purchase one of these more costly specialty pizzas so when I had some it was an extra special treat. 

Then one day when going to a friend's house for dinner, her husband was making this pizza. I was thrilled! I watched closely and took mental notes on how the pizza was made. I started making the pizza myself. Over the years I have changed the recipe a little to what it is today and I'm sure over my lifetime it may change a little more as I experiment with little changes. The big change I made was adding the pear slices, which adds a little sweetness to balance out the rich, strong taste of the Gorgonzola.

Re-purposing Junk Mail

I think we can all agree we dislike junk mail. It clutters up our mailboxes and often just ends up filling the trash can and then heads on to the local landfill with no purpose. Seems so wasteful and pointless. Don't despair, we have some great ways to reuse and repurpose junk mail!

Up until the last few weeks, anytime we received junk mail we would chuck it in the trash. Occasionally if we were feeling angst about the junk mail we received, we would give it one rip in half and then throw it out.

Foodie Friday: Piima Yogurt Tarter Sauce

Making homemade tarter sauce is so easy and is much healthier when using a yogurt base. Yesterday after posting about our new adventure in making piima yogurt, I was trying to figure out what to make for supper. I had a craving for fish and chips and figured that was the perfect opportunity to try our piima yogurt in a recipe. I've been making homemade tarter sauce the last few years anytime I make fish and chips at home so I figured this wouldn't be too different other than my starter base.

Making Piima Yogurt

Making Piima Yogurt is so easy and is saving our family so much money by not having to buy yogurt at the store! Several years ago in our favorite magazine, The Backwoodsman, there was a how to article on making yogurt. I was intrigued but the process seemed fairly intensive with the need to have a yogurt maker machine and at the time I was not consuming enough yogurt to make it seem worth all that effort.  For me it was more about the adventure of being able to make something on my own at home.

Fast forward several years. I now eat yogurt almost everyday; it is a quick easy snack for me to make by mixing in some fruit and granola. Every time I go grocery shopping, I buy one or two 32oz containers of plain yogurt (typically organic) so the cost can add up.

Finding Balance

I’ve been thinking about the idea of finding balance over the last two months as I adjust to my new role as a work from home mama. In my position as supervisor that I just resigned from a few months ago, I took pride in my ability to balance the responsibilities of the job and functioned like a well oiled machine. Now I’m in new territory and blindly feeling my way through. 

Last week for the first time since I became a work at home mama I felt stressed. It surprised me because one of the reasons I quit my supervisor job was to step out of the fast paced, stressful career world and create a more peaceful, relaxing, enjoyable life.

Foodie Friday: Dutch Oven Honey Brined Herb Roasted Turkey Breasts

Cooking our Thanksgiving turkey off grid in a dutch oven is a fun family tradition we started a few years ago at hunting camp. We love making Honey Brined Herb Roasted Turkey in the dutch ovens so much that we've made it other times during the year too!

Yesterday our little nugget and I visited a friend's new organic farm in the Bitterroot Valley to help plant starts in the field. Our friend is living off grid in a tipi on the property. It was a beautiful spring Montana day and although it was a long day of hard labor, the views and peaceful setting left me feeling so blessed at the end of the day on our drive back home.

Our friend is borrowing our little portable cast iron wood cook stove and small cast iron pots to cook some of her meals. Our visit got me thinking about all of the yummy dutch oven meals we have cooked so I thought I would share one of my favorites today. 

Inspired to Move Forward

“To get through the hardest journey we need only take 1 step at a time, but we must keep on stepping.” 

Chinese Proverb

During the first week after our little nugget’s early and traumatic arrival, I found myself struggling to cope with the events of the last week. I spent a lot of time on my computer online, aimlessly surfing the web to keep my mind occupied.

Several times I tried to search the internet for support networks but my emotions were too raw and I was overcome with tears of grief. The social worker in me kept telling myself how ironic the situation was; just when I needed support the most I was too emotional to read any of the information that might offer me assistance.

Foodie Friday: Rhabarber-Schorle (Rhubarb Spritzer)

Rhabarber-Schorle (Rhubarb Spritzer) is one of our favorite ways to use rhubarb and it makes a delicious drink for a hot summer day. Plus it always gives me good memories of our trip to Germany every time I make it so that is an added bonus!

For the last six years I have had the honor of caring for a rhubarb plant that is over 50 years old. Since it has been around for quite some time and survived all the variations of weather Montana has to offer, it is one hearty plant. 

When I first became the new caretaker for this lovely plant, I had little experience with rhubarb and the only recipe I knew of that used rhubarb was for strawberry rhubarb pie. While that is a super sweet, yummy desert it gets boring when that is the only rhubarb recipe you know!

I started branching out with rhubarb sauce but still felt like there was more that could be done with this hearty grower.

Then I went to Germany to visit my husband’s family two years ago. One evening we visited a quaint restaurant in a tiny village.

Low Cost/No Cost Gardening

Whether you are a vegetable or flower gardener or both, there are several easy ways you can expand your garden with little to no cost. Gardening can be expensive if you buy all your plants full grown at full cost from a greenhouse.

I am first and foremost a flower gardening fanatic but I also enjoy growing veggies to feed our family. These are a few ways I have learned over the years to expand our gardens with little to no cost: