Homegrown & Homemade
Living in the cold North means we’re no strangers to a steaming cup of hot cocoa! Shoveling snow, tending the animals in frigid weather, chipping ice off the sidewalks… all deserves hot chocolate! What do you call it– hot chocolate or hot cocoa? There’s probably a technical difference, but I use the terms interchangeably! I love hot cocoa, but I don’t like most packaged mixes …
Imagine salty peanuts and bouncy homemade vanilla-maple marshmallows tossed with just enough chocolate to hold them together! These chocolate peanut clusters are hands down my favorite holiday treat. Karl’s too! “Fluffernutter” chocolate peanut clusters are named after the childhood favorite peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich. I’ve actually never had one of those, but I do love the name! And peanuts and marshmallows make a …
Every year when the weather turns cool (the start of chapped lip season!) I make a new batch of homemade lip balm. It always ends up slightly different, but it’s always the best lip balm I’ve ever used. Homemade is best and nothing store-bought can even compare! My goal when I set out to make homemade lip balm was to create a recipe that was …
Making lard soap… is there anything more homestead-y than that? Karl’s grandma (a real-deal homesteader and farmer) tells a story about how when she was young, she would bring home the used tallow from the fryers at the local diner she worked at, and they would make big batches of tallow soap cooked in a kettle over an open fire at their farm. I just …
I love learning new skills in the kitchen, especially ones that are “old-fashioned” … as in, something people really don’t do anymore that used to be part of everyday life, like rendering lard, cooking dried beans, or making homemade candy. (If you love to learn new skills too, make things from scratch, and give homemade gifts… read to the bottom of this post for 6 …
My parents planted a Christmas tree farm when I was just a young girl, so I grew up learning to make holiday decorations to sell for extra spending money at the tree farm. As a 16-year-old, I was a Christmas craft extraordinaire! And also a really big geek, but that’s a story for a different day. Evergreen Kissing Balls, wreaths, garland… I can make it all! But probably my …
If there’s anything I’m a connoisseur of, it’s likely caramels. It’s my favorite flavor of anything and everything, anywhere. I will without a doubt always order the caramel-flavored whatever it is. A couple of years ago, I discovered that I could make caramel… and I got really good at it. I make the best salted caramel sauce, the best salted caramel buttercream frosting, and the best …
Yep, I’ve been slathering lard on my lips. And honey, naturally. Join me, won’t you? My lips need extra TLC all year round: in the below-freezing winter weather the dry air really takes a toll on them, and in the warm summer months I spend a lot of time outside in the wind and parching-sun, and this Honey & Lard Lip Repair Cream has been a …
In celebration of the year that you were born, you should have the finest. You deserve the Cadillac of birthday candles on your three-tiered, from scratch, chocolate cake with real buttercream. You’re nodding your head. Have you ever seen more adorable candles? The soft yellow wax, the rustic handmade look- have I mentioned that I like rustic things? …Rustic Buttered Onion Deviled Eggs …Rustic Garden Gate. If …
Our chickens are the heart of the homestead. Their entertainment value is priceless, and they provide the pinnacle of farm eats: fresh eggs. There’s nothing like ’em. So it’s no wonder we want to provide them with only the finest treats, decorate their coops with rusty stuff, and proclaim our love for them on our coffee mugs and t-shirts! And we should! A handmade gift …
