Our Homemade Life

The Cowboy

Posted on December 21, 2012 by mamabuckwheat

So I’ve kept the identity of my Husband kinda secret. I’ve called him Cowboy. Not because he rides horses. In fact, he doesn’t like riding horses, he kind of despises them.

He’s milked a cow for the majority of the past 4 years, so his name comes from the fact that

You smell like a Cow, Boy!

I honestly do call him Cowboy around the house, but I’m sure you’ve all picked up on the fact that it’s not his real name! No sir-ee bob! My Husbands name is Marius, also known as Mare. Like the female horse! Said “Marry-us” not “Marr-ee-us”. In honour of the reveal, I thought I’d share a fun little “Marius through the ages”

I’d guess he was 3 1/2 in this picture with his Dad and Sister. Obviously, his dad has got a moose!

He thinks he was about 14 or 15 in this picture. His first buck!

Buckley lake, age 18.

He shot this one at my Moms just before dark and tried to take pictures with our camera, but they weren’t coming out well, so we went to my Moms house and got her fancy camera with a fancy flash. His first buck on Salt Spring!

This was a year ago. Can’t tell you where or I’d give away our favourite Chantarelle spot!

I noticed a theme of dead things and food in these photos…it just happens to be when he’s got his best smile on!

September

Posted on December 18, 2012 by mamabuckwheat

So you’ve caught up on our summer, right?

Well here’s what happened this September! It seemed to be a photo heavy month so it’s got a whole post right to itself.

Hunting season kicked off and Mac was ready to spot them!

I had to rely mostly on iPhone for taking pictures as Cowboy always stole my camera to take pictures of deer while scouting. While they aren’t magazine worthy pictures, I think he’s got some neat light and shadows in some of them!

My sister Molly got more and more pregnant as we spent more and more time playing with Amy.

Then, one night it happened! (This is Amy eating cheese at 10:30 pm after getting dropped off at our house as Molly was in labour). That girl was high on life and so excited! I wanted to sleep. (I was 31 weeks pregnant.)

The first pictures of Amy as a big sister! She didn’t know it yet though.

Here is June! We are so in love with her.

We celebrated her birth with french fries.

Just four days later…

Oh and we got ducks! A young trio of Silver Appleyards. Isn’t that the neatest name ever?!

All the while my belly got bigger and bigger…

A few photos of Summer.

Posted on December 17, 2012 by mamabuckwheat

This summer was a hectic in some and calming in others one. We spent a lot of time in doctors offices because of my pregnancy, but also spent a lot of time just hanging out as we didn’t have any other commitments. My sister was due at the beginning of September, so we had my niece Amy quite a bit.

Here is Mac and then Amy, on the trampoline at their place.

Mac loves his second cousin, McKinley. This is in the summer at the beach, but we went to visit McKinley and her Mom two days before Hamish was born and she was starting to walk! They grow up so fast.

Amy’s Mommy, Molly and her husband, Jered moved Sept 1st, and I provided the ‘crew’ of us with quesadillas. It then sent Cowboy onto a quesadilla streak and he ate them everyday at work for lunch for about 3 weeks.

Cowboy (left) and Jered (Right) sighting in their crossbows for hunting season.

We went camping in my grandparents orchard (the orchard pictured above) as a camping trip farther away wasn’t possible.

I canned, froze and made fruit leather out of peaches.

We picked blackberries by the gallon, and these two just ate sour ones! We actually got blackberry wine made by the UBrew place too! My stepdad got 2 batches of wine and one of port made. Thats a lot of berries! (30 bottles per batch and 30 lbs berries for wine, 45 for port)

Sometimes I was on bedrest after a procedure and we watched a lot of movies…

As well as my Husband having to pick up a lot of slack…The morning kitchen fairy strikes again!

My little boy, got his first big boy boo boo

And lost a toe nail after slamming a rowboat oar down on it.

All the while my belly got bigger…and bigger…

Will give you another round of pictures tomorrow

Our new Baby

Posted on December 15, 2012 by mamabuckwheat

The last time you heard from me was the beginning of July. I can’t begin to tell you how many life changing things have happened since then. I’d told you before that I was expecting. On June 19th, the day after our first wedding anniversary, I had the regular halfway ultrasound and we got devastating news. Our baby had fluid surrounding and compressing his left lung, he had a cystic hygroma on his neck (basically a little water pocket) and his heart looked like it was malformed. The long and the short of it was that we were going to lose him. We went to see a specialist the next day and he looked over the ultrasound again and said No, we weren’t going to lose him but the cystic hyroma is most commonly a genetic marker for down syndrome or other similar syndrome. His heart was fine, and everything else could be dealt with.

We didn’t care. The baby was going to live. Down Syndrome wasn’t a deal breaker for us. We’d had two previous miscarriages in the last year and we were so excited just to be having a baby. Who were we to pick how it was going to be when it was born? If that’s what the Lord chose to give us, then we’d readily take it.

As weeks, doctors appointments and tests wore on, we scaled back on everything that wasn’t mandatory for us.

In the end the baby had 14 ultrasounds, 1 echocardiagram, 2 thorocentesis (where they go in like an amnio, but going into the babys lung cavity to drain it and take pressure off the heart), 1 amniocentesis and saw more specialists that I have fingers.

As the weeks wore on we saw things get better and better and different conditions go away on their own. This baby was a fighter. The prognosis only got better.

Until the point that nothing was wrong. I still had to go to a major hospital to have him, as they wanted pediatricians to be there when he was born. If you remember, Mac was a home water birth, so this was a totally different experience. Both were pleasant, I had top notch medical care both times. While I am a big advocate for home birth and hope to have another in the future, I feel beyond blessed to have the medical system at our fingers for no additional cost.

November 6th, 2012 at 11:45 pm,

Hamish Adalai came into the world. 8 lbs 13 oz, the pediatrics deemed him perfect and ready to go home when we were ready.

We strongly believe in the power of prayer and positive thoughts, and we had an army of people rooting for us.

We are so blessed, and so enjoying this little boy.

I’m going to be posting more regularly, and first up is a series of photos about what we’ve been upto!

Pairing up meals to Pare down on Cooking

Posted on July 2, 2012 by mamabuckwheat

In lieu of Menu Plan Monday, I’m sharing a great menu planning strategy.

I love to cook, that’s no surprise. Especially when you live somewhere with extremely limited take out, on a limited budget and you don’t like to drive anymore than you have to. (which I would have to do to go pick up food!) That’s not to say I’m not immune to the odd dinner out, or have pierogies on a lazy night. Here’s what I do, especially at this time of year when I’d rather be outside more.

‘Planning’ to have leftovers in one part of your meal, to make the next night go faster is my biggest convenience strategy. Tonight, for example, I’m roasting a chicken which will yield much more than 2 adults and a toddler can eat in a night, so tomorrow we’re going to have a big green salad with cold chopped chicken ontop. I can throw that together in under 10 minutes, so tonights time investment of roasting a chicken will pay off in huge dividends. I’m also cooking extra roast potatoes because Mac won’t eat much salad, but will eat chicken and potatoes, as well as my potato lovin’ husband will like them alongside the salad.

Here are a few examples of foods to double up on one night to eat the next!

Night #1 Springtime Honey Garlic Roast Chicken Skillet by How Sweet Eats (I’d cook a bigger chicken, to have more leftovers.

Night #2 Green Salad with cold cubed chicken. I’d throw in sunflower or pumpkin seeds, feta, sliced almonds, bell peppers, apples, shredded carrots, or any other yummy salad toppings I have around. Tomorrow it’ll be finely chopped broccoli, apples, almonds and feta. Use what you have! Adding things like cheese, nuts and seeds add protein and ‘fill-up’ value to a salad so a little chicken can stretch a long way. Stretching meat means it’s frugal which just happens to be my middle name.

Night #1 Burritos with Homemade refried beans by The Prairie Homestead.

Night #2 7 layer dip by 4 Little Fergusons. Along with veg+dip and some tortilla chips…yum!

Night #1 Sausages (I love our game sausages, but use your favourite chicken, beef or pork as well!) with applesauce and mashed potatoes.

Morning after (Tricked ya!) Mashed Potato Pancakes by How Sweet Eats. Not going to lie, I’d probably just eat them on their own without anything else.

Night #2 Pizza with sliced sausages and all your other favourite toppings. Maybe homemade Mozzarella?, we love spinach on sausage pizza!

Night #1 BBQ Steaks, BBQ potatoes (simple toss smallish potatoes in a bit of oil, salt and pepper, poke with fork and cook until done! They’re fast on the BBQ, sometimes just ten minutes), and salad.

Night #2 Pasta Carbonara by the Pioneer Woman with sliced steak and extra veggies (frozen ones work great!). I like to add much more vegetables than it calls for. Peas are fabulous in it though. I skip on the sliced steak, but my it appeals to my husbands inner carnivore. Because you slice it so thinly, last time I made it, I fed 3 hungry adults and only used 2 small steaks. It stretches far!

Night #1 Macaroni or rotini noodles with your favourite sauce.

Night #2 Cold pasta salad. Make it with cooked beans and whatever seasonal veggies appeal to you for a meat free meal.

I was going to come up with another yummy pairing, but then realized the potatoes are close to being done and I haven’t made dip to go with the broccoli and carrot sticks! Yikes! Enjoy these and I hope they’ll help you spend less time in the kitchen, and more time with your family while still eating wholesome meals.

Tuesday Market

Posted on June 25, 2012 by mamabuckwheat

Our Tuesday Farmers market it up and running and I LOVE it!

This week I came home with carrots, green onions, salad greens (with lovely edible flowers!), strawberries and sugar snap peas.

We also bought a snack to have when we got home…these are a great treat, they aren’t cheap at $6 for 2 of them, but man they are tasty. I know I could remake them for about 50 cents a piece if I grew the sprouts myself, and I probably will this summer. These ones have 16 different types of sprouts, and I get them from a farm that grows mushrooms and all sorts of sprouts.

For the mean time, I’m HAPPY to splurge on a sprout filled spring roll my just about 3 yr old son will eat close to half of. (And he’s a small eater. Leaves more for me anyways!)

I dip them in sweet chili sauce and for him, I mix 2/3 peanut butter, 1/3 sweet chili sauce.

He was not into pictures that day…

Just wanted to eat his dang roll!

Do you go to a farmers market?

Blueberry Crumble Pie

Posted on June 22, 2012 by mamabuckwheat

Cowboy and Mac went to a friends house before meeting at my Grandma’s for dinner…I’m waiting for bbq sauce to cook down on the stove, I figured I’d use this quiet alone time to update a few things

On Fathers Day I was laying with Cowboy on the couch flipping through Modern Baker Cookbook. He gave it to me for Christmas in 2008 and I’ve loved it. I was going to be making pita bread from there so I wanted to refresh my mind on how long it took. Every other page he would go “Ooooh make that!” and I’d say we didn’t have all the ingredients, (and I don’t grocery shop until Wednesday at the earliest). We got to the Blueberry Crumble pie and he repeated his mantra. Only this time I took a quick peak and realized everything was there to make it between freezer and cupboards. Score!

I’ve never made a crumble top crust, and until I mixed the topping together I was expecting more of a struesel crumble like topping, this was drier and sweeter, just how Cowboy says he knows it. Go figure!

The whole premise of this book is using food processors and electric mixers to do the hard work and speed up baking. I don’t have a food processor and still made this recipe just fine! I’ll give both methods.

The filling used a wierd method, as you cook one cup of the berries first and thicken them, but it makes for a pie that sticks together like a hot damn! I’d say this pie takes a bit more work than a normal double crust pie with the cookie of the filling and making a separate topping, but it’s worth it. Very very worth it! I can’t wait to experiment with other fruit on the inside.

Don’t be intimidated by all the steps, most of them are pretty simple, just broken up so it’s easier to read.

Blueberry Crumble Pie

Makes a 9″ pie

SWEET PASTRY DOUGH Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cups and level off)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into 10 pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon water

CRUMBLE TOPPING Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

BLUEBERRY FILLING Ingredients

3 pints (6 cups) blueberries, rinsed, drained and picked over
3/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3 tablespoons butter, cold, cut into 10 pieces

1. For the dough, combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse several times to mix. Add the butter and pulse again until the butter is mixed finely into the dry ingredients. Add the egg and water and pulse repeatedly until the dough forms a ball. If it resists, add another teaspoon of water. OR: Combine flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until smaller than peas. Add egg and water and mix again. I had to add a few tablespoons more water to make it hold together.

2. Invert the dough to a floured surface and carefully remove the blade. Press the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic. Chill the dough until it is firm. (Or use right away! No one will know, especially if you used very cold water and did it by hand)

3. To form the crust, remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a floured surface. Gently knead the dough until it is malleable and clay-like. Press the dough back into a disk and roll it on a floured surface, flouring the dough too, until it is a circle about 14 inches in diameter.

4. Fold the dough into quarters and place it in the pan, lining up the point with the center of the pan. Trim away all but 1/2-inch of the excess dough at the rim of the pan, then fold the excess dough under so that it is even with the rim of the pan. Press down with a floured fork or flute the edge of the piecrust.

5. When you are ready to bake the pie, set a rack in the lowest level of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

6. For the crumbs, combine the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon in a bowl and stir well to mix. Stir the brown sugar into the melted butter and scrape the mixture into the bowl of flour. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the butter so that all the flour is evenly moistened. Set aside while preparing the filling,

7. For the filling, put 1 cup of the blueberries and all the sugar in a medium saucepan. Set the pan over low heat and stir often to bruise the berries so that they release their juices as the mixture heats up and they dissolve the sugar. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the berry mixture is boiling.

8. While the berry mixture is coming to a boil, whisk the cornstarch and water together in a small bowl. Stir about 1/2 cup of the blueberry juices into the

cornstarch mixture, then pour the cornstarch mixture into the boiling berry juices, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula. Cook, stirring constantly, until the juices thicken, return to a boil, and become clear.

9. Put the remaining berries in a large bowl with the nutmeg and use a large rubber spatula to fold in the thickened juices. Fold in the butter and scrape the filling into the prepared piecrust.

10. Use your fingertips to break the crumble mixture into 1/4 to 1/2-inch crumbs. Evenly scatter the crumbs all over the filling.

11. Bake the pie until the crust and crumbs are well colored and baked through and the filling is gently simmering, about 40 minutes.

12. Cool the pie on a rack and serve it at room temperature. If you try to serve it while it’s still warm, the filling won’t stay together, but you won’t loose friends over it either. I honestly don’t care if my pie doesn’t stay together as long as it’s not watery runny. Even at that it still gets eaten, especially if you cover part of your sins with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Menu Plan Monday

Posted on June 18, 2012 by mamabuckwheat

Can you believe I’m back and menu planning!? I have been sort of planning meals for the past week or two, but for 2 months before that I couldn’t think farther into the future than what I would eat in an hour. Needless to say my husband did a lot of his own cooking…

It’s VERY exciting that our “Tuesday Market” has started up again because it’s only farmers and food producers, unlike the Saturday market that has all sorts of vendors. Two weeks ago I got salad greens, spinach for smoothies, strawberries, asparagus, dill and cilantro. I may have gone over my budget in groceries so much that I had $20 left for last weeks groceries. Luckily I also overbought most things too so I only had to pick up some new potatoes and organic grapes, as well as later in the week we picked up strawberries from a local farm.

For Breakfast…

I’ve got some pancake batter (I always make too much so we can eat a pancakes a few times in a week), spinach that needs to be used so we’ll have pancakes as well as toast. Yum.

For Lunch…

Leftovers leftovers leftovers!

For Dinner…

Monday: Out at a friends house, they don’t eat much meat but do enjoy farm raised so my contribution is a roasting chicken we’re going to cook there.

Tuesday: Porcupine Balls . I’ll make them with venison though. I’ve got Dinner: A Love Story’s new cookbook and all I can say is go buy it. Right now. It’s a novel and a cookbook all in one which is my favourite kind. I read 2/3 of it in one evening, got up the next morning, made Mac and I breakfast and parked myself on the couch to finish it. (Cowboy was home so I wasn’t totally neglecting Mac, I promise!)

Wednesday: BBQ Venison backstrap w/ bbq new potatoes and salad. We eat soooo many salads at this time of year when the local salad greens are primo.

Thursday: Pasta Carbonara w/ leftover steak. I made carbonara once two years ago, then made it again last week and we don’t know why we haven’t been eating it more often!

Friday-Sunday: We’re camping with my sister and her family and we haven’t figured out what we’re bringing yet. The men will be fishing so there will be trout for dinner, and I think fire baked potatoes, bacon, pb+J sandwiches all sound like good bets. We’re going to make a round of jerky, muffins and cookies to bring as well.

So it’s you’re turn! What’s on your plate? Give me ideas for next week’s meal plan please!

Dog Treats

Posted on May 23, 2012 by mamabuckwheat

Everyone loves treats in our house…even the dog! We don’t personally have a dog but my Mom still has the small dog I had growing up, Cricket and my Stepdad has a yellow lab, Roscoe.

My Mom took this picture of Mac a few months ago, with Cricket. The mini box of cereal he’s eating is his ‘forest fairy’ treat. Everyday when we milk the cow, Mac looks for this treat which my Mom, the ‘forest fairy’ hides for him. It ranges from almonds to chocolate coins. The healthy outweigh the non, but he sure enjoys finding a dozen jelly beans! It all started when I had to milk on my own a bunch and I needed to keep Mac amused while I did. Mom started giving him a small treat and now he looks forward to it everyday.

This is Roscoe! He was my Sister #2′s dog, but she was living in the city, which is not the best place for a large dog, so my Stepdad ‘adopted’ him. Roscoe is very lucky because Doug is a carpenter and takes him to work with him everyday. Some places he can just hang out where Doug is and others he’s got to stay in the truck, but gets taken on a walk at lunch.

When I put the treats on a little tray to take a picture outside, Mac REALLY wanted me to put them on his table, where all winter I get the only natural light and have to take pictures. You probably are familiar with the tile by now. He also wanted to help with the pictures!

The chickens and dogs are just over an inch big and the candy canes are 2 1/2 inches. I just used Mac’s playdoh cookie cutters for them.

Dog Treats

1 egg

1/3 c butter

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp beef boullion (I use Better than Boullion)

3/4 c hot water

3 c flour (Use whatever you have, but I used a mix of spelt, whole wheat, quinoa and buckwheat)

Mix all but water together, then add in flour. I used my Kitchenaid mixer but you could use a bowl with spoon or handmixer. Knead together a few times until it makes a good workable dough, thats not sticky. Add more flour if neccesary. Roll out to 1/2″ thick, cut out with preferred cutters and put on cookie sheets. No need to space as they don’t rise or spread. Bake at 325F for 35-50 minutes, depending on the size. Animals were 35 minutes, candy canes were 45, but if you used bigger ones they would need longer. When they are done they will be hard to the touch.

Rustic Fruit Tart+Announcement!

Posted on May 16, 2012 by mamabuckwheat

I’ve been gone for an embarrissingly long time. I’m sorry, will you forgive me? See the thing is, I’ve been really busy. Not just your average “Oh I’m been busy” statement.

I’ve been growing a baby.

Wooohooo! I’m just entering my second trimester, and hoping the nausea and exhaustion will wane a bit, as I honestly haven’t planned a menu or cooked much of a real dinner in about 6-7 weeks. Lots of snacks. My poor poor Cowboy. Lucky for you, shortly before this onslaught, I did bake a rustic fruit tart and take a picture for you! And since this was approximately 7 weeks ago, I now want to go make one right now. Dang it. (Don’t have time, need to milk the cow in an hour!)

I’ve been making this for eons. Or as much as a 20 year old could have baked in their life. It’s the perfect palette for whatever fruit is in season, your fridge or your freezer. This one was rhubarb, peach and cranberries. The cranberries were just a hint, enough to add a zing. I find it much easier than a dish pie to make and it’s great for a casual dessert, yet has a rustic greatness that you could put on any fancy plate to dress it up. No plate needed! So take it to a summer bbq and share it around.

I hope you enjoy it, because it’s a family favourite!

Rustic Fruit Tart

Makes 8 slices

Dough:

1 1/3 c flour (your mix of white+whole wheat+pastry flour+fresh ground flour+hint of spelt)

3 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

7 tbsp cold cubed butter

water

Filling:

3/4 c sugar (lower or increase for your taste and fruit tanginess)

1/4 c flour

lemon zest (optional)

cinnamon

3-4 c fruit, fresh or still frozen if using from freezer. (Be creative! Fall fruits in fall, summer fruits in summer if you really want to show case the seasons. I’ve used frozen tropical fruit mix before at my Dad’s and it was great)

2 tbsp butter

Glaze:

1/4 c icing sugar

1 1/2 tsp milk

vanilla/almond extract

Filling: Combine all ingredients and stir together.

Dough:

Combine flour, sugar and salt. Cut in butter using a pastry blender (or grate frozen butter). Add enough water to form a dough. Knead a few times for it to hold together. Roll our on a cookie sheet/pizza pan to a 14″ circle. (Alternatively flour your counter, roll it out and transfer.) Pour filling on dough and spread out to within 2″ of the edge. Fold over those edges!

Bake at 375F for 45-50 minutes. When you bake it, juices will go all over the pan, and most likely burn or heavily brown a bit. Put it on tinfoil or parchment to save clean-up. It’ll still turn out just great and come off the pan fine! Cool slightly, then drizzle with glaze.

Glaze: Mix all together in a bowl. Add more milk if needed to get desired consistensy. It needs to be pourable but not so that it will run off of the tart.

Someone can’t wait to dig in!

Venison for Dinner