Rachael Eliker's Blog, page 91

Yeasted Carrot Waffles

Shhh! No one will ever know they're eating vegetables in their waffles!This is a great way to sneak some veggies into breakfast or a breakfast-for-dinner meal. Top with maple syrup, mulberry syrup, peanut butter, strawberry jam...the possibilities are endless! Make batter about eight hours ahead of time (before going to bed for breakfast or in the morning for dinner) and all you have to do is heat your waffle iron and pour batter in.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups milk6 Tablespoons butter4 Tablespoons...

Burn Baby, Burn

One of the perpetrators. No hair, thin body, no barbed stinger: a yellowjacketI was innocently mowing the yard and drove by a rock where last year, we discovered a nest of ground bees.  Not two minutes later, I had a few dozen yellowjackets on my heels. Well, now my record for never having been stung is ruined. I got six stings in rapid succession and a few hours later, they're still hurting.
Claire giving my cheek where the wasp stung a kiss."Good thing they're a dull pain," Jack texted....

Little Hogs

Snow enjoying some uneaten spaghetti.Though I always have thought it would be fun to have a pig rooting around the property, experience (myself and others) has put a bit of a damper on it. Pigs are big. They're notorious for getting out of fences. And they can be mean. Like, bite your leg off mean.
The start of a feeding frenzy...Twinkle ran off with a chunk of muffin before anyone knew it hit the ground.Not to say that I won't ever have a little piggy or two but for now, we've settled for chi...

Fresh Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

I've been watching the apples fill out on the trees and know in a few months, we'll have a bumper crop of fruit on our hands. So, I've thought about how I'll use up all our bounty: juice, applesauce, apple pie filling and now, fresh apple and cinnamon muffins.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups diced apples (peeled and cored)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup milk

Topping
4 Tablespoon...

Cross Stitch

I don't know why, but I've always wanted to be a cross stitcher. I don't think it's a particularly difficult or beautiful art, but it is soothing in it's own way. I think it also makes me feel connected to the past too. Women used to sit and quilt or paint or cross stitch even while they were in the midst of homesteading huge parcels of land and though we're rehomesteading, I feel like I've got a lot on my plate like my ancestors did.
Just getting started about three years ago!Jack's repeatedl...

Kindergarten!

My baby looks more like a little girl now...If time flies when you're having fun, then kids really are a blast because we've already got a kindergartener here! It seems like only yesterday we were bringing Evelyn home and now, in a blink of an eye, she's an intelligent, witty, clever, sweet, hilarious little girl.
We went to tour her school yesterday and though the community is small, it is thriving with little kids. It was all a bit overwhelming though Evelyn took it all in stride.  This...

Tender Mercy

While driving around a few days ago, I saw a beautiful patch of landscaping and thought to myself that I'd like to have some black-eyed susans in my flowerbed. It was more of a thought to tuck in the back of my mind to ask around this fall and see if anyone had some they'd like to split.
Not a day later, I was jogging along the road with Raven and spotted a patch of newly-blooming black-eyed susans. Now, they're living in my flowerbed and though it was a rather insignificant-yet-very-appreciat...

Wild Raspberries

The raspberries are just getting started...If we weren't blessed enough with wild asparagus, cherries, grapes, apples, honey, hickory nuts, plums and mulberries, this year, we also discovered wild raspberries. Jack's life may now be complete...
Wild raspberries are black and have larger seeds but they're still tasty.We were out digging up our free asparagus when one of our elderly neighbors came crashing out of the brush on his golf cart with several bucketfuls of the sweet little berries...

German Pancakes

Oh, yum.I've had this recipe in my recipe box for several years now but never got around to making it. I am regretting that now. My sister introduced it to us when she made some during their last visit. It's the perfect combination of puffy, crunchy, flaky and soft and when topped with anything from syrup, mulberry syrup, fruit or pie filling, it's divine. Quick meal for a special breakfast, brunch or dinner! Double recipe if entertaining company.
Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter1 cup flour4 eggs1 c...

Canoeing at Cagles Mill

What a scenic canoe trip!We were happy to have some family visit this weekend and somewhere in between chopping and splitting wood, putting in a new window in Kate's room, helping someone move and keeping up with the chores, we found time to go canoeing.
Getting ready to push off!It's the first time we've been able to find time to go in Indiana. We lived less than ten minutes from a ramp down the Skunk River in Iowa (where, thankfully, we never saw any skunks) and have been dying to boat for a...