Sunset Ritual

Sunset is my favorite time of day; it's important to me to get outside and watch this daily phenomenon. It's a strange addiction.  There is something cathartic and humbling about seeing the sun set or rise.  I know that all the world is as it should be when these events happen just as they have a million and one times before and will continue to do at least another million or so times.  How insignificant my worries or problems seem - no, how insignificant I realize I really am - when I see the glory of the setting of the massive, powerful, & magical sun.  These days with daylight savings time, the sun sets just after 5pm! Gotta head outside now...Will post some pics of today's sunset later! For now, enjoy these from earlier in the year! :)

Below are the pics from 11/30/13:

My Favorite Bread Recipe

Sure it probably seems so much easier just to run into the grocery store and pay $2 for a loaf a bread. But I just love the feeling of creating something with my own hands and the fragrance and taste of fresh, homemade bread cannot be duplicated!

• 10 pound bag of bread flour......$3.38
• 5 pound bag of sugar................$2.68
• 4 oz. jar of yeast.......................$4.58
• 26 oz. container of salt..............$1.29

So for about $11.93 total, I'd have enough flour to make 12 batches of my bread.  That's less than $1 per batch for two smaller loaves!!

My homemade herb bread (one batch)

The time and effort involved in bread making is much less than you'd think and I want to encourage anyone to at least try it once!!  My mom taught me how to bake bread when I was very young and I remember making bread by hand from scratch all by myself as young as seven or eight.  I got my first bread machine when I was 19 and love it!  I never bake the bread in the machine, but I use it for mixing, kneading, and that first rising.  So wanna try your hand at baking your own bread?  Here is my simplest bread machine recipe.

Add these ingredients to your bread machine (be sure to follow your machine's instructions for the order of ingredients).

• 1.5 cups water
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3.5 cups bread flour
• 2.5 tsp. yeast

I select the dough cycle and start!  During the initial stirring and kneading phase I do check in on the dough. If it's too dry and flaky, I had a teaspoon of water.  If it's too sticky or watery, add 1 tablespoon flour.  Check on it again in about 5 minutes and repeat if necessary.  It should be slightly tacky to touch, but not stick to your finger.  Once your dough has the right consistency, just let the machine do the work.

My machine's dough cycle is 90 minutes.  When it completes it's dough making cycle, turn your beautiful dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead the dough by hand and work it into two nice, big balls.  Put each ball into an oiled loaf pan (I prefer glass or silicone).  

Cover the bread lightly and let it rest in a warm, draft free spot.  During cooler weather, I normally will put my oven on low (less than 200 degrees), put the bread pans in, and leave the oven door slightly ajar.  I will use my dehydrator or a warm, sunny window to let the bread rise during the hot weather.  I let it rise until it has just about doubled in size.  Depending on the temperature of the air around the bread this may take anywhere from 60 minutes to 3 hours.  It takes less than an hour in my oven as mentioned.

Once your bread has risen to about double it's original size - it's time to bake!  Bake on 350 for about 20-30 until the top of the bread is golden brown!

EAT & ENJOY!

Life in the Garden

Wow I think we've already experienced at least seven nights of 27 degrees or below already!  There were snowflakes falling with the rain today! This is not normal weather around here!  I have worn shorts to the Christmas parade in years past!  Tonight is supposed to be 23 according to the Weather Channel, which means it'll be about 20-21 in my backyard.

I harvested all the lettuce this morning to use for our Thanksgiving salad.  The rest of the fall garden - broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, and garlic - has been mulched in with leaves over the past few weeks (our first frost was October 24) and this afternoon before the sun set, we covered each garden row using an old bed sheet as a floating row cover.  All the sheets are from the 70's - my mom blessed us with these gorgeous, wild, yet valuable frost covers when she moved.  It looks like a camp of miniature psychedelic-print tents  in my backyard, but so far they have preserved all the life in my garden.

Keep your fingers crossed the adorable baby produce survive this hard frost tonight!  Most of these little beauties are "due" for harvest during the next week or two!!  This is my first time planting a fall garden and most of these veggies are new to me.  I expect the garlic to be ready any time from December - February.

It's all one big experiment! :)

Easy Sausage & Potato Casserole

Sausage & Potato Casserole

Made this for dinner last night for a quick, simple meal of meat and potatoes!  Everyone loved it, even my picky child! The adults enjoyed a nice, light glass of the 2013 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau that paired really well!

Ingredients

1 pound bulk pork sausage

1/2 cup green pepper, finely chopped

1 jalapeno chopped

1/2 cup onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups diced potatoes (you can use fresh or frozen or even hashbrowns)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 Tbsp butter or margarine

(The 4 ingredients in purple can be substituted with 1/2 cup Bisquick instead)

1 cup milk

1/8 tsp pepper

2 eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease 8x8x2-inch casserole dish.
2. Brown sausage, peppers, and onion in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat, about 8-10 minutes.
3. Mix sausage mixture, potatoes, and 1/2 cup of cheese then spread into greased casserole dish.  Save 1/2 cheese for topping at end.
4. Whisk remaining ingredients until blended and pour over sausage potato mixture in casserole dish.
5. Bake about 35 minutes until knife inserted in center comes out clean.
6. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and bake 1-2 more minutes until melted.
7. Let stand 5 minutes prior to serving.  Top with hot sauce, salsa, and or sour cream if you like.

Bon Appétit!

To Begin

Many years ago, I looked around at my life and realized my priorities had changed.  The life I thought I had wanted to build really wasn't the life I longed for at the core of my being.  I decided that the world of corporate cubicles, rush hour traffic and commutes, expensive clothes, impressive cars and toys, exotic vacations, and building a mini-mansion just were not for me.

My family and I have made lots of changes since then - both small and large.  And there will be more changes in the years to come.  My mission is to create a more simple life that doesn't revolve around material objects, money, jobs, or technology.  Our focus is our family and the people in our lives and finding the joy in the simplest of things.

We started our first backyard garden in 2009 and fell in love! The smell of fresh earth as it's turned over, the feeling of soil in your hands, and the simple joy of planting a seed and watching it grow into something you can actually eat!!! It's the most amazing feeling and the taste of food you grew yourself is so much better, cleaner, and satisfying than buying it in a store.

Our family eats dinner together every night at the kitchen table.  We use the "fine china", silver, glasses, and crystal and linen napkins.  The meals we prepare are cooked mostly from scratch.  We very rarely go out to a restaurant or order take-out or even go through the drive-thru at the fast food places.  Not only is cooking at home healthier for you but it will save a ton of money, too!

Eventually, this blog will also discuss finances because I feel that's an important part of leading a more simple life.  I am against debt or spending more than you earn and I'm also a fan of the "less is more" mentality.  But today I just wanted to finally start this blog and share a recipe for a delicious dinner we ate last night!! :)