Whiteley Creek Homestead

season's first strawberries

I picked this season's first substantial number of strawberries today. I walked out to my patch without a bowl thinking that I would be able to carry them in my hand but, when the berries began to spill onto the ground, I found a pie tin in my potting shed to hold them. Without a second thought, I knew that this special occasion called for a shortcake. I pulled out two partially filled boxes of baking mix to make biscuits. One box was Arrowhead Mills Whole Wheat Baking Mix and the other box was Hodgson Mill "Insta-Bake" Whole Wheat Baking Mix. Both biscuit recipes on the backs of the boxes were the same except one called for 2 tbsp butter and the other used 2 tbsp oil. The only other ingredients were 2 cups baking mix and 2/3 cup milk. Despite my better judgement, I dumped in the 2/3 cup milk thinking that 1/3 cup seemed more reasonable for the amount of flour. Both boxes stated this amount, so wouldn't you think it couldn't be a misprint? I had pancake batter rather than biscuit consistency. It was easily remedied by adding 2 more cups of baking mix. The end product is very light with good texture. We now have many more biscuits than the amount of strawberries to serve over top, so tomorrow's lunch will be chicken a la king.     

dressing drizzled spring bounty

I had to do a second planting of leaf lettuce due to the late season frost earlier this spring taking a toll on my crop. I harvested my first bunch of beautiful lime green frilly leaves today along with my first radishes. I supplemented the lettuce with some store-purchased romaine lettuce to make a summer salad and sliced the radishes to add a subtle fiery kick. 

Upon checking my pantry and fridge, my search for dressing turned up empty so I made my own using a new recipe. It turned out very tasty. Salads are so fun because you can pile on anything you have on hand at the time so each one is a little different. Today's salad had black olives, cashews, sunnies, diced zucchini, sliced cucumber, "Pink Lady" apple slices, grated romano cheese, strips of Swiss cheese, and a fig.

 French Dressing

¾ c. oil (I used 1/2 c. organic extra virgin olive oil.)

2 tsp vinegar (I used “Bragg” brand raw unfiltered organic apple cider vinegar.)

2 tsp water

¼ c. honey (The recipe called for ¾ c. sugar.)

2/3 c. catsup (I used an organic variety.)

I can’t give credit for where I acquired this recipe since I had scrawled it onto a little scrap of paper. I made ½ recipe and it makes great plenty since you’re going to want to drizzle it on your salad sparingly because it is a sweet dressing. Adjust the sweetness to your own tastebuds by adding more or less honey. So good with simple ingredients!

 

 

Since I was in my garden harvesting the very first veggies of the season, I thought I'd take a photo of my green onions and potatoes. These are white potatoes. I have red and pink ones in another bed.

 

 

I am enjoying the blossoms on my strawberries but soon I will be choosing my favorite strawberry recipes, as well as trying new ones, when the heavily-laden green berries turn into sweet juicy red berries. 

 

 

 

 

postage stamps

My oldest granddaughter asked me if I would save stamps for her since she is starting a collection. Of course, I was thrilled to help her out. I immediately rummaged through a waste basket of mail waiting to be shredded. In amongst a myriad of the usual junk mail, I pulled out a postcard from a business inviting me to visit their display of home and garden products at the "Back to the 50s Car Show" held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul this past weekend. In the postcard's top right corner was the prettiest postage stamp that, in my haste, I hadn't taken time to notice. As usual, it took a child to cause me to slow my pace long enough to really notice life's little things. It was the pretty pink and green guava pictured center-stage in this beautiful collection of fruit postage stamps. After researching usps.com, I discovered that they are only available in 27 cent postcard denominations. No matter. I will be scrawling my thoughts on postcards henceforth over the course of the summer. They are just too pretty not to share.

animal issues... friend and foe

The problem we had with our chickens retiring for the night inside their nesting boxes and on top of them, instead of roosting on one of several tree branches supplied for that purpose, has been resolved by draping a plastic mesh in front of the boxes at nighttime. In the morning, when I open the coop to release the chickens for the daytime hours, I swoop the netting upward and secure it out of the way with clothespins so that the nests are available for morning egg-laying. When I return to gather eggs, I unpin the netting so that it can fall down in place ready for nightfall once again. Cleanup is now a cinch and the eggs are squeaky clean! Since our girls have demonstrated that they understand the urgency in returning to the safety of their coop every night, Monday we will open the fence to allow them to roam freely on our property.

If only all of our animal issues had successful solutions... We are battling a woodchuck that persistently digs yet another hole under my garden fence. He has nibbled all of the leaves off my bush beans and Swiss chard. In addition, we have what we think is a raccoon that is knocking down our bird feeders in the middle of the night. Leaving a porch light on helps to deter it. Then there are gophers... mound after mound of dirt in our yard and also my veggie garden. Did I mention a turtle depositing her eggs smack dab in the middle of our 1/2 mile long driveway? Eeeeeks! What is she thinking?!!

  

  

city life vs. country life

My nephew was married Friday night in Minneapolis, so Dick and I took the "less traveled road" via State Highway 25 South from Brainerd to Monticello, which was as far as we could go before intersecting with the busy big city traffic. Highway 25 lazily meanders through small town America. We stopped along the main street in Pierz 30 miles south of Brainerd so that I could take this photo of a phone booth outside the city hall/police dept. building. Growing up before the advent of cell phones, these phone booths were so much a part of the landscape that they went unnoticed. However, they are now becoming a rarity.

  

The bride and groom exchanged wedding vows inside the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory at St. Paul's Como Park in the midst of this unbelievably scented array of blooming flowers.

    

This was the evening view of Minneapolis, seated at our table next to one of the floor-to-ceiling windows that surrounded the room on three sides, on the 50th floor of the IDS Tower where a dinner and dance was held. Our 3 a.m. arrival back home was brutal, but so well worth this outing. An afternoon nap Sunday afternoon eased us back into the solitude of the slower-paced lifestyle on our Brainerd acreage once again.   

here comes the sun

The daily downpours, that we have received for weeks, transformed my front porch cement into a lovely carpet of algae. Today we were blessed with a full day of sunshine, so I mopped the porch floor. It wouldn't have mattered what I did today as long as it was spent outside. Any task was enjoyable. After I finished the floor, I went inside and brought lemonade and peanut butter oatmeal raisin flax cookies out to the table and Dick and I sat a spell watching a "thirteen line ground squirrel" skitter back and forth under the lilac bushes. He stopped long enough to spy our cookies... hoping, I am sure, that we would leave a crumb or two. The gray weathered wooden box is an old chicken nesting box that I cleaned up and Dick hung it on the wall for me to set potted plants in. I tied a variety of aprons, from my stash that I had gathered from yard sales, onto the backs of the chairs to give it a softened "garden party" atmosphere.

 

I wanted you to see this unusual gerbera daisy on my front porch because when it is beginning to bud out, its petals are a lime green color with a burgundy center. (See little flower in foreground.) In its mature stage, it turns a sunny yellow color with the same burgundy center. 

apple varieties

I went to buy some apples to make "Good Mornin' Apple Crisp" for my bed and breakfast guests this morning. For apples to eat raw, I like the Gala variety. Instead of the Gala Apples, though, I selected a bag of the "Pink Lady" variety. I had never tried Pink Ladies before. One crunch into an apple and I now have a new favorite. Their firm crunch and sweetness with just a hint of tartness is a perfect combo. They baked up very nicely in my apple muesli crisp, too. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of "Honey Crisp Apples", which are my absolute favorite variety... as of this day anyway. 

springtime means babies

Yesterday, I decided to bake a "Daffodil Cake" to celebrate the arrival of sunny skies and a break in the rain. It ended up being a celebratory cake symbolizing new springtime birth. We received news that our fourth grandchild was born last night at 10:34 p.m. Eastern time... a boy! Not knowing that my daughter had gone into labor, I had called her at 9:30 p.m. central time but got the answering machine. Now I realize that she was a teeny bit busy at the moment. Moms just intuitively know these things. A midwife assisted with her homebirth while her husband and 6 1/2 and 3 1/2 year-old daughters gathered round. Our perfectly beautiful 8 lb. 2 oz. grandson is snuggled in next to mom, who is resting comfortably in her own bed. We now await the birth of our fifth grandchild's birth in one month to our middle daughter and her husband.

  

Basil Mayo

It was our monthly "Member Day" at our local food co-op yesterday, so I received a 10% discount off my total purchases instead of our normal 5%. By the time I arrived back home and had put all of my groceries away, Dick and I were getting hungry... too famished for any long involved prep or extended cooking time. I stuck my head in the fridge and grabbed items to make a salad... mesclun, cauliflower, cucumbers, zucchini, red grapes, apples, raw sunflower seeds, and Swiss cheese, then drizzled Newman's Raspberry Walnut Dressing over top. For a sandwich, I spread basil mayo on a slice of sprouted grain bread then added slices of thinly sliced turkey and a mound of sprouts. A little dish of maple flavored yogurt and we had "fast food". Basil mayo is so good to have on hand in your fridge to add flavor and a little pickle crunch to a sandwich. Here's the recipe:

Basil Mayo

1 cup Grape Seed Vegenaise. It has a yummy flavor. You can buy it at a food co-op or health food store. Regular mayo doesn't get it.)

2 tbsp dried basil.

3 tbsp chopped dill pickle plus 1 tbsp brine from jar

2 green onions, finely chopped

housework card file system

We have had a stretch of chilly rainy days, so I dove into some deep cleaning with a vengeance that came from the depths of... I really don't know where. I guess I just knew that the warm sunny temps were going to return one day soon and I wanted to be ready to head outside once again to my gardens. Quite a number of years ago, I ran across a "Dear Heloise" submission in the Brainerd Daily Dispatch regarding a file card system for tackling housework in an organized purposeful manner. Actually, it was 15 years ago when I set it up because I discovered a teeny tiny 1993 calendar tucked into the back of the card file. The system takes a little time initially to set up, but it is an effective method that provides a new approach to what can potentially be mundane tasks. I remember my mother writing cleaning jobs on little slips of paper that my sisters and I would draw out of a bowl. After completing that task, we would draw another. We actually hurried to complete our job so we could see what was written on the next scrap of paper. Silly excitement but the creative twist made it fun. This index card method puts a little different spin on tackling housekeeping tasks... just as the slips of paper as a child. 

To set up the system, you'll need monthly (Jan-Dec) and days of the month (1-31) index file dividers, as well as lined 3X5 index cards. First, decide what tasks need to be completed to keep a home orderly and running efficiently. (You can always add more tasks at anytime as they come to mind.) Now place each task in one of four categories: 1) Daily tasks - list all of these on one card. When jobs are completed, move card ahead to next day. 2) Weekly tasks - List one job per card. When job is completed, move card a week ahead. 3) Monthly - list each job on a separate card. When job is completed, move card ahead one month. 4) Seasonal (1X, 2X, or 4X per year) - List one job per card. When completed, move card ahead one year, six months or three months. A random sampling of jobs that I came up with... 1) Daily- dishes, wash counters, stovetop, and table. Sweep/vacuum. Make beds, etc. 2) Weekly - Mow lawn, wipe off kitchen cabinet doors, dust furniture, facial mask, trash pickup, plan week's menu and grocery shopping list, etc. 3) Monthly - Wipe off telephones, balance checkbook, file paperwork, etc. 4) Seasonal - Clean range hood, remove leaves from rain gutters, etc. To give my cards a special place to reside when they are not in use, I tuck them in one unit of this birdhouse triple file drawer.

If you like, you can buy a variety pack of colored 3X5 index cards then you can write daily tasks on yellow cards, weekly tasks on green, monthly tasks on pink, and seasonal tasks on blue. This is what I did. It adds a spark of color and it's easier, when setting up the system, to scatter weekly, monthly, and seasonal jobs more equitably thoughout so you're not overloading yourself on any one day. If you are unable to complete a task on a certain day, for whatever reason... "the brown bird sang in the apple tree", raspberries are ripe in the neighbor's patch, or the perfect summer day is beckoning a day trip to Itasca State Park. Load up the bikes and forget the work. Move that day's cards ahead to the next day, week, or month and forget it until those cards eventually show up again. The system is not meant to cause stress but to break tasks up and spread them out so that each day you pick away at something. That way you prevent feeling overwhelmed and you can come to closure on what you have set out to accomplish for the day. Anything you choose to do beyond that is up to you, but it allows you to feel a sense of completion each day. 

To assist you in getting started, here a some basic housecleaning tasks from http://www.thecleaningauthority.com, which is a company that provides a housecleaning service. 

Every Time We Clean Bathrooms Tile walls, bathtubs, and showers cleaned and disinfected Shower doors cleaned and disinfected Vanity and sink cleaned and disinfected Mirrors and chrome fixtures cleaned and shined Floors washed and disinfected/carpets vacuumed Toilets cleaned and disinfected Mildew chemically treated Cobwebs removed General dusting Kitchen and Eating Areas Countertops cleaned Outside of range hood cleaned Top and front of range cleaned Drip pans cleaned Sinks cleaned and disinfected, chrome shined Fronts of other appliances cleaned Floors vacuumed and mopped Cobwebs removed Microwave wiped out General dusting Sleeping and Living Areas Flat areas damp cloth dusted Stairs vacuumed Empty closet floors vacuumed All readily accessible floors vacuumed Wood floors vacuumed and dust mopped Cobwebs removed Picture frames dusted Window sills and ledges dusted Louvered doors dusted Mini blinds dusted Ceiling fans dusted Lampshades dusted Intricate items dusted Heavy knick-knack areas dusted

Detail Clean: Rotating Basis Bathrooms Tile grouting scrubbed Shower door given extra attention Spot clean doors and door frames for fingerprints Knick-knacks individually cleaned Fronts of cabinets wiped Baseboards wiped Extra attention to floors Kitchen and Eating Areas Inside of range hood cleaned Grease filter cleaned Doors and frames spot cleaned for fingerprints Appliances cleaned and shined Knick-knack areas cleaned Outside of cabinets cleaned Baseboards wiped All kitchen furniture hand wiped Sleeping and Living Areas Doors and frames spot cleaned for fingerprints Window sills and ledges damp wiped Knick-knacks individually cleaned Furniture hand wiped Baseboards wiped Furniture and upholstery vacuumed Carpet edges vacuumed Areas under accessible furniture vacuumed