This upcoming weekend is one of my absolute favorite weekends of the whole entire year.  It’s homecoming weekend for our local college…the college where Matt and I met, the college where my parents met…the college where we made wonderful memories and friendships.  (We also got a good education there and all that stuff.)

So, every year for York College Homecoming weekend, my house fills up with bunches of family members and friends.  And I LOVE it. 

But here’s the thing.  If I’m not organized and on the ball with all the meals I’ll be feeding my guests…I DON’T love it and it’s not fun and I feel stressed the entire weekend and I don’t get to enjoy any of my friends or family members who have come. 

I want to be able to visit and relax. But I also really, really love to be a hostess and make my guests yummy food and make them feel welcome and loved. 

(Oh, and while I’m usually very good at multitasking…cooking and talking at the same time is not something I do very well.  Which means that I can’t very easily prepare food and talk with my guests at the same time.  I’m weird like that.)

So, I make as much food ahead of time as I possibly can. 

Check out our menu here.  Of all the foods listed from Thursday night on…here are the items I’m preparing ahead of time:

Potato soup
Chicken noodle soup
Lasagna
Salad
Homemade bread
baked potatoes (for the sausage, potato and egg scramble)
Sloppy joe meat
Veggie tray
Applesauce bread
Cookies

Most of this can be made any time and put into the freezer or into the fridge.  Oh, this makes hostessing so much easier.  When it’s time to prepare a meal, all I have to do is re-heat my food or stick it into the oven. 

And since I don’t have to think very hard to do that part of the meal prep…I can usually hold down my end of the conversations pretty well!

So there’s my little tip on saving sanity when hosting a houseful of guests.  Now I guess you know what I’ll be up to all this week!  But just don’t talk to me while I’m trying to cook all this food…I’ll get distracted and put too much baking powder into the lasagna. 

Oh right, the lasagna doesn’t call for baking powder….

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Visit Tammy’s Recipes for more kitchen tips!

Wanna learn all kinds of great tips about organizing your kitchen?  Go check out Rocks in my Dryer where all kinds of smart people are posting today on their favorite kitchen management tips.

You know I love talking about kitchen management.  Having a functional kitchen (aka Funky Kitchen) is the only way I can survive.  Which is why I wrote an entire ebook about the subject, “Do the Funky Kitchen“.

Out of all the fun ways I work to have a  Funky Kitchen…here’s my FAVORITE way to keep my kitchen organized: 

I try to keep my countertops as cleaned off as possible. 

If I have stuff all over my countertops it makes cooking SO much harder.  But if I have hardly anything on my countertops…the kitchen looks clean and welcoming and organized and cheerful and refreshing.   And I can put meals together so much more easily. 

I’m talking about appliances too…toasters, coffeemakers, blenders…anything that takes up space.  Put it somewhere else if you possibly have a somewhere else to put it.  Clear the clutter people. 

Then, wipe off your countertops and enjoy looking at all of the nothing that is all over them.  I promise you’ll be glad you did!

Get thou into the kitchen and organize it!  Let’s all do the Funky Kitchen!!

I mentioned that over the weekend I received millions and millions (okay, maybe not millions) of peaches from a lady in town.  I’ve been busy preserving them for winter and thought I’d walk through the steps with you.

Please note:  These peaches were so awesome and juicy, and since there were so many of them, I felt that none of us needed to hold back on how many we ate.  So, as I was standing in my kitchen peeling and slicing peaches, and  peach juice was running down my arms…I was also biting into peaches as I worked, because I just couldn’t resist.  Therefore, I also had peach juice running down my chin.  But with peach juice all over my hands and running down my arms, it’s not like I could do much about my chin, you know?  Not one of my finer moments. 

Thought you might like to picture that.

If you remember, I was given four boxes of peaches.  (I did share a few with some friends.)

In the past, I’ve always peeled my peaches with a knife…and that’s been fine.  But I had so many peaches this time, I went ahead and tried this method of peeling, and whoa was it a time saver! Just put your peaches into boiling water for about 30 seconds…pull them out…

And those skins just peel right off!!  It was awesome.  Except for when they didn’t peel right off, which happened with a few of them for some reason.  (Just thought I’d tell you that so that if not all of them peel right off for you, you’ll know that you aren’t the only one!) 

(You don’t have to peel your peaches if you’re going to freeze them.  They’ll be more nutritious if you leave the peelings on, and it will save so much time too!) 

To freeze peaches, just peel, slice and lay the peach slices on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Put the pan into the freezer until the peaches are frozen, about two hours.  (Or longer if you forget they’re in there.)  Then put them into a freezer bag and you’ve got great peaches for smoothies and slushies!!  And cobblers and crisps!  (If you feel like skipping this step and simply just putting your peach slices directly into a pan without freezing them individually like this first, you can…but you’ll end up with one big gallon sized frozen peach-sicle, and you may be very frustrated when you want only part of the rock hard peach-sicle for a smoothie.  Just so ya know.)

Now…to can peaches…this is what I do.  There are other ways to do it…this is just the way I do it!  Please be sure to go back and read Canning 101 for the canning basics!

I make a honey/water solution on my stove…which is 2 T. honey to every 5 cups of water.  Heat it on the stove and let it sit warm while you prepare your peaches.

Sterilize your jars.

Take out a hot jar and put in about 1/16 teaspoon of ascorbic acid to keep your peaches pretty.  Just dump it into the bottom of the jar.  (Some people use lemon juice)

Ascorbic acid is powdered vitamin C.  I get mine at a health food store.

Fill the jar with sliced peaches.  Then, use a funnel to pour your honey/water into the jar, to about a half inch from the top.  Place a sterilized lid and ring onto the full jar.

Now it’s time to give your full jars a hot water bath to seal the lids.  Put your full jars into the water.  Once the water is boiling,  boil the jars for about 25 minutes.  (And yes, this is actually a picture of applesauce jars boiling…I forgot to take a picture of the peaches boiling and I’m too tired to go can more peaches just so that I can go take a picture of the jars boiling.)

Oh, and boil your jars with the lid on the water bath pot…I just took off the lid for the picture. 

After the jars have boiled for 25 minutes, take them out with tongs…or better yet, this cool gripping tool made especially for jars and hot water baths.  Then you get to listen for the caps to seal.  I can’t think of a way to blog the way it sounds…but after all your hard work, it sure is a cool sound to hear them seal!  (Thhhhp!) (Or something like that!)  You can be sure they sealed if you can push down on the top and it is down firm.  It takes anywhere from 1 second to 30 minutes for the lid to seal after you’ve taken it out of the water. 

Then, just leave your canned peaches out on the counter for a few hours or several days so that you can admire them and smile and feel happy every time you walk into the kitchen and see them.  (Okay, that’s what I like to do anyway.)  (Because I’m weird like that.)

In a couple of days, I’ll show you how to make and can applesauce!
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Read other kitchen tips at Tammy’s Recipes.

Just in case you may be unfamiliar with the beautiful art of canning fruits and veggies…I thought I’d do this post to explain some of the basics.  Then later, I can post about the specifics!

Here are some of the basic supplies you will need in order to can food.  Some of these supplies are not entirely neccessary…just really, really helpful.  Some of these supplies are entirely neccessary.

If you are planning on canning fruits or veggies, you will need jars. 
(Oh, how I love jars!)  I like having both quart and pint sized…
and my favorites are the wide mouth jars.

You’ll also need lids and rings.  The rings you can re-use year after year,
but in order to have your lid seal, you must use new ones each year.

This handy dandy tool is a magnetic wand, which I use to retrieve lids
and rings out of hot sterilizing water.  (See below)  I love this tool!!

This tool helps me grip the jars as I pull them out of the hot water bath. 
Since I’ve had this tool, I have broken fewer jars and burned myself less often. 
I SO recommend one of these.

This wide mouth funnel is a lifesaver when you’re trying to get
your produce into the jar without making a big mess. 

A water bath pot is pretty neccessary…
if you’re planning to seal your jars in a water bath. 

Okay…next…

Here are a few things you need to know if you don’t want to die from botulism…

*Using the hot water bath system to seal your jars is only safe if you’re canning something acidic.  Otherwise, food must be sealed in a pressure cooker.  Food that I know of to be safe to can in a hot water bath:  tomatoes, apples, peaches, pears.   If you aren’t for sure what’s safe…please look it up to be sure before you use a hot water bath to seal your lids!

*You need to sterilize your jars, lids and rings before you put food into them.  All I do is put my clean jars upside down into a shallow pan of boiling water for a couple of minutes.

I do the same with my lids and rings.

See, this is where that magnetic wand comes in very handy!

*When you put your jars full of yummy fruits or veggies into the hot water bath, I recommend putting them in before you start to boil the water.  If your water is already boiling hot, you run the risk of breaking your jars and losing all of the work you put into filling.  So, put your jars into the pot of water, then turn it on to begin to get hot.  Once it finally starts to boil, then start your timer for the recommended boiling time.

Okay…this will all make more sense with my other posts about canning specific fruits and veggies.   But…that gives you the basic information you’ll need so that those posts will make sense.  Or maybe none of it makes any sense and you’d rather just come over and watch.  (Watch, nothin’.  I’d hand over a knife and some apples and tell you to get busy.) 

Stay tuned…canning peaches and applesauce coming soon!
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Find more kitchen tips on Tammy’s Recipes.

I have a few completely random subjects running around in my head.  I figured you would just love to hear all about it. 

1.  The very best part about being sick is feeling better afterward.  And being incredibly joyful simply because you can put a load of clothes into the washing machine without feeling completely worn out when you’re done.

2.  Along those same lines…because I was sick for the better part of two weeks, and then we went on a trip…I’m having a terrible time catching up on everything that needs to be done around here.  I do not have a Funky Kitchen…and my Home doesn’t look the least bit Heavenly right now. 

3.  It doesn’t help that my vacuum isn’t working.  And hasn’t been for about a month.  The last time I tried to vacuum…I felt pieces of dirt and other unknown objects HITTING my foot!  My vacuum was BLOWING AIR OUT instead of sucking stuff in.  What is THAT about?  So, my vacuum is in the shop, and my floors just keep getting dirtier.  Thankfully, most of my main floor is hard wood and we just sweep it…but upstairs is a different story. 

4.  I have weeds taller than Justus outside in my garden.  And he’s been growing like a weed.  Now that’s scary.

5.  I sent two of my boys outside yesterday to rinse out a couple of big jugs.  45 minutes later they came in soaking wet…the sidewalk had been watered very well…and the jugs were dirtier than they were to begin with.  I’m pretty sure they had fun “helping me” though. 

6.  Last week we killed our friend’s guinea pig.  Not on purpose.  We were guinea pig sitting and it just so happened that it was “Rosie’s” time to go.  I was reminded of several years ago when I was bunny sitting…and the bunny didn’t make it either.  You may not want to trust our family with your pets.  Just saying.

7.  Asa lost his last baby tooth last night.  His very last one.  I’ve got to stop being in denial about my kids getting older.

8.  As I do every July…I’m starting to get REALLY excited about the upcoming school year.  We always start in early August…and I’m excited to share more about our schedule and some of the things we do in our home school.  You should see my awesome list of books that I want to order!  Ooh, I’m getting so excited!!!

9.  I’ve heard from several of you that you’re anxious to hear more in my Getting Real With Food series!  I’m anxious to share too, now that I’m feeling better.  Sorry I haven’t posted any of those for a while.  Really and truly, I’ll get back with it next week.  What I LOVE is hearing how many of you are working to eat healthier!!!  That makes me so excited!

10.  I’m baking today for the farmer’s market.  I’m writing this as my pretzel dough is rising.  My house is about to begin smelling really, really yummy.

11.  I had a typo when I first wrote number 10 and wrote “My house is about to begin spelling really, really yummy.”  I never knew I had such a smart house.

Okay, enough randomness….I’ve got to go get back to work in the kitchen.  And, I do believe that I’ll call the vacuum place to see if my vacuum is almost ready to be picked up. 

What are you up to today?  Hope you have a great one!

Here’s a quick tip for any of you who have ever had so many things going on at one time that you thought your head would pop off.  And then you look around at your house and see messes in every room and feel complete frustration thinking that you’ll never get it all under control…and you don’t even know where to start if you could ever start…

I was sorta feeling this way today.  (sorta?)

But as soon as I had a free minute…I went and cleaned my kitchen. 

In my opinion…it’s the best place to start.  When my kitchen is a wreck…I feel completely like a wreck.  If the kitchen is clean…everything overall feels so much better.   

I don’t have time to get to the rest of the house right now…but I started with the kitchen.  And I feel like I’m regaining my focus…and I feel much calmer now. 

You’ve gotta love a clean kitchen! 
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More about kitchens today at Tammy’s Recipes!

You’ve all been so encouraging as I write my posts about healthy eating…and all the other homemaking and parenting and random stuff I blog about!  I love your comments and emails…KEEP THEM COMING!

I’ve received lots and lots of questions from you, and just so ya know, I’ll try to answer all of them.  If it’s a question about healthy eating, I’ll try to answer it somewhere within my Getting Real With Food series.  Thanks for being patient with me.

If you asked a question a long time ago about something else and I still haven’t responded….ask again.  Sometimes (most of the time) I don’t even call my kids by the right name.  I KNOW I’ve surely failed to respond to some of your  questions.  (”A-Jus-El-Mal-Asa”…I have to go through all of them, just so that I can go back to the one I started with in the first place.)  (It’s a good thing we don’t have pets too.) 

So before I lose track of these two questions from my last post about the farmer’s market, I’ll answer them now. 

Here are the pictures I showed you of what I made last Thursday…

First question… 

Can you tell us what the other foods are? I think I see pretzels? what else?!?!?!  Also, can you tell us/show us how you package these goodies for the market?

Last week I made two batches of pretzels, one recipe of cinnamon rolls (which made five pans of eight), one batch of flourless peanut butter cookies, one batch of giant chocolate chip cookies, a pan of chocolate chip brownies, three loaves of applesauce bread, a double batch of white flour tortillas and a double batch of whole wheat tortillas.  (The whole wheat tortillas turned out ugly this time…so we kept them for ourselves!)

I packaged the pretzels in five bags of five, and the rest I packaged individually so people could buy one at a time or several at once.  The cinnamon rolls I slid carefully onto a paper plate then put tons of ooey gooey frosting on them and covered them with a baggie.  I cut the brownies into 12 large squares and wrapped them in plastic wrap.  I wrapped the giant cookies and the applesauce bread in plastic wrap also.   I put the peanut butter cookies six to a plate and covered them with plastic wrap.  The tortillas went into baggies in sets of eight. 

We came home with only seven pretzels (I took 47…not bad!), and a few odds and ends of cookies and such.  The cinnamon rolls sold out fast!  (Must’ve been the ooey-gooey frosting!)  I was surprised that there wasn’t much interest in the applesauce bread.  (What, they only want the unhealthy stuff?!)  Matt suggested I take samples because if people tasted it…they would WANT it!!  (He’s so sweet!)  I’ll try applesauce bread one more week and if it doesn’t go well, I won’t make it anymore.  (For the farmer’s market that is.  I’ll SO keep making it for us!)

Next question…

The food looks fantastic!  How do you find time to do all that baking with four kids?  I’d love some pointers.  I really enjoy baking.I would love to sell some baked goods at our local farmers market:)

If I say, “I don’t know how I do it.  I’ve decided that I must be insane.” would that be discouraging? 

My insanity aside, I LOVE baking and I’m pretty fast in the kitchen.  I have established a bit of a farmer’s market baking system that has worked pretty well so far.

First…the chocolate chip cookies freeze very well so I make them on another day when I have time and freeze them.  Done.  Also, I think the applesauce bread is moister and tastier on day two, so I bake it on Wednesday night before bed.

I then make sure my kitchen is clean and my ingredients are ready for a baking marathon on Thursday…

I get up early and get my first round of pretzels mixed up.  While they are rising, I get the chocolate chip brownies in the oven.  While they bake, I do some dishes and mix up the peanut butter cookies.  As soon as the brownies come out, the cookies go in. 

Then, I mix up, roll out and cook the tortillas. 

By then the prezel dough is big and fat and lovely…so I start shaping and baking those.  While those bake, I mix up the cinnamon rolls to rise.  While they rise…I rest a while.  (What a good idea.)

Once I get the cinnamon rolls ready and rising, I mix up my next batch of pretzels (I find that if I mix up a double batch at once, they just don’t do as well…that’s why I do two separate batches). 

I bake my cinnamon rolls while the prezels rise…and I work on my mountain of dishes.  And package up the food that is cooled enough. 

After the cinnamon rolls come out of the oven, I begin shaping and baking the last round of pretzels.

When I’m done with that and the cinnamon rolls have cooled, I frost them.  And then I’m done.  Shew!

Where are the kids during all of this?  I have no idea.  Just kidding.  Sort of.

No really, they are asleep for the first few hours of it, and that’s when I get a ton of it out of the way.  Then they get up and eat breakfast (okay, we did cereal last week…and might just have to do that every Thursday this summer unless I make something ahead of time!).  After breakfast, they just play…and I think they get dressed eventually too.

Last week, my very sweet friend Jenny called while I was baking and asked if Elias and Malachi could come over and play with her kids for the afternoon.  She came and picked them up and everything.  She’s awesome!  The boys loved it and it made me feel less like I was neglecting anyone.  

For the most part, my kids are pretty good at playing together during these times that I’m baking my brains out (well, that doesn’t sound very tasty, does it?).  Or sometimes they come help me…or sometimes I’ll put them on another job doing something else.  They actually really get excited about farmer’s market day…and the hardest part for them is that I’m baking all these really yummy things and not letting them eat ANY of it.  The nerve.

Now…I wouldn’t want to do it everyday, because it does wear me out…and I don’t get to spend good down time with the kids…but once a week for a few weeks during the summer is good.  And if I haven’t mentioned it before…I do love to bake.

Note to self about this upcoming Thursday:  Remember to eat.  Good grief, I never forget to eat…but I totally forgot until about 2 pm last Thursday when I said to Matt, “Wow, I’m really starting to feel light headed.”   Duh.  Eating food is usually a helpful way to keep yourself upright. 

I’m gonna try to remember that this week. 

Any more questions?!

When we hear that our friends or family members have lost a loved one…we often don’t know what to do to help them.  Should we go visit…or leave them alone?  Should we take something to them?  If so, what should we take?

It’s hard to know what to do sometimes…but we all want to do something. 

Having experienced a loss in our family last week, I was reminded of some wonderful ways you can help someone who is grieving. 

First….just go be with them.  If you can’t decide whether or not you should “bother” the family…just know that the ministry of “being there” is a wonderful one.  Even if you don’t know what to say and how to act….just go.  The family needs to be surrounded by people who love them and care.  Stay for as short or as long of a time as you feel is right once you’re there. 

Next…should you take something?  If so, what should you take?

You don’t have to take anything.  Just offering a hug and encouragement is enough.  I can’t emphasize enough the importance of just being there.  But, if you’d like to take something to help the family…here are a few suggestions:

*Food*

The grieving may not have much of an appetite…but they do need to eat.  Take a nice bunch of fruit…some muffins…a jar of trail mix…yogurt…anything that is easy to eat. 

Take food that will freeze well.  If lots and lots of people bring food, yours could get wasted if it doesn’t freeze easily.  Sloppy joes, casseroles, breads or cookies freeze well and are great to have on hand. 

Take food that will make an easy breakfast for the family.  Cinnamon rolls, egg casseroles and quick breads are perfect because they are easy for the family to eat in the mornings…yet they also freeze well if they aren’t needed yet.

Drinks such as bottles of water or juice are very nice for the family to have on hand also. 

*Non-Food*

When my mom died a few years ago, someone showed up to the house with a big package of toilet paper.  I kind of cracked up….as I would never thought of that.  But, wow was I ever glad they had brought it!  With many, many people coming and going for several days…we went through a lot of toilet paper…and certainly none of us would have felt up for a Wal-mart run. 

Other non-food items that are helpful:  paper plates, napkins, paper towels…plastic containers, food labels and baggies for freezing leftovers…kleenexes (both boxes, and purse sized pouches).

Also, postage stamps and blank thank you cards are needed as the family will need to send many thank you notes out after the funeral.

*For Kids* 

Most likely there will be children who are also grieving, and/or hanging around a bunch of adults who are distracted and distraught.  Consider taking some fun snack foods that kids would consider a treat, cereal, granola bars, crackers, popcycles or juice boxes.  You might also take some inexpensive quiet items like new books, puzzles, coloring books, or even a new DVD for the kids to enjoy.

I hope these lists were helpful, but remember…you don’t have to take anything.  Just praying for the family and being there is enough. 

Please feel free to add to these lists as you leave a comment.  If you’ve ever been through the loss of a loved one, you know how helpful it is to be surrounded by those who care. 
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Check in with Tammy’s Recipes for more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays. 

Imagine my joy…as I began to blog about my beloved jars…to find that you wanted to know more about them!!  (And here I thought you’d think I was just a nerd with jars.) 

Yes, it’s true.

I LOVE talking about jars, and looking at jars, and using jars…

So, here’s a bit more information about my jars for you!

I use jars if at all possible for just about everything, as I’ve read about the unhealthy use of many plastics.  (Don’t worry, more on plastics coming up in another post!)

Beyond trying to avoid plastic…I simply LOVE jars.

I love the way they look…I love all the different sizes and shapes they come in…I love all the things you can put into them…and I love how things look once they’re in them.

I like to display them on top of my fridge with my baked goods.  I like to fill them with my oats, rice, popcorn, beans and pasta and put them into my pantry. 

I like to put my leftovers (if we happen to actually have any) into them so that I can see what I have in my fridge. 

I like to put my spices into small ones since I buy spices in bulk…and don’t like pulling out a one pound bag of oregano each time I need a teaspoon of it.  (Do you know how big one pound of oregano is?  About half the size of your pillow…no kidding.)

The milk we get from our farming friends is put into awesome half gallon jars.

And of course, I do a lot of canning in the summer/fall…so I need hundreds of jars for that.  Most of my canning jars used to be my mom’s, which makes them even more special.  (And by the way, why…when we use jars to preserve food do we call it “canning”?  I think it should be called “jarring”….but whatever.) 

I ordered my milk jars from my health food co-op, Azure Standard, for a very reasonable price.  I’ve gotten many of my other jars very inexpensively at the dollar store.  Or at garage sales. 

Or…I’ve received them as gifts…because when people see cool jars…guess who they think of? 

Yes…their friend…the nerd with jars. 

Join Tammy’s Recipe’s for more kitchen tips!

I LOVE to bake.  

I know…not everyone does…

But for me, it’s the most fun way to make my home a haven!

My friend Char tells me that everytime her husband walks into their house and smells something baking….he just starts grinning and his eyes get real big!  What a perfectly easy way to make your man happy!

I LOVE it when my hubby gets home from work and says, “MMMMMmmmm!  That smells SOOO good!”

And of course…the kids never mind it when Mama bakes.  They’ll come running full speed into the kitchen and then slide on their socks to a skidding halt and say, “What are you MAKING?” 

Baking is also a great way to bless your friends and neighbors. 

I’ve gotten such a kick out of my cousin Jayme lately!  Ever since she discovered my Soft Pretzel recipe…she’s been a Pretzel Princess…baking up batches and running all over the neighborhood delivering them to whoever gets there first…baking them for her daughter’s teacher….baking more for her own family.  I LOVE it!!!

So, I say…make your home a haven by getting some flour in your hair and on your face…and start blessing others with some baking!!  Your haven never smelled so good!

(Please use these great recipes as you make your home a haven!)

And now, I’m going to go make my haven smell like brownies with homemade chocolate chips!