"The Sweet Potato Cookbook..."

Sweet Potato leaves from last years garden...

Recently, my Mom passed one of her many cookbooks to me so that I could
look through it and pass it along to a friend...I found so many delicious looking
recipes in this cookbook that I just ordered myself a copy!
"The Sweet Potato Cookbook" by Lyniece North Talmadge

Lyniece's Dinner Party Soup

4 medium sweet potatoes, baked
Nonstick vegetable spray
8 cups chicken stock
Kosher salt
1 tsp. orange zest
Nutmeg, freshly grated
3 tart apples, washed and cubed
1 red pepper, cubed
1 yellow pepper, cubed
2 green peppers, cubed
3 cups apple juice
2 Tbsp orange juice concentrate
Medium dry sherry
1 red and 1 green bell pepper, cut in strips
Creme Fraiche

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash the sweet potatoes and spray with vegetable spray. Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 1 hour until tender.
Cool, peel, puree the sweet potatoes and place in a stock pot along with the chicken stock, Kosher salt to taste, orange zest, nutmeg, apple pieces, and cubed red, yellow and green peppers. Bring to a boil and quickly reduce the heat. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add apple juice and orange juice concentrate, and cook 5 minutes more. Strain. If needed, add a splash of dry sherry to taste. Garnish with red and green pepper strips with a teaspoon of Creme Fraiche.

Creme Fraiche
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup sour cream

In a saucepan combine the cream and sour cream. Mix well and heat over low heat until warm. Put into a covered jar and let sit at room temperature for 6-8 hours. Refrigerate overnight before using. Keeps 2-3 weeks.

Doesn't this sound like a delicious fall soup!
I hope you enjoy it!

Karen

Storage Vegetables

I just got an e-newsletter from Johnny's Selective Seeds. If you are just starting to plan a garden or plant, like my friend Sherrin who lives in Australia, or you are doing some "winter stocking"...look at this article about Storage Vegetables. I found it very helpful.

Three weeks ago, I wrote a catch-up post...it is now week 10 in our school year. That means that we close out our first quarter and submit our quarterly reports. So this will be something that I will have to put my attention to this week.

I'm having some troubles with importing my pictures from my camera at the moment, but when I get that resolved, I hope to show you our simple greenhouse/cold-frame made from 1/2" PVC pipe. As our first "experiment", it actually turned out better than we expected! We are attempting to keep some plants over the winter in one of our raised beds. I will keep you posted on our progress. At the moment we have herbs...parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano, chives, french tarragon, winter savory, tri-colored sage, common sage and some older chard and lettuce from this past summer. I'm also trying to over-winter some onions, garlic and Jerusalem Artichokes. They will not be in the cold frame though.

Many of our ideas for this "experiment" have come from Eliot Coleman's book "Four-Season Harvest" which he has successfully grown many cool weather plants (such as lettuces, carrots and other greens) during the winter as well as get a "jump start" on his Spring planting. He lives in Maine so his area is colder than our area in New York.

So what are you currently focused on? If you have a minute, why not share in the comments! I'd love to hear from others!

Thanks! and have a blessed day!
Karen

"Come weary saints..hide away.."

Needing some strength for the journey today? I know I am. Take a look at these scriptures...
Have you felt weary? Here is what Jesus says...

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Matthew 11:28-30

Have you felt overwhelmed? King David did too...

"Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah (stop and consider)."

Psalm 61:1-4

Look at what Paul encouraged the Colossians to do...

"If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."

Colossians 3:1-4

"Hide Away in the Love of Jesus"
by Steve and Vikki Cook

Come weary saints, though tired and weak
Hide away in the love of Jesus
Your strength will return by His quiet streams
Hide away in the love of Jesus

Come wand’ring souls, and find your home
Hide away in the love of Jesus
He offers the rest that you yearn to know
Hide away in the love of Jesus

Hear Him calling your name
See the depths of His love
in the wounds of His grace
Hide away

Come guilty ones, weighed down with sin
Hide away in the love of Jesus
The freedom you long for is found in Him
Hide away in the love of Jesus

Hear Him calling your name
See the depths of His love
in the wounds of His grace
Hide away

Come hopeless hearts, do not despair
Hide away in the love of Jesus
For ten thousand joys await you there
Hide away in the love of Jesus

The Lord is calling us to come away with Him. Don't wait until everything else is done. Go now! You won't regret it.

Happy Fall!

My goodness! the last time I posted was in August! If you are like me, you tried to squeeze in as many projects and activities as your schedule would allow..which didn't include blogging! So here it is October...
Here are some of the highlights from the Summer:
Spent many days working in and around our yard and garden. We increased our growing space from two raised beds to six and as with most of the country, the weather was not what we expected and therefore, our garden didn't yield what we had hoped. I did learn a lot though!

Our college students found it difficult to find employment. Our oldest, K , ended up getting a job at Target and was able to save up some money toward living in her apartment through this school year. We were very thankful to the Lord for providing for her. I think it was a good break away from studying too!

Our second daughter, J didn't find employment, but she was a great help here and at my folks house. She did some of their yard work and also enjoyed visiting with them on a weekly basis. Both girls are back to college now working through their first semester of their Senior and Junior years. Where did the time go!?!

I have talked about starting a home-based business for some time now and it was starting to look like I would need to help out with expenses! So my husband helped me work through the process of getting a DBA (Doing Business As). It wasn't quite as hard as I thought it was going to be! So as of July, I became a sole proprietor of my business - "KateXpressions!" I have a link on my sidebar if you would like to check it out...be sure to leave comments, thoughts and suggestions!

One of the bigger "milestones" was just accomplished this week...B no longer has diapers!! It took all Summer, but we are finally free of diapers, wipes and diaper cream! Yay! This will help the budget. :D

We started School the end of August. Actually, the kids started without me! Where was I? I was away in Maine, staying at a very nice Bed and Breakfast with my wonderful husband. It was our 25th Anniversary and we were given money for Christmases and Birthdays over a few years, that we set aside just for going away for our Anniversary. The kids did a great job on their own. All they had to do was follow the plan! Yay!

So we are starting our 7th week (already!!!) of school..in 3 weeks it will be quarterly time...which signals that the first quarter is done. So how about you? How was your Summer?

An August Garden in New York...

It has been a bit since I have posted anything. I wanted to share a little bit about what has kept me busy...we were trying a number of things to keep our garden growing..hoping to get something for our efforts! This picture shows our lettuce and herb plants...Oregano, Chives, Basil, French Tarragon, Common Sage, Tricolored Sage, Purple Basil, Thyme, Rosemary and Parsley. (and a couple of Marigolds!)

This raised bed contains some pole beans (they were eaten by a woodchuck but are coming back and going up the trellis now!) We have two yellow squash plants, a zucchini and three (very small) heirloom Cherokee Purple Tomato plants.

In this bed, we have two "woodchuck eaten" pickling cucumbers, a Marketmore 76 green cucumber and a White wonder, white cucumber...one intact purple cabbage, one without a head (woodchuck!) some red onion sets, 4 very scraggly looking pepper plants and a few different flowers planted around (Hollyhock, marigolds, Lupine, Nasturtium, painted daisies, shasta daisies, foxgloves and cosmos!) all dwarfed by lots of rain and less sunlight than we would have liked. Woodchuck, apparently didn't care for the flowers, just the vegetables!

In this last picture you can see two (late planted) butternut squash (the smaller plants) a pumpkin and an acorn squash plant. In the background, poking out of the black landscaping fabric we planted another pumpkin, Acorn squash and a butternut squash. The Lord blessed us with a week of sunshine and so our plants are looking much more robust and are finally starting to spread out some. We even saw an acorn squash on that plant in the back! How about you? Share pictures of your garden this year. Even though our garden looks rather pitiful, we have learned alot and so it hasn't been for naught! :D

What is on your heart?

Have you ever had anyone ask you, "What is on your heart?" Sometimes it is hard to express all that has been swirling around in there. Generally, I spout off something about goals that I have or projects that I'm working on. Sometimes I will share how I'm feeling about my life at the time. What is the correct response? Maybe there isn't just "one" correct response, but as a Christian, I think it should be saturated in thoughts of the Lord.
How does my goals line up with the word of God? How is the project that I'm currently working on glorify the Lord and edify my family? Are my "feelings" ruling how I'm viewing my life or am I keeping them in perspective? Am I trusting the Lord?
So, what is on your heart today?

Our recent trip

This past weekend, my husband and I had the opportunity to go to our annual Home schooling conference held, this year, in Rochester, NY. This is NY state's 25th anniversary year. It was an excellent conference with Paul David Tripp, as the Keynote Speaker. If you are not familiar with Paul David Tripp, he is the Author of "Age of Opportunity", a book on parenting teenagers. He has written other very helpful books as well. I highly encourage you to look at his books and materials. I was both encouraged and challenged to parent my children at the "heart" level instead of the "behavior" level.

Here's a quote from a book I bought at the conference, "the Pray! Prayer Journal: Daily steps toward praying God's heart" by Dean Ridings...

"The greatest privilege of prayer is that of coming into the actual presence of God to enjoy loving conversation and communion with Him. We are to pray frequently (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and openly (Revelation 3:20) and even 'with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need' (Hebrews 4:16). What an invitation! There is none other like it."

- Paul Cedar, "A Life of Prayer"

How very true! We have been invited to spend time with the King of kings and Lord of lords..none other like it..where we can ask the Lord for wisdom and guidance as we parent our children so that they will bring glory to His name.

To everything there is a season...

"To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted;..."

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

I was looking at the date on my last post and was surprised that it has been so long since I've written anything!

Much of my time over the past month or so has been spent working toward our garden. Planning what we want to grow, planting seeds, ordering materials...it is more time consuming at the moment because we are still laying the ground work (no pun intended!) for establishing a permanent garden. It always seems the beginning stages take much longer than we were anticipating.

So far, we have planted Raspberry and Blueberry bushes around the edges of our fence, keeping in mind that they will grow and block sunlight. So we had to think about placement. For me, this can be almost as daunting as the rest of the project! Being sure that I want a certain plant in a certain area...perfectionism will slow you down! :)

Last year, we had two (8'x4') raised beds and we expanded this year, to six raised beds of the same size.

It is fun to plan out our garden and think about different plants and what they need to grow well. I feel like I'm back in school taking classes as I read and re-read sections from my gardening books, take notes and then work at implementing the knowledge.

In the background, we are finishing up our home schooling year and keeping our daily pursuits going in a good direction.

Raised Bed Gardening: In Pictures...

A "new-to-me" Blog

Good Morning!
I was just checking my emails, blog, twitter...and came across a link to a "new-to-me" blog! It is called "Teaching Good Things". While looking around on this blog, I came across some ideas for storing beans, which also included recipes. So I include this for my friend Sherrin. We had just been talking about bean recipes. I hadn't realized what you can do with beans! There are some unusual recipes to look at...like "Blueberry Bean Muffins"..:)
There are many other categories: Gardening, Sewing, Canning, Food Storage...worth a look!