Hey guys! Do I have a roundup for you! It was a slower week but I’m slightly behind on some blog posts so I’m going to do a combo weekly roundup-yarn along-recipes-friday favorites today! It’s going to be a long one so I hope you stick with me (longer than normal I should say!).
First, let’s round up the week. Like I said above, it wasn’t an especially busy one but I did get some things done, have some classes, etc. etc. I worked two days this week and we had dinner with friends. That was nice. I totally crashed on Tuesday though and basically didn’t get out of my pajamas all day (other than to go vote. I didn’t wear my pajamas to do that). Speaking of voting, my friend did not win the seat he was campaigning for. It was close and according to him and his research, it was a bigger voting turnout that in recent memory. So all that knocking on doors helped get people thinking about the election. Or so I would presume.
I haven’t really been taking a lot of pictures these past few weeks. I’m not sure why. I almost feel stuck again. Like I can’t move to the next level. I really need to send the photography instructor an email and set up some time to get together with him. I’ll put it on my to-do list! I’ve also been giving the blog and social media some thought. I don’t feel like I’m teaching as much I used to. Or sharing homesteading stuff as much as I used to. Am I just overthinking things? Do I need more homesteading related material here? I would appreciate any thoughts you have on this.
I’d also like to revive the coffee and pie chat that Daenel and I were hosting. We took some much needed time off but I’m ready to get back to it. Keep your fingers crossed that I can get it done for Monday! We’re talking Apple-Cranberry pie. I’m so addicted to cranberries right now.
Speaking of. I posted the recipe for the cranberry bread over on Insta so I thought I would share it here too. It’s a recipe from Martha Stewart and I pretty much follow it exactly.
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup whole milk
1 bag (12 ounces) cranberries
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar, for topping (optional)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; butter and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan (8-cup capacity), and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine butter, egg, and milk. Add wet mixture to dry mixture, and whisk to combine; fold in cranberries.
2. Pour batter into prepared pan; sprinkle top with turbinado sugar, if desired. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack; let bread cool 30 minutes. Invert onto rack, then immediately turn right side up to cool completely.
That’s it! Easy peasy yes?!? While we’re at it, let’s do another recipe. I’ve been mentioning Butternut Squash soup that is a Whole 30 recipe. I’ve had some people ask me about it so I thought I would share it here, to live on into infinity! I, unfortunately, don’t have a picture of it. I think I eat it too fast and then think about taking a picture. You can use your imagination though. It looks like squash soup with bacon crumbles and kale mixed in.
Butternut Squash Soup with Kale and Bacon
(from the Whole 30 book)
Ingredients:
3 tbsp. clarified butter, ghee, or coconut oil (I use clarified butter or olive oil)
1/2 cup diced onion
3 cups diced seeded peeled butternut squash (or 1 butternut squash)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
4 cups chicken broth
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Directions:
1. In a large pot, melt the cooking fat over medium heat, swirling to coat the bottom of the pot. When the fat is hot, add the onion and cook, stirring until translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the squash, garlic, and ginger and stir until the garlic becomes aromatic, about 1 minute.
2. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil until the butternut squash is soft, about 10 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat.
3. In one or two batches, transfer the soup to a food processor or blender and blend on high speed until smooth in texture. Return the pureed soup to the pot.
4. Heat the soup of medium-high heat until it thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, 7 to 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Make it a meal: add two generous handfuls of chopped kale in the last 3 minutes of cooking. Sprinkled crumbled cooked bacon after spooning soup into bowl. You can also add fall flavors to the soup by adding nutmeg and/or cinnamon.
While we’re talking about creating-cooking, baking-let’s join in on Ginny’s Yarn Along. Normally I would make this a separate post but since I have such a back log of posts that I need to get out over the next couple of weeks, I don’t want to put out so many posts that you guys stop reading! So…we’ll just talk about knitting and reading here. As you might be aware, I’m starting a homesteaders online book group so I’ve started reading The Beekeeper’s Handbook. I took a beekeeping class recently and am in love! I want bees. I use a lot of beeswax in my products and I use a lot of honey so I think it’s a natural next step for the homestead (right after we get the garden and chicken space fixed up). So I thought we would kick off the book group reading about bees. I’m also doing a giveaway over on Instagram if you’re interested. I’m giving away a copy of the book along with some other goodies (seen below).
Even though I have multiple projects on the knitting needles right now, I felt the need to start a new one. I saw the sample Soul Warmer cowl below at Rhinebeck and instantly thought of all the mini skeins of yarn I have and how it would be fun to try to use them all to make this cowl. I don’t think I have enough but I certainly have enough yarn to fill in when I run short. The beauty in this pattern is you just make each section as long or short as you’d like. I can’t wait to see how it works out. And I’ve been thinking about whether I’m making Christmas gifts again this year, and if so perhaps I should get moving on it!
A quick run down of the yarn I’m using:
Madeline Tosh mini skeins (all except the light one at the very top of the picture next to the book and the pink ball of yarn)
The light mini skein next to the book and the pink ball of yarn is from my dear friend River at A Knitters Homestead. I’m very excited to use it!
The pink ball of yarn is from Toad Hollow
The gray yarn is from Sublime Yarns
I’m linking up with the other Yarn Alongers over on Ginny’s blog. I try to visit all the other bloggers and find out what they are reading and working on. I’ve met some really great people that way (I’m looking at you Bekah and you Martha). I’m still amazed at how we make connections in this great big world–either online or in person! Anyway, check out all the fun posts by clicking the icon below.
A couple more things and then we’ll change gears and hop into our Friday Favorites! I finished up the To Market class last Friday. I’m very inspired to make some changes to my business. Nothing major, but just some minor tweaks. I’ll share the details with you once I have everything in place. But do be on the lookout for the class and events page to be updated on the regular, as well as the shop. I spent all day yesterday driving around Delaware County meeting local shop owners and talking to them about either purchasing some of my goods or how we can work together. I think I made a couple of good connections. I’ll continue to do this over the next few weeks. It’s fun getting out there, pushing myself out of my comfort zone, seeing some beautiful country, and meeting local shop owners. And I have an after school program today that I’m really excited about. We had our first snow over night but thankfully it wasn’t much since I have to travel today to get to the library where I’m running the program. I love teaching and working with kids and we get to bake apple crisp. What’s not to love? Okay. Now for Friday Favorites!
I haven’t had a chance to dig on much this week but here are a few things that popped up.
1. How fun is this? It would take my pasta making to a whole new level!
2. In an effort to be more environmentally conscious, I just ordered these for my classes. I feel good about them and they’re the perfect size!
3. If you’re local and looking for a good place to visit, I highly recommend the Roxbury General Store. It’s so beautifully curated and it is full of local products.
4. Okay. I have a weird love of good grocery stores. And I detest bad grocery stores. So I found this grocery store in the middle of the Catskills. It was so nice! I wish it were just a little closer to me but it will be on my radar from now on.
5. I joined Pure Catskills! I’m really excited about the opportunities it can provide. I might need to tweak my profile a little though. I don’t see it on there yet but I’ll let you know when I do!
I’m linking up with the co-hostesses of Friday Favorites. Click the links below to see what they’ve been up to this past week!
A Little Bit of Everything / Momfessionals / Grace and Love
Thanks for hanging in there guys! I’m hoping that once I get through all my backlog of posts, my posts won’t be nearly as long. Maybe they will. I always feel like I have SO much to tell you all. How was your week? Tell me all about it and tell me what you’ve been digging this week. I want to know!
Bekah
Your Cranberry bread looks delicious! I have a bag of frozen cranberries in the freezer. Maybe I should pull those out to thaw and bake this bread for our church group tonight?? I need to try the butternut squash soup too! Perfect fall flavors.
As far as homesteading posts on your blog, what would you like to share about? It seems like you would be able to talk about starting up in a new space (like you did with your garden), homesteading on a budget, and keeping up a homestead while running a business/working outside of the home. I am sure others would find that useful!
I can’t wait to watch your progress of beekeeping. We currently wouldn’t have the space to keep bees, and even if we did, I don’t know if I could manage it. Little known fact, I used to be absolutely terrified of bees! I would have nightmares about them and everything. My husband used to find me tearing around the backyard while gardening because I was trying to run away from a harmless bee, at least he got a good chuckle out of it! Somehow having kids caused me to be a bit more fearless around bees…I didn’t want my boys watching me be scared of an insect that did so much good. My heart no longer races when I see when one in the garden, and I will actually get quite close to them to be able to observe them better. What a silly fear!
I hope you have a great weekend with lots of knitting time. My youngest and I are off to visit my mom.
PS Thanks for the shout out. I’m glad we met via our blogs as well 🙂
chickenlibrarian
Thanks Bekah! I just think I used to have more tutorials, or things that were going on around the homestead. I like teaching and like using the blog as a teaching tool. And I like your ideas for topics. I’ll start incorporating more of those into the blog, along with my regular features. I think the book group will also lend that kind of teaching/interaction that I’m thinking about. Not that my regular posts don’t but they’re not always ‘teaching’ per se.
That is certainly funny about the bees. Although I imagine it wasn’t funny to you! But I can just imagine you in the garden and a bee comes over and you run away from it! I got a good chuckle out of that too. I also like that you overcame that fear! Good on you!
I hope you have a great weekend visiting with your Mom. You do NOT want to see my to-do list for this weekend 😁
Tracy
Hi Kristin! I agree with what Bekah said about your blog content. While it’s great to know what your audience is interested in, we are here because we are interested in what you have been writing. I don’t want to say “write what you are passionate about,” because I am sick of the word “passion,” but write what charges you up! If it’s educational because that’s where it’s flowing – write it up! If it’s something that gets you emotionally going – write it up!
The energy that comes through in your writing is one of the reasons why people stop and read. If you wrote a post on an interesting topic with a feeling of “meh,” it would come through. And people (eventually) would not stop to read.
I think the other reason why people (certainly me) enjoy your posts and keep coming back is that you are a real person – even if you do some things that people don’t think they can do. It is inspiring to to know that someone out there is going for it. So thank you. 🙂
You are awesome for putting up the squash soup recipe. I think I will add it to this week’s menu!
Looking forward to learning what the upcoming week brought you and hearing about your successes and experiences! (Oh, and the work you are doing – face-time to meet local shop owners – good on you! I can see that opening up all sorts of opportunities for you: from places to sell goods, to spots to provide workshops/lectures, to word-of-mouth supporters to help advertise your classes.)
chickenlibrarian
Thank you Tracy! All that definitely helped! I guess things change and grow and flow as we do the same. Sometimes I teach, sometimes I just unload everything that’s been going on, and sometimes it’s something completely different. I guess that’s okay! I just got to thinking (dangerous words!) after I posted my giveaway and everyone was mentioning that their favorite resources are other Instagrammers who share a lot of homesteading information. I wondered if I was doing the same. I don’t want to put ‘fluff’ content out there. I want it to be authentic and to also be helpful, if not entertaining. So I started second guessing myself a little. But all the comments have certainly helped me realize that I am sharing stuff and it’s not just entertainment or fluff. Not that there is anything wrong with fluff. I like fluff. I just want my content to be more than that.
So thank you again for being a straight shooter and letting me know. And keeping me on track.
Shugunna Alexander
Hi Kristin, I comd over to your blog because I really enjoy your take on baking, yhe honest outlook you have on your lifestyle and YOU. I love reading what you post and in it all you’re bringing us along, so whatever you’re writing about, I’m interested.
Tell your friend sorry about election but great job on getting more people to the polls which is the most important!
Continue to take care of you. Oh, almost forgot, love your craft room!! I can see sitting in there with the lights, so dreamy.
chickenlibrarian
thank you Shugunna! I appreciate you always stopping by and having a kind, and encouraging, word. I realize that not everyone who reads my blog is ‘into’ homesteading, yet here you are reading it and leaving comments. And I like that. We don’t have to be into the same things (goodness knows I don’t have the fashion sense to do a fashion blog! LOL!) but we can still appreciate each other and find encouragement in each other’s lifestyles. I think I was just overthinking things (that’s the understatement of all understatements!) so I appreciate you and the rest of the crew setting me straight.
xoxo
-k
Daenel T.
That cranberry bread looks delicious. I used to bake a few loaves every fall when the kids were all home — they loved it. That and the banana nut bread. Now that they’ve all moved out, it isn’t the same. I don’t know what’s going on with me lately, I’m totally in my feelings…
Anyway, I’m thinking about purchasing a crochet sweater kit. I think I told you I wanted to learn to knit, because I’ve only seen knit sweaters. How did I not know that there are crocheted sweaters out there? I mean, duh, Daenel. I just don’t want it to be another project that I start and not finish. Not that I need another sweater. My sweaters are literally falling out of the chest of drawers that I store them in.
I completely understand what you mean about getting stuck in photography. Most of the people I follow have kids, so their streams are full of adorables. I don’t have that so I’m like what do I shoot? I mean I can only shoot a coffee cup so many times. Again, in my feelings. Oy.
chickenlibrarian
Oh boy! I hear ya. On everything. I think you should totally make the cranberry bread. It is so easy and so good. The hardest part? Waiting the hour for it to bake! I taught the after school program kids how to make the bread last week and they didn’t like the whole cranberries so they used dried cranberries! Ingenious! I loved watching them work together to troubleshoot something and come up with a solution.
And yes to the crochet sweater! And you’ll have such a sense of accomplishment. And knowing that you made it will make you want to pull it out and wear it over and over again.
I haven’t picked my camera up lately. I don’t know why. I don’t feel inspired I guess, plus I’ve been really, really busy. So taking pics, editing them, and then using them has been the last thing on my to-do list. I haven’t even had time to blog, post to social media, or stay connected that way. So I guess I was thinking ‘what’s the point in taking pics right now. I’ll only get further and further behind’.
Talk about being all in your feelings! LOL.
Cheryl | Time To Craft
I love the idea of keeping bees. I’ve toyed with the idea of doing it for ages. Hope you do get going and it would be lovely to see your journey. The cranberry bread looks amazing. I like your cowl and the way is changes. Wonderful way to use up odd balls too. I find outside photography easier, so this time of the year I feel limited and take less photos. I’m trying to play with the light, I have, in a different way. I’m enjoying it. Thanks for dropping by my blog.
chickenlibrarian
Thanks Cheryl! I appreciate you taking the time to visit my little homesteading blog. I’m super excited about the cowl, but sadly have been too busy the past couple of weeks to even manage a stitch on it.
I’ve enjoyed following the light this fall and how it changes. I really don’t think I ever noticed it before this year. I mean, I noticed it, but not in the same way as when I have a camera in my hands.
I highly recommend the bread recipe. It’s so easy and so yummy.
I look forward to hearing more about your adventures!
Melinda
I don’t know, still sounds like a pretty full week to me, lol. And a productive one! I’ll admit, I’m glad you got dressed to go vote, although I’d rather see people in their pj’s than not at all 😉 And I know you probably have a direction you want to take this blog, but honestly, it’s just always fun to see what you’re going to come out with. Your brain is constantly hard at work, tossing out new things to try, and I enjoy hearing about your new plans. So whatever direction you take, I’ll keep on reading 🙂
chickenlibrarian
Thanks Melinda! I guess I got sidetracked a little and started thinking that I wasn’t doing a good job on my blog. You know how I like to overthink things. But then the feedback has been good. And I realized that I’m sharing things that I’m doing and that are important to me. So thank you for helping set me straight! And I can definitely agree that the weeks have been very busy, full, and productive!