Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!

It is 2011.... As a young girl I always thought about the future and what Gods plan was for my life. I remember thinking about 2011 particularly and thinking about how far away it seemed at that time. I often wondered if I would be married or have children as well.   Did you ever do that as a child?? Think about the future....that is? Well it is 2011 and time has flown by since I was that little girl. Alot has changed since then and I am so thankful for all the many blessings the Lord has blessed me with.

I am not one to make new years resolutions because most of the time they don't last (actually all the time they never last.) I can only think of two people in my entire life who actually stuck with a resolution for one year. That is pretty committed, huh??

The only time I ever made a resolution was when I was in 8th or 9th grade. I (along with some other friends of the family) committed to not eating candy or drinking soda for one year. I can honestly say I MADE IT!!! See I am not a big candy eater, I just love cookies, ice cream, and pies, and I only drank water so it wasn't that hard for me. I know you are probably wondering why I did it then, right?

Well if we could make for the one year then our parents would give us $100 at the end of the year.

Not a bad deal for an 8th grader, huh!?!?

Good ole' memories!!

Well I say all that to say that this past December I decided it was time to try something new. I thought January would be a great time to start but I didn't really make a resolution. I just sat down and talked with my husband one night and told him I wanted to try some things this year. If it works great and if not then I can say I tried.

The idea I had was to have a garden and to make most of our food from scratch.... I'm crazy, I know!

I have wanted to make more of the food we eat from scratch for a long time now but haven't really taken the initiative to do it. I have also wanted to have a garden but we have never really had the time or place to have one.

So what I am going to try to do is prepare healthier food with the least amount of preservatives/pesticides as possible....Which means more things will be made from scratch and most of the food will be organic.

Don't get me wrong, I am still going to make all the things we really like to eat but it will just take more planning and prepping in the kitchen then normal.

I have talked with a couple who lives here in RH who have a 1 acre garden and also my husband's grandparents who had a garden for many years in there back yard and grew up on farms in west Florida. Unfortunately I was told that where we live we have to many wild animals and they will eat the garden up.... SO my bubble got burst there. Unless I buy an electric fence to keep the critters out I will be waisting my money on seed. And I am NOT buying an electric fence right now! So I guess now that I have the space and time(haha) the little critters have put a stop to the garden I wanted to have.  I still think I am going to try some stuff on our screened-in porch where I can move them around in pots to get sun and keep them safe from the animals in our woods. We will see how that goes.

I am not going to be able to blog about what I make all the time or whats growing (or not growing) in our yard but I can get you started on something I made today...

I attempted bread. For some of you making homemade bread is second nature but to me it's not. I always found it easier to pick up a fresh loaf from the Publix bakery. I always thought that working with yeast was harder then it should be but then for Thanksgiving my mom and Omi (my German Grandma) showed my sister and I how to make easy homemade yeast rolls and how to make spaetzle (A homemade noodle.) I realized then that it isn't that hard and if all else fails you can make another batch! 

 For the price I can make 4 loaves of homemade bread I can buy one loaf at the grocery store. Interesting, right?

Well my bread only took 2 1/2 hours to make including the rising twice and the baking. I am looking forward to making a vast variety of homemade foods in my kitchen this year. You should give it a try and if you have questions give me a shout!!
So if I can make my bread look like this the first time, then you should at least give it a try!!

Happy New Year!!