I finally got around to making some dresses for Hannah. OK, so these were really easy but i made them and Hannah LOVES them. She asks to wear the "cherry dress" every day.
That One Time I Had to Chase my Taco
4 years ago
Friday, May 28, 2010
Making Beer Part 1
Aaron has been very productive in May with completing goals.
This month we also tried making our first batch of beer. Below are some pictures for the initial steps. On Friday (May 28th) we will bottle the beer. Seven days later we will get to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
For the first batch Aaron went with "Fat Man's Porter"
The recipe was given to us by the brew shop where we ordered all of the ingredients
The malt and hops brewing made the house smell wonderful.
The malt and hops brewing made the house smell wonderful.
The yeast packet.
After everything had boiled for an hour, we poured it into the brew tank, added cold water, and added the year.
We have turned the guest bedroom into the brew room for a few days. (Catron Mom-if you look in the background you can see your two new cake plates)
The lid is sealed securely and the air lock is filled with vodka to make sure no bacteria gets in. Yes this is the only reason a huge bottle of vodka is sitting next to the beer container.
And now we wait. Once the yeast is done working, we will siphon off the liquid, add sugar, and bottle. Then the bottles sit for 7-10 days to carbonate the beverage. Then we enjoy.
Making Sausage
As most of you know Aaron saw a wild pig in our yard and was successful in detaining it a couple weeks ago. From the pig we got 32 lbs of sausage. Here are some pics of that process.
We made many different kinds of sausage including
Italian sausage, bulk
breakfast sausage, bulk
hot Sicilian sausage links
polish sausage links
southwestern sausage links
maple breakfast sausage links
apple leek sausage links
I think that's it. but i could be forgetting one. All in all we are really please with how all of our hard work turned out. We will be enjoying all of the this "free" sausage for the next few months.
"free" is in parentheses because the pig was free but i was amazed at how much stuff you need to make sausage we did not have on hand. So after the sausage stuffer (that had to be next dayed to the house), casings, and pig fat we broke about even if we would have bought the sausage at the store on sale. BUT.. we now have everything to make more in the future.
Aaron and I had a great time learning how to make sausage. I don't think we realized before this how involved it is. Aaron is all excited about sausage making and wants to try a few more recipes from our sausage book.
Monday, May 24, 2010
May Update
FINANCIAL
1) Save 9-10% of your annual income in a savings account- life's unexpected things are making this hard. It is still a goal but is starting to look unachievable this year.
2) Save $1000 to go on a honeymoon/5-year anniversary- Well, Aaron had to have his wisdom teeth removed in April. Although this was a planned expense, we were not planning on having to pay 100% up front and then file for insurance afterwards. So, this money went towards help pay for this expense and when we get reimbursed from insurance, the money will go towards this goal.
3) Make 1 extra house payment- Slow and Steady wins the race. An additional 6%
4) Spend less that $3000 on groceries and household needs for the entire year (does not include baby things but does include toiletries and cleaning products)-
5)Never use a credit card - We had some work expenses in April that we used the card for but we plan on paying off in full when we receive the bill.
6)Save enough money to buy Aaron a new chainsaw- WE DID IT! Aaron bought his new chainsaw on Mar 4th. He has already used it a couple times.
7) Save enough money to buy a new lawn mower- We have now realized we can not fix the lawn mower. So, we are selling it on craigslist and getting a new one. Right now we bought a push mower to get by. Let the savings begin
1) Hunt something- Done thanks to a pig in our yard
2) Process one animal - Done thanks to the same pig. We now have 32 lbs of sausage in our freezer.
3) Make a rocking horse
OTHER
1) Make our own breads (so my real goal is to not but any sandwich bread or breakfast breads for an entire year)- None is May.
1) Save 9-10% of your annual income in a savings account- life's unexpected things are making this hard. It is still a goal but is starting to look unachievable this year.
2) Save $1000 to go on a honeymoon/5-year anniversary- Well, Aaron had to have his wisdom teeth removed in April. Although this was a planned expense, we were not planning on having to pay 100% up front and then file for insurance afterwards. So, this money went towards help pay for this expense and when we get reimbursed from insurance, the money will go towards this goal.
3) Make 1 extra house payment- Slow and Steady wins the race. An additional 6%
4) Spend less that $3000 on groceries and household needs for the entire year (does not include baby things but does include toiletries and cleaning products)-
5)Never use a credit card - We had some work expenses in April that we used the card for but we plan on paying off in full when we receive the bill.
6)Save enough money to buy Aaron a new chainsaw- WE DID IT! Aaron bought his new chainsaw on Mar 4th. He has already used it a couple times.
7) Save enough money to buy a new lawn mower- We have now realized we can not fix the lawn mower. So, we are selling it on craigslist and getting a new one. Right now we bought a push mower to get by. Let the savings begin
8) Save $500 to buy a 1/2 cow or a pig for the freezer-
9) Have no debt (other than the mortgage) by the end of the year. Replaced by 9b.
9b) Pay off minivan in 12 months- 35.3% complete thanks to selling the Aztek
10)Pay off all medicals bills from 2009 (Thanks a lot kidney and face)- DONE in February
11)Make $500 from selling things (yard sales, craigslist, etc)- Sold the Aztek which pushed us way over. We also sold the hitch haul.
12) Start a savings account for a new car- well we were able to put $1000 down with the money that we started to save. but this goal is now complete
FAMILY
1) Go on two weekend family vacations- No real vacations this month.
2) Visit both families at least once- Waiting for July and starting to look into the winter holidays
HOBBY
1) Make at least 2 batches of beer- We made our first batch of beer on May 23rd.
2) Make at least 1 batch of root beer-
3) Grow a successful garden- Its in partially. I will call it a work on progress.
4) Can 6+ months of corn, green beans, pickles, spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, salsa, etc. -
SALLY
1) Get back to pre-Hannah weight-
2) Make two dresses for Hannah- I made 4 dresses thanks to Walmart fabric. Hannah loves them.
3) Learn a new hobby-
4)Make 2 books on picaboo- I am updated on Titus's baby book and have worked a little on the other.
5) Read the entire bible-
6) Get more involved at the church- Still searching for my place.
7) Read 7 books - Well I have ten great books i want to read. Again, its just finding the time. I hope to be better about this.
AARON
1) Hunt something- Done thanks to a pig in our yard
2) Process one animal - Done thanks to the same pig. We now have 32 lbs of sausage in our freezer.
3) Make a rocking horse
OTHER
1) Make our own breads (so my real goal is to not but any sandwich bread or breakfast breads for an entire year)- None is May.
2) Make 52 new recipes- Up to ~24 that i can think of. I'm sure there are more but i didn't write them down.
Recipe Catch up
so I have not had the time to take pictures and blog bout every new recipe we have tried this year. I really wanted to and then life happens. But here is a quick overview of the recipes we have tried the last few weeks.
12 honey oatmeal bread from the bread machine- good and easy
13 lemon roll cake- YUM!!! thanks mom for helping
14 peanut butter cups- good and healthy. They are from good and lite. A nice alternative to icecream
15 mexican lasagna-YUM!!! one of our new favorites. We will definately be making this again.
16cranberry breakfast cookies- they have a weird taste which i think is from the dried cranberries i used. But Hannah loves them so she gets to have cookies for breakfast.
17 raspberry bread- Ok taste but the seeds are weird to me.
18 strawberry bread- good. would make again
19 whole wheat blueberry streusel muffins- YUM!! I will definately make these again. but i did follow the advice of the commenters. Increase the oil to 1/2 c and increase the sugar to 2/3c. It made 15 for me.
20 sausages. So really this should be 6 or 7 different recipes but since this also fulfils another goal i felt like we were cheating by countingit both places. So they only count as one recipe. But we made....
breakfast bulk sausage
italian bulk sausage
maple breakfast sausage links
polish sausage links
hot sicilian sausage links
southwestern sausage links
(there may be one more but that is all i can think of)
21 Vanilla ice cream in my new ice cream maker. Milk, cream and sugar has never tasted so good in only 30 minutes.
22. Whole wheat tortillas- Aaron made these and they turned out great. Truely better then anything you can buy in the store. My plan is to start making them fresh instead of buying. And thanks to Jesse and Alica, we now have a tortilla press to help out.
23. Broccoli and cheese stuffed chicken breasts
12 honey oatmeal bread from the bread machine- good and easy
13 lemon roll cake- YUM!!! thanks mom for helping
14 peanut butter cups- good and healthy. They are from good and lite. A nice alternative to icecream
15 mexican lasagna-YUM!!! one of our new favorites. We will definately be making this again.
16cranberry breakfast cookies- they have a weird taste which i think is from the dried cranberries i used. But Hannah loves them so she gets to have cookies for breakfast.
17 raspberry bread- Ok taste but the seeds are weird to me.
18 strawberry bread- good. would make again
19 whole wheat blueberry streusel muffins- YUM!! I will definately make these again. but i did follow the advice of the commenters. Increase the oil to 1/2 c and increase the sugar to 2/3c. It made 15 for me.
20 sausages. So really this should be 6 or 7 different recipes but since this also fulfils another goal i felt like we were cheating by countingit both places. So they only count as one recipe. But we made....
breakfast bulk sausage
italian bulk sausage
maple breakfast sausage links
polish sausage links
hot sicilian sausage links
southwestern sausage links
(there may be one more but that is all i can think of)
21 Vanilla ice cream in my new ice cream maker. Milk, cream and sugar has never tasted so good in only 30 minutes.
22. Whole wheat tortillas- Aaron made these and they turned out great. Truely better then anything you can buy in the store. My plan is to start making them fresh instead of buying. And thanks to Jesse and Alica, we now have a tortilla press to help out.
23. Broccoli and cheese stuffed chicken breasts
Monday, May 3, 2010
April Review
FINANCIAL
1) Save 9-10% of your annual income in a savings account-
2) Save $1000 to go on a honeymoon/5-year anniversary- Well, Aaron had to have his wisdom teeth removed in April. Although this was a planned expense, we were not planning on having to pay 100% up front and then file for insurance afterwards. So, this money went towards help pay for this expense and when we get reimbursed from insurance, the money will go towards this goal.
3) Make 1 extra house payment- Slow and Steady wins the race.
4) Spend less that $3000 on groceries and household needs for the entire year (does not include baby things but does include toiletries and cleaning products)-
5)Never use a credit card - We had some work expenses in Aril that we used the card for but we plan on paying off in full when we recieve the bill.
6)Save enough money to buy Aaron a new chainsaw- WE DID IT! Aaron bought his new chainsaw on Mar 4th. He has already used it a couple times.
7) Save enough money to buy a new lawn mower- We have decided to not buy a new lawnmower. We are working on fixing our old one.
8) Save $500 to buy a 1/2 cow or a pig for the freezer- After some research I have realized $500 will come nowhere near to buying half a pig of cow. But, this is still something i wish to do.
9) Have no debt (other than the mortgage) by the end of the year. Well, we bought a minivan in April. I love our new car, but we had to get a loan. I am hopeful to have this paid off in 1 year. I am pushing to try and have it paid off within this year, but we'll see.
10)Pay off all medicals bills from 2009 (Thanks a lot kidney and face)- DONE in February
11)Make $500 from selling things (yard sales, craigslist, etc)- none this month
12) Start a savings account for a new car- well we were able to put $1000 down with the money that we started to save. but this goal is now complete
FAMILY
1) Go on two weekend family vacations- No real vacations this month.
2) Visit both families at least once- we have officially planned to visit both families in June and July.
HOBBY
1) Make at least 2 batches of beer-
2) Make at least 1 batch of root beer-
3) Grow a successful garden-
4) Can 6+ months of corn, green beans, pickles, spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, salsa, etc. -
SALLY
1) Get back to pre-Hannah weight- April was not a lot better. But without much work on this subject I am now 25% of the way to my goal
2) Make two dresses for Hannah-
3) Learn a new hobby-
4)Make 2 books on picaboo- Maybe in May
5) Read the entire bible- Stil nothing in April. I hopeful that in May i can get part of it read. I am also thinking abuot listening to it on book on tape.
6) Get more involved at the church- Still searching for my place.
7) Read 7 books - Well I have three great books i want to read. Again, its just finding the time. I hope to be better about this.
2) Process one animal
3) Make a rocking horse
OTHER
1) Make our own breads (so my real goal is to not but any sandwich bread or breakfast breads for an entire year)- None in April
1) Save 9-10% of your annual income in a savings account-
2) Save $1000 to go on a honeymoon/5-year anniversary- Well, Aaron had to have his wisdom teeth removed in April. Although this was a planned expense, we were not planning on having to pay 100% up front and then file for insurance afterwards. So, this money went towards help pay for this expense and when we get reimbursed from insurance, the money will go towards this goal.
3) Make 1 extra house payment- Slow and Steady wins the race.
4) Spend less that $3000 on groceries and household needs for the entire year (does not include baby things but does include toiletries and cleaning products)-
5)Never use a credit card - We had some work expenses in Aril that we used the card for but we plan on paying off in full when we recieve the bill.
6)Save enough money to buy Aaron a new chainsaw- WE DID IT! Aaron bought his new chainsaw on Mar 4th. He has already used it a couple times.
7) Save enough money to buy a new lawn mower- We have decided to not buy a new lawnmower. We are working on fixing our old one.
8) Save $500 to buy a 1/2 cow or a pig for the freezer- After some research I have realized $500 will come nowhere near to buying half a pig of cow. But, this is still something i wish to do.
9) Have no debt (other than the mortgage) by the end of the year. Well, we bought a minivan in April. I love our new car, but we had to get a loan. I am hopeful to have this paid off in 1 year. I am pushing to try and have it paid off within this year, but we'll see.
10)Pay off all medicals bills from 2009 (Thanks a lot kidney and face)- DONE in February
11)Make $500 from selling things (yard sales, craigslist, etc)- none this month
12) Start a savings account for a new car- well we were able to put $1000 down with the money that we started to save. but this goal is now complete
FAMILY
1) Go on two weekend family vacations- No real vacations this month.
2) Visit both families at least once- we have officially planned to visit both families in June and July.
HOBBY
1) Make at least 2 batches of beer-
2) Make at least 1 batch of root beer-
3) Grow a successful garden-
4) Can 6+ months of corn, green beans, pickles, spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, salsa, etc. -
SALLY
1) Get back to pre-Hannah weight- April was not a lot better. But without much work on this subject I am now 25% of the way to my goal
2) Make two dresses for Hannah-
3) Learn a new hobby-
4)Make 2 books on picaboo- Maybe in May
5) Read the entire bible- Stil nothing in April. I hopeful that in May i can get part of it read. I am also thinking abuot listening to it on book on tape.
6) Get more involved at the church- Still searching for my place.
7) Read 7 books - Well I have three great books i want to read. Again, its just finding the time. I hope to be better about this.
AARON
1) Hunt something-2) Process one animal
3) Make a rocking horse
OTHER
1) Make our own breads (so my real goal is to not but any sandwich bread or breakfast breads for an entire year)- None in April
2) Make 52 new recipes- I now have ~18. Recipes to follow
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