Another Goal Complete: Root Beer

Last weekend Aaron and I tried making a batch of root beer and ginger ale. Both were semi successful and semi failures. The root beer taste great but I let the yeast sit out too long before mixing it in. So, the root beer did not carbonate. The ginger ale carbonate up very nicely but it has a funny taste. I'm not he biggest fan of the recipe. It has a nice ginger taste, but the lemon added is over powering. I think next time I would reduce the lemon amount and only add the juice, not the entire lemon.

This coming weekend we are planning on making another batch of root beer. Hopefully we will have some to bring home while visiting family. Pictures will be posted soon.

Book Review: Lies the Goverment Told You: Myth, Power and Deception in American History by Judge Andrew Napolitano

This book is about the 17 top lies the government has passed onto the American people including that "all men are created equal", "its only a temporary program", and "I'm the government, and I'm here to help." He discusses how the men and women in government have warped the government to be self serving instead of selfless. He gives many real examples of how laws and authority have been abused and covered up.

I thought the book was eye opening. I always new there were problems with our government, but he did a wonderful job putting face to some of the issues. While I may not feel as strongly about some of the issues as he does, it does show you how some kind of government reform and accountability is necessary.

Overall i enjoyed the book, mostly. I did find the book a little hard to read at times, but that might have just been me.

Note: I was given a complimentary copy of the book to review. this review is my own opinion and I was in way compensated for a good review.

Recipe #24- peanut butter oatmeal cookies... with fiber

So, I had a box if All bran bran buds that I wanted to use up. After some searches, I came across a couple recipes. The first one I tried was this... Fibertastic Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies.

The cookies turned out pretty good. They are a nice chewy oatmeal cookie.. not the flat gooey kind. The peanut butter is subtle and the all bran can not be tasted at all.

We will definitely make these again. They are a good and they contain very little refined sugar.

Enjoy!

Dresses for Hannah

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.

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 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.

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

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.