Self Reliance Experiment: Menu for Day 1

I can't tell you how excited I am for this no grocery experiment.  You must be wondering what they put in the water down here in Sanpete County--chickens, solar ovens, buddy burners, forgoing trips to the grocery store.  I don't even have a response.  But I will tell you what we ate yesterday.

Breakfast: Eggs with cheese and salsa in flour tortillas.
Lunch: Leftovers with grilled chicken.  (I'm lucky to have a boy who will each grilled chicken instead of nuggets.)
Dinner:  Chicken pot pie.

The pot pie was already made and in the freezer, I just had to bake it.  Here is the recipe.  (I didn't take a picture, so just pretend this one is mine.)

2-3 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1-2 T. butter or olive oil

1 can cream soup

1 c. milk (can refill soup can with milk)

2-3 cups frozen veggies--ANYTHING works! (I like peas, carrots and corn, but I have used broccoli and cauliflower too.)

2 pie crusts (you can make your own, but I usually use store bought

Saute the onion and garlic in the butter or oil until soft.  Add the soup and milk and stir until combined.  Add chicken and veggies.

Put bottom pie crust in pie pan.  Fill with soup and veggie mixture.  Put second pie crust on top.  Finish off edges.  If you are going to freeze it, wrap in plastic wrap and pop it in the freezer and then defrost before baking.  

Bake 375 until golden brown (about 30-45 minutes).

Self Reliance Experiment: Week 1

For those of you who were unaware, we now are the proud farmers (ok, owners) of five chickens.  Above is a picture of the fine ladies.  The peach one is named Peachy.  The white one is Big Momma (thanks, Sis).  The black one is Ni Hao (My mom named that one).  And the two spotted ones are Camilla and Kevin (courtesy of Fiona).

Now that we are actually producing food, Bryce and I have decided to perform a bit of an experiment.  From now until my parents return at the end of June, we have decided not to purchase any food at the grocery store.  It should be interesting, especially since we didn't plan for the experiment.  We just thought if it today and we are starting without so much as one trip to the store for ice cream (Poor, Bryce).

I am feeling pretty well stocked on pantry staples, especially since we inherited some food storage from Bryce's grandma (Thanks, Cyndy and Ed!).  The biggest challenge will be meat.  Usually my freezer is full, but I haven't purchased any meat in a while.  I only have 2 chicken breasts and 2 pork chops.  I can't wait to see how far we can stretch things.  Beans and tuna, here we come!  If nothing else, we will have eggs.

I am hoping that we learn a few things about how we might eat if we weren't able to get to the store.  I have also started a solar oven and a buddy burner.  I plan on trying those out during this experiment, even if I don't cook with them every day.  I will try and keep you all updated!

An Extravagant Hunger

Tonight as I was driving back to Mt. Pleasant, I listened to Radio West about a biography of M.F.K. Fisher, the food writer, called An Extravagant Hunger.   I had never heard of Ms. Fisher, which seems a loss on my part after hearing what a wonderful writer she was.  I might have to track down some of her books at the library.  As I listened to Anne Zimmerman describe her interest in Fisher and her search to understand a complex woman, I could hardly sit still.  It was one of those shows/topics/moments that made me want to be creative.  Could I be a Fisher and write wonderfully about food or perhaps a Zimmerman and document an extraordinary life?  What marvelous work is inside me?  I wish I could take something that I feel passionate about and turn it into something that makes other people feel passion.  Unfortunately, the thing I feel most passion about is being a wife to my husband and a mom to my kids.  Sure it involves things that are unexciting: laundry, poopy diapers, crying babies.  But there are rarer moments: hearing Kimball sing "Old MacDonald" to our chickens, hearing Stan laugh when I snort because he grabbed my nose, and watching Bryce play with the boys he loves.  It may be a great work on some level (an eternal one?), but I don't think Doug Fabrizio will be knocking on my door asking to interview me.

Crowbar vs. Door

This is the crowbar.

This is the moulding removed with the crowbar.

This is the door which used to have the moulding.  (Please note that the door is nearly split which resulted from my attempts to bust through with my shoulder.  Also note that the door knob is nearly removed which resulted from my attempts to apply a flat head screw driver and a hammer because the screws to remove the knob were inside the door.  Also note that there are several hammer marks on the door which resulted from the application of a hammer with force.  This didn't help to get me inside but did vent a little frustration.)

This is the kid who locked himself inside the door and was oblivious to his mother's frantic efforts to get inside. 

Adventures in Potty Training

Yesterday, I bought Kimball a potty.  In fact, I bought him this one:

But then I made a mistake.  We got home late from watching the BCS championship game with James and Kirstin.  It was way past 10pm, but we opened the potty anyway.  I had been telling Kimball that I would get him a "Kimball potty" and I didn't think he would want to wait.  Okay, in reality, I didn't want to wait.  So, without thinking about the consequences, we opened the potty.

We let Kimball sit on it without a diaper.  He liked it.  We moved it into the bathroom.  He wanted to sit on it again.  We let him.  He wanted me to go potty on the big toilet.  I did.  And then it happened . . . we heard a "psssssss" in the little potty.  We cheered.  We dumped the pee in the big toilet.  We let him flush.  But he didn't want to put his diaper on.  So we got ready for bed.  We changed into out p.j.s.  We brushed our teeth.  We closed the door and threatened to leave him there all night.  We came back in and . . . Kimball had peed again!  We cheered, we dumped, we flushed.  But he still didn't want to put his diaper back on.

So what was meant to be a pleasant experience for all became a fight over putting a diaper back on and going to bed.  I am sorry to say that we resorted to force so we could go to sleep before midnight.  And Bryce still had to go to bed with Kimball because otherwise he would have continued to yell, "Diaper off!  Diaper off!" into the wee hours of the morning.  Happily, he doesn't hate me for not letting him sit on the potty all night and he got to take his diaper off this morning.

Brothers?

Do these guys look like brothers?

Toddler Entertainment

Mt. Pleasant City installed a new fire hydrant in front of our house today. Kimball had a great time watching the big digger.

Happy baby

Stanford is a happy baby.

Happy Pioneer Day!

For the 24th of July, my family made the traditional hike up Ensign Peak. (I stayed at the bottom so as to avoid the pioneer experience of giving birth on a trail.) Bryce's parents joined us and we had three generations of Kimball on top.

Then my parents took us all to Lagoon. It was Kimball's first trip. First we got soaked in the fountain.

Then we rode some rides.

Then we rode some more rides. Kimball loved all the rides and was happy to even go by himself.

Then we crashed.

It was such a fun day. Thanks, Mom and Dad for taking us!!

Welcome to Mt. Pleasant!

Well, we finally made it! Sort of. I came down to Mt. Pleasant on Tuesday, but I am still waiting for Bryce to join us. It's not very much fun having him so far away. It's also not very much fun having all my stuff crammed into one small room. I keep thinking of things I wish I had with me but are currently located in the storage unit. The upside of living with my parents is that I can take a shower without worrying about what Kimball will get into and there are a hundred cousins here for playmates (at least for the 4th of July weekend). Ok, not a hundred but enough that Kimball isn't dragging me outside every five minutes. "Ouse! Ouse!" he says when he wants to go outside.

We hope you all are well and already miss our friends in Salt Lake.