Curious Learners - Learning to Live Simply

Sour Cream Lasagna

2011-04-12T14:52:00.003-05:00

This Lasagna is really delicious. I find it much easier to make than traditional Lasagna with much more flavor. The whole family enjoys it! The friend who passed this recipe on did so verbally - she never measured her ingredients so after a little experimenting I have officially written down the recipe! This makes 1 13x9 pan full of lasagna!

Ingredients:
1 box of lasagna noodles
1 lb gound beef
1 lb italian sausage
1 16oz sour cream
1 7oz creme faiche
dried basil leaves
dried oregano leaves
1 lb mozzarella(you won't need it all)
1 lb cheddar(you won't need it all)
2 - 29oz cans of tomato sauce
sugar - to taste
water.

Brown your ground meat and italian sausage together in a pan. If you only have 1 pound of meat that will work but my family likes the combination. Drain off the grease. Transfer the cooked and drained meat into a larger pot. Add both cans of tomato sauce. Sprinkle oregano and basil on top of the sauce. Add 1 large spoon full of sugar to the sauce. After the sauce starts cooking you can taste it and decide if you want to add more oregano, basil or sugar. If you added 2 pounds of meat you will likely need to add about a cup of water to the sauce. Simmer the sauce an hour or longer. Taste and stir it often and add extra water, oregano, basil or sugar to your taste. While the sauce is cooking, grate the cheeses. Also, combine the sour cream and creme faiche together.

Assembling the lasagna:
Get a 13x9 pan and cover the bottom with sauce. I start with about a cup of sauce and sometimes add a bit more. Place lasagna noodles over the sauce. On top of the noodles spoon about a 1/3 or so of the sour cream mixture. The noodles should be covered. Next sprinkle a combination of cheddar and mozzarella on top of the sour cream mixture. Then you start another layer begininning with the sauce. Make sure you add enough sauce so that the noodles are covered entirely. If you don't the noodles with end up chewy. You should be able to do about 3 layers. After your 2nd or 3rd layer cover with a final layer of sauce and a final layer of mozzarella and cheddar. Cover and cook 1 hour at 350 degrees. After an hour cook for 15 minutes uncovered or until your final layer of cheese is all melted. Enjoy! PS - Save time and make 2 at a time and freeze one.

The Wasp and the Spider

2010-10-12T12:40:00.002-05:00

It was amazing what I just witnessed. A wasp flew up to my window. Then a spider came walking down. Then all of a sudden… BAM! Sting, sting the wasp grabs it and starts stinging and stinging. It was all over for the helpless little spider. It kept stinging until the spider was dead and it flew away. I guess that’s just how nature works.

Laine

Chipotle Mayonnaise Recipe

2009-05-28T14:20:00.004-05:00

We love Chipotle Mayo, especially on Veggie Burgers! We have the taste down to a science with these simple ingredients.

Real Mayo
Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle Salt-Free Seasoning Blend

Grab a spoon and put as much mayo in your bowl as you want to serve. Then add the Mrs. Dash. You will need to add a lot. We just keep adding until it stops tasting like mayo and starts tasting like Chipotle Mayo. But watch out or it will get too hot.

We use the amount we want and store the rest in the fridge for later.

Enjoy!

Best Whole Wheat Bread Machine Buns

2009-05-27T12:20:00.003-05:00

These are the BEST whole wheat buns ever! You can use them for sandwich buns, hot dog buns, hamburger buns, or dinner rolls. Just adjust the size and shape accordingly.

Put the ingredients in your bread machine in this order:

1 1/2 cups Water
3 Tbls softened Butter
1 1/2 eggs
4 7/8 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Salt
4 1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast

Use the dough cycle. Watch the dough the last 15 minutes. You may need to take it out early if the dough hits the top of your bread maker. Have a floured surface ready for your dough.

When dough cycle is finished pull the dough out onto your floured surface and punch the air out just a little and spread it out. For hamburger/sandwich buns divide the dough into 16 equal buns. I do this by cutting the dough in half and then in half again until I have 16 buns. I shape them into squares or circles depending on how I plan to use them. Place them on a cookie sheet or baking pan. If they are touching they will be a little more doughy. I usually make some touching and others not touching. Cover and let them rise about 30 minutes. Bake at 325 degrees for 13 minutes. Pull them out of the oven and let them cool on the cookie sheet. If you aren't planning to use them within 3 days, freeze them.

Our First Batch of Chickens

2009-05-21T16:15:00.003-05:00

We got our first batch of chickens around the first of March. They were just day old chicks and we ended up with about 16 total. Our family loved and nurtured them. A few had sticky butt and my son learned how to fix that problem by wetting a paper towel and washing their tiny bottoms. A couple others got eye infections and we had to buy some expensive eye medicine at the farm supply store and put it on their eyes every 4 hours. Whew! We also separated those for a while so we didn't infect the whole bunch. One chicken we got had nasty little poop balls on its feet from the place we got it. We had to soak it's feet in water and pick off the little balls. That was just gross but we did it! A few others didn't make it for unknown reasons but most lived in the house in their large box for about 2 months.

Meanwhile my husband was working hard on the chicken coop outside. After about 6 weeks of chickens in our house it was getting kind of stinky! We were having to change the bedding every other day. And boy, those chickens were going through the water and food in their tiny containers like crazy. My son loved taking the chickens out of their box and putting them into the smaller boxes while we changed their bedding. He loved those chickens the best and had them all named. He enjoyed throwing cut up strawberries into their box to watch them run around and chase each other. They really loved worms!

While the coop was being built we took them for field trips outside. We had some baby yards and we put them all in there so they could get used to being outside and so they could peck around in the grass and such. They loved that! Of course, it was supervised because we didn't want any stray dogs coming along an hurting our chickens.

Finally, the big day came and it was time for the babies to go out into the coop. The first few nights we just put them out during the day because it was still pretty chilly at night. But after a week or so they were able to spend the night outside. I was so worried. We went out several times to check them. They all huddled together in the corner. But the next morning they were just fine and back to scratching and eating grass. They loved to have grass fed to them through the chicken wire. We didn't yet have our property fenced so we couldn't let them out of the coop.

The third night we went out to a horrible site. It was minutes before we needed to leave for a football game and 2 chickens had been killed. We searched and could not figure out how or what killed them. My son was crying and we were all so distraught! My husband and I decided to buy some of that foam insulation stuff that you shoot into holes and it blows up and gets really hard. We put that in the smaller holes and put more chicken wire around the roof area. Something very small must have squeezed through a hole! Probably a skunk.

A few more nights went by and the chickens were doing great. Then we woke up to another dead chicken! My husband thinks it was just sick or something because the coop was like a fortress and we couldn't find any place where anything could have gotten in!

Then it was time for our mini vacation. We had to leave town for 4 nights. Our older kids were staying home so everyone had strict instructions on how to feed and water the chickens. We were a bit worried but knew if we called the kids enough the chickens should be alright. The first few days went fine. We made calls and got reports that all the chickens were doing great. My husband actually had to go home for a few hours the last night and they were all still great!

Then disaster struck. Pouring rain and wind. Still we were told the chickens were okay. The coop was dry, yeah! But then we got the call. Our older son went to check the chickens in the afternoon the day we were to arrive home and the whole flock was dead! Our own dog was in our coop and had killed every single chicken - all 13! We were devestated. Our own dog had beaten in the chicken wire - must have taken a long time because like I said that place was a fortress, but nevertheless they were all gone! Our first flock was dead!

I was hopeless. We loved those chickens so much. My husband decided we needed to start over and find a new home for our dog. So here we are. Two and a half months later with a whole new batch of 14 chickens and a dog that we have to find a new home for!

Texas Gardening, Bread Recipes, Raw Milk

2009-04-30T10:03:00.001-05:00

Bread Makers - You certainly don't need one to bake bread. For me, I already had one and it makes it much easier for me because we go through tons of bread. If you do plan to buy one the only thing I'd look for is one with a dough cycle. Normally, folks who use a bread machine cook their bread in the bread machince. I got poor results baking it in the bread machine so I cheat and just run the dough cycle and then bake the bread in the oven.

Raw Milk - We get our milk in Georgetown, TX at Dyer Dairy. You have to call ahead of time, and I know right now the guy is really busy because he's also getting his cheese making business off the ground. His phone # is 638-0415. We also get our beef from him.

Texas Gardening - I use a raised garden because we only have rocks where we live. Since soil is the most important part of the garden I just had a truckload of dirt brought in. Now you need really good dirt. Don't buy the cheapest stuff or you won't get a good crop. I think the last time we got a mixture of Dillo Dirt, Manure, and compost. Gardening in Texas is supposedly very different than gardening in the rest of the world? I grew up here so I don't know any different. When I first started getting interested in gardening, my grandfather told me to get a subscription to Texas Gardener. It breaks our state down into sections and tells you what to plant and when. It goes over vegetables, fruits, trees, grass, flowers, really everything that grows in Texas. I love it! They also have an annual planting guide you can purchase along with your subscription. To order visit www.texasgardener.com . I have also copied the process shown in the Square Foot Gardening book by Mel Bartholomew. I think there is a new updated book out but I have the first edition. It shows you how to garden in tiny spaces and really improve your soil. You can also watch PBS on Saturday/Sunday and they have a gardening show and KLBJ AM has a great gardening guy on there sometime on the weekend. There are many resources. My suggestion is to try something relatively easy like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers to start with and go from there. Choose varieties that will grow well in Texas. And plant based on the gardening guides for Texas not necessarily what the seed packet says. Pick up transplants from HEB, Home Depot, Lowes and Feed Stores to get a head start. Because starting your own seedlings for tomatoes and peppers really requires expertise of it's own(I'm not there yet). I've tried and failed a couple times but I'll keep trying. For squash and cucumbers you can plant directly in the ground. It's not too late for this year on some things. Really the gardening year gets kicked off in January/February/March with almost everything in the ground by March 15 or so. But for this season it's not too late to plant tomatoes(get ones that will bear fruit in a fast amount of time - it will show on the little translant insert - 55 days or whatever) maybe even some peppers? or cantaloupe?. But right now if you had your garden up and going it's time to plant sweet potatoes, okra, black-eyed peas, pumpkins and winter squash. On August 15th you could start a whole new crop of lots of things. So, get your soil ready and if nothing else be ready by August 15th. You could then have a great fall garden. If any of you would like to come to my home and see how we've done it you are more than welcome. Just let me know! I've been helped so much over the years, I figure it's my time to help others!

Bread Recipes -

Rolls/Hamburger Buns/Cinnamon Rolls/Kolaches
1 c water
2tbs butter
1 egg
3 1/4 flour(i use half white/half wheat for these)
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp yeast

Throw it all in the bread machine in this order and turn on the dough cycle. Watch it, you may need to add more flour or scrape the sides of the bread machine to help it gets mixed up? Once dough cycle is done shape it into whatever size rolls/buns you want cover and let it rise 30 minutes and bake for 12-15 minutes at 375. For cinnamon rolls you need to roll it out into rectangle(you may not need all the dough) and sprinkle generously with sugar/cinnamon/butter. Roll it up long end to long end and cut in 1 to 2 inches rolls and set them on a baking sheet. Bake the same amount of time. Then you can use a cream cheese icing or whatever you like. Cream chees icing can be made with powdered sugar, milk and cream cheese. Just play with it until it's the taste that you like.

Light Bread (meaning not dense and super filling) - good for sandwiches
1/4 c water
1 c whey or milk(whey makes this really great)
1 egg
1/8 c honey
1/8 c olive oil
3.5 c whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast

Throw it all in the bread machine like before. Once it's done pull it out and knead it a few times. Divide it in half. Oil some bread pans well and put the dough in the pan. Cover and let rise an hour ? just watch until it's the size of a loaf of bread? Bake 20 minutes at 350 then pull out and sprinkle top with milk. Then bake another 15-20 minutes. My oven bakes hot - figure out how yours bakes. Pull them out of the oven and remove them from their pans. Let them cool completely then store/eat.

Italian Bread - More dense

2 1/2 c warm water
1/2 c olive oil
5 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
2 tsp yeast

This one almost overflows my bread machine - so you might start by halfing the recipe the first time to see how far it rises. Throw it all in the bread machine like before. Once it's done pull it out and knead it a few times. Divide it in half. Oil some bread pans well and put the dough in the pan. Cover and let rise an hour ? just watch until it's the size of a loaf of bread? Bake 20 minutes at 400 then sprinkle top with ice water and bake another 15-20 minutes. Pull them out of the oven and remove them from their pans. Let them cool completely then store/eat.

I do sell my bread/rolls etc from time to time. So if you want to eat bread like this or try mine I'm willing to bake some for you and I could drop it off to you or you could pick it up from my home/office.

Tree Study # 1

2008-11-07T12:47:00.002-06:00

Laine and I had the unique pleasure of taking our walk all by ourselves this week. We collected leaves around our neighborhood and discussed the different parts of trees and what each part does for the tree. What a joy it was visiting and talking and discovering together.

Once back inside we studied the Handbook of Nature Study book and reinforced what we talked about. Laine picked one leaf(unknown) and drew it beautifully in this nature notebook. Hopefully, we'll get a tree field guide for Christmas so we can study and identify trees better.

Trick on Getting Kids to Complete Schoolwork

2008-10-22T15:04:00.002-05:00

My son is 7 doing Ambleside Online Year 2. Luckily he's a Great reader but since he likes to read with someone I read everything with him. Sometimes, he reads the whole selection and sometimes we take turns reading 1 sentence back and forth.

Before the school week starts I figure out all the reading and assignments I want him to complete. Then I get out Index cards and write the day of the week at the top of each card. Then I write down everything that needs to be done for each day of the week. I spread long chapters out over the whole week. I also spread out his favorite reading books so that each day he really has a few things that he enjoys. I even add in Free Reading so he doesn't forget to read something each day that he gets to pick.

This has turned our house around! We were a family that took hours and hours to complete things. Now, at the beginning of each day he asks, "Where's the card, Mom?". Then he picks in what order he does things and just gets them done! We are finishing schoolwork before lunch and for us that is AWESOME!

Nature Study # 1

2008-10-17T10:07:00.007-05:00

Brr! It's cold here in Texas(well at least for us Texans!). 62 F at 9:30 AM. Like I said, it's cold for us Texans. Green Hour # 1 was somewhat of a success. Laine played with the dogs, we discusses preening from the book, Flying Creatures of the First Day. Our goal was to hopefully see a bird preening - No such luck! But, we did draw a Female Cardinal. We had a moment of, "Mine's not very good, I want to help you and draw in your book." But, I stood firm and told him how "I was did my best work".

Then after a little while Laine decided to try again. And what a beautiful Cardinal he drew. I even let him borrow my special pen! Luckily, our cute little Gracie decided to draw too and thought that sharing the supplies was a nice thing to do.

Journey Begins

2008-10-16T16:26:00.000-05:00

Homeschooling as a working mom, with a large blended family, and a special needs(almost adult) child is ALWAYS uniquely interesting. Some days are Beautiful and Wonderful and other days end in Tears but it is a Journey and that is what we have to All have to remember.

So, let's introduce ourselves. The head of our family is Keith an easy-going, fabulous man. Very kind, sometimes too nice but genuinely good hearted. I am lucky to be married to him. I, a Farmers Insurance agent for 10 years, have put my career on hold a bit(office is still open and growing) to homeschool the two littlest of our group, Laine(7 yo) and Gracelynn(23 months). Keith has two middle boys, Jeffrey(the trumpet player) and Andrew(the guitar player/swimmer) that go to Public School. And finally, we have Charlie. Charlie keeps us on our toes, diagnosed with PDD-NOS(Autism) many years ago, wanting to move out but not ready yet.

And so, our online Blogging Journey Begins! Join us if you like!