Life on the Farm – Little House on the Fairy Hill

New Year’s Abundance

New Year’s Abundance

3 days into my just-before-Christmas bout with the flu, I woke up with something resembling inner peace.

I hadn’t slept much – being able to breathe out of both sides of my nose is typically a component of sleep for me – but I was ok. It’s not that I was completely ready for Christmas, quite the contrary. I had tons of presents left to wrap, and we hadn’t even really decorated.

It also wasn’t that we were financially in great shape. Renovation has stretched our finances so tightly that even small-dollar purchases have to be considered. I mean we knew this was going to happen, but it’s still pretty scary.

It was something else. A change of mindset, a reminder that I needed to have some real gratitude for where we are.

When I bought Sithean, I was in my early 40s, recently separated, with 2 little kids, and we were moving 1500 miles to return home to Massachusetts.

I fell in love with this place. It was small, on an acre and a quarter, and in need of updating for almost everything.

I didn’t care. Set back from the road, and looking like a fairy tale house, It had a climbing tree in the back yard, space for a playset and a garden, and it was next to Greenbelt land, only separated by a stone wall and an access road for the town’s water tower. The kids were small – 4 and 6 going on 7 – and it was just us.

It stretched our finances to the bone just to be here, and there were more than a few times where there was more month than money. Sensible, this was not. But it was home.

Still, as the kids got older, and we added Eli, a dog, chickens and a bunny named Marshmallow, it became clear that while we loved this place, love was not enough. It was poorly insulated and the the heating system was old and kept some rooms too warm while others were freezing in the winter.

We were crammed in, despite getting rid of things as much as possible there was just no closets and no room to put anything. My daughter’s room literally had no closet, just an improvised clothes-hanging system. And the house was not suited to aging in place – if something happened that limited our mobility, we would have to leave.

We replaced the roof after a tree fell on the house. We replaced the pipe stack, the appliances, and painted and worked to make it cozy, but the house was chopped up, not working, and every fall the field mice just moved right into the holes in the foundation walls, despite spending literally thousands of dollars to deal with them. My office space was 3.5 feet across, and I couldn’t have a keyboard, a breakfast plate and a mug on the desk at the same time without something falling.

At a point a few years ago, we admitted that despite our love for this place we were completely stressed out trying to make it work, freshened up the house and tried to sell, but anything that worked for us was out of our budget and we hated even the idea of leaving. But every quote we got for renovation and an addition was also out of our means.

Finally when I closed down the business line for my prior job last year I was incentivized to stay on, and we were able to pull together the deposits we needed, and borrow the rest.

We still weren’t able to do everything, but here’s what we chose to do.

Replace the on-the-edge-of-failing heating system, and add cooling
Replace all the windows in the existing and new house, preserving the old hand-blown ones for future stained glass projects
Insulate, insulate, insulate
Renovate the kitchen completely
Renovate the upstairs bathroom, one of 2 in the house
Add a great room off the back of the kitchen with sliding glass across a span of it so that we could look outside. One of my greatest enjoyments when I lived in Florida was that sense of outdoors and indoors merging, and I wanted that here
Added an in-law suite with its own full bath with a curbless shower, entrance and closet – between our kids, extended family – we have space for those who need it or single-floor living for us as we age. For now, it’s intended to be my daughter’s room
Added a master bedroom with it’s own bathroom and closets – we’re crammed into what was once the dining room and it isn’t working
Added an office for me
Added a powder room and a mud room, allowing us to move the laundry to the first floor and out of the basement, helpful for aging in place
Full paint of all but one of the the addition rooms, the existing hallways, and the exterior of the house.
Replace the crumbling end of the driveway
Added a soapstone woodstove to the new great room to supplement our new heating system
Replaced the porch decking with no-maintenance TimberTech and added 3 wet-rated ceiling fans to the now extended porch so that we can sit out there in the heat with some relief. I love our porch quite a lot in the warm weather but it gets meltingly hot quickly

This isn’t everything by a long shot. We’ll do all the patching and painting of the existing spaces, add a patio and walkways and pull out the soon-to-be-defunct baseboard heating in the front of the house over time. We’ll also do all the landscaping and paint my daughter’s new room as well as all built-ins – we couldn’t afford to add any during construction. We didn’t manage to add wood storage either, something we both regret but is easily remedied.

And we did manage to add some quality of life items and luxuries. In almost all of the new spaces we’ll have ceiling fans, which are long term investments in frugal cooling. While we couldn’t afford a fancy gas wall fireplace in the master bedroom, we did find a 5’ long electric fireplace – basically a very long heater – for about $200 and built a space for it.

In order to manage what we have, we’ve once again stretched our finances to the edge and between that, life that is busy beyond belief, and construction delays, I’ve been a ball of stress for months now.

But I woke up, even though I felt like complete garbage, somewhat less stressed. It was Christmas week. We are blessed with warmth (as long as no one spends too much time in the uninsulated addition shell) plenty of food, a loving family, and generally, our health, except this flu that ran through the house.

Fast forward to the first day of the new year. While the stress returned, it didn’t linger. We had an amazing Christmas in one of the new spaces in the house after our site foreman/lead carpenter Ryan took it upon himself to seal off what will be our bedroom with zipper walls, hang heaters and add lights that we are fairly sure he bought himself. Magic exists, and so do Santa’s elves. I’ve met one, and he’s a carpenter by trade.

Last week I ordered toiletries to keep us for a while, and we got a half of a cord of firewood delivered. Wood heating is an integral part of our plan for surviving the last few weeks until insulation and interior walls are up in the house with our existing wood stove in the living room, and then soon enough in the new space, our gorgeous, bought-the-floor-model-at-a-huge-discount-on-tax-free-weekend soapstone woodstove will go in, and supplement heating the new addition for years to come

This should keep us in wood until sometime next winter.

January is our Uber Frugal Month, where we eat down the pantry and freezers, and I expect to keep that going well into the spring. We’ll also eat healthier after the indulgences of the holiday season, and while I won’t have a completely dry January, it will be just a wee bit damp. When the weather is good we’ll start mowing down the raspberry canes and the trench bed and maybe even start a few seeds.

But today it’s snowing, we have everything we need, and no one has to do anything in particular. New years day is, and should be a day of rest, although I will at least get a run in.

Every day I just remind myself to breathe. This is the home stretch of the worst of it, financially and otherwise. While our budget will be so tight it squeaks for some time to come, we’ll also have immense quality of life.
My word for the year is Abundance, and I feel that life is just that right now. Each Christmas is better than the last. Our kids just get more amazing. We’re blessed in so many ways. And I believe 2026 will bring all the joy, love and growth we need.

Happy New Year to you and yours.

The First of the Sunflowers

It’s August. While everything is still green and lovely, the prolonged stretches between rains mean that slowly that is changing although we did get a soaking, all-day rain a couple of days ago.

Last week we brought home eggplants and tomatoes from our farm share, along with the greens that have been so prevalent until now. We are officially moving into late summer.
We also brought home 5 gorgeous sunflowers picked by my lovely daughter. I love sunflowers – they are so magical.

We are having waves of heat interspersed with cooler days, with temperature swings of 50s and low 60s overnight to ramping up to the mid-90s occasionally. It’s been an odd summer, but aren’t they all now? One day it was so hot we could barely move, the next I had to change into sweatpants because it was downright chilly.

As weird as it is, we’re enjoying it.

We’re enjoying summer food, too – last Friday night it was too hot to cook so we made a salad and a charcuterie board. Detailed meal plans that make sure we have hot, home-cooked food during the school year begin to degrade at the beginning of summer, and by this point in time we are full-on winging it. The kids can spend extended days at their Dad’s, mealtimes become focused around when they woke up. For my daughter, now 16, this is likely her last summer of idleness before jobs and college prep consume her time. She’s bored now, actually, so that may come sooner than later.

The world seems to be descending into a kind of darkness we haven’t seen in a long time – Gazans are literally starving, the world’s efforts to make a whole people disappear. The war in Ukraine lingers with uncertain (or possibly terribly certain) outcomes ahead, and our own country has built a secret police that takes people away in broad daylight from their homes, cars and gardens. Cuts to food programs have a horribleness I can’t understand – in the wealthiest country in the world, in the wealthiest point in history, it’s shameful.

It has oddly reversed roles for Eli and I – normally I’m the political one but the more things worse, the more he monitors, his protection instincts firing on all cylinders, while I want to close in the walls of our sanctuary here at Sithean, just to keep us all safe. Which, of course, I can’t, that requires engagement.

And I do delight in our sanctuary while I worry. Sitting on the porch watching dragonflies and bees just doing their thing is one of my favorite weekend afternoon activities.

We’re just a couple weeks away from breaking ground in our endless efforts to make our dreams and reality the same for this place. It’s happening, and it’s going to be amazing. But a lot of stress to get there, for sure. Once we break ground, we’re off to 30-week odyssey that includes about 10 or 12 of those weeks without a kitchen. So we’re eating down the pantry and freezers as quickly as I can, as we have about 8 weeks left until we convert to grill, instant pot, rice cooker, air fryer and crockpot. I’m content we’ll figure it all out.

Mostly. I am stressed about it too, but the only way out is through.

Last week we added a second storage space down the road – we think we’ll need 3 by the time this is all said and done, but one thing at a time.. We’re just about done picking everything other than paint colors, with my daughter’s bathroom still the one room that’s forming up. If all goes well, we’ll close and pull the permits this coming week, and start in mid-August.

Our weekends are buried in preparation, planning, sketching every room and every floor. It’s very much fun and also mentally tiring, but in the end our art project of a home will come to life. And we’re ready, after all the long years of hoping, planning and thinking, it’s here.

Last weekend we finally took a day off and rested from the house planning We took the kids to the movies. It’s some of the last expensive fun we’ll have for a while.

And as we eat down the pantry and the freezers, I imagine meals will get more creative, but that will be fun.

So what are we eating this week?

Use up: lettuce, mangoes, peaches, cucumbers

Monday: Dinner out, a small celebration

Tuesday: Just Eli and I, so we made Jose Pizarro’s zucchini gazpacho – pretty good, I added ½ an onion. Liked it, probably won’t make it again. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/jul/08/courgette-almond-gazpacho-recipe-jose-pizarro

Wednesday: Garlic chicken, rice pilaf, salad

Thursday: Chicken Kebabs, rice, roasted broccoli

Friday: Just E and I, so bowl food

Saturday: Just E and I, tbd
Sunday: E’s enchiladas, refried beans, salad, mango and regular salsa

Monday: Chili & macaroni salad

I expect it to be a delicious week, busy in preparation, but also one of the last few of quiet before the transformation begins. Happy August!

Autumn Chill

The growing season is over. Last week I pulled out the last few tomatoes that could ripen on the window sill and prepared for the coming frost. It’s hard to believe I grew tomatoes into November.

After some unseasonable warmth, the cold is finally settling in. Jackets are coming out, cozy boots are being worn, electric blankets are back on beds, and tea and hot cocoa are supplementing mornings and evenings, along with the usual coffee for Eli and I. It finally rained this morning, which was a relief. We are in deep drought, and brush fires are running rampant through the area.

Veteran’s Day weekend was extended by an extra day off for me, which I spent taking care of some appointments – I was long overdue for an eye exam and a few other things, and braving Costco and other stores to do a stock up shop. We really, really needed to stock up.

Almost $805 later across 3 stores (ouch) we had almost everything we could possibly want or need, plus full freezers and cabinets. Add to that our winter share, and the bulk vegetables my Brother in Law had brought from upstate NY, and we simply won’t need to shop much until we get close to the holidays. Except for Thanksgiving cheese, but that’s in it’s own budget. Other than milk and fruit, we are set for a while. Like squirrels with their acorns, we’ve stockpiled for the coming winter.

And that’s fine because I’m tired, and while I do enjoy grocery shopping (other than Costco – too crowded and stressful) I don’t have much spare time for it. I much prefer to shop from my house. And we all want to cook and eat all the things, so a very deep and rich set of options from the freezersand pantry cabinets suits us here. The only thing we have to manage is food waste. It happens – like when our fridge died last month – but we’re getting better all the time at using things up. Years ago I wrote about Managing Food Waste and we still do most of the things – there’s only 1 bunny left now, Marshmallow and he’s old and persnickity and really only wants to eat kale and his treats, so we humor him. The chickens are getting older, but still great about scraps, and Teddy the dog does get some occasional leftovers. We also still compost as much as possible.

So what did I spend $805 on?

Food: The bigger expenses were chicken, salmon, shrimp and olive oil. I hadn’t bought shrimp in a long time, but I do like to have some frozen for a quick meal. All the meats get frozen and we eat multiple meals from them. These 4 items were nearly $120 of my expenditures. Assume 25-ish meals from the proteins at least.

I also bought a 12-lb bag of flour, replaced some pricier items that we lost when the fridge died (fish sauce, coconut aminos, etc) that I tend to keep on hand and use fairly frequently. Our snack box was getting a little thin on selection, so I spent about $50 on snacks that should last us a couple of months. That’s a lot, but includes beef jerky and some things that tend to be a little more expensive, like mini RX bars.

I bought cucumbers, and greens for some salads, since 3 of 4 of us love salad. Lots of avocados and broccoli, since we’ll use them up. Kiwi fruit and raspberries to keep us in fruit – the kids love it. We also already had a cantaloupe, so we’ll eat that up as well. I didn’t yet any tomatoes since we had the last few from the garden. I’ll have to buy some the next time I shop. Green, yellow and red peppers for various meals and because cutting them up with some hummus is a family favorite.

I got bagels, tortillas and sandwich bread for the freezer, sweet potato crackers, lots of yogurts, a large block of cheddar cheese, more sliced provolone, sub rolls, and a pound of pastrami that we stuck in the freezer and make into hot pastrami sandwiches soon. I also got some more Parmesan cheese, since we use a lot of it. Couscous and chicken broth for the pantry.

I also bought a 4-lb bag of frozen peas. Those who know me know they are one of my less-favorite veggies, but we use them often in things like shepherds pie and Indian food. That bag should last us quite a long time.

I bought bake and eat pretzels with dipping sauce, ham for sandwiches (in the freezer for now), butter, also for the freezer- since I bake all December, it’s better just to have it on hand, 4 lbs of coffee (at $30 for the 4 lbs, it’s a deal) and a few other items.

Non-food: Lighters for candles and the wood stove, Advil, soap, conditioner, thermal liners for the kids for winter/skiing, socks and a couple of holiday gifts.

Our next non-small grocery shop will be in mid-December when we go to the Korean and Indian grocery stores for a stock up there. In the interim, we’ll need things like fruit, scallions, greens and milk.

So how am I managing all this food? Very carefully. Today I’ll blanch and freeze a chunk of the broccoli for later meals. I’m making chocolate chip cookies for the week and an Indian meal that should produce lots of leftovers for lunches for the week. We’ll have salads mostly until we run out of that, and stir fry, since I need to eat up some Bok Choy from our winter share.

I’m also doing some other prep, like hard boiled eggs. My goal is quick and healthy snacks and food for the week.

I have lots of winter veggies to use up – sweet potatoes, one cauliflower, squashes, onions, beets and a few potatoes from our giant bag left, but those are almost all gone now. I also have a cabbage that I’m either turning into pickled red cabbage, or going to roast in curry.

Here’s what we’re eating this week:

Saturday: Creamy Green Chili Tortilla Soup, which used up the last few fresh poblano peppers from our summer farm share – I have more frozen that I picked – popovers, and this salad with some substitutions – I used pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts, skipped the persimmons since I didn’t have any, used goat cheese instead of blue cheese, and added cucumbers and the last of our cherry tomatoes from the garden. It was delicious.

Sunday: My daughter and my husband were doing a volunteer activity in the evening, so my son and I went to Salem MA to do some holiday shopping and eat dinner out. We were home by 5:45 pm because we’re both homebodies and he went off to game and I watched some TV with a glass of wine.

I put some dried kidney beans to soak in water so I could make a batch of Haphazard Homemaker’s Refried Beans, which is such a great and simple recipe. Once made, I freeze them in side dish sized batches for future use.

Monday: Holiday for me and the kids. Preeti’s Dal, Butter Chicken, rice with peas, and Eli helps me make Onion Pakoda. Few substitutions in that last – I use canned green chilis, and dried cilantro since I don’t have any fresh. I will roast some broccoli for something green on the side.

I also plan to make chocolate chip cookies for the week. I haven’t yet started making holiday cookies, but that will start up soon.

Tuesday: I have dinner plans, Eli was working, so I will prep him some leftovers with a nice dessert

Wednesday: Using 1/3 of the dozen rolls I bought (froze half, kept 1 out for a sandwich for my son, used the rest for meals) to make hot pastrami sandwiches with sauteed onions, provolone cheese and whatever else people want on them, along with Fattoush and some roasted broccoli.

A note on the Fattoush – hands down a house favorite, I learned to make it after getting hooked on it during my work travels. The sumac is fairly cheap and it lasts a long time. We probably make this salad weekly, and I often roast slivered almonds on top.

Thursday: My daughter has her riding lesson and then went to her Dad’s, so it was just my son and Eli and I. Crusted salmon over couscous. Ours will have some garlic scape pesto over it from the freezer, my son’s will not.

Friday: The kids are with their Dad, so Eli and I will have either Butternut squash soup or stuffed spaghetti squash boats.

Saturday: The kids have an art museum outing during the day, and will eat lunch out. If anyone needs dinner afterwards, I’ll make homemade meatball subs with some of the frozen sub rolls.

Sunday: Beef Ramen with Bok Choy added, and homemade potstickers, in order to use some of the Napa cabbage from our farm share.

I hope you all stay warm and cozy this November.

Crickets

Somehow, summer is ending.

In just a few days the kids go back to school. This weekend was busy with trying to sort through the last of the supplies needed, washing new clothes, and dealing with the endless abundance of late-summer produce.

Our summer was busy with trips and house guests, with sleep away camp and time with grandparents in Maine, and some home improvements.

This year, the garden was more neglect than anything, but we still planted – tomatoes and peppers from my Moms, and a few things I started. I’ve managed to keep a geranium and a poinsettia alive for almost 2 years, so they join the key lime tree and the hydrangeas outside for the summer. I’ve also been planting perennials as much as possible – this year adding more tulips, a butterfly bush, a wildflower garden that is mostly Black Eyed Susans, and a gorgeous purple delphinium in the front yard.

My tomatoes here at Sithean are loaded with green fruit, and hopefully they will all ripen quickly and then I will can them for sauce. Butternut squashes are growing rapidly, and the grapes growing on the vines next door are just about ready to be turned into jam. The raspberry canes are laden with ripening fruit, and I even have one small Key Lime growing on my lime tree. The weather is glorious with warm days and cool nights.

The late summer sounds of crickets fills the yard at night, and that, plus cooler nights is how I measure the waning of summer. I’ve been a bit of crickets this summer too – so much has happened and it was all I could do to keep up. The kids are growing up so fast, and there is more independence and being apart, but also so, so much to do. And our lives are evolving rapidly, all of us.

Eli is prepping for his trip to LA, just a couple of weeks out now. And I am going through a transition at work and not sure where that will lead. But in general, all is well. My Birthday came and went, with the porch redone as my gift, including an inexpensive but very comfortable couch, so that I can sit outside and sip my coffee in the sunshine, and even when it’s pouring rain. Every time I look at it I’m delighted again – one thing I have missed since my days in Florida is the combination of indoor/outdoor space that is so standard there. This is our first step towards that.

This past week was the 12th of 20 in our farm share, and we’re starting to drown in produce, which is a simultaneously overwhelming and joyful feeling. When so many go without, to have plenty enough to share is a huge blessing.

Eli and I had a quiet Saturday – we walked the dog in some local Greenbelt land, I napped, he tended the chickens and worked. The peace was lovely. Because there is so much produce, I planned a meal – several really – around that. First, I made Panzanella since we had some bread that was going stale. And we have a lot of cucumbers, so I chopped one and threw it in. It’s really delicious, great for using up leftover bread and excess tomatoes, and my favorite part of it is that when I took the picture and titled it in the folder for this post, autocorrect turned it into ‘Pam Smells’.

I hope you enjoy Pam Smells as much as we do.

Then I made my friend Preeti’s Dal. Our friends came from Michigan to visit us recently and are assisting me in becoming more confident in making Indian food, which I love. Dal is cheap and healthy and incredibly delicious. This Dal is a combination of Chana (split dried chick peas) and Masoor (red lentils). It’s so simple, very healthy, and really delicious.

Preeti Naik’s Instant Pot Dal

You will need:
1 tomato, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
Either 1 tbsp of chopped ginger and garlic, or one large tablespoon of ginger garlic paste
1 tsp Mustard Seed
1.5 tsp Ground Cumin
1/2 tsp Tumeric
4 cups water
1 cup Masoor Dal (red lentils)
1/4 cups Chana Dal (split dry chick peas)

Using a colander, rinse the Dal until the water runs clear. Lentils tend to have a soapy coating on them, and they will taste much better if you rinse them.

Using the saute function and either ghee or neutral oil, saute the onion and tomato until soft. Add the ginger and garlic, and the spices and saute for another minute.

Add the Dal and water to the instant pot and set on Manual to 20 minutes. Once the pot is done, let it self-release the pressure for another 20 minutes, then vent. Salt to taste and eat.

Add the Dal and water to the instant pot and set on Manual to 20 minutes. Once the pot is done, let it self-release the pressure for another 20 minutes, then vent. Salt to taste and eat.

Then I made crispy tofu bites, which is one of my favorites, but I will say that I have needed 1.5 times the coating mixture for a full block of tofu. I also cut mine smaller.

We ate our all-vegan meal without noticing it was. This is the thing about good food – labeling it is critical for those on diets, labeling something as vegan for omnivores sometimes makes it sound less good, and I’m not sure why that is, so I just don’t label it unless I have someone around whose diet I’m trying to accomodate. Eli and I trying to eat less meat, and eat less generally, and this meal was simple, healthy, varied and delicious. It used up garden produce, essential at this point in the summer.

So what are we eating this week?
Sunday: comfort food, despite the heat – Ravioli Lasagna, zucchini cheddar biscuits, Fattoush. I sub the radishes, which I rarely have for whatever is in the fridge and add toasted almonds and dried cranberries for extra flavor.
Monday: Rosemary Ranch Chicken (I never bother with kebabs, just slice the chicken breasts lengthwise into tenders), grilled baby potatoes, broccoli
Tuesday: The kids are with their Dad, Eli and I will eat what we affectionately call ‘bowl food’ – a protein over cauliflower rice or couscous with some veggies.
Wednesday and Thursday: I’m traveling so Eli will feed the kids.
Friday: We’re in for cooler weather rolling into Labor Day weekend so we’ll make homemade oven pizza with customizable toppings for everyone.
Saturday: Potato soup, homemade bread, zucchini fritters
Sunday: Back to the warm weather, if the forecast is correct. Gazpacho, BBQ chicken leg quarters, beet salad, butter noodles
Monday, Labor Day: Of course we’ll grill! Burgers and chicken wings, potato salad, some kind of salad

I hope your last week of Summer is filled with joy.

Spring Arrives

Spring finally arrived at Sithean after a cold spell following the Easter holiday, complete wtih forsythia, tulips and daffodils. Even the myrtle and the apricot tree astarted blooming. everything turned green all at once.

It’s been raining a lot, so Eli and I have only been slowly able to do yard cleanup. Still, it’s coming along – and hopefully by early May it will be mostly done. I’m regretting not cleaning out the big garden last fall, but I also find it peaceful to be out tidying it up. I started a few seeds, but not enough and not early, so I’ll be getting some plant starts from family and maybe buying a few seedlings for the garden this year, but I’m just not stressing about it. Whatever happens, happens.

This year has moved at breakneck speed, and the fact that it’s already two-thirds through April is a little shocking to me. Some of that was the series of crises that hit and absorbed the first 3 months of the year, and the rest was general busyness – work, kid activities, life in general.

I managed to take a 5-day weekend off, and started knocking away at my to-do list, which included yard work, some appointments, house organization, and rest. The kids needed warm-weather clothes, my son needed a haircut, the yard needed work and the house was slowly being overtaken by laundry mountains. But also I needed a few days away from my laptop, and I was recognizing the start of burnout in myself.

So the kids and I trekked off to the mall while Eli worked – it’s nice to get some time just the 3 of us occasionally, and he is working to finish his book, which sometimes means the fun stuff has to be put aside. We grocery shopped, they worked on projects, we went into Boston with Eli and their Dad for fancy Afternoon Tea.

Now that the crises – and there were 3, stacked up on one another – were past, we started once again to work on eating down the pantry and freezer with some simple meals. I did a Trader Joe’s shop, and then we decided to do a 3-week, $100 food challenge. Everything we needed for $100, shopping first in our house. Our pantry eat-down in the winter had been blown up by medical events, and in April I was just too tired and burned out to do the planning required. We had also had some unexpected expenses – my car’s radiator blew, the kids and Eli needed some clothes, a few things cost more than planned by a fair bit. So it was time to tighten our belts and use what we had.

Also there was a frozen turkey taking up way too much space in the freezer, and I needed a plan to get that sucker out and eaten.

First though, I had to make sure there was enough wine, fruit and snacks to get us through. I’m nothing if not practical, and I know when to expect a rebellion based on a lack of snack options.

So what are we eating?
Use up: Mangoes, sweet potatoes, kale, lettuce, eggs and I realized we have both regular and pearl couscous, plus fregola so we need to eat up a lot of tiny round pasta in the near future.

Meal prep: Bulgogi for the freezer, meatballs for Monday, egg muffins for breakfasts*

Saturday: Instant Pot Carnitas sliders, Fattoush salad, sliced veggies, mango salsa
Sunday: Trying something new – Crispy Pesto Chicken with Whipped Feta and Tomatoes and a favorite, Harvest Moon Kale Salad. I had frozen some delicata squash rings in the winter, and I pulled them out to thaw and roast.
Monday: Spaghetti and meatballs, popovers, roasted broccoli. There were some extra meatballs from making them on Saturday, so I put those in the freezer for a future meal.
Tuesday: Eli cooks for just the 2 of us
Wednesday: Eli cooks for all 4 of us
Thursday: Typically it’s just Eli, I and my son for dinner on Thursdays. Since my daughter doesn’t like salmon it’s a great night to pull some out of the freezer and thaw it. We’re going to try Sheet Pan Honey Mustard Salmon with the fingerling potatoes I got at Trader Joe’s and some of the 2 lbs of brussels sprouts we have in the fridge
Friday: it’s just Eli and I, so we’ll make something with part of a bag of shrimp in the freezer and pick a theme for flavor. Using one of the tiny round pastas, whatever veggies are in the ‘need to use up‘ category, it will be a quick meal after dropping the kids off at Dad’s.
Saturday: We have a busy day, so we’ll likely prep something in advance
Sunday: Top your own pizza night, made in the Ooni oven, one of our favorite things.
Monday: Chicken and Rice circa 1975, one of the house favorites. I saute 1 medium onion and garlic, add in 2.5 cups of rice to saute for a couple of minutes (stir constantly) then move it to an oiled 9x`13″ baking dish that’s on a jelly roll pan in case of leaks. I put 4-6 chicken leg quarters on top, add a quart of chicken broth, then sprinkle the top with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Happy Spring!

February on the Farmlet

January blew through our house like a tornado – flu playing round-robin, emergency surgery and a long hospital stay for my husband, and nothing quite went as planned. So I think we all breathed a sigh of relief when February 1st rolled around, and brought with it something resembling normalcy.

Still we are lucky ducks, with all ending well, and despite the periodic cough that seems to be hanging on for myself and my son, the rest of the year is looking much better. At least we got all that out of the way early.

And once Eli was feeling better we were able to attend a cooking class as a family that had been a holiday gift to us all, with the kids taking charge of the Zuppa Inglese for 12 without so much as a bit of help from anyone other than the Chef leading the course. I look forward to having our own dessert chefs do more at home. We are targeting experiences over stuff this year, with the exception of more hospital experiences – I’ll think we’ll skip those.

February on the farmlet starts to get busy – it starts quietly, and then by the later part of the month there’s seed-starting and garden cleanup on the good weather days. We still need to mow down the raspberry canes and the trench beds. Nearby the local farms are starting to tap their maple trees – syrup making is a long New England tradition, and it is one of those things that I love seeing.

We are trying to balance experiences and downtime this year. Especially in the summer we get so busy we forget to be home just mowing the lawn, weeding the garden, and making fresh summer foods. I’m starting to plan the garden for the year, and bought some lovely blue pumpkin seeds I can’t wait to try.

For now though, we’re eating as much of the winter foods as we can, and it’s time to eat down our bulk veggies in earnest. Saturday night I used 14 onions to make French Onion Soup, because they won’t keep forever. We’re almost halfway through them, and by April they will need to be used up.

So what are we eating this week?
Use up: Cantaloupe, kale, oranges
Bake: Bread, if I get motivated, homemade donuts

Sunday: Family dinner, we aren’t cooking
Monday: Sheet Pan Sticky Chicken and Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Kale Salad with Pecorino and Walnuts & No Knead Bread I can prep the bread and some of the kale salad tonight and do a lot of prep work in the morning to make sure we eat at a normal hour
Tuesday: It will be just Eli and I, we’ll make a cauliflower curry soup
Wednesday: Roaster chicken with veggies, rice pilaf
Thursday: Eli will find a protein and cook
Friday: The kids schedule has been a bit fungible since their Dad started a new job – they mostly want to hang out with him on the weekends, since they see him less during the week. If it’s just us, I’ll make a butternut squash soup or a curry.
Saturday: Eli and I are going to make a pantry challenge meal together – using up what we have and getting creative
Sunday: Remember those Chinese chives I froze? Time for Chinese Chive Dumplings, Hunan Dumplings, some spring rolls from the freezer, rice and Edamame.

If you haven’t heard about Hunan Dumplings before I’m not shocked but oh are they good.

Prep for Monday: Chicken soup with rice. Any time we have a roast chicken, once we’re done with it I take the carcass and put it in the crockpot in water with herbs, bay leaves, and a dollop of vinegar. I then let it cook overnight, and at the end is the best broth. I strain it out, strip the meat and add that to the broth, and then chop carrots and onions, add some seasoning to taste, and cook. If I have a Parmesan rind, it’s perfect for this.

I don’t add any rice until it’s getting close to dinner time, about an hour out, and then i add it on a low simmer, about a cup and a half-ish, but i eyeball it.

Add to that either our leftover bread or some popovers, and that’s dinner. And usually a couple of lunches for Eli and I as well.

I’ve started to plan meals for the rest of the month as well, including trying out Char Siu Pork and Lemon Butter Dijon Chicken and Orzo.

But that’s later.

A Year of Abundance

I learned from my friend Melissa years ago to choose a word to frame each new year. New Years is her favorite holiday – full of possibilities and fresh starts, and I love that outlook. This year my word is Abundance, and I do feel abundant in every area of our life.

On New Year’s Eve the kids came back from their grandparent’s house exhausted and with nothing left in their social batteries after a week of solid events.

I made Beef and Broccoli from scratch – total winner, and a smashed cucumber salad that was good but not so good I would make it again and we ordered a bunch of takeout. Eli made a fire in the wood stove, and he and I watched Barbie, while kids did their thing. It was quiet but very nice with everyone taking the time to restore their energy in their own ways.

I meant to make Chinese Chive Dumplings for dinner as well, but I forgot to get wheat starch to make the dough, and while I could have substituted wonton wrappers, it wouldn’t have been the same. So instead, I chopped up the chives and froze them for a later meal. Honestly, you really can freeze almost everything.

I’ve been really trying to preserve things lately and avoid waste, even slicing up and sauteeing mushrooms and then freezing them if we have some we aren’t using. I had some of our last apples that were starting to get a little mealy, so I turned them into cinnamon applesauce for our big family brunch too – just peeled, cored, and popped the apple bits in the crockpot with 2 tablespoons of sugar, a decent slug of cinnamon, and a little water. It was really good, and I sent most of it home with my sister since we had so much food.

And here we are in 2024, entering it softly, and with optimism. We put the last of the tax impacts from 2022 to bed in December, and so we’re walking into the new year with a level of freedom from financial burdens we haven’t had for a while.

Interest rates are very high, so we’re not sure exactly when the renovations will start, but it’s likely to be late this year or early 2025 because we want to be thoughtful about how much we spend and commit to spending. It’s hard to keep waiting, but we also know in our hearts it’s the right decision. It will happen, and in the meantime we’ll do some small-ish improvements that give us some quality of life, like replacing a few windows and finally bricking the walkway, and a few other things.

But despite having to keep pushing off the renovation, we’re very much at peace. Everyone got things they needed and wanted over the holidays. We got to spend time with family. January, despite a couple of work trips, is going to be relatively peaceful, and we deliberately kept the first weekend open other than one errand that will take a couple of hours, because we all just need a break.

We are slowly de-Christmasing the house, and I find the lack of ‘stuff’ in it refreshing. And what’s nice is that we really do have everything we need and then some. I’m grateful for the bounty in our lives and that we’re able to share it with others.

And we’re having a very frugal month – eating down the pantry, focusing on our financial future. We do have a ski weekend planned, and a dinner at the end of the month with my parents, but those are budgeted in.

This week we’re eating simple and healthy. To kick off the new year I made the Green Goddess Salad that is making it’s way around TikTok. It’s really good, especially after it sits for a little bit for the flavors to blend. Also, it makes a metric pantload of salad (this being the technical unit of measure), so you might want to consider making it for a party or as I did, give some away.

Use up: We have a lot of green veggies to use – spinach, baby kale and lettuce, brussels sprouts as well as tons of root veggies.

Monday January 1st, 2024: Homemade chili, cornbread, green goddess salad, guacamole

Tuesday: Just Eli and I, salmon over cauliflower rice with veggies

Wednesday: Grilled chicken wings that were in the freezer, couscous, roasted brussels sprouts and onions

Thursday: Eli cooks with a protein from the freezer

Friday: Homemade pizza with various and assorted veggies and toppings

Saturday: Baked sage chicken meatballs (only we have ground turkey, not ground chicken) with parmesan orzo & roasted vegetables

Sunday: Clam Chowder and homemade bread

Monday I’ll travel for the first time in 2 months, so Eli and the kids will have a few days of their own meal plans before I come home and we start the meal planning again.

Happy New Year to all.

The Time of 3 Feasts

Christmas is over. It was lovely, almost perfect. Our lives are so full and rich and blessed, to be honest.

The 26th is the day of almost nothing. In the morning my daughter joined me for our only expedition – once a year I go to Lush Cosmetics for their Boxing Day sale and stock up on gifts for the following year, when everything is 50% off. A stockpile of gifts is a help in keeping costs down. But after that, and then coming home for a breakfast of eggs and fruit with leftovers and the fresh bread my neighbor made us, it was a day where everyone could do whatever they wanted. And mostly that was a lot of nothing.

The detritus of the holiday is still present in the living room, which I head over to every now and again to tidy up. We got the kitchen cleaned up Christmas night, but the living room was too much after I had been on my feet 12 hours a day for several days to prepare – cooking, baking, and cleaning. And then the next day we did a little.

We rarely have nothing days. Of course, there’s still laundry and tidying to do, animals and children that need feeding, and the beginning of putting things away from the holiday, but we run on 1/4 speed or less all day, using plenty of leftovers and simple food to fuel us. It’s a ‘sit in bed and read cookbooks‘ day for me, after feeling like I had run several marathons in a single week.

I host Christmas every year for us, my ex, and his parents. We celebrate with my parents on Christmas Eve, and see others throughout the time before and after, but Christmas is here. Most years I make a turkey dinner or Beef Wellington, but this year we spun the meal around a favorite, Rosemary Beef Tenderloin with Wild Mushroom Cream Sauce, and everyone deemed it excellent. It’s pretty much foolproof too, and that’s something for someone like me, who hasn’t really mastered cooking steak.

With that went homemade Garden Foccacia, creamed onions, 4-cheese mashed potatoes, roasted green beans with toasted almond slivers, and a butter leaf lettuce salad with apples, dried cranberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and toasted pumpkin seeds.

And for the 2nd time on the table in the last few years, the Cranberry Tart with Gingersnap Crust appeared – I really love this dessert. Our first feast was delightful.

The next day everyone ate leftovers early in the day and then needed a change, so I made tacos and guacamole, in the process using up the last of the Pico de Gallo in the fridge. I really wanted to use as much up as possible as we get ready for our pantry eat-down in January. Normally, I really don’t like running out of things, but it’s the best path to less food waste, so I’m working on that.

There are technically 5 feasts this week, because my parents are hosting another big family dinner and had already hosted Christmas Eve.

Feast #2 is a holiday brunch we’re hosting, with a waffle bar, bagels and cream cheese and lox, a make-your-own hot chocolate station and sausage, pizzelles, and my Mom is making quiche and coffee cake. Feast #3 is New Year’s Eve, our traditional combination of homemade and ordered Chinese food.

And then on January 1st, we’ll roll into our Uber Frugal Month and eating down the pantry and freezers. I can’t wait – feasts and celebrations are lovely, but so is the quiet of January, with a lot of home food and walks in the cold. We’re busier than usual this winter, but we’re making some space to be home and rest. And declutter – I’ve already got several bags of clothes ready for my cousin’s kids and more will come out of the house as the year wears on.

I wish you all peace and joy in the new year.

Autumn Colors

Somehow more than 2 years have passed since my brother-in-law died. I still can’t quite wrap my head around a world without him in it, but the grief is different than when it was fresh. Tempered, not as overpowering, but still a weight in my chest cavity. Still a hole, even if not as overt. Every time we go to the cemetary or pass it while driving, it’s still just wrong that he’s there, and not home with this family.

I guess that never changes when you lose someone too soon.

This past week brought fresh grief, when a colleague and friend lost her adult son to lung cancer, and Eli and I grieved with her at the wake and funeral. Never a smoker, he somehow got one of the worst cancers you can get.

I’m almost done with business travel for 2023 – one more trip, and I’ll be grounded for the following 60 days, something I’m thankful about. Business travel is a pro and a con – we definitely use the airline miles, hotel points and rental car free days I accrue for our vacations, and those definitely lower costs for us, but the time away from home is hard to get back. And honestly, it’s pretty tiring.

Home feels extra wonderful right now. Last week on Saturday it poured, and other than some housework, and my oldest helping at the school play, we really didn’t have anything pressing to do. A roaster chicken went in the crockpot to become chicken soup for dinner, we had all the components for popovers to go with it and there was a bunch of salad stuff to use up.

Rare are the days not full of demands on our time so we were reveling in the idea that we could just do very little.

Our CSA came to an end past week, and next week the Winter Share starts up. We decided to do one more stockpile for the winter, and had done that a week ago, with everything from a lot of rice to dried black beans, several blocks of tofu – tofu freezes well, so we toss it in the freezer and Eli often makes us crispy tofu bites in the air fryer, and so on. Butter, shredded cheese – all straight into the freezer for later use. We also did a bit of holiday shopping while we were at Costco and made sure we had frozen dumplings in the freezer in quantity – we love to make our own, but these are comfort food for the kids.

All that’s left now is our stock up of onions, sweet potatoes and squashes in Upstate NY next month, and then we’ll be eating down our stockpile other than buying for holiday dinners and the small amounts of groceries we’ll need each week – milk, fruit, things we run out of.

*Eli with 2 of the giant squashes we grew*

The garden is still producing, at least for a few more days. We harvested several giant squashes as well as a colander full of Tomatillos – our first hard freeze is due on Wednesday night, so I’ll be picking the last of everything today and tomorrow.

So what are we eating?

Last week’s Menu

Use up: Ricotta cheese, very ripe avocados, lots of potatoes and apples

Saturday: Chicken soup with rice, popovers, and a salad using the last head of lettuce from our CSA this year.

To the salad I added some cherry tomatoes that were on the reduced rack at Market Basket, our local independent grocery store but still good ($0.68 is the best price ever for a pint of tomatoes after the growing season ends), toasted pumpkin seeds, chopped up baby cukes that were nearing the end of their days and needed using, a cut up half of an apple my son didn’t finish slices from yesterday and I stored in the fridge, avocado, a sprinkle of parmesan, and a simple dressing of salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. Best salad ever. And it used up a lemon that was ready to go.

Pro tip: Once you have juiced the lemon, use the halves to scrub out your sinks. It’s a natural cleaner/disinfectant and it makes everything smell wonderful.

Sunday: We had leftovers for lunch as the ravioli lasagna from Friday night needed to get eaten up. Dinner was intended to be homemade Ramen with shaved steak and slivered veggies in creamy miso broth but my son made himself spicy ramen for lunch, so instead I made Creamy Miso Pasta with the shaved steak, the last of the scallions, and I roasted some brussels sprouts to go with. It was not super popular – Eli and I liked it, but the kids were not fans.

*Lemon Blueberry Ricotta Bread – Photo by Eli 5 Stone*

I also made Snickerdoodles and a several loaves of Lemon Blueberry Ricotta Bread in an effort to use up the excessive amount of leftover ricotta we had, some summer blueberries in the freezer, and the last remaining lemon. And because it was niece and goddaughter’s 18th birthday, and my parents earlier this week and in just a few days. After a round of birthday drop offs of gifts and baked goods, I returned home to make dinner for my crew.

Monday: Monday I ate a bit of leftover chicken for breakfast with some cut up honeydew melon and a few of the leftover brussels sprouts. I packed a sandwich and some homemade cookies, fruit and goldfish for my son

Tuesday: I uh…know Eli made something. I just forget what it was and I forgot to write it down.

Wednesday: Eli made salmon with sliced tomatoes and avocado and an amazing carrot soup with homemade croutons.

Thursday: I had dinner out with my sister, a rare treat, and Eli and my son ate a frozen pizza (although they did heat it!)

Friday: I made rice, homemade pot stickers and roasted broccoli. My oldest had a riding event, so dinner had to be made before we left at 5:30, but I ate when we got home.

Saturday: It was a full day of chores and Eli and I managed to squeak in the last canoe ride of the season due to the warm weather. The temperature is going to drop so we tried to take advantage. Then we took our son to the Trunk or Treat Halloween event in town, dropped him at Dad’s and tried a new-to-us restaurant in nearby Newburyport, MA.

This Week’s Menu:
Use up: Spinach, brussels sprouts, kiwi fruit and strawberries

Sunday: Breaded fish and crab cakes, slaw with apples and scallions in it, Sweet Potato and Kale Salad, tater tots from the freezer. The target for the first couple of days of the week is always to have lunch leftovers for a few days.

I also started bread dough, made more Salsa Verde, made chocolate chip cookies – the treat for the week – and prepared Parmesan crusted chicken for Monday dinner. A few of the crusted chicken tenders went into the freezer to be healthier fast-food options, and a few of the cookies as well, something I’m trying out to see if it works.

Monday: That chicken that we made on Sunday is the main course, just quickly reheated with the fresh-baked No Knead Bread that will have been rising since Sunday morning. With that is salad. I deliberately didn’t buy bread this week so I can also use it for my son’s ham sandwich lunches. For us, lunches are leftovers.

Tuesday: Halloween Dinner in a hurry – spaghetti with green food coloring added to the water and meatballs with bean ‘eyes’, garlic bread and sauteed spinach, with a sliced cucumber for my son, who doesn’t like spinach.

Wednesday: Tired day dinner of Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken, rice in the rice cooker (one of my all-time favorite & most used kitchen appliances), dumplings and whatever veggies we need to use up. We have some Shishito peppers to roast with olive oil and salt, and we’ll probably do something else to go with.

Thursday: My daughter has her riding lesson, Eli will make dinner and we’ll all collapse early.

Friday: Our first winter share pick up. My ex has a new job, so the schedule with the kids is in flux. If we have them, roasted veggies and Chicken Leg Quarters Circa 1975 over rice, if not, probably fish tacos with the fish cooked in the air fryer.

Saturday: The reverse of whatever we ate on Friday. Roasted veggies usually last us a couple of days.

Sunday: I’ll be preparing for a work trip, so the target will be simple and something that leaves leftovers. I’m thinking Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings.

And that will bring us to almost the middle of November, which hardly seems possible.

The Fruit Ripens

While the rest of the country continues to swelter, Massachusetts is having an unseasonably cool summer. Normally in August we have temperatures in the 90s for at least some of the times, these days we are lucky if it hits 80. But even though we’ve had a cool, wet summer, the tomatoes are ripening and so are the raspberries.

It’s time to use up the basil. I always leave it too long, and then regret as it starts to yellow, but it’s perfect right now and we will eat endless amounts of pesto this winter. So this weekend I’ll cut most of it down and whir it up in the blender with garlic, parmesan, lemon and pine nuts.

We’re just back from our annual trip to the mountains, and reminded that after 3 days anywhere, it’s likely we will all want to be at home, no matter the degree of fun we are having. Homebodies, that’s us as a family. As much as we like to travel, home is the best.

But we did enjoy ourselves, celebrating a milestone birthday with friends, getting the kids’ back to school shopping mostly accomplished, hiking to a waterfall, and so on. But when we were done, we were done and so we cashed it in and came home. We have less than a week of summer vacation for the kids, and a few more days of it for me to spend cleaning and organizing, tending the garden beds, and prepping a wildflower bed for my son – this first requires a ring of rocks around the Seckel pear tree, which really needs a pollinator partner. I’m looking around for one to pre-order for 2024 planting.

One thing that going away always proves to us is that we love to eat at home the best. I did a major stock-up shop at Costco after our trip, and between that and some other purchases, I don’t expect to hear complaints about shortages of snacks or clothing for a while.

The squash vines, or at least the ones that I didn’t accidentally pull up when I was weeding are also being pretty prolific, with lots of squash and small pumpkins hiding between the leaves.

Our CSA has another 8 weeks left, and then we’ll shift to the Winter Share, which runs every couple of weeks up until right before Christmas. We are awash in fresh, local food and general abundance.

Abundance.

It’s a word I haven’t felt in a while. When our giant tax bill hit us in the chest, it came after we thought we had finally recovered from a series of financial challenges, the list of which is long enough I think people didn’t totally believe it (in the general public’s defense, the idea that a 70-foot pine tree could fall on one’s house on their absolute last day of work when they lost their job, which they found out on their first vacation alone with the kids after divorce and so on almost belies belief). We were just settling in to the relief of feeling solvent and comfortable again – saving lots, paying down the mortgage early, bought the RV outright – when that next challenge arrived, and it felt like an almost-mortal hit. We wiped everything out to pay it and started over. Yet again.

So now here we are again teetering on the edge of abundance, cleaning up the last dregs of the tax impact, but also facing down a few big things – the last 25 % of Eli’s teeth, my car is starting to need a lot of expensive maintenance, which makes us start to consider if we do that or we replace it, and of course, renovation.

That said, I really believe we’re at the tail end of the stressful time, and stress or no, I recognize and am profoundly grateful for the good fortune that we’ve had. Starting over, and doing it again and again is hard. It has taken it’s toll on me, without question. But I also recognize that getting punched in the face over and over and getting back up each time to face the punch you know is coming is something that requires a force of will that Eli and I have in spades. To do it while ensuring our kids are safe and sound and insulated from the impacts takes extra care and skill. I think we’ve done pretty great.

So this week, we’ll live in abundance as we get ready to shift to our school schedules from the laissez faire mornings of summer. And we’ll eat at home, delicious meals like Lemon Chicken Piccata Meatballs over linguini with salad, Taco Skillet, and the Lemon Bars with Brown Butter Raspberries, a necessary solve for the 6 lbs, instead of 6 individual lemons that Instacart brought me and the infinity raspberries ripening in the yard, and enjoy the waning summer while readying ourselves for the cold weather to come.

I’m a lucky duck.