Please see our affiliate notice, located on the sidebar. Thank you for supporting Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household!

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Encouraging Hearts and Home 06.25.2020

A Patriotic Flag, Fiber Feathers, Lemon Sugar Cookies, and Black-Eyed Susan Planters are this week's featured posts. 

Hello and Welcome!

We have had chilly weather at camp, but that did not stop the campers from arriving and enjoying as much as they could of the beautiful mountains and the lake! I have to admit at this point in my life's journey, I prefer comfort over adventure, but back there in the memory bank I too have stories of how I braved the cold, the wet, and the wind during a camping trip. 

There was this one day, however, that we had non-stop rain! And for the most part, the campground was empty save for our trailer and the camper of the second host. This gave me time to get my commemorative afghan completed. When we set out for Montana I began a Weather of the Day afghan for our first year in Montana. And finally, this piece has been completed! I had to take a break from knitting for a while due to a broken wrist (I recorded the day's weather for accuracy) because the first year also brought a fall on a frozen puddle during a hike one day...

But here is my completed piece, still a novice knitter, however, I enjoy the process and try to add a skill to each new piece I make. For the record, this piece is plain knit stitch. The color key I chose was blue for sun, white for snow, grey for overcast and purple for rain...


The afghan fits nicely along the bottom of the bed in our little 5thwheel while we travel, and is a great source of warmth during those cold evenings. 
Thursday, June 18, 2020

Encouraging Hearts and Home 06.18.2020

Easy, reusable face shield, 111 Best Dad Jokes, Grilled French Fries, and A summertime Bucket List are this week's featured posts. 

Hello and Welcome!

It has been very cold from time to time at our campground. Some mornings there is a fresh dusting of snow on the mountain caps! But when the sun comes out, it is the best place to be to hear the birds sing, breathe in the fresh piney air, and see so many families having a great time with each other. 

Our tubs of Swiss Chard proved to be too easy for the ground gophers to keep out of, but they ate well until we brought them back home on our days off! I will say I am never afraid to try something new...tubs of growing vegetables was in fact something new!

We are hoping to hike around the lake to see the waterfall on the otherwise along the mountains. We have been told it is running faster than ever before, due to all the snowmelt. It will be a fun day... and a good bit of exercise, around the lake is 7 miles!
Monday, June 15, 2020

Easy Red Wine Marinade for Beef

How easy is it to get dinner on the table and all of your other tasks and chores completed? Quite easy with our Easy Red Wine Marinade for Beef! Quick to put together, and a delicious dinner for the whole family to enjoy.

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Maple Pecan Granola

Maple Pecan Granola is another easy-to-make granola with no refined sugar. With only about 30 minutes in the oven, so why buy granola, when homemade is this easy? 



Lemon Dill and Vermouth Mustard

Mustard fan? I hope you are because mustard is the one ingredient in cooking that can take a dish from humble to company-worthy. Why not give this Lemon Dill and Vermouth Mustard a try, you won't be sorry! 


Thursday, June 11, 2020

Encouraging Hearts and Home 06.11.2020

How to regrown lettuce, Bread Vada, No-Bake Cheesecake with Rhubarb, and Tres Leches Filipino Egg Pie are this week's featured posts!

Hello and Welcome!
We have been at "camp" for a week now, and currently at home for our two days off. I had a lot to get done, with laundry, bread baking, and of course visiting here! Funny retirement seems pretty consistent with all those working years, days off simply mean a different set of chores to get done...

One thing we did differently this time for our volunteer stint was to take a couple of tubs of Swiss Chard with us. they did not take up much room in the back of the truck and so far they have provided us with a delicious side dish of cooked chard for our supper one night last week. I believe that this week the small tender leaves will provide us with a nice bowl of greens and vinaigrette to go along with one of our suppers. 

Encouraging Hearts and Home Blog Hop and Link-up 06.11.2020.

During the day they are covered with bird netting, and at night we turn a large storage tub over the top to prevent any possible Swiss Chard eating wanderers to get to our crop before we can! The cooked chard was perfect along-side grilled salmon and buttered corn...UPDATE: we still lost, they were eaten to nubs in the tubs!
Monday, June 8, 2020

Easy Crock-Pot Dried Apricot Butter

Easy Crock-Pot Dried Apricot Butter is easy to make. Just combine the ingredients and let it cook. Plus this small-batch of Easy Crock-Pot Dried Apricot Butter freezes well and requires no canning! 



Maple Orange Sherry Wine Mustard

Maple Orange Sherry Wine Mustard is gourmet in flavor, yet easy on the cook and your pocketbook! Plus it makes a wonderful gift to take to a new neighbor or to finish out that gift basket you might be putting together, no matter the time of year.


Thursday, June 4, 2020

Encouraging Hearts and Home 06.04.2020

A mess-free way to pit cherries, amazing Garlic Harvest techniques, attracting bees to your garden, and No Fuss Easy Dill Zucchini Pickles are this week's featured posts. 

Hello and Welcome!

We are heading out of town tomorrow, we will be volunteering with Montana State Parks as Camp Ground Hosts to open camping season here in Montana! I have been busy getting a few things cooked up ahead so our first few days learning our new duties! We spent a year traveling and working for the National Park System (2018-2019) as Interpretive Guides. It was a lot of fun, but now as volunteers, we just want to hike and camp! Once our duties are done for the day we can just kick back, camp, and relax! It is exciting to me that our parks are opening up once again...
Our 25 ft 5thwheel for camping and volunteering!