In My Kitchen May 2025, looking back on April

I have to admit April was not our best month so far, and that includes the month we were part of Tropical Storm Beryl and were without power for almost a week! At least with a tropical storm you know what is coming your way! But I still got a lot most of our dinners made each evening, with leftovers a regular feature along the way.  AND two new recipes, yikes, that is really quite sad when you think about it. But there are a few good reasons, so I hope you stay and read the rest of the story! As we join Sherry for, In My Kitchen! 

 

The Texas heat come over us quickly here in East Texas, 

and speaking for myself my adaptive skills to immediate changes in heat and humidity were sadly lacking when the month began. And I quickly stepped down into the "running behind schedule" mode for a couple of weeks. Originally I wasn't too worried about it until I began to notice dinner had no interest to me. Not in the cooking and especially not in the eating. Fortunately, my husband is not a complainer, he will pick up the slack and make a sandwich or a hot dog without a word said. Boy did I rely on that trait this month...as I started my day in the garden, instead of the kitchen. 

Speaking of the garden it is doing well, in spite of the fact that the tires on the tractor would not stay inflated. 

They really had reached to old to be repaired once again, status. And honestly we use that tractor for so many chores. Bring dirt and compost to the garden beds, hauling heavy pieces of equipment in the front bucket, leveling out a garden path with the box blade. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but that tractor is a wonderful helping hand on our property and anything it can carry or haul, we don't have too...it is kind of like having paid help to do what you don't want to do, without any ongoing payroll expenses!

After new tires were deemed necessary, 

they were ordered by the tire shop. Our little town does not keep tractor tires in stock.  And wouldn't you know it, right about there our overhead A/C unit went out in the Caravan. We made the decision that a 14 year old system would probably need to be replaced, so we opted for a free standing floor model instead. We had reached the time of year that air conditioning really is necessary. But wait there is more, as there always is. How does that go again? Most things run in a cycle of three. Announcing #3, our main breaker failed...yep. I will say right now, we are totally blessed that we were home, and were not the victims of an electrical fire. And it was caught before the whole electrical panel was damaged. Whew! We only had to locate a replacement breaker in the next town over, to make the repair. Those are my stories and I am stick to them as my reasons for only two new recipes this month...but honestly it was a very busy month just the same. 

We were all back up and running on all systems (tractor, A/C and electricity) on April 30th, 

just in time to be a part of In My Kitchen with Sherry! While I only cooked two new recipes, I updated 55 in the archives. My daily habit was to garden till late breakfast became break time, then hit the blog. Honestly my goal is to get all of them updated this year. It is simple tasks really, some spacing corrections, picture resizing, a few spelling corrections and when needed a better structure in a sentence here or there. Not creative, but necessary. 

What I did cook new: 

Rumbledethumps. This delightful potato and cabbage dish was cooked by my daughter for my birthday dinner this year. Trust me, since I have never met a potato dish I didn't enjoy, we will be enjoying this often. 

And these delicious Garlic Butter Green Beans with Parmesan Cheese and Pecans. I actually made these three times, twice as my dinner, because I did not feel hungry enough for anything heavier...and yes on those evenings, my husband indulged in his love of hot dogs and potato chips. 

Ironically my topic for this month's Homestead Sunday was, Let's Normalize Real Life in Homesteading. I don't think it can get any more real, around here! Oh and yes, that is a broken pipe, in the photo, that is how our month started out...

But in other news and updates, we didn't buy anything new, actually purged a couple of things we just don't use anymore. 

I found a couple more recipes for some of the condiments my husband enjoys, that I hope will now be homemade over store purchased. 

We didn't eat out instead of cooking or eating leftovers. 

But it wasn't all work and worry, 

• we also booked an Alaskan Cruise for August 2026, 
• we built an enclosed berry/bird netting structure for our bush cherries, blueberries and strawberries, 
• we are putting up a larger above ground pool, 
• the chickens are laying 6 - 9 eggs daily, 
• and we are getting this gardening thing down! Green beans are beginning to need to be picked daily to encourage new growth, there are radishes to harvest, a few strawberries remain ripening and the blueberry bushes are heavy with fruit. 

So all in all, a very successful month, because we and all we hold dear are still here, living, laughing and working on this extended family Homestead. 

So how was your April? And thanks so much for the visit!

 

#wholefoodingredients

#scratchmadefoodforyourfamily

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