The Handmade Dress

This winter there has been a breakthrough in the Caffee house! Ben has finally learned to love soup!! Before he just tolerated soup as an occasional fill-in, but now he loves it and is asking for more. I'm ecstatic because I could eat soup for every meal and be happy! Our new favorite soup is this black bean soup HERE  (we use dry beans instead of canned). Ben even made it at the fire station (he added hamburger meat) and they loved it, they called it "meat candy soup". :) Tonight I'm trying a minestrone recipe, I'll let you know how that goes. I hope it's a hit too! So what is your family's favorite soup recipe? I need more recipes! Edited to add: I just remembered another really great soup that Ben has always liked. It's this broccoli cheddar soup and the only thing I do different is that I add a couple of grated carrots and I steam my broccoli beforehand. :)

Another recipe, I know, but this was another big hit that I didn't want to forget! I think they will be perfect for fall, and I've reallllly been in the mood for fall lately. The kids and Ben loved these and I loved the fact that that they were a little better than the basic sugar cookie....I mean they do have wheat flour and apples! :) I started with my favorite sugar cookie recipe and went from there. I wish I could credit the sugar cookie recipe, but it has been written down in my pantry for so long that I don't even know where I got it. Next time I may try to add raisins, and maybe substitute half the sugar for brown sugar.  Apple Cinnamon Cookies 1 1/4 cup flour 1 1/2 cup of wheat flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 cup of butter (2 sticks) softened 1 1/2 cup of sugar 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla 2 small apples peeled and cut into tiny pieces (about the size of chocolate chips) 3 tsp cinnamon 1- 2 tsp of water (if the dough seems a bit dry) Combin...

 I wanted to write down this potato soup recipe that I made up the other night (before I forget what I did). The kids LOVED it and so did mama! It's completely sinful, heavy whipping cream and all, thick, thick, thick, but it's worth it! At least it doesn't require any canned "cream of" anything, I'm really trying to get away from using canned food. The good thing about keeping recipes here on the blog is that when my kids want to cook, they can use our family recipe with pictures and all! It even helps them to know what pots to use. That's really coming in handy since mama is on partial bed rest. Molly and Tim have both used our tomato soup recipe from here this summer. So here we go. You will need: 3 celery stalks diced 10 small to medium potatoes 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (more if you are really bad!) 1/2 stick of butter 4 pieces of bacon 1 medium onion diced 2 tsp Salt 2 heaping tbs of sour cream 2 heaping tbs of flour 1 1/2 cups...

 SOMEHOW I have just discovered the joys of roasted vegetables! As we say in the south "So good it'll make you slap your grandmaw!" You know I really don't know why that is a saying now that I think about it. There isn't a person I know that would really be brave enough slap their grandmaw. Down here it doesn't matter how old you are, or how old grandmaw is, she will "turn you over her knee and give you a spankin' you won't soon forget" or "hang you up by your toenails". They are old school, you don't mess with them. Back to the veggies! It happens a lot this time of year that I have a lot of random vegetables from the garden, but not enough of any one thing to make a whole dish. My new solution to this problem is to cut them up, throw them in a dish, and roast them. Oh my this is GOOD EATIN'!!! The tomatoes get almost a sweet sun-dried flavor, the onions almost caramelize, oh it just brings out the best in all of the ve...

This morning I put up some tomato soup for winter. It smells so good! There is nothing better than   homemade bread and tomato soup on a cold day. My recipe is very simple and completely wrong (according to all of the online recipes) but my family LOVES this quick and easy soup. The best part is that everything comes straight out of our garden, that makes mama happy. :) Ingredients: 10 ripe tomatoes 2 bell pepper olive oil 4-5 leaves fresh basil 1-2 small sprigs of fresh rosemary 2-3 cloves of garlic tbs salt tbs sugar (optional) pepper to taste Cover the bottom of the pot in a thin coat of olive oil. Cut the tomatoes, I just cut off the top and bottom and then cube them and throw them in the pot. Cube the bell pepper and add them in. Tear the basil and rosemary leaves and throw them in. Crush the garlic cloves and add in. Add in salt, sugar, and pepper. Cook on medium until you see bubbles, then simmer for an hour or two...

 I haven't made bread in ages! I have this thing about not doing (knitting, picking out fabric, you get it) or eating my favorite things while I have morning sickness. If I smell something in my house all day while feeling sick ALL DAY, I'm the kind of girl who NEVER wants to smell that smell again. So last week I broke out the bread pans! The kids thought that they were in heaven! Poor babies, they had been so deprived of homemade bread that they ate a whole loaf before it cooled completely! I made my special honey butter too. (The picture above was at breakfast the next morning.) Boy does it feel good to be back in my routine a little more! The kids took some bread and honey butter to my neighbor and she called back saying "Teach me!", so I did. That afternoon she came over and left a few hours later with two loaves of bread and a batch of honey butter. We had a good time!  I typed up my recipe (a jumble of other recipes that has changed over time and is now...

 It is very possible that I am addicted to my essential oils. I love that gentle, natural, herbal smell in the air. I mentioned making fresh ironing water on facebook this morning and a few people wanted to know how, so I decided to put my favorite recipes (if you can really call them that) here for all. They are Bath Soak, Ironing water, and Natural Air Freshener.  Bath Soak You will need: an empty container with a lid, a bowl, a fork, essential oils (my favorites are lavender, rosemary, and peppermint) Optional: dried herbs, Epsom salt My favorite combinations are rosemary and peppermint, lavender and peppermint, or rosemary and lavender. You really just can't go wrong with these three. :) I put a couple of cups of baking soda (and Epsom salt too if I have it on hand) and add in 3-4 drops of essential oils for every cup. I mix it in well using a fork to smash any little clumps and store it in a sealed container. It's wonderful for sore bottoms (diaper...

Today I wanted to share one of my favorite recipes! My sweet friend Cami taught me to make it. Cami is from Romania and she says that it is a very common dish there. It's has a very savory flavor and is  great alone or as a side dish. Let's get started! You will need a head of cabbage, an onion, 4-5 slices of turkey bacon (or sausage, or whatever you like), salt, olive oil, dill, and sour cream (optional). Have your helper peel your onion, and then you dice it up and saute it in a little olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of water. While the onions are getting started cut up the turkey bacon into small pieces. Now throw those in. Now chop the cabbage up into 1-2" pieces. Throw it all in. I add in a teaspoon of salt (I really like salt) maybe you should start with half that and then see what you think. Then I sprinkle the top with the dill seasoning. My friend Cami also adds a seasoning called summer savory. I haven't been able...

I have been a total blog failure lately. I know! But I plan to turn it all around this week and get back in the habit. It really is a habit ya know. I also know exactly what de-rails me everytime. When I have things to blog about (like our trip) but I don't have time to do it I start feeling guilty for not writing it down. Then I start to avoid whatever it is that is making me feel guilty....then it snowballs into THIS! Today I decided to bite the bullet, blog about SOMETHING, and then when I have time this week I can write about the trip. We have a travel journal and loads of pictures so it won't be hard to remember, it's just going to take a fair amount of time. I really, really, really want these things written down (with pictures) for my kids. So, today lets talk about rice. Nkay?  I have always loved the wild rice that you can get at restaurants. It has so much more flavor than just plain rice. Not too long ago I found that Rice A Roni made a wild rice mix. Perfe...

This morning marks day 3 of being a vegetarian. So far I have felt pretty good. I have had a few moments that I felt a little weird (light headed and foggy), but overall it's been a good experience. After reading a few of the comments from the last post I realised that I wasn't super clear about our "diet plan rules". Oops. You know how I can get ahead of myself! On our plan (the one we made up) we have cut out all sodas, processed food, meat or meat substitutes, and anything else considered unhealthy (no matter how many calories it has). We are eating a lot of veggies from the garden, dry beans, mixed nuts, whole grains, and we are trying new recipes! My plan is a little different from Ben's, I have tried to eat most of my veggies raw while he is more focused on getting loads of protein. We loved all of the recipes and links!!! We tried the black bean burgers last night and we both liked them! Tonight I think Ben wants to try a new sauce to eat on whole grain noo...

** Disclaimer: The laundry detergent recipe I found was on the Duggar Family website, and while I hear they are very nice Christian people, I don't want to give the impression that I know anything about them (we don't have cable TV so I don't watch their show). I'm also going to give links in this post to other websites that I found while researching homemade cleaners. I always try not to give links that lead to sites with offensive language or advertisements. Because most of my time on the computer happens with my children around I assume most of you are the same way, so I wanted it to be clear that I only looked at the recipe links that came up in my Google search, I didn't comb these sites for kid friendly material...so be careful! And sorry I'm such a freak-show for even writing this but I just wanted to remind everyone that you have to be careful everywhere you go online...I'm done now. LOL! If you are trying to squeeze every last penny, like us, you...

 This is the "butterfly chicken pot pie" test-run for Madeline's birthday on Tuesday. My little princess approves... She needed special, pretty food for her birthday....you know cause what princess would eat just normal old pot pie on her 4 year old birthday....I love how butterflies can make her happy....

Isn't it beautiful!!! This is what we get when we pick (about every other day) now. The garden is in full bloom! and I can honestly say I have enjoyed it more than ever this year! Our garden has tripled in size from last year so we have had enough to put away for Winter. I really thought that the putting away part would be very hard messy and time consuming, but I have been surprised at how easy it has been. I find that I do better by putting away small batches of veggies just before or after dinner every night, this way I'm already in the kitchen preparing for a meal anyhow and I already have a mess to clean up. All of the things I put away can be blanched, put in an ice bath, strained, put in freezer bags, and popped into the new fancy schmancy stand up freezer that my hunny got me. If you have never done this before and are afraid like I was, just do it! It's so easy! I promise it's not rocket science! This is one of my favorite Summer salads. I'm sure a lot of...

We have just started, in the last two weeks, getting good veggies from the garden. It has mostly been squash and peppers so far but today we got a mess of green beans and cucumbers. We were all pretty excited about our first fresh green beans. A little while later I was yapping on the phone with Dawn and I went downstairs to find Molly sitting in the floor with two pots popping beans and I found sliced cucumbers on the counter. When she finished popping the beans I offered her a bullion cube (that's how we season our beans here) and she filled the pot with water and started cooking. When they were done she ate 3 plates FULL! I thought it was the cutest thing! The girl wanted beans so she cooked some beans! LOL! I went back for seconds too. I told her now that I know she can cook beans that will be her job from now on. I just need to teach her to get the strings and the end pieces off, but I gotta say, she didn't do bad at all for her first mess of beans! From the seed to ou...

After the last post about living the slow way I had several questions about making and keeping bread. Well since I am sooo into this right now I'll just tell you all about it! The recipe I use for honey wheat is on the back of the Gold Medal Whole Wheat flour bag, you can find it here . I also add a couple tablespoons of milled flax seed, and a couple of tablespoons of raw sugar because Ben likes semi-sweet breads for sandwiches (I will add a rockin sandwich recipe at the end of this post- it's my favorite). The wheat bread recipe I use for the best cheese toast in the world, and for dipping in soups, is Dawn's . Go over to her blog and bug her, I'm sure she will give you the recipe- she loves me. This bread is so easy and you can add just about anything you like for a different flavor, we like to add rosemary and olive oil (as shown above). I mix everything in Dorothy (for those of you who don't know Dorothy, she i...

Last night I was sitting here at my desk doing a little work on the computer when Molly came in to sit and talk to me. She had been outside with Ben, Timothy, and two of Ben's brothers all day working on the new barn, and I had been inside all day with Madeline baking our bread for the week. She sat and told me her stories from the day, as she often does, and I listened and giggled at her "Tim stories", then she asked "Mama, do we live the slow way ?" I replied "What do you mean sweetie?" I was really missing something.... then she said in the sweetest, softest, almost older voice, "You know Mama....because we make our own bread, and we have our own chickens, and we grow our food, and we use cloth napkins, and we homeschool...that kind of stuff. Is that the slow way Mama?" I was sort of taken back for a minute because I haven't really thought of it that way...but I guess so... "Yes baby, I guess we do." It's funny how a simp...