Valentines Day

 We always cook instead of going out for Valentines. This year we kept it a little more simple by grilling. I think this was the best idea because Nathan did the grilling and all I had to do was make a side and dessert.

We started by putting this guy in his Valentines pajamas and into bed.

To accompany our Mustard Seed Crusted Burgers and Roasted Sweet Potato Salad was beer from local Throwback Brewery

During Jan-March they are making special batches of dark beer. They call it their Unafraid of the Dark series. I bought this for Nathan for Christmas. For Valentines they featured a beet stout. The color was an amazing burgundy purple. Despite the high sugar content in beets it still tasted like beets and unfortunately I've never liked them so I wasn't a huge fan. 

We hadn't grilled in a while so a burger was a nice change. My favorite was the roasted sweet potato salad. I had come across the recipe on Bon Appetite and wanted to try it because I was tired of all the ways I usually prepare sweet potatoes. It was delicious! I could have eaten the whole bowl myself. 

Painted Pig Farms

I wanted to put a word out for Painted Pig Farms and their all natural pork and homemade soaps. We first tried some of their soaps because I had expressed an interest in learning how to make my own soap. It turns out that a we loved it so much that we had Joel and Amy pay Nathan in soap for some work he did for them. It is 100% better than the stuff you buy at the store and it smells divine.

Their pork which is their main business is delicious. So far we've tried both the smoked ham and pork chops. Their pigs are born and raised right here in GA.

You can see them at the Statesboro Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. They're just a few tents down from the Sugar Magnolia tent were Nathan is. Please support you're local farmers and businesses!

Picking Strawberries

Yesterday we got up and headed over to Bell Farms to pick strawberries with the nieces and the Cook family. Thankfully we got there earlier so it wasn't quite as hot and with all the little helping hands we were done in an hour. I've already frozen 3 gallons and I plan to make strawberry rhubarb butter with my last gallon.






We planted all of our herbs last week and Nathan is going to put our peppers, eggplant, tomatoes in the ground today. We can't wait for summer produce!

Raw Milk Update

Thank you Fedders! Our family at church that has the chicken houses as well as 2 cows gave us milk and eggs last week. The milk is wonderful and raw so the things I can make with it are endless.

After sitting over night in the refrigerator there was a nice layer of cream on the top.

I skimmed it off and ended up with about 3 cups of glorious cream.

Let the whipping begin!

Homemade hot chocolate with the freshest of cream!

Next: Butter!

We Heart Farmers

On our first visit to the grocery store here in Sioux City we discovered hormone free milk from a local dairy in Nebraska. Of course it is 10x better because it comes in a cool glass jar. So far this is the best milk I've ever tasted.
We also have a lot of farmers in the church here. We can buy fresh eggs for 60c a dozen, raw milk for $2 a gallon ($$ money goes to the church since they're not allowed to sell it), and fresh beef which will be donated to us once we find a freezer to put it in.