Natural Homemade Living

Simply try a new decorating idea for an autumn mantle, use what you have around the house or make some of your own pumpkins. I'll be posting a tutorial for the DIY Autumn Burlap Wreath next week so keep checking back if you need a new DIY project! For the shabby pumpkins check the previous post Simply DIY Pumpkin Decorating Project . Have a great weekend! Love and peace, ~ Simply Tammi

I picked the last of my cucumbers today from my garden and decided to make some refrigerator dill pickles. Angie had posted our grandma's pickles Simply Grandma's Refrigerator Pickles for sweet pickles, so I thought I would try some refrigerator dill pickles. I found a recipe on growveg.com so I decided to try it. It worked great! Even though canned pickles are my favorite, we liked these and they worked great on sandwiches! Refrigerator dill pickles:   4-5 washed, sliced cucumbers 1 cup white vinegar 1/4 c water 1/4 c sugar 1 teaspoon salt 2-3 cloves peeled garlic Place sliced cucumbers in glass gallon jar.  Heat the brine mixture in small pan just enough for the sugar to dissolve.  Pour over the sliced cucumbers. Add 1 teaspoon dill or about a handful of seeds, leaves or flower heads. Add 2-3 cloves peeled garlic. Shake gently.  The liquid will not cover your cucumbers, that's ok. They will settle down in the jar as they sit in the refrigerato...

Truly a favorite sandwich at our house! This is the fancy sandwich that I wrote about in the post, Simply Roasted Tomatoes . We ate these sandwiches for a couple of our camping meals, the kids thought it was very cool (and yummy)! The basic ingredients are roasted tomatoes, cheese and bread but here are some of the variations I use for this sandwich. Fancy Sandwich: Toasted bread:  Start with your bread, here are some great ideas, English muffins, English muffin bread, ciabatta, French, Italian, white bread, buns, gluten-free, etc., you get the picture right? Any bread you like. For ours, I used ciabatta rolls and toasted them in the toaster. Mayonnaise: I mixed about a teaspoon of Italian seasoning in about 1/4 cup mayo. (I made 5 sandwiches). Spread mayo on your toasted bread. Cheese: I almost always use fresh mozzarella but I have on occasion used provolone. Place a slice or slices of cheese over the mayo. Place roasted tomatoes over the cheese. I like to heat my tomat...

Finally a few minutes alone with my computer! It is a beautiful fall day in the Midwest and I am still feeling blessed to have fresh produce from my garden! I am still harvesting peppers and tomatoes. Today my plan to can some salsa but I have been busy roasting tomatoes. This is a great plan if you are short on time or you don't own any canning equipment. When we were camping a couple of weeks ago, I brought some roasted tomatoes and we had the fanciest sandwiches ever, well the children thought so! I'll share our fancy sandwich recipe in a few days. I absolutely love to freeze the roasted tomatoes to make sauces at a later date or use them during our cold winter months for pasta sauce, chili, soup, tomato sauce, pizza sauce, ketchup and tomato soup. I like to season mine slightly but you don't have to. The key is to roast them on a low heat in the oven. Steps to roast tomatoes : Wash and rinse tomatoes (as many or as few as you like). Prepare a baking sheet wit...

This old cabinet has been passed around our family for YEARS! Everyone has had it, grandparents, parents, my sister, even my niece. We all used it for different things and then when one of us was tired of it, or didn't have room, someone else would take it. So I now have it and have finally decided to give it a new look. I use it for my canning and preserves cupboard. It took my 3 coats of paint and a whole day but I got it done! It's amazing what a coat...or 3 of paint and a little sandpaper can do! Before After           ~Simply Angie

If you are looking for a tasty little treat, or an easy little breakfast idea, you will love these little muffins! They are super quick to make and you probably have the ingredients already. I got this recipe from my mom, who hardly every watches the food network, but saw this on Trisha's Southern Kitchen show. They are like mini pecan pies but in the form of a muffin. Here's what you need: 1/3 c butter, softened and set aside 2 eggs, beat into the butter 1/2 c flour 1 c brown sugar 1 c chopped pecans This recipe makes about 9 muffins depending on how big you make them, but I'm going to warn you, you might want to double it because they are going to be GONE fast! Mix the 2 eggs with the softened butter then add the dry mixture of flour, brown sugar, and pecans, stir together. Grease your muffin pan, papers, really well...they are sticky little buggers. Bake 350 degrees about 22 minutes. They don't really rise much so don't be alarmed. (I panicked and...

Before..shocking, I know! After Happy Labor Day Everyone! I hope you are all getting some time to relax and enjoy your family. I am still in the process of getting unpacked and organized from our move to Washington from Minnesota. One of the first things I had to do when I moved was get my kitchen functional, which means getting the pantry organized. In our MN house, I didn't really have a pantry, it was more like a deep cupboard. Now I have an actual walk in Pantry. If you have a cupboard pantry, check out our other posts on  Organizing the kitchen .  So on to... different pantry, different challenges. I wanted to use my pantry for food and things I don't need to use on a daily basis. (roasting pan, canner, crockpot etc.) I set it up in sections, baking, cooking, snacks, breakfast foods, things I don't use everyday but need to get to. So decide what you use a lot and put it in sections that are easy to get to. If you keep things together that you use together the...