My heart is FULL!

After Our Girl moved abruptly in September, our hearts were very empty. We dove right back into continue growing our businesses of Rent The Chicken and The Chicken Network while volunteering with boys' and girls' ministries at our church. We started #TompkinsPalooza2017 when we had Our Little Guy with us in 2017 to be purposeful about planning, experiencing, and spending time with as many friends and family as possible. That continued with #TompkinsPalooza2018 with Our Girl and niece Brooklynn well into December with our Annual Holiday Dinner.

Mid to late December is slower for us with phone calls and emails compared to other parts of the year so I in particular took advantage of #TompkinsPalooza2018 in being purposeful with activities and spending time with friends and family. I make it a goal to make as many cookies and pumpkin rolls as possible as I like to take a tray of cookies to events, plates of cookies to neighbors, and ship boxes of cookies to Phil's family. Although I'm a bit behind in my baking according to what I prefer, cookies still were shipped early this week as Christmas gifts for Phil's family! *whew*


In the last week or so, I had the pleasure of teaching a mother / daughter duo how to make ladylocks / clothes pin cookies. They are a popular cookie known in Western Pennsylvania but originated from Poland and Germany. The dough is mixed a day ahead of time with the secret ingredient of cottage cheese! (Ew, right?) The next day, the dough is rolled, cut into strips, wrapped onto foiled straight clothespins, baked, removed from clothespins then filled with a delightful filling that has more confection sugar than any recipe I've ever made before! So DELISH! My mom passed the recipe to me from my Aunt Evon who passed in 2011 after a long, long fight of cancer. Usually I only eat the rejects but my friend Debby let us eat even the pretty ones! A double recipe makes about 18-20 dozen. They are so easy to eat though so a few dozen go quickly in a crowd!

I also had the pleasure of teaching a former chicken renter turned friend how to make Pumpkin Rolls! Golly and I didn't even snap a photo of the process or of us making all TEN Pumpkin Rolls! He's next in line on how to make the ladylocks though! He took five home and left me with five as the five niece Mykala and I made before Thanksgiving are long gone! I hope five is enough as I've been sending a half of a Pumpkin Roll out the door like they are going out of style! I doubt I will make any more in the next five days though so they will have to be enough! He was real concerned with some cracking in the roll part so I was sure to send only uncracked ones home with him. All tastes the same to us! Here's a photo from yester-year to show off a representation of what we pulled off in 3.5 hours :)

On Saturday of last week, Homestead Phil had to be at our church for THREE events! I only had to attend one :) First thing in the morning, he had play practice for the Christmas program. He was the lead wise guy... I mean wise man! He came home, rested then we headed back in sporting our superhero garb for a super hero birthday party for our friend Chris!

It was there that I realized I could steal two of the girls in Girls' Ministry to help roll, cut, and frost the sugar cookie dough I had chilling in the fridge! Homestead Phil likes to one up me and this time he said to both girls and their families "Why not just spend the night?!" YAY!!!! Homestead Phil and I took the girls home and then he headed back to church for the Men's Ministry Christmas Party. The girls were so fun! (messy but fun!) We watched youtube for some decorating ideas. It was my first time attempting to use royal icing. In hindsight, maybe trying a new liquidy icing with two 10 year olds wasn't a great choice! hahahaha Eventually we switched to my tried and true frosting recipe and finished the task. Not before they asked for dinner though! They said "How about Taco Bell?" uh... we live in the middle of nowhere. I asked if they saw a Taco Bell in the neighborhood! :) They didn't so I made tacos and it was a win-win! They stayed up giggling far too late when Homestead Phil was in charge of making sure they went to bed while I wrapped some gifts (see below!). They each took a number of cookies home to share with their families!

I've grown pretty attached to a number of the girl kiddos in the Girls' Ministry at our church (including the two who came over for the cookie project!). I self titled my role as "Director of Crafts of Girls' Ministry". As Director, I felt the need to hand craft a little something for each of the girls (seven in total!) for Christmas. When I saw a crocheted pattern for ear warmers in the form of crowns, I knew they'd be perfect for these "daughters of the King"! At first they didn't know what they were and they are ages 6-10 and didn't realize that I hand made each of them! I gave them before service last week which was the same day of the Christmas program! So they opened them before their big performance and it warmed my heart after the service to see so many of them wearing them to go home! I later learned that one slept in hers and another wears it every time she goes outside AND another one wore it to Girls' Ministry on Wednesday. *FULL HEART*

As if those weren't enough events to fill my heart... there's more! Around Thanksgiving when Homestead Phil was traveling, we agreed that after a year, we would reach out to Our Little Guy's (Our first foster care placement) Mom to see if we could give him a few Christmas presents. (When he moved, he moved to his dad's and his dad was not open to being in touch with us.) She one upped me! She offered for us to video chat with us and then invited us to their home to bring his Christmas gifts including a new bicycle! Wow! Talk about FULL HEARTS! He turned 8 recently and remembers so much of his 11 months with us! It was two years ago yesterday that we first met him. Here we are with "Our Little Guy" Gabriel!

I challenge you to create your own "Palooza" to be more purposeful with your time, experiences available to you, and being with friends & family that you haven't seen in far too long. We thought we were good about those things before but we realized how much more we planned once we made it a thing. We still have some #TompkinsPalooza2018 left but we are looking forward to #TompkinsPalooza2019 - whatever that has in store for us! It's time for some more cookie baking now that I've finished my blog post for the week and we managed to publish and mail our year in review newsletter. Yes, we are *those* people!

Merry Christmas!
With a FULL heart,
Homestead Jenn

Annual Holiday Dinner

Every year since 2000 around this time of year, I invite everyone we know to join us for a meal. When Phil and I married, we changed the format from joining for a meal to open house style. It is for sure one of my favorite days of the year! It's A LOT of work but so fun! This year, we raised a few turkeys with one to be used at our Annual Holiday Dinner. The most stress I had of the entire day involved this:

Not before adding the majority of this stuffing being added to the turkey! Homestead Phil prefers the stuffing to be baked outside of the turkey which is why not all of it went IN to the turkey! :)

After 4 hours and 45 minutes, I decided to peel the foil off of the turkey above only to find that the turkey was PERFECT! It was so moist and delicious! Currently the frame is soaking in boiling water so we can make some broth to be used through the year. After about 50 friends and family members, lots of great food, many hugs, we ended our 6 hour party with only this much stuffing! It was ranked as one of the favorites of the day! That and Becky's spicy corn dip!

We asked as many friends and family to snag a photo with these create signs that Homestead Phil made like he did last year. The previous few years, we had a photo booth section. Although we really enjoy the photo booth photos, the selfie photos are great too! Here's a photo with me, the sign, and my friend Val.

Givi Kitty enjoys a good party just like I do! She hung out most of the time under the tree or in her cat tree. After everyone we left, snagged a few selfies with our lovely Givi to finish off the evening.

And just like that, our 19th Annual Holiday Dinner is complete. We're already talking about next year! Until then, I need to can the broth that's on the stove and freeze some of the turkey that is leftover in the fridge! Amazingly, of the 25+ pound turkey, we only had less than 5 pounds left!

Creamy Garlic Tomato Soup!

I LOVE making soup in the winter! I make so much at one time that we eat it for days! Or I give some away :) This week, I made Creamy Garlic Tomato Soup based on The Prairie Homestead's Recipe.

Creamy Tomato Garlic Soup

• 2 large cans puree tomatoes (you can use crushed or diced but I like a smoother soup)
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup chopped onion (again due to texture, I chop these in the food processor)
• 4 tsp minced garlic
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 6 cups whole milk OR half and half or combination of the two or 2% (really whatever milk I have on hand but the whole milk / half & half helps to thicken the soup)
• 4 tsp brown sugar (6 tsp sucanat is what the original recipe calls for but I don't have that on hand)
• 4 tablespoons dried basil
• 2.5 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Shredded Parmesan cheese (for garnish)

Melt butter in a large stock pot (I use 6 qt) then add the onion and garlic until tender. Stir in the flour and cook for 2-3 minutes until it starts to brown some.

In another pot, heat the tomatoes to simmer.

In the flour mixture, add the brown sugar, salt, pepper, and basil. Pour in milk semi-quickly but slow enough to not have clumps of flour. Cook and stir constantly over medium heat until it simmers and begins to thicken. Add heated tomatoes and gently stir. Continue to heat for 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally.

Puree the tomatoes in a blender or food processor. (If you have a hand/immersion blender, you can skip this step. Read on for details.) Place them in a separate saucepan, and bring them to a simmer.

I always top with fresh grated Parmesan cheese and often also make homemade garlic croutons. I didn't make the time for the croutons this time so I used crackers instead. I did; however, make the time to deliver some to my friend Carrie as I'm being purposeful with my time AND it's her favorite!

The Plague!

Wow!

On Thanksgiving, two of our nieces came over for slime making, nail painting, baking, and Christmas decorating. In the midst of that, we took Homestead Phil to the airport to enjoy some warmth in Arizona with good friends and his dad & step-mom. The girls and I went to glow in the dark mini-golf on our way back from the airport! Not a great photo because ... well dark area and forward facing camera without a flash!

On Black Friday, I went to bed feeling like I had a scratchy throat coming on. By morning, it was legit a very sore throat on the way to a sinus infection. I was holding down the fort with the outside animals, giving Givi Kitty an oral antibiotic twice a day, and maintaining the businesses. I powered through for 5 days of a lot of time on the couch until it was time to pick up Homestead Phil from the airport again! Even after that, I would get small bursts of energy but was still pretty dedicated to the couch for another 3.5-4 days. During that time, Homestead Phil made an appointment for me and took me to the doctor. It was clear that this was not going away on its own! Two weeks later, the cough is minimal. I have a few days left of the antibiotic. This time of year is my favorite! Business is a bit slow as expected which means I take some time for myself! Being sick though, I missed out on more than a week of being purposeful with my time to bake, visit with friends, and prepare for our Annual Holiday Dinner! (More on that next week!)

So while I was doing this:

Homestead Phil was doing this:

So I'm back in full swing and ready to be purposeful!