About the Book
This is the introduction to the book, which I find so inviting and comforting! Like Carol is taking my hand and telling me it’s going to be ok. Cooking from scratch is hard work, but she’s going to teach us the tricks of the trade! We can do this!
“As a homesteading homemaker, producing your own food is important to you. After all the energy spent in the production process (e.g. weeding, spreading manure, milking, butchering), I bet I know how you feel about coming in and cooking the evening meal. You are exhausted, right? When you have gallons of milk in the fridge, with more coming at the next milking, bushels of tomatoes and peppers sitting too long on the kitchen floor, and rows of green beans that must be picked and put up, just getting something simple on the table makes the local drive-through look inviting. But, I bet the drive-through would not even be on your radar if you had meals prepared in advance for those hectic days.
In the next few pages I will show you how, with a little extra effort now, to create a simple menu plan so that you can put up or preserve meals for an entire year. I will show you how you can have healthy staples for quick and easy breakfasts and lunches that kids and husbands can make themselves”with just a little forethought every few weeks.
Even though I have a few recipes here to give you ideas, this is not a recipe book. This book will show you how to take the meals you already know and love and prepare, or partially prepare, them in advance. Likewise, this is not a book to teach you how to can or freeze your food. If you do not already have a basic knowledge of food preservation, see the books I’ve listed in the Resources section.
If you enjoy cooking, trying new recipes, or just hanging out in the kitchen baking, that’s wonderful. What you will learn in here will be for those days when you do not have the time or luxury to spend hours in the kitchen. You do not have to be a foodie to love good food. Homesteading families enjoy tasty meals too. After you read, Homestead Cooking with Carol: Bountiful Make-ahead Meals, you’ll learn how to eat like foodies without exhausting all of your time, money, and energy each day.” -Carol J AlexanderAbout the Author
Carol J. Alexander’s mother was the queen of Spam and all things boxed. After moving out of her parents’ home, Carol taught herself how to cook wholesome food on a shoestring. Marrying, having six children, and moving past the pavement, she perfected her style of cooking by the motto, “Eat your food as close to the way God made it as possible.”
When not in her garden or homestead kitchen, Carol works as a freelance journalist specializing in all things home. Since 2007, her writing has motivated and inspired both new homesteaders and homesteading wannabes in their journeys to living a sustainable lifestyle. Homeschooling, parenting, natural living, herbal medicine, and frugal living are topics that round out her portfolio.
Carol’s work has appeared in BackHome, Grit, Hobby Farms, Urban Farm, From Scratch, Home Education, The Old Schoolhouse, and in regional parenting magazines all over North America.
As a columnist for her local newspaper, several highly trafficked blogs, and a national magazine, Carol understands the meaning of a deadline. Discipline, attention to detail, research, and interviewing skills have made it possible for her writing to reach millions of readers with the message, “If I can do it and have enough energy left over to tell you about it, then you can do it, too.”
Carol’s can-do attitude is most evident in her series, Lessons from the Homestead. Written to show parents how to teach their children academic skills alongside their farm chores, each booklet features over 50 lessons in math, science, language, and more.
A homeschooling parent herself since 1993, Carol understands that getting all of the farm chores done, plus all the schoolwork, too, can seem monumental at times. So monumental that folks may feel tempted to pull up their stakes in the country and move back to the pavement. When that crisis point comes, every time it comes, Carol is there to help.
Carol lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her husband, four of their six children, and the usual homestead critters. When not writing, you can find her in the garden wishing for things to grow or in the kitchen putting up her bounty.
To learn more about Carol’s writing and her Lessons from the Homestead series, visit her website, http://www.CarolJAlexander.com. What I Liked
Carol gives you practical advice on how to run and organize your kitchen so cooking from scratch doesn’t seem so overwhelming. She has loads of great tips and tricks that will revolutionize your daily meal prep and drastically cut down on time spent over the stove.
The appendices have got to be my favorite part! There is so much good information stuffed into a few short pages. These are ones you’ll want to either print out or copy and hang in your kitchen!
I also LOVED her section on processing your own meat. Chapter II (From Big Game to Chicken: Processing Meat) is phenomenal. She has great tips on how to make cuts and packages uniquely for your family, and recipes for using the meat your have processed.
Chapter VI is also a chapter that is so valuable it could pay for the book all by itself! “Eighteen Meals from one Ham: The Fine Art of Stretching Meat” gives you plenty of tips on how to make those fresh ingredients last longer and fit into more meals so you can save your pennies.What I Didn’t Like
I would have preferred more recipes be included in the book as all of the ones I’ve tried so far have been fantastic! However, with the amount of advice she has given, your new cooking and kitchen organization skills will clearly make up for the lack of extra recipes. ,More Reviews
Also check out these other great sites for more Homestead Cooking with Carol Reviews!Timber Creek FarmMama’s HomesteadFogleman ForerunnerPasture Deficit DisorderThe Easy HomesteadPixie’s PocketBetter Hens and GardensSimple Life MomChicken Scratch NYFamily Living on a BudgetMontana HomesteaderDay by Day in Our WorldWhere Can I Get it?
You can find Homestead Cooking with Carol on Amazon as an e-book, or you can buy it in print at the following retailers:Everything Home with CarolThe Book PatchGiveawayOR You can enter the giveaway below for a chance to win one of three print copies for free! This giveaway ends on August 30th so get your entries in while you can! ,a Rafflecopter giveawayWhat About You
Do you find cooking from scratch exhausting and defeating after a long day at work? watching the kids? on the homestead? all of the above? How do you stay on top of healthy meals for your family? What would be your favorite part of Carol’s book to read?
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