Chili...It's What's for Dinner.

I'm so in love with fall.  I love chilly, crisp days.  I love pumpkin candles and harvest decor and thinking cozy thoughts on my couch in the mornings while drinking coffee out of a really pretty fall coffee cup.  Not that we have legit fall days in Texas, but still. And I love chili. Homemade chili.  Not the canned stuff....that's just, ewwww.  

Yesterday was rainy and droopy here in southeast Texas so chili was on my mind.  Monday's are usually spaghetti days in our house, but chili won out.  Sorry spaghetti!

I like to use grass-fed beef and organic beans, tomatoes, spices, etc., but it's perfectly fine to use whatever works best for your fam!

Ingredients:

1 lb grass-fed beef
4 cans of organic dark red kidney beans
6 roma tomatoes {stewed and peeled} OR you can use one large can of organic stewed, peeled tomatoes.
Dump all of this in a big pot plus two cups of water.

Seasoning:

3 T chili powder
2 T cumin
1 T garlic powder
1/3 C dried minced onion
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 black pepper

Stir occasionally and cook on med-low for about an hour or two if you can.  If not, be sure to save some for leftovers...the longer the flavors have to melt together and become BFF's, the better.

I'm to lazy to post a homemade cornbread recipe, so make some of that too.

There you have it, folks.  Not much to it.

Enjoy!

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day...

We had a great time at our Roman Feast on Friday!  So let's get right to it and look at some fun pics from the day...

The boys toga's were so simple to make.  For each toga I used one adult large white t-shirt.  I cut off the right arm of each t-shirt along with the hem of the bottom portion of the left sleeve and around the neck.  Then I used two white pillow cases that I already had--cut them at the seems on each side and also at the bottom portion at the hem.  The pillow case was the perfect size for these guys!  Last I purchased some gold rope trim at Hobby Lobby.  I spent about $10 total for both togas.  

Next we made laurel crowns.  All you need is a white paper plate, green construction paper, scissors and a glue stick!  We should've added green leaves to the underside of the crowns so the white wouldn't show as much, but we know for next time!   

These look so cool from the side!

I was so excited to find this large glass jug and "cups" at Hobby Lobby.  Glass was half-off that day so all of this was less than $5.00.  You can't drink grape juice out of regular cups at a Roman Feast.  That's just a no-no.  I'm pretty sure the kids thought this was way cool.  

Sparkling grape juice...we were so legit at this feast.  

Roman cuisine at it's finest!  Grapes, figs, meatballs with pine nuts, deviled eggs, apples, cheese, olives, dried apricots and cranberries, bread and olive oil with herbs.  DELISH!  

Cheers!

Meat, cheese, fruit and olives--heaven on a platter!

Fresh figs and apples.

All of our supplies for our Roman Coins:  

Clay, cut outs for the coins, gold spray paint, copper paint and a foam brush to brush on the copper.  

Break off the clay in sections and mold into a ball the best you can {this clay was SO hard}.  Next roll it out with a rolling pin on parchment paper.  

Next use the cutters to make different sized coins... 

After they were all cut out we used metal skewers {toothpicks would be great too} to carve out different pictures and symbols on the coins.  After the carving is complete place the coins on a non stick cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.  I put them in the refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes to help them cool quicker.  

Next we sprayed the coins with gold spray paint...

The finishing touch...lightly brush on the copper paint over the tops of the coins.

We decided that we liked them better without the copper so we made some more!

Our friend, Bella, joined us!  She's learning about Ancient Rome this year too.

And baby sister Rose came to be part of the festivities as well :)

The fancy Romans.

We ended the day by reading a chapter in Detectives in Togas {this book is part of our curriculum for Ancient Rome} by Henry Winterfeld.  LOVE this book.  

So I think the day was a hit.  Looking forward to a few more fun days during the year to make learning about Rome come alive!

Blessings!  

{Cinnamon Roll Cake--Fall is in the Air}

Yesterday we had a sweet family over for dinner and I wanted to try something new for dessert.  I perused Pinterest and found about two dozen desserts that looked amazing.  I finally narrowed it down to either Cinnamon Roll cake or Pumpkin Poppers.  The Cinnamon Roll cake won out, but I'll be making the Pumpkin Poppers in the next couple of weeks.  They just look too good to pass up!

The Cinnamon Roll cake turned out better than I thought it would--it was UH-MAY-ZING!

Cinnamon Roll Cake

Cake:

3 C flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 C sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 C milk
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 C melted butter

Mix everything except for the melted butter.  Slowly stir in the butter and pour into a glass 9x13 glass dish.

Cinnamon Topping:

1 C softened butter
1 C brown sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Mix all ingredients together well.  Drop evenly over the cake batter and swirl around with a knife in circles or figure eights.  Bake at 350 for about 28-32 minutes.

Glaze:

2 C powdered sugar
5 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

I didn't get a picture of the glaze--what was I thinking?!?!

Once the cake is done and out of the oven, pour glaze mixture on top of warm cake.  It melts right in!

Finished product--it's a beauty!

 

Clearly no one liked it.

An added bonus to this glorious cake is that it fills your ENTIRE house with the smell of fall--which happens to be my favorite time of year.  Mmmmmm.

Enjoy, friends.  It's DELISH!

Our First Day - Let the Games Begin!

Yesterday marked our third year of homeschooling.  Even though we school at home, every first day of school is still so exciting.  I could never sleep the night before school as a child--my stomach was always in knots.  And most of the time I had pink foam rollers in my hair so that made for an uncomfortable sleep too.  And for some odd reason I can tell you the outfit I wore on every first day starting in the 4th grade.  Weird.

Pancakes are a first day of school tradition since we started homeschooling.  I found the BEST recipe. These are so good, friends.  So good.

2 Cups flour

3 TBSP sugar

1 tsp salt

2 TBSP baking powder

2 eggs {beat them separately before adding to mixture}

1/4 C melted butter

1 3/4 C milk

*I use my 1/4 measuring cup and it yields about 15-18 pancakes*

I love my Cake Boss mixing bowls.  The hubs got these for me on my birthday two years ago.  They're just so cute!

Praying for a great first day and a fruitful year :-)

And Jude got to taste his first sip of coffee.  Not really.  

 2nd and 4th grade--YAY!  God has blessed us with some really handsome boys. Gee wiz!

And it was Baby Jude's first official day too :)

And, of course, Rusty the Sheepdog....

Jude did so good the first half of school before he had his first morning nap.  Such a happy boy!

This is my new favorite thing this year.  Simply Charlotte Mason has a Learning about Birds lesson plan guide that uses everything you see below {plus Blacky the Crow by Burgess}. LOVE this resource.  So for lesson one, the boys used the Birds of Texas field guide to find a house wren.  We looked at the wren and read a little bit about them.  Next I read Chapter One out of the Burgess Bird Book for Children as they colored the house wren on page 24 in the Fifty Favorite Birds Coloring Book. If you don't have any Burgess books in your collection at home, they are a must have!  Such precious little books.

Here's to another great start to another great homeschool year!

Blessings!