New Recipes: Rendering Tallow

We rendered some of our beef suet this week, and it turned out well.

First it has to be heated, strained, and then put in jars (top picture). When it cools and hardens, it looks like this:

Tallow is supposed to be healthy to use if you have to fry something. And it makes wonderful pie crusts.

Sarah tried a tater tot recipe (potatoes, flour, salt and pepper: very sophisticated!), and even tried using the above tallow to fry a few in. The remaining were baked. We enjoyed them for our Saturday night dinner with mom's fish sticks!

New Recipes: Pigs In A Blanket

Mom recently decided to make a few convenience meals to put in the freezer.  There seems to be few foods we can take for errand or "music lesson" days.  Pigs in a blanket are not the healthiest food we can eat, but should be better than eating out. 

We purchased preservative-free turkey wieners, and used freshly-ground wheat flour in our  crescent-type dough. Jonathan helped tackle the job with creativity: he is always the first to offer to help in the kitchen.  Thank you, Jonathan for all your work!

Our dough recipe included whole wheat flour, sucanat, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, and goat milk. We made 64 small piglets; enough for three outings. Seems it should be a months' worth of meals with all the work and clean up it took.

Ready for the freezer

Jonathan also made what he called "cows in a blanket" - bread pockets stuffed with cheese and pepperoni, although pepperoni does not come from a cow.  Every one knows what animal they come from.

We also tried homemade fish sticks which were a hit. And we are rendering some beef tallow. Sarah wants to try some hash browns next. Yes, we must have too much time on our hands. 

Snow Fun

It was a beautiful day outdoors.

All was perfectly calm. Then...

They came - those kids with sleds!

They made a lot of noise.

Especially the old one with a camera in her lap!

Then, they decided to see what snow looked like flying in the air.

 Finally, they decided enough was enough and 

it was time for hot chocolate and popcorn. 

So they were off...

Leaving me!

The Winner Is...

Thank you each one for entering in our new year's giveaway! We were excited to "meet" so many of our readers and appreciate you commenting and sharing our link. The many ways that were shared about recording the blessings of God throughout the year were creative and we appreciate you sharing those ways.

So, we would like to announce the winner of the giveaway. It is:

Kelly from Christian Country Mama (#54)

We hope that you enjoy your prize! Please email us at tom@bryantfamilyfarm.com with your mailing address so we can get your package mailed. 

Giveaway

God bless each of our readers this new year - and we'd love to hear from you anytime!

Wonders of the Snow

"Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, 

who only doeth wondrous things."

(Psalm 72:18)

Skating Fun

Last week, our family tried our "hand" at skating with friends. Although the fellowship and companionship was much fun, we found that we definitely were not naturals at skating. For most of us it was a first-time experience, so we were thankful for the assistance of our friends who instructed us.

Peter teaching Samuel how it works

Almost got it! 

"This just isn't working!"

Little Sarah decided to watch with her gramma

New Year's Fellowship

On new year's eve, we enjoyed some time with our friends, the Prigges, and their extended family. It was nice to meet Mrs. Prigge's sister and her family, who are missionaries to Indonesia. 

Playing games

The ladies

Then on New Year's Day, we continued our tradition and spent it with our friends the Lunsfords. There's never a dull moment when our boys are together - they are always sharing stories and latest trapping/hunting adventures!

The guys all went to check their traps, despite the cold weather!

Doing chores

Playing instruments together

This get-together was especially special since their oldest son is going away soon. We will miss you Tyler!


We are thankful for the blessing of friends that God gives us!

"Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: 

and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD."

(Psalm 106:48)

New Year Giveaway

Happy new year's! As we stand on the brink of a new year, it is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the blessings the Lord has bestowed upon us during the past twelve months. "I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands" (Psalm 143:5).

Sometimes as we stand still and look back to God's blessings, we find out how faulty our memories are. How soon we forget the good deeds of the Lord! One way that this can be prevented is by recording these blessings as they come along. This can be done in a variety of methods, including journaling, writing down provisions on the calendar, or keeping a "blessing jar." (If your family has developed your own personal method for this, please share it with us.) In this way, at the end of the year, none of God's blessings are forgotten!


In the Bible, Samuel had the same idea when he erected this stone for the nation of Israel:

"Samuel took a stone, 

and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, 

& called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, 

Hitherto hath the LORD helped us."

(1 Samuel 7:12)

Our Giveaway

We would like to start out the new year of 2011 off with a special giveaway: two hand-crocheted washcloths, a Burt's Bees set (includes lotion, soap, creme, and lip balm) - and a bonus stationery notepad from KBR Ministries! To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post.

Includes Two Handmade Washcloths and Scripture Stationery

If you would like to have extra entries in the giveaway, here are some more ways to do so:

• Share one way that you use to record God's blessings throughout the year (1 extra entry)
• "Follow" our blog (1 extra entry) {add our blog url to your blog reader/feed}
• Share about our giveaway on your own blog (2 extra entries)
• Add a link to one of our Bryant Family Farm, KBR Ministries, or Sarah Lee Photography websites on your blog (1 extra entry each)

Giveaway closes on January 11th, 2011, and winner will be announced on Wednesday, January 12th. Best wishes!

Welcome to Our "New" Blog

We are changing our blog host with this new year; to see previous blog posts, just go to our blog archives. All blog posts from this time on can be reached on the sidebar under "archives."  Hopefully this is not too confusing!


Thanks for being our faithful blog readers. We would like to thank you for bearing with us so long...that will be a surprise with the next post. Stay tuned!


Happy new year and God's blessings.