The Big White Farmhouse | intentional living, little by little

August 12, 2022

No.680: Our Extraordinary Ordinary Life // August 2022

A monthly project featuring ten photos throughout the day that show a peek into our extraordinarily ordinary life.

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Highlights of the day:

I’m running out of time to complete all of my farm projects before the school year starts! I spent the morning dismantling Fiona’s old paddock and amending soil for the fall garden. I also cleaned up “The Barnyard” (where the chickens and ducks live) and put away some of the unneeded fencing. Little by little, tasks are getting checked off the list.
I’ve fallen into the rabbit hole of 60 Minutes Australia Youtube videos. I know, so random. I usually watch/listen while working on other things. Have you heard about the woman who went missing after conning her family and friends out of millions?
My daughter and I made blueberry banana bread. We must not have greased the second pan well enough because when I went to upend it onto the cooling rack, the middle fell out but not the crust! Oh man, we laughed and laughed. Thankfully, it still tasted the same, even though it looked hideous.

August 11, 2022

No.679: A Year of Vintage Recipes // German Blueberry Kuchen

It’s been awhile since I’ve experimented with my vintage cookbook! My daughter and I decided to try a German Blueberry Kuchen, which the cookbook described as a “delicate, fine-grained coffee cake” that is perfect for “breakfast or dinner dessert.” We thought it was delicious and not too sweet. Would be wonderful with a cup of hot coffee!

Print Recipe

German Blueberry Kuchen

taken from Farm Journal's Country Cookbook

Servings: 6 servings

Ingredients

1½ cups flour sifted
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup soft shortening or butter
⅔ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp grated lemon peel
1 egg
1 cup fresh blueberries
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp grated lemon peel

Instructions

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and ¾ cup sugar. Add shortening, milk, vanilla and ½ tsp. grated lemon peel. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for 3 minutes, or 300 strokes by hand.
Add the egg and beat with the mixer 2 minutes longer (200 strokes by hand).
Turn into a greased 8" square pan.
Lightly stir together the blueberries, 3 tbsp. sugar and 1 tsp. grated lemon peel. Sprinkle over the batter in the pan.
Bake in a moderate oven (350°) for 40 to 45 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool slightly in pan. Cut in squares and serve warm.

Check out some other recipes from “A Year of Vintage Recipes” series:
Cheese and Bacon Pie
Old Fashioned Oatmeal Bread
Sugar-Top Coffee Cake

August 10, 2022

No.678: A Scrappy “I Spy” Quilt Top

This is more of a progress report than a finished product, but I am so happy to see this first part DONE! Definitely the most time intensive goal from my summer “Get Things Finished!” Challenge.

This is a quilt top with a story, each piece lovingly sewn together by hand. I learned to sew this way from my maternal grandmother and now that she has passed away, I am so glad I took the time to sit down and pay attention. There are fabrics in this quilt that she passed along to me. There are fabrics from my early days of quilting, where the only fabric I could afford were fat quarters at Joann’s. There are a few vintage fabrics, a pillowcase, even a stained chambray blouse! It’s loud and colorful, but beautiful in its own way.

Right now, the quilt measures 37×80″, but will grow slightly with the binding. I copied the size from one of the childhood quilts my grandmother made for me; it’s the perfect size for wrapping up. Oh! A fun aspect of this quilt is the way I “fussy cut” different fabrics to make a sort of “I Spy” activity. Some examples:

Next up: the “quilt sandwich” and then hand quilting the entire thing together!

August 9, 2022

No.677: A New Reading Challenge // WILLA Literary Award Winners

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Another year, another reading challenge!

Have you heard of the WILLA Awards? According to the website, “The WILLA Literary Awards honor the best in literature, featuring women’s or girls’ stories set in the West that are published each year. Women Writing the West (WWW), a nonprofit association of writers and other professionals writing and promoting the Women’s West, underwrites and presents the nationally recognized award annually at the WWW Fall Conference. The award is named in honor of Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather, one of the country’s foremost novelists.”

I’d like to read the last six years of award winners (2016-2021) in the Historical Fiction and Contemporary Fiction categories. I’ve already read a few of them and will update this post as I go!