If you haven't checked out the shop in a bit, there is a new bedtime routine chart (in pink, teal, or orange) available for instant download. We've also changed the format of the hand turkey paper place mats. They're available as downloads, too, since shipping was so costly for a low-priced item.

There are tons of responsibility and routine charts in the market. Many incredibly cute and well-designed, but none fit our bedtime routine.** So I made this one and had it laminated at Kinkos.



If you're interested, but not interested in printing it yourself, I'm going to add a print version to the shop as well. Another option? Get the download and send it to your local copy shop, where they can print it for you.


**Dare I say our increasingly difficult bedtime routine (hello "threes") that needed a little more structure. Mabel thrives when she is given responsibility and a little more freedom to do things on her own. Obviously we're not giving her the car keys, she's three for crying out loud! But she likes to be treated more like her older cousins and less like a baby. That sort of attitude helped make potty training pretty much a breeze, for which we're eternally grateful.

Bunglehouse


This side of the house has been neglected for a while. We had to chop down some trees, then a crack in the mortar caused a major fix it. Since it's all fixed up, the peeling paint became noticeable. After comparing a few paint swatches (because, yes, we have a boxful on hand) and a trip to the hardware store, we came home with an electric pressure washer and 3 gallons of Sherwin Williams' Bunglehouse Gray.


We're not entirely sure what the block is made of, but the mason reused the original block when he rebuilt a portion of the wall. Now that they've been pressure washed, you can read the different (what I assume are brand) names on the some of the bricks.

Calendar update and suggestions

I've had a few people ask me if I'm putting out calendars this year, and like every other year I want to say yes, I want to keep the tradition going, but I'm just not sure I can do it. I'm tired from growing a person inside me and chasing a toddler around and have very little time to make things...much less make things where I don't feel the pressure for those things to be awesome-every-time.

If you want to wait and see if I get my act together (I actually have several months finished, but who knows about the rest!), cool and thank you! If not, I've got a few examples of calendars that may be of interest based on our style and content. For you knot lovers: Katherine Codega's tea towel calendar of knots. 


Katherine Codega tea towel calendar here, found on jake. (and what a fantastic eye he has!)

For the seasonal veggie fan, I'd suggest Claudia Pearson's Buy Local Calendar. Though this calendar isn't in line with our own style, I love Sarah Coyne's Nature Calendar, filled with all sorts of New England beauty!




A little bit of self promotion


We're getting ready for holiday pop up shops and sales. We've also taken out ads on 2 favorite blogs: Small Measure and Frolic!  If you don't know them, go check them out, so much good reading on both sites...and lots of great pictures.






If you have a blog and want to swap ad space, I've made a few standard size ads and figured I might as well put them here and let you grab 'em.  If you do, let me know and I'll give you a spot on this blog, too! Please link to http://shop.wolfieandthesneak.com. Let the holiday madness begin! (Or continue, if you're a seller you've likely been in the middle of the chaos for weeks, huh?)

Using the whole hog, I mean hen



I wasn't raised in a particularly food-centric household, and in my late teens to late twenties was a vegan. This meant I didn't really know how to cook much besides dry pasta. I could heat up a can of beans or cook a mean tofu patty, but when I became a meat eater again I left all meat cooking up to Charlie. He knew his way around an iron skillet, mentally stores and adeptly cooks his dad's recipe for a burger with perfection every time.

When I was finally ready to "honor" the animal through cooking it, well, I had to learn from the very beginning.  I also keep my internet ears open to new ways to use up the whole animal, at least as much as I know how. If you're in a similar boat, I've listed a few of my favorite go-to recipes below.

My own drawing of Ally, our mean black hen


I use these recipes nearly weekly:
How to roast a chicken (Martha Stewart)
How to cook a chicken breast (The Kitchn)

Bone broth: My approach is different than others I see online, I'm not sure how I came up with the process, since I use the internet as a cookbook.
Roast the skin, bones, drippings, fat in the oven on 350 for 30 minutes, stir/flip everything as best you can and roast 30 minutes more.
In a slow cooker/crock pot, cover the bones, etc. with water, add 2 bay leaves and a handful of thyme. Simmer for 12 hours. After you strain out the solids, you will have a richly flavored, unsalted broth.

Floursack tea towels from Girls Can Tell

Keep it going perpetually if you want, like Nourished Kitchen does. I generally use it for a giant batch of soup and toss (or bokashi) the bones.

I most often use homemade broth for chicken noodle soup or chicken and dumplings. Sometimes I'll use it in place of water to cook rice or barley, which is fantastic.

For chicken noodle soup I loosely follow the directions my sister in law gave me: 
Boil some kind of chicken with bones in. Today I used chicken thighs but I usually do a whole cut up chicken. Remove chicken to cool and pull off the bone. Put chopped onions, carrots and celery in broth cook until just done, add meat back in ( no skin, : p ) add salt and pepper to taste. I scoop out a cup or two of it and puree it and put it back in. Then I make a roux ( 3 or 4 tblspn butter same amount of flour, melt and add some stock, then pour it all back in the pot. It gives it some thickness which we like. Then just add noodles or rice, (I use the Amish egg noodles, they are yummy) when they're done YOU EAT!
Mabel will drink the broth and call it a meal.  If we have extra broth left over, the dogs get it with their dry food. After all, they deserve a nutritional boost, too!