Pasta with Spicy Italian Sausage and Artichoke Hearts

4 links of hot Italian sausage  (mild is fine too if you prefer)

1/2 lb. of spaghetti cooked

1 1/2 cup of marinated artichoke hearts with some liquid

1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese + a little more for the table

salt

Cook the sausage in fry pan until browned and cooked through.   Cut into bite sized pieces in the pan.  Toss in the spaghetti and artichoke hearts along with some of the liquid it was marinating in.  Make sure to shake the bottle before pouring the liquid as the spices settle to the bottom of the jar.  Pour some liquid in, mix and taste.  Adjust how much liquid you use to your own taste.  Heat it all through.    Top with the parmesan cheese and salt to taste.  Serve with more parmesan on the table for individual tastes.





I use Cara Mia marinated artichokes that I buy in the large size at Sam's club.  A  64 ounce jar is under $9 and lasts months.  I eat them just plain as well or use them for a side dish or a light lunch by mixing with cooked rice and topping with parmesan cheese.  The liquid adds quite a bit of flavor so I always use that whenever cooking with them.

Enjoy!

Elizabeth

My New Honda Mower

My 2010 power mower....powered by me that is!

My new Honda self propelled mower.   

I have struggled for some time now with the issue of having or not having a lawn and what to do with the lawn I do have in terms of maintenance.   When your trying to be self sufficient on a small property it seems so wasteful to use up much of it on lawn.

Any homestead has chores and usually there are a lot of them and a limited amount of time and hands to get them done.   Some would opt for a riding mower simply because it's the country and it is a large enough area of grass that it could be justified.   Not many would attempt to do it with a push mower and I can say after trying it for a while myself it's with good reason they don't.  

I am not mechanically inclined for the most part.  I can do a few minor things but if a mower has an issue more than likely it would need to be taken to a repair person.   For me that's a deal breaker with a riding mower.   Not to mention that I have a rental property in town that I  mow throughout the summer and having to hook up a trailer to haul a riding mower to town is just more work than it's worth.   A riding mower for me and my needs is just overkill.

That said, I knew I wasn't going to be able to do another summer of the push mower.   My body just doesn't do well in the heat and pushing that mower around both here and on my rental when the weather gets up into the 90's or higher wasn't going to work anymore.

I did a good deal of research on what was available and decided on this Honda.   Honda has a great reputation and all the reviewers for the most part talked of how easy it was to start....a huge plus for me.   And the self propelled feature made it seem like a good compromise between a push and a riding mower.  I bought it online from Home Depot for about $500 and it was delivered to the house free of charge.  It does in fact start very easily, usually on the first pull.  And the self propelled part is a dream.  I can get it easily into the back of my Mazda 3 hatchback using a piece of plywood for a ramp.   The handle folds down nicely so the back can be closed.

I've only had one problem with it and that was my fault, not the mowers.   I had taken it into town to do the lawn at my rental but ended up running quite a few errands first.   When I finally did get to the rental it wouldn't start.   I ended up bringing it back home with the intention of having a repair person look at it but I got to fiddling with it and realized the turns etc. while it was in the car had gotten oil all over the air filter.   I bought another one and replaced the oil soaked one and it started immediately.   I now drop it at the tenants house while I run my errands and go mow when I'm done.

It's a great little mower for the price and I'm glad I got it.   I kinda wish I had gotten it sooner now.


Elizabeth

Dog days of summer

Although I've never discussed it on ATH, for the past 15 years I've bred, raised and shown Tibetan Terriers in both obedience and conformation.  Conformation is your regular dog show like Westminster for any of you that may not know.  

This is Oliver.   Oliver is a big Tibetan weighing in at 42 lbs.    Most Tibetans are 18 - 30 lbs.   Given his size I decided to get him a pack for hiking and put him to work, not that he can carry that much.   15% of his body weight just isn't very much.    Still he could carry his own treats and some water, keys to the car, my license etc.  

I wasn't sure how he would do with a pack but it was as if he had always worn one.   He didn't even seem to know he had it on.  Mountainsmith is a good name in hiking equipment and this pack wasn't a disappointment.

Next best thing until I get a pack goat!

Stay cool!

Elizabeth

Pinterest

urbanfarmerseward.posterous.com

I have fallen in love with Pinterest.   

All the photo's in this post have come from there.   If you haven't been to Pinterest  I would highly encourage you to visit.  It's an amazing site that lets you upload pictures from your computer or from any site you visit that allows Pinterest to scoop it's pictures and I've yet to find one that doesn't.  That may change as more blog and web site owners realize their pictures are being scooped but for now any site you go to you can just hit a button you install on your link bar after you join and it pins the picture you want to your account on Pinterest.   It then becomes available for everyone else on their too.  Others repin your photo's to their account and you can repin theirs to yours.   

It ends up being a treasure trove of idea's for you.   I searched homesteading and came up with some great pictures.  You can go see them using the link in the sidebar or here.   I actually found some from A Tiny Homestead already on there.  For site owners it tells where the photo came from so it brings more people interested in what they are about to their site.   For people just looking for idea's it amazing.  I think it's a win / win.  It's free too.

If you are a site owner and you don't want your pictures showing up there, they to have code you can add to your page that prevents anyone with the pin it button from pinning your pictures btw.

lindycottagehill.blogspot.com

hgtv.com

Proper Pinterest etiquette is to always use the link back to original post when using a photo.   Cool huh?

Win/win for sure.

Classic White Pizza

Classic White Pizza

Pizza dough

1 cup any pesto you have on hand or can whip up

mozzerella

bake till done.... Enjoy!

Ok...this is my last recipe post for a while.   I've been doing a lot of baking / cooking lately on the rainy days we've had.   On the nice sunny days I've been outside working all day and when I come inside at night I'm hungry and too tired to do much cooking.   Pizza freezes and reheats so easily I've made quite a bit.   Sometimes a simple soup sounds good easy but I want more flavor so I made the croutons I posted a few days back to dress things up.  If I've been really tired a few pieces of jalapeno bread with a bit of butter has tided me over till morning when I'm refreshed and can make myself something more nutritious.   Hence all the recipe posts.

Now...  I'm off to tackle the greehouse / chicken coop.