Dried Apple Pie

This is such a delicious pie recipe from pioneer times and a great way to use dried apples!

Soak 2 cups dried apples in water overnight in the fridge (or somewhere cool). Drain the water and mix with 1/2 c. sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon (you can use pumpkin pie spice in place of the cinnamon for some extra flavor!)

Place apples into a prepared pie crust. I prefer to use an all butter recipe crust. Dot apples with 3 T butter. Cover with top crust, seal the edges and make a few slashes in the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or topped with cheddar cheese! 

Simple Pioneer Family Home Evening

It's Pioneer Day again this weekend!  For Activity Days tomorrow (I don't know if I've mentioned that's my church calling... again) we're going to be putting together Family Home Evening packets so the girls can present a pioneer themed FHE Monday night.  I thought I'd share the simple lesson plan I came up with.  My favorite part is the pioneer treasure hunt.  I've seen a couple online, but I wanted to do one that was easier and use coloring pictures so the girls can color the pictures on the clues tomorrow at our activity so I whipped one up!

Pioneer Family Home Evening

Song-

Pioneer Children: Children’s songbook p. 214

Click to enlarge, then right click to save and print.

Thought-

“A dictionary defines a pioneer as ‘one who goes before, showing others the way to follow.’ Oh, how the world needs pioneers today!” ~President Thomas S. Monson

Lesson-

In February 1846, the pioneers were forced to leave their homes in Nauvoo. The weather was so cold that the huge Mississippi River was frozen solid. The early church members walked on foot and drove their covered wagons across the slippery ice away from their beautiful homes in Illinois. It was not easy to travel this time of year, especially with young children and in the bitter cold. The Saints stopped at many places along the way, including Sugar Creek, Garden Grove, and Winter Quarters where many people became sick and died.

These first pioneers traveled over 1,000 miles across the plains, following their leader, Brigham Young, to their new home in the Rocky Mountains. The first group of Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. We celebrate Pioneer Day every year in July to remember the pioneers who made their way across the plains to their new home in Utah.

Activity-

Pioneer Treasure Hunt:

Make pioneer cookies ahead of time for the treasure... or use another pioneer treat such as root beer barrels or taffy.

Click to enlarge, then right click to save or print.

Keep clue #1 to start.
Hide #2 under your dinner table.
Hide #3 in your kitchen sink or somewhere you drink from.
Hide #4 under or in a bed.
Hide #5 in a clothes closet or dresser.
Hide #6 in your bathtub.
Hide the treasure in your fridge or food pantry.

Refreshments-

Pioneer Washboard Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream together sugars and shortening and beat in eggs. Dissolve soda in boiling water and add to above mixture. Blend in vanilla. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and blend into mixture. Roll dough into balls by hand and place onto greased cookie sheet; flatten with a fork. Bake at 375° for 10-15 minutes.  Pull out of the oven when they're barely turning golden.  These are easy to overcook.

Happy Pioneer Day!

Easy Pioneer Trek Skirts from Thrift Store Sheets & My Own Trek

 

Welcome to The American Homemaker!  Thanks for visiting.

I'm sure there are people out there who will never have need for a pioneer outfit.... but if you're anything like our family then pioneer outfits are randomly needed quite often.  Next week Nina is going on a pioneer handcart trek and she needs two skirts.  I have several pioneer dresses, but she needed skirts and button up shirts.  I LOVE using thrift store/yard sale sheets for costume making, especially for pioneer outfits.  There is no cheaper way to get a good piece of fabric.  I whipped up two skirts in under an hour, start to finish.

Here are the step by step-by-step instructions for making a pioneer skirt from a sheet or a 2 1/2-3 yard piece of fabric.  The instructions are the same either way.

A twin sheet will be 96" long, which is about 2 2/3 yards long.  If you're using fabric, you'll want to use at least 2 1/2 yards, but no more than 3 yards... unless you are a bigger person.  Lay the fabric flat on the ground.  Measure your subject from waist to ankle.  This is how much fabric you'll need to cut.  If you are making the skirt for someone short (5' or less) you'll be able to get two skirts from one sheet.  Skirts for a pioneer trek are recommended to be anywhere from mid-calf to ankle length.  If you are making mid-calf length skirts, you'll be able to get two from a sheet even if you're a little taller than 5'.  When using fabric, you may not need to cut the fabric at all.

You will be using the finished edge of the sheet (or salvaged side of fabric) for the bottom of the skirt so no hemming will be necessary.   Fold your sheet in half the long way measuring from the fold to the finished edge.  Adjust your sheet until you have the size you need (the waist to ankle measurements you took).

Cut along the fold line.  Cutting this way keeps your cut nice and straight.

If your sheet/fabric is really wrinkly go ahead and iron it.  I gave Nina an ironing lesson and had her iron the fabric for her skirts.

Next you'll want to iron your elastic casing to make it quicker and easier to sew.  First iron just a small fold on the cut edge down the whole length of the fabric.

Next measure 1/4-1/2 bigger than the width of your elastic so you'll know how big you need your casing to be.  I have used anything from 1/2"-1 3/4" elastic for the skirt waists.  Iron your casing.

Sew a straight line near the edge of your fold to secure the casing.

Measure the waist of your model to know how much elastic you'll need.  I cut my elastic right at the waist measurement without adding any extra.

Use a safety pin to thread the elastic through the casing.

Sew your two side together, wrong-sides-out, doubling your stitches over the elastic to secure it well.

Turn it right-side-out and you're done!  Less than 30 minutes start to finish!

This one was made out of fabric I had on hand instead of a sheet.  The special thing about this fabric is Nina had a pioneer dress made out of it when she was six!  Now she has a pioneer skirt made from it as well.

All set for Trek!

We've been getting Nina all ready for trek for a couple of weeks... buying her special shoes and socks, telling her to start preparing, worrying about everything she'll need, etc and then Thursday I got a phone call from my best friend, Jake saying, "Guess what we're doing tomorrow??? Bring some hiking shoes, clothes, snacks and come up to my house."   Oh boy!  I am NOT hiker.  I don't own hiking shoes, I barely even own any shoes that aren't heels or flip-flops.  My extent of working out is 30 minutes of yoga or 20 minutes of the shred.  I was NOT prepared for a serious hike on a trail rated "difficult" and "not for first time hikers".  But I said ok!

We took the Skyline Trail close to North Ogden.  It's a long uphill trail with a ton of switch-backs. 

This was about a mile into the hike... I was already wanting to die!

We didn't make it all the way to the top, but you can see how high up we were... This is as high as we got while we could still see the tiny speck of our car.  The hot pink arrow and writing I added (click to enlarge the pic) is our car.

This was the first rattlesnake we saw on the trail (after Jake shot it).  It was the small one.  The other one was VERY large.  We had planned on camping overnight without a tent, but after seeing more than one rattlesnake right on the trail we decided to head back to the car before dark.

This is when we stopped to eat on our way back down... I was SO tired!  We hiked several miles in a four hour span.

You can see how NOT prepared my feet were for the hike!  If you are sending a child on trek, please, please, please make sure their feet are more prepared than mine were!  Two days later I still have massive pain in my joints and muscles too!  I could barely walk yesterday and I still really hurt today!

I tried to keep a happy face on the whole way even though I wanted to die!

The scenery was beautiful!

We made it back to the parking lot right as it was getting dark (thank goodness)... I can't believe how high up we climbed!  For two wussy people who are not hikers we did a pretty dang good job of it and I'm proud of us! :)

Pioneer Swedish Jam Cake

All three of my kids LOVED this cake. They thought it was super delicious! It's a bit heavy like most old fashioned cakes, but the flavor was really nice and the frosting was great! This is a really good pioneer day dessert recipe.

Swedish Jam Cake

1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs, separated
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 cup strawberry jam

Cream butter and sugar; add egg yolks and salt. Mix in soda and buttermilk. Add flour and spices and beat well and add jam. Fold in beaten egg whites. Bake in greased and floured 9x13 pan at 375° F. for 30 to 40 minutes.

Milk Frosting

1 c milk
1/4 c flour
1 c butter at room temperature
1 c granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine milk and flour in small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Cream butter and sugar until very fluffy. Add vanilla and cooled flour mixture. Continue to beat at medium speed until frosting is very fluffy and sugar is completely dissolved.

Crockpot BBQ Beans

These beans are super yummy! They aren't authentic pioneer beans, but they sure are good and your family won't know... I promise! These are good as a main dish or a side dish for your pioneer dinners or every day. We eat a lot of beans at our house. The kids love them like this. They don't even mind the green beans. I usually make my pinto and kidney beans from dried and freeze them in 2 c. containers for recipes.

This dish can be made several hours ahead of time, which is really nice! You can even make them a day ahead, keep them in the fridge and just heat them in the crockpot.

BBQ "Pioneer" Beans

Place in your crockpot:

1 can (2 c.) kidney beans, drained
1 can (2 c.) pinto beans, drained
1 can pork and beans
1 can green beans, drained
1 pkg real bacon bits or about a cup of crumbled cooked bacon

Mix together and pour over beans:

1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
1 c. ketchup
1 1/2 T vinegar
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Cook on low for 4 hours (longer if refrigerated first) or on high for 1-2 hours until hot.

Pioneer Tablescape

I love simple, old fashioned tablescapes and what better reason for simple and old fashioned than Pioneer Day?

blueberry lemonade

old fashioned chicken and dumplings

Wild West Hoe Down Party

My friends and I decided we wanted to throw a single's party at my house... and randomly we chose a Hoe Down! It was so much fun. We ended up having tons of people attend who we didn't even know from all backgrounds and all ages. I LOVE throwing parties and I'm already planning out our next one!

Forget frogs! We wanna start kissing horses to find us a cowboy!

The decorations were super simple! We bought a bunch of butcher paper for .19/foot and made our "wild west" signs.

The banner was made out of paper napkins and twine.

Butcher paper worked for our silhouettes too!

I picked up this set at a thrift store for $1 and transformed it...

YEE HAW!

Janelle, Kelly and I :)

I met a ton of new people! It was a riot! We had a little bit of rain but that didn't scare off the fun people :)

Pioneer Cabbage Soup & Soda Bread

We made this yummy soup for St. Patty's Day this year, but we will also use it as a simple pioneer dinner. We LOVE having pioneer themed meals (yes, we know we're odd). I made the soup in a crockpot, but for more authenticity it could also be made on the stove top. All three of my kids GOBBLED this soup up and had seconds... even Caleb who doesn't like bacon ate heartily. I was worried about the salt pork since it's mostly just fat, but it almost dissolved into the soup and was fabulous! The Irish Soda Bread is a favorite of my kids.



Cabbage Soup

1 pkg salt pork (1/2-1 lb, I'm sure bacon would work too)
carrots
potatoes
cabbage
water

Cut the salt pork into small pieces. Brown the pork in a frying pan. Place in a crockpot (drippings and all) with diced potatoes and sliced carrots. Add enough water to cover. Cook on low all day. 30 minutes before serving stir in diced cabbage and add more water if needed. I added another two cups.


Irish Soda Bread

4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 to 1 ½ c buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425. Mix together dry ingredients. Gradually add buttermilk, mixing with a large spoon until dough is firm enough to be gathered into a large ball. If the dough is crumbly, add some more buttermilk, a tablespoonful at a time, until it all adheres to the ball. Place on a lightly floured board. Pat and shape it into a flat circular loaf, about 8 inches around and 1 ½ inches thick. Set on a floured baking sheet. With the tip of a knife, cut a ½ inch deep cross into the dough, dividing it into quarters. Bake for about 35-45 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Remove from the oven and wrap in a clean dish cloth. Let cool about 20 minutes.