Doughnuts on Christmas morning

This year I decided to start a new Christmas tradition, doughnuts on Christmas morning. MMMMMMM! I love me some doughnuts, like seriously. I saw on Pioneer Womans show how to make these doughnuts. I must say these are the best doughnuts I have ever had, they beat Dunkins and any small town shop I’ve ever had. AND I can make them at home anytime I want them! They are light and fluffy and everything you can dream in a doughnut, the only down side is…….. well if I find one I’ll let you know. 😉  If you love doughnuts too you REALLY need to try these.

Doughnuts

Christmas cookies!

Cookies again you say?! Why yes, yes I did. 😀 I love cookies, I can’t help myself. This time though I made them with almond flavoring instead of vanilla, same with the icing. SOOO GOOD!! I use my favorite recipe for cutouts which you can find here,  just switch out the vanilla for almond (unless you’d rather have the vanilla well then by all means). I like both ways! The royal icing recipe I use is on Sweetopia‘s blog, here is the link. I’m not saying this is the best way to make cutouts, it’s just my favorite way. Cutouts are time consuming but oh so worth it in the end. Now for a few pictures of my cookies. 😀

Living off the land

Part of living off the land is growing our own garden; we also raise our own pigs, chickens, and turkeys. Another part of it though is hunting, my husband hunts for deer every year, I will be learning to hunt myself this year. We really enjoy raising and hunting for our own meat. I know that this meat has not been tainted by humans, I know that my daughter and sons are not going to get extra hormones that are not needed and possibly harmful. I know that hunting is not for everyone, heck at one point I didn’t have any desire to hunt. The more I live off my land the more I want to. I enjoy knowing that my husband and I have provided for our family the way our ancestors did. So the last few days I have been busy in the kitchen, grinding venison.

Do you try to live off the land, if so how? I’d love to learn how others do it too. 😀