Homemaking · 7 min
Hospitality Without the Performance
An open door is a Christian habit. A perfect house is not the price of admission.
Late Harvest · The journal
The home is a quiet kind of ministry.
Recipes you can cook again, homestead work small enough to begin, and faith that fits a real kitchen.
A minute at the table
What this house is
Bread, a psalm, and the quiet work around them. One minute, if you have it.
The long read
Also in this issue
Faith · 8 min
Family Worship That Fits a Real Evening
Fifteen honest minutes will do more for a household than a liturgy no one can keep.
Homestead · 8 min
A First Kitchen Garden, Kept Small on Purpose
Stewardship begins with a bed you can actually water, not a catalog you cannot finish.
On the table
Four things worth cooking
Sunday Table
Sunday Roast Chicken with Garden Herbs
A bird, a pan of vegetables, and enough quiet to let the house smell like peace.
About 1 hour 40 minutes
Sweet
Apple Galette with a Butter Crust
A free-form tart for the first cool week. Imperfect edges are the point.
1 hour 20 minutes
Weeknight
Lentil and Herb Stew
A pot that stretches, welcomes a guest, and costs less than the bread you serve beside it.
55 minutes
Morning
Honey Oat Morning Muffins
A tender breakfast that uses the honey jar instead of a bag of sugar, and keeps for hurried school mornings.
40 minutes
The pot and the steamer
Fish, katsu, beef, and congee
A whole fish steamed with ginger and scallion. Chicken katsu with a homemade sauce. Beef in the Instant Pot, and chicken congee for the morning.
Fish
Cantonese Steamed Fish
清蒸鱼. A whole fish, ginger, and scallion, steamed only until it flakes. The hot oil goes on at the end.
30 minutes
Japanese
Chicken Katsu with Katsu Sauce
A panko crust, fried in avocado oil, with a homemade tonkatsu sauce and a pile of raw cabbage. The sauce is part of the recipe.
45 minutes
Instant Pot
Instant Pot Pot Roast
A chuck roast, onion, and carrots, cooked under pressure until a fork goes through without arguing.
About 2 hours, mostly hands-off
Instant Pot
Instant Pot Chicken Congee
鸡肉粥. Rice cooked with ginger and chicken until the grains burst into a white porridge. Salt it at the end.
About 1 hour 15 minutes
The jar on the counter
A sourdough section
How to begin a starter, how to keep it, and what to bake with it: a country loaf, a pan loaf, focaccia, pizza, and the pancakes and crackers that use the discard.
Sourdough
A Simple Sourdough Country Loaf
Flour, water, salt, and a living starter. The schedule is long. The hands-on time is short.
About 24 hours, mostly waiting
Sourdough
Soft Sourdough Sandwich Loaf
A pan loaf with a tender crumb, for toast and lunches, risen on a starter instead of a packet of yeast.
About 12 hours
Sourdough
Olive Oil Sourdough Focaccia
A wet dough, a deep dimple, and enough oil that the crumb stays tender the day it is baked.
About 18 hours, mostly waiting
Sourdough
Sourdough Pizza Dough
Two or three pies from one bowl, fermented slowly, baked as hot as your oven will go.
About 24 hours
Skin, soap, and the wash
A care section
Tallow for the skin, a plain balm for around the eyes, soap with frankincense or myrrh, and laundry and dish soaps without borax or a synthetic scent.
Care
Whipped Tallow Butter
The softer body butter. Tallow loosened with olive oil, still unscented, for arms, legs, and winter shins.
20 minutes
Care
Tallow Eye Balm
A grain of fat and wax for the skin around the eye. Nothing aromatic. Nothing that should ever go in the eye.
15 minutes
Care
Tallow Soap Bars
One lye formula, four bars' worth of scent: plain, frankincense, myrrh, or both. The weights are for this oil list only.
About 1 hour of work, then 4 to 6 weeks to cure
Care
Laundry Soap
Grated plain soap, washing soda, and baking soda. No borax, no fragrance, no optical brightener.
15 minutes
From scratch
A farmhouse table
Biscuits and peppered gravy, chicken and dumplings, a butter-crust pot pie, skillet cornbread, potato soup, and a sourdough chocolate chip cookie. Butter in the pan. No seed oil.
Morning
Cast-Iron Buttermilk Biscuits
Cold butter, a hot skillet, and a fold instead of a fuss. The farmhouse breakfast that gravy was invented for.
35 minutes
Sunday Table
Chicken and Dumplings
A pot of chicken and vegetables, then soft dumplings dropped on top and left alone under the lid.
About 1 hour 30 minutes
Sunday Table
Butter-Crust Chicken Pot Pie
Chicken, carrots, and peas in a milk gravy, under a crust made of butter and flour. One dish for the table.
About 1 hour 30 minutes
Bread
Skillet Cornbread
A hot iron pan, melted butter, and a honey batter. The wedge that goes with soup and beans.
35 minutes
This season · Late Harvest
The last tomatoes, and the first quiet
The garden is finishing, not failing. Take what is left, note what fed you, and let the beds rest. This is the month for broth from Sunday’s bones, for apples kept somewhere cool, and for choosing one psalm to read at supper until the dark evenings feel familiar rather than heavy.
Homestead essays- 1Pull spent vines and write down which plants were worth the water
- 2Simmer the roast-chicken bones into a pot of broth
- 3Store apples somewhere cool, dark, and not sealed tight
- 4Choose one psalm for the supper table through November
- 5Mend one wool blanket or coat before the cold asks for it
- 6Set an extra plate once, even if the meal is only soup
Faith · 7 min
Sabbath Is a Gift, Not a Grade
Rest was given because you are not God. Tired people are not the exception to that mercy.
Homestead · 7 min
A Small Flock, Kept Gently
Hens can be a glad part of a home. They are also creatures you are answerable for, including on Sundays.
A reason to return
Keep a shelf. Set a week.
Save the recipes and essays you want again. Lay breakfasts and suppers on The Table. Both stay on this device, ready the next time you open the journal.