Crunchy Thrify Cool

Isn't it Funny???

2012-03-07T08:30:00.000-06:00


Cut Paper Australian Malleefowl

Isn't it amazing the things that happen by accident? Tonight there was a family workshop at my daughter's school hosted by a children's book author, Debra Frasier. She creates beautiful books, illustrating them using only cut paper. I am not an artist- or at least I've always thought that. But the picture above is what I created during the one hour workshop (the first half was a slideshow/explanation/demonstration). Generally I'm pretty humble, especially when it comes to things I create (which frankly I have to be pretty humble about, because they're usually crooked). But I'm pretty impressed with my picture.

When we entered the workshop there was a long line of pictures of exotic animals, and were were instructed to pick one that we felt was interesting. I chose a Mallefowl, which is an grouse looking bird native to Australia. At first, when I discovered the purpose of the exercise, I was relieved I picked an simply shaped animal. But as I worked I realized I was enjoying what I was doing so thoroughly that I added much more detail than originally intended.

It was fun- I don't normally like art because, when I draw or pain, I can't get the image to go from my head to the paper in the way I want it to. But when I created this picture there was no thought- I looked at my inspiration, I chose a color, and I cut out pieces.

I don't know if I will ever do this again- I would really like to. Besides liking the end product, I really enjoyed the process.

To end on a completely braggy note- the author wanted to take a picture of all the finished products before we left. When she saw mine she asked me if I were an artist.

Paleo Crock Pot Lamb and Peppers

2012-03-07T00:40:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I gave up grain and refined sugar for lent. To make this easier I've been following a paleo diet meal plan from paleoplan.com, and I have to say I'm am loving it 99% of the time... the 1% I don't like it is when I'm checking out at the store, it's not a cheap way to eat. But I guess no "diet" (in the "what I eat" sense, not the "I'm following some fad to loose weight" sense) is perfect. But besides the cost, eating paleo has saved me so much time on planning and prep, all of the meals have been more than satisfactory to pretty much the entire family (this is the first time I've modified my diet and included the whole family).

Lamb was on the menu this week, a meat my husband was SURE he didn't like. Turned out he thought that meat they slice onto your gyro is lamb. I mean, it is, but it isn't JUST lamb, it's got seasonings and other stuff in it as well. And I believe we need to get more variety in our diets not just with the vegetation, but with the meats (how many different kinds of meat do you eat? Let me guess, three... four if you count fish and seafood) and grains, if you are eating grain. Thankfully I found some lovely grass fed lamb stew meat last week.

The Paleo Plan recipe essentially called for sauteeing the lamb and adding peppers, and that's pretty much it. I decided to modify the recipe for a few reasons.

First, somewhere this week I saw a recipe for gluten free biscuits and gravy. Definately not paleo, but I did glean from that recipe a way to make paleo gravy.

Second, we had plans tonight and the weather was amazing all day. I wanted to spend all afternoon outside, but had to have dinner ready in time to eat before we left.

So I adapted, and here is what I came up with.

Paleo Crock Pot Lamb and Peppers
Serves 2 with leftovers if served with a vegetable side or 4 with a vegetable side and rice (which wouldn't be paleo of course, but you don't have to be paleo to use this recipe!)

2lbs lamb stew meat
1/4 cup arrowroot flour
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 cup chicken, beef, or lamb stock (I used a demi glace chicken stock, or stock that has been reduced by half)
3 or 4 peppers

Drain stew meat if necessary and pat dry with a paper towel. In a medium bowl mix arrowroot flour, salt and pepper, thyme, and garlic powder. Toss stew meat in flour mixture until coated (but it doesn't have to be perfect... in fact you could do this step in your crock pot if you want to save a dish). Put meat in crock and pour stock over top. Slice the peppers into strips (like you would for fajitas or pepper steak) and place on top of the meat- do not stir yet! Turn crock pot on low (to cook for 4 hours) or high (to cook faster... but I don't know how much faster because I used low). Three hours later stir the peppers into the meat and sauce mixture, replace lid, and allow to finish cooking.

I was exceedingly happy with how this turned out- unlike any thickened sauce dish I have ever attempted in the crock pot in the past, the long cooking time didn't make the arrowroot gravy go watery. It possibly could have used a tad more seasoning, but it was my first time cooking lamb and I wanted to make sure I could taste the meat. My kids liked the meat, but not the peppers, and my husband said it was "meh" but he has the palate of a radiation victim.

This recipe is included in Real Food Wednesday @ Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Traditional Tuesdays @ Whole New Mom.

Some New Projects

2012-03-04T07:00:00.000-06:00

I love March. It's still winter enough to get stuff done before the really busy season, but it's not January or February (I hate January and February...).

I spend a lot of the miserable abyss that is January and February every year making ridiculous plans. Plans that are usually far to elaborate or expensive or impractical for me to actually carry out. I spend early March refining those plans into what I actually plan to do and actually doing some of it.

What am I up to this month? Well, out of nowhere I have an insanely busy string of weekends. Last weekend I was gone all of Sunday, this past Saturday I spent most of the day in the city running some errands (more on that in a minute...), Sunday I had church, a cheese making class, and then obedience class with the puppy. Next weekend I'm going to Kansas City to go dress shopping with my sister. The weekend after that we're going back to my hometown for a wedding reception.

All of that cuts down on what I will accomplish this month. BUT I still have a list of things I would like to accomplish.

But first, my discovery. I've been passively interested in tapping the lone maple tree on our farm. While researching the supplies and techniques I cam across a site called tapmytrees. And under retailers of their supplies I found this gem, Egg Plant in St. Paul.

I tend to procrastinate things, but I knew that if I wanted to tap my trees this season now is the time to do it- it's supposed to be the perfect weather for it next week. So with that excuse I scuttled off to the city to check out Egg Plant and find my supplies. They had what I needed, and so much more. I ended up coming home with two wood crock inserts (the part that holds the sauerkraut/pickles under the brine and is pretty hard to find), a Tap your Trees starter kit, a book on cheese making, and seven more packets of seeds (that I totally didn't need, but my kids had such a fun time picking them out I couldn't resist!). And I signed up for a class on making cheese.

But there was much more stuff I wanted to buy but didn't. All different shapes and sizes of glass jars and bottles, a shirt bearing a cartoon-y jar of pickles with the word "preserve," wooden lids for every size of crock (they had crocks too, but I have plenty of those), books on beekeeping, organic chicken feed (so hard to find here!), books on gardening...

It was a great find, and if you live in the Twin Cities or are ever in the area, you should definitely check them out. They have several classes each month on farm related topics like beekeeping, chickens, cheesemaking, tapping maple trees, gardening, and just about anything else you could want to know.

But back to my plans for this spring. If you're bored, you are excused. This is one of those blog posts I do mostly for my own sake (record keeping, in a way).

In roughly chronological order:

Handle the laundry. I hate folding and putting away laundry, and every single person in this house has WAY too many clothes. I am going to streamline somehow, probably by paring down what we have, getting into a better routine, delegating (my favorite!), and rearranging things. In a perfect world I would have one big closet for the whole family, connected to the bathroom, and the washer and dryer would be in the closet. It seems so much more efficient than the existing system. But I don't have the space to do that here, so I'll have to improvise.
Tap my tree. My husband put one tap in today, but my maple tree is big enough for tree taps, so I need to put up the other two.
Declutter both my house and my routine (and my brain). I want focus this spring. Thankfully I don't allow clutter to accumulate anywhere outside a few hot spots so the physical clutter isn't hard, but I'm going to be ruthless about it, especially in the kitchen (because even though my kitchen is clean right now, more than half of the counter is covered with crap). I'm also going to continue to minimize time sucks like Facebook and TV and try to get into a simple, flexible routine that helps me focus my time and energy. This is hard for me, because it's always been hard for me to get motivated to do something that I don't want to do (right now) and don't have to do (right now). Things like weeding or pruning. I've tried in the past and failed, so we'll see if I have any more success this time.
Start my pepper and tomato seedlings. It's about that time! Last year I way overdid the seed starting. Having re-evaluated what I plant and how it does started inside vs. started outside, I've decided that the best bang for my buck is to start the peppers and tomatoes inside and direct seed everything else. And starting my tomatoes and peppers inside myself saves me the most money, as I would otherwise be buying seedlings at the nursery at $3-5 a pop. I've also scaled back on the number of tomatoes I will be growing, as well as the number I will be starting inside. Yes, I know that sounds redundant, but I know what I mean- last year I planned to start all my tomatoes from seed, but didn't have great luck and about half the plants I grew were ones I started myself and half were from various nurseries. This year want to have 24-28 plants vs. last year's 49. But I only want to start roughly 2/3 to 1/2 myself because I want to be able to buy and plant interesting varieties that show up at my co-op and the various other places. Not scaling back on the peppers, though. I planted 69 pepper plants last year. My only change- pretty sure I'm gonna give up on the sweet peppers. They're not my favorite vegetable anyway, and they do not do well for me at all.
Finish my new chick brooder. I have a lot of chicks coming this fall (some ordered already, some not). To prepare for them I have built a new brooder box in the big shed. It's mostly done, I just need to finish the second half of the lid, build a removable divider, and line the bottom with linoleum or something to make it easier to clean (and so the wood doesn't rot).
Order meat birds and layers. I have already ordered my Buckeyes, a heritage dual purpose breed, but I also plan to order 25 meat hybrids (not Cornish X, so over them) and 25 brown egg layer hybrids. Hopefully I'll be able to find customers for the 40+ eggs per day I'll be getting by late July!
Build a top bar bee hive. Whether or not I get bees this year depends on whether or not I have the time and the money to do so, but I can at least build the hive! I'm so glad I waited, because I'm only now starting to learn about top bar hives, and they seem so much more manageable to me than traditional hives!
Finish pruning the apple trees. I started, but have one more to do before bud break.
(and once it thaws...) Fence the garden. I have to keep digging dogs and ranging chickens out.
(and after I have done all of this plus prepared and planted the garden...) Build an outdoor oven. Mother Earth News has a few great plans. I'd link but my laptop is about to do dead:)

Phew! Makes me glad I got a lot done last fall and mulched MOST of the garden beds!

But for now, sleep...

Noodles? We don't need no stinkin noodles!

2012-03-03T09:57:00.000-06:00

Noodle-less chicken and vegetable soup.

My kids had a cold this week... or some sort of upper respiratory junk. They coughed and had a little snot. So we've been taking it easy and eating lots of soup.

But I have to admit that, up until now, I still used white flour kluski noodles in my chicken soup. I love chicken soup with egg noodles, and there is no suitable substitute that I have been able to find- I'm not okay with throwing even whole wheat pasta in, let alone gluten free or grain free noodles (blech).Since we are grain free this week, though, noodles weren't an option. Besides, since this is the third random croupy cough they have had this winter, I decided we need to back track a little and eliminate their allergy foods, which meant Oliver really couldn't have noodles.

Then it it hit me- why do I need a substitute? What's wrong with chicken and veggie soup? So that's what I made. And it was AMAZING. I even thought ahead and roasted the garlic to make the garlic flavor more smooth.

Chicken and Vegetable Soup
Serves 4-6

1.5-2 quarts chicken stock (please use homemade if someone is sick... and even if they're not!)
3 stalks of celery, chopped
3 large carrots, peeled and sliced thin
1/ 2 bag frozen green beans, thawed (I just ran warm water over them in a colander)
4 cloves garlic, preferably roasted (to roast garlic cut off garlic top, drizzle with olive oil, wrap in foil, and roast at 350 for about 30 minutes). You don't have to roast it, but the garlic flavor will be a lot stronger.
2 tsp dried thyme OR a small bunch of fresh thyme- just drop the whole bunch in and fish out the stems when the soup is finished
2 cooked, cut up chicken breasts (I used the meat I cut off a roast chicken, you could cook the meat in the pan and then deglaze with the stock for extra flavor)
Splash of apple cider vinegar

Put stock in pan. Add vegetables. Whisk in garlic and thyme. Simmer until veggies are tender (about 30-40 minutes). Stir in chicken. Add a splash of vinegar before serving.

Easy peasy!

And Oliver ate three bowls in one setting.

Yep, he's in his jammies. I was home with two sick kids, it's what we do.

Do you donate to food banks?

2012-03-02T07:30:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite blogs, PHD in Parenting, posted this amazing info graphic this morning, and it was very illuminating.

Just about every time I go to the conventional grocery store (which honestly isn't that often, I usually go to my natural foods co-op), I grab a pre-bagged grocery donation for the local food bank. I think I'll start making a monthly donation in cash instead.

For many of us, it's payday, which means grocery day- how will you spend your money? (PS- the creator is Canadian, hence the Canadian $$$$)

Infographic by Annie @ PhD in Parenting. The code for the Hunger Equations INFOGRAPHIC can be found at the PhD in Parenting Blog.

Make it Yourself: Almond and Coconut Milks

2012-03-01T08:00:00.000-06:00

For those who can't tolerate dairy having alternatives for smoothies, to put in coffee and tea, or just to drink can be nice. There are so many different milk substitutes available in most stores, it can be hard to choose. Here is a super quick rundown on what I know about milk subs:

Almond Milk: Almond milk is rich and cream with a mouth feel similar to milk, and I particularly love it's just slightly off white color. It's particularly good with just a splash of vanilla, which accentuates almonds natural sweetness. Almonds are a good source of quality fat, vitamin E, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, iron, zinc and calcium, and almond milk is one of the best choices for milk substitutes. BUT BEWARE- many store bought almond milks contain soy based stabilizers, so if you're avoiding soy (and you should...) either read labels closely or make your own (see below). Almond milk is a great substitute for baking.
Coconut Milk: Coconut milk is another great choice, as it is also thick and cream and high in nutrients like folate, selenium, B vitamins, iron, potassium, phosphorus, vitamins E and C, and iron, among others. It is also a great source of both saturated and monounsaturated fat, although it does have a lot of fat compared to almond milk, so if you're watching your weight it may be good to use coconut milk in moderation. Coconut milk is subtly sweet with a light coconut flavor, and is great for athletes post workout (especially hard workouts) because of it's combination of carbs, fat, and trace nutrients. It's worth noting that canned coconut milk usually contains guar gum as a stabilizer and usually comes in cans lined with BPA, if you are trying to avoid either of these substances. Another reason to make your own!
Hemp Milk: I'm not sold on this one, so I haven't tried it. It doesn't have the nutritional profile of the two milks discussed above- it's only real health benefit is that it contains Omega-3's. And besides being lower in nutrients, it is REALLY expensive, and I don't think you can make it at home. Plus it's a relatively new product, while almond and coconut milk have been made by traditional societies for at least hundreds of years.
Rice Milk: Meh. That's what I have to say about rice milk. As with rice, it is super low in nutrients and very starchy, which means it makes the blood sugar spike. It also lacks fat and protein, which the two at the top of my list contain at least a little of. It's also more watery than the other choices and not really good for anything beyond drinking and using on cereal.
Soy Milk: It's no secret I'm not a fan of soy. I do have to say that once in a blue moon, if I'm off dairy AND at a major coffee chain AND hankering for a latte AND the stars align I will have soy milk. But that doesn't happen very often. Soy contains phytoestrogens which may increase the risk of breast cancer, and I personally believe its "heart healthy" claim is a bit overblown.

But all of these milk substitutes can be expensive. What to do? Easy- make your own!

And it is easy.

I take no credit for these methods. I have done them both, and all I have to say is check out these links, the methods are so simple and well explained that I have nothing to add.

How to Make Coconut Milk from Mommypotamas - Okay, I do have one thing to add about this one. Instead of kneading the coconut, I use the blender (as she mentions) and blend for one minute. I've done both and prefer blending, because I can do some other small job and keep my hands clean. ALSO MAKE SURE YOU USE UNSWEETENED COCONUT. That is all:)

How to Make Almond Milk from the Nourishing Gourmet I just love this one, that's all I have to say. I add a little vanilla and... mmmm. I do highly suggest soaking the almonds in salted water as she suggests, as it helps break down anti-nutrients and activates enzymes.

The best grain free cookies: Grain Free (Paleo!) Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

2012-02-29T08:00:00.000-06:00

Delicious, chocolate, grain free cookies

I think that a huge reason that diets fail (not that I believe in "diets" in the traditional sense) is because they remove without replacing. When you feel deprived, all you can think about is what you aren't allowed to have, and that is a recipe for failure because changing the way you eat is not actually about will power (I know, news flash!), it's about setting yourself up to succeed. There are a number of ways to do this, but one is to find treats that don't set you back.

This is doubly true when following diets like GAPS, SCD, and the Paleo diet (although less so with the latter). Backsliding on one of these diets doesn't result in just guilt, it results in feeling miserable. So it's important to be prepared with treats you can have without compromising your health and well being. (for SCD or for some on GAPS you could leave out the cocoa powder and use white chocolate chips, if you a good source of them... I'm not 100% familiar with the diet, but I believe those are the only concerns with those diets)

And not only are these cookies absolutely delicious- honestly, they rival most conventional cookies I've had- they don't contain any "funny" ingredients like xanthan or guar gum. As long as you have coconut and almond flour on hand (and coconut oil, although if you don't have coconut oil you're likely able to eat butter, and you can just sub butter for the coconut oil if you want) you're good to go. These also come together super fast, making them near perfect:) Enjoy!

Grain Free Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups almond flour/meal
1 cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
3 T cocoa powder
1/2 cup honey
2 large eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups dairy free chocolate chips (Enjoy Life is a commonly available brand)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Either prepare a baking sheet by lining with parchment paper, or (as I do), simply preheat a baking stone and drop cookies directly onto it when dough is ready.

In a small bowl mix dry ingredients, making sure to break up any clumps of almond or coconut flour. In a larger bowl mix honey and eggs until well mixed. Add the melted (but cooled slightly) coconut oil and vanilla and stir until combined. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients- the dough should be firm, just a tad softer than traditional chocolate chip cookie dough. If it seems too soft or runny, add more coconut flour (don't worry- you can't really mess this up, but in this case more is better than less, because runnier cookies will spread more on the pan). Fold in the chocolate chips, then drop by teaspoonful onto your baking pan, spacing as you would for standard cookies.

I dropped the dough right onto the sheet in the oven.

Bake for 11-14 minutes, or until middle of cookie is just set and edges are brown.

Look at the loft on those cookies!

Remove cookies to a rack to cool. As soon as cool enough to handle, devour! In moderation, of course...

Should we be able to buy raw milk?

2012-02-28T13:56:00.002-06:00

I understand why we have food regulations. I'm not some extremist nut-job who says we should have no regulation of any kind. Places that process food should be inspected for cleanliness, food and ingredient lists should be evaluated for accuracy, and animal living conditions should be regulated (far more than they are now, but that is neither here nor there). But I officially think we've crossed the line.

And I say we because we all have to take responsibility for the actions of a democratic government. I don't care what you think you should drink personally, but do you feel that people should have the right to buy it?

Because I can't understand for the life of me how government officials can justify it NOT being legal. Because the people who buy raw milk aren't haphazardly coming across it and buying it because it's all they can afford- on the contrary, raw milk is hard to find and expensive, and the only people who go out of their way to buy it have done extensive research and have weighed the risks vs the benefits. Why shouldn't they have that right?

Do they think they're protecting us from ourselves? Because the more I read the more of a risk drinking conventional milk is. In fact, given the heightened cancer risk from drinking conventional milk, one could say more people die each year from drinking conventional milk than they do from drinking raw milk (which contains significantly lower amounts of hormones).

Do they have the interests of conventional dairy farms in mind? Because I highly doubt the small number of people who want raw dairy will make much of a dent in the business of big dairy (unfortunately...).

I don't get it. I just don't get it.

Happy Lent and a Recipe: Paleo Sweet Potato Hash

2012-02-25T09:26:00.000-06:00

Happy Lent! As I attempted last year, I am giving up grain for lent again. Since I wasn't so successful last year I'm giving myself another go. I have more motivation this year- I've been sluggish, had some digestive issues, and (least importantly) need to loose some weight for my sister's wedding next fall (and because I know you'll read this, Brianna, I don't mean your wedding isn't important, I mean loosing weight isn't my biggest priority). I'm not going to lie- I'm not the most gung-ho Catholic. We're actually having a bit of a spiritual crisis here at the moment (crisis is a strong word, but I couldn't think of a better one). But I like Lent, as weird as that sounds. It is the end of what is, in my opinion, the worst part of the year (winter but not Christmas), and gives me hope and focus. Focus on my spirituality, on my health, on Spring's upcoming arrival. And I think that sacrifice is beneficial to all of the above. It reminds me that worldly things aren't that important (and oh how I struggle with this... much as I struggle with not snacking on Fridays), that this time of year is a time when fasting and detoxing can help cleanse and energize the body, and that no matter what I give up, by the time Easter rolls around it will be Spring.

But wait, there's more. I'm not just giving up grain. I'm going (nearly) paleo. I fully understand that the Paleo diet is meant to be a life choice, but for my causes I am not, at least at the moment, considering it to be a permanent change. I'm also not following it to the letter- I plan to eat psuedo grains like amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa once or twice a week, particularly on days that I am more active, and I plan to eat small amounts of dairy in things (like the buttermilk in quinoa waffles), although I will avoid eating cheese... which is pretty much the only dairy I normally consume. The other compromise- I'm not forcing my family to go paleo with me. Of course they will eat most of what I eat, but I will make rice or potatoes in addition for them most nights.

So far it's been three days and I'm doing alright. My only "compromises" have been a few pieces of dark chocolate, which I am allowing myself on occasion. Yesterday morning, after a smoothie with 2 eggs and a banana in it (which should have kept me full), I did body pump and was STARVING after, likely because I did an hour on the treadmill and 10 minutes on the rowing machine the night before. I was starving and I didn't cheat. And I came up with a new recipe, as, during the drive home, I merged the things I was craving into one. I have to say, it was everything I had hoped for and more- even Oliver LOVED (not liked, like licked the bowl LOVED) this one. Plus it's super simple and quick.

Paleo Sweet Potato Hash
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
2 T. butter or coconut oil
1 small onion, or 1/2 a regular onion, diced
1/2 lb. sausage (I used my homemade breakfast sausage, sweetened with a touch of maple syrup, but you could use sweet or spicy, to your taste)
pinch of thyme
pinch of garlic salt (real garlic would have been AWESOME, but I didn't realize I was out)
salt and pepper to taste

Steam the diced sweet potato for ten minutes, or until just tender.

As the potato steams, get a cast iron skillet good and hot and melt the butter or coconut oil. Add the onion and saute until soft, then add sausage, breaking up into crumbles. Saute onion and sausage until no pink remains, then add steamed sweet potatoes and seasoning. Allow mixture to cook until it starts to brown (stir as little as possible) to your desired browning level.

Enjoy!

PS I took really awesome pictures of this dish with my swanky new camera. However no one told me that DSLR's don't ever have internal memories (why is that???), so the pictures disappeared instantly, unbeknownst to me. Next time!

Check out more real food recipes at Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday!

Make it Yourself Monday: Jerky

2012-02-21T15:49:00.000-06:00

(oops... I accidentally scheduled this one for Tuesday instead of Monday. My bad. I now return you to your regularly scheduled insanity.)

Once upon a time I had a long, exhaustive list of "Make it Yourself Monday" topics- many I have tried, most I do regularly, and a few I hadn't done but wanted to try.

I have lost that list.

So, since I'm determined to hold myself to a more stringent blogging schedule, I had to instead look at "what have I made lately that I haven't posted yet." My first thought was jerky.

Making your own jerky is much easier than you think. Besides being easy it allows you to choose your seasoning, not use any nasty preservatives, and costs a LOT less than the store bought version.

Except that my first attempt at beef jerky wasn't super successful, so instead of posting a tried and true method I am going to post a sort of recipe round up along with some "what I will do better next time" tips.

First, here is the recipe that I followed from GNOWFGLINS: Basic Jerky- Not So Tough. This is a really basic starter recipe for ground beef jerky, which I prefer as it is easier to chew and it is easier to get good flavor throughout. If you're afraid to try to make jerky, or afraid you might over-season it, this is a great place to start. It is very lightly seasoned and the finished product tastes quite a bit like, um, meat. That's a good thing (although I will probably add more seasoning next time).

WHERE I WENT WRONG: I don't have one of these:

I'm not saying you NEED a big fancy dehydrator to make jerky, but it helps. I did mine in the oven, and it could have hypothetically turned out okay. Except that I put the full amount of the recipe in one half sheet pan, since I have a ridiculously small oven. I didn't think that the jerky was rolled out too thick, but shows you what I know! So that's the first thing I did- rolled the jerky too thick/didn't use enough pans. And since I was using my oven, which is small, old, and not very accurate I don't think I had the heat set quite right. Thanks to these two factors it took two days for my jerky to dry fully, and even then I wasn't happy with the way it turned out. But I don't think that is a reflection of the recipe.

If, however, you want jerky more like what you can buy packaged at your local gas station, you will need to add a lot more seasoning. But this is a good basic recipe, allowing you to adjust the seasoning to your taste. I know the next time I make jerky I am going to try adding liquid smoke, more cayenne pepper, and some more savory herbs like thyme or oregano.

Here are some more recipes:

Salmon Jerky from the Nourishing Cook
Another Hamburger Jerky, with Ginger!
Whole Meat Jerky from Mark's Daily Apple

Happy jerky making!

A time for planning

2012-02-17T17:41:00.000-06:00

I mentioned after Christmas that my main activity in January and February is planning. You see, when I was younger I HATED the post-Christmas period. In high school I was miserable from the day after Christmas until the first day of forth quarter (beginning of March). The only time this hasn't been an issue was the five years we spent in California. It was obviously cabin fever (aka vitamin D deficiency).

Last year, our first back in the Midwest, I knew I would have problems. It wasn't as bad as I was prepared for, but I still spent most of January and February unmotivated and mildly blue. The only thing that got me through the gloom was seed catalogs and garden planning.

This year I feel better. I'm sure it's the vitamin D and the serious lack of snow on the ground, coupled with the new puppy (more on that later) and having to be outside everyday to take care of all the animals... this time last year I had a dog (poor Kitty had just passed away). That's it. Now we have 22 chickens, two cats, and two dogs. Oi.

But I still have garden on the brain. I have one big project that needs to happen this year no matter what- the garden fence. Last summer I wasn't sure I was going to free range my chickens- I was very nervous about it. But I started letting them out of the run a few hours at a time each evening, supervising closely at first. Then I "trained" them to come when I call, which gave me confidence to let them out more (chickens are very habit-based animals, so it took them like two days to get the idea that when I yell "here chick chick chick" and they come, they get treats...). By mid fall they were spending most of every day out... which was fine then, because my garden was all but done, and the tiny patch of greens still growing was surrounded by a very crude fence of chicken wire and metal t-posts, and I was glad to have the chickens raid the rest of the garden to eat bugs (and their larvae- fewer bugs next year!), weeds, and weed seeds (fewer weeds, too!) and leave behind a little fertilizer.

When spring rolls around this year, though, they will want to be out, and I will want them to be out to reap the benefits of all the healthy spring greens and bugs. But I won't want them eating and scratching up beds of seeds and seedlings and new transplants, nor will I want them taking bites out of my ripening zucchini and tomatoes as the summer progresses.

I keep changing my mind about what I want to do. Either way I need to fence the garden itself, but I originally had thought I would fence the garden as well as the side of the property that borders the neighbors.

Then I thought about a book I read in the fall- Harvey Ussery's The Small Scale Poultry Flock. And I remembered an article I had read last summer on setting up a chicken run for rotational grazing (it wasn't this article, but the idea is the same). Comparatively, it would be a lot cheaper and meet my needs better to set up rotational runs. There is a large open area North of my garden where I had planned to expand the garden and plant fruit trees. Then I also remembered an article I had read in Mother Earth News on self sufficient 1 acre homestead (which I don't believe is fully possible, BTW, but that is beside the point...) where they recommend rotating the garden with the pasture to maximize soil fertility. All of that information, plus a really deep PDF I downloaded on cover crops, congealed into one kind of ambitious but exciting idea, and one I can do in phases easily enough- I am going to fence my existing garden, probably into two 25x50 sections. North of that, and possibly East as well (in the long term) I will build a series of similar sized pens out of 5 or 6 foot welded wire.

This spring I will put my chickens (existing 22 chickens as well as 25 new layers, 15-20 Buckeyes, and a few Guineas). In the pen next to the garden and let them graze it down to dirt. Then I will move them to the next pen and plant a mix of nitrogen fixing and carbon rich cover crops in the first pen and let them grow for 6-8 weeks. Then I will move the chickens BACK to the first pen (possibly sowing cover crops in the second pen as well, depending on it's condition and the season) to graze down the cover crops. By next spring this first pen should be ready for me to plant potatoes and/or turnips to further loosen the soil. Voila, instant garden expansion, no backbreaking work for me. Eventually I will "rest" the existing garden by repeating the same process. See what I'm getting at? Better soil, more garden, less work. Only drawback- the cost of fencing. But this year will be the worst- I will have to fence the existing 50x50 garden as well as two 25x 50 pens. That's like 500 feet of fencing and posts. Oi. Good thing I've been saving for this very project.

The School Lunch Conundrum

2012-02-15T18:44:00.001-06:00

Check out this video.

It was posted by a fellow blogger on facebook this afternoon, and it made me mad on so many levels I had to get it out, so to speak.

But I'm not mad because of the reason you think. I'm a little irritated that this particular inspector felt the need to confiscate a little girl's lunch, which was generally healthy (better than school lunch, at least). It was probably humiliating for the child and infuriating for the parent, and is an obvious power struggle. But I think that is all it is- an isolated case of an inspector on a power trip. But we have similar inspections at my child's school. They don't go over every lunch a child brings from home, and they don't confiscate anything or force children to buy a school lunch (that I am aware of), but they do prevent children from having soda with their lunch.

Nor am I mad that, after this effrontery by the inspector, they sent a note home to the mom. I do not know how this note was worded, but I do think that more education for parents would go a long way towards solving the child obesity crisis, and a not from home for packing potato chips in your child's lunch is called for.

I'm mad about the way the story was handled by Fox News (okay, so maybe you're not so surprised).

Do you want to know the root of why school lunch sucks so much? Money. Some parents can't even afford (or don't think they can afford) the incredibly low price of school lunch. Some can but don't want to. And even the most affluent would probably resist paying more. Nobody- but most particularly conservatives- wants to pay more for school lunch, be it privately or by the government.

Money also influences WHAT gets served at lunch. The government encourage farmers (through policy, etc) to produce surpluses in subsidy crops like wheat, corn, soy, beef, and potatoes. This drives prices down, and to alleviate the surplus (that they created) the government buys it at rock bottom prices and gives it to schools in exchange for their promise to meet nutritional guidelines. The problem- the very products they give the schools DO NOT meet their own nutritional guidelines.

And money influences the nutritional guidelines. Lobbiests from big business are very influential in deciding what can and can not be served in school lunches.

All of it adds up to, well, crap. Yet when the government decides to spend MORE on school lunches to possibly make them a little better, here is what the conservatives have to say about that:

Yep. They don't want to spend money to make the school lunch better. Because parents "should" be able to do that themselves. Oh wait, parents have zero say on what goes into school lunch.

School lunch is, overall, an atrocity. And I have no idea what we can do to change that. I know what we need to change ideologically, and I (like most sane people) can tell you what kind of food kids SHOULD eat. But nobody seems to be able to figure out how we can make that a reality for all kids in public school, mostly because no one wants to pay for it.

But you know what? Wait ten, twenty years. Someone will pay for it. Unfortunately it will probably be our children.

Happy Valentines Day???

2012-02-14T22:14:00.002-06:00

I'm afraid I'm getting cynical in my old age. Not that I've ever been the perky cheerleader type who insists that everything is gumdrop marshmallow happy all the time (which is strangely relevant to my post...), but when I was younger I thought there were two kinds of old people; happy old people, and cantankerous old people. The latter were the ones who could be heard saying things like "kids these days" and "remember when X only cost Y" and "they sure don't make 'em like they used to," along with many more colorful phrases to criticize the current age they are living in. I don't want to be that guy, but I'm afraid it's happening.

While I will never be heard saying "kids these days" because 1) I don't believe kids today are any different than kids 50 years ago, and before that the only difference was that "kid" ended at 10 or 12, not 18 (or 29), which has nothing to do with the kids and everything to do with an expanded middle class, increased education, and merchandising (none of which the kids asked for or initiated, btw), and 2) if kids are different, it is not their fault, it is their parents' fault, I find myself saying or thinking cantankerous phrases more and more as I age. Most of them are directly related to consumerism, big business, or unethical advertising.

Hello Valentine's Day. Similar to my objection to Santa at Christmas, I'm not a fan of Valentine's day because it's something that is celebrated without full understanding. But beyond that, it is a toxic holiday. It sets parents up to disappoint their kids, husbands and boyfriends up to disappoint their wives and girlfriends, and single people up to be depressed. The only truly happy people on valentine's day are couples still in the newlywed phase and the CEO's of card and candy companies.

But in the spirit of trying NOT to be that old cantankerous person, I will admit that there is value to Valentine's day. It creates an opportunity to develop family traditions, which are the foundation of a memorable childhood for children. It gives men, who aren't normally adept at expressing their feelings, an excuse to show their significant other that they love and appreciate them. It gives all of us the motivation to do so, even if that loved one is a parent, a friend, or a child and not a romantic partner.

My solution to the Valentine's day conundrum? It's hard, because I don't want my kids to feel left out, so I buy them cards and candy to hand out to their classmates at school (although more parents this year passed out non-candy items, which I am for sure going to do next year). But I don't buy cards with licensed characters. And for my husband? A lemon meringue pie, made from scratch. It's his favorite dessert, and I never make it because I dislike making pie, and I don't like lemon desserts. And I threw away (almost) all of the kids' candy.

Healing Sick Kids (and mommies!): Part 2

2012-01-08T11:33:00.000-06:00

Early last winter I wrote about what I regularly do to treat my kids when they get sick (and we use much of the same to prevent illness). But due to a slightly relaxed diet and entering the public school system, we have been sick a little more than normal this year. And (gasp!) even I have been laid up with a cold.

In addition I spent much of last spring and summer learning even more about herbals- I bought a book and am slowly learning to make my own tinctures and syrups so I can have even more tools on hand to treat these. I discovered that my beloved grocery co-op carries many of the more popular medicinal herbs. And they hired a supplement specialist who is super helpful.

So at least I was slightly prepared when we all began to get sick.

One other thing that has influenced how I treat and prevent illness right now- this post from Kelly the Kitchen Kop. It wasn't anything in the actual post... most of that I already know and do. It was the comments, particularly about D3. This winter (hm, could this be the reason?) we haven't been taking our Cod Liver Oil (CLO) or any other D supplement. And we don't drink fortified milk (not that that helps much...).

Here they are, MORE things I have done recently to prevent or treat illness:

High IU vitamin D3 supplements for everyone. What's the difference between D2 and D3? D2 is the synthetic version and is less bioavailable, meaning that your body doesn't absorb or use as much of it. Vitamin D3 is natural (although processed) and usually is derived from either sheep lanolin (and oil secreted by sheep to protect their wool and skin) or fish oil. The absolute best D is the kind you make yourself by sun exposure, but here in USDA zone 4 it's really hard to get much of that for almost half of the year. It's also important to note that cholesterol is VITAL for capturing and producing vitamin D from the sun... so if you're on a low cholesterol diet (and you shouldn't be, but still) you should definately get your vitamin D levels checked. The grown-ups in our house are taking NatureMade D3 2000IU (I'm taking 3, no idea what my husband is taking or if he's taking them at all... he's a big boy:). I got them at Target on sale, 3 100 count bottles for $15, plus I got a $5 gift card for buying 3, so my actual price was $5. For the kids I bought the adult gummies (800IU each gummy) because there were no kids D vitamins and I don't jive with multivitamins.
Restart the Cod Liver Oil. No one in my family is a fan of this, including me. Back story- my son was 9 days overdue. By law in California you can't be in the care of a midwife if you go past 14 days overdue, so I was desperate to kick start labor so I could have my birth center birth. I tried Castor Oil TWICE in one week. My awesome midwife gives a recipe to do this that involves ice cream and orange juice concentrate that essentially hides the disgustingness in an orange julius type conconction, and the first time wasn't so bad. But for some reason the second time (I used a different brand of Castor oil) the stuff was so disgusting I barely got it down, and to this day I gag at the thought of it. It's not exactly the taste, it's the oily consistency (which is weird, because I have no problem eating a spoonful of coconut oil). So every time I take my CLO I think of the castor oil and nearly gag. It doesn't taste bad- it's got a pleasant orange smell and taste. It's just the consistency. But it's worth it, and thankfully my kids take it easier than I do. CLO is not only a great source of vitamins A and D and omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, but more importantly it contains a balanced ratio of these nutrients.
Elderberry syrup. When I was researching herbal medicine this summer I was amazed at how many uses there are for the various parts of the elder plant. The flowers can be made into lotion that is good for chapped an inflamed skin or used to reduce fever and reduce cold and flu symptoms. The roots and bark can be used as a laxative, and the leaves can be used in an ointment to heal bruises. The berries, which are also a mild laxative, can be used to treat a variety of maladies but most commonly to treat and prevent respiratory infections and boost the immune system. I bought my first bottle of Elderberry syrup this year, but it goes fast when used as a preventative (especially with two children) and it's a little expensive. In the long term I plan to plant my own bushes- they grow well in this part of the country- but for now I have purchased some dried berries from the co-op to make my own syrup using this recipe from Wellness Mama.
Keep Infection Fighter on hand for when illness does strike. Yes, it's expensive, but we've used the bottle through at least three full illnesses, as well as to prevent the onset a few times.
Other helpful herbals: kava kava, for easing the pain and anxiety caused by ear infections or sore throats (it doesn't actually relieve pain, but it relaxes, which aids rest). Valerian can also help, but I am more nervous to use that with kids. Mullein is helpful to strengthen the respiratory system and can be used in tincture or tea. Meadowsweet (I haven't used this yet because I can't find it... it will go in my next order from Mountain Rose Herbs) it helpful in reducing fever and treating diahrea and is safe for children. Goldenseal and echinacea, when used in concjuntion, can boost immunity and treat colds and infections. Chamomile is a very versitile herb to have for anxiety, stress, sore throats, and any upper respiratory inflammation (I'm a fan of tea- I like chamomile lavender from Traditional Medicinals, available in most grocery stores). In your pantry- thyme and oregano are powerful antibiotics, sage is good for coughs (but don't overdo it), and cinnamon boosts immune function.
Garlic! I reread my last post twice because I couldn't believe I didn't mention Garlic. Garlic is a powerful antibiotic. When anyone is showing signs of being sick I always make a soup with chicken or beef stock, thyme, and lots of garlic.
Essential Oils: Most of these are used topically, although a drop of peppermint oil on the tongue can help with an upset tummy. The most useful: Peppermint- put a drop or two (never more!) on the back of the neck to relieve fever. Dilute with a carrier oil and rub on hands and feet to relieve headaches, on the chest to relieve respiratory distress (I'll give my recipe for better than Vapo Rub in a moment), or to relieve sore muscles. Lavendar- put a few drops in your bath to relax (or see herbal bath, below). Generally lavender is most useful to bring on relaxation and relieve headaches, which can be helpful with most illnesses. Eucalyptus: good for respiratory distress (see rub, below) and is antibiotic. Oregano and thyme oils: very strong antibiotic, but can be a little, um, burny. Tip from me to you- don't put it in your netti pot.
Better Than Vapo Rub: 10 drops each of peppermint, lavender, and eucalyptus essential oils in 4 oz of coconut oil, mix until combined. You can add more of any of the oils to your own desired effect- try it before you add too much mint or eucalyptus, as they can over-cool the skin to the point where it burns. But I always add more lavender. This is good for more than a chest rub- it's also good for chapped skin and sore muscles.
Take an Herbal Bath: Soak in a tub with 1 cup of Epsom Salts, 1/2 cup of baking soda, and 1/2 cup of sea salt plus whatever essential oils fit your malady. Eucalyptus and lavender are a good all purpose combo. The salts help purge the body of toxins from the outside, and a nice hot bath always feels good.
Use a Netti Pot: Only I do this. I can't imagine doing this with my kids, but I would try if they were sick enough to call for it. I personally enjoy the relief it brings. If you've never heard of a netti pot before, it looks like a tiny teapot. You fill it with warmed water (I usually use distilled) and a tiny bit of sea salt. I sometimes also add one drop (no more!) of eucalyptus oil. But go easy on EO's- they can burn the sensitive skin on the inside of the nose. Then you hold your head in a certain way and tip the contents into one nostril and they flow out the other. It sounds gross, but it feels amazing, speeds recovery from colds, and it weirdly fascinating to do.
Two things I mentioned in my last post but that I have to reiterate: Raw apple cider vinegar and STOCK! They are vital. With the cold (it could have been a flu, I was pretty miserable) I had, which was a whopper, I was able to kick in two days because I did a lot of the above, but I still mostly credit eating lots of soup and taking spoonfuls of ACV every four hours.

With all my new measures (in addition to most of the old ones) my end goals are the same: prevent illnesses by boosting the immune system and maintaining good health, provide relief for the illnesses we do get without reverting to drugs or any other means that can cause long term harm, and (redundant, but important) to avoid antibiotics as much as possible.

I know what you're thinking- "that's a long list- how can you do all those things?" Remember, I'm wordy. It's a pretty sure bet that reading my explanation will take you ten times longer than actually doing what I am explaining.

Christmas is over... time to garden!

2011-12-26T06:30:00.000-06:00

What? So it's still winter, particularly here in the frigid North.

The seed catalogs are here!

One of my favorites- request a Territorial Seed catalog here.

Actually, the first one came in the beginning of December, and they've been coming in pretty steadily since, but I didn't have enough time to give them the attention they deserved.

The seed catalogs are an important part of winter. They give hope to what is otherwise the bleakest part of the year (post-Christmas but still months until spring). They give a welcome distraction when cabin fever starts to sink in it's teeth. And they remind us of the purpose of winter: planning and resting.

You see, every time I hear anything about Southern gardeners I get absolutely green with jealousy. They can grow food all year! While I'm here buried in snow (well, not this year, but usually) with nothing growing, not even in the hoop house that keep my kale and spinach alive through most of December, while the Chickens are going crazy from being voluntarily confined to the coop (I open the door, they refuse to come out...), there are people in the United States who are growing things, and whose chickens are still ranging for food.

But I forget a few things during this jealous internal rant. I forget that the very places that are growing cool season crops right now are almost without exception too hot in the summer to grow a lot of plants that I have no problem with all summer. I also forget that gardening is hard work and the idle winter is a great time to sit back, rest, and make some objective (and often ambitious) plans for the next season. Of course all of this is little consolation to the chickens...

My plans this spring include expanding the garden again (less than last year, and by simpler means), building a greenhouse, moving the compost pile, and converting some of the shed into coop space (in my brain chickens and garden tend to run together). And I've got to fence the garden somehow to keep my free ranging chickens out of it, without spending a fortune. And I want to fence the side of the property that borders the neighbors so I don't worry about the chickens wandering into their yards.

I have a lot to do, but for some reason it seems more manageable. My attitude has changed as the rhythm of my life has slowed. I'll get done what I get done, the rest will wait. The new coop space will probably be the first big project, as I want to get at least 25 more layers in the spring, like ASAP.

Do you have any big plans for the spring, gardening or otherwise?

A Healthy Fat Holiday Season

2011-12-24T23:37:00.001-06:00

During my hiatus, one of the many posts I composed in my head and never followed through on was about eating healthy during the holidays. Let's all take a moment to remember what "eating healthy" means to me:

Healthy fats: lard, butter, cream, chicken fat, bacon fat, coconut oil, and some olive oil.
Full fat dairy.
Cultured foods.
Pastured meats and eggs.
Organic vegetables (always served with the aforementioned fat)
Properly prepared whole grains, nuts, and legumes.
Small amounts of natural sugars: maple syrup and honey mostly, with some organic evaporated cane juice.

I am so used to the traditional foods way of eating that I forget that this can be shocking to newcomers, so if you, as you read that list, found yourself thinking "this lady is off her rocker" do a little research. Decide for yourself. It's Christmas Eve so I don't feel like looking up links, but for more direction might I direct you to the Weston A. Price foundation (they have a website), the book "Nourishing Traditions," and the blogs "Nourishing Days," "The Nourished Kitchen," "Kitchen Stewardship," "Kelly the Kitchen Kop," and "Keeper of the Home" (just for starters). If you're really turned on by research I suggest starting with Kitchen Stewardship, especially the "start here" and "the lists" links at the top of the page (under the header). Anyway...

Many people face the holiday eating season, from Thanksgiving to the New Year, with a mix of love and dread. Not I: I praise God that Halloween is over (I love dressing up, I hate the onslaught of candy) and plan the delicious dishes I am going to prepare for each get together. Because I am not worried about fat, calories, and am only slightly anxious about sugar.

Then again, I am fortunate to not be dealing with any food allergies or sensitivities in my family at the moment. That adds anxiety no matter what your nutritional philosophy.

But back to my point: the way I eat is so easy and so healthful that I don't have to worry at the holidays. I cook the special foods of the season the same way I cook the rest of the year. I don't gain weight (not the last two holidays, since I've been doing this), I don't get run down or frazzled, I don't get down or depressed (I actually did a little this year... immediately after I ate a bunch of caramel bars I made... more on cookies in a minute). And I most especially don't stress about what I'm eating. Because even when I'm not at my own home I find myself attracted to simple, wholesome foods with just a few ingredients, and it's usually easy to pass up processed food-like substances that I know will make me feel poopy later.

Yes, I just said poopy. But I digress.

As an illustration, here were/are our holiday meals this season.

Thanskgiving prep: Cranberry compote, twice baked sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, and sourdough hearth bread.

The twice baked sweet potatoes had a touch of maple syrup in them plus cream cheese and cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. I braised the brussels sprouts on the stovetop with onion and bacon and a little chicken stock.

On the top left is frozen homemade stock thawing, while I saute celery and onion for the stuffing. The small pan on the right contains hot spiced apple cider. And the large red pot actually holds beef stock that I stupidly started making the morning before Thanksgiving, forgetting that it needs to cook for at least 36 hours and that I might need that burner....

The main attraction- Turkey roasted with lemon herb butter under the skin and a butter soaked cheesecloth draped over the top. It tasted even better than it looked, and as soon as the beef stock was done my stock pot was making turkey stock.

The whole feast, completed by Izzy's place cards :) And wine, of course.

I obviously don't have pictures of our Christmas feast(s). We're actually taking it pretty easy. I made clam chowder with lots of cream and bacon along with bread tonight- a very loose spin off of my family's tradition of oyster soup on Christmas eve. Tomorrow we're having cinnamon rolls and bacon for breakfast and for lunch we're going to just eat appetizers- hummus, artichoke dip, cured olives, organic ham, three or four raw cheeses, raw veggies, sliced bread, crackers, and pita chips. And for dinner we're having steak and potatoes, mostly because I thawed the steak to use earlier this week and didn't get around to it.

I mentioned cookies, didn't I? No? I make a HUGE concession for Christmas cookies, and this year was no exception. I made cookies the first weekend in December- in total I think I made 7 kinds of cookies over several days. We gave most away, but we (I) still ate WAY too many of them, and I coincidentally felt like crap and lost all motivation for about a week. One of these years maybe I'll learn to stop making this concession... but they're so. darn. good. I still use real ingredients, but I also use more sugar and white flour than I'm happy to admit. And, since I almost always burn out on cookies early in the month, I have no desire to have sweets by the time the actual holiday roles around. So tomorrow the only sweet thing we're having is a bag of chocolate dipped popcorn a neighbor dropped off a few days ago.

And obviously there are other concessions- the crackers and pita chips are obvious ones. Oh, and the cinnamon rolls (whole wheat and soaked, but there is some sugar in them). But life's made more exciting when one allows occasional concessions to normally hard and fast rules. And like the cookies, I'll likely regret it. What can I say- either join me in the occasional transgression, or learn from my mistakes. It's your choice.

Merry Christmas!

Responsible Christmas Shopping

2011-12-12T18:39:00.001-06:00

What can I say. I've been busy. And unmotivated to write anything. Not a great combo. On top of all that, after such a busy summer, I began to see signs that my kids needed to spend more time with me. Yes, I am home with them all day (when they're not in school), but I spent a good portion of this past summer working either outside or in the kitchen. They helped when they could and were usually not far, but I wasn't spending time with them... and I spent more time than I care to admit telling them to wait/leave me alone/be patient while I _____ (finish this garden bed/blog post/bread dough/etc). Even as I was thinking all of this I read this post from Spain in Iowa. Did something like that need to happen to me before I made myself slow down? I decided no. And since the things I do in my home and around my yard are important to me not only in keeping myself busy and keeping my identity as a person separate from my children but for the health and well being of myself and my family, I didn't feel like I could eliminate many of them (although I did pare down a little...). So the blog had to take a break. I can't even say that I'll be back now with much consistency. I do have a lot to say, though, so I'll pop up here and there for a while. And maybe I'll resume when I have more to share come spring. However, with the "to do" list as long as it is now, we'll just have to see (remodel/add onto the house, build a greenhouse, fit the loft in the shed for more chickens...).

Shopping for the parade of presents should be as fun as opening them... but it should also be thoughtfully done.

For now, one of the topics I have a lot to say about right now is Christmas presents. But I have to say that this is a positive change I am seeing this year- even if not everyone is making changes, the issues that I normally have with the Christmas season (most of which have to do with presents...) seem to be much more in front of us. I've seen articles on the web, posts on facebook, stories on the News- most notably ABC's "Made in America" series.

You see, there are a lot of issues I have with present giving. One is that kids are so focused on gifts and not on the other elements of the season. I don't care if you are Christian or Atheist, Christmas doesn't need to be all about gifts. If you aren't a traditional Christian and are celebrating secular Christmas (oxymoron that that is) you can still make the focus of your holiday family, togetherness, brightening the darkest season of the year, etc. I know that as parents we want to do everything that we can to make our kids happy. But I don't think that it is healthy for anyone (for them emotionally and for you financially) to give kids everything they want as a means of doing so.

Issue Number Two: Sustainability. There are so many elements of Christmas that are bad for the planet. Trash from wrapping and packaging (not to mention trash from crappy gifts that break in just a few months), fossil fuels used to ship the presents from China, the batteries that fuel the toys and that are usually thrown in the trash... I'm not a fan of any of this.

My third issue, as I allude to in the last one, is the fact that so little of what we buy today is made in America- this goes triple for presents. The kinds of things that we tend to purchase as Christmas gifts- toys, electronics ,etc- are usually not made domestically. It's not that I bear an abstract sense of animosity towards China or India- I know that they have to eat too. But I also think it's important for us to take care of our own country. By buying products that are made in America as often as we can we can help create jobs for all of those who are struggling to find work. I know this is hard- I have struggled with this this season myself. But every little bit helps.

And lastly, I hate how many Christmas gifts, particularly for children, are crap. Yeah, I said it. Crappy, plastic, crap. Crap that breaks easily, or that doesn't work right from the very start. The pieces don't fit together quite right and pop apart every time you use the toy. The hair pulls out of the doll's head or the face just doesn't look right. And on top of being poorly made out of cheap materials, most children's toys are so gimmicky that they actually limit a child's play. Think of all the things, for example, that a child can do with a set of blocks. Plain, wooden, unit blocks. They can build anything they can think of. They can count them, or sort them by color/size/shape. They can use them to make roads for their toy cars. Plus kids don't outgrow blocks until they outgrow toys, and as long as there are not super small blocks they can be given to children as young as 12 months old. Compare that to, for example, the busy ball popper (my kids had one- I had to learn these things the hard way). What can kids do with that? Watch it. And put the balls back in the hopper. And cry when the balls roll under the couch. That's pretty much it. Not only are you spending money on a piece of crap your kid is going to get tired of/outgrow in less than 6 months, but you are limiting their imagination. You are teaching them that a toy should entertain them.

I could go on. I'm not a fan.

Similarly, many toys now are still made of materials that are not safe for children. PVC, lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury are still found in many toys here in the US, mostly because the other countries we are importing these toys from don't have regulations that prevent them from using these harmful chemicals.

In short, here are my criteria when Christmas shopping:

Is the gift environmentally friendly?
Is the gift made in the USA?
Is the gift of good quality?

...and if the gift is a toy or other gift for a child...

Is it safe for children?
Does it limit imagination?
... I also give half a thought to gender roles, but I didn't really talk about that...

I know exactly what you are thinking- "how does get she get any shopping done at all?" And because I did struggle a bit at first, I thought I'd put together a little gift choosing guide to help others out. Here are a few suggestions in a handy "who are you shopping for" format. I make some gender based generalizations here for the sake of simplicity.

For your mom/aunt/sister/grandma/mother-in-law or any other important woman:

Gift certificate to their favorite salon or, better yet, a local spa.
Family photo session.
MadeOn Lotion bar and soap
A personalized necklace like THIS ONE or any other of the katrillions on Etsy.

For your married sisters/brothers/friends (aka when you want to give a couple's gift to save time and thought):

Goods from your local artist/artisan. Everyone has local artists or artisans who make pottery, paint, sculpt, do photography... etc. I can't recommend specifically on this one, but couples, especially young and newly married couples, always need more useful and/or beautiful home items. Local for me = pottery, although I could also easily find art. And if you can't find anything local there's always Etsy.
A gift certificate to a local restaurant and a local bottle of wine.
The gift of organization: a personalized agenda or meal planning notebook from Maybooks.
A gift card to a home improvement store... or, if you know they've been saving for a big ticket item, a store where they can purchase said item.
If the couple has kids and you live close, a coupon book for 5 or so sessions of free babysitting would probably be hugely appreciated.

For your brother/dad/grandpa/uncle:

A shaped puzzle: I know this seems like an odd present for a man, but I got my dad one like this (only green, and it says "tractor" instead of Ford) because he collects John Deere Tractors. They also have dogs, cows, trucks... so you may find something that fits your person's interest.
I tried not to use Etsy more than once per category, but I also think that a belt, wallet, or cuff from this shop would make a great gift for any man.
A gift certificate to one of those fancy shave places (I'm sure they have a fancy name...).
Honestly, I struggle with this one myself, so let me know....

For kids:

Handmade wood toys: I got my son a double set of these, and I'm really excited to try them out. They are from Etsy, but there are also local people who make wooden toys... I have seem them at craft fairs, unfortunately I forgot to get a business card from them:( But know what to ask- if there is paint, ask what brand they use, if they use anything else on the wood (sealers, etc) if the wood is treated with any chemicals, etc.
Toys from Green Toys Inc are pretty much a dream come true- they're made from recycled milk bottles, made in the USA, inspire imagination in children, and are safe. I love them. We don't own enough of them (only two, actually, which makes me a little sad... but we own the bath boat and the dish set and LOVE them).
On the off chance I do buy my kids plastic stuff (that isn't recycled plastic or second hand, that is) I buy them stuff from Step2. It's much higher quality than comparable stuff from other toy companies, it's open ended and mostly gender neutral, AND it is made in America.
Art supplies. I've talked about how important art is to kids, and we can't get enough art supplies. I like Biocolor paint, which I usually order in bulk (a whole set lasts us over a year... and if you knew how much paint we went through you would know that's a big deal). If you're ordering art supplies for the first time I suggest ordering a set of biocolor paint, a package of recycled paper, paintbrushes, and no spill paint cups (these especially).

And just generally, think:

What can I make? Do you bake? Did you can a lot this summer? Could you make jelly to give away (the answer is yes- jelly is easy! I mean jam...). Do you sew or knit? Everyone loves handmade gifts (and if they don't then they deserve it even more...).
What does the recipient like to do/what have they always wanted to try? (like would they enjoy a few months membership to a rock climbing gym, pottery lessons, learning to sew, etc?).
Are there any e-gifts they may enjoy, like an expensive (I say expensive, like for an ap... like $20) app, itunes downloads, or credits towards books if they own an ereader? Also keep in mind that many magazines can now be subscribed to via ereader, and magazine subscriptions are great gifts.

Yes. It seems like I think of a lot of limitations. But I think that if any of the topics I overthink can be universally agreed on, it's over-thinking gifts. Because if you're going to go to the trouble of giving a gift, you may as well think about it.

Happy gifting!

I know I've been absent this week...

2011-10-13T14:00:00.001-05:00

...but you see, the weirdest thing seems to have happened.

I'm now a morning person.

Since school has started I have gotten up at 7am on every Tuesday and Thursday and every other Friday. And in the 8+ weeks I've had broilers I have gotten up before 8 on every other day because I feel bad making them wait for food, seeing as how they don't do anything but eat. I've had to get up early in the past- during school, of course, I had to be up by 6:15 because we got on the bus before 7. Even during the summer growing up my dad woke me up by 7:30 to do chores and work with my 4-H animals. But even then I was a night person- if given the choice I would stay up late and sleep in. So, since my parents spent their entire parental careers trying to drag me out of bed and barely succeeding, I assumed that there was nothing to be done about it- I assumed I was a night person and that was that.

But this time around I wasn't trying to change. I was just doing what I had to do. And in these past two weeks I have been awake at 7am every day. Sometimes I don't get out of bed right away (usually because Oliver has crawled in bed with me and he wakes up if I get up no matter how careful I am, and the more he sleeps the easier he is to be around), but even when I stay in bed I don't usually fall back to sleep.

And on the other end, I have been worthless past 10pm. Which is why my blog has been so quiet- I do a great deal of my blogging in the evenings after the kids go to bed (even if the post goes up in the am- I schedule them that way). But lately after putting them to bed and getting the kitchen cleaned up all I want to do is sit for a while and then go to bed. So strange.

We'll see if this changes- I kind of like it, since I get so much more done when I get up early. But once the last batch of broilers is packed off to the freezer (6 more days!) I'm afraid that I won't be as motivated to get up every day, so I may slip back into the habit of sleeping late (and by late I mean like 9). And while I like the amount I get done in the am, we'll see if that's enough motivation to keep it up.

Anyway, in case you're afraid you've missed something, here's what's been going on here.

The first batch of broilers is in the freezer (mine or someone else's...). The trip to the processor was pretty traumatic- due to poor planning and a broken pickup I had to take them in the back of my Nissan Pathfinder... yes, that's right, I had 44 poopy, stinky broilers in the back of my car. I laid down old towels and blankets, but it was still gross. And one flipped (ie chicken heart attack) during the trip, so I had to bring him back home and bury him. Needless to say, I am glad that's over and done with, and my car got a good deep cleaning the next day.
I am slowly getting my garden cleaned up and prepared for next year's planting. I have one and a half beds completely done, which is more than I got done last fall. But I have my garden planned for next year, thanks to the Mother Earth News Garden Planner
I've decided to expand my garden again, but this time I'm taking a much easier tack- remember the carpet I ripped out of my living room? I'd thought about selling it for cheap on Craigslist, but it's not worth much especially since I had to cut it to get it out of here. So instead I'm going to lay down a layer of clear plastic and put the carpet on top of it to kill the grass for the garden expansion. That way in the Spring all I have to do is pull up the carpet and plant- I plan to plant melons, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes in the new portion, so the soil needs to be warm (so I'll leave the plastic). Part will also be potatoes, and I'll remove the plastic over that portion.
I've also decided I'm not buying straw next year, but I'll go into that more later.
I know I missed this past make it yourself Monday post that I promised on making "cream of" soups at home. It's coming.
I may have a broody hen- she didn't even move when the cat tried to jump into the nest box (and she let the cat have it!). And about an hour before this I had taken eggs out from under her and laid all the eggs I had collected in an empty nest box so I could take water to the broilers... and when I came back she had moved to the box with all the eggs and was all flattened out. So I took all the eggs except for three good sized eggs- two brown (I hope they're Barred Rock eggs- I think the red stars have started laying, but the eggs I think are theirs are smaller) and the one blue egg laid by the broody because I felt she needed to hatch one of her own. We'll see- the prospect of new chicks is exciting, but it's getting kind of late in the year for hatching chicks and I worry it will be too cold... plus I have nowhere to brood her. It's not completely off the table for me to bring her inside. But I'll worry about that if she sticks to the nest. If she's still on it this evening I'll take her some scrambled eggs to keep her energy up.
I'm almost done putting up food- my basement fridge is filled to the brim with sauerkraut, sour pickles, lacto-fermented salsa, and hot sauce. My cupboards are full of canned tomato products, jams, and fruit. I'm still working on apples, though. I'm loosing steam (seriously, I've been canning pretty consistantly since Strawberry season started in May), but even so I've put in several quarts of apples and several dehydrator-loads of apples a week for the past few weeks. I want to get a few more in, but I need to hurry because the apples are starting to fall.
My fall garden is producing nicely- we've got more than enough veggies to eat on a daily basis between the beets, cabbage, kale, chard, mustard and collard greens, and lettuce, which is nice because we're not yet needing to rely on the stored veggies (although I have dug into the sauerkraut... I couldn't help it!).
I plan to sew the kids' halloween costumes, but need to actually start them:)

That's what's been going on... another part of the reason I have been quiet. Busy busy!

Nutritional Guidelines- who do you listen to?

2011-10-07T13:16:00.001-05:00

There has been a lot of hoopla over the USDA's recent change to their nutrition guidelines- changing from the confusing (and itself ever-changing) pyramid to the new "my plate" guidelines. Here is my opinion on them.

I guess they're better than nothing.

I am not going to say that it is not the government's job to tell us what to eat. I think that someone has to be an advocate for keeping this country healthy, and in theory the government would be the obvious entity to do so. But I don't think they're doing a very good job.

For example, despite study after study after study that shows that full fat dairy is better for everyone for so many reasons (lower bmi, lower rates of insulin resistance, lower rate of diabetes, less risk of heart disease, increased rate of conception in women), the USDA still recommends reduced fat dairy. Check out the studies if you don't believe me. Then search "study full fat milk" in google and see how many come out pro whole milk vs anti.

Kids who drink whole milk weigh less. Whole milk helps women concieve. Full fat milk reduces risk of death due to heart disease. Women who drink full fat milk weigh less.

I could go on about "lean protein" and "low fat," but, well, it's Friday and I don't feel like it:) For those of you who don't think I'm insane for not drinking the kool-aid the USDA is trying to get us all to drink, check this out (it's a PDF):

Healthy 4 Life: The Westin A. Price Foundation's Nutrtitional Guidelines.

I've been following these nutritional guidelines for almost two years, but I somehow didn't know they had official "guidelines." This pamphlet is super informative and breaks foods into four groups (groups I myself had been using, completely independent of this resource, which is pretty awesome):

Animal Products: meat, eggs, and dairy.
Veggies and Fruit.
Grains, Seeds, Nuts, and Legumes.
FAT (the most underrated food group).

But beyond listing these groups and explaining what they comprise (because that's obvious...), they briefly explain the importance of good food sources (ie. pastured animal products and animal fats, organic plant foods, and the "right" vegetable oils ie coconut and olive oil) and the SUPER importance of proper preparation of foods (ie soaking grains, nuts, and legumes, cooking vegetables, cultured dairy, and bone stock).

Check out the pamphlet!

Why raise your own chickens for meat (or buy from a local farm...)?

2011-10-04T06:30:00.000-05:00

Really, why would anyone want to raise their own chickens when you can get a whole chicken at the grocery store, often for $5 or less.

Where do I start? I think a list is in order.

Crowding in a commercial broiler house.

You know how your animals are being treated. Commercially raised broilers are raised inside and never see the sun. They're crowded together, usually on a wire or plastic slated floor with no bedding. Obviously conditions vary from place to place, but in the worst cases poor manure management results in ammonia burns on the feet of the chickens. They are kept under unnatural lighing on an unnatural schedule, since more hours of light=more eatting=more meat faster. So they get as little as 3 hours of dark per day. I know this matters to some people more than others, but if I am going to eat meat (and I'm going to eat meat!), I am going to eat meat that has led a comfortable, dignified life.
The meat is healthier and more nourishing. Poultry raised on grass, whether tractored or free range, has a better balance of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, which we all know are better for our health. Pastured poultry is also higher in vitamins C and E and often lower in saturated fat if a decent amount of the chickens diet consists of grass and bugs instead of grain.
There's nothing scary in your meat. There is actually a lot of misinformation out there about poultry. Poultry producers don't ever use hormones (they're illegal for poultry) and only use antibiotics as needed to treat diseases. But not because they care a lick about your health- there is no financial reason for them to use either, as hormones don't privide enough additional growth to be worth the cost and effort, and since commercially raised poultry is only alive for 6-8 weeks there isn't much time for them to get sick. HOWEVER, there are still substances in conventional poultry that I want to avoid. For example, up until recently arsenic was used in broiler feeds as a coccidostat (a preventative to a dissease common to chicks). I actually haven't found any information that says it has been removed 100% from the feed supply, but I do know that a major supplier stopped producing it in June and that even the FDA was starting to be suspicious.
Because it is more sustainable. How many miles does the chicken you buy at the store travel before it goes in your mouth? Depending on where you get your chicks, odds are good they do a lot less traveling. And if you REALLY want to be sustainable (and have the space) you could work on creating a self sustaining flock of dual purpose chickens for both meat and eggs.
To learn/teach your kid where kids come from. Look at it as a step up from gardening. You appreciate any food you grow yourself so much more, which makes it taste better and makes you happier and more fulfilled.
Because you can. That's often all the reason I need to do something.
Because it's a lot easier than you think. Right now I have 90 chickens in two pens in my backyard. Pens I built myself. And I am not a handy person. Then you just have to provide feed and water and move the pen. Easy peasy.
Oh, and you don't necessarily have to kill them yourself. With a little looking and asking around you should be able to find a meat locker that processes chickens, depending on where you live.

Yeah, these guys look crowded, too, but that's because they're about to be fed. The area they are crowded into is actually a fourth of their pen... and they're outside (if you couldn't tell...).

I know it's not plausible for everyone to get meat chickens. Not everyone has the space, or if you live in town they may not be allowed. In that case I strongly encourage you to find someone who does raise pastured poultry as the health benefits are easily worth the extra cost.

Fall Meal Plan: Week 3

2011-10-03T22:54:00.000-05:00

Here it is, this week's meal plan.

Make it Yourself Monday: Seasoning and Soup Mixes

2011-10-03T14:27:00.000-05:00

As with most of you, I used to use soup mixes and seasoning packets. Not a lot, as I've always been kinda tight and those little packets and boxes always seemed expensive for what they are. But I did usually have onion soup mix (usually in a bulk package I found at Big Lots) and ranch dressing mix on hand. But since changing to ~~all~~ most whole foods these were some of the first things to go (followed closely by canned soup, with the exception of tomato which I just recently kicked).

However, having mixes on hand to quickly season foods when we're in a hurry is nice, and lets face it, some of the recipes calling for these mixes just taste good (at least to me...). One of my favorite dishes growing up was Chicken and Rice Casserole, the monstrosity of chicken, white rice, canned soup, and onion soup mix.

But news flash- you can make this dish with real food. Check out this recipe from Stephani O'Dea, the crockpot lady.

That particular recipe doesn't call for any mixes at all- it makes the soup base from scratch and uses seasonings and onion to simulate the soup mix (I added some Worcestershire sauce as well).

And if you have a "can" of homemade cream of mushroom soup in your freezer, it's almost as easy as using the processed crap since you can skip the first step (the broth/milk/flour bit, plus leave out the mushrooms).

(PS- stay tuned for next Monday to see how to make your own "cream of" soups!)

But what about ranch potatoes, or onion dip? You need the mix to make these, can you do it with real food?

Well, that depends. Because in order to truly make the mixes you will still have to use what I consider compromise ingredients, like bouillon and dried buttermilk. So whether or not you do is up to you.

Here are the recipes I use, and how I adapt them.

Ranch Dressing Mix- I leave out the dry buttermilk as I normally use this to either make dip or dressing, and I use buttermilk or creme fraiche in both of those (the real stuff...)

Onion Soup Mix- I actually haven't made this one yet because I can't decide if I am willing to use beef bouillon. I'm going to check at the Coop to see 1) if they have one with no scary chemicals, and 2) if it's cost effective.

Fajita Seasoning- I couldn't find the recipe I used last time, which didn't call for cornstarch or chicken bouillon, BUT, baring food sensitivities I think the cornstarch may be a good addition as a thickener.

Taco Seasoning- Ditto for this recipe. I've actually never followed a recipe for taco seasoning, I just season until I'm happy. But for ease I may mix this up. And I'm glad to see they use paprika- I always add it to mine, but I thought that was my own genius idea:)

What other kinds of boxed/packet seasonings could you make from scratch?

My meal plan is done, I swear...

2011-10-03T09:27:00.001-05:00

...well, at least I know what we're having today and tomorrow. The rest of it is done, I just haven't looked at it since Thursday, when I worked on it last. It's been a super busy weekend, but the awesome kind.

On Saturday I went to the farmer's market (I don't need any produce, but I'm stocking up on maple syrup for the winter!) with Izzy, and when we got home I was going to do a little easy cleaning and then relax. I had put Oliver down for a nap (and let's note here that he naps on the couch in the living room...) when I decided, completely on a whim, to pull up one corner of the awful beige carpet in our living/dining room to see what was under it.

Finished hard wood. I'm guessing maple.

Who puts ugly beige carpet on top of maple floors? So I decide that this is NOT going to be a relaxing afternoon. I'm gonna rip up carpet.

But I had no help- Scott was at a motorcycle show and had no idea what I was doing. So I took the sectional apart, moved it all into the dining room half of the room, and pulled up that side, rolling it until I hit furniture. Then I pulled up all the tacking strips and staples from the exposed area and cleaned the floor, and returned the furniture. After a few hours I had this:

The hardwood floors under our ugly carpet.

Please note my poor son trying to sleep through all of this. I would have tried to move him upstairs, but he doesn't like changes so I figured that would only result in two hours of screaming and fighting.

Isn't it gorgeous?

Yeah, well right after I took this picture I rolled the carpet a little more and found out why they had carpeted to begin with.

Ugh.

Double Ugh. 8 inch wide Ugh.

Yes, it's pretty ugly. Apparently they decided to rip out the wall between the living and dining rooms (good idea) and then NOT fix the floor (bad idea). But it could be worse- there could have been some sort of irreparable damage done to the floor. This mess, while awful, is at a point where there is a natural transition anyway. And there was NO WAY I was going to put that ugly carpet back down over those beautiful floors. I can figure this out. I have faith.

The good news is that the rest of the floor is fine, other than some discoloration in one part of the dining room that I'm not even going to worry about as it's exactly where I plan to put a piano, anyway.

I know, a lot of people actually think I'm crazier than the guys who laid down the ugly carpet- I live in Minnesota where it gets hella cold in the winter. I have two responses: slippers and area rugs.

Anyway, stay tuned to see what brilliant idea I have to cover the ugliness:)

So the carpet all got hauled (by me and Izzy... seriously) to the garage and I got 1/2 of the tacking strips and staples up before I had to go PICK MY HUSBAND UP off the side of the road because his motorcycle broke down (AGAIN). By this point it was late anyway and I was pooped, so I quit for the night.

Sunday I had big plans- I haven't had a break from life/my kids in I can't tell you how long, other than the mornings that Oliver is at preschool. So since Scott got to spend the day Saturday at a chopper show, I decided I was going to spend most of Sunday doing... whatever. Something else. By myself. So after I did the noon chores (early) I left. I went to body pump (cardio weight lifting- I love it!) at the Y, went to Menards to try to figure out my problems with the floor mess, I went to Savers, had lunch, and spent like 3 hours at JoAnn's. Then I went to a movie. It was glorious. The only hamper on my day was that I forgot my phone, so in the back of my head I was worried that Scott needed to get ahold of me but couldn't. But overall it was really nice and refreshing and energizing to do what I wanted at my own pace.

When I started this post I was simply going to say I've had an idea. I was looking for a real food version of chicken and rice just now- you know, the chicken/canned soup/onion soup mix concoction that many of us ate growing up. It sounded really good to me- but I wanted one I could make with real food ingredients AND in the crock pot. Enter Stephanie O'Dea. Here's her recipe for real food chicken and rice casserole in the crock pot (only I'm going to use a whole cut up chicken... I don't do chicken breast unless it's connected to the rest of the chicken).

And then, as I always do when I end up at her site, I started clicking around. I ended up on this recipe: Rotel Sausage Dip. As a crock pot dip I was totally prepared for it to include SOMETHING that I won't eat/feed my family. But it doesn't (cream cheese is kind of a subjective one, but I'm okay with it). It's one of the original 365 crock pot recipes she did that first year, and she mentions in the post that they were doing fondue Fridays every week.

We have been unofficially doing pizza almost every (well, more like every other) Friday here. But homemade pizza isn't exactly a hands off type meal- it's not hard, but it's 30 minutes of running around the kitchen. I make pizza on Friday because I want our Friday meal to be more of an occasion than the rest of the week's meals- I want it to be fun. But in a perfect world I also want that to be one night a week that I can take a break(ish) from cooking. Without compromising on what I feed my family.

Is that too much to ask?

But as I was reading that sausage dip I had a revelation- there are LOTS of different dips I could make that are made from whole foods- homemade onion dip, salsa con queso, buffalo chicken dip, cheese fondue... as long as I stay away from Velveeta and boxed mixes.

So that's my announcement. All that to tell you we are now doing dip/fondue Fridays.

Which leads me into my make it yourself Monday post, to come soon.

How to express an opinion without being judgy in 6 easy steps.

2011-10-01T11:58:00.000-05:00

I sometimes forget how annoyingly judgey moms can be because I choose to surround myself with moms, both in real life and on the internet (via the blogs I follow, facebook, etc) who are open minded. However, one click over to Kitchen Stewardship's guest article on incorporating vegetables into your kids' breakfast (check it out, it's got great suggestions) at babycenter.com reminded me quick.

At the top of the page was a disturbing article blatently making fun of moms who choose to consume their own placenta. One written by someone who obviously didn't even choose to look into WHY a mother would choose to do so. I admit, this was a practice that turned my stomach a little at first, but instead of making snap judgements I read a little into WHY someone would want to do it, and now I understand.

And after the article in one commenter says "If you eat and enjoy veggies why wouldn’t your kids? Then you wouldn’t have to sneak them in. This is all theory considering my baby is still in my belly but it does work on my husband… He’s a big kid."

Seriously? Nothing makes me crazier than non-parents who think they KNOW what us parents are doing wrong. If our kids don't eat veggies/are picky eaters it MUST be our fault for not setting a good example (or insert other reason). You just wait. Give it a year. My kid eat vegetables (mostly), but are picky about plenty of other foods that I have consistantly served and enjoyed since their birth. Kids are picky because they are picky. Their brains are wired to prefer sweet and avoid bitter, to distrust the new and unusual, and to generally be particular. Because in the past these traits would have made survival more likely as carbohydrates tend to be sweet and toxic substances tend to be bitter, and not eating usual things further ensures they won't consume anything poisonous.

But I do think it is important to express one's opinion- we shouldn't keep our thoughts to ourselves (as long as they are open minded informed thoughts) for fear of being percieved as judgey. So I've come up with a checklist.

Do you know what you're talking about? If no, stop talking/typing and read something about the topic in question. The internet is good for more than facebook and watching stupid videos.
If your arguement involves the phrase "it's just wrong," see #1.
If your arguement involves the phrase "I _______ and I turned out okay," see #1.
This is the most challenging part- once you know something on the topic you are discussing, express your opinion and the reasons behind it but remain open to other people's views on the topic.
Uunderstand that while a particular thing works for you, something else might work for someone else.
Don't be a jerk.*

*This is generally a great rule for anyone in any situation. I'm just saying.

I seem to have caught up with life...

2011-09-30T06:30:00.000-05:00

(we'll see how long that lasts)

Seriously, though, I feel sane again. My house is livable again.

It's nice.

As things go, I continue to learn things. Things I should know but apparently take a while to actually thoroughly learn. For example, it took this past year and a half of not having a dishwasher for me to understand how important (and how doable) it is to do the dishes every night instead of letting them pile up.

And I'm finally starting to learn that ignoring the laundry isn't any more effective than not washing the dishes.

I know, revolutionary.

I have no problem with picking up laundry, with washing, or with drying. It's the folding and putting away that I put off. But turns out you have to do it eventually.

Not to wander into yet another only loosely related digression, but I think the whole laundry process is inefficient. First we get our clothes out of our dresser in one part of the house (in our case upstairs), we wear them, we take them off upstairs, haul them downstairs to be washed, and then fold them and haul them back upstairs to be put away. Does anyone else see that as horribly inefficient? I think all of this- dressing, washing, and storage, should happen in one common room.

Anyway. I felt that, you know, since I have all my stuff in line for the moment, I should share some of my organizational strategies. So here you go. Keep in mind that things seem a little spread out, but all of these little organizational pods are in my kitchen as we don't have an entryway, so I have to squeeze them in where I can.

My meal plan and schedule wall, as well as the kids' art board- they are responsible for switching out their work.

The magazine box holds my chicken records, my control journal, and the folders I use to organize the kids' school info (this is right by the door). Let's call this Launch Pad part 1.

(the other side of the front door...) It's not pretty, but this is ours:) Coat and bag hooks- most of the coats don't live here, as we have more hooks for them in the laundry room. This would be launch pad part 2.


The side of the fridge, where I keep some office supplies, my grocery list, my to do list, and a list of lunch ideas for Izzy to take to school. And, of course, pictures of the cutest kids on the planet:)

Bills and other important papers go in a box in the laundry room, which does double duty as a non-entrance entryway where we store coats, shoes, and bags as well.

I don't have it all figured out- I am constantly changing and revising my organizational methods to suit our lifestyle and our changing needs. I've done a lot of things in the past that either didn't work outright or that worked for a while and were then cast aside. For example, I've blogged twice about our chore charts... I'm still working on that one. The last method worked great for like two weeks, but when school started was cast aside again. I'm working on something more like a rhythm chart, as a full on chore chart isn't really age appropriate and I know that my kids need something more independent. I'm just sharing my progress so far so you all can benefit:)

Coffee or Tea?

2011-09-29T06:30:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know, many traditional foodies, particularly WAPS, shun caffeine as a stimulant (ie drug). But I am my own person. And I like my drugs.

Breakfast isn't breakfast for me without coffee. PS that egg is totally overcooked...

I'm not even going to argue or attempt to disagree with them (although there are as many studies saying coffee and tea are good as there are that say it is bad). I know that caffeine is a drug. And this story I'm about to tell proves it beyond a doubt. I apologize in advance, as I'm a boring storyteller. And this is kind of a long and relatively pointless story...

Man, I need to stop trying to scare off all my readers.

My family is cursed. It's a rather unique curse, and as far as curses go I'll take it. Whenever there is an important day, particularly the kind that cause stress, an appliance dies. One Thanksgiving, one of the few my mom has hosted the ENTIRE family, the oven died. The day of my brother's funeral the coffee pot stopped working AND the sink clogged (no, the sink is not an appliance, but YKWIM). Those are the most traumatically memorable... but there are others I can't remember right now. And most often it's the stinking coffee pot (in a family of coffee addicts) that bites the dust at the worst possible moment.

I seem to have inherited this curse. I had an awesome Delonghi coffee pot that had never given me a problem in over a year. Now, do you recollect how stressed out I was when Izzy started school (only indirectly because of her starting school...)? I may or may not have even mentioned that on her first day of school the coffee pot completely failed to turn on. Like the power had been cut. I had some hot black tea, but it just isn't the same and tea gives me jitters (coffee doesn't...). So I had to shop for a new pot and this time around, since I go through about a pot a year, I decided there was no reason for me to spend money on a fancy one. I bought an $11 Chefmate at Target.

Fast forward about two weeks. I wake up, flip on the coffee pot, and head out to do chores. What do I find outside? A dead chick and one of my older chickens is showing sure signs of impending death (purple comb, didn't get up to eat, breathing hard with beak opened...). So I dispose of the chick and come to terms with the fact that I need to process the other TODAY (no more being chicken... sorry, really bad pun). So I go inside to boil water and feed the kids and have some coffee... only no coffee. The pot turned on, but wasn't heating.

Grr.

I fed the kids and ate a little, but got too caught up in getting ready to process (and processing- I rocked it this time, BTW... well, almost, but that's another post) and didn't make any tea. By the time I finished processing the poor chicken, moved both tractors, gathered eggs, and cleaned up the processing area outside and the kitchen I was exhausted and starting to get a headache. And for some reason I didn't think about caffeine withdrawl. Since it was a Saturday and I had already accomplished a lot (and by this time it was about the kids' naptime) I gave myself permission to take a nap.

I woke up from my nap feeling terrible, but managed to make supper. After eating a little I laid down (and watched the last episodes EVER of All My Children, but again, another post). As I watched my head began to throb and the throbbing quickly got worse... and worse... and worse. By the time it was over I felt extremely nauseous as well. Finally I took a bunch of drugs (only Tylenol and Benadryl, but you know I don't really take drugs very often) and went to bed BEFORE THE KIDS (that never happens).

Yes, I had full on withdrawl symptoms- headache, nausea, simultaneously hot and chilled. It was nowhere near what, say, a crack addict would go through, but it was bad enough.

The next morning I woke up feeling like a new woman. And after I had broken the percolator out of the camping gear, I realized my mistake. Before Oliver was born I used to do a caffeine detox every three months or so. But I hadn't done one since before he was born (that's almost 3 years, FYI). Lesson- don't ever do that again.

I'm also over drip coffee.

So, using the camping percolator in the meantime, I started shopping around for a bigger (prettier) stovetop pot. Nothing electric. And I figured while I was at it I should replace my tea kettle, which has had a leak for like two months now (not because I left it empty on a hot burner, I would never do something like that...). To locate these items where did I go? My local string of antique stores.

I know a lot of people don't think to look at antique stores for things they actually plan to use. I love antique stores, but for the longest time they frustrated me because I would find so many interesting things but never be able to justify buying any of them as they were either impractical or overpriced (and often both). Eventually I learned that the best way to survive antique stores was to have a focus- I have a running list of things for the home that I am shopping for, and I also always look at books, dishes (even though the ones I like are too expensive so I never buy- I'm particularly fond of fire king, especially the jadite), cast iron, and jewelry. Jewelry is particularly fun because it is easy to find something totally fun and relatively cheap, and they always have simple beaded necklaces for $1 or less that I buy for Izzy.

Anyway... I hit the antique stores (there are 5 on one block) on a mission. It only took two stores to find what I needed.

Pyrex percolator and cast iron tea pot.

I was looking for enameled steel on both cases, but came home with pyrex and cast iron. I knew enameled steel was going to be hard to find, at least in usable condition, as most enameled steel I have found in the past is rusty and/or flaky on the inside.

The percolator is pyrex from the 50's or 60's. It's a 9 cup pot, the largest they made. All the pieces, including the pump (it's not actually a pump, it's the piece that looks like the bottom half of a wine glass that the water travels up when it boils) are glass except the top and bottom of the basket. So while it isn't exactly consistant with my kitchen decor it looks nice and it's fun to watch the whole process. And it will last me forever (or until I drop it...). In fact, I was searching them on the interwebs just now and found that replacement parts, should I break the pump or basket, aren't that hard to find. And it was only $24. Awesome.

The tea kettle is heavy cast iron. Despite my OBSESSION with cast iron I was a little apprehensive about this one- it's main purpose is to boil water, and wet cast iron isn't always the best idea (water+iron=rust). And as such, the inside of the pot was a little rusty. But after doing a quick in store search on my phone on cast iron tea pots, I decided it was worth the risk (especially at the price- $15). And, unlike the coffee pot, it's rustic look is right at home in my kitchen. I guess, to be fair to the aesthetic of the coffee pot, the combo of the two is very consistent- my kitchen is at the same time a little rustic country and a little funky (and a little dated- the range top and oven are both from the 70's at least...).

Anyway, I'm still not sure the teapot will be usable. I cleaned up the rust and found that that it's pretty flaked (not flakey still, but like it had flaked in the past- rough, I guess would be a better word) on the inside. After quite a bit of research I discovered this shouldn't be a problem, and since I'm not trying to cook anything that requires a smooth surface it's not a big deal.

I also discovered that "seasoning" a cast iron tea kettle is nothing like seasoning a regular cast iron pan. You don't use oil or any of the other methods. You fill it with water and heat it until almost all of the water is gone, then allow it to cool. Repeat until minerals have built up around the pot. Easy peasy. The minerals provide the barrier between the iron and the rust.

Let me get this straight- the exact thing that I had worried about with past teapots (mineral buildup) I WANT to happen on this one? Sign me up!

My husband joked when he saw my new kitchen toys that it looked like I was gearing up for a wood stove. Now, I may be crazy (good crazy, don't take that the wrong way if you, too, are crazy like me), but I have no desire to go completely off grid, instead choosing to cut our energy use as much as possible without giving up certain conveniences. If I needed to I could live without them, but I will never willingly give up my HE washer and dryer (clean clothes and entertainment in one!), my TV, or my fridge/freezer. But I am enthralled with wood stoves. I am aware that it is a romanticized interest, although not completely unrealistic. Lots of people use wood stoves for various purposes- I grew up in a house heated mostly by a wood stove. I know that they involve constant tending, venturing into the cold to bring in wood, and hours of chopping and splitting wood... And that cooking and especially baking become a different game when you can't just turn a knob to your desired temp and walk away. But I am still kind of enamored with the idea of a wood burning kitchen stove. Probably because one of the aforementioned antique stores has the most awesome refurbished GREEN wood kitchen stove that would so be mine if 1) I had a spare $800 AND 2) I had a spot to put it. But sadly I don't.

That was an amazingly wordy and wandery post. What can I say, there are a lot of words in my head lately, and since I spend 90% of my time with the under 5 set, I have to get my big kid words out when I can.

For Better or Worse...

2011-09-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

(9/22)
I'm actually not talking about my marriage. I'm talking about my choice of lifestyles. I'm having a difficult time lately. And further complicating my mood, I even hate to complain about it because none of my challenges has been particularly terrible. 90% of it has simply been a weirdly hormonal bad mood I can't seem to kick that may be due to the changing season (already, though???). But I've had a series of several small setbacks with my chickens. I talked about the series of deaths I had with the chicks. Then I had an epidemic of vitamin deficiency in the younger batch- at one point I had 11 chicks inside who couldn't walk. All but one have recovered completely, and one is struggling but still hanging in there. Then my roosters were fighting. Like bad fighting. My two top roosters (I have three total, but the third is kind of a scrawny non-threat and they pretty much ignore him) have grown up together and always gotten along, other than a few blood free scuffles around 11 or 12 weeks that established the original pecking order. Last week Lunch (the Buff Orpington rooster) decided that, since he has gotten bigger than Dinner (the Wyandotte rooster and the Alpha), he needs to challenge his rule. It lasted for about 4 days, there was quite bit of blood (although all were fairly superficial injuries, and anytime one seemed more severely injured or injured in a way that put them at a disadvantage I separated them... for example, one day Dinner had a swollen eye), but they have worked it out and there is peace again. The first couple days it seemed like Dinner was going to be unseated- he is smaller by a little and seemed to bear the brunt of the injuries in the first few days. But he prevailed and is still the top roo.

But that brought up another conundrum for me- I want to selectively breed for larger, meatier chickens that still lay a respectable number of eggs with the end goal of having a relatively self sustaining flock. So I should be breeding my biggest rooster to my meatiest layers. There are things I really like about Dinner- he's calm, non-aggressive, obviously superior in SOME way to Lunch (since he won the battle). He's a peace maker when one of the other roos is being too rough with the hens. And I just prefer him, generally. But he's not as big and doesn't have as much breadth in the breast as I would like to develop in my future generations. So I don't know if I should get over my attachment for him and process him or keep him. And I need to decide by October 9th.

And now I have the one chick I mentioned who is still struggling (and who I didn't think would make it through last night, but did and is walking now, so we'll see...), and one of my older batch, who hasn't given me any drama for a while, has developed a purplish comb, which is a sure sign of impending flip (ie chicken heart attack). And I'm freaking out first because I have my chickens on a super strict feed regimen that is specifically meant to prevent premature death due to flip, and because I don't want to kill another chicken after my previous experience. I do all the things one is supposed to do to seperate oneself from one's food- I don't name them, I don't develop attachments to them. My reaction, however, has nothing to do with sadness at killing a pet. It's a primitive feeling that I can't exactly explain- I get all prepapred to make the kill, but once I get the bird and get set up I begin to have a very difficult to explain panic attack that makes me super shakey. I dread having to go through that again.

(9/25)
I didn't finish this post the other day, and I'm kind of glad I didn't. Almost immediately after writing it my mood improved drastically- I took a mental health day on Friday, only doing the most important and un-skippable of my daily chores (feeding and watering the chickens, moving the tractors, and gathering eggs). I spent a majority of the afternoon reading (I'm not kidding, be prepared to either laugh or at least make fun of me) the wikipedia entries for various characters from One Life to Live. Because, you see, in a previous life I was a huge Soap fan- most notably a fan of All My Children, and then when they did a few episodes the overlapped (and mostly because of John-Paul Lavoisier) I started watching One Life to Live. And most of you probably don't know this because I make assume most of my readers eschew television or at least trashy soaps, but both of these soaps have recently been canceled, with All My Children's last episode airing this past Friday and One Life to Live ending in December or January. I haven't regularly watched soaps probably since I lived in Ohio (2005), and even then I don't remember watching regularly. But I'm not gonna lie- I recorded every episode this week. And even since not watching regularly I wave tuned in often enough to know what was going on (thanks to the internet, this happened probably once every 3 months or so), and I feel like a significant part of my life (a past life, but still) is ending.

I know, I watch too much TV. Anyway, digression over...

So after loosing myself for an entire afternoon in Daytime TV nonsense while Oliver slept peacfully and Izzy painted in the other room, I had a new outlook. I still had the same problems- one young chick still struggling and one in the older batch still needing to be processed soon- but I wasn't all doom and gloom about it (I mean, it's not like my 11th husband just died or something).

Yesterday morning my problems all reached a head- when I checked on the younger chicks the struggling one was dead (probably for the best- the poor thing looked miserable all the time) and the purple combed chicken didn't get up when everyone else ran to the feeders. So, when I went into the house to cook breakfast for the kids I also put a large pot of water on to boil. I fed the kids, ate my own breakfast, and then set up my processing gear in the driveway. This time I kept my equipment much more simpler. And I used a different killing method- a big and very sharp pair of limb lopers- the kind that have a curved metal bit and a very sharp blade to deal with larger limbs. That way I could position the neck then look away and push as hard as I could- less room for error. It still wasn't a 100% clean kill because I STILL managed to dislocate the poor chickens wing before I killed it, but it was much faster than the last one. And a little less traumatic for me.

It was really a relief to have both problems reach their apex- I don't have to worry about either of those chickens anymore, at least. Of course, yesterday was miserable in another respect. For the second time in three weeks, my coffee pot broke. And it always seems to happen on the worst possible day (the other time was on Izzy's first day of kindergarten). But the other time I made myself some black tea instead- yesterday I was busy and never got around to ingesting any sort of caffeine. By bedtime I had some serious sympathy for drug addicts- I had the worst migraine of my life along with nausea, chills, sweating, and the shakes.

But this morning I feel amazing. I am working on getting my house caught back up as it's been neglected due to all the outdoor work I've had to do lately. Any job is going to have it's ups and downs- my "job" as a chicken farmer (or whatever you want to call me) is no different. I still have a lot to do this fall, and odds are good I won't get it all done. But I'll get the most important stuff done. And in 6 weeks the broilers will all be done and sent off the freezer camp, and I'll only have my layers to deal with. As they say, "life goes on."

Check out homestead revival to see what's going on in the blogosphere.

Maple Banana Muffins with Spelt

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was jonesing for something sweet and mapley... like bad. So I browsed and toyed with a recipe from a recipe I found online (link will be added later...). OMG these are yum- they're mostly healthy, although they're still pretty high in sugars. But it's definately something I would be okay with my kids eating once a week or so.I didn't soak them, because I wanted them NOW. I have impulse control issues, I know. The next time I make them I'm going to work on how the recipe would work soaked- it will be a little bit of a challenge since it's not a matter of simply swapping buttermilk for milk, but I'm sure I can work it out.

Double Batch Maple Banana Muffins with Spelt
Makes 18-24 muffins

3 cups whole spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
4 T. butter
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup evaporated cane sugar
3/4 cup maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl mix the remaining ingredients until well mixed, then incoporate into the dry ingredients.Oil your muffin pan (or use papers), and fill each about 2/3 full of batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until middles are set.These were super awesome still warm from the over, smeared with cultured butter!

Fall Meal Plan: Week 2

2011-09-26T23:21:00.002-05:00

Better late than never, right?

This week I am incorporating a lot of the greens we have growing in the garden right now- lots of kale, spinach, and chard. I also have some mushrooms I have grown on a mushroom patch I ordered a while ago (but not many- I wasn't particularly impressed with it).

I know I mentioned last week my focus on using stock and fermented foods each day- then I looked at my meal plan. What can I say- it's a work in progress. So this week I worked on incorporating more fermented foods and stock into the meal plan, with the goal being every day. The stock is obviously there in the soups I have planned (I heart soup...), but will also be used in sauces and in braising vegetables. Fermented foods are often to be had in the condiments- hot sauce, creme fraiche, sides of sauerkraut and salsa, and sour pickles.

So here's this week's meal plan.

Or click here for an easier to read printable version. Once I get my ducks in a row I'll start posting recipes in conjunction with these meal plans.

For more meal planning inspiration check out Plan it Don't Panic from Keeper of the Home.

Make it Yourself Monday: Applesauce

2011-09-26T16:50:00.002-05:00

Applesauce is such a simple thing, but it's also one I would have never thought to make myself until recently because it is cheap and readily available. Depending on the price and availability of apples where you are, it may be far cheaper to buy organic unsweetened applesauce. Keep in mind it takes 1.5-2 pounds of apples to make a pint of applesauce, so to make a cannerload of 9 pints (all of a sudden that's all I can fit into my canner... I need to have words with my jars) you need 15-18lbs of apples. If you have an apple tree or find a great deal on apples, this may be worth it. And since we have three apple trees and no confidence in keeping fresh apples, I am canning a ton of apples and applesauce.

Home canned applesauce (and sliced apples in the background).

Of course, there may be a time when you have a small amount of apples you just need to use up, or you want to make a special treat for your kids. So I'm including two recipes- a small batch non-canned recipe and a holy mama huge canning batch recipe:)

Homemade Applesauce

Small Batch (makes about a quart)

2.5-3 pounds apples, cored and sliced (and peeled if you don't want to use a food mill)
1 cup water
2 T. lemon juice
dash desired spice- cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger... (to taste)
1/4 cup honey (optional)

Large Batch (makes about nine pints)

18 pounds apples, cored and sliced (and peeled if you don't plan to use a food mill)
4 cups water
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tsp or so desired spice, to taste (I'm a fan of classic cinnamon)
3/4 cup honey (optional- use none or less, depending on your tastes)

(BTW, if you're making the large batch, NOW would be the time to prepare your jars by boiling them in your canning kettle. Don't forget to get the lids ready, too!)

TIP: As you cut up the apples, drop them into a large container containing 2 T. of lemon juice and 2 T. of salt per gallon of water to prevent browning. Drain well before moving on.

Placed cut up apples into a large saucepan and add water and lemon juice. Turn heat on to medium high and put the lid on the pot. Once the liquid has started to simmer reduce heat to medium and cook apples for 15-20 minutes, or until apples are soft.

At this point you can EITHER simply mash the apples with a potato masher (or put them in the food processor- either way you need to start with peeled apples) OR run the apples through a food mill. I choose to leave the peels on and use the food mill. IN THIS CASE keep in mind that dark red apples like red delicious will tint your applesauce a tiny bit pink. In the end it's more peach than anything, and this doesn't bother me:)

Return the applesauce to the heat and add the spice and honey. Stir until well mixed and honey is dissolved.

SMALL BATCH: Spoon into jars (or whatever container makes you happy) and refrigerate.

CANNING THE LARGE BATCH: Remove the hot jars from the kettle using your jar lifter. Using your canning funnel, fill each jar with hot applesauce, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Close with hot lids and return to your boiling water bath. Process for 15 minutes (or check the appropriate time for your altitude here). Remove from boiling water and allow jars to sit undisturbed for at least 24 hours before labeling and storing.

Addendum re: Baking Bread

2011-09-25T12:24:00.001-05:00

Actually, it's not an official addendum yet. In my constant quest to make life as streamlined as possible, I'm doing an experiment today. Because start to finish, to date, this is what bread making looks like at my house:

Day 1: Grind as much wheat as grinder will hold (about 7 cups of wheat which = about 10-11 cups of flour). If possible, do this twice, but this requires doing one in the morning and one at night, as the mill needs about that long to cool down between grindings.
Day 2: Mix dough and put in refridgerator.
Day 3: Bake.

None of these steps are terribly difficult or work intensive, but this 3 day process means that if we, for example, run out of bread today and I haven't started the three day process then we have to wait 2 days at least before we can have more bread. To date I've already streamlined the original recipe by moving the pull and fold step to after the long ferment (meaning you have to pull and fold less, as the gluten has had a chance to develop already).

So, keeping in mind that the long ferment is the most important part of the process so far as taste and improving nutrition via breaking down the phytates, I am trying to streamline the process further without loosing this important element. A while back, while searching for an easy no knead recipe to send to a friend (I like to give them the easiest recipe first, like the New York Times version, because it's easy and almost always give good results, so it helps them develop confidence) and I stumbled across a 1 day version, which used less yeast and did a long room temp ferment instead of cold ferment.

Keeping that version in mind, I mixed my dough as usual using the sourdough addition and reducing the yeast to only 1 tsp. Another big change for me- I did it in the morning. Getting anything done regularly in the morning is a struggle for me (other than chicken chores) as my normal routine in the AM is feed chickens, feed kids and self, then sit on the computer and drink coffee for a while until I actually wake up, THEN I get to work. But that's an area of my life I've been trying to work on, and between the broilers (who are on a feeding schedule and besides are huge pigs, so I start to feel super guilty if I don't have them fed by 7:30) and Izzy starting school the habit of getting up early and actually getting something done has started to develop.

Anyway- less yeast, mixed the dough in the morning (as per the instructions in this recipe up to the refrigeration part), and left it in the container on the counter. Then, when I go to make dinner, I will do the pull and fold and shape the loafs. Around the kids' bedtime it should be ready to go in the oven.

Now if only I could figure out a way to have fresh bread for breakfast that didn't involve me waking up 2 hours before the kids...

At Long Last, my 100% Whole Wheat Loaf Bread

2011-09-19T22:13:00.002-05:00

I've been promising this for ages, I know. I just didn't feel right posting a bread recipe when I wasn't baking bread myself. But now that it's fall I'm back at it.

The finished product.

My entire family LOVES this bread. My super picky daughter makes yummy noises when she eats it and repeatedly tells me how it is the best bread EVER. It's a great every day sandwich/toast bread that is also decent to eat on it's own. We go through 3-4 loafs a week in the winter (my DH eats a LOT of toast). I have adapted this recipe from one in Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day

Fair warning- there are a few compromise ingredients in this bread that I use to keep costs managable- for example, powdered milk. I know it's not technically a whole food, but I like to keep it in my emergency supplies, which means I have to eventually rotate and use it. Also, using my more expensive milk to make this bread was a little painful for me.

Oh, and these instructions assume you have a stand mixer. If not, well, this recipe is much harder and I apologize:) Seriously, though, if you don't have a stand mixer with a dough hook, just knead by hand, and keep in mind it will take a little longer.

100% (or so) Whole Grain Sandwich Bread
Makes 2 loafs

6 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
4 T. sugar of choice (use a little less if using liquid, like honey)
1 T. Kosher Salt
1 T. yeast
1 large egg
1/4 cup olive oil, melted butter, melted coconut oil, or other healthy fat of choice
2 1/2 cups warm water
3/4 cup powdered milk (or replace water and milk replacer with 1 1/4 cup warm milk and 1 1/4 cup warm water)

Options:

For more stable dough you can either add 2 T. of vital wheat gluten or substitute 1 cup of the whole wheat flour with all purpose or bread flour (I usually do the latter).
If you enjoy the taste and health benefits of sourdough and have a starter, reduce the yeast to 2 tsp, add 1 cup of sourdough starter, and add flour as needed (this will depend on the moisture level of your starter). Sourdough bread also keeps longer.

Day 1: Mix the flour, salt, sugar (if using honey, add to water instead), and yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer using the paddle attachment. In a bowl beat the oil and eggs together, then add the water and powdered milk and stir. Pour into the bowl of the mixer while it is running and allow to mix until combined. Turn off mixer and let the dough sit for 5 minutes to hydrate. Then switch to the dough hook and start kneading the dough on medium speed. After about 2 minutes of kneading look at the dough- if it is still very sticky and clinging to the bowl, slowly add a little more flour. If it is clinging to the hook and not moving much add a little more water. If it's mostly stuck to the hook but loose enough that it is moving and banging against the side it is perfect- it should look a little shaggy. Continue to knead for 4 or 5 more minutes. Then dump the bowl into a suitable storage container, cover, and put in the fridge. It needs to be refrigerated for at least 12 hours, but you can leave it as long as 3 days before the quality starts to go downhill.

Day 2 (or whenever you choose to bake): Take the dough out of the fridge at least 3 hours before you plan to bake it. Let it come to about room temp (a little cooler is fine) in this container. Then dump the dough out onto an OILED surface (any contact with flour at this point will weaken the gluten, don't do it!). Divide the dough into two equal pieces.

Now you need to decide if you want to bake both loafs or bake one now and return the other piece of dough to the fridge (remember to bake it within that 3 day window, though).

This next part is vital, and really simple, but hard for me to describe, so here's a video (also from Peter Reinhart... and really, if you want to get more into baking that is doable and simple and delicious, I strongly recommend picking up his book). For each piece of dough you want to do this stretch and fold magic, then let the dough rest for 10 minutes, during which you need to prepare your loaf pans. I LOVE my stoneware loaf pans (from Pampered Chef). If you are blessed to have one or two of these and if they are seasoned from use, all you need to do is rub them with a little olive oil. I didn't have quite as much luck with my metal pans. For metal oil them and, if you want, use a little parchment paper.

Now, since the gluten had time to develop in the fridge, you may only need to stretch and fold once, let it rest, then shape the loaf, or you may need to stretch and fold again. How can you tell? Well, if I try to stretch and it just doesn't want to go (even after resting), then it's time to shape. Here's a video on shaping. Although a little tedious, this was the best example I could find of shaping a loaf for sandwich bread. I also don't do the steam thing because the goal with a sandwich loaf is soft crust and steam makes for a crisp crust- lovely on a baguette, but not what I want for this.

Once you've shaped the loaf, place it in the prepared pan and cover with a towel. If the air is dry, cover it with a damp towel. Place the pan(s) in a warm place to rise, and allow to rise until the dough has risen to about an inch or two above the top of the pan. Then preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Whole wheat sandwich dough rising.

When your oven is hot place the pan(s) in the oven, set the timer for 45 minutes, and enjoy the smell:) When the timer beeps, thump the loaf. If it sounds hollow it is done. Technically the internal temp is supposed to be 195 degrees, but who wants to poke a hole in their bread?

Let the bread sit in the pan for a few minutes, then dump out onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before cutting- I know this is hard, but it is super important. Prematurely cutting a fresh loaf of bread can cause the entire loaf to loose flavor (due to lost gasses) and to dry out (as the moisture hasn't had time to redistribute to the bread and is lost through vapor). Wait and you will be rewarded!

Bread always has a lot of instructions, but I assure that this recipe is simple, low on active prep, and relatively fool proof. Give it a try!

And while you're at it, check out other home baked goodness at Homestead Revival's Barn Hop.

Real Food Meal Plan: Week 1

2011-09-18T23:25:00.001-05:00

I am so tired I can't think. I think I may be getting sick. And I have no Make it Yourself Monday Post because I'm too tired to come up with one. But I do have a meal plan. And since that is something that I have been meaning to post weekly, that's what you get!

My goal this fall and early winter, so far as meal planning goes, is to focus on the foods I have stored up from the summer; the chickens I have raised and all of the fruits and veggies I have grown and lovingly preserved. And, of course, the eggs I hope to continue to get from my layers. So, along with each week's meal plan I will include a list of what I had to buy that week.

Our basic food philosophy- eat foods in their most wholesome form. Eat a combination of cooked/raw/fermented foods. Include stocks and fermented foods daily, especially in fall and winter. Soak all grains and beans (exception- we do eat store bought whole wheat pasta, but I limit that to no more than once a week). Butter, eggs, bacon fat, and chicken fat are our friends:)

...or click HERE for an easier to read, printable version.

Looking for more meal planning inspiration? Check out the meal planning challenge at Keeper of the Home.

Make It Yourself Monday: No Closure Snack Bags

2011-09-12T13:33:00.003-05:00

It's back to school, and if you're anything like me (a control freak, a fanatic about what your kids eat, etc...) you're either packing lunches or thinking about them. One of the integral parts of lunch packing is food containment- what are you going to pack the food in? I like to use re-usable everything, from napkins to silverware to bags. So, in honor of back to school, I thought I'd post a little tutorial on making easy no closure snack bags.
Don't be fooled by the "no closure" part- these do close, but there is no velcro, snaps, or zipper to worry about, which makes this super easy for beginners. I wouldn't put something super sloppy in them, but they are great for dry snacks, fruit, nuts, or cut up veggies.

First, gather your materials. You need:

Cotton print of choice, or any non-stretchy woven fabric, 1 yard makes at least 8 bags
Contrast nylon rip stop fabric (with outerwear fabrics, it is always sold in various solid colors and has little squares, like umbro shorts... remember those..., that indicate the rip-stop).
Contrast thread, make SURE it's 100% poly thread, as cotton will wick moisture if you put anything wet in the bag. Not as important for these as for, say, diapers, though.
Pins, sewing machine/serger, scissors, ruler... general sewing stuff.

First, cut an 8" x 15" rectangle out of the print, then one out of the nylon:

Then pin the fabrics with WRONG sides together (it's hard to tell with the nylon, and I don't think it matters...). Using either a serger or the zigzag stitch on your sewing machine, pin and stitch the pieces together ONLY along one short side, like this:

Remove those pins, and fold your fabric like this, with the already sewn side to the front: (make sure your fabric is lined up REALLY well)

Then, starting at one lower corner, simply sew around the open three sides with either your serger or zigzag stitch. And Tada:

Super simple, super cute snack bags for your kid's lunch box, your purse, or wherever.

This is the simplest method there is for a snack bag. However, if you want a slightly neater appearance you can pin the two pieces with right sides together, sew like a pillow cover (aka leave a few inches open on the middle of one side for turning), turn, clip corners, then fold and topstich either with a straight stitch or a decorative stitch. I've done two like that, but take my word for it, this is MUCH simpler!

Taking a Minute to Remember

2011-09-11T12:26:00.001-05:00

Like much of the nation I spent this morning reflecting, remembering, and mourning the events that took place 10 years ago today. And there were a fair number of tears accompanying that reflection. My kids don't see me cry very often- I don't purposely try to hide tears from them, I'm just not much of a crier. Izzy's probably seen me cry twice before- once at the end of Toy Story 3, and once when I got my nose pierced (I didn't cry out, but there were definitely tears...). So this morning they were a little confused- they kept asking me why I was crying. So I tried, through my tears, to explain the events of that day to them. I tried to explain the fact that a few very bad people killed a lot of very innocent people- people who were moms, dads, and even kids (8 children, all passengers on the planes that crashed into the buildings, died that day). I tried to explain that, no, I didn't know any of those people, but that the thought of all of those babies who never got to meet their fathers, and all those children who grew up with one fewer parent made me feel sad. That I couldn't help but put myself into the shoes of the plane passengers, and that I instantly thought that if I were in their shoes now (or any time since August 2006) I would likely have one or both of my kids with me- how awful must it have been to know that you and (much much worse) your child were going to die because a few extremists were trying to make a point? The mere thought of what those people, especially the parents, must have felt before their untimely deaths, is enough to make me sob uncontrollably. And between my sobs I was trying to explain this two my two very young children.

It is a sad day, but it is also a day to reflect on what has changed in the last 10 years. No, not all the change has been good, but today is not for dwelling on the bad, it is for remembering and for celebrating the little good that resulted from that day. Bin Laden is dead. Democracy is trying to take root in parts of the middle East. And, most importantly, Americans have taken the tragedy of that day and used it to improve and inspire their lives. It was a day that helped us realize that there is more to being American than making money and saying what we want. We are Americans because while we have the freedom to say and do and be what we want, we come together when some of our own are in need. That day there are so many stories of people doing what they could to help- civilians providing food and water to survivors and emergency responders, private citizens using their boats to help evacuate residents of lower Manhattan without any organization or orders to do so. Because we have the freedom to choose whether or not to help- and more often that not, we help.

So while I wish with every ounce of my being that the events of that day had not happened, they happened, and all we can do is take what we can from them and make the world better. The terrorists may have struck a huge blow against us that day, but in the ten years since we are the ones who have won, because we have survived and thrived in spite.

Feeding the Fam through Fall and Winter

2011-09-11T06:30:00.000-05:00

Now is not the time for modesty- I've worked my a$$ off this summer. I won't even go as far as to say I've worked as hard as my husband does (he's a bit of a work-a-holic) because even on my hardest days I still usually have the opportunity to take a nap. But that's just one of the perks of being self employed:)

The fruits of my labor...

Oh, and I meant to apologize for not posting much lately. I'm been simultaneously super busy and super unmotivated. It's a pretty self destructive combo. And you did get a glimpse at the result with this post. I felt like my life was spiraling out of my control for most of this week. But I'm over it now, and back to my usual "I can only do what I can do" credo.

But back to this summer's hard work- I didn't do it just for shits and giggles (dude, what's with the potty mouth today? so unlike me...). I do enjoy gardening, but if I did it for pure enjoyment I'd probably have a modest and easy to care for 15 x 15 plot, not the massive (and expanding) 50 x 50 garden I have. It's a lot of work to keep up with (less than you would think, but still quite a lot). But I had a goal- I wanted to grow as much food as possible to sustain my family. Not just enough for a few salads and BLT's over the summer- I'm talking at least a hundred pounds of potatoes, quarts and quarts and quarts of canned tomato products, canned fruits and jellies, frozen beans and zucchini, dried and canned beans, fermented pickles and sauerkraut from home grown cukes and cabbage... as well as jellies and pickles to give as gifts over the next several months. And for the most part I've accomplished this.

I've still got quite a few things to bring in from the garden, and very soon I will have fall crops to harvest as well (and overwintering crops to plant...). But I've been thinking about what in the heck I'm going to post about over the winter. The bulk of my posts this summer have been about either my garden, putting up food from my garden, or chickens. And I can only post so much about how cold and miserable my chickens are. So I've been brainstorming some topics.

Mmmmmm... bread.

Baking Bread (I've been promising this one for a while- it's coming soon, I promise!). If I can figure out how to work bread into a series, I'll be all over it.
Soup- I may do a weekly or bi-weekly soup recipe. Because I stinkin' love soup and can't get enough of it.
Homemade Christmas gifts.
Easy crafts for the home (because I only do easy crafts...).

But what I want to do the most over the winter is really focus on how and what we eat. I plan to do that by meal planning EACH meal (including lunch) and including more protein and less grain... because I know I eat way to much grain (~~always~~ usually whole and soaked, but still...). And I want to use home preserved foods for as much of each meal as I can. If I focus on that for the first portion of the winter (instead of hoarding it until later, which I'm bad about) it will give me a fairly accurate idea as to how long each item will last and how much more I will grow/preserve next winter. And when I run out of something (say, onions) I want to go without for as long as possible. It will be a challenge and I am notorious for buckling under pressure like that, so we'll see.

So, at least for the first few months (and probably not starting this week, but soon) I will try to post my meal plan, my shopping list (if there is anything) and maybe a recipe or two from the week. It will give me some sense of accountability and possibly inspire others to grow and preserve, or at least to eat local.

Late Summer Harvest

2011-09-10T11:23:00.002-05:00

My tomatoes are almost done, and my zucchini are puttering out. I pulled up all my pickling cukes and am ignoring my lemon cukes:) The red potatoes are all dug (and the rest are waiting patiently...). All the shell beans are harvested and canned.

But there's still plenty coming in. I picked the first butternut squash yesterday, as the vines are starting to die off. There are at least 12 more to pick, but I want to leave them out to store up the last sugars the vine will supply them before the rest of it dies. I've harvested at least 10 muskmelon... although half weren't harvested or eaten in time. But the chickens sure enjoyed them! We've eaten one watermelon, and two are still maturing. I'm done with watermelon, BTW- they take up way too much space, I've never had more than 3 melons, and they never have much taste. I reserve the right to change my mind, as I do kind of want to try an heirloom variety that is known to do well farther North.

Cantalope goodies- cantelope infused rum and cantelope granita.

I've also got a few surprise harvests. First, my beans. Last year picked probably 2 quarts of beans... which isn't a lot. The plants didn't do well, and most didn't even germinate. This year I planted pole beans and made sure I had good seeds. I replanted anything that didn't germinate in a few weeks. I made sure they were innoculated and that the soil was loose. But still they seemed slow to start. And I was late trellising. It was starting to look like I was going to have another poor harvest. So I was ignoring them. Then I realized that I had a bunch of beans on the bush plants I interplanted with the beets. That was a nice surprise. And then I looked closer at my pole beans (which got big really fast in just these past few weeks). Lots and lots of beans. I missed some that got too large thanks to my neglect, but there were still plenty to pick and there seem to be quite a bit more to come. I may have some beans in the freezer after all.

Only a fraction of the eggplant I have to harvest and preserve.

And my eggplant. I have one thing to say about it- holy eggplant, Batman! You see, I didn't have any aspirations for growing eggplant. I planted it as a trap crop for the potato bugs (which worked, but was an overly ineffective method of pest management). I only sprayed them for bugs a few times and the bugs ate them up good early in the season. And I had heard that eggplant are notoriously difficult to grow. So, much like the beans, I had been ignoring them. But they suddenly got big, and got blossoms, and then started to grow fruit. Now on 6 plants I have like 20 eggplant. Nice surprise as well... although now I'm scrambling trying to come up with ways to preserve eggplant, which is something I've never done before.

Thankfully Eggplant Parmesan is one of my favorite foods... it's such a cliche way to prepare eggplant, but I love it. I've also found a recipe for eggplant preserved in oil, and I breaded and fried 5 eggplants worth of slices to put in the freezer for future eggplant parm and the like (I've heard it's good on sandwiches). That took care of 1/4 of the eggplant I have to preserve. Anyone have any ideas?

And of course, there are all the peppers. I'm trying to give them as long as possible to get as ripe as possible (which in Minnesota in a stretch). Then I'll be canning some pickled peppers.

Are you still harvesting? What are you doing with it?

Fail

2011-09-06T22:02:00.002-05:00

I know that sounds cliche, but that's how I feel right now. Even I know that I am being unduly hard on myself, but today I feel like I'm in one of those dreams- the one where, for example, the school bus shows up to pick you up for the first day of school, but you had no idea it was today so you're not ready, then you get to school and you're still in your pajamas and have nothing you need. Or where you get a new job but don't remember when to show up or what to do. I have that kind of dream all the time. Only today I'm not dreaming.

I feel like life is barreling ahead at breakneck pace right now and there is nothing I can do to slow it down or keep up. Izzy's starts kindergarten tomorrow and I'm not ready. I don't mean "ah, I'm not ready for my baby to grow up" not ready (puke!). I mean I'm not ready. I want a do-over. My house is not clean. I have three baskets of overflowing laundry that is just folded (thanks hubby!) and needs to be put away. I didn't have anything special for her to take for lunch or eat for breakfast- just our normal fare (and I think I'll be thankful for that later- I won't have to live up to high expectations). Izzy doesn't have gym shoes (I could have swore I bought her tennis shoes in the spring that she never wore, but of course now I can't find them... and just now it occurs to me that they're probably at Grandma's house...). And my broiler chicks are growing faster than I can keep up with. Over the weekend/today I built the new bigger tractor, moved the older batch into it, and built them a new bigger feeder. I also bought one big gravity feeder. And those two feeders aren't quite big enough. So I need to build another one, plus 2 or 3 more for the next batch. Before I know it the younger batch is going to be too big for the broody tractor (which they got moved into today) and I'm going to need to build ANOTHER tractor. I need to add onto the permanent coop before snow flies (which is looming over my head). I still need to dig the rest of the potatoes. I need to thin the fall crops in the garden, and clean up the summer crops, and plant the fall/winter cover crops. And, of course, in order to do that properly I have to plan what I'm going to plant where NEXT spring.

Today was supposed to be Izzy's kindergarten orientation, but it's no wonder that with all that banging around in my head I wrote the wrong time down on the calendar, so we missed it. And it is KILLING me. I was excited about orientation. I like to be oriented. We wanted a chance to meet the teacher and see the classroom and get a feel for the other kids and parents. And we missed it. And we were actually in town, just getting ready to come home for nap, when it happened without us. So now I have to try to insert myself into the teacher's already full first day tomorrow and let her know that I am NOT a deadbeat parent, just a scatterbrain with dyscalculia.

So while I have no breaking heart about tomorrow, I am longing a little right now for my tiny baby. Things were so much easier back then. Except that right now I am reminded of waking up nights, cribs, diapers, screaming every day from 4p- 6p, having to hold someone every waking moment... maybe it wasn't so easy. I guess this is just a different kind of hard.

Coming up...

2011-08-30T22:38:00.000-05:00

I have been super busy, but I haven't forgotten about you.

I have several ideas and posts in the works, but nothing ready yet and nothing that I can whip together fast, so I'll just give you a preview of what's to come.

I'll do a rundown of my favorite food preservation recipes so far this late summer/fall.

I'll talk about pressure canning a little, since I just attempted it for the first time.

In honor of the new and improved Natural Foods Co-op opening (not really new- old co-op, new location) I'll probably talk more about why I feel it's important to eat local foods as much as possible.

My next chicken post will likely deal with raising broiler/meat chickens. I've addressed them a little in past chicken posts, but would like to go into further depth. At the moment they're heavy on my mind, since I'm literally swimming in broilers right now and will be even more so soon, as my next order (you know, the impulsive one...) comes this Thursday. I'm not ready, but I will be. But it's dejavu all over again, as I'm still short a brooder...

And as we move into fall you'll hear more about my fall garden and I'll probably do a post on apples.

Anything else you want to see?

Make it Yourself Monday: Sour Cream and Buttermilk, with Bonus recipes!

2011-08-29T07:43:00.002-05:00

I love sour cream- a taco or enchilada isn't complete without it. But when I discovered Creme Fraiche, which is essentially thicker, creamier, tastier French sour cream, I was in love. It makes delicious sauces for meat, tastes great dolloped on oatmeal or berries, and of course tastes fantastic on Mexican dishes. I use it in every way I used sour cream before, and so much more. Another reason to make your own sour cream- many brands of store bought sour cream contain additives to assure consistency and texture, and I prefer the thick, additive free probiotic rich cream I make myself.

Buttermilk is... well, it's gross by itself (my opinion, not fact, some people drink it). But it is an integral part of my kitchen now. I grew up using milk soured with lemon juice in place of buttermilk in recipes. However, on a whim I bought a quart of buttermilk to make pancakes with a few years ago and have never gone back. The flavor and texture of baked goods made with buttermilk is far superior than those made with that sad substitute. Plus buttermilk is an important ingredient in making the aforementioned creme fraiche. But why buy buttermilk (at least more than once...) when it is super simple to make?

And by simple, I mean you will never buy sour cream again, even if you are the world's busiest person.

Buttermilk

1 quart whole raw or low temp pasteurized milk (or at least not ultra-pasteurized)
1/4 cup good quality commercial buttermilk

In a quart mason jar or other similar sized vessel mix the milk and buttermilk. Lid tightly and place in an out of the way spot and allow to culture at room temperature for around 24 hours. After 24 hours the buttermilk should look thick and pull slightly away from the edge of the jar when it is tilted. If it is still runny allow it to culture another 8 hours. Once buttermilk is cultured store in the fridge- buttermilk keeps longer than regular milk, from 2-4 weeks. Note the smell when you put it in the fridge so you know if it turns. It should smell sour and tangy but not "off." A small amount of separation is fine as long as the smell remains fine and there are no other off occurrences, such as growth.

Oh, and don't forget to reserve the last 1/4 cup of buttermilk to make the next batch!

Couldn't get easier, right?

Sour Cream/Creme Fraiche

1 pint good quality raw or low temp pasteurized (or at least not ultra pasteurized) heavy cream
2 T. cultured buttermilk OR previously cultured creme fraiche

In a pint jar mix the cream and buttermilk/sour cream. Allow to culture for 24 hours at room temperature- it should be very thick when it is finished. If it is still runny after 24 hours allow to culture another 8 hours. When finished the cream should smell slightly sour and cheesy. Place in the refrigerator- as it chills it will thicken more and the flavor will continue to develop. Creme fraiche will keep for several weeks in the fridge- I've never actually had a batch go bad, it just gets stronger tasting than I care for, so I make a new batch (and feed the leftovers to the animals...).

Again, remember to save the last 2 T. for your next batch.

BONUS! Another one of my favorite things to do with both buttermilk and creme fraiche is salad dressing. I couldn't decide which of these I like better, so I'm going to share them both.

Roasted Garlic and Buttermilk Dressing

1 head of garlic
drizzle of olive oil
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup creme fraiche
1/2 cup buttermilk
7 T. freshly grated good quality parmesan cheese
2 T. lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar
3/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the top off the head of garlic to expose the cloves and place on a small piece of foil. Drizzle with olive oil and wrap the head of garlic tightly in the foil. Roast until cloves are tender, about 45 minutes. Open the foil and allow garlic to cool slightly.

When garlic is cooled enough to handle, remove the cloves from their skins- they should slide out easily. Combine the roasted garlic with all the other ingredients in a food processor and pulse to combine. If dressing is thicker than you like it, thin with more lemon juice/ACV. Store in the fridge for up to a month.

Rich and Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing

2.5 oz blue cheese
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup creme fraiche
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 T. lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp. sugar or honey
1/8 tsp. garlic powder or 1 clove garlic
salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl mash the blue cheese and buttermilk together until it is combined and the blue cheese is broken down into small pieces. Stir in the rest of the ingredients until well blended. Store in the fridge for up to a month.

Today.

2011-08-26T23:18:00.000-05:00

I went to the chiropracter (still hating how much time that kills...).

I moved the broiler chicks outside to what I am now calling the intermediate brooding tractor. Amazing how well they're doing out there. And amazing how I love to come up with fancy names for things. I now have a little less than two weeks to build their actual tractor... and during those two weeks I'll have company, so of course it will get done at the last minute.

I found another egg.

I also found a soft shelled egg. I'm assuming it was laid by the lemon orp because I found it first thing this morning by where she sleeps. I also found a shell-less egg the other day but didn't realize what it was until I saw the soft shelled egg in the same spot today. I just put out the oyster shell yesterday, so I'll give that a few days to start working before I try something else.

I picked more tomatoes. I now have yet another (what is this, 4? 5?) big dish tub I need to do something with. I am not complaining, I promise- I wanted enough tomatoes to make all/most of the tomato products we use over the course of a year. I may get my wish. So far I have 6 24 oz jars of pasta sauce, 12 pints of pizza sauce, 4 24 oz jars of salsa, 7 pints of tomato sauce, and 11 pints and one quart of diced/whole tomatoes. I still haven't dried any, but that isn't a high priority as they don't get used as often as the others, and I would like to use all that I have now to make more sauce and probably more salsa.

And while we're at it, let's talk about my to-do list for this weekend. I need to dig potatoes, clean up the tomato patch, pull the rest of the carrots and beets, plant the mustard and collard greens, and process the aforementioned tomatoes.

Finally!

2011-08-25T15:10:00.000-05:00

The speckled egg and the top brown egg were found this morning in a nest box, and the one on the left was found on the ground, so I would assume it's from a bantam.

...we have eggs! I took the kids to the water park this morning. So after rushing through our chores and getting ready, we were getting in the car when I heard a big ruckus in the chicken coop. It didn't sound serious, so I finished loading the kids and checked it out... and found two eggs in one of the nest boxes! Just about an hour earlier I had noticed one of the barred rocks in that same next box, so I'm assuming she laid one of the two eggs. No clue who laid the other, although I would hope it was the lemon orpington, since she's over four months old.

When we got home early this afternoon I checked, hopeful for another egg or two. I didn't see any in the nest boxes, but I noticed that my little read frizzle bantam was crouched in the corner. When I looked closer I saw a small egg next to her- I don't know if she had just laid it, or if one of the other bantams laid it and she was working on one as well (or not).

What a great day!