Merseth Morsels

Enoch-- 0 to 3 months

2012-01-24T22:33:00.015-06:00

I haven't shared much about Enoch lately, because frankly, a lot has been happening. See previous post about our move.

So this will be mostly a picture post of Enoch over the past three months.

10-26-11 @ 2 days old

10-27-11 @ 3 days old

10-31-11 @ 1 week old

11-1-11 @ 8 days old with Big Brothers

Grandma Linda putting the "plug" in. It only worked for the first couple months.

11-2-11 @ 10 days old

11-4-11 @ 12 days old

Baptism Day, 11-6-11 @ almost 2 weeks old

Pastor John Merseth (Grandpa Merseth) performed the Rite of Baptism at Our Savior's down in Bagley on "Deer Hunting Sunday" with Pastor Mark and Marlene Faugstad as Enoch's Godparents. Here he is, screaming away. ;-)

Grandma Linda and Grandpa Allan with newly christened baby.

Me holding Enoch by cake I decorated for the occasion.

11-7-11 @ 2 weeks old

11-10-11

11-14-11 @ 3 weeks old

11-15-11

With Uncle Adam, Thanksgiving Day, 11-24-11 @ 1 month old

With Grandpa Allan, Thanksgiving Day

With Uncle Tyler, Thanksgiving Day

Aw, so sweet!

12-5-11@ 1 1/2 months old

12-14-11

Christmas Eve 12-24-11 @ 2 months old

Sorry I didn't take many pictures this month... there were so many other people taking pictures for Christmas and such that I didn't think to take many on my camera, plus we were packing and unpacking....

Photo Shoot on 1-24-12 @ 3 months old

Brothers wanted to get in on the picture-taking action

"I want to hold him!"

Mommy wanted to get a better picture of the three boys. Andrew wasn't wanting to sit still...

He really is a smiley baby.

We are enjoying him a lot! He is very alert, always watching us. A good nurser, takes good naps, has slept through the night once, has been wearing 3-6 and 6 month clothes, likes to talk to us, and always has a smile for just about everyone. I feel like I'm starting to hit my stride as a mother. No, it's not getting easier, necessarily... maybe I'm just getting used to just taking things as they come? So far, Enoch's been my easiest baby... or is it just that I know how to take care of a baby third time around? Well either way, he's a joy!

From Wannaska to Jeff City

2012-01-21T09:01:00.016-06:00

The last post I wrote was over a month ago, and boy, has a lot happened since then.

We packed. My husband went down to Jeff City with his brother James to scope out housing while I stayed and packed up our house. They got back in time for a Christmas Eve service at our parishoners' house... and ten minutes before arriving, Judah threw up all over himself in the car. So we arrived on their doorstep needing to use their wash machine. Meanwhile, I started to feel not the greatest. Somehow, through the grace of God, we made it through the service, although Judah was sick twice more during it, and I had to play the organ and take care of a wiggly Andrew, and feed Enoch, to boot. Christmas Day we did nothing except rest and sleep and get better. Andrew had thrown up earlier in the week, but the stomach flu didn't seem to hit him as hard as Judah. We started feeling more like ourselves on the 26th and continued packing.

This is a picture of our church family in the room we were renting to hold worship services. We miss them!

Enoch is 2 months old in this picture, taken Christmas Eve. Excited for Christmas!

Boys in their Christmas present jammies. I think this was taken on Christmas Day night, after we'd had a chance to feel better.

We had a Merseth Christmas at the Clearbrook farm with Great-grandma, and were there Tues night till Friday afternoon. There was a day trip in there by the brothers to butcher and do more packing at our place.

Cousin Malia and Andrew in Uncle Chris' Polaris Ranger. Andrew LOVES Ranger rides!

More packing. Last church service on New Year's Day. MORE packing.

Family picture at last service in Minnesota

Judah got to go outside with Church Gramma and have a Ranger ride, and explore!

About 9am on Jan. 2, church members from Jeff City came to help us pack up our stuff in a horse trailer and a second enclosed trailer. That was probably the coldest day we'd experienced thus far, and of course it was on that day. ;-) Well, those southern boys dressed appropriately, anyway! Later in the day, some cousins came and played in the empty house. Grandma Merseth helped them make a sign that said "Good Bye House, we're going to Missouri!" And Malia made a sign that said "Cub Foods" below it. I don't know if they even have any Cub Foods down here.

We had a few more days till we needed to leave, though. We took Judah and Andrew to the farm on Tues the 3rd to stay, while Jeff and I went back home to finish packing up the last things.

Wednesday we signed papers for a contract for deed for our house. A family is living there now and taking care of the place, and will eventually take full ownership in 4-5 years. I hope they love it as much as we did. That night, we loaded up the last of our chickens and belongings, shoved the last items in our vehicles and quick closed the door before it all fell out, and drove to the Clearbrook farm for the night. Here we are with Great Grandma Merseth. We will sure miss being able to visit. We were only 1.5 hours away.

Thursday morning we started the trek south. Jeff was hauling my dad's gravity box wagon behind his truck, so he couldn't go real fast, and had the two older boys, plus was having some truck problems along the way. I had Enoch in a packed-to-the-brim van. We got to my folks' house that night after a looooong day of driving.

After a good night's sleep, we left Friday morning about 10am, and arrived in Jeff City about 4 that afternoon, and I got to lay eyes, for the first time, on our new home. But we were staying in a hotel that night, and the pres. of the congregation and his wife took us out to eat. Here are the boys in their bed at the hotel.

Saturday morning about 9am, with the help of kind church members, we unloaded. And I must mention here the weather was gorgeous! I think it reached 60 degrees that day!! So the boys were playing outside, it was great.

We attended church on the 8th, installation was the 15th in the afternoon. Jeff's dad was able to come and give the sermon for the installation. My parents were able to come for the service, too. The meal afterwards was most excellent!

This is a picture of all the pastors in attendance at the installation. I love this picture. Someone must've said something funny.

I am enjoying our new place. We're renting an old farmhouse that is less than 5 miles from church. It hasn't been lived in for a couple years, so we've been battling with some mice with d-con, and I haven't seen much action since they emptied one of those little boxes... although I did find that they'd moved it into one of my kitchen drawers... imagine my surprise at that! And we needed to cover some cracks.

There are several outbuildings we can use for storage and chickens. Yes, the birds came, too. The long trip didn't even make them stop laying eggs. We've even started getting turkey eggs! We hope to keep them and incubate them when the weather warms up a bit. There is even a garden spot! The washer and dryer are in a building outside of the house, and I didn't realize that you need to keep the washer from freezing, otherwise it's junk. So while the temps are cold, we are keeping a wood-burning stove going in there. There is pasture land all around this farmstead, with cows grazing on the rolling hills. It's beautiful now, so I can't wait for the other seasons!

I haven't been out exploring the city yet though. I have still been trying to tackle laundry and boxes, and finding a home for it all. Maybe I'll feel brave enough soon.

A new chapter starting soon

2011-12-13T19:19:00.007-06:00

We had just made a long trip down to Iowa to visit my family for Thanksgiving, and had arrived back home late Saturday night. It was a slow lazy Sunday afternoon and evening as we tried to recuperate from the trip, and the hustle and bustle of church activities Sunday morning.

Then the phone rang. My husband Jeff had received a divine call to Peace Lutheran Church, Jefferson City, Missouri. Whoa. Dude. We weren't expecting that.

To make a long story short, Jeff accepted the call and we will be moving. Again. You'd think I'd be better at packing by now, after moving so many times. But it hasn't gotten any easier.

We still have a few details to figure out yet. Well, a lot of details. Like where we're going to live, because there's no parsonage. Like what to do with Albert. And the chickens. And turkeys. We have our house here taken care of, though. (We had it sold in less than a week on a contract-for-deed. Praise the Lord!)

Words cannot express the mix of emotions I've been going through these past several weeks. I can't even put into words... well... much of anything, these days. Overwhelmed. Because, truthfully, this was an answer to prayer. I wasn't sure what exactly I was praying for, but this was the answer.

And so here we are. Packing. Minimizing our possessions. Uprooting.

Ahh... uprooting. I'm one that likes to... settle down. Put down roots. Take off my coat and stay awhile, as the saying goes. And Judah is like me, I think. He's old enough to realize that things are changing, and he wants things to stay the same. He's having a hard time, poor guy. Needs some extra love. But I pray for resiliency for him... they say that young kids are resilient and adaptable. Whoever "they" are.

Here are some pictures, which don't have anything to do specifically with the move. Just some kid pictures. ;-)

Enoch, 2 1/2 wks

My three boys

Daddy and the boys having a 6-wheeler ride in the snow (gift from Gpa Allan!)

I haven't even gotten to show you the neat old old house next to our property up here. Here it is:

And so, with excitement, with some uncertainty about what lies ahead, we sojourn on. The hymn "Heaven is my home" often plays in my head as I think about all our moving around. It all points me to my eternal home in heaven that awaits me someday through faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior. This here, this is just temporary. Heaven is the real final destination. "I'm but a stranger here, heaven is my home."

Please keep us in your prayers as we move toward the next chapter in our lives. Missouri, here we come!

About those nannyberries and rosehips....

2011-11-17T14:36:00.007-06:00

About the rosehips...

A couple weeks ago, I was reminded of something from what seems like another life... My husband dumped a bucket of shriveled up, discolored rosehips into the chicken-scrap bucket. Oops. I should've dumped those a month ago.

My mind wandered back to the end of September, warm and sunny weather, a soft breeze blowing, almost 9 months pregnant, as I blissfully picked rosehips from the wild rose bushes.

But I was jerked to the present as I looked out the window and checked the thermometer... there were a couple inches of snow, and a temp. that dared to dip into single digits.

I guess I'll have to try the rosehips some other time.

For those of you that don't know what rosehips are, they're what is leftover after the petals fall from a rose. It looks like this:

The thing about the rosehips is that they are pretty labor intensive. Most of the time, that doesn't bother me. But let me walk you through it...

Pick rosehips after a frost when they're nice at bright orange or red. They acquire more sweetness then. The rosehips I picked were pretty small, averaging about 1 cm. in diameter.
Cut them in half and scrape out the seeds and hairy wisps. Also cut off dried up ends leftover from the roses. Not much is leftover then. You may need to let the rosehips dry up a bit before you start cutting, otherwise the insides can stick to the seeds, and it just gets to be a frustrating mess. I started doing this with a few of them, while my husband watched. He said something like, "Um, just forget about it. That will take you forever." And since I wasn't too excited about doing it and had other things to do, I was easily convinced.
Then you can dry the rosehips, or cook them to make jelly or whatever.

About nannyberries...

I actually did pick a big bucket of nannyberries, and even made some jelly with them. Well, it was more like sauce, since, once again, I did the long-boil method, which I detailed in my post about squashberries, and it turned out the same (saucy) since I couldn't get the temp. quite to 220 degrees. I would definitely use pectin with nannyberries, since the final produce ends up separating in the jar... the bottom half is thicker and more pulpy, while the top is lighter in color, and thinner.

Nannyberries are not quite so labor intensive, treat them like the squashberries. They look similar to the squashberries, except they are dark purple to black in color, and slightly oblong in shape, instead of circular. I just cooked them down and strained out the seeds, which looked like the squashberry seeds... flat and circular.

I did take pictures on my phone camera, but they have since been pushed out of the phone camera's memory...

And that was another adventure into wild foraging!

Enoch's Birth Story

2011-10-31T22:15:00.011-05:00

Enoch's birth was a home birth.

There. I said it. Now the world knows.

And you know what? It was wonderful. It didn't go exactly as I imagined, but pretty darn close.

Now, I'd been telling people that I was due on Oct. 3. However, when several weeks passed, and I hadn't had the baby yet, I started to think that maybe we were a bit off on the due date. Let me tell you, October 2011 was the longest month of my life!

I had a check up on Oct. 21, and everything looked good: my blood pressure and urine looked good, the baby was measuring good, plenty of amniotic fluid, baby's heart rate good, baby was head down. The baby didn't appear to be under any stress. I was even 3-4 cm. dilated and 80-90% effaced. So things were going in the right direction.

But when a person goes against "the norm", especially when the person is like myself who doesn't really like upsetting the apple cart, life can be extra stressful. Every day that I woke up "still pregnant" was another day that I dreaded. Was I stuck in pregnancy purgatory?!

I was almost to "43 weeks" when I had a tiny bit of bloody show on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 23, and I started to have hope that things would be over soon. Now, there are certain things that a pregnant woman can do to hopefully get labor going, and let's just say, I tried many things!

I started having a few contractions between 6-8:45 pm on Oct. 23, but none with any "heat". I texted my midwife, Rebekah, to let her know that I was having some contractions, and that I'd let her know when they started getting closer together. Jeff and I put Judah and Andrew to bed at about 8 pm and turned on their "sound machine" louder than normal. We wanted them to sleep peacefully through the night (which they did).

Well, 8:45 pm was when contractions started getting between 2-5 min. apart and had some strength to them. I texted Rebekah at 9:30 pm that things were starting to get serious, and she sent her mother Joyce over, a doula, who lived closer to me than Rebekah. She arrived at about 10:30 (I think). The contractions were really getting powerful when she got there. Joyce said she could tell how dilated I was by feeling how cold my legs were. The heat all moves to uterus, so when the coolness moves further up the legs, you know you're getting closer! She told me I was about 4-5 cm dilated at that time, which disappointed me a little. Of course, I had thought I was further along by that point. But it wasn't going to be too much longer...

My husband and Joyce were so very helpful to get me through the contractions, rubbing my lower back and helping me to sway. It was most comfortable for me to kneel in front of our cushy rocking chair, so that's where I was from 8:45-midnight.

The midwife's apprentice, Rita, came between 11 and 11:30 (I think). She came from Canada. Thankfully she had no trouble crossing the border! By the time she came, the contractions were quite painful, sometimes with no break between them.

And then sometime just after midnight I could feel the urge to push. Both Rita and Joyce were encouraging me to listen to what my body was telling me. I wasn't quite sure how to do it though. My first two labors were in the hospital, so I was laying on my back, and had my legs pulled back to help me push. But I knew that I didn't want to do that again.

I tried having Jeff sit on a chair and draping my arms over his legs so I was kind of squatting. That didn't feel right. I did push in that position though, and my waters broke. The amniotic fluid was clear with no sign of meconium, so that was a good sign.

I tried sitting on the couch in front of my husband and leaning back on him. But that felt too similar to laying down in the hospital bed for some reason.

Then Jeff suggested that he sit down on the couch and stand facing him, then brace my knees on the couch in a semi-stand, semi-squat position. Just when I thought I couldn't do it, suddenly I felt the urge to push and out comes the baby's head! (He crowned at 12:13 am.) I paused while the ladies checked to make sure there was nothing around the baby's neck. I asked if I could continue pushing, they gave me the go-ahead, and I pushed again, and out the baby came at 12:14 am!

I turned around and sat down in front of Jeff while the ladies wrapped a towel around our baby. I asked, "Is it a boy or a girl?" to which they replied, "You get to check!" Imagine my surprise to find a BOY, when I had been expecting a girl all along. But he was a healthy wonderful baby with dark hair.

We checked him over for a few minutes. He started to suck on his fist right away, so I soon started to nurse him. The placenta easily came out. After the umbilical cord stopped pulsing, it was clamped and cut.

After nursing, we needed to weigh and measure!

Daddy getting Enoch dressed.

Joyce and Rita

The next morning...they woke up to a new brother! They like him!

Judah wasn't ready to hold him till that evening though. Man, do I look tired!

So the midwife wasn't actually at the birth. She was at another birth. But it all worked out well, praise the Lord!

I'm so thankful to have given birth this way. It was a wonderful experience! If I had any tears from the labor process, they were very small, and didn't cause me much pain in the healing process. I have had to take things a lot slower than after my first two babies, but that's okay. I've been able to. My husband was able to stay home for the first week, and then my mother came to help the next week.

Note: Whether or not you are supportive of the idea of home births, I wanted to share my story. I would like to write a wonderful post supporting home birth, citing lots of facts about why it can be a valid way to birth a child, but hey... I just had a newborn. I just don't have that kind of time. But I'm not the only one who thinks this way, so the information is out there. Just google it. ;-)

Andrew turns 2 and an "ice cream" recipe

2011-10-26T10:48:00.011-05:00

Just days before having baby #3, Andrew turned two.

October 22, 2011 was a lovely Saturday. For breakfast, we had sourdough barley pancakes--extremely filling!

We took two long walks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon (in an attempt to get labor going!), with our family of four, along with Albert the dog and Kitty the kitty. (Yeah, we just can't seem to call it anything else. It's the only one left from the seven we had earlier this summer!) We spent a lot of time outside, just enjoying the warm-ish sunny weather.

Supper was one of our pastured chickens, potatoes, and carrots, followed by some banana cake--yeah, the same one I made for Judah's birthday minus frosting--with some "banana ice cream". Now, I feel really bad, because I cannot find the blog where I found this recipe--well, it's really a non-recipe. To make this "ice cream" here's all you have to do:

Freeze chunks of ripe bananas.
Put as much as you think you need (usually around 3-4 bananas is what I use) into food processor and process till well chopped.
Add some plain yogurt for a semi-thick consistency... Maybe 1 cup? (Like I said, this is a non-recipe...)
Add some cream, not too much, though, maybe 1/2 cup? Otherwise it turns into banana soup... which is okay, then you can just drink it like a smoothie! Blend for a few more minutes.
That's it! If you wanted to, you could add cocoa powder, peanut butter, other frozen berries... you can add pretty much whatever you like. And it's so good. We don't add sugar because using ripe bananas makes it sweet enough for our taste buds.

Then he opened up some gifts. I got him an orange ball that he really liked at the store, and some mini construction trucks. He also got lots of things from his grandparents and relatives that he opened up later, like clothes, books, socks, diapers, underwear.

Andrew is quite a guy. For a couple months now, he's been able to count to ten, say most of the alphabet, "sings" many songs such as: Old MacDonald had a Farm, BINGO, Bob the Builder theme song, I Am Jesus' Little Lamb, Farmer in the Dell, to name a few. He loves anything tractor, truck, Polaris Ranger, combine. He joins in with us on most of the prayers we say. A few Sundays ago, he busted out singing the final "Amen, Amen, Amen" at the end of the church service. It was really hard not to burst out laughing. He's a pretty happy guy, that loves being outside swinging or pushing his bike. (He doesn't ride it, just pushes it...) He usually takes a shorter nap than his big brother, so if he thinks Judah needs to wake up, he goes in and wakes him up. "'Ake up, Judah! Juuudah!" You just have to smile.

Announcing....

2011-10-24T18:20:00.005-05:00

Enoch Edwin Merseth

Born at 12:14 a.m. on October 24, 2011

Weighing 9 pounds even

21.5 " long

All is well.

Birth story to follow at a later date...

Judah turns 4 and a cake recipe

2011-09-24T13:45:00.010-05:00

Here's a few pictures from on and around Judah's 4th birthday.

We celebrated with Grandma Linda and Grandpa Allan on Labor Day weekend. Judah requested banana cake, and I made a very tasty soaked whole wheat flour cake with cream cheese frosting that was a hit. I followed this recipe for Pumpkin Muffins, but instead of using pumpkin, I sub'd mashed banana, and poured it into a 9x13 pan, which worked just fine. That will definitely be a recipe I will make again and again!

Then we celebrated again the night before his birthday, since we didn't know Daddy's work schedule. I made a shortcake with a raspberry sauce. Wasn't as good as the banana cake, but still tasty. Daddy gave him a BB gun. He also got sidewalk chalk, some coloring books, books, work boots and a monster truck t-shirt (a major fav!).

Andrew lovin' the balloon.

I've started giving Judah "reading lessons" from the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. About a month ago he really seemed eager to know what things said, so I checked out a book from the library about reading and started going thru it. Didn't like that book as well as the one I linked to above. This book lays it all out there for the parent, so I don't have to re-create the wheel, which is nice! It takes about 20-30 minutes a day, plus I'm learning things, too. So this is our start at home-schooling. I also purchased the book The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. I won't say more than I thought that book was important enough to have my own copy, and plan to follow the plans. Right now, it's important to teach phonics and numbers, and read read read to him, which I do anyway.

The boys are mostly good at playing together, though we have a few issues that we work through every day... Where did these children get their stubborn streak from anyway?! We are working on implementing principles from the book Raising Godly Tomatoes. We're still working on it. We've made some baby step improvements. Let me just say, it's hard being consistent when I'm so pregnant.

Judah also enjoys hearing bible stories, which is our nightly devotion book right now, "The Story Bible" with beautiful pictures. We also have a couple other bible books with pictures that both boys enjoy looking at, and asking questions about. We're also working on the meanings of the Ten Commandments, according to Luther's Small Catechism.

We also have our animal and garden chores which are keeping us busy.

Thanks to God for a healthy boy!

Wild Foraging: Squashberries and Making Jelly

2011-09-19T14:02:00.013-05:00

Squashberries. I'll bet you've never heard of them. I hadn't either, until I started doing some research about the plants on and around our property. They're very similar to Highbush Cranberries... if you've heard of those.

I interlibrary loaned a few books on wild foraging from the local library. (I really didn't want to poison my family in my quest for free food!)

Edible Wild Plants by T. S. Elias & P.A. Dykeman
Cooking with Wild Berries & Fruits of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan by Teresa Marrone
Abundantly Wild: Collecting And Cooking Wild Edibles Of The Upper Midwest by Teresa Marrone

So I had some squashberries on my hands. Thankfully there are no poisonous look-alikes, so that made me feel pretty safe in going ahead with my project.

I picked about two and a half quarts of berries. That was the easiest part.
Then to make sure they were all de-stemmed. That was a little more time-consuming, probably took me at least an hour or so.
Rinse the fruit to get all the bugs and last stem particles out.
Put the fruit in a 5 qt. pot and put enough water in to barely cover the fruit. After I started cooking them, I mashed the fruit. After maybe 20 minutes or so, I let the mixture cool. One thing that I forgot to do was add an orange or lemon rind to the mixture while cooking, which was recommended by one of my library books. It helps to take away the odor of the cooking berries... and I have to admit, it wasn't incredibly appealing to smell while cooking! Next time...
The mixture then went through my cone-shaped strainer. It has a handy dandy wooden mallet to push the mixture through. You need to get all the skins and seeds out. The seeds are a flat, oval shape. (Sorry, no picture...)
I did two "tests" on it before continuing: the pectin test, and the acid test, as explained in the book Canning, Freezing & Drying by the editors of Sunset Books and Sunset Magazine. To test if you need to add extra pectin, you add 1 teaspoon of cooked fruit juice to 1 Tablespoon of rubbing alcohol (70%). (Don't drink this, however, and throw it out when done!) "Juices rich in pectin will form a jellylike mass that can be picked up with a fork. Juices low in pectin will form only a few pieces of jellylike material." My squashberries didn't appear to need added pectin according to this test. To test if you need to add acid such as lemon juice, "compare the tartness of the your cooked fruit juice with a mixture of 1 teaspoon lemon juice added to 3 Tablespoons water and 1/2 teaspoon sugar. If the juice is not as tart as the lemon mixture, add 1 Tablespoon lemon juice to each cup of fruit juice." My squashberries were quite tart, so I didn't need additional acid.
I had about 5.5 c. liquid. Once I got it boiling, I added 3/4 c. honey for every cup of liquid. The "formula" recommended in Canning, Freezing & Drying was to use "about 3/4 to 1 c. sugar for juice with a high proportion of pectin (or 2/3 c to 3/4 c. for juice containing only a moderate amount of pectin) to each cup of fruit juice." So, being the stingy sweetener that I am, I used 3/4 c. honey for every cup of fruit juice. To my tastebuds, it tasted pretty sweet.
Since I didn't use commercial pectin, I was using the "long boil method"... rapidly boiling until jell point is reached at 220 degrees F. The book specifies that "this is at sea level. To test at your elevation, boil water to see at what temperature it boils; then add 8 degrees F. for the jell point." I just went with the 220 degrees. Well, actually I went with 215 degrees because it seemed stuck there for the longest time, and the book cautions against boiling for too long. So, what's a girl to do? What any pregnant girl who's ready for a nap would do!
Put the hot mixture in jars! I had clean pint and half pint jars ready to go, and filled three pints and two half pints. Wipe off the rims with a damp rag, put on your sterilized new canning lids, and screw on the rings. Once they've sealed (when you push on the top and it doesn't make a popping sound), they're all done!

Note: It took a while for this "jelly" to jell. It's been a few weeks now, and the liquid is starting to thicken finally. A few more months and it will probably officially become jelly. I'm sure this can be attributed to the fact that I didn't boil it to its exact jell point. But the amount of pectin in the fruit will make up for my lazy cooking measures over time.

I hope you enjoyed my adventure. I still need to try out rosehips and nannyberries. We'll see...

Swiss Chard... what to do with it?

2011-08-14T13:04:00.009-05:00

After my last post explaining the bounty of our swiss chard, I thought I should tell you what I'm doing with it. Well, trying to do anyway.

I harvest it by grabbing a bunch and cutting it off near the base. More will grow back.

Then you need to wash it. By the way, this is more difficult than you may think. The dirt likes to stick in the celery-like stalks and cling to the leaves. Even after a couple soaks in cold water, I find myself scrubbing at the stalks with a potato scrubber, and using my fingers to get final grains of dirt off the leaves. To do this for each leave is a bit time-consuming. So do the best you can.

At this point, a more particular cook would advocate separating the entire stalk from the leaf. However, since I'm not that particular, I just cut off the bottom part of the stalk and throw it into a pile. You can choose to chop off the stalks and cook them first, since they take longer to cook than the leaves, OR you can give them to your pigs and chickens, OR you can compost them. (And actually, I'm not even THAT particular anymore... I just chop it all up and throw it in the pan!)

There are several options for the cook at this point.

Freezing. I throw in as many leaves (wet from their wash) as will fit into my 5-qt. cooking pot and let them wilt till about 1/3 of their size, about 2-3 minutes. Then I throw them in a pan to cool off. I measure some into freezer baggies, and into the freezer they go. I'll plan to use them in egg bakes, quiches, and other hot-dish type entrees.
Frying. I heat up butter or coconut oil or, our favorite as of late, palm oil, in a frying pan and cook chopped onions, garlic, and some chard stalks if you like. When those are softened, fill your pan with chopped swiss chard leaves. And fry it like you mean it. It's best when leaves are partly crispy. Don't forget to add salt and pepper. I really like the palm oil... mainly because of it's strong flavor. It covers up the swiss chard flavor... ;-) But if you're not used to the flavor, it may be a bit off-putting. Butter's always good. And don't skimp on the grease!
Baking. Okay, this one's a bit weird. Recipe for Swiss chard chips. Yeah, you bake the leaves. Basically just toss leaves with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake. One thing I learned with this... the leaves MUST be quite dry before baking, otherwise they just wilt and are limp. Gross. My boys enjoyed the chips, and kept coming back for more. "More crunchy, Mom!" "Thanks for the crunchy, Mom!" It's fun for something different. Also, it's best to eat it all in one sitting... the chips don't keep well in my experience.
Here's my oven, original from the 1960s... timer doesn't work, though.

Dry the leaves well!

I put parchment paper on the pan before putting on the chard.

My taste testers... what is this?

Substitution for spinach. Basically any type of dish you'd use spinach, I am pretty sure you could use swiss chard.
Hotdishes, quiches, sautes, salads, etc. Swiss chard is easily added in to these types of dishes.
Whatever your creative mind can come up with! I'm sure there are more ideas than these, but this is the extent of my creativity and willingness to experiment. I'm not quite brave enough to make "green smoothies" that you add veggies to.

We'll probably plant it again next year. But maybe not quite so much..... that stuff is prolific!

Garden and Animal Update

2011-08-03T20:43:00.015-05:00

Okay, it's about time I posted this, now that it's been over two weeks since I began composing this post....

Here's what we've been up to with our animals and plants:

The pigs are getting bigger. They've been moved a couple times, and are currently in a large grove of trees. It's amazing how quickly they root up the ground. Today I saw one of the pigs trying to eat a golf ball. Hmm... how'd that get there?! Runty is growing, but only seemed to make progress after introducing diatomaceous earth into his diet. He must've had worms or something? When they hear you nearby, they love to come running up to you and say hi, usually by trying to nudge your leg with their snout.

Broilers. Butchered. Our final numbers were 89 Cornish Cross (white broilers) and 95 red broilers. The red variety took a couple weeks longer to reach butcher weight. I preferred the red broilers... they just looked a lot nicer to me. It took us four weekends, but we finished. My parents came one weekend to help out. We got pretty good by the end of July. There are still some in our freezer if you want to come for a visit to buy some... ;-)
Turkeys and dual-purpose birds. Turkeys are growing nicely. We are down to 15 now. Hopefully no more losses. The Ameraucanas are maturing nicely... it's interesting to me how different they all look... some are just brown and black, some white and black, some white, black and brown with some red. The roosters are going through puberty... they try to crow, but it's sort of like their voice cracks... kind of funny. I think it's another couple of months before the pullets will be ready to lay. Then hopefully I'll be able to find some ready egg buyers.

Hens are laying okay. Some of the older hens are laying weaker shelled eggs, so we know that we must check for eggs often so there's less chance for them to be broken. The lone rooster in with them keeps them in line. I'm learning how serious a pecking order is. One day a few weeks ago, one hen decided to be difficult and get out of the coop, so my husband decided to let all the hens out to free range for a few hours before bedtime, which is when they naturally all come back to the coop to roost. Albert, the dog, decided to come and chase them. Rooster rounded all his ladies up and ushered them directly back into the pen. And that was that!
Cats. Smokey, the Mama cat, had her five kittens two months ago. We are down to three, thanks to Albert. They don't stick close to the house anymore, so they're getting more wild and hard to get close to. Creamy, a male cat, is still around.
Albert. Needs training. I'm not a good trainer, and Jeff doesn't have time. He eats everything, it seems like. Chicken poop, broccoli, and junk food--especially when you throw it down the ravine.

Garden. We've gotten waaaay too much rain on a plot of land that is very susceptible to flood-like conditions. Much of what we planted got flooded out or grew very poorly--onions, corn (tasseling at 2 ft. tall?!), peas, some beans. The other issue we had was planting some things a bit too early, so most of our transplanted squash was, well, squashed. My tomatoes plants are finally getting a few red tomatoes on them. The swiss chard and cilantro have been producing well, and the potatoes, carrots, and beets look promising! We hope to prepare better next year by digging trenches in certain key areas. We will also prep the ground with more tilling, and will be mixing in some compost, which we didn't do this year. My husband plans to build a greenhouse soon, in which we can hopefully grow a few things into the colder season, though the main purpose of that will be to house chickens during cold weather.

One of several muskmelons.

One of two pumpkins

First tomato!

This is some swiss chard (ignore the weeds...).

The swiss chard growing back after I chopped it!

Some sunflowers...

Our really short corn.

Lawn. Our lawn nearest the house had been largely dug up due to that drainage tile project around the house back in April. (It worked, too, no more puddles in the basement!) Well, clay-like soil conditions hasn't been real conducive to growing grass, but it has grown thistles and random weeds pretty well. It's filled in quite a bit, though still patchy. Hopefully it will fill in soon because I feel like quite a country bumpkin! The picture below is the two boys looking out longingly at the backhoe rented for the occasion. I don't have many pictures of my front lawn, mainly because it's kind of embarassing. Maybe later this fall...

Till next time, I hope your gardens grow!

We got a grain mill!

2011-06-13T13:53:00.007-05:00

We've actually had this grain mill since mid-April, so we've been using it for about three months.

We bought the Family Grain Mill from Pleasant Hill Grain upon recommendation from our local organic grain and flour supplier, Natural Way Mills. We had been getting our whole wheat flour there, but decided to take the jump into home-grinding our grain because of the health benefits. Grinding your own flour allows you to preserve much more of the nutrients. Organic Gardening and Homesteading website mentions that within 12 hours of grinding, your wheat loses all nutrients, and that if left out over a week, becomes toxic.

Ew.

And that's why the flour you buy in the store usually contains lots of preservatives and synthetic vitamins, to prolong shelf-life, and though the flour may be kept from becoming completely "toxic," it most likely is fairly devoid of readily available nutrients that are found in freshly ground flour.

So, we made the leap to grinding our own grain.

We chose the Family Grain Mill because of the steel burrs used to grind the grain, which grind without friction and use the least amount of heat to grind the grain. Heat can destroy many nutrients in the flour. (Makes me wonder about what happens when you bake with it... but for some reason, it just makes sense not to destroy the flour's nutrients before it even gets to the oven.)

We had the option to buy a hand crank base, as well as an electric base, that hooks to the grinder, in case we'd want to grind flour without electricity. We also got the oat flaker, which takes whole oats and rolls them into oatmeal! There are other attachments, like for meat, you can buy that fit onto the electric or hand crank base. It was also fairly reasonably priced. We didn't want to get a super cheap one that was junk. It's not too loud, and not messy at all.

The option is there to do other kinds of grinding, like rice flour or cornmeal flour, or coarse-grinding grains for a chewier texture, but I've only ever adventured into using Hard Red Spring Wheat Berries and Soft White Winter Wheat Berries at the finest grind.

For the most part, I'm pretty pleased with our purchase. But I have to admit, it's taken some adjusting in how I do my baking. I still haven't completely gotten the hang of making My Fav Sourdough Bread Recipe with freshly ground flour. It just makes for a denser loaf using freshly ground flour, because, at least with our grain mill, it doesn't get quite as finely ground as what we were buying pre-ground. It seems that I usually have to use a little more flour than a recipe calls for, since the flour includes the rough bran which doesn't seem to soak up liquid quite as well. For me, it's not as big of a deal, since I tend to do a lot of "this and that" adding to recipes and go a lot by the look and feel of the dough... yeah, I'm not super great and adhering to a recipe word for word, which sometimes works out great. And other times, not so much.

I've been using a soaked flour recipe that I found from The Urban Homemaker, which is modified from her Hand Method recipe here. I also make my own modifications, like using blackstrap molasses instead of honey and no dough enhancers. It makes a much lighter loaf, while also giving most of the flour a chance to soak, making it softer and more digestible.

I'm still experimenting when I can, in between all my daily tasks. I've tried to do some research on tricks to baking with freshly ground flour, but have been coming up short. So if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Pastured Chicken for Sale

2011-06-06T12:55:00.015-05:00

Your chickens on pasture standing at the corner of their moveable pen, made by my husband, Jeff.

The chickens have access to grass and fresh air, and are moved daily to fresh green pasture.

Why buy our local pastured poultry?

Their taste is comparable to none
They are fed GMO-free feed
They taste great
They scavenge the ground for their own grass and bugs
Their natural flavor will have you begging for more
They are free of synthetic hormones, anti-biotics, and vaccines
They are processed on-site
Did I mention that they taste better than store bought chicken?
All of this adds up to a healthier, more nutritious bird, which is all around better for you!

The price is $2.75/lb, dressed weight, with the birds averaging 4-5 pounds each.

If you live in the area, and are interested in coming to visit, please give us a call and let us know when you plan to stop by. Also, if you are interested in ordering, call 218-425-7532.

We will arrange several days for butchering beginning of July, which will also be the pick-up days. It will be fresh! To help keep our costs low, we have decided to have the customers bring their own packaging. A plastic gallon bag per chicken should be sufficient.

If you still aren't sure what the difference is between pastured home-grown chicken and factory-raised chicken, or aren't convinced of pastured chicken's benefits, I found this chart on someone else's homepage who also does pastured poultry. It plainly lays out the differences, which to me clearly points out the superior choice.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Come see our farm!

2011-05-13T14:45:00.031-05:00

Okay, so it's been over a month since I blogged. It's not that I didn't want to. It's just that I've been a tad bit busy.

We've transitioned over to the "river house" (dubbed that because our house is next to a river) from the "log cabin house" (well, it's a log cabin!). There are a few items still at the log cabin house (like the really good chicken manure/compost from the chicken coop that we need to add to our garden), but by and large, we've gotten all moved.

Speaking of the garden, we've gotten a big plot tilled, but up here in northern Minnesota, it's taking a while to warm up. The last frost date is June 6, or thereabouts, so it's not like we're in a super rush. We will probably get some cold-hardy things in this upcoming week if we can, like potatoes and onions. Our attempt at doing transplants is not the greatest, one of those things that I'll just have to practice and improve on over time. But we do have two greenhouses within 5 miles of us, so we'll probably patronize them considering our sad looking starts.

We planted some asparagus roots, as well as transplanted some rhubarb.

We've also added to our collection of animals.

Currently, we have approximately 300 baby chicks of various breeds and assorted sizes (red broilers that we got first, cornish cross, and ameraucanas which will add to our laying hen stock in the future), and 18 turkey poults. Oh, and by the way, these will be up for sale in a couple months, so does anyone want to buy some chicken?? :-) Their feed is GMO free, and once my husband can get his moveable chicken pens built, the first group of chicks is going on pasture soon.
These are some cornish cross chicks, just 3 or 4 days old.

Turkey poults huddled by light for a nap. They like to do that. One may think that since they are huddled, they are too cold, but they are fine. They run around outside the pen other parts of the day with no problems.

These are some red broilers, kind of hard to see. But I wanted to show you their brooder box that my talented husband built. They are soon ready to move out into their chicken tractor.

A view of our garage. Jeff built all these pens. The farthest one is the red broiler pen where they got moved to at 2 weeks. The left is the cornish cross' pen. The right one is the turkey poults' pen. We had the turkeys and red broilers together for about 2 weeks, but at that point it was time to separate them as the broilers were growing so much faster than the turkeys, it just seemed to work better this way.

The moveable chicken pen. Once planting season is done, he needs to make more...

The pigs are helping to till up our garden right now. We have five, one is a runt, I know. Maybe Wilbur will find a spider named Charlotte.... We plan to put them on pasture within an electric fence, and give them screenings from a local mill and whatever else we round up. But for now, they're small enough to fit inside this re-purposed chicken tractor.

Andrew loves to watch them. He also figured out to not stick your finger in the holes. They bite.

Albert, our puppy. He's cute and cuddly, and well... a puppy. I have to say, I'm still more of a cat person. I like the independent nature of the cat. Puppies insist on being right in the middle of what you're doing, and get soooo excited about everything. So our hope for Mr. Albert is to grow up to be The Great Protector of our life and liberty, fending off the wild animals of northern Minnesota. He's half Golden Lab, half Great Pyrenees... Great Pyrenees are supposed to be good guard dogs, especially of lifestock. But for now, he's Albert, the puppy, who pulls laundry off the line and follows you around, trying to jump up on you.

Two cats, Creamy and Smokey... and Smokey is a girl who appears to be ready to have kittens soon. Oy vey. The third cat could not be caught, so Sharpy will be fending for himself somewhere else.
And I can't forget our 18 laying hens (and three roosters will will find themselves in our crockpot soon). They went back into their A-frame outdoor chicken tractor. Currently, they're giving us anywhere between 8 and 12 eggs a day. We personally eat a lot of eggs ourselves, and use some to feed to the baby chicks for additional nutrition. But we hope to increase our egg output with the addition of more laying hens, c'mon Ameraucanas!

And the boys, are doing pretty well. They enjoy all the animals and being outside with Daddy while he's working on his different projects around here. Judah had a little trouble with the transition to the new house, but seems to be adjusting alright. Spring planting started a few days ago, so Jeff's been working a lot for the farmer. It's finally been beautiful and warm, and so it's hard to keep the boys inside.

Andrew likes to play in the sawdust.

They love being outside!

Their dad hooked this together. Judah does really well riding the bike!

We were having fun with the timer on the camera.

5/16/11 -- 20 weeks

As always, I'm still fiddling in the kitchen, but that will have to wait for another post. Until next time...

Healthy Candy Bars

2011-03-29T12:28:00.005-05:00

Yeah, you read that right. I said "healthy" and "candy bars" together.

We recently got a new shipment of coconut oil, we had been "almost out" for a while. I'm one of those people who stretches and stretches the last little bit to make it last a long time... to a point of ridiculousness.

So when we got some more coconut oil, I had to make these "Mounds" Candy Bars from The Nourishing Gourmet's blog. I've made them before, and they're a great way to help us get more coconut oil into ourselves. Sometimes I don't always feel up to just eating a big spoonful of coconut oil--although my boys would eat it by the spoonful if I let them!

Here's the recipe copied from her blog, with my comments in italics.

-------------

“Mounds” Candy Bars-makes 12, large; or 24 mini, which is what I like to do

1 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes 1/2 cup of coconut oil 1/4 cup of honey (raw is nice) 1 teaspoon almond extract 36 almonds, left whole or chopped (your choice) --I had cashews, so that's what I used instead this time around

1-Melt the coconut oil and honey over low heat until just melted. Whisk to combine. Add the almond extract and coconut flakes.

2-Now take out your muffin tins (you will need a 12 compartment muffin tin). In each compartment, place three almonds, or divide the chopped almonds. I wasn't so exacting, just dumped some nut pieces in the bottom of each of the 24 cups. Then, divide the coconut mixture, making sure you get an even mixture of coconut flakes and coconut oil. Place in a freezer (make sure it’s on a flat surface), and freeze until hard (about 30 minutes)

Now it’s time for the chocolate! You will need:

3/4 cup cocoa powder (not dutch cocoa) 1/4 cup of honey (I used a scant 1/4 of a cup) 1 cup coconut oil 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3-Combine these ingredients in a 2 cup glass measuring glass and place in a pot of simmering water. Heat until everything is just melted, and remove from heat. Either whisk briskly, or use a hand blender to combine well (the hand blender is the easiest way to do this).

4-Take out the frozen coconut flakes mixture, and divide your chocolate mixture over it (about two tablespoons per muffin compartment).

5-Put back into your freezer, and freeze until hard (again, about 30 minutes). To get them out, simply slide a butter knife down one side, and pop it out. This is very easy to do, as long as you do it directly from your freezer.

Then, enjoy! (and keep them frozen, they melt fairly quickly)

------------

When I was popping these out of the pan today, it was probably a bit silly to watch me clean up. It was so good, I didn't want to have any go to waste, so I was practically licking out the compartments. That might be thrifty to the extreme....

Also, a note on why coconut oil is so good for you. It's hard for me to quickly sum up its benefits, so I recommend reading some books like "Eat Fat, Lose Fat" by Sallon Fallon and Mary Enig, or "The Coconut Oil Miracle" by Bruce Fife. Those really explain why a saturated fat like coconut oil is so healthy for us. But a cursory list would include such benefits as: promotes weight loss, improves digestion, helps boost the immune system, and helps prevent against degenerative diseases. I encourage you do to some research and you will be amazed at the benefits of coconut oil.

Lots of news

2011-03-23T08:01:00.006-05:00

I've been sitting on some information for a while, biding my time until I felt like I could share.

First, we're going to be closing on a house this Friday, March 25. Yes, our time in the log cabin is coming to an end. It's been fun, but I must say, the novelty is wearing off. The holes between the logs, the days when the wind blows down the fireplace and smokes up the house so we can't use the fireplace, the two levels that constantly need policing with two busy boys... we are ready to call some place our "own". It has three acres, not as much as we'd like, but we have big plans for those acres, which I'll share with you as we progress into summer. There are three bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen with lots of storage, small dining room and a nice big living room. There are two entryway closets, big basement, two door detached garage. The house is a bit dated, old wallpaper and flooring, but easily and quickly fixable. We have until end of April to be out of the log cabin and all moved in.

Second piece of news, we have a permanent location for church. Instead of floating around from restaurant to restaurant, we have a month-to-month lease for a room in the basement of the old courthouse in Roseau. It's not free, but $25/week is about as good as we'll get to have a place to call our "own".

Third, we'll have a third baby to call our "own" beginning of October. I am 13 weeks along as of March 28. I don't think the reality of it has sunk in yet, but there's a reason it takes nine months! I had much stronger morning sickness with this baby than with my two boys, so I'm wondering if it's a girl...? Well, we'll all be surprised together when he/she arrives. But now I'm finally feeling "normal".

I think that's about all the news for now. I think I should be packing or something.... ;-)

Tapioca Pudding

2011-03-18T15:18:00.004-05:00

Here's one of my favorite desserts out of Nourishing Traditions. I usually 1.5 the recipe, but here's the original measurements. I also change up the sweetener, usually using honey or maple syrup, and I rarely use the full amount, usually halving it. I think I've become accustomed to things tasting less sweet, so keep that in mind.

Tapioca Pudding

Serves 8

1 c. medium or small pearl tapioca

4 cups whole milk

3 eggs, separated, at room temperature

1/2 t. sea salt

3/4 c. Rapadura

grated rind of 1 lemon

pinch of sea salt

Soak tapioca in milk overnight in the refrigerator. In a separate bowl, blend egg yolks, salt, rapadura and lemon rind. Cook tapioca about 45 minutes in a double boiler over simmering water until very thick, stirring almost constantly with a whisk toward the end of thickening. (I don't have a double boiler that big, so I will either fit one of my smaller pots into a bigger pot with water in it, OR just use a pot straight on the stove-top but keep the temperature very low.) Add a spoonful of hot tapioca to egg yolk mixture and then add warmed egg yolk mixture to the tapioca. Cook about 5 minutes more over simmering water, stirring constantly. Beat egg whites with sea salt until softly stiff and fold into tapioca mixture. Serve well chilled.

Note: I grate the rind off my lemons whenever I use them, and keep the grated rind in the freezer for such a recipe as this!

Citrus Extract

2011-03-18T12:11:00.008-05:00

We received a great book at Christmas called The Encyclopedia of Country Living, 10th ed. This book is "the original manual for living off the land and doing it yourself." 'Nough said.

One of the recipes in it was for making citrus extract. At the time that I started this project, I believe it was end of January, early February, and we had some oranges left from a bulk purchase made in December. And I thought, perfect! Between this recipe, and citrus vinegar, I'll be able to squeeze the life out of these oranges yet!

Citrus Extract (p. 382)

Peel away the fruit's outermost skin, called the zest. (There's a special tool for this at kitchen stores.) Don't use any of the white pith.
Fill a wide-mouthed bottle one-third of the way up with zest.
Pour in vodka for the other two-thirds. Soak 2 weeks, shaking twice daily.
Strain and bottle your extract.

My notes:

On zesting your citrus--I have a shredder that has three different sizes of holes. I had been using the smallest zesting holes, which took me forever. An actual zesting tool probably would work better than my awkward stand, I'd guess. I zested a couple oranges a day, then had to stop and rest, and did a few more the next day, just refrigerating my zest in between. And I kept zesting until I had filled my jar 1/3 full. I think I used 10 oranges, maybe? Later, my husband informed me as he zested a lemon, that the next size up of holes worked much easier. Lesson learned!
Citrus to use--I only used oranges, but you could probably use lemons and limes, too. I don't think I'd use grapefruit, as I'm guessing it's probably too bitter. But I could be wrong, I haven't tried it!
I was not religious about shaking the bottle, and I only recently strained the zest off, and it's been nearly two months. It smells good, and I'm looking forward to using it in... something. I'll figure something out.
You could probably save up zest for a long time. We juice lemons often to make our kefir soda, and we started washing the skins well then zesting the lemons and putting the zest in the freezer. Then, whenever a recipe calls for it, I can pull zest out of the freezer. Lemon zest really adds a lot of flavor, by the way!

Triplet Cookies, aka Sugarless Cookies

2011-02-28T21:03:00.013-06:00

I'm going to sneak this post under the month of February. Motivation, where have you been?!

Finally going to share with you these awesome cookies. No flour, no sugar. The way it's sweetened is with overripe bananas and dried fruit, which is usually preserved with some amount of sugar. I don't even mind having these for breakfast... which is what happened today!

Oh, and a tip about buying bananas. We only buy them overripe, but have to ask for them as they are kept in the back room at our local grocery store. I ask for the "banana bread bananas" and get them for 19 cents/pound, instead of the 67 cents/pound for the all yellow bananas. And we usually prefer the cheaper bananas anyway because we don't mind a couple brown spots. They only keep green and perfectly yellow bananas on display. So there's a tip for the day!

Recipe from "Healthy Choices" cookbook, my comments/changes in parentheses.

Triplet Cookies (I can't quite figure out why they are named this... the only "three" thing in it is the 3 c. of rolled oats!)

2 c. mashed bananas (usually is about 4 overripe large bananas)
1/4 - 1/3 c. raisins, currants, or dates (I used currants on this batch because that's what I had)
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. rolled oats (For maximum nutrient absorption, it's best to soak the oats for at least 8 hours, preferably 12-24. I only got these soaked for about 10 hours, but any amount you can soak it will help make it more digestible! I mixed the oats with about 1/3 c. kefir, and 1/3 c. water. Or you could use 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar and the rest water. For more discussion on the whole soaking of grains concept, you can visit here.)
1 Tbsp. ground flax seed (I grind this in our coffee grinder, which I cleaned out. But if you want a little extra buzz, just keep those leftover coffee grounds in! ha!)
1/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut

Mix bananas, raisins, salt and vanilla together thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients and mix all together. Very easy. Place teaspoon sized balls (used cookie scoop) on parchment papered cookie sheet and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until done. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

Orange Vinegar

2011-02-21T08:00:00.004-06:00

I found this link about making citrus vinegar by simply taking your leftover citrus rinds, putting them into a glass jar, and filling it up with white vinegar. In this jar is some de-zested lemon peels, and some grapefruit peels. My jar isn't quite full here.

Wait till the vinegar starts to smell like citrus, and pour out! Talk about easy! And getting the most out of your purchases!

I used it for adding to my wash machine for my diapers. I think it helped, but it's been hard to tell since we have an HE wash machine, and I've been battling with it to get my cloth diapers fully clean. But that's a post for another day!

Or the author of the site, Crest Cottage Creations, suggests diluting this citrus vinegar half and half with water, and putting it in a spray bottle to use with baking soda for cleaning. She says it's an excellent degreaser. If you haven't tried using vinegar and baking soda to clean with, I highly recommend it!

Simple things

2011-02-06T14:18:00.010-06:00

From January 13, 2011. Andrew is making himself laugh. It's the simple things that can bring a smile to our faces.

It's usually about now when the winter seems to take forever, and spring can't come soon enough. We've had a couple warmer days of lower 30s and there's been some melting snow, but the temperatures will soon dip down into single digits.

So the simple things will have to make us happy for now. Simple toys and simple nourishing food.

Yes, I'm still cranking out the goodies... bread, noodles, crackers, pitas, a few cookies, cake, rolls, cornbread, soups, casseroles, meats, vegetables. We've been eating well out of our freezer this winter, and I am already thinking about what I want to go in my garden for this year.

I have some sugar free cookies that I want to post soon. But I really need to focus on some other projects that I've been wanting to do this whole winter, but haven't pushed myself to do... making a no-sew rag rug. If I ever complete that, I'll share photos!

I feel lost is I'm not making something in the kitchen. But part of me wonders if I don't busy myself in the kitchen so I don't have to focus on other things that I'm not so good at... like updating baby books. Ack.

Speaking of which, maybe I should go work on those.......

Judah/Andrew/family update

2011-01-12T12:36:00.024-06:00

We need a post about the boys!

The last post about them was for Andrew's first birthday in October. And we're already nearing the 15 month mark (Jan 22). In between then and now, there was hunting in early November, and an early Christmas present from Ohio grandparents: a jeep!

Thanksgiving Day, 2010. At Great Grandma's.

Just before Christmas, my brother Tyler came to visit. He helped butcher chickens. We also went sledding on the only hill in the area, Bemis Hill, which is in a state forest. Boy was it cold out!... But what am I saying?! It's still cold out! I think the high today is supposed to be -6 degrees Fahrenheit!

Here, Judah just opened a present from Grandma Linda and Grandpa Allan... it's a Fishing Game! The picture is a little blurry... it was hard to keep Judah still.

Andrew likes to look at books.

Sledding...we all fit!

Andrew's expression at Tyler makes me laugh.

Judah likes helping me hang up clothes on our indoor clothesline.

We opened Christmas presents on the 23rd, as we had Christmas Eve service with our church on the 24th at our house. Judah got Star Wars underwear, pretty exciting.

Andrew wasn't nearly as excited about opening gifts as Judah was.

Andrew holding a book I got...hmm, is it any coincidence it's about stain removal? ;-)

Christmas Eve meal: Lutefisk, Lefse, Rommegrot, peas, mashed potatoes.

Christmas Day at Great Grandma's. After this we traveled to Iowa.

Then we arrived in Iowa on Saturday night. Next morning we opened gifts, went to church, then had a family gathering.

Andrew got a new bib!

Musical entertainment at Great Grandpa and Grandma Armbrecht's...

Then after a few days in Iowa, it was to time to start on our way back home, but not without a stop to Mankato!

And now we have mid-winter cabin fever.

Judah found Daddy's toy crossbow... he's pretty good! Andrew would run and get the balls.

He's not always happy, see?

Andrew is "flying Lutheran"... see the words on the plane by Grandpa Merseth?

And that should catch you up to now! We're all happy and healthy. The boys love going outside in the snow, although the bundling up and bundling down time usually takes longer than the actual outside time, since it's so cold! We are still enjoying our log cabin, though I need to be diligent about keeping wood in the stove, especially now that Jeff is at work during the day, and even putting in overtime. He's been leaving at 5am to get to Polaris by 5:30 to work until 3:30. It's a long day that leaves him exhausted. He's supposed to move to 2nd shift in a week or two. Oh, and we need to find another place to have church at, now that we can no longer use the Roseau Electric Cooperative. Until we find a place in Roseau, we'll be having church at our house. Never a dull moment!

Orange Cake recipe

2011-01-07T14:43:00.007-06:00

We got some citrus in bulk back in December, and now we're hurrying to get it eaten up. So I was looking for ways to use up some oranges, and I came across this recipe in Nourishing Traditions, which calls for the juice and rind from two lemons and two oranges. While it was a little putsy to grate the rinds off four citrus (hey, a little physical activity never hurt anybody), the results were quite tasty. Waiting for this cake also takes patience. I
t took one day to soak the flour, letting the cake cool overnight, and then waiting another 24 hours (at least) to let the juice soak into the cake before it was ready to eat. But it was so wonderfully moist and had such a pleasant citrus taste.

Orange Cake

from Nourishing Traditions, my adaptations and comments in parentheses

2 1/2 c. freshly ground and sifted spelt, kamut or whole wheat flour (the flour I used wasn't freshly ground, but I get it from an organic mill in the area, and they grind flour fresh and then we keep in cold, so until I can afford a grain grinder, this will have to suffice)

1 c. piima cream or creme fraiche (I only had kefir, so that's what I used)

1 c. whole plain yoghurt (this I did have!)

1/2 c. water

1 c. butter, softened

1 1/4 c. Rapadura (This is the commercial name for dehydrated cane sugar juice. I don't have that brand name, but I did use some organic cane sugar, processed in the same manner. And actually, I only used 1 c. I usually go on the skimpy side of sweeteners, because I don't like things too sweet.)

2 eggs (from our chickens, of course!)

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. sea salt

1 t. vanilla extract

grated rind of 2 oranges and 2 lemons (if these aren't organic, make sure you scrub the waxy coating off the rind. Yuck.)

1 c. crispy pecans, finely chopped (I didn't have any, so I used finely chopped crispy cashews. I put them in my food processor and grated them just long enough to powder them. Any longer would've made them into a nut butter!)

juice of 2 oranges and 2 lemons

1/4 c. of whey (I made some by straining some kefir.)

1/2 c. raw honey (I only used 1/4 c.)

1/4 c. of brandy or dry sherry (this is optional, and I didn't use it because I didn't have any)

This delicious cake incorporates the principles of both lacto-fermentation and enzyme nutrition. The flour is soaked in cultured cream and yoghurt and, after cooking, the cake is soaked for another day or so in a mixture of oranges juice, lemon juice, raw honey, whey and brandy or sherry. This imparts enzymes to the cake along with flavor and moistness.

Mix flour with yoghurt, cultured cream and water. Cover and leave in a a warm place for 12 to 24 hours. (I started the soaking process mid-afternoon on Day 1.)

(Evening of Day 2.) Cream butter with Rapadura and eggs. Beat in baking soda, salt, vanilla and grated rind. Gradually incorporate the soaked flour and fold in the nuts. Pour batter into a well-buttered and floured fluted bundt pan or angel food cake pan. (I used an angel food cake pan.) Bake at 300 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or more, or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool. (overnight)

(Midmorning of Day 3.) Place lemon juice, orange juice, honey, whey and optional sherry or brandy in a container and set in simmering water until honey is dissolved. Slowly pour this mixture over the cake until the liquid is absorbed. Cover with a towel and leave at room temperature for 1 or 2 days. (Cake will look like it's swimming in liquid, that's okay, it will soak in eventually.)

(Noon of Day 4, liquid had soaked in and I was ready to eat!) To serve, loosen sides with a knife. Turn over onto a serving plate and tap pan until cake falls out.

This cake was moist and tasty, though the 3-year-old didn't seem to like it... he said it was "tough." I wonder if he got a piece of nut that he wasn't expecting. From the picture, you may be tempted to frost the cake, but I'd say resist the temptation, it doesn't need it! Also, I was glad that I skimped on the sweetener, I liked it, and so did my husband. If you are used to sweeter things, you may want to use the full amount.

Home-cured Corned Beef by me

2011-01-03T20:19:00.007-06:00

We had this big beef brisket from last year (I wish I'd taken a picture of it, it was probably 18-24 inches long!) that we'd been saving for the purpose of making home-cured corned beef, after I'd seen a post on the Nourished Kitchen blog about it.

You can follow her instructions on there, or there is a recipe in Nourishing Traditions, as well. I followed both...yeah, it's usually hard to pin me down to one recipe. In the NK's recipe, it talks about curing the meat in the fridge. But I cured the meat for 3 days on the counter at room temperature, as it says to do in NT. I know, that would give most people pause... you did WHAT with raw meat? But the presence of whey, in which the meat was totally submersed, helps to combat bad bacteria that would cause the meat to spoil. I put a plate on top of meat with a glass jar filled with water, and a couple other heavy things on it to make sure it was pushed underneath the liquid.

I didn't have access to celery juice, as recommended, but I did substitute whey, for a total of 4 c. of whey mixed with water to submerge the meat, salt, and whatever mixture of pickling spices I had on hand... I believe it was green and black peppercorns, slightly crushed bay leaves, mustard seeds, coriander, and a pinch or two of clove powder.

I rubbed the meat with the spice/salt mixture, then rolled up the meat as best as I could and tied it with cotton meat twine. I asked for the cotton meat twine for purchase at the supermarket, and the meat counter guy gave me about 6' of twine for free! How nice!

Then I wrapped the meat with a dish towel, instead of cheese cloth. Next time I'll actually purchase cheese cloth, or not use a cloth at all. The towel held air in, which created a bubble, and made it more awkward to work with.

I used one of my crocks!

The flavor was awesome! This cut of meat is a little tougher, so it would probably work best to cook it in the slow cooker. But we actually did eat some of this meat raw, the boys couldn't get enough! We also love having corned beef hash. We grind up the meat in the food processor to make it a little easier to eat--it is pretty chewy.

The husband sliced it real thin, and we put several small packages in the freezer to pull out later.

It was actually much easier to do than I thought, and I wonder why it took me so long. Most of the time, I'm fighting with my own inertia!

New Year Goals for 2011

2011-01-03T19:45:00.004-06:00

Yeah, it seems like everyone is setting goals. So I figured it wouldn't hurt that I do the same.

Last year, one of my goals was to learn how to bake with sourdough. I think I did a pretty good job with that, considering I now use sourdough several times a week, sometimes more, between bread, crackers, pancakes or waffles, bagels, noodles, english muffins, pizza, pitas, cookies, cakes. And it helps me plan ahead a little, too, because it requires me to start it the night before, usually.

So this year, what do I want to accomplish?

1. Do more cooking with eggs. For Christmas, I got a small cookbook with the basics (not just on eggs, but on all sorts of cooking tidbits) by Julia Child. I even made one of the recipes tonight, it was a corn timbale... basically a savory custard with corn in it. It was so good (even though I forgot the bread crumbs), that even Jeff was saying, "Hey this is so good, you could showcase this when people come over." He also said that about a souffle I made, also a great dish!! Not only are eggs just plain tasty, eggs from hens that are fed a good diet are fabulously good for you. And that ties in with number 2....

2. Learn more about chickens. And I mean from start (ordering and raising) to finish (butchering), and everything in between (feeding and growing). We plan to be doing more with chickens this year, hoping to raise some more broilers, hopefully for resale. And if we have enough extra eggs from our up-and-coming laying hens, then maybe we can sell some, too. We will be having a lot of extra eggs, so I'll be able to more easily do nutrient-dense dishes with eggs. We've (and by we, I really mean Jeff) already been giving special feed to the chickens that Jeff has formulated and mixed himself. The goal is to not give them any soy. Even the basic laying mash that you buy from the co-op usually has soy in it. (Remember, I have a soy sensitivity?) So even if you see people selling "farm fresh eggs", that doesn't necessarily speak to the quality of the eggs. They're just maybe fresher than the ones you buy in the store. We prefer to pasture our hens, but it's sort of hard when it's -20 degrees Fahrenheit. Did you know chickens are omnivores? They go crazy for meat, it's so funny to watch them.

3. Do more home-cured meat. I started with this a little already by doing my home-cured corned beef, which I have yet to post about. I can't wait to try more experiments.

4. Do more advance planning for a garden. Last year we were late getting up here and had limited resources, but thanks to being able to garden at Jeff's grandma's we were able to still have quite a garden haul. I don't know how much advance planning I'll be able to do, because, as you may remember, we are renting this place, and therefore we are also hoping to find a more permanent locale, so this goal may or may not be fulfilled. But we'll have a garden somewhere.

5. Do more with "wild" food. Have you ever heard of Nettles? Stinging nettles? You know those annoying plants that grow everywhere and hurt like the dickens if you touch them? Did you know they are really good for you, vitamins, minerals and such?! I have some recipes for things such as nettle soup and nettle tea. If I get really brave I may even try a mushroom or two, but I need to find someone who can show me how to find the right ones. There are also weeds everywhere that can be used for food, you just have to know what you're looking for.

6. Learn about homeschooling. I would love to homeschool Judah, but I haven't buckled down and done the research yet. And I'd like to start doing something this fall when Judah turns 4. We'll see if I'm made of the right stuff!

So those are my big personal goals for the year. There, I'm glad I got that off my chest. :-)

Rendering Beef and Venison Tallow

2010-12-15T16:34:00.013-06:00

What could be more fun than spending your day rendering beef and venison tallow? Spending your day rendering tallow with your husband! :-)

What is tallow? Tallow is rendered from fat, usually from a cow or a lamb... or in our case, a deer. For whatever reason, rendered and unrendered fat from a pig is called lard. But I digress.

To render the tallow, you cook the fat down, strain out the chunks, and what you're left with is tallow. I know that sounds a bit simplistic, but it's really not much harder than that.

Here's a good link for directions, if you're interested. It tells how to do it in the oven, crockpot, or stovetop. We tried the oven and the stovetop. I prefered the stovetop method, as the oven method seemed to take a lot longer than I'd like... it took all night. However, the chunks were quite a bit bigger than the shavings we used for the stovetop method.

Chunks of deer fat in food processor. My husband kept deer fat from hunting season this year--they process their own deer--and cut off the parts with bloody or meat still on it, so it's purely the deer fat.

Chopped up fat.

The above fat went into a pot and got cooked down.

After it gets cooked, you should be left with hardened bits on top. Strain those off and put the liquid fat in jars, where it will eventually harden. See the bits in the pan below. They're called cracklings, which you can use. I plan to give the deer cracklings to the birds and cats, but I want to use the beef cracklings as a bacon bit substitute.

My husband wanted to clarify the tallow, which we did before it was bottled. In my awesome 1895 version of "The Presidential Cookbook", it says to clarify fat by boiling some sliced potatoes until the potatoes are brown. The potatoes help to get rid of impurities in the fat. The recipe made it sound like the impurities just evaporate, so we ate the potatoes. They were tasty. :-)

Why in the world would we want to make tallow?

You can't buy this type of tallow in stores. At least not where I live. The beef fat we acquired from down in southern Minnesota when we lived there, from a farmer who pastures his cows. Grass-fed fat, that's right. Extra good for you. And you can't buy venison tallow, at least I don't know of anywhere you can buy it. If you can find tallow and/or lard in stores, it's usually hydrogenated. Those are trans fats, which you may have heard are really bad for you.

Also, we love cooking with tallow and lard. Whatever we make with it is so satiating that we feel comfortably full, and feel no need to continue eating.

I think we ended up with 7 pints and 3 quarts of tallow when all was said and done. So we should be good for another 6 months, hopefully.

Hens, and Chickens, and Kittens, Oh My!

2010-11-26T11:05:00.015-06:00

Okay, so obviously this post is quite dated. Some of you may have heard that we got chickens waaaaaay back in the summertime. And then I mentioned in passing on Facebook that we got some baby chicks, and that kittens decided to adopt us. Here's more to the story.

First, the cats. Here they are, making a mess.

Beginning of October, a mama cat and her four kittens came onto the porch and decided to stay. We later discovered they were from the neighbor's. The mama cat has since left, and one of the kittens is no longer with us (I ran over it...I felt so awful!), but we have Smoky (grey and white), Sharpy (calico/tabby mixture), and Creamy (cream colored).

We feed them with scraps, leftover deer pieces, etc. They're doing alright in these sub-zero temps, since they have a shed to shelter them. They like to try and come inside, but then they never know what to do once they are inside.

And of course the boys love them.

Next, the hens and chickens.

We got 16 laying hens back in June and kept them at my husband's grandma's house till we officially moved into the log cabin in July. Then in about August, we had to butcher three of those hens, one had a goiter, and two had leg problems.

September 10 we got 50 baby chicks, 25 broilers (a faster-growing chicken with white feathers that is supposed to be ready to butcher in about 8 weeks) and 25 laying hens (that will be ready to start laying eggs in the spring).

Here you see what box they came in through the mail. You need to dip their beaks in water mixed with apple cider vinegar when taking them out of the box. You could do plain water, but the ACV is good for them.

Due to our complete lack of knowledge, we lost a lot of chicks. It didn't help that the chicks arrived, via USPS, on one of the coldest and wettest days we'd had. One thing you don't want to expose baby chicks to is cold and wet.

We also had some rat problems. And because the genetic make-up of the broilers is to grow very quickly, I think they're a less hardy bird, more prone to sickness. At least that's what it seemed like with ours!

We've had to keep one of the white broilers inside with us for at least a month because it had gotten one of its toes slashed by what we think was a rat, and so it couldn't walk properly. One thing that chickens do is pick on those that are hurt. So the others were pecking on that poor chick's leg till it was bloody! The chick's leg has since healed somewhat, but we've come to call it "Peg-Leg" because that's what its leg is like: a peg leg. We were finally able to return Peg-Leg to the coop with a bandaged leg, and it seems to limp around well enough without getting picked on too much.

Do you see Peg-Leg's bandage?

So the final count is 9 white and 16 black, I think. That is very poor for the amount we started with!

These are our laying hens. Their feed trough is in the middle. See the deer carcass in the background? They like to peck at that. During the warmer months, they are free-range and love pecking around for bugs, worms and frogs. Hens have their own personalities, and it's funny to watch them run around. Now there's snow everywhere and so they stay inside. We just lost another one due to poor health, so we're down to 12.

It's mid-December now, and we are planning on butchering the broilers in the next couple days. We've had them for over three months now, we probably should've butchered them sooner, but for whatever reason, just haven't. To be continued...

My Fav Sourdough Bread Recipe

2010-11-10T20:41:00.006-06:00

I got this recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Healthy Choices, put out by Keepers at Home. I haven't taken any pictures of the process yet, but hopefully in the near future I can get some added... just wanted to get this recipe up here for the local Weston A. Price chapter meeting tomorrow!

My Fav Sourdough Bread Recipe

adapted from "Sourdough Bread" in Healthy Choices, p. 104

1 c. sourdough starter

2 T. molasses (originally 1/2 c. sorghum)**

1/2 c. oil (I use melted coconut oil or olive, or a mixture of the two)

1 T. salt

1 1/2 c. warm water

6 c. flour (if I use flour from Natural Way Mills, I tend to use less)

**I first subbed 1/2 c. molasses, which was good, but for some, it could be a little overpowering, which is why 2 T. is a good amount. I'd imagine you could also use honey, which I haven't tried. I think I maybe should add a smidgen more water to make up for using less liquid sweetener.

Mix first 5 ingredients and half of the flour. Beat vigorously for several minutes. Knead in the rest of the flour. (I usually knead it for about 10 minutes or so, sometimes giving it a 5 minute rest period, and then an additional minute of kneading. Also, I do the "windowpane test" to test for readiness.) Grease bowl and let rise until double. (I usually put in the oven with the pilot light on to give it a favorably warm environment, and let it go for about 4 hours.) Punch down and shape into loaves. Let rise until almost double (usually another 4 hours). Bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes. (I put the loaves in the oven, then turned it on, which gave a nice rise.) Grease tops with butter. Yield: two 1 1/2 lb. loaves.

What I do is refresh my starter at night before bed, then in the morning I mix up the dough, and let it ferment for a total of about 8 hours, and is usually ready by supper. It fits well into my day. It actually doesn't take that long, most of the time spent is waiting, during which time you can do other chores around the house.

Enjoy!

Sourdough Resources

2010-11-04T17:15:00.019-05:00

I love everything about sourdough. The way it leavens dough with a "wild" yeast that I caught myself, the way it makes the flour you mix with it more nutritious and digestible, they way it makes me get all excited about practicing science experiments in the kitchen, and the way it tastes.

My first experience with sourdough was in 2008, following the recipe in Nourishing Traditions for making your own sourdough starter and rye sourdough bread. Let's just say I needed more practice! I tried a couple times, but finally vowed to get a sourdough starter going beginning of 2010.

While I'm definitely not an expert at this, I am constantly learning and trying out new things with sourdough. I'm going to be making some sourdough bread to take to the next Weston A. Price meeting, and bringing some starter to share, so I wanted to do a post to help the novice sourdough user.

If you received a bit of sourdough starter from me, put it in a quart glass jar, and do a 1:1 ratio of flour to water, maybe start with 1/2 c. of each and let it set out overnight, or a few hours anyway. You should start to see bubbles form through the side of the jar. At this point, it's active, and you can start using it!

If you don't have any sourdough starter and want to try making your own, read-on!

Starting a sourdough starter. There are several methods, but I think simpler is better. Try and follow a method that uses just water and flour, like in Nourishing Traditions. Here are a some sites that do that.

Naturally Knocked Up Sourdough Starter
Another sourdough starter, ignore the fact that it's from a vegan website, but it's another way that seems slightly smaller in amounts you use

Feeding a starter.

Here's what I do: add a little flour (rye or whole wheat) and a little water (filtered or well water from tap) and mix with whatever starter is left in the container. The consistency I go for is thicker rather than runny. It will last longer in the fridge if it's more "sponged". I rarely measure what I put in there, but try to shoot for a 1:1 ratio of water to flour. And I try to replace the amount that I used, at the very least.
The Naturally Knocked Up link above advocates changing jars. Here's what she says: "Upkeep on a starter is very simple. If you do not use your starter for one week, transfer to a new jar, feed it a 1:1 ratio of flour and water, and set it back in the fridge. OR After you use it for a recipe, feed it the same 1:1 ratio and let it sit out again for just a couple hours before storing in the fridge. (transfer to a clean jar about once a week) If your starter starts getting a bit too thin, go ahead and pour out the watery layer that settles at the top!"

So what do you think? It's really not too difficult. And it's fun! If you're interested in learning more about sourdough breads, I enjoyed the books below. Even if I don't follow everything an author says, there's always something to be learned!

Books I have read:

Classic Sourdoughs by Ed Wood

Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads

Local Breads by Dan Leader

And here are some favorite recipes of mine, either that I have already tried, or plan to try in the future.

Recipes I use/have used:

My all-time favorite pancake recipe
My Fav Sourdough Bread Recipe
Everyday Sourdough Bread--A great step-by-step with pictures
Sourdough Blueberry Muffins--I modify this recipe a bit. To me, the whole point of using sourdough is to impart more digestibility and nutrition by soaking the flour, and this recipe doesn't incorporate that. So, I take the flour and sourdough amounts and add just enough water to make a medium thick paste. Instead of sugar I use honey. And I drop a few blueberries on top of the muffins. I find that if I mix them in, they all end up in the bottom of the muffin. And if I ferment the dough overnight, to be ready in the morning, this recipe makes about 10 muffins.
Sourdough Chocolate Cake--I used this in a bundt cake pan that I greased really well, turned out great!
Rustic Sourdough Noodles--Love these. Don't ever use regular noodles anymore. I just roll them out and cut with a pizza cutter. If you had a noodle press, that would work too.
Buckwheat Sourdoughnuts--I've only made these once so far, but I definitely want to make them again, maybe with all whole wheat. Also, I think I cooked them a little too long, so some of them got a little crunchy. But still, we were in love when we ate these hot out of the palm shortening, which, by the way, is a great use for palm shortening!
Staititai--an ancient kind of pizza that I found to be super easy and yummy!
Sourdough English Muffins--don't always have success but when they do work, they're awesome! It depends somewhat on the temperature in my kitchen.

Things I want to try:

Hopefully that will give you a start. And have fun!

Homemade Deodorant

2010-11-03T12:19:00.006-05:00

I've been using homemade deodorant for three months now, and I truly LOVE it! It works better than anything I've ever tried before, and believe me, I've tried quite a few of the so-called "natural" deodorants out there.

I stopped using deodorant/anti-perspirant about four years ago, because I was tired of all the chemicals. I remember writing a speech in college about the aluminum in anti-perspirant being linked to Alzheimer's, and it got me researching that topic quite a bit. Plus, deodorant/anti-perspirant never worked very well for me at keeping the stink and sweat at bay, no matter what I tried.

Then I moved on to the deodorants at the health food store that supposedly had fewer chemicals in them, but was never real happy with how they worked. And I still didn't know what all the ingredients were!

Finally I decided to make my own. I wish I had taken the plunge YEARS ago! Since I'm really into DIY stuff, I found this recipe at the Naturally Knocked Up blog. It uses only four ingredients: coconut oil, cornstarch (or arrowroot powder), aluminum free baking soda, and tea tree oil (or another kind of essential oil, but the tea tree oil is used for its anti-bacterial properties, and helps with any smell issues you may have). Keep your old deodorant containers to put your homemade deodorant in. I need to have three old containers to have enough space to put this recipe in!

I use coconut oil a lot (we buy it in bulk and wait for specials to get a good price from Tropical Traditions... if you buy small amounts at your grocery store, it can be pretty spendy) so I always have it on hand. I don't recommend substituting another kind of oil. Coconut oil is very high in saturated fat, so it is in the solid state up till 75 degrees F. when it starts to melt. So you may need to keep this in the fridge if you are somewhere that gets warmer than that.

Make sure you read the tips listed on the above link for using the deodorant. One tip is letting the deodorant soften with the warmth of your skin before you smooth it on. It doesn't rub on right away like your typical deodorant. I find myself sort of dabbing it on.

Also, I like how the blog's author talks about this deodorant allowing the body to work the way God intended it to. Sweating is a way to remove toxins from the body, and when you block the toxins from coming out, that means they move somewhere else in the body. Ick. Personally, I'd rather let the toxins come out, rather than letting them hang around.

Both my husband and I have been using this first batch of deodorant exclusively for three months, and I only now had to make a new batch. We both love it! We're normally pretty sweaty people, but when using this deodorant, even when it's been hot out, we've had great success.

If you're looking for a different deodorant, give this recipe a try!

Andrew Turns One...or...Let Them Eat MEAT Cake!

2010-10-23T19:55:00.011-05:00

Oct 11-Climbing on a box.

Eating fermented beets, and loved them!

Yes, you read that right. I said meat cake.

For Andrew's first birthday, he got a meat cake. A truly nutritious and wholesome alternative to what usually gets served up.

I know, some would think I'm crazy. It's a one-year-old's rite of passage to get totally messy, with frosting and cake stuck in every crevice of their body, right? It probably is mostly okay to do fun things like that once in a while. But I think I'll wait till the 2nd birthday for that. Why? I'll save THAT for another post. Oh the suspense. ;-)

But now, for the cake!

Meat Cake

1. Mix up your favorite meatloaf recipe. I just used 2 lb. hamburger, 1 egg, then season to taste with salt, pepper, oregano, basil, whatever suits your fancy. Then I split it up into two 9-inch cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees till done. I think it took about 30 minutes.

2. Put one "cake" onto a plate. As a middle "frosting" layer, I used pureed squash, but you could also use mashed potatoes. Then put the second "cake" on to of the "frosting" layer.

3. Then "frost" with mashed potatoes. Decorate with ketchup and pureed squash. I put the squash into a plastic bag and cut off the tip to decorate.

That's it! You'll want to warm it up again before your meal, so make sure you use an oven-safe plate. Also, reserve a dollup of cold mashed potatoes to put on the cake to put a candle in, so it doesn't melt into your warm cake!

I tried hard to get them all looking at the same time. It just wasn't happening.

Enjoying his cake.

And here are some pictures of the birthday boy!

Oct 22-He crawled into the box and enjoyed some books.

Andrew and Mommy. I had to take the picture myself since Daddy was gone working all day.

After bathtime! He loves climbing onto Judah's bed.

Oct 23

Andrew is trying to say many things like, "kitty", "amen", "Judah". Those are just a few of many, and he does a lot of mimicking of sounds. It's so fun to see the light of recognition brighten up his face as he tries to make a new sound.

He's got such a bright smile, and shares it readily. He loves crawling up stairs, and we just are learning how to go back down stairs, with Mom's help of course.

He still hasn't taken that first independent step on his own yet, but I'm expecting it to be soon. He can rise to standing from sitting without any support. He prefers to walk while holding onto your fingers with a super-tight grip.

He loves milk, and is just learning how to drink from a sippy cup, although he prefers to drink from a regular lid-less cup. And he is getting quite good at feeding himself. I've given him a fork or spoon a few times, and I've caught him trying to put food onto the spoon or fork to try and put into his mouth. Oh the look of concentration! So cute!

He also loves reading books. I love peeking in on him in his room to find him contentedly looking at books.

So that's Andrew at a year! It's been fun. And November 1 marks his baptismal birthday. Hard to believe how much as changed in a year.

Homemade Shampoo

2010-10-02T14:41:00.006-05:00

I have been wanting to lower my use of artificial, synthetic, and chemical products for a while now. I've pretty successfully eliminated them from my food as I've gone to a real foods, whole foods diet. And I've slowly been trying to eliminate chemical products from my house.

One way that I've wanted to do this is by steering clear of shampoo and conditioner. Some of you may have heard of the "No 'Poo Challenge" out there right now, which has intrigued me. I think it involves just washing your hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Well, I don't think I really want to completely eliminate shampoo, just find a healthy alternative to it. (My hair gets really gross when it's greasy!) But I don't necessarily want to go expensive, either.

I've been trying to buy some "organic" and "all natural" products out there, but are they really that much better than the regular products out there for the price you pay? If you look at the label, some "organic" products contain just as many weird hard-to-pronounce ingredients as the regular products!

I listened to a podcast by one of my fav bloggers, Cheeseslave, a while back. You can listen to the podcast here. She interviewed the owner of Actual Organics who was talking about how many chemicals are in products we use every day, and eventually our body won't be able to handle the chemical load anymore and it will manifest as some disease or cancer. I don't remember exact details, but one thing I do remember is that anything with "eth" anywhere in the ingredient name is bad! Please listen to this podcast to get more details!

While I don't think I will ever be able to afford her products, the DIY-side of me got to thinking...why not make my own? I don't think I'll ever be able to do make-up, but when I came across this shampoo recipe, I thought, "Here's something I can do!"

I found this recipe in a cookbook called Healthy Choices put out by Keepers at Home Magazine.

Homemade Shampoo

1 bar castile soap (I bought a 3-pack of Kirk's Original Coco Castile Soap" from the local U-Save Store for about $3.49... not sure if that is a good price or not, but even at about 1.17/bar, this shampoo is quite reasonably priced!)

1 pint boiling water

1 egg

1. Flake soap, and melt in the boiling water, then cool. (I just cut the soap into shreds with a knife and put in the water.

2. After water is cool, put soap mixture into a mixing bowl and add one egg. Beat with beater. (It really foams up!

3. Put in jar. After it is settled, it is ready to use. This shampoo will keep.

For me, it filled a quart jar and a pint jar. I thought the texture would be very liquid, like store-bought shampoo, but it's not. Once the mixture settles, it's thicker than what it looks like. You need to make sure you scoop out enough to get it to foam up in wet hair. For me, I need about a tablespoon.

Also, I thought castile soap was an olive oil based soap, but I guess it refers to any vegetable-based soap, as opposed to soap made with animal fat like tallow or lard. (Don't worry, homemade lye and/or lard soap is on my list of things to do....!) Kirk's is coconut oil based, which is cool. I like coconut oil.

Like I said, this is easy, I like it, and it's in my price range. :-)

About conditioner, I have been steering away from it, but I'll look into a homemade version soon!

Fermented Sauerkraut according to Me

2010-10-01T14:23:00.013-05:00

I wanted to share with you how I go about making sauerkraut, a food that we hold near and dear in this household. It's good and so good for you.

These are the six huge heads of cabbage my husband snagged from a local gardener. They weren't raised organically, but they weren't raised with all sorts of chemicals, either, plus they were raised locally. I like to buy local when I can. It's important that whatever cabbages you use to make sauerkraut, that they are of highest quality. If they are nutrient-deficient, it will result in a very low-quality final product.

And that thing in the middle of the picture? THAT, my friends, is an old-fashioned kraut cutter from my grandparents. They used it to make sauerkraut back in the day, before there were food processors. Interesting tidbit of how my forebears used to make sauerkraut... my grandma said that they used to set the jars to ferment outside in the shade of the lilac bush.

With these beautiful heads of cabbage, we made sauerkraut. And not just any

sauerkraut. Fermented sauerkraut!

How do I make it? It's is really quite simple. Surprisingly so.

When we first started a couple years ago, it was very small scale, and the way to go for anyone starting out with the fermented sauerkraut endeavor. The basic recipe can be found here.

But this summer we've evolved into doing more at a time, especially since we've been able to acquire more cabbage heads at a time. AND we have honest to goodness crocks!

The process:

1. Shred cabbage, allow about 1 small-medium head to 1 quart of space. Food processor is easiest. I had to have my husband do the shredding with the manual shredder because it required someone stronger than me to use! But boy, it shredded cabbage really great, got the juices flowing a lot better. I don't like to shred it too finely, but whatever you like.

Here's a pile of shredded cabbage.

2. Put into big bowl with whey, salt, and caraway seeds, and pound with a wooden pounder until the juices start to pool in the bottom of the bowl. Allow about 4 T. whey, 1 T. real salt, and 1 T. caraway seeds (opt. but recommended!) for 1 quart. If you don't have any whey, here are directions for making some. Otherwise, you could skip the whey and substitute an additional tablespoon of salt. Why even add whey? In the cookbook, Nourishing Traditions, whey is recommended because it helps to ensure "consistently satisfactory results," and also supplies lactobacilli (this helps improve digestibility of food and increases vitamin levels, as well as producing helpful enzymes, and antibiotic and anticarcinogenic sustances, and promotes the growth of healthy flora in the gut... simply put, GOOD STUFF!) and acts as an innoculant (reduces the time needed for sufficient lactic acid to be produced to ensure preservation).

I use a nifty wooden pounder my husband made. You could also use a meat pounder, too. It also helps to mix it all together and let it sit for 10 minutes or so, the salt starts to draw out the juices.

We strayed a little from the directions as we used crocks this year. We were going more toward the directions in Wild Fermentation, which recommends to just layer the cabbage and salt, and to not worry too much about pounding. I think the pounding is really just to bring out the juices so you can push the cabbage below the salty brine, which is what keeps the cabbage from spoiling.

One of the crocks we threw in a few garlic cloves. Wow does it make a smelly kraut, but it doesn't taste bad at all!

3. Press pounded mixture beneath liquid and put a plate and weight on top of it. Cover with towel and let sit anywhere from 3-14 days. We fermented for 9 days. If you're going small scale with this endeavor, you can put a lid on the glass quart jar and just ferment for 3 days then put in the fridge. In the open crock, we made sure to skim the "bloom"(aka mold) that formed on the top of the liquid about every day. If you don't have a plate the right size, you could use a glass or plastic food-grade lid that fits inside the container you're fermenting in. If you're not using a crock, you could use a plastic food-grade bucket, or a larger glass jar. The weight we use is a smaller glass jar filled with water.

4. Put in jars and keep in a cool place. We filled about 15 quart jars from this ferment. Make sure to push the kraut below the brine. You may have to skim some mold off the top if you keep it for several months, but the kraut is still good, so don't throw it out! We will be keeping all our jars (I've lost count now, but we must be between 30-35 jars of kraut, plus all the pickles we've done) in the crawl space beneath the cabin, they should keep nice and cool on the cement floor.

Here's a bowl of the end result... sorry for the dimly lit picture.

And here I am, concentrating very hard at filling the jars. That wooden thing I'm holding isn't the wooden pounder I described above. THAT thing would make pounding anything pretty difficult. But it works well to push it through the funnel. And in the background you'll see two gallon jars half full of kefir soda fermenting! But that is for another post...

So you see, it's really pretty easy to do, just takes a little time. The longest part of it is the waiting, and that's not hard at all! Okay, maybe a little, if you're excited to eat some kraut. I know we're all strapped for time, but it's amazing how many people watch a lot of TV but say they don't have time... Okay, I'm off my soap box now.

I encourage you to try fermenting sometime, and sauerkraut is a great way to start.

Judah is three!...and...Andrew is 11 months!

2010-09-29T14:56:00.016-05:00

September 1--Judah opening presents from Ohio grandparents.

September 11--Birthday party with Iowa grandparents

September 21--The ACTUAL birthday. I made sourdough apple cake. Yum!

September 21 was Judah's official birthday, although we started celebrating it for a couple weeks before. Now he thinks we should have a birthday party every day, especially with cake and preferably candles to blow out. ;-)

A couple weeks before he turned three, he started telling me that he had to go potty! So, we ran to the bathroom, got him on the potty, and voila! Pee in the potty, not in the pants! This is a big deal. After about 9 months of on and off potty training, I had pretty much given up and had him wearing diapers, and only put him on the potty before or after sleep times.

What a difference a couple weeks make! Now he's wearing big boy underpants! And in the last couple of days, he's gone all by himself a few times, without alerting me to his need to use the potty. Pretty cool. Now if we could just get night-time potty trained. One thing at a time, Mom.

Other milestones... Judah enjoys choosing his clothes, and sometimes wants to change several times a day, much to his mother's chagrin. He also likes to take his socks off and leave them in random places, then when he needs socks, he goes and gets out a new pair.

Sometimes he can get by without an afternoon nap, although then he's reeeeally ready for bedtime.

He is doing more pretend playing, especially talking on his phone. I will hear him recite parts of hymns, prayers, and nursery rhymes to himself. And of course, he still loves to be read too.

And he LOVES machines, with a special affinity for tractors, although he also loves 4-wheelers, snowmobiles, and combines, as well as other big equipment such as those.

He is much more observant now, too. Last night he looked out the deck door and noticed three deer eating under the crab apple tree just outside of our house!

--------

September 22 was the 11-month mark for Andrew. Hard to believe how big he's getting.

I missed the 10-month mark. So, to bring you up to speed, here he is at 10 months. Yes, he is playing in the toilet. Look at that smile!

August 22

Tried getting a good picture of both boys. These are all I got.

The cousins visited on this day. Here is Stephanie with Gabriel, and me with Andrew! Johnny, Malia, Judah, Gabriel and Andrew are below.

September 3

September 5--I was blanching corn to freeze, and we cooled it off on the bathtub. Andrew discovered that he LOVES corn on the cob, so was in heaven when two of his loves were joined! He almost fell in a couple times trying to swipe a cob.

September 9--Sooooo big!

September 10

September 14--almost 11 months

And here he is at 11 months:

He likes to climb up the side of his crib, from the floor and will just bounce on the ledge as he holds on. I'm surprised at how coordinated he is.

September 21

The brothers.

He is now saying what I think is "amen"... sounds more like "meh", but it's at the same time we all say Amen at the end of prayers. He is also very good at doing "soooo big" by raising his hands high above his head. He is still a very active boy, and will sometimes move the gate away from the stairway so he can climb. He gets a very impish grin and laugh when he's climbing.

Other words he tries to form: peek-a-boo (he covers his eyes with his hands while he does this), banana (sounds like na-na), quack (comes out more like quaaa), Judah (hit and miss...). He likes to just jabber noises, which is so fun to listen to. Overall, a pretty happy guy.

His personality is showing through and I think he's going to be a people person. He readily gives smiles. So far, he hasn't shown any stranger anxiety, and when we're around other kids, he wants to be right in the middle of them to watch them and laugh at them. He has no fear of animals, and will let big dogs come right up to his face. So I need to be wary, since he's not! He loves the outdoors, and long ago lost his fear of the chickens, so we enjoy watching those.

Andrew still isn't walking, just not brave enough to take that first independent step. But he's doing a lot more free-standing. I'm in no hurry!

That should bring you up to speed for now. Until next month....

Birthdays and the cakes that go with them

2010-09-14T14:54:00.008-05:00

I wanted to take a moment to share the birthday cakes I've made for myself, my husband, and Judah.

My birthday was July 16, and I made a double layer sourdough cake with a recipe out of the cookbook "Healthy Choices." Pretty tasty. I used a regular powdered sugar frosting and had a few small raspberries I used to decorate it.

My husband's birthday was August 6, and he requested a coffee cake. I wanted to make a healthier version of the coffee cake he likes, so I made a Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake recipe from "Healthy Choices" into a Sourdough version. I pulled it out of the oven and stuck candles in. Dumb idea. Candles are made of wax and wax melts when your cake is hot. Otherwise, it tasted really good. Got a good review from the birthday boy.

Yes, I'm obsessed with sourdough.

Because I even made a different sourdough chocolate cake recipe for my son Judah's 3rd birthday party this past weekend! (We celebrated early... maybe i'll make another one for his actual birthday... :-) ) This recipe came from A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa's blog. I just couldn't resist. And I made it in a bundt pan, which turned out really great! Again, I used a powdered sugar frosting, which wasn't my first choice, but we've been having a hard time finding local maple syrup and honey, which are my sweeteners of choice.

Andrew turns "one" in October.... what kind of cake will he get. I'll leave you hanging... to be continued...

Preserve the Bounty Challenges

2010-08-16T14:04:00.020-05:00

I have been holding onto this post for about a month now. A bit ridiculous, I know, but I've been reeeeeally busy with, well... preserving the bounty!

We have three locations of gardens that we planted earlier this summer: one planted in early June at my husband's grandmother's, another at his employer's, and one planted early July at our cabin when we arrived here. Our intention was to grow and preserve as much food as we could to help keep our food costs as low as possible this upcoming year.

So when I heard about Nourished Kitchen's Preserve the Bounty Challenge I jumped at the chance to learn some new methods for preserving food. Here were the five weeks of challenges:

Week 1: Fermenting

Week 2: Preserving in Oil

Week 3: Preserving in Vinegar

Week 4: Preserving in Booze

Week 5: Sun drying, Oven drying, or Dehydrating

I was already fermenting food before I received the first week's challenge, primarily pickles and sauerkraut in some crocks I discovered in my mom's and grandma's basements.

In this photo you see some fermented items in jars (beet sticks, snap peas, sauerkraut), and the lovely 1 gal. crock I bought my husband for father's day this year.

If you're interested in lacto-fermenting, there are loads of resources out there. I like the book "Wild Fermentation" by S. Katz. Plus, there are loads of blogs out there. Here are a few links for you:

Pickles--http://spaininiowa.blogspot.com/2009/09/preserving-cucumbers.html

Beets and latin american sauerkraut--

http://spaininiowa.blogspot.com/2010/04/lacto-fermentation-traditional-and.html

A larger batch of sauerkraut-- http://www.wildfermentation.com/resources.php?page=sauerkraut

Nourishing Tradition's sauerkraut recipe-- http://blog.healthy-green-lifestyle.com/making-sauerkraut.html

I thought I'd try fermenting some kohlrabi with caraway seeds... it turned out great! Tastes just like sauerkraut, but in the stick form. Also, beet stalks... you know, the part of the beet plant between the root and the leaf? Beets are loaded with nutrients, and we wanted to see if they were worth saving... they actually taste not that bad after fermentation!

For weeks two and three, I'd never tried preserving in oil or vinegar, so I was a little hesitant to get started. But I finally did preserve some hot peppers in oil and raw apple cider vinegar, and some zucchini in some vinegar. It was so easy, I'm not sure why I put off the process so long! (Instructions via the Nourished Kitchen emails)

This is some oil preserving some spicy peppers!

To Preserve in Oil (Preferably Olive Oil):
Clean your vegetables and pack them in a quart-sized mason jar.
Add spices and herbs that suit you.
Add about 1/4 cup cider or wine vinegar, preferably raw.
Cover with oil.
Allow to marinate at room temperature for at least a month, shaking periodically to distribute the the vinegar.
After a month, you can open the jar, scoop out what you need, place the lid back on the jar and continue storing in a cool, dark place.
To Preserve in Fat (Preferably Butterfat):
Clean and mince your vegetables and herbs.
Heat a few tablespoons of fat in a skillet and gently fry 1/2 to 1 cup minced vegetables and herbs in the fat until fragrant and soft.
Allow the seasoned fat to cool.
Fold the vegetables and seasoned fat into softened butter.
Mold and chill in the refrigerator, well covered, for several months.

To Preserve in Vinegar:
Clean your vegetables, herbs or fruits thoroughly and pat them dry.
Pack the vegetables, fruits or herbs in a quart-sized jar.
Bring vinegar and spices of your choice to a boil, pour this mixture over vegetables or fruits (but not herbs), cap and store.
If preserving herbs, simply pack the clean herbs in a jar, cover with vinegar, cap and store.

For week four, I marched myself into the local liquor store and was immediately overwhelmed by all the liquor choices... I don't buy alcohol all that much! I finally found vodka to bring home to preserve some of the wild plums I've found in abundance behind our house! Another easy thing to do!

To Preserve in Alcohol:

Clean your fruits, and peel them if their skins are thick and slice them if they are large.
Pack a quart-sized mason jar loosely with the fruit.
Add the spices of your choice (vanilla bean is lovely).
Heat about 3 cups to 1 quart alcohol along with 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup unrefined cane sugar and stir it until the sugar is disolved into the alcohol.
Pour the sweetened liquor over the fruit, cap and store until next summer, enjoying the fruit throughout the cold months.

For week five, I had already dehydrated some zucchini since my brother had brought me soooo much, and I didn't know quite what to do with it all. I really would like to sun-dry something, but you need to have a temperature of at least 85 degrees Farenheit, and for this time of year way up north like we are, that just is NOT going to happen. Thankfully I have a dehydrator! It's a cheap Ronco I found at a rummage sale, but it works for now.

To Sun dry foods:

Clean your foods and pat them dry.
Slice tomatoes and large fruits into 1/4-inch slices, but leave berries and grapes whole.
Rest the fruit on your trays or baking sheet or whatever contraption you figure'll work for you.
Make sure to cover the fruit with a cheesecloth or additional screen to prevent critters from stealing your goodies.
Leave the food out in the sunniest place in your greenhouse, porch, patio or yard (at least 80+ degrees), and let them dry until they're firm, but pliable.
Pull them in at night, or when it becomes cloudy, and put them back in the sun when you can.
This can take 2 days or longer depending on the temperature and humidity of your region.

To Oven dry foods:

Clean your foods and pat them dry.
Slice tomatoes and large fruits into 1/4-inch slices, but leave berries and grapes whole.
Rest the fruit on baking sheets.
Turn your oven on to its very lowest setting, and place the baking sheets in the oven.
Dry them in the oven for 6 to 12 hours, or until they become dry, but pliable like raisins.

To dry foods in a dehydrator:

If you're looking for a good dehydrator, I strongly recommend the Excalibur brand (see sources). They are expensive; however, if you intend to incorporate dehydrator or drying as a primary method of food preservation in future years, the expense is worth it and you can also use them to produce other foods (bread, yogurt, crackers etc.)

Clean your foods and pat them dry.
Slice tomatoes and large fruits into 1/4-inch slices, but leave berries and grapes whole.
Rest the fruits on the trays of your dehydrator and dehydrate at the temperature recommended by your dehydrator's manufacturer.
This will usually take between 10 and 14 hours.

Whew! Even though an early frost got most of my tomatoes, I'm still swimming in produce, since my parents just visited and brought some more squash and zucchini. But they also brought a freezer that we got off craigslist for$50! Woohoo! And it's nearly full with some meat we bought. So we shouldn't be going hungry this winter, needless to say.

I hope you can preserve some bounty too. It's fun and satisfying, in more ways than one!

Sourdough Egg Noodles, or Pel'meni

2010-08-04T08:44:00.009-05:00

I've been wanting to try out this recipe for at least a year, and only just now decided to do it. The recipe from the Weston Price Foundation's website is about how to make a fermented dough for making the Russian version of ravioli. The author translated a modern Russian cookbook and gave her take on how to do it, which I followed.

Pel'meni Dough

3 egg yolks (from pastured chickens)
1 c. of whey
pinch of salt
2+ c. whole wheat flour (I ended up using 3 1/2 c.)

Filling:

pre-cooked ground carrots, celery, and steak (that's what I had on hand, but you could just just about anything you could come up with)
seasonings, like salt and pepper

1. Beat the egg yolks, whey, and salt together. Add to the flour in a bowl.

2. Mix/knead together and add additional flour until the dough is nice and elastic. This is what it looked like for me.

3. Let sit on the counter for a total of two to three days. After one day, knead in some more flour (I think I measured in about 1/4 c.) and let sit another day. The directions say to knead in some flour once or twice a day, but I just did at night before bed at the end of day one and day two. This is what the dough looked like after day one. It acted like bread dough, rising like it did!

4. After three days, I ended up putting the dough into the fridge because I didn't have time to deal with it right away, and it was really hot and humid here. When I finally got to it, I rolled out some dough, and made some filling to put in it, and rolled it up, pinching the edges closed.

5. Put on pan and freeze it for at least 30 minutes before boiling it in water for about 12 minutes, although you could boil it in chicken broth for more flavor. They puff up quite nicely in the water. Here is a picture of my final product. As you can see, I'm not really uniform in how I make it.

And here's my little helper. For some reason he wanted to wear a stocking cap. He wanted to be the one to put them on the pan.

I don't have a good final picture, because we were too busy eating them to think about pictures!

Verdict: They were very tasty and filling, but not dense and heavy. These would definitely be a good thing to make up ahead of time, and would make a quick meal. I'll definitely make these again! If you want more details of the recipe, go to the website I linked to above.

Nine month mark has come and gone

2010-08-03T13:58:00.014-05:00

Yes, Andrew is already 9 1/2 months now, but wanted to share some photos around the 9 month mark anyway. It's fun to see his little personality coming through. He is good at entertaining himself. But when he's hungry or dirty, he lets me know. Today he started trilling his tongue! He loves his big brother, and sometimes they have giggle fests. Andrew does NOT like our chickens; his lower lip starts to jut out when he gets too close. He does like to eat grass, and put anything in his mouth, so I've had to go digging several times. And he has a strange obsession with the toilet.

Here we are at the Roseau County Fair on 7-21. He was pretty happy for being beyond exhausted.

While at the fair, Judah was looking forward to sitting on some tractors. But they were all locked except for one with an open cab. What good!

Here we are on 7-22, the nine-month birthday.

This is on 7-29. He was having a photogenic day, so I took a bunch of photos.

He likes to look at books by himself.

You can see some of the top teeth... he's got 8 now!

And this is 7-31. Move over milk mustaches... these are my kefir mustache boys!

Zucchini and Carrot Ribbons

2010-07-20T15:31:00.006-05:00

While at my parents', I stumbled across a little cookbook called “101 Essential Tips: Cooking with Vegetables.” It mentioned an interesting way to prepare zucchini and carrots that I’ve never heard of before: cutting the veggies into long fine strands or ribbons with a swivel-bladed vegetable peeler. I was intrigued! I didn’t follow the recipe, except in making the zucchini and carrot “ribbons”. I thought the results were quite tasty!

Zucchini & Carrot Ribbons

3-4 Large Carrots
2 Medium Zucchini
Salt & Pepper
Butter
Dill, fresh or dried

Cut carrots and zucchini into strands with the vegetable peeler.
Pour ½ in. water into pan and get to a rolling boil.
Add carrot ribbons. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add zucchini and cook another 1-2 minutes. (Don’t cook the zucchini too long, it will get soggy fast!)
When done, remove from heat and drain.
Top with butter and seasonings, and serve! It should serve about 4.

Honey, we're home!

2010-07-15T13:24:00.018-05:00

It's been a long time in coming, but FINALLY we're calling northern Minnesota HOME!

After a week at my parents' in Iowa and a family reunion for my side at the end of June/beg. of July, we made the trip up to our new home on July 5th (Jeff's and my 8th anniversary!). We started unpacking that week into the log cabin we're renting, then traveled down to Jeff's grandma's house for a mini-reunion on Saturday. And Sunday, Jeff officially became a Pastor, and me, a pastor's wife, and my boys, rotten PK's... haha!

Now hopefully things will settle down... well, at least we will stop living out of suitcases.

So now I'll post some pictures to tell the story of the past month!

June 20-Seminary graduation.

June 20-Father's Day

June 21-Judah discovered cousin Johnny's bike. He's smiling. Need I say more?

June 22-Andrew is 8 months!

June 25-Visiting Great Grandma Ginny in Iowa.

June 25-Do you think Judah likes raspberries?

June 29-Andrew likes standing up next to things. Still needing help at this point. He likes to walk if you hold his hands. Will straighten his arms and legs while on the ground. Fast crawler.

July 1-Bathtime fun with Andrew!

July 1-Riding the mini-loader with Grandpa Allan. Super cool!

July 4-Independence Day. Picking apples with Grandma Linda was an exciting event.

July 5-"Making do" without our kitchen stuff. Yes, that plate is a lid.

July 6-While we were moving in, Andrew was perfecting his ability to pull himself to standing. This is the wood-burning stove we'll be using during the winter months. Don't worry, I plan to use gates to make this inaccessible to little hands when in use!

July 9-We found this ninja outfit while unpacking. I had wrapped it up for a Christmas present, then hid it and forgot about it. So it was Christmas in July! Nevermind that he's waaaay too big for it now.

July 10-A hot humid day was a perfect chance to fill up water balloons. A huge water fight ensued! I think the adults had more fun than the kids. ;-)

July 11-Jeff's installation and ordination day.

All the cousins

July 12-We were celebrating my 29th birthday while my folks visited (birthday is the 16th). It's messy, but this shows you a little of what the interior of the house looks like.

July 12-This picture is blurry, but I thought it was cute. I am taking the picture through the spaces in the steps that he was CLIMBING! He climbed all the way to the top with his daddy behind him. He thought he was big stuff!

Some recent pictures of the house after it's been (mostly) put in order. We had a little extra incentive to get things put away when we were told that the house was going to be shown by the realtor on Mon, July 19th! (For those that don't know, we're just renting this place till we can find another place a little more in our price range... but already we love it here. Jeff says we might want to buy it just because then we wouldn't have to move again, ugh!)

View of garden out front door
View out of sliding door
Wood burning stove!

Inside views from front door, you can see the stairs up into the loft.

There's the massive table that's been in storage all year! Now we have some space for it.

Up next, a long overdue recipe...

Almost there...

2010-07-04T16:01:00.005-05:00

Happy Independence Day, everyone! Tomorrow, July 5th, is significant for two reasons.

First, it marks the 8th wedding anniversary of my husband and me! I'm feeling more and more ancient, especially since I went to a family reunion this past weekend, and saw all the kids that used to be little... and now they're all big!

Second, we will FINALLY be getting up north to our new home and our new life. We should be arriving up there sometime tomorrow, and getting unloaded on Tuesday July 6th. I've been waiting for this moment for more than a month now.

This past week has been spent at the Iowa Grandparents' farm. I hope to publish pictures later. The keywords for Judah this week have been "six-wheeler", "mini-loader", and "swing tire" (aka tire swing!). I also want to do a post on a cool way to prepare zucchini that I stumbled across in a random cookbook while I was helping my mom sort through stuff this past week. But my posts will most likely be fewer and further between, as we're not planning to get Internet, at least not right away, to help save on expenses. But the local library in the next town has Internet access, and I plan on going to town at least once a week for story time at the library, so hopefully I will be able to blog during those times. Oh... and I hope to post pictures of our new places, which is a for real LOG CABIN! Don't worry, it doesn't have an outdoor plumbing. We won't be roughin' it in the least. ;-)

Till next time...

Here, there, and back again...

2010-06-21T15:39:00.013-05:00

Where do I begin? Here's a short timeline of the past couple weeks...

May 26-29--We traveled "up north" and found out that we'll be moving up to Roseau, MN area, where Jeff will be a bi-vocational pastor, and working for a local farmer.
May 30--Jeff preached for last time at Our Savior's, Albert Lea. Traveled to Iowa for Memorial Day visit with my family.
May 31--Traveled back to Albert Lea to start feverishly packing up our belongings. Here are some pictures of the boys from this week.

June 6--Farewell brunch for us at Our Savior's, Albert Lea. Packed up a flat-bed trailer and drove up to stay with Jeff's grandma's place.
June 7-11--Drove up to Wannaska to start some work with Jeff's new employer. We stayed in a camper. It rained basically the whole week. It was interesting to say the least with dealing with getting my children to sleep. I think I have some gray hairs coming from that whole ordeal. ;-) Found a log cabin to move into temporarily so we can at least get into the area and hopefully find a good deal on a farm area. Will have 10 acres and some outbuildings to use for animals if we so desire. Came back to Jeff's grandma's on Friday night. Right before we left, Andrew started to crawl!

Judah in the flatbed trailer that we took up north with some of our belongings, next to the camper we stayed in for a few days.

June 12--Bought some laying hens from a lady near Jeff's grandma's place, and got them transferred to a fenced in area with plenty of grass and bugs to pick at. Once we move up there, we'll move them to a chicken tractor Jeff made. (A chicken tractor is a structure that allows you to pasture your chickens, while keeping them safe inside a structure and allows them a place to roost and lay eggs.) We were able to eat fresh eggs for the past week... awesome! I have no idea what kind of chickens they are, I think some Buff Orpingtons.

Chicken tractor structure, unfinished.

June 13-19--Stayed at Jeff's grandma's, it mostly rained. A few nice days. One day, Jeff's dad and brother went up fishing with Jeff and his new employer on Lake of the Woods, brought back some tasty Walleyes!

Practicing crawling, backwards and forwards. He gets around reeeeally well.

Judah and cousin Amber.

Judah could climb up on the tractor all by himself.

June 20-24--In Mankato for synod convention. Andrew turned 8 months on the 22nd. More pictures to come.

Phew! And we're not done with all our craziness yet! We will be staying in Iowa next week, attending a family reunion, driving up north and getting settled in our new residence, and then Jeff will be installed July 11.

And while we're doing all this craziness, we're growing water kefir grains! I don't have any pictures, but just google it, and you'll find lots of links. Basically it's a probiotic drink that you can drink instead of replace soda pop. It's not as detoxifying as kombucha, so you can drink more. We're getting better as we practice. Our grains have doubled! Wowza! We just made a really tasty batch recently with lemon... tastes really similar to 7-up! I'll do a post later...

Keep us in your prayers, please, as we transition to life in a new place.

The kitchen never closes and our relocation news

2010-05-24T16:17:00.012-05:00

Just because I've been gone a lot the month of May and busy with packing up the apartment to move, that doesn't mean the kitchen ever closes. I mean, we still gotta eat, right?

What have I been up to? A lot of the same stuff that I usually do...

Tortillas
Beef Tongue
Stock -- Here's a link for different stocks and how to use the stock once you make it. I hope to post about how I do it in the future
Sourdough Bread -- I have yet to post on how I make it...
Sourdough Pancakes -- My FAV pancakes ever! I made these in Virginia, up in northern MN while visiting my husband's grandma, AND at my parents' in central Iowa. Turns out awesome every time!
Hamburgers on the grill (I think I make them different every time)
Soaked brown rice -- Will post later how I soak it now, a way that helps to break down even more phytates
Veggie stir fry made with bacon fat and coconut oil
Yogurt
Kefir
Kombucha

And some new stuff:

Grilled Yams -- Pretty tasty! Having fun with our "new" grill -- aka hand-me down and needs a new part
Grilled Asparagus -- just wrap some asparagus up in tinfoil with butter and put on grill.
Apple rhubarb cake -- my own creation... it was okay. Not good enough to post though!
Rhubarb Applesauce -- using up stuff in the freezer!
Buttermilk biscuits made with sprouted flour -- Yum! Got the recipe from an email from To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co.

Moving News!

I won't be posting too often the month of June as we house-hunt in northern Minnesota and then move there and get settled. Yes, for family and friends who are interested in knowing, we will be moving to northern Minnesota, near Roseau. My husband will be serving in a bi-vocational capacity... shepherding a small ELS church up there, and working as a farm hand to support our family. We still haven't nailed down where we'll be living, but we hope to take care of that within the next week or so, if possible. Meanwhile, I have to get to packing up this place!

Yes, there is some sadness in leaving the familiar and dear, but there is also excitement to venture out to the new and somewhat-unknown.

But the kitchen will never completely close, no matter where I'll be over the next month. I WILL continue my sourdough starter that I seem to be so obsessed with. And there will be more bread making this week as I prepare to continue to be a wandering nomad this upcoming month, as I was this past month.

Until next post...

7 months, double stroller, and car wash anyone?

2010-05-22T21:39:00.011-05:00

Time is flying by. Andrew is now 7 months old! He has three teeth, and loves chewing on things. Although he isn't crawling yet, he rolls all over the place. He's a pretty smiley guy, and has the greatest laugh. Andrew thinks Judah is hilarious. It's so funny when they make each other laugh. It's also become clear that we need to start some food, but we need to practice eating. He has a tendency to gag, even on bananas mashed into oblivion. But he obviously likes the taste of bananas--what's not to like?! And he's tried some soft sweet potato chunks. It's a slow road to solids.

I got some clips that hook together two small strollers, so instead of paying lots of money for a double stroller, I got two cheap garage sale strollers and the clips at another garage sale, and voila! El Cheapo double stroller. It works for me!

And we thought Judah was old enough to start working, so Jeff put him to work cleaning the cars. I hope he's this excited to do chores in the future. I think Judah was just happy to be outside, and it was a lovely morning to be outside.

Our trip to the East Coast and what I ate

2010-05-17T12:37:00.019-05:00

We traveled to Virginia on Monday, May 3 and flew back on Monday, May 10. One week, two children, two parents, and a rental car. And did I mention lots and LOTS of traveling? Oh, and we still managed to eat well, too. Here's the run down, with photos:

Monday--We left at about 8am to drive to the airport. By the time we finally got checked in and at our gate it was about 11:30am. Whew! Flew at 12:30pm to Cleveland, OH for layover, arrived in Norfolk, VA about 5pm. Flight went pretty well, Andrew was a little fussy, and both boys didn't sleep much. I packed a lunch to take on our flight. Some meat and cheese sandwiches, fermented carrot sticks, and some baked oatmeal leftover from our breakfast that morning. No soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup pretzels for us on the plane, no sir!! Aaron and Djem (they were the ones getting married and the reason for our travels to Virginia!) met us in the airport to bring us a carseat for Judah. We checked Andrew's carseat as luggage. Found out we had a schnazzy car (Chevy HHR) to drive for the week! Jeff and Aaron went grocery shopping for our supper... some carrots, potatoes, and ground beef. Jeff cooked, and it was heavenly. Oh, and I forgot to mention... I brought some sourdough starter and coconut oil along! These would prove to be very useful to us.

Here we are in the airport before flying out.

It was 45 degrees when we left Minnesota. It was 90 degrees when we arrived in Virginia!

Here I am with Aaron in front of his townhome. My husband took the picture. He wanted to get the car in the picture...

Tuesday--Drove to Arlington in time for lunch with high school friend Sara. Great fun! Left about 2:30pm. Traffic is crazy out here! We arrived about 4-ish in Parkville, MD at my cousin Amy's house. Cousin Will took to playing with Judah immediately. The boys were so happy to get out of the car. Had supper, wonderful conversation, and stayed overnight. At both places, I passed on my food sensitivities, and had fabulous food!

Here we are with Sara and Daniel!

Here's Will and Judah "goin' fishing"!

Will, Madelyn, Andrew, and Judah

Amy and me in front of their beautiful home.

Wednesday--Had breakfast (eggs and sourdough bread I brought on the plane) and then drove to western Virginia to see Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm. He wasn't there, but we talked to his wife and walked around the farm for about an hour. Then drove into Staunton, VA about 15 miles away to find a place to stay. The drive this day was beautiful and it was so fun to see all the historic buildings from colonial days. We were looking for a little ice cream shop called Split Banana, that we were told used all natural ingredients. All natural my rear end! They did use natural ingredients, but also used some additives as well, so never mind that ice cream! My husband found some fruit sorbet, and that's what we had for supper. We finally collapsed at a hotel and went to bed early at 8:30 so our boys would sleep. They didn't nap well in the car today.

Judah petting baby chicks at Polyface Farms.

Andrew gets his feet tickled by the kitty. He's sooo happy to not be in his carseat!

Thursday--woke up better rested, but early. Our breakfast that morning left something to be desired, but at least it was better than nothing. The continental breakfast at the hotel consisted of boxed cereal, donuts, bagels, and english muffins. We didn't eat those. We did eat some fruit, and some oatmeal... granted, the oatmeal was quick-cooking and didn't soak overnight, but it was either that mixed with some cream cheese or just fruit. Although I had to eat some coconut oil to last me till my next meal. I know that without some decent fat, I'm starving long before my next meal! We got on the road by 7:30 to drive over to Virginia Beach to the beach house!! On the way to the beach house, we stopped at a small organic store and picked up a few items to get us through the week: brown rice, apples, bananas, onions, honey, and oatmeal, those were the main things. We got into the house about 1:00 and got situated in our room and tried to nap the boys with limited success. Our lunch was some potatoes and carrots and beef leftover from when we ate with Aaron on Monday night. We ate supper at Djem's parents' house. I was a little more selective... the meat had been marinated in A1 Steak sauce. That's a surefire way to get my itching. My husband, sweet man that he is, got me a piece and cut off all the outer layer. And I ate some cooked carrots, asparagus, and white rice. I had a little bit of a reaction, but not much.

Judah sitting on the steps of the beach house. That place was huge! It had seven bedrooms, a swimming pool and hot tub, and lots of space!

John, Johnny, Judah and Jeff in the hot tub.

Friday--I made sourdough pancakes this morning. Turned out great! I also attempted to make a loaf of sourdough bread. I say attempted, because it started cooking prematurely since I had left it in the oven, and the oven got turned on. Whoops. Oh well. Naps didn't go too well. But I don't know what I expected when any semblance of a schedule flew out the window on this trip. Did a little swimming. Drove to church for rehearsal, practiced with organist, as I was to sing the Lord's Prayer for the wedding. Back to beach house for groom's dinner. This really is a great big place for having a ton of people over! Oh, we went to the farmer's market after the rehearsal. It's a bunch of permanent structures for farmer's market every day of the week for most of the day. We got a few things, like some eggs and hotdogs from Polyface Farms (yummy!) and some hamburgers from somewhere else, and some fresh strawberries. They were red red red and had actual flavor! We also got some pricey tomatoes, but they were good. Also got some non-homogenized milk, but it is pasteurized... illegal here to sell unpasteurized milk.

The boys playing

Our family in the hot tub... it wasn't THAT hot, and was a lot more comfy than the ice cold swimming pool.

Judah hamming it up in the hot tub. He loved "schwimming" as he called it. :-)

Saturday--We woke up to another gloriously sunny day. I think we had soaked oatmeal for breakfast. I used the sourdough starter as the soaking medium. I also tried making another loaf of sourdough. Soaked in some rays, but I didn't want to burn, so I was only out there for about 20 minutes! Thankfully the boys got some good naps, as it was a late night ahead of us. We were at church by 3:45 to practice with organist, wedding at 4:30. Social hour 6-7pm, supper finally at 7:30. The most awesome thing of the whole trip was that I could eat the supper at the reception!!!!! The chefs at the Marriott in Chesapeake, VA kicked some major butt. The social hour had aged cheese, like seriously good cheese. And for supper, they used real butter, no MSG or soybean oil or margarine. I ate the real mashed potatoes which had gobs of butter, some beef that was still pink and tender, and some sauteed veggies. And had NO reactions. It was so good, I was in ecstasy! YUM! We went back to the beach house pretty much as soon as supper was over. The music was so loud, I couldn't get Andrew to fall asleep, even though he was exhausted. The crazy thing is, it takes like an hour to drive a distance of about 20 miles. Did I mention I wasn't a fan of the traffic?

Waiting for supper to start.

There's Andrew with his little tongue sticking out. That's one of his traits.

A good picture of Jeff and me.

A decent picture of our family!

A picture of our family with the wedding couple. Judah is deadpan, Andrew is smiling. You can't win 'em all.

Sunday--Mother's Day. There was a brunch at the hotel hosted by the bride's parents. I wasn't expecting to be able to eat much... it was a buffet, after all. But I was beyond pleasantly surprised. They did made-to-order omelets cooked in olive oil! And cinnamon pancakes smothered with REAL maple syrup and butter! Granted, they weren't made with soaked flour, but I didn't care! This was close enough, and totally worth a few anti-nutrients. And fresh fruit. I wish I had taken a picture of it. But I was too busy gobbling it down. Oh man, it was sooooo good. I'm still salivating as I write this a week later! I baked my 2nd loaf of sourdough, it turned out okay, just really dense, but it sure smelled good. We also went to the beach, which was about a block away from the beach house. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, and Judah loved playing in the sand. The day was nice and relaxing, we played some games, had some naps, a very good day!

Johnny and Judah playing with their father's phones while we waited to have brunch.

Family picture on Mother's Day. Nice smile, Judah. "Cheeeese!"

Me and my boys. I don't think one of us is actually looking at the camera.

Our family on the beach by the ocean!

Judah playing with one beach toy I found at the house. He loved the sandy beach!

Monday--Got things packed up to go. We didn't fly out until about 5:30, so we had a leisurely morning of visiting and playing and swimming. For the flight home, we were nourished with some boiled eggs, cheese, apples, and carrot sticks. It got late for the boys. On the final flight, Andrew did not want to be comforted, so he screamed for a bit before he finally konked out. Judah did too, and so did I. It was 9:30pm when we got to the MSP airport, and then we still had another 2+ hours of travel time ahead of us. It was a miracle we got home in one piece. Both Jeff and I were exhausted, and for the last leg on the trip, I had completely passed out. Poor Jeff! But we made it and we were soooo glad to see our own beds!

Me and my two boys on the airplane on the way home.

Andrew laying on the floor at the Cleveland airport. He was happily rolling around.

Judah was looking out the window at the Cleveland airport, watching all the activity. One of the workers was playing peek-a-boo with him.

All in all, an awesome trip. We had safe travels, saw great sights, had great visits, and ate extremely well... oh, and Jeff and I both managed to LOSE weight, too! I'm serious, it was all that butter and coconut oil we ate. We did eat ice cream on a few occasions, but I think the key thing was that we didn't snack. If we did, it was a chunk of coconut oil.

And now it's back to real life. But THAT'S for another post.

Judah and the Big Boy Bed

2010-04-26T14:09:00.010-05:00

Sounds like a bedtime story, doesn't it? Well, thankfully this story has been short and sweet.

The bed came. The bed got set up. The bed got slept in. The End.

Grandpa Merseth came on Friday, Apr 23, bearing gifts. He brought a wooden church for Judah to play with. And most importantly, the big boy bed. Here it is getting set up. Of course, Judah had to help.

And here he is reading in bed.

And here's the church. Yes, the roof it off. Judah was filling it up with blocks.

Judah in the bathtub with a mohawk by Mom.

And here's a shot from 4-26-10. I don't think there's any explanation really needed. :-)

Andrew @ 6 months

2010-04-24T10:31:00.008-05:00

We've reached the 6 month mark with Andrew. He's a delightful little boy who has a contagious grin. As long as he's clean, fed, and relatively well-rested, he's golden. Of course, that state doesn't really last very long for a baby...

We're still dealing with some serious scratching issues. We'll find him smiling and cooing in his bed in the morning, with a fresh self-inflicted gash on his forehead. I tried socks on his hands once, but he got mad. During the middle of the night, mad is not good. I tried a hat, but he just pulled it off.

Some sources say that scratching the head is a sign of teething. Well, he's got one tooth that made its appearance two weeks ago. And a second one that just poked through.

I'm wondering if he could be scratching also because of some cradle cap, or at least what I think is cradle cap. Andrew's had it for about three months now. I'm hoping it will go away soon. I put oil on it to help loosen it and then try to comb it out. There are many home remedies out there. I've tried baking soda which seems to be helping some.

Anyway, right now I try to distract Andrew from his teething pain as much as possible. It's nice if we can go outside and he can watch Judah play.

In one week we fly to Virginia for a wedding. I am a little nervous and have a lot to think about before we leave. Wish us luck!!

And now, the pictures!

We were playing peekaboo while sitting in the high chair, which we just sit in at meal times. We don't eat yet. But I'm not concerned. He's not showing signs of readiness, like being able to sit unassisted or losing the tongue thrust, so I figure there's no point in forcing something that would just make him and us frustrated. We already tried food, and it was frustrating for both parties! He's growing, and that's the main thing.

Where Andrew is, Judah's always close by. Judah loves getting pictures taken sitting in the chair with his brother. Andrew is six months old in this picture!

Andrew is getting more rolly, as in, he goes from his stomach to his back, back to stomach, stomach to back. So he gets around.

This picture was taken 4-26-10. I love it when they're smiley!

What to do with whey from cheesemaking?

2010-04-16T09:24:00.004-05:00

From my cheesemaking expedition, I found myself in possession of nearly a gallon of whey.

You could throw it away. But since I'm not one to throw a usable product away, I saved all the whey. We've almost finished up the whole bucket of whey in a couple weeks now, and here's what we used it for:

Added to soups and stews. To keep the benefits of whey, add it after the soup is cooked. After it gets heated up to a certain temperature, it loses its benefits. We pour stew into bowls then add the whey into the individual servings.
Use to soak grains and flours to make them more digestible. I've soaked oatmeal for breakfast and a granola bar recipe. I've soaked flour for bread making. Instead of using a few tablespoons and mostly water, I'll use whey as the entire amount of soaking liquid. Oh, I made some delicious homemade sourdough English muffins this way!
Rehydrate dried foods. I even used some whey to rehydrate some dried tomatoes and mushrooms that I used in a meatloaf recipe. It gave them a bit of a tang, rather tasty.

And there are more ideas here! I am totally freezing some whey to use in the kefir shakes we've started having every morning. We've been using plain water ice cubes, but we can pack in more protein by using whey ice cubes! What a "duh" moment, like why didn't I think of that myself?!

I'm going to make some whey ice cubes right now!

My first excursion into cheesemaking

2010-04-14T19:17:00.010-05:00

Ever since we got our hands on some rennet a couple weeks ago, I've been wanting to try my hand at the art of cheesemaking.

Well, I did make cheese, and learned a few things in the process. I figure it can only get better from here! :-)

I followed the process found in "Wild Fermentation" by S. Katz. If you want a more detailed description, I recommend checking out his book. But here's the basic recipe with my comments.

Rennet Cheese

1 gallon whole milk (I used raw)

1 cup yogurt and/or kefir (I used kefir)

3 to 10 drops rennet (I used Malaka Brand, and about 8 drops, which made a very hard cheese)

3 Tablespoons sea salt

1. First you "ripen" the milk by adding the live culture of kefir. It adds flavor and health benefits, but this step is not essential. I poured the milk into a stainless steel pot, added the kefir, and heated it to about 100 degrees. Katz says between 90-110 degrees is okay. Maintain that temperature for 1-2 hours. Once I had it at the right temperature, I wrapped the pot in a towel and set it on my counter.

2. Mix rennet with 1/4 c. water before you add it to the milk. With the milk still around 100 degrees (reheat it if you have to), stir the milk while you add the rennet-water mixture. But stop stirring once you've added it. The milk has to be still while the rennet works its magic. The more rennet you use, the harder the end product. When I do this again, I plan to use fewer drops, like 4 or 5. My cheese was extra squeaky since I used 8. Within 1/2 hour, the milk will coagulate and form a curd, pulling away from the sides of the pot.

3. Once this coagulation has happened, cut the curd with a long knife into roughly uniform one inch size cubes. You can barely see the gridlines in the photo below. This step provides more surface area for the rennet to work. Be gentle with your cutting, as the curd is fragile and needs to be sliced rather than broken... that's what Katz says, anyway! As you cut curds, keep them moving gently to keep from sinking.

4. Keep it warm at just above body heat temperature for about ten minutes after cutting the curd. Keeping it warmer longer, up to an hour, will make a harder cheese... which is what I did, and helped to contribute to my very firm cheese. Don't increase the temperature fast, because that will result in a crumbly, grainy cheese.

5. Strain and salt cheese. Use a dish towel or cheese cloth over a strainer and pour the cheese/whey into the strainer. Here's where my life got in the way. I should've salted before I strained all the whey off. I poured off some whey so you could see what the curd looked like:

I should've salted at this point, but instead I squeezed out most of the whey before salting it, and let it sit while I took care of crying children:

And so the result was a not very salty cheese in a weird shape. And cheese without salt isn't very tasty, in my opinion. Salt also helps push out the whey, so you're not supposed to be scared to use a lot of salt. Twist the cloth so the cheese is pushed into a ball, and let it drip out remaining liquid.

6. You can serve the cheese young or aged. I didn't age it much, mainly because I'm impatient to eat it. I could've let it form a protective skin to help preserve it, by rewrapping the cheese ball every day with fresh cheesecloth until the cloth is no longer wet from the cheese's moisture, then wrapping it up and putting it in a cool dark place.

I tore my cheese into small chunks like curds. Judah didn't care if they were salty or not, he ate them right up. The longer they sit, they'll develop a richer flavor.

The lessons I learned:

1. Less rennet

2. Add salt sooner

3. Shape the cheese sooner

4. What to do with all the whey... we'll save that for another post!

Eat your heart out!

2010-04-14T18:58:00.006-05:00

Eat your heart out! Well... more like, I will eat your heart out. This is a heart. Talk about the ultimate Valentine's Day meal... haha... Actually, this is only part of a cow's heart. We didn't think to take a picture before we ate part of it.

That's right, we ate beef heart for the past several meals, and will eat it for a few more. Wow, a cow's heart goes a long way.

And the same things apply for the heart as for the beef tongue I mentioned earlier this month. It's nutrient dense, inexpensive, and tasty. It tastes very similar to the tongue. It has a nice firm texture.

Here are a few ideas for fixing beef heart:

Cut it up into chunks and put it in the slow cooker with some chopped onions and celery, and a couple bay leaves.
Put the leftover chunks and juices from that into a stew. I like using barley. Cook the barley for about 30 minutes, and when it's almost all the way cooked, add in some cut up carrots, celery, and onions, and cook for 10 minutes more, so everything's cooked. Don't forget to add some salt and pepper.
Thinly slice the meat. Get the griddle good and hot with plenty of grease. Brown both sides at the high temp, then turn down and cook for a few more minutes till cooked thru. Don't forget to salt and pepper the slices. I served this on some homemade sourdough buns.
Chop up meat into small pieces and season with taco seasoning, serve in a tortilla with sour cream and salsa.

Yum!