Peeling and Worship

"You can praise the Lord by peeling a spud, if you peel it to perfection." ~ Eric Liddell's missionary father from the movie Chariots of Fire as quoted in Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work by Timothy Keller with Katherine Leary Alsdorf.

I suppose this applies to carrots as well.  Today we discussed this brief theological thought while peeling carrots.  Finding God in the midst of our daily chores..."You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Deuteronomy 6:7  So very thankful for these moments.

That's Just Cheesy

M and I love a good cheese platter.  And this is a very good cheese platter.  wow.

Yum.

Ummmm, could I get a little whipped cream with my hot cocoa?

Edible Chemical Elements

On most Wednesdays afternoons we get together with another family and do science.  We have been focusing on Chemistry and we alternate teaching.  It is fantastic to have another mom to share the teaching with.  I have noticed that our favorite projects tend to be edible.

Here we made a cookie model of the element Flourine.  We used chocolate covered sunflower seeds to represent the protons, electrons and neutrons.  The green ones represent electrons, the blue represent neutrons and the purple represent protons.

Apparently this week one edible model was not enough.  We did cookies and bread.  Here are 2 models of Lithium atoms using bread dough.  One of the main things I learned from this project is that it can be very tricky to color bread with food coloring.  I believe I added it too late, but it did make a cool marbled effect.  You can see the protons and neutrons all grouped together in the center of each model and the electrons around the outside.

8 Weeks To Real Foods with Vintage Remedies

Want to make some changes in your eating habits?  I mean, honestly, who doesn't?  A great way to establish healthier eating habits is to sign up for Vintage Remedies FREE, yeah, who does not love FREE, 8 week course.  If you want to sign up, click on the Vintage Remedies link on the side of my blog, scroll over to "events" and the drop down menu should show "8 Weeks to Real Foods" click on that.  The page that comes up gives some info on the course and allows you to put in your email address.  That signs you up for the course.  Do it!  It's free and it will help you start the new year off right!  Because remember the key to maintaining a healthy weight is not by lamenting what you eat around the holiday season it is establishing healthy habits all year long.

Butter!

The kids have had the opportunity to make butter by shaking cream in a small jar and watching butter form. It is a fun activity and a good learning experience. But I have wanted to try it on a slightly larger scale.

Thanks to the kitchen aid, a blog that I have not been able to find again, and Mother Earth News, it was fairly easy. I froze the butter and we used it at Thanksgiving. Yum!

The butter was made and written in mid-November. I have a bit of catching up to do with my blog.

Pie and Kids

For Thanksgiving we made the apple pie that I have made for years. It has evolved into an apple-marion berry pie.

Little hands helping make the pies. Now that makes me smile. The extra mess sometimes makes me forget to smile, but that is why I take pictures. The mess is forgotten in hindsight.

The mess is also forgotten when they declare, "This is the pie I made!"

Then there is this beauty of a pie that my girl with hands that are no longer so little made. Wow, it looks amazing and it tasted delicious too.

A New Food Tradition

This Thanksgiving we had a large box of pears and another of apples. I stacked a pile of them next to the pie and the kids snatched them up.

Note to self: In future years set out whole fruit. What could be easier? There is no prep required, just a quick washing. And this gives a super healthy option for after dinner snacking or for filling up on healthier foods as opposed to just grabbing another slice of pie. I should have left them out today because, for me, it is always the day after that the pie really tempts me.

Nothing Says Fall...

...like soup served in a squash bowl.

The Busy Mom's 10 Minute Guide to a Healthy Happy Family by Nancy Parlette

A friend of mine regularly mentioned this book and shared how much it helped her to eat healthier. Then when I saw her last Spring, she handed me a copy. I am so happy she did! This is a great book! It is extremely readable. The book is set up into 20 lessons. Each lesson is a short chapter. You can tell the author is a busy mom because she designed the chapters so they would be easy to read in short bits. This is the type of book you can carry in your purse and read when you are waiting in line, at kids sports practices or that sort of thing. Plus as a bonus the book has a number of smoothie and juice recipes. I am a sucker for a book with recipes.

Here are some of my favorite bits from the book:

• "Eat the rainbow every day." In other words eat a variety of fruits and veggies that are brightly colored. The book explains why.
• Lesson 6 shares some studies in which the behavior of children was observed when they ate a poor diet and when they ate a healthy diet. Very interesting.
• "Oftentimes people will eat when they are actually thirsty but don't realize it."
• "I see life as a celebration, an education, and an occupation. Life is a gift from God and the most amazing part of that gift is not the beautiful world where we've been placed, and it's not even the amazing people that share the planet with us, but it is that God wants to have a personal intimate relationship with us. To fill our soul and bond with us like nothing humanly possible. THAT is worth celebrating!"
• "When it comes to our emotions and food, we can forget that food is simply fuel and fall into the trap of eating for comfort. Certainly food is to be enjoyed. It is a gift that we savor and appreciate. But it is not for our emotional comfort. It's not there to dull our senses so that we don't have to feel pain."
• "We all want to take good care of our children...We start with making sure they get plenty of rest, water and exercise."

Want to learn more or order the book? Click here. This is a book I highly recommend. It is extremely readable and packed full of practical information that has the potential to change lives. If you want to get on the track to a healthier lifestyle, this book is the perfect guide to help you in that.

Goodbye Food Rut

I have been in a food rut lately. My creativity and motivation have just not been there. On Wednesday we stopped by a little roadside veggie stand.

All this yumminess...loving the bounty of Autumn.

Then we stopped by another place and picked up corn on the cob. Grand total for all this, $8. Seriously. What an amazing price. And what is priceless is having my food motivation back.

Can't Stop Loving Azure Standard

It has been awhile since I have done a "One Change Per Month" post (scroll down on my sidebar for more of these posts). As Fall rolls in and Summer rolls out, I find that life settles into more of a routine. My cooking and meal-planning becomes more structured and I find that my appreciation for Azure Standard is renewed. So, since Fall is on the way, and my life is heading toward more of a routine, it is a good time to start sharing changes that can be made toward living a healthier, environmentally friendly and balanced life.

Still not ordering from Azure Standard? Fall is a great time to consider placing an order. They offer healthy foods at great prices delivered to a local drop spot for pick up. Here are a few items from our most recent order-almonds, honey, potatoes, onions and a bottle of essential oil. Can you find the essential oil? It is mostly hidden in a little hand. And no, Azure does not pay me to rave about them. I just really like them and can't help sharing.

If the idea of ordering on-line from the comfort of home and then picking up an order of groceries appeals to you, consider Azure Standard. It is so nice to be able to add items to my shopping cart when I think of them, throughout the month, and then when it is time to place my order, it is easy to check out and wait for the groceries to arrive. Easy.

Real Life Math

In past years I have not been very faithful in planning times to practice real life math. This year, I hope to change that. Cooking with the kids is such an easy way to do that. Especially when we double recipes. That gives great practice in doubling fractions.

A big deterrent in this, for me anyway, is that it takes so much longer. It is easier for me to tell the kids, "We need _____ amount of flour." My goal for this year is to slow down and let them do the math.

And one of the best parts about cooking in order to practice real-life math are the yummy results. In these photos, A and I were making zucchini bread sweetened with maple syrup. Yum.

"Look, Ma, There Are Seeds!"

Yes, I know seedless is convenient, but every now and then buy a watermelon with seeds. Azure is a good place to find them. My kids get so excited when we get a seedy watermelon. I guess it is a novelty to them. It sorta reminds me of how I felt when seedless watermelon came out. It was a novelty, but now it is the norm.

Iced Coffee

Used this fantastic coffee mill to grind beans to make this yummy iced coffee. Delicious. Simply delicious.

M received the coffee mill for Christmas last year from my parents. I can't recall the last time we used the electric coffee grinder.

The iced coffee recipe is so simple to make and is simply delicious. Truly, the flavor is amazing. I actually cut the recipe down and quartered it-1/4 lb coffee beans, 2 quarts of water and it made a more manageable amount for my first try. I can see the reason for going ahead and making it with an entire pound of coffee though-it is that good!

Coffee ice cubes are the next thing to try. Although, based on the yumminess factor, I can't imagine my drink sitting around long enough for ice to melt in it. And since the coffee is already cold to begin with, unlike most iced drinks that start with hot coffee poured over ice, mine probably won't "need" ice. Still, coffee ice cubes sound like a fun thing to try.

Strawberry Ice Ice Baby

4 cups fruit. We used strawberry.

2 1/2-3 1/2 cups cold water

3/4 cup honey or more or less depending on how sweet you want it

2 T lemon juice

2 T lime juice

Run all ingredients through the blender until there are no longer any chunks. You can do this in batches if it does not all fit in the blender. Pour mixture into a container that can be frozen. Freeze until mixture is firm. Usually overnight does the trick or make this in the morning and it will be a great after-dinner dessert. Scoop it up with a sturdy ice cream scoop and enjoy!

This stores well in the freezer. We made a bunch of this back in late June or early July and still have some stored in the freezer. It is a great, easy dessert.

It can be garnished with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, mint leaves or... Fruits could be mixed together or pick a fruit and add a bit of frozen juice concentrate to create a unique flavor. Oh the possibilities!

Summer Dinner

Jam: My Rediscovered Summer Hobby

Here is what my freezer looks like. I love it! And I am a bit persnickety about it. My kids keep asking if they can make things with jam and for some reason I feel the need to ration it. To save it all for crisp, cold days. This week I actually let them open a large container of raspberry jam. But, that just might be it until September or October, unless I cave in and I probably will.

Blogs are great because while trying to recall when I last made freezer jam and what was made, a quick search of my blog revealed two posts on making jam. There were vague memories of jam making in my past, but they were foggy, until I searched the blog.

I last made jam in 2007 and according to my posts, it brought me as much joy then as it has this year. I was sure I had made it before, but when and the details of how eluded me. It was nice to discover that I had blogged about the process. Very helpful.

These raspberries are HUGE. I mean HUGE! The picking was super easy with such large berries. So far this season we have made jam out of strawberries, raspberries, boysenberries and cherries. My hope is to tackle peaches next and maybe some blackberries.

The cherry jam is especially thrilling because it is from our own trees. I have yet to actually get cherries from our pie cherry tree, but this harvest of sweet cherries from our own tree was the first time we got the cherries before the birds! So exciting! And all credit goes to M and the kids who noticed the ripe cherries way up in the tree then got the ladder and picked them. Oh, and we got to use the Cherry Stoner again.

Look up at the first picture. The one with the jam in the freezer. Notice in the bottom right-hand corner. Yup, the round container that has a golden, yellow something in it. That is a bit of pineapple preserves. A recipe for a salad dressing calling for pineapple preserves recently came my way. Since I was already making jam, it seemed that making pineapple preserves would not be too difficult. I searched and found this recipe, then I changed it a bit. I ran the pineapple chunks through the blender then cooked three tablespoons of pectin in the juice until it boiled for a minute or so to thicken. Then the juice and pectin was poured into a bowl of the blended pineapple and some sugar was added. It turned out very well for the salad dressing and would be a delicious ice cream topping. I had never considered making pineapple preserves before.

Here are the berries all blended up. C does not care for chunks of fruit in her jam. We ran the fruit through the blender and it made a wonderful non-chunky jam. At this point, I only make freezer jam, partly because I have not learned to can. But mostly because making freezer jam is super easy and by not cooking the berries more of the flavor and natural enzymes are preserved. The down side is that it can take up quite a bit of freezer space.

Tastes Like Chicken

Here is one of our roosters, after being processed. Gross. There were 3 of them that were processed. In all honesty, it is good to have those roosters gone, but my stomach still turned when M walked in the door three weeks ago with 3 packages like the one in the photo above. I put them in the freezer and waited to get over my feelings of being grossed out.

It took almost 3 weeks. Then on Sunday, a rooster was pulled out of the freezer, placed in the fridge to thaw and was on the menu for dinner Monday night.

Not super attractive, I know, but it makes me laugh. This looks like dinner as opposed to looking like something that was recently running around our backyard.

The meat was super lean and a difference between this bird and a store bought bird was visible. There was virtually no fat on this one. I cooked it slowly at 300 degrees. Low and slow is the key for cooking grass fed animals.

The kids thought the chicken was delicious. I won't argue with their assessment, but I will acknowledge that it was overcooked. And I will acknowledge that that was completely my fault.

The bird was also small. See the small pile of meat from it? Not much there. Of course the kids had nibbled on it a little before this pictures was taken, but there just was not much meat.

Here is what our dinner ended up being. A delicious salad topped with our own, backyard raised rooster. Now that is local eating.

Would I do it again? Yes. I think the gross out factor has subsided. And it is a good thing because I have 2 more of our chickens in the freezer. Plus, it is great to know this rooster lived a thoroughly happy life, was not given any chemicals or additives. This guy was not even vaccinated, not that I am opposed to vaccines in chickens, but he just happened to not have been vaccinated.

As I write this the carcass of last night's dinner is simmering into a lovely broth on the stove-top. As I was writing this, I also burned 2 quesadillas, but that is off the subject. Even though the bird was small, it still made a decent dinner, will make a nice amount of broth and that makes raising our own birds the most cost effective way to have quality meat.

Do I now have an interest in butchering, ummm, I mean processing our own chickens? No.

Oh, and how did it taste? Well, it tasted like chicken.