Blackberry Jamboree

We're still in high blackberry picking mode over here. I just can't pass up the plethora of free fruit sitting in the back yard. The passion fruits are sloooowly ripening, there must be at least a dozen of them. I have store away about 4 pounds of blackberries in .5lb zippy bags in the freezer but they're coming in faster than we can eat them. Preserving and using them is top priority.

I took approx. 5 cups (which is about 2lbs) and cooked them down to a low sugar blackberry jam. I used Sure Jell's low sugar pectin this time and had a much better gelling than with the Gel-EZ I bought in bulk on Amazon. We use one of these little half pint jars in our house during one meal of PB&J. Stockpiling jam is a serious necessity. I also found RealFruit Low/No sugar pectin in a jar at Walmart which I will try with a second batch.

Blackberries are a funny thing, they're tart cousins of raspberries. You either love them or hate them, there is no middle ground I've found. But I dare anyone that dislikes the tart juice of a blackberry to refuse a slice of this blackberry buttermilk cake. It's OMG good and easily devoured. Make two, you're going to need it.

The bushes that were brimming a few weeks ago (yes, I've been harvesting 1-3lbs a day for weeks) are dying down and the last patches that held out are bursting with fruit. I give blackberry picking season another week at most. By preserving them, I can relive it the rest of the year.

The Boy Turns Nine.

It is absolutely insane to think I am the mother of a nine year old. But regardless of my inability to feel my age, my oldest kid did turn nine yesterday.

It's both easy and hard to remember how difficult he was as an infant. By two weeks old he was diagnosed with reflux (funny how I forgot about the projectile vomiting) and treated with two different medicines once twice and the other three times a day. He slept propped up in his car seat next to our bed or in the swing so that gravity would help the acid stay put.

It was miserable and at times I swore to never have another kid again. (See, this is where the Universe laughs).

He's the kid that broke me into parenthood, spiraled me into a Brooke Shields type of PPD and single handledly amazes me each and every day. Alex is such a wonderful boy, though he has his less-fun moments at times. For his birthday this year he asked for two things; Civilization V (a pc game) and a chocolate cake with mint.

I couldn't refuse either.

The cake is my basic go-to chocolate sheet cake recipe that I have scribbled on a paper so I can't remember where it came from. I don't usually do chocolate frosting so I searched for an easy recipe and found this then added some peppermint extract -real not imitation- to the mix. The Andes got frozen and mashed up with a mortar and pestle.

For someone that doesn't like toothpaste flavored chocolate, I do really like this cake.

We almost had a serious dilemma when the sparkler candles he picked out had melted into a single lump on the kitchen windowsil. Note to self- wax in a hot window = bad. We managed to scrounge nine non-girly candles out of the junk drawer and salvage three of the sparkler candles from the hardened gob.

Now I have a whole year to get used to having a kid in the double digits. I'm so not prepared for pre-pubescence.

Fresh Baked

My virtual friend Ara over at My Edible Yard has a fantastic recipe for white wheat bread.  I made it this morning which makes 2 loaves and already the kids and I have devoured about 2/3's of one. I have been trying to make all our own bread from scratch and this recipe is ridiculously easy and tasty. You can also break it out for rolls. I'm going to try it for english muffins but I need to buy more yeast.

I've made it twice, once using raw Honey and this time Agave nectar and couldn't tell a difference so whatever sweetener you have on hand should work just fine.

Little Things

To break out of the homeschooling-parenting rut I've been in I decided to mix it up a bit by having a cookout.

Hotdogs are a rare treat in our house. Fire even rarer.

Even though I did this last minute (we were still collecting branches when the sun went down) and there was about a solid ten minutes where we weren't sure if the -wet- branches were going to actually catch on fire, we all had such a good time.

It was definately a much needed bit of fun and fire roasted hotdogs are amazing.

What fun things have you planned -or didn't- when life was starving for kindling?

Strawberry state of mind

I've already started this year's canning escapades with 6 jelly jars of Strawberry Jam. I love the little labels I've made up but have noticed it's taking nearly as much time to create, print, cut and position the darling things as it was to make the jam. This time I smarted myself up a bit and made up labels with blank canning dates for more Strawberry Jam since I know I will be making a lot more in the very near future.

We're in a high-production strawberry state. While most of the berries sold around here have been coming out of Plant City (a place outside my 100 mile diet circumfrence) they're still pretty darn close. I'm researching u-pick places that fall within it but none are open this time of year and so far, I haven't been able to locate a farm closer that has the production levels Plant City has. I'm working on it though.

I've been allowing my brain to be more concious to what we eat, where it hails from and how it got to us. A lot of it is getting away from prepackaged foods and produce that has to be trucked in from thousands of miles away. This means eliminating things from our diet we've grown used to eating. Somethings though, I'm not sure I'll be able to do without -coffee for starters. There are a few pretty good sized CSA's in the area (community support agriculture) which have been calling my name. I think part of my grocery budget for February will be obtaining a membership somewhere. 

Making the switch from the abundance of convenience city life provided to the limited seclusion of the country has been hard for me. I'm detoxing. I can feel it. My body aches for trips to the store, Starbucks and easily obtainable day trips to cultural centers. I haven't really made any friends out here which adds to my rural depression. It's not bad, just a change.

Part of the solution is to keep busy. The strawberry jam has new friends in a jar of Almond butter and a few loaves of homemade whole wheat bread. I'm learning to rely on myself to make the things I would normally have hopped into the car to go "grab" from the store. I can now make real cheese crackers for a fraction of the price of cheddar bunnies or goldfish. I think I'm going to try fruit leather with the next batch of Strawberries I pick up from the farmer's market tomorrow.

All in all, while the changes are literally life-changing, I'm comfortable with the progression and happy with my ability to see where the problems lie and actively work to make those changes. Plus, the Jam is to die for.

My go to

I have a confession to make. Sometimes I get distracted with glossy pages, full color photos and hardcovers. My brain yells "ooh, ooh, ooh" and my hands itch to open up the cover and find the magical mysteries hidden inside.

And then, as I turn the pretty pages I get disillusioned. Disappointed. Disenchanted. Because I know that these eye-candy cookbooks don't compare to Fannie Farmer. 

She's priced right, no-nonsense and is nearly 1200 pages of recipes, techniques and cooking methods along with both traditional, simple meals and elegant dishes.

She covers what to do when you overbeat an egg, how to stuff tarts and diagrams on cuts of meat from every different animal. And entire section in the front discusses the use and function of herbs and kitchen tools.

I love this book so much I'm declaring it to be the gift to give for new parents, newlyweds and everyone else that I discover is lacking some Farmer in their house.

Conquering fear with copious cuteness

After my successful canning of a few jars of cranberry sauce I decided to gung-ho it and just can up a bunch of stuff. I went to the grocery store Wednesday which was an enormous mistake. The asiles were packed with cart weilding maniacs hunting down the last minute trimmings on their lists. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised that my kids weren't the gawd awfulest behaived in the store. Nope, that award went to the middle-aged moron wearing safety headphones hooked up to his MP3 as he yelled at people to "Move please" as he shoved his cart around the tightly packed lanes, tailgaiting and cutting people off as they reached for the cumin as if he were driving his mid-life-crisis convertable down the highway.

I wanted to trip him but I refrained. It was a pre-holiday after all.

Wednesday was also the final day of the buy one get one free bags of fresh cranberries. I bought nine bags. And forgot the sugar. So, the wild canning frenzy didn't start until today when I not only picked up the much needed sugar, I also snagged 10lbs of organic pears.

After adding too much water to the cranberries and having to boil them down for over an hour, I finally got 12 half pint jars (plus another half pint that I put in the already opened last batch pint jar). I minimized the sugar to just enough to knock down the tart of the berries but not enough to make it at all sweet. The berries have plenty of natural pectin as to not need additional through sugar. Then I wasted the 15 minute hot bath processing time by making cutesy labels for the tops.

The image is courtesy of The Lily Pad, a company I've purchased clip art from before when I made the Lacing Cards. Don't ask what a hedgehog has to do with cranberries and/or canning. It's cute and that's enough reason for me.

The Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving is a plethora of wonderous canning information and I took the time to really read the proper way to process the pears. I ended up using Florida grown honey and water to make the syrup instead of white sugar. While the jars could have been packed a bit tighter (there is a gap at the bottom where they've floated to the top) I think I did a smashing job on them and their labels. I wish I had gotten more out of the 10lbs but the chickens and rabbits loved the peels and leftovers.

Therapy Smerapy. I can conquer my own fears.

Pumpkin Pie French Toast -Recipe

I love squash. I love that it can be savory or sweet. I love that it can be a dessert, a side, a main course or breakfast. I love growing it and visiting local pumpkin patches. I can't wait to have yards of vines weighed down with heavy gourds.

Pumpkin is one of those foods that calls out Autumn which just happens to be my favorite time of year. I recently brought home some regular and pie pumpkins to roast and can (in the fridge or freezer if you're doing purees). The yield was amazing and the flavor so sweet in those little pies that I could eat the puree without a dash of anything else.

I woke up one Friday with the gnawing need in my stomach to make pumpkin pie french toast. I'd never done it before and was too bleary eyed to look up a recipe so if this is similar to another it wasn't intentional. I broke out the family sized electric griddle (have I mentioned how much I LOVE this thing?) and set to work.

Here is the recipe.

Pumpkin Pie French Toast.

Ingredients

2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup milk
2 tbs cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp all spice
8 large slices of bread (I used dark whole wheat which I think too a bit away from the pumpkin flavor)

Whisk everything except the bread in a bowl while you preheat the griddle. Pour into a shallow pan or plate. Soak each side of the bread in the mixture to coat and throw on the griddle. Cook until golden brown.

You can play around with the spices and pumpkin, omitting the milk makes it harder for the bread to absorb the mix but can be done. With my griddle as long as the side is cooked completely, I don't have to use oil or butter to cook. Drizzle with real maple syrup or eat smeared with pumpkin butter.

What is your favorite pumpkin or squash recipe?

Mac n Cheese and Home Fries

I used to get food from Schwans. I started with them years ago when I was huge pregnant with #4. I like some of their stuff and they have fairly good prices considering I don't have to drag a ton of kids the store. Then I looked at the ingredients list.

Oh. My. Word. The quick bake fries have FIFTEEN ingredients. Seriously. Fifteen! It's a french fry, I thought to myself, what on earth could it be other than a cut potato? So, I stopped buying the fries. I stopped buying boxed dry mac n cheese eons ago but trouble is my kids really like mac n cheese (what average kid doesn't?). So, the poor favorite mac n cheese got left for "special occasions" meaning someone else made it wherever we happened to be.

But no more! I have come up with some simple, healthy alternatives for these classic comfort foods.

Home Fries or Baked Potato Wedges

Potatoes
1tbs oil
sprinkle of salt
seasoning (optional)

I used white potatoes with the skins on, olive oil, Hymalaian sea salt and salt free general purpose seasoning.

Cut the potatoes into wedges. Place in a bowl with the oil, salt and seasoning. Use your hands to toss and bake at 375 F for 15 min, then flip and do another 15 min.

Mac N Cheese

1lb noodles
1lb cheese
2 cups milk
2 tbs Flour

Cut the cheese into small chunks. Melt the cheese in the milk in a sauce pan over medium high heat adding flour in 1tbs increments to reach desired thickness. While this is cooking boil the water and cook the pasta, we used shells. Drain pasta when finished, put back into the pot and stir in the cheese.

Enjoy!

Engrossed

I learned my lesson the last time I made pita bread, that cranking up the oven to 500F during an 100 degree day just isn't really very smart. So today, now that the weather has turned to cooler days that hint at autumn, I thought it would be a great treat to make today.

Learning still, from my tendency to just do it myself rather than letting the kids help, I let the kids help. Home Economics has become a core subject.

I was really happy with their ability to use a rolling pin. Though I mixed up the dough in the Kitchenaid and manned the fires of Hell oven, there wasn't a whole lot else for them to do.

Don't mind the marker on her hand, it won't wash off so I didn't worry about it getting in the food. Who bought non-washable markers anyway? Oh, me. Right.  



I have found that I actually crave good pita bread with a generous smearing of raw, local honey more than chocolate chip cookies. And that is really saying something. 

My favorite quote of this whole thing was Olivia exclaiming "Oh my God, we're EATING SCHOOL!"

PITA!

I've made lots of different breads before; sweet, savory, sandwich, rolls, you name it, I've probably made it. But why on Earth I've never tried making pita bread before is beyond me. I rectified that today.

I found this recipe from The Fresh Loaf for easy pita. If you read all the comments you can use 1/3 whole wheat, 2/3 white. I used unbleached all purpose for my "white".

The trick to these is to have a REALLY hot oven and preheat your sheet with the oven. I started the oven at 500 but didn't wait for it to preheat so the first two took longer and didn't get as poofy. They did still split when torn apart just like a regular pita.

I rotated the batches out one pita at a time. So I'd always have at least one in the oven, one cooling, one rolled out while I was rolling out another. The batch made twelve good sized pitas, though it says it makes eight. Which is really good because I've already eaten three some. One didn't count, though, because it was kinda small...

I don't think I could ever go back to buying these at the store again. Ingredients cost maybe a dollar per batch. Though they take about 2 hours from start to finish, it's less time than dragging five kids to the store.

This is definately a keeper recipe I'm glad I've added to my repertoire.

Maintenance Manual

I pulled out Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats this morning, determined to pick up where I left off -on page 27. When I originally purchased it, way back in April,  I was drawn to the methods and sense that this cookbook presents. But things got in the way, as they often do, and the book has been sitting on a shelf in the kitchen since that fateful day I arrived on page 27.

That page holds no real signficance. It's just, by that point in the book, I had just gotten overwhelmed with the sheer force of information. With my dawning realization that I might not be living up to the high standard I set in regards to our maintenance needs, today, I picked it up again. This time armed with a highlighter to help me pull out the important bits. I finished the begining of the book up until the recipes start.

One thing I love about this guide and cookbook is that there isn't a vast, overwhelming change in our diets by implementing it. It's not totally what we eat but how we prepare it; the ingredients we use; the method of deployment. For others, that might not be true.

Eating a Nourishing Traditions Diet requires preplanning and forethought. I have done this before, making lists of what we'll eat and when, but the difference here is that if you want pizza on Friday, you'd better start the dough Thursday. Want Ruben Sandwhiches? You need to plan at least 3 days prior.

This is a good thing. It's a way to make sure that when Friday rolls around I'm not standing with the fridge door open ho-humming about what we're going to have. The dough will be waiting for me. It also means my head needs to stay in the present. Not to say there aren't quick meals in the book too, but a lot of the main recipes call for some ingredient that requires fermenting.

It will be a challenge, I think, learning how and what and when to make things. But the health benefits to my family, the slow-down pace of planning will help level the balance on my maintenance/surpassing scale.

1+1 = mmmmmm

I love to use canning jars for single-serving-take-along ice teas. We're in Florida, ya'll, our lives center around good cold Sweet Tea. I've wanted to expand this so the kids could have some too but I've struggled making lemonade. No idea why, just couldn't get the water-lemon-sugar ratios right. Yesterday, a fellow blogger posted a lemonade recipe. Boy, is it good!

For the tea simply place one tea bag in each pint size jar and add boiling water leaving a little headroom for adding flavoring or sweetener. Steep for 10-15 minutes. Seal with a well fitting lid and refrigerate. Hubby likes his unsweet and I like mine sweet so I just make them all unsweet and add sugar to mine when I have one. It's easier than trying to figure out whos is whos.

Now, here's where life gets a little more interesting. I made Shaken Lemonade Iced Tea. Ohhhh. Now that I have a good solid lemonade recipe making my favorite after-coffee drink from you-know-where is easy. And a lot cheaper than the 3+ dollar drink.

Crystal's Shaken Lemonade Iced Tea

Make one jar of tea but reserve one additional empty jar. Make up the lemonade while it steeps. Pour half the tea into the empty jar and fill both jars the rest of the way with lemonade. It's THAT easy!

You can modify the ratios (I like that word today) to more tea or more lemonade per jar to taste.

Using jars makes it easy to grab some hydration to take out to the garden and the lids keep the bugs and dirt out too!

I scored some canning jar drinking cups at the local thrift store.

I got this whole lot for $1.82! So, if you don't have jars at the ready, before you go looking to buy new, see what you can find! Deals like this make the tea even sweeter.

Drinking Herbs

This is the start of my herb drinking collection. From left to right there is spearmint, lemon balm and chamomile. It's pretty much insane how much we spend on drinks. There's Starbucks, making my own coffee, juices, milk, soda, gatorade, Emergen-C, tea, hot coco, water, instant breakfast, almond milk (for Max since he's lactose sensitive), italian soda, and that's just whats in the house right now.

Though each seems to have a place and purpose so much of our bulk in groceries and space for storage, could be cut down if we changed our drinking habits. I think our general health overall would improve too. A few years ago I joined Jenny Craig. They told me that so many calories are ingested through drinks that are high in sugar but people don't realize it. After I took a real good look at that Venti mocha Frappucchino, I realized they were right. I've been better since then about balancing high calorie drinks with low calorie meals but I think I can be even better.

Cutting out the soda, gatorade and italian sodas would help my budget but also help lessen the need for supermarket stops and unneeded calories. We don't drink them that often (and the kids never get soda) but they are still expensive and nutritionally lacking. Harvesting our own ingredients is one more step to getting ourselves self-sufficient.

I bought some plants in hopes to create a stash of herbs for making teas and flavored waters to satisfy the desire for something other than water and also give us a supply of antioxdants and other vitamins. We have some lemon and lime trees in the front yard, lemon grass and balm, spearmint, chamomile and china black or green tea. It's not a lot, but its a begining. I'm hoping to find some good information on brewing your own teas and start experimenting when my dried stash gets a little larger.

Crystal's Pasta

One thing that has slowly changed since I've first gotten married and then mothered babes is my ability to cook. By no means am I a skilled chef. If you've ever been a guest or had me as a guest chances are you've eaten food I've made. I like feeding people.

It's one of those basic needs we all have. Food is the essence of life. I like contributing to others lives in simple ways. Needful ways.

A recipe I've fallen back on time and time again is this simple pasta dish shown above. It's simple and easy yet filling, hearty and packed with vitamins.

Step 1. go in the fridge/pantry/garden and collect a variety of veggies. Try and get a wide color spectrum. Chop them up into bit sized pieces.  (above I have 3 different color sweet peppers, canned black olives and tomatoes) You'll want about 2 cups of cut up veggies.

Step 2. Boil some water and cook up some pasta. Doesn't matter the kind really, we've used everything from spaghetti to ravoili and it always works out.

Step 3. Grab some pasta sauce or mash up some ripe tomatoes, you only want about a cup or two for a large pot of pasta. Warm it in the microwave or stovetop, don't cook it, just warm it up a bit. Toss in your diced up veggies and remove from heat. This will be really chunky.

Step 4. Drain the pasta and pour the sauce on top. Mix well and serve with a generous helping of Parmesean.

You can add salt and pepper or other spices if you like but I usually cook without it. Some ideas for veggies are:

artichoke hearts
roasted red peppers
raw peppers
raw tomatoes
fresh spinach
cucumber (yeah really)
eggplant
zucchini
various squashes
peas
carrots

You name it. This is a great way to use up the little bits of veggies you might have laying around and fast enough to make on a night when you forget what to make or have little time.

Enjoy!

Smoothies a la Me

I like smoothies in all their forms. Juice based, milk based, yogurt based. You say smoothie I say "yeah!" I've always thought it was a great way to use up too ripe fruit and get much needed vites into the kiddo's. I have just one little problem.

I don't know how to make a smoothie.

Well, that's not entirely true. I know how to get a packet of smoothie mix from the store and blend it with frozen fruit and milk but after that my knowledge, experience and confidence in smoothie making goes flying out the window. Right along with all the amazing benefits of this simple treat. I have friends that make smoothies with vegetables (vegetables!) and still I sat on the fence mystified, thinking there must be a book, a website, to learn from. Some carnal knowledge that is ingrained in their bones giving them the keys to successful smoothie making sans powdered mixes and hip juice joints.

So I asked, and guess what? they just winged it. I've been known for sucessfully winging. Heck, I do it daily with five kids running around. Maybe smoothie making isn't too far out of reach for me.

Yesterday, I set out to confront my uncomfortableness. That's part of this whole big scheme I have going on with farming. Looking at a project or problem and not walking away. Not taking the easy road and letting someone else do it. Standing up to it and my inadequacies and head butting them like one of the goats I want to raise.

I stuck some stuff in a blender.

That there is Kefir (another new headbutting thing I'm trying), Strawberries, raw Wheat Germ, organic Whole Milk, Kale and Honey. I only added one leaf of Kale for the whole smoothie. I might be ramming things with my head but I don't want a concussion. Easy, baby steps over here.

I had to tweak it a bit. The strawberries weren't very tasty, actually a bit too tart so I added about a tsp of Raw Sugar to round it out.

I might not have blended it quite enough, the Kale pieces were noticable and a bit large but I did get most of the kids to drink it and I had some too! I encourage you, if there is a thing you want to try but are unsure to just go ahead and do it. The final product might not be perfect but it'll be yours and it'll be good.

Hearty Healthy Pumpkin Muffins Recipe

I read somewhere that cupcakes are just an edible utencil for eating frosting. And if that's true than muffins are edible utencils for streusel. I *heart* streusel. More than homemade frosting. I've been tweaking this recipe for a few weeks and I think I have it to the point where I can confidently share it. I've added quite a few nutrition boosters to make this delicious treat a bit healthier food option.

 Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients

1/4 cup Salted Butter

1/2 cup Granulated Sugar

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 can of Pumpkin Puree

1/2 cup Heavy Cream

2 Eggs

2 tbs Black Strap Molassas

2 cups Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Cinamon

Pinch of All Spice

Pinch of Nutmeg

2tbs Raw Wheat Germ

2tbs freshly ground Flax Seed

Topping Ingredients (mix these all up)

2/3 cup Flour

1/4  cup Brown Sugar (or Raw Sugar)

1/2 cup Grain Mix*

1 tbs Wheat Germ

2tbs Salted Butter

*I used Bob's Redmill 5 grain oatmeal mix but you can use whatever mix or just plain non-quick cook oats

Directions
Preheat oven to 375. Cream the butter and both sugars together. Mix in the eggs one at a time until well blended. Add pumpkin and everything else wet, mix for thirty seconds. Add dry and mix well. Fill lined muffin tins 3/4 full. Add a tablespoon of topping to each and pat it down a bit to stick into the batter. Cook for 20-25 min until a toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool completely before removing liner. Maxkes 2 dozen muffins.

You can substitute regular molassas for the black strap and omit the flax and wheat germ if you like but those few ingredients will boost the health value of your muffins. My kids gobble these up (as do I and Rob) and the 2 dozen doesn't last but a day. Enjoy!

Egg Bowls Recipe

I took a lot of photos of this but it's another of my almost-not-a-recipe recipes. And I'm probably going to babble a lot. I got inspired by The Pioneer Woman's cookbook where she made little breakfast dishes for everyone. This is a similar recipe but without a lot of the work. Here's the basics

Scramble 9 eggs with 1 cup heavy cream, salt and pepper. This makes 6 10 oz ramekins.

Chop up a bunch of stuff you want to eat. We have orange and yellow peppers, bacon, cheese and spinach.

Spoon in eggs about half way filled. Then have everyone make their own bowls their way.

Place on a baking sheet and put in the oven on 350 for half an hour. Just keep checking to make sure all the egg is cooked.

And the above now looks like this:

Or this

Enjoy.