The theme of this week is: everybody wants a piece! I said this to my friend Nikol on sunday when she asked why I was half an hour late to Sunday School. Walking from the chapel to Sunday School I was stopped 5 times! I'm very in demand, in case you haven't heard. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been stopped 5 times on their way to Sunday School, or anywhere else for that matter. In addition to working with the teenage girls at church I was also recently asked to co-head a community garden for our church congregation. And I was informed on Sunday that I am a member of the activities committee by default since I work with the youth, shoulda read that fine print. Anyway, my house is a wreck because it seems like every waking moment is spent doing and planning and going to meetings and such things. I'm not complaining, just busy and excited about new things that are happening, especially that community garden! Still, the housework suffers. This morning I succumbed to the messy house and stopped begging Jonas to pick up the dominoes, and watched The Jane Austen Book Club while I made train tracks out of dominoes with Jonas, who, I might add, has actual train tracks but obviously prefers dominoes. My life can't be too busy if I can watch a movie on a thursday morning. Right? Actually I did run on the treadmill for 20 minutes during the movie, and we ate breakfast, so it wasn't a total waste.
I was in a meeting a few weeks ago, regarding working with the youth in our church and one thing that was said struck me, "some things matter and some things don't." Yep. This is my justification for not vaccuming all week. That's right. All. Week.
Aaaaaand, the phone just rang, I've been asked to go camping for a week in July with a million teenage girls. When you're hot, you're hot.
How's your week going?
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Bread!
I've been making our bread for almost two years! I still can't believe it's been that long. Anyway, I've learned a lot about making bread in the past two years, please benefit from my experience.
First and foremost, there is no such thing as good, homemade, entirely whole wheat bread. It can't be done. I don't care what you say about hard white wheat versus hard red wheat, etc. etc. It can't be done. It can't I say! I've tried damn near everything I can think of (and then some) and every single time it ceases to rise and I am left with a bread brick.
That being said, all white bread is not good for you, and as my good friend Ingrid points out, it's disgusting when it sticks to the roof of your mouth...like superglue. Indeed. So, here's how I make bread, works like a charm every time:
Dissolve 1 Tablespoon of yeast in a quarter cup of hot water. I used to use a candy thermometer to test the water, until I realized it's not life and death, just feel the water with your hand, it should be warm enough to dissolve the yeast but not so hot that it'll kill it. I've never had yeast die on me so don't fret.
When the yeast is dissolved add two cups of lukewarm water or milk. I usually use water, unless I'm feeling fancy, it's so hard to get the milk temp just right. And by "so hard" I mean, It requires an extra dish...and dishes have to be washed (sometimes BY HAND! can you believe such cruelties exist? I've been washing every.single.dish by hand all week, it takes forever. The new dishwasher was installed today! HOLLA! It is a thing of beauty, but I digress.)
Add two tablespoons sugar or agave, or honey or molasses or whatever sweetener/yeast food you desire. Add two teaspoons salt, to keep the yeast in check.
Add 1 cup wheat bran, 1 cup flax seed meal, and 1 cup white flour, stir until it's smoothish. Add 1 more cup white flour and stir it for five minutes or so until it becomes stretchy and the gluten begins to develop. Contrary to what many believe yeast is not entirely responsible for the bread rising A LOT depends on the gluten in the bread, stirring at this point and kneading later develop the gluten and will give you a loftier, prettier loaf.
Add another cup white flour (or wheat flour if you want) and dump the contents of the bowl out onto a floured surface, knead in the remaining 1-2 cups flour, it's not exact just knead flour in until it's not so sticky, if you fear the dough is getting too stiff with flour but still is quite sticky then stop adding flour and use a little oil on your hands to knead the dough. This works brilliantly. Some people suggest that 20 minutes of kneading time is ideal, others say it's impossible to over-knead bread and that the longer you knead the better. Just knead the dough until it's smooth, if you have time (and desire) beyond that to keep kneading, go for it, otherwise move on.
Grease the mixing bowl (or don't. The world won't end if you don't) and put the dough back in to rise, cover the bowl with a wet cloth. The wet cloth is somewhat important because sometimes dough can form a thin crust type surface that inhibits the rising. After it's doubled in size (like a half hour to an hour) divide the dough in half and form it into log shapes, let it rise for another hour or so in greased loaf pans, when they're almost bread loaf size bake them, they'll rise a little more as they bake. Bake at 375 for 30ish minutes. They're done when you tap on the top and it sounds hollow. Enjoy!
First and foremost, there is no such thing as good, homemade, entirely whole wheat bread. It can't be done. I don't care what you say about hard white wheat versus hard red wheat, etc. etc. It can't be done. It can't I say! I've tried damn near everything I can think of (and then some) and every single time it ceases to rise and I am left with a bread brick.
That being said, all white bread is not good for you, and as my good friend Ingrid points out, it's disgusting when it sticks to the roof of your mouth...like superglue. Indeed. So, here's how I make bread, works like a charm every time:
Dissolve 1 Tablespoon of yeast in a quarter cup of hot water. I used to use a candy thermometer to test the water, until I realized it's not life and death, just feel the water with your hand, it should be warm enough to dissolve the yeast but not so hot that it'll kill it. I've never had yeast die on me so don't fret.
When the yeast is dissolved add two cups of lukewarm water or milk. I usually use water, unless I'm feeling fancy, it's so hard to get the milk temp just right. And by "so hard" I mean, It requires an extra dish...and dishes have to be washed (sometimes BY HAND! can you believe such cruelties exist? I've been washing every.single.dish by hand all week, it takes forever. The new dishwasher was installed today! HOLLA! It is a thing of beauty, but I digress.)
Add two tablespoons sugar or agave, or honey or molasses or whatever sweetener/yeast food you desire. Add two teaspoons salt, to keep the yeast in check.
Add 1 cup wheat bran, 1 cup flax seed meal, and 1 cup white flour, stir until it's smoothish. Add 1 more cup white flour and stir it for five minutes or so until it becomes stretchy and the gluten begins to develop. Contrary to what many believe yeast is not entirely responsible for the bread rising A LOT depends on the gluten in the bread, stirring at this point and kneading later develop the gluten and will give you a loftier, prettier loaf.
Add another cup white flour (or wheat flour if you want) and dump the contents of the bowl out onto a floured surface, knead in the remaining 1-2 cups flour, it's not exact just knead flour in until it's not so sticky, if you fear the dough is getting too stiff with flour but still is quite sticky then stop adding flour and use a little oil on your hands to knead the dough. This works brilliantly. Some people suggest that 20 minutes of kneading time is ideal, others say it's impossible to over-knead bread and that the longer you knead the better. Just knead the dough until it's smooth, if you have time (and desire) beyond that to keep kneading, go for it, otherwise move on.
Grease the mixing bowl (or don't. The world won't end if you don't) and put the dough back in to rise, cover the bowl with a wet cloth. The wet cloth is somewhat important because sometimes dough can form a thin crust type surface that inhibits the rising. After it's doubled in size (like a half hour to an hour) divide the dough in half and form it into log shapes, let it rise for another hour or so in greased loaf pans, when they're almost bread loaf size bake them, they'll rise a little more as they bake. Bake at 375 for 30ish minutes. They're done when you tap on the top and it sounds hollow. Enjoy!
Monday, May 17, 2010
It's About Time
So, sorry the blog has been super lame lately but, well, these things happen. I would tell you that I lost the camera, and felt hesitant to publish pictureless posts (because that's the truth) but honestly how many times have I used that excuse? It's startin' to look a little thin. Anyway, found the camera! Things in the garden have been keeping me on my toes. Also I helped my BFF Nikol put in her very first garden, exciting stuff. And I was put in charge of a gardening bulletin board display at church. It's been a month for gardening, to say the least. We're beginning to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of our labor, we had zucchini orzo for dinner last night, and jonas and I have been eating the first few strawberries and green (or purple) beans right off the plants. Can't wait til everything's coming full force. I broke down and bought a harvesting bucket (at target for like 2 bucks, you can't beat that) because the kitchen collanders we used last year were less than ideal. Now we eagerly await things to fill them with.
Here's our avocado tree that was started from a pit YEARS ago. Who thought things would turn out so well? Finally it's in the ground!
What a face!
Our herb garden in the works, I'm really pleased with the way it's starting to fill in. You can see the raspberries in the background. They've certainly taken off this year, 20 new plants at last count, and all from last years 1 plant!
Check out the size of this chard root. I finally dug up the super chard about a month or so ago. It was a sad day.
Our newest cleared spot. Eventhough it's halfway into May I have just gotten around to weeding and mulching this bed. Honestly it's not my favorite, eventhough it gets the most sun of anywhere else in the yard, a large chunk of it is riddled with fusarium wilt. Life's just not fair. But the tangerine tree is coming right along, as you can see all of the weeds went toward mulching said tree.
I'm staying my hand and allowing the lettuces to go to seed...hence I'll have seed for next year.
This is one section of our square foot garden, shown here are Sunberries, Sunflower, corn, beans and alyssum.
Here's our square foot garden from afar. It is a thng of beauty. I keep saying to my husband: LOOK HOW PRETTY OUR GARDEN IS! I just can't believe it, after living here for 4 years we're finally cookin' in the gardening department.
Our pitiful little three sister's garden. The soil in this area hasn't been worked as much as other areas of the yard. It sorely needs some mulch, maybe I'll get to that tomorrow.
A row of tomatoes, including: brandywine, beefsteak, yellow pear, jelly bean, speckled roman and other random heirloom varieties. I took this picture a few days ago and already the plants are much bigger. I dug a few out today and transfered them to my mother-in-law's garden. They were just too crowded.
Jonas kept saying "picture me by the strawberries, Mom! Picture me by the strawberries!" The kid loves his strawberries, and his awesome sesame street underpants...perfect for swimmin'!
Hope all is well at your homesteads!
Here's our avocado tree that was started from a pit YEARS ago. Who thought things would turn out so well? Finally it's in the ground!
What a face! 
Our herb garden in the works, I'm really pleased with the way it's starting to fill in. You can see the raspberries in the background. They've certainly taken off this year, 20 new plants at last count, and all from last years 1 plant! 
Check out the size of this chard root. I finally dug up the super chard about a month or so ago. It was a sad day. 
Our newest cleared spot. Eventhough it's halfway into May I have just gotten around to weeding and mulching this bed. Honestly it's not my favorite, eventhough it gets the most sun of anywhere else in the yard, a large chunk of it is riddled with fusarium wilt. Life's just not fair. But the tangerine tree is coming right along, as you can see all of the weeds went toward mulching said tree.
I'm staying my hand and allowing the lettuces to go to seed...hence I'll have seed for next year.
This is one section of our square foot garden, shown here are Sunberries, Sunflower, corn, beans and alyssum. 
Here's our square foot garden from afar. It is a thng of beauty. I keep saying to my husband: LOOK HOW PRETTY OUR GARDEN IS! I just can't believe it, after living here for 4 years we're finally cookin' in the gardening department. 
Our pitiful little three sister's garden. The soil in this area hasn't been worked as much as other areas of the yard. It sorely needs some mulch, maybe I'll get to that tomorrow. 
A row of tomatoes, including: brandywine, beefsteak, yellow pear, jelly bean, speckled roman and other random heirloom varieties. I took this picture a few days ago and already the plants are much bigger. I dug a few out today and transfered them to my mother-in-law's garden. They were just too crowded.
Jonas kept saying "picture me by the strawberries, Mom! Picture me by the strawberries!" The kid loves his strawberries, and his awesome sesame street underpants...perfect for swimmin'! Hope all is well at your homesteads!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Anything Not Pertaining to Elephants is Irrelephant
I should really be cleaning the kitchen...or the bathrooms...or the living room...or folding the laundry...
Last weekend I attended a double baby shower. One of the women was having a boy and the other a girl. Since last week I also had to finish up easter projects I needed something quick to make for a gift. After searching and searching on google for a stuffed animal tutorial I came up with these myself.
Pretty cut and dry, two elephant shaped pieces, sewn, stuffed, embroidered. The best part is they cost next to nothing to make! The gray fleece was found in a Joann's remnant bin forever ago and both pink fabrics are from thrift store sheets. I'd like to make more to put up in my etsy shop (it would be great to finally get SOMETHING in there) but have yet to find the time, the garden is quite demanding this time of year. There are 9 pregnant women in my church congregation all due by october, so there are quite a few baby showers coming up, I better get crackin' on the baby gifts. My bff Nikol and I are the only young, unpregnant women left in the ward. I swear if one more person tells me it's my "turn" to get pregnant I will punch them in the face. Seriously, right in the face. But I digress. Here are more elephant pictures.
As I said in an earlier post, there are potatoes cropping up EVERYWHERE. I've been pulling them out all week and on tuesday I got a pleasant surprise. These!
Potatoes under a potato plant, who would have thought? We had them in a chickenless chicken soup...since we're all sick at our house. I'll admit it's a pretty measly harvest, but let me remind you that none of these potato plants were planted intentionally. They all came from the compost. Next year I'll purposefully plant them in the compost and anticipate a heathy harvest, since I know they love growing there.
Here's a rambling story about garden promises I've made myself...and broken. Remember the chard that never stops giving that has actually stopped giving to go to seed? I'm sure you do, I never shut up about it. It was actually a sad, runty little chard to begin with. I was actually going to pull it out to make room for more zucchini last year but decided to leave it alone, mostly because after spreading a truckload of mulch I lacked the motivation to bend down and pull it out. And look what came of it! See, sometimes laziness really pays off! But that is not the point of this story. After seeing the chard take off I vowed to never pull out a productive food plant, no matter how small, if it's still producing leave it be. The same goes for volunteer plants, oh how I love them, they always produce more food than puposefully planted ones. Well obviously I've broken my promise to myself in pulling out all of the potatoes, and yes I regret it. Who knows the bounty I could have harvested if I had left them alone. I've learned my lesson...again...and this time the hard, potato-less way. Don't make the same mistakes I do. Anyone else have fun volunteer or victorious underdog plant stories?
Last weekend I attended a double baby shower. One of the women was having a boy and the other a girl. Since last week I also had to finish up easter projects I needed something quick to make for a gift. After searching and searching on google for a stuffed animal tutorial I came up with these myself.
Pretty cut and dry, two elephant shaped pieces, sewn, stuffed, embroidered. The best part is they cost next to nothing to make! The gray fleece was found in a Joann's remnant bin forever ago and both pink fabrics are from thrift store sheets. I'd like to make more to put up in my etsy shop (it would be great to finally get SOMETHING in there) but have yet to find the time, the garden is quite demanding this time of year. There are 9 pregnant women in my church congregation all due by october, so there are quite a few baby showers coming up, I better get crackin' on the baby gifts. My bff Nikol and I are the only young, unpregnant women left in the ward. I swear if one more person tells me it's my "turn" to get pregnant I will punch them in the face. Seriously, right in the face. But I digress. Here are more elephant pictures.
As I said in an earlier post, there are potatoes cropping up EVERYWHERE. I've been pulling them out all week and on tuesday I got a pleasant surprise. These!
Potatoes under a potato plant, who would have thought? We had them in a chickenless chicken soup...since we're all sick at our house. I'll admit it's a pretty measly harvest, but let me remind you that none of these potato plants were planted intentionally. They all came from the compost. Next year I'll purposefully plant them in the compost and anticipate a heathy harvest, since I know they love growing there. Here's a rambling story about garden promises I've made myself...and broken. Remember the chard that never stops giving that has actually stopped giving to go to seed? I'm sure you do, I never shut up about it. It was actually a sad, runty little chard to begin with. I was actually going to pull it out to make room for more zucchini last year but decided to leave it alone, mostly because after spreading a truckload of mulch I lacked the motivation to bend down and pull it out. And look what came of it! See, sometimes laziness really pays off! But that is not the point of this story. After seeing the chard take off I vowed to never pull out a productive food plant, no matter how small, if it's still producing leave it be. The same goes for volunteer plants, oh how I love them, they always produce more food than puposefully planted ones. Well obviously I've broken my promise to myself in pulling out all of the potatoes, and yes I regret it. Who knows the bounty I could have harvested if I had left them alone. I've learned my lesson...again...and this time the hard, potato-less way. Don't make the same mistakes I do. Anyone else have fun volunteer or victorious underdog plant stories?
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Goings On
Well the Spring garden seems to be wrapping things up slowly but surely.
Here's what we reaped from half a square foot of carrots. The other half of the square foot was just as bountiful and the other square feet lived up to the standard.
We didn't freeze any carrots because Jonas promptly ate them. The day we harvested them Jonas ate 8 big carrots and a string cheese for lunch. Lunch of champions.
Why has the chard grown so tall? And stopped making leaves lower down?
Here's why, because it's going to seed. Dun Dun DUN! I'm very sad about this. In mourning even. This trusty little plant (big plant) has fed us almost every day this past year. You just can't beat that.
But fear not, the little chards are coming right along and will be keeping us well stocked in no time.
Potatoes are springing up EVERYWHERE this spring and it is quite inconvenient. This was supposed to be a grow heap for squashes and melons, but squashes and melons are not good companion plants for potatoes and I can't get the dang things to go away, no matter how many times I hack them to the ground. So it will be a grow heap for potatoes and tomatoes instead.
Here are the fava beans. I'm not quite sure what they are doing. They've been making blossoms for about a month, but not a bean in sight. What is that about? They're lucky they're a nitrogen fixer or I'd have pulled them out long ago to make space for a tomato or two.
Here's what we reaped from half a square foot of carrots. The other half of the square foot was just as bountiful and the other square feet lived up to the standard.
We didn't freeze any carrots because Jonas promptly ate them. The day we harvested them Jonas ate 8 big carrots and a string cheese for lunch. Lunch of champions.
Why has the chard grown so tall? And stopped making leaves lower down?
Here's why, because it's going to seed. Dun Dun DUN! I'm very sad about this. In mourning even. This trusty little plant (big plant) has fed us almost every day this past year. You just can't beat that.
But fear not, the little chards are coming right along and will be keeping us well stocked in no time.
Potatoes are springing up EVERYWHERE this spring and it is quite inconvenient. This was supposed to be a grow heap for squashes and melons, but squashes and melons are not good companion plants for potatoes and I can't get the dang things to go away, no matter how many times I hack them to the ground. So it will be a grow heap for potatoes and tomatoes instead.
Here are the fava beans. I'm not quite sure what they are doing. They've been making blossoms for about a month, but not a bean in sight. What is that about? They're lucky they're a nitrogen fixer or I'd have pulled them out long ago to make space for a tomato or two.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Humus In A Hurry
No, not hummus...Humus! Humus is the long lasting remnant of decaying organic material. It improves soil structure and increases water retention. Gardens LOVE humus. I actually read a blog once where a woman was so desperate for humus in her soil that she put a bunch of compostables through her kitchen blender. Yikes! Here's a way to get rid of weeds (and their seeds) and make wonderful garden humus in a hurry (and by hurry I mean two weeks...this is sans blender, people).
About this time each year the weeds are going crazy. I just can't pull them all before they go to seed. Observe:
And of course just throwing seedy weeds into the compost pile would leave their seeds unscathed and prepared to sprout in next year's garden. I know there are those out there who feel my pain. Here's what you do. Put all of your weeds into a bucket. I usually tote a bucket around with me while weeding and when it's full move onto the next step. The next step is filling the bucket with water and covering it. At first it will look like this:
Cover it with whatever you want, this step is to essentially keep mosquitoes from spawning. I even used a pizza box once with a brick on top. I like to keep things classy. Leave your bucket to rot (lovely) for two weeks. Here's what it looks like at the end of one week:
At the end of two weeks it should be good and black and ready to be poured into a compost pile or garden bed or lawn or whatever. Be warned, it smells like death. Seriously. But in the end you'll live through it, it'll kill all of the weed seeds and your soil will be all the better for it.
About this time each year the weeds are going crazy. I just can't pull them all before they go to seed. Observe:
And of course just throwing seedy weeds into the compost pile would leave their seeds unscathed and prepared to sprout in next year's garden. I know there are those out there who feel my pain. Here's what you do. Put all of your weeds into a bucket. I usually tote a bucket around with me while weeding and when it's full move onto the next step. The next step is filling the bucket with water and covering it. At first it will look like this:
Cover it with whatever you want, this step is to essentially keep mosquitoes from spawning. I even used a pizza box once with a brick on top. I like to keep things classy. Leave your bucket to rot (lovely) for two weeks. Here's what it looks like at the end of one week:
At the end of two weeks it should be good and black and ready to be poured into a compost pile or garden bed or lawn or whatever. Be warned, it smells like death. Seriously. But in the end you'll live through it, it'll kill all of the weed seeds and your soil will be all the better for it.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
i have the best friends ever
The re-posting begins. So as stated in the previous post I was a dummy and erased a TON of blog posts. But I have the best BFF ever. She painstakingly (and time consumingly) copied all of the missing blog posts from her google reader into an email for me...without being asked!!! Couldn't you just cry from joy? No? Well I could. I'll start re-posting things soon -as in, immediately after this post if the wee one keeps sleepin- I appologize in advance to you followers for inundating you with previously read material. Bear with me. And a million thanks again Nikol, surely this will pass into legend.
And, I am twice blessed because my friend Ingrid's husband Richard left me 4 trash cans full of good black compost.
Make that thrice blessed, my husband and father-in-law got me a nice truck bed full of compost from a place up the street.
I'm in heaven. I told my husband it's like Christmas morning. And it totally is.
Yesterday I traded a large bowl of lettuce and 9 tomato seedlings with the aforementioned BFF Nikol in exchange for three large bags of oranges. How lovely. We had orange juice with breakfast. Nothing beats the feeling of growing your own food, or raising it, or swapping it. The wee one is waking. Look forward to post flashbacks soon:). It's probably best I go, dinner don't make itself, am I right? :)
And, I am twice blessed because my friend Ingrid's husband Richard left me 4 trash cans full of good black compost.
Make that thrice blessed, my husband and father-in-law got me a nice truck bed full of compost from a place up the street.
I'm in heaven. I told my husband it's like Christmas morning. And it totally is.
Yesterday I traded a large bowl of lettuce and 9 tomato seedlings with the aforementioned BFF Nikol in exchange for three large bags of oranges. How lovely. We had orange juice with breakfast. Nothing beats the feeling of growing your own food, or raising it, or swapping it. The wee one is waking. Look forward to post flashbacks soon:). It's probably best I go, dinner don't make itself, am I right? :)
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