A toy and a treat

The other day I came across a post over on Zach Aboard,  and looking for something simple and fun for the children to play with in the garden it seemed just the thing. Flying comet balls, picture a comet flying through the air the tail ablaze. All that is needed is wool roving to make a felted ball, and a piece of silk for the tail. To make the ball all that is needed is dish soapy hot water and friction between the hands, yet do check the link above for a full tutorial if needed.

Once you have a dry felted ball,  sew a silk tail around the center of the ball, 

 throw it and watch it fly, simple as that...

The children had so much fun with these simple toys, not only throwing them high into the air and catching them, but also running or swinging with them watching the tail follow, 

so simple 

and such a joy for them.

Another inspiration came from Childhood Magic, I am always looking for fun ways to serve cold treats to the children on these hot summer days, they simply love anything that comes in frozen form, and these little frozen orange cups have now become the new favorite. Kaleena told me that this was her favorite dessert, so delicious!

All you do is squeeze the juice of and orange, or however many you are making (make sure the oranges are washed and organic, as the children end up with half the rind in their mouths), then simply pour the juice back into the orange "cups" and freeze.

For an extra treat, I used a piece of mango, and a few strawberries in the ones below, blended it with the juice and froze, we will have those tomorrow.

Kaleena kept checking on them right up until bed time, they may have to become breakfast tomorrow, she is so excited to have them. 

I was thinking that they would be a lovely treat for a children's celebration.

And remember (if you live where it gets cold in winter), to dry out your orange rinds in the sun, to use as fire starters and to scent your home with lovely orange on a cold winters day..

So grateful for all the lovely inspiration out there

~Have a wonderful day~

Sunday morning pancakes

Good sunday to y'all. 

We have a long standing tradition of sunday morning pancakes in this little family of ours.

We all love it and look forward to it.

What makes these pancakes especially delicious is the overnight soaking.

I use homemade buttermilk, well not true buttermilk because I do not YET make my own butter.

All you do to make homemade buttermilk, is add a bit of your previous batch, or some store bought so long as it has live cultures, to some milk and place it in a glass jar on top of the fridge over night, shaking it whenever you pass by it. The next morning it will have thickened, depending on the temperature it may need a little longer. Once thickened I set it in the fridge where is lasts for weeks if need be. I use a half gallon glass jar, put a little less than a pint (1/4 Liter) of buttermilk in it, and add my fresh milk to fill the jar to about 3/4 full.

Right, so back to the pancakes, for our family I use about a quart of my buttermilk, to this I add different kinds of flour, usually some whole wheat pastry, some whole spelt flour, a little white flour, I also add rolled oats, and last night I added some dried coconuts into the mix, which was a big hit.

Sorry I cannot give exact measurements as it is a little different every time, I go by texture, and the texture should be somewhat firm, yet you should still be able to stir it:)

Then I pop a lid on it and leave it over night.

The next morning I add two eggs, a pinch of cardamom, some vanilla, a little honey, a little salt, 2t of baking powder, and 1t of baking soda. Once this is all stirred in, the batter is really light and fluffy.

I heat up my black pan, I LOVE my cast iron skillet and rarely use anything else, can't say exactly why, I just do and it gets better with time, if you haven't yet you must try one:)

And then fry the pancakes as you usually would, I use a little butter.

So yummy, and because of the soaking they are really spongy, and so much easier for the body to digest.

They really feel much healthier this way. Because of this I generally soak any grain or flour before use.

(something I picked up from Sally Fallon some years ago)

Try soaking your oats overnight before making the oatmeal in the morning, they cook up so fast, and are much better for you. Ok, enough of that!

And I had to share this beauty from today, how gorgeous is that?! 

~Happy eating~

Green super goodness, and Kombucha update

Happy saturday to all!

 I wanted, among other things, to share one of our food passions; Spirulina, click for more info.

It is one of my husbands absolute favorite foods, second perhaps only to his "famous" pesto. Anyways being a mostly vegetarian family these spirulina shakes have really helped us get our protein needs filled.

Spirulina is a blue green algae and is packed full of  protein, 60% in fact, of pure vegetable, easy to digest protein, plus beta carotenes all your vitamin B's and all the other vitamin letters actually, and the list goes on. To make a shake, we use frozen bananas, we always keep broken up banana pieces in a container in the freezer, to these we add usually rice milk 

(cow milk some how seems to come out too heavy),  sometimes almond milk 

or on occasion soy milk.

Then we add raw honey and almond butter, blend it all up and enjoy. We have also added nutritional yeast, black strap molasses, soaked cashews or wheat germ all depending on what we have on hand.

Best of all the children LOVE these shakes, they have been raised on them and have no issue what so ever with the green fishy smell of the powder of the thick green consistency of the shake.

this is what the powder looks like (in case you are not familiar with this super food)

yum!!! Truly delicious..

No more pictures momma!!

And I wanted to share my Kombucha progress. A few weeks ago I set out to 

grow my own Kombucha mother, and two weeks later to brew my first batch using this mother. Today I enjoyed a first glass of this batch. It turned out so delicious, perfectly fizzy, not too sweet~perfect~ I am so happy with it, I mixed a glass with some of the echinacea syrup from the other day and that too tasted great, the children really liked it like this.

I poured the batch into two glass bottles and saved a quart to start a new batch.

(if anyone reading this is from the Asheville area, and would like a mother to start a batch, 

I now have an extra, if so leave a message in the comment section)

~May your day be wonderful~

Favorite tomato sauce, eggplant and wild greens lasagne and rhubarb crumble

Since entering this vast blogging world, I have been ever so inspired by some of 

the recipes I have found here ( as well as obviously an abundance of craft projects ). Therefor I thought I would share some of the things cooking in our kitchen.

The other day, there was a great sale on organic tomatoes, although not quite in season here yet, they had not travelled too far, so I got about 4 pounds and set out to make our favorite tomato sauce.

When tomatoes are in season here I will usually get a lot more (besides what I grow) and make enough to freeze. I use this sauce for many things, on pasta, in lasagna, in curries, in beans, on pizza and whatever else I can think of. Like is often the case I do not use a recipe.

In this sauce I used; 

olive oil

1 large onion

7-8 cloves of garlic (love garlic)

about 4 pounds of tomatoes

splash or two balsamic vinegar

3T or so rapadura (sugar)

good handful of fresh herbs on hand; basil, oregano and parsley

1 small glass jar tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

First I fry up the onion and garlic in the oil until translucent, then I add the balsamic vinegar and rapadura, and let this simmer for a few minutes, I think that this is the secret to this lovely sauce, then again perhaps everyone does it like this:)

Then I cut up all the tomatoes and add them, unlike most I do not skin the tomatoes first, one of these days I will take the time to do this, but as of yet I have not done it.

I add the tomato paste and the fresh herbs, and leave to simmer for quite a while with the lid on. A couple of hours at least. If I had my hand blender I would blend part or all of it. But mine broke and I have not gotten another, and I like it just as well without the blending, the children like it blended though.

Kaleena has been asking for lasagna, so part of the sauce was used for that.

I used eggplant to layer instead of pasta this time. And used lambs quarters, a wild weedy green rich in vitamins, and kale instead of spinach. I skinned a large eggplant (for the children mostly) and cut it into thins slices, put it on a baking sheet, drizzled with olive oil and set in the oven on 375 until soft, I turned them after about 15 minutes. Mean while I steamed my greens and in a bowl mixed them with a tub of ricotta cheese, and added a bit of salt.

Then in a large pyrex pan, I layered first tomato sauce, then the eggplant, then the cheese mixture, then another layer of eggplant and another layer of tomato sauce, topped it with mozzarella cheese, and cooked in the oven till bubbly and brown on top. Lovely, one of our favorites for sure.

And lastly I would like to share this rhubarb crumble delight. It is a recipe from my sister, with a few additions. It is sweet and sour and crunchy. And served warm with vanilla ice cream yum!!!

It goes; (please excuse the metric measurements, this is a danish recipe)

1kilo fresh rhubarb

150g gram sugar (rapadura)

3T flour

Topping;

100grams of soft butter (almost one stick)

125grams of brown sugar

2T sugar (rapadura)

150grams of flour

1/4t cinnamon

50grams of walnuts.

To this i also added raspberries and an apple.

Cut up the rhubarb in little pieces, mix with sugar and flour (plus apple pieces and raspberries)

Put them in a greased pan.

In a bowl cream butter, brown sugar and sugar, and stir in flour and cinnamon.

Chop the walnuts and add them to the mixture. Now crumble this over the rhubarb mixture.

Put the dish in the oven at 350 for about 35 minutes, or until brown and crunchy on top.

Serve with vanilla ice cream, yum!!! So delicious.

That is some of what we have been cooking and enjoying this past week.

I hope you enjoy!

~happy eating~

Green Salve

This green salve is something we have been using since we moved to these mountains and were introduced to it almost 4 years ago. The children love it, as do I, and we use it for any and all skin ailments. Bites, rashes, stings, 

bruises, scrapes and more.

It works wonderfully soothing and is so easy to make.

Inspired by A handmade life, I added dried calendula flowers this time.

Otherwise we added the same herbs as we added to our poison ivy spray.

Lots of Comfrey, plantain and some jewel weed, we also added some dandelion leaves.

chopped it all up, added the dried calendula flowers and poured a bottle of  Grape seed oil over it.

Left it in the oven for the whole day on the lowest temperature.

Then left it to strain over night

melted some wax 

and added the melted wax to the warmed up oil, if the oil isn't warm the wax will separate when added,

and here is lovely green goodness, ready for all those summer itches, scratches and bruises.

~Green Blessings~

Grow your own Kombucha Mother.

Last year we started brewing our own Kombucha tea, it is such a wonderful fizzy bitter sweet fermented drink with the added benefit of being extremely good for you on so many levels.

Back then a friend gave us a "mother" or SCOBY as the are called, which is the starter culture needed when brewing at home. I did not keep my batch going or I would have still had a mother. (with each batch, the mother grows a "baby", a new mother )

So when I started craving this wonderful drink again I started asking around and could not find an available mother. I asked at the local farmers market, and found one for sale for $20, which was just more than I wanted to spend, so with some research I realized that I could easily grow my own, 

and so I did.

I started with about a quart of boiling sterilized water to which I added two bags of green tea( you may also use black or white tea, but not herbal tea). I boiled the tea bags for a couple of minutes, then turned it off, and let the bags steep for I'd say 15 minutes or so. I rarely follow any recipe completely, and I am sure there are many ways to do this. Then I added sugar, a necessary ingredient for the fermentation process,  I added about 4T of sugar, and the let it cool to room temperature.

Then I poured my sweetened tea into a glass jar, must be glass, and added a bottle of store bought raw organic Kombucha,( The Raw Kombucha can be bought in any health food store) no flavors added, covered with a cloth, cheese cloth or other, and set aside in a warm place out of direct sunlight.

after one week, bubbles started appearing on the surface, a sign that the fermenting is happening

and after two weeks my new mother or SCOBY was ready

this is a look at it from the top

So tonight I started brewing my first batch.

Again I boiled sterilized water and added 7 or 8 green tea bags, like before you may use black or white tea, traditionally black tea is used I believe. Let it steep for about 15 minutes add about 1.5 cup of sugar, let it cool to room temperature, then I poured it into a 1 gallon glass jar, added 1 quart of already brewed live Kombucha ( I used what I had grown the mother in ), and added sterilized water almost to the top of the jar. Then I took my newly grown mother and laid it carefully to float on the top, facing the same way as I had taken it out, covered with cloth, put is back in its dark warm place, and there it will sit for about two weeks when I will pour off my fresh batch and start a new batch, remembering to save a quart for my new batch, plus I will have an new mother to share with a friend.

( I am also working on an experiment to see if I can grow a mother without the use of a bottle of already made Kombucha, I will post the results when I have an answer )

Lovely homemade goodness, I am looking forward!

Homemade granola and Trail mix cookies

On our recent trip to Virginia, our dear friend had made a big batch of cookies for our arrival, they were so delicious that I took home the recipe and here is how I made them.

They call for granola and since I did not have any at home and haven't made granola for a long time I decided to make it myself.

This is what we did;

Mix together;
1 cup of rolled oats
1 cup of rolled whole wheat
1/2 cup dried shredded coconut
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup hulled sunflower seeds
7 tsp sesame seeds

Now heat to just under a boil 5 T honey, 5 tsp vegetable or coconut oil and 1 tsp vanilla.
Mix with dry ingredients. Spread in thin layer.
Bake at 325 Fahrenheit for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

(I baked it much lower and much longer, almost like dehydrating it, I baked it as low as the owen would go and kept it in almost all day.)

When the color starts to change to brown it is done, it does not get crunchy until cool.
Then add 1/4 cup seedless raisins or other dried fruit. Be sure to stir in fruit while granola is still warm.

The granola on its own was delicious and we had it for breakfast with fresh milk.

The next day we made the cookies.

Here is what we used;

1/2 cup salted butter

6T peanut butter

1/2 cup of sugar (I use Rapadura , a less processed kind of sugar made from whole sugar cane)

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 t vanilla extract

3T wheat germ

1/4 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

1 cup flour

1cup granola

1/2 cup lightly chopped pecans

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat owen to 375F.

Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

I had my little helper in the kitchen to help with the machinery.

Then beat in egg, wheat germ and vanilla. Add baking soda, salt and flour.

Then my faithful helper stirred in granola, pecans, raisins and chocolate

yum!!!!

We then dropped rounded spoonfuls on a non greased baking sheet, leave room between as they spread,

and bake for 12-14 minutes

My proud helper, always in the kitchen the minute I start anything.

These are very yummy cookies..

And because I have no flower photo to end on, I thought I would share this colorful

picture of our curry dinner. I picked up this recipe over on

  A Handmade Life, check for recipe and other inspiration on this sweet blog. We had this curry with rice one night and fresh bread the next and still had leftover to freeze. It too is Yummy!

Bon Appetite