Grammie Hot line

Wheat Nut Bread with photos

2012-01-16T15:42:00.000-08:00

I like trying a new recipe for bread.

This one is wonderful and I'd only make one change.

Be careful with how much flour you use. The dough can get much too dry, so add your flour slowly and

I'll explain as we go.

Wheat Nut bread

From The Complete Book Of BREADS
By Bernard Clayton, Jr.

2 (8.5 X4.5" pans)

Ingredients: 3 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups warm water (105-115 degrees F)

2 tablespoons or 2 packages of dry yeast

1 pinch of sugar

1/4 cup honey ( I used Agave syrup)

1 tablespoon salt

2.5 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup non-fat dry milk

3 tablespoons of oil

1/2 cup walnuts broken

1/2 cup seedless raisins

Lightly grease your bread pans.

In a large bowl

(I'm going to do the kneading in my mixer so I'll do all this pre-knead work

in my mixer bowl.)

Measure the whole wheat flour and make a well in the center. Pour warm water in the well and sprinkle the yeast on top. Stir yeast into the water with a metal whisk or fork to quicken the action. Add the pinch of sugar and let stand for 3 minutes.

You have not stirred in the flour you are working on top of the flour.

with a large wooden spoon pull the flour into the yeast mixture-stir

until all of the flour is wet.

I let my kitchen aid mix this part up

Add the honey, salt and 1 cup of white all purpose flour and dry milk.

Stir in veggie oil, nuts and raisins.

Beat until blended and smooth-about 100 strokes

Add all-purpose flour a little at a time until the dough is

stiff and cleans the side of the bowl.

Now is it ready for kneading.

This is where you have to be careful.

Wheat flour can just gobble up moisture

if you add too much flour the dough is much too dry.

I was very close to too dry on my batch

but I try to follow a recipe as is the first time

I only added 1 1/2 cups of the all purpose flour.

I think I would have rather

cut the whole wheat flour by 1/2 cup

and added a bit more white flour.

Still the bread is wonderful and I think my changes

can only add to a great loaf!

Kneading:

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured board or counter top

and knead about 75 push-turn-fold-stokes.

The dough will be stiff, bouncy but not as elastic as white dough.

It may be slightly tacky but not sticky. Keep flour on your fingers.

This is the beautiful kneading job the mixer did!

Place the ball of dough in a large bowl which has been

greased with a little oil. roll the ball around to coat it in oil

wheat dough dries out very fast so make sure you oil it.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap and put in a warm place

until double in bulk.

You can test if it has risen by poking a finger in it,

the dent will remain if risen.

Punch down the dough and knead for 30 seconds to press out the air bubbles.
With a sharp knife divide the dough in two balls.

Form each into a ball and let rest under a towel for 4 minutes.

Shaping

Press ball of dough into a flat oval, roughly the length of the baking pan

Roll the oval up pinching the seam tightly as you go.
Tuck the ends under and place in the pan, seam down.
Repeat with other loaf.

This is where I can really see the dough is too dry to connect to it's self.

Place the pans in a warm place, cover with wax paper and leave until

the center of the dough has risen 1/2 inch above the level of the edge of the pan.

This is about 45 minutes in a warm house.

I always raise whole wheat bread nice and high!

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake loaves in a fully heated oven.

When the loaves are dark brown and

tapping the bottom of the crust yields

a hard and hollow sound they are done.

This is about 40 minutes.

Shift the pans twice during the baking period, starting at half the baking time)
so they can be exposed to the variations in the oven equally.

Remove bread from the oven and place loaves on a wire cooling rack.

I butter the loaves with a bar of butter rubbed all over the sides,

bottom, and top of the loaf. This makes the crust nice and soft

for the kids. I learned this from my grandmother who made all
her bread, always, for her family of eight. YIKES.

If you did get too much flour in your recipe count on the kids

taking the crust off because it gets very heavy and thick.

See that hole in the right side of the bread that

was the dry dough not sticking to it's self.

Very tasty, wonderful bread!

You can leave out the nuts and raisins

but they are the best part!

If you have walnut sensitivity use sunflower seeds

They really are wonderful in bread!

Bread recipe for sandwich bread

2012-01-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

I know you want to start with the healthiest bread possible.

If only you knew what they put in commercial whole wheat bread.
You would not mind the bit of white flour my recipe has to
make this good sandwich bread.

Any wheat based product is becoming so expensive none of us can afford it.

This is carried to the home made bread range.
You may find flour
to be as costly as buying bread.

All you can cut is the price of labor and transport, which you will do for yourself.

Let me start you on a loaf that just tastes wonderful.
It was my go to loaf for toast

and sandwiches.
It has milk and butter, bran and honey in it.....
I know of bread recipes with none of that richness.
But try this once and convince yourself you can make good bread
before you start on the other recipes.

Honey-bran bread

from Better Than Store-Bought (1979)

1 1/2 Cups of milk (you must scald milk if using with yeast products)

1/2 Stick (4 tablespoons) butter (can be unsalted)

1/3 cup honey (honey draws moisture to bread keeping it fresh)

4 teas salt (we use so much less now)

1/2 cup warm (110 degree) water

2 teas sugar

2 tablespoon or 2 packages of dry yeast

(NOT instant yeast used in bread machines)

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup unprocessed coarse bran (not toasted)

4 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour as needed

2-3 tablespoons melter butter to brush on loaves

(you can use oil or a cube of butter just rubbed over the hot bread,

keeps the crust from getting hard)

*************

1. In a saucepan, combine the milk and 1/2 stick butter, honey and salt.

Stir until butter melts...Cool to 110 degrees.

2. Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl, combine the warm water with the sugar and yeast.

Let stand until very foamy...about 10 minutes.

3. Beat the cooled milk mixture with the yeast mixture,
then beat in the whole-wheat flour and bran until the mixture is
too stiff to stir by hand.

4. Sprinkle 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the remaining flour in a ring on a kneading surface.
Put the dough in the center and mix roughly with a dough scraper or pancake turner.

Knead very thoroughly, adding more flour if needed to prevent stickiness.
This should be a medium-stiff dough.
Knead it until dough is elastic and has a slight sheen.
Never worry about over kneading the dough, most the time people under knead it.

It should bounce away from your finger when you press on the dough.

5. Form into a ball and place in a large, oiled bowl.
Turn the dough to coat with the oil

and allow it to sit and rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

I lay a bit of wax paper over the top to keep it from drying.

6. Punch dough down and turn it onto a surface to knead out the air. You don't need

more flour and this isn't a heavy kneading just a bit of punching out the air.

Half the dough and let it rest on the counter for 10 minutes.

Put that wax paper or a cotton towel over the two loafs.

7. Form each ball of dough into a loaf.

For a sandwich loaf,

roll dough into a 1/2" thick rectangle about as wide as the pan.

Beginning on the short side, roll up the

dough Jelly-roll fashion.

pinching the rolled portion to the flat portion every half turn or so.

Pinch the ends closed and fit

snugly into a greased 9 X 5 inch loaf pan.

Shaping it higher in the center than at the sides and ends.

This goes fast.

Let dough rise again until doubled; it should rise

about 1 inch about the pan rim.

8. While the loaves are rising, preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Bake them in the center of the oven for 15 minutes.

REDUCE the oven to 350 degrees

and bake the loaves for about 20 minutes longer.

The loaves will have shrunken away from the sides of the pan.

Turn out the loaves from the pan and bake them for 5 more minutes or

until a firm rapping on the bottom produces a hollow sound.

Remove from oven, rub with butter and cool.

Unless you just have to have a hot slice which is not easy to slice but do enjoy!

Makes 2 loaves.

If you have a mixer with a dough hook you are really in business

It will knead your dough so much faster than you can.

If you press your hands into the dough ball after the machine kneads

it you will get an idea of what you will it will feel like

when hand kneading.

No photos tonight I put this recipe here to let you see what ingredients

you will need. Tues I will make a couple of loaves and take photos.

fall apples

2011-11-28T00:12:00.000-08:00

mind mapping to open up the possibilities

2011-01-21T11:40:00.000-08:00

I love to mind map but every time I tell someone, who is stalled in their progress of life, to make one they look oddly at me. Can it be that after being around for so long no one knows about mind mapping?

Well in honor of my sisters birthday and because she asked me so nicely to show her how this works here is a posting on mind mapping.

This is the mind map a friend sent me to teach me how it works, I have her to thank for my skill in mind mapping

Why do you want to mind map? School, work, etc has trained your mind that you can only do things left to right and top to bottom. We are well trained and we can usually pop off a list of "To dos" very easily. BUT what if you are an over worked employee, a tired mom or a grammie who's done so much you are in a rut? How can you look past the layers of trained thought? How do you discover new ideas?

Here are some of the stated rules to mind mapping. Mind maps morph into other forms very easily but try honoring this little list of rules. It will open your mind to things you didn't know you desired.

1. USE COLOR & thick and thin lines
2. USE key words and upper and lower case letters
3. Each word or image should sit on it's own colorful line
4. Make the lines only as long as the key word
5. Color code similar items (can be done as you go or after you are done)
6. use radial hierarchy, bubbles, outlines to create branches

We call these maps broccoli clusters because the first one we did was

a giant green one on how to improve our yard.

What this does is allow your mind to freely think and not just list things. It also helps improve memory of your plan. Write any direction you want, don't bother to be neat. My most surprising thoughts come when I'm the messiest. When you are finished you can redraw a tidy, colorful mind map removing what doesn't serve your goals. The real surprise is what your inter-mind will tell you about what you need.

Hay sis this is the mind map you and I made one night together for our histories.

I was working through an e-book my son gave me on mind mapping some years back. It was fun and the first project was to mind map your last 5 years of life. Yes if you were going to die in 5 years and you knew it what would your mind map look like? I had a good chuckle and began the project. I began to feel more and more serious. There were truly some things I didn't know would bother me if left undone.

The finished mind map only had nine things on it but WOW what a surprise so much of it was. Now it looks like I will take bleach boy to the grand canyon for our 40th anniversary because that was one of those surprises in my last five years!

So grab a piece of paper, keep the thinking on this simple. It's not hard to do. Grab some colors and make yourself a mind map that says "2011 how will it look" After you make a couple of maps you will be an expert it's just that easy.

You will notice some of my maps don't have color on them, but do use color as you work. I am an artist and my mind retains so easily, color becomes a toy to me, I end up turning it into an art project too often. USE COLOR.

As you can see by the mind map right above there are two centers that formed because my mind found another path that seemed more important. Feel free to do this. You can make two tidy finished mind maps from such a project to save for using. The goal is free thinking not tidy list.

How do I use my maps?

I post them on doors, walls or where ever I can be reminded of the plan. The maps hang until I have colored in enough of the circles (I like to color in finished projects) then I put them in a file to save them.

So the goal now is to figure out your categories for 2011 goals and then find out what those goals will be.

Next: how to keep this simple and get busy!

searching my mind, remembering past successes

2011-01-17T19:54:00.000-08:00

I thrive on being very organized.

In younger days it was all in my head but around my third child I had to start moving things to paper. I know starting on a new track will include some organization skills I remember and enjoyed. So I have been writing down ideas and looks for categories. Right before bed it just appeared so easily.

Creating balance in my life will do me a world of good.

So I made some categories that goals will be gathered under. I will love finishing a goal and crossing it off. If I keep my goals in my comfort zone I gain nothing new. By making these categories I will keep a balance of goals.

Here they are:

FAMILY
HOME
COMMUNITY
KNOWLEDGE
SPIRITUAL
TALENTS
SELF RELIANCE
HEALTH and WELL BEING
CONNECTION TO THE PAST
FUN

I found a template in my word program that will work just fine for making a page for each category. It has been fun filling out all the goals for each grouping.

Next I'll calendar a way to balance my year with these goals.

Some examples of goals I choose, so far, is to work on my personal history with both my husband and my sister. This has long been neglected.

On Self Reliance we bought two palettes of cardboard boxes that fold into can storage that rotates. I have a goal to get the shelves cleared and the boxes filled with cans of food.

I forget to have fun so I don't have anything listed in the goals. Anyone have some ideas? Every grouping has a goals list now except "Fun". In the Photo above ms Fun she isn't holding onto the other balancing categories...what to do? Would having a game night with our neighbors cover goals in both Community and Fun?

Home covers inside and outside, it includes replacing the guest bed blankets, replacing floors and making menus for simple food that I can live with.

Talents is way too full of goals, I play the piano, the guitar, harmonica and I sing and it has long been left unattended, these talents. I also was a commercial art major and I'd like to regain that talent. Then there's knitting, weaving etc.

The list goes on...and on.... I'm hoping you see where this is going. If you are single or in a different situation than myself you will need different categories. But everyone has a home that needs their attention and everyone has talents and we all should be self reliant and involved in our community, etc.

If you need to come up with goals I suggest making a mind map. There are many good web sites on how to free up your thinking and mind mapping is my favorite. Once you make a mind map of goals for 2011 you may find that they aren't at all what you thought they would be.

Things are looking up up up!

Getting back on track!

2011-01-16T15:29:00.000-08:00

I've been just chugging along, trying to stay on track and suddenly I look back.

When you are raising a family or seeking a job goal or life goal you can get

ONE TRACKED Going around and around.

Does it get me where I am going? Sometimes and maybe only once.

I raised five children and took every focus I had to do it. Once the kids were in their teens I became so busy and so full of thoughtful watching that I lost something of myself and got going on a track that went round and round.

I love the new year, I love celebration and I love things that pace life. Nothing pleases me like a new calendar, a new goal, and new plans.

This year will not be like many of the others. This year I am getting off my track.

I just spent a couple of weeks helping with my some of my grandchildren and it brought many thoughts up and I am planning some great new goals and adding in
some old ideas I loved.

Join me as I restructure my life as seasoned mother and turn it into another phase with exciting new goals and ideas. I intend to keep it simple as life now is ever so complex and I have very little time of my own now.

Next post where do I start?

2010-12-24T13:54:00.000-08:00

This is a beautiful song about what to give..............

Hope as you prepare for your Christmas you have joy in your heart and love for others.

Here is the choir as they sing very lovely

Fun times during the holidays

2010-12-21T01:50:00.000-08:00

Today was the first week-day that school was out for the holidays.

I'd had so much fun doing a craft day with Logan and Natalie (4 and 2 yrs) that I just knew I had to do another. Armed with 2X4 craft ideas from the ladies in Battleground

I proceeded to plan a fun day of painting, glittering and gluing.

I had a great time, I think everyone else did too. We had two neighbor girls, three grand kids and two dogs who had to watch every step. They ranged in age from 3 years old to 11 years old. Don't be afraid to plan nice crafts with a group of kids. I noticed everyone helped the littlest and everyone was devoted to finishing these great crafts!

My biggest job........you won't believe this..........Was washing out paint brushes!

Hows that for a great paint shirt....raid Papa's t-shirts!

We gave our stars some glitter paint

Mirishana helps Lilly with some sliver sparkle

Can you

believe what happens to a Clorox wipe

after, the youngest, Lilly (3 yrs)

Paints her tree?

It was so nice to have Skylar and Sierra do the clean up!

Joshua is still hard at work!

We started at 10:30 am and kept crafting until about 5:00pm

We broke for lunch and to walk one of the dogs!

Oh Skylar that's a beautiful tree!

Everyone is trying to finish up as the mom's start arriving

Lilly's mom (#4 kiddo) Helps Lilly decide on a nose shape for frosty the snowman

A big thank-you to Under my Umbrella for the wonderful crafts. You are great gals and we really enjoyed that you shared your ideas!

http://undermypolkadotumbrella.blogspot.com/search/label/snowman

Merry Christmas and host something fun

for children who are out of school, you'll love it and so will they!

Have you voted?

2010-11-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

We have a Privilege in the U.S.A.

We Vote.

Tomorrow is Election day.

Here in Snohomish county they have made it harder and harder to vote.

Primaries are now in August during Scout camps and family trips and Fair for me.

Just last year we could drop our ballots off at agood many places, one only a couple of miles from me, now there are only a very few sites.
I used to drop my ballot where a couple of people watched over the box now boxes are outside where no one keeps track of them.

How could it have changed so fast?

Today I filled out my ballot and a friend drove it to one of the drop off boxes.

She was in line for ever so long.

She said it reminded her of the parking at the mall during Christmas.

Plan ahead if you will be mailing your ballot putting it in your box tomorrow might be too late if your carrier has a long route.
Put your stamp on that envelope and drive it to the post office tonight.

The Delany sisters lived to be over 104, & 109 years old, their father born into slavery.
The things they took notice of in history gives me pause.
As you go to vote, pray and..............

Remember Bessie Delany's words " Negroes, more than anyone, need to make sure they vote, to make themselves heard in the system. We've come a long, long way in a short, short time since slavery days, and there ain't no use in quitting now. It's true that you can't change the world with your one vote, but if you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain. And honey, I surely do not want to give up my right to complain, no sir!"

Great healthy pancakes

2010-09-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

I started 'walk at home' with Leslie Sansone and have watched the meal video's over and over.

I think I am struck with the quick simplicity of the meals.

They inspire me to keep my food varied and simple. With that in mind I began having a breakfast of whole grain pancakes and cut up fruit. It was the height of the nectarine season and to those I added peaches and blueberries, walnuts etc. I ate twice a week fruit pancake breakfasts.

Here in the northwest we have Snoqualmie Falls lodge pancake mix called NutraRich pancake and waffle mix.

Yes this is the famous 'Twin Peeks' backdrop

This mix is grainy and good BUT it seems to have disappeared from the grocery shelves. I looked all summer long and only found one box. This put a big dent in my healthy, fast pancake mornings.

What to do? While on vacation up in Whistler I came upon a Canadian recipe site and found this very good full grain, fast to make pancake recipe.

My 10 year old grand daughter and I made these pancakes with great success try them and see what you think. I am back to my twice a week fruit and pancake breakfast!

Grainy Good pancakes

Soak 3/4 cup quick oats in 2 cups buttermilk

After 10 minutes add

1 egg

3/4 cup multi grain flour

1/4 cup wheat germ (keep in your fridge)

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 tablespoons oil

Stir gently, don't worry about lumps they can stay. Cook on an oiled griddle.

You must cook them until they are fully bubbled before turning, other wise they will stick.

Looking for gardening

2010-08-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

This pretty flower grew from seeds given to me by grandchildren.

Here in the Pacific Northwest everyone is planting and eating from their gardens. I have been teaching a big group of brand new dirt diggers so I moved my gardening conversation to a new blog. Please join us but remember we chat about classes and it is about the Northwest garden. Still there is a lot to learn and there are links to all my old blogs about gardening. I have a great garden this year despite the challenges.

Ate my first two cherry tomatoes and they were heavenly.

http://greengardengloves.blogspot.com/

It's summer at last!

2010-06-28T00:38:00.000-07:00

So I've heard you miss me.

However I believe you have all found so many ways to get your questions answered that I think I should find new direction.

It's all a thought process right now, but this blog may need a change.

What will it be?

I'm thinking and I would like your suggestions.

Where should I go with the Grammie blog?

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Some ideas I'm tossing around. teaching: art, knitting, weaving, sewing, music, more gardening, herbal craft, story telling......hum more thinking

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

A friend sent me this and I thought all mom's would enjoy the thought. Hope your day lets you know you are the most valued person on earth! I hope you hear from all your loved family members. Happy Mothers' day

*******************
Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you've had a baby..... somebody doesn't know that once you're a mother, 'normal' is history.
* * * Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by
instinct ... somebody never took a three-year-old shopping.
* * * Somebody said being a mother is boring .....
somebody never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver's permit.
*********** Somebody said if you're a'good' mother,
your child will 'turn out good'.....
somebody thinks a child comes with directions and a guarantee.
* * * Somebody said you don't need an education to be a
mother.... somebody never helped a fourth grader with his math.
* * * Somebody said you can't love the second child as
much as you love the first ..... somebody doesn't have two children.
* * * Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother
is labor and delivery....
somebody never watched her 'baby' get on the bus
for the first day of kindergarten ... or on a plane headed for military 'boot camp.'
* * * Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her
child gets married....somebody doesn't know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a mother's heartstrings.
* * * Somebody said a mother's job is done when
her last child leaves home....

somebody never had grandchildren.

The gardening information has moved

2010-04-28T16:07:00.000-07:00

The first thing I did with the group is have them make colored cards

Green for plants that go in the garden in Spring Red those heat loving plants that like the summer Orange plants like the cool and have enough time to make fall crops Yellow cards are for plants that have culitvars that will grow during any season The numbers are the length of time it takes them to produce in most parts of the country We however add two weeks to a month to the dates on the cards!

The sun comes out for longer bits of time and the air feels warmer when there aren't breezes. It signals the inter-gardener in me! I want to touch seeds and turn soil and grow things! When I wake at 5 am in the morning (not often!) I hear the birds busy, very busy. They know it's Spring and so do I!

I am working with a group of local ladies, most are brand new to gardening. With this in mind I started a blog just for them with lots of helpful things to get them started. For the last 4 weeks we have been meeting weekly and the class notes are on this blog also.

ONE BIG HEADS UP.......the information is all Northwestern in the planting times etc. All of the information will help anyone but know your own last frost date and adjust my suggestions to your region. If I can help please comment.

From here on out the gardening postings will be here: http://greengardengloves.blogspot.com/

REMEMBER BOOK MARK THIS FOR MY GARDENING THOUGHTS.

http://greengardengloves.blogspot.com/

Pretty hair for the Girls in the family

2010-04-19T12:33:00.001-07:00

Lyndy has been doing the cutest stuff with Natalie's hair and Eden with Penny's so with that in mind I can share some of my collection of pretty hair styles. Yes with 5 girls in the house we had plenty of goes around with the hair thing! My other lucky thing was learning from my sister who was studying to be a beautician and from a lady I was baby sitting for who would practice by teaching me how when she picked up her son! So I've had first rate braid training. he he

Give one of these a try or at least dream of when your little girls hair will be long enough to do one of these! I'll post some more later the garden is calling!

This under braid is good to learn. It makes a nice depth for little girls hair who will look bald if something doesn't stand out. I love making this braid

whole wheat no-knead, 5 minute a day bread at last!

2010-03-11T18:45:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the 5 minute a day bread from last year? I went from kitchen to kitchen teaching a lot of my family how to make it. Everyone loved it! This week I tested the whole wheat version and IT WORKED. Yes we have had three loaves now of really yummy whole wheat bread. There are some issues and I'll explain after I give you the recipe.

5 1/2 Cups whole wheat Flour

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 Tablespoons granulated yeast

1 Tablespoon kosher salt (to taste, I use half)

1/4 cup Vital wheat Gluten (This is a must!)

4 Cups lukewarm water (you can add a teas dried herbs to this water)

Cornmeal or parchment paper

1 to 2 whole seed mixture for sprinkling on top

flax seed, caraway, raw sunflower, poppy seed, anise. etc

You make this just like the white bread, mix it up, don't knead it. Put it in a bowl and let sit for 2 hours. NEVER punch down this dough. Cover lightly and put in the fridge. You have there 4 loaves of wheat bread.

When it's time to bake do just like you did with the white bread, put in the baking stone and a pan below it with a cup or so of water.

Take out a grapefruit size of dough form on your parchment paper and leave for about an hour.

Just before you put it gently in the oven put some slashes in the top to let it push out.

30 minutes before you are ready to bake turn on the oven to 450.

Gently move dough to oven and bake for 30 minutes.

If you cut this warm it will seem a bit damp, it's not usually under cooked it's just needing to cool a touch. Give it 8 to 10 minutes.

If you have forgotten any of this go to......

http://fireflyanswers.blogspot.com/2009/02/you-have-to-try-this-easy-bread.html

Now the only way you can get much of a rise out of wheat (ground wheat grain is sharp and cuts the yeast bubbles, it's also heavy) Is to use that 1/4 cup of Vital wheat Gluten. I got mine at Central Market and I got Bob's Red Mill. It's likely to be a P.C.C or a good natural grocery. I've heard you can order it online also. I have enough for 6 months of bread.

Do try this!

cookies so fast a 2 year old will wait .........

2010-02-26T22:46:00.001-08:00

I like to have something up my sleeve for when the grand kids come over. This magically fast cookie was one I used with my own kids when they were little. Now Lilly and I made them yesterday and shared them with the family.

Pudding cookies

preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Makes 2 dozen small

3/4 cup baking mix (I make my own so it's made with oil but Bisquick is fine)

1/4 Cup salad oil

1 egg

1 small package of instant pudding any flavor

(pistachio and lemon are my favorite)

2 tablespoons of sugar

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

Stir until it holds together as a ball

Shape one teaspoon into a ball

place on an ungreased cookie sheet

leaving space for them to spread

flatten

Sprinkle if desired with sugar

Bake 8 to 10 minutes

or until the edges are lightly browned

*********

Yes they are green but the photos don't treat them kindly. It's a nice soft green!

If you need a body boost.............try this!

2010-02-22T21:01:00.000-08:00

Take note: OK I've added this to my posting. If you only buy one walking video this is it! I got this just this week and today I did all 5 miles. I loved it. It's arranged so nicely. You can do any mile and enjoy 5 different power walks or arrange any grouping of miles. I love the way she starts briskly and before you know it you are at 1/2 miles and the best part in the last half you get to do some really fast blast walking. It really felt like a workout. If you used even one of these miles you'd love how you felt. Because each mile is treated as it's own unit they each start slower than the end of the last mile so it gives me a little brake for the first 1/2 mile and then once again blast the last 1/2 mile. It's perfect. I really like this video. You can get them on the web site or I found mine on Amazon.com.

The girls in the family and myself are all working on new healthy lifestyles.

It's only the 2nd month of the year. I surely don't want the year to pass me by on my health goals. Yes it has been warm here in the Northwest but wet is wet no matter how warm and I needed something to boost my calorie burn that was easy to:

1.) decide I wanted to face it each day and make a life long commitment to being activity

2.) start without a fuss ( no drive to a gym or trail, change or load up equipment, open a locker...etc.)

3.) afford, low cost (no money means no gym and very little gas for driving very far so it has to be close)

4.) see my progress so I get excited to do it again

5.) feel my progress as in muscles feel worked but not broken

6.) easy to do and keeps me off the floor (old body, old joints, heavy body don't do up and down well)

So these were my requirements. Bleach boy bought a gym membership for an indoor pool when he was in California and it traveled up here when he returned home. In the two, now three years of swimming three times a week he lost tons of weight. I am not a gym person. I do love it outside and will bike and hike but those don't fit the requirements above.

So here is what I've found is really helping.

WALKING AT HOME

I've discovered a wonderful web site for people like me. It's all about being healthy through walking. You can join the walking club and get a couple different streaming walking video's a month all online. It's so easy for me to wake up, turn on my computer and bring up the web site. Before you know it I'm doing at least a mile. Then later before lunch I do a fast paced heart healthy 2 to 4 mile walk.

I'm sure you are picturing a stroll down the path but this is exercise walking and I feel it.

I printed off the online calendar and am checking off my miles but feel free to write it on the wall or chalk board or in a note book. But do write it! As you see the miles click by you get excited that this will help you have a body boost and burn some calories.

As far as Spark people are concerned when I log a 30 min 2 mile walk I burn 266 calories. WOW

This is why if I can I do more than one walk a day I think I will make headway.

Even right before bed a gentle 1 mile walk is fine, I can sleep and I know that the calorie burning is still going on while I do.

Now where can you test this out, because I didn't believe how good this was until in early January when I started walking? See video's above this post

So after you've used the video's above move to the web site and try the faster video or join the club and have some great food ideas and new walking video's each month for a year. I'm sure this will make my year full of boosting energy and calorie BURN.

Go here for the express one mile. It's fast but on a sat when I know bleach boy wants to go do stuff I get a fast burning 1 mile in.

http://www.walkathome.com/index.php

This site also has all the walking video's to buy and the club to join do take a peek.

If you want something really challenging take the 10 day challenge offered on the web site. There is a menu and a walking plan for three walks a day. If you do this it will burn each meal on the menu off! No calories for the whole day that you didn't burn.

I thought about what this would mean?

That's right I'd have to burn those extra pounds all day if I wasn't burning my meals!

Thank you Leslie Sansone

************************************

Here is a Spark people article on fitness that will give you some ideas also.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=194

There isn't anything we can't do!

Like fine dinning!

2010-02-16T01:29:00.000-08:00

Every time I serve greens from our winter salad box I feel like I'm eating at a fancy restaurant!

Oh how delicate and fresh these greens taste, so tender a bite. I make a nice lemon and olive oil dressing with some herbs and very lightly toss with the greens, add some pine nuts and serve.

You must try a winter salad box next year, you can see mine in the posting below...some where down with the winter stuff. This nightly fine dining will spoil us!

REALLY GOOD NEWS

2010-02-16T01:20:00.000-08:00

At last Bleach boy has a job.

He started today, back in the industry he knows and loves so well.

It took a while for paper work to sort out so in the last week it was like being pregnant and not wanting to tell until you were really sure.

So today we are sure!

Bleach boy has never seemed so happy as he was today. I wanted to bottle it and sell it!

I know this isn't the end of our struggles but it is an answer to prayer and a gift we won't forget. Besides I like a good challenge.......did I say that? Yikes.....I meant like in weaving or knitting. Deep sigh...

Easy to make Gingersnap cookies

2010-02-09T12:56:00.000-08:00

Here is a recipe I've had so long I don't know where it came from. Back in the 70's and 80's my friend and I wrote calories on all our recipes so we could loose our baby weight. This recipe has calories on it so it came from back then.

Bleach boy is missing all his high fat treats but this one only take oil and egg which seems better than butter and eggs! It makes up fast, is crunchy if cooked long, or soft in the middle if cooked less. Remove the cookies as soon as they are holding together. They will cook too much if left on the cookies sheet once you take them out.

Enjoy

Gingersnap cookies:

In a bowl stir all ingredients, roll into a ball ( I like walnut size plus) roll in sugar and space well on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes for crunchy, 12 minutes for soft middles.

3/4 cup oil (go for the lower fat oils)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup of a good dark molasses

Stir the above until mixed well and add list below

2 cups flour

2 teas baking soda

1/2 teas salt

1/2 teas. Cinnamon

2 teas. ginger

1/2 cup of sugar for dipping

If you make 30 cookies (that's smaller than my walnut size dough balls) you have 117 calories per cookie. The whole recipe is 3524 calories approx. so count your cookies and divide)

Pumpkin muffins good food when it's cold out

2010-01-26T16:31:00.000-08:00

Click to enlarge

Our son came home from Elementary school with this recipe in hand. He just had his birthday a couple of weeks ago and he is now 36 years old so you know how precious his coloring on the recipe is to me. Yes he colored his recipe and now he does art for the Big Movies you go see! This is a tiny class room size recipe. It doubles very easily but if you need a quick treat for a few use this amount. I can smell them baking now! Note: we never get 12 out of this recipe, closer to 9. I guess maybe I like mine larger

winter gardens do they work?

2010-01-09T17:38:00.000-08:00

This is the first winter I have tried to have a northwest garden. It was a test. As you can see by my photos some things have grown. This is my lettuce box. I planted winter varieties in late Oct. They were only about 2 inches high and we had weeks of early deep freeze. We installed a light fixture and a 60 watts bulbs has been running day and night. During the deep freeze the ground froze hard on this box. It is on wheels and the cold hits it from the top, bottom and sides.

My side garden on the ground, next to the south wall of the house and surrounded by bales of straw did not have the ground freeze. BUT even though protected with a cover the plants themselves froze. I found the plants next to the bales of straw did not freeze. Now with that freeze a month past the plants have recouped and the garden looks ok. It Maybe that seedlings did not survive as far as I can tell. I have been cutting chard and pulling beets and they are fine. Mostly this is a sleeping garden, a few squares of garlic waiting for spring.

The garden on legs on the North side of the property was planted with fall garlic. It grew slowly with the freeze and for all I can tell will never produce. This box froze solid as it has no protection beneath from the cold. It was covered but that wasn't enough. We shall see when warmer weather arrives. Update late Jan 2010 Lots of garlic and shallots have peeked up. Guess the freeze didn't do all I thought it had.

What did I plant.

Rudolph broccoli

Winter red kale

winterwunder lettuce

arctic kind butterhead lettuce

Giant winter spinach

Provencal winter mix salad greens

5 kinds of garlic (normal fall planting)

I'm not sure what is growing here but it all looks good and much larger and though frozen solid in the roots two months ago it is now growing fine, but slowly. I think soon we will eat it. The chives have come back nicely and I never loose hope when growing things.

This salad box has wheels and I pushed it against my houses outside wall before the freeze.

Any thing that might help my odds.

Update late Jan 2010 We are eating large really tender excellent greens now!

This is the garden on the north side. We flip the plastic back and forth. It's on legs so it froze first, only garlic still growing here. This garden is on the South wall of our house. I put straw bails along the side opposite the house, I have the thermometer here and by the salad table. This garden is always at least 2 degrees warmer than our back yard. I flip the plastic back and forth by the weather. In summer the high PVC poles and the bean wire will go back on. Oh I can't wait! For now it's left over carrots, some beets, a few plants of rainbow chard, and the herbs.

Just in case you need a laugh

2010-01-08T16:00:00.001-08:00

By this time I am usually done with winter. When I was raising the five it came sooner than it does now. This will give you a smile to remind you even snow moms' have problems!

Enjoy..

Christmas Tree Potpourri

2009-12-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

It's about that time

Soon we will begin taking down the Christmas tree

I'm so sad to see so many artificial trees in homes, lifeless, smell-less, dull...

nothing for later

You get the picture, I like the forest best.

Save a bit of that beautiful tree with this Potpourri

It makes a nice gift for next year, just date it 2009 Christmas tree,

something to spark a good 2010 Christmas celebration.

Christmas tree Potpourri

Collect 2 cups of your Christmas trees small outer branches

Be sure to cut them into small bits 2" or so

The peel from 2 oranges, just peel, cut into 1/8 " strips

and lay out to dry

1/2 Cup Bay leaves

3 tablespoons Lavender buds

3 Tablespoons dried cloves

2 tablespoons of orris root tossed with 6 drops of spice oil (you have many choices here, fragrance oils to essential oils, I like a little clove leaf eo and a little cinnamon leaf eo)

You need to let the ingredients dry completely. Once my tree and oranges are dry I put them in a clean jar and save it until next year. Open and shake from time to time.

If they aren't dry they mold

Around Oct I mix in the other ingredients and return it to the jar to age until Christmas,

Open and stir every week.

You can make this recipe as large as your Christmas tree can provide! You can mix all ingredients now, cure for a month shaking each few days and then storing in and airtight container.

Jars of potpourri make wonderful gifts!

NOTE: you can cut what ever part of the tree you want but no one needs the big branches so stick with the needle bundles. No need to cut the needles themselves. But when you put out your mix, in a glass bowl or pretty bag, be sure and press it with you hand to release the smell of the needles.

The little things that make Christmas happy

2009-12-16T17:11:00.001-08:00

I finally got the table cleared of craft projects and Christmas cards and bits of the babies who had visited. Now the yearly puzzle takes over the table.

We love a good puzzle.

Not only does it brings us together to work out a problem area but it allows

us each a moments stress relief.

My mind loves to go deeply into a problem that has no stakes to it. It provides rest from worries and a challenge I can enjoy. This is one of the little things about Christmas that we really enjoy.

I know they make family puzzles with bigger pieces so that all ages can join in.

It draws families to a location like nothing can, and encourages conversation in a causal way. There are many little things that I love about this season.

Sitting in my rocking chair just looking at the ornaments quietly.

So many are from the hands of my children now adults raising their own children. What makes you happy at this time of year?

Set aside the stress you may feel and think for a moment of what makes you smile at this time.

Here is one ornament that always makes me smile.

No it's not on the tree but when our son, (oldest kiddo) made it in grade school

he made it to be a Christmas ornament for the tree.

I can brag at what a good artist he is as he is paid to produce art every day

but back then it was the beginnings of creative thought.

He made a family tree with a likeness of each family member and their hobby beside them.

I don't remember what we are sitting in on the tree, hopefully he will tell us

and also tell us what grade he made this masterpiece in.

I think I'll share an ornament or two in the next few days.

It will give my family a smile too.

Drink water

2009-11-10T23:08:00.000-08:00

I've heard it twice now.

I loved to fly places, before it became such an impossible hobby.

I would always get a respiratory infection when I'd fly. A wise friend told me to drink lots of water for 24 hours before I went on a trip. The recycled air, full of virus, can't be avoided but if you have well hydrated sinus those virus can't attach to you as easily.

IT WORKED

Now a couple of nurses I know told me to drink extra water

when I'm going to be around the sick grand kids.

Guess why? Yes the virus's can't get you as easily if you are "wet" inside.

So it can't hurt can it?

Drink some extra water when you know you will be around crowds, little kids, etc.

Besides if you are one of the Spark people you are trying to get your eight cups a day anyway!

What happens when you dump the potatoes grown in a trash can!

2009-10-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

Oh how I love to garden!

Fall is not going to keep my delight in homegrown food from slowing down. Today, after several nights of freezing weather, we decided to dump our potato can.

We've had this can for a lot of years but it doesn't aways work out so each time I dump a potato can I get some kind of surprise. I think I'll let the photos tell the story.

I'm cooking some right now for dinner. Yummy! Next year I'm adding a couple more trash cans.

The big green potato tops were melted after the last couple nights dusting of frost

I trimmed them down

Bleach boy spread out the tarp

As I pulled out the dead stems up came this beauty

Bleach boy has the dirt dumped out of my can in seconds.

I use Mel's mix in my can so it just slides out

Oh on first look it I see there are some nice surprises lurking!

Wow that's a big one

Well here they are a bit of dirt clinging

I pulled some potatoes early on so all total it's over 30 potatoes from a small can

One last thought, If you wonder about can drainage here is the bottom.

We don't remember what size drill bit we used but you can clearly see they are nice big holes.

Now is the time to plant your garlic, shallots etc. They use this cold time to put down good roots and lay still all winter and start back up in spring. Then the heat as it begins will make the bulbs produce as they think about going to seed. Such delight nature is.

Is what "they say" true?

2009-09-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

I had read that veggies grown up will be straighter than those allowed to grow on the ground. So I tested. I took one vine of the same cucumber and let it grow on the ground and one went up the trellis. Don't let the size difference bother you we collected plenty of straight long cucumbers! You decide if what "they say" is true! Next issue; can you plant your square foot garden even tighter than suggested? Of course you can. I put beets near each corner as well as the normal placement. You can see the beets that lived in the corners are odd shaped and the beets in the middle had the freedom to grow. And YES they all cut up and pickled the same no matter what their size.

2009-09-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

It's getting cooler now and you can see the signs of fall in the trees. My thinking goes to cozy food. Here is a favorite pancake recipe and if you aren't from the South you might never have eaten anything like it. These fill you up fast and aren't the most healthy food

(I know because I now have to cook heart healthy for Bleach Boy) but they are VERY GOOD!

Here is how the batter looks, not too thick. If it gets too thick add a bit of milk

They fry up nice and crisp if you use butter on the griddle

Oh and I wouldn't serve them with anything else but real maple syrup. The taste is amazing

from my first cook book

1963 Good Housekeeping cookbook

Southern Pancakes

1/2 cup sifted all purpose flour

3 teas. baking powder

1/2 cup corn meal

1/2 teas salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup boiling water

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup melted shortening (oh do use veggie oil!)

1 egg, well beaten

Sift flour with baking powder.

Into bowl, sift corn meal, salt, sugar. Slowly stir in boiling water; beat well.

Stir in flour

Stir in milk, shortening

Fold in beaten egg

Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto hot griddle, spread each with the back of your spoon into a nice flat round. Cook until puffy, full of bubbles and the edges are cooked.

Turn, and cook the other side.

Serve Hot

The colors just amaze me

2009-08-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

More garden photos. I can't walk out to my gardens without feeling the thrill the beautiful colors give me. There have been plenty of great successes in this years garden. Failure? yes no peas, the bean plants grew but gave nothing, tomatoes are always a disappointment. Not enough heat units. Lots of green ones nothing ripe. The other big frustration is earwigs. They are decimating the cabbage. The salad table was amazing and I collected all of it's basil today and made and froze 4 cups of fresh pesto.

I love watering this garden! Today I hung the squash on the rack with my old nylons!

how colorful eating can be!

2009-08-10T01:25:00.000-07:00

left to right, rainbow chard in orange, yellow, pink, bright yellow and bright orange. Chard stays nice when heat would have turned spinach to seed! next a patty pan summer squash, Cross wise is some rhubarb, in the back some boc choi, and then spinach nearly all seed. For this one pot meal I also pulled some onions. I know bleach boy must think I'm a crazy lady taking photos of the veggies that I just washed!

If you can't tell I LOVE to garden.

Unlike my weaving where my favorite part is planning, and the hard work of warping, in gardening it's the eating I like!

Tonight was vegetable soup with a Thai twist (lemon grass and coconut milk)

For dinner I just walked out to the garden and collected a Rainbow to put in the pot!

Garden box update

2009-07-28T00:19:00.000-07:00

side garden on the south wall

Oh yes the heat has made some things grow and other things went straight to seed. Compare my garden photos to the ones a few months ago. You can see what we are getting a lot of now! Wow are fresh veggies good. It's never too late to start a small container garden. Do a lot of careful watering in this heat. Avoid getting water on the leaves if you are in the sun, and water deeply. click to enlarge and see all the different plants.

UP Up we go, up the verticals!

kale before

Kale now

Joi choi before

Joi Choi now

Ching-chang a mini pac choi early harvest

baby beets then

Beets (use some of the leaves as they grow for salad) now

China Express cabbage

Rainbow chard, all parts are eatable

egg plant then

Egg plant now

Spinach

Broccoli went to seed before growing much

Potatoes doing wonderfully growing in a trash can

Cucumber then

Carrots then

Carrot now

onions then

Pumpkins then

Basil then

Back yard garden now

left to right, ching-chang, Nasturtium, Swiss chard, more Nasturtium

Behind, patty pan summer squash

Onions, pac choi, nasturtium, basil, basil , rainbow chard behind

onions now

be back soon

2009-07-13T23:46:00.000-07:00

I'm on vacation.

No berry hunting postings

Or great hiking photos

It's a stay at home vacation

with daily trips with the grandkids

Having lots of fun

Be back soon

Yes lots of fun!

Getting ready for the 4th of July. This is for you Clint

2009-06-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge and print

This music is old. I hate to say very old because that would date me and I'm younger than you think. But for music printed on a mimeograph it's really very old! When my son learned this song in Primary he was a little person and he sang every word with gusto, ableit incorrectly. His favorite line was 'The rivers run from mountain peaks.....' But he always sang it 'The rivers run from mountain pigs........' He wanted to know why the rivers didn't like those mountain pigs. I played the piano for the Primay and I'd laugh so hard I couldn't keep my fingers on the keys.

Your turn to enjoy a couple of the songs we love to sing for the 4th of July celebration.

My flag, my flag is a good song for flag day which passed a few weeks ago. I got engaged on flag day so I still hang my flag and celebrate but I notice no one even knows what it is any longer. How very sad! It's just a flag but it stands for our country which is everything!

Have a good and safe holiday week-end and be thankful you have such a wonderful county.

Smiles

making Bushy Basil and Full Fuchsias!

2009-06-23T14:24:00.001-07:00

A basil plant on it's way to tall and leggy

Basil is wonderful to grow and great to eat but if you don't learn how to pinch it all you will have is a big tall leggy plant. Fuchsias will be full and lovely if pinched as will many plants you love.

Here is how to do it.

Of course it's best when done with a young plant or starting in early spring for Fuchsias.

Find the center two leaves. Pinch them out.

Yes, good-bye, gone!

Do this all over the plant.

The plant will grow two little branch offs in that spot now.

Leave it be to just grow for a while.

But when those new two branches form their inter double leave, PINCH IT TOO.

Here is a test run, where would you pinch in this photo?

If you keep this practice up every few weeks you will have nice bushy plants with lots of nice Basil to eat!

YUMMY

This is one of my pinched fuchsia. See the two red stems at both east and west. Inside these stems I pinched out the two leaves as in the Basil. Now two week later you see two new stems starting. Two new stems. The branch now has four instead of two. That makes a fuller bushier plant.

how long before you can harvest your veggies?

2009-06-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

My salad table and my harvest chart

The gardens are growing, at times it seems slow. Remember the heat units and the hours of sunlight and all those things I covered in the other gardening blogs? They are the issue that determine when I can eat my veggies. But here is a general list. I made my first copy of this list back in 1974 in the Ukiah Valley. Growing was a different project there so I've looked up in my sunset books and in the square foot gardening book and made a new chart. Adjust it to your weather and growing conditions. Did you note the date you planted? Did you use seed? This chart is from seed, if you used plants you will harvest sooner!

Another important thing to note is the regional seed types. These are developed to produce BEST in the area you live in. Maybe you know the names of these varieties. Here the names all say "Early" that tells me they have a shorter growing season which may work better for my frost dates. Seasoned gardeners know these area friendly varieties so ask! And note when you plant and when you harvest and see if it makes a difference.

From seed to harvest unless noted

growing season

Asparagus spring/summer 3 years to harvest

Beans summer 50 to 90 days bush 60-90 snap

Beets spring, summer, fall 55-80 days most in 60

Broccoli spring/fall 112 days(plants sooner)

Brussels sprouts summer/fall 120 days

Cabbage Spring/fall early 90-125 days late 125-150 days

Carrots all growing seasons 65-75 days

Cauliflower Spring/fall 98 days/ purple head another month

Celery hard to grow 120 plus

Chard all growing seasons 60 days

Collards summer/fall 75 days

Corn summer 75-90 days

Cucumber summer 55-70 days

Eggplant summer 133 days slow to sprout

Lettuce cool seasons 49-65 days approx

Kale cool seasons 60-80 days

Melon summer 75-95 early 110-120 late

Okra summer 60 days

Onions spring/summer 95-110 all onions sprout slowly

Garlic " 90 days

Leeks summer/fall 100 days

Parsnips 120 days

Peas Spring, fall 60-80 days

Peppers summer 65-85 days

Potato spring/summer/ fall 84-120 days use seed potatoes

Radish spring/Summer/fall 22 early 30-55 late

Salsify 150 days

Spinach spring/fall/winter with protection 40-50 days New Zealand 70 days

Summer squash Summer 50-65 days pick when small!

Winter squash Summer 84-120 days

Tomato Summer 60-120 days

Basil Summer 84 days

Cliantro summer 84 days

Chive Summer 112 days

*******************************************************

Now remember lettuce, chard, kale and Basil can be taken a leaf at a time

Onions don't care when you eat them they are still onions, drying onions are ready when the green leaves droop and they begin to flower. Fold them over to stop the flowering (eat those pretty flowers Yummy!) When leaves are dry gently dig up the onions. Chives grow better if you keep cutting the tops or the amount you want to use. Leeks need the soil pulled up around them as they grow or make a cardboard collar you can pull up as needed. Dig before your first hard frost, like an hour before dark when you hear frost is coming, he he.

carrots, broccoli, lettuce, beets and all the cool weather crops can be grown way into the fall and winter if you protect them! bails of straw stacked up and a plastic cover works, more later.

I took a planting calendar and circled the days to look for harvest items. I've reached the first dates with the lettuce and am waiting for the next planting I made.

questions? Ask them. I love answering them!

Looks like dinner tonight!

What do plants need to produce food

2009-06-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

I'm moving on in my garden conversation. I know there was a lot to take in with my last posting about heat units and frost dates and micro climates. But just by reading it you will know something helpful about your growing issues and one day it will come in handy.

I love Sunset books.

Mine are really old but they have wonderful drawings. Look at the drawing above.

Looks like we are growing a crook neck squash.

It's looking like a scientific experiment.

Yes every time we plant something we are playing mad scientist.

See all the tubes coming off the plants beaker? The tubes are taking in fertilizer and soil nutrients and moving them to the plant

Another tube is pulling in the water and above it all the sun is blazing to make the experiment happen.

All those nice things being pulled into the plant makes it produce those tasty squash.

Looks easy enough.

Do you have seasons where you live?

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter?

Maybe just warm and cool?

Plants grow foundation growth in cool weather

They put down roots to find what they need and branch out with green etc.

Plants increase growth, produce food, food ripens in warm weather

Plants stall growth in cold and burn in Hot

Click to enlarge the seed packets above. Each company does this differently but the important information should be there. How long does this plant take to sprout (germinate) How long does this plant take to produce food. How deep should I plant these seeds and how far apart. Some seed companies even suggest where to plant and what to do to the soil. All of this very helpful

1) How long does it take to become food. This helps me play 'trick the weather' by allowing me to plant sooner and harvest longer.

These carrots take 65 days

The Lettuce takes 45 days

The Beets take 60 days

Why is this important? If I plant tender plants early I might have a freeze when the plants are just young and they would die.

If I plant too late then my plants might have green food on them when the season cools down in the fall and nothing will ripen. Happens here in the Pacific Northwest all the time. We eat a lot of green tomatoes

These seed packets say plant carrots as soon as the soil is workable (not frozen or soaking wet), beets plant from March to August, and Lettuce start early indoors, mid spring and again late summer to early fall.

With that in mind I think a planting calendar would be fun for everyone!

1) find out your last frost date

2) take a piece of printer paper and divide it by your growing seasons. For me it's May-Sept. but I will add a couple of months at the beginning for early starts

3) Draw a red line through the month with your frost date

4) check seeds you'd like to plant, how many days can they be planted before a the end of frost?

Here is an example of what I'm thinking you could do. Even if you only chart three plants or four it will help you plan for next year or your fall plantings

Carrots can be planted as soon as soil is warm......3 weeks after last frost, 4 weeks? count those weeks and put plant carrots on the time you can plant

Beets seems happy with most anything so it says anytime between March and August

lettuce can be put out after danger of frost....start it in doors 4 weeks before your last frost or start seed after your frost date. Put that on your chart

Here is a chart to give you an example. It comes from the "Square Foot Garden" book where you will find many helpful planting charts. However it is just as easy to take the things you want to grow and make your own chart.

Click to enlarge and see chart key

The other helpful thing I'd do for my garden is learn how to plant for continuous harvest.

If my carrots take 65 days to harvest and I want carrots each week I'd start threes weeks before the last frost and I'd plant 1/3 of my area in carrots, in three weeks I'd plant another 1/3 or my area for carrots, and I'd keep doing that every three weeks, planning the last harvest just as we go into the fall freeze.

I've harvested carrots even with the snow coming down they are so hardy.

Let's do it for the lettuce which I really do want some salad every week, every day even.

I'd plant the first seeds outside 7 weeks a head and then every week I'd plant another group. It feels funny at first leaving some of the planting area bare but as each group grows the space fills up and you collect leaves or whole lettuce bundles from the back are that you planted first. When the back area is harvested you can add some compost and re-plant as long as your calendar allows for the 55 days. It's like singing a round where one group is done singing they start the verse over again...Row Row Row your boat!

Lettuce will die with the first freeze of fall if left un-protected. Guess I should stop planting 45 days before the first frost of the fall.

Here is another chart to give you an idea of how to do this. If you really love these charts you can buy the book at

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

So make a chart, it's a useful way to grow food.

(If you are puzzling over the seed packets please know I plant heirloom seeds when possible and hybrid seeds only when it's something I won't want to collect seed from but would like to eat)

finally done and ready to plant

2009-05-23T23:25:00.001-07:00

Can you believe I mixed all this planting soil myself.

1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 5 different types of compost.

Now what to plant?

Long ago I learned to garden with the French intensive method. In reading up on this style of gardening I find that the only reason I might have learned this is because I lived in Northern California in the early 1970's where it was popular. The French love fresh food, who doesn't, and in town gardening space was very limited. So by preparing the soil intensively and planting closely you can have a larger than normal harvest for the space used. This Month I have headed back into this method of gardening. I am excited and can't wait to plant. It took two week-ends of good weather to build, make the soil mix and place the garden boxes in place. The easiest way to think of these gardens is to use 4x4 feet boxes, 6 inches deep. Remember I said big yield in small spaces. Each square is a foot and it keeps your garden organized to work in squares and not rows. If you want to know more go to the web site below. You can find a nice video and the links tell you just how to do it. I saw Mel in the 1980's on PBS. I think they need to bring his advice back we could all use some gardening questions answered.

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

The next fun thing is my salad table. My sister always tells me when something good comes on Martha Stewart and she gave me a head up on a table you can grow your daily salad on. Bleach Boy took apart a very old redwood picnic table and turned it into a beautiful salad table!

The best directions for making one of these is here: http://growit.umd.edu/Salad%20Tables%20and%20Salad%20Boxes/index.cfm

Be sure you click on the green links on the left. They will give you great directions, hints on what to plant, the soil needs etc. I found the directions so good I could have made this myself easily, But bleach boy really did want to refresh that Redwood table!

I planted this salad table a week ago and I await little sprouts. I put in several salad mixes, a good way to get a variety of lettuces. There are some rows of onions and chives. This should be a tasty spot in my garden and I can roll it around for sun and move it right to my door for harvesting.

I guess the fun here would be to show you the very old table this was made from. A dear friend surprised us with a nice picnic table he made this was back in the 70's or so. I think it will last forever now!

This was a few years ago and the table was too rickety to sit on so the kids did some 4Th of July snakes on the table. Amazing how a trim on the saw brought out the beautiful healthy wood that was left hiding inside this old table. Oh how I love Redwood. Our first home was built out of Redwood! Here is the salad table the end of June, I've just planted the third area and I should have continuous salad until the first freeze and because this is on wheels I will move it to the rabbit barn which has windows and see if I can grow salad (albeit slowly) though some of the winter. Here is the square foot garden the end of June. Some bad weather, as in hail, and hard rains hit a couple of weeks ago and we were ready with our PVC pipe covers! works perfect!

So what did I plant, everything I love! Onions, broccoli, Asian veggies (which by the way grow really well and late into the season here in the Pacific Northwest) carrots, eggplant, tomatoes, kale, leeks, spinach, cabbage, two kinds of string beans, cucumbers, zucchini, sweet peas, Basil, beets and a lot of other tasty foods. The slugs finally found us and we have defeated that with a nightly collection and a 6 inch wide line of wood turning saw dust. So far so good. I lost a lot of plants in one night! SLUGS!

A Great idea from daughter in law

2009-05-03T01:02:00.001-07:00

Ever forget something you wanted to do? Then the time for doing it passed and You could no longer do it? It happens all the time, but my daughter in law has a simple way not to forget.

We visited the family down in southern California last week. So did a lot of other far away family members. New babies will cause that to happen. Darling daughter in law didn't want to miss out on doing some fun things with everyone that came so she made a wall size calender. She wrote sticky notes of options and ideas of things to do during that time. As we arrived we were reminded to look at the wall calender. Took us a bit to get the hang of it but all you had to do was move a sticky note of something you'd like to do with the family to the day you'd like to do it. Amazing. Everyone would check the days to see what was happening and it went smoothly and not once was there a conversation about "should we do......or should we do......."

I asked for more information on this wall calender and was told they use it on a normal basis so as a family they won't forget some of the things they'd like to do.

Click on the photos and see how this might work for you. Very clever!

First what does a plant take from the soil

2009-04-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

click to enlarge chart

I have a lot to share about gardening. It's hard to decide what will help the most. This is a bit of helpful information to get you ready for the longer posting I've been working on.

I loved Rebecca's garden, a TV show and web site all about gardening. It is gone now, who knows where Rebecca went and why she gave up passing along those wonderful gardening ideas but here is one of her great hints.

Everything you plant will take something from the soil and some plants will give back to the soil. If you know this chemical process for each plant you will help yourself grow the best food you can.

Study the chart and learn to what needs to be rotated

1) make a list of what you'd like to grow.

2) Put your list in their correct growing families

3) Keep the family groups together and rotate every year.

Remember each food family has different soil requirements which I will fully cover in the next posting. You must be sure to amend the soil to fulfill the needs of each kind of plant.

HINTS:

Nightshades heavy feeders: tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and potatoes

Roots Light feeders: beets, onions, carrots, turnips, parsnips

Brassicas Heavy feeders: Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts

Legumes Heavy givers: peas and beans

Vining crops heavy feeders: melon, squash, cucumbers

There are many other groups for vegetables see the chart below.

Rotating your crops will also cut down on bugs and disease

Compare your list of things to plant to the chart above.

How will you place your plants to make the best use of the soil?

Why I've been too busy to talk to anyone

2009-04-16T22:53:00.000-07:00

This is a special dress for my grand daughter

I haven't met her yet but I will be very soon, getting on a plane in the morning and this is Penny who will be given her name and blessing in church on Sunday.......Now you know why I couldn't take any one's calls or help anyone out the last few days........SMILES

Penny and her big brother Flynn

cradle your Easter Eggs

2009-04-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

How I loved my Scout leader years! They gave me a wealth of crafts to pass along. Today we have a little wash cloth bunny to hold your Easter eggs.

I don't have any pretty colored Easter eggs to sit in this bunny

I bought a package of inexpensive wash cloths.

It was a bundle of white, pink and yellow. Lucky me!

Starting at a point roll to the center. center

At the opposite point roll to the center.

The two fluted ends become the ears of the bunny Take the roll and fold in half.

The egg will rest at the folded end

The ears and face will be made at the loose ends

The face is made by Holding the ears up and folding the two ends in half.

A small rubber band is then placed over a hand full of the folded ears. This will make a tiny double cheeked face. Make the rubber band tight. If you don't have one tightly wrap string around the face. This is how it looks when the rubber band is around. The face is ready for eyes and a nose

This is how it looks from the side

I glued on eyes and a nose and tied a ribbon on his head, You can use felt for the facial features

Be sure and add a little pom pom for his tail.

Easter Goodies

2009-04-11T03:01:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge and print

I know the recipes look really old but that is because they are! Taken from a Girl Scout magazine from my high school years. Take the ideas and use them with the ingredients you like. I can see the egg in some pastel buttercream frosting. That would be pretty. Or dye some coconut and put it on the cakes. Just be sure and have fun!

Now the reward....Gardening tips

2009-03-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

It's now time for Gardening ideas. And that really is the point, ideas to bounce around in your head. It may be Spring on the calendar but outside the Winter still rages on! Let's talk about weather then.....

What do you think plants need to grow and produce food?

Well I know what they don't need and that's a freeze. It will kill exposed parts of the plant and if it doesn't have a full deep root system the whole plant will die.

Where I live the last Frost date is May 13 but Everett closer to the water has a last frost date of March 23. You can learn your last and first frost dates (my first frost is Oct 5Th) a couple of ways. Washington State University hosts the Cooperative Extension in many county's here in Washington and they provide a valuable service including the frost dates. Sadly we may be losing these great services as the college has announced cutbacks on services. So don't wait to get information you need while it's easy to get. You can check with your local agriculture office or the college agriculture dept. Try online you may find your area on line. Know your city, and county.

OK put your thinking caps on and here is some other basic things you need to understand to be a good gardener.

1. Frost dates

2. micro-climate

3. Minimum winter temperatures

4. Accumulated heat units

5. Days of Sunshine

WOW just the list looks interesting doesn't it?

Let's start with Micro-climate.

The city my frost date is listed with says last frost Mar 23. This never worked out for me and so I called the extension office and they told me why. I live in a mirco-climate. A little area with it's own climate. I'm on the East side of a hill and across from me is another hill. This pockets the air, cold, wet, snowy, what ever we get and give me a different climate than the norm. So are you in a mico-climate? See the list below for ideas:

A. If you live near a large body of water you are less prone to frost and often cooler on warmest days

B. Elevation, the higher you are the cooler and wetter in many parts of the county, surely here in the Pacific Northwest

C. If you live between hills as I do, cold air is more dense than warm and it flows downhill. That makes my springs very late and my falls very early. Study out the land around you! Is there a tunnel for wind?

D. North-facing areas receive less heat from the sun and southern exposures have more heat. This may change your length of growing season. North areas grow slower, Southern areas grow faster giving me time to grow things that take longer to mature (be eatable!)

Look around see what you have that might change your climate. Are there lots of dense trees? A large rock formation? Hills? Is your land East, West, North, South facing, where do you receive most of your light from? I'm at a disadvantage as my property is on an east Hill and doesn't get much of the western light, but I do get some Southern so that helps.

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Minimum Winter Temperatures

There is a map that tells you what Zone you are in and what your low temperature is. It's wild to try to see the little bands of color and figure out what Zone you garden in.

http://garden.org/zipzone/ Try this web site to find your location close up. Also go to the home page for tons of great gardening ideas.

Each Zone designates an average annual minimum temperature.

Knowing your zone will only tell you the average least temperature.

I am in a Zone 7b with a mico-climate, the pacific ocean near by and lots of mountains. This means that in a zone 7b we get down to 5-10 degrees F. in an average winter with lots of other considerations. There are 11 planting zones across the U.S. and Canada. Don't place too much value on your Zone, they have to keep redoing these and there are so many other helpful considerations.

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Accumulated Heat Units

Plants need heat to grow. We didn't have any heat last year and everyone had tiny carrots. They just couldn't grow with so few hours of heat. Plants require a certain number of accumulated heat units to mature. If you can't get enough of your accumulated (meaning over the growth period of the plant) heat you may not be able to ripen tomatoes, pepper, grapes etc.

Knowing this number can help you be prepared to trick Mother Nature. The right kind of plastic under tomatoes adds heat, putting peppers on the South wall of your home adds heat units. Lots of tricks to try and they do work.

Where I live in Western Washington we gets 1518 units of accumulated heat, where as over the mountains where the wheat grows they get 2,500 units.

OK some heavy stuff for serious people. 50 degrees F is the most frequently used base temperature for warm weather crops (I will cover those in another posting)

To figure the Heat Units you take the difference between the *mean temperature for the day and 50 degrees F. If the *Mean temperature is below the base of 50 degrees then there are NO heat units for that day. OUCH

Example: a day with maximum temperature of 72 degrees F and a minimum 50 degree (base) would put the mean temperature at 61 degrees. That makes 11 heat units added to the accumulated for that day.

(*Mean temperature is found by adding the maximum and minimum temperatures and dividing the sum by 2)

Now don't trouble yourself with this unless you find it fun but do know that plants can't mature for eating without a certain amount of accumulated heat!
**********************************************

Days of sunshine

Because I live with a lot of cloud cover and moisture in the air I have a very low light intensity most of the year. What that does is make me consider where to plant things. Plants that do well in part shade may need to be planted in my full sun area's. This can affect food in several different ways. Apples may not get red, hot pepper may seem mild, peaches won't be as sweet and Vitamin C in plants will be reduced. You can compensate for this problem as you can for too much sun. Move plants into more protected areas and in partial shade. I have gardened in both kinds of climates and they have their blessing and challenges.

Let's be smart about Gardening

2009-03-26T21:21:00.000-07:00

Here was the headlines on NBC news;

First lady breaks ground on 'kitchen garden' Students will help plant fruits, vegetables to supply White House kitchen

At the end of the article it said this:

Mrs. Obama then led a cheer with the children, shouting, "Let's hear it for vegetables!" and "Let's hear it for fruits!"
This has prompted me to speak out. I agree Gardens are wonderful and more people should take up vegetable gardening. Some important issues need to come forward. It's not easy to garden. some points in case. If you see video of Mrs. Obama's school group they are digging, but do you see they are digging in the lawn, the grass. Oh my are there some difficult issues with gardening in a plot surrounded by lawn. Next point all that fuss over vegetables and fruits being planted didn't in any way include planting those fruit trees. At first I thought the media missed that all she was planning on planting was vegetables and herbs but no she has the kids yelling for vegetables and fruits, which come from trees after all! Don't we know where fruits come from?
There is so much our nation no longer knows about gardening. There has been a lot of reference to the Victory gardens grown during World War II. We are different as a population now. Never before has more people lived in the City for longer times. We have lost touch with our agriculture genes! We don't even know who grows our food or if it's even safe.
Am I crying doom here? NO just a warning. If you think in all this excitement with the falling of our economy that you will save money with a big garden you are WRONG. If you think that growing a garden will give you some good things to eat you are RIGHT. Garden for the right reasons. There are no Victories in Victory Gardens. All you do is put some other business OUT OF Business. During the War the farms in our nation were needed to supply the war effort. We have taken this out of context. Gardening now should be about safe and tasty food for our families.
It is not easy to grow food. Learn all that you can and even then you will not have a great first year in many cases. Here are some suggestions on what you need to learn.
1. What growing zone are you in? Don't try to grow citrus outside the citrus zone. Learn what grows best in your climate and stick with that while you are learning to garden.
2. I recommend container gardening for a good start. It lets you control a few more things, like is my garden in the best place.....in a container.....move it. It lets you work without big tools like a rotor tiller which you may not have. A little hand shovel is all you need with a container. It uses less enrichment's. Just a good way to start so consider containers!
3. Buying any package of seed may not be useful for your needs. I promise to address seeds soon but if you can't harvest a few seeds for next year what good is a garden? I plant only seeds that are non-hybrid and reproducible. Yes if you have a favorite sweet pea that is hybrid surely buy and plant it, but my food I have to be able to keep it going with out the expense of buying seed each year.
4. Learn what to do about your soil, the bugs, water, sun, shade and be sure you have time for keeping the garden weeded, fed (yes you need to keep feeding a food garden) and then when harvesting more beans than you know how to eat learn what to do with them to eat them in the non-growing times. 5. Work on a plan and have an idea of what you will plant, how long it needs to grow, when it needs to be planted to avoid frost on both sides of the calendar. Be sure to plant at those times best for each plant.

Does this seem like a lot to think about? OUCH! If you think so then let me tell you to encourage the local growers in your own area. Buy from them, pay a fair price, tell them you want organic, let them know you are glad they have the knowledge to grow your food and be glad they do. Find that spot that the locals sell their food, flea markets, street corners, the valley over the hill. Find these hard working people selling their food.

You may be very successful in gardening and that is my hope but many of you never grew up with a garden and may have no idea what to watch out for and how to make it work. Keep at it year after year and you will get good at it but please don't put a bunch of money you don't have into a garden that you are not ready to take care of. Give those smaller container gardens a try. Grow some lettuces, carrots, garlic, green onions etc and next year try a few more things. Be a success at gardening.
.

There is more to come I promise to reward you for putting up with my warnings!

Fun goodie for kids

2009-03-23T00:34:00.000-07:00

I was happy to enjoy the Parent's magazine from it's beginning. This was one of the recipes I enjoyed over and over.

Popcorn dollars

Parent's magazine 1982

1/4 Butter
1/2 peanut butter (choose a safe one)
1 10 ounces bag of mini marshmallows
10 cups of freshly popped popcorn unsalted

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Melt butter in heavy kettle, stir in peanut butter and marshmallows.
Heat very slowly, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth; remove from heat. Stir in popcorn, stir until evenly coated.
Now comes the fun, kids can help. Butter your hands lightly, take a full tablespoon of the popcorn, flatten into a popcorn dollar.
Place on wax paper and top with a 2 or 4 chocolate chips.
Let stand until nice firm popcorn dollars. If popcorn starts to harden in the pan, turn on low and stir until it's warm.
makes 3 1/2 dozen
These are tiny and perfect for tiny hands. We loved making these.

Happy St. Patricks day

2009-03-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

Can you believe this lucky coin says "china"?

I'm not Irish, but my last name YELLS IRISH! So to all my green loving family and friends

"Happy St. Patrick's day"

And may you all find your pot of Gold.

We attended The Evergreen State Fair's kick off dinner tonight and along with cooked cabbage we enjoyed an evening of Irish dancing. Such dazzling outfits and toe tapping and clapping enjoyed by everyone!

So if you are not Irish as I'm not, join me and find someone who is and...........................

I'm Back.....with Pizza

2009-03-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

Did you think I'd given up blogging? No just took on a little too much and with the drop in readers I thought I'd take a brake. While I was away I took on babysitting a neighbor child, I was given an online pattern design class that took a busy 5 weeks. I loved it and am sorry it's over but it was a lot of study and work. On top of that I hurt my shoulder sleeping on the floor and had to baby it for a few weeks then got a cold (most likely from the little kids in my life!) then there was the week of feeling so down I couldn't cheer myself up so I just lived with it, and now I'm fine! As you can see I can stuff a lot into a little bit of time.

So I'll start with my favorite thin crust pizza. Everyone who eats this pizza asks for the recipe. Now it's your turn. It's not the easiest recipe, but it's not hard, just a few steps.

Ok follow the steps and you will have a crispy thin crust pizza.

Make the dough and roll it on a floured pastry cloth until as thin as you like

Recipe: makes 6 ten inch thin pizzas

dough keeps nicely for about 2 days in fridge

2 package of dry yeast (1 tablespoon each)

pinch of sugar

1 1/4 cups of warm water for the yeast

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teas salt

1/4 cup of olive oil

Sprinkle the yeast and a pinch of sugar into 1/4 cup of lukewarm water. Let it stand for 3 minutes, then stir to completely dissolve yeast and sugar. Set in a warm place to get bubbly. If it doesn't in about 5 minutes start over.

In large mixing bowl put flour and salt. Pour 1 cup of warm water and 1/4 cup olive oil and prepared yeast mixture.

Mix with a fork, until mixed. When you can gather dough into a rough ball it is time to knead it. Flour a firm surface and knead for 15 minutes until smooth, shinny and elastic.

OH YES DO USE THAT KITCHEN AID TO MAKE THIS!

Place in a clean large bowl and cover and keep warm until about double in size. Approx 1 1/2 hours

Preheat the oven with a baking stone inside to 500 degrees F.

Break off a ball of 1/6 of the dough. On a well floured pastry cloth pat into a circle turning as you go to keep it round. When it is 7 or 8 inches big start roll with rolling pin until 1/8 inch thick or less.

With your thumbs crimp or flute the edges until you make a rim around the pizza,

brush edges with olive oil if you wish

Collect the toppings. I don't load these pizzas up. If you do the crust just won't be as crisp. You can use this dough for thicker pizza if you wish.

Here we have peppers, Canadian bacon, onion slices, canned pineapple, sliced olives, a bag of mozzarella cheese and a bag of cheddar and some Parmesan cheese.

These are the things I use in my sauce below

This sauce is perfect for a crisp crust. Use a good olive oil mixed with a spoonful of tomato paste, a dash of parsley, dash of dried hot peppers and as much crushed garlic as you like!

This is brushed on the crust after a brief pre-bake

Once your baking stone is good and hot, open the oven and you will drape your arms under the two ends of the pizza dough. I couldn't manage a photo of this process but your arms keep the dough from sticking on it's self . Lower onto the hot baking stone (Move the dough to your hands and just place it down without touching the stone)

Tap a fork all around the circle of dough to keep the bubbles under control.

Bake briefly until just a little color comes into the crust. This is not a time to walk away from the oven!

Brush all of the pizza with the above sauce.

quickly as you have the oven open at this point....top with a sprinkle of cheese a bit of the toppings and a shake of Parmesan.

Close the oven

This is how it looked as I closed that oven door.

Bake approx. 10 minutes or until bubbling and brown as you wish

Here it is coming out of the oven.

Yummy crisp crust with melted cheese Ohooooooo

Time for an old favorite.....Lemon bars

2009-02-28T15:49:00.000-08:00

I had a spare lemon. I don't buy them often which is hard on a girl who grew up with a lemon tree outside her bedroom. I just can't pay the price they demand, so I was not going to let this one go un-used. I brought out an old favorite and maybe you have it and have forgotten it but this recipe will bring a smiles of sunshine into your kitchen.

My recipe can barely be read but I got it from the Swains in 1970 so it desires it's faded ways!

Lemon Lovelies

1 cup sifter flour (yes sift!)

1/2 cup butter a little bit soft

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Blend together well (you can use your fingers!)

Press into the bottom of a 8 or 9" square pan

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until just golden brown.

While the above is baking mix together:

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons lemon juice

all the grated lemon rind you can get from 1 lemon

2 eggs slightly beaten

Pour this mixture over the finished baked crust and RETURN to the oven

Bake 25 minutes or until nice and golden brown and dull looking

Sprinkle with powdered sugar while warm

Cool before cutting into bars.

I NEED an Ocean view....please

2009-02-24T00:54:00.000-08:00

Today is feel the beach day!

Oh a hard week for sure. Pain that was nearly unmanageable and then some wonderful distractions. The talk of the ocean, surfing and our Southern California up bringing has me longing for the beach, a view of the ocean, the crash and draw back of the waves, the smell of sea weed & salt & fishy things, the call of a gull, a seal bark, I am home sick for the ocean.

Youngest daughter said in her blog that her i-pod and cleaning with Clorox wipes makes her feel better. We've talked of this before I know and I hope every one is finding things to lift them above hardship. Life will be hard but we can be strong and enjoy so much of this life we live.

I just had to put an ocean on this brief but needful posting. I wanted something of my own. The best I could find is this calendar photo from 2003. (You don't want to see my odd bell bottoms and me with surf board! he he) I journal life on my calendars. It's amazing what I've found from years long gone that I needed off those calendars . So here is the ocean. I am picturing myself there with a glass of strawberry lemon aide or mango something. Oh my heart be still.

Below is a nice calendar message I think will help too. Your day may seem lost in the hardship, it may not have a list of crossed off chores. It may be lonely, long or glorious! I hope. But this calendar reminds me that we plant little things. We have great rewards later after it grows. You don't have to do something big to plant a seed in your child, in yourself, in a friend, a spouse. A tiny seed grows a redwood tree. I know.....Tiny seeds exposed to the heat of fire. One day you have a giant, breath taking redwood. I know because I've grown the real redwoods and I need to tell my kids, they are also redwoods. They make me so proud, their good choices, the love they show trying to understand each other. I must have planted some seeds and it grew 5 amazing people!

So today is plant a seed day!

I just can't stop!

2009-02-18T23:31:00.000-08:00

I think I will be trying every recipe in the article "5 minute bread" find the recipe on Mother Earth News web site.

So for lunch today it was Nann. I am a long time maker of really good Nann. I seriously had my doubts this dough in my fridge for the last two weeks could make really good Nann.

I WAS WRONG!

It was really good

Let me repeat

It was really good.

Make it and see.

I brushed the finished Nann with garlic butter and tossed crushed dried parsley over it. It took only moments and made a great addition to lunch. yes the one in the photo was little over cooked but bleach boy loves things crisp and the one for me was soft and good!

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx

Now for the surprises, the Digital age has begun

2009-02-17T19:08:00.000-08:00

If you've read my postings on the Green thing happening then you know about the digital change over for the TV.

The govt made it mandatory that all stations must convert to Digital TV no later than Feb 17Th today. Now they have changed that to some date in June.

Now for the surprise.

Over 400 stations changed over and dropped their analog today.

No one said they couldn't do it as soon as they were ready, only that they could do it no later than June. I turned on my analog TV and only one station was working, took a little bit to figure out why.

So the test begins, will we be watching any TV during wind? Will the TV give relief and information during storms? Most likely not and we will slowly pass from even using the TV for anything but DVDs at all. Cable goes up in price too often and with draws stations making you pay for stations you'll never watch. Dish TV has the same snow and weather problems the digital has.

Check back to see what happens in the ever moving world of technology! I watch with curiosity.

Using the bread recipe for pizza

2009-02-17T08:30:00.001-08:00

If you have made the Mother Earth 5 minute a day bread dough then you can make this pizza!

Dinner was forgotten, everyone was tired and coming down with colds. We needed food fast. My sister had tackled pizza over the week-end and it came to me to do the same.

I took a piece of dough and laid it on my flour infused pastry cloth. I just flattened it easily with my hands, no need to use a rolling pin as they suggest. I like the bubbling up dough. Then I folded the edges over once to make them a bit more sturdy to deal with.

As the recipe in the link below warns, keep the toppings light so the dough can show a bit and cook up through the cheese etc. I used olives, a bit of garlic chicken, some saute' onions and a tiny bit of spaghetti sauce. I don't have a pizza peel so I made my dough ( remember how moist and soft it is, hard to move it when it is only 1/4" deep) on the pastry cloth. When my baking stone was good and hot I took the pastry cloth down to the oven and coaxed the dough off and onto the stone. This method must be improved upon! Then I spooned on a touch of sauce, sprinkled on my ingredients and slipped the oven closed.

You don't need to put the water in the oven for the pizza but do turn your oven to it's top temperature. It took 25 minutes to heat the stone, 5 minutes to push out the dough, 15 minutes to cut up the ingredients and about 15 minutes to cook. Now that's fast food!

Wow this was the best ever pizza. The dough is chewy and my dough is a week old so it was a bit sour doughish and wonderful. Bleach Boy can't remember any better other than my cracker crust pizza.

Oh! I feel a pizza attach coming on......Good thing I saved a piece from last night.

I have a rectangle shaped baking stone. It's perfect for making triangle shaped piece slices. Cut the pizza the long way down the center. Then starting at the end make angle cuts to produce nice triangle pizza wedges! So easy and you can make them big and little.

2009-02-14T16:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day

You bring a bit of sunshine into my life

You let me express myself and share what I love

Yes I love families, and women who lovingly care for others.

I Hope you feel the love back that you so much deserve.

Let Cupids arrow catch your heart!

Smiles Grammie

The cupid in the photo is my dear mother in law.

We miss her so much and I love that she grew up in the 20's so we can use her lovely photo.

Now you can see where bleach boy gets his light hair

You have to try this easy bread

2009-02-13T10:17:00.000-08:00

I was at Mildred's home last week and she was making this easy bread, she gave me the recipe and I've now done three batches. It takes about 8 minutes to make enough dough for 4 loafs or 8 if you like, let it sit out for a couple of hours, pop into the fridge and bake the loafs as needed. You will need to warm the dough at least and hour when it comes from the fridge. The dough lasts a couple of weeks in the fridge. It's wonderful and fast. Give it a try.

Thank you Mother Earth News we can always count on great stuff!

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx

One note, I know you need the salt in it for a reason but it's too salty for us so we cut it down by a third.

2nd note, I have added 1/2 cup whole wheat flour to this recipe without any change.

I've added another photo below. This was today's loaf. It only set out for an hour and went into a really hot oven on a very hot stone. I know some of you are having problems with the loafs raising but I think we will find the key to that soon. Don't worry if the dough is not raising, just cook after an hour and see what happens. Keep me posted and we will keep testing this out.

Now who couldn't love this face?

2009-02-09T01:03:00.000-08:00

Raising five kids wasn't the easiest of jobs and sometimes I just needed my space. I saved a magazine advertisement from the early 1980's that had a nice Cabin in the woods, chimney smoking on it. It said something like this "some times a get away is just another home"

So with that idea I find my self at my other home. My get away!

Made a visit to youngest daughter and her sweet babies.

Now who couldn't love this face?

Awe home sweet home!

Noodle Doodles

2009-02-06T13:09:00.000-08:00

Today it is raining, the clouds are low. Time to make goodies. I open up that old yellow high school folder once again. Today it's Hopscotch crunchies if you have good peanut butter, or Noodle Doodles if you don't. Takes but a moment to make these. You only get about 9 goodies from each recipe so double if you wish!

Hopscotch crunchies

1/2 C. butterscotch chips

1/4 C. peanut butter

1 cup chow Mien Noodles

1/2 cup miniature marshmallows

Melt chips and peanut butter over hot water (double boiler) Or do it in the microwave uncovered, stirring after every 30 seconds.

When melted remove from heat and stir in noodles and marshmallows.

Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper. chill to set quickly. Here in Washington I can chill on my counter!

Noodle Doodles

1 (6 ounce pkg) chocolate chips

1 (6 ounce pkg) caramel chips or butterscotch what ever you can find

1 (3 ounce pkg) Chinese dry noodles

1 small can of salted peanuts (I used a mix of almonds and pecans)

Melt chocolate and Caramel chips over hot water

When melted stir in noodles and nuts.

Drop by spoonfuls on wax paper.

chill

hints from the fashions of the 1920's

2009-02-05T01:07:00.000-08:00

Where is everyone? I used to get up to 80 visitors a day on my postings and now 3 of you join me. Are you all worn from the holidays, has the weather got you without power, hope you are not down and worried? Just know that you are missed. Maybe my fashion posts just don't cut it. So I'll hold part two for later and put in this fun look back in time, something to make you just smile. Do let me know if there is something you need to hear about!

I collect sewing and fashion magazines from as far back as they go and from every country that shared good fashion. The pages tonight are from a 1921 and 1927 Coats and Clark sewing booklets. Not very big and very fragile you are lucky to get a peek into some of their pages. The fashions of the 20's were simple hip waisted dresses with tons of embellishments!

They loved their short hair and cute hats. If you love this time period you must see the PBS series "The House of Elliot" They won big awards for their costumes of this time period and it is a really fun program you can often get at your local library.

So enjoy clicking on these pages and reading a bit of the past. Forget your worries for a moment and just be a girl of the 20's! Pretend with me.

(As I write this I have some fun Italian music on traveling daughter brought home, I'm swaying and just smiling!)

Oh I'm ready for a night of dancing!

Let's have some fun part one

2009-01-28T00:53:00.000-08:00

where is your eye looking, what does it see, what catches your eye?

I'm thinking fashion lately. With money so tight and my wardrobe getting so old I see the need to get creative. I want what I sew to look great right from the start. Let me help you do the same thing, we don't have the time or money to get things we don't want to wear!

It's funny how good my eye is for fashion and how bad I dress, yes a blue jeans gal now! My major in college was commercial art and design, I made so many drawings, painting and posters but what I really loved was design. Learning how to lead the eye to enjoy what you were creating, to make the eyes comfortable but not bored, excited but not bouncing. I loved this! I still look at the things around me as if they need to do this for me. Fashion is the same. We don't have perfect figures but we can lead the eye, make the eye comfortable or excite the eyes. I found some fun old examples. They will help you practice seeing how you might be looking to others.

Lets begin!

Fashion can tell the eye to look! But which direction is it saying to look? The Y is saying to look UP see my face. The arrow is saying look DOWN see my waist, hips, hem and slightly shoes. You may not think this is what is happening because a Y and an arrow have a long straight line that should be helping us point but it is about the direction the space is being pushed not the pointing arrow or the catching space Y.

Eye movement can be given limits by stopping how and where they travel. The width of the T with the hat and flouncy sleeves stops your eye up top. It halts your eye from looking vertical.

This H look of this front panel in this dress stops your eye from scanning the lateral areas , Limits your eye to only see the width. OUCH.

Here your eye is invited to travel up and down limitless, You would look tall and thin with this clear, long line.

Can you see how these fashion designs are giving the eye different paths to travel?

a. has attention on the shoulders and neckline

b. your eye is going to that flounce hemline

c. The eye is going to the hip line because you are looking at those cuffs on the sleeve, locking you at the hips.

None of these are just bad

a. is wonderful for a pretty face and neck

b. will let you show off beautiful legs

c. lets really slim narrow hips look much better

You can enjoy a chuckle on my fun 1960's fashions but watch and see if you can find any example of this same idea in what people wear today.

Here is a test

What do you see in each of these. Write me with your ideas for a,b,c,and d.

go here to practice on some great European fashions!

http://www.marfy.it/eng/activenews.asp

Another asignment

http://www.ireneeonline.com/index.htm

If you do this assignment you will be all ready to enjoy my next posting. This web site is amazing but don't get lost in it yet. Go to the curtain in the middle of the home page and click to take the test. You might enjoy the color facts but please work through the whole test so you can get your body shape. We need that to understand my next post. If you have trouble understanding the test you can click on the right hand left hand links to see what each thing is asking, eye color, hair color, shape etc. Use it as you need to, this is tons of informaton. Have fun!

Bear Claws and High school

2009-01-24T14:56:00.000-08:00

It is Bleach Boys 60th birthday this week-end. I didn't want to use the gas to go into town for a donut. I suddenly remembered my high school cooking classes included a whole series of pastries. I dug around and in this beat up old note book are my recipes from high school. Looks like I have some great ones, I'll share more later.

Today it's the Bear Claws. A sweet refrigerator dough that raises in the cool of your fridge. I have two recipes sizes. One is the small size we used after braking into work groups in class, the other is a normal size we could take home for family use. Both work fine, if the smaller one isn't good in your mixer you can easily do it by hand. The family recipe is perfect for the mixer. Now all I have to do is make Bleach Boy a nice Bear Claw, put a candle in it and see if I can get up in time to wake him with a little birthday greeting!

Class room size recipe

1/2 Cup milk

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup warm water (105 degrees to 115 degrees)

1 package of dry yeast

1 egg beaten

2 cups unsifted flour

soft butter

1) Heat the milk until bubbles form. Add sugar, salt and 1/4 cup of butter cut in pieces. Stir to dissolve. Cool to lukewarm before adding yeast.

2) Put warm water in the mixing bowl or large bowl you will stir in. add yeast immediately by sprinkling it over the water. Stir to dissolve.

3) With a wooden spoon, stir milk mixture, beaten eggs and 1 cup of flour into yeast bowl. beat until smooth, about 2 minutes

4) Gradually add rest of the flour, beating until dough is smooth and cleans side of bowl, be sure NOT to add too much flour this dough should be a tiny bit tacky but still clean the sides of the bowl. Turn into large, greased bowl. Oil the top.

5) Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until dough is doubled. Can keep in fridge for 3 days

6) Form into one of the treats below. Bake as directed.

dough after 2 hours in fridge
******************************************
Home Size Recipe

3/4 cup Milk

1/3 cup of sugar

2 teas salt (I use one!)

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup warm water 105 to 115 degrees

2 packages dry yeast

2 eggs beaten

4 1/4 cups of unsifted flour

soft butter

Follow directions for class room recipe except in Step 3 stir in 2 cups of flour for about 2 minutes.

BEAR CLAWS

sweet roll dough

3 tablespoons melted butter

cinnamon sugar mixture

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup chopped raisins

1 tsp grated lemon peel

Sugar glaze: 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp vanilla, 2 tsp milk. Stir until smooth

1) lightly grease a large cookie sheet

2) On lightly floured surface, shape dough into a round, let rest for 5 minutes

3) Roll dough to an 18 by 9 inch rectangle. Brush with half of the melted butter. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar leaving a 1/4 inch bare all around the pastry.

This is smaller than the recipe size, with only two of us I didn't want too much

4) combine walnuts, raisins and lemon peel, sprinkle evenly over dough

5) folding from long side, fold 1/3 of dough over. Then bring the opposite side over the other side, to make a 3 layer strip. Pinch to seal.

6) With sharp knife, cut strip crosswise into 6 sections. On the folded side of each make 3 inch long cuts. These are for the toes.

7) Arrange on prepared cookie sheet. Spread toes evenly slightly to make toes. Brush with melted butter and cover with wax paper to raise.

8) Raise until double in bulk about 45 minutes in a warm place.

9) bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees F

10) cool on wire rack. Pour sugar glaze over warm rolls

Makes 6 with class room size recipe

CRESCENTS

another sweet pastry using the above dough

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts

3/4 teas cinnamon

Class room size recipe or 1/3 of the Home recipe

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 egg yolk

Cinnamon sugar mixture

1) lightly grease a large cookie sheet

2) in small bowl, toss the brown sugar, chopped walnuts and cinnamon 3) On lightly floured surface, pat dough into a round and let rest 5 minutes

4) Roll out dough into a 12 inch circle. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar mixture to within 1/2 inch of edge. Cut into 8 equal pie shaped wedges

5) Starting from the wide end roll each wedge toward the point. Place with center point down on cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Curve to make crescent shape.

6) Cover loosely with wax paper. set in warm place away from drafts until doubled. Approx 45 minutes.

7) With fork, beat egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water. Use to brush tops of rolls before baking. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar

8) bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees F. until golden brown.

9) cool slightly on wire rack, serve warm

Makes 8

*********************************

BOW TIES

One last recipe for the sweet roll dough, feel free to create your own shapes

Streusel Topping

2 tables soft butter

2 tables light brown sugar

1/2 teas cinnamon

1/3 cup unsifted flour

1/3 sweet roll home recipe or all of the class room recipe.

1/4 cup melted butter

Cinnamon sugar mixture

Powdered sugar

1) Make streusel topping: combine butter with sugar, cinnamon and flour. Mix well and set aside.

2) lightly grease a large cookie sheet

3) On lightly floured pastry cloth, roll dough to a rectangle 20 by 10

4) Spread surface with half of the melted butter, then sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar

5) Fold over dough in half, from the long side to form a rectangle 20 by 5 inches

6) Cut crosswise into 2 1/2 inch strips making 8 of them

7) Place strips on prepared cookie sheet making a twist in the center of each to give it a bow look.

8) Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with streusal topping. cover with wax paper

9) Let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

10) bake 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly on wire rack. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar. Serve while still warm

Makes 8.

Thank you Arroyo High School in El Monte. Here are some things I learned there.

If everyone is speaking Spanish you feel left out and you learn to be a great thinker in your head

If your lunch room teacher calls you and your friends the Relief Society you know he really likes you

Having a great typing teacher did me a great service I learned to type really well and it has served me for a very long time

My male math teacher didn't like girls and wouldn't bother to answer my questions even if I could have been bold enough to ask them. If he didn't like your question you had to run the track. Hense I was a good track runner and very bad at math.

The track was my favorite place and I lived on it, going around and around. Girls could wear pants on the track

Drivers ed (which was part of school back then) is a lot of fun when you are the only girl

The lunch cooks made food better than my mom

Choir was too easy but I loved it

My favorite teacher was in my favorite class which was history

You can't be really good at art and get a good grade in high school everything is paint by number!

Rumors worked even in the 60's

Good readers do less homework (read your last class assignments in your next class, but do it on your lap under your desk)

In High school we waste a lot of time so if you can get out in three years DO IT. It was never a mistake to graduate in my Jr. year, I just paid attention and did my work and was done a year faster!

Summer school condenses information and they don't have time to repeat things and if you read my profile you know I hate things repeated. So I learned summer school is the way to take your Government, English and history classes. Science I need to hear things repeated!

So what did you learn in high school, sis? friends? children?

making pom poms for projects

2009-01-19T22:22:00.000-08:00

Print for a pattern

I've made a lot of yarn pom poms in my crafting life. They are wonderful touches to all kinds of toys. This pattern is just one way to make them. It is from when we didn't have those nice plastic forms for making them. It came from a 1960's knitting book. You use the form once so don't work to hard to make it. If you make a ball large enough for a child to toss you'll need a fairly heavy cardboard. 200 wraps are quite a few! I've put a pattern you can print and cut from the cardboard. You can make these smaller and larger if you wish.

Click to enlarge and print

Beware of look alikes

2009-01-17T12:31:00.000-08:00

If you google the Grammie hot line you will get the

Grammy hotline.

This IS NOT me.

It claims to to be "The best advice for raising children" Well mom's there is NO SUCH THING! There is lots of good advice, there are helpful ideas, there is a shoulder to cry on, but until your kids have raised their kids you really can't say you have the best advice. And even at that what did you do that worked and made them good parents and good citizens? Who knows? Nope all we can do is offer support and ideas we liked. We can give you our moments of great and wonderful along with our notes of sadness. The only sure fired thing you can't miss with is to Love your families. Everything else is an experiment. Please don't mix me up with the other blog. Smiles Grammie

shadow puppets

2009-01-15T01:30:00.000-08:00

Ukiah 1983 ish

Our puppet stage is a refrigerator box all decorated

The puppet screen is oiled paper

The puppet handlers (my 3 girls and some of the neighborhood kids)

go into the box and stand below the oiled window

The black puppets they designed from cardboard are on wires made from hangers

The light source is behind them in the box and they hold the puppets right against the oiled paper and the light does amazing things!

Left to right Alison, Laureen, Kim, Cheryl down below and Shannon in the corner

I don't remember what got us started with shadow puppets. It was a long time ago, my children were very little. The creativity that came from this hobby and the fun is worth passing along.

You can start with using your hands to make creatures on the walls. That is a tiny beginning. Be sure the light source is the correct distance from the hands (takes a bit of testing) Be sure that no hot light bulbs get near the children. The hands should be near to the wall but not touching. If they pull their hands back the creatures grow larger!

The next step is to make paper puppets on sticks or wires and use them to make shadows on the wall.

As you can see in the photo at the top there is another way to do Shadow puppets and that is to make them from black card stock and hold the puppets against an oiled screen. Many cultures have done puppets this way and they are amazing and beautiful. My traveling friends told me all about some they saw in Turkey. Full cultural stories all told with intricate shadows.

Chinese Shadow puppets

Don't get discouraged it's only January!

2009-01-09T23:53:00.000-08:00

How do you Climb over an elephant?

I had two calls yesterday from some of the girls. One was under the weather because of a bug going around but it was keeping her from her plan for the new year. She had such a good start. Now she was discouraged.

Another daughter called frustrated with years of going backward on her goals. Makes me sad just to listen. She thinks she is failing most the time.

Then reading a friends blog posting that started like this: "How go the Resolutions, Horatio!!!The Resolve : to live a focused life...a simpler life. A cleaner life (that refers to my careless housekeeping) and a more mindful life.. (translated: don't forget to take bags to the grocery store, - you will never be able to recycle all those plastic bags into doormats!)" I realized how much we bank on that first start of a new plan. How important we make a new year beginning.

I just told you a week ago how much I like a beginnings, I don't suffer the frustrations of a plan not working at the new year. After the phone calls I was wondering why I don't. I looked at how I work on things for change and I think my life now features each day separated. Each day it's own little capsule. Yes today can only go the best I can make it, but tomorrow I have another try. I am always hopeful for the next chance to try again. A sweet friend once told me after her husband passed away she got up each day to quilt. I get up each day to see what might happen, one day at a time.

Don't get discouraged. If you become tired decide you will begin again, continue on that long battle to being better. Don't get upset with yourself. It's when we don't keep trying we should get upset. Remember after today you have tomorrow to put all your energy into.

One day at a time.

I wanted to give you some nice visual way to remember this concept. I went to my stash of old books and found my paper backs from when I was a kid. Now these consist of a lot of horse stories, a couple of chick books, some great classics and some funnies. So now enjoy my kid humor way to remember "You can do anything if you just keep going!"

How do you Climb over an elephant??????????

Grab his tail, climb up his back, dash to his head then slide down his trunk!

SHOW UP!

Does unplugging things help your engery bills and other bothersome things you hear

2009-01-06T00:46:00.000-08:00

OR 1100111000011110000111110101010101011100010001111000001110001 ?????

There is a lot of information being tossed at you right now! If you've ever read my profile you will see I DON'T like themes or catch words. 'Going Green' is driving me crazy. I have heard tons of poorly stated information in the act of promoting 'Going Green' lately. Bleach boy has a degree in Electrical stuff so I asked him to give me the real scoop!

What if you want to save power costs? Many shows are telling you to unplug everything when it's not in use. Have you had the winter power outages we endure here in the Pacific Northwest? What do you have to completely reset? Clocks, radio settings, T.V programming etc. It's not fun to redo all your presets on the TV. Or loose your radio presets. If you unplug these items you will forever be resetting most preset items. Yes they do have some power they draw all the time, a little bit. If they have plug ends like the ones below they are drawing power. If they have any kind of little light, or a clock setting that shows when they are off then they are drawing power. Remember if you unplug those you will have to reset everything. I hate blinking clocks!

If your plug looks like this it is drawing power when plugged in even if it is not connected to your item, like phone etc. This goes for docking stations also, they are always drawing power.

Things I do unplug: my cell phone charger, my sewing machines (all on one plug strip)

Things I do not unplug: my TV, DVD player, my surround sound, my radio clock, my computer (what a pain to redo my power back up) When I travel I do unplug the computer stuff.

I'm sure there are more I can't think of but THINKING is what you need to do on this. If I really want to save power, I don't use my dryer or my oven often. I use the lower power use appliances over the big draws. I will put the PUD's list of power use items in the blog after this one so look below.

NEXT ISSUE that bothers me is the energy saving bulbs. They do save a lot of energy. Lighting accounts for close to 20 percent of the average home’s electric bill. The approved energy florescent bulbs use up to 75 percent less energy than incandescent light bulbs, last up to 10 times longer. What bothers me is the ever small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing makes it so that you must take it to a disposal site. Yes you can't toss these bulbs in the trash usually and you have to clean up any broken ones as if you are a hazard team. YIKES. Keep that in mind when going Bulb Green! I also find the older ones come on so slowly that there are many places they are useless to me, as in the front porch. I hear a noise at night, I quickly turn on the front or back light to check on what's happening. A dim glow comes from the light. Useless! I've been told the newer ones are better.

HOW about the TV stations going digital?

Oh this is a can of worms. I hope I can clearly explain this for you.

1. IF YOU have Cable TV or satellite TV you don't have to worry at all. DO NOTHING

2. IF YOU get your analogue TV now from an antenna you will need one of the following

A: a digital TV and perhaps a new antenna OR

B: An Analogue TV with a Digital box and perhaps a new antenna

We put in our Digital box for our analogue TV some months ago. It has not been a happy experience. The frequency band for analogue seems so much more stable and we get great TV on our analogue TV with our roof top antenna. WE do not get great Digital. A slight breeze, a little snow, anything will keep us from getting a clear signal. Right now we just switch back to Analogue and watch what doesn't come in with digital, but that comes to an end in Feb. 17Th.

You need to be in a good sight line to the signal with digital TV or you will not get a good signal. There will be frozen pictures and pixel's bits or no picture at all if you are not picking up a good enough signal. A lot of people are going to be very surprised when they figure this out.

Our digital box works well it's just the signal is so hard to catch and not as stable, but it does look very good if you get it and there are additional stations as in 7.1 and 7.2, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 etc. Lots of extra programing! These are side band stations.

Our DVD player said it had a digital receiver but it works very poorly so we use the converter box on the TV. Our converter was $60 but we had a Govt issues coupon that took that down.

So remember just because you get analog on your antenna doesn't mean you will get digital. You can spend a lot of money trying to find out what works. Our local stations are providing a directional listing on where to find the stations for our viewing area. That helped a lot as we use an antenna we can rotate from in the house. So if I watch channel 4 digital I will have to turn the antenna to watch channel 5 digital and again for Channel 7 and 9 etc.

You might solve a lot of problems using an antenna that you can change directions with. A router mounted directional antenna, the rotor system is sold separate from antenna. Ours has a box that comes into the house and I just turn the dial to the different degrees the stations can be received in.

Our antenna is many years old but we bought a large one as we live out a ways and so it does pick up the digital. Bleach boy tells me what you need is a good antenna. It's not a matter of analog and digital antenna's, there are small antennas for close to the transmitter and large for distance. All antenna's receive digital and analog. Bleach boy says they all receive radio waves that's the point!

Oh what we go through for the Governments whims! The analog transmissions will be used for emergency issues but the majority will be sold for broad band use. The Government will make lots of money on selling this spectrum. That is why they offered you coupons to buy your converter boxes which I understand they are now out of. It was a great help to us! I'm so glad I live in a free country where I can say this!

I'm happy to answer any questions on these issues. I've only glossed by the information to get you started. Don't believe everything you hear!

http://telecom.hellodirect.com/docs/Tutorials/AnalogVsDigital.1.051501.asp This site explains the difference in the two signals, digital verses Analog. Easy to understand.

Energy use charts from our PUD

2009-01-05T23:00:00.000-08:00

Click to enlarge for reading or printing

Carmel Crunch....quick New Years Eve treat

2008-12-31T12:17:00.000-08:00

This recipe came to me in high school. My friend Judy Best passed it along from her school cooking class. It has been a long time favorite fast treat. I have doubled it to fit the Costco size cereal bags. If you are using a smaller bag use the recipe at the bottom.

1/2 cup of butter (8 tablespoons)

3 tablespoons corn syrup

2 cups of packed light brown sugar, brake up or remove any hard lumps

7 cups of rice Chex cereal

Butter 2 cookie sheets for spreading candy on

Heat butter and syrup in a heavy skillet, large enough to hold all the cereal

Stir until smooth

Add sugar and stir until smooth

Heat slowly WITHOUT stirring. Mixture will foam and when it is twice the original volume begin timing 2 minutes.
While pan is still on the heat add the cereal all at once. Stir until each Chex is coated. Keep the heat on low, this takes a while and keeping warm helps.

Pour onto buttered sheets. Spread over entire pan. I try to separate the cereal into individual pieces while it is warm
Store in an air tight container. If your candy sugared that means you didn't follow the rules in the blog posting before this one!

Normal size recipe

4 tablespoons butter (1/4 cup)

1 1/2 tablespoon corn syrup

1 cup light brown sugar

4 cups rice Chex

One hand full and I can't stop, this candy is so crunchy and good!

more candy making hints

2008-12-30T20:01:00.001-08:00

Yes the holidays are nearly gone. But who said that was the only time for candy making? Let's go on looking at Sugar, that fun stuff. Sugar is sucrose which likes to dry out and crystallize. It can take different forms but it likes being a crystal. As candy makers what we like to do is trick it into smoother, creamier forms. Here are the tricks we play.

Sugar and water....lots of crystals

1) When melting sugar avoid against getting crystals on the side of the pan, on the stirring spoon and on you!

2) Use a 3 minute, lid on, BOIL to wash sugar crystals off the side of cooking pan

Be careful not to let things boil over during the 3 minutes and have your "pot minder" ready to turn on for when the lid comes off.

Boiling..... lots of steam to wash things down!

If that doesn't get the sides clean put a piece of paper towel around a fork and get it wet

Moisten and remove any crystals on the sides but only at the beginning of the cooking time, later there is too big a risk in knocking a crystal into the candy recipe.

3) Use a fresh spoon after the first stirring when the sugar is not melted. Feel free to get a fresh spoon often. It is such an easy way to keep undissolved sugar out of the recipe.

4) Remove thermometer as soon as temperature is reached. This keeps crystals some starting to form on the tool

5) Use a recipe that has a crystal inhibiting ingredient as Corn syrup, honey, molasses & maple syrup. These ingredients pull moisture from the air and keep the larger crystals from forming

Not as reliable but often used in older recipes:

lemon juice, cream of tarter and vinegar

When pouring finished candy from the pan

DO NOT SCRAPE THE EDGES.

What you scrap may hold a crystal that will spoil the whole recipe. What does it do? Makes the syrup reform sugar crystals and not smooth candy. It has happened to all of us!

If everything goes well you will make a yummy candy like this divinity

This is the next issue you need to understand for good candy.

Beating and stirring

the cooked mixture lets you decide how the sugar will return to it's crystal form.

If we have used a crystal inhibitor and we have kept the undissolved crystal out of the candy mixtures then we can encourage the sugar crystal to form so small that the candy seems creamy and smooth.

Let the candy cool slightly and then you stir or beat or a mixture of both.

Your recipe will tell you but this is very important to the finished texture so don't skip this step it is the way you get control of the sugar.

Fondant is paddled and folded over and over. Fudge is beaten to a gloss, Divinity is beaten and stirred to a dull finish. Hard candy is just poured out and the sugar is allowed to form larger than normal crystals in the shape you choose. Isn't this fun?

Tips for beating and stirring sugar

1) The temperature you start at is very important. if is says lukewarm you must wait. Many a fudge has been ruined by starting too soon. Your recipe should state this or check my chart below.

2) Keep at it (beating, stirring, pulling or paddling) until the candy is finished

How will you know when the candy is finished? it's hard to tell if you haven't made the recipe before, hopefully you have had that candy somewhere else and can aim for that, sometimes the recipe describes how the candy should act, maybe my chart below will help.

4) Beat or stir steady, not fast. STEADY

5) Some candies need to be pulled as in taffy or mints, or paddled as in fondant. Once again Keep at it until finished and aim for STEADY.

This is fondant. I have already paddled it and then kneaded it until it is very smooth. It molds almost like a soft clay. See my finger print in one piece.

This is what is looks like when it's ready, I add lots of tasty flavors. This batch is getting orange. I've done pecans and chocolate and lemon, cherry etc.

When I've flavored the fondant the way I want I roll into small balls and hold them until I dip them in dipping chocolate! yum Now who wouldn't want a nice plate of candy for their birthday, a thank-you, a welcome home? It's fun and it's a good gift!

How it should be made basically

Fudge: start when lukewarm, beat until creamy and looses gloss

Penuche: cool to lukewarm, beat until thick and creamy

Cream candy: add butter, cool to lukewarm, beat until it looses gloss, pour into pans

Caramels: you stir often while cooking these, often there is a milk or cream added half way through the cooking be prepared for this. When correct temperature pour into lightly buttered pan.

Divinity and Nougat: Pour syrup over egg whites, beat immediately until mixture holds a peek when dropped from a spoon and looses it's gloss. Lots and lots of beating.

Fondant: cool to lukewarm paddle until white and creamy. Knead to remove lumps and smooth candy.

Toffee, Butterscotch, hard candies: work quickly, add flavoring, nuts etc and pour into prepared pan.

Marshmallows: Beat until fluffy and creamy, add flavoring and pour in prepared pan.

Taffy: cool until you can handle. Pull and pull, some people just twist and cut it just won't be creamy.

Planning for a New Year

2008-12-28T22:32:00.000-08:00

What are you planning for your new year? I like to think of what I'd like to mold the year into. Not thinking of resolutions, just a new start, new ideas. Maybe I'll add something back into my life I've missed. I used to be very controlled and planned and could add and remove parts of my life with ease. The last few years have left me spinning and I am just now starting to get grounded again. I can feel the inches of a plan coming back to me.

I lost my voice with the thyroid issue and it's time to bring the voice back. I have a plan. Something I want to do. So that's one thing to bring back. I'm missing some other things to that need to be brought back in 2009.

Oh maybe you'd like to just start something brand new. That sounds fun. I don't need more hobbies so starting something new has to offer me something solid. I need to start a business. I learned to make patterns for other people this year and I'm timid about turning it into a business but if you need a pair of pants that fit because you couldn't find any I can make you a pair of pants. Is that a business?

So what will you plan for this new year? A new hair style? A new friend, a hobby, a skill, a place you might go. Please don't do the same thing year after year. Let this beginning of 2009 be a kick off place.

I'm looking forward to your comments "Planning for a New Year". Everyone who comments gets their name (one for each new comment) in a bowl and I'll draw one out for something fun. I will let you know what in a day or two. Have some fun and you only have until Jan 1st to put in your comments.

Don't keep me snowed in this long I start to get a little dazed, this is the mind of a lonely snowed in person!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

2008-12-25T01:39:00.000-08:00

This Day......

A savior

has been born to you......

Luke 2:11

This is a treasured card I received from a friend. It reminds me of all that is precious about today. I held each of my five babies and now have the pleasure of holding the grand babies. What peace Mary must have had for that brief moment. To touch that baby skin and smell that fresh baby hair. How it reminds me of the importance of joy in those tiny spaces of time. Tomorrow will be filled with many activities, great food and hopefully the company of dear family and friends. If I can just leave in the back of your minds this sweet picture of Jesus and his mother and what that birth meant. Mary was told what Jesus birth meant so she knew as she held him he was here for all people in all times. We are so blessed to be able to celebrate his birth today.

Merry Christmas women who work so hard at this time of year know that the most important thing you do is to smile and hold them!

Card designed by Kathy Lawrence

American Greetings

snow ice cream

2008-12-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

Took this one this morning from my front door, the snow made it all the way to the door, a bit too much wind!

The swing seats look to be holding enough for a batch of ice-cream

Wow did we get a lot of beautiful snow. So white it made me think of snow ice cream so here are a few of my recipes. However just pouring a bit of maple syrup over a cup of snow is a real treat!

Snow ice cream

1 cup of sifted powdered sugar

1 cup whipping cream

1 1/4 Teas vanilla extract

1 to 6 cups fresh, clean snow

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a large chilled bowl. Mix very well. Gradually stir in enough snow to give mixture a smooth fluffy consistency. Stir in desired amount of condiments, you know cookies, M&M's, sprinkles, nuts what ever you wish.

makes about 7 cups enough for the whole neighborhood

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Lemon Snow custard

grown-ups love this one

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup of sugar

pinch of salt

2 cups of milk

1 teas of grated lemon rind

1 teas lemon extract

4 to 6 cups of fresh clean snow

Whipped cream topping if desired

combine the first 4 ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Stir with wire whisk until blended. Cook over med. low heat stirring constantly, 5 to 7 minutes or until this custard coats a spoon.

Remove from heat and add the two lemon ingredients
.

Chill thoroughly

Gradually stir enough snow into chilled custard to give a smooth think consistency. Garnish with whipped cream and serve.

6 to 7 cups.

ENJOY WINTER it is official now!

Things that just have to be done!

2008-12-19T16:19:00.000-08:00

Nothing like a tall fence post to prop your camera on and take a photo

This is just up the street from my house, we took a nice afternoon

walk in the neighborhood

Click on photos to enlarge just be ready to feel the cold chill

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Winter brings on chores that just have to be done. I'm sure you will agree that "Life" has chores that just have to be done, but winter chores need repeating over and over. Come see a little of what we do a couple times a day in cold weather. Quickly put your coat and gloves on and come join me!

I did water duty yesterday but today I brought bleach boy. He loves to pound the ice!

I think he's studying the job.

Bleach boy still has California sun in his soul and you rarely see him with gloves and

never with mittens!

This is not as thick as yesterday nothing can get a drink with all that ice!

Oh Gracie is so happy to have company. In the winter the goats get very wild from lack of contact, but today she was delighted to see us. She let me pull all the berry bushes out of her wool and I didn't have to put her in a drop hold.

How about a little warm hug time Gracie.

Now we are going to take a pasture walk and see where Gracie has been going. I want to see if any green is available for her to eat so I can deal with the hay issues. Her little hooves leave narrow paths. She has zig zaged all over the place. I can see some of it was curiosity over what a neighbor was doing or a stop under one of the big cedars to keep out of the snow. I also wanted to check on the wild birds. A few Chickadees were about, nothing else. Once or twice a robin has remained and not migrated and I'd taken extra effort to provide shelter, food and water. No robins today. Some medium size animal had walked South to North in the snow. Might have been a cat or skunk or something of that size.

The winter sky is so pretty at this time of day aren't you glad you came along?

We've checked everything out and are heading from the back pasture to the front pasture. This is where I hang from the trees in my hammock chair in the summer. Too cold for that now.

Penny waits for us. The dogs are not allowed in the pastures. Penny is a blue healer mix and would be a wonderful goat herder but she is deaf and I can't control her. When we had more goats and they'd find ways out of the pasture I'd use penny to put them back and she was wonderful if she's looking for my hand signals.

We are back to the house now. I'm standing in the middle yard where all the play toys and swings etc are. I'm going to walk right over to that glass door at the back of the house and go in and warm up!

See you next time we do a winter chore.

I didn't actually go to the house, I went and re-did all the water tins for the birds. I added some fresh seed deeded to me by youngest daughter.

Temperatures for making candy

2008-12-19T01:14:00.000-08:00

I am snowed in. I don't mind other than the parties and family get together I'm missing. But I love to make candy and being snowed in is a good reason. I come by candy making through my Grandma Oblad. Her family left Sweden in the 1800's making and selling candy, my Grandma sold candy during the great depression in order to support her family. And I would be doing that now with our long unemployment but there are too many laws and health codes that keep a home candy maker from doing so for sale. The next best thing is to help teach you how to make candy.

This is a crash coarse because really practice is what makes a good candy maker.

Good tools are many

For candy making and I will put them in another blog with lots of photos. This time lets work with the thermometer and figure out why temperature makes such a difference to sugar and it's crystal factors

1) First boil a pot of water with your thermometer in the water. Let it boil for a few moments. Once your number on your thermometer settles down read it, write it down. If you are at sea level or close to it, the water should boil at 212 degrees F. You will subtract a degree for each 500 feet above sea level you are living at. If your water boiled at 208 on your thermometer like mine did I must subtract 4 degrees each time I make a recipe. If I don't I will be cooking everything 4 degrees higher. You'll see the problems with this in a moment. If my thermometer showed boiling water at 214 degrees then I am cooking everything 2 degrees less than my recipe needed. Make these adjustments.

2) No matter what kind of thermometer you will need to do this each cooking session if you want to get good results and I DO!

Sugar is a wonderful thing....oh I hear the sugar blues folks dropping like flies! I mean boiling Sugar is a wonderful thing. It changes the crystal structure and what I do with it is amazing, from hard, to crunchy, to creamy, to stretchy, Oh sugar does amazing things just with a little change in temperature.

Sugar chart

232 to 240 degrees F. SOFT BALL

Hot syrup makes a soft ball when you pick it up, but it does not hold hold it's shape.

This is the way to make fudge, penuche and fondant

242 to 248 degrees F. FIRM BALL

Hot syrup makes a firm ball that holds it's shape when you pick it up

This is the way to make Carmel's and Carmel corn.

250 to 268 degrees F. HARD BALL

Syrup makes a hard ball. It feel hard when you pick it up, but is till plastic.

This is the way to make divinity,nougat, sea foam and taffy.

270 to 290 degrees F. SOFT CRACK

Syrup forms hard, but not brittle threads rather then a ball

This is the way to make toffee, Brittle and butterscotch

300 to 310 degrees F. HARD CRACK

syrup forms brittle threads that break between your fingers This is the way to make brittles, lolly pops, hard candies and caramel or candy apples

With this chart you can make any candy and you can see how a few degrees takes you out of fondant and into taffy or worse. I cooked my first batch of fudge, right after I was married, right past hard crack. No kidding. Bleach Boy has a good story about that experience!

Even if you use a thermometer you should try cold water testing just to learn how sugar acts. It's fun and it means that those who don't have a thermometer can still make good candy by cold water testing.

Cold Water Test

Remove pan of cooking sugar from heat

drop a touch, off the edge of a spoon, of syrup into a glass of cold not ice water.

Let it stand for a minute and pick up the candy from the water. Feel it with your fingers. Where does it match in the chart above.

If you are using a thermometer you will want to do this test 2 degrees before the final temperature. A pot of sugar can quickly go up another 2 degrees even if you have removed it from the heat. So this is a good time to test. If it is done, don't worry about the next 2 degrees they do usually follow.

You might find the candy isn't matching the feel that matched the degrees. Return to the heat and check in another degree or so. Don't wait too long.

So this just gets you started. Tomorrow we will cover dealing with sugar and it's need to form crystals.

Winter kindness and fun things for kids to do

2008-12-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

When the temperatures dip into the teens like they have this week I consider the wild animals and the domestic! I put containers of water and in less lean times lots of bird seed out for the little birds that remain. This year the rabbits are dipping into the water so it's going fast. I find using metal pie tins very helpful. The water when it freezes pops right out for refilling with warm water.

I just made the rounds of all the pie tins, one in the pasture, one in the middle yard, and one out front under the fruit trees. I ended up with all these fun rounds of ice. NOW THAT GIVES ME AN IDEA!

Kids love new ideas, new things to learn. Have your children put a pie tin out and let it freeze (sorry for those of you in warm climates) Next day they will have a circle of ice to play with. Try it in different shapes but it has to be a container that will let you release the ice and won't crack and brake. (our big water tubs for pasture pets are driving us crazy, we had to take a sledge hammer and brake the ice and scoop it out, burrrr..)

Now go and have some fun! It's 34 degrees F here now so it's too warm but tonight that will all change. Great way to teach them lots of fun principles of science! Expansion of elements, forms of elements etc.

Try some easy wrapping for packages

2008-12-16T20:09:00.000-08:00

Click to enlarge

I found this in my files. I've used it to gift friends who quilt or sew, use a nice piece of fabric and put in a sewing book or sewing notions. It works with tissue paper too as well as wrapping paper. Use several layers to hide what is inside if using tissue paper.