What I've Done On My Vacation - Summer Turns to Fall

So that is how it feels as I write the first blog in so long. What happens when we write so regular and then stop? Well, that probably should be the topic of another post. But... I digress by the second line.

I went through quite a spell telling you about what I cooked and how to do it yourself. I hope to continue to do this, soon. But, what I think I have been doing most is just that - cooking. Each week I cook dog food and yogurt about twice a week. Cat food is done about once a week to 10 days. Kefir cannot really be done in the summer, it spoils in the extreme heat, but we are back to making it once a week for breakfast and that needed snack before supper. Greek yogurt we still did in the heat and added cereal to it for a cool breakfast. But now, we will concentrate on Kefir and oatmeal for our breakfasts. I haven't done cheese or bread during the heat, these are acts resumed in the fall also. My goal is to added bagels and english muffins to my adventures.

The front garden of wildflowers this summer just flourished and some are stil blooming. But, alas, the vegetables were a complete flop. The only ones I will be harvesting are root vegetables. I still believe I must be a root farmer. So this winter I hope to read up much more on vegetable gardening and get it right. I am looking at going back to the Victory Garden garden of WW2, which allows for draught and over rain conditions.

As many of you know, we don't do mainstream television. We get tv in the way of movies from the library and Netflix. This summer we have genuinely enjoyed and obcessed on Foyle's War, a BBC Series. It is wonderful! The back drop is WW2 and they are mysteries with the head of the police department being Christopher Foyle played by Michael Kitchen. We have watched all 6 seasons, and at the end of the war, we wondered what we would do now. Many weeks we watched almost every night, or sometimes two a night, which is unheard of in this house! Do yourself a favor and look it up. We are following it up with World at War, about WW2 also. When we were dating we watched and learned of the Civil War, and now at our 2nd year of marriage, we are learning of WW2.

For several weeks many of our thoughts and energy have been devoted to our friend, Sheila and her health. Her struggle is hard and long and we have been organizing taking meals to her and her brother Larry and anything else we can.

The last 2 months we have been redoing the furniture in the Living Room. For Christmas we had a new table and benches. We added an amour for my musical instruments first and added a bookcase for current reads, library books and DVDs. Today my DH assembled a Ventless Gas Fireplace, readying for the plumber to install and two futons to replace our sofa and love seat. I have figured it out, my DH collects furniture. ;) And as our former cleaning lady stated, he obviously has better taste than I.

I took a Botanical Illustration course this summer, which was a dream fulfilled. It was very frustrating at first since I have not drawn much since my hand surgeries. But I stuck to it, and I do believe I can approve much. In the class we focused on pencil and ink drawings. The ink were done with a fountain pen. I was not sure about this, but ended up enjoying it a lot. I started with black ink, but ended up with sepia. I will be doing more of this.

I am teaching about 8 women to tat this month. It has been nice to have a taste of teaching again. Tatting can we so frustrating in the beginning, but these ladies and hanging in there and I think they will be fine. Many are finding needle tatting easier, which is fine. I also added Mary's Lace (Mediterranean Lace) to the class and it is nice to see others using these ancient laces.

I also added a Tai Chi Class at the County home in addition to the one on the Alzheimer unit. I have taken my 1st quilt to my Thursday Lutheran quilters and they helped me finish it and all signed it for me. And I helped cook at church for the Octoberfest. It was wonderful cooking with the women, as always and I am looking forward to baking Springerless with them in October.

So, I have not been lax this summer, I do not believe. But it is time to do and blog. I am back - what have you all been up to?

Cheese Makers Liberate and Unite

Does any one else have really fond memories of the 80's like I do? I hope so. The 80's were great for me. I had a life changing experience in '82 and everything was new and wonderful and the world was changing fast, it looked like for the good.

One thing I did in the 80's was work with agencies where we gave lessons to young mother. Usually young single mothers. They were like: cleaning with materials you can buy with food stamps, scratch cooking, using cloth diapers, gardens on your front porch when you don't have a yard. And you know what? Since they weren't required to come, and we usually had coffee and cookies - they showed up.

So I have this fascination or obcession, depending on which side you are on, that when I hear of making something I have to take it to it's barest parts. So those of us the most without can do it also.

When my friend Meghan's blog had how to do Mozzarella Cheese on it I had to make it! And it turned out great matching all of her pics! Then I started thinking. I know about the Homemade Cheese Book, I even own it. And at one time I even bought the supplies. But.... someone had to be able to do this on a farm, how did they do it? How can I figure out how everyone can do it?

So, first I will tell you have my mozzarella cheese adventure and then we will talk about cultures.

So with Meghan's pics and instructions I started to mess with the recipe about a month ago. This is what I came up with. When it says Citric acid use Lemon Juice. When it says Rennet use Apple Cidar Vinegar. When it says Lipase, ignore it for now.

Now, let me halt for a minute. I believe these recipes can only work for real milk from a mammal - so goats, etc are ok. But rice, soy, I can't see it working. I would refer you instead to The Farm, they probably can help. Also the more "whole" the milk is, the more cheese you end up with. So it is ok to use any % of milk, but do not worry if you do not get the same yield.

So I let my gallon of 2% milk get to 55 deg. And added my Citric Acid or Lemon juice. I would say 1/4 of a cup. I kept stirring and did see the small grains of curd, like Meghan's pics. Then at 90% I added the Rennet or Apple Cidar Vinegar. Now I use this liberally, just pour and watch the curd and whey divide. Now, because I am not using concentrated tools here, I let it go to 120 deg, kept stirring and man, oh man, was it working. Then I turned it off and added more Apple Cidar Vinegar, till I had a yellow liquid and white curds.

From there I just kept following Meghan's post and we had it tonite on Spaghetti and it was good.

This week I talked to a woman who has dairy cows and we discussed how we have to give up our pre-conceived ideas on what food is supposed to do and look like. This cheese does not melt. Neither does any cheese I make. But then I asked myself: Does it have to? Or is getting hot enough? Getting hot is enough for me.

Now if you really get into cheese making there are also starters that are called for in the recipe. There is Thermophillic Starter:

2 C very fresh milk

Heat to 185 deg.

Cool to 125 deg.

Add 1 heaping Tablespoon of fresh Yogurt (you made it right?)

Mix

Keep mixture at 110 deg for 8 - 10 hrs.

Pour culture in clean ice cube trays and freeze. Once frozen, remove cubes and put in labeled freezer bags. Resulting cubes = 1 oz of starter. The frozen cubes last one month.

For more starter thaw 1 cube and use instead of fresh yogurt in the above steps.

Then there is Mesophilic Starter:

2 C fresh Cultured Buttermilk

Let reach room temp of 70 deg

Allow to ripen for 6-8 hours, should have consistancy of thick yogurt

Freeze in ice cube trays, again equivalent to 1 oz and can store also for 1 month.

To make more starter thaw 1 cube and add 2 C fresh milk. Mix and let stand at 70 deg for 16 - 24 hours.

We can do this! We can make cheese! Now on this blog we have made 3 cheeses, yogurt, sourdough bread and the starters. We can take care of ourselves and enjoy it for ourselves. Now let's find a way to share it, one kitchen to one kitchen, to other women. Especially sharing with those of generations younger than us.

Ming Fou's 2nd Birthday Party

Our Sweet Princess Mingy! is 2 years old today!

Thank you Dee for our sweetest girl! we love her so!

Here are pics of her party!

P.S. Her Indian name is "She Who Has All the Bones!"

Happy Birthday from Daddy, Mommy, Loki, Halley Girl, Your Mommy Patches, Sonny, Tansey Elizabeth, Tuxe Marie, Mama Torti, Aura and 57! The fish send kisses!

NEW KITTY PICS

Dog and Cat Food

To change up a little from Human Food, I thought, since there was a request, I would speak some on the making of dog and cat food we do at our house. There are many books and articles and web pages out there on the making of dog and cat food and I encourage you to look and see what is good for you and your Furry Baby. What I am showing you is that, yes it can be done on a continuing basis and what we do.

We first started making the dog food when we got our St. Bernard, Loki Strong Heart. When he was a puppy he started immediately having some tummy issues which we proceded to make rice and ground beef for on bad days. Loki's tummy issues did not change for the better and eventually we were told he had food allergies and went on the hunt of what we could feed him that did not make him sick. Nothing seemed to help for long, almost everything did for a little while. To make a long story short we found the allergy to be to fleas and flea medicine and his problem to be more like IBS. This has been mostly fixed by adding 3 Tablespoons of homemade yogurt to each meal, which brought immediate and miraculous results.

Big dogs can easily have a problem with bloat. So it is important to feed them good food and food that is not dry. Hence, we still make dog food.

I have 2 very large crockpots, 7 qts each. In them I add 1/2 gal. of water and dashes of ground parsley, rosemary and cinnamon. Just dashes, very little. Do not add garlic. It has been found that in many dogs this can lead to a problem similar to lukemia.Then I add the chicken. We get boneless skinless thighs. This seems to be the best for your buck. Many people have told me to buy a whole chicken, but by the time you take out the bone, it is not cost effective per pound. We get 3lb frozen bags and I use approx. 1 1/2 bags for the 2 crockpots. I figure it 8 pieces of chicken in each crockpot, which, of course, is 16 meals. This lasts about 3 days, give or take. We are storing them in 31/2 cup containers, we have a big pup! But if you have a smaller dog you can cut the pieces in 1/2 or 1/4th and package accordingly. We also feed 4 times a day, so if you don't, yours will last longer.

I digress. Now add 1/2 of a 42oz container of oatmeal in each crockpot. Then add one can of green beans and one of peas to each crockpot also. Then fill each crockpot to the brim with water. I put my crocks on low and cook for 4 hours. Then as said, I put one piece of chicken in each 3 1/2 cup container and fill the rest of it with the soup part. We also feed our chow, Ming Fou with this same food. She is 70 pds and gets 1 1/2 cups each meal. Loki recieves 1 1/2 containers each meal.

Many people ask about other veggies and suppliments. Loki can't take hard veggies like carrots, some can. Go by one your pup can handle. Also I only supplement with a vitamin for each pup, each day and a Glocosamine pill for the St. Also because of dental issues we feed one of the 4 meals each day with a good hard dog food. We added this slowly, as we were not sure Loki could tolerate it with his stomach issues. But in time, he could, and we add yogurt to each of their dry dog meals, just as with the stew.

It took me quite awhile to find a homemade cat food that I was happy with. We have 8 inside cats and this really needed to be cost effective. I take the same crockpot filled 1/2 way with whey left over from the yogurt or water, and add one 1lb container of chicken livers. Cats need a lot more protein then pups and they need organ food, so regular chicken will not meat their needs. Then I add 1/4 of a container of 42 oz oatmeal and it cooks within about 2 hours on low. I give each cat a healthy tablespoon of the food each morning and follow up with dry food at nite for dental reasons also. I am closing in on making a hard cat food and and will let you know when I find a recipe I am happy with. I sometimes add the same spices for the cat food, but they do not seem to care. What they care more about is that the food is very "soupy". So just before I package it, I add more water, enough to make it very runny and then package.

Both of these foods freeze very nicely and will last about 1 week in the fridge. Also as a treat, we give the kitties homemade yogurt also. Never milk. But we have found that daily doses of yogurt for kitties, makes very round kitties. LOL!

Let me know how it goes and Bon Appetit to your Furry Babies!

Pysanki Eggs for Lent

I am a little late on this one. But better late than never, right?

Food mixed with traditions is always a fun thing to me. So we'll talk about the Ukranian Art of Pysanki. One reason that this tradition started is that people had chickens, but during Lent you were not supposed to eat eggs. But, the chickens really did not understand that, they kept laying eggs.

So with this art you need some dye (There is special dye you can order, but I have used homemade or even Paas dyes.), beeswax, a taper candle and an instrument to put the wax on, like drawing, which is called a kista.



You take a raw egg and with a pencil draw your design on the egg. There are many designs, you can look them up, and each has a meaning, or "wish" or prayer for the person you give the egg to. Then you decide on a first color and submerge your egg. It is important to do this similar to doing watercolors. Which means you go from light to dark. The last color that you use will be the actual color of the egg, and the color that gives your message.

So you have your design and the egg has been put in one color. Now, take your kitsta and fill it with some beeswax. Light your candle and run the kista back and forth in the flame, until the beeswax is melted. Now apply the beeswax to all the areas that you want to remain your first color. Example: You have your design on and you submerge your egg in yellow. Now all the places that you want to remail yellow you put wax on.

Now you continue to add color to your egg layer by layer. As you put your egg in each color you then add the beeswax each time to the areas that you wish to remain that color. The designs can be as intricate or simple as you choose.

By the time you are finished your egg should look almost completely like a mass of beeswax. The only part that is not colored is after the application of the last color. You can look up the traditional symbols and colors and thereby decide what you want your color scheme to be.
This takes a long time for the application of all the colors. When I did Pysanki on a regular basis, each egg would take about 3 - 6 hours depending on the intricacy. So be patient, this is not a "quick art".

Now comes the magical part. You take the egg and very gently pass it back and forth through the flame. You go a little at a time, not keeping the egg in the flame too much at one time, because you do not want it to scorch. As you pass parts of the egg back and forth in the flame you gently wipe off the now melted wax with a paper towel or soft rag. I prefer a sof rag.

You now see the vibrant colors now magically appear in their design. At the end it is good to very gently pass it through a little at a time and get the last slight film of wax off until all the colors look vibrant.

After allowing the egg to dry for at least a day you gently put a pin hole in the top and bottom of the egg. You put a little larger hole in the bottom. Gently shake your egg to break the yolk and now start to blow the egg out of the shell.

Some people wash the inside of the egg with many things. I think this is a little over the top and it is too easy to wash your colors off the egg. And if you have gotten this far without breaking the egg, my advice is to not push it.

The eggs were blessed at church and then distributed as gifts to family and to one's true love. Each egg with the design and color held a meaning - health, posperity, happiness, love.

If you are interested google and find the meanings to the symbols and colors or even better order a kit and make some yourself. This is not an expensive art form. They also make very nice Christmas gifts and ornaments.

There is a belief that as long as Pysanki remains being done in the world - goodness with outweigh evil. Let's help that along. Enjoy and let me know how your eggs look!

Sourdough Bread

As I write these posts it has become clear to me, that what I really enjoy making is "live" food. Food that grows and ripens. So in that continuing theme today I will share my experiences with
Sourdough.

I discovered great Sourdough bread when my Mom and I used to travel to Alaska. And each year I would bring home "dry sourdough starter" and something was just not right. This recipe I am sharing today qualifies as great sourdough as far as I am concerned. And as you will see it is quite versitle.

This originally is an artisan bread recipe. Which means it is baked on a stone or tiles. I was really excited about this - until - I realized that with my crutches, manuvering the bread and the stone was just too dangerous. I could just see myself falling face first into the oven. So I improvised and put it into a regular bread pan and it turns out just fine. Then I found a blog where a mom of 6 shared about a Pullman Bread Pan. This is a 6 sided bread pan w/sliding lid.

I used the Pullman Bread Pan for the first time today and it is wonderful. It makes a rectangular loaf of bread, so you can make your own "sliced bread" for about the price of 40 cents each. Not bad, huh? The pan itself though is incredibly expensive. So you have to watch amazon and ebay and get a good price. See how much they cost regularly first, (google them at retail), then you are able to decide a real bargain. It took me several weeks to find one that I thought was reasonable, so don't give up.

So I have made this bread 2 ways, a loaf and day slicing bread. Next week I shall try English Muffins with it, which I am sure I will blog about after. Let's get to the recipe so you can enjoy bread today.

Sourdough Starter:

Enough for 8 loaves in a bread pan (small pan) or equal 2 loves of slicing bread.

The equation to memorize is: 6-3-3-13-(1)

6 C Luke warm water, 4T Salt, 3T yeast, 3C Flour, & I add 1C homemade yogurt

Be sure and put the yeast in the luke water and let it marry for about 10 minutes & become bubbley, creamy, (small bubbles). This is a very moist dough. Fridging it makes it a little easier to deal with.

You let this rise is a bowl, I put the lid over it upside down. You want air to be able to get to it. It rises 2 - 5 hours and then refridgerates for for 3hours. Then you can bake 45 - 60 minutes at 350 degree oven.

Now - let's break this recipe down to smaller versions for rolls at dinner etc:

4 loaves (1 pullman slicing loaf) 3C Lukewarm Water, 1 1/2 T yeast, 1 1/2 T Salt 6 1/2 C Flour 1/2 c yogurt

2 Loaves (good for a couple nights of 6 rolls)

1 1/2 C Lukewarm water, 3/4 T yeast, 3/4 T salt, 3 1/4 C Flour, 1/4 C yogurt.

Let me know how it goes for you. I hope you enjoy this bread as much as we do.