Blog Assembly: August 2010
Hi there!
As you can tell I haven’t blogged since last Friday. Benzo and I had a sort-of unplugged weekend while we went on church camp retreat (we had our phones but not computers). It was a great time. A whole bunch of people went to stay at a camp (adults and kids) and we all just relaxed and had fun doing camp activities like swimming, canoeing, bon fires and smores. There was even a big waterslide which was my favorite part. 
We got back on Sunday but then I had to get ready to leave for another trip on Monday. Right now I’m in New York on business. I’ll be here till Thursday. I’m not sure if I’ll have anything interesting to write about while I’m here so I may or may not post again until Friday. Maybe I’ll just post some pictures of New York.
Anyway it’s the last day of August – can you believe it?? Summer is almost over. 
To end the month, here is a collection of blog posts I’ve read during August that I enjoyed:
Community Food – Choosing Raw
Gena writes about a community garden she visited and a talk she gave on making healthy choices with the community garden members. I really like her idea of “add first, subtract later.” First add more produce to your diet. Then later you can subtract some animal products, if that works for you.
The importance of enjoying the habit – Zen Habits
If you try to develop a habit you don’t like, chances are you won’t stick with it. In terms of my blog, if you don’t like making things at home then don’t do it! Don’t do something you don’t enjoy. You can still reap the benefits of homemade items by having other people make them for you. Visit craft shows, farmers markets and locally owned boutiques and shops.
Minimalist Fashion Projects – Be More With Less
Courtney is starting a new challenge called Project 333. In this challenge you agree to wear only 33 items for 3 months (October – December). My closet is completely stuffed and I’ve had a really hard time eliminating clothing from my wardrobe in order to make it more manageable. I’m planning to participate in this challenge (eeep!) and will post about it on my blog. My hope is that by the end I’ll realize how much happier I am with a smaller wardrobe and will easily let go of a lot of my excess clothing.
Things You Won’t Do Again Lists – Unclutterer
This is a great idea. I need to make my own list like that. I just started subscribing to Unclutterer in my Google Reader and I love this blog! It is inspiring me to “unclutter” of course.
Usefulness of Ice Cube Trays
Two blogs I read this week talked about making green juice and freezing it into ice cubes to use later in smoothies and such. The first one I read was The Domestic Vegan and the second one was No Meat Athlete. I thought these blogs were great and at first I just planned on adding them to my blog round up at the end of the month. But then I thought I would write a separate post because both of these bloggers highlighted a kitchen tool that doesn’t get a lot of love. Behold the ice cube tray:
You might be thinking how the heck is an ice cube tray a useful kitchen tool? I mean it makes ice, which is great and all, but that’s it.
Well the ice cube tray is useful for turning anything into ice cubes. And while water is usually the cube of choice, there are a lot of other things that can be turned into frozen cubes.
Have you ever made a recipe that called for one cup of broth? In your pantry you had a can of said broth, so you pop it open, pour out one cup and go on with your cooking. But what do you do with the rest of the broth in the can? I used to save it in a jar in the refrigerator but it would always go bad before I could use it or remember it was even there.
Bring in the ice cube tray. Simply pour the leftover broth into the tray and freeze. Then pop the broth cubes out and store in a freezer bag or other container. Voila! The cubes have a much longer shelf life and they are in convenient packages to pop into recipes. For example, throw a few cubes into the cooking water for rice, couscous or quinoa to add flavor.
I’ve also frozen spaghetti sauce and pesto into cubes. This is especially handy when you have a small family (1-2 people) and don’t go through a jar of red sauce that quickly. Freeze the leftovers into cubes to make single serving pasta whenever you want. And then you don’t get sick of spaghetti because you don’t have to try to eat up the rest of the sauce before it goes bad!
One final item I’ve frozen into cubes is fresh herbs, basil in particular. If you have a herb garden, just pluck the fresh herbs, wash them and then push them down into the ice cube holes in the tray. Then fill the tray up with water all around the herbs. Let it freeze and then pop the cubes out for storage. The herb cubes work well in soups and stews when you don’t notice the extra bit of water from the cube melting. You can also just melt the cubes in a bowl and then strain the herbs out to use in sauces, pastas or anything really.
So the simple ice cube tray is actually quite versatile and useful in the kitchen. I absolutely love the idea of freezing green juice in cubes to use later in smoothies. I’ll be trying that one out soon I hope.
What else would you freeze into cubes?
Much Ado About Eggs
I found this article on MSNBC yesterday and I wanted to post a link to it because I think it’s really important. In light of all the egg recalls in the news you may be wondering what types of eggs you should buy. Here’s the link to the article:
Worried About Bad Eggs? How to Buy the Healthiest Ones
Here are a couple of quotes from the article that resonated with me:
More than 90 percent of U.S. eggs come from caged hens. These birds have a space smaller than the size of a sheet of paper to move around, and live in filthy conditions. Aside from animal welfare concerns, that’s bad for our health, too, Pennsylvania State University shows, because researchers recently found eggs raised on pasture are much more nutritious than eggs from their caged counterparts.
I cannot fathom or tolerate the living conditions of caged hens. It is straight out animal cruelty and I don’t understand why our government allows it! And if you choose to consume eggs and don’t care about animal welfare, the nutrition benefits are still a good reason to seek out local, free-range eggs and avoid caged eggs.
In an ideal situation, you would purchase your eggs from a local farmer in your area who raises chickens on pasture with plenty of space per bird, and uses moveable, open-air chicken houses, sometimes called chicken tractors, to protect the birds from predators. (You can look for this type of farmer on LocalHarvest.org.) Of course, you could also raise backyard chickens, if you have what it takes.
Personally I think it would be neat to have backyard chickens that provided eggs. I actually have the space for it in my backyard. My neighbor two houses down has chickens (I can hear his rooster crowing all day long). The problem is that I could never, ever kill the chickens for meat. So once they stopped laying eggs they would just become my pets, roaming around the backyard, living out the rest of their lives. Which would be fine except that eventually the non-laying hens would become too numerous and I would end up with a hen sanctuary.
Since I don’t raise my own chickens I have to buy eggs from the farmer’s market. The first thing I ask the farmer is “do your chickens get to run around?” I phrase it just like that. I want to know how the farmer raises their chickens. I want to know that the chickens are not kept in cages and are allowed to hunt and peck and act like chickens. One lady said “yeah they get to run around. They run around all over my porch.” Well that’s good enough for me. In a perfect world I would go visit the farm and see the chickens. Maybe someday I will be able to do that.
The MSNBC article gives definitions for the following terms: cage-free, free-range, organic, natural, pastured, omega-3 enriched, and certified humane. I suggest reading through these definitions so you can learn more about what these terms mean with respect to eggs. It’s not always what you think.
In my opinion the best eggs you can buy are from your local farmer. Second best would be organic eggs. Organic eggs come from hens not kept in cages with access to the outdoors. The hens are fed organic feed and are free of antibiotics and pesticides. Mostly importantly annual inspections are required.
But organic eggs are expensive!
Yes organic eggs are very expensive. I’ve seen them for $4-5 per dozen. Here’s my solution to that problem: eat less eggs. Instead of buying 3 dozen for $1.50 each, buy one dozen for $4.50. Stop using eggs for baking because you don’t really need them anyway. There are tons of egg substitutes. My favorite is the flax egg, which is very inexpensive. Only use your eggs for eating directly, such as scrambled, fried, hard boiled, etc.
I don’t want to get too high on my soapbox so I’m going to stop right here. My main point is to educate so people can make the right choice for their own lifestyle. I hope the article was helpful in answering some egg questions.
So what are your thoughts on eggs? Have the recent egg recalls made you reconsider your egg purchases or consumption?
Hein? Un Ananas?
Hein? Un ananas? means Huh? A pineapple? in French. You probably don’t find that very funny. But if you were in my senior year French AP class you would find it hilarious. We even made t-shirts (puff paint!) with pineapples on them and that phrase. It’s funny because when you say it in French it just rolls off your tongue like hien-un-an-an-as. We used to go around saying it and cracking up. Okay you probably still don’t think it’s funny. But I’m laughing! 
So today it’s time for more pictures from Hawaii! At this rate I’ll still be posting pictures in December. Anywho the subject of the post is obviously pineapples because while I was on Oahu I visited the Dole Plantation. Behold the lovely pineapple:
This is a pineapple actually growing on a plant. I don’t see too many of these in Kansas so I was pretty excited to see pineapples in their natural state.
Did you know that it takes 18 months to grow one pineapple? Here is the pineapple life cycle:
The top row shows the pineapple life cycle for the first 18 months, during the first fruit bearing. The pineapple grows from the center of the plant. Then the process is repeated but the plant grows a ratoon, which produces the second fruit. Then that process is repeated with a second ratoon and a final third fruit. Each plant produces 3 pineapples during its life. You can click on the picture above to see it larger if you want.
Here is a baby pineapple! Hopefully you can tell how small it is:
Can you imagine having that grow in your kitchen garden? When I went to the farmer’s market on Kauai the farmers had pineapples they had grown themselves!
Here is an interesting red pineapple. There are a lot of varieties of pineapple, but only one kind is grown for the U.S. It’s not this one.
If I remember correctly, this red one might be popular in the Phillipines.
Here are some other pineapples growing on their ratoons:
I really enjoyed visiting the Dole Plantation. If you are interested in plants or pineapples I highly recommend it. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to spend there since we spent most of the day at Pearl Harbor. We only had time to walk around the gardens (which is free) and walk around the gift shop.
But there are several other things to do if you have more time. There is a train ride, a garden tour, and the world’s largest maze. There is also a substantial cafe where you can eat lunch and try lots of pineapple-inspired dishes. The gift shop is really big too, but make sure you look at the “made in…” label. I found several things that were not made in Hawaii!
So do you like pineapple? If you could grow a pineapple in your backyard, would you?
Recycled Wrapping Paper
Today I went to a baby shower for a good friend. All the guests were asked to bring a children’s book to help start the baby’s library. I thought that was a great idea. After church this morning I stopped by Borders and picked up a book called Bee & Me
I wanted to get a book about gardening, since that would be appropriate coming from me, but when I saw the bee book I just had to get it! It was the cutest book about a boy and a bee and how the bee is sad because everyone is afraid of him. He explains all the good things that bees do and that they don’t just fly around trying to sting people. It even had these neat holograms on the pages that made it look like certain graphics were moving. It was perfect!
I’m always a gift procrastinator, waiting until the day of the event to buy the gift. After Borders I dashed over to the IL’s house, which was nearby, to wrap the book before I headed out to the shower. I still managed to get creative during my 5-minute wrapping frenzy. Check out the finished product:
What do you think??
I actually wrapped the book with a cut up brown grocery sack. Then I used that bit of blue polka dot ribbon to make the loop. Then I took the handle from the sack I cut up and tied it into a bow and glued it on top of the ribbon with craft glue.
I have really started to love the look of brown paper wrapped packages. They look so crisp and clean and are basically a blank slate for decorating. Any style or color of ribbon or bow can be used. You can also draw or stencil or stamp right on the paper to make a neat design. And the best part is that no one will have a package that looks exactly like yours. It will be completely unique!
Brown sacks are great for wrapping presents. It’s a good way to reuse a sack and then after the present is unwrapped the paper can be recycled. I’ve also bought a roll of plain brown recycled wrapping paper at Target. That’s nice to keep on hand for larger packages that are too big to use a cut up brown sack.
Another benefit of using brown wrapping paper is that it cuts down on wrapping paper clutter in your house! All you need is 1-2 rolls of the same brown wrapping paper. Since it’s plain and can be decorated according to the event, brown wrapping paper can be used for birthdays, holidays, baby showers and wedding showers.
As for the decoration part, I keep a drawer of odds and ends that I find that might be suitable for decorating a package. Bits of ribbon from other packages I’ve received, brightly colored yarn, stamps, markers, stencils, greeting cards that could be cut up and glued on, etc. Then whenever I have to wrap a package I just consult the drawer.
To inspire your brown paper package wrapping, here are some other examples I found:
The doily is a nice touch on this package. From The Sweetest Occasion (which by the way has some fantastic photography):
Christmas packages from Two Crazy Crafters:
These kind of look like baby gifts because of the thing on the top, but I’m not sure. From Elle Decor:
I love these packages with the music note snowflakes from kaseybuick.com. This picture reminds me of another benefit of using brown paper. You can write the “to” and “from” directly on the package. No need to mess with separate sticky gift tags. Saves money and less waste!
I could go on and on! For more inspiration just go to Google Images and search on “brown paper packages”.
I’m suddenly feeling the urge to watch Sound of Music. Brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favorite things!
Hope you’re having a great Sunday friends.
Versatile Blogger Award
On Monday of this week I was elated to find out that Keri from I Eat Trees blessed me with the Versatile Blogger Award!
I have to say I was very excited and honored to receive this award. I’ve never received a blogger award before from anyone! Keri is such a sweet person who comments on my blog all the time. I so appreciate all those comments! Thank you Keri!
The rules of The Versatile Blogger Award are as follows:
Okay so here’s seven random things about me that you might not already know from reading my blog:
1. I had 3 operations when I was 9-10 years old and one more when I was 14. I have a metal plate in my arm that does not set off the regular metal detector at the airport, but if I am chosen to be wanded, the wand picks it up. I have scars on both legs and one arm from all my surgeries.
2. I am turning 30 in less than one month. Eeeeeep! But I still get carded all the time, including at last night’s dinner with Benzo. It’s a rare occurence when I don’t get carded actually.
3. I don’t like flip flops. I never wear them.
4. I don’t like talking to people in public bathrooms. I prefer to get in there, do my business, and get out. If you want to have a conversation with me, let’s wait until we are out of the bathroom. Public bathrooms are just uncomfortable places in my opinion.
5. Bees are my trademark. I have lots of stuff with bees on it, like candles, towels, coffee mugs, picture frames, etc. It’s kind of funny that I don’t have a bee anywhere on my blog. I’ve thought about working a bee into my header but just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
6. I don’t like birthday cards. I think they are a waste most of the time. I’ll give a birthday card if I’m giving a gift card as the gift, I’m mailing the gift, or the card is the only thing I’m giving. But if I’m giving an actual gift I don’t see the need for a card. It’s a waste of paper and the other person is just going to throw it away in a few days.
7. I like spy movies and spy books. I loved that show Alias and thought it would be super cool to be Sydney Bristow.
And there you have seven random things about me!
Now to pass on the award to some bloggers I read regularly and think are great:
So you might have noticed that I have not posted the peach jam recipe yet. This is because Benzo has not edited my videos yet despite my pleading. Today he is working on the kitchen floor again so the video editing might not get done today either. And sorry my friends, but if it’s a choice between him working on the kitchen floor or working on the videos, I’m going to pick the floor. That project has been going on far too long and it’s this close to being done!
Peach Jam Preview
I made peach jam last night!
I ended up not having time on Tuesday night because the ILs came over for dinner. So last night as soon as I got home I went straight into jam-mode. I was worried that if I put it off any longer the peaches would start to go bad.
I asked Benzo to take some pictures of the process and we even recorded a video! LOL. I haven’t watched it yet but hopefully there’s some useable footage he can edit together to make a short video on water bath canning. Benzo is really good at video editing and all that tech-y stuff. I, on the other hand, am not.
So to get you excited about my upcoming peach jam post, here are a few pictures of what I ended up with:
I now have 4 half pint jars and 3 jelly jars of peach jam. I also have the equivalent of a half pint and a jelly jar in the refrigerator to enjoy right away.
I tried to leave some good chunks of fruit in there. I used mostly white peaches with a few yellow ones thrown in. That’s why the jam looks more pink than yellow. You can see a few specks of the yellow peaches mixed in with the white.
I LOVE the jelly jars!!!! They are so cute! These would make the perfect gift for someone.
Well that’s all for the peach jam preview! Hopefully I’ll have the full post on jam-making in a couple of days. I’m off to work. Have a great day!
What is it Wednesday: Soba Noodles
Last week I wrote about homemade lettuce wraps. In that recipe I used soba noodles instead of the dried bean thread noodles, which I couldn’t find. As I was cooking and assembling the wraps I thought, what are soba noodles anyway? Because to be honest, they look just like whole wheat spaghetti to me:
From Wikipedia – “soba is a type of thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour”. Wisegeek says that “soba” is actually the Japanese word for “buckwheat”. (I’ll have to confirm that with my friend Alisha who lives in Japan.) The noodles can be served a variety of ways, both hot and cold. Click over to the Wiki page and scroll down for a whole list of dishes using soba.
Nutritionally, soba contains all 8 essential amino acids, essential nutrients like choline, thiamine and riboflavin, and a couple of antioxidants (rutin and quercetin). I bought the Eden Foods brand of soba noodles. I think it was this one (image taken from the Eden Foods website):
In this 8 oz package there are 4 servings. Each serving contains 190 calories. A serving also contains 3g of fiber, 8g of protein and 10% of the daily allowance of iron. These nutrition stats are similar to a serving of whole wheat spaghetti. One difference is that whole wheat spaghetti is lacking one of the essential amino acids, lysine. Per Nutrition Data, whole wheat spaghetti contains thiamine and riboflavin, but the amount of choline has not been measured. The Nutrition Data webpage doesn’t show antioxidant details so I’m not sure how it compares in that area.
I cooked two meals for two people out of this package. First was the lettuce wraps and second was a simple stir-fry. I believe the package cost between $2-3 at Whole Foods. So the cost per serving was between $0.50 – 0.75.
Overall I really liked these noodles. I thought the taste was fine and they went well in the stir-fry. It was a nice alternative to rice. They are cooked just like other pastas. They also seem like a nutritional win. Probably the greater percentage of buckwheat in the noodle, the more nutritious it is. The above brand is only 40% buckwheat. I’ll have to look again for a package with a higher percentage.
Do you have anything to add on soba noodles? If you’ve had them before, what is your favorite way to eat them? I am definitely buying them again so I’ll be looking for new ways to work them into my meal plans.
For more information on the health benefits of soba, see also this article.
Millions of Peaches
On Saturday morning one of my neighbors came by to tell us that his peach trees were producing and to let him know if we wanted any peaches. I didn’t have to think very long before I said “YES”. I went by on Sunday to get some but he was already out for the day. Luckily his wife stopped by last night with 10 pounds of peaches for us. I offered to pay of course and she would only take $7! Seven bucks for 10 pounds of local peaches!
Tonight I am (hopefully) going to make a batch of low-sugar peach jam. It will be nice to have a batch of peach jam to go with the batch of strawberry jam I made earlier this spring. That way we can alternate jars and won’t get completely sick of one kind over the winter.
Whatever peaches are leftover after the jam session will be frozen. I am very excited about these peaches! Thanks to my awesome neighbor for being so generous!
Mustard Chickpea Salad
Well happy Monday to you! I seem to have taken an impromtu hiatus from blogging over the weekend. Benzo and I were really busy and either ate out or ate cereal for about every meal it seems. So not much cooking was going on in the homemade household. I did however whip up a new homemade cleaning product which I am very excited about. Look for a post on that soon, maybe in the next 1-2 weeks.
For today I’ll share with you a chickpea salad I made week before last on a night when I had been out working in the garden till the sun went down and therefore needed a very quick dinner when I finally came back inside. It is inspired by the homemade potato salad I made.
Mustard Chickpea Salad
Serves 2
1 can or ~2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp stoneground mustard
2 tbsp olive oil
Spinach leaves, washed and ready to eat
In a small bowl whisk together the vinegar, mustard and dill until combined. In a medium bowl combine chickpeas and peppers. Add mustard sauce and stir till combined. Serve over a bed of spinach.
It looks like I must have added some type of dried herb, but I honestly can’t remember. Maybe it was dried parsley?
This simple recipe is easily adaptable to your own tastes. Try different vinegars, oils or mustards and add fresh or dried herbs or different kinds of vegetables to come up with different flavor combinations.
This salad would also be great to eat on its own, in a lettuce wrap or pita pocket. The possibilities are endless. I love chickpeas!
I hope you are having a great start to the week. I am having a great day so far. The weather here has cooled off quite a bit, which is a huge relief since I have a date with the lawn mower tonight after work!
Hi I'm Amy and I like to make things at home as a way to be more healthy and eco-friendly.