Taking Care of Busniess

I need to get a few things done around here, which coincidentally is how I spent my day here at home too. I realized with pleasure that next week I'll be in San Francisco (at The Mosser-gorgeous hotel!) 

and it really does look this great!

and my husband will be here at home, with kids and our house was feeling really cluttered and dirty. It was cluttered and dirty but only from a summer of putting things off until it gets cold or dark or both. I had'nt scrubbed a shower decently in who knows how many months, MONTHS. Yech. So I got down to business and deep cleaned the bathroom, gutted the pantry, vacuumed places that never see the light of day, dusted, got rid of a couple of sliding crap piles, washed the wall under the counter where the stools are (gross!!), washed rugs and the shower curtain. I didn't stop until I went to the chiropractor because I have a couple of ribs giving me trouble.

Maybe I should have stopped to rest my back but it felt SO good to get all those little things done. I did sit down with ice and then heat and then realized I had a lot of little things to take care of here. So here I am taking care of business blogger style.
First up the winner of the canning giveaway never responded or replied or commented so I decided to draw a new winner. The New winner is:

September 13, 2010 8:54:00 PM AKDT

Next up the Brillo giveaway. I let this one ride because I really wanted a good name suggestion for the cat but in the end it was up to me to find the name to suggest to my husband. We went with Agate but have been calling her Agatha, which I love! The Brillo winner and one I am very jealous of is:
Monica!

September 28, 2010 5:12:00 AM AKDT

Monica H said...

I have tried Brillo recently and I love them! I just assumed that my sheet pans would be forever stained, but they're like brand new again. I need to clean my cupcake pan, cause the non-stick spray burns onto the metal and you can't get it off! Love this product.

September 28, 2010 8:43:00 PM AKDT

Then lets move on to the cob oven. No I did not make the dragon bread in it. I have made bread or attempted to make bread in it. It is a learning curve what with cooking in an 800˚ oven and trying not to instantly incinerate the bread. Here is a photo of my first loaf:

not bad, it was charred on one side and raw on the inside though

And then I finally got a photo of the pickles in their brine. This is the one gallon jar and I have 2 more gallons in a bucket on the counter.

mmmm cleaning house and cleaning blog are very good for the soul.



And we have wind. Did I tell you about the wind last week? Well real quick we had 80 mph gusts, hurricane force except up here we just call it 'wind'. Then I got sick, like fever, leg cramp grumpy sick. Then the power went out, for 40 hours. My husband was gone and our power was out for 40 hours. My freezers full of salmon? Melting!! I saved them by buying dry ice and sticking it here or there in the freezer, I didn't lose anything. Oh except for the 2 gallons of raw milk in the fridge that went bad. Then lets see I'm home sick in bed with two freaked out kids, a dog, a cat and 20 something birds and the wind is sucking parts of the house off that aren't nailed down. And I can't find the flashlight, we don't have enough water stored, all our food is 'real' food and not ready to eat food, the kids are finally down sleeping with battery operated tea lights on the bed stands. I'm sleeping fitfully listening to the wind batter our poor trees when the house starts really shaking, the bed lurches, this old house creaks and groans and I realize we are having an EARTHQUAKE. A little one only like 5.5 or so, in the pitch black, alone and thirsty, a rockin' and rollin' earthquake. Guess I'm a LOT stronger now hunh? Because you know whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

RIGHT???

one more shot of the dog in armor

Peace and Love-

Michaelmas

Today we celebrated St. Michael, the dragon slayer, who conquered the dragon and brought hope to his people. We celebrated the strengths of our boys by having them run a leaf maze and having some foot races too. It was great fun! We had a grand time turning some leftover silver insulation in to armor,

which was worn the rest of the day.

Making dragon bread.

Running leaf mazes.

Eating an all Alaskan harvest feast( except the bread)

I linked up our celebration to:

peace and love--

a day in the life of 20 pounds of pickling cucumbers

or the alternate title: What to do with 20 pounds of pickling cucumbers. Either way it sounds a bit daunting, yes? Well hell looking at the box it is a bit daunting, that's a lot of cucumbers. Right about 4 gallons of them. 4 gallons if you don't happen to drop a gallon jar of boiling water in the sink and fling broken glass all over the freshly washed cucumbers. And if you do it's about 3 1/2 gallons of cucumbers. Still a lot to look at.
My goal was to make good old fashioned dill pickles with all the cucumbers I got from Azure Standard, the organic food company I've been buying from. I did make pickles or got them started and they won't be done until I get back from BlogHer Food in 2 weeks. GULP.
Ok that's a reality check in two weeks I'll be back, full of conference news, excitement and most probably with a vicious food hangover. And right in to my favorite time of year. I love this time of year, it's so beautiful and final. Summer really is over, the food is put away, it's time to craft, and plan for next year's garden. The slow down of winter is wonderful with longer nights, we all sleep better and I, for one, don't feel guilty about sitting down to relax. Yes, I'm a freak, haven't we gone over this before?

My little pickling cucumbers had a big day, that ended in salty acidic bath snuggled up against some dill. Mmmmm what a way to go. HA! I still have bucket of them in the fridge and thought I might bake them, a la Julia Child. I don't know it sounds interesting to bake cucumbers don't you think? Or perhaps I'll slice them thin and make spring rolls or sushi, which thanks to my good friend Steph I am now craving. Or maybe some other type of pickle, I don't know. Here's the recipe for the pickles I made tonight. I'm giving you the quart recipe, double it or half it as needed.

Dill Pickles
1 sterilized quart jar with ring and new flat lid-wash well, fill with boiling water and set aside
1 quart of small or pickling cucumbers
1 garlic clove, minced
2-3 sprigs of dill
2 1/2 TBSP pickling salt
water
1cup 5% acidity vinegar

wash the cucumbers well
empty the sterilized jar
pack the cucumbers in the quart jar
add the garlic and dill
sprinkle the salt over the cucumbers
fill half way with drinking water-no fancy water needed
add the one cup vinegar
top off with water if needed
set in a warm spot
they will begin to bubble and ferment
when this action has stopped they are ready to eat

You can keep them in the fridge from now on but I'm guessing you won't have them around too long. Mine will be sucked down, in fact Union asked for them in his lunch. He has no idea how long 2 weeks is.

My post yesterday. Totally from the heart, very painful to write and also very good for me to write. I needed to say those things to get them out of my head. I think sometimes it's why I write, it helps me purge the spinning thoughts in my head. I did find out that I have some really great friends, who love me even if they've never met me. Even if I'm fat. And pretty great sister too. Thanks. Now I have to go pick broken glass out of the drain. Oh what a glamorous life!

As a side note-I ran spell check-the only I spelled wrong every time? Yep cucmbers cucumbers ccumbers cucumbers. Cucumbers. Cucumbers.

Peace and Love--

Yeah I'm Fat So What?

I guess I'm writing this to out myself to people who don't know me. {Ahem} To whom it may concern: I don't have a magazine perfect body. I am a real living and breathing human being who likes to eat more good food than I really should and I know this. I like cookie dough, real milk with cream on the top, good cheese, peanut butter and chocolate and a good steak. I also like kale chips, roasted brussel sprouts, broccoli and I am likely to push small people down to get a carrot out of my garden.

When I tell people I am speaking at BlogHer Food next week on Values - Our Food Future: Kids, Cooking and Health if they know me well they don't bat an eye. But people who don't know me or care to take the time to know me tend to look me up and down as if saying "you? what could possibly know about feeding your kids real good food, you're so, so fat." Well I happen to think I know a whole lot about getting kids to eat and like healthy foods because I grew up eating good and healthy foods. I grew up in the dieting crazes of the 70s and 80s too so I also know the dangers of diets for kids.  I know letting them feel hungry and then satisfied are really important. I share my love of good food with my kids and they seem to have their 'full' instinct firmly intact. Mine has been dieted right out my body. That is a bad thing. This I know.

I also expect them to eat what I put in front of them, and I can tell you this, it is not and will never be cutesy funsy food to get them to eat. No squeeze apple sauce, lunchables, dino shaped nuggets of chicken goo or gummy 'fruit'. Real food, the best I can give them at that point in my life wheter it's organic or not or free range or no range it comes from me with love. Every time. Healthy eating is about so much more than the foods you can or can't afford.

So please don't be too surprised next week if you meet me for the first time or come to the panel I'm on, I'm not a perfect size anything and I'm working really hard to like myself where I am. But where am I? Recovering from ankle surgery 1 1/2 years ago. I'm 45 pounds lighter than I was last year at this time. I am happily involved in some thing(s) I love. Mom to 3 boys. Married to a great man. Mentally I'm great and I love where I am, which is I guess right where I want to be.

Peace and Love-

Just Another Meatless Monday #30 Bruschetta

Bruschetta is a great catch all dinner for most any kind of vegetables you may need to use up and bread that may be a tad stale, my kind of dinner! Traditionally it was made with just bread, oil, garlic,  but you can top them with any languishing vegetables you find in the fridge. I'm thinking tomatoes, summer squash, eggplant, roasted vegetables and mushrooms. We feasted on a dinner consisting solely of bruschetta, green olives and tall glasses of water tonight.

This was also a night for fava beans to redeem themselves. I planted a LOT of fava beans this year and they were an incredibly abundant crop. Unfortunately we discovered we don't care for fava beans. Weird for us because we like almost all kinds of vegetables around this place. I kept trying them thinking we would come around to liking them and they kept disappointing us, they had a horrible metallic taste and even the chickens refused them. Then at school the other day I overheard the garden maven raving about them. I asked about how she prepared them and I got the lowdown from someone who knows how and what to do with them. So I followed her directions which were vague, a little of this and a bit of that but the end result was luscious fava bean bruschetta topping.

Favas take a bit of work but they are well worth the effort. First you need to peel the big outer pod off and collect all the little beans inside. Then boil some water with a dash of salt. Cook the peeled beans for about one minute, then drain and rinse in cool water. Peel them again by pulling off the skin around each little bean, it's light pale green and the bean inside is bright green. Once you have them all peeled they are ready to eat or be used in a recipe. Kids make fantastic little peelers here and enjoy the work too.

Bruschetta Bread
1 loaf rustic bread or other bread you may want to use
1-2 TBSP olive oil
1 garlic clove

slice bread into good hearty slices
heat 1 TBSP olive oil in a small skillet
quickly skim each piece in to the skillet and let it toast a bit, not to brown it or cook heavily just a quick sear
slice the garlic clove in half and rub on the toasted side of each piece of bread
set aside in a big pile while the rest of dinner or the toppings are prepared


Fava Bruschetta Topping
1/2 cup double peeled fava beans
1TBSP butter
dash of salt
in a small skillet (could use the same one the bread was seared in) mash the beans and butter together over medium heat
add salt and mash some more until the butter is melted and the beans are a heavenly dreamy spread
serve on the bruschetta bread or any bread you can round up

Tomato Bruschetta Topping
3 large fresh tomatoes
1 TBSP olive oil
1/2 clove of garlic
salt to taste
1/4 cup basil leaves, chopped

roughly chop the tomatoes in to bite sized chunks
heat the olive oil in a 8 inch skillet
when hot stir in the tomatoes
cook and stir until the tomatoes juice up and then reduce down a bit
add the garlic, cooking and stirring for a few more minutes
taste for salt and adjust as needed pepper can be added too
add the chopped basil and set aside
serve on bruschetta bread or any bread you can round up

Serve the bread along side the toppings for a make your own bruschetta dinner like I did tonight or make them up and serve them as real appetizers. I also served small dishes of grated parmesan and toasted walnuts to go over the tops. These we are real hit with everyone in our family and we all loved the fava beans prepared this way too. Next year more fava beans for sure!

Did you try any new vegetarian dishes this week? Time to link up! Maybe you'll inspire someone who may be unsure about a vegetarian meal to try one out. And if you are lurking why not post your own recipe!?! If you are visiting from Rhoda's or Selena's blog welcome and I hope you link up too! I only ask that you grab the turkey button and pop it in your post so you are linked back to me.


Peace and Love--

Thrifted Sunday

This was the week of the vintage Pendleton Wool Shirts. I found 4 in one store! These sell exceptionally well on ebay right now so I have them ready to be listed tonight. I need a little spending money for BlogHer Food next week!

I actually managed to raise most the money I needed to pay my way to BlogHer Food 2010. I made my money go a little farther by booking a great room at The Mosser, the same place I stayed last year. I love this hotel, it has great rates, PERFECT location and lovely rooms. And you know what? The coffee in the morning is actually good coffee, good free coffee. They are located on 4th and Market near:

• the cable car line stops
• the street trolleys 
• a muni bus stop 
• a bart station
• next to the Old navy flagship store
• SOMA
• Union Square
• shopping shopping shopping

In my humble opinion the best of everything about San Francisco is literally within your grasp. Oh and yeah it's close to the Intercontinental where BlogHer Food 10 is being held, too! Perfect location, price and awesome rooms. If you don't yet have a room for BlogHer Food 10 check them they may yet have rooms available. Let me know if you're staying there, we can have a pajama cocktail party!

GORGEOUS Lobby Truly Beautiful in Real Life Too!

OK back to thrifted Sunday. These are the Pendleton shirts I found:

Awesome hunh?

I also found this great Discovery Toys Marble Maze:

This train set up, already listed and bid on!

And last but not least a Tupperware Modular Mates set. Also already listed and bid on.

So I may yet have some spending money for my Chinatown excursion with Susan and our blogger meet-up dinner at Chez Panisse!! Oh life is good folks, life is good! Do you have great finds this week? Why not share them at Southern Hospitality and Apron Thrift Girl? And if you are coming from those blog hops why not check out Just Another Meatless Monday right here starting 10pm tonight AK time, 2am Eastern Standard. This is a weekly collection of meatless ideas for meatless Monday, you're welcome to share a link to your blog with your new or old post featuring a vegetarian meal. We'd ALL love to check out your blog!



Peace and Love--

Naan at home-easier that it should be

And I don't even have a tandoori, yet. One of the things I have been missing in our year of not eating out has been Indian food. Oh I miss samosas, vinadaloo but I really really MISS naan. The other day the potato lentil was cooking away happily when I saw my bread was done rising. I got one of those blinding flashes of brilliance when I then spotted the mega griddle ready to head back to it's hiding spot after making 30+pancakes for the week's breakfast. They collided in my head I think I even whispered "naan". It took me about two seconds to pull that baby out and start heating it back up for an experiment.

What a happy lucky little experiment it was! I actually got them all made in less than 15 minutes, once the dough was done rising. You'll need a clean plate to press them out on or a really clean counter, wrong time of year for me on the really clean counter (screen doors, down flies not dead=unclean)

Best Homemade Bread-- makes 2 loaves
in a KitchenAid fitted with a dough hook
add 2 cups flour, 1 Tablespoon SAF yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon salt
pulse to mix for a bit
add 1 1/2 cups warm water
run to incorporate water, stop and scrape down sides
add 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil
run again until all in incorporated, you may need to scrape it down again
now start adding flour 1/2 cup at a time
let it incorporate before adding more flour
as it becomes dough you need to turn it off and check on it if it is still sticky keep adding flour
I usually end up adding between 2 to 3 more cups and sometimes as much as 4 cups, depends on the day, the humidity and if I added a little too much water
once it has taken as much as it will, you'll be able to tell this because it will incorporate less easily and the dough will not be too sticky, let the machine knead it for 5 more minutes or so
when it is done it will climb the dough hook and drop back down repeatedly, or at least that's when I call it done, it should be smooth, moderately stiff and not sticky
turn it out into a greased bowl, flip to grease, cover with a warm damp towel and let rise in a warm place
when it is doubled in size pre-heat the griddle to around 400˚ that's as high as mine goes
let it warm up and swipe it with a stick of butter
tear off a piece of the dough and press it flat on the plate
stretching and flattening to a circle-ish shape--not necessary!!
once it's as flat as possible pull it off the plate stretching as you go
flop it on the griddle and start over again
when one side is browned in spots flip it and cook the other side
while that side cooks swipe the butter over the side you already cooked
remove to a platter and keep warm by covering with a dish towel
repeat until all the dough is used up and your family comes sniffing around for lunch

Make this your recipe, make garlic naan or cheese nan or use extra salt or sugar have fun with it! We ate leftovers with more potato dal and what a satisfying lunch! They reheated really well in a small skillet.

Don't forget to help us name the new kitteh! Leave a comment over here and enter to win some sweet Brillo pads and help us think of good names for the cat. Maybe I'll post the best ones for voting next week, ala Swistle!
I'm linking up with:

Peace and Love-

Have you tried a Brillo Pad recently? (giveaway post)

Yeah me either! Why is that? I don't really know, do you? Maybe it's the advent of non-stick cookware? Or my love for enameled cast iron? Or I just don't think of it. But I really should! Brillo recently sent me some steel wool pads and some new wedge edge sponges samples to try out. And to give away!

The steel wool worked brilliantly on, are you ready for this, my clear pyrex dishes! I probably wouldn't use it on my vintage pieces or on any heavily decorated pieces but for clear everyday pans with baked on cheese sauce or chocolate cake crumbs steel wool was a dream. The steel wool pads also whipped my stainless steel into brilliant shape, they have never looked so good, well OK except for when they were brand new. I swear making omelets in a smooth and shiny pan is a great way to start your day!

If you are you want to win your own to try out leave me a comment on this post! Extra entries can be earned by:

• blogrolling Hey what's For Dinner Mom
• sharing on your blog about this giveaway
• tweeting "@whats4dinnermom has a brilliant Brillo giveaway going on"
• following along on my mad journey
• leaving me a gratuitous compliment about how well I'll do speaking at BlogHer Food 10-I leave in 2 weeks!!
• or suggest a name for the new wonder cat

And as promised wonder cat!

For now she is nameless, we have a few good ideas but nothing nailed down. Help us not name the cat garlic or cinnamon (NOT MY CHOICES) by leaving as your entry comment a great, heck purrfect(sorry) name for the cat!

Peace and Love--

squirrel!!

wait

what??

Azure Standard

I have stepped off the grocery store train. When I have to go it is such an assault on the senses I often times come out with things I never wanted and I tend to forget things from my list even though I go right down the aisle a certain product is on. And I read my list out loud too. Yeah, the other shoppers love me.

I discovered Azure Standard about 9 months ago after joining a food co-op. I ordered and loved it, I bought my beans and dried goods from them, plus Dr. Bronners and some storage buckets for flour and such and gallon jars for beans. Now I skip the co-op and order direct because while I love the co-op it's a long drive to get there!

What is Azure Standard? From their website in their words:"We specialize in natural, organic, earth-friendly foods and products. We deliver directly to customers, buying clubs and retailers by semi truck and UPS." In my words: "A lifesaver!" I can buy just about anything and everything for a healthy lifestyle from Azure Standard, and I can do it from home at midnight on a Thursday. No interruptions, no insane advertising, no aisles to trek up and down and my list is so easy to finish.

What do I buy from them? Beans, cheese (FETA 4 pounds in a bucket!), nuts, organic fruits, frozen organic fruits, jars, buckets, soap and on and on. I buy anything and everything I would buy at the store in the natural foods department for a FRACTION of the price. We have a health food store in Anchorage, the closest city, and this far and away beats them too. I love to shop at the health food store and support local business' so I do pop in when I'm in the city, it's a great store. 

I made a statement about shopping local a while back and it still stands true. I love to shop local but that's hard to come by in the days of Walshmart and other big business, so I like to think of the Internet as MY place and of course YOUR place to find and support small cottage industries. Main street is not only in your town these days but all of America can be your main street. I think of Azure Standard as a  company supporting lots of business' because you can buy cheese from 10-20 business' instead of 1 or 2. And the prices are great because there's no retail middle man to pay.


Sure it may seem intimidating and hard but it's not if you break in slowly with a meal plan and small orders to start with. I keep adding more and more things each order and this in turn scales back my shopping at other stores. I think Steph over Up North had a great set of posts about Azure and ordering, I think I'll be going back and reading them over again.


One thing about ordering: you do have to pay freight, which is about 35 cents a pound. If you are in the valley you might think about joining up with us because we have our freight costs down to about 25 cents a pound. This means my 20 pounds of fantastic peaches will cost me about 25 dollars for peaches and shipping, not too shabby for organic fruit.


I do still support local farmers: I have a source for local raised pork (email for details), chickens (again email me), milk and tomatoes. I also grow as much of our food as possible, dip net salmon and forage for berries and greens. Plus we have meat and egg birds on our farm. 




Come back tomorrow for a giveaway and to see our new rescued kitty. Guess who loves the new rescued kitty? Yep, wonder dog thinks she is the bees knees, he shares his food and water with her even though she has her own. If you live in the valley MSB Animal Control is having a cat sale which is where wonder kitty is from.




Peace and Love--
 

Meals For Busy Moms

A recent request on facebook from a friend needing meal ideas got me to thinking about health, time and money and eating. She needed quick meals for busy nights when soccer and dinner collide. Some of the ideas she received were pretty great and some were down right scary, ground beef with two cans of mushroom soup covered with tater tots and cheese? One heart attack coming up please! I refrained from my judgemental comments, these were from her friends and they were trying to be helpful. I added my 2 cents by posting a link to Just Another Meatless Monday and went on my way. But I just couldn't stop thinking of my friend, 4 nights of soccer and dinner time.

Around this time my life pace picked up dramatically with my two young boys in different schools at opposite sides of the valley and both with mandatory volunteer time. This cut in to my bon bons and soaps time dramatically, HA! Actually it cut into my meal prep time pretty dramatically. I floundered for two weeks before realizing I needed what my friend was asking for, recipes, plans and a good swift kick.

I set about making the all important meal plan. You have to have a plan, to know what to do next and keep you moving in the right direction. So I asked myself what can I plan on that everybody will eat? What can I throw in that they might object to but will still eat. What will I have time for? What do I feel like making? I also asked my kids what they wanted, one said red beans and rice, one said crock pot lasagna, whew, those are easy enough. I ticked off a few other recipes and double checked my pantry against the plan and added any needed ingredients to the Costco list. I buy most of my groceries in bulk from Azure Standard and Costco. I get Azure once a month and Costco once a month and occasionally I hit the local store for small amounts of things I need maybe twice a month. Everything we need I try to keep in stock here.

My meal plan looks like this:
dinner-

• red beans and rice-leftover ham from freezer, rice from freezer, beans cooked in the crock pot
• crock pot mexican lasagna-vegetarian
• potato dal-vegetarian
• home made chicken strips and tater tots(tot recipe is unknown!)
• taco salad-vegetarian
• frittata
• blts
• leftover buffet
• all dinners will have fresh salad, garden carrots or peas and or fresh fruit

lunches-

• ham sandwiches, fruit, garden veggies and a cookie-for school children
• people who are home at lunch will get leftovers reworked or pb&j

breakfast-

• pancakes-made ahead on the weekend and frozen flat on a cookie sheet for quick re-heating in a skillet
• oatmeal-also made ahead and kept in the fridge

snacks-

• fresh fruit
• fresh apple sauce
• last of the garden peas
• popcorn

baking list-this is me I don't expect anyone else to do this but this is what I do, so you know

• 4 loaves of fresh bread
• 1 batch cookies-oatmeal or ? 1/2 the batch to be frozen and pulled in to rotation later in the month-variety is the spice of lunch!

Now I have a plan, which at first look seems constricting and so formal. But living with the plan is simple, if I change my mind the meals simply get bumped back and I still have everything I need for it and an extra day already planned out that I don't have to worry about. AWESOME!

I'm sure you all saw the beans in several areas of my my meal plan, yes? OK taco salad and mexican lasagna use pinto beans which I soak overnight and cook slowly while I'm home in the evening. I make them together and store them separately in the fridge until I'm ready to use them. It makes perfect sense, dried beans are cheap and good for you. Canned beans are OK, but salty and they don't really absorb flavors easily. For the red beans and rice in the crock pot I'm going to soak them over night and cook them on low all day, adding spices and ham when I get home after school. If I get inspired I'll soak them with some whey, we'll see.

I'm putting in links to the things I have here on my blog so if you want to try a few trifecta recipes (good, healthy, cheap) you can easily locate them. The tater tots are a new thing for me so we'll ALL see how they turn out and I can add the baked chicken strips too.

There you have it my plan to save:

• my sanity by having meals planned
• money by having food in the house to make meals from
• time, things are planned how can I NOT save time? (why do I tempt fate, WHY?)

Three things I am in short supply of and I bet most moms are these days. My husband makes good money, we have some bills and everything is so darned expensive! I could get a job but really I would be paying for day care. I'd rather work our farm, raise our kids, shovel shit, mow grass, knit, cook, start charter schools, make compost, write, resell, thrift shop, blog, sew and tunnel out of the snow drifts than have my kids at the mercy of someone else and their arbitrary rules. I have enough of my own, ha! I guess what it boils down to is we are not rich but we make it work and this plan is going to make it work so much better. Thanks Carmen for that request from a few weeks back, it really helped me out and I hope in turn this helps you out.

In other unrelated news, our washer is broken and I have been hand washing clothes for a few weeks to see how easy I had it. Yeah I'm DONE with this experiment, I need a new washer STAT! Suggestions?

Peace and Love-

Just Another Meatless Monday #30 Broke Down Pesto

I grow a crazy amount of basil every year in order to have a good stash of pesto for winter dinners. Pesto adds such a potent flavor blast that it can perk up almost any dish, and the fresh taste can help beat down the worst winter blues. I actually grow it inside on a planting table I use in my dining room instead of hutch because, well because I don't have a hutch. Yet.

Last week we had an impromptu fire in the fire pit and being that it was impromptu we had no grilling meat, hot dogs, salmon or other fire cooking foods ready for dinner. I hit the kitchen and tore through my cupboards in desperation looking for something for dinner. It seems I need to go back to that menu plan idea, hunh? More on that tomorrow! I came up with a pretty great little dinner that suited our spur of the moment fire quite nicely. I made sauteed green beans over creamy polenta with some broke down pesto for flavor.

Broke Down Pesto? Yep, it's how you add the flavor punch of pesto without washing the food processor because it's in the dishwasher. And it feels wrong to crack in to the freezers stores of pesto before the snow flies, too. So I just used all the components of pesto individually in the green beans and topped it with grated parmesan. Yum, seriously even my kids cleaned their bowls, twice!


Sauteed Green Beans with Broke Down Pesto
2 TBSP oil divided
20 ounces frozen or fresh green beans
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup basil leaves, chopped or torn
1 cup of toasted walnuts
1/2 cup grated parmesan
sea salt to taste
hot cooked polenta

heat 1 TBSP of oil over medium high heat in a large skillet
when hot add the green beans, careful frozen ones will spatter
cook and stir for 8-10minutes until the beans become crisp tender and browned in spots
push beans to one side of the pan
add rest of the oil to the empty spot
heat for a moment then quickly add garlic and stir fry for 1 minute or until fragrant, don't burn it
stir in to the green beans add basil and about half the walnuts, stir again and taste for salt add as needed
serve over polenta, top with some more walnuts and some parmesan

A big hit even if it wasn't grilled over the fire! And we DID have s'mores, see?? You are now witness to the flaming marshmallows!

Did you see the earth oven we built? Click here to see it and read about it!

Peace and Love--

Building an Earth Oven a thrifty project!

Or Cob Oven your choice really, they seem to be pretty much the same thing. Basically it's a wood fired mud oven, you can bake breads and pizzas in. We've been working on this for about 3-4 weeks now, on weekends and some week nights too. It's been mostly fun. And pretty dirty work.

We still want to add one more nice thick coat of mud on the outside but we were worried it was never going to dry all the way before snow. So this morning we decided to fire it up and try to get it dried and then add one more coat later.

The basic steps are: build a platform
-we made it counter high by building a wooden base from wood we already owned, then covering it with reclaimed bricks and sand given to us by parents who bought too much, the this was covered by a layer of cob which is about 1:1 sand and clay, watered a bit and mixed well
cost=labor and sweat

next step build the oven interior
-ours was made out of mounded sand, more of the extra from parents, this mound will be the size and shape of the oven's interior, we covered ours with wet newspaper mailers that came in our box for free, these keep the sand from sticking in the cob and give the cob something to stick to
cost=labor and sweat

then: cover it with cob
-cob is an old fashioned way to make mud bricks, we made ours out of sand and clay from deep under the garden, we ran out of sand and raided the sandbox with promises of fresh sand from the oven interior, we mixed it about 1:1 sand and clay, watered a bit and mixed well, completely cover the sand pile with this mixture, after the first layer is put on the oven add handfuls of straw to the cob and mix in well for structural integrity and add another layer, let dry for a day or two
cost=nothing but child labor HA! they loved this part!!

insert a chimney:  
-we used an old piece of chimney, how lucky for us! you can use stove pipe, we set a piece of metal rod through the oven, left to right and set the chimeny on it to keep it from falling through, add more cob making sure to mud up around the chimney and over the support rod
cost=4dollars--came as part of something else

keep covering: we added many layers, not really knowing what we were doing, but we sure had fun finally today we decided that hot dog it was time

build a door:
use some leftover wood to build a door to the approximate right size to fit in the whole


Dig out the sand:  
-this simply entailed a small tool to scrap the sand out and a strong back to haul it
cost=sweat and labor

The final layer:
this one should be a perfecting finishing coat, no straw just clay, sand and water--not done yet but will be up soon

So the total for our oven was four dollars, your costs may vary because we have a couple acres and we tend to hold on to things "we might need someday"


Now it's time to fire it up! Build a small fire in the front and once it's going center it and let it cook your oven inside and out!

We had a hard time getting the fire going, apparently you can't just stuff it full, you really have to build a small one and keep it going, and adding more to build it up.
Don't forget you'll need a good supervisor to watch out for you and make sure your job safety skills are intact!

I'll be submitting this to Southern Hospitality and Apron Thrift Girl for their thrifting and thrifty link parties. SO many great ideas, you should really check them out!
I also linked in to:

Peace and Love--