Just Another Meatless Monday Caramel Apple Oatmeal

How to make oatmeal exciting. Yes I sit around, ok-go around, thinking about how to make oatmeal exciting. I have 25 pounds of it in my pantry so I have good reason to dream about oatmeal and how to use it up. I need a good granola recipe, anybody got one? Leave me a comment or a link I'd love to make a rip roaring batch of granola. Or TREE HA! Anyway, here's my latest rendition of morning oats. 

Caramel Apple Oatmeal

3 cups water

1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

2 pinches of salt

2 apples, cored

2 TBSP butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

dash of cinnamon 

bring the water to a boil in a medium pot of high heat

add a pinch of salt and the oats and cook, stirring occasionally for 5-10 minutes until done

meanwhile melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat

chop the apples and add them to the butter

cook and stir for 2-3 minutes

add the sugar and the other pinch of salt

cook stirring occasionally until the apples are fork tender

add a dash of cinnamon, set aside until the oatmeal; is done

serve the oatmeal with the apples on the side or divide them evenly between the bowls of oats

This was met with absolute joy this morning, we had extra little boys over and there was excited murmuring as I was caramelizing the apples. I had to set some aside for my husband or they would have eaten all of it including the frying pan. 

Peace and Love--

 

The Penny Worthy Project

Nice thrifting finds this week, I guess, yeah I think so anyway. I actually got to go THRIFTING this week which is always a plus in my book. Our birch syrup making days are over, the leaves are sprouting out, so we pulled the spiles and corked the holes. I really enjoyed making syrup and I know we'll love having it stashed away for next winter but I'm really glad to be done too. We were all feeling a little bit likes slaves to the sap.

On the bee front I finally got stung and it was even my one fault. I was performing a hive check, leaned over and crushed a be on my leg with my HUGE leather gloves. Holy cow, it hurt so bad. Funny thing is I had to control myself because I had 10,000 bees right in my face and I had to remain composed. I wanted to run screaming from the hive swatting at bees instead I put the hive back together and went on to the next hive. I was wondering how I would do when I got stung in a high crowd of bees, now I know.

Here's what I found thrifting this week

4 nice summery shirts, all brand new. Also one black long sleeve, in anticipation of winter and fall (shhhh did I JUST say winter and fall??? BOOOOOOO).

Looking ahead I bout two packets of paper airplane kits for a certain Mr. Sir Prize. You never know when you'll need a good project like paper airplanes and he loves the kits. WIN.

I found this fantastic French pyrex-style mug with an ocean print on it, I love it! I have another set, or two?, of these in different prints and I love them. 

Also it turns out that the Mouse Trap game I bought is in almost perfect working order. It doesn't really matter because my kids set it up any which way and use all the pieces not in there original spots. That's my kids.

 What's making your heart sing this week? You can link up etsy stores, ebay auctions, blog posts, recipes, tips for a happiness anything that makes you happy.

Peace and Love--

Cottonwood Bud Balm

Also called the Balm of Gilead. If you want to make this wonderful balm now is the time to gather your buds. Umm yes okay if you live in Alaska now is time to gather your buds and get busy. If you live anywhere else gather buds before they leaf out while they are fragrant and smell deliciously of spring. Cottonwood Bud Balm can be used to treat minor muscle aches or just as really good deep moisturizer. I use it as a moisturizing healing balm for my poor chapped spring hands and on my kids cheeks for chapping too. It won't last too long even if kept in the fridge, so it truly is a spring thing.

I spent an sunny spring hour picking buds and two hands off hours letting it get melty over a double boiler. The original recipe came from this book

which I HIGHLY recommend for anyone in the Pacific Northwest. It's packed full of amazing recipes, foraging tips and hand drawn plant parts that really show the difference in plants. Okay it also has photos too. I've yet to find a plant that wasn't in the book, believe me I tried!

Cottonwood Bud Balm

1 cup of cottonwood buds
1 cup of lard
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of beeswax
fabric to strain through
jars or tins to hold your balm

pick the cottonwood buds--make sure you either pick your own or get permission  to pick your neighbors, try not to pick every bud from a branch this will hurt the tree--yeah I know they are just cottonwood trees but it's good practice when foraging, use it always and you'll never kill something by over picking it


put them in the top of the double boiler, I used a pyrex bowl over a pan of boiling water, along with the lard, the oil and the beeswax
melt everything together, reduce heat, cover and let infuse for at least 2 hours
strain through a piece of muslin or a couple layers of cheese cloth
then pour into tins or jars

buds

melting together

strained and tinned

The smell of this balm is heavenly, it smells of fresh air, spring and earth energy. It feels alive and we love it. I'm glad to have a use for those silly sticky little buds that annoy so many folks. It really helps bring the outdoors in and even extend that spring feeling right on into summer.


Peace and Love--


 

Patching with a POW!

and a WHAM!

 By the time our littlest boy gets pants they've usually had to live through his older brother already. To say they are threadbare and well worn might be an understatement. They aren't  destroyed just pre-distressed if you will. I patch them and repatch them and he still blows them out. That boy is tough on his knees. I'm not complaining mind you, I'd rather patch a thousand pairs of jeans than have a a kid who never wears anything out, it means he's out there playing and living life!

I came up with a fun way to spruce up his patched jeans and pants, Patching with a POW! I simply used some thrift store finds to make those used pants feel more fun. You will need an iron, some patching material, crayons or pens that write on fabric and a needle and thread. And of course you will need an onomatopoeia or two. BAM!

• locate pants with holes in the knees

• locate patching material--old pieces of fabric from jeans/pants too blown out to wear anymore work great--store bought patches can be used too, they work quite fine

• cut out your patch I use a double thickness of patching material so we have a bit of substance to work with, also use pinking shears if you have them, they help with the fraying aspect

• round up your fabric crayons or pens

• carefully write your chosen onomatopoeia on the patch, use the same one for each knee or chose a separate one for each knee

• now you can highlight one side of each letter to make them stand out more or make a super outlined word to make it stand out--I used crayons for the words and a marker to highlight the letters
• set the crayons/markers according to manufacturers directions--usually a quick sweep with a hot iron
• then thread up your needle and sew those patches on--they will take a bit to sew down, maybe ten to fifteen minutes per patch? not long--I use good strong embroidery thread in wild colors to make them come alive--straight stitch first and then whip stitch once or twice around
• present them to your wild boy and watch him make them come alive WHAM!    POW!

So easy to make the youngest of the bunch feel just as deserving as the oldest ones and SO CUTE. 

BLAMMO!!

 Peace and Love--

 

Just Another Meatless Monday Poached Eggs in Swiss Chard

When life hands you fresh spring time eggs and excellent fresh swiss chard (NOT GROWN BY ME) it's time to put them together in a 'eat em if you got 'em recipe. Very timely, very spring-y, very delicious. This was actually inspired by a recipe in one of my favorite books of all time Animal Vegetable Miracle. If you have NOT read this book get yourself to the Library ASAP and check it out, good reading and good recipes! 

Poached Eggs in Swiss Chard

1 1/2 market bunches of Swiss Chard, washed excess water left on

1 TBSP apple cider vinegar+more for serving

1/2 cup water

8 eggs

salt 

pepper

heat a 12 inch frying pan over medium high heat

chop the stems of swiss chard and toss them in the pan

saute for a minute or two

tear the chard leaves into pieces and add to the pan

sprinkle with the vinegar and add the water

cook for 2-3 minutes until cooked down

make 8 indentations in the chard 

crack one egg in each hollow

salt and pepper the whole pan

cover and cook 5-6 minutes for runny poached eggs and 7-8 minutes for more well done eggs

serve with toast, butter or extra vinegar if desired

Peace and Love--

 

The Penny Worthy Project

If I thought last week was busy and happy well it had nothing on this week.

Check it out 

 we tapped birch trees

made the sap into syrup in a crock pot--that's a LOT of collection

stained our hives

got our bees

 hived them 

plus all the other regular life things too. 

Midge seems non plussed about the addition of bees. 

Then she ate one or two, now not only is she non plussed but she actively AVOIDS the hives. Good planning Midge. Cats seem enthralled with the hives and sit on them, we'll see how this pans out.

I did find a BIT of time to go thrifting, found some cute shoes to resell.

And against my better judgment I bought a second hand Mouse Trap game. We haven't busted it out yet because we are too darn busy.

My good friend Regin brought me flowers this week and the cutest milk glass mug

LOVE!!

Maybe I'm so tired tonight because I started walking again this week. Midge is finally learning walk on her harness system and we've been walking every night. 

What's making your heart sing? Share it here and make sure you look for The Penny Worthy Project pinboard on Pinterest, I try to pin from all the posts linked up on The Penny Worthy Project.

Peace and Love--

 

How I'm Making Birch Syrup

This year I'm cooking down my birch sap in the crock pot, next year may be a different game, we'll see. I started off all right, I had the Le Creuset bubbling and boiling away. I've been reading up on boiling down syrup for a while now in preparation for this week or two. The one thing I read over and over was be careful birch sap will scorch so I was super paranoid about leaving it to cook. I don't have time to hover over a pot of clear liquid making sure I don't burn it to death.


Spring is busy. I have bee hives to seal, baby chicks to care for, 8 bajillion seedlings looking for a reason to die, tomatoes needing a transplant, kids wet, muddy and cold, a dog who wants to go for a walk, a coop that needs mucking out, cats trying to eat the robin, plus every normal chore to keep this place running. Standing over a stove in a state of constant paranoia does not work for me.

Here's what I'm doing, I don't know how it will work for you, it's working for us, that's all I can say.

1. we collected sap for a day and had about a gallon--make sure your collection jars is very clean and rinsed out too--no soap residue in the syrup please!
2. I strained it through a sieve and then my jelly bag
3. I set it to boiling in the Le Creuset, any heavy pot will do
4. plug in the crock pot and heat it up while waiting for the syrup to boil--don't leave your crock pot to heat empty for too long, it might crack
5. once it boiled for about 5 minutes I transferred it to the heated crock pot
6. popped the lid on it and brought it to it's heights heat
7. once it was thoroughly heated I turned the lid sideways to vent the steam out
8. I left it cook about 12-15 hours checking occasionally to make sure it wasn't thick yet
9. once it turned thick and a light amber I turned off the pot and poured the syrup, about a 1/2 cup into a half pint jar and popped it in the fridge
10. some articles I read suggested yet another strain at this point, I didn't the first time I made this but I think in the future I might--although I could lose a significant amount of syrup and there isn't much to lose 
11. I washed the crock pot, boiled more sap and started all over

Our Birch Syrup

I'm still researching long term storage. Some sites have suggested a boiling water bath in small jars for long term storability. I think with the initial boiling of the sap and then boiled in sterilized jars any fears of contamination would be mitigated for me. How about you? I'm not sure if ours will last that long. I'd love to have a gallon to put away for winter use. Along with our honey we could conceivably be off store bought sweeteners this fall. I like that!

I know this is not a conventional way to handle sap. I understand if you are skeptical, I myself am skeptical. But I also understand that I don't have time to hover, I don't have money to spend on a huge evaporator and I needed to do something with the sap. This is my answer and I'm sharing with others who may have small amounts of sap to deal with. I'd be delighted to hear from others who have fund ways to boil down sap in small amounts without driving themselves crazy.

To see out tapping procedure and more pictures of our farm in Alaska check out my post "I'd Tap That".


Peace and Love--


 

I'd Tap That

  and that

    and that

        and this

This is how we spent a pleasant bit of our afternoon, tapping birch trees for their sap. It's running pretty heavily and filling our pint jars up quickly. Tomorrow I'll be boiling it off, it needs to be cooked off quickly. You can drink it too. I wonder what else I could do with it? Thoughts?

When I was reading up on birch tapping I read you're supposed to use the silver birch, hmmmm are mine silver birch? I don't know, they have for the most part white-ish bark. Uhhhh if our syrup comes out bitter I'll be guessing ours were NOT silver birch.  I guess we'll find out, live and learn, right?




 Look at these boys, I swear they dress themselves, it hurts my heart it's so cute!

Peace and Love--



 

Just Another Meatless Monday

Whew. Very. Long. Week. Our family moved over to celebrating Orthodox Easter this year with the baptism of our two little boys. We thought it was an appropriate time to give up western Easter and move to one unified Easter. With the arrival of one Easter we were able to let go of the bunny and all his trappings and move to a more meaningful celebration for our family. Orthodox Easter involves a late night service, a strict Lenten fast and a huge feast at the end of the fast on Easter Sunday. It involves much more but because I'm experiencing it for the first time I don't know a whole lot about it. It's very exotic for a Lutheran girl you know. I volunteered as kitchen helper/slave for the Pascha(Easter)(meat) feast and I loved it. My feet on the other hand are not liking me one bit. I am thankful for my husband who will always rub my feet.

Life ate me this week and I don't have an amazing meatless recipe for you. BOO me!! But I need to be inspired and I need some good ideas! So please do join me for Just Another Meatless Monday and get me motivated. Since Sunday was an all meat feast, or practically was anyway, I may need to go meatless the rest of the week. 

  Peace and Love--