Dehydrator

Giveaway at Keeper of the Home!

I know. It's shameless. I would really, really, really love this. Feel free to enter yourself. Or, because you love me so much - enter, win, and get it for me!

Oh Vinegar, How I Love Thee

I really do. I didn't for a very long time though. When I first started my journey towards a healthier lifestyle, I kept reading about vinegar everywhere. Cleaning, laundry, pest control, weed control, yada yada yada. I tried cleaning with vinegar and thought I'd never get over the smell. But you know what? I did. And now, I absolutely love the stuff. (I mean, not for a perfume or anything) Because, you really can use it for everything! It's great for a fabric softener, general disinfectant, conditioner, and my most recent discovery - a fantastic weed killer.

I kid you not - it's great. I buy vinegar by the gallons, and I used one, undiluted, in a flo master gallon spray jug. My dad got this one for me at Sam's, and I'm pretty sure it was less than the $20 on this site. (Now, I personally think one of these is a must, because unless you only have 1 or 2 weeds to get rid of, your hand will hurt from a regular trigger handle.) I also added a little powdered citric acid (a.k.a. sour salt) because I had some left from my failed dish detergent recipe. There are a multitude of weed killer recipes, but I went for the no-fail method and didn't water mine down. I don't have time for 2-3 applications if the first didn't work, thank you very much. You could also add lemon juice, which is basically citric acid. One gallon will go a looooong way. I spray first thing in the morning on a very sunny, hot day. They basically fry in the sun. I have found that this works best when there's no chance of rain for a couple days. One time it rained within 12 hours, and I think the weeds recovered from their burning :)

So here is a nice before shot of the enemy:

And the after:

Pretty impressive, huh? I thought so. I really love that I can use it around my garden beds without worrying about leaching chemicals into the ground right where I'm trying to grow organic food! So this only deepened my love affair with vinegar. What about you? Do you use it? If so, for what?

Garden Progress

The garden is coming along beautifully - and I couldn't be more proud! Ok, well maybe I could, and I probably will be when I actually begin harvesting. *grin* It should be soon too, because I have cucumber, squash, zucchini, and okra blossoms - woohoo! I'm really looking forward to picking some produce, because, quite honestly, I've only been picking grass and wild violets from the garden. Not too rewarding...

The tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, carrots (pic below) and peas seem to be coming up rather slowly.

As I did everything from seed though, I'm not entirely surprised. I'm consoling myself with the fact that what does come up will be very hardy, and if I save some seeds this year as I plan, next year's plants will be perfectly tuned for my yard. The asparagus is looking rather cute, like a mini pine forest keeping the tomatoes company. They won't be ready for about 4 years. (Talk about a long-term investment!)

I saw a rabbit in the garden *gasp* and I went to chase him out only to watch him squirm right through the fence! Isaac finished putting the tighter gauge section on the bottom rather quickly... I thought we might not have to do that part at all - but I was wrong. Hopefully he'll finish the gate this weekend. We're still planning on putting an electric wire around the top to deter deer, because our fence is just under 5 feet tall, and deer can jump 8 feet.

The garden seems to be buzzing with life whenever I'm around, which is a wonderful thing. I have inter planted marigold and nasturtium to encourage some beneficial insects and discourage others, and it seems to be working. I would like to put a few morning glories on the corner posts too. I planted 7 lantana bushes right outside the garden by the driveway too, because lots of bugs like those. The only negative bug problem I seem to have had was a specific little black and green caterpillar munching happily on the okra. I have since seen his variety on pretty much everything else, including the grass. Apparently, he's not too picky. I have been hand-picking and squishing them, and that seems to have taken care of it. While a little holier than I prefer, the okra is once again thriving.

As I survey the garden progress, it seems clear that I will be tweaking the balance next year. The squash, zucchini and pumpkin need much more room! We eat squash frequently, so I want plenty of it. My celery is quite pitiful, I'm not sure how many plants I have, but the 3 in question aren't even in the celery section! (They were a teeny tiny seed I just sprinkled hopefully.) I also wish there were more carrots, but I can't start those early to transplant because they don't like to be moved. The cucumbers are going crazy, so between that and the okra, I plan to do some pickling. Next year I hope to be prepared enough to start some seeds indoors to transplant and get a head start.

I am very pleased with our trellising system! I found it here, and it's also in the book, Square Foot Gardening. I didn't buy into that whole idea, but I loved the trellis plans. We made a variation and didn't buy the netting. I strung twine up and down over the piping, attaching the bottom loops to the ground with landscape pins. I do think the netting would be beneficial for some veggies because my climbing zucchini is very strong and pulled the pins right out of the ground! (Here's a close-up of ours.)

In case anyone's wondering how I manage doing any of this with the twins...here's what I do: I usually spend about an hour 2-3 times a week out in the garden. I do it in the morning, before it gets really hot, but after the boys eat breakfast so they're happy and full, but not nearly tired for nap time yet. They play in their play yard and I put in a DVD of Elmo or something. Then I take the baby monitor outside with me and garden and they are perfectly happy with this arrangement. There are definitely some days where I could never pull this off, and all last week was just that! So, my gardening this morning involved some heavy-duty weeding. Only one time so far did they start fighting so badly that I had to take off my muddy shoes and run inside to break up the craziness.

So that's the update on our gardening project. I got some blueberry and raspberry bushes for a steal, so I'm trying to decide where to plant those. One more step towards self-sufficiency!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I'm sitting here, drinking a canned Creme Soda, which is my all-time fave soda. I know I shouldn't, but...I am. I'm sleepy. They're there. They normally aren't there, because I had stopped buying them as a baby step in trying to be healthier family. We had actually gotten pretty good about it. I had maybe a caffeinated drink or two on the weekends, and Isaac was really cutting back on his coffee, sometimes even going days without it! But, I sorta fell off the wagon a little. So it got me thinking as a I sit here, getting ready to make my meal plan for June. (I know, this is a big detour, but I've gotten much quicker at meal planning!) How far have we come? Have I really made changes? Or am I still eating just as badly as before?

Now, I have tried to take it one day at a time, and not let myself get so discouraged by little failures that I just throw in the proverbial towel. I think I've done pretty good about that. And, in all honesty, I think that attitude has made all the difference. I'm allowing myself this small failure of soda at the moment (no justification!) yet I am still planning healthy meals simultaneously. I'm forging ahead, continually choosing whole, real foods to our ever-maturing diet. I decided to do an encouraging assessment of progress.

We no longer buy processed snacks - even if they're on sale.
We buy only organic milk and eggs.
We buy only whole grain pastas and breads.
I cook with lots of beans.
I try to make our meal 2/3 veggies - and our taste buds are following quite nicely!
We buy more locally, when possible.
We buy grass-fed local beef.
We buy organic when possible. (Now, organic=expensive, but there are certain foods where it's important, and others where it's not as important, so I cut corners for now.)
I make a monthly menu plan and cook every night we're home.
We drink lots of water.
We started recycling.

Now, these represent a lot of big changes to me. We used to eat convenience foods, and we hardly ever cooked. If we did, it was nothing great. I disliked most veggies, but have come to crave them! Your taste buds really do change (thank goodness!). We love the flavor difference in organic dairy, and have fallen in love with rye bread. There are still so many things I'm striving towards, but I know it will be a process. This is not an overnight change, and it will require many small steps.

I'm about to embark on baking my own breads. We have a large veggie garden that I plan on canning/preserving from the harvest. I want to start a real compost bin. I want to find a local farmer to provide us with chicken. I want to begin making our own cheese, yogurt and kefir. I want to soak more of our foods to aid digestion. In the distant future, I'd love to have our own chickens and maybe even a dairy cow. (Raw milk!)

I am enjoying this part of our self-sustaining journey very much, even with its ups and downs. It's so satisfying to know I'm changing my family's health for the better. Plus, I love that I'm becoming a better cook! It's also been interesting to see what God has shown me in this process. I began to be overwhelmed initially because I felt like I had so far to go, and that we'd never make it there. But then I realized the baby step process I needed to follow, and that, if I allowed it, eating healthy could become an idol. I decided immediately I would not allow myself to be overwhelmed, burdened or stressed by this process. I would enjoy it, learn and probably fail along the way. But as long as I pick myself up, and keep going, I think my effort is worthwhile. Now, it's time to finish my meal plan, but first, I'll go put this soda can in the newly used recycle bin.

Our Experiment in Under-Estimating

So here it is, halfway through May, and I'm just now getting to a blog post about our garden. You know why? Because we just got the seeds in the ground. Yup, that's right. I'm gonna go ahead and suck it up and admit that this was definitely bigger than we ever thought. Now, in all honesty, part of that is because I'm somewhat of a perfectionist. I wasn't gonna just throw some seeds in the ground and see what happened. I figured if we were going to invest time and money (both of which we possess sparingly) I was going to count the cost and be good stewards. I have read, researched, and read some more. Fortunately for us, we live in Georgia and have a luxuriously long growing season that will be very forgiving to our late start.

Our first delay was the raised beds. I know they will pay off in the long run by increasing the quality of our soil tremendously, but phew! They were a lot of work. (Which, yes, I'm sure was magnified by the fact that we built 9 of them.) We were so wonderfully blessed to have all the topsoil we needed given to us. It was, indeed, a lot of scoopin', however. A lot. And Isaac would add, A LOT. Thanks also to my physical therapist friend who worked the 3-week kink out of my neck from the whole experience. (Apparently, neck muscles have a good memory. No kidding.) Here are our beautiful raised beds.

As you can see, the mulching isn't quite complete surrounding them. I'm laying down a layer of newspaper, followed by a thick layer of (free-yay!) mulch to help minimize the weeds. We'll see how that goes. :)

Next up is the fencing. We already have the 4x4 corner posts in, and also the metal posts too. This has been another big delay in planting the seedlings. I really don't want to get anything going before our fence is complete because we have major wildlife, and I'm not particularly interested in an open buffet for all our hard work. The first night we decided to start our garden, we had to wait to pull in our driveway for 7 deer to cross. Seriously. There are also lots of bunnies. Cute, but stay outta my garden.

Hopefully the fencing will go up this weekend, as we already have little seedlings emerging. I had been waiting and waiting, because our life schedule just doesn't lend itself to concrete planning. All you parents of small children know what I mean! I didn't want to bank on the fence going up and not get to it. But, I finally gave in for fear of too late a harvest. Our weekends are busy, and hubby doesn't get home until 7. The boys go to sleep at 8, so him doing outside work when he gets home means he doesn't see the boys really, and none of us enjoy that. We've sacrificed a night or two to get some things done though. They have 'helped' by sitting in the stroller outside while we worked a little. They particularly enjoyed when Daddy hammered in the posts. (They aren't really able to play/run around yet. Soon though.)

I'm already seeing some tomato and asparagus babies, and it's very exciting! I know we won't see much by way of the asparagus for about 4 years, but I'm really looking forward to the tomatoes :) Ooh! And the bell peppers too. Yum.

Carrot-Zucchini Bread and Apple French Toast

This bread is delicious! The Apple Cinnamon French Bread is more like a casserole/cobbler. The boys love them. :) These are both from the Pampered Chef More Stoneware Sensations. Yummy!


Spiced Carrot-Zucchini Bread
2 1/4 C flour
1 C sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
3/4 C carrots, finely chopped
3/4 C zucchini, finely chopped
1/2 C walnuts, coarsely chopped
2/3 C vegetable oil
1/2 C milk
2 eggs


Preheat oven to 350. Spray loaf pan with nonstick spray. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices. Add remaining ingredients and stir just until moistened. Bake 57-70 Minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes, remove to rack to cool completely.

Apple Cinnamon French Toast

1 loaf french bread

6 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
8 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/8  tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 Granny Smith apples
2 tbsp butter or margarine
Maple syrup


Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray. Slice bread into 1 inch think slices and arrange closely in baker. Beat eggs with a whisk and add milk, three tablespoons of sugar, vanilla, and salt. Pour over bread. Combine the 5 remaining tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Peel and core apples and make thin slices. (You can use the PC Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer for this, and I really love it.) Slice down one side of the apples to make rings. Arrange 1/2 over french bread. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Repeat. Cover and refrigerate at least one hour or over night. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut butter into small pieces and arrange over apples. Bake, uncovered, 35 - 45 minutes or until apples are tender and eggs are set. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Serve with syrup.

Coconut Cake and Frosted Peanut Butter Bars

This week was Poppy Seed Chicken week, so there's always more to bake because everyone loves the Poppy Seed Chicken. I made a Coconut Cake, a double batch of Triple Chocolate Cookies, Ooey Gooey Chewy S'more Bars and Frosted Peanut Butter Bars. I had never made a coconut cake before, and, like most layer cakes I've made in the past few months, it tasted much better than it looked. Even after I threw coconut shavings all over it, it was still rather umm, messy. I think I need to chill the icing more, even though the recipes rarely say to do that... Check out the recipe at Food Network for Coconut Cake - it's delicious! Well, if you love coconut shavings and buttercream cheese frosting. The flavor was great, and I'm not a big fan of the afore mentioned.

Now, I do really love me some peanut butter. So these Frosted Peanut Butter Bars have claimed a spot on my top ten faves. They truly are awesome.

Frosted Peanut Butter Bars
(From Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies & Bars 2008)
1/3 C shortening
½ C peanut butter
1 ½ C packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ C flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ C milk
Frosting:
2/3 C creamy peanut butter
1/2 C shortening
4 C powdered sugar
1/3 to ½ C milk
Topping:
1 C mini chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening, peanut butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Transfer to a greased 15 x 10 x 1 baking pan. Bake at 350 or 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. For frosting, in a small mixing bowl, cream the peanut butter, shortening and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in enough milk to achieve spreading consistency. Frost bars. Sprinkle mini chops on top. Cut into bars. Store in the fridge.