Alta on the Farm

Why I Don't "Do" Black Friday

2011-11-16T15:12:00.001-06:00

There are 2 holiday traditions that I absolutely dislike: Black Friday and the Day After Christmas Sales. Why? You might ask. Well, let me tell you.

We need to take a little ride in my time machine, back to Black Friday 2004. I was working at a well known craft store and while the Day After Thanksgiving Sales there didn't involve the crushing mobs that you have in stores like Walmart and Toys R Us, it was definitely a stressful 2 days. Sometime during the first day, a co-worker (who had been named for an actress in a rather popular 1980's sitcom, and who's stories tended to be the highlight of my day) came marching up to me with a slightly amused and rather irritated expression, "Three people have run into me with their carts so far today! The next person who does it is gonna get that cart shoved back at them!" I seem to remember laughing, saying something along the lines of "Welcome to Black Friday!" (it was her first holiday season working there) and silently praying that no one else would hit her with their cart because she was the type of little spitfire who might have made good on that threat!

Those two days after Thanksgiving (as well as the first few after Christmas) are insanely busy! Everyone wants what they want to be on sale (for at least half price!) and they want it NOW! And you had better not be in their way because if you are? Well ...... that's how employees get hit with shopping carts. Niceties go out the window, no one has any patience, and what is supposed to be "the most wonderful time on the year" turns into a contest to see who can be the rudest and most inconsiderate while trying to buy their loved ones presents so that it can be the bestest Christmas ever! (I hope you read those last few words in a really obnoxious voice, because that's how I wanted it to sound)

No, I'm not a Scrooge. I love Christmas! Really, I do. It's the insanity leading up to it that I could live without.

In that store, Christmas came in March. Or, at least, the trees did. The ornaments arrived shortly after, and they all had to be on display by the end of June. Which means that we were putting up trees and connecting lights while wearing tank tops and sandals. There's just something wrong with that. We had 4th of July, Back to School, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas decor all out at the same time. I understand that because this was a craft store, at least some of this was necessary, but that didn't make it any less irritating, even some customers made comments about it being to early. The Christmas songs started to be randomly inserted in the playlist on November 1 and starting the Day After Thanksgiving it was all Christmas all the time. That wouldn't have been so bad, except that the Christmas music playlist was only about a 9 song loop! Do you have any idea how many times you will hear the same song during a 7 hour shift? I'll give you a hint: TOO MANY! By the end of day 2, I was ready to take a sledge hammer to the sound system.

By December 1st, I was ready for Christmas to be over. It's just another money making holiday, no one remembers what it's supposed to be about anyway. The true meaning got lost in all the hustle and bustle and busyness to make everything absolutely perfect. After three years of being on the retail side of Black Friday, I refuse to be another body adding to the chaos and frustration. I will be warm and cozy in my bed while others stand outside in the freezing cold and the blowing snow (unless you happen to live somewhere warm, in which case, scratch that sentence). I want the gifts I give to have meaning (or at least be something I know the person will really like) rather than just something that was on sale.

I quit the job at the craft store more than 5 yeas ago, and it took until just a few years ago before the joy and the wonder; the true meaning of Christmas started coming back to me. I will not put up Christmas decorations before December 1st. I will not. November is Thanksgiving, December is Christmas. I want Christmas to have meaning, not just be another money making/spending holiday. I want it to be "the most wonderful time of the year," because it is! It's the wonder of a King born in a barn.

If you want to go shopping next Friday, be my guest! You won't have me in your way in any aisle in any store! But please, treat people (and retail associates, they're people too ya know?) with the kindness, patience and respect that the King who is the Reason for the Season would. After all, it's His birthday celebration we're preparing for. And please for the love of all things Christmas:

DON'T HIT ANYONE WITH YOUR SHOPPING CART!

The Charmed Life of Alta (Chapter 1)

2011-11-04T10:13:00.000-05:00

(Please read this in your best fairy tale voice)

Once upon a time, out in the country, there lived a dog named Alta. When Alta was first brought home from the shelter, as a puppy, his owners brought him inside where it was nice and warm. When he was a little older and bigger, Alta was meant to be a farm dog who lived outside and kept watch over his owners kitties. But, Alta was a very smart little puppy, and he knew that if he wandered out into the road that his owners would yell, "You get back in this house this instant!" and then he would be inside again where it was warm. And so, Alta lived a very cozy life in the house.

In the summer, Alta liked to lay on the kitchen floor in front of the air vent. Since Alta was 1/4 husky, he had lots of fur and it made him hot, so that was a nice cool place to be. Before Alta's owners adopted him, they were told that he was 3/4 lab and only 1/4 husky, and so they assumed that he probably wouldn't have very long fur and wouldn't shed very much. But, oh! Were they ever wrong! Alta's fur grew longer and longer, and, even though it lay flat against his body, it was thick! Alta had such a thick undercoat of fur, that it was nearly impossible to find his skin! And he left his extra fur all over the house. Alta's owners didn't think that was very good. They had a comb that they used for the cats, but that only got off some of Alta's fur. So one day, when the lady of the house came home from shopping in the city, she brought along some new tools. She called them a de-shedding tool and a slicker brush. Alta wasn't sure about this idea, but she insisted, so he sat still like the good little dog he was while she went to work on his fur.

Soon Alta realized that he liked the new grooming tools. It felt like being scratched all over, and that was nice. The owner worked for at least 20 minutes on Alta's fur, and when she was done, the pile of fur looked like this:

Alta was happy and his owner was pleased that all of this fur would not be coming off in the house. Now Alta gets brushed about once a week and the pile of fur stays about the same size. Alta's owners are glad that more of his fur stays outside now, and not in.

The End.

The Strangest Thing That Ever Worked

2011-10-28T10:52:00.000-05:00

Hello, and welcome to my re-purposed blog! After re-reading my post from last week, I realized it sounded a little whiny. Sorry about that! I don't mean to be a complainer, I was just frustrated. When I first created the account for this blog (around 2 YEARS ago! lol) my original plan was to post about the things I use that I love and why I love them, but when I actually started this blog, back in May of this year, I altered that idea and decided to show you what it's like to live on a farm from the point of view of a girl who never thought she'd be living on a farm. Somehow it turned into a recipe blog. No idea how that happened. Yes, I love food and I love to try new recipes, but my recipes are by no means original. Most of my recipes come straight out of a book or magazine or are a slightly altered version of something from a book or magazine (or blog or website.... you get the idea). I was frustrated because I clearly wasn't getting my point across, so, I've decided to go back to my original plan: the everyday (or week since I'll only be posting once a week) life of an accidental farm girl and all the random things that I like (or have no choice but to do) that occupy my time.

I've decided to start by telling you about the product that is by far the strangest thing that has ever worked for me: The Oil Cleansing Method. If you've never heard of this concept, click on the blue words above and then come back to me. Done? OK, in case you didn't want to read all of that, here's the basic concept: good oil removes bad oil. I stumbled upon this website by accident. I was using a store bought oil cleansing product that was great at removing make-up but it was a little pricey and I needed to use another cleanser to actually control blemishes, plus blemish control spot treatment, ect. ect.). Also, as someone who had recently become aware of the MANY chemicals in my products, I was trying to find a less-chemical-filled version of the oil product I was using, so, of course, I looked online. Commercially made chemical free versions of cleansing oil are few and far between (not to mention more pricey than what I was using), but I found the website listed above and realized that making my own could be the way to go. So I ordered the 2 types of oil the site suggests (btw: I got my oils from Mountain Rose Herbs, I'm sure there are other places you can buy them as well)

To say that I was skeptical about this concept working (without any other form of cleanser afterwards) would be an understatement! See, I've had blemishes since I was ...... uhhhhh ...... maybe 12 or 13. I've tried EVERYTHING! Drugstore brands, department store brands, brands that come in pink bottles (you know what I mean) and the one from the famous info-mercial that "works for everybody." They never worked. At least not for very long. Six months, maybe a year and then my skin would be worse than when I started with that product, so I'd have to try something stronger. This continued until about a year ago. I was using a product so strong it made my skin burn just to wash my face. I would literally cry while washing my face because it hurt so much, and the product had stopped working. My skin was broke out, red and extremely irritated. I'd tried everything, so I had nowhere left to go but natural.

When my oils arrived I mixed them together. That evening I used only the oil to cleanse my face. It was so strange! I didn't exactly follow the directions on the website, instead I used the oil as though it were a cleanser (not as a mask like the website suggests) and massaged it into my skin for around 5 or 10 minutes, really working it into my skin. I rinsed the oil off with a wet washcloth and patted in a few drops of oil as a moisturizer. Should I take before pictures? Just in case? Nah. It's never gonna work anyway, no point. So I went to bed. The next morning I poked in my contacts and stared at the mirror. Did my face look less red? Maybe. Hmmmm. I wiped my face with a damp cloth (it still burned from the harsh product from before) and patted in a few more drops of oil. Sometime later I needed to use the bathroom and as I walked past the mirror I nearly forgot where I was going! My skin was sooooo much less red and those huge blemishes were ...... SHRINKING! My skin was clearing up! I made a habit of checking it every few hours and each time my skin was better than before. This continued for the next 2 or 3 days: a visible change almost by the hour. I couldn't believe it, how could it be so simple? By the end of 2 weeks I had skin that was more clear than it had been since I was in Jr. High, and I was wishing I had taken that "before" picture, no one was ever going to believe this.

More than a year later the oil cleansing method still works great! It removes my makeup (yes, even waterproof mascara) and controls blemishes. I still get breakouts sometimes (mostly because I have this bad habit of going to bed with my makeup on), but not as many and not nearly as severe and they go away much quicker! I now buy my oils in 1 gallon containers. I mix my oils 10 oz. at a time and it takes me between 2 and 3 months to use that up. It's going to take years to finish off those 1 gallon containers. This is by far the most cost efficient cleanser I've ever used and it still amazes me how well it works, my skin is not only clearer, but softer and less oily (yes really) than ever before.

UPDATE: My friend Michele, posted about her experience with the oil cleansing method, you can read about it by clicking here.

Changing Direction

2011-10-21T14:25:00.000-05:00

Hello my sweet readers!
As you may (or may not have noticed) I have not posted anything new for 2 weeks now. There's a reason for that. A majority of my readers get here from Facebook, and with the recent changes in the Facebook "home page" I've been getting fewer and fewer readers for the past several weeks. I really have no idea how to "make" people read my blog if they can't even see the link! It's very discouraging, and I considered giving up this blog all-together. But, I like to write and it's fun to post; so I've decided to change the direction of my blog so that it will still be fun for ME even if no one reads it. My most popular posts are the non-food related ones like "My Laundry's Dirty Little Secret" and "How to Laugh With a Crooked Smile." I think there was a reason for that. My Laundry was a hilarious experiment that I really didn't expect to work and the results were so completely the opposite of what I was anticipating. Crooked Smile was a personal experience of something that happened 11 years ago, and a lot of my current friends weren't even aware of. It was great therapy for me to reflect back and see where I was at this time of the year back in the Fall of 2000.

So with the exception of a few that I want to share closer to Christmas, I won't be posting anymore recipes. Instead, in the coming weeks, you'll find info on crafts I've made; earrings, necklaces, other projects around the house, maybe an occasional card or two. Possibly my thoughts on a book I recently read, my devotions for the day or even a movie I've seen.

I hope you enjoy my little change of direction, if so, I would love LOVE LOVE it if you would enter your email in the little box at the right and hit submit, (I only post on Fridays and I won't fill up your inbox, I promise!) that way you won't just be relying on Facebook to see my new posts.

Thanks for reading! I'll try to be back next Friday.
Stephanie

Lavender-Poached Peaches and Blackberries (without the Blackberries)

2011-10-07T09:37:00.000-05:00

Does anyone else have this problem? You have this fantastic new recipe you want to try so you get the ingredients from the store only to get home and realize you missed an important one? *crickets chirping* Just me then! Well, I wanted to try this recipe, but when I got home I realized I forgot the blackberries. Grrrr! Fine, I'll make it without blackberries. Then I realized I also forgot the orange juice (must have been one of THOSE days), so I put the peaches in the fridge hoping they'd hang on for a week until I got back to the store. I managed to remember the OJ but I could not find blackberries in my local grocery store. What?! So I had to make this without the blackberries anyway.

This recipe comes from the magazine Eating Well. If you haven't heard of it, I highly suggest you check it out. My mother-in-law gave me a subscription for my birthday, and this recipe was in my first issue (August 2011). According to the Eating Well website, they prefer that I do not post the entire recipe (sorry about that) you can find the original here the pictures on this blog are my own. They are nice enough to number their steps, so I'm including my own notes to coordinate to those numbers.

Ingredients:
2 cups water
1/2 cup orange juice
6 Tablespoons clover honey
4 4-inch-long sprigs fresh lavender (or 1 teaspoon dried culinary grade lavender, I got my dried lavender here, if anyone needs any I have PLENTY leftover!)
1 3-inch-long piece vanilla bean, split lengthwise
4 just-ripe medium peaches
1 cup fresh blackberries (obviously, as you will see, I didn't use blackberries, edit them out if you want to make this recipe the way I did)

Step 1 - Says to boil the peaches in the liquid "until the skins start to loosen, 1 to 2 minutes." I didn't cook mine quite long enough, the skins did not come off easily, I would go with 2 minutes.

Step 2 - No extra notes needed, just follow their directions.

Step 3 - "Return the peaches to the pan and poach until they are not quite tender when pierced with a fork, 3 to 7 minutes" Isn't that a helpful time span? I went with 7 and I'm not sure it was quite long enough but I don't think I had the heat high enough either.

Step 4 - I skipped this step.

Step 5 - Definitely pay attention here, the honey really wanted to settle to the bottom and burn. Also, I refrigerated the peaches and the liquid in the same bowl. I'm not sure if that's what they meant for you to do or not, but it works.

This is soooo yummy! It's also great straight out of the fridge and I'm sure it would be fabulous warm as well. It tastes very much like the insides of peach pie. Did you notice there's no ACTUAL sugar? The sweetness comes from the honey and the peaches. Healthy yummy food! Win!

Corn Farming 101 (Lesson 2 - Harvest)

2011-09-30T10:57:00.002-05:00

I hope you enjoyed last week's photo essay, if you haven't read it yet, just click on the blue words.

On July 22, this is what the ground looked like.
Yes, that is at almost 21 inches.

A rather impressive looking storm on August 8 that produced no rain (for us)
but a large amount of wind and a lot of hail in a nearby town. Our local TV stations did a great job
of pretending this storm wasn't as bad as locals were reporting, because it didn't look bad on radar.

The corn on August 25, very close to being ready to harvest.

August 25

Corn is competitive, each row thinks it should be taller than the previous row.
After harvesting the outside rows, you can see the true height of the cornstalks. August 27.
(Please remember that Alta is about knee high.)

This is my view from the driver's seat in the tractor as the combine unloads into the grain cart.

The truck full of corn. (Driven by my Dad that day)

The combine (driven by my husband) unloading into the grain cart while I
unload the grain cart into the truck. The grain cart holds approximately 2 1/2
combine bins full and the truck holds about 3/4 of the grain cart. A full sized semi
would hold an entire grain cart full. (My Dad took this picture)

My view from the seat of the tractor, following the combine to the opposite end of the field.

Looking out the back window of the tractor as I unload the grain cart into the truck.

The inside of the grain cart.

Another view of the inside of the grain cart. The space in the bottom
right corner is the unloading auger.

Alta by the grain cart. It holds just over 1000 bushels.
(FYI, a bushel is 9 gallons)

My hand by the bolts on the wheels of the grain cart.

Between 2 rows of corn.

Little parts of the corn husk (we call them bee's wings) on the ground
close to the grain dryer.

Sunset over a field after harvest September 1.

The combine in the distance (kicking up dust). I see some of the most
beautiful sunsets while in the tractor during harvest.

I hope you enjoyed my harvest pictures. Next week I have a yummy peach recipe for you (think peach pie without the crust!).

Corn Farming 101 (Lesson 1)

2011-09-23T09:31:00.003-05:00

Back in June, when I got the idea to take pictures for this photo essay, I had no idea I was photographing corn that would do its best to hang on through the longest drought and the biggest heatwave the state of Kansas has seen since the 1930's. I just thought it would be a fun idea for my friends who don't know a lot about farming. I took a picture of the growing corn every week (as you'll see by the dates.... it's almost every week) and I took a picture of the irrigation system every time it came past the house. I used Alta as a height reference so you'll know how tall the corn is. Alta is a little more than knee high.

June 7, 2011

The irrigation system as it came close to the house on June 7.

June 14, 2011

June 21

June 22

June 28

June 30

Also June 30

July 5

Developing corn cob, July 5

July 8

July 12

July 12 - corn stalks only develop 1 cob,
if a 2nd cob develops the plant will
choose to abandon the weaker cob.

Uncooperative dog, July 19

July 19

July 28 - the corn is starting to dry.

July 28

July 28 - some of the corn that the irrigation system doesn't
reach well are not looking so great.

July 28 - the lawn isn't looking so great either.

July 28 - Storm clouds but no rain. Poor lawn looks like a desert.

August 8

August 8 - Close to harvest

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the photos of the growing phase of corn. Please come back next Friday for pictures and information about harvest (there was too much to put in 1 post).

How to Laugh with a Crooked Smile

2011-09-15T14:22:00.001-05:00

(Some info. that might be useful before you read this post: For those of you keeping score at home, I have attended 3 colleges. I never graduated from any of them. College #1 was a private church-run school which I loved! I made many good friends there and still keep in touch with quite a few of them. I was majoring in communications/journalism, but since it was a 2 year college, I would need to graduate from somewhere else. The university I had chosen to finish at was NOT CHEAP, so to save money for years 3 & 4, I spent year 2 at college #2: a local community college. While not a terrible experience, I didn't enjoy it, so I only attended 1 semester. The next fall I transferred to college #3, a tech school (which I referred to in my 9/11 post Where Were You?) and changed my field of study to commercial art/graphic design. The following events took place while I was at school #2, the local community college.)

It was a Friday morning in August 2000, just a few days before beginning my sophomore year of college (at a new school no less). I was getting ready to spend the day shopping with a friend. While putting on mascara, something strange happened. My left eye would not close correctly. It's rather awkward to put on mascara if you cannot blink and I sort of laughed. As I laughed, I realized that it wasn't just my left eye, but the left side of my mouth was not smiling correctly. What? I smiled again, on purpose. What is wrong with my face? The right side of my face smiled correctly, my eye crinkling as it always did. But the left side stayed strangely still. I ignored it, thinking I must have slept on it too much the night before. By suppertime I could not close my lips correctly to pull food off the fork and drinking from a glass became rather difficult to do without slurping or dribbling. I started crying and my parents asked what was wrong. I hadn't mentioned it to them yet because I assumed it was nothing and would be gone by the next morning.

My parents took me to the emergency room and the doctor there (thankfully) figured it out quickly. He told me I had something called Bell's Palsy, a "temporary" paralysis of half of your face (usually the left side, but it can be either). He told me not to wear my contacts (because I couldn't close my left eye) until it went away and sent me home with a gauze patch over my left eye.

Monday morning my Dad drove me to school. I wasn't allowed to wear my contacts and it had been years since the lenses in my glasses had been updated, so I didn't see much my first few days of school. I took a trip to the optometrist for some new glasses and my family doctor gave me a few prescriptions for rather strong (and pricey) antiviral medications. He also gave me a better explanation of what I had. Bell's Palsy (named for Sir Charles Bell, a Scottish surgeon who studied the affected Bell's nerve in 1821) is (usually) caused by a virus. This virus attaches itself to the nerve that runs from your brain, through a small tunnel in your cheekbone and then branches out to control the movements of your face. The virus attaches to the nerve just before or at the point the nerve enters your cheekbone and causes it to swell, cutting off sensation and movement of anything beyond that point. I can quite easily make the left side of my face numb by touching that place on my cheekbone. I've read that 1 in 5000 people will experience Bell's Palsy. If that statistic held exactly true, the city I lived in would have had 8 people who had at some point in their life had Bell's Palsy. Seven plus me. That's a really lonely statistic. That means there are no Bell's Palsy specialists and no Bell's Palsy treatment centers. Just my family doctor saying "Well, research seems to indicate that this type of medication and this form of treatment might help, but no one really knows for sure." This is not a comforting statement to a 19 year-old.

For the next 6 months I dealt with raging headaches on most days. At night I put a thick moisturizer in my eye which was basically the consistency of slightly runny Vaseline and taped a patch over it. I also got to take fun trips to a specialist for electro-shock therapy. They run a probe over specific places on the nerve and shock it to see if it's still responsive. Not fun.

During my first few days of classes I had expected a lot of questions, but no one asked. My Dad assured me that no one asked because they didn't know the difference. They hadn't met me before the onset of Bell's Palsy and so they didn't know that I wasn't even used to the new look of my crooked smile yet, and so I should smile like I didn't notice either, like it was normal. In some ways I wanted to be back at the private school where everyone knew me and would ask what was going on. In other ways I was relieved not to have to answer a million questions.

I have read stories in forums from people who have had Bell's Palsy and it went away in a week or a month. I was diagnosed around the middle of August and it was (I believe) November before I was allowed to wear my contacts. I walked down the hallway and into the newspaper classroom quite ecstatic to finally be wearing contacts again! No one in class had ever asked about my rather frozen face and so I didn't expect them to notice my lack of glasses, since I had purposely chosen small wire frames. But, within a few minutes, one of the sweet girls who shared the position of editor of the school paper mentioned that I had gotten contacts. I smiled, still rather crookedly, and said that I'd had contacts since Jr. High, I just hadn't been allowed to wear them because of a virus I had that affected that nerves in my face (that was easier than explaining the whole thing). The guy who had sat at the computer to the left of me the entire semester piped up, "You had Bell's Palsy, right?" My jaw must have hit the floor. No one ever knew what it was. He told me his sister had it a few years before. I had carried on a few unimportant conversations with this guy. Homework, movies, articles we were writing for the school paper that week. He had never once asked if there was a reason the left side (the side of me he sat on) of my face didn't move. In some ways that made me feel invisible. But with that statement suddenly I felt so much less alone! He hadn't asked because he hadn't needed to. He knew. Maybe they all knew.

Fast forward 11 years. I have most of the movement back in the left side of my face, though it's never fully returned to normal. I get headaches much more often than before. The left side of my face can often predict a change in the weather (from warm to cooler or cool to cold) and when I'm too cold or too tired I loose control of it and cannot close my eye. For years I knew when I needed to go to bed because the left side of my face would just stop moving. I don't close my eyes during prayer in church because it makes my eye water too much and if you ever notice me "winking" my left eye, I'm not really winking at you, it's just that something doesn't feel right when I blink normally and I'm making sure that eye gets blinked. There's also some fun ringing in my head when I laugh too hard or smile too long. I can get rid of the headaches, but nothing takes away the weird numb/frozen feeling my face still gets sometimes. Now that it's Fall and the weather is turning cooler it hurts more often, during the Spring and Summer I really don't notice it.

Want to know how it feels? Press the palm of your hand over the left side of your face with the heel of your hand at the corner of your mouth and upper jaw and the joints of your fingers close to your cheekbone and the corner of your eye. Push until you actually feel the pressure. Now try talking. Say the alphabet, your name, phone number, address, things you know well. How does it sound? Like you need to be in speech therapy right? I still talk like that when my "fash ish too cold." Drinking from a straw again was a big accomplishment for me. :)

The strangest thing about this virus, too me, was that I had never heard of it; but after being diagnosed, so many people told me about friends or family members who had it. There seem to be a number of pre-existing conditions which tend to lead to Bell's Palsy, but I had none of those. There's also some consensus that stress can trigger it, since I was switching schools at the time, that makes sense to me.

I'm not writing about this because I want your sympathy. Eleven years after my diagnosis and having regained around 95% of the movement in my face, I'm over the need for people to feel sorry for me. But the weather is turning colder and my face hurts, so I'm thinking about it again. Also, because I've never really figured out why God allowed me to have this. Maybe so I would learn to trust Him and His timing (I can be a rather impatient person). Maybe I'm supposed to share my story so you'll understand what Bell's Palsy is, and when you see someone in the mall or the grocery store who isn't moving half of their face, you can understand their pain just a little. Maybe you're reading this and you have Bell's Palsy. Please know that you are not alone! There are so many Facebook groups and online support groups dedicated to Bell's Palsy today. Those didn't exist 11 years ago.

Smiling was hard those first few months. It just looked so ridiculous! And it hurt. But my Dad was right. Keep smiling because people who don't know you won't know that your smile hasn't always been crooked, and people who know you will love you no matter what. Someday, you might even learn to laugh when the face in the mirror looks like this:

Instead of like this:

Yes, I really can control it (sometimes), I don't do it often because it makes it feel strange. By the way, there is quite a list of celebrities who have had Bell's Palsy. You can find an extensive list here. Here are a few of the more well-known people on the list:

Pierce Brosnan (actor, aka 007)
George Clooney (actor)
Katie Holmes (actress)
Ralph Nader (former Presidential candidate)
Rosanne Barr (actress)
Tony Gonzalez (NFL football player)

See? Those of you currently dealing with Bell's Palsy, you're in great company! So keep practicing those beautiful crooked smiles!

Where Were You?

2011-09-09T09:16:00.000-05:00

This coming Sunday is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Can you believe it has been that long? I know there has been a lot of talk about this already, and some of you may be tired of hearing about it. But for just a few minutes, I want you to remember where you were when you first heard. What was your first reaction? For just a few minutes, remember that the people on those planes and in the buildings were real people, with real families who are still hurting.

Here's where I was:

Sitting behind a table at school in Salina, Kansas, staring at a computer screen (I was studying commercial art/graphic design at a tech college). The teacher of another class walked through our classroom on the way to hers. She stopped and said, "I was just in the office and they had the radio on and a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center." What? I thought. What's the World Trade Center? Oh right, those really tall buildings they always show on TV shows like Friends so you know they're supposed to be set in New York City. Why would a plane crash into those? Isn't that what air traffic control is for? Surely she's just joking..... what's the punchline? No one in the room believed her. We all went back to our computers and whatever we were working on. The teacher shook her head, said "I'm serious," and left the room.

A few minutes later, someone came into the classroom, I don't remember if it was the same teacher or someone else. "Another plane just crashed into the second tower of the World Trade Center, they're saying this is a war." No one breathed. Our teacher went to his office and brought out his little radio. It didn't matter what station it was on, they all said the same thing. How could this happen? How could anyone be that cruel? We just sat there, listening as the reporters tried to make some sort of sense of it. Sometime later, the reporters switched their focus from New York City to Washington D.C., saying that yet another plane had crashed into the Pentagon. A guy in my class suddenly came to attention, "My Aunt and Uncle work in the Pentagon," he said. Suddenly it didn't seem quite so far away. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Unrelated? Just a coincidence? No one knew. By the end of the day, I think we were all numb. No one knew what to think, or how to respond. How should we, in Kansas, react to something that seemed so far away? And yet, it was so close. This is all one nation, after all.

Driving home after school, I passed a gas station. The price of gas had gone up considerably from what it had been and there was a line of cars down the street waiting to fill in gas. What would this nation come too? What would happen to it? To all of us? Was it really a war? With who? So many questions. So few answers.

Slowly those answers began to trickle in. I remember watching videos on TV of people in some nations dancing in the street and burning our flag as they celebrated our down-fall. I still don't understand that kind of response. I remember watching the "Changing of the Guard" at Buckingham Palace in London as they played our "Star Spangled Banner" instead of their own "God Save the Queen."

The guy from class whose Aunt and Uncle worked in the Pentagon finally had answers as well. His Aunt's office had been on the side that was hit, her office was destroyed. But her husband's office was on the opposite side and she had gone to see if he had time to go to lunch together. Both were safely in his office at the time of the crash and were unharmed. The fourth plane, headed for Washington D.C., crashed in Pennsylvania, because the brave passengers had made enough phone calls to realize what was going on, and tried to stop it.

I've never really understood prejudice and racial hatred. Especially not the kind that would drive someone to deliberately crash a plane full of innocent people into a building full of innocent people. I have far too many friends and family members who have spent their lives serving God by ministering to people in countries in nearly every corner of this world for me to ever really believe that I'm any better than anyone else. Skin color, race, ethnicity; is all just diversity that makes us unique. Like flowers in a garden. Sure, you could plant an entire garden full of nothing but red roses, but where's the fun in that? The red roses loose their uniqueness when that's all you see. A garden filled with not only red roses, but yellow daffodils, pink carnations, white daisies and purple irises would be far more interesting. Each of us has a unique personality. We have our own likes, things that make us happy and personal preferences. No two people are the same. It's in those differences that I see the fingerprints of God! It's the differences that make life interesting. How dull would our lives be if we all looked, spoke and acted exactly the same? It makes me sad when people can't see the beauty in the differences.

Prejudice is nothing but fear. Fear of someone or something that's different from what you know. The events of 9/11 were designed in fear to create fear. But God calls us to love. "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you." Matt. 5:44. That's not always an easy thing to do. It's much easier to lash out in anger. To respond to the hatred with more hatred. As Martin Luther King Jr. said in his 1963 speech "Strength to Love," "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." With that statement, he closely reflects the words of I John 4:18 "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear..."

This is getting quite long, sorry about that, so I'm going to wrap it up with a song. There were more than a few songs that became sort of "anthems" for 9/11. Some were written mostly for the purpose of monetary gain for the writer/performer, others were written in anger and called for revenge, but this beautiful song by Alan Jackson, is purely a reflection: where were you? what was your response? Please watch, and remember to pray for the survivors and the families of those lost on that day 10 years ago.

p.s. - please feel free to respond with your own story from that day, I find that writing is cheap therapy!

Coffee Travels: Around the World from Your Recliner

2011-09-02T10:09:00.000-05:00

Did you know that you can travel around the world without leaving the comfort of your own home? Thanks to the wonders of imported goods and an amazing invention known as the internet, it gets easier every day! Last week I was reading a blog written by a lady who recently moved from London, England, to a city on the shore of Lake Geneve in Switzerland. She had posted a picture of herself drinking iced tea in a swimming pool because she said she was "melting" in this new city. I thought to myself it's Switzerland! How hot can it be? So Google and I went to work. I discovered that on that day, the high in her city was 77. What? Wait, if she thinks that's hot, then how hot is London? So I searched again. The high in London was 64! Sixty-four!!! In August! I'm beginning to think I may have been born in the wrong country (or at least in the wrong part of THIS one). It was 107 here yesterday. Now THAT'S HOT!

This little adventure of reading her blog and discovering the temperatures in various cities around the world reminded me of how easy it is today to get information, goods and services from anywhere! So, what if we put that idea to good use? When my husband and I go skiing, I like to pick up bags of coffee from the local coffee shops (instead of those kind that have a store on every corner everywhere in the world..... you know the one) and if the city we're in has a local coffee roaster, all the better! The best cup of coffee I've ever had came in the form of a sample (yes really) from a hotel in Aspen, Colorado. It was from a coffee shop/roaster in Telluride, CO. (which I thought was funny because there's a good local shop in Aspen!) The company was called "The Steaming Bean" and the coffee was French Roast, it was dark and smoky and absolutely delicious! When we were in Telluride a few years ago, I picked up a few bags of their coffee, all delicious! Thanks to the wonders of the internet, you don't have to go to Telluride to get their coffee, you can order it here.

Now, back to that idea about putting the things we buy to good use. What you may not know abut coffee, is that it is only grown in certain regions of the world. Most coffee is grown south of the equator, in countries like Brazil, Columbia, El Salvador, India, Indonesia, Kenya and Madagascar to name a few. Hawaii is the only state in the US to grow coffee. Now, those of you who have listened to your fair share of missionary reports in church probably already know where I'm going with this. Some of these coffee growing countries are among the most unreached with the Gospel of Jesus. Tea has the same issue, as most of it comes from India, China and Sri Lanka (the tea from Sri Lanka is known as Ceylon). What if every time you had a cup of Columbian coffee or an Indian tea (such as Darjeeling), you said a prayer for the people and missionaries in that country? Or when you have a cup of Yerba Mate (pronounced mah-TAY), you said a prayer for the people and missionaries in South America? Maybe you don't know anyone in those countries, it's OK, just pray for them in general, God knows who they are, and He knows their needs and can direct your prayers where they're needed. How much of a difference could we make doing something we do every day!

Maybe you'd like to be more direct in your helping. Kungaloosh tea company will donate $2 for every single bag and $4 for every double bag of Japanese Sencha green tea to the Red Cross through the end of the year to help with relief in Japan. Check with your local Ten Thousand Villages for coffee from Equal Exchange, the company buys coffee, tea and chocolate (among other things) from small farmers and coops in coffee growing regions, and gives them a fair price for their goods. You can also buy direct from Equal Exchange if you aren't close to a Ten Thousand Villages store. If you want to know exactly where the profits are going, or pick a specific cause, check out Project7. Each blend/roast of coffee (they also have other things like t-shirts, gum and mints) supports a different organization. Among the places they give to are blood:water mission, Samaritan's Purse and World Vision. Be specific in what you buy, and pray for the people of the nations that provide your goods, you might be surprised at the results even in your own life. God uses prayer in powerful ways!

My Laundry's Dirty Little Secret

2011-08-26T09:14:00.001-05:00

Have you ever had one of those stains that no matter what you put on it, it just will NOT come out? Welcome to my laundry room! My husband is a farmer, and most days I don't even bother asking what the stain is. It's not coming out whether I know what it is or not. So, when a friend posted the link to this blog, where the author claimed she got out several different stains with a bar of Ivory soap and a wacky little product called Eco Nuts, I was intrigued.

I had heard of Eco Nuts before, (if you haven't check this out) They are biodegradable, hypoallergenic, nut allergy safe, reusable (yes, really) and fragrance free. I like that last one, I HATE it when every cleaner has to smell like some fake rain forest. I'm allergic to a lot of the chemicals they use to make artificial fragrances (they give me a major headache). So the fact that these have no fragrance? OK, let's give it a try!

I've been using the Eco Nuts for a week or two now and I must say my laundry comes out equally as clean as it does with traditional laundry detergent, with the added benefits of Eco Nuts being free of chemicals, artificial fragrance and artificial color (I mean, really! Who cares what color their laundry soap is anyhow?) Also, Eco Nuts are fairly cheap (and quite pack-able for ski vacation this winter, a bag with 4 Eco Nuts can be used for 10, yes T-E-N, loads of laundry!) so I'll skip the standard harsh detergents and use these. Also, you don't have to use fabric softener (even less funky fake smells!) and your clothes will still be soft. We'll see how it works without dryer sheets this winter.

Now, you must understand that clothes in this house are either not going to have any stains, or they will be one large stain (obviously there are exceptions, but one of those options is the norm). I've tried just about every stain remover you can name (and some of the best known ones are the ones that work the least!) so I was more than a little skeptical by this blogger's claim that something as common as Ivory soap could get out stains. So I gave it a try on a BBQ sauce stain on my new pair of khakis (grrrr) and a blood stain (don't ask) on a pair of jean shorts. The results? Bye-bye stains! What?! Really? Hmmm, this just might be worth a try on my husband's work jeans.

And so I present to you:

Exhibit A: Exhibit B:

The stains: Probably oil and grease of some kind, along with mud/dirt, maybe some diesel fuel. By the way, I'm talking machinery grease and oil here, you know, from tractors and grain trucks and combines, that sort of grease. I realize that in these pictures, these stains look like just dirt, but believe me, these jeans have looked pretty much exactly like this through several washes now. And yes, they've been through the dryer.

Here's what you'll need:

Spray bottle and Ivory soap (clearly this is not a new bar of soap)

Because jeans absorb water, I had to kind of spray the stains and rub with the soap at the same time. You want it to kind of lather, it should look soapy (if that made sense).

Isn't it nice that I'm left-handed and shoot photos with my right hand?
I'm just ambidextrous like that :)

Here's what the jeans looked like all Ivory-ed up:

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

And, just for the fun of it, here's Exhibit C: (it's going into the wash without Ivory for comparison)

Into the wash they all go!

Along with the baggie of Eco Nuts

Alta needs to use the grass. Que Jeopardy music while you wait!

I hung the jeans outside to dry, so if they look a little stiff, that's why.

Ready?

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

And, last but not least, the control (yes, I watch Mythbusters, what's your point?) Exhibit C:

The stains on Exhibit C are somewhat lighter, but compared to A & B, they look like they need to be scrubbed with Ivory and put back in the wash!

Conclusion: Even if you don't try the Eco Nuts, definitely give the Ivory soap a try! You've probably got a bar or two around somewhere. Shockingly cheap stain remover that actually WORKS! Thanks to Tonya at 4littlefergusons for posting the link to ChemicallyInclined!

PS: I have an HE washer, but EcoNuts can be used in regular top-loaders as well!

Hot Cross Buns Revisited (and finally perfected!)

2011-08-19T10:00:00.000-05:00

What was it I said about not being defeated by recipes? Clearly I have stubbornness issues and probably some "let-it-go" issues as well. I tried the "London Eats" recipe several times and came up with nothing but rock solid little buns. I still have no idea why that recipe won't work for me, and it still bothers me (there's that "let-it-go" thing again). Tonya suggested I try this recipe from the Pioneer Woman. It looked simple enough but it didn't have the spices of the London Eats recipe and I LOVED the flavor of those, even if they were little rocks. So I decided to combine them. The dough from Pioneer Woman's recipe, and the spices from the London Eats recipe. They turned out great on the first try!

Alright, to save you the trouble of figuring out how to combine these yourself, here ya go:

2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup canola oil (please note that I do not own canola oil, I used olive oil, just so you know)
1/2 cup sugar
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup additional flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup sugar (no that's not a typo, I meant to put sugar in there twice)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
pinch ground cloves
1/2 cup sultanas (golden raisins)
1/2 cup currants

Combine milk, oil and sugar in a large saucepan. Heat until almost boiling, stirring occasionally. Just before it starts to boil, turn off the burner and let it sit for about 30 minutes. (I left it sit on the burner)

Sprinkle the yeast over the mixture and add the four cups of flour (one cup at a time) and stir to combine. The mixture will be very sticky (and that's an understatement!) Cover it and leave it for an hour.

Add the extra 1/2 cup flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir to combine. (I stirred with a fork)

In a separate bowl, combine 1/2 cup of sugar (please note that Pioneer Woman's recipe says 1/4 cup, I used 1/2 cup because uuhhhh I can't read apparently) with the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves.

Lightly flour your work surface and plop on the dough. Slightly flatten the dough then sprinkle on some of the sugar/spice mixture and about 1/3 of the sultanas and currants. Fold the dough over on itself and knead just a little, then repeat the sprinkle and knead process until the spices and raisins are mixed in.

Divide the dough into 12 pieces (Pioneer Woman says to make them ping-pong ball sized, I made them a bit larger) and put them on a cookie sheet. (Do yourself a favor and line the sheet with parchment paper, the buns will come off SO much easier and are less likely to burn on the bottoms). Cover the buns and let them rise for another hour.

Heat the oven to 400. I skipped the milk and egg wash and the icing, you can add them if you want. Bake for 20 minutes until the buns turn golden brown.

What do ya know? I CAN make bread!

The Wind and Rain Still Know

2011-08-05T10:14:00.000-05:00

This summer has been a test in patience for the farmers in this area. The complete lack of rain and ridiculously high temperatures have made for some not so fantastic looking crops (not to mention everyone's yards). According to our local TV station, August 2nd marked our 38th day this summer of temperatures over 100. We had 12 record highs, 3 of them hitting 111! Definitely a BIG change from February 10, when it was -17! Welcome to Kansas, people.

A hopeful song through this desperately dry summer has been the hymn "Be Still, My Soul." My favorite line says, "Be still, my soul, the wind and waves still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below." I changed the word "waves" to "rain" and it works perfectly. The wind and rain still know His voice; they still obey Him. It will rain when God says it will rain. Believe me there have been a LOT of begging God to tell it to rain this year!

Wednesday evening I had laundry hanging out on the line. The way I see it, if it's going to be this hot, I can at least put the sunshine to work. There were storm-looking clouds forming in the distance, but the storms have gone around us or fizzled out so many times this year that I wasn't worried about them. My husband told me to leave the laundry out there and maybe it would finally rain! I couldn't find any stats on how much rain we've had this year, but it's been close to a year now since the last time the ground had the kind of moisture it needs. I didn't want to forget and leave the laundry out until after dark because that part of our yard gets, well, dark. So I took them down. Then my husband and I (along with an ever present dog) went out to watch the "storm." As the dark clouds approached, we became hopeful that it might actually rain on us this time! The clouds swirled and grew larger and I wished I had brought the camera outside because they were quite unique. It had been almost eerily calm, but as the front of the storm hit, the wind picked up. To a howl. Along with the wind, came dust. Enough dust that it became quite dark and the sky turned orange. We realized that what we had assumed was a rain shaft, was just dust. So I went in to get the camera.

No, this is not a tornado, but it looked weird!

Still just dust!

That is dust you see close to the ground, not rain.

I had to wipe off the camera lens every time I took a picture or it would be covered in dust.
I forgot to wipe it before this picture.

My contacts were dry and my eyes and teeth felt gritty. But, behind the wind and the dust, came more wind (I mean, really, this IS Kansas) and rain! Huge, beautiful and cold raindrops that stung my face when they hit!

I have a video to prove how windy it really was, but I can't figure out how to get it to upload. I'm still new at this blogging thing! I think the local TV station said it was around 60 mph.

After a while, the rain stopped. Grateful for what we had, we went inside. Sometime later, my husband let the dog out to go, and it was raining again! This time it was a gentle rain with very little wind but lots of lightening. We heard a "pop" as lightening struck something close by, and expected the loud crash of thunder that usually follows something like that, but it never happened. The lights were still on in the house, but the strobe light that indicates that the irrigation system behind our house is running was no longer flashing. Thursday afternoon, my husband told me that pop of lightening we heard, had ruined the control panel for that irrigation system, as well as the pump for the system's well. So, that irrigation system is off for at least a few days (maybe weeks) until the new pump can get here. At this time of the year, it's pretty important that the irrigation keeps running 24/7, so it looks like we're back to praying for rain again! We have to trust God to provide water for that field now, since He took out the irrigation system.

As of right now, it's 3 p.m. and only 92 degrees! This is what August is SUPPOSED to feel like, but after the extreme heat of the past several weeks, it feels almost cool. We had 1.25 inches of rain Wednesday night. That beautiful rain brought not only much needed moisture, but relief from the heat. Even if only for a few days. "Be still, my soul, the wind and rain still know His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below." He sends the rain (and the wind and lightening!) in His time, no amount of leaving the laundry on the line or vehicle washing will make it come any sooner. I need to remember that I live on God's timeline, not He on mine. To listen to a full length version of this hymn, please click here. (Not my video, and I don't know who created it, but it's beautiful!)

currently drinking:
Coffee: Gevalia Indian Budan Peak - Oh yum! I love this stuff. Although, to be honest, I have yet to meet a Gevalia coffee that I don't like.

Tea: Twinings English Breakfast - This makes a rather strong cup of tea. Probably a good place to start if you're used to coffee and want to transition to tea, as it can be bitter (especially if you happen to over-steep it). It definitely takes some getting used to, but it's growing on me.

Computers, Heat and Bean Dip (it's too hot to think of a real title)

2011-07-29T18:16:00.000-05:00

Has it really been 3 weeks since the last time I posted something?! *sigh* I guess that's what happens when the computer blows up. Ok, not really. It crashed on July 12. Just absolutely froze and the only thing I could do was hit the power button and restart it. That didn't really help. It just went through this cycle of crash dumps followed by "windows has recovered from an unexpected crash, how would you like to restart the computer?" Yeah. I can fix minor issues, but this was waaaaaay beyond me. So the next day it went to visit the tech guys in a local town. One week later, it was supposedly fixed. They told me it was running a little slow (which I can live with) but it was up and going! Yippeeee! So I went to pick it up. Uhhhhh yeah. It still didn't work. So I took it back. Tech guy #2 told me that since it had crashed again so quickly (as in, me trying to turn it on) it might mean there was an issue with the hard-drive, but they'd do what they could. So poor little laptop got it's memory wiped, hard-drive reformatted and programs and pictures put back on. Two weeks after it had been dropped off the first time, it was finally home! And working great........ for about 12 hours. Then it crashed. Froze. No turning back on. Tech guy told me that meant it was a problem with the hard-drive. And how much moolah does it take to replace a hard-drive? Well, too much. That computer has other issues anyway. The battery doesn't hold a charge for more than 10 minutes (yes, really) and the adapter cord has to be almost constantly wiggled to keep it plugged in. So the computer is resting in peace. Or at least I hope it is. If anyone would like a laptop shaped paper-weight, please let me know! (Did I mention that stupid thing is only 3 years old?)

Since it has been quite toasty here in Kansas for the past several weeks, the cooking has been far less adventurous. Sorry, but I just cannot bring myself to turn on the oven when it's 110 degrees outside! (Though it might be fun to try one of those baking on the sidewalk ideas) The poor a.c. can barely keep up as it is, I don't feel the need to add to it's distress.

See how pretty the backyard looks?

Yes, that REALLY does say "21 inches." How long has it been since it rained anyway?

So there have been a lot of quick heat up meals and stove top things like Sloppy Joes. That's not really blog-worthy food. But there is one recipe which has become my go-to recipe for when I'm just not in the mood to cook or oops! We're out of food 'cause I forgot to go to the store! (c'mon, you know it happens to you too) This recipe was kind of a happy accident several years ago.

1 cup of rice
1 can of black olives (coarsely chopped)
1 can of re-fried beans
1-1 1/2 cups of salsa (your choice)

Cook the rice (I use instant rice because I like to cheat), I drain the liquid from the can of black olives and cook the rice in that instead of water. The black olive liquid should be 1 cup. Every time I've bothered to measure this, it's come out close enough to 1 cup that I've quite measuring and just dump it in.

While the rice is cooking, coarsely chop the black olives. When the rice is done, add the olives, beans and salsa. To be honest, I've never measured how much salsa I use, I just dump it in there until it looks good. I use "On the Border" salsa in medium, feel free to use whatever you like. Stir it all together and heat for about 3 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Go find the tortilla chips and dig in!

Birthday Par-Tea

2011-07-08T09:40:00.000-05:00

This past weekend marked a birthday for me. One of those big(ger) ones that make everyone cringe because they have a zero behind the first digit. I decided that since this was one of those cringe-worthy birthday years, I was going to have a party decorated with my favorite things (to make me feel better). My current favorite thing is tea. Tea party it is! Oh, wait. Neither of my parents can have caffeine. Grrrrrr. (How was I born into a caffeine-free family?) So I decided on 2 tisanes. How many people just scratched their heads? A ti-what-did-she-say? A tisane is a tea-free herbal only drink. Tisanes are quite commonly called tea anyway and you may have to read carefully to make sure that the concoction you're thinking of purchasing doesn't contain any actual tea. Tea comes from the plant Camellia sinensis and contains caffeine, so when dealing with caffeine sensitivities you'll need to be careful to avoid that.

Can we tell my favorite colors are black and white?

My sister and I are both kind of obsessed with this damask pattern right now. My husband and I live in a house that was built in 1906 and the upstairs hallway is wallpapered with this pattern (in a rather unfortunate shade of green, but the design is pretty regardless). I believe that wallpaper was put up in the 1960's or 70's. It's good to know that all things old are new again!

The cute paper plates are from Hobby Lobby (as were the black napkins). I purchased 3 black and 3 white sets of these adorable Amsterdam tea cup and saucer sets from my favorite tea store (they have them in 14 different colors and they're dishwasher safe!). I switched the saucers and arranged them every other one around the table and purchased the burgundy one for me. The centerpiece candle holders were from a friend's At Home America party back in December.

Now for the food!

I made 2 kinds of sandwiches. Apple and cucumber sandwiches with cream cheese (yum!) Wow these were good. They will definitely be made again! And a smoked thin sliced turkey with turkey bacon (just in case someone didn't like my cucumber creation. I used hoagie buns as the bread instead of baguettes like the recipe says. Yummy fruit salad (minus the kiwi because I couldn't find them). The "tea" was iced strawberry lemonade and sweet fruit garden both from Teavana.

Instead of a cake I made Maids of Honour Tarts from London Eats. I didn't take a picture because I kind of messed up the crust. I used a different recipe for the crust because I knew it made good pie crust, but it didn't work out so well for little tarts. I think I'll use my leftover filling and try her original recipe for the crust. They were delicious even with not-so-perfect crust. I definitely recommend you try them "straight away" (as the British say).

Sooooo much fun and so pretty! It was a great birthday (even if it was one of those "big" ones. My Mom even got the memo about my favorite design! Though I'm sure it helped that she took my sister shopping with her! :)

Currently drinking:

Coffee: iced Gevalia 1853 Heritage Blend (a little hard to get your paws on but if you can find it I highly recommend it, great coffee!)

Tea: Twinings Prince of Wales (not bad, but not my favorite. It also comes in little baggies if you don't "do" the loose tea in the teapot thing).

p.s. - please feel free to comment, I've opened up the comment section so all you need is an email address (instead of a blog account) to comment. I'd love to hear any thoughts or questions you have!

The accidental garden

2011-06-24T10:43:00.000-05:00

I've tried to grow a garden in previous years, but all I've really succeeded in growing was a giant weed patch. I'd forget to water the poor little pants until it was too dry, then I'd try to make up for it and water a lot, followed by me forgetting to pull weeds. I was NOT born with a green thumb! We've had a few tomatoes from our garden, but not much else. So this year I skipped the garden.

A few weeks ago, when my husband came home, he told me I had potatoes growing out there that would need to be dug up soon. Good to know. I thought it was all weeds out there! In fact, when my husband had mowed the yard several days before, I wondered why he hadn't mowed over a few of the weeds in the garden (turns out those "weeds" were the potatoes he was referring to). Last year I planted potatoes and never got around to digging them up. I had no idea they would grow again on their own.

Why are there less weeds in this garden now that it's not a "garden"?

Happy little potato plants, growing nicely without any help from the destructive "gardener."

A few days ago, I thought maybe it was time to dig up the little potatoes and see what grew out there.

The accidental potatoes

Not bad considering I didn't do any work for them! I think I'll cook them with butter and herbs. Or maybe put them in the crock pot with a nice roast. Now I'm hungry!

Husband Approved Super Supreme Veggie Pizza

2011-06-17T10:00:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I like to make meat-free meals. Not that I don't like meat, I do. Really. But as an American (Midwesterner no less) I think I probably have more than my fare share of animals for meals. But some of my meatless endeavors have been met with less than enthusiastic responses from my rather carnivorous husband. So I wasn't completely certain how my veggie pizza idea was going to go.
I requested my husband's help in veggie chopping, since there were quite a few (OK fine, he chopped all the veggies while I mixed up the dough). I gave him a list of veggies that were living in the fridge and these are what he picked.

(Just so you know: this recipe is my version of my friend Tonya's "Prova i miei tre pizze !" (Try My 3 Pizzas) )

Dough:
1/4 oz. package of Fleischman's Pizza Crust Yeast (follow the directions on the package. I'm terrible at bread/dough and this came out great!)

Sauce:
Bertolli Organic Olive Oil, Basil and Garlic (I used about 12 oz.)

Veggies:
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
Large can black olives (the can says drained weight 6 oz.)
Fresh white mushrooms (I honestly have no clue how many mushrooms he put on here. Around 4 oz.)
2 Roma tomatoes

Cheese:
4 cups of shredded mozzarella
2 cups of shredded cheddar (I did mention I like cheese right?)

Coarsely chop the veggies and mix together in a large bowl, then spread over the dough. Chop the tomatoes in large pieces and add on top.

Before the cheese was added.

Now, spread on the cheese and pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes on 425.

I used my Pampered Chef pizza stone which is quite large and so the crust was very thin (but still good). I think next time I would not spread the dough so thin and add a lip around the crust since I now have sauce puddles in the bottom of the oven.

Oh yes, the best part of all? My husbands reaction. He loved it! He as already requested that I make it again.

Cheddar Biscuits

2011-06-10T10:04:00.000-05:00

A few nights ago, while supper was cooking in the oven, I was watching Iron Chef America, "Battle Cheddar," yummmmm I love cheese! By the time this episode was over, I wanted just about every recipe they used, but one in particular made me dig through the cabinets. The challenging chef was making cheddar biscuits in small cast iron skillets. "Wow, those look fantastic! Great, now I'm gonna want cheddar biscuits all night." Oh, but wait! A few weeks ago I had picked up a package of buttermilk biscuit mix to make a similar recipe from my Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats book and never got around to making it. Rachael's recipe was for chorizo and cheddar biscuits, so I revamped it. OK, mostly I omitted the chorizo and added more cheese.

7.5 oz. package of buttermilk biscuit mix (the kind you only add water, I used Bisquick Complete)

3/4 cup of shredded cheddar (I actually used Colby since I had some left from another recipe)

1/2 cup water

Follow the package directions for temperature and cooking time.

Makes 6 biscuits

These were great! If you've ever had Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits these are really similar.

And now, I must pass along a little tip I learned last week from my mother-in-law. She told me that her spices are arranged in alphabetical order. Well duh! Why on earth I had never thought of that is beyond me. I alphabetize everything! Seriously. Book/CD/DVD stores are jealous of my alphabetization (holy cow, I can't believe spell check says that's a word!) skills. I can NEVER find spices in there. I end up with several jars of one spice and run out of something I think I've got more of living in there somewhere. So I pulled all the spices off the shelf and reorganized.

Ta-daaaa!

By the way, if anyone needs any nutmeg, garlic powder or thyme, let me know.

Tea-Time!

2011-06-03T11:18:00.000-05:00

After last weeks Hot Cross Bun catastrophe, I decided we should have a little chat about a topic I'm actually familiar with: Tea! Funny thing is, until quite recently, I never liked tea. I thought it tasted like slightly flavored water and why would you drink that? (Especially when there was such tasty coffee to be had!) As it turns out, I didn't like tea because I was making it the way most Americans make tea: Put water in a mug, plop the mug in the microwave and heat for 30 or 60 or 90 seconds (or 3 minutes if you have our under-powered mini-microwave) until the water is somewhere around boiling, drop in a tea bag and leave it alone for a few minutes, squish the water out of the bag and call it good. If this works for you then fantastic! I know quite a few people who are perfectly happy with this type of tea. But, if you, like me, are unhappy with the world's simplest way of making tea; read on!

(OK, before you actually read any further, you need to know that none of the companies listed below have paid me anything for posting their links. These really are the places I buy tea and tea accessories from. Now you may continue.)

First off, tea bags were invented as a way for tea companies to send samples to their customers and contain only the dust and broken pieces of full sized tea leaves. They were never intended for daily use, but, like most things that make life easier, they caught on. If you want the best flavor from your tea PLEASE use full leaf. It changed the way I feel about tea.

You'll need a kettle (either stove top or electric) Please don't use the microwave, you can be much more exact with the water temperature with a kettle. You could also use a small saucepan. I have a 1.5qt. saucepan with a pour spout that doubled as a kettle and teapot for several months.

(Mine is a hand-me-down from my Mom. I think it was given to my parents as a wedding present in the late 70's.)

Heat the water to the proper temperature for the type of tea you have chosen. White and green teas require cooler temps. or you will ruin the flavor, while black teas, herbal, mate and rooibos need water temperatures above 200* (more on that later). While the water is heating, fill your teapot with hot water (from the faucet is fine, it doesn't need to be super hot) to pre-warm the pot. You don't have to fill it to the top, just swish it around for a bit then pour it out. This way your teapot is already warm and won't absorb all the heat of the water you're using for tea. Measure in your tea of choice. I use 1 1/2 teaspoons per 8 oz. of water. You might want more or less depending on the size of the leaf and your personal preference. By now the water in the kettle should be the correct temperature, pour it over the leaves in the pot and set a timer. Like the water temperature, different teas require different steeping time. White tea is quite delicate and needs as little as 30 seconds for some varieties and chai can take 10 minutes.

This is my everyday teapot, a 2 cup Price & Kensington (its dishwasher safe).

After your tea is finished steeping, pour it from the teapot to your cup using a strainer such as this one. I chose this style because of the long handle, no matter what cup or mug I use it reaches both sides.

Now that you know how to make tea, let's move on to the different types of tea and their temperature and steeping time specifications. This is a very useful page for temperature and steeping time, though individual teas and your personal preference may vary.

Black tea: Probably the most common tea in North America (it's also the most caffeinated tea .... hmmm). A cup of black tea has approximately half the caffeine as a cup of coffee.

The black tea on display here is Vanilla Cinnamon from Kungaloosh. Dry leaves are on the left and steeped leaves on the right. I heat the water for this tea to a mostly rolling boil (scientific, I know) then steep it for 4 minutes. (These temps. and steeping times are my own preferences and are by no means perfect.)

This is Shizuoka Japanese Sencha green tea also from Kungaloosh. Water: Just beginning to boil. Time: 3 mins. For every 1/4lb. bag of this tea sold in 2011 Kungaloosh will donate $2 to the Red Cross and $4 for every 1/2lb. bag.

This organic Indian White Tea has no official name and was purchased from a local herb shop. The lack of details doesn't keep it from being delicious! The dry leaves smell somewhat sweet and the brewed tea has a very light, almost buttery flavor. Water: not quite boiling Time: 2 mins.

I had to include one "fancy" tea. This is Soom Estate 1st flush Darjeeling. First flush means first growth. It is picked in spring, when the first new growth appears on the plant, usually in March. Darjeeling refers to the specific area in India in which it grows, and Soom is the exact estate it was grown on. There are MANY tea estates in India and China (most of the world's tea is grown in one of those countries). Buying tea by estate can be very pricey but if you familiarize yourself with the estate names you can search the internet for tea from the same estate for a better price. For example, the tea shown above was $10 for 4oz. I found 1st flush Soom Estate Darjeeling from another site for $46 for 3.5 oz. Temp.: same as white tea, not quite boiling Time: 3 mins.

The next teas I want to try are Lapsang Souchong which is dried by smoking it over wood instead of a hot pan like most teas, and Pu-erh, which is aged in caves for 2-5 years before its sold.

You can go crazy trying to pick the perfect kettle, teapot, teacups and teas. Don't let the over abundance of tea related items frighten you! Pick the tea accessories you like and try out a couple of teas. If you want to learn more, go from there, believe me, there is no shortage of tea info out there! Or, if you're not sure, and you happen to have my number, give me a call and you can come over and try mine.

Please note this is by no means a complete list of teas and their preparations. Think of it as Intro to Teas 101. Most of what I know about tea has been learned from the following blogs:

The English Tea Store blog, features several different bloggers including Jessica Hodges (who posts as jessrosevear) from Scotland.

Tea Time with A.C. Cargill Ms. Cargill's blogs are also featured on the English Tea Store blog, she reviews everything from tea to teaware, how to make tea and what to serve with it and even the occasional book.

Little Yellow Teapot tea reviews also posted by A.C. Cargill, this blog is dedicated to reviewing tea and has LOADS of info on what water temperature and steeping time works best for each tea. This blog is often written from the point of view of the teapot.

My Tea Break posted by Mariana and Tania these ladies travel the world tasting tea and educating readers on the history of tea, why you should drink it and preparation methods.

A million ways to fail at making Hot Cross Buns

2011-05-27T17:21:00.000-05:00

OK, maybe not really a million, but after the last time when I ended up with little baked dough balls I realized I needed some bread practice. The last time I made bread was in Foods class in high school. While I was tempted to scrap the recipe in favor of another posted by a friend, I was also determined not to let a recipe beat me! If you need proof of my determination in that area, you can ask my husband how many "crepes" our cats got to eat before anything resembling an actual crepe came out of the pan. (By the way, here is the crepe recipe that finally worked for me. No, you do not need the $200 crepe pan, nor do you need the special little crepe spreader! You do, however, need a flat bottomed pan. The one I was using was not).

And now, without further ado, on to the Hot Cross Buns (original recipe used for this post can be found by clicking on the underlined title).

First off; the original recipe says: Make sure you are using proper bread flour – plain flour just won’t work. She's NOT kidding! The first time I tried this, I used all-purpose flour. Hence the dough-balls!

Measure 400g. of flour (just short of 3 cups. If I had sifted it probably would be 3 cups but I do not own a sifter. Sorry Grandma and Mrs. Hilton).

Rub in (mix with your fingers until you can't tell what's butter anymore) 50g. (4 Tbsp.) butter.

Mix in 1/2 teaspoon of each of the following spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and allspice. Add pinch of ground cloves.

This is my favorite spice ever! Smells like Christmas!

Add to the mix 75g. sugar (3/4 cup)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of yeast

Mix together.

In a separate bowl combine 150ml. of milk (2/3 cup) I chose to heat my milk in the microwave for a few seconds so it was just above room temperature since I had such a problem with my dough not rising last time.

Add 1 egg to the milk and whisk together. Add the milk/egg mixture to the dry ingredients and combine.

Ah yes, this looks soooooo much better than last time!

Now you will want to add your fruit. The recipe calls for 50g. of candied peel but since I could not find candied peel and making it requires a rather lengthy process of soaking orange peels in salt water and then simmering them in a sugar solution for several hours (which, frankly, I did not find a-peel-ing *sorry*) I'm skipping the peel. 100g. of sultanas and currants (as much of each as you like, I made them equal portions) By the way, sultanas are golden raisins and currants really can by found at the local version of Kroger. Yes really.

At this point you will want to make sure that any barker friends you have are not loitering around your feet waiting for you to drop something because grapes in any form are poisonous to barkers.

Mix in your fruit (I added dried cherries last time and that was tasty)

Now you get to wait for an hour while your dough rises. *Crossing your fingers and saying a prayer sure can't hurt this process! OK, time for coffee!

Back to the dough!

Does this look doubled in size? hmmmm OK, divide your dough into 12 equal portion and put them on a well greased baking sheet.

And now we get to wait for yet another hour! At this point I'm realizing why it is that I don't "do" bread. I have no patience and I feel the need to stand over it and watch it to see if it's getting bigger or not. I'm surprised I wasn't over there with a ruler measuring little dough balls every five minutes. ...... now that I think of it, that's not a bad idea for next time! OK, time for coffee..... oh wait. I did that already. Fine. Laundry it is.

Oh dear! With only 15 minutes left to rise, I have given up and taken the little dough balls out back to the woodshed for punishment!..... I mean I put them in the sun on the sidewalk to see if the that would coerce them into rising just a little.

Nope, that didn't work. With more than an hour gone by and the oven now heated to 420, in they go for 15 minutes. Good luck dough balls!

And so, after all that waiting, here is the finished product:

Hahahaha! It's official, this recipe hates me! Oh well, even though they didn't rise like they were supposed to, they still take great. I'll soak them in coffee and they'll be just fine.

Time to go make supper. In a pan. On the stove. I can actually do that!

p.s. - If anyone else would like to try this recipe, let me know if it works for you or if it's just me!