Artistta

Part 4: A look at how I believe my changing diet with each pregnancy has affected my children and the pregnancies themselves. (pregnancy #4, baby due in May)

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:22:00 +0000

Well, I certainly meant for this post to go up a couple of weeks ago. It turns out trying to buy a house, getting ready for a move, taking care of kiddos and everything else under the sun that is going on has kept me away from blogging. I do believe that my posts may be pretty intermittent for a while, so bear with me as my family and I make some pretty big transitions in our lives. All our awesome, but all take time and there is only so much energy and only so many hours in a day.

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This is the fourth part of this series. To read about my other pregnancies check out the links below.

Pregnancy 1

Pregnancy 2

Pregnancy 3

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Pregnancy, birth and the life that is brought forth into this world is amazing, scary, empowering, difficult and in the end a true learning experience, that is, if you want it to be.

I am over halfway through my fourth pregnancy and this one has been a journey all of it's own. I chose the route of learning from past experiences and applied that knowledge to this pregnancy. I've known since having my daughter that I truly desired to have a natural birth, without any tests and ultrasounds. I didn't want to be back in a doctor or midwife office feeling pressured to do things I wasn't comfortable with, nor feeling supported by my view points and research. So this time around I've chosen to go the route of having a home birth and seeing a certified professional midwife (CPM). This child, thus far has had about the most natural life that anyone can have, seeing as how we haven't so much as taken a pregnancy test, although the ever expanding belly and the regular kicks tells us our little one is growing healthy and strong!

Watch the documentary FRESH for free this week!

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:09:00 +0000

My husband and I just finished watching FRESH and we both thought it was great. Makes me almost want to go and buy land to start my own farm for raising cattle and pigs... well almost. Truly though, it does only encourage us more in our endeavor to live a more sustainable lifestyle. While we aren't going to be the next grass-fed cattle farmer, we certainly are working towards a place where we can grow/raise much of what we eat.

This documentary isn't long, only about 70 minutes. Take a little bit of your time and watch it and see how you feel about the food system that America has created.

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FRESH - New thinking about what we're eating

http://www.freshthemovie.com/watch-fresh-streaming-1-week-only/

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One of the first lines in the movie,

"When I was in college my roommate was from Pakistan and he said 'George you know Americans fear only one thing, inconvenience."

What a truthful statement this is and is so many different areas of life going far beyond food.

Part 3: A look at how I believe my changing diet with each pregnancy has affected my children and the pregnancies themselves. (pregnancy #3)

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:45:00 +0000

This is the third post in this series. To read about my other pregnancies check out the links below.

Pregnancy #3

My daughter who is almost 2

After my son was born I made some drastic changes in my diet. Falling in love with a brand new baby and realizing that they completely rely on you for everything and you are essentially the starting block for their health for the rest of their lives, can do that to you!

I started on the road to making my food from scratch and began spending a great deal of time researching nutrition. The Weston A. Price Foundation was a huge help in the beginning part of that journey. At the time they were one of the only organizations who stepped away from typical Western medicine and diet to look at how much our eating habits have changed over time and whether those changes have actually benefited us. I'd highly recommend reading up on Dr. Price and his research. While I think it's important to state that I do not adhere to all of the WAPF beliefs, it has been a very helpful guide. I also learned quite a bit from the book The Maker's Diet by Jordan Rubin. An excellent read and to this day has caused me to evaluate my eating habits through the Word of God. The Bible has a lot to say about what is wise to eat and not. Some of the information involves the laws given to the Jews in the Old Testament. While in the New Testament Jesus did away with those laws, that doesn't mean there wasn't a truly good reason that God had the Jews eat in a certain way. They were known for their good health and strength. I don't believe God gives laws and rules just to make life difficult. Instead I think they are always because He knows what is best for us, as the truly perfect Father that He is. This pregnancy was the beginning of me recognizing that eating God's way, with food, made by Him and not altered by man through genetic modification, commercial processing, over planting causing for the need of pesticides, herbicides and so forth, was the way that would make my family and my body healthy and strong. It frankly came down to recognizing that God does know best and man doesn't.

Part 2: A look at how I believe my changing diet with each pregnancy has affected my children and the pregnancies themselves. (pregnancy #2)

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:25:00 +0000

Yesterday I shared part 1 of this little series. My first pregnancy was a miscarriage, but thankfully the pregnancies going forward have all been far better, but not without their bumps in the road.

To read about my other pregnancies check out the links below.

Pregnancy #2

My son, who is now 4.


Feeling "huge" at about 4 months.

After having a miscarriage with my first pregnancy, I wasn't too concerned about getting pregnant again. If it happened, it happened. A part of me really wanted to be pregnant as I was trying to cope with the loss of our first child. Well surprise, surprise that little want was satisfied sooner than I would have thought... turns out about a month after miscarrying I found out I was pregnant again. I was pretty thrilled and headed back to the same doctors office that I had gone to for my first pregnancy. They were not quite as thrilled as I since I had been told to not get pregnant, but I didn't care.

This pregnancy turned out to be harder on me than I had thought it would be. I had a ton of cramping in my first trimester with my son and was overwhelmed with the feeling that I was going to lose him too. I remember sitting on the floor of where I worked bawling because the cramping was bad and knowing that there was nothing I could do. I was an emotional wreck and started wishing that I wasn't pregnant again because I was so stressed out about the whole thing. I was just coming back to walking with the Lord and was still not able to really put my trust and faith in Him to know that whatever happened I would be okay. Thankfully, since I now have a healthy four year old, the pregnancy progressed.

Around 10 - 12 weeks I went in to hear the heart beat. After about 10 minutes of trying the doctor couldn't find it. I tried to not panic. The doctor wanted me to have an ultrasound to make sure the baby was okay, but from the little I had heard about ultrasounds, I wanted to avoid having one if I could. So she grabbed another doctor and had her try and find the heart beat and low-and-behold after about a minute of trying we heard a healthy beat. Turns out the first doctor hadn't been pushing hard enough or searching in the right place (the second doctor showed the first what she was doing wrong). I'm glad another doctor had come in before I got sent to get an ultrasound. After hearing the heart beat I began to relax, especially as I headed into the second trimester.

Part 1: A look at how I believe my changing diet with each pregnancy has affected my children and the pregnancies themselves.

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:07:00 +0000

With this pregnancy in full swing, I am in nutrition mode, trying to continue to figure out and research the best diet for myself, the growing child in me, as well as, how to best feed my growing children. I'd like to share some history about my other pregnancies, because (in my opinion) I have seen direct correlations to me changing my diet and the outcomes of each pregnancy, birth and overall health of each child there after. I'm splitting it up into four segments, since this is my forth pregnancy.

Check out the things that have changed and the outcomes of each pregnancy and see if you think that food may have played a more vital role in my children than what most Western medicine obstetricians, pediatricians and nutritionist understand or share with us.

To read about my other pregnancies check out the links below.

Pregnancy #1

Miscarriage

As a mid 20 something I was living life to the fullest. My husband and I ate out regularly, enjoyed a very social life, stayed up to the wee hours of the morning and I drank to my heart's content. Drinking was my release point and my way of socializing. I was always far more relaxed after a drink or two. My eating habits were fairly terrible in comparison to today, although I did try to eat organic as much as I could. At this point in my life I never ate breakfast, for lunch I'd try to down a fruit smoothie from a nearby grocery store and for dinner I often ate a pasta dish of some sort accompanied by several glasses of wine. I was suffering from my eating habits. I often felt ill and shaky by mid morning from skipping breakfast, so the quick, easy solution was the fruit shake which would boost my sugar levels, except that I couldn't actually drink much before not feeling good again as my sugar levels would sky rocket (at the time I didn't know that I was struggling with hypo- and hyperglycemia.) I'd keep a protein bar in my purse or some nuts to snack on to get me to dinner. Pasta was always one of my favorites and I'd try to eat a "healthy" dinner, but I just didn't understand what my body was really telling me it needed.

Walking With the Lord: My anxious and fearful thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:56:00 +0000

Over the past several months I have struggled with feeling anxious. Anxious for all the unknowns in both my life and in life in general. I am a person who likes to have life settled, needs to know where things are going and have some type of routine to my day. Since our move in the fall all of these things flew out the door and I have been struggling to grasp at the straws of life to once again make some order.

My anxious heart has left me sleepless (well close to it) on many nights as I've wrestled with issues that surround my day to day life as a mother and wife, personal relationships and interactions with church and fellow Christians and then branches out to what is going on in the world and especially our nation.

As I lay in bed, tossing and turning, fear wells up. Overall, I'm not an overly fearful person, but when tiredness overcomes me and darkness surrounds me, fear creeps into my thoughts and my dreams. I can become overwhelmed by the fear of the unknown. My brain begins to make scenarios for different situations I am trying to sort through in life and many a night has found me in tears with a racing heart.

2012: A year of big changes, including baby #3 being born in May

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:53:00 +0000

I'm laying on my couch as I type this. I have managed to come down with the stomach flu (Viral gastroenteritis) twice in the last six weeks. Both times while we were traveling for the holidays. Ugh... I've decided that stomach/intestinal issues while pregnant make a superbly horrible combination. When motion makes you feel ill and you have a little one rolling around in your belly, eek, not such a good sensation.

Since I actually manged to get my kids down for naps today and I pretty much can't do anything else but lay on the couch at the moment. This seemed like as good of a time as any to write about some of our plans for 2012. It's going to be a big year for us, with lots of changes, some of which will affect this blog.

Real Food Christmas Basket: Chocolate Almond Butter Popcorn w/ Coconut Flakes (soy free) & How to Make an Origami Box to Put it in for a Gift

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 05:39:00 +0000

I originally found the idea for this recipe on Browned Eyed Baker last winter. The first time I made it I did it just as the original recipe called and it was great, it's essentially puppy chow with popcorn. However, in the end I wanted to make my version a little more real food friendly. This turned out easier to do than I thought and what's great is you don't need pre-made chocolate, which almost always has soy lecithin in it, an ingredient that's best to be avoided if possible.

This isn't overly sweet, but instead just sweet enough and perfect for satisfying a desire for a desert or a fun snack. The kiddos love it too! My son told me today as he was eating a handful of the popcorn, "Mom, this is delicious!" That's what this momma likes to hear in the kitchen! Of course, can you really go too wrong with chocolate, almond and coconut with a bit of crunch? Umm, I think not. :-)

Chocolate Almond Butter Popcorn w/ Coconut Flakes

What You'll Need

~ 10 cups

1/2 cup organic, unsalted butter

7 tbsp. rapadura or other sugar

2 tbsp. organic, whole milk

5 tbsp. organic cocoa powder

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup organic almond butter

8 cups plain, organic popcorn

2 cups non-sweetened coconut flakes

Real Food Christmas Basket: Great for the last minute gift idea are e-cookbooks by some wonderful real foodies

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:44:00 +0000

There are plenty of amazing bloggers out there and many have written some excellent cookbooks filled with more than just recipes, but also knowledgeable information for how to feed our bodies well. If you are still looking for a last minute gift for a real foodie or you want to introduce someone to a real food diet, consider these cookbooks.

The books I have listed are all printable as e-cookbooks, so if you have a printer at home you have an easy gift in a matter of just a couple of minutes. Katie from Kitchen Stewardship also shared the great ideas of giving e-cookbooks on a thumb drive (for the gift that keeps giving) or on a disk (a perfect stocking stuffer).

Click on the title of the cookbooks to go to their website and read a much more thorough overview of what each is about.

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Modern Alternative Momma

Note: Use code CHRISTMAS35 for 35% your purchase through Christmas Eve.

They also have gift coupons and book bundles.

Real Food Basics
Price: $6.95
Description: Pages of explaining the 'what' and 'why' behind
real food, plus recipes like pizza dough, cheese sauce, meatballs,

Healthy Pregnancy Super Foods
Price: $8.95
Description: A list of super foods, morning sickness remedies, etc. (not just for pregnancy though). Recipes like chicken marsala, chicken and wild rice soup, salmon with garlic-herb butter, maple-cinnamon granola, beef and liver stew.

Against the Grain
Price: $7.95
Description: Totally grain-free recipes, most that are GAPS-
friendly. Spicy marinated beef strips, tomato cream chicken,
salisbury steak, sausage gumbo, etc.

Treat Yourself: Real Food Desserts
Price: $7.95
Description: Yummy desserts, with no white
flour or sugar! Almond/sprouted flour, honey, maple syrup, and
sucanat only. Cinnamon rolls, soaked chocolate eclairs, strawberry
ice cream, spice cake, scones, lots more.

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Just Making Noise

Sound Bites From a Deaf Mama

Just Making Icecream
Price: On sale for $8, Reg. $12
Note: All of the book sales go to help the Rancho Oasis for Youth: http://www.ro4y.org/
Description: Love ice cream? Wish you could make ice cream at home, but don't have an ice cream maker? Can't decide what ice cream maker to buy? Have food allergies? Trying to watch your sugar-intake? Want to make something more than just vanilla, chocolate or strawberry? This is the book for you! 113 pages and over 70 recipes to choose through all 4 seasons of the year... who says ice cream is only for the summer?! The book starts off with 25 pages about everything you need to know to make delicious, nourishing frozen desserts.

Real Food Christmas Basket: Sample of sea salts in small homemade envelopes

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:48:00 +0000

For any real foodie or food lover, salt is a whole lot more than just the white, bleached stuff you see at the grocery store called "table salt". For the most part we avoid this type of salt in our home and instead take advantage of the wonderful benefits of unrefined sea salt. Unrefined salts have essential minerals in them and the actual range of color that sea salts come in is from their mineral content.

Many believe that salt should be avoided with the belief that they increase our sodium levels. While this is true, the type of salt being used actually make an extreme difference in how it affects the human body. Table salt should be avoided if at all possible. It's a highly processed ingredient that is mostly sodium chloride mixed with anti-caking agents and other harmful chemicals. Dr. Mercole shares in his article Debunking The Salt Myth,

The Real Food Gift Basket: Homemade pure vanilla extract

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:17:00 +0000

Can I just write that it's very difficult to take a picture of a shiny bottle! Well at least in an apartment with a point and shoot camera and lots of things to reflect on the glass. :-)

Pure vanilla extract is an essential ingredient for any baker and purchasing a small bottle of the real thing can be very expensive. It turns out that making your own vanilla extract at home is actually easy and can be more cost affective, especially if you make it in a larger batch.

The first bottle of extract I made was this summer. As I looked into different ways people suggested to make this product, it seems the most common combination was three vanilla beans added to two cups of vodka. I started with this, but after a month of letting the extract age I still had a product that smelled strongly of vodka and only had a hint of vanilla flavor. A bit frustrated that I wasn't getting the results I was wanting and not desiring to throw away what I had started, I decided to add 4-5 more vanilla beans to the mixture. After another month of waiting I had something far closer to a nicely fragrant and well flavored extract that I could actually use for baking.

Slicing a vanilla bean.

Before starting this post I went ahead and researched recipes once again, this time coming upon a site called Vanilla Review. This site seemed to have far more knowledge about making vanilla extract and ended up confirming what I had figured out this summer... you need a decent number of vanilla beans to make a good extract. Their recommendation is around 30 grams of vanilla beans for every cup of vodka, which is roughly about 8 vanilla beans. They also recommend getting grade B beans, which would be a dried out bean. Grade A would be the plump, moisture rich ones that look beautiful, but in making extract can actually add extra unnecessary moisture. In the end get what you can get. I bought my vanilla beans at the local co-op in the bulk section and didn't have a choice between grade A and B. I did see that Amazon sells vanilla beans and for a very, very good price, so if you know you are going to make a large batch, they would be a good place to price check. Don't buy your beans at a regular grocery store. They are outrageously expensive. I paid $1.90 per bean, but Amazon had them around $.75 each when a larger quantity was purchased.

Real Food Christmas Basket: Sourdough fruitcake and I promise this tastes superb, only real ingredients here!

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:35:00 +0000

I think I fall into the category of many who shutter when they hear the word fruitcake. The stomach gets a strange feeling when someone offers a piece of this so called Christmas treat that has been wrapped in plastic and a cardboard box, has the most unnatural colors in it and has been sitting on a shelf at some store or warehouse for who knows how long.

As much as I detested fruitcake I have one family member, aka my dad, who loves it and several years ago asked for some for Christmas. There was simply no way I was going to buy one of those bricks of "cake" they sell at a stand in the mall, so I set out to find a version I could bake at home. As first glimpse of looking through recipes I was fairly disappointed to see that most people stuck with the fake candied fruit which almost glows with the food coloring that must be added to it. These recipes also called for many ingredients I don't use, won't use and frankly can't even buy at the co-op where I do almost all my shopping. However, I was determined and so kept searching. That was when I found Alton Brown's recipe for his "Free Range Fruitcake" on the Food Network. Free Range... sounds interesting... could it be... a real fruitcake recipe... why yes it is. There was no fake fruit, no hydrogenated cooking oil, no questionable ingredients at all actually.

This little jewel of a cake went over wonderfully and I can say that all of us who enjoyed it the first year I made it were fruitcake converts. This year I'm trying to incorporate more sourdough baking in my routine, as well as, whole grains and unprocessed sweeteners into as much of my baked goods as possible. One of the main reason I wanted to try this as a sourdough cake is when you make sourdough at home your starter and flour are mixed together and allowed to ferment for typically at least 8-12 hours. During this time gluten and phytic acid are broken down leaving the baked item far easier to digest and also healthier because by breaking down the phytic acid the body can far more easily absorb the vitamins and minerals in the food.

Walking With the Lord: The child/Father relationship with our Lord and how we confuse it.

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Photo Credit

This is a topic that has been on my mind for a long time and one that I received no greater understanding of until I had children of my own, because then for the first time I understood the love of a parent and the role the parent plays in a child's life.

When my son was born I was just beginning a journey back to knowing God and following His Word. In that first year as I held my son, cared for him, gave him everything he needed, a love for him developed that could never be broken. It was a love that as a child I could never have understood that my parents had for me. It's not that my parents didn't show love, its that the love was beyond my understanding until I had children of my own. With that love came the fact that I would do the best I could to protect him, to care for him, to provide for him and ultimately teach him what it means to be a man of God.

Now I am no one except a flawed human being who makes mistakes and sins daily, who does her best to follow the Lord, but in the end is far from perfect. Now on the other hand we have our Father, our TRUE Father in heaven, who is perfect, is all knowing, is our creator and designer, and ultimately the greatest parent who knows how to perfectly raise us. For me, while I called God my Father, I never really understood His true role in my life until I understood what it meant to be a parent.

As "mature" adults we naturally elevate ourselves to a position of knowing, for certainly we know more than children do. We have experience under our belt, we've been educated, we have greater understanding of how the world works. As we think this way, which isn't untrue, a danger can and does arise. We begin to put our understanding on the same level as the Lords. We think that we can break down His Word, the Holy Bible, and put new meaning into it and change it to fit our times, our needs, our wants. We begin to change the role of God and instead of keeping Him in the elevated position which He not only deserves, but demands, we bring Him down to our understanding.

Where is the problem in this? We are infants, if that, in our understanding of who God is and why He created the world as He did. He has given us amazing glimpses into understanding Him through the Bible and as we develop our relationship with Him and seek Him out in prayer and reading his Word it reveals to us greater and greater wisdoms, but we are no where on the same level as He.

Crème Fraîche Made at Home with Pasteurized Cream & Sour Cream Made from Raw Milk

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:56:00 +0000

Crème fraîche versus sour cream? From what I've read the main difference between the two is their butterfat content, although some further separate the two by one, the crème fraîche, having a lactic acid bacteria added to it, while the other naturally ferments on it's own. Crème fraîche butterfat content is usually around 28% - 40% while sour cream is between 14% - 18%.

Traditionally, sour cream was exactly as it was named and a very different product than what we are accustomed to seeing at the store today. It was fresh, raw cream that sat out and allowed to sour naturally in a warm place. The resulting product would be a thickened, naturally soured and fermented product that allowed cream to have a longer shelf life and was ultimately a way of preserving this prized ingredient. The sour cream we purchase now at the store has none of it's originally roots. First, it's almost always made with milk and often low fat. In order to give it the classic thickness and sour flavor thickeners and acids are added among other things. Next time you are at the store grab a container of sour cream, organic or not doesn't always matter, and check out the ingredient list. You may find yourself feeling very disturbed at what you read, or try to read, because some of those words need a translator to go with them.

If you have been following this blog for any amount of time, I hope by now you've realized that I don't shy away from real fat, not the stuff you find in candy bars, but fat in it's natural, whole form coming from organic foods (coconut oil, olive oil) or free-range, grass-fed animals (for cream, butter and so forth) or from an animal humanely treated and fed the best foods possible (for lard), Actually, I firmly believe that healthy fat is essential to our bodies, our brains and believe it or not, for maintaining a healthy weight.

The first time I tasted real sour cream from an awesome farmer who had the best raw milk to offer, I was shocked at the truly exquisite flavor and could have quite possibly eaten the whole container myself. I don't have regular access to raw cream, so I now often make crème fraîche and my children LOVE it. You can see the picture of my son to the right who was "patiently" waiting while I took photos before I'd give him a spoonful to eat. We most typically eat crème fraîche in scrambled eggs, on top of any bean dish or the several Spanish dishes I like to make, and on top of soup, where it is fantastic.

Our Christmas Tree Excursion - What a Beautiful Place We Found

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:15:00 +0000

The first significant snow fall had fallen the day and evening before. It was a beautiful, white covering that clung to the trees and coated the grass with a pristine whiteness. Little puffs of steam came from our mouths as we got out of our car and bundled our children in snow suits, hats, gloves and boots. It was our daughters first time in all the snow gear and she stood apprehensively looking at us and wondering if we really expected her to try and walk. Our son was excited and ready to run, jump and roll through all the snow he saw.

We headed to a small, charming little barn, decorated for the holiday festivities. As we walked up we were warmly greeted and shown where saws and sleds were to use, where an outdoor fire pit was to warm up and shown a map to know where to head for the type of tree we wanted. A tractor was also making hay rides available out to the field of Christmas trees, but we opted for the walk and placed the kids on the sled for a fun ride in the snow.

The fresh air and the beauty of the fresh fallen snow covering the trees was all that my soul could have asked for on this afternoon. I was thrilled to be outside, even in the cold. We were in aw of just how many beautiful trees there were to choose from. All the trees were $40, no matter the size and unlike some tree farms we've gone to in the past, it certainly didn't take too long to find the perfect one for us.

Read more »

Winner of the Macy's Martha Stewart Giveaway - Reneegale

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:49:00 +0000

Hi everyone, meant to get this up this morning, but we are still traveling and things never go quite as planned when you are out of town. Thank you all for entering this contest, this may be the best received contest I've done!

The winner is

Reneegale

Comment: "I liked Artistta on facebook. and the Macy's blog. My favorite holiday recipe is stuffing. I like to do the Racheal Ray Stuffin Muffins. I will jus tmake a basic cornbread stuffing but bake it in my cupcake tins. that way it already a portion size but everyone gets a crunchy topping as well."

I don't have an email for you, so please send it my way in the next 48 hours!

artistta@gmail.com

Thanks!

Creamy Turkey Wild Rice Soup - Gluten Free

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:03:00 +0000

Sunday afternoon I prepared our 15lb turkey I had just bought the day before from a local farmer at the farmers market. I buy a turkey every year, no matter if we are celebrating Thanksgiving at home or not. That's because this is the only time of year I can buy my free-range, organic, heirloom turkey from the farmer who provides us with the majority of our meat. I have been buying our meat from Farm On Wheels for probably 5 years now, and continue to love what they have to offer. Their beef is from grass-fed cows, their chickens really do run outside and get to eat worms and other grub and are never fed soy, plus they have pork, goose and duck to choose from too. If you live in the Twin Cities area you can check out Farm On Wheels at the year-round St. Paul Farmers market.

We are heading to four families' home this year, so I won't need our turkey. Normally I'd freeze the beautiful bird, but it looked like it was going to taste so good that we decided to go ahead and make it and freeze the cooked meat instead of the whole uncooked bird. I used an adaption of an Alton Brown recipe on Food Network, which turned out excellent. I did change the brine just a bit and lowered my cooking temperature for the second part to 325°F, taking into consideration that this heirloom bread of turkey was going to be leaner than the standard turkeys at the grocery store.

It only made natural sense to go ahead and make my family's favorite soup on Monday night. With snow on the ground and the 50 degree days gone for the moment, a warm bowl of soup was perfect for a healthy, filling dinner. I have about 12 more pounds of cooked turkey now in my deep freeze and I think I can safely say that this soup will be gracing our evening table quite a bit this winter.

Note on the lemon juice and arrowroot in this recipe.

In this soup I add, when I have it, the juice of one lemon. This makes the soup a little brighter which can be a nice contrast to the cream. Normally lemon will make milk curdle, but I haven't had a problem with that in this soup. I also use arrowroot for the thickener, instead of flour. If you wanted to add flour instead you can, but you would want to do it differently. How I'd add flour is by making a roux. First melt 4 tbsp. of butter in a small frying pan. Add 1/4 cup flour (or up to 1/2 cup if you want a very thick soup, although you may want to add more butter) and cook the flour and butter for a couple of minutes over medium heat stirring constantly. You don't want the butter/flour to brown at all. You want to be getting rid of the raw flour taste. Then thin the roux with a couple tablespoons of broth from your soup. Add it to the soup at the same time you'd add the arrowroot. Arrowroot has a very different nature than flour. You want to be careful to not overcook it or it will actually lose its thickening capability. It adds very little flavor and no color, even though it's white. I don't make this soup extremely thick and creamy. If you like a really creamy soup, double the arrowroot and water.

The easiest sourdough bread recipe I know (NO KNEADING!) that many have asked me to share and it can be done with 100% whole wheat!

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:44:00 +0000

I wish I could claim this recipe as my own, but I cannot. I am not a sourdough bread maker guru. More like stumbling my way through successes and failures as I practice learning the true nature of my sourdough starter. This recipe comes from Jules at Stone Soup - Delicious Healthy Meals In Minutes. If you head over to her site (as I did today to grab the link for the recipe) you'll see a place to enter your email to receive updates. When you do this you'll get two of her e-cookbooks for free. Can't complain about that!

This is another one of those favorite "go to" recipes that I use time and time again and that I make for my family on a regular basis. These recipes aren't fancy, but they are good and when I'm a bit uninspired in the kitchen, not feeling good and overly tired, which has been true a lot lately, these are the dishes or items I find easiest to make and don't require a lot of thinking on my part.

I've decided that when it comes to sourdough baking, a lot of practice and not getting too hyped up if things don't turn out will lend to a much more peaceful kitchen. Unlike using yeast and white flour recipes where you can treat every recipe exactly the same, sourdough starters have a little mind of their own. Depending on the environment they are maintained in, how often they are fed (yep, just like pets, they really do need to be fed and watered preferably about 2 times a day), at what point after the feeding you choose to use the starter, how long you let your dough "sour" and what temperature it is in your home, you will get different results with your recipes. Now for some this sounds like a nightmare, but honestly it's not, it just teaches you flexibility and as you make more sourdough items you learn how to best use your starter.

What I love about this particular recipe is that it's so easy. Honestly, anyone who knows how to make a couple of measurements can quickly throw together the dough for this bread in about 5 minutes. About 8-12 hours later you should have a sticky mass of dough ready to be baked. No kneading ever needs to be done and out of the oven in 45 minutes you have an absolutely delicious, rustic loaf of bread with a crunchy exterior and a soft, slightly sour and a bit moist interior.

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My favorite apple pie recipe (it has ginger in it!) for Thanksgiving and a Giveaway with a chance to win some Martha Stewart Cookware from Macy's

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:22:00 +0000

With Thanksgiving only a week away, we've been busy figuring out our plans to see both my husband and my family. My son is eagerly awaiting the day that we tell him it's time to load up the car and make the drive to grandma's house. He loves his grandparents, cousins, aunt's and uncle's and has been asking me over and over when will Thanksgiving be here so we can see them all.

Thanksgiving 2010

While Thanksgiving can be a lot of work with cleaning and preparing food and even stressful as family comes together, I love this holiday. Growing up Thanksgiving was most often intimately spent with my parents and younger brother. My dad traveled a lot while I was growing up, but Thanksgiving day he was always around. My mom was and is a fantastic decorator (and cook of course ;D) and one of the things that brought her great joy and us as well, was to have our home beautiful, clean, with nice music playing and tantalizing aromas drifting from room to room, with an elegant table set with our fine china and crystal. It was always such a treat as a child to see everything so stunning. Things have become a bit more low key as we've all grown older, but the joys of being together and enjoying fabulous food is still wonderful all the same.

To this day, it always brings us, well my younger brother and me, a great deal of pleasure and laughter reminiscing about the not so perfect parts of Thanksgiving. While everything was always beautiful and the food fabulous, there was one little problem that we ran into countless times...

Thanksgiving 2010

Those darn turkeys... no matter how much you try, each year doing your best to perfect your roasting skills, sometimes they just don't want to get done. :-) One year I remember us waiting so long for the turkey to finish roasting, literally that bird had been in the oven all day and just didn't want to get to the right temperature, that by the time is was ready to eat it it must have been close to 10-o-clock at night. My brother and I were so tired we could hardly hold our heads up and in the end couldn't hardly eat a thing. Needless to say, with A TON of leftovers, we had our Thanksgiving meal the next night. It's happened often enough that the turkey just hasn't wanted to get done, that it always a joke to see what time we'll partake in our delightful, all be it, perhaps late evening meal.

Thanksgiving 2010

I remember on one occasion where the turkey did get done, we had gathered together at my uncle's home. All the aunts, uncles and cousins were together, a rarity that I truly wish could happen more often. My mother was getting the turkey ready and began pulling out the insides before preparing it to be roasted and start to make her fabulous gravy. Instead of the normal neck or gizzard coming out, there was actually a whole turkey head, feathers and all. Talk about startling, disgusting and hilarious all at the same time. Mind you this was a standard store bought turkey, not one from a farm, where you might want to "extra' piece. At that point in our lives the idea of butchering our own animals was far, far from our mind and seeing the turkey head (we'll just hope that the head and body actually belonged together) did a very good job of taking a bit of our appetite away.

Every year we try a new turkey recipe and different techniques, but have yet to find one that I think is so outstanding that I feel I must share it. So for now that will have to wait, however, over the years one thing I have loved to do is bake and learning to bake the ultimate pie has always seemed to go hand in hand with Thanksgiving. I think there is a bit of an art form to pie making and a whole lot of love. It takes practice, but once you figure out a great technique and recipe the end results are so delicious and satisfying that it makes the not so great turnouts worth it.

There are plenty of recipes out there that focus more on the decorative side of pie making with the pretty details you can do or add. While that can be fun, sometimes the flavor is forfeited for the looks. I kind of like the simple, classic looking pie that leaves everyone with a smile on their face after eating one, then two and just perhaps, since it's a holiday, three slices of pie. The classic pie has a homey and inviting feel that lends to that desire to sit down and relax, while sipping on a hot cup of tea and enjoying good conversation and a fun game or two. That, to me, is a wonderful end to a fabulous day.

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Tate's Bake Shop Giveway WINNER... Renee (Fatty Bumpkins)!

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:40:00 +0000

The winner of the Tate's Bake Shop Giveaway is...

Renee (Fatty Bumpkins)

Thank you to all who entered. Hopefully I'll have another giveaway to share soon!

The Greater Good - a movie about informed consent for vaccination and some excellent vaccine information. Can only be viewed free till 11/5/11

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:20:00 +0000

My husband and I just finished watching this film called The Greater Good. We learned about the film through Dr. Mercola's article called If You Think You Know Everything About Vaccines... Think Again!

If you have questions about vaccinating your children or yourselves, or simply want to educate yourself and possibly consider that perhaps a different approach to how vaccines are currently administered should be re-evaluated, or you want to see concise information on an extremely hot topic, please watch this movie. It's only available for free viewing until I believe the end of the day tomorrow.

Go directly to Vimeo to view it:

http://vimeo.com/31036452

Also, check out what Dr. Mercola has to say: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/30/the-greater-good.aspx

I could say so much on this subject, but have decided that less is more here. The video says enough. I know both my husband and I had tears in our eyes as we see once again what is being done to our children... and what those in "authority" are trying to do whether we want them to or not, because hey we are just parents and we aren't educated enough to make decisions for ourselves and our family...

Only two more days to enter the Tate's Bake Shop Giveaway for a 3 free boxes of cookies and a signed cookbook!

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:03:00 +0000

Wanted to remind people of the giveaway from Tate's Bake Shop. It ends in two days. It's easy to enter, just head over to my original post and leave a comment saying why you'd like to win. Earn two more chances to win by following Tate's Bake Shop on Twitter and liking them on Facebook.

http://artistta.blogspot.com/2011/10/giveaway-from-tates-bake-shop-who-wants.html

An excellent post by Butter Believer called "I Will Not Be Pinkwashed: Why I Do Not Support Susan G. Komen for the Cure"

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:47:00 +0000

When my husband came home from work today he let me know of a great article that our friend Diana from Spain In Iowa shared on Facebook today. I have stepped away from using my personal facebook account which I'm so glad of, however one downfall (actually the only downfall of not being on FB) is that I miss out on some great articles that get posted. (Note: I do still maintain my blog on FB)

Any who, back to the point of me putting this post up. Take a couple of minutes and read this article that Butter Believer put up on her site called, "I Will Not Be Pinkwashed: Why I Do Not Support Susan G. Komen for the Cure"

I personally do not support organization making claims to be finding cures for diseases, but won't promote, look at or even consider that most illnesses in our society are directly related to diet. Of course enviroment (polution, etc.) is also a contribution, but if we make our bodies healthy and strong they can actually protect themselves very well, without the help of modern day medicines and treatments.

You can read the passion in this post, but it was well thought out and she did her research. Check out the article here: http://butterbeliever.com/2011/10/22/i-will-not-be-pinkwashed-why-i-do-not-support-susan-g-komen-for-the-cure/

By popular demand Farmageddon is being show at Bryant Lake Bowl again. This coming Saturday, October 29th!

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:35:00 +0000

That's right folks. The movie Farmageddon: The Unseen War on American Family Farms was so popular when we showed it at Bryant Lake Bowl that we had a line of people waiting and hoping people wouldn't show up so they could still buy a ticket to the sold out movie.

When & Where

Well, the movie is back and is being shown once again at Bryant Lake Bowl this Saturday from 3:00 - 4:30 PM. Afterwords there will be an extra added bonus that the people at the first showing missed out on. We will have a panel of local expert available after the movie for a Q/A time.

Please join us for this eye opening movie and learn how you can help make a difference in pushing laws forward that allow US to have the right to choose what food we put in our body. That's right folks, it was recently established that we actually don't have that right in America.

You can sit back enjoy the movie and also enjoy some of the great food Bryant Lake Bowl has to offer (yep, you can order BLB's full menu in the movie area), all while learning about a very important topic.

Purchase Your Tickets

I'd recommend pre-purchasing your tickets, which you can do through our website Farmesota.
Ticket are only $5!

All the money earned from these movie showings is being donated to Food Freedom Project and Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Both are excellent organizations working to preserve our rights!

Review: Fresh, Nourishing Salads for All Seasons by Kimberly Harris

noreply@blogger.com (Artistta) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:12:00 +0000

I recently had an opportunity to check out Kimberly Harris' new cookbook Fresh - Nourishing Salads for All Seasons.

This cookbook was well thought out and obviously put together with care. With an excellent introduction that covers the ingredients the recipes use and other helpful suggestions and ideas in creating delicious salads in your home, you start out on the right foot. As you head into the cookbook, there are enticing photos to give you an idea of what your end results will be and to wet your appetite. I'm personally a huge photo fan in cookbooks. Except for a couple of essential cookbooks that cover a full spectrum of great recipes from very reputable people, for me a cookbook sells itself through it's pictures. A great picture will give me a far great desire to try a new dish, especially one with ingredients I'm not accustomed to using.

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