At the Preparedness fair I attended the gardening classes when I was not sitting at the desk and helping people find their classes. One of the suggested resources was the Back to Eden gardening method. I am really souped up about this!
A second really succinct video, also short, on how to start a Back to Eden garden is here.
The 80-year-old man who was teaching the gardening classes at the Fair promised to find a place where we could get the ground up wood chips that could be screened, which is the easiest way to make a garden. However, in this video, I got the impression that contractor's paper, organic matter you have on hand, compost which you might have to buy, and wood chips put down in the fall could be ready for a first garden in the spring. I want to do this.
You will notice that I said "I want to do this". It is just marginally possible that I am alone in this desire. As it happens, I have tried very many gardening schemes over the years which had varying degrees of success. You know that story about the boy who cried wolf? Well, this girl who tried gardening in unusual tricky ways does not have a lot of credence to her ideas anymore. Sad.
Having said that, I have sent an email to the real estate office to find out how to get in touch with the Homeowners' Association committee in charge of how our property looks to see if we can even have a garden. There is some thought that we cannot. We certainly cannot have chickens in the back yard, of all silly things.
If the HOA committee says ok, go for it, then I am inclined to lobby a little harder for this to happen. Dear One did say he was willing to bring in a load of dirt for a garden. The reason this all comes up is that the soil here is some awful orange stuff that I have no idea where it came from. It was trucked in and dumped. At least it was at the neighbors' houses which we saw happen.
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Monday, September 9, 2019
Munchie Monday: (No Sugar Added) Banana Bread Cookies
Since Dear One has a sweet tooth, I am always on the lookout for sweet treats for him that won't kill him. This one is not too bad.
There is a YouTube channel by Garbanzo Girl. She has quite a lot of pretty good information and recipes. At least to me. This is one of them.
Banana Bread Cookies (16 cookies) . (This is where you can watch her make these cookies. Her recipe is here with my changes inserted.)
2 ripe bananas ½ cup peanut butter 2 tbsp maple syrup 2 cups quick oats 1 tbsp chia seeds--since I left my chia seeds in Oregon, I used ground flaxseed meal here. 1 tsp cinnamon ½ tsp salt dash nutmeg--since I did not have any nutmeg I put in 1/4 teaspoon or so of ground allspice. ¼ cup vegan chocolate chips--since I really like chocolate chips, I put in a little more than 1/2 cup of mini dark chocolate chips DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat over to 350 Farenheit. 2. Peel and mash your bananas in a large bowl. 3. Add peanut butter and maple syrup. Mix well. 4. Add dry ingredient directly to wet ingredients: oats, chia seeds, spices. Mix well. 5. Fold in chocolate chips. 6. Form dough into 2 tbsp balls. Flatten each ball with your hand. 7. Bake for 15 minutes. Wait 15 minutes for cookies to cool.
There is a YouTube channel by Garbanzo Girl. She has quite a lot of pretty good information and recipes. At least to me. This is one of them.
Banana Bread Cookies (16 cookies) . (This is where you can watch her make these cookies. Her recipe is here with my changes inserted.)
2 ripe bananas ½ cup peanut butter 2 tbsp maple syrup 2 cups quick oats 1 tbsp chia seeds--since I left my chia seeds in Oregon, I used ground flaxseed meal here. 1 tsp cinnamon ½ tsp salt dash nutmeg--since I did not have any nutmeg I put in 1/4 teaspoon or so of ground allspice. ¼ cup vegan chocolate chips--since I really like chocolate chips, I put in a little more than 1/2 cup of mini dark chocolate chips DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat over to 350 Farenheit. 2. Peel and mash your bananas in a large bowl. 3. Add peanut butter and maple syrup. Mix well. 4. Add dry ingredient directly to wet ingredients: oats, chia seeds, spices. Mix well. 5. Fold in chocolate chips. 6. Form dough into 2 tbsp balls. Flatten each ball with your hand. 7. Bake for 15 minutes. Wait 15 minutes for cookies to cool.
These cookies came out nice and soft and certainly sweet enough for Dear One to eat several of them. We made them for the Emergency Preparedness Fair that was at the church over the weekend but SO MANY kind people brought cookies and bars and doughnuts that they were still giving them out after church on Sunday...SO I brought the cookies home to eat here. The neighbor's lawn people came by to mow today. It crossed my mind to put a big container of cookies on their front seat to get them out of our house, but they were faster than I was and drove off before I could do that. Oh well.
This is what ours looked like. If the Garbanzo Girl told us why she named them Banana Bread Cookies, I missed it.
Friday, September 6, 2019
Food Friday: Quick and Easy Black Bean and Corn Salad
Quick and Easy Black Bean and Corn Salad
Drain 3 15 ounce cans black beans and rinse them.
Drain 2 15 ounce cans of whole kernel sweet corn.
Place in a large bowl.
Chop half a red onion into fine dice and add to bowl.
Dice one orange bell pepper and add to bowl.
Chop one head of broccoli and add to bowl.
Pour on about one-half bottle of Vidalia Onion Dressing.
Gently toss then refrigerate for a couple of hours.
If you are smart, which I was not, you will dice several celery stalks and a small jalapeño and add in. You might also want to add some chopped cilantro.
Serve in a pretty bowl with sweet cherry tomatoes as garnish.
It was actually edible as I made it, but would have been better with the mentioned amendments.
Drain 3 15 ounce cans black beans and rinse them.
Drain 2 15 ounce cans of whole kernel sweet corn.
Place in a large bowl.
Chop half a red onion into fine dice and add to bowl.
Dice one orange bell pepper and add to bowl.
Chop one head of broccoli and add to bowl.
Pour on about one-half bottle of Vidalia Onion Dressing.
Gently toss then refrigerate for a couple of hours.
If you are smart, which I was not, you will dice several celery stalks and a small jalapeño and add in. You might also want to add some chopped cilantro.
Serve in a pretty bowl with sweet cherry tomatoes as garnish.
It was actually edible as I made it, but would have been better with the mentioned amendments.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Easy Homemade Bloody Mary Mix, No Alcohol Needed!
Whenever I have the opportunity to fly somewhere and the cabin attendant offers a beverage, I always choose Mr. and Mrs. T's Bloody Mary Mix. It is slightly healthy, is savory, and over ice really hits the spot, especially if I have a savory snack also, which lately I have not.
Last week I went to the local farmers' market. I was looking for a big armful of collard greens but was instructed that it is way too early for them. In fact, it is just this week when they will be planted. To be good they have to have a solid frost and then comes the harvest. Well, I was so grateful to learn that little tidbit that I bought two baskets of tomatoes from Milton who had enlightened me. One basket was sweet cherry tomatoes. The other basket had four large "pineapple" tomatoes. At that stand you dump the basket into your bag and take them home that way. Interesting.
Now we had lots of tomatoes. Dear One does not enjoy raw tomatoes. I have a raw tomato allergy. But only if I eat too many. Well, we had too many...so my skin is going to be screaming at me soon.
Anyway, my favorite people had a recipe to use up a solid pound of tomatoes which I tried. It is pretty good.
Ingredients you need:
Tomatoes
Olive juice
Worcestershire sauce
Tomato paste
Lemon with peel
Lime without peel
Horseradish
Thai peppers (I did not have that so I added 1/2 teaspoon black pepper)
Celery salt
Last week I went to the local farmers' market. I was looking for a big armful of collard greens but was instructed that it is way too early for them. In fact, it is just this week when they will be planted. To be good they have to have a solid frost and then comes the harvest. Well, I was so grateful to learn that little tidbit that I bought two baskets of tomatoes from Milton who had enlightened me. One basket was sweet cherry tomatoes. The other basket had four large "pineapple" tomatoes. At that stand you dump the basket into your bag and take them home that way. Interesting.
Now we had lots of tomatoes. Dear One does not enjoy raw tomatoes. I have a raw tomato allergy. But only if I eat too many. Well, we had too many...so my skin is going to be screaming at me soon.
Anyway, my favorite people had a recipe to use up a solid pound of tomatoes which I tried. It is pretty good.
Ingredients you need:
Tomatoes
Olive juice
Worcestershire sauce
Tomato paste
Lemon with peel
Lime without peel
Horseradish
Thai peppers (I did not have that so I added 1/2 teaspoon black pepper)
Celery salt
- As you can see, I stored the bloody mary mix in my memorial glass milk bottle from the Strafford Creamery which is the next town over from our former home.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Easy Oatmeal Pancakes in the Blender
Easy Oatmeal Pancakes in a Blender
#LifeIsNOYOKE has a pretty good oatmeal pancake recipe. This is just one of many good recipes Lenny and Shalva have on their channel.
Put all ingredients in a blender jar and blend them up.
1 1/2 cups oatmeal (I used old-fashioned)
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 cup aquafaba (this is the liquid you get when you drain a can of chick peas. It has lots of interesting uses so don't throw it away. Just put it in a glass jar in the refrigerator.)
1 pitted date
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat. I used our cast iron skillet. When the pan is hot, give it a quick spray of vegetable oil. Did I say to make sure the pan is HOT? You just do not have a good result with pancakes unless the pan in hot when you put in the batter. At least, that is my experience.
When hot, and lightly misted with oil, put pancake batter on the pan in 1/4 cup blobs. Spread it out a bit with a spoon and let it cook until there are little bubbles and the bottom seems to be browning.
Flip over and let cook another minute or two. The next flip is onto your plate.
Serve with your favorite topping. We used maple syrup one day but raspberry syrup the first time because we did not at that point have maple syrup. Pancakes are really better with actual from-maple-trees maple syrup.
We will make these again. Especially until we get some more sourdough made.
We had an accident with a glass that shattered on the counter and (apparently!) some of the dust got into the lightly covered sourdough container. When I made another batch of this time REALLY GOOD sourdough bread/rolls (I let them rise 7 1/2 hours), we each found a little bit of grit in them. That made me think it was glass shards so we dumped the sourdough and the remaining rolls just in case. The thought of chewing glass rather turned my stomach. If such a thing is possible.
Probably we will start more sourdough in a day or two. The rolls seemed to have a good effect on blood sugar. Maybe there really is something to the suggestion that sprouted wheat flour bread is better for us. And not that hard to do.
#LifeIsNOYOKE has a pretty good oatmeal pancake recipe. This is just one of many good recipes Lenny and Shalva have on their channel.
Put all ingredients in a blender jar and blend them up.
1 1/2 cups oatmeal (I used old-fashioned)
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 cup aquafaba (this is the liquid you get when you drain a can of chick peas. It has lots of interesting uses so don't throw it away. Just put it in a glass jar in the refrigerator.)
1 pitted date
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat. I used our cast iron skillet. When the pan is hot, give it a quick spray of vegetable oil. Did I say to make sure the pan is HOT? You just do not have a good result with pancakes unless the pan in hot when you put in the batter. At least, that is my experience.
When hot, and lightly misted with oil, put pancake batter on the pan in 1/4 cup blobs. Spread it out a bit with a spoon and let it cook until there are little bubbles and the bottom seems to be browning.
Flip over and let cook another minute or two. The next flip is onto your plate.
Serve with your favorite topping. We used maple syrup one day but raspberry syrup the first time because we did not at that point have maple syrup. Pancakes are really better with actual from-maple-trees maple syrup.
We had an accident with a glass that shattered on the counter and (apparently!) some of the dust got into the lightly covered sourdough container. When I made another batch of this time REALLY GOOD sourdough bread/rolls (I let them rise 7 1/2 hours), we each found a little bit of grit in them. That made me think it was glass shards so we dumped the sourdough and the remaining rolls just in case. The thought of chewing glass rather turned my stomach. If such a thing is possible.
Probably we will start more sourdough in a day or two. The rolls seemed to have a good effect on blood sugar. Maybe there really is something to the suggestion that sprouted wheat flour bread is better for us. And not that hard to do.
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Tuesday Triumph!
Our new house has two and a half bathrooms. Nice. Very useful. Often used.
The bathroom in the master/owner's suite has two walk-in closets, a double sink, a giant deep bathtub...maybe called a garden tub (a perfect place to put in a fish tank or some sort of plant-y thing if I was that kind of person unless we install several grab bars or a crane for getting in and out of said tub)...and a small shower with sliding glass doors. You would not think there was anything to complain about BUT...I am claustrophobic and my balance is sometimes a bit unsteady. PLUS did I say the shower was a small shower?! It seems to be a foot narrower than the beautiful step in shower in the master suite in our old home. Every time I entered that shower and slid the door shut behind me I cringed. Seriously. Did not make showering a fun experience.
Anyway, as you might expect, I was not perfectly comfortable with the owner's shower so I started using the guest shower. The tub there has rather high sides. Dear One kindly installed the flexible shower sprayer that we had purchased in Oregon and used there. Early on he re-installed that sprayer in the guest shower. That was wonderful.
Of course, with the aforementioned unsteadiness, I was a bit concerned about getting in and out of even that tub/shower. SO that dear man installed a wonderful grab bar for me!
He also replaced the nice shower rod my sister had given us with a permanent curved rod. All in all, I like the guest bathroom now. It is quite small and the tub/shower enclosure was installed in such a way that a horizontal grab bar is not reasonable, but may I say I really love the "enter and exit" grab bar. It makes me smile every single day when I use it.
The bathroom in the master/owner's suite has two walk-in closets, a double sink, a giant deep bathtub...maybe called a garden tub (a perfect place to put in a fish tank or some sort of plant-y thing if I was that kind of person unless we install several grab bars or a crane for getting in and out of said tub)...and a small shower with sliding glass doors. You would not think there was anything to complain about BUT...I am claustrophobic and my balance is sometimes a bit unsteady. PLUS did I say the shower was a small shower?! It seems to be a foot narrower than the beautiful step in shower in the master suite in our old home. Every time I entered that shower and slid the door shut behind me I cringed. Seriously. Did not make showering a fun experience.
Anyway, as you might expect, I was not perfectly comfortable with the owner's shower so I started using the guest shower. The tub there has rather high sides. Dear One kindly installed the flexible shower sprayer that we had purchased in Oregon and used there. Early on he re-installed that sprayer in the guest shower. That was wonderful.
Of course, with the aforementioned unsteadiness, I was a bit concerned about getting in and out of even that tub/shower. SO that dear man installed a wonderful grab bar for me!
He also replaced the nice shower rod my sister had given us with a permanent curved rod. All in all, I like the guest bathroom now. It is quite small and the tub/shower enclosure was installed in such a way that a horizontal grab bar is not reasonable, but may I say I really love the "enter and exit" grab bar. It makes me smile every single day when I use it.
Monday, September 2, 2019
Munchie Monday: No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
We have an Emergency Preparedness Fair coming up next week. In Relief Society we were asked to donate cookies. Since I am lazy I wanted to make bar cookies. I asked if we could. No problem!
Tonight we had a potluck to get some of the final things together for the Fair. I made these bars as a trial run. They were well-received.
Sarah Kozowski at Sugar Apron created these bars. She has other recipes!
Tonight we had a potluck to get some of the final things together for the Fair. I made these bars as a trial run. They were well-received.
Sarah Kozowski at Sugar Apron created these bars. She has other recipes!
No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Bars
1 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
Line an 8 or 9 inch square baking pan with parchment paper and set aside. Use a 9 by 13 pan if you want thinner bars.
Melt butter and brown sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved stir in the vanilla and the oatmeal. Cook over low heat 3-4 minutes or until the ingredients are well blended.
Pour half of the oat mixture into the prepared baking pan. Spread the mixture evenly and press down.
Melt the chocolate chips and the peanut butter in a small microwave-safe bowl for about 1 minute, or 1 1/2 minutes until you can stir them to a lovely smoothness.
Pour the chocolate mixture over the pan, reserving about 1/4 cup to drizzle over the top.
Sprinkle on the remaining half to the oatmeal mixture and tamp down with the back of a spoon. Drizzle the remainder of the chocolate over the top.
Refrigerate 2-3 hours or overnight.
Bring to room temperature before cutting into bars.
This is Sarah's recipe, more or less the way she recorded it.
What I did differently: I used a quarter sheet pan (more or less 9 by 13) with a Silpat liner. After the bars had chilled for 5-6 hours, I put them on the cutting board and with the stainless dough scraper I went around the edges of the pan. I was able to then pull them out of the pan and put them naked on the nice Boos cutting board where, after they had set out for about ten minutes, I cut them into squares...about 24 pieces. I used dark chocolate mini-chocolate chips that were just dying to be used up. They were left over from the hot chocolate bar at the Christmas Zone Conference last year, so you know they wanted to be used up!
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