Making soda pop

I still have no pictures because the camera I use is actually Auriana's. She went to my Gran's to help take care of her after her surgery and where Auri goes, the camera follows.:o)

I got this recipe from Ms. M on the Waldorf Home Educators yahoo group. It sounded yummy and I thought I'd try it out.

It's pretty easy.

 a bit of chopped up ginger root simmered for 30 minutes in a bit of water. 

3 tbls of lime and lemon juice.

1/3 cup agave nector or organic sugar

1/4 tsp of yeast.

let it sit for a day or two and then open, if it bubbles...Great! you succeeded if it doesn't, well...it's still good for ice tea.

Let me tell you something. 

I succeeded.

I succeeded in the way that I usually succeed. 

I blew up the kitchen.

Mentos and coke ain't got nuthin' on me.

The magnificent geyser hit the cieling, much to the amazement of the littles that I had called over to "help me see if we can see any bubbles. watch close."

Yeah....heh....watch close indeed.

It was pretty tasty though, Kissy licked some from the cabinet and gave it the "Yum!" of approval.

So we'll try again. And again, and again....if we need too.

I only wish the big kids had been here. It was pretty cool. And it's an experiment that won't occur in my kitchen again. 

We will be opening all future bottles outside.

With safety googles.

And umbrellas.

Rainboots? Maybe.

Happy Friday!

 

Nourishing Traditions and Garden bits

I Finally bought it!

I've looked at this book online at least a hundred times over the last couple of years. Read all the reviews. Read blogs that referenced it. Wanted it, but hated to lay $25 bucks out on a cookbook that I might find useless. 

Then I got lucky and it just "happened" to be at one of the health food stores I visited this weekend. I skimmed through it.....and promptly bought it.:o) I spent parts of my headache ridden day reading/skimming through it and I'm thrilled with my purchase. (I will admit however, that as I haven't yet tried any of the recipes I have no clue if I will find any of them edible......lol....but they all sound like they will be good...or like something I already cook but with a slight twist.) 

They have a whole section on wild game, and a section on organ meats. I will admit that the brains idea is a little scary, but the idea of "hiding" small amounts in other things is an interesting thing. 

Will I ever manage to actually eat brains? Probably not...but hey, if I decide to then I'll know how to do it. And that's pretty cool in my book.:o)

I believe in using every portion of a harvested animal and I'm excited that this book will help me out with that in the future. 

I'm very interested to see what the effect of cooking with these methods will do for our health and behaviour. Tyler has always struggled with everything from weight to anger. I know that I feel completely different when I eat crap than I do when I eat well. 

Yay! (Okay, I'll get off my "got a new book" happy wagon now...lol)

That was happy, this is the current BANE!

They are EVERYWHERE!!! Driving me crazy! Sharpies! Owies! Mean! Rotten! STICKERS!

I picked 3 bags full out of the garden the other day before I laid down 8 inches of straw mulch in a desperate hope that I won't have to pick them any more....lol. Now they're on the edges of the garden. I know, I know...give it a couple of years of picking and they will go away. But for now. Icky Icky Owie Ow.:o)

This is pretty.

I think they're called puff flowers, I'm going to look them up later. They are such a weird flower, but so pretty. I'm going to try and transplant them into my garden edge so I don't have to mow them down.

Look at THIS!!!

I know that I should have expected it. Perhaps I shouldn't be as in awe as I am. I mean, I suppose that one should expect a watermelon plant to produce a watermelon...but I don't think I did. The watermelon plant however, knew what it was doing.....and we have sweet little watermelons that seem to be doubling in size every day. 

How cool is that?!!! 

Happy Summer!!

Food, Craft, Blessings

Cookbooks

I've had these cookbooks for years now. I remember feeling diappointed when I got them in because I had expected so much more. I'm still not sure what the "more" was, but I expected it. 

After finally seeing the effect that sugar has on my children I started looking for alternatives. I turned to these books to reboot my memory and see what I could find that would replace the sweets we all love with something more nourishing.

I've fallen in love with the snack book. :o) If I used no recipe other than "Honey Cake #2" from the festivals chapter I would consider my money well spent. (I'm sure there are other cookbooks out there that have lots of yummy and healthy things..I just don't have any of them.) It is soooooo delicious! That one recipe has inspired me to really work with and experiment with alternative sweeteners. I'm finding it delightful. The little ones made a banana bread with maple syrup that smells so good I can hardly stand to wait until this evening when we come together as a family to test it out.

Oh, and Honey Bread.....yum!! We made fresh honey butter to go with it and it was awesome! All of the children enjoy taking a turn to make the butter, but it seems to really connect with the little ones even more. It's magic for them.

My copy of the artwork from the cover of the Kindergarten Snack Book

As I mentioned the other day I have been using the drawings I love to try to learn how to draw in those styles.  These books are FULL of the cutest, sweetest, simplest little drawings. I'm having so much fun. I also like that I've seen Auri take our examples and create new pictures with them. Maybe my theory is working.

Eye of God inspired by waldorf mama

Waldorfmama had these on her blog the other day and I snagged a couple of twigs to see if I remembered how to do it. I did.:o) I'm going to take some orange and red and extra sticks and see if I can make a neat sun ornament for our Midsummer Festival using this technique. Unless I use them up making the twig boats from Rhythm of the Home .

Gift and Inspiration

We were blessed by this view last night after the rain. This picture will be the next thing we try to "copy". I'm hoping that we'll be able to figure it out.:o)

 

Kiska makes Butter for Honey Cake

First you take heavy whipping cream.
Then you shake it.

And Shake it and Shake it and SHAKE it.

The Marbles help.

Then you Love it.

And in a few minutes you have butter AND buttermilk!

It's just THAT easy.