SUNDAY SMILE

As the mother of a boy - this would have been useful so many times in the last 20 years.

I like to wake up and have a cup of coffee before thinking about anything else. I especially do not like to think about what to have for breakfast.

I really, really, really do not like to make decisions that early in my day.

When we were teaming, Tony was so well organized that before going to sleep he put a packet of instant oatmeal in a container, added the appropriate amount of water and was able to eat it right after waking to start his shift. We had eaten cold/soaked oats before and after I found the Kashi brand (they had the simplest ingredients), I decided to try incorporating into my wake-up routine. They work great for me - do it the night before and it is ready in the morning.

We were using the Kashi packets while on the truck, but once I got off the road, I decided it was time to do them myself.

The 1/2 cup amount of most instant oatmeal packets seemed about right, so I decided to go with that.

I found this great 5 Grain Rolled Grain Mix and love it, making that half of the packet.

Organic regular rolled oats are the other half, but I buzz them through the food processor a bit to help the packets not feel like we are cows chewing field grains.

The finer grain on the oats gives the cereal mix a feeling of creaminess without the slime factor of oatmeal.

The sweetness and flavoring that I decided on for the first run was Brown Sugar and Cinnamon. Equal parts organic evaporated cane juice and organic brown sugar with enough cinnamon to punch up the aromatic factor.

Packaging in snack size bags keeps things simple and easy to store a bunch of these in a gallon size storage bag.

1/4 cup 5 Grain Mix

1/4 cup rolled oats

2 T Brown sugar cinnamon mix

pinch kosher salt

1/2 cup water

Tony and I both really like the chewiness of cold soaked oats, but I realize that not everyone does. The 1/2 cup of water can either be cold for an overnight soak, or hot for a quick 10 minute morning soak.

Now I have one less decision to make each morning.

Terlingua Surprise

I had a pleasant surprise when I made my trip to Terlingua earlier this month.

My son, Micah and his darling girlfriend, Breanna, were still on their Christmas break.

We didn't have much time together, but at his age, I am happy with any time that I can get.

He is in the 2nd half of his junior year at The University of Texas and is making his Mom really proud.

'Nuff said . . .

First Canning Run is Full of Beans

My goal this week has been to plunge into getting some food put up. By "put up", I mean using ways to preserve food that don't rely on a freezer. This choice is for several reasons . . .

We don't have a big freezer (just what's part of the fridge)

Power outages are common in this part of the country - often lasting for days and weeks

We are trying to learn to use less of everything - preserving in the freezer is just an ongoing energy drain

and

I am curious to explore older ways of preserving food - after all, freezers haven't been around that long!

Canning - both water bath and pressure - is the next most energy hogging way to preserve food, but at least it is just the canning and not the storing that is using the energy. Plus, it is really damn cold outside and the pressure canner on the stove is creating lots of nice warmth in the kitchen.

So, I did a lot of research - both online and in books - and decided to conquer my fear of my new pressure canner.

The pressure canner is one of the items that I opted to buy new due to the fact that if it malfunctioned, it could kill me dead.

BOOM

Although this piece of equipment was new, I did 2 full test runs with only water in it. Somehow, the thought of flying glass and food added an extra element of danger that I couldn't face.

Even then, I have to tell you that the first time this bad boy got up to 15+ lbs. of pressure, I ran into the bedroom and peeked at it from around the corner! I have never done this kind of pressure cooking, never seen it done, never even watched a video about it - wasn't sure what it would sound like. Once I got the canner settled down to the needed 10 lbs. of pressure and had the correct rocker weight installed, the noise wasn't at all bad.

I wanted something easy for my first attempt and found a great no-thinking way to put up pinto beans. Becca at The Beginning Farmer's Wife uses this method.

Basically, I measured dried pintos into dry pint jars and added filtered water to soak them overnight.

This morning, I dumped that water, filled the jars with more filtered hot water and put a scalded lid and ring on them.

One of the most useful tools involved in this process is a simple magnet attached to a stick that is used to fish hot lids out of scalding water.

The canner holds 16 wide mouth pint jars in a double stack.

75 minutes at 10 lbs. of pressure later and I had these beauties . . .

That's a bunch of beans - about 5 lbs. dried. According to Becca, each of these jars will yield about 2 regular cans worth of beans. Mostly because these are basically all beans, instead of half a can of beans floating in that icky, slimy bean juice stuff.

I am really looking forward to cleaning these jars with vinegar (makes them sparkle) and putting them in the pantry.

That will feel really good.

Brrrrrrr

The forecast is for colder temps as we get later in the week.

The desire for four seasons is one of the reasons we chose to land in Joplin.

Leo loves the snow . . .

I'm not sure that Tony is quite as enthusiastic . . .

Sorry about the weirdness, I took this through the window and screen.

This was the snow scene just before Tony left at the beginning of the month.

I'm not sure, but I have the feeling that he is heading in this direction fairly soon (no real reason . . . just my wifey senses tingling) and I hope he doesn't come home to more of the same.

We did want those four distinct seasons . . .

Kitchen Pictures

Before I post - I want to say "Thank You" to everyone who followed me through the blog changing process. Wonderful comments and e-mails make it feel like I don't just send this out to the winds.

Blogging is a strange process - one writes for the joy and process of writing, but knowing that there are readers adds another dimension.

On to today's post.

The kitchen in our darling little cottage is weird as can be. Since the house was built in 1895, it is entirely possible that the bathroom was not originally inside the house. In order to bring it indoors, the kitchen was likely moved from the outside wall into a newly created interior wall.

Hence, I have a sink that does not look out a window.

Worse, it looks smack into a cabinet.

Even worse, the cabinet is waaaayyyy to low.

And, the fridge was just plopped beside the stove (which seemed to be randomly positioned as well). The light switch was actually BEHIND the refrigerator.

And what is going on with a naked water heater in the kitchen?

Oh yeah . . . this is all 100 years newer than the original layout of the kitchen.

So, since I love moving stuff around, I decided to immediately move the refrigerator over in front of the extra door going into the bathroom.

AND cover up that damn water heater.

There was a large space in the center of the room that just cried out for an island of some sort. Thanks to Sam's, we put in a stainless steel work table and backed it with a great handmade oak library table/kitchen table from the flea market.

Two almost matching chairs (love the curvy thing going on) from the Salvation Army finish the picture.

In the photo above, you can just see the corner of my rolling cart (also from Sam's) - I love those things. I actually have 4 of them spread around the house.

If you are really observant, you will also notice that I had the upper cabinets raised 4 inches - MUCH better. I will still be replacing them as soon as possible with a more open arrangement so that my nose isn't in a cabinet when I wash dishes.

There is not a level spot in the entire kitchen . . .

I guess that is why I love it so.

Getting Rid of Plastic

One of the goals that I am working towards is

Eliminating as much plastic from our lives as possible.

Part of "Finding the Balance Between Old and New" will be exploring how to get back to using glass and stainless steel to store and cook foods. We have all come to accept that reheating and cooking in plastic in microwaves is not good for us. Storing food in plastic can't be too good for us either.

In my effort, I have been scouring thrift stores and flea markets for glass.

Here is what I have found so far:

I had forgotten how satisfying it is to handle, wash and stack glass.

I am enjoying the hunt for the old style cornflower Corningware.

Since I am so cheap, I won't pay more than 50 cents or so for the small square ones and not much over $1 for anything else.

It feels good to walk by that shelf .

SUNDAY SMILE

I don't have the time to cruise the internet that I had when I was trucking.

These days . . .

I spin in circles

rearrange piles of crap from one room to another

spend lots of time reading about canning and preserving

drive to the grocery to get ingredients to cook ANYTHING (will hopefully get to stop this soon)

walk Leo.

Every once in awhile, I get to sport cruise on the interwebs.

I found this yesterday

How could you not smile?

Wouldn't you love to have that in your house?

I would.

A Start with Crackers

I have been avoiding setting up this blog because I didn't want to do the first post.

I am not sure that I have it in me to keep up with another blog . . .

and if I never did the first post . . .

I wouldn't have to keep up.

Can you follow that goofy logic?

But, I have finally spun in circles enough times that I'm ready to jump in and start.

My aim with this blog is to "Find a balance between OLD and NEW".

Old and New What?

Lifestyles

Methods of Cooking

Ways of preserving foods

Gardening

Communicating

So, to start off the first post, I made crackers today.

Yep - crackers.

A very basic thing, but one that is terribly over processed these days. I am all about cutting out the "over processing" in our life and most certainly in our Food Chain.

I watched an Alton Brown - Good Eats segment on crackers and decided to combine his method with my favorite Hippie Cooks - Laurel's Kitchen.

As is typical of any endeavor these days, I had to start by collecting (buying) utensils and ingredients. Setting up a new house is much harder when you start with empty rooms and NO kitchen stuff.

The very first, most basic step was to provide Whole Wheat Flour.

Let me introduce you to one of the new loves of my life . . .

(I'll wear thrift store clothes forever if I can buy good tools to do my job)

This beauty is German and absolutely purrs as it grinds wheat to produce spectacularly light flour for me. Mmmmmmm . . . I feel a long and productive relationship here.

I used Organic Soft White Winter Wheat for this recipe. Don't know why I chose it over the Hard Red Winter, just seemed the right choice.

My first attempt was with the Laurel's Kitchen recipe and Alton's method. I like the way these came out, except the sesame seeds sprinkled on top had a tendency to fall off. Alton's recipe was more complicated, but incorporated the seeds into the dough. You can find Alton's recipe for Seedy Crisps :here:

I found these to be a tiny bit bland, so I sprinkled garlic salt on them as they went into the oven.

Here is a shot of using the pasta machine to roll out the dough.

Let me tell you, it is not easy to handle dough, turn the crank on the machine AND take a photo.

I finally ended up rolling the dough out VERY thin (#3) on my machine. I could almost see through the dough at that thickness, but the crackers were divinely crispy and thin.

Into the 450 degree oven for 4 minutes on one side and 2 1/2 on the other and

VOILA . . . .

Yummy Homemade Crackers.

No preservatives, no high fructose corn syrup, no bleached white flour. . .

just good stuff that made good crackers.

Paired that with Sherried Tomato Soup (recipe here) from Ree, a.k.a. Pioneer Woman and a glass of wine and I had some kind of fabulous dinner.

That is what we are heading toward.

Sometime soon . . .

the wheat will be from an organic local source (we are almost in Kansas after all)

the tomatoes will have been grown in my garden

and the wine will be from a local winery (there are lots in Missouri and Arkansas).

Stay tuned for more adventures.

Oh, yeah - please leave a comment so I can know that you made the move.