Snow Day 2009

Hard to believe, but we are getting another snow when it's darn near spring time. This happened last year too, but it was the 17th of March. Since it's only February 28th, it shouldn't be such a big deal, but man it's SNOW!!! We just get very little snow in our region. Just above us, there is Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Virginia, and they get snow alot more often. I guess we are just below the Mason Dixon line. I've taken a photo of the snow as it just gotten started, and the streets are just starting to get white. I love snow. The kids played outside for about 35 minutes. I kept hearing Ravi shout, and looked outside to see him on the fence, looking over our neighbors 9 foot fence. I told him to get down. He said he lost his glove OVER the fence! I decided to let him learn a lesson. A few minutes later a kid from over there called him and handed the glove to him. Lesson learned?? No. Friendship made? Maybe.

A few minutes later I heard Priya crying very very hard. I rushed to her and she had snow all over her face, all over her neck (and scarf, thank goodness she had it on), and all over her coat, completely stuck to her everywhere. Ravi had bombarded her with a ton of snowballs, but the worst was that he hit her in the face, squarely in the eyes. I brought her in, helped her change out her wet coat, gloves, hat, and all her clothes, and got her into some warm things. She was still crying, very upset. Apparently Ravi was throwing it at Lakshmi, and Priya turned around just in time to get smacked in the face with it. No matter what, I've told him over and over again to aim low!

The other photos are of their clothes in various places, layed out to dry. It will take all night for sure. Right now they are watching a video called Hanuman, which they got at Christmas time. All is well again.

Hope you are enjoying the snow, if it snowed at your house!

Jyotsna

Ravi's choir

Last night we were treated to a gorgeous evening while listening to Ravi's choir sing. I haven't heard music so beautifully performed in a very long time.

I only wish my photo could have captured the uniqueness and beauty.

Jyotsna

Depression Cooking with Clara

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4IjNV3lZkQ

I've found these cute videos of a 91/92 year old lady, who grew up during the depression. She has a series of videos where she demonstrates how food was made during the depression. She tells stories, and this is just so cool. She reminds me of my "Granny", who also lived during the depression. My parents were young children during the depression, so they didn't come out of it making food and having good stories to tell. IT was very hard for them.

Hope you enjoy these videos. I think I'm planning to try the fig cookies (butter instead of lard) when my fig tree has ripe fruit (in the fall). YUMMMMMM!

Jyotsna

March Food Storage Challenge

March Food Storage Challenge:

It's nearly March and I've got two new challenges for you!

1. Begin gathering seeds if you haven't already. Let us know what seeds you have, and which seeds you need. What are your gardening plans for this spring? Can you do spring gardening where you live? What's the planting date in your area for your very first spring plantings?

2. Second bulk storage purchase. Time to purchase your second bulk item for your storage. Do you eat rice? Do you have enough for the next 2 to 3 months? Or do you enjoy baking? If so, do you know where to buy wheat? Either way, scope out the place where you will buy your next bulk purchase. I'm focusing on wheat in March. Also cans of tomatoes, since we use SO MANY of them. Do you need spices? Where will you get them from? Can you choose one spice item that you use and purchase in bulk this month?

Okay, so you have some storage containers, you're planning your next bulk purchase, and you are well on your way to completing your next food storage challenge. If you see other things you need, and you have the extra money, why not go ahead and buy another bulk item? For those with limited income, you will want to just focus on ONE bulk item at a time.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Jyotsna

Environmental Playhouse (Fifth file, fifth photo)

On several blogs, bloggers are writing about a four photo which came from the fourth folder. I looked at the fours, and the didn't look so good, so I'm jumping ahead to the fifth!

This photo is from a homeschooling activity this month that the kids attended.
I wrote up a short review of the activity that I posted to the homeschooling group and will share it here:


Environmental Playhouse (Botanic Gardens)

Somehow I got this mixed up on my calendar, and we went today
(homeschool days). Lakshmi and Priya had a good time, and Ravi
refused to participate (we went for a walk to look at the art and
sculptures).

It was a very cute idea. She had paintings of different rooms in the
house set up, and tables. The kids started with "kitchen" and made
natural household cleaners. Several of the parents joked about the
fact that household cleaning is homeschooling too. He he!

Then they went to the "bathroom" where Julie showed them how to use
less water while flushing (a potty conversation errupted from that).
They took water bottles, decorated, and she gave them instructions on
how to put them in the tank to help displace some of the water that
is wasted with each flush. I thought about mentioning selective
flushing, but held my tongue. : )

Then they spent some time at another table making envelopes from templates
she had. The paper was from collected calendars (the
photos/pictures). She gave each child a slip of paper to put in the
envelope, and a sticker for the outside, which was addressed to the
Mail Preference Service. After the kids made their envelopes, they
could fill out the slip of paper and mail it in to stop junk mail.

Finally they moved on to the living room where a very pregnant Julie
happily fell to the floor to relax. She brought out some light
switch covers, and the kids decorated them. She gave them stickers
which read, "Conserve Energy", "Don't waste it away", "Turn out
lights", Be Bright" and "A bright idea" which the kids could pick and
choose from to put on their covers. The kids put the stickers on.

Last stop was on the "patio", where they decorated and planted seeds
(wild flowers). After that, she showed them some compost and talked
about that. All together, it was very cute idea. Ravi did jump in to
make the light switch cover and the plant.

Jyotsna

I owe my son an apology! There's a mouse in our house!

This story seems impossible. I know it sounds that way to me. Ravi has been coming to get me for the last several nights to tell me that our hamster (Robo) has been fighting with a mouse. LOL. Every night he comes to me around 12:30am or 1:00am and tells me the same story. He's over at his dad's house tonight, and I decided to check out the story, but I didn't get up in time. So finally just a few minutes ago, I opened the door to his room and peeked into the cage. There was our pet Robo, and his new friend the mouse. It was so shocking to see them sharing Robo's little house. I don't know if I should set a mouse trap, or start feeding him. I cracked up so hard! Basically I saw this mouse last week, and he ran through the living room. I looked for the "break" where the mouse came in, and realized that the dryer vent was open, and that is how the house mouse came in. I fixed it, and I guess the little guy couldn't get out. So low and behold, the little guy is shaking up in our hamster's cage! He's snuggled with the hamster. LOL.

I was hoping the battery charger would have finished charging my camera batteries already, so I could snap a photo (because I just know no one is going to believe me).

Okay, I just went back in there to take the photo, and the mouse was just leaving the cage. I couldn't believe it. You won't too, without a picture.

Jyotsna

Stocking Up

I'd love to sing the praises of Freecycle. I've heard people make negative statements about Freecycle and I'm sure that at times it is not a great way to find things are give things away. Surely there have been tons of people who have not shown up to collect their Freecycle goods, but just as many (in my opinion) have shown up. I emptied almost 1/2 of my house using Freecycle when I was planning a move. Often I've needed something, and it crossed my mind that I should check with friends, but being to shy to ask friends if they haven't something I need, in their attic or garage, but I did ask on Freecycle.

Because I've been stocking up on my food storage, I decided to check this winter to see if anyone happened to have canning jars. I plan a large garden this summer, and I definately want to be able to can much of the food I grow, that we don't eat through the summer.

Normally it takes several tries on Freecycle, but it only took one try to get what I needed. I was the lucky recipient of 126 canning jars, and a book about canning called Stocking Up. Although the jars were very dirty from being in the womans attic for 18 years, I realized as soon as I started pulling the jars out that I may have several very special jars.

One of the most impressive jars I have is a half gallon teal tinted jar which has Ball PERFECT MASON embossed on the jar. Several of the jars are Mom's Mason Jars.
Some of the jars just have Mason across the front, which look simple, but I think may be quite old. When I told my kids that I may have a few very special jars, they wanted to know how much they are worth, and if we could sell them. I don't want to sell these jars. I'm lucky to get 126 jars at the same time. I'll can food, and feed my kids this winter. I'm really starting to like the Mom's Mason Jars!

Jyotsna

Smoothie Crazy

We go smoothie crazy when we can. Usually in the summer we have blueberries, strawberries, peaches ect, but this winter I splurged to buy a large bag of blueberries. It's frozen blueberry, but still yummy. I had spinach, so I blended that first with water, then added 3 small over ripe bananas, some peices of pineapple and blueberries. I usually add ginger, lime and more, but tonight I just added honey. As soon as I get out the blender, the kids get out their cups.

Priya was waiting anxiously for our Shrek smoothie. It turns green first, from the spinach, and then it turns a beautiful purple from the blueberries.
There is nothing better than a nice smoothie after a long walk!

Jyotsna

Morale Storage

I was gently corrected about this subject.

When Food Storage people start thinking about and talking about food storage, images of wheat berries, brown rice and oatmeal permeate the mind's spaces. Recenly on a forum I frequent, several women discussed how to "cope" with the food storage depression.

There is no other way to cope than to store certain foods which will allow you to make something sweet and something chocolatey! : ) Yes, hard core food storage junky's store Morale Foods!

So, what's in your "Morale Storage"? What must you have in your food storage, your larder or your pantry if dooms day comes, or half of California or Tennessee falls into the cracks of the earth from an Earthquake?

I know that this little lady here will see food storage in a different light from now on. Thanks to the mama's at the forum who enlightened me. Good thing I didn't have to wait to know about that!

And thanks to all who have corrected my spelling! : )

Jyotsna

Bulk Food Purchase

Rice as the most important food in India.

Priya and I drove over to Whole Foods today to find out if we could buy a 25# bag of rice, instead of scooping the rice from bulk. They said yes, and they give 10% off for buying it that way. It's out in the van because I don't have my storage containers here yet. Whole foods was willing to part with several food safe buckets that they get products in. So tomarrow I go back and pick up the buckets, and then I will be able to get my 25lbs of rice, 15lbs of oatmeal, 10lbs of whole wheat flour and more into food storage conainers so they will be safe, and easy to move if I need to do that. Each bucket has a handle.

The challenge will be to see how I am going to store those buckets in my house.
And while I'm at it, I just became the brand new owner of 100 Ball canning jars (mentioned in my previous post) and I need to find a home for those as well. Every single jar is still packed in their own box which they originally came in. There are gallon, quart, pint, half pint and jelly jars in the lot. I think I won the jackpot.

When this summer comes, I hope I will be canning tomatoes out the wahzoo! : )

Jyotsna

Apple Cake

I made the most delicious apple cake today and the kids were raving about it. I'm looking at ways to use stored food, and still feel like we are having some treats.
This cake called for white flour, but I used whole wheat flour. It called for 2 cups sugar, and I reduced it to 1 1/2, and I used cane sugar. It called for 1 1/2 cups of apples chopped, but I also added about 2 tbsp of apple sauce. I put pecans in instead of walnuts. The cake was perfect. We had some apples that were starting to lose their crisp and crunch, so I chopped those up for this.

Apple Cake

INGREDIENTS
3 1/2 cups apples - peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup margarine, melted
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons hot water
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
In a medium bowl, mix the apples and sugar. Let stand about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 10x15 inch baking pans. (I used a bunt pan)
Stir the water into the bowl with apples. Blend eggs and margarine in a small bowl, and mix with the apples. Mix in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the raisins and walnuts. Transfer to the prepared pans. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool slightly before turning out of pans. In a medium bowl, blend confectioners' sugar, hot water, and vanilla extract. Drizzle over the cakes while still warm.

Freecycle for Food Storage (canning jars)

I hit the jackpot recently on Freecycle when I posted that I was looking for a few canning jars. I got an email from one member who said she had some jars, plus the canning books that her mother used to use to put up veggies and fruit from their garden. So in a few hours, Priya and I will head over to the womans house and pick up more than 100 (that's right, One Hundred) canning jars to bring home and find room for.

I never thought that I could store 100 jars of food, so it never occurred to me that I would be able to find 100 jars! Sharon Astyk would be proud of me. LOL!
Looks like I'll be growing a yard full of tomatoes this summer, for canning!

Children and Gardens

Garden planning is consuming a large part of my brain right now. With all the food storage going on, garden has taken main stage so I can learn how to can and store veggies from my own garden!

I can say that even during the early morning hours while I'm still barely asleep, I am thinking about the warm sun on my arms and neck while I lovingly care for my garden.

After reading Sharon Astyk's blog about involving children in the gardening, I've thought about ways to get my own children involved. The kids are very excited about planting seeds. Last year we sprouted seeds in the kitchen from March through the end of April. The kids LOVE this part of gardening, since there is nothing to do but check your seeds, water if they aren't inclosed in a sprouting system, and waiting for them to sprout and grow. It's amazing how a tiny seed can change so quickly, and that "magic" is what draws kids to plant life and gardening.

Sharon's view is that if you involve your children in the gardening, that they will take more personal responsibility for it, as well as incorporate the garden and growing their own food into their expectations in life. I have spent all the time raising the children by teaching them how to cook, write letters, take care of their rooms and our home by example, but never thought about involving them directly in gardening.

My plan this year with the garden is to grow food that we need the most. We eat a ton of can tomatoes in the winter. We make alot of soups, Indian foods and the kids love spaghetti. All of these things require tomatoes. So at least 25 to 30% of the garden is going to focus on various tomatoes. We also eat beans, so I'm hoping to be able to grow about 15% in beans and peas. The rest will be in salad greens, chilis, eggplant, potatoes and carrots. I may try my hand at onions, if possible.
I'll stuff various herbs here and there throughout the garden too.

So, besides that, I planned to grow some flowers, and really try to learn more about our two pecan trees so I can get the most out of them. I'm hoping to be able to trade pecans for canned foods as well, that is if the squirrels don't get to all of the pecans.

That leaves the children where? I've always wanted to grow a small "teepee" out of sunflowers and some vining flowers, that the girls could do some fantasy play in. Also, Sharon tried some other things like a "pizza" garden, which is shaped like a wheel, flowers are grown to represent what a pizza looks like (yellow flowers for cheese, red flowers for tomatoes ect). She also recommended that to get the children more interested it would be good to include a water feature. So, my thinking cap is on, and I am going to talk to the children about what they would like to see.

So, do you garden, and how do you involve your children?

Jyotsna

Yogurt Recipes

Above you see yogurt cheese. It's made by putting yogurt in a coffee filter (cheese cloth will do fine) and leaving to drip a few hours, till the liquid has escaped.
Once you have the yogurt cheese made, you can mix salt and herbs, or anything you feel like mixing, into the cheese. We had this plain today, just like creamed cheese. The kids loved it.

Why did I learn to make yogurt? You might ask! : ) During the food storage class I took, one of the things that was suggested was a way to store milk. Some people buy canned milk. There are many types, sweetened condensed milk, which is only good for making key lime pie, and a variety of other canned milks, for recipes, for having milk on the shelp which can stay longer than fresh cows milk. Dry milk is another option for storing milk. I store quite a bit of dry milk because my kids don't mind drinking it, particularly if it is used with something they love (think pudding or an Indian treat called payasam. We can make the same things with fresh fluid milk that we can make with reconstituted dry milk.

Yogurt is one of the things you can make from fresh fluid milk (which can store longer than fresh fluid milk). We can make yogurt from dry milk too. What can you make from yogurt?

Honey Mustard Yogurt Dressing

INGREDIENTS
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon celery seed

DIRECTIONS
Whisk together the yogurt, honey, mustard, and celery seed in a small bowl. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.


Raita

INGREDIENTS
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 chopped onion
1 medium tomato, chopped in small peices
1 meduim cucumber, skinned, chopped
handful of cilantro chopped well

Mix the ingredients above, and then sprinkle
on the yogurt:

pinch of red chili, pinch of ground cumin,
pinch of ground corriander.

Serve raita with rice, dal or anything that is spicy.
Yummy!

Jyotsna

Making Yogurt

In keeping with my challenge to learn how to do something new every day, I recently learned how to make yogurt. I made our yogurt very similar to this illustration. The first time I tried it, I put the culture in at the wrong time, thus ruining the yogurt. The next morning, I tried again, and I got beautiful results, because I waited until the milk cooled down, to add the culture. I deviated from the step where this guy uses the cooler, and instead I put the jars of yogurt in a large pan, and covered it. They turned out perfectly. If you want to try this, here is the best site (in my opinion) for making your own yogurt.

http://hubpages.com/hub/How_to_make_your_own_yogurt_-_An_illustrated_guide

Let me know about your results!
I've got to find some of those little containers with lids, that looks great.

Jyotsna

Independence Days Challenge

I told you I was going to issue another challenge and here it is. Some of you will have already participated in this challenge with Sharon back last year, but for those who are following me through Mothering and those who are following me directly from here, may be interested in joining in.

The words "Independence Day" conjure up deeply patriotic feelings no matter if you are born and raised in American, India, South Africa or Pakistan. To be independent is to be seperated from that which you were joined at one time. American seperated from England and we still celebrate with great passion in our country. But as American's, we have sadly become dependent on manufactured food, which is closely controlled by the FDA. With all the control that the FDA has on the food in our country, this government entity still can not keep our food supplies safe, as seen by the most recent peanut scare. We can choose to keep allowing a goverment to mandate our food supplies, or we can seperate ourselves from that system and start creating our own food. Manufactured food is not lovingly grown, watered, weeded or stored. Why don't we grow our own food and take the element of control and risk away from the government?

The Independence Days Challenge is not new, but it might be a new idea to you.

Take a moment to read through this blog post by Sharon Astyk, to see where you can begin to take your independence. http://sharonastyk.com/2008/04/29/independence-days-my-first-challenge/

One of the simplest things I can do on a daily basis is to learn to make something that I am already buying. I can learn to repair something that I would replace, grow something that I can harvest, and finally harvest something I can store.

Such simple choices can make valuable changes in our lives. So I challenge you to do something every day. If you plan to take the challenge, let me a message to let me know what you hope to do.

*** By the way, the recipe for the No Knead Bread featured in the photos from the previous post:

3 cups of whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp of yeast
1 1/4 tsp of salt
1 1/2 cups of warm water

You can watch the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU and I'll point out that they used white flour here. But you can use whole wheat, it just won't get the "crumb structure" that they are talking about. Still everything is the same. Read all the comments too, if you have a chance. What could be easier???

Jyotsna

February's Food Storage Challenge Update!

Happy winter to everyone. I've taken a bit of a break from my blogging as I get into the swing of winter, homeschooling, living and loving, and I'm back to talk about food storage again! It's been a month since I issued the food storage challenge and things are going well on my end.

I have to admit that when I first got started on the food storage challenge, that I got a little sick and scared. I didn't have a clear plan on how I was going to store food at my house. At the grocery store, I wanted to buy a little of everything, and half way through the store, I had two baskets, one with a crying child in it, and the other stocked full of crap I didn't need. I was nearly in tears as I tried to start my food storage, and all I could think was, "What was I going to post on my blog, when I come home with crap"! LOL. So, I took my crying child out of the extra basket, took everything I didn't need for dinner that night, and tossed it into the extra basket. Then, I focused in on ONE thing I could buy that would go towards my food storage. After looking around, I noticed the sugar that I buy was on sale, and I bought a large quanity of it. I decided that it wasn't the best start for my food storage, so I grabbed 12 large cans of my favorite tomatoes, and then called it quit.

At home I pulled everything out of my pantry, got rid of anything that wasn't edible, then started keeping my food storage foods in a different spot than what I had at home at the present time. Things are more organized, and I have quite the start (after going back to choosing some other food storage items another day).

At home, I realized that the reason I was upset was because I was trying to do this all at once. I am not going to be able to do it all at once, and neither will you.
My plan for storing food is more solid now, and once a month I will be buying a large bulk quanity of food. February will be the month of RICE. I'm planning to purchase a #50 bag of brown basmati rice. I haven't worked out the details for how I am going to store it, but I'll have a storage container ready before I pick up the rice.

I'm also looking for a food coop which I can buy large quanities of foods, specifically organic foods, and that will be part of my journey toward having healthy
items on hand in my pantry that I will enjoy eating. After taking the month long Food Storage Class with Sharon Astyk, I feel like I now have the building blocks to make all of this possible. I am so excited about the future now!

I'd love to hear from YOU about your update, how things are really going with food storage. I hope no one sugar coats anything. We can stand to learn alot from each other by telling it like it is!

Jyotsna

PS...the photos of the bread dough and final product are from the newest recipe I have been using called "No Knead Whole Wheat Bread". I'm working on a new skill every day, and if not every day, at least every week. More on this in the next post entitled, Independence Days Challenge.