September Food Preservation Notes

Preserving:

• Tomato products: salsa, ketchup, paste, puree
• Other canned goals: tomatillo salsa, watermelon rind pickles, apple sauce
• Drying: greens, celery, zucchini, apple slices, apple leather
• Fermenting: pickles (done for the season), sauerkraut 

Tools:

• Food processor (!!!)
• Food mill 
• Chef's knife, bread knife (so perfect for tomatoes), paring knife
• Prepped-ahead meals (beef heart sandwich meat, lentil soup, ratatouille)
• Epsom salts (for recovery) (me!)

 Ketchup

In years past, I have chopped almost everything by hand - but this year I feel like I've Discovered My Food Processor. (The one I've had for a decade.) (Yeah.)  I've used it for big chopping jobs in the past, mostly for salsa, but this year I've been using the slicing attachment with no reserve.

(It is almost like I felt like I was betraying the art of hand-chopping?) (Very strange aversion.) I honestly think it might be because I didn't like cleaning the food processor when I was done.

But this year?  I am LOVING it.  The cabbage is shredded into such pretty cuts.  The dehydrator is loaded in no-time flat. The fellas line up to help shove zucchini into the chute and are actually, truly  helpful in the process.  Apples are going to be a breeze. It is totally saving my life right now.  Everything is easier.

 Paste | Watermelon Rind Pickles | Ketchup

Another difference from years' past: I have a honed game plan.  I am not writhing in the attempt to wrap my mind around the tomato table. I have a well-laid plan and know how to accomplish it.

First off, our family eats a lot of salsa and ketchup.  Check.

Secondly, everyone loves tomato soup in the winter. (The puree.)  Check.

Thirdly, tomato paste deepens the flavor of so many dishes.  Check.

I love tomatillo salsa. I love having scads of dried vegetables at my fingertips all winter long. I L-O-V-E sauerkraut and we eat it at almost every meal. Check. Check. Check.

I am so pleased.

 
But of course, this involves a serious time commitment.  I spent three 12-hour days in the kitchen over Labor Day weekend; Blaine took Tuesday off too, which was an 8-hour day.

On Monday morning I woke up so sore - my forearms were fatigued, legs and feet sore, just generally exhausted.  In serious need of recovery after the last two days in the kitchen. (With two more to go.)

I took a time-out for an epsom salt bath: forty minutes with Boards of Canada. (One of Blaine's current faves.)  It felt so good to stare and let the music unlock my thoughts.  And I couldn't believe it, but the epsom salts did the job.  My body felt rejuvenated and I felt ready to tackle the day.

Note to self: keep epsom salts in the house from now on.

 The fellas with our two biggest watermelon this year --

Tom Watson: 26 lbs | Orange Glow: 22 lbs

19.5 years this November | 16 years last month | Love him

Blaine.  Old Leroy.  He ran the household and kept kids under wraps all four days.  He gathered ingredients, picked tomatoes, played badminton, administered baths, worked in the garden, and prepped for my ill-timed Friends of the Library Sanding Party. (Tuesday night!) (New children's shelving for the library.)  What a man.

And finally, I do not want to remiss the fact that my youngest is now three years old.  Such a huge change.  My time in the kitchen is so much more focused and lengthy.  I am noticing the difference in a big way. (But just think of all the sweet baby breaks, nursing, nuzzling, in the past.) (Sigh.)

The weekend tally

• 2 pints watermelon-rind pickles
• 7.5 pints charred chili BBQ sauce
• 9.5 quarts tomato sauce
• 1-2 pints tomato paste drying in the dehydrator (it started out as somewhere around 10 lbs of plum tomatoes . . . wow)
• 8 quarts sauerkraut decanted, fermenting vessels refilled with same amount of fresh cabbage, salt, and caraway seeds
• Went apple-picking and picked . . . uhhhhhh . . . 60 lbs?, 75 lbs? . . . 4 boxes full
• Picked a sack filled with black walnuts to dry (experimenting)

How am I doing this...?  Very simple.  Squeeze keeps the boys under wraps for the weekend (they play alongside him wherever he is working, or "help" him work) while I spend two days from noon to bed-time in the kitchen. 

I am a preserving machine this season, a force to be reckoned with.  I surveyed our jar storage this evening and realized that we might run out of jars (and/or be forced to use the pints when I'd rather use the quarts).  The tomatillo glut hasn't even started yet and I have big plans for mondo amounts of salsa verde.  !!!

This is amazing for two reasons.  First off, I've been semi-embarrassed in the past, wondering why I have been hoarding such massive quantities of canning jars.  It always seemed so excessive.  But this year?  Whoa baby, I'm on fire. 

And that brings me to my second point, which is . . . I am totally Wonder Woman this year.  It is amazing.  I can't believe the amount of food I am preserving!  I assume it is a combination of fabulous output from our garden and the accumulation of skills and experience.  I am so impressed every time I go down in the root cellar.  It already looks amazing.

And last but not least, Squeeze built a sandbox.  (Sorry about that terribly back-lit picture, it was the best I could do at the time.)  We've been talking about it for the past 3-4 years and finally got our act together and decided this was it!  The biggest hurdle has been deciding where it would go.  Squeeze used wood from our huge pile of reclaimed lumber, harnessing the charm of the "rustic" look.  He did a great job.

Last weekend's stats

• 2 pints watermelon-rind pickles
• 4 pints cantaloupe preserves
• 2 quarts dried plum tomatoes
• 11 quarts tomato sauce
• Still in the hopper (i.e. should have been decanted on Sunday): 6 quarts sauerkraut

Pickl-It: the perfect counter-top fermenting system

Half-gallon jars of sauerkraut

Does everyone know that I am crazy about fermented foods?  I am.  Crazy about them. 

All the fancy holiday meals that we ate growing up included cut-glass dishes of pickles and olives; what a treat it was to bite into something cool and tart and crunchy with a rich meal.  I remember it well.  

Over the years I've come to understand that my palate has always veered towards savory tang vs. sweet.  (My parents have told me that I ate tomatoes as a little tyke.  Tomatoes!)  I go ga-ga for sour dishes.  They are just so yummy.

Now . . . . add that to my whole foods gut-instinct, then stir in my recent grounding in traditional foods (approx. 5-6 years of study and assimilation), and voila! the path to fermented foods. 

I am crazy-in-love.

Sure, everyone has heard of yogurt.  Or buttermilk.  Or sour cream.  All of which are fermented.  Many tart side-dishes that we are so familiar with, like the classic dill pickle, were once fermented (vs. the current use of vinegar to preserve and give that sour taste).

But what about pickled beets?  Sauerkraut!  Pickled peppers, kimchi, gingered carrots, salsa, fermented bean paste, bread and butter pickles, pickled pearl onions.  And so on.

These delectable dishes are created by allowing chopped (or shredded) vegetables to sit at room temp in a brine of salt and water, or their own juices, in anaerobic conditions for several days.  Instead of decomposing, they start to sour.  They are preserved by the combination of salt and the lactic acid created by anaerobic conditions.  Once the initial ferment is over, they can be feasted upon immediately or moved to cold storage to age and develop a bit more flavor,  i.e. the refrigerator, cold basement, or root cellar.

I have been fermenting for a few years now, with guidance from Nourishing Traditions and Wild Fermentation.  I also participate in two Traditional Foods yahoo groups, which provide discussion and camaraderie for the "trad foodies".

Through connection to these groups, I have found the perfect counter-top fermenting system.  Forget about crocks.  Don't waste your time with canning jars that overflow and corrode.  Use a Pickl-It.  A Pickl-It!  These fermenting jars are so unbelievably worth the investment.  I cannot believe how wonderful they are.  The ease!  The intrigue!  The consistent results!  Production has definitely picked up.

And so . . . with no further ado . . .

May I please introduce you to the Pickl-It --

Initial ferment in the Pickl-It

Beautiful beets, both red and golden

It truly is the perfect fermenting system for the modern kitchen.  Why?

• Small batches keep things in regular rotation.
• Small batches allow for greater variety.
• The airlock ensures perfectly anaerobic conditions.
• You can see the fruit of your labor as it ferments.
• It comes with a plug for the bung, allowing for easy storage after the initial ferment.
• No decanting is required, unless desired.  Simply plug and store.
• Its small size allows for easy storage in a variety of locations.

I cannot gush enough!  These vessels are AMAZING.  A true delight.  They work beautifully for both the fermenting enthusiast and the serious home preserver.  With two large gardens, I decided on the largest bundle and kept the jars in regular rotation this past summer, amassing a collection somewhere in the range of 30 quarts (around 7 gallons) of sauerkraut, 12 quarts salsa, 3 quarts pickled onions, 4 quarts pickled peppers, 3 quarts pickled beets, and 4 quarts bread and butter pickles.

As you can tell, sauerkraut is my favorite.  L-l-l-l-l-l-ove it.

With that much output, it is necessary that I decant after the initial ferment.  And because I have a fully-functional root cellar, we have plenty of storage space (awesome).  I decant into either quart or half-gallon canning jars, using new lids, and then transfer to cold storage.  No heat processing, as that would destroy the beneficial bacteria for your gut.  I've found this to be an effective strategy, and a good number of the jars seem to have even sealed, enough to keep air out and create a tight-fitting lid that does not "boing" when pressed.

Seriously?  Awesome.

Food preservation notes

METHODS: 

• ROOT CELLAR (cool & moist): potatoes, carrots, apples, beets; storage for ferments, canned goods, wine
• CANNING: applesauce, salsas, tomato sauce, chutneys, vinegar pickles, jams
• FERMENTATION: kimchi, sauerkraut, sour pickles, pickled onions, pickled beets, ginger carrots, pickled garlic, preserved lemon, bread & butter pickles, sliced cucumber pickles
• DEHYDRATOR: green beans, zucchini, celery, peas, corn, tomato paste leather, fruit leather, cucumber chips, kale, apple chips, strawberries
• FREEZER: kale, collards, cooked pumpkin, broccoli, spinach, chard, roasted tomatoes
• UPSTAIRS (cool & dry): squash, pumpkin, onions, garlic

EQUIPMENT:

• 9-try Excalibur dehydrator
• Food processor
• Pickl-It fermenting jars: 1.5 liter, 3 liter, 5 liter
• Half-gallon mason jars for decanted kraut and/or other ferments
• 5 liter Fido jars for sour pickles, switching out lids for storage
• Silicone seals and wide-mouth plastic lids for air-tight storage
• Water-bath canner, jars of various sizes, lids
• Lots of shelving in the root cellar and unheated upstairs room

RECOMMENDED READING: 

• Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables - Mike & Nancy Bubel
• Food Drying: How to Dehydrate, Store and Use Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs - Phyllis Hobson
• Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods - Eugenia Bone
• Put 'em Up!: A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook, from Drying and Freezing to Canning and Pickling - Sheri Brooks Vinton
• The Lost Art of Real Cooking: Rediscovering the Pleasures of Traditional Food One Recipe at a Time - Ken Albala and Rosanna Nafziger
• Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation - The Gardners and Farmers of Terre Vivante
• Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods - Sandor Ellix Katz

UPDATED: September 2017

Root Cellar 2011

From top to bottom:

Blaine's homemade wine

Pickled onions, tomato aspic, grape jam, salsa verde, apple sauce, tomato sauce

Kimchi, pickled peppers, cantaloupe pickles, fermented salsa

Tomato remnants, fermented sweet pickles, sauerkraut

Apples (in box on floor)

 

Glamour shots:

Pickled onions, tomato aspic, grape jam

More glamour!

Blaine's gorgeous wines

We also have a good number of boxes filled with carrots and potatoes, but that isn't quite as beautiful.  Additionally, our apple harvest was pretty small this year; otherwise we would have had more storage boxes filled to the brim.  Onions, garlic, and squash are all upstairs in cool, dry conditions.  Dehydrated green beans, zucchini, plum tomatoes, celery, and herbs are in kitchen cupboards for easy access.

Looking at these pictures, I am amazed at how different it looks from years' past.  I didn't even post a picture last year, because it was so pitiful.  I remember being embarrassed by it!  Both our tomato and apple crops were a blow-out in 2010, which lessened the output.  I didn't ferment as much (more on that in the future).  I was pregnant, but that doesn't seem like it should stop my production.  And I don't think I was able to get my hands on as many grapes. 

But I digress...

Here is 2009 for comparison.



Root Cellar 2009

From top to bottom:

Squeeze's homemade wine, tomatoes under paper

grape jam, tomato sauce, salsa, fermented veg

(salsa, cukes, sauerkraut, pickled beets)

apples, apple sauce

apples

Another view

Top shelf:

tomato soup, tomato sauce, misc.,

another wine rack

A view from the back:

carrots, cabbages

potatoes

Wenk's Yellow Hots (hanging)

And a bonus shot:

Our basement wood burner,

which is hooked to the forced-air heating system

Notice the straw-filled nest in the window

(Squeeze loves his kitties)

* * *

The basement has a chute to toss the wood down

vs. hauling it in and down the stairs

The square piece of wood is packing wood (oak!) --

a business Squeeze goes to discards it almost every week

MAY 2016 EDIT:

This post gets a lot of hits. (Hooray for root cellars!) (They are the greatest.) Click on the years below to see more recent pictures of our root cellar.  It has gained in stature quite a bit in the last seven years.  Though I see I haven't posted pictures since 2013.  Goodness.  That was the year that I really caught my stride.

2011

2012

2013

My food preservation notes. (Though now I would put almost everything in the freezer section over to the dehydrator.) (I love-love-love my dehydrator.)

Deo for my BO

I actually had time last night to do a non-food and non-kid related activity:

I made my own deodorant.

I've been using this particular deo for the last year; it was a gift from my SIL. When it ran out, I wanted more. The recipe is very simple. (While making it, I felt amazed and actually thought to myself, "Lookie at what I have time to do!")

Homemade Deodorant

1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
5 TBSP coconut oil
essential oil to scent to your liking (I used lavender)

• Mix the baking soda and arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
• Add the coconut oil and mash until well blended
• Add the essential oil and continue to mash
• Store in a covered glass container

And there you go -- deo for your BO.

Snapshots from the Harvest

• Vats of applesauce
• Scads of potatoes (115 lbs) - the fingerling, La Ratte!
• Tomatoes up the wazoo - sauce, salsa, soup
• Green tomatoes under paper in the root cellar
• Shelling the dried beans from the dried-up pods
• Sore wrists and fingers, work-worn
• Shorter days and a frenzied pace to get everything done before cold weather
• 9:00 pm evening meals
• 5 quarts of salsa fermenting on the counter
• Tru-babes potty-training all the while (it is going so well)
• Sweet Diego helping, and being of actual assistance, on the potato dig - so sincere and happy in his efforts (with the added joy of finding worms)
• A slowly-filling root cellar, the scales balanced with a steadily-emptying garden
• The feeling of true anticipation for winter -- snowed in with nothing to do
• Looking at the root cellar and feeling a sense of accomplishment and pride
• Happy, the end (not really)
• 1 more month to go!

Megajam

The stats:

• 20 lbs of Concord grapes, now grape jam (done with Pomona's Universal Pectin with 1/4 of the amount of sweetener, so you can actually taste the grape-y-ness of the grapes - totally tubular)
• 10 more pounds of grapes, waiting to join their jammy-brethren
• 60 lbs of tomatoes, now 15 quarts of tomato sauce
• 30 lbs more tomatoes sitting in the kitchen, waiting to become tomato soup to go with our grilled cheese sandwiches this winter
• After that, salsssssssa
• 4 trays of apple leather in the dehydrator, drying
• 1 gallon of apple wine fermenting
• 10 lbs crab apples picked
• 100-ish? lbs of apples picked
• 6 guomi bushes discovered, loaded with berries (1 pint picked before twilight, mosquitoes and a crabbing 2 year old put a stop to the festivities)
• 1/2 pint raspberries picked
• 1/2 pint dessert gooseberries picked
• (All the fruit was picked from our neighbor's place: the Polish beekeeping bare-footed 82 year old beauty queen, Walentyne . . .)

Yessssssssssssssss. It is so satisfying.

Seeds and cellars

We ordered our vegetable seeds through Seed Savers Exchange this weekend. Looking through the pictures and imagining the bounty is a mouth-watering experience. And the colors! So beautiful. Even the names thrill me:

• Grandpa Admire's lettuce
• Webb's Wonderful lettuce
• Delice de Table melon
• Galeux d'Eysines squash
• Long Island Cheese squash
• Calypso bean
• Empress bean
• Jacob's Cattle Gold bean
• Green Arrow pea

We ordered a transplants of both peppers and tomatoes - 6 of each. We also have several flats of heirloom tomato seeds started; as well as leeks, onions, eggplants and cabbages.

Also under the grow lights is a little experiment: salad greens. We missed fresh greens terribly this past winter; and so, after Squeeze planted one pot of arugula for me - it was so unbelievably delicious, in addition to growing well - we realized that we need to expand our operations.

Root Cellar update:

Our root cellar is now completely barren. Apples, carrots, and potatoes all peetered out this past month. The ghastly remains of the celery was used for one last chicken stock last week, and the tomatoes were gone by mid-November. Onions were eaten by December and the cabbages and the last of the squash departed from our company by the end of January. And we only have one of the twelve quarts of applesauce left (mostly used on pancakes...yummm).

As far as frozen foods, we have eaten two of the three quarts of strawberries from last summer, one of the two quarts of raspberries, and only a couple of quarts of frozen spinach, chard, and lettuce from last summer's garden remain. I've been using the frozen greens in creamy chicken soups and stews, and my - it has been a nice addition. I also froze approx. 15 quarts of tomatoes, of which none are left. I suppose we finished those in February sometime.

Next summer, in addition to freezing greens and berries, I want to can salsa and tomato sauce. We use a lot of these tomato products during the winter months and I'm ready to take on the challenge of putting my own up instead of buying jar upon jar from the grocery store.

We have learned a lot and taken copious notes. It is going to be so much fun to take on the challenge of the new growing season. I can't wait!

She flows

The sloughing of my uterine wall has recommenced. I could tell that things were changing, but I wasn't exactly sure what was going on until yesterday when "she flowed". I was strangely pleased to see it, as if that portion of my powers had returned to me.

I whipped out my Size A(fter) Keeper and put 'er in: plugged. Taken care of. I am glad I had purchased the post-vaginal delivery size this time around, as the Size B(efore) wasn't making the grade last time. And my goodness, ladies, I am reminded of how much I really really really like using The Keeper. I've been using it for the last 6 years (with 4 of them largely menses-free) and my only regret is that I didn't discover it sooner. [Props go to LSJF] If you haven't checked into yet, you should: it saves loads of cash, tons of grief, and is the hands-down environmentally-sound choice. It is a win-win-win decision.

This is the third time I've had my period in four years. !!! It has been a nice break, again; I definitely have extended breastfeeding to thank. The general rule is to nurse every 4 hours during the day and 6 hours at night to prevent ovulation, and my goodness: yes. It feels a lot more frequent than that (growth spurt?). But I can't complain with almost 17 months of free and completely natural worry-free birth control!

If this were Diego/Truen, I would have started cycling again in February - and been pregnant by the end of this month. That doesn't look so appealing to me this time around. I want to wow the crowds at our summer weddings (yeah...) and move around freely in pretty dresses in the warm summer sun instead [of lumbering]. The thought of giving birth in January in the frozen snowy prairies is also slightly daunting.

We shall see... I am going to re-read Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler, start charting morning temps, and keep a keen eye out for signs of fertility. It should be interesting - it will be the first time to use the knowledge I gained from that book. It even has recommendations on how to try for a girl (or a boy), though I haven't read that part yet.

Locally produced foods

My SIL wondered how I got connected with our local food sources. This is just too good for a comment, so I am posting my answer.

• Vegetables: Farmers' Market. I started talking to the main vegetable vendor at our local Farmers' Market, as a precursor to stocking up. When I realized they sold from their home garden, I looked her up in the phone book, called, and set an appointment to come pick up my produce. I visited their farm twice - picking up carrots, potatoes, onions, cabbage, and green peppers. She even gave me a liter of honey "because you've been such good customers" the last time I was there. This will be my root cellar back-up in years to come, after we've drained our garden's supply.
• Beef: Small family farm in the area. My in-laws are neighbors to the farm's grand-daddy (he ran it himself before he retired and moved "to town").
• Ham: Small family farm in the area. Ditto. The ham we ate for our Early Christmas dinner was part of a pig that they bought earlier this year.
• Turkey: Family farm, via networking. A lady I know through a Midwifery Advocacy group sent an email letting the group know that her brother had turkeys available for Thanksgiving. I pounced on that one!
• Real milk: Area dairy, with jersey cows. The same lady from the Midwifery Advocacy group referred me to them, after I inquired about area milk sources. I am still in the investigative process on this one.

The prominent pattern in this list: networking. Going to Farmers' Markets and talking to the vendors is probably the most important. When I lived in Minneapolis, I took it for granted - there were so many vendors that I didn't even bother talking to them much. But as I shift in my paradigm of what food is, and where I want to get it, mixed with our current locale, I can't afford NOT to network with them.

This is something Barbara Kingsolver advocates in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as well. Get to know the vendors at your Farmers' Market. Buy from them. But more so, why not stock up for the winter? If you have a chilled attic space or a cool basement space, you can do it. [Read Root Cellaring by the Bubels] If you don't have either of those options, invest in a freezer. These points were a revelation in my mind (granted, I read them in conjunction with moving to a house with a root cellar, glory be). Yes! Why not?! It tastes better, you are supporting a local economy, bucking the factory-food system, and more than likely, lessening the chemical-load in your system. It is a win-win-win situation.

Online, an excellent resource is Local Harvest. You can enter your zip code on this site and get an entire list of local growers and farms. Canadian provinces are included.

Bountiful Harvest

Squeeze and I have an old joke from years back about bountiful harvests: before kids, when we had time, we enjoyed setting up postcard-like shots of autumn scenes in our Minneapolis backyard and title them, "Bountiful Harvest". It always made us laugh (and was lovely and always made me feel very cozy).

But really, this IS a bountiful harvest! We've been eating high off the hog recently: chard egg bake [from Simply in Season], roasts accompanied by buttery beets, salads galore, turnip and beet greens in soup, spinach with butter and salt, and dynamite omelets with basil or spinach. It has been absolutely delicious.

Now, feast your eyes:

5 Color Silver-beet Chard

Chamomile

Gorgeous and delicious:
golden beets, lettuce, peas, red beets, turnips, garlic scapes

Golden beets in butter:
We've been fighting over them!!

Oh yes I did, or more aptly titled: Good enough - Oops, I did it again - Crap - I guess I'll wear piggy-tails for awhile - or - Finally!

My former co-workers and friends may remember my history of cutting my own hair for better - or much, much worse. However, I remember one spring when I did such a fantastic job that people I didn't even know stopped by my desk to marvel at it for 2-3 days. Really, it was great: I went home from work one day with loooong hair and came in the next with a kind of short little bob, borealis-style.

[Or...maybe it wasn't so fantastic like I thought, and it was more of a freakish spectacle. Ha! Whatever it was, I thought it was a pretty amazing job at the time.]

The desire hits me every March or April; without a doubt, it coincides with Cabin Fever [which I get every single spring, from one extent to another...hmmm...Vitamin D...?]. I need a change, I'm tired of the same old thing, and, due to my lazy habits, my hair usually needs it badly.



This spring has been particularly bad (hair-wise) because,

1. I haven't had a hair-cut, not even a trim, in a year and a half (zoinks!),
2. and as you can imagine, my split ends had split ends,
3. Baby Pumpkin has reached the age where he grabs whatever his little hands touch with a vice-grip rivaling that of a steel bear trap (yeeeouch!), and
4. Starbeans' comfort...of all things...is my neck. My hair was so long that he was having trouble getting at it while snuggling before naps and bedtime. The night before last, he said, "Mama, get your hair out of the way!"

[Yes, Starbeans loves my neck. When he gets tired or hurt or just wants to snuggle, he says, "Touch neck, Mama" and will literally sit or stand by me, and simply have his hand resting on my neck. He does this with Squeeze while they are cuddling, too. Before Pumpkin was born, his comfort was always my breasts, but that wasn't going to work with milky boobs - so I slowly weaned him from it and it moved northwards for him very naturally. It is nice, since Squeeze has a neck too.]

I've been scheming on my haircut for weeks now: contemplating asking my MIL to do it; working out a baby-sitter so I could get my hair done at...let's see...Blondie's, in town; and finally, in my desperation, planning to do it myself. The catch is that I needed to do it when the baby was napping, which, while he still takes 4-5 naps a day, they are often 45 minutes or less. That isn't much time to give oneself a haircut, ladies!


So...I did a quick hack-job yesterday morning. And while it may not look good, my goodness, does it feel good! And that was the main goal. It is like a weight off my neck; I can have it in cute little pigtails, Starbeans can get at it easily, it isn't flying up in my face and driving me insane, and best of all, if feels silky again. Yes, girls. It was time.

If you only read one book this year,

Please, let it be Affluenza. Astounding! Life altering!

Perceptive. Necessary. Inescapable.

Read it.

Learning little lessons

Have you ever wasted half or more of a bunch of parsley or cilantro? I have. It would go bad in the refrigerator from lack of planning, forgetfulness, or simply not cooking enough that week. Well: I discovered a solution to this last week on accident; a way that will probably make everyone's eyes roll to the back of their head, saying in unison, "Duhhhhhh!"

Freeze it. Freeze it, and use it in soup later.

A half-bunch of cilantro was inadvertently frozen in the cooler in our vehicle last week, en route [due to the recent thrillingly low temperatures]. Instead of throwing it away like I would have done in the past, I transferred it to the freezer. A couple of days later, I thawed it out, chopped it up, and tossed it into a Creamy Chicken, Rice & Vegetable soup as the finishing touch. It was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Delicious, and I saved something that might have been thrown away.

I've realized I'm learning more and more about this kind of thing as I get older: how to maximize ingredients or items in ways that I didn't realize I could. Things as simple as 1) using old socks for rags or 2) saving the tomato juice in a can of whole peeled tomatoes to use in another dish, to 3) carrying a small canvas bag in my European Carry-all [aka Diaper Bag] to use at stores instead of accumulating one more dratted plastic shopping bag or 4) saving egg shells to grind up and use in the place of lime in the potting soil mixtures that Squeeze makes.

I've also been saving the fat off the chicken stock I make to use for later: using it in the place of butter. Delicious, cost-effective, pipe-saving, and as old as the hills. Why didn't I learn about this until age 30?? I must not have been paying attention.

Domestic Bliss

My birthday presents yielded quite the loot of linens, which has pushed me over the edge to Domestic Bliss. First off, I was given [the top] kitchen towels from my good friend Lyndi, who stitched those pretty herbs herself. [Forgive me, I can't remember what it is called. Embroidery? I think I might be pathetic for not knowing.] Aren't they pretty?? I knew she was going to make me some, but I still managed to be surprised (I think it might have something to do with my baby-addled brains) and head-over-heels in love. I think they are just so darling.

They are even more special because she used designs from a stash of needlework paraphernalia from our former neighbor Wilburn's deceased wife, Arlene. When he moved into his apartment in the winter of 2005, pretty much anything that we didn't take got dumped (we also posted "Alley Treasures" on Craigslist - a lot of people showed up and scored bigtime). He had been bringing items to thrift stores for a year, but at the very end he just didn't have time and we had just had a baby. There was a houseful of 55+ years built up -- it was unbelievable how much stuff he had. We are still discovering things we kept that are coming in very handy at our new house: a seemingly endless variety of tools, towels, sewing stuff, linens, housewares, etc.

Secondly, my MIL, who volunteers at her town's local thrift store every Friday, snagged me these excellent cloth napkins. Aren't they cute?? Making cloth napkins is one project I've been wanting to tackle before the baby is born, but I just don't think I can to get to it. I am glad to have something, because it has been many years of nothing. We generally only have paper napkins for a limited amount of time; when my grandparents bequeath me their stash from their summer cabin before going back to Florida for the winter. I just don't like buying things to throw away. It seems so pointless. I went to the thrift store yesterday myself and bought another set of 4, so we will have enough to go around for family parties. Why hadn't I thought of this before?? The only problem is that they are so cute it will be sad to use them and see them soiled. I will, though: without a doubt.

Yes, yes: Domestic Bliss.

UPDATES: Chapstick addiction, potty-training, and homemade laundry detergent

My poor chapped lips. I'm not kidding. I accidentally licked my lips on and off one day last weekend (I don't even know why...perhaps it was particularly dry - ?); this sent me into a downward spiral a cracked lower lip for an entire week. My lower lip is STILL cracked and has been extremely painful if/when it gets bumped. My predictions of being back to normal by this week completely plummeted from the sky, like I dying swan. But not that gracefully. I have no predictions now; maybe I'll never return to normal. My lips probably don't even know what normal is. I've been a compulsive chapstick user for 10-15 years now. Accursed Bonnie Bell got me started as a teen and that was even before the glamour of sparkles came on the market.

[Crap. I can't believe I'm old enough to say that. I'll be 30 years old this next Saturday, BTW.]

Starbeans has new underwear! He is so excited about them that the last thing he said as he drifted off to sleep last night was, "New underwear..." Unfortunately, he doesn't understand the concept and 1) pooped in his first pair, and 2) peed in the second pair. There is a third pair in the pack, but by then I'd given up for the day and let him run around bare again. At least then he remembers to use his potty chair, and he did: both pooping and peeing in it this evening. My grandparents are here visiting for the weekend and I didn't have the time or ability to focus on him to the extent he needed for his first day in big boy underpants. But still...we're getting somewhere. He sits down and uses his potty chair for almost every BM and potty, whether anyone is in the room or not. And he is excited about his new underwear, so much so that he has an extended dance session every time he has had a pair on. It's so cute.

The homemade laundry detergent works like a charm. Squeeze washed two loads today, both smelling fresh and clean; only a tablespoon was used each time, mind you. I am very pleased. I wish I would have gotten on the ball earlier! I need to Hark the Herald Angels and get the word out to my cronies: it is just that easy. If not for the sake of going green, maybe this will entice you: the blog I got the recipe from estimated that with the homemade laundry detergent, she is spending .12 cents a load. With a conventional detergent, it was .43 cents a load. That is a considerable difference for 10-15 minutes of labor, what...once a month? A couple times a month? Not to mention the ease on our natural surroundings. Phosphate free!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Making my own laundry detergent is something I've been thinking about for quite some time. My reasons include:

• Cost: I'm pretty sure that the environmentally-friendly stuff costs more, although I've never bothered to check prices. It will definitely be less expensive than either option, nonetheless.
• Fragrance: I can't handle the perfume-y smells of the conventional detergents. Thankfully, the enviro-stuff we've been using is fragrance-free.
• Going green: I'm on the track and have been for quite some time [since I fledged, but not always knowing my options]. It can be a sometimes-slow changeover, as it takes time to gather the information, resources, and finally taking the plunge, which can be intimidating in some circumstances.

Here's what I've got to say about it: I made it this evening and seriously I cannot believe how easy it was! Oh my goodness, it was almost too easy. I simply grated 4 bars of soap and mixed the ingredients together. I was surprised how easily the soap grated; maybe some are quicker to grate than others. I used Ivory. The whole process probably took 10-15 minutes, including finding the storage containers. Total cake.

I got the recipe from Frugal Upstate, a blog I found when I googled "cloth napkins" [another project I want to tackle soon]. I believe she got her recipe from this site.

Homemade Laundry Detergent -- Recipe:

• 1 cup grated soap
• 1/2 cup borax
• 1/2 cup washing soda (different from baking soda)

Amounts:

• 1 Tablespoon for regular loads
• 2 Tablespoons for heavily soiled loads

Like I said, I used Ivory, but Fels Naptha or Zote (laundry soaps) are used in most of the recipes I found online. Both can be found in the laundry aisle, I believe. I found washing soda in the laundry aisle as well. [I remember now...part of the reason why I hadn't made my own detergent is that I had never been able to find washing soda...but I finally found it at a grocery store in Large Town, SD.]

As I just made the detergent, I haven't used it yet; but I'll be sure to post on my impressions of it. The true test will be Squeeze: he is very particular about his laundry detergents. I feel very optimistic about the whole deal, as so many others make their own laundry soaps and have had good results.