A Post

Hubby keeps telling me to post and I just can't. Have you ever gotten like that, when everything you think of to post you think is boring or no one would want to read it. ;)

I am working on a talk right now for Nov 13 the topic is Who Am I? so that has been taking all my left over mental space after, homeschooling, homemaking, sickness, etc. Needless to say not much mental space is left for it. I get snippets of thought here and there, and I have started a list of those bits and pieces. I am one of those speakers that can't write out a talk I take notes a word here, a thought there, a scripture, quote, etc, and then when I am at the podium I let the spirit guide in what I need to learn and convey. This way of speaking for me is very inspirational when I plan it out and write it out they are always duds.

Yesterday I took some pictures of the kitchen to just put in a post, of course I cleaned it beforehand. ;) Afterwards I pulled out the meat grinder ground some turkey, made ricotta, and later made lasagnia with both, pulled fresh made cheese from the press and set it to air dry. And pondered stuff....

The big pot on the stove is a gallon and a half of whey from Monday's cheese making. There are ways to make ricotta with powdered milk and regular whole milk and I have done both. But this last spring I learned to make it with the leftover whey which is the traditional way to make ricotta. You don't get as much this way as you would the other ways, but that is not the purpose. Boy I used way and whey way to much didn't I. :0) I would normally keep some fresh whey for culturing, but not this time.

I later ground homegrown turkey meat since Wyatt asked for lasagnia and he likes meat when I usually make a veggie variety. The sauce was home canned this summer, cheese homemade, meat homegrown, the noodles were storebought. And then I cooked it in the sun oven very yummy meal!

Also in this picture is my $10 thrift store find of the Big Berkey that also included 4 brand new filters. A bucket of white wheat berries, this bucket is one that isn't sealed and I scoop out what I need.

To the left of the stove is my area for making vinegars, the sour dough starter is there, and other yummy fermenting, culturing, and sour doughing things. Oh and cheese making area.

The other side of the stove, if I would have moved a little more you would have seen a gigantic pile of dishes. :) This area of the house is used A LOT, there is a bowl with soaking cheese clothes, a couple of mixing bowls ready to use, the garlic storage thingie, wooden cutting boards, and rolling pin.

Cheese set out to dry, Herman the sour dough starter along with fresh ground wheat to feed him, and 2 jars of apple cidar vinegar aging. Oh the weights were from the cheese making I just took it out of the mold and hadn't put the 30lbs of weights up yet. Here you can see what kind of mold I use it is called a Tomme, for what we do and the amount we make it works perfectly for us.

Herman the sour dough starter is a daily thing, if I am not needing to use it I just add a tablespoon of flour and one of water and give a good stir once a day. If I know I will need it for something the day before I will add a much larger amount of flour and water to build it up to the amount I might need. I could leave it in the fridge feeding it once a week and I did try to do that in Sept, but forgot to feed it. A little over a month later I pulled the jar out fed it and it was fine, bubbly and active. But I was lucky.

Also doing it the way I do, not using every single day it can get very sour so I have figured out that if I pour off the liquid that forms at the top and then feed it that keeps that sourness away. This liquid is called hooch which I thought was so funny the sourness mostly comes from the hooch. I don't use Herman every day but a few times a week and it works beautifully the way I have worked it for us. Oh and I put it in a clean jar every few days.

This is one of my herb cabinets, there is another one under this one. These are all in the same area as the above counter top. I have all kinds a things in here and below, I just finished a course through The School of Natural Healing and really learned alot. I enjoyed it very much and am trying to implement the teachings into our daily lives it is a slow process, but also I am listening to my body. Your body will tell you what is wrong if you listen and how to correct it. Like halloween candy will always make my hands and feet numb because my body can't or doesn't want to process it, so I should just avoid it, the numbness is it telling me that. :0)

Our little Fall Harvest for church was at a members house this year. The kiddos always come up with something to dress up, last year Ashley made her costume she was a greek thesbian, this year a fairy from Mid Summers Nights Dream one of Shakespeares works. She loves Shakespeare and actually understands it all, but math baffles her.  A few years ago, 6 actually, I made a skirt with pumpkins all over it that I usually wear and hubby and I try to find funny hats to wear. We found a bunch of halloween fabric marked down last year so I made a new skirt this year.

I wore the skirt, feather boa, and one of the many hats. We don't celebrate Halloween, but every year we have made or something, the kids a dress up outfit that they used to play in year round, we'd go to grandma's and then home, carve a pumpkin maybe, go to our church's fall harvest. But we have never gotten into the whole scary commercialism of it all. So now that the kids are alot older they have kept the tradition of having fun planning a dress up theme to wear to the fall harvest. Wyatt loved Gilligan's Island and last year we were going to dress him and his dad up as Gilligan and Skipper but didn't have enough time to put it all together.

We had alot of fun as usual, we had several different kinds of chili, stews, a bonfire, hay ride, and just a alot of fun visiting with friends.

Well such a long post of really nothing, well not nothing just snippets of my little world. Simple and unadorned, the photo above actually was taken before I brushed my hair I took my sleeping braids and coiled them in a bun so I could get my sewing done early before the kids woke so really simple and unadorned :0).

My life revolves around our daily doings, the kitchen, providing meals, preparing for future meals, sewing, my family, my love of learning a simplier way to live even if it may be harder than doing it with all the time saving gadgets on the market. Remembering to slow down take a breath and truly look at my little world I love so much. I forget that sometimes, and feel very bad for it guilt and uncertainty take hold till I am reminded to look and breath.

I leave you with a recipe that I have looked and looked for since I wanted to try it and finally found it.

Skillet Granola

2 Tbsp olive oil or coconut oil

4 cups rolled oats

1/2 c butter

1 tsp vanilla

4 Tbsp honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

(since I don't use this or white sugar, sucanat, rapadura, or even more honey would work)

1/2 c almonds

1/2 c dried fruit

heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add oats then cook and stir until starting to brown and crisp, about 5 minutes. Push the oats to the side of the pan. Melt butter in the same pan over medium heat. Stir in honey and brown sugar; cook, stirring constantly, until bubbly. Push the oats around in the pan and stir to combine. Cook and stir for another 5 minutes or so to make sure to coat throughly. Pour out onto the cookie sheet and spread to cool.

After cool add nuts and dried fruit you can also add 1/2 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg if you want. This would taste great on yogurt or add coconut etc too make a trail mix. However you like your granola enjoy this simple recipe.

Have a simply blessed day....

Love, Erika

Oh and a question if you would be so kind to give me your thoughts. When I write or say Who Am I? what comes to mind about yourself? I am wanting quotes from those sweet women around me on their thoughts on who they are in their minds. Thank You for commenting and sharing your answer.