Simple and Delicious Peppermint Pinwheels

You guys. Oh you guys! Doze cookies! Let me tell you, these cookies are delicious. Like....I mean, I'm a cookie girl, but these are really good. And the options are endless with colors! I chose red and green with red and green sprinkles because it was "fun" for the kindergarten class I was cooking for. Want something a bit more classy? Use red or green only and leave the other "white". Need them for a baby shower? Use pink and blue and fun baby sprinkles!

For the holidays they are nice wrapped up as a small gift, or put with other candies and goodies into  a tin for a larger gift. Have fun!

• Ingredients
• 5 cups unbleached wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cup sugar
• 2 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 3 tsp  red  gel food coloring
• 3 tsp of green gel food coloring 
• Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough
• 6 tablespoons milk

Directions

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. Cream together butter and sugar together in another large bowl. Add egg, vanilla, milk, and peppermint extract, and beat until incorporated. Gradually add the dry mixture, beating until combined. Remove half of the mixture from the bowl. Add red food coloring, beating until fully combined. This is where I threw on gloves and used my hands to mix it up.  On a sheet of waxed paper, roll out dough to form a large rectangle, about 1/4-inch thick. Repeat this step with the other half of uncolored dough with green food coloring.

Now, slide the red dough on top of the white dough. I simply took both of them and just slapped  them together sammich style. Then I trimmed the edges and patched an area with the trimmed dough so it would be more uniform. Roll dough into a log, creating a swirl effect. I actually rolled up short logs (rolling from short end to short end) and after three rolls, I cut down along the width, removed the roll and repeated this process. You could roll from short end to short end, but my dough was so large, picking up a log of that size would have been a chore.

If the dough starts to break or crack while rolling, don't sweat it. Just pinch it to patch it up. :) 

Now, the trick here is to let the dough chill. I didn't need this until the morning, so I let it chill overnight. But an hour or so would work if you're pressed for time. 

Go preheat your oven to 375°. Now for the fun part! I took some sprinkles, used them on the dough, then rolled it over a little and repeated the process until it was covered. Then you can slice into oh, quarter inch or so slices. I got about 60 cookies with this recipe. Just place them about an inch apart and bake for about 12 min. 

Make it Yourself! Vintage Girls Nightgowns

Crunchy Girl in her favorite hand made nightie. 

Topstitching around your lace or ruffled
trim gives it a nice clean edge. 

How many people do you know that make their own clothing? Would you like to? I will admit, I don't make all our own clothing, and what I do make is borne more of necessity than want, though once I started, I wanted to then make ALL the THINGS. One thing that every homesteader should know is how to mend and how to make their own clothing. It's easier than you think, and more rewarding than you expect. Especially when you score a bolt of fabric for like massive discount and can create something for every one of your kids for $10 total.

150 years ago, it was almost unheard of for people to not make their own clothing. Even when you "boughten" clothing, it was still handmade, as sewing machines weren't really around, though it wouldn't be long. The idea that someone would take 10000 yards of fabric and turn it into 1000 pairs of pants didn't exist.

I take every advantage I can use. I use a heavy duty basic sewing machine, a serger for seams and hems and edgings and then I even break out the embroidery machine every now and again to have some fun! While being a homesteader these days is all about getting back to basics, I see no reason not to use tools that can help make that journey more achievable.

Besides, who doesn't love nightgowns? I think all little girls do, and I know I prefer them. I hate wearing PJ's. They get bunched up around my knees at night, and then I wake up a tangled mess. So what's better than a frilly vintage nightgown? Why, one that's easy to make to boot! This one? Super easy, seriously you can make these in an hour or less. I was able to make four for my daughter in less than a half day.

There are two types of fabric I would use for this. Quilting cotton, or flannel. I use quilting cotton for a lightweight summer nightie, and then flannel in the winter, for a warm, fuzzy cuddly nightie. This nightgown only has four pieces, the front, the back and 2 sleeves. Now, I'm going to link the pattern here that you can buy for about $5 if you buy somewhere like Joann Fabrics or Walmart. But don't get overwhelmed! Patterns are so much easier than winging it! I promise you, this is a great project to start out with if you're a beginning sewer. Nothing fancy, just seams, and elastic. That's it. You can even forgo the lace trim on the bottom and cuffs and just turn up and hem to make it even easier.

A set of 6 nightgowns that went out for
the shop recently. Aren't they lovely!

Ok, so here's the link to the pattern. Just remember the number at the top right corner, that's how you'll find it in the store. The actual pattern calls for elastic in the waist area. I don't use that. I just omit that step altogether.

So just cut out your newspaper pieces and if you want, transfer them to poster board. That's what I use for patterns like this. I have all the sizes and use them over and over for the shop, so I like the poster board. You could also use card stock if you have that on hand and just tape them together.

After that, you simply cut out your fabric (after you've washed and dried it for shrinkage!) and then follow the directions!

How to turn Jeans into a skirt!

You know what I hate? Jeans that don't fit. Can anyone find them that do? Who are the jeans made for? I look for jeans made for "curvy" people, as I've got an arse that's completely not in proportion to the rest of me, and the waist gaps. I find some that fit in the hips and rear only to find that when I bend over, I'm giving off quite the show. You get them to fit in the waist and hips and find out that the thighs are as constricting as a boa.....Right. Jeans that fit. Oxymoron.

You know what I love? Skirts. Especially in the winter, and especially denim. Denim skirts allow me to be rough and tough around the house, but still have the benefit of a skirt. I bend over and show nothing. No strange breezes on my nether regions. Throw on a pair of cable knit tights and you'll be much warmer than when wearing pants, and with the weather we're having as of late, that's a blessing.

Now, know what else I don't like? Well, number one that it's hard to find denim skirts. You can check your local thrift shops, but if they are like mine, there was one skirt, and it was actually 2 sizes too big, so I was able to take it in, but sheesh! What's a girl need to do to find a decent skirt? Oh, what's that you say? Hit the jeans rack? Why yes! I think I will.

You can find jeans for like $3 a pair or less at most thrift shops. I prefer ones that have a bit of stretch in the denim because Im always crawling around or bending over doing things here at the homestead. I went to my closet first though because I had 2 pairs that I knew fit me, but the fits were all wrong, and so I turned one of them into a skirt this morning. Now, you'll need 2 pairs of jeans to make one skirt. Or, you can use fabric in the "holes" that you'll need to fill up if you want to recycle some fabric and the jeans at the same time. I prefer all denim because I need the warmth factor, but I will probably make some with quilting fabric for in the summer.

So, onto the tute! Now, you'll need some basic sewing skills, like how to sew a straight line, and a zig zag stitch (unless you have a serger). You'll need pins, thread, and scissors. Seriously it's that easy. I didn't even need to change out needles. I just used a simple size 80 needle.

So now you want to open up the inseams. All the way. Just take a seam ripper if you have one and open them up being careful not to rip the denim. You know, like I did.

Jeans after the inseam has been ripped. 

Front side of the old  jeans.

Opening up the front crotch. 

The next thing you'll need to do is to open up the crotch a bit and lay it flat. This is better explained by the photo below. Just rip the seams until the jeans will lay flat in the crotch. Then pin it down. You'll be sewing this down later.

Backside of the old jeans.

Then you'll need to get your fabric to fill this hole that's made by the legs being opened up. I chose to cut up another pair of jeans I wasn't using (guess what! They didn't fit right. Shocking). So I just cut off the legs, you know, just like how we did when we were in the 80's and wore our jean cutoff's except this time, you're going to discard the cutoff jeans shorts and use the legs. So open the legs up. You don't need to rip the seam, you can simply cut them open.

Denim fabric is underneath the old jeans. 

Lay out your opened leg under the hole of the denim soon to be skirt. Then just pin it up. Simply walk over to your machine now and stitch the fabric together. Then turn the skirt over and do the same for the back. You'll need to open the crotch a lot more in the back to get it to lay flat.

Pin up along the seams where you're going to sew. 

Turn it inside out and trim excess fabric. 

Now, just sew up the old seams tacking the jeans and the jean fabric (the leg you used from the other jeans or the fabric you're using) together. Turn it inside out and trim the seams. You can serge or zig zag the seams here together if you like.

Trim your hem to be equal all the way around. 

Once you're done with this, you now have a

skirt. Albeit one that is in dire need of hemming. I suggest trying it on and seeing about how much you want to take off. I like long skirts, so I just trimmed the fabric to be all even, then took off an inch.

Serge or zig zag your hem so that you can simply fold up and tack down. 

Hop on over to your serger, or sewing machine (with the stitch set to zig zag) and stitch your hem up. This will allow you to simply fold over your hem once, which is easier and creates less bulk, and is easier on your machine to stitch as well. I put a double stitch on the hem, which can be achieved by either changing the needle position and going around twice or by using a double needle and 2 spools of thread. I was too lazy to put in the double needle though, so I just went around twice.

Fold over and pin up your hem. 

Tack down with a single running stitch. 

I've added a double running stitch here for extra durability cause Im hard on things. :) 

Now! You have a skirt! And the best part? This type of denim skirt doesn't need slits in the sides or back. I've been wearing it all morning and have been cleaning and what not, and I've had enough room to move around without any issue!

You can see the finished product here, ignore my giant sweater, it's like 63° in this house. I love how flouncy it is!

Ignore the paint drops on the bottom of my mirror. I'm a sloppy painter.
See how cool this looks! I love that it doesn't need slits! 

No Knead Bread

I have been searching for ever it seems to find the perfect bread recipe. I found one for my bread machine, it makes lovely light whole wheat bread that is great for sammiches. The downside? It takes four hours and thirty eight minutes. Which is fine, but you know, sometimes, life gets in the way. Sometimes, I wake up late and don't have four hours before we need to eat. I know, I know, first world problems. But problems nonetheless. So I came across this "peasant bread" that you don't knead and I'll be honest, I was skeptical. I thought, this is going to come out as dense as a rock and will taste like crap.
Boy was I wrong. Like...more wrong than I could have imagined. This bread is light, fluffy and comes out with a crunchy dense crust like you wouldn't believe. Best part is, it takes about 5 minutes to mix, another 30 to rise, 5 minutes to put into pans, 30 min for the second rise and 40 min for the bake. So, total of 1 hour and 50 minutes, which officially makes it the fastest ever yeast bread I've made. We've used it for sandwiches, french toast, toasted toast, and just plain eating with a dinner. Everyone loves it! And with almost no work, I can make this every day. I still make the bread machine bread, just not as often.
Now, something to remember, this bread calls for quite a bit of water. It's going to look and feel pretty sticky. That's completely normal. It really does use 1 cup of water for every 2 cups of flour. Just trust in the recipe. :)

What you'll need:

• 4 cups of unbleached unbrominated flour
• 2 cups of water
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1 TBSP sugar
• 2 TBSP of coconut or similar oil
• 2 tsp of instant yeast (I use 2.25 tsp of yeast because we're high up in altitude)

What you'll do:

1. Mix together water, sugar, salt and oil.
2. Add in flour and yeast, mix well. You can just sort of "fold it over" with a spatula. Its too thick to mix with a spoon and too thin to pick up with your hands.
3. Let sit for 30-45 minutes until doubled in size, then punch down and separate in half.
4. Transfer each half to a greased bread pan, I like to use the glass ones, they transfer heat a bit more evenly, but metal would work too. Try to use a smaller pan, no larger than a 1.5 lb loaf.
5. Let sit for about 30 min until doubled again. Preheat your oven to 375 and bake for 35-40 minutes.
6. PROFIT.

Posted with Blogsy

Pumpkin Scones

Winter is coming.

And it's true isn't it! You can't throw a rock without hitting something pumpkin flavored. Believe it or not, I'm actually not a fan of pumpkin. I don't like pumpkin pie, I sure as hell don't like pumpkin drinks. But! I love Pumpkin Scones. Probably because I've not yet met a scone I don't like. Or...a pastry of any kind for that matter. I do have an unnatural affection for baked goods.....

Anyway. So this recipe. Hands down, best pumpkin scone I've ever had. Of course, my little secret, which I guess won't be so secret now is to use half hard white wheat, and half pastry wheat. The pastry wheat makes it light and fluffy and melt-in-your-mouth goodness, while the white wheat keeps it from blowing away in a hard wind. Topped with a super easy spiced glaze, you'll be making these all the time. 

What you'll need: 

Scones: 

1 cup white wheat flour

1 cup pastry flour

½ cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp ground ginger 

6 tbsp of super cold butter

½ cup of pureed pumpkin

3 tbsp of milk 

1 large egg

Spiced Glaze: 

1¼ cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

½ tsp of pumpkin pie spice

What you'll do: 

1.  Preheat oven to 425º. Grease or line baking sheet. 
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger in a large bowl. use a fork to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are left, set aside. 
3. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, milk and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form into into a 1 inch thick rectangle, about three times as long as it is wide. Use a pizza cutter to slice dough into three sections the short way, then two sections the long way. Cut each square in half diagonally. Place triangles on sheet and bake for 14-16 minutes or until light brown. Cool on wire rack. 
4. When scones have cooled, mix the glaze and drizzle over scones. 
5. PROFIT. 

Delicious Apple Crisp

So what do you do when you have 250lbs of apples? Why you make apple crisp of course. And applesauce. And apple butter. And stewed apples....and....well you get the idea. 

This is one of our favorite desserts. Every year we not so patiently wait for the apples to ripen so we can eat this delicious dish. Give it a whirl and I bet you'll love it too! The best part is that if you can your apples in just water (peel, then slice, the waterbath in just water, or a light syrup), you can cut the cook time to 30 minutes  The whole house smells yummy for days after making this!

What you'll need: 

10 medium cored, sliced and peeled apples 

1 TBS of white wheat flour

1 cup of granulated raw sugar

½ cup of water 

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

½ tsp of nutmeg

1 cup of quick oats

1 cup of packed brown sugar

¼ tsp of baking powder

¼ tsp of baking soda

½ cup coconut oil or melted butter

What you'll do

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease your 9x13 pan with butter or lard so the apples don't stick. Slice, peel and core your apples and lay them down in the bottom of the pan

2. Mix together tablespoon flour and sugar. Sprinkle evenly over apples. Pour the half cup of water evenly over the apples. If you've canned your apples, you can omit the water. 

3. Mix together spices, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and coconut oil. Sprinkle that evenly over the top of your apples. 

4. Bake at 350º for 45 min. If you're using canned apples, you can reduce that time to 30 minutes. 

5. OMNOMNOM and enjoy! 

14 Ways to be More Self Sufficient

 In honor of International Homesteading Education Month (September) from Mother Earth News(one of the my very fav mags!) I thought we'd take some time to explain how one can make some changes to become more of a homesteader be it in the city or the country. :) Enjoy!


I tend to throw around the word "homesteader" without giving much thought to it's meaning and it's occurred to me in talking to a few people over the last week, that homesteaders are generally seen as "country folks" living in "rural" areas with "lots of land". This could not be further from the truth.

Up until recently in history, homesteader was defined as above. I imagine the Homestead Act of 1862 had a lot to do with this But recently, we see that homesteading is in it's essence a word used to describe self-sufficiency. And anyone can do it. Obviously, unless we want to hermit ourselves away, true self-sufficiency is not possible. One must still use the roads, the local hospitals when something bad happens, or even supply the farm or urban homestead with tools. But there's no reason even an apartment dweller cannot strive to be more self-sufficient and then support those local vendors for things they cannot produce or provide for themselves.

So here's a primer of sorts designed to help you become more self sufficient. Remember, one needs not do it all, just do as much as you can :)

1. Learn to cook. You would so surprised at how many that "cook" that really can't cook. Cooking is a life skill that's more than opening a few cans and boxes. And I'll be honest, until recently, I thought I was a great cook because I could mix a few things from the store and produce a nice tasting result.  But that's not the kind of cooking I mean Cooking is about knowing how to make those things you would buy from the store. It's procuring the ingredients and knowing how to use every available thing to you, as much as you can. Lets take chicken. Every other week we have roast chicken. A whole chicken. I roast it in the oven, and we have the meat for dinner that night. I use the leftover meat for chicken salad for hubby's work lunches. I then use the carcass (bone, fat, everything) and make and can chicken stock from it. This will enable me to make from scratch soups from our garden veggies come winter, without having to run to the store to do so. So if you can learn to cook, you can grow/produce a lot of the food you'll need yourself, even on a quarter acre. Which bring us to our next point:

2. Learn to garden. One can do this, even in an apartment on a balcony. Grow what you can, what you'll eat, what you use, and visit your local pick your own farms, or farmers markets for the rest. For two people, having a balcony full of veggies can provide most of what you need if you grow vertically and use every inch of available space. There's also ways to get around this, by finding community gardens, finding relatives or friends that will "loan" you the use of some of their land, or asking your apartment complex if you can grow a garden in the back. For those of you in the city, get rid of your lawn if you have to! I mean, what does a lawn do FOR you? It's weekly mowing, fertilizing if you want it to look nice and manicured, seeding and reseeding bare spots, it's work. And you get nothing. So dig it up! Plant some things! Plant All the Things. :) We have a family of six and are going to be using about 1/3 of our quarter acre next year to garden and it will provide almost everything we need for the whole year

3. Learn how to preserve your foods. There are three ways one can do this. Freezing, drying and canning. Canning works well and I use it for a lot, but there are things that benefit from using one of the other two methods. You can grow and dry hot peppers for use in your kitchen as chili powder (grind once dry). I find that I like to freeze green beans because I think they're too mushy after being canned. I also like to freeze my meats instead of canning them. The Ball Blue Book is a great place to start on learning to can, and it's really really easy, though I understand how intimidating it is, I was intimidated for a very long time. You'll be surprised how easy you get it though I promise :)

4. Learn how to hunt, and butcher your own meats. Now, this one is going to get some mixed reviews, I know. I know that some people wont' mind the hunting so much but the butchering! So here's the thing. You're already going to have to field dress your kill, why not learn to just butcher it too? I'll be honest, it's going to be a gross job. It's not going to be something you'll want to do in your Sunday Best and if you're squeamish at all...you might want to find a butcher locally to do it for you. But it's something I think everyone should try to learn.

5 Reduce your energy dependence. This could be getting a bicycle to use as transportation, hoofing it to and from work, line drying your clothing or even using a solar battery recharger for household use. Im not a prepper per se, but the less energy you use, the better off you'll be if that energy becomes too expensive or unavailable, which is more real than the zombies. We live in tornado alley and I've seen towns decimated in just an hour. Energy prices are constantly on the rise, at more of a rate than the wage increases as well, so this will leave you more disposable cash for other more important items in your household.

6. Find alternate water sources. Now this could be as simple as living near a creek, putting in a pond, or drilling a shallow well. This one won't be able to be utilized by everyone, but it's another way to "reduce energy dependence" as potable water isn't free. We have a well on our property and are in the process of getting a hand pump installed so that next year we can use it to irrigate the garden as well as other things. While our water bill runs about $30-$50 a month (higher in the summer from watering), and that's not a significant amount of money to be saving, it's not using clean potable water for drinking for our garden, which is in turn, less energy spent cleaning the water. Another thing you can do is to collect rainwater. (be careful, this is actually illegal in some states).Simply using a barrel under your downspouts and a sump pump or watering can, can provide a lot of your outdoor water uses. Water filters can also be made/purchased so if you needed to, you could use rainwater as drinking and cooking water.

7. Plant a medicinal herb garden. One thing that we're very dependent on is the doctor. A lot of things one really doesn't need to go to the doctor for, but we do anyway. This causes doctors to be backed up every day and honestly, just takes time from YOUR day. I have four kids and we have no shortage of sickness. Seems like every other month they come home with some kind of crap or another. Nine times of ten, you don't' need to do anything. Even if they have a fever, you can often just stay at home and nurse it. That being said, one of the things we do wrong is give Tylenol at the slightest hint of a fever. This is costly, and honestly will do nothing but mask symptoms. I let fevers run in this house because that's the body's way of fighting off something and by bringing the fever down, I am taking away the body's natural defenses and then my children stay sicker, longer. For every day things, you'd be surprised what you can do with a medicinal herb garden. This book is a good place to start. Keeping a stock on hand of medicinal supplies is always a good idea too, this will allow you to not have to travel out when someone is sick or hurt. I keep lots of gauze, tape, band aids and antibiotic cream on hand with my children :)

8. Barter and trade. This is a great way to be more self-sufficient. Lets say you have a bumper crop of strawberries and your neighbor has a bumper crop of corn. Why not trade? Or perhaps you can fix electrical items and your neighbor has extra eggs from the chickens? There's many thing you can barter and trade for. If you have a skill, or items, you can usually find someone else that has skills or items to trade. This is one of those areas that if you can't provide it on your own, find a way to procure it with your own means.

9. Go re-usable. Whether this be with batteries, mama cloth/diva cups, cloth diapers, family cloth, napkins, placemats, etc. Being able to buy or make something once, and keep it around for a long time keeps you from having to rebuy.

10. Invest and learn how to use hand tools. This can be anything from kitchen appliances to outdoor tools. Currently hubby and I own a reel mower for what little lawn we have to keep mowed. It uses no power (other than our own), and needs no special care. Is it harder than using a gas powered? No. It is a bit more time consuming though. I find it takes about 10% more time to complete the lawn with the reel mower than a gas one. But we're talking minutes here. Once a week. Totally worth it.  I also use hand tools in the kitchen. Recently I bought replacement screens for my hand cranked food mill. This allows me to make sauces and what not from our garden yields. I will also be purchasing a hand cranked flour mill in the next bit so we can mill our own flour.

11. Learn some new outdoor survival skills. This could be something like learning how to start a fire, building a shelter/pitching a tent, fishing and hunting, using the sun to navigate and tell time, there's many things that one can learn. Should you get snowed in, lose power, be hit by a storm/tornado, your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, you get lost camping, you just never know :)

12. Learn some indoor skills. These would including things like baking, knitting, sewing, mending/darning, making cheeses and yogurts, candle and soap making, spinning wool, etc. For the very self sufficient, raising your own sheep for wool, dairy cow or goat for milk and bees for wax, these skills would up the amount of things you can produce yourself. Even procuring local milk, yarn and other necessities can allow you to have an end product you know what's in, and you've been able to provide yourself. :)

13. Raise animals. Depending on the codes of your city, you might be able to have chickens, goats or rabbits. Having chickens will provide you with eggs, stew meat, and manure. Rabbits will provide you with fur (angora), meat and manure and goats will provide you with meat (chevon), milk and fur (mohair).

14. Pay off your debt. This mainly is about your mortgage if you have one. Owning your home free and clear not only provides you with shelter and more disposable cash every month, but most people who are self-sufficient would be able to sell or trade their wares for the cash to cough up the change for property taxes every year if they didn't have a job. This number one enables you go without a job, or at least live on one income (which provides more time and energy for homesteading chores), and if one should lose that income, and I think the last few years have shown us that nothing is guaranteed, you could still survive.

Soaked Whole Wheat Tortillas, even if they are crooked!

So they're not perfectly round like the store bought ones. That's a good thing right? I mean, that just shows you they're authentic! This recipe is so easy, I'm betting my nine year old could work it. Really. Ok wait. My husband could work it. And that's saying something because he can't cook. At all. 

I made tortillas once and they sucked. They were gummy, they tasted like cardboard and they were stiff and not at all like you think a tortilla should be. Who knows what I did wrong, I haven't the slightest, but whatever it was, it was enough to turn me off of them. Or so I thought.

In our quest to eat as naturally as possible, I came across soaking your grains, beans and nuts for optimal digestion and health. I won't launch into a tirade about why you should soak your grains, but here's how I look at it. Number one, humans have been doing it (until recently that is) for thousands of years. There are actually a lot of other (healthier) cultures that still do. Secondly, it doesn't take any more time, so why not? I mean, it can't hurt you to soak your grains, and I've got nothing to lose, not even time, so why wouldn't I do something that takes absolutely no energy, time or effort on my part? Granted, it's not as easy as pulling something off a shelf and shoving it into a cart, but healthy eating is never that easy. That's how Americans have become the most obese people on the planet, and I want no part of that. Thirdly, yes thirdly, I've actually seen improvement since I began soaking our grains. I'm losing weight, and don't crave carbs the way I used to. And I don't feel gross like there's a brick of crap in my belly when I eat them now either.

There's also nothing better than a beautiful loaf of whole wheat bread to entice you too!

So here's what you do!

Soaked Whole Wheat Tortillas

Makes 8 awesome rounds!

Ingredients:
2 cups of whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of coconut oil
3/4 cup of water
1 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar
1 tsp of salt
arrowroot powder or cornstarch for rolling out




Mix everything but the salt and arrowroot. Mix it well, in a bowl. Throw a plate or something over the bowl to keep it from drying out and let it sit on your counter for at least 8 hours. I made mine at about 8 am this morning and let it sit until about 5. You could always leave it overnight and then roll it out the next morning.

2. Cut it into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece until it seems like it's too thin. I promise you, it's not. :)

3. Throw that bad boy in a heated skillet on about medium heat, and let it cook maybe 45 seconds on each side. You'll want to watch for it to bubble up in places, and when it bubbles up, you know it's time to turn. Then, turn and cook on the other side. Take a look at the video above to get an idea of when to turn.

4. Enjoy!

You can even make them and freeze them for future use if you are like me, have six people and eat them once or twice a week!

How does your Garden Grow? Aug 7, 2013

 I can't believe it's already August! Where has the summer gone? Our garden is producing and starting to look really good! How are yours looking?

Tomatoes are finally turning! Check all those spots of red in there!
Won't be long now and our canning will go from the occasional
batch to serious biznass!

Strawberries! They need to be weeded in the middle there and you
can see the runners keep running! Every week I go through and pinch
off the extra runners as we've got enough this season. I'm also wondering if the
plants are June bearing unlike I was told at the nursery, we've not had a bloom since late June

Pea plants for our fall crop, they're getting big already!

Can you believe this melon patch? I have tried to keep it
contained, but to no avail!

Potatoes are still flowering and I rummaged around, they're growing just fine! 

I might be really proud of these strawberry plants that I have to show two pics!

Our lima beans are...beaning! We have a ton of these pods and it won't be long
till we can pick them! 

Tell me these aren't just gorgeous! These are the black cherokee beans we
planted, we like black beans in this house. I am just amazed how beautiful they are. 

This is what iron deficiency looks like in strawberry plants. The yellowing of the
leaves the green veins and the brown on the edges. We've added bone meal and
you can see the ones next to it have perked up a bit already. I estimate within a week
they'll all be back to being green. 

Side yard garden. All that green is just so pretty!

Carrots are finally getting it! Bout time too!

Look how tall these carrot tops are. We thinned a few weeks ago and might
need to thin a few more, but oh well, yummy carrots!

Love these maters. All that red coming in. 

Cherry tomatoes have been producing for a couple of weeks now.
Getting enough to eat in my salad every other day. And there's nothing
better than a homegrown tomato in your salad. 

Lookit how the watermelon vines have just creeped out of the fencing much to my dismay!
I tried to keep them contained, but I would wind them up only to come out the next morning and find
them through the fence and blooming, and I didn't want to hurt the blooms! 

These are bigger than they seem in the picture. The largest one, on the left is probably about 10lbs by now, and they're
growing larger every day. I can't wait to eat them! The kids are super excited too, wanting to check progress every day. 

A hidden watermelon I found this morning. I don't know how I missed it. It's about 10 inches long. 

What's left of our bean patch. We've got Montezuma Reds, Black Cherokee, Green Snap and Lima Beans. 

I don't remember which variety I planted, but these are getting about a foot long before they're ready.
They're also cross pollinating with my Boston pickling cukes and are making for some very misshapen
cucumber "balls". I need to not plant so close next time! 

I completely forgot until two days ago when it began to turn, that I'd planted red peppers.
Isn't it gorgeous!

These are the hot peppers I planted in the Smart Grow containers for salsa. I am really pleased with these containers. Six plants fit in this container and they're thriving!

Potatoes. Won't be long now, it seems. Some of the foliage is starting to die off already. More Smart Pot Containers. 

Finally! A bloom on the Eggplant! We haven't had any eggplant yet this season. 

Homestead Barn Hop!