A Day in the Kitchen

Oh what a wonderful day it was.  The kids went off to their dad's for the weekend, so I enjoyed the morning in the kitchen.  Lately I've been making Artisan Bread, but today I decided to get adventurous and tackle making my own sandwich bread.  And boy-howdy, am I glad I did!

One of my favorite blogs to follow is Living and Gardening in the Ozarks .  The author inspired me and I hope to one day be as self sufficient as this wonderful lady is. 

Not too long ago, she posted her favorite bread recipe. I've been wanting to make it for quite some time. Well today I finally did it!  Here are the results:

It took everything in me not to try and slice into them immediately. The house smelled heavenly.  When I finally did cut into a loaf, it was beautiful, and the flavor was incredible.  When the kids got home, they gave it a taste test and decided immediately that they didn't want store bought bread ever again.  I'm going to have to agree with them.

Once the bread was finished, I decided to use the overripe pineapple someone had given me and make a pineapple upside-down cake, and then decided to make fried chicken for dinner - with mashed potatoes, gravy of course, plus some glazed carrots.  Now we are all fat and sassy, and ready to curl up in bed to listen to a show on The Preparedness Radio Network .  There are some really great homesteader themed shows on there.  I recommend it to any of you out there looking to become more self sufficient.  Everything from food preperation/storage, to wilderness survivial, to herbal medicine.... and the list goes on.  Really great shows.

Well, now I'm just rambling.  I think it's time to turn in for the night. Thanks for stopping by!



Happy New Year and Hot Process Soap

Well, it would seem I'm off to a bit of a slow start this year, but I think it's still early enough to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  Things have been a little difficult so far, but seem to be smoothing out, finally

Today, I finally got around to making a batch of hot process soap for the first time.  I didn't take pictures during the process since it went pretty fast, but I followed instructions that I found at Candletech, in conjunction with my own recipe.  I made a one pound batch which requires 16 oz of oil/fat (I used 8 oz lard, 4 oz coconut oil, and 4 oz olive oil), 2.3 oz lye, 7 oz water, and essential oils.  I used peppermint, tea tree, and pine needle oils.  The house now smells heavenly.  

Since the soap is hot processed, its ready for immediate use once it sets. I used some that I flaked out of the crockpot once I'd filled my molds, and fell in love with the rich lather.  It really beat my original lard/lye cold process soap, and left my hands feeling soft and clean.  The bars themselves didn't turn out as pretty as I'd hoped. I think I didn't quite mix it long enough to develop a good enough trace, so its a little crumbly in spots, and I took them out of their molds a little early for fear they would get stuck in the thin plastic mold.  But once they've been used a couple of times, no one will notice anyway, I'm thinking.  

So finally I'm off to a decent start of a self sufficient year.  It is time to start planning the garden, but I'm just not sure I'll get it in in time this year, with all the work I'll have to do on the garage, getting it ready to turn into my business.  I may have to refill my homeade self watering containers so they can be moved around during the construction.   Tomorrow it's back to work at Mom's shop, and I'm looking forward to it. 

What new things do you plan to learn this year to make yourself more self sufficient?

Errand day and homeade laundry soap

It had been a busy day full of errands, and planning for opening my grooming salon.  The amount of work ahead of me is overwhelming at times, but simple projects help me keep it all in perspective-

Today I finally got around to making another batch of laundry soap.  I don't know why I always put it off, considering it takes me all of 15 minutes to make it. Yes, I know it takes about the same amount of time to buy it in the store, but after making my own, I'm not sure I'll ever go back to store bought - not to mention the cost difference alone is worth taking the time.  This is how I make mine:

Ingredients:

1 cup washing soda

1/2 cup borax

1 bar pure soap (not beauty bar), grated

3 gallons hot water

1. First bring some water to a boil and dissolve grated soap in it. 

2. While it's melting, fill your container with 3 gallons hot water (from the tap is fine)

3. Add dissolved soap to container of hot water

4. Add borax and washing soda to mixture and mix well. If  you dont have washing soda, you can put baking soda in a glass dish and bake at a low temp for a couple hours, this changes the chemical structure of the soda, making it washing soda by drawing out moisure.

5. Seal container with lid and set in a warm, still place for 24 hours.

A half cup per load should be sufficient to get your clothes clean.  Depending on your water, more or less may be required.  

I hope to get around to making a batch of bar soap this week. I'll try and post pictures of the process, since it will be my first attempt at hot process soap making.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.

The Course of Change

For the past 5 months I've been working towards becoming more self-sufficient in the area of employment. For 17 years I've worked as a nurse. My life has had to revolve around my job. I cannot begin to tell you how many birthdays, holidays, school functions and friendly gatherings I have missed over the years. I felt like my entire life was slipping away from me.

Five months ago I began apprenticing in my mother's dog grooming shop in a first step to becoming self employed.  It has been a very long five months, grooming during the week, and working weekend doubles in a nursing home on weekends.  Sixteen hour days were really taking their toll on me. I was miserable, exhausted, and extremely unhappy in the position I was in.  So today, I took the next step.

I resigned from the weekend job.

It's a little scary, taking that step, but thankfully I'm now in a position to be able to spend some time focused solely on the job at hand, which is getting my garage converted into a grooming salon, and focusing on grooming. At least for a couple months.

So now is a time to become extra frugal.  I'll be looking for more ways beyond what I'm already doing to be self sufficient.  Every decision I make will be with the idea in mind that I need save money everywhere possible.

So what are your biggest money saving activities/ideas?

A Day for Cooking

Today was a cold, gray day. A perfect kind of day to spend in the kitchen.

The day started at 5:30 this morning, when I got the hankering to make homeade buttermilk biscuits from Greg's Southern Biscuit recipe  found at allrecipes.com.  They didn't rise like I would have liked, but the flavor was incredible. I think I rolled them out a little thin, which probably explains the lack of leavening.  I made a batch of homeade sausage gravy to go with them.

Tanner decided they were so good they made his eyes cross. 

This afternoon I decided to whip up a pot of split pea soup. Let me say that as wonderful as this soup tastes, it is NOT pretty.  But paired with my Hawaiian Sandwich, it is incredible.  

Here is my recipe:

Amy's Split Pea Soup

2 1/2 cups split peas

8 cups water (or broth)

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup diced onion

1 cup diced ham

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a soup pot, bring to a low boil, then decrease heat and cover, stirring occasionally until peas are cooked completely.  

Hawaiian Sandwich

1 Hawaiian Sandwich roll, or 2 slices Hawaiian bread

2 slices havarti cheese

2 slices ham

1 pineapple ring

Arrange ham, cheese, and pineapple ring on bread. Butter outside surfaces of bread and grill in panini press or skillet until cheese is melted and bread is toasty.

We enjoyed a lovely cold weather meal, and then my daughter and her friend decided they wanted to get in the act and bake some chocolate peanut butter chip cookies.  I think there was more goofing going on than there was cooking but they sure had a fabulous time.  

The highlight of my day occured when I received my mail for the day.  Happily tucked into the box were the books that I've been waiting for for about 2 weeks.

The first, More Straw Bale Building: A Complete Guide to Designing and Building with Straw has me daydreaming about building my home... again.   The second is How to Build Small Barns and Outbuildings.  I love to sit with my books on these nippy winter evenings. Can't wait to curl up with these tonight. In fact, I think I'll go and do that now!

Housekeeping day

Today was a busy, productive day.  I took advantage of the fact that I had a couple days off to start on some housekeeping that should have been done a long time ago. First I transplanted some herb seedlings (cilantro, parsley, and oregano) that I started a couple of weeks ago for the kitchen.  I reused some peat pellets, so I'm not sure how well they'll do, we shall see. I'm obviously only halfway through  in this picture. Forgot to take a picture of the completed task.

Next, I cleaned out my indoor greenhouse and moved it from the warm, dark living room, to the much lighter laundry room. Hopefully that will give the little guys the little extra to make it.

When I cleaned out the greenhouse, I found my pot of seed packets and inventoried what I had. By the looks of it, I'll only need to buy tomato and bell pepper seeds this year, if everything sprouts.  I know it seems awful early to be planning my garden, but one can never plan too much.  My favorite crops so far are my Black Beauty zuchinni and armenian cucumbers.  I've yet to have a very successful tomato or bell pepper crop. Maybe this year will be the year. (Fingers crossed)

By the time I finished with those tasks, the cleaning bug had hit full force. I cleaned out the kitchen cabinets and got rid of  lots of very useful but seldom used kitchen appliances so that I could find the things I actually do use. I'll be posting on our local Freecycle group to give them to some who needs them. If you're not familiar with freecycle, its a wonderful way to keep your things out of the landfill, and find things that you can't buy.  I think most communities have freecycle web groups.

This afternoon, a friend took a drive with me to  look for property.  Seems that land here in central oklahoma is running about $3000-$5000/acre on average.  Now I just need to decide if I want to buy a smaller piece of land and own it, or finance a larger piece of land.  I'm leaning toward owning a smaller piece. The last thing I want to do is sink a bunch of money into something and be at the mercy of the bank if my grooming shop doesn't make it.  (Terrible that I'm planning for possible failure when I haven't even opened shop yet. Not pessimistic, I say. Just realistic.)

This year I plan on making all of my christmas gifts (except for the kids' gifts). I'm hoping to get a start on that Monday with my first batch EVER of hot process soap.I've made cold process, but like the hot process SO much better.  Funny thing, but after I used homeade soap, I can't make myself buy commercial soaps or body wash anymore.  The one thing I don't think I'll ever give up is my shampoo though.  But who knows. Anyone have a great shampoo recipe?.

Natural Building Techniques

For quite some time I 've been reading up on various natural building techniques, including Cob, Adobe, Earthbag, Cordwood, and Strawbale.  With the possibility of being able to buy land soon looming, I have become more pressed to make decisions about what I want, and how I'll achieve my goal.

My primary goal is to build a home with my own two hands (and those of some friends), that is molded from all natural materials, off grid, utilizes passive solar techniques, and incorporates both indoor and outdoor living areas.

 Some time ago, I thought I had settled on earthbag construction.  I fell in love with the curves, circular designs and the fact that they are very inexpensive to build.  I found these pictures at Cal-Earth. One of my favorite sites to study for earthbag building is Earthbag Plans.  There are so many neat ideas, many not realistic for me, but fun to look at just the same

Recently I have begun reading more about straw bale homes. What I love about them is the use of thermal mass to insulate, faster erection of walls, and availability of straw, since I live here in rural Oklahoma.  In addition,  you still have the creative freedom to sculpt your home through the plastering process. I found a lovely site that shows the process in detail at House of Straw.

I realize that my biggest challenges will be the actual cost of building, and the manpower of getting the job done to make it the most economical choice.  

My plan is to first find a piece of  land.  When I find the piece that speaks to me, I will spend a year just  observing the land during the seasons for changes - become familiar before building, spending plenty of time there simply absorbing the landscape. I know this will help me not only make better decisions, but will also give me the time to begin saving the money to do the actual building.  

Of course, seeing as I'm still learning this whole process, this plan may change many times between now and the completed process. But I promise to keep you posted along the way!

Autumn is in full swing again, and I'm loving the color that always abounds.

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of my car accident.  It seems like every day since that day has continued to revolve around that crazy 15 seconds.  Tomorrow will again be another crazy day. Ironically it will also bring an ironic closure to the entire experience.  I won't go into detail, but to say that it will all be over soon.

Unfortunately, I have been so preoccupied by those events that I had forgotten what my ultimate life goals are- To become self sufficient and gloriously happy in the simplicity of my life.  As I mentioned before, I have continued to make me own laundry soap this year. I have also continued to make my own tootpaste.  My daughter isn't easily impressed, but my son loves the stuff and won't use the store bought anymore.  

For those interested, here is my recipe for homeade toothpaste

3/8 cup baking soda

1/8 cup salt

1/8 cup glycerin

enough water to reach your desired consistancy

peppermint or other essential oil to taste (cinnamon, clove, vanilla, or whatever you enjoy)

Mix all ingredients together and pour or spoon into the container of your choice. This recipe fits perfectly into a 3 oz travel container like the pink one in the picture.

A change of direction

My journey to change the way I live my life has taken me in a new direction. I have decided to make a dramatic change in careers.  After 17 years as a nurse, I have begun apprenticing as a dog groomer in my mothers shop. This is the main reason I haven't posted in such a long time.  Between working as a nurse full time (weekend double shifts), and grooming dogs 4 days a week during the week, I have been pretty busy.

 Today, as I sat here at the computer, it occurred to me that this year has just flown away from me.  Last time I posted it was cold and snowy.  Since then we had a turbulent spring, a record breaking heatwave, and unprecedented earthquakes. My weren't those exciting.  No, really!  Having grown up in California, I've actually missed the quakes I'd grown accustomed to.  Now my children have experienced them too!  My son just stood there with a silly smile on his face, and my daughter was completely unimpressed.  She kills me.

I began apprenticing in Mom's grooming shop in July.  It has been alot of fun so far.  

There are days when I wonder if I've just lost my mind. The thought of being self employed is more than a little scary; Especially the idea of not having a guaranteed paycheck. But the pro's are pretty great too, and I think they far outweight the cons. I'm ready to be my own boss!

As for self-sufficiency, I'm am working at that in baby steps.  I am happy to say I haven't bought laundry soap in a year. By making it at home I would estimate than I've saved about $300 this year.  Since my garden never made it into the yard last year, I hope to spend this winter preparing some raised beds, learning to grow mushrooms, and growing fresh herbs in pots indoors.  And of course, research, research, research!  

It's Just Around the Corner!

After several weeks of what has become affectionately called 'Snowklahoma', we have finally been blessed with beautiful spring like weather. So once again, I checked on my beautiful seedlings, watered them, and looked them over. And this is what I found.

My onions are still spindly and laying over. Is this normal? I have no idea, since I've never planted onions indoors before, but I suspect they have not seen enough sun. So I will continue to baby them and attempt to keep them safe from the mice. Orkin man is coming to save me this Friday!

On a brighter note, my tomatoes have finally developed their first beautiful little true leaves. I can almost taste the homeade pasta sauce already!

The collards are also producing their first true leaves like my tomatoes. Keeping up with the Joneses I suppose.  But they are long and spindly and laying down like the onions. Not sure about those since I've never raised these either.

I've heard we are in for another round of snow, which is still disheartening with spring fever already kicked in, but I'm so thrilled to have these little reminders that spring is around the corner.  Happy Planting.