Cooking

Pioneer Woman is slaying me.

Actually it's her cookbook.

Really it's the recipes.

Well, okay so -- not slaying me. More like tickling my tastebuds.

I cook.  A lot. And I like cookbooks and have way too many of them. I have been avoiding PW's cookbook for that reason, but I finally decided to give in. After all, I could just check it out from the library rather than go out and purchase it right away. But I quickly discovered that this is one cookbook that I would use. A lot. I have been going through and picking out recipes to try, in no particular order.

Well, okay. Carbs first, if you must know.

French Breakfast Puffs--ooh, la, la.

Basic Breakfast Potatoes--divine

Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes--wow

And Heaven, help me Patsy's Blackberry Cobbler--can I get an Amen! This brought back some kind of childhood memory. I'm sure my grandma used to make a version of this cobbler that has been missing from my life for ... well, for a long, long time.

Nothing lasted quite long enough to be photographed (except for the cobbler, which had to be pried out of my hands). And granted, I have only scratched the surface, but oh yum. Yummy, yum, yum. What I love about this book is that the recipes are so down-to-earth and I would use every one of them.

It's true--I just paged through the entire book just to double check that I wasn't about to tell a lie. Every single recipe. How often does that happen?

Except maybe Ivy's Prune Cake with Buttermilk Icing. But if Marlboro Man likes it, then I'm game.

So this one's a keeper. Not this actual copy--the library would be mad at me if I never returned it. I'll go out and get my own.

After I eat the rest of this cobbler.

Thanks for sharing your recipes, PW!

Garbage

A few weeks ago, as I tied up the garbage, I noticed that we seemed to be putting a bag of garbage from the house out to the garage bin only about once a week and I remember thinking "that's pretty good--I wonder if we could reduce even more."

And last year, actually Christmas of 2009 a friend of mine gave me a 2010 page-a-day calendar and on each page was one thing you could do to reduce, reuse or recycle. I dutifully tore off the pages as the year slid away. And patted myself on the back many times and thought more than once "well, we already do so many of these things. I mean really we didn't need this calendar."

Or so I thought.

Then, last week, I discovered the Zero Waste Home and was blown away by this family's dedication to our world. Extreme? Yeah, maybe. Impressive and inspiring? Definitely.

Truth be told, I know and have known that we could do so much more to reduce our waste and even as 2010 drew to a close and I recycled the plastic base of the calendar (or tried to--Aidan actually decided that he "needed" it), I knew that we would need to up-the-ante this year. We reduce our consumption where we can, we reuse items that can be put to multiple purposes and we recycle the rest, which makes us feel good. But the first step--refusing to consume things we really don't need or seeking out items that have less or no packaging--that requires a whole nother level of commitment.

Yes, I realize "nother" is not a word and "whole nother" is not a phrase, but I like saying it:-)

When we designed our home, we purposely left off the basement and the attic. We knew we would need storage. But we also knew that when we had larger storage areas, thinking "this is cool, now our stuff won't get all discombobulated and disorganized", we tended to fill those spaces up with more stuff. And the stuff collected dust and well, in one instance, cat pee....

but that's another story.

Of course, we "need" certain things and our culture and lifestyles have developed a system whereby we purchase these things, in multiple layers of packaging more often than not. But as I perused the Zero Waste blog, I discovered many creative ways to circumvent all those layers of packaging. And while I see now how much more we can do, I am ready to stop being complacent and complicit. My dollars are my votes. We can no longer wait for companies to "do the right thing". We need to let them know what we will accept and pay for. If we care about our planet, our home; if we care about our children's futures then we will do this.

Less garbage in 2011 sounds good to me!

They Have Arrived

.... the seeds we ordered, that is.

We have a boatload of seeds left from last year as well. These are just the things we didn't have. In a couple of weeks we'll get some of these going inside and hopefully have some nice flats of seedlings in May.

It's Project Quilting time again. Check out the entries this week for the "Hardware Store Challenge", which would have left me stumped. Fortunately these folks are much more creative than I am. Here is the link: Where Creativity Blooms you can win a coffee cozy this week. The link is also on the top right side of this page. Mostly I just like to admire all the different creations and marvel at the fact that they are completed in one week.

Be inspired. Be very inspired.

Chickens

I recently read a blog post on Cold Antler Farm about husbands and chickens. Basically there have been several readers who wrote in saying that their spouses weren't interested in raising chickens. It's a shame really, because as Jenna points out "hens pay rent in the form of eggs." That they do. They're possibly the easiest farm animal to care for in my humble opinion. My kids do most of the work during the week (don't tell HE that) collecting eggs, filling their grain bin and water.

The coop needs cleaning a few times a year, depending on how dirty it gets, but that isn't a big job either. HE did it in about an hour the other night. Granted, he had a back ache for a few days afterward, but I think that's because he worked fast. and hadn't stretched before or after (and, let's face it, we aren't spring chickens anymore;-). and he's been a bit stressed out with the happenings in Madison. and he sits all day at his job.

So for all of you husbands out there who are somewhat reluctant, recruit your kiddos and follow these steps:
Build or buy a coop:

HE built this, but he's a bit of a do-it-yourselfer, so no need to over-achieve, there are lots of great options out there.

Then, get some chicks:

I mean, really, how cute is that?

Keep them in a warm place until they are big enough to be in the coop (few weeks). Feed them chick feed and give them fresh water every day.

We raised Buckeyes from day-old chicks starting last March and started getting eggs last November. We have about 11 hens and a rooster. We get on average 8 eggs a day--plenty to use and have some leftover to share.

I guess, from another perspective (and I'm not being snarky) who needs their husband to "rule the roost"? Hubby doesn't even have to know about it, when it comes right down to it. If you've got some good friends, handy family members and ambitious kiddos you could do it without his help. They really are easy and those eggs are oh-so-delicious. And fun. And pride-inducing.

And chickens are fun "pets" not to mention voracious insect eaters. They are entertaining and beautiful.

But, I'm no expert--there are many books on chicken raising that you can get from the library to help you on your chicken journey.

We'll be getting a second batch of Buckeye chicks in about a month--a bit later than last year, but we want to keep them in the house for less time and the weather will be warmer, making it easier to transition them a bit sooner. They do make an incredible amount of dust. But don't tell your spouse about that....

Aging, Iron and Flowers

I received these from a dear friend this week for my 29th (wink, wink) birthday. They are stunning and such a welcome burst of color. Even those of us who love winter enjoy a bit of early spring. Thank you K*!

The past week has been a bit tough for me. Don't know whether it's turning older, the craziness going on in Madison or that my iron is plummeting again. Could be a combo of all three I suppose.

Low iron doesn't just affect me physically; it's like someone is pulling a gauze curtain over my brain. I didn't realize how low I had been until the past few months that I have felt like Super Woman. Lot's of energy, positive mood, needing less sleep--who knew a human could feel so great! Since last May I had been taking a mega-dose of iron supplement. It took nine months to build my iron (almost) up to normal levels. Nine months! I stopped taking the supplement (per doctor's instructions) about a month ago and the gauze curtain feels like it's coming back. I am more tired, a bit more snippy and melancholy. I realize I can't take the iron supplement forever, but I just can't go back to living the way I did--really it wasn't living, it was more like surviving each day. I hope this week was just a minor blip. I head back to have my levels checked in a few months, so we'll know then. In the meantime I will keep my chin up, eat well, exercise and trust.

It Worked!!

...my snow dance, that is!

I know, some of you probably think I am crazy--who wants more snow? This time of year lots of folks are praying for spring. But as the story goes, I was born in a blizzard, so I guess it's in my blood. Anyway it's pretty~much better than looking at brown for the next two months.

Snow Dancing isn't all that hard. You just need to read this book by Lezlie Evans, turn on some music and watch for the storm clouds.

My husband and kids don't know this, but I LOVE children's picture books. If I could, I would collect them, but it would be a bit obvious seeing as my kids are kind-of past the picture book phase. I could collect them for my niece, who is still 5, but then I would have to actually give them to her and seeing as she lives in Maryland there's no benefit to me.

I'll keep working on that one--for now I will not be parting with our current collection of children's picture books, so don't even ask.

One of my other loves is the moon. Especially when it's fat and full and either rising or setting and takes you by surprise. Those are the moments it takes your breath away. Late this week, just before my snow-dance snow storm arrived, I woke up to this moon setting in the west. My photo is a bit blurry, but wow it was stunning.

Moon watching and snow dancing--two of my favorite past-times. Okay, well, maybe not in the top ten, but they're pretty important!

Fire

Not the bad, uncontrollable kind. The warm, curl-up-on-the-couch kind.

We have a masonry heater in our home and it provides most of our winter heat. It's supplemented by radiant floor heating, which is powered (on sunny days) by our solar panels. Our home is also passive-solar design, so on sunny days you can really tell the difference in the amount of fire you need, unless it's super cold and windy. Then I get that thing blazing and keep it going all day.

You can see where the plaster has chipped off the heater. Just one more "project" on that seemingly never-ending list...

So now the weather folks are predicting a high of 50 degrees on Thursday! We definitely won't be needing fire that day. Maybe it's just me, but I prefer it to be below freezing with a bit of snow this time of year--at least in Wisconsin. Now if I lived in Florida....

well, I would never live in Florida, so never mind.

On a completely different topic--check out the entries for Project Quilting this week. Amazing. These folks are creating something in one week. ONE. Sheesh! Just click on "Where Creativity Blossoms" under Cool Stuff on the top right side of this page and then place your vote. Easy, peasy.

I need to go do a snow dance now.

Oh, and if you are interested in learning more about masonry heaters, you can find some info here--these are the folks who installed ours and helped us design our home:
http://gimmeshelteronline.com/