cooking traditionally

Cooking meals with health in mind is popular today. Getting back to the traditional method of preparing and cooking foods is considered smart and many are realizing the importance of learning how to make this a part of their daily lifestyle.

The ladies in my small church congregation asked me to teach a class in traditional cooking. With the readily available healthy real foods we are able to buy from even the chain stores, we would all agree that our opportunities have  a wide-opened door. My own personal quest began many years ago when I was part of a food coop (FORC) that delivered food once a month to a designated place, the "members" would  then unload and break down the large number of boxes, and the driver was paid in one check. So as you can see we had to be an group organized sufficiently enough to have our own checking account and have a member be in charge of the money. At one time our membership reached about ten families, and we purchased roughly around $800-1000  monthly. My part  in the coop for several years was the ordering of the member's monthly orders. Now this was in the age of the PC (personal computer) and the incipience of the internet. The internet that was available to us at this time (1990's) was only "dial up" in most areas....not always reliable.  The lady at FORC and I would have a specific time and date that she would call me on my landline telephone;  I would arrange my schedule to be at my house and I would give her our orders individually, item by item. Unless this might seem overly arduous to you, let me assure it was not in the least; I developed a pleasant working relationship with this kind woman. Discovering the book, Nourishing Tradtions by Sally Fallon, also made a huge acceleration in my education curve of learning how to cook in a more traditional way.
Last night's focus at my home was teaching about how to prepare Chicken Bone Broth.
The evening's dinner menu was:
Tomato Bisque (chicken bone broth base)
Green salad with homemade dressings (soaked and dehydrated walnuts)
Fermented carrots and cucumbers
Roasted whole Chicken with carrots, red potatoes, and onions(all organic)
Sourdough Einkorn bread with grass-fed herb butter
Oatmeal Pumpkin bake  (soaked oatmeal, sweetened with organic maple syrup)
Fermented Ginger Ale

It was 10 o'clock as we were saying our goodbyes. Hopefully, in the days ahead new thinking will emerge as conscious efforts are made to eat nutrient dense real foods as much as possible.

Oh, by the way since I not always able to find the quality of certain foods locally, I make a monthly food order to Auzure Standard, all online, even the payment.

the spider room

I happen chance to maintain a spider room in my house. True, it might declare my housekeeping abilities as less than stellar, but it goes a smidgen beyond that I think.

The sun room, or morning room as I delight in calling it, is full of windows bringing in light and a number of happy things. And it is also where I have my small table of African violets, two peace lilies (once divided) given at the death of my father, and to be able to tell you the exact age of the philodendron I inherited from my mother would be impossible, heavy sentiments may certainly be  attached to some plants. When frost threatens, I will bring in my bay tree, several aloe vera plants, and my rubber plants. And probably spider egg cases...even if I spray the plants with cleanser and wash thoroughly before bringing them into the house. This is a room for spiders to be nourished and happy, and as long as they are of the nonvenomous species I like to think there is a "Charlotte" hanging around in there somewhere.

Do you remember reading books written for children depicting  spiders in a good light?

1.Charlotte's Webb           E.B. White
2. The Very Busy Spider   Eric Carle
3. Miss Spider's Tea Party  David Kirk
4. Spiders in the Fruit Cellar     Barbara Joose  (This is one of my favorite ones, I must have read this to my children for years.)

epsom salt and baths

For years I have taken showers before bedtime because I have found soothing comfort by doing so, a favorable end to a busy day.

These days I have discovered the sybarite benefits of a taking a bath before bedtime. My father was a bath taker even up into his octogenarian years I remember hearing him splash around in the bathtub. That is a good memory now.

Yet I do not indulge in just a "plain" bath, I prefer to pour two scoops of epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) into the warm running water. There has been much written about epsom salt baths these days, but science has yet to prove the many claims of its various health benefits, though epsom salts has been used as a relief prescription for sore feet and aching muscles for quite some time.  Charlotte's dance teacher will tell the wincing dancers to go home and soak their throbbing feet in Epsom salts after an especially arduous pointe class. You can read a fun bit of the history of the salts discovered in Epsom, England if you are interested.

As for myself, I give generous support for epsom salt baths, 

but keep in mind it is bedtime when I take my bath and my tired brain could easily be led into believing the relaxing effects I am feeling is merely in the Epsom salts!

  

it is yarn along time

Goodness, it appears to have been a slough of time since I last joined with all you ladies at Ginny's yarn along! Not that I wasn't  reading good books mind you, but the needles in my hand were of the embroidery sort, not knitting. But as the approaching autumn was tickling my senses, I knew I must go on a hunt for that perfect knitting project. And I believe I might have found it in this pattern by  Cheryl Toy. I can only imagine how much I am going to love wearing this wrap when the weather turns chilly and a garment of this sort will provide perfect warmth as well as style. And the second best part is the luscious Berroco alpaca yarn. I am feeling rather privileged to be knitting this wrap in this yarn let me tell you.
After reading Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop this summer, I discovered another treasure on my bookshelf, O Pioneers! It is a book that reeled me into the story right from the start, and now I am remembering why I liked some of her other novels way back in my early motherhood years.

healthy sourdough donuts

Evidently I was in one of those moods to fidget with another sourdough food, with the thought of why not? And why not indeed. Fidgeting seems to overcome me from time to time in spite of  a plethora of things that are more pressing in my day.

So from here I give you my take on these healthy donuts. They do not taste bad at all, I like the sourdough taste and since you do add a small amount of sugar before the kneading process that makes them more of a sweet bread item. After frying them in coconut oil they are rolled in a plate of brown sugar and cinnamon which adds a tasty touch too.

Yet here is the question. Would I make them again? Probably not. They are not good enough to make any one of us eat more than one, and I am constantly having to face the fact that my household is only composed of three now ( not counting the cats). That makes experiments of this sort wasteful to a degree, but not completely a wash-out because I know now I definitely would not make them even if I had a household of visitors.

 The recipe can be found here if you get the fidgets. But for now my fidgets are calm.

ripeness

Yesterday afternoon I drove across town to a friend's house to pick some muscadine grapes, an old southern variety my friend's husband called Cowart, and I believe him. I definitely knew the look of the grape but the true proof was when I popped one into my mouth tasting the intense sweetness  of the juicy flesh as it was released from the tough skin of the grape. I knew that delicious sweet taste from memories of my childhood.  So...under the grape arbor I ventured sticking a ripe grape into my mouth every once in a while as I picked, only being slightly unnerved by the insects zooming by my head.  Home to the washing and throwing away bits of dried leaves and bad grapes that were dispersed throughout the grapes.

Jelly making time has now begun.

music in my mind

I go about the day performing my daily housekeeping chores; how I love keeping a home! And as I am keeping I hear lovely music in my mind. You know like when you are watching a movie and there is background music and it all fits together so beautifully? 

A grand "performance" radiating peace and joy.

                                                          ( photo image from Pinterest)

these past two days

"Let all things be done decently and in order".

I Corinthians 14:40

I like order. I would even go as far as to say I need certain semblances of it in my everyday life, therefore, this scripture might have a tendency to create a spirit of self-maintaining smugness. I do not want to misread what the Apostle Paul was speaking about in context to the church in Corinth, nor do I desire to miss what was clearly stated in principle.

The Word of God is powerfully alive and intrinsically applicable to everyday life, so I would be wise to allow the Holy Spirit to draw me higher up and further in all things, as in everything I do.

The past two days have been make-up days as are the days followed by being away from home. The first day I was busy with laundry. Loads and loads of laundry, which means the washing machine and dryer were seemingly constant in use, I was hauling around baskets of clean laundry to fold and put away throughout the day. The house needed a weekly clean as I was not able to get the house in tip top shape before leaving for the beach, so that was in process.

And then unexpected interruptions presented themselves. My pastor's wife was terribly under the weather so I made a pot of homemade chicken soup and fresh bread to take to her hoping it would provide a bit of comfort.

 An appointment for the cat was scheduled and schooling was tended to get back on track 

since we left most of our schoolwork back home on the desk while we rested at the beach.

Today the refrigerator was cleaned, old food was tossed and containers washed, walnuts and pecans were soaked and put into the dehydrator, emails were answered, and an unexpected morning's visit from two lovely ladies that were going from door to door, and in the mode of our conversation clearly said they did not believe Jesus was God. I invited them in and with decency and order I shared God's truth from I John 5. I am praying for them and I hope they come back.

And of course, I have managed to write this post....

coming home and remembering

Being at the beach takes on an essence that makes remembering sweet.  One of my sweetest memories of this past trip was coming through the screen door and hearing Ivy repeat her Granddaddy count the cracking of the eggs in the pan. 

"One...one.

Two...two

Three...three"

Then there were these sweet and lasting moments too.

the sun and the moon

First it was my husband and me enjoying the setting of the sun over dinner...yes, just the two of us. 

 Back to the cottage to watch the girls on the beach as the moon was rising in the west.

Lastly, we sat on the porch and beheld the bright moon and its stunning reflection on the surf.

The first day ended with a very tired Ivy being put to bed and games of * Flinch on the kitchen table.

His faithfulness like the ocean tides

We are heading to the shore tomorrow. And with sheepish intention I declare that last week we were holding our breaths as Hurricane Dorian began to roar past the coastline. All is well, the boards have been removed from the windows and we are looking forward to sitting on the porch to watch the beautiful sunrise and observe the shifting tides. It has been an entire year since I was at the shore and it completes a year with its steadfastness.

But there is this small matter of packing and alas, I am so desperately home bound.