not quite a wordless Wednesday - Happy Birthday to the Big Girl!

Seven years ago today I birthed the big girl. Right upstairs in our family bed, in fact.

She wasn't born until around 8:13PM, so we've a ways to go yet before she's absolutely positively officially seven years old.

I honestly cannot imagine or recall where those 7 years have gone. Time moves far, far too quickly where my children are concerned.

Here's a picture I snapped this morning of her enjoying her blueberry pancake brunch:





(on Saturday the boy turned 20, but I didn't blog about it this year cuz he's an adult and all now - absolutely positively cannot believe that my firstborn is a grown-up already)

what I've been up to...

on Monday I canned up these:


14 pints and 4 half pints of homemade apple pectin


and today I canned up these:


16 pints of homemade apple pectin

acquiring preparedness skills - #14 emergency communications

image credit

This post is part 14 of our series on acquiring preparedness skills. What I did was adapt handouts I had created for our ward (congregation) preparedness fair last year and re-wrote them into blog posts. I've tried to make the information more general than our local community, but international readers will still find that it's probably localized to the US.

These posts won't be comprehensive as that isn't the intent. I hope, though, that you are able to begin your journeys toward acquiring skills that allow you and your families to be more prepared and self-reliant.



Where to Learn about Emergency Communications



Print

1. The ARRL Operating Manual for Radio Amateurs by Mark J. Wilson

2. Passport to World Band Radioby Lawrence Magne

3. ARRL Ham Radio License Manual: All You Need to Become an Amateur Radio Operator by H. Ward Silver and the American Radio Relay League

4. The ARRL General Class License Manual for Ham Radio, Level 2 by the American Radio Relay League and Ward Silver



Person-to-Person

1. Local amateur radio clubs

2. Local amateur radio stores



Online

1. American Radio Relay League (ARRL)

2. QRZ.com

3. eHam.net

4. Ham Radio 101 at AR15.com

acquiring preparedness skills - #13 emergency medical skills

image credit

This post is part 13 of our series on acquiring preparedness skills. What I did was adapt handouts I had created for our ward (congregation) preparedness fair last year and re-wrote them into blog posts. I've tried to make the information more general than our local community, but international readers will still find that it's probably localized to the US.

These posts won't be comprehensive as that isn't the intent. I hope, though, that you are able to begin your journeys toward acquiring skills that allow you and your families to be more prepared and self-reliant.


Where to Learn about Emergency Medical Skills



In Print

1. First Aid -- Responding To Emergencies by Red Cross American

2. Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook by David Werner

3. Emergency War Surgery ed. Andy Szul

4. Where There Is No Dentist by Murray Dickson

5. Ditch Medicine: Advanced Field Procedures For Emergencies by Hugh Coffee

6. Adventure Medical Kits A Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness & Travel Medicine by Eric A.Weiss, MD

7. Wilderness Medicine, Beyond First Aid by William Forgey

8. Wilderness First Responder, 2nd: A Text for the Recognition, Treatment, and Prevention of Wilderness Emergencies by Buck Tilton



In Person

1. American Red Cross First Aid Classes

2. Boy Scout Training

3. Check your local technical college for EMT classes



Online

1. emedicinehealth - Wilderness Emergencies, Survivial, and First Aid

2. WebMD - First Aid, Safety and Emergency Treatment Procedures Guide

3. Medical Corps
 

making your own homemade fruit pectin from green apples

One of our apple trees - the honeycrisp - really overproduced fruit this year. We picked some green apples off the tree in June, but recently had to pick even more fruit off of the tree.

This much, in fact:


bowl full of unripe honeycrisp apples from the tree in our backyard

So...having a plethora of green apples I pondered what to do with them. I could have made pies with them, or tried making some applesauce. I might have pickled them.

But I finally decided to try my hand making homemade fruit pectin.

The first step in making green apple fruit pectin is to wash and cut the apples. I quartered most of them, but cut the small ones in half.

Then I put them in my small water bath canner and filled the pot with water to cover the apples.


filling the pot of apples with water

Then I set them on the stovetop and brought them up to a boil. Then I turned down the heat and let them simmer. This batch simmered for about 5 hours.


apples and water simmering on the stovetop

After they were extremely soft and slushy and the water had reduced quite a bit I prepared another stock pot by setting a colander lined with cheesecloth inside it on top of the pot.

I then poured the green apple slush into the colander and let the liquid drip through.


straining the apple mixture

I set it aside overnight to drain.

This is what the apple mixture looked like after a night of draining:


apple mixture after overnight straining - liquid pectin has been drained out

and this is what the final product looked like in the pot:


homemade liquid fruit pectin

In the end it yielded 7 cups of homemade fruit pectin.


7 cups of homemade liquid fruit pectin

I then refrigerated the liquid pectin until I had time to get around to finishing the project.

The next step was testing the pectin.


supplies and ingredients needed to test the homemade fruit pectin

To test homemade pectin take one teaspoon of the liquid pectin and place it in a small dish with 1 Tablespoon of rubbing alcohol (70% works fine). If the mixture creates one large glob you have a strong fruit pectin. If it forms smaller globs it's a weaker pectin.


a view of our homemade pectin after the alcohol test

You *must* discard this test product. Never return it to your batch of pectin as rubbing alcohol is not an edible item.

If you want to improve the strength of your pectin simply return the liquid to a stockpot and continue to cook it down reducing it. Test again with a small sample.

I wanted to preserve the liquid pectin by canning it so I went ahead and did some research as to what the right amount would be when preparing jams and jellies. For my purposes I brainstormed what fruits I typically used in making jams and jellies. Some fruits are naturally high in pectin (apples, grapes) and others are quite low (raspberries, strawberries). I also prefer to make low sugar versions and needed to come up with a method that would allow me to continue this practice.

After a fair amount of research I decided to use 8 oz. jars to preserve the homemade fruit pectin.

Homemade fruit pectin is water bath canned and processed for 10 minutes. The process is very similar to canning jams and jellies, actually.

First you heat the homemade pectin to a boil. Then you fill your jars, one at a time, leaving about 1/2" headspace.


using a canning jar funnel to fill the jars with homemade fruit pectin

Then you center a lid on the top of the jar and tighten it down with a ring.


one jar filled and with lid and ring on ready to go in the water bath canner

Place that filled jar back in your water bath canner and fill the next jar until all are filled and back in the canner.


6 half pint jars of homemade fruit pectin ready to be canned


6 half pints of homemade fruit pectin

As for using the homemade fruit pectin in making jams and jellies, most instructions I read stated that a 1:1 ratio of fruit (or fruit juice) to homemade fruit pectin was needed for low sugar jams and jellies. Most of my jam and jelly recipes use 5 cups of fruit or fruit juice and I usually add about 1/4 cup of sugar to help retain the bright fruit colors.

Traditional jams and jellies using large amounts of sugars typically need 2/3 cup of liquid pectin for 4 cups of fruit or fruit juice. This is assuming added sugar of about 7 cups for 4 cups of fruit or fruit juice.

my decadent breakfast

I piled blueberries on top of my oatmeal this morning.

Who would have thought we'd have blueberries in season in August???

This breakfast is so simple and very quick to cook. I cooked oats in water with a pinch of salt. The ratio is about 2:1 water to oats. I put the water, oats, and salt in together and bring to a boil. I cook until the oats are the creamy consistency that I prefer. Then I topped with as many blueberries as the bowl would hold. :)

Oatmeal is one of our favorite breakfasts around here. It's very inexpensive when you buy your oats in 25lb bags!

Toppings that appear on our oatmeal:

- fresh fruit in season
- dried fruits (dates, raisins, apples, pineapple)
- nuts (pecans, almonds, walnuts)
- sugars (maple syrup, honey, brown sugar)
- spices (cinnamon, nutmeg)

Everyone in our family seems to have their favorite topping. The baby girl likes brown sugar. The big girl prefers a combination of cinnamon and sugar. My winter choice is usually dates and walnuts.

To serve the sugar I put a small dish with one teaspoon of sugar next to their bowls of cooked oatmeal. The girls love adding the sugar themselves and will often not even use all of the sugar!

To make the cinnamon easier to serve I re-purposed a spice container and made a mixture of cinnamon and sugar and they can sprinkle it on themselves.

Do you have a favorite inexpensive breakfast that you cook for your family?

I've got plans for these green apples...

anyone care to guess what they'll become?

too webbed up lately

The big girl has expressed a desire (read - whined, annoyed, and generally begged) for more structure with her schooling. Long-time readers know that this approach is really not my thing. As in, I wouldn't enjoy learning that way and cannot comprehend why my offspring seem to enjoy it so durn much.

But - I'm her mama and will try my very bestest to satisfy her learning preferences.

So I've been perusing the webs looking for ideas and curricula again.

I've got her math settled upon and was busily downloading reading books for her yesterday when I came across this quizzy bit called Webify Me.

What do you do for fun or to unwind when you're busy working using your computer?

on Tuesday night the autumn fairies visited

It's a sure sign that summer will be leaving us soon.

home baked Italian bread recipe

On Sunday I baked some Italian bread to go along with the baked chicken wings. It also happened to be the first time I test drove this year's Mother's Day gift - a french bread pan.

I used the recipe I found on food.com but altered it a bit to suit my needs.

ingredients:

6 cups flour
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
5 tsp active dry yeast
1 Tbsp butter
1 3/4 cups very warm water
olive oil
1 egg white
1 Tbsp cold water

I used my Kitchen-Aid mixer and combined the sugar, salt, yeast, butter, and 1-1/2 cups of flour in the bowl. I added in the water and beat it until mixed. Then I added in another 3/4 cup of flour and mixed.

Next I took off the mixing attachment and put on the dough hook. I turned it on and gradually added all of the rest of the flour until I had a stiff dough (you might need more or less depending upon humidity, etc. in your kitchen). I kneaded it using the mixer for about 10 minutes. Then I removed the bowl, put a linen towel over the top and let it rest on my hoosier top for about a half hour.

After that I removed the dough and turned it out on my now lightly floured hoosier top. I created two balls of dough and then I used a rolling pin to roll each into a rough 15"x10" shape. Then I shaped the loaves by rolling them up and pinching the edges together to seal the seams. I brushed the tops lightly with olive oil.



I placed them in my french bread pan and put them into my cold oven to rise. When they were about twice the size of the original loaves I sliced 4 diagonal slits in the tops of the loaves and baked them in a preheated 425F oven for 20 minutes (in retrospect I think 15 minutes would have been fine).

Then I took the loaves out of the oven and brushed the tops with the egg wash (1 beaten egg white combined with 1 Tbsp cold water). I put them back into the oven and baked for another 5 minutes.

Then I cooled them on a cooling rack.

baked chicken wings recipe

On Sunday I was looking for a recipe for making chicken wings. I wanted something with good flavor, but not so hot that my girls wouldn't eat them.

I came across this recipe for baked chicken wings on allrecipes and gave it a try.

I had two baking sheets worth of wings to cook up, so I ended up altering the recipe a bit.

ingredients:

18 Tbsp olive oil
8 tsp garlic powder
12 tsp chili powder
2 tsp freshly ground pepper
salt to taste (3 tsp for us)

The first batch I made (half this recipe) I went ahead and followed the original recipe's instructions to put the seasonings and olive oil in a resealable bag and shake the wings in there. It was messy, so when I needed to mix up another batch in order to coat the remaining wings I decided to mix it in a glass baking dish and dredge the wings through the coating.


seasoning mix in glass dish


coated wings prior to baking

The wings went into a preheated 375F oven and baked for about an hour.


baked chicken wings

still needle felting

This past week I put together two needle felted playsets. They were birthday gifts for two little girls who are friends of the big girl.

The bases of the playmats were upcycled wool sweaters that I felted. I added additional detail by needle felting colored wool to create the image of a pond, some shrubbery, flowers, and grass.

Then I created a swan for each of the playsets using natural wool and some pink wool for the beak.

And finally, each set included one doll. The dolls had a wire armature covered in wool.

All of the wool was some that I had washed, carded, and dyed myself.

I'm having such fun with needle felting that I really wish we had our own homestead in the country where I could raise sheep ourselves. Way back when I was a teenager I did raise one lamb, but it was part of a 4-H market lamb project.

Set #1














Set #2

egg, sausage, and broccoli breakfast muffin cups recipe

I made these the other day for brunch and LOVED them. They're little individually sized crust-less quiches. I'm hooked on the concept of breakfast foods I can cook in advance and pop in the freezer to use for quick re-heats later on.

ingredients:

14 Jones Dairy Farm natural sausage links
1 cup broccoli florets, chopped small
8 large eggs
1/4 cup whole organic milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder
salt & pepper to taste
some shredded cheddar cheese to sprinkle on the tops
bacon grease or lard to grease the muffin pan

In a large saute pan, cook the sausages until browned. Add in the chopped broccoli and lightly saute.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs and milk. Add in the olive oil, baking powder, and seasons; mix well. Add in the sausage, broccoli, and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese.

Pour into well greased muffin pan. Sprinkle a bit of shredded cheddar cheese on top of each "muffin".



Bake in a preheated 375F oven for about 20 minutes. Serve warm.



Based upon a recipe found at

homemade taco seasoning mix

Whenever possible we like to find homemade alternatives to packaged foods and seasoning mixes is top on my list of foods to find homemade alternatives for. I have a strong dislike of MSG, artificial colors and artificial flavors and prefer to use real foods whenever possible.

I usually have a jar of this seasoning mix in my pantry already prepared. We use it in making burritos, seasoning ground meat, chicken taquitos, Mexican rice, etc.

ingredients:

6 tsp. chili powder
5 tsp. paprika
4-1/2 tsp. cumin
3 tsp. onion powder
2-1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Just combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. I store mine in a small glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Old yeast jars are great for storing seasoning mixes since the brown glass helps keep out light.

This recipe will make about 21 teaspoons and about 7 teaspoons of this homemade mix will be the equivalent of a 1.25 ounce packet of taco seasoning mix.

Mexican rice recipe

I served this with the chicken taquitos last week and it's sure to appear on our menu again!

ingredients:

2 cups uncooked rice (we used Jasmine rice, but feel free to substitute any rice and adjust cooking time accordingly)
4 cups chicken stock (or broth)
1 cup salsa
2 tsp. garlic salt (when I have time I mince garlic instead)
2 tsp. taco seasoning

Combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer. About 20 minutes is the amount of simmering time with the Jasmine rice.

Adapted from this recipe from The Tidy Nest.

chicken taquitos recipe

Thursday night's dinner featured chicken taquitos. This was my first time making taquitos from scratch and I was very pleased with the end product - both the flavor and ease of preparation.

ingredients:

1 small package of cream cheese
1/4 cup salsa
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
3 Tbsp dried cilantro
2 green onions, chopped finely
2 cups shredded cooked chicken (I used some home canned chicken and it was 2 breasts - didn't measure it but I'm sure it was more than 2 cups)
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese
small flour tortillas
olive oil

To make them, take all of the ingredients except the tortillas and olive oil and mix them together in a large bowl.



Then take about 2 Tablespoons of the mixture and spread it on one edge of a tortilla.



Roll up the tortilla and place it fold side down on a baking sheet.

This recipe made 16 finished taquitos for us.



After they're all assembled and on the baking sheet I brushed olive oil over the tops of the taquitos. Then I baked them in a preheated 425F oven for 15 minutes.

And we probably could have made a few more, but I ran out of tortillas and didn't feel like making any just then.



To can see the original recipe over at Pennies on a Platter.