some pictures of what we were up to on Saturday

On Saturday we took the girls to a local grocery store that was hosting trick-or-treating - picture taken before the trick-or-treating


Here's a picture of the girls after they completed their trick-or-treating (the baby girl munched on that apple from the time they handed it to her until well after we were back in the van)


after trick-or-treating we splurged and had lunch at an Applebee's restaurant - here is the big girl proudly showing me her kids' menu art


after lunch we continued our drive to Cabela's - the girls love looking at the animal dioramas and the Hubster loves to browse





How was your weekend?

It's been a cabbage week

My sister and I are currently living in different states, but closer than we've lived in at least 17 years.

This past Sunday she brought me this big box of cabbage:



and we've been having fun using Pinterest and facebook to share what we're each cooking with cabbage this week. Honestly, it's been a blast! It's fun to challenge myself with using a particular ingredient and coming up with creative uses. It's also been fun to try new recipes.

I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping my Moo Said the Mama's Urban Homestead page updated, but neglected the blog. Here's a quick recap of what we've done with cabbage here in Mooville:

Monday night's dinner was stovetop version of cabbage rolls


Thirty Minute Meal recipe from allrecipes.com

Tuesday I took the night off since the Hubster was working late in Chicago and we ate non-cabbage leftovers

Wednesday night's dinner was this Pierogi crockpot casserole


Slow Cooker Pierogi Casserole recipe from allrecipes.com

Tonight (Thursday) will be Bierocks
Runzas II (Bierocks) recipe from allrecipes.com

I haven't definitively decided on Friday's dinner yet, but I'm leaning toward veggie egg rolls with a side of Ramen cabbage salad.

NaNoWriMo 2011

I have an online friend, Maggie, who I've known for probably about 4 or 5 years now. We first "met" on the Mothering discussion board and have continued our online friendship at other locations.

Today Maggie announced that she'll be taking part in NaNoWriMo this year and I decided to write a novel. Yes, it was just that quick. Sorta...

I've been feeling restless for some time now. Regular readers here know that I was kinda ready to scrap the blog. I need something new and different. I need to challenge myself.

I also watched this video clip today as it came across my facebook news feed:



The combination of that video clip and Maggie's announcement provided me with the inspiration that I should do it. I have no illusions of being a published writer. I just want to do something different. And it would cross another accomplishment off that imaginary bucket list. It's a chance to stretch and grow, and perhaps get so frustrated I want to tear my hair out.

The neat thing about NaNoWriMo is that there isn't pressure to write a good novel. In fact, it's all about output - just getting those 50,000 words down. Then later on if I think the novel is worth pursuing I can rewrite and rewrite and edit and maybe have something worth reading.

I have an idea sketched out already and for the folks who know me very well you won't be surprised that the main character is a pregnant woman wanting to birth at home. There are obviously some obstacles blocking that desire and the fact that she's carrying twins is just one of them. It's the perfect way for me to use my knowledge about homebirth and advocacy to fuel my writing. All of my writing professors always stressed writing about what we know and I know birth.

Oh, and if the Hubster is reading this before I have a chance to discuss it with you, Mr. MA in Writing and Dr. PhD, I'm doin' this solo and without your input, darling. ;)

I'm still here

I've recovered from that awful autumn head cold and have been busy, busy, busy.

My sister came for a visit this past Wednesday and stayed through Friday. On Saturday we took the girls out to the pumpkin farm and then carved Jack o' Lanterns.

Sunday was our ward's Primary Program and then my sister and her fiance came back to drop off my nephew (he's staying with us while he goes to college) and visit a bit before driving back north.

On the Sunday visit they brought with them this lovely box full of cabbages:





My dilemma now is what to do with all that cabbage! Our freezers are chock full of beef, turkeys, and chickens and I haven't any room for frozen cabbage. We don't have a root cellar, so for now the cabbages are residing in our back hallway, which is unheated and still has the screen door in it. It gets a bit too much sunlight to make it a suitable substitute for a root cellar but it's the best I can do right now.

I'd welcome any and all suggestions for using the cabbage. Right now I've thought of cabbage soup, cabbage rolls, egg rolls made with cabbage, stir fry made with cabbage, and coleslaw. Of course there is one of the Hubster's favorite dishes - corned beef and cabbage.



I'm also busily sewing up a new wardrobe of pants for the baby girl. Her pants from last year were capri length over the summer (which worked out well) but now with the cold weather here she's in need of new pants.

I've completed four pair and have another four cut. That might seem like a lot, but those of you with toddlers/preschoolers know how often messes and other accidents can cause the need for extras.

What's going on in your neck of the woods?

elderberry syrup recipe

I'm fighting an awful autumn cold right now so this morning I decided to concoct a batch of elderberry syrup.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup dry organic elderberries (I buy mine from Mountain Rose Herbs)
1 cinnamon stick
5 whole cloves
1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger root
2 cups filtered water
1 cup local raw honey



Combine the berries, cinnamon stick, grated ginger root, cloves, and water in a saucepan.



Cover and bring to a boil.







Reduce the heat and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half - about 20 to 30 minutes.



Strain and reserve liquid. Combine strained liquid with honey. Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.






To use:

Take 1 tablespoon daily as a preventative. Take up to 1 tablespoon per hour when treating a cold or flu.



Disclaimer:
This is not intended as medical advice. Please consult a medical professional before using.

no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies

The No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal cookies recipe and pictures are up over on my Facebook page Moo Said the Mama's Urban Homestead.

Go and see!

Homemade cream of mushroom soup dried mix tutorial and recipe

I made some homemade dried cream of mushroom soup mix today and posted pictures, instructions, and the ingredient list over on my Facebook page, Moo Said the Mama's Urban Homestead.

Come over and check it out!

I'm taking a break

As you can tell by the lack of posts recently I haven't felt much like writing. In fact, every time I think about coming here and writing it just seems like a huge unpleasant chore.

So...I'm taking a break to see if this blog is something that I wish to continue.

As I've grown older I've learned to limit the unpleasant things in my life as much as possible. If something is a chore or drudgery and isn't absolutely necessary I purge it from my life.

I still do plenty of chores that I dislike, but the key caveat is that they.are.necessary. Blogging isn't necessary.

I'm still planning to keep up with the facebook page - Moo Said the Mama's Urban Homestead. It's far easier to upload pictures with short descriptions and provide status updates than it is to plan out blog posts and write them. Feel free to come on over there and visit!

this week in advance

This week I'm hoping to:

- harvest more tomatoes and raspberries from the autumn garden

- get caught up on mending


(this is only a portion of the mending - what you don't see is the pile up in my bedroom)

- organize my sewing nook

- re-stock my etsy shop with more 14" postpartum/menstrual pads


here are a few of the 14" pad tops I have cut out

- switch out the girls clothes; put summer clothing in the attic and pull out the winter clothing. In our climate the spring/autumn clothing stay out year-round and only get packed away when one of the girls outgrows the clothing.

- figure out Halloween costumes for the girls


What do you have planned?

(oh, and I do have two dehydrating posts and several canning posts partially finished - check out my Facebook page to see the pictures of what's been happening on the food preservation front this past month or so)

I have a new favorite grocery store

When my neighbor (the same kind gentleman who gifts me with fresh apples, pears, and plums) mentioned that a new grocery store, Festival Foods, would be opening soon in our small city I really didn't give it much of a second thought.

The grocery chain's tagline is, "Great stuff for not a lotta money!"

I kid you not!

I thought it would be similar to an Aldi's or a Sav-a-Lot store with limited selection, low prices, no organics or natural foods. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not dissin' those stores. I've been known to shop them on a fairly regular rotation. I just couldn't get excited about another similar chain showing up.

But, but, but, but....Festival Foods is NOT just another discount chain grocery store. They have the widest selection of organic and natural foods of any store in our town - including the food co-op and the natural food store.

Now some readers may suspect me of being a food snob. That just isn't the case. But I am striving to clean up my family's diet. I've been working for well over a decade on moving us away from manufactured foods to real foods. I've been reading labels, finding substitutes, and trying desperately to find a way to fit organic and chemical-free foods into our meager grocery budget.

I'll show you just a couple of this week's purchases (only a couple because I forget to take pictures before I repackaged the bulk foods):



This is a package of powdered vegetable broth. It's from Frontier was found in the bulk natural foods section. In addition to powdered broths, they have an extensive line of organic spices and dried herbs from Frontier. Now our natural foods store carries Frontier's spices and dried herbs as well, but they're frequently out of stock since they order so infrequently.

You'll be seeing his powdered broth again when I put up my post about how to make your own powdered mix for cream of mushroom soup. We're also moving our family away from canned foods that contain BPA and into safer alternatives. (yes, I do know that this powdered broth is currently sitting in a plastic bag that most likely contains phthalates, but it is a temporary container and is moved into glass jars when we get it home)


The other food product I was excited to find was this boxed cake mix.



Yes, it seems absurd that a person who just wrote about how she was transitioning her family away from manufactured foods would be excited about finding a boxed cake mix.



I tried to shoot a picture of the ingredient list, but wasn't able to pull it off, so I'll type it out for you here.

Ingredients:

Organic enriched wheat flour
Organic cane sugar
Organic cocoa
Baking soda
Cream of tartar
Salt
Organic locust bean gum

That's it! No HFCS, no partially hydrogenated and hydrogenated fats, no added preservatives, no artificial flavors or colors.

Yes, I could bake a chocolate cake from scratch, and I actually do that fairly often. But there are still times when the convenience of a box mix enters into my life. It's nice to know that I can pick up a boxed mix that is a bit safer for my family. Oh, and it only cost $1.95. That price is a mere 66 cents higher than the Duncan Hines mix I used to buy.

Where do you like to shop? Has your family changed eating habits and how do you help improve their nutrition?

wanna know how to see what people are pinning from your blog?

Are you curious to know if anyone pins anything from your blog to Pinterest? There is an easy way to find out!

Just type in

http://pinterest.com/source/yourdomainname.com

where I typed yourdomainname.com you'd put in your blog address.

For instance, for my blog Moo Said the Mama I'd type in moosaidthemama.blogspot.com/

Click on this link to see what people have pinned to Pinterest from my blog.

and come on and follow me on Pinterest!


here is a list of my most-pinned posts:

1. egg, sausage, and broccoli breakfast muffin cups recipe

2. I'm obsessed with peg dolls!

3. mexican rice recipe

4. savory breakfast muffin recipe

5. LDS and unschooling?