wives' tale

Crowned in color autumn comes

Topaz peaches, amethyst plums

Ruby jelly, emerald dills

With brilliant gems the pantry fills

Gleaming jewels, sealed in glass

Teasures of the harvest past

stir fry!

The other day I made my first stir fry at home!  Seems like a small accomplishment, but since I'm not a terribly experienced cook, many things are an accomplishment that might not be to others.

However, perhaps you're in the same boat as I am and never tried this before.

Well, I don't have any pictures of the process to share (got too excited), but perhaps I can share the summary version here and a more detailed recipe/method later when I can talk the mister into taking pictures.

1.  Gather all the veggies and meat you want.  Just about anything goes.  I used whatever I had in the fridge with our farmshare veggies.  I had carrots, green bell peppers, little onions that I chopped up, chicken, big spinach leaves, and bok choy.

2.  Cut up all your veggies into bite sized pieces.  For the big leaves like spinach and bok choy, cut those up too, but set them aside.  They go into the skillet or wok last.

3.  Heat up some sesame oil in your pan.  If you happen to have fresh ginger or fresh garlic (I didn't), the earlier you add it, the better.  You don't want to burn it.  Add the veggies (minus the leaf-y things).

4.  Stir around a bit until everything looks sizzling and partially cooked.  Cover with a lid for a few minutes.  Maybe 2-3 minutes.  Add the chicken before you cover if you're using any.  We did.

5.  If you need to, add a little water.  I didn't need to, but it could be nice to steam the veggies a little.  Add the leaves and cover the skillet or wok again.  You only want to cook these until the leaves wilt.  Don't cook too long or everything will be soggy and unappetizing.

6.  When the leaves are wilted, take it off the burner.  Add some soy sauce.  Add some organic peanut butter (it's more runny than the commercial stuff and works as a make shift peanut sauce).  Add a little honey for some sweetness. Season with these things to taste.  Stir to mix.

7.  Serve warm over pasta or rice.

Voila!

Easy enough, right?

Right. I thought so.

Turned out to be a hit with the husband, although we have differing levels of comfort with the amounts of soy sauce that should be added. Ah, well.  I added a little more to mine after it was on my plate!

the good life

"The point is not to “give up” the good life to save money, but rather to redefine the meaning of the good life, in terms of overall value rather than just symbolic stuff."

-- David Wann, Mother Earth News

From an article found here.

fall and football

Fall is a time for outdoors, including a rousing game of tackle football!  

This was a couple of weekends ago, and we had such a good time.  Good friends of ours put together a tackle football game and a lovely dinner of Wisconsin Beer & Cheese Soup.  The hubby played football, I watched and chatted with a couple of other ladies and gentlemen, and we all got to have dinner.  I even talked their children into a game of Apples to Apples afterwards (not that they needed much convincing) with a pro football game on in the background.  What a lovely afternoon. 

a poem

An Old Woman of the Roads

 by Padraic Colum

O, to have a little house!
To own the hearth and stool and all!
The heaped up sods against the fire,
The pile of turf against the wall!

To have a clock with weights and chains
And pendulum swinging up and down!
A dresser filled with shining delph,
Speckled and white and blue and brown!
I could be busy all the day
Clearing and sweeping hearth and floor,
And fixing on their shelf again
My white and blue and speckled store!

I could be quiet there at night
Beside the fire and by myself,
Sure of a bed and loth to leave
The ticking clock and the shining delph!
Och! but I'm weary of mist and dark,
And roads where there's never a house nor bush,
And tired I am of bog and road,
And the crying wind and the lonesome hush!

And I am praying to God on high,
And I am praying Him night and day,
For a little house - a house of my own
Out of the wind's and the rain's way.

kale chips

Okay. I know, I know.  Chips made of veggies? Sounds crazy, right?  I think they're absolutely delicious. Salty, crunchy, and actually pretty good for you. The hubby gave a resounding "NO" to them, but he tends to dislike vegetables attempting to be other foods, anyway.  He likes all other veggies, just not veggies trying to be things like chips. I, however, devoured them. 

I found a great video to use, but I lost the link (I'm sorry) so I'll have to give you my pictures, instead.

(Preheat oven to 300 degrees)
1.  Wash and pat dry the kale leaves.
2. Remove leaves from the stem. (You can actually leave the stem on, but it's harder to eat and I just decided to save mine for when I make stock.)

3.  Tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces and put all the pieces into a large bowl.

4.  Drizzle in a little olive oil (don't need much -- just enough to give a light coating) and a little sea salt (you need less than you think, trust me).   Toss with your hands!



5.  Spread out all the leaves onto a baking sheet, preferably one lined with parchment paper or an equivalent.

6.  Pop in the oven for about 20 minutes or until crispy! Voila!

muffins!

The other day, I noticed I (and we) didn't have enough breakfast food.  Mostly, I notice this in the mornings, obviously.

But! This weekend I took a look at my food, looked at the leftover apples, realized the need for breakfast food, and set out to make a batch of apple cinnamon muffins.

Aren't they pretty?  I used this recipe, but instead of use 2 cups of apples, I used two whole (and good sized) apples.  They don't rise and expand as much, but I got several smaller muffins out of the batch and the apples made them very moist and delicious.

food

"It seems that, in America, our belief in getting more for less, faster, often outweighs common sense about the intrinsic tie between food quality and health.  Paying more for the foods we eat can improves the quality of food in our refrigerators and the health of our families."

--Jessica Kellner, Editor, Natural magazine

pincushion mason jar

I've seen these adorable creations all over the internet lately.  Have you?  Well, I decided I needed to have one.  And, as it happens, I had some scrap fabric and some extra batting, and I always have mason jars around. (Yes, I know.)

So! I set to work trying to create one.  Turns out they're pretty easy.  I searched all over the internet for a few good tutorials and decided to gather my favorite parts of each of them into my own tutorial. Here goes!

Supplies:

First, use the lid insert thing to cut out an over-sized circle.  It should be at least an inch bigger all the way around (2 inches if you're measuring diameter). I made mine larger because it was my first one and I was worried it would be too small.

Next, put the batting between the lid and the fabric.

Next, use your handy hot glue gun to start gluing down the sides of the fabric to the underside of the lid.  I pulled it reasonably tight without distorting the fabric.  I also tried to glue everything down as evenly as possible.

Then, I trimmed the leftover fabric to make it as flat as possible.  You could be done after this step if you wanted.

While this could be finished now, I thought maybe it would be nice to wrap up all those loose fabric bit. To the trusty bag of paper!  I cut out a little circle of paper and hot glued it to the bottom.

Add it to your jar with the screw on lid, and voila! A handy jar to keep your pins, notions, sewing bits, buttons, thread, or whatever you please.