Go Local: Meal #3

We made mozzarella cheese the other day. Seriously! The Wise and Bearded One had seen these kits at the Urban Farm Store and we both thought they looked like a lot of fun to try so we bought one.

The recipe is calculated to work with one gallon of milk, so with our gallon of milk in hand we proceeded to attempt to make our first intentional batch of cheese. (We won't talk about the nasty curdled, unintentional messes we've made a few times in the past. Yuck!)

The ingredients are simple: citric acid, rennet, cheese salt, and milk. The directions are few. It just requires a thermometer and some attention to detail. Fortunately, the Wise and Bearded One was there to take care of the detailed piece since I'm more a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of girl in the kitchen.

Here's a picture "cutting the cheese" and then seeing the curds separate from the whey. Having never made cheese before I didn't realize what a nasty, greenish liquid whey is. The kit had recommendations for what you could do with the whey, but since it skeeved us out we threw the whey away. (Say that line three times fast!)

After the curds and whey separated, we squished out as much of the whey as possible and then kneaded the curd for a while until--voila!--it turned into cheese. Two balls (or since all I do these days is breastfeed--they look a little more like silicone breast implants to me...sick, I know).

It was good cheese. It tasted just like the fresh mozzarella you can buy at the gourmet grocery store. Next time I think we'll put in a little more salt and some herbs from the garden....dill? rosemary?...just to make it extra special.

We sliced up the cheese and served it with fresh basil from our garden and some tomatoes for a caprese salad when our friends came over for a cook-out. Yum!

If you are intrigued by this, you don't have to live in Portland to buy a cheese making kit. Urban Cheesecraft also sells on Etsy. There's the kit for mozzarella/ricotta that we used, plus kits for paneer/queso blanco and goat cheese/chevre. Yummy! These would also be great gifts for your foodie friends....that brother-in-law that watches Alton Brown religiously, the girlfriend who makes her own bread, perfect gift!

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This post is part of the Go Local Challenge hosted by my blogger-friend, Heather Jane. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Go Local: Meal #2

We've been cooking with local food every week. Really! I just can't seem to keep up the blogging of the local meals for the Go Local Challenge. So here's a meal from the other week. Maybe I'll blog two Go Local Meals this week in an attempt to catch up with Heather's challenge.

One of the ways we've attempted to eat healthier and more locally the past two years is subscribe to Organics to You. Organics to You is a little like a CSA crossed with the old-time milkman delivery. Every other Tuesday a "small bin" of produce is delivered to our front door. Organics to You contracts with thirteen local farmers to buy their produce. During the off-season they purchase organically-grown foods from a local distributor. Usually these off-season foods come from California or Mexico. But even in the winter time we get some local food---onions, apples, chard, mushrooms, squash.

We like Organics to You because it forces us to eat our vegetables---they're here, we already paid for them so we'd better eat 'em before they go bad. We've also learned to eat and appreciate vegetables that weren't on our usual grocery store shopping list---kale, swiss chard, winter squash, among others. Sometimes I have to call up my vegetarian friend, Amy, and ask for help identifying or figuring out how to cook an u.f.v. (unidentified flying veggie). We've learned that pretty much any vegetable can be sauteed in butter with a little garlic and everyone is happy. I've also been using the Simply in Season cookbook because it is organized seasonally and has cooking suggestions for all kinds of vegetables. I just discovered that their website also has the handy-dandy fruit and vegetable guide. Check it out!

The other week we made the Spring Celebration Soup in an attempt to use up a LOT of vegetables in one fell swoop. It's on page 36 for those of you who care. It is veggies in chicken stock with a shot of lemon juice to zing it up. It's the kind of food you couldn't have forced me to eat before the age of 21 but now I find fresh and appealing. I thought the lemon was a cheerful, Greek-inspired addition. The Wise and Bearded One wasn't such a fan. However, he cooked up some lovely steaks--also locally-grown, grassfed--so the meal worked for him too.

Cooking meat is really his job since I'm not fond of handling raw chunks of flesh. He did the work last summer of tracking down local beef and pork farmers by walking around the farmer's market and talked to various vendors until he found farmers who were willing to work with him to purchase a 1/4 beef and 1/2 a pig. So now we have a freezer half-full of meat to be eaten whenever we remember to thaw some of it.

What do you do to get your family to "eat your vegetables"? Have you found other ways to "shake the hand that feeds you" as Michael Pollan recommends? We're always looking for new ideas so please comment below. Or take on the challenge yourself and tell us about YOUR local meal.

Made: Huck Finn Pants and Yard Sale Skirt

I bought Heather Ross's lovely Weekend Sewing book well before the Sprout was born because it was so beautifully photographed and designed. I paged through it over and over again thinking of the projects I would make out of it, but I had no energy and, dagnabbit, my belly got in the way of the sewing machine.

So I put the book away until this spring when I made the Lazy Day's skirts for my nieces and I needed a pants pattern for my little nephew. Out came Weekend Sewing and the Huck Finn pants pattern. It's a sweet, simple pattern and went together very quickly. I liked Heather's idea of putting buttonholes in the elastic waistband so the pants can be adjusted as the little boy grows. I haven't heard anything from my sister so I'm assuming that the pants are working....huh, sis?

Then I decided to tackle the Yard Sale Skirt. I had read enough comments from other sewing bloggers to know that this pattern has some issues---namely that 6 panels weren't wide enough to cover most women's heinies and so people were adding a 7th or even an 8th panel. I wanted to use fabric that I had lying around (a couple of yards of Heather Bailey's Fresh Cut) and I didn't want it to be TOO full so I decided to alter the pattern and make each panel a little wider at the waist. I'm a little wider at the waist these days having not entirely returned to my pre-baby shape (and that was not too trim to start with). So I thought widening each panel would do the trick.

It did. Sort of.

I don't know what's up with this skirt, but I just don't like it. I think part of it is the fabric...needs to be washed about 30 more times before it is nice and limp and summer-y. I think part of it is my pattern alteration that made it less "swooshy" of a skirt. And I think a lot of it is just that I don't like how this pattern emphasizes the waist which is my least favorite body part at the moment. Sigh....

To compensate for my dissatisfaction with the skirt, I used the scraps to make a cunning little kimono for the Sprout using Habitual's pattern. You can see her picture here. She does not have body issues. Thank goodness.

Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the yard sale skirt, other folks have been really happy with it and with the Weekend Sewing book in general. There are a couple of other projects I'd really like to try out of it, so...I will venture forth into Weekend Sewing again soon. And maybe I'll even take a second shot at the Yard Sale skirt.

Transition to Summer

I think I'm one of those people who just takes time to move from one activity or mode to the next. It's taken me two weeks to move from School Deb to Summer Deb--to be able to relax and think about things I want to do just for me on the long days of summer. And now I have to adjust my expectations of what can be done on any given day with the addition of the Sprout. It takes so much longer to get anything done with a 3 1/2 month old to tend to.

Other people like to make New Year's resolutions, but I tend to make my loftiest goals for the summer. I suppose other teachers think the same way.

Here's what I'd LIKE to get done this summer:
--re-pot all the houseplants
--paint the dining room back to a warm white (currently a poorly-painted red that I can't live with any more); patch and paint the trim in the living room
--make the obligatory doctor, dentist, vet appointments for all the members of the household (except the chicken)
--exercise every day--walk, bike, or yoga
--spend some time in meditation and prayer every day
--stay on top of the laundry EVERY day
--relax for a weekend at the coast
--get to know the other mamas in my neighborhood so we can network about baby-friendly activities and hang out in general (Hey, I'm well on my way with this one. The picture above is from brunch last week that I hosted for four other mamas and their babies from my neighborhood.)
--sew.....skirts for me, clothes for the Sprout, "Maker" items for my facebook friends
--finish Sprout's baby quilt
--paint or draw...just get some marks on paper for once instead of thinking about it
--take a class: either photography/Photoshop, painting, or machine quilting
--visit the family in Indiana in August
--repaint the lawn chairs
--gather and preserve some local food: blueberries, peaches (?), apples, etc. so the Sprout has food to eat this winter when she starts into the Real Food
--spend some quality time with my female friends

I'm trying to give myself the grace to realize that not all of these things will get done this summer with a baby and that is ok. Even when I don't feel like I'm getting anything done, I'm trying to remind myself that I am raising a beautiful, healthy, strong daughter and that is enough.

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I have lots of half-finished blog posts in my head and in my drafts, so expect a flurry of posting in the next few days.
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I made a new batch of laundry soap and saved my receipts so I could update this post including cost per load information. Less than 5 cents a load, baby!

Guest Blogging

Hi there! I'm guest blogging today over on the lovely Heather Jane's blog Living Senses. Come check out my Chicken post over there.

If you're visiting for the first time because you saw Heather's blog, welcome!

I'm Deb, a Midwestern Mennonite girl who grew up and moved to the Left Coast. I live in Portland, Oregon, with my husband (The Wise and Bearded One), my 3-month-old daughter (The Sprout), 2 dogs, and 4 chickens. I have a Real Job working in special education for a local school district, but here I blog about the creative things I'm doing (or wish I was doing) in my "spare" time. I fiddle around with sewing, quilting, painting, papercrafts and pretty much any other hands-on project that strikes my fancy. I'm also really interested in living a little more simply, a little closer to the land, and making a little less of an impact on the earth.

So, that's who I am. Please leave a comment and introduce yourself!

P.S. I'm playing around with a new header and some settings.....It's not going so well....will keep working on it.

More Terrarium Inspiration

Thanks for the terrarium love, friends! And thanks to Lauren for introducing me to her blog that has even better directions for growing healthy terrariums.
--The Fern and Mossery

Made: Terrariums

I've been on a terrarium kick lately. I keep seeing cool ones on the internets and in shops--I think it's yet another nod back to the 70s when terrariums were last en vogue.

So the other Sunday the Crafty Women got together and made terrariums. I love this one that Stephanie made with the little owls peeking out of it.

Terrariums are simple and satisfying to put together. The challenge is finding great glass containers for cheap (Goodwill) and tracking down some horticultural charcoal (Portland Nursery). It's a little hard to know how to water them initially. One of mine started growing mold--yikes! So I had to let them sit around for a couple of days with their tops off. But they're still alive so I'm hopeful for their on-going success.

Now I've got a little terrarium-building addiction! I am going to be hunting down more glass containers, looking for the perfect miniature plants, and foraging about for the lushest patches of moss. Oh, and I need to find some little critters to put in mine too....any idea where I could find a miniature garden gnome?

More terrarium inspiration and how-to's can be found here, here, and here. Oh, and you've got to see these Etsy sellers: Blithe Gardens, Made by Mavis, and Greenspot.

And then, go make one. Because, seriously, what's not to love about a miniature mossy green world?!

Go Local: Meal #1

Whoosh! The last four weeks of the school year went by in a flash! I had to go back to work to keep our health insurance for the summer so the Wise and Bearded One stayed home with the Sprout for the four weeks and I worked my tail off back in the Very Litigious School District. (For those of you who are newer blog readers, I work for the director of special education coordinating programs in two high schools in a district-that-will-not-be-named.)

But now it is summer, summer, summer! And I can't wait to enjoy the sunshine, fabulous food, and time to be creative that summer brings. I'm taking up Heather's challenge (see post below) to make at least one meal every week with local ingredients. I feel a little sheepish doing this since I must confess that the Wise and Bearded One does most of the cooking around here. Maybe having to blog about it will get me to cook a little more.

Anyhow, here's our first Go Local meal. We decided to Go Local Extreme Style and make our first meal grown entirely on our property.















Eggs from our Urban Hens
+
One Square Foot Mesclun Mix
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Radishes
=
Yummy Extremely Local Salad









Yummy Extremely Local Salad
+
Bacon Bits
+
Salad Dressing
=
Local Salad with Benefits

Go Local 2009 Challenge

My blogger-friend, Heather, has challenged us to Go Local.

The Rules:

Who: Anyone who wants to challenge themselves to buy local, eat local, or grow local food/handmade items
What: A challenge to eat one meal per week consisting of locally(within 250 miles from where you are) produced ingredients. You get salt, pepper, spices and oil for free. (I also take liberties with basic baking necessities like soda, sugar, flour, etc.)
When: Every Monday from June through August Mr. Linky will appear on Heather's blog. You can post a link back to your blog once, or every week throughout the summer any day of the week.
Where: You post about the foods you are eating locally, the conversation you had with a local grower/farmer, the pictures you took of your very own garden, the dinner you made from scratch using foods grown by someone who loves growing food, the local food potluck party you threw on Market Saturday...Bring it all right back to Heather's blog and we'll come see what you've been up to.
Why: To inspire and be inspired to eat healthy, local foods. It's good for you. It's good for the environment. It's good for the economy.

And Now For Something Completely Different....

So these cargo bikes are super rad and they'd be perfect for hauling the Sprout and the groceries around our fair city. And they're giving two away to people who link to their website from their blog. So, here's my entry. If you click on it, you help my chances for winning! Thanks.

Refashioned: Wee Shoes

BEFORE:
This pair of fugly pink leather shoes was part of a giant box of hand-me-downs that came my way for the Sprout. Pink I'm not so fond of. Pale pink ribbon roses that are shredding I'm even less fond of. So I thought a little refashioning was in order.

AFTER:
Darling black and white yo-yos, plus a red felt flower help the pink become less offensive. Now I'm in love with these little shoes and I think I'm going to have to make a wee dress to go with them so the Sproutie can show them off. One small problem: it's hard to predict what size the Sprout will be when she can wear these shoes. Her feet are long and narrow so I'd better get hopping on an outfit before her feet get too long to wear the shoes.

Update: Laundry Soap

If you've been reading this blog for awhile (thanks), you may remember that I made Laundry Soap in September. I am happy to report that ONE BATCH lasted me all the way until this week. That's almost eight months of doing 4-5 loads of laundry per week for the Wise and Bearded One and myself (we're not very good about rewearing clothes between washes). Plus there was a lot of pre-washing of hand-me-down baby clothes. And then these last 9 weeks we've been washing at least one load a day, and usually two, just to stay on top of the cloth diapering situation. All that to say that one batch of laundry soap lasts a heckuva long time--at least 180 loads!

Tonight I made a quick 1/4th batch with stuff I had on hand but I'll need to make another big batch this summer. I can recommend this laundry soap by saying that for the normal kinds of laundry (not too soiled) I can't tell the difference between this and the store bought brands. It's even been doing pretty well with the cloth diapers. I do a quick cold wash to just rinse the doggone diapies and then I add other baby clothes, towels, etc. and do a hot cycle with the laundry soap. There are a few light stains left on some of the poopy diapers but I'm planning to occasionally run the whole batch through with Oxyclean to make them whiter.

My worst laundry problem is grease spots on t-shirts. Any ideas out there on how to deal with this? So far, dish soap seems to be the best grease fighter that I've found but it seems like there should be an even better solution.

Made: Lazy Days Skirts

I have some fabric that has been sitting on my work table for almost a year now. Some fat quarters of "girly" fabrics that I meant to make into some summery clothes for my nieces LAST spring and then I got pregnant and tired and unmotivated. So..... I need to clean my work table and rather than fold the fabric neatly and reshelve it, I made some skirts for the girls.

This is the free Lazy Days skirt pattern from Liesl at Oliver + S. It is super easy with the ribbon doing all the hem work at the bottom of the skirt. I think each skirt took about 30 minutes total. I do most of my creative work between 9:00 and 11:00 at night and baby is sleeping those hours these days so I'm managing to wedge in a few projects between loads of laundry, dishes, catching up on email and facebook, etc.

Transition

According to my blog counter, you may be one of the 24 poor souls who checks this blog on a daily basis and recently you have been checking it in vain. No posts, no posts, no posts. That does not mean I haven't been living creatively though. With a newborn, every day requires creativity...What novel movement or device will calm her today? What can I do to amuse myself while I feed a baby, change a baby, calm a baby, try to get the baby to go to sleep (repeat and repeat and repeat)? How can I sneak just a few more minutes of sleep?

Although I haven't been posting, I've done some thinking about this blog. I have two blogs: barkdust shared with my husband (where all the baby pictures reside) and beesnest. Originally, my intent was for this to be more of a private journal, but, with time, it has morphed into an art/craft blog. Keeping two blogs sometimes seems like more work than it is worth and I've considered merging this blog into barkdust.

However, I'm holding on to this blog for several reasons. The main reason is that this blog keeps me accountable for learning new skills and practicing my creativity. That may seem silly, but there have been periods in my life (graduate school, for one) when I didn't take the time to "make" and it was not good for my spirit. I believe the Creator has designed us to create, and art and craft are a form of worship for me. I need to keep this blog because the thought that other people check this blog motivates me to be more creative, and I need to keep this part of my life alive even more so now that a child dominates my life.

All that to say that, no, this will not become a mama blog. Yes, I am going to keep posting here. Yes, I'm doing well and I AM finding little pockets of time to make things. So there will be new posts coming soon although they may come a little slower and more infrequently for a while. Thanks to the 24 of you for being patient with me during this transition time.

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Here's the birth announcements for the Sprout. I was tempted to use one of the fancy online photo card services but most of them cost about $2 per card. I wanted to spend less than $1 per card including postage while still having an attractive, high-quality announcement. So I made a trip to PaperSource and cranked up yee olde inkjet printer. The lovely, heavy paper is Ecowhite and the envelope is Papaya from the PaperSource. The wallet prints are el cheapo (and el crappy) from Walgreens. By my calculations each announcement cost $.25, the photo was $.25 and the postage was $.42. Grand total: $.92 per announcement.

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Question: How much personally identifiable information should one share about oneself or one's child on the internet? I know I'm careful to make it difficult to match my physical address and phone number to my online identity. I'm trying to decide if I should blur out the particulars of full name, birthdate, etc. for the Sprout in this picture. Any advice out there?

Creative Baby Gifts, II

We got a package in the mail the other day from our friend, Kris G., in Indiana. In the package were two of these "books" for the Sprout. They are simply foam core with black and white images made from black sticky felt and Sharpie.

I was skeptical that Sproutie was ready to read books just yet, but I put the book down by her blanket during floor time and, wouldn't you know, she turned toward them and stared at them for several minutes without interuption. As she's gotten a little older she's gotten even more into her "stories" and will stare at the shapes for much longer than she'll look at anything else besides real human faces. In fact, I think she thinks the smilies ARE real human faces. Yesterday she had a whole conversation of cooing and grinning back at the smilies.

I think this is a really creative baby gift. Thanks, Kris! Mind if I copy your idea sometime?