Make your own tea

I'm a big tea drinker!
Hot in the winter and iced in the summer. I used to go to Chinatown to buy specialty teas (at GREAT prices!) but the commute into Houston is a long one, especially with the kids in tow. This summer I decided I'd grow my own tea.
I had no idea it would be so simple!
I started seeds of chamomile, bee balm, and lemon balm right along with my tomatoes and peppers this year. A quick snip and I have a basket full of the most amazing smelling herbs to go into my own brand of specialty tea!

You don't necessarily have to dry your teas, but I like to make a big batch to have on hand. It makes it easier to have dried chamomile all ready to be used instead of tip-toeing out to the garden at 10pm to snip some for a cup before bedtime!
If you don't have a dehydrator, you can place the herbs on a sheet of parchment and place in your oven on 150 degrees until dried. You can even bind the stems with string or a rubber band and hang to dry in your garage or laundry room!

Nothing wrong with using fresh herbs either!
Crushed lemon balm tastes incredible in a quart of sun tea!

To use your dried teas, place a tablespoon in a tea ball and pour almost boiling water into your cup to steep. Do not steep any longer than three minutes (or your tea might get bitter!). Add honey or stevia to sweeten and ENJOY!

Homegrown.
All natural.
Medicinal.
Pure comfort!

You be the judge...

Is she a pillow?A headrest?

Or the best freakin' dog EVER!

Meatless Fridays

My kids love anything stuffed into a pita pocket. I occasionally make our own pita bread, check out my tutorial HERE. When I make them, I make a LOT and freeze them. They are super easy to warm up in the toaster.
In an attempt to use the oven less this summer, I thought I'd use this very versatile recipe to fill our pita with. By using lots of healthy "fillers" I can fool my kids into eating better! Serve with a fruit salad for the perfect summer dinner.
This week's Meatless Friday meal is:

Tuna Salad Stuffed Pita

2 (6 ounce) cans tuna, drained and flaked
1 medium apple, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins, dried cranberries, or fresh grapes cut in half
1/2 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
1/3 cup chopped pecans, almonds, or walnuts
1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
(Optional: green onion, chopped celery, celery seed, shredded carrot, green peas, curry powder, or cucumber)

You know, for the majority of my life I was a tuna salad purist. Just tuna, mayo, relish and egg ~ THAT'S IT! But in my old age I've really come to enjoy the complex flavors of adding everything under the sun to my tuna salad!
Give it a try!

Combine ingredients in a large bowl and chill for half an hour to let the flavors marry. Stuff pita pockets with lettuce leaf, tomato, and fill with tuna salad.

Taking time to smell the roses...

The roses I planted in my 'Angel Baby' garden are now in full bloom!

Take time to enjoy the little things,
for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

What four days of neglect gets you.....

I was a little concerned about my garden while I was working in Minnesota. The assignment was only four days and I figured Doug and the boys could handle picking a few ripe veggies, right?
Doug emailed me and told me he picked the most beautifully ripe bowl FULL of green beans. He was so proud of himself (he usually stays out of my garden!) and couldn't wait to show me his superb gardening skills.

I came home to this:

Beautiful, isn't it?

The problem is that those aren't green beans.
They are immature black eyed peas that are supposed to look like this:

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!

This is what he missed:

I suppose I should be happy the house was clean and the kids were still alive!

Just kidding! Doug did an excellent job of taking care of things while I was gone. Personally, I could NOT have made it through my first travel assignment without his love, support, and prayers. It was only four days, but I've never been away from my Doug or our boys that long. My Doug E. Poo made it easier to do what I needed to do to help take care of our family.

He's the BEST...even if he does have a brown thumb!

EPIC WIN / EPIC FAIL

First the EPIC FAIL:

My very first tomato of the season, the one I've been nurturing and coddling for weeks was eaten by the birds!


*^%^*((^%!! ungrateful birds! I have three bird feeders FULL of seeds plus I put out all our old fruit for them. Not to mention that they snack from the compost pile on watermelon rinds....it just wasn't enough for them, they had to go and violate my tomatoes. We'll see who gets the last laugh, stay tuned!

Now on to my EPIC WIN:
Growing everything I need to make
lactofermented pickles!

You should know by now that I get very excited over such things!
I finally have enough cucumbers and my dill is growing out of control, so what else can you do but to make pickles? But not just ordinary pickles,
lactofermented pickles!
The ingredients are simple: distilled water, cukes, sea salt, and time.
That's it!
So what's so different about lactofermented pickles? They are probiotic, which means they are full of lacto-bacilli bacteria. This bacteria, when ingested, colonizes your gut. It protects you against illness (since your digestive system is practically the basis for your whole immune system!). It can even protect you against certain cancers.
It's an ancient way to preserve food and it keeps the nutrients of the food intact. Traditional pickling and canning destroy all the beneficial bacteria and nutrients in food. Is it still edible and tasty, sure, but the life of the food is gone.

So how is it done, you ask? Simple, just make a brine that is strong enough kill the bad bacteria associated with purification but promote the growth of lacto-bacilli.
In a one quart glass jar, fill halfway with distilled water. It must be distilled because the chlorine in tap water will kill all the good bugs. Next, pour in one tablespoon of sea salt and dissolve. Again, must be sea salt, iodine kills the good stuff. For pickles (or any other vegetable you wish to pickle - green beans, okra, garlic, etc...) slice and put in the brine. You must use cukes that are homegrown or purchased from the farmer's market. Store bought cukes are coated with a wax and will not lactoferment. From there, it's up to you! I like to season my pickles with fresh dill from the garden, one smashed garlic clove, and sometimes a little jalapeno or cayenne pepper!
Now use a wooden spoon and submerge the vegetables underneath the brine. At this point in the process, air is your enemy! You can even weight it down with a glass or heavy spoon.
The vegetables MUST remain underneath the brine to ferment properly.
Now just leave it on your counter anywhere from 5-10 days.
Nature will do it's thing!

Length of fermentation depends on temerature of the storage area. I start taste testing pickles around day 5. When I get the right taste, the pickles get sealed and put in the fridge. We've eaten pickles a year after processing with this method and they taste wonderful!
Sometimes a little scum forms on the top of the liquid ~ not to worry! Just skim it off and keep on with the process.

I have to say that I am quite certain that eating lactofermented vegetables in addition to drinking elderberry tincture kept us illness FREE this past winter. It's when we ran out of the stuff that we started getting sick!

So eat your lactofermented veggies and make some lactofermented salsa.....I'd make some salsa, but all the birds ate my tomatoes! :-(

To learn more about the process check out these very informative links:

FERMENTED FOOD FOR BEGINNERS

FERMENTATION IS FUN

LACTOFERMENTED FOOD FOR KIDS

I'm baaaack!

I left for Minnesota last Tuesday for a strike travel assignment. This was my very first assignment with this company and my very first travel assignment EVER! It could not have gone more smoothly, and besides having to leave my family for four days, it was a wonderful experience!
The flight out of Houston was nice. I haven't been on an airplane since our honeymoon 17 years ago! When I got to the airport, travel to the hotel was already arranged by my agency. At the hotel, I got "processed" for my work assignment - making sure my licensure was in order and all the requirements for the hospital were done. Then I checked into my room:

And yes, that bed was as comfortable as it looks!

I went to a short hospital orientation that evening and dinner in town with my roommate. The next day I had off and spent the day exploring the city of St. Paul. I ended up visiting to the Cathedral of St. Paul:

It was absolutely STUNNING and I could have easily spent all day there! I almost did spend all day there and missed the last hotel shuttle to the Mall of America. It was ok though, by that time I was tired and not feeling very well, so I went back to the hotel and napped....alone....in the quiet....with no children running and screaming.

The next day was work day. We showed up at ridiculous o'clock for our hospital assignments at the hotel. I was bumped from my normal day shift to the night shift. I was a little upset at that fact but I really couldn't be mad....I only had to do the ONE shift! So I had some breakfast at the free buffet they served us daily and went back to bed for the day.

(view from the hotel: the Mississippi River)

I went back in the late afternoon for my assignment and then we were bussed into the hospital. The nurses on the picket lines were hollering at the busses and that was the worst of it. The hospital staff that was still working could not have been more kind and gracious! They were very thankful we were there as well as the patients! It was a very quiet shift until three in the morning. We had about four patients hit the door at the same time all in active labor. Since there were nine of us nurses scheduled on the unit we just teamed up and started popping out babies!
The rest of the shift flew by!

I came back to the hotel, ate, showered, and then went to the airport to catch my flight. I was so happy to see Doug and the boys!
I felt like I had been gone a month instead of just a few days!
We had a nice family dinner out and then off to home.

I have to say that the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul were absolutely beautiful places to visit. Everyone was friendly and accommodating. The one day strike really did nothing in the nurse/hospital negotiating process and the management told us that we'd be asked back within the next 30 days or so. I'd love to go back and have Doug and the boys fly up for a couple of my days off.

(The beautiful city of St. Paul)

It was a wonderful experience but the old adage remains true,

Be it ever so humble,
there's no place like home!

Taking a break...

I'll be taking a break from blogging this week due to my new job!
I'm currently working for a national nursing staffing agency that staffs hospitals during strikes. I'll be flying out to Minnesota on Tuesday so today is going to be spent packing and cleaning...no time for blogging!
Please say a prayer for my dear husband, he'll be a single parent this week, and if you could say a prayer for safe travel for me it would be greatly appreciated!
I've never traveled alone before so this is all new to me...delivering babies is the easy part!

Living the Liturgical Year

Today, June 4, begins the nine day novena to good
St. Anthony

Won't you join us?
You can find the novena HERE at EWTN.com

Please leave your intentions in the 'comments' section and we'll pray for you, too!

Meatless Fridays

This week's meatless meal is a real winner in our household! The kids absolutely LOVE it. We eat them plain or on burgers (which the kids call "Crabby Patties") and it is a great way to get some rich omegas into their diet.  Leftovers are really delicious crumbled into salads, wraps, or served over pasta.  Check your store ads for sales and stock up on canned wild salmon!

This week's Meatless Friday meal is:

Salmon Patties

1 (14.75 ounce) can salmon, drained and flaked

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup garlic and herb seasoned dry bread crumbs

1/4 cup dry potato flakes

1 medium onion, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed

1/4 teaspoon celery salt

salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

In a medium bowl, mix salmon, eggs, garlic and herb seasoned dry bread crumbs, dry potato flakes, onion, garlic, dill weed, celery salt, salt, and pepper. Form the mixture into 2 inch balls, and flatten into patties about 1/2 inch thick.

Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. In batches, cook patties about 5 minutes on each side, until lightly browned.

CD case purge!

We have hundreds....maybe thousands of movies and games!
The other day I found some old CD books (like photo albums but you just slip in a CD) and I tackled our entertainment center. 
This is just a bit of what I threw out:

 
I put games in one and movies in the other:

Now maybe the entertainment center won't collapse AND we can actually find the movies and games we are looking for!

Hand towel love

I don't know about your household, but around here you'd be hard pressed to find a hand towel! It's not that we don't own any, it's just that the boys use them for every thing else besides drying their hands!
Last year Doug's mom gifted me with some hanging hand towels that his grandmother made. They were beautifully crocheted vintage towels and I actually used them! The button loop hanger was perfect ~ and they stayed put! But I soon felt the need to put such a treasure away for safe keeping. I certainly didn't want to ruin them or find the boys giving Abby a bath with them!

I found some cute and colorful towels at Walmart for $4.00 for a pack of 24 and decided that they needed some fabric hangers to keep them from wandering off. I scoured the internet and found a free downloadable pattern HERE.

In about an hour I had a set of six pretty little hanging hand towels! They certainly brighten up my very white kitchen! I just love them!

I think this is going to be part of our handmade Christmas gifts this year, so friends and family send me your kitchen colors and I'll make you a set, too!

The perfect little seed pot!

I recently received my shipment of medicinal herb seeds from Richters and wanted to pot them up but didn't have any of those handy little Jiffy Peat Pots (or the funds to go buy them along with potting soil!) I figured there MUST be a frugal way to make your own, and after a quick search, I found THIS AWESOME YOUTUBE TUTORIAL!

The pots went together very quickly and I made my own potting medium using some garden soil and compost then set about planting my seeds. Even after watering, the pots held together extremely well!

I set them in a plastic container to keep the sides reinforced. Also, I can put the lid on this container to act as a mini-greenhouse until my seeds sprout!
Here you see: boneset (fever remedy), mullein (for earaches and an expectorant), ecchinacea (for bacterial and viral infections), arnica (muscular pain and trauma), and toothache plant (leaves have an anesthetic effect when chewed and relieves toothache pain. Also an antibiotic against candida).

Here is a peek at my established medicinal herb box I started last year: feverfew (for headaches), chamomille (calming tea), elecampagne (expectorant for bronchitis and antiviral), evening primrose (anti inflammatory), and all heal (like the name says! Cleans the lymphatic system) All the plants are perennial so no need to sow them year after year.

I use the dried leaves, roots, or flowers in teas, tinctures, and poultices depending on the plant....and it all starts with that one little seed!
Who needs to go to the doctor when you can grow your own pharmacy?

For more great gardens check out:
TUESDAY GARDEN PARTY
at An Oregon Cottage