Simply Live- Not a dirty Hippie

I saw an idea on someone else's blog about getting together to make some homemade body care products so that you can share the cost, getting more bang for your buck. Anyway they suggested you call it a "I'm not a dirty Hippie" party. This really made me laugh!

I am working on a creamy deodorant blend of corn starch (for some wetness protection), baking soda (for smell protection) and olive oil (for soothing and easier application). I will let you know how it works. For now the "shampoo" is still making a decent deodorant.

I have changed the toothpaste a bit. This time I used 2 tablespoons of baking soda, one tablespoon of rubbed sage, and a splash of peppermint oil. I love the peppermint addition.

For all of you who will be processing tomatoes this summer (tomato soup, salsa, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, catchup, canning tomatoes....), here is a super easy way to peel them. I was able to peel 40 of them this morning in about 20 minutes. Heat a large kettle full of water until boiling. Prepare a large bowl with ice and water. Drop tomatoes into the boiling water, as many as you can at a time, let them boil for about 30 seconds and them drop them into the cold water. After they have cooled for about 30 seconds cut the stem end out and then pull off the skin.

You can play with the timing on the boiling water. If you want the skins to come off easier and in bigger chunks, leave them a tad longer. If you don't want the tomatoes to be quite as soft, shorten your time. Remember to keep the ice bath very cold so that all cooking stops immediately after you take the tomatoes out of the boiling water.

Happy Home to you all!

Simply Live-Clean teeth

Baking soda, a bit of salt, and dried sage make a wonderful cleaner for your mouth. The salt is both a cleanser and a polish, the baking soda whitens and polishes, and the sage is a natural antibacterial to fight off the beasties.

Just mix together and dip a SMALL amount on your wet toothbrush. You will be shocked at the clean feeling!

Live Simply-Herbs

Plant some herbs. They make wonderful, fragrant plants that you can use to make almost any food taste better. They are very good for you and most of them are very easy to grow. They are pretty and they smell good.

Consider a themed herb garden...

A medicinal garden that contains herbs that are healing
A fragrant herb garden that contains your favorite smells
A lemon themed garden with lemon grass, lemon thyme, lemon anything
A dying (the color kind) garden that you can pick from to dye anything from eggs to cloth
A cooking garden that has all your favorites

Try some, they are wonderful

A new discovery

I wasn't going to make this experiment common knowledge, because, honestly, I am a little freaky about my underarms. I have to share, though, because it has been so successful!

A little background...

As I said, I am way too concerned with my underarms and their possible offense. I shave like a crazy woman and I really hate to smell. Needless to say, deodorant is an important part of my life. I have been concerned about the ingredients in deodorant and their unknown effect on the body. I have always wondered if it was good to stop my body from doing what it should, mainly sweating (I refuse to believe the smell is normal :). I tried some "natural" deodorants last year, but they didn't meet my ridiculous standards and I decided I would rather get Alzheimers than smell. Unfortunately, I can not find a deodorant that works all the time without fail, even when I am working in the yard.

Two weeks ago I got a little wild and decided to rub my baking soda shampoo on my armpits instead of deodorant. I know, very risky, but I was planning to be home for the day. At the end of the day I was shocked at the lack of smell. I even let T. be my tester, just in case I was wrong and really reeked. He couldn't believe that he was allowed to get close to my armpits, but verified that indeed he smelled absolutely nothing. I have used it for 2 weeks now and even when I can't get in the shower, I just refresh it. It has been tested with yard work and even berry picking.

I'm sold.

(and officially weird, I know, I know)

Simply Live-Snack

Roasted Wheat Berries
(wonderful nutty/popcorn-like taste, big crunch!)

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet

pour in about 1/2 wheat berries

as they heat they will puff up a little and make a popping sound like popcorn

When all the popping stops, pour out onto a paper towel to drain and salt with sea salt.

Eat hot!

Amazingly cheap, extremely healthy, wonderfully crunchy and salty. I am going to try some in our granola bars and trail mix. I am not sure how they are when they cool. We haven't had any last that long. :)

Simply Live- yummy treat

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

Heat over a low temperature:

1 cup natural peanut butter
3/4 cup honey
1 Hersey's chocolate bar or 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Stir until melted.

Pour into a 8x8 baking dish and refrigerate

Cut into small squares when hardened.

*adapted from the Heavenly Homemakers blog

Simply Live- Locust and Honey, anyone?

FYI-if you are ever starving and have no food. Fortunately there are billions of insects everywhere.

Please don't think that I will try this to let you know how it went. This would be emergency only!

"Believe it or not, our "conventional" meats are pretty clanged (sic) protein-deficient when compared with insects. Chicken, for example, has a protein content of just over 20%—which is higher than that of beef, pork, lamb, or fish—yet some insects contain more than three times that percentage!" From Mother Earth News

Garden

I ate my first produce from the garden today.

Granted it was lettuce that is pretty much the same size as when I bought it, but it was still so much fun.

Simply Live- Softner

For a while now I have been diluting my softner with up to 2/3 vinegar. The vinegar makes a great rinse for super clean clothes and helps set darker colors. It is great for dealing with smells, as well.

Today I saw a recipe for homemade softner that is along the same lines.

Soak citrus peels in vinegar for at least three days. Use the vinegar just like regular softner. Replace the peelings every 3 weeks.

Sounds interesting. I wanted to get it down before I forgot.

I also saw a recipe for hairspray that sounds fun. It consists of citrus as well. The fun part is the vodka....


In the Garden- Using lots and lots of mulch is great for your garden. It kills weeds, traps moisture, encourages fat earthworms and provides some nutrients for the ground. Unfortunately it also is a great place for slugs. To get rid of them you can sit out shallow dishes full of beer to drown them, or you can place a soaking wet piece of cardboard on the ground near your plants. In the morning the slugs will have congregated under the cardboard and can be killed.

Simply Live- Updates

1. Well, it is official. I love using baking soda on my hair. It is getting softer and shinier every day. Those close enough to notice have commented on the drastic change in texture and appearance. I am very pleased! Thumbs up for performance and "cheapness".


2. The grow bags were easily made by splitting a heavy black garbage bag down the center, taping the cut side together with duct tape and then stuffing with compost and taping it shut. The lettuce and pumpkins are happily living in their new bags (as well as a few worms from the worm bin!). Smart Jen also thought of just taping shut some bags full of leaves that I "stole" from neighbor. These large grow bags will by used to host my pumpkin patch and some flowers.


3. I have changed my yogurt making a little. To cut a few hours off the process and to make sure the milk is the right temperature, I now pour the milk into the crock pot and put it on high. I come and check it in about an hour and keep checking until the milk reaches 100 degrees or so. Then I add my culture and cover for at least 10 hours. Then I drain like normal. I have learned to put the crock pot somewhere it will not be bumped and not to open it during that 10 hours. It is very important that it stays still. I have also learned to dish some yogurt into a separate container to be used as the next culture. That way I do not mistakenly eat my last little bit and I also do not risk contamination that might come from frequently opening.

Happy Living!

Simply Live- Fresh Bread every day

Here is a recipe that I found on the Mother Earth News website about how to incorporate making fresh bread into your every day activities with very little work.

I am posting it mainly so I can come back to it when I have a moment to try it. I will try to let you know how it turns out.

The Master Recipe

The artisan free-form loaf called the French boule is the basic model for all the no-knead recipes. The round shape (boule in French means “ball”) is the easiest to master. You’ll learn how wet the dough needs to be (wet, but not so wet that the finished loaf won’t retain its form) and how to shape a loaf without kneading. And you’ll discover a truly revolutionary approach to baking: Take some dough from the fridge, shape it, leave it to rest, then let it bake while you’re preparing the rest of the meal.

Keep your dough wet — wetter doughs favor the development of sourdough character during storage. You should become familiar with the following recipe before going through any of the others.
Mixing and Storing the Dough

1. Heat the water to just a little warmer than body temperature (about 100 degrees Fahrenheit).

2. Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded container (not airtight — use container with gasket or lift a corner). Don’t worry about getting it all to dissolve.

3. Mix in the flour by gently scooping it up, then leveling the top of the measuring cup with a knife; don’t pat down. Mix with a wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor with dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer with dough hook, until uniformly moist. If hand-mixing becomes too difficult, use very wet hands to press it together. Don’t knead! This step is done in a matter of minutes, and yields a wet dough loose enough to conform to the container.

4. Cover loosely. Do not use screw-topped jars, which could explode from trapped gases. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flatten on top), approximately two hours, depending on temperature. Longer rising times, up to about five hours, will not harm the result. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and easier to work with than room-temperature dough. We recommend refrigerating the dough at least three hours before shaping a loaf. And relax! You don’t need to monitor doubling or tripling of volume as in traditional recipes.
5. Prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal to prevent the loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven.

Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour, then cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-sized) piece with a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on four “sides,” rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go, until the bottom is a collection of four bunched ends. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it doesn’t need to be incorporated. The bottom of the loaf will flatten out during resting and baking.

6. Place the ball on the pizza peel. Let it rest uncovered for about 40 minutes. Depending on the dough’s age, you may see little rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking.

7. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on another shelf.

8. Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing, serrated knife to pass without sticking. Slash a 1⁄4-inch-deep cross, scallop or tick-tack-toe pattern into the top. (This helps the bread expand during baking.)

9. With a forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the baking stone. Quickly but carefully pour about a cup of hot water into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is browned and firm to the touch. With wet dough, there’s little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it will audibly crackle, or “sing,” when initially exposed to room temperature air. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire rack, for best flavor, texture and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled.

10. Refrigerate the remaining dough in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next two weeks: You’ll find that even one day’s storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the two-week period. Cut off and shape loaves as you need them. The dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.

The Master Recipe: Boule

(Artisan Free-Form Loaf)

Makes 4 1-pound loaves

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1⁄2 tbsp granulated yeast (1 1⁄2 packets)
1 1⁄2 tbsp coarse kosher or sea salt
6 1⁄2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour
Cornmeal for pizza peel

Tips to Amaze Your Friends

The “6-3-3-13” rule. To store enough for eight loaves, remember 6-3-3-13. It’s 6 cups water, 3 tablespoons salt, 3 tablespoons yeast, and then add 13 cups of flour. It’ll amaze your friends when you do this in their homes without a ­recipe!

Lazy sourdough shortcut. When your dough container is empty, don’t wash it! Just scrape it down and incorporate it into the next batch. In addition to saving cleanup, the aged dough stuck to the sides will give your new batch a head start on sourdough flavor.

Variation: Herb Bread. Add a couple teaspoons of your favorite dried herbs (double if fresh) to the water mixture.
Neapolitan Pizza Dough

The secrets to this pizza are to keep the crust thin, don’t overload it, and to bake it quickly at a high temperature so it ­doesn’t cook down to a soup. It’s unlike anything most of us are used to eating — especially if you make fresh mozzarella!

1 pound ­pre-­mixed boule dough
Cornmeal for covering the pizza peel
Topping: your favorite seasonal ingredients

1. 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven with a baking stone (scraped clean) at your oven’s maximum temperature — the hotter, the better. (Another option is to use the baking stone over a grill, which takes about two-thirds of the time.)
2. Prepare the toppings in advance. The key to a pizza that slides right off the peel is to work ­quickly.
3. Follow Step 5 of The Master Recipe (above).
4. Flatten the dough into a 1/8-inch-thick round with your hands and a rolling pin on a wooden board. Dust with flour to keep the dough from sticking. (A little sticking can help overcome the dough’s re­sis­tance to stretching, though, so don’t overuse flour.) You also can let the partially rolled dough relax for a few minutes to allow further rolling. Stretching by hand may help, followed by additional rolling. Place the rolled-­out dough onto a liberally ­cornmeal-­covered pizza peel.
5. Distribute your toppings over the surface, leaving some of its surface exposed so you can appreciate the individual ingredients — and the magnificent crust! — of the final product. No further resting is needed.
6. Turn on the exhaust fan (or use lower heat and bake a few minutes longer), because some of the cornmeal will smoke. Slide the pizza onto the stone (­back-­and-­forth shakes can help dislodge it). Check for doneness in 8 to 10 minutes. Turn the pizza around if one side is browning too fast. It may need up to 5 more minutes.
7. Allow to cool slightly on a rack before serving.

Makes 1 ­12- to 14-inch pizza to serve 2 to 4.

100 Percent Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread

Whole wheat flour has a nutty, slightly bitter flavor, and it caramelizes easily, yielding a rich, brown loaf. Milk and honey are tenderizers, and their sweetness complements the bitter notes. Although we’ve showcased a loaf-pan method here, this dough also makes lovely free-form loaves on a baking stone.

1 1⁄2 tbsp granulated yeast (1 1⁄2 packets)
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp salt
1/2 cup honey
5 tbsp neutral-flavored oil, plus more for greasing the pan
1 1⁄2 cups lukewarm milk
1 1⁄2 cups lukewarm water
6 2⁄3 cups whole wheat flour

1. Mix the yeast, salt, honey, oil, milk and water in a 5-quart bowl or other container.
2. Mix in the flour using a spoon, high-capacity food processor with dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer with dough hook.
3. Cover loosely, and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top); about 2 to 3 hours.
4. The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next several days.
5. On baking day, lightly grease a 9-by-4-by-3-inch loaf pan. Using wet hands, scoop out a 11⁄2 pound (cantaloupe-sized) hunk of dough. Keeping your hands wet (it’ll be sticky!), quickly shape it into a ball following the method in Step 5 of The Master Recipe (above).
6. Drop the loaf into the prepared pan. You’ll want enough dough to fill the pan slightly more than half-full.
7. Allow the dough to rest for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Flour the top of the loaf and slash, using the tip of a serrated bread knife.
8. 5 minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, with an empty broiler tray on another shelf.
9. Place the loaf in the center of the oven. Pour 1 cup of hot water into the broiler tray and quickly close the door. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until deeply browned and firm.
10. Allow to cool completely before slicing in order to cut reasonable sandwich slices.

Makes 3 1 1⁄2 pound loaves.
Sticky Pecan Caramel Rolls

This crowd-pleaser was our first attempt to make dessert from stored bread dough. It was so successful that it reshaped our view of what this technique could accomplish. The flavors were enhanced by using stored dough, and the butter and sugar seeped into the folds, approximating enriched sweet doughs.

1 1⁄2 pounds pre-mixed boule dough

TOPPING
6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
30 pecan halves

FILLING
4 tbsp salted butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of ground black pepper
1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped

1. Cream together the butter, salt and brown sugar. Spread evenly in a 9-inch cake pan. Scatter the pecan halves over the mixture and set aside.
2. Dust the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a cantaloupe-sized piece. Dust the piece with flour and shape it into a ball following the method in Step 5 of The Master Recipe (above).
3. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a 1/8-inch thick rectangle. Add only enough flour to prevent it from sticking.
4. Cream together the butter, sugar and spices for the filling. Spread evenly over the dough and sprinkle with chopped nuts. Roll the dough into a log. If it’s too soft to cut, chill for 20 minutes.
5. With a serrated knife, cut the log into 8 pieces and arrange over the pecans, with the “swirled” edge facing up. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rest and rise 1 hour (or 40 minutes if you’re using fresh, unrefrigerated dough).
6. 5 minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
7. Bake about 40 minutes, or until golden brown and set in center. While still hot, run a knife around the pan to release the rolls, and invert immediately onto a serving dish.

Naan

“Naan has become my family’s favorite bread to make while camping in the woods. All we need is a 12-inch cast-iron skillet on our sturdy Coleman stove to have freshly baked bread. We always attract a crowd of curious campers drawn to the aroma wafting amidst the wood smoke.” — Jeff

This delicious and buttery Indian flatbread is traditionally made in a huge cylindrical clay tandoori oven, with the wet dough slapped directly onto the oven’s hot walls. Our naan is done in a hot, cast-iron skillet, or a heavyweight nonstick skillet. Butter or oil will work in lieu of Indian clarified butter (ghee), but the taste won’t be as authentic. You can find ghee at South Asian or Middle Eastern markets.

This recipe also has the distinction of producing our fastest bread, since it’s done on the stovetop without an oven preheat, and there’s no need to rest the dough. You can easily make one of these just before dinner, even on busy nights (so long as you have the dough in the fridge). Makes 1 naan.

1/4 pound (peach­sized portion) of pre-mixed boule dough
1 tablespoon ghee (commercial or homemade), or neutral-flavored oil or butter

1. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1/4-pound piece. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Using your hands and a rolling pin, and minimal flour, roll out to a uniform thickness of 1/8-inch and a diameter of 8 to 9 inches.
2. Heat a heavy 12-inch cast­iron skillet over high heat on the stovetop. When water droplets flicked into the pan skitter across the surface and evaporate quickly the pan is ready. Add the ghee or oil.
3. Drop the rolled dough into the skillet, decrease the heat to medium, and cover the skillet to trap the steam and heat.
4. Check for doneness with a spatula at about 3 minutes, or sooner if you smell overly quick browning. Adjust the heat as needed. Flip the naan when the underside is richly browned.
5. Continue cooking another 2 to 6 minutes, or until the naan feels firm, even at the edges, and the second side is browned. If you’ve rolled a thicker naan, or if you’re using dough with whole grains, you’ll need more pan time.
6. Remove the naan from the pan, brush with butter, and serve.

Caramelized Onion and Herb Dinner Rolls

“A friend once told me she times her cooking so that the onions are caramelizing as her guests arrive, claiming there is nothing more aromatic and inviting. I ­can’t help but agree with her.” — Zoë

Caramelizing the onions is easy and rewarding and can be used to dress up any of our savory doughs. Another favorite is to use the onion mixture with Manchego cheese as a pizza topping (see the Neapolitan pizza dough recipe above). Because it takes some time to achieve perfectly caramelized onions you may want to double the recipe to have some on hand; they freeze for months. Makes 6 rolls.

1 pound (grapefruit-sized portion) of pre-mixed boule dough
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vermouth or white wine
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried thyme or oregano (or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme and oregano leaves)
4 tablespoons water
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Cornmeal for pizza peel

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on ­medium-­low heat. Add the onions, salt, vermouth, vinegar, brown sugar, herbs, and water to the oil and cook for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are nicely caramelized. Add more water when needed to prevent burning.
2. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-­pound (grapefruit-­size) piece. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a ­quarter-­turn as you go.
3. To form the dinner rolls, divide the ball into 6 roughly equal portions (each about the size of a plum). Shape each one into a smooth ball. Allow them to rest and rise on a ­cornmeal-­covered pizza peel for 40 minutes (or just 20 minutes if you’re using fresh, unrefrigerated dough).
4. Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 450 degrees, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the rising bread.
5. Just before baking, sprinkle the rolls liberally with flour and cut a 1⁄2-inch cross pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife or sharp kitchen scissors. Fill the resulting space with about 1 tablespoon of the onion mixture.
6. Slide the rolls directly onto the hot stone. Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, and quickly close the oven door. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until deeply browned and firm.
7. Allow to cool before eating.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press, LLC, Copyright 2007).

Simply Live- In the Garden

It is time to start some seedlings, if you haven't already. Why not try to grow a little food for your family this year. You don't want to wait until you need to grow food to learn how to make the little babies grow. Here are some super cheap potting solutions:

Peat pots are great to start seeds in. They are small and they can be planted directly into the soil without disturbing the roots of the plant. The problem for me is the cost. The solution: homemade pots made from newspaper.

Not only are you saving money, but you are recycling! Basically you take a sheet of paper and make it into a cylinder shape. I saw several different sets of instructions on the net. Some had you use a glue stick to hold the edges together, some were just origami boxes. I fiddled around and came up with a easy origami type cylinder. You can also cut a toilet paper roll in half and cover the bottom with newspaper to make a great little pot.

Grow bags are another way to grow plants cheaply. Basically the concept is the bag becomes a pot. You fill the bag with compost or potting soil, seal it up with duct tape, cut a few drainage holes in the bottom and an X on top where you want to put your plant. These retain moisture better than pots and are way cheaper. They can be thrown away after the plant dies instead of having to be stored. You can put them anywhere and if you don't like the look of the plastic, you can cover them with pine straw or hay. There is no weeding with this either. I know you can use black trash bags, but I would assume grocery sacks and shopping bags would work just as well.

I plan to use these ideas and mix them with a great idea sent by my friend to create a movable garden for my salad greens. I am using a wagon that can be moved from the sun in the spring and fall to the shade in the summer. I expect to enjoy fresh salad all year!

We'll see?!

Happy Gardening

Simply Live- Cleaning with kids

Teaching children to work is so important, but often we avoid asking them to do chores that involve chemicals. This could be because of the threat of chemicals to their health or the threat of the chemicals to our new carpet. Either way, many times cleaners are not safe in the hands of children.

Consider learning about cleaning with natural cleaners such as vinegar, baking soda and lemon juice.

Instead of Windex, fill a bottle with a water and vinegar solution and watch your little one have a ball spraying the windows. Teach your older ones to wash the sink and counter with the same solution every day after they brush their teeth (this also forces them to put away all their stuff to clear the counter). At the same time they can polish up the mirror by rubbing it with a cloth misted with the same solution. Vinegar kills a lot of germs and is great for removing smells. Keep the bottle on hand for spills on the carpet. Kids can clean their own milk and juice spills.

To clean kitchen counters sprinkle the counter with baking soda and let your little ones spray the vinegar mix on. It makes a wonderful foamy reaction and then the baking soda helps remove stains and gently scrubs the counter tops.

A lemon cut in half and sprinkled with salt makes another great stain scrubber for counter tops.

You can mix up a super safe furniture polish by making a lemon juice, water, and olive oil mixture to keep on hand. Just a few drops of oil will do you.

For nasty smells in furniture or carpet spray on your handy vinegar mixture and allow to dry. Both the nasty smell and the vinegar smell should dissipate as the surface dries.

So get researching, find your favorites and put those kiddos to work!

Simply Live- Hair Update

I have been using the baking soda and water mixture for about a week now. Although I did have a few days of heavy feeling hair, I have been very pleased for the last day or so. My hair just seems happy. I don't know yet if I like it better, but it certainly is good and I love the cost of the "shampoo". I have also started seeing the benefits of thoroughly brushing my hair for a long time so that the natural oils from my scalp are worked into the ends of my hair.

One nice addition is a bottle with is thin pointed spout that I picked up at Sally's beauty supply. It makes it a lot easier to apply the mixture. I keep a gallon jug of the mix and then just refill my bottle as necessary. I use about a cup of water and 1 tblsp of baking soda each time.

Simply Live-A Snack, A Dip, and an Idea

The Snack-

Fruit Leather-
1. Prepare the fruit. For crisp fruits like pears and apples, simmer until mushy and blend, for softer fruits like strawberries, peaches, and apricots, just blend.

2. Mix fruits into fun concoctions like strawberry banana, cinnamon apple pear, peach and strawberry or just stick with one fruit

3. Spread into a thin layer, about 1/4in thick on a baking sheet (I put mine on parchment paper, but if you use just a pan you should grease it very well)

4. Put in a 170 degree oven for about 12 hours (or over-night)

5. Pull out, cool, and remove from pan

6. Store in baggies in the fridge (I don't know if you have to keep it in the fridge, I just wanted to make sure it didn't mold)


The Dip

Mix Greek style yogurt (or homemade yogurt that has been drained until thick) with shredded Mozzarella cheese, chopped fresh spinach, garlic salt and a little red pepper. Super-yummy and very healthy!


The Idea

Collect old cook books (preferably from the early 1900's) from family members or used book stores. These books hold a wealth of information. Recipes for items that we have forgotten ever came from scratch, like pudding, sauces, ketchup, mayo, and even soap made from bacon grease; help on what cuts of meat are good for what and how to cook them properly; tips for managing a "from scratch" kitchen; and so much more. It is amazing the knowledge that is being lost.

Even if you are not interested in doing any of these things now, these are wonderful resources to have on hand just in case.

If you don't want to store the entire book, look through it and cut out anything you feel you might need someday and keep them in a notebook. Don't forget to be open minded about what you might want to use someday, though. You never know when you might run out of barbecue sauce and need to make some at home!

Simply Live-Experiment

I am trying to slowly remove processed foods and cosmetic items from our lives. Both from a strange nagging feeling that we are killing ourselves with "products" and from a desire to know how to be as self-sufficient as possible.

One product that I have not considered yet is shampoo. I know that many of the chemicals in shampoo can be harmful both to your hair and your body. Googling shampoo was an interesting lesson in the history of hair cleansing. Early hair cleaning was often accomplished with bar soap and was not done very often. Bar soap was far more gentle on the hair and not washing as often allowed the natural oils produced by the scalp to nourish the scalp and the hair shafts.

The switch to liquid shampoo came as more people used water with more minerals in it. Harder water did not wash out the soap as well. Shampoo was touted as a soap that did well in both hard and soft water.

One problem is that the two main ingredients, ammonium laureth sulfate and Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate are rated on their MSDS (material safety data sheets) as hazardous for skin contact and possible carcinogens. Added to that are a host of foaming agents, preservatives and dyes.

Yikes! I love some clean shiny hair, but is there a better way?

My first attempt at change is using baking soda and water to wash my hair. You use a mixture of one cup water to 1 tblspoon Baking soda. I made up a gallon ahead of time and I plan to dispense it using an old water bottle to pour it over my wet head. Then you rinse and about every 3rd time pour vinegar over your head to condition your skin and hair. I use a spray bottle of water and vinegar every time due to my scalp issues.

One negative is that your hair will be slightly greasy for a little bit while your pores "cleanse" themselves and your body gets re-balanced.

One recommended tip was to brush your hair very well before washing to remove dirt.

I will try it for a while and let you know.

Simply Live- Yogurt

It is is early afternoon. What are you doing? Getting ready to start your yogurt, of course!

Here is how yogurt making might look at my house.

3pm- Pour one gallon of milk into my crock pot (I use Wright Dairy One percent with great results. If you are using store bought milk, please use whole milk. The others don't work very well. If you choose to try a reduced fat store bought milk, use twice as much yogurt starter to try and make it work- no promises, though)
Turn crock pot on low and cover

6pm- (or after 3 hours) turn off crock pot

8pm- (or after 2 hours) Dip out one cup of warm milk and whisk in 1 cup of yogurt. This will add all those wonderful bacteria that will make your yogurt. You will need to buy PLAIN yogurt that is very fresh (check the date). Next time you can use your own yogurt for the starter. I recommend a Greek organic yogurt that says it contains LIVE active cultures. Pour the starter mixture into the crock pot and stir. (The first time you make this you might want to check the temperature of the milk in the crock pot before you add the starter. The culture is sensitive to heat and if it is too hot it will kill the culture, too cold will not encourage proper growth. You want it to be around 100 degrees. If yours is too hot you can add cold milk or wait for a little longer.)
Cover the crock pot and pile layers of quilts all around it to insulate it (I use two big thick ones)

The next morning- (or at least 8 hours) Uncover your crock pot and see the thick yogurt inside (if you don't, then something went wrong. You can still use this milk for baking bread or pancakes)

I add another step by draining off some of the liquid to make it thicker. You don't have to do this, but I love it thicker. All you do is pour the yogurt into a CLEAN old pillow case and hang it over a bowl (to catch the liquid coming out). I hang mine from the handle on my upper cabinet doors, much to T's chagrin. Once liquid has slowed to an occasional drip, you open the pillowcase and dump out your yogurt.

If you would like to make a lower-fat type of cream cheese, leave the yogurt (or some portion of it) draining for the day and then scrape it out and use it like cream cheese.

Don't forget to save some of your yogurt for making your next batch. You need to use it within about two weeks so that the cultures are still active.

You can make smaller amounts if you don't use much or you can make some as yogurt and the rest as cream cheese.

Try it (in a small amount at first if you want). The taste is amazing and the savings is incredible. The benefits of the pro-biotics in fresh yogurt and incredible. They will help with all sorts of digestion trouble including heart burn, upset stomach, constipation and diarrhea. Pro-biotics also boost the immune system, help fight off all kinds of infections and will help with yeast infections and fungal issues. Yogurt is great for the skin and is soothing to itchy, irritated spots.

A moment with my best friend

In the middle of getting ready to prepare dinner for a co-worker of T's, I had to take a few things to the attic. It was so warm, and I have been so cold all day. I sat down for a moment and picked up two journals from my senior year of high school and my freshman year of college. What an amazing chronicle of God's unending passionate pursuit of me. I was an incredible wreck of a human being, but God in His infinite mercy reached out and gently led me closer and closer to Him. It was amazing to relive all those turbulent emotions and to see His courtship of my heart. He called me to fall in love with Him and trust His painful healing. He took a dangerous, wounded, and frightened child and became the lover of her soul.

How beautiful to see His face in the description of two godly young men in my life. I mistakenly thought I loved them, but reading back I see that I was passionately, crazy in love with the Jesus in them. The humanness of them drove me batty, but I was a sucker for the tenderness God showered on me through them. I see now that He was wooing me in the only way I could have possibly understood. Then He graciously removed them from the situation so that I could fall in love with Him face to face.

It was at that point that I started writing letters to my future husband. I wrote of begging God to allow me to start a relationship with my husband. Not that I even wanted to know who it was. I just wanted our hearts to begin to be knit together. I prayed that God would be working in my husband's life to guide him and direct him.

It is painfully beautiful to compare the dates with what was happening in T's life and mine. Totally without our knowledge God was powerfully answering my prayers. He invaded T's life and started calling him closer. We were becoming friends in a very safe way through a church leadership team. We had no idea that we were falling in love. God even went so far as to answer my prayer that I no longer date. I was such a failure at dating and although I did not know what courtship was, it was what I knew I desperately needed. The events of our relationship were much more a courtship/arranged marriage since T and I never went on a date until after we both clearly heard God's command for us to marry.

O, the deep, deep love of Jesus. What a beautiful picture of how God is working even when we can not begin to understand how. How faithful to capture the wayward wretch and love her into a transformation that hardly seems possible.

And all those hopes and dreams I had for my future mate? For a few years after we married I would see those lists and think, "oh well, I guess God knows best." How hilarious to read them now and see that T is every one of those things and so much more. Once again, God is never late, but He is never early! He takes His own sweet time working out the details of our lives and giving us the desires of our hearts.

Simply Live-Snack foods

I love to snack. Crackers and chips with dips galore! I could eat a million calories in one sitting. As part of my attempt to eat healthy and more simply, I have been working to find some snack foods that I can make using whole ingredients. My favorites so far have been whole wheat crackers and graham crackers. Both of these recipes are basic and can be easily messed around with to include different flavors (for example: the wonderful black bean salsa crackers that came from the leftover salsa in the fridge).

I am finding out that the key is to stop buying snack food from the grocery store. The truth is that I am lazy and given the chance, I will just eat what I get from the store. I also love my old favorites so much that it is hard to get motivated to make something new. So I stopped buying snack food at the grocery store. Eventually I want a snack bad enough to get my rear in gear and make one. Once I find a recipe that I like, I make large batches and store them for easy accessibility.

For another easy grab food I prepare most of our fruits and veggies from the co-op on the day that we get them. I wash and cut them and put them in containers. Then it is easy to grab them on the way out the door or throw them on a plate for the boys to snack on throughout the day (I try to leave one such plate out every day-lazy little eaters will gobble up the good stuff before searching for the other). Even foods that will need to be cooked are washed and cut to make make meal prep easier. This cuts down on food loss from spoilage since I am a lazy cook and will cook what is easiest.

Dips and such made from yummy homemade yogurt can be made up and stored in small individual size containers that are, again, easy to grab. Do you see the pattern here? If it is easy, we will actually use it!

Cheese is another good snack. Cut up into manageable sizes and stored in baggies, it makes a healthy, easy choice.

One last staple of our diet is peanut butter balls. This has evolved into peanut butter bars out of laziness. This is just peanut butter, or fresh ground peanuts, a little olive oil, some powdered milk, oats, a dash of sea salt and enough honey to make it all stick together. I pack this mix into the bottom of a baking pan and cool in the fridge. Then I cut it into squares and store it in a container. (Tip-as you are throwing all your ingredients together taste it to see if you like the mix and then try to squeeze a ball of it together. If it will not stay in a ball add some more of your wet ingredients. If it is too mushy add so more powdered milk.)

Granola, granola bars (easy to make), toasted and seasoned nuts, and healthy cookies are also a part of our good-for-you snack plan.

Now, I have to be fair and say that we all are still getting used to healthy, homemade alternatives. The boys sometimes decide starving until they see Grandmother next is a better option. I get tired of making things and long to pick up something at the grocery store (and sometimes do). T is a truly lazy eater and will sometimes just do without rather than have to get a baggie out to bag his own. So we are all still very much in a process.

I am finding out that I feel better and am naturally losing weight just by avoiding processed foods. The boys behavior is also better when they don't have High Fructose Corn Syrup coursing through their veins. So I am convinced it is both a cheaper and better lifestyle choice for us.

I encourage you to make a homemade snack this week and enjoy its inexpensive, simple goodness.

Simply Live

It is still my desire to have "homemaker" classes here at the house, but God just has not opened the time yet. So for now I would like to share my journey toward simple living with you on my blog. I will title them all Simply Live and will label them the same, in attempt to make it easy to identify these posts.

Honestly, I don't know where to start. There are so many wonderful things that I have learned over the past few years.

I think for today I would like to start by talking about Co-ops since tomorrow is my Farmer's Market Co-op. We are now reaching our one year anniversary of this wonderful venture. There are several similar co-ops in the area, but all of them were full when I learned about them. A group of friends and I decided to start one ourselves on a tentative basis. We were unsure of how well it would fit into our lives. Needless to say it has been wonderful. From that group of 5 families we have grown to a group of about 24.

I am still overwhelmed each time with the power of buying in bulk. Not only are prices less at wholesale distributors, but often they offer even better deals to groups that buy in large amounts. There have even been times we were given things for free, just for being good customers. Each of us puts in $20 and receives two bags full of fruit and veggies (at times we have received over 30lbs of produce). We stick to buying very basic foods and if it happens to be something we don't like or can't eat all of, many of us have enjoyed being able to share with others.

There are many co-op opportunities available, such as the one I am playing around with to provide Wright Dairy milk to our area. This is a wonderful milk that is low-temp pasteurized and not homogenized. The taste is amazing and the health benefits are high due to the special processing. It is a bit pricey, but it is so worth it. Although it comes from sweet home Alabama, there are few places to get it. Again, through cooperating we can work to make it available and more affordable (the closest store to me sells it for $7 a gallon, and we are getting it for closer to $5.50).

Another opportunity is Azure. I am just researching this company, but it seems to be a company that will deliver to your area if your group can place an order of $550. They provide a wonderful selection of hard to find grains and organic foods at a wonderful price. Again- the power of bulk buying.

So consider grouping up. Even a group of three or four has more buying power than one. The wonderful fellowship is a great bonus as well.