I finally made the switch yesterday morning to using a locally produced shampoo bar. It's from Prairieland Herbs in Woodward, IA. I've had the soap since February, but was intimidated by the caution "you may experience funky hair for the first few weeks of use."
I've been using the body bars for several months now and really like it, but using the shampoo bar was, well scary!
So, because of the funky hair-scare, I bought the lovely-sounding "Red Rose and Lemon Balm" Herbal Hair Rinse, guaranteed to combat any wacky side effects the transition from petroleum/chemical-based hair care to a more natural, earth friendly approach.
True to its word, the rinse definitely kept my hair close to its normal level of funkiness. However, I neglected to read the fine print on the hair rinse bottle. "An herbally infused organic apple cider vinegar rinse..."
Worked like a charm, smelled like a salad.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
A Happy Mother's Day
What a glorious Mother's Day I had! It started with whole wheat walnut coffee cake and the Sunday New York Times, courtesy of my wonderful husband, Michael. He and the kids spent a good portion of the day cleaning the house, folding laundry, etc. We now have a bunch of pictures of the kids framed and ready to hang. Michael took the kids to a garden center where they picked out four beautiful rose bushes for our front yard. They surprised me by planting them before showing them to me!
I also received a gift of honey through Oxfam International, a lovely card and even a haiku from my youngest:
You snort when you laugh
and then you laugh more ha ha
which makes me laugh, too
Uh hmm, don't you love the honesty of children??
Dinner was also prepared for me by dh and Stephen: marinated pork chops cooked on the grill, grilled asparagus parmesan, fresh salad (from Melissa) and homemade coffee chocolate chip ice cream from Stephen and Michael.
I spent most of the day reading - to myself! - it was lovely.
I also received a gift of honey through Oxfam International, a lovely card and even a haiku from my youngest:
You snort when you laugh
and then you laugh more ha ha
which makes me laugh, too
Uh hmm, don't you love the honesty of children??
Dinner was also prepared for me by dh and Stephen: marinated pork chops cooked on the grill, grilled asparagus parmesan, fresh salad (from Melissa) and homemade coffee chocolate chip ice cream from Stephen and Michael.
I spent most of the day reading - to myself! - it was lovely.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Herbaceous Cookies, Dude
Our family food-foraging experiments took an interesting turn today when my friend Meg sent me a recipe for Dandelion Flower cookies. It seemed the perfect family activity for a gorgeous Mother's Day.
Unlike other neighborhoods from my past, I don't have to worry about whether the yards here have been sprayed. I now live in a poor area of Des Moines, just a few blocks away from inner city revitalization. The move here was a calculated gamble. Our hope is that revitalization will migrate 1/2 mile further east. The immediate gratification was restoring a 1904 house and a much lower mortgage. We left an upper middle class (dare I say, upper class?) area of Des Moines, with its share of huge houses, pristine lawns and alarm systems, to a neighborhood with its fair share of boarded up houses, multi-family living and neglected yards. No one here can afford expensive lawn care.
Anyway, my kids, my dh and myself trooped around the neighborhood, the younger kids dashing to pick every yellow head in their path. I only needed 1/2 cup of dandelion flower petals, so our gathering didn't take long; as it is I ended up with three times as many flowers as needed.
In case you've always wondered, the dandelion is so named because of its long, pointy root. It's name in old French is "Dent-de-lion," or lion tooth. The dandelion is now spread worldwide, though it was first introduced to the Midwest by Europeans to provide food for their imported honeybees.
Anyway, we squeezed and pulled out the requisite number of flower petals and my youngest dd helped me whip up the cookies. An easy recipe. The cookies tasted kind of blah to us, with the most prominent flavor being the honey. I didn't want to waste our cookies, so we made dandelion cookie and peanut butter sandwiches.
The verdict: delicious!
Dandelion Cookies
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup oats
1/2 cup dandelion flowers
Preheat oven to 375. Blend oil and honey and beat in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, oatmeal and dandelion flowers. Drop batter by teaspoonfuls onto lightly oiled cookied sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
(Before using dandelion flowers, wash them thoroughly. To remove petals, squeeze the green part of the flower and pull yellow petals out)
Unlike other neighborhoods from my past, I don't have to worry about whether the yards here have been sprayed. I now live in a poor area of Des Moines, just a few blocks away from inner city revitalization. The move here was a calculated gamble. Our hope is that revitalization will migrate 1/2 mile further east. The immediate gratification was restoring a 1904 house and a much lower mortgage. We left an upper middle class (dare I say, upper class?) area of Des Moines, with its share of huge houses, pristine lawns and alarm systems, to a neighborhood with its fair share of boarded up houses, multi-family living and neglected yards. No one here can afford expensive lawn care.
Anyway, my kids, my dh and myself trooped around the neighborhood, the younger kids dashing to pick every yellow head in their path. I only needed 1/2 cup of dandelion flower petals, so our gathering didn't take long; as it is I ended up with three times as many flowers as needed.
In case you've always wondered, the dandelion is so named because of its long, pointy root. It's name in old French is "Dent-de-lion," or lion tooth. The dandelion is now spread worldwide, though it was first introduced to the Midwest by Europeans to provide food for their imported honeybees.
Anyway, we squeezed and pulled out the requisite number of flower petals and my youngest dd helped me whip up the cookies. An easy recipe. The cookies tasted kind of blah to us, with the most prominent flavor being the honey. I didn't want to waste our cookies, so we made dandelion cookie and peanut butter sandwiches.
The verdict: delicious!
Dandelion Cookies
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup oats
1/2 cup dandelion flowers
Preheat oven to 375. Blend oil and honey and beat in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, oatmeal and dandelion flowers. Drop batter by teaspoonfuls onto lightly oiled cookied sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
(Before using dandelion flowers, wash them thoroughly. To remove petals, squeeze the green part of the flower and pull yellow petals out)
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Farmer's Market Today!
I'm still not good at making sure I have the camera with me, taking pictures, etc. Hopefully, once I gain more technological savvy, this will become second nature.
Today was the opening day of the Des Moines Downtown Farmer's Market. Hundreds of vendors are there selling everything from plants and flowers to vegetables to hand-made jewelry and pottery. We were able to load up on what I hope will be enough locally grown produce to last the week. Our haul included spring garlic, scallions, radishes, lettuce, spinach, fresh mint, pea greens, carrots, strawberries and morrel mushrooms! Yum!
In case you're wondering - what the heck? Strawberries in Iowa now? Your suspicion is justified - it definitely is too early for most of these crops to be ready had they been grown directly in the garden. These local farmers used cold frames, greenhouses, etc., to have early crops.
Unfortunately, one does have to be careful and ask about things like this. The Des Moines Farmer's Market, unlike the market in Fayetteville, Arkansas, does not require that all foods sold be locally grown or produced. So, today there were strawberries, musk melon, watermelons, zucchini and all manner of other fruits and vegetables from California at our LOCAL market. I wonder if some poor souls who are clueless about their food think these are locally produced as well?
Anyway, breakfast was a bountiful feast made completely from locally grown foods. I sauteed some sliced garlic with a few sliced morrels in butter, then added the locally harvested pasture raised chicken eggs mixed with local milk, salt and pepper. Once these were cooked, I added some locally produced feta cheese and allowed it to melt together. Accompanied by two of the quarts of strawberries and tall glasses of milk, we were in heaven!
We had to make several trips to the car, with all the above produce and to haul our 65 pounds of flours, corn meal, rice, etc. Paul's Grains grows most of the flours, corn meal, oats, etc., that they sell in a sustainable and organic manner. Other items, such as brown rice are brought in from elsewhere, but are organically grown. I'd rather give this small, local farmer the little bit of profit than a chain grocery store. We called the night before to place our order and were told the flour was being ground as we were speaking!
Yesterday, we got our first CSA delivery. It was a small bundle, but included asparagus, scallions and rhubarb. So far, I've made a rhubarb cake - so good!
Today was the opening day of the Des Moines Downtown Farmer's Market. Hundreds of vendors are there selling everything from plants and flowers to vegetables to hand-made jewelry and pottery. We were able to load up on what I hope will be enough locally grown produce to last the week. Our haul included spring garlic, scallions, radishes, lettuce, spinach, fresh mint, pea greens, carrots, strawberries and morrel mushrooms! Yum!
In case you're wondering - what the heck? Strawberries in Iowa now? Your suspicion is justified - it definitely is too early for most of these crops to be ready had they been grown directly in the garden. These local farmers used cold frames, greenhouses, etc., to have early crops.
Unfortunately, one does have to be careful and ask about things like this. The Des Moines Farmer's Market, unlike the market in Fayetteville, Arkansas, does not require that all foods sold be locally grown or produced. So, today there were strawberries, musk melon, watermelons, zucchini and all manner of other fruits and vegetables from California at our LOCAL market. I wonder if some poor souls who are clueless about their food think these are locally produced as well?
Anyway, breakfast was a bountiful feast made completely from locally grown foods. I sauteed some sliced garlic with a few sliced morrels in butter, then added the locally harvested pasture raised chicken eggs mixed with local milk, salt and pepper. Once these were cooked, I added some locally produced feta cheese and allowed it to melt together. Accompanied by two of the quarts of strawberries and tall glasses of milk, we were in heaven!
We had to make several trips to the car, with all the above produce and to haul our 65 pounds of flours, corn meal, rice, etc. Paul's Grains grows most of the flours, corn meal, oats, etc., that they sell in a sustainable and organic manner. Other items, such as brown rice are brought in from elsewhere, but are organically grown. I'd rather give this small, local farmer the little bit of profit than a chain grocery store. We called the night before to place our order and were told the flour was being ground as we were speaking!
Yesterday, we got our first CSA delivery. It was a small bundle, but included asparagus, scallions and rhubarb. So far, I've made a rhubarb cake - so good!
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
The Happy Housewife
Well, I've not made a good start here, nor have I learned how to add pictures or links. Perhaps I'll be motivated to get myself up to speed by the lamentations of my good friend, Chris, who checks this poor, neglected blog daily - because of my neglect, her online life has included a "Ground Hog Day" of Feb. 18 for the last two months.
I've been reading a lot lately about self-sufficiency and eating locally. While I've only taken baby steps toward that goal, I was quite proud of myself today, though one could say my industriousness was spurred by laziness and justified, at least in part, by self-sufficiency/local motives.
This morning I found myself wanting to make calzones for supper, but I lacked several of the major ingredients, such as pepperoni and ricotta cheese. No problem, right? A quick jaunt to the grocery store and I could proceed. But I run to the grocery store way too often and rarely leave with only the items I intended to buy. OK., I didn't want to go anywhere and I wanted calzones. What to do?
I knew we had some free-range locally purchased sausage in the freezer. That could substitute for the pepperoni. Hmm, I'd recently read that it is easy to make ricotta cheese at home... could it really be? A quick search on Google and I found the simplest-looking recipe:
1 gallon milk
1/4 cup white vinegar
Heat milk slowly to 200 degrees, add vinegar, remove from heat and let sit for several minutes.
Pour contents through cheese cloth-lined strainer and allow to drain. (I didn't have that on hand so just used a really thin cotton kitchen towel)
Gather up ends of cheese cloth and tie together. Hang from kitchen faucet to drain.
The draining is only supposed to take an hour, but my kitchen towel wasn't as porous as cheese cloth, so I had to do some extra squeezing to get the liquid out.
Anyway, it worked like a dream and I had about a pound of ricotta cheese!
We also had several plastic bags of dandelion greens and curly dock my husband and girls had foraged the other night (it's too bitter for a plain salad). I sauteed it in olive oil and garlic with salt and pepper and pureed this in my food processor.
So, along with the mozarella, farm fresh eggs and parmesan already in my fridge, I combined the ricotta, sausage and sauteed greens for the calzone filling.
I don't know when I've been so happy about a kitchen achievement as I was today about my cheese!
Since no dinner is complete without dessert, I made a cherry pie, using locally-grown cherries I pitted and froze last summer.
To round out the meal, I had an English cucumber in the fridge - add oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper to the sliced up cucumber and there's a crunchy, delicious side dish. I cut up a red pepper and a yellow pepper and those will go on the table on a platter.
So, while most of my day was spent reading for pleasure, I put together this somewhat local meal with ingredients I had on hand.
Hey, it's a start!
I've been reading a lot lately about self-sufficiency and eating locally. While I've only taken baby steps toward that goal, I was quite proud of myself today, though one could say my industriousness was spurred by laziness and justified, at least in part, by self-sufficiency/local motives.
This morning I found myself wanting to make calzones for supper, but I lacked several of the major ingredients, such as pepperoni and ricotta cheese. No problem, right? A quick jaunt to the grocery store and I could proceed. But I run to the grocery store way too often and rarely leave with only the items I intended to buy. OK., I didn't want to go anywhere and I wanted calzones. What to do?
I knew we had some free-range locally purchased sausage in the freezer. That could substitute for the pepperoni. Hmm, I'd recently read that it is easy to make ricotta cheese at home... could it really be? A quick search on Google and I found the simplest-looking recipe:
1 gallon milk
1/4 cup white vinegar
Heat milk slowly to 200 degrees, add vinegar, remove from heat and let sit for several minutes.
Pour contents through cheese cloth-lined strainer and allow to drain. (I didn't have that on hand so just used a really thin cotton kitchen towel)
Gather up ends of cheese cloth and tie together. Hang from kitchen faucet to drain.
The draining is only supposed to take an hour, but my kitchen towel wasn't as porous as cheese cloth, so I had to do some extra squeezing to get the liquid out.
Anyway, it worked like a dream and I had about a pound of ricotta cheese!
We also had several plastic bags of dandelion greens and curly dock my husband and girls had foraged the other night (it's too bitter for a plain salad). I sauteed it in olive oil and garlic with salt and pepper and pureed this in my food processor.
So, along with the mozarella, farm fresh eggs and parmesan already in my fridge, I combined the ricotta, sausage and sauteed greens for the calzone filling.
I don't know when I've been so happy about a kitchen achievement as I was today about my cheese!
Since no dinner is complete without dessert, I made a cherry pie, using locally-grown cherries I pitted and froze last summer.
To round out the meal, I had an English cucumber in the fridge - add oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper to the sliced up cucumber and there's a crunchy, delicious side dish. I cut up a red pepper and a yellow pepper and those will go on the table on a platter.
So, while most of my day was spent reading for pleasure, I put together this somewhat local meal with ingredients I had on hand.
Hey, it's a start!
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