Luke 2:1-20 (New International Version, ©2010) Luke 2 The Birth of Jesus 1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

One Down, One to Go

Merry Christmas

I know I am technically a few days early, but wanted to say Merry Christmas to all of my new followers and all of old followers. I have been linking to other whole food blogs this past month and have discovered quite a few new blogs with lots of yummy recipes and feel like I have made some wonderful connections with other moms who are on their own "food journeys". It is also a bit exciting to see I have gained 6 new followers in the past two weeks. I did have 16 and couldn't figure out who left, but just realized it was my little sis. Get your butt back over here! So, I have a favor to ask, it would make my year if I was at 25 followers by the time January 1 rolled around. I am planning to write a bit more about our homeschooling adventures and we may be having a new baby calf come February! Could you share my blog with someone you think would like it? My end goal is to make enough money with sponsors to put up new fence, fix the barn, start some u-pick fruit patches and have enough veggies started so that I can go to the farmers market next year and offer really good food at an affordable price. Maybe even be able to purchase another milk cow in the spring. Ultimately, I would love our farm to be a place were people can come and learn what farming and gardening are all about, so that we can get away from our modernized food system and come back to our traditional roots.

Wordless Wednesday

Sourdough Cinnamin Rolls

I have to share this today, I am going to get it started after I get all the kids in bed. Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls from Heartland Renaissance. Enjoy!!

Homemade Pumpkin Puree

This is a really simple way to have pumpkin in the freezer all year long. This most likely would have been better shared around Halloween when pumpkins were plentiful but you can bookmark this for next year. I still have a couple of pumpkins from the garden to do.

I cut my pumpkin into pieces and peel the outside. I cut it into even chunks and put it into the oven at 350 and bake it. When it is all really soft I puree it in the blender using the pumpkin juice from the bottom of the pan to get everything going.

Once pureed, I put the pumpkin in my cheese making bag so all the extra water can drain out giving me nice thick pumpkin like out of a can but without the metal taste or BPA using to line the can.

Baked Oatmeal

I can not stand plain oatmeal. It is slimy, gooey, and makes my gag reflex go crazy. Everytime I asked someone how they increased their milk supply, they would say "oatmeal"! Totally not happening. In an effort to make breakfast easier for me and needing something besides the gallons of mothers milk tea drank on a regular basis, I came up with this. It has become a favorite of everyone, the entire 9x13 pan is usually gone by lunch time. It takes a bit of prep the night before because you are going to soak the oats overnight to breakdown the phytic acid in them, reducing digestive discomfort and increasing the amounts of calcium and magnesium absorbed. You could add a tablespoon of brewers yeast to it and it would be a perfect breakfast for a mama really trying to maintain/increase her milk supply.
Baked Oatmeal
4 c oatmeal
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c of water
1/2 c plain yogurt

Mix oatmeal and flour, add wet ingredients, mix well. Cover it with a towel and let it sit over night.

In the morning add:
1/2 c organic rapadura
2 tsp organic ground cinnamon
2 tsp non-aluminum baking powder
2 tsp organic burboun vanilla
1 tsp celtic sea salt
4 tbsp ground organic flax seed meal mixed with 1/4 water or two pasture raised eggs
1/2 c organic melted butter or coconut oil

I soak my oats in the pan that the oatmeal will be baked in so I don't have lots of dishes to do. Add everything to your oats and stir till well mixed. Pop into a 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes, until the top is brown and cracked.

Variations: Prepare oatmeal following the above instructions, but instead of soaking your oats in the baking pan, use a seperate bowl. Pour half of your oatmeal in the pan, add your filling and then cover with remaining oatmeal.
#1 banana slices and crispy walnuts : lay banana slices on top of bottom layer, sprinkly with crispy nuts and top with the rest of the oatmeal

#2 raspberries and dark chocolate chips (only on special occasions do we do this one) put a layer of raspberries and dark chocolate chips in the middle.

#3 fall harvest : didn't watch the apple crisp close enough so we had apple mush. mixed some over done apple crisp(or apple sauce) with some left over pureed pumpkin and use as filling

#4 classic blueberries : add 1 to 2 cups of blueberries in the morning.

#5 pumpkin spice - mix 1 c of pumpkin puree with oats and flour the night before; in the morning add 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg. Got any other filling ideas? Share and let me know!! This post is shared at:

Monday Mania

Tuesday Twister

Real Food Wednesday

Simple Lives Thursday

Pages

Over the next few days...weeks...months...I will be working on my "real food page" If you have a real food blog or just a yummy recipe to share, please do and I will add it!

Gluten Free Brownies

These are super yummy and really easy to make!! I am re-posting this because I have made some changes! 5 tbsp of raw organic carob powder + 5 tbsp of melted organic coconut oil, mixed 1/2 cup organic butter 2 organic free range eggs 1/2 cup of organic rapadura 1/2 rounded cup of organic sprouted almonds, processed into a fine flour 1/4 organic brown rice flour 1/2 tsp of fine sea salt 1/4 tsp non-aluminum baking powder 2 tsp real organic vanilla extract 1 1/2 tsp organic orange extract

1/2 cup organic crispy pecans or almonds, broken into pieces Heat your oven to 350 degrees, I just dumped everything but the crispy nuts into my mixing bowl and mixed well. Gently stir in crispy nuts. Pour into a greased 9x9 pan. The batter will be thick so you may have to spread it out with a spatula. Don't over bake (33-35 minutes), these brownies are better on the gooey side rather than well done. Yum! I love the sweetness of the carob powder and orange together. These are a family favorite. Recipe adapted from here.

This post is shared at:

Monday Mania

Real Food Wednesdays

Simple Lives Thursday

The Best Granola Ever!!

This is, hands down, the best granola recipe ever. It is from Organic Sparks and she has the best recipes(go check them out, you like them, I promise).

It is perfect paired with fresh fruit and raw kefir.

Tawashi

This has been my fun little "relaxing" project. They are just little kitchen or bath scrubbies, but are quick and easy to do. Makes you feel like you actually got something done, which is a good thing since some of these are going to be Christmas presents. I used Sugar n' Creme yarn, holding one colored strand and one white stand to make an extra sturdy tawashi and a J hook. Round 1: Ch 4, sl st into 4th chain from the hook to make a ring; ch3, 10 dc in ring, sl st to first dc Round 2: Ch1, 2 hdc in each dc, sl st to 1st hdc Round 3: Ch1, 2 sc in each hdc, sl st to 1st sc Loop: Ch12 and sl st in same stitch, finish off For Flower same as rounds one and two above Round 3: Ch 1, sc in same stitch *skip 1 st, 6 dc in next st, skip 1 st, sc in next stitch * repeat between * 4 more times for 5 petals. Join to 1st sc. Loop: same as above This is the very first crochet pattern I have written, so if you can't figure it out chances are I wrote it wrong. These are very fun and easy to do and they don't have to look perfect, they are doing the dishes after all. Have fun! *Please don't claim the pattern as your own, but you may do whatever you want with what you make, give as gifts, donate or sell.*

Warm Woolen Mittens

I finally finished the cuff much to my son's delight. These are the first mittens that I have ever done. The pattern was very straight forward and easy to do. Not much counting or keeping tract of stitches or rows.

This Years Ornaments

A French Breakfast Part 2

Success! We had a lovely breakfast of pink pastries, crumpets, and sourdough french toast with chai tea. The kids declined the carob addition and I admit, why mess with the prefect cup of chai we have seemed to mastered.

I used the Cream Cheese Breakfast Pastry and Yogurt Dough recipes from Nourishing Traditions. Both recipes require you to soak your flour over night to get rid of the phytic acid in the flour. Instead of using plain cream cheese I mixed strawberries into mine.

I put my homemade yogurt in a cheese making bag and let the whey drain out of it. It was more like a greek yogurt after I added the strawberries (which I also drained the juice out of).

The Cream Cheese Breakfast Pastry dough was quite a bit stickier than it was suppose to be because of the extra moisture from the strawberries. It was more like a half soaked recipe by the time I added extra flour so I could roll it out but the pastries turned out perfect.

I rolled out my dough and brushed it with butter and then sprinkled it with just a touch of sugar, extra cinnamon and pecans. I rolled it up 1 1/2 turns and then cut my dough. Roll up another 1 1/2 turns and cut dough again. Roll up last third and cut into slices. Its hard to tell that they are pink, but they are, I promise. The Yogurt Dough is similar to pizza crust. I made little crumpet type buiscutts out of them and we split them and put butter and raw honey on them. It was all really good and rather fun to have pink food for breakfast, at least my daughter thought so!

I think this would be perfect for Valentine's Day. You could take and twist two pieces of dough together and make a heart shaped pretzel.

A French Breakfast Part 1

My mom went to France when she was in high school and she always talks about the french breakfast, hard rolls and hot cocoa. I think I may have one up that, Strawberry Yogurt Bread and Hot Carob/Chai Milk.

Isn't that just the prettiest pink dough? This is the first time I have tried this and I am really excited to see how it turns out, so stay tune tomorrow to see the finished product.

-16 Below - Brrrrr....

Morning temperatures + the totally crazy day yesterday = staying home this morning. I totally copped out and didn't milk this morning, let the calf have it all. Hubby was a wonderful love and did all the chores. I got lots done but still have a mountain of laundry to do. I didn't have a washer or dryer for a week because we were finishing the laundry room floor. It is heated and I think I am going to make myself a few pillows and take up residence there. Makes me wish our whole house had infloor heating. It is highly unlikely that we will ever totally rebuild, but if we did we would totally have infloor heating. We may build a sunroom on the back and make it our bedroom and that will have infloor heating guarunteed. Of course I didn't get a chance to take a before picture. Just think concrete basement floor and there's your picture. I will post a picture when its done. I have 10 loads of laundry to fold and put away with at least 7 more to wash. That includes sheets and towels so some of it is easy folding. One bedroom is being share by three people even though they don't have too. It is a mess with a capital M, but they are having fun playing and have set up the way they like so I am not too eager to disrupt their fun. My kitchen was rock'n this morning. I recharged my kombucha, fed my sourdough starter and its ready to make bread, made more yogurt, made homemade pumpkin spice yogurt cream cheese, making another batch of yogurt cream cheese, started another jar of kefir, unload a batch of dehydrated apple slices and cleaned out my fridge. What's happening in your kitchen? I need some dinner ideas! **This is how I make homemade yogurt cream cheese.**

Away In A Manger

Today was the third day in a row that we drove to Brainerd, a 45 min one way trip. Grace had dance on Thursday night, dress rehearsal Friday night, and two preformances today. If I never have to make the trip again that would be okay with me although I know I will be back next Thursday because that is Grace's last class of the year. Grace has always loved to dance so when the oppurtunity to dance at the Heart and Sole Christian Dance School arose, we decided to enroll. Grace has loved every minute of it! *Dad was behind the camera and had two kids in his lap, hence the wiggles*

How to Make Your Own Kombucha Mother

The first time I tried kombucha it was on a whim. I had never heard of it before. I saw it at the grocery store and needed something to drink. GT Dave's Mystic Mango was the one I picked and I have been in love ever since. I didn't look at the price tag associated with a bottle of it. $3.99 for 16 ounces, okay price for a once in awhile treat but I liked it way to much to only have it once in awhile. I knew there had to be a way to make it at home, so I hit the web in search of instructions.

The way to make kombucha is to have a "mother". You can buy those online too, but at the time we didn't have a lot of money to order and pay shipping. Plan B, if it is a culture, I should be able to make my own with an existing culture. Since all I had access to was GT Dave's, I bought a bottle of original kombucha, a box of organic green tea and gave it a go. I used the instructions found on the web for making a new batch of kombucha as my guide.

You will need:
gallon glass jar
4 - 7 organic green tea bags or the loose leaf equivalent
1 c organic sugar
1 bottle of raw kombucha
1 gallon of chlorine and fluoride free water

Bring a 3/4 gallon of water to a boil, add your sugar and dissolve. Add your tea, take off heat, cover, and let steep for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes take out your tea bags and let your tea cool to room temperature.

When cool pour your tea into your jar, add your bottle of kombucha and then fill to the top with water. Cover with muslin or two coffee filters and a rubber band and put in a dark, room temperature space. If you have a spot on your counter that is out of drafts you can wrap a towel around the jar. Very slowly a film will start to appear on the top of your jar. This is the start of your "mother". You may see bits of brown culture floating in the jar, this is good. It may take up to two weeks to really get a good mother growing. You can check it periodically to make sure that it doesn't get too sour or vinegar-y tasting for you. If you have other cultures growing in your kitchen, i.e. sourdough starter, kefir, make sure you keep enough space between them so that the cultures don't cross contaminate and weaken.

The awesome thing about making it at home is that you can vary the type of tea you use and how long you let it culture. After a few batches your "mother" with increase in size and will take less time to brew a batch of tea. My "mothers" are so big now that it only takes a week to brew a gallon of tea. They are not always as fizzy as I would like, even with a double fermentation, but it is good. Our whole family drinks kombucha and I really need to start two more gallon jars. It is a great way to get some helpful probiotics in. With the last few batches I haven't even bothered bottling it. We just pour it into a mason jar and stick it in the fridge. Have any questions? Just let me know! This post is included in:

Monday Mania

Tuesday Twister

Real Food Wednesday

Simple Lives Thursday

Fight Back Friday

Kitchen Tip: Melting Small Amounts of Butter or Coconut Oil

We don't own a microwave for a number of reasons. (Maybe another post on that subject another day but right now I'm just too tired). So what do you do when your recipe calls for a small amount of melted butter or coconut oil? I have a little sauce pan (the one Rachael Rae says is useless, which I totally disagree with, BTW) and normally I would just use that, but then I have to wash the pan and it seems like when you are only melting two tablespoons of butter or coconut oil you waste a lot on the bottom and sides of the pan. In come stainless steel condiment cups. You know, the ones you get a restaurants filled with not so healthy ketchup or salads dressing. They work great as a little double boiler and because they are stainless they conduct heat well. Put a little water in the bottom of your sauce pan and place the cup in the water. Perfectly melted butter with just a little cleanup and not so much wasted!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

The great sourdought blob! *insert scary laugh here*

Maple Kefir

We just found a favorite new way to get in our daily dose of kefir.

1 c raw plain kefir

1 tsp pure maple syrup

Mix and enjoy!

Carob Cherry Sourdough Breakfast Bread

After making way to much sourdough starter this morning I needed something to do with it. I had already started a double batch of bread and sourdough pretzels. The blueberry coffee cake in the cookbook looked good, but wasn't a sourdough recipe and because I missed the order this month I didn't have enough blueberries. I did have lots of frozen cherries and remembered seeing a post awhile back about chocolate cherry sourdough bread, but didn't have the recipe for it and didn't have the time to look for it. What to do?... Thus the idea for Carob Cherry Sourdough Breakfast Bread was born and I am so glad it was. It tops the Carob Zucchini Cake by far, in my opinion anyway.

1 c sourdough starter
1/4 c soft butter
3/4 c rapadura
1 egg plus 2 egg yolks
1/2 c milk
1/2 c carob powder
1/2 c sifted whole wheat flour to remove the bran
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 celtic sea salt
2 c frozen cherries, halved

Cream butter and sugar together and then beat in the eggs and milk. Add your starter and sifted flour, carob, salt, and soda. Mix very well. Gently fold in the cherries. Place batter into a greased and floured 8 inch square pan and allow to stand in a warm place for at least 20 minutes.

While waiting, prepare the topping:

1/3 c rapadura
1/3 c sifted flour
1/3 c soaked and dehydrated oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup soft butter

Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon together and cut in butter. Gently mix in oats. Sprinkle on top of bread just before baking in a 375 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes. Do not under bake, it is moist but I cooked it until it pulled away from the pan. Wait until it cools to eat otherwise it will be a sticky mess.

**This post is part of **

Monday Mania @ The Healthy Home Economist

Tuesday Twister @ GNOWFGLINS

Real Food Wednesdays @ Kelly the Kitchen Kop

Simple Lives Thursday @ A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa

Fight Back Friday @ Food Renegade

Orange Curry Pumpkin Seeds

This maybe would have been a better post for around Halloween, but I thought I would share anyway. My inspiration was this post at Nourished Kitchen. My husband was excited about the thought of chili-lime pumpkin seeds, he loves the chili-lime corn chips, but I forgot to buy the limes. I did however, get oranges, and curry and orange go really well together, so that's what I went with and they are yummy. I replace the chili powder with curry powder and lime zest with the zest of a whole orange. They are so good I may have to hide them!!

I think I let my pumpkin go to long. I love how the seeds will sprout and grow inside the pumpkin.

Sourdough Bread

I finally ordered some sourdough starter from Cultures for Health. I have made my own starter in the past but it seems like it is good for a few batches of bread and them something happens and it goes bad.

I used the recipe on the back of the instructions for the starter and it is sooo good. Crusty on the outside, moist on the inside and stays together making it the perfect sandwich bread.

This is what your starter should look like before you bake bread.

The other thing I learned this week was that raw honey contains the amylase. Amylase is an enzyme in your mouth that starts the breakdown of starchy food. If you spread a little raw honey on your bread about 15 minutes before eating it, it will begin to break down the starch in the bread ultimately making it easier on your digestive system. Real food is so cool!

Our Newest Additions

While waiting for our chickens to lay eggs, we have been getting some from friends. Sherri called me last week saying that they were moving and didn't have a place for all the chickens and asked if we wanted them, she just wanted a dozen eggs a week in return.

I said sure! What a sweet deal! I'm not really sure I thought this one through. We have 25 hens of our own and just added another 19. That means when they are all laying we will be getting 44 eggs A DAY. Holy Moly! As of tomorrow morning I will have almost two dozen eggs in my fridge. (four of our hens are laying)

I am going to look at this in a positive light, we can all eat as many eggs as we want in one sitting and we will have plenty to sell or share. I wonder if the food shelf can take eggs? I will definitely check on that one.

Wordless Wednesday