Mini geek!!

Yes, they can!!

Little ones can be such a big help when doing household chores. Here you see my 5 year old separating socks into piles. He also separated his & his brothers' undies into piles.

As a side note, last week we were out playing in the snow & Hubba told Little Girl not to eat yellow snow. She looked at him as though he were off his rocker & vehemently replied: "I don't eat yellow snow. That's PEE!!!"

Houston- we have lollipops!!!

Dum dum pops= LOTS of dyes & synthetic flavourings. I've been oogling the YummyEarth Organic Lollipops but haven't made the jump. So I googled how to make my own lollies. Now while mine aren't as "wholesome" as the YE lollies, I do know what goes in & they are additive free!! YIPPEE!! And here's the best part- the kids LOVE them! Aren't they beautiful?!?!



But be warned- you MUST work quickly, or this happens:


Here's the recipe, my notes in red:

Lollipops

By Elizabeth LaBau¹, About.com

Lollipops are an old-fashioned sugar candy favorite. You can vary the colors or flavors to suit your tastes. Make sure you have an accurate candy thermometer for this recipe!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar (I used demerara)
  
• ½ cup light corn syrup (I used homemade dark corn syrup)
  
• ¼ cup water
• ¾ tsp extract of your choice (vanilla, mint, cinnamon, coconut, etc)
• Food coloring (optional) (Did not use)
  
• Lollipop molds and sticks

Preparation:

1. Prepare your molds by spraying them with nonstick cooking spray and inserting lollipop sticks into the molds.

2. Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Insert the candy thermometer and stir until sugar dissolves.

3. Allow to boil, without stirring, until candy reaches 295 degrees (hard-crack stage).

4. Once the candy reaches 295, remove it from heat. Stir in the extract of your choice, and, if desired, food coloring.

5. Spoon the candy into the mold cavities, making sure to cover the back of the stick.

6. Allow to cool completely and remove once hardened.

Carrot cake with yoghurt cheese glaze

I really thought I'd posted this, but now I can't find it.... And I thought I had a picture of it, but I can't find that either. Rumour also has it I have a mind. I think I've lost that as well..... *sigh*

Carrot cake with yoghurt cheese glaze

---

This is a very thick & dense, sticky cake. Oh so yummy!

For the cake:

1 1/4 c olive oil
2 c demerara sugar
1 c each wheat flour & spelt flour
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t finely ground sea salt
2 t cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice or a combination of both
4 eggs
3 c shredded carrot
1/2-3/4 c raw sunflower seeds

Combine oil & sugar, mix well. Sift dry ingredients together & blend well. Add half of dry mixture into the sugar mixture. Mix well. Add 1/4 of the dry mixture & 1 egg at a time, alternating until both the dry mixture & eggs are used up, being sure to blend after each addition.Fold in carrot & sunflower seeds.

Bake at 325º for 1h 10m in a well buttered 10-inch tube pan. Cool in pan, upright on cooling rack. Remove from pan. Glaze as you serve with the following (If you glaze the whole cake, it will become soggy).

For the glaze:

8 oz yoghurt cheese
2 c powdered sugar (you can make your own by blending demerara to a powder)
1 T pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup pureed cauliflower

Whisk all ingredients until well-blended.

Cake & glaze should be refrigerated.

The Queen of Repurpose strikes again

I'm cheap. There, I said it. Oh wait, no, I've always said that. And I'm proud of it too. Yeah, what's it to ya? *grin*

I couldn't justify spending money to buy plastic strainers for my water kefir (speaking of which, I need to check them again to see if my "brew" is brewed, LOL). So I improvised. I have LOTS.of.sets.of measuring cups. I figured I could drill holes into one cup. This not only gives me a free strainer, but it also lets me measure my grains, so I know when they've multiplied, YAY!!!

I've also taken to making a LOT of yoghurt cheese. But using my yellow strainer & a coffee filter got annoying. Every time you'd go into the fridge, you'd knock the handle. A disaster or 3 struck, so it dawned on me that I could make a strainer from a bowl that would fit into my large pyrex measuring cup and had a WIDE flower shaped lip on it.

YAY for repurposing!!!

Hot Carob Cocoa-nut

I was reading Miss Lozt's blog & came across this recipe for "Chocococonut Milk." Mmmmmm, I thought. Yummy, I thought..... So off to the kitchen to make a warm dessert treat for the littles..... And then I tinkered. And I tweaked...... And darn if I can find the recipe *I* used..... *le sigh* So enjoy hers until I can find (or remember, ain't THAT funny) MY recipe.....

I've got a SCOBY!!!

I blogged about making a scoby from a bottle of raw Kombucha Tea. It's working albeit very.very.slowly..... We live in a VERY.cold.climate, so I'm sure that doesn't help speed up the process. Regardless, I'm happy with the progress. She's an ugly little thing, but let's keep that between us, m'kay?

These pics were actually taken about 2 weeks ago. She's now living atop the refrigerator & has grown some more. I'm guessing by the time I'm 40, I'll have a scoby. OK, maybe not THAT long, but I'm not a patient person sometimes....

Mmmmm, healthy TF pudding!

It amazes me the things you can make that are soooo much healthier than store bought, pre-packaged, artificially-laden things at the store. What's even more amazing is that picky kids like it too! This is KerryAnn's pudding made with avocado.

A day in the desert, pt 2- the drive

So we took that right. And we drove..... and we drove.... and we dr.... well, you get the point. Here are some more FABULOUS sky & scenery pics from BEAUTIFUL Wyoming!


This is the salt lake (pond?) we passed going to & from the shooting site.




Just some scenery from the drive out of the shooting site.






The cows were staring us down. We all thought it was hilarious & we were laughing SOOOOO hard!


From the gravel road well after we'd taken our right instead of left.




This is the pass we came to & couldn't go any further. From what we could see the snow was no less than 5' deep.


Believe it or not, there's actually a road under there!!



So we turned around & headed home.....






It was a beautiful day, a beautiful drive. I remain in awe of what God has placed before us!

Orange tree update!

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had some citrus growth. This was taken last week and the orange was about English pea size. This week they are about the size of pinto beans (cooked).

A day in the desert... Part 1 (because there are TONS of pics)

Sunday we decided to take the boys shooting. They got to shoot their first "real" gun. Well, the older 2 did. The little one stuck to the BB gun & finding spent shells. He's so proud of his baggie of shells. We went up to the desert & shot the guns, did some off-roading & then we just drove for miles til we came to a pass we couldn't cross because of the snow. It was a blast, but neither Hubba nor I wanted to get out of bed the next day! LOL.... The kids slept late, too.




In the event of home defense, we'd been counting on the dog as part of our defense. We took her along to see if she'd turn tail & run from gunshots, or if she'd stick around. She didn't even flinch. Needless to say I'm so very proud of her!!! She had a BLAST running through the bush and sand and hills.














Such a gorgeous view from where we were.


The ride "home" until of course I yelled GO RIGHT when we were about to turn left on the road home, LOL. Hungry kiddos & a cutie pie Hubba. YUM!