We invited neighbors over for coffee and donuts before the show .It’s the least we can do for them for putting up with our dust and wild homeschooled children and all their friends and barking dogs and loud stereos and a weedy garden…….I am confident donuts take care of everything!

First the boys tried the Amish way…

Hahahahaha They realized that wasn’t going to work and they needed to return to 2011 technology…The Jeep Wrangler.

How’s that donut Bryan?

Well, that didn’t budge it–maybe that should have been our first clue that the old girl was more sturdy than she looked. Much discussion ensued between boys er,  I mean the men. Let me tell you it was like they were all 10 years old again. Giddy with excitement of donuts and demolishing a building and big trucks! Yes, big trucks!!!

–EEk don’t hit the refreshment table! Wouldn’t want to upset the  neighbors!

They finally strapped her on to the Big Daddy truck.

Look at ‘em–boys and their toys!

The following photos need no commentary other than to say…this is not what the boys expected to happen!

Ready………….Go Joe……….

And there she sat

Now scroll through that series again quickly–it’s like a flip book!

Luckily she didn’t continue to tumble or the peanut gallery with bellies full of donuts weighing them down never would have gotten out of the way!

Now the boys were crapping their pants!

And everyone had an idea of what to do next. For me the excitement was really turning to anxiety. The longer the speculation of the next move went on the the more we were afraid the wall closest to the house would buckle and the structure would twist on it’s way down and hit the house or worse yet someone was going to get hurt.

The boys devised a plan to anchor one side and pull it towards the backyard. Well, just when you need your controls that run the bucket in the bucket truck to work-they fail. So we put caution tape around our entire yard  and my husband drove back  to work to get a different bucket truck. At this point the crowd dispersed and I was left stressed with all the donuts. sigh

My husband and I decided via cell phone that we should call a Demolition Specialist that his company has used in the past…. but of course the office was closed on a Sunday. So, we did what any desperate non Amish person would do-we googled the owners name and got his home phone number and called him on his day of rest.

When” The Specialist” showed up he was amazed at our ‘pickle’.  “Well, I’ve never seen this happen before”

But to the boys credit he agreed with their anchoring idea. Having him confirm that was the best plan of action allowed them to put down the donuts and get back to work.

The guy in the yellow is “the Specialist” the other guy is our neighbor and Boy Scout extraordinaire! ( Who never shook his head in disgust at our home disrepair.Thanks good neighbor! I bet it was the donuts!)

They ran a strap down the center and attached it to the jeep and hit the gas (in reverse).

Even “The Specialist” is getting excited!

That cookie crumbled just the way it was supposed to. Thank Buddah! No one was hurt and the drama was almost over.

We kissed “the Specialist” feet for driving 45 minutes and leaving his wife to wash all the windows by herself just to come to our rescue. If you ever need a demo company YOU SHOULD CALL PROCON!

The steps that led to the upper part of the garage were still standing and holding up a portion of the rubble. It took more work to get that little bit down than the rest of the whole garage!

And through it all, a strong old door that we had stored in the upper part of the garage made a graceful landing, unscathed.

We decided to keep that door and use it somewhere in our house. Something to remind us of the good luck the sun shinned on us during this demo gone wrong. Things really could have gone a different way. We are so lucky no one was hurt and the corner of our house wasn’t damaged.

Thank you neighbors and friends for all the help and support!! I owe you many more donuts…… because next week we are knocking off the side of our house!!! I can’t promise it will be as exciting as this weeks adventure!

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Post tags: Building, community, demo, demolition, donuts, friend, friends, garage, Home, homeschool, homeschooled children, house, husband, jeep, jeep wrangler, neighbors, photo, photos, structure, Wrangler, yard

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I went to a kefir and yogurt making workshop a few weeks ago hosted by Warren Taylor of Snowville Creamery. (I LOVE Snowville…their products as well as all they stand for!!! And after the demo I have a huge crush on Warren too!)

He is a wealth of information and a great speaker. He is a self proclaimed dairy evangelist. Most of the photos I took of him look like this

He never stops moving or talking! His love for yogurt and kefir and all things dairy is infectious! The most exciting part of the demo was all we learned about kifer and kefir grains. (yes I know I spelled them differently)

The grains look like small pieces of cauliflower. He showed us a large  container of fermented milk with the living kefir grains in it. Next he strained out the grains.

The colander held the living grains

And the kefir that was ready to drink was strained out into the bowl (and then into a pitcher)

A small taste of the keifr was passed around for all to try

It was delicious!! I loved it!! all sour, fizzy and unsweetened. From the first taste I was hooked! My friends prefer their kefir made into a smoothie-I like mine straight up! And first thing in the morning, to coat my belly and intestines with all those good bacteria. Mmmmm   Even those that are lactose intolerant find they can tolerate fermented dairy products.

We were each sent home with a small amount of kefir grains to make our own kefir.

About 2 Tablespoons worth. I brought them home and put them in a small amount of Snowville milk and let them sit for a day and then strained and drank the kefir and added more milk to the grains etc.. etc.. over the past few weeks.

Here is a photo of my kefir. The grains are on the top and the whey has settled to the bottom. A good shake after straining mixes it all up .This photo was taken about over a week ago and I have almost double the amount. My kefir grains are healthy and multiplying like crazy!!

Now I have so many grains I can share them with one lucky reader!! Aren’t you so excited!

I will send the winner approximately 2 Tablespoons of my kefir grains and directions for how to take care of them.

If you want to be entered in the Keifr Grain Give-A-Way leave a comment below. If you tweet about this give-a-way leave another comment telling me.The same goes if  you link back to this give-a-way or if you share it on facebook. So you really have four different ways to enter.

I will close comments and announce the winner Tuesday mid-morning.  (2/15/2011)

Good Luck!!!!!

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Post tags: Creamery, dairy products, evangelist, Fermented, good bacteria, grain, grains, kefir, kefir grains, keifr, kifer, milk, rain, smoothie, snow, snowville, Sour, Warren, warren taylor, whey, workshop, yogurt

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I LOVE hot and spicy food.  I saw a recipe for Fermented Hot Chili Sauce at Nourished Kitchen and thought it would make tasty gifts to share.

Holy crap–this is some hot, hot sauce!

I bought just about all the habanaro peppers at our grocery along with a few jalapenos and a couple of pablanos for flavor. I cut the stems off and threw them into the food processor with a few sweet onions, several cloves of garlic and a few handfuls of basil and salt and a little sugar. I mixed up the only living cultures I had-keifer starter-with a little water and threw that in too. I put everything into a mason jar–it took several tries as just inhaling the fumes were tough! I let it sit on my counter for about 12 days. There wasn’t much bubbling and not much liquid so I ended up just bottling it up seeds and all.

The brave decided to try it yesterday………….

I ate some on tortilla chips and yes it was hot but super tasty. I love the taste of habaneros!  I think it will be really good in a bowl of beans and rice topped with some yogurt! Mmmmm

The Nourished Kitchen blog is loaded with really delicious recipes!! Be sure to check them out.

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Post tags: basil, beans and rice, Chili, chili sauce, cloves of garlic, CULTURES, Fermented, Food, habanaro, habanaro peppers, habaneros, Hot, hot chili, hot peppers, hot sauce, Hotter, hotter than hell, jalapenos, Kitchen, mason jar, onion, onions, pepper, Peppers, recipe, SAUCE, spicy, spicy food, sweet onions, tasty gifts, Than Hell, Thursday, tortilla, tortilla chips, yogurt

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I first saw this idea at Irresistible Ideas For Play Based Learning.  I LOVE this blog and get so many great ideas from them!!

First we drew a picture or design with a glue stick on some paper. Then we covered it with salt and shook off any excess.

Next we used eye droppers or pipettes to drip some color over the salt. We used liquid watercolors but I am sure food coloring would work too.

It was so exciting to see the salt absorb the colors.

We loved making these. A project I am sure we will be doing again really soon.

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Post tags: blog, color, colors, design, drip, eye droppers, food coloring, glue, glue stick, Irresistible, Learning, Medium, Paint, paper, photo, photos, picture, pipettes, Play, project, salt, watercolor, watercolors

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Last year I pulled a page out of Family Fun all about Halloween candy experiments. And this year I book marked a page from Mothering Magazine and another link a friend posted on facebook. Low and behold—they are all from the same website …. Candy Experiments.

My kids trick or treated twice this year, so to say we have lots of candy is an understatement!! They went through their stash and donated all sorts of goodies in the name of science.

We tried several experiments from the website. The most exciting being floating M’s and S’s.

Put some M & M’s in a glass jar and some skittles in another.

Add water and watch……..

Floating M’s and S’s!!

We made some sculptures with the sticky candy

We also tried color separation (chromatography) by adding m&m’s to a few drops of water and then dipping a coffee filter in. We waited until some of the color was absorbed and you could see the colors separate.

Did you know that laffy taffy floats?

We did a lot of mixing, soaking and poking.

And we still have lots of donated candy to play with tomorrow!

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Post tags: Candy Experiments, chromatography, coffee filter, color, color separation, colors, experiment, facebook, family fun, FLOAT, Floats, goodies, halloween, halloween candy, Kids, mothering magazine, Parenting, photo, photos, science, sculptures, skittles, sticky candy, taffy

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oooooohhhhhh

Growing up my family had many traditions…things we we looked forward to doing over and over again. It is the same with my kids now.

Halloween included—most years. This started when Jake was 4. He had a Halloween party for several of his preschool friends and it sort of became an annual thing for us. But  because now we always travel in October, it is hard to fit in our family Halloween party every year. We always manage a night of pumpkin carving and seed roasting and some years we include a few games and surprises!

This year we had a few of our traditional games we play:

Bobbing for apples

Catching a doughnut on a string

GHOST (bingo)

But this year we added something new!

Dry ice and homemade root beer. I found this idea in The Hungry Scientist. They don’t call it witches brew–they call it Uber-Bubbly Root Beer –I had to make it a little more festive! They have a recipe for lemonade too. As well as a good scientific explanation of what is happening.

1 gallon of hot water and a bucket or pitcher to put it in–note glass or plastic bottles can break from the stress of extreme temp changes–so no shaking or using irreplaceable containers. That’s why we used the popcorn bucket!

2 cups sugar

2 Tbs root beer extract (ours came from The Winemakers Shop up the street)

1 to 2 lbs dry ice (we got our at Grater’s Ice Cream)

Add sugar to the hot water and stir to dissolve. Add the root beer extract—stir

Using a long handled wooden spoon–to avoid frostbite- stir in 1 to 2 lbs of dry ice —–oooooooohhhhhhhh and prepare to be amazed!!

A thick cloud of water vapor will form over the bucket

You will need to stir it every once in a while to keep it from freezing

The majority of the fog will stop after about 15 minutes and then you can drink it!

If you dare!

Success!! It tasted good!

************** This was super fun and a little dangerous! So SAFETY DISCLAIMER INCLUDED!!!! *************************

Don’t touch the dry ice with your bare hands–watch your eyes if you chip it up—-don’t eat or drink any dry ice even if it is a small chip!! These are just a few good ideas—I am sure this doesn’t cover all the mishaps that could happen–Don’t say I didn’t warn you–be careful!

Or 50 slaps by the bloody hand!

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Post tags: bingo, Bobbing, bobbing for apples, Bubbly, danger, doughnut, dry ice, family, family halloween, fog, frostbite, GHOST, halloween, halloween party, Home, Homemade, homemade root beer, kid, Kids, October, photo, photos, Pumpkin, pumpkin carving, recipe, rootbeer, scientific explanation, Scientist, Thursday, tradition, traditional games, traditions, water vapor, witches

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The chef and I have been very busy in the kitchen this summer!

I have always wanted to make my own yogurt but never found a recipe that looked easy enough. Until now!!

This is the recipe I followed.

It was ridiculously simple.

Because this is unsweetened I have been using it like sour cream as well as yogurt. Over the top of grated cucumbers with lots of salt and pepper Mmmm-In smoothies, over fruit with a little maple syrup. Oh boy-a half gallon of milk’s worth of yogurt did not last long around here!!

Are there any home made yogurt experts out there that could answer some of my questions??? Like in addition to starter can I add more probiotics to make a super cultured yogurt? I am not sure if they would grow. I am also interested in making some non dairy non soy yogurts…Oh the possibilities!!

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Post tags: blog, blogs, busy in the kitchen, CrockPot, cucumbers, gallon of milk, Kitchen, maple syrup, photo, photos, probiotics, recipe, smoothie, smoothies, sour cream, Thursday, yogurt

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I shared on my twitter and face book about how great my countertop pickles tasted and was then asked by so many people for the recipe–So here it is!

I belong to an organic produce co-op. One of the other members spoke of her counter top pickles and was also asked by many of us for the recipe. She referred us to Wild Fermentation.  I linked to this website back when I made fermented carrots and sauerkraut.

Basically this is what I did–Because these were not just picked out of my garden -I soaked my cucumbers in cold water in the fridge for a few hours to crisp them up. I had regular old large cucumbers not pickling ones so I cut them in half and then quartered them. I dissolved 1 Tablespoon of salt for each cup of water. I think I did 8 cups of water for the 3 large cucumbers I had. I did not have a large enough jar so I used the inner crock from one of my crock pots. Perfect!!

After stirring and stirring to dissolve the salt I gently crushed several heads of garlic-say 4 or 5 with the back of a spoon-just to crack them open and threw those in the water with a small handful of peppercorns , 4 heads of flowering dill and a small handful of fresh dill and 2 freshly washed oak leaves from the big tree. The oak , grape, sour cherry or horseradish leaves are to help keep the crunch.

I mixed all of that around and placed a plate on the top to keep the cucumbers submersed in the brine.

I then put the lid on very loosely–leaving it slightly cracked open on one side.

The next morning I noticed a few bubbles–IT”S  ALIVE!!! Then there was a film that I scraped off over the next couple of days-then we tasted on day 2–delicious!!  Actually we ate several!

It has been really hot here so the fermenting went quickly! I left them 1 more day and then moved them into jars (that I have been saving from our Bubbies pickles) and put them in the fridge to slow down the process.M more were eaten this morning as I moved them into the jars–lucky I ordered several more pounds of cucumbers this week!

We might need to add some Rubens to the menu!!

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Post tags: art, brine, Bubbies, bubbies pickles, co-op, countertop, crock, crock pots, crunch, cucumbers, cup, dill, Farm, Fermentation, Fermented, Fermenting, Food, Foods, garden, garlic, horseradish, Kitchen, leaves, organic produce, PepperPaints, photos, pickle, pickles, recipe, Rubens, salt, sauerkraut, Sour, Thursday, Thursdays, twitter, Wild, wild fermentation

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Not feeling like doing much except trying to stay cool!

Make art

Make gooey messes with cornstarch and water

Clean up in the pool

And of course…lots of melty ice cream cones

Here is to staying cool!

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Post tags: art, cool, cornstarch, cornstarch and water, gooey, ice, ice cream cones, melty, messes, photo, photos, pool

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It didn’t take us long to find just what we needed!!

First, I picked a nice shady spot in our yard. Not too far from the hose and close to lots of dirt and sand, sticks and leaves. All the essentials for good, messy fun. Something my kids love!

Next,  we headed to the thrift store to stock our kitchen—think little and cheap. Pots, pans, muffin tins, cups, bowls, silverware…..

These make the perfect little molds and were only 30 to 50 cents a piece! Besides the fact they are pretty and shiny!!

More pretty, shiny, cheap staples that every kitchen must have… a beautiful bright yellow tea pot and pitcher.

The appliances were a little more tricky to find. It took a second trip to the store–but we totally lucked out and found the black shelf marked $5.00 and the little book shelf marked $2.96 and both were half off.

Let me tell you– this has been a bustling kitchen… breakfasts, coffee, lunch and dinner and don’t forget dessert–lots and lots of desserts!!

Oh …and lots of soup

All served on a table the girls made out of some scraps of wood they found above the garage— and then painted with glitter paint. Yes, they are my girls!!

And when the meal is over….you must wash the dishes!

If you need any recipe suggestions, Ginger highly recommends this cook book

What’s cookin’ in your mud pie kitchen?

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Post tags: awesome idea, book shelf, bowls, breakfast, coffee, Cook, cook book, cookin, dessert, desserts, dinner, dirt, hose, Kids, Kitchen, leaves, lunch, Messy, messy fun, molds, mud, mud pie, muffin, muffin tins, pitcher, pots, recipe, recipe suggestions, sand, shady spot, silverware, soup, summer, table, Tea, tea pot, thrift, thrift store, yard

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