Prepping for Powering Down

I'm going to call our weekend without water, gas, or electric power a Power Down rather than continuing to struggle with awkward terms such as no-amenity staycation. Our plan is to shut everything off tomorrow morning upon arising. That means no last-minute logging onto the computer at 5:30 am. (Can I get away with a quick check at 3:30 am if the dogs want to go out?)

We've been talking a lot about how we wanted to do this and what we hope to accomplish. It dawned on me today that what we are really doing this time is a trial run of a trial run without power. The reason I say this is that we've spent a fair amount of time preparing for this experiment. In a true emergency, everything would just be shut off. No warning. No time to prepare. We'd just flip a switch or turn on a faucet and get ... nothing. We may set up something with less prep, other than our regular emergency preparedness, in the future.

We have never had to deal with a total loss of all utilities here. We've rarely dealt with the loss of even one. During the summer thunderstorms, it's not uncommon to lose electricity for a couple of hours. When water lines break, and they seem to be doing so with increasing frequency around Tucson, water may be shut off for a while during repairs. And a few years ago, a gas leak and fire nearby left us without gas for several hours until the situation was under control. Other than camping trips, we've never really been without amenities before.

What we hope to gain this time is an idea what it is like to have to do without the traditional utilities. How does one deal with staying warm in the winter or cooking food? Is there a way to have light in the evening or is it bedtime as soon as the sun sets? What about washing dishes without hot water from the tap? Taking a shower? We think we are prepared to deal with these issues and others, but we've never done a trial run to find out.

Why, you may be wondering, do we think this is even worth worrying about? The short-term answer is emergency preparedness. I've written about this before so I won't repeat myself or provide the links again here. Just keep in mind that emergencies generally do not announce themselves so it is better to be prepared ahead of time. Just like learning First Aid; the time to do it is not when you need it. The time to learn is before you need it.

The long-term reason for this little exercise is a bit different. Whether people are willing to acknowledge it or not, things are changing and not for the better. City and state budgets are under tremendous strain, and staff and services are being slashed across the board. Less money is available to maintain and repair infrastructure. Plus, there are warning signs about the increasing unreliability of the electric grid. As the economy continues to struggle, more small businesses fail and more people lose their homes. This, in turn, leads to lower tax revenues for the cities and states resulting in the need to cut yet more staff and services. Being prepared for the possibility of occasional outages of power or water is like buying insurance for your car. You hope you'll never need it but you'll be really glad you have it if you do.

Back to our preparations...

Electricity

We won't be unplugging the fridge so that we don't lose any food this time. We agreed, however, that while we can use food from the refrigerator and freezer, we can not put anything new into it to chill. Therefore, we'll have to go buy a bag of ice to go in the ice chest or use the frozen water bottles from the freezer for chilling food. Leaving the ice chest outside overnight will keep it plenty cold, too. I did not have to freeze new bottles for ice since I use them already to keep the freezer full for more efficient operation.

Because we will be the only ones powering down in the neighborhood, we are also not comfortable with giving up our motion-detector security light. Rather than shut off electricity at the breaker box, I'll be unplugging everything (except the fridge) tonight before bed and taping light switches in the 'off' position.

This won't simulate a true lack of power but it will still give us a good trial run.

For lighting, we pulled the hand-crank flashlights out of our emergency packs. We are cheating, in a way, since we plugged them in earlier to fully charge. However, it's not entirely cheating because we do this once a month already. We've got flashlights handy for middle of the night trips to the bathroom. The oil lamps are filled and the candles are ready to go. We could not find a hand-crank lantern locally so we probably won't be able to read in the evening unfortunately.

I suspect lighting will be a big challenge for me. I really like bright lighting and am guilty of turning on lots of lights when I am in a room. Knowing this won't be a possibility for a few days, I've been intentionally keeping rooms darker for the past week, using natural lighting where possible. It's unfortunate that all of the rooms in this house are painted with flat paint. I will definitely use semi-gloss in my own home just for the additional light it reflects in a room.

To keep notes while the computer is off, I've got the backs of used paper on a clipboard with a pen. Low-tech but it works.

Gas

When the gas goes off, we are going to get cold. I dug out our thermal underwear and down comforter for the bed. We'll wear more layers in the house and hope we can get it to warm up a little bit during the day. If Polie looks too cold, we'll throw a blanket on the floor for him to curl up on. Angel sleeps on a chair already, so she'll be fine.

We're lucky; the weather forecast is for mostly clear skies and highs up to 70 degrees. This means solar cooking will be an option during the middle of the day. Lots of options there, including heating water for washing up. No preparation is necessary since cooking with the sun is as simple as placing the solar oven out when the sun is shining.

We also have a small rocket stove, but a lack of appropriate dried sticks and branches. We picked up a wood pallet a couple of days ago. My sweetie cut it up today into pieces to burn in it. I fished some corrugated cardboard and packing paper out of the recycling bin to help get the wood burning.

We've got an old propane camp stove and fuel leftover from our last cross-country camping trip years ago. We cleared off the (metal) potting bench outside to use for cooking.

For hot water, we'll use the cooking stove options or solar oven. Tomorrow morning is going to be pretty brutal without the ability to quickly and easily make hot drinks. I may 'cheat' by heating water tonight and keeping it warm overnight in a thermos. In fact, the thermos would be very handy for keeping water warm for other needs over the next few days. While the solar oven can heat water to boiling, we only have good sun from 10 am to 2 pm this time of year, but the thermos could keep some water hot long enough to wash up the dinner dishes. I'll bet I could also keep a big pot of water hot in the retained heat cooking basket.

Water

Stored water will have to meet all of our liquid needs. The plan is to get as much use out of the water as possible, saving it for flushing toilets in the end. I picked up a cheap plastic colander at the thrift store this week and lined it with cheesecloth. After rinsing dishes in the bowl always kept in the kitchen sink, I'll pour the fairly clean water through the colander so no vegetable parts end up clogging the toilet float mechanism. Bowls in the sinks will catch water from hand-washing as well.

To supply water for hand-washing, I filled several 2 liter plastic bottles. It will be a bit awkward to use but better than no water at all. As these pre-prepared containers empty out, we'll siphon water from our recycled soda syrup drum full of stored water. I washed out several buckets today to haul this water wherever we need it in the house.


That covers most of our preparations and plans. All that's left to do in the morning is power down. See you in a few days. Happy New Year!

100 Days Challenge Is Done!

It was an interesting idea. Spend the last 100 days of the year hyper-focused on one goal, committed to really tackling something. A number of people signed up for the challenge. Some reported, some succeeded, and some struggled.

I was one of the ones who struggled - first with what I'd chosen and then with sticking with my revised goal. In the end, I'm not sure I really changed much of my behavior. I was already pretty conscientious about avoiding food waste. I did, however, go through my pantry and pull out everything that needed to be used up soon. I've been working my way through the expiring food. In the refrigerator, there are large empty spaces on shelves where I've used up preserved food and have not opened new jars yet.

How did you do with this challenge? Did you accomplish your goals? Make any changes in your behavior? Will they last, do you think?

Please leave your comments below. I apologize that comments are currently being moderated (due to some persistent spammers) so there will be a 3-day delay on approving any posted after I go to bed tonight. I will, however, get them up first thing after the end of the power-down. Thanks for playing!

Goals for the New Year, blah, blah, blah...

Human nature requires that I plan to attempt to try to start the New Year out right. All bad habits must be jettisoned as of midnight on December 31.

Yeah, right. My resolutions usually last until about 10 am, or maybe noon in a good year, on January 1st. But, I have to do this so bear with me.

I posted my health goals for the New Year here. Lofty, I know, but I have to at least pretend I'm gonna try.

My remaining goals are:

1. Find a house/property/shack/yurt/something to live in that is not a total dump, preferably with enough yard for the rotten dogs to run around in, space to grow some tomatoes, and maybe a little corner for chickens just to torture the dogs.


2. Educate myself. I have a bad habit of acquiring the books I need to read and then shelving them without reading them. Having them as a reference is great but I really need to read them cover to cover first. Expect more book reviews this coming year.


3. Practice what I'm learning. It's not enough to learn something new; it has to be practiced to secure it into the memory. I have not once practiced the skills learned in the Red Cross 1st Aid class. I have to practice what I learn in the krav maga classes, too, to build muscle memory so that the skills are there should I ever need them. I can make many recipes from memory because I have made them so many times but I would have to look up the CPR rules for my dogs right now because I haven't reviewed that information in months.


4. Lower my standard of living. More local and basic foods, more water conservation, less energy use, less driving and more biking/walking, and occasional no amenity weekends.


5. Watch for opportunities to build community.

There. I've done it. How many do you think will make it past the first week in January?!

When the Power Runs Out

No, I'm not talking a doomsday scenario...yet. I'm talking about the power from the battery on my bike's electric assist. It is a 10 amp hour battery but I had never run it all the way down to see if it would really give me the full ten. Today was my chance to find out as my sweetie wanted to test his new electric assist out. (He bought his online at a big discount during a Black Friday sale by the same company where we ordered mine. His is not nearly as nice as mine, is far heavier, and he had to buy and rig up his own battery pack.)

There were just a couple of problems with today's plan, at least for me.


Yesterday, I spent 90 minutes on the stationary bike grinding flour. The hard winter wheat is, duh, hard which means it creates more resistance when pedaling than, say, soft spring wheat. Lack of time on a bike lately meant my legs were toast by the end.

The second challenge facing me was forgetting to charge my bike battery overnight. When we started out, my meter showed I'd already used 8.15 amp hours. With tired legs, I needed the assist to go up every slight slope (tiny inclines, really) today. We made it to our destination and headed home with full Xtracycle bags. About halfway home, the display on my bike computer went dark. I turned the throttle on my assist and ... nothing. The power ran out at 9.37 amp hours. Good to know for longer or harder trips.

We tacked on one extra errand that added another couple of miles to our ride. On the way home, I forgot we'd have to go up a little hill. My legs were not very happy about this, not to mention my rear end which was more than a little sore from the uncomfortable seat on the "grain bike" at home.

Lessons learned today?

1. Charge the battery before I need it. (No problem with charging anytime since it doesn't have memory/charge issues.)


2. Don't go from no exercise to a whole lot really quickly. (You'd think I'd have gotten this lesson down pat by now.)


3. In the long run, come up with an off-the-grid way to charge batteries.

I have a feeling we'll learn many important lessons this weekend when we not only turn off the power, but the water and gas, too!

Feasting Through the Holiday Season

Holy Cow, I've been doing a lot feasting over the holiday season. This happens every year. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, I am bombarded with cravings for all kinds of rich foods that I rarely eat. During this month, I allow myself to eat darn near everything I crave. Thank goodness the month is soon ending so I can get back to healthier eating (and maybe be able to zip up my pants again!)

Last night's dinner was an example of the kind of dietary excess which has dominated my menus lately.


Green enchiladas with soyrizo-potato filling, topped with avocado. Tomatillos are the main ingredient although this batch was made with the last of the CSA fall season's green tomatoes. Although soyrizo is the vegan version of Mexico pork chorizo, it is still pretty high in fat. There are avocados in the sauce as well as on top.

We washed the rich enchiladas down with the local red wine from Texas that Heather gave us. The wine was excellent but didn't quite pair up with the enchiladas. It would have gone better with Italian food.


Limoncello balls. Never go shopping when hungry; everyone knows that rule. I violated it last week and somehow came home with vegan lemon wafers cookies. I rarely buy anything so highly processed but... (see above mention of holiday feasting.) In the Christmas stocking from my mother-in-law came a bag of almond clusters. An idea was born.

A friend had recently been extolling the virtues of her husband's rum balls. I've never had a rum ball but I was curious enough to look up recipes online. Chocolate wafer cookies, ground nuts, rum, etc. Why not modify the recipe to go for lemon flavor rather than chocolate?

After some more research, I put together a version I thought would work, using the lemon wafer cookies I'd purchased along with the almond clusters in place of plain nuts. I avoided the recipes with corn syrup but still had to pick up some confectioner's sugar. Oh, and I had to dig out my old recipe for making sweetened condensed non-dairy milk from scratch.

I did not put together a good recipe. The dough was way too wet so I had to grind up more cookies and almonds, and add more sugar, too. The end result was tasty as can be, but these sure aren't the potent little alcohol bombs I thought they'd be. Two tablespoons of limoncello spread out over a couple dozen balls won't make anyone tipsy.


Tonight's dinner will be a repeat due to the quantity of leftovers. I haven't figured out the menu through the end of the year but tapering off on the rich stuff might be a good idea. Otherwise, the healthy eating that starts on January 1 is going to feel like falling off a cliff. And we're already going to have that feeling since we moved the no-amenities staycation to the first weekend of the year. Thank goodness the forecast is for slightly warmer temps and sunny skies.


RECIPES

Green Enchiladas with Soyrizo-Potato Filling
I don't measure ingredients for this recipe, instead relying on my tastebuds to tell me when I've reached the right proportions of ingredients. You know what you like. Don't be afraid to taste foods and adjust ingredients to meet your preferences.

Green chiles
Tomatillos or green tomatoes, husked and washed
Onion, chopped
Avocados
Nutritional yeast (or shredded cheddar cheese)
Soy yogurt (or sour cream), optional
Salt to taste
Soyrizo
Potatoes, diced
Onion, diced
Corn tortillas

Preheat the oven broiler.
Place the green chiles under the broiler to roast. Turn when the skin on the top is blackened. Continue turning until all sides are blackened. Remove to a bowl, cover, and let steam until cool enough to handle.
Meanwhile, place the tomatillos or green tomatoes on a baking sheet and roast in the broiler until the skin is blackened and the fruit is soft.
Saute the chopped onion in a small amount of oil until softened.
When chiles have cooled, remove skin and seeds.
Place chiles, tomatillos, and onion in blender. Process until smooth. Add salt to taste. Sample the blended mixture and determine whether it needs more heat (add chiles) or savory flavor (add onion). When you like the mixture, proceed.
Blend in one or two avocados. Add nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor. Add soy yogurt for creaminess, if desired.
Set aside.

Simmer diced potatoes in salted water until just tender.
In a preheated skillet, cook soyrizo and diced onions until onions are tender.
Drain potatoes and stir into soyrizo mixture.

Spray a large roasting pan with oil.
Dip corn tortillas in enchilada sauce and place in a single layer on the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with the soyrizo-potato mixture. Add another layer of sauce-dipped tortillas and then soyrizo-potatoes. Continue, ending with tortillas on top. Spread remaining sauce over the top layer of corn tortillas.
Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

(For 6-8 cups of enchilada sauce, figure on about a package of soyrizo (from Trader Joe's), 4 potatoes, and 2 onions for three layers of filling between a total of 36 tortillas.)


Limoncello Balls
As I mentioned above, this recipe did not come out with the right texture. I didn't measure what I added to get it to work but I think it was about 50% more of all the dry ingredients. Make it at your own risk (of not working quite right and/or of eating way too many of them when they do come out right!)

1/2 pkg Lemon wafer cookies (should yield about ¾ cup crushed) PLUS* ...
1/2 cup powdered sugar PLUS* ...
1/2 cup ground almonds PLUS* ...
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs limoncello

Pulverize cookies in food processor.
Grind almonds in food processor until very fine, but don't turn them into almond butter.
Mix crushed cookies, powdered sugar, and almonds.
Stir in sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and limoncello. Mix thoroughly.
The dough should be tacky and able to hold form. *If it is not, add more of each of the dry ingredients until it will hold together when rolled in a ball.
Measure out 1 tbs at a time. Roll between palms to form a ball. Roll in powdered sugar. Place on a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm.


Homemade Sweetened Condensed Non-Dairy Milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup rice or soy milk powder
1 tsp vegan margarine
Drop vanilla
1/4 cup boiling water

Place ingredients in blender. Process on high speed for 30 seconds until smooth.

Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change

Over the summer, I read Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change by Pat Murphy. Since the year is drawing to a close, this will be my final review for the Science Book Challenge. I'll start off with an overview of each section of the book and finish with my recommendations.

Part I of the book does a good job of describing peak oil and climate change, and why it will have enormous impacts on human society. The author discusses economic growth fueled by cheap energy, wars fought for, and with, petroleum, the coming end of the private car, why alternative energy will not be enough to maintain our current American way of life, and how corporations and the media have manipulated public perception of the truth.

In Part II, the author pleads the case for personal change as the way to save humanity. Cheap energy and too much stuff have led to our excessive use of resources; the only way to reduce use of resources is by curtailing our consumerism. One chapter discusses why buildings are huge energy hogs, both in embodied energy (everything required to create that building) and operating energy. A brief discussion of ways to make existing buildings more efficient follows.

In his discussion of transportation, most of his energy is devoted to promoting the Smart Jitney system - using personal cars as unlicensed taxicabs matching passengers and drivers through a not-yet-created computerized system. He is very passionate about this being the answer to our future transportation needs and barely touches on other options such as mass transit, walking, bicycling, or using draft animals.

Agribusiness is lambasted as an unsustainable means of producing food due to the high petroleum inputs. He points out the increasing worldwide consumption of meat means more grains are raised for livestock instead of being eaten directly by humans, at a high resource cost. Despite the wide variety of products in the grocery stores, they really are just variations – highly processed ones – of the same few ingredients. He recommends people center their diet on more nutrient-dense foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, unprocessed foods, and minimal meat, as well as on locally grown foods in season.

In Part III, he recommends that individuals change their lifestyles to curtail their energy use. Machines used in the homes are examined, showing which ones require the most energy and how to reduce their use. To reduce resource use, diets will need to change, and individuals and communities will need to practice water conservation. As part of the change in lifestyle, he recommends ditching the media habit, especially since so much information is controlled by just a few powerful entities.

He promotes localization so communities can supply their own resources and goods rather than having them brought in from great distances. Gardens, both small and large, in and near population centers could produce the food. Local power generation could be supplied by smaller, more numerous, power plants and creative home power generation methods. (He cites Climate Energy & Honda’s Micro-sized Combined Heat and Power co generation system for homes.) Retail and manufacturing could return to local communities, as well as local banking options.

In the final chapter, he discusses the importance of rebuilding community and relationships. Unfortunately, this discussion never gets to the level of suggestions on how to actually change relationships on the ground. Yes, many of us are aware that it is not good that we are isolated and distrustful of our neighbors. It would have been helpful to have concrete recommendations on how to change that in a meaningful way. Simply choosing to trust your neighbors may be ill-advised if your neighbors do not have the same altruistic desire to better the community but rather the desire to break into your home for their own personal gain while you are on vacation.

This book does a good job of addressing the multitude of issues facing humanity and goes into quite a bit of technical detail about each one. It also confronts the problems associated with commonly recommended solutions such as green technology. Although it discussed how solutions might come better from local options, it did not address how to go about the arduous task of actually forming community. Community doesn't just spring up; it has to be built. An additional chapter exploring recommendations on how to form community where there is none would greatly enhance the book.

What about the Dehydrated Mashed Potatoes?

About a month ago, I dehydrated the mashed potatoes left over from Thanksgiving dinner. A friend from the CSA wanted to know the results when I attempted to re-hydrate them. Tonight, I re-hydrated them....successfully.

Well, somewhat. With no idea just how much liquid to use, I chose twice as much water as dried mashed potatoes. This wasn't some random number pulled out of the air. The instructions with the dehydrated food in my emergency food stores says to simmer the food in three times as much water as the dried item. Since I wasn't planning to make potato soup, I opted for two times as much.

A better choice would have been 1 to 1.5 times as much. After simmering the dehydrated mashed potatoes in water, uncovered, for 10 minutes, it was obvious I'd used too much water. The potatoes had re-hydrated and the mixture was smooth, but too soupy. Rather than continue simmering it to boil off the excess, I mashed in some steamed potatoes leftover from lunch.

So, yes, you can successfully dehydrate mashed potatoes and you can successfully re-hydrate them. Try using the same amount of boiling water as dried spuds, adding more water if necessary. Enjoy!

Working on the Holiday

Just because it's a holiday does not mean the work stops. Those who have livestock know this: the chickens still need to be fed and watered, the cows need to be taken care of, and the horses would appreciate an apple with their oats. For the rest of us living a low-impact life, work also must continue whether the calendar deems it a holiday or not.

Meals made from whole, local foods do not come prepared in boxes ready to heat and eat. Food is made from scratch, and then only after washing the farm dirt away. Time spent in the kitchen does not have to onerous, though, as one can simply invite the whole family in to help or at least sit and visit while the cook works.

What's cooking here at Casa de Chile? Our breakfast was simple: toasted slices of my mock stollen bread with hot tea or coffee. I would have made some fresh-squeezed local orange juice but it didn't cross my mind, what with the presents beckoning under the tree. Lunch will also be easy as I made enough bibim bap last night for leftovers. Tonight's not-so-traditional Christmas dinner will be sushi rolls. Originally I planned to thaw all of the Thanksgiving leftovers but decided to treat my mother-in-law to homemade sushi instead.


On this evening's dessert menu is acorn squash. The cut halves are out in the SunOven right now roasting and the seeds are toasting in the Tulsi solar oven. I've found a new way to toast my squash seeds that leaves them crunchier and more salty than how I used to do it. The idea came from the instructions for roasting pistachios in the Tucson CSA's recipes. After cleaning the squash seeds, they go in a small saucepan with a little bit of water and some salt. Simmering gently for 10-15 minutes evaporates the water and leaves a uniform salty coating on the seeds.


Check out the salty coating on these toasted seeds. When they finish toasting in the (solar) oven, they are crunchy and delicious. Besides snacking, the smaller squash seeds from acorn squash are great sprinkled on salads.


My sweetie had work to do today, as well. Despite covering the potato towers last night, the plants froze when temperatures dipped down to the mid-twenties.


He dug out the potatoes, which again were only at the very bottom rather than all the way up the plant.


Don't they look beautiful? They are on tomorrow's lunch menu.

Regular chores don't come to a halt on Christmas either. The clothes left hanging on the line overnight have to be brought in (after the morning dew dries). Cloth wipes need to be soaked, hand-washed and hung on the line.

The dogs want to be fed, even if they did get huge chew treats in their stockings. Walking them is essential to burn off their excited energy, and of course, they have to play and show off for company in the back yard.

Luckily, the chores do not interfere with the festive spirit of the day nor diminish the enjoyment of spending time with family. The chores are simply a part of everyday low-impact life. Now it's time to tear myself away from the computer and rejoin the fun!

Merry Christmas!

My Christmas Gift to You

You have been spared my revisions of your favorite Christmas carols. No funny limericks this year, nothing to make you roll your eyes, not a verse to make you shut off the computer in disgust.

If you missed them, however, please feel free to enjoy the past years' silliness:

• Chile the Dry Desert Dweller
  (Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer)


• We Wish for a Spicy Dinner
  (We Wish You a Merry Christmas)


• Marm'lade Bubbling in an Open Pail
  (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)


• New Grain Mill
  (White Christmas)


• Join One Now
  (Jingle Bells)


• My Twelve Days of Canning
  (The Twelve Days of Christmas)


• The Twelve Days of Declutter
  (The Twelve Days of Christmas)


• Deck the Balls
  (Deck the Halls)


• The Little Birding Trip
  (The Little Drummer Boy)


• The Christmas Lights
  (Christmas Song)

Happy Holidays and a Full Belly for Everyone!

Amish Friendship Bread goes Vegan

What the heck is this goop?

A few weeks ago, one of my sweetie's coworkers sent him home with a Ziploc bag of goop and a sheet of paper with instructions for "Amish Friendship Bread." The goop in the bag was starter that had to be tended to and fed for 10 days before it could be used to make bread. The recipe on the sheet was not particularly appealing as it called for a full cup of oil, eggs, and instant pudding mix. We don't use much oil around here and definitely would never dream of pouring that much pure fat into three loaves of bread.

Making this vegan was going to be a challenge. It would be easy to substitute for the eggs but instant pudding mix contains gelatin (an animal byproduct) and there is no simple substitute. Not only that, the instructions said to feed the starter twice during the 10 days. Its diet was 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of milk each time. Obviously, I was not starting with a vegan product. Curious about the whole thing, we decided we'd use it but substitute soymilk for our two feedings, hopefully cutting back on the overall dairy content significantly.

It was time to do some research online about Amish Friendship Bread. I started by looking for vegan versions of the starter and found very few references. One gal did the same thing I was planning to do, figuring that over time the dairy content would become negligible as she fed her starter nondairy milk.

Although I'd never even heard of Amish Friendship Bread before, I discovered it was nothing new. References to it are all over the Internet. My real interest was in finding a better recipe than the one we'd been given. All of the recipes called for oil but most only asked fortwo-thirds of a cup rather than the full cup in ours. Unfortunately, like ours, many of the recipes also call for the instant pudding mix.

With time and persistence, I stumbled across a few recipes for making Amish Friendship Bread without the pudding mix. Another one at allrecipes.com led me to the realization that the possibilities for variation were vast, especially as I read the comments after each of their recipes. Many people successfully substituted applesauce for the oil and I knew I could use my flax seed mixture to replace the eggs. I pulled together some recipes to have for my future reference and to have with the starters to give away.


First baking trial

As the ten days passed, I debated about what recipe I was going to try first. I decided to forgo all the bread recipes and head straight for dessert. This chocolate cake recipe sounded intriguing. (The recipe was submitted by Robert Hamilton, Jr. of Adelanto, California - originally from Robert's friend Sally Lou of Colorado.) I am going to share my version with you as I made a number of changes to lower the fat, make it vegan, and correct what I believe to be a typo (reversing amounts of baking soda & powder from the original recipe posted in the link above).


Chile's Chocolate Cake
using Amish Friendship Bread Starter

1/3 cup Earth Balance or other vegan margarine, softened
3 tbs prune puree
1 1/4 cup sugar
9 tbs flax egg mixture
1 cup Amish starter (recipe below)
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup cocoa powder
2 cups whole white wheat flour (such as King Arthur brand)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 c cold water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream together Earth Balance, prune puree, and sugar.
Add flax egg substitute, starter, and vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed.
In another bowl, combine dry ingredients.
Add flour mixture to batter alternately with cold water.
Beat 1 minute on medium speed.
Pour into greased and floured 9x13 pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

The cake was scrumptious. The texture was good and the flavor very nice. I gave pieces to my friends who received starters so they would be encouraged to keep it going.


Making a Vegan Starter

The starter we received was in a plastic bag with instructions to mush it around every day. This worked fine until the seal broke and some of the starter oozed out. I transferred it to quart glass jar but after I fed it, it became clear very quickly that it would outgrow the space. I transferred it again, this time into a 2 quart glass jar which worked perfectly.

As a result of losing some of the starter, I ran short at the end. One gifted starter will, by the end of the process, yield 4 equivalent starters. I made the cake with one and gave two away but was left with only half a starter batch. This seemed a good time to make more of a switch to a vegan starter.

I'd found a recipe for the starter, also at allrecipes. However, it was time again to give it my own personal stamp. Here is my recipe for vegans. I made this and stirred in the small amount left from the original gift, just to get the fermenting process going faster.

Vegan Amish Friendship Bread Starter

1 (1/4 oz) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
1 cup (x 3) whole white wheat flour
1 cup (x 3) organic granulated sugar
1 cup (x 3) soymilk (or other nondairy milk)

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand for 10 minutes.
In a 2 quart glass or ceramic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly.
With a non-metallic spoon, slowly stir in 1 cup soymilk and the dissolved yeast mixture.
This is the 1st day of your 10 day cycle.

Day 1: put the lid on loosely and leave at room temperature.
Day 2: stir starter and cover loosely. It may be starting to bubble a bit.
Day 3: stir starter and cover loosely.
Day 4: stir starter and cover loosely.
Day 5: stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup soymilk.
Day 6: stir starter and cover loosely. It will have probably grown overnight.
Day 7: stir starter and cover loosely.
Day 8: stir starter and cover loosely.
Day 9: stir starter and cover loosely.
Day 10: stir in the last cup each of flour, sugar and soymilk.

You now are ready to bake some bread and prepare starters for your friends. Remove one cup of starter to make your first bread. Place one cup of starter each in large bags for two friends. Give them the bag along with the recipes you like. Let them know what day in the process it is when giving them the starter.

You can begin the 10 day cycle again with the last cup or store it in the refrigerator until ready to use. You can also freeze the starter in 1 cup portions for later use. Just thaw the frozen starter at least 3 hours at room temperature before using.


But is this really sourdough?

Now, I really enjoyed the chocolate cake that I made, and I find it fascinating that there are so many variations on the Amish Friendship Bread theme, but there is only so much sweet bread we need to eat. It was clear to me that we could really pack on some pounds if I kept starter going all the time. It therefore thrilled me to see a sourdough version. When my second batch was ready to go, I sent out starters to two friends and made sourdough bread with my portion.


I ran into a few problems with the recipe linked above, such as the instruction "Mix all the ingredients." This resulted in a very lumpy dough.


It also took forever for my dough to rise, but this was more the fault of a cold house than a problem with the dough. My friend stuck hers in a warmed oven and had no problems with it rising.


The end result was tasty. The bread was lighter than a quick bread but not quite like a yeast bread. It was sweet, but not too sweet.


It had a great crust and nice crumb. I see potential here.

I revised the recipe to account for the problems I ran into and just made another batch of it today. Because the taste was similar to my stollen, I decided to add cinnamon, nutmeg, nuts, and dried fruit to the dough to make a "mock stollen". It's baking right now.


Here it is fresh out of the oven. And my recipe with revisions to lower the fat and improve the mixing process.


Amish Sourdough Friendship Bread

1 1/2 cups hot water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup Amish starter
1 tbs oil
3 cups bread flour
3 cups whole wheat flour

Stir in sugar and salt in hot water until dissolved. Let cool to lukewarm.
Put Amish starter in large bowl and stir in water mixture and oil.
Stir in 1 ½ cups of the bread flour. Whisk until smooth.
Stir in the whole wheat flour. Mix until smooth.
Add remaining bread flour and mix in by hand, kneading the bread in the bowl until all the flour is incorporated.
Oil the bottom and sides of large bowl. Place bread dough in bowl, oil the top and cover with a cloth. Let stand overnight in a warm place.
In the morning, gently punch dough down several times and divide into 3 equal balls. Knead each ball a few times, form into a loaf, and put into 3 greased and floured loaf pans. Brush the tops with oil and cover with oiled foil or plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place all day.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Note: The formed loaves can be frozen before rising the second time. To use, just place frozen dough in greased and floured loaf pan, brush with oil, cover, and let sit until thawed and risen. Then bake as directed.

I put two loaves in the freezer to send home with my mother-in-law so she can thaw and bake them whenever she wants.


What's next?

By now, you've probably guessed that I'm having fun experimenting with this bread and starter. The problem is that it's burning through sugar and soymilk at an alarming rate, what with feeding the hungry starter a cup of each every 5 days. So, it's time for more tweaking of recipes. My intent with the starter is to use it primarily for the sourdough recipe, which is sweeter and richer than I need it to be. Therefore my plan is to morph the starter by changing what I feed it, starting with tomorrow's 5th day feeding.

Tomorrow, I will give it the usual 1 cup of flour - which, by the way, has been the locally grown whole wheat from my CSA. The sugar will be reduced by half, and water will be substituted for half of the soymilk. Depending on how the next batch of sourdough bread comes out, I may eventually eliminate the sugar altogether and use only water instead of soymilk.


Why don't I just give away all this starter and begin a real sourdough starter? Because that's just not as much fun as messing around with something new!

Gifts of Food

I find it difficult to choose what to give during the holidays. For a number of years, my sweetie and I opted out of gift-giving, choosing instead to make a financial donation to a non-profit in honor of friends and family. We alternated between national and local organizations each year.

We still eschew the commercialism of the season but we now give homemade gifts to a few people. Food is a good choice, in my opinion, because everyone eats. Gifts of food do not add to the clutter on a shelf, get shoved in a closet never to be worn, or tend to be re-gifted as soon as possible. That is, of course, assuming one takes care to match the food to the person's preferences. Giving homemade liqueur to a recovering alcoholic, for example, would not be appropriate.

Waiting for a particular date on the calendar to give a gift has never made sense to me so I started my seasonal giving over a month ago. With all of the delicious homemade vinegar resulting from my summer experiments, I had more than enough to share with my friends at the CSA, many of whom are as passionate about preserving food as I am.


Over the summer, I scoured the thrift stores for pretty little containers. I visited the local brewing store for corks to fit. I filled most of these with Asian pear vinegar and one with prickly pear vinegar for the gal who is really into harvesting wild foods. Everyone seemed happy with their gifts and several have told me they've almost used up all their vinegar already.


For a dear friend that frequently entertains, I shared some of my prickly pear liqueur. I'll also be giving a bottle to my mother-in-law to share with her Bunco group. I'm sure you won't be surprised to read that the bottles for these gifts also came from thrift stores. The staff at the brewing store must think I'm a bit strange since I'm always buying corks but no bottles or brewing supplies.


It is very difficult to shop for my mother-in-law. We have encouraged her over the years to let go of her clutter. Initially it was challenging for her emotionally but she discovered that keeping only what she really liked and used was more satisfying than simply being surrounded by less meaningful but familiar things. As a result of our success, we shy away from buying her anything new for her home and this is especially true now that she has moved into a smaller place.

Despite our encouragement over the years, she still does not take care of herself as well as we would wish. When she comes to stay with us, she always leaves feeling better physically due to eating much healthier meals. She loves my cooking but is not willing to cook this way for herself, even though I put together a big notebook of easy recipes for her years ago.


I decided to put together some almost-instant meals for her. (Click to enlarge the photo.) Remember the backpacking kits of dehydrated food I ordered last year? Each kit contains an assortment of dried vegetables and legumes. I also ordered some TVP-based fake chicken chunks. This week, I picked up a box of instant brown rice from the grocery store and some plastic food storage containers. Yes, I know that it is not good to buy new plastic but this will ultimately reduce her overall use of plastic as she currently uses plastic wrap to cover leftovers on a plate or bowl. With re-usable containers, she will quit throwing away plastic all the time.

I put together three soup mixes: potatoes & cabbage, lentil stew, and Mexican beans & rice. I added appropriate vegetables to each and seasonings from my spice cabinet. I included directions on how to prepare these. It's quite simple: add as much as desired to three times as much boiling water. Simmer for 10 minutes. Eat.

The last mix was for chicken pot pie using the vegetarian "chicken" chunks. What else do you need for pot pie? Biscuits. I filled a larger container with homemade biscuit mix that she can whip up to bake on top of the pot pie or separately.

I recalled how much she likes my homemade hummus so I filled the last small container with the dehydrated hummus I had left from our ill-fated trip to Missouri.

To go with the hummus she'll need bread. Got that covered thanks to some Amish Friendship Bread Starter given to my sweetie by a coworker. I made and froze some bread dough for my mother-in-law to simply defrost, let rise, and bake. The starter has led me on quite an adventure which I will share with you in another post. It also provided gifts (starter) for three more friends.


I hope that everyone who receives food from my kitchen enjoys it. I've been lucky enough to receive some food from others this year as well: bok choy from a garden, local pecans, homemade prickly pear Turkish Delight, homemade raspberry jam, peanuts (local from Texas), and local wine (also from Texas). I've been munching on a number of these gifts already. Rumor is there are some sugar cookies coming on Christmas Eve. It just doesn't get any better than this. Happy Holidays and Happy Eating!

100 Days Challenge ends in 10 days

Fellow Challengers, there are only 10 days left to finish out the year strong. Nine-tenths of your journey is done and your momentum should carry you the rest of the way.

What? You have no momentum? Don't worry, I understand. Remember what I admitted for the last check-in. The same is true for holding these challenges. I love thinking them up, planning what they will entail, coming up with a goofy logo, and getting people signed on and enthused. The first check-in or two is exciting and then I start burning out. I want to move on to the next thing.

I suppose this means I'm a planner, not a doer. This is not good as follow-through is pretty critical and will be even more so in the future as times get even tougher. Perhaps my best bet is to surround myself with some minions that will do my every bidding. They can follow through on my elaborate plans.

Oh, sorry, didn't mean to drift off into fantasy land there. After another week of too much food waste, I intend to really buckle down this last bit of the challenge. It will be interesting when it coincides with the planned power-down couple of days (see last post).

I've noticed other folks also having trouble eliminating their food waste. Perhaps what this really indicates is not so much that we are too busy and wasteful but that we simply have too much and therefore waste does not impact us significantly.

What I mean is that if one has only 2 cups of rice and a handful of vegetables available to eat for the entire week, that person is going to be far more careful with every last bit of that food than the person who has a 10 pound bag of rice in the pantry and more vegetables than they can eat before they spoil in the refrigerator. We are a wasteful society that rarely feels the direct impacts of our waste. That, my friends, really has got to change because there are parts of the world, and our own society, where there is no surplus. And, the reality is that our surplus is illusory. It is not sustainable and the day will come when we have to face this harsh reality.

I wish this thinking was also an imaginary foray into the future but I suspect otherwise.

Back to the challenge. How did you do? Are you eager to wrap this up with the end of the year?

Planning a Staycation....With No Amenities

We'll have a little vacation time after Christmas available and we've decided to do a staycation. However, instead of settling in for a comfy few days of fun movies, hot baths, and gourmet meals, we'll be roughing it. We have never done a complete trial run of our emergency supplies and plans should there be a power and water outage. What better way to spend a vacation than camping at home and shivering in the dark?

I think we're relatively well-prepared but I have to admit to some anxiety. We don't have the frosty temperatures those in the northern states deal with, but our nights can dip down to (and below) freezing. This little rental house is poorly insulated with drafty single pane windows. It is going to be cold and won't warm up significantly during the day. Time to dig in the closet for the thermal underwear.

To keep warm at night, we'll probably try a tip we read about in one of our books: sleeping in a tent. Rather than pitching it in the backyard, though, we'll set it up in the living room. By sleeping inside, we'll trap our body heat in and stay warmer. I'm not sure whether we'll be able to convince the dogs to join us but I'm sure they'd be more comfortable as well. What is it they say about "two dog nights"?

We will eat food that we have on hand from the CSA (last pick-up of the year was the 18th), our garden, and what is left of produce I've preserved, and beans and grains. I suppose going to the Farmer's Market by bike would also be acceptable but I want to exclude grocery stores during this experiment. Meal planning will be more important without easy power at our fingertips. Choosing foods that cook quickly will help as will soaking foods ahead of time to shorten their cooking time.

For warm food and drinks, we've got several options. Hopefully the skies will be clear and sunny so the solar ovens can be put to use. We only get about 4 hours of good sun in the yard this time of year so that gives us a pretty tight window for cooking. To keep solar-cooked food warm until dinner means I need to have the retained heat cooking set-up ready, too. If we want a warm breakfast, we'll have to fire up the propane camp stove or try to get the little rocket stove going. Sweetie's initial trial run with the rocket stove was discouraging, mostly because we don't have dry enough small wood to get the larger wood burning. That is still going to be an issue.

We can, of course, eat some cold foods but we'll already be chilled without the furnace running. Regarding cold food, we plan to keep the refrigerator plugged in and running. In a true emergency, it would obviously fail but it does not make sense to lose all the food in it now for a test run of our preparedness.

Since we'll need to leave the power on for the fridge, I'll have to do something to prevent us from switching on lights out of sheer habit. Perhaps taping the switches down would do the trick, or flipping most of the circuit breakers to 'Off'.

We will turn the gas off. There is little danger of pipes freezing here (and we'll check weather forecasts ahead of time). My sweetie just planted some seeds in trays to get ready for spring planting but a few days' delay of germination due to cold temperatures shouldn't hurt them. The only other plants in the house are some peppers my sweetie is turning into bonsai plants. (Idea from here.) To keep warm, the dogs can cozy up together on blankets or up off the ground. They are allowed on their bench and on one armchair that is covered with a sheet that can be easily washed.

For water, we'll be dipping into a drum of stored water. The drum is food-grade, purchased for very little money, at the local bottling plant. Our only concern is the residual odor from the concentrated soda syrup that it originally contained. Despite several washings, the container still smells but the water should be okay. For hot water, we will have to heat it with the solar oven, camp stove, or rocket stove.

We have not yet determined a safe way to deal with human waste. Will a few days of flushing the toilet with buckets of water cause the pipes to plug up? Using cloth wipes would definitely help reduce the volume of material to dispose of so I'll make sure all of them are clean and ready before we embark on this adventure. We're already accustomed to sponge baths in lieu of some showers so that will require no adjustment.

For transportation, our feet and bicycles will be the only options. Since I don't yet have a solar panel capable of charging the electric assist motor on the bike, I'll even forgo using the assist during this experiment.

Another area we're still figuring out is lighting. With the short winter days, it gets dark quite early. The brightest non-electric lights we've read about are Aladdin lamps but we don't have any due to their cost and fragility. We have several regular oil lamps and candles but those are not bright enough to read by. We may set something up with rechargeable LED lights as we do have a solar battery recharger. We may also opt for evening activities such as games, music, and conversation that don't require the same level of light needed for reading. It might even be fun to invite company over for one evening to experience a no-power gathering.

Thoughts, feedback, or advice from those who have done their own power-down test or dealt with an emergency without amenities are welcome.

Meeting Another Blogger

I had the pleasure of meeting another blogger live and in person yesterday. Heather, of the Simple-Green-Frugal blog, is travelling with her sweetie and pooch from her home in Texas to visit relatives in California. Arizona is on the way and she arranged to spend the night with us.

There is something magical about meeting someone in the flesh after getting to know them online. You know them, yet you don't. Suddenly, in person, you get all the inflections and nuances in their speech, you see the body language and facial expressions, and you realize how much you've been missing just reading words on a screen. The conversations are more full-bodied, rounded out with all that interpersonal interaction can offer that emails, blog posts, and comments cannot express (even with a zillion emoticons). I treasure my online friendships but I wish all of these friends lived closer so we could visit in person regularly!

Heather posted a lovely write-up on their time in Tucson so I will let you go check that out at her blog. It was fun to share our CSA experience with her, especially since she is so passionate about local foods. Although we did not have a dinner made with local foods, we did support a locally-owned restaurant whose menu is 100% vegan. Our visitors did get to sample local beverages later with a shot of homemade peach liqueur in the evening and fresh-squeezed local orange juice in the morning. Vegan pancakes, made from local wheat that had been freshly ground by pedal power, were topped with homemade local pomegranate and prickly pear syrups. Mornings just don't start any better than this.

An easy walk around the neighborhood let us stretch our legs and let the dogs get out for a nice sniff. Then, sadly, it was time for our guests to hit the road. Another blogger, Beany, gets the benefit of their company this evening. I know they'll have a wonderful time visiting together, too.

Cheap Plastic Crap

I am fed up with cheap plastic crap! For years while growing up, the same Hoover upright vacuum cleaner was hauled out of the utility closet every time we needed to vacuum the house. I recall it needing service maybe a couple of times.

When I moved out on my own, I got my very own Hoover upright. It was not the same quality as the older one and it didn't last 10 years. When I married, we picked up a Hoover canister vacuum after reading they were supposed to be better. That thing was a royal pain in the arse! This was made extremely clear when we had a big house to sell and had to vacuum frequently (due to 2 shedding dogs) for the seven months it took to sell it. The only way to avoid leaving unsightly wheel tracks in the carpet was to vacuum backwards which meant the power cord was constantly in the way. I wrote a letter to the company recommending some design changes and got a brush-off form letter in response.

That ended my love affair with Hoover and I swore I'd never buy one again. While doing some house-cleaning for a friend, I admired how well her Bissell vacuum worked. When our Hoover canister gave up the ghost, I got myself a brand new Bissell upright. Oh, and if you think I'm just tossing these vacuums away without trying to repair them first, let me share what the repair shops told me: "It would cost you more in parts and labor to repair this than to replace it."

The Bissell was wonderful and I was thrilled to finally be free of purchasing vacuum cleaner bags that filled up quickly with dog fur. I was, however, somewhat grossed out to see how much stuff it picked up out of the carpet. Yikes! And then I was disappointed when it stopped working so well within the first year. I called the company and got a replacement hose under warranty.

I've had the machine for several years now and the shimmer has long since faded. It no longer stays upright easily, often taking several attempts to get it to lock in place. And yesterday, just days before company is coming, it decided to quit working. I'd been too busy to vacuum for over a week which means the carpets look like they are felted with dog fur. I followed the trouble-shooting directions with no success. My sweetie checked it out and found the bearings in the brush roller were bad. There is no way to replace just the bearings. The whole plastic part has to be tossed and replaced (for almost twenty bucks).

That old Hoover vacuum weighed a ton compared to today's vacuum. You got a good workout using it since it didn't push itself across the carpet like the modern vacuums. But, it did a great job, was extremely durable, and could be maintained and repaired almost forever. Today's cheap plastic versions, not just of vacuums but of everything, are not designed for long life or hard use. They wear out quickly regardless of how carefully you try to take care of them.

Even replacing a part becomes a challenge: the manual quotes one part number and the online guide quotes another. Today I get to take the actual part in to several repair shops hoping one of them can supply or order the proper replacement. And, I'll be borrowing a vacuum from a friend tomorrow so my company isn't afraid to go barefoot in the house. All this thanks to today's modern cheap plastic crap, new and improved!

When we get our own place, I'm ripping out the damn carpets.


*No carpets or vacuum cleaners were harmed in the forming of this opinion, nor has the author has received any compensation from either company for mentioning their brand names.*

Bap! ... I did it again

Bap! … I did it again
I saw some old rice, don’t want it too tame
Oh spicy, spicy
Bap! … I added some vegs
No, nothing with legs
It’s veggie bibim bap

Fast & easy version of the more complicated recipe, using what I had on hand with no prep work ahead of time. Ingredients were:

• Leftover rice
• Carrot - local from CSA
• Malabar spinach - local from own garden
• Spring mix - local from CSA
• Cucumber kimchi w/ onions - both local from CSA
• Rehydrated dried mushrooms
• Gochujang sauce
• Toasted sesame seeds

Results were yummy and nutritious.

My apologies to any pop fans for butchering Spears' lyrics ... not that I think any of her fans would be reading my blog.

Impromptu Yard Sale

I spoke with a sibling yesterday who noted that my blog seems to mostly be about food lately. So that my family, friends, and you realize there is more going on in my life than food, I thought I'd share how I came to net 14 cents in a yard sale today.

I crawled out of the nice toasty bed this morning rather late - for me - around 7 am. After taking care of morning ablutions, a glance out the kitchen window informed me the neighbors across the street were setting up a yard sale. Although Sunday is not the best day for a yard sale, I decided to piggyback on their efforts. Months of slowly going through belongings had yielded three boxes, relatively small boxes, of items to save for a yard sale. Originally there were more items but the local used bookstore had given me trade credit for quite a lot of things recently. I really did not have enough to hold a yard sale without their additional draw.

As a veteran yard saler, it was easy to grab my supplies to set up. Tags and pens for pricing were in a shoe box next to yard sale signs already made up from the last sale. Since I didn't have that much to sell, the cash I had on hand plus a roll of quarters was adequate for change without the usual trip to the bank. It took me less than 45 minutes to price my stuff, haul out a card table, top it with a partial sheet of plywood for a larger surface, move my metal clothes rack outside, and put everything out for display.

Luckily my sweetie woke before I was completely set up so I got him to keep an eye on everything while I popped a quick ad up on craigslist for the two yard sales. I grabbed my faux coffee, a chair, and book of sudoku puzzles, and was ready to sell by the time the neighbors had their corner signs out about 9 am.

Traffic was slow, as expected for a Sunday sale. People trickled by, though, and I sold a shirt, a book, and a DVD within the first hour or so. I kept selling little bits here and there but so slowly that I dropped prices at noon. At 1 pm, I decided to close it up since I only had cheap stuff left. I'll be donating two grocery bags of clothes and one of books to charity, while keeping a few books to try at the used bookstore again next year.

I knew I hadn't made much money but was shocked and dismayed to find I'd sat out there all morning for fourteen dollars and twenty-five cents. Oh well, at least I got to do some sudoku, talk with a few interesting people, and get rid of 2 1/2 boxes worth of stuff. It was too late to make the beet sushi I'd planned for lunch so we went to Chipotle's Mexican Grill instead to get veggie burritos and tortilla chips....totalling $14.11.

I netted 14 cents for 5 hours of work today. This is what comes of doing something on impulse without examining whether it's really worth it. I definitely did not have enough things to sell, especially multi-dollar items, to warrant the effort today.

Or, perhaps this was more about avoiding the unpleasant task of house-cleaning. Whenever company comes, I seem to keep postponing and postponing the cleaning until the last minute. It's sure not going to get done this afternoon because I found out a mailed invitation for a holiday party did not get delivered but, luckily, I haven't missed the party yet. It's tonight and now I need to get cleaned up, find some suitable clothes for socializing (not the same duds used for turning compost), and go have a good time.

Any suggestions for what I can do with a whole 14 cents profit?

100 Days Challenge: 80% done!

Okay, so what idiot thought up the idea that we should have a challenge lasting not one week, not two weeks, not a month, but 100 freaking days?! Oh, yeah. That would be me.

Let me share something with you in case you have not already figured it out on your own. I am really good at making plans. I mean, spectacularly good. I can map out a huge project down to every last detail. However, I am not particularly good at following up on these plans. Once I figured this trait out, years ago, it made a big difference in my work. I learned that my job should center on the planning phase of a project but then I should turn it over to others that are good at following through rather than try to oversee the whole thing from start to finish. We all have different strengths and mine is in the details of putting together a good plan.

Well, I loved the idea of the 100 Days Challenge. I made big plans for myself. And, those plans have fallen through as new projects (and plans!) have continued to crop up in my life. This is actually one reason I've had trouble losing the weight I need to lose; I just can't sustain the interest in following the steps necessary to do so long enough to lose the weight! See? I'm already off track in my discussion about the challenge...

So, anyway, this past 10 days went rather poorly in terms of not wasting food. I let a mango sit around too long and it went bad. Not entirely my fault as it was already bruised, but I should have dealt with it sooner. There was another fruit mishap that I can't recall now, but again, it was wasted due to neglect. When I made some candied orange peels recently, I burned the batch a little at the end. I was able to use only about 75% of the peels.

On a side note, I candied some entire orange halves (which is incidentally how I got into trouble with the burning because I didn't make enough syrup, but I digress. Again.)


I filled a couple of the candied orange halves with chocolate-dipped candied peels for gifts.


Then I dipped a couple of candied orange halves in the chocolate for a nice presentation at the CSA. I kept these filled with pieces of candied orange peel throughout the last pick-up session. Everyone loves when there is something to sample at the CSA!

I've already written about my radishes. I saved the radishes but the leaves were slimy which is too bad. Sauteed radish leaves are actually quite tasty. And, of course, there was the entire jar of expired peanut butter that I had to toss. This was not my best week.

On the other hand, I've made some wonderful food lately using up perishable produce and leftovers. I tucked my remaining oranges away in the drawer in my refrigerator to help them keep for another week. We're also harvesting produce from the garden between freezes, including such yummy things as peppers, Malabar spinach, eggplant, and okra.

There are only twenty days left in the year. Surely I can avoid having to compost much more food. How about you?

In the Kitchen All Day

Yesterday started at 5:30 am in the kitchen microwaving a couple of sweet potatoes for my sweetie's lunch and ended around 6:30 pm when the last sheet of cookies came out of the oven. I didn't plan to spend all day in the kitchen; it just worked out that way.

My usual plan is to cook up all remaining produce on Friday morning before heading to the CSA for my volunteer work and to pick up my next share. Due to some extra shopping besides the CSA share in the past week or so, the refrigerator was full of produce that needed to be addressed and sooner than Friday. Roasting a pan full of diced carrots, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, and onions on Tuesday evening was a start, but there was more to be done. First was to turn those roasted veggies into soup.


Soup with Roasted Vegetables



Celery, sliced
Hot pepper, minced
Vegetable stock
Roasted root vegetables
Leafy greens (radish & turnip greens, kale, chard, spinach, etc.), chopped

Saute celery and pepper in large soup pot until tender.

Add stock and roasted vegetables.

Simmer for 15 minutes.

Turn off heat and stir in leafy greens.

Season with salt & pepper.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While the soup was simmering, the full vegetable bin called my name. There was a bunch of radishes from the previous week as well as a couple of Hakurei (white salad) turnips. A friend at the CSA told me she processes her radishes like cabbage for sauerkraut. That was my intention for these radishes, and maybe the turnips, but I never got around to it. No time like the present.

After picking off all the slimy leaves, cleaning the radishes and turnips, and getting out a jar and the salt, I got nervous about how to do this. While browsing through my book on fermentation, I remembered there was also a head of cabbage in the refrigerator. Why not just make traditional sauerkraut with the addition of radishes? In fact, why not also take this opportunity to use up the carrots? The carrots, half the cabbage, and a few radishes would make a tasty coleslaw while leaving plenty to do a batch of sauerkraut, too.


Because the Hakurei turnips are so tasty raw, they went into the bowl of shredded vegetables for slaw.


Just for fun, I split the shredded slaw vegetables into two containers to make two versions. After adding sliced I'itoi onions to both, the seasoning diverged significantly. On the left is a traditional coleslaw with vegan mayonnaise, a little vinegar, and some crushed caraway seeds. On the right is an Asian slaw with homemade Asian pear vinegar, toasted sesame oil, some spices similar to Chinese 5-spice powder, garlic powder, and grated ginger. The greens from the onions completed the dish, although I'm thinking some toasted sesame seeds sprinkled on top would be a nice addition.


The remaining shredded cabbage, radishes, and a sprinkling of carrot were tossed with salt before being stuffed into a large jar to ferment. Since I don't have a proper crock to use for making sauerkraut, the jars have to suffice. There is no way to put in a plate to weight down the vegetables so a bag full of brine (salt + water) substitutes. This should be ready in about a week, or maybe a little longer due to the colder temperatures.


After a cloudy morning, the sun peeked out around noon. This left just enough time to roast a couple of beets in the solar oven. I also tried steaming the greens but burned them by leaving them in too long.

After putting the beets in the sun oven, I was overdue for a lunch break. Samples of the soup and coleslaws indicated my time had not been wasted. This was not a day for wasting time. Along with finishing six loads of laundry (winter blanket washing day), there was at least one more project to finish in the kitchen: peanut butter cookies.

When replacing the expired food in the emergency packs, I'd set the old jar of peanut butter on top of the fridge to research later. I'm willing to eat slightly expired food but not without assessing the risks first.


The first step was to make sure this brand had not been included in the peanut butter recalls of late last year. It took a while to track down the list of products, but I was relieved to see it was safe from that perspective.


Next up was determining whether it was safe to eat expired peanut butter. I could not find anything official in my searching but the general consensus was that it was not a good idea, especially with a natural peanut butter that didn't contain preservatives. There was also a good chance it was rancid. I decided the jar had to go.

While it wasn't helpful in my peanut butter research, this review of stale cereals (including a peanut butter one) was an amusing distraction. Go ahead and check it out. I'll wait.

I did have other, fresher, peanut butter on hand so the cookies got made. A fair number of them also got eaten last night, but only after we'd had generous helpings of the delicious and healthy soup.

Today, I need to start working on cleaning up the house, mostly because it is a mess but also because we have company coming next week. Yes, it's exciting! After they check out our CSA, we'll be taking Heather and her sweetie to the local vegan restaurant - where we take most of our out-of-town company. The next morning will start with homemade vegan pancakes made from local organically-grown wheat (ground with pedal power!) topped with homemade local prickly pear and pomegranate syrups. I even have a few local oranges sitting in a cold room for fresh organic orange juice. Yes, staying at Casa de Chile is sweet.

Sometime before this week's CSA pick-up, though, I still have more food to deal with. The last fresh beet may be grated for beet sushi. I've never tried this, but since she mentions that the beet looks like tuna maybe I'll dig out my old spicy tuna recipe and see how that works with beet instead of fish. Ratatouille will use up my last zucchini, tomatoes, and eggplants in delicious fashion. Finally, I've got to figure out what to do with cilantro, lots of cilantro. I bought several bunches, intending to blend it into some green enchilada sauce. Unfortunately, I forgot about it and froze all of the sauce. I'm now stuck with fresh cilantro, which I love but it does not keep well and loses quite a lot of its charm when dried or frozen. As a last resort, though, I may try freezing some Cilantro Chutney as a number of recipes online say it can be frozen.

After being sick for so long last month, it's refreshing to have the energy, and the interest, to work in the kitchen more. Right now, after writing down everything I did yesterday and everything I still have to do, I'm worn out! I think I need another cookie...

Chunks in the Compost and other Tales

Compost - it's easy, right? Just toss your kitchen scraps (not meat or fat) in a pile with your yard scraps (cut grass, raked leaves, animal bedding, etc.) and, Voila!, you have beautiful fine compost in a month.

That's the impression I had many years ago when I first decided to compost rather than throw away what was left in the kitchen. My dad had "composted" but, as far as I know, all he had was a pile of grass trimmings and leaves. I don't recall anyone ever taking the kitchen scraps out to the pile. His pile would sit there for what seemed like years, very slowly breaking down, because it only had the carbonaceous materials in it. It needed some nitrogen. Then, according to what I read, it would have magically transformed into black soil.

My dad's composting procedure when I was young was very passive. When I got older, it seemed like compost turners - fancy tools to let you reach down into the depths of the compost pile - were all the rage. Now composting could not be a passive process; one had to get in there and manage the compost pile.

Did you know that plant material has been breaking down, all on its own, for years without our help? Amazing, isn't it, that layers of rich mulch and compost can build up on the ground, without human assistance (or interference). Sometimes we try to make simple processes more complicate than they need to be. A good set-up and a pitchfork will do the job most of the time. Turning compost occasionally speeds up the process but a passive pile will, eventually, break down.

When I first started composting, I didn't have grass trimmings or raked leaves because we lived out in the desert. I didn't bother to try to collect these materials elsewhere yet I still produced beautiful compost. Twice a week, I picked up 2-5 boxes of produce discards from a nearby grocery store, back when they would let you pick these up for your animals. (Most no longer do.) We had four chickens at the time and I would sort through the boxes to find the foods they liked: greens and melons were their favorite. While sorting, I'd also pick out the food that was still good enough for us to eat.

There is an amazing amount of food waste in the food industry, and grocery stores are no exception. When the leaves on a radish bunch wilt, the entire bunch gets thrown out. The radishes stay fresh for a week or more longer. When too many leaves in the cilantro bundle wilt, out goes all of it. One little bruise on an apple or pear means the fruit is tossed. I quickly learned to salvage the edible foods and make meals out of this "free food" (which is part of the reason, I suspect, that stores no longer give away their scraps!) I remember using my dehydrator to dry scads of cilantro and celery leaves. Radishes were ever-present and I learned they could be stir-fried. And we ate a lot of fruit compote made with the good parts of the bruised fruit, usually with some orange juice added from the soft oranges.

Back to the subject of compost: after sorting out the chicken and people food, about 50% of the produce scrap remained. This was dumped in a growing pile each week and turned just enough to keep it from attracting flies. (Now that I think about it, I wonder if our resident coyote ever got in there and scavenged.) Every time I cleaned out the chicken coop (twice a month?), I'd add the droppings to the scraps. In just a month, I had the beautiful black rich compost I'd heard about and would be starting on the next batch. This amazed me considering we lived in an area that was very arid with less than 12" of rain per year. The scraps had such a high moisture content in them that they were able to stay moist anyway.

My next venture into composting came when we lived in Colorado. There were many trees in the yard of our rental house so this compost pile was heavy on the leaves. We also had to maintain a lawn (with a push mower, of course), but I usually left the grass trimmings in place to keep the grass healthier. The compost pile there did not yield rich soil in one month. I think it was too heavy on the carbon materials plus we had no access to animal manure. In fact, we had so many leaves in the fall, we usually hauled a good portion of them to the city's composting site. By the time our pile had broken down into usable compost, we were leaving town. We hauled the compost over to the neighbor's house who promised to put it to good use.

For whatever reason, I didn't seriously compost again until we moved here. I've written quite a bit off and on about composting. Thinking more management was better, we bought a barrel that could be rotated to mix the compost. This was a big failure. There was insufficient ventilation in the black barrel making moisture regulation very challenging. The material was either too wet or too dry. The only good part about the design for us was the ability to collect compost tea which the plants loved. The inability to make compost easily, though, led us to get rid of this expensive investment.

We found two compost bins at a yard sale for a total of twenty bucks. Basically just containers to keep the material in place, these have worked wonderfully for us. They are ventilated enough to breathe yet solid enough to help hold in moisture. Once I figured out to move them away from the wall and each other, I eliminated the only problem (mice) we've had with them, much to Polie's disappointment.

This time, too, I decided to put in a good balance of material. Every scrap of produce went into the bins. When I hosted an aid station for a local bike race, I set up a separate collection for orange and banana peels so I could bring them home to compost. I searched out sources of animal manure to add valuable nitrogen and help the compost break down faster. Goat poop is mild smelling and I can get as much as I want from these cute critters. I've also picked up chicken and sheep manure, which composts wonderfully.

For carbon materials, I'm still lacking in grass trimmings and tree leaves seeing as I still live in a desert, now with a xeriscaped yard. However, it's pretty easy to come up with alternatives. After the holidays, people often give away the straw bales they used to give their yards a festive look. Loose hay from broken bales is available dirt-cheap at the feed stores. I've even snagged oak leaves and pine needles that one Tucsonan hauled back home from his mountain retreat.

Composting also helps minimize other waste. When I shred white paper from my office, it goes into the bins, adding additional brown material. If I get critically short on browns (the carbons), I'll start shredding cardboard and newspapers as well. I've even added a few egg cartons from my CSA when their supply is overflowing.

A couple of weekends ago, it was time to sift the finished compost bin. Our current system utilizes both bins for compost. (At one time, one bin was for storage of brown materials.) Currently, we fill up one bin with compost and let it age for several months while filling up the second bin. When the second is full, I have to empty out the older one to make room to start again.


The compost can't just be shoveled out and used as is. There are chunks in it that must be sifted out. For this, my sweetie made a tray with hardware cloth that I can set over my garden cart (another yard sale acquisition). I toss on a couple of shovelfuls and sift out the finer materials.


The finished sifted compost accumulates in the cart until it is overflowing. I am storing it in a big trash can until my sweetie is ready to begin spring planting.


The chunky bits get stored in another trash can to be used as cover material for the new compost pile. In the past, I've spread it under the mulch for the citrus trees but I haven't been doing that lately. Hm, I wonder if that's why the trees aren't doing as well this year? More likely, it is because we've had less than our usual annual accumulation of rainfall.


What, though, makes up the chunky bits in the compost? Here's a picture of what did not go through the screen.


In a close-up view (click on the picture to see even better), you can see what does not break down quickly. Corn cobs are slow to break down. To help the process along, I crumble what remains as much as possible. Avocados skins and pits are very slow to compost. The skins often look almost exactly the same after months in the pile as when I put them in. The pits gradually soften and often break in half when I'm working the material through the sifter. The lacy material on the right is, I think, the husk from a tomatillo. It amazes me that they are apparently so hardy. I've been adding dog fur since a friend left a comment that it could go in the compost. I'm not sure it's breaking down, though. I'm also unsure whether the peach pits will ever compost. If we had a wood stove or fireplace, I'd be tempted to toss them in to burn instead! And, finally, the rocks (upper left) never seem to break down either so I just toss them out. I'm not sure how I get so many rocks in my compost but I think a few are coming in with the loose hay I've been picking up.

I almost typed that I don't do all that much work for my compost but that is false. Gathering the materials is a fair amount of work, but I enjoy it. It allows me to visit with other people and encourage them to compost and garden. While I have no desire to own goats, it's fun visiting other people's animals, especially since I know they are well cared for. For the pile itself, the work is minimal. We take out the produce scraps every one to two days, add it to the pile, and cover it with whatever material is on hand (leftover chunky compost, goat manure, loose hay, shredded paper, or coffee grounds). Every now and then, I'll mix the pile up a little with the pitchfork. If it looks dry, I'll add water but water is added regularly when the scrap containers are rinsed out.

The bulk of the work comes when it is time to sift the old compost. It's time-consuming and labor-intensive but it is, again, work that I enjoy. There is something intensely satisfying about seeing the beautiful results of simply putting "waste" materials together in one place, the alchemy of turning trash into treasure. When the old bin is almost empty, I shovel the newer compost into it. This mixes it up well and lets me add more moisture or material as needed. A final layer of straw or hay goes on top and that bin is closed for business until the second one is full again.

This process has been working really well. So well, in fact, that I am wondering about ways to gather more compostable materials to increase my output. I can get as much goat poop, hay, and coffee grounds as I want, but where do I get more produce scrap? Maybe instead of offering to help people harvest the fruit on their trees, I should offer to clean up the rotting fruit under them!