Orange Liqueur and Vanilla and Tarragon Vinegar

I cannot find a written version of the orange liqueur recipe we made for Christmas gifts last year anywhere.
For those of you hoping to make some of your own, here's what I *think* we did - to the best of my recollection.

Orange Liqueur
peels of three organic oranges, cut into small strips
1quart brandy
1quart vodka
1 cup honey

Soak orange peels in alcohol for 4-6 weeks. Strain, and add honey to alcohol. Shake well and often. When honey is thoroughly dissolved in alcohol, pour into individual bottles.
The only part I feel unsure about is the amount of honey. This is totally up to your taste anyway, so go for it, and let me know if you have to adjust it a bit.
This is nice over ice cream or in raspberry sauce over ice cream and/or brownies. Some of you have assured me it is also a cure for the common cold!

Vanilla
10-12 vanilla beans
1.5L vodka (the cheap kind)

Open vodka and remove the plastic thing on top. Pour a little into another container, and drop vanilla beans into bottle. Cap and set aside for at least a month and up to a year. Pour into individual bottles, and top off with more vodka. The beans can be used more than once but will need more time to give the same flavor after the first use.

Tarragon Vinegar
2 large sprigs of fresh Tarragon
1quart of distilled vinegar

Boil vinegar. Place tarragon in mason jar, and pour hot vinegar over it. Set aside for 6-8 weeks. Pour into individual jars and include small sprigs of fresh tarragon.

Mushroom Soup

When we arrived home, we had a new crop of mushrooms waiting on us -

portabellas
and the first button mushrooms.
Owen helped harvest them and spray the soil with water, and I made a really yummy cream of mushroom soup for dinner.

Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2c ghee
1 onion, chopped
3 large portabella and 5 large button mushrooms, chopped finely (I'm going to venture a guess that these were about 3 cups of chopped mushrooms)
1t thyme
1 small bay leaf
1c beef stock
2c yoghurt or milk
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions in ghee. Add mushrooms, thyme, and bay leaf, and cook until mushroom liquid is mostly gone. Stir in stock and bring to a boil. Add milk or yoghurt, and heat but do not boil. Salt and pepper to taste. You may thicken a bit with corn starch, flour, tapioca flour or the like before adding milk if you desire.

This was super quick and very yummy!

Christmas Card -> Picture

Christmas cards often have nice pictures I just hate to throw away. There are lots of projects you can do with them. One of my favorite was an ornament like these that we made in Girl Scouts one year. They were a bit tedious but turned out well.
Here's a project I did today that was a lot quicker:

I got a pack of sample cards free in the mail a while back, and this cardinal one caught my eye. Murmur likes red birds, and I thought it would make a nice Christmas decoration to make and send to her. I picked up a 2-piece mat set at the craft store for about $3. I used the darker green one and saved the lighter one for another project. I glued the picture to the mat, and taped two pieces of raffia on the back near the top corners. Then I glued a piece of plain white card stock over the back. I tied the raffia at the top, and it was done. I hope she'll enjoy seeing those cheery cardinals marching in a line.

Postpartum Meals - A Good Thing

So, this is the season of having babies!
They are coming right and left and don't show signs of slowing up yet.
I really appreciated it when my friend Dianne cooked me a meal and brought it all the way to Esmont from Orange, VA (a 45 minute drive). I was also lonely, and she stayed to eat with me and hang out a bit. In those early days of nursing and nursing and nursing and crying and shhhhhhhhhing and walking and little sleep, it was nice to have a well-balanced meal cooked with lots of love to nourish me so that I could in turn make good milk for Owen.
I think it is a great idea to bring a new mama something good to eat and make a short visit. It is really easy to double up a meal and cook for your family and hers at the same time.
Here are a couple of PP meals I've recently made to share.
Pork chops stuffed with cranberries, Waldorf salad, and pumpkin soup with thyme.

Irish beef stew with Waldorf salad (not pictured).

Pork Chops Stuffed with Cranberries
8 pork chops
1/4 c butter or ghee
4 stalks celery, diced
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 c dried cranberries
1t salt
2T orange juice (about 1/2 a small orange juiced)
pepper
butter, ghee, or lard for frying

Saute celery and onions in butter or ghee until onions are translucent. Combine with cranberries, salt, juice, and pepper. Cut a slit into each pork chop and fill with mixture. Pan fry chops 2 minutes on each side to sear. Place chops in baking dish and bake at 350 F for 40 minutes.

Waldorf Salad
4 apples, chopped
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1/2c walnuts
1/2-3/4 c mayonnaise
juice of 1 lemon

Mix and chill. Serve over greens.

Pumpkin Soup
1/2c butter or ghee
1 large onion, diced
1 quart pumpkin, baked until tender and scooped out of shell
1 quart chicken stock
2t. thyme
1/2c coconut cream concentrate
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion in butter or ghee in a large pot. Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Blend until smooth.

Irish Beef Stew
olive oil or lard for frying
4 lbs beef cut into 1-2" cubes
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves of garlic
6 bay leaves
2t thyme
2t rosemary
1 1/2c beef stock
1 1/2c beer (I used a GF sorghum beer)
2T parsley
1 lb carrots
salt and pepper

Brown meat in batches in a skillet with oil or lard. Tranfer to a large oven-proof pot. Brown onion and garlic and transfer to pot. Add remaining ingredients and bake at 275 F for 2 hours or more, stirring 2 or 3 times.

Last Minute Trip to TN

At the last minute, we decided it would just be too sad to stay here and eat our 12 pound turkey alone so we decided to drive to Tennessee for Thanksgiving. Abram didn't have any Tuesday classes, so after he picked up our turkey from the Central Market on Tuesday morning, we all headed out of town (including the turkey).

We were very glad to see Grandma Sharon and Pa Billy, Lauren, Steve, Electra, Carter, Will, Alison, Roman, Keiko, Ma, Jesse, Rossitsa, Rosa, Kristiyana, Kalina, and Iliyah and play some games. Poor little Carter wasn't feeling well and had to go early. Owen enjoyed playing with the other Ring family cousins who were there
and got a second dose of fun and excitement on Friday.
Tuesday Owen had a something on his gum, and fearing an abscess, we called around to see if anyone would see him before the holiday. Dr. Peter Shelton met us at his office (with his wife and their 2 year old grandson, Owen!) Tuesday night around 8 to check what appeared to be a perfectly healthy gum. (I had looked at it three times, once after brushing his teeth, and prodded it with my finger. I'm sure it wasn't just a bit of gunk.) He suggested it might have been a clogged salivary gland that eventually popped and gave us his home phone to call in case anything else came up over the holiday. We really appreciated his kindness.
It made us even more homesick for Tennessee! When we called the dentists in Lancaster, they all had 6 week waits but urged us to see someone (else) that day.

Saturday - Meeting Baby Martin and a Trip to the Zoo

Yesterday we drove down to meet baby Martin, Ben and Tracy's beautiful new little boy. Although Martin is very cute and oh so squishy, Owen was not as impressed as I was. I hung out at Tracy's and took a short walk with Tracy and Martin. He seemed to love being all squished up in the Ergo carrier with his mama. While Tracy and Martin napped, I did a little baking (of Carolyn's granola bars which smelled really yummy) and then tried to play a new game with Ben. Agricola seemed fun, but proved to be a game that would require more time and attention than we had to spend yesterday.

Meanwhile, Owen and Abram took a train to the Smithsonian National Zoo. Owen took his VERY FIRST ride in a stroller. Yep, you read that right. He has tried to sit in the doll strollers at the LLL meetings but has never actually ridden in a stroller. They report that the zoo stroller was lots of fun and Owen would like us to get one of our own. Hmmm. . .
Owen reported that they saw, "ELEPHANTS," and "lions fighting with their paws."

According to the pictures they brought back, they must have also seen cheetahs

and a tiger.
We missed most of the large cats the last time we visited, so I'm glad they got to see them. Tracy told us that the lionesses recently got a thrill when a baby deer jumped into the exhibit - bad for the deer, but I'm sure exciting for the cats who must dearly crave hunting.

When Owen (who had no nap and was bouncing off the walls with delerium) and Abram returned, we left Ben, Tracy, and Martin in peace to head back home.
Congrats, Ben and Tracy! Martin is precious!

Friday - Market Day

After an adventure getting three cartloads of toys up two stories in a passenger elevator at Tot Spot since the freight elevator wouldn't work (and an hour of playing with those fun things once they made it to the gym), Owen and I headed to the Central Market to pick up a few things. Although the tomatoes are mostly gone and there are only a few lonely squash, fall is a great time to shop at the market for locally grown foods. Here's Owen with our take from today:
turnips (Owen is holding a fine example)
Stayman apples
ground beef
pork breakfast sausage
beef roast
lettuce
chestnuts
walnuts (from a grandma's yard and tediously picked out by her and sold for $2.50/ half pound)
thyme (dried)
herbal tea
goat feta
goat colby
goat cheddar with chives and garlic
celery

All the items except the thyme and tea were grown/raised locally. From these items, I will make (among other things) a beef stew (with the roast and thyme), Waldorf salad (with apples, celery, and walnuts), breakfast (from the sausage along with some local eggs), a snack (of roasted chestnuts - peel your own or let mama peel your own), and a gift (the tea).

Wordsmith Wednesday: The Story of the Root Children

Owen and I went on an adventure to a new library today. The Shuts Environmental Library in Lancaster County's Central Park is housed in a 1769 farmhouse built by Andreas Shuts. The library is housed in the main room of the first floor and contains a selection of books focused on the natural world. A trip there is not much longer by car than to the downtown library, and when you arrive there is a big park around you and a cozy little house with a room full of books. The parking is free, and Owen can run around before and after going in to get books rather than being shuffled from a multi-layer parking deck across busy streets. We really enjoyed our visit and stayed a while to sit on the old wood floor and read a few books. Then we went outside and took a short hike and ran around in the woods and grass before heading home for lunch and a nap.

Owen and I really liked The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle von Olfers (first published in German in 1906 and later adapted to English). We read it there and checked it out to bring home and read - so far once again with me and once with Abram.
This is a very sweet story of seasonal changes with very pretty illustrations. The root children live underground during the winter, but Mother Earth wakes them up for spring. Each root child is a flower, and they make new colorful clothes for spring and process along with the insects. They enjoy the warm spring and summer playing outdoors, but when the cold fall wind comes, they are lead back down to the ground to sleep through the cold winter awaiting the return of spring.

Sunday

This morning we walked over to the arboretum. The big sugar maple tree is completely bare now.
Owen took his little kitty. He bought it a few weeks ago with his own money at Goodwill. He now takes it almost everywhere and tells people he bought it at Goodwill with his own money. He also sleeps with it. It doesn't seem to be a security object - just a constant companion. He is very sweet and tender with his little kitty. She never gets thrown or otherwise treated roughly like some of the other critters.
After we walked around the arboretum, we walked through the grounds of Wheatland where Owen inspected the garden which has only a few almost dead pole beans, strawberry plants, some yellowed and nearly-gone rhubarb, and some lemon balm in it. He especially liked hollering down into the old well through the wooden cover. When Abram got home, he told him all about how we visited the well and how they used to get water out of it with a bucked "like Merlin." I think this is a reference to The Sword In the Stone. At any rate, he seemed to understand what was down under the wooden cover and to enjoy hearning his echoing voice.

Babyfood Jar Snow Globes

Owen was fascinated recently with the snow globes on display with the Christmas things at the mall. Instead of spending $$$ on the ones we saw, we picked up about $7 worth of supplies and put some Freecycled baby food jars to good use.
Here's what we used:
baby food jars with lids (Freecycled)
polymer clay (5 for $5 at Joanne's Fabrics this week!)
iridescent glitter ($2 at Joanne's)
paint (from another project)
toothpicks (on hand)
wine corks (used and saved, on hand)
water (free with the rent)
glycerin (leftover from another project, bubbles)
vinegar (on hand)


We all enjoyed making little things to put into our snow globes. After we were done sculpting trees, gnomes, a snowman and some critters, we baked them for half a hour.

I painted the lids with some silver paint we had on hand, and they dried overnight.
I cut some wine corks to make little pedestals about the height of the lid. (Actually, if I'd thought of it when we were making the figures, we could have done this with the clay.)
Owen and I arranged the figures the way we wanted them. Then we glued the corks to the lids, and the figures to the corks with superglue (Am I crazy or what?).
Here they are all lined up - a Christmas tree with a squirrel, a gnome with a bird, a snowman, and a tree with a bunny.
I filled the jars with water I had boiled and cooled and left just a little space at the top.
I added 3 drops of glycerin to each jar.

Owen added 1t. vinegarand 1/2t. glitter to each jar,
and then we screwed the lids on tight (and a little water came out of each one).
Owen seemed to like them even more than the fancy, $$$ ones at the mall, and we had a fun time making them to boot!

Mushroom Farming

A few weeks ago, some packages arrived from Anne with mushroom growing kits. Owen was glad to open them up and play in the dirt and compost seeded with mushroom spores (10/24/09).
After we got them set-up, the portabella kit had to wait closed for about a week before we opened it to find a hairy, grey mold (10/31/09)
which was our indication that the box was ready to have some light. We covered it with a clear plastic canopy and sprayed it every other day or so with water.
Ten days later, there wer recognizable mushrooms growing (11/10/09). They grew,
and grew (11/12/09),

and grew until there was no space for them to keep growing (11/14/09).Owen yanked the clear plastic off about 50 times a day "to see them" he said and even had a few bites to make sure they were doing alright.
Abram and Owen thinned them a bit to give them more space to grow,

and we feasted on the freshest mushrooms we have ever eaten. Then, they grew some more! (11/15/09)
Mushrooms With Bacon and Garlic
Bacon - 6-8 thick slices
Mushrooms - about 3 cups, chopped
garlic - three cloves

Fry bacon to until done. Add mushrooms and cook a few minutes until done. Stir in crushed garlic, and cook 1-2 more minutes. Serve hot with rice or pasta or over toast.

La Leche League: A Cultural Experience

I recently applied to become a La Leche League leader, and my friend who is helping me with the process suggested I visit some other LLL groups in the area to see how they run differently.
Owen and I decided to drive about half an hour to the northeast end of the county - way out into the country - to meet with the Ephrata area LLL group.
The LLL website said to call for the location, and I knew that they met at members' homes. Yesterday I called and got the address from the leader, and this morning, I plugged the address into the GPS and headed down the highway listening to Owen and NPR.
When we arrived at the large farmhouse, there was only one car in the driveway along with a horse and buggy and numerous bicycles with baby trailers. A row of plain women with babies headed in the side door. I felt a bit out of place, but, hey, we were all here to talk about nursing.
The leader and the hostess met Owen and me at the door and welcomed us warmly. There were about 15 women and lots of babies and young children there, and I felt a bit self-conscious as one of only two women in jeans (clearly, no one else seemed to care what I was wearing!). Yes, I had arrived at a meeting of "Horse and Buggy Old Order Mennonites".
I really enjoyed the open fourum discussion of "Overcoming Breastfeeding Difficulties." There were two grandmothers who helped jiggle babies and shared experiences. One told me she had been coming to meetings for 25 years. There were several pregnant moms due soon, and lots of homebirthing moms. No one looked at me funny when I told a mother with a fussy baby how beneficial craniosacral therapy was for Owen as a cranky newborn. In fact, many chimed in, and some shared the names of craniosacral therapists they liked.
During the social time after the discussion was over, we talked about midwives and our children and all sorts of things. At one point, I returned from checking on Owen (who had escaped to look around the farm), and a grandmother reminded the small group I rejoined to speak English and appoligized for speaking Dutch. Then she proceeded to tell me the short history of most of the women in the room and explained that all of them spoke Dutch (PA Dutch, that is) at home except for one other lady (whose father spoke Dutch but mother did not - she's the one who drove the car, but not the one in jeans).
While I was a bit apprehensive going in, I found that I was quite at home with this house full of women. Really, I think I have quite a lot in common with them - maybe more than I do with lots of other moms I know:
- strong belief in breastfeeding as the proper way to comfort and nourish young children
- strong belief in the work of staying at home (One mom actually, asked if I stayed at home with Owen, and was pleased that "we aren't the only ones who stay home with children"!)
- can food (I noticed a stack of canning jars in the mudroom as I entered.)
- traditional nutrition (I saw a copy of Nourishing Traditions and heard a grandma talking about the goodness of butter.)
- homebirth
- use alternative medicine
I am really glad I went, and I plan to go back again - maybe every month. It was so pleasing to connect with a group of women who are so very different from me but with whom I have so much in common.

Corn Planting

A few weeks ago we decorated our table for fall with some small gourds, some mini Indian popcorn saved from our 2008 garden, and fall leaves we collected. Owen couldn't keep his hands off any of it. We talked about how we saved the corn and could plant some again some time if we had a garden. Owen removed the items frequently to play, and I repeatedly replaced them gourds which soon got soft spots from wear and the corn which lost its kernels from being dropped, thrown, and generally bashed about.


Then, Owen decided to plant some alongside the begonias. I cautioned him that it might not grow.
Last week, we brought the plants in off the porch because the frost has come, and the corn is sprouting! We get very little light, so it will likely not fare well, but I also never expected it to sprout right on the cob in the dirt either.

Chestnuts

Owen and I found some chestnuts at a local market today. I don't think I have ever had a chestnut, and I know Owen hasn't. We bought a pack and brought them home. After nap time, we cut and X on each one and roasted them at 425 F for about 40 minutes turning them every 10 minutes. One made a loud banging noise part of the way through the roasting, and we looked in to find it had escaped the pan and was near the element in the oven. Then we peeled them and at them. Actually, I peeled them, and Owen ate them. They were sweet and much softer than most nuts. They actually remined me a lot of butternut squash that has been cooked a little too dry. We liked them and save some for Abram to try when he got home. He'd never had any either. Owen yelled, "We have American chestnuts, Daddy before Abram even got the door unlocked. I had to explain several times that they were not American chestnuts; I guess he was so taken with the tree across the street that it stuck.

According to Sally Fallon (in Nourishing Traditions), they are used as a vegetable and are "rich in B vitamins, calcium, iron, phosphorus, and potassium" as well as a good source of trace minerals. They are lower in fat than most nuts (and can be cooked in butter or ghee, but we are out right now!) and higher in carbohydrates than most nuts. Here is some more detailed nurtion data for them.