Posts from — October 2009

noun
1. a second self; a perfect substitute or deputy
2. an inseparable friend
3. another aspect of one’s self

And I’m going to add:
4. who we wish we could be

Happy Halloween from me and Elastigirl (a k a Mrs. Incredible)! Now, if only I had her super-stretchiness. . . .

. . .from the past week or two:

This is the last rose to bloom on one of the rosebushes in our front yard. I caught this image before fall paid us a visit for a few hours this week. And now winter seems to have swooped in already, and all of its petals have fallen. The fact that we got roses at all this year was pretty special. The plants had been seriously neglected while we remodeled our house last fall, and when I finally got around to pruning them and cleaning out the weeds in the spring, I wasn’t sure they’d bounce back.

When Kerrick’s third tooth (but first top front one) came out two weeks ago, I declared him our official jack-o-lantern for the season. He looked a little concerned when I hinted that we might sit him on the front porch with a flashlight in his mouth to greet the neighborhood trick-or-treaters.

We made about 10 of these little ghosts out of recycled plastic bags two years ago, and it’s been fun to bring them out again this year and watch them dangling from the trees in our front yard, dancing in the, er, autumn breeze.

Our newest recycling project involved turning old spice jars into bug-catching containers. The snap on lids with built-in air holes help make them the perfect tool for capturing and examining a spider or other specimen. Kellen even “sold” a few of these at the “store” he operates with a friend at his school-away-from-home program once a week. (They have a class economy set up, and they earn class money—not the real thing!—by working various jobs.)

After experimenting with making sprouted-grain tortillas this week, I decided to serve them with soup for dinner one night. I suppose it’s no surprise—and not much of a creative stretch, either—that the variety that first came to mind was tortilla soup! But after the idea occurred to me, the creativity kicked in. I already had homemade chicken stock on hand, and I figured I could improvise with enough other ingredients to develop my own recipe without having to consult a cookbook. You might find it surprising, for example, to see that I included coconut milk. My hope there was to add a bit of creaminess to the soup, as well as to benefit from the antiviral, antifungal and antimicrobial properties of lauric acid, the principle fatty acid in coconut milk. I was a little concerned that the coconut flavor would throw off the taste, but I could only detect the slightest hint of it in the finished product, which we topped with raw cheddar, sour cream and tortilla chips.  Click here to get the complete recipe.

I contributed the recipe for Tortilla Soup—along with recipes for Cream of Chicken, Coconut and Mushroom Soup and Roasted Vegetable Soup—to the Gallery of Soups at www.gnowfglins.com. To link to the complete lineup, click here.

As most homeschoolers know, the most fascinating lesson of any given day is likely one that isn’t planned. That was certainly the case at our house today, when Kellen and Kerrick decided that learning how to create fake-but-realistic-looking wounds was much more important than finishing their math. If I had to guess, I’d say their sudden interest in special-effects makeup has to do with the fact that Halloween is two weeks away. Not to mention Kellen’s recent participation in a Civil War re-enactment event put on by his scouting troop. (He played a Union soldier in the Michigan 7th Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Although he hadn’t been assigned to “die” during the staged battle, he got a little caught up in the drama and ended up sprawled out rather convincingly—at least from the photos I saw—on the field.)

After lunch, I got Kennah and Keillor down for a nap and was all set to dive into the flashcards and formulas that awaited our attention. Instead, I was greeted by two enthusiastic boys who had resourcefully gathered all of the ingredients (red food coloring, cocoa powder, toothpicks and tissues) they needed to bring to life the “injuries” that were occupying their imaginations. The only thing they couldn’t find was petroleum jelly—and only because they didn’t know what it was. Their excitement must have been contagious, because I soon forgot all about math and joined the search for the elusive final item, which we found in the drawer of the baby’s changing table.

Click here to see the directions we followed to create a large gash on Kellen’s forearm and a bullet wound on the back of Kerrick’s hand. And take a look at our results:

I think we need some more practice to make the wounds look more realistic, but our first try was a lot of fun. And in case anyone worries that we set all learning aside, I did sneak some scientific stuff into the ensuing discussions (Why would your blood appear darker in some areas than others? How would you sustain such a wound, and how would it be treated?). Oh, and we eventually managed to get our math done, too.

Latest edition: this week's sprouted soft white wheat/spelt tortillas.

Tortillas are a big dietary staple in our house. They figure into many of our favorite meals—from burritos and wraps to tacos and enchiladas to cheese crisps and quesadillas. It’s hard to imagine what our menu would look like if we had to give them up. So you might be surprised to read that that’s exactly what we’ve gradually done—at least when it comes to the store-bought varieties.

Now, I’ve been making my own corn tortillas—the smaller, sturdier kind that are best suited for tacos and enchiladas—for several years. The ingredient list couldn’t be shorter (organic masa flour, sea salt and water), and the process couldn’t be easier (with the help, of course, of a food processor and tortilla press). But even if I had to mix the ingredients by hand and roll them out with a rolling pin (a likely prospect as I look to wean my self away from my Teflon-coated tortilla press to either a stainless-steel one or none at all), the taste and texture of homemade corn tortillas is so much better that even the convenience factor of buying the ready-made kind would be no temptation.

I’ll admit, though, that I’ve struggled to come up with a suitable substitute for the prepackaged flour tortillas that, until earlier this year, had been a bit more challenging to eliminate from my grocery list. In case you’re wondering why I’ve deemed it necessary to do so, I’ll share a bit of what went into my decision. First of all, their main ingredients are definitely on the list of things I’m working so diligently to keep out of my kitchen—refined white flour, hydrogenated oils and preservatives, to name the biggest culprits. The research I’ve done (which includes reading Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon, and Real Food, by Nina Planck) has convinced me that these industrial foods have no place in a truly healthy diet. (A side note: I think it is incredibly ironic that almost every brand of flour tortillas in both my neighborhood supermarket and the nearby Whole Foods boasts—usually in large bold print—that they contain “no lard.” After what I’ve read so far about the right kinds of fats versus the industrial oils we’ve been led to believe are “healthy,” I say, “Bring back true lard—rendered animal fat—and leave out the toxic, chemically produced substances that have taken its place!”) Second, in an effort to increase the digestibility and nutritional value of the foods we eat—as well as to possibly find a way for my gluten-sensitive son to tolerate grains that contain that protein—I’ve tried to incorporate sprouted spelt and wheat into as many of our breads and baked goods as I can—including tortillas.

My first few attempts were complete failures. At that point, I was using sprouted spelt flour exclusively, and experimenting with the ratio of desirable fats—coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil—to water. No matter what I tried (more water, less oil or vice versa), I ended up with tortillas that tasted fine but were way too fragile. They fell apart during the cooking process as I flipped them over on my cast-iron griddle, and my kids were less than impressed when a few survived intact long enough to make it onto their plates—held together, no doubt, by the melted raw cheddar I sandwiched in between to create what I hoped was a reasonable facsimile of their beloved cheese crisps. (By the way, I saved all of the tortilla fragments from my failed batches in my freezer, and I’ve gradually been grinding them up to use as breadcrumbs in meatballs and other recipes that call for breading. So they haven’t gone to waste!)

Last week, I decided to experiment with sprouted soft white wheat, with just a little bit of sprouted spelt thrown in. I played some more with the oil-to-water ratio, too, and I had considerably more successful results! The tortillas cracked slightly as they cooked, but they held together much better. I was even able to roll them up around various fillings without them falling completely apart. It was a big breakthrough, but I’m still far from mastering either a recipe or a technique that will give me consistent, quality results. But given my family’s love of tortillas, I’m determined to get there! And when I do, I’ll share more of what I’ve learned along the way.

This post is part of the Tuesday Twister blog carnival hosted by www.gnowfglins.com. To link to today’s Tuesday Twister on that site, click here.

Please note: It is my goal to provide a top-quality, content-driven, ad-free blog. That said, I do occasionally include affiliate links in some of my posts. For example, if you click on the book covers above, you will link to Amazon.com, where you will have an opportunity to purchase the books—and if you do buy them after clicking through from my site, I will receive a small commission to support my work here, as well as my own book-buying habit. Seriously, though, I’d be just as happy if my recommendation inspired you to check out the titles from your local library or borrow them from a friend.

Autumn is finally in the air—or, at least as much of that season as we can seem to muster here in the desert Southwest. While we haven’t yet packed away our shorts or pulled out the flannel sheets, we find ourselves gravitating toward the warmer, more substantial meals we typically turn to when the weather cools off.

This week, I sprouted some more pinto beans and then cooked them for just about an hour before using them in a hearty crockpot chili that—along with a batch of gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free cornbread—really hit the spot after a busy homeschool co-op day. (On Wednesdays, we usually have piano lessons in the morning, and then meet with friends in the afternoon to study chemistry, art and Spanish together.) Along with the sprouted beans and some of their cooking liquid, the chili included one pound of grass-fed beef, a diced onion, a 12-ounce can of tomato paste, and a mixture of herbs and spices that I threw in, unmeasured, until I liked the taste—such as chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, crushed red chili flakes, cayenne pepper and sea salt. We topped it with grated raw cheddar and sour cream. The cornbread recipe I use is an adaptation of one I received via e-mail from Living Without magazine’s free Recipe of the Week newsletter. (Click here to sign up for the newsletter and to view the recipes posted on the publication’s Web site.)

In addition to beans, I sprouted some organic soft white wheat I’d ordered from Azure Standard, dehydrated it in the oven, ground it into flour in my Vita-Mix and used it to make chocolate-chip cookies—adapting a recipe in Janie Quinn’s book Sprouted Baking. (Her recipe calls for maple sugar and carob chips, which I didn’t have on hand, so I used Rapadura—unrefined cane sugar—and Enjoy Life chocolate chips—dairy-free and gluten-free—instead.) I really watched the grains during the sprouting process to determine whether I was achieving the goal of truly sprouting (and not drowning) the grain, as I expressed concern about last week. After soaking the grain overnight, I did observe that the endosperm had emerged from each grain (whether because it was swollen or not), but I also observed definite growing shoots that could only be considered true sprouts. I’m calling it a success! The cookies I made with the sprouted wheat flour were delicious, and while I didn’t test them out on Kellen (they included dairy and eggs), I did manage to convince my sister-in-law, an officially diagnosed celiac (and a very brave one, I might add!), to try one. It’s been less than 24 hours since she ate it, and so far she is symptom-free. I’ll keep checking in with her over the next few days to see what, if any effects she experiences. At the request of my editor at Living Without, I’m on the lookout for a medical doctor specializing in celiac disease to interview about whether sprouting gluten-containing grains might make them tolerable and safe for those who are gluten-sensitive. It’s controversial, and so far I haven’t had much luck.

This post is part of the Tuesday Twister blog carnival hosted by www.gnowfglins.com. To link to today’s Tuesday Twister on that site, click here.