Tiny laundry tip....

 

I ran across this idea online and can't remember where. For some time now, I've been using just "Dawn Platinum" dish detergent to do my laundry. I add only 1 or 2 teaspoons of the liquid to a load of laundry, depending on the size of the load. I am very happy with the results. My clothing is getting cleaner than I think it ever has and also is softer. I don't use fabric softener. I have 4 wool dryer balls. Now, I do need to mention that I have a water softener, so I don't know how well this would work with hard water. I try to buy my Dawn when it's on sale and so each load only costs 2 cents or 4 cents. It's amazing. I do hang my laundry to dry part of the time, but not always. In the wintertime, I use a drying rack near the woodstove. In the warmer months, I have clotheslines outside that I use a lot. However, if there is a streak of rainy weather or I'm very tired or in a hurry, I use the dryer. After all these years of buying and sometimes making my own laundry soap/detergent, I am so happy that I've discovered this.

A tiny tip about bar soap....

Here is a bar of my homemade soap (sitting on a slice of luffa gourd so it can drain.)  This is what I almost always use to wash my hands and face at the bathroom sink.  Now here is an extremely tiny tip. This time of year where we live it gets very warm and humid and the soap absorbs water and can become so soft it will fall apart. When it gets a little soft, all you have to do is just take the bar up in your dry hands and rub it on your skin a little.  THEN add water and lather up. It saves the soap!

 

More on our plant based lifestyle...

 Dietary advice is one of those things that often causes people's eyes to "glaze over."  Of course diet is not the only subject that will cause us to harden our hearts, but it's certainly one of them. My husband and I have been eating the Whole Food Plant Based (no oil) way of eating for nearly 4 years now. As I mentioned before, his angina is gone. My eyesight has been restored. I have so much more energy. 

In April of last year (2023) I ended up spending two nights in the hospital. I was experiencing some dizziness and my daughters were all concerned that I might have had a stroke.  As it turned out, it was caused by those little crystals that can form in your inner ear and sometimes get lodged in the wrong place.  Anyway... I had, I think, about every scan and test known to man!  I joked that they took enough blood to sell. After all of that, I found out I am in excellent health. My cholesterol, which used to be 280, is now 140. My heart output, measured by an echocardiogram, which is considered normal at 50%, was 65 - 70%. 

I am now 75 years old.  I take no medications at all. I weigh less now than I did when we got married in 1971. (In case you're curious, I am 5' 4" tall and weigh 122 pounds.) This is without going hungry. I never have to go hungry. I never have to "diet". I do go out and walk for about 45 minutes in the woods up and down hills most days, with our two dogs. I do a little weight lifting, as at my age, it surely is true that if you don't use it you lose it!

Please... I urge you to look into it. Be curious. Do what is the very best for your own health.  When I began this, I told my husband, "I am going to do this for ME.  There is no pressure for you to join me. I will cook for both of us.  And so, that's what I did for about 3 weeks and then he said he'd join me. I think he saw what it was doing for me and also he didn't want me to have to work so hard.  He's so good to me. 

Read The Starch Solution by Dr. John McDougall.  Also, go over to YouTube and watch "Forks over Knives." You can watch that for free. 

It's simple, it's easy to do if you want to do it, and it will  SAVE YOU LOTS OF MONEY.  Honestly, for the two of us, I spend less than $60 a week on food.  Truly. The food can be simple and be perfectly healthy. If you want to, you can cook fancy also, but the health results are the same. For my recent birthday, one of our daughters bought me a copy of Be a Plant Based Woman Warrior   by Jane and Ann Esselstyn.  It is great!  There is a whole world of cookbooks out there for plant based eating.  Just be sure you don't eat added oils. Don't eat processed foods.  Eat whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and if your weight is normal, you can have some nuts and seeds, but avoid those if you need to trim down. Same with avocados.  They are good for you, but avoid them if you need to lose weight.

If you have any questions, you know where to find me.

Tiny tip - parchment paper battles...

 

If you use parchment paper for baking, you know it is very simple to line flat pans with it, but if, as in this case, you wish to line a bowl or something like that, it's nearly impossible.  I've found that if I crumble up the paper first, then flatten it, the job is doable.  Another thing you can do if you don't mind the paper being a bit wet, is to crumple it up, get it wet, squeeze out the extra water, and use it that way.  I wouldn't want to do that for the bread in the picture, but for some things, it would work very well, for instance lining a square baking pan to put some wet batter into. 

What I do with BIG thread spools - tiny tip

 

I have been working on some projects for Christmas, and in the course of that, I needed some 100% cotton thread.  The only kind I could find came in a large spool.  That won't work on the spool pin on a normal sewing machine, so you can see what I did here.  I put a rigid (in this case aluminum) drinking straw onto the spool pin, and then am able to put the large spool of thread on there and use it normally.  I realize there are special thread stands you can buy for this, but at least in this instance, it wasn't necessary. 

(Pay no attention to my messy desk, please.)

Tiny tip - Rescuing celery

 

You probably already know this...

Yesterday, I discovered that the celery in our refrigerator was getting limp, so I cut off the tips that were drying out, as well as the root end, washed it in cold water, and then put the stalks in a jar of cold water and placed that in the fridge overnight.  This morning, it was nice and crisp again!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Here in the United States of America, on the 4th Thursday of November each year we celebrate "Thanksgiving Day."  It is a time when families and friends gather together and share a special feast and thank God for our blessings. The last time our whole family was together for Thanksgiving was in 1991.  Then our children started growing up and leaving home.  Today, partially because of the worldwide pandemic, my husband and I celebrated Thanksgiving with each other.  We had a lovely time.  

In May of this year, we began eating a "whole foods plant based" diet.  Essentially, that is a vegan diet, but with important conditions.  We eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds and legumes.  We don't use any added oils or fats.  We don't eat any meat, poultry or fish and we use no dairy or eggs. We avoid most processed foods.  I do buy whole grain pasta and certain condiments, but nothing with added fats. I make my own oat milk and it is very economical.  It's not something we really drink, but we use it on porridge and in cooking.

We started this after watching this movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1LUj3kxB9M&list=PLvFgN9QYT1HtoYPfyIEn8aiuLL3KjCM8o

My husband has heart disease, and his cholesterol level has always been very high.  Mine was high, also, but not like his.  Since changing what we eat, our cholesterol levels are normal. I know it will take time for the full benefits to happen to us, but very quickly we noticed improvement.  Here is a list of what I've noticed for myself.  

1. Within two days I had a lot more energy.  I could go out and work in the garden for hours.... work hard and never become tired.  Sometimes I got tired of being hot and would come inside for a while, but I was not fatigued. Keep in mind that I am nearly 72 years old.

2.  I was able to stop taking the things I was using for hot flashes and my hot flashes are not nearly as bad as they were.

3. My varicose veins have improved and the spider veins on my legs are nearly gone.

4. Last year I was diagnosed with "macular puckering" which caused some blurring of my vision.  That is entirely gone.  I can thread a needle now with no trouble.

5. I rarely feel hungry and there are no cravings at all.  I do not miss the foods I quit eating. I remember that after two weeks, my husband said,"I don't crave chocolate anymore."  I was astounded!  He has always craved chocolate.

6. I can eat all I want and my weight stays normal.

7. I work out with weights some in our garage.  I used to do 3 sets of 5 reps squatting with 90 pounds.  Now I just go ahead and do 20 reps in one set.  It became that much easier. I've also begun a little jogging.  My husband and I walk 3 miles nearly every morning together and now I can do some jogging.  I hope I can increase that.  I have not done any running in decades.

8. My hair and nails are growing faster.

9.  I got to buy some new cookbooks!  

Here is a picture of me and our little Thanksgiving meal that we had today.  I was very proud of myself.  It was all delicious.  It's been quite a "learning curve" to get into this, but if you have health issues, or want to do all you can to avoid (or cure) heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and many cancers, you can eat very simply and be perfectly healthy this way.  In fact, you could live on sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli and be fine for a long time.  I recommend this book as a wonderful place to begin:  https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=the+starch+solution+by+dr+mcdougall+paperback&crid=136SVW9HL1NAL&sprefix=the+startch+solutio%2Caps%2C568&ref=nb_sb_ss_sc_1_19

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's like having a tomato vine in my kitchen!

As the weather has gotten colder this fall, I've been bringing our green tomatoes from the garden into the house.  When frost threatened, I brought them all in.  This project has been wildly successful!  We set up a little card table and covered it with newspaper, then placed the tomatoes on there, slightly spaced apart and as they ripen, I use them in cooking or for fresh eating. Very few have gone bad.  I love how it looks.  I am sure I'll still have some at Thanksgiving.

I know that some people wrap each tomato in newspaper and lay them in boxes, but at least for me this is much better.  I don't have to keep unwrapping and checking them for ripeness.  It does take up some space in our small house, but it's worth it!

Here are the ones I "harvested" today.  I used them in spaghetti sauce. 

Tiny Tip - if cutting onions makes you cry.....

If you are cutting up fresh onions, and the volatile oils that escape make your eyes burn and water, grab a fresh cucumber and munch on it while you are doing that.  I promise it will help - a lot!

Tiny Tip.... how to not waste perfectly good cake...

3 days ago, I made this really yummy and healthy "Purple Sweet Potato Cake."  

With only my husband and I here to eat it, it was going to last for 4 days. I kept it, covered, in the refrigerator. On the third day (yesterday) it was tasting a little stale, so I knew it would be disappointing today, and yet, it was made with very special ingredients, so I didn't want to waste any!

Here is what I did.  I put my portion in a bowl and heated it up in our microwave oven.  Then, I poured a little milk over it and ate it with a spoon.  It was very nice.  I wanted to share this tip with you.  I imagine it would work for other cakes and maybe muffins also. I bet it would have been even better with some cream.

And here is the recipe!  This cake was delicious, not overly sweet and very moist.  :)

Purple Sweet Potato Cake

Sift together:

2 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix together the following:

1 cup cooked mashed purple sweet potato
1/2 cup honey

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup sour cream

1/3 cup oil (I used avocado but canola would be good too)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Add the dry to the wet and mix just until everything is moist.  Don't overdo it.

Butter and flour 2 round cake pans.

Divide the batter between the pans and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Check it then with a toothpick.  It might need more time (mine didn't)

Allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes and then transfer to cooling rack.  Cool completely.

"Frosting"

4 ounces softened cream cheese

4 ounces softened butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

"Some" honey until it is as sweet as you would like.

Beat well and put some between the layers and then all over the cake.  It wasn't very thick.  I also put some chopped walnuts on top of the cake, covered it all with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

I hope you will try this.  I have not done so, but I bet it would be good with orange sweet potatoes, too, and maybe use pumpkin pie spice in it.

Enjoy!

Tiny Tip - Making muffins last longer...

There are only two of us at our home now; just me and my husband.  The empty nest has some advantages, but I miss all of my fledglings.  

One thing that has been an ongoing challenge is learning to cook for just the two of us and not waste food.  "Quick breads" are notoriously enthusiastic about becoming stale and ending up in the compost. I've finally found a solution!

I made a batch of "Fresh Cranberry - Nut Muffins" (recipe follows) and have found a way to keep them nice for several days without refrigeration.  With refrigeration, although it prevented mold much longer than leaving the quick breads at room temperature, the muffins would become stale and dry anyway.

Here is what I do now:

I have something called a "Food Saver"

I also have a set of two different sizes of these adaptors.

There is one for wide mouth canning jars and one for regular mouth canning jars.  All you need then are clean new metal canning lids, such as these. If you are careful in opening the lids, you can use them multiple time when vacuum sealing food in jars.

So, now you're all set.  I used a 2 quart wide mouthed mason (canning) jar to do this.  We each ate a fresh muffin and then when the others were completely cool (12 in the batch so that makes 10 left over) I carefully placed them in the jar, put on the metal cap, applied the adaptor, used the Food Saver to vacuum out the air and voila!  

My muffins are still perfectly good 5 days later just sitting on the kitchen counter.  It's a bit of a hassle, resealing the jar every time I take out some muffins, but I am very happy with the results.

I thought I'd pass this on in case you have one of these gizmos or have the same problem I was having.

Here is a picture of the Food Saver set up to vacuum seal the jar:

Here is a closer look at the jar:

By the way, these muffins were better tasting the second day.

Here is the recipe - feel free to tweak it however you wish.  :)

Cranberry - Nut Muffins (12)

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup avocado oil

1/2 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (that's one and a half cups)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups chopped fresh cranberries (that's one and a half cups)

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used black walnuts, but you can use whatever you wish.)

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Butter a 12 - cup muffin tin.

In a small bowl, combine eggs, oil, honey and vanilla.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and baking soda.

Add liquid ingredients and stir just until the flour mixture is moist.

Gently stir in the chopped cranberries and nuts.

Spoon batter into the 12 muffin cups and bake until when you touch the top of one of them, it bounces back.  Don't over bake or under bake!  I can't tell you exactly how long.  Start with 15 minutes.

Where I live, it is easy to find fresh cranberries in the grocery store this time of year.

Tiny tip - sprinkling spices

This morning I put a whole chicken in the oven to roast.  I wanted to sprinkle some "Poultry Seasoning" on it along with the salt and pepper (I rub it with extra-virgin olive oil first).  It's always a problem, unless you have every single spice and ground herb in it's own shaker...  I finally came up with a solution.  You see, I buy most of my seasonings in bulk, and a few I grow myself.

Here is what I came up with... Behold the magical tea ball!  ;)

This is used for making herbal tea, one cup at a time.  Do you have one?  It is very nice.  Well, if you open it up, it looks like this:

I scooped up a small amount of the spice and then I used it to gently sift the spice onto my chicken.  I put the excess back in the jar easily.  No waste.  No struggling to get it spread around. Voila!

Hankies...

                 You may not be aware that there was a time, when I was a young child, when there were no such things as Kleenex (facial tissues.) We all (men and women) had pocket handkerchiefs (hankies.) When I was a little girl, my blessed mommy, who adopted me when I was 3 and my parents died, sent me to the local Assembly of God church.  I attended their wonderful Sunday school. That is where I first learned to love Jesus. I always carried a hankie in my pocket with my little coins for an offering tied into the corner of it. We had opening exercises and then would divide into classes.  The teacher would pass a little basket around the room and we’d put our offerings in there.  Then she would open the classroom door and set the basket on the floor outside of the room, and close the door.  She told us that the money was for Jesus. I thought if she’d just leave the door open, we could see Him come and get it.

                Now, a hankie is something you put in your pocket and use the same one all day. Then it goes into the laundry. Yes, that’s what we always did.  I still use hankies a lot of the time. There may come a time when you are out of money and out of Kleenex at the same time, so you might want to make or purchase some pocket hankies, just in case.

                For these hankies, I cut some lovely soft pink flannel into 10 inch squares. My sewing machine has the decorative overcast stitch you see in the picture.  I do not have a serger, or I could have used that. After I did the line of stitching all the way around the perimeter I then used those little scissors to trim off the excess fabric.  When I launder these, they will fray a small amount, but that will quickly subside.

These are very nice.

                

                

A new tiny tip.... toasted cheese (and ham) sandwiches...

For lunch today I put together two sandwiches with a slice of cooked ham and a slice of mild cheddar cheese on each one.  I decided to "toast" them in a skillet.  Ordinarily, I would butter the outsides of the bread slices first, but I was distracted and forgot until I already had the sandwiches assembled.  So, I tried something new.  I heated up the skillet on medium heat and then added butter to it, enough that it covered the bottom and then I toasted the sandwiches on that.  The flavor was amazing!  The butter browned and added so much to the taste.  I will do it this way from now on.

This is not my picture, as we ate them before I could take one.  :)

Tiny Tip - about onions

Today I am making cucumber relish to can.  It calls for cucumbers, sweet peppers and onions - all ground up.  You know how it is... if you deal with a lot of onions, pretty soon your eyes will be burning and tears will be coming out enthusiastically... very uncomfortable!

I am here to tell you I have discovered a solution!  At least it works for me. I used a hand powered food grinder to prepare the vegetables.  While I ground the onions, I kept munching on cucumbers.  For some reason, then the onions did not bother my eyes.  Voila!  I hope it helps you too!

Cling peaches canning update!

Quite a while ago, I posted about canning clingstone peaches without sugar.  That worked out fine, but was a LOT of work.  Today, I figured out a MUCH easier way to do it. I bought a case of peaches for 69 cents a pound at our local grocery store.  I thought they were freestone peaches.  They weren't. Here is the link to my original post:

Canning clingstone peaches..

Here is what I did differently. Scald and remove peels. Then, take a nice sharp paring knife and just cut off pieces of the peach, down as close to the pit as you can.  Put them into a jar as you do it, and as you go, press down the peaches so the juice covers the peaches. Fill the jar to within 1 inch of the rim with peach pieces.  Then, proceed as before.

This was so easy and quick.  Why didn't I think of it before? When I got done, I put some of the peels and pits into a saucepan, added some fresh mint leaves from the garden, covered all of that with water, simmered with the lid on for about 15 and let it cool. Then I strained it into a big drinking cup and added ice and a few drops of stevia extract.  That was a refreshing drink!

Another Tiny Tip !

When you chop raw onions (or garlic) it can be difficult to get the onion smell off of your hands.  No more!

When you are finished, just take a bar of soap, lather up your hands well, and then rub them all over the stainless steel spigot of your kitchen sink.  Act as if the spigot is a bar of soap. Then just rinse your hands.  The smell will be gone!

Another tiny tip.... egg salad!

Do you make egg salad?  How do you cut up your hard boiled eggs for it?  Here is what I do.  I use a pastry cutter.  

It is very quick and easy to do this way.

Another tiny tip (embarrassingly so)

When I was growing up, and Mommy would make a pie, if there was extra pie crust dough, she would roll it out, sprinkle it with sugar and cinnamon and bake it and let me eat it.  That is the nicest cookie ever!

I have promised to make 5 pies for our Thanksgiving feast this year. I made all of the pastry today and most of it is now in the refrigerator.  One will be an apple pie and I assembled it today (I did not bake it yet) and ended up with a small amount of leftover pie crust dough.  I wanted to bake it, but it seemed silly to heat up the big oven to cook something so very small.  So, I tried something new.  I rolled it out, sprinkled it with a little sugar and cinnamon and cooked it in a small cast iron skillet on medium heat until the bottom started to brown, and then flipped it over for just a little while.  It work out very well. 

Something so small, but at least not going to waste!

Move over Mac and Cheese!

This morning, I made a batch of mayonnaise and so had 3 forlorn egg whites I needed to find a use for.  Voila!  I decided to make some egg white noodles, cook them and combine them with a cheese sauce.  It turned out lovely and delicious.

As soon as the fresh noodles were made, I boiled them in plenty of water for 5 minutes, then drained them well.  In the mean time, I made the cheese sauce:

2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup whole milk (warm)
1.5 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
Salt to taste

In a skillet, melt the butter, stir in the flour and very gradually add the warm milk, stirring vigorously with each addition.  Do this over medium heat.  When it is all  nicely combined and thick, stir in the grated cheese until it is melted and smooth.  Add the drained noodles.  Salt to taste.