A look on life and being a year older. Also February Book swap

Well, I'm a year older and guess what... Theirs no diffidence from being 18 to 19! Whoa! Who knew? You know how people generally will ask you if you feel any different and you never do? Perhaps you might think that maybe you should feel different  but you just don't and therefore you are an exception. Well, your not. I am pretty sure that this is how EVERYONE feels. I used to think that when I was 10 it would be this profound experience, but, no...Nothing Happened. Then 15 (I was never really much into the whole "license thing" for a marker on age) But still NOTHING! And of course 18 was no different. I'm not going on a rant caused by me being annoyed by people asking me if I feel any different. In all honesty, no one asked. I'm actually not ranting at all, I have just bean thinking about how profound experiences, and life changing moments don't ever seam to be caused by age. Yes, your mental maturity, but not your physical maturity, and I think that that is the really exciting part about these times in our lives. Some can be predictable to a degree, if perhaps a life altering moment of you life was when you were married or had children, the usual things that will change a persons life. But, their are so many other moments that influence the choices that we make, and the ideas that we have. These little things, the infinitely small moments that affect us at just the right time to change us and possibly our whole perspective on life, I think are really incredible.

It's time for something a bit more fun. Anyone care for a cream filled sugar cookie cup?

   

For our last little book swap we had a rose and wildflower tea with heart shaped tomatoes, chia seed crackers, cheese, chocolate mouse, and those yummy sugar cookie things pictured above. 

For the crackers simply take one part chia seeds to 2 parts water and a pinch of salt. Mix in a bow and let it sit of a couple of minutes. Now that the mixture is all jellified spread it on one of those silicone dehydrator sheets and put in a dehydrator on about 100 or 115. After 1 hrs flip the crackers to face the other side and leave until dry. about another 2 hrs. 

For the strawberry sugar cookie cups. (also known as tassies)

preheat oven to 350. Take a batch of sugar cookie dough and roll into 1 inch balls. Place in a mini muffin tin and push against the sides. bake for 12 min . when golden take out and press against the sides of the tins again and let cool. remove from tins.

The filling

• 1/2 package of cream cheese softened
• 1/2 cup of sour cream or kefir
• 2 tsp of strawberry flavoring, or use strawberry yogurt or kefir in place of the sour cream.
• 1 cup of powdered sugar
• 12 strawberries cut in half. Cut a V at the top and round the corners to make hearts.

Blend the ingredients except for the strawberries and put into the sugar cookie cups. Top with the strawberry hearts. 

Have a lovely weakened. 

Healthy teeth

I have bean using a blend of peppermint and wintergreen essential oils diluted in almond oil to brush my teeth with, and you know what? I don't like how it tastes. Everyone else I know that uses it loves the taste, so I don't know what wrong with me. To my joy I finally finished up the blend and I decided to make a new one. I mixed about 10 drops each of birch (antibacterial and good for the gums) clove (helps with toothaches and stops bleeding.
So it's good for soars in the mouth) and some orange oil (great for the mouth and gums in general). It tastes kind if like a Christmas root beer. The initial taste was a bit weird at first, but the aftertaste is so incredible! I absolutely love it. And my tooth that I have bean having problems with since I got my braces off feels so much better. I put the oil in my old bottle for essential oil. You can also use a glass bottle with a dropper, but you need to make sure it has a glass dropper also because the oil can kind of "eat" away at the plastic which you don't want in your mouth since it absorbs so much of what you put in it. All three of these oils are awesome for all sorts of stuff. I really like mixing birch with grapefruit in my vinegar cleaning bottle. It covers up the vinegar so well, and it leaves such a delightful sweet smell. Birch is good for keeping skin from aging, and both it and clove are great for arthritis type pains (gotta use birch internally and clove externally). I mix clove and peppermint with almond oil in a roll on and it gets rid of the aches in my neck and back. I encourage you to look up the other uses. And make sure you get a therapeutic grade oil and make sure you won't have any adverse affects before proceeding. Oh! And keep those teeth nice and clean! The rest of your body suffers when you don't keep them clean especially when you loose them.

A new year to add to our lives

Jacob's and mine's birthdays are coming up real soon. His is in just a couple of days, and mine is in a couple of weeks after that. I have bean really thinking about my goals that I want to accomplish before I turn 20 (ah! It seams so soon! just a year away!) and it has brought up a lot of memories of what I have already done. I figured I'd show you some of the highlights of the year, and maybe in another post I'll put up some of what I accomplished with my goals in mind. This year has bean such a crazy ride. I'm glad to have that one behind me, not because it was bad (it wasn't bad at all really) but because it means I have so many more ahead of me to enjoy with new knowledge to help me better myself, new family to help me along the way, and an incredibly wonderful husband to support me and to grow along side me. Believe me, he is still growing, it seams that guy gets taller everyday! hehe

Here is a bit of my year in photos.

 Engaged, book contest, croquet & garden party, bridal shower, graduations, bacheloret party, reception, wedding, powderhorn, helping with breakfast for bikers, cousins family reunion, marriage celebration, wine and cheese party, Halloween, camping, book swaps, fun times in the park. Their are so many other memories that I am being to lazy to post, and even more un-photographed memories that are only tucked away in our minds, but I wanted to share some with you. Even if it was just these precious few. Ok, I need to stop or else I'm going to get all super emotional thinking about this past year. I have made a lot of really good memories that overshadow all of the bad ones. I'd say that this has bean such an amazing year, and I am so, so, SO looking forward to the next one.

Sharing time

I love watching educational videos on YouTube. I learn so much, and I think that it is important to continue to learn new things, so along with reading I watch a few neatoe channels on You Tube. We don't have a TV, so now Downton Abbey, BUT, it also saves a lot of wall space so that I can put up more picture. Also, we really don't have much of any need for one. If I watch say, 10 videos on YouTube  then that will suck up maybe an hour of my day, but if I watch an hour of TV, I will see maybe 2 shows tops, and they will make me (well, I guess the wont make me, but still!) sit through commercials and the show replaying bits that happened before. So it kinda wastes my time when I can get more information from ten minutes instead of 30.

Here are my favorites! I like lots of geeky things, but they all are very interesting, and definetly keep your attention. Those are first, then I have some of my more girly and diy stuff. 

My odd cat, 2 drink recipes, and the easiest Asian dish.

 First of all, living with my husband has made me learn quite a few things, such as my cat who wont eat tuna or other usual cat treats besides her food really likes lentils and bread. (Below is Jacob giving her... bread) So Weird!

This week I got some supper awesome books in, Sapphire Blue (2nd book in the Ruby Red trilogy) and The Lost Prince (a continuation series of the Iron Fey.) Such Good Books! I highly recommend you check out Ruby Red and The Iron King.

For a little shindig I made a supper yummy punch with Raspberry soda (a 6 or 8 pack of hansen's) and rosewater. That's it!!!! You could use raspberry juice and sparkling water though to cut down on the sugar. 

I love ginger and lemon together, so yummy! I usually boil some ginger root and mix it with some lemon juice and honey, but I wanted to make something that I didn't need to wait for it to boil and steep every time I wanted some. So, I brought like 3 cups of water to a boil and simmered 2 inches of ginger root that I had cut up (with the skins on) for about 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours. I turned the heat off and just let it sit their for a couple more hours, what I ended up with was some really, really STRONG ginger! It was crazy how spicy that stuff gets! Since obviously I had to majorly dilute it I put a bit in my cup then added water until I was satisfied with the strength, I ended up getting 1/4 cup of ginger juice stuff mixed with about a cup of water. To this I added a bit of xylotol (you can use honey, stevia or other types of sweeter BUT! I warn you stay away from the aspartame or face dire consequences, plane old sugar would be way better than that icky junk.)

 If your unfamiliar with xylitol is just as sweet as sugar, but it is actually good for you. It doesn't spike your blood sugar, it has 40% less calories, it's good for your bones (including teeth) and your gums, It kills certain harmful bacteria, and it inhibits yeast which is supper awesome if you get those pesky yeast infections. I get xylotol made from birch, but it is easiest to find it made from corn (just get it organic! I suggest the Now brand if you get it made from corn.)

Back to the recipe, So basically it is 1/4 cup of supper strong ginger tea mixed with a splash of vanilla (can omit the vanilla if you'd like) juice from 1/2 a lemon, and some sweetener  Mix that in a cup, and fill the rest of the way with water. The lemon juice helps to detox your organs especially the liver and kidneys  and the ginger is so supper good for a range of things, from ovarian and colon cancer, to digestion, to reveling headaches  cramps and nausea, and it is also good to take during the cold and flue season. So tasty and makes you feel good, plus it is cheaper than ginger ale! Mixing the ginger tea with komboucha is yummy also. 

 This dish is supper easy. Cook some Asian egg noodles and some veggies (I just threw some frozen veggies in while the noodles were cooking) Mix with 1/2 an inch of fresh ground ginger (I use a small grater) 1/4 of a bunch of fresh chopped cilantro,  a couple tbsp of sesame or peanut oil, and a few tbsp of soy sauce. You can always add a bit of fish sauce too if you'd like.

Shepherds pie and garlic dip

The other day I was reading a book and the grandma made Shepherds Pie. I love Shepherds pie soooooo much! So of course the book made me want to eat some (this has happened before with spaghetti. lol) So, I looked up a recipe, got the gist of it, Mashed potatoes over veggies and ground meet in a gravy. So I threw some goat and sheep's cheese and lots of cream and garlic in the mashed potatoes, and added some yummy spices to the gravy, and wallah!

Shepperds Pie:

Prep time: 10 min Cook time: 20 min

• 2 ibs of potatoes, pealed and cubed,
• 1/4 cup of sour cream
• 1/2 cup of cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 cup of cream
• 1/4 cup of manchego cheese
• 1/4 cup of creamy goat cheese or cream cheese
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes, drain and mash. mix all the rest of the ingredients except the cheese and garlic with the potatoes. Stir in the cheese and garlic. You can put some of the manchego on top of the potatoes once the whole pie is put together.

The filling:

• 2 tbsp of butter
• 1 pound of  ground meat, beef, lamb, mutton, turkey whichever you prefer 
• 1 onion diced
• 1/4 cup of flour or cornstarch
• 2 cups of beef or chicken broth
• 2 tbsp of tomato paste
• 1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp of rosemary 
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 2 cups of frozen veggies (carrots, peas, green beans, and corn)
• a couple dashes of paprika and salt and pepper to taste

Cook the meat and onions in the butter in a cast iron skillet. Add in the flour or cornstarch and stir it in, then add in the broth. You may need to add in more flour. Add in everything else and let cook on medium till the gravy is thickened. Put the mashed potatoes on top, and if you want cheese then that too. Sprinkle with some paprika and parsley. Broil until the top gets golden and a bit crispy. You can always use a casserole dish if you would like.

 This dip is supper easy to make. mix 1/2 cup of Whole Fat yogurt and creamy goat cheese (can use cream cheese if you don't like goat cheese) with 1/4 to cup of fresh chopped parsley, and 2 to 4 garlic cloves minced. Add in 1/4 cup of olive oil and pepper to taste. If you want a Mexican or Indian flavor use cilantro instead of parsley and put in a squeeze of lime. (my cousin used cilantro and lemon juice and it was so yummy!) This dip is supper good for you. The garlic and partly (parsley has vitamin c) help to fite colds and the olive oil is just plane all around awesome for you.

And now... Sputnik!

Balsamic Orange Chicken

This chicken is so yummy! I fried it in coconut oil which gave it such an amazing flavor, without the sauce! Then when I added the sauce, oh my goodness! Incredible! I used balsamic vinegar instead of rice wine vinegar, and I loved the sweetness and the extra complexity that I got from it. I also highly suggest that you use it in sweet and sour sauce (another supper easy recipe). For this recipe you can use boneless and skinless chicken, or take of the meat and use the scraps to make a yummy broth for a soup later. 

Balsamic Orange Chicken

Serves 4 (or 2 hungry teens). 

Prep time, 10-15min

Cook time 10 min in total 

The Chicken:

• 2 Ibs of chicken cut into cubes. (if you use bone in, get at least .5ibs more)
• 2 cups of flour (you may need more, Pamela's baking mix works good for gluten free)
• 1 to 2 eggs
• a bit of salt and pepper about 1/4 tsp
• Oil for frying. I used coconut in my walk, but peanut would work, or if you want a nutty flavor use sesame. 

Put chicken in egg, then flour and fry in a wok or pan with high sides in batches at 375 until golden and crispy.

For the sauce:

• 1 cup of water
• 1 orange juiced and zested 
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar 
• 3 Tbsp of soy sauce (for gluten free use Tamari)
• 1 Tbsp of molasses 
• 1/3 cup of honey (use 1 cup of brown sugar in place of honey and molasses if desired.)
• 1 Tbsp of ginger root minced. (I like a strong ginger flavor so use less if desired)
• 1-3 cloves of garlic, depending on how strong you like it.
• Asian hot sauce, however much you like.
• 1/4 cup of corn starch mixed with 1/4 cup of cold water

Mix everything together but the cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil. Add in the cornstarch mixture slowly, until it thickens nicely. Use on the side, or poor over chicken. You can also get fancy and toss the chicken with the sauce together in a bowl until everything is evenly coated. Serve with a salad  rice, millet, or quinoa, or just eat! Lastly, enjoy your meal. :)