Ducks

 Posted by Paulette

We got ducks this weekend. Why, you ask? Because I felt we needed to. When I think about how much chicken we eat, and how much junk is in that chicken, it makes me feel sick. Have you ever seen pictures of a poultry factory? It's inhumane the way the birds are treated. And to keep them alive, they are pumped with antibiotics and growth hormones. Guess where that stuff goes when you eat it. Yep. In your body. 

In an effort to clean up my family's food sources, I decided that we needed to get some poultry. Chickens are normally the choice for back yard farmers, but after counseling with a friend, we decided that our first birds would be ducks. We have a pretty large feral cat population in this neighborhood. So I worried about chicks being eaten. 

It's funny how I've fallen in love with these ducks. I go outside in the morning and take them the scraps from the night before. Then I turn on  the sprinkler and watch them take a shower and root around in the mud puddles for insects. And you know what? They don't quack. Did you know there are quackless ducks?  They're called Muscovy Ducks. They love to eat mosquitoes and flies. BONUS! In about 3 months we'll be able to collect their eggs, and since I got 2 hens and a drake, we'll also get some chicks.

Having pets you may eat some day is a tricky subject to take up with the kids. I've explained how chickens on a poultry plant spend their days, in a box, with all those nasty chemilcals. Our birds wander a grassy back yard and get lovely scraps from the kitchen and bugs to eat. They get to play with other ducks. And when we do kill them to eat them, it will be done in the most humane way possible, after they have stopped producing eggs, or if more drakes are born, they will be allowed to grow to maturity before being killed. 

Not surprisingly, We've been eating a lot less meat, and more beans lately, which is a good thing all around.
 

GMOs Allergies and Asthma---My Story

Posted by Paulette

My story: In 2001 I was pregnant with my second son. I developed a nagging cough that wouldn't go away. When I asked my doctor about it, and informed him that my family had some history with asthma and seasonal allergens, He put me on an inhaled steroid. My symptoms went away after the pregnancy, and then returned with my 3rd pregnancy. Again I went on the inhaled steroid with occasional breathing treatments.The mysterious symptoms disappeared after having the baby. 2006 and pregnant with child number 4. Now I had symptoms that weren't helped much by the inhaled steroid, and was put on frequent breathing treatments. I also developed hives all over my body. I visited my mother in FL. By this time hives were just a part of my day. Cool baths helped, but nothing else gave relief. She suggested that I may be allergic to wheat. I was devastated. I was grinding my own wheat and making everything from scratch. I went on a gluten free diet for one day and saw a disappearance of the hives. 
I began a gluten free diet from then on. Soon after this I was introduced to some literature about allergies that suggested that after I cleansed my body, I would be able to eat wheat again. I started taking a digestive enzyme, while steering clear of anything that had gluten in it. I got really good at making gluten free baked products. My asthma symptoms went away all together. When I reported to my doctor that I was taking a digestive enzyme and not taking any of my medications, he was amazed. He told me he'd notify my insurance company that I didn't have asthma. I began eating wheat again with no allergies.
My pregnancy with my fifth child was perfect. No allergies, no asthma.
Two years later I started working out with a trainer and lost 50 lbs. I was eating a healthy diet of lots of vegetables, and a variety of grains. All of a sudden I developed hives and the asthmatic symptoms again. I went on a gluten free diet, and they only got worse. The inflammation in my body was so bad that my bones hurt. I thought I had bone cancer or something. One night while eating walnuts, my chest hurt so badly that I was afraid my airway was being cut off and went to the emergency room.
I made an appointment with an allergist and had a scratch test done. I was allergic to almost everything! I asked him in desperation, "what do I eat now?"
I learned how to make a no tomato marinara sauce. Cream sauces were okay, as long as I used goat's milk. I started drinking soy milk. I wasn't allergic to corn, so it became a large part of my diet, either as cornstarch, or as tortillas. I gained back 30 lbs. I was so depressed!
My mother put me in contact with a friend of hers that was interested in going on a gluten free diet. We became facebook friends. Jennifer was my savior. She was doing the research to try to avoid poisoning her daughter was so much more sensitive to foods than I was. 
My mother urged me to watch a video about GMOs (genetically modified organisms). I panicked. How could people do this to us. We were being poisoned! I began a GMO free diet, getting rid of first the canola oil, the corn tortillas, corn meal, masa, and later anything that contained corn in any of it's forms from our pantry. 
Two weeks later, I experimented at a party and had an egg roll, which of course is made with wheat flour. I had absolutely no reaction! 
I am now sort of a purist. I read all labels before I buy anything. I educate my kids why GMOs are poison to is, and urge them to make good decisions when they are away from home. I know I can't eat GMO free ALL the time. But I try to make good choices when we go out to eat. Trader Joes has become my go to place for snacks. And I eat a lot more raw unprepared foods. I can even have a sandwich occasionally. I do so with my own homemade bread, made from King Arthur flour and my own ground wheat flour. I've only lost 5 lbs of the 30 that I put back on, but I am working with a trainer once a week and have gone down a dress size. I'm on track and healthy. I feel great, and have implemented other healthy things into my life, like taking good quality vitamins and minerals.
And I continue to do research about GMOs, and educate my friends about their dangers, and the corruptness of our government to allow them.

Color Blocked Skirt Tutorial

Posted by Paulette

 

One of the great things about being able to sew is making your own clothes just the way you want them. Often skirts are either too short, or too long in me. When I make my own, it turns out just right from the beginning.

I fell in love with this skirt. As is often the case, it doesn't even come in my size! hmph!

This skirt took less than 3 yards of material to make. It cost me about $14, including the zipper.

And now I'm going to share with you how I did it. 

The above is a simplified pattern for the skirt. To make it color blocked you will have to do some math. 

First, measure your hips.

Hip measurement x 1.5= finished width of skirt

Now take your measurement from just under your bust, to where you want your hem line to hit.

Length measurement+2.5inch (seam allowance and hem)

=finished length.

Now that you have your measurement for the length and width of your skirt, you can determine how much fabric you'll need.

Most fabrics are 45 inches in width.

( I wear a size 16 off the rack and so, I purchased 1.5 yards of each fabric.)

Now you need to determine how wide your stripes will be.

 How many stripes do you want? I wanted 5, so I took the length of my skirt, which was about 25 inches and divided by 5. That meant that each stripe would be 5 inches wide, right? Except the last one, which would have the hem. So I added an additional 2 inches for the hem.

 
When you sew all the stripes together it will look like this.
The broken lines at the top indicate gathers. The vertical lines in the center panel are your pleats. I made my pleats 1.5 inches across.

For the waistband, you will need your waist measurement. 

Waist measurement + 1 inch= waistband size.


You'll need that extra inch for seam allowance. (You can always make adjustments to the waistband by adding darts, before closing it up to get a snugger fit.) The length will be determined by your measurement from your bust to your natural waistline. Mine was conveniently 5 inches. One of each fabric sewn together makes 10 inches total.

Sew the pleats only 1/4 inch down. The seam should be covered by the waistband.    

You will also need a 7 to 9 inch zipper and 5 hooks and eyes. 

After you've sewn the stripes together, the skirt front to the backs, at the sides, and sewn the waistband on, you are ready to install the zipper,  the the hooks and eyes.

Hopefully I haven't frustrated you with my directions!
Good luck.

Independance Day Mantel and Wreath

Posted by Paulette

Preparations for my Independence Day mantel started early this year. It began when while shopping with my friend, I fell in love with a rustic sign at a furniture shop. I took a poor quality picture of it with my phone and then went to hunt for the perfect piece of wood to replicate it. 

That flag is special to our family. I purchased it on 9/11. We flew it every day for a year, and it had to be repaired several times. You can see where I hand sewed the hem and tried to match the original color of thread.
 Then, a trip to our local scrapbook store with my wonderful husband, produced the makings of a Liberty Banner. He was so good at picking out trims! We went with a Betsy Ross theme with the tea stained trims of ruffles and measuring tape.

My generous friend let me use her blue glitter for it. We don't talk about how I accidentally spilled half of the bottle into her garden. Shhh!

Hanging on our front door is a wreath I kinda knocked off from one I'd seen on Pinterest here. It's not an exact replica, but I'm kinda cheap that way. The original on Etsy goes for $109. Mine cost about $10 to make. Less, actually, since I still have some of the burlap left. I used some distress ink on the flag. Tea stain or watered down paint probably would have worked better.

 

Gluten Free Onion Rings

Posted by Paulette

If there's one thing I love, it's onion rings. I used to think that they were so good with ketchup, and then I tried  fry sauce! It's a strange  thing, fry sauce. While visiting Utah for the first time my husband to be took me to a place called the Purple Turtle. If you're ever in American Fork, UT, stop in and have some of their onion rings. You won't be sorry. We stopped in for a hamburger, some onion rings, and a shake, and when I picked up our meal, it came with this pink sauce. I asked for ketchup, (since I was the uninitiated) and the girl behind the counter looked at me strangely, and said, "you have fry sauce." What the heck is fry sauce? Well, my friends, it's a mixture of ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and sweet pickle juice. I suppose a more cultured person might call it an aioli. And it's the perfect thing to go with onion rings...but not fries! LOL! Although I've had them with sweet potato fries and I have to admit that I like that.

Sometimes being gluten free is a bit of a bummer. You miss all those foods that you took for granted. You know. the ones that contain flour? Remember the Dukes of Hazzard? You know the guy that comes into the room and says, "good news, good news!" Well that's running through my head, because I figured out a recipe for gluten free onion rings. Do you hear the angels singing? Maybe I'm a bit excited over this discovery. 
Do you want it? Do you want the recipe? Okay Okay, I'll give it to ya! Warning, this recipe makes a LOT of onion rings. It's okay, though, because you're going to want to freeze some for later. *wink*

 Gluten Free Onion Rings

Ingredients
4 medium onions, peeled and sliced into 1/4" thick rings
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups brown rice flour
1 cup tapioca starch
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups water
frying oil (I used a combination of safflower and olive oil)

Prepare 3 bowls like this:
In bowl #1 beat 2 eggs with 1 cup of milk
In bowl #2 1 cup of brown rice flour
In bowl # 3  (tempura batter) 1 cup of brown rice flour +1 cup tapioca starch+1/2 tsp sea salt+1/2 tsp baking soda+1 1/2 cups water

In a skillet or deep fryer, heat 1bout 3 cups of oil. Dip the onion slices first in the egg mixture, then in the flour, and lastly in the tempura batter, then in the hot oil. (You can test the oil with a bit of the batter. Just put a small amount into the pan, to test if the oil is hot enough to cook it rather quickly.) Fry the onion rings a small amount at a time, you don't want them to touch one another while in the oil. While the first rings are frying, line a cookie sheet with a double layer of paper towel. Turn the rings half way through the cooking time to ensure even browning. When they're finished, drain on the paper towel.

Homemade Granola

Posted by Paulette

At our local Winco, this week, I was looking at all of the different flavors of granola, and thinking, this should be a pretty easy thing to make. So a recipe was looked up, altered to what I had on hand and a batch was made. Sadly, it was gone within a 48 hour period. 

Much better than Honey Nut Cheerios! This was a declaration by Katie, and it doesn't get soggy in the milk. My personal opinion was that it was too sweet. I will be halving the sweeteners next time.

Ingredients

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds)

1/2 cup sunflower seeds
3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon Maple flavoring
1/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 teaspoon sea salt 

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup craisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, combine honey, maple flavoring, coconut oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.

Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and  craisins, and mix until evenly distributed.

Just Because

Posted by Paulette

Sometimes you just gotta treat yourself with kindness and buy flowers just because.

These flowers were calling my name when I walked into Trader Joes this week. My daughter Katie was with me. As I started to gather them into my arms, she asked why I was buying them. I told her they were my favorite flowers. they would be beautiful in my bedroom. She then asked if we could buy them for Daddy. To which I replied, "sure honey. They'll be for daddy." wink wink.

Nothing fancy here. They're cut to fit into  three quart size mason jars, and then just placed into a decorative box. The week is now over and a new one has begun. I like to watch how they dry and become more saturated with color.