Marshmallows

The kids, hubby (the Zymurgist over at Zymurgia ), and I made some marshmallows the other day. We got the recipe from Lesley Tierra's A Kids Herb Book, which our youngest got for Christmas. They we really easy to make and really delicious to eat. They aren't soft like ones you get in the store, but they were really good in hot cocoa. Next time I think we will have chocolate and graham crackers all ready for when they come out of the oven. (Since I don't think they would toast over a fire very well.) This book, by the way, was a great investment and is great fun for the kids, and us adults as well!

Herbs and Crafts Christmas Edition

For presents this year I first settled on making some herbal salts for everyone. I was in a craft store one day and saw some empty clear glass ornaments and I bought them. (Along with some fabric to make bags to hold them.)


Rosemary Salt in a glass ornament.

Rosemary is a traditional Christmas herb, we also gave sage salt. My husband made each recipient a cedar smudge stick to burn, and my Mother trimmed washcloths. I made each bag that everything fit nicely in and all in all I was very happy with the outcome of it all!

Sage salt, cedar stick, trimmed washcloth, and bag

We then had the children help us glue paper leaves and paper berries together for tags which we pinned to the bags with safety pins.


Finished product.
I hope everyone had/is having a great holiday and Have a Happy New Year!!

First Aid Kit

So I have been looking at first aid kits for a while. Trying to find the right one. One I can add my own stuff to but has what I would want it to have when I buy it. After looking and looking AND LOOKING, I decided to make it myself.

I decided to make two organizers and a bag for my mortar and pestle.


The organizers required a bit more thought then the mortar and pestle bag did. I wanted a place for some tincture bottles, some essential oils, a bottle of homeopathic arnica, a tea strainer, some teas, ginger chews, all that sort of thing. I also needed places for your typical first-aid supplies, bandages, band-aids, tape, scissors, and such.



The first organizer closed up.


From left to right: Top: Tinctures, band-aids, medical tape, pocket knife
Bottom: Essential Oils, Arnica tablets, gauze, salve


Left to right: Top: tea strainer, folding scissors, tweezers
2nd Row: ACE bandage, nail clippers
3rd Row: thermometer, sling
Bottom Pocket: cotton swabs, cotton balls, teas, ginger pieces, matches,
extra material, etc.

I am really happy with the way they came out. I bought an army messenger bag from Amazon. In the beginning I was planning on making pockets in the bag itself, but this worked out much nicer I think.

Problem Solved

I dry my herbs by hanging them on sticks. I then hang the sticks out in the garage from the rafters until the herbs are dry. While I am placing the herbs on and taking them off the stick, I am in my living room as it has the biggest clearest space for working. My biggest problem with this arrangement is; Where do I put the stick while I am trying to work? I would usually try to hang it from the cabinets, my pan rack, and various other things, much to my dismay and the dismay of those around me. But, no more. My husband surprised me with a rack he made out of a pallet. I painted it. It looks better then it did unpainted, but I will be the first to admit painting is not a strong point of mine.



This is what it looked like when we first hung it, but it swung to much so we had to rethink our hanging method. I have no idea why we thought that was going to work, but as soon as I put the stick up there we knew it wasn't going to be okay.



This is the final result we decided on two lengths of chain so that we could keep it up high when it's not in use, and lower it so that I can actually reach it when I am using it.



All in all we are very happy with it, and it didn't cost me a thing except the price of the chains which was like 5 dollars. I am especially happy that I will not have to play "hang the stick" with the kitchen cabinets anymore!

Apples and Cinnamon in Brandy

So we are on week 4 of The Nourished Kitchen's Preserve the Bounty Challenge. This week was preserving in alcohol and I had a very hard time deciding what I was going to do. I finally settled on Apples (since I had just gotten a bunch from my CSA) with some cinnamon chips in brandy. I think I will have to try this with a few more fruits before the season is over!!

I am aware that this is a rather short blog but I really have nothing else to say about this, except it looks incredible and I can't wait to try it!!

Presevering in Vinegar

This week, as part of the challenge from Nourished Kitchen, I tried my hand at preserving in vinegar. (Also known as pickling.) This was great as I have a lot of cucumbers right now. I know that it is neither particularly interesting or different, but as I said I have a lot of cucumbers so it just seemed the thing to do. I added celery seed, mustard seed, peppercorns, a bay leaf, and some crushed leaves of Thia Basil. I'm not exactly sure why I chose these spices (and herbs), they just sounded good to me at the time. Pickling is seriously probably one of the easiest ways to preserve things and it's awful tasty too!!

Preserving in Oil

So I am participating in The Nourished Kitchen's Preserve the Bounty Challenge. This week the challenge was oil preservation. I was really hoping to do eggplant, because it sounded so yummy, but I didn't see any at the farm stand I was at. So I bought a few more tomatoes. I have bought an awful lot of those lately, but considering I wasn't really expecting to do this and my weekly budget was already kind of tapped, I didn't have a whole lot of options. I definitely want to try this technique with some eggplants when I find some.

The process itself was pretty straight forward. I used some tomato wine, (my husband's boss made it and gave us some and it went to vinegar) in place of the bit of cider vinegar. I thought it might be a nice touch. I also went out and raided my Thai Basil plant that is in my garden of quiet a few of it's leaves. I probably won't be able to raid it for a while again. (oops.)
The oil was olive oil.

It looks super tasty. Can't wait to try it.