Breaking in the New Cider Press

My parents have an acre in the city with 8 apple trees, 3 cherry trees, 2 pear trees, 1 nectarine tree and 2 pear trees.  They also have rasperries, blueberries, blackberries and Asparagus in addition to a large summer garden.  This year they decided it was time to get a cider press.  It came in pieces and they varnished it and lovingly put it together.  It’s beautiful!

The cousins washed the apples

And took turns turning the handle

The mothers cut the worms out

While the boys turned a PVC pip building set into rifles….

Grandpa and the Girl’s made the cider

Pictures as Promised

I’m really loving the blender batter idea.  This morning I made a second go at it.  I’m using raw sour milk as the base, so added a little honey to help the taste.  Yesterday we made pancakes.

Today we made waffles.

Here’s the recipe I used for the waffles

3 cups sour milk

2 1/2 cups whole, unground grains.  I used 1/2 cup wheat berries, 1/2 cup thick cut oats, 1/2 cup long grain brown rice, 1/4 cup rye berries, 1/2 cup amaranth, and 1/4 cup millet.  I’m dreaming of what grains I can buy in bulk and then pre-mix into recipe size portions.  This would be so fast to grab and blend in the morning.

2 Tablespoons canola oil

2 Tablespoons honey

3 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

I blended everything in my blender (I have a VitaMix but lesser blenders will work too.)  It took mine 1 minute to turn everything into a smooth batter.  Less powerful blenders will need 3 minutes.    Then I poured 1/3 cup into each side of my Belgium waffle iron and let the lights do the rest.  I liked mine topped with plain yogurt and kiwi and a little drizzle of maple syrup.  The kids used plain homemade syrup.  (1 cup of water and 2 cups of brown sugar, cooked until the sugar is dissolved.)  They were delicious! 

If you leave out the eggs, vanilla, salt and soda.  You can let the batter soak overnight and add the rest in the morning.  This frees up a lot more vitamins.  For more information check out Sue Gregg’s site:  http://www.suegregg.com/

Drill it with Go Fish

Easy to make and easy to play!  Grab 2–$1 decks of Go-Fish cards from Dollar General.   Use a sharpee to write on them.  We used phonograms, but I could see this done with state abbreviations or periodic chart element abbreviations.  Although the original game had 4 matches to a set, we did ours with 2 so we could get more information in.  Play just like you would Go-Fish but ask for the card by letter sound(s) or name of state etc.  They’ll be begging to play. 

Quick Tip: Shaving calories without shaving nutrition

I put on weight easily and take it off slowly.  If I’m not careful I can gain 5 lbs in a week, and it’s not water weight.  I’ve learned since I was a child that I need to be careful with my food choices if I want to enjoy being a normal sized person.  I’m excited to discover, thanks to my husband splurging on the new taco bell tacos, that corn tortillas not fried make great soft taco shells.  Here’s the kicker:  1 4.5 inch corn tortilla has 30 calories!  My old flour tortillas have 150!  Just making that 1 change saves 120 calories per taco and I usually eat 2, so 240 calories saved on the meal.

I used them today for lunch fajitas.  The filling was 3 mini-bell peppers sauteed with 1 sliced green onion.  I tossed in a 4 oz bag of chicken strips and topped them with cilantro, romaine lettuce and salsa.  I didn’t even miss cheese.  The whole meal was very filling and had a total of 228 calories!  That included 26 grams of protein and a lot of vitamin C.  It was pretty too.  Forgive my paper plate.  I’m being a terrible example, but I have excuses all thought up.

Quick Tip: 200 calorie Snacks

I’m trying to hold to a 1500 calorie diet.  It’s up from the 1200 calories I’ve been on for the last year, but it’s still hard.  To keep my blood sugar and blood pressure at good levels, I eat every 2-3 hours or 6 small meals a day.  I aim for a 250 calorie breakfast, 200 calorie snack, 300 calorie lunch, 200 calorie snack, 450 calorie dinner, and a 100 calorie snack before bed.  I also try for a good amount of protein in each meal, between 10 and 20 grams.  I know there is a controversy about how much protein is necessary, but after 10 years of pregnancy and nursing I found myself severly deficient.  I am more comfortable getting plenty of protein and taking extra calcium and doing some weight training to help my body use it than dealing with the symptoms of low protein.

Here are some 200 calorie snacks that I love:

1 cup of skim milk and 2 full rectangle graham crackers

1 ounce of colby jack cheese and 4 wheat crackers

1 medium apple and a tablespoon of peanut butter as a dip

A long stalk of celery filled with 1.5 tablespoons of peanut butter and dotted with 10 raisins

1 ounce baked pita chips and 2 tablespoons of hummus

3 ounces of water packed tuna, drained and mixed with a teaspoon each of pickle relish and plain yogurt, spread on 5 wheat crackers

1 mozzarella cheese stick cut into cubes mixed with 10 almonds, 10 fresh sugar snap peas, and 2 Tablespoons of craisins

3 baby bell pepers sliced and sauted with 1/2 cup egg whites and a sprinkling of parmesean cheese. (This one only has 85 calories!)

Okay, that’s all I have and I’m ready to try some new things.  Do you have any other ideas for me?

Quick Tip: Acid Odor Remover

Baking soda has been toted as a great odor remover.  If you’ve tried it, most likely you’ve been disappointed.  That is because baking soda is chemically formulated (its a base) to remove acid odors and performs poorly with other types.  There is one acid odor that is specially troublesome (from the stomach), especially if it is created in a car on a long trip :).  A friend of mine keeps baking soda and water in a travel sized spray bottle (the kind you can purchase to put hairspray in).  2 teaspoons in the tiny bottle is enough.  Shake it up and spritz on the odor and it should neautralize.  If the odor returns reapply as needed.  This works really well on baby spit up or sour milk too.

Fresh Apple Cake for Breakfast

The cake pictured was made with pears instead of apples.  The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of oil!  2 cups of sugar and white flour.  With all the goodness of the fresh fruit, I couldn’t bear to do the recipe as written.  I removed a full cup of oil and added an extra cup of fruit.  Then with the added sweetness from the extra fruit, I removed a half cup of sugar and replaced the white flour with whole wheat.  It was delicious and healthy enough for me to serve for breakfast.  Here’s the recipe:

Mix 1/2 cup oil (any kind you feel is healthiest), 3 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 1/2 cups sugar with an electric mixer. 

Add 1 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cloves and 3 cups of whole wheat flour.

Fold in 4 cups of chopped pears or apples.  Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Applesauce sweetened with…

. . .a princess touch.

Our to do list is still in progress.  The dry erase marker did NOT come out.  Hairspray, Hand Sanitizer, and Goof-Off didn’t do a thing.  My mom says she can paint over the spots and make it look like normal.  I’m still thinking about it.  My mom is pretty amazing.

I did give that boy a love though.  We read as many books as he could sit for and his dimply smiles make it all worth it.

The patches went on the shirts well.  I used clear thread on the top and bobbin thread to match the shirt.  That way I didn’t have to change thread to match each patch.  The Daddy scout was so excited to get his finished shirt that he had it on before he was all the way in the door.

And we are still processing through the apples.  I finally gave up near midnight last night and will start again this morning.  We have 7 quarts and 14 pints so far.  And at least that many more to do.  It will feel so good to have homemade organic applesauce through the winter.

My recipe is to wash and quarter the apples, removing any bad spots or worms.  Cook the apples without water until soft and then process in a food mill to remove the core and skin.  I like to cook the apples with skin on.  It saves time, adds nutrition and a rosey hue to the finished sauce.   Then I fill clean jars with the warm sauce, secure a 2-part lid and process in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes.  It’s so easy and so satisfying.  We prefer not to add sugar or any spices and just enjoy the natural flavor of the apples.  I leave most of the juice in, since we favor a moist sauce over a dry one.

My new favorite way to cook the apples is in a steam juice extractor.  I borrowed this one from my mom, but Amazon has reasonable prices if you plan to do a lot of home canning.  Tomatoes and grapes are also lovely in this.  It basically has 3 levels.  The bottom pan is full of water and steams the upper level.  The middle level collects the juice and the top level holds the fruit.  It’s impossible to burn the fruit with this method, even if you get involved in a stack of picture books with the cutest children in the world.

I also cooked a batch of apples while we were at ballet class in my slow cooker.  It took a lot longer than I expected, overnight would work.  But I could leave the house and still make progress on the apples.  You might wonder why I don’t just cook the apples in a stock pot like normal people?  Well, I have a tendancy to burn things, even with water in the pot.  When the smoke alarm goes off, the kids yell, “Come on, Lunch is ready.”  And I learned that one scortched apple will flavor the whole pot.  Not one jar of our slaved-over sauce from last year is edible due to the charcoal undertones.  That was the second year in a row so I found new methods.

This afternoon I’ll share another apple recipe that I modified for a healthy breakfast.  Tis the season for fresh apples!

P.S.  I snagged my powerful Kitchen Aid food mill on eby for $25.  But if you don’t have one, you can peel and core your apples and then puree them in the blender, or use a potato masher for chunky sauce, yum!

To Do List for Today

In lieu of an interesting post I am jotting down a quick to do list.  My kiddoes need me and are getting into trouble.  So in the midst of keeping tabs on themI will be trying to:

1.  Get dry erase marker out of a new Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Quilt …Grrr

2.  Put up about 60 lbs of apples into sauce–yum

3.  Sew patches on boyscout uniforms before tonight

4.  Teach homeschool lessons to 4 kiddoes

5.  See if I can find some clean clothes to put back into the drawers

6.  And hug this cutie who has been getting lost in the shuffle lately.

Catch you later when I emerge from the pile.