snickerdoodles

eating tropical...

  It's that time of year when I start longing for some sun, sand and tropical fruit.   Whenever we travel I live off fruit...from a first class buffet to a street vendor, it's my favourite food.  We still have over a month to go before we sneak away to Mexico.   Luckily there has been some yummy stuff in season and plentiful.   This week we had some yummy papaya, two big,sweet and juicy honey pommelos.   Normally I try to only buy locally grown produce but this is one time of year when I definitely sway.

There are also some beautiful young thai coconuts available in stores now and last night I finally took the time to learn to open one properly.

The coconut was was delicious and the fruit was soft and scoop-able like a melon.   Try to get an organic one as they dip the others in chemicals to keep them white and that's scary.

I watch and read a wack or tutorials before I cracked mine.  This was my fave...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp5cc_yrcEM&feature=related

I don't have a cleaver so I sharpened my good big knife and did the first chops, then I gave the cuts some good whacks with a small hammer and it worked.

We've had some amazing Thai food served out of these types of coconuts at restaurants before, can't wait to try now that I've learned how to do it, thanks Kristen's Raw.

oxo

 

divine hot buttered pretzels...

  Noah's pretzels for Foods Class the other night were fantastic.  I can't wait till he makes another batch.   For now I wanted to share a quick photo of one of his finished beauties and the recipe.  It wasn't hard, especially since I was just sitting there watching,  and it's a fun thing to make with kiddos.

 

This recipe from Martha Stewart  was the same one he used from his Foods Recipe Book...

 

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons regular instant yeast

About 1 cup warm water

Pretzel salt

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Vegetable cooking spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk to combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Slowly add water. The quantity you add will be determined by the humidity in the air. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Knead until soft and smooth, about 5 minutes.

Dust the dough with flour, and place in a plastic bag. Seal the bag, leaving room for the dough to expand. Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Spray work surface with cooking spray. Transfer rested dough to work surface. Divide dough into 8 equal pieces, about 2 1/2 ounces each. Roll each piece into a long thin rope, 28 to 30 inches long. Twist each rope into a pretzel. Dip each pretzel in warm water. Place on prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle lightly with pretzel salt. Let rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Bake until golden brown, 8 to 9 minutes. Remove from oven, and brush thoroughly with melted butter. Continue to brush until you have used all of the butter. Serve warm, or reheat in a warm oven.

We did watch a couple great how to videos from Monkey See  on how to do it and they were very helpful as well.  He didn't have the second page of the recipe so we needed some extra guidance.

 Check out these links  on finishing pretzels by Auntie Em's pretzel man Jay on  MonkeySee.com.  Be be prepared to drool a bit & happy pretzel-ing!

oxo

What a night...seven boys for dinner before hockey at 5. Noah has to make up all his food recipes from last week...spagetti and meatballs, done! apple crisp, next! and currently working on hot buttered pretzels....and his first exam is tomorrow and one make up test. Having fun grading him as he goes but would I be a bad Mom if I grabbed a glass of wine and hit in the jetted tub?
oxo

Oh no, he just found another recipe for lemon sauce...I guess that answers my bath question.

  One of those Mom dilemmas where I could have helped him be done faster, or fibbed on his mark sheets,  called his teacher pleading his case or not have him make them at all as he already has over 90% but I decided to support my little chef in his dedication to Foods Class!  lol 

 Plus he would have ratted me out if I had of done the cooking.

I never tire of Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes, especially when they are written so beautifully.

Looking forward to starting art classes up again next month and maybe even getting back to making some art myself, it's been too long.

oxo

Saturday night snack attack...

those darn munchies, late nights working in my kitchen are not at all ponch-friendly...

tried to be healthy and finished the last four prunes and a handful of almonds

then three leftover orange slices from the kids snack plate

not long after...two big bites of a Damn Hot pepperoni stick just because they looked yummy when I opened the fridge

it was really Damn Hot so I ate four cheese curds

the Yum Yum pickles were staring at me...had a forkful

realized the cheese from before was super salty

 I poured a glass of wine

now I really want to hit the chocolate!

instead I threw some popcorn kernels in a paper bag, stapled it up and zapped it in the microwave
it worked rather well except I put too many in and it shot quite a few out
now I have a snack to stop the munchies in their tracks...I just have to resist the butter

night friends, hope your willpower is better than mine tonight, catching up with my week of light flu eating
oxo

handy holiday eco idea...

   Finding a good reuse idea for food packaging waste always makes me proud.  We eat a lot of eggs enriched with Omega 3's which is wonderful except the horribly unnecessary plastic packages they are sold in.   I use a lot of them in my art classes for paints and such and I pass a lot on for other art teachers but a whole lot still end up in the blue bag for recycling.

This year I used a big stash I had saved up to pack up my holiday ornaments and they worked so well.  They are light but offer enough protection for delicate glass ornaments.  They stack well too and took up less space in my bins than the cardboard storage boxes I was using before.

They worked perfectly for all my ball ornaments and even some of the longer styles. 

They actually looked kinda pretty all packed up in the clear containers.

This might be my first original pin on Pinterest...it's probably been done before but this is my little take on reusing egg cartons. 

That's it for eco-Friday this week...the flu has left me rather unambitious and Liam's been the latest victim to be flu-ed.  He started last night.  It's been a week of wakeful nights and sloth-like days for most of us and I can't wait to get that flu bug outta here.   Stay well and happy weekend!

oxo

 

feel better naturally...

   Seems the flu is going around,  we've certainly had our share of sickness at Birch Hill. 

 We've been sipping lots of ginger tea with lemon, peppermint tea and just hot water with honey and lemon.  I've been rubbing Immune Boost essential oil from Back To Earth on on backs and feet and pillows and it's really nice and soothing when you are nauseous.

I love the Simply Organic blog and just found these recipes for home remedies. 

 Thought I would share in case you or yours are feeling under the weather.  Enjoy and get well soon. 

oxo

Natural Remedies for Cold and Flu Symptoms from Simply Organic.

a visual story of self love and gentle wisdom...

  We all need a reminder once in a while to love ourselves by taking good care of ourselves. 

 This weekend was very fun but Saturday night I indulged in a bottle of wine and a poker game which took me until almost 3 a.m. to win....sorry hockey Dads.   All fine and dandy except we had to be up and at another hockey game at 7 a.m.   Needless to say I was feeling very old and tired Sunday morning but kept it together for the rest of the tourney until today when I had the luxury to crash.

Tonight I happened upon this little film posted by a facebook friend and it really got me thinking.  Maia is beautiful and strong and radiates contentment, that is how I want to be...I am far from being there.

  Take a minute to watch My Friend Maia, made with love and talent by Julia Warr.

http://vimeo.com/31733784

Maia has inspired me to find more time for yoga and making my body strong.   Next month hubbie and I have already committed to another round of hot yoga date nights but until them I will use Maia's story to keep me on the right track and to choose the yoga matt over the couch and some fresh veggies and fruit over the chocolate...or maybe just a little less chocolate after the veggies?

oxo

 

 

Tapped, things you should know before buying bottled water...

   Individual servings of bottled water have long been a pet peeve of mine, our society has been so brain-washed by the big corporations spend millions on advertising campaigns to make us believe it's healthier, and maybe even hipper to sip from a flimsy plastic bottle made from petroleum by products.  

I've despised Nestle and their selfish money making tactics since World Issues in high school when we studied how they gave formula to mothers in Third World countries convincing them it was better for their babies.  Guess what?  Their mother's own breast milk dried up and of course they didn't have the money to afford formula and babies died, it was shameful.  Now Nestle along with Coke and Pepsi are packaging our tap water in fancy bottles with images of mountains and glamorous names like Evian and Dasani and selling it back to us a huge profit.   For the elitist who place materialism over Mother Earth you could even pay for water to be flown overseas from another continent like the Voss brand.  We all laughed at the spoiled kids in Grown Ups requesting it but it's actually kinda sad.

Water is a precious commodity and there were a lot of issues related to this fad that I had no idea about that are rather scary and we need to make choices and changes quickly as consumers and show these companies we are not okay with their tactics.

Tapped is so well done and a really interesting documentary...every school should be showing it and as a parent it's important to teach your kiddos too.  It's on Netflix right now.

 

The high cost -- to both the environment and our health -- of bottled water is the subject of this documentary that enlists activists, environmentalists, community leaders and others to expose the dark side of the bottled water industry. Americans may rethink their obsession with bottled H20 when they learn of the unregulated industry's willingness to ignore environmental and health concerns, and the problems that arise as a result.

Noah also tells me they watched a film called Flow  in Science that was really good about similar issues.  The webpage is very interesting and it's won wacks of awards.  Here are a few water facts I pulled from the FLOW webpage: 

About Water

• Of the 6 billion people on earth, 1.1 billion do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.
  (www.charitywater.org)
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency currently does not regulate 51 known water contaminants. (www.foodandwaterwatch.org)
• While the average American uses 150 gallons of water per day, those in developing countries cannot find five.
  (www.charitywater.org)
• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
  (www.water.org)
• According to the National Resources Defense Council, in a scientific study in which more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of water were tested, about one-third of the bottles contained synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic. (www.nrdc.org)
• Water is a $400 billion dollar global industry; the third largest behind electricity and oil.
  CBS News, FLOW.
• There are estimates that from five hundred thousand to seven million people get sick per year from drinking tap water. Erik Olson, Deputy Staff Director of Barbara Boxerʼs Environmental and Public Works Committee (EPW), FLOW.
• Californiaʼs water supply is running out – it has about 20 years of water left in the state.
  Maude Barlow, author of Blue Covenant and co-author of Blue Gold, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, FLOW.
• There are over 116,000 human-made chemicals that are finding their way into public water supply systems.
  William Marks, author of Water Voices from Around the World, FLOW.
• In Bolivia nearly one out of every ten children will die before the age of five. Most of those deaths are related to illnesses that come from a lack of clean drinking water.
  Jim Schultz, founder of the Democracy Center in Bolivia, FLOW.
• The cost per person per year for having 10 liters of safe drinking water every day is just $6 USD.
  Ashok Gadgil, Senior Staff Scientist in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, FLOW

Wow,  on that note, Happy Eco Friday and Happy Weekend Friends, have fun whatever you do and don't forget to bring along your re-fillable water bottle!

oxo

 

 

little tweaks to improve your health...

    Dr. Oz is a friend of mine.  Remember that catchy song Jesus is a friend of mine?   I always get it stuck in my head but seem to substitute the names according to where I am at. 

http://youtu.be/1iUU6jTqB6k

It's a classic...if you haven't seen this version by SONSEED is how I roll, you will laugh but you'll get hooked too...or maybe you'll just be horrified and stop reading Snicks!?! 

 I've been busted more than once cruising the ski hills or biking singing to myself in the past,  I've passed on my wee problem to Liam who can be heard singing away in his bedroom to Crocodile Rock or other peppy old songs.

No, I don't actually know Dr. Oz, I just really click with his approach to all things medical.  Bet we all wish he could be our own personal GP?

I love my coffee and today I read some health advice from Dr. Oz that made my coffee sipping lips smile.

Switch from decaf to caffeinated coffee.

Caffeine can actually inhibit the growth of cancer cells—and may lower your risk for the disease.

How great is that???

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/health/Easy-Health-Tweaks-That-Make-a-Big-Difference-When-to-Snack/1#ixzz1j5fG1QaF

I start my day with a big cup of green tea with local honey to fight allergies and usually try to hold off on the coffee till after 10 but it's a great way to ease into the day.

After you've incorporated these three tweaks from Dr. Oz be sure to tackly his 28 Day Plan To Renew Your Body, Mind and Soul , you probably already do lots of the things but there are lots of fresh ideas and ap ideas that were new to me.

Gotta run and get some edits done...will be softly bopping to the Beat of Readers are a friend of mine, and thinking of you all.

oxo