A Day at Home

We love us a day at home.  The whole day to work, putter, make things, eat and putter some more.  We've started off our last few days with my "find" of  blueberries at the bottom of the freezer (It wasn't a true find for me as I knew I had tucked them away there just for these pre-springtime mornings but it was a huge surprise to one little blueberry lover in our family).  We've enjoyed them with our oats, our granola and a few just plain.

I made myself another batch of nettle seed salt and was very pleased that I had thought ahead to put extra nettle seed away in my potions pantry.  This is as delicious as it is healthful and so easy to make.

And I got a chance to try out the Navaho knitting method I've been wanting to check out since I posted about it here.  Fun to turn this thin cotton string into...

something thick enough to knit something useful with.

And E and I had a lot of fun making a special gift that E thought of, it turned out great and he is very excited to give it to his friend.  I love seeing my boys sew and  look forward to sharing his project tomorrow.  Wishing you a fun-filled day at home soon too.

Boymade Onion Bread

One of the things that has always been very important to me is that my boys know how to take care of themselves.  They both love to cook (and eat) and so, along with learning to grow their own food, they've also learned to prepare it.  This morning W was looking through his Country Wisdom and Know How book and decided he would make the onion bread recipe.

He has made bread in the bread machine before and made buns and bannock but I can't recall him making yeast bread completely on his own with no help before.  Off he went and sometime later he brought E and I a slice to sample.  It was really delicious!  And since we have a rule about not complaining about something someone else cooks (which is mostly followed) I didn't even say anything about the fact that he used the white flour usually reserved for pizza dough.

Happily for an ever-hungry teenage boy the recipe made enough for two loaves so he has a whole loaf left...I expect it will last for another hour or so.

Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do or Do Without

Even though we did a lot of decluttering last year in preparation for selling our house and moving we still seem to have plenty of "clutter" around.  This last little while I've been making a push to finally use up some things we've had sitting around.  I've got a good start on a stack of denim that I want to use to make one of these fun quilts.

I've got all the seams and extra bits cut out and I've tucked the zippers away for future use in felted bags.  W used the seamripper to take off the leather labels with the comment that they "should be good for something".  I love that attitude.

E has been using old t-shirts for making into pet beds.  In the past we've used old sheets for these but I am impressed with how well the t-shirt "yarn" works. 

We cut it into strips - round and round the shirt.

Then we just give the strips a little tug and the edges turn in to make a nice smooth edged yarn.

Then he uses a big crochet hook to make them into a little bed or rug.

I think these would make great bathroom rugs because they are very thick and soft.

And while usually my mending pile sits for ever quite awhile before I get round to it, I put this mending at the top of my priority list.  E came to me with his dragon suit tail in need of repair and I did it that very night.

  I know that it won't fit too much longer and I will miss this sight.

Signs of Spring?

Signs of Spring are still scarce here so E and I decided to make some of our own.  We planted some wheat two weeks ago.

And it happily  grew in our sunny windows.

Now E has one jar full for him to munch on, one jar is for our oldest cat and one is to just look green and springy.

I decided to take down our Winter greens wreath and put my springtime needle felted wreath back up (full photo of it on that link).

The surest sign of Spring for the boys?   Bikes and scooters came out, were tuned up and put back into daily use.

And, the surest sign of Spring fever on my part...even though I don't know if we will be living here much longer or who will be living here I simply Could Not Resist spending some time preparing the soil in last year's tomato beds for planting.

And this morning?  Fresh snow. 

Homemade Granola

The other day I made a batch of my favourite granola and thought I would share the recipe.  When I first started making granola years ago it bothered me that lots of recipes had so much sugar in them, I found this one, modified it and have been using it ever since.  This recipes uses dates and apple juice concentrate as sweetener.

You'll need:

lots of oats (I fill two cookies sheets)

approx. 1 cup of dates (if you don't have a strong blender you may want to soak them first)

almonds (you don't have to use these but I like to, you can also soak these first if you want)

3 spoons full of tahini

1 can of apple juice concentrate

1/3 or more cup of oil (I like grapeseed and coconut or olive also work well)

cinnamon

I blend the dates and almonds with a bit of water and apple juice concentrate (in  my blender) until they are well ground then I add the rest of the concentrate and the oil  (you could leave the oil  out but I like my family to get this in our breakfast).  Add the tahini and cinnamon and blend.  You want this mixture to look like thickish pancake batter. 

Pour it over the oats and coat to stir.  This is where you will judge how many oats you need, you want them to be well coated but not at all soggy.  You're going to have to bake them until dry.

I usually mix mine in glass bowls or a large baking pan and then transfer them onto the cookie sheets.  You want them to make a layer on the cookie sheets and not to be piled high because then they will take longer to dry.

Bake at a low temperature, I use around 250.  I used to burn my granola quite often when I would bake it at 350 - trust us that burnt granola does not make a delightful breakfast!  Baking at the lower temperature takes longer but it dries evenly and ends up with a nice golden (never burnt) colour.  This will take several hours but you can go about your business and not worry about it burning.  I do like to stir it 2 or 3 times as it cooks, otherwise the edges will be browned and the middle still "wet".  Once it is all completely dry you can let it completely cool and then put it into glass jars for storage. 

We like it with yogurt and fruit or topped with raisins and bananas...or sometimes just plain as a snack.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Today was meant to be an X day but seems to be turning into more of a catch-up-on-all-sorts-of-things day.  This morning I went to have granola with yogurt and some defrosted apricots (from our old tree) and was disappointed to see that we were out of granola.  I've got a batch in the oven and thought I would add that recipe to my sidebar and then got distracted by the thought (and the dirty laundry that the boys are busy creating along with their papier mache projects) that it would be nice to have the homemade laundry soap recipe I use on the sidebar as well.

This is a very simple recipe, you only need  water, a bar of laundry soap (like Sunlight), washing soda and borax.

Grate 1/3 to 1/2 of the bar of one bar of sunlight (the smaller 65 g bar).  Put this into a large pot with 2 quart jars full of water (8 cups). Heat on medium until the soap is dissolved.  I then add 1/2  cup each of washing soda and borax and still until those are dissolved.  Turn off heat and add 2 more quart jars of water.  Stir.  (Your pot is probably getting fullish) 

I then divide this soapy solution between two old liquid laundry detergent bottles that I have.  Then I add 2 more quart jars of water to EACH jug and stir.  My total amount of water should be  8 quarts (32 cups) because this makes enough to do 64 loads of laundry using 1/2 cup per load. It will thicken up as it cools and you will be left with a gel like soap that dissolves nicely when you do your laundry even using cold water.  We've used it for years and find it works very well even on our grubby gardening and grubbier boys' clothes. ;-)   I've never figured out the cost exactly but it is pennies per load and, better yet, no artificial flowery smells and plastic bottles coming into our home.

Handmade Shopping Bags

I've been wanting to make a bunch of these shopping bags to have on hand for gifts and I have also wanted to use up some of my fabric.  Since we've been home I have had a shopping bag on the go at all times. 

I've also found that I can use skirts and dresses to make these bags almost as easily as I can use pillow cases.  This dress turned into 2 bags and now I've got a wrap skirt waiting its turn.

Now I've got a good start to a stack of these handy shopping bags and they are tucked away in my handmade gift cupboard. 

We definitely have the Spring cleaning bug (we spent much of this weekend decluttering) around here even though the signs of Spring are pretty slim, we've still got snow on the ground so I've no crocus or forsythia photos to show like I usually would around this time of year.  I do have pussy willows though...and they're very sweet.

Last week I cut several branches to bring inside.  I've had them in a vase since then and this morning I noticed that they had several little roots coming off them so now I can pass them on to a friend to plant out in her yard.

And we found a tiny ladybug on our kitchen table this morn...surely a good sign of springtime.