Preparedness Challenge Week 15

Amy at Homestead Revival has been hosting this challenge and I've been enjoying reading about her efforts, but haven't really posted anything mostly because while in this small house I don't feel like there's much we can do to store extra food and water.  However, since it is small steps that get the job done, I do have a few things to share.

A couple of weeks ago we answered an ad for ripe apricots.  We went to the owner's home and he insisted on picking them for us, so we just stood on the ground pointing to what we wanted and taking them from his hands.  We bought 10 pounds and he gave us another 10 that were a bit overripe and ready for jam making.  Tony made one batch of cooked jam and it turned out nicely, I just don't like cooking the fruit if we don't have to.  Online research showed that the pectin needed for sugar free or lower sugar jams wasn't available in my area, so I ordered a box.  It just came yesterday and I haven't used it yet.  I did however, dehydrate a couple of quarts so far.  We've just been enjoying eating them fresh!

A friend told me her neighbor offered her access to their plum tree.  This friend doesn't do any canning so she asked if I could come get some instead, gotta love friends like that!  We were planning to go this evening, but it looks a bit stormy, so that might change.

Finally, our local grocery store has had roma tomatoes on sale twice at prices low enough to buy in quantity, so I've dehydrated several quarts, made stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce, all of which is in the freezer now-except the dehydrated ones of course!

I kind of fall back on the knowledge that we have goats and chickens, so if something happened we'd at least have eggs and milk.  We live along a creek, so there's access to water that can be boiled on the wood stove.  The stove can also be used for cooking.  If we ran out of feed, there are trees along the creek that the goats love, and the chickens would probably fare alright if they didn't get their daily supplemental rations.  Maybe not the best scenario, but I feel like basics are covered.

HomeSchool

We still don't do a lot of "formal" schooling, but we have started getting intentional about it.  Goober Gus is playing a computer game right now that's supposed to be helping him with early reading skills.  Not so sure about that, but he's enjoying it and at the very least learning to maneuver sites/games better.  He has to follow directions to play properly, that's always a good thing!  I've noticed Tony taking the time to ask more questions of Gus when they're reading a story or doing something-getting Gus to think more.  I like it!

I'm taking time right now to catch up on email subscriptions to a few homeschool blogs I follow.  There are so many creative and talented people out there!  It inspires me to want to do things with him and have things available for him to choose at will.  Now if I just had a place to put it all I would be more inclined to follow through with those intentions!

Today we played with his Peter Pan Preschool Pack (P4?).  We practiced telling time, patterns, graphing, and using symbols to represent an item.  I really feel like we need more of a daily routine to make the most of our time and learning opportunities,  One of the beauties of home education is that we get to teach so much more than academics.  I want him to develop good habits for self care, home care, pet care, etc; as well as good character traits.  I think I'm teaching myself more than him, but I need it too!

This post is part of the Preschool Corner hosted by Homeschool Creations.

Repurposed Dish Soap

I have about 2 or 3 cups of ultra concentrated dish soap that in addition to being hard to rinse thoroughly, the scent is so strong I'm afraid it would flavor our food if used to actually wash dishes!  I don't want to just throw it away, and our hand soap dispenser in the bathroom is empty, so I searched for a recipe to make hand soap.  The ones I saw started with a bar of soap-I used 1 tablespoon of this in its place.  I added 1 teaspoon of glycerin and about 20 drops each of lemon and orange essential oil.  I mixed it with 6 cups of water and poured it into two dispensers.  I still have a quart of it left.  Eight tablespoons in a cup-is that right?  Or is it 16?  Bare minimum I have enough of this to make 768 ounces of soap!  That's six gallons!  Hmm, might have to see about selling it at the farmer's market...what do you think about that?

Update, as of 9PM the same day.  Even with just 1 tablespoon in 6 cups of water it's WAY too strong still.  The overwhelming scent isn't diluted or masked.  Guess I'll just see if a friend wants the soap!

A Day of Rest

Around here we try to dedicate Sundays to resting.  We don't milk the goats and we aim for not doing housework, etc.  Our church has 2 services on Sunday morning, so we have the option of early or late and we let the pace of the morning dictate which.  After church we have something to eat and then generally put in a movie and snooze on the couches.

Today, Goober Gus wanted to try out his new water gun, so Tony had to go buy another one so they were both armed.  I wanted to try out our hammock that's been in storage far too long.  We got it hung and they went to play.  Instead of using the guns however, they went into the creek.

I wanted to zoom in, but my phone camera doesn't have that option.  I fiddled with the color settings instead.  I kinda like the black and white image.

My view while laying in the hammock.

A shot using the "negative" option.

And color.  The spot we chose for the hammock is near the creek and it looked like it would be in the sun come 130 or 2 o'clock, but I checked at 4 and it was still shady.  Nice!

One final note.  I really enjoyed the verses Amy chose for her Sunday Blessing post.  Check it out.

HomeSchool Excitement!

This week was the start of our intentional plans with homeschooling.  I made goals for the summer, I took inventory of learning materials and I made a plan for activities for the week.  We didn't do as much as I planned, but we did more than if there had been no plan.

Last night I finally explored something that has looked intriguing and I just hadn't ever investigated.  They're preschool packs full of fun printable activities with themes that appeal to kids-even to boy kids who would rather run around expending all that energy than to work on learning something from a piece of paper.  Did I mention that they're free?  Jolanthe at HomeSchool Creations creates them and makes them available to download and print at no charge.  Last night I showed him the intro screen and he about fell over in excitement at the Knights and Castles pack.  I printed it just before he went to bed and told him we'd work on it next week.  When's that?  The inevitable question...

I cut all the pages that needed it and inserted those that will be written on into sheet protectors and gathered his King Arthur books, and a few toys I'd tucked away without his knowledge and have it all ready to go.  Don't ya know though, that he just couldn't wait for Monday, so we got the pages out and he made the puppets, and traced the lines on his "treasure map".  That's all, had to save some for next week, right?

Goober Gus with the horse puppet-still wearing the SuperHero stuff from a few months ago.

Quick glance at the practice pages.  He doesn't know that while he's tracing the lines on what he calls the treasure map, he's practicing his writing!

Sourdough Week

This week I've been focusing on sourdough courses in my "summer school".  I started the week by making the sponge for bread, but it failed-the sponge that is.  That left me with a lot of starter to be used up so I made crepes Tuesday night.  Had no idea they were so easy to make!  I then made crackers, a new sponge for bread, English muffins and more crackers.  The 2nd sponge still wasn't quite right, but it was bubbly and domed, so I used it.  Made 4 loaves, actually.  20 minutes worth of kneading.  Know what that does to a person not used to using those muscles?  And the crackers-plenty of rolling that dough, have to get it very thin.  So I don't need PE with Goober Gus this week, but will go outside and play with him anyway.

The English muffins were great toasted with homemade apricot jam and strawberry jam.  The crackers are a hit with the boys, that's why I made another batch, and the crepes we good too.  The bread-good flavor, nice texture inside, but they just didn't rise much.  I think that's because the sponge didn't get gloppy, but that's just a guess on my part.

Freshly baked English muffins.

Herbed crackers.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Adventures in Sourdough

As I've mentioned already, I'm taking classes at GNOWFGLINS to learn more about traditional food preparation methods.  I've been eager to explore the sourdough courses, as it seems that process is one that breaks down the phytic acid in grains that can be an anti-nutrient.  That is-phytic acid binds with nutrients while in the digestive tract and keeps them from being absorbed.

I thought I'd start with a loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread.  I watched the video, read the print materials and started on my "sponge" this morning.  For whatever reason, one never formed.  I have a thin paste instead of thick gloppy stuff.  Rather than throw it out-well in our case it gets fed to the chickens-I'm going to try the recipe for sourdough crackers.  We like crackers but the store bought are too full of stuff we're not eating.  So, time to go start the dough for crackers.  It sits for 7-24 hours before baking, so I will be making crackers in the morning.

Thinning the Herd

If your family enjoys Veggie Tales as much as mine, the heading should sound familiar.  If not, well it's what we need to do with our dairy goats anyway.  With spring births we are up to a total of 13 goats.  One is our buck and 6 are the new kids born this year.  There are 5 in milk and one "dating" the buck right now.  We hadn't intended to sell any but this year's kids, but with the cost of a bale of hay around $15 we're planning to sell all but 2.  We have Alpines and Nubian/Boer crosses and planned to keep one of each, waiting for freshening to see who was the best producer.  We knew the top of the herd is Annie, our Alpine.  Not only does she consistently produce more, but her teats are actually big enough to handle.  All 4 of the others are tiny and it's a challenge to get them milked. 

After making the decision to sell, I've also come to the conclusion that I don't particularly care for any of the Nubians we have, but enjoy their richer milk, with cream that rises to the top.  I was going to keep the best producer just because, but realized I can sell all but Annie and buy a purebred Nubian and look for teat size FIRST.  I've never done that, just bought thru Craigslist and taken what we get. 

I'm kind of a geek and have counted how many squirts it takes to milk out a goat.  The other day, Annie was roughly 10 squirts to an ounce, whereas the others were about triple that!  Three times the work for the same amount of milk!  So now the task of finding or taking good pictures of each and listing them for sale.  Two are going to be traded for butcher pigs, we just don't know which two yet.  Neighbors have the pigs and want goats, we have the goats and want pigs.  Sounds like a good trade to me!

This week I'm also focusing on courses from GNOWFGLINS.  Goober Gus is at VBS every morning, so I have some uninterrupted time to learn some new kitchen skills.  I'm focusing on sourdough this week and am very intrigued by the notion that the souring process and wild yeasts may actually make the grains used healthier.  Anyone else familiar with this concept?

This blog is part of the Homestead Barn Hop.  Take a look!

Summer School

I was thinking the other day...this would be a good time to get intentional about homeschooling.  "Is summer really a good time to start?" I asked myself.  Immediately I replied, "why not?"  We seem to be on the counter cultural side anyway, so why not start school when hordes of people have just stopped?  I even signed up for classes.

Last week I filled out some lists I'd won from ListPlanIt.  I made goals for what we'd like to accomplish by the end of August.  I took inventory of educational items we already have.  I made a schedule of activities for this week, I just didn't assign times to most of it.  Goober Gus is registered for VBS this week, so that is a set time, then I made a short list of items to discuss during lunch.  The rest I will need to be intentional about, but it doesn't need to happen all at once or at a certain time.  I may even post our goals and plans on his blog, but that might not be a good use of time.  We'll see.

I, on the other hand, will be taking advantage of the time he's at VBS to work through as many classes at GNOWFGLINS as I can.  First on the list is sourdough bread.  I reactivated my starter last week and it's in the fridge waiting.  I'm going to try completing the video portions of all the sourdough classes this week.  I may not get to try all the recipes, but I'm aiming for one per day.  That ought to give me a good foundation for working with sourdough-or at least that's my hope!

About My Floors

For some reason tonight I had a bit of ambition and beyond wanting the kitchen to be clean and ready to start cooking in tomorrow, I also wanted the floors to be clean.  I don't clean my floors very often and while I was sweeping I was having a conversation with myself.  Please tell me you do this too, I need to know I'm not totally bonkers!  Partly is OK, totally is not, haha.

The conversation was about why I've stopped cleaning my floor on a regular basis.  Many excuses entered my mind-but the one that resonated was that it simply wasn't a good investment.  The time it stays clean isn't really worth the time spent cleaning.  Sure, I could clean it tonight and enjoy it for about half an hour, then we'd be off to bed and before noon tomorrow my son would have tracked in enough dirt to make anyone think it hadn't been cleaned for weeks.  If it's going to look as though it hasn't been cleaned for weeks, why should I clean it any more frequently?  I was comfortable with this excuse and proceeded to go ahead and sweep the bathroom floor too.

Not even 5 minutes passed and Tony took our son in to brush his teeth.  I warned them I had just cleaned the floors.  Tony carefully took Goober Gus's boots off and dumped the dirt outside, leaving Gus to take his socks off.  You would not believe the dirt that gets into his socks!  FIVE MINUTES, and I wasn't even in the bathroom to enjoy the clean floor!  Five minutes.  The return on investment just isn't worth it to me, and that was my thought when I had visions of it still being clean in the morning...

Busy Week

Last week started off with more than usual going on for a Monday.  First, I needed to attend a meeting that started at 8AM.  For some of you that may not seem like such a big deal, but around here, my son isn't even usually out of bed until about 8 or 830.  I don't usually make plans to leave the house before 10.  Knowing it was coming I didn't separate the twins from Cream, so I wouldn't have to milk that morning, that helped!

Next, it was my first day as a drop coordinator for the monthly Azure Standard order.  There's no set time for delivery, just whenever the truck driver calls to say he's almost here.

Did I mention I was watching 3 goats for signs of labor?  Yes, one that I thought would be about 10 days later filled her udder Sunday night.  No other signs though, so thought there might still be another day or two.  Nope.  Got home from picking up co-op order and Goober Gus went out to see animals and informed me we had a new baby goat.  I stopped what I was doing in the kitchen to go check and this one was still wet and being cleaned. 

Azure boxes opened and waiting to be put away.  Dishwasher needing to be emptied.  Counter tops to clear.

We stayed out to see if she'd have more and she did.  Two boys.

Once the after birth was delivered we moved on to a few other tasks, but then Baby Boy 1 started crying and couldn't get up.  Turns out he was having convulsions and died the next day.  Baby Boy 2 was originally named Blackjack, but we changed that a couple of days later.

The night that the buckling died, Gus and I were enjoying pizza and a movie.  Did I mention Tony was on a business trip during this time?  Leave it to the goats!  We heard a squealing sound and turned to see that one of the cats had brought in its recent catch, still alive and struggling to get away.  It was a baby wild rabbit and we thought it hadn't been mortally wounded, so tried to keep it.  Turns out there was a puncture wound near the heart and he died in my hand.  Two deaths in one day was almost too much for me!

Wednesday, I felt like I had sufficiently recovered from the events of the week so far to tackle the kitchen.  Of course I made it into a bigger task, simply because to do it right, I needed to change some things.  Like the shelf that hangs on the wall, collecting odds and ends.  I've been wanting to change it into something visually appealing and functional, so I took everything off, asked Tony to reinforce the hangers, and put labeled quart jars of bulk herbs on the shelves.  The small shelves on the sides need attention-perhaps a pretty wooden box to hold recipe cards and small flower arrangement?

By the time I had accomplished this, it was mid afternoon (I did get the counters cleared and dishes done too) and I was ready for a treat.  I was planning to take Gus to get an ice cream sandwich (organic of course) and something to drink.  Before we could leave I heard a goat moaning.  Again?  Already?  The next one wasn't due until the 23rd and it was just the 18th.  Sure enough, Annie, who is so huge we thought she was having triplets at least, if not quadruplets, was pushing out her first kid.  We grabbed the camera and sat down to watch.  I couldn't get close enough to tell if it was a girl or boy, but within 30 minutes another one was born.  Guess what happened then?  It started drizzling on us!  This is the desert, we don't usually get spring rains.  It was even cool enough that we went in to put long pants and jackets on!  Back out we went, waiting for #3.  Waiting and waiting.  For the afterbirth.  Yep, she only had 2, but they were big kids.  Turns out we had a boy and girl, so we decided to name them Jack and Jill (and that's why Blackjack needed a new name).  They are so closely marked that until the next day, I couldn't tell them apart!  Jack has longer white spots on his hindquarters, and Jill just has a little white dot.  Now she has a collar on so we can tell more easily.

The picture doesn't adequately show how huge she was.  She looked like a barrel on twigs.  The morning she gave birth it took all she had to get up on the milk stand.  No, I wasn't milking, but giving her treats and checking for signs of labor.

Do you see how similarly they are marked?  They were both still damp with birth fluid and in the excitement I didn't see the longer white stripe on Jack.

We need to take more pictures of them-ideally be out when they are playing and get video.  Tony missed the Wednesday births too because he's got a nightly music job 90 minutes away.

We've been working in the yard, garden and searching for duck eggs.  They're hiding them from us.  Did I ever mention a friend gave us her 3 Indian Runner ducks and 7 hens?

I've been working on this post for a few days now.  It's Thursday and these events all took place last week.  Something kept me busy Thursday & Friday, but I can't remember.  Oh yes.  I finished working on house cleaning and then my step daughters came for a visit on Friday.  Saturday morning we hit up the yard sales and continued looking for property to buy.  Saturday night we had tickets to a Styx concert and finally got to relax a bit.  I think I needed it!

Twin Boys!

I sat down to start this post and upload photos about 3PM yesterday.  The bucklings were born about 1215 and 1245, and we had spent a couple of hours watching them.  A mom I know from the park was coming by to bring her kids to see the babies and she pulled up right after I typed the title of this post.  The boys were more interested in running around playing than looking at the goats, so they were off having fun while she and I talked.  Then I noticed that Baby Boy 1 was making a strange cry and laying on the ground.  I went into the pen to help him stand up, but he couldn't.  I felt around for injuries, but nothing specific seemed to be wrong.  She left so I could tend to the baby and I warmed some milk and tried feeding him.  He couldn't suckle, though I had watched him do so earlier, knowing he was getting milk because Peaches' udder was noticably smaller on the side he was drinking from.  Called the vet, just to see if I was overlooking something obvious.  He suggested Karo syrup and maybe a B complex injection.  I have honey and kombucha.  Tony said the kombucha would have a high rate of B vitamins.  I had to use a straw like a dropper to even get liquid into him, and them smeared a bit of honey on the roof of his mouth.  He would complain with a cry, and try to roll over, but couldn't get up.

We had small group last night and I really didn't expect him to be alive when we got home.  He was.  I gave him more milk, kombucha and honey and prayed again.  Goober Gus and I went to bed after that (Tony is out of town).  I told God that if the goat's survival was dependant on me getting up to feed him thru the night, He'd need to wake me with enough energy to do it.  I didn't wake up until 4AM and went to check, he was still alive.  Peaches had moved him to a warmer part of the shelter and surrounded him with straw.  I didn't give any more milk until I got up at 7 though.  He was losing muscle tone, I could tell that.

I called the woman that cares for our animals when we go away and she came over to see him.  While waiting for her arrival I continued to hold the little guy (his mouth and ears were cool, knew that wasn't good) and squeeze a few drops of milk in his mouth on a regular basis.  Don't think I've ever been happier to have an animal pee on me!  I had already realized earlier that the whole time we were in the pen after birth I never saw either do their "dooty".  My friend arrived shorty after and I showed her the video I took of his attempts to get up and she recognized it as convulsions.  Suddenly it made more sense.  I kept wracking my brain to figure out what happened to cause this first born, healthy, suckling goat that had been walking around, trying to run just moments before to not even be able to stand.  Now I knew.  Then I cried.  One baby goat, not even 24 hours old.  Not much monetary value in the world, but still a marvelous creation of God with life that always has value beyond any dollar measure.

Tuesday mornings are our park date, so we went ahead to play.  Goober Gus needed to know that he was more important to me than the goat, and that I'd make the time to take him to play even with the sadness at home.  We got home shortly after noon and Baby Boy 1 had passed.  We wrapped him in an old pecan bag and took him out of the pen.  Gus wanted to say goodbye and give him flowers.  He decided the marigold he had picked out on Mother's Day (that he's very attached to and has been watering on his own) should be part of the goodbye process.  Sweet boy.  I did manage to get some good pictures during the couple of hours he was healthy.

Mama Peaches with Baby Boy 1 looking for a teat while Baby Boy 2 is waiting to be licked some more.

Baby Boy 2.  No matter where I put clean straw for birthing, they choose another spot.

Baby Boy 1

Aw ma, don't do that here!

Baby Boy 2 finding a teat.

Mama and the twins.

Baby Boy 2.  We think he'll be called Blackjack.

Babies!

For the first time in our short stint as chicken farmers we have 2 baby chicks, hatched today!  They are tiny but already doing everything they see mom doing.  She scratches, they peck.  Sometimes she scratches and they get caught up in the debris she's scratching in.  We discovered them about an hour and a half ago, and they can't be more than about 3 hours old at that time.  The broody hen is a golden laced wyandotte and the rooster is a white banty (I really ought to verify his breed-he's small and has feathers on his legs) and the two babies are both black with a little white on their bellies.  There are still eggs in the nest, will any of those hatch in the next 24 hours?

This is a neat idea!

I just read this-from a link in another blog I follow.  Sounds interesting so I thought I'd share.

Bartering Bloggers

Ah, Fresh, Raw, Homemade Yogurt!

We sure missed this dietary staple the last month or so!  One of my pregnant and milking does was ready for her dry time before I could get the new mama into good production, so we've had an extended period of no milk.  Last summer I froze about 3 quarts in a gallon jar and we used that when we entered the "dry" period, but it only last a week.

Finally, the doeling of another goat was big enough to go to the buck, thus giving us the milk she refused to give up.  It's only been a week, and only about a pint at a time, but that finally went up to 24-26 ounces and I was able to accumulate enough to have 2 quarts for yogurt making.  mmmmmmmmmmmm

I used about 6 ounces of store-bought yogurt with active live cultures and this is one of the thickest batches we've ever had.  It's all Nubian/Boer cross milk which has a higher fat content than our Alpine milk.  We're back on probiotics!!  Thank you, Belle!

This is from last June, shortly after Yodelady was born.  She should have been weaned by October, but neither was willing to give it up and separating them didn't work, they always found a way to get back together.  She finally gained enough weight to go hang out with Boots the Buck, so we have raw milk again!

So Tired

That's how I always feel.  Even two years after discovering the reason behind it-adrenal fatigue.  Recently I sent saliva samples in for testing.  My chiropractor ordered the tests and I spoke with him this morning.  My progesterone levels are low and DHEA is high.  Now it's being suggested that I have a serum Vitamin D test, fasting glucose and insulin levels checked. 

I've been doing a little reading about low progesterone and one site had this to say,

"progesterone is an essential raw material from which your body makes many of the other hormones vital for good health"  Its this simple fact that helps anyone appreciate just how wide ranging the effects of a progesterone deficiency can be.

I've not come to any conclusions yet, but it's helpful to learn there are other things I can do to get over this.  I took the questionnaire and scored 63.  It says if your score is over 10 you're likely to need progesterone support!  However, this is the first site I've read and I'm not inclined to blindly follow the first thing I read.  If I find corroborating evidence, then I'll consider it.

Now about those high levels of DHEA.  It's confusing me.  From what I'm reading, high DHEA levels don't seem to coincide with low levels of progesterone.  I have more symptoms that go with not enough than I do with too much.  One statement made a bit of sense though,

Because having too much DHEA, or converting DHEA into too much of one hormone and not enough of another, can be as upsetting to your body as not having enough.

So maybe the extra DHEA is being converted to estrogen instead of progesterone and causing an imbalance?  I don't know.  What I do know is I need a referral to a good homeopathic, naturopathic doctor in my area.  I need answers and viable solutions.  I need to overcome the funk that has become my life these last few years.  I'm ready to return to a life of joy and peace, not distress and upset.  With that, I think I'll go take a nap!

Making Meatballs

We just put about 110 meatballs in the oven. I wish I could say that we cranked 'em out, but it didn't go that fast. We had a glitch with the grinder (aka not following directions for proper assembly) but once that got fixed the grinding went quickly. I then mixed in the seasonings and eggs and had already decided to leave out the breadcrumbs based on past experience with meatballs that tasted too little like meat. Well guess what? No breadcrumbs means gooey wet mixture, so I stopped in the middle to go buy breadcrumbs.

This is where the rabbit trail starts. I don't recall ever buying breadcrumbs, so had no idea where to find them. My first hope was with the natural foods, so they'd be short on ingredients. Nope, none there. Baking aisle? Nope, not there either. Maybe with beans and rice? Unh-uh. Stuffing mix? Wrong again. I finally found them with the instant mashed potatoes. Have you ever read the ingredient list on breadcrumbs?? It was 4 inches long! I didn't even need to read each item to know that if it's that long there's surely at least 1 item in there that I don't want to put in my HOMEMADE MEATBALLS that I'm making to AVOID those ingredients.
Plan B. Wait, I don't have a Plan B. Crackers? Could I smash up crackers and end up with something like breadcrumbs? It'd be worth a try. Even in the natural foods section it was a challenge to find crackers without soy lecithin or corn starch. I did finally though, so I headed home and engaged my cracker smasher (5 yo son). One more round of running my hands thru all the gooey mess and then on to production!

I used the medium scooper from PC to size them and Tony rolled them into better balls. Ours were a bit bigger than the recipe called for, so we cooked them for 20 minutes, then switched to broil for a few minutes to really brown them up. Here's how they look:

They taste pretty good too!  We'll eat a few today, some Monday night for a spaghetti pot luck and freeze the rest for quick lunches, and maybe those nights when I just don't feel like cooking.

Spinach Salad with Wasabi Dressing

I made this for dinner last night, with a couple of tweaks.  I found it thru a list from TipNut.com with ideas for 20 different spinach salads.  I bookmarked a number of them to try out this spring.

I added a variety of greens, plus tomatoes, but left off the sesame seeds.  We don't use them in other recipes and I didn't want to buy some just for this.  It made a good dinner.

Parmesan Squash Cakes

I don't recall where I found this recipe.  Given that it's typed out on half a sheet of paper, my guess is I picked it up at the Farmer's market last summer.  I wouldn't bother cutting the paper, so it's not something I found online and printed.  I'll copy it here, with my additions/suggestions in purple.

1 large egg (I used 2)
2/3 cup finely chopped sweet onion (I didn't have that much, but it was plenty-maybe 1/3 cup)
1 T finely chopped flat leaf parsley (I used dried)
1/4 t salt (I didn't measure, just added)
1/4 t pepper (same here)
2 cups shredded summer squash, 2-3 medium (I used 3 that I considered small and ended up with way more than 4 cakes, as the recipe indicates)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (once again, I didn't measure, I had a small chunk and used it all)
1 T extra virgin olive oil (I needed more)

1. Preheat oven to 400°F
2. Beat egg in large bowl-I started with one, it wasn't enough for the amount of squash I had.  Stir in onion, parsley, salt and pepper.
3. Place shredded squash in clean kitchen towel and gather up ends and twist to squeeze out as much water as possible.  I let my son do this part, only I told him to simply press on the towel to get the water out.  I didn't explain that the goal was to squeeze out water, so he felt the job was done when he had flattened out the mound.  I should have checked.
4. Add the squash and cheese to the bowl, stir to combine.  This is where I realized I needed another egg, so beat one and added.
5. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Pack a 1/3 cup measuring cup with the mixture and unmold into the pan.  Gently pat it down to form a 3 inch cake.  Repeat, making 4 cakes.  I now see the flaw in the recipe.  If you start with 2 cups of squash, and just use 1/3 cup scoops, you will get 6, not 4.  I got 9, so I guess I had more than 2 cups of squash!
6. Cook until brown and crispy on the bottom, 3-4 minutes, then gently turn over and transfer pan to oven.  Bake for 10 minutes and serve immediately.  I don't have a skillet that can go into the oven, so I oiled a cookie sheet and transferred them to that.  As the water didn't all get squeezed out, they kinda fell apart, but they tasted good!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Blog.

Tuna Quesadillas

The other day I wrote about making a Mexican spiced version of tuna salad.  Tonight we're having it on quesadillas.  Here's how I made them:

To a dollop of mayo I added 1/4 tsp each of cumin, onion powder and dried cilantro leaves, stirring to combine.  I then added 2 5oz cans of drained tuna and mixed well.  I made it less moist than if I were making tuna salad-just enough mayo to hold it together.

I then assembled the quesadallas with a layer of tuna, freshly chopped green onion and shredded colby jack cheese and toasted in the toaster oven until the cheese was melted.  That'd be dark toast on mine.  We ate them with salsa, but sour cream, guacamole or sliced avocado would be wonderful too.  They're kind of like tuna melts with a twist!