Suburban Version of OFF THE GRID

N is once again taking classes, so it was just me and the kids for dinner. I made zucchini pancakes using a stupid pathetic onion from the garden. Wait, I mean, don't you wish you had tiny onions whenever a recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of diced onion? Ha ha! No cut open leftover stinky onion in my fridge! No. I use my single-serving size PERSONAL onions that I grow myself! How clever!

They were served with applesauce (made from my friend's apple tree last September and frozen) and homemade yogurt (because we were out of sour cream).

And the kids, as always, loved them. Starving the poor tykes by having them in swimming classes at the normal dinner hour had only a small influence on their hunger, I'm sure.

I plan to bask in the glow of my self-sufficiency for the rest of the day. At least.

Heaven

My parents are back from Europe, and they brought us (reverent voice) Luxemburgerli. Yes, apparently they love us. Sadly, they did not bring us enough Luxemburgerli. Because there is no such thing. There are never enough. It's the heartbreak of Luxemburgerli, really.

Many Sprüngli locations, but only in Switzerland. Big big sigh....Now I'm just torturing myself. Ugh, so awful! Wah boo hoo, no more Luxemburgerli.

Packing healthy lunches

Need some new ideas for packing school lunches? I like this Cindy's Porch chart. Just print it out and hang it on the inside of a kitchen cabinet. Maybe spend some time discussing options with your child, and crossing out any items that are unacceptable.

I finally couldn't take the "cheese cracker?" "cheese cracker?" "cheese cracker?" "cheese cracker?" 5 year old anymore, and my kids are now packing their own snacks into little reuseable containers. We did 3 containers for each kid yesterday, with "cheese crackers" (AARGH), pretzels, yogurt-covered raisins, graham crackers, sunflower seeds, and various other options. They got to pick which to mix and match. Now every morning after they have dressed, pottied, brushed teeth and hair, and put their pajamas on their beds, they may pick one of their ready-made snacks and put them in their backpacks.

I'm planning on having them do more helping with their lunches, too, starting very soon. Why should I get all the fun?

August in Minnesota

This happened a little while back, when we were up in the beautiful BWCA, attempting to camp despite the on-again-off-again rain.

Setting: in the cabin my parents had rented.

Nea: Night-night ou-dide? (Sleep outside?)
N: Yeah, in a tent!
Nea: WHY?!
N: Because it's fun. Why, don't you want to?
Nea: Nope!

But we did (Well, for the one night. We had hoped for 2, but the weather was not ideal.), and it was fun yet a little damp. Right before Boo fell asleep she said she wanted to go to a hotel, but that was just a fleeting thought, thankfully. We were not eaten by bears. Nor did we go to the outhouse in the middle of the night and fall off a cliff. We also did not get mushroom poisoning, despite eating one Reizker (German, which is how I've learned the little mushroom lore I know) - Lactarius Deliciosus (Latin) - saffron milk cap or red pine mushroom (English).

We had to split the one specimen seven ways, so the portions were very very modest. I had heard about this particular type of mushroom my whole life, so it was nice to finally get a taste. Very deliciosus, indeed.

A guide to making your own yogurt

I’m sure just a few generations ago, everyone made their own yogurt. It certainly isn’t difficult. I wonder whether the milkman used to bring it in glass jars. But as I mentioned in an earlier post, now most people think nothing of buying new plastic tubs weekly and tossing the empties into the recycling.

For my yogurt maker (Deni 5600 1-Quart Electric), I take 3.5 cups milk (skim or 2%, organic or not, whatever we have that day), heat to boiling, cool to room temperature*, add ½ cup plain yogurt, and pour into the 6 jars in the yogurt maker. The timer dings when it’s ready (I set it to 10 hours), and the yogurt must cool completely in the fridge before consumption.

Our jars are roughly the size of the tall Gerber baby food jars, so I use those when I need a few extra jars. Unfortunately, they are a touch too tall, so I can only use them in the middle two slots. The lids sort of pop on, not screw on, so I wouldn’t trust them in a lunchbag. In fact, if I had it to do over, I’d probably just go with a larger container-style maker. (like this one, maybe: Salton YM9 1-Quart)

Tips:

1. You can purchase yogurt starter, but it makes a lot more economic sense to just use some yogurt from the store. Make sure it is unfavored and says “live active cultures” on the package.
2. After the first time you can obviously keep using some of the results for future batches. Or start over with another kind, if you want to continue experimentation. You little scientist you.
3. Don’t overpay for your machine. All it is doing is heating the milk for a few hours at some ideal temperature. It’s not rocket science.
4. Use your yogurt in place of (or mixed with) sour cream on baked potatoes, Mexican dishes, in dips, etc.
5. Make a Greek-style dessert with your yogurt, honey, and walnuts.
6. Use fresh or frozen berries on top! The kids love it, and I’m not even adding sugar.

Which reminds me, Boo doesn't drink milk, so I consider yogurt a necessary staple of her diet. I mean, the kid can't live off sour cream alone. Or shouldn't, anyway.

* I find the brisk Midwestern winter helpful in this regard. 30 minutes in a snowbank is just about right. You sad little people without snowbanks can just use the fridge.

Fish, vegetables, recycling

May was Easter Seals month for my little Amazon ad, but sadly no purchases were made. Luckily I had hit up some friends for online donations and we raised $350 dollars that way! Thank you to Tish, Adam, Wolf, Pam, Steve, Greg, John, and Beth. We love Easter Seals and fully believe in their mission, values, and incredible help and support that they make affordable to thousands of families in Illinois and nation-wide.

So now my Amazon link will raise funds for Heifer again. I looked at their WorldArk newsletter today, and there was a lot of useful information. I thought I’d sum up some of it here.

Seafood Watch: eco-friendly seafood selector, including pocket-sized guides you can carry with you.

Plant a Row for the Hungry: how to donate extra vegetables from your garden to local food banks.

MyBoneYard: recycles cell phones, computers, etc. They pay for shipping and then pay you for your device. Anyone use this before? Please report back and let me know how it went.

Sound like the sort of newsletter you’d like to receive? Sign up here!

U-Pick Farms

When I was a kid, we would drive to Michigan every year to harvest cherries. Lots of cherries. I remember once we went for peaches instead, and it was a whole new world. You know how many cherries you need to pick to fill a bucket? Many. And how many peaches? Very few. Plus that spoiled me for store-bought peaches pretty much for life. Which is why we have a peach tree in the yard. Oh, and there was that time Dad fell off the cherry-picking ladder. I'm thinking the economic return was lost that year.

So, anyhow, now that the kids are a little bigger, I'm thinking it's U-Pick-Em time. Here's a guide to Chicago area farms to try out. It's a little early yet, but rhubarb and asparagus are sure to be available. If that sounds like too much work, here's a listing of farmers' markets nation-wide.

Edited to add: Here's a much better listing of Chicago-area farmers' markets.

USA! USA!

God, I love this country. Sure, our president supports torture and is generally a total dipshit, but TODAY! Today I went online and pre-ordered a sandwich from Potbelly’s, strolled over and picked it up, and was back at my desk surfing the 'net without any annoying “waiting for the sandwich to be made” time.

It’s conveniences like these that make this country great.

Homemade maki rolls

Seeing as sushi is our number one budget buster, I’ve been wanting to go to H Mart for awhile now. Wow, there’s nothing like a huge Asian supermarket for fun! I love looking at all the stuff that I have no idea how to prepare. But more importantly, we stocked up on bao and bought sushi fix’ins.

Tonight I made two types of rolls for the first time. One was salmon, cucumber, avocado. The other was mango and avocado. Nummy. I had been warned by online sushi-making-sites that I would use too much rice. Photographic evidence suggests it is true.

H Mart even sells mangosteen, according to their weekly sales flyer. Sorry, Dad. I didn’t know at the time. They are open until 10 pm tonight. Hurry!