Monthly Archives: February 2010

Coconut Rice – gluten free

recipes

I made this last week for breakfast and the kids really liked it, and when I made it again this week they still were very enthusiastic.  So I guess it’s a keeper!

Coconut Rice

  • 1 c. coconut milk (unsweetened)
  • 1 c. water
  • 1 c. brown rice (I soak it overnight in an acidic medium – did something different this time that I’ll share about later this week)
  • 1 thin slice of peeled fresh ginger
  • 3/4 t. sea salt

Bring the coconut milk and water to boil, then stir in the remaining ingredients.  Cover and cook on a low heat until all the liquid is absorbed.  When the rice is finished, you can sprinkle 1/3 c. shredded coconut over it.

This can be a nice side dish or a light breakfast when served with a piece of fruit.

This post is part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.)

Avivah

Weekly menu plan

menu plans, nutrition

With our record snowfall, I’ve been snowed in for a week now. We were stuck three days after the first snow and then a bunch of neighbors got together to pay for a private snowplow (our city isn’t very good about plowing side streets – my in laws two miles away are in a different county and they had the county plow go down their street four times; in one day; they can’t believe what we have to deal with).   Then there was the next snow and our street was so blocked up, the private plow we tried to hire couldn’t get through!  The city plowed our street on Friday, but it still doesn’t look like I’ll be going anywhere for a couple more days since the new radiator in our van sprung a leak (fortunately it’s under warranty).  Right before the last snow I picked up enough vegetables for two weeks, as I do every two weeks (around $50 for two weeks, so I stayed within the $25 limit I said I was committing to; anything else I need will be coming from whatever is in the pantry or freezer).

I’d be feeling very, very low on food by now if I had the habit of buying just a little more than I need;  I never expected that it would be so long before I could get out, but it doesn’t really make a difference to me.  Even though it’s been a month since I shopped (except for getting the vegetables a week ago) and out of a couple of staples that I rely heavily on (raw milk and eggs), we’re doing fine.

Here’s the menu plan for this week:

Shabbos – dinner – challah, chicken soup, roast chicken and potatoes, carrot raisin tzimmes, beet salad, peanut butter cups; lunch – cholent (beef stew), eggplant dip, kishke (stuffing), traffic light salad, beet salad, ginger tamari corn chips/blue corn chips with dip

Sunday – breakfast – oranges and pumpkin pie; lunch – homemade eggrolls; dinner- hoppin’ john with gribenes

Monday – b – coconut rice (will share recipe later this week); l – mushroom barley soup; d – sausage chowder

Tuesday – b – banana nut muffins; l – mushroom barley soup; d – baked fish, fried okra

Wednesday – b – quinoa pudding (w/coconut milk); l – cabbage soup; d – Jamaican rice and beans

Thursday – b – blueberry Dutch puffs; l – CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night – well, day in this case :)); d – tacos, guacamole

Today I’m doing a some advance prep for the meals for this week.  In recent months I’ve been moving away from relying heavily on grains and beans, but am falling back on them more this week to compensate for not being able to go shopping for milk and eggs.

I’m soaking 4 pounds of black eyed peas for the hoppin’ John and Jamaican rice and beans, 2 pounds of red beans and 2 pounds of chickpeas for the sausage chowder.  All except the black eyed peas I need for tonight’s dinner will be strained in the morning to begin sprouting.  I’m also soaking five cups of rice for breakfast tomorrow as well as a couple of pounds of barley for the soup.  I have a new way of soaking grains to break down the phytic acid that I’m experimenting with and will share that once I see what the results are.

I have another 16 quart pot of stock on the stove.  It’s crazy how much stock we’re going through – at least three pots this size every week.  As always, stocks are at the foundation of many of my meals; even those that look vegetarian are cooked with a rich stock base to boost the nutrients.

(This post is part of Menu Plan Monday.)

Avivah

The problem with toothpaste

dental health, nutrition

It’s been two years since I wrote about how to use your diet to improve your dental health.  I also wrote about my thoughts on toothbrushing not being a critical factor to healthy teeth and cavity prevention.  And when I wrote about the many uses of baking soda as well as about the uses of coconut oil, I mentioned that I use baking soda and coconut oil as toothpaste alternatives.  Though I haven’t been using commercial toothpastes for over four years, I’ve never shared my reasons here.

I have several concerns about toothpaste.  One is fluoride, which is a commercial waste product and toxin that despite all the hype hasn’t been proven to prevent tooth decay. (If you’re interested in learning more fluoride, you can start at this site).  It’s baffled me for years that there are warnings on the tube of toothpaste like “Do not swallow” and “In case of accidental ingestion, contact the poison control center” since swallowing a pea sized amount of toothpaste can poison a young child – but while we lock up chemical cleansers so they don’t get into it, we don’t even consider the free access our kids have to toothpaste.  Not only do we not keep them away from it, we lovingly open their tiny mouths and rub it all over their teeth.

Then there’s the another thing that puzzles me.  Dentists tell you to brush well after eating sweets, and then the paste you use to brush your teeth is filled with sweeteners.  Doesn’t that seem….well, contradictory?  You dip your brush in something sweet to rub away the residues of sweet food?

There are ingredients like the detergent sodium lauryl sulfate that may cause irritation to sensitive gums (linked to canker sores for many people).  And then there’s a very problematic ingredient called glycerin.  A good diet can substantially increase the strength of your teeth, and even remineralize them when decay has occurred (yes, that means you can heal your teeth through high quality nutrition).  Your teeth can only remineralize if they are clean, but glycerin coats your teeth with a film that prevents them from being able to absorb nutrients (and it takes 27 rinses to wash off the glycerin).  You can see how this is working against your efforts to build stronger teeth!

These are some of the reasons we don’t use toothpaste.  I’ll write about what what you can use as toothpaste alternatives as well as share about my kids’ dental history in another post.

(This post is part of Fight Back Friday.)

Avivah

How to render animal fat

frugal strategies, nutrition, Pesach, recipes, ,

>>How do you render animal fat?<<

Sometimes I forget that many things I do that have become second nature to me need explanation!   Rendering fat is very, very easy, and it’s a frugal thing to do since most people tend to throw away the skin and fat; you can save money while simultaneously benefiting your health.

Take the fat of your choice (chicken, duck, beef), and cut it into chunks if it’s large.  It doesn’t need to be ground or minced, but if you have big pieces from beef, cutting it into 2 inch chunks will help it melt faster.  I don’t usually have any pieces big enough to cut.  You can separate any flesh from it, but I don’t bother since that’s more easily done at the end.  Put the chunks of fat into a pot on the very lowest flame/heat setting on your stovetop so that it will very slowly melt – if you put it too high, it will burn.  As the fat melts, it becomes clear.  Keep the pot covered to keep the heat in, and after a few hours (sometimes significantly less) on low, the fat will be totally liquified.  Be sure to take a look at it every once in a while to be sure it’s not cooking too fast.

Once it’s fully melted, you can do one of three things, depending on how you’re planning to use and store the fat once it’s rendered.  1) Carefully pour the liquified fat through a fine mesh strainer/cheesecloth to catch the little drippings.  This will give you the best result in terms of asthetics; additionally, by straining out all of the protein sediment, it will stay good for a very long time.  2) Use a slotted spoon to take the cracklings out, saving them to use in a savory dish.  3) Don’t bother straining it because you’ll be using the rendered fat in cooking (vs baking) and you don’t care about if there are a few little pieces. Whatever you choose, store it in a container with a tight fitting lid.

I tend to go with option 2 or 3, since I only use animal fat for sauteeing, not baking (coconut oil is my ‘go to’ fat for baking).  And I use it so quickly that it doesn’t matter to me if it will only stay good for a few weeks vs a few months.  If I’m doing a huge batch, though, I’ll take the extra few minutes to strain it out.

I also reserve the liquid that is left at the bottom of the pan after roasting poultry or meat.  When it’s refrigerated, it naturally separates, with the fat rising to the top and the gravy sinking to the bottom.  I scrape off the fat layer to saute with and add the congealed broth that is left to  a stew or casserole – it packs in a lot of flavor.  When I make broth and refrigerate it overnight, the fat will congeal on top.  If it’s a very concentrated pot of broth (ie large amount of bones to water), then I skim the fat or the broth tastes too greasy.  This is particularly important when I do lamb broth, since it tastes like drinking oil if you don’t skim it first.

Is anyone familiar with gribenes? My mother used to make these on Pesach (Passover).  Gribenes are a traditional Jewish food, the kind of things people now consider a heart attack waiting to happen, but if you know about saturated fats and why they’re so important to your body, you can enjoy them with a clear mind.  🙂

Gribenes are basically just crispy fried chicken skins.  To make them, you take some unrendered fat and chicken skin (cut it in strips).  Chop up an onion, and put it together in the pot with the fat and chicken skins.  Keep the flame on low until the fat has melted, then turn it up to medium and keep cooking until the onions and skins are golden. Sprinkle with a little salt, and enjoy!  My kids like these hot from the pan as is, but it’s a nice addition to chopped liver or any mashed potato dish (on Pesach, you know that means you can put it into everything :lol:).

Note: kosher supermarkets sell chicken fat around Pesach (Passover) time, not so much the rest of the year.  Our local store sells schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) throughout the year, but it’s way more expensive than making your own (I haven’t checked for a long time, but I think it was over $5 lb).

(This post is part of Pennywise Platter Thursday.)

Avivah

(My apologies for mentioning Pesach when Purim is still over two weeks away; everyone who felt anxious at the mention can now stop hyperventilating. :))

Busy in the kitchen today

nutrition

Well, we’ve hit an eighty year record for snowfall here in our state!  It’s still coming down and there’s more called for in the beginning of the week. Dh doesn’t have work today, and it’s so nice to have him home in the middle of the week with us.  I keep feeling like it’s Friday today.  We’re all staying warm and snug inside – we’ve had so much snow that everyone stayed inside until after lunch.  Now they’re going out to build an igloo.   When everyone is inside all day, it’s a different feeling than the daily busyness; it’s more relaxed and peaceful.

Usually Sundays are my prep days and when I post my weekly menu, I also post my food prep plans for the day/week.  I’ve been busy in the kitchen today doing a little of this and a little of that. I can’t say I’m doing more today than usual, but maybe because of the snowed in feeling, I feel like I am! 🙂

I made a recipe for lunch that’s getting mixed reviews from the kids – peanut soup.  I sauteed a 3 large onions and a head garlic in lots of coconut oil, stirred in arrowroot powder, than added a can coconut milk, lots of chicken stock, 2 jars of organic chunky peanut butter (not sweetened), and spices.  I very loosely based it on a Joy of Cooking recipe, and used the peanut butter in the proportions they recommended, though it seemed like a lot to me.  It’s very tasty, but a little too peanut buttery – I’ll cut the peanut butter by half next time and I think it will be perfect.

The bulk ferments I started last week are ready now and are really good.  That was the first time I prepared ferments in such large quantities – usually I make my ferments a gallon at a time (I realize for many people a gallon would be preparing in bulk :)) but this time I used two five gallon buckets (food grade).  Something I like about lacto fermenting is how extremely easy it is; my ferments are whatever I feel like throwing together that day.  I made one bucket of cortido (Latin American sauerkraut): I used 4 or 5 very large heads of napa, 4 large daikon (each about 18 inches long), 22 regular sized carrots, 3 huge Spanish onions, and 1/2 gallon of lacto fermented purple sauerkraut (just red cabbage) to add some color and hasten the fermenting process along.  I planned to add garlic and fresh ginger but dd washed the food processor before I had a chance to chop them up, and I didn’t feel like taking it back out to add it.  🙂 I’ve never used napa before – usually I use cabbage – but cabbage takes so long to be ready and I thought this would work faster.  It did.  And even before it’s soft, it still tastes great – it has a nice crunch instead of the rubbery and squeaky feeling of not quite ready cabbage.

The other bucket is a large batch of pickled green beans. I needed to clear some freezer space so I used up 2 or 3 five pound bags of organic green beans that were taking up room.  Last time I made these I was very happy with the flavor but not the consistency; I wanted them to be crisp but they weren’t.  I thought I might have left them to ferment too long and this time I planned to refrigerate them sooner.  No luck.  It wasn’t until 2 days after I started the green beans that I remembered that I needed a source of tannic acid.  The only thing I could remember being good for this was grape leaves (don’t have any), oak leaves (don’t have any), and strawberry leaves (my plants are dormant right now).   When the summer comes around I’ll be sure to add it to keep them crispy.

I have four or five heads of cabbage that I’m planning to do something with today – I think I’ll start a batch of curried sauerkraut – it’s just cabbage, carrots, onions, and curry.  I’ll use a five gallon bucket for that, too!   If I make it now it will be ready when the napa cortido is finished.  Sauerkraut always takes longer than anything else so I like to make it with plenty of lead time.

Dh is using the juice from the ferments as as called for in the introductory GAPS diet and will soon be including larger amounts of the fermented vegetables themselves, which is one reason I’m making larger than usual quantities.  I didn’t want to run out.  🙂  And with this cold weather, it’s not like they need to be refrigerated, so I’m keeping them in an unheated room in the basement once they’re finished.

Yesterday I did a massive defrosting of our full size freezer.  It is so old and really needs to be replaced; the frost builds up super fast.  I filled a five gallon bucket with frost and ice that I cleared, and then there were another couple of gallons after that.  That takes up a lot of space!  It’s nice to have it done so I can see what we actually have in there – the frost is so bad that it ices things in and covers it up so it’s impossible to see what’s there.  Now that it’s done I see that my supposedly packed freezer is really not very full at all.

Today for the first time we’re making fish stock.  I’ve thought of doing this before and even gotten fish heads for it, but it just didn’t appeal to me so I never did.  Dh wants to have some, though, because he’s getting a little tired of chicken broth (staple in the introductory phase of GAPS) and wants some variety. I use chicken broth for everything and assuming the fish broth is tasty, will have to think how to integrate this.  He’ll eat it as it is, though, so it certainly won’t go to waste.

The four pounds of walnuts that I soaked and dried were ready to be put away yesterday but I left them in the dehydrator until today; it’s nice to get them done.  Along with the 12 cups of sliced almonds I did on Sunday night, we have enough soaked nuts prepared for the next couple of weeks.

Lastly, the beans for tonight’s dinner (baked beans and hot dogs) and tomorrow’s breakfast (breakfast tacos) are bubbling away on the stove.

And it’s only 2pm! 🙂

(This post is part of Tuesday Twister.)

Avivah

Coconut Flour Biscuits

recipes

Since I first found this recipe, I’ve seen it in a number of places online.  But as far as I can tell, it originates from Bruce Fife’s book.

Coconut Flour Biscuits

  • 3 eggs
  • 2 T. coconut oil
  • 1 – 3 T. honey
  • 1/4 t. sea salt
  • 1/4 t. vanilla
  • coconut flour to thicken
  • shredded coconut for texture
  • optional – dried or fresh fruit (diced), berries, nuts, chocolate chips

Blend the first five ingredients, then add enough coconut flour until it’s thick like cookie dough.  Add some shredded coconut if you like.  You can also add fruits or nuts at this time.

Drop by the tablespoon onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes; delicious served fresh from the oven with butter and homemade jam.

This is a tasty recipe, but it reminds me more of macaroons that are sold around Pesach-time (Passover) than biscuits.  Maybe day I’ll play around and see if I can create a savory biscuit.  Nonetheless, everyone enjoys them for breakfast.  (I make about 5 times this recipe for our family.)  Because they are so high in fat, the kids get filled up after a fairly small number of them.  An added bonus is that I can give one to the baby (8.5 months), who I’m trying to keep away from grains of any sorts as long as I possibly can.

(This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays.)

Avivah

Nutty Pizza Crust (grain-free)

Pesach, recipes,

In our family everyone enjoys pizza; for the last few months we’ve been serving two versions on pizza night to accomodate those who prefer grain-free/GAPS.   This crust has a nice flavor – and though it doesn’t taste like your typical pizza dough, it’s very tasty.

I made some very slight adaptations to the recipes of Sierra and SOG , and this is what we use now when we want a gluten-free pizza crust.

Nutty Pizza Crust

  • 2 c. nut flour (I prefer hazelnut, but have used almond meal successfully)
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 t. coconut oil (I use expeller pressed)
  • 1 t. salt

Melt the coconut oil, let cool slightly.  Beat the eggs, add in the coconut oil and salt. (You don’t want it to be boiling hot or it will curdle the eggs; if you don’t melt it, it’s hard to mix in evenly.)  Then stir in the nut flour; mix thoroughly.

Form it into a ball, and then pat it out on a greased pan or cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for about twenty minutes until browned.  Then add the toppings – sauce, vegetables, and cheese.  Bake another 10 – 15 minutes until it looks ready.

Enjoy!

(This post is part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.)

Avivah

Making graduation plans

homeschooling

A couple of weeks ago I shared about our decision to have our 15 and 16 year graduate early.  In the last couple of weeks I’ve been pretty busy putting pieces in place for that to happen; one of the details we’ve been thinking about is whether they will participate in an official graduation ceremony.  Our homeschool umbrella program organizes a graduation every year, and it sounds like it will be a memorable and enjoyable event.  We have to register to participate by March 1, so this is a fairly immediate decision to make.  It will take place in June in historic Gettysburg, with Civil War era music being played by period reenactors, an address by ‘Abraham Lincoln’, in addition to another well-known speaker.  Definitely sounds more interesting and memorable than my high school graduation!

I broached the idea to my kids, and their response was, “Who needs a graduation?”  It’s interesting that the kind of things that people in school think homeschoolers are missing out on are very often just not that important to homeschoolers.  When you’re part of a system that constantly tells you that you need something, you begin to accept that as something that is your due, and feel deprived without it.  My kids haven’t heard how important graduations are, and they don’t feel it’s especially necessary.

But we decided that they’ll participate for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, I do think it’s nice to mark this transition point for them and acknowledge all that they’ve done to reach this point.  My ds16 said he hasn’t done anything, so why make a big deal of it (this is typical for him since he tends to downplay his accomplishments).  I asked him if kids in school have done something that should be noted, and he responded, yes, because they take tests. 🙄  So while I’m not a fan of testing as proof of accomplishment, I told him if he wants tests to prove some kind of accomplishment to himself, he’ll get some tests.  The things we do to make our children happy.  😆   (I’m planning to use CLEP exams for this testing which can be used towards college credits; the kids will select the exams that match the general education requirements of the degree programs they each want to enter.)

Secondly, we have family members (read: grandparents) who value accomplishments most when they match ‘the system’.  Though I don’t determine what we do academically to impress anyone or try to validate myself, in this case I think it’s important to the relationship for the kids to have what they’ve done seen as valid by their grandparents.  The math, writing, or whatever skill building/information absorbing they’ve done is of much less significance there isn’t something official that says someone says they did it.

I don’t like it, but I understand it, and I want my children to be treated with the same appreciation they have for others who have official graduations  After hearing about the graduation plans, the grandparents are excited and now telling me how smart and well-educated our kids are.  That’s not to say they didn’t feel that before, but now they’re expressing it!  And it’s especially a pleasant thing to hear since for years concerns were expressed that the kids wouldn’t learn what they need (“you’re training them to become manual laborers”) to succeed in life.

Thirdly, I think it will be fun and a nice memory for everyone!

Along with the decision to participate in the graduation comes the less significant but more interesting decisions (for the kids) as to what color gown to order for the graduation and deciding about the tassels.  (Did you know how many tassel choices there are??  You can get one color, two colors, to match the gown, contrast with the gown, then there are different charms with different finishes….)  Then I’ll order a matching leatherette diploma holder for each of them for when they receive their diplomas at the ceremony.  If I make my purchases by April 1 there’s a discount, so naturally you know I’ll be ordering before then!

(This post is part of the Carnival of Homeschooling.)

Avivah

Weekly menu plan

menu plans

This week I’m unusually low on groceries only three weeks after doing my monthly shopping.  I bought two cases of sweet potatoes that were supposed to last for at least six weeks but rotted after two and had to be thrown away (note – there apparently was some kind of problem with the quality, it’s not that I bought too much or stored them improperly; I’ve been buying like this for two or three years with no problem, and the store is refunding the entire purchase price), the 10 gallons of milk are finished until the next shopping trip, I bought 30 dozen eggs and they’re finished after 3 weeks (when I expected them to last for at least a month as they usually do), there’s hardly any hard cheese left….and with dh eating according to the GAPS diet, I’m going through vegetables faster than usual.

So I’m just about out of some basic staples and this week will be a real pantry challenge for me.  My goal is to make ample meals three times a day for 10 – 11 people each time, without spending more than $25 on some vegetables and eggs for the week, otherwise only using what I already have in the house.  The menus below are based on those ‘ground rules’.

Shabbos (Sabbath) – dinner – challah, chicken soup, roast chicken, ratatouille, butternut squash fries, roast potatoes, fruit cobbler, chocolates ; lunch – cholent (beef stew), kishke (stuffing), chicken wings, broccoli apple salad, carrot raisin salad, brownies, mock oatmeal cookies

Sunday- breakfast – grits, grapefruit; lunch – beef stew, salad; dinner – quinoa with roasted garlic, tempeh (fermented soybean curd), and stir fried vegetables (onions, napa, snow peas, butternut squash)

Monday – b – coconut rice; l – millet cheese cakes; d – Nancy’s chili (new chili recipe I’m trying out)

Tuesday – b – johnny cakes with homemade strawberry jam; l – Georgia peanut soup homemade bread; d – fish and chips, coleslaw

Wednesday – b – peach and berry cobbler, cream; l – soup and bread; d – hot dogs and baked beans

Thursday – b -breakfast tacos; d – vegetable pilaf with cashews

Friday – b – banana nut muffins

I only listed the main dishes for the most part since I won’t know what veggies I’ll buy until I see what is a great deal.  But there will be some sort of vegetables at all of the lunch and dinner meals.

Today we started soaking three different kinds of beans for this week’s recipes: 2 pounds of pintos, 2 pounds of kidneys, and 2 pounds of navy beans. In the morning I’ll drain them and they’ll be ready to begin sprouting.  I also started (well, to be accurate I asked dd15 to start them) soaking nuts: 12 cups of cashews and almost 4 lb of walnuts. Cashews don’t need much time to soak – if you leave them too long they get slimy – so I’m going to put them in the dehydrator before I go to bed. Then in the morning I’ll take them out and put the walnuts in to dry.  Have I recently mentioned how much I love my dehydrator?  🙂

I’m thinking about getting another sourdough starter going; it’s been a while since I baked any sourdough.  It takes about a week to ‘grow’ your starter so you really can’t spontaneously decide you feel like making sourdough one day!  The bread that I’m planning to make midweek will be whole grain but not sourdough.

I did a mega batch of fermented vegetables last week – four gallons of cortido (ethnic sauerkraut), and 3 or 4 gallons of green beans.  The cortido should be ready this week and I’ll see how it compares to our favorite, an adaptation on the basic curried carrot sauerkraut recipe I shared a while back.

(This post is part of Menu Plan Monday.)

Avivah

Enjoying the snow

miscellaneous

We’ve enjoyed a beautiful and heavy snowfall the last couple of days around here.  I don’t know how much the news is officially reporting fell, but my kids said based on how high up their leg they sink, it’s at least 2.5 feet.  It’s been six or seven years since we had such a massive snowfall in one day.  We had a nice and relaxing day inside for the most part, though the kids enjoyed trekking out the main streets and watching how few cars were out.  So fun!

And so peaceful and quiet, too.  There are hardly any people outside, almost no cars, no buses or public vehicles.  With snow like this, none of the streets are plowed, not even the main streets.  My kids watched the snow plow get stuck and the driver had to jump out with a snow shovel and manually shovel himself out!  Late Saturday night the kids were out doing some snow shoveling themselves.  We don’t give our kids allowances, so if they want to have spending money, they earn it.  This is one opportunity a couple of used to earn money.

I’m gratified that the desire to make money has not caused them to look at people as sources of money but rather people to help.  Ds11 voluntarily shoveled the walkway of an elderly neighbor last week with our last snowfall (just six inches or so then) and then refused to take money when she offered it; she lost her husband several months ago and financially she’s very limited.  Then dd13 and dd15 did her walkway tonight – that was a huge job, since it’s so deep now – and they were very happy that it was so late that she was sleeping and didn’t see them doing it; she’ll wake up in the morning to a nice clear path from her front door.  They like surprises like that.

edited: we were happy to learn that things weren’t as they seemed.  They kids had a lot of fun in the deep snow, and a couple of them stumbled onto a bit of…..a mystery.  Those involved don’t know that they were seen and they certainly don’t know someone has tracked them and figured out some important details.   There’s no one else who will know about this and it’s something that is pretty important; the ramifications of this information in the wrong hands are frightening.  I’ll be making some calls to put this information into the right hands in the next couple of days and hopefully this can be used strategically to beef up security for the area that was concerned.  So there was some excitement along with the fun!

When they were at the main street during the day (right before the above discovery), dd15 said she saw a car get stuck trying to make a turn.  It took fifteen minutes for the driver to be able to navigate onto the road he was trying to turn on, and she said to me as she watched him from a distance in his shirtsleeves trying to push his car, she was reminded of what I tell them in the winter – even if you’re going to be going in a car, take your coat anyway because you might end up needing it.  I’m sure that man would have been glad to have had gloves and a coat on!  Consider that a reminder – when you travel in the winter, remember that it’s the winter and be appropriately dressed!

I was thinking how fortunate we are to have weather reports that are fairly accurate that allow people to prepare for weather like this.  Most people don’t have enough food in their houses for more than a day or two; imagine if they didn’t have a warning that allowed them to stock up on what they needed?!

I hope you’re all safe and warm, and enjoying whatever weather you have!  As I tell myself, summer and the heat will be here soon enough so we better enjoy all of the snow and ice while it’s here. 🙂

Avivah