Avivah Werner

Author: Avivah

  • Blintz loaf

    Someone asked me on Sukkos about if we eat entirely meal meals for the holiday, and if not, what we have.  Meat meals do get very expensive, and they get tiresome, too.  I like to serve at least one fish meal out of four meals, and for the second days of Sukkos, I made one dairy meal out of four.  Some of my kids vociferously let me ahead of time know they thought it was a terrible idea and would be very unfestive, but I went ahead anyway, and they all ended up agreeing what a nice meal it was! 

    This information is a little late to be of practical use for the holidays, but I thought you’d enjoy a couple of the recipes.  We served a thick vegetable soup, blintz loaf, and double crust bean pie, and though it was a simple meal, it was really nice.  Each of those things make a nice dinner for a regular week night, too.

    Below is the recipe for the blintz loaf – I’ve made other blintz loaf recipes, but my family prefers this one. Most blintz loaf recipes tend to be more batter, with a thin layer of cheese in the middle.  This is mostly cheese.

    Blintz loaf recipe:

    • 1 lb. small curd cottage cheese (I used ricotta)
    • 3 T. sour cream (I left it out)
    • 1 t. vanilla
    • 1/4 t. baking powder
    • 2 oz. melted butter
    • 3 eggs
    • 1/2 c. flour
    • 3 T. sucanat or honey

    Mix all the ingredients, beating until smooth.  Beat until smooth.  Pour into greased pan, filling to top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 – 40 minutes until brown.

    Avivah

  • Another baked oatmeal recipe!

    I meant to post at least a couple of the recipes from last week’s menu plan, but didn’t get around to it then.  But better late than never – here’s the version of baked oatmeal that we had both this week and last.  When my 2.5 year old saw us bring it to the breakfast table, he cheered, “Yummy, cake!”  Not quite cake, but very tasty.

    • 1 c. butter
    • 1 c. honey (I substituted sucanat and cut the sweetener to 3/4 c.)
    • 4 eggs
    • 6 c. oats
    • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
    • 1/2 tablespoon salt
    • 2 c. milk

    I try to soak the oats in yogurt or kefir the night before, and then reduce the milk by the amount of kefir used.

    Cream the butter and sweetener, mix in eggs.  Then add oats and remaining ingredients.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  I think this makes about a 9 x 13 pan, but since I doubled or tripled the recipe, I can’t say for sure.  Serve warm; I double the recipe and either stick one in the fridge for breakfast a couple of days later, or pop it into the freezer for another week.  Doesn’t need to be warmed before serving, but I think it’s nicer served warm.

    Avivah

  • First step in cheesemaking – done

    I’m feeling very, very busy with all the projects I want to do right away.  Today the kosher rennet I ordered for cheesemaking arrived, and the book on cheesemaking that I reserved also got to the library today.  I made a trip to the library with the kids this afternoon so I could pick it up immediately (I don’t go often – my husband picks up the books I order online on Sunday if I have something waiting – it’s efficient as far as gas and time). 

    Once I got home, it was already dinner time, but I was thinking I’d be able to get a batch of cheese started before going to bed.  That was wildly wishful and unrealistic thinking, because besides the time involved in doing this for the first time, there’s the additional fact that it seems that I need either mesophilic or thermophilic starters for almost all of the cheese recipes.  That’s what’s nice about reading the book; you actually learn what you need to do! 

    I don’t know if it will be easy to find or not – I know where to buy it within five minutes if it didn’t have to be kosher, but now I’ll have to spend some time on the phone making calls about it, finding out if this kind of thing needs to be certified kosher or not, and if so, where to get it.  It helps that dh is in the field of kosher supervision, because he has someone readily available to ask the questions he’s not sure about to. 🙂  But it still takes time.

    I didn’t do the canning today that I said I was planning to do – I was too busy with lots of other things, beginning with standing on line for an hour waiting to vote.  (Not that I’m complaining – as I was standing there, I was thinking about how many people have fought for the privilege of voting in accordance with their beliefs.)  So that means I’ll have to can the soup that I planned to do today, tomorrow (though we ended up getting less than we expected, which means less canning for me!).

    So the first steps have been taken towards cheesemaking – researched kosher rennet, called the manufacturers, called the supply company, ordered it, got the book, and bought 15 gallons of raw milk on Thursday to use – now I have to quickly get the starter I need so that I can use my milk while it’s fresh!  I guess worse comes to worst, we’ll drink the milk, and wait to make cheese for the next time I pick up raw milk, or try to make a batch with store milk (hormone free at least, though that’s far from ideal). 

    I also ordered a bunch of small glass bottles with dropperlids, for others who may want to get some of the kosher rennet in a small amount from me.  I think I’ll have enough to split into 14 – 16 two ounce bottles, which seems to be the size generally sold for individual cheesemakers.  Unfortunately, there’s no source with kosher certification of regular sized containers, and the container size I bought (the smallest available) is intended for small cheesemaking companies – it’s enough for over one thousand gallons of milk!   Of course, letting people know it’s available and making those arrangements is another thing to take care of….but I never complain about being bored!

    Avivah

  • An amazingly good apple – Honey Crisps

    A few days ago I did a big shopping trip and bought four varieties of apples.  There were about eight kinds at the store, and I hadn’t seen most of them.  So I decided to buy several kinds and see what the difference in taste between thered was.

    But two of the kinds resembled one another and got put into the same box once we were home, so I have no way to know what those are like compared to one another.  The least expensive, and least attractive, apple, was called Honey Crisps.  I bought a bushel of those, and now that we’ve had them, I’m sorry I didn’t buy more!  These apples are incredibly good – they’re sweet, crunchy, and taste really good dehydrated as well.  The other varieties that I remember the names of that I bought are Empire and Jonathan, both of which are good but nowhere near as good as these. 

    We all have been really enjoying these and have only a handful of them left – that means a bushel of Honey Crisps have been eaten in four days, and they haven’t even been our only fruits!  The kids have been having plums and bananas, but these are definitely the favorite for now.  If you can pick some up at your local stores, I really recommend trying them!

    Avivah

  • Canning butter

    Today we got two more thermal quilts made – we (dd 12 and 13 and I) sewed the two temporary ones that were hanging for the last few days in the boys’ bedroom.  I think that I’ll do them bit by bit, one or two a day, and we’ll get them done in a timely way without stressing about having a big project hanging over our heads.

    I did something for the first time today – I canned butter!  I bought lots of little (half pint) canning jars a while back because I got an amazing buy, but it’s really not a size that’s very useful for our family size.  They’re great for gifts, but honestly, as happy as I am to share what I make with others, I really don’t want to give away all my jars!  So they’ve been sitting on the shelf, taking up room.  And while I don’t mind storing things that I use, I don’t enjoy seeing things take up space that aren’t serving a purpose!

    I was thinking about what would be a good use of these jars for my family, and it occurred to me that butter would be perfect.  I wouldn’t want to pack butter into anything bigger than a pint in any case, and it is nice to know that we have a decent quality fat on the shelf if we need it.  On Thursday I did my huge monthly shopping, and discovered when I got home and wanted to unpack that I really overestimated my freezer capacity! That meant that I needed to make room by moving some of the food out, either eating it or preserving it.  Since I bought a case of butter last month, I still had about fifteen pounds in the fridge, so I thought it was a good opportunity to see what canning butter would be like. 

    I didn’t can all of it – I think I did about eight pounds, which filled sixteen small jars.  It was very simple to do; the hardest part for me was that since it was dairy, I couldn’t use my regular canner, which I use it for meat.  That technically wasn’t a problem, since butter is canned in a boiling water bath, and I didn’t need to use my pressure canner (though it’s so big that I could have done double the amount at one time that I actually did).  I used my big soup pot instead of the canner and improvised a rack for the bottom with a cloth diaper (to keep the jars off the bottom of the pot).  The biggest problem was that the tools I use are all set aside for meat preparation (tools such as a funnel to pour the food neatly into the jar, and a jar lifter), and it made it a little messier to can everything without those.  I’m going to have to buy another set of canning tools (fortunately a set is inexpensive) so that I’ll have one for dairy and one for meat.  And now I need to figure out how to organize and mark the jars so it will be very obvious which are for which – until now, they’ve all been deemed meat. 

    I got the directions for canning butter from Jackie Clay, who I think is the most amazing and knowledgeable canner around!  She writes a column for Backwoods Home magazine, which I encountered online when I was doing a search for canning instructions for something specific.  She understands the reason for each step of the canning process, bacteria formation, etc, and answers canning queries that you won’t find answers to anywhere else.   She’s amazingly knowledgeable about lots of other homesteading related things, too – it seems like she knows how to do everything! 

    Tomorrow I’m going to look for more things in the freezer to can to make more room – I know I have some chili in there – because I’ll be getting meat on Wednesday and will need a place for it.  And Tuesday I’m blessed to be receiving a huge amount of freshly made vegetable soup (and when I say huge amount, I really mean huge – 10 gallons) that I’ve estimated will take me 2 1/2 days of nonstop canning to process.  It’s not for the happiest reason that it’s suddenly available for us – someone dh knows opened a restaurant a year ago that they’ve suddenly decided to close because it’s not doing well in the current economy.  But because he and his wife really like our family, they offered us the food supplies (the soup and meat) that they aren’t going to transfer to their other restaurant.  I jokingly told my husband that it pays to have good kids, because this couple was so taken with them that I think that’s the real reason we made a big enough impression on them for them to think of us at this busy time.

    So I’ll be busy canning this week, and yes, it is definitely work to do all of this.  I can’t say canning is effortless, though most of the time is spent waiting, not in actual hands on work.  It’s kind of like making bread- when the main effort is to mix the dough and stick it in a pan, but you spend most of the time waiting for it to rise and then bake.  But it’s worth it to me to spend the time canning – it’s already helped to make our food dollars go further and put us in a position to benefit from food we otherwise couldn’t have used for lack of storage space, like all that fruit we picked for free, or like when we were given eight fresh bakery challahs that I only had room for in my freezer because it wasn’t full of all the stuff I used to keep in it.   And a number of times having canned food on the shelf has simplified dinner at the end of a busy day because all I’ve had to do is bring out a couple jars of something and heat it, and voila! – within ten minutes, a hot and nutritious dinner was ready.  My own tasty and nutritious fast food.  🙂

    Avivah

  • Grain grinder out of commission now 🙁

    Remember a week ago that my son burnt out my mixer?  Well, less than a week later, on Thursday night my daughter turned on our grain grinder, and it made an unpleasant sound and started smoking.  Have you ever noticed that things seem to happen in sets?  My food processor recently stopped working, too! 

    First thing the next morning, I went looking for my invoice and checking to see what the warranty on it was.  We’ve had it less than two years, and I thought the warranty was probably for one year.  It was a very pleasant suprise to discover that it has a lifetime warranty!  When I called the company, they were an absolute pleasure to deal with.  They immediately assured me that they’d take care of the problem, either repairing or replacing the part that is broken.  They have to look at it to see what’s wrong, but the representative I spoke to said that it sounds like the motor burnt out, and if that’s the case, they’ll put a new motor in the current grinder’s casing, which sounds great to me!

    I called the online company I bought it from since I was having trouble opening the attachment that they originally sent the invoice as (there was no hard copy included with the order, or I would have saved that separately).  They couldn’t find any record of my purchase, and suggested that I bought it from a different company than them – I was able to forward the original email they had sent with the invoice for their clarification.  And fortunately I was able to open the original invoice and print it out, because without that, the lifetime warranty wouldn’t be worth anything. 

    I asked dh and ds to look in the garage for the original box to send it back in, but they both told me it wasn’t there. But later in the day, when dh was reorganizing the garage, he found it.  That will make it easier to pack appropriately to send it in for service.  It’s so nice to have something go wrong and know that it will be taken care of at minimal cost to me!

    Avivah

  • A night out with my hubby

    My husband and I don’t go out together on an official basis much.  I love the suggestion to have a regular date night, but have found it not too practical for us.  It used to be the pressure to find a babysitter had me feeling so uptight and tense that it would take me an hour of the two hours we were out to unwind. 

    Now we have two kids old enough to stay home with the youngers, so babysitting isn’t an issue.  But my husband often works nights, and on the nights he doesn’t and is home for dinner, a night out doesn’t seem to be the most relaxing way to spend time together.  But honestly, he would be willing to go out if I would.  I tend to find it nicer to relax at home together instead of feeling like we have to go out.  (Though I love when we can go away for 1 – 3 days, something we haven’t done for 2 years now, and aren’t likely to do for quite a bit longer, until the baby is older.) 

    Tonight, though, we managed to get ourselves out, without any kids in tow!  A local composer whom we got to know several years ago when he was a neighbor was having a world premiere of his trombone concerto tonight, and I was able to get free tickets for the performance.  Wow, was it beautiful.  His wasn’t the only piece being performed; there were several others, like Mozart and Beetoven.  But his was the one that a big deal was made over, and he and his wife really appreciated seeing us there.

    For me, it was nice to see that his career has really taken off in the last couple of years.  When we had his family over for dinner several years ago, he expressed what a challenging field it was.  And the experience of listening to a live orchestra perform music composed by someone I knew made it a much richer listening experience.

    By the way, in case others have this issue, my husband and I have a different set of priorities when it comes to getting somewhere on time.  I really like to be on time, and he likes to get there at some point in the evening.  And that can create some challenges, like tonight when he said he needed to eat before we went.  I said fine, but suggested that eating and being on time weren’t mutually exclusive, and asked him to eat with an eye on getting there in a timely way.  While he was eating, I changed my outfit, organized baby clothes in the attic for storage, took winter clothes that fit my baby to his dresser, took out the clothes that aren’t weather appropriate for him and the toddler from that dresser, and finally went downstairs, thinking he would be waiting for me.  My husband was still eating.  In a very leisurely way.  And we were supposed to have left a half hour before.  There have been times in the past that I’ve been so bothered by this apparent disregard for getting out on time that I’ve let it get in the way of wherever we’ve gone once we finally got out the door.  But I’m finding it helpful to remind myself to keep the big picture in front of me, so that I don’t react negatively to things that are minor.  The big picture was wanting to go out to spend a nice evening with my husband to build our relationship.  Saying anything about how late it was would only have created unnecessary tension – it certainly wouldn’t have gotten us there on time – so I didn’t say anything.  During the intermission of the concert, he told me he really appreciated that I stayed relaxed even though we got there a half hour late. 

    So in spite of the initial challenge, we really enjoyed ourselves, and most importantly, we achieved our goal of spending time together in a way that enhanced our relationship.

    Avivah

  • Making thermal shades

    I’m getting ready for winter here, and have been thinking about some things I can do to keep our house warm without needing to increase our heating costs.  In our area, gas and electric rates are set to rise sharply this winter, and I know many other areas across the country are facing this same situation.  I just bought the oldest three kids new sets of thermals on ebay, since a warm underlayer makes a really big difference to keeping warm, in and out of the house.  That will help them stay warm even if I don’t keep the heat up too high.  Another thing I’m doing, which is addressing the aspect of keeping the house warmer, is making (and hanging) thermal shades.

    Have you ever heard of people covering their windows with blankets during the winter to keep the cold air out?  Thermal shades, or window quilts, are based on that same idea.  I’m using materials that I had around the house to make them, so I don’t have any extra material costs.  The only expense is a spring tension rod (under $4) for each window to hang them on.

    Here’s how I’m making ours: I’m using a layer of batting on the inside, and a layer of muslin to surround the batting on each side.  It’s like a sandwich – muslin, batting, muslin.  Then I’m stitching them all together, and I made a one inch casing at the top to insert the curtain rod in.  Since the muslin is a light cream color, they let the light come through but the three layers of material are thick enough to keep really reduce drafts.  Our windows are only ten years old, but there’s still a significant amount of air leakage – I can only imagine how bad the old windows are.  They also match all of the bedrooms, and look nice from the inside and outside. 

    There are less labor intensive ways to do it if you don’t have time or basic sewing skills (though all you need to know is how to run a straight stitch on a sewing machine), and in my boys’ bedroom, I have two temporary curtains done in a quickie way.  If I had enough batting, I would have done all of them like this, but I didn’t.  One layer of batting isn’t thick enough to be very substantial, though it’s still helpful to insulate more than if I had nothing there, so I’m leaving them hanging until I have time to sew up the three layers.  If you were to use two layers of batting, you could cut small slits a couple of inches down from the top, several slits along the top, creating a row of slits where you can insert the curtain rod.  If I didn’t have batting and were going to buy material, I would buy fleece (at 50% off) that matched each room and do the same thing.  Fleece doesn’t need any hemming and all you would have to do is cut the fabric in the shape of the window, cut the slits, and hang it up.  That would probably take under 10 minutes per window.  I’d strongly suggest a light colored fabric, to let the light in.  The idea of rooms that are dark seems depressing to me, even if they’re toasty and warm. 

    Here’s a link to an article that I read in the summer that first got me thinking about this:

    http://www.motherearthnews.com/Modern-Homesteading/1983-11-01/The-Homemade-Thermal-Shade.aspx.  I’ve made my own design that I think is simpler and cut the costs down involved, but their directions are much more detailed than mine, and you can get an idea of the basic concept and see if it is something that would work for you. 

    After the first night, my 12 yo daughter, who sleeps next to the window in her room that we put the first quilt on, told me she was noticeably warmer.  I asked her how she could tell a difference, and she said usually she doesn’t want to get out from under her covers in the morning, and this time it was fine.  I made this on Wednesday, and since I was out all day yesterday, I haven’t yet made one for the other window in their room.  She told me there’s a noticeable difference when she stands in front of each of the two windows in temperature and she definitely thinks I should cover all the windows like this. 

    Avivah

  • Canning supplies running low

    It’s interesting to watch how the state of the economy is affecting many things you wouldn’t expect!  One of those things is canning supplies.

    When I started canning just a few months ago, I was fairly easily able to find all of my jars used.  I usually named my price if I felt their asking price was too high, and the sellers always agreed (I was fair and reasonable; I never take advantage of people).  There was almost never a situation where I had to buy them fast before someone else did.  I was even given several dozen jars free, that were new in the box, by people happy to get them out of the way.  But that’s all changing rapidly – I see the price of used jars going up, and being sold fast.  Most stores that stock canning supplies are sold out across the country, whereas usually they have to discount the leftovers at the end of the season (I had been waiting for those sales, lol!). 

    Last week I saw a post for someone selling brand new jars, and called because I’ve been filling up my jars faster than I expected, and I’d rather get more now before I need them. And I prefer buying new jars to used jars when I can get them at used prices, so this was an opportunity that I wanted to take advantage of.  (You probably noticed that’s my theme, right, buy it at a good price before I need it? :))  When I picked up the jars from the seller, she told me she had gotten so many calls about them that she couldn’t remember who she spoke to about what.  I’ve never spoken to anyone who I bought jars from who said that – in fact, two different sellers held the jars for almost two weeks for me until I was in their area and could pick them up.  For my huge purchase of almost 35 dozen from one person (when I got that amazing deal I shared with you), I was the only person who called them. 

    This morning I called the Amish owner of a bulk store that I periodically order from, to inquire about the current bulk grain prices.  (He’s available at the phone from 7:45 – 8 am only.)  I was there on Friday, and noticed they didn’t have bulk packaged lids in the regular size in stock, so today I asked him to order some for me, in addition to my grain order.  He told me that he doesn’t know why, but he can’t get quart jars or regular sized lids from the supplier anymore – there are none to be had.  He might not have known why, but it’s obvious to me.  A lot of people are worried (panicking, actually) about the possible food scarcity in the near future and are getting into canning as a way to prepare. 

     I told my  husband that I feel lucky that I happened to be ahead of the curve when I got interested in canning, and I’m so glad I was!  Who knew that the interest in canning would rise so fast and so drastically?  No one around here has even heard of canning – I’ve yet to meet one person in my community who cans!  I would hate to be trying to get into canning now, with the prices of new canning supplies so high and so few new or used supplies to be found. 

    Avivah

  • Storing bulk grains

    In June, I shared some suggestions for preparing for emergencies, which included stocking up on water and food.  Some of you might be wondering where and how to store the foods you’ve bought (and if you haven’t been buying some food to stock your pantries for at least a couple of weeks, I really, really strongly suggest you do it now – really). 

    The ideal foods that can be bought ahead and stored for a fairly long time are beans and grains.  They are easy to buy at most supermarkets and health food stores, and still fairly cheap, and you can get big discounts if you choose to buy large 50 lb bags, which you can split with a friend or two if that’s way too much for you to think of using in this lifetime. 🙂   

    What kind of grains can you store?  Wheat, amaranth, millet, buckwheat, rice (though supposedly brown rice gets rancid within a few months, I’ve never had a problem), oats (whole, steel cut, rolled, quick), barley, quinoa, corn, popcorn (you know that’s an important part of everyone’s daily diet!).  Flour and cornmeal don’t stay nearly as long as the whole grains, though it hasn’t stopped me from buying that, too – especially since my grinder grinds corn finer than I like it to be, so the whole corn I bought ages ago is still sitting, unused.  For cornmeal, I like to get the 1 or 2 lb packages that are each separately packaged – easier to freeze, to use, and to protect from infestation.  Then there are loads of different kinds of beans, in addition to yellow and green split peas and lentils. 

    Over the last few years, I’ve gotten free buckets from a restaurant, that vary from the large pickle size (I don’t know how many gallons that is – maybe 3?) to 6 gallons.  These are round and have tight fitting lids, and are perfect for food storage.  I’ve heard that restaurants and bakeries around the country give these away, though you usually have to wash them out (I’ve been lucky – mine have all been washed). 

    I line each bucket with a garbage bag, and fill the bucket with the grain.  Ideally, you should freeze the grain for a couple of days before you put it in the bucket in case there’s any weevils or moth egg that could potentially hatch; that will kill them.  You won’t usually have this, but all you need is one moth to hatch, and it can infest your entire pantry – it’s amazing what they can get into. 

    I also have square buckets, that I love and prefer by far over the round buckets, but they are much harder for me to get hold of.  The restaurant that I got my buckets from usually returns them to the food companies, so I’m delighted whenever I’ve been able to get them.  The reason I prefer them is the same reason I prefer square or rectangular food containers for the fridge – they use the space more efficiently and look neater and more organized.  Another is that sometimes when I get the round buckets, I’m given mismatched lids that don’t close properly (since there are several size buckets as well as different companies that make them and therefore slight differences in even lids that are the same size), but the square lids always fit perfectly – very tight seals. 

    For the beans, until now I’ve found it cheaper to buy them by the 1 or 2 lb bags, not in bulk.  But yesterday when I noticed the recent price increases for beans, I thought I probably should reevaluate if this is still the most affordable option.  I don’t have enough of each kind of bean to fill a bucket, and even if I did, I don’t have enough buckets, so what I do is put them all in a large rectangular plastic storage container – I put all of each kind of bean together so it’s easy to pull out what I need without hunting through all of them. 

    There are also other things other than grains and beans that can be stored.  Cans of tuna, fruit, vegetables, peanut butter – whatever you would usually use for your family.  Imagine that a hurricane hit your area (like what happened just sevem weeks ago with Ike across many states in the US) and you couldn’t go shopping for a week.  What would you want to have on hand?  Remember, when there’s no power, your refrigerator and freezer aren’t going to be useful.  So you need to have shelf stable foods available.  Whatever your personal list is, that’s what you should stock up on.

    I don’t believe in running out and stocking up on a bunch of foods you don’t eat and don’t know how to prepare.  I’ve used wheat berries for almost three years and since we grind all of our grains, it’s natural for us to buy them.  But I wouldn’t recommend across the board that people buy wheat berries just because they store well – you’ll end up letting them sit there forever! 

    These buckets do take up some space, but not nearly as much as you would think.  Fifty pounds of grain fits in two 5 gallon buckets – and fifty pounds of grain is a lot of food!  They can be stacked and placed against a wall in an out of the way area of your home – for us, that’s the basement.  Don’t think I run up and down the stairs every time I need a cup of rice, though!  I keep smaller containers of the grains in my kitchen for daily use, and send one of the kids down to fill them up when they get low. 

    And no, mice can’t get into these!  I’ve heard rats can, so if you have rats, you need metal storage containers, but hopefully none of you have to deal with that.  Also, I’ve heard that putting some bay leaves at the top of each container helps prevent insect infestation – they don’t like the smell.  I got some bay leaves on Friday, but haven’t gotten around to putting them in the buckets yet, but in any case I don’t have long term experience with how well that works.

    Avivah