Quilt

Another reason I felt accomplished on Saturday was because I had finished R's quilt. Didn't know I was working on a quilt? I had clung to the idea for awhile, and then around September or so I started cutting up R's receiving blankets. She loves those blankets, but they were getting too small to cover her anymore, and with winter coming, I wanted her to have one nice, thick blanket that would be just the perfect size. (Last year we threw one of Senpai's wool sweaters on her as a blanket at night... she's outgrown that, too. There's a pic here.)


I was so scared to cut the blankets! Aside from a poorly constructed pillow I had made back in my youth, I had never quilted before. Knowing my poor cutting and sewing capabilities, I did not have high hopes for this project, but I really didn't want it to be a flop. Yeah, terrified of cutting the blankets. But nothing would change unless I collected my courage and took the first step. Snip, snip.


There was no pattern to how I arranged the pieces, but I did come up with a few rules as I went along. I'm happy with how it turned out.


This part had me floored, literally and figuratively. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to make the edging. My breakthrough idea was to iron the pieces into the shape I needed (halved, with edges folded in). Once they held their shape on their own, it was easy to assemble and pin all of the pieces. It also helped TREMENDOUSLY that Senpai took R with him out of the house and I could work on the quilt in the daylight, Saturday morning. I had tried to work on it at night during the week, but by that time I was too exhausted to crawl around on the floor and solve hard problems.


After the edging went on, I ran some seams through all of the layers to hold it all together.


All done! I wish I had a nicer picture, but I don't want to delay publishing this post any further.


Once again, I wish I had a nicer pic-- maybe one where R is smiling instead of hoarding apple chunks in her cheeks-- but I won't wait on it.

Chicken soup, finished quilt... yup, Saturday was quite the day! What'd I do today, Sunday, you ask? I watched R so Senpai could take care of his projects around the house. It's give and take. :-)

Fruit Leather

I'm making a batch of spiced peach leather right now, so I figured I'd better upload the pics I took of my last batch of strawberry leather.


I had never made fruit leather before this summer. Prepackaged fruit leather from the store was such a rare luxury that I didn't indulge much because of the price. Now, while my fifth batch is dehydrating, I can say making it yourself is fun, easy, cheap, and delicious! And you can take pride in your homemade, good-for-you treats.

It's the perfect healthy snack for little ones!


I first got the idea to try making fruit leather from Barefoot Childhood. Though that post got me on the path to making homemade fruit leather, in the end I didn't follow those directions. I chose to boil my fruit before blending it to get the natural sweetness from the fruit, thus eliminating any added sugar. Trust me, they taste plenty sweet without the extra sugar (this coming from the lady who threw away her own birthday cake because it was too sweet!). I also chose to run a dehydrator to dry the fruit out as opposed to baking on low heat in the oven. If you want to add sugar and cook/dry out in the oven, then go ahead and click the link above!


INGREDIENTS

Four apples, two pears, one lemon, and a good dose of flavoring fruit (I've used boxes of strawberries, a bag of cherries, a couple peaches, and half a bag of seedless grapes. All turned out yummy).

Rinse well.


DIRECTIONS

Prepare fruit to be cooked. Peel, core, and chunk apples and pears into small pieces.

Toss apple and pear chunks into a large pot with 1/2 a cup of water (to help get things started) and the juice of half of the lemon. Boil uncovered on medium heat.

Prepare flavoring fruit to be cooked. (Strawberries get sliced, cherries I just ripped in half to get the stones out, peaches get peeled and broken into pieces, and grapes get plucked from the vine and popped between your fingers.)

Toss flavoring fruit into the pot and boil down (still uncovered) about 20 minutes.

When it looks something like this, it's done.

BONUS STEP: While you wait, you can squeeze the other lemon half into a cup, add a couple of spoonfuls of that delicious juice from the pot, and have some rockin' flavored lemonade!

Blend.

BONUS STEP: Feed the baby fresh applesauce.

Pour sauce onto parchment paper cut to fit dehydrator trays, and spread in a thick layer with a spoon. (When I say "cut to fit" I mean Senpai traced the tray with a razor blade.)




Dehydrate overnight.

Check in the morning and then every couple of hours after that. Each tray will be done on its own time, usually the bottom layers dry completely before the top. I remove the empty trays to get the top trays closer to the heating element.


Peel leather away from the parchment paper, tear into strips, and store in a glass container on the counter. No need to refrigerate. I've heard that mold will eventually grow on fruit leather, but I haven't had that problem, I think because the dehydrator does such a good job of removing all liquid. I'd say your batch will last about two weeks, that is, if you don't eat them all first! ;-) We haven't made it past one week. :-P

One last thing: if you haven't guessed by now, this is a very flexible recipe. I've made it without the pears, and I've made it using the juice from the whole lemon. If you're really wondering how much flavoring fruit to add, the answer is, "How much have you got?" It's very hard to go wrong with fruit leather, so play around with the ingredients you have on hand.


Enjoy!

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I tried my hand at canning this year. I had never done it myself, though I had watched my Mom make strawberry jam, spiced peach jam (my favorite!), and canned peach slices in the past. Our tomato plants had exploded this year (as they usually do, actually) with more tomatoes than we could use up at once, so I decided to try making homemade spaghetti sauce. I followed the instructions, including the seasoning recipe, found here, omitting the celery and salt.

The first time I tried making tomato sauce earlier in the season, we picked every tomato we could find, including the yellow variety, to try to get the 20 lbs required. I started right when R went to bed at 8 pm, and did not finish until 2 in the morning. I am not impressed with that batch. The texture was watery and stringy because the tomatoes would not boil down, and the 1/4 cup of lemon juice in addition to all of those yellow tomatoes made it taste incredibly tart. I canned it anyway and called it "Zesty Marinara."

I decided to try again. This time, I collected and froze the tomatoes as they ripened in batches. I had heard that freezing and thawing tomatoes was an easy way to remove the skin, and I thought it might cut down on the preparation time. Not at all. I started the process this morning at 9 am, and I'm writing this post as the jars are in the canning bath now at 2 pm. My back hurts from leaning over the sink trying to remove seeds for three hours, and my feet hurt from standing in front of the stove seasoning the sauce for the rest of the time. When I looked at the large pile of unusable skin, seeds, liquid, and other tomato parts, and compared it to the pile of usable tomato flesh that was HALF its size, I told myself, "Never again." This is far too much work. I would rather let tomatoes rot on the vine than try to do this again.

The plus side to today's aches and pains is that this batch can be properly labeled "Spaghetti Sauce." I didn't use a single yellow tomato, I only added two splashes of lemon juice instead of the 1/4 cup the recipe called for, and I blended the sauce to make it a better texture. Freezing and thawing the tomatoes removed far too much liquid, though, and I had to add 3 cups of water back into the sauce. I'm only getting 5 pint jars out of this batch, which is incredibly frustrating since only 4 jars fit in the canning bath at a time. I'll be waiting an extra 35 minutes just for one jar to process, grrr. But at least it tastes good.



My kitchen is a disaster, sigh. Next time I try canning, I think I'll stick with jams.

Living Smarter: Homemade Deodorant Q&A

Yes, yes I did make my own deodorant. Does it work? You betcha'.

Let me preface this post by pointing out that I am a pitta dosha. What does that mean? It means my hair is red, my temperament is fiery, my skin is oily, and... my pits stink. ^_^ Senpai KNOWS when I forget deodorant, and so does everyone else. I used to keep a spare stick in my massage room (back when I had one) just in case I did forget to apply before leaving the house. I think you have an idea of what we're working with here.

Why in the world try making your own deodorant? Because I'm always up for improvement. Yes, store-bought anti-perspirants "control" sweat and make you smell like a field of jasmine or whatever, but they're also loaded with aluminum, leave greasy stains on my t-shirts, and I still smell rank at the end of the day, and certainly by the next morning. I've tried natural store-bought deoderants such as the crystal and other sticks to get away from the aluminum aspect, but they don't help the smell issue much if at all. So when I saw a fellow blogger make her own deoderant, I was thrilled to try it myself.

I found this post back in February. I had all of the necessary ingredients in the house already and made my deoderant stick in about 5 minutes while R napped. It was easy as pie. I wanted to first try the deoderant while the weather was still cool as, remember, it's not an anti-perspirant. I kept it hidden in the refrigerator and applied it every morning instead of my store-bought sticks. I didn't tell Senpai about it. He had no idea that I had read anything about homemade deoderants, had made some myself, or even that I was using it. Not a word until after a full month of me being pleased with the results, and then he was quite surprised to hear of the change. He hadn't noticed, nor could he tell a difference. I kept on using it, waiting for warmer weather to come around before really knowing how I felt about it. Well, the temperature has reached 85 degrees a couple of times and, you know what? I'm still in love with my deoderant.

But what about the fact that it's not an anti-perspirant? Aren't you sweating bullets? No. I'll tell you why. By the time my pits start to trickle, I hardly notice because the rest of me has already been drenched in sweat. It isn't until my whole body is glistening that my pits feel moist, too. And I smell a whole lot better now than I did before with my jasmine covered-up funk. The baking soda, coconut oil, and essential oils really do REMOVE the smells as opposed to covering them up. My brand new t-shirts are not getting greasy pit stains like my older shirts that have been exposed to store-bought anti-perspirants, and I still smell pleasant the next morning.

What essential oils did you add? I threw in a couple of drops of lavender, tea tree, and rosemary for pretty smells and anti-bacterial properties. I forget about how many drops it ended up being. I just remember that I kept adding more until I could smell the oil without having to take too deep a whiff.

What's the downside? There has to be a downside, right? Get ready for it, here it is: I have to wipe off the excess deoderant clumps that stick to my pits with a dry washcloth. Tadaa! That's it. I apply the deoderant after I get out of the shower. By the time I'm ready to get dressed, some clumps may have appeared based on how much deoderant I slathered on. I usually do have clumps more often than not if you're wondering about a ratio. But it's such an easy fix: I just keep a dry washcloth on my dresser-- wipe, wipe-- then get back to picking out clothes.


I looooooooove my homemade deoderant. I hope I've inspired you to try it, too! If you're on the fence, start in the winter like I did when there's less risk. Good luck! Let me know if you have other questions I didn't cover!