V-Day, Like it or Not

I know that plenty of people scoff at the "commercialness" of Valentine's Day. My whole view on the "Hallmark Holiday" is, if they're trying to get us to appreciate one another and be nice to eachother--heck, I'm in. This year Bird is in a double classroom with 2 teachers, so she had 30 valentines she needed to provide. Combine that with Sprout's almost-20 and that's a lot of sugar and/or flimy cardboard squares to come up with. So we decided to do something a bit more fun and utilitarian. I had visions of something much more handcrafted and elaborate, but after I got realistic I came up with the following: Take some die cut bookmarks, stickers, and markers. Add children. Leave for approximately 30 minutes, and voila--homemade Valentine bookmarks. No, they're not entirely eco, not really sustainable other than the fact that they might not get trashed like a standard valentine would, but the kids had a blast making them, and they turned out pretty swell, if I do say so myself.

Last week we headed up to the local bookstore I mentioned in my last post only to find it not only closed but entirely gutted. That was a bit of a blow. But the bakery we discovered seems to be doing well, so that's given me some hope. I feel so lucky to have a local place using local organic ingredients. Living in a rural area, we are pretty fortunate to have the local coffee shop, the bakery, and a few organic farms to choose from. The bakery's Saturday cinnamon rolls have become a new family tradition. Today we went in and found that the buttercreme frosting was pink, and the maple frosted rolls had conversation hearts on them. I'd hoped, but was afraid it wouldn't be "natural" enough. These are my kind of people. Even more to that point: they had giant heart shaped chocolate chip cookies. Giant cookies for the win! Nothing says "forever" like a ginormous cookie. Tonight we're dropping the kids off at the Children's Museum for a few hours of fun and pizza while Beo and I run out to have some incredible Himalayan cuisine. An excuse to use a ridiculous amount of stickers, eat gratuitous amounts of sweets, and make some couple time? I'll take it! Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Winter Stores

Here I am again, with my thanks to those of you who have checked in over the past few months. It's been a bit of a rough road balancing the two jobs, losing our long-time pup, and battling pneumonia for 6 weeks. There was a myriad of other sore luck, including losing our hard drive along with the past four months of pictures we'd taken. That included a much fuller picture than the one in this post, showing off our winter stores. At this time last year I was pining for having put up more local foods. This year we remembered, and were good little squirrels. We have strawberries in the freezer still, (my dream of our own strawberries in November and December oats has come true), jams from our strawberries and currants, salsa verde from our early tomatoes and peppers, diced tomatoes and sauce from our garden bounties, and applesauce from local orchards. The pickled peppers came from my sister's garden--we canned them together at our grandmother's house. (That was an adventure--believe the part of the recipe that tells you to wear gloves. I'm just sayin'.) We had our own garden peas for dinner tonight, and there's at least one more dinner of those, and also in the freezer we have double the tomatoes pictured. We've supplemented here and there with store-bought sauce and jelly, but I think we should move comfortably into the next harvest season. Supplementing this are the local pumpkins, squash, potatoes, onions, carrots and beets (some from our own garden) that we remembered to stock up on this year. We have certainly learned a lot and come a long way since committing to eating as local and organic as possible.

Looking back at my goals for this year, I can say that I've come closer to meeting them. I wasn't perfect, but I made improvements here and there--I'm moving in the right direction. Our holiday gifts this year will consist of (hey family, skip the rest of this paragraph!) a sampling of our preserves and photo gifts of the kids. We worked hard all summer to make that happen. (If you are doing your own gift shopping, feel free to check out my Guilt-Free Shopping Guide from last year.)

I admit my shortcomings and I can assure you I won't be posting a lot in the next few weeks. Enjoy my posts from last year if you so wish. Much of this month will be reliving the same joys. This year we've adopted a local family to give them a special holiday, which will make our own twice as helpful. Tis the season of giving, and I feel blessed knowing that my blog readers will be taking that to heart, and spreading their good will to all in their own communities. Happy Holidays to all of you, and best wishes for the new year.

Earth Dinner 3

Last night we had our third annual Earth Dinner. These dinners, founded by Organic Valley, are a wonderful way to celebrate local, organic, and sustainable foods. It's always fun to try to plan a local dinner in April here in Wisconsin. Some years I wish Earth Dinner would wait until July when things are in full swing! As I've come to learn though, there's more available than one might think. I started yesterday with a rare solo trip to the Madison Farmer's Market. It was the first day of the open air market this year. What a wonderful thing! It was great to see some of our favorite vendors back, and our winter vendors with a much bigger selection. I got lettuce, spinach, radishes, potatoes, beautiful flowers (hyacinths, daffodils, freesia), honey and grass-fed-goat organic feta.

Our menu: Vegetable Lasanga with Farmer's Market Spinach Organic Valley cottage cheese and eggs, homemade pasta; Tossed Salad (all local); Rolls made with Organic Valley eggs; Roasted Heirloom Baby Potatoes from the Farmer's Market; Pear-Applesauce, brought by our neighbors and made from their own pears; Chocolate Chip Cookies brought by our neighbors made with their own maple syrup; wine brought by our friends, from a local winery; pasta salad brought by our friends. I also made a key-lime cheesecake with Organic Valley cream cheese and eggs. The limes came from my fruit angel, so they were quite local for her. It was a sumptous feast (that somehow managed to get eaten amidst the 6 children under 5 that were chaos personified and a complete joy)!

We celebrated last night with two families new to our lives, one from our church and another from just around the corner. It was great to celebrate this event together. I put out our Earth Day cards (pictured above) but the conversation was so lively, they went untouched. I highly recommend these dinners for a way to bring neighbors or friends together in a celebration of local food.

Our Earth Day celebration continued at church this morning, with a lovely service and the planting of a native garden by the children. What a wonderful way to celebrate the Earth! What's more, it was 80 degrees out! That made it especially nice to be outside enjoying our environment. For my favorite Earth Day tips, check out last year's Earth Day post. Thanks to all of you for the things you do to walk more lightly on our planet. Happy Earth Day!

Ostara

Happy Ostara (a bit late) to all. I hope everyone had a nice Spring celebration. Things have been busy here and as they settled down I found myself dealing with a bit of depression again. Ah well, life goes on! We managed to do a few Ostara activities. We made little nest treats for a sweet activity. An outdoor egg hunt turned out to be a disaster (two children in tears, baskets blowing away) but what do we expect with 27 degree weather and flurries in April? Spring made a brief appearance but appears to be feeling a bit shy! Our Ostara treats came from Sweet Earth Chocolates this year. I highly reccomend them! Their customer service was great, shipping was exceptionally fast, and the goods are GOOD! We tried all of the different "eggs" (mint crunch, peanut butter crunch, dark and milk chocolate, and the bunnies. Their chocolate is fair trade and organic, and they have a number of vegan options. Be sure to check them out the next time you're in the market for sweets. (I see they have Mother's Day specials on their website today!) They made a lovely basket, joined by a small amount of precious Surf Sweets Organic Jelly Beans. Bird's Ostara cardigan got finished in a nick of time. Luckily I'd made my own shawl last year, so no worries there. I hope Spring is showing it's face wherever you are this week. Happy Ostara!

To The New Year!

2006 has been a good year. I feel like I'm starting the New Year of Light and of 2007 with a new lease on life. I'm starting 2007 Thirty pounds lighter, having learned how to cook better, making our lifestyle even more sustainable and ethical in partnership with Beo, with two happy, healthy kids, with my Dad having survived his stroke and taking care of his health, with two good jobs in the family, three great dogs and a warm house surrounded by beautiful gardens of our own design.

So what's next? In 2007 I hope to focus on continuing to be the change I wish to see in the world, while improving my family's wellbeing. I plan to stay healthy with smart eating and exercise, and keep my family healthy through activity and good organic food. I will continue to support local farms and try to find even more ways to buy local. I'd like to keep up with the gardens more and spend more time knitting. I hope to start a film screening program to help spread the message of some of the wonderful documentaries out there.

My biggest focus will be cutting back on our consumerism, making our impact by spending less money and spending the money we do have in an even more responsible way. My goal is to put nothing on the credit cards this year, barring any unforseen emergencies, and cut back on spending a bit in every area to start getting ahead. I hope to get more use out of our vegetable gardens to cut back on our food spending, and cut back on our gift buying by creating gifts with the talents and resources we have available to us. Instead of just focusing on recycling Sprout and Bird's used clothes, I'm going to expand that angle to trying to buy at least half of their clothing used. When all is said and done, my focus is going to be on working with the many Blessings we have, rather than always looking for The Next Best Thing. 2007 will be about Living Simply so that our lives are more sustainable and our family is carried closer to our dreams. May 2007 inspire you to follow your dreams!

Pomanders

Pomanders were the air fresheners of the Victorian era. These days, they can be a fun and simple craft. While you can make a more in-depth, long lasting pomander, you can just do an easy short-lived decoration for fun too. That's what the kids and I did--or more accurately, what I did and the kids watched. We made simple pomanders by pressing cloves into the rinds of oranges, and finishing off the look with a ribbon. Please note, this is slightly more difficult than one might think! We lasted a few minutes with me getting a clove started and Sprout or Bird pushing it the rest of the way through, but it's a bit tedious for a 3 and almost-5 year old. Still, the end result was quite pretty and the kids were still proud of the role they played. Bird was thrilled with her "Baby Sun".

May all of you who are traveling have safe, uncomplicated journeys. May you be surrounded by love. May you feel peace and light in your heart. May you have lots of scrumptious goodies.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Solstice!

Merry Yule! Happy Solstice! We started off with a morning lit by candles and spiced with hot cocoa and mocha prepared by Beo. Then gifts, followed by our traditional holiday breakfast of strawberries and waffles. Beo made a beautiful yule log from a birch log that his Dad gave us last year. I'm glad we saved it, it is a beautiful piece of nature for us to incorporate into our yearly celebrations. Tonight, after a dinner of roasted sweet potatoes, green beans with carmelized onions, spinach salad with pomegranate seeds and pecans, and "Veggie Wellington", we did a great ritual using the log. We lit the candles, each choosing something to leave behind in the darkness. At the moment of Solstice, we blew out the candles, and sat in total darkness (not total silence though, we do have kids after all). Finally we re-lit the candles with hopes for the new year. We finished off the celebrations with a gingerbread cake. I feel relieved that I've done what's important to me and to our family for the holidays. So much stress (positive and negative) is gone with this day. Now I can relax and enjoy holiday celebrations with our church and extended family. I'm so glad we've decided to make this a Family Tradition. I hope that you and yours have as beautiful a Holiday as we did today.

Recycled Holiday Love

Happy Solstice Eve! We are planning a lovely day tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it! This year we made our own tags for our cookie tins. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while. Last year I remembered to save my favorite Holiday cards, so we got started. While I have pages of stickery gift tags, these are so much nicer! As you can see, it's really quite simple. Just choose a card, and cut out your desired tag shape. (They certainly don't have to be square or rectangular, you can get creative!) Use a paper punch to cut out an opening, and tie a piece of ribbon through. We used the back to write our "To" and "From". This is a fun and simple way to be earth-friendly, thrifty, and look clever doing it. Happy Solstice!

It's For the Birds

This year we've decided to put our Winter Holiday emphasis on Solstice. After all, it fits in much more nicely with our belief system, and darn if it doesn't make things less stressful to spread things out. Beo's Mom wants to have a fancy Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve? No problem, we already had our fancy dinner! We have to travel all day on Christmas? No problem, we already had our special day! You get the idea. I'm hoping this will become a family tradition.

I'm trying to instill in the kids a sense of the magic and wonder of the season. With how little they are, I'm keeping things simple too. Lights, newness, nature, peace and giving--it's all good. One of the fun things we've done is to make Solstice Gifts for the birds. In addition to a traditional garland of popcorn and cranberries which we draped on the bird feeders, we made these fun little numbers. These were a suggestion from a Veggie Boarder who owns a wild bird feeding store. They're totally simple to make. Just hollow out an orange, mix peanut butter with birdseed, and fill. I had everything ready to go so that there was no need for patience or frustration on anyone's part. The actual activity for the kids lasted all of about three minutes, but they loved it, and enjoyed setting them out for the birds. It's a simple way for them to get to honor nature.

Tidings of Cookies and Joy

I've done it again: completely freaked out some perfectly nice suburbians by being neighborly. It was all entirely worth it. We had the standard unanswered doors, reciprocal cookies, and guilty "You do this every year and we never give you anything!" Yes, that's the point my friend, my neighbor--the joy of giving! Heck, we're neighbors! This year aside from those standards I caught a neighbor in their jammies. He was very embarassed but I don't feel bad because: 1. He didn't have to answer the door, and 2. I totally owed him. It was payback time.

This year I made four kinds of cookies (about 200 I think: iced sugar, soft molasses, dairy-free snickerdoodles, and oatmeal carmelitas), caramels, and truffles. I put together 8 tins: 4 for our nearest neighbors, 1 for the only other neighbors who are neighborly to us, 1 for my volunteer coordinator at work, 1 for the annual family reunion, and 1 for us (We deserve it.). I also put together four plates for the bakesale at church. It was a lot of work, but I really loved every minute of it. That much energy going into building a real neighborhood is absolutely worth it. At best, I make some friends and lighten the mood while connecting neighbors in our suburb. At worse-or maybe even better-is that the kids see the real effort that goes in to the process of giving, from planning, shopping and baking, to packing and delivering the tins. I hope that even if my spark does nothing in our neighborhood, my kids will grow up to see giving to others as a natural thing, and will always believe in creating community where before there were just plain old people and houses.

Sugar Cookie Tips

Solstice is coming! I hope to share a few holiday ideas in the next week. None should be as long as this one, so forgive me!

One of my favorite and yet most labor-intensive holiday traditions is baking and decorating sugar cookies. I thought I'd share some tips for these classic holiday treats. I use Betty Crocker's recipe, minus the almond extract. It's a tried and true favorite. The biggest thing with your recipe is to use real butter. I always stock up on Organic Valley Butter when the holidays approach! I also prefer recipes that use cream of tartar. Once you've made your batter, let it chill properly (at least 4 hours) and then set up your workstation. You'll need parchment lined cookie sheets, flour, a rolling pin, and cookie cutters. Preheat your oven. Flour your work area, and divide your dough in half. Put one half back in the fridge while you roll out the other. Try to get the dough to an even thickness of about 1/4". My best tip is to try to make similarly shaped cookies within each cookie sheet. For example: snowflakes, suns, and stars go together at our house. (How Celestial!) It's also a good idea to pay attention to whether the edges of your shapes stick out much--those will bake more quickly. In years past when I've done double, triple, or even quad batches, I've done sheets of just one shape, which works great. (An Aside: Are Reindeer Really Worth It? It probably depends on your cookie cutter. Here we end up with a lot of headless reindeer. Last year, I admit it, I made 9. Having accomplished that feat, this year I made two, just to keep on my game.) You want to try to get as many cookies per rolling of dough not just to save on labor, but also because the dough will become a little bit more tough as it's re-rolled, and picks up more flour from the rolling surface. Make sure that collected trimmings are put back in the fridge. Keeping them cool makes them much easier to roll. I will sometimes put them in the freezer if I'm moving quickly.

Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes. You'll have to decide for yourself whether you want the pure, light colored, cakey cookie, or whether you want to let them get a bit crispier, and brown around the edges. I have a tendency to overdo mine. I like them somewhere in-between, and try to pull them out of the oven when they've just barely started to color at the edges. Again, uniform shapes will help them to bake evenly. I allow the cookies a couple of minutes to cool on the sheets, then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling. (Another aside: Make sure your oven mitt is not wet when grabbing a 350 degree metal pan. If you flinch and your cookies slide smoothly from the parchment paper to crumble on your oven bottom, you may become distraught.)

Once the cookies are completely cool, you're ready to decorate. I generally break this up into two days, because it truly is a lot of work. I find it easiest to lay all of the cookies out at once so that you can work with one color of frosting at a time. I use a simple frosting of butter, vanilla, milk, and powdered sugar. It's not environmentally friendly, but the best tool I've found for frosting is a ziploc bag. Cut a very small bit of corner off, or if you want to use a decorating tip, make a slightly larger cut, and simply put the icing tip inside the bag. Make sure the frosting is completely dry before packing the cookies away. This may take an hour or more. If you have dogs, they will get grumpy at being left outside for so long, so as to present cookie snatching. This is par for the course.

You can absolutely freeze these cookies, but they are better unfrozen once they've been frosted. If they are stored in a totally airtight container, they'll became a bit soft, so I prefer loosely draped plastic wrap. Yes, I know they're "just" sugar cookies, but up until now they're one of the few holiday traditions I felt was "mine". I may only eat two or three, but I love the look of the rows of lovingly crafted, good ol' fashioned iced sugar cookies.