Learning and How to do Scratch

The economy is a little scary right now. I am taking this time to try and learn more simple ways of doing things. I’m trying to learn from others who have already done some of this.

In the last year (plus) I have been blogging and reading other eco-bloggers, I have learned a good many ways of living more simply.

My consumer purchases are almost non-existent now. A few weeks ago a friend asked me what I wanted for Christmas (and after I said “nothing” and she put her hand on her hip and said “that won’t happen”) I told her I needed new underwear. She smiled and got my size. Of course she thinks I’m a little nuts, but respects my nuttiness. She is happy when I give her fresh fruit out of my garden or send her plants to grow her own goodies. She is amazed when I find her what she needs at half the price of what she would normally need to spend. She is even starting to keep track of her monthly electrical usage after I told her what I was using and noticed that her bill (with twice the square footage) was five times what mine was.

OK - here is where I could use some assistance. Cooking from scratch.

I’d love to learn how to bake bread, but with my three ingredient mentality (I rarely cook anything with more than three ingredients) I find this process pretty intimidating. Any easy recipes out there for bread?

How about really inexpensive meals that use rice or pasta? I do pasta with pasta sauce (and maybe meat) and pasta with pesto… but are there other ideas? I generally use rice as a way to spread chili or soups, but are there good rice dishes that are pretty easy to prepare, taste good and are not too expensive?

Thanks.

Help!

A few weeks ago I went outside to a large section of grass near my neighbors and noticed huge runs of moles in my lawn. A week later I saw yet another long section of many mole runs in another part of the lawn. I must to kill these moles! They are making me freaking nuts~!!! Any suggestions?

Also, I would like to find a place that has fruit for making wine. I assume that I can use fruit that is going bad? Any suggestions as to where I could get this fruit? I’ve asked all the folks I know with apple trees about fruit that had fallen, and they said all their fruit had come and gone and there was nothing on the ground anymore (they had done a good clean-up job).

Does anyone know of a good wine recipe (other than a pound of fruit with a pound of sugar?

Black Monday

I usually enjoy those days when rain falls gently and cleans the driveway and patio of dirt and gunk. Yesterday there was a mid-morning rain.

Most rainy days I love to hear the sound of rain hit the roof or bounce off the windows, and smell the clean air and wet soil. That didn’t happen yesterday. On Monday I spent much of my day in my office, eyes glued to the business reports, the talks and voting on the bailout package, and the drastic drop in the stock market. My “real job” involves watching the markets fairly closely. I have been doing this since October of 1987 (does that date sound familiar to anyone?) - so I’m no novice.

I am not scared, but I am very concerned. Do I like the package that was voted on? No. I know of very few people who like this bill. Do I think it should be passed? Yes… unless someone can pull another plan out of their xxx in the next week, something needs to happen, and happen very quickly (time IS running out). Something more than the economic stimulus checks should have happened months ago. The check was nice, but it did very little to solve our economy’s larger problem - a problem that everyone knew about and understood was HUGE.

I liken the economy to a long freight train. When the train is at its “cruising” speed - it takes very little energy to keep it going at the ideal speed. But, to accelerate to a faster speed requires much more in the way of resources. It is a long and jerky process, and one that gobbles huge amounts of resources to get a large train moving from a stopped position. Our economy is dangerously close to coming to a dead stop.

People are worried about the bill and the effects on them as taxpayers. And they have reason to do so. However, there is also a very good possibility that the government and taxpayers could actually financially benefit from this investment into the economy. As with everything there are no guarantees.

So, Monday was a dark day - both in the skies above St. Louis, and in the financial markets of the economy. Today is a sunny day. It is brisk outside, a reminder that autumn is on its way. Tree limbs will be cut later on today that will provide heat this winter. Green tomatoes will be harvested - some eaten, others wrapped in newspaper to be eaten months down the road. The markets will continue to be watched, phone calls will be made, and opinions will be shared. Today is a new day. Let us all make the most of it.

Very Liberating

On Sunday I attended a special “Creation Series” service at my radical Episcopal church and it was wonderful! All the prayers were earth-centered and the language was so beautiful. Even the sermon was exceptionally good (you can listen to it here if you like). I felt very free after that service.

Yesterday, I received an email from a church friend who has put together a web page of some of his music - much of it environmentally focused. You can check out his website here.

The temp is cool, but the sun is shining. I have cactus’ that have just started to bloom, green tomatoes still on the vine (fried green tomatoes for dinner tonight) and plans to cook up and freeze a batch of my french onion soup this evening.

My Three Ingredient Meals:

Fried Green Tomatoes: Slice tomatoes, dip in egg wash, coat with corn meal mix, fry in skillet with vegetable oil.

French Onion Soup: Slice onions thin (less work with larger onions) and sautee in butter until really flimsy. The amount of butter and amount of onions is up to you. I didn’t measure anything and it turned out wonderful! When the onions have been cooked like you expect to see in onion soup, add beef broth and bring to boil (that way you know it is hot). Put in bowl, cover with swiss cheese, let sit a minute or two (to let the cheese melt) then eat.

Food and Riot Up-Date

Wow - I guess I have been back for a while, but have been so busy I’ve hardly had time to read much less write.

After returning from my vacation of wonderful food, I decided that I really needed to learn to fix myself proper meals. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but microwave popcorn and breakfast cereal are about the extent of my cooking ability. “Nothing with more than three ingredients” has been my mantra. Well, I decided that since my garden was producing so many wonderful foods that now would be a great time to create some good meals for myself.

I picked up mini-loaves of bread from the bakery across the street and added brie, fresh tomatoes, and pesto to create a full meal. I have discovered hummus and add that to my grilled tomato and swiss sandwiches - and have purchased all but the Tahini to make my own hummus (my store doesn’t carry Tahini, so I’ll have to purchase some next time I’m in the city). OK, I think there are five ingredients, but making it looks simple enough. I’ve had meals of green beans (uncooked), zucchini (uncooked) and cucumbers and been happy.

I have even cooked French Onion Soup from scratch. Yes, three ingredients: Butter, onions and beef broth. I served it with swiss cheese over the top - wow!

Yes, there is a bit of a benefit from all of this… I’ve lost 10 pounds since returning from vacation.

I finally got caught up on my laundry on Monday from before vacation and did six loads in one day. Unfortunately, these did not get hung outside to dry. I’ll admit to be lazy about it right now.

I received my quarterly water bill and found that my usage was down 3,000 gallons from the same quarter last year. My usage was at 46.54% of the average American’s - not too shabby.

My electric bill was a bit higher since I had the air conditioning on for clients and for the house sitters. Still, at 396 kwhs, I am still down 56.81% from the average American household when figured on a monthly basis.

My gas bill showed a usage of 6 - the lowest since I started recording. This puts me down 92.8% of the AAH for the month. On average over the last 14 months, I am down 63.03% from the Average American Household.

Consumer purchases were high this month - a battery charger cable for my computer ($26) and a battery for my cordless phone ($30).

Back!

I just returned from my annual trip to the lake with friends. Four of us pack ourselves, clothes for a week and a small library into a CUV and drive the 7 hours from St. Louis to northern Indiana. The weather was cool, and we all decided against swimming in the lake this year, but as always, it was a wonderful trip - very relaxing. As is generally the case, we didn’t get as much read as we had planned for, but I think we finished 11 books between the four of us. We ate like royalty - fresh Indiana corn, from the wagon down the road, at every meal. Two of the folks in the group LOVE to cook, the other two (and this is my talent) cleans the kitchen after the masterpieces are complete. I brought fresh mint from my gardens for Mojitos (yum!)

When I arrived home the first of my tomatoes were finally ripe enough to eat. And, even though the friends I had watching the house, garden and my four-legged babies had brought in several zucchinis, they overlooked one that had grown to 13″ by the time I arrived back home. Not as tender as the smaller ones, but cooked in a small amount of olive oil and topped with home-made pesto they were quite nummy! That, the fresh tomato sliced, and steamed green beans were my first meal once home!

Now, I sit and wait for the mail to deliver me the battery charger I ordered to replace the one that popped and burned so I don’t have to drive to the library to check my emails. I am with out my laptop computer - the only computer from which I can access the internet.

So, have a great day everyone!

B1 Fri(ed)day

Yesterday I spent a great deal of time on the phone with an ex of mine who has remained a good friend. She had spent a week in the hospital a few months ago because she lost her mind. She thought she was God and thought she could escape the locked ward with a plastic straw. When I checked her into the hospital, the intake nurse wanted to know what group home she lived in. The nurse couldn’t believe that one day she was a responsible UNIX geek and the next unable to remember her own name and address.

In her week’s stay, she endured an MRI, a CAT scan and a lumbar puncture (ouch!) When she left, the hospital didn’t tell her what was wrong, just that she had gotten better. With her release instructions was a prescription pad telling her to take Thiamine (that’s Vitamin B1). She later discovered that a few days before her release (after all the expensive tests, mind you) they started giving her vitamin B1… and she had gotten better.

My friend was curious, and being a computer geek she started researching this vitamin and its effects on the body. She started taking B1 pills daily and got better - and then she stopped - and it got worse. A lack of B1 can cause: fatigue, depression, irritability, attention deficit, memory lost, muscular weakness, and nerve damage. ADD has also been attributed (in a few places I’ve read) to a lack of B1. Malnutrition is one cause of vitamin B1 deficiency - and in this context malnutrition has nothing to do with the amount of food, but rather the types of food eaten.

Well, I’ve been saying lately that I have been so tired (and achy and depressed and having difficulty concentrating) so my friend encouraged me to go get some B1 and try it - and I did. I figured that $7 for 100 pills will not break the bank. Now, it may be too early to tell for sure, but I’m feeling better. This morning I did a load of laundry, emptied the dishwasher, and hauled 150 lbs of sand from my garage to the wanna-be pond, pulled a bunch of weeds then filled the cinder blocks (which make up the edge of the pond) with the sand all before 6:30 am. Two days ago, if I had dropped a piece of paper on the floor, I would have looked at it and said “I’ll get that later.” So, there has been a change.

So, why am I not getting enough vitamin B1? Well, in theory, I am. My questions are: “How or why is this being leached from my body?” and/or “Why am I not processing this vitamin like I should?” More research to do.

Thurs

I’ve been ill this past week and a half… tired and icky-feeling. Some evenings I would climb on to the couch at 4 pm after work and awake two or three hours later - get up to eat and head back to bed at my regular time. Just too tired to post, and nothing much to post about

About a week ago I happened to look at my zucchini plant (while letting the dog run) and noticed a huge zucchini. I had pretty much given up on this plant, since most of the fruits develop some sort of disease and die just shortly after showing up. One survived, and it was big. I sliced it the long way, dabbed with olive oil and put it on the grill for dinner.

On Sunday a friend of mine and I raided another friend’s basil patch. She was out of town, but asked me to cut all the stalks in half and take the top part before it went to seed. We divided the haul and I came home and (the next day) I made pesto sans pine nuts, which I didn’t have, and with not quite enough cheese, because I had run out (and was too tired to run to the store) but it was still pretty good. Monday evening I fixed myself pasta with pesto - nummy!

Talking with folks who know about food, they explained to me that Pesto just means “paste” and I could create a pesto out of any green leafy thing and any type of nut. Something to think about.

I FINALLY planted basil seeds for myself. I just dumped what was left of the packet of seeds (after planting seeds for others several months ago) into an old wheelbarrow with leftover potting soil from last year. Three days later the new plants emerged from the soil

The second round of string beans are getting larger and I should be able to begin eating these soon. I have a few more cucumbers ready for slicing. I have two very large acorn squash growing, and I discovered one tiny butternut squash growing. The tomatoes are plentiful - but all still green.

Too Hot!

It has been a full week since my last post - and not much has changed.

I’m still not using my air conditioning - and with the ceiling fan in my home office - the temp is roughly 90 degrees inside, and had been for the last few days. The heat has had an enormous impact on my motivation and attentiveness, and I often find myself napping in the late afternoon. Last night there were some storms - FINALLY RAIN - and it feels a good 10 degrees cooler outside. Hopefully that will help the situation.

In the mean time, my tomatoes are getting bigger, and I’m eating lots of green beans off of my plants. The various squash are doing very well, but the peppers don’t seem to be growing at all.

Yesterday I went to see if my zucchini was doing anything - and there was this HUGE veggie on the vine. I brought it in and had about a third of it for dinner. Not as tender as a smaller plant would have been - but mighty tasty none-the-less.

On Saturday evening I had dinner at a friend’s house. This is one of the homes for which I planted lots of veggies and herbs. On Saturday I harvested basil for a wonderful pasta dish and watched as the chef of the house whipped up home-made dressing. Making pesto normally takes me hours, because I do it all at once. His pesto took just minutes because it was just enough for the evening’s dinner. I think that even I could make the dressing he put together - balsamic vinegar, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, brown sugar and garlic olive oil. Yummy

Today I am going to FINALLY plant my basil seeds, and will plant a few more bean plants as well.

Summer Just Ain’t My Time

The weather in St. Louis has been HOT, we had one or two days of cool air, but more hot is expected. Why the weather report? Well, as nice as it would be to sit outdoors and enjoy the beauty, I find myself on the couch in front of a fan recouping from minimal time spent working in the heat.

I’ve been helping a friend paint a the inside of an un-air conditioned house, and after about 3 hours I find myself exhausted by the heat. I worked with another individual building a platform for church, and after a few hours outside in the heat, I find myself almost sick. Even working in my home office with the ceiling fan going, I find myself sapped of energy.

In the last few weeks I’ve really not done much other than work and rest. I’ve picked and eaten a cucumber - it was just OK. I picked and ate a zucchini - also, just OK. I think I picked both of them before they were ready to be picked. I’ve eaten a bunch of green beans - wonderful! I planted a few more green bean seeds since they seem pretty easy and quick to get to the good stuff. I also picked 2 snap peas - also wonderful.

For now, I’m just going to take it easy in the heat and continue to drink lots of water.