Praying For...Claire that she will know the Savior and choose to follow Him...that friends, neighbors, and enemies will soften their hearts toward each other and choose kindness...that leaders of nations will recognize God-given rights and cease usurping them from those weaker than themselves.
Bibliophilia...sent Primrose Day by Haywood along with a couple dover coloring books to Claire. It's a cute little children's book. Lately, I only want to read children's books of which I've found a few gems. The Orphan Train Adventures by Nixon are my current favorites.
Garden Gate...Since I juice and eat lots of salads, I have a lot of scraps. I could throw the scraps in the garbage to add to the mountains of garbage in the landfill, but I like Victoria Butenko's idea of returning this nutritional waste to the soil instead. Everyone knows that composting improves the quality of the soil, but it takes a long time to break down food scraps. Plus there's all the shoveling and and and no thanks. Like Victoria, I put my food scraps into my Vita mix, and blend them with several cups of water. Any plant food works: plate scrapings (no animal products, since I don't allow them in my kitchen), left over rice or beans, banana peels, onion skins, mango skins, apple cores, melon rinds, fruit seeds, citrus peels, wilted greens, lettuce cores, and so on becomes a slurry to pour around my garden. However, I take it a step further than Victoria by adding rabbit and ant repellant garlic and cayenne plus a bit of castile soap (more ant repellant), mycorrhiza, kelp, EM1, and azomite. Then I top it with a bit of wood chip mulch, so it doesn't look like a pile of vomit. It must be working, because I saw a real earthworm for the first time in my garden today. Hurray!
Cucina Fresca...Looking forward to teaching Sammy how to prepare whole meals for her family during July. She's almost nine, which is about the age I began cooking for my family. By 12 I cooked dinner about 75% of the time. Mom cooked some, but her work kept her out of the house until 5ish. If I cooked, dinner was on the table by the time she got home. Weekends found her in the kitchen more often, plus we went out often by then. Anyway, I'm hoping to teach Sammy to cook rice and Southwest quinoa in the rice cooker, cauliflower faux mac/cheeze, scalloped potatoes, Japanese vegetable curry, and aloo chana gobi to start, which will be a huge help to her working parents. Even though her dad gets home early enough to cook dinner, he is almost always on call; phone interruptions make dinner prep difficult. BTW-I'll include Quinn, but not expect a six year old to know how to cook a meal solo.
1 T yellow curry powder McCormick Spices, Gourmet Collection or S&W
handful of quartered mushrooms (optional)
a bunch of green onions, sliced
1 T corn or tapioca starch
4 c veggie stock
1/2 c apple juice or sweetener to taste
2 t fresh ginger, grated
1 T fresh garlic, pressed
1 1/4 t garam masala
salt to taste
1 can garbanzo beans
2 lbs golden potato, diced
1 lbs carrots, diced
1 c thinly sliced green cabbage or other greens, optional
1 lb cauliflower flowerets or other vegetables as desired
Prepare and cut all vegetables, as set aside. Saute onion, mushrooms, ginger, and garlic in a bit of water slowly until softened. Mix flour and curry powder with in stock/juice; stir into softened onions. Add garam masala. Adjust seasoning as needed and add cayenne if a spicier gravy is desired. Add water if it is too thick or more starch paste if it is watery. Add veggies and beans to gravy. Reduce heat and simmer curry, covered, until carrots and potatoes are tender. Stir in cabbage a couple minutes before serving. Dish up rice and top with Japanese Vegetable Curry.
