Today’s post is fraught with emotion. My emotion. I’ve had a late and rough night and am ready for my nap this afternoon before night shift tonight. Today’s post is not typical of posts on this blog of late (or even of the past year, probably) but it is what is on my heart.

This 30 Days of Happiness Project isn’t going so well, or rather not as "flowing" as I had hoped. I had wanted to post something nearly every day in this category and it obviously hasn’t worked out that way. It has been on my mind a lot the past day or two though, as has the idea of starting a gratitude journal (which I had done once before several years ago) and/or a Thousand Gifts list. I need these daily reminders of all that is wonderful in my life and, as my boyfriend and I are facing some big issues that could potentially (in all honesty) result in the end of our relationship, I also need to open my eyes and see all the "ordinary" gifts that are in the every day.

 

Today I post the gift of God’s grace evident in the snow that blankets everything with pure, fresh white. This first snowfall of 2009, which comes the morning after a difficult and emotional conversation late the night before, gives the promise of God that He cleanses and heals us washing us whiter than snow, that He knows our hearts and our hurts, that He longs to hold us and comfort us and lead us if we would only let Him.

"Give praise to the Lord, O my soul; let not all his blessings go from your memory."
              Psalm 103:2 BBE (Bible in Basic English)

I’ve come across this beautiful post by Brandy over at Grace Like Rain in which she speaks of the snow and its significance and lessons to her.

I am a born-again Christian. This will be news to some and not news to others. Regardless of my walk (or lack thereof) with Him these past few years nothing can change the fact that I am a child of God, that He once saved my soul and that this salvation can never be taken from me, and that He continues to love me and cherish me and watch over me while He waits for me to return completely to Him.

I believe in a quiet, unassuming testimony of words and deeds, a testimony which clearly declares, "I am a Child of the King", one which is the result of a joyful heart and a genuine love and not of how one "should" behave or speak. I believe we are accountable to God and that our lives are between Him and us as individuals, not something to be dictated by man or convention or tradition. If and when I ever post on this blog about my faith, in all its shambles or strength, I hope that it is never in a preaching manner. I want it to simply be. I absolutely love Ann Voskamp’s blog, A Holy Experience. She is by far the most genuine, joyful, inspiring, and lyrical writer I have ever read online. She has a gift. A tremendous gift. God is using her so much more than she knows. Each of us saved by His grace have a tremendous gift as well. We just need to learn to be open to it and allow ourselves to be filled and used by Him.

The sun!! It shone today on this side of the clouds! I took advantage of the cool-but-sunny weather to rake the leaves in my small backyard. This year I decided to put a layer of leaves into the four raised vegetable beds to mix with the soil in the spring so I ended up with four topped-up beds and one garbage bag of leaves.

 

I’m just about to turn on a movie that I picked up at the library the other day and pick up a sock that I’ve been working on intermittently for months. I can usually (or "lusually", as B would say) motor through a pair of socks in no time but I haven’t knit in ages and so these have been stuck in a plastic bag, languishing. 

So I’m off to knit and movie-watch while the dehydrator whirs on the counter, filling the house with pleasant smells and causing me to anticipate these,  raw Cinnamon Raisin Flax Crackers. And speaking of raw, I found an interesting new-to-me blog this afternoon. Bart of Raw Bart began a 30 days raw food trial this fall in his words "embarking on a journey to discover the raw food lifestyle." His tagline resonates with me personally as I’m entertaining thoughts on a constant basis about the raw food lifestyle: "Going raw. Maybe. Perhaps." I love it.

(Ah ha! I just went hunting through the archives and found a post from September 1, 2008 in which the sock in question (the first of a pair) is at about the same stage it’s currently at. It was quite a bit further along earlier today but I frogged it back to the ankle because though I’d been knitting on in denial, I wasn’t happy with the loose fit of the leg portion. So it ripped it back and took out four stitches and though it doesn’t seem like much reduction in width I think it’ll be perfect. I really need to take a picture in the daylight though; that picture from a year ago doesn’t show the colours accurately.)

B’s class is having a bit of a Hallowe’en thing tomorrow, as, I’m sure, are the majority of classes in any given school. I decided last night to send something in. I wanted there to be something (besides raw veggies, which he won’t eat) that he could have that doesn’t contain artificial dyes or flavours. His school is nut-free but I also decided to try my hand at gluten-free, casein-free baking and chose to convert the Apple Banana Cupcakes recipe that I occasionally use. It’s a wonderful recipe: light, fluffy, moist, and full of flavour.

My regular tweaks include using one cup each of white and whole wheat flour, swapping out the shortening for 1/3 cup each of oil and applesauce (or all applesauce), adding 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, using 3/4 cup of white sugar and 1/2 cup of brown or only using half the sugar, 4 tablespoons of yogurt instead of buttermilk, and chopping the two apples instead of shredding. It makes 24 regular cupcakes (I only bake them for 20 minutes) or 10 jumbo ones (drop the temperature to 350F for the jumbos and bake for 27 minutes).

So today I spent a bit of money picking up small amounts of various flours to make this all-purpose gluten-free blend. I also used coconut milk in place of the yogurt/buttermilk. I was a little nervous about how it would affect the taste and texture. I was figuring the flavours of the apples and bananas would cover any difference and was mostly worried about the texture. The batter had a weird cornstarch-slurry texture to it (if that makes sense). I needn’t have worried. I can’t find a difference between the two versions in terms of taste or texture/density/moistness. I’m impressed, if I do say so myself.

 

Sorry. Night lighting. The colour’s a little off.

The frosting recipe is found here. I used the "yellow" portion of the recipe. I used a dairy-free spread instead of butter and added in some brown sugar to give the frosting a slightly caramel-y flavour to go with the apples. The frosting turned out very sweet but if you make sure you’re taking a big bite of the cake with every bite of the frosting it works out perfectly. Kids being kids though, I doubt they’ll do that. The orange food colouring is natural, ordered (along with other colours) online last year when I made B’s birthday cake. The spiders, bats, and skulls were 99¢ at Zellers for a 60-count bag (20 of each) of rings. I’m not sure these rings would fit any kid above three years old but they were a cute way to complete the cupcakes since I don’t have any natural candy sprinkles.

All in all I’m super-happy with how these turned out. I mixed up a batch and a half of batter and filled the regular tins a tiny bit fuller (instead of a scant half that the full recipe works out to) and ended up with the 24 regular muffins and four jumbo ones. I’ll be sending the regular-sized ones off to school with my little alligator/dragon/crocodile who decided this morning that he doesn’t want to be a puppy after all and will just wear his costume (we’re not exactly sure which animal it is) from last year, thank you very much.

I like mushrooms. I don’t love them but I don’t mind them.

I love these though.

This recipe is based on this one from Tosca Reno. I couldn’t remember the recipe as I was making this a few minutes ago and was too lazy to hunt it down. I knew it didn’t involve hummus but I added it anyway.

Take two portobello mushrooms (though one is enough for a light meal) washed, stemmed, and de-gilled. Turn each mushroom belly-side up and spread a tablespoon of hummus* in it. Top with a tablesppon of salsa, a few baby spinach leaves, and a generous portion of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. I baked mine in the toaster oven for about 10 minutes and then broiled them a bit to further melt and brown the cheese. They smell amazing!!

*I added a tablespoon of tahini and about five or six dry-packed sundried tomatoes to this recipe as well as upping the lemon juice to 3 tablespoons and the garlic to four small cloves.

That looks questionable, doesn’t it? No matter what it looks like it smells pretty good.

I decided to try my hand at raw/dehydrated crackers yesterday. Going off this recipe from Emily at Vegan Paris and this one from Raw Genesis, I put two cups of flax seeds (one cup golden and one cup brown) to soak in four cups of water. I had planned to soak them for a few hours but I ran out of time last night and they ended up soaking from about 3pm until 8:30′ish this morning. I put them in the fridge last night and they seemed okay this morning. Soaking the seeds turns them into a gelatinous goo. I threw in a small handful of raw sunflower seeds as well.

This morning I pulled out the Vita-Mix (pricey but I’m loving it!!) and puréed up a large carrot, two stalks of celery, a few slices of field cucumber, and about half a large red pepper. I mixed the veggies into the flax goo and spread them out on three trays lined with ParaFlexx™ and turned the dehydrator to 115F. Now it’s just a waiting game. I expect these crackers will go well with some homemade hummus. Between the faint smell of the crackers just starting to dry and the applesauce cooking down to apple butter in the crock pot (I canned 10 pints yesterday), this house is a pretty pleasant-smelling place.

Who doesn’t love giveaways? Seriously. And what about truly awesome giveaways like the one going on until October 12, 2009 at 8 p.m. PST over at Centsational Girl? Kate (a.k.a. Centsational Girl) and Price Pfister have teamed for this giveway and up for grabs is your choice of one of four kitchen faucets or one of three bathroom faucets. (I much prefer the word "tap" to faucet; it’s more familiar to me. Is it a Canadian term?) All of the choices offered are stunning for various reasons and all of them appeal to me but my first choice, after careful consideration would have to be the… No, wait. I think I prefer the… So hard to decide!!! I’m doing a bathroom reno in the relatively near future (hopefully) and will be in need of a bathroom faucet so the Treviso would be gorgeous but I’m also planning to spend a lot more time in the kitchen and the Hanover in a steel finish would be perfect both for the gooseneck and just as an additional tweak to the re-facing I’ve already done in the kitchen (painting the cupboards and walls and adding new cabinet hardware). Even though I would have to get a new sink (I think) to accommodate the new faucet, the Hanover is what I’m going with for my pick.

What would your choice be? Head over to Kate’s blog and take a peek at the gorgeous (and generous!) options. It doesn’t say anything about only being open to U.S. residents so I guess everyone has a fighting chance. You can’t be chosen if you don’t enter so go forth and state your choice!

I’m shaking. I’ve just forked over a fair chunk of money to some guy on the phone. He was a nice guy though. He works for Raw Nutrition in Quebec, a hop and a skip away from me. I love that I was able to buy "local" (local being within the country, not necessarily the same city/region). I shopped around and found that the best deal for me was to get my items all from the same place. With free shipping and three free extras thrown in (bonus!!), I’m happy. Happy but poor and so hoping I don’t wake up tomorrow with buyer’s remorse.

So what did I buy? A refurbished Vita-Mix Super 5200, a 5-tray Excalibur dehydrator, and a Spirooli fruit/vegetable spiralizer. I do not currently eat 100% raw nor is that my goal. Obviously I do eat foods in their raw form but only the "usual" ones. I do want to branch out though and start eating a few raw meals a week as well as more "natural" foods. I don’t buy very many packaged or processed foods; our consumption is pretty healthy due to the changes I made in B’s diet a year or so ago but I’d like to make a few more changes. Changes like making the following at home: crackers (both dehydrated ones and baked), flours (including bean, nut, rice, and millet), nut milks and butters, and fruit and vegetable "chips". Some of these things I could technically make now but these new additions to the kitchen will make it so much easier and therefore, hopefully, a very regular occurrence. Gena over at Choosing Raw posted about making an interesting "bread" with a dehydrator that was gifted to her (lucky girl!) and I can’t wait to try it out. I already have a juicer (not a top-of-the-line model but it works pretty well) and an awesome Bravetti food processor with blender jar that I love (and both the bowl and jar are thick glass, which is what sold me on it) as well as a cheap Nesco round dehydrator. I will either sell or Freecycle my Nesco to make room for the Excalibur. Just this week I gave away my microwave (I know! Extreme!) and I’m looking forward to living without it. I didn’t use it all that much except and am really liking the extra counter space I now have.

There is so much inspiration and encouragement to be found online that’s it’s hard to know where to start. Green Smoothie Girl is an amazing site (and check our her blog too). Choosing Raw is a wealth of knowledge even if you don’t eat raw. Blaq Berry over at Hi-Rawkus is also very informative and has a great basics page here and a wonderful "getting started" page here. Ariane over at Neat & Simple Living has a good summary post on the joys, benefits, and simplicity of the Vita-Mix. There are several models available; I chose the Super 5200, which has the improved lid (easier to use than the previous ones) and the extra "dry" jar for making flour, etc.

Raw Nutrition was a terrific place to buy from. Granted, all I’ve done is place a phone order at this point but the customer service was incredibly pleasant, helpful, and knowledgeable. They also threw in three free ParaFlexx™ sheets for the Excalibur since I was buying a Vita-Mix as well. The Excalibur comes with two sheets and I had three extras in my cart as well but they included them free of charge, a $29.97 value. Shipping was also free so all I pay is the cost of the items and GST (no provincial sales taxes charged for most provinces). Buying "local" also means no brokerage or customs/duty fees, which as anyone ordering from the States into Canada knows, is often a huge chunk of change (as is shipping itself) relative to the cost of the item being shipped.

Now I’m watching my mailbox. It should be here next week. Eeeek!

That’s often the way, isn’t it? Homemade food, gifts, products, and DIY projects are usually so much better than anything you can buy. I branched out today and made something that I have bought in the past, though they don’t often find their way into the grocery cart. I’m talking bagels. Cinnamon raisin bagels to be exact. Freaking awesome bagels with the recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. She made these with Pioneer Woman and she loved them so there you go.

 

These are a bit of a process to make but I think they’re well worth it. Regular readers here know that it’s just a small family in the rainberryblue household (a family of two) so opting to make 20 smaller ones worked out well for us. I was actually aiming for 24 and figured my weight of each dough piece accordingly but somehow I ended up four short. Not sure how that happened. I baked 12 and froze the rest straight from the fridge; I’ll defrost them in the fridge and then proceed to boil and bake as usual. It also seems to be a forgiving recipe. I left my yeast "sponge" on the counter for at least 5 hours or more as opposed to the two called for in the recipe and it turned out fine. I also added gluten to the flour. I shaped them by rolling them into a rope and wrapping it around my hand and three of my fingers (like this) and then rolling the join on the counter.

I’ve eaten four of these myself already, just as they are. Not toasted, not buttered, not cream cheese’d. B had one toasted and buttered and it was equally good. I used half whole wheat flour and half white and they’re perfect. Next time I may up the whole wheat to 75%.

B had a PD day at school today (a.k.a. Professional Development day, a.k.a. a day off; are they called PD days outside of Ontario/Canada?) and I had a day off work so we puttered around the house. It was overcast and damp but mild so we headed out to the gardens to pull out the dead potato plants and see what we could find. I think I had about eight plants (maybe nine) but we didn’t end up with very many potatoes. If I had to guess I’d say we had about 20 to 25 potatoes, mostly small-ish with one or two mid-sized ones. I used some in tonight’s supper and the rest we’ll have another day. Here’s the method I used to plant my potatoes and I plan to do the same next year, possibly with more plants.

 

a one-gloved B (the other could not be located) proudly displaying the first potato he dug

B craves this kind of attention and being involved in what I’m doing. Throughout the time it took to dig through the potato bed, there were numerous hugs/squeezes around the waist and declarations of, "I love you!" and "We’re best friends right, Mommy?" and "I love digging tomatoes!" (tomatoes are tomatoes and so are potatoes a lot of the time)

 

a super-duper lovely headless-and-blurry shot of me with my jeans rolled up to keep them dry

After we dug the potatoes we brought them in and washed them and I then sliced some of them to put in the crock pot for tonight’s supper. (See the menu posted yesterday for the recipe.) We ate lunch, went to the library, where B got out the same Mighty Machines videos that he gets every time we go (borrrr-ing!) and a couple of books, and then came back home and made some super-yummy Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip muffins. We then ate supper, went to skating (B’s in a learn to skate program), came home, did the bedtime routine, and B went to bed. PD day done!