Live Eagle Cam for your pleasure!

Here is a special treat for you all today. Here is a link to the Eagle Cam I have been watching for a few days....it is a Bald Eagle sitting on a nest of 3 eggs at this time.

Have a wonderful day!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/3064708

Artisan Bread

Sorry the picture is rough...I took it with my web cam.

Here is the book that I am trying to make recipes out of at this time. It is called, "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by co-authors Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Zoe Francois. A good friend of mine gave me this book...and when I read the title....bread in 5 minutes a day....I had to try it. All of these recipes are your specialty breads....yes they do have plain white and wheat breads, but I am talking about breads like Boule, Broa (Portuguese Corn Bread), Baguettes, Pita, Prosciutto and Olive oil flat breads....most breads that you would find in a specialty bread shop on the corner in the corner shops in large cities and European cities. There are over 100 recipes for different breads in here. I am making the first one, at the front of the book...the traditional Boule..(artisan free form loaf).
The way this book works...you make enough dough...a high moisture content dough and store it in your fridge for up to 2 weeks...hence why it is bread in 5 minutes a day. There is no kneading, just take 5 minutes to grab the dough out of the fridge and shape and go...they don't count the resting and baking time in the five minutes, because during that time you will be doing something else....(like making the rest of supper) So, I have a batch of dough mixed...and I will be tossing it in the fridge here in an hour....and tomorrow, I will make some fresh Boule.

Oh and one other thing....the longer the dough is stored, the more of a natural sourdough flavor is supposed to come out, with out having to have a tradional sourdough starter.....I will let you know how this works! =)

Drying Onions...Oxygen Absorbers

Here are the onions on the dehydrator. I was curious as to how much this was going to end up being.  One side note that I didn't think about...the smell of my house took on the smell of onions, and for that matter, I ended up with watery eyes for the first 3 hours of the drying process. Note to self....next time, do onions in the summer....when windows can be opened...

Here is one of the packages of oxygen absorbers that I received. They came in a packet of 10....here's the deal with these...If you are going to open them, make sure you have 10 jars or 10 containers that are ready for them...Once the bag is open...you have about 15 minutes to get them into the containers and seal them back up.

Okay, sorry for the horrible picture....this one turned out terrible...but anyway...this is a pint jar. this is what I ended up with for my 3lb bag of onions. I would have been able to fit all of them in this jar, had I not put the oxygen absorber in here as well. The benefit of having the O2 absorbers is that now these onions will be able to be kept in a long term situation. Instead of 2-3 years....we can not count on these lasting 15-20....a much better investment.

Just some adventure pictures....

This is the trail the tot and I went for a walk on yesterday. The trails are in wonderful shape.

This part of the trail ran through a Hemlock swamp of sorts...very pretty!

More of the trail!

Here we are out of the Hemlock swamp, and getting back into the hardwoods. It was just a beautiful day....=D

Canning Jars.....

 SCORE!!! I found cases of canning jars on sale at a local mart for $5 a case of 12.... What a lucky find. Of course, someone else also jumped on the sale as well....at first I thought I had missed the stock, especially when I noticed the 3 shelves empty...but then, I looked up to the top of the display...and there were 3 cases left.

So, with that great sale...I bought some canning jars. They are the pint size jars...which was what I was looking for. Since this coming week we are going to be doing some more long term food storage dehydrating. I found out this morning in an email with the tracking number for my oxygen absorbers that they will be here today.  I guess my prepping can continue without as much time off as I thought I would lose.

Next week we'll be busy....

I just found out (thanks to email notification) that my oxygen absorbers are going to be here Monday or Tuesday of next week....once they get here....we are all going to continue on our merry way.

Our project next week is to dehydrate down onions, and I want to have some for diced onions, but I also want to make some into powder....as always...I will be taking you with me, and you can watch through pictures what I do....

Otherwise...not much going on around here...as you have noticed, I have been posting less lately. Here is the deal....my husband was/is having some health issues....and after finally convincing him he needs to go to the doctor I got him to go.

Well, needless to say...we got the diagnosis that he has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (I suspected, that is why I sent him to the doctor) and now we have been working on a battle plan to get him better or at least get an understanding of what is going on....so that has been our first priority...and hence why I have not been posting.

Other than that...all is good here. I hope all is good in your lives...see you next week!

My homemade salve....

I thought I would update all of you on the homemade salve I made a while back....

To refresh any memories...it was a licorice root salve that I was making to try to use on my psorasis....well...after almost a month and a half of using it...I have come to the conclusion that it works wonderful.

My psorasis is not as bad as it was...and for an ezcema flare I had show up on my thumb...it worked well with that too. I am very happy with how it turned out, and how well it is working. I will continue to use this from here on out....I have also discovered it works well with cracked skin in general from cold, dry weather.

My next interesting thing I am going to make is my own homemade deodorant....

Yep, you read that correctly, I have been doing some research...and want to make my own that doesn't have the aluminum ingredient that is in commercial brands...I am right now, waiting for the end of my current stuff to be gone, so I can make some of my own.

When I do that...I will go step by step, like I did with the salve....Have a great day!

Long Term Food Storage....

Well,

I am glad I am just getting into this journey of long term food storage....I realized that I needed oxygen absorbers for my dry goods. I am going to put off any more food preps until I get my absorbers in the mail...then I will continue on this venture...so bear with me....

The last thing I want to do is loose everything that I have been doing thus far...that would suck!

As soon as I get everything in....we will continue on!

On the trail....

Here is a picture that I took of the moon coming up over the tree line yesterday afternoon....so beautiful!

In this picture, there are 2 eagles that I made little arrows to point to...I only have a small digital camera that I carry with me where ever I go...and this was as far as I wanted to zoom in so not to loose the quality of the photo....

Some of the scenery of land we walked through yesterday!

I love swamps...this one had a snowmobile go through it at one time....I am sure it was a trapper!

The beautiful trail we walked down. I just loved the way the evergreens closed this in like a tunnel.

 The fat little red squirrel we saw in the woods on our hike.

This is a little chalet on the other side of a pond from where we were walking. We are now getting closer to civilization. It was a beautiful day for a walk, and when we got done.....we stopped at the little coffee shop for a cup of hot cocoa and a pizza panini for lunch....it was a wonderful day!

Cranberry Dehyration

Dehydrating cranberries for long term storage...I have done a total now of 3 gallons...which once dried down only gives one about 3 quarts...but...they will store for a long time....

Here, I am prepping the berries...you have to dip them in boiling water to get the skins to crack to make it easier for drying. I have some berries that didn't fit on the trays...so I am cooking them down in the water and making homemade cranberry juice...much healthier than the stuff you buy out of the store....less sugar...you only put in what you want...so it is much better for you.

Keep in mind though, the juice is very tart before sugar....I suggest you keep trying it and add little bits of sugar at a time until you find the flavor you like if you do this.

We like running along the backroads looking for critters...today, we struck a gold mine with the sighting on not just one, but 3 bald eagles....