Make Your Own Pizzas Without Spending All Day in the Kitchen

     For several years, most of our foods from the bread group were made by me from scratch.  This included bread, rolls, biscuits, pancakes and waffles, crackers, tortillas, pie and pizza crusts, and desserts.  I tried my hand at pasta making, but that didn't work out so well, so I did buy boxed pasta and rice.  I purchased flour in bulk and yeast in bags, not individual packets.  My family loved it, but after two years of spending all day in the kitchen every day of the week, I felt like Almanzo Wilder's mother in Farmer Boy...only I was NOT cheerful. 

     I awoke in the morning knowing I was going to be whipping up some coffee cake or pancakes or biscuits from scratch while gulping down some coffee and listening to hungry little ones whining about how long until breakfast was ready.  As soon as the breakfast dishes were washed by hand (no dishwasher in this old house,) it was time to start making the bread dough so it had plenty of time to rise before baking it for dinner.  Midday meant making snacks, punching down the bread dough, starting dessert, and washing more dishes.  By 4:00 I had to start preparing dinner and baking the bread. After spending all day in the kitchen (with little breaks to wash and hang laundry,) I had nothing to show for it because my family consumed every morsel ten times faster than it took me to prepare it. 

     I reached a point where I realized that I was not enjoying my life.  We had this wonderful farm on the side of a mountain with incredible views.  We had a big family full of beautiful, healthy children full of wonder and exuberance, but I was too exhausted at the end of the day to really enjoy them.  I felt years beyond my actual age, and I understood the weariness that mothers on the frontier must have experienced to get up each day and perform the same mundane tasks over and over just to feed and clothe their families.  It was then that I decided I didn't have to be Ma Ingalls, and I went to the grocery store and bought a loaf of bread---the first loaf of bread not made by me in over two years.  I haven't made bread since.

     But this week, some part of me missed the smell of yeast and the feel of dough squishing under my knuckles, and I decided to make homemade pizza once again.  It isn't nearly as time-consuming as bread making, and none of the pizza shop creations can compare to fresh, homemade pizza as it comes steaming out of the oven.  So I share our family's pizza recipe with you today in hopes that you and your little ones enjoy making this together as much as we do.

For the Crust:

1 envelope dry yeast (or 1 Tbsp.)

1 cup warm water

1 1/4 cup unbleached white flour

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. olive oil

Soften the yeast in warm water in bowl.  Add 2 cups flour, salt and oil.  Add more flour as needed to make a soft dough.  Knead on a floured surface for about 5 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl.  Cover with a wet towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled.  I let it rise for most of the afternoon. Then punch dough down and pat into a greased pizza pan.  This recipe makes one large pizza.

For a quick, no-cook sauce, I use a small can of tomato sauce and add salt, pepper, garlic powder, fresh or dry basil, and fresh oregano and spread over the pizza crust.  For those of us who like spice, I add red pepper flakes.

Add mozzarella cheese and whatever toppings your family loves.  This week our pizzas were topped with ground spicy pork sausage, and one pizza also contained canned sliced mushrooms, and fresh banana peppers.  This is the part my younger children love to help with.

Making homemade pizzas used to be a Friday evening tradition for our family.  I've taken a sabbatical from my days in the kitchen when I made almost every food from scratch, and I'm beginning to miss a bit of it.  This dish is a good one to bring back into our lives without spending all day in our farmhouse kitchen.

Peach Cobbler: Healthy Breakfast or Delicious Dessert

This is my family's favorite cobbler recipe, and with peaches now in season here in the Northeast, I will be making this at least once a week.  We love this as dessert with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, but I have also been known to serve it up for breakfast since it's more healthy than many of the commercial breakfast items found in the supermarket.

Peach Cobbler

Filling:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

4 tsp. cornstarch

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 cup water

4 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches (about 8-9 medium sized peaches)

1 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar, cornstarch, and nutmeg.  Add 1/2 cup of water.  Cook and stir on medium heat until thickened and bubbly (about 5-10 minutes.)  Add the sliced peaches, lemon juice, and butter.  Heat until warm.  Place on a warming burner or on very low heat.

Biscuit Topper:

1/2 cup unbleached white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup softened butter

1 slightly beaten egg

1/4 cup milk

Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in the butter until the mixture is slightly crumbly.  Combine the egg and milk and beat gently with a fork.  Add all at once to dry ingredients and stir.

Put the hot peach mixture in a Pyrex baking dish or 1 1/2 quart casserole.  Scoop the biscuit topper in mounds on top.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.  Can serve with ice cream or whipped cream, or just eat plain.  This feeds our family of 7 with no leftovers and the children are begging for the "scrapings."

Summer Alternatives to Childhood Electronics

Last week I viewed a video by Buzzpo.com ("So Incredibly Sad: This is How 3 Generations Answer the Same Question") that was shared on Facebook.  It interviewed three generations of Americans and asked them how they spent their summers as children.

The grandparents mentioned berry picking, fishing, and helping in the garden.

The middle-aged parents said they gathered together neighborhood children to play baseball or build forts.

When today's children were asked how they spend their summer days, they described their love for video games, texting, and hours spent on their tablets.

They said they wouldn't know what they would do with themselves if they couldn't have their electronics.  

Their video games relieved their stress and made them forget about everything and everyone else around them.

While I agree with the message that was sent from this video---that children should spend more time in nature---I think that American families were misrepresented.

I know that my children are not the only ones who spend their summers building forts, making sailboats, and wading in creeks.  One of the blogs that I like to read describes what a summer day at her house was like when the children spent their afternoon and evening outside instead of being plugged in: thistlewood farms.

Amongst my friends, I see teenagers baling hay, raising animals for the fair, fishing, and kayaking.  Younger children are designing their own comic strips, sewing their own clothes, decorating cakes, reading numerous books, camping and swimming.  Some families are going to foreign countries to give aid to the needy.  The children that I know personally are not spending 6 hours in front of a screen daily.

While it can be challenging for parents to pull children away from their electronic devices, it is being done.  There are plenty of American families living a summer alternative to the hollow gaming and texting filled days portrayed in the video shown by buzzpo.  Even if the media doesn't show us, there are plenty of us throughout our nation.

Pesto Pasta and Coral Cupcakes

This time of summer brings plenty of fresh basil here in the Northeast.  We normally grow a ton of it on our farm either in the soil or in our aquaponics system.  This year, however, we forgot to plant any, so I purchased a large bunch at a farm stand this past weekend.  Besides drying it for the winter and using it with fresh tomatoes and Parmesan cheese, my other favorite thing to make from basil is pesto.

To begin, you need a nice bunch of fresh basil.  This bunch is enough to make a double recipe.

For a single batch that will feed at least 4 adults, you will need the following:  1/2 cup olive oil, 2 cloves garlic or about 2 tsp. minced garlic, 2 tsp. crumbled dry parsley, 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds or pine nuts, 1 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 2 cups of firmly packed fresh basil, and 1 cup of Parmesan cheese.  You will also need a pound of pasta.

First, combine the olive oil, garlic and parsley in a blender.  Process until smooth, and let stand for about 15 minutes.  Then add the sunflower seeds, salt and pepper and process until blended.  Finally, add the basil and Parmesan cheese gradually, and process until smooth.  You might need to get a long spoon in there to mash the basil down to the bottom so all the leaves get blended in.  It will look like a green gremlin exploded in your blender.

While you are doing all of this, you can cook your pasta al dente.  When you drain it, make sure you save 1/2 cup of the liquid that your pasta was cooked in.

You will then combine the pasta and the 1/2 cup of reserved liquid in a bowl and mix well.

The final step is to stir in the pesto sauce.

And this is what you end up with!  I sometimes make very large batches of pesto and put it in plastic freezer containers which keep for up to a year in a chest freezer.  It might last longer than a year, but I wouldn't know because we eat it before then.  It actually looks and tastes like fresh pesto and is such a treat to have in the middle of winter.

If you're fortunate enough to have a 13 year old in the house who has extra coral colored frosting left over from making a cake for the fair, you might even have some pink/coral cupcakes for dessert.

Do any of you have some good basil recipes?  I am always on the lookout for more meals using this herb.

Soaking Up These Final Weeks of Summer

Here we are in August already with only weeks until the new school year begins.  We are grabbing the remaining bit of summer break and holding on to it for as long as we can.

After finishing up a week of robotics camp and a trip to the public library, we tried out a new park this weekend and had yet another picnic (I'm getting my money's worth out of this new picnic tablecloth.)

From ages 6-14, they all actually ate and played together, which is no small accomplishment these days.

Our youngest insisted it was her American Girl doll's birthday, so she had to come along and receive presents and be wished a Happy Birthday.  She was once Felicity, but since her haircut, I think she looks like a hybrid of Felicity and our 6 year old.

After the park picnic and playground, we tried out a different swimming pool.

It was great fun for the children since our pool doesn't have water slides and jungle gyms.  It was great for me since I'm not responsible for cleaning it.

Our weekend continued with our teenage daughter at a candy molding class and then taking over my kitchen as she prepares a mega-cake for the fair.  In between, my youngest and I tried our hands at making crafts from an old issue of an American Girl magazine.

We were trying to make edible bunny slippers out of marshmallows, frosting, and colored sugar.  This was a sticky project, and we didn't have certain candies that would have made it easier.  So they turned out looking like this, but as you can see, she thought they were fantastic.

My little ones have also been picking many flowers from our gardens and beds and making bouquets.  I love the late summer flowers in bloom, and since these are all perennials, I don't have to do anything but admire them.

I'm sad to say that it took me this long, but for the first time all summer, last evening I finally just lay on the ground and gazed at the sky like I used to when I was a child.

I didn't think about the chores I had left to do or getting the children ready for bed.

  I listened...and heard the locusts in the trees and my husband and children laughing in the pool.  I smelled the grass under my back and the apple mint growing beside me.  I felt the evening breeze coming down off the mountain and the claws of one of our cats kneading my stomach as he tried to get comfortable on me.  I watched the bugs, birds, and bats fly overhead as the sun finished setting.

And I wondered if years from now, when our children come home to visit with their little ones, this is how they will remember their summers growing up at this farmhouse in the mountains.

In Praise of Permaculture-Mulching: Summer Project #3

Tomato plant that reseeded itself in our sheet mulched garden

I have to admit that out of all the summer projects on our bucket list, moving mulch was the one I was least excited about.  My husband is the gardener of the family---as I have mentioned before---and he is always looking for a more efficient method to grow our food that is less labor intensive.  In a nutshell, he is a huge fan of permaculture.  In particular, he loves the aspect of mulching.

Our one ton pile of wood chips dumped in our yard in May

According to Wikipedia, "In permaculture, sheet mulching is an agricultural no-dig gardening technique that attempts to mimic natural forests' processes.  When deployed properly and in combination with other permacultural principles, it can generate healthy, productive, and low maintenance ecosystems."  This hill of mulch was the final step in the sheet mulching process for the one and only garden we planted this summer.  For my husband, this was the solution to the incessant weed problem in our gardens.  To me, this just looked like months of work shoveling mulch into a wheel barrow, dumping it in place, and then spreading it with a rake because we don't have any tractors here.

Our garden at the end of May.  Notice my flowers that looked so pitiful then.

However, along with a successful crop of comfrey for our livestock and enough peas and onions for us to preserve, it also laid the groundwork for a number of tomatoes reseeding themselves and growing into the plants shown in the picture at the top of this post.

A closeup of part of the garden a week ago.

Not to mention what this mulch has done for the marigolds, zinnias, and gerber daisies I planted back in early May.  These are the same flowers that appeared to be dead 2 months ago when we first applied the wood chips.  You can see there are still a few weeds and sprigs of grass creeping in, but they pull out easily, and we now only need to pull a few weeds once or twice a week as opposed to the daily weeding and hoeing we used to do.

A flower bed along the front of our farmhouse at the beginning of summer

In addition to helping the garden, we also used the wood chips in a traditional fashion as mulch in the numerous flower beds around our farmhouse.  There are still many beds to fill at various sites on our property, but most of the beds next to the house have been mulched to some extent.  This one was the worst since it was filled with overgrown bushes, many weeds, and wild raspberry shoots.  I'm embarrassed to even show this picture that was taken back in early May.

The same area now

After a few hours of some pruning, digging, and mulching by my wonderful husband and several of our strong children, this is what the bed currently looks like.  Now I can actually do something with it.  Hopefully before the summer is over, the remaining 5 flower beds will look this good, and I won't feel like we're living in a mountain jungle.

As we continue on our small farming journey, I believe we will incorporate more and more aspects of permaculture into our family's hobby farm.  The premise of it is something we believe in, and it makes complete sense to stop going against nature in traditional methods of plowing, planting, tilling, and other conventional ways of farming.  I would consider this summer project of mulching a success.  It is a bit of work early in the summer (for which I can take no credit), but it ultimately leads to much healthier soil, plants that thrive, and very few weeds.  To learn more about permaculture, check out the sites below:

www.permaculture.org/

permaculturenews.org/

www.rodalesorganiclife.com

www.backtoedenfilm.com/

10 Tips for Shopping at Farmers' Markets (From a Former Market Vendor)

     Throughout our marriage, my husband and I have shopped at various farmers' markets, both in the South and in the Northeast.  For a number of years, I have also stood on the other side of the market tables, first selling my handmade line of bath products and then selling produce from our gardens and greenhouse.  As I made my purchases at one of our local markets this past week, I thought about what I wish I had known during my first few trips as the consumer.  Remembering what it was like to be a vendor at these markets, I also couldn't help but think what I wish customers knew from our point of view.  Below I share some tips for helping you in your next shopping venture at your local farmers' market, keeping in mind that these come from someone who knows what it's like to be on both sides of the seller's booth.

1. If you are looking for something specific, get to the market early before vendors sell out of the most popular items.  I have noticed this happens with first crops of the season, especially berries, peaches, and corn.  On the other hand, if you are not looking for anything in particular, show up an hour or so before closing time.  Some vendors will mark down items at that time rather than have to load them up and take them home.
2. Peruse the perimeter of the market before making any purchases.  Many people spend all their money at the first few vendors' tables and never see what all there is to offer.  You might be missing out on something terrific.  I quickly scan each booth and then come back through to actually buy.
3. Bring your own sturdy bags and cash.  Though most vendors do supply plastic grocery bags, some run out and it is an additional expense for the farmer.  Many markets now accept debit cards and some accept SNAP and EBT cards, but some individual vendors still do not have this capability.
4. Look for vendors that sell organic, non-GMO, or naturally grown foods.  I think the majority of the farmers who do this display a sign of some sort on their tables informing the public of their practices.  However, when we first started out, we did not think to do that.  If you have any questions about how the food is grown, ask the farmer.
5. Chat with the farmers as long as you are not holding up the line or distracting them from making sales to other customers.  Vendors who have a passion for what they do will love sharing their knowledge with other people.  This was my husband's favorite part of both selling and buying at the markets.
6. With that being said, however, if you're going to have a lengthy conversation with a seller, please buy something from them.  This is different from asking them about their growing or harvesting practices because you want to know what you're getting for your money.  I am talking about one of those 20 minute conversations where you're asking all kinds of questions and possibly even sharing some of your own ventures into growing or creating things, and you are taking up a lot of this vendor's time.  Then it is only considerate to buy something from that booth.
7. Don't quibble over prices without good reason.  If prices seem higher than other vendors, ask why.  It is usually more expensive for a farmer to grow naturally or organically rather than conventionally using chemicals and sprays.  The same goes for natural soaps and candles and other such items that contain all natural ingredients and essential oils.
8. Do expect fruits and vegetables to be different sizes and colors and possibly have some dirt on them.  They are not all going to be uniform, shiny, and perfect because that's just not natural.
9. If it is hot and humid, and especially if the tables are in direct sunlight, know that some things are going to look a bit droopy.  I am especially referring to greens and carrot and beet tops, as well as a number of herbs.  Even if they are displayed in some water, they will still look somewhat wilted as the day's heat sets in.  Put them in the crisper as soon as you get home.
10. Keep in mind that whatever doesn't get sold at that market is highly likely to end up on that farmer's table later that day to be served to that farmer's family.  I only say this because I have seen customer's dogs' noses up against whatever is being displayed on the table.  I have seen patrons rummage through baskets of berries or sniff items while having an obvious cold or other illness.  Sometimes children with hands that are not so clean like to touch every brightly colored item that's at eye level.  Then many of these people don't buy any of it, leaving it for the next individual who comes along or for the farmer to take home.  This is also why it's a good idea to use a vinegar wash on your produce once you are home in your kitchen.

     Farmers' markets and local CSAs are such gifts to our families and communities.  They give us the opportunity to support local businesses and small family farms that are being lost in these days of mega-farms, mono-agriculture, and CAFOs.  It is also a way for us to reconnect with our food production and food providers if we are not growing or raising our own.  In the supermarket, we only have the package labels to inform us of the location and manner in which our food was grown.  With local farmers' markets and farm stands, however, we can speak directly with the growers and sometimes even visit their farms.  I encourage everyone to stop by your local market this week and see what all there is to offer.  If you're a newbie, I hope these tips will help make your shopping experience an easy and enjoyable one.