Do You Believe.....

Sometimes, unbeknown to us, God is preparing us for blessings we aren't sure we want. For  awhile now we've been talking about "what if" the school district decided to put Kent in as principal of the high school once the then principal retired. Kent knew it would be a lot of work as there have been things that needed to happen over at our high school for a long time. He wasn't sure at first that he would want that challenge, but his thoughts have gradually changed over the months to be more along the line of, "Well if I were the principal there, this is what I would do."
So we passed through the summer dealing with health issues for several family members and trying to figure out what to do with Kent's parents to help them as they are no longer able to live alone. We got that problem solved thanks to a sweet sister-in-law and her husband, so we thought things would quiet down. Then Kent gets a call from the school district letting him know that the HS principal had quit. So he throws his hat into the ring for candidate, even though they had already asked him several times before if he would be interested. He was appointed the new principal of the high school 3 weeks ago, and it has been such a wonderful blessing already! He is actively engaged in planning ways to make a difference, he is working harder, but sleeping better. He's getting better benefits I won't go into here, but needless to say, some of his other worries are being taken care of in ways we never expected.

I believe, that sometimes God will prepare us way in advance, for major changes in our lives. As a side note to all of this, I have had a sense for months that we were going to move and that I needed to de-junk. Well, knowing is not always doing, so while we are having to move, I will be de-junking whether I like it or not. Yes, I do believe that God will prepare us for many things.....if we are paying attention. Do you believe?

Square Foot Gardening

Last year I tried out square foot gardening for the first time and I am sold! I built boxes, which you can see examples of in my July 2009 blog posts. I will get organized here and link all garden, cooking and so on posts so they are easy to find. Anyway, I laid down ground cover, which I will be putting a layer of mulch or gravel on around the boxes this year. My friend Helene used pvc pipe to make hoops to put netting over to keep pests such as deer out of the beds, so I did the same thing and it worked great. If you look closely you can sort of see them to the right of the house.

Here is how some of the plants were doing in July last year. I direct seeded a lot of my stuff. You can see basil, baby pac choi, carrots and so on. I was so thrilled with how everything grew!

Peas, lettuce and beans are some of the crops I planted. The beans didn't do as well as I like but hey there's always this year! I may try something different.

 My broccoli and cauliflower went great guns! I really need to rethink which box I plant them in this year. I did them about 12 apart and that was a bit crowded, but hey they did well so maybe crowding was okay.
I would encourage anyone planning on gardening this year for the first time to look into Mel Bartholemew's square foot gardening. The link is to the right.

Using What We Have on Hand.....

I have an eclectic collection of cookbooks, mostly older. One was printed in the 1950's and is full of ideas for using leftover items or stuff right off the shelf. Rather than run to the store each time I want to cook something I'm trying to learn to be more resourceful and use what's on hand. I had a bit of leftover bow tie pasta and salmon, but not enough to feed one person, much less a family so here's what I did. I took half a onion chopped, and sauted them in a frying pan with a little oil. I then added 1 15 oz. can of creamed corn and 1/2 cup canned milk. I added 1/3 a cup cheddar cheese powder, the macaroni and cheese kind, and let that get hot. I used to get this online but will have to find a new resource, rats! I heated up a pan of water as this was going on, and when boiling added 2 cups bow tie pasta and cooked that for 15 minutes then drained it. In the cheese sauce mixture I added lemon pepper, Old Bay seasoning and Lawry's seasoning to taste. I also added a dash or 2 of Tabasco. I then added 1 7 oz. can of salmon, Costco has the best I've ever tried. After this heated through, I added about 1/4 cup Parmesan and a little milk to keep the sauce creamy. I added the hot drained pasta and leftovers to the mix. Everyone raved! Our salad consisted of grape tomotoes, drained canned green beans, and chopped onion with a bit of italian dressing. We had a great meal, with what I had on hand!
Okay, back to the cookbook. There was a recipe for Pineapple Bran muffins I tweaked a bit using what I had on hand again, and here's the result. I replaced the bran with cornmeal and oats

Peachy Keen Muffins
2 c. flour
1/2 c. each cornmeal and oats
1T. baking powder
1 t. salt
1/4 c. sugar
1 -8 oz jar peach preserves
1 egg
1/2 c. evap milk
1/4 c. oil

Sift all dry ingredients together. Blend all wet ingredients and gently stir into dry ingredients until just moistened. Grease or line 12 muffin tins and distribute batter evenly. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Yummy!

New Goals.....

Aaaaawwww, aren't they cute? So soft, cuddly and tiny! They have nothing to do with this post, but I wanted a picture to share with you so I put up one of my paintings.

I had some good thoughts I wanted to share earlier, but they drifted away on the path that all good thoughts often go, getting lost among the tasks of the day, or, in my case in the fog of my brain....lol. I'll be so glad when my sinuses are healed. We set a goal this morning to read the scriptures together. I asked Kent when we should do this and he said we could read in the morning right after breakfast, and wouldn't you know it, we didn't do it! We have a serious family matter that has weighed heavily on my mind and that got in the way of my reminding him. I will get him to read though. Another goal we have is to stop being so negative. It's such a disease, and so non-productive! I'm sure that if we heard all the negative remarks about us, we would be totally crushed, so I think about that whenever an incident comes up that I'm thinking of sharing, or even a news story that irks me. And, while my inclination is to rant about what is going on in the U.S. today, it won't help, so I'm trying to learn to be pro-active. So let me ask you this, what are you doing to be prepared for what is coming with the economy and so forth? Are you planning a garden this year? Are you looking for ways to save money or cut back? What are you doing? Me, I will be going through the seed catalog and ordering seeds this week. I will be planting tomato seeds, and perhaps peppers and squash. I will be putting out pea seeds, in the garden, and maybe even some carrots and garlic.
Here's another recipe that I put together for a soup I was asked to make for our District Conference. It's very yummy if I do say so myself so give it a try!

Red Lentil and Wheat Berry Soup
2 c. cooked wheat berries - 1 c. dried red lentils,rinsed - 8 c. water
1 ham hock - 3 slices bacon, chopped - 1 onion, chopped - 1 large carrot, scrubbed or peeled, thinly sliced - 1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms -
1 1/2 c. chopped celery - 3 c. chopped cabbage - 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 16 oz. can stewed tomatoes - 1-8 oz. can tomato sauce - 4 chicken bullion cubes
1 bay leaf - 1 T. cumin powder - 1/2 t. red chili flakes
Seasoning salt to taste - 1/2 t. pepper - 1 cooked potato, cubed

Saute bacon, onion, garlic, celery and cabbage in a large pot until veggies are tender. Combine the rest of the ingredients in the pot and simmer slowly, covered, until lentils are cooked. Remove ham hock and serve hot. Serves 10-12.
If you want you can add some Garam Masala for a nice East Indian flare. This is a nice, healthy soup without much meat that can be adapted to whatever your family preferences are. Enjoy!

Wheat Berry Salad

Wonderful wheat! The delicious foods that can be created with it are amazing! And the nutrition factor is an added plus. Whole wheat has pantothenic acid, folic acid, biotin, B vitamins and E vitamins. Iron, potassium and magnesium are among the other health benefits of eating wheat.
You can sprout wheat for salads, grind it into flour for all sorts of goodies, including gluten that can be turned into mock meat. In this form it is almost a complete protein, lacking only lysine which can be made up by adding legumes, nuts, and vegetables. Cooking the wheat kernels gives you a plump wheat berry that can be used for breakfast cereal, salads, in soups and stews. Cracked wheat makes an easy and great extender for burger in meatloaf,meat balls, as well as taco filling.
You can save money by incorporating wheat into your weekly menu as well. Start by adding wheat slowly to your diet and you will feel better, save money, and also more fully follow the Word of Wisdom by learning to eat meat sparingly. Don't be afraid to experiment and Enjoy!
Here's a salad recipe that is really quite delicious.
Wheat Berry Salad

3 c. cooked wheat berries
3 sl. bacon cooked til crisp and crumbled
3/4 c. each chopped celery and grated carrot
1 c. chopped cabbage
I/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. each plain yogurt and mayonnaise
1/3 c. Craisins
1/2 t. course ground pepper
1 t. seasoning salt
1 T. honey

Combine all ingredients in a medium size bowl. Chill and serve. Servings 8
You can change any veggies and use broccoli or cauliflower, chopped.

I will be adding more like this so check back on occasion. Thanks for stopping by!

Adding Links

Today I'm spending my free time (grandson is sleeping)adding links to my new blog. So take some time to check them out and see what wonderful things there are to find out there!

Isn't Emmett the cutest little fella?! His latest thing is to read everything to find the letters or numbers he recognizes and tell you what they are. He doesn't speak many words yet, but loves to tell you about letters and numbers. He will flip through the phone book, a dictionary, magazines, anything with print, to find large and easy to recognize letters. It's fun to see what he does each day.
Tomorrow I plan on sharing some of my Cooking with Wheat recipes I created for our Enrichment night this week. Why should we store and use wheat, stop by tomorrow and I will share that. Have a great day!