Yum

I love baked goods, especially ones involving fruit. And one of the easiest is Crumble; here are two different flavors that use the same easy topping.

Topping
5 Tbl flour (I used an organic stone ground whole wheat, a GF mix would work well too)
2 Tbl brown sugar
1 stick of cold butter cut up into small pieces

I usually make the crumble while my fruit marinates.
Combine flour and sugar in a bowl, then work in the butter pieces. You are not trying to cream the butter, just turn it into tiny flour covered pieces.

Blackberry Basil
1 1/2 pins blackberries
2 grany smith apples
1-2 Tbl basil based on your fondness for the herb (I used Thai basil, it's a bit more hearty than Italian basil)
sugar to taste (I only used a tea spoon or so, I like tart things)

Peach Ginger
4 large peaches peeled and chopped (I blanched the peaches in order to peal them)
1 pint strawberries, cut into smallish pieces
1 Tbl fresh grated ginger (if you have powdered use that, you may just want to add a bit more)

Combine and let sit for 10 min. (I did this in my pie dish) place crumble on top and bake at 350 until all the butter is melted and the edges are bubbling.

Wee Hours

Once again I find myself awake in the early hours of Thursday morning. I did not find my pillow restful, even though I am tired. So instead of dream land I tried blog land.

You might find a few things different today; a new title, a new template and a new user pic. Things are a changing! The seasons are shifting and so is my blood. The summer has gone by with little progress on my part. I have felt more of a difference in the past week than all summer. (But my new found sinus infection is not helping)

So as the leaves on the trees go from green to red, orange and yellow; I am going green.

Couting Blessings Instead of Sheep

Because it is technically Thursday and I can't sleep: I present to you, Thankful Thursday.

I am thankful that my husband's company offers health insurance; and that I have a family doctor who cares.

I am thankful that I have a neighbor who brings me flowers from her garden, loans me books and offers to take walks with me.

I am thankful that I have caring supportive in laws, who treat me as their own, it makes being away from my family easier.

I am thankful for a husband who opens doors for me, holds my hand and brings me tea; he helps me along the path of life when I can not help myself.

Introducing...

Sometimes its the small innocent beings in our lives that can effect us the most. I know many women in my life who have had their eyes open to a whole new array of things by there children. I have yet to be blessed with a human child, but a about three weeks ago my husband and I adopted a fuzzy child. Actually so fuzzy that we named him Fozzy. In the past week I have watched the lights on the Delaware River, a robin chirp in the early morning, seen mother duck tend to their ducklings and found were the bunnies who eat my garden live. I have met more neighbors in a week than in the whole prior year of living here. He has been great company for me during the day, and is an eager walking partner. He is definitely what our life needed right now.

Chronic Illness and the Web

It is no secret that I have chronic health issues and that sometimes it gets the better of me, or at the very least my time. So to break my rut of not posting for fear of complaining too much I would like to share some of my favorite websites for dealing with Chronic Illness.

This site has some great info on integrative and alternative therapies; many people like non-drug options, or just need to help improve there overall wellness and quality of life.
http://www.amfoundation.org/

This is a fun website with articles for the young and spunky who happen to be sick.
http://www.chronicbabe.com/

A great anecdote and lesson to learn by, 'don't use up all your spoons'
http://butyoudontlooksick.com/

This site has some good general health and illness info.
http://www.healthcentral.com/

And because a Lady needs pretty things in her life.
http://www.forgettingthepill.com/
http://www.n-styleid.com/
http://www.fiddledeeids.com/index.php

If any of you have sites you or your friends like, please share.
Enjoy!
~Kate

Cooking with Venison

As promised two recipes using venison. I multi task, so if you aren't good at doing two things at once, or are new to the kitchen, you might want to do some prep work. Do all of your chopping and measuring first; just line it all up on the counter and things will go smoother. Have fun and I hope you enjoy these dishes. :)

This first one is based on a recipe in "Nourishing Traditions", I adapted it do to what I had on hand.

Venison Stuffer Peppers
4 green peppers
1 pound ground venison
1 small onion
1/4 pasta sauce (tomato paste was called for, and this is what I had)
1/2 cup beef stock (you may need more if u you use tomato paste)
1 cup of brown rice
spices and herbs to taste (I used basic green herbs and a pinch of cinnamon)
olive oil
grated Parmesan cheese

Set rice to cook, per directions on the package, and preheat the oven to 350F. After, start by browning the meat in your trusty skillet, using the olive oil and add desired herbs and spices. While this is going on chop up your onion. Once the meat is ready pushed it to the perimeter of your skillet, you may need to remove it if your skillet is small. Then add a touch more olive oil and put the onions in the center. While they caramelize carefully cut the peppers, I chose to cut them in half, from top to bottom, so they would cook quicker. Greased a Pyrex dish, 9x12, with olive oil and place the peppers in. Once the onions are ready stir them in with the meat and add the tomato sauce, beef stock and rice. Once combined carefully scoop it into the peppers, cover in graded cheese and bake. The baking took about 30 minutes. I server this with a chopped salad.


Onto the next recipe... This time I was basically just trying to clean out the fringe, so feel free to substitute for what you have. Or just get creative.

Venison Chili
1 pound ground venison
1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper
3 carrots
1 small onion
1 can kidney beans
3 table spoons olive oil
spices and herbs to taste (I used cumin, chili powder and garlic powder)
1/4 red wine vinegar
1/2 beef stock
1/2 cup tomato sauce

Plug in your slow cooker, or put your stock pot on low. Put olive oil and meat in pot and turn it on. Chop peppers, carrots and onions into smallish pieces, and add them to the pot. Add kidney beans, vinegar, beef stock and tomato sauce. Spice to taste; I eye ball it when I add the meat and then go back once it is all cooked and sample. I usually end up adding more spice at the end. I served this with toasted tortillas, just brush them with olive oil and place them on a baking sheet in the oven on low. You may need to experiment with it.

Well that is all for now. There will be more coming. Tomorrow is my last day of work; I'll be on sick leave the rest of the summer, while I heal my body and soul.

What's Up, What's Down

It's been a while, hasn't it. Things have been quite and busy all at the same time. My health has been poor, still. But it will be doing better. We have answers and we have plans to fix them. However in the mean time this blog will be taking a bit of different turn. Don't worry it's not for the worse.

Actually it may be for the better... The Better Health of All. This summer Healthy Living will be a major focus of this blog. I'm not yet sure if I will be doing any series or not, I guess we will figure that out as I do my research.

Also I will be posting some yummi new receipts, as I experiment with new healthy foods. Actually I have two receipts involving Venison that I need to type up and post for you all :)

So until then, I hope all is well in your worlds and that it continues to be.

Slow Down for Slow Food

Whether you are a big family or a single person, I believe a myriad of problems can be solved by simply slowing down, cooking a meal at home and enjoying it at the table. And that sentence is far easier said than done. My husband and I both work and I know how hard it is to find the energy to cook when you get home late (and if you are me, are in pain too). But this excuse will suffice no longer. My husband and I have been living off of bought lunches and pre-made meals from the grocery store for weeks now; and though it has been a timesaver the novelty of it has worn off. Eating this way strains our purse strings and encourages unhealthy eating habits. There has been more fried chicken, Chinese food, frozen meals and cookies in this house in the last month than in the last year.

I have read about the Slow Food Movement before and took great interest in it. But today I decided that it is time to implement such an idea into our daily lives. So I am joining the Slow Food Movement. It's about being more than just a consumer of food. The main principles of the SFM is to have a relationship with your food, know where it comes from, and to buy local, organic and fair trade when you can. It's about preparing and sharing your food; have friends over and cook together, or just sit at the table, light some candles and spend an evening with your husband lingering over a home cooked meal.

Now with everything that is going on in my life jumping into this fully may be a bit much for us right now; so I am going to ease into this lifestyle. I am pledging to prepare lunch for my husband and myself every day. I also intend to cook one homemade, from scratch, meal a week. Quick frozen veggie skillet creations don't count. I am talking about cutting, chopping and cooking. And once this has become routine and my health is better or my work situation has improved, I intend on increasing the number of 'from scratch' dinners. I also pledge to post these dinners in my blog, so that I can share with all of you.

Could it Be?

For many of us there is something in our lives that is a point of contention. And for me that point seems to be the need for me to work. I am thankful for having the job I do, but really I am not happy with it. I don't want to need a job, it is not that I want to be lazy, but to me having a job seems to have kept me from things. I have a limited amount of resources and I've been using them to pay the bills, when I have wanted to use them for the good of those around me.

But now a possible opportunity has come before me. My church is looking for a director of religious education; it is a paid, full time positions. It is a really wonderful opportunity that would allow me to do so many wonderful things. I'm just not sure if I am fully qualified. I have been looking to get more involved at church, and was thinking of RE. I was also planning on starting the search for a new job, but thought I might wait until later in the summer, because I have a vacation planned for August.

I really think this job would be wonderful and provide a great opportunity for growth. I don't normally ask, but please keep me in your prays/thoughts. I am going through a period of trial, I may not be trying my hardest to get through it, but this opportunity is so wonderful I think it might be the bit of hope to help me start working harder.

Blessings,
~Kate

Words of Wedded Bliss

Tomorrow my husband and I will be starting a new group at our church. It is a social group for newly married or about to be married couples. Our church has never had a group like this before and we have a number of newlyweds at different phases of their lives, otherwise. I'm very excited but not entirely sure what to say to these people. The point of the first meeting is to get together and see what we all want, and what the group direction might be.

But I do want to set a tone. And am considering some passages on marriage to share with the group. But there are so many fine words on the topic; the Bible, literature and history are filled with quote ables on marriage and married love.

So my question to you is: What is your favorite passage/quote on the topic of marriage?

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my own mother and mother in law; and to all of you wonderful women who have the wonderful vocation of raising the best of blessings. You all have my greatest admiration. And i hope your day was beautiful.




I apologize for not keeping up in my posts quality or quantity as of late. I have been feeling more for the worse and have been 'convalescing'.

Seeing as I have not been out of my bed, I am posting this image to represent the past two day for my WIFD. I do intend to continue this my week, so that you may all see a full seven days. I really enjoyed looking through others blogs today and through Cheri's blog I have found the blogs of some other Lovely Ladies. I hope next week to do some page layout up dates; and add a side bar so that I may link to the other journal I enjoy reading. As i enter a very difficult week for myself I wish allof you a smooth and blessed week of your own.

~Kate

WIFD days 2 and 3

And I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.


This was from yesterday. I'm wearing one of my favorite skirts; it's a wrap skirt with a blue satin under layer and an embroidered black over lay. I love how exotic it looks.



Here is todays, taken at work. I think I forgot to dust myself off first :) This is a great light sundress that I wear at a jumper. When it's really hot I wear a cami under it instead of a blouse.


And a close up of my shoes, you can see the subtle poke-a-dots, I LOVE POKE-A-DOTS


And lastly me cuddling with my faithful cat, my purring fluffy heating pad. There is nothing like the love of a fuzzy child.

Please Excuse this Interruption...

of you regularly scheduled programing. I have day 2 photos and will post them with todays in a double duty WIFD post.

But at the moment I wanted to share with You, dear reader, a little bit of what is going on behind the blog. As many of you know I have had long term chronic health issues. Well in the past weeks these issues are getting worse. Extreme pain and muscle weakness are the main complaints. But I have exhaustion, and my mental clarity and fine motor skills are also effected. My husband and I are in a position that calls for me to work 30+ hours per week, out of the home. This causes complications because I have a 45 min. commute and don't get home until nearly 8pm. By the end of my work day I have done nothing for my home or my husband.

It deeply bothers me that Ro has to do the work of both the Husband and the Wife. And not just for a short time, while I recuperate from the flue or a fall. Oh no... when I have a “flair-up” I get a ton of new or revisiting symptoms and when my flair up is over some of them stay. This leaves me sicker than when I started.

I believe I have a place in this world, and that my illness may seem like road block it really isn't. But right now this road block is keeping me from going anywhere. And I'm running out of gas!

Day One

Hello Dear Ones,

I'm participating in a Week in Feminine Dress. I usually wear dresses and skirts but as of late pants are finding there way into my wardrobe once a week or so, when I don't feel well. My husband prefers me in skirts and dresses. This is not only an exercise in ladylike dressing, but also at having my photo taken and not critiquing myself to death :)


This was taken after running around at work for 9 hours; I've been really ill these past weeks and it shows. I'm wearing a navy cap sleeve dress and pink short sleeve cardigan; also I'm carrying my tin lunch pale. I almost always wear my hair up when I'm not out with Ro (the hubbs), it is a bit messy hear though long hair doesn't always want to stay in place for hours on end. Well it took me 15 mins to get dressed today, tomorrow I hope I'll have more time to put into this.

Have a lovely evening.

Guerilla Gardenging

This may be illegal; this may be one of those occasions were idealism, principal and the greater good out weight earthly law.

Shock gardening troops attack urban eyesores

By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) - They work under the cover of night, armed with seed bombs, chemical weapons and pitchforks. Their tactics are anarchistic, their attitude revolutionary. Their aim: to beautify.

An army of self-styled Guerrilla Gardeners is growing across the world, fighting to transform urban wastelands into horticultural havens. To document and encourage their victories, one of the movement's top generals has written a handbook.

"On Guerrilla Gardening", by Richard Reynolds, defines the activity as "the illicit cultivation of someone else's land".

"Our main enemies are neglect and scarcity of land," said Reynolds, a 30-year-old former advertising employee who wrote the book after his website guerrillagardening.org became a global focal point for would-be green-fingered activists.

"Land is a finite resource -- and yet areas like this are not being used. That seems crazy to me," Reynolds told Reuters.

"And if the authorities want to get in the way of that logic, then we will fight them -- but peacefully -- through showing them what we can achieve with plants."

As he spoke, Reynolds and several London-based troops were enthusiastically digging over soil in a rough patch of grass outside a tower block in the south east of the capital.

Defying darkness -- and risking arrest for criminal damage -- they continued their "attack" on the otherwise grim, grey surroundings, forking in a hefty load of compost and planting lavender and Paris daisies for a splash of colour and scent.

"WE WILL FIGHT THEM... WITH PLANTS"

Thousands of "troops" worldwide have now signed up to Reynolds' website -- each with their own troop number -- where they post reports and pictures of their battles, or "troop digs".

For those inspired to follow suit, his book outlines tips and advice on everything from the most suitable clothing and what kind of lighting and communication equipment to use, to how to carry out a "seed bombing" raid.

"Scattering seeds is the easiest way to guerrilla gardening," he writes. "You do not even have to stop moving to do it -- GG (Guerrilla Gardener) 830 Tony releases handfuls of Welsh poppy seeds while driving along the M60 motorway."

Reynolds says he was inspired to write the book after his first nocturnal gardening experience outside his own 1970s concrete tower block in London, when he discovered he was part of a largely secret but worldwide movement.

"I began because I moved to a tower block and had no garden, and yet all around me there were bits of land that nobody was looking after -- so I have made it into my own garden. But it's that one everyone shares and can get involved in," he said.

"I stepped out into the world to cultivate land wherever I liked. The mission was to fight the miserable public flowerbeds around my neighbourhood."

The book charts what it says is a "revolutionary history" of a movement which has its roots in 1970s New York and has since inspired urban dwellers across the world to defy authorities and adopt and cherish neglected public spaces.

GG 3516 Greg, in Zurich in Switzerland, tells of Saturday-night sorties to beautify a traffic island in the city, while GG 158 Luc, in Montreal, Canada, documents a "pavement garden" he has been cultivating for four years.

GG 013 Julia, one of the movement's leading lights, posts pictures and descriptions of significant victories in Berlin, where the Rosa Rose garden in the east of the city has grown out of a vacant lot once covered in rubble and rubbish.

GG 1168 David, and GG Michael 1169, graphic designers in Tokyo, say their motivation was a passion for growing food.

According to Reynolds' book, they began in 2005 by "chucking pumpkin seeds into a vacant lot near David's home" in the city, and, encouraged by the pumpkins' progress, continued with a small guerrilla farm on waste ground in the Kamiyacho district.

"It's about living in an edible jungle," David, who now also grows broccoli and radishes land owned by Tokyo city authorities, says in the book. "Vegetables are best fresh, so I thought they should be grown locally."

"A WIN-WIN WAR"

Guerrilla Gardening is a crime in Britain -- digging up land you do not own is classed as committing criminal damage -- but Reynolds insists it is a victimless one and is clearly unfazed by encounters with police.

"Yes, by law this is criminal damage... but common sense would suggest it is quite the opposite," he said.

He described a recent night-time dig on a large roundabout in central London where dozens of police pulled up, and ordered him and fellow gardeners to down tools or face arrest.

"We reluctantly withdrew," he said, adding with a smile that they returned to finish the job an hour later when the coast was clear.

Reynolds has now largely given up his more mainstream work in advertising and devotes his time to writing about Guerrilla Gardening, maintaining his website and spreading the word.

And while he characterizes the activity as a battle and uses the language of war, he insists there are no losers.

"This a win-win war," he writes. "Take a public place of wasted opportunity and turn it into a garden. In time victory should be clear to everyone, and probably fragrant too."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Sara Ledwith)

Article and photo credit:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL292187120080430?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0