Friendship: Cozy and Sturdy

I had a delightful Thanksgiving break, and in addition to spending a lot of time with the family and friends that I hold dear, I spent a lot of time crafting. Not blogging, obviously. Sorry about that!
Hopefully I will get a few pictures of my craft projects up before too long. Although some of them are top secret, since they are destined as Christmas gifts.
But I just wanted to take a moment to brag on my friends. A few years ago, 6 of us took an afternoon and evening to make a denim comfort (like a quilt, but it's knotted, not quilted) together. We started with a big pile of old jeans, and ended up with a sturdy, cozy comfort with flannel backing. Each of us embroidered our name on a patch, and we have lots of pockets in the quilt. We pass it around, and each person gets to fill the pockets with little gifts for the next girl.
Here's a snapshot of the quilt on my bed:



And here's a photo of my loot. One of my favorite things is a notebook where we all write down something that God was teaching us during the time when we had the quilt- it's fun to look back over the past 2 or 3 years and see where we were and what we were learning.



So tonight, as I fall asleep beneath this cozy quilt of friendship, I will be reminded of the sweetness of dear friends.

Old Time Music

After a lifetime (okay, since I was in 3rd grade) of playing the violin, I attempted to play the fiddle tonight. Same instrument, but a COMPLETELY different style of playing.
My roommate, a banjo player, took me to a... a... I don't know what the specific term is, but a group of people sitting in a circle just playing music. Simple, beautiful, Appalachian Folk music.
I only recognized one song, out of the whole 2 1/2 hours, but I have a feeling that I'm going to be learning a good number of these songs.

I felt so much more comfortable with this style of music than I've ever felt with classical. There is an earthy freedom, a lilting joy, in these tunes.

Reason #92 that God placed me in West Virginia.

Meant to Be

Another pearl in the string of confirmations that God had has placed me here at West Virginia University, living in this home, studying nutrition at this program.

The other day, as the weather was sinking deeper into fall, I decided to change to my flannel sheets. And these sheets, which I was given as a birthday present a few years ago (when I lived in the frigid northwest corner of the old farm house!), are the exact same color as the paint on my bedroom walls in my new house.

Just a little thing, but a sweet reminder that He has ordained every step, and will carry His good works through to completion (Philippians 1:6).


How has God shown up in your life recently?

Relaxation in a Skillet

Sorry it's been a little while since I've written- my plate is filling up with the wonderful tasks of my masters program. I am reading lots of research articles on home gardening, and quite enjoying it once I actually get started.

I took an excruciating statistics exam from 4:15 to 6:45 today, and then I slipped and fell in mud on the way home!

That being said, I needed some nourishment and a few moments to not think about school when I got home.

I was considering baking a sweet potato with raspberries- one of my favorite simple fall dishes, but decided not to heat up the oven. Plus, I'm in love with my cast iron skillet, so why not use it?

(By the way- I ended up using the oven anyways because then I decided to make some Whole Wheat Flax Bread. It's in the oven now and it smells MARVELOUS!)

Here's my original creation (no internet searching for ideas, even!)

Sweet Potato Black Bean Skillet with Greens and Raspberries

1. Chop a sweet potato into chunks (about 1/2 inch)
Place in skillet over medium high heat along with a minced clove of garlic and teaspoon of oil.
Saute for about 10 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are 3/4 of the way soft.



2. Add 1/2 cup of black beans (mine were straight from the freezer, as described in my post on cooking beans) and cook another 3 or so minutes.

3. Roughly chop a handful of fall greens ( I used swiss chard). Toss in skillet along with 1/4 cup of water, and cover until greens are wilted.



4. Remove lid and add 1/3 cup raspberries, 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger and salt and pepper to taste.



5. Dish and enjoy :)

How to Punch a Pepper

I just wanted to share an idea that a friend of mine gave me recently- a simple method to prepare a pepper without a knife. It's quick, and although it doesn't yield perfect results, it may be helpful when working with youth that you don't trust with a knife, or if you just don't feel like getting a knife dirty.

Step 1.
Position both thumbs beside the stem of the pepper (only one thumb included in photo because the other hand was occupied with the camera).

Step 2.
Apply pressure until the stem recedes into the fruit.

Step 3.
Use your fingers to pull out the stem and seeds.

My New Favorite Convenience Food

So, I've just become enamored with a new vegetable: delicata squash. I've barely finished my lunch, and I can't wait to share it with you, so here it is!

A small squash (5-6 inches in length) is the perfect size for a meal for one person. I just cut off both ends, sliced it in half lengthwise, scooped out the seeds (saving them to make roasted pumpkin seeds- a great source of iron!) and placed both halves cut side down in 1/4 inch of water in a covered microwaveable bowl.

It took about 4 minutes to get soft in my microwave. Then, I drained the water, flipped the halves so that the cut side was facing up (looks like little canoes) and threw in a handful of frozen beans, some random spices, and a drizzle (2 teaspoons-even though it looks like a lot more in this photo) of tahini as a source of fat because I didn't feel like using olive oil. I also sprinkled some dried hot pepper over the pile, and the capsaicin is now dancing in my mouth.

I microwaved the squash for another 2 minutes to heat up the frozen beans, pulled it out, and commenced my lunch.

The great thing is that you can eat the entire squash- skin and all, at least according to my friend Sarah. It tastes fine to me, so even if most people don't eat the skin, I think I will.

I ended up needing a dollop of yogurt on top to cut the spiciness, but overall it was delicious.
This "recipe" is super versatile- you can stuff the "canoe" with pretty much anything- pre-cooked meat, tomato sauce, beans, pesto, cooked grains, and any sort of vegetable.

Enjoy!

After a morning of completing nutrition assessments in convenience stores and finding myself ridiculously tempted by the fatty, sugary, processed items (but resisting the temptation to buy anything, I must add!), I'm off to bake bread and quiche and all manor of yummy things for my cousin and his wife who are visiting this weekend. What a fun way to spend a Friday :)

Reflection on Bolivia

Note to those of you who were directed here by a card in the mail: the main reason that I chose to just write the card and direct you here is because I don't have a personal printer. Secondly, I thought it would be fun to send everyone a hand-written thank you note. Thirdly, for those of you who I don't get to see on a regular basis, I thought it might be fun to introduce you to my blog. Please read on...

Bolivia. Anytime I hear someone mention the country, my heart beats a bit faster. I want to ask “Have you been to Bolivia?”, “Where have you been?”, “Did you get to eat salteñas? Sopa de maní?”, “How did you handle the altitude?”

This little country in South America has dominated much of my thoughts for the past two years. It was in the fall of 2009 that I began to prepare for my first trip there with a team of 13, and I spent a month divided between Rodeo and Cochabamba in the summer of 2010. I returned to Messiah College in the fall of 2010, with a love for the people of Rodeo planted in my heart, but with no solid plans to return. When I was asked to lead the trip for the following year, I couldn’t help but see the importance of having someone who had been there before go back to continue relationships and invest in lives. And so I agreed to lead the team.

So I began doing my best over the course of the school year, to prepare a team of 9 women to journey to the village of Rodeo, a remote jewel nestled in the Andes Mountains. And then we went, from July 18 to 29, we traveled by various and sundry forms of transportation to our destination. There were moments of excitement along the way, including a stolen passport (a team leader’s worst nightmare!) but when we arrived in Rodeo, we were able to be fully present in the community.

A few highlights from the trip:

I was able to spend time with Aide (my previous sponsored child who has now moved out of the program) and also with Elizabet (my current sponsored child). I taught Elizabet how to crochet, and she taught me how to spin with a different style of drop spindle than I had used previously.

Spending an afternoon with leaders from the community, hearing about their dreams for the future.

Reconnecting with Food for the Hungry staff members who are passionate about God’s children, and caring for and building up the community.

Growing in relationships with the women on my team.

Here are a few images from the trip:

It was wonderful to reconnect with Aide and her family.

Elizabet teaching me how to spin.

Listening to the dreams of community leaders.

Going for a hike with a group of FH staff and women from our team.

Baking bread with Anacleto, the pastor of the Baptist Church in Rodeo.

I was challenged by:

The fact that sustainable, long-term changes are slow in coming

My position of leadership- a fantastic but humbling place to be.

The need to trust in God’s provision in tricky situations.

As I have returned to the United States, relocating to a new state and beginning a new step in education (a Masters degree in Human Nutrition and Food at West Virginia University), I have continued to reflect on the way that Bolivia has found its way into my heart and nestled into a corner. It’s not just the brown wool backpack that I wear every day, the balls of hand-spun yarn that sit in a basket woven out of sticks that all came from Bolivia. It’s not just the photos that hang on my wall, or the bright and colorful fabric that is neatly folded underneath my bed.

Bolivia has a face. Multiple faces. Of hopeful young children, excited to explore the world through the library that Messiah College helped to construct and furnish. Of community leaders, encouraged to pursue their dreams. Of the mother of my sponsored child, struggling with illness but aided by caring individuals and family.

I don’t know how God will choose to continue my connection with Bolivia, or what that will look like in the future.

But, as I continue to live my life, day by day, I am constantly reminded of God’s grace and provision in my life, and the responsibility that I bear to share from what I have been given.

And to those of you who have supported me in prayer, and financially, thank you. For everything. It’s only because of the army of people behind me that I was able to go.

Braided Apple Bread

I found a recipe via "Pinterest" for a braided apple apple bread, and it looked scrumptious. I pinned it on my "nourish" board and went on with my life, all the while thinking it would really be fun to actually make this fantastic looking concoction.

And then one of my friends gave me three wolf apples that his brother grew. They were rather large. Do you want to see one?

 And this is how ridiculous I would look if I tried to eat it like a normal apple.

So, I decided to chop it up and bake it. You can find the recipe here, but I made a few modifications as well. The dough seemed really sticky, so I ended up using 3 1/2 cups of flour. In a nutshell, here's the concept:

• Slice apples and toss them with cinnamon, sugar, and lemon juice and throw them in the oven for about 15 minutes.
• Mix up a sweet yeast dough.
• Roll out the dough (about 12 x 16 inches works well) and cut 1 inch strips 1/3 of the way in on either side.
• Pull the partially baked apple slices out of the oven and spread on the intact 1/3 of dough.

I sprinkled on extra cinnamon, and a dash of mace and ginger, just to revel in the glory of fall spices.

Then, you fold the strips into the center. Quite simple, really.

And bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
The original recipe called for a creamy glaze, but I opted for caramel. I used the glaze topping from the Apple Cake in Simply in Season.

2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk or cream
1 tablespoon flour

Heat to boiling in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Mix in 1/3 cup powdered sugar.

Drizzle over the bread. I tried to make just a half recipe, but it was tricky to work with such a small quantity. I recommend making the entire quantity of glaze listed above, and then only using as much as your sweet tooth desires.

Look at it- isn't it luscious? Especially when shared with friends in a pavilion down by the pond on a foggy night as a snack after rock climbing...

Corn Chips

I've never been one to make a lot of crackers. However, I've been eating a lot of hummus recently, and  every once in a while it'd be nice to eat it with something other than pita bread.   So, I decided to try a corn chip recipe that I've noticed in "Recipes from the Old Mill: Baking with Whole Grains" by Mary Beth Lind and Sarah E. Myers.

It didn't take long, and although I haven't done the calculations, I'm pretty sure that they are quite a bit cheaper than a store bought version.

And don't they look absolutely delectable? They taste really good too- even those that got a bit over-brown.

In case you want to give them a whirl, here's the recipe.

 Combine in a bowl:

1 cup cornmeal
2/3 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 Tablespoons instant nonfat dry milk powder

Combine in a separate bowl:

1/2 cup water
1/4 cup oil
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp Tabasco sauce (I used another hot sauce that we had in the fridge, and it worked just fine)


Stir liquid ingredients into dry ones. Form into a  ball. Knead a little until smooth.
Sprinkle two greased cookie sheets with cornmeal. A flat cookie sheet is easiest to work with, but one with sides will suffice as well.
Divide dough in half. Roll each half directly onto cookie sheet with floured rolling pin until dime-thin.
Sprinkle lightly with paprika (or chili powder). Run rolling pin over once more.
Cut into squares or triangles or diamonds- whatever suits your fancy. A pizza cutter works great or this. Prick with fork.
Bake at 350 degrees farenheit for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Utterly scrumptious.

Distressing Furniture: Case Study on a Desk

This is a bit of a glance back in time, but during the first week of August, my mom found an old desk by the side of the road. Here's the first photo I have of it, after I took the drawers out to scrub it down.

 

And you can't have a desk without a chair, right? So I hunted through the barn to find a wooden chair. I came across this:

Completely covered in bird excrement, but this chair has a history. It is a part of my parent's first set of kitchen chairs, purchased at an auction shortly after they were married. It's a solid little piece of furniture, despite the lack of good looks.

Both the desk and the chair were scrubbed down well with Murphy's oil soap, and then brought inside for a paint job. The entire chair and the sides of the desk got a layer of primer and then a quality white furniture paint. I used a dark stain on the top of the desk, and then my mom put a coat of polyurethane on it while I was in Bolivia.

 

The next step was to simply take a heavy grit of sandpaper (I used 60) along spots on the desk that would typically receive heavy wear. I particularly accentuated the edges on the front of the drawers, and I'm really happy with the way that it turned out.

 I distressed the chair in the same way, and recovered an old pillow with a leftover section of the thrifted sheet that I used to line my curtains and attached some ties to the back for a seat cushion. So maybe the cushion isn't the most aesthetically pleasing, but it works, and it was cheap.

Here's the completed cozy little corner of my room where I do a lot of studying. It doesn't normally look this neat, though, to be honest :)

That was a nice little 20 minute break in my morning of study to blog about this! I'm off to class, then a test this afternoon, with lots of prep for a presentation that I'm giving tomorrow in between.

Men's Shirt -> My Skirt

I have put my Pinterest account to good use, and took a bit over an hour tonight, after a great hike with some friends in the nearby Arboretum, to transform a men's shirt from the thrift store ($1.37 thanks to a half price sale!) into a cute and incredibly comfy skirt.


I simply made a straight cut under the arms, sewed a bit down the sides (I took off 3 inches on each side), zig-zagged a 4 inch strip of elastic on to the center of the back, and put a half inch hem around the top. For ease of wear, I also ran a seam down the front, so that the buttons won't gape when I sit down.

The fabric is a cotton/polyester blend, and super soft and comfy. I have a feeling this may be a favorite piece of apparel. Yes, please do observe my Chacos sandals tan. It had faded pretty well, but then I wore them to the football game last Saturday, and got a bit sun-kissed.

Off to bed so I can rise and shine early for a community 5K tomorrow :)

Shelving by the Crate

Last Sunday when I went home, I spent the afternoon hunting through old barns for old crates, or skeletons of crates to use as patch pieces. I was pretty successful. I also got really dirty:


But after a few hours of scrubbing and ripping and hammering with my mom's help, I ended up with a good pile. I stuffed them in my car and drove back to West Virginia at 4:30 on Tuesday morning. The crates were still a bit damp, so my car definitely smelled like an old barn! But, as they dried out, I moved them into my bedroom, and assembled this:


Isn't it cute? I like the rustic look, and I'm able to fit my books on here and keep myself mildly organized. The old canner on the bottom right shelf has a rusted through hole in the bottom, so now it's stuffed full of fabric scraps, for when I feel like making something out of patchwork :)


I think my room is finally settled! I feel like a bit of a nerd today- a good thing, I suppose! I have been finding lots of exciting academic journal articles for my research, which is focusing on home gardening and the impact on children's vegetable intake or something along those lines. Who knew that I would be able to study something that I love so much? Ah, academia. It's a love-hate relationship.

How I Spent my Friday Night

5:00. Laid on my bed for a few minutes to rest after a 4 mile run before an applesauce making extravaganza.

5:30. Brought the first box of apples up to the kitchen and started cutting.



6:00. Another big box of apples to the kitchen. 4 pots simmering on the stove.


7:00. The delicious smell of cooking apples tempted a friend to come join me for the fun. So thankful for her help and delightful conversation! I was planning to do it all by myself, but it is so much more fun to be crazy in the kitchen with a friend :) Still cutting and cooking, but we've started the "saucing" part of the process.


8:30. Still making a mess. Started the first few quarts in the canner.

9:30. Decided that we wanted to make a fresh apple cake. My favorite recipe calls for 5 cups of apples, and it's SOOO moist and delicious. Guess where it comes from? "Simply in Season". Where else do I get my recipes?

10:30. The canner is now empty, the cake has finished baking, and the kitchen is almost completely cleaned up.


15 quarts and 11 pints of applesauce preserved, plus 2 or 3 quarts for fresh eating. Delish.

11:00. Drove my friend home, and went to bed myself. My feet were a bit tired from padding around barefoot in the kitchen, but I am full of contentment, and love the feeling of accomplishment from the evening. This is why I'd rather be in the kitchen than watch a movie :)

Roasted Veggies

After a wonderful Labor day weekend, jam packed with family and friends and transportation adventures, I'm back home in West Virginia. And I thought I'd just share my dinner with you. Simple, easy, delicious. I have never had a toaster oven before, but there's one in my kitchen now, and I've decided to make use of it. I'm thinking that it is pretty energy efficient for when I'm just baking or broiling something for myself rather than heating up the whole oven. If anyone knows differently, please let me know!

So, here's 3 simple steps to a quick and healthy meal:

1. Wash and chop a variety of veggies. I used leeks, green beans, red peppers, potatoes, parsnips, red beets. Basically anything can go in this. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with some salt, pepper, and any spices or herbs as desired.

2. Place in toaster oven (or regular oven...)


3. After baking for about 40 minutes at 300 degrees F, (depending on the size of your veggie chunks), pull out of the oven and enjoy. I actually threw in some beans about half way through the cooking time because I realized that I had forgotten about protein for my dinner.


This is a great quick and easy meal for a college student who doesn't really want to eat Mac and Cheese or Ramen noodles.

T-Shirt Treasures

There are lots of tutorials out there about how to make t-shirt yarn, so I won't bore you with the details of that. But just to inspire you- take a peek at what I made out of a few old t-shirts and other random scraps of knit fabric. It's not the world's most gorgeous rug, but it fits quite nicely in front of my kitchen sink, and gives my toes something to sink into when I'm washing dishes!
It's pretty simple, really- just takes a jumbo size crochet hook and a few hours :) I used a single crochet throughout, with a (sc, ch 1 in same stitch, sc) at each angle.

Pinterest

I did it... I put it off for a long time, because I was afraid that it'd be a time waster. And it probably will be, but I kept looking at other people's craft ideas and wanting to bookmark all of them, and figured that it'd probably be easiest if I created my own pinterest account.

so I did.

hopefully this will inspire me to actually come up with more creative crafts, and not just sit at the computer dreamy-eyed over what everyone else is doing.

I always have a pile of crafts going anyways. I have to do this 20 hour long online course for my nutrition research, so I picked up a pair of knitting needles and dug into the big fat spool of yarn that I picked up at the thrift store the other week. I can't stand to have my hands being lazy while my brain is occupied.

I love my classes, and my new friends in this new home. I've been so blessed by all of the opportunities and relationships that God has placed in my lap.

Vermicomposting: Meet My Worms

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I have abhored throwing perfectly good vegetable scraps down the drain. So, when my parents came to visit, they fixed up some containers to build a worm farm, using the instructions found here. I asked my roommates for their permission to do this in the garage, and they are fine with it :) I brought the subject up subtly with one, and she seemed pretty leery, and seemed relieved that all I was doing with the worms was to create fertilizer/compost for plants. It turns out that she knew a woman who baked worms into her brownies!!! I'm not quite that extreme, thankfully!
So, here are the bins, with holes drilled in and a fancy spout installed in the bottom bin.


Then, I threw in some shredded newspaper to create some nice bedding for the worms.


And proceeded to place my worms in their brand new home. These worms were a gift from a professor at WVU- who shares my passion for food environments and economics and their impact on the way that people eat. She is going to be on my graduate committee as I hone in on my thesis (something in this area!) and complete my research. I might even get to take my worm composting system into the Introduction to Sustainability course that she teaches!


Funny thing is, I don't LIKE worms. It disgusts me to touch them, and even looking at this picture makes my stomach crawl!But, worms are powerful and productive little workers, and I hope to soon have a good pile of my own compost, so that I don't have to buy expensive potting soil. And, food scraps will no longer be going into the garbage disposal in my sink and into the sewage system.
I'll keep you posted on how this great experiment turns out. I'm fully prepared for some unexpected surprises and challenges.

The Pendant Lamp

This was an idea I got off of "pinterest"- to make a lamp out of old doilies.
In an attempt to be ultra thrifty, I tried to make my own modge podge out of flour. That didn't work out so well. It looked like this:


So, I ended up just thinning down some Elmer's glue.



With my mother's helping hands, I laid the doilies around an inflated balloon. This was slightly stressful, since I was running out of glue the first time I attempted this, and the doilies kept slipping. It took quite a few tries to complete this little art project.



I threw a few stitches on as well, to keep the finicky doilies from slipping. After it had hardened, I popped the balloon and inserted a light bulb.


Since I don't have overhead lighting in my new room, this lamp is nice to hang above my bed. It gives a really cozy glow to my living space.



That made it sounds so easy! My advice if you're going to try this: make sure you have enough glue when you start, and an extra set of hands is always nice.

On another note, my grad classes have started. A computer mapping course- "Geographic Information Systems", "Statistics", and "Nutrition and Disease" will keep me busy on top of my research. I am learning to navigate Morgantown, where to get baskets of apples for sauce, and I'm thankful daily for my incredible roommates.

Today I spent the afternoon making "Swirled Herb Bread", 2 recipes of Whole Wheat Pitas, a leek quiche, zucchini brownies, apple crisp, and roasting peanuts for peanut butter and eggplant for babaganoush! I think I should be set for a few days of eating :)