Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Leave it to the good old fashioned sun to be so useful!  Not only does it provide light and heat, just 15 minutes a day gives you a dose of Vitamin D, and hanging your white laundry out will leave it whiter than ever.  Not to mention the glow we get from a nice summer suntan.

Fortunately for those of us who do not prefer to use free and natural things, there are amazing inventions that you can buy - dryers, light bulbs, vitamin supplements, and food dehydrators!  Their best feature: they still work when it's raining or dark outside.

Inspired by Lisa Goodling, I thought I'd try to make sun-dried tomatoes with my multi-functional food dehydrator.  Lisa uses the common household appliance called an oven, saving space and I am guessing time as well.  She suggests slicing Roma tomatoes in half, placing them on a pan and popping them in the oven at a very low heat all day.  Be sure to check on them every once in awhile to see if they are done.

While using a food dehydrator does not save space or time, I would be willing to bet it saves energy, as it heats at a much lower temperature in a smaller contained space.

I sliced whatever tomatoes I could find from my garden (they sure did not do well this year!), placed them on the trays and in just under 24 hours, they were done!  I am considering experimenting with spicing them beforehand - garlic maybe?  Some basil?  Should I sneak in some jalepeño?

Laughter Yoga

It sounds interesting, looks ridiculous and is borderline annoying, but laughter yoga is absolutely fascinating to me.  

Laughter yoga was developed by Dr. Madan Kataria in Mumbai, India in 1995 and has since been taught to a wide variety of people throughout the world, even including prison inmates and the elderly!  The idea is to imitate laughter through breathing and stretching exercises.  Often the forced laughter becomes real!

Laughter is known to reduce stress, help your immune system, improve your mindset, and deal with your problems.  Additionally, it helps bring more oxygen into your body. Your body can not differentiate between real and fake laughter, and Wikipedia cites that the effects of both are the same, physiologically and psychologically.  

This video's quality could be better, but it gives a good glimpse into laughter yoga:

Stevia Extract

I have finally attempted to make my own stevia extract! Click here to see the article I used for guidance, and here to see my first post about growing stevia.

First, I cut a bunch off of my plant. Be sure to leave about 4 inches on the plant.

 After washing the stevia, I set it out to dry. Drying in the sun would be ideal, but because of the lovely weather patterns lately along with my patience level, using the dehydrator was my only option.

After it dried I stripped the leaves off of the stems.  I use old jars to store dried herbs (for teas and cooking) and seeds (for next year!)

 after it dried, I crushed it using a mortar and pestle

I decided to keep it as a powder and add it as needed.  

But after adding it to my tea I realized that it does not dissolve well!

so I boiled a cup of water and added the powder, stirring until it dissolved.  It left a lot of pulp, but the liquid stevia is intense!! I put a drop in my tea and it was perfect.

Oatmeal Bread

I'm reposting about this, since it is my favorite thing to bake and the first time I posted about it I did not include the recipe. Refer here to see the original post. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Bread - More With Less Cookbook (slightly modified)

Combine in large bowl:
1 c. quick oats
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 T. salt
2 T. margarine
Pour over:
2 c. boiling water
Stir in to combine.
Dissolve:
1 pkg. (1 T.) dry yeast in 
1/2 c. warm water
When batter is cooled to lukewarm, add yeast.
Stir in:
5 c. white flour
When dough is stiff enough to handle, knead for 5-10 minutes on a floured surface.  Place in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled.  Punch down, shape into 2 loaves and place in greased 9x5x3" pans. Let rise again.  Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until tops are golden.  Cool on rack, brushing loaves with margarine for a soft crust.

 rising bread

Josh and Jill trying out the bread with homemade butter

Underground Mount Joy

Pretty close to Bube's Brewery is an old house.

the entrance to the tunnel

inside the tunnel

stalactites growing

part of an old railroad

one of the rooms inside the tunnel

Pesto

My basil bush - a mess because of its size and the recent hurricane. I started this from seed in late winter... basil will get huge if it is kept in direct sunlight and if the tops are pinched off before it has a chance to go to seed.

I picked enough basil to get married in... then washed it and picked the leaves off of the stems.

The ingredients I used:

5 c. packed basil leaves

1/3 c. olive oil

1/3 c. water

1/2 c. walnuts

1/3 c. Parmesan cheese

4 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon pepper

This recipe has a lot of flexibility, so make it to how you want it - I only measured the ingredients after I decided how much I wanted in (I only found this much cheese in my fridge, I love garlic, walnuts are cheaper than pine nuts, etc.).

The first time using my new food processor - $1 at a yard sale!

Lastly, I put the pesto into an ice cube tray and into the freezer. Later I'll pop them out and keep them frozen in a ziploc bag. There was even some left over that went straight into the fridge!