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Month: October 2011 (Page 2 of 3)
I wish I could give you all a piece of this fruit leather to eat right this minute! It has the best, truest grape flavor I think I’ve ever tasted. This leather is sugar free and made with nothing but ripe concord (or “wild”) grapes. And although the process is really easy — and you need nothing except the grapes themselves — it takes time. This is special stuff; the taste is so worth it, and when you take a bite and think about the process from start to finish, you’ll appreciate this fruit leather even more.
I find that it feels really good to deeply savor each morsel of food like this; so different from mindlessly feeding our faces, isn’t it. I bet if we were the ones responsible for the extensive work required to prepare everything we ate, we’d slow right down and savor every single bite!
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Concord Grape Fruit Leather
Concord grapes (that’s the only ingredient!)
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1. Begin by making my Grape Freezer Jam with your concord grapes. But go ahead and leave it unfrozen…or, thaw it out if it’s already frozen.
2. Preheat oven to 200°F. (You could also use a dehydrator.)
3. Tear off a piece of parchment paper the size of your cookie sheet. You could also generously oil your cookie sheet, but parchment is a lot easier to peel the leather off of.
4. Using a spatula, spread your Freezer Jam onto the cookie sheet, taking the extra time to spread as thinly and evenly as possible; it takes a few minutes to get it just right. Spreading it as evenly as possible is important because otherwise some parts will be overdone and other parts will be underdone.
5. Put into the oven and let it dehydrate until the fruit leather is pliable…not wet, but not hard & brittle either. Mine usually takes about 2 1/2 hours.
6. Remove from the oven, cool for a while, peel your fruit leather off the parchment, roll it up, and cut into strips! Store either at room temperature or in the fridge. I like to keep mine in a mason jar in the pantry.
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When I’m on the go and need a good snack, I’ll often pack a roll or two of this fruit leather, along with a bag of homemade kale chips. It’s perfect!
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Sunday’s a good day to remember what we’ve been grateful for over the past week, don’t you think? I’m joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition, and here’s my list:
– October. I love love love this month. It’s so beautiful.
– More incredible weather yesterday! And being out in it, all day long.
– Food. Eating. Being able to eat. Never have I been so thankful for that. For a couple days this week I wasn’t able to keep anything down, and after I improved a bit…even just back to my current ‘new normal’ of small amounts of very light foods, I experienced an entirely new level of gratitude for food — especially the foods I really want to eat like fruits, and my fresh garden produce (and not just the BRAT diet!). Yesterday I was able to eat a little bit of spaghetti with my mom’s homemade sauce, and aside from being a triumph for my tummy, it was the most incredible tasting thing! It’s amazing how different one thing can look, depending on your perspective. Eating just a simple bowl of garden tomatoes, cucumbers, soaked & solar-cooked quinoa, with chives, salt, pepper, and a bit of red wine vinegar yesterday felt like being able to actually eat heaven.
– That this past week is over. It was such a battering, defeating, awful week; it’s over and done with, and thank farking goodness for that.
– My family. Always. Even if I don’t write it here every week, they are always on the list.
– Hearing my cat’s precious little voice, and the way she answers my questions with the appropriate intonations…and then questions me. She’s a master of language even without words.
– A wonderful day yesterday. It’s like I got a break from being sick, it was the most incredible feeling! Like someone finally said “Um, seriously guys, she’s about to crack; I think we need to give ‘er this one.” I have such a new appreciation for simply feeling even just “yeah, pretty good!”. Again, it’s all about perspective. I will never again take “feeling normal” for granted. Yesterday reminded me what normal felt like, since I’d actually forgotten quite a while ago. It felt INCREDIBLE!
– My folks got home safely from their vacation. That’s always such a relief, when loved ones return home, safe and sound, healthy and happy, and all is well and normal.
– Being up on the roof of the house yesterday with my dad! For some reason it’s so fun to be on the roof! Such a new perspective on the house, the yard, the neighborhood…and it’s always fun to hang out with my dad doing ‘man’ stuff together, heehee, like inspecting the roof. Here’s a whole new perspective on the garden! (This week was full of new perspectives, wasn’t it…hmmm…)
– My wonderful hubby ever-so-gently and tenderly stroking my face and hair during a bout of utter lifeless despair; and feeling all that love pouring out of his hands. I needed that so much, and having him there with me, just being present with me in that un-glorious moment, was such a gift.
– That frost hasn’t gotten the garden quite yet!
– That since I don’t have a regular cubicle job anymore, I don’t have to masquerade as someone I’m not and pretend to like everyone and make smalltalk with them. What a total waste of energy. I remember thinking “it’s not the actual job that sucks up all my energy, it’s the people!” I’m so thankful that I finally quit that silliness, and instead I am home, being myself, spending my energy on things that actually matter to me.
– Hubby surprising me with two new packages of canning jars! YAY! Thank you!!
– Baking 3 winter squashes today from the farmer’s market this morning. Combining the butternut and acorn flesh to can (tomorrow maybe?), and keeping the kabocha flesh separate to eat plain! I thought the other two were my favorite until I tried kabocha in New Zealand, where ‘pumpkin’ (there are several varieties of squash that are called ‘pumpkin’) is very popular — pumpkin soup is big, and they eat pumpkin as a side dish with dinner as frequently as Americans might serve potatoes.
– A fun time at the zoo with my mom, on a beautiful golden afternoon! And, finding peacock feathers to add to my feather collection!
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What blessings have you appreciated throughout your week? Leave a comment and let us know!
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Sunday’s a good day to remember what we’ve been grateful for over the past week, don’t you think? I’m joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition, and here’s my list:
– This 10-day house sitting retreat, and how I haven’t had to rush off to a job each morning…I’ve just gotten to enjoy where I am, and my cat, and my garden, and the sunshine in the yard. And oh how I have enjoyed it.
– Seeing F. again today after not seeing each other all week…so good to see him!! We both enjoyed our alone time; it’s so important to have a balance like that.
– Writing my gratitude list outside on the lawn chair one warm-for-October night this week, wrapped in a blanket, crickets all around, Big Dipper ahead of me, the garden next to me, the half-moon at my back, writing by nothing more than cloud light. I could’ve sat there forever…
– Hearing blue jays on cloudy, chilly days. To me, that is Autumn.
– Gorgeous weather for much of the week. There was a whole other level of appreciation there, since I know these warm days are numbered!
– Nourishing myself from my garden. In what’s probably an energy conservation measure, my body isn’t tolerating much food, and only very light foods are ‘allowed’…mostly vegetables & fruits, and a few other things. I feel like every bite really counts, and I’ve been feeling so good about the fuel I’m putting in…my own completely fresh, homegrown, organic vegetables. (Local, organic grapes & apples too, that I’ve harvested.) While it’s doing the very best that it can while it struggles with this as-yet-unidentified sickness, I know I’m giving it the very best that I can…and that feels really good.
– The wisdom of my body. It really knows. How it knows, and tells me, is an endlessly fascinating mystery!
– Pu-erh tea. My new favorite.
– My cat settling down on my face to go to sleep, trying to get as close as possible! She sometimes forgets that I need to breathe. 🙂
– Harvesting seeds around the garden; a quiet activity I really love.
– Lingering in bed for a long time yesterday, with rain falling, leaves beginning to change color outside the window, a cozy bed, and my cat sleeping next to me (see below…I love how she curls her back feet while she’s sleeping).
– Washing machines. I found myself being so thankful for this modern invention, because I had absolutely no energy for anything other than lying in a heap in the sun in the backyard. And yet my clothes were getting cleaned for me! Just like that. I was so grateful.
– A clothesline. I miss having one at our apartment. I love hanging things on the line, love the sight of them, love the smell of the clothes once they’re dry.
– Watching golden leaves flying off the trees against the sunny blue sky on a warm, windy day.
– Playing the piano here at my folks’ house. It always feels so good to play.
– Feeling happy and centered this week, with glimmers of hopefulness sprinkled in, even. What a nice feeling.
– The heating pad…and preheating the foot of the bed with it so that I have warm toes when I climb in!
– Homegrown heirloom tomatoes!
Black Russian, Mortgage Lifter (pink), Juane Flamme, and Green Zebra
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What blessings have you appreciated throughout your week? Leave a comment and let us know!
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There are still watermelons at the farmer’s market, and the weather is still hot enough to crave them!
My Hubby’s sweet sister created this awesome recipe and sent it to me a couple weeks ago. We love it and have been making batch after batch of it! You don’t even have to be a watermelon lover to enjoy this. I’m not; they’re usually too sweet for my liking. But this…this is just right. It’s so refreshing.
I should add, too, that this is a really good drink for someone who’s sick; it’s very light and hydrating, which is important when you don’t feel well enough to drink or eat much of anything. It’s like a popsicle only better for you! Right now, this slushie is sometimes the only thing that my incredibly delicate tummy will tolerate. I’ve been so grateful for it!
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Watermelon Slushie
3 cups of watermelon chunks, seeds removed
2 large (or 4 small) strawberries, fresh or frozen
7 raspberries, fresh or frozen
6 ice cubes
1 cup water (or less for a slushier consistency)
squeeze of fresh lime juice (optional)
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Remove the seeds from your watermelon. (Don’t worry, this is a quick task if you cut the melon into smaller chunks first. I like to save the seeds & dry them on a plate to snack on later). One time, I didn’t remove the seeds before making the slushie. It makes for a richer, thicker (and even more nutritious) slushie, though the seeds definitely reduced the sweetness. I do like the slushie better without seeds. 🙂
Blend everything till smooth. If you’d like a slushier consistency, reduce the water, or add more ice. Also, it’s easy for the strawberry flavor to overpower, so if that happens, just add more watermelon.
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