I.T. Withdrawals

Here are the dogs enjoying the cabbage scraps I threw out for Rufus (the pig). Rufus licked it and moved on, so the dogs moved right in.


I found this really nice article the other day when I was looking at root cellars online. It's a man's memory of his grandfather building a root pit/cellar. It was a beautiful story and I could almost see it. http://www.masterjules.net/rootcell.htm



I like thinking about how my root cellar will be. About it's wooden door that leads to dark, cool field stone floors and walls. Old wooden timber shelves lined with jars and storage sacks in a rainbow of colors and shapes. Wooden bins on pallets holding root crops nested in field cut and dried hay or sand.

I think tonight I'm going to work on the house design some. Right now it's a very chicken scratch drawing. Over the last few years, ideas have popped into our heads on how to make it easier to build and a more efficient design. We had a pretty good detailed drawing of our last idea, but we recently came up with an easier way to build and rearranged the whole thing. So it's just the rough outline again, I think this is a keeper!

But back to what I have. In the cold storage room here, I want to start storing soups this winter. The wood stove will keep the water hot, so less propane to can it. Plus it'll heat the house and we can cut back on our wood use on canning days.

My sister-in-law is a stay at home mom to two awesome kids. She made home made baby-food for the last little one and I was so amazed at what this kid would eat and that she made it. Such healthy vegetables! He'd even devour cantaloupe! She's tried to reduce the family's meat consumption without having to cook two meals. She's been working with recipes for quite a while coming up with some vegetarian, hearty foods that her whole family will eat and also recipes that she could easily leave the meat off for herself. Here is a great one she sent me.

"(Everyone) likes this, and there's no meat. It's pretty good. This bean recipe is Cuban. I came across it awhile back when I bought pretty much every kind of dried bean I could find and was looking for recipes. Black beans were a little difficult for me at first because by themselves their flavor is a little different.

* 1 cup chopped onion
* 1 cup chopped green bell pepper (I don't use green bell peppers,
because I can't stand the way they taste anymore. I use a package
of the little red and yellow baby bell peppers instead)
* 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
* 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
* 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (I never add this)
* 1 bay leaf
* 1 Tablespoon olive oil
* 1 cup rice
* 1 can rotel
* 1 can 15 oz black beans or 1-1/2 cups cooked dry-packaged black
beans rinsed, drained (I always use black beans I cooked in the
crockpot. I typically make a big batch with just a little salt for
seasoning and freeze what I don't use)
* 2 cups water
* 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
* 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt (optional)
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Saute onion, bell pepper,garlic, cumin, thyme, crushed red pepper, and bay leaf in olive oil until onion is tender, about 5 minutes.

Stir in rice, rotel, black beans, water, vinegar, salt and pepper
Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until rice is tender, about 20 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

I grate cracker barrel cheese over it all."