To be vegan or not to be? That is the question of the day.
'Forks Over Knives' is another good movie to watch if your concerned about your health. The documentary makes a lot of sense about the amount of meat products we eat in the United States. Over the last 70 years as meat consumption in the United states has risen so has an alarming increase of obesity, cancer and heart disease. At 47, I am relatively healthy but by medical standards I am morbidly obese. I have worked on changing my diet over the last few years and have eliminated a lot of bad habits including reducing my intake of sugar and adding exercise to my life. In the past few years I have managed to rid myself of a little over 25 pounds. It has taken me years to get this way it will take me years to get it off. I don't trust fast weight lose as it tends to come back plus some. I know this from years of yoyo dieting.
Happily, my sugar levels have become stable but I am still fighting high cholesterol. I have increased my intake of fruits and vegetables but my love of animal products in all forms is undeniable. Beef and chicken are staples in my kitchen and there is nothing better in this world then my husbands grilled beef fillet. Add a baked potato and slather it with butter and sour cream with a side salad covered in a sour cream based dressing. An awesome meal or an epic failure in a nutritious diet?
I will be adding more fruits and veggies to my daily routine and continue to reduce my intake of meat and dairy. I will never be a vegan or a vegetarian but I see organic soy milk in my future over my cheerios and more vinaigrette dressings on my salads.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Scuppernong Grapes - Jelly Adventures
Scuppernong Grapes, originally uploaded by kathleenpate.
As a child, I remember the huge grape arbor that grew in our back yard when I was about 8 years old. When the grapes were in season we plucked the sweet fruit from the branches and ate them as we played cowboys and Indians and chased each other around the back yard shooting each other with our imaginary bow and arrows using the grape arbor as forts and teepees with never a second thought of what they were. The grapes were good and thats all we cared about. This wonderful little fruit with its tough outer hull was a sweet treat on a hot north
This is the first year in our new home and I noticed almost too late that the grapes were ripe and ready to harvest. The grapes grow under the canopy of leaves and if I hadn't looked I never would have known they were there. I was able to harvest a gallon bag of ripe fruit before the birds made off with the rest. And then it took forever to decide what to do with them. I finally decided to make jam. Only it was after I had juiced the grapes did I realize I needed the pulp of the fruit to make jam. Thought to remember....find recipe then process fruit. I had to regroup and settled on the only other option and made jelly. Jam will have to wait until next year.
I was able to juice a little under 5 cups of juice which will make approximately 4 pints of jelly. I poured the grape juice into a large pan and heated it up to boiling and added one package of low sugar pectin and approx ¼ cup of sugar and stirred until the pectin was all blended about 5 minutes then added the rest of 4 cups of sugar and almost ½ cup of orange blossom honey. Stirring constantly I brought this to a hard boil then let it cool down being careful to keep stirring until the mixture was no longer boiling.
Somehow during all this I managed to prepare my jars. I used 8 - ½ pint jars and had them clean and sterilized and ready for jelly by the time the grape mixture was ready. I carefully filled up the jars leaving ¼ inch of room from the top of the jar. I made sure the lips of the jars were clean before I put the lids on to ensure a tight seal. I filled all the jars and then processed the jelly by boiling the jars for 5 minutes.
I carefully removed the jars and set them aside to cool. Allow the jar to set for at least 24 hours.
OMG!!! This is the best stuff. There is nothing like homemade jelly.
Approximate cost of each 1/2 pint - $1.59
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Hanging Pictures
I have spent the last two weeks of my vacation packing, loading, unloading and unpacking stuff that we have no room for. It is amazing how much crap you can accumulate in 5 years.
Today is my last day of vacation and I am using it to tidy up and give our new dwelling those endearing touches that make a house a home.
I love these old pictures of my children and my husband. It is hard to believe that we were really that young once.
But enough of this for today I am running out of walls and hangers which is bad because I still have boxes of pictures I need to find a home.
Did I mention I love moving.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
January's Photo Outing
Not once but twice this month I was lucky enough to be invited on a field trip with my good friend Rachel. She has taken a huge leap in her life and is braving the new world of entrepreneurship with her new business -Fins & Lens Photography - http://finsandlens.com/ .
For her birthday we went to the Morikami Gardens for the zen experience and a photo shoot. We arrived fashionably late and we only had an hour to tour the gardens before the park closed.
Although our time was limited we still took some pretty decent shots as the day turned into late afternoon. I tried to capture the shadows and low light settings and the sun started to set for the day.
The Morikami Gardens are very beautiful even with the large crowds that attended that weekend for the 10 year anniversary festival so we decided to make another trip. Luckily the Gardens were offering a free admissions day so we pulled out our schedules determined that we were free and pinky swore that we would go.
Our second trip was almost a disaster; we arrived early along with the the storm clouds and cold rain but we unloaded our gear and headed into the gardens determined to find zen or at least a good time and a few good pictures before we were frozen and or drenched.
As if the weather wasn't bad enough, our bad luck continued as both of Rachel's cameras malfunctioned. We later found out as the clouds moved off and the sun warmed up the day that her camera seems to have issues with the cold and caused her shutter to stick. We were back in business.
We missed the Bonsai exhibit on our first trip as we walked towards the bridge the security guard chased us off and pointed us towards the exit. We spent a good portion of the morning of our second trip looking at the tiny sculptured trees.
The bonsais were so oddly shaped I had a hard time focusing and this is the only picture I was satisfied with to post so I guess I will keep practicing.
We thought it was odd that we did not see any koi on our first trip in any of the lakes or ponds but apparently they were hiding by the bonsai. These fish are huge and you can feed them if you like. I know the fish don't mind.
We toured the small museum that displayed Japanese culture and heritage and its growth in South Florida.
We found out of the way paths that lead to bamboo fountains
and tranquil beauty.
The gravel paths are shaded with benches to sit at your leisure. The view over the small lake is pretty and conducive to calm and relaxation.
It was an amazing day and I thoroughly enjoyed having Rachel's son Christian with us. What an awesome little boy.
I cant wait for our next photo outing.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Invasion!
I have been invaded by these huge bloated little buggers. Caterpillars have made their home on my tomatoes.
I was not alarmed by the few holey leaves I was seeing here and there and when I discovered that it was caterpillars causing the damage to the leaves I removed them quickly. I am trying to stay organic so I am not using pesticides however I did "Google" for a few organic options including a garlic spray.
But apparently I may have waited to long, in just a matter of 2 days my plants have become bare.
The little buggers have become huge which makes them a lot easier to find but they are a lot hungrier.
They are now eating my tomatoes.
Will I ever win?????
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Bucket Gardening
I like to think of myself as determined, a problem solver or what my family refers to as hard headed. My goal is to grow fresh vegetables for my family and I am not giving up so I go back to surfing the internet for ideas. I researched raised garden beds but I knew that idea wouldn't work unless I was able to surround the raised beds with a steel mesh cage. My dogs would not let a little height stand in the way of watering my tomatoes or digging them up in search of the neighborhood mole. There is also the problem of invading nasty looking horned caterpillars. !!Yucky!!
I tried an experiment with Aquaponics last year and had very good success in starting several types of tomatoes, herbs and leafy veggies. I tried to grow these starters in containers and I did have some initial good luck. I was able to harvest about a dozen small cracked fruits off my bushes but my herbs eventually died from lack of attention which means I forget to water them.
I tried something different this year with my aquaponics/aquarium system and took a terrarium approach to gardening. I filled the tank half way and floated Styrofoam rafts in the tank using the aquarium lights as the light source. It works fairly well but only on one half of the tank. I have had a problem with too much moisture on the side of the tank with the filter. I was thinking of using a piece of plastic to cover the down spout but I haven't gotten around to that yet. The aquaponics projects have been fun and a learning experience but it can be complicated and is not the best for growing tomatoes and like vegetables.
During my research on youtube, I discovered self-watering containers. Eureka! There was hope for me after all. I proceeded to do a little price checking. I found and purchased 3 small hanging plant containers that were on sale. I also found the large pretty hunter green or terracotta self watering containers that seemed to be the rage but I was not willing to fork out the $50.00 per container price tag. So I went back to researching youtube and I came across several do it yourself containers. I finally decided on what is called the bucket system or "Global Buckets".
Two 5 gallon buckets some pvp pipe and a plastic cup. I like the plastic drive through cups just so I feel like I am recycling. So far, I have made 5 buckets: 1 with my blueberry bush that my husband bought me, 3 tomato plants and the last one is for my basil as soon as its tall enough to transplant. So far my dogs have left the containers alone, there is no sight of caterpillars and I only water the plants every third day or so. The big plus plus is that it is impossible to over water. I think I found the cure to my black thumb back yard gardening problem. I am so excited.
For my next project, I have purchased 2 (two) 50 gallon rubber maid containers I found for $15 each. I'm thinking carrots, radishes and green leafy veggies. I'm on a roll...........
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