Thursday, July 14, 2011

Folk Remedy for a Bee Sting or Wasp Sting…

The Little Farmgirl was playing outside a few days ago and she got stung by a wasp.  It was hiding inside the tire swing and she put her hand on top of it and the rest is history…

We had some friends over, so she didn’t come inside right away.  By the time she showed me about half an hour later, her hand was very swollen.  I mixed some baking soda and water and put that on her hand.  Baking soda will neutralize the venom in people who are not allergic to bee stings.  (In other words, if you’re allergic to bee stings, don’t think baking soda can replace your Epi Pen… But for the rest of, baking soda works great in a pinch!)

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You’re supposed to put the baking soda and water paste on the sting as soon as it happens.  In this case, she didn’t tell me about it in time and the baking soda wasn’t all that helpful.

But then I got a crazy email forwarded to me the next morning.  I wasn’t sure if it was true or not, but it suggested putting a penny on the bee sting.  Apparently the copper in the penny draws out the venom. 

So we tried it!
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And it worked!  Who would have guessed?

Monday, July 11, 2011

Breakfast Pizza!

Farmgirl created a “new” recipe a few mornings ago that she wanted to show you…

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Here it is!  Breakfast Pizza!

First, she got a waffle and spread peanut butter on it.  (Papa the farmer makes great gluten free waffles!  I keep telling him he needs to write a cookbook!)  Over the peanut butter she put Peach Sauce.  Peach sauce is just my simple way of preserving peaches from our trees… I blend them up, pour the puree in mason jars and voila!  Peach Sauce.  On top of that she sliced bananas and strawberries, then she drizzled a little applesauce over the whole thing (like the cheese on a vegetable pizza)…

She was so pleased with her creation that she asked me to take pictures and share them online! 
Now let’s take a closer look at her handiwork: 

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Thursday, July 7, 2011

Garlic Spaghetti

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When I first got married my mother in-law brought our niece for a visit.  This little niece is so super-duper cool that I was pretty much willing to bend over backwards and do anything she wanted.  (Bad aunt!  Spoiling the 7 year old!)  Every night I would ask her what she wanted for dinner and make whatever her little royal highness requested.  (This was obviously in the days before I had children!)  One night she asked for spaghetti.  Easy-peasy, right?  So I cooked the noodles, poured the canned spaghetti sauce over it and served it.  And my sweet little niece looked…. disappointed.  “That’s not spaghetti” she duly informed me. 

Um… It’s not?  Let’s see… Noddles… sauce…  Looks like spaghetti to me.  So she and her grandma taught me how to make “real” spaghetti… And let me tell you… It’s pretty good!

First, you boil the noodles according to package instructions.  Please don’t use plain white noodles… It will taste good, but it will hurt my feelings.  My favorite pasta is quinoa pasta, which is gluten free.  If you must use plain white noodles, would you please mix it half-and-half with multigrain noodles, just to make me happy?  Thank you! 

So, after you drain the noodles, saute some chopped garlic in the bottom of your noodle pot.  Pour the noodles back in and add a little olive oil.  Then add about a teaspoon of salt and a handful of fresh, chopped parsley.  Lastly, add 1/4 – 1/2 cup of Nutritional Yeast Flakes.  Then tell me if this isn’t one of the most delicious noodles dishes you’ve ever had!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Red Clover Drink

I mentioned in an earlier post that we've had a lot of red clover this year.  One of my readers suggested making juice out of it.  We know – from trying the Red Clover Rice the other day - that the flowers are sweet, and my reader said that the chlorophyll in the leaves is excellent and not to be wasted.  So we tried it.  We picked some red clover and washed it, then put the clover in a blender with water:

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We added some honey and some lemon juice and blended it all up.  Then we strained all the pulp out of it:

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With the right combination of honey and lemon it turned out pretty well… and it was very pretty with the red flowers in it as a garnish!
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