Make Your Own Dried Breakfast Cereal; Not a Granola

     My husband loves certain brands of boxed cereal.  They are his "default meal" for breakfast and in the evening either before or after dinner several times a week.  He loves it with his raw milk and honey.  I won't disclose which brands or flavors, but those boxes of cereals are expensive and he goes through a lot of it and I did not like the ingredients lists ...even the ones that claimed were "healthy".   So, I decided to see what I could do to replace those cereals with something healthier for him and certainly cheaper and even tasty.  Another quality I wanted  was that it would store well for a while. 

      I know how the industry produces boxed cereals in a general way and I thought I could replicate that process only better.  

First of all, they take raw grain ( most of it is GMO and has herbicides infused) and they pressure cook it hot and fast keeping the phytic acid, a known nutrient blocker and they mix in high-fructose corn syrup and other sugars and flavors and then they "extrude" it ( high pressure- straining into certain shapes) then they dry it quickly and perhaps coat it with more sugars and add some freeze-dried or dehydrated fruit, and a lot of other un-food ingredients and then package it and ship it.  Like I said, this is just a general idea but none of it is how grains were supposed to be treated for food.   

My process:  I measure out 12 ounces of dry grain and crushed legumes in a 2 to one mixture ( a pulse) and soak all of it overnight in a pot with measured 36 ounces of water 

( a 1  to 3 ratio).

  I add a TBS of some kind of acidy liquid like whey, kefir, milk or ac vinegar.  This acid helps to reduce the phytic acid.  Next day I cook it.  It starts off at med. heat to speed the cooking and after about 10 minutes I reduce it to low or just warm and cook for another hour and 15 minutes.  It is necessary to be around it to stir once in a while.  It needs to have a lid but tilt it to allow steam escape or it will boil over in a mess. ( I've done that a few times)  During the cooking process add salt and some fat. For sweetner, I add some chopped raisins but you can add some honey or maple syrup.  This makes about 6 servings.  I usually take 2 servings out to eat immediately or to store in a bowl with cover in the fridge for him to heat up in the morning.  The rest of it I dehydrate and store as his dry cereal.   

RECIPE:

This pulse is for a blood type B

In a pint size glass measuring container

measure out  8 ounces of a combination of any 2  or all of the following;

cracked spelt

whole millet

cut or rolled oats

Add to the grains 4 ounces of crushed legumes; 

navy beans and split peas

12 ounces of dry food in all.  Soak dry food in water overnight.  Water should be 3 times the amount of dry food. 

During cooking add 1 1/2 tsp. Real Salt and 1-2 TBS of butter or coconut oil.  

Optional additions:  raisins, cranberries, apples or blueberries.

Nuts and seeds can also be added for greater protein and essential oil nutrition.  Flax and chia seeds are good additions for all 4 blood types. 

For blood type Os use;  8 ozs. combination of  any 2  or all of the following;   amaranth, oats, brown rice, quinoa and buckwheat

and 4 ozs. crushed blackeyed peas and adzuki beans. 

Walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds and  almond pieces are good add-to options.

For blood type As use; 8 ozs. combination of any 2 or all of the following;  amaranth, oats, brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, millet and  rye.

and 4 ozs. of crushed adzuki beans, black beans, blackeyed peas, pinto beans or lentils ( not necessary to crush them as they are small enough to cook up with the grain). 

Peanuts, walnuts, pecans and almond pieces, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds are good add-to options.

For blood type ABs use;  8 ozs. combination of any 2 or all of the following;  Millet, oats, brown rice, rye, barley, quinoa, cracked spelt and amaranth.

and 4 ozs. of crushed navy beans, split peas, lentils or pinto beans. 

Peanuts, pecans, walnuts and cashews are good add-to options.  

To dehydrate;  It is not necessary to grease the flexible clear sheets that come with your dehydrator because the cooked cereal has the fat in it and that will suffice.  I use my fingers to spread out the cooked, cooled cereal on the sheets.  Wet the counter top under the clear sheets to keep it from sliding all over the counter as you work.  One pot of cooked pulse 

( mush or porridge) minus 2 servings filled 8 of my dehydrator sheets.  It took a day to dry it all, at abut 110 degrees.  You could dehydrate this in your oven also at warm on large cookie sheets but keep the door open.  

Use a scrapper to get the cereal off the sheets when dry and put those on a large cloth  to catch the "flying" bits.  Store in a clear container so you can see what is left.  When my husband soaks a serving of it with milk, he says it swells about twice it's volume.  He adds honey to it and some fresh fruit.  It is very tasty and soft enough to chew easily.  I think this is a success.  

Nut Crust Pumpkin Pie made with Home Grown Meaty Green Pumpkins

      In this Image in the back are two of my 10 "Meaty Green Pumpkins" I grew this summer.   I think they are also known as the Utah Winter Pumpkin.  They have thick flesh which is very orange and sweet tasting.  The center seed pod is small and the seeds are delicious.   These are the last two.  I have given away 3 of them and rendered the other 5.  I carve them up (yes, lots of work), cut up the meat, dry the seeds and either cook the meat and blend it up ( after boiling chunks of pumpkin, I puree it and store in pint jars in fridge or freezer) or dehydrate it in chunks as pictured. This pie is the best I've ever made and without starchy ingredients so it could qualify as Paleo.   

Recipe for Nut crust;  for 2 pies:

in processor;  1 cup walnuts
                      1 cup pecans (part of this can be almond meal)
                       6 dates cut up and without seed
                            or 2 TBS coconut sugar
                       1 egg
                       1/2  tsp. real salt
                       2 TBS  coconut oil

     Divide the mixture between 2 pie pans and hand press it into the bottoms and half way up the sides of the pans.  Bake at 350 for 7 minutes. 

Filliing;    
                        4 eggs
                        32 ounces of pumpkin puree
                        1 pint heavy cream
                        1 tsp. real salt
                        2 tsps. cinnamon
                        1 tsp.  ginger
                        1/2  tsp. cloves
                        1/2  tsp. nutmeg
                        1 1/4 cups maple syrup, or brown sugar 

Process all ingredients and divide between the two pies.
Protect edges of pie with a ring of foil.  Or not. 

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 35 and continue baking for 40 -50 minutes.  

The Red Cracker; Flaxseed, Tomato, Red Bell Pepper Dried Food

This image looks like meat but really it is all vegetable and seeds.  At the Barebones Camp in July I met this wonderful woman whose food for the week was in gallon zip lock bags as crackers.   I loved her idea and the foods she had dehydrated...she called them "crackers" but there is no grain in them.  Since then I have been making some from her recipes and I have invented some of my own.  

Healthy and easy to carry these foods are just the thing for on-the-go people.   This first recipe is hers and the color is very red wet or dry.   I love the savory seasonings.

You will need a dehydrator.   Mine is rectangular and called 
"l'Equip" sold by Emergency Essentials.  It has a heating element and a fan so it works very quickly. You will also need from 6-8 clear, flexible, solid trays. ( they usually come with a dehydrator).

Soak 2 cups whole flax seeds in 2 cups good water 6-8 hours

Blend:   
1 large, peeled red beet
1 large red bell pepper  not peeled
3-4 tomatoes  not peeled
1/2  yellow onion yes, peeled
3-4 cloves fresh garlic   also
1/2 tsp. real salt
2 tsp. powdered cumin
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. oregano 
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 cup  raw pumpkin seeds

Add blended mixture to the soaked flaxseeds.  
oil the flexible trays with olive oil and spread out the mixture on the trays as thin as possible without creating holes.

Place the trays on the bigger trays of your dehydrator and start.  If you have a temp gage, turn it to 100 degrees...not much hotter.  It is not necessary to cook this food...just dry it. It should  take about 24 to 32 hours to dry crisp.  

Preparedness Campout 2016 at the Tifie Ranch, Morgan Utah

That's Perry and I by our  small Davis Wall Tent with good friend, Julie Ann,  in the back ground and our red trailer.  Perry got this small red trailer years ago from his father.  It was used to haul a snowmobile but Perry insulated it, added another axle and wheels so it could hold the weight of our camping equipment.  But the shelves he built inside to store stuff, he made 30" wide so they could be slept on.   That's where we slept for the 7 nights we were there.  He also added 3 screened windows and roof vent so we had nice cool air in the evening.  We needed that because it was hot!  very hot during the day the last week of July.  The Davis tent is 10'x15' and it served as our kitchen tent this trip.  

Robert Workman who owns the Tifie Ranch offered our Prep Group his hay fields to hold our annual campout.  We are very grateful for his support.  He owns the Barebones Tent Company so there was a natural connection.  There was shade around the edges of the hay fields and a stream on the north side which the children and teens loved.  The middle, open spaces is where the pota-potties and vehicles ended up with most of the tents and camps around the shaded spots.  It's a beautiful place but we had to bring our own shade for the classes and group dinners that were out in the open.  

 I took charge of 2 of the children's classes and here is a picture of my friend, Natalie, pushing our very big wagon up a small incline with 3 of the camp children.  The class had 9 children and was called, "What can you do with a very Big Wagon?"  Well, the children found out that you can haul a lot of stuff in it and a lot of kids.  They had a great time with it. 

 In the evenings after the sun was down and after the group pot-luck dinners, we all gathered (approx. 250 people this camp) in the big field east of camp for entertainment.  We had talks by Robert Workman about his mission in life; to help the poor of the world be more self-sufficient with cheap energy(Goal Zero products), shelters and food. 
The next evening we heard from David Warwick who is a visionary man tell of his experiences with dreams and visions of the future. Very interesting.
Another night we had an impromptu talent show that was really entertaining.
The last night we had a panel discussion about all things having to do with preparedness.  Again very interesting.

 Another children's group I took on, made art out of the natural elements they found at camp and along the river.  The inspiration was Andy Goldworthy; an environmental artist.  The children did a wonderful job organizing some raw materials into works of art.   Such fun! 
I also taught 2 adult classes, one on fermenting...just a general one, and the other on Pulses and why they would be useful to do now for camp later.  And of course the health benefits.  

 There were tents of all kinds and sizes in camp and few motorhomes.  The tent in this picture is a Barebones tent...not the orange one.  There were some geodesic dome type tents too and one family brought a really big Teepee with an American flag waving at the top.  Several campers had their solar equipment out and working so they could have a fan running and lights at night and powerpoint presentations for some of the adult classes.  We had our solar units up and batteries charging and fan running and lights at night.   Love that solar ability.  

I wish I could brag about my wonderful camp cooking....can't.  I planned it simple this year...just freeze dried pouches (Eden Valley) and hot water.  I wanted to see what  my favorite meals were so I could come back and buy more of those.  But everybody around us can brag about what they fixed for meals and the group pot-luck dinners.  We were really spoiled with all the good food around us.  Especially fun was the Richards camp next to us with their little girls.  We ended up eating breakfasts and lunches with them  in the shade of our tent fly porch.  Sylvia shared a lot of her food with us and it was delightful. She brought fresh foods.  The picture at one of the group dinners, Perry and I eating with another good friend, Lynn Engberson next to me.  He and his wife camped in our group and brought a son and a daughter both just returned from their missions.  They were a wonderful addition. 

This is our 5th campout and one would think we would have it "all together" but we made so many mistakes and forgot some important things even with all my lists.  The big lesson this trip was WATER.    We ran out of the good water we brought from home because of the hot weather.  We were drinking more than we usually do and then cleaning ourselves at night (yes, we have a nice camp showering set up).  So we got out our gravity-feed water purifier buckets and went and filled our empty containers with river water.  He said it was good water and with filtration it would be all right.  Several other campers did the same thing.   The first 4-6 gallons were wonderful and coming fast but then the system slowed and by 8 gallons, there was barely a drip every minute.  We discovered that, that the clean and pure river water still had particulates in it that clogged up our filtration unit.  Learned that you must pre-filter river water before pouring into filtration unit to get the bigger stuff out.   Good lesson. Never did that before.  Lots of other things learned too and by the end of the week we were all settled in and didn't want to go home.  Good spirit there with good people.  Good lessons learned. 

Pumpkin Puree and Oats Breakfast Bake

     I love this recipe!  When I make it I save out 4 servings and freeze them for mornings I have to leave early and fast.  I take one container out of freezer at night and just warm it up and add some cream or eat it thawed and room temperature.  This is good for any of the 4 blood types.  The oats are neutral for Os but beneficial for As, Bs, and ABs. 

3 eggs
2 cups pumpkin puree or butternut squash
1 cut raw, whole milk (or your best substitute)
1/3 to 1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup oil
1/2 tsp. real salt
1 cup  quick or rolled oats
1/3 cup flaxseeds or flax meal
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup dried cranberries or raisins
1/3 cup pecans or walnuts 

Mix everything together and cover and let sit overnight and bake in the morning or mix in the morning and bake in evening.  Soaking is needed to neutralize the phytic acid on the oats and nuts and seeds.  

Butter a 9x9" baking dish.   Bake at 350 for 45 - 60 minutes.   Insert a toothpick in center to check for doness.    Good cold or warm.   We like it with cream and if for dessert add more maple syrup. 

Raw Milk Kefir Green Smoothie Update

     I have added a couple new ingredients to my traditional green smoothie; ginger, kale and ripe banana.  Not much to write about but I think the new ingredients make a difference and boost the nutritional value.  

Recipe; 
 2 cups homemade raw milk kefir (if you don't do this use commercial plain kefir or yogurt)
 2 cups pineapple juice  
 1 cup fresh pineapple chunks   
 1 ripe banana  
 1 TBS  raw, ginger without skin  
 2-3 fresh kale leave  or handful of fresh spinach.

Process at med speed 1 minute then higher speed another minute.  

 I like to freeze 4 cups of this in 1 cup containers for future mornings.   1 or 2 cups of this smoothie a day is very revitalizing and refreshing. 

Celery Salad with Purslane

     Purslane is a "weed" that I have battled all my life as a gardener but recently I have found out that at one time it was cultivated for it's healing and healthful properties.  Wow!   What a surprise and when I tasted it, I actually liked it. 



     Now I am using it in a salad that is liked by everyone...even the men in my life.  Below is the recipe and a  link to a blog that tells what purslane nutritional benefits are.  Purslane has succulent looking leaves that are round and "fleshy" with reddish looking stems.  When chewed, it makes a muscilege substance in your mouth that tastes kind of lemony. 

     One of the reasons I like this salad so much is that it, with it's oil and lemon juice dressing,  keeps in the refrigerator for a few days unlike leafy salads that go wilty too quickly.  


Celery and Purslane Salad

4 stalks celery  finely chopped
1/3 sweet onion  finely chopped
1 leaf kale with rib cut out and finely chopped
handful of fresh parley without thickest stems,
     finely chopped
1/3 cup fresh young peas if you have them or frozen peas thawed
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
handful of washed, rootless, purslane chopped
3 fresh mint leaves finely chopped

dressing option 1
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. real salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
some pepper

dressing option 2
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup virgin olive oil
1-2 TBS honey
1/2 tsp.  real salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
some pepper

     When I take some out of fridge container, I like to put some slices of avacado, or chopped red pepper or cucumber with it and place it on some leafy greens.  Those vegetables do not sit well in the fridge, in a salad with dressing so I add them at the table.   I also put some home-made sauerkraut with it which does "sit well" with anything.     

3 Bucket "Nappy" Laundry System

     Someday.....all those wonderful paper, disposable products that we couldn't live without will be unavailable, or too expensive to buy or all used up and we will have to go back in time and use fabric...what I call "Nappies".   Think of baby diapers; many mothers today are all ready using cloth diapers which you can make yourself or buy online or department stores.  Think also of Feminine menstruation products,  nose blowing  and bottom wiping products.  Cloth "nappies" prepared ahead of time may/will become very precious.   But how are we going to clean and reuse the "nappies"? 
                                                       You will need 3, 5 gallon plastic buckets with only 2 lids.  You will need a "plunger" type laundry tool, usually blue, with wooden handle, and some pvc pipe cut in 6" lengths and a T joint to affix a horizontal handle to the top of the wooden handle, with screw and bolt.  You will also need a 1/4 " or 1/2 " plastic chopping board that is at least 11" by 14"  to cut into a circle that fits the bottom of the buckets.  And, a "garage" handle with screws to attach it to the circular chopping board. 

The laundry process goes like this;  one bucket and lid hold a second bucket (with several holes drilled in the bottom and sides)  inside and stays by your toilet or changing table with 1 1/2 gallon of water in it and 1 cup of white vinegar or bleach.  Soiled "nappies" are dropped inside for a few days and are soaked in the "treated" water. 

When decided it is time to wash,  2 gallons of water need to be heated up with laundry soap added.  The "holely" inside bucket is removed and placed inside the bottom half of the 3rd bucket to hold dripping while the first bucket is taken to a place appropriate to dump the soaking water.  The hot soapy water is now put into the

Holding bucket and the 2nd, "holely" bucket with soiled nappies is put inside.  Now the "plunger with blue bottom is inserted and is pumped up and down to clean the nappies.  To prevent splashing, one of the lids can be attached to the plunger and snapped into place during the washing. 

The pvc pipe handle at the top just helps facilitate the washing action.   When it is determined that washing is complete, the "holely" bucket is brought up and is allowed to drain and the upper half of the 3rd bucket is intserted to act as a "spacer" so that the  chopping board "presser" can be used to press out excess wash water.

The rinsing process echos the washing process until the nappies are clean enough to pick them up with hands and hang them out to dry.  

This system can also be used for smaller loads of laundry like socks and underwear. 

I made 210  nappies out of a used flannel, fitted king bed sheet ( purcashed at a thrift store) cut into 6" strips.  I cut those strips into 6 or 12 or 18" pieces and then using my ordinary sewing machine, zigzaged the edges.  Watching a movie or listening to a podcast during this task helped the time to whiz by.  I have 104 stitched nappies and another 106 cut but not yet stitched stored in zip lock bags.   

Cooking Beans in a Home-made Thermal Cooker

My Large Home-Made Thermal Cooker  (Sorry photo is tilted)

     
This is one of my thermal cookers.  A few days ago I tried cooking a soup ( a recipe I got on facebook) with beans, rice, dehydrated vegetables and seasonings for a group, but the beans were not done.  Everything else was and the flavor was good but the great northern, small white beans and split peas were not completely tender. Disappointing.

     So I did some research and found a book, "Let's Make Sense of Thermal Cooking Cookbook" by Cindy Miller.  I found out how she uses beans in her thermal cookers.  

     Her process is to thermal pre-cook the beans first and then use them with a recipe for thermal cooking, later.  So I tried her process and was successful!  ( I think pre-cooking the beans in a solar oven would work well also...if good clear day)

Recipe:
4 cups of dry beans,  soak in a bowl with enough water to keep them all wet as they expand and add 1 TBS Real Salt ....for 20-24 hours. 
Next day drain and rinse the beans and add to a large heavy pot.  I use a new, 5 quart iron, Dutch Oven without the "feet" for mine.  Add 8 cups of water and 1 tsp. Real Salt and bring to a boil on the stove.   It took about 35-40 minutes to get all that water, beans and pot hot enough to boil.  I then timed the boiling for 20 minutes.  I wanted the heat and steam to build up so I inserted a toothpick between lid and pot to off steam a little without it dribbling down the side of the pot.  

     After 20 minutes of cooking, I used hot pot holders and buried the lidded pot in my home-made thermal cooker.  I had a silicon pad at the bottom on top of the pillow so it wouldn't burn the pillow. I then enclosed it with the old towel and put the foam lid on top.  I waited 6 hours and 15 minutes.  

   The iron pot was still hot enough to send me for the hot pad holders to get it out.  But the beans were PERFECT!  (picture of them not perfect-too dark)  Not burned, not chewy, just right and tender and still hot.  Wow!   It worked.    
The inside of my cooker is insulated with some old foam sheeting that was on one of our beds, cut to size and pushed into old pillow cases.  2 old pillows on the bottom and the top is made of more foam sheeting cut into 3 concentric circles with another old bath towel stitched around it to fit the top of the plastic bucket.  

Cindy Miller's continued recipe is to use the cooked tender beans in a recipe and dehydrate the rest for future use.  That is just what I did.  I cooked up some bacon, carrots, onion, garlic, celery and kale added some ham bone broth and bean water and  made a delightful, tasty soup. 

 But the rest of the beans I dehydrated. 

It seems to help to have more food in the pot. On my first try, the food and water came to only about half or less of the pot capacity.  2/3 capacity seems to work better for thermal cooking.    

     

     

Crushing Beans for Quicker Cooking and for Pulses

     I have written so much about pulses for your blood types in previous posts as being sooo good for your health, but people tell me they just don't have a way of crushing the beans to make them smaller. 

     For successful Pulse cooking, the beans need to be crushed so they cook up with the grains at the same time in the same pot and without a handy grain mill with steel burrs to do this task, like I have, it can be a challenge.

      Recently I came across a product that bartenders use to crush ice for cocktails called a "Lewis Bag".  They are made of heavy duty cotton canvas sewn tightly with a string to close it with.   I bought 4 of them online to try out. One of them is pictured above. 

     I just now crushed 2 cups of black-eyed peas or beans and it took about 3-4 minutes.  My husband got this orange hammer for me to try.  It has little steel pellets in the head of it that creates more force when pounding and it worked great!   Both the bag and the hammer worked really well.   The bag cost me $7.49  each and the hammer...don't know.   Would have to check it out at a hardware store.  

I believe I have found a solution for crushing beans that is simple and inexpensive and yet effective. Crushed beans means quicker soaking and cooking time!     Google  "Lewis bag".    

Ginger Ale From Ginger Bug

Thanks to Kyle Christensen of Woodland Hills, Utah County, I can now enjoy my own ginger ale.  I lived in Detroit Michigan for a few years and there was a brand of ginger ale there that I loved          ( Schewpts?) but my own home-made tastes even better than that.  

To start you have to create a "ginger bug" in a glass jar like the one in my picture.

Put 2 cups unchlorinated water into a clean quart jar.  Add 1 TBS  chopped raw ginger and 1 TBS white sugar.  Next day add more chopped ginger, little bit more water and 2 tsp. sugar.  Do this for a week.  Cover the jar with coffee filter paper and secure with elastic.  

It should smell wonderfully gingery. The natural lactobacillus bacteria on the raw ginger have begun the fermenting process by consuming the sugar and the sugars in the ginger. 

Now you can make your "ale".  

For 2 gallons of Ginger Ale you will need:

2 - pieces of ginger that are about 6 inches long 

4 - 2 quart jar bottles or 2, 1 gallon jars

4  - cups of sugar

1  - cup of your strained  "ginger bug"

 almost 2 gallons of unchlorinated water.  

Mix part of the water with sugar to dissolve and divide between the 2 containers, add 1/2 cup "ginger bug" to each, fill with more clean water. Chop up the raw ginger and blend it at high speed in about 3 cups of the water. Add the blended "slurry" to the containers and fill with more water but leave about a cup of space from the top.   Put coffee paper caps on and secure with elastics.  Keep at room temperature for about 4-5 days.  It should get bubbly (by product of carbon dioxide)  and smell good.  There will be some residue or scum at the top but this can be scooped off when it is ready to pour off and strain.  Put strained  ginger ale into glass jars with tight fitting lids, label and date and keep in cold storage for another week.  

It is so good!   well worth the trouble and don't forget all that raw ginger is so good for you.  You can flavor the finished ale with some fresh lemon juice or other fruity flavors before storage.  

Note;  You can add some whey about 1 TBS  to each 2 quart jar to  insure there are enough lactobacillus to start the fermentation.  Also, if concerned about alcohol content, add a pinch of salt to each container helps keep down the alcohol content. But, it rarely gets above 1%.

Preserved Lemons ( Fermented lemons )

      Lemons without spray, like some from someone's back yard will do very well for this ferment.  I got a bag of these at Christmas time from some good person in Las Vegas visiting our neighbors and did not know what to do with them so I did an internet search and found a really easy way to ferment or preserve them.  

I loved licking a half lemon with salt on it when I was a child and these fermented or preserved lemons taste just like that.  This recipe is a Near Eastern process and they use it for many recipes but I just like eating them right out of the jar. The rinds get softer with time.

To a 1 ( wide mouth) or 2 quart jar, add some fresh lemons that are cut up into quarters or 8ths and seed them, if you want, as you go.  With your fist, or some other tool that fits, press them down to bring up the juice.  If not enough juice,    add 1-2 TBS chlorinated water.  To each quart add 2 TBS Real Salt  as you go.  When filled to the neck of the bottle, where it slopes in, press hard again to bring up the juice.  Attach an air lock device to the top and ferment for about 5 days.  Then, remove the air lock and secure a regular lid and put in refrigeration for a week.  
After that, date and store in cool, dry, dark place or start eating them.  You might try researching "preserved lemons" to get some recipes on how to use them .      

White Table Cloth on Sunday

Our Church leaders have been counseling us, the last few months, to honor the Sabbath better, to "raise the bar" of our Sabbath worship.  I have been wondering how to do that beyond what we all ready do.

A few weeks ago, I was prompted to look up and watch an old movie that I enjoyed years ago called "Fiddler on the Roof".  I noticed a couple things this time through that I haven't taken note of before.  First how Teviah looks up to and talks to God.  It's intimate and funny and proof of his great faith.  Second, was how his wife got ready for the Sabbath.  She cleared off the one big table, got her daughters rushing to get the table set, get the food ready and themselves cleaned up before sunset and start of Sabbath.  She whipped out the clean, white table cloth and heavy gold candlesticks and then she sang that lovely prayer for her family. Beautiful! 

In watching that, I remembered my mother doing similar things on Sunday.  She had a special table cloth, dishes and candlestick holders all of which helped set Sunday apart for us as children from the rest of the week.  I got to thinking I could do this.  For years as "empty nesters" we eat most meals at our counter sitting on stools which is very convenient and rarely do we use the dinning table. 

So, I made plans to shop for a nice, new perfectly white table cloth and to rummage around in stored things for some candlestick holders.  This would be my small way to "raise the bar" on Sunday evenings.

The following week on my shopping day, I grew tired, hungry and thirsty and just wanted to go home for the day and put off shopping for that table cloth. But as I was driving home, an impression came to pull into the parking lot of a thrift store.  I argued and kept driving.  Again I got the impression to turn into parking lot, and again I argued.  Again even stronger came the impression to stop at that store.  (all this happened in nano seconds)

Finally I did.  Went into the store thinking, now what?   I went to the linens dept and was looking through fluffy bed comforters when there, sandwiched between two of the biggest ones, was a pure white, perfect sized table cloth with no stains and no evidence of previous use, $4.00.  I did a "Teviah" thing and glanced upward and whispered...for me?    

I have been using it every Sabbath since.  We clear off the table, put that white cloth on it, and candlesticks with long tapered candles and light them and we take turns saying a prayer holding hands and then eat our now special Sabbath meal.  

Doesn't matter what the food is...could be left overs or pan cakes or lamb roast, what's important is my "sign" to God is that this meal is special and different from the rest of the week and I went to this trouble to make it special (like my mother did) because I love my God  (as she did)  and what He has done for me, for us.

 I think this works.....now to look for other ways.