SortaCrunchy

Remember this? Sizzlin' Summer Recipes: Best. Burgers. Ever.

Back in May 2008, Dacey was newly out of diapers, AJ wasn't crawling yet, and we were still Texans.  Some things haven't changed in those two years though, and tonight we will (of course) be grilling burgers for dinner.  I thought I would take a moment to re-run this post from May 15, 2008, to share our favorite way to fix up some hamburgers.  Please note - we haven't found a great source of ground brisket here, so now we just use plain old ground beef.  Kyle's standard mix-in is now Head Country Hot BBQ Sauce and grape jelly.

Happy Memorial Day and happy eating!

Alright, ya'll.  My gorgeously named sweet friend Megan of Fried Okra opened up her recipe files and commenced with revving up our taste buds with her top ten sizzlin' spring and summer recipes.  (That creamy linguine with zucchini?  Yum-O!)  She has invited us to share our best o' the best, and I am only happy to oblige.

Spring and summer offers us the perfect time to fire up that backyard grill, and that is a double blessing for this mama in that 1) grilling keeps the heat outside where it belongs and 2) my man is all-too-happy to work his grilling wonders on that shiny monument to manly cooking.  He really is quite the grill master, and his repertoire ranges from perfectly cooked steaks to deliciously grilled bananas and all manner of fare in between.

One of his specialties that we eat pretty much year 'round are hamburgers.  Of course, this is a staple in backyard cuisine, but we were unsatisfied with just your average ground beef patty seasoned with a little salt and pepper.  Rather than inventing new and unique ways to dress the grilled burger, my husband went a'hunting for a new and unique way to create the perfect patty. 

A little digging led him to two schools of thought: be creative in the meats used in the patty or be creative in the seasonings you add in.  It's no surprise that, as Texans, we take a more-is-more approach to dining, so we decided to combine the two schools of thought.  The result - best burger ever!

Here's what we do:

1) Start with a pound of ground beef.  Now, pick another kind of meat to add to the mix.  We originally were going to add a pound of ground veal to ours, but our small town grocer doesn't keep ground veal in stock (go figure), so the butcher suggested we might try ground brisket.  The result was pure burger perfection for us, but you might play around a little to find the taste, texture, and flavor combination you like best.  Ground bison, perhaps?

2) So work your two pounds of meat together and prepare to add your seasonings.  Sure, you could go with basic salt and pepper, but why stop there?  I'll tell you our favorite way to season - add equal parts barbecue sauce and brown mustard.  Add just a bit at a time, you don't want to overwhelm the meat and end up with raw hamburger mush.  We've also used equal parts soy sauce and lime juice with great success.  We've been known to add grape jelly in after we salt and pepper (you won't believe how smashing the result is), and once we even added in some leftover bean and bacon soup.  Now, if you do find your meat mixture is getting too moist, you'll want to crumble a piece of bread (plain old white bread works fine) to sop up some of the juiciness.  You want moist burgers, but too much moisture and those burgers will fall apart on our grill. 

Pop those beauties on the grill, and you've got yourself some sizzlin' summer perfection!

You may find with such flavorful burger patties, you can dress them as minimally as you like so you can really appreciate the taste of the meat.  We usually just have potato salad or chips on the side.  Can't go wrong with a big pitcher of Texas sweet tea, but if you use our recipe, keep your toothbrush handy for efficient cavity prevention.

Make sure you head back to Megan's place to drool over all her recipes and see what everyone else has to offer up today!

(burger photo by (nutmeg) )

 

with an eye on the sparrow . . . or the swallow, i suppose

 

These baby swallows are days away from making their big leap from the quickly-growing-crowded nest.

Each day, Mama and Daddy Swallow faithfully bring bugs and other treats to nourish and sustain them.  Mama and Daddy were not at all pleased by the amount of time that my girls, my mother, and I spent on the patio of my parents' house earlier this week.  Nope.  Not happy at all.  But we sure did enjoy watching God's incredible design for meeting the needs of even the tiniest of creatures.

And now we're home again, back in our little nest after three days away.

And we need juice.
We need milk.
We need eggs.
We need to make a Big Trip to the grocery.

I need to do laundry.
I need to clean out the laundry room.
I need for my washing machine to please please please spin the clothes out instead of tricking me again and again with it's non-spinning-out-ness.

I need to write articles.

I need to write book reviews.

I need to return emails.

I need to return phone calls.

I need to clean the bathroom.

I need to make beds.

I need to shave my legs.

Need.

Need!

"Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds."  Matthew 6:26, The Message

Careless in the care of God.  Oh, to be so.

the {me} in media

From SortaCrunchy school of the home contributor Dina, originally published at A Worthy Life

It's a dead on impersonation of Beyonce's "Single Ladies." She flips her hair and wiggles her ring finger while her face is all sass and serious attitude. "If you liked it than you shoulda put a ring on it . . . . UhuhohohohohUhuhohohohohUhuhOH . . . !!" She probably heard the song all of three times and yet the words sank deep into her cerebellum waiting to be conjured up again and again at the soonest silliest moment. 

The other one stumbled across a day time soap opera while searching for Treehouse, unattended and unauthorized to have the tv on. I came running when I heard the tell tale music that saunters into your ears to lure in your eyes, that soft melody that suggests an intimate and torrid scene. Her eyes were hooked and though they lingered only long enough for me to tear the remote from her frozen fingers, the images sank deep into her heart and affected her mind and body for months after. 

Their days are full of sensory overload, whether during school or in play or by the examples of those they come into contact with. They are learning by osmosis, picking up on the culture and social norms by the influences that are allowed access to the gates of their minds and hearts.

And I, the familykeeper, stand guard, allowing or rejecting the influences that take up residence in our home.

While online, watching tv, or playing with their friends, I stand close by, watching and listening, instructing and protecting. Thinking it is only there, in the outside world, that the greatest evil influences reside.

Then, I observe her declaring with gruff disapproval, "Dang DON it!" An (almost) spot on imitation of someone else's blatant frustration. I overhear another bossing the younger unmercifully with the same tone I myself am apt to use. When I tell them not to yell at each other, their ready defense is, "But sometimes you yell at papa..." I see rooms littered with clothes and toys, remnants of fun but forgotten times abandoned for the next thing. Funny how my room looks the same.

As many parents do, I worry about the influence of the media and peers on my children. Yet statistics show that of all the influences in a child's life, none is greater than their parents. Dang DON it, don't I wish I could blame it all on the media?!

The show my kids are tuned into most is the Mommy Channel and they are watching, they are learning. Are all my lessons to them given from behind lipstick on a pig, an obvious hypocrisy and double standard? Does all I say merely drip with honey while my life displays a sticky mess?

Gilda Radner, America's comic sweetheart, tells a story of a pregnant dog who was run over by a lawnmower. She lost her two hind legs but her babies survived. The mama soon adjusted to life with only front paws and found a new way of walking by taking two steps followed by a hop from her backside. When her pups were old enough to walk, they did just fine, following their mother's example of a two-stepping-bum-hopping gait.

I am teaching my children to walk by my own walk.

Are they learning a confident gait along the straight path, one walked with perseverance and no compromise? Or, are they mimicking a walk that is random and sporadic, steady on good days and then occasionally scooting off to my own desires, hopping on and off the path when it suits my whims?

Be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear, be careful little hands what you do, be careful little feet where you go, be careful little mouth what you say. For littler eyes and ears and hands and feet and mouths will watch and overhear and mimic and accompany and repeat their precious mamas.

Be careful, little mama.

a student of life, learning daily through the unconditional love of her God, her husband, and her four children. a lamb to her Good Shepherd and a shepherdess to her young ewes, all the while hoping that somehow, someway her life brings about change in the lives of others that will last for all eternity.  Read more from Dina at A Worthy Life.

 

 

sock monkey ink photo by katesheets

The Gabriella Guest Book

 

If you've been following along at Kristi's blog, you know that Gabriella is doing great!  Up and walking and just in general being AMAZING!

I know her story has touched the hearts of so many.  If you have been praying or sending positive thoughts to Gabriella and her family this week, would you take a moment and stop by to sign the guest book at Kristi's blog?  I think it would be so beautiful if we all took some time to fill their (exhausted, thrilled, amazed, hopeful) hearts with love from all over the world. 

Just a quick note to say hello and where you are sending your love from (city, state, province, country, whatever!).  Thank you for taking the time to leave a little part of yourself for them to treasure.  

(comment moderation is enabled on the guest book, so know that it will take some time before your note is published.  also, comments closed here today.)

one blink

We have this catalpa tree in our backyard.

It's like, a hundred years old.  Maybe older.

For one glorious moment in the spring, it lights up in blooms.

 

I had been meaning to get out and grab a few shots of it from the day I saw the first flowers winking from the boughs.

Sometime else happens in the spring in Oklahoma.

Out of the clear blue sky

   

clouds smother the sun, and storms materialize with a ferocity that is both amazing and terrifying.

Wall clouds form and twisters touch down and hail pummels and the wind . . .

 

. . . the wind is merciless towards anything tender or delicate or fragile.

So by the time I got those shots of the blink-and-you'll-miss-them catalpa blooms

 

well, it was almost too late.

* * * * *

Tomorrow is Dacey's last day of school.  After tomorrow, she'll be a kindergartener-in-waiting!

* * * * *

It was just a blink.

* * * * *

My biggest fear is that the summer that now looms ahead of us with promise and hope and branches full of blooms will give way to the winds of busyness and

I'll blink

 

and she'll be looping those backpack straps over her shoulders again.

* * * * *

Here's to keeping our eyes wide open.  All summer long.

Where I've Been Wednesday

Okay, so Where I've Been Wednesday isn't really a thing (but maybe it could be?  Infrequent Bloggers everywhere, feel free to steal that from me). 

You all have been so generously, amazingly helpful in sharing your Real Food resources on Monday's post.  I started out responding to comments, but once we got news of Gabriella getting her sparkly new heart, I got very distracted.

By the way, here she is just hours post-surgery with the best sleepy little grin I think I've ever seen:

 

And would you believe she is standing and ready to begin working on walking already?  I hope you've been following along at Kristi's blog because this story is just incredible.

Yep, my thoughts have been pretty consumed with sweet Princess G.

But in other news, I gathered with some friends yesterday to talk through some ideas that God has been stirring up in our hearts.  Triggered by thoughts on Corner (here's a little taste of that) and fueled by David Platt's Radical philosophy, we are trying to put flesh on the frame of a big idea that feels pretty radical to us.  More to come on that . . .

Final note - a Happy Mother's Day order from Amazon arrived yesterday, and from that moment I've been sneaking away in every spare second to read from Jonathan Merritt's Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet (affiliate link). GOOD STUFF, friends.  Also in the order were two Michael Pollan books, so between all of that AND Keeper of the Home's Real Food on a Real Budget, well, it's an abundance of riches in reading material drawing me away from the keyboard.

(Also, I may or may not be rewinding the flash mob dream sequence from last night's Glee over and over and over . . .)

URGENT REQUEST FOR PRAYER - Princess G is getting a new heart!

Our Princess Gabriella (you met here her last fall) is on her way to get her sparkly new heart!

Please join us in praying for the Gabriella and for the entire Vega family.  Our hearts and prayers are also with the family whose loss is giving new life to Gabriella today.

Follow Gabriella's mama Kristi on Twitter for updates.

Praying, praying, praying . . .

You Tell Me: Real Food

 

This was my breakfast this morning:

• (free range) eggs, scrambled
• covered in (store-bought) cheese
• on a (store-bought) tortilla
• cup of (fair trade) Sumatra
• glass of RAW MILK

How's that for sorta?

On Saturday, the girls and I took a little field trip out to a local dairy farm and bought our first ever gallon of raw milk.  I can't wait to tell you more about that trip later this week, but for now I just want to focus in on the real food movement.

Earlier this year, I shared with you some of our approaches to food, but that is all evolving at a fairly rapid pace.  It started when I finally watched Food, Inc. last month.  I had been putting it off because I absolutely knew it was one of those things - sorta like The Mafia, I suppose - that once you are in, you know too much to ever get out.  And I was right.  It forever altered the way I view what I feed my family.

So here I am.  Free range eggs and raw milk and scared to death to buy any non-organic produce following this morning's release of the Pediatrics study on the connection between ADHD and organophosphates. 

So here's what I need to know -- in your experience, what has been the most helpful resource in learning more about The Real Food Movement?

Stephanie of Keeper of the Home has graciously sent me a copy of Real Food on a Real Budget to review (and giveaway!  Stay tuned for that!), so I plan on digging into that this week.  But after that, what should be next on my reading list?  Books, blogs, podcasts, websites . . . you tell me . . .

(Food, Inc. link is an Amazon affiliate link.)

A Practical Solution for Nursing In Public

Have you had a chance to read 50 Reasons for Breastfeeding Anytime, Anywhere from PhD in Parenting yet?

It's a great list that examines reasons from human rights to just because in encouraging women to breastfeed their babies in public.

Though I no longer have a nursling in my brood, the topic of how to handle the logistics of breastfeeding in public continues to engage my interest.  Earlier this week, a friend who has just given birth to her second child asked me for a recommendation on nursing tops.  Though I've breastfed two children into toddlerhood, I've never owned a single piece of nursing clothing, so instead, I shared with her this article I wrote back in January 2009 on how I managed the logistics of nursing in public:

One thing I never did get the hang of when I was nursing Dacey was how to do the whole nursing in public thing.  When she was an infant, I had overactive letdown and overabundant supply issues, and those two things combined made those early weeks and months a big, milky mess.  Even when my supply evened out, my concerns over modesty combined with a lack of confidence kept me from attempting to nurse her outside of our home.

However, when Aliza Joy was born, I found I didn't have a choice.  We had to be at playgroup and prayer coffee and church and the library and all kinds of other places outside of our home at precisely the times little AJ needed her mama milk fix.  Thankfully when I was still pregnant with her, one of my mama friends shared a little tip with me that made a huge difference in my breastfeeding in public success the second time around.

The secret?  A plain old ordinary camisole.  Much like this one from Old Navy.

Here's how it works:

1) When baby needs to eat, find a comfy spot and settle in.
2) Unbutton your top or pull up your shirt (I'm almost always in some kind of t-shirt, long-sleeved or short, because I'm glam like that), but leave the camisole down against your body.
3) If you are wearing a nursing bra (I recommend it in those early weeks), unsnap it and pull your breast out of the top of the cami.  Latch that baby on and you are good to go!

I love the cami underneath because in all honesty, it's not so much flashing a bit of breast and nipple that concerns me when I am breastfeeding in public - it's the thought of the prolonged exposure of my unsightly mama middle to friends and passers-by who didn't sign up for that kind of trauma when they left the house that day.

Now, you can spend the big bucks for the "official" kinds of nursing tanks out there today (or better yet, let your friends and family buy those for you!), but really, an $8 cami from the local discount store works just fine, too.  If you can find a cami with a shelf bra then all the better because as we nursing moms know, those nursing bra cups are made with inappropriately thin material.  Why?  Why do they do that to us?  I don't get it.  Anyway, a little extra material for some extra coverage is a nice bonus.

I know some people prefer a nursing cover.  In the early weeks, it might be helpful to have, especially if you have the overabundant supply or overactive letdown issues that I had in the early days with both girls.  But as we all know (and this video perfectly illustrates), there comes a day when that wee one refuses to be blanket-ed!  And I think using this cami-underneath-system works so nicely when you can't or don't want to use a blanket or nursing cover.

The simple camisole is a simple solution for mamas who are nursing in public.

What tips for nursing in public success do you have to share?

photo by Tim and Selena Middleton

Homemade Sauerkraut - Full of friendly cultures!

Homemade sauerkraut uses a method of culturing called lactofermentation; the same method that turns milk into yogurt (you know you can make yogurt at home, right?). 

By now I'm sure you've heard of the benefits of live active cultures in yogurt; friendly bacteria are essential to our digestive system and overall health.  By lactofermenting cabbage, we not only cultivate these good bacteria, but the bacteria also break down the cabbage for us so the nutrients are easier for us to absorb.

I'm going to show you how to make lactofermented cabbage at home- it's really easy!
 
When I'm lactofermenting, I start with organic produce if possible. One head of cabbage makes quite a bit of kraut; I'm using half a cabbage here.  I use the slicing attachment for my food processor to quickly slice up the cabbage, but a few minutes and a sharp knife would do the trick as well.

 
With your cabbage in a bowl, add two tablespoons of sea salt.  Toss, and allow to sit for a couple hours.  This allows the cabbage to wilt so it's easier to pound the juice out of it.

After the cabbage is a bit wilted, pack it into mason jars.  Use a smaller cup to pound down until the cabbage releases its juice.  The goal is to have the cabbage completely under its own juice, but I've never quite accomplished that; a little sticks up out of the juice but it has always worked fine for me.

Put your lid on, and allow to sit at room temperature for 2-4 days (longer if it's cooler, shorter if it's warmer) while the bacteria do their thing. Then transfer to the fridge to keep for 6 months without opening, but use within a few weeks of opening.  

Pan fried trout, homemade sauerkraut, cooked spinach with a garlic butter sauce 

How does this work? How will I know it won't make me sick?  

By salting the cabbage well and cutting off air, we create an environment where bad bacteria can't survive.  By culturing the good bacteria (leaving the cabbage out at room temperature) they crowd out the bad bacteria.  We only have to be concerned about it going bad once we open the jar and introduce air, and bad bacteria again.  

In Sally Fallon's Book, Nourishing Traditions, she tells us to not worry - if a batch does happen to go bad, the smell will be so awful nothing could persuade us to eat it.

What does it taste like?

It's a little tart, a little salty, a little like cabbage - not vinegar-like store-bought pasteurized sauerkraut.

Book Recommendation: Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Katz is an awesome book about home fermentation. His enthusiasm for fermented foods will make you want to start culturing everything in sight!

More fermenting:

A variety of lactofermented veggies and more information about the health benefits.

Make yogurt at home- a great way to save money!

Cara lives in Montana with her husband and two young children (3 and 1).  She enjoys playing with her kids, cooking, crafts, and reading. She writes at Health, Home and Happiness.