The Alabaster Jar - St. Agatha's Nursing Salve

Ingredients: 

lanolin butter, virgin coconut oil, 

calendula and chamomile infused olive oil blend, 

purified beeswax, lavender essential oil

The Alabaster Jar - Penitent Thieves' Oil Infusion

While not the first creation, we are officially unveiling the first product of The Alabaster Jar: Penitent Thieves' Oil Infusion.

So... I have no idea why it won't post vertically. My apologies. Oh, and... the spelling error will be corrected on future bottles.

Thieves' Oil has a long (though albeit somewhat sordid) history of protecting people from disease and disinfecting homes and bodies. Britt's infusion was created by using the traditional methods of creating this disease fighting blend while honoring the Tradition of St. Dismas, more commonly known as "The Penitent Thief".

While the actual Thieves' Oil essential oil blend is too potent for direct contact with skin or surfaces that will come in contact with food, Penitent Thieves' Oil Infusion is both mild enough to use throughout the household but strong enough to help disinfect and protect those who dwell there.

Infusing Penitent Thieves' Oil Tincture with natural disinfectant qualities of fresh herbs.

Penitent Thieves' Oil Infusion was lovingly handcrafted by Britt in our home by brewing cinnamon bark, lemon rind, fresh rosemary and whole cloves to infuse anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-microbial oils into the tincture. Eucalyptus essential oil was added after the infusion had cooled to preserve the potency of the oil.

*Same disclaimer about weird verticallity problem as above*

Penitent Thieves' Oil Infusion can be diluted 8:1 with water and used as a general purpose cleaner to clean kitchen counter tops, bathrooms, children's toys, etc. By adding 1part vinegar to the general purpose cleaner it can be used to clean mirrors and glass surfaces. A wood cleanser and polish can be made by combining 3 tablespoons Penitent Thieves' Oil Infusion with 2 cups water, 1 teaspoon castille soap and 1 teaspoon olive oil. Or 3 tablespoons of Penitent Thieves' Oil Infusion can also be added to dish washing solution or a load of laundry to further disinfect and deodorize.

While Penitent Thieves' Oil Infusion is non-toxic, since it contains such a high cinnamon and clove profile care should be taken to prevent exposure to eyes.

If you are interested in purchasing a bottle of Penitent Thieves' Oil Infusion Britt will be brewing more batches in the upcoming weeks. Bottles hold approximately 2cups of Penitent Thieves' Oil Infusion and cost $5. Refills are $3.50.

Make It: Collage Writings

A small teaser for the upcoming Aggiornamento Art and Cultural Exhibition opening tomorrow night.

Recipe: Turkey Gizzard Pot Roast

This is a gizzard.

 

"Um... I see the picture, but... seriously, what's a gizzard?" You may be asking yourself.

Its kind of like a birds set of teeth. I know, it looks nothing like that, but let me explain.

(photo credit)

A gizzard is a unique lil organ than many (all?) birds have to assist them in the digestion of their food. As you may or may not know, birds don't have teeth and as such tend to simply swallow their food whole or at best, cracked in twain. If the birds tried to digest such large pieces of hard food, such as seeds, they would at best hardly get any nutrients from it, and and worst have a killer case of constipation. So birds will go eat small bits of rock and gravel which they will temporarily store in their gizzard where this muscular organ effectively "chews" the food that the bird has already eaten by grinding it amongst the bits of gravel. Neat, eh?



Now that you've had your biology lesson for the day I'll let you in on the question of the day "So what?". So what? I got 15lbs of turkey giblets for a rockin price thats so what!

First of all, I freakin love turkey. Secondly, growing up I have fond memories of going to the store and getting a package of fried chicken gizzards. I don't know if its because I live in a less ethnically diverse part of town now, or if that was some now antiquated hold over from the Wild West but they're tough to get right now. (Incidentally, here is a great lil recipe for Fried Gizzards in Buttermilk Brine to appease either your curiosity or in my case, nostalgia.)

(photo credit)

At Sprouts turkey giblets were for sale for $1.99/lb which isn't terrible for meat in general, and certainly isn't bad when you consider the fact that the organs are nutrient dense (especially livers). However, thanks to a little perseverance, the owning of a food-safe bucket and asking nicely, we were able to get 15lbs of turkey giblets for a mere $0.99/lb. Not too shabby and its also edifying to know that we're stocked to fulfill one of our Catholic patriotic food rules, namely using "cheap cuts of meat."

Inexpensive, nutrient dense, delicous meats? Whats not to love? Well, since the gizzard is a muscular organ used to grind food it has a tendancy to be very tough, plus there is a significant amount of connective tissue. What do you do with tough meat full of connective tissue? Did anyone say potroast?!

Without further ado: Turkey Gizzard Pot Roast.

Ingredients:
2-3lbs Turkey Gizzards
2 tablespoons Coconut Oil
1 cup Poultry Stock
1 teaspoon Poultry Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1lb Sweet Potatoes
1 large Onion
4 stalks of Celery

In a 4-6 quart cast iron dutch oven brown Gizzards in hot Coconut Oil. It is important that you use a cast iron dutch oven because the lid needs to be heavy enough to create a hot, stewing atmosphere inside of the pot without letting heat and moisture escape.

Combine the 1cup Poultry Stock (since we had some left in our bucket o' giblets I just used 1cup of blood) Poultry Seasoning and Salt. Pour over Gizzards and bring to boil.

Meanwhile, peel and cube Sweet Potato, cut Onion into wedges and cut Celery at a bias.

Add half of vegetables to meat. Place in 300 degree oven for 3 hours or until tender, adding water occasionally if necessary.

At this point all of the sweet potatoes should have effectively broken down and, along with the now liquified fat and connective tissue from the gizzards, created a delicious gravy.

 

Add remaining vegetables and return to oven for 30 minutes or until sweet potatoes are fork tender. Serve on a platter and enjoy the deliciousness that ensues.

Due to the nature of organ meats, gizzards actually have a somewhat beefy taste (eg. minerally and mildly metallic) I won't pretend that this is a recipe that would fool anyone into thinking that they actually were eating beef pot roast but I do think that this is a splendid way to introduce "cheap cuts" of meat into your family's diet without having to convince anyone to eat it.

FauxBucks Pumpkin Spice Latte!

I did it!  I said I would try, and I did- all month I've been working on my "Pumpkin Spice Latte".  Something I didn't tell you was that I wanted to make it as easy as I could.  So easy that a mom with a baby on one hip and a toddler tugging at your skirts can make it.  Now, can you enjoy it?  That's up to the babies!

Speaking of which, as I was typing that first sentence, Beatrice woke up from her nap.  Intermission already?  I've only had 1 sip!

Anyway, I splurged this month on 2 Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks to remember just how delicious they are.  But they're also pumped (literally) full of sugars- mostly HFCS I'm sure, and other goos that only Mr. Starbucks himself can ponder as he wrings his evil little hands.  "Good, good," he says, "I will have them all addicted, and they'll pay me buckets of money to pump them full of corn and chemicals!"  Almost as evil as Mr. Marlboro?  Maybe!

So, I decided to make one myself.  A friend sent me a recipe that had these ingredients:
Coffee, pumpkin flesh, maca, fresh milk, banana, pumpkin spice, vanilla, stevia, and salt


Some of that sounds awesome, some of that sounds weird (banana?  in my coffee!?), and then, what the heck is Maca?


But all that is too hard for the time crunched mom like me.  Maybe mine won't taste JUST like FiveBucks, but it will be delicious and you will LOVE to wake up to this beauty.


What You Need

My egg beater looks like this- only way cooler

• Delicious home brewed coffee of your choice.  I use a french press and love it, but do what you gotta.
• Fresh Whipped Cream. (Raw if you can, non-UHP if you can't)  Seriously, like 1/3 cup cream per cup of coffee.  I whipped it by hand this morning with my brand new egg beater that I found at goodwill for a buck!   I'll take a picture next time I have 2 hands that aren't filled with delicious coffee and a baby.
• Ground Cinnamon
• Ground Cloves
• Ground Ginger
• Allspice
• About a tablespoon of raw, unfiltered honey

What You Do

• Get your extra large, empty coffee cup (you can order one from us like the one in my picture here) and put NOTHING in it (What I mean is don't pour your coffee in yet.  Leave it empty- this is actually hard for me, I am usually in such auto drive at this point in the morning!)
• In a medium sized bowl, whip your fresh cream with your own choice of whipping apparatus.  I like my new egg beater because it doesn't take forever, but it doesn't over-whip it like my stick blender does.  And it doesn't mean a lot of clean up either!
• When you've got soft peaks, add a spoonful to the bottom of your coffee cup, along with half of your spices.  You can add as much or as little as you'd like of each to your own taste.  My only suggestion is to add MORE ginger than you think you want, and only a very, very small amount of the ground cloves.  Like 1/4 teaspoon or less.  Just a sprinkle really.
• Add coffee to about 3/4 of the cup, while stirring in that whipped cream.  Then keep adding whipped cream a tablespoon at a time, stirring in between each until there are no chunky spots but only smooth creamy goodness.  Reserve about 3-4 tablespoons of Whipped Cream.
• Top your coffee with the reserved whipped cream, sprinkle some cinnamon on top, and then drizzle honey off a spoon onto the top of your coffee.  About half way through your spoon drizzling, stick the spoon down the side of your coffee and let it sit there without stirring (yet).  If you like sweeter coffee, add 2 tablespoons, or 3, I don't care!  But honey, use HONEY!  This is the key to making it deliciously sweet like Starbucks without it being uber-nasty-sticky-coat-your-mouth sweet from HFCS.  

Maybe I'll try adding a little bit of mashed pumpkin next time I have some laying around (which will be Monday because it's on my meal plan for dinner that day) but since most people don't want to get up in time to fresh roast a pumpkin for their coffee, I'm leaving it out of my recipe.  Having the spices plus honey does enough for this girl!

Oh, and vanilla?  I've tried making the coffee with vanilla this month, and it didn't seem right.  Maybe I was adding too much?  I'm not sure.  But I'd like to try adding it again, but instead of putting it in the coffee, whipping it into the cream.  This is my first time using whipped cream instead of just fresh liquid cream, so there's always room for improvement.

Have any suggestions?  Questions?  Let me know!  And be sure to enter our 1500 giveaway over here.  And if you ask real nice, maybe Joey'll upgrade you to a pumpkin mug just for fun!

linking back to

Make It! - Plaster Sculpture

It mentions in our tagline that I'm an artist, but I'm sure most of you are like, "sure buddy, so where's the art?" Well, here is a little taste:

Short of some sanding and staining this plaster sculpture is essentially finished. Technically this piece is an example to show to my students which I teach art to through a local homeschooling cooperative but I am so pleased with the final result that I may make a mold of it for a future ceramic installation.

This month rather than creating work (which I love) I think that my primary "make it" has more to do with instilling a sense of beauty and creative expression in my students. Currently I am teaching Introductory Ceramic Handbuilding to a group of 15 elementary aged students as well as Art Design and Fabrication Fundementals to a class of middle-high school students. In early November I will also be taking on a brief 3 week workshop with 20 students elementary-high school.

I love teaching.

Even more I love teaching art.

Even, even more I love teaching art to kids.

With that in mind, any locals who are interested, I offer semester long and workshop length classes to students ranging in age from 5-adult. I can either go to a location (such as the case with the current co-ops) or I also offer classes out of my studio which is equipped with a wheel, a kiln, sundry handbuilding/carving/shaping tools and of course, the requisite studio dachshund.

While the focus of my passion (and fine arts degree) is ceramics (handbuilding, throwing and moldmaking) I also offer multi-media concept design and fabrication classes from beginner-advanced.

For those that want something less intense, with less committment I also have a ton (literally) of molds which are available for "paint your own pottery" type sessions/parties.

I offer a 10% discount to fellow Catholics as well as donate an additional 10% to charity, for those that are interested.

Finally, one "make it" that Britt and I have been discussing lately is to actually put together a more legit website for me, so stay tuned for that, which will give more images and access to my work as well as provide more details regarding my workshops.

Make It!- Making booze the ol' fashioned way.

*disclaimer, or something* Every state/city/locale has different laws concerning making alcohol as a private citizen. Usually because the governmental body in question has a vested interest in tax revenue that they are afraid they'll miss out on. I'm no expert on the law, so before trying this at home, do whatever research necessary to cover your hiney.

Anyway, today I made wine, or at least began the process of its making. Join me in my messy and enlightening journey:

Step one: procure many many grapes.

As luck would have it my younger sister (whom we obtained grapes from at the beginning of our last experiment as well) has grape vines in her backyard that are very well established, as they are older than me, and possibly my mother (they're gramma's old vines). This time around we harvested something like...65lbs. I confess that I didn't weigh them, but it was two big ol' boxes that seemed heavier than a 50lb box of clay. You can use any grape really, each will give a different flavour and each will have a different sugar content which effects alcohol content etc. I really don't recommend just going to the grocery and buying bulk grapes when they go on sale though because most of the "food grapes" we eat aren't really sweet enough to make a decent wine (let alone any pesticides/waxes/irradiation they've been subject to, but thats another rant altogether). The best bet is actually growing your own grapes, which I hear are remarkably easy to do, but need a few years before you're getting dozens of pounds of fruit. I dunno though, try it, prove me wrong.

Step two: smash said grapes.

There are many ways to smash grapes. Fancy wine presses, which are like $175 bucks, so nuts to that. Juicers, which for legit ones aren't cheap either, plus you have to take all of the grapes off of the stems and seed them,  something I just couldn't justify spending my time on. Food processors which work for some fruits like crabapples (look for our upcoming guest post on DynoMom about our crabapple cider and vinegar adventures) but beat up grapes too much and thereby release too much grape skin flavor/bitterness. Or getting a big open vessel, dumping your grapes into it and squishing them under foot. With those options how could we do anything but make a big fun mess, right? Honestly, it was a ball, if you've never stomped grapes, I highly recommend it. Next year I will try my hardest to get a couple hundred pounds of grapes by asking neighbors, friends etc. and having a big grape stompin' party. (stay tuned...)

My feet.

Charlotte does her part.

Even Bea joins in!

Step three: procure yeast.

There are lots of cool yeasts, for this project I'd recommend either an ale yeast or if you want the final product to be a little more dry, a champagne yeast. Either option is like... 75cents or something, so its not exactly going to break the bank to go with a "fancy" yeast. Maybe its because I already went to the trouble of pressing the grapes by hand (well...foot) and may as well go all out with old school techniques, maybe its a profound self-sufficiency statement to fight "big yeast business", or maybe its because I love unique local phenomena (ie.making pots from local clay) whatever the case I decided to go the route of wild yeasts.Oh, also maybe because its easy too, since the yeasts already existed on the grapes when I smashed 'em. The only thing to keep in mind is that wild yeasts are unpredictable. They could be awesome, they could be terrible. Either way you'll get alcohol, but yeasts strongly affect the flavour of your wine. In our case if it turns out badly, we'll just make the wine into vinegar and call it a victory, but of course we didn't have to buy our grapes...

Step four: ferment.

How long it takes to ferment your wine has everything to do with heat and the amount of sugars in your juice. If you want to be savvy you can use a hydrometer to test the specific gravity of the juice at the outset to know precisely how much sugar there is, and subsequently how much alcohol there will be. I didn't. Instead I went with the tride and true "ferment it till it stops bubbling" approach. How alcoholic will it be? No idea, frankly I don't have any reason to care since I'm not bottling it for sale nor am I intending to use to to sterilize wounds on the battlefield. The small bit of technology that I did decide to use is a water airlock to allow the wine to offgas while neither causing the jug to explode nor allowing unwanted mold spores, bacteria or foreign yeasts (like from Britt's kombucha) in. These valves are something like 75cents maybe a couple of bucks if you get the elite version. The rubber stopper that it goes into is maybe another dollar if that much.

All good winemakers need someone to test the juice.

Step five: bottle.
We'll talk about this later after the fermentation is done, but in our case rather than transfering several gallons into individual wine bottles for aging we're just going to cap the jugs we are using for the fermentation. If I get really industrious I might tap the wine into some swing top bottles, but I'm not even going to attempt corking or any such fancy contrivances as that.

The local brewery store that we patronize sells a home wine making kit for $165.00, and juice concentrate for wine making for around $100. Admittedly if you popped for all of that you'd be able to make 6 gallons of wine, rather than my measly 2 so we'll say that an equivalent price for the wine we are making would be...*crunches some numbers* something like $83.00. Honestly, if you got the kit and the concentrate you'd likely make some very nice wine. But I'm too frugal, too well connected with resources, and too non-wine snobby to bother.

Now for our cost breakdown since my brain is still on "urban survivalist"mode from last month.

Grapes: free. (this would have been by far the largest cost, thanks gramma and lil sis.)
Smashin' apparati: free (between borrowing our friend's father's 10gal crock and 15 minutes of exercise)
Yeast: free (and with literally no effort on my part to boot)
Carboy/jug(s): free (we used re purposed cider jugs, which will work for both fermentation and storage)
Airlock: I dunno, say 75 cents (though I actually already owned this, so I didn't go out and buy it anyway)
Rubber stopper: um. a dollar (again, already owned it)

Hopefully by Christmas I'll have 2 gallons of delicious delicious wine thanks to old timey techniques, friends, family and a couple hours of work, oh and $1.75.


                                                                Linking back to

  

 Simple Lives Thursday

and

Real Food Wednesday