Free Apples!

This isn't exactly how it happened, but I have been using a lot of apples lately, and they have come off my neighbors' tree, so it made me laugh.

Our neighbors have an apple tree, but they don't want to bother with the apples, so they just let them fall.  The local wildlife really appreciates it.  They (the neighbors, not the wildlife) say we can have any apples we want.  I picked a few, but most of them are out of my reach.  Our neighbor has a handy apple picker he's let me use in the past, but this year he never got it out of the shed, and I never caught him outside or thought about it when I saw him, so I didn't have it to use.  However, in the past few weeks we've had some windy weather that knocked several of those apples onto the ground, so I went over and picked a bunch of them up while they were fairly easy to tell from the ones that had been on the ground for a while and while they were still in pretty good shape.

I've been making apple desserts and applesauce and drying lots of apples, too.  If you've got any other good ideas for apples, please let me know, because I still have quite a few apples left.

Grow Sprouts in a Glass Jar

I never had sprouts until I went to college, and then I fell in love with them.  After college and marriage, I occasionally bought alfalfa sprouts in the grocery store, but then I stopped because they were fairly expensive and not always good.  Then I mostly forgot about them until a couple years ago when a friend of mine mentioned that she had been growing her own sprouts, and she gave me some seeds so I could try it too.

Since then I've been growing my own sprouts regularly.  It's easy.  Very, very easy.

Grow Your Own Sprouts

You will need:

• A glass jar - a wide-mouth pint jar works great.
• Sprouting seeds of your choice - I use The Sprout House Organic Sprouting Seeds Salad Mix Broccoli, Clover, Radish, Alfalfa along with some lentils. 
• Cheesecloth or nylon to cover the top of the jar and a canning ring or rubber band to hold it in place.
• Water 

Directions:

1. Place about a Tablespoon of sprouting seeds in jar, and put the cheesecloth or nylon over the mouth of the jar and secure it in place.
2. Cover seeds with water and allow to soak overnight, or 8-12 hours.
3. The next morning, pour water out and add more water.  Swirl seeds around in the water a bit to rinse them and then pour the water back out, draining well so that there is no excess water.
4. Let the jar sit on your kitchen counter, rinsing and draining them a couple times a day, until they have sprouted and begin to have small leaves.  You want to be sure they don't dry out, but you don't want them sitting in water either.
5. Once the sprouts have reached the point you like them - usually in 5 days or so, rinse them one more time and place them in a container and refrigerate.  I usually put a folded paper towel in the bottom of the container to absorb any excess water.

Enjoy!  and repeat the process as needed.   Sprouts are good on sandwiches or salads or just eaten by the handful with a sprinkling of sea salt.  So good, and good for you too!

sourdough biscuits make great sandwich buns for lunch

 This isn't exactly a recipe, though in the end you get something really good to eat, so I guess it kind of is after all.  I posted this a couple years ago on my other blog, but when I went looking for it, I had a hard time finding it.  I finally did, so I'm posting here - and fixing the images that somehow disappeared.  (Note: do not link directly to pictures you've posted to Facebook.  They may work for a while, but eventually you will end up with a missing image in your post.)

Bread and Water

Thank you to everyone who filled out my form telling me what one food and one drink you would choose for the rest of your life.  First, I'll tell you what I chose - bread and water.  Sounds like prison rations or something, doesn't it?

Seriously, that is what I would choose.  Water is my beverage of choice.  I rarely choose anything else.  Sure, a nice glass of wine is good every once in a while, but I couldn't live on it.  And about that bread - it couldn't be just any bread.  It would have to be this wonderful Sourdough Bread that I've been making.  It's so good!

So, those are my choices.  What did everyone else choose?  Here are the results:

• eggs and water
• cookies and milk
• lobster and water
• pollack and homemade organic tomato juice
• avocados and rum
• lasanga and Pure Cranberry Juice
• Spaghetti and Diet Coke
• Eggs and Coffee

If you didn't fill out the form with your own choices, feel free to add yours in the comments here.

If You Could Have Only One

I saw this question on The Newlywed Game - not something I usually watch, but my husband turned it on.  They asked the husbands if their wives could have only one food and one drink for the rest of their lives, what would they choose.  It took me a little bit to figure out for myself what my choices would be - imagine trying to figure out someone else's choices!  Of course, my husband is pretty good, because once I figured it out for myself, I asked him - and he got it exactly right!  Now, if I had to guess what he'd choose, I don't think I'd do a very good job.

Anyway, the whole question got me thinking, so I thought I'd ask:

I'll leave this open for a while and then publish the results, so please play along.  It will be fun!  And I'll tell you what I would choose, too.