English Muffin Bread

How's that for some nooks and crannies? Those grocery store muffins got nothin' on this.


The players:

4 tsp. yeast
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
5 cups flour
1 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk

A warning: I'm a rebel. We aren't going to proof the yeast or add in a cup of flour, then a cup of liquid, then another cup of flour, and so on. Don't tell Grandma...she'd be horrified.

Sift the flour, either with a sifter or a strainer.


I've said this before, but it's worth saying again: this is why you want to sift. Biting into a lump of flour is not good eats.


Dump in all the rest of the dry ingredients. Add in the milk and water, and mix everything thoroughly.


The batter will be heavy and too sticky to knead. That's OK! Spray your loaf pans with nonstick spray and put the batter in. If you like the top of the loaf smooth, get your fingers wet and smooth out the batter.


Next, the dough has to rise for about an hour.


I set it outside with this shelf organizer over the top. A damp tea towel covers the whole thing to provide humidity and keep the bugs off.



After an hour, you can see why the shelf organizer comes in handy! If the towel had been right on top of the pans, the dough would have stuck to it and made a huge mess.


Next, they go into a 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. When they're dark brown, take them out and put on a wire rack to cool.


Slice, toast, and enjoy!

They're supposed to be GREEN beans

Wow.


Not a good year for green beans around these parts.




Wait, there's a survivor!


Filet of bean, anyone?

Why Didn't I Think of That? Wednesday

Each Wednesday I'll share a tip to make your week go more smoothly or just make you say "aha!"

Do you have some old, gloppy fingernail polish that should have never touched your fingers in the first place? Check the dark recesses of your bathroom cabinets for those obnoxious 80s neon pinks and 90s blue polishes...you know they're in there.

Now that you've found them, don't throw them out! Paint the handles of your gardening tools with an assortment of these unique colors so you can spot the tools when you leave them in the dirt.

Seed Garlic Time

Admiring our 2007 harvest.

I’ve been crazy about garlic since I first started cooking. When I was 12, my parents gave me The Frugal Gourmetcookbook (remember him?) with the following inscription: “You enjoy cooking and we hope that this book will add to that enjoyment. Just go easy with the garlic!”

Frugal cooking and garlic…some things never change.

It's time to order your seed garlic for fall planting. Depending on your zone, you will plant between September and November—I plant right around Halloween.

Here are some garlic tips from Growing Great Garlic,a superb reference book (and some commentary from me).

There are two main kinds of garlic—hardneck and softneck. Softnecks are the easiest to braid, and they keep longer. They’re my favorite.

Elephant garlic is not garlic at all, but is a kind of leek. It has a very mild garlic flavor, and I avoid it for just that reason.

Each garlic clove that you plant turns into an entire head of garlic.

Garlic came to America from many countries, including Germany, Poland, Russia, Greece, France, and Spain.

It doesn’t need perfect soil to grow, but a shovel or two of compost sure helps.

Don’t plant it in containers, just in the ground. My container garlic was so tiny, it was barely worth harvesting.

Hanging to cure in the garage.

I ordered my seed garlic from Filaree Farm this week. These four varieties will be coming my way in October:

German Brown: Our stock from old time gardeners of German descent in Idaho. Strong hot spicy flavor. Cloves colors exhibit a distinctive brown hue.

Inchelium Red: Discovered on the Colville Indian Reservation by Larry Geno; original source unknown. Mild but lingering flavor with a tingle.

Chesnok Red: Our top cooking garlic that holds shape and retains flavor after it is cooked. From Shvelisi, Georgia. One of our best baking garlics.

Silver White: Originally a California strain from Harmony Farm Supply. This large bulbed garlic has proven productive in both hot interior and humid maritime climates.

This is my favorite, but it was sold out. I’m on the waiting list!
Transylvanian: Originating in the heart of the Transylvanian mountains, these bulbs produce plump, firm cloves. Slight rosy blush on bulb wrappers.

The entire crop.
If there is a vampire invasion, we'll be safe here. Come on over!

Why Didn't I Think of That? Wednesday

Each Wednesday I'll share a tip to make your week go more smoothly or just make you say "aha!"

It's back to school time already, and kids with birthdays in the fall are already deciding what they want to bring to the class to celebrate.

Parents know that most schools have food restrictions, due to allergies and other health concerns. But that doesn't need to spoil the birthday celebration!

Ask the teacher if you can donate a book to the classroom instead. The birthday kid can read the book during story time and you can even include an inscription. No allergies, sticky fingers, or messes!

Whoops!

Here are a few of the things I've learned from this summer's garden.

Sometimes the aphids win, no matter how many ladybugs you sic on them.


Parsnip seeds don't last for more than 1 year. Germination rate? 0.00001.


Plant extra green beans so seeing this doesn't drive you nuts.


If one of your cucumbers turns out to be yet another zucchini, roll with it.


Do you have any insights from your garden? Share with us in the comments!

Make Money Online with Psychology Studies

It doesn’t actually work like this. Besides, you’d have to plug your brain into the computer, and that would be a real bother (and way too much like The Matrix).

There are many university psychology departments who need help from the public with their studies. It’s nothing weird or invasive, and most don’t even ask for your name or any personal information.

I’ve been doing psychology studies for Yale’s eLab for several months, and it’s been easy, interesting, and profitable.

You can see what the study is about before participating, as well as the possible payment (they pay in Amazon gift cards) and your odds of winning.

They ask a few simple questions, and you submit your answers anonymously. After completing the study, sometimes the researchers divulge what the study was about. It’s always interesting to see what they’re really looking for. (click image to magnify)


At the beginning of each month, they pay you for the previous month. If you’re lucky, you might just get one of these emails!


Harvard Psychology Studies is another option, but most of their studies take place on campus. If you live in the area, it could be quite a moneymaker. Some of their studies pay $50!

I just signed up for the ones below, so I can’t report on them yet. I'll let you know in a few months. The links are active if you want to give them a try.

Vanderbilt eLab

UC Riverside eLab

University of Maryland eLab

Thanks to Nicole’s Nickels for the tip!

Don't forget MySurvey to earn extra money doing surveys.

Why Didn't I Think of That? Wednesday

Each Wednesday I'll share a tip to make your week go more smoothly or just make you say "aha!"

Take a chance and plant some green beans this month. A late crop stands a good chance of escaping the heat-loving Mexican bean beetle, and if an early frost wipes them out you can always turn them under as fertilizer.

Common Table Part II: How To Treat Your Dirt

In July, I participated in a series of workshops and seminars called Common Table. Here are some of the things I learned.

This might be news to you: I am not a gardener. Neither are you! According to organic gardening expert Steven Zien, we are garden managers--managing the organisms in the soil food web.

“Wait a minute!” you exclaim. “Dirt is dead. There’s nothing to manage there!”


Checking the compost before spreading it on the garden.

On the contrary. A wide variety of organisms make up the soil food web, from bacteria, fungi, and protozoa to nematodes, arthropods, earthworms, and insects.

As these organisms eat, grow, and move through the soil, they enrich it and make your plants happy.

I figured being a good manager would mean a deep rototilling and maybe a bit of fertilizer. Wrong! According to Zien, both of these are bad for the soil.

Rototilling breaks up the ground and kills the mycorrihizal fungi, which deliver nutrients to the plants’ roots. Fertilizer contains a lot of salt, which kills the organisms—and most of it washes away with watering or rain anyway.

That about wiped out my arsenal, but thankfully he had an answer for us. I’m going to try it this fall/winter and let you know how it works.

Put compost or worm castings directly on top of the soil that needs more love. Let the winter rains soak all the good nutrients in. The earthworms will squirm up and bring the yummy stuff down into the soil.


The compost on the garden. Note how much darker the compost is.

Brown Thumb Papa was thrilled when I told him we didn’t need to rototill any more! Of course, now I want him to build me a worm bin…but that’s a story for another day.

Repurposing: Not A Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, there was a blue couch.


I am a couch…and I live in a messy house
(300,000 bonus points if you can name that band).

As is so often the case with couches, this one was filled with red and blue pillows. The family was happy, and all was well.

Then one day, the Brown Thumbs received matching, fancy, grown-up sofas from family who no longer needed them. It was time for the blue couch to be donated.

But alas, what to do with all the red and blue pillows? They just didn’t fit in the world of Matching Furniture That Belongs Together.

Then, Brown Thumb Mama had an idea, and it went something like this:



In true Brothers Grimm fashion, she eviscerated the old pillows and stuffed their guts into the new pillows she made.


And the red and blue pillowcases? They’ll be made into cloth napkins, as soon as there’s time to sew again.

The End.

P.S. The name of this band is Lawsuit. Download one of their many magnificent albums and if the song “Oh Boy” doesn’t get you up and dancing, you need to be checked for a pulse.

A Bitersweet Roundup

These last few days, I’ve been glued to my computer even more than usual.

There were daily checks of Twitter and MckMama’s website to learn the status of Baby Stellan, a precious nine-month old peanut who was hospitalized with serious heart problems. I showed his picture to Jackjack, who loves to see and hear about other kids. We talked about how the doctors were helping Stellan and that he would get better soon.

On Monday, Stellan came home! He’s happily playing with his parents, brothers and sister and the family is together again.

Still excited over this great news, I checked Twitter this evening hoping for more Stellan pictures. Instead, sad news greeted me from a different part of the blogosphere.

Cycling blogger Fat Cyclist’s wife passed away tonight from breast cancer. As he said, “Her part in the battle is over, but she didn’t lose…she showed the rest of us how to fight.”

I don’t know MckMama or Fatty, although I would be honored to meet them someday. We’re wildly different people and our lives would never have overlapped…yet I feel connected to them, just a little bit.

Rhonda at Down To Earth wrote this today, and it struck my heart:
“Time is all we are given. How we use that time is our choice but maybe it is also a test of the kind of person we are.”

How will you use your time today?

Why Didn't I Think of That? Wednesday

Each Wednesday I'll share a tip to make your week go more smoothly or just make you say "aha!"

Charge your cell phone or other gadget in the car--instead of paying the electric company, you're using the energy your car is already making.

Making Laundry Detergent

It's super-easy to make laundry soap at home and you can get all the supplies at the grocery store. I got everything at Raley's and it works out to 10 cents a load. It would be even cheaper at a different store with coupons!

The players:


1 bar Fels Naptha Laundry Soap
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Borax
Essential oil (optional, not pictured)

The first step is to grate the soap. I ran it through the food processor and wound up with pieces that were too big to dissolve easily in the washer.


Then I used the chopping blade to make a finer powder.


Next, I put the soap into a bowl and add the washing soda and borax.


I added 10 drops of orange essential oil, and mixed everything up carefully. Citrus is great for cutting grease, which is why lemon and grapefruit are often used in dishwasher soap.


Finally, it goes into a recycled container for storage. Like it? I had been keeping fruit in it, but Brown Thumb Papa said that putting fruit in an ice cream container was false advertising.


Here's what the laundry soap was up against.


It only takes 2 tablespoons to wash a full load and everything came out fresh and clean. If it can beat Jackjack dirt, it can beat anything!