Thursday, January 28, 2010

Kitchen Tip

Do you make your own pie crusts, biscuits, and anything else that requires you to "cut" butter into your flour/salt/baking powder mixture?

I used to have a nifty little tool that supposedly helped cut the butter into the dry ingredients, but it never worked well for me. Nor did using two criss-crossing knives. I got to where I would cut the cold butter into very small cubes, and I would then use my hands to rub the butter into the flour. This is messy and time-consuming, and the butter gets too soft, which makes the dough not bake up as fluffy.

I learned a new trick this week. It may be old hat to you, but somebody else might like it as much as I did. Simply grate the cold butter into your dry ingredients with a cheese grater. It's that simple. Makes your baked goods turn out perfectly fluffy.

My favorite biscuit recipe:

2 cups flour - I use 100% whole wheat pastry flour, and they don't come out dry at all
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
yogurt, buttermilk, cream, or milk

Mix together dry ingredients. Grate butter into mixture, and stir with wooden spoon until evenly distributed. Add enough yogurt (or other liquid) to make a smooth dough, and knead by hand about 15 times. Roll dough to 1/2 inch thickness, cut out biscuits, and bake at 425 degrees for about 8-10 minutes. Enjoy!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Fun book for the car

Our family likes to take lots of trips. Driving for extended periods of time with five kids in the back can be challenging sometimes. As a general rule, I usually do not allow the kids to pack any toys, stuffed animals, books, etc. These things would make it into the van, but never back out, and I used to end up spending an hour each week (with their help) emptying out the black hole. Sometimes, on long drives, I make an exception for library books, since these are new and entertaining to the older kids. I also keep a couple of toys in the van for the girls, but these rightfully belong in the van and not the house, and they have a storage pocket of their own. But by and large, the policy is not to take anything.

We also do not have a DVD player in the van, and the kids do not own any handheld video game devices. I don't think these things are bad (although I do think that 99% of DVDs and many video games are), but I think kids should learn to entertain themselves, and to play and interact with one another. Boys also tend to have an addictive character about these things, and while they occasionally do watch a documentary or play a game on the home computer, these are rare exceptions, and by no means the rule. If I allowed this in the car on long drives, they would always be asking for them.

Instead, we talk, sing, I read our current read-aloud to them, or they entertain themselves. I get such a laugh out of the stories they make up and tell each other.

Recently, I found a really neat book at a used store, and have enjoyed having it not just in the car, but anywhere there is waiting involved, such as a restaurant, or in line somewhere.



Fun on the Run requires mostly no props, and is full of ideas that really are fun and entertaining. We went to Tucson yesterday where we toured a mine and later visited a wildlife museum. The drive was about two hours each way, and we had a blast with ideas from this book.

Enjoy your kids while you can, they grow so fast!

Monday, January 11, 2010

The Grand Canyon is NOT Disneyland


Arizona is known as the "Grand Canyon State". Chances are, if you live in the United States, you will at some point go to see the Grand Canyon. Chances are, it will be with your family. Chances are, that because you think this is a National Park, and because there are paved roads and traffic signs, friendly park rangers, and thousands of other people, this is a safe, regulated place.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Fact is, people die at the Grand Canyon every single year, from what can almost always be called unnecessary and reckless.

There are a few common denominators. The people who have fatal accidents are usually young, single, and of the male gender. Big shock there. Another common factor is that most deaths are from water - either a lack thereof (dehydration) or too much (flash floods, or drowning in the Colorado River).

The Canyon is very different from what people imagine it to be. You would think that you are up against giant walls of rocks and boulders, something like Yosemite (but in red rather than gray), but really, you are on flat, plain land with little vegetation until all of a sudden you come to this gigantic, deep chasm in the earth. The Canyon is hundreds of miles long, and several miles wide at the widest point, much bigger than most would suspect.

Canyon hiking is unique in that the way down starts out so easy, and you may find yourself far into the canyon before you realize that you did not bring enough water (if I remember right, they recommend 4 gallons of water per person per day) or reserve enough energy for the strenuous hike back up. You may be lured into thinking that water is just around the corner, i.e. the bottom where the Colorado River flows, but the walls are steep drops and while the river may only be hundreds of feet away (as the crow flies), it may take you 10 miles to get there. Temperatures inside the canyon can be 30+ degrees hotter than the temperature at the rim, as hot as 140 degrees at the height of summer.

This is actually much steeper than it looks in the picture

Personally, I would not recommend hiking into the canyon with children at all. We have gone to the Grand Canyon with our family several times, and enjoyed ourselves without setting foot inside the canyon. The trails down are very narrow, just a few feet across in the widest places, not somewhere I would like to go with rambunctious little boys. There are almost no hand rails anywhere, so you could slip one time and fall to your death hundreds of feet below.

Instead, we take the shuttle loop along the rim, which takes about an hour and has many wonderful vistas. There are also hiking trails along the top rim that are beautiful. You will see many people who leave these trails and step up to the edge of the canyon, or let their feet dangle into it as they sit on a precipice. Considering that the canyon is made out of porous limestone that can easily break away, this is not a smart idea at all. People really do die from accidentally tripping and going over the edge, or from posing for the camera while walking backwards and taking one step too many. It is sad and sobering.

See the paved path on the bottom left? See the limestone canyon rim beyond it? See the crazy people walking up all the way to the edge?


In fact, a couple of park rangers who have participated in the search and recovery of too many of these fatalities, have written an entire book on the subject. Before I read it, I shared the same carefree recklessness that most casual tourists show, but the book really opened my eyes.


In 2009 alone, a total of 12 tourists died at the Grand Canyon. 10 of these were accidents, one a suicide, and one a heart attack (which may have been due to heat or exertion). One of these was a well experienced, athletic young man, who died of tragic circumstances. The Arizona Republic reported on this last week, but do not read the story if you think it may depress and haunt you, it is very sad indeed.

By all means, do go and see this natural wonder, but please stay safe. You are no match for the Grand Canyon.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Natural Foods Co-op

About six months ago, our family switched to buying 100% organic foods. I buy our produce through a local co-op, our range-fed meat from a rancher in a small town nearby, and our milk from a small organic dairy on the outskirts of the city. I make most of our dairy products myself from this pasture-fed, raw milk. I also make all of our bread products and baked goods myself from organic whole grains that I mill freshly.

For all other things, I used to shop at stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, which can be pricey. Several months ago, I discovered Azure Standard, a natural foods co-op based in Oregon. They deliver to almost half of the states.


Their prices on many items, especially if purchased in bulk, are much less than what I would pay at health food stores in town, and many times even cheaper than conventional foods at a regular grocery store. You can either tag your order onto an already existing drop point, or set up your own drop point along one of their routes as long as the combined total from all people who order from your drop point is at least $550.

At first, my orders were delivered to a drop point nearby, but I have since started my own with about 8 other members so far. This makes it even easier for me because it is a lot less work than going grocery shopping all the time with five kids in tow. There are no financial benefits or commissions for being a drop point manager, but the added convenience is more than enough.

If you have been thinking about switching to organic foods and you live in the delivery area, you may wish to check out their website. (You will need to get a customer number in order to view their prices.)