Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Food From Pern!

For the last year, Eliyah and I have been reading aloud the series "The Dragons of Pern" by Anne McCaffrey.  I've made the popular hot drink described in the first book and referred to throughout the series  as Klah  by infusing decaffeinated  tea bags with oil of cinnamon, then making the tea in a drip coffee maker..  Eliyah liked it.  I love it and may become addicted to it  Then he found a recipe on Facebook that he wanted us to try using biscuit dough stuffed with red sauce, Italian cheese and Peperoni.  We had made other meatrolls but these were the best by far.  Eliyah and Bill disappeared a whole pile of them in record time.  Recipe follows:


Dough:                                                                                   

2 cups Self-rising flour                                             
1/2 teaspoon baking soda                                          1/2 cup red sauce, any brand
3/4 cup buttermilk                                                  
1/4 cup olive oil
Preheat the oven to 425.
Mix the soda with the flour in a bowl and the butter milk with the olive oil in a cup.  Pour the liquid into the flour and stir just until it forms a ball in the bowl.  Flour a dough board or the counter and set the dough in the midst of the flour (use plenty) and gently pat out  into a circle about 10 inches across.  Fold into thirds and pat out again.  Repeat a time or two, just until the dough seems smooth.  If it begins to shrink back, stop immediately, it's getting tough.  Now roll the dough out into a big circle, 12 or 14 inches across and cut into rounds with a jar lid, about 3 inches across.  Flatten each round.   Place a slice of peperoni in the center of each, a teaspoon of red sauce, a cube of mozzarella cheese and another slice of peperoni.  Gather the edges together and pinch into a ball.  Bake at 425 degrees for about 12 minutes, or just until tanning and brown on the bottom.  Serve hot or cold.
We served a salad and hot klah with ours.  Lovely!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Making Laundry Soap!

In the past, my daughter Rose and her husband, Matt made laundry soap for me and gave it to me as a gift, in a fancy jar with a ribbon and label and scoop.  I enjoyed using it for that reason alone.  But in time I found it does a better job than detergents, smells better, and I know it is better for the septic system. 
 The people across the street seem to have had a disaster in their house involving water or worse and have gone to stay somewhere else while the Fire and Water Restoration people work daily at drying out the house.  It's been more than a week and still the house is deserted.   It's true that I don't actually know that their septic system is at fault but seeing a workman wandering around their yard looking down was maybe a clue . . .
 I have always been an advocate of septic systems because back in the 50's when the idea was new, my architect Dad touted them as a low-cost, efficient and permanent solution to household wasteHe went on to be a designer of malls, schools and nursing homes all over the Eastern half of the United States.  And back then, no one thought of pumping septic systems out.  The worst thing we put in them was a little chlorine bleach for the wash.
Now we pour noxious chemicals down our drains routinely, as well as sanitizers to kill bacteria, and bacteria is what makes a septic system work.  Not to mention ultra soft toilet paper!  I'm dedicated to keeping ours going as long as possible!
I use 1 cup borax, 1 cup washing soda and 1/3 of a bar of Fels Naptha soap, finely grated and some drops of a scented oil like lavender.  I made a big batch so now it lives in a big plastic container with a lid.  In a few days it will be time to hang the laundry outside, for the benefits of the sunlight (the best bleach you could want and a bactericide as well).  I forsee some clear-starching in my future too!