Simple Lives Thursday #53

Thank you for coming by and linking up your post for Simple Lives Thursday blog hop!


Save The Date: SLT Twitter Chat!

There's a lot of great things in plan for our first twitter chat to celebrate one year of Simple Lives Thurday! Please save the date: 


Tuesday, July 26th at 2:30-3:30 Pacific Time / 4:30-5:30 Central Time


The hashtag for the event will be #simplelives. We've got some awesome giveaways lined up for the chat: a poster from Annette, homemade granola from Alicia, "The Herbal Kitchen" book by Kami McBride, a Punk Domestics t-shirt and the grand prize is a 6-month membership to the classes at GNOWGFLINS eCourse.


Make sure you follow us on Twitter to stay in the loop!


Alicia - @culinarybliss
Annette - @SustainableEat
Diana - @dianabauman
Mare - @marebeard
Wardeh - @WardenHarmon


After our Twitter chat, the hosts of SLT will be committed to one giveaway a month to our featured posts bloggers! So link up and share your inspirations with us for another year to come!

Top Five Featured Posts From Last Week's Submissions!

For our featured posts, please grab the badge above and display it on your site! Link it to one of the host blogs' posts for that specific week that you were featured. Thank you everybody for the awesome submissions... the posts that caught our attentions last week are:

1. Cooking With Heritage Breed Chickens by Homemade Alaska. This is a great guide on raising heritage breed chickens for meat as people did in days past.

2. Lavender Vinegar by The Purposed Heart. At least one of us, and probably more, can't wait to try this as a rinse for laundry AND hair. So simple and easy!

3. Canning CSA & Zucchini Relish by Little Blog on the Prairie. A great recipe and fantastic concept!

4. Homemade Bag Balm by Prairie Sunrise. Marg decided to make her own bag balm to save money and avoid petroleum based commercial bag balms. She says it was easy and cheap and we believe it!

5. Varicose Veins -- What To Do Naturally by Jo's Health Corner. Jo covers a broad range of natural treatments for mild to severe varicose veins.

Simple Lives Thursday Blog Hop
Woohoo! Congrats to those five! So, today is Simple Lives Thursday... A fun blog hop dedicated to anything and everything about simple living. Please share with us how are you living your life simply... we all want to know!


There is so much to learn about living simply these days... making lacto-ferments, raising animals, living off-grid, cooking with real food, gardening, raising family, homeschooling, homemade body products, natural cleaners, frugal ways, creating art with recycled materials, homesteading, homeopathy, growing herbs for health and much more!


Simply hosted by:

• Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS
• Diana @ A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
• Annette @ Sustainable Eats
• Alicia @ Culinary Bliss
• And me... the Noisy Mama  :o)

Be Simple and Share Your Post!

Make your "Simple Lives Thursday" post on your blog and come back here. Below you will find the Linky box where you can post your simple ideas, tips & recipes. Please add a link to this post at the end of your blog post entry and share with your readers that it is part of this week's Simple Lives Thursday. Feel free to download the badge above and upload it to your post!

Also, when you link here... your post will appear on all five blogs!

For those who don't have blogs... Please share your ideas, tips and recipes about simple living below in my noisy comments area. Don't get left out!

Everybody, take the time to visit the linked blogs. Sharing your favorites on Facebook or Tweet would be awesome! Spread the wealth of simple living!

Please Read & Follow the Rules

Since Simple Lives Thursday is growing, as a group, the five hosts have decided to set some ground rules in order to keep the integrity of the blog hop.

1. If linking real, traditional and simple recipes, please make sure all ingredients used are whole. Such as whole grains, vegetables, legumes, meats, even sugar. In order to keep the integrity of "nourishing" food, we will delete any recipes that utilize processed, boxed foods. We are definitely not going to be ingredient policeman, however, please note that this is a hop hosted by advocates of the real, local and sustainable food movements.

2. Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs. This is a common blog hop courtesy. This link helps build the Simple Lives Thursday community by sending your readers to all of the other participants posts. We all end up sharing and learning from each other.

Hugs!

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Sourdough Journal #11: Buttery Sourdough Biscuits

Sweet, buttery biscuits... oh so good! I've already made this three times now and we never have leftovers. Simply delicious slathered with butter, but take it a step further and add some honey or jam makes it a delicious dessert... well, at least for me it does! LOL!


I can't believe how much I've been using my Honduran sourdough buddy and having good successes! The only failure I've had so far is the pasta. I didn't follow the recipe very well and ended up with soggy noodles. Will try again later!


I've been trying different ways to care for my sourdough buddy and find that I enjoy just having him out on my kitchen table. I use him almost every other day, so I figured it was easier to have him out instead of in the fridge. I feed him only once a day and he is thriving! I'm sure it would be even better if I fed him twice, even three times, a day! I figure if he's doing well with only one feeding a day... why give him more? Everybody's sourdough is different and mine seems to be pretty laid back  ;o)

I would love to try making cobbler and drop biscuits with this recipe! What else could you do with biscuit dough? I've already made Chile Beef Pot Pie and used the dough as the crust... it was fantastic, my hubby devoured his portion and couldn't stop moaning how good it was!


Anyway, with these biscuits... I pretty much followed the recipe from GNOWFGLINS Sourdough eCourse, but I used 8 Tbsp of butter instead of 6. Mostly because it is easier to put a whole stick of butter in then trying to measure it out. The butter I get doesn't have those lines marked on the paper to let you cut out a tablespoon at a time. So, I figure... what's the harm to adding more butter?! Plus, I used whole wheat instead of pastry wheat and they came out light with a dense flavor. Delicious!

Buttery Sourdough Biscuits

8 Tbsp cold butter
2 1/2 cups whole wheat, plus more if needed
1/2 cup sourdough starter, fed within the previous 12 hours
3/4 - 1 cup whole milk
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda


Cut fat into the flour. Mix in the starter and whole milk until just wet enough to hold together. Cover and let it sour for 5 to 8 hours. If the temperature in your kitchen is very warm, put the dough in the fridge.


Preheat over to 450 F. Mix in sea salt, baking powder and baking soda. Don't overmix. Flour the counter or cutting board. Roll the dough out into a 1/2" rectangle. Cut into squares or circles (using a glass). Put on baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.


When done, take them out and let them cool a bit. Serve slathered with butter and jam!

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Winner of Lacto-Fermeneted eCourse!

Thank you, Wardeh, for offering the 6 month membership to your awesome eCourse... I know this person will be VERY happy.  Also, thank you everybody for spreading the news about the giveaway!


Now, the winner of this fantastic eCourse is...................

Corinne (tballfam@-----.com)!!

Congratulations Corinne! Hope you will enjoy yourself and have great results!

For those who didn't win... don't walk away discouraged! You can still sign up for the Lacto-Fermentation eCourse for only $8 a month (includes other classes too!). If you haven't... please read my suggestions (last paragraph) on how you can easily and quickly save up money! Plus, you can sign up any time... the classes are open year round.

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Simple Lives Thursday #52

Thank you for coming by and linking up your post for Simple Lives Thursday blog hop!


Save The Date: SLT Twitter Chat!

There's a lot of great things in plan for our first twitter chat to celebrate one year of Simple Lives Thurday! Please save the date:  Tuesday, July 26th at 2:30-3:30 Pacific Time / 4:30-5:30 Central Time


The hashtag for the event will be #simplelives


For those participating in the chat, we already have some fun giveaways lined up and collaborators to make this event fun for everyone! In the meantime, follow us on Twitter to stay in the loop!


Alicia - @culinarybliss
Annette - @SustainableEat
Diana - @dianabauman
Mare - @marebeard
Wardeh - @WardenHarmon


After our Twitter chat, the hosts of SLT will be committed to one giveaway a month to our featured posts bloggers! So link up and share your inspirations with us for another year to come!

Top Five Featured Posts From Last Week's Submissions!

For our featured posts, please grab the badge above and display it on your site! Link it to one of the host blogs' posts for that specific week that you were featured. Thank you everybody for the awesome submissions... the posts that caught our attentions last week are:

1. Cleaning Fresh Grain at Home by Joy Filled Living.
This low-tech method of threshing means anyone with a patch of garden can grow some grains at home. It may not supply all your grain needs but it’s a wonderful experiment in self-sufficiency that gives you some appreciation for the effort that our forefathers put into their harvest.

2. Canning Outside by Home Shalom.
Canning in the heat of summer can make your kitchen the last place you want to be, so why not move outdoors?!

3. About Cherries, In Which Ill Gross You Out by Improves with Age.
How frugal do you think you are? We love this gal's honesty and humor over saving her freshly picked cherries.

4. Grape leaf wrapped camembert by cookblog.
This author knows what he's doing when it comes to to the "basics" of aging, drying, fermenting and curing.

5. Winter Garden Planning Series by Lizard's Hollow.
A great place to start to learn about extending your harvests into Winter.

Simple Lives Thursday Blog Hop
Woohoo! Congrats to those five! So, today is Simple Lives Thursday... A fun blog hop dedicated to anything and everything about simple living. Please share with us how are you living your life simply... we all want to know!


There is so much to learn about living simply these days... making lacto-ferments, raising animals, living off-grid, cooking with real food, gardening, raising family, homeschooling, homemade body products, natural cleaners, frugal ways, creating art with recycled materials, homesteading, homeopathy, growing herbs for health and much more!


Simply hosted by:

• Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS
• Diana @ A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
• Annette @ Sustainable Eats
• Alicia @ Culinary Bliss
• And me... the Noisy Mama  :o)

Be Simple and Share Your Post!

Make your "Simple Lives Thursday" post on your blog and come back here. Below you will find the Linky box where you can post your simple ideas, tips & recipes. Please add a link to this post at the end of your blog post entry and share with your readers that it is part of this week's Simple Lives Thursday. Feel free to download the badge above and upload it to your post!

Also, when you link here... your post will appear on all five blogs!

For those who don't have blogs... Please share your ideas, tips and recipes about simple living below in my noisy comments area. Don't get left out!

Everybody, take the time to visit the linked blogs. Sharing your favorites on Facebook or Tweet would be awesome! Spread the wealth of simple living!

Please Read & Follow the Rules

Since Simple Lives Thursday is growing, as a group, the five hosts have decided to set some ground rules in order to keep the integrity of the blog hop.

1. If linking real, traditional and simple recipes, please make sure all ingredients used are whole. Such as whole grains, vegetables, legumes, meats, even sugar. In order to keep the integrity of "nourishing" food, we will delete any recipes that utilize processed, boxed foods. We are definitely not going to be ingredient policeman, however, please note that this is a hop hosted by advocates of the real, local and sustainable food movements.

2. Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs. This is a common blog hop courtesy. This link helps build the Simple Lives Thursday community by sending your readers to all of the other participants posts. We all end up sharing and learning from each other.

Hugs!

Read More

FREE GNOWFGLINS Webinar "5 Myths of Fermenting Food" & GIVEAWAY!

Whenever I mention fermented foods, I often hear from people who are not familiar with lacto-fermentation... "You are eating rotten food?!"


Um, no... I'm eating living food with higher amounts of vitamins/minerals and shock-full of probiotics! Yeah, fermenting your food actually makes them more superior!


Last week I shared about the new Lacto-Fermentation eCourse that has started up over at GNOWFGLINS and I am really excited about it!


Why?


Because I LOVE lacto-fermenting! That was the first "mountain" I tackled when I first start my journey into traditional, wholesome food. To this day, I am still making and eating my favorite style of kraut: Cortido.  But I recently have started to explore with different herbs and veggies for my kraut and I hope to share them with you someday  :o)


Now, About the Free Webinar...
My good friend, Wardeh, from GNOWFGLINS is hosting her 2nd webinar and will be setting the record straight about our beloved lacto-fermented foods. 


For too long, lacto-ferments have not been truly appreciated for their abilities to increase nutritional value and preserve food naturally. There are 5 myths that are the most common, but I can't share them with you here!


If you want to know, you need sign up to join Wardeh and many others to find out what they are!

What You Will Learn

• The versatile flavors of fermented foods
• What equipment is really required to successfully ferment foods
• How to distinguish health fermented foods from not-so-healthy ones
• How not all pickles are made equal
• What skills you need to ferment foods yourself (don't worry, its not much!)
• And most likely more!

When & Where

Monday, July 25th @ 11am PDT

Once you've register you will receive details via email.

What is a Webinar?

I know this is a new word here... even I didn't know till Wardeh told me! LOL! It is "web" + "seminar" = "webinar". It is basically a place on the web where you gather with others to discuss a certain subject. The focus will be myth-busting some common misconceptions about fermented foods.

Join Today!

This webinar is time-sentitive because it is first-come, first-served. Not all who register will attend and space is limited. Register now, not tomorrow!

Now, the Giveaway...

I am thrilled to share that Wardeh is generously offering one of my readers a 6 month basic membership of her class! This is a $48.00 value!

The Basic Membership offers:

• Access to the Lacto-Fermentation eCourse as well as the Fundamentals eCourse, Cultured Dairy and Basic Cheese eCourse and Sourdough eCourse (which I am going through right now!)
• Lesson materials for each class that you can easily download (text & audio)
• Videos for those who learn better by watching how it is done

How to Enter...
First, leave a comment here on this post. That's one mandatory entry... please read on for more entries to increase your chance of winning!


Extra Entries...
You must do the main entry above first before doing the extra entries. Remember to leave a separate comment for each one! Thanks and have fun!

1. Subscribe to Just Making Noise receive posts via email (1 entry)
2. Follow my blog (1 entry)
3. "Like" GNOWFGLINS on Facebook and share on your wall (1 entry)
4. "Like" Just Making Noise on Facebook and share on your wall (1 entry)
5. Follow me on Twitter and tweet about the giveaway! (1 entry)
6. Email your friends about the giveaway and leave a comment for each friend you emailed! (1 entry for EACH friend you email!)

Remember, if you've already done most of the above... you automatically get those entries. Please post a separate comment for EACH entry. You can have a total of 7 entries or more!


The Rules...
Every comment must have an email address. You can comment with your blog as long as I can contact you through there! The giveaway ends July 18th and is open to anybody in the world! The winner will be chosen via random.org

Thanks for participating and spreading the word about the giveaway. Hugs!

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Sourdough Journal #10: Strawberry Coconut Pecan Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

Oooh la la la! These cinnamon rolls were so good, especially with the strawberries. Who doesn't love a good, thick, hot, somewhat gooey cinnamon roll?! I just love how I can now take it a several steps further and make it healthy and nutritious with my sourdough starter!


When I first started GNOWFGLINS Sourdough eCourse, I was super excited to see a recipe for cinnamon rolls. I don't make cinnamon rolls often and when I do... it is a real treat! I like to make it different each time, but I know I will be making the strawberry with coconut and pecan again soon!

So, I made two different batches of cinnamon rolls. One with strawberries, coconut & pecans and the other one with blackberries, ground ginger & coconut. The latter batch was good, but not as good as the first batch! I think it was the ginger... it was a tad bit too much. I don't think I will do that again.

I also needed to let it bake longer because the rolls were so big, but I like it big! I made a quick frosting by mixing together whole milk, powdered raw sugar (just blend it in the blender till fine and powdery) and vanilla extract. I start with a cup of milk and add in about 1/2 cup powdered sugar... mix and add more sugar until it is thick, but loose enough to dribble it on the rolls. SO yummy!

Strawberry Coconut Pecan Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

I can't share the recipe because it is not my own. If you would like this fantastic recipe... you can either join the Sourdough eCourse or purchase the Sourdough A to Z eBook (which is the whole eCourse in one book for only $20 and it includes lifetime updates!).


I will share with you that I used coconut palm sugar as the sweetener and butter as the fat in the dough. For the filling I used LOTS of butter, rapadura, cinnamon, coconut flakes, chopped pecans and strawberries.


For the second batch I used coconut palm sugar, ground ginger and butter in the dough. For the filling I used butter, rapadura, ground ginger, coconut flakes and blackberries. Next time I will leave out the ginger and add in chopped almonds.

Mmmmm! Just smell them... gotta make more this week! LOL!!

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Sourdough Journal #9: Sourdough English Muffins

Okay, call me crazy if you want... it is 12:00 am and while I am typing up this post... I am in the middle of making a quadruple batch of these amazing Sourdough English Muffins! They are SO SO good! Thankfully, I don't do late night baking often. Only when I need to make a large batch of something or couldn't find the time to make it before dinner. So, I have to wait till the kiddos get into bed, organize the house a bit and then get started.


I think it is worth it because we will have fresh english muffins for breakfast tomorrow... well, actually, later this morning  :oP  LOL!!

Anyway, I remember loving english muffins growing up. There was just something about the texture and taste that is so much better than a piece of toast for breakfast  :o)  My hubby especially loves english muffins. I remember him talking about how much he loved making egg sandwiches, tuna melts and slathering jam/butter on thick slices of english muffins. So, of course, when I saw that GNOWFGLINS Sourdough eCourse had a recipe for sourdough english muffins... I had to try it out!

I made these guys last week and can't believe how easssy they were to make. I was a little apprehensive when I first started out, but was so excited at the end how awesome they came out. When my hubby ate 3 english muffins the next day, gave me 2 thumbs up and my girls begged for more... I knew I had a winner!

Whole Wheat Sourdough English Muffins

I pretty much followed this recipe for the english muffins and only had to add a little more flour after kneading in the the honey, sea salt and baking soda. I found it very sticky... even after I used olive oil to prevent it from sticking all over my table and hands. I almost gave up and was ready to toss it because it was so sticky. Thankfully, I was able to save it by add more flour and kept on kneading it until it was smooth. I was too stubborn to give up that easy! LOL! Because I added more flour, I was worry that it was going to come out heavy and thick, but it was fluffy and thick in a light way... perfect! Plus, the flavor was simply superb!


This time around, I made sure to add more flour to get the dough pretty stiff. I found that it relaxed alot during the fermenting time. It wasn't as sticky as the first time around, but I knead the dough in flour instead of olive oil. I like it better that way  :o)

Don't waste time thinking if you should do this or not... go and get it done! It is so easy and SO yummy! My family and I are in love with these delicious guys  :o)

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