How to Make Water Kefir, Choc Chip Oat Pecan Cookies, Freezing Rain, Ice and Snow's Coming...

How to Make Water Kefir-
I had heard about Kefir years ago, but I only found out about Water Kefir a month or so ago. A friend introduced me to it, and she thought it might help me. I'll try any kind of holistic stuff, so I tried this! This supposedly has all/most of the probiotics you could ever want, and you can make it cheap.
I watched my pal make it at her house, she gave me a batch, then I made some at home. It's easy to make, and it's kind of like sourdough- you just keep some of it alive for the next round. Basically you can make it indefinitely, unless you kill it. It has helped my acid reflux. I'm hoping over time it will help y allergies and asthma. When I don't take it things spike back up. I drink about 4 oz. on an empty stomach first things in the morning. You can add flavorings to the batch that's ready to drink. You can buy the grains online if needed. My friend got hers from another mutual friend, who bought hers from Cultures for Health I'm going to make fermented pickles this summer with some of their cultures. It's pretty simple, but there are a couple of strict things-

1- Treat this like canning- everything has to be STERILE. Jars, strainer, spoons, etc.
2- Disinfect your counters tops when done, as this is a type of BACTERIA.
3- Best to use organic ingredients.
4- You can leave it at room temp for up to 72 hours, and then you need to make more and separate it. It eats up all the sugar. If you don't want to make it that often, putting it in the fridge will slow it down.

I make mine about every 5 days, using a qt. canning jar. I use Sucanet and raw sugar, spring water, unbleached coffee filters. That's it. It's really cheap to make.

Do your own research before you start this. There are many health benefits, and NO dairy, but it may not be for everyone. Some use small amounts for the dogs and cats. I give Anya about 1/8 teas. every few days.

So here's how I do it- sterilize everything, lay all on top of a clean towel. The "recipe" for the sugar water may vary depending on personal preference (flavor) and the grains you buy. My version tastes like diluted brown sugar water. The kefir has no flavor of it's own. Many people add a citrus peel, grated fresh ginger, or whatever to the ready-to-drink batch.

My two sugars

For 1 qt. I use-
3 TBL. Turbinado sugar, and 1 TBL. Sucanet sugar,  1 qt. spring water. NEVER use tap, or home filtered. You need the minerals. If you have our own, clean well, or spring water, all the better. Mix all this well in a sterilized jar, and leave about 1" head space. Shake well til dissolved.

Sugars and water ready to shake

Strain the existing Kefir water into a new sterilized jar, using a fine mesh strainer, or coffee filter, set aside.

strained

ready to drink

Kefir grains, sorry no macro lense

Cover new batch to drink with a coffee filter, so it can breathe, flavor if you wish. Set aside.

Now take your kefir grains, about 1 TBL and add to your new sugar water. Do NOT shake.

Kefir grains floating

Kefir grains at the bottom

covered and ready to sit for 72 hours

I run the excess grains down the sink. Cover with filter and set aside for up to 72 hours. Then repeat. I keep my two jars in separate spots in the kitchen. Enjoy!

Choc Oat Chip Cookies-
While the cookies baked I made kefir. I like these the best as they have oatmeal and some good fiber, etc. I used 1/2 w.w. pastry flour. They're awesome!!! Choc Oat Chip Cookies recipe. I added 1 cups pecans.

Freezing Rain, Ice,  and Snow's Coming...
Just when you think the weather can't get worse... we're going from WEEKS of a foggy, bad air inversion, highs in the 20's to....FREEZING RAIN, THEN SNOW. OMG, I'm so hoping for a ...

Snow Day!!!

Girl's Day Out, More Fog- Will It Ever End? How To Avoid Foot Surgery!

Little Blackie scanning the backyard

Girl's Day Out-
With the cold weather sometimes I don't let the girls out for some free ranging. With the snow melted, I left them out today! They had a blast digging thru the leaves and looking for yummies-

Ellie walking along the raised beds, asleep for the winter

Two heads are better than one!

My daughter's metal yard sculpture she made us in college, all recycled metals welded

What is that?

Little Blackie posing

More Fog- Will It Ever End?

Two weeks of this and I'm ready to move. Staying in the 20's, and the one local weather man says this is the worst inversion he's ever seen. He's lived here for 20+ years! Can someone just turn on a giant fan and blow this crap out??? Fog, cold, damp. No blue sky. This is my life. Snow already or something! I'm going to make some hot cider.

This is my gray life, sigh, mid afternoon... truly "dark days"...

Last summer, Anya hanging out on my wheelie cart

How To Avoid Foot Surgery!
Last spring when I was getting ready to set up my summer surgery on my left foot, I was told I also have 3 round calcifications in my right Achilles tendon. It showed up on an Xray. After limping off my left foot so long, it probably stressed it, or at least didn't help. After having my much need 1 1/2" bone spur removed from my left tendon, I thought about getting it fixed. My foot doctor (of course) pushed another surgery for the right foot. Another summer would be shot, more expense and pain. And I would have to wait for summer.

 I limped into the new school year last August. I got my lower back working again, after listing to the side  for over 1 year. I asked my PT person, listed as one of the top ten in the country (somewhere) what she thought could be done. She started poking around, and I about came off the table. She did some deep pressure on it, as I could tolerate. After three more sessions she could put quite a bit of pressure on it, with much less pain. This winter I had sciatica, did an aggressive approach and went straight to a new person, who's a Chiropractor AND and excellent acupuncturist. My insurance would cover the acupuncture through her. After getting my back situation situated (only 3 sessions!) I asked her to work on both my feet. The left foot was healed but had a little residual swelling, the right foot swelling and some pain. She did 3 sessions, and a red lamp that's good for inflammation. Result? Yesterday, for the first time in 1 1/2 years I was able to wear my Danskos to work with no OTC anti-inflamms! Victory! I have very little pain, and good range of motion. ALWAYS check out alternatives, and ask around. I never thought deep tissue work would loosen things up, and the acupuncture helped too. Maybe over time we can get them to dissolve. If not at least I can live with them. Now I have floaters in both eyes. More about that another time!

*** Yes, I fixed my watermark :)

Fog and Inversion, The Kestrel's Back, Dark Days Meal, Blogger Glitch- Faded A's?

Looking down into Boise, from Bogus Basin ski area

Fog and Inversion-

It's been a busy week, sorry for not posting more. I hate this time of year. We get an inversion over the valley, with bad air and fog. It's sunny up in the foothills, oh joy! A couple of weeks ago we had a 44 car pileup due to unusually dense, rolling fog on the freeway Multiple Crashes Police indicated citations would be given for texting, tailgating, and speeding in bad conditions. Really? You have to wonder.... There's a man who survived the crash in his Subaru Outback, amazing. Yes, that's a car next to the log truck-

Not much car left, but he was in there, laid across the front seat, WOW!

The freeway was closed for hours

The Kestrel's Back-

I went out this morning (off work today) to give the girls a treat, and found this-

Looks like he got a ground dove early this morning. Ew...

Dark Days Meal-

Yesterday I took a bag of home-grown, frozen plum tomatoes out of the freezer. I made a nice batch of hearty pasta sauce with mushrooms and sausage. I used homegrown herbs too. Along with the local artisan bread (found at the Grocery Outlet), we had a feast! I used this pasta, great for a heavier sauce-

Sorry, no pics of the sauce

Blogger Glitch- Faded A's?

I have no idea why all the A's in the text seem to be faded! Working on it... If you know, please let me know!

UPDATE- I fixed the faded A's, for some reason it was because it was BOLD. Go figure!