Holistic Living

Diggin’ In

/ makingofahome / 5 Comments

This week the girls and I have been out working in the garden planting beets, carrots and lettuce.  We are trying some different heirloom varieties this year, so we are all excited to see how they work out.  We have ordered all of our seeds from The Seed Savers Exchange the past two years and have been thrilled with the results!

For beets we planted Early Blood Turnip and Detroit Dark Red

For carrots we planted Dragon (This one we have planted in the past and my girls love it because the outside of the carrot is a deep purple and the inside of the vegetable is a brilliant orange!) and St. Valery.

For lettuce this year we ordered the Seed Savers Heirloom Lettuce Collection which contains Amish Deer Tongue, Bronze Arrowhead, Crisp Mint, Forellenschuss, Red Velvet, and Susan’s Red Bib.

(A quick side note on “Gardener Number 2″…She is currently only wearing dresses because she said that jeans are not “girl clothes” 🙂  This summer should get quite interesting with all of the gardening this gal loves to do.  Love her.)

 

Organization Station

/ makingofahome / 7 Comments

When we moved into our house, the room that I missed most from our previous home was our mud room.  Our mud room had been the catch-all of our house, and without one in our current home, it seemed that our kitchen had become the place where everything was dropped:  coats, shoes, bags, papers, purses, keys, the works.

Well, after nearly four years I finally have my own make shift mud room!  Last summer my husband’s grandmother gave me an antique mirror and I had been desperately trying to find a home for it with no luck whatsoever.  Finally I came up with the idea to create a “mud room wall” in our garage, featuring the mirror as the focal point.  After a bit of carpentry work by my hubby, a little paint, and a quick visit to an antique mall, the project is complete.

I kept some existing hooks because they were so well fastened to the wall studs, but I needed some extra places to hang all of those coats that seem to accumulate so I used some antique pull-knobs, cabinet latches, a door knob and even a door stop to create a few more “hooks.”

I call my new creation my “Organization Station” 🙂

Fuasa—Italian Easter Bread

/ makingofahome / 19 Comments

We have many food traditions in our house, but the one that reigns supreme is my Nona’s fuasa recipe.  My nona, Madeline Zanocco (the woman in the photograph on the left), emigrated to the United States from Vicenza, Italy.  She had five children, the forth of which was my grandfather.  My grandpa, Angelo Zanocco, decided to take on the role of rebel child in the family because he was only one of Madeline’s five children to marry a non-Italian.  This is why I always chuckle when I think about the fact that it was my German grandmother, Adeline (in the photograph below), who taught me to bake her fuasa recipe, and thus carry on the family tradition of making Italian Easter Bread every spring 🙂

I have been making (and eating) fuasa on Easter Sunday from as far back as I can remember.  The sweet crunchy goodness of the bread is synonymous in my mind with the holiday celebration.  Now that both Nona and my grandmother Addie have both passed on, I have made a point of continuing with the fuasa tradition each Easter.  I have made fuasa with my girls from the first year of their lives (My oldest can be seen in the picture below from 2007, making fuasa for the first time when she was only six months old.), because I find so much value in passing on our family food culture to the next generation.

And when I say I will make fuasa each year without fail, I always think of the year when I decided to triple the fuasa recipe (that means I was making 15 loaves of bread), and my oven broke.  I frantically called around to our friends in the area, but all were already away for the holiday weekend.  So, I packed up by 15 loaves of dough, my hubby, and my 18 month old and drove to Illinois State University where my sister was attending college.  From there I went to her friend’s apartment to bake.  Yes, I was baking 15 loaves of bread, with a toddler, in a college kid’s apartment…while he was having a party!  I’m not sure I was their favorite person that night 🙂  But the fuasa got done none the less.

It has been so fun to see the girls take on more of an active role in the baking of the fuasa each year.  It is truly my hope that they continue this tradition and pass it on to their little ones some day.

Nona’s Fuasa Recipe

2 yeast packets

2 cups milk (scalded then cooled)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons salt

8 egg yolks (save the whites to use on the tops of the loaves before baking)

1 1/2 sticks butter (melted)

9 cups flour

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon almond extract

Stir yeast into warm milk.  Set aside.  Beat egg yolks, add sugar, salt and flavoring.  Then add the melted butter.  Next add the flour and milk mixture, alternating between each.  Beat until smooth.  Place on floured board and knead.  Place in a large bowl, butter the top of the dough, cover with a damp towel and let rise until double in size.  Knead dough again.  Divide into five pieces, roll out and knot.  Place in greased pans, butter the top of the dough, cover with a damp towel and let rise until double in size.

Beat the egg whites.  Baste the top of each loaf with egg whites, then sprinkle with sugar.  Bake each loaf for 20 minutes at 350 degrees and 15 minutes at 250 degrees.  Enjoy!

I wish each of you a very blessed Easter weekend!

Spring has Sprung

/ makingofahome / 1 Comment

Spring has definitely sprung in our neck of the woods these past few days.  Although we did have those crazy few days a couple of weeks back when it felt more like summer, the last few days have been very “springy” in feel for sure.  Cool in the morning, then toasty in the afternoon, and back to cool again in the evenings.  Love it.  And our flowers and perennial fruits and veggies have been loving it as well.

Foraging

/ makingofahome / 1 Comment

Have you ever peered into your cupboard to find nothing inspiring to bring to the dinner table?  Can you imagine being in such a situation and then realizing you are able to literally go into your very own backyard to find it brimming with life, just waiting to be consumed on your dinner plate?  I’m not talking about your annual vegetable garden here.  I am referring to those plants that are often viewed by mainstream culture as being a nuisance, something that needs to be sprayed, pulled, or plundered so that our lawns and backyards can look “good.”

I have recently been reading up a bit on backyard foraging.  I gained inspiration from this blog, The Rhythm of Family, and Many Paths, One Journey to Health for simple recipes that incorporate those bits of vegetation that almost anyone can find in their very own backyards!

**A note:  You must be sure that you are only foraging in an area that you know for sure has not been sprayed with weed killers, insecticides, etc.  We stick to our own yard only.  I don’t even let the girls pick those edibles near the road way, just in case some “yucky stuff” made its way to the plants via a passerby.

Pastaless Lasagna

/ makingofahome / 4 Comments

Now, I know you are all reading this and wondering, “What the heck is this crazy lady talking about?  Lasagna without pasta.  Madness!”  And honestly, the Italian in me is saying the very same thing.

Recently, my husband has been trying to significantly reduce the amount of refined carbohydrates that he consumes.  And truthfully, this new eating style has placed quite the strain on my dinner-making abilities.  Yesterday though, I was struck with a moment of genius!  I got an idea to use butternut squash, sliced very thin, as the “pasta” element in normal lasagna recipe.  I tested the dish out last night and I unequivocally say that the venture was a success!

Here is the recipe:

2 quarts tomato sauce (I used sauce I had frozen back in August when our tomato plants were the size of the ones in The Godfather!)

1 large butternut squash

1 yellow onion (chopped)

2 cloves garlic (chopped)

1 lb. grass-fed ground beef

1 lb fresh, local spinach (chopped)

1 lb mushrooms (chopped)

1 lb ricotta cheese (I used the fresh ricotta we made last week.)

1 lb mozzarella (Again, I used the cheese we made last week.)

I first took a 13 X 9 baking dish, drizzled it with olive oil and then coated the bottom of the pan with a layer of sauce.

Then I shaved the top portion of the butternut squash very thinly like this:

I then layered the pan with the sliced butternut squash.  Then I added a layer of ricotta.  Then sauce again, followed by another layer of squash.

Then I cooked up the onion, garlic, spinach and mushrooms in a bit of olive oil.  Once the meat was cooked through and the veggies tender and wilted, I added that to the lasagna pan, followed by more sauce and another layer of squash.

Then I finished it off with a final layer of sauce and topped it with sliced, fresh mozzarella.

I then covered the pan with a metal cookie sheet (you could use foil as well).  I baked it at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.  Then I took the cook sheet off and baked it for another 15 minutes, or until the cheese begins to brown.

Enjoy!

I would also like to apologize for my absence yesterday.  We have a ton of projects going in our house right now, many of which I will be sharing with all of you over the course of the next few days 🙂

I hope all of you have a marvelous week!

Surroundings

/ makingofahome / 2 Comments

Each morning, I try to rise before my girls so I can enjoy some quality quiet time before the craziness of the day begins.  It is during these darkened, wee hours of the morning that I try to make an effort to take in the surroundings of my home:  The little left overs from the day before and the projects set up for the moments to come.

I hope each of you has a few spare seconds to take in your surroundings…before the craziness begins 🙂

It’s In My Blood

/ makingofahome / 6 Comments

My great-grandfather, Hans Jacob Untersee, arrived in The United States from Bern, Switzerland on June 8, 1922.  Upon his arrival, he made his way to northern Illinois  to find work so that he could send for his wife and children, who still remained in Switzerland.  It was in northern Illinois that he established himself as a successful cheese maker, and was able to save enough money so that his family could join him in America.

Ever since my youth, I have been drawn to all aspects of my heritage.  I love connecting to my ancestors, whether it is admiring old photographs, thinking of my grandfather while in my garden, or cooking family heirloom recipes.

About three years ago I stumbled upon Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and I must admit that that read greatly impacted my life.  Her discussion of food as a connection to our ancestry drew me in like I never thought possible.  It was while reading this book that I began to think of my Great Grandpa Untersee.  He was a cheese maker by trade, why couldn’t I become a hobby cheese maker?

I used Barbra Kingsolver’s references in the back of her piece, and found Ricki Carroll’s website.  I never looked back.

Yesterday we decided it had been far too long since we had made cheese, so we ventured to our local, natural grocer where we are able to purchase milk from a local source.  We then busted out our New English Cheesemaking Supply Company cheese kit and got to work.

Here we are making a batch of ricotta cheese:

And here we are making mozzarella:

Hopefully Great Grandpa Untersee was looking down on us yesterday and smiling.