For all those affected by Sandy...

Our prayers are with you. Saw this rundown of possible effects for different states. Wishing you all the best.

Need a gluten free conversion chart?

Heard it from a friend, who heard it from a friend, who... (thanks REO Speedwagon, whose song is now going through my head... :)

Well, after seeing someone post about this gluten free conversion chart elsewhere, I followed the links (whether this person heard about the other site from a friend or not I couldn't say) until I found the page linked. I have not tried to print it yet as my printer seems to be having issues, but in any case, I want a copy of it. If you go to the linked page, there is a link to download the chart for free, though as I have mentioned, I might be copying it down by hand....

I have had at least one reader comment on one of my blogs that gluten free options were needed, so I hope this helps someone. And you never know when you or someone you are responsible for may need gluten-free options.

Thank you to those who left the trail of links that eventually led to the above link... and to the website, Food Allergies on a Budget, who provided it. I don't know much about cooking gluten-free, so I need to learn more. This chart will be handy to have.

Worried about shelf/storage life?

I just received a link to the website, Still Tasty, in an e-mail from a preparedness expert earlier tonight. I haven't had a lot of time to look at it yet, but it looks like there is a lot of information included, and I was impressed with the section on lemon storage, for example. And in case the lemons that you are concerned about are not of the whole variety, you will most likely be amazed at your options for information when you feed in the word "lemons" on the home page...

 Many thanks to the preparedness expert who sent this, and for those who worry about stuff like this, (like I do) enjoy!

 

Found any good garage sale deals lately?

We found this little charcoal grill by driving by a garage sale on a street not to far from ours recently. It is a little (and I stress the little) grill that would be oh-so-easy to take camping, or throw in the back of a vehicle in the case of an evacuation. I pointed it out on the lawn in question, and my husband got out and checked the price--$10. It was later in the day (if I were a serious "garage sailer" I would have been out there early in the morning or even the night before, from what I understand) so I knew I didn't have much time if I decided I wanted it. Still, I'm not much of an impulse buyer, and since I only saw this little gem by accident, I needed some time to think about it. That, and a chance to check what prices for something like this little grill would be new. Soooo....we drove off.

Eventually, I got a chance to get online and check prices. My husband said that similar grills were available new at close to $10, and once again, he was correct. Still, it's nice to support individuals if the item is in good condition (which we knew was the case, since my husband checked it out when he was checking the price) so I got in the car and headed back to the garage sale. I bought the grill for the stated price, and brought it home.

When I talked to the lady selling the grill, she told me something interesting: she had had some charcoal out for sale as well, and it was one of the first things to go of the entire sale, even though one of the bags wasn't entirely full. When I headed out to buy some charcoal so we could try the grill out, I could see why the garage sale charcoal was so popular...

One of the reasons we bought this is because we didn't have a charcoal cooker of any kind, and we like to have options when it comes to activities that require fuel. Sometimes charcoal goes on sale with a really good price reduction, so next time I hear about a sale like that, I'm going to be a lot more interested in putting some aside... :)

Changing the subject--some of our garden has prospered, but some has not. The pumpkins, as usual, look good, and the corn and beans look promising. We had a pretty good raspberry season, too, so no complaints... :)

Hope everyone is having a great summer! Hope you are having/have had success with both gardening and any "garage sailing" you care to do!

Happy Birthday, America!

What about attitude?

I'm trying (yet again!) to use my other blog address. The newest post is here. 

Hope everyone's having a great summer! (Really hopefully, since it only started a couple of days ago... :)

Got seeds?

We do! For Christmas, I received a very generous gift card from one of my friends (thanks again, A.!) to a local nursery, and the other day we went to pick out the seeds for the garden to use part of the card. Some of them looked like this:

Unfortunately, you cannot tell from the image (unless you take out a magnifying glass or something) that the upper seeds are marked "heirloom" seeds. Although we did not have a striking success with watermelon last year, our children once again wanted to make the effort with that particular crop. Not pictured are the scooped pea and corn seed that we were also able to purchase.

I will most likely have to buy onion plants this year because I guess you were supposed to start seeds indoors for onions like weeks ago if you wanted to use them this year, but I couldn't resist picking up onion packets marked heirloom when I got the chance. I always appreciate when the seeds are clearly marked non-hybrid, and I'm trying to teach my children the difference. I know they're listening because I heard one tell my husband, "Mom won't want those, she only wants non-hybrid..." No pressure. :) Unfortunately, the non-hybrid type of seeds are not always available (at least I can't always find them) so we take what we can find when necessary, even if they are hybrid. I love planting food because it perpetuates your food storage--let's hope the weather will be good enough that we get a good harvest.

If you are planting a garden, I hope it is going well. We did buy a couple of plants at the farmer's market a while back, and the pepper plant is doing well inside, while the oregano plant, sadly, did not last. I was glad that the pepper plant was inside the other day when it started to hail..you gotta love Idaho. :)