Bowing Back Out

Well, soon it will be NaBloPoMo time again. I had big plans for participating again this year, but... I just don't want to. I am again feeling like I don't want to do this whole blogging thing at all. The hard part about this is there are some of you whose blogs I really enjoy, and I wish we could all just meet for coffee or something, and I feel like I'm not doing my part... but, y'know? Keeping this blog up is sort of a strain for me. So I guess I'm just going back to being a lurker and occasional commenter.

A Toothpaste Revelation

The latest item we've switched from store-bought to homemade is our toothpaste. I mixed up a simplified version of this recipe... I just used the 2 tablespoons of coconut oil and 3 tablespoons of baking soda.

MY GUMS AREN'T BLEEDING ANYMORE.

This is huge. I thought I was just going to have a pink mouth whenever I brushed (and pink dots all over me whenever I went to the dentist) for life. After using this toothpaste for all of one day, my gums had stopped bleeding. I then went back to store-bought toothpaste for a couple of days, just to use it up, and my gums bled the very first time I brushed with it! I went back to the homemade paste again, and the bleeding stopped.

Yes, this toothpaste tastes like salt. It also does NOT leave those pasty white marks all over my sink.

I imagine this is related: My husband's dentist told him to swish with salt water twice a day for gum health and extra cleanliness. The dentist said to use one teaspoon of salt in one cup of warm water. I did notice less bleeding when I was doing that, but nothing so dramatic as the results from this toothpaste.

Another Quick Random Post

Yes, I'm still here!

Hallsten just had a growth spurt; now several of his pants are too short. He'll just have to wear highwaters for awhile, as our budget is reeling from the new car and John not getting work bonuses because sales are down because of the economy blah blah blah...

In more interesting news, here's a clip about knitting the teeny tiny sweaters for Coraline.

Now That We Own a Car

It's a Run-By Fruiting!

(Don't worry about that title. It's Monty Python.)

Whew! We're in the midst of stuff! John has a new job; same company, even, just a different location. So we had to buy a car (it was a condition of employment) and now we (and our budget) are rocking a Volvo wagon, and the car seat is out of the closet. John's in the middle of a week-and-a-half "vacation" between the two jobs, and we've been trying to pack in as many projects and outings as we can on our small budget. There's other stuff, and there's other things, and that's why I haven't sat down to write a proper post in awhile.

I would like to throw out there that, with the natural disaster things happening in Indonesia and other places, I think this is a good time to donate to international aid organizations. I chose Medical Teams International because I've heard good things about them both in the press and from nurses I know. My neighbor even knows some medical folks who've gone on trips with them. Medical Teams International and Mercy Corps were specifically mentioned in a local newspaper article as working in Indonesia in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Changing the Way We Think

I like this article from We've Got Time to Help, and I love their project, and and it's been awhile since I've posted anything... so, there's that. :)

No, wait, here's a little more: fellow Portlanders Seth and Michelle are heading up this project to connect folks who need help with folks who can help them. They have a wide variety of projects going on, and really, I'd love to see more projects like this getting started in other cities. This should go viral, or something.

Tomato Sauce

I recently had a week or so where it felt like nothing went right. I just couldn't keep up with my usual chores and routines, and problematic things kept happening, and new things I tried consistently flopped. (Trivia: It turns out I hate making jam. Who knew?) Yeah. Daily life was just getting to be a challenge.

Well, I know from experience that inertia is strong. Meaning... I don't want to just sit down and stop trying things, because I will fall back into a rut that leads neatly into depression. So I decided to make tomato sauce.

Lovely, easy, consistently successful, delicious tomato sauce.

It's like this:

Cut up a red bell pepper, two or three tomatoes and an onion into big pieces like so:
(I'm making a double batch in this pic.)


Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 cup stock or broth (I use veggie, but chicken or beef is fine,) and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add some garlic and herbs if you like.

Stir that up and cook it 'till the veggies are soft. Use your stick blender to puree it right in the pot. If you don't have a stick blender, pour everything into a regular blender, puree it, pour it back into the pot, and make a note to buy a stick blender. :)

Then, fuss with the heat until your sauce is sending up a bubble or two at a time but isn't spitting. Leave the lid off and simmer it all day long. The flavors will concentrate, the sauce will thicken, and you will have a healthy, delicious sauce for pasta, pizza, cheese sandwiches, adding to stew... it's so good.

I froze this batch in an ice cube tray, then put the cubes in a jar to keep in the freezer.

I thought a picture of finished tomato sauce might be boring, so here are pictures showing the tiny pepper I found inside one of the red bells:



This is based on the smooth tomato sauce recipe in Nourishing Traditions.