My Week on Wednesday… January 1

Happy New Year, and welcome My Week on Wednesday… where I take a few minutes to share some of the things I did, and learned throughout the week. And some of the blogs I visited and articles I read.

(Yes, I know it’s Friday. Kids… holidays… a foot of snow… These are my excuses.)

At our house we had a very blessed Yule, and three wonderful Christmas celebrations with different parts of our family. I hope your holidays were wonderful as well!

Santa leaves fruit in the kids’ stockings!

After all my Cookie Adventures, we decided to leave fudge out for Santa this year.

I found two really excellent fudge recipes… both of which were easy, delicious, and used only Real Foods.

Okay, I’ll admit it… I have been known to fail Never Fail Fudge–you know, the one that comes on the marshmallow fluff package. Not that I wanted to make that recipe, but still… any announcement that I am about to make fudge tends to worry my husband.

The first recipe I tried was Slow Cooker Fudge… and it was as easy, idiot-proof, and delicious. Plus it uses coconut milk and raw honey for sweetener… so maybe you wouldn’t want to call it “nutritious,” but you don’t need to label it “bad for you” either! Plus you make it in the crock pot… which saves the standing around trying to decide if the fudge is boiling or not…

Did I mention that I have failed Never Fail Fudge? The first time was in eighth grade… but it wasn’t the last time…

I also tried the Chocolate Peppermint Coconut Fudge recipe from Our Nourishing Roots… which was also fabulous! (I haven’t tried the Coconut Citrus Fudge yet, but I promised my mom I’d make it for her soon!) This one was just as easy, and might actually deserve the label “nutritious” because it’s full of coconut oil, cocoa (I actually used cacao), and coconut! The only downside to this one is that you have to keep it in the fridge or it gets all mushy… On the other hand, maybe that’s an upside since it saves you from nibbling a bit every time you walk through the dining room.

(Not that I would do that… Okay. I do do that.)

Also on my list of things to try are these Flourless Peppermint Brownies from Savory Lotus.

I am pleased to report that my Irish Eggnog for Christmas (in addition to being a favorite Christmas treat at my house) was one of the featured posts at Natural Family Friday!

I also managed, despite having a lot of help from an entire household home from school and work, to get this week’s blog article up!

My Apple Prune Preserves is part of a new category on my blog called Preserving Summer.

I spent all summer, and into the fall, canning and preserving “summer”.  I took notes, I took pictures, but I never actually had time to sit down and write the articles. Well now I do! So look for more “preserving summer” posts in the future!

Speaking of preserving summer… do you want to learn how to lacto-ferment garlic? Of course you do–it’s yummy! Check out Delicious Obsession’s recipe!

I’ve actually been a bit obsessive about my ferments and cultures lately. I had to take a round of antibiotics just before Christmas (my cat bit me; yes I still have the cat) and I found this article very helpful with restoring my poor decimated gut bacteria!

It’s not even all a bad thing… because one thing I learned this week that I’m kind of excited about is that I like buttermilk! Every morning my grandfather used to have a glass of buttermilk… and, even though he wasn’t living on the farm then, it was probably cultured buttermilk from cows from the family farm. I have tried many times throughout my life to drink buttermilk… and every time it has been vile and I couldn’t help questioning either my mother’s story, or my grandfather’s sanity. My dairy, however, recently started carrying cultured buttermilk… and knowing that I needed to add some “culture” to my life, I bought some, determined to choke it down–and I LIKED it!

It is kind of pricey, though, so I’m going to try making my own following these directions from The Prairie Homestead! I also used some of the buttermilk to make these Soaked Pancakes from Whistle Pig Hollow. They were just like the ones my grandmother used to make! (I have no recollection of her soaking the pancake batter overnight… but I bet she did!)

Finally, are you looking to convert some of your favorite recipes into a soaked grain recipe? Natural Family Today has an article to help with that!

Have a wonderful week and I will see you next Wednesday (hopefully on Wednesday) for My Week on Wednesday!