Kombucha

There are many reasons to drink Kombucha, first there’s all the benefits of detoxification, such as healthy livers and cancer prevention. One of kombucha’s greatest health benefits is its ability to detox the body. It is rich in many of the enzymes and bacterial acids your body produces and/or uses to detox your system, thus reducing your pancreatic load and easing the burden on your liver. Kombucha is very high in Glucaric acid, and recent studies have shown that glucaric acid helps prevent cancer.  Even Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the recently deceased Russian author and nobel-prize winner, in his autobiography, claimed that kombucha tea cured his stomach cancer during his internment in soviet labor camps. (And because of this testimony, President Reagan used Kombucha to halt the spread of his cancer in 1987. You’ll note he didn’t die until 2004, and that was from old age, NOT cancer.)

Next, there’s all the benefits of the glucosamines it contains, such as preventing or treating all forms of arthritis. Glucosamines increase synovial hyaluronic acid production. Hyaluronic acid functions physiologically to aid preservation of cartilage structure and prevent arthritic pain, with relief comparable to NSAIDs and advantage over glucocorticoids. Hyaluronic acid enables connective tissue to bind moisture thousands of times its weight and maintains tissue structure, moisture, lubrication and flexibility and lessens free radical damage, while associated collagen retards and reduces wrinkles.

Then, there’s all the benefits of the fact that it’s a probiotic beverage, such as improved digestion, fighting candida (harmful yeast) overgrowth, and the general health and well-being associated with this. As such, it’s noted for reducing or eliminating the symptoms of fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety, etc.

Plus, it’s extraordinarily anti-oxidant rich, and you all know the benefits of anti-oxidants for boosting your immune system and energy levels.

Here are some articles about the health benefits:

http://www.kombu.de/val-gwf.htm
http://www.gaiaresearch.co.za/kombucha.html
http://www.acupuncture.com/herbs/kombucha1.htm
http://www.gokombucha.com/health_benefits.html

Once you have decided to try this beverage or if you already have a taste for  it, next you need to learn how to make it.  It is incredibly easy to make and making it will save you a lot of money.

First you need to get the starting material.  The easiest way to do this is to purchase a kit for around $13 and gallon glass jar and you are ready to get started.  There are many places on-line to purchase a kit I like Oregon Kombucha.

The kit contains black tea, sugar and your scoby.

Next you add one gallon of boiling water to the glass or ceramic container (never use a metal container).  Add the tea bag from your starter kit or 12 regular size tea bags.  Any tea will do, I prefer black.  For optimum brewing time, remove black tea bags in 4 minutes and green or white tea bags in 2 minutes.  Stir in 1 cup sugar per gallon of water.

Let the tea cool to room temperature.  Add the entire contents of the live culture packet or scoby.  This culture packet contains a piece of life kombucha culture and some kombucha tea.  The culture is a Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast: a scoby.  The scoby will grow in the sweet tea you have prepared and change in into Kombucha.  During the process healthy vitamins and digestion-aiding natural acids are formed.  This process creates natural carbonation.

Cover the container with cheese cloth and rubber bands.  This keeps dirt and bugs out, but lets the Kombucha breath.

You can than cover your kombucha with a cloth napkin or dish towel to keep out some light and place it in a warm place, dark place.   In the summer anywhere will work in the winter find a warm spot in your house - near a heater vent, or a pilot light, on top of the water heater,in an insulated cooler with a jar of warm water.  Kombucha is best brewed at 80 degrees.  In cooler weather it will take much longer for the fermentation to be complete.  Kombucha can be ready in 7 days or take as much as 30 days.  Taste your Kombucha on day 7.  Everyday it will get fizzeir and more tart when it seems perfect for you, move it to the refrigerator and the brewing will stop.  Kombucha will last for moths in the refrigerator.  You can filter your Kombucha through cheese cloth to remove some of the sediment.

The scoby is a live organism and it will grow in your container while Kombucha brews. At first, it looks like a transparent film and then grows into a solid mass the size and shape of the container. It may be white, dark, smooth or bumpy.   It may grow in layers that can be separated.  You can use the scoby to grow an unlimited number of batches of Kombucha.  to keep it alive simply keep it covered in the Kobucha, at room temperature, with a cloth over the container, until you are ready to make another batch.  Give it a little fresh Kombucha or sweetened tea occasionally.  Each time you make more Kombucha you will grow another scoby, so feel free to pass it on to a friend so they can begin making their own Kombucha.  Share the pleasure of Kombucha.

Colossal Egg

I went to gather the eggs late this morning, and I found this gigantic thing awaiting me.

This egg is easily twice as big as any egg we have gotten from our chickens.  I placed it in a jumbo size egg carton and couldn't close the container.  A whopper  of an egg - I think the culprit is Yoko our Rhode Island Red.  She lays the biggest eggs on a regular basis.

Our second surprise was when we cooked the egg.  It appears the reason for this huge size is a double yolk.  Essentially we got two eggs in one.  :)  Thanks Yoko.

Killer Brownies

I brought these brownies to a potluck with friends and they disappeared in a moment.  These brownies are chocolaty, gooey, chewy yuminess.    They are easy to make and work perfectly for a quick desert for many.

Here is the recipe:

1 cup buttter

2 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degree oven.  Grease a 9 by 11 pan.

Melt the butter in sauce pan, add sugar, stir to combine.  Return to heat briefly until hot, but not bubbly.  It'll become shiny looking as you stir it.

Stir in cocoa, salt, baking powder and vanilla.  Add the eggs, beating until smooth, than add flour and chips, beating until combined.  Spoon batter into prepared pan.. Bake for 28 to 30 minutes.  

I think nuts would be a good addition as well.

Enjoy!

Mother's Day

I admit I am a hypocrite.  I never put a whole lot of energy into celebrating mothers, even my own (sorry mom), before I became a mother.  Being a mother is the most incredible, fantastic, wonderful blessing to be bestowed upon me.  I am blessed with two healthy, smart, vibrant children.

That being said - motherhood is HARD and I want to be celebrated!  Not only is motherhood hard, but it is a job that is seldom recognized.  I want this day, I want a day that gets me off the hook.   I don't want things, I want treatment.  As well I know that my children are still very young and a husband can only do so much, so I come up with a few things that seem reasonable.  I also know my husband, along with many others doesn't understand hints or innuendos.  So I made this mother's day easy on him and myself - I made a clear list.  This is EXACTLY what I want on that, my special day.

Here is my list:

1. Sleep in.  I want to sleep in so badly I get a little teary eyed thinking about it.
2. Go out to breakfast/brunch.  I don't want to get up right after having slept in to a hungry bunch that I need to feed, to prepare a meal.  I want to wake up and go have someone else feed my hungry brood and me :)
3. Go to a movie by myself.  Now some may think this is crazy, but one of my favorite things to do is go to a movie by myself.  I so rarely get time alone, where I don't have to be ready at any moment to answer the cry of a child in need, or help someone back to sleep or make a meal or clean, etc.  So these matinees by myself are so wonderful!  This is my greatest gift.   Mmmmm - I can't wait.

When I read it over my list seems doable, attainable.  I look forward to it almost as much as I will look forward to getting home to my perfect family as soon as my movie is over.

Happy mother's day to all you mom's out there!  Make it easy this year for you and your husband make a list and make it attainable  :).  Enjoy yourself on your special day.

Broken Arm

My beautiful, rambunctious, affectionate, extraordinarily physical son broke his arm.  It happened at his pre-school.   Luckily it happened within 10 minutes of us getting there and I was still there.  Imogen was sitting on one of the big rocking horses, having a great time and Gage climbed into the tree house to begin his day at  school.  The tree house that he has been in at least a hundred times.   The tree house that hundreds of children have been in day after day.  It is in a fig tree, a sprawling bush of a fig tree.  It's limbs surrounding the house and create what seems to be a very supportive and safe environment.  Well, safe for a tree house.  But this day, this silly Friday morning like so many Friday mornings before it, this day was different.

This morning Gage, picked up one of the large sticks that lived in the tree house, held it up in the air to began his fight with some imaginary bad guy and stepped back.  He stepped back, as the bad guy must have begun his onslaught, stepped back into empty space.  And he fell and fell and fell.  He fell about 6 feet to the dirt.  One of those falls that happen in slow motion as well as so fast your stomach churns.  I know this because we were about 15 feet away.  I saw and felt the fall.  The sound of his landing was a sickening splat.  I knew from the landing, from the sound more than the sight that it was not a good landing.  Something was wrong.

I sprinted to his still body on the ground as he erupted into screams.  "Don't move!", I instructed.  Let's figure out what is wrong before you get up.  Trying to  remember to breath, to stay calm.  Of course he immediately jumped up and kept up his screaming.  Screams of pain.  I saw a bump on his arm and I knew, I just knew his arm was broken.

After some help from his teacher and her fireman husband we headed off to the emergency room, followed by  Kate another mom who had just dropped off her daughter at the school, was childless and wiling to help with Imogen.  (Thank you Kate!!!)  Again, I remembered to breath, to stay calm as I drove to the emergency room while my beloved first born sobbed in the back seat.  His cries were so sad, filled with so much pain, all he wanted was for me to help him.  "Help me, Mama!" he pleaded "Help me, Mama! - please help me".  The worst thing a mother can hear, help me, when there is absolutely nothing I can do.  Nothing.  I am so sorry honey, so sorry.

We finally got to the emergency and got the relief that I could not give, morphine.  Aw morphine, my son changed from a screaming mess of pain, into a personable, friendly patient.  "thank you for helping me", he says to the nurse post-morphine.  The x-ray showed a buckle brake.  A very common brake for these young people, whose bones are so flexible.  Instead of braking or fracturing, his bones compressed.  The x-ray shows a bump on either side of the bone where the break took place.  A buckle brake.

Here is my doped up son just after getting home

For about two days he needed to have ibuprofen somewhat regularly, but after that no pain.  He was soon climbing, running and falling on his arm with no apparent repercussions.  Soon the biggest irritant was the sling he had to wear with his splint.  The splint they originally put on to give his arm room for swelling.  He shed the sling whenever he could, even to read to his sister.

10 days later he got his cast.  A glow-in-the-dark cast he is incredibly proud of.  So in love with the cast that he won't let anyone sign it.  :)

Poor Yoko

I came home today from a fun filled play date with our friends Kirsten, Avi and Eli to find a very annoyed husband.  "One of the chickens got into the neighbor's yard and their dog got it, the red one." he says to me with more than a tad bit of anger.

"Dead?" I ask.

"No, OK it is back in the chicken yard"

I go out to check on the invalid and find her strutting around with her sisters, missing most of her tail feathers.  Bare skin flashing.

I haven't gotten the rest of the story, seemed the wrong time to ask.  But I plan on taking a gift of a wine and a dozen eggs to my neighbor tomorrow for her trouble.  :)

Hopefully the silly chicken will now realize how lucky they are, how good their lives are and how dangerous the neighbors dog is!

Charlotte

We have a new member to our animal family.  She won't be with us long as she has a very short life span, but we are enjoying her efforts so far.  She lives just outside our front door and keeps the bug population down.

I know there are many out there that are squeamish about spiders, but our little Charlotte is wonderful.  I asked Gage what he wanted to name her and he came up with Spidey, as he is currently in a Spiderman faze. I overrode him.  Charlotte seems so much more fitting.  Especially after the egg sack arrived.

We are waiting for the eggs to hatch, however sad we will be when Charlotte's time comes to an end.  Making babies and eating bugs is her purpose and she seems to be getting tired.  So we'll see how much longer she will guard our entry way and keep us safe.

Long live Charlotte.