Trying to Find Time

This summer is a blur. At least three days a week I leave the house at 9am, and come back the next day at 1am. I work the lab shift for free then go straight to work in Bellevue, so my "break" between the two jobs is the 45 minute commute I make around 2:45pm. Tuckered does not begin to describe it. I'm learning new appreciation for caffeinated tea, redefining the number of showers I have time to take in a week (thank goodness I have naturally dry hair, and my lack of showers does not show in stringy, limp locks), and I've discovered that sometimes at the end of a 15hr work day I will spontaneously throw up. Frankly, I want to go back to school so I can have more free time again. Words can not describe how happy I'm going to be when I finish this degree- really hoping it will be the end of 70hr work weeks for me.

So in light of my lack of time, I hope you will accept some rather weak excuses for posts. Today's post is delicious though, so I feel like that should buy me some slack. I was gifted with rhubarb from the community garden at work, and I tried to put it to good use (I still have more if anyone wants to suggest some yummy things for me to try). I decided to make strawberry-rhubarb muffins. My search for my muffin tin resulted in the tragic discovery that my muffin pan is missing. Why God?! I feel so betrayed. I made muffin loaf instead--put the muffin batter into a cake pan, making the equivalent of 16 good sized muffins.

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins (Cake?)
1 cup wheat flour
2 cups white flour
1 tbsp and 1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1 cup diced strawberries
1 cup diced rhubarb

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix dried ingredients, then add wet one ingredient at a time. Bake approximately 30 minutes- top will turn golden brown. Enjoy :)


I cut mine in half and froze one part so I could have muffins next week. In my photo you can see that I could not wait to take a photo before trying the result- yum!

In other news...

My garden is mostly thriving (cukes are struggling, might just buy some starts :( ). Almost time to start replanting some things like swiss chard for fall harvest- insane to think about right now. I thought you might appreciate a photo of it now that summer might actually start. This is a shot of the sunniest part of my garden (taken at night, I promise it does get some sun), as you can see I've crowded it in pretty tightly. My beets, carrots, tomatoes, herbs, peas, potatoes (not in the photo), and beans seem to be thriving. I'm hoping I can get a decent harvest. Right now I'm still just eating herbs and greens from the garden- not that I'm complaining!

Other than that, I'm just trying to make certain I go ride three days a week, and get to yoga at least once. I'd like to go more. I'm so jealous of all my friends who are out of school- seems like everyone is taking up running, joining the gym, and losing all those college pounds. Twelve more months, then I'm joining their ranks. I'm not going to neglect Starla in the meantime- riding needs to be top priority (not that I'm complaining, it is the best!), so I can't choose to do more athletic ventures in my limited free time. Heck, if you just took away my lab "volunteer" work and transportation to the lab, I'd have 18 more hours to work out!

I'm experimenting with making my own essential oils. Not super fancy ones (I'm not dropping a few hundred on a distiller), but I want to use my garden herbs to see if I can't make homemade liniment for sore muscles. I'd like to use it on Starla after we ride, but I'd rather not pay $30 to have it made and shipped to my place when I own or can make all the ingredients myself. Since I will probably be trying this on my own sore muscles I will post a recipe later on. Right now I'm drying out the mint and other herbs I will be using. I'm also going to dry some lemon balm to make tea for myself while I'm at everything. Yum.

Well, I better wrap this up- need to be at work by 7:30am tomorrow! Looking forward to this week so much, because I have mostly AM shifts at Bellevue means I will only work 5hrs in the lab, meaning only one day that goes from leaving the house at 9am to returning at 1am. Woot! VERY pleased. I am hoping to clean, get to yoga, and see pony. Plus getting together with my mom and other family on Tues for fondue at the Melting Pot :)

Until we meet again, happy travels!

Green cleaning

I had a whole day on Sunday stuck in the education center, with many books at my disposal. I found some great simple cleaning supply recipes I wanted to share. I think people don't realize what sort of nasty chemicals are in many cleaning supplies, and why we still use them. A lot of cleaning supplies, such as bleach, were grandfathered in before safety testing was the norm. Now they are on the GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe) list, but that doesn't mean they don't have any potential to cause reactions, it just means no one has reported one major consistent problem they can pinpoint back. Also, chemicals go down the drain into our water, so please remember that less is more when it comes to clean up supplies.

From Green Up Your Cleanup by Jill Potvin Smith:

All surface spray-
2 tsp borax
1/4 tsp castile soap
Hot water to fill the spray bottle

All purpose liquid cleaner-
1 gal hot water
1 Tbsp baking soda
2 Tbsp liquid soap or detergent

Glass soap-
1 cup white distilled vinegar
1 cup water
1/2 tsp dish soap (if glass is greasy)
3-8 drops essential oil (optional)

Dishwashing Powder-
1/4 c citric acid
1 1/2 c borax
15 drops essential oil (optional)

Disinfectant-
2 cups water
1/4 tsp tea tree oil (what I did my undergrad thesis on, it works!)
1/4 tsp lavender oil

Here is a link to a fantastic and all inclusive sustainability blog. It is very impressive, and you should look at more than just the page for cleaning products. http://www.sustainableeats.com/category/cleaning-products/. I am excited to get a chance to spend more time on it in the future. I'm also excited to try her hydrogen peroxide/lemon juice mildew cleaner on my bathroom ceiling.

And finally I wanted to plug a great book I just read. It is not as do-it-yourself as I like to recommend, but it does tell the best things to buy, and what you need to cut from your life to be more sustainable, plus it is a fun read. It is The Eco Chick Guide to Life by Starre Vartan. A fun read, I borrowed it from the ranger station, and you should make it part of your summer reading list.

A post without a common thread-

First, homemade crackers. I love crackers, but they aren't at all sustainable or healthy. You can't call these healthy, but they are definitely much more sustainable.

Gouda Parmesan crackers:
1/3 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c grated Gouda/Parmesan (or whatever hard cheese you have)
1/6 c flax seeds
2 tbsp butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
A pinch of garlic powder
A pinch of paprika
1-2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 375F. Combine dry ingredients in a food processer, mix. Add butter and pulse until evenly distributed. Add milk and mix, then put mixture in the fridge to cool down for a bit. When the dough is harder, take teaspoons of it and smush it flat on to your greased baking sheet with a greased glass bottom. Bake 10-12 minutes, flipping 2/3 of the way through. Should be crispy, if not, put back in oven. Yummy, like fancy crackers from the store.

I only had two crackers left when it came time to photograph. Mmm.

Now, on an unrelated note, my back has been killing me with all the work I've been doing. I bought a pound of epsom salts at Fred Meyer, and I wanted them to have a little fragrance (without buying the chemically enhanced ones in the beauty section that are bad for the environment, and for you), so I took 15 lemon balm leaves, and 4 mint leaves, and crushed them up with a pint of the salt. Now I have a pleasantly minty bath salt that I can scoop from, and I left the mint in big pieces, so I won't have to include it in my baths (less clean up). You can make your own herbal bath salts by using epsom salts or sea salt, adding herbs, and essential oils if you have them. Better for you, the environment, and your pocket book. I may buy a small lavender plant so I can use that to scent my salts as well.

Minty and relaxing.

Well this was short and sweet. Next time I'm going to do a long list of easy household cleaners, that for the most part are all three ingredients or so. Tonight I don't really have time, but keep your eyes out, because I'm hoping to post them this week. I'm also hoping to post some updated garden photos, as it is really starting to thrive. I hope everyone is having a good week, and I'll post more when I'm able.

Yum!

I will do a real post maybe later tonight, but I wanted to share the results of my vodka tea experiment. SO GOOD. I was so impressed. All I did was steeped 5 tea bags in a pint of vodka for 10 hrs (I wanted it to be really strongly tea flavored). Then added to lemonade with muddled lemon balm from the garden. Pretty kickass. I would definitely recommend making this. My only thing to remind you about it is that tea actually does have a lot of caffeine, it just doesn't really have time to leave the leaves in a normal steeping in water. But 5 tea bags in alcohol for 10 hrs? I'm assuming that there is a fair bit of caffeine. If you are super sensitive, try decaf. I didn't have any problems falling asleep last night, so it shouldn't be too big a deal.

Presentation-ready.

I was worried it would look gross stirred, but it still looks like classy tea.

I also have cherry lemonade (Santa Cruz organic juices were 50% off at Whole Foods), so I might try a cherry tea lemondade mixed drink later. I think I'll try making some different types of infused vodkas too. Green tea vodka might be good in lemonade. I want to make hot pepper vodka for Bloody Marys. I'm also going to see about making my own extracts, but that is a post for another day.

More photos, recipes, and plans

I just finished my schoolwork for the quarter, sans a quick look-over in the morning. I'm pretty tired. Today ran from 7am to 11pm with schoolwork and finals. It is a preview for my summer though, since at least three days a week I'll be working 9am to midnight. I'm curious about when I'm going to find time to eat and shower, etc. My excitement for this summer has definitely tapered off since finding out I'll have to work unpaid half-time in the laboratory. If you count jobs and transportation times, I'll be working 75hrs a week, which I guess is not much different then my normal schedule. It just sucks. I'm exhausted. I deserve a break. I was so looking forward to spending time with my horse and working on being healthy this summer after a hellish school year.

What I find most frustrating is people who don't have to do this sort of thing can be completely unsympathetic- I've been scolded for getting a paid job that is an hour away in traffic (the park ranger job is the only one that even interviewed me, of ten applications- not that I'm not happy to have it, but I really didn't have a lot of choice). People have suggested that this is the sort of thing that is fair if you are a student (wtf?). I hate when people express opinions on things they haven't or wouldn't go through themselves. Sort of like when people comment on my long distance relationship without having ever done more than a summer apart from their significant other.

Anyways, my posting this summer might be sporadic. I don't know that I'll have much free time or energy. Here are some things I've been up to the last few weeks.

My garden. I think it's looking pretty good.

Close up- tomatoes are planted, as are cucumbers. I now have everything planted for the summer. I'll start fall planting in July and August.

CSA order of organic produce. It's a little pricey (this is normally $34, though I got this for $18). I might keep it up though with how busy I am this summer. Besides, it's organic, and supports a local business.


Roasted fava beans- toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper, bake at 450 for 25 minutes. So good.


Today's experiment- tea infused vodka for mixing with lemonade. Excited to try it this weekend.

Starla got her spring bath. Please ignore that she got really fat all of a sudden. Spring is a dangerous time for horse owners, but hopefully I can get her slimmed down with exercise (otherwise she has to come in off the grass for a while).

Well, that is some stuff in my life. We'll see what I get up to in the next couple weeks.

For lack of a better post, and for lack of time...

Here are pictures of Arizona.

Road trip toes.

Lake Patagonia. It was beautiful and fun to swim in.

Driving into Bisbee, AZ.

Street in the town. Very cute place.

The buildings had a lot of personality.

I'm hoping to resume normal blogging once this summer starts, but we'll have to see.

Ugh

I'm betting I will have a heart attack before I'm 25. Anyone want in on the betting?