Oh how I love thee, my dearest Sauerkraut! :)

I was born and raised back in Soviet Union and my grandma and my mother always had some sour cabbage on hand. As far back as I remember we always had a 'dacha' - a small piece of land that an urban family can grow things on and MAY BE build a shack or even a house. So during the season we grew things like crazy - buckets upon buckets of strawberries, potatoes and apricots and such, and then during the winter would live off of what is left after we gourged ouselves silly on all that yummy goodness. And yes, we grew cabbage too and preserved it for the long winter months. So when I move here and my husband explains to me what this Sauerkraut is I said - YEAH! I love that stuff, let's get some! And what came out of the can we bought was SO SO NOT what I expected!
I called my mother to complaine to get her recipe and this is what I am passing on to you.

So if you think you don't like sauerkraut, I encourage you to give this superfood another try. Do it right this time and make your own. SUPER EASY!

SO grow (ok, may be not THAT easy :)) or buy some pesticide-free cabbage, a head or two ;). If you want your sauerkraut.. or should I call it sour cabbage instead? .. so if you want it to be white - keep with what they call green cabbage, but the leaves inside are actually white. I like my sour cabbage pink :) So about 1/4 of my cabbage is red. You will also need 1 carrot, salt and your sugar of choice, and may be pepercorns and bay leaves if desired (my mother always put those in and I don't, because there is nothing worse than biting on a pepercorn when you least expect it!).
The equipment required is rather simple too - a jar with a lid (I just save mine from things I purchase - like pickles, apple sauce, tahini, etc.), a good knife or a food processor for shredding the veggies, a large bowl and a knitting needle or a something resembling it.

So let's get cooking.

Day 1. Shred all your cabage, shred the carrots, but keep them seperately (if you don't care to have a perfectly white cabbage or you are shooting for the pink color like me, then it doesn't matter, you can keep them together from the start).

Salt the cabbage to taste (my mom recommends 2 tbsp for a 3L jar), mix it up and let it sit for a while. Come back and give it a good beating and mushing (have kids or your hubby do this part). Let sit for a while. All this action will have your cabage release some juice and soften up a bit.

Select a clean jar that is about half the size of your beautiful pile of cabbage. It is important that you fill the jar to the rim to prevent molding. Mix your cabage and carrots if you haven't done so, now would be the time to add peppercorns and bay leaves if desired, and start stuffing your jar with all this goodness. And when I say 'stuffing' I so totally mean it - pack your cabbage tight! When the jar is filled, pour the juice in to the rim. Cover with a piece of ziplock plastic (I know I don't like that part either, but if you worry enough find something with holes to cover it with) and tie with a string or an elastic band (I save those ones that sometimes hold your leafy greens together). Set your jar in a bowl to catch the drippings. And you are done for today.

Day 2. Every time you pass your beatiful jar, give it a good poke with your knitting needle several times - this will help the trapped bubbles to escape. Refill with juice that leakes out and collects in the bowl.

Day 3. Add some sugar to the juice in the bowl (my mom recommends 1 tbsp for a 3L jar), mix it up well to dissolve and pour back on top of your cabbage. Keep doing the poking and refilling.

Day 4. Eat up! Put the lid on what is left and store in your fridge. It seriously keeps forever. The cold slows the fermentation process but doesn't completely stop it so if you forget about your yummy sour cabage for a month, it will just be a tad more sour, but still yummy and super super good for you!

Let me know how it turns out! :)

How to make a Rudolph Birthday Cake.

My son wanted a Rudolph cake for his birthday, so I had to come up with something. I found some ideas on line, but they called for a round pan that I don't have so I had to improvise.

First I baked a large rectangular cake. I guess you can use a mix or use any recipe that will produce a cake that will not fall apart on you when cut and handled. I used this recipe and it was fabulous. Not low fat, but still a lot healthier then some of the other ones I tried :) It need no food coloring at all. I also used a lot less sugar than the recipe called for and it was still mighty sweet. I doubled the ingredients and had enough to have 2 layers with some strawberries and chocolate ganache in between :))

Here's how I cut my rectangle

First I used a pan lid to trace a circle for Rudolph's head. But I left one of the corners on for the nose. Then I cut two leaf shaped pieces for ears, I actually ended up shortening them a little, that was a bit too long. I stuck some popsicle sticks in the ears and then pushed the other end of them into the head - to have them stand secure. Then on to decorating.

The brown is that chocolate ganache that is suggested in the recipe of the whole wheat Birthday cake - SO yummy!!! And the white is your basic cream cheese frosting. The pupils are left over chocolate chips from the ganache and the nose is a large strawberry.

Almost forgot - the antennas are peanut butter cookies that I shaped into that Y-shape. And I had lots of antennas left over :)) Little tip - if you don't want antennas to get soggy, stick them in right before lighting the candles and always have extras just in case your first pair brakes. I left antennas in my Rudolph overnight and they were nice and mushy for the party - still eaten and very much enjoyed :) - especially the part that was inside the cake - MMMMM..! :))

I also stuck that tiny cake in front of Rudolph's nose for the candles, so that he helps blow them out so I don't have to sick the candles in his face.

I am no cake decorator, but that was fun and easy and even with my less then perfect icing job, I got lots of excited kids. They had so much fun picking which part of Rudolph they wanted on their plate! :)

Best smoothie ever!

I think I have just made the best smoothie I've ever tasted (children agree!)
SO, before I forget:
2 bananas
juice of 1 young thai coconut (about 1 cup or more)
1 huge orange peeled (or more, I only had 1)
a ton of organic locally grown hand picked by yours truly only yesterday(ok, just organic will work also) spinach
2 heaping spoons of hemp seed
water or ice to taste.

It was so so good!!!

for all the tandeming mamas out there or those considering it.

We tandemed twice and were even triademing ;)) (is that a word?) at one point. Yes, it was hard (motherhood just is), sometimes I wanted to rip my hair out, but I also cherish the lessons I learned through that. Yes, patience, obviously. But also, living in the moment while seeing the bigger picture clearly.
And the usual things too - when you are tired from puking all day or whatever your pregnancy difficulty is, you toddler is still self absorbed in his/her stressful (the banana has a spot!!!) life and it is the end of the day, it is just a lot EASIER to simply lift a shirt and see the stress just melt away in an instant. Same goes for those days when daddy is working late and it is about dinner time and everyone is just tired - a quick nurse seems to settle everyone nicely, centering the family around this beautiful, bonding, loving and CALM, QUIET activity ;) No hassle, no preparation, no clean up :)
Life saver during the sickness too, when anything else is refused and you are just praising God for the gift of this miracle juice just simply oozing out of your body with no effort on your side whatsoever, that nourishes your sickly baby with increased dose of antibodies, and just the right proportion of all the right stuff that his body needs to recover. Again, at no extra effort from you! It just doesn't get better than this.

And the moments of sibling closeness - that's just the gift for life. No other siblings can bond on this level. No other siblings spend this much time together, on a daily basis, doing something so positive, engaging into tons of skin to skin, looking into each others eyes, stroking each others hair or just holding hands.

We are not tandeming anymore and I can totally testify that the ripping hair days are a lot LESS vivid in my memory than all this. I remember our tandeming as something very special and would do it all over again (and enjoy it a lot more thoroughly!; )). Kind of like parents enjoy their consecutive children a lot more - they understand how fleeting this all is and tend to soak it all up, rather than struggle and fight it :)

And the last word of encouragement.
"1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven (...) 11He hath made every thing beautiful in his time."

God obviously thought it was a great idea to have you experience tandem nursing with your precious blessings right now :)

Read the Bible - it is good for your soul.

So...Today I read that ALL people know God in their hearts, but many "suppress the truth". Yes, ALL, those who don't believe in God, believe in themselves, and Mother Nature and other people and things, mythical or real.., and everything in between, we ALL KNOW GOD. The existence of God is obvious when we look at His creation. Check this out, I know it might be tricky to understand, but you can actually go to Biblegateway.com and punch in this passage Romans 1:18-32 and read it in a different translation, even in paraphrase (like the Message translation) some people like that better. Anyhow, try your best, it is not rocket science, I promise! :)

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

One friend also pointed out recently that men tend to RUN and try to hide from this truth hiding in big cities where there is little nature and inside their houses and inside virtual reality - all man made.

But look where it takes us:

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Isn't this what has been and is going on right now? We admire our bodies for birthing babies, giving them milk, without giving thanks to the One who made them! We are all about Mother Nature and our inner strength, substituting and praising the creation (nature) rather than the One who made it. This is worshiping creation instead of the Creator.

And this is just a natural consequence:

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Some would say - no, it is not THIS bad - it is in some parts of the world. And it will become this bad here also if we continue to deny God what is due - our faith, worship and giving thanks for what He has done.


I can't help but thinking about these verses when I look at the sky. Yes, I live in a place where I have to seek out nature, but the SKY is always there, no one can take this away from me. Look up some times and see His love letter written all over!

how do we treat the temple?

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy: For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. - 1Cor. 3:16-18.

I know most people think that it is only talking about things we watch or listen too, but how about food? I have heard a lot that everything is ok in moderation.
Are we defiling the temple of God when we eat junk? How much can we apply moderation when speaking about defiling the temple?
We see a lot of sickness these days from heart burn and obesity to heart deseases and cancer. Is this not God destroying our temples just like he said he would?




How much is our service to God affected by it?

From this point of view it is especially upsetting to see churches serving junk to their flock, especially children. We offer them brightly colored candy as a reward for memorizing the Scripture. We feed infants formula just so we don't breastfeed in the service. Church's potlucks? Ugh, I feel like fasting just thinking about it!

Quick pancakes :)

When I heard you can bake pancakes in a pan I thought - what a great idea!!! I loathe standing by the hot stove for half an hour flipping them! So making them easier AND healthier sounded like a great idea. AND there's an added bonus - it's more fun! When you take them out - you put the whole pan on the table, let it cool and then give your kids cookie cutters - they have fun with it and you get the left over odd pieces :))

Anyway, I have just found a pancake recipe that will make it even easier - you mix a whole bunch of stuff once in a blue moon and then when you are ready to have pancakes, you just add an egg and some buttermilk to 1 cup of the mix and you are ready to bake you some yummy AND healthy pancakes. I LOVE IT!


Don't forget to get some real maple syrup! :)) It's the best!