As anyone in the greater Austin area will tell you - it's HOT!
This is what we did during one of our hot days for relief.
Due to the extreme temperatures, I've been hibernating. But, then again, I kind of like hibernating - it's relaxing. Enjoying home stuff.
More recently I've been working on changing up our diets. I've been reading Nourishing Traditions, as well as a few blogs that support that nutrition philosophy. It's practically a diet makeover, so there is no way I could instantly start eating this way. It's definitely not for the faint of heart, haha. I could see how you could get overwhelmed with the amount of information in this book. I'm just taking it one step at a time.
I decided to jump in at "Beverages", since that seemed like a manageable section of our food that I could "revamp". Even in that spectrum, I'm going slow. I strive to cut out all our soda intake, but haven't let go of an occasional coffee/caffeine as of yet. I have found a dairy in Georgetown to supply us with Grade A raw milk, a staple of the cooking. I picked up two gallons this week, and will schedule another pickup soon! They were $5 a gallon, which from the research I've done is a good price.
At present I'm making our own cream cheese and whey. Tomorrow I will tackle yogurt. It's surprisingly easy. I actually made my first batch of cream cheese last week.
After that I'm looking to making ginger ale. Yesterday I made my own ginger tea - from freshly grated ginger.
It's a slow process, but one I hope to achieve over the next few years. Most of the traditional beverages we drink in our culture are out or recommended only occasionally. So I have to rethink and replace the drinks we rely on. There are lots of recipes, but they take some "new" ingredients and a few are complicated so I'm working on the easy ones and then build up to some of the others (including a beer recipe!!).
I found a great farmer's market right here in our own neighborhood! I checked it out last weekend and got all of our produce (minus bananas and ginger) there for $14. I can't wait to go back this weekend since there should be twice as many vendors (last weekend was fourth of July and only a handful of vendors were there). The market is at the Brushy Creek Community Center every Saturday (9-1pm), and even Tuesday afternoons (4-8pm I think).
Once I have a firm handle on beverages, I'm setting my sights on breads. Most of the recipes use spelt flour, which they don't even sell in our grocery store. So I'll have to track some down, probably at Whole foods, and then buy a grain mill to grind it. So that's a big step. Sounds like a good Xmas gift (hint hint Mark).
But definitely expect more posts about this topic on the horizon as I live and learn with new recipes and changes!
