Let Thy Food Be Thy Medicine

 Two ways to eat fresh onions and garlic

Why eat fresh garlic and onions? These bulbs contain a component called Allicin among other health promoting components. Allicin inhibits the reproduction of bacteria and viruses. I don't know all the science, but you can read more HERE on Herbazest.com.

Whenever I am fighting a bacterial or viral infection I try to consume as much garlic as possible.

Most of the time I straight up eat garlic cloves. But, eating garlic can be way more pleasurable.

For onions try this Tomato Onion Salad.

Dice half an onion and a medium tomato.

Mix together with salt, pepper, basil, a couple tablespoons of mayonnaise and as much apple cider vinegar as you like (2ish Tbsp. for me).

This salad was so delicious that last time I was sick I was eating this salad twice a day. That makes 1 whole onion a day! I think that it did me a lot of good and it was real food as medicine.

I love garlic! There are many ways that I get fresh garlic into my diet. I've made a garlic and oil emulsion as a salad dressing. That is a good way to get a few fresh garlic cloves with a meal. My family has a tradition of making what we call Garlic Salad, which is a garlic spread made from cooked eggplant pulp, bread crumbs, olive oil, vinegar, and salt. It is similar to the Lebanese dish; Baba Ganu. I quit adding the bread crumbs and I like it much better that way. (I never told my Grandma.Shhh)

One of my favorite ways to eat fresh garlic in a meal is a variation of Huevos Rancheros.

I mix 3-4 cloves of minced garlic with a couple ounces of cream cheese.

Spread the cream cheese mixture onto toasted corn tortillas.

Top with a fried eggs and chopped cilantro.

And, for a added boost for flavor and health promoting capsaicin, add Tabasco sauce or your favorite hot pepper sauce. 

There you have it! Two ways to make food your medicine by utilizing the flavors of fresh onions and garlic!

I hope you enjoy!

Let me know if you have tried any of these before or how you use food as your medicine!

Psalms 104:14 

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle,

 and herb for the service of man:

 that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

Sloth Update!

 

I did it! I finished my first sloth!

The paws have Velcro sewn on so that the sloth can hang on to the crib or furniture. My little girl loves how the sloth seems to be giving her hugs by clasping the Velcro around her neck.

I made a few deviations from the sewing instructions. 

(1) I fused the eyes and nose onto the face with iron on gluey stuff instead of stitching them on.

(2) The instructions called for topstitching the face onto the body, but I thought that it would be too difficult to keep the face from shifting around on me, so I hand stitched it into place with an invisible ladder stitch.

(3) I sewed the Velcro on the paws after I had sewed the front and back pieces together and turned it right side out. The instructions call for sewing the Velcro on before assembling the sloth and turning right side out 

(4) I added topstitching at the top curves and the bottom curves. I thought the reinforcement would add structural integrity and keep the edges from rolling.

If you want to make a sloth, follow this link and download the free pattern. HERE

Sewing Sloth Lovies | Off To A Slow Start

"Bwhaahahah!"

You know how long I've been trying to come up with a title?

This project has not gone to plan. I had planned to have 4 Sloth Lovies made by now, all finished with pictures to show you. The reality is that I don't even have 1 finished. 

I thought of using the title:

Sewing Sloth Lovies | Grand Plans Mediocre Results

Then I thought of:

Sewing Sloth Lovies | Off To A Slow Start

Wait......

Wait for it........

The pun dawn's on me:
 "Hahahahaha!"
I'm slow in more than one way!
Insert> "More cackling."

Excuse me while I laugh at my own jokes.......
Boy, did I need that laugh! 
I guess you can tell by now that I have been a little discouraged. Nothing like laughter to lift the spirits!

Proverbs 15:13

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance:

 but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

Here's the story on the sloths:

I have saved this pattern from a Pinterest post years ago. I have finally gotten around to trying it. 

Aren't these sloths just the cutest things?

The pattern is a free download from (a site I can't remember right now.) I will get the link and share it HERE.

I printed off all the pieces.

I went fabric "shopping" in my stash.

Turning a sack full of sloth toes right side out.

Details of the face.

Tune in later to see the finished project! I will finish. I know I will. A minute here, a minute there. Slowly, but surely I will get done.

And, that is the moral of the story; never give up!

Any of you out there have weeks that you feel like you can't make any progress? Don't be discouraged. Focus on your priorities and the periphery aspects of life (like sewing projects) will work themselves out. 

Applesauce Cake Made from Mayonnaise: What!?

Super easy.
Super moist.
Super Delicious!

Applesauce Cake

3 c. Flour

2 c. Unsweetened Applesauce

1 c. Sugar

1/2 c. Milk

1 c. Mayonnaise

2 t. Cinnamon

2 t. Baking Soda

1/2 t. Salt

1/2 t. Nutmeg

1 t. Vanilla Flavor

Mix ingredients thoroughly to combine.

Pour in a greased 9×13 inch pan.

Bake at 350° F. 30-35 minutes.

This time of year fresh applesauce is a treat! With all the applesauce around, making Applesauce Cake is easy. That is not the only thing that makes Applesauce Cake easy. 

Here you see a recent batch of applesauce.

Using mayonnaise in the place of eggs and oil also makes this cake a little faster to throw together.

The surprise ingredient: mayonnaise!

I like to make this cake for breakfast on chilly fall mornings. It would be a delicious dessert served warm with ice cream, too. Yum!

Have you ever made a cake with mayonnaise?

Let me know in the comments!

Scarlet Thread

 

Joshua 2:18+19

Behold, when we come into the land,

thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: 

and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee.

And it shall be, that whosoever 

shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him.

Looking at this Gladiolus I kept thinking of the scarlet thread from the Bible story about the spies. That scarlet thread saved Rahab's life and the lives of her family members. 

We can be saved by a "scarlet thread," too. The blood of Jesus is our scarlet thread. His blood will attone for our sins. If we place our faith in Him, He covers us in His own righteousness.

His blood will protect our soul from judgement. Hell is the judgement we deserve because of our sins. When Jesus's blood is applied to our account we are shielded from this judgement.

Dear Reader, have you trusted Jesus as your Saviour? Do you believe His blood is sufficient to save your soul? If you have never before trusted Jesus as your Saviour, please do today! 

He will save you. He said, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

Trusting Jesus is easy. Easy as taking a drink of water.

Easy as walking through a door. Jesus said,

"I am the door: by me if any man enter in,

 he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, 

and find pasture."
John10:9 

Easy as eating a piece of bread. Jesus said,

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

John 6:51

Jesus did all the work for your salvation. He offers you eternal life as a gift. Who pays for a gift? The giver does all the paying. If the recipient has to pay for the gift it ceases to be a gift. Not only does the Bible describe salvation as a gift, it describes it as a free gift, just to emphasize the fact that He paid the price and we pay nothing. Nada. Nothing. Zilch.

Romans 5:18 

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

Jesus offers mankind eternal life, but He doesn't force anyone to take this gift. The individual must receive it or reject it. Do you receive this gift? Do you believe the record of God?

He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself:

 he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; 

because he believeth not the record 

that God gave of his Son.

And this is the record, that God hath given to us

 eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

1 John 5:10+11

If you don't believe Him you are calling God a liar. God says that Jesus sacrificed His perfect blood to attone for your sins. Do you believe Him, or not?

Jesus died for everyone and that includes you! 

1 Timothy 4:10

 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

I will leave you with this one last thought:

God loves you so much that he'd rather die than see you go to Hell.................

And he proved it on the cross.

Romans 10:9
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the

 Lord Jesus, 

and shalt believe in thine heart

 that God hath raised him from the dead,

 thou shalt be saved.

Skin Salve

In this blog post, I tell the story of my first experience making herbal oil infusions and how I used the infusions to make a healing salve.
Come along to hear all about it!

 I am using these jars of calendula infused oil and plantain infused oil to make a skin salve.

I hope it will be a good recipe for diaper rash and minor skin problems like bites and scrapes.

Calendula has antibiotic properties and promotes healing of the skin. It is real good for cold sores and chicken pox lesions.

Plantain is one of the best herbs for stings. Anytime I am stung by a bee I pick the closest plantain leaf, chew it quickly, and smear the crushed leaf onto the sting area. It relives the pain immediately and keeps the tissue from swelling. It really works! Without the plantain I swell up for two days and itch really bad after the swelling has gone down.

Here is the story of these herbal infusions that I have:

Three years ago, back in 2019, during the summer I grew calendula. I picked the flower heads to dry. By the end of summer I had a good quantity of flower heads. I learned about using the calendula to make an oil infusion to be used in an ointment. I decided to try this technique. I, also, wanted to make a plantain oil infusion because I knew plantain's properties would compliment those of calendula flowers.

I bought some organic cold pressed extra virgin oil especially for this purpose. I dried a bunch of plantain leafs and packed them into a quart jar. I packed my calendula flowers into a pint jar. Then I poured the oil over the herbs.

I remember thinking about how long I would have to wait for the infusions to complete. It would 8 weeks before I could use them. So long!

But, the time flew by. I had other projects to be working on and a baby to get ready for. One thing led to the next. The baby was born, a few months later we moved, that whole year (2020) we were traveling for work, once we got back home we settled into life. I was busy. There was another baby to get ready for, a 1st grader to homeschool, dresses to sew,.......

The oil infusions got pushed to the back of the cabinet and we're forgotten.

Three years later I am finally pulling them out and putting them to use. I am so excited to be making my first ointment with home grown herbs!

This is my recipe:

2 1/2 cups of Plantain Infused Oil

1 1/2 cup Calendula Infused Oil

1 cup Raw Bee's Wax

1 T. Shea Butter*

*The Shea butter was sent to me as a sample when I ordered my bee's wax. I didn't have a use for it and threw it in with the melting oils just to put it to good use.

Melt the oils and wax together, gently.

Pour the hot mixture into clean jar or containers.

You can see my messy work station:

I plan on using this ointment for a lip balm, chapped skin, bug bites, minor cuts and scrapes, razor burn, and diaper rashes. I got some of this ointment on my hands while I was working with it and I can tell you that it is definitely moisturizing!

Initially, I thought the extra time would make these infusions more potent, but the more I think about it, I wonder if they lose thier efficacy over time. I guess I will just have to experiment. At any rate this ointment is going to be a great lip balm and moisturizer.

Can you relate with how time marches on? I can hardly believe that three years have gone by!

Paw Paw Time!

 We went to the Paw Paw Grove this week 

 to see if there were any ripe fruits. 

 We found a few!

You can read about our Paw Paw harvest in 2020

in a blog post HERE.

Paw Paws are native to the North American continent.

The fruits have a very tropical taste and aroma.

They are a special treat!

This is the time of year when many 

treats are being harvested.

Apples, pears, and grapes,

are a few that come to mind.

It has been several years since I have had

any local pears or grapes.

Genesis 1:11 
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass,
 the herb yielding seed, 

and the fruit tree yielding fruit
 after his kind, whose seed is in itself, 

upon the earth: 
and it was so.

Have you been busy with harvesting

or preserving?

Let me know your favorite fruit!

Seed Saving

I have been saving seeds from the plants in my garden. I have looked up information on collecting seeds. Hopefully, I am doing it right. It will be interesting in the Spring to see how well the seed I have saved germinate. And then next summer to how the fruits or flowers compare to their parents.

I have many Bachelor Buttons that came up voluntarily. I collected a bunch of seed heads. 

Bachelor Button Seed Heads

I am mixing together several different herb and flower seeds as I collect them. I think it will be fun to have a mixture to sow in an area of the yard. I have cilantro, dill weed, bachelor buttons, calendula, borage, and cosmo in my mix thus far.

Calendula seeds develop on the maturing flower head in a visually interesting way. The shape of calendula seeds are quite unique, too.

Looking directly down at a seed head of calendula.

Calendula seeds 

Borage usually self sows very readily. I have included borage seeds in my mix just as insurance.

Borage

I have these gorgeous rust colored sunflowers that I am saving seed from.

Also some ordinary sunflowers.

This sunflower was still opening up one morning.
Can you spot the sleeping bee resting on the flower?

I heard that once the rays have fallen off of the sunflower blooms the heads can be cut and dried in a paper bag as the seeds continue to mature. The seeds look quite under developed at this stage, but I hope they turn out to be viable.

This is my first time saving tomato seeds. I have Black Krim, Rutger, and Roma varieties.

I followed the fermentation method for saving wet seeds with my tomatoes and my cucumber.

I wanted to save pickling cucumber seeds. I don't remember the exact variety of cucumbers that I planted. I didn't grow anything that would cross with cucumber so, I'm sure the seeds I saved will grow some kind of cucumbers.

Once the seeds were clean and dry I put them in labeled, paper envelopes for storage.

Do you save seeds from your garden?