Fall Series 2

We've had some beautiful sunny weather since yesterday. It made me linger along the streets as I made my way to the latest acupuncture session.  My regular readers who have been commenting and cheering me on, please know that my leg is getting better. It is just a very slow process.

Now here are the Fall photos.

I love the dappled sunlight on the multicoloured leaves of the trees.

At the top of the photo you can see one of the ski "hills" in the local area. I don't live right in this neighbourhood but I can see the lights of the city and on this mountain at night.

There is a very busy city corridor at the end of this street. That is why there are so many cards parked here on the side of the street. In addition, many businesses and residents only have street parking.

When the winds whips up as it has been doing, the trees quickly give up their dried leaves and you get a carpet of leaves on the ground.  They give a nice crunching sound under the feet :-)

I liked this house. As I was walking by I saw the shadows of the bushes against the brick red house. After getting home and looking at the photo on line, I saw a dream catcher in the window. Dream catchers are said to catch your bad dreams in the webs. They are an Aboriginal (First Nations) item but have become very popular amongst the general population. Something like the South American 'worry dolls'.

 

It doesn't matter what the weather is. There is always someone who is so "tough" they don't need a jacket when mere mortals like me would be shivering without one.

The colours of Fall always make me happy.

What makes you happy dear readers?

The Week Begins

It is a beautiful sunny day here. It's very windy though and wind isn't great for my knee pain. I don't ever recall a year when we've had so much wind before but lately it seems to be windy a lot.

It's been raining and cold since Friday so I wanted to capture today in it's bright glory. It is actually sunnier than it looks in the photo.  There is some fresh snow on the mountain. I think it fell on Saturday but wasn't watching carefully.

I'm on my way to yet another appointment with the acupuncture doctor and to just enjoy the day.

Have a wonderful day!

Re-post: Change of Address for Missions of Hope

Hello friends,

The blog for the Missions of Hope has a new domain name www.kenyamissionsofhope.org.  Please be sure to change your bookmarks and visit often. Jonah would love to hear from you.

Once the blog was available at the new domain, I posted about the change of address and was promptly informed that the comment feature was not working. It appears to have been a blogger problem and I apologize if you were trying to leave a comment and couldn't.  I think it is working now.

The last post was about little Linet and her family. Linet is the little girl who needs reconstructive surgery.  MOH was not able to help her with surgery because we are still recovering from the months of expenses for little Kigen's medical needs, however Jonah did help Linet to get medical attention for a month as she was losing weight and unable to eat. She is stable at the moment but we want to keep her that way.

One of the things we would like to do to help little Linet and her family is to help her mother with a micro-enterprise initiative.  The mother wants to start a beauty salon business near where she lives. If she is successful in this venture, she may be able to take care of Linet's surgical needs herself.  We just don't know for certain if she will be able to cover the cost of surgery for her little girl but at least she would be able to try and make some money of her own.  I have received one contribution toward this project and have contributed funds of my own but we need another $100 to $150 to fully fund this enterprise and get Linet's mother on her way.  If you can help at all, please donate here.

Linet and her mother.

Know that Jonah reads and treasures all of your comments and they encourage him in his work under difficult circumstances to bring help and hope to the people.  There have been some problems with the comments feature at his site but it seems to be working now.  Please pray for him as he is currently on the road undertaking some work. Pray that all goes smoothly and that all needs will be met. May God bless you!

Fall Series

We had a seasonal storm blowing off the west coast yesterday. It was very blustery. I was dressed warmly enough. Even so, I felt the chill of the air. My friend who was inexplicably dressed in linen and who only wore a light woolen shawl was understandably colder than I.

We met for lunch, coffee afterward and an early movie. I had a nice visit as I seldom indulge for so long with a friend over a nice visit. The movie we went to see was J. Edgar about J. Edgar Hoover, the long time head of the Federal Investigative Bureau (FBI).

I knew little about this man save for he seems to be responsible for spying on American citizens and usurping the rights of citizens on the basis of the need to protect the state. The movie was directed by Clint Eastwood and I enjoyed it though I think it tried to cover too much ground in the space of a few hours. The title role was exceedingly well played by Leonardo Di Caprio.

Besides the great visit and the enjoyable movie, I managed to capture some beautiful Fall scenery.

I decided to try some special effects.

And more special effects. I like it!

Although we had a major storm here with trees being uprooted, power outages in thousands of homes and snow on the high mountain passes, I was fortunate that I had no major problems. I also felt blessed to see the wonderful scenery and like to see the roads blanketed in colourful leaves.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

I Shall Remember

At 11:00 o'clock, on the 11th day of the 11th month, I shall remember.....

Thank you
to those who fought for freedom.

A Little Snack of Squash Seeds

I baked an acorn squash for dinner last night. The seeds were saved, cleaned and baked for a late night, delicious snack.

Washed and seasoned seeds before they go in the oven.

This food is very good if you are diabetic as it has a very low glycemic load.  The seeds are very low in cholesterol and sodium. It is also a good source of protein, vitamin K, iron and copper, and a very good source of magnesium, phosphorus and manganese.

Ingredients

• 1 cup winter squash seeds
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Directions

Seeds after roasting.

1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
2. After removing the seeds from the squash, rinse with water, and remove any strings and bits of squash. Pat dry, and place in a small bowl. Stir the olive oil and salt into the seeds until evenly coated. Spread out in an even layer on the prepared baking sheet.
3. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until seeds start to pop. Remove from oven and cool on the baking sheet before serving. 

These seeds were a little thicker than the butternut squash seeds I roasted last time.  They required a longer roasting time. I like my seeds to be roasted so that they are turning brown.

Easy Multigrain Bread

The dough is rising in the silicon loaf pans.

Ingredients:

1 tsp (5 mL) sugar
1/2 cup (125 mL) water, warm
1 envelope (1 envelope) (8 g) active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp/11 mL)
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) water, warm
1/3 cup (75 mL) molasses
1 1/2 tsp (7 mL) salt
2 tbsp (30 mL)  oil
5 3/4 cups (1425 mL) multigrain flour

Directions:

1. DIissolve 1 teaspoon (5 mL) sugar in 1/2 cup (125 mL) warm water in large bowl. Sprinkle in yeast. Let stand 10 minutes.
2. Add 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) warm water, molasses, salt, oil and 2 cups (500 mL) of multigrain flour.
3. Stir in 2 3/4 cups (675 mL) of remaining flour gradually. If necessary, add more flour to make a soft dough which leaves sides of bowl. Turn out on floured board. Round up into ball.
4. Knead dough until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes).
5. Place a bit of oil on the dough ball, place it in a clean bowl and cover it with a tea towel to keep warm.
6. Let the dough rise in a warm place (75°-85°F/24°-29°C) until doubled in size (about 45-60 minutes).
7. Punch the down down and turn it onto lightly floured countertop.  Divide it into 2 equal portions. Round up each portion. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.
8. Shape each portion into a loaf and place them seam side down in 2 greased 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 2 3/4" (1.5 L) loaf pans. I now use silicon pans so I do not need to grease them first. Cover with a tea towel.
9. Let dough rise again in a warm place until dough rises for another (45-60 minutes).
10. Bake at 400°F (200°C) on lower oven rack for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350°F (180°C) and bake 20 to 30 minutes more. Remove from pans immediately. Brush top crust with butter if a soft crust is desired. Cool on wire racks.

Here are the loaves fresh out of the oven. I've brushed them with butter.

I enjoyed this bread but I really want to try it with seeds and nuts sometime. I want to try a heavier bread so I need to look for another recipe.  I love the idea of multigrain bread because I'm a bread lover but white flour breads are not good for a diabetic.  If any of my readers have a recipe for a heavy, healthy bread, please let me know if you can share it with me. Update November 11, 2011 - Although the bread tasted fine after baking, I have to say, I think the taste of the bread seemed to improve after a day or two. I enjoyed it a lot more!

Make Your Own Flour Mix

If you do not have or cannot find multigrain flour or simply want to make your own  multigrain mix I've reproduced a master mix recipe below.  This recipe comes from the Kansas State University's Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program. I haven't used this recipe yet myself but intend to mix some up for future use. I will likely add some seeds and nuts to this mix to make my bread extra crunchy.

Slices of the finished loaf. You can see the seeds in the sides of the loaf. The bread is soft inside but crunchy with grains. The bottom of the loaf pan makes the diagonal lines across the bottom of the loaf.

Multi-Grain Master Mix

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose white flour
¾ cup instant non-fat dry milk
½ cup dry rolled oats
½ cup yellow cornmeal
3 Tablespoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup oil

Stir together all dry ingredients in large bowl
or pan.

Cut in oil with pastry blender or two knives
until mixture looks like coarse cornmeal.

Store in covered containers.


Yield: 5 ½ cups of MIX