Raw Milk Rant

As many of you know, my family purchases and consumes raw milk.  For those of you who DON'T know, raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized or homogenized so it still contains all the 'good' bacteria to help a person DIGEST it.  My son is lactose sensitive when he consumes pasteurized/homogenized milk.  When he consumes raw milk, he has no reactions whatsoever.

Due to the current FDA regulations, the raw milk dairy farmers currently have to test LOWER in e-coli and other cleanliness issues and bacterial than REGULAR milk you buy at the store.  (See comparison chart here:  http://www.realmilk.com/whichchoose.html)  Due to this stringent testing and re-testing regimen...the cost of the raw milk we purchase is almost $9.00 for a HALF GALLON.

The FDA continually fights raw milk dairies in our country stating that the consumption of such a natural product is harmful to us.  FINALLY an Iowa judge is getting the full explanation of the obvious BIAS the FDA has against this product.  I found it very interesting.  I have linked the entire article below, but for time sake, I have summarized my favorite part here:

"The two most recent reports pick up on arguments made frequently by raw milk advocates here that raw milk, comparatively speaking, isn't much of a public health problem.
The report for January included announcements from pharmaceutical companies about side effects for nine different commonly prescribed drugs; for example, that Ambien and Ambien CR "may cause a special type of memory loss...dependence...withdrawal....hallucinations, worsening of depression, suicidal thoughts." Symbicort, a drug for people with bronchitis and emphysema, "may increase the chance of death from asthma problems."

Concluded the FTCLDF filing: "These are all drugs that are approved by the FDA. It is irrational for the FDA to ban the interstate shipment or distribution of raw milk that does not have any of these symptoms or side effects yet allow these drugs to be sold in interstate commerce given the dangers they present."
The report for February cites 2005 data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which report deaths from various public health problems. For example...4,649 deaths from obesity, 684 from sleep disorders, and 4,596 from motor vehicle deaths, among many others.
"Counsel for Plaintiffs could not find in these data any deaths associated with the consumption of fresh, unprocessed, raw milk and/or other raw dairy products." The filing also quotes Ted Beals, the Michigan pathologist, as saying "it is more of a risk for him to drive his car and obtain his milk than it is for him to consume his milk."

I believe that says it all.

Here is the full article if you are interested:
http://www.thecompletepatient.com/journal/2011/2/24/how-dangerous-is-raw-milk-vs-common-pharmaceuticals-obesity.html

28 weeks and counting...

We have officially reached week 28 in my pregnancy!!  Hello 3rd trimester!  Again, my Dr. used the word "normal" during my appointment today much to my utter surprise.  My blood pressure is still behaving, the baby is growing well, all seems to be doing just fine.

I am so blessed!!  I had an ultrasound this week to check all the regular stuff again as this pregnancy is considered "high risk" regardless of how well it is progressing due to my past pregnancy issues.

We got to see the baby stick out his tongue!!  We also learned taking a 3 year old to an appointment which will last an hour or more is NOT a good idea.  LOL!

**sigh**  I can't wait to meet my little man!

Homemade Fig Newtons

I had some leftover fig jam that I made last summer in my pantry.  No one was eating it on toast, so instead of just leaving it there to rot...I thought I would try my hand at homemade Fig Newtons.

I am VERY new to the world of pastries, so they didn't turn out PRETTY, but they are YUMMY!  I used this recipe with the exception of the fig filling as I already had fig jam on hand to use.  I would HIGHLY recommend this recipe.  It was fun and would be easy to make for someone who is good at working with and rolling out dough.

If I was going to use the filling for the recipe listed above...I would probably add a little bit of lemon zest.  Just my humble, personal opinion.  Lemme know if you try it!!

Make your own canned beef stew!

Darren and I borrowed a pressure cooker/canner last summer from our friend Mindy to do our canning as we had never done it before and wanted to get a feel for what we were doing before investing of one of our own.  Darren bought us a canner just a few days ago and we just HAD to use it.

We didn't have any veggies to can since it's not summer, but we found a recipe for canned beef stew that was super simple and CHEAP!  It will help to have some of these pre-made meals after the baby is born, so we decided to give it a try.

The recipe was simple:

potatoes
carrots
onions
garlic
celery
roast
thyme
salt
pepper
boiling water

You should take a look at some commercial canned beef soup/stew next time you are at the grocery store.  Most of the ingredients on the label, I cannot even pronounce!

You don't even have to cook the veggies since this whole concoction will "process" in the canner for 90 minutes.  We cut up all the veggies and meat, browned the meat.  Poured hot water over all of it.  Put it in some Quart Mason jars and then put them in our canner to do the rest.  90 minutes later we had 7 quarts of DELICIOUS beef stew all canned and ready for post-baby days!!

We did the math and even using Tri-Tip roast, the meals worked out to only $4.00 per quart/meal!  One quart feeds all three of us with leftovers!

Cheap, quick, fun project to work on together and good for us.  It doesn't get much better than that!!

Making Beef Pot Pies

Last night I made a roast.  Anytime I make a roast there are LOTS of leftovers (since there are only 3 of us).  We will eat them for a day or two but then the rest of the leftovers just go bad.  It's a sad waste of perfectly good food.  I decided this time I would make pot pies with the left overs.  My family LOVES pot pies!!

Basically I just took the leftovers, cut up the meat, potatoes and carrots and added some frozen veggies.  I used the soupy stuff that you always have when you make roast and I thickened it with some flour (you can use cornstarch if you prefer).  This makes a kind of stew.  Then, I make some pie crust.  Put the 'stew' in some oven safe small bakeware, cover with crust and bake at 450 for 12-15 minutes.  Voila!  Dinner is served.  I made a BIG pot pie in an aluminum pie pan to take to a friend who is ill so her family would have dinner tonight.

Darren took some pictures of me working with the pie crust.

Mother's Day Craft

Ok, so I know what you're thinking..."What in the world are you doing, making a Mother's Day craft at the end of January?".  Well, this baby is due in May right around Mother's Day and I wanted to make sure I was prepared!



Jenny Gilley let me use her embossing heating tool to finish off my project.  I have done 1 of the 2 wreaths.  The one pictured below is for my mother-in-law.  I stamped and embossed family initials on some of the ribbons.  This is my kind of craft, tying bows.  Now THAT I can do!!

 

A lil' of this and a lil' of that...

I don't have anything specific to post about so perhaps I will try my hand and blog rambling.

Luke is doing REALLY well staying in bed at night lately.  I am so proud of my little man!!  He didn't get up ONCE tonight!!

My pregnancy is going well.  My OBGYN actually used the word "normal" to describe this pregnancy.  YAY!  This is my 4th pregnancy and the 1st time I have ever heard the use of the word normal to refer to any of them!  God is truly blessing us!

We still have not picked out a boys name.  We really have a difficult time with boys names for some reason.  I am hoping we can settle on one BEFORE the baby is born!!  LOL!

Ok, enough of the rambling...I do not think it is my strong suit.  One never knows until one tries!!  : )