My Trials with Baking..

In the perilous quest to become an equally as amazing cook as my mother, I have recently begun to bake my own bread. Going into this, I was well aware of the fact that a person with only a small amount of experience in the culinary arts cannot simply look up a recipe, follow that recipe, and expect incredible results. That being said, you have to start somewhere right?

So, I started my baking experience with Whole Wheat Bread. Simple, delicious, and seemingly easy. Kind of. Little did I know what a disappointment my bread would be :(

My first attempt (which is where most of these pictures are from) seemed like it was going well. Except that I used ALL whole wheat flour... my first mistake. The recipe I used called for only %100 whole wheat flour, so I followed the recipe (more on this later), finished making my dough, and popped it in the oven.

I didn't even bother to take a picture of the finished product. It was heavy, dense, and extremely moist inside. I smelled like raw dough, and the only way I could choke it down was by slathering it in Nutella. I ended up throwing out the loaf, which if you know me, is a testament to how bad this "bread" really was. I never waste food, in fact my roommates call me the Garbage Disposal, because anytime they don't want to eat something of theirs, I take it happily.


My second attempt was better. Slightly. I was better educated in the bread making process. I had learned that for the bread to taste like, well, bread you must use at least two different type of flour. Whoops! I also forgot to distribute the sweetener (I used pure agave nectar) throughout the recipe, instead I added it all in the beginning. I forgot to add an egg which is supposed to do... something good, I can't really remember right now, which is probably why I forgot it originally. Poo.

I probably made other mistake which I am unaware of. The second attempt came out tasting better, but looking worse... It was still pretty dense, and I couldn't get it to rise past the rim of my bread pan so it looked similar to a brick.

If there are any more experienced bakers reading this that could shed some light on my mistakes, I would LOVE to hear from you!

I'm still learning, and I think that if every time I try something new, and it turns out slightly better than the last, thats a success!

Yup,

Kasey

Household Beauty

Some photos from around my apartment and my mother's house in Scottsdale, AZ. 

It's surprisingly easy to find simple beauty all around you. Get out there and discover it!


Always,

Kasey

Homemade Laundry Detergent

There are a few things I really enjoy. Making products from scratch, using ingredients that come from the earth, and saving money. So, when I find a project that includes all three of those criteria I jump on it.

Today that project was homemade laundry detergent. Being in college with no source of income really tests my ability to stretch my wallet. When I read about making my own detergent I was really intrigued by the cost. EXTREMELY LOW. There are only 4 ingredients (in the detergent I made, others have more) and every one of them was very cheap.

Ingredients

- 1 quart Water (boiling)

- 2 cups Bar soap (grated)

- 2 cups Borax

- 2 cups Washing Soda

- Essential Oils (optional)

You can find Borax at Walmart or Target in the detergent aisle. It is a mineral used for a variety of household cleaning. 

I used baking soda instead of washing soda... I'm not sure if they are different or just the same thing with two different names. Anyone know?

First, grate your bar soap. I used a soap by Dove (I read online that you should avoid detergent beauty bars with added free oils. (i.e. dove, etc) oops, hopefully my batch will turn out okay anyway), just because thats all I had laying around. I found that using a lemon zester to grate the soap worked very well, because when I added it to the water it dissolved instantly. 

Next, bring 1 quart water to a boil and stir in bar soap shavings. 

Then, pour the soap mixture into a tub/large bowl and stir in the Borax and Washing soda. Stir until dissolved. Mixture should come out looking similar to cake frosting. 

Finally, add 2 gallons of water to the mixture and stir until all the soap is throughly blended, add 10ish drops of essential oils if you like (I used lavender Mhmmm), store in a covered container, and your done!!!

At the moment I am washing my first load of laundry with my newly made detergent... check back later to see the results!!

Good Luck!

Kasey 

PS this was my first experience making my own laundry detergent. I am far from an expert. If I listed any steps incorrectly please let me know :)

Some Four Season Thinking for you..

http://www.news.wisc.edu/slideshows/Bascom-Hill/

This is a beautiful photomontage of the season changes in Madison, Wisconsin.


Happy Tuesday,

Kasey

Working in the Garden

Lately, I have developed a a passion for gardening. I have been reading up on the subjects of permaculture and sustainable farming, and I personally find the information to be extremely grounding and worthwhile. 

Growing up in a desert has biased my view of gardening. I always figured there wasn't a lot I could do with the land I had available to me besides growing cactus and some drought resistant plants. Well, it turns out that I couldn't have been more wrong. There are MANY varieties of plants that not only grow in the desert, but if properly cared for can thrive here. Apparently, because the growing season is so long in AZ, we can grow all year long!

I wanted to learn more about gardening, so I recently joined a gardening club at my university. The club provided gardening plots to all of its members as well as seeds, equipment, and and extensive array of knowledge on keeping all varieties of plants. Although the best perk of being a member, in my opinion, is that all the food that is grown is shared among all of the members. 

Yesterday, I received my key to the garden and spent some time there with a few of the other members. I did some weeding in my plot, took a few pictures, and helped build a trellis that will eventually be used for running cantaloupe and squash. Since summer is finally coming to an end, there isn't a ton of produce being grown in the garden at the moment. With the extreme temperatures, summer is the hardest time of year to keep plants alive in this climate zone. However, I did manage to find some very beautiful squash on their way to maturity and a few gigantic watermelons. We also harvested some very nice looking okra (sorry, I forgot to take a picture). 

I'm so excited to make fresh salads with greens I grew and harvested myself. Pretty soon I will put together some fresh pesto, because the garden already has a large assortment of herbs, including a huge amount of basil. In the spring I'm planning on planting some elephant garlic (which I'm told is about three times the size of a normal garlic stalk!) so that I can make pesto with fresh garlic and basil. Sooo delicious!

This will be an ongoing post, so keep checking back for updates on the progress of my gardening :)

What kinds of plants are all of you growing this year???

Love,

Kasey

21st Birthday

Around a month ago I turned to one of my best friends and said, "I'm turning twenty one really soon! What should I do for my birthday?" Her reply was, "Its not a big deal... We can talk about it later." 

"No really, what should I do?"

With a sly smile forming on her face , "Kasey, we are not talking about this okay."

Surprise party in the works. WEEEEE! 

My birthday fell on a sunday this year. The thursday before my birthday the same friend who ever so NOT slyly informed me of my party, asked me if I wanted to go out to eat the next day. Of course I said sure, barely glancing up from my reading and not thinking twice about it. Little did I know...

My boyfriend Brian flew in from Wisconsin to surprise me for my birthday! I was so shocked that when I saw him sitting in the restaurant I did a double take and then burst into tears. Such an amazing present.


My surprise party happened the following saturday night. I came home from a nice dinner with Brian to find all off my closest friends standing in my kitchen with a tie dye birthday cake and a mountain of jello shots! 

Thank you all so much for this amazing party. I actually can't express how much it ment to me. I had such an amazing time and couldn't have asked for more. I love you!

The beautiful people who made this happen. I love you all with every ounce of my heart.

Forever Thankful,

Kasey

Over this past summer I tried something completely new to me. I got a job at a summer camp in Upstate New York. I had never had a job working at a summer camp. Nor had I ever gotten a job working with kids, and to be honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

The whole process started when I received an email from my Lacrosse Coach. The headline was simple.. . "If anyone's interested..." Attached to her email was an email from the director of this particular summer camp. It was requesting that anyone with lacrosse experience who would be interested in working as a lacrosse instructor at their camp for the summer to please send in an application. So I thought, "Wow! How fun would that be! Getting paid to be at camp and play lacrosse! I'd LOVE to do that!!" 

I applied. I was hired. I was going to spend the eight weeks working at a sleep away camp in New York. Everything was right with the world. 

Truth be told, it was BY FAR the hardest thing I had ever done. When I arrived at camp I was asked what age group I would like to be a counselor for. "I want the Debs," and thats who I got. The little girls in camp. Ages 6,7, and 8. Most of them having never been away from their parents for more than a week or so. After reading that most of you probably have looks something similar to this..

Now, I want to make something clear. I LOVE these kids. Any one of my co-counselors would agree with me (I hope) that those eight weeks I spent with them were some of the funniest/craziest/wildest/loving/adorable/heartwarming weeks of my entire life. I can't even begin to document everything that made me laugh because I just don't have enough time to write it all. 

Also, in so many ways it was an intense learning process for me. Essentially, I was a stand in mom for 25 young girls for 2 months. I fed them, went with them everywhere, dressed them in the morning and at night, wiped their faces, held them when they cried, held them when they were happy, played with them, read them stories, cleaned up after them. Told them I loved them. I even slept in the same room with them. 

View from my bed. Sorry its obstructed with children, but that kind of sums up my summer. 

That being said, it was A LOT of work. The first two weeks with the kids were the most mentally, emotionally, and physically draining weeks I've ever experienced. I must have broken down on the phone to at least one person a night, and I wasn't alone. Every single one of my co counselors were having similar feelings. The feelings of being used and lied to. Lead to believe so many false assumptions. Of being throughly beaten down everyday by children, and being away from everyone you love and everything familiar to you. 

We all talked about quitting. Saying that we weren't getting paid enough to be put through such hell everyday. Our families and friends agreed. 

But we just couldn't quit. 

It was kind of an unspoken agreement between the all of us, that no matter how bad it got, we were all in it together, and that everyday that passed was one more day closer to the end. Whenever one of us would break down due to any number of things (carrying 15 sleeping bags up a hill while covered in poison oak and then having to carry them back down because the kids didn't feel like sleeping outside, or getting smashed in the face with a water balloon from a foot away and then having kids scream in your face about how much you suck, or getting yelled at by a 16 year old girl and your boss for not being able to get a little girl to get dressed in time, etc.) we would all band together and convince each other that we could make it through. 

And we did!!!!

The friendships I developed with these people are powerful. We shared an experience unlike anything else. We saw each other at our lowest and highest points. A circle of shoulders to cry on and countless laughs and stories between us. I love you all. 

Honestly, I could spend the next week typing this post, but no one can truly understand unless you lived it. I hope you can at least understand that. 

Always a Friend,

Kasey