Activating the starter required discarding about a cup of starter a day.  This is so wasteful, but I had no idea what to do with it otherwise.  Moving forward I hope to find more productive uses for the extra starter.

I made my first loaf of bread last weekend.  It was tasty but got hard very quickly so J turned the bread into croutons for our salad.  I plan to try out this sourdough pizza recipe tomorrow.

For more menu ideas, check out Menu Plan Monday at Organizing Junkie.

On a related note, J and I recently started a group for potential adoptive parents in our area through Meetup.com.  We’ve had two meetings so far, and it has been great to talk with others in similar situations.  We have two women who have already adopted (one through an agency and one via a private adoption) lined up to speak at our March meeting.

Photo by bcmom

Usually I use my cloth produce bags to purchase dry goods from the bins.  This past weekend, all of my bags were in the laundry, so I decided to take a few mason jars with me.  Once I arrived at the store, I headed to the customer service desk to have my jars weighed.  However, I was informed that Whole Foods has no way to tare the jars and so the weight of the jars would be included in the price of the goods.  The guy “helpfully” suggested that I could use the plastic bags provided, check-out, dump the goods into my jars and then recycle the bags.  What?!  If I wanted to use plastic, I would just buy a prepackaged bag of beans and not bother driving across town to Whole Foods.  Given Whole Foods’ supposed commitment to the environment, I was taken aback by the lack of a system for using reusable containers.  Is it just my store that has this problem?  Has anyone been able to successfully use glass jars at Whole Foods?

For those times when we want to watch something together, we have an Amazon Prime account (free because we are both in school) which allows us to stream certain movies and TV shows at no cost, and we currently have a free month with Netflix’s streaming service.  So far, we’ve been a bit disappointed with the selection offered by both of these services.  Maybe it’s for the best though because I’m really hoping that this change will prompt both of us to spend more time reading and pursuing our hobbies.

With that said, I did not even occur to me to check with my mom when we were looking for a large glass jar for brewing kombucha.  (As I mentioned, I think our mold problem with our first culture was due to the plastic spout on the glass jar I used.)  J and I kept our eyes open while out and about hoping to find something suitable for a good price, but we didn’t have any luck.  I finally broke down and ordered a jar for $12.99.  I got an email this morning letting me know that the jar has shipped.

We went over to my parent’s house this evening for dinner and to watch the first half of the Super Bowl.  My mom had mixed up a big batch of sweet tea and asked me to pour it into the glasses.  Check out the container she used.

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for – a one gallon glass jar with a wide mouth.  Turns out she has lots of these jars, so she gave me two!  So not only are the jars free, they are re-purposed.  Fantastic!  Should I keep the jar I ordered or send it back?

My new kombucha culture arrived in the mail last week, and I set it to rehydrating Friday evening.  It will take a few weeks for it to be ready to go, but I hope to jump right in with brewing gallon-sized batches.

A little over a year ago I started taking Green Pasture’s Butter Oil/Fermented Cod Liver Oil Blend (as recommended by the Weston A. Price Foundation).  As you might imagine, it tastes terrible.  The trick is to keep it in the fridge so it becomes somewhat solid, take it off of a spoon without touching it with your lips and then wash it down with a ton of water.  Easy enough.  A few months ago I ran out and just now got around ordering more.  The site I buy from does not seem to carry the blend any longer, so I just ordered two bottles of the regular Fermented Cod Liver Oil.  As you can see, it comes in a narrow neck bottle with a syringe.  Seriously? I did some quick googling and found that the FCLO does not have the same gel-like consistency as the blend; it’s a straight liquid. The thought of that oil coating my mouth makes me gag; however, at $44/bottle, I need to find a good way to get this down.  Any ideas?

I usually purchase my dried beans from the bulk bins at Whole Foods.  By using my cloth produce bags, I avoid generating any plastic waste.  Sometimes, I do buy the bags of dried beans at the grocery store, but I find that the quality is not as good (i.e. the beans look like they got chewed up in a machine somewhere along the way).

Here is the method I use for soaking and cooking dried beans, based on the guidelines in  Nourishing Traditions.  Be aware that beans expand during soaking, so use a sufficiently large pot and lots of water.

1. Rinse beans; remove any broken beans and other debris.
2. In a large pot, cover beans with 2-3 x more warm, filtered water.
3. Add a glug or two of apple cider vinegar.
4. Cover and let sit over night (or up to 24 hours).
5. Drain and rinse beans.
6. Return to pot; cover with filtered water.
7. Bring to a boil; skim off any scum that surfaces.
8. Simmer gently for 4-8 hours until done, adding more filtered water as necessary.

J and I have also spent a lot of time thinking and talking about the adoption lately.  We are at the point where we need to decide what we are open to in regards to ethnic background, medical issues and drug and alcohol use by the birthmother.  Truly, this has been the toughest part of the process so far.  The more open we are to various situations, the greater the chance that we will be chosen quickly, but we also need to be honest with ourselves about what we are prepared to handle.  It makes me feel terrible to pick and choose such characteristics.  J and I are usually on the same page; however, on some of these issues we find ourselves on opposite ends of the spectrum.  It’s been difficult to work through.

On Sunday we had our required adoption education class which was really more of a Q&A session about the process.  We also got see some examples of profiles other couples have created, and we realized that ours needed a bit more panache.  We made some changes, and our final version is ready to go.  It looks fantastic!  I wish I could take create for it, but J did most of the work.  (If anyone else is looking to create an adoption profile, I highly recommend the My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software.)  He is going to get the copies printed tomorrow, and we will be one step closer to “going in the book”.  All we need now is to film our video profile this weekend (yikes!) and then send everything in to the agency.

I’ll be glad when we are done with this part of the process and can get back to our normal lives.  I need to focus on something else for a while.