Playing with the girls, and messing around in the kitchen!

      The weather has been cold and windy here since I wrote the last post! Not much going outside for me, except to feed the animals! The sun finally came out today so I took advantage of the somewhat warmer weather and walked. It's still rather windy, but bearable, much as the weather for March! Winterlynn and Riley were here on Friday with Win, spending the night. We had a good time and I took her home on Saturday.
      
      It's hard to believe that Easter Sunday is almost here! Where did March go, out with the wind? I am hosting Easter dinner here so I have a lot to do every day until then! But, it shouldn't be stressful since I know what I'm going to prepare and have things written down to do on certain days.

      I've been busy in the kitchen as usual, and I made Kombucha! It is a fermented tea that is full of probiotics, which are good for the immune system. I brewed it until it had the flavor I liked, and it tastes delicious! I started out with a store bought bottle and went from there. There are directions on the web if you google it. Or you can use the directions from Katie at Wellness Mama. I'm also about to brew my own ginger ale. I've had a ginger bug brewing for several days and am about to move to the next step with it. You can also google ginger bug if you want to find out more information on that. I used the information from A Life Unprocessed blogspot.

      Hope you all have a wonderful week and a Blessed Easter! Blessings from Bama!

The strips should have been latticed but I was in a hurry! This was a delicious Mexican chicken casserole!

Sleeping Beauty, trying to keep the light out of her eyes!

It's hard to hold a baby and take a photo at the same time!

Little 'mischief maker'!

Lemon pound cake made from lemons purchased for .99 at Aldi!

Barb-q chicken breasts that was used in calzones.

It is so delicious!

I used a homemade barb-q sauce that I won't make again. It was ok, just too vinegary.

Pouring up the Kombucha. See the scoby on top of the tea?

Contemplating 'Off Grid'

      I read a lot of homestead blogs that are Christian and self-reliant. Some are even going off-grid, meaning they are not using electricity. I understand some of their points, but some of them make little sense to me. I'm not judging them, nor do I wish that they judge me for my opinions. Who knows, I may be one of those who live off-grid one day! I must say though, that I would want to have electricity either from solar panels or hydro-power. It's just too hot here to live without a/c! Their point, however, is not to use anything that you have to purchase or be dependent upon other than your own skills. I don't want to wash our clothes by hand, unless I had too! I do hang most of them out on the line, though. I don't want to have to hand-crank everything when I can just plug into the off-grid system. There may come a day when I see things differently, as I see things differently now than I did a few years ago, but for now, that is what I think.

       If you're wondering why My blog's name is kefir creature, but I never talk about kefir, It's because I can't drink it and my family doesn't like it. I created this blog at the same time I was discovering kefir, and was so excited about it that I named my after it. I don't care for water kefir either. The grains multiply so fast I couldn't keep up. I finally dried both my water and milk kefir grains. If we ever get dairy goats, I'm going to try it again. It may not be as strong tasting with goat milk. I did like it in smoothies, but I didn't make enough smoothies to use up all the kefir. No one else drinks it but me. There are only three people in this family, so I have to consider what they like, too. I also tried kombucha. I purchased a bottle at Whole Foods and grew my own scobie.
It was so sour I couldn't drink it! I made several batches, with some not as sour as others, but still not to my liking. What a lot of these kefir-drinking lacto-fermenting people don't realize is that all that fermentation on a daily basis is not good for you. There are carcinogens that are produced during fermentation, that consumed on a regular basis, could cause cancer. No one wants to talk about that aspect of it, though. Look it up if you don't believe me. That's how I found out about it. I know from experience that my stomach literally soured when I was into all this. My stomach is fine now. Maybe it affects people differently, but that is how it affected me.
      I am one to read and try, but if it's not for me, then I don't keep on doing it just because all the followers on particular blogs are exuberant about it. I trust God to guide me and show me what's right for me and my family, and if it works for us, great! I can't force people to like something just because the general population of blogs I read are about those things. Hopefully, as people try these things, they too, will read about it further, other than just what a few have said, before carcinogens build up in their bodies. There is always another side to the story. Maybe there was some reason that people stopped lact-fermenting everything. One must read and decide for himself. I stopped following one blog because of that. Now, I hope my favorite blog doesn't follow that suit. I may be the only one who sees things a certain way. That's o.k. because I am used to it, now. If you would like, you can leave me a comment below.

I'm working on my fourth gallon of blackberries.

Dehydrating potatoes that I cooked in the Nesco roaster. They didn't turn black!