Great Solar Oven

My brother and sister-in-law made this amazing solar oven, which they use in San Diego all the time.  It can even cook potatoes.

They have lined the inside with reflective foil and insulation.

Easy healthy and simple porridge for breakfast - how to prepare bulgar (instant wheat) and make it for a breakfast porridge

"Bulgar" is something I grew up with an awareness of as my parents made it.  I knew of it as hard clusters of cooked, dried wheat along a baking tray, but I didn't know its purpose.  I did know my Dad sometimes ate it on camping trips (when he hiked in the mountains, and slept in a tent).

My dad explained it to me on my visit home.  It's something they do in the Middle East, and you can buy it in shops, but my parents prepare it themselves at home.  The point of it is that after the wheat is cooked, it requires far less cooking time - instead of a cooking time of 10 minutes for uncooked ground wheat, it's pretty much instant - just add boiling water.

In the Middle East they use it as cous-cous in pilafs.  It can be used as rice is used; you can also add it to baking, add it to mince in burger patties, add it to soups.  But my dad usually just eats it as a healthy, simple porridge - and instant easy breakfast when camping (he even takes it in a plastic bag and just adds hot water in the bag and voila great survival skill).


Preparation: 

There are a few steps - very easy steps, but with a lot of time elapsing inbetween.

COOK THE RAW WHEAT

First you boil the wheat until it is soft and all the water is absorbed.  If you have a pressure cooker, it's easier as you pressure cook for 5 minutes, then just turn off the heat and leave it in the sealed pot for a few hours, or overnight (it will continue cooking in the pot).  If you don't have a pressure cooker you can also cook the wheat on low heat for a couple of hours (after the water gets up to boiling first, then turn it down to lower heat).  When both methods are done all the water should be absorbed into the wheat.

The right amount water varies for the pressure cooking vs the sauce pan way.  Here are the two ratios:

Pressure Cooker Method:  4 cups washed wheat to 6 cups water, pressure cook for 5 min then leave it in pot for a few hours or overnight.

Saucepan Method: 1 cup washed wheat to 3.5 cups water, cook in saucepan for 4-6 hours.

DRY THE COOKED WHEAT

After the wheat is cooked, soft, and all the water is absorbed, spread it out on large baking trays at 200-250 degrees F (93 degrees C) for 4-6 hours until completely dried.  You will need to stir it around once in awhile so it won't stick into clusters (how I often saw it growing up).

GRIND THE COOKED DRY WHEAT

After the cooked wheat has been dried, grind it coarsely.  It can now be used as a very easy to cook, far less sticky porridge - easier cleanup and it tastes better as a porridge too (than cooking raw ground wheat).  All the same nutrients are there, but it is now "fast food".

After eating this every morning at my parents house, taking part in this healthy, wholesome and happy lifestyle - I would like to prepare ground up bulgar each weekend to eat in the mornings at home during our busy lifestyle for our family, when both my husband and I are working.  The simpler wheat porridge breakfast (healthy with lots and lots of fibre, no packaging, and really cheap) will then be achievable.

EATING BULGAR

It's actually just a light, fluffy, healthy, yummy breakfast.

For every 1 cup of ground bulgar, use 3 cups of water.  First heat the water in a saucepan, and when the water boils, turn it down and add the ground wheat in a thin stream while stirring to prevent clumping.  My dad likes to add dried raisins to his bulgar, and 1 tsp salt.

Knitting graph paper - a totally cool idea for designing your own.

Did you know that you can print out graph paper for knitting, and mark it up for planning your knitting?

In this way, I planned how a new method (Fair Isle) for knitting would work for a gift I am knitting for my nephew.  The graph shapes are really rectangles, as knitted stitches take up more of a rectangular area than square.

See?

For this toque (hat) I marked out two different variations, then was better able to choose which one I wanted to take the time to knit.  

Fair Isle is so cool and easy - this one is multiples of three all around, but then you have one extra stitch.  Then the whole pattern gets shifted over one (1 out of the 3) each time.  You can also move it over by 2.  Much experimentation by me in the future to come. 

I am already feeling the urge though for these straight lines to curl off into spirals.  Totally hard to do at the crown, with knitting - but can repeat a few round the band after a bit.  Using the knitting graph paper, I can follow my own designed pattern.

Here is the paper I found online, which can be saved-printed here:

The House

Jones Family Jam

We just had a great visit with my brother Allan and his family.  His wife is really "into" music (and possesses fierce discipline).  I loved our experience - we were blown away.  We marvelled at the music which suddenly came forth and was present.  It made me want to play music!

Lucan has always shown a love of music - and used to pluck at our guitar (which we didn't know how to use) and sing, as a baby. I brought a ukelele, and one of the musical daughters, Elizabeth, is going to get us past the intimidating part to use it!  This is one of the great things about travelling.  You learn so much from people. 

Don't laugh about the uke. Anything new is daunting.  I played the piano for years, had piano lessons.  But we never touched a stringed instrument!

When I saw the musical expression pouring out of those kids, especially the oldest boy, and oldest girl, who seemed to really love it - it made me wonder at how humans have fashioned musical instruments to better voice the music inside us.

A wise way to live

When I visit my parents (see photo of super sharp knives - all with holes drilled into them to hang on the wall - with some small chopping boards) I get the sense of, this is how to live. It's a wise, way to live.

They have good tools, very good quality, even expensive good tools. With which they save heaps of money by doing everything themselves.

Supermarkets are selling fruit and vegetables that are often mass produced, with less and less nutrients - but they use a loophole and were growing their own veggies.

They made their own bread (with the help of a food processor with a dough hook), they did store away bulk foods that were dehydrated or processed so that they could be, to use as a backup (like "doomsday preppers" do). They were just being clever with the resources they had all the time. Very clever!

Now their money is put into things they really care about - like their beautiful restored heritage home, and travelling to do what they want to do. Probably also helping everybody.  Being out of debt.  Being as free and as happy as possible.

My Dad's garage

Entering my Dad's garage is like stepping back in time.

Despite all the change around his home, new monster houses and duplexes rising up here and there, even more so time stays still just inside these walls.

Every tool, even from decades ago, some even older, are cared for so well. In this house, even more care can be seen - with wooden tools and objects made for every purpose and ease. Everything is fixed, painted, well kept up. The energy put into it is beautiful.

This place has so much spirit I can even feel it in the photo.