Making Citrus Sugar

This is exactly the same procedure as the citrus salt recipe, only with sugar.

You Will Need:

How to Cheat yourself out of Personal Growth

You know what makes me sad?

Those posters that get shared on Facebook that essentially say, “ Hey! If you don’t agree with X then delete me because I don’t want anything to do with you and I don’t want to engage in a conversation about X!” or “ Y group of people/religion/sex/ect. is “insert negative stereotype/assumption.”

Those things really really bother me.

Why?

Because as far as I can tell it means that person who I care about, is not willing to see any other side to a situation and they aren’t willing to even consider that they might- god forbid- be even the tiniest bit wrong or that there might be another right way besides their own.  

Let’s just pretend we’ve found something that we disagree about…and it’s on Facebook, here or anywhere else. 

How do I want you to handle it?

I want you to start a conversation about it!

That doesn’t mean that I’m giving you license to get all high and holier-than-thou, or tell me that I’m terrible, bad and wrong What it means is that, like civil adults with fully intact (mostly anyway, I can’t expect more from you than I’m capable of) social skills you should try to engage in an intelligent conversation about the issue. 

An intelligent conversation involves:

Facts

Research

Personal experience

Philosophy/ belief systems

Patience

Open mindedness

Kindness

Listening

Restraint 

And

Drum roll please….

People with differing opinions!

I truly believe that with almost anything there are as many ways to do something right (or wrong, for that matter) as there are ways of thinking. 

It would be a pretty ugly world if there was only one way that anything worked. What if you were in a situation were that one way wasn’t possible?

Yikes.

I know there have been times I was guilty of having a closed mind on subjects, we all are from time to time. I try to remember that someone else’s opinion or beliefs shouldn’t threaten me, and if they do its no reflection of them but of my own issues.

So lets all try to engage in those hard conversations. Yeah, there might be some failures and hurt feelings. It’s not always fun or easy to have those conversations but it is so important in order for all of us to keep learning and growing as people. 

What strategies do you use to engage in those tricky conversations?

This post is participating in the Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Homestead Barn, Mostly Homemade Mondays and HomeAcre blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!

Homemade Lemon Pepper Seasoning

Lets just start this out by saying that I adore lemon pepper seasoning. 
Its good on so many things; pasta, carrots, chicken, fish....
Oo! Don't forget about popcorn, yummy!

But finding a store bought version without loads of nasty junk in it is near impossible. In fact, I had spent so much time looking for a brand without preservatives and god knows what in it that I finally gave up on store bought lemon pepper seasoning.

It's been on my list of things to try making at home for a long time. The craving for lemon pepper popcorn redoubled after eating some at my mom's house made with the nasty perservative-and-god-knows-what-laden store bought stuff. Since I'm doing a series of posts focusing on citrus it couldn't have been a better time to make my own lemon pepper seasoning!

Luckily it isn't hard to make!

You will need:

lemon salt

Here's how to make lemon salt yourself 

Ground pepper
You can use whatever color of pepper you like, I really want to try it with a nice mixed pepper. 
The ratio I used was:
6 Tbs black pepper and 3 Tbs lemon salt

Just mix the lemon salt together with the pepper and magic! You have lemon pepper seasoning!
If you wanted to make a salt free version you could dehydrate lemon zest and use that instead of lemon salt. The method in the lemon salt directions should still apply to just dehydrating zest. You will have to taste test to figure out the right ratio, not that you need an excuse to taste this concoction. 

 Now just restrain yourself long enough to jar it up before gleefully seasoning whatever it is you have been waiting ever so patiently to season.

 Next up: citrus sugar, stay tuned!

This post is participating in the Healthy Tuesday's, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways,Mostly Homemade Mondays,  HomeAcre, Homestead Barn, Savory Saturdays, From The Farm, Inspired Weekends and Real Food Wednesdays, blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!

Making Citrus Salts

This time of year I become just an itsy bit obsessed with citrus.
 I eat grapefruit until my teeth ache and this year I started concocting all sorts of recipes and ways to use and preserve the citrus season year round. 

Citrus salt was top of my list. 

Lime salt especially because I love lime tortilla chips and you can't exactly make those at home without lime salt! 

Birdie Bread: Beta-Carotene Variation

Birdie bread is something you can make for any feathered critter in your life, the wild birds, your pet birds or your poultry. 
Not that your poultry can't also be your pets, but I digress.

There are lots of birdie bread recipes that are actually unhealthy and not very nutrient dense, using mostly wheat flour and corn meal or even, horrors of all horrors, Jiffy mix. 

Pasta Maker Gush & A Lasagna Recipe to Die For

Wayyy back in September I turned the ripe old age of 22....
Don't worry, I'm kidding. Not about the birthday- but about being old, I know I'm a spring chicken! 
To celebrate we went mushroom hunting and enjoyed some time in the great outdoors together. 

My mother-in-law and her mom got together and gave me a pasta maker and all the accessories as a birthday gift. Talk about exciting! My husband was actually even more excited than I was, he dropped so many hints I figured out what it was way before the package showed up. I love my honey but he is really bad at keeping a secret!

Here it is in all its stainless steel glory.