Barber Pole cakes Take 2!

One of my first blog posts written was about my attempt to make my husband (who's a barber) a barberpole birthday cake. It didn't quite turn out, to say the least... I chose a difficult recipe while I had no baking skills. It's been a year and a half since then and I've been baking alot more so I thought I'd give it a go!

My husband owns a barbershop downtown called "That 50s Barbershop" and this past July was his three year anniversary of being open. This was a big deal for us as we started the barbershop with nothing and three years was how long we were willing to keep trying to make this little dream of his go. Well, since opening we've never had to worry about making this a successful shop as it's done so well. At three years, the shop is very successful and I couldn't be prouder of my husband. :)

So.. I wanted to celebrate with some yummy cupcakes! I didn't want to have a big fancy barber pole shaped cake because it was soooo hot out that week and well, I have two very small children at home who need alot of my attention. So cupcakes it was and they were delish!

Since Parker is gluten intolerant, I decided to turn our favourite chocolate cake into a gf cake and it was good! I followed her recipe exactly but cut out the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. I replaced those with Pamela's Ultimate Baking mix (equal to the amounts removed from original recipe, just over 1 3/4 c). Then after icing it with chocolate buttercream icing, I piped on some barber poles! I think it turned out great!

Here's a picture of my husband and Parker having a cupcake in the barbershop. What a silly boy Parky is, whenever I said "look at the camera" he would look up at the ceiling so Dave decided to follow suit. :)

Sophie is 7 months old!

Well, she's 7 months and 3 days old. :) This picture is from a few weeks ago but I just love it, we were at Rathtrevor beach and she was having such a good time!

At 7 months (and 3 days), Sophie:

~ has two bottom teeth. (and she has a bottom and a top tooth juuuuust about to pop through as well)

~ army crawls everywhere. This girl is speedy!

~ has started pulling herself up to standing onto furniture.

~ lifts arms up to when she wants up.

~ has started eating solids. We offered her some pieces of food when she turned 6 months but she wasn't too interested so we held off. ABout two weeks ago she started actually eating what was being offered. No baby food here!

~ loves to sleep with mama. She's been nursing more frequently at night but since we cosleep, I can't tell you how many times actually and I don't feel too affected since her waking up only requires me latching her on before drifting back to sleep. Cosleeping and breastfeeding rocks!

~ is still not interested in napping independantly. Naps are hard around here. Uusally her morning nap is a struggle, she wants to sleep with me but Parker's still up so that doesn't work. Often I'll either wear her, take her out for a walk or drive or if she's really tired she'll fall asleep while I nurse her and I can lay her on the sofa for a short whle. The afternoon naps are much easier as she naps with her brother. Sometimes she'll nap for just 1/2 hour but once in a blue moon she'll nap for two hours.

~ is much more vocal. When she's sad she says "dada" or "mum" over and over again.

~ loves to play. She often growls at me when she's feeling playful. Funny little girl!

The slowness of summer

I've been promising to keep up with my blogging but I've been enjoying the slowness and laziness that comes with Summer. That and it's too darned hot upstairs where our computer is!

Our summer has been filled with many beach visits, meteor watching, phosphorescence, camping, visiting with friends, farmer's markets and gardening.

Plus, we welcomed a new member to our family: Cady! She's a Golden Retriever/Border Collie cross who we adopted from a family a few months ago. She's beautiful and kind but not the greatest listener and tends to get overly excited and barky around dogs she doesn't know. I'm contemplating obedience school as I'm a bit clueless when it comes to training older dogs but I'm having mixed feelings about the requirement to spay and have up to date vaccinations for her.

Oh! And we're gearing up to move.. hopefully! We live downtown which I love and it's convenient for Dave and used to be convenient for Ally but since she switched highschools and our desire to be a bit out of town, we're hoping to move to Lantzville. We found a great home on some property that I adore but am waiting to hear back from the landlord. We're up against another family but DAve spoke with the landlord today and he'd like to meet Dave so it sounds like maybe we have it? Ugh... house hunting is stressful!

Anyways... when life returns to a more normal pace and we're hopefully settled into our new home, I hope to resume more posting. I have TONS of recipes to share including some tinctures, teas, exracts and raw food! So enjoy the rest of your summer and I'll see you all (well, the 7 of you! lol) soon!

Herbal Salves

I've been absent, I know. Our computer's USB ports aren't working and I haven't been able to upload pictures and for some reason I'm having a hard time blogging without the use of photos! But I'm here today and hopefully we'll remember to take the computer in to be repaired (a super quick repair we've been told) so that I feel more inspired to blog!

Anyhoo... this is about salves. I *love* salves and have been buying them from farmer's markets, health food stores and small brick and mortar stores for years now. But I always assumed making them was so difficult so I didn't even bother. Well, let me tell you: they're super duper easy!! I made up a placenta salve for a client using a basic first aid salve recipe and then adding about a teaspoon of her dried placenta. I've heard amazing things about placenta salves for cesarean moms and I know of someone who belongs to my placenta service providers group who's daughter nearly had her fingers amputated in a paper shredder accident (!!) and her mother applied placenta salve to it to speed up the healing. But I had no personal experience nor did I personally know someone who used it postpartum so I offered it free to a few clients in exchange for feedback. I also made up a batch without added placenta for a friend's birthday on the weekend. Now I just need to get around to making myself a batch (I want both placenta and regular first aid salve).

Here's a recipe and how to:

First Aid Salve

• First you need to make an herbal infused oil. I used one part herbs to 2 parts oil. The oil I chose was a mixture of organic (make sure to only use organic ingredients for salves) virgin coconut oil and apricot kernal oil. I used comfrey, calendula and goldenseal and placed a tablespoon of each into a crockpot. Then I added 4 tablespoons of coconut oil and 2 tablespoons of apricot kernal oil. Turn the crockpot onto low and let the oil infuse for about 3 hours. Let cool and strain into a clean container using cheesecloth.
• In a pot on low-medium heat, warm the infused oil and add about a tablespoon of grated beeswax (use local beeswax if available). Then you can add 800 IUs of vitamin E and a drop of lavender essential oil. You can also add 1/2 a tsp of tea tree oil but I chose not to. Stir until beeswax melts into oil.
• You'll know your mixture is the right consistency by dipping a teaspoon into the pot and then sticking it into the freezer to set. When it sets, test it to make sure it's not too hard or too soft. If it's too soft, add a little more beeswax. If it's too hard, add more oil.
• Pour into sterile brown glass jars and seal.
• Voila... you are done! This can be used on cuts, scrapes, bug bites, etc.

For placenta salve, I make a second batch of infused oil using a teaspoon (or 1 or two capsules) of dried and ground placenta in 100mls of carrier oil: I used apricot kernel oil). Either in a double boiler or a crockpot set on low, allow the placenta to infuse the oil for abuot an hour or so. You'll know it's done when you start to smell placenta (not burnt or overly strong, just placenta-y.) Strain into a small pot using cheesecloth and then add 3 tablespoons of the first aid salve and follow above instructions.

To use placenta salve on a cesarean incision, wait until the bandages have been removed and the wound has closed up. A mother who birthed vaginally can also use this cream on tender or torn and reparied bits too. The same rule for taking encapsulated placenta internally applies for placenta salve: if infection of any kind is suspected, stop use until all symptoms disappear.

Farmer's Markets

One of our favourite things to do is visit local Farmer's Markets. There is nothing better than locally grown produce and we're very fortunate on Vancouver Island that we have an extended growing season compared with the rest of Canada.
Lately, we've been enjoying strawberries, tomatoes, fresh local organic bread and the best scones EVER from Slow Rise on Gabriola, honey from Freidrich's, meat and eggs from Errington as well as locally grown organic teas.

Here's a list of local Farmer's Markets so that you too can enjoy some local goodness!

Downtown Farmer's Market on Fridays at the waterfront plaza.
Rutherford Market on Saturdays in the Rutherford (now called Nanaimo North Town Centre) parking lot.
Bowen Farmer's Market on Wednesday afternoons in Bowen Park
Cedar Farmer's Market on Sundays in Cedar at the Crow and Gate parking lot. (this is my personal favourite, great atmosphere, great people, great music and best of all: great food!)
Thursday Nite Live Ladysmith Market Thursday nights during July and August downtown Ladysmith
Duncan Farmer's Market on Saturdays.  I think this one runs nearly year round (closed from mid-Jan to mid-March)

Checking in!

I have a bad habit of forgetting what I was planning on blogging about. All week, I've been thinking of great blog posts but as soon as I get to the computer I forget what it was I want to blog about. My mind goes completely blank. Like it's doing right now.
I feel like I've been neglecting my blog and I feel bad. Not that I have very many readers but still.... I like blogging a few times a week, it helps clear the brain a little! ;)
Not much new is going on here...
Ally finished school, she's finished her first year of highschool! We're trying to find summer activities for her but like always we procrastinated on that and it's a little late for most programs. Oops! She'd like to get into dance so I think I found a dance class that's a week long of various different styles of dance. It's nice and close downtown and if she likes a particular style of dance then she can join something in the fall there.
Parker is my wild little man still. He had a hearing test today, not because we're concerned with his hearing but because his speech is behind a bit and that's the first step taken usually. He passed but they'd like to see him again when he's three because although he did great at hearing voice prompts, he had a hard time with the sounds. But she said she's not concerned and is still considered to pass because it's hard to test a 2 year old. So yay! I'm looking forward to having some support from the Infant Development Program at the Child Development Centre and for some speech therapy. I'm just hoping the wait isn't too long.
Sophie is 5 months old, can you believe it?! She can sit unassisted and is trying desperately to move her body but isn't quite there yet. I think she may finally be moving into some sort of daily rythym though. Finally! Her naps are becoming more predictable now that I'm napping her upstairs in our bed and she sleeps better at night too now that she sleeps half the night in our bed. As usual, she's a happy little thing!
Oh! And we got a dog! Her name is Cady and she's a Retriever/Collie mix. We found her on kijiji from a family that owns a horse and goat farm in East Wellington. She's great although you can tell she's a farm dog. She gets very excited when she sees other dogs so hopefully some doggy school will tame her a bit so we can take her to the Farmer's Market and the dog park.
I wanted to upload some pictures but of course we're yet again having computer issues! I bought a new printer a few weeks ago and pretty much since then our USB ports have crapped out on us. So hopefully we'll get that fixed soon, I hate not being able to upload pics or update my iTouch!
Anyhoo... that's the update from around here!
I'm working on a post on Canadian Immunizations that I've been meaing to do for months now. I'm finding that while I still know that I don't want to immunize my kids I do need reminding as to why I'm choosing not to.

Placenta Encapsulation ~ A How-To

I was trying to decide if I wanted to post pictures on how to encapsulate a placenta or not. At first I didn't want to because afterall, it is a service I provide to Nanaimo and area families and didn't want to miss out on business. But then I changed my mind and because I want every woman to be able to experience the benefits of placentophagy even if they can't afford it (although I do offer a trade or sliding scale system as well).

So here it is... thanks to a good friend of mine who's placenta I encapsulated 2 weeks ago and has given me permission to blog about the processs and share photos with y'all!

Please be warned, there is photos of a human placenta and there is some blood. So if you're squeamish then please don't continue reading! :)

How to Encapsulate Your Placenta

This is a placenta that was previously frozen (my friend lives out of town and wasn't sure when I'd be able to come down to encapsulate it for her so she froze it). First thing you want to do is rinse it really well to remove blood clots. I sever the cord and leave the membranes on.

Wrap the membranes around the placenta and add some chopped hot pepper and ginger (I now also add lemon). Place in a steamer and set over a small amount of water.

Steam gently for 15 minutes on each side and bleed it occasionally (bleed it by poking it with a knife). It's done when there is no more blood when you poke it with a knife and the membranes have pulled back.

When it's cool enough to handle, slice into very thin pieces. Think beef jerky. :-p

Either use a dehydrator or line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and put in oven on the lowest setting with the door propped open. This will take anywhere from 7-10 hours.

Don't forget the cord keepsake! This one I later learned was done wrong. When it dehydrated, it was no longer a heart shape but a stick shape. I should have had the ends meet at teh bottom and twisted it to keep it from coming undone.

You can tell it's finished when the placenta snaps and is fully dried. Be careful not to cook it, you just want to dehydrate and a very low heat (remove all moisture but not cooking it). Put all the dried slices into a blender (I use a Magic Bullet) and grind until a fine powder. Use a mortar and pestle to get the stubborn bits that won't grind down.

When it's all ground up finely, fill up size 00 gelatin caps.

And Voila! That's how you encapsulate a placenta. And it only took 12-15 hours, lol!