Fort Myers Beach

We have made a weekly tradition of driving down to Naples and eating lunch on Sunday. On our way home, we drive along the gulf coast and stop at a different beach every time! Our first stop was at Barefoot Beach, which was great for shelling. The second trip down, we stopped at Bonita Beach, from which we saw a beautiful sunset and found a horseshoe crab! This week, we stopped shortly at Fort Myers Beach- they grate the beach here, so not much shelling! We all enjoyed taking our shoes off and taking in the view...





It was a nice evening at the beach!




Looking and looking... and looking for shells... not much here!

Leave it to Gabe- he found a dead crab and picked it up- eeewww!

Noah, drawing with his feet in the sand.

A wonderful beginning to Thanksgiving week! Happy Turkey Day, everyone :)

Florida Snowball Fight

As you all know, it just doesn't snow in southern Florida. But, that doesn't stop us from having a snowball fight! At our Fall Fest, our homeschool group coordinated a Florida snowball fight! Not exactly what I remember as a kid, but definitely fun!








Here's Gabe getting ready to fill his first "snowball" with flour. Yes, I said flour. Florida snowballs are nothing more than flour tied into pantyhose!





The other kids soon joined in and we made a boxful of these powdery weapons...





Here they are, ready to throw!






Here's Gabe, mid-fight. He was picking up as many loose snowballs as possible, and as you can tell, taking some hits as well :) After the fight, he had one ear full of flour!

Elena and her friend Kristal thought they were safe on the hill...

I don't think Annalee liked getting dirty!

Noah and his buddy Nick looking for targets...

Gabe really got into this war! He was still wanting to throw his snowballs even after the fight was over!

Our crazy homeschool group... covered with "snow". :)

Crispy Cashews

Cashews are a great holiday treat! When I worked for a candy store in high school, I remember the large shipment of cashews that arrived at this time of year. The nuts came in large boxes, so we workers had to re-pack them in smaller packages to be sold in the storefront... well, when I was picked to pack them, every third one ended up in my mouth! The store's policy was: you can eat whatever you wish, just as long as you are working too! I took full advantage of this during the Christmas season...

Speaking of cashews, did you know that they (in their raw state) contain a toxic oil called cardol? The "raw" cashews that you can purchase from the store have been cracked and roasted already to release this toxic oil. Even after this process, these delicious nuts still contain enzyme inhibitors that prevent your body from digesting them fully and absorbing their many nutrients. Eaten in excess, nuts can put real strain on your system!


I have discovered recently that soaking nuts and drying them can neutralize these pesky enzyme inhibitors... which I'm going to show you how to do today :)





Here is a batch of "raw" cashews that I purchased online from http://www.bulkfoods.com/ . Their store has many different kinds of raw nuts that can be soaked and dried in this same fashion! You will need about 4 cups cashews (or other nut), enough filtered water to cover them and 1 T sea salt.








Once you have your cashews covered with filtered water, add the salt. I am using Celtic sea salt, a high mineral grey salt from northern France. I also got this from Bulkfoods. For cashews, soak them for no more than 6 hours. They tend to get slimy if you soak them too long or dry them out too slowly! Any other raw nut (peanuts, filberts, almonds, pine nuts, pecans or macadamia) should be left to soak for 7 hours to overnight.



When your cashews have soaked for 6 hours, drain them and place them onto a cookie sheet and into an oven, pre-heated to 200F. **Any other raw nut shouldn't be heated to more than 150F**


They need 12-24 hours to dry out, but they are well worth it!

Here is my finished batch of cashews- YUM! I have melted a teenie bit of coconut oil on them and sprinkled them with more sea salt. Keep finished nuts in air-tight containers and enjoy them with your family this Christmas season :)

Real Pumpkin Pie

Did you know that you can make a pumpkin pie without buying canned pumpkin?? Really! Annalee and I made a pumpkin pie with non-canned pumpkin this week, and it is de-li-cious!!

Here's Annalee with our little pumpkin! This one little pumpkin will make a whole pie... it was actually exactly enough pumpkin for our recipe :)

Annalee was in charge of scooping out the seeds... The recipe said nothing about making a mess, but it's something she's really good at ;)

Once the pumpkin is free of seeds, place it on a baking sheet and bake at 350F for one hour.

The fruit should be soft enough to scoop out of the rind, but not too mushy!

I baked my pie in a rectangular glass pan, but a 9" pie pan will do fine! It was moist and delicious- I'll have to make another for Thanksgiving! By the way, we ordered an Amish turkey from our local German butcher for turkey day- I've already tried their chicken, and it was fantastic. My mouth is starting to water already...

Here's the pumpkin pie recipe, courtesy of R. Conroy:

3/4 c honey

3 eggs

1/2 t each: ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon

1/2 t salt

1 3/4 c cooked pumpkin (directions above)

12 oz milk (I used raw cows milk, but coconut milk works too!)

Combine all ingredients in blender.

Pour into prepared crust (either 9" pie pan or med. sized glass pan)

Bake at 325F for 1 hour.

Top with whipped cream and enjoy!

Halloween

See, I'm not a total Halloween Humbug! The little ones got dressed up and trick-or-treated at our neighbors' houses- all 3 of them. Two of them answered, and they were ready for us! We have the only kids on the whole street, so I think the kids got a bag of candy apiece...





Annalee went as Tinkerbell, and Gabe was a zombie- imagine that!

The big kids didn't want to dress up, but they sure got into the candy eating! Hope everyone had a great Halloween!