things I learned in September

I'm linking up again with Emily at Chatting at the Sky! This month's learning are mostly foodie, oh actually, all foodie. Wasn't exactly planned, but that's how it happened. But I have some non-food links for you too!

1) I learned how to make whey and "cream cheese" from Nourishing Traditions. I had been kind of afraid to try this but it was SO simple. And I made it from homemade yogurt. I didn't have much yogurt, but I still got a lot of whey (which is what I needed - see below), and the "cream cheese" actually tasted a lot like cream cheese, but not as salty. Definitely going to be a usual thing around here from now on!

2) I learned a little about fermenting. Again, from Nourishing Traditions. Coach made a ton of his awesome salsa and so we added whey, let it sit out a couple days, and *boom* it's fermented. I guess. We can't really tell, but it's supposed to boost good enzymes and things like that that I am not good at explaining, and it's supposed to keep longer. Not sure we'll find out about that one. :)

3) I also made sauerkraut from purple cabbage. And it smells like sauerkraut now, but haven't tried it yet. We actually don't like that kind of thing, but I needed to do something with some cabbages and I was tired of eating it! So, I thought we might have a little here and a little there. We'll see!

4) I learned how to make tomato sauce in the slow cooker. It. Is. Awesome. I froze what I made, but I know it won't last us too long. That's okay. I did modify this recipe some to our taste, and I'm so excited to use it soon!

And here are some (non-food) links to some posts that had me thinking this month:

Seeing a Woman - a must read for parents, especially of boys (in my opinion!)

Toy Rotation and Taking Toys Away - We're doing things a little different and I'm being a little more ruthless about what we keep.

I've been reading through some 31 Days series at The Nester, and this post and this post (both from her "Home. On Purpose." series) gave me some things to think about. Nothing too new, just a different way to look at the same thoughts.

Hope your September was great! Here's to more learning in October!