​Hi everyone! I did lot of Christmas things in the last week and a half. I hope you’ll enjoy this week’s vlog:

​Just a few other things that you might be interested in:

1. I’m reading a very good book by Debi Pearl called Create a Better Brain. It’s a guide on how to use different brain-changing techniques to improve your quality of life (and that of your family). Even though the ideas can be applied to and used by anyone, it's written specifically for Christian women. This book is a bit drier than some of her other books, but it has a lot of the same down-to-earth, hands-on practicality that I love about her previous works. She references one book fairly often that I read a few years ago by Norman Dodge: The Brain That Changes Itself (also a good read, with some "mature" content). 

Debi’s book is fairly new/expensive, so I didn’t buy it. Instead I used my AMAZING Scribd subscription (affiliate link) to read it on my phone. Different parts of the book led me on a few rabbit trails this week.

2. Free music: one of the rabbit trails was a hunt to find good quality music and the challenge of getting it in a format that I like and can use. I already have classical music on CDs (not that I have a good CD player, or even that my laptop has a CD drive… it doesn’t), and you can find it everywhere on the internet and even public radio. This week I played some Vivaldi and Mozart on our Amazon Echo Dot that I keep in the kitchen. This is not my favorite player, however, since it eavesdrops so I have to unplug it after every use.

The other music we listened to this week was the Getty Kids Hymnal on Youtube. Hymns are my favorite, but it’s hard to find them on Youtube where the lyrics are clear AND they are enjoyable to listen to. Mostly I just want to learn the words and melody; as far as what instruments/tempo is used, I don’t really care. The Kids Hymnal songs are so much fun. A lot of the songs are upbeat with an Irish feel. I would like to buy them at some point, but I haven’t decided whether to get a physical CD to rip, or buy them on Google Play. I’d think I’d rather have a CD that I can duplicate across devices/platforms and not have to rely on the internet for.

3. And lastly, along the lines of internet: I switched search engines from Google to DuckDuckGo. Here’s the long story of why:

 There has been a lot of kerfuffle on Youtube about their new censoring policies, and how their algorithms are squashing certain content. Their policy says it will delete videos that are “untrue”, and they gave flat earth and certain conspiracy theories as examples. I don’t have a problem with those things, but sometimes truth looks a whole lot like a conspiracy theory. Furthermore, Youtube favors liberal content (something I don’t care for) over conservative-leaning content, and curates content for me based on that bias. One example is that I’m constantly getting “Why I Left _____ Christian Cult” videos in my suggestions box. I don’t know why these videos are suggested, since I never click on them. Anyhow, a rabbit trail from the Youtube issues led me to the fact that Google also favors liberal content in its search results. DuckDuckGo is a search engine that (to my knowledge) isn’t “partial” about what you search for, and it also doesn’t track your searches (and therefore curate content “just for you”). I feel like the switch will save me time and hassle with searches, and possibly save me money since I won't be (as) aggressively marketed to.

 So, that’s about it for this week. Between now and the new year I’ll be ruminating over different goals, plans and ideas for 2020. No guarantee on a vlog since… well, Christmas. But I hope that you, too, will be able to have a happy time with family and spend some time in quiet reflection.

Til next time, 
-Bethany 

Hi everyone! I had a great week. You can see some highlights of my week below:

We also went thrifting before a church event. I didn’t find very much, but I did find some books and possible Christmas presents.

Speaking of presents, I ordered several on Amazon this week. Gifts aren’t something I intentionally economize on, but if I can save money or get more value for my dollars, of course you know I will. At least one person on my list will be getting a homemade gift, and several others will receive thrifted gifts. Not everyone appreciates used gifts, but several people in my life can appreciate them, so we often exchange second-hand stuff. Of course I can't share any gift projects (darn!) on a public blog yet, but... I've been working on them. :)

That's about it for this week. Hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas season!
-Bethany

​Hi everyone! I hope all of my U.S. readers enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. We started the holiday on Wednesday and didn’t really quit running until Saturday. 

Fun times. And so many pies!
Here's this week's little vlog:

I know I said in the video that we’d spend about $20.00 on Thanksgiving. Well, I decided to do a cheese and cracker tray for each family, plus fruit, plus some other things, so we spent WAY more than $20.00. In the interest of full disclosure. LOL! 
​

​This was my first time brining a turkey, and it was a smashing success. SO good. Here is the brine recipe:

1 quart water (plus 3 quarts, added later)
1 c. kosher salt
1/2 c. sugar
A lemon wedge
Various seasonings: tarragon, sage, parsley, etc.

Bring 1 quart of water to a boil. Add salt, sugar and seasonings. Stir until the salt and sugar are dissolved.

The brine needs to be cool before you add it to the bird. I cooled mine quickly by adding 1 quart of ice (topped with water), plus 2 quarts of very cold water, to the hot brine. You can also set the pot in a sink of ice cold water to cool it down.

Dump your fully thawed-out turkey into a clean 5-gallon bucket. Add brine. I needed three gallons (a triple recipe!) to cover our giant turkey. Put the lid on the bucket and leave it in a cold place for 24 hours. You are supposed to put it in your refrigerator. I put ours out on the porch, since it was so cold outside anyway.

After 24 hours, dump out the brine (don’t reuse it, since it contains impurities from the meat) and let the turkey set overnight to dry out a little. I left the turkey in the bucket and set it in the fridge. 

The next morning, cook your turkey as usual. Since our turkey had been skinned, it didn’t have a lot of fat for self-basting. Instead of basting, I ran a stick of butter over the whole thing, every 45 minutes during cook time. It only took about 1/4 c. of butter to do this, and the meat turned out juicy and amazing!

A used copy of this book runs about $20.00 on Amazon. When I was still living with my parents, this was one of the half-dozen culinary textbooks I invested in. Some were published by the Culinary Institute of America, and others were just books being used in local college classes at the time. I easily spent over $100.00 in cooking books, but I think it was worth it (tip: don't buy the latest edition of ANY textbook! The basic information doesn't change that much). The textbooks included plenty of step-by-step tutorials with clear, beautiful pictures in addition to recipes. They also included scientific explanations for things like emulsions, tempering, etc. lists of ingredients other countries, and sample menus. The recipes in these books are usually excellent and go beyond what “normal” cookbooks offer.  

I hope you all had a fantastic holiday weekend! If you’re curious, I didn't do much Black Friday shopping. I bought some towels and clothes at Walmart, and a throw blanket at a discount store, but I feel like the urgency of Black Friday shopping is gone. Now stores have sales that are a whole weekend long, and discounts aren't all that great (30% on non-tech/appliance items). We went to Walmart again today (Sunday) and most, if not all, of the Black Friday doorbusters were still available at their discounted price.

That's all for now,
​-Bethany