The Battle of the Fruit Flies...

It's that time of year... getting warmer outside but still not so hot that we have to close up the house and turn the Air Conditioning on. That's something we avoid until the last minute.

The problem, however, is that, in this weather, the fruit flies start to swarm around the vegetable and fruit scraps waiting to go out into the garden and make our cooking area very unpleasant.

This morning we started our campaign which was 100% successful last year over a couple of days. We built fruit fly traps which draw the little devils in by the gross and get them out of our way.

We start with a small Ball jar. Into that we put about 1/2 cup of cider vinegar, a little water and a few drops of dish soap. Some people add a piece of banana to the mix - something fruit flies love - but I haven't found it necessary.

On top of the jar we stretch tightly a piece of plastic wrap, or a small sandwich bag, and seal it around the neck with a rubber band. Then we take a toothpick and poke about 7 or 8 holes in the top.

That's it.

Put the Jar (or 2 or 3 of them) in the infestation area and pretty soon the problem will be gone... and you can count the number of bugs either floating on top (new captures) or lying dead on the bottom. I'm up to around 60 with one jar which I set up about 3 hours ago.

A jar with the vinegar/soap mix lasts a couple of weeks and then can be refreshed with a new mix. Keep the traps going until the problem disappears or the start of heavy air conditioning season (you may have to overlap the two.)

A Lime Pie Experiment...

I've been trying variations on a Vegan Key Lime-ish Pie for about a week now, working on ways to get a good, low calorie, egg and sugar free pie. I'm now at the point where I have one that I like, my wife likes and that friends we have served it to like.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients: 1 lime, 1/3 cup lime juice, 1 pkg. Healthy Top, 1/3 cup Egg Replacer, 1/3 cup powdered stevia (I used Truvia), pinch of sea salt, 1/2 cup cocoanut or almond milk, 1 1/2 cups hot water, vanilla, graham cracker pie crust (make your own or get one already made - after checking ingredients.)

You will need:

A double boiler (or two pans set up to duplicate one), Electric Mixer, cold bowl for whipping Healthy Top (I took the bowl from our Kitchen Aid Mixer and put it in the freezer for a couple of hours), a rubber spatula, measuring cup.

OK. First put the stevia, the Egg Replacer and a pinch of salt into the dry top pan of the double boiler and thoroughly mix them up with the rubber spatula.

Grate about 2 tablespoons of zests off the lime. Add the zests to the dry ingredients mix and thoroughly mix them in,

Now turn on the double boiler and add 1 1/2 cups hot water and 1/3 cup lime juice to the mix and stir it up with the rubber spatula. As the water in the base of the double boiler gets hotter, keep stirring the ingredients mix in the top pan. As the filling mix starts to get hot, add 1/4 cup of the Healthy Top and stir it in until it is completely blended.

Keep stirring until the mix gets thick enough that it creates mounds when you pick up some with the spatula (about ten minutes.)

After you take the top pan off the heat, stir it for about five minutes as it cools off. You will notice that it gets even thicker.

When the filling has cooled off a little and is nice and thick, pour it into the pie crust and spread it evenly. Make sure you use the rubber spatula to scrape all the filling from inside the pan... you don't want to leave any behind. The mix will fill about half the shell. Don't worry... there's more coming.

Put the filled shell in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to let it get really cold.

About 20 minutes before you take the shell out of the refrigerator, you are going to make the topping.

In the frozen mixing bowl, add the remaining contents of the Healthy Top package. to this add a teaspoon of vanilla, the 1/2 cup of cocoanut or almond milk, a teaspoon of stevia and a tablespoon of lime juice. Whip it with the mixer until it fluffs up like high class whipping cream.

Spread the whipped topping on top of the pie and build thick mountains and swirls of the whip. When you are done, put it in the freezer until you are ready to serve (an hour is all you really need).

The nice thing about Heavy Top is that it expands in quantity as you whip it. You are likely to have about 2 or 3 cups left over. Here's a tip: put about two cups of fresh or thawed frozen fruit in a blender and blend until it is free of any lumps. Pour this into the mixing bowl with the remaining whipped topping, add three tablespoons of Egg Replacer, and mix them all together at a medium speed. Then put the mix into a covered pyrex or plastic container and freeze. n three hours you will have a delicious ice cream substitute.

Have fun.
-Bill

HOW TO DO A GMO FOOD DUMP...

If you're protesting the presence of non-organic foods at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, or other "organic" food stores, look at this:


Thanks to Millions Against Monsanto.

Join the Millions against Monsanto...

... sign the Truth in labeling Petition.

Sign HERE.

Thanks, Bill.