Remember that leaf-cutting I took from my African violet plant?

Well, here's one of them!

Fall of 2013, I took 4 leaves, plunged them into soil, and kept watered. 2 leaves developed into full-blown plants. And one is in bloom right now! Both of my new plants are ready to give as gifts, at the next opportunity.

Exciting, right?

Well, the excitement continues (I lead a remarkably exciting life, don't you think?).

Late winter of this year, I decided I was going to try my hand at propagating Christmas Cactus, to give as a hostess gift for a dinner or party come November or December of 2016. (I plan ahead, way ahead.)

I plucked a cluster of Christmas Cactus leaves off of my one plant, and plunged it into soil, keeping it watered for the last few months.

Do you know how to tell if your Christmas Cactus leaf cutting has developed roots? When you see some reddish or pinkish new growth at the tip of one of the leaves, that's a sign the roots have begun.

I'll be babying this little plant for the next year and a half, and by the holidays of 2016, I should have a full-fledged, and in flower plant to give as a hostess gift.

These sell for $10-15 per plant in grocery stores during the holidays. I think I'll take another 2 or 3 cuttings this week, and get more plants on their way, for holiday gifting.

Homemade hot rice cereal (and a math tweak)

So, I realize that practically no one here is making their own rice milk. Not a problem to me. But I thought I'd show you what the home-cooked hot rice cereal looks like, and how I make it.

If you're a fan of cream of wheat, hot rice cereal is most like that cereal. I personally prefer the rice cereal to oatmeal. For me, in addition to a texture thing, rice cereal is so much easier on my tummy.

This is how I'm currently making this hot rice cereal.

I use the leftover rice pulp from making a batch of rice milk. When I make rice milk, I put the pulp in the freezer, to cook up whenever I have some time, and need the rice cereal for a breakfast option for the family.

To cook:

Eyeball-measure the rice pulp. I use an amount of water that is roughly 3 times the rice pulp. This is usually about 3 cups of water to 1 cup of rice pulp. I bring the water to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the rice pulp and stir. I also add a few drops of maple extract and a couple of tablespoons of sugar, plus 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt. I stir this from time to time as it cooks. Once it comes to a boil, I reduce heat and simmer until thick, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. At the very end of cooking, I swirl in a tablespoon of butter. The cooking process is very much like making polenta, and takes about 20 minutes.

Some days, we eat it right away. Other days, I let it cool then keep in the fridge to reheat as we want.

Rice is one of the few grains that my stomach can tolerate all of the time. Breakfasts are a bit limited, as a result. So this cereal is a blessing for me.


Now, that math tweak.

I had previously thought of my cost of making rice milk to be about 30 cents per quart (before adding the cost of the calcium supplements). Well, I completely forgot that the rice pulp is valuable to me as a food, too. I would say that the milk is roughly half of the value and the cereal the other half. So . . . my "real" cost to make my own rice milk is about 15 cents for the milk alone, and 12 cents for the supplements, for a total of 27 cents per quart. That's about 1/4 of what I pay for cheapo soy milk at Dollar Tree. Yep! Definitely continuing to make my own rice milk.

As a bonus, homemade rice milk makes a great coffee latte, when I add a bit of almond extract and some sugar to my coffee/rice milk. I do this as decaf after lunch, and this satisfies my cravings for dessert.