About: Beth Britton 
- 1-2 tablespoons of butter
- 4 slices of Ham
- 8 eggs
- 2 tablespoons of milk
- 1-2 drops of green food coloring
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
- *chopped green peppers
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups self-rising cornmeal
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Beth Britton, Domestic Engineer (aka stay at home wife/mother) blogger, photographer, lover of antiques and the smell of an old quilt fresh off the line. After venturing into the Social Work field at APSU she quickly realized her 'gifting' was working with children, and became certified in Early Childhood Education. Beth can be found outside on nature walks with her daughter, on her front porch having coffee and talking of nothing with her 'Love', or in her church nursery wiping noses and rocking babies. She is ever striving toward a simpler life.
Web Site: http://www.myredriverhome.blogspot.com/
Email:
pny4yrthoughts@yahoo.com
Beth Britton's Articles:
Serve up St. Patrick’s Day with “Green Eggs and Ham”
Getting creative with food is an excellent way to get your kids to try new things, and it can even make an average meal fun again.
This morning in honor of St. Patrick’s day I made for Elle-Girl ‘Green Eggs and Ham a-la Sam I Am’
Ingredients
Melt a teaspoon of butter in your skillet and add a drop of food coloring to the butter before adding your ham slices. Add your ham and flip over in butter mixture until coated then let fry until edges are brown. Then remove from skillet and wrap in aluminum foil to keep warm, and set aside. «Read the rest of this article»
Used toys exempt from new safety mandate
August 14th, 2008 former President George Bush signed and set in motion The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. This Act was brought about by the large amount of recalled toys and baby products in the year 2007.
The CPSIA calls for any children’s product exceeding the amount of 600-ppm (parts per million) lead content cannot be sold in the United States. Items that fall under this Act are children’s toys, cribs, pacifiers, children’s jewelry, baby bouncer seats, walkers and jumpers. Any product that can be mouthed, or ingested by a child under the age of twelve must be tested for safety.
This Act will begin today. One year following this date the lead count will drop to a strict 300-ppm, then continues down to 100 ppm. This law will also prohibit against children’s items containing PVC (polyvinyl chloride ) and the chemical phthalate.
This is exciting for parents in that with in the year we will be able to purchase toys and products for our children and have peace of mind that it will not cause long term health problems or that a favorite, beloved toy will have to be taken from our children because of another recall. «Read the rest of this article»
Holiday shoppers beware!
Elle-girl's "Dollie"
The holiday shopping season is now upon us. Every retail store, and shopping mall is raising their big ‘Sales of the Season’ signs and each competing for your dollar. Your children’s eyes are beginning to develop that twinkle about them, and letters to Santa are beginning to be drafted.
Before you storm the stores for all the latest toys please take this into consideration.
August 2007 Mattel toys recalls 18.6 million toys that “might contain tiny, dangerous magnets or toxic lead paint”. These magnets inside of the toys if swallowed have been known to connect across intestines and rip a child’s bowls apart.
PVC (polyvinyl chloride) or vinyl is one of the most hazardous plastics to humans and the environment. When heated PVC can produce dioxins, the most potent synthetic chemicals ever tested. (http://www.besafenet.com/pvc/about.htm)
Do you love that “new doll” smell? What you really smell is an additive in PVC called phthalates (“tha-lates”)
Which when ingested or inhaled have been linked to cancer, internal damage, and harm to developing reproductive organs and premature breast development in baby girls. PVC is used in teethers, pacifiers, bath toys and dolls.
According to the NCHS (National Center for Health Statistics) fast stats website Number of women ages 15-44 with impaired ability to have children: 6.1 million.
August 2007: Recalls Licensed Character Toys Due To Lead Poisoning Hazard. And which well-known character was leading the Toxic Toys Parade? None other than my daughters’ favorite friend, Elmo along with Dora and Diego. Consumers were instructed to stop using the recalled products immediately!
Listed on Keepkidshealthy.com, a site recommended by Pediatricians it is stated that
“Lead poisoning is an important cause of learning disabilities, anemia, growth problems and children exposed to lead may have problems with paying attention and being aggressive.”
500,000 children [in the USA] were diagnosed ADHD in 1985 and between 5 and 7 million were today. (http://www.adhd-report.com/adhd/1_adhd_statistics.html)
"Duck Toy"
While I cannot confirm that lead and PVC is the leading cause in our societies rise of infertility and behavioral problems, it is, I believe, something to consider and pay close attention to. Our daughter was born summer of 2007 when all of the major toy manufactures were coming out and recalling toys due to toxins. Since then we have encouraged our family members and friends to please seek out all natural toys, or Made in the USA products when shopping for our child.
Buying non-toxic toys is not as easy as just going to your local toy store. It takes some research online as well as reading labels. However, great lengths and lobbying have taken place to insure that our children’s toys will not harm them.
August 14th, 2008 President George Bush signed Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. It requires that toys and infant products be tested before they are sold, and by banning lead and phthalates in toys. The bill also will create the first comprehensive publicly accessible consumer complaint database, give the CPSC new resources to protect the public, increase civil penalties that CPSC can assess against violators of CPSC laws, and protect whistleblowers who report product safety defects. Six types of phthalates, chemicals linked to genital defects in males, have been banned from toys along with lead. Also, toys will be required to follow a complex list of rules intended to make them safer. The phthalate provision makes three phthalates permanently illegal and three others temporarily illegal. Don’t however assume that the toys on the shelf are now 100% safe. The new bill does not take affect until Jan. 1st 2009. The Wal-Mart Corporation anticipated this being passed and in March 2008 announced to their toy distributors that they will no longer sell toys containing most phthalates. Toys-R-Us went a step further in saying that after Jan. 1st 2009 they will not sell ANY products containing phthalates (Mothering magazine November/December 2008 issue)
Change is coming, but it is not here yet. What you can do before then is seek out other options. You can find an alternative to most children’s toys. There are all natural blocks, toys, pulling toys, dolls, stuffed animals, cars and trucks, balls, even books!
There are popular brands such as Melissa and Doug Toys, while they have a manufacturer in China all of their toys are tested again according to USA Safety standards. http://www.melissaanddoug.com/toysafety.phtml
A common complaint I find is that these toys, while not easily attainable are also quite expensive. To that I say, “Yes, you are right. BUT! With some searching it can be found. Some of my favorite websites are:
www.etsy.com (just type in all natural toys)
www.happymothers.com They offer no sales tax to all states and offer over 200 Melissa and Doug products as well as many others!
Or you can skip the research and check out my blog every Tuesday where I offer a toy review on a nontoxic toy product, and not only that, I provide you with a link to where you can buy it at the lowest price.
Elle-girl's windowsill of favored toys
Let me also add this, I am in no way a toy Nazi. Our daughter has stuffed animals that probably contain who knows what! We do have random McDonald Happy Meal toys and Mr. Potato Head parts strewn about. I am diligent against Fisher Price and stay up to date on all recall products. As a parent it is our responsibility to ensure our children are safe. I will also add this, if your child is older and past the age of taste testing every thing lying with in reach, then you probably have less to “worry” about. I do however urge parents of babies, toddlers and Pre-School children to do a little research before they do their holiday shopping. I think you will be surprised at all the classic, charming and non-toxic toys that are available out there to us. Allow your children to shop online with you. Expose them to new options and a new way of thinking. It will not only be healthy for them but also healthy for our environment.
Best of luck! And Happy Shopping!
Just in time for the Holidays: Skillet Cornbread
November 5th, 2005, my beloved and I were married. Shortly there after, this occurred:
It was a cool November night and rain was just starting to tap on the tin roof of our one room log cabin newlywed nest. Beloved would be returning from work in Nashville soon and being the new bride that I was wanted to surprise him with homemade fried chicken and mashed potatoes. I thawed the chicken, started the mashed potatoes and began to warm up my cast iron skillet on the stove. I poured about an inch of Vegetable oil into the skillet to begin frying my chicken. While that was heating, I sliced my chicken breasts into large individual pieces and began coating them with flour. Everything was going smoothly; it all smelled so good and only 30 minutes to go before Beloved arrived home!
With all the busy-ness of the preparations I failed to notice that the oil in my skillet had become extremely hot and tiny little flames began to pop up all around the inside of the skillet. Frantically I looked around my kitchen for a lid or a towel or something to smother the flame; my eyes fell upon the bag of flour when I remembered Beloved’s advice once while in the kitchen to never throw flour on a kitchen fire. My next thought was the sink:
“I would just turn water on it!” I thought.
Too bad the sink was overflowing already with dirty dishes and no room for a flaming cast iron skillet.
I looked down at Jim the Cat for advice who looked at me with eyes as wide as saucers that seemed to say
“TAKE IT OUTSIDE!”
Since the flames were still small I thought that a little rain would do just the trick, but once cold air hit my skillet the flames grew even higher!. Cars that were beginning to pass by our cabin started to pull over to observe this crazy woman on her porch with a ball of fire balancing on a skillet! Now, out of desperation, I realized that I needed to get rid of this skillet! I began to walk out into the yard, arm extended, skillet ablaze, and an audience of curious neighbors. So there I am standing in the middle of my yard in the pouring rain, looking around for options. “There’s my garden hose, hmmm…that might splatter it, I should take it away from my car and the house…maybe out here toward the gravel driveway? I can’t sit it down because the flames are too high.
Then I saw It. A giant puddle had formed in the low spot in our driveway. “That’s what I”ll do!” I thought, “I’ll just toss the oil into the puddle, problem solved.”(Some of you reading this are already foreseeing what’s about to happen)
I slowly walked toward the puddle when grease began splashing out the sides of the skillet leaving a small fire trail behind me.
I finally reached the puddle and with one quick movement I slung the hot grease toward the puddle of water.
POOF! A giant 3 foot by 4 foot circle of fire burst up toward the sky. The heat on my face was frightening and I did a brief check for hair and eyebrows. Still there.
Anger and embarrassment toward the large crowd that had now formed along the side of the road and in our driveway to share this moment with me, overtook me and I waved my skillet at them to motion for them to leave, that one act caused the remaining hot oil in the skillet to mix with oxygen producing a grand finale, a thin wall of fire around me.
I tossed my skillet out into the yard, walked into my cabin slamming the screen door behind me. I dumped the mash potatoes in the trash, and called in a large pizza for supper.
I went back outside later to make amends with my cast iron skillet who has now become my best friend in the kitchen.
Here’s something else you can do with your cast iron skillet:
Old Fashioned Iron Skillet Cornbread
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour the oil in an iron skillet. Heat the skillet in the oven. In a medium bowl mix the cornmeal,eggs and buttermilk. Remove the hot skillet from the oven. Increase the temperature to 400 degrees. pour a little of the hot oil into the batter and stir. Pour the batter into the skillet. Bake for 15-20 min. or until golden and crispy.
Serve hot with lots of butter~
