Book Giveaway:
Melissa is offering to one randomly chosen commenter an e-version of her book PIONEERING TODAY. The winner will be announced here on Friday, May 31st, between 4-6 PM EST. For convenience, please leave your contact information within your comment. Thanks!
Do You Need to Simplify? by Melissa K. Norris
Driving
through towns and cities these days, we see convenience stores on every corner,
bakeries, candy shops, coffee shops, and restaurants tucked in between
buildings on paved streets. Half of the time we don’t even have to leave our
cars to place our order and receive our food.
We’re a
society who seems to thrive on getting it our way and getting it faster. But
have we lost something by living this way? I believe we have.
Our
great-grandparents rarely went out to eat. They didn’t consider grocery
shopping purchasing some food in a box where you just add water, oil, and eggs.
They either knew the farmer that grew their food, owned the dairy, and raised
the chickens, or they did it on their farm.
Were
their lives harder? I think we should ask ourselves instead, were their lives
more rewarding? Since when did harder become synonymous with bad?
Is it
harder to bake your own bread from scratch than purchasing it at the store? It
takes a little bit more time, but the flavor, cost savings, and health benefits,
far outweigh the time it takes. Of course, if you use my no knead
bread in less than 5 minutes a day recipe, it’s probably faster
than fighting traffic and running to the store.
A small
seed becomes a plant, a blossom becomes a piece of food to eat, and the fruit
holds a seed to start the process over again. We don’t appreciate that when we
grab it off of a shelf in the grocery store.
In my
book, Pioneering Today-Faith and Home the
Old Fashioned Way, I explain practical and easy methods to cook from
scratch, garden, preserve your own food, and see God’s fingerprint in your
everyday busy life. Whether you live in the middle of the asphalt jungle or on
the side of a mountain, you can experience the pioneer lifestyle and start your
own homesteading journey.
The
simple life isn’t lost, it’s waiting for you to come and embrace it.
Questions for Melissa:
Although
a good cook, my mother enjoyed the “new” conveniences of boxed instant mashed
potatoes (not recommended!) and the new hamburger place, aka McDonald’s (today,
no-thanks). Did your childhood make you rebel or wizen you up to healthier
foods?
I
wouldn’t call it a rebellion, but a slip into taking the easy route. It was so
easy to grab a box, open a few cans, and heat something up. But I didn’t feel
so great when I ate this way, I gained weight, felt really sluggish, and it
wasn’t very frugal. When I became pregnant, I really started educating myself
on nutrition and quickly became a cook-it-from-scratch kind of woman. It’s
amazing what becoming responsible for someone else’s health will do for your
own.
As
a mom of young children, is it any easier for you to get your kids to try new
foods because they know it’s from the garden or prepared fresh in the kitchen?
Any tricks to share?
It’s
so much easier to get my kids to try new foods when they grow it and help cook
it themselves. One thing I like to stress when cooking and gardening with kids
is not to worry about getting it perfect. When my kids were toddlers, I gave
them their own patch in the garden. If they pulled up a plant when weeding, it
wasn’t a big deal. They could do whatever they wanted in that patch. It turned
out better than I would have thought. My daughter had an awesome pea and bean
plant and she could pick and play to her heart’s content.
Same
thing applies to kids in the kitchen. If something gets spilled (and it will),
just have them help clean it up. Remember you’re teaching them healthy life
tips and bonding, not being Martha Stewart.
Hmm,
I think our favorite from scratch substitutes would have to be my healthy homemade crunchy granola bars. They’re super easy and taste better than the
stores. When I told my husband I wasn’t going to be buying bread any more, he
kind of raised his eyebrows, but it’s been a year and a half and he loves the
scent of warm bread in the kitchen, not to mention the taste. I use this recipe
for the no knead bread (see link above).
What’s
next on the pioneering front?
I’m
really excited to begin working on a new book, Pioneering Today-Preserving the Harvest. It will include canning
tutorials and recipes, freezing, root cellar techniques, and dehydrating.
Tentative release date is October 2013. Also, I now have my own radio show, Pioneering Today, and am waiting for the
producer to give me the release date for the shows. They’ll be available as
podcasts on my website and I-tunes.
Melissa's Ah-hahs To Tweet:
Meet Melissa K. Norris: Faith
and Home the Old Fashioned Way. (Tweet
This)
Melissa K. Norris: has
society lost value in the craziness of life? (Tweet This)
Melissa K. Norris: raising food, gardening,
and cooking from scratch? Who has time? You! (Tweet This)
Melissa
K. Norris on Everyone’s Story: God’s fingerprint in everyday busy life. (Tweet This)
Author Bio:
Melissa K. Norris is
a Christian novelist, newspaper columnist, and non-fiction writer. Her stories
inspire people to draw closer to God and their pioneer roots. She’s a skilled
artisan crafter, creating new traditions from old-time customs for her readers.
She found her own little house in the big woods, where she lives with her
husband and two children in the Cascade Mountains. Her book, Pioneering
Today-Faith and Home the Old Fashioned Way, explains practical and easy
methods to cook from scratch, garden, preserve your own food, and see God’s
fingerprint in your everyday busy life. Read the first chapter here.
You can connect with Melissa at:
Website: http://melissaknorris.com/
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MelissaKNorris
Twitter: www.twitter.com/MelissaKNorris
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/MelissaKNorris
