hey what's for dinner mom?

Just Another Meatless Monday

2012-01-29T21:32:00.000-09:00

Speaking of singing livers, oh wait were we talking about singing livers? No? Dang, such a good opening line too!

Speaking of using up a 1 1/2 pound beet, no listen up I was talking about that, I know it, I finally figured it out. Ohhh yummy we juiced it. Along with a pear that needed to go and banana that was too ripe. I found a juicer last weekend on our thrift crawl and bought it up so fast it made my head spin. But hey 3 dollars for a Jack LaLanne Juice Tiger is a great price and since I killed the last one I was very happy to find this. I am saving pennies for a VitaMix but that day is very far away.

Basically Beet Juice is just that, the juice of a beet root. MMmmm I love beets and so do my boys. I love them for their taste, they love them for other pink reasons...

Now that I've made and drank the beet juice I read that you should definitely juice another vegetable with it, to combat the possible negative side affects which the article I was reading didn't go into detail on. The side affects listed were: pink urine...which is a plus for some of us around here, kidney stones, vocal chord trouble(??) and fevers chills and rashes. Hmmm Seeing as how they don't tell you how mixing in another veggie helps out I tend to think this might be bogus, but that's up to you to decide for yourself. Thoughts?

The positives far outweigh the negatives: lowers blood pressure, cancer fighting powerhouse and it's packed with vitamins and minerals. Check out WHFoods for a great article on beets.

SO if life ever hands you a huge beet, make beet juice with it.

Beet Juice
1 1/2 pounds of beets
1 very ripe pear
2 ripe bananas

Steam the beets until cooked through, you want to cook them but not over cook, you can cut any large beets into quarters and steam time will be considerably less
let the beet come to room temperature
feed the beet, pear and bananas into the juicer
cut the collected juice with water to make it thinner and easier to drink
you won't need any honey or sweetener with this juice, it is fabulous

Just out of range here are my two smallest boys having a silent deadly battle for this cup of juice, me I'm waving my arms windmill style to get them to stop.

How was your week??

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2012-01-27T22:45:00.000-09:00

It's been a busy thrifting week around here, the resell bug bit and I was off and running. Lots of sales on ebay, I also worked on budgeting my time so I can work, keep the house clean AND not get sucked into the internet. It's working well I'd say.

I have a secret project I'm working on, I can't show you yet but it's cool and it's upcycling. I hope to be done SOON, I'm getting kind of tired of it.

Last chance to sign up for the Homemade Valentine Swap, send me an email to jinxyjune(at) gmail(dot) com. If you signed up be on the look out for an email from me with your valentine exchange address list, it's time to get working on them.

Here are a few of my thrifting finds from the first Thrift Crawl last week. Good grief that was fun!

A friend found these

but didn't snatch them up, I did. I have a great idea for wrapping them in a little wrap bag mat thing for presents for kids. I saw the idea here and I have a feeling they'll be a real hit at birthdays. Stephanie don't look, Gabe's getting one next week.

Micro crock--small California Pottery was a dollar. These can hold anything you can think of, this one is currently holding acorns.

I bought this and sold it the same day, apparently Boynton is a big seller. Good to know.

I have this one listed on ebay, if you're interested make me an offer!

Spanish books sell well! These sold in less than a day. I have another lot I'm posting this weekend and I'm hoping it sells as well.

This is probably my favorite find of the week. I walked by it twice and debated it for a while before finally picking it. I don't need more stuff,(HOARDER) but I love it.

What is making your heart sing? Your etsy store? Your ebay auctions? Your decorating style? Your thrift finds? Couponing? Leave a link and share your inspiration.

Peace and love--

Staying Focused

2012-01-26T10:13:00.000-09:00

I'm a stay at home mom, not a SAHM that "word" makes me want to gag, I'm a mom and I don't have a paying job outside of my house. I get, yes GET, to stay home and keep everyone centered. This means I need to stay focused because no one is watching me during my time when the kids are in school. That time can so easily slip away from me that I really REALLY need to have a list(and we all know how much I love a good list) and a schedule.

Yes a schedule, or even better, more hippie, is a rhythm, my morning, my day, my jobs, my week and so on. I have to know what's coming up, what needs doing now, what can be shoved back a day or indefinitely and how to make sure everyone has food, clean clothes, coats that fit, matching mittens and the like. To do this I make a pretty concerted effort to create and stick to a food rhythm, a weekly rhythm of chores and the same basic routine for each day and night. I've been jamming on this for a while and it was working really well.

But then interenet alone time came along, kids are school, I can veg on the couch and do nothing, while pretending to work. Time just started slipping for me, I wasn't spending horrible amounts of time online, it was certainly more than I need. The guilt caused by this shoddy mothering scheme was immense and crushing I could look around and see so many things undone and feel crappy about it, so crappy I went straight back to the internet to feel better. Tough cycle.

The other day I was inspired by late night coffee and my friend Luna to set a schedule for myself during my time at home. I come home and set the buzzer and cleaned up the house for 30 minutes. I was all a hustle and bustle and got so much done. Then I set the timer and packed ebay sales for shipping. Whew! done before the time was up. I worked in my studio for a bit setting up my ebay 'office' and felt great. I worked online in 15 minute intervals to make sure I did the 'work' I needed to do.

And I've kept it up, third day so far and I've got my 30 minutes of housework done and this included getting the vacuum into the drawers in the kitchen to suck out crumbs, not a BIG job but a little guilt inducing thing. Dinner is planned. I have an art project lined up for myself. I have some thrifting planned and I'm almost ready to leave.

I feel on a really even keel. I've not cut out internet altogether, just made a time slot for it. I don't need to check in on facebook 20 times a day. I don't have to tweet that the dog is snoring and it made me laugh. I can be me, here in my home and be really simply happy with it. All those little niggling things I need to get done, are getting done and that feels really great.

Oh Hey THE DOG IS SNORING #mastiff #lol #puppy

Peace and Love--

Out My Window

2012-01-25T20:54:00.002-09:00

To the east.

To the west.

To the south.

To the north.

Peace and Love--

The Failing Septic: A Geek Tragedy

2012-01-24T21:59:00.000-09:00

The last 10 days have been spent in heart attack mode. I went to work in my studio and stepped off the bottom step into a puddle. Now the puddle was only water from the washing machine, nothing nasty or gross, just bubbles. I've lived in this old house long enough to know that occasionally the washing machine will do this to you, especially when you least expect it or need it. It serves as a reminder and cleanser in one--don't leave things you love on the floor and if you do you'll be getting rid of them soon.

Now usually the the water just sucks right down and we're fine or we need a pump out because I never remember to get it done until it's. time. right. now. But NOOOO the water just stood there, mocking me, refusing to go away so I could do things I wanted to do, like anything else at this point. It eventually trickled away.

I called my husband and let him know, I was met with silence, which means nasty words I shouldn't repeat. You see we'd just had the septic pumped so the only other alternative to the water in the basement problem, snake. ARRRGHGHGH. Just the way NO ONE EVER WANTS TO SPEND THEIR WEEKEND, what a perfect Friday night.

So the snake was rented and it didn't fix it.

So we called the drain cleaner and for 140 bucks they "took care of it"

Which was a lie because within 72 hours we had water in the basement AGAIN. I tried to play it off like a fluke, but no it kept happening. DAMN.

And in the midst of all the chaos our furnace went out, all four zone valve brains fried out. It had been 25 below, luckily it warmed up and we didn't freeze. The furnace is fixed and will be fixed better soon.

But we still had water in the basement, which still sucked and seemed like an eternity of not washing every dish so we don't flood the basement. No taking a long shower, it was get in with cold water, get out as the hot water hits because godforbid you don't want to be the jerk who floods the basement.

Now along about now I decide our septic is failing because we pumped and it flooded. We snaked and it flooded. We professionally snaked and it flooded. THE ONLY POSSIBLE THING LEFT IS WE HAVE A FAILING SEPTIC. To be sure I had to know if the line could still possibly be blocked?

I called the drain cleaners back and asked them, nay told them, to "please come back I don't think you fixed it and I need to be sure you fixed it." To which their receptionist said "sure for 140 bucks..."At which point I relayed some vile mutterings and said "seriously? No I'll call someone who'll stand behind their work." 20 minutes later the owner called me and said his boys would be right out. When they got here the kid who came last time told my husband they never snaked to the tank but this time they did.(yeah I'm all over this on Angies List!!) Long story short, they did it properly this time and we don't have a failing septic just a house with very old, cruddy pipes.

Cheer! Rejoice! The angels of cleanliness are singing in my house! For the first time in 10 days we have clean laundry, clean dishes, clean children and no soapy water in the basement.

So what does anybody know about greywater recycling? During my "the septic is failing" mode I started thinking seriously about reusing the washing machine water for toilet water or lawn water. It can cut water consumption up to 20,000 gallons per year. Oh! I really need to do more research and find out all I can.

Some of the things I need to do find out:

is it legal in Alaska? can I use my wash water on the lawn? does anyone even care?

is it feasible in Alaska?

are there any plumbers (MY SON??) who work on or install greywater recycling units?

what will the best soaps for our family to use?

So much to think about, you know, now that the septic ISN'T failing and my brain can function, mostly.

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday

2012-01-22T22:24:00.001-09:00

First things first, I have 5 winners for the Paper Window Star giveaway! Coleen, Jods, Domestic Diva, Steph and Christina! Send me your address and I'll send you a star. Also tell me what color you'd like.

We started working on the house today, the never ending remodel will not kill us only make us stronger, and I needed a power lunch for us. Something to fuel us up and keep us going all afternoon. I made the wise decision to reach for lentils and make a vegetarian stew for us. I served it with a dollop of yogurt some garlic flatbread. Kept us powdered until snack time, which was a glass of beet, apple, and banana juice. Guess I finally figured out what to make with the 1 1/2 pound beet, that post is coming soon.

Vegetarian Lentil Stew
2 TBSP good oil
1 whole onion, chopped
4 ribs of organic celery, chopped
2 cups red lentils
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon garlic granules
1 teaspoon cumin
pinch of cinnamon
6 cups of water
2 cups frozen organic corn
2 cups frozen organic peas
3/4 cup plain yogurt-more for topping if desired
salt and pepper to taste

heat a dutch oven over medium heat, when hot add the oil, onions and celery
cook for five minutes then add your spices and cook for another 30 seconds
add the water, deglaze the pan and bring to a boil
reduce heat and cook for ten minutes
you may need to add an extra cup of water here if the lentils get too dry
add the vegetables and cook for another 5-10 until the lentils are done
stir in the yogurt
taste for salt and pepper, adjust as needed
warm through
serve hot with a dollop of plain yogurt on top if desired

A note on spices; this was perfect for us but definitely feel free to spice it up for you. Extra curry powder or fresh garlic would be excellent or even more yogurt would have been wonderful.

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2012-01-20T23:50:00.000-09:00

It's that time of year when I invite bloggers and non bloggers to participate in my Handmade Valentine Swap. It's very simple: make one, get one. You can send me an email to jinxyjune (at) gmail dot com and let me know how many valentines you would like to make. I'll send you a list of folks to send a Valentine to. I will try my best to make sure we all get to make roughly how many we signed up for. Though do be ready I may send you and extra name to send one to. They don't have to be huge, or fancy just heartfelt. The best part is playing with all the glue, tape, glitter, feathers and paper...oh and that moment you open your mailbox and it's got a card made just for you in it. Anyway I have two folks signed up already and we need more because I have a great idea for my valentines this year.

oh and grab the button for your blog!

<center><a href="http://heywhatsfordinnermom.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt10/laura70inak/valentineswap2-1.jpg" /></a></center>

OH! also I will be drawing for the winner of the Paper Window Star, leave a comment on that post to enter! I'll announce the winner on Sunday, well probably Just Another Meatless Monday.

Last week I showed you all my goodies for Murder at the Juice Joint, make sure you check out my photos. I'm wearing a dress, that's near as good as a Sasquatch sighting.

Woohoo Saturday I'm off on my first thrift crawl with some of my best friends. I love these ladies and we are going to have the best day! I'm sure you'll see the results of my thrifting day soon enough.

This week I jumped back into reselling big time. I read a post by Mom's Paycheck, she linked up last week, and I just got inspired. So with my eyes open I hit the thrift stores. I picked up some Le Creuset

sold already

sold already!

Some Dansk

listed not sold

I also hit up my closet that has lots of things left to resell too.

Like three pairs of crib shoes, the very last of a100 pair I bought a few years ago

Some Figgjo plates I never quite got around to listing

listed unsold

And a Royal China Blue Heaven Bowl

I also picked up some things for us
Like this cool stamp from 1976

gold green yarn

and two shirts for mr 8 year growth spurt

Why don't you join the fun and link up to the Penny Worthy Project? You can link up etsy stores, ebay auctions, thrift find, giveaways and art projects. Anything that makes your heart sing and your soul happy.

Peace and Love--

Menu Planning

2012-01-19T21:26:00.003-09:00

Our box was full to brimming with lovely fresh beautiful produce from Full Circle this week. What a beautiful picture this is, it certainly brightened up my day.

--I'm seeing BLTs with that gorgeous lettuce and I still have home smoked bacon leftover from our pig last fall or I might make a wilted lettuce salad, akin to this Wilted Swiss Chard Salad

--Mmm roll your own sushi with fresh frozen red salmon and avocado or maybe a winter Gazpacho? yum
--The nice big bag of Bok Choy made me think of Singapore Stew, which I haven't made in years.

--Lamb kabobs with peppers and onions, no real recipe; olive oil, garlic salt and pepper marinade and saute quickly. We butchered a lamb last year but you can find pretty decent lamb at Costco.

--Lots of fruits for lunches and I do believe I'll be making some Orange Cranberry Upside Down Cake. I subbed in some mandarins for something else, I can't remember what, but now we are flush with orange goodness.

--I think I'll make a carrot and millet loaf, we got a bag of carrots and it's a recipe I want to try out. Er make up as I go along?

--Dry Fried Green Beans are on the list yet again, I can't get enough of their garlicky ginger kick.

What am I going to do with one giant beet, this thing weighs one and a half pounds. Well maybe the Grated Raw Beet Salad or I might just pickle it. What would you do with the worlds largest beet?

Are you getting a Full Circle box yet? What are you waiting for?

Peace and Love--

Murder at the Juice Joint

2012-01-18T20:55:00.001-09:00

WOW! Never thought I'd like to wear a costume and go to a party but I did. Here are some photos to prove it.

My {real} husband even shaved his beard for the party. That's ALMOST as big a deal as me wearing a dress.
Everything I wore was thrifted, borrowed, made or already owned except the flower and feathers in my hair. Oh, and the tights because all I owned were leggings tights and those didn't work with my outfit.

I hope they do another murder mystery party next year, this one was too much fun. And I never even figured out who did it.

Peace and Love--

No Post, I'm on Strike

2012-01-17T22:30:00.000-09:00

SOPA and PIPA need to be stopped. Here's what the EFF have to say about it.

And the internet engineers too.

Read it.

Think about how we use the internet. No wikipedia. No etsy. No facebook. No twitter. No craigslist. No youtube. NO PINTEREST!!!

Basically it boils down to if a fellow blogger quotes another blog with proper links to the appropriate blog they could be shut down. Without review. One complaint could shut ALL of blogger down, not just the blog but the ENTIRE domain. This is insane and it needs to stop, contact your senator or congressman to let them know we don't need censorship in America.

These companies support SOPA and PIPPA--TimeWarner, Walmart, Nike, Tiffany, Chanel, Rolex, Sony, Juicy Couture, Ralph Lauren, VISA, Mastercard, Comcast, ABC, Dow Chemical, Monster Cable, Teamsters--BOOOO

In fact Go Daddy called my husband to re-up a few domains and he told them nope, we don't want to do business with a company that supports censorship. The customer service rep quickly explained how the ABSOLUTE UPRISING of their customers changed the company's stance on the issue. They supported it and when folks like you and me let them know how WE felt they changed their minds.

WE HAVE THE POWER. WE ARE THE POWER. WE CAN DO ANYTHING WE SET OUR MINDS TO DO. We just have to set our minds to it.

Call you senators.
Call your congressmen.
Call freaking Juicy Couture and tell them to STOP THIS INSANITY.

Look if people in Libya can overthrow Mohimar Qaddafi then, we the people of the United States can get off our asses and stop our government, they don't even have guns pointed at us.

How to Make {another} Paper Window Star {giveaway post}

2012-01-16T22:59:00.001-09:00

My friend Nadja over at Willing Thinking Feeling sent me the directions to make this star. I love the way it turned out and asked if I could expand her directions and make a post about them. Lucky for you she said yes. You really should hop on over and see all the lovely stars she has made.

I will not kid you, the first time I made one it took 2 hours. Now I think I have it down and it's easy. But I cried a bit, cursed and kept at it until I made it, I expect you to do the same.

You will need 5 sheets of kite paper to make this star. I bought mine off of ebay for a pretty good price and the shipping was quick.

I chose to use all purple but you can use any color you want.

fold in half diagonally

open and then fold in half again

open and lay flat in front of you like so

fold one half over to the center line like this

then unfold

then fold that piece in half over to the crease you just made

and fold again on the crease

repeat on the other side

then it's time to work on the other end-you'll be folding it the same way just smaller on this end-fold it over to the center

then open, fold it to the crease and then again

repeat on the other side

it will look like this

then fold the left point up to the center fold line

fold the right point to the center

then to make the points on each side-take the flat ends and fold each side to the center line

on each side

admire with the sunset coming through it

I glue down the tips and fold to keep them nice and tight-this one needs it's tips glued

now that you've cried, cursed me and come back for more, just make four more of these and glue them with a glue stick and you'll have this

leave me a comment to win your own paper star-- I'll pick a winner on Saturday!

Peace and Love--

A Morning Well Spent

2012-01-16T15:42:00.003-09:00

Worked some this morning banishing the ugly orange carpet from our house.
Behold one of two remaining pieces.

That's not a feral cat on my son's head, he's wearing a coon skin cap for some unknown reason.

The total time spent tearing out disgusting carpet was about 2 hours, with ample time for water breaks and listening to stories.

The results are almost bare nekkid stairs and a starting point for creating a tree you climb through to reach the upper floor.

Next on the demolition list that UGLY suspended ceiling hanging over the stairs. Gee maybe I should have ripped that out BEFORE tearing off all the padding and carpet on the stairs...GULP

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday

2012-01-15T22:56:00.000-09:00

Keeping and caring for Kefir.

We've gone there, to that place in our lives where we have festering fermenting jars of 'stuff' on our counter and people ask us "what IS that?" They routinely look so disgusted I'm pretty sure they don't want to know the answer. Kefir does not look pretty, in fact it looks a lot like rotting milk. It's lumpy, bumpy, bubbly and separated. You think I'd have to be crazy to want to drink it after it's has set out for 3 days in a row but I did. And we all know I'm not crazy, right?

RIGHT??

Kefir is in fact not disgusting to drink at all. It has a unique taste all it's own, similar but still different from yogurt and it's also a little bubbly. It's a powerful probiotic, "Kefir's active yeast and bacteria provide more nutritive value than yogurt by helping digest the foods that you eat and by keeping the colon environment clean and healthy. Because the curd size of kefir is smaller than yogurt, it is also easier to digest, which makes it a particularly excellent, nutritious food for babies, the elderly and people experiencing chronic fatigue and digestive disorders."[source probiotic.org] WOW. I want that oh wait I have that!!

Here's the cool thing about kefir, it reproduces itself and in time you'll have enough to share with friends.

Here's how it works--you get some grains of kefir from a friend and put them in milk. Let it sit for up to 3 days stirring daily, I actually just shake the jar to mix it up.

--beginning to strain--

Then I strain it, setting the strained kefir aside for making smoothies. What's left after straining are called grains, they look like this.

--strained grains--

--strained kefir--

--washed grains--

I measure back about most of the grains into the fermenting jar and set some of the grains aside in a jar covered with water to share with friends when I have enough saved up.

--back to the jar, all it needs is milk--

Making smoothies is of course easy, simply replace the yogurt you would usually use with strained kefir. I had to add a bit more sweetener to the smoothies for my kids. I loved it with just fruit and kefir, refreshing and delicious and good for me too.

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2012-01-14T17:04:00.001-09:00

This week has been a lot of crazy weather watching, filing and making things. We've had, I heard and have not verified because I trust the source, 90 inches of snowfall this winter. To look at the amount of snow we have on the gorund you wouldn't think so either. I assure you that with every snowfall we've had an accompanying wind storm to blow it all away. That was part of our crazy weather this week tons of gorgeous snow, big wind storm and now as I write this it's 15 below. That's farenheit below zero, if you were wondering.

crystal clear sunrise at 5 minutes after noon...just noticed the orb in the picture, wonder who that is?

wind storm

snow storm rolling in

In an effort to start the new year right I've been cleaning out files, organizing the desk upstairs and coordinating it with our big filing cabinet downstairs. Not a project I enjoy BUT I will be happy to have a working updated system. Plus we have a medical savings account this year and those people are STICKLERS for bills and doctor's office paperwork. It does not pay to be a slacker in that area. Do you have a medical savings account? I like it if I keep up on the paperwork to start with.

To make the filing job go down a little easier I decided to cut my time with some sewing projects. I have crayon rolls to sew for the second grade class, I need to get them done this week. I also designed an apron. Wow, that was harder than it should have been, I tore every seam out several times to make it fit right. Although now that I have a pattern that works and is made just for me I think I can make an apron in under an hour. Woohhoo, I WILL like that feature.

the fabric and paper for aprons

Have you ever designed and sewn something? My husband does it all the time. I didn't think anything of it, but DAMN it was hard. New appreciation for his dedication there.

Of course I hit the thrift store a few times. I've been collecting things for a party tonight.

Can you guess the theme??

I'm more excited than I thought I would be. It's a murder mystery party, Murder at the Juice Joint. Gangsters, murder, dinner, drinks and fun at the speakeasy.

I even bought a curling iron to tame my hippie hair down.

My biggest struggle has been what to do with my hair I have a LOT of it and it certainly doesn't fit the style of the day. I settled on pulled back and to the side, curled and with a big gaudy flower and some peacock feathers stuck in there. And my glasses. I may try to go with out them but I could miss an important clue. My husband is playing Mugsy Malone, I'm his bored wife turned newspaper reporter. I am ridiculously excited.

I bought these awesome tags for tagging my dried herbs. I kind of have a thing for tags and brads, I'm a sick one I know.

And these! how adorable are these?? I think Mrs. Cison is going get these as a surprise present, they seem right up her alley for the guest room and all her little visitors.

Now is the time to start planning for the Handmade Valentine Swap. Leave a comment if you want to participate. Also let me know how many you'd like to make and receive. I'll match up folks based on how many you're willing to make and send out address' soon!

Peace and Love--

Menu Planning

2012-01-12T21:44:00.000-09:00

I am seriously loving the this whole menu planning thing and adding it to our food rhythm
is making my life in the kitchen so much easier. I rolled out the food rhythm idea back in May and I have been tweaking it to fit our lives better than ever.

Our food rhythm now looks like this:

Sunday--big traditional family dinner--brings us all together and gives us plenty of leftovers for the week to come
Monday--meatless and usually grain based
Tuesday--pasta-could be soup, bake or quick to make dish
Wednesday-beans-slow cooked, burritos or chili
Thursday--soup and bread
Friday--cheese--usually pizza night
Saturday-leftovers or crock pot meal

When I looked at the big pile of produce this week I immediately saw so many things to make! Now all I have to do is plug in the corresponding meal idea and I'm off and running. You'll notice that several meal ideas will work on several days. For example the Toasted Walnut Quinoa has cheese in it and will work for Friday, cheese day, or Monday, meatless grain day.

Lentil Cauliflower Stew
Taco Salad-vegetarian or with ground beef
Pizza with Fresh Tomatoes
Roasted Kale
Mango Kefir Smoothies
Mushroom Strudel
Bacon Green Bean Bundles
Honey Vanilla Poached Pears
fresh kiwis, tangerines for lunches
fresh chopped turnips for snacks
maybe some fresh beet relish or just plain roasted beets, we all love roasted beets!
Toasted Walnut Quinoa with fresh chopped Romas and pesto from last years garden
Roasted Organic Chickens
Chicken Noodle Soup-stock made from the roasted chickens, and any leftover veggies from the week

Now I know basically what we'll be eating for the week. Some things will happen, some will not, but I have a plan and our food rhythm to live by. I made a small list of things I need at the store this week, added a few more staples to my Azure order and we are set. I love that my time doing the dreaded grocery shopping trip is cut very short, I'm in, I'm out.

Best of all. I. Have. A. Plan.

Peace and Love--

Bacon Green Bean Bundles

2012-01-11T20:39:00.000-09:00

Sometimes you just need to change things up, or you just need bacon, or both. That's what happened last week. I had some green beans left from my Full Circle box and wanted to make something special for dinner. I don't even remember WHAT we were having for dinner but I do remember the bacon wrapped green beans, man they were good!

Bacon Green Bean Bundles would make excellent party food. Made ahead, precooked with minimal reheat time they would make plenty of people happy, and they can be picked up and eaten easily. I will say this though, make sure you don't use thick cut bacon. I used homemade bacon that I cut without a meat slicer, it didn't bend very well. And also use toothpicks to hold the bundles together, just laying them seam side down did not work too well.

Bacon Green Bean Bundles
oven 350˚

1 pound fresh green beans
12 slices of bacon
wooden tooth picks
salt and pepper

bring a pot of water big enough to blanch in of water to a boil
meanwhile clean the green beans and remove the stem end
when the water boils reduce heat slightly and and cook the beans for 90 seconds
scoop out and set to drain
now drop the bacon slices in the water and par boil for 2 minutes
scoop them out and turn off the boiling water
let the bacon cool enough to work with
line a baking sheet with foil and a cooking rack
begin wrapping the bacon around small bundles of green beans
it helps to kind of divide out the beans in before wrapping so you can make sure the bundles are the same size secure the bacon with the toothpicks and place on the baking rack
sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper
bake for 20 minutes or until the bacon is crispy
serve while still hot

Peace and Love--

Apple Upside Down Cake II

2012-01-10T21:10:00.001-09:00

I guess I like upside down cakes or maybe I just like the hot caramel mess they make while baking. Whatever it is I seem to make just about EVERY kind of upside down cake I can think of. Blueberry, Apple, Orange, Orange Cranberry and Sunshine Upside Down, to name a few!

I was pondering what to make for our teacher luncheon tomorrow and wouldn't you know it, surprise surprise, I came up with an upside down cake. Hunh, maybe it's because once it's done baking it's done, period? Well that doesn't make too much sense because I do love frosting too! Anyway, I made a different version of an apple upside down cake, so it's numbered accordingly.

Apple Upside Down Cake II
--oven 350˚

3 TBSP butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large apples, whatever you happen to have, preferably firm

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar--I used Sucanat
2 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups flour--I used whole wheat
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 TBSP vanilla extract
1/3 cup of milk

in a 9 inch cake pan melt the butter and brown sugar together
peel the apples and cut the fruit off the core, cut the apples into bite sized pieces
lay the apples over the top of the butter/sugar mix in an even layer, set aside
beat sugar and butter until well creamed
add the egg yolks 1 at a time and beat well after each yolk
in a small bowl sift the flour, baking powder and salt together
whisk the egg whites until frothy, set aside
add the flour and the liquid alternately to the sugar mixturemixing quickly after each addition
add the whisked egg whitesmix well and pour over the apples in the cake pan
bake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick comes out cleaninvert on a cake plate immediately
cool and serve

Do you like upside down cake? I'm thinking my answer to that question is yes, yes I do.

Peace and Love--

Seen in the Last Week

2012-01-09T21:36:00.000-09:00

one twirling boy

one snowy dog

trees heavy with snow

wind sculpted snow on the garage

first tint of pink on the mountain

gaudy outrageous sunset

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday Carrot Apple Salad

2012-01-08T21:39:00.003-09:00

What to pack in lunches has been a hot topic on a friend's facebook group. What you're making, what they're making, who is packing what. What do your kids eat? Not eat? And why the hell do we really care anyway. We have been in soup mode the last week keeping the one thermos the boys share in constant action, warm soup before sledding in 10 below zero weather keeps you warm.

My friend Steph who writes at Up North, Over Yonder and Out of My Mind mentioned a carrot apple salad the other day and posted a recipe. I really wanted to make so I made sure to make it happen this weekend. I wasn't going anywhere anyway, it's been snowing for days and we had at least a foot of new snow over night.

So it seemed a good time to see if indeed boys would eat an apple salad for lunch. And they did! I served it in the jars I would be sending it to school in so I could see if they would eat at least that much and they practically licked them clean. If you're looking to change up lunch and keep your kids happy this is a great side dish. I can see it used in wraps as a kind of waldorf salad wrap or topping lettuce with a dash of feta too, it's pretty delicious. I, of course, varied from her recipe because she used balsamic vinegar which I happened to be out of.

Carrot Apple Salad
3-4 large carrots, peeled, unless garden fresh the skins can be bitter
3 apples cored, if they are organic leave the skins on
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
2 TBSP honey
2 TBSP almond oil

attach the shredding blade to your food processor and shred the carrots and the apples
toss them with the lemon juice in a mixing bowl
add the vinegar, honey and oil to the food processor add a mixing blade and give it a whirl
toss with the shredded carrots and apples
serve right away or divide up for lunches

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2012-01-07T21:39:00.000-09:00

This week we drove our oldest son to Seward to start his plumbing and heating training, yes my 18 year old son, this one

wants to be a plumber. I couldn't be happier or more proud, my dad was a plumber too and we even managed to dig up some of his old tools for my son to use in school. Of course this meant driving through Anchorage on the way to Seward and a stop at my favorite thrift store. WOOT!

I found this big, old(?) french canning jar. Perfect for all kinds of pantry storage or pickle making even. LOVE!

and another piece of McCoy pottery.

I couldn't believe it when I saw it on the half price table, which meant it had been there for more than a month without selling. It's in pristine condition but I don't need it, so I'll probably sell it, at some point, after I enjoy it, I guess.

Earlier this week I made a jar of homemade air freshener, I'll be making more soon. I really like the way it absorbs odors AND gently smells good. Easy to find household ingredients make it a simple project to make.

Plus I'm still enjoying my decision to get a produce box from Full Circle. For the price of regular vegetables and fruit at the grocery store I get a fresh box full of organic fruit and veggies. This week laying it out to take a picture inspired me to make my meal plan, it's here if you want to see it. I like the fact that every week I can customize my box, we were due for more celery this week and I think I exchanged that for green peppers. It's nice if you're not eating all of something they sent you, you can pick something different.

I also like that we're eating 100% organic for all our fruits and veggies, meat too. We get our organic pantry staples for great prices through Azure Standard. I highly recommend them for excellent prices on natural and organic products.

What about you? What's making you tick this week?

Peace and Love--

Menu Planning

2012-01-06T19:04:00.000-09:00

I just realized as I laid out my produce from Full Circle the other day that looking at it en masse was a great way to meal plan. I saw so many MORE options that just unpacking it and putting it away.

I thought I'd share what I came up with for our week of eats. Wait did you catch that? A WEEK of meals from our big box of ORGANIC produce, for Alaska that's a really good deal. Supplemented with the meat we have put away and pantry essentials we are good to go

So here is my list in no particular order:

Ratatouille served over organic polenta

Dry Fried Green Beans with Spicy Pork

Stuffed Peppers and Tamale Pie--2 in one dinner, my kids don't like stuffed peppers, bonus? we only got 2 peppers!

Spicy Beef Wraps and and Roasted Beets

Hamburgers and Hot Potato Salad

Mushroom Barley Soup Fresh Bread

lunches will have: leftovers of soup, tamale pie and hamburgers, fresh carrots, carrot apple salad,
kiwis, oranges, apples and pears

I might make more Baked Apples too.

Peace and Love--

Quick and Easy Baked Apples

2012-01-05T19:35:00.000-09:00

Alternate working title, what to do with ugly apples.

We still buy lots of organic fruit in 20 pound boxes from Azure Standard, even while getting a big box of produce from Full Circle weekly. What can I say, we like our fruit, a lot. Occasionally we get to the bottom of 20 pounds of apples and some of the apples are looking pretty sad. Nothing rotten or furry just wrinkled and soft, not pretty but definitely edible.

We came across a few of those a couple days ago and my kids were grossed out. They wanted to take them right out to the chickens and be done with it. I wanted them to understand that even when things look gross on the outside it's what's inside that matters. I handed my 8 year old the apple corer and showed him how to use it and put him to work cleaning out the apples. When he cut into the first apple he discovered it was perfectly fine, the flesh though soft was not rotten as he thought it would be.

I hope the lesson sunk in, I didn't push it or over talk it or make it a learning lesson, I just let it ride. The baked apples made the house smell fantastic, they tasted great and I had to fight the urge to over teach the lesson. Biting. My. Tongue. Not easy for me.

Why not over teach the moment?

Not everything needs to be overdone, some things can just be simple and still effective. The world today is all about ramming information into kids so they can pass the next test or meet some other highly ineffective goal. Sometimes you can just be.

Quick and Easy Baked Apples
oven 350˚
2 apples, whatever kind you happen to have
2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP chopped pecans-or whatever nuts you have on hand
2 TBSP brown sugar or whatever sweetener you have or like
dash of salt

preheat the oven to 350˚
core the apples
mix the rest of the ingredients together
stuff the apples with butter mix and lay then on their sides in a baking dish
bake 30-45 minutes until the apples are fork tender

eat while warm for best flavor

My six year old said "oh! they're full of applesauce"

Peace and Love--

DIY Air Freshener

2012-01-04T22:15:00.002-09:00

Thrifty not necessarily thrifted.

I saw this make it yourself air freshener pinned on pinterest this morning, followed the link and realized I had all the stuff to make it, so I did. And it was easy. I'm pretty sure our grandmothers will be getting some delicious smelling room fresheners for Valentines Day this year, this is right up our alley. What with mixing smelly oil, using the pestle to crush it together, punching holes in the lid and the relative short amount of time spent, this is almost a perfect project. A project that can be industriously worked on, is useful in the end and can be finished in one sitting is what we're shooting for. While we do engage in long term projects we need plenty of shorter ones to make and feel triumphant about, this fits the bill.

gather together:
baking soda
essential oil-lavender or any scent you happen to A) have or B) like
vanilla bean-if using
scoop or measuring cup
pestle--bat shaped part of mortar and pestle
jar
lid and ring-old is fine, great way to recycle used lids
nail
hammer
old cutting board-to hammer on, use what you have

scoop about a 1/3 of a cup of baking soda into the jar
split the vanilla bean, cut it in half and add it to the jar, or add 4-5 drops of essential oils or both
give it a grind with the pestle to really mix it up

then make the vented lid for the top by punching through the lid with the hammer and nail, this isn't hard, one to two good taps and you're through, just make sure you are hammering on a safe surface, we have a crafting cutting board, we abuse it a LOT

when hammering the lid go from the top down so all the sharp points are facing down into the jar

make any design you want or none at all
you COULD with eager children paint the lids and rings but I like the plain metal look, its suits us

and this is the jar all done and ready to work--just give it a shake to release it's scent, the baking soda will also absorb odor too--double the work from such a small thing--I like it!

Peace and Love--

Potato Leek Cheddar Chowder

2012-01-03T21:10:00.002-09:00

I'm pretty sure I've never seen a leek as big as the one that came in our Full Circle box a few weeks ago. I have to say my 6 year old was completely impressed when we pulled it out of the box. He loved it instantly so it was a no brainer to get a picture of him with it.

SirPrize and his pet leek.

I love you, but I'll eat you anyway

When it came time to use the leek, Mr. SirPrize was very interested in helping create the soup his leek was going to be used in. He washed potatoes, chopped leeks, stirred the soup and was generally a huge help in the kitchen. And that night at dinner he proudly talked about his leek and his soup.

This is such and excellent way to get kids inspired and interested in healthier eating. I love to open the CSA box and have my kids help me put the veggies away. We ohhh and ahhh over each one, eat a few samples and make plans for dinners, sometimes they even claim a veggie for their very own.

We discovered the allure of a CSA box a few years ago when we had a local summer box, our kids would devour the carrots before we ever got home. And heaven help us if there were peas in the box. We grow a lot of our own fresh veggies in the summer and don't necessarily need a CSA box for summer. But for winter I sure do love to have a fresh box of veggies and fruit. I also love to have my kids help open the box in wonder and delight, it makes my heart happy.

Potato Leek Cheddar Chowder
3 TBSP good oil
1 leek, white part chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
2-3 pounds of potatoes, washed and chopped, bite sized
pinch of dill weed
pinch of dry thyme
dash of hot sauce
4 cups chicken broth or veggie broth
3 cups water
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup flour
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

in a big pot heat the oil and add the leek, onion and celery, cook and stir for 5 minutes
add the potatoes, dill, thyme, hot sauce, broth and water
bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer
cook until the potatoes are tender 10-15 minutes
meanwhile mix the flour and milk until the lumps are gone
slowly stir in the flour mixture, cook and stir for 10 minutes more
remove from the heat and sprinkle the cheese over the top and stir to incorporate
taste for salt and pepper, add as needed
serve immediately, with extra grated cheese if desired for garnish

It's 15 below zero out there, this is a good soup to warm your bones with before bed. And lucky me I doubled it so I have extra for kids lunches and even a bowl for myself tomorrow. Tomorrow looks to be just as cold out so I'll be happy to have a piping hot bowl mid-day before venturing out to pick up kids from school. Ahh winter in Alaska, you never fail to amaze me, or freeze me, or both.

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday Jalapeño Popper Dip

2012-01-01T22:00:00.002-09:00

I made this fabulous dip for our New Years Eve party the other night. It's really good and I can see it being a super bowl hit too, all the flavor of a jalapeño popper and none of the deep fat frying! I was perusing Sweet and Savory the other day and I came across this and thought "hmmmm yes party food!" and immediately added it to my list. I wish I had a picture but once the party started I put my camera away. That's probably a good thing because I don't think I could have held a camera steady anyway. Um, yes, good party!

Jalapeño Popper Dip
2 8 ounce blocks of cream cheese
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
4 ounce can of diced jalapeños
4 ounce can of diced green peppers
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup of butter
1/2 cup of bread crumbs

pre-heat the oven to 350˚
in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a mixing bowl mix the cream cheese and mayonnaise until smooth
open and drain the peppers and mix them in
add the shredded cheese and mix well
pour into a buttered casserole dish
melt the butter in a small sauce pan and mix in the bread crumbs
spread over the top of the dip
bake in a 350˚ oven for 20-25 minutes
serve hot with bread, crackers or fresh carrot chips or celery sticks
also good cold eaten with a spoon

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2012-01-01T11:44:00.000-09:00

Thought I'd share some of non box store presents we gave and received for Christmas. My husband, the trickster was done shopping by August, he had all the goodies bought and hid. I figure he was putting off shopping when he had it all figured out ahead of time.

He got me this 1935 chandelier for our 1935 Colony House.

It needs repair but I love it and won't it look lovely hanging up there?
He also took pity on my cold feet and bought me old fashioned bed warmers, woot!

Fill with boiling water, slip in the bed and in no time warm bed and feet.

And a train case! I love that color!

I made the kids knitted and felted lunch boxes, birch tree stumps with mushrooms needle felted on them.

Peace and Love--

2012 Goals

2011-12-29T21:25:00.001-09:00

I don't do resolutions. Every year since as far back as I can remember I've had New Years resolutions and I've failed miserably at keeping them. or working towards them. Or for that matter even remembering what they were. They were always along the lines of lose 50 pounds. Stop smoking. Never eat chocolate again. So I decided not to do resolutions.

I don't do bucket lists. This implies I will be dying soon and I'd rather not. And I'd rather not think about it. (evenafter2weeksofwinterbreakwithtattletalechildren HA!) Plus I kinda get the feeling that bucket list only came about or got popular after the movie bucket list and that right there is a no go.

I will set a list of goals for myself. Lists, oh how I love thee. I can make lists and accomplish things AND CROSS THEM OFF and feel so good about myself. It's how I make it through the day happily accomplishing things. So I made my self a list of goals for 2012.

Here is said list:

Some are specific goals like learn to knit socks, I can start this right now. Seeking sponsorship is a goal I will work on long term over the next few months as well as getting the house in order. I can plan on putting up foods from our land, I can buy seeds, onion set and locate a weaner pig and cull calf to raise for meat. Once I can get a shovel in the ground we're ready to go and another goal is met.

I have a LIST!! It's all about word choice, resolution? meh. Bucket list? bleck. List of Goals? YES YES YES. What works for you?
Goals? Bucket List? Resolution?

Peace and Love--

Stuffed Cabbage

2011-12-28T21:55:00.001-09:00

This recipe is like cabbage roll's cousin, same ingredients, less work, more or less the same results. A few weeks ago I received a napa cabbage in my CSA box from Full Circle, I pondered it for a week or so trying to decide what to make, the produce is so good I just don't want to waste it. I finally settled on cabbage rolls but as the day drew nearer to dinner time I realized cabbage rolls were too much work for how little time I had left. This is what I came up with, it was good, really good and I might never make cabbage rolls again, except I like those little packets of savory deliciousness too much to write them off entirely.

Stuffed Cabbage

1 head Napa Cabbage
1 pound lean ground beef
2 stalks of celery, chopped
half a medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 whole tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped or 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon smoked paprika, worth the effort to find it!
1 teaspoon garlics granule or a minced clove of garlic--add as much as you prefer
salt to taste

boil water in a large pot big enough to hold half a head of cabbage easily
cut the cabbage in half and remove outer leaves
when the water comes to a boil reduce heat and add a half of the cabbage, cook for 3-4 minutes then remove and drain on a dish towel, be careful the water coming out will be hot
repeat with the second half of the cabbage
meanwhile in a large skillet cook the ground beef, celery, onions and carrots until the beef is cooked through
add the tomatoes and crush if using whole
add the seasonings and taste for salt
when the two halves of the cabbage are done being precooked and are drained arrange in a baking dish large enough to hold them both side by side
start scooping the beef filling into the cabbage halves and stuffing it between each leaf as far as it will go
when the cabbage halves are stuffed simply mound any remaining filling on top of the cabbage and it will cook into them
cover with a lid or foil and bake for 35-40 minutes until the cabbage is fork tender
slice each half in half and serve a quarter of the cabbage to each person with any extra meat filling on top

These were so good I'm pretty sure my family would have eaten two whole cabbages for dinner. Note to self, make two next time, any leftovers would be great covered in cheese and reheated. I love stuffed cabbage, you will too, unless of course you don't like cabbage and then, well I guess you're out of luck.

Peace and Love--

Post Christmas Post

2011-12-26T21:15:00.000-09:00

From this

to this in 36 short hours.

Hahaha not really, they were playing with the puppy and thought she would never find them in her kennel. Which was true, she didn't look there at first but eventually their giggling gave them away. The best part was her confused look when they tried to lure her in with them, she doesn't like to be in her kennel so having her two favorite people calling her in was hard to ignore. This game continued for at least an hour and I'm sure we'll see more of it until school starts again. You'd think they'd have new and better things to play with than each other, their puppy and a dog kennel but even the new and shiny isn't as good as the old and much loved. Hunh wonder where they get that from?

Hope your holiday was as enjoyable as ours was and no one had to get kenneled.

Peace and Love--

The Holiday that Thrift Decorated

2011-12-22T14:24:00.002-09:00

Almost each and every Christmas decoration I own and use is thrifted.

I keep my tree decorations in thrifted vintage train cases. Ohh how I love these and I'm really glad I found a use for them. Plus if the kids drop one while carrying it upstairs 99% of the time things are unbroken.

This one they don't get to carry, too many vintage ornaments, I don't even hang them on the tree with kids, a puppy and a kitten in the house.

on the tree

Thrifted wreath

Bathroom full of vintage goodness

Peace and Love--

How to Make a Paper Window Star

2011-12-19T22:25:00.002-09:00

These are the very basic directions to make a paper window star. You'll need to have some kite paper, about 7.50 for one hundred sheets, but you could use tissue paper until you get some. My eight year old boy was able to make the folds quite easily but my six year old was struggling with them a bit.
Truly easy to make and lovely to look at.

Start with 8 sheets of square paper in your choice of colors.

Take one sheet and fold it in half

and then in half again.

Open and lay flat

now fold each corner to the center, crease carefully.

the fold two sides like so and set it aside.

Repeat 7 more times.

The glue them overlapping like this, glue sticks work really well here,

tuck the last one in under the first one so the pattern repeats.

The window stars can be hung on the window with a dot of glue from a glue stick. The glue will hold the star perfectly and will easily wash off later.

This one is hanging on my window and the one in this tutorial is going to my mom's house.

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday

2011-12-18T21:52:00.001-09:00

My first veggie box from Full Circle had a gorgeous winter squash tucked in it, it was so beautiful I didn't want to eat only look at it.

But then on the other hand, the practical hand, I knew we needed to get on with it and eat it before it got knocked to the floor or ruined in some other horrid way. So today was the big day and my oh my was it delicious! I made this for lunch and we all enjoyed it.

My photos are going to be kinda sad for the next few weeks because of the severe lack of natural light, even at noon our skies are dim.

Vegetarian Stuffed Winter Squash
1 medium 4 pound winter squash-I think the one I had was a buttercup from Full Circle
1 teaspoon oil
salt and pepper
3 cups water
1 cup quinoa
2 cups chopped kale-from Full Circle
1 Tablespoon pesto
1 chopped tomato-optional

preheat oven to 350˚
wash the squash outside and then cut the top off, scoop the seeds out and save for toasting later
clean the squash out getting all the strings and such out
spread the inside of the squash with the oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper and set on a lined baking sheet, pop the squash in the oven to pre-bake until the quinoa is done
put the quinoa in a medium size pan and rinse under running water, rubbing between your hands to remove the bitter coating on the quinoa
rinse well and add the 3 cups of water
bring to a boil and reduce heat and cook until the water is mostly cooked off
then add the kale and the pesto
stir in the tomatoes if using
pull the squash out of the oven and fill with the quinoa mixture
continue baking for another 45 minutes or until a knife slips easily through the thickest part of the squash
to serve scoop the quinoa and the squash out together

Now if you happen to have a squash with a big cavity you can double the quiona OR add more veggies or both. Feta would have been and excellent addition, alas I'm out!

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2011-12-18T09:37:00.001-09:00

I found some really cool things this week in the thrift stores, plus I've got pictures of the things I made for the kid's teachers.

I hope you like this as much as I do,

a wooden scotch tape dispenser. I think it's homemade AND I think we will be making these as present for our kid's teachers sometime soon.

My kids, who love office supplies as much as their mother, were thrilled to see this show up in our house. Plus now I can buy the big refill packs of tape and not worry about disposable parts, buying bulk is TOTALLY thrifty!

When I was little my mom had the full set of these angels, I found a few more for the choir. What is it about the random things we had when I was a child that makes me want to bring them into my life again?

And I thought the carousel horses were really nice too.

I made this winter arrangement for my bathroom this week. I really like the way it turned out, kind of cool and calming. Since it isn't REALLY a Christmas decoration, I'll probably keep it up for January too.

I made a couple gnome hats for teacher's kids.

Also a hand dyed silk

and the Winter King.

I worked on getting a butter churn for the kindergarten teacher.

Isn't it OLD and lovely?

Peace and Love--

Thrifted DIY Style

2011-12-14T21:48:00.000-09:00

I have this very long bathroom counter that needs something on it or it collects junk, spare change, socks, you name it, it shows up. I have found that if I put something pretty or decorative there it keeps 'them' from putting random stuff there. And it looks nice. Win/Win

First start with a GIANT empty space

then locate some thrifted picks, I picked these up for 25¢ a piece--you can find these in any thrift store they are everywhere---pick colors you like or want to work with

Then I roamed around the yard and grabbed a BUNCH of birch branches that blew out of the trees--we just had a huge windstorm last week so we had a lot.

I took them downstairs and dug out some white spray paint and gave them a quick once over. Now they do have some brown bits left but overall they are white.

I dug up a huge old vase and poured in some marbles to hold it down, my cats like to eat arrangements, there is a reason the kitten is called Thunder. Use any vase or vessel you want to use, get creative!

Then I got down to the fun part, making it look good, which actually turned out to be hard because the picks were being a pain and I didn't want to break them apart. Eventually we came to the understanding that they would do what I want and I would put them where they go nicely.

Add your painted branches.

A few minor tweaks and a bluebird ornament from the tree and voila!

A beautiful arrangement to fill that huge space. I really love the way this looks.

Total cost for me was 50¢, everything else I already had. If you had to buy everything from a thrift store I'd bet it would cost around 5 dollars total, but the real fun is spending less than that and using things you already own, creatively.

Peace and love--

KitchenAid Stand Mixer Winner

2011-12-13T21:23:00.003-09:00

Oh the end of a contest is so hard to bear! I love watching the comments pile up, seeing what folks have to say and checking out all my new readers. And especially at this time of year, the camaraderie is really great. So fun!

I guess you all want to know WHO the lucky winner is eh?

Well here's what Random Number Generator had to say:

I've never seen a Random Number Generator pick such a low number! The very lucky winner is also a very good friend of mine, fellow blogger and knitting enthusiast....

HeatherinSF said...
Just tweeted for you! Also I'd love the copper color one. I have my Mom's first kitchenaid but it has a glass bowl and limited muscle but for being 48 years old it's doing okay. I would bake a lot more bread with a new one that has a dough hook. Fingers crossed!

December 4, 2011 9:56:00 PM AKST

So my dear you have 24 hours to contact me and give me a mailing address or I'll have to pick another winner.

Thanks to everyone who came, read, commented and played along! I've enjoyed reading each and everyone of your kind words.

And now that I'm making some money writing who says I have to wait until my next blog anniversary.....

Peace and Love--

Santa Lucia Buns

2011-12-12T21:06:00.000-09:00

Just to be absolutely clear I don't know where this recipe came from, if you know please let me know so I can properly attribute it. It was passed to me with a bag of ingredients, barely legible, a bad xerox copy written over in red pencil. It wasn't hard to make, once I figured out it was just a sweet bread dough. I have to say thank goodness I had the KitchenAid, that made it really easy. Oh the winner of the KitchenAid? Ohhh well as I'm writing this there is still 3ish hours left to enter, I'll be posting the winner in the morning. Come back then, in the meantime Santa Lucia Buns.

In our school it's customary for one or two grades to make Santa Lucia Buns for the rest of the school. This year was our turn, second grade parents made dough for the kids to shape. While the third grade students, who are studying cooking and baking, made their dough, rolled them and baked them. Next year it will be our third graders doing all the work while a new crop of second graders starts the process. On Santa Lucia Day the children will serve buns and spiced tea to the rest of the school. That's a LOT of buns, we made 160 buns today, which means the third grade will be making about 140, also a lot of buns. And fun. It was fun, the kids were in a festive mood, happy and ruddy faced from playing in the fresh snow. They spent time shaping the gorgeous saffron tinted dough into ornate S shapes, egg washed them and left them to rise. Then they moved as needed or desired off to finish their present surprises, ornaments, felted wool or knitting projects, depending on what they had left to do. I then spent a very quiet hour in a silent kindergarten kitchen knitting and baking the buns off. The sunset was glorious and while I was there I reflected on the pleasure this school brings me. Yes it has growing pains, it's a brand new school and all new things evolve and grow, it's still a great school and I'm so glad we're here.

Santa Lucia Buns
recipe makes about 50-60ish 3 inch rolls, depends on size really

1 1/3 cup of milk
1/2 cup of butter
2/3 cup of sugar
pinch of saffron
3 Tablespoons of yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs-1 for dough, 1 for egg wash
4-4 1/2 cups of flour
raisins or dried currants

scald the milk and set to cooling
drop the butter in and let it melt
add the pinch of saffron to the melting butter and warm milk
stir to dissolve
when the milk mixture has reached lukewarm add the yeast and salt and let it set about 5 minutes
add two cups flour to a mixing bowl or bowl of stand mixer
add the warm milk and yeast mixture and pulse to incorporate
then begin mixing when the flour is mixed in add 2 more cups in 1/2 cup increments
if the dough seems really soft add the last 1/2 cup and then machine knead or need by hand until a soft smooth dough has formed
grease a large bowl, add the dough turn to coat, cover and let rise until doubled
punch down, divide dough and make into S shapes, brush with egg was and place 2 raisins or currents at each end
let rise again for about 45 minutes
preheat the oven to 375˚
bake for 15 minutes or until cooked through

Obviously the length of time to bake depends entirely on how big you make the buns. You can make them all the ornate S with curved ends or you can make some ornate X and decorate the same way. They are usually made buy the oldest girl in the household early on December 13th to honor the Saint Lucy who brought hope and light to all in the darkest hours of winter. Enjoy!

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday

2011-12-11T21:20:00.001-09:00

Now I remember why I love a good veggie box, it pushes me out of my comfort zone and makes me use what's in the box. So far this week we've had raw beet salad, hot potato salad, fresh lettuce with everything, carrots and cucumbers sliced and raw, and I'm planning to make my famous vegetarian cabbage rolls soon. So many vegetables to choose from and use before they go bad, it's almost like a game "what will I make to use that up?"

Luckily the produce from Full Circle is fresh and lovely and going bad quickly doesn't seem to be a problem. The last two boxes we sampled were a Garden size box, for our next two boxes we're going to try out the Harvest size and see how that suits us. Looking at the comparison chart I think we'll use up the Harvest size just fine, of course you'll be the first to know if we have trouble. For the record I received a credit to try out the new size boxes of organic produce from Full Circle themselves, you know if ANYBODY was wondering.

Braised Winter Greens
1/2 cup pecans
1 pound of mixed winter greens, mostly kale and chard
1 Tablespoon good oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic or garlic granules
1/4 cup water
pinch of salt

in a large skillet toast the pecans over medium high heat, just to brown
while the pecans are toasting wash the greens, remove any thick stems and pat dry
when the pecans are toasted pour into a bowl to cool
heat the oil in the same large skillet
add the garlic and quickly pan fry it then add the greens and cook for 1-2 minutes
then add the water and cover with a lid for 2 more minutes
then stir and cook until the water is gone, if need be, and the greens are cooked but not slimy
remove to a plate add a pinch of salt and top with the toasted pecans
serve immediately

Anyone linking up a Meatless Monday recipe via the link party below has just earned themselves an extra entry to WIN THE KITCHENAID MIXER! So head on over to that post and leave a comment. To enter you MUST follow this blog, that's the only requirement and of course there are multiple ways to enter. The contest ends Monday December 12th at midnight my time. Have fun and good luck!

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2011-12-10T23:05:00.001-09:00

Anyone linking up today is welcome to go my KitchenAid Stand Mixer Giveaway Post and leave an extra entry comment. Thanks for coming by and sharing what inspires your and the extra entry is my way of saying thank you. It can be thrift store finds, crafts, money saving recipes, meal plans...whatever YOU consider important to your life, you can even link up an etsy store OR ebay auctions.

Our winter morning started off early and in the dark, of course the sun doesn't even come up from behind the mountain until noon, the kids wrote letters to Santa while we enjoyed coffee. Today was our town's Christmas celebration called Colony Christmas, we planned to go see Santa, play in the ice garden and look at gingerbread houses. We looked for the snow machine rides but they weren't running. You know what was running? The wind, it was a brisk 24˚ outside and the wind was about 20-30 miles an hour. Wooh.

Knowing I wouldn't be home until after dark, 4 pm, I jumped into high gear to get my photos taken during real daylight hours. Our 6 year old took the opportunity to make a glider for his gnome priest. Damn thing really flew.

I got a shot of these

which cost a quarter

which are destined for the bathroom counter.

My son, the 6 year old again, fell in love with this shirt, for a 1.50 it came home with us. Who am I to argue about a 6 year old in a dress shirt?

I picked up two Christmas books I didn't have yet.

I can't wait to read this one, I love Tomie DePaola's illustrations.

I found three more Santa mugs who will soon join their brethren

on the bathroom window sill

And I found this rainbow shape candle holder thing, I have plans for it, pretty sure there's a post in there some where.

Yesterdays post featured a DIY Thrifted Forest Wreath, if you don't have a wreath yet, this may inspire you to pass on the spendy wreath and go thrifted.

Don't forget any links on The Penny Worthy Project earn you an EXTRA entry to win the KitchenAId Stand Mixer.

Peace and Love--

DIY Forest Wreath

2011-12-09T22:47:00.001-09:00

Decorating your own wreath is so easy and completely affordable when you dig through your thrifted treasures to find just the right touch.

Start with a good size wreath, they are out there I saw at least 20 of them at the thrift store JUST today. This is a wreath I've had for several years and I like it a lot, it's big and full and takes up a fair amount of room on the door. We don't want no stinkin' puny wreath!

Now go hit up your craft box, closet, room or thrift store for some cool forest stuff. You could use some birds, flowers, mini mushrooms, assorted berries, foliage or even vintage ornaments. While your at it grab some twist ties to fasten everything on. A glue gun works fine too but is more permanent than I want to get, but it may work for you.

So you have your big wreath and you have some baublesand you have a way to connect them all together. Put on some Christmas music and get to work.

Lay out the wreath and start adding goodies. I add the mushrooms first and I took off the ribbon because it just looked wrong.

I realized I should add the red berry wreath too but the berries were kinda chipped up.

So I grabbed a red permanent marker and colored in the chipped spots. Looks better hunh?

before

after

I love the way it fills in the center of the wreath and makes it pop right out.

Then I lost a pine cone to the mastiff who deemed it good eats, no worries I used a smaller one in it's place and it looks fine.

To attach my forest goodies I just twisted a twist tie around, up and under the pieces and onto the wreath.

I opted for no bow because I don't tie them well and I like the way it looks with out just fine.

Here it is hanging on the door, seeing it now I can see a few places that need adjusting, an easy fix.

Ack look out the chickens are trying to get in!

My total cost for this project, out of pocket was zero dollars. I owned everything already, I simply put them all together. The wreath was 2 dollars 3-4 years ago, the mushrooms were 50¢ and the red berries were 1 dollar a few years ago, the twist ties were in my bread drawer.

Merry DIY THRIFTED Christmas and beware my chickens!

Peace and Love--

Grated Raw Beet Salad with Citrus Dressing

2011-12-08T21:43:00.001-09:00

What to do with two beets, yes TWO. They came in my vegetable box last week, I was determined to use them creatively. I combed my bookmarked recipes but none of them were new and exciting to me I had a borscht I needed to try and roasted beets are always good but with only two it's hard to feed the family. So I turned to the internet to peruse beet recipes. I soon came across a grated raw beet salad that sounded promising. I tweaked it to use what I had on hand, and I fully expect you to do the same.

It turned out to be wonderfully delicious and a real change to the normal winter dishes we were eating. Full of vibrant color and packing a real nutritional wallop this salad, as a friend of mine who owns The Red Beet says, "will make your liver sing". It made my mouth sing and my boys liked it for other reasons like the biological properties it has....

Grated Raw Beet Salad with Citrus Dressing
*a food processor with a grating blade makes this salad so easy to prepare*

1 pound raw organic beets
4 stalks organic celery
1/4 teaspoon grated ginger root
juice of one orange
1 TBSP lemon juice
1TBSP of good live oil
pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon salt
dash of pepper
sour cream for garnish if desired

wash and peel the beets with vegetable peeler, this wasn't as messy as I first thought it would be just don't wear white and you should be fine
put the grate blade on your food processor and grate the beets, empty the beets into a bowl
wash the celery, trim off any spots and grate the celery too, mix into the beets
in a jar with a tight fitting lid mix the remaining ingredients except for the sour cream
pour over the beet and celery mix, turn to coat and then refrigerate for at least 1/2 an hour but overnight really makes it fantastic, it doesn't lose it's crunch either

From this:

To this:

Peace and Love--

Full Circle Farm

2011-12-06T21:55:00.001-09:00

Trying out a produce box from Full Circle, courtesy of Full Circle. Thought I'd just share the photos this week. They do truly speak for themselves. Good food, good for you, good for the earth, Full Circle.

And don't forget to enter the giveaway for the KitchenAid Stand Mixer, going on until next Monday night!

Peace and Love--

FTC disclosure: I was given a credit by Full Circle to try out their new veggie boxes and green grocers.

Just Another {KitchenAid Stand Mixer Giveaway} Meatless Monday

2011-12-04T20:35:00.001-09:00

CLOSED!!

3 years ago I decided to start writing this blog. I wanted to document my journey from processed standard food back to a more healthy holistic lifestyle. Not only have our eating habits changed but out whole lives have too. In that time I've had ankle surgery to repair a bad break, worked day and night start a Waldorf school, moved to a more subsistence lifestyle, discovered I don't need a lot of stuff to be happy, started the youngest two boys in the Waldorf school and graduated the oldest boy from high school. I've jumped back in to reselling as a hobby and to make some money, I've also picked up my knitting again, I've realized that my thrifting tendencies are appreciated by a lot more people than just me myself and I. Writing has always been a fascination of mine and now I write almost daily about our life and times here in Alaska and it suits me perfectly.

I'd like to say thank you to all the folks who read, comment, share and otherwise enjoy my blog, Thank You. But of course I want to give you something too and I wanted it to be something that I use almost everyday in my kitchen. I love my KitchenAid Stand Mixer and I want to share the joy it brings to me, with you. It makes baking a joy, whipping cream is a dream, kneading bread is simple, frosting comes together like magic. So that's what I'm doing, I'm giving away a KitchenAid 5 QT Tilt Head Stand Mixer, your choice of color.....

The link above actually has more colors than listed here, these are only a few of the colors available.

So what does a person have to do around here to be entered in the contest you ask?

Well there are several ways to get an entry, but no matter what you MUST be a follower of this blog --->>>>>>> right over there

you can leave a comment telling me if you would keep or gift the KitchenAid
leave a comment telling me what color you would pick if you won
you can become a follower on facebook---->>>>> right over there, leave another comment
blog roll "Hey What's for Dinner Mom?" and leave a comment
tweet or post on facebook " @whats4dinnermom Check out Hey What's for Dinner Mom she's giving away a KitchenAid Stand Mixer " leave a comment
write up a blog post about the giveaway, leave a comment

ok and the technical details--giveaway runs through the end of next Monday the 12 and is open to US residents only!

So there you go. Happy Blogiversary to me!

Peace and Love--

FTC disclosure: none, this was bought and paid for by me.

The Penny Worthy Project

2011-12-03T23:47:00.001-09:00

NOW THROUGH NEXT MONDAY THE 12 OF DECEMBER MAKE SURE YOU ENTER THE KITCHENAID STAND MIXER GIVEAWAY!

Good thrifting week up north here, how about you? No particular good finds, just good trips, fun digging and a happy week.

Bought us a set of cloth napkins. I love the print. These make a nice change from the wash clothes we've been using since we went paperless over here.

Vintage Christmas balls NEEDED to come home with me, yes?

And this adorable vintage stocking.

I've been doing lots of knitting this week too. Finished this voygeur hat for my husband, I love it, don't you?

Of course in case you missed it I made a few gnome hats for my boys too. And I started this gnome hat a couple days ago, I love the way it stripes up.

So who wants to win a KitchenAid Mixer? Come back tomorrow for details!

Peace and Love--

Orange Kissed Brownie Bites

2011-12-01T21:51:00.001-09:00

Don't forget to enter to win a BRAND NEW KitchenAid Stand Mixer Courtesy of ME!

Back to our regularly scheduled program:

You know those little chocolate oranges that you WHACK! and then eat? Well that was my first introduction to chocolate and orange together. I always avoided them because the very thought of chocolate and orange was disturbing, but then I relented. I'm so glad I did, because I discovered I love the combination of chocolate and orange.

This recipe is all that flavor, that smooth chocolate melt, that tangy orange kick all wrapped in a brownie you can make and inhale in the privacy of your home. If you're looking for a new delicious addition to your holiday baking regime, might I recommend Orange Kissed Brownie Bites? Ultimate Evil Club people, ULTIMATE EVIL CLUB, you must make these.

Orange Kissed Brownie Bites

1/2 cup and two TBSP of butter, divided, plus some for the pan
2 square unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
zest of one orange
juice of 1/2 of orange
2 eggs
3/4 cup of flour
pinch of salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips

preheat oven to 350˚
lightly butter and 8X8 baking pan
melt 1/2 cup of butter and unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler
remove from the heat and add the sugar
zest the orange directly into the chocolate mixture
mix in the orange juice
beat in the eggs one at a time
stir in the flour and the pinch of salt
pour into the prepared pan
bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes
remove from the oven and cool completely
cut into 1 inch squares and freeze for at least 45 minutes
when ready to coat the brownies melt the chocolate chips and the remaining 2 TBSP in the top of a double boiler
gently dip each brownie bite in the melted chocolate and then set on a wax paper lined baking sheet
sprinkle with a bit of salt if desired...(makes them really good!)
cool completely before serving
keep either in the refrigerator or the freezer until ready to serve

Best part of the photo shoot right here folks!

Peace and Love--

Gnome Hats

2011-11-30T21:46:00.001-09:00

I've been busy knitting up a storm the last few weeks. I finished two gnome hats for boys

and I finished a voygeur hat for my husband. It just came off the needles so I don't even have pictures yet.

Happy knitty winter!

Peace and Love--

Hats, Gloves and Scarves-OH MY!

2011-11-28T21:24:00.001-09:00

Whew, it's tough to keep your entry way or mudroom at least minimally controlled in the winter. There's so much stuff to keep track of. Here's how I do it, thrifted style of course!

First of all the book shelf is on it's 14th reincarnation--it was a book shelf, then toys, then books and on and on...it's well traveled in our home, to say the least. Right now it's here occupying a spot in our mudroom, a place holder for things to come. Because we own a big old dusty rusty farm house things are always in a state of remodel, that's why some of our walls are drywall and some are sweet 1970 wallpaper and why book shelves are place holders for several years.

The top holds an egg basket for gathering eggs.

Each shelf holds a thrifted wire basket with the appropriate gear in it. Top is for hats, then progressing down the body to gloves and the bottom shelf is for scarves, goggles and miscellaneous. It works so well, it's easy to sort it out when it gets off kilter and I love old wire baskets. WIN!

I also store my egg cartons here and the birch bark off to the right there is covering our fire extinguisher, you know for the next time I cook a ham on the grill...

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday Ain't Yo Mama's Pimento Cheese

2011-11-27T20:29:00.001-09:00

Pimento Cheese, is it a dip or a spread?

Do we care? NO! because we only want to eat Pimento Cheese not ponder it's very existence.

I love a good Pimento Cheese. That junk you buy in the store is a very pale imitation of the original which can be found in abundance all over the internet. This one of Paula's is classic and damn fine if you're looking for a jumping off point in the world of Pimento Cheese, you can't go wrong with Paula's easy delsih recipe. Except I like mine with a wee bit of spice and crunch so I added hot wing sauce and some pecans. Whoooo yum, it was like Pimento Cheese the 3d version, an Ain't Yo Mama's Pimento Cheese if you will. I think you'll agree that the basic premise of creamy cheesy is only enhanced with the addition of spicy and crunchy. Seriously.

Ain't Yo Mama's Pimento Cheese
4 ounces of cream cheese, room temperature
2 TBSP mayonnaise
1 TBSP plain yogurt
2 TBSP Franks Hot Wing Sauce--more if you like it hotter--this amount made it tasty not fiery
1/4 finely chopped pimentos or roasted red peppers
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 blue cheese crumbles
3 TBSP chopped pecans

beat the cream cheese, mayonnaise, yogurt and hot sauce with a mixer until well blended
add the rest of the ingredients and mix well
serve with crackers or bread
can be used as a sandwich filling
~~can also be eaten furtively in the kitchen with a spoon when no one is looking~~

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2011-11-26T17:29:00.001-09:00

So, did you go Black Friday shopping? or did you pull a Black Friday Black Out like we did? Good grief I heard people were being pepper sprayed over video games, sure glad we stayed home!

We had a mellow and snowy Thanksgiving Day

our thrifted table for Thanksgiving

followed by a more than mellow Black Friday Black Out--we played games, ate leftovers, some of stayed in our pajamas some didn't, watched some Star Wars movies and generally had a great day at home. The only exception was taking my macbook to the mac store and then to my husbands office to see if it would plug in and charge. Argghh hard to be a blogger if your computer will not charge. But the upside is A) the MacHaus is locally owned and B) it's not dead just would not charge--they ran free diagnostics and couldn't find anything wrong. Curious.

In the end we were mostly stay at home and when we did need to go out it was to a local business. We're calling it successful.

Today I went shopping to for Buy Local Saturday and took my camera along for the fun. I started at my favorite thrift store where boxes filled like this

make my heart beat faster.

Then I made my way over to our local bookstore Fireside Books and spent a good long time perusing books. They are soon celebrating their 10th anniversary in Palmer, they make a great addition to our down town district, I love to shop there.

one of my favorite sections...

and another favorite section

and I popped in next door to Non-Essentials and browsed and shopped some more. This store has all kinds of goodies from Fiesta Ware to Le Creuset to locally produced honey and bulk teas. I'd love to share all my goodies here BUT someone might see their present online and have their surprise ruined.

I did find some cool things while thrifting this week--

listing on ebay soon

Taylor Smith Taylor soup bowls--I'm assembling a set of beautiful vintage florals for spring and summer dishes--I have some 200 year old plates these will be fabulous with--and yes we will be using them daily

more gift tags and stickers and such--the candy cane pen is going in a stocking

book ends for our library so our books can all live an upright life...

I've wanted to read this for a long time, when I'm done I'll pass it on to anyone who wants to read it

Peace and Love--

Black Friday Black Out

2011-11-22T13:03:00.001-09:00

We're joining with folks all around the United States for a "black Friday black out". This is a direct quote from their website "Corporations offer lower prices on Black Friday because they depend on us buying their products. Large corporations use the holiday season to sell more products. Every year we hear about fights over toys, video games, and clothes. We will no longer let the corporations divide with the cheap trash they sell. We don't want "deals". We want real change. We will not work to sell the corporations garbage. We will not buy their corporate trash." Our family is standing in solidarity with people all across the world who are standing up to oppression, standing up for their beliefs and I invite you to join us in the "Black Friday Black Out" and for the equally impressive "Buy Local Saturday" event.
If you need any inspiration for skipping the box store crap, you should really watch the 20 minute or so movie called "The Story of Stuff". It will positively change your views on the way we live and why we need to change the course we are on, it certainly solidified my views on where I want to spend my money. Did you know that 99% of stuff bought in big box stores doesn't last past 6 months? It's designed to be consumed and replaced.

Things to do instead of spend money at box mart on Friday:

sleep in--seriously, if you rush off to work everyday why leap out of bed early another day
eat leftovers, and more leftovers,
have another cup of cheap, homemade coffee, that'll save you 5 bucks right there
engage in a massive all family game of risk or candyland, depends on the age of family members
have a craft-a-thon invite friends to come over, bring their leftovers and craft the day away
take a nap
watch all three Lord of the Rings Movies or Star Wars
have a snow ball fight
make cookies with your kids
start reading a classic out loud to your kids
put you feet up and be thankful for all the things you have
cut snowflakes with your kids
dig around in the cupboards and make something totally unusual
or better yet let the kids cook
stay in pajamas all day
find a place to go sledding
look up local bazaars for Buy Local Saturday
learn to knit
dust off your sewing machine and make something
eat another turkey sandwich
build a fort in your living room
take a long bath
create your advent wreath, if that fits with your beliefs
boil the turkey bones for stock, strain and freeze for good soup all winter
learn to make bread, why not? you got plenty of sandwich makings on hand!

See? There are plenty of things to do besides spend a bunch of many on crap that won't last.

Peace and Love--

Thrifted DIY Decorating

2011-11-21T21:48:00.001-09:00

I needed to fill a rather large spot with some sort of a fall decorations for the upcoming Thanksgiving dinner at my house. I was home for the day, not going anaywhere, so I dug around and got down to work.

Here's how it went down:

first clean off the work table--ha easily said, not so easily done--this poor table gets more than it's fair share of stuff dumped on it--usually just a place to rest before moving to it's proper location (hint hint family!)

so I rallied the troops and handed out the stuff to be hauled of--leaving only the necessities, mostly

I moved some dry flower oasis the green foam from one second hand container to another, this stuff is highly reusable

Then I started picking through my collection of second hand fake flowers and grasses--

and began adding bits and pieces here and there, I stepped back several times to check for height and width--the space I wanted to fill was pretty big so I was going for big and my pumpkin bowl was big but truly I don't think it's bigger than the recommended "container should be 1/3 of the height" so 1/3 is the container and 2/3 are the flowers or in this case, grasses

and here it is residing in my bathroom, on the counter, the fall foliage in the window and the candle sticks are all thrifted as well--the total cost for this project was around 2 dollars--not bad, not bad

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday Maple Roasted Pears with Pecans

2011-11-20T20:27:00.001-09:00

If you're looking for a delicious Vegan Dessert to to dazzle guests with, this one might be for you. Yes, we are still working our way through a case of pears, thankfully they're good eating and the work isn't too hard. This simple recipe is quick to make, easy to pop in the oven at the last minute and will delight even young guests.

Maple Roasted Pears with Pecans

6-8 firm ripe pears, I used D'Anjou
1TBSP lemon juice
3 TBSP maple syrup
1/2 cup pecan halves
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt or kosher salt

preheat oven to 350˚
wash and dry the pears
slice them into 4 pieces, I sliced off two whole sides and then the remaining pieces
put them in a bowl and drizzle on the lemon juice
then toss with the maple syrup
add the pecans and set aside
lightly grease a baking pan and pour in the pears
roast in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so
remove from the oven, sprinkle with salt and serve hot

The pears can be prepared ahead up to the point of tossing with lemon juice, then refrigerated until you are ready to roast them. This would make preparation even easier.

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2011-11-19T21:01:00.001-09:00

I've spent a lot of this week working on a deep clean of my house, the main floor anyway. While I've been scrubbing cupboards and enjoying the meditative work of cleaning I've been thinking a LOT about the disposable life that's so prevalent in our country. I wrote Does Thrift Store Shopping Lead to a Disposable Life? the other day and I had so many thoughtful comments, they really gave me food for thought. What do you think, I'd love to know.
Does pondering the disposable life make me stop thrifting? NO! It was certainly not my intent to stop thrifting, but perhaps thrift with purpose. Looking for goods I need or will gift to others rather than goods I want. I also do a bit of reselling, so between those things I have my goal: I either NEED it, will GIVE it or RESELL it. Now I have a goal, lets see how I did.

Ahahaha looking at my purchases this week I see this mug, an exact replica of one I bought for myself in Disneyland 8 years ago--now we have a matched set of cups bigger than my head--YEAH!!

And a vintage tin--hunh I guess I didn't NEED this one, guess I better put it to work

Oh I DID need these, fold-able Christmas boxes. Collapse when not in use, pop up for wrapping and then poof flat for storage. I like these because we'll be able to use them again and again.

last weekend was particularly crafty--here is one of the hats I made--ignore the goggles, it was super windy and cold outside

And we made some Martinmas lanterns last week too, this is mine with the sun shining though it

Don't forget to check out Hey Who's a Winner Mom? to see if you won the Seventh Generation/Le Creuset giveaway--I need the winner to contact me pretty quick or I'll have to draw a new a winner.

Peace and Love--

Vanilla Honey Poached Pears

2011-11-17T20:48:00.001-09:00

Whether you order 20 pounds of organic pears at one time or buy a bag from the local grocery store, now certainly seems the time to indulge in pears. In the last month I've seen D'anjou, Bartletts, Red Bartletts and Comice pears for sale, yes it is the time for pears. I personally happen to have a 20 pound box of organic pears from Azure in my pantry, we are chugging through them, they may be the last for the season, we'll see. And since they may be the last for the season, I don't want to let them go to waste, I also have to balance that with not burning my kids out on pears. Poaching the pears took them from a fruit to snack on to a dessert that will leave them begging for more. Heh, score one for mom.

Vanilla Honey Poached Pears

4 cups water
1/2 cup of honey, more if you need them sweeter
1 vanilla bean
4 firm ripe pears, I used D'Anjou

in a small deep sauce pan bring the water and honey to a very low boilreduce heat and let simmersplit the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the liquid, toss in the bean too
wash and dry the pears
scoop out the blossom end with a spoon
add the pears to the pan
simmer 10 minutes or until the pears are soft but not mushy
remove from syrup and set aside
serve warm or chilled
the syrup can then be boiled until reduced by about half and drizzled over the pears before serving

I felt like throwing away the luscious leftover vanilla honey flavored syrup was wrong and a total waste. So we decided that ours would be poured into some vodka for a vanilla honey cordial. It should ready just in time for Christmas. Waste not, want not, right?

Peace and Love--

Wild Winter Storm

2011-11-16T20:41:00.001-09:00

We are currently smack dab in the middle of our first big, cold, nasty, windy storm. I love it. Yes I am one of those people, I love inclement weather.

I love a good storm and this one is off to a pretty good start. It's the kind of day where the kids aren't allowed to go outside for recess, the wind chill factor is too low or the kids will blow away, one or the other.

My kids are offended at the adult sensibilities of not letting children blow away and demanded to play outside as soon as they got home from school. Now lets recap the storm, 15˚ outside, the wind is gusting to 75 mph and steady at 50 mph and it's November 23rd, I voted to stay in and make cocoa. So I bundled them up and sent them off. Snow pants, gloves, coats, bogs, scarves, hats and goggles.

Yes goggles. Because the snow was making his eyes water.

There's only one way to warm up on a day like this, a nice hot cup of something, be it broth, tea or cocoa.

And a sit in the setting sun, at 4 pm. I was restless with the kids being outside,

I was wandering around with my camera. I caught the sunset through my Martinmas Lantern.

And marveled at the fantastic copper chain my husband made for it.

I found the dog, who was completely unimpressed with the wind staring morosely out the window.

I caught the yard scoured almost clear of snow.

The boys didn't come in until about 5 pm, a full hour and a half of playing outside in the crazy wild wind. The best part is they fell sound asleep by 7:45 tonight, kind of hard not to after that much fresh oxygen is inhaled. Blow on winter storm, blow on.

Peace and Love--

Does Thrift Store Shopping Lead to Disposable Lifestyle

2011-11-15T20:49:00.001-09:00

This thought has been jumping around in my head for a while, along witha few others and I thought I'd try to make sense of them here. Because my confusion should be your confusion. Bear with me as I throw ideas out there and attempt to make sense of some crazy thoughts.

If we can buy everything we need so cheaply, we feel we can give 'it' away if we don't like 'it', how will our culture ever change from consumerism to just being normal buy-what-you-need. (or better yet in Laura's Utopia make-what-you-need)

Thrift stores exist for the sole purpose of getting rid of things you no longer need and re-selling them to make money. They make it ok to over buy in the box store to make yourself feel better because you an just make room for that new stuff by getting rid of the old. Hurray.

If we had respect for the things we buy would we be so quick to donate? But what if you have a shirt that isn't worn out yet, is it a rag because you don't like the color? What should you do with it? Well if you had say grown the sheep, sheared it, cleaned it, combed it, spun it, wove it, cut it, sewed it and ironed it you'd probably make it into something you'd wear. It's so easy to ditch something that cost next to nothing.

I am a making it ok for folks to over buy because I buy up their mistakes, their clutter, their crap. And I love it. Am I the ultimate consumerist?

And yes I am always talking about getting rid of crap in my house because the 'clutter' makes me crazy--yes clutter I willing drag home. I am actively doing it right now.

I asked my husband the other day what we(as a people) did before paper towels were invented. He looked at me like I was crazy, thought for a minute and said I suppose they used rags. Same thing for toilet paper but we. are. not. going. there. So I asked what do we do with all of our now unemployed rags? Donate them. SO we can afford to give clothes away and yet we BUY paper towels, isn't there something wrong with that equation?

Raise you hand if you chop up your old clothes for rags, I do. We don't actually use paper towels, we switched to wash clothes and rags made from well used clothes a few years ago, I love it I will never go back.

Do you think thrift store shopping makes consumerism tick?

Peace and Love--

Tucked in For Winter

2011-11-14T20:22:00.001-09:00

Old man winter crept silently in the other day. Where we once had scant snow we now had almost a foot, the world is muted, cold and lovely.

A long winter weekend at home meant lots of time to get creative. I finished not one but two hats, I have photos of neither one of them, but trust me they are done and cute. I need to figure out how to size them a bit better because even me, of the giant head clan, has a hat that's a little too big. I guess I'll wash it and see if it shrinks.

I also finished this banner to hang in my mudroom--I really like the way it turned out.

A couple friends and I had a crafting day last week and I started it then, I finally strung it and hung it on Saturday. I used some thrifted fabric and carved some potatoes into stamps. Custom made just for me.

And we made some new Martinmas lanterns. Simple and beautiful and just the right amount of messy for our kids.

Today is the last day to enter to win the Seventh Generation and Le Creuset gift pack over on my giveaway and review blog.

And if you're interested I produced a vlog post for Flatout Flatbread, it's number one of three so I'll let you know when the others go live.

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday #84 Tapenade

2011-11-13T20:12:00.001-09:00

What to do with leftover olives, hmmm I don't think we've ever had this problem before today. Thankfully I was able to reach way back into murky memory and find a recipe worthy of leftover olives. May I present Tapenade, a French spread made of olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil. Because this is a truly meatless Monday I made my Tapenade without anchovies, ok also I didn't have anchovies, HA! Truly though after thoroughly searching and researching recipes I discovered a fair amount of Tapenade recipes don't actually have anchovies in the recipe, so I feel safe presenting a meatless version, surely not the first.

Tapenade

1 cup black olives
2 TBSP capers
good pinch of salt
good olive oil, amount varies

use a mortar and pestle or a food processor
grind the olives and capers together, coarsely
then add the salt and grind a bit more finely
if using a food processor you'll have to really watch out not to turn it to paste
add some olive oil and grind a bit more
taste it, if it pleases you and you'll eat it you're done
if you'd like it bit more processed add more oil and grind a bit more

Tapenade is thoroughly forgiving and makes folks happy at snack time, party time or anytime you need to use up extra olives AND feed people. Serve with bread or crackers as a dip or spread, or use as a sandwich spread instead of mayonnaise, sublime!

Don't forget to check out the Le Creuset and Seventh Generation giveaway over on my giveaway blog, drawing is Tuesday!

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2011-11-12T14:07:00.001-09:00

What a week, my oldest who doesn't live with us right now called me from the ICU. Yes the Intensive Care Unit from a hospital 400 miles away. When I called him back to check in with him he'd been "stabilized" and sent home. He doesn't have a phone, or friends that I know, or any way to contact him. He was sick, called me and disappeared. It literally sucked the life from me. I didn't know how much I missed him, he left under stressful conditions and we've maintained a peaceful distance for a few months. He is a diabetic, doesn't believe in self care and had run himself out of insulin. I feel useless and helpless about the situation.

We've spent the better part of our week, when I'm not frozen and numb that is, packing out more crap. It's amazing the things I'm feeling disconnected to, I'm suddenly able to let them go, it's very freeing. Two truckloads of "stuff" that was clogging up our house are now gone. Our boys rooms are amazingly empty and we've heard nary a complaint about missing toys. The one thing we've noticed it that they are happy to play in their rooms, the amount of fight and fussing is way down and their rooms are easily cleaned in 5 minutes. We've been working hard to have them put things away before bed for years but now it's one or two things on the floor and the room is clean. Here's a 'during' shot of the rooms

Hi I'm cringing NOW!

But.....rooms

closets

I didn't clean up anything I simply snapped a few photos to document. I'm impressed at the lack of mess a week later. Less stuff means less clutter and more fun, obviously.

But don't worry Christmas and her glut of cheap imports are coming. One of my regular contributors to The Penny Worthy Project is Hiking Without Happy Meals, you have to go read her post on their Christmas reduction, it's truly inspiring. We're not that simple yet but we're heading there.

I did venture into a few shops this week, like I could stay away! I picked up a few books, two Christmas ornaments and some gift tags.

Tags, I like old ones.

Pretty sure this is a Hallmark ornament, but there are no markings on it.

You slip a light in here, so sweet!

Unicorn ornament, I think Union will be getting this one.

The Golden Book of Christmas is beautiful and old. I have their Rudolf book too so I was happy to find this on to keep it company.

We love Jan Brett books for their amazing art work

and this one does not disappoint.

And Tomie DePaola is a perennial favorite but clowns scare the bejeesus out of me so this one will either endear itself to me or I'll have to jettison it. I'm not sure which one it is yet.

And last but not least if you want Free Le Creuset and Seventh Generation Products head over to my review and giveaway blog to enter. Now! Quickly before it's too late.

Peace and Love--

Roasted Butternut Soup

2011-11-10T22:26:00.001-09:00

After buying a case of butternut squash from Azure last week and taking delivery of it on Tuesday I knew this week was going to involve Roasted Butternut Soup. Yeah and yum! I've done kabocha soups the last few years and I have to say that I'm glad I went back to butternut soup. It's smoother and I know this sounds crazy but it has a buttery taste, I just like it better than kabocha or pumpkin soup.

Roasted Butternut Soup

1 butternut squash
4 cups water or broth
1 teaspoon garlic granules
1 teaspoon dill weed
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt, divided
salt to taste
dash of pepper
1/4 cup shelled pumpkin seeds, optional

preheat the oven to 375˚
wash the squash and split it down long wise
scoop out the seeds, set aside or discard
generously rub the cut sides with some good oil and good salt
place cut side down on a baking pan and bake for 45 minutes or until tender
remove from the oven and carefully scoop the squash into a dutch oven
add the water and spices and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat
remove from the heat and add the yogurt
blend with an immersion blender until smooth or process in batches in a food processor
return to heat cooking 15 minutes or so over medium low heat
while the soup is warming toast the pumpkin seeds over medium heat in a dry frying pan until lightly brown
taste the soup for salt and correct as needed, add a dash of pepper too
serve soup topped with a swirl of the reserved yogurt and a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds

Don't forget to go enter the Seventh Generation/Le Creuset Giveaway over on Hey Who's a Winner Mom? my giveaway and review site.

Peace and Love--

mama said there'll be days like this,

2011-11-09T23:03:00.003-09:00

there'll be days like this my mama said.

But I can make some one's day better? Maybe? Yes? GOOD!! I have an awesome giveaway going on over on my giveaway blog Hey Who's a Winner MOM? It's a Seventh Generation giveaway with Le Creuset. You all know how I feel about Le Creuset, so skeedaddle on over and enter to win before I decide to keep it for myself to make me feel better.

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday #83 Eggs Wasilla

2011-11-06T22:12:00.000-09:00

My mom actually discovered this recipe years and years ago in an Alaskan cookbook by Gorden Nelson called Lowbush Moose. It was a happy family favorite for years and then I grew up moved out and completely forgot about them until I came across Lowbush Moose in my cookbook shelves and decided to make Eggs Wasilla.

A word to the wise, generously grease small oven proof bowls to bake Eggs Wasilla in. Don't not rely on the the generous greasing of a baking sheet to make these work. I found out the hard. Well actually I used foil under mine so I simply cut the foil apart and served them on the foil after I realized there was NO WAY IN HELL I could chisel them off the foil. I would like to have used my parchment paper but someone, who shall remain nameless, used it for pirate treasure maps. So the point of this paragraph is ignore my picture and bake these in oven proof bowls.

Eggs Wasilla
originally in Lowbush Moose Gordon Nelson

6 oven proof bowls
butter for greasing bowls
6 cups leftover mashed potatoes
6 eggs
salt and pepper
2 TBSP grated cheese, optional if desired

preheat oven to 350˚
generously grease oven proof bowls
divide the potatoes equally between them
use a buttered spoon to make an indent in the center of each bowl
break and egg into each bowl
sprinkle with salt and pepper
place on a baking sheet and bake in the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes
remove from the oven and sprinkle with grated cheese if desired

Yes they sound so so simple and they are, but there is something about them that is so comforting too. I think the entire family really like them. I'm also pretty sure that feta over the top would be an amazing choice.Whatever you do(say it with me now) bake them in small oven proof bowls.

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2011-11-05T22:18:00.000-08:00

HOLY COW, my husband and I have spent the better part of today GUTTING kid's rooms and moving them back to the basic necessities of childhood. We didn't do this as punishment we are truly moving in the Simplicity Parenting direction and it was the next logical step. If you're wondering about Simplicity Parenting look for the book or check out the website, it will help you to simplify life and raise calmer happier kids. I'll be writing a post for them later this week on our simplification of our boy's rooms. The photos alone are worth a look see.

With all the simplifying going on I need to remember to temper my thrift store urges with simplification. Not easy my friends, not easy. I've picked up so many things this last week, only to put them back after talking myself out of them.

I did truly need this jelly funnel. My friend's little boy picked mine up and ran off with it this summer. I haven't seen it since, and to tell the truth I don't think they have either. I discovered what little gem the jelly funnel is after only a few times of making jelly without one. When I saw this one for a quarter I snatched it up double time.

I'm a cook book lover, I buy them read them like a novel and then hopefully I donate them back again or pass them off to the appropriate person to look through. I have enough cook books but I though each of these was a least worth a look. I probably won't keep them but I will enjoy perusing them.

I am one month away from my 3 year blogging anniversary. I am giving away an amazingly cool prize, you will want to be here to enter to win. And the best part? You could give to someone for Christmas and totally make their year. SO, don't forget to come back, subscribe or follow or get email delivery, but seriously make sure you're back here in 3 weeks to learn all about it and drop your name in the hat for the chance to win a ___________.

Did you find anything good this week? Well why not share--leave your link, leave a comment, sit back relax and check out how folks are living the penny worthy lifestyle all over the world.

Peace and Love--

I'm Loving

2011-11-04T23:01:00.000-08:00

This huge cloche. Have you ever seen a cloche this big? It's truly huge, my kids could wear it as a helmet it's so big, well ok IF I LET THEM WEAR GLASS ON THEIR HEADS, which of course I would never do. I won this from Paulette over at Cheerful Thrifty Door, I never win anything so I guess I'm loving being a winner. Paulette also included in her giveaway this nifty little magnetic board and as a little something extra she sent me a dish towel from her home town, Kenosha. Why doesn't my town have a dishtowel? Hmmmm.

I also sincerely LOVE having my groceries delivered. We have the best truck driver who backs this huge truck down my driveway right up to the garage.

We order groceries every other week for delivery. If you live locally and want to jump on our truck route let me know. The more the merrier or at least the cheaper the shipping rates. We order through Azure Standard and you'll need and account with them before you can view prices. Here's the KICKER, if you live on one of their 'truck routes' locally in the pacific northwest they will drop your groceries for free. Seriously, check them out, I love to hang out and shop in my jammies.

Not dusting...

heh our kitten Thunder crawled into a very cobwebby place and slunk out covered in webs, she was so ashamed of herself, she likes to be clean and sleek.

Peace and Love--

Spiced Cider

2011-11-02T21:31:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I made the wildly delicious Caramel Apple Cookies using the spiced apple cider powder. My kids found the last few packets and we enjoyed spiced cider a few times. Then we ran out and we were wanting in the hot drink department, winter, er fall in Alaska calls for hot liquids in the afternoon. I did find a rogue can of apple juice in our freezer and some leftover orange juice concentrate form a birthday party. I set to work making a spiced cider so good my kids would forget all about powdered spiced cider.

They were skeptical but after brewing for an hour on the stove they were more than ready to taste the results. Now they liked the quickness of powdered cider mix but they loved all the spices and fun stuff we added to our cider. I loved the part where I didn't add a ton of sugar to make it taste great.We decided we liked them both and we can enjoy each of them for the positives they bring.

Spiced Cider

1 12 ounce can of frozen apple juice concentrate-organic if possible
1/2 cup orange juice concentrate
1 TBSP lemon juice
6 cups of water
1 vanilla bean
1 orange
1 chunk of ginger-roughly 1X1/2 inch-more or less to taste
6 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks

mix the liquids all together in a large dutch oven
bring to a low boil and then reduce heat to simmer
cut the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds into the cider
add the pod too and stir well
slice the orange into rings and add
peel the ginger, use less if needed, and add it to the cider
toss in the cloves and cinnamon sticks
stir and simmer for at least an hour to blend the flavors

You could put all the ingredients into a crock pot too and simmer for a worry free party drink. I have done many variations on the spiced cider theme and all have been met with great enthusiasm. I love to have things at parties that I don't have to think about, it's ready, it's good and so is the party. Enjoy!

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday #82 Ratatouille

2011-10-30T21:02:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since writing about Ratatouille, the stew not the movie, and I discovered I love eating it as much now as I did almost 3 years ago. Why has it been so long since I made Ratatouille? I don't really know why, but the hiatus is over, ratatouille consider yourself warned, it is so on. I like mine long simmered on the stove, each vegetable still tasting of itself but also just starting to meld with the other flavors. You can also bake it in the oven but I love to have big pot of something simmering on the stove, especially on days like today when it snows for the first time, it's comforting. I usually serve Ratatouille over some hearty polenta, so perhaps in the last 1/2 of cooking you may want to whip up a pot?

Ratatouille

1 eggplant
2 TBSP of oil
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
1 pound assorted mushrooms
1-2 green peppers
1 can of fire roasted tomatoes
1 26 ounce box of Pomi crushed tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1-2 teaspoons of herbs de Provence, or appropriate amounts of fennel, basil, savory and thyme
1 teaspoon salt +more as needed
1-2 cups of water, as needed
2 zucchini

wash or otherwise clean all vegetables
slice the eggplant into rounds, salt it and then place in a large bowl of water to soak for at least 15 minutes to remove the bitterness, I have found that you can simply peel most eggplants to remove their bitterness
meanwhile heat the oil in a large dutch or french oven
chop the onion and saute for 5 minutes
add the garlic
roughly chop the mushrooms into the pot
seed and chop the peppers and then add them too
add the tomatoes and bring to a simmer
add the herbs and the salt
thoroughly rinse the eggplant and chop into one inch cubes, add them to the pot
cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for an one to two hours
add water if your sauce reduces too much
cut the zucchini lengthwise and then into half circles
add them and continue cooking for at least 1/2 hour until they are done but not mush
taste and add salt as needed
serve over cooked polenta, over with a good wedge of bread to enjoy the veggies with

Please join us--Leave a link, leave a comment and grab the button

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2011-10-29T22:48:00.002-08:00

How do you survive in the consumer driven world today, how do you opt out, or make ends meet? I'd love to have your thrifty living posts linked up. I like to see what folks are doing to make themselves happy in our mad mad world these days. Me personally, I like to buy things second hand that I would have had to buy no matter what, like clothes for my kids and other necessities. I also buy presents for friends who get that 'Laura's Treasures' are the best presents of all, some folks just don't understand and never will. I have friends who make things to sell, not only to make ends meet but because it makes their hearts sing, I wish I was there, or talented enough to be there. Other friends clip coupons and save tons o' money, more power to you sister! So tell me, what do you do?

This week I bought the most adorable little sweater for a friend who is expecting in a few months. All handmade and cute as can be, how could I resist? I'm sure I'll find a handmade quilt to gift her too and perhaps I'll give her some frozen meals too. I think that will make the nicest present, I'd love to get it, well IF I were having a baby which I'm not.(whew) Check out the sweater cuteness!

I found 3 pair of perfectly good pans for Mr. SirPrize too, who has suddenly shot up 3 inches and out a size. Can you say growth spurt? WOW!

And I found 4 nice button down shirts for Union who has an unseemly habit of leaving modeling beeswax in his pockets and ruining his school shirts. Yes I know I am supposed to be checking his pockets before washing but seriously I think just actually washing them is a miracle some weeks.

And then I saw this pumpkin, or what I see as a pumpkin, it was only 75¢ and I had to have it. I'll donate something else to make room for this, I love it.

Isn't it great? It's by a lady in Vermont, Katherine Washburn and looking at her site I can see some Christmas presents I need to buy! Hope she can do a Mastiff mug.
Wanna join in? Leave a comment, grab the button and link!

Peace and Love--

I'm Loving

2011-10-28T19:18:00.000-08:00

this new sample of a Bounce dryer bar I got from Proctor and Gamble. You do not even want to know how static-ky our house is in the cold and dry winter months, so much so that a static shock can light up a room in the dark. I hope this will alleviate that. I just put it in and I'm already feeling happier about not having to buy anything else for 3 months. Sunday is laundry day and I think we'll see a big difference on Sunday night folding laundry, no sticking pet hair or static shocks, fingers crossed.

I love the Bog boots. Yes they cost a pretty penny but they are worth every cent to me. They are neoprene and rubber. They have built in handles so kids can pull on their own boots with no help from me. They are good for fall, winter and spring wear because they are rain boots AND winter boots in one. They are good to 30˚ below zero and with our winters I'm pretty sure we'll be testing that out come January, February and March. Can't beat an all weather boot.

This puppy face.

Seriously does it get any cuter? Well yes it does.

And these long languishing sunsets, seems like they last for hours these days.

Peace and Love--

Spicy Caramel Bacon Popcorn

2011-10-27T21:38:00.000-08:00

Want to make a great Halloween snack parents can enjoy too? Lets face it, most treats this time of year center on kids but lets think about that for a minute. We spend a lot of time hauling kids from house to house so they can get a bag of free candy that they won't even share with you, is that fair? Or worse you spend the night at home praying you don't run out of candy so you don't eat any of it, again not fair! Adults need something, perfectly suited to us, for us, by us. May I introduce Spicy Caramel Bacon Popcorn?

hello darling

Can there be a more perfect snacking food than Spicy Caramel Bacon Popcorn? No, I don't think so. Sweet? CHECK! Spicy? CHECK! Salty? CHECK! Crunchy? CHECK! Bacon? CHECK! The only thing missing is chocolate, which would be an easy fix, really. (dear thighs I did NOT just suggest covering Spicy Caramel Bacon Popcorn in chocolate, you did not just hear that)

Spicy Caramel Bacon Popcorn

2 TBSP oil
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
3 cups sugar
3 TBSP butter
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or chipotle powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup of crispy cooked bacon pieces

In a large pan with a lid heat the oil and the salt, add the popcorn, cover and shake until it pops
remove from heat, remove lid
butter a large mixing bowl and pour the popcorn into it
while you're at it butter two baking sheets and two spatulas too
set the popcorn aside
make the caramel by combining the sugar, butter and water in a large pan, you will need a pan big enough to contain the foaming of the caramel after you add the baking soda, choose accordingly
place the pan over med/high heat and cook without stirring for 10 minutes until light golden brown
meanwhile combine the baking soda and the chile powder and set aside
attempt NOT to eat all the bacon pieces just waiting to be dipped in caramel
when the caramel is golden brown remove from the heat and add the baking soda/chile powder mixture, it will foam and bubble but just stir away
then pour it over the bowl of popcorn and sprinkle on the crispy bacon pieces
use the buttered spatulas to toss the popcorn to coat it
taste it before the caramel gets hard to see if it needs more salt, it will be molten lava hot so blow on a small piece to cool it
add salt as needed, stirring to mix in
pour into the buttered pans, breaking up as needed
cool completely and then use within 24 hours
store in the fridge

Peace and Love--

Pardon My Dust

2011-10-26T22:39:00.000-08:00

While I clean up my site, stream line it and try to make it easier on the eyes. I also want to get rid of the massive blank real estate over to the right -----> and generally make Hey What's for Dinner Mom? look it's very best.

Why? Because dear readers I have a blog anniversary coming up, 3 years. And I have decided to have the biggest best self sponsored give away I can. It's going to be fabulous and all you need to do is think about what your favorite color is.

Peace and Love--

Beef and Green Bean Skillet

2011-10-25T22:39:00.000-08:00

So simple, so fast and so delicious, Beef and Green Bean Skillet makes a perfect lunch. I have been playing with frying green beans for a while now, ever since I discovered them in San Francisco at Henry's Hunan a few years ago. I suppose if someone were willing to pay for it I would eat at Henry's Hunan everyday, it is simply great food. I eat there whenever I'm in San Francisco and try to replicate it at home when I'm not in the city. This is inspired by their Dry Sauteed Green Beans which are so good I would quite possibly shove small children out of the way to get to. What? I said possibly.

Beef and Green Bean Skillet
--serves two
1 pound bag of frozen green beans, still frozen
8 ounces good beef
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp garlic powder, or fresh minced
2 good dashes of soy sauce or Braggs amino acids
1 TBSP hoisin sauce

heat a large cast iron skillet over med high heat, you want the pan hot but not smoking
while the pan is heating open the beans and set them aside
slice the meat into thin strips and then coarsely chop to bite sized pieces
when the pan is almost smoking hot add the frozen beans and stir for about 2 minutes
then add the beef, cooking and stirring for another 2-3 minutes
add the ginger and garlic cook until the beef is done, 1-2 minutes more
add the soy sauce and remove from heat
stir to coat
then stir in the hoisin sauce
serve as is or over brown rice

This was a great lunch for a day that was pouring rain when it should have been snowing. I am not complaining but some little souls in our house were waiting for snow. I am perfectly content to continue 'waiting' for snow.

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday #81 My top 5

2011-10-23T23:14:00.000-08:00

My top five favorite vegetarian meals. I thought I'd share my favorite vegetarian meals, as they occurred to me today. They may change in a year or two but for now we are loving these meals.

#5-Vegetarian Sheppard's Pie-mmm happy curry tummy in casserole form

#4-Savory Mushroom Strudel--lovely enough to serve to guests

#3 Vegetarian Pot Stickers--A nice big batch to have for company

#2 Vegan Meat Substitute--a great way to make meaty vegan dishes

#1 Crock Pot Refried Beans--simple fast food ready to eat when you are

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2011-10-22T23:31:00.000-08:00

Have you ever seen a noise maker like this?

I didn't buy it the first time I saw but when I went back and saw it again I decided I needed to buy it. I've never seen a little wooden noise maker like this, I have several noise makers but none like this. I'll be putting it away with our New Years Eve supplies, pretty sure there will be a fight over it too.

I picked up a few Architectural Digests to browse through. The local thrift store gives magazines away so whenever I see a few I'm interested in I grab them. When I'm done I re-donate them, as a matter of fact I donate any magazines I happen to get.

This vile bright orange fabric is perfect for a couple accent pillows on our bed. We have a turquoise/white bed spread and I've been looking for 3 months for a piece of orange fabric. Not being in a hurry to make the pillows covers made it possible to find enough fabric for 50¢. I could have easily bought the fabric brand new but it's the thrill of the "not buying retail hunt" that I enjoy.

And one bit of interesting excitement for me this week, I won a giveaway over at Cheerful Thrifty Door. I never win anything so this is neat for me. On that note I want to encourage everyone to make sure you keep coming back because my 3rd blog anniversary is coming up and I have an awesome giveaway dreamed up.

How about you, did you find anything exciting this week?

Peace and Love--

A Pear Potpie

2011-10-20T21:11:00.001-08:00

Now hear me out, I think I can hear you screaming already, I KNOW potpies are usually(always?) savory, I know this. I just finished reading the Little House on the Prairie series to Union, our 8 year old, and in one of the books Ma makes a potpie. When Pa serves it up for dinner first he scoops a piece of the top crust onto the plate, then he scoops deep into the pie and piles steaming chicken(or blackbird perhaps) and vegetables on to the top crust. This was the idea I had for the one crust pie, serve it on the top crust and not worry about a soggy bottom crust. I let my family drizzle it heavy cream over tender pears and flaky crust.

Pear Potpie

oven 350˚

10 pears
1/2 cup flour--I used whole wheat
1/2 cup sugar or sucanat
1 teaspoon grated bottled ginger, use fresh if you have it, finely grate it
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 recipe of your favorite pie crust or the vlog is good too

preheat oven to 350˚
butter a 7X9 baking pan
wash and dry the pears, split them down the middle and scoop out the stem and seeds
roughly chop them into the buttered 7X9 baking pan or any appropriate pan you have
sprinkle the flour right over the top of the pears and lightly turn the pears over
mix the sugar and the bottled ginger together and sprinkle evenly over the top of the pears
sprinkle on the cinnamon
roll out the pie dough to fit the top of the baking pan
lay it over and pinch the edges as for a pie
cut a few vent holes in the top and bake until brown and bubbly, around 40 minutes

This certainly got my NON pear eating little boy to eat some pears and enjoy them. I don't know what is going on with that boy but he has decided he doesn't like fruit too much. I kind of feel that way myself so I don't ride him too much. He has his favorites and then he has one he tolerates and then there are bananas.

Peace and Love--

I'm Loving

2011-10-19T23:02:00.000-08:00

quite a few things right now and thought I'd share a few. First up the new dog containment system, wireless, fenceless and worry free. I bought this with my next to last paycheck from my part time temporary job. I love this thing, the dogs have already learned where their boundaries are and don't even attempt to go beyond them. I bet in a month we won't even need this thing to be hooked up. One "static correction" per dog taught them to listen to the beep and go back home. Due to a minor shipping difficulty we only received one collar, I have tried it on each dog, when they were out together with me one made it beep and they both turned around and headed home. Basically it sets up a perimeter around your home and yard, if they get close to the edge it beeps, then if they continue it corrects them until they return to inside the perimeter. We are all much more relaxed, the neighbors chickens aren't being bothered and our dogs (one at a time until the second collar gets here) are peacefully laying around in our yard instead of plotting escape.

I LOVE Paper Culture, I received a voucher for some product at BlogHer 11 and I can't decide what to pick. Every card, every product equals way too cute and hard to choose. Look at the sheer number of Winter holiday cards and try to pick just one! I can't tell you how many lovely hours I have spent dithering over my choices. If you are in search of cards try them out, this link will tell you all about their awesome dedication not just to their customers but to the earth too.

I'm partial to this one, except it would be my sons in the photo.

One more goodie to talk about. I love this little salt and sesame grinder thing I found on Azure Standard. It's organic sea salt and sesame seeds, you grind it right on your food for super flavor. I love toasted sesame seeds. I ordered it just to try it out and man I love it, actually we all love it.

Peace and Love--

Taco Soup

2011-10-18T22:07:00.000-08:00

This is an easy to make little recipe that is endlessly variable. Make it with chicken, or beef, lots of veggies or just what you have on hand. Got leftover rice? Throw it in. Beans to use up? They'll work. Gluten free? Yep you can do that too. And it makes a nice big pot of steaming soup to warm you to the very center of your being on a day that can't decide whether it will rain, snow or shine. Perfect fall soup.

Taco Soup

1 teaspoon oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
8 ounces boneless chicken or beef
2 cloves minced garlic
1 TBSP oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chile powder
pinch of cinnamon
8 cups water
2 TBSP lemon juice
2 cups good salsa
shredded cheese-optional topping
crushed corn chips-optional topping

in a 5 quart dutch oven over medium heat warm up the oil, cook the onion and the meat until the onion is transparent
you don't need to cut the meat up because once it's cooked you'll be shredding it
add the garlic and cook for another minute or so
sprinkle on the oregano, cumin, chile powder and the pinch of cinnamon
add the water and lemon juice, scrape the bottom of the pan to remove any browned on bits
bring just to boil, the reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes
remove the meat carefully and shred it or finely chop it
add it back to the pot
stir in the salsa and cook for about 5 minutes more
taste for salt and pepper and adjust it accordingly
serve with the cheese and the chips for topping

So you can see this is the basic recipe, while it is simmering you can easily add veggies. Add cooked rice or beans after the meat is shredded just to reheat them. So simple really and yet so very delicious!

sun?

or snow

Peace and Love--

The Great Pumpkin Shortage & A Solution

2011-10-17T22:09:00.000-08:00

So apparently there is a pumpkin shortage this year. Wasn't there just a pumpkin shortage last year? Why yes indeed there was. And the year before? Unhuh. Ditto. Ditto. Repeat. Repeat. I'm sensing a trend here, every year at this time of year there is a pumpkin shortage. Really. Is it real, manufactured or marketing ploy? What is going on?

I don't really know what's going on. Wish I could tell you but all I know is I went to the local grocery store to get some canned pumpkin to make a pumpkin roll and I couldn't find any. I couldn't even find the spot on the shelves where pumpkin should have been. It was completely gone. I asked an employee if they had the pumpkin hiding somewhere, she laughed nervously, backed away and told me they "wouldn't have any this year". "There's a pumpkin shortage this year haven't you heard?" Uh yeah I heard but when there is a pumpkin shortage EVERY year you ignore it. It's like the boy who cried wolf, except it's the industry crying shortage. I almost cried right then and there because I had promised (never do this) a pumpkin roll for a class birthday cake. Failure was looming up in front of me, even worse, food blogger failure.

Have no fear my friends, I have the solution. Frozen pureed squash? Pumpkin! Or at least it is winter squash and so is pumpkin. I was in desperation mode looking for frozen pumpkin chunks when I spied the squash and realized it was practically the same thing. If you are going to use it as pumpkin simply let it thaw and drain it through a couple of coffee filters fitted in a mesh strainer. You just want to remove as much water as possible to match up the canned pumpkin consistency. The you can use it pretty much the same way you use canned pumpkin.

Sure there may be a pumpkin shortage but when was the last time you heard of a frozen squash shortage? Exactly! So while others may be gnashing their teeth this Thanksgiving you can all rest assured knowing that your pies will march on and no grocery store clerks will be hurt.

Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday #80 Red n' White Mac n' Cheese

2011-10-16T21:35:00.000-08:00

White Mac n' Cheese it what happens when you suddenly realize you don;t have any more sharp cheddar left at that critical add-cheese-to-the-cheese-sauce moment. You don't panic, you simply root around and come up with alternative cheese, or in this case cheeses. Since I was already not making normal Mac n' Cheese I decided to add sliced tomatoes to the absolute horror of my children. We (adults) loved it with tomatoes, they (children) not so much.

Red n' White Mac n' Cheese
oven 350˚

16 ounces macaroni, cooked according to package directions
1/4 butter
1/4 flour
2 cups milk
1 cup feta crumbles
1 1/2 cup parmesan shreds, divided
3 large ripe tomatoes
1/4 cup bread crumbs

preheat oven to 350˚
make sure pasta is well drained
generously butter a 9X13 baking pan or any appropriate sized pan, turn the drained pasta out into the greased pan
in a medium sauce pan melt the butter of medium heat
add the flour when it has melted and cook and stir for 2 minutes
reduce heat and slowly whisk in the milk
cook until the sauce is thickened
then slowly add the feta and one cup of parmesan cheese
stir until melted
pour over the macaroni, stirring to coat
slice the tomatoes into 1/2 thick slices and place evenly over the top of the casserole
sprinkle with bread crumbs and the 1/2 cup of parmesan
bake for 20-25 minutes until the crumbs and cheese a toasty

How can I possibly be out of sharp cheddar but have feta and parmesan on hand? Well that's easy, I buy most of my groceries in bulk online. I get 4 pounds of feta at a time and buy shredded parmesan by the pound, I haven't ordered bulk cheddar yet but it sounds like I need to.

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

2011-10-15T23:12:00.000-08:00

Well the birthday party has come and gone, and it was a rip roaring success. We had 11 boys, drawing targets, shooting arrows, shooting bb guns and playing capture the flag. They also inhaled 2 packs of Newman Os, 3 gallons orange juice punch, 1 1/2 gallons of beef stew and 24 biscuits. Woooohoooo.

The cake was actually amazingly easy to assemble and turned out great. I have to say I was starting to panic about the cake, how could I possibly make a cake that would look like a stockade? And have people, kids even, see it and understand what it was? Well somehow it turned out great, lego guys, army guys and wildlife all included. We even had a few playmobil cannons on the fort too.

If you ever want to make a stockade cake, simply bake a 9X13 cake and cut it in a funky l_l shape. Then frost it with chocolate frosting, add broken pretzel rods around the edge like the fence and add a few candy windows and the arch over the entry way. Tada!

I also managed to get out thrifting. I scored awesome fabric pieces for making some fabric snack bags and lunch sacks.

Peace and Love--

I never said I was a cake maker

2011-10-14T00:04:00.000-08:00

And if I did I was a liar. One little boy turned 6 a few weeks ago, the other little boy will be 8 on Sunday. The last cake I had to make was a Red Flag Pirates Ship for the 6 year old...witness

Once I made an air craft carrier, ok I made the planes and my husband made the carrier out of poster board. This was tough, have you ever made gray frosting? Not. Easy. At least the carrier looked good.

I made a treasure chest last year...or the year before?

And way way way back I made a castle in the sky cake.

But today I have the ultimate challenge, Cowboys and Indians Party, lots of bb gun shooting, bows and arrows too, boys in costumes...I'm making a stockade cake. What do you think? Pretzel rods surrounding a chocolate cake. I have been brainstorming the last 2 weeks and this is the best idea I've had. Wish me luck, cause I'm gonna need it.

Peace and Love--