Upcycled

Howdy!  February has almost slipped away with only one single lonely post.  How does that happen?!?

I want to share an idea with you that I made and sent to a friend.  It's right up her alley because she loves burlap, and textured fabric.  And I love turning something that used to be considered trash into something useful.
 
Remember those old coffee cans that nobody keeps anymore and only pack-rats have burried in their garage?  Or you can find them full of buttons at garage sales.  Here's a great idea to re-purpose that old coffee can.

Here are my ingredients:

I bet you can imagine what I did with these 3 items....  And this is the interior view after I glued the rope all around it:

Ta-da!  Isn't it cool?!?  It could be a plant pot cover, a pen holder, a mail receptacle, etc.  The uses are limitless!

So there you have it, my 2nd post in February.  Tomorrow will be much more exciting.

SOMEONE around here is turning 11.  And he's someone to really celebrate!  I need to go frost his cake...

This Little Piggy

A little less than a year ago, I heard an interesting story on NPR about "piggy cookies".  The story left me intrigued!  I learned that it is a traditional Mexican cookie.  Pati's Mexican Table looks like an interesting blog with lots of recipes right up our alley.  I can't wait to taste some of these recipes. 

It made me realize that people all over the world have traditional foods that you and I will probably never even see, not to mention taste.  But, I can seek them out.  Especially if it's a cookie.

A few weeks ago, we were shopping in the big city, and had lunch in "little Mexico", an area known for all of the Mexican restaurants and markets.  We walked past a bakery and decided to go in and see what we would find.  It was interesting looking through the bakery cases, and not recognizing a single item.  It was kind of exhilarating.

I chose a Mexican Sweet Bread that looked like it could have something inside.  Todd chose a plain roll for a sandwich later.  We were checking out, and I was still mesmerized by all of the lovely looking deliciousness by which I was surrounded. 

AND THEN I SPOTTED IT!

Low and behold, there was my beloved piggy cookie.  Sitting in the bakery case staring at me as I had looked right past it several times.  I KNOW the Mexican ladies thought I was a little loco when I spotted the piggy shaped cookie because I shrieked with delight!

Finally, I had a piggy cookie.  And It. Was. Lovely.

Oink!

Do you remember the Grandma's brand of cookies in the grocery stores?  They used to have a molasses flavored cookie, but apparently they no longer make it.  It is NOT the same as a gingersnap cookie, there was no ginger in this molasses cookie.  Here is a little known fact for you:  My oldest brother and I both loved this cookie!  I remember buying them at quick trip with him when I was a kid.  It was soft and chewy, with the mildly sweet flavor of molasses.

That is what this piggy cookie tasted like.  

It was very thick, over a half inch tall.  It was almost like bread.  It was not sweet like an American cookie with a boatload of sugar.  It was mildly sweet.  At first I was disappointed because it didn't taste sweet and then I realized my palette is so desensitized to sugar.  So I tried another bite.  Then I found myself being drawn to it.  Then I decided that yes, I really do like it.

If you ever have a chance to try something new, try it!  You just might like it. 

Yummy!

I made mozzarella!  I bought a kit so that Todd and I could make cheese.  He bought the milk, and the directions say that it's best with the freshest milk you can buy.  Unfortunately, Todd was busy, so I made it on my own.  Hey, it HAD to be done!

Want to know a little secret?  It was *really* easy!  

Here is a pic of all the ingredients:

First step after heating the milk, is to add citric acid.  It starts curdling the milk.

Then after the milk gets to a certain temp, you add the rennet.  The curdling goes into overdrive.

Then once it reaches a certain temp and cooks for a certain time, you have curds & whey.

Way cool

It seemed like after I pulled out the curds, I had just as much whey as I did milk that I had poured into the pan.  Such a cool magic trick!  There are actually a lot of things you can do with whey.  You can cook it again to make a little bit of ricotta (which I did), you can use it to bake bread, and you can give it to your dogs on their food.  The last option is my favorite.

After pressing out all the liquid from the tender curds, you heat it up.  In the microwave!  It was so odd to cook it in the microwave, but the directions said to!  After reaching a certain temp, I got to burn my hands play with my food.  I stretched the cheese and folded it onto itself.  The more you work with it, the tougher it will be. 

I chose to make two small balls of mozzarella, and chill them in ice water before refrigerating them.  And here is the finished product!  It is creamy, yummy and slightly nutty tasting almost.

Todd and I really like it.  It's not a cheap alternative to buying it, however you can't buy something this fresh tasting.  Can't wait to make it again, with herbs next time!

Crafty New Year!

HappyCrafty New Year to you!  I've had a lot of projects going on lately (or rumbling around in my head that I intend to do).  Just can't wait to share them with you.

Here's one I tried to get done for Christmas, but just didn't manage to.  I saw this on Pinterest and had to try it.  So off to the store I went for bobby pins and gold spray paint.

Who wouldn't love their name in pasta?!?

Mine did not turn out as neat as the Pinterest post, because the glue I used wasn't real smooth, and the pasta I used wasn't uniformly sized.  But hey, I already had the alphabet pasta in a soup mix, I just had to pick it out of the lentils.  I tried to find alphabet pasta and our normal grocery stores did not carry it, so I used what I had!

Up next, we are making homemade mozzarella cheeeeeeese this weekend!  For home cooked pizza.  Can't wait for dinner!  I will post soon of our cheesy experience. 

Until then, let me leave you with a beautiful picture of my beautiful friend and her beautiful horses.  I'm so happy I got to see them for a brief visit last month!

Beautiful horses!

Beautiful redheads

Bon Appetit! 

Nailed It, Christmas Edition

Hope you had a lovely Christmas!  Mine was wonderful.  It was a nice and relaxing morning as we opened gifts, then had an amazing brunch.

Todd's Frittata

I wish you could smell the cheesiness in the picture above.  It was so yummy.  

Then we had an excellent prime rib dinner.  We had a special stash of my mom's buns!  My mashed potatoes were not as good as my Thanksgiving mashed taters, but they were acceptable.  I think I needed a combination of yellow and russet, and should have used the entire brick of cream cheese.  Live and learn. 

A Merry Christmas Dinner!

Enough about food.  I've been feeling extra crafty lately.  Christmas does that to me.  I love giving homemade gifts because you know they didn't get another one just like it yesterday from a relative, and the gift receiver knows you thought about them while making said project.  I didn't get to everything I wanted to make, but what I did make this year included:

• Homemade sugar scrubs, one old recipe and one new
• Homemade Ginger Hot Cocoa mix (since the guys at the office wouldn't appreciate a sugar scrub)
• A little painting for a few folks I haven't painted for in years past (old design, nothing new)
• And a risky new idea... (I finished at midnight last night)

But first, another story.

I've been on a search for a wreath that doesn't suck.  Why don't I search for a wreath that I actually like, or even that I love?  Thanks for asking.  Because I am extremely picky, and this search has been going on for years.  A wreath that I would love doesn't exist.  I hate fake flowers.  Cause, well, they LOOK fake.  I grow the real thing.  Why bother with an imitation.

I found a wreath at a garage sale for $2 last summer that is acceptable and which now hangs on my front door.  The flowers are obviously fake and they aren't made to try to look real.  It's a grapevine wreath (about the only kind I like) with big cabbage type roses that are red on one side and have a white/brown stripe on the other side that kind of looks like a wood grain.  It will do.

And then one day while flipping through catalogs shopping for Christmas, I found this one:
 

Napa Valley Style with a Napa Valley Price Tag

For those of you who didn't catch the price on this little beauty, it's $129.  Plus shipping.  Did I mention that I'm also cheap thrifty?  Also, there are little things about it that I'm not in love with--there is greenery that looks fake to me, although I love the eucalyptus.  The pomegranates are cute and don't look fake, but the apples look TOO perfect.  SEE HOW I AM?!?!?!!  I pick every wreath apart and focus on the things I don't like although I am proud of mentioning two things that I actually do like.

See the dehydrated orange slice at about 8 o'clock in the picture of that Napa Style wreath?  THAT was my inspiration.


So what do I get for a foodie-couple who describes their style as "minimalists" for Christmas?  Well sometimes it's tough.  But then I think of food (savory over sweet for them), because that is their greatest passion, to get an inspiration.  They also garden, so there are options down that avenue too.  Actually when I think about it, they really aren't hard to shop for at all!

The answer to my question is, a culinary masterpiece.  That orange slice triggered something inside my creative brain cortex--to make a food oriented wreath!  So off to Michael's I went.  I went up and down every stinking aisle trying to find the perfect food oriented options to attach to the perfect grapevine wreaths I chose.  I could go with little fake oranges and fake lemons & fake limes, and fake apples.  Or I could go with fake little peppers and fake artichokes, and fake carrots.  And then?  It will look... fake.  Forget it, I give up on these options because it's going to look HORRIBLE.  And fake.

But I didn't give up on the idea.  Instead I made a grocery store list which consisted of:

• Bay leaves (hubby acquired 100 leaves off eBay, thanks dear!)
• Blood oranges
• Lemon
• Red apple
• Garlic heads
• Sage (from my own garden)
• Chili peppers (from our kitchen cabinets, some are dried from our own garden) 

My hubby acquired the goods, and enlisted the help of a friend because our small-podunk town doesn't carry blood oranges.  Once I acquired my goodies, I started slicing very carefully on my mandolin slicer (that goes BOTH ways--very cool kitchen tool that chops slicing time in HALF). 

Then I placed my sliced pieces on wax paper lined cookie trays and baked at 125-150 degrees for a day.  I baked the garlic heads for about 3 days.  My sage dried nicely on it's own, since I picked it a few months ago, just had to keep it away from prying dog noses.  I've been planning this for months.

But I was nervous about the end result.  Because remember?  I'm really picky.  But I started assembling the wreath last night, and I couldn't stop until I was finished.  Here it is:  

My Homemade Culinary Masterpiece!

I think I NAILED IT!  EVERYTHING except the glue and the grapevine is edible.  Or was, before I dehydrated it.  Oh, there I go again, talking about food.  Also, it smells good.  The sage really gives it a nice fragrance.  

I think they are really going to like it.  It's pretty fragile though--I hope it makes it home with them without too many broken pieces.


This took an amazing amount of slices from an apple, a lemon and three blood oranges.  I thought I would have enough to make one for my own front door too, but I have to dry more fruit out before I can assemble my own.

Also, I'm a tiny bit worried that birds will try to eat the dried fruit from my front door.  Oh, the problems of living in the country....




So, what do you think of my culinary masterpiece?  Hope you had a great Christmas whether it was crafty or not!

Still Mourning

I'm so thankful that we still have Keystone.  He's such a perfect furry-kid.  He's my awesome little old man.  But so often I think of how there should be another little girl here.  

We played in the snow today, the first time this season.  I know we both kept thinking how much Abby would have loved it.   

I think there is always going to be a hole in my heart where Abbytail should still be right now.

Abbytail 2004

Abbytail 2005