Playing favorites

Here is a little tour of my very favorite things in my kitchen!!

1) Keurig coffee pods!! Especially the Kona Blend.. YUMMMMM.

2)The magna doodle! Okay, not so much of a traditional kitchen item, but I stole it from Hanna and I use it to post the weekly dinner plan! Sorry, Hanna...

3) View from the kitchen sink window... I will miss this when we aren't living here anymore.

4) Dried chili peppers! We had excess of these and didn't use them in time, so I strung 'em on thread and hung them up. Now they are crispy and beautiful. :)

5) Sprouts on the window sill! I have 3 of these little pots sitting on the window sill. I planted the seeds about a month ago. There was zinnia, basil, and baby sunflowers. One pot's seeds never made it, but I don't know which one, so I am anxiously awaiting the surprise to what the other 2 are going to grow into.

6) My teapot! It reminds me of something straight from my favorite Disney movie -- Alice In Wonderland. I never use it, but I love looking at it every day. Friends of my mother-in-law had given it to me at my bridal shower.

7) Lime green dish washing gloves complete with ruffles, polka dots, and a bow - can we get any cuter here? My mom got these for me from Sur La Table. My hands are super dry in the winter so now when I do the dishes I slather on some lotion, slip these puppies on, and wash away with hot sudsy water. When I'm done and take these off, my hands are SO soft. I almost, almost enjoy doing dishes now.

8) My favorite set of glasses! One for each season. Sometimes I get a little bit anal and won't use an out-of-season glass. I'll use the spring/summer in the fall/winter, but I have major issues using the fall/winter ones in the spring/summer. I snagged them at "Vintage Alley" in Verona for like $10. Love them!

Woof

I got a rest this weekend! Curled up in my bed, by myself, puppy curled up at my feet. Ahhhh... that was nice...

I found a new show on NJN (which I never watch, I'm not sure why I stopped there..) called "b. organic" which was all about making eco friendly things. I only caught the end of it, but I looked it up when I got up from my rest and was looking through the site at projects. I found one where she was packaging up home made dog treats.

I felt like baking something but not for myself, being that I already ate an entire batch of cookies I baked the previous week, so dog treats it was.

I found a recipe that was super simple and got to work.

The dough... a little oil, some whole wheat flour, some AP flour, and peanut butter - that's IT! Mix it up & roll it out - I rolled it out on wax paper for a squeaky clean space & easy clean-up.

Then I used one of my many little cookie cutter things from Williams Sonoma to make the shapes! Would have been cute if I had little dog bone shapes. Which reminds me, I want to start a cookie cutter collection!Take extra dough scraps ball it up, roll it out again, get more treats!

I was able to roll out scraps from this too, and get even more, but I spared you the pictures. I used every last piece of dough and got close to 50 pieces! The recipe called for about 2 dozen.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes and wah-la! Happy puppies.

I wish I had a better picture of the finished treats, but I don't. And I wish I had a better picture of the packaging I made with the empty peanut butter jar...but I don't. Rats.

The ones in the jar were for my mom's dogs... I just cleaned it out, removed the label, and wrapped a paper around with a bow w/ the dogs names on it. The one in the red container is for our pups, and the baggies are for Jay's sister's dog and his parents dog.

This week, I hope to make home made pretzels and/or home made ice cream, start working on a family tree for Hanna, and finish a painting. :)

Coooooooookie Monster!

I stumbled across a vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe this afternoon that I wanted to make, but it used ground flax seeds, which I'm out of. Boo. =(

Then I remembered a recipe I had for peanut butter chocolate cookies that call for an egg, but last time I had made a little concoction to replace it and they came out well. Then I found the recipe, except my so-called recipe was just a list of ingredients without directions. I decided I'd just set the oven to 350, mix everything up together in a bowl, form into cookies, throw 'em in the oven, hope for the best, and keep checking on them until they are done.

SUCCESS!!!

Here's my "recipe" I was working off of. I have no idea where I found it from many months ago.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: 24 cookies

Ingredients:

1/4 cup soy milk (plain or vanilla) <--I used organic whole cow's milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg <--I used a mixture of 2T water + 1T oil + 2t baking powder
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup natural peanut butter <--I used Trader Joe's almond butter with flaxseeds
3/4 cup old fashioned oats <--Oops. Ran out. Used Muesli instead
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup cane sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

YUM! These are fun cookies to make because they are easy breezy and you can usually make them with on-hand ingredients. :)

Hanna and I already ate half of them. Oops. Hard to refuse a little girl pointing and asking for "coo-coo's." And of course if she has one, I have to have one too. It's only fair.

Currylicious

I made this tonight, without high hopes because I had just randomly come across it, while frantically searching for something to make for dinner without having to go to the store.

Surprise! I was actually really happy with it! Crock-pot meals always make your house smell and feel so warm and inviting, and the spices in this recipe made it even better. I had it over the best brown rice ever - it comes in a little bowl that you microwave, from Trader Joe's. SO. GOOD. I don't even know how people eat white rice, anymore - it's so... blahhhhhh.

No pictures yet because mid-snow storm I decided to come bunker down at my Mom and Dad's house so I am out of my element here! Maybe I can get some tomorrow. =)

I didn't get to do anything crafty/creative today and I am not okay with it! Hopefully I can make up for that tomorrow. Puff pastry has been sitting in my freezer...hmmm....

Lavender

When you have a suck night... stick your face in a pot of lavender and inhale deeply.

The end.

"cooooold!"

In just a few short months, the icicles will be melted into puddles we can splash in,

blankets of snow will turn into bright green blades of grass to feel between our toes, and snow covered flowers will turn into blue and purple blooms.

But until then, I will enjoy her little mittens falling off her hands, her pink fuzzy hats being pulled off of her head, her teeny tiny boots crunching piles of snow, and her giggles when she falls into the white.

T-Shirt Valentine's Day Wreath

I loooove Valentine's day - mostly for the same reason as Easter - lots of chocolate and pink - what's not to like?

I don't have any Valentine's decorations, and after driving around seeing sparkly red and pink heart wreaths on neighbor's houses, I decided I needed a little V-Day festivity on my front door, too.

I didn't want to go out and buy one, so I figured out how to make one. I don't know how, because usually things like this don't just come to me, so I must have seen the idea somewhere along the way. I'm pretty sure I'm not that original when it comes to crafting things.

Anyhoo... Step 1: Find an old festive shirt that you got too chubsy wubsy to wear - mine was a plain pink tee from Victoria's Secret.

Step 2: Find a wire hanger in your closet that your husband's jacket is hanging on. Put said husband's jacket on the floor, and take the hanger.

Step 3: Have your Daddy-o help you untwist the hanger, and form it into the heart shape. Make the extra wire at the top go inside the heart as the point.

Step 4: Cut your tee up into little strips of fabric.

Step 5: Tie the strips allllll around the heart until it's filled up! I just kept the strips long, tied knots, and cut the extra.

History was made today!

It finally happened... I baked something and did not use ANY chocolate in it! WHAT?!

Ran out of ice cream + no trip to the store + feeling brave = cinnamon rolls! I've been wanting to try to make cinnamon rolls for a while, but never got the courage - they intimidated me for some reason.

I used this recipe, along with a frosting recipe that someone left with their review. I used 1/2 whole wheat flour, so they are pretty much healthy... bonus!

They came out pretty good!! Roll-y desserts look so fancy and pretty, don't they?

Yummm.... excuse me while I go dream of eating one of these babies warmed up for breakfast!

A Cous Cous Vase

I saw this idea on The Nate Berkus Show (swoon!) a few weeks ago and decided to make it when I found myself with a bunch of fresh tulips and no vase to put them in. I have about 15 of them, but they are all packed up and put away for the (hopefully) soon move.

Jason had been saving a big plastic cous cous container to pickle veggies in, but I swiped it! A little dark colored rope, a little light colored rope, lots of hot glue, and.... PRESTO!

Looks even better with flowers in it, but my tulips are droopy drawers now =(

Bloggy McBloggerson

I have tried countless times to start a blog, but of course after a week (or more like a few days...) I stop. Those have all been ones about specific things - my food budget and meal ideas, or other things that I can't remember right now. This attempt doesn't have a theme - just my ramblings of things I do, things I see, and things I make. My theme is just THINGS, I guess.

Today I made my own non-toxic hand sanitizer from the book "Do It Gorgeously." The book is actually still on its way to me in the mail, but the author has a video of this one on YouTube. I made one without alcohol for Hanna to use, too!

This is all that's in it... no yucky stuff!

• water
• vodka
• aloe vera juice
• vegetable glycerine
• cinnamon oil
• eucalyptus oil
• clove bud oil
• rosemary oil

So easy to make, and with the amount of times I use sanitizer, I feel better about putting this onto my skin rather than who-knows-what. It's also a good $saver because when you buy the ingredients, you get enough to make a bazillion batches of this, plus other things.

Very excited to get the book to see what else I can make! :)