And that's all my phone has to say about that...

flash back to last Friday- make chocolate covered yumminess.

pretzels and peanut butter balls. high in both calories and deliciousness.

they were so yummy people who had said they weren't coming showed up upon being texted about the chocolate goodness.

 

the week started out terribly sunny.

Washington was actually like the warmest state in the USA at one point over the weekend. It was miraculous. 0% chance of rain- that just doesn't happen out here!

flowers picked on the hike mentioned in the previous post.

 

at first i thought I acquired poison ivy on the hike when I woke up with a rash on my arm the next day.

when within hours I was a completely rashy mess we began to think a food reaction was the culprit.
that and my husband suspected I was turning into a goose (...looked like I had goose bumps everywhere...). Yup.

 

 Next was a 101  fever.

long story short, I spent about 5 hours on Monday between the doctors, a blood lab and the army base pharmacy. i know I have a monosodium glutamate (MSG- a common food additive which acts as an excitotoxin and messes with my endocrine system) allergy and i accidentally ate some (its in the majority of packaged food). the dr. also did a panel of food allergy tests on me. waiting on results. i am now armed with epipens and after a bunch of steroids and Benadryl I'm doing much better. fun times.

 

we've started feeding birds in hopes of giving our indoor kitty something to entertain himself (and cause we like birds).so far, a couple of brave chickadees and a squirrel picking up what drops to the ground have been our only visitors.

 

trink thinks the squirrel is good fun. we call the squirrel Caliban

(also, like Trinkilo, a character from the Tempest).

Funny part is he didn't notice him at first and the squirrel stood frozen for a couple minutes before the cat whipped around and gave him full attention.

 

another really great cat hobby is running around underneath a shoe box. the goal being to keep it on top of you so you may stealth attack people's ankles.

 

gearing up for Hawaii in 10 days!!! so excited!

we will be staying at a military personnel resort right on Waikiki beach. Celebrating our one year anniversary during the trip. Unbelievable! Until then, we are watching every movie set in Hawaii- most importantly Lilo and Stitch. JoJo has 3 day weekend so let the amping up for the trip begin!



Thrifty Thinkin': Homemade Syrup-Filled Banana Pancake Bites

Yet another quick and easy breakfast to make ahead and enjoy all week: Pancake Bites!

As we know, I love cooking anything I possibly can in my muffin pan. I also try and cook a week's worth of breakfast on Sunday afternoon, so I can quickly reheat in the oven or microwave. This way my Airman husband gets a decent homemade breakfast before he is out the door at 6:30 and I get to not get up at the butt-crack of dawn and cook for him. Win-win.

Last week I made syrup-filled mini pancakes, or "pancake bites" in my muffin pan and my husband enjoyed them all week long.

You'll need:

*oh, and your favorite syrup will be necessary too. The real stuff is always the best!!

*preheat your oven to 350!

*I used about a cup and a half of dry pancake mix and added the needed ingredients accordingly. Follow whatever your normal pancake routine would be. My cup and a half came out to 8 little pancakes/muffins.

*doesn't have to be bananas. pick your favorite pancake filling, or leave them plain!

*adding the syrup after the 10 minutes allows for them to be syrup "filled." If you mix it in with the batter it would sort of cook off by the time 25 minutes is up

*though these are called "syrup filled" I suppose they are more syrup "infused." When you bite into one it isn't like a fruit gusher (why can I not think of a better example!?) or a jelly filled donut- nothing will ooze all over your hands. The syrup soaks into the mostly-cooked pancake batter. When they are done you can still taste the syrup and they are a little sticky, but it has dispersed throughout the pancake bite. You could do without syrup, but I think it makes them more like pancakes and less like muffins. Another option would be to bake them plain and dip them in syrup later if you aren't rushing out the door.

*easy reheat: 5 minutes back in the oven at 350 or 45 seconds in the microwave. Keep in the fridge (in plastic baggie) to enjoy all week long!

 

 

Hand-Painted Art for My Kitchen: "Where You Invest Your Love..."

This post has been a long time coming. This project was finished a couple weeks ago, but I was waiting to get it hung up (with the help of my husband) before posting.

As you know, I live in a little cook-cutter, white walled, baby house on an Air Force Base. Base housing is far from character-filled...in fact it is a little stark white and very un-personal. We are allowed to paint or hang stuff, but it must be returned to the state we found it in upon leaving, which being in the military, you never can be sure when that will be. Someday we will live in an old house, full of charm and character, but for today we don't. For now, I am trying to make my little baby house as homey, charming and personal as I can without investing to much into it, as it is, after all, only temporary (only probably a year or so).

We were able to purchase plenty of furniture for our house together and now I am left with the task of doing the little ("girly") tasks of decorating. I'm not a huge fan of white walls, and white walls without art are super sad. I, however, have trouble finding art that I like within our budget, so I have therefore be doing the DIY thing (which I do anyway but..).

About a month back on a weekend, my husband and I were at his shop (he works in a Civil Engineering Squadron doing Structures). They have a bin of junk wood and scraps. He was throwing some stuff in there when I spotted this...cabinet door-like thing...

I am still not sure what it was. Looks like a cabinet door, but it has 6 weird little hooks on it, and no signs of and hinges ever being there so...it's a mystery. But I liked it. It looked like it wanted to be painted on. I waited another week of it being in the scrap bin before I ..*pilfered* it for my own.

I decided on painting some of my favorite song lyrics on it. "WHERE YOU INVEST YOUR LOVE, YOU INVEST YOUR LIFE." (Mumford and Sons: Awake, My Soul). If I was the sort to get tattoos, that would already be on me somewhere, but as I am not quite that sort I figured painting it as art for my kitchen was a close substitute. I pondered getting some stencils to make the letters crisp and precise, but that is not really indicative of myself. Instead, I free handed it. I did pencil in some lines to help keep it all straight- I have an horrible inability to make straight lines without ruler guidance.

 Lyrics alone don't make a painting for me, so I bordered it in some Hungarian-inspired flowers. Hungary has some gorgeous embroidery which has always been part of decorating my family's home (my grandfather was from Hungary and one of my sisters is adopted from there), so I decided to bring some into mine.I am incapable of embroiderying such beauty, but painting it is fun.  I considered painting flowers to also mimic Polish paper art (called Wincynanki), to honor my Polish heritaged husband. But it is incredibly detailed and when I practiced on other paper my flowers looked awful in paint, so I scratched that plan and stuck with my own roots. When I finished my couple days of painting it, I sealed it with spray varnish.

I am pretty pleased with how it came out. It's unique, I think. That's probably why I like it so much. JoJo helped me get it screwed into our kitchen wall and it now is hanging over our little dinning area. Just one more little bit of homey charm to our house!

Still a little stark and sad, but getting happier! If you can't tell, I'm a fan of color. You can't see the rest of my kitchen in this photo, but all the colors present in the flowers are basically the color scheme of my kitchen. Anything with a folksy print, bright color, or vintage vibe is welcome. I suppose salvaged cabinet door wall art fits in nicely.

 

Thrifty Thinkin': Healthier Homemade Blueberry Muffins

I am rather infamous for things I can cook in a muffin pan. Breakfast quiches, cupcakes, rolls, pancake bites, stuffed pizza bites, brownies, mini popcorn balls, baked macaroni...etc. A muffin pan is probably my #1 kitchen necessity. However, up until this week I had never made actual muffins in my muffin pan. I had actually never made muffins in my life.

Usually every weekend I try to come up with a reasonably quick and healthy breakfast that I can make in advance and then either quickly heat in the oven of in the microwave before my Airman husband has to get to work in the early morning during the week. Usually it involves eggs (and probably in a muffin pan). But this week I thought I might give something else a go- BLUEBERRY MUFFINS!

I did a little pinterest hunt and came up with this: Blueberry Muffins According to Martha Stewart. Then I did a little tweaking of my own. I followed her recipe exactly except for 3 minor changes. Instead of the 1 1/4 cups of white sugar (something I do my best to avoid in large amounts) I substituted in 3/4 cups of honey.  Because of the honey burning easier than white sugar, I also lowered the oven temp from 375 to 350 instead. Then, instead of the 1 cup of milk (something I also try and avoid in large quantity, especially now since some milk contains unlabeled aspartame), I substituted 1 cup of unsweetened original flavored coconut milk. You could also use soy milk, almond milk, etc.


So:  Here is Martha's Recipe (Martha Stewart Living, July/August 2000), with my changes in bold.

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for tins
• 3 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups sugar, plus more for sprinkling (3/4 cups of honey. I did sprinkle a little white sugar on top though)
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk (1 cup unsweetened coconut milk)
• 1 3/4 cups blueberries

 

I preheated my oven to 350. If using white sugar instead of honey, go ahead and set it to 375.

 

Butter your muffin pan. This recipe makes 6 large muffins or 12 small muffins. I went with the 12.

 

In once bowl, mix/sift together your flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.

 

In another bowl, cream butter and sugar/honey until fluffy, which will take about 3 minutes with an electric mixer, or about 5 with a wooden spoon. As I don't yet own a mixer of any type, I used a google old fashioned wooden spoon for this whole recipe. If you have fancy gadgets like Martha, go ahead and use those.

 

Add in the egg and egg yolks, along with the vanilla to the sugar/honey and butter mixture. Then gradually add in parts of your flour and milk/coconut milk until it is all combined into a dough. This can be done on low with a mixer or by hand. Then gently fold in your blueberries. I used frozen, but fresh would be equally delightful. This is the fun part because you get to watch the mixture turn blueishpurple.

 

Divide the muffin batter between the tins. Sprinkle the tops with sugar. Bake until golden. Approximately 45 minutes for large muffins and about 30-35 for small muffins (this would depend on which temperature you set your oven too, so keep a watchful eye on them!). Before removing from the pan allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Once cool, I removed them from the pan and pack them up in a ziploc baggie, ready to go for the rest of the week. Now at 6:30 AM all I have to do it set a muffin in the microwave for about 45 seconds, slap some butter on it and hand it to my husband as he goes out the door. Easy and delicious!





Thrifty Thinkin': Repurposed and Painted Jars for Cute Pantry Storage

As you know, I've been trying my hand at attempting to make as much of our food from scratch and buy as little packaged/process/pre-made foods as possible. But there are still plenty of things that I buy that come in some sort of container, like pasta sauce (although, soon I will be making our own!) and salsa. Often those jars, either plastic or glass, can be reused to store something else. Some of them are actually pretty cool too (Classico pasta sauce comes in a mason- type jar!).

 

 I've always tried to reuse containers whenever possible. Typically I remove the labels with hot water and a sponge and then send them through the dishwasher once. Then I use the jars to organize some of my pantry items, like dried beans, popcorn kernels or rice. After a little while though it was starting to look chaotic with a bunch of sharpie-labeled random jars with lids that didn't match the contents (such as Ragu lid on Kidney beans).

That bugged me. Plus, I am always down for a craft project, so I decided to give those jars a little make over.

First, I picked up a can of Krylon Indoor/Outdoor (basically good on any surface) spray paint in my favorite shade- Cherry Red- at Michael's (40% of with coupon, so around $3.00).

This part was quite the process. I guess I over-estimated the power of spray paint. I brought the lids outside and soon realized that it might just take 3 million coats to cover up the lettering on the lids. But with a little patience (and a final coat count of 5) I got them to be thoroughly Cherry Red. In hind sight, some sort of white primer would have been a really good idea. But it worked regardless.

Next came the fun part. Painting random designs all over the red lids. They don't actually match, they just sort of...coordinate, which is basically a summation of most things I surround myself with. I love color and these lids are sure colorful now. I used an array of acrylic paints and just fooled around with flowers and patterns until I was happy with my lids.

I allowed them to dry for a couple hours and gave them each two coats of  glossy acrylic Americana Sealer (also from Michael's, 40% off for about $3.00).

After letting them dry overnight, I put them back on my jars and now they are super spiffy and bright!

I still have plenty of spray paint left over, so my plan is to continue adding jars and painted lids to my collection as I empty out store bought products. Now my pantry makes me smile! Art belongs everywhere!

Only caution with these is that they are NOT washable. I don't really care since the contents will be pretty consistent and dried beans don't make much mess, but you wouldn't want to try and store anything wet or messy in them. If cleanup is needed, a damp paper towel should do the trick.

These would also be great for office storage for little bits and pieces like paper clips. Or, great in a bathroom for things like cotton balls and Q-tips too! You can make them match your decor! It would also be a fun project for kids to help out with (adults do the spray painting and varnishing, but let kiddos decorate!). I'm thinking it would be super cute for a little girls room/bathroom for storing little hair clips and dainty whatnots.

It is really fun to find purposes for everyday items, especially if they are cute! Let me know if you give them a try!

Thrifty Thinkin': How to use Aluminum Foil as a Dry Ball

You know what they say, "one woman's wad of aluminum foil is another woman's fabric softener." (What? You haven't heard that one?)

As you may know, I am on a bit of a health/thrift/frugal/DIY kick. Besides becoming pricey over time, did you know that dryer sheets are full of all sorts of nasty toxin and chemicals which can harm not only your skin, but your overall health? In this recent post I wrote about how I switched my Snuggle fabric softener and sheet addiction over to more healthy (and cost effective) alternatives. I have to admit, I still have a stash of dryer sheets in my laundry room (closet), but once I use them up I will not be purchasing more for my laundry.

 

Truthfully, this post shouldn't really be a "how to" because the instructions are as simple as can be. Ready? Taking notes? Your one and only step is this: rip a sheet of foil, wad it up, and throw it in your dryer with your clothes.

 

That's all folks. A ball of aluminum foil is not only cheap, but it is great at ridding laundry of static and combating wrinkles. It doesn't add any scent, obviously, but I use scented detergent and scented homemade liquid softener in my wash cycle. You can use the same ball over and over again. I've been using mine for a month, and while it has smoothed out a bit, it still does the job just fine. I guess after a long period of time you might want to replace the ball, but that is easy enough to handle, yes?  The only down side to this method as far as I can tell is the ruckus it makes banging around with the clothes. It doesn't do any damage, it is just slightly noiser than just clothes in the dry alone. My cat thinks it is interesting to listen to though...

 

I'm very happy with this method and will gladly be keeping it in my laundry routine.

 

Another, but slightly more pricey alternative, would be an actual plastic dryer ball. Blue, spikey looking guys? Have you tried them? My mom bought a bunch at a dollar store and I used those when I lived at home. I also hear that they have some with a tube which you can add essenstial oils too, if you want a little added freshness.

Rumor has it you can use balls of felted wool (and scent them) for a similar effect, but that I haven't attempted. If you're interested in trying that method out (I am!) see this tutorial here.

Also, I haven't tried this yet, but I have read that you can use paper coffee filters with a few drops of essential oils on them (or fabric softener) if you want something more in sheet form.

Let me know if you try this out! It is so simple!

Thrifty Thinkin': How to Make Homemade {Potato} Bread

Since moving to Washington and trying to be as frugal as possible, I have taken up making all of our breads. Not that we spend loads of cash on bread, but it is still an improvement and it is so much better for you without the preservatives and chemicals! Plus, it tastes a heck of a lot better.

I don't have a bread machine, and I don't know anything too fancy. My mom taught me how to make bread when I was a kid, and lately I've just been experimenting with different recipes and variations. I am not much of a fan of store bought sandwich bread, but my husband is partial to Potato bread. Often I send him to work with sandwiches for lunch and potato bread is always his preference. After making bread for a couple weeks I started to play around with potato bread recipes. The outcomes have been mighty tasty and the husband is a fan of homemade bread now! Success! My loaves don't look like the store bought (WHY is potato bread always yellowish in the store? Potatoes aren't even yellow...?), but it tastes delicious!

Here is how I make it:

First off, to make bread you need YEAST.
I use an activedry yeast that needs to be "proofed" before you can use it in bread. A lot of people use instant yeasts, but I am not familiar with those and cannot speak for them...

First, preheat your oven to 200. Once it is warmed, shut it off. This will just be a warm area for the yeast and bread to do what they need to do.

For this recipe you need, 2 1/4 tablespoons of yeast. Put it in an bowl and add 1/4 cup of warm water and a table spoon of sugar. Mix it up and put it in the oven (now off!) for 10 minutes. The yeast should double in size by the time 10 minutes is up; this is how you know it is active and ready to use.

While you wait for the yeast to proof put these ingredients in a bowl:
3 cups of bread flour (potato flour can be incorporated here if you have it available, I however, do not have any of that yet),
 2 tablespoons of sugar,
 3/4 teaspoon of salt,
3/4 teaspoon of oil (I use olive),
1 cup of hot water,
1/2 cup of milk and
1/2 cup of mashed potatoes (I just prepared and used the flakey instant kind)
then add in your proofed yeast and mix all the dough together.

The dough should come together into a sort of sticky mess. If it is too dry, add a bit more water.

Then, clean and flour your counter (and your hands) where you will knead the bread.

 Next: knead that dough! I've always been told by my mother that you need to knead the dough until it feels "smooth like a baby's bottom." But if baby butt analogies don't quite help you understand how long something takes, I'd say something like 8 minutes. If you need a little help or refresher on kneading, HERE is a good Youtube tutorial which may help you!

Once you have kneaded the bread, place the dough into a well oiled bread pan and put it in the still-warm oven to rise for 1 hour. (If you want to form your own loaf and not use a bread pan, you should let it rise in a oiled bowl, covered with a damp dishtowel).

Once your hour is up and your bread is fully risen, take it out and heat the oven back up to 350. Bake the bread for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool and slice.

 If left out or in the fridge, because the bread has no preservatives, it will go stale if not eaten in a day or two. If you have a big family, eat it up quick! Or, you can do like I do for just my husband and I. I place the slices in a freezer bag and freeze it, thawing it out as we need it for toast and sandwiches throughout the week.

Hope you enjoy this scrumptious bread! Be sure to have a nice thick slice with butter or cheese when it is fresh out of the oven and still warm! Nothing better!