Saturday Sundaes

Did you know that more “Sundaes” are eaten on Saturdays?

The past week, I’ve been reading up on articles on how to save money and some of them have mentioned enjoying more “simple” activities as a family rather than worry about big events.  It’s a evil scheme of marketers to make you think that the only way to be happy and have a good time is by spending a lot of green.  So when my son was begging to go to the ice cream shop yesterday (something I dread because I’m lactose intolerant), I thought of doing something else:

Having our very own little ice-cream parlor!

My son was very excited when he came downstairs and saw my little display of ice cream and fixings and made an “order” right away. 

I had been delighted when I found that Fry’s now carries a reasonably priced dairy substitute ice cream that actually comes in a quart.  It was the same price as all the pints!  I got the boys two different kinds of ice cream and filled little custard cups full of blackberries, coconut, chocolate chips, jelly beans, marshmallows, and graham cracker crumbs—just random things that I had in my pantry.  You could also have hot-fudge (which I have a killer recipe for but didn’t take the time to make), caramel, marshmallow cream, or preserves…the options are only limited by what you have but the fun thing about what you have on hand is that you can make entirely new “flavors”.

      I love the look of delight on Christian’s face because he could have as many toppings as he wanted!

P.S. With the vanilla flavored “ice-cream” I had I used blackberries, graham cracker crumbs and coconut and it was sooo good!

Pickles!

I haven’t canned anything since Christian was about a year old.  And that was apricot jam that we have used up LONG ago.  I have never canned anything beyond jams but when I saw that Bountiful Baskets was offering 36 lbs of pickling cucumbers for $17, I couldn’t resist trying to pickle.  It was so much fun and I’ve learned a LOT about pickling this last week.

First off, 36 lbs will make four DOZEN quarts of pickles!  I did not make that many but after two dozen quarts I offered the pickles to someone else.

I was really nervous about the process as different recipes I read had either very complicated ingredients and/or complicated instructions.  So I found the least complicated instructions and made those.

Here are my recipes.  One is for Dills and one is for my own bread and butter pickles that I created the recipe myself and honestly, I’m addicted and I’ve forbidden my husband to eat more than his share. ;)

DILL PICKLES

MAKES 6 ONE-Quart JARs

Place in Stockpot:

3 qt. Water

1 qt. Vinegar (5% acidity)

1 cup pickling salt (non-iodized)

Place in each Jar:

one stalk or one teaspoon dill weed

dash or one clove garlic

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

METHOD:  Wash bottling jars, lids and rings. (I put mine in the dishwasher on sanitize and that kept them warm so they wouldn’t break when the hot liquid was poured into them).   Place lids in a small saucepan of water and bring to boil.

Boil water, vinegar and salt.  Scrub cucumbers and if desired cut them in desired manner (I prefer spears because more fit in a bottle that way but I also used my mandolin to crinkle-cut some which was fun).  Pull out warm jars and fill with dill, garlic and mustard.  Fill jars with cucumbers.  Pour boiling mixture in jars with a 1/2 “ of head space (to the middle ring on the bottle). Wipe mouth of jar, put on lid and twist on ring finger-tip tight.  Do not tighten more for 12 hours.  Steam bath is optional.

HEATHER’S EASY BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES

MAKES 6 ONE-Quart JARs

Place in Stockpot:

3 qt. water

1 qt. apple cider vinegar (5% acidity)

1 cup pickling salt (non-iodized)

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon onion powder

2 teaspoons turmeric

Place in each Jar:

one stalk or one teaspoon dill weed

dash or one clove garlic

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

METHOD:  Wash bottling jars, lids and rings. (I put mine in the dishwasher on sanitize and that kept them warm so they wouldn’t break when the hot liquid was poured into them).   Place lids in a small saucepan of water and bring to boil.

Place water, vinegar, salt, onion powder and turmeric in stockpot whisk to get out lumps in spices and bring to boil.  Scrub cucumbers and if desired cut them in desired manner. Pull out warm jars and fill with dill, garlic and mustard.  Fill jars with cucumbers.  Pour boiling mixture in jars with a 1/2 “ of head space (to the middle ring on the bottle). Wipe mouth of jar, put on lid and twist on ring finger-tip tight.  Do not tighten more for 12 hours.  Steam bath is optional.

Anyone for Fresh Produce?

Ever Tried a co-op?

When we lived at the U of U married housing, I belonged to the community food co-op and LOVED it!  I was really wishing I could be part of it still when my sister who lives in Bountiful, UT was talking about Bountiful Baskets and I was thinking “….blah blah…why don’t they have bountiful baskets here?” and then she mentioned that lots of other states have it and I realized what a dork I’ve been by not even checking it out.  So I finally checked out their website and found out that one of their drop-off sites is at the park right behind my house!

So now, I’m in LOVE with bountiful baskets.  You can spend $15 per basket (or $25 for certified organic") and you get all this produce!  They send you with 6 fruits and 6 vegetables per basket and you can actually order up to three baskets per week.  All of the produce is in season and as local as they can get it.  We have had to get a little creative when it comes to using some of the ingredients (like the time we got turnips) but it has really caused me to stretch as a cook as well.  Which really has been fun. 

German Chocolate Cake

For my Hubby’s birthday, I got the usual request for German Chocolate cake.  However, I did get a slightly unusual request to have it made in time for my husband to bring it to work with him the morning of his birthday (since it was a Friday) so we wouldn’t end up eating the entire thing  or at least the majority ourselves. 

Honestly, I thought this request a little odd since of course I wanted to sing to Jared on his birthday and usually, we’ve had cake in the evening after dinner.  This is why I made him sit and let us sing to him with his cake at 7 am right after the kids woke up and right before he left for work.

Every year I dread the German Chocolate cake request that I know is going to come from my husband (one year I didn’t ask him what he wanted because I knew what he was going to ask and really didn’t want to make German Chocolate).  I’m not even sure why he thinks that this is such a good cake.  I find that most people’s German Chocolate cakes are too dry and/or have so many nuts that it actually makes the texture too crunchy to pass for a good cake.

I love a fudgy chocolate cake but German has never been my favorite. I actually am allergic to walnuts so I was planning on using pecans except that I realized at the last minute that I had forgotten to pick some up from the store.  So I made him the German Chocolate frosting without the pecans and just added more coconut to account for the missing nuts.  I also torted it and filled it with chocolate pudding.  This made it extra moist and much more decadent than your average German Chocolate.

According to Jared’s co-workers, this is the best German Chocolate cake they’ve ever eaten.  I even thought it was good and I don’t like German Chocolate cake ;). 

Our Loft color inspiration!

One of the things that I noticed from the first time we visited Arizona is there is a shocking lack of Green.  I actually am NOT a huge fan of green but it is my hubby and my 5-year-olds favorite color so we have a fair amount of green things around the house.  When I was trying to find something that struck me to use as a color for our upstairs loft, these are the materials that grabbed me and wouldn’t let go and I just couldn’t get them out of my head. 

Felicite Mineral 

Paddock Shawl Mineral

Aren’t these materials just beautiful?  They feel amazing too. So soft and luxurious, especially for cotton.  Because I’m a girl with a budget I got them from Joann’s when they had a 50% off Home Decor materials and I was lucky enough to have a gift card for doing some sewing for someone.  I am so pleased that I got them even if they were a little pricier than I usually spend on material.

I  painted the Walls in These Benjamin Moore Colors Fernwood Green 2145-40 and an accent wall in Terrapin Green 2145-20.

I’ve already finished making pillows with the material, so I’ll have to post the photos soon. I am so pleased with what I’ve done with our loft even though we’ve had to do it on a budget.  We have been using it as a family/library/office and I love being in here!