A Closer Look at Ottoman

Eating Carrots

My good friend Jenny emailed me a carrot recipe she made up spontaneously this past week. It was inspired by some big carrots she had kicking about and a regular side dish at a local fancy restaurant that is served year-round. She made this with what she had on hand. it's so simple, yet the flavor is so complex...delicious...and the perfect thing for those big carrots (besides juicing them).

Grated Carrots with Slivered Almonds

1 tsp butter

1/3 cup slivered almonds

1 cup grated carrots (when I made this, it only took one big carrot)

salt

Melt the butter in a skillet, add the almonds, and stir until they are golden and toasted. Add grated carrot, stir to mix, and finish with a sprinkle of salt.

A winner...perfect as a side dish or snack with the warmth and toasty-ness for winter and the hope for spring.

Found any simple, yet flavorful side dishes lately?

Oh...and here's something for the year of the rabbit.

Dinner: Tofu, Spinach, & Cashews Atop Rice

I've been making this dish for dinner here-and-there lately...and it varies slightly. I found some wonderful Basmati brown rice at Costco (it's has great texture) that I make and top with: tofu that I cube into smallish cubes cooked with a mixture of canola oil and teriyaki sauce, steamed brocolli or cooked fresh spinach, raw cashews that I toast myself, this dressing, and sesame seeds (if I have them). Salt to taste and yum!

Also, here's a few links that I've found recently....

1. Make your own beeswax polish for your furniture.

2. Another way to make quinoa (which is always a delight).

3. If you can't find the perfect vintage piece at a yard sale, can't afford the antique, or want that boxy dresser to fit just right with your other pieces...try this. (I've seen this before and love it...and found it again!)

Homemade Butter

Last week was Boo's final week of school for the summer and I've been trying to find some things for us to do. Coincidently, last week, Jenny and I were talking about homemade popsicles, ice cream, and butter...AND I had leftover whipping cream from a recipe. So, I decided to make some homemade butter with Boo using a jar (and you just shake, shake, shake). You can also burn off the calories you are about to consume with this method.

I have lots of empty peanut butter jars that I save and wash to use for bulk items such as raisins, this one came in handy.

I didn't have much whipping cream left, but you need some space whilst shaking the heck out of the cream.

It takes, I don't know, 15 or 20 minutes or so of shaking, so it's best to have someone to relieve you now and again. I did most of the shaking with Boo helping out here and there. You'll get to the point where it doesn't make any noise while your shaking...like there's nothing in there; that means you're close to having butter. This is when it's ready (above), when the butter separates from the buttermilk.

So, I poured out the buttermilk (which tastes just like milk with small pieces of butter. The buttermilk in the store is cultured and sour....Boo drank this right up) and put the butter chunks in a bowl and sprinkled a little salt on it and mashed it around with a spoon - butter!

Oh, I just got that measuring cup at a rummage sale. It's Fire King and pressed glass, I love the raised measurements!

I hope your weekend is going well! Thank you for reading!

Breakfast and Chive Flowers

I had these Buckwheat Corncakes for breakfast yesterday and I highly recommend them.

I don't usually have eggs in the house because Jeff doesn't like the smell of them...and we're trying to work more toward a vegan diet (yeah, and we aren't even always vegetarian...we're s.l.o.w.l.y working on it). So, a couple of years ago, I thought that if I baked with baking soda/powder and vinegar, my baking would leaven like it does with eggs...and it does. Well, apparently this is used in vegan baking and these pancakes use that formula. They are REALLY good. These are small-ish on a small plate and I couldn't finish it...they aren't dense, just filling. Ooh, and it's a nice alternative to wheat flour...I tend to eat a lot of that. (Speaking of, I made this over the weekend and it's won.der.ful)

Give 'em a shot and let me know what you think!

Next, my chives have been blooming and I had one inside that dried up and I noticed seeds were sprinkled around it. So, now I've collected all the flowers (they were mostly dried up anyway) and I've got them spread out to further dry so I can collect the seeds. They make great, practical gifts. I also have onion flowers drying...yay!

I find seeds amazingly beautiful.

Strawberry Pancakes

It was my turn to supply snack last week at Boo's preschool. Consequently, I have a bunch of strawberries leftover. I wish I could say they were from my garden (ahem, and that they were organic). But...I will have berries soon...and more than last year since the runners doubled my plants!

I wanted to mash the berries. Nothing like a little raw sugar to bring out the juices.

I think if I were to do this again, dicing would be nice. The consistency wasn't great with the potato masher, it would have been better pureed.

The sugar really made a difference to bring out the natural juice.

I used this mix. I usually do everything from scratch, but this mix doesn't have any high fructose corn syrup (you watch, it's the next trans fat) and is whole wheat - not bad! Also, I rarely have eggs in the house and this mix is a "just add water" one. Oh, and that is actually a small plate, not a dinner one...in case you're wondering about my appetite.

Simple, but if you're like me, you get in cooking ruts...maybe this will inspire.

Muesli and Vegan Curried Sweet Potato Corn Chowder

I mentioned recently that we're trying to eat better around here. We certainly haven't perfected it by any means, but we're working on it.

I've been eating muesli with either rice or almond milk. This version doesn't have any nuts, I must have been out of them.

Basically, I've been getting thick rolled oats in the bulk bins wherever I happen to shop and whatever fruit and nuts/seeds are reasonably priced in the bins as well. This bowl has raisins and unsulphured Turkish apricots (I don't feel the need for my dried apricots to be the same color they were when fresh). Currently on my shelf, there's dates and in the freezer (where I store nuts and seeds), I have slivered almonds (I swear, those whole almonds will crack a tooth someday...especially after I eat them out of the freezer). 

Today, I made a vegan curried sweet potato and corn chowder. Boo recently put a sweet potato in the cart on a quick shopping trip while Jeff wasn't looking, not to be sneaky, but apparently he thought it was interesting. It's not the first time this has happened, at least Jeff didn't end up paying for something full of sugar, something we wouldn't eat, or something expensive. Anyway, It's rainy here today and I wanted to make soup.

I diced an onion and sautéed it in canola oil, added some yellow curry powder and vegetable bouillon (sans salt). Let that cook for about a minute, added some water and the sweet potato (diced). Let that cook until the sweet potato was softened, added a bag of frozen corn, some salt and pepper and that was it!  Yum! Ooh...I failed to mention...I used a potato masher to mash up the contents a bit so that the soup would be a thicker consistency; this method seems to help soups where dairy product isn't added for a "creamier" soup.

Have you cooked anything particularly yummy and healthy lately? I need more inspiration!

Attempts at Eating Healthier

Here's some great recipes I've made lately...and they're super healthy (we're working on that)!

They are both from the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine website....

Hummus....The recipe doesn't call for parsley, but in the directions, it mentions to use it. So, I threw some in (I had it on hand for the next recipe anyway). I used a potato masher to mash up the garbanzos and the texture was great! 

Hoppin' John Salad....Yum! Black eyed peas, brown rice, tomatoes, celery, green onion, and parsely with a great garlic and lemon vinaigrette! Wow, can it get more healthy?

More vegan recipes on the site can be found here.

We're about off to visit Boo's grandparents...I'll either take my shop's stock with us or ship when I get back...you can read my shop announcement for the latest!

Oh, and I've been replying to comments via email again...just an FYI.

See you soon!

Drizzled with Honey

I've been eating one of my favorite snacks lately.

So, I suppose, it inspired this.

On Efficiency

We've returned from my grandfather's funeral...it's been rough. I was really close to my grandfather and I will really miss him.

Since I've been home (a couple of days), I've been harvesting as much as I can before it freezes. Yesterday, I made another batch of salsa and today, I picked some blackberries (which are really at the end, they are shriveling before they fully ripen in many cases).

I'm not a high energy person and can border on lazy (I really hate to admit that because I really have a passionate, gung ho side to myself as well)...but I work really hard at keeping myself busy and try to multi-task (not a word I'm fond of, it's too corporate) to be efficient. Oh yes, and I must not fail to mention that I am a mommy and that requires a lot of running about!

So, this afternoon, I made a big batch of brown rice because Jeff is going to use it for fried rice for dinner and I made Blackberry Slump in the Crock Pot again (by the way, I replaced a lot of the butter with olive oil and used whole wheat flour for half of the flour in the recipe) and timed them out perfectly so that I wasn't in the kitchen fussing over one thing.

Later, I did a dishwasher "change-out" and heated water for tea while unloading the dishwasher (while chatting with my sister on the phone) and loaded up the dishwasher while my tea brewed.

(Jeff was a doll and bought this huge tea cup for me while I was in Southern California in April...it's orange, my favorite color.)

I have realized that this timing of tea/dishwasher change-out works perfectly.

I also find myself reading blog posts while my pictures upload on my Etsy listings. And, if I decide to sit on the couch for a bit, I try to do something useful, like needlefelt, sew, or brainstorm ideas.

It's these little things that help me feel like I'm not wasting my life away. There are so many things that I want to do in life and that I want to learn...many of which cost too much money (I'd be a lifetime college student if given the chance). So, I do what I can with the resources I have and try to keep myself busy.

What do you do that is efficient? I want to learn more tricks!

Blackberry Slump

Well, I couldn't take it anymore, I decided last night that I needed to make something with all those blackberries I've been picking. I usually make a cobbler, but since I don't currently have an oven (there's no use in getting one until we tackle the kitchen), I was at a loss as to what to do...and I wanted something now! So, last night I recalled that there were some dessert recipes that came with our Crock Pot and I decided to go online and see what I could find.

After a bit of searching (many recipes called for cake mixes or eggs, neither of which I had in the house), I found this recipe for Apple Slump, I knew that it wouldn't have to cook as long because the blackberries cook really fast, so I adapted the recipe. Here's what it looked like:

The "dumplings" make the picture look a bit blurry, but you get the idea. It turned out pretty good! I would change a bit, but here's what I did (I'll mention what I'd change as well)....

I put about a double thick layer of blackberries on the bottom of the Crock Pot and sprinkled them with sugar. I then added a stick of butter (I sliced it and evenly distributed it). This was an idea I got from my friend Katie, whose mother makes a similar recipe for the oven.

I cooked the blackberry, sugar, butter portion on high until the butter melted and the berries were bubbling. While I was waiting for that to happen, I made the dumpling mixture (which was the same as the Apple Slump recipe, but doubled - I have a larger Crock Pot)

Mix: 2 c. all-purpose flour, 1 tbs. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, 4 tsp. butter, 1 c. milk

I then dropped blobs of dumpling mix on the blackberries and cooked for 45 minutes with the lid on (still on high).

The blackberry portion was great, but the dumplings were a little salty (I'd cut the salt in half) and needed some sugar. I think my friend Katie's mother's recipe would be better as it has sugar in the topping. I'll ask her for the recipe and see if she minds my sharing it. I must say that I usually cut the sugar in baking recipes by 1/3 - 1/2, but Jeff liked this blackberry concoction perfectly well, so who knows!

Happy Monday!

Oh yes, I've been working on more "for your Wall" pieces and they should be in the shop soon!