Featured – Page 46

One week later, with some doubts.

February 23, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

Some of the seedlings are beginning to show their very first signs of life. Endive, basil, and tomatoes. The peppers and eggplant will take longer to germinate but will get caught up in their own time.

My latest order from Victory Seeds came in, and we now have a replenished supply of seeds for radishes, beets, and beans (still no idea where those damn seeds wandered off to, but I’m definitely keeping better track of this new batch). Last night the Mr and I went around to a few different stores in search of the perfect trash can to use for a compost bin and came home, instead, with more seeds. One of our local places now carries seeds from Seeds of Change, so I snatched up a pack of zucchini, a pack of watermelon, and a pack of roma tomatoes since I used the last of ours this year (and I’m not yet sure that they’re going to germinate).

All of this gardening business is exciting in the beginning. I dream of it all November and December. I rejoice when a seed catalog finds its way to my mailbox. I ooh and ahh over all the different options. I plant my little seeds, dreaming of the fabulous plants they’ll become and the delicious food we’ll eat.

I have my doubts, however, and fear this will wear off and exciting will become a dreaded chore. We’ve not had much luck the last few years, though every year we get a few more things right. Last year we had fantastic plans and were sure things would work out great, only to sabotage ourselves by not getting the trellises installed like we needed to. This year we have even more plans – layers of newspaper, cardboard, and straw to prevent weed invasion, actually getting trellises built/installed, milk jugs buried between plants for deep watering, etc – but I fear that it’ll just be another disappointing year. We don’t have a great track record with doing what we need to do despite our best intentions. I know each year is a fresh start and a chance to get things right, but I can’t help but feel like we might just fail again. And that’s frustrating.

With Cupcakes.

February 6, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

It seems I’m suffering from a bit of cabin fever lately. Those strawberries, though out of season, were on sale 3 pounds for $5, and it seemed like a perfect remedy for the winter blues. Dried strawberries are so good. I always wondered how anyone ever decided “strawberry” scented things actually smelled like strawberries, because they always smelled fake to me. Until I dried some strawberries and the whole downstairs smelled like fake strawberries. I have a quart canning jar full of them, now, and like to eat them plain.

Also, cupcakes. Two, to be exact. A while back I stumbled across this recipe for two cupcakes, and I finally gave it a shot. Since, as you might know, I’m not big on cake that lingers. That recipe? A+++++++ WOULD MAKE AGAIN. Except for the icing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good icing. But it’s a little darker than what I wanted so next time I’ll figure out some other icing. But the cake? It was moist and delicious and easy peasy and, in case you missed it, it makes only two cupcakes. In one bowl. So you can easily whip them up and throw them in the oven while you’re making dinner and have dessert afterward.

I want to experiment with the recipe a bit and see how it bakes up in my little 4″ pans. I might have to double it, but I’m picturing a single layer 4″ chocolate cake to share with the husband for Valentine’s day instead of two cupcakes.

With Ripples

February 3, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

I finally feel like I’m getting somewhere with this project. I had intentions of knitting the garter portion with the entire first ball and starting on the edging with the second (and somewhat smaller) ball, but impatience won out. That and the fact that each row is very nearly 400 stitches and I couldn’t bear to keep increasing it further. The first ball is very nearly through, however, so a few extra rows of edging won’t matter much.

I have a feeling that this will end up being a lot smaller than I hoped, and end up more scarf-like than shawl-like.

Winter Cables

January 29, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

I’m trying to be fairly ‘project monogamous’ and work one project at a time so I don’t end up with a bazillion projects going on at once. But that Multnomah shawl is BORRRRING with its row after row after row of garter stitch, and I needed a break. I had two rules for my project: #1, it had to be a fairly quick knit, and #2, it had to be made with a yarn from my stash. Lucky for me, this fits both!

Banana Bread Roll-Ups

January 25, 2013 Marie 2 Comments

I’ve been having way too much fun with this dehydrator. The latest adventure: banana bread fruit roll-ups. Over the last couple of months I’ve been changing my eating habits and cutting out a LOT of the wheat products. Not entirely, of course, because seriously if I ever give up homemade bread and pastries someone shoot me. I’ve noticed a HUGE difference in how I feel on a day-to-day basis now that I’m eating a lot better. Basically what I’ve figured out is that by giving up sandwiches for salads, pasta for spaghetti squash, etc I can enjoy the breads and sweets a lot more when I do decide to eat them. I don’t take them for granted, I guess you could say.

With new eating habits come new recipe ideas. When one has ripe bananas on the kitchen counter the normal thing to do is make banana nut bread. Or, at least, that’s what I do with them. A few weeks ago I found Katie’s Peanut Butter Banana Leather and I knew I wanted to try a variation of it. What I ended up settling on was a 4-ingredient banana roll-up that reminds me so much of banana nut bread that it’s now my favorite snack.

Banana Bread Roll-Ups

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas
1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 tsp apple pie spice*
1/4 tsp rum extract

Directions:

Slice bananas and mash until as smooth as possible (or puree if you are fortunate enough to have a small food processor/immersion blender that isn’t a huge pain to dig out/use/clean up after). Mix in the 1/4-cup almond butter until well combined and mixture is smooth. Finally, blend in spice and extract.

Pour mixture onto leather trays in your dehydrator and try to get as even as possible. (I divided my batter between two trays for faster dry time/thinner roll-ups) Dehydrate at 135 degrees for several hours until your mix looks dark and shiny. You can do these in the oven on the lowest temp setting, just pour your batter on a bit of parchment or a Silpat mat and watch it closely because it should dry out faster.

* On the apple pie spice… A couple years ago I made up a big batch from a recipe I had found online, but of course I didn’t write it down anywhere. I think it was a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and maybe some clove? There are a lot of recipes in internet land if you look for them.