Projects

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm hoping to get snow all weekend. I have a long stack of papers to get through....no, not grading or reading or cutting or pasting.....project ideas. Ideas out of cloth and ribbon and stuffing and googly eyes and color and zippers.

Along with projects of drizzle and almond and flours and pans and boxes and tissues.

And of course projects with paints and stamps and music and bobbles and writing things.

Maybe I should pray to be snowed in....

Oh dear.

Oh dear.

I just can't seem to help myself. I already have phone books bulging and things peeking out of stacked papers and piles.

But every time I walk, I see another beautiful one. Pink. Yellow. Burgendy. Brown. And I just can't help but lean down and scoop it up. Already this week I've had two passerby's stop, watch, and then smile as they see me walking home with twigs and pokes and color sticking everywhere out of my frozen fingers. My prizes. My joy. I beam as I walk home.

But now what to do with them?! I have to find some fall projects to use these with! I found a couple neat pictures of leafy wreaths, and some framed verse art, and some garlands.

But guess what is happening right now?

Yup. Snow.

All of a sudden, I'm ready to cut out snowflakes and sit down with hot chocolate and sewing projects! ha ha

Oh dear.

Food notes

Hmmm, here are some musings. In my quest for simpler meal preparation (I tend to over book my meal prep, so if I have some simple steps, that's good), I have checked out a large stack of "Make it ahead" type cookbooks. (AND, I read them all of course). I also have been browsing ideas online, of freezer meals and food tips and of course some yummy-looking-recipes-that-are-way-too-time-comsuming just for fun! :)

But back to my concise point, here are two things I've liked so far:
1) Freezing garlic. Remember all those 99cent bags of produce I keep looking for? Well, last week I found one full of growing garlic. So, instead of letting it go to waste in my fridge, I used my (handy-dandy) food processor and minced it all up. Then, I spooned it into my ice cube trays to freeze it in Tbl portions, ready to just pop out and use! (Needless to say, don't be asking for ice cubes at my house for a while!)

2) Mini muffins. This was a fun one. I made mini corn-meal muffins, bite size portions really, ready to just unthaw and serve with warm honey with a meal or as a snack. I'm not sure why, but I think the bite-size thing is a whole lot of fun, verses regular size muffins. Go figure?! But it works for me!

Here is an interesting give-a-way

I'm not usually that interested in give-a-ways....just seems like the chances are pretty low. But this one looked too interesting to pass up. And since my recent experiments with apple chips, I thought it would be worth a shot.

Give-a-way from Keeper of the home:

9 tray dehydrator

Check it out here, and comment there if you'd like to take your chances too! :)

Another fall project

Fall apples are in season (well, practically out of season now), and it was wonderful! This year, a couple friends has extra apples, so we got some. :) I decided to try something new, and make Apple Chips out of them.

Tada! A success! I think they are a quite delicious snack! Here is how I made them:

1. Borrow my mom's dehydrator
2. Wash, quarter and core about 7 apples
3. Use my handy-dandy food proceessor to zip through slicing them. (took about 3-5 minutes! ha!)
4. Lay them on the dehydrator racks and sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture over top
5. Dehydrate about 4 hours or overnight (depending on how many apple slices I fit in)
6. Store in an airtight bag and EAT!

I highly recommend this to any one who likes apples! :)

Amazing colors

In the 3 block walk between my house and work, I have seen an amazing selection of colors! All these pictures were taken on the same day! (I just wish it was sunnier, so they would turn out better) I think God has a pretty good eye for color :) Check it out....

Above we have lime green and yellow.

Or perhaps you prefer brown and key lime?

More color to your liking? Here we have orange and mustard.

Or orange and red.

We could go for more of a peach combination...

Or spotted.

A springlike effect perhaps?

Maybe it's time to look at something other than orange......pink hues more your tone?

Or maybe autum and burgendy?

Or even some of that bright color mixed in with maroon?

Maybe you prefer earthy tones...

Camoflauge.

A splash of yellow...

Or red, if you so desire.

Cool colors of wintergreen more soothing?

Or maybe a rich red and brown combination?

Maybe red was too much, we can just soften that same look here.

Perhaps solid colors are more to your liking.

Or solid, but brighter?

It just amazed me at the combinations I found this year. I don't know if it's because of the strange summer and fall weather we had, that we get bi and tri colored foliage, but I love it! hope you do too!

Food Blogs

Thanks to TipNut, I found a new list of food blogs and kitchen tips to drool over! Here are some of my new favorites below:

1. 45 timeless kitchen tips
2. Amanda's Cooking
3. Once a month cooking tips