Friday Moment-Freezing Food

A New Old Nightstand

At last nightstand makeover.  This furniture painting project went much smoother than last time.  I have had this piece sitting in my basement for about a year.  A friend passed it along because of it's potential nigtstand or living room end table?  Looking at it was quite an eyesore but with a little tlc it's all new now.

 

I didn't have to do any sanding because it was in rough shape anyway.  There was a metal plate and a few holes that got plugged with wood filler.

Next was a couple coats of primer.

Then a couple of coats of white paint, a new knob, new lamp, a doily and a couple of jars of sea glass and tadaaaaa new night stand for the older girls room. 

Yarn Along Wednesday

This week for Ginny's yarn along I have just books no new knitting or crochetting.  I picked up my next book from my library The 19th Wife.  Looks juicy and interesting.  From the library The Knitting & Crochet Bible.  Each Tuesday when we pick up our csa veggies we stop by the pond to look at the frogs.  I finally came across this book on frogs  At the Pond by JoAnne Nelson in our home library to go with our Tuesday routine. 
Can't wait to see what everyone else is making & reading. 

Sweet Raspberry Oats

Lately I have been taking fruit inventory in the freezer and the last thing in there from last summer were the raspberries.  There was probably almost 2 cups so I went to one of the recipe binders and modified another recipe and came up with this

Sweet Rasperry Oat Bars

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup dairy free margarine

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a cup mix 1 1/2 Tbs. water, 1 1/2 Tbs. canola/vegetable oil and 1 tsp baking powder

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups oats, divided into 1 3/4 cups and 1/4 cup

1-2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 inch square baking dish or pan.

2. In a bowl mix sugar, dairy free margarine, vanilla and baking powder,water, oil mixture.  Mix till smooth and creamy.

3.  Add dry ingredients flours, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.  Mix till well combined then stir in 1 3/4 cups of oats. 

4.  Now take 2/3 of the batter and spread evenly in greased pan.  Then gently spread the raspberries. 

5.  In the bowl mix in the remaining 1/4 cup of oats.  Take the remaining batter and spoon over the raspberries.  This doesn't have to spread evenly just cover most of the raspberries.

6.  Bake for 30 minutes or till gold and crisp.  Cool and enjoy :)

Note on this recipe the baking powder mixture is to replace 1 egg and if allowed I think pecans would go great with this.

All Over This Kitchen

Lately I haven't been able to keep up on this blog about what has been going in the kitchen.  I have been snapping pictures as I go.
1. I have been freezing some peas and lots of pesto.

2.  Before the heatwave there was a lot going in and out of the oven.

One night for dinner I had a few small golden beets, a couple of turnips and carrots.  I put them all in a baking dish tossed with salt, olive oil and chopped fresh parsley.  Cooked them at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes till tender.  (I don't remember how long but as long they come out tender.)

Kale chips :)

Made pizza with some of the pesto.

Whenever we needed to cool off there was ice cream with chocolate hard shell.

More fresh foods from the csa.

These pole beans were good.  Here's how I made them but next time I think I'll use olive oil instead of a dairy free margarine.

Pole Beans with Green Onions

1 pound young pole green beans (wash, remove string and cut up into pieces)

1 bunch of green onions chopped

2  garlic cloves crushed or chopped really small

1 tablespoon dairy free margarine, butter or olive oil

Par boil beans in lightly salted water until tender you want them to still be crip and then drain.  What I did was bring a pot of salted water to a boil and then dropped the beans in and cooked  them for 5 minutes and then drained.  In a pan melt butter or margarine and then add garlic and onions cook till clear.  (If using oil just heat 1 tablespoon of oil.) Add beans to mixture and saute 2-3 minutes.  Serve and enjoy.

That night the beans went nicely with an orzo salad and another salad made of tomatoes, beets and celery leaves.

3.  I just showed you all this yummy stuff in my kitchen but not everything comes out so great.  So here I have these beet brownies.  With all the substitutions they didn't come out right. The brownies look good in this pan because they wouldn't come out. They were too hard to cut.  Eventually the whole thing popped right out and into the trash. 

So this is pretty much what has been going here.

Friday Moment-Uhmm dressed for summer??

I turned around the other day to see this :)

Yarn Along

This week for Ginny's yarn along I have no yarn just books The Confessions of Max Tivoli and InTheir Own Way both are good I needed a novel in between reading In Their Own Way which is a really good reasource. 

Friday Moment

Now this is my idea of summer school...

Yarn Along Part 2

Ok I know this morning I said that I didn't have anything new for books but this afternoon a friend sent me these and I thought well it's still Wednesday not too late to share a good read for the yarn along. 

Yarn Along Wednesday

Joining in the Small Things yarn along today.  I have new books to share today but I finally finished my hat from knitting class.

 I finished it this past Saturday at knitting class.  I'm actually going to miss it but hopefully a new one will start in August to work on a sweater for the fall. 

In between the hat and the throw I have been working on I started a rug.  The throw was too big to carry to the pool and we need a rug for the playroom.  I was inspired by this post to go to the hardware store and get some sisal cotton thin rope to start a rug.  I added in a few rows of cotton yarn to give it some color.
Have a great day!

Monday Links

It's been a while since I've done the Monday Links but lately I have collected quite a few blog posts that have been very inspiring and I wanted to share them:

• Ginny over at Small Things is collecting hats and other knits for Knit for Japan.  Finally got these scarves in the mail today.
• Came across this book and put it on my wish list
• Finally a recipe for chocolate hard shell ice cream topping.
• I can't believe this doily rope rug!
• Don't know which quilt I love more this or this one.
• Found a new use for the salad spinner.
• Enjoying this corn salad.
• Another soup for the crockpot this fall.
• Yummy chocolate bowls.
• A magazine for moms.

Phew glad I got all this off my chest.  Hope you enjoy the links.

The Furniture Fiasco is Over

Back in June I think I forgot to post this piece of furniture that I finally finished... again.  It's the bureau that turned out really great but then had to be stipped and it all went bad  from there.  Luckily things got better slowly. Sanded it all done really well and then painted with an oil based paint instead of latex.  Didn't love the oil based paint it makes me uneasy especially since I was painting in the dinning room.

 The results.... I"m happy and done.

 Love this bureau in black and a friend sent more of the letter "Y" knobs so now it's complete.

 I had some oops on the inside so instead of scraping and scratching I resorted to covering it up with contact paper. It's not a favorite thing I like to do but at least its pretty in there. 

What have I learned from all this:

• When the wood is too smooth sand it.
• Keep away away from the oil it's too stressful for me.
• A friend recommended when using oil based paints in between coats while it dries put the brushes in bag and keep in the freezer.  Then take them out an hour before you have to paint the next coat.
• Felt the doors and drawers so when they close they don't chip the paint.

Will I paint again?

Absolutely!  This soon to be nightstand is next on my list.

Friday Moment-Summer fun

Lately in the kitchen

It's been a slow week in the kitchen lately between summer fun, swimming, checking off my list of major projects and some crochetting and gardening.  But here is what did happen.

::  Spent time browsing The Big Book of  Preserving The Harvest.
::  Dried out herbs parsley, dill and cilantro.
::  Enjoyed from the garden lettuce and broccoli and more herbs.
::  Froze garlic scapes pesto.
::  Made smoothies and homemade popcicles.
::  Spent afternoons at the pool cooling off.
::  Collected more sea glass and pottery.

Today's smoothie

Cherry & Peach Shake

1 1/2 cups fresh cherries cut out the pit

1 peach washed, peeled and diced

1 1/2 cups soy milk

1 1/2 cups of ice

Put everything in the blender and blend till smooth about 45 seconds.

Favorite popcicle this week

Berry Popcicles

1/4 cup  blueberries

1 cup strawberries

1 peach or nectarine

1 cup of oranage juice

2 cups of ice cubes

Put everything in the blender and blend till smooth 1 minute.  Pour into popcicle molds and freeze. 

Enjoy your summer treats!

Beach Cake

It's been a hot summery week so why not make a beach cake to go along with the weather?  We had this cake on July 4th and for breakfast the next day.

 Where to begin with this cake?
1.  Prepare blue jello (3 oz box) using the speed set method.
2.  Prepare vanilla pudding according to package directions.
3.  Take 1 package of graham crackers and crush in food processor. Then set aside in a bowl.
4.  Bake a vanilla cake in a 9x12 rectangle pan and then cool.
5.  After the cake is cooled down cut out about a quarter of the cake.  Not straight across more like a wave.

 6.  The cake that was scooped out of the pan can go into glasses to create individual ones.

 7.  Next spread evenly vanilla pudding on to the cake and any left over pudding scoop into the glasses with the cake. 

 8.  Sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs.

 9.  Spoon in jello into cake pan after it's set and decorate with sea life candy.  I found some gummy sharks, fish, seahorses at a candy shop but I have also seen some small hard candy in these shapes.

Enjoy your dessert!