Morning Applesauce Bread

I wanted to share this bread I made earlier in the week.  A friend passed along a recipe for peach puree bread.  My first question was how about using applesauce.  I still have some in the freezer from the fall. I took a look at the recipe and finageled my version.

Applesauce Bread

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup dairy free margarine

Baking powder mixture: 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 3 tablespoons water and 2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

2 cups applesauce

Preheat oven 350 degrees.  Grease 2 5x9 inch loaf pans.  In bowl cream together margarine and sugar.  Then add baking powder mixture and vanilla.  Next add the dry ingredients.  Stir till thick and smooth then stir in applesauce.  Pour into greased loaf pans and bake for 50 minutes or when a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.  Cool for a few minutes in pan then take out of pan to cool completely. Great with orange juice or a cup of coffee :)

Note: I was thinking of trying this with fruit sauce I have in the freezer for next time.  Even with the substitutions it cooked evenly.  Enjoy!

Yarn Along

Joining in on Ginny's yarn along.  Not much going on with yarn lately just unravelling the grey one.  But there has been plenty going on with books.  Started Jodi Piccoult's new book that came out yesterday.

 These were my thrifty finds yesterday for less than $5.  My favorite is the vintage book The Magic Friend Maker.  At least I think it's vintage because it's from 1966 and in good condition.  The story is so sweet.

This last book I may have mentioned on Monday but we really like it around here and it was worth mentioning again. 

Can't wait to see what your reading and making :)

What's for lunch today...

There has been some coughing, a few sore throats and 1 fever lately so yesterday I thought to make a potato and leek soup for lunch today and tomorrow.  I made it last night while making dinner and then instead of dessert I had a small bowl. It was yummy and perfect for colds and these last winter days.  Here's my version that I made up.

Potato and Leek Soup

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

4 large potatoes peeled and diced

2 large carrots or 6 small ones chopped

2 garlic chopped

2 leeks diced

32 oz of  vegetable or chicken broth

1/2 cup collard greens (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

In a pot heat olive oil then add leeks cook till almost tender then add garlic.  Stir and make sure they don't brown. When leeks are tender add the rest of the ingredients.  Bring to a boil then let it simmer for 20-25 minute till all vegetables are tender.

A note about this recipe if you forget the salt and pepper it's ok it still tastes good.  I added collard greens because I had some in the freezer and thought the soup needed some more color.  Enjoy!

Furiture painting gone wrong

Today's post is a follow up to Friday's moment of furinture stripping.  Remember this piece of furniture.  Well a friend mailed the last 4 knobs  I needed.  So I put them on took a picture (I apologized for the glare) and started putting all the linens away.  Looks good so far right?

 While opening and closing drawers a piece of paint chipped off.  A friend recommended "glue it back on and touch it up with a little paint".  Good idea but I was wondering why I could see the wood work.  Three layers of paint a coat of primer come off. 

 So I opened the cabinet I knew there was another piece of  paint that was chipped in there and thought what would happened if I kind of peeled it would it come off?   The answer is YES!  So began the peeling of paint by hand.

 Someone found it more fun to do some paint carvings instead...

 Can you hear my head just thumping the table.  Bad bad furniture painting.  Most of the paint peeled like a latex raincoat.  Here's a pile. 

 As of right now this is the progress I'm making.  I have quite a bit peeled away something to do late at night or while dinner cooks. 

Other random stuff::

• I probably won't have any Monday links for a while.  I'm actually trying to follow up on my own links and make some things.
• Way behind on posting at 5 Good Reasons and checking everyone's blogs.  I'll try to be back soon.
• I'm almost done unravelling a throw that I was working on that was way too wide.  On the bright side I really like the yarn and when I do it right it will look great on my bed.
• Bought a new organic shampoo at Trader Joe's. A little treat to me.
• Found this book Knitting America.  Treat for the kids and grown ups about knitting and histrory.
• Found some really cute art work for the walls for the kids.  Hope to hang those today.
• Best of all I have been an organizing maniac.  The kid's play room/library is looking better.

Now off to a rainy and hopefully productive Monday.

Friday Moment-Peeling Furniture

We are all peeling paint this weekend. 

Yarn Along

Joining in today on Ginny's Yarn Along.  My favorite part about Wednesday is the yarn along with my coffee.  I have had a bit of crochet ADD lately.  See this throw that I have been working and can't get done well I'm unravelling it.  It's way too wide for my bed.  A big oops and waste of time. Hate when that happens.  Love the yarn in a double crochet so I will start this over with the right measurement. The yellow yarn was for more kitchen cloths but I'm unravelling it too.  I now have my eye on this cuff.  It is so cute I think I need two. 

 Ok those were the incompletes and here is the yummy crochetting.

I love love this book.  My personal goal this week is to crochet food each day.  I'm starting with fruits and veggies broccoli, celery and watermelon.  I really should have gone right to the cakes :)

I heart bookstores

One of my favorite places to go growing up was going to the library.  There were so many books even though I didn't learn to read till I was past 7 years old and didn't enjoy reading till I was 9 years old.  Yes I was a late reader.  I'm sure even then there was concern about that and I remeber going to get extra help outside the classrom.  I can actually remember the first day I learned to read my second grade teacher was so happy she picked me up and kissed me.  I was sooo embarrassed!  Any way what was the big deal I finally understood all the words on the papers and books they kept giving me.  I sweated a lot till I learned to read.  After all that sweating I didn't have any desire to read it was too much hard work to get there.  I was about 9 years old when I fell in love with reading.

As I got older I loved hanging out at the library to do homework, read and work on all those research papers right through college.  After college I probably spent less time at the library till I had kids and then I started spending more time at the library and at bookstores.  Love smelling all those books and knowledge.  Bookstores are another one of my favorite hang outs whether alone, with a friend or  my kids it's definitely one of my happy places outside the home. I hope to share the love for books and knowledge with my kids. 

Now that you know a little more about me I can honestly tell you I love books new or thrifted adult and children there so much to learn right along with my family.  So you can imagine my resistence against those handy gadgets where you can download books.  Really one more gadget?  I spend enough time emailing and blogging and I consider reading a book an enjoyment. It's a pity when I hear about book stores that are going under like Border's and when I read articles about local book store owners struggling to stay open. 
This weekend I got this email from one of my local bookstores Newtonville Books:

NEWTONVILLE BOOKS SEEKS 500 MEMBERS

"These days customers seem to have the book business on their minds, from Borders's recent bankruptcy filing to the rise of e-books. Some patrons expect us to be gleeful about the quagmire Borders finds themselves in, but the truth is the world needs more bookstores, not fewer, and box stores employ book lovers, too, so there is no upside for Newtonville Books in terms of Borders and their woes. And the e-book market continues to define itself--electronic books currently comprise 9% of all books sold. Not really a significant number...yet. (More people have read HARRY POTTER as a hardcover than own an e-reader at this point, to put it in perspective.)"


"More troubling than Borders, which will likely emerge from bankruptcy to sell books again, or books you can't hold between two covers, is the rate at which independent bookstores are closing across the country. Shelf Awareness, a daily email newsletter for the bookselling trade, is filled with news of neighborhood bookstores shuttering in towns large and small. The white elephant in the conversation is Amazon, but Amazon isn't really the point. Yes, if Amazon's local customers would buy every third book at Newtonville Books, your neighborhood bookstore would be thriving beyond wildest expectations. But the heart of the matter, really, is whether or not our community values a local, independent bookstore like Newtonville Books. From the moment my husband and I rescued the bookstore from closing in 2007 (and steered it through the worst economy since the Great Depression), we've endeavored to make Newtonville Books a cultural center for the neighborhood, introducing book clubs, Grub Street workshops, and our own writing workshops, as well as continuing the First Editions Club and the award-winning reading series established by the previous owner, which brings nationally-recognized authors to the community. This is the sort of literary programming Borders, Barnes and Noble, Costco, Target and Amazon don't provide in exchange for their deeply discounted books. If you haven't shopped with us recently, I urge you to visit www.newtonvillebooks.com and see what we're up to."

This email definitley stuck with me over the weekend.  I shop all over when it comes to books thrift stores, big chain, local and the whole sale club.  My favorites are the thrift stores and local book stores because they have a certain charm.  With all this in mind I have been trying to link my books to Indie Bound and try to remember to shop local and hope that you'll try to do the same to keep the book stores going. 

On another note if you are near Newton, MA this Thursday  7:00 pm Alice Hoffman will be in at Newtonville Books. 

Sunday morning muffin

 Lately  I have been in the mood for something warm and sweet. Last night I made a tasty lemon bread but as you can see it's crumbly. I made orange muffins but they were a little bland so I tried them again this morning still didn't taste the orange but they were moist and not too sweet.

Sunday Morning Orange Muffins

1/2 cup dairy free margarine

1 cup sugar

In a cup mix 3 tablespoons water, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil and 2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup soy milk mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/4 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease muffin tray.  In mixing bowl cream dairy free margarine, sugar and baking powder mixture.  Mix in dry ingredients.  Then stir in soymilk mixture.  Mix batter till smooth and then add orange juice.  Fill muffin tins 2/3 cup full with the batter.  Bake for 22-25 minutes.  Remove from muffin tray and cool slightly. 

Note:  I made this dairy and egg free so the baking powder mixture is for 2 eggs and the soy milk mixed with cider vinegar is for 1 cup of buttermilk.

Enjoy on those Sunday mornings with a cup of coffee or orange juice :)

Friday Moment-some outside time :)

Yarn Along...

Joining along in this week in Ginny's yarn along.  I had to to abandon the novel I was supposed to be reading and now I have these two books I got for Valentine's Day that I'm eyeing.   I'm leaning towards Organizing from the Inside Out because my library/office is an utter disaster. A friend recommended this book and I thought it's much needed right now while I'm in the mode of collecting receipts, filing and other administrative duties. 
I'm still working on the same hat.  It's been a good process project.  I was doing well but then had to unravel half of it because I made a consistent mistake which made the hat too tight.  Ooops.  Now that I know what I'm doing this hat is pretty easy and I think I can actually say I might be an experienced crochetter who can read a pattern :D   So since I have the same hat here for the past few weeks I thought I'd share how to make the popcorn stitch this week. 

 Crochet as usual and when you get to a stitch where you want to make a popcorn do 5 single crochet into the same stitch..

 It will then look like a fan like this.

 Take out your hook and put it through the first single crochet in this group of 5 single crochet.

 While the hook is in the first single crochet insert the hook back into to the loop.

 Yarn over hook and pull through both.

 The popcorn is complete and just continue crochetting along the row.

 As your project grows the popcorns will stick out. 

 On top of  popcorn there is only 1 stitch, so when you are on next row all the stitches are the same.

Random::
I wanted to thank everyone lately for leaving such nice and encouraging comments on my blog.  I just wanted give a blog hug.  I haven't been able to visit everyone's blogs (I'll be over on Thursday or Friday to visit) or follow up on comments lately just been taking care of stuff around the house so I won't bore you with that and too tired at night to be on the computer. Just wanted to say I really appreciate your comments and visits. Hope you keep coming by :)