Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Vanilla sugar with a hint of Lavender
Ingredients
2 cups sugar
3-4 vanilla beans, sliced and cut up
And beans and sugar into a container with a tight lid. Shake each day, the more you shake the more the beans will come loose. I left it for about a month in the container, then just ran it through the grinder to grind the rest of the beans up. Use in coffee, or make into sugar scrub. Add a few pieces of lavender mmm they go well together! Yummy :) putting it through the grinder will make it more powdery like berry sugar. You can also make other scented sugars this way with things like citrus.
2 cups sugar
3-4 vanilla beans, sliced and cut up
And beans and sugar into a container with a tight lid. Shake each day, the more you shake the more the beans will come loose. I left it for about a month in the container, then just ran it through the grinder to grind the rest of the beans up. Use in coffee, or make into sugar scrub. Add a few pieces of lavender mmm they go well together! Yummy :) putting it through the grinder will make it more powdery like berry sugar. You can also make other scented sugars this way with things like citrus.
Lavender Infused Oil
Ingredients
2-3 cups lavender
4 cups olive, or almond oil
Pot of hot water
Put bruised lavender flowers in the jar, and pour the oil over it to cover. (may be more or less than above) place the jar in the water in the pot and heat up to hot but not boiling. Let sit in bath for about 6 hours. Turn off heat and let the jar cool. Strain lavender out of the oil with cheese cloth.
You can use this for cooking or skin product!
2-3 cups lavender
4 cups olive, or almond oil
Pot of hot water
Put bruised lavender flowers in the jar, and pour the oil over it to cover. (may be more or less than above) place the jar in the water in the pot and heat up to hot but not boiling. Let sit in bath for about 6 hours. Turn off heat and let the jar cool. Strain lavender out of the oil with cheese cloth.
You can use this for cooking or skin product!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Chickpea Chili and Homemade garlic toast (baked garlic bulbs)
Well, I've had my surgery and it's been a week and a half. I'm getting extremely bored but still pretty tender so have been finding short, easy things to do. I can't stay out of the kitchen, so what I can do is attempt to make one pot dishes of delicious food for the family! It's still pretty cold here, so why not make some chili!
You can add any type of meat you want if you just can't do without it.
You will need:
1 can chickpeas
1 can kidney beans
1 can corn niblets
1 can diced tomatoes (I used the accents type for this dish)
chili (I used those yummy chipolte chilis again, but only half a can, full can is too spicy for the kids)
Spices to taste - salt, pepper, organic spice mix
teaspoon olive oil
garlic
Optional: cooked hamburger, chicken or turkey
Directions
Warm up oil in frying pan, add garlic and brown
add can of chickpeas, mash slightly with a fork (this gives it the meaty texture)
add can of kidney beans and corn, simmer for a few minutes while you chop up the chilis
add chili and tomatoes, and your spices
simmer on medium low heat stirring occasionally to blend all the flavours
If you like tomato paste you can add that as an extra thickener, I like mine a little bit juicy though. We serve with garlic bread
To make Roasted garlic: slice top of whole garlic bulb so that the tips are showing, pour on a little olive oil, pinch of salt, pinch of black pepper and bake in the oven wrapped in tin foil at 350 for about an hour, cool, then squish out the garlic into a bowl. Use on bread or add to any of your dishes. To make garlic butter mix it in a dish together until well blended. If you have a lot of bulbs to use up you can store in the freezer until you need the roasted garlic again. Don't leave wrapped in foil!
Garlic Toast
Nice cut off bread, we have Cobs which we like getting our bread from. They have a flax type which is really good. You can use any you like, and can get french loaves for fairly cheap at your local bakery
Roasted garlic butter
Dill to taste
Butter your bread with the garlic butter, sprinkle on dill and bake in the oven until butter is melted and toast is golden at 350
Serve with a nice side salad of baby greens and you've got yourself a vitamin packed meal!
Friday, December 23, 2011
Brownies in a Jar
Are you unorganized and last minute gifter like I am? Usually we are a little bit more ahead then this, but not this year. Being crippled this year has made things a little bit harder then usual, and now that DH is home from Halifax (military stuff) things have been a little easier to get done! If you have jars kicking around like we do from spaghetti sauce or canning, you can use them for projects! We use mason jars from sauces as glasses. Having two boys in and out and bouncing about, our dishes take a beating!
This project is easy to make, looks lovely when it's done, and tastes so good. If of course you love chocolate.. The lids took the longest, you can decorate however you like. I used some canvas glued on, and then wrapped wired ribbon after the glue had dried and fabric trimmed. We don't have a printer yet, which we are going to look at today for labels and instructions. I hand wrote them out on some cut out heavy paper from a duotang holder. I'm sure there is nice paper around here somewhere, but once again, no idea with kids around! They have many projects !! Attached to the label I had some "Made for you" charms which I tied on with twine (I make jewelry and other things so have charms from that.)
Ingredients you will need to make the layers. You can also write this on the card that will attach to the jar:
1 1/2 cups of brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (can substitute any nuts you like, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts etc)
1/2 cup chocolate chips, chunks, or even white chocolate if you like
They will need 3 eggs lightly beaten and 1 cup of soft butter.
1. Preheat oven to 320 degrees. Line or lightly grease and flour a 7x11 baking tin. (Can use a 9x9 also)
2. Empty out jar contents into a bowl and mix together thoroughly
3. Mix in 3 lightly beaten eggs and 1cup softened butter
4. Spread onto baking tin and bake for 30-35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Layer the ingredients in the jars. Remember if they are going to bounce around a lot, the thin ingredients may slip through the bigger ones and sink. I put all the brown sugar on the top but it would have looked nice to separate the flour and the brown sugar and make two more layers. I'm too impatient though when there are too many jobs going on. Lots of Christmas baking today!
You can make your labels however you like. On a printer, or handwritten are both nice. We like giving handmade gifts instead of store bought items. It just feels like more this way.
Hope you get some free time to get to some crafts! Merry Christmas everyone!
This project is easy to make, looks lovely when it's done, and tastes so good. If of course you love chocolate.. The lids took the longest, you can decorate however you like. I used some canvas glued on, and then wrapped wired ribbon after the glue had dried and fabric trimmed. We don't have a printer yet, which we are going to look at today for labels and instructions. I hand wrote them out on some cut out heavy paper from a duotang holder. I'm sure there is nice paper around here somewhere, but once again, no idea with kids around! They have many projects !! Attached to the label I had some "Made for you" charms which I tied on with twine (I make jewelry and other things so have charms from that.)
Ingredients you will need to make the layers. You can also write this on the card that will attach to the jar:
1 1/2 cups of brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (can substitute any nuts you like, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts etc)
1/2 cup chocolate chips, chunks, or even white chocolate if you like
They will need 3 eggs lightly beaten and 1 cup of soft butter.
1. Preheat oven to 320 degrees. Line or lightly grease and flour a 7x11 baking tin. (Can use a 9x9 also)
2. Empty out jar contents into a bowl and mix together thoroughly
3. Mix in 3 lightly beaten eggs and 1cup softened butter
4. Spread onto baking tin and bake for 30-35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Layer the ingredients in the jars. Remember if they are going to bounce around a lot, the thin ingredients may slip through the bigger ones and sink. I put all the brown sugar on the top but it would have looked nice to separate the flour and the brown sugar and make two more layers. I'm too impatient though when there are too many jobs going on. Lots of Christmas baking today!
You can make your labels however you like. On a printer, or handwritten are both nice. We like giving handmade gifts instead of store bought items. It just feels like more this way.
Hope you get some free time to get to some crafts! Merry Christmas everyone!
Guacamole
What goes better with Chipolte or any kind natchos then Guacamole? Homemade guacamole!!
Ingredients
2-3 ripe avocados
garlic (or garlic powder)
red pepper
jalepeno or other spicy pepper
salsa
lemon juice
Mash up avocado in a bowl until smooth, add diced garlic, diced peppers, 2-3 tablespoons of salsa (to taste) and lemon juice (stops it from turning brown) Let sit, covered in fridge for 2-3 hours so the flavours set. Can make up to a day ahead of time. Everything is to taste in this recipe. If you like spicy, then add more spicy peppers or spicy salsa. The red pepper is for colour and a little bit of zip, and the garlic is really what sets it to perfection.
You can use this as a dip for crackers, natchos, celery sticks or anything crunchy really, or add to sandwiches and bagels. Use your imagination :) It could also be added to sauces for pasta!
Ingredients
2-3 ripe avocados
garlic (or garlic powder)
red pepper
jalepeno or other spicy pepper
salsa
lemon juice
Mash up avocado in a bowl until smooth, add diced garlic, diced peppers, 2-3 tablespoons of salsa (to taste) and lemon juice (stops it from turning brown) Let sit, covered in fridge for 2-3 hours so the flavours set. Can make up to a day ahead of time. Everything is to taste in this recipe. If you like spicy, then add more spicy peppers or spicy salsa. The red pepper is for colour and a little bit of zip, and the garlic is really what sets it to perfection.
You can use this as a dip for crackers, natchos, celery sticks or anything crunchy really, or add to sandwiches and bagels. Use your imagination :) It could also be added to sauces for pasta!
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