Happy New Year!! 2011

Party like an animal.

Pesto Recipe

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups packed fresh basil
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup walnuts
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 cloves garlic, peeled

In a food processor or blender, combine all the ingredients; cover and process until blended. Cover and freeze for up to 3 months.

Pour a thin layer of olive oil over pesto before freezing to keep from turning brown.

Pesto...

Recipe to follow.....

Reason # 5827 that the oceans are polluted

Today I was walking on the beach and I found this....an engine. Yup an engine. And we wonder why the oceans are polluted.

Air plants

I found a few over sized shells on the side of a pond. Add a couple of air plants and a little bit of spanish moss and you have a cute little arrangement.

Sorry there hasn't been much to look at around here lately. Hopefully we will move soon and I will be able to start cooking again, and have my crafting supplies out. I promise soon there will be more projects and recipes.

Gardening....

It seems there may be a little hope that I will have one small kakai hull less pumpkin. Growing pumpkins in South Florida can prove to be very difficult. There are a slew of pests and problems with them. But maybe just maybe I will have one.

Fruit mix

We have still been eating lots of trail mix just nothing different or exciting. Here is something a bit different. We were in need of a little change.

Dried mangoes, strawberries, and blueberries mixed with raisins and dark chocolate chips.

And of course here is Toby always making things easier for me. Here's a little look at how I take some of my photos these days. We will get back to a real light box once we move and are no longer living out of boxes in one small room.

John D MacArthur Beach State Park

Recently we went to John D MacArthur Beach State Park, I spent most of my time there walking on the beach collecting shells and sea glass. I could pick shells and rocks for hours and hours. Here are a few of my favorites....

sea glass


shells

fossils

fossilized coral maybe?

shells

heart shaped rock

there were lots or rocks with holes

pieces of larger shells

I can't wait to be settled in our new house and be able to make these into something cool. I know that one of the rocks with a hole in it will become a necklace. We will see what happens with the rest.

I also want to go back to the beach and collect more, regardless of whether i have somewhere to put them or not.

Strawberry banana muffins

I had wanted to make blueberry muffins but blueberries were $6 a pint so strawberries it is.

Here is Toby waiting to make trouble when I turn my back.

Makes 16 muffins. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups mashed banana
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3 egg whites
1/4 cup soy milk
1 cup strawberries chopped


Mix together dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl mix together banana, vanilla, egg whites, and the egg. Combined 2 mixtures until smooth. Fold in strawberries. Scoop batter into lined muffin pans.

Bake 16 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Place on wire rack to cool.






These are very dense muffins and not very sweet at all. Perfect for breakfast.

Garden update

Today I moved all my seeds that had sprouted into bigger pots. I got these small pots from work, they were left over from an Earth Day planting workshop. Some really needed it and others could have waited. I have a tray of extra seeds mostly cherry tomatoes and basil, but I might need more than five of each of those. I also emptied all the dirt out of the paper pots that didn't grow.
If you can't read the labels click here.

The pumpkins have gone crazy. I am sure that I don't need 10 of them.

Earth day

Yesterday was Earth day, I hope everyone is doing there part. We do ours in a lot of ways, we grow our own veggies, buy local when we can, we use lunch boxes, reusable grocery bags, recycle. We also use klean kanteens for drinks on the go.

image

Check out the web site they have a bunch of different sizes and colors they even have different drinking tops. I want them all. This one is a special limited edition, I think it is pretty cool and $8 from each bottle goes to help support The Plastiki's voyage and her foundation's education mission. Go here to read about the voyage.

I hope you had a green earth day and are doing your part everyday. Every little bit helps. I sure this guy would appreciate it.

It's starting.....

Even though we are only engaged and have not picked a venue, date, attendants etc. I know that i want my bouquet to look something like this found here. It is made of drawer knobs from Anthropologie.

image source

And since I just started working at Anthropologie part time, and they just happened to be having employee appreciation this weekend. I bought these.

Erica's will look something like the one above and mine will have the knobs below.

This is the begining of my do-it yourself wedding. What do you think?

Growing

They have started to grow. Hopefully they will all sprout, including the entire tray of tomatoes, peppers and snap peas I accidentally dumped on the ground.

Easter projects

Tomorrow is Easter, here are a few cute things you can make.

Fold your napkins into bunnies, you can find step by step instructions here.

Can you tell its a bunny?

Or you can make these really cute bunny finger puppets over at The Purl Bee.

There is a complete tutorial over there with printable pattern too.

I made these three guys out of some scrap wool felt I had around. They have button eyes and felt ball tails. I think they turned out well and would make a nice stuffer for an Easter basket or even a decoration.

Here they are in the wild.

I started my seeds...

I made plant markers from wooden spoons.

I also got all my seeds from Erica. You can read about how we are sharing seeds here.

She sent me, green towers lettuce, california wonder pepper, sugar ann snap pea, cherokee purple tomato, kakai hullless pumpkin, and matt's wild cherry tomato.

There is my helper Cali.

Notice the two lizards on the wall.

The set up is a bit ghetto, but it will do until we move and get settled in our own home.

Grow little seeds.