What I've been doing...

Since I've been gone I've been up to a few things.

* Konad and Shany Nail Art Stamping. I used to do my nails all the time, but got out of it for a few years. Now with this fun system I can't wait to try new ideas and patterns.



* Cooking. In fact, I tried out making a rainbow cake. But it didn't turn out all that well. I think since I made it from scratch and I over stirred. But check out these awesome cupcakes.



* Working with the Wee One and the potty. Yep, she's all interested in it. Which is great since then we can stop buying diapers. But I don't think she's going to master it anytime soon. No rush.

* Taking a bit of an internet fast. Just trying to cut down on how much I'm online. It was getting a little out of hand.

* Working on my spiritual path. It's wonderful to be able to finally focus on that part of my life.

What are you all up to?

Soft Gingerbread Cookies

This is by far the best gingerbread cookie recipe I've found. I found it on some recipe site a few years ago. It's my staple for the Holiday Cookie swaps. And so far most everyone likes it! Feel free to share.

2 1/4 c flour
2 tsp. ginger
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c margarine/non salted butter softened
1 c. sugar
1 tbs water
1/4 c. molasses
2 tbs sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tbs sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

The recipie says it makes 2 dozen. But I can stretch it to 3.

Enjoy

Great Ideas on a Small Budget

I've been trying to make more and more things at home instead of buying.

Examples:

1)I made bread and cookies with my awesome Sis-in-Law a few weeks ago. Man, nothing like fresh bread. In fact, I don't remember bread being eaten so fast in my house before.2)I'm making some potions/waters rather than spending a butt-load of money for it. (Butt-load, such a strange turn of phrase.)

3)I made a quick batch of Arnica Salve for my aforementioned Sis-in-Law who unfortunately twisted her ankle really bad while helping a drunk friend.

Arnica Salve
Dried Arnica flowersOil (I've used Olive and Avocado before. The main thing is you want something good for the skin. No canola or vegetable oil here.)

Essential oil for scent. I used a little lemon essential oil this time, though I've also used lavender too. Whatever works and seems as though it'd help.1) Place Arnica flowers in a small crock pot or pan. (I have a "Little Dipper" crock pot that I always use just for potions/salves/etc.2) Steep the Arnica flowers in just enough oil to cover. You can steep for as long as you want, but the minimum should be at least two hours.

3) Strain flowers out of oil.

4) Pour oil back into pot. Add essential oil (if necessary) and beeswax.I've found that 2 parts oil to 1 part wax works well. But it depends on how smooshy/oily/hard you want your salve.

5) After wax melts, you can pour into a heat safe container. I find that 4oz glass jars work really well.



And this is another quick and easy tip that I plan on stealing.

The Element Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells: The Ultimate Reference Book for the Magical Arts

A few years ago I bought this book Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells and boy let me tell you it's got an insane amount of great information in it. If you ever wanted to know how to make Holy Water, Dove's Blood Ink, Goofer Dust, Graveyard Dirt, etc. All the recipes are in here. Plus there's all sorts of spells on pretty much anything you can imagine.Excerpt Spell:

Five Eye Spell - (Banish the evil eye)
Five pairs of glass beads, each pair in a different distinct color, are required for this amulet. Dizzying colors dazzle the Evil Eye.

1. String the beads in a double row.
2. Arange them in a circle.
3. Post or wear.

A lot are this simple, some require odd ingredients and yet others are more complex.


The weird thing is, when I bought the book you couldn't get it through the US version of Amazon. Apparently there was some issue. You can still buy it from random sellers. But it's now been reprinted. And the Reprint of Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells is available through Amazon. It was reprinted in March 2009 and since I haven't seen an actual copy I don't know if there have been any additions/deletions or corrections, but I'm sure it's just as handy to have in your collection.

Hummingbird Cake from The Girl Who Chased the Moon

Some of you might know this, some might not. But Sarah Addison Allen has written three books. All of her books contain magic and food. Sometimes together.

Anywho, my Sister-in-Law and I made one of the cakes that she mentioned in her new book The Girl Who Chased the Moon for Easter Sunday.

Hummingbird Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple, well drained
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups chopped firm ripe banana

Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon together. Add eggs and oil to the dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until ingredients are moistened. Stir in vanilla, pineapple and pecans. Stir in the bananas last. Spoon the batter into three greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in 350 degree oven, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting with cream cheese frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

1 pound cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a standing mixer, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed until ingredients combine. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix.

Alternatives

We changed a few things in the recipe. Instead of:

• 2 cups of Sugar in the batter. We used 1.5 cups of Agave Nectar. (Even though Agave is a low glycemic index sugar we used it more for personal preference.
  
• 1 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil. We used 1 1/4 cup Applesauce (I just had an issue with that much oil.)
  
• 4 cups of powdered sugar for the frosting. We cut it and did 3 cups powdered sugar to 1 cup powdered milk. (This was to cut the sweetness of the frosting.)
  

I really liked the cake! It was very, very good. I was a bit surprised that it's a three layer cake. And it was really dense. Or maybe our version was since we swapped out ingredients. If anyone else makes it, I'd love to hear if your's was dense or not.

I unfortunately was out of it when we were making this and forgot to take a completed pic. But it was very pretty and very tasty!

Here's a little Easter Egg for all of you for my Giveaway. If you have any great ideas for recipe alternatives. Like the ones I mentioned above, you'll get an extra entry in my giveaway for each that you post here.

Lazy Sunday Movie: Julie and Julia & Boeuf Bourguignon

I saw this movie over my Christmas vacation. I loved it and was really intrigued with the idea of cooking your way through the Art of French Cooking. Of course, I have no plans to do such a thing, but since my mother and I made Boeuf Bourguignon last night. I felt it was only fair to post this movie as my Lazy Sunday Movie of the week.

Julie and Julia is a movie that follows the lives of two women. Surprisingly enough named Julie and Julia. Julia Child's life is discussed, how she lives in Paris, how she became a cook, how she wrote a cookbook about French cooking in English before anyone else. It also discusses her relationship with her husband and family.

The other story line is about Julie Powell. She's a writer, but hates her day job and is trying to find a hobby. So she decides to write a blog about her decision to cook her way through Julia Child's Art of French Cooking.

So now, here's a faux pic of what our Boeuf Bourguignon looked like. Faux because we didn't have a decent camera to take a pic of our wonderful meal!

Potato, Bacon and Gruyere Torte

A week or so ago I made this torte twice since it was sooooooo yummy. Twice in one week. Of course, once was for my sis-in-law, bro-in-law and their kids. All in all very easy to make and very yummy to eat!

I got this recipe from Melissa d'Arabian's 10 Dollar Dinners show on Food Network. I semi-homemade it a bit by using store bought pie crust and microwave bacon. Really cuts the prep-time in half.

Ingredients

• 4 strips bacon
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
  
• 2 Pie Crusts, recipe follows
• 3 medium baking potatoes, peeled
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese
• 1 egg yolk, whisked with a splash of water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until just crispy. Drain on paper towel lined plate and set aside. Crumble the bacon when cool to the touch.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat the thyme and cream over low heat to a bare simmer. Turn off the heat and let steep for about 5 minutes. Remove the thyme sprigs.

Remove the pie pan from the refrigerator. Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise and then finely slice the potatoes. Working in circles, arrange the potato slices in the pie crust, stopping to season each layer with salt, pepper, and about 1/4 of the crumbled bacon. Continue layering until the pie pan is nearly full. Top with an even layer of the cheese and gently pour cream around and over the entire pie, allowing it to seep down between the potato slices. (You may not use all the cream.)

Roll out the remaining disk of refrigerated dough. Cover the pie with the dough and crimp the edges closed. Brush the top and edges of the crust with egg wash. Make a few slits in the center of the top crust, for the steam to escape, and put the pie pan on a baking sheet.

Bake the torte until the crust is browned and crispy and the potatoes are cooked through, about 50 to 60 minutes. If the crust edges get too brown, cover them with some strips of aluminum foil.

Remove the pie from the oven and let rest at least 15 minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.

Pie Crust:

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), cubed and chilled
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 to 10 tablespoons ice water

Put the butter, flour, and salt in the food processor, and pulse lightly just until the mixture resembles wet sand. Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing briefly after each spoonful of water. Keep adding water until the dough just begins to gather into larger clumps. Transfer equal amounts of the dough into 2 resealable plastic bags and pat each into a disk. Let rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Remove 1 of the disks from the bag to a flour coated surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a 10-inch round. Gently fit the rolled dough into a 9-inch pie pan, and refrigerate while you prepare the torte ingredients.

Yield: 2 (9-inch) pie crusts

Cranberry Orange Vodka

A big hearty hello to everyone from Domestic Witch's Home 'Crafted Holidays.

I got this recipe from the Food Network a few years ago. I've gotten rave reviews with this little beauty and it doesn't take much time at all.



Ingredients
1 pound fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, or 1 vanilla bean, split
2 oranges, peels cut into 2-inch strips
1 (750-ml) bottle vodka

To serve:
1 bottle tonic water
Lime slices, for garnish

Directions
Place cranberries, sugar and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Place pan over medium heat and stir. Simmer cranberry mixture until the berries burst, about 5 to 6 minutes.



Place orange peels in a large glass container with an airtight lid, or large mason jars with lids. Pour vodka over the orange peels.



Allow the cranberry mixture to cool. Pour the cooled mixture into the glass container(s). Cover tightly and set aside for 1 week. After 1 week, strain out the cranberries sand orange peels and pour mixture into a clean bottle, using a funnel. Store vodka in the refrigerator.



Everything turns out all ruby red, and very festive for the holidays.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup...well Semi-Homemade

I finally got around to making my Great-grandmother's Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. Only I did it a bit semi-homemade. I didn't boil my own chicken or make my own chicken broth. I used one of those rotisserie chickens from Kroger.

Great-grandma's Chicken Noodle Soup
Meat of 1 boiled chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken)
12 cups. chicken broth
4 large carrots sliced
4 large stalks celery sliced
1 large onion diced

Sliced Noodles

Homemade noodles - 3 eggs + 1 1/2 tsp. salt. add enough flour to make into dough.

Roll out dough on floured countertop. Roll to 1/8" thickness. Cut into 4" long sections. Roll sections up into long rolls. Slice noodles into 1/4" noodles. Unroll. Add to boiling broth separately or you will get a lump of dough.



Wait for 10 minutes or so for the noodles to cook. Serve. Makes 8 servings.



This would be really yummy with a beer and a roll.

Butternut Squash Soup

This afternoon I felt like having Butternut Squash soup for dinner. But I didn't want the pre-made stuff. I wanted homemade soup for dinner.

I found a great recipe on Food Network's site.

Butternut Squash Soup
1 butternut squash, peeled
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, chopped
6 cups chicken stock
Nutmeg, Salt and Pepper

Here's the blow by blow.

First peal the squash. Then cut and cube it.

Add butter and onion in pot. Cook until translucent. *About 8 minutes. Be careful not to burn them like I almost did. Those things turn quick! A helpful tip...don't cube your squash while cooking the onions.



Then add cubed squash and chicken broth to the onions in the pot. Simmer until squash is soft. Transfer the squash to the food processor to puree. Use a slotted spoon. Add squash back to pot, stir. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. Serve.



I served mine with an Ichabod beer. Very yummy fall beer. In fact, this is my favorite beer of all time!

This recipe was perfect. I'll be repeating this one in the future.

Healthy Baby Food on a Budget

Back when I was a baby my mom made all my baby food. Whatever my parents ate, they threw in a blender and I ate it. I've heard that my favorite puree was liver and onions. I think I'd throw up if someone fed that to me today. Ugh! But nowadays you can't just take pizza and puree it. You have to integrate new foods separately in order to easily detect food allergies. Plus there's a progression of foods that you have to wait to give. Well the doc gave us the go ahead to give the little one a lot more foods. Fish, honey, peanut butter, strawberries and eggs are still out. But honestly, there's a ton of food she can eat in the meantime.

A friend of mine who made her own daughter's food gave me the best book ever!!! Top 100 Baby Purees It's a great guide to preparing baby food easily. Honestly, I haven't made a whole lot of items from the book yet, but it's a great resource.

Lily's favorite foods right now are avocados, beets, sweet potatoes, blueberries and plums. All made by yours truly. It makes me so happy to see how much she enjoys her food. And not only is it more flavorful and (to me) healthier, it's usually really cost effective. The hubs and I figure we have probably spent a fourth of what we'd have spent on pre-made baby food.

So for all you new moms or moms-to-be, keep this idea in mind. It takes no time at all to crack open a can of salt free sliced beets, dump them in a bowl and take the stick blender to them. One and a half servings for 72 cents.

Tuscan Pork Roast

Okay, this little beauty of a recipe is a comfort food of mine. My mom always made it when I was growing up and I tried my hand at it for the first time last weekend. Talk about a simple recipe.

Tuscan Pork Roast

3lb Pork Loin

Rub
3 cloves minced garlic
2 tbs. Olive Oil
1 tbs. Fennel (crushed)
1 tbs. Rosemary (crumbled)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Mix rub together and rub into meat. You can let it marinate for up to 8 hours in the fridge, but it's still great if you forgo the marinating time.

Cook at 350F until the center temperature is 170. (For a 4" diameter roast it takes about 2 hours.)

Cut into 1/2 slices. 1 roast will feed 4-6 people.

So yummy!!! (And for an extra yummy factor, I doubled the rub recipe so every bite had a ton of rub on it!!!)

I served it with salad, mashed potatoes and Cabernet Sauvignon. Perfect Sunday dinner.