Tag : kitchen

80 posts

201707/10

T Tuesday: gardens and more edition

This week I thought I’d give you a look at how my gardens are doing followed up with some art.

FYI-photo heavy post

The deck box garden holds my yellow pear tomato plants each year to keep them from cross pollinating with the red regular sized varieties, This year I think I got a few seeds mixed up. I have some non-pear shaped tomatoes on a couple vines. Hmmm. Time will tell. I also have my Egyptian walking onions, radishes and jalapenos in there. Resting on the edge is a new to me shepherds hook. Mr. G is going to move one hook about 10 inches down for me when he digs out the welder.

The shed garden is going gangbusters after what seemed like a very slow start. I have tons of tomatoes on the vines. Even the bedraggled plants that came home from Biology class with J are doing fantastic.

The pumpkin and this tomato included. I really had no hope for either of these plants so I didn’t work very hard making a good home for them. Obviously they don’t care a bit.

The yellow summer squash and zucchini are getting large although the zucchini hasn’t produced anything yet.

The yellow ones are tasty though.

The first bit of bounty from the garden has arrived.

I am dealing with this pest though. Anyone know what it is and how to get rid of it without chemicals? I’ve been knocking them off and squishing them but the little munchers keep coming back for more.

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We changed things up a little this year and didn’t attend the local parade for the 4th of July. Instead we went to a party close to our old neighborhood. We figured out that we hadn’t been to their annual bash in 10yrs. I forgot my phone at home so no pictures from there.

We came back for the standard evening shenanigans on our block. J had 6-7 friends hanging out by the end of the evening. You wouldn’t believe how quickly 3 large pizzas can disappear.

We joined a neighbor in their front yard for the awesome view of the fireworks, What a fun night.

Of course, there was lots of overindulging of all sorts so my drink of choice the next morning was….

alka-seltzer.

I did take a bit of time for creating. I’m not sure how I feel about this page now that its dry. The colors of the stains were so fun and vibrant before they dried. Now the page is a little dull.

I went back and added these paper beads I made years ago to try and dress things up a bit. I love that they’ll hang outside the book begging someone to open it up to take a peek.

I’m planning to work on the landscape edging around a flower bed before it gets too hot. The humidity is what is so bad right now. UGH! I get very cranky in the heat. And don’t even talk to me about my hair.

What are you doing today?

Around home | Art | Blog | Creativity | Outdoors

art journal, gardening, kitchen, paper beads, T Tuesday

15 Comments

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201704/18

T Tuesday: this and that edition

Once again I have one of these posts that I’m all over the place both mentally and physically.

Tomorrow is our 23rd wedding anniversary. With it being mid-week, we are planning to do basically nothing until Saturday. Then we’ll be having sushi!

I thought this was clever. My neighbor gave me a few of these quite a while ago. Funny the things you find when digging out for a garage sale!

You wouldn’t believe the piles of stuff I have sitting around waiting to be priced and brought to the neighbors on Thursday morning!! Mr. G has a ton of stuff from the garage too. Hopefully the vast majority will sell…not really wanting that stuff to come back into the house. Garage sales are a lot of work but when doing it with others it can be fun and having the bonus of getting rid of stuff while making a little cash is a super bonus.

I transplanted my seedlings into larger containers yesterday.

They are doing so well. I also planted zucchini and summer squash in pots on the side of the garage. I’ve read that they can be grown in pots so might as well give it a try since my in-laws aren’t having a garden this year.

I snipped the end off my mint plant and put it in water a few days ago…look at the crazy roots it grew in such a short time.

If I get a chance I want to make a wreath for our new front door. I really shouldn’t be worrying about that right now since I still have to get it painted, I just need to do something crafty every so often or I get cranky.

Speaking of crafty….look at this dessert I made for Easter!

It was so decadent and sweet. Almost too rich and sweet if there was such a thing.

The rest of the week will be a whirlwind. Appointments, garage sale, anniversary and J heading to NYC on Saturday. It’s likely a really good thing that I am insanely busy until then because I think I’d be making myself sick with worry if not.

What are you doing today?

Blog

baking, gardening, kitchen, T Tuesday

14 Comments

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201701/02

T Tuesday: rum cake edition

This year for Christmas we changed things up a bit. In the past several years we’ve had a Christmas brunch and it worked out very well since the kiddos weren’t too great at waiting to open presents. In those days I think they would have preferred everyone spend the night and get up at 6am. Since they are older now, we decided moving back to a more traditional time for our family was best. That meant we’d need a dessert.

I decided to make a rum cake. I’d made this one before and it was so yummy. The recipe comes from a cookbook called Booze Cakes that I checked out from the library. The first time I made it I used a standard bundt pan in the classic bundt shape. This time I decided to get a little adventurous and use my fancy bundt pan since it looks a bit like Christmas trees.

As it was baking, I was realizing that the tree pan was smaller than the classic pan…I kept watching it in fear that it would run over as it baked. I was lucky…

Look how beautifully it came out of the pan! I took a lot of time preparing the pan in hopes that it would work. So cute!

Remember I mentioned this was from a cookbook called Booze Cakes…yeah…that bottle was full when I started and I wasn’t sampling. I don’t even like rum in drinks…but I sure do in cake!!!

Just before serving I dusted the entire cake with powdered sugar giving it the appearance of snow. I totally forgot to snap a photo though. You’ll just have to take my word for it. It was yummy and boozy.

The kids head back to school after winter break so I’ll be all by myself for a change…well I’ll still have Marvin to keep me company.

What are you doing today?

Around home | Blog | Kitchen

baking, Christmas, Holidays, kitchen, Marvin, rum cake, T Tuesday

16 Comments

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201612/12

T Tuesday: treat shop edition

I’m not really starting up a treat shop…it just feels like it. Every year I give plates of cookies and sweet treats to the neighbors but the list seems to be growing and therefore the amount of goodies is getting crazy! But still fun. I get to have a little of this and that without having to keep all of it around.

I’ve also made a double batch of spritz, pretzel hugs and Rolo pretzel turtles….unfortunately all the turtles have been eaten or maybe that’s fortunate since I couldn’t seem to leave them alone.

It’s super, duper cold here and will be all week so there is lots and lots of hot tea being consumed.

I just had to share this photo of Marvin….when I tell people he’s a big cat they really don’t have the concept of just how big.

Grocery shopping and ortho appt are on the list for Tuesday…oh and trying to stay warm!!

What are you doing today?

Around home | Blog | Kitchen

Christmas, kitchen, Marvin, T Tuesday

15 Comments

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201611/28

T Tuesday: lefse edition

Trying something new for this edition of T stands for Tuesday. Mini-me helped make the first batch of lefse for the season. I took a series of photos and linked them as a slideshow. Fingers crossed that this works.

[KGVID]http://www.halleshobbies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/lefseday.mp4[/KGVID]

It’s been a busy, weird week that has included but not limited to:

~an overnight dog visit that went reasonably well with Marvin the dog hater cat

~two turkey dinners

~precipitation of all kinds and in all directions: rain, snow, sleet and hail

~one panicky ER visit which turned out very benign

~one partially dislocated jaw (unrelated to the above)

~all four of us on vacation for 5 overlapping days plus extras on both ends

~late night scratch made brownies

~4 teen boys Black Friday shopping (for themselves)

~one Christmas tree set up and was still standing in the morning (amazing!)

I’m absolutely positive there was more but that is all I am able to wrap my mind around at the moment.

Kids go back to school after a 6 day break…and a mountain of laundry awaits. Living the dream boys and girls. Actually, that is serious! Yes, we all love to complain about the pesky chores of life but I am so thankful for every day that I am able to be home caring for my family.

What are you doing today?

Blog | Kitchen

day in the life, kitchen, lefse, T Tuesday

14 Comments

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201609/20

T Tuesday: apple days edition

Happy Tuesday everyone! This past weekend is one I both love and hate each year. It’s the weekend we help pick apples at our neighbors house. They have 5 trees that are HUGE!! As in you need an extension ladder huge.

(This is just a 6 foot ladder…)

Some of their family comes over as well as several of us neighbors. We spend the morning picking then bring our bags of apples home and usually the afternoon or next day processing.

This year we didn’t make time for processing over the weekend. Everyone was going here and there it seemed. Sleepover, Manhattan choir fundraiser, fabricating and 3D printing in the garage and of course, leaving time to watch our Vikings play the Packers (the big border battle) in the inaugural game in the new stadium…SKOL Vikings! Our Vikings won-BTW!!!

On to Monday…this was my morning view complete with coffee as fuel for the day ahead….

Normally I process in the garage for more room but since I was doing it solo I brought the garage can inside.

After hours of peeling I had every extra large container I own full of sliced apples.

As well as a stock pot full cooking down to sauce. And the dehydrator with 6 trays loaded.

I ended up with 7 quarts that I canned…

The rest went into gallon freezer bags to be made into sauce at a later date.

As you can see by this photo it was now after 3pm and I was exhausted,

I also managed to get two loads of laundry washed during that time.

So my grand total for the day was: 7 quarts apple sauce canned, 2 quarts in fridge, 4 gallon bags of prepped apples in freezer, and a quart bag of dehydrated slices.

So like I said when I started…apple days…I have a love/hate relationship with them.

Today I’m going to have coffee with some friends then likely come home and can a few pints of diced tomatoes…or else pull up the garden and do the tomatoes tomorrow before the next round of rain.

What are you doing today?

Around home | Blog | Kitchen

apples, canning, kitchen, not art at all, T Tuesday

15 Comments

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201608/09

T Tuesday: domestically inclined edition

Hello there…you came back for yet another edition of T stands for Tuesday! Thank you! For those of you who are new to my blog, WELCOME and let me tell you a little about T stands for Tuesday. Elizabeth aka alteredbooklover hosts a weekly link up or virtual tea party, if you will, where we share what ever the heck we want for the week as long as we can somehow tie a beverage or beverage related item into the mix. Pretty simple huh? So lets get on with it, shall we…

This week I’ve been a mix of artsy and domestic. I’ve previously posted a couple of artsy things so now you get to see some of my domesticity. Last week…no, two weeks ago (geez where does the time go) I shared our “new” hutch for T stands for Tuesday. I mentioned that I need to make a curtain to cover the wine rack shelf. I went searching through a box of vintage linens and found the perfect solution.

Simple beauty. These were my Grandma’s as well. Or perhaps her sisters…a cousin of mine just told me a story that my grandma talked her sister out of a bunch of linens saying that she needed them more in the parsonage than her sister did on the farm. Hmmm…

I’m guessing these were purchased by my grandparents in Minneapolis if the stickers are to be believed. Dayton’s became a upscale department store here in the midwest and started the discount chain Target.

After ironically running to Target to pick up a tension rod, I realized that I wouldn’t even have to cut these linens. I folded them in half and ran a straight line of stitching an inch from the fold.

This gave me a double layer of fabric providing more light blocking which was exactly what I was going for with this project.

The linen curtain makes this piece feel more Scandinavian. Marvin still loves his spot by the door and really could care less about the curtain.

I did a bit of canning and baking as well when the weather cooled down.

I made spicy beans, zucchini bread and pumpkin bread. I like having a little bit of baked goods in the freezer just in case we are suddenly having company and I was completely out.

I also have to share a day that Mini-me and I had about a month ago. I keep meaning to share but it just hasn’t worked out. She’s been wanting to dye her hair…not all of it but some. A streak or some underneath. She just couldn’t decided so we waited. She finally decided, so we did it.