Pancakes

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I tried a new recipe. I really love Perkin's Pancakes, and was reading somewhere that they use "club soda" instead of milk. So, I subbed it in.

• 2 cups Bisquick
• 1 and 1/4 cup club soda
• 2 tablespoons melted margarine (ewwww....)
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk

Mix it up, pour onto a medium hot griddle that has been slathered with canola oil. I added a handful of blueberries to mine, Con is a purest.

Fried Green Beans

• 1 pound green beans, trimmed
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon regular pepper
• frying oil

Dunk the beans into the buttermilk, then dredge them into a bowl of flour/salt/garlic/cayenne/pepper. Fry them for a minute or so until golden brown. Place onto a paper towel then sprinkle with salt, or even parm cheese.

Blueberry Lemonade Mintness

• From Real Simple:
• 
  
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries
• 1 cup lemonade
• 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, plus more for serving
• 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup of Vodka

Directions

1. In a blender, puree the blueberries, lemonade, mint, confectioners’ sugar, Vodka, and 3 cups ice until smooth.
2. Garnish with mint sprigs.

I liked it, Jbizz felt it was too "leafy"

6 green veggie beef Stir Fry

1 Green Bell Pepper

1/2 cup green beans

1/2 cup chopped kale

1/2 cup chopped Napa cabbage

1/2 cup broccoli

Garlic Scape

1 pound of some steak or beef strips

2 cups brown rice

Brown up the beef with some soy sauce. Add bell pepper, beens, broccoli and garlic scape. 4 minutes later, add cabbage and kale. Top on brown rice.

Think Jbizz is sick of stir fry yet? Nah, add some beef and he forgets all about the green veggie organic love.

Chorizo Steak Taco

The picture does not do it justice.

1 pound of steak, something cheap is just fine

1 bay leaf

1 tube of chorizo, maybe a pound

1/2 cup sour cream

1 avocado

a squirt of lime juice

salt

Boil the steak with a bay leaf till cooked, like a half hour. Then shred the steak up. Or cut it up. Shredding is pretty though. Put the steak into a fry pan with the chorizo. Cook for awhile, like 15 minutes, let the flavors get all good and crispy.

Mash up an avacado with the sour cream, lime and salt.

And any standard taco toppings, I just do cheese.

I like crunchy, Jbizz likes soft shell. Sometimes, we get wild and just top chips.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I've never made a strawberry pie, let alone, a strawberry rhubarb pie. I even tried out a new crust. Let us discuss.

Crust:

• 1 stick of supa cold butter, cubed
• 1 tablespoon of Crisco
• 1 and 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons of ice water

Combine butter/crisco/flour/salt into food processor. Pulse 3 times for 3 seconds. Put in the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulse for 3 seconds after each. Maybe you won't even need the last tablespoon, but I tend to always need it. Normally, I use lard for crusts (it's not gross, Crisco is gross - a fat that doesn't need to be refrigerator, and is stable at room temp. That is wrong. Stepping down from soapbox.) Form into a nice disc in plastic wrap, put in fridge for at least a half hour. This is my own trick now. I put a Silpat down, sprinkle just a tad of flour. Place dough disc on it, put the plastic wrap on top of it. And roll it out, keeping the dough between the plastic wrap and silpat. I have this god-awful marble rolling pin, and stuff just sticks to it. I want a nice wood one. (TWSS)

How about the filling?

• 1 pound of strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 1 cup of rhubarb chopped up, one inch pieces
• 1 and 1/2 cups sugar, Turbinado please
• 3 tablespoons of corn starch
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Mix this all together, fill the crust. I try to blind bake crusts, but I always junk that up. Put a few pats of butter on top of the filling for luck. Make the edges pretty. I cut off the hang over, then make a faux lattice on top. Bake for about an hour at 350.

Sea Glass Necklace

While photographing my jewelry, why not show this lovely necklace? My dear friend Stephanie gave it to me for my birthday. It appears to be sea glass on a leather cord.

Pizza Cutter

Just a fancy pizza cutter that stands up nicely?

NOPE, look closely! It's a dog, and the blade is a frisbee! Neat right? We received this as a wedding present from my darling Meghan over 7 years ago. It took us about 3 years to discover it was a dog. Funny, right?

The Koziol Cutter.

Turquoise Necklaces

Aren't these beauties? My grandma was getting rid of some of her old jewelry, and I snagged them. She said she bought them from a trip to Arizona 50 years ago.

Creamy Chai Goodness

I found this in Real Simple Magazine.

Boil 4 cups of water, steep 4 bags of chai tea for 10 minutes. Allow to cool. I put my saucepan of chai out on the pool table so it wouldn't warm up the house anymore on this blistering 95 degree day. Fill a tall glass with ice, add a shot of clear rum, not the spiced, yuck. I used a soup ladle to get the tea into the glass. Add two tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk to the top. I slowly stirred it into it as I drank. Supa Yummy. You can make it w/o the rum to become a lovely afternoon sipper as well.

Basement Redux

Everyone is talking about the big basement make over. (ok, so I've been talking to everyone who will listen) With the inspiration and assistance from IHeartOrganizing, and my shopping buddy Jenna, my financier John and my supportive Pre-Schooler Connor.

Before: Large TV in corner, toys leaking into the "computer room", toys piled on top of the TV. Toys scattered all over the place, with no real proper home.

Now: Large new shevling units! The big one is new ($99 at IKEA) and the smaller one used to be our TV stand up in the living room. It has been replaced by something new. Green Rubbermaid bins from Target for the toys, $6.99 a piece. The large bins on top are also from Target.
Connor, so happy to show off his new shelves. He helped me with the big one. The corner space he has a few pillows. He likes to hid back in there when he gets overwhelmed. It's a nice sensory break space. The top right on the smaller shelf is MY shelf. I keep my coffee cup there, along with some magazines for me to read while Con plays.

Connor and I made labels for each shelf, so that everything has a home. And since Connor isn't too good at reading, we painted pictures on the labels. I was not planning for Woody and Buzz to have their very own shelf, but Connor insisted. I gave him a few days to sort things out, put the toys where he wanted before attaching the labels. It's his space, let him put things where he wants!

The door to the "computer room" is closed, and no toys are in there. Unburied couch, super comfy! Considering a storage ottoman.

Before: Small TV sitting there, piles of old clothes stacked up next to it, random junk on the top shelf.

After: Got rid of the little TV, turned that stand into a place to play cars. It's the right height for a car garage to be parked on. The tool box is under the window, and he uses it as a stool to peak outside.

Before: Utter and complete chaos.

After: All the little toys are picked up and put into there proper homes on the shelves.

Before: Big open space in the center of the room being unused.


After: Plenty of room for his train table, with more than enough open floor space to play on the floor as well. In the back corner is a "bean bag" I made awhile ago, that homes all of Connor's stuffed animals. The green bucket on top has a few large/long toys that don't fit onto the shelves.

Chicken Stir Fry

• 1 chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
• lemon-pepper
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1/2 cup of shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup of pea-pods
• 1 garlic scape
• 3 large napa cabbage leaves shredded
• 3 large chard leaves shredded

Season the chicken with lemon-pepper. Heat the wok to a medium-high heat with oil. Cook the chicken throughly, about 4 minutes or so. Add the soy sauce about half way through cooking the chicken. Add the peas, garlic scapes and carrots, cook for 2 minutes. Add the cabbage and chard, cook until wilted, about 2 or 3 minutes. Serve over brown rice.

Croc Scutes

I bought the pink and orange ones at Canadian Tire, maybe 2 years ago. I think they were less than $10, and who knows what brand they are. John bought the blue and white ones last week, for around $12, Croc brand. They are exactly the same. The holes are even in the exact same place. All that is different is the word "Croc" is no painted on the soles of the orange ones. Makes you wonder......

The Spraka

I have been on the hunt for pepper mill for ever. Seriously. Since I was born. Life got in the way. I had all sorts of pepper shakers given to me as wedding gifts and they were just so easy, that my dream of a pepper mill just kept getting scooted back. I went so far is to have put "nice big wooden pepper mill" (don't laugh, this isn't middle school) on my birthday wish list. Of course, John had no idea what the heck that means, so I got an apron instead.

Last weekend while browsing for a paper towel holder at IKEA, I came across the Spraka. It's 15 inches tall, birch, grinds pepper. Fits my requirements. I find it to be nice, it was only $20, so I fear I may get what I pay for. Time will tell if it can hold up. Until then, I am happy with the appearance and the quality of grinding. Bring on the eggs!