Adventures in My Craft Room: Reversible Placemat with Napkins and Rings

On rare occasion, I get the opportunity to spend some quality time in my craft room.  It's really a spare bedroom that doubles as a craft room, but I am completely grateful to have the space.  I'm doubly grateful for the opportunities to use it.  Since my time is so limited, I've found that it's better for me to tackle easy projects that don't take a lot of time.  I'm often interrupted by Baby Boy, so I can only get some time in during naptime (if the house is clean already).  This weekend, the stars aligned and so it was, I spent some quality time with my sewing machine. 

Adventures in Breakfast: One-Eyed Toast

Breakfast is hands down my favorite meal.  I love how versatile it is.  It can be sweet or savory, heavy or light.  And the genius behind brunch?  Props to whoever that was.  One of my favorite things to make for breakfast is a big batch of Grandma Carol's Waffles.  But this morning, I was in a savory mood.  I had some artisan 3-cheese bread leftover from dinner and wanted to do something special with it.  Thanks be to my dad for introducing me to this one-eyed toast recipe when I was 10 years old. 

Grandma's Fruit Cobbler

In case you haven't noticed, or are a new reader (thanks to all of you BTW) of my little blog, I feature many of my Grandma's recipes.  Grandma's recipes represent love and comfort to my soul.  This recipe delivers nothing less than delicious, buttery comfort that feels like grandma's hug. 

Simple Chinese Beef and Broccoli with Garlic Sauce

One evening, I had leftover roast beef and some beautiful broccoli.  So what to make for dinner seemed obvious.  However, I've never seen or heard of anyone making Chinese Beef and Broccoli with cooked roast beef.  I've only seen it done with thinly-sliced steak.  But the baby was fussy and I had to get dinner on the table quickly, so I decided to view it as having one step in the recipe done (cooking the meat).

Book Review: Beyond Bathtime

If there were ever a book that I want to go out and purchase a million copies of and pass out to every mother I know or run into, THIS IS THAT BOOK!!  Author Erin Davis is a mom juggling all the things that us moms juggle and struggles with all the things we struggle with as moms.  This book shows us a whole new perspective on the seemingly insignificant and endless tasks we have as mothers.  It reinvigorated me and gave me a whole new passion and mission in my role as a mom. 

Healthy School Lunches: They Can Be Easy

I can't believe that summer vacation is already over and school is already here.  School starts tomorrow (Monday) for my son.  Here in the desert, the summer vacations are short and we don't seem to mind so much because summers are spent indoors here because of the heat.  However, it still seems to surprise me each year when school starts in the beginning of August.  And for a lot of us, this marks the beginning of the school lunch dilemma.  I'd like to share what I've done and some inspiration.

Preserving Kale

I've been getting a lot of kale in my farm baskets lately, and I'm running out of ways to use it before it goes bad.  I hate to see any food go to waste, let alone local organic produce.  I've tried to make kale chips, but I have to confess, I haven't been successful.  I've only succeeded in over-baking them and ending up with charred kale dust.  I love using kale in smoothies, but can't possibly use it all up in time and make smoothies my family will drink.  Kale has a strong taste in smoothies, so I can't use as much as I'd like.  And with kale being a fairly new ingredient in my kitchen, I haven't established my go-to recipes for it just yet. 

Homemade Dishwasher Soap

I know, there are a million posts and recipes for dishwasher detergent out there.  I'm certainly not the first to try it and write about it.  This is the common recipe.  Then what is different about this post? I made a small amount as opposed to a large amount.  Why? Because when I made larger batches, they would inevitably get moisture in them and turn to giant soap bricks inside the jar. 

Cajun Sausage Frittata

The other night was one of those nights where dinnertime came and I realized that I didn't have the chicken I planned to serve defrosted, so I had to figure out something quick.  When this happens, I usually fall back on breakfast for dinner.  Luckily I had plenty of pastured eggs and veggies from my CSA.  Then my eyes found the package of nitrate-free cajun andouille sausage I picked up on sale.  Boy did I hit a home run with this nice little dish.  We all went back for seconds and didn't have a scrap leftover. 

Book Review and Giveaway : Your Grocery Budget Toolbox

I have to say that I was super-excited when fellow blogger, Anne, asked me to review her new book, Your Grocery Budget Toolbox.  I have followed her blog, Authentic Simplicity for a while now and I always learn something valuable.  I really admire her balance between providing healthy meals to her family, food allergies, and a tight budget.  This same balance is reflected in Your Grocery Budget Toolbox. 

Simple Salmon (My Favorite Preparation)

It's hard to believe that I only started liking salmon about 4 years ago.  I'm a Cod and Halibut kind of girl.  Salmon had too strong a flavor for my tastes.  But one summer, after reading all the health benefits of salmon, I was determined to make myself like this pink fish. 

I'm Baaack... From Vacation That is Part 2: Missouri

After visiting my family in Oregon, we got on another plane to Missouri to visit my husband's family.  We spent some time at a family reunion and then off to the house he grew up in, in Mack's Creek, MO.; population 235.

I'm Baaaack!! From vacation that is...

If you've noticed that I haven't posted much in the past two weeks, first off, thank you so much for visiting my blog. I've been on our family's yearly vacation to visit family. We I thought for sure I would have plenty of opportunity to post pictures and little tidbits from my vacation as I went along, but alas, a lack of time and internet connections allowed me to only post once.  So to make up for it, I'm sharing my trip with you in two posts.  The first post will highlight our trip to Oregon to visit my family and the second will highlight our trip to Missouri to visit my husband's family. 

Roasted Garlic Mesquite Sweet Potatoes

I didn't think you could eat sweet potatoes with the peel until a friend of mine made a recipe similar to this one for me to try.  Now, sweet potatoes don't seem like as much a pain to cook when I'm in a hurry.  This recipe was so simple, and versatile, I almost couldn't believe it was sweet potatoes I was preparing. 

Delicious Salsa Verde

I love Salsa Verde.  It is my salsa of choice at any restaraunt with a salsa bar.  I have to admit, before I came to live in Arizona, I didn't know that salsa was anything other than red.  Boy, was I ever a poor, salsa -deprived girl.  Salsa comes in so many flavors and colors from corn salsas to fruit-based salsas, I love finding and trying new ones.  I'll never forget the first time I tried salsa verde.  My life was changed forever.