Homemade Yogurt & Granola

I started eating yogurt and museli while living in Ireland.  Once I returned to the U.S. I found American yogurt disgusting.  Way too sweet and not rich and creamy like European yogurt.  I was very saddened by this as yogurt had become a favorite breakfast for both Matt and I.  Recently I found out you could make your own yogurt at home!  My friend Amy, who is like the Proverbs 31 woman, showed me how this past week.  We had a morning of cooking and yogurt and granola was first on the list.  It turned out incredible and was not hard to do.  I will post the directions soon.

Granola

6 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup wheat germ
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.  In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Combine both mixtures together and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.  Remove from oven and let cool. Makes about 8 cups.

Homemade Corn Tortillas

My Mom gave me a tortilla press for my birthday this year.  I like flour tortillas the best and hope to get good at making them but since corn tortillas seemed easier I thought I would start with those.  My friend Amy mills her own flours and gave me some fresh milled corn to use.  I mixed the corn with water until a dough formed and then divided the dough up into balls which I pressed between parchment paper on my new tortilla press.  It worked like a charm. I fried them up and  here is my first batch.  Not the prettiest but- served up with chorizo, beans, cheese and fresh salsa- delicious!

Dresser Gone Rock N Roll!

Before

After

I bought this solid wood dresser at the thrift store.  It was well made with dovetail drawers but in desperate need of a makeover.  I decided I would paint it for my nephew Jace who needed a bigger dresser.  At first I tried painting it with his favorite colors which are currently orange and gray but it turned out hideous.  So Matt and I put our heads together and came up with this theme for him since he loves music and playing guitar. The guitar tabliture you see on it is a Dire Straits guitar riff.  The best part was sticking it in his room over the weekend while he was away!

DIY Deep Conditioner

I found this recipe for making your own deep conditioner for hair a few weeks ago here and just tried it out today. 

1 ripe avacado

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

Peel and mash up avocado.  Add olive oil and honey and mix thoroughly.  Apply to hair, concentrating mostly on the ends.  Secure hair up with a hair binder.  Leave on for 20 minutes and then rinse out, shampooing and conditioning as usual. 

My hair already feels softer so I hope to use this treatment once a week.  It is a bit messy so I suggest applying the mixture to your hair while standing over the bathroom sink.

Chicken Mandarin Salad

My husband and I both like salads a lot but unfortunately we seem to eat them rarely.  We recently decided- in an effort to shed some pounds and eat healthier- that we would start eating salads regularly.  Here is one of our favorites.

DRESSING
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
4 tablespoons rice vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

SALAD
1 large bag baby spring mix or other greens of your choice
1 small bunch scallions, chopped
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1 cup pecans, roughly chopped
1 handful cilantro, chopped
3 grilled chicken breasts, sliced

INSTRUCTIONS:

For dressing; combine all ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake.

For salad; in a large bowl, combine greens, scallions, celery, mandarin oranges, pecans cilantro and chicken.  Pour desired amount of dressing over and toss to combine.  Store the leftover dressing in the fridge for up to a week.

Yield: 2 large main course sized salads or 4 smaller appetizer sized salads.

Suggested Wine Pairing: Cavit Pinot Grigio

Living Room Before & After

Here is the living room of our house before we bought it. 

Here is what we did to it.  Matt sanded down the mantel and re-stained with Kona stain. I then used  the Valspar Virtual Painter program to help me decide my color scheme.  I used Behr's "ultra pure white" on the fireplace wall and Valspar's "delta sandbar" on the surrounding walls.

Night Stand

 This was one of my first projects.  I got this night stand at the thrift store for $5.  It was a dirty, dingey, old white.  I gave it a sand and painted it my favorite color, which is called sapphire but I think of it as periwinkle.  It's hard for me not to paint all my furniture this color!  I finished the edges and new knobs with gold acrylic paint.  Fun!

Ristras

When I am homesick for Arizona I do things like cook Mexican food or decorate our house with Mexican looking things.  After painting our kitchen periwinkle I wished I had some strings of chile peppers (ristras in Spanish)  to hang in it.  I saw some fake ones at Hobby Lobby and then thought to myself maybe we can make some.  So I googled it.  There are plenty of directions online on how to dry chile peppers for ristras and the specific way to tie them but in an effort to be quick we bought some already dried bulk chiles at the grocery store and some twine and tied em together.  The walls I wanted to hang them on are pretty narrow so we didn't want a big bunch but rather a thinner string of them.  Here they are- I love them!

Hutch Gone Mexican TV Stand!

I bought this bottom half of a hutch at Savers for $14. I had been looking for a TV stand for a long time and recognized this as the piece to be transformed.

I started by prying off the cabinet inserts.  Then I gave her a good sanding.  Matt and I turned the top drawer into a shelf to hold the DVD and DVR box by removing the front plate and attaching a frame to the bare edges. Next came primer, royal blue paint, and the copper inserts Matt punched out with suns.  We attached the inserts and finished it off with some hand painted talavera-looking knobs from Hobby Lobby.

Headboard Gone Mexican!

I bought this headboard at a thrift store for $10.  I wanted it because it had inset inserts so I immediately imagined it with punched tin.

I sanded it down.  Matt stained it with our favorite stain color, kona.  We decided to paint the carved strip at the top with 2 blues and then Matt punched out the inserts giving them southwest themes.  We detailed it with some burnt umber acrylic paint  and here is the final product...

Mustard Rye Bread

1 1/4 cups warm water
1/4 cup stone-ground mustard
1 tablespoon oil
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 cups rye flour
2 tablespoons gluten flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon caraway seed
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon active dry yeast

To complete by bread machine: Place all ingredients into the bread machine in order listed.  Select the whole grain cycle if you have it otherwise  use the white bread cycle.  Let the machine do all the work.

Dough Cycle Use:  Place all ingredients into the bread machine in order listed. Select the dough cycle.  When dough cycle completes (about 90 minutes) remove dough and shape into an oval.   Place on parchment paper and let bread raise in warm place until doubled in size.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees with pizza stone letting the stone heat for about 20 minutes to get nice and hot.  Brush the top of the loaf with water and give it several slashes with a serrated bread knife.  Sprinkle with additional seeds and slide onto hot pizza stone (with parchment paper which you can remove about 20 minutes into baking).  Bake for about 40-45 minutes until bread is golden brown.  Remove bread and let cool on cooling rack. 

Yield:  1 1/5 pound loaf.

Thrift Store Dresser Gone Mexican

I bought this dresser at Savers for $6.  I forgot to take a picture of it before the transformation but it was a medium brown color.  It is real wood and has the dovetail drawers and was in descent shape save a few cracks and loose pieces in the drawers that some wood glue was able to fix.  I tried some different techniques and colors on it but did not like my work.  I sanded it down and gave it to Matt.  He ended up staining it with our favorite stain color, Kona.  Then he painted over that with turquoise paint and distressed it by hand so the stain would show through. We added some beautiful handles from Hobby Lobby with crosses on them and finished it off with protective furniture wax. 

Parmesan Pine Nut Bread

I made this bread for the first time the other night for a spaghetti dinner.  It was fantastic and really tasted of pine nuts.

Ingedients:
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (can substitute Asiago)
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/3 cup pine nuts

To complete by bread machine: Place all ingredients except the pine nuts into the bread machine in order listed.  Select the white bread cycle.  About 15 minutes in to the cycle add pine nuts and allow machine to do the rest of the work.

Dough Cycle Use:  Place all ingredients except the pine nuts into the bread machine in order listed. Select the dough cycle. About 15 minutes in to the cycle add pine nuts.  When dough cycle completes (about 90 minutes)  remove dough and shape into an oval.  Place on parchment paper and let bread raise in warm place until doubled in size.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees with pizza stone letting the stone heat for about 20 minutes to get nice and hot.  Slash top of dough and slide onto pizza stone (with parchment paper which you can remove about 20 minutes into baking).  Bake for about 40-45 minutes until bread is golden brown.  Remove bread and let cool on cooling rack. 

Yield:  1 1/2 pound loaf.

Goat Cheese and Cracked Pepper Bread

 This bread has a bit of a bite and is delicious dipped in olive oil.







Ingredients
1 cup warm water
4 tablespoons goat cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

To complete by bread machine: Place all ingredients into the bread machine in order listed.  Select the white bread cycle.  Let the machine do all the work.  The machine will make one 1 1/2 pound loaf.

Dough Cycle Use:  Place all ingredients into the bread machine in order listed. Select the dough cycle.  When dough cycle completes (about 90 minutes) remove dough, divide in half.  Form each into a ball and  then elongate each ball into a baguette shape.   Place on parchment paper and let bread raise in warm place until doubled in size.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees with pizza stone, letting the stone heat for about 20 minutes to get it nice and hot.  Brush the top of the loaf with water and give it several slashes with a serrated bread knife. Slide onto hot pizza stone (with parchment paper which you can remove about 15 minutes into baking).  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bread is golden brown.  Remove bread and let cool on cooling rack. 

Yield: 2 loaves

A Headboard Beautified

I found this headboard at a building materials resale store and bought it for $20.  I took it home having little idea of what I might do with it.  After a bit of experimentation this is how it turned out.  It was the first piece of furniture I redid myself and I quite love it.

Materials: Dark brown latex paint (thinned out with water), cherry red latex paint and copper acrylic paint.

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