Month: May 2012

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It’s Artichoke Time

It’s that time of year again. Time for artichokes! I get excited every year when artichokes are in season. I love to eat them with just melted butter to dip the tender leaves in.

I always buy a big bag full when they go on sale. I eat enough of them for an army every year. There really is nothing like a freshly steamed artichoke. My grandma introduced me to a mayonnaise-based dip. I never thought to try dipping them in anything other than butter. But boy was she right… they sure do taste delicious with a dollop of zesty mayonnaise dip.

I haven’t ever tried stuffing artichokes because I love to eat them one leaf at a time. I might venture out and try something different this year though. I bet they taste fantastic and I’ve been missing out all of these years.

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Best Way To Spend a Long Weekend

With Memorial Day coming up we have a long weekend ahead of us. On long weekends I like to relax with family and friends. We usually have a crock pot breakfast on Saturday morning and then just pass the day with family time. We like to play board and card games. If the weather is nice we’ll go to the park for a picnic or take everyone down to the pool for a nice refreshing swim.

This year we are going to go to the movies on Sunday and then to a barbeque on Monday. It’s a great way to catch up with friends. The barbeque is potluck style. We’re bringing my famous potato salad. The secret is to have one whole hard boiled egg for every potato you use. I never liked potato salad growing up until I had this recipe. Now I bring the potato salad to most every potluck we go to in the summer.

What do you like to do for long weekends? Do you go somewhere to get away from everything? Or, do you like to take it easy and everything at a slow and leisurely pace around home?

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Crafty Storage Idea

Storage for magazines and remote controls can be made easily with a few pieces of fabric.  Get yourself a table runner and then sew an extra piece of fabric at the end to create a pocket.  If you want to be really lazy you can skip the sewing altogether and just use fabric tape that you iron or even fabric glue.  Then you can add any embellishments you like.

This simple and crafty solution diminishes the clutter you have on your bedside table and add extra storage to a table that might not have had any to begin with. It would be a great way to store the book or kindle you read before going to bed.  I’m going to make a few of these and give them away as gifts.  I know everyone will love them

 

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Decorating With Candles

The perfect lighting makes a big difference in everything.  I’m working on redoing our home decor and want to add just the right touches of light with candles throughout our home.  We have two children so decorating with real candles can be very tricky.  We have to make sure the candles are not lit when the children are around for fear of burning.  If they are lit when the children are present, they need to be in tough to reach places.

In order to circumvent the dangers and hassles associated with traditional flame candles, I’ve decided to decorate our home with battery operated lights. I don’t just mean spot lights and such and dimmers, I mean flameless candles.  Flameless candles mean we don’t have to worry about one of the kids reaching up and grabbing a flame and getting burned.  They are much safer.  We don’t have to worry about remembering to blow the candles out before going to bed or leaving the house.  They really make me feel a lot safer than using traditional candles.

LED tea lights will make a nice addition to our living room and dining room.  I like how we can set them in any votive holder and they will flicker just like a normal candle would.  The soft candle light glow is what I’m after, not the danger of the flame. I also like the idea that I won’t have to have bags of tea lights on hand to replace all of the time once they burn out.  The only thing I’ll have to replace will be the occasional battery.  I’ve even seen the kind of tea lights that are rechargeable.  That sounds like my kind of candle.  I won’t have to store extra candles or extra batteries.

I enjoy the glow of candles when I want to relax, so may I’ll pick up some extra candles to use in my bathroom for when I want to take long,hot baths.  It wouldn’t hurt to add a few lighting touches to our master bedroom either.  For the bedroom though I think I will go with the kind of candles that look like real melting candles but are still battery operated.  I’ll get the look I still want and the peace of mind that flameless candles provide.

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Ideas for Re-purposing Pallets in Your Garden

As we enjoyed our fruit harvest this week from our upside down planters, I discussed with the kids and my husband what we wanted to plant next year.  I also looked into ideas about how we could implement them into our existing garden.  I found some neat ways to re-purpose pallets in our garden and grow our own food.

I found that I can stack some pallets together and make a vertical planter.  Vertical planters help to maximize space both vertically and horizontally, which would be great for people with limited space to plant a garden but still want to enjoy a bountiful harvest.  It’s important to plant shallow rooted veggies and herbs in these planters.  I think this solution could be great for us so we don’t lose too much room of the play space for the kids but still get to have a  nice sized garden.

I even found a creative solution to use the pallets to make a green house with sheets of glass layered on top of each section of the pallet.  This could be neat to grow different kinds of plants.  I’m really excited to try these ideas out in the garden.

 

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Harvesting Our Home Grown Fruit

Our upside down planters have really done wonders with the fruit plants we have.  I spent the afternoon harvesting our strawberries, tomatoes, and even a bunch of peppers.  We ended up getting a huge crop of peppers.  I’m excited to try all of the recipes I’ve collected for all of these peppers.  We do seem to have more than we need though so I plan to give some away to our neighbors and friends.

Our plants also produced a nice few baskets of tomatoes and strawberries.  Of course we’ll be gobbling most of the strawberries up before I have much time to do anything with them, but I told the kids and my husband that I really want to save some to make some jam and a nice strawberry rhubarb pie.  I know it will be hard for them to resist the temptation of eating the fresh and delicious berries but I promised them it would be worth their sacrifice.

I love seeing my family enjoy the work that I put into the garden.  I know exactly what they are eating when I grow it for them myself.  Next year I think I want plant more food for us to enjoy together.  I’m not sure if I want to do planter boxes or if I want to dig up some of the garden for vegetables.  Maybe I’ll have the kids help me pick out what we should grow together.