Spicy Peanut Noodles

I had some left over pork loin that needed used up so I decided to make these spicy peanut noodles. They were so tasty! 

Here's the recipe:

In a pot of boiling salted water, cook the spaghetti until tender. Drain and set aside.

Sauce:

• 1 large garlic clove
• 3/4 cup chunky peanut butter
• 1/2 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon sugar
• 6 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
• 1/2  teaspoon ground ginger

In a blender or food processor, chop the garlic.  Put all other ingredients in blender and puree. Transfer 1/2 cup of the peanut dressing to a bowl and toss with the noodles.

As I said, I had some leftover pork loin which I chopped into 1” pieces and sautéed along with ½ of a red pepper. I also added some stir fry veggies. I had a bag of them but you can also just make your own with broccoli, water chestnuts and bean pods.  Next time I think I will make my own because there just weren’t a lot of veggies in the bag I got.

I then plated the noodles with peanut sauce and topped with the pork/veggie mixture. I topped with some more peanut sauce. You can also toss with cilantro, green onions and fresh lime juice (I didn’t have these).

This was really yummy and made a lot of sauce (8 ounces). I’m wondering if this dressing would can okay.

Recycled Clothes to Dog Toy

I have a big back of clothes that I was planning to take to Goodwill, however, I think I will use most of the stuff for this dog toy.

It is super easy: Just cut old t-shirts into 1" x 20" strips, braid/twist together, and knot at the ends. How simple is that?!  I think I've found Christmast gifts for all my dog family/friends.  If you want to make these yourself, here's the link:  Recycled Dog Toy.  I will post pictures after I get some made.

UPDATE:

Here's one of the shirts I started with.  It was one that all 3 of the grandboys wore and have now outgrown.  From this, I followed the directions from the link above: Cut 20 1" x 20" strips.  I then knotted and twisted the strips.

This is what I got:                                                          Clearly, Marcella loves it!

While this was good for her (since she's a medium/large dog), I wanted something different for Frank and Beans (because they are small). I adjusted the instructions:  1) Cut 20 1" x 12" strips.   2) Divided those strips into 2 groups of 10.  3) Knotted one end TIGHT and continued to tightly knot the strips. (I thought this would hold together better than just twisting).  4) I also knotted the loose ends so it would stay together better.

Here's my modified dog toy:

I think this is perfect for small dogs. It's about 7" long and pretty sturdy.  Now if the rain ever stops I can run my treat box to the post office. Be on the lookout boys for goodies for Ant Bea!

September 14, 2011 Update: 

The boys with their toys! Aren't they too cute?!

 

  

Teddy Bear from Recycled Sweater

I was furthering my time wasting skills today with my unexpected day off (because of flash flooding in the area). I'm looking for projects to make that use recycled materials.  Some of the projects were just dumb (newspaper sandels?! Who are they for, homeless people)?!

I did find a cute idea to make a teddy bear out of a recycled sweater. I'm thinking velour or chennille would be good. Too bad I don't sew!

Upcycled Teddy Bear

Garden Flower Bed

I was trolling around the internet looking for some inspiration and ideas for craft projects. On one of my new favorite sites, Curbly, I came upon this:

I think it's kind of cool: A true flowerbed!  Would be great if you had a large yard. This seems more practical if it were made from a single bed. What do you think?

Here's the link:http://www.curbly.com/diy-maven/posts/11133-a-bed-in-the-garden

Yummy Fresh Tomatoes!

Saturday I bought a huge box of Roma tomatoes from my favorite fresh produce stand, Oak Grove Farms. I only like the taste of "real" tomatoes (tomatoes when they are in season and can be bought at farm stands). I don't think the tomatoes that are sold in regular grocery stores taste anything like vine ripened. 

This time of year I go crazy with tomatoe making....sauce, bruschetta, salsa. I then can it so I can have some tastes of summer through the fall, winter and spring.

Sunday I made 8 quarts of tomatoe sauce. I don't really use a recipe but I can tell you how I did it this time.

1.  Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water for a few minutes so they are easier to skin.
2. In batches, toss the tomatoes in the food processer to chop up.
3. Put those batches into the crock pot (I used 2 crock pots to make these 8 quarts).
4. When you are done chopping the tomatoes, toss in garlic, onions, peppers, basil, oregan, sugar, salt and pepper into the food processor.
5. Divide this up between the 2 crock pots.
6. I also added 1/2 a large can of tomatoe paste to each of the crock pots. This thickens it up and makes it not watery.
7. Cook on low for 5-6 hours.
8. At hour 7, add 1/2 of large can of mushrooms.  (You can use fresh also but they weren't on sale).
9. Pour into jars and heat pack (I'll write another post on canning at a later date).

Here's what you get:

Enough sauce to last me till February!  Yummy Fresh Tomatoes!

I also made some bruchetta but had to use regular vinegar because I didn't have any balsamic. It tastes okay but not great. I'll wait til I get the right vinegar before I make that to can.

Dog Treats

I've had a wonderfully domestic week! Today I cleaned like a fiend....believe me, my house needed it! I love all my Granddogs but am painfully aware of how dirty the house gets when there are so many of them. I even steam cleaned the couch. (Note to self: DO NOT give the dogs rawhide bones...they will eat them on the couch and make a slobbery mess).


Keeping in my puppy love mode, I also made dog biscuits. I found a basic dog treat recipe (flour, corn meal, egg and oil) and added a can of wet cat food for flavor (it called for wet dog food and I didn't have any). While it did smell kind of funky in my kitchen while they were cooking, the dogs had no problem gobbling them down!


Here's the treats to send to my sweet God dogs, Frank and Beans:

Dog Tested, Mother Approved!

Dana asked if I would post my recipe. I found a basic recipe and modified it. To the best of my recollection, here's what I did:

2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 T dried parsely
1 egg

1/2 c chicken boullion

1 small can wet cat food (I didn't have any wet dog food so I used what I had)

Additional corn meal as needed.

Mix flour, corn meal and parsely together.   Mix egg and chicken boullion together. Add the dry mixture to the wet. (It will be really stiff). Once that is mixed, add the cat food.  Add as much corn meal as you need to make a stiff dough that you can handle.


Make little balls (1 teaspoon) of this mixture. Place on greased cookie sheet. Take a well floured glass (bottom) and smash down the balls. You will do this several times so they are pretty thin (1/4-1/2"). 


Bake in 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Flip over and cook another 5-10 minutes till they are dried out.

I put them in a plastic container. Think they should go in the fridge if you have them longer than a few days.


Here's a link to alot of other dog treat recipes.

Home Made Dog Treats

Netflix on Droid 2

This weekend Verizon automatically updated my Droid 2. Initially I was not happy as the update changed alot of cosmetic things and it threw me. (While I love change when I initialize it, it makes me very unhappy when it is thrust upon me). 

Not knowing what changes were actually made, I decided to explore Android Market and see what apps were available. I noticed the Netflix app so I installed it.

I am so glad I did! This app streams smoothly (no fits and stops). All my "instant" choices are there for me to choose from.  What a sweet treat to watch a movie on my phone! (I tried running both Netflix and Hulu on my phone when I first got it but they were not supported on the Droid 2 at the time).

I haven't tried Hulu yet but if you have  Netflix account, I highly recommend seeing if the app is supported on your phone. It's pretty sweet!

Focaccia Bread

Tonight I made Focaccia Bread. So yummy (and easy). You can buy the dough already mixed at the store but this is so simple to make. You can have it anytime and not have to plan ahead (I like that alot)! Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt or pepper

Directions

1. Combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Mix well. Heat water and vegetable oil until warm, and add to yeast mixture along with the egg. Blend with an electric mixer at low speed until moistened. Beat for 2 additional minutes. Stir in 1 3/4 cup flour while beating, until dough pulls away from side of bowl.
2. Knead in 3/4 cup flour on floured surface. Cover dough with a bowl, and let sit for 5 minutes. Place dough on a greased baking sheet. Roll out to 12 inch circle. Cover with greased plastic wrap and a cloth towel. Place in a warm place for 30 minutes.
3. Uncover dough, and poke holes in it with a spoon handle at 1 inch intervals. Drizzle olive oil on dough, and sprinkle with crushed rosemary.
4. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 17 to 27 minutes, until just golden. Remove from baking sheet, and cool on rack.

Welcome Back!

As you know, I spent much of my summer in Southern California. Aside from spending wonderful time with my mom, I reconnected with my dearest, sweetest, oldest (in length of time known) friend Denise. She is so wonderful and truly one of my life's gifts.

Since I've been back home I realize that I post ALOT on Facebook, mainly as a way for Denise to know what's going on in my life. Recently Denise said to me, "I'd love to get a glimpse into that filing cabinet of your brain". As a means to that end, I've decided to bring my blog back to life.

I also got my creative mojo back so I'm using this blog as a filing cabinet of sorts, where I can post recipes and crafts that I'm doing and/or contemplating. Hope you enjoy!

Here's D and I at Disneyland, sharing our love with Abe Lincoln. We sure are cute chicks, aren't we?!

My $2 Picture

I've been looking for the right picture to hang over my fireplace for almost a year now. I'm REALLY thrifty so it makes my choices rather limited. Yesterday I stopped by a church rummage sale and found this picture. It's nothing spectacular but I loved it for several reasons. First, it's rather large (3.5' x 20"). Second, the colors match my living room colors (sage, rust, red, and off white). You can't really tell from this picture but the frame is gold and sage. Third, it was only $2!

What I didn't like about the picture is that it's just a print and the colors seemed kind of washed out. So I got a creative idea to spark it up with some acrylic paints I have. This is the after picture:

I'd still like to add more highlights but I only had toothpicks to work with (!). I figured little was way better than too much! I also need to get some gold leaf to spruce up the frame. I think it came out pretty nice for the first draft. I promise to post pictures when I do more to it.