Food network pretty food

I LOVE food!

I love to cook, eat and feed my family and friends, new and exciting things!

Last year I was set to audition for Master Chef  with Gordon Ramsey but, due to extenuating circumstances I had to wait...

 Waiting to me only means I get to practice more to sharpen my culinary skills.
So when my my sister (Nikki) was planning  our sister (Katie's) baby shower they wanted it to have yummy appetizers and knew I was the one to call.

This was only a little challenging as my sister (Katie) is not a big fan of "fancy" food as she so lovingly calls it. So I was faced with the task of making something "not fancy" but, had to stay true to myself. Which meant it needed to be at least a little "fancy".

So I talked to Katie and one thing she really likes is a good BLT and that I could most definitely work with!

Here is my version of a deconstructed "fancy"BLT:
Crispy Garlic Crostinis
Creamy Formage Blac cheese whipped with Lemon Thyme & Persian Lime EVOO
Roasted yellow and red cherry tomatoes with garlic EVOO and sea salt
Drizzled with Prickly Pear Balsamic
Crumbled Bacon
Fresh Arugula
Seriously DELICIOUS! Katie loved it and all the guests devoured them.

The one in the background is:
Crispy Garlic Crostinis
Creamy Formage Blac cheese whipped with Lemon Thyme & Persian Lime EVOO
Caramelized Walla Walla sweet onions
Crumbled Bacon
Crisp Granny Smith slice on top

My brother in law told me these were so amazing and Food Network pretty :-) One of the best complements EVER!
I hope you enjoyed this little flavor adventure of mine because this is just the beginning of all the yummy things I have and will make here In the Land of the Living!

Canning 320

Canning 320 pounds that is...

So yes I can admit I might be a little over ambitious but... I love my family, saving money and knowing that what they are eating is healthy and YUMMY!

That being said here is what I started with
84 lbs of Golden Delicious apples
60 lbs of Honey Crisp apples
90 lbs of Bartlett  Pears
86 lbs of  Peaches

I just couldn't pass up the price I got on these babies so a canning I went!

Supplies...Check!                                                                                                                                                                                          

9 dozen Quart jars and 3 dozen Pint jars, 2 water baths and lots of counter space!

In the jar and ready to finish!

               

Beautiful peaches

Peaches that have been blanched and peeled are so pretty in the sunlight.

Out of the peaches I canned some and made jam out of the rest. 4 different kinds of jam to be exact :-)
I made peach/raspberry, peach/jalapeno, peach/ ginger, and peach/ginger/jalapeno.

Peach/ginger/jalapeno jam

Some people are wondering what in the world would you use peach/ginger/jalapeno jam for?

Well... I actually really like it on ANYTHING! We made some yummy pork chops for dinner the night after I canned these and we used it on the pork and OMGSH! It was so good!

Another use would be as an appetizer poured over cream cheese and served with crackers. It would also pair nicely with a stir fried asian dish. As a topping for ice cream or whatever you can imagine.

Here is a pic of some of my completed jars of Pears, Peaches and some spicy apple butter.                                                                                               

Next on my list was apple pie filling.

I made peach pie filling last year and used flour for my thickener and it worked. It isn't as pretty as I would've liked but, I wasn't sure what I could do to fix that.

So I got online and started researching like crazy!
I kept seeing the same thing...CLEAR JEL... This was the magic ingredient that canners everywhere wanted but had a hard time finding.

I saw they seen to have it at Cash & Carry but, only in 25 lbs bags for $52 w/tax.
So after discovering that my choices are to either pay $11 for 1lb online or maybe less but, it wouldn't get to me for a month or I suck it up and get 25 lbs. Being I always want the best deal I can find and the fact that Clear Jel lasts FOREVER... I got the BIG bag.  And WOW I sure am glad I did!

 

Honey Crisp apples before meeting the peeler/corer/slicer

Sorry about the picture quality my SLR's battery was dead so phone pics it is.

These are my apples before they met the apple peeler/corer/slicer...Ya say that 3 times fast...Whew!

After being peeled/cored/sliced

Here they are after! They are soaking in a solution of fruit fresh and water to keep them from browning.

In this canning pot was enough apples to make 16 Quarts of pie filling and 4 Quarts of Red Hot  applesauce!

Here is what it looks like when adding the filling "sauce" over our blanched apples. It looks a little like caramel sauce.

apple pie filling made with Clear Jel

This is the filling with Clear Jel and yes it keeps this beautiful color and the apples stay crisp even after being processed. 

Then you mix it all together in a very large bowl or I also used my extra canning pot so I had plenty of room to stir it all together. 

Here is the final product!

One quart of filling will make 1- 9 inch pie.

 Or it would make amazing gifts paired with a bag of oats, brown sugar & cinnamon for an apple betty!                                  

Or as an ice cream topping. 

Again the possibilities are endless!

Apple pie filling recipe

Here is a little lesson I learned the hard way...

Never let your lid warming pot run dry... It really can start a fire and besides that it smells REALLY BAD!

Now after all our hard work and little mishaps in the process we now  have YUMMY fruit, jam and pie filling all canned and stored for the winter here

In the Land of the Living

Boy's Bathroom Project

So yesterday I posted the "before" pics of different rooms of our house and today I will begin going through them room by room to show you what we accomplished!


This was the upstairs "boys" bathroom.
In here it was pretty much just out dated and in need of some TLC.

So we began with the vanity. We removed the entire thing including the mirror which is the only piece we kept to reuse.

 It was not very "easy" to take out and I am very blessed to have had my AMAZING brother in law Sam, here to really do the things that were to hard for me alone.







We then took out the toilet and all the base molding and the door to the linen closet which I just found out I forgot to take a picture of...

After everything was out and cleaned up we went to work on painting!

Tim and the boys picked a lime green color called "Lime Ricky". Much more "boy" than the lavender we started with.
I was so kindly informed that the generic Wal-Mart Paint is actually very good top of the line paint... I asked about this and it was confirmed that it is indeed  Valspar paint here in the northwest and Sherwin-Williams in the south. The cost difference is $16 a gallon for the WM brand and $30 for the one with Valspar on the can... I personally went with the cheaper since I bought 17 gallons total for our house. I for one am very happy with the outcome.

We purchased a new "to us" toilet from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. This store was and is AMAZING for anyone wanting to do DIY remodel at a very good price. They have just about anything you could think of and I will share all the amazing deals I found during this process.

H4H Restore finds for boys bathroom
Toilet for $50
Sink for $20

We used plastic base boards in here so there is no chance of mold or dry rot destroying the boards

The previous owners had already purchased the beautiful vanity we installed then we bought a $50 counter top from Ikea, used 5 inch white base board to create a back splash for the $20 sink.

















We reused the original mirror, attaching it with mirror mastex which I have been informed will not come off unless I take the wall out... Good thing I won't be doing that for many years :-)
We also made our own frame for the mirror using a piece of molding I bought for $5 and painting it with silver Martha Stewart paint from Home Depot.

We re-used our lighting we bought from Costco 2 years ago.

I found the starfish shaped handles for the vanity at Hobby Lobby for $1.50 each (since they are always half off). We also replaces the handles in the bath tub and shower and got the boys all new decor for %70 off at Kohl's to complete the look. 

This little renovation took us about 3 day to finish and cost about $300 when all done. I hope you enjoyed today's installment of our adventures in The Land of the Living!

New House = New Adventure

Yesterday was the 3 month anniversary of the closing on our beautiful first home and looking back at all we have accomplished is absolutely mind blowing. Especially when we had never owned a house and we picked one that had basically no master bathroom...

One of the things we really wanted was a home that we could put some sweat into and make it totally and completely ours so, seeing this bathroom we saw the opportunity we were looking for! As well as some other areas we saw that could just easily be finished.

                               Like the family room closets...

 

And the upstairs bathroom.









Next time I will share with you some of the progression of our adventures in housedome!