A great fall day.

Today I experimented. I made homemade apple sauce.
I used 5 apples, brown sugar, white sugar, a lemon and a cinnamon stick. It tastes very yummy, and for those who like cinnamon, there is a huge cinnamon taste.  Since I didn't use exact measurements, I can't share the recipe here, but I can tell, that my house smells super yummy. It is making me feel that fall really is here. Between the applesauce, Church, cleaning, the dog park and football, I have to say this is a great fall day.

Yesterday, I went to Cran-fest. A festival of cranberries, in a town that is surrounded by cranberry bogs. It was really cool. There were lots of tents set up of people selling different items. I found some yarn for my next project- a sweater. I also got some cranberry salsa and some apple carrot butter. I don't know what to use them for yet, but they tasted very yummy. Maybe for entertaining? (If my husband and I ever do entertain some guests) Not only did I get some cranberry stuff, but I got to see how the cranberries are sorted and I met the old governor of WI. I had a great day yesterday.
Ciao,

Pintersting sundays

Oh my Pinteresting. What to share with my pins today. For those readers of mine who don't have a pinterest ye, I'm really hoping I am helping you make the decision to get one. In fact, if one of my readers would ever like me to share some of there pins, that would make me very happy. So readers, think about this and please get back to me.

As for this Sunday, I will share some of the most recent pins from this week: (because these pins aren't from the same board, just click on the picture and it will take you to the link.)

How to clean out old candle jars

Patterns

 

For the laundry room. 

Well, happy pinning!

Let's talk Fridays

Today I wanted to talk about the NFL ref strike, but now that that is fixed, I guess I can't really talk about it.  So instead I'm going to talk about eating healthy.
How do you eat healthy? Do you watch calories? Fat  intake? Both? Sodium?
Do you eat organic, locally grown food?Do you avoid foods that have a lot of sugar, or have been processed. Do you eat carbs? Meat? What do you do to eat healthy.

With all these new diets out and about, it is hard to know what is healthy for you and what isn't healthy. For me, I think everything should be fine to eat but moderation is key. I feel, that if one goes out and gets a coffee drink that has over 1,000 calories, then they should watch what they eat for the rest of the day. My husband and I are in the process of eating healthier.

During the times it is available we try to buy as much fresh food as possible. We have cook books, one with recipes under 500 calories and 15 grams of fat, and one with recipes under 300 calories and 20 grams of fat.  I really hope that following those recipes will help. I have also cut our processed sugar (such as soda) and am getting my husband to do the same.  But as I said, I believe in everything in moderation, otherwise you will have a moment like this.

Spinach and Crab Elbow bake

I made this last week, but  was busy with other things and did not get around until this week for posting this. Last week Tuesday I was experiemnting with dinner. I decided I wanted to make  Spinach and Crab mac and Cheese, but then, I was thinking of chaging the name. You see, it turned out more like a pasta bake instead of a macaroini and cheese. So, I present my experimentation:

Spinach and Crab elbow bake

Ingrediants:

 3 Tbsp butter                                     3 Tbsp White wine

 1 C. Frozen Spinach                           2  C. milk

 1 egg                                                1 tsp. minced garlic

 2 Tbsp graterd parmasin Cheese

 1 Cup of Colby and Monteray  Shredded cheese blend +1/4 C.to save for later

 1 Cup of  Italian Shredded cheese blend +1/4 C.to save for later
 Elbow noodles

I heated up the butter in a sauce pan and put the white wine  as well as the frozen spinach. When the spinach was cookes, I added the milk, beated egg and cheese. I made a creamy cheese mixture. While I was making the cheese mixture, I boiled the noodles. After the cheese mixture and noodles were done, I miked them all together in a baking dish, topped it with bread crumbs and the left over cheese and but it in the oven(350 degrees) for 30 to 40 minutes. 

It was a very yummy dish, and Jeff really liked it .

Pinteresting Sunday

Oh my pinteresting. How interesting pinterest has been this month. Jeff has gotten a pinterest now and oh my! He is a pinning machine. To help him out with his pinteresting, today I will share some pins he put underneath his board building projects. (the link is here) Jeff has an interest in building things, so he created a board all about things he wishes and hopes he will get the opportunity to make one day.

A small house in the back yard. 

A lazy Susan book case

A hidden laundry room

and an amazing closet. 

I hope one day Jeff will be able to make all of these, and  more.
Ciao,

First blanket is done

As I mentioned earlier Jeff and I want to open a little online store. Well, I finished one of the products a baby blanket. Since it is one of my own creations, I figured I would share the pattern.

Danielle's Baby Blanket

Using size 10 circular needles

Cast on 120 stitches. 

Rows 1-4: Knit

Row 5: Knit 20, place a stitch marker, K1 P1 for the next 80 stitches. Place Marker Knit last 20 stitches

Row 6: Knit to markers, P1K1 to marker, Knit to end. 

Repeat Rows 5 and 6 until desired length. Knit the last 4 rows. Then cast off. 

A very easy blanket, but a very nice looking one.

Now it is on to making puppy sweaters. The best part is my model Winston loves to wear sweaters when it is cold, and is between a small/medium size.
Ciao,

Let's talk Fridays

So sorry I'm late with this. Today I want to talk about the ever so controversial topic of politics.  This November there will be a huge election. The presidential race for 2012 is upon us and the political ads are on the TV, radio, and internet. Not only does one get ads  by the politicians and by the people who support them, but now there are adds on Facebook
To all my friends, I love you very dearly, but, I do not appreciate all the political rants cloggin up my newsfeed. I believe I posted in here  a picture about that once before  when I did a what I hate post. Well, here it is once more:

Yes, I believe being knowledgeable in politics is a great thing, but all the ads, all the posts..well, what do you think?

Getting ready for fall.

For me, fall is a very fun season. There is a lot going on. The World Series for Baseball, Football as begun, school is back in session, the leaves are changing color, and the weather is getting cooler. It's time for harvest, and giving thanks and all the animals are getting ready for Winter.

To me, it is time to get the apartment ready for Fall and Winter; unpacking the snow boots and hats and mittens, making sure the winter coats will work well, and decorating. This fall, Jeff and I are going to have a nice, little homely apartment. We went out and got a bunch of apples yesterday. I figure we will eat most of them, but I do want to bake some into something this fall. Whether it be a pie or bread, I will be baking some apples.  We got some small pumpkins to decorate the inside of the apartment, as well as the outside. We set them up yesterday, but realized they were a bit too small. So we are going to find something we can set the pumpkins on instead of the ground. We all got mini pumpkins for the inside of the apartment. I think it would be cute to have a fall scene with pumpkins and leaves. That may be some work, but I think it can be done.  Lastly, I made a wreath. I will post a picture along with how I made it later this week.

Beside making the house ready for fall, I think it is important to make your diet ready for fall. In Summer, fresh fruit and veggies are available at all times. Yes, in winter there are some avaliable fruits and veggies, but they are really expensive. What I have decided to do is make use of the crock-pot Jeff and I received as a wedding gift. I will prep meals and freeze them. That way, we can still have all the yummy veggies not available in Winter.

I'm sure there will be other things I will do to get ready for fall, I just haven't thought of them yet. Anyways, Ciao for now.

Pinteresting Sundays

Quotes, quotes and more quotes. Today, I'm just showing some quotes from my quote board. (click here to go to it)

        

          

There you go, some quotes to think about. 

Let's talk Fridays

Today I want to talk about BMIs. Yup, that's right, the Body Mass Index. Is this an accurate way to tell if someone is healty? Should this be the ONLY test that doctors rely on?
I feel no. In one of my health classes while a school, we talked about how BMI's only factor someones height and weight. That's great, if someone is of an average height and weight. But what if someone is super short? or really tall? or muscular? What is someone is curvy? or a stick? Does BMI work then?
Are there other tests that doctors can use along with the BMI to see how healthy someone is? I feel there is. I feel, in order to see if someone is healthy the doctors should look at their body fat percentage as well as the person's life style.

Knitting a blanket.

I am attempting to knit my first blanket. My goal is to finish this blanked by the end of Saturday. I'm only halfway through. Which means I have a lot of knitting to do.  Which means I need to buckle down and knit. The problem with knitting is, as many people may have realized, the bigger the project the longer it takes. Jeff and I would like to open an Etsy Store and sell some of my knitting The problem is I first want to have some product already made. I figured it would be helpful to have some pre-made  items. The problem is finding the time to make them. Knitting is something that basically involves sitting on my butt. Doesn't sound the greatest to me. I also don't want to end up hating knitting because of the store, Which leaves me with a dilemma.  Do I want to be knitting and crocheting like crazy, in hopes that some one will buy what I make? What if I'm let down and this fails? Then what?

I know Jeff one day would like to open his own wood working business. All the tables in the apartment but one, where made by him and they look great. I think he has more confidence in himself than I do. But he seems to have confidence in me. If I open a store, we were thinking of just using the name I came up with for my email when I was 13. Emraldbaby. We thought that name would be a good idea because most of the time knitted/ crocheted stuff is for babies. We would have it a tag on the items which would say Emraldbaby Designs and there would be a heart in the middle.

So, readers, what do you think? Should I go for it?

An Early Christmas post

With the wedding being over, I dried my flowers and turned them into ornaments.
Not only did I use my dried flower petals, but I used any extra bit from the wedding that I found. Below I have posted collages of my ornaments. Not all of my ornaments are in the pictures (there's a lot of them) but I posted a few.  Below I the pictures I will post how I made the bulbs.

These ones I put dried flower petals inside. After I filled the bulb with the flower petals, for some I glued ribbon around on the outside. For others on the outside I made a bow out of ribbon. For the two bulbs on the bottom left I used the extra petals from my beautiful wedding cake. 

These ones have an extra invitation on the inside. What I did for those was cut up the invitation into thin strips. Then I used  a pencil and wrapped the invitation strips around the pencil until the strips were curly. After that I filled the bulbs with with strips. I topped some of the bulbs with a bow made out of ribbon. 

These are a few examples of what I did with my extra fabric. I used the extra tulle and fabric from my dress and I used the ribbons from the bridal shower and from the bouquets. I put the tulle and fabric inside the bulbs spinning the bubs to create  a wavy look which is very visible in the the top right hand picture. 

Last I used some sugar and glue and glitter to make Christmas looking snowball ones. I'm still working on them, especial the big ones with the sugar, I'm hoping to be able to create a little winter scene in them. But here is what I have done so far. 

Now for the tree. I live in a very small apartment, which is way to small for a tree. Until Jeff and I move to a bigger house, we will be hanging the bulbs in the windows of the apartment with string. That, plus Christmas lights in the window should create a beautiful  apartment for winter. That's all for now. When I have everything done I will most defiantly post more pictures. 

Ciao,

Pinterestng Sundays

Today for Pinteresting Sunday's I would like to share some fun ideas for fall.  All of these are found on my Pinterest: Holiday Ideas Board. 

For a very simple Halloween decor

A hanging lantern

And a great way to carve a pumpkin

Just some small fun ideas for fall. 

Ciao,

What's for Dinner : Chili

Fall is coming, and it is the prefect time of year to have all that yummy fall food. Something I have recently acquired a taste for is Chili, but only if it is made a certain way. I love to eat my mom's chili, but don't really like it when I'm at a restaurant. I don't know what it is, I'm just a picky eater today. With the weather cooling off, Jeff and I decided to make our own homemade Chili today. We basically experimented, but it was really fun. We cranked up the music and began the chili making process.


For seasonings we used the following:
2  1/2 tsp Garlic Powder                    1 1/2tsp  Paprika
2 Tbsp Chili Powder                          1  tsp Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Crushed Red Pepper               1/4 tsp Chives
1/4 tsp Steak Seasoning

For the meats we used:
1 lb of Ground beef               1.25 lbs of Ground Turkey

For the veggies we used:
1/2 of a  fresh red pepper              1/2 of a fresh yellow pepper
1/2 of an fresh orange pepper        1/2 of a medium red onion
1/2 of a large  fresh white onion       1 can of black beans

For the Sauce we used:
2 cans (15 oz) tomato Sauce
1 Can (15 oz) Stewed tomatoes (with the water they were in)
3/4 Cup of water
1 can (12 oz) of Tomato paste
a little less than 1/8 of a cup of Whiskey
1/2 Tbsp of Jalapeno juice

For serving:
Cheddar Cheese                                 Oyster Crackers

The Process:

1. We cut up all the fresh veggies and set aside
2. We  mixed the meat together. We had the oven burner on Medium heat and browned the meat  until it was almost all browned. Then we added in the red onion and the white onion. We sauteed all of them together. After the meat was browned we drained the fat and set aside.

3. We put the liquids  in the crock pot and turned the crock pot on low. We mixed all the liquids together and then threw in the seasons. We then threw in the peppers, meat and onions and the black beans. We mixed  everything all together. We cooked it on low for 4 to 4 and a half  hours stirring occasionally.

Serving:
We topped our Chili with some fresh Shredded cheddar cheese and some crushed up saltine crackers. Jeff also topped his with  some extra cut up onion.

How did it taste?
During the cooking process, while stirring, there were times where I would take little taste test. It tasted pretty good. Jeff say it tastes what Chili should be.  It is a mild chili- not too spicy so if you want spicy, I would say you can add more spices to it. Jeff loves spicy Chili, but I don't so he added more chili powder to his.

So if you want a fun Chili Recipe, here you go!

Ciao,