Apple Oatmeal Muffins

Are the kids refusing oatmeal?  Here's a great way to make oatmeal into a muffin that they will eat.  Once you get the basics down for making muffins there's nothing that you can't do with them. 

The two rules are:
1. Dry ingredients and wet ingredients are kept separate until the end.
2. Do NOT over mix.

When I was first learning how to make muffins I mixed so little for fear of over-mixing that often times there was a pile of dry flour at the bottom of the bowl! Now I understand that over-mixing simply means don't mix the muffins like you would beat cake batter.  Just mix the dry and wet until everything is blended.

Here's what we did:

Dry

2 cups of flour (unbleached)

1 cup of oatmeal (old fashioned)

1/2 cup of brown sugar

2 tsp of cinnamon 

2 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of baking soda

2 medium apples (peeled and chopped into pieces)

Wet

1 cup of milk

3/4 cup of oil

1/2 cup of maple syrup

1 egg

Mix up the dry ingredients and then in a separate bowl mix up the wet ingredients. Then mix them together!  Kaela and I use the measuring cup as the utensil for spooning the mixture into the muffin pan for easier clean-up.   Note: You can use liners or spray the muffin pan with oil to prevent sticking before you put in the muffin mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes @ 400 degrees or until golden.  Let cool (hot muffins do not taste good) and eat!  Holdable apple oatmeal to go!

Paint-on chair covers

When we got new chairs with white seats last year I knew they wouldn't last.  But finding affordable chair covers that won't get ripped and ruined by my two-year-old son was a real challenge.  And then the staining process began.  Why do kids choose the messiest food on their plate to throw?  I decided to start a summer project with my daughter and I bought some fabric paints.  First we sketch out the design on the chair in pencil and then my daughter and I paint directly onto the chair's cushions.  The stains are gone.  And the chairs, coated in the paint, are easy to wipe clean!  Plus, I think it looks nice.  The biggest problem is convincing her that the Care Bears aren't a good design choice for the chairs.  Instead we settled on a nice rainbow for the first one! 

Vanilla na-na-na!

I'm a big fan of Voluspa's candles and scents.  I had this terrific bottle of Vanilla Bourbon room spray that I just loved.  I sprayed my last spray last week but I kept the dark brown glass bottle thinking to put it to some use.  While I was baking the other day I reached for my Trader Joe's bottle of pure vanilla bourbon extract and I realized how similar the two scents were.  So I grabbed the empty glass bottle and filled it almost to the top with Britta water and then added a tablespoon of the pure bourbon vanilla extract.  Wow!  I have a lovely (and refillable) vanilla room spray for a fraction (of a fraction) of the cost of the Voluspa spray.  It's almost the same, perhaps a little sweeter.  The water dilutes the minimal alcohol smell from the extract so the scent is fresh and warm.  And it's so safe that I can spray it all over the room, my body, even the kids.  When we came back from the beach yesterday we cooled off with a couple of spritzes.  It was lovely!

DIY Solid Perfume... for pennies!

So after making beeswax candles I was looking at the ingredients in my I'm-smelly-stick-it-in-my-pocket solid perfume and it's mostly beeswax and apricot oil, plus fragrance.  I realized that with a shot glass and a little bit of heat I could make my own sweet smelling solid perfume for much (much) less than Whole Foods wants for Pacifica's Waikiki Pikake (which is very nice BTW).

So I melted a little bit of the beeswax... maybe 2 Tbsp with 2 Tbsp of Apricot oil.

I heated a small pan 1/2 filled with water and put the shot glass in the middle for that double-boiler effect.  After it melted I added 5 drops of Absolute rose oil and 5 drops of Jasmine (Pikake is Hawaiian for Jasmine).  Wow!  I ended up with about 5x the amount of one of those metal solid perfume containers and it smells great.  It was very easy too.  I think next time I would add a little bit more oil to make it less waxy and more spreadable.

Rose oil is amazing (it calms, relaxes, and lifts you up) but it's also very expensive.  I get mine in bulk directly from Bulgaria right here.  I also buy my lavender oil there (the most useful of all oils except for maybe olive oil).  I buy my Jasmine on the web here. 

Beeswax tea light candles

I love the smell of beeswax.  I love the soft glow of beeswax candles. But I don't love paying 6 dollars for 6 tea light candles however they smell!  So I found a very nice beeswax candle company, Bluecorn Naturals, that also sells lightly filtered beeswax (this means that the wax has been filtered for debris but not bleached) in one pound bricks.  Wow, is it yummy! Best of all... It sells for $6.50 a pound. This is a fabulous deal!

Then I found another place, Lonestar Candle Supply, that sells inexpensive and excellent tea light containers and wicks. $14 for 100 tea light containers and wicks.  You can make more than 20 tea lights out of one pound of wax making the total $9 for at least 20 beeswax tea lights.  Much better.  And fun to make!

It helps to have a pouring pot but it's not necessary.  I use a small one for beeswax.  I put the 1lb brick of golden beeswax in the pouring pot and then I put the pouring pot into a cooking pot half-filled with water on a medium heat.  It makes a double boiler: the water boils in the cooking pot which in turn heats the pouring pot.  When the wax has completely melted it's time to pour your candles.

Simply place a tea light container on the counter and put the tabbed wick in the center.  Repeat 19 more times.  You might want to put newspaper or wax paper down first!  I had a big clean up to do.  Then carefully lift the pouring pot out of the cooking pot (the handle may be hot) and pour the wax into each container.  You will spill so just don't worry about it.  Have fun and take a deep breath. Yummy honey waxy wisdom smell.  These tea lights make wonderful gifts!

Sur-PIES Party!

I love pie. Fruit pie, cheese pie, veggie pie, mushroom pie... You can make any kind of pie and it's really easy, and it tastes really good. So we decided to have a sur-PIES party. Kaela, my daughter, has been exploring puns and she adored this idea. We made 4 pies! The dough recipe I use is for a single pie so multiply accordingly. My pie style is a simple peasant style. I simply roll out the dough into a large circle, put the filling in the middle, and then fold up the sides (like wrapping a present) leaving the filling open to the sky in the center. This way you don't even need a pie plate. Any baking sheet will do.

Pie Dough:
1 1/2 cups flour (unbleached)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt
3 - 4 Tbsp of iced water

Mix the flour and salt. Cut up the butter and crumble it in to resemble bread crumbs. Add the water and mix it up into a soft ball. If it seems dry add a little more water. Wrap in wax paper and stick it in the fridge for 15 minutes. Voilà!  There is your crust.

Note: I don't sweeten my pie crusts, this way they can be used for sweet or savory pies! All of these ingredients should be adjusted for your own tastes.

Filling:
Fruit

3 - 4 cups of fruit
1/2 cup of sugar (+ or - depending on fruit sweetness)
Sprinkle of cinnamon 
1 tsp of butter cut into pieces

Veggie
 3 - 4 cups of veggies
1/2 cup of cheese (for veggies)
Sprinkle of herbs (for veggies)
1 tsp of butter cut into pieces


So we made cherry pie & peach pie, veggie pie & kids pie (apple, parsnips & carrots).

The cherries took a long time to de-pit but I had a helper. In fact it put me in mind of my childhood. I remember helping my grandmother pick the ends off of green beans. It made me realize that despite my love of ready-cut and pre-washed ingredients that make home cooking much easier... taking time to prepare fruits and vegetables allows you some uncluttered time to talk and think. I grew up sharing these tasks with my grandmother and mother and I look forward to sharing these times with my daughter.  We had fun talking and laughing about our juicy hands.  The time we put into the pie just made it more delicious!

Take the crust out of the fridge and roll it into a large circle on a nonstick baking mat (this will make the clean-up a breeze).  Place the filling in the middle and dot the top with the butter.  Fold up the sides of the pie to make an overlapping crust (like a volcano).  Move the mat onto a baking sheet and cook in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 50 minutes.  If it begins to brown too quickly, place a piece of aluminum foil over the top to prevent burning.  Let the pie cool completely before cutting into it.  Pie makes great left-overs and freezes well too! 

Smells like... something better than teen spirit

I laugh when I go into a store that sells aromatherapy sprays for $10+ a bottle.  If you read the label it's nothing more than filtered water and 40 drops of essential oils.  Don't get me wrong, I love these sprays, I'm just not willing to pay for them when I can make my own!

So tonight I put together a collection of body & room sprays as a housewarming present for my sister's new place.  I get those fancy blue glass bottles at www.specialtybottle.com for a dollar a piece (the stores want $4 or $5 each for these empty bottles!).  I fill them most of the way with filtered water (sometimes adding 2 tablespoons of witch hazel for the face sprays).  Then I drop in the scents I want.  With essential oils (oils from plants in their purest forms) a little goes a long way. Anywhere between 20 - 30 drops in total in 8oz will be more than enough for a great smelling spray.

Here are the combos I chose
Home: Wild Cedarwood & Rose Absolute (relaxing, sweet & uplifting)
Hearth: Cinnamon, Cedarwood, Juniper & Sandalwood (warm, sexy & soft)
Health: Eucalyptus, Tea Tree & Rosemary (fresh & clean)
Happy:  Geranium & Bergamot (fuzzy & fizzy)

Now I've been collecting essential oils for a while and so I have quite a few to choose from but you can go to any natural foods store to test out a couple of scents and buy two or three. These will last you a long time and this way you just fill up your bottle with water, add a few drops and presto... you have an easy-to-refill and great smelling aromatherapy spray.

I find a few deep breaths in a calming scent can do wonders for how I'm feeling.  When I first dropped Kaela off at preschool (three years ago) it was the rose oil that calmed me down.  I find a couple of sprays of rosemary and lavender in the morning can wake up my brain. There are a number of great books for learning more about aromatherapy if you are interested. I use the Complete Guide to Natural Home Remedies and Aveda Rituals most often as reference guides for blending the oils.

I also buy oils that I already know I like from Ananda Apothecary... they've got great prices and excellent information on all of the oils (though they want $2.50 for their fancy blue glass bottles).  BTW these sprays are also great for nurseries and kids' rooms because they are so light.  And yet my tea tree & lavender spray can rid any room of diaper smell in three pumps!

Red, blue, and black? Happy 4th!

Berry muffins sound delicious but they are actually kind of hard to pull off. That's why you don't see them in bakeries too often and when you do bite into one, you may be disappointed. But they are an excellent way to finish off the fruit from the farmer's market or taking care of berries that may not be perfectly ripe or sweet.

Once you get down the basics of muffins you can tailor them to fit what's in the fridge. This morning I've got strawberries, blueberries and blackberries that need using. Red, blue and black... almost 4th of July! The white can come from the flour.

Here's what we did.

First mix the dry ingredients:
2 cups flour (unbleached is best!)
1/2 cup oats (these are optional but a good way to counter mushy berries)
2/3 cup of brown sugar (+ or - sugar based on the sweetness of the fruit)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Then mix the wet ingredients:
1/3 cup of melted butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
1 cup of milk

*Tip - mix the wet ingredients in the melted butter pan in for less mess!

Now pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold and mix with a large spoon until blended.

You know the rule... no over-mixing!

Now add the fruit. Here's the deal. Less is more. You want a total of a cup of berries and you want all of the pieces to be small. Big berries don't bake well! Strawberries are a pain because the white inside is hard and doesn't taste good when baked. So you have to hull them (or cut out the inside) and chop the outsides into small pieces about the size of the blueberries. Also cut the blackberries in half (or even thirds for big berries). A total of a cup of cut berries is perfect. The consistency of the small size goes a long way to makes the berries bearable!


Spoon into the muffin pan (about 2/3 full) and bake for 20 minutes or so in a preheated oven @ 400 degrees. I like to sprinkle maple sugar on the top before baking. Kind of like that fancy sugar at the bakery but better for you! It creates a crunchy sweet topping without any work.


Take out the golden brown muffins and let them cool.  If you can't eat them all they also freeze well, two to a Ziploc bag.


Happy 4th of July!

The wonderful world of fairies...

I was excited that my daughter Kaela was getting interested in fairies. I bought her the Cicely Mary Barker books and we had a great time exploring all of the nooks and crannies of those drawings and poems. But Kaela has always been drawn to figures and so I was in the market for some inexpensive, non-Disney fairy figurines.

I searched on Amazon and eBay, Etsy and even the local Farmer's Market. The nicer the fairy the more it cost, of course! Then I found these on the Magic Cabin website. They were wooden, they had pose-able arms and legs, but they didn't cost an arm and a leg. When they arrived, although I liked them, I suddenly realized that we could make our own.

So we began by collecting seeds, feathers, and bark from the park. Then we went to Michael's and bought some pipe cleaners, silk flowers, sheets of felt, glue, and wooden ball dowels. The total came to $10. I have lots of yarn because I'm a knitter so we were all set for hair. The interesting thing is how different each one became.

First we took two pipe cleaners (or chenille stems as they are now called). We created the arms & spike for the head from one and then the torso and the legs from the other. We twisted them together to secure them. Then we "dressed" them in the flowers and bits of felt. The flowers became the skirts and the felt we made into tunics. I glued feathers all
over one of the fairies for a neat flapper effect.


We added beads to the ends of the arms and legs for hands and feet. We glued on the heads and cut yarn for the hair. Then we took our feathers or leaves from the flowers and made the wings.

Most importantly, Kaela and I had a blast creating the fairies. They were quick to make, fun to decorate, and Kaela is having a blast playing with them!