HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS

Got some tiles done for Halloween. Check them out.

If you would like some of your own, let me know in the comments or send me and email.

nEW rECIPE!

Asian Lettuce Wraps - Chicken & Cashew

Here is a recipe for the Asian Lettuce Wraps I made last night for dinner. First time I have ever made them or even eaten them for that matter. I don't know how good they are supposed to be, but these were like HEAVEN!  I think I have a new favorite food!

I looked around in Allrecipes (my favorite recipe website) and on Pintrest for a recipe.

As usual, I didn't really find anything that felt just right, so I used the ideas I had gleaned and made up my own.

 Here's the recipe:

ASIAN LETTUCE WRAPS - 

CHICKEN & CASHEW

CHICKEN FILLING

 Canola oil for sauteing

4 chicken breasts, sliced thin and diced

2 cloves roasted garlic, smashed

2 tbls Oyster sauce (my kids call it stinky feet sauce)

1 tbls  ginger paste  (the bottled kind, not dried)

Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add chicken and garlic, cook until about half done (still slightly pink inside) and then add the Oyster sauce and ginger. Continue cooking until just done, do not over cook.

TOPPINGS

2 green onions, julienne

1/8th of a green cabbage, shredded

1 stock celery, julienne

1 large carrot, shredded (like cheese)

1 can sliced water chestnuts, julienne

1/2 cup cashews, chopped

Prepare these ingredients prior to starting the chicken if you can't do both at the same time. Set aside.

Now you are ready to prepare the Cellophane noodles. I had never done this before, but it was kind of fun. I got my noodles at the Asian Food store out on Addison Ave West.  I suppose you can find them at WinCo or maybe even Smiths. You need to have everything ready and work fast. When you toss in the noodles, they expand and spread out in the pan, so allow for that when you are picking the size of your pan. Have a screen type skimmer or a slotted spoon ready to scoop them out when they are done.

CELLOPHANE NOODLES

1/3 5oz-package of Bean Thread or Cellophane noodles

Peanut Oil

Cover bottom of a large, flat bottom skillet with 1/2 to 1 inch peanut oil. Bring to high heat (don't leave) Break noodles into small batches. Throw a small batch of noodles into oil and allow to fry. They will jump and pop and spread out in the pan.  Remove quickly when they have stopped popping.  About 60 seconds. Drain and repeat with remaining batches.

SAUCE

2 tbls Oyster sauce

1 tbls Rice vinegar, unseasoned

1 tbls Hoisin sauce

1 tbls Soy sauce

1 tsp Sesame oil

Mix the above ingredients in a small cup or dish.

ASSEMBLE

Bottom to top:

Lettuce leaf (I used butter lettuce) - chicken - green onion - cabbage - celery - water chestnut - carrot - cashew - cellophane noodles - drizzle sauce

EAT!!

I let everyone put there own together.  That way I can be first in line to get mine! I hope you like it.  Let me know in the comments below.

D.

Carriage Doors for My Garage

I have such a talented husband. This last fall he built real, functioning, carriage doors for our garage!

We have had a broken garage door for quite some time, years in fact. (Let's see, it was over 10 years ago that Dallas pulled the garage door down on my head and it was broken then) ( I mean the garage door was broken then.  Not my head, at least not until he pulled the garage door down on top of it!)

We are poor or cheap, which ever you choose to call it, but lucky for us we also have talent and some tools. Dallas had to add a plainer to his stash of tools for this project, but he was happy to do it. We got the wood from the Rock Creek Mill at the mouth of Rock Creek canyon. I think the stack we got cost us around $120. If you are not familiar with the place, it is rough cut fir or pine from the south hills.

I am thrilled and think the doors turned out amazing! We are still working with the color just a bit.  I want it to match the front door and they just aren't quite there yet. But here is a picture of them with the new burlap wreaths that I made for them last week. We get compliments on them all of the time.  Neighbors even stop when driving by to tell us how cool they think they are!!

Thanks Honey!

Some SUMMER Crafts

Somehow, tie-dye seems to go along with summer. My friend Montay and I tie-dyed some Modern Woodmen's shirts a couple of days ago.  Some of them turned out really amazing!

I have learned some things about tie-dying. We have done it twice now. The first time we used  Jacquard brand of dye. It is a two step process, first you soak the cloth in soda ash (washing soda) dissolved in water. After that you use the dyes. As with most tie-dying, you then allow the items to sit for at least 8 hours, rinse and rinse and rinse with running water and then wash in the washing machine.

This time we used the Tulip brand that Michael's carries. It did not require the soaking in the soda ash, but as it all works better with damp material, we did wet everything prior to dying. The colors were, as you can see quite  bright and vibrant after rinsing them.  Unfortunately they were substantially faded by the time we got them out of the washer after washing them. That was a bit disappointing. I thought that the Jacquard brand retained the color quite a bit better than the Tulip brand.

I am thinking that next time I will try another brand I have heard about from Dharma Trading. They have so many colors I didn't even count them and they say they are the brightest 'bar none'. It was pretty fun and everybody loves tie-dye, don't they?

How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

     I have had a busy summer. Here is what I have been up to.

 I have been working for a few hours most mornings in the yard. Haven't always been a fan of yard work.  Still can't say I love it, but I DO LOVE the results.  I love my flowers, my herbs, veggies and all of my other decorating projects outside.

These are my brussel sprouts and some tomatoes. Looking forward to a plentiful harvest from the sprouts.  Dallas and my Dad and all of my kids love that vegetable. First time planing these.

This is my new raised garden bed.  We made it from DI file cabinets.  Seems to be working out quite well. I planted some of my squash and gourds.

These cute little things are my tiny hot peppers. 

These are my succulents  planted in shoes, also from DI. I have hung them on the side of our old crib turned on its side. It is standing in my claw foot tub where I have planted my ornamental pumpkins; blue and white

Some of my herbs. Bee Balm, Oregano and Basil, top to bottom

Just to show that I cannot grow everything, I have an issue with growing a lettuce bowl. Two years now I have attempted it,  (seeded it 2 times this year) but no luck.  I do much better with the volunteer lettuce that comes up in my rock garden! (See below) Letting one go to seed for next year's crop.

This our GRAPPLE tree. It is a mostly-dead-all-day rome apple tree that our grape vines uses as an arbor. Completely loaded with grapes this year.  See me later this fall after the first frost! Going to build a tree house in the tree. It will be sort of like a tree house/cave for the Grand kids!

Annual Post?

Well, here we are at the beginning of yet another year with nothing but the now annual entry in my blog. This is disappointing to me, even if not you, as I like to write and feel that I do at times have something important to say. (We can all dream, yes?) But more so lately, I have felt a bunch of words pent up inside and  the need to let them out.

Finding the time for that is a struggle for two reasons. First, I have a lot of things to do and second, for some reason (most likely ingrained from my childhood) I have an extremely hard time doing things I enjoy when the duties I don't care for are unfinished.  I know, it is a sickness; but not one that I have been able to find the cure for. The results of this infirmity is that sometimes I never really get anything at all accomplished. Nothing that I need to do and certainly nothing that I enjoy.

I think that I will make that my mission for this coming year. . . . . to do some of the things that I enjoy, even if the drudgery remains undone. What could be the harm? At this point, none of it gets done and I am not happy about it.  If I can force myself to do some of the fun things (seriously, it WILL be a daunting undertaking!) at least I will be having some fun, right? You can track my progress on the fun things to do front in my TO DO LIST to the right in the blog and I may post about them in the future.