Posts tagged ‘cooking’

photo credit: Post Punk Kitchen

I knew there’s a good reason I save old tea boxes!  Here’s a cookie box idea from Post Punk Kitchen (via Readymade).  They packaged homemade cookies into a recycled tea box and even placed a few bags of tea under the cookies.

I think this is a perfect gift for an informal visit with a friend or neighbor.  It’s nice enough to be thoughtful, but it doesn’t have that “I owe you one” obligatory feeling that some gifts carry.  So today I dug through my stash of recycled boxes & containers.  Here are some favorites, and surely I’ll save more for visiting during the holidays.  

This weekend our family went to a hayride, maze, and picked our own pumpkin at Kingsway Pumpkin Farm in Hartville, OH.  They also have a petting farm, small playground, and train for little kids.  The farm owner drove the hayrides & he made the train by hand!  I’m happy to support local farmers/business owners like this.

With our pumpkin, my husband carved it, and I baked pumpkin seeds.  Our son ate carrots & watched us; he hates getting his hands dirty!  I used a Roasted Pumpkin Seeds recipe using only butter & salt; it was simple but good.  Next time I’d like to try Toasted Pumpkin Seeds with Sugar & Spice.

I made this Martha Stewart cookie recipe for a Fall party this weekend. The nuances are perfect…the subtle banana flavor, crunchy walnut, and oatmeal texture, plus the obviously compelling chocolate!

The best part was letting my almost-2-year-old son help.  I measured & he dumped & mixed & spilled sugar on the floor.  He also found a new favorite snack…chocolate chips.

My husband loves chocolate covered sunflower seeds, but we rarely buy them because of the expense.  Maybe they’re so pricy because ever little seed is precisely covered in chocolate, and I’d never have the patience for that!  But, with extra chocolate from my chocolate spoons project I made sunflower seed clusters.  I just added the seeds to the melted chocolate, mixed, and used two spoons to drop the mixture to the parchment (or waxed) paper.

I love melting extra chocolate into my hot coco, so occasionally I’ll splurge on the sugar and make chocolate spoons.  Not only can you add them to hot coco but coffee as well.  Plus you can get innovative with flavored chocolates, drizzled designs, and pretty packaging.  They’re great for gifts & parties, and they’re inexpensive to make compared to store-bought ones.

So, here’s how you make them…

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Today I harvested some German Chamomile flowers, and I’ll be drying them to make loose-leaf Chamomile tea.  This is my first year growing Chamomile, and I only got one plant to survive from seed.  I drink a lot of tea, so I’ll surely plant more next year.

I did some research before harvesting my flowers.  The basic idea is pick the flowers, dry them, then use them in your tea.  Here are a few tips I learned:

-Pick flowers early in the morning, but after the dew has dried.  Pinch the flowers off just below the flower head to stimulate the plant to continue producing flowers.

-Dry the flowers in a warm, yet dry & dark location on a screen.  The quicker the flowers dry out, the more essential oils are held in the dried flower.  When the flowers are completely dry, store them in an airtight container in a dark, dry location.

-The flower head & petals are both used in the tea.  Don’t break the dried flower apart until you’re ready to make your tea (this keeps it freshest).  To make tea add 2 tsp dried flowers to 1 cup boiling water, steep covered for 10 minutes (covering your tea keeps the valuable oils from escaping).

*I didn’t find one particularly great reference website about Chamomile.  But here are a few I learned from: here, here, and here.

I’m throwing a bridal shower at my home next month, so I’ve been searching for perfect food & decorating ideas for the bride.  Since we’ll be serving hot tea, I thought tea sugars would be pretty and somewhat unique.  I used a general sugar cube recipe and will elaborate & share what I learned through the process.

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We had a birthday party for my husband this weekend.  I was busy hostessing, so I hardly took any photos.  But the fun parts were: bringing lots of indoor furniture outdoors, candles & strings of lights, the fire pit, great mood music, healthier snacks (humus & pita, apples & caramel, pistachio chips, shelled peanuts), pasta salad & chili, and one of my favorite cakes…Warm Lavender Almond Cakes.

The cake recipe is originally from the book The Herbal Kitchen.  I also found it online.  I really enjoy cooking with lavender and drinking homemade lavender tea.  Lavender has a great scent and a deep flowery taste (so use sparingly!), plus I use lavender buds from my garden so they’re pretty much free.  I served the cake topped with whipped cream, strawberries, sliced almonds, and a small side of vanilla ice cream.  Everyone said it was really good in a unique sort of way.

Here’s a “Cookies In A Jar” I put together for a birthday gift.  I used pressed leaves for the recipe instructions card & lid decor.  I can’t find the recipe I actually used (this is a photo from my archives) but here are a couple good recipes:

M & M’s Cookie Mix, Oatmeal Chip Cookie Mix, Hershey’s Cookies, and Sand Art Brownies.

Plus, here’s an article on how to make your strata layers look their best.

I bought a Ball Zucchini plant last year from a farm.  I saved the seeds and replanted them this year.  Ball Zucchini isn’t different than regular zucchini except in shape, but I like unusual plants so had to try this one.

Yesterday I made my first zucchini bread of the season.  I needed a new recipe because my old one called for shortening which I don’t use anymore.  I found one on Allrecipes, made a few experimental changes, and was super-pleased with the results.  I appreciate reader comments for each recipe on Allrecipes which helps me make worthy changes to the recipe even as I make it for the first time.

Some changes I made are: used 1/2 cup applesauce & 1/2 cup vegetable oil instead of 1 cup vegetable oil; used 1/4 cup less sugar, and I used oatmeal instead of wheat germ.  The bread was nicely dense, not too sweet, and tasty.  It’s a keeper.