chicken and noodles

I like my chicken and noodles to be supper healthy and full of vegetables.  There are as many vegies in this recipe as there is chicken and noodles.
Here's what you need:
3-4 chicken breast cut into chunks
1lg onion
2-3 carrots
2-3 stalks of celery
3-4 garlic cloves
4-6C chicken broth
1 7oz bag egg noodles
Peel all the vegetables and garlic, pulse in the food processor until finely chopped
Dump everything except noodles in the Crock pot add enough broth to cover.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Cook 6-8 hours adding noodles the last 1-11/2 hours depending on how thick they are.
This is better than any meds for a cold or flu.

Several people have asked me why I always say salt and pepper to taste.  So many recipes call for lots of additional salt you may want to leave out if you are on a low or no salt diet.  Make it taste good to you.

sneaky storage

When you live in an old house with limited storage you have to find clever ways to keep things out of the way.  Especially if you're a pack rat like me.  I convinced AH to run a set of narrow shelves 31/2" from the door going into the office and over to the window.  All together it's about 8'X8' of space perfect for all the jars and product that I've been storing in my sun room for the business. I'll paint it the same color as the walls when we repaint later. It gets stuff off the floor and out where I can see it instead of piled in boxes.  I love it and it's all most full already.  Look around your house you probably have tiny places you can sneak in a little more storage.

painting kitchen cabinets

I want to paint my kitchen cabinets.  They've been white for years and  they are a pain to keep clean.  They have to be scrubbed at least weekly. YUCK!!
I'm still mulling colors around in my mind so I did a couple of tests.  I'm not overjoyed with either color yet.  The black has a red undercoat, when I sanded it I went through the red to the white coat.  Besides it seems to suck the light out of the room.  The cream is not quite enough of a contrast and looks almost as hard to keep clean.  I do like the look of the black peeking through. 
A friend suggested the black and red undercoat with darker ivory/tan as the top color.  Decisions, decisions.

I bought this tray as an inspiration for the colors of the cabinets.  It's not really this yellow and I love it's chippy old look.

I'll get some more paint chips and keep experimenting.  I use acrylics for my tests so its cheap to try new combinations before I commit to regular paint.
What projects are you planning this winter?Am I the only one that gets in the mood for change after the holidays?

sinple hopes for spring

I am over winter.  It can't go away soon enough, but until it does I try to keep a little peek of spring in my house to give me hope.  These are just paper whites I've forced about 3 weeks ago and they are already blooming.  The sticks are from my winter snowflake centerpiece from a few weeks ago.  The sticks will keep the flowers from flopping over.  I did the same thing with an amaryllis.  I also have a few more pots started so I'll have blooms for weeks.  Maybe until the forsythia blooms and the crocus peep their heads out.

paper pulp project

Remember these forms last week?  I did get a couple of projects worked out using the pieces I made.
Use plain paper towels and blend them up with water until they are pulp.  Mound into molds, press out the water and let dry.
After the shapes were dry I brushed on a coat of white paint then lightly stained or colored in details.  Spray with clear sealer.  I put  together a couple of designs on scrap book paper and added a couple of embelishments.



It's hard to tell but the colors of both papers I chose matched.  I don't know why they look so different.




Computer has a mind of it's own and won't let me turn the picture but you get the idea.  These little hearts would look great with my grand kids names stamped into them.



chocolate nachos

This recipe came from my DIL Barb and it is yummy.  Here's what you need:

4 8" flour tortillas
melted butter to brush on shells
1T sugar mixed with 1/2-1tsp of cinnamon
1 pint strawberries, washed, stemmed and sliced
1/2C chocolate chips melted whatever kind you like I used 1/2 semi sweet, 1/2 milk chocolate
whip cream for garnish
Brush the shells with the butter, sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mix.  Cut each tortilla into 6 wedges, place on a cookie sheet and bake at 425 until crisp, about 6-8 minutes, watch them closely.
When the chips are crispy and cooled off, pile on the strawberries, drizzle with chocolate and dollop with whip cream.  Munch away.
Absolutely wonderful and not too bad for you.

anatomy of a product

 We have people ask us all the time how we come up with our products for Vintage Cottage Beauty.
We start with an idea.  This one came from a request from my sister Paula who wants us to develop a lip balm with color in it.



Our basic lip balm is  equal parts bees wax, olive oil and cocoa butter so that's what I started with.  What do I use for color/  AH HA kool aid it's colorful and leaves a long lasting moustache.  It tastes vile unsweetened so let's add some honey.  Heat up the mix and see what we've got.  It won't mix together, must be the water in the honey with the oil in the basic mix.

So round 2 lets use emulsifying wax and see what happens.  No luck with that one either.

Let's try good old food coloring mixed into the basic balm.  No that won't work either.  Round 4 lets do the wax with the coloring and balm.  Yeah! it mixes sort of.



this color gets everywhere

 


the color was actually better in person.

keep scrolling my computer is misbehaving!



















3 hours, 4 trials, 2 burnt fingers and a few muttered curses later we have a product in containers.  Ready for our guinea pigs whoops friends to try it.

A final note on this round.  The color separated in the pot and there is not enough glide when you put it on your lips.  I hate it.   Back to the drawing board.  And you thought the beauty business was all fun and glamor.

chicken and noodles

A cold weather favorite around here.  I like to make it as healthy as possible to counteract all the carbs in the noodles.
No pics with this one they didn't come out good enough to post.

Cut up 4 boneless chicken breast into bite size pieces
Chop 1 large onion, 3 carrots, 3 celery stalks and 3-4 clove of garlic I use the food processor.
Dump every thing into the slow cooker, add salt and pepper to taste and cover with 4C of chicken stock.  Be sure to leave room in the cooker for the noodles.  cook 6-8 hours.  1 hour before you're ready to eat add 6 oz of dried egg noodles and cook until tender.  You could also freeze the base, but don't do the noodles they just turn to mush when frozen.
Healthy and good for what ails you.

playing with paper pulp

Sometimes I just have to get my hands messy and play around experimenting .  I had gotten these cookie molds out junking and decided I'd make paper pulp and use the molds to form something I could use in other art work.
Take 6-8 plain, cheap paper towels and tear them in small pieces.  Put the pieces in a blender or food processor and cover with water, I used about 2 cups.  Run until it's mush.  Scoop out and pile into molds.  press down with your hand over a sink to remove most of the water.  Press firmly and evenly with a towel to remove even more water.  I then put mine in the oven on the lowest setting until they were dry about 5 hours, or you could put them over a heat vent.  Gently use the tip of a knife to remove the image and let dry.

The resulting form is the exact shape of the mold.  The results will be revealed later.  Hmm what can I make?  A valentine, a picture, can I water color, stamp, decoupage or add other embellishments?  Check next week.  What would you do?  Send me ideas I'd love to hear your ideas.

hot chocolate

One of my favorite winter time treats is hot chocolate.  I can't stand the prepackaged stuff you add to water YUCK!!  I wanted to come up with something that was quick, easy and sugar free, that I could make in bulk.  I drink this every cool morning so I didn't want to be measuring out teaspoons of different ingredients first thing in the morning.
1 box cocoa I use Hersheys
3 boxfuls of sweetener like Splenda I use the Walmart brand
That's it dump it all in a zip bag shake it up
Use 2 tsp in 8oz hot low fat milk and stir well.  Add a drop of, vanilla and a few marshmallows if your feeling decadent.
If you really want to do this by the cup just use 1 part cocoa 2-3 parts sweetener.

Junking finds

I visited a new thrift shop while visiting my parents over the holidays.  It was probably the nicest thrift shop I've ever been in. My Mom volunteers there every week.  I don't mind getting dirty and grungy while thrifting but clean and neat is aways a plus.  This particular store is called Renew and is in Ft Wayne, Indiana.  It  is sponsored by a church and run by volunteers.  The people that were working were so friendly, helpful and interested in all the projects we were planning.  All of the proceeds go to their school.  I never mind paying a little more when the money goes to a great cause.  I'll keep you posted on what I come up for all my finds.


Cookie mold from the brown bag co.  Not sure what I'll do with them but I got some paper clay and regular clay to experiment with.



Kitty mold



Heart mold, Valentines day is coming up.  Maybe I'll make a paper pulp mold and attach it to card stock for a Valentine card or add to a wreath.




Beautiful gold leaf box. $1.50




Tall aqua glass bottle.  Will look great when I put out the spring and summer decorations.

 I also got a 100% wool sweater that Mom and I felted and are making into doggy sweaters.  I'll show you the finished product later.
When there are no rummage sales to be found look for thrift shops.  They might not be the best prices but if it's going for a good cause it's a win-win.

Typical January weather.  It's been little warmer than usual this month so far.  We got our first measurable snow and it wasn't even 1/4" but with 50MPH winds it was blowing sideways. A perfect day to stay inside and bake a cake and make some soup.  I like snow if I don't have to be out in it.  The squirels in the tree outside my living room window were having a good time, maybe they like snow.

a cold winters nap

January is kind of a blah month, add a cold, travel and the post holiday clean up and it's the perfect storm for taking a nap.  Here's what you need;  a comfy couch, warm blanket, sleepy kitties and dog, hot chocolate and a new magazine.  Ahh!  there is hardly room for me with all the animals but I get settled, in read a few minutes and I'm just dozing off when HACK! Hack!! Here comes AH now he's sick too.  Oh well it was nice while it lasted.

Baked potato soup

There is nothing like a big pot of soup on a chilly January night.  Plus a big pot means extra times you don't have to cook.  Unlike most soups this one is pretty quick.

3-4 potatoes baked or nuked, cooked and peeled
1 onion chopped
1# ham cut in bite size pieces
2 cups broccoli or peas
3C chicken stock
2-3C milk
3T butter
3T flour
1# sharp cheddar cheese
Cook the potatoes first and let them cool.
Put butter and onion in a dutch oven and cook until translucent
Add flour and cook a few minutes to get out the raw flour taste
Add the rest of the ingredients and heat through  until cheese is melted, watch carefully so it doesn't scorch.
Reheats great but doesn't freeze well

Vegtable soup

Soup is a staple around our house all winter.  I make huge batches, we eat it a couple of times that week and I freeze the rest or give it away.

2-3# chuck roast cut into cubes and remove any extra fat
3-4 potatoes peeled and cut into cubes don't make them too small or they'll just turn to mush
4-6 carrots peeled and cut into chunks
1-2 onions peeled and cut into chunks
1 lg can diced tomatoes
1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables
1T oregano
1-2 garlic cloves crushed or use garlic powder
3-4 beef bouillon cubes
salt and pepper to taste
Brown the cubes of meat in a little oil cover with water and simmer for 1 hour.  Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the meat and vegetables are tender about 1-1/2 hours.  Or just dump everything in the crock pot and cook on low all day.
This is even better served with hot home made bread and butter.

My favorite cookies in the whole world

Mexican wedding cakes


4 sticks butter do not substitute at room temperature
1C sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2C flour
2C nut finely chopped
12oz Hershey kisses buy extra for snacking
Powdered sugar
Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla add the flour and nuts until well mixed.  chill 1-2 hours.
Unwrap(the longest part of this recipe) the kisses and use about 1T of the dough around the kiss.  Be sure they are covered completely. 
Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.  They should be set but not brown.  Cool I put them in a gallon size zip bag and add 1-11/2C powdered sugar and shake gently.  Just keep them stored in the bag.  They also freeze well.