St Patty's Day

St Patty's Day

So this past weekend was St. Patty's Day! Yay!! It's seems though that I'm the only one along with my family that regularly celebrates St Patrick's Day. So invited some friends over for a St Pat's day Brunch on Sunday. Although many had to drop out last minute the few that came over had some yummy food and a chill time. So what did I make?!



First I borrowed my friend's crock pot and cooked up a corned beef. I got like 3lbs of meat, and first I put a layer of potato and carrots then topped that with meat, put a little mustard on top then topped that with red cabbage. I made a brown sugar sauce and poured that over with a Guinness. Cooked that for 10 hours on low. Then I made a gluten free applesauce cake using this recipe (http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2012/11/gluten-free-applesauce-cake.html), I changed it a bit adding some homemade almond and oat flour. I didn't get the crumb topping correct, but it was so tasty! The on Sunday morning I took the cook meat and potatoes and such and chopped it all up with some roasted butternut squash and sauteed them a bit together then put it all in three cast iron pans making little divits in the hash. Then I cracked an egg into each hole and baked the cast irons at 400 until the eggs set. I took some of the juices in the crockpot and made a sweet glaze for ontop of the hash if wanted.

I also made some Boxtys (irish potato pancakes), and green rice crispies. My roommate Laura made irish soda bread and whiskey butter, Mike made a white sangria, also a roomie made deviled eggs and we had irish coffee fixin's. So we all hung out in the back yard eating yummy food while the dogs played around... It was so nice and warm I even got a little sun burnt. Crazy!


And to round off this post some pics of Mike and I at some "irish" bar in North Beach. It's sad how good I look with a mustache.

Huggles

Adventures in Cannin'

Adventures in Cannin'

So lately it seems that I am having the urge to become Laura Ingalls, I'm making skirts out of stripped floral cottons, I want to wear lace up booties and call my dad "Pa". And I've been trying to figure out what to do with the orange tree in the back yard. This orange tree is a Giant. It's two stories tall, covered in oranges and Tripp is the only one eating them... he's always snacking on a orange in the backyard. So I've been collecting recipes from cakes to infused vodkas... so why not try to can them?




Mike was such a doll to get me a started kit of supplies which originally were for flavored vodka's but decided before buying all that booze I should just try to can things i have for free, ie thousands of oranges using the waterbath canning method. So I collected a BIG bag of them, rinsed them quickly, and started chopping and peeling while watching a little TV. I ended up cutting them up instead of normal peeling them cause they were SOOOO ripe and juicy.



After boiling the glass jars, heating the lids and boiling the syrup (I didn't make an added sugar syrup I made a water/juice syrup, no added cals!), I began canning! The hardest thing I think I found was making sure there were no bubbles before closing the jars, I think I might've broken a bunch of the orange slices while trying to poke the bubble out. I fill the jars with the syrup to around 1/2" from the top, wiped the edge and put the lids on. Then gently dropped them into the boiling water for 10 minutes. This morning I checked them and they seem sealed, so here's to hoping I can open them up in a month or so and they aren't rotten! I got the recipe on how to can oranges from this website > http://www.pickyourown.org/canningcitrus.php. You can also get tons of recipes from the Ball Jar website and download a quick beginners guide to Waterbath canning > Check out their beginners guides here.




The only thing now is, what do I do with canned oranges? The oranges are the best tasting but make AMAZING juice and are great to cook with, so you guys have any suggestions? Overall the entire process was fairly easy, you just need big pot and patience for many pots of boiling liquids... and lots of burners on your stove :)

I'm sure I'll try some more stuff soon! Adam is growing cucumber so we will make pickles, and I really want to make pickled beets! And anything to do with oranges! Yum!
Everyone CAN AWAY!

Yum

Yum

So it's Friday night and I haven't got much sleep all week, so you know what I'm going to make my self a yummy meal. mmmmm.

I decided out of the box baked mac and cheese with pan fried avocado, broccoli, and shrimp.



Ok, first I made some quinoa mac and cheese like the box said. While the noodles were cooking I browned the frozen broccoli and frozen shrimp and some sliced avocado. After the mac and cheese was ready I put it in a pan and added a little milk so that the noodles didn't dry out. I topped it with some extra chucks of cheese and my pan fried goodies, then sprinkled some parmesan cheese. Pop it in the over at 350 for ten minutes and voila yummy gluten free dinner.






I added some delicious Crispin cider and some ripe mango for desert.

So what's the verdict? I dried the shrimp out a bit, so I need to learn to cook shrimp better. Also quinoa noodles... don't like. I need to remember this, the flavor just isn't good. I need to stick to rice noodles.



And 22fl oz of cider gets you real quick.
Yay, gluten free

Huggles,
Lauren

New Diet

New Diet

New Year.

So one thing I have determined to try is adopting a gluten free lifestyle this year. 2012 was a year of a lot of health issues that are still continuing, so I'm drawing inspiration from my sister and mom. My sister has been gluten free for two years now and it has helped a ton with many of her health issues. My mom has been grain free for about a year after the suggestion from her chiropractor, and she has noticed a big difference in her health as well. Since many of my own health issues appear to be hereditary, I'm giving it a go with encouragement from my family and coworkers. I'm sure I'll slip up, but I'm really going to try. I'm going to miss bread baskets and beer, but I'll just load up on potatoes, wine and gin and tonics. Thank goodness I'm making a bunch of infused vodka's this weekend with all ingredients picked from my houses garden. One thing is I'm going to have to find a good pizza dough recipe, or this pizza monster will be sad. 

Lucky me, the grocery store near my work is having a 20% off gluten free products this week. I stocked up.

So this will be a challenge… I mean my aunt and uncle owned a bakery, and I worked in a bakery selling yummy breads for years. I'm a bread fiend, and so is my guy… So many temptations will surround me, but I will try.

Darnit

Darnit

So I finally found the most perfect Dirndl, and it was from Lauren of Dear Golden Vintage who is located near me. So I planned on going out there and trying it on and buying it, we made the plans and as we did it sold! How upsetting. I should have told her it was a definite sale and got it reserved.




I was pretty sure it would've fit me too, but I really wanted to go out and meet her and try it on... thwarted! So I scoured ebay and found a cheap comparable one and just bought it. It'll be a little large but I can take it in, and it's wool so it'll be my winter dirndl.

The first time I wanted a Dirndl but didn't go for the purchase was when Keiko from Keiko Lynn was selling her Pink Gingham Dirndl. But I chickened out... Ah! I do that so often, but again I am poor and work all the time, where would I wear that? Well I guess work since I make up my own clothes rules.



I'm still on the look out for some more Dirndls... and next time I'm in the Cincinnati/Germantown area you can be sure I'll be looking. I love them and would wear them all the time. How german am I? Actually here's a little background of my family. My german side is from Marktheidenfeld (I'm pretty sure) on the river Main in southern germany. They were clock makers and moved to Virginia in the early 1800's-ish. Then the german families moved to PA and eventually to Ohio and the Moyers were one of the families who helped create and build Germantown, OH. So yeah I'm German. My other side is Irish and they came here for work and a better life in the early 1900's, which I wrote about here >> Hey girl your irish is showing

I'm still really wanting this Dirndl from Bow's and Bandits but I want to see how I like the one I bought first and I'm afraid this may be too costumey. And it also is located in Germany, and it would be a little large on me as well. But I would still wear it. I am also still waiting for a response to see if it's cotton or not. I may also want to just wait for Oktoberfest back home. Or perhaps go up and scour thrift stores in Frankenmuth.



So If you know of any awesome Dirndls for sale contact me!!! I really like the Bavarian style which is a little shorter than the Austrian... oh well. pity party for me. Maybe I'll make one... Onwards to an outfit post!

Just a quick get up today, nothing crazy. I was going to wear this yellow dress but I couldn't find my slip. I love love this skirt, I got it at Zara on Sunday on sale and it's sooo light weight and the pattern is too cute. This belt I got last week on sale... man I didn't spend much money in July but now I am... Oh well.

{ Skirt - Zara }{ Blouse - AE }{ Belt - Ecote via UO }{ Heels - Aldo }

Sorry for any lack of creativity in pictures or outfits as of late. I'm swamped preparing for my artshow, so most all my pictures will be taken at work because I get home and change. And pardon for the grainyness of the photos as well.

Onwards to some other ramblings. Last night I made apple pie because I had a bag of apples that were getting mealy. Little did you know that I can bake up a storm. I'm not good at dinner stuff, but I'm really good at cakes, and waffles, and crepes... and now pie! It was a super simple recipe, with the crust and filling it had 8 ingredients. Flour, Sugar, Salt, Water, Apples, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Butter. I love simplicity.

I must say it was pretty perfect looking. Shots with my iPhone because right before I misplace my point and shoot. grrrr.

Good news, left overs at home!