Sew, Mama, Sew! October Holiday Sew Alongs

I've mentioned Sew, Mama, Sew here before.  I heard about a fun activity they have going for the month of October, their Holiday Sew Alongs.  If you're thinking of making placemats, napkins, an advent calendar or tree skirt you should have a look and see if it is for you.

Tasty Thursday: Whispering Canyon Cornbread (GF/Vegan version)

Just back from the Happiest Place on Earth, what better time is there to try some Disney recipes, right? Although Whispering Canyon wasn't a stop we made this time, their cornbread sure looked good when I read the recipe at Cooking with Mickey.  Naturally, I subbed egg replacer for egg, almond milk for dairy milk and Bob's Red Mill GF blend for flour.  I used organic sugar and also added a little garlic and onion flake for a bit of a kick of flavor.  Baked it all in cast iron.  The batter filled my Lodge cornbread pan, and 6" and 8" cast iron frying pans.

I decided mine needed to be smothered in sweet potato greens, which were featured at my CSA this week.  I'd never had them before, but boy were they yummy!  I love how we have had the opportunity to try so many greens we would never have otherwise discovered through this wonderful, organic source.  Thank you, farmer Paul!

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Reusable Lavender Dryer Sachets

I occasionally indulge and purchase the Lavender Dryer Sachets from Trader Joe's.  They're quite pricey in my opinion, around $4 for a plastic packet of four.  I dislike the idea of tossing that plastic in the trash and the bags degrade so they're not infinitely reusable, despite the fact that the scent seems very long lasting.  I've also had one pop open in the dryer and found my lint trap overrun with the contents.  Luckily nothing overheated as a result of that incident. 

Recently I found myself wondering what I could do to prolong the life of the two sachets I had in my laundry area and decided I would try emptying the contents into some fabric scraps and seeing how long the scent lasts.  I can tell you that these two little sachets have been going for months now and still have a light, pleasant scent.  I find the lighter scent more pleasing, I don't want heavily scented clothing, it will give me a headache, but I like having a dryer sheet substitute, since I'd never put one of those in with my laundry.  Between my wonderful wool dryer balls and these sachets, we've got it all covered.

Lesson Learned: Tomato Sauce

I would have liked for this to be a Tasty Thursday feature, but instead it is a lesson learned.  These beautiful tomatoes are some of the last of the season's bounty from our CSA.  I decided to make some more tomato sauce before we left on vacation for five days.  I cut all the large red tomatoes, then thought I might throw in a few of the yellow cherry tomatoes.  Now, I've made sauce with red cherry tomatoes, red and yellow heirloom, red plum tomatoes, you name it.  But I've never used the yellow cherries.  For some reason they made the sauce taste 'off'.  We did eat it, but it wasn't the best.  Next CSA season I will know better. 

Tasty Thursday: Roasted Carrots

Set oven to 425F. Coat pan with Olive Oil spray. I used a 9x13 Corningware. Wash and quarter carrots vertically, then cut in roughly 2" chunks horizontally. Lay in single layer in pan. Sprinkle with organic dried onion flake and salt, or whatever seasonings delight you.

Place in oven, stir periodically and bake until browned and deliciously carmelized. For my batch, that took 40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Tasty Thursday: Crockpot Red Beans and Veggies

It's a rainy fall day here so that calls for soup, right? I had a crock pot lentil soup recipe I had wanted to try but when I looked in my bean stash I discoverd I had only red lentils and in my experience those tend to get very soft very quickly so I wasn't sure if they'd work for that recipe. But I did have red beans so this is what went into my crockpot:

1 bag dry red beans, rinsed
5 cups water
1 cup chopped CSA onion
3/4 cup chopped celery (have I ever mentioned I love cooked celery but dislike raw?)
1 cup carrots, sliced into half moons and quarters
1 tsp fresh CSA thyme
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
3 garlic scapes, chopped
1/2 tsp Applewood smoked sea salt (I added more to mine at the table)

Cook four hours on HIGH, serve over rice if desired.

Schar $1 Coupon!

While I generally hate any offer that requires Facebook, this one I really can't resist and I hope you can benefit from it and pass it on too. A Schar coupon? When did I ever seen one before? Never! So I gritted my teeth and liked it on Facebook. Happy to say I got my $1 coupon.