Getting Back in the Swing of Things

It's been a crazy couple of months. Typically, the whole summertime/school year scenario doesn't apply to us since none of us are in school but this year was different. The beginning of summertime was marked by a long awaited visit from my mother in-law and closed with the arrival of my brother's family for a few weeks and nothing in between these two summer book ends was of little consequence!

Our full "in between" consisted of visiting family in California for a week and attending a wedding there, writing and directing our church's VBS skits, finding out that we were pregnant **happy dance!** and afterwards traveling to Alaska with my parents to spend more precious time with family.  I was fairly well ready for some domestic monotony after returning from Alaska but we still had our last leg of summer left and company would soon be arriving. The kids came and were bursting full of energy and hope for their summer plans despite the sweltering heat! So for three weeks I loaded us up in the car each morning, drove to my parents' house and came home only after we had spent the entire day with them. While constantly being away from home was tiring, I wouldn't give up a single moment we spent all together!

But now everyone has returned from their wanderings to their own homes and we begin to get a glimpse at our new "normal." I have longed for this week of rest. To catch up on laundry and restock our house with food that doesn't have a questionable expiration date. To have quiet mornings with my sweet little boy and reconnect with friends I've missed. To allow my mind to dream of our new baby and the joy it will bring.... yes, I am glad that summer is at an end and life can now quiet down to a (relatively) dull roar.

My first order of business in this next new chapter is to cook dinner! Something I haven't done for at least 3 weeks since my sister in-law was the resident master chef while they were here. On my agenda for the evening is Baked Caprese Rigatoni. It's a new recipe I discovered (and drooled) over on Pinterest. Probably not something my husband would have picked out considering the amount of tomatoes it calls for, but I'm pretty certain this lovely little recipe and I can win him over!

Doesn't this look amazing?!

Missing A Major Ingredient: Triumph over a challenge

Normally my recipes are from two sources: Pinterest or my Mother in-law. This morning however, I needed to enter a more specific search since I was lacking a key ingredient in pancakes. I'll give you a hint.

 Yeahhhhh. Milk is kind of an important ingredient in most cases. So I typed in "milkless pancake recipe" and lo and behold it seems many others were also lacking that key component and had to get creative.

Typically, when I don't have an ingredient I'll just scrap the idea for the day and wait until I have everything. But today I had a huge crate of fresh blueberries just begging to be used and they were my inspiration to press on. I followed these directions but I (sort of) halfed the recipe because I could not should not be eating 20 pancakes all my myself.

My mom's old griddle. She used to make me pancakes on this same pan when I was little!

Additional changes: The recipe's comment section had many people saying that the pancakes were rather dense and flat so I followed  their tips and added more sugar, vanilla, and flour. There's no easy way to half 3 eggs so I just opted for 2 instead of one. I also was lacking a wisk (Seriously?! Who doesn't have a wisk in their kitchen?! Me, apparently.) which probably wasn't a big deal but since the directions called for the eggs to be "wisked" till bubbles formed, I decided to be anal about it. I pulled out my hand mixer, set it on low and that did the trick! I don't know how important those bubbles are to making fluffy pancakes, but by golley, I was going to have bubbles in my eggs because that's what the recipe told me to do!

The changes were successful. For whatever reason, my blueberry pancakes turned out so amazingly fluffy and yummy looking that they disappeared before I could take any more pictures. :-) Ooops!

DIY Jewelry Holder

Jen over at IHeart Organizing was my creative inspiration for this DIY project that I've been dying to try for months! It seemed like the perfect gift for my wonderful mother in-law, who recently moved to Alaska into an apartment with a typical lack of storage space!

Gorgeous, right?! I had looked at several similar ideas but they all seemed a little flimsy compared to this... especially if you love those big, chunky, fun earrings! I immediately set out looking for this particular screen at my Home Depot store and found that it cost $25 a sheet!! Youch! The supplies plus shipping set this project wayyyy outside of my crafting budget so it was at that point I had to retire my idea for the time being. It lay festering in the back of my brain until one lovely day a couple months later I came across another blogger's suggestion to use chicken wire! Of course! *face palm* Why didn't I think of that?!

The same week I saw the chicken wire suggestion we were headed up to visit my in-laws in Anchorage! It was  perfect! Shipping was no longer going to be an issue and I had found a new, more economical way of completing my gift! One of the days we were there, the family decided to go salmon fishing with a friend and, having had a full touristy few days already, I opted to stay back at the apartment so our son could have a normal day of playing and napping.....annnnd so I could be crafty without anyone knowing what I was up to.

I'm not going to lie, I was being sneaky and I reveled in it! Ever since I was a kid I loved surprising people whether by doing chores without being asked or by making things for them. My inner child was coming out in full force as I went to the thrift store, picked out a sturdy wooden frame, then hit Home Depot for the rest!

 I found the "chicken wire" which was in a huge roll for $7. It had wider gaps than I had hoped for so I decided to look around a bit. That's when I stumbled onto that section where the decorative metal screens were being sold and they had a new design in a smaller size for only $10!! Hallelujah! I snatched it up, grabbed some teacup hooks, found my way to the spray paint where I took about 15 minutes longer than necessary to pick out a color and then checked out with my goodies!

Unfortunately I didn't have the sense to take pictures of the process but here's the final product! My mother in-law was surprised when she got home and hung it up right away. She's so much fun to buy/make things for! I just love her to pieces!

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Mmmm, the house smells marvelous! Who needs a candle when you can just make this super easy recipe from Artsy Fartsy Mama and get to eat its deliciousness 30 minutes later?


This is my second time making this recipe. The first time I followed the directions exactly and it was ah-mazing.... I just knew I would be making it again soon! This time around, I decided to make some slight alterations in order to serve it to my mother who is gluten intolerant. 


There are a plethora of gluten free recipes out there designed to make you feel like you are still getting to eat the food you love but unfortunately most of the desserts end up tasting something like slightly sweetened cardboard. This recipe gave me hope though! The 3-4 bananas it calls for provided a moistness that so many gluten free desserts sorely lack and the results were beyond gratifying! Even with the changes, it remained a simple, easy recipe with great flavor and, even better, perfect banana bread-ey texture!

 Below I've posted the original recipe and then my altered recipe as well. Hope you enjoy!

What You'll Need (Original Recipe):

Yellow Cake Mix

2 Eggs

3-4 Overripe Bananas

1/2-1 cup chocolate chips, nuts, etc.

My alterations

What You'll Need (GF Recipe):

GF Cake Mix (I used Betty Crocker's mix) 

2 Eggs - The GF mix will call for 3 but 2 worked just fine!

3-4 Overripe Bananas

1 tsp Vanilla (I added this because everything tastes better with a little vanilla!)

1 cup chocolate chips, nuts, etc!

Brown Rice Flour to flour the pan(s)

 

Spray two small bread pans with cooking spray and then lightly powder with brown rice flour before adding the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes and then let cool for a few minutes. Use a knife to make sure the edges are separated from the sides of the pan, turn upside down and then pat the bottom of the pan a few times. It should come right out! Enjoy a healthy (ok, fairly healthy) dessert!

Yummm!

Project Numero Uno!

This morning's endeavor : Steel Cut Oatmeal

Now, this may not seem like such an endeavor to you, but to me, I read "fool proof" in the Pinterest description and I immediately think, "but they haven't ever seen me cook!" I have burnt rice, boiled water so  long the pan burned, ruined spaghetti sauce, and even had a Pyrex dish explode on me! Forgive me if my cooking self esteem is a little bit low but I've learned that I can screw up pretty much anything in the kitchen, even the "easy" things. After those incidents, I went through a period of time where I was scared to cook. I though I would surely burn the house down! (Oh, if you only knew how close I've come!) However, time went by, and as I guiltily watched my hard workin' man come home from work each night and have to cook dinner, (he's an amazing cook and he gets that from my amazing cook mother in-law) I started thinking that mayyybe it was time I took over that task again. Thankfully Pinterest is chalk full of recipes for cooking n00bs and I decided to re-enter the culinary world once again.

I randomly have two big bags of Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats in my pantry. I have no idea why I originally bought them.... (maybe there was a sale??) Browsing the "steel cut oats" results on Pinterest, I found this oatmeal recipe. It looked pretty tasty and since I wasn't in a huge hurry to eat breakfast I pulled out 1 of the 2 huge bags and started reading through this gal's blog post. It didn't have the recipe listed right away, instead, she talked about steel cut oats vs. rolled oats. Interesting. Ok, now on to the recipe! She says to start this recipe by making it right before bed....say what? Well, that's a little odd, but surely she is just doing that to save time in the morning. No biggie. I followed the recipe to a "t" and got to the end where she tells you to leave it out over night after it's reached a boil...Ummm, what,...what?! But, it's morning NOW and I'm getting hungry and I have to let it sit for a couple hours?!?! *Face Palm*


**Lesson Learned: Read entire blog post and/or recipe before attempting something!

I quickly searched her comments for an, if-you-want-to-eat-this-sometime-today solution. Sure enough, some other sweet soul knew that someone like me was probably sitting on my side of the screen, minorly freaking out because I had no immediate recipe to follow. One less cup of water with the heat set on low and only 30 minutes later, I had my oatmeal! My non mushy, delightfully nutty flavored oatmeal. Everyone has their preference with what toppings to use but my favorite combo is a little brown sugar, chopped bananas, and a few dashes of cinnamon. MMMM-mmmm! Mission accomplished!