The Penny Worthy Project

It's been summery this week without being stifling and miserable, more cloudy than I'd like but you can't win them all. We've had a great week, a little bit of time with friends, a little time mom and kids and some quality time in the water. And of course thrifting, it's time for back to school shopping for me, although I found nothing for either boy we looked pretty hard. I've also instituted setting aside money each pay period so we can get quality pants from Lands End, you can not beat their replacement guarantee. Hands down it is the best around.  I did find some cool things though.

We love this book about Bleriot the first Frenchman to fly, we found our own copy for our own little bit, who dreams in flight.

I bought this great set of homeschool 100 pictures of US history-it's really cool lots of great old photos and some drawing too. I'm conflicted, keep or sell?? Thoughts? 

And if you've been reading this blog for any amount of time you may or may not know I have a thing for office products and yes my husband knows they make me weak in the knees. I found this

and no it couldn't be 

oh but it is! SWOON hang tags all for me to love and hug. 

What to do with a lovely old cup? Put a flower in it. We have some very old rose bushes that bloom heartily every year and I love to use old mismatched cups to float a single rose in. Every room should have one, in my opinion. 

I keep getting distracted by the view out my dining room window, it's lovely. 

Peace and Love--

 

Lemon Icebox Cookies

Or Refrigerator Cookies. I prefer Icebox Cookies myself, they sound very old fashioned. The name Refrigerator Cookie calls to mind a different sort of cookie beast, the stovetop cool in the fridge delight. While those have their own appeal there are firmly, in my mind, a Refrigerator Cookie. To me the Icebox Cookie was something your grandmother, smelling of rosewater, made just for her grandchildren. They were best eaten with the late afternoon sunlight cutting through dust particles in the air, while grandma looked on fondly and then sent you back outside to play. Sigh, I miss those days.

Now Icebox Cookies can be made into any flavor, I happened to have flavored mine lemon because lemon sounded so cool and refreshing in the summer heat. The real charm is how flexible they are; you can make them orange, chocolate, vanilla or swirled and you can make the dough ahead of time and keep it in the icebox to use when you need cookies STAT. I like flexibility, don't you? So have fun, try my recipe for lemon or try your own concoction.


Icebox Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon turmeric for color
juice of half a lemon
zest of half a lemon
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon of salt

cream the butter and sugar
beat in the eggs and turmeric
and then the juice and zest
sift the flour and salt together
then stir into the butter and sugar
divide into three or four logs and roll in waxed paper
chill in the fridge until ready to use or wrap better and put them in the freezer
when ready to bake slice into 1/4 inch or so slices and bake for 8-10 minutes in a 350˚ oven

Peace and Love--



 

Pizza Burgers

Hello darling, where have you been hiding all my dinner making life? Today was a busy little day and at the end of it I got to make dinner too. Excitement. But then as I was pondering my choices: frozen hamburger patties, frozen chicken, half a zucchini, a few limp beets and some tomato sauce this triumphant idea floated into my head and whispered Pizza Burgers. TRUE STORY. Anyway my choices were limited so I went with it. Everyone was happy, everyone ate and no one cried, I call that a win in my book. Check out the pizza burgers if you need a quick delicious meal that can be pretty darn healthy too.

Pizza Burgers

4 hamburger patties
8 ounces of tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
1/2 a medium zucchini
3-4 sprigs fresh oregano
pinch of rosemary
pinch of sage
pinch of sugar
dash of salt
enough mozzarella cheese to cover each burger-leave off for the healthy option
2 full hamburger buns or your choice of bread--I used Ezekiel bread for the gluten free option

in a large skillet brown the hamburger patties
slice the zucchini into quarters and cut into slices
when the patties are nicely browned on both sides add the zucchini pieces
preheat the broiler at this point
then mix the sauce, water and spices together and pour over each burger and the rest of the sauce can be poured around the pan
continue cooking over medium high heat until bubbling
cover each burger with cheese if desired and pop under the broiler for 5-10 minutes until the cheese is bubbly hot and very melty

Even a mom who writes about food everyday has panic moments, then I stop and go OH YEAH they'll eat it because they are hungry. Or they won't and frankly OH WELL for them.


Peace and Love--






 

Just Another Meatless Monday Roasted Peppers

The heat I was whining about the other day is gone, as in o. u. t. OUT. Today was cool, cloudy and rainy in spots. I feel so refreshed! When it is hot outside I like to grill, don't we all? The other night I was making dinner and needed a quick easy side on the grill, the only thing remotely grill-able were peppers. While I was making them I decided I should share how to make such an easy, low cost, high flavor, quick side. Really roasting peppers is fun but I threw in all those other adjectives because they really do all fit. Oh and they fit in with the BIG DIET, which is going amazingly well if my pants have anything to say about it, so yeah roasted peppers are pretty much awesome.

Roasted Peppers

4 large peppers--I used red you can use what you have, chile peppers work well too

1 paper bag big enough to hold the peppers

wash and slice the peppers in half and scoop out the seeds

place the peppers over high flame on the gas grill, you can use a gas stove and hold them with tongs too

turn the peppers occasionally, cooking on all sides

when the peppers skin starts to try to turn them so most of it gets charred

when it's as down as it will get remove them from the grill and pop into the paper sack

roll the top down and let them sweat for 10 minutes 

open the bag gently rub the charred skin off

give them a quick rinse to remove the  charred dust left on, pat the dry

dress with a bit of olive oil if desired, or vinegar, or eat plain for the healthiest low calorie way

make these ahead and keep on hand for sandwiches, salads and my favorite plain and simple snacking

on the grill

getting there

just one more minute

post sweating skin removal--about halfway done

Peace and Love--

 

The Penny Worthy Project

Ok it hit 87˚ here today IN ALASKA. Sweating is an understatement, white blinding legs is an understatement and so many tank tops out and about that farmers tan is also an understatement. HOT HOT HOT and sunny for what? 19 hours? No cooling evening twilight, no strung lights and evening breezes, just blazing bright sun until 11:04 and then twilight all night. I will soak it up now to keep me through the dark winter when it's 19 hours of no sun, except it was HOT today. Whew.

Regardless of the heat I managed to get myself thrifting, especially because one of the stores has Alaskan air conditioning (FANS) and it stays pretty cool in there. I bought myself a shirt, but I was wearing it so you get this shot 

of it. I never wear anything with a picture or a brand but it was so cute I couldn't resist and MM is the original brand if ever there was one.

I bought these coloring books

 for my youngest sons. Have you ever seen the Dover coloring books? They are just real drawings free from trademarks and ® and horrible money making franchises, they are just there. My kids love them so much these refuse to color in them and ask for copies of them from the copier instead. That cracks me up! The don't want to color one and then never color it again, my children are not normal. 

Here are a few more I've bought in the last year, the Viking one was a gift.  The second hand price is always a quarter but even brand new they a nice low 2-3 dollar option. Our local toy store carries them.

Found a present for a dear friend of mine, just need to give it to her at an appropriate time. I think she'll love it.

And I bought a book, because if it's going to be 87˚ I'm gonna need to go sit in the shade and read. This is an excellent book, sweet and mysterious! 

Is it HOT where you are? I tell ya I am not built for heat!

 

Thai Cod

I live and love in the land of abundant seafood. Fresh salmon, shrimp, cod, halibut and crab are among my favorites. We dip net salmon in the late summer and are gifted halibut by good friends and buy spot ship on the side of the road, life is good up here. We truly are blessed in the good eating department, if only we grew grain and coffee we'd be set.

I purchased some wild caught Cod fillets at the store the other day, they were on sale local folks! I wanted something light and a change up from our regular dinner options and cod fit the bill. It also gave me a chance to play around with a rub recipe I've been thinking up. That is was local and sustainably harvested was a bonus for me. Here's the wet rub recipe I've been playing with this week, enjoy!

Thai Cod

*needs to rest 4-8 hours or so*

16 ounces Wild Caught Cod fillets
2 TBSP chopped cilantro
2 TBSP chopped basil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1 small garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon chili pepper powder or red pepper flakes
1 slice of lemon

cut the cod fillet into fingers or serving size pieces, set aside
grind the remaining ingredients with a mortar and pestle or a small food processor
when completely mixed squeeze in the lemon juice
rub the spice mixture over the cod pieces to completely cover them
place in a dish or zipper bag to marinate for at least 4 hours but more like 8 is better
to cook, preheat the oven to 400 degrees
place a frying pan bug enough not to crowd the cod over medium high heat
when the pan is hot add the cod and cook for 5 minutes
do not turn the cod rather place it in the oven for 5-8 more minutes to finish cooking
serve hot with appropriate delicious side dishes and a slice of lemon if needed

peace and love--


.

Bee Swarm

 This day held promise, kids went to camp for a few hours and I had free time to do anything I wanted. I did NOT want to spend the day trying to get a swarm of bees out of our big huge spruce tree. But that's what I did because I went from being a haver of bees to a keeper of bees today. And all our baby chicks escaped to boot.

I was rounding up baby chicks when I heard this chilling bee sound, the worst bee sound ever. Like 10,000 bees super pissed off. I wandered over to the bee hives and noticed one was extremely active and bees were pouring out of it. I knew right away those bleeping bleep bees were swarming. I could just feel it. I stayed and watched because there was nothing to do at this point but watch and HOPE they landed someplace close by. About 20 minutes later they were done leaving the hive and had settled about 20 feet up a tree.

Why do bees swarm? It's the natural occurrence of things, it's how a hive expands and makes a new one. In nature though, not in my hives, I did not want my bees to swarm. This can be prevented by regular hive checks to look for and kill queen cells which hold new queens. New queens can leave the hive to mate, come back and lure away half of your hive to build a new hive somewhere else. They will swarm someplace close to the old hive while scouts go look for a new place to live. This is the time to catch them and put the swarm back in the hive. I have been performing regular hive checks, I must have missed some new queen cells last time as they were being formed. It takes about 10 days for a new queen to hatch out. I was 10 days out from my last hive check and apparently missed a forming queen cell. A queen cell is very long, way bigger that a regular worker bee cell but not when they are first formed. After today I will be performing a hive check every 7 days to make NOTHING ever slips by again.

So what did I do? More like what did WE do, my husband saved the day. We borrowed a 24 foot ladder which put us right below the swarm. I climbed up, took a bucket on a rope up with me to drop the branch and swarm into. I hemmed and hawed for a long time and finally sawed the branch off and truly pissed off the bees. I'd love to say I made a good clean cut but alas the swarm and branch were so heavy the branch broke and the bees went NUTS. I made a hasty exit and got stung for my troubles. I managed to NOT fall off the ladder or drop the saw on my husband's head and made it down safely.

We let the bees rest for a bit and I made another run up the ladder with loppers to finish the job. The tree was the biggest limiting factor of the whole operation and it made it impossible to fully open the loppers and nip the remaining bit of branch. I tried but again the bees were pissed, I'd have to say SUPER PISSED at this point.

I came back down, sweating buckets, swearing and really wondering if we would ever get them down. My husband who has remained out of bee keeping until now thought he should give it a go. Up he went while I held the ladder, about 2 seconds later he had that thing down and in the bucket. He fairly scampered down while I held the rope tied to the bucket out of his way. We lowered the bucket down with the rope and bam there they were. Slightly cranky but for the most part in the bucket and ready to go in the hive. I carried the bucket over pulled a few frames out and dropped the branch and everything right in the hive.

I'll go back in a few day and see what it all looks like, but for now I'm just glad to have my bees back where they belong. Now because there may or may not be another queen in the hive I lay some paper between the two brood boxes. Apparently the bees will eventually eat through it and the whole hive will live happily with two resident queens. The other option is that the new queen may have killed the old one already and we have one queen in the hive. For now I don't know what's in there, except a whole lotta blood, sweat and tears.

 Peace and Love--




 

Just Another Meatless Monday Spicy Swiss Chard

Yeah for spring greens. Completely part of the big diet and completely available NOW. After going through my swiss chard recipe repertoire including poached eggs in swiss chard, hot swiss chard salad, tortellini toss and deciding I wanted a bit of with our lunch so I made up this little hot swiss chard dish. It was well received and happily inhaled by my husband and I. I will be making this again, perhaps with some marinated and grilled tofu on top? I saw this great recipe for Bulgogi Tofu on Kim Chee Fried Rice featured on Parsimonia but it was really to be found at Sauce Magazine. I  think the Bulgogi Tofu would top off the Spicy Swiss Chard very well.

Spicy Swiss Chard

1 market bunch of swiss chard--about a large handful of stalks--washed

4-6 large white mushrooms-cleaned

2 TBSP water

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

1 teaspoon spicy mustard-homemade or Guldens or Dijon of some sort

pinch of red pepper flakes

sea salt

heat a large frying pan over medium high heat

chop the stems in to about 1 inch pieces

add to the warm pan

set aside the greens for a bit

slice the mushrooms and add them to the pan

stir around and add the water to the pan

reduce heat and cook until the stems and mushrooms are tender

coarsely chop the greens and add them to the pan

stir until wilted

then stir in the soy sauce, ginger, mustard and the pepper flakes

stir to coat divide between two plates add a pinch of salt to the top and serve hot

Peace and Love--

 

The Penny Worthy Project

A rainy week in Alaska in the summer, anyone surprised? No one I know because it is so so typical. And the kicker is that by the time 10 o'clock rolls around the clouds usually roll back and it's almost pretty out. Then you think, a spark of hope, there will be sun and the next morning uh no. No sun for you. I have come to relish the rainy days, or at least attempt to relish them. I clean the house, finish projects, bake, play games with kids and generally try to stay happily busy. Grumping about rain will not make it go away, I tried that.

On Monday, a lightly rainy day, My good friend Steph came over to mass cook in my kitchen. She has just bought a house and is living off the grid until her gas line is hooked up. Even after it's hooked up she'll still need to be using alternate energy sources. That's all besides the point, the relevant point is she needed to cook a bunch of pre-made dinners so it was easy and dishless to prepare meals in her new/old house until gas showed up to make hot water. I kindly offered her my house and my help, because the big diet does not need to be cooked for in advance I opted out this time around. We pretty much destroyed my kitchen many times over that day. She came out with around 25 pre-made meals and we spent a fun day together. 

HOT KITCHEN MESS

My kids surprised me by saying hey lets go thrifting the other day, who was I to say NO. So we went and it was fun. Check out this awesome poster I got

I think it's going to get framed and hung in our mud room. I've always considered posters to be somewhat teenage decor but this one is really cool and 53 years old. 

I picked up three bags of film which I need to start listing, it's a good seller. 

And I found this little bucket called a piggin. Isn't cute?? I'd like to sell it, it needs some TLC and not from me. Hahhaha. 

If you missed yesterdays post one of the projects I finished this week is a little book case. It went from this 

to the this.

 Check out DIY Thrifted to read about it.

Peace and Love--