New Member - Chai Tea - Pictures - Orange Rolls

We welcomed a new member to our house on Saturday.  A little girl approximately 6 pounds, and supposedly 3years of age (I doubt that, see below).

This is “Bug”. She’s very nosey inquisitive and loves her new home. Bug loves to be right next to you and under your feet, if she has her way, she’d rather be in your arms.  The reason I doubt she’s 3 years old, she wants to bite everything wood (chairs, TV stand, table), she cries if she can’t find you, and always wants your attention.  I’ve picked up toys for teething, soft dog treats and food, we’re constantly keeping her busy, and letting her know she’s okay (building her confidence).  Our other dog, Beans, adores her.

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This is the final product, now I need to place the Chai Tea
in smaller jars and dress up the jars for the holidays.

 

As explained in previous posts, Christmas this year will be all homemade gifts, and blessings from the heart.  Several members of our family enjoy Chai Tea, and go to Starbucks often.  Instead of providing gift cards to Starbucks, I’ve made the Chai Tea mix myself, and stored the tea in mason jars.    All I need to do now is pickup some beautiful Christmas material and make a topper for each Mason jar, place a name tag on each jar, and there you have it; Christmas gifts from the heart for several members of the family.

 

Chai Tea Recipe

1 cup of nonfat powdered milk

1 ¾ cups powdered non-dairy creamer

¼ cup powdered vanilla non-dairy creamer

2 ½ cups of sugar

1 ½ cups unsweetened instant tea

2 tsp. ground ginger

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. ground cardamom (cardamom is expensive, can substitute with ½ tsp. cinnamon and ½ tsp. nutmeg). 

Mix well, I throw all the ingredients into my food processor and blend until mixed well and not as coarse.

Place mixture into Mason jars and seal. 

When making a Chai Tea, mix 2 heaping tablespoons in a mug, pour hot water, and stir well to mix the tea mixture in with the water.

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Sky pictures, you’ll notice a tower standing in these pictures.  I’m at the airport, no I’m not traveling.  My husband has traveled every weekend, actually long extended weekends for the last 2 months throughout the U.S. for work.  While waiting to pick up my husband, I entertained myself with taking pictures at the airport.  Here are a few of the pictures I snapped of a changing sunset.

 

 

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Have you ever had a craving for something and just didn’t feel like running to a store to get the product?  Well, I had a craving last night for orange rolls and decided to make them.  To make it easier on my hands (because they hurt due to arthritis pain), I feed all the ingredients into my bread machine and selected option 8 on the machine.  Selecting this option, the bread machine will mix, knead, and rise, for me automatically.  Once done, I rolled out the dough on to my countertop and spread out the orange filling over the dough.  Then roll the dough up like a cake roll, cut dough into rolls and place them in a greased glass container for baking.  Here is a picture of the end result.  My dough recipe was found here, great blog site to follow.   As for the filling and glaze recipe, you can find them here.

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On a cold day there is nothing better than a hot bowl of soup and homemade biscuits.   The soup of the day; vegetable ground beef, topped with Parmigiano Reggiano.

Soups and stews are amazing foods to warm the stomach and soul when cold outside, and it’s good for the body J

Spider - Raspberry Vinegar

I’m not a big fan of spiders, especially when you get up in the morning and go to run the water in the sink to make coffee and a big spider jumps from the sink at you. I screamed, not expecting a spider, and our son came running asking, “what’s wrong Mom”??  By this time, I already had the spider captured in an old jelly jar.   Apparently sometime during the night this spider ended up in the sink and couldn’t get out.  I did this so Bulldog Man could identify him when he had a chance.  This way we can figure out what were dealing with and make or buy a mix that will kill this specific spider. 

  

 Raspberry Vinegar, today I started to make flavored vinegar.  The vinegar will be great on salads, fruits and maybe bread.  Yet another idea, I plan on making as potential Christmas gifts.

Items Needed/Ingredients

1 large jar w/lid

1 spoon

2 (12.7 ounce) bottles of organic white wine vinegar, (I used oak aged vinegar, and you can use any white wine vinegar.  I will also keep the bottles the vinegar came in, wash them, remove labels and will reuse at the end of this process)

4 (6 ounce containers of fresh raspberries)

*3 cups sugar (after 10 days)

Instructions

Place all raspberries in large jar.  Pour both bottles of white wine vinegar in jar. Stir container, seal tightly and place container in a cool dark place for 10 days.  Make sure to stir daily for 10 days.  After 10 days, strain berries from vinegar. Place vinegar in a pot, add 3 cups of sugar and boil until all sugar is dissolved.  Let cool and place in bottles (existing bottles, seal and label).  To decorate, place a Christmas bow or homemade decoration on the bottle. 

Items/Ingredients Needed

Place Raspberries into Jar

Add White Wine Vinegar

Stir and close lid

Store in a dark and cool place for 10 days (remember to stir each day). After 10 days, I will update my blog with next steps (steps outlined above).

Milk - Body Scrub - Final Day Register * Give - Away *

Block ice from ½ gallon milk containers.  When milk is purchased, it’s immediately placed in glass bottles and the ½ gallon containers are cleaned with hot soapy Clorox water both inside and out. The milk cartons are then stored in our freezer to occupy any empty space (preventing the freezer from the constant running).  I picked this tip up from my gal pal SciFiChick on her blog, Bacon and Eggs.   We use the ½ gallon milk containers when we go on trips, camp, hunt, or grocery shop. The ice brick containers fit perfectly on the bottom of the cooler making it extremely easy to pack in a hurry.

On my last post, I mentioned searching the internet for ideas on making gifts for the holidays.  I came across making Sugar Scrub for your body (you know, the type you would buy at Bath and Body Works for $28.00 a container, or more in other stores).  I decided, I was going to make a container and test it for myself (make myself the guinea pig), before actually giving the scrub as a gift.    Here’s the recipe.

  

Sugar Scrub

1 glass or plastic jar (I used a ½ pint jar)

1 cup sugar

½ oil (baby oil or virgin olive oil)

30 drops essential oils (any scent you like)

13 drops vitamin E

Mix ingredients together and place in glass or plastic container.  Place a ribbon and label on container and present as a gift.

Items Needed

 

Sugar and Baby Oil Mixed Together

Add Essential Oil

Add Scrub to Jar and Wipe Edge Clean

Place Cap on Jar and Seal with Ring

I tested the body scrub in the shower and found it to be very refreshing (I used peppermint oils) and it helped with moisturizing my skin.  *****Please be extremely careful when using in the shower.  The oils will make your tub or shower extremely slick and dangerous. ******

Today Is the Last Day to Register For the Buck 160 Smidgen Knife

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Ideas For Christmas Gifts - Cookie Recipe - 4 Days Left To Register 4 Give - Away

Today, I scanned the internet for gift making ideas for the upcoming Christmas holiday.  This year, gifts will be from the heart and homemade.  I’ve come across several great ideas and over the next several months, I will share those with you.

Every holiday, I usually find myself making cookies and came across several new recipes to add to my holiday cookie list.  Here’s one I would recommend making if you like chocolate, coconut and almonds. Bulldog Man rates this cookie with thumbs up.   It’s delicious and easy to make.  I’ve attached the recipe for your convenience. 

Flourless Chocolate, Almond and Coconut Cookies

(Recipe from Tasty Kitchen by Courtney)

Ingredients

1 cup Unsalted Slivered or Sliced Almonds

1 cup Sweetened Shredded Coconut

½ cups Plus 3 Tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa

3 cups Powdered Sugar

½ teaspoons Kosher Salt

4 whole Egg Whites, at room temperature

1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract

¾ cups Mini Chocolate Chips

Directions

Preheat oven 350. Spread almond slivers and shredded coconut evenly on large rimmed baking pan.  Place in the oven and toast for about 7 – 8 minutes, turning/tossing ingredients once halfway through, until golden brown and fragrant, remove from oven.  Reduce heat to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl whisk together cocoa (1/2 cup plus, 3 tablespoons total), powder sugar, and salt.  Continue whisking while adding egg whites and vanilla extract, mixing until just moistened.  Don’t over whisk or the eggs will stiffen. Stir in almonds, coconut and chocolate chips.

Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon batter by the tablespoon onto the baking sheet (makes up to 24 cookies). 

Bake for 14-16 minutes, turning pans and shifting the top to bottom rack halfway through.  Cookies are finished when tops are shiny and cracked.  Slide the parchment off the pans and allow cooling completely before removing from the cookies from the parchment paper.

4 Days Left To Register For Give - Away

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