Homesprout

D.I.Y. Kale Powder

This is the first year we've grown kale.  Packed with nutrients, it makes sense to have it growing in your garden.  It's not the most likable of ingredients however.  Raw, it's quite bitter.  In an attempt to find likable recipes for kale, I've made kale "chips" quite a few times.  In the oven, the kale became much sweeter, and the warmth of the oven makes the leaves crunchy.  When I saw some kale powder online, I realized that I could easily make some myself using similar steps.  

First, I washed the kale leaves, and placed them on a tray in the oven.  Next time, I'll cut out the stems.  They didn't roast well, and it would have been much easier just to leave them out.  Then, I roasted the leaves at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes.  I checked back several times to make sure they weren't burning.  Since this was just an experiment, I didn't use very many leaves.  Next time, I'll probably roast several trays at a time.

Once they seemed crispy.  I placed the leaves in the food processor.  I let them chop until they broke down into a fine powder.  

I actually incorprated the powder into a strawberry and blueberry smoothie. It didn't taste like kale at all!  I tried taking a picture of the smoothie, but because I waited until evening, the smoothie looked a sad gray color.  Trust me, it was really yummy.  The dried powder should store for months.  

What do you make with kale?

Historical Sensibilities/ Crocheted Rag Rugs

As many of you know, I'm a history teacher.  I've taught U.S. History for the last ten years. One of my favorite parts about teaching history has been picking up little snippets of information to share with my students.  Over the past decade, I've gradually collected quite a few, and I love sharing them throughout the course of the school year.  My friends can attest to the fact that I also like to share some of my little "facts" at social gatherings, much to my husband's chagrin.  

One of my recent favorites is this:

During the 1930's, the average American family lived on just over 8,000 dollars a year.  

That means that somehow, Americans survived with only 8,000 dollars worth of stuff.  Keep in mind, that number was adjusted for inflation; they survived on only 8,000 in today's dollars.  I find that I'm usually more shocked by this figure than my students.  To them, 8,000 dollars is a huge amount of money, more than they have ever had in their lives.  Because most of them have never had to pay a mortgage, or even a phone bill, they have little understanding of how money is spent.  

To me, that figure is shocking - at first.  Then, when you begin to think about modern conveniences, and what we spend for those conveniences, the costs quickly add up.  Take away your...

• phone bill/cell phone - most Americans didn't have one, and cell phones weren't around
• electricity bill - again, most Americans didn't have it, especially those in rural areas
• any clothing you have beyond one week's worth (and shoes!)
• internet/computer/ipad/etc.
• you get my point...

Americans survived because they didn't accumulate as much stuff, and because they didn't replace the stuff they did have until it was absolutely necessary.  Therefore, the crafts they created reflected their "make do and mend" conception of their world.  A rag rug was just that - a collection of scraps from worn out clothing and household items that could be woven and reused.

I've started making rag balls for my own rag rug.  I've been ripping apart old bits of fabric that have been collecting my my craft room over the years.  The fabric will be turned into a circular rug for the room through crochet.  Historical crafting gives me goosebumps...

 

 

D.I.Y. - Hazelnut Coffee Flavoring

  For most of my life, I didn't drink coffee.  I didn't find it tasty, and it seemed like too much work to make in the morning, so I just never really adopted it as a habit.

  Then, I met my husband.  An avid coffee drinker, he slowly enveloped me in the wondrous world of coffee.  Since he introduced me to my addiction, he lovingly (read - grumpily) gets out of bed every morning to brew me a cup to bring to school.  

I've definitely developed a particular fondness for hazelnut coffee.  Before Christmas, I bought a bag of hazelnuts for a treat I was going to make as a Christmas present.  I never got a chance to make the present, so the nuts had been lounging in the pantry until I decided what to do with them.  I had been tossing the idea of grinding up the nuts for coffee when the newest issue of Martha Stewart came in the mail.  

The issue included an article discussing D.I.Y. coffee flavorings, and therefore, it prompted me to finally utilize the hazelnuts.  First, I roasted the hazelnuts, and removed the skins.  The skins can be a bit of a bother to remove.  I found that if I stirred them around in the pan, most of them fell right off.  The rest I was able to remove largely by rolling them around in my hands. 

They suggest storing the whole coffee beans with whole hazelnuts to infuse the flavor.  Unfortunately, the hazelnuts wouldn't go through the coffee grinder, so I had to devise an alternative solution.

I decided to grind the hazelnuts separately in my food processor, and then toss a spoonful into the french press while brewing my coffee.  

The resulting coffee wasn't as "hazelnutty" as I had hoped.  I'm going to store the hazelnuts with some ground coffee to marry the flavors further.  

(Yes, I like large amount of cream in my coffee.  I'm making up for all of those years I went without.)

 This post is linked to the homestead Barn Hop.  

 

Holiday D.I.Y. Gift Giving

 

Now that the holidays are over, I can finally share some of the gifts we created this season.  For the past few years, my husband and I have been focused on giving gifts that are hand crafted.  We have a multitude of reasons for choosing this option.  Most of my family members (especially our parents), don't really need anything, so they often have a hard time telling us ideas for gifts.  Also, to me, handmade gifts seem to carry much more warmth and love than a 25 dollar gift certificate to Best Buy.  Finally, this year we've really tried our best to be frugal, and handmade gifts were really our only option (monetarily speaking) this season.  

I had bunches of fun picking recipes to create to create for our family.  Not everything is pictured.  We gave my parents, and Tim's sisters their gifts before I had a chance to take any pics!  I took some pictures of our gifts for Tim's parents before we left town.  

Our baskets included beer, suet, pear butter, bead and butter pickles, gingerbread people, mulling spices, plum jelly shortbread cookies, hand crafted jewelry, mustard, and lip balm.  Obviously, all of the products were homemade.  We also included a carton of eggs for each of our parents.  If I found the recipe online, I've linked them below for your convenience.

Suet - Making Your Own Suet Cakes - Chiot's Run

Bread and Butter Pickles - (Almost Perfect) Bread and Butter Pickles - Me!

Gingerbread People - Spicy Gingerbread Cookie Recipe - Chiot's Run

Mulling Spices - Homemade Mulling Spice Mix - Ethel Gloves

Plum Jelly Shortbread cookies - Simple Shortbread - Simple Bites (I would probably cut the sugar in half next time.)

Peppermint Lip Balm - Homemade Lip Balm - Design Sponge 

Mustard - Whole Grain Mustard - Ethel Gloves

As you'll probably noticed, Susy's blog was the inspiration for many of the gifts I created.  (Thanks Susy!).  

Each year, we get excited about the new products we'll be able to include the next year.  I'm already thinking about soap and cheese!

D.I.Y: Rag Tie Wreath

I love competing D.I.Y. projects that really require little effort and no skill, but that give you a pretty end result.  To create this rag tie wreath I bought several colors of flannel at JoAnn's and a wire wreath.  (For some reason, I'm on a flannel kick lately, it might be all of those cozy Urban Outfitter catalogues I keep getting in the mail).  If you were even more creative than myself, you probably could have found old flannel shirts at a thrift shop.   I cut the fabric into strips about 8 inches long, and 1 1/2 inches across.  Then I just tied the strips gradually onto the wire wreath until it looked complete.  The bow is made of a strip of muslin.   I completed this last night in an about an hour while watching a movie with Tim.

You could create this wreath with many color combinations and designs.  Thrift store fabric  could provide your inspiration.  You could also use an embroidery hoop for your wreath support.  This is also a kid friendly project, as it merely involves some cutting and tying.