Seed Starting

The first day of March turned out to be a gorgeous day. Sunny and warm. Very warm. Too warm for this time of year. I spent part of the afternoon starting seeds for the 2012 garden. We've had these seed starting flats for 20+ years. They are fabulous. I can't say enough good things about them. Easy to use, self watering, they stack easily for off season storage and they have tops that you can use to turn them into mini green houses. We have two sizes. All of the seeds that we start that don't get sown directly into the garden begin here.

I make my own seed starting mix. The recipe can be found here, but you can find some wonderful ready made mixes these days.

Yesterday I started broccoli, garlic chives, two varieties of onions and parsley. I'm looking forward to seeing the green sprouts. I'm ready to get my hands dirty. Let the gardening begin.

Removing Odors From Vintage and Other Pieces

If you buy vintage things, sooner or later you're going to receive a package that smells like cigarettes and/or perfume. I recently received two in one week. Yuk! I tried my usual remedies and neither worked. I got online and Google came to the rescue. Thought I'd pass my findings on here.

One of the orders had porous beads in it, so I didn't feel comfortable using vinegar on them. The other was old brass and I was afraid the vinegar would clean the brass. Didn't want that to happen! So, I didn't even attempt to try the vinegar. I took a one quart yogurt container, put the bone beads in and covered with baking soda. Left it for a few days. When I opened it, the odor was still there.

Next, I tried coffee. I put the beads in a yogurt container lid and set them on a bed of coffee beans in a plastic container with a lid. Left it a few days. That didn't work either.

With Google's info, I put my beads back in a new yogurt container and covered them with clean cat litter. After a day the odor was gone! Worked with the brass too.

Until next time.....

Pumpkin Latte

A couple of years ago when I was hanging in Etc, on the Etsy forums, some folks were talking about Pumpkin Latte from Starbucks. It sounded good! I love everything pumpkin. I had no desire to go to Starbucks to try one. Never been there. Why start now? So I hit the internet to see what I could find. I did find several recipes, got the gist of it and came up with this. Give it a try. It's easy and oh so good!

3 heaping tablespoons pumpkin puree
2 Tablespoons vanilla syrup*
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice**
1 cup milk - works with any kind of milk
1-2 shots espresso
-In small saucepan, stir puree into milk. add vanilla syrup* and spice. heat gently and stir occasionally just until steaming and foam begins to appear. If you like it sweeter, you can add more vanilla syrup.
Pour into tall mug and pour espresso over it.
Top with whip cream and dash of spice.

*Vanilla syrup:
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
-Bring water,sugar and salt to boil on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved.
Boil until mixture becomes thick and syrupy. It took about 10 minutes when I did this.
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
Cool.
Store in frig.
~I didn't make the whole recipe. I may have made 1/4 of it. I read that it stores in the frig for a couple of weeks. You might want to google 'vanilla syrup' or 'sugar syrup' to see what you find out.

**I make my own pumpkin pie spice and keep it on hand. We love cinnamon, so I'm pretty heavy on it. Adjust to taste:
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
a little under 1/4 teaspoon cloves
a little under 1/4 teaspoon allspice

Until next time.....

DIY ~ Make Your Own Ice ~

OK, so Spring is here. Time to think about Spring activities; like camping, hiking, picnics, outdoor concerts. Many of those activities include a cooler. At least it does for us. Store bought ice seems to melt so fast and the thought of buying enough bags to cover the food and drinks in our 100+ quart cooler that we take up to Crystal Lake........no thanks! I'm a DIY girl.

Several years ago, I started to make our own ice. Here's the method to my madness:

Start filling up ice cube trays days before you're going on your trip/event. Dump the cubes in a bag and store in freezer. Fill quart size yogurt containers or freezer containers with water. Make sure you leave room for the water to expand when it freezes; about an inch from the top.

When you're ready to go, run those under water, pop them out and use whole or 'ice pick' to the desired size.

You'll be surprised how long the ice lasts. Plus you can use the cubes for drinks and know where your water came from.

Happy trails~

Until next time.....