Occupational Lemonade

A few weeks ago I graduated from Occupational Therapy school!  I'm officially a Master of something and have a diploma to prove it!!  Completely excited and amazed to be finished with a such a large undertaking. This second school experience has lead me on to greater purpose in life and so many new friends.

To celebrate my parents and I threw a casual graduation party!  Typical fan fare with friends, family, food and relaxed fun. For my Pintrest Pin Drink I created Watermelon-Rosemary Lemonade and it was quite the hit if I do say so myself.

A fantastically tasty drink very reminiscent of the Watermelon Rosemary lemonade from Lemonade. I love the combination of watermelon and lemonade!  The hint of rosemary is fantastically refreshing.

I used a recipe that was floating around Pintrest and led me back to AllRecipes.com.  It was created my the AllRecipes.com user ErinMarie and the link can be found here!! It was fate that I saw this before planning the party. She did a great job with the recreation of the recipie.  It's super close to that delicious drink.  Plus it's fantastic that AllRecipes allows for chancing the serving size and can tell you how much more ingredients you'll need.

I made a slight adjustment to my version of the drink.  Since I didn't want to juice a bunch of lemons (to get 2 cups worth of lemon juice) I purchased pre-made lemonade and used that instead. If you're going to follow in my footsteps, I'd say you can decrease the amount of sugar used in the rosemary infusion syrup because otherwise the drink is VERY sweet. I also used about 3 sprigs of rosemary for each serving I made (I'm a fan of making sure the hard work is noted, didn't want to rosemary to get lost in the mix of flavors).

All in all it's a fantastic summer choice and refreshing on hot days.  Plus, now that I have mastered the infusion process, I'm thinking that I can add herbs to everything!!

It's time to eat!

In dinner news, I combined two tasty pins from my Pintrest Recipe board [Devour] together today. 

In a healthy way!! 

A few days ago, using a head of cauliflower from the 99 cent store, I made the Cauliflower Alfredo sauce.  That worked out really well, as it's pretty tasty and with the liquid and olive oil it actually blended down into a sauce. Smooth and creamy! Flavor was lacking, to which I added cilantro and 1 teaspoon of chicken soup base.  Fixed that problem right up.  Soup bases are a great way to quickly add flavor and I believe that I'm going to keep using it until I learn how to spice food.

So then I used broccoli slaw in place of spaghetti and some crumbled ground turkey and boom!  Pretty healthy dinner.

From Pinch of Yum: Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce

How to prepare the Broccoli Slaw from Popsugar Fitness: Hungry Girl Broccoli Slaw spaghetti

I'm super happy to have another dinner option to add to my repertoire.

you're gonna wait for me regarless

Post Secret Connection



I do that sometimes. 

 The cross walk is my part of the road.  If I'm jay walk'n I run, but in that yellow area (and if the light is the appropriate crosswalk walking color) I can choose whatever speed I like. 

I know... I'm such a rebel.

Bread: Rosemary Peasant Bread

I am a lover of all things doughy! As proof I have a separate board on my Pintrest for bread and bread alone.  Other foods get mashed together All Desserts on one board, and everything else combined under a board i call Devour.  Sure I could start breaking the breads down and getting more complicated in my orginazation system, but it's Pintrest and I don't wanna.  So deal!  

To help you deal, I'm sharing the results of my twist on a traditional Peasant bread.

Rosemary Peasant Bread.

All my life, growing up in Riverside on a reasonably large piece of land, there were there rosemary bushes that were popping up.  As a child they were the bane of my existence. Run through them playing cowboys? Smell like a sharp and bitter plant for days!  Give the dog a hug?  Fragrent punch to the nose!  It was terrible.  

When I learned that my mother was purposefully planting the smelly weed I was shocked.  There's a reason to have that bush around?  Fresh herbs?  Who cares, they're gross!  And the dogs smell like plants, which was coincidentally the reason she would throw back at me. The dogs smell like plants!

  

It's only been recently that I've understood the fully joy of rosemary.  I still find the smell some what overpowering when it's super fresh or if I rub up against it accidentally.   However when added to baked dishes and breads, I have a new respect for this pine-esk green and it's tiny purple flowers.  It added a great amount of character to the Peasant bread of yore. 

 

And just look at that picture!  It's an airy delight with a crust that crisps up nicely when toasted and is soft enough to add delight to your day. 

It is a yeast bread so be ready!  However, this magical bread requires NO KNEADING.  Just a couple of rise times and some punching/folding, then you're all good for the baking.

 

I found the recipie via Pintrest on a blog called Alexandra's Kitchen.  Fantastic post!  It's filled with detailed instructions for this surprisingly simple bread and even includes a whole bunch of useful tips regarding how long to rise, add ins, tricks for rising and so on.  

The rosemary alternative was something that I came up with myself.

 

The inspiration for this addition was my visit home.  After each visit I make off like a bandit with food stuffs.  Fruit from the garden, leftover home cooking, some times candy if I'm lucky.  This trip included a few cuttings of rosemary.  I let them sit in some water for a few days.  The green covered stems and little purple flowers just looked so nice next to the sink!  

Finally the day came!  I cut off some stems and pulled the leaves off by hand creating a large pile.  Then in came Mr. Knife and we made short work of the herb.  

The grand total after chopping carnage was 5 teaspoons of rosemary. I'd say 3 tsp were chopped finely (to add flavor but not some much green stuff in the teeth) and 2 tsp were more crushed (to add visual confirmation of the herb which was smelling up the bread... in a good way).  It just looks more rustic with some larger chunks sitting around.

Add the rosemary to the dry ingredients, mix appropriately so there's some green spread evenly, and follow the rest of the directions as laid out by Ms. Alexandra!

Sparkeling Jewerly Again!

I love it when a Pintrest tip works! I'm petty skeptical of the soaps and scrubs, since my results of bathtub cleaners, homemade dish soap, and grout cleaner have been less than optimal.

This jewelery cleaner actually did a great job!

It's a recipe posted on Food.com by: No MSG!

Recipe #180133 

Pic by: Jonesies

I have two sets of studs that i have been wearing on and off since i got my ears pierced. They may be the actual studs that Claire's uses to pierce (punch) ears with.. the ones with sharp backs. Point being that they build up dead skin gunk that is hard to clean an requires way to much time.

The recipe at the link above did a really good job of removing he years of build up that is almost impossible to reach with cotton swabs or tooth picks.

My Process

1. Cover the bottom of a bowl with aluminum foil. I'd say large enough to keep all the water in the foil itself, especially if you're cleaning alot of items, or larger items. 
2. Heat some water in the microwave for 2 minutes. Keep the water in a cup or bowl much larger than the actual amount as it will bubble and possible spill over in a smaller cup. 
3. Pour the water into the aluminum covered bowl.
4. Add the baking soda, salt, and dish detergent.  I was unsure of what dish detergent actually was, dish washing soap vs the liquid you put into a dish washer.  I went with the dishwasher detergent and everything worked out nicely.
5. Stir. (Not stated in the directions, but didn't make sense to me to leave a pile of white power in the middle of the water.)
6. Place jewelry on top of aluminum foil into the mixture. 
7. Let stand for 7-10 minutes.  
8. Optional Step: Cover and Shake.  I found this helped dislodge any stuck on or think gunk. 
9. Pour out liquid.
10. Rinse in fresh water.
11. Dry

Grade: A
There were a few spots of film that needed to be scrubbed with elbow grease (ie. finger nails). But I really can't complain about anything else. The recipe is very large, I cut it in half and it was plenty for my 4 little studs and their backing. 

Oil cloth Lunch Bag - By Phaedra

Even with my final semester of grad school beginning this week I managed to fit in some creative "for me" type activities that are based on my needs and are not ceramic in nature.  And yet I found a way to make it work functionally.

I headed down to the Fashion District to hit up the fabric stores.  I was looking for fabric to cover the hanging lamp in my living room which I greatly dislike. Making my own circle shade seemed like a good way to go about it, and if the fabric comes at a deal, from the Loft by Michael Levine's where I can get it by the pound, it would be a reasonable project.

It worked out well, Got a couple of fabric options and even managed to find some fabric for the bed room "curtains" that I basically wanted to hide the cracks between the shades so strangers couldn't see me change!

I also talked myself into  finally purchasing some oil cloth. I've been looking at it every time I go into the fabric district.  It's supposed to be easy to clean and really useful for food style packages. The patterns are always very very cute!  But it's a kind of expensive fabric.  These were both $7 a yard and I purchased 12" which made it affordable.  However there are even prettier and cuter that are stored on hanging rods but they get up to $28 or $35 bucks.  Really absurd.  I died laughing when I found the one of deer busts wearing glasses.  WANT! Can't AFFORD!

So finally I get to play with oil cloth and attempt to make a lunch bag that's reusable and cute.  What with being at a fieldwork location that does not feed me, I'm gonna need to start carry lunches to my internships.

Super Cute time! - Phaedra

I copied a large paper bag that i had and carefully measures out two polka dot pieces for the sides and one long fat strip of cherries for the main body.  Measuring this is a little trickier because the employee who cut it for me was incapable of cutting a straight line.  I've never been so thankful for the habit of cutting an inch or two more than I requested because it was really bad this time.

Open and Standing Lunch Bag - Phaedra

And I've taken it with me to my first week! A little bit of cute joy at my lunch break in between trying to treat the kids at my school location.

I believe I need to start water Marking my pictures...

Ceramics for Christmas

For christmas my mom purchased a kiln for me.  She found it at an estate sale and talked to me about it, but once I didn't hear anything else I figured she didn't go to the estate sale.  It was out in Rancho, it made sense.  But she did get it and that was quite the Christmas surprise.  I would have tried it out before now, but I've been sick since Christmas.

So basically I've run  my test batch a bisque.  I stuck some green ware sculptures into the kiln and have been firing it for 6 hours about.  The auto timer is running.  This will tell me if the auto timer works, because I'm currently missing a small but important part of the kiln that turns off the kiln automatically after the combination of the right amount of time and temperature as occurred.

I'm flying blind here.  I've never fired anything.  But this little kiln is supposed to be pretty easy.  We shall see!!

I used 06 cone, 04 cone, and 03 cone.  My hope is that I would be able to reach 04 cone which is from what I can tell, the recommended heat for a bisque.   How ever the plate on the side of my kiln is troubling.  It claims that max temp for the kiln is about 1200 F.  Which is acually pretty low..  around 018 low.  But that same plaque claims the kiln can reach Cone 02.

I'm running a test batch.  I don't even know if 6 hours of baking and the appropriate amount of time cooling is right, but at least I had some cones in there.  Maybe something will have happened.  I do wish I'd put some of the lower cones into the kiln so I could see that it at least went up past those cones.  would have been helpful.  Since I only used the higher cones (03-06) they may not be bent at all.

TEST!!

I'm hoping to bring it with me to the apartment, but I'm not sure that the apartments electrical system can handle it.  Perhaps I should purchase a fire extinguisher. 

Said no one ever

It may be a pet peeve of mine but I thought that this one would be funny. 

The more cuss words I hear in one sentence the lower I feel one's IQ probably is. 

To ant or not to ant

A few months ago I got hit with Summer Ants.  It's something that I've grown up with for years. It was so engrained in my life that I didn't believe it was possible to have summer with out the little buggers.  This year is the first time in my 3 years of being in my current place that I've run into this problem.  Sugar supplies must have been low because they found their way into every single sugar item I own.

It occurred to me that now was the perfect time to test out a organic remedy for ants that I'd seen on Pintrest at some point.  Corn Meal. What?  That's my first thought when I read the post.  These people must be wrong.

The idea is that you put down some corn meal, and the ants eat it or bring it back to the nest and apparently they can't digest the stuff, so they die.  The entire colony or a large portion of it, because I suppose they eat the stuff before anyone figures out what is going on.

So I pour a bowl of corn meal and place it to the spot where I traced the ants to, behind the biggest couch in my house.  And nothing.

As you can see, there are no ants crawling over the edges to get to the cornmeal feast I have laid out. They apparently care for the stuff so little, that even when bribed with a dead fly sprinkled with Corn meal they couldn't care less.

You can kind of seen the ants in that picture, and accept to pull the fly out, they never went into the corn meal.  Basically ignored it completely.


These ants also appeared to completely ignore the generic ant traps that I bought after the corn meal failed to rid my house of the darn things. So perhaps it's just a case of the super smart ant tribe?  Once I boxed up all the sugar items they could find and kept washing any sugary dishes I ate, they disappeared.  I may never know the real reason.

Pan-cupcakes

Another Pintrest idea was attempted last night.  I decided that I was in serious need of some pancake lovin' and whipped up 12 pancake muffins.  These are some fantastically fun treats and are super easy to create.  It get's you that pancake flavor you desire without any flipping or in my case, flopping.  Relatively mess less and a huge plus, has very few dishes involved for cleaning later. A whole lot of pluses in my mind. The idea have been trending on Pintrest for a few days and simple enough in action.

Step 1: Get pancake mix.

Step 2: Find any other ingriedents if necessary.

Step 3: Mix

Step 4: Pour into cupcake pan.

Step 5: Bake.

Step 6a: Cool

Step 6b: Eat

And I found that I actually really enjoyed these babies.  I filled each cupcake indent of my silicone tray about half full and watched them rise slightly as them baked.  Mine could have used more time in the oven, as they were pretty albino in color, but they taste nice all the same.

I worked off this really simple idea as discussed here, at Gwaltney Foods, and expanded to fit my tastebuds at that moment.

The difference for me is that I went with Chocolate Chip Coconut Pan-Cupcakes and poured the batter into regular sized cupcake pans (as I do not own any mini cupcake pans).

It the batter went a sprinkling of sweetened coconut.  Poured into the cupcake pan when the batter,  was ready.  Now just imagine someone wildly chucking individual  chocolate chips into each cupcake compartment in the misguided hope that this would help evenly disburse chocolaty goodness throughout the pan-cupcakes. On top of that, floating on the lagoon of goo I sprinkled a few more chips and then loaded up on the coconut shavings.  I do love coconut.

While the pan-cupcakes were baking I created yet another tasty dessert, deconstructed almond joys (I guess they would technically be mounds, but almod joys would be easy enough to follow), which I may discuss at another time.