According to legend The Blarney Stone, when kissed, can impart the gift of eloquence and persuasion.  It lies within the confines of Blarney Castle in Ireland, built in 1446 by Dermot McCarthy

I started building these little beauties after being inspired by just thinking about magical stones through out history.  Authurian lore tells of Arthur pulling his sword Excaliber from a stone. Crystals and gems contain magical and mystical properties. The Blarney Stone is rumored to be Jacobs Pillow, the stone the father of the Israelites used as a place to rest his head while sleeping as he fled from his brother Esau. Jacob had a vision of a great staircase as he dreamt. The next day Jacob consecrated the stone to God.

Jacob’s Pillow was brought to Ireland by Jeremiah the Prophet, where it become Lia Fail or the Fatal Stone, used as a kind of sorting stone for Irish kings.

Other legends surround the stone, whose power and prophetic abilities were brought to the attention of The MacCarthy’s by a witch who was saved from drowning.

My own little Blarney Stones are river rocks mounted on rounds of cedar wood. Glitter, beads and magical elements are added to the stones to create an enchanting, unique Blarney of my own design.

I was looking for a very quick bread recipe to accompany a casserole and I remembered this ultra easy focaccia. Incredibly fast and delicious.

Fast Focaccia

1 cup water

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tblsp olive oil (I didn’t have olive oil so I substituted Kraft Olive Oil with Feta bottled salad dressing)

1 tablespoon melted butter (optional)

1/2 cup or less of any kind of shredded cheese. I used sharp cheddar.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a greased 9×13 baking dish ( I used a glass dish). Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and pour melted butter over top and add cheese. Bake five more minutes.

Terrific results!

It’s New Years Eve and the candlemaking project seemed appropriate. The element of fire represents energy and passion and also denotes clearing the old to make way for the new. Candlemaking seemed to be the perfect craft to usher in the new year.

I remembered I had old pots in the garden shed that belonged to Boyfriend’s grandma. When she passed, her sons cleaned out her kitchen and wisely, Boyfriend called in the midst of it and said, “Do you want anything of Bah’s?” and I said, “Yes! Her pots and pans and cookware!” Men could not know the value of seasoned iron skillets and vintage Corning Ware. I was thrilled when Bah’s cook pieces came home with Boyfriend, along with her beloved piano.  The skillets and Corning Ware were cleaned and put to immediate use, but the aluminum pieces were pocked and clearly beyond a cooking purpose. So they found a home in the garden shed as storage for seed packets and plant ties.

Bah's old aluminum pots and candle stumpsInstead of purchasing actual candlemaking supplies, I knew I had a plethora of old candle stumps in my cabinet and resolved to give them a new life for the new year. I started by creating a double boiler, one big pot of water, with the small aluminum sauce pan floating on top to melt the old candles. This worked perfectly and soon the stumps were melting along with some beeswax I had used for a craft project earlier in the year. The beeswax gave the melting candles a divine scent! Candle stumps and beeswax in double boilerA quick online tutorial instructed me to pluck out the wicking and sustainers from the melting wax. After I got an idea of what a sustainer was, I fashioned my own from old hair pins. The wicking was attached to the sustainers.Round and angle sustainers (repurposed)

Victoria Czechoslovakian porcelain Demitasse Cups

Bamboo Skewers hold wicking in place

After the candles dried, I unwound the excess wicking from around the skewer and viola! New candles from repurposed, recycled materials.

Victoria porcelain Demitasse Teacup CandlesSea Shell and Blue Tin Candles

I’m really pleased with my new candles.

Out with the old!

In with the new!

Happy New Year to you!

 

I wasn’t really surprised when NBC Nightly News reported food prices climbed 29% in 2010 and were expected to rise through 2011. As a weekly marketer, I’ve seen the climb first hand. I’ve stopped purchasing some items simply because it seems ridiculous to pay such a ghastly price for things like olives and certain cheeses. 

With the news report still fresh on my mind, I was more grateful than ever for my habit of perimeter shopping.  Perimeter shopping refers to shopping the perimeter of stores where the freshest items are displayed. Produce, deli, bakery, fresh fish and meats, cheese, yogurt and dairy items like eggs and sour cream are on the perimeter of a market. Not only are these foods the freshest in the store, but they’re healthier than items on store shelves. And they’re also perishable and are quickly marked down.

During today’s shopping trip I purchased fresh pizza dough in the deli for 59 cents and a container of fresh gorgonzola cheese for $1.99. Both items were originally marked $6.00 and are still in date until next week. I bought dented cans of tomatoes and corn from a discount cartfor 45 cents and found a box of premium cereal with a dent on the side for a buck seventy and I had a dollar coupon!

 I also purchased veal tenderloins for 64 cents and fresh pork strips for a buck.

Recently I discussed marked down meat with the butcher at one of my stores. He explained the lights in stores cause meat to discolor and that discourages most people from purchasing it.  Marked down items from the meat department are available early mornings at the small market I shop. Oddly, produce is rarely marked down and when it is  …well…rotten!

I’m grateful in this era of rising food prices to be a smart and mindful shopper.  Dollars simply don’t stretch as far as they once did and as the economy continues to be uncooperative to so many, savvy food shopping becomes an enviable skill! The perimeter of a market is a gold mine of fresh finds and healthful choices.

The leftover conversation goes something like this:

Boyfriend’s  Mom- “Please take this home (she points to a giant spread of food) We will not eat it!

Tammy- “OF course yall will eat it. It is a massive amount of food. It will last for days….”

Boyfriend’s Mom (threateningly) “I’m THROWING IT OUT!”

Tammy (calculating the amount of waste in her head) “OH NO. OK. We’ll take it!”

This year’s haul included a half a turkey breast, sweet potatoes, potato salad, cauliflower salad, deviled eggs, gravy, a broccoli casserole and a WHOLE SPIRAL HAM. Yes, a whole spiral ham. Boyfriend’s mom was not keen on the smokey flavoring of the spiral ham and wrapped it up for us to bring home.

Over the past week we’ve had ham sandwiches and ham omlets. I froze slices and chuncks for future use. By the time New Year’s Day rolled around all I had left was the hambone or hamhock, as some call it.

Basically, I had a bone with meat on it. I gleaned the rest of the trimmings from the hambone and froze them in containers that said HAM SEASONING. Ham seasoning is wonderful for greens or beans. Then I made condensed Split Pea and Ham Soup.

Basically, I put the hambone in a pot with five cups of water, and brought it to a boil. I cleaned and rinsed a pound of dried green split peas (we call this “lookin the beans” here in the south- beans are poured into the hand, shuffled around and checked for pebbles, stones and dirt , then put into a bowl to be rinsed with water), poured the water off and added those to the pot as well. I lowered the temp to simmering and allowed the soup to cook about an hour or until the shape of the peas is still discernable. If you cook this too long the peas turn to nothing and your soup is mushy.

I purposely made a condensed version of this soup so I could freeze it in small containers and rehydrate with extra water for future use. If you’re serving a pot of Split Pea and Ham soup to a crowd immediately, use eight cups of water and add extra water as needed.

The soup was wonderful and the best part is I have three containers in the freezer for the remainder of this cold, cold Richmond winter.

What’s your favorite use for holiday leftovers? I’d love to hear about your recipes!

This is not a new novel by David Baldacci and has nothing to do with spies or espionage. It’s not a government initiative (but maybe it should be) or a soviet plot or a secret mission.

It’s harvest time in the garden and my main method of food preservation is blanching and freezing. Basically this involves a pot of boiling hot water on the stove to boil veggies for 3-5 minutes and then a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Blanching preserves color and flavor and readies food for freezer bags.

It occurred to me last week as I was processing vegetables that the water for washing and blanching could be reused to water my garden. We’ve only received one good drenching rain here and I can almost predict we’ll be in a drought situation before long.

During my last blanching session I bottled up my graywater and took it down to the garden and watered my plants. I also used graywater in a small flowerbed I have at the side of the house.

You can find our more about graywater at http://graywater.net. It seems such a reasonable alternative to using drinking water on lawns and gardens.

I’ve always been a resourceful gal though sometimes I think Boyfriend thinks I have a screw loose. He looked balefully at my graywater before I took it to the garden and I know he  questions the validity of my constant recycling, purchasing at thrift marts and composting efforts. Mercifully, he rarely SAYS what I know he’s thinking.

We should all try to be more resourceful. With oil spilling into the gulf at breakneck speed, water may become all too scarce in the future.  What affects one part of the planet, affects another.

Consider your graywater and make it work for you and the planet.

As the date of The Big Event approached the rapidity of money draining from my resources was only matched by the  pouring out of effort and energy to get our house and grounds in good order to host 40 people. Everything we did in the house and in the garden was something that should have been done YEARS ago, so I’m not whining about spending monetary resources on stain for the deck, paint for the bath and upgrades to fixtures and the like.  I know everything could have been done cheaper, but not as fast as it had to be accomplished.

It bothers me that we had The Big Event and didn’t recycle plastic, glass and aluminum. It bothers me that in the week before TBE, I didn’t compost my vegetable scraps or put out my coffee grounds and eggshells to dry for mulching the tomato plants.

On the upside, I washed and plan to reuse the big aluminum serving pans with the nice fitting plastic tops we bought and I had enough plastic cups, utensils, paper plates and napkins to host another Big Event.

And this time the house and grounds will be in order and time, effort and energy will be intact for maximum enjoyment of the hostess!

My neighbor grows blackberries so I’m waiting on an invite to pick his succulent, thornless black beauties. My strawberry plants did not grow at all. And my neighbor’s blueberry plants only yielded a small crop so I was not invited to partake in the picking.

I visited my local dollar store a few months back and discovered Miltons Bread (usually $4 a loaf) and containers of President’s brand feta cheese for a buck. The dollar depot is not close enough for everyday perusing, but yesterday I had to go to the optometrist in the vicinity of the store.

Yesterday, I discovered bags of frozen, organic strawberries AND blueberries FROM THE USA. No feta cheese and no Miltons but WOW strawberries and blueberries for a buck a bag!

Last night, I made iced chamomile, passion fruit green, and black tea. I crushed strawberries and put into a blender and zoomed the mixture around til it was pulverized. It was delicious!

So delicious, I’m determined to substitute my ever present glass of diet coke with healthy TEA with berries.

Tell me about your dollar store food treasures!

When the weather warmed here in Richmond, I moved into the Summer Office. The Winter Office is our guest bedroom upstairs. The Summer Office is a sunroom off our deck.

When it came time to move, I did not move my printer downstairs.

 Richmond Spring/Summer is a finicky gal, cold then hot then cold then very hot. I didn’t want to lug the printer up and down the stairs while navigating between the two offices. I can move my entire office in one trip. I’m a minimalist.

At first not moving the printer was a matter of logistics and weather. Now I realize it’s one of the best frugal moves I’ve made.

Today it is insanely hot so I’m working in the upstairs Winter Office where the printer resides. Oh she is tempting. But I shall abstain from printing. 

Are you practicing frugal abstinence? I’d love to hear about it.

I thinned my turnips yesterday and was delighted to discover succulent tiny fruits underneath the ground. I have great hope my turnips will indeed survive my insecticide-less garden. I did have to spray hot sauce and water on the turnip leaves about a week ago to discourage some little bug that was having a holey field day.

I brought my thinnings in and gave them a good dunk in some soapy water and toss them into an iron skillet with a tiny bit of olive oil to cook. I snipped the tiny turnips into the mix as well.  I gave them a nice dose of water occasionally and a nice splatter of apple cider vinegar at the end of cooking. Because the greens were young, I only cooked for 15 minutes.

Cornbread. I love it. I cannot make it. My mama makes the BEST cornbread in the world. It is a FLAT cake, crisp on the outside and perfect on the inside. She kept telling me she makes it with just water and cornmeal, a fact I have always had trouble believing. Mama wasn’t available to chat me through the cornbread process, so I went online and found recipes for Hot Water Cornbread.

The following recipe makes a small skillet of cornbread. Keep the corncake as thin as possible. If this is over a half-inch thick, the middle will not cook in the skillet.

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal, 2 tbsp flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, enough boiling water to make the mixture like thick soup. Mix everything together and pour into a small iron skillet coated in hot oil. I used a tsp of oil and wiped it around the skillet and this was just enough. When you’re cooking this think PANCAKE and you’ll know when to turn and cook the other side. I let my cornbread cook on med low heat for about 15 minutes. You really have to watch it.

My meal was scrumptious. I LOVE eating from my backyard. How about you?