It’s Spring Indoors
Remember those forsythia branches I brought inside last week to force? They’re blooming and bringing a little bit of sunshine into my dining room. I thought I’d share some of that sunshine with you today.
I’ll be cutting some more branches today when I’m at my mom’s and maybe some pussy willow branches as well. It will still be a few months until these are blooming outside. Until then, I’ll be enjoying a little bit of spring inside. Who need Valentine’s Day roses when you’ve got these?
What helps bring brightness & happiness to your day?
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Make Your Own: Brown Sugar
There are lots of things you can make at home for much less than you can buy them at the store. Not only does it save money, but it saves time as well. No more quick trips to the store to get brown sugar when you start baking and realize you’re out. I’ve been making my own brown sugar for quite a while, mostly because it can be difficult to find organic brown sugar when you live in a rural area and it’s pretty expensive when you do actually find it! I definitely couldn’t get organic brown sugar for less than $1.50/lb, which is about what this costs me.
To make your own brown sugar all you need is white sugar and molasses. I use organic evaporated cane juice sugar (not Sucanat) and unsulphered organic blackstrap molasses. The general recipe is 1 cup of sugar and 2 Tablespoons of molasses. You can adjust the molasses amount or use a different kind of molasses to suit your tastes. I’m partial to blackstrap or sorghum molasses. I also like to use at least 2 Tablespoons or a bit more, since I like dark brown sugar.
After adding the molasses to the sugar all you have to do is mix. This can take a while, you can use a mixer if you’re making a large amount, the whisk attachment works very well for this task. Mixing by hand is quicker I think, that’s what I do. Using a fork seems to work best. Don’t worry if you have small lumps of molasses in the final product.
Another added benefit to making brown sugar at home, is that it’s always fresh. It smells wonderful and it’s always nice and soft. It has a much deeper flavor than store-bought brown sugar, which I really appreciate!
Now you can add this to the growing list of things you can make at home. You’ll have a constant supply of fresh brown sugar for baking all kinds of delicious goodies.
Have you ever made brown sugar at home? Any other great things you make at home you’d love to share?
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Sending out Some Love
Valentine’s is a funny holiday. Mr Chiots thinks it’s all a setup by card companies to get business after Christmas. We don’t celebrate, no cards, flowers, candy or jewelry is exchanged here at Chiot’s Run. I may make a batch of chocolate covered cherries for us to enjoy. Even though we don’t celebrate, I love Valentine’s day stuff. I don’t know what it is about all the hearts and cards and cheesy stuff that I love, it’s just so FUN! I’ve always wanted to send out Valentine’s to friends, but have never really gotten around to it. This year however, I decided it was time.
I decided to make cards for a few friends that live far away and I don’t get to see often enough. I love the cheesiness of the Valentine’s we used to pass out as kids, so I decided to make mine as cheesy as possible. I had a few popcorn boxes sitting around leftover from a project for our business. I printed out a few things on my computer, then I got out my scissors and tape. I spent an evening being crafty, something I haven’t done in a long time. It was fun. I’m sure they’ll bring a smile to the faces of those that receive them.
I even found a piece of popcorn clip art for the envelopes, which I printed up. At the post office I found these vintage TV show stamps that fit the theme perfectly. I sealed them with a heart sticker to bring the cheese factor up even more. Can’t wait for my friends to find these in their mailboxes! There’s still time to send out a few Valentine’s of your own!
Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?
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Planning My 2010 Garden
Earlier this week I sat down to figure out what seeds I needed to buy for the coming gardening season. A cup of coffee and a few seed catalogs is a great way to spend a winter afternoon. I have a lot of seeds left from last season that are still viable, but some seeds like onions, beans & peas don’t germinate as well the second year. I really want to grow a lot of onions and peas in my mom’s garden plot this year, she doubled the size of her garden so I could have space for these items. I’m hoping the full sun will produce bigger onions that I can grow in my shady gardens. That means I’ll be buying some pea seeds and some new onion seeds.
I decided I’m going to focus on growing things that are difficult to find or more expensive to buy at the farmer’s market. Things I can get easily I won’t be growing (like popcorn and maybe squash). I’d like to grow some shelling peas for the freezer and I’d love to grow a nice batch of carrots. I definitely want to grow some pickling cucumbers, we’re really enjoying all the different pickles I canned. I want to grow a bunch of potatoes, perhaps try a few interesting varieties. I’m definitely going to grow Principe Borghese and San Marzano tomatoes again this summer and I want to try a few new varieties as well.
Are you growing anything new and interesting this year?
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A Beautiful Day
We woke up to a beautiful day yesterday morning. The skies were clear and blue and everything was coated with a light layer of fluffy sticky snow. It almost looked like the snow actually grew out of the trees. You could see each individual snowflake, it was lovely. Days like this make the longer winters bearable. When nature is this beautiful I don’t need to say anything, the photos say it all.
Sunny days like this make me happy, we don’t have many sunny winter days here in NE Ohio. I hope you have a beautiful day!
What kind of weather makes you happy?
