Friday Fun: How to Quick-Chill Wine

photo courtesy of Martha Stewart

Leave it to Martha to come up with an easy way to quick-chill wine.  (And leave it to Martha to do it using adorable dish towels.)

"Wet and wring out a linen dish towel, wrap it around a bottle, and place it in the refrigerator for half an hour.  Can't wait that long?  Try the freezer for 15 minutes."

We tested this out for you last night with a bottle of room-temp champagne, but it took our bottle a little longer in the fridge.  I'm guessing the glass bottle was thicker than a standard white wine bottle?  Also - why on earth were we drinking champagne on a Thursday night?!  Because our offer was accepted on what we've been calling The Dream House :)  We're super excited!  Let the paperwork mayhem begin!!

Happy Weekend, Lovelies!



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Friday Fun: Foodie Holiday Calendar

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Huge thanks to The Kitchn for posting this link!  I was lamenting to Bo (well, he was lamenting, actually) that I'd missed National Cheesecake Day - July 30.  And I'd missed National Ice Cream Sandwich Day - August 2.  And apparently, my birthday is National Cherry Pie Day?!  Odd, considering that cherries don't come in season until the heat of summer!  Anyway, I've always wanted to know what food holidays were coming up, so that I could do something to celebrate.

Friday Fun: My Favorite Pins This Week

A Teaspoon and a Pinch on

Friday Fun: Playing with Pic Monkey

Friday Fun: My Favorite Pins This Week

A Teaspoon and a Pinch on

Friday Fun: Jam Labelizer

    


Oh dear goodness, I adore this little site!  The Jam Labelizer is a very simple little tool to create your own jam labels, save the images, and print them out.  Easy peasy lemon squeezie!

Not only do I swoon over the cutesy interface, but it has me daydreaming about coordinating my next trip back to Oregon with the summer fruit season.  If you haven't had an apple, cherry, pear, peach, or plum from the Pacific Northwest, you are very much missing out.  (I'm still waiting for the state of Georgia to kick me out for snub-nosing their local peaches.)  Mom?  If you're reading this?  Can we make jam this summer?

There are a handful of labels that are totally free to customize, save, and print.  And it even lets you choose your jar size, so that the labels fit just right.  Anybody squint to read the directions on this label?

That's right - It says to use milk to stick plain paper to a jar.  What the what?  Apparently, if you print your label on laser paper, you can brush milk on the back and stick it right to the jar.  Who knew!  I love that idea!  If you click the link from the site, it takes you to a message board where people discuss how they attach labels to glass bottles using milk and printer paper.

I'm just dying to try this out.  Homemade jam is easier than you think, and it just tastes so, so good.  I'm pretty sure that I need to take a field trip to my mom's kitchen in Oregon to make jam and photograph the process for a summertime blog post.  I'll make any excuse to get my paws on some jam from the Northwest! :)

Berry Excited!

The Jam Labelizer

Friday Fun: Sprout Robot

Have you heard of Sprout Robot?  I'm not sure how I stumbled onto this site last year, but I think it's just so adorable that you can't help but click around.

The idea behind Sprout Robot is that you enter your zip code, and it tells you what and when to plant things in your garden or patio containers.  I'm super new to gardening (read: Bo does all the gardening while I stand around with my black thumbs in my pockets), so having a list catered to my growing zone is super handy and helps eliminate guesswork while we stand in front of the seeds display at Lowe's.

I entered my zip code yesterday, and this is the list it popped up.  If you click on the Details for any of the veggies, it shows when the seeds should sprout, when to thin the starts, and then when you can expect to start harvesting.  Love that!

And if you click Instructions, it gives an illustrated set of directions for planting that particular veggie seed.

They offer a membership plan which takes it one step further by mailing you seeds for your area and at the perfect time for planting.  Um, how cool is that?

Sprout Robot is on all the usual media outlets, and I do follow them there.  They post fun links on Facebook (including one on making animal shapes out of raw broccoli, lol) and helpful tips.

Sprout Robot on Facebook:

Sprout Robot on Twitter:

What about you?  Are you thinking about planting anything this year?  After Bo's bumper crop of peppers last summer, I'm going to ask if he'll start trying more varieties.  And I'd love to have more herbs for freezing and using throughout the fall and winter months.  But, since I'm not the one out there tending to the crops, I'm not sure how much nudging and nagging I should be doing :)



Happy Weekend!

Friday Fun: Hangry. (And a winner!)

image via Pinterest

hangry
	A state of anger and irritability resulting from being hungry. Karen: What is up with you? You are being so annoying. Nini: Ugh. I didn't eat breakfast and I am starving. I am really hangry.

Tell me I'm not alone in this!  Even before I had issues with hypoglycemia, waiting too long to eat would put me in a state of simultaneous grumpy, tired, and sad.  I called it being wilty.  But now, it's progressed to straight up "hangry."

For whatever reason, I only know of this affecting women - are you men truly not affected by extended periods of not eating??  Is there some biological reason for this?

Lunchtime!

And our winner!!  Thanks to Random.org, lucky #14 won!




Wehaf, I'll email you right away, and as soon as I can get a shipping address from you, I'll get your winnings into the mail!  Congrats!!

Friday Fun: Oddball Food Habits

'Mornin!  So, let's get right to it - Do you have any weird-to-other-people food habits?  Foods you love or hate that don't make sense to other people? 

I read the comments on this post the other day and thought it was both hilarious and fun.  And since my parents are here visiting right now, I thought I'd press them for details on their food habits.  Turns out that they don't have as many oddball food things as I do (OCD for the win!), but there are still some "good" ones we came up with.  Even Bo actually had a couple.

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One of my favorite things in life is that bananas will naturally break into thirds.  Isn't nature fascinating?  The only way I eat bananas is to break off a piece, then push it into thirds and eat the thirds individually.  Turns out my dog, Rory, is the same way!  She won't eat a chunk of banana, but she'll eat the thirds I break off for her.  Solidarity!  :)


I love Ranch Dressing on spaghetti, pizza, and lasagna.


Bean & Bacon soup and Vegetable soups are delicious straight from the can.  Something about the cold carrots makes their flavor so much better!


My mom loves salted radish and butter sandwiches.




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Apparently, way back in the day, it was popular to serve "pear salads" at parties - pear halves with a scoop of mayo in the centers, over a bed of lettuce and sprinkled with cheddar cheese.  I distinctly remember being grossed out by this as a kid whenever my parents ate it!


I just learned that my dad won't touch anything peppermint flavored but will chew any flavor of mint gum and not know the difference.

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Dad also loves an over easy fried egg sitting on top of his pancake stack, with syrup poured over the whole thing.


My grampa loved pouring vinegar into his cooked spinach. 


My gramma often served us a slice of white bread with gravy as a side.  Anyone else ever have this?  So good!!


Our first Christmas together, Bo threw me a curveball by insisting we stop to get ice cream on our way to look at lights.  Ice cream?  At Christmas?  But, oh yeah - he's from Florida!  He said that's how they tried to get chilly at Christmas while they were driving around to see lights :)  I've definitely embraced that tradition now; how fun!


My sister loves cold green beans, straight from the can, dipped into yellow mustard.

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Whenever I eat something in colored pieces - like Skittles or M&Ms - I first divide them into piles by color.  Then I eat pieces until each pile has the same number in each.  Then I eat them in order of least favorite to favorite.  I'm always sad when there are tons of greens and purples and hardly any reds or yellows.


So, it's not a shocker when I tell you that I can't stand for my food to touch on my plate.  I'll even take smaller helpings of each item and go back for seconds if it means that my steamed veggies won't dribble into my meat or my carb.  And if I'm being utterly honest with you - big sigh - I'll admit to having occasionally propped an edge of my plate up a little so that juicy items contain themselves and don't spread to the rest of my food. 


Canteloupe just doesn't taste as good if you don't salt it first!


I love salsa, tomato sauce, ketchup, and stewed tomatoes, but I cannot stand raw tomatoes.  The taste, texture, and slime gross me out in a huge way.

Your Turn!!

What are some fun/funny/interesting/weird things

you have with foods??

 So Fun,

Friday Fun: What Are You Most Thankful For?

My favorite bridge on the Greenway paths near our house.

Happy Friday, you lovely cooks!  I thought it might be fun to post a few photos of things I'm thankful for.  And, to invite you all to fill up the comments with all the big and little things that make your heart smile. 



I'm thankful for my favorite taste-tester, my sometimes camera man, and the person who encourages and praises me the most on this planet.  And I'm thankful for his parents who raised such an amazing man.



I'm thankful - and really missing! - all my family back in the Pacific Northwest.  This photo is with my parents, siblings and spouses, two grandkids, and grampa.



I'm so thankful to be living in a place where Fall - my most favorite season - is just so beautiful. 



I'm thankful for my crazy, sweetheart of a dog, Rory.  She makes me laugh every single day.

And, who isn't thankful for from-scratch, still-warm chocolate cake?! :)

Let's hear it - What are you thankful for this year?

And, Thank You!

Friday Fun: Adorable Pie Carriers

It's 38 degrees outside.  My back has been in a ton of pain for six days now.  I'd really just like some pie for breakfast. 

Mom?  If you're reading this?  I'd like an apple pie, pretty please.

Vonny Pie Carriers and Casserole Totes