What I Made
-
Tinted Glass with Flowers, a Pinterest Success (mostly)!
I was interested in making a little “something” for Mother’s Day (for my mom, sister, and aunt), and I have a “too large” collection of empty glass bottles saved over the years, so I decided to try something I had seen on Pinterest in the past that did not look too complex and involved items I already had at home. I wanted to try to tint some glass bottles. I used several empty Starbucks frappuccino bottles, Mod Podge Gloss Luster Finish, and food coloring. After removing the stickers from the Starbucks bottles, I used Goo Gone to remove the adhesive and nail polish remover to remove the purple stamped-on date. The…
-
Potato Gnocchi–A Nice Change from all the Matzo
One of the perks of having married my husband is that I have also had the chance to meet and become friends with his friends. (Thanks, Sweetie!) I recently spent a morning with his high school friend (and my current friend) Diane. She offered to teach me some Italian cooking. I was all in! Granted, at the time we made our plans, I had not realized that we would be getting together during Passover, so that affected what we made. We decided to make potato gnocchi which, although I would not be able to test out the day we made it, I would be able to freeze and eat after…
-
Aspects of Passover 2019
My family always hosts at least one of the two yearly Passover seders at my home. Passover is the holiday that I have claimed for family hosting. The first year that my husband and I lived in our house, we hosted Thanksgiving. That was simply our trial run of hosting a family event. Once we acknowledged that we could handle it, we took over a religious holiday, and I am glad that we did! If you don’t have any idea what I am talking about when I use the term “Passover,” this link can provide some useful information. (FYI–the article in the link is from a previous year. The date…
-
Making Natural Body Products
Back in January, I placed a post on a community Facebook page (see prev post). Shortly afterward, I received a message from Laurie; she offered to show me how to make some natural products. I was so excited! I have always wanted to try making natural body products, but I have never had all of the supplies necessary to do so. Laurie is also someone I had never met before, so I was looking forward to meeting another member of my community. (The suburb in which I live is small enough that you feel as though you know a decent number of people but realize that there are many you…
You May Also Like
Onion Soup, Take 1
Mixed Media Art Project–Painting, Stamping, Decoupage
Steak 101
-
Time to Try and Taste Tomatillos
My introduction to tomatillos.
-
Vegan Lasagna–SO GOOD!!
Last week I made dinner. Ok, it was a little more than that. Actually, it was a lot more than that. In response to my initial invitation/request on my “Beckie Lives and Learns” Facebook page to have people help me on my “living and learning” quest, one of my childhood friends replied and invited me to join her to prepare a healthy vegan dish. (I had seen enough on Facebook to know that there was no way that I was going to pass this up!) The plan was to prepare vegan lasagna. I was thrilled! (I am a vegetarian. The rest of my family are carnivores. Making a delicious vegan…
-
Glass Etching–Final Product Looked Great Despite Being a First Attempt!
Thank you to my friend, Sue, who introduced me to the world of glass etching! I have known Sue for a few years via my local Community Arts Center. She has been part of the staff of several community theater productions in which my daughter has performed. (I gladly embraced the role of “stage mom”–a supportive one; not a pushy one.) Sue responded to my original request on Facebook in which I asked members of my community to teach me something new, and she gets the honor of being the first to join me for a one-on-one session! (Congrats, Sue! : ) ) I arrived at her home, and she…
-
Creamy Roasted Cauliflower Soup
Frequently, cooking in my kitchen is a lot like the television show “Chopped”–I see what is in the fridge or in the pantry and just go from there. I can’t say that what I make is any good (I usually like it; the rest of my family is upset that I did not follow a specific recipe. Happily, though, no one in my house is withering away to nothing.) Something unusual, though, happened recently–I found a recipe and actually had all of the ingredients on hand! I receive produce every few weeks from “Imperfect Produce” (I will write about that at a future time) and had received some of the…
-
Yogurt Drops
Now that I have officially “put myself out there” with a blog, I am more inspired to try new things on a more frequent basis. When I don’t have time for a large project or have any formal activity planned, I figure that I can just look up a “life hack” and see how well it works. I recently found a life hack on Pinterest (1000lifehacks.com). This is what it said: “Spoon some yogurt into a plastic bag. Poke a small hole in the bottom and squeeze small dots onto a cookie sheet. Freeze for an hour. A great healthy snack.” This seemed easy enough to try. I filled my…
-
Onion Soup, Take 1
Secondary title: HE LIKED IT! I admit that I am not the best cook. Fortunately for me, I am not terribly picky. A little more unfortunate, though, is the fact that my family members are not huge fans of what I create. (If they don’t cook something, they are going to be stuck with whatever I make.) I do try to get creative with ingredients I have in the house, and, as a vegetarian, most of what I use is not very expensive (thus, I don’t worry as much about wasting money if my creation is not eaten by anyone but myself), and by not using meat/chicken/fish, the chance of…
