My New Love of Mason Jars

I was originally going to blog about the lovely dinner party my friend Jessica and I hosted in celebration of the Solstice, and it still kind of will be. But the biggest thing I learned during the prep was this:

MASON JARS ARE AMAZING! 

More on that in a second. First - Dinner Party. Sharing good food with good friends is definitely one of my favourite things to do. This night was no exception. 

My family helped me set the house up and set the table. My mom has fantastic colourful dishes so we set a happy, beautiful summer dinner party table. Lots of colours, flowers and sarongs/shawls on the chairs in case we got cold, and to add a punch of colour. 



Some menu highlights included fresh pea soup with cream, vegetable kebabs with homemade bbq sauce, my fresh garden tomatoes and quinoa cooked in vegetable broth. 


The serious highlight though? Dessert. 
Pies in mason jars. 


Rewind about a week, my mom and I were reorganizing the kitchen. We were redoing the spice and bulk cupboard and decided to use mason jars (various sizes) to hold spices, bulk lentils, nutritional yeast, etc. We stocked up on all sorts of sizes, and between those, some washed out old pasta sauce jars, and some labels, the cupboard is now super functional. Pies (apple pies and cherry pies) in mason jars. So begins my love affair with mason jars. 


After that, mason jars were everywhere! I saw browsing a diy site I love, ReadyMade, and saw this fun article: 10 things to do with Mason Jars Besides Store Stuff. Seriously?! Awesome! People are so creative! I followed the link for individual pie-in-a-jar and found this fantastic, happy, colourful blog! And had to rock the pie. 

Here's how I did it: (see their original post here) 
1. Make pasty. I used their basic pie crust recipe. 
2. Use the outer ring of the lid to cut tops for your pies. I cut one for the top, and one for the inside bottom of the jar. You could also top with a crumble, or a lattice top. 
3. Roll out the rest of your dough flat on a lightly floured surface. Cut long strips and work it onto the inside of the jar, pressing it flat against the jar so the entire inside is covered. It doesn't have to look nice, just be covered. 
4. Fill with your favourite pie filling. Here's my apple pie recipe, no idea where I got it but it's the one I always use. 

4 cups sliced apples (Green, Granny Smith apples, peeled)
*I cut the apples into smaller chunks since the pies will be smaller, 

but for big pie I leave them in slices. 

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp flour

1 cup white sugar

2 tbsp cold water

Combine apples, cinnamon, flour, sugar and water. Fill pre-arranged pastry. 

5. Cut a hole of some sort (I used a butterfly cookie cutter to make a summer-themed vent!) in the tops 

Step 6, Notice the butterflies

6. Place the tops onto the pies, and join the pastry together (squish it together with fingers or a fork). Just make sure all the pie is inside, not going over the top edge. 

7. Bake at 350 F for 50-60 minutes. Everyone asked if the glass would explode in the heat, but these jars are made to be boiled for canning, so it's all good. The blog suggested placing them in a cold oven, allowing them to heat up slowly. Makes sense to me so that's what I did.  

Step 8

8. Enjoy!! 

Alternate Step 7: Freeze them to enjoy the next time you crave pie! Simply put the lid on the jar and put it in your freezer. Handy tip: Using the inner, flat part of the lid as the stencil, I cut a circle of paper out to put in the lid for instructions.Write the instructions and type of pie on your label so anyone who wants it can use it! (Instructions: Remove lid, allow pie to come to room temperature, place in cold oven and bake at 350 F for 50 minutes). So baking them from frozen requires a bit of forethought since they need to thaw and bake for an hour, but what's a couple hours of wait when you can have fresh delicious apple pie in a jar! 

Easy as pie! 

Next on my list of mason jar adventure wishlist -> As a friend suggested : savory pies! Pot Pies, Shepherd's pie (There's a veganomicon recipe I've been waiting to try!), macaroni - my sister made this and it rocked!  The possibilities are endless! And this Magnetic Spice Rack looks so great! One day when I have a great kitchen of my own, it's going to be so organized and full of jars.  

Hummus Melts

Mm mm hummus. And spinach. And cheese. Ok, everything about this recipe is awesome.

Hummus Melts

I found this recipe on one of my favourite food blogs (neverhome)maker.com. You can find their original post here.

Time: 20 mins, tops?

Ingredients:
Splash of olive oil to saute
As many cloves of garlic as you like
A couple handfuls of fresh spinach per side of English muffin
1 full English muffin per person
Approx 1.5 tbsp hummus (plain or garlic) per side of  English muffin
Handful of shredded cheese to top each side of English muffin (mozzarella really is best, like their blog says)

How-to:
1. Toast the muffin(or muffins, believe me, you won't want to share) and heat oil on medium in pan.
2. Saute garlic and spinach in pan until it smells amazing and remember to leave the heat pretty low because burnt garlic smells the opposite of amazing.
3. Spread hummus on toasted English muffin
4. Turn on broiler
5. Top hummus with sauted spinach and shredded cheese.
6. Broil until cheese is browned on top.
Let it cool and enjoy! Usually I'm bad for letting things cool because I really want to eat them but this one is really hot with the cheese and the spinach. Much more enjoyable if you have patience!

Snack size! 

SNACK IDEA: My mom and I love these, and we came up with some fun ways to serve these for parties or as appys.

A) follow steps 1-4 then cut the English muffins into strips before topping with spinach and cheese. Voila! Hummus melt fingers!

B) Haven't tried this yet but you could make fingers with panini bread cut into sticks too, to make them more evenly shaped.

C) My friend Sam told me she ran out of hummus and made it with a salsa we made over the weekend for tacos, sounds like an awesome alternative!

D) As part of my birthday morning breakfast (although these can be for any time of the day!) we made these on slider buns, those mini hamburger buns. Perfect individual size and easy to eat with your hands! Definitely a winner.


I'm sure these would be even better with homemade hummus, an adventure I will tackle another day.
Happy eating!

No doubt the universe is unfolding as it should

This poem, Desiderata by Max Ehrmann, is one of my favourites.

Someone posted my favourite line today and reminded me about it!

In times when I am confused about what I am doing, what I should decide, or those days I ponder life, this poem is a good grounder. I have my favourite line, the one in the post title, written on my mirror.

To those of you who haven't read it before, may it bring you come calm and reassurance like it does for me. For those who do know it, may reading it today make you smile!

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Hello plants!

So I added that last post really late, and I already have an update for my plants!

 My tomatoes are DELICIOUS! Since I bought the plant from a greenhouse, they were already growing before I got them. So I woke up one day for work, and noticed thee was more than just green in my plant! I was so excited! 

A few days later they were even more red! Yum, time to eat!

I had to decide how I wanted to eat my first garden tomatoes! I wanted them to be the least changed from their awesomeness as possible. I made delicious Fort McMurray-Famous Sunshine Bread (recipe will come later) and warmed the sliced tomatoes up in a little bit of olive oil on the stove.

D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S. 

Gardening with power tools

Those of you who know me, you know I have a soft spot in my heart for power tools. Something about building projects, I love it! So when I started exploring vegetable gardening, I saw a project for making self watering containers to plant in, and I thought it'd be a good thing to try! My tools are in storage in Lethbridge, so I got to use my Dad's.

The goal of this project is to make a container that waters your plants from the bottom, so you don't have to worry about them every day (perfect for a summer shift worker like me!). This project is taken from my new gardening book The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible by Edward Smith 

For this project you need

Get your supplies!
(Thank you Dad for making such a
beautiful deck for me to put my garden on!)

•  2 buckets (big ones, 5 gallons preferably) for every container you want to have at the end
• Drill that will make a hole in thick plastic
• Tin snips (something that will cut thick plastic)
• Tape measure
• Plastic down spout (4" per container)
• Permanent marker 

Step 1. Get your buckets! I got buckets for a dollar from Booster Juice, they're not 5 gallons but big enough for my needs. My Dad also picked up some 5 gallon ones from Rona for me. I had enough for 5 containers at the end. 

Step 2.

 Step 2. Drill holes all the way around the inside of the small circle of on the bottom of the bucket that will become the inside bucket.d

Step 3.

Step 3. Using snips, cut the circle out by cutting between the drilled holes. Watch your fingers on this step! I pushed the circle out and cut my thumb pretty bad!

Step 4.

Step 4. Drill a dozen holes on the bottom of this bucket, this will allow excess water to drain out.

Step 5. 

Step 5. 

Step 5. Cut a 4 inch piece of downspout, and drill about 3 holes on each of the four sides, keeping the holes within an inch of the bottom of the pipe. This will be the wick that draws water up to the inner bucket.

Step 6.

Step 6. Place this piece of pipe into the center of the bottom bucket. Place the bucket with the holes into this bucket.

Step 7. 

Step 7. Hold the buckets up to the light so you can see the silhouette of the inner bucket. Using your permanent marker, draw a rectangle onto the outside bucket, with the top of the rectangle meeting the bottom of the inner bucket. The rectangle should be about an inch deep, and two inches long. This is where you'll be able to add and check water in this self watering bucket!

 Drill and snip the rectangle to take it out. I drilled holes into each corner, then one or two in the middle of each line so I could use the snips more easily. Remember to make it as smooth as possible since you'll be putting your precious fingers in to check water a lot!

Step 8

Step 8. Fill the pipe with moistened soil and place back into the center of the bottom bucket. Replace the inner bucket (the one with the holes). Line up the bottom hole of the inner bucket with the soil in the pipe so there is little to no space where there is no soil. The soil you will be putting into the inner bucket will connect with the soil in the pipe so water will be wicked up to the plant's roots. Yum Yum Plant food!  

Step 9. 

Step 9. Fill the inner bucket with CONTAINER SOIL. **Something new I learned - regular dirt is not the same as the soil you need for containers! It would dry out too fast! So look for the good stuff!

Sunflower seeds! Grow!  Grow! 

Plant your plants and move them to their location FIRST before you add the water to the bottom, through that hole you cut out earlier. It will be extra heavy once you add the water.

Another tip - Write your plant names on the buckets so you don't forget what you've planted!

Happy Gardening!!!

Pita Chips & Blogging!

So I have recently become addicted to scouring the internet for food blogs and of course that means I'm also cooking a lot! So between great recipes from food blogs and the great cookbooks people help me find - I have so seriously delicious food to share with you all! I also have lots of other things to share as well, things that colour my world. Things like great books and interesting and enlightening videos! Most recently, I've started gardening for the first time ever, other than a sad little flower garden my friend I planted in the shade next to my playhouse when we were little. Hopefully my thumb has gotten a little greener since then! All these things add colour my days, so I decided to start blogging to share them with my friends and family, I hope you enjoy!! 

So to start off this blog of things that colour my world, here's one of my favourite snacks, and it's super easy! 

Pita Chips

All the ingredients you need

• Bag of pita chips I usually use one of the giant bags, so I can make a lot! This bag can be fresh or even older pitas that you want to use up before they go bad! They taste great no matter what. 
• Olive Oil 
• Parmesan Cheese Now, fresh cheese is best for almost all recipes but not this one. Get the dried pre-shredded stuff.
• Garlic Salt
• Oregano
• Cookie Sheets Preferably with parchment paper!
• Scissors Remember to clean them before you use them on food! 

Step Two

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees, and get cookie sheets out and put parchment paper on if you have it. 

2. Open pitas or cut the edges off. Fresh pitas are easily pulled apart without ripping them, but older ones can be cut. Using scissors cut around the edge so that the pita can be pulled apart to get two round pieces. 

3. Brush or spray the inside-side of the pita with olive oil.

4. Cut the pitas into chip size pieces (I usually cut it in half, to make a semi circle. Then cut that in half, and into triangles, some of which need to be cut in half again because they're too big.)

5. Spread out evenly on the cookies sheets, with the inside, olive oil side up. 

6. Sprinkle with garlic salt, and then Parmesan and oregano. All to your own taste! 

7. Bake for 4 to 5 minutes at 400 F. Really watch your chips, they can burn really fast. You want them to be brown and crunchy and chip-y. Cooked too little and they'll still be chewy, cooked too much and they'll be burnt. 

8. Remove and let cool for a couple minutes, before you serve with salsa, hummus or your favourite dips! I usually store them in the plastic bag the pitas came in to help them stay fresh. 

Enjoy this delicious and easy snack (that's definitely healthier than regular chips, and equally as delicious!) 

Yum Yum!