I.D. Bags

Ovos moles

I haven't mentioned this before, but I am of Portuguese heritage. I'm very proud of the culture, it's extremely fascinating and rich. One of my favorite aspects of it, is the Portuguese cooking. Call me biased, but I think it's the best cooking in the world ;)

I thought it would be fitting to start sharing a little bit of this part of my life. Since I was young, my mother always took the time to teach me these different recipes. I'm glad she did, and still does, because this way family traditions are kept.

One of my favorite recipes she thought me is called "Ovos moles", which translated means "soft eggs". It's a delicious dessert, sort of like a pudding or custard. It is extremely easy to make and it uses very few ingredients. See I'm always thinking of saving you money! haha...

Here is the recipe. If you decide to try it out, let me know how it turned out!

Ovos Moles

- 2 eggs
- 10 egg yolks
- 0.5 kg of sugar
- little over 1/3 cup water

In a small saucepan, mix water and sugar together and let cook in low-medium heat. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Let cool. In a separate bowl, beat your 2 eggs and 10 egg yolks together until they start to thicken. It should be a light yellow color.
When done with yolks, simply pour them in the saucepan where you have your sugar and cook in low heat, stirring constantly. Stir for a few minutes until your mixture thickens a bit more. Make sure it's on low heat, as we do not want this to boil! Once done, let cool down and once again it should thicken.

This recipe should serve around 4-5 people. You can serve in small cups and sprinkle some brown sugar or cinnamon over it. Enjoy!

dig, dig, dig. plant, plant, plant.

The weather this weekend was perfect for gardening. Finally!
I've been outside planting and harvesting since Saturday morning, and now I can barely move I'm so exhausted.

Since part of this blog is about sustainable living, I thought I should probably mention a few items everyone should have growing in their gardens.
Remember, if you don't have a large yard, like me, it's all about container gardening! So make your own containers with some plywood or simply use any old bucket you can find.

Now in order to make your garden part of your sustainable life, well you have to forget about all those cutesy decorative flowers and plants. They are useless, really. They will simply suck up water and your money.

My big thing these past few summers has been fine herbs. They are super easy to grow and maintain. Plus you have the benefit of having your seasonings grown at home, and that my friend makes your wallet super happy. These are the herbs I currently have growing in my garden: Mint, Basil, Oregano, Parsley, Chamomile, Thyme, Coriander, Dill, Rosemary and Tarragon. A lot of these I can use year long simply by drying them.

Here are some of the different ways I use each herb:

Mint--> Lemonade (already posted a recipe for one), tea, fruit salads and soups.

Basil--> Soups, salads and on chicken.

Oregano--> most tomato-based sauces, on potatoes and soups.

Parsley--> on Fish, vinaigrettes and salads.

Chamomile--> My favorite tea!

Thyme--> great in chicken (jerk chicken), on potatoes, tomato soup and sauces.

Coriander--> with chicken (especially a stir-fry)

Dill--> dips, in sour cream and mashed potatoes. Also in that salmon recipe I previously posted.

Rosemary--> great on all types of meat and fish marinades.

Tarragon--> amazing for salad dressings, and great on chicken.


All these herbs have many more uses and all of them are really low maintenance in your garden. So they're really easy for the beginning gardener.

Besides herbs though, everybody should have a few fruits and vegetables planted as well. I currently have big beef tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, red and green peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, raspberries and apples. Those take slightly more work, but will reward you with lots of food if taken care of properly.

One of my favorite sources for gardening information on the web is Patti Moreno, from Garden Girl TV.
Her website has loads of videos teaching you how to get started in container gardening and doing it organically. Her site is definitely worth a look: http://www.gardengirltv.com/
A few minutes on her website and you'll get the urge to go outside and start planting, I swear!

Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting my garden's progress, so make sure to check back!

better link

Here is a better link to the cyberseams website and videos:

http://cyberseams.com/

One stitch at a time

I've only been knitting for about 3-4 years now. It was my maternal grandmother who taught me when she visited one summer from Portugal. She would spend most of her evenings either knitting or embroidering. I just loved sitting there watching her do this without even having to concentrate on the task. It just came to her naturally.

I think I'm getting to that point now. Sometimes when watching television, I can sit there and knit without really focusing on the work. Almost like I don't have any control over my hands, they simply do as they please ;)

As much as I love knitting, I had been neglecting this hobby lately. So the other night, I decided I would find myself a new project on the web. I was able to find this adorable vintage shawl pattern on www.freevintageknitting.com . It was a slightly more challenging pattern since this one uses three needles, and well I've only ever worked with two. To my surprise though, it's been pretty easy to follow. The name of this pattern, if your interested, is Crescendo. It can be downloaded in pdf format from the above mentioned website.


I also thought, that some of you may not have a grandmother to teach you how to get started in knitting. There are many sources on the internet to help you learn, but most of them are hard to follow honestly. The best one, and it is easy to follow, is cyberseams on YouTube. The link to their videos is here http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?s=fK2ApAyTrnA
They teach the basics of knitting, but also offer a few more complex stitches. They are great really and definitely worth a look.

Anyways, I'll leave you with a picture of how it's looking so far:

Reusing Newspaper

Well yesterday I should have posted something, but my stupid internet connection acted up again. So my Tuesday "sustainable craft" bit will be done today.

I thought it would be great to share a new idea of what to do with old newspapers. Sure, it's nice recycling them, but sometimes it's even funner to craft ;)

A few weeks back, I realized I needed some new baskets around the house, to hold some clutter I've got all over the place. Thing is, I'm kinda broke lately. So I remembered something I had seen on TV ages ago, it was an interview with a woman in Brazil who did all these household items out of newspapers and magazines. One of the things she did was baskets. They looked just like the regular ones and they actually were just as solid.

Inspired by the idea, I decided I would give it a try. Here is how my first attempt turned out:

Ok, I know it's not perfect, but I find that the imperfections make it more rustic looking. On top of that, it really is as solid as though it were a regular basket. You wouldn't believe it's made of newspaper!

I won't post a full tutorial now, but I'll give you the basics at least. What you will need for this is:

- a few old newspapers
- white glue
- scissors
- paint brushes
- acrylic paint
- varnish

First of all you need to cut your newspaper into these strips. They should measure approximately 3 inches wide OR as wide as four fingers.Then you're going to roll these strips diagonally like this:

when you're done glue the tips so that it doesn't "unroll" itself. Then, you can start with your basket, by starting you're base like you would do for a normal basket. You can find many basket tutorials online. I might end up writing one, but frankly this week I'm a bit swamped.
Anyways, here is how it looks when you start:

Since the strips aren't that long, you have to keep inserting them into one another and glue them together. That way you can keep working continually as you would making a regular basket. If I'm not making any sense, well then I'm really sorry! haha ;)

When I make my next few baskets, I just might film it and post a tutorial video on here. Or better yet, if I find a great tutorial made by someone else (like someone who is better at English lol) then I will post it here.

At least, for now, you'll have another idea of what to do with all these old newspapers pilling up in your home.

Mmmmmm Mmmmm Good

From now on, I'm going to try to organize this blog a little more. I decided I would assign each day to a particular subject matter. Like on Monday's (like today!) I will focus on my culinary experiments. I still haven't decided the order of the rest of the week, but I know I'll be incorporating sewing, needlework (knitting, crochet etc...), recycling and other miscellaneous crafts.

Ok but now back to the cooking!

Today, I decided I would try out something new for supper. I knew I was going to have salmon, but just didn't feel like just seasoning it with some pesto like I always do. That's when I came up with this delicious recipe (I swear it really is good!)

Fast and Easy Creamy Salmon

Ingredients:
4 Salmon steaks
3/4 cup of Milk
1/2 container of Philadelphia Vegetable dip
1/2 Cucumber, chopped
Fresh Dill, chopped
salt

First, put a little bit of salt on your salmon steaks, not too much, just to flavor. Heat a little bit of extra virgin olive oil on a pan and cook your salmon on it. About five minutes each side, or until fully cooked. In a small saucepan, pour milk and add your philly veggie dip. Cook until dip is all melted, then add your cucumber and dill, and let sit for a while. Once your salmon is ready simply pour your sauce over it and serve. It is delicious!

I served it with some rice, and I was really impressed at how good the veggie dip was for the salmon. Anyways hope you enjoy this recipe. OH and by the way the picture isn't of my recipe, but it's similar enough! haha....

Check back tomorrow, to see what I decided would be the "Tuesday Topic" ;)