One of our local grocery stores grills meat in the parking lot on weekends during the summer.  As you drive up to get the shopping done, you walk through all these wonderful smells of barbecuing.  And then you walk into the store, grab some meat and go home to grill it yourself.  I’ve done this too many times to count.  And forgotten the milk I went to the store to buy originally.

This marinade is really good and hot.  What saves the day, however is that before you throw it onto the grill, you wipe off the marinade.  When you bite into the meat, you still have the taste of some flavorful heat but it is tempered down.  Try it once, your flank steaks will love you.

See?  Everyone looks happy here!

Put all the ingredients into the food processor and let me warn you, do not put you nose down in there to smell the aroma.  The aroma will kick you in the butt!

Place it all into a plastic bag along with the meat and let it marinate for four hours or longer.  Try to make this a day ahead and let it marinate in the frig over night.  Yummy!

See?  This is pretty simple and it packs a wallop of taste for your meat.  Try it this upcoming weekend when I know you will all be out there grilling meat for Father’s Day!

6 cloves garlic

1 large onion, diced

1 jalapeno (do not seed)

1/2 cup cilantro, diced

2 T kosher salt

juice of 3 limes

juice of 2 oranges

juice of 1 lemon

1/3 cup Sriracha sauce

1/4 cup  tequila

1/4 cup olive oil

flank steak

This recipe comes from Randy Clemons and The Sriracha Cookbook

Love,

Fae

Apparently, I started my trip in Mexico.  I never once saw any of those forts.

Early last month I traveled to Oregon to be with my fellow bloggers and scrapbookers for a weekend of girlfriend bliss.  You know the kind where jammies are required all day long?  No makeup?  No bras?  No men?  Alcohol?

Yeah…one of those weekends.  We scrapbooked to our hearts content.  We ate new food from recipes we love; we visited; we commiserated, and most importantly we laughed like fools.  Or hyenas.  I get it confused sometimes.

But while I was prepping for my trip (don’t even get me started on how little I pack to scrapbook), I thought that this would be a fun idea to do.

And then I forgot I had these photos on my camera.  Doh!

Anyways….Here is my version of the Oregon Trail.  I not only was main driver (the ONLY driver.  Hell, I was the only one in the car!) but I was navigator as well.

Strap in and hold on.

Crap! Very first photo and I screw up not getting the ‘Welcome to California’ sign.  But, hey!  Welcome to Sierra County line.

Did you know that very few people use the term ‘bug station’ when referring to the California Inspection stations?  I’ve used it before and if you’re not from around here, you have no idea what I’m talking about.  Or…I really DON’T know what I’m talking about.

It could happen.

Bug station ahead. And look! My windows are still clean.

And this area will mark the highway closing down to two lanes.  Two. Lanes.  And I won’t see a four lane highway for hours.

It only took 5 hours to reach Susanville. Ok, it FELT like five hours.

Once through this bustling metropolis, I’ll need to turn.  Left…I’ll need to turn left…somewhere right after Susanville.  Don’t ask me the highway numbers.  I’ll recognize it somehow.  This is how I navigate.

Except for that one time I turned down a logging road.  That was a bad choice.

Here! Turn here! Turn RIGHT here!

Because it was a beautiful clear day, I knew I was going to see the volcanoes as I drove by.

If you can see through the bug guts, that’s Mt. Lassen. And yes, I’m driving AND taking photos.

Driving next to a cliff on my side.  Taking picturesque photographs…and my life in my hands!

Coming up on another turn…again, I’ll need to turn right.

I had to roll down the window to get this shot. Couldn’t see through the bug guts anymore.

Thankfully, California Dept. of Transportation helps me out with arrows and names.  I know that I will eventually pass by Mt. St. Helens.  No…that’s not it.  Mt. Shasta, so I turn here.

I’m going to have to get my ice scrapper out to tackle the bug guts soon.  I don’t recognize the towns on the signage, meaning, I usually don’t go through those towns when I head to Oregon, but who knows?

Could be a short cut.

See that logging truck? You do not want to get behind one of those on these two lane roads. I got behind one of those.

There is no shortage of grasshoppers in northern California.

Burney Falls. A little close to the edge here, aren’t we Fae?

I know this Sign.  And if I wear an aluminum hat on my head, the aliens won’t grab me.

And yes, I pulled over to take this photo.  Please rest easy now.

If you hear the theme from ‘Deliverance’ there’s a reason for it.

Yea!!  Another volcano.  I’m on the right road, unless it’s really Mauna Kea.

See logging truck ahead of 1960′s van? Very good drivers, both of them obeying the school speed zone.

I pulled over to try to get a better shot of the beauty of Mt. Shasta.  Of course, who knew that I needed to 10 feet tall to capture that beauty and not just stand next to the car?

Lovely photo of documenting pine tree growth.

And here begins the metal sculpture part of our road trip.  A cow.  And, bonus…I’m almost in Oregon.

Since Beyonce is already taken (reference humor) what shall we call this bovine?

Well, of course I run into road construction turning my high speed four lane interstate race into a meander up into the Siskiyous coughing on the diesel exhaust.

This usually takes about 30 minutes, maybe, to hit the summit. This time, it took four weeks.

I almost missed the Welcome to Oregon sign.  Maybe there won’t be so many bugs once I hit the state line.

Now…on to the summit.

I always get a chuckle that this is the highest point on I-5 and the summit’s elevation is still lower than the elevation I live at.

No photos for the down side here…need to pay attention.

Between the drivers who have never traveled down this road and the freight trucks going down hill, the remainder of the drive down is more of a pay-attention-or-you’ll-die road.  You’ll see huge tire marks all over the road so I pay really good attention.  I do not want to add to those marks, or worse yet, BE one of those marks.

The rest of the drive is totally uneventful…green, green, green.  And friends and wine at the end of a long drive.

love,

Fae

OCD strikes again.

“Doctor, Doctor, gimme the news, I gotta bad case of Recipe RX blues,” (i.e., what am I going to do about Fae’s recent challenge).

Hmmm…I wonder what is hidden in the Challenge Basket

And…

“Contestants, open your baskets.” You have…

And so, you know the ingredients, you know the “rules.” Now what to do, what to do.

The first thing that came to me was, “well, this is boring and WHAT am I going to do to fix this up?” The second thing that came to me was that I wanted to try a Paleo technique that I had not yet tried. And so, off to the grocery store I went for the one ingredient that I needed that was NOT in my basket or pantry.

I had been hearing of Paleo Purists who had used pork rinds as a substitute for a breading. I’ve been wanting to try this, but hesitant to take the plunge. But with a challenge like this, what the heck? For some reason, the concept of breaded, browned meatballs called to me. Go for it!  And so I did. I did a tiny bit of research about using pork rinds as breading; one tip suggested grinding the pork rinds with almonds. Hey! I have almonds in the freezer…let’s try that! And so, with my ONE item from the grocery store (the pork rinds) and the rest from the freezer and pantry, I was up for the challenge.

I measured 2 ounces each of pork rinds and sliced almonds;

After grinding these together in the food processor, it looked a little sparse so I added about another ounce of each.

I then set about to making the meatballs; substituting ½ pound of mild Italian sausage for ½ pound of hamburger,  I added an egg. I mixed that, along with the minced garlic, chopped onion, oregano (I decreased this to 1 Tbsp.), salt and pepper (to taste; again, not in the original recipe) and formed about 16 meatballs. I “rolled” them in the pork rind/almond combo. I say “rolled” because the breading mixture wasn’t really dry like bread crumbs, it was more moist and kind of clumped together. So, my “rolling” actually became a rolling/pressing procedure.

At this point I melted about 2 Tbsp. bacon fat (my choice for frying fat as called for in the original recipe) in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. The desired outcome was to brown and pretty well cook the meatballs through. And here is the finished product from THAT procedure:

Oh, look! There ARE 16 of these little babies.

At this point, I have to confess…

I did take a bit of liberty in my interpretation of “chopped tomatoes.” The chopped tomatoes that I had in mind were in the form of my daughter’s recipe for Homemade Marinara Sauce (stay tuned). I just happened to have a batch in the freezer. Yay! Here it is, simmering away.

YUMMM! The BEST Marinara sauce around! At this house, we call it Mandy’s Marinara Sauce…I promise, recipe for this to come

Regarding the zucchini, I was wanting to make this dish as more of a baked dish, similar to a baked pasta kind of fare, and so I decided to prepare the zucchini as a pasta substitute. I got out my handy dandy julienne peeler (once again, HUGE thanks to Farie for this gift) and prepared this “bed” for my tasty little meatballs:

I then nestled my little brown balls on the bed of zucchini

and poured the marinara sauce over all.

At this point, Paleo Purists, turn your heads.

This recipe just SCREAMED for some shredded cheese; I chose mozzarella and parmesan. I probably added a combo of the two that approximated 1 – 1 ½ cups.

Yum…look at how these layers stack up!

At this point, I put this lovely layered concoction into the oven, preheated to 375, and baked for approximately 40 minutes; until the cheese was browned on top.

Upon removing from the oven, I let it stand for approximately 10 – 15 minutes; to set up.

And then…ladies and gentlemen, start your forks…

….rmmmmm….rmmmmmmm

Yes indeed! Judges, what do you think? I think this modification cures what ails the Recipe RX Blues.

Thanks for the challenge, Fae! You got me out of my box…got me to try a new Paleo technique (the pork rinds) AND…a chance to show off my club shirt.

Now, where’s my $50,000 prize?

Here are my ingredients. The same as were listed, but I added some, which are listed below.

Ingredients:

1 T cooking fat (I used olive oil)

1/2 yellow onion, diced (I used a whole one)

1 lb ground meat

1-2 cloves of garlic

2 T dried oregano

2 medium (6″-8″) zucchini, diced

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1/2 t sea salt, optional

And I added:

3 carrots, sliced

3 celery stalks, sliced

8 oz sour cream

1 package cream cheese

pepper

1 box Stove Top stuffing (or you could use bread crumbs or plain stuffing crumbs)

Instructions:

1.  Sautee the onions, celery, garlic, and carrots in olive oil until softened.  Add ground beef and brown together.  Add tomatoes, zucchini, salt, pepper, and oregano.

2.  While this is cooking, make Stove Top according to package directions.

3.  While that is sitting, add sour cream and cream cheese to hamburger mixture.  When combined well, pour into a casserole dish.  Top with stuffing, and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

All in all, it turned out pretty well.  I am actually eating it right now for lunch, and it is even good warmed up!  Tyler liked it well enough to eat two servings, so that is impressive.  Then again, I did add cheese, dairy and bread to it, and that will make anything edible!

Have you ever read a recipe and said, ‘Jeez, that sounds good’ or maybe ‘that would be a quick and easy dinner’ or even, ‘I’m so tired, I just want something filling and FAST!’  Yeah, that was me a couple of weeks ago.  I found the following recipe and had all the ingredients so I thought, why not?

Why not, indeed.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

If I had only read the directions before I starting the cooking, I’m certain some alarms would have started ringing.

And all of this brings me to a new chapter here on Idiosyncrazies.  It’s called Recipe RX.  A prescription, if you will, to fix a recipe that just doesn’t quite fill the bill.

Like this one.

I asked my fellow bloggers what they could do if it were left up to them to tweak this recipe and make it their own.  The rules are that they can’t subtract ingredients from the original but they certainly can ADD to the ingredients and directions.  Next week they will be showing off their versions of this recipe.

In the meantime, here is the original in all it’s sad glory.

Ingredients:

1 T cooking fat

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 lb ground meat

1-2 cloves of garlic

2 T dried oregano

2 medium (6″-8″) zucchini, diced

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1/2 t sea salt, optional

Instructions:

Wash and prepare vegetables.  Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add cooking fat when hot.  Add onions to skillet and saute’ until slightly translucent.  Quickly roll meat into balls and add them to the pan next, along with the garlic and oregano.  Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add zucchini and tomatoes and cook until tender.  Season with salt if desired.

Seems simple enough, right?  But then, in reflection, did they really mean to roll the meat alone or to put the garlic and oregano into the meat and then roll into balls?  See, to me, it wasn’t written correctly if they meant it to be combined.  Anyway, taste was lacking.  As is, I would NEVER use this recipe again.  EVAH!

But then, I love a cooking challenge and so do my cohorts.

I know now how I would tweak this but I’m not giving away my ideas.  I am eager to see what they come up with next week.  Stay tuned, ok?

Love,

Fae

I love you.

I loathe you..

I love you…

I loate you….

If ever the thought, after some perusing around Pinterest, “I can do that,” has crossed the grey matter of your brain and led you wandering, mindlessly through the aisles of Michaels, JoAnn’s, or, in the case of us Rogue Vallians, Craft Warehouse, you know what I mean. Pinterest is our Goddess. Pinterest is the Devil.

A couple of years ago, when Pinterest was still relatively new, I found this picture.

Oh! I could do THAT, I exclaimed pompously. Actually, now that I think of it, I think it went more like this…

Me (exclaiming to my daughter): “WE could do this!”

Her: ”Knock yourself out.”

Have I mentioned she can be snarky? An itsy bitsy teenie weenie bit snarkey? Well, not to be discouraged, without a second thought, I was hot-footing it to JoAnn’s for all of the supplies.

“I’ll take ten yards of each of these, five of these wreaths, nine spools of thread and three hundred of these buttons.” Thank you.

“No, Thank YOU, Mrs. Fannie. Have you been lurking around Pinterest again?” said the smug cashier. Ok, maybe she didn’t REALLY say it out loud. But I know she was thinking it.

And so (or sew) it began. I won’t go into all of the graphic details or provide pictures (primarily because I didn’t take any), but I plugged along, sans directions, to try and recreate the vision I saw on Pinterest. I was relatively pleased with my product but it didn’t have quite the flair I was looking for. In any event, I packed it up and shipped it off to its intended recipient. With that, I set aside the remaining 9.75 yards (did I mention that I bought way more fabric than I needed?) in each of three colors of fabric along with the other supplies and moved on to the next project, which would, in high probability become, yet another, UFO (unfinished objects). Oh, don’t you act all innocent with me. If you have ever graced the hallowed halls of Michael’s, JoAnn’s or Craft Warehouse, the odds are quite high that you, too, have UFO’s shoved in some closet or cupboard somewhere.

Well, low and behold, recently, I was cleaning out said storage vessel for UFO’s and ran across a 50 pound bag loaded down with three colors of fabric, along with the other supplies, stashed away a couple of years ago, all with the honest intention of completing a few more of these prized possessions. UFO’s have been weighing a bit heavily on my heart this spring; it must have something to do with the realization that time is precious and nothing is certain. And so, out it came. The BAG. This would NOT become another UFO banished to the back of the scrapbook, craft, wedding dress/prom dress/letterman’s jacket/legos/Fisher Price Little People closet. No, indeed.

And,  without further ado, I present to you, my most recently completed UFO along with some instructions and tips (which I did not have the luxury of having way back when).

First of all, the first time I made one of these, I used these Styrofoam wreaths.

For a couple of reasons, I won’t use them again. For one thing, the “ring” (for lack of a better word) itself was relatively small, therefore not facilitating a larger, “fluffier” finished product. Secondly, my daughter (the recipient of the first finished model) informed me that the wreath broke. I think she attempted to glue it, but we both agreed, the bound, straw wreaths are a better choice. And so, here you have the second generation of this (previously unfinished but now bound to be finished) project.

For the fabric, Pinterest used burlap. Well, I was unsuccessful in finding burlap in the desired colors, so I opted for a different fabric. I settled on duck cloth. It is sturdy and the ruffles will hold up to the elements.

Now, again, Pinterest, back in the dark ages of circa 2011, did not always provide directions for the plethora of ideas that overflowed this heavenly (evil) website. So I had to kind of “make do.” Delving back into my Home Economics brain archive where I file important details from that eighth grade class, I remembered that the general rule of thumb for gathering was to have your fabric be 3X the length that the gathering would cover. Therefore, I needed to measure the “ring” and then cut strips that were approximately 3x this length…and about two inches wide. For my wreath, this worked out to be eight inches for the measurement of the ring, therefore, 3x this for the gathered strips, or approximately 24 inches. Now, again, when one does stuff like this one learns along the way. My first wreath had a ring measurement of approximately 7 inches, therefore 3x this was 21 inches. I had already cut extra strips leftover from the first wreath that were this length and therefore, continued to use this as my guide. Not thinking this all the way through, my second wreath was not as “fluffy” as it could have been. Next time, I’ll make sure to cut my strips in 24 inch lengths. Two inches appeared about right for the width. And so, cut away I did.

Another modification from the first wreath; I cut the strips using regular fabric shears the first time around. With the second wreath, I had invested in a high quality pair of pinking shears. The effect was much improved.

And now, the Gathering (there’s a nod to my fellow Outlander fans, just to see if they are paying attention); at first I tried this on the sewing machine. That method lasted one half of one strip; the fabric is heavy and the gathering stitch was not suitable. Out came the hand needle, thread and thimble. Again, having done this two times now, I’ll share a time saving tip. You know the length of your gathered strip is going to be approximately 8 inches. Add about a half inch for overlap. That makes 8 ½ inches. Add a half inch for the knotted thread beginning and an inch for ending the thread with a knot; for those of you who do not have degrees in accounting, this makes 10 inches. You will want to use a heavy gauge thread; the fabric is stiff and the gathering creates a big of a “torque” on the thread. Give it a test run with one “ruffle” with a ten inch piece of thread. If that give you the desired result, go ahead and cut the rest of your thread lengths at this time; this saves time by not having to measure out your thread each time and having to determine whether or not you have gathered your ruffle tightly enough. Believe me, you don’t need to be fancy here…just a real rough gathering stitch run about a half inch down from the top edge; takes less than ten minutes per ruffle. Don’t ask me how I know that.

As you can see, I covered my wreath by alternating two of each of the red and white ruffles approximately 2/3 of the way around the wreath. To fasten the ruffles to the wreath, I used a “T” pin to pin and place each ruffle and then, out came the trusty glue gun!

The glue gun is the Holy Grail of all things crafty. Lord knows that if this amazing invention was around in the 70’s those poor Home Economics sewing teachers would be standing in the unemployment line!

I placed a nice big glob of glue around the T pin and up and under the point at which the ruffles overlapped, fastening them to one another as well as to the wreath. Pull the ruffle relatively tightly as you do this and you’ll only have to fasten each ruffle in one place, along the back where the ruffle ends join.

Continue in this fashion, gathering, pinning and gluing until you have reached the point with the red and white ruffles where you are satisfied with the coverage. For my wreath, this turned out to be thirteen of each.

Then, finish covering the wreath with blue ruffles; approximately 20 of these.

The embellishments were, as you can see, an assortment of white buttons; JoAnn’s had a huge button bag for about $5. I snagged that baby; I also added a few that I had on hand. And, because we are an Army family here at Bosworth Estates, I went to the Army Surplus Store and purchased an Army label to embellish my wreath.

And there you have it! I’m sorry that I didn’t get this posted in time for you to whip one of these up for Memorial Day, but you should have plenty of time now to pull it together for 4^th of July.  This one is winging its way to my mom (due to arrive on the day this blog post is published) because, well, life is precious and its silly to not complete some of those UFO’s and share them with the ones you love.

Love, Fannie

That is what makes this such a great idea and it’s a do-ahead!  We had our niece over the other evening.  She had to catch an early (6am!) flight meaning she had to leave our house at 5am.  Could I get up and fix her some type of breakfast, say around 4:30am?  Uh huh.  No way, no how.  What I did was have some of these on hand for her to heat up in the microwave.  Filling and tasty, all at once.  Here..have these and have a nice flight!

So next time you’re thinking of grabbing a box of cereal to pour for yourself or your kids, this is much tastier and much more healthy for you.  You will thank me, pinky promise.

I added mushrooms at the last minute so they aren’t shown here. Nor is the salt and pepper. Or the glass of wine I was drinking at the time.

Very few ingredients, right?  You don’t line the muffin tins with paper liners but you do spray it generously with cooking spray otherwise the eggs have a tendency to stick to the bottom.

I used some thick sliced bacon here and I wouldn’t do that again.  It took longer to get that done while the eggs were already set and done.  Just use regular bacon and put it into rings in each cup.

Then chop up whatever veggies you want.  I used a combination of spinach and bell peppers.  You do not need much of either.

Once you have all the veggies you want in there, whip up the eggs.  Originally, I thought one egg per cup but that was too much what with the veggies taking up space.  For 12 muffin cups, I ended up using 8 eggs.  My muffin cup is an oldie but goodie.  If you happen to have one of those monster size muffin cups, you’ll need to adjust accordingly.  Pour the eggs in and use a bit of sea salt and ground pepper on top.

And this is what you’ll have for breakfast Monday through Friday of next week.  Or just Monday if Mr. Fae sees it.

Here is the easy as pie, er, um…easy as muffins recipe.

Breakfast Muffins

Assorted vegetables of your choice;  spinach, bell peppers, mushrooms, green onion, tomatoes, kale, whatever.  But make sure that you dice them up small or in the case of the mushrooms, sliced thin.  For mine, I used ONE mushroom (2 inches wide) for 12 muffin cups.

Eggs; dependent on your muffin cup size

Bacon, not thick sliced

Cooking spray, salt and pepper

Dice up all the veggies you want.  Line the sides of the muffin cups with your bacon.  Place veggies into the cup, top with beaten eggs, salt and pepper.  I ended up cooking mine for 20 minutes to get the bacon done and the eggs to set.

Bon Appetit!

Love,

Fae

But first, Homemade Mayonnaise? Why? You ask. Well, as most of my friends and family are now very much aware, back in mid-February, after dabbling my toes in the Paleo Pond for a few weeks, I jumped headfirst into the deep end of the Paleo Lifestyle. I’ve loved so much about this way of eating and living, but that is fodder for a different post. The bottom line here is that we Paleo-ites (or Palominos, as Mr. Fannie fondly likes to refer to us) avoid certain things like the plague; soy products are one of the leaders of the “no-no list.” From the research I have done, not only can soy be very “inflammatory” to our digestive systems, but, as research is showing more and more, soy is one of the crops that is becoming highly susceptible to questionable commercialized farming methods, including, but not limited to GMO’s. Ok, whoops, sorry…stepping backwards, ever so carefully off of my soap box. In any event, I’m avoiding soy and most, if not all, of the commercially prepared “bad” oils (corn, safflower, vegetable, etc.). Not a huge deal, but try finding mayonnaise that is not soybean or safflower oil based; not to mention the fact that many of the ingredients listed are not “normally found in nature.” (A funny side note…this is often the criteria I use at acceptable hair coloring…”is this color normally found in nature? No? Than, sorry, no, you can’t dye your hair that color.”) Not to mention the fact that I find great pleasure in knowing just exactly (or as close to exact as can reasonably be obtained) what ingredients I am putting into the foods I feed my family, friends and myself. And so, the desire for the Perfect Homemade Mayonnaise was fueled

As I said earlier, the challenge had been laid down; Fae did it! I can do it! I, too, can master the art of making Homemade Mayonaise.

Now, because Fae did such a great job of documenting how she mastered this art (take a look)

http://idiosyncrazies.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/i-can-do-magic/

I’m not going to recreate the wheel here.

I AM going to re-affirm what she found out (that making Homemade Mayonnaise is really not hard, you just need to know the tricks of the trade), underscore some points she made and also provide a few little tips and techniques of my own. I’m also going to highlight some of the favorite little occupants of my kitchen gadget drawer.

First of all, ingredients. As Fae said throughout her post, make sure that all ingredients are room temperature. Believe me, as I have gleaned, and she has learned, this makes a difference between some gloppy sloppy mix of oil and egg and the wonderfully whirled, emulsified brilliance of mayonnaise (or as hoity toity chefs like to refer to it, “aioli”).

The other critical tip; the container in which to blend your ingredients. Yes. The Pyrex glass pitcher. This kitchen staple has stood the test of time!

And, finally, this is the key…none other than the immersion blender! If you do not have one of these gadgets sent from heaven AND you enjoy preparing soups, sauces and other dishes that are best whipped into a frenzy, put this on your Wish List! I did just that and, last Christmas, my son indulged me.

Now, to highlight some of the stars of my gadget drawer:

See those little brightly colored bowls? Those are little “pinch pots.” They are flexible acrylic/rubber and are awesome to use for your little “dibs and dabs” of measured ingredients. You will often see a clear glass version of these on many of the food shows; you know, the part of the program that they DON’T show you, the part where all of the little minions assigned to the “star” of the show run around and do all of the pre-measuring, chopping and whatnot. Yeah, I wish I had a minion. But I have my rubber pinch pots. I’m happy. I actually have two sets of these; one for the kitchen and one for the craft room. They are invaluable when trying to corral little beads, brads and whatnot.

Next up; my measuring teaspoon and tablespoon. As you can see, the “ring of spoons” has been replaced by just two spoons. One for a teaspoon (or fraction thereof) and one for a tablespoon (or fraction thereof). I believe that Pampered Chef was the first to market this design; it has a little sliding glide that can be moved along notches in the spoon to adjust the measuring device from anywhere between 1/8 tsp and 1 tsp. In the case of the tablespoon, the notches are at 1/2 tsp increments from 1/2 tsp to 1 tbsp. Now, if you had owned one of these previous designs from Pampered Chef, you know that they were plastic. I wasn’t a fan; the plastic glide didn’t always notch down into the notches as it should, and when I thought I’d be measuring 1/4 tsp, I’d find it had slipped somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2. In addition, the guide would allow liquid measured ingredients to “seep” under the guide, again, not allowing for an accurate measurement. And last but not least, that sneaky little guide had a way of slipping off the spoon, unseen, down into the garbage disposal. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Yeah, ask me how I know. Since then, I have found the metal version online and LOVE them.

Next up, my pampered chef liquid/solid measuring cup. Fae actually gave this to me eons ago. When you use the “solid” end, you pull the measuring “plunger” base down along the guide to the desired measurement, in effect, creating a “vessel” that now holds your desired measurement. Fill up your “vessel” and then “plunge” the base upward, plopping your solid ingredient out; think honey, peanut butter, hey…even homemade mayonaise!…anything that is gooey and tough to measure. Flipping it over, the other end of this ingenious gadget is your standard liquid measuring cup. Enough said. Except (you know me, it’s never “really” enough said) I have found that the smaller the diameter of your surface of measured liquid and the taller the measuring device, the more accurate of a measurement you will get. It has to do with the “fudge” factor. Think of it this way. You’ve got this two cup measuring device that is short and fat.  You fill it up with water and then “eyeball” where the water surface is to the desired measured quantity. Try as you might, there is some fudge factor involved in your ability to eyeball exactly along the plane of that measurement. Now, take that same two cups and design it in a taller, narrower vessel and the surface area you are eyeballing along the measuring plane is significantly reduced. Therefore, you have cut down, proportionately, the effect of the fudge factor because you have cut down the surface you are trying to eyeball. Does that make sense?And so, this is why my Pampered Chef 2 cup measuring cup is my go-to for measuring liquids; it’s the taller, slender shape. Much like me. HA!

Ok…moving on then…

Now, apply that same concept to the cutest and newest of my gadgets! My beakers! See them up there at the top of the picture? They have a red, yellow or blue base. These are ingenious! They are used to measure very small amounts of liquids…from fractions of teaspoons to fractions of liquids. Never again will I try to not slop a teaspoon of vanilla from the bottle to my standard measuring teaspoon, filled to the brim, level of course, holding steady, and then…whew…made it to the dough bowl! Nope, just pour from the vanilla bottle into my beaker, along the measured line and then let that little baby just sit there on it’s sturdy little base until I’m ready to add it. This would be another great job for a minion, if I had one. These little darlings (the beakers, not minions) were given to me in my Christmas stocking this year by Mr. Fannie. And they weren’t even on my wish list! He found these on his own! What a guy!

Hmmm..what else can I show you while we’re here? Think. Think. Think. Oh! I know! How about this AWESOME little julienne peeler thingee that my friend Farie got for me! Again, as we try to change our eating ways, one of the things we have given up is pasta. But oh, what to do, what to do when you want your favorite spaghetti sauce or a bed for that luscious shrimp scampi. Why…zucchini to the rescue of course! Yes indeed…with this…

and this

you can create this…

I admit, a bit of an inconsistency here; I actually used zucchini ANd yellow squash here. Anyway, an absolute must have staple in my fridge. Another side note; my dear son who has claimed to be “allergic” to squash since the age of eight actually has tried, and liked, the zucchini noodles.

Anyway, sorry, I went off-roading there for a minute. Back to the Homemade Mayonnaise. So, you have the recipe that Fae provided. You have all of your tools, some of which I reviewed, above. You have all of your ingredients, lovingly measured by you or your minions. And now, for a couple of “in progress pictures.” Oh, by the way, in addition to being my mentor of all things Paleo, she is also mentoring me on photography, schooling me in things like white balance. I’ve been practicing that as well, so indulge me with allowing me to share my photos…

This is the stage that Fae talks about where you want your ingredients to sit for a minute to allow the oil to rest on.

Look! It’s becoming mayonnaise-ish! It really and truly is!

One of the things that Fae mentioned about the shelf-life of Homemade Mayonnaise is that it lasts a couple of weeks in the refrigerator. Another source I referred to suggested that it is fresh for as long as the egg that is used in it is fresh. Therefore, take note of the expiration date on your carton of eggs…

I found a standard pint sized jar to store my precious product. I made this little tag from “chalk” paper to note the expiration date. I’ll just wipe off the chalk and put the next expiration date when I make my next batch.

I had used much of my mayonnaise before I found this little pint jar. The recipe, obviously, makes more than this little amount. Also…notice date on tag…yeah, it’s wrong…I realized that AFTER I took and uploaded the picture.

And there you have it…if Fae Can Do That…and Fannie Can Do That…surely YOU can do that…PLUS…I gave you some ideas for new “must have” gadgets in your kitchen. You’re welcome.

Love,

Fannie