Shaker Salads!

This is from a great blog...fat girl trapped in a skinny body - http://fatgirltrappedinaskinnybody.blogspot.com

Secret Recipe Club time, holla! There are a ton of us in this, not so secret club, now. It's rad! I look forward to 'reveal day' every month to see all the fantastic recipes that have been made. And quite honestly, I also look forward to seeing who got my blog. Of aaaaall the recipes they could have picked, why THAT one? I can't help but think that...

So then, why do I chose the recipes I do? What made me pick THIS recipe, of aaaall the recipes on Creative Kitchen Adventures, why a salad dressing??? I love salad, period.

After reading pretty much every tidbit on Denise's blog I concluded she's an amazing woman, mom and wife.
By the way, using words like 'concluded' make me feel like I'm writing a paper for college...I digress... She does the best she can to feed her family well. And by well I don't just mean 'down home cookin.' I mean well, like healthy well. I appreciate that, so much! GO DENISE! Given that, I decided I needed to make a salad. Ok wait, I did make hercaramelized onion and cheese omelet too. But I scarfed that before I could take a picture. And her brownie cookies, I think I had a dream about them on Thursday night. Those will for sure be made in the very near future!

One of the great things about the SRC club is you can modify the recipe you choose. While I didn't modify the vinaigrette, I did modify the actual 'salad' ingredients. I modified simply because well, I used what I had on hand. That's all. Don't think for a second I wouldn't LOVE the spring mix with apples and raisins…do you know I'm like REALLY into raisins? I can't be trusted around them,. I'll eat an entire pack. And not the little snack size 'I got my hand stuck because the boxes are so small' size. I mean the jumbo bags from Costco.



A few notes on the dressing:

1. I added all the dressing ingredients in a blender to see what would happen. I mean, besides the obvious, it would blend. Duh. I wanted to see if blending it would prevent oil/vinegar separation. You know how at restaurants their salad dressings seem to not separate? How do they do that? Well, my little experiment shed light on their secret: a blender. At least for me, when I added these ingredients to a blender, cranked it up for only about 30 seconds, my dressing stayed almost 100% mixed for an entire week in the fridge.

2. My mom taught me a few years ago that adding water to salad dressings help save a buck. Add a little water, which is practically free, and it will help spread out your dressing for another couple salads. Th water isn't 100% necessary, although, it doesn't impact the integrity of the taste of the dressing and it saves a few pennies, soooo, it's worth a shot.

3. You can add any 'flavorings' to the dressing. Roasted garlic, basil, shallots, onions…This is a great dressing as is, or as a base for adding additional flavors.

Balsamic Vinaigrette
Recipe from Creative Kitchen Adventures

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1-2 tbsp water (more or less depending on the consistency you want)
2 tbsp honey (can be replaced with agave or brown sugar)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions
Place all ingredients into a small jar (canning jar). Anything with a lid works well.
Shake to mix thoroughly. Stores in fridge for 1-2 weeks.

*Or use my blending method: throw everything in the blender, blend for about 30 seconds, then store in a jar for 1-2 weeks.

Salad
Makes 2 salads (Salads pictured were made in 32 oz mason jars)

1 cup cooked quinoa
2 big handfuls spinach
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/2 red onion, diced
4 tbsp balsamic vinagrette

Layer the ingredients in the jar as follows:
dressing
onion
mushrooms
tomatoes
quinoa
spinach

The most important part of the layering is making sure the dressing and the spinach (or whatever 'leaf' you choose) don't touch. As long as they stay separate, these salads can be made up to 4 days in advance and will stay fresh in the fridge with a lid on. This is one of my tricks to eating salad everyday for lunch at work. I make a few jars on Sunday night and just grab one to bring to work everyday. When you're ready to eat, just shake it up.

Remember the McSalad Shakers form Mc Donald's? Now THAT was a great idea! Ever since then, I shake my salads.

Doesn't get much more efficient than this!

This is ingenious!

QUICK TIP

Stretch a rubber band around an opaque container of coffee, oatmeal, and such. Each time you scoop out a measure, move the band down to mark the supply level. While making your grocery list, you can see how much is left in a snap!

"Things Go Better With Coke"

Remove Tough, Greasy Stains from Clothing with Coca Cola

If you've got some greasy, difficult stains on your clothing, it turns out Coca Cola might be able to solve the problem. Clever list site Listverse suggests that adding a little to your wash will make the difference:

Grease stains are famously difficult to remove from clothing and stain removers can be very expensive. Here is a cheap solution: empty a can of coke into your wash along with the usual detergent and run it through a normal cycle. This is also quite effective for removing blood and it helps to deodorize smelly clothes.

The reason it can break up stains is thanks to the carbonic and phosphoric acid inside. Most people hear about this ingredient and wonder how Coca Cola is safe to drink, but as Snopes details the amounts inside are too small to have any impact on your tough stomach—just your dirty laundry. While you might not want to drink a ton of Coca Cola thanks to the (real or artificial) sugar and sodium content, you and your soon-to-be clean clothes will be just fine.

From Listserv

Eric Clapton -Autumn Leaves

Homemade Mayonnaise in 2 Minutes or Less

You might remember your grandmother using a mayonnaise maker - a jar with a plunger that she plunged up and down...well, here you go...the easiest way to make mayonnaise in the world! No more jars with blue or yellow lids and LOTS of weird ingredients...make it soon!

Get it? It is essentially sucking down oil in a thin, steady stream, saving you from having to do it yourself. In no time flat, you end up with a cup full of creamy, perfectly emulsified, real-deal, better-than-anything-you-can-buy mayonnaise, and you've pushed yourself up to a 100% success rate (with the option of making small batches, to boot!).

Of course the best part of all this is that you get to flavor it however you'd like. Most often for me that means garlic (I microplane one clove into the mix per egg yolk I use).

Pro-tip: Be Careful With Your Extra Virgin

It's possible to make a truly tasty mayonnaise by using high quality extra-virgin olive oil, but there's a problem: Blenders, food processors, and hand blenders are too powerful.

You see, extra-virgin olive oil droplets are composed of many tiny fragments, many of which are bound tightly together, preventing our taste buds from picking them up. Whip the olive oil with enough vigor, by say, using a food processor or blender, and you end up shearing those bitter-tasting fragments apart from each other. The result is a mayonnaise with a markedly bitter taste. Not only that, but these tiny fragments actually decrease the efficacy of emulsifiers like mustard or lecithin, making your sauce more likely to break.

So what if you want to have an ultra-stable mayonnaise that's still strongly flavored with extra-virgin olive oil but has no bitterness? The key is to use a neutral-flavored oil like canola or vegetable to start your mayonnaise. Once it's stable, transfer it to a bowl and whisk in some extra-virgin olive oil by hand. You'll still get plenty of flavor, but none of the bitterness.

And this, my friends, is how great sandwiches start.

From Life Hacker...via The Food Lab

Look What I Made!

I have been in the 'nesting' and crafting mode of late and really enjoying my home and sewing room! I have been making rag bracelets (dozens of them!), hobo style bags from a pattern I found online, and bracelet pincushions (so handy when you're cutting out a pattern or using your machine and need your pins nearby).

I have decided to try to sell my items and my little 'store' is called 'The Rag Bag Hag' as I make most of my items from the rag bag! I love to use old textiles and clothes from the thrift store to make something beautiful from somone's cast off items! Saving the landfill from filling up AND the world's resources one item at a time--not to mention the money savings ! I'll admit it--I'm cheap! But I really think of it as Thrifty! I'm having fun and hope you like what I have made!

Contact me at ajoneswallace@charter.net if you are interested in any of my items.