Sweet Hummus

Okay, I admit it.  When I get excited about something I tend to go a bit over board.  "What is my excitement now?" You ask?  HUMMUS!!  I posted my recipe for spicy hummus the other day.  So, how about a sweet one?  This hummus is a great basic hummus on it's own and FANTASTIC served with fruit on it.  Are you ready?  Take a look.

Sweet Hummus

Ingredients:

1 15 oz can (1 3/4 cups) of garbanzo beans

1/3 cup almond butter

1/4-1/3 cup maple syrup, honey, or agave nectar (I use maple syrup)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp - 1/4 cup water

Directions:

Rinse and drain your garbanzo beans.
In a food processor fitted with a blade, add the rinsed and drained garbanzo beans, almond butter, maple syrup (or sweetener of choice), vanilla and cinnamon.

Process until smooth.  Scrape down the sides to make sure all your ingredients have been incorporated. Also, you can add some water (1 Tbsp if you used 1/3 cup sweetener to 1/4 cup if you used 1/4 cup sweetener) to make it a better dipping consistency (if you only used 1/4 cup of syrup your hummus will be similar to cookie dough)

That's all!  I like mine served with fresh fruit.  I also like it with berry salsa and
lo-cal pita chips

I hope you enjoy this.  Oh, and my hummus adventures are not over!

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Lo-Cal Pita Chips

Can you say, "hot"....no how about, "HOT!" It was 102 degrees F yesterday at 6:00 pm and when I woke up this morning it was 80 degrees F at 6:00 am!  I don't know about you but when it's roasting outside, I don't like to be stuck in the kitchen.  I prefer to make things like spicy hummus: a handful of ingredients and no heat required.  Veggies are always great lo-cal dippers but sometimes a good cracker or chip is what you want.  How do you satisfy your chip craving while keeping your calorie consumption in check?  Make some Pita chips!  Most recipes have you brushing olive oil on your chips but I omitted the oil and did this instead.......

As you can see, I picked up a package of whole wheat pita breads that were a day old...hence price reduced.  The package contained 6 pitas (each pita has 100 calories)

I preheated my oven to 375 degrees F.  While it was pre-heating, I lined my baking sheets with parchment paper.  Using kitchen shears, I cut each pita into 8 pieces (see left picture).  Starting at the point, I opened up each pita triangle and they broke at the seam, making 2 traingles (see right picture).  So, one pita makes 16 chips (for just 100 calories!)

I spread the chips across my pans.  Then using my fingers, I lightly sprinkled water on the pita triangles.   In my experiment, on 2/3s (2 cookie sheets) of my chips I sprinkled cinnamon and on 1/3 (1 cookie sheet) I sprinkled garlic powder. I baked the chips for 10 minutes or until lightly toasted.

Wow, look how many chips I made. They are light and crunchy and one bag of 6 pitas made 96 pita chips and for less than $1!  The bowl on the right contains the garlic chips...great with spicy hummus.  The bowl on the left contains the cinnamon pita chips.  Check back to see just how I used these! 

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June Package Pals - What I Gave Cathy

Yesterday, I shared with you the amazing surprise I received from Cathy, my partner from June Package Pals from C.R.A.F.T.   Today, I'd like to share with you what I sent Cathy.

When she introduced herself to me, I learned that she loves crafts of all sorts.  In fact, I don't think there's a craft she doesn't enjoy!  Her favorite colors are red and yellow and she prefers to crochet rather than knit.  So with this in mind, I decided that I wanted to make her a crafting project bag, regardless of what I put it in.  At Hobby Lobby I found these 3 fabrics.

Aren't these fun?  I love them all.  So I purchased 1/2 yard of each....ready to make the craft bag.  I then decided to focus on her love of crocheting.  Here's what all I sent her.

I gathered 11 of the skeins of yarn that I sun dyed with Kool Aid.  Some are single colored and some are multi colored.  I also included a skein of natural 100% wool yarn (the same yarn I used when sun dying my yarn), 5 packets of Kool-Aid, and printouts of my 2 blog posts that explain how I dyed the yarn.  This way, Cathy can make her own Sun dyed yarn (or she can use the natural yarn as is and drink the Kool Aid).

I did make Cathy a reversible project tote.  I don't know which fabric (bees or "sewing") she would like to have as the lining fabric and which she'd like to have on the outside.

I then secured a small "view" binder and made a cover.  I then found (what I thought) were some amazing crochet (granny square inspired) patterns from Ravelry. I also included some extra plastic sleeves so Cathy can add her own patterns.

I finished it off with a note to her explaining all her goodies.  I sure hope she likes it!

If you are interested in participating in Package Pals, follow C.R.A.F.T..  Jamie has historically hosted Package Pals every other month so she may be doing this for August.  If so, you will be signing up in July.

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Crochet, Crochet, Everywhere...Especially on Ravelry

When I was a kid in 4-H I learned how to crochet.  My first project was a granny square ball.  It was a great project to learn on due it being small...quick gratification!  Right now my passion is knitting but my June Package Pal is a crocheter.  So this had me investigating crochet patterns.

Where to look? Well, as we all know, Pinterest is a GREAT place to find inspiration for all of our DIY/crafting projects.  You will find some knitting and crochet ideas/patterns as well, but it's not the best place.  Ravelry is like Pinterest but so much more.  It's free to join.  Here's some of what you will find when you join:  free crochet and knitting patterns, patterns for sale, groups to join, friends, linking your blog to Ravelry and so much more!  Here are some great (free) crochet patterns I found on Ravelry.

From Things to Make and Do, you will find a granny square tutorial series that ends with this post on joining granny squares.

Bonnie Batten's American Pride Granny Square

Colour in a Simple Life has a lot of cool crochet ideas.  A couple are

Granny Bobble Blanket

and Puffed Daisy Hexagon

Crochet with Raymond has some vibrant amazing crochet designs.  Are few are

Granny Mandala

Granny Tea Cozy

and Granny Bunting

Red Heart Yarn had these two free patterns on Ravelry

Playful Ripples Throw

and this fun Hoodie Vest

There are thousands of patterns on Ravelry.  Check it out and join!  You won't be disappointed.  

Of course, any gathering of inspirational projects would not be complete without sharing some Pinterest love.  So, from Pinterest......

from Hannicraft some great blue coasters

from Yarning a twist on the granny square:  it starts as a circle and ends as a square.

Finally, just searching the web, you can find grannies/crochet goodies.  Sarah London has a great eye for color and some gorgeous free patterns.  One is Hawaiian Flowers

Sarah also has an amazing book that is all about Granny Squares.  Here it is.

Here are a couple of the patterns you will find in this amazing book.

Okay, are you inspired to pick up your hook?  I think I am.

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A Surprise in the Mail

I'm as happy as a little kid.  "Why?" you ask.  I just got a package the mail.  I don't know what it is about going out on the porch to find that the mail carrier has left a box with your name on it and feeling like it's your birthday.  It always make the day amazing.

Well, today's happiness is brought to me by my June Package Pal, Cathy!  We both entered C.R.A.F.T.'s June Package Pals in May. What does that mean?  Well, we each signed up and then were matched up by Jamie if C.R.A.F.T.  We e-mailed each other to introduce ourselves and get to know one another.  Then we were to put together a crafting package for each other.  So, here's mine from Cathy.

Can you feel the excitement?  I swear I feel like Ed McMahon has just rung my doorbell I'm so excited!   Okay, time to open it.  OMG, it's awesome!

Here are all the amazing goodies all spread out!  Cathy crocheted me a beautiful hot pad.  There's beautiful sock yarn.  I love the knitting markers (upper right corner) that look like jade!  Cathy loves all sorts of crafts but definitely loves scrapbooking so she enclosed a chipbox along with some scrapbooking cards.  Finally, there's some amazing hand cream and lip gloss.  

I feel like a 5 year old at Christmas.  I hope she likes what I sent her.  I'll show you tomorrow.

Cathy, thanks!  You definitely made my day!

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Spicy Hummus

Have you ever wondered where the word "hummus" comes from?  You know the  "funny bone" is called humerus and if something is funny we will say it is humorous.  Could these words all be related?  Well, I'm going to say, "yes" and then have some fun with my hummus recipe.

I have a great cookbook at home called, "Pita the Great" and it has a traditional hummus recipe:  garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper.  This is great for a middle eastern inspired meal but my guys like spicy food and are more fond of Mexican inspired dishes.  Well, here's what I came up with. I used a variety of ground peppers to add depth to the flavor and spice.  I hope you like it!  My guys definitely did!

 Spicy Hummus

Ingredients:

1 15oz can white kidney beans (cannellini beans) or garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup almond butter (no sweetener, find the kind that is just almonds/salt/oil)

1-2 cloves garlic, peeled

1/2-1 tsp ground cumin

1/2-1 tsp ground chipotle pepper

1/2-1 tsp ground cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp smoked ground paprika

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 cup water

Directions:

1.  Drain and rinse your beans

2.  With your blade attachment, place drained/rinsed beans, olive oil, almond butter, garlic, cumin, chipotle pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, salt, and pepper in a food processor.

3.  Blend until smooth.  Open your food processor and scrape the sides down to ensure your garlic has been thoroughly incorporated into your mix.  Blend again. 

4.  You will find that your hummus is rather thick:  more like the consistency of cake batter rather than a dip. At this time, add your water and blend one last time.

5.  To serve for a group, I find it works best if you smooth it out on a plate rather than in a bowl.  Then if  you'd like, drizzle some olive oil on the top.  You can then garnish with tomatoes or other veggies if you'd like.  Enjoy!

Notes:

1.  I put a range on the amount of each spice so you can make this recipe as zippy as you like.

2.  Both types of beans work well so feel free to use either.

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The Sunshine Award

If you take a dash of amazing creativity and add dash of love/support you get a crafting/cooking blogger!  And Anita of Aunt Nubby's Kitchen is one of those bloggers.  If you are ever looking for something scrumptious to make, just check out her blog....and her recipes are easy as well!  Anyway, I was totally blown away when I learned she had awarded me The Sunshine Award.

The Sunshine Award is given by bloggers to bloggers.

The recipients of the Sunshine Award are:

"Bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere."

The way the award works is this:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.

2. Answer 10 questions about yourself.

3. Select 10 of your favorite bloggers, link their blogs to your post and let them know they've been awarded the Sunshine Award!

4. Don't forget to copy and paste the award on your blog!

So before I continue, thank you, Anita for honoring me with The Sunshine Award.  It is truly an honor!

Now, I always find it difficult to select a handful of blogs to honor because I follow so many amazing blogs.  However, the 10 blogs I choose to award The Sunshine Award to are (in no particular order):

Cassey and Brittany of Natural Nesters

Jill of Two Yellow Birds Decor

Jen of Four Marrs One Venus

Jill of I Know the Plans I Have for You

Danni of Silo Hill Farm

Kari of Newlyweds on a Budget

Lindsay of Artsy Fartsy Mama

Jutta of Creative Chaos

Hani of Craftionary

Karah of The Space Between

Here are the 10 questions along with my answers:

Favorite Color – Red...it is so vibrant and full of life.
Favorite Animal - Otters...they remind us to find the joy and fun in life.
Favorite Number -  3...the number of children that I have.
Favorite Drink – I am really enjoying iced herbal tea right now.
Facebook or Twitter – Facebook.....I'm much more familiar with Facebook.  Come check out my page!
Good Book or a Good Movie - If it is a rainy day and I don't have a huge to do list then a good book. If I am trying to get a mundane task done (like sort socks) then I like a good movie.
My Passion - My kids and family
Giving or Getting Presents - Definitely both!  I love the getting a package in the mail...there's just  a great thrill that comes with gifts in the mail.  However it is so fun searching for that perfect gift and then seeing the pleasure in the receivers eyes!
Favorite Day of the Year – Well, I am going to answer this as my favorite holiday and that is Christmas.  It is just such a joyful time!
Favorite Flowers – Daisies, definitely.  They are such a happy flower!

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Batik with Glue (Blue Gel)

1960s/70s retro is so in.  All those crafts:  decoupage, batik, tie dye, granny squares, burlap and more.  Of course, just like the goofy bell bottom jeans that came back as cool "flares" a few years back, these crafts have come back but are much cooler as well!

My sister is a few years older than I am and she was one crafty lady.  She did it all!  When she was in high school, I remember her making a beautiful wall hanging with waxes and dyes....batik!  It was pretty labor intensive.  Scanning the internet, I found quite a few sites that used........

Yup!  Elmer's gel school glue.  Washable gel glue.  I thought I'd give batiking with gel glue a try.  Here's what I did.

First, I got some white muslin and washed/dried it.  (You MUST wash new fabrics to remove any sizing.) I cut out two fabric squares.  With the elmer's glue, I "drew" design on each piece of fabric.  It takes a LONG time for the glue to dry.  I mean a LONG time so plan on 24 hours.

 Once the glue was dry, I decided to try two different dying techniques.  The first one I used some tumble dye I had leftover from Girl Scout days with my daughter.  I sprayed yellow in the center of the square and then sprayed blue and green along the edges.  

My second square I decided to use tempra paints (DO NOT use washable).  I placed my fabric square on a piece of parchment paper and then with a foam brush painted over the the designs.

I then let both squares dry overnight (24 hours).  Before continuing, I read that the tumble dye needed to be heat set so I tossed this square in the dryer for 15 minutes.

Now, It was time to wash the dried glue away.  I washed the tumble dry square under running water with a bit of detergent.  I decided to soak the tempra painted square in a tub for 20 minutes before I started working to remove the glue.

Note, the glue is a bit stubborn.  You will need to use your fingernail to help scratch off the glue.

Look how they each turned out!  It's pretty cool. 

Notes:

1.  The tempra paint resulted in very stiff fabric.  I would use this technique for crafting purposes (like making a banner).  I would not use the tempra technique for clothing

2.  Make sure you do not put your glue on too thickly.  On the square with flowers, the glue was much thicker and not only took a lot longer to dry, it also took longer to remove the glue

3.  The tumble dry turned out nicely but since I threw the fabric in the dryer to set the dye, the glue was a stubborn.  I would probably soak this square in a tub of water for a while to help soften the glue.

This is a fun activity and I think if you were to do this with your kids they would have a blast!

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Ugly Plastic Tray No More!

Every time I come home from Goodwill, my husband just sighs.  Although he shakes his head initially, he is always amazed at how things are transformed!  I found an ugly green plastic tray for $1 but with some spray paint, pebbles, and floral water...well look at the transformation!

 Start with spray paint of choice and in a well ventilated area, paint your tray with light coats.  I did two coats on each side with the green still peeking through in places.  I thought this added a nice dimension to the final product.

Once your tray is painted and dried, open your bag of stones and spread them on your tray.  Following product instructions, prepare your floral water and pour over your stones.  Now just wait (mine needed 24-48 hours to cure).

Look!  It's a complete transformation.  You would never know this had been an ugly green plastic tray!

Floral water is a pretty cool product...and so easy to use!  I think it's time to head  back to Goodwill!  ;)

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Multi Color Sun Dyed Yarn With Kool Aid

Okay, I'm sure my neighbors think I'm crazy.  I've been outside with bowls of Kool Aid and yarn all over the porch, yard and walkway.  Then there's been yarn hanging from the tree to dry.....and don't forget me and my camera!  Here's the results of this week's experiments to create multi-colored sun dyed yarn using kool aid, water, and vinegar.

Last week, I posted how to sun dye wool yarn with Kool Aid.  If you missed that post, you can find it here.  It's easy, fun, inexpensive and doesn't require any fancy or special tools or supplies.

Okay, back on topic:  sun dying yarn so you produce a multi-colored yarn.  Let's take a look at the different methods I tried  (my hanks of yarn were about 20 yards each):

Method 1:

 I placed my soaked yarn in a pyrex bowl with 2 cups water and 1 tbsp of white vinegar.  I then sprinkled lemonade Kool Aid on one side and cherry on the other.  It started out great but if you look at the bottom left photo, you will see that after 2 hours, the cherry Kool Aid had taken over.  The final yarn did not come out as half yellow and half red, and I had planned, but rather a subtle half red/half orangy yarn.  Still pretty, just not what I expected.

Method 2:

 In this method, I used a superwash 100% wool that I had leftover from another project.  Anyway, I placed two bowls with 1 cup water and 1 Tbsp white vinegar in each side by side.  I then draped my yarn so that it would be both bowls.  I then sprinkled 1 packet of lemonade in one bowl and 1 packet of pink lemonade in the other. The color did not blend well (see top photo) so I used a spoon to gently stir each bowl (the lower left photo is the result of this stirring).  I had thought that the colors would wick up the center and I would have a yellow/orange/pink yarn.  The superwash wool does not seem to wick as well and the colors were somewhat spotty.  I believe this is a result of using superwash wool.  

Method 3:

 I started with two bowls that each had 1 cup of water and 1 Tbsp white vinegar.  Before adding the yarn, I mixed mango/peach Kool Aid in one bowl.  I then placed my yarn in both bowls:  half in each one.  I kept the one half in the water/vinegar mix so that the yarn would stay wet.  If you look at the top photo, you can see how the yellow is wicking up.  After 1 hour, I lifted the non-dyed half out of the water and stirred in berry blue Kool Aid in the second bowl.  I then placed the yarn in the second color.  This yarn worked out as I had envisioned:  yellow/green/blue.

Method 4:

 With this method, I had two measuring cups prepared with 1 packet Kool Aid (fruit punch in one and lemonade in the other), 1 Tbsp vinegar, and 1-2 cups of water.  I then placed my soaked yarn half into each cup.  Look how the red jumped over from one cup to the other.  Because of this transfer, I removed the yarn before the remaining color was clear (I didn't want a yarn that turned out the same as method 1).  This resulted in a yellow/orange/pink yarn.

Method 4 - More Results

You can't tell by the picture but the top left was my attempt to create a red, white and blue yarn.  The bowls were not filled and there was a fair amount of "white" yarn.  Well, as you can see, the red bled over again.  The right picture was my attempt to make a pink/white/red yarn.  As with the other experiments, the red bled over and created a very subtle red/pink yarn.

 Here are some of my experiments all wound into skeins.  Pretty cool...huh?

This is definitely a fun activity.  Some take-aways for you.

• Superwash 100% wool does work...but it seems to work best if the Kool Aid/water/vinegar mixture is prepared ahead of time.  Also, it seems that superwash wool does not wick up the color much so you will probably get a white streak.
• Dark red Kool Aid mixes (cherry, fruit punch) tend to wick up the most.  They probably have the highest concentration of dye in the mix and so you may want to have a ratio of 2 packets of a lighter colored Kool Aid to 1 packet of a red Kool Aid....and use more yarn.  
• I find the best method is method 3.  If you would like to have a larger "mix" area you can have say 2/3 of the yarn soaking in the lighter color for the 1st hour.  Then, when you stir up the darker colored Kool Aid, place 2/3 of the yarn in that bowl (1/3 is un-dyed and 1/3 is dyed with the lighter color).

Have fun!

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