Wednesday, May 29, 2013

My lil' growing sprouts

My lil' growing sprouts by Petunia21
My lil' growing sprouts, a photo by Petunia21 on Flickr.

My little sprouts are growing! After a few weeks of not being sure if the fickle cilantro or the arugula was gonna make it, over the weekend it seemed to find the will to live.

Its hard to see in this photo, but the cilantro is standing up now, and the arugula leaves are actually starting to take shape!

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Petunia Builds a Garden!

One Sunday night, I came across this photo on Pintrest... I started to mentally drool.  I want this! I followed the photo trail to the blog where it was first posted to HERE


And from Monday through Saturday, I created this... all by myself!

IMG_20130511_163346

Watch my Journey HERE!!!! ps, there are 2 pages of photos to follow.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Sun Drying

Sun Drying by Petunia21
Sun Drying, a photo by Petunia21 on Flickr.

On our last 104 degree day with zero humidity, I decided to save a few precious quarters and air dry our linens and everything we might have tossed in a dryer!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Coco-Loco

Once upon a time... I did not like coconut water... it was quite close to the beginning of the creation of this blog, if memory serves me.  Yes! It was my Coco-No Entry posted HERE.

Well, a lot has changed since that post waaaay back in 2011.  I have learned many things about coconut water... Mostly that not all coconut water is created equal.

Long gone are the days when Simple was Better... we live in a society where more more more more more and more is attractive.  I get it. I like ... THINGS too!

But what I do NOT want... is anything added to my coconut water/milk/cream.  God made one perfect food and beverage.  Not to mention a killer scent too.  Yup, my friend, The Coconut.

I cracked open 3 coconuts... and I'm glad to report on a side note, that to this point, still can count all 10 fingers on my hands.

Once the flesh was pierced, this is our time to decide what you wanna do... stick a fun pretzel straw in the hole and drink the water?  Or keep cracking to get to the insides?

In this case, I wanted to make coconut milk/cream. So I started with 3 young Thai coconuts.  Once I emptied each of their water (which I threw right into Tazz), I cracked away with my best knives (which are gonna need a trip to the sharpening factory again) and scraped out the tender TENDER milky white flesh of the coconut meat.  Into the blender that went!

coconut creamy milk

Now, depending on if you want MILK or CREAM... add water to your desired thickness and vita-blend away!!! I wanted to make more of a milk for my morning smoothies, so I added 1 cup per coconut cracked... so in this case, 3 cups of water.

coconut milk
I added nothing else. Nothing to emulsify.  If you look closely, you can see a more creamy thick top and a light colored milk on the bottoms.  When you go to use it, get your first arm exercise of the morning in and just shake it up a bit.  Its a great feeling!

I tucked the big guy into the door of my fridge for the morning, and the rest in the freezer. This thaws out AMAZINGLY!

But do take a drink... fast... its so quenching. You'll wonder why you ever reached for a Coke!