a fall house

 

A fall house sleeps with a window cracked to better hear the rain.

Drip drip dropping all through the night, greeting sleepy eyes in the morning.

Trying to turn to snow.....but not quite yet.

A fall house hears a whistling kettle. All day long.

For teas with peppermint and honey to soothe little sore throats.

A fall house is covered, in fabric and fur and needles and thread.

Scraps of

a beautiful mess

peaches. 

red and orange and yellow.

plump. juicy. perfect.

peeling

pitting

slicing

mashing

mixing

ladling (and all in our pajamas!)

sticky drippy golden mess.

beautiful,

mess.




notes

I use the low sugar/no sugar pectin and make freezer jam.

last time I made jam (here) I used honey, this time I had planned on it but found we were running low on honey (I like to plan ahead like

brown sugar vanilla bean ice cream

aka, a super awesome day.

Saturday came bright and early with a 5am wake up call. I rolled myself out of bed in the darkness, ate a peanut butter english muffin, and pulled out my trail shoes that have been collecting dust (from being buried in the corner.....not from actual mountain dust.) July was so busy with summer fun I had little time to run, and I when I did, it wasn't out on my favorite

how to make greek yogurt

"But you already did a yogurt post!" 

Maybe that's what you're thinking if you've been with me for the last two years.

 (and if so......whoa. how are you not sick of me yet?)

I still get SO(ooooo) many questions on that post, and I also wanted to try it in the crock pot this time to see which way I liked better. (see HERE for the stove top/oven light method)

The verdict: I liked the crock

strawberry jam with honey

Do you make jam? 

If not......you should start.......this week. 

It really is the EASIEST thing you can make at home, I promise. 

promise. 

Get yourself some berries, some jars, and some pectin and you are set. 



I was so excited to finally find pectin that you can use honey with instead of sugar. 

(I found Ball No-sugar needed at the grocery store.)

Before this I used cane sugar, so it

the first of summer

summer treat





I remember the house I grew up in. A patio out back with a brown picnic table and orange and pink poppies overflowing the flowerbed. Summers spent with stacks of pb&j, running through the sprinkler, and always plenty of popsicles. They ranged from cream-sicles to push-pops to twin-pops, and as long as they were cold, we were happy.



Last summer we made our fair share of fresh

sweet and salty bars

I want to say thank you all so much for your sweet comments and your awesome feedback from Monday's post! It was very helpful--I have all kinds of ideas now, so thank you!! There were a few topics brought up that I have posted about before about so I want to send some quick links out. And for those wanting everything in baby steps--that is PERFECT! That's the only way to make changes......it is a

whole wheat banana muffins with homemade coconut butter

Coconut Butter. 
I had never heard of such a thing until I stumbled upon this easy how-to.And that, my friends, is why I sometimes really love the internet.
I always think about housewives back in "the day" and wonder what they did without new recipes at their finger tips every day.

I love trying new things, I love coconut, and who DOESN'T love anything with "butter" in the title, so I just had

almond joy

No we are not making candy today (although have you SEEN some of the almond joy recipes floating around the internet these days....mmmmm....).
 Anyway, today we're going to talk about almonds, and how I really, really like them.
Thus = "almond joy".
Almonds amaze me! 
I love that such a tiny little bite sized something is such a powerhouse of healthy nutrients, vitamins, minerals, they taste good

la-la-laundry day

It's everyone's favorite subject......LAUNDRY! Ok maybe not that exciting.....but here's a little something to make it more.....interesting. 
I have been seeing this "recipe" for homemade laundry detergent all over the www, and I finally decided to give it a try. 
You see, the girl has THE fairest, most sensitive skin in all the land. I finally found a laundry soap that I love and doesn't

it takes two

surprise surprise.......I'm blogging another treat. what has december done to me?
toffee.we made this. Robby and I. together.Because he is home now,on school break. and I love it.(well....home-ish. he's still working of course but no school is the BEST)we are jumping at every chance we get to play and laugh together. because isn't that what marriage is all about? playing and laughing together. 

the post where you might decide I'm weird....

.....you know, because I'm growing bacteria in my closet. 
I have to laugh at myself, because BOY does this blog have major ADD. 
A post with ice cream yesterday (cream! sugar! egg yolks!), and a post on kefir (probably one of the most beneficial things you could put into your body) today.
So I'm a little all over the place......oh well.
What is kefir anyway? Well it's fermented milk.....and

double chocolate ice cream with peanut butter swirls

I feel like this ice cream should come with a warning. 

It's allllooooooootttt.

Not a lot of ice cream--I bet you look at it and think, "hey! that's not enough!"

But a lot to handle. 


So so so chocolaty and creamy and the richest of rich.
With perfect little tidbits of salty peanut butter in-between.


I was eating it, slowly, almost drowning in it's goodness, and contemplating.....

could

almond butter!

Lately I've been trying to work more healthy fats into or diets, and call me crazy, but I can only cram so many raw nuts into my mouth. But I can spread dreamy almond butter on aannnnyyyyything (which also can be a bit unfortunate). toastapplesbananasmix it in to oatmeal, granola, smoothies....really, it goes with anything.
Here's how to do it:
1. Take almonds (easy enough), any amount you want

strawberry leather

Strawberry Leather(see apricot here)
this is the easiest "recipe" I could ever share. 1. Purchase strawberries.2. Feel sorry for yourself that you no longer live in California, minutes from a strawberry stand, where you are convinced sells the world's best strawberries.(step 2 is optional)3. Wash berries4. Hull and half berries.5. "measure". You don't need to measure at all--I just did this for

homemade granola

I have to tell you......I think this is the easiest thing I have ever made.

ever.

dump.
stir.
bake.
eat.

and then make more because your family ate it really fast.

Perfect for topping your yogurt, or eaten alone--as an awesome snack or breakfast.

It's lightly sweet, and keeps you full longer than ordinary cereal would.This is a good basic recipe that you can add what you like to--dried

headlines

A few things going on around here:
Don't forget the MadeOn giveaway ends tonight!! Enter HERE

The first official cookbook shoot was as success!! We've planned out our next few weeks, and I've been having the best time digging through thrift stores for awesome props.

I'm now taking new sponsors for the month of February! 
(look to your left) 
If you have a product/blog/service/awesome-thing that

dates. peanuts. cocoa. salt.

and that's it.
I first had a certain natural food bar last year, packed in a pre-race goodie bag.
It was amazing. It tasted great, and only had a couple of ingredients. It was perfect natural race fuel--and it wasn't a dreaded Power Bar....I was in love. 
But come to find out.....that little thing was expensive (considering what it was), so I forgot about it. 
And then I saw Jen's post, where she

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Biscotti

I cannot get enough of this stuff. My sister found the recipe a few years back and knocked our socks off with it--and it was my first time experiencing the magic of browned butter. I usually make it around Christmas, and I think I ran out of time last year..... it's been a while, since I've basked it's tasty glory.So I had a happy little reunion with this stuff last night....I might have

oh bring us some figgy pudding!

Ok this is not figgy pudding.But I couldn't resist how Christmasy it sounds. Although I think if it came down to it, I could resist the figgy pudding itself.
But we are going to talk pudding.
I collect old cookbooks. I love them! They're so cute, and some can be quite hilarious.I have a stack of old cookbooks sitting in my kitchen, and I've never actually made anything out of them....so I