I'm back with butter!

I hope you guys like the cleaner, fresher blog design here. I am going to attempt to truly post a few times a week about lungs, life, and food! I thought I'd come back here with a simple recipe about butter! This is not rocket science here!

I love everything about butter. It's color, it's consistency, the way it can transform from a cold solid, to something warm and soft, to something hot and liquid. And how it can be used in pretty much any cooking medium. It is the platform of so many dishes. It can elevate anything to be better. Lately I've been making honey butter. All you have to do is take softened butter - something you have left out for hours on your counter. And add a few tablespoons of honey to it. And mix it until it's a smooth completely mixed together consistency. It goes great with pretty much anything. Lately I have used it on fried chicken, biscuits, toast, and veggies. The saltiness, with sweetness and the two textures combined makes for a wonderful flavor and experience.  Please try it and let me know what you put it on and what you thought!

Valentine's Day DIY Tote

This is a really simple cute DIY (that I got from the girls over at glitter guide.) 

All you need is:

a tote bag
Cricut iron on glitter transfer paper
scissors
heart stencil
iron

*I did not actually have a stencil so I printed out a heart online and used it as a stencil. 

trace the heart onto the paper

cut out heart image

iron the creases out of tote

place something over the transfer and iron for at least 60 seconds

let cool for a minute

 

 

done!

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

It's that time of year - warm soup time! Beef stew is one of my favorites and this is my tried and true go to recipe!

You will need: (for 6 - 8 servings)
around 4 pounds of stew meat
1 cup of flour
olive oil for cooking
1 large onion
1 6 ounce can of tomato paste
1 cup of red wine
2- 3 large potatoes
4 carrots
around 2 cups of beef broth
salt/pepper
thyme
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon of butter (optional)

I have a multi cooker so I can cook this all in one, but if you don't you will need to first saute before you can put in the slow cooker. 

Coat the beef in flour with a pinch of salt and pepper
Brown the meat in some olive oil

Add the chopped up onion and cook for about ten minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste and coat the onions and meat

Pour the wine in the skillet along with the potatoes, carrots, broth, thyme and bay leaf, with a little more salt.  Cook for 5 minutes and transfer to your slow cooker where you can add butter, salt and pepper to taste.  Add your bay leaf and a pinch of thyme. 

Cook on low heat for 7.5 hours or high heat for 4 hours

You can of course play with these things, if you don't like something you do not have to add it, or you can add other things (peas etc.)  I tend to like more broth so I cut down on the potatoes and add a little more broth.

Gold leaf pumpkins

I really love decorating for fall and Christmas.  It's my absolute favorite time of year.  I love pumpkins, apples, cider, trees, wreaths, lights.  All of it! I got this project over from cupcakes and cashmere.  I'm going to say I ended up not being crazy about this.  Paint and spray paint is easier and I think comes out nicer to be honest.  The gold leaf was very hard to work with, and the spray glue was a complete tacky disaster.  And it did not come out as polished as I would have liked.  But it was an interesting thing to do.

You will need gold leaf (found at Michaels or amazon)
Spray glue
A foam brush
Small pumpkins
Painters or sketchers tape
Newspaper

tape off in the middle of the pumpkin and spray glue on top half

after much effort placing gold leaf

pazzo gets in on the action

dried

silver

done!

Bermuda Trip

This is my fourth time to Bermuda, but I still found it as nice as the first! It was super hot (I am not a fan of heat and humidity) but it was a nice time away and a beautiful wedding! Here are some pictures!

bermuda shopping!

wedding day

i will ride on this yacht anytime!

rehearsal dinner

wedding day

the drinking starts at the airport

from the plane

wedding dinner sunset

the obligatory mask/xanax taken shot

boat ride

Saving fresh herbs

I am constantly throwing away fresh herbs.... I use what I need then they wilt and die and get thrown in the trash.  I have a nice bunch of parsley that I knew would go bad while I was away, so I saved them in ice cubes (this is something I have read various times) then when it's time to use them in: sauce, soups, whatever, you throw the ice cube in!

cut up the herb

put them in an ice cube tray

fill with water

freeze, viola!

Off to Bermuda

I am off to Bermuda tomorrow for a wedding.  This is only the third time I have traveled since my transplant.  The first time was to Italy, which was a trip that literally helped keep me alive when I was sick.  I kept dreaming about it on days that were really hard.

My dog is really in poor health so I am a nervous wreck about leaving him, but my grandmother is watching him and she will do a fantastic job I know.  Today I cooked up all his meals (13) for while I am away.  And put out all his pills with a mini candy bar in a cup - candy bars are how I hide his pills.

13 meals

meal prep

my pills for the trip

my pumpkin