Teeny-Tiny

While I was gone, I was thinking about you all, as evidenced by this tutorial.  I made some of these for the teacher's Christmas gift bags, and I thought about doing a tutorial on here for you.  So I took pics while I made them and here goes...

Walnut candles

Ingredient list:   beeswax, walnut halves, wicking appropriate for small candles, double boiler or the equivalent, and patience for pouring the wax...

 When you halve walnuts, be careful and you will get some nice little "boats" that make great candles(they also make great bath-tub boats if you use a tooth pick and a paper sail with only a little bit of wax in the bottom...). 

Start by shaving/chopping off some beeswax, the smaller the pieces, the quicker it will melt.

I don't have a double boiler, nor do I have the need to purchase one when I can engineer one of my own!

Melt the wax over simmering/gently boiling water.

Using your spoon, place a drop or so of melted wax into the bottom of your walnut half.  Immediately place your wick into the wax drop and let it harden.  This will stabilize your wick so it isn't moving around when you pour the rest of the wax into the shell.  As you can see in the picture, I bent the bottom part of the wick, it gives the wax a bit more to hold onto. 

After wick stabilization, you can pour the rest of the wax in, gently!  Be careful, and go slowly because the walnuts will sometimes tip over.  When you are done filling the shells, some will look like hearts, awwwwww!

 

Be sure to trim your wicks to about 1/4 inch before burning.

And there you go, Walnut candles.  Nothing to read a novel by on the winter solstice, by any means, but a sweet addition to a tea party or a mug of hot cocoa by the fire before bedtime...

Keep warm yall!

Spanikopita

Spanikopita, otherwise known as spinach pie, or in my house as "Spank-your-pita", is a very yummy way of getting spinach into your diet.  I made this on a whim one day because I had some puff pastry and fresh spinach that I needed to use up.  I got the basic recipe here.  Of course, I played with the recipe and made variations of my own to make it better and easier.  Here's how I made it:
                                            First I cut up some green onions, about 1 bunch.



Next, wilt your spinach.  If you have already consulted the recipe,

I used bacon grease instead of olive oil to do this.  This adds yum factor.

The above is 1 bag of spinach. It looks like it won't all fit when you put it in your pan, but it shrinks down ALOT!

What your spinach looks like after wilting(the same entire 1 bag), you need to drain it so your filling doesn't run all over the pan. 

After spinach is wilted, saute the onions and some minced garlic, again in bacon grease. 

I had some bacon(where do you think I got all the bacon grease?) strips in the fridge I was saving for a sandwich, but I chopped them up and added them here for good measure, a worthy sacrifice! 

After everything is sauted/wilted up, throw it all in a bowl and add the eggs and feta, and your seasonings.  Mix it all up and you have something that looks like this: 

Spread it out on your puff pastry dough that has already been defrosted and rolled out a bit to smooth out the creases.  Line your pan with parchment paper, otherwise you will be scraping it off the pan and it won't look pretty!  Also try to think of the ultimate positioning of it all rolled up.  It is very hard to pick it up and move it after it is rolled.  Make sure to leave the sides and a little bit at the end free so you can seal it up good. 

Use the edge of the paper to help you roll it up.   

Seal the ends and position it on the baking sheet. 

Bake it at about 350 or so for about 40-45 minutes. Check it at 30 minutes and then determine how much longer you'll need. 

After it comes out of the oven.

Hmmmm, what to do with all this leftover green, bacony, spinachy goodness? OHHHH! I have some ideas!  A spooky halloween punch to drink on a dare, or a much more boring, but highly palatable idea, is to use it for soup flavoring. (Shhh, don't tell my kids I put that in the soup, they'll never eat it!) 

Here is the end product.  Spinach happiness on a plate, with a hint of bacon, the twang of feta, and the healthy goodness of iron without the metallic taste! 

Do I have something in my teeth? Who cares, give me another slice please...



Eco-nomical Bags

Here is how to make this:  (Hmmmm, is this garbage?)

into this: (I think NOT!)

Here is a sort-of tutorial for making re-usable bags out of birdseed bags(or really any bags made out of the woven plastic stuff).  I got this idea after receiving some from the World Wildlife Fund and seeing some in a store( they were $14.99!!!).  The birdseed comes in a bag of the same type material the fancy bags are made of! Soooooo, why not make your own?  Here goes the sort-of tutorial with photos....

First, you should make sure the bag is clean, and dry.  Do not remove the stitching at the bottom(you need it- 'cause it's the bottom!).  Then turn it inside out.

To create the square bottom of the bag, fold the corners on the diagonal (matching the bottom seam with the side seam) and sew across about an inch to two inches in, it depends on the size of your bag and how big you want the bottom to be.

Now the next step you can do or not, it is just to neaten up the bag on the inside.  Tack(with needle and thread) the flap to the side or bottom of the bag- I do the side.

This is now what it looks like.  Feel free to ooooh and ahhhhh. 

To finish off the top of the bag, you need to do a hem basically.  Fold it down maybe an inch wide or so a couple times.  I use a zig-zag stitch and go right over the edge so it doesn't catch on watches or rings or things when you are loading it up.

Now, use some scrap fabric and make some handles.  I have made them about a foot long by about 1" wide up to a foot and a half long by about 1 1/2" wide- either size works well.  The pieces I cut are about 3" wide to start with and then I fold them over in thirds and zig-zag to close(don't worry about the ends, just the sides are fine). I used an old dish towel here.

Now you want to stitch them to your bag.  Flatten out the bag(front to back), center the handles, pin into place and sew onto the bag.  I sew a box first, starting at the upper right-hand corner and without stopping start a diagonal to the lower left-hand corner.  Back stitch up to the upper left-hand corner and diagonal down to the lower right-hand corner. 

After you have stitched all the handles, turn the bag right-side out and... VOLIA! You have your own re-cycled, re-usable, and re-cyclable bag for your shopping eco-enjoyment!

 

and here's a shot of the inside too...for reference : )

These bags are stout!  If yours has a paper covering on the bottom opening, don't remove it, just cover it with a piece of fabric to re-inforce it. 

Hope you all enjoy making these and the conversations they start when you actually remember to bring them in to use at stores.  : )

This one is for my mom.  We will see if she remembers....hehehe