All posts for the month August, 2012

Use Those Summer Tomatoes: Homemade Fresh Tomato Marinara Sauce

Well, it’s no secret that my tomato plants didn’t exactly provide the glut I was hoping for this summer. A couple of dry days and a bout of blight caused an early demise. Thankfully, though, we’ve been able to get our hands on a good number of freshies courtesy of some friends who let us raid their garden while they were away. I’ve wanted to try marinara sauce for a while, and I finally had an excuse to. Can’t let those maters go to waste! After doing a little searching around, I found this recipe and riffed from there. I started by washing and lining up all the tomatoes:

Aren’t they purdy? The first step was to blanche them and remove the skins. I had never done this before, and I was kind of daunted by trying it. Luckily, it’s easier than the fancy French word makes it sound. I plopped about half of them in a pot of boiling water

And after 45 seconds, transferred them to a bowl of ice water.

While those were cooling, I boiled the other half. After they were all blanched, we removed the skins (gratefully, a very easy process) and were left with this pile of red tomato meatballs (don’t they look like meatballs??).

Beforehand, Mike had cut up 1.5 yellow onions and a bulb of garlic:

And while we were chunking the tomatoes, I let the onions simmer in a few tablespoons of onion:

Here are the chunked tomatoes with hulls removed:

When everything was cut, I threw in the tomatoes, garlic and a few bay leaves and brought it to simmer, cover on, for about 30 minutes.

After the 30, I added about 4 large sprigs of basil, chopped up,

a tablespoon of oregano,

two tablespoons of sugar,

and salt and pepper to taste. This got the coverless simmer treatment for about 2.5 more hours with lots of stirring every time Mike or I walked past the pot, probably about every 10-15 minutes. Removing the cover let a lot of water boil off and left us with a nice, thick sauce. Next, I added two teaspoons of balsamic vinegar

and a dash of red pepper flakes. Finally, we enjoyed the sweet taste of summer while watching Breaking Bad. (Good god, is that show good. We’re in season 2, so no spoilers, please!)

If only I had enough tomatoes to make 18 gallons of that sauce. It’s so good, I want to take a bath in it. Mmmhmmm.

P.S. Here’s a quick view of the recipe:

Fresh Tomato Marinara Sauce

- 5 lbs of tomatoes

- 3 tablespoons of olive oil

- 1.5 onions, minced

- 1 bulb of garlic, minced

-3 bay leaves

- 4 sprigs of fresh basil, chopped

- 1 teaspoon of oregano

- 2 teaspoons of sugar

-2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

-salt and pepper to taste

1. Blanche tomatoes by dunking in boiling water for 45 seconds followed by an ice bath. Remove skins and hulls and quarter each tomato.

2. While peeling/cutting tomatoes, let onions simmer in olive oil in the stock pot.

3. Add tomatoes, garlic and bay leaves to pot and bring to simmer. Cover pot and leave for 30 minutes.

4. Add basil, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper. Leave uncovered and simmer about 2.5 hours, stirring regularly.

5. Add balsamic vinegar. Enjoy!

Of course, everything is dependent on your tomato varieties, if they seem watery, allow the sauce to simmer longer to boil off more water, if they’re pasty, don’t cook as long. Also, sugar and salt may need to be adjusted to your tomatoes/tastes. As they say on American Idol, ‘Make it your own!’

11 Comments
by folksyhome on August 31, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Cooking
Tagged , , ,

Posted by folksyhome on August 31, 2012

http://folksyhome.com/2012/08/31/use-those-summer-tomatoes-homemade-fresh-tomato-marinara-sauce/

Mirror Re-Do: Fixing a Wooden Frame

It’s officially back to school season, which, for me, always evokes a sense of renewal. It’s like a fresh start and I’m always a sucker for a fresh start. It’s why I love cleaning the house so much. Anywho, this school year happens to be MY LAST YEAR OF GRAD SCHOOL (crazy!!), and I’m full-time interning, so those two things combined make me really want to start this year on the right foot. And for me, a big chunk of feeling good when starting something new is looking the part. That’s where this little project comes in. Hello large mirror that I purchased over a year ago at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store, started working on, decided I hated and stuck it in the basement for 12 months:

I bought it for 25 big ones. A little steep, I know, especially for the cheese factor, but the thing had no price tag and when I asked the price they told me $25. I kind of froze and didn’t bargain because I suddenly felt like paying less would be directly taking away from the good cause of the company. I mean, I technically could afford to pay $25, so why get them down on the price only to take away from the people they are helping? Ahhh, over-thinker much? Anyway, I brought home my enormous $25 mirror and got to work. I pulled out the frills and painted it, but it looked SHODDY. That’s when other projects took over and I had Mike put it in the basement where it stayed until this back to school/renewal business. My previous mirror is hidden behind closet curtains so there’s no light and I can barely tell if my shoes match my outfit. THE HORROR. This mirror is the path to being able to dress appropriately every day. We hauled it to the daylight and realized she needed some help.

The flourishes left about a 1/4” dado running along the full length of two sides, and 8 inches of the other two sides (that’s the groove on one of the shorter sides in the photo above).  I was going to just fill them with putty and be done (knowing the finished project wasn’t going to be spectacular) until Mike came up with a genius idea. He routed out all the grooves with a 1/4” straight bit:

See how they’re all cleaned out and even? He did that so we could tap in some shims to fill the grooves. I put a nice thick bead (as they say on Ask This Old House) of glue in the groove,

And tapped in the shims. It just so happened that the 68 cent Home Depot yard sticks fit PERFECTLY into the hollowed out grooves. Kismet! We filled in all of the grooves and let ‘er set up over night.

Yeah, see all that ruler (it took 3 yard sticks total)? That’s the extent of the groovage. Ha, and I thought putty was gonna work!

Then I broke out the jig saw

and cut the rulers off fairly close to the edge.

And then Mike used the flush trim router bit to bring the ruler even closer to the plane of the frame.

I sanded everything down,

and it got the putty/sanding treatment so everything was smooth before paint.

A coat of primer and grey paint (True Value paint matched to Benjamin Moore ‘Flint’) later, it was ready for hanging hardware. After a little google session, Mike decided that these D-rings hanging on molly-bolt-secured screws would be our best/safest bet. He carefully measured and attached the D-rings,

and hung it up. I’m in outfit picking paradise! Oooo…

Ahhhh…

And you seriously can’t even tell there was a gaping groove there!

Smooth as butter! Cheapy yard sticks to the rescue!

6 Comments
by folksyhome on August 29, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in DIY, Fixing, Refinishing, Small Projects
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by folksyhome on August 29, 2012

http://folksyhome.com/2012/08/29/mirror-re-do-fixing-a-wooden-frame/

Getting HOTTTT in Here: Drying Habaneros for Homemade Spice

Some projects end up being so much more awesome than expected (ex. our desk!), some, unfortunately, end up being less-than-stellar (ex. my painted smart cover) and still others end up simply being exactly what you thought they would be. Enter today’s project, drying and making habanero powder. It’s exactly what you’d expect: insert 8 habaneros, and out comes some seriously spicy powder. Not that it’s a bad thing. In fact, it’s darn awesome.

We’ve had a glut of habaneros this month. I have three thriving plants that are providing about 5 ripe peppers each per week. Waaaaay too many for any household not interested in ulcers, so I started to look into how to preserve them. That’s when this whole powder/drying thing came up. I’ve dried herbs before, but never anything as big/juicy as a pepper. I thought, why not give it a try? What’s there to loose besides burning the bejesus out of my eyes and ruining a few good peppers? I started with 8 peppers (the two green ones fell off while picking the others, so I figured why not use them, too).

Aren’t they gorgeous? Don’t be fooled, they pack a PUNCH. I spread them out on a tray and put them in the toaster oven on bake at about 175 degrees – cool enough that I could comfortably stick my hand in the oven (I know, that sounds bad, but it’s how I tested it!) but warm enough that it seemed like it was doing something. I think it was probably significantly cooler than what the dial read, more like 120 or so, like feeling something that has been in the sun for a while.

I propped open the door with a little rock so that the moisture could escape as the peppers dehydrated. (disclaimer: This is a reenactment. I forgot to take a a pic during!)

After about 12 hours in the toaster oven, they were starting to change a little, but not enough for my liking. It occurred to me that some of the moisture may have been evaporating into the center of the peppers, keeping them moist, so I cut them in half.

I left the sliced habaneros in there 24 more hours. I KNOW. Forever! But like I said, the toaster oven was basically the temperature of  something left in the hot sun. I had to keep reminding myself, I want them DRY, not COOKED. After 36 hours, I had these crisp-to-the-touch beauties shriveled raisins.

I piled them in my mortar, and ground them with my pestle. Old school style.

After about 10 minutes of grinding, a little bit of eye watering and a teensy bit of nose running, I had powder!

If you’re going to try this yourself, I recommend gloves (that oil will stay on your hands, even after hand washing), and a well-ventilated area. The stuff is pungent.

All those peppers ground down to this itty bitty amount, but trust me, a little goes a loooong way. I sprinkled a small dash onto my salad last night and BAM it perked it up just enough. This stuff isn’t for the faint of heart, but if you decide to go for it, I assure you, you’ll be tasting the heat of summer well into the winter months.

2 Comments
by folksyhome on August 27, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Cooking
Tagged , , , , ,

Posted by folksyhome on August 27, 2012

http://folksyhome.com/2012/08/27/getting-hotttt-in-here-drying-habaneros-for-homemade-spice/

When Projects Take Longer Than Anticipated

…you end up with half-finished, ongoing stuff around your house that you can’t quite blog about yet. Since I’ve been back up north, I’ve started on a few projects but really haven’t gotten all the way through any of them. Boo!

Today, I was planning on either having a fun little tutorial on how to make pepper powder for cooking, but all I’ve got is some half-dried habaneros:

Yes, that is after 24 hours of drying. They are still a little squishy! The other option was to explain to you why there is yardstick sticking (ha!) out of this mirror,

but with glue drying time, that’s about as far as I’ve gotten on that project. At least now it’s all dried up (hopefully the habaneros take a lead from the glue) and I should be able to chug along on that this weekend. I think it’s gonna be awesome!

Have a fantastic weekend, and I’ll be back with goodies on Monday!

Leave a Comment
by folksyhome on August 24, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Daily Life
Tagged , , ,

Posted by folksyhome on August 24, 2012

http://folksyhome.com/2012/08/24/when-projects-take-longer-than-anticipated/

Blazer Upgrade: How to Sew a Shank Button

I love a good blazer, but sometimes I buy a just-pretty-good one because it fits well and is the right price. Kind of like this little Forever 21 number I’ve had in my closet.

It fits nicely and is a good navy blue, but it was kind of missing that pop you get with a more quality item, like my fave go-to ones from J. Crew. The lining leaves a little to be desired, and I’m not up for that project, but that blah button? Now that’s something  I can upgrade. I ordered a package of gold blazer buttons from eBay for $3 including shipping, and got to work.

If you’re any good at sewing, you can probs just skip to the bottom and see the ‘after,’ but if you’re like me and have to Google every time you need to figure out how to knot the thread, then maybe this will help. I followed this step-by-step to help me along. The buttons are ‘shank’ buttons, meaning they have a small loop on the back instead of just having four holes like a traditional button.

To stiffen and secure larger and more load-bearing buttons, another buttons is usually used on the inside to prevent the thread from pulling through, so that’s where I started. First, after threading the needle and knotting it I made a few anchor stitches starting from the backside of the fabric so the knot wouldn’t show.

Then, I added the small button (which was backing the ‘before’ button, so I already had it on hand) and sewed through it a couple of times.

After three or four stitches, I added the gold button to the right side of the fabric and threaded through the shank, and back down through the small button.

Rinse, repeat until you feel the outer button is secure. I probably did it about 7-10 times. Then, bring your needle back to the top of the fabric and wrap the shank with thread a few times (3-4)…

And then leave a little loop on the last go-round and put your needle through that to help secure the thread. Hopefully this picture explains it a little better:

Do this 2-3 times, depending on how much thread you have left (I was running low, so I just did it twice). This is what the shank looks like after wrapping:

Bring your needle back down to the inside of the fabric, and tie it off like you usually do with a button. (In full disclosure, I googled this part, too, and followed this vid.) Then, say hello to your new, snazzy-buttoned blazer. (Yep, I just modeled it with exactly what I had on. Cut-offs and my high school senior class t-shirt. Because I’m fancy like that.)

Bah, I am definitely getting in the Fall mood!

1 Comment
by folksyhome on August 22, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Quick Tips, Small Projects
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by folksyhome on August 22, 2012

http://folksyhome.com/2012/08/22/blazer-upgrade-how-to-sew-a-shank-button/

On Our 1 Year Anniversary

One year ago today in the White Mountains of New Hampshire the room was all set up…

My bridesmaids, my mom and I were toasting and getting ready to go to the best party I’ve ever been to:

But first, my Dad had to walk me down the aisle.

(Told you I was a crier.) My groom was waiting at the bottom…

and we vowed ourselves to each other.

And could not have been happier about it.

Naturally, it was all sealed with a kiss.

We made our way back down the mountain and walked into a room filled with more love than I’ve ever felt before:

We ate cake:

And danced:

And danced some more:

And I do think a good time was had by all. Thank you, from the very bottom of my heart, to everyone who celebrated with us one year ago. Cheers to the first year of marriage and to many more to come!

(p.s. All photos taken by our photographer, found here: http://www.awphotographs.com/index2.php )

7 Comments
by folksyhome on August 20, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Daily Life
Tagged , , ,

Posted by folksyhome on August 20, 2012

http://folksyhome.com/2012/08/20/on-our-1-year-anniversary/

State of the Garden 7-31-12 (Yes, I know it’s August)

(I’m a bad blogger. Sorry I missed a few posts – I’ve been in Florida visiting family! I’m back home and managed to get my booty to the computer and do a little blogging. Tough life, I know :) . )

So, even though the ides of August have come and gone, I’m still going to show you what the garden looked like back at the turn of the new month. (On Monday I’ll have an up-to-date State of the Garden to provide a little contrast.) But yeah, back on July 31st, we had just returned from out West and, well, early blight had swept the indeterminate tomatoes and the cucurbits produced but one melon. I think the intermittent watering problem had taken its toll. I decided to cut my losses and look to the future. The sick tomatoes went, as did the melons. Here’s what the aftermath looked like:

Sparse! I was sad about it for a minute, but then I realized this will give me my first ever chance to have a serious go at a Fall harvest! A view from the other side of the garden shows all the open space:

Cheers to being optimistic! There is still plenty left in the soil, however, and we are still bringing produce into the house every day. What do we got? Funny you should ask! First up, the Boothby’s Blonde cucumbers are still coming fast and furious:

The peppers are a healthy bunch. The habaneros are dripping off the branches, and here is one ‘Cute Stuff’ (a small, sweet pepper) in a container:

In front of the porch, the sunflowers and asters are about to burst (they’re in the containers in the foreground):

And that one, lone cucurbit that produced fruit, is a winter gourd, I think. It’s so tiny!

Finally, one type of tomato that is still healthy and bright is the upsidedown ‘Golden Nugget.’ We made bruschetta out of those little guys and, Franklin Delano (tell me you laugh at that commercial!), it was good.

Phew! It feels good to be back and exercise my blogging muscle again. It’s funny how all that time in Florida I couldn’t get myself to produce content, but now that I’m home and back on the regular schedule, it’s all I can do to not post. Funny how motivation works!

Leave a Comment
by folksyhome on August 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Gardening
Tagged , , , , , , ,

Posted by folksyhome on August 17, 2012

http://folksyhome.com/2012/08/17/state-of-the-garden-7-31-12-yes-i-know-its-august/

Inspiration Out West: Pics From Las Vegas and New Mexico

Admittedly, my strength is not creating new ideas – it’s more riffing off old ones. It’s a rarity that I’m struck by spontaneous creativity; usually, I will see something, make a mental note, and then morph it into something useful for me. Thus, I’m a chronic scout, always looking for the next great project prospect. On our recent trip west of the Mississippi, I found plenty of new projects I’d gladly invite to training camp. (Sports analogy gone too far?)

Starting in Las Vegas, we stayed at the gorgeous Wynn Hotel. This placed reminded me that I do kind of love luxury. This Carrera hexagonal tile wall in the hotel cafe made me positively drool.

Another wall treatment, this one at a Caesar’s Palace restaurant reminded me of Mancala beads. Remember that game?

This geometric tile floor at the Venetian caught my eye. Adds cool interest to a simple breezeway.

And then there was this gypsum lamp. Firstly, it caught my eye because, obviously, LOOK AT THAT GYPSUM SPAR! But then it stayed with me because of the DIY potential. How cool would something of that ilk look in your own home?

Moving on to New Mexico, which is probably more my speed in terms of style, I saw this mirror that, if I had the space, I would have carted home:

This ceiling with white Christmas lights created a nice ambience:

This old floor at an Albuquerque shop had these metal plates presumably covering holes in the floor. Neat way to extend the life of old wooden floors – I know we sure could use this in our apartment.

This little atrium at a Taos restaurant gave so much light and felt homey at the same time.

And finally, it wouldn’t be a trip without countless plant pictures. How cool is this horizontal log planter?

And this trough planter? Love it.

I know they’re associated with outhouses, but hollyhocks are one of my favorite flowers.

And finally, this little annual arrangement. Every so often, I feel like I should refine my garden color palette, using specific hues to create a cohesive feel. But then I see something like this, and it makes me happy. Refined, be damned!

Have you been inspired on your summer vacation?

2 Comments
by folksyhome on August 6, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in DIY, Gardening, Small Projects
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by folksyhome on August 6, 2012

http://folksyhome.com/2012/08/06/inspiration-out-west-pics-from-las-vegas-and-new-mexico/

Upgrading from Cardboard to Wood: A Seed Packet Storage Box

Along with other things, I’m a seed hoarder. I know they lose germination potential after a certain amount of time, but I just can’t take that chance. What if there is one more forget-me-not in that packet waiting patiently in the dark to see the dampness of soil and the light of day? Because of this I-just-can’t-get-rid-of-them tendency, I’ve accumulated quite a few seed packets.

(To be fair, after taking this pic I threw out some of the ones from way back. How many packets of basil seed do I really need? Especially if one of them is from 2007. True story.) I’ve stored all of my seeds in a nondescript cardboard box for as long as I can remember, and have had ‘organize seeds’ on my to-do list almost as long. Well, the other evening, inspiration hit and I marched down to the basement and made myself a seed-organizing box. (Brag alert: I am proud to say that I did this completely by myself. No hubs help at all! I didn’t even have to ask where anything was :D )
I had a few goals 1) Use only what I had on hand, 2) Make something that I wouldn’t want to get rid of next month, and 3) Organize my seed packets effectively. As luck would have it we had an extra 8′ length of 1×4 in the basement, so I designed the box around it. After measuring my seed packets, I came up with a plan.
The general design is basically a long box: 18” side panels and two 5.5” wide end caps. Each side is two 1×4 lengths stacked and attached via kreg jig pocket holes. Originally, I was going to inset the end caps, like this:
but when I came up with my finishing plan I realized I’d rather have the end caps exposed to the front. Here’s a pic of half of the box, pre construction:
Before I put it together, I painted the long pieces in chalkboard paint and the end caps got the bar tray treatment: copper flashing! (I had some left over from that project) Honestly, when I thought of this I felt like I had a stroke of genius: metal and wood – natural elements in harmony! Rustic-industrial, how en-vogue! Yeah, I got a little stoked.
So to flash the ends (i.e. wrap them in copper), I first made a template that I’d need to cut out. I started with an 8×10 piece of printer paper, and wrapped the ends like a present, cutting out the places where things were doubled up. (No need to have copper beneath copper, you know what I mean?)
My template ended up looking like this:
Then, I just taped it to the copper sheet and used scissors to cut out the shape. Easy peasy.
To apply the copper, I also just wrapped the end caps like a present, but the good news is that when you bend copper, it stays that way, so once the wood was wrapped, it was wrapped. To secure the corners, just in case, I tapped in a few brass finishing nails on the inside (the same ones I used here).
Then I just did a little (Kreg) jig to put it together, and I had a box frame. Sweet! The only thing left was the bottom, and to be honest, it was kind of an afterthought and consequently, it’s not exactly the most elegant thing in the world. And the Men’s gymnastics finals were on, so I had to hurry.
I traced the bottom opening onto a piece of 3/4” MDF from the scrap pile, and then used a jig saw to cut it out. Then, I tapped in a few nails for the bottom to rest on and popped it in. But hey, it’s sturdy enough, I mean really, it’s only holding seeds!
Here’s what it looks like from the inside:
Down the line, if I want it to hold something heavier, or want it to be more functional, I’ll have to do a little re-design. So, with the bottom in place, here is my seed organization box (minus the seed organization system…that’s still in the works.) Also, I know, cheesy saying, but I’m a cheesy girl. I also can’t wait to think of season/holiday related seed puns to change it up.
Hey, it hold’s seed packets, how nifty!
A copper side-panel shot:
And here it is in it’s more permanent residence on our bedroom rope shelves:
Ugh, I’m the worst at styling. Regardless, not bad for an evening of work! I do still have the issue of actual organization within the box to think of. Soon!
1 Comment
by folksyhome on August 3, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Small Projects
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by folksyhome on August 3, 2012

http://folksyhome.com/2012/08/03/upgrading-from-cardboard-to-wood-a-seed-packet-storage-box/

  • Maria @ FH

    Hi there! I'm a grad student, wife, and doting owner of the cutest dog you've ever seen. I love organizing, gardening, and taking on projects I only later find out I'm wildly too impatient for. Read along as I try to accept it's about the journey, not the destination, especially when it comes to DIY. Welcome!

  • Enter you email address to receive new posts in your inbox. Fun!

    Join 123 other followers

  • RSS RSS Feed

  • Follow Me on Pinterest

  • Like FH on Facebook

  • Archives

  • Find Posts by Category