So Much To Make: own

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Friday, May 29, 2015

Cooking in the Wilderness Part 1: DIY Cup and Pot Cozies

My husband and I dated more on the trails than we did in restaurants or movie theaters, and we are trying our hardest to pass our love of nature down to our four kids. We take them hiking or backpacking on pretty much every free weekend with tolerable weather.

Friends often ask what our "secret" is to getting our kids to go along with our adventures. How do we get them to not whine the whole time? Do the kids carry their own stuff? And probably the most asked, "What do you bring to eat??"

Hundreds of articles, blogs, books and discussion boards are dedicated to troubleshooting feeding your family--while under the comforts of your own roof. Take away the comfort and the roof, and the task may seem downright impossible.

For us, the learning curve has definitely been steep. Hopefully I can take some of the elevation gain out of your learning curve by sharing our knowledge. On our last couple of backpacking trips, we actually looked forward to each and every meal we brought to eat. Real food IS possible on the trail or at the campground. Man cannot live by granola bars alone.

I am going to share some of our discoveries in my blog post series: "Cooking in the Wilderness."

First, (in this post) I will share a DIY project for making what should be the 11th Essential when packing for a camping trip: CUP AND POT COZIES.
Second (in a soon-to-come post), I'll share what we have learned making and using HOMEMADE ALCOHOL STOVES.
In a third post, I'll share tips and recipes for PLANNING MEALS FOR CAMPING AND BACKPACKING with your family.

Part 2: Alcohol Stoves

Part 3: Backpacking Meals

Cup / Pot Cozy Tutorial

Most trail food that you will cook will be in a pot. Why? Because most of it will need to be boiled or re-hydrated to become edible. I'll cover more about this in my meal planning post, but trust me on this. Hot cocoa, oatmeal, soup, rice, pasta----all of these require a POT of boiling water to make. But so often it is windy and cool and by the time we all get our meal into a cup or passed around to us to take a bite out of, it has already cooled down (yes, we sometimes eat out of the same pot--you'd do it too to avoid cleaning dishes when it's 40 degrees outside!).

However, NO LONGER are cold camping entrees a problem for us! We made pot cozies from rolled foil insulation, so as soon as our food is ready, we put the lid on it and place it in its custom pot cozy! Hot meals do the body, the spirit, and the psyche good in the wilderness.

We went a step further and made each of us a cup cozy. When we aren't all eating out of the same pot, we each have our own cup (made from a re-purposed steel vegetable can, sharp edges removed), and each cup has its own cozy! It is AMAZING how long our food stays hot now! No need to eat quickly. It stays so warm, it actually slows us down--a good problem to have!

You will need:

Bubble Foil Insulation

Aluminum Foil Heat Reflective Tape

Permanent Marker

Good Scissors

Metal Pot or Cup

1. Mark the height of the cup, minus 1/4 inch, on a straight edge of the bubble foil insulation.

2. Roll the insulation around the cup and mark the circumference, plus 1/4 inch, with the marker.

3. Connect the marks with straight lines and cut out the rectangle.

4. Measure and cut a piece of foil tape the same length as your bubble foil rectangle.

5. Foil tape has a paper backing that must be removed to expose the sticky side. Overlap the bubble foil onto half of the width of the foil tape and carefully peel away the paper as you stick the tape to the bubble foil.

6. Fold the tape over the bubble foil and smooth out.

7. Measure and cut a piece of foil tape by folding it around the width of the bubble foil rectangle.

8. Carefully place the width of the rectangle over half the piece of tape, leaving half the width exposed.

9. Wrap the bubble wrap around end to end to form a cylinder and stick it to the exposed tape. Wrap the rest of the tape around to the inside of the cylinder to close the open seam.

10. Place the cup into the cylinder.

11. On a new piece of bubble foil, trace a circle around the circumference of the cozy with the cup inside.

http://amzn.to/1HF0j67

12. Cut out the circle.

13. Place the circle on the bottom of the cup inside the bubble foil cylinder.

14. Measure and cut foil tape around the bottom of the cylinder. Carefully peel away the paper as you stick half the width of the tape to the base of the cylinder. The other half of the width will be exposed and sticking up (with the cup upside down).

15. Cut slits every inch or so around the exposed tape, creating little tabs.

16. Fold the tabs down over the bottom of the cozy.

And you are done! You have a completed cup/pot cozy.

Here is one of our pot cozies. The method to make a cozy for a pot is exactly the same, except you need to measure and cut out notches for the handles of the pot.

See how the pot rests nicely in its cozy with the handles free to move?

Finally, an action shot taken in the actual wilds of Washington. :)

Participating at these link-ups.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Glittered Origami Christmas Trees

I saw a darling folded Christmas tree on Pinterest a few days ago, and on a whim decided to try it out with some scrapbook paper. It proved to be not only easy and quick, but the learning curve was abnormally NOT steep for an origami project. I typically have to look at the pictures on the second, third and fourth time of making something before I have it memorized. This took one time. Uno. And my 11-year-old son came along and made one pretty easily after me (his is the one with the deer).

After admiring my cute trees for a couple of hours, I had the idea of adding glitter--like snow-- to the edges. I LOVED the results. So easy and inexpensive, yet they look like something from Anthropologie, am I right?

Want to make your own?

Here's what you'll need:

12x12" Scrapbook Paper (remove the barcode edge)
Heavy Duty Scissors
Glitter Paint in a writing tube (as shown)
My video tutorial (below) or this picture tutorial from Simple Joys.

1. Follow the instructions above to make the trees. If your paper is double sided, have the side you want showing out as you proceed in the folding process.

2. Once the trees are made, outline the folded edges with glitter paint. Let it dry, and you're done!

This post is linking at these parties.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Monogram Christmas Stockings

I have a Christmas story to share...

This time two years ago, we were living in the Midwest, busily packing for a cross-country move to the Pacific Northwest. We were excited to move because we would be closer to family, and my husband would be starting a new job; but, the timing was not ideal.

We pulled out of our snow-packed driveway--me in our SUV with the kids, my husband driving the largest U-haul available, towing his smaller car--early Christmas Eve morning. We got as far as western South Dakota, and stayed the night in a hotel, where we laid out our stockings and set up a miniature tree I had packed last in the U-haul.

Santa came to our hotel room that night, and the next morning we tried our best to enjoy our Christmas "adventure" with our children. We opened gifts from each other and enjoyed some goodies I had packed for the trip. Then we packed all the stockings and gifts into a large suitcase, which we put into the moving truck to be enjoyed later.

In all, it took us 4 days and 3 nights to make it to our destination. We were driving in snowy conditions all the way up until we crossed over the last mountain pass that is the doorway into the greater Seattle area. To say it was unpleasant would be an understatement. It was long, treacherous, nerve-wracking, and frustrating.

When we finally got to our temporary apartment, relief still didn't come. It was NOT what had been advertised, was in a neighborhood that felt unsafe, and it smelled awful. I kept reminding myself that my kids would mirror whatever emotions I portrayed, so I tried to stay positive. With help from family, we quickly unpacked the truck (in the cold rain--welcome to Seattle!), and I worked to begin making our temporary living conditions comfortable.

We had arrived on a Friday night, and our children were able to start school on Monday morning. I was so excited to get the apartment put together while they were gone, and to unpack their Christmas gifts they had barely seen. I wanted them to come home to something special. I looked for the gift-filled suitcase in what we called our "Room of Requirement" (the "spare" bedroom we had stacked from floor to ceiling with boxes and furniture to avoid getting a storage unit). I looked and looked. I couldn't find it. This was a very small apartment, and it was a large suitcase. How was I missing it? I called my husband, and after reflection, he realized he didn't recall unloading it from the U-haul.

He then told me that sometime in the blizzard conditions of crossing Montana, he noticed the padlock we had on the back door to the U-haul had come off. He dismissed it as just being jostled off because of the bumpiness of the way and the frigid conditions. Now, we were faced with the cold truth--we had been robbed. The actual monetary value of what was taken was relatively little. There were no expensive electronics or jewelry in the suitcase. It had the Little People dollhouse my daughter had received from Santa; the Alabama (Roll Tide!) scarves my mom had made my sons, other toys and gifts we had exchanged with each other, and....our stockings.

I had made those stockings. They had character and love put into them. They were truly irreplaceable. When I realized they had been in that suitcase, I lost it. I broke down in tears. I felt so selfish crying--knowing I was crying over THINGS. No one had died. No one was sick or hurt. I knew it was silly, but after keeping it together through the stress of moving over the holidays from a nice big home to an tiny, icky apartment, this was the last straw. And it felt good to have that release. To openly share my feelings.

Thankfully, like all time does, that time passed. And good came out of it. Last year, I was able to make new matching stockings for the family. They make me happy. As I look at them, I think about the way our family bonded, focused on what was really important, and learned so many lessons through the adversities of our move here.

To make these, I used a free pattern from Positively Simple. It was easy to print out, her directions are clear, and the sewing process was really quite simple. And they are NICE stockings--cuffed, lined, and built to last.
Her stockings have a pom-pom trim, which I decided to skip. It is super cute, but I worried about its longevity since it is hot-glued on. And I decided to add the monograms. One of the things that kept me sane during my time in our icky apartment was learning to do hand embroidery. I didn't have room to have my sewing machine or paints and easel, but a hoop and thread don't take up much room. I needed a creative outlet, and embroidery fit the bill. So I embroidered the letters on these by hand. They could have looked more professional if I had paid someone with a machine to do it, but it just felt right to use the skill I learned during our transition to complete these.

This post is linking up at these parties.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Branch Votive DIY

I can take little credit for this project. I know how it is made, but my son (now 13) made it a couple years ago. So if an 11 year old can do it, you can too! :)

I set this votive out with my fall decor, and I leave it all the way through Christmas. I just change the table runner and what I set around it. At Christmas I put pine cones and boughs, ribbon, and red and gold glass ball ornaments. I love the versatility. Every year my display looks a little different than the last!

To make this Branch Votive you will need:

A real wood tree branch. Ask around--people are always pruning trees or having them removed. Ours came from our old yard (back when we had trees...). It needs to have a diameter of at least 2.5 inches. Bigger is great, too.
Power Drill
1.5 inch spade bit (pictured below)
Some good clamps to secure the branch while you work
Battery powered votive candles (I found mine at Dollar Tree--4/$1 if I remember right)

1. Measure and mark where your votives will sit on your branch. I suggest an odd number for aesthetics.

2. Clamp the branch securely to your work surface. This is crucial for safety and sanity as you work.

3. Place the 1.5" spade bit into the power drill.

4. With tip of bit on the center of each marked spot for your votives, drill to at least 1/4 inch depth. This photo is not "in action." The real deal is much messier. (Wear safety glasses!) Depending on the sharpness of your bit, each indentation can take a few minutes to drill.

5. Place the battery-powered votive candles into the branch. Real votive candles are fine, too, if you are comfortable with real fire burning in a branch on your table. I'm not, so I went with the fake candle option.

See? Here I caught little hands touching the "flames." Thank goodness for fake fire!

I love seeing it "lit" at night. Enjoy!

Partying at:

Totally Terrific Link Up

Create & Share

Creative Spark

Cook It! Craft It! Share It!

All Things Thursday

Creative Ways

Thrifty Thursday

Think and Make Thursday

Ultimate Pinterest Party

Best of the Weekend

Say G'day Linky Party

My Favorite Things Saturday

DIY Sunday Showcase

Wine'd Down Wednesday

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Homemade Salsa!

I like chips, but this salsa is so yummy, I could really just have a spoon and be happy to eat it alone. And it's a good thing it's so delicious, because along with my neighbor, I canned 26 quarts of it. ¡Olé!

This is my family's "go-to" salsa. It has qualities the whole family consistently enjoys--lots of flavor, not too much heat. My neighbor and I originally started out canning with this recipe from Food.com. We made some changes through trial and error, and we have been thrilled with the final product!

This recipe can be pared down to make much less. You can even skip cooking and canning and just have a yummy fresh salsa. You'd better believe we tasted it before we cooked it, and it was GOOD!

Here's the recipe:

Homemade Salsa

makes 6-7 quarts

Ingredients:

15 cups chopped tomatoes (I prefer Romas because they are less juicy)

5 cups chopped sweet yellow onions

5 cups chopped green bell peppers

1 1/2 - 2 cups chopped and seeded jalapeno peppers (see my post: De-Seed Jalapenos the Easy Way for help)

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

5 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 cups apple-cider vinegar

2 1/2 teaspoons salt

9 oz tomato paste

Directions:

1. If you are canning, prepare cans and lids. Have a water-bath ready.

2. Mix all ingredients except tomato paste in a large pot. Heat on medium heat until boiling. Simmer uncovered 15-30 minutes, until close to desired thickness.

3. Stir in tomato paste.

4. Fill jars for canning leaving 1/4 inch of head space. Wipe rims, place sanitized lids and screw on rings to finger-tight. Place in boiling water-bath and process 15 minutes.

5. If you are not canning, just mix all ingredients and refrigerate until ready to serve. Mmm, mmm.