Lite Raw Summer Salad

Looks beautiful and delicious.  Very nutritious from vintageindie.com blog

Organic & Whole Living: Lite Raw Summer Salad

Summer is about eating fresh, local and lite. This is one of my favorite go to salads for lunch, dinner or even a snack!  It's refreshing, and the ingredients can usually be found in abundance during the summer.

Ingredients:

Israeli Cucumbers, English Cucumbers or any cucumbers you have.

Small Red Onion

Cherry Tomatoes

Lemon Juice

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

To prepare the salad, cut the cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes in half, dice the red onion and cucumber into a fine dice. If you choose to use a regular cucumber or another cucumber with a tougher peel, you may wish to peel it. Israeli cucumbers have a forgiving peel and I like to leave it on. Drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil, lemon juice and season to taste with salt & pepper.  Mix to coat. If you aren't going to eat it right away, cover it, but leave it on your counter to marinate. It will only get better with time.

There are so many variations that I make of this salad, you really can do just about anything. Sometimes I omit the onion and add a little balsamic vinegar, diced yellow crook neck squash and zucchini, along with some fresh basil and oregano.

Enjoy!

Sharpie Tie Dye

This is a super fun project for kids!  It's really easy for them to do and fun also.  What a great way to dress up a shirt, dress, pants, skirt - even pants.

What You Need:

• Pre-washed white or light colored t-shirt
• Rubbing Alcohol
• Liquid dropper or medicine dropper
• Small plastic cup(s)
• Rubber bands
• Variety of colored Sharpies

Do It!:

1.  Choose a spot to start and put your cup in right side up and secure a rubber band around the cup rim holding the shirt tightly in place.
2. Pick your colors and create a small design in the center of the stretched circle. Keep your designs to the size of a quarter or half dollar because the alcohol will make the colors spread out a lot.
3. Using your dropper drip approximately 10 drops of rubbing alcohol in the center of your design and watch the colors spread.
4. Repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 in different places on your piece of clothing to get your ideal design.
5. Heat set the colors by tossing the shirt in the dryer for a while before wearing.

Photos and DIY via The Art Girl Jackie

Light Bulb Moment...

Here are a couple of fun things to do with old light bulbs.  Very pretty party ideas or even just some nice and different home decor.  Best part is - it's recycled!  So your helping the environment too!

DIY: Lace Light Bulbs

Spray paint a doily onto a light bulb or use a silver pen and draw your own designs. When the light shines through, it will cast a beautiful pattern on your walls.

And from Pinterest (I just LOVE Pinterest!):

Hanging vases made from used light bulbs.

Scrabble Tile Tutorial

Scrabble tile charms and pendants are becoming extremely popular.  I think they are so adorable and have wanted to try my hand at making them too.  I found this great tutorial from Beadaholic.  Has anyone else tried this?  If so, please comment and share your experience.  Check it out:

Make Chalkboard Paint in Any Color

Here is a recipe for chalkboard paint from Martha Stewart.   You can use this for so many projects and it's simple-which I really like.  In a later article I will share some great ideas for the chalkboard paint so stay tuned.



I recently saw these Chalkboard Rocks from Pottery Barn that you can write on with chalk and thought…”I can make those!” So I did! I had been wanting to paint something with chalk board paint (which has been all the rage on the craft blogs the past several months) to try out a homemade chalk paint recipe I found while browsing Martha Stewart’s site a while back.

If you haven’t noticed, Chalkboard Paint is pretty expensive. This recipe is super easy and only requires two ingredients…paint (of any color or type) and some Non-Sanded Tile Grout. I found mine at Home Depot for $4 and some change (can’t remember exactly). But you can find the grout at any home improvement store.

Then you will need to simply mix 1 cup of paint and 2 Tablespoons of grout. That’s it! Just make sure to stir it really well so that there are no lumps. You can use any paint. Paint for plastics or acrylic paint or house paint. You can also use any color of paint. How fun is that? There are so many possibilities and price is now no longer a factor! You could paint a whole room in chalk board paint! Your kids would think you were da bomb!

I really love the look of these black chalk board rocks. The room I have them in currently has a lot of black accents and so they fit in perfectly with the decor. Now I can keep them year round and just change what I write on them with chalk!

What would you like to use your chalk board paint for?

This sounds wonderful!  Different from the dropped biscuits that I grew up loving.

Homemade Chicken and Dumplings

by Eat at Home on August 2, 2009 in Main Courses, Poultry
See this recipe post on Eat at Home’s site! August 2, 2009

Main CoursesPoultry

4.95 Mitt(s) 41 Rating(s)

Prep Time 30 Minutes
Cook Time 20 Minutes
Difficulty Easy
Servings 8

8

• + Print Recipe

Recipe Description

A bowl of chicken and dumplings. A glass of sweet tea. It’s a meal any Kentuckian would be proud to fix and danged happy to sit down to. And it’s not hard to make. Come on, I’ll show you how.

Preparation Instructions

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a fork or pastry blender. Stir in the milk, mixing with a fork until the dough forms a ball.
Heavily flour a work surface. You’ll need a rolling pin and something to cut the dumplings with. I like to use a pizza cutter. I also like to use a small spatula to lift the dumplings off the cutting surface.
Roll the dough out thin with a heavily floured rolling pin. Dip your cutter in flour and cut the dumplings in squares about 2″x2″. It’s okay for them not to be exact. Just eye ball it. Some will be bigger, some smaller, some shaped funny.
Use the floured spatula to put them on a heavily floured plate. Just keep flouring between the layers of dumplings.
To cook them, bring the broth to a boil. Drop the dumplings in one at a time, stirring while you add them. The extra flour on them will help thicken the broth. Cook them for about 15-20 minutes or until they not doughy tasting. Add the cooked chicken to the pot and you’re done!
For more pictures and instructions, see the related link above!

Ingredients

• 2 cups Flour
• ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 pinch Salt
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 1 cup Milk, A Bit Less Than A Full Cup
• 2 quarts Chicken Broth
• 3 cups Cooked Chicken

Do Your Kids Love Lego's???

My son LOVES Lego's and I find it very difficult to keep them all organized.  He likes the kits as well as regular Lego's he can create on his own.  Right now, we use Zip Lock storage bags to keep all the different kits together and contained.  I just found this excellent idea on Pinterest, however, to create not only a great organizational system for my son's Lego's, but also an area where he can play also.  Check this out:

Lego Table

Made from four slotted organizers from IKEA. The bins (also from IKEA) are made to slide into all the nice slots.

The table top is made from a 5' x 5' piece of baltic birch plywood cut to 4' 8". with rounded corners of the top, routed 1/8" edge, and sanded using an orbital sander. Spray paint (first coat is white primer, then royal blue -- which matched the blue LEGO color exactly, and then a clear coat) bought from Home Depot.

This is AWESOME!!!  I can't wait to put it on my hubby's To Do list :)