It's ALMOST Strawberry season!!! Two For One Strawberry Recipe

Mmm... Nothing beats the smell of 8 clam shells of fresh strawberries sitting on the kitchen counter!  But, what to do with them all?!  

A sweet friend of mine, Kelly Makavage always comes to our gatherings with all sorts of hand-crafted treats and I am inspired each time she comes with something new!  One time at the cabin, she brought home made fruit leathers!  Yum... they were SO GOOD!  

With all these strawberries, I thought it was a perfect chance to attempt these sweet, no sugar added treats (with a little, over-the-phone help from Kelly)! ***A note of caution- this process takes two days to complete***

Strawberry-Applesauce

Let me just begin with a little plug- have you heard of Bountiful Baskets Produce Co-op?  If you have not, you should look into it!  For $15 each week my family enjoys all the fruits and veggies we can eat!  Almost every week I end up with a few apples, oranges or a pineapple left from the week before.  These build up over time, and then I decide I better do something with them. The Strawberry Applesauce is the first step to our end result and an awesome by-product!
I took 4 green apples from my surplus, peeled and cored them.  Cut them into slices and put them in my crock pot.

Oh, I forgot to mention while I was working with the apples I was soaking my strawberries (4 clam shells)- check out how much dirt comes of them!!! I highly recommend soaking your strawberries in cool water for a few minutes before eating. I don't think that just rinsing has the same affect.
After I soaked my strawberries I cut the tops off, cut them in half and tossed them into my crock pot on top of the apples.

All those strawberry tops have a TON of nutrients, and you've already made sure they are clean.  DON'T THROW THEM AWAY!!! Put them in a freezer zip lock and freeze to put in smoothies when you are out of your fresh greens!  I promise you won't taste anything but strawberry!

Now, you are ready to hurry up and wait.  Turn your crock pot on low and let it do its thing for the rest of the day (8-12 hours).  Every few hours take a potato masher and squish everything around a bit.  It will help the fruit break down.  Once you notice the consistency of applesauce, it's DONE!

Strawberry Applesauce Uses:

-Eat is as is (Madisyn LOVES IT!)

-Mix with plain Greek Yogurt for a little treat

-Use as a replacement for oil or butter in most baking recipes (this goes for all applesauce- but strawberry will just make it yummier!)
-Mix with your steel cut oats for a yum-o breakfast!

It freezes well- but feel free to keep it in the fridge for up to a week.

Strawberry Apple Fruit Leather

I let my sauce chill in the fridge overnight.  The next morning, I turned my oven on to 170 (the lowest my oven would go- if your's goes lower set it around 140).  Then I lined a cookie sheet (with sides) with Saran Wrap.  Seems like it would melt in the oven right?  Well, the heat is low enough that its fine.
Use a ladle and spoon a few ladle fulls of sauce into the pan and spread evenly over the surface.  You want it to  be about 1/4 inch thick in every spot.  If the sauce is different thicknesses in places it will not dehydrate evenly, so please pay close attention.

Now we wait, AGAIN... for up to 12 hours.  It depends on the air circulation and temperature in your oven.  I checked mine every hour or so and you can see the progress.

After 4 hours you can see that the corners are starting to look a lot like fruit leather!

After 6 hours mine was done!  The edges were dehydrated a bit more than the center- but all the liquid is gone!  

I pulled the baking sheet out of the oven.  I lifted the Saran Wrap out of the cookie sheet and let it cool on my cutting board for about half an hour.  Next, I used a pizza cutter and rolled through both the leather and the plastic to create strips.  Roll up the strips and you have a home made fruit roll up!

You can store the fruit leather in a zip lock bag or a mason jar with a lid for up to a month!


ENJOY!

Have a great rest of your week!

Linked up with:

Rain on a Tin Roof

Recap- Easter Decor

I hope you all were able to spend time with friends and family this Easter.  My little family had a fabulous weekend, busy- but so fulfilling.

I know that Easter is over now, but I still need to share with you the decor from my Easter Pinterest Party!!! Love something you see?  Pin it, and then you will have ideas for next Spring!

Here are the lovely ladies from my gathering, and some of the decor we made!

Here is the Pinterest board that we all worked off of.  And below that are after photos of each of the items that I made!  

 The 2x4 Block Sign is double sided- a great idea by Dani Jo- it says "Spring" on one side so you can display it even after the Hippity Hopping is done for the year!

And finally, my addition- which was my Fabric Swatch Easter Egg Specimen Art (You Can Click on the photo to get the tutorial):

Like I said, Pin them to your Easter Board so you have some fun items to look forward to crafting next year!

Have a great Monday evening!

Easter Pinterest Party Decor Post Delay...

I Apologize

This weekend has already been so fulfilling and we still have one day left!  I promised a 3 part (3 consecutive day) blog post on my Easter Pinterest Party--- My decor post is delayed... a few days.  But, for very good reason.  

Family Time

Our little family does not have much time together usually.  My husband took Friday, Saturday (he normally does have Sundays off) and Monday off this Easter Weekend!  We headed up north on Friday midday to stay overnight at my Uncle Scott's house in the Countryside of Bellingham.  It's SO BEAUTIFUL and peaceful there, I feel refreshed.  Even after hosting my best friend Toni's Jelly Bean Themed Co-Ed Baby shower, AND driving home tonight- putting my Easter Breakfast meal together, being Easter Bunny and doing Madisyn's Basket and Stuffing Eggs with my Hubby and writing this quick post.  

The Jelly Bean Baby Shower was fabulous and I cannot wait to share!

Thank you for being understanding that my decor post is delayed- I am planning to close your Easter Evening with some little lovelies tomorrow!  

I hope you have a Peaceful Easter with family and friends!

& Toni

A VERY Easy Sweet Treat

I enjoy baking- but the fact of the matter is, I AM TERRIBLE AT IT.  I don't like to measure- and that never seems to work out in my favor when it comes to baking.  The one thing I do make on a regular basis is bananna bread- it seems that is pretty hard to mess up, because mine almost always comes out yummy, and I always try new recipes.

For my Easter Pinterest Party I wanted to make a sweet something- and I wanted to to be pretty.  Since I made the Sparkling Lemonade, I thought it would be fun to come up with a treat that was also Strawberry/Lemon.  So I started searching for some pins, and came up with this:

Source: gourmetrooster.blogspot.com viaTracie on Pinterest

My mom had given me some personal sized gram-cracker crust tins, so this was perfect!
I followed the directions on the side of the Jello Lemon Pudding box and poured the liquid pudding into each individual pie crust.  Before the pudding was to set, I chopped up some strawberries into little squares and sprinkled them in the middle of the pies.  Refrigerated for 3 hours and then garnished with Mint!  

So easy, and so YUMMY!

They looked beautiful on my Easter Party Table and tasted great with the Strawberry Lemonade!

Until tomorrow when I share with you our Easter Decor Crafts!

Crisp Sparkling Lemonade, A Simple Sweet Treat and More!

My Easter Pinterest Party was this last Saturday (rescheduled from a month earlier because everyone's schedules are getting so busy these days!).  It was a small group, but as always, a BLAST!  We had some great snacks and came away with 4 adorable pieces of Easter Decor!

This will be a 3 part post- 

Today: 

I want to share with you a Sparkling Lemonade Recipe I concocted that turned out DELISH!

Tomorrow:

A really quick and easy Sweet Treat (If you didn't know already, I DON'T BAKE VERY WELL(Or at all, really)).

Friday:

And of course, I can't help but show off our Super Cute Crafts!  All in time for your Easter Celebration!

Crisp Sparkling Lemonade

If you have never made lemonade with Real Lemon Juice Concentrate- you need to try it, SO fresh tasting!  

The Recipe

• 2 Cups Real Lemon Juice
• 1.5 Cups Sugar
• 2L Chilled Club Soda
• 6 Fresh Strawberries (Pur`eed to a sauce)
• Ice Cubes

Simple right?!

1. Mix the 1.5 Cup Sugar with the 2 Cups Real Lemon Juice- stir until you can't feel any gritty sugar left on the bottom of the container.  At least 2 minutes.
   
   
2. Pour in the chilled 2L of club soda.
   

To Assemble:

1. Put ice cubes in the bottom of a glass.
2. Pour 2 spoons full of Strawberry Pure' over the ice.
   
3. Fill Cup with Lemonade.
4. ENJOY!
   

See you tomorrow!

Linked Up At:

THE 36th Ave

Quick Pillow Slip Cover- A Borrowed Tutorial

Good Afternoon Friends!
I found a little time (little is all it took) during Nap Time today to FINALLY redo our couch pillows.
The ones I had previously were just too large, and the fabric had gotten really yucky from one now 18 month old spit-upper. It was time for an upgrade!

When I purchased my fabric for my dining room chairs I made sure I would have enough left-overs to do pillows to match.  (Haven't seen my dining room chair makeover?!  You can find it here!)  I love the idea of tying together my living room and dining room through fabric!

The tutorial I used was by Make It and Love It.  You can find it here!  I am excited about the benefit of this being a slip-cover so I can take them off and wash them if I need to!  I hope to get more life out of these pillows than the ones I had before!

What do you think?!  The cheery fabric adds a lot to the room!  I think it makes our family photos on the wall pop too!

 I took some close-up's so you could see how the slip cover works- its two pieces of fabric that overlap like an envelope!

My husband and I do a lot of lounging on the couch in the evenings, so it was important to me that these pillows be comfy to use, and look cute.  I purchased the pillow forms from IKEA.  They are filled with real down and were only $14 each, I think?

I am craving a little fun and funky accent, however- and I do have some smaller pillow forms I am not using- I think I'll have to experiment with some burlap lace during a nap time, sometime soon!

Have a great afternoon!

Embellishment Easter Egg Applique' Toddler Shirt Tutorial

Hi All-  It's feeling strange to me that Easter is less than two weeks away.  Is St. Patrick's Day always this close to Easter?  Maybe its just me?!

Madisyn's Photo-Shoot

Anyway- Madisyn had a mini session photo-shoot with the lovely Miss Lindsay of Lindsay Porter Photography this past Saturday.  It was held at Fox Hollow Farms in Issaquah.  "You have not heard of Fox Hollow Farms", you say?!  Well, Oh My Gosh you need to go!  I especially LOVED going this time of year because there were baby animals of ALL KINDS!  Never-mind that it was FREEZING and drizzling just enough to be annoying,  Madisyn really could care less- the music and the "Neighs" were enough of a distraction from the cold that she didn't notice she was cold- and enough of a distraction that it was difficult to get her to stay in one spot long enough for a photo of HER, by herself.  Seriously, if you live in the Seattle area- please check it out!

The Project

Seeing as this photo-shoot had the potential to be with real, live, cuddly bunnies and that it was so close to Easter, I thought it would be appropriate for Madisyn to be Easter-y.  I had pinned a Ruffled Easter Egg Shirt last year that I never got around to making and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make something like it for Madisyn!  I altered the design, as I almost always do and took pictures along the way so you can make one too, if you'd like!  This will be a quick and easy tutorial.  Here's my inspiration- Enjoy!

The Tutorial

1.  Create stencils for the Easter Egg Shapes- I actually already had one that was the perfect size from my   Specmine Art Project- I used that one for the largest egg in the middle, and cut another- smaller version out of heavy cardboard for the outer two.  (I always keep these stencils I create- in one of my organizer drawers, because you never know when you'll want to use the same shape again).

2.  I traced my stencils on the paper side of my Wonder Under and cut them out.  I decided I wanted the two outer Eggs to be fabric, so I picked some out and ironed the two smaller eggs on to each fabric and cut around the egg shape.  I laid out my 2 fabric eggs with the large egg that was still just Wonder Under to figure out how I liked them arranged on the shirt and used my iron to adhere the two small eggs.

3.  Next, I used the zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine and sewed around the edges of the two small eggs, pulled the top threads through to the inside of the shirt, tied them off and cut them short.  Then, I ironed the large egg in the middle (slightly overlapping) the other two.

4.  Once the fabric cooled, I carefully peeled off the paper egg, leaving behind just the Wonder Under.  Using my "embellishment stash", and some pretty ribbon  I then started to lay out strands across the egg in a pattern that was pleasing to the eye.  I cut each strand with the edges contoured to the edge of the egg, as best as I could.  I would lay out about an inch wide section and then carefully iron over the strands to secure them.  (Be very careful to not touch your iron to the wonder under- it makes a sticky mess).

5.  Once my egg was created with my embellishments and ribbon, I used a plain stitch on my sewing machine and went around the outside to secure the edges and finish it off.  

It looks cute there, but it wasn't quite complete- to finish it off- I securely sewed on boutique bows at the top  of each egg.  They were exactly the finishing touch the shirt needed!  What do you think?!