Simply Rurban

Oh, So Decadent Fudge!

Posted on December 7, 2012 by simply0637

I love fudge – so sweet and so decadent, but so full of sugar… Every once in awhile when we are traveling you come along the infamous fudge store and no matter how hard I try I usually succumb to the sample, which then in turn leads to a purchase. I remember the first time that Stella tried fudge – we were in the Adirondacks of NY on a mining outing – she fell in love instantly! The funny thing about fudge, at least for Stella and me, is the fact that you cannot eat too much of it at one time, but don’t get me wrong the little nibbles here and there – quickly add up!!

I am a big baker and during the holiday season I bake a lot of goodies and then give them to neighbors, teachers, etc as gifts of Thank You! Fudge used to be something I made every year, but I stopped several years ago – the reason – too much sugar and too much junk in it. Recently I was sent a new fudge recipe and looking at the ingredients I decided I would give it a try!!

Coconut Oil Fudge Recipe with Nuts and Fruit

Ingredients

2 cups coconut oil, softened
3/4 cup finely chopped nuts (I used raw, organic almonds)
1 cup organic cocoa powder
7 Tbl maple syrup or honey
1/4 cup chopped dried organic cherries ( I used the ones we dried ourselves this summer)
1/4 cup chopped dried organic cranberries or dried, unsweetened coconut (I used coconut)

1. In a bowl of a standing mixer (or a hand held) stir coconut oil until creamy with no lumps. If too hard set in the bowl in warm water for a few minutes.You do not want it liquid or too soft, if this happens the other ingredients with fall to the bottom.

2. Add the cocoa powder and mix well.

3. Add the maple syrup or honey and mix well.

4. Mix in the dried fruit, nuts, coconut – by hand.

5. Spread fudge into 7″x11″ or 9″x9″ inch pan and refrigerate or freeze until firm.

6. Cut into squares and serve. Keep refrigerated. Servings: 25

This fudge is so creamy, but it is a little different than what you get at the fudge store. Stella thought it was very yummy!

Posted in Dessert, Recipes | Tagged coconut oil, fudge, recipe | 3 Comments

Banana Bread The Nourishing Traditions Way

Posted on December 6, 2012 by simply0637

We go through a lot of bananas in our house, but last week for some reason we did not go through as many as I bought. So as the fruit gnats started swarming I had to do something with the bananas. I figured I would just do the old fall back banana bread recipe, but then thought “I think I will try something a little different, but what?” I turned to the recipe index of one of my top cookbooks, Nourishing Traditions and on page 483 there was a banana bread recipe and I had all the ingredients! I did make 2 changes from the recipe in the cookbook, but they are not big ones – I added one more banana because I had 3 that were very ripe and instead of crispy pecans I did some dark chocolate chips!

Nourishing Traditions Banana Bread

Ingredients

3 cups spelt, kamut or wheat flour (freshly ground if you have a mill – I wish I did)
2 cups buttermilk, kefir, or yogurt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 – 1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup melted butter
3 ripe bananas, mashed
Handful dark chocolate chips

1. Mix the flour and buttermilk, kefir or yogurt in a glass bowl, cover with a cloth and let sit 12 – 24 hours – the longer you soak the more it will rise. If you are milk intolerant you can use 2 cups filtered water plus 2 tablespoons whey, lemon juice or vinegar instead of the buttermilk, kefir or yogurt.

Mixed together

After 24 hours of soaking

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

3. Grease a loaf pan with butter and dust with flour.

4. Add the eggs and butter and mix well. You will have to use your arm muscles for this one. The soaked flour is more like a dough at this point. You could also put into into a Kitchen Aide mixer and use a dough paddle.

5. Add the salt, syrup, baking soda, bananas and chocolate chips – mix very well.

6. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 1 – 1 1/2 hours. Check after 1 hour – mine was done. You want a toothpick to come out clean.

7. Take out of the oven and cool slightly on a rack in pan – then take out of pan and allow to cool completely.

Wonderful!

Posted in Bread, Recipes | Tagged banana, bread, recipe | 2 Comments

Kids Craft Corner – Santa Mobile

Posted on December 5, 2012 by simply0637

When I was in first grade, my teacher Mrs. Bartel was wonderful and good with crafts. Do you remember when you were in school and there was always a craft project around the holidays? We would make Christmas presents, Mother’s day presents, Father’s day presents – the schools don’t really do that anymore – at least not that much here. Really, I would love to get a rock paper weight. Well around Christmas time we were given color paper with pieces xeroxed on them for us to cut out. Once we were done cutting out and gluing we had a wonderful Santa Claus mobile. This mobile hung in our house every Christmas and then one year my mother took it part and made another one out of felt – a little more durable – but I have to say that I have the original and almost 40 years later it has held up pretty good!

Santa Claus Mobile

Items Needed

Red felt
White Felt
Scissors
String
Glue
Template
Cotton balls (optional)

1. Using the template, cut our your pieces. (The templates are printed on 8×11 paper).

2. Using the cut out pieces, trace onto the appropriate color felt. You will need to cut 2 of each piece.

3. Layout your mobile and cut 4 pieces of string – 2 for the eyes and eye brows, 1 to attach the nose and beard to the hat and then one piece to attach to the top of the hat to hang by.

4. Using white glue, glue the pieces together with the string in the middle of the pieces where needed.

5. If you so choose, you can use 2 cotton balls for the tip of Santa’s hat. Sometimes I also fill the white trim of the hat with cotton too – adds a nice touch.

6. Hang and enjoy. The mobile makes a great gift that the kids can make on their own!

Posted in Kids Crafts | Tagged christmas, kdis craft, santa mobile | 2 Comments

Change A Sweater Into A Stocking!

Posted on December 4, 2012 by simply0637

I can’t believe that it is December!! I am not as far as I wanted or needed to be on my holiday gift making and as I was looking at the calendar I became a little anxious!!! Just like last year – I thought I would be way ahead of the game and have the weeks leading up to Christmas as ones to leisurely make cookies, etc – but just like every other year I am wondering if I am going to finish all the gifts in time or am I going to have to buy a few? I hope not!

Felted Sweater Stocking

Items Needed

Wool sweater
Wool roving
Felting needle
Felting pad
Fabric for liner
Matching color thread
Stocking Pattern (you can find one on the web or I use Butterick pattern 5783)

1. When I am at yard sales, goodwill ,etc I always keep an eye out for old wool sweaters. I found this one at the church bazaar. You will need to felt the sweater. Place the sweater in a pillow case and tie a knot to close. Toss in the washing machine with a pair of jeans and a little bit of soap. Turn the setting to the longest cycle, smallest load size and fill with hot water. Once it is done washing, take it out of the pillow case and put the sweater, jeans and pillow case in the dryer – there will be A LOT of lint. I had to do the sweater through 2 washes and 2 dry cycles to get it to the felting condition I wanted – but you also want to make sure you do not make it too small that you can not a make the item that you want.

Before Washing

After Washing

2. Lay the stocking pattern on the felted sweater and cut out 2 stockings.

3. Get out your felting items and roving and start needle felting. I chose to felt the heel and toe and then to put a couple of Christmas items on the stocking. I used stencils and cookie cutters to make my shapes. For the top of the stocking I used natural wool roving and barely felted it on – I wanted it to have a “furry” look to it.

4. To use a cookie cutter – place where you want on the stocking and fill with wool roving – there more you put in the thicker the design. Taking your felting needle – start poking all the way around making sure the really get the edges. Once the design is secure and the edges are felted well – remove the cookie cutter. Using your felting needle felt the design more, really cleaning up the edges.

5. I decided to just line the front of the stocking since I only felted that one piece. I used a lighter purple fleece fabric and cut 1 stocking piece.

6. Place the lining on the wrong side of the front of stocking, folding over the upper edge. Either by hand our using a sewing machine sew the lining to the wrong side of the front stocking piece.

7. Cut a strip from either the felted sweater or the lining – approximately 4″ x 1/2″.

8. Place the back felted sweater stocking piece right sides up and in the corner you want to hang the stocking from – loop the strip and place edges in the corner.

9. Place the front stocking pieced on top of the back piece and loop – right sides together and the lining piece on the wrong side of the front piece – pin together. Again, either by hand or using a sewing machine sew the seams – leaving the top open. Trim the seams and turn right side out.

10. Hang it on the mantel or wherever you hang your stocking.

Posted in Crafts, Felting, Recycled, Repurposed | Tagged christmas, felting, recycle crafts, stockings | 4 Comments

Quinoa Stuffed Butternut Squash

Posted on December 3, 2012 by simply0637

Thanks goes out again to my friend Gail, who has started doing some guest blogs for me. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it and she always come up with good posts!

When my daughter (a new mother who rarely eats meat), one of her high school friends (who is expecting twins), and her friend’s mother (who is also a dear friend of mine and has a gluten allergy) came for lunch the day before Thanksgiving, the question became, What Should the Menu Be? My husband, of course, suggested that we go out to eat, but I knew that scheduling something with an infant in the mix had the potential to be stressful.

The result…with the help of my trusty iPad…a yummy butternut squash with quinoa! I surveyed many recipes on line, and finally decided just to use the ingredients I had on hand and keep my fingers crossed.

Quinoa, the current rage of food enthusiasts, served as the stuffing, along with sautéed kale, mushrooms, garlic, and onions (which I rinsed with water to reduce the strong flavor). A few spices added some culinary sparkle and the quinoa mixture was ready to join the butternut squash.

Quinoa Stuffed Butternut Squash

Ingredients

1 bunch of Kale
1 onion
3 gloves garlic, minced
Spices
1 – 2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 cups cooked quinoa
Butternut squash (1/2 per person)
Olive oil

1. Prepare the squash by first cutting in half and then de-seeding, brush the squash with olive oil and then place face down on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes to 1 hour – needs to be fork tender.

2. Cook the quinoa according to directions.

3. Wash and cut the kale, mushrooms and onion. After cutting the onion, rinse in cold water to reduce the strong flavor.

4. Saute the vegetables in a pan, adding the minced garlic and spices of your choice.

5. Add the quinoa to the vegetables and mix well.

6. I placed the cooked quinoa mixture into the squash cavity, added a salad and some green beans and lunch was ready! And a hit it was!

(As a variation, my husband suggested melting some cheese on top of the quinoa…. Not a bad idea, but it was delicious without it also.)

Posted in Dinner, Recipes | Tagged butternut squash, dinner, kale, quinoa | 1 Comment

Another Little One Another Quilt

Posted on November 30, 2012 by simply0637

Soon we will have another little one in the family and as is tradition on my part another quilt is being made. I wanted to use the many scraps of fabric that I have in my fabric bins, but was not sure what pattern I would use. I started looking through my quilt books and found a lovely pattern called Father’s Day. This was the perfect pattern – it would use my scrap fabric and the cut pieces that I had from Stella’s quilt. When I cut the quilt for Stella last year – I was not able to piece the quilt together as done in the pattern and had to find another way to make it, but I still had all the muslin squares and very much wanted to use them!

This is a partial How-To, since I am going to wait for the birth to finish up the quilt – choosing a color for the sashes and the backing according to the sex.

Baby Quilt (Father’s Day pattern – designed by Judy Martin)

Block Pattern

When finished the quilt will be approximately 32″ x 52″, with each block being 9″x9″ and the sashes being 1 1/2″

Items Needed

Scrap materials for square pieces ( or if using one color about 1 yard)
1 yard muslin
1/4 yard solid material (used for squares as part of piecing the quilt together)
2 yards material for backing and sashing
Organic cotton batting (they sell in different size, even baby quilt size)

1. Make templates:

2 1/2 x 2 1/2 square
2 1/2 x 4 1/2 rectangle
2″ x 9″ rectangle
2″ x 2″ square

2. Cut out fabric. For each block (I will be making 15) you will need the following:

(13) 2 1/2″ squares of muslin of which 4 will be cut on the diagonal to make 8 triangles
(4) 2 1/2′ x 4 1/2″ rectangles of scrap material
(4) 2 1/2″ squares of scrap material cut on the diagonal to make 8 triangles

4. For each square sew a muslin triangle together with a scrap material triangle along the long side. Iron seams and trim corners.

5. Take one triangle square and sew together with a muslin square, following pattern.Press seams and trim.

6. Sew the triangle/squares pieces together – making sure to follow pattern and line up seams. Press seams and trim if necessary.

7. Sew the scrap material rectangles to a muslin square. Press seams.

8. Sew the triangle squares to the scrap material rectangle – press seams and trim if necessary.

9. Sew the three sections together, making sure to follow pattern and line up seams. Press seams and trim up. Set aside.

10. Continue steps 4 – 9 until all your blocks are completed.

The baby is due the beginning of December – so now it is just wait for the news!

Quilts using the pattern

Posted in Crafts, Quilting | Tagged baby quilt, crafts, quilting | 2 Comments

Kids Craft Corner – Make A Paper Decoupage Christmas Tree

Posted on November 29, 2012 by simply0637

I love the fact that Stella likes to do crafts with me and that this year she has been busy making presents for her friends and relatives. She truly is growing up and wanting to “give” to others and the best part is that she is using her creativity! This past weekend we made wonderful paper decoupage Christmas trees and Stella wants to make more! They are fun, easy, festive and won’t break the bank. We put a holiday CD on and went to crafting.

Paper Decoupage Christmas Trees

Items Needed

Holiday paper
Scissors or circular lever punch
Cardboard tree
Decoupage glue
Paint brush
Newspaper

A couple of notes: For the paper you could use old holiday cards, wrapping paper or scrap book paper. At the local craft store they were having a sale on the small books of holiday scrap booking paper and I was able to pick up 2 books for around $5. I did invest in a circular lever punch (used in scrap booking) – it saved on time with the cutting of the circles, was on sale and I know that we will get our $7 worth out of it in no time.

1. Cut out circles – depending on the size of your tree will determine how many you need. We cut out many and have some leftover – but they will be used.

I love the expression! It really was not that hard to press to cut the circles.

2. Place newspaper down on your work area, fill a cup with glue and start gluing. I found that cutting a straight edge on the circles made it easier to do the bottom – Stella just glued them under the bottom edge – either works.

3. Place the glue on the back of the circle – place on the tree and then brush glue over the top of the circle. Keep doing this with circles until you have covered the entire tree.

4. Once the tree is completely covered – do one final coating of the decoupage glue over the entire tree.

This was really fun and they look great on our table. Stella is going to make another one and give them as presents to her teachers. We have some mardi gras beads and still have not decided on whether or not be will decorate the tree some more with them – If so will post a photo. Happy gift making!!

Posted in Kids Crafts | Tagged christmas, christmas tree, holiday craft, kids craft | 2 Comments

Root Vegetable Season – Beet Soup

Posted on November 28, 2012 by simply0637

I remember the first time that I ate beets – it was at my grandmother’s house and I was in my 30’s. Back then beets looked dirty and frankly, disgusting to me. I had come to my grandmother’s for a visit and for her to meet Stella and at the time my stepson Christopher – none of us had ever eaten beets. My grandmother was not one that you really argued with when it came to what was on your plate – I can still hear her saying “don’t you want to belong to the clean plate club?” She steamed the beets and added some butter and salt – we all loved them and I have been eating beets ever since, pretty much the same way. When I came across this recipe while looking for another one – I knew that I had to make it. With the beets looking lovely at the farmer’s market – it was the perfect time to do it. My grandmother is no longer with us – but as I was skimming the soup – visions of her came flooding into my brain. I so remember her making soup and standing at the stove skimming away!

Beets are a very nutritious root vegetable and belong to the same family as Swiss Chard. They are low in saturated fat and cholesterol, a good source of fiber, vitamin C (tops more than the tubers), magnesium, potassium, folate and manganese. If you want to know more about the nutrient content of beets and then some, check this out http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/beets.html

Beet Soup (from Nourishing Traditions cook book)

Ingredients

6 medium beets
4 Tbl butter
1 quart (4 cups) filtered water
Sea salt and pepper or fish sauce
2 Tbl finely chopped chives
Piima cream or creme fraiche

1. Peel the beets and then coarsely chop.

2. Melt the butter in a medium size stock pot.

3. Add the beets to the butter and saute very gently for about 30 minutes or until tender.

Start

After 30 minutes

4. Add the water and bring to a boil – skimming the top.

5. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 15 minutes.

6. Let the soup cool slightly and then puree using an immersion blender or regular blender.

7. Season to taste and serve with the cream and chives. The store was out of chives so I used green onion (delicious) and I am on a freshly grated Parmesan kick so I added that instead of the cream.

The color of the soup was divine and the taste wonderful. Stella loved it so much she licked her bowl clean and asked for a second helping!

Posted in Recipes, Soup | Tagged beets, root vegetables, soup | 5 Comments

I Love Ponchos

Posted on November 27, 2012 by simply0637

I knitted a poncho for myself last year and just love it! I think the poncho is the best in-between season apparel. This year for Christmas I decided to make a couple of girl ponchos – one for Stella (per a request) and one for my niece. There are so many patterns out there, but since these are for children – I decided to do simple ones – since realistically they may be worn for 2 years tops. I tend to collect yarn – I see some on sale and I buy it, see some that I like – I buy it, see some that may be good for a future project not yet decided – I buy it!! Needless to say I have a great selection of yarns in the house. This pattern I knew I needed two skeins so to the treasure chest of yarns I went and found 2 skeins in purple, of course, that were a washable blend.

Child Knitted Poncho

Items Needed

2 skeins of yarn
Size 8 circular needles
Counter
Darning needle

Gauge: 15 stitches and 22 rows = 4″

I made the poncho in the 2/4 year size, which is bolded, but this can be made in 12 mos, 18 mos and 6/8 years.

12 mos = 18″ chest measurement, 11 1/2″ finished length (neck to point) 1 skein yarn
18 mos = 19″ chest measurement, 13″ finished length (neck to point) 2 skein yarn
2/4 years = 23″ chest measurement, 15 1/2″ finished length (neck to point) 2 skein yarn
6/8 years = 26 1/2″ chest measurement, 17 1/2″ finished length (neck to point) 3 skein yarn

Sl1 = slip 1 stitch from the left needle to the right needle as you would to knit
PSSO = pass the slipped stitch over the knitted stitch, decrease by 1
K2tog = Knit two stitches together

Make 2 pieces alike.

Cast on 65 (73, 85, 97)

Rows 1 – 3: K1, *P1, K1 – repeat from * to end of row

Row 4: (Right side) K2, K2tog, Knit to last 4 stitches, Sl1, K1, PSSO, K2
Row 5: Purl
Row 6: Knit
Row 7: Purl

Repeat rows 4 – 7, ten more times. (43, 51, 63, 75 stitches) – I use a counter to keep track of repeated rows.

Next Row: (right side) K2, K2tog, knit to last 4 stitches, Sl1, K1, PSSO, K2
Next Row: Purl
Repeat these two rows 5 (9, 14, 19) more times. You will have 31 (31, 33, 35) stitches left.

Cast off knitwise

Finishing: Sew center Front and center Back seams together. Weave in all ends.

You can also put fringe on the finished poncho. Since this is a smaller size than Stella, I could not use her as my model – so I found a large stuffie!

Posted in Crafts, Knitting | Tagged child, knitting, pattern, poncho | 3 Comments

The Holiday Season Has Started

Posted on November 26, 2012 by simply0637

I hope you all had a joyous Thanksgiving Day and weekend. Some of my family came to the NYC area for the holiday and Stella and I went into the city for a couple of days. The days were packed with activities – with some things be firsts for us.

On Wednesday we were fortunate to catch a ride into the city with our neighbor. We always take the train and when I told Stella that we were going to drive in – she said I didn’t know you could drive to the city! We got to the hotel, hugs all around and then out we went. Stella has been saving for an America Girl doll – first stop – the American Girl Doll store. Stella’s new doll is Kaya, an American Indian girl from 1764 and from the Nez Perse tribe. We then headed to see the blowing up of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade balloons. We did this a couple of years ago – unplanned – we had gone to the Museum of Natural History and afterwards were going to sit on the benches outside and enjoy our lunch, but when we walked around the side of the museum we saw all the balloons – really cool. As we were walking along and checking out all the balloons – we came upon a pay phone, Stella and her cousin ran over to it and pretended to make calls. I asked them if they knew what it was – Stella told me that it was a type of phone that you had to put money into and then you could call someone. Oh, how things are changing.

Thanksgiving day we were up early and out the door to line up to see the parade. We arrived at our spot at 7:30 – with the parade starting at 9am. If you are going to go – I would recommend bringing chairs, foot warmers, breakfast, hats, gloves and games to occupy the waiting time. We could not leave our spot to go and get something to eat or to use the bathroom. The girls watched part of a movie and then we all played Apples to Apples to pass the time. I am one to always have snacks on me when we are out and about – so we did have a few things to nibble on – hard boiled eggs, apples and pistachio nuts. Then it was time – the parade began! We watched it for almost 2 hours and then left, to beat the crowds but to also get warm and use the bathroom. We made it back to the hotel in time to watch the last of parade! I am really glad that we did this and can now check it off our list.

The Thanksgiving meal was spent with more family. Football was watched, games were played and conversations were had to get to know each other and to catch up.

Friday morning it was off to see the Rockettes. The really great thing about this Christmas Spectacular was that we had 3 people who had never been to Radio City Music Hall and had never seen the Rockettes. After the show it was off to have a wonderful lunch at Docs. After lunch everyone went their separate ways. Stella and I headed uptown to the Museum of Natural History to see the Cultural Kitchen exhibit. If you are in the NYC area I highly recommend checking the exhibit out. Well done.

Saturday was a day to relax, unpack and do some chores – because Sunday was another day filled with things to do.

On Sunday we headed over to Sunnyside, Washington Irving’s homestead. Usually Sunnyside is closed this time of year, but they were doing a special weekend tour. The house was all set up as it would have been during the holiday season in the 1850’s. Photos are not allowed inside the house. I always love going through the historical sites in the area and seeing how they used to live. It was a lot of hard work, but also with no electronics, etc, time was spent with friends and family partaking in music, dance, reading, conversation and games – lovely.

After Sunnyside it was over the Hudson and to the mall for a birthday party. I am not a shopper and if one ever wanted to torture me they could drop me at a mall and leave me. Traffic was bad so there was no going home and back again – so after finding the place in the mall for the party I ventured into the Apple store – hoping to buy the new iPad mini. It always amazes me how crowded the Apple store is – no matter the time. They were sold out of the mini and had been for several weeks. I was told that I could order on line for an in-person pick up and come back to the mall tomorrow to pick it up! I just looked at the sales person and said if I am going to order on-line can’t I just have it delivered to my house – I was told yes and that is what I am going to do.

So now that we are officially in the Holiday season, these next few weeks are going to fly by!

Posted in Life | Tagged Macys, Sunnyside, Thanksgiving Parade | 1 Comment

Oh, So Decadent Fudge!

Banana Bread The Nourishing Traditions Way

Kids Craft Corner – Santa Mobile

Change A Sweater Into A Stocking!

Quinoa Stuffed Butternut Squash

Another Little One Another Quilt

Kids Craft Corner – Make A Paper Decoupage Christmas Tree

Root Vegetable Season – Beet Soup

I Love Ponchos

The Holiday Season Has Started

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