Our dinner table got a makeover!
Many thanks to my sister’s-in-law who crafted these up, in secrecy and presented them to me on my birthday a few weeks ago! What a fabulous gift, placements (reversible) and matching napkins! I think the pattern came from I love patchwork.
They are AWESOME!
We had a nice little party with cake! And some impromptu ninja action!
No ninja is complete without a matching sidekick!
Slow Cooked Sloppy Lentils
I love my lentils and this is by far my most favorite recipe. They can be slopped on bread for a sandwich, or served in a bowl with some cheese as a chili like soup!
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red or white onion (small dice)
1 bell pepper (small dice, any color sweet pepper works)
1 anaheim pepper or jalapeno (small dice)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 & ½ cups dried french green lentils (brown lentils work too) rinsed
One 28 oz can crushed or diced tomatoes
3 cups water
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
fresh ground black pepper
6 buns (we used New Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro buns)
1 tablespoon butter (for toasting buns, optional, and if your feeling wild, grate some aged white cheddar on top too!)
Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan on a stove top over medium heat, then add the onion and peppers, cook until softened or until onions turn transparent (about 5-10 minutes), add the chili powder, stir then turn off the heat.
Get out your crock pot! Add the warm onion mix to the crock pot/slow cooker. Then add your lentils, tomato’s, water, soy sauce, mustard, brown sugar, salt and grind in some pepper (basically everything else), stir all ingredients till well mixed then cover with lid and cook on low heat for 6-8 hours(french green lentils take longer then brown ones). Remember NEVER TAKE THE SLOW COOKER LID OFF!
If you want to make this recipe without the crock pot/slow cooker, just combine ingredients in a large pot on low, stirring every now and then till lentils are cooked through (about an hour or so).
Once the lentils are done, or you are ready to eat, slice the buns, butter and then toast them under your broiler!
Recipe Adapted from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker
The blackberries are ready for picking!
So we picked!
Our small entourage unloaded in Ashland near Bear Creek, and walked down to the valley floor, where the sea of blackberries awaited us!
The end product was 5 quarts of fresh juicy blackberries, full tummies, bright purple hands, very scratched slightly swollen arms and huge smiles!
Later that night and the next morning we turned the blackberries and a little sugar into 6 pints of blackberry Jam, a bag of frozen berries and 5 half pints of blackberry syrup!
Here are some recent crafties I made for our sweet little baby neighbor!
A hooded towel, with kick-ass bias tape! It also has a matching bib.
And a pear bib.
There was much more crafted up and given away, but alas I forgot to take pictures.
I also hand stamped some big sister gifts, my favorite was a bright yellow shirt that was stamped in black typewriter font “I like rainbow soup”. Our little neighbor (now a big sister) spends an occasional Saturday morning hunting colors for her “rainbow soup”, we like to help, but aren’t nearly as good at making rainbow soup as she is. The last time we saw her out making soup, we brought over some pink flowers and were told “thanks, but pink is not in the rainbow”. :)
