Organic Kale & Chicken Sesame Stir-Fry

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This is one of my favorite go-to recipes both for us and for when we've signed up to take dinner to families that I know prefer healthier foods (what is facebook for if it isn't to know the dietary preferences of people we haven't seen in 5 years? kidding...but that does come in handy!). Plus, it's easy to make the amount I need, depending on how many people I'm feeding. 


Organic Kale & Chicken Sesame Stir-Fry (over Quinoa!)
You need:

• Organic Kale (one bunch will feed two adults, if served with something like quinoa, otherwise, one bunch will feed one adult)
• Chicken Breasts (one per adult)
• Grain of choice; I always serve mine over quinoa to pack in some extra protein, but this would be delicious with something like brown rice, too)
• Ground Ginger (optional)
• Soy Sauce (or liquid aminos, a natural soy sauce alternative, if you prefer)
  

1. Start cooking your grain. Once you start the stir-fry, it will go fast!
2. Have your chicken breasts thawed and sliced into strips.
3. The most time-intensive part of this recipe is hand-washing the kale (which is on the Dirty Dozen list I was talking about last week, so buy it organic) and tearing it off of the stalks. Once the kale is clean and torn into bite-size pieces, set it aside on a towel next to the stove.
4. Now that your grain is cooking, your kale is clean and torn into pieces, and your chicken is thawed and sliced, heat a wok on medium-high heat for a few minutes. Once pan is hot, add oil of choice OR vegetable stock (I make my own vegetable stock and freeze it in ice cube trays and throw those into pans to steam-fry, which saves you some calories on oil!).
5. Throw your chicken in the pan, cooking for 3-4 minutes. Add ginger if you're including it. Push chicken to one side of the wok.
6. Add pieces of kale by the handful. Just like spinach, kale cooks down A LOT and you'll never be able to fit one bunch into the wok at a time (let alone three, like I did tonight). Once the first couple of handfuls cook down, push it to the side and add a couple more, continuing until all of the kale is cooked.
7. Take it off of the heat, toss with sesame seeds and soy sauce/liquid aminos and serve over the grain you chose. 

What did I say? Easy, healthy, fast (once everything is prepped) and easy to adapt to however many people you're serving!

Old Door & New Design (Opinions Needed!)

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Hello, friends!
Do you remember The Red Barn Outdoor Market I kept talking about back in April? Well, the Fall edition was last weekend! I got the honor of taking some pictures of the day and you can see all of the photos here.
I also came home with some goodies, one of which being an antique door. I swooned when I saw it, but I nearly died when the vendor told me he was only asking $10. I might have run across the grounds to find my husband, who held our spending money for the day.
He (Cowboy), of course, was great and also hauled it home for me. 
So here she leans against my dining room wall and I want to know: what would you do to her? 

1. Paint her up and distress her down.
2. Ehh...maybe not so harsh...a whitewash at the most.
3. Leave her just like she is, beautiful and simple.
4. None of the above, I would ______________ (fill in the blank).

 In all seriousness, it was the hardware that stole my heart.


On another note, she currently showcases an ampersand poster that I designed and printed. Because, well, I love ampersands as much as my sister loves anchors.


And it's hanging from a vintage hanger that I scored a few months back at another local vintage shop.

It's the little things that make this home a place that I love and a place that is me.


So, go on...tell me what you'd do to that door!

Cowboy's Backyard Movie Birthday

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Back in May, I saw an article full of fun ideas for summer. One idea was renting a projector for the weekend and watching a movie in your backyard. Knowing Cowboy's love of the outdoors, of John Wayne and of going to the drive-in, I thought, "Perfect! That's what I'll do for his birthday party."


I kept it a secret until a few weeks before his birthday, whereas I had long before realized how expensive it is to rent a projector and screen for the weekend. (Like several hundred dollars, which was definitely not in my price range. And further, why wouldn't you just invest your money and buy one? It would pay for itself in just a few uses...) After doing some research, I realized that I could buy a fairly inexpensive projector (and I knew I could find a way to rig up a white sheet for a screen), but I couldn't spend $100 (or more) without first bringing my husband into the decision. After thinking on this, I realized that my dad probably owned one for the seminars he gives every few months for his business. Bingo! Dad had one (top of the line...and a screen, too!) and he agreed to let us borrow it for the night!


So, since that part was figured out, I stocked up on bags of popcorn, boxes of candy, drinks, and moved the microwave to a table in the back yard.



On another table, I had stacked blankets for people to sit on in case they hadn't brought a chair (which had been suggested as we only have six outdoor chairs). Over that area, which people first met as they entered the back yard, we hung outdoor lights so that people could retrieve snacks and get around once it was dark. (Sidenote: am I the only person who goes completely ga-ga over outdoor night lighting? Those strings of bulbs make me practically giddy.)


And it all turned out exactly like I had envisioned (except that the Olympic opening ceremony happened to be on the same night, meaning we missed the last half and that a few people felt torn between the two events and ended up staying inside of our house for the first half of the movie. Oops!)

Happy birthday to the love of my life, my best friend, the excitement in my mundane, the other half I never knew I was missing. Life and our few months of marriage together has been 10 times more incredible and 100 times different than I ever expected it to be! Thank you for putting up with my craziness, my determination and my need to "know" things in advance. You love me fiercely and exactly how I need to be loved and I can never thank you enough for that!

How to: Make Greek Yogurt

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I've been making my own greek yogurt for almost a year now. I make a new batch every week, so I always have it on hand for breakfast (with homemade granola, yum!) or can use it as a base for dips, sauces, soups, smoothies, etc. I love having it...especially since I know it's as pure as the milk I use and it only costs as much as a half-gallon of milk. I've had a myriad of friends and family ask me how it's done, so after sharing it via e-mails and facebook messages, I decided I should just post it here and share it with all! 
You'll need:

• 8-cup glass bowl (Pyrex makes an 8-cup batter bowl with a lid--it works perfectly for this if you have one)
• 8 cups (half-gallon) of milk of your choice (I prefer 2% because it doesn't taste sour and is creamier, but you can do skim milk and you end up with 0% fat yogurt)
• kitchen thermometer that goes up to at least 180 degrees
• fine-mesh metal strainer (the bigger the weave of your strainer, the more milk solids will slip through, which you don't want)
• 1 Tbs. of plain yogurt (store-bought or you can use some from your last batch, once you get started, if it's less than a week old)

Start by pouring the milk into your glass bowl. It's not necessary to cover it, but I place the lid over the bowl (I don't push it down and seal it) so that it heats up faster. (You can heat your milk over the stove, but you have to continually stir it, so I just like to put mine in the microwave and leave it.) Regardless of how you heat your milk, heat it to 180 degrees. This takes 13 minutes in my microwave, but microwaves can vary a lot, so you'll have to check yours every couple of minutes the first time to make sure you're not over-heating it...then, once you know, you know. You are denaturing the proteins in the milk, which opens them up to grow live cultures later in the process. 

Once it reaches 180, let it cool back down on your counter to 110-120 degrees. 

*Note: while your milk is cooling, it will likely develop a "skin" on the surface. Don't mix this in or else you'll have small pieces of it in your yogurt. Rather, just pull it to the side and scoop it off with a a spoon.

Stir in your Tbs. of yogurt--this is your live culture starter, so if the temp is above 120 degrees, you will effectively kill the culture and have to start all over. 

Now, you need to incubate it for 12-14 hours. I've done this in both the crock pot and in the oven and the oven works best for me. You need to keep it around 100-110 degrees the whole time, so that the bacteria can grow. Some ovens can be set as low as 100, mine cannot, so I place the lid back on my bowl, wrap it in a towel (not pictured), turn the oven on for 60 seconds to take the chill off, turn it off, turn the oven light on, place my bowl right in front of the oven light and close the oven for 12-14 hours. The light should keep it warm enough. (I always start my yogurt the day before and then it can just hang out overnight, so I don't run the risk of needing my oven for something.)

Once it's done incubating, it will be like one gelatinous solid (there will probably be some clear-yellowish liquid hanging out on top--that's whey). If you just want yogurt, stop now--you have yogurt. If you want greek yogurt, proceed to strain off the whey, which is what makes greek yogurt so thick. 
Place your strainer inside of a bowl if you want to keep the whey (you can use it to make ricotta or, my favorite use, I substitute it for water in my whole-wheat bread recipes and it keeps the bread from becoming too dense!), otherwise just place it in the sink and pour your yogurt in. Try not to let it splash into the strainer, but pour it gently. Let it strain for an hour. 

Once it's done straining, pour the yogurt into a bowl, letting it "fall" out of the strainer on its own...if you use a spatula to scrape it off, you will essentially scrape some of it through the strainer. 

(I pour my whey into a mason jar and refrigerate it until I'm ready to make bread!) 

Now you'll whisk the yogurt until it's smooth. Refrigerate it and once it's cold, it's all ready for you to add fruit, granola, honey, etc. or just eat it plain (or use it in recipes). It is SO handy to always have it in the fridge!


It sounds like an involved process, but once you do it, you'll realize that your actual hands-on time is really minimal. If you've read all the way through this, you'll have no problem. If you let yours incubate over night and think through having time to strain it when it's done, it will be really simple to incorporate it into your weekly routine and you'll be saving yourself a lot of money and will have pure greek yogurt!
Enjoy!