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Strawberry Sauce

September 1, 2010

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Strawberry Sauce

Is there anything the lowly canning jar can not do? As it turns out, no. The half-pint jars are the perfect size for petite strawberry sundaes, the kind you eat when you are celebrating your second day on the Sunny Bunny Board for good behavior.  A tablespoon cookie scoop gives you just the right size scoops of ice cream and homemade strawberry sauce makes you feel fancy when really it’s so easy your 6 year old could make it. (And mine did, minus the chopping.)

Strawberry Sauce

2 lbs (roughly 3 cups) of fresh strawberries
1/3 cup of sugar
1 tsp cornstarch

Hull strawberries. Place half of the strawberries in a blender or food processor. Cover and blend/process until smooth. Set aside.

Chop remaining strawberries, rough or fine, depending on how much texture you like in your strawberry sauce.

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, and blended/processed strawberries. Cook and stir until bubbly. Add remaining strawberries. Cook for two minutes more, longer if you want the rest of the berries to cook into the sauce.

Transfer to a bowl. Cover and chill for at least one hour.

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August’s Plan: Gallery Wall

August 17, 2010

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Blank Canvas

We are having people over for dinner, both this weekend and the next, so you know what that means.  I’m bustling around the house debating which incomplete project to finish.  Right now, my attention is on the main wall in the living room.  It’s blank, and I’m afraid to put any holes in it, but I’d like to spruce it up.  (I’ll try the command strips you all recommended.)

Enter, Canvas

It’s not like I’m lacking in material.

Karen Hill Foyer
via Design Sponge

Or inspiration.  A five second Google search returned 93 trillion images of gallery walls.  Grace from Design Sponge used her infrequently lauded mind reading powers and posted this gallery wall round up last week just for me.  (Thanks, Grace.)

Domino Gallery
via Abbey Goes Design Scouting

Abbey, from Abbey Goes Design Scouting, posted this 28 image collection in 2008.  August 2008.  Coincidence?  Not likely.  (Thanks, Abbey.)

Paintings
via me

I’m contributing to my inspiration, too.  For months I’ve been saving images I love and storing them in my inspiration folder on Flickr.  I found this one, my very favorite one of all, in…

February.

Two out of three isn’t bad.

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Thrift Finds

One of the benefits of living near sleepy retirement towns is the bevy of wood items at the thrift stores.  Many are handmade, no doubt the product of retired grandpas with an urge to tinker.  Whether handmade or mass produced, they sit there on the shelves, patiently waiting for little ones, craft paint, and a lazy afternoon.  Mikey always picks a birdhouse.  Always.  (Look how little he is in that picture!)

I couldn’t resist a large landscape painting for $9.  It reminds me of one of our many stops during our drive to Lake Tahoe this summer, especially this one at Pine Peak.  Maybe the woman who painted this, Elizabeth Cassidy according to the signature, also pulled over on the 395 for her share of little boy potty breaks and said, what the heck, while I’m here…

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Board and Batten Tutorial (Sort of)

August 13, 2010 Home

A couple of people asked me for a tutorial on installing the board and batten we put up. I don’t really have one, but I can direct you to several good ones online and give you tips that helped us with the project. You’ll be shocked at how inexpensive and easy it was, especially for [...]

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Dutch Baby Pancakes

August 10, 2010 Home

Let’s say you decide to bake cookies with four kids. And let’s say a great time is had by all, minus that brief moment when four hands vied for the one cookie scoop.  The older ones resorted to fisticuffs and strong armed the scoop out of little hands.  The younger ones, not to be outdone [...]

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A Peek at Paint

August 9, 2010 Home

I thought I would share a quick peek at the paint we chose.  The board and batten is in Cloud White (semi-gloss) by Benjamin Moore and the walls and ceiling are Elephant Tusk (flat).  We could not have painted the rooms if it wasn’t for Benjamin Moore giving us the paint.  (You can read more [...]

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An Unstyled Life

August 6, 2010 Home

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. ~Robert Brault Last week I walked around my home and marveled at all the everyday beauty I miss.  When you read a lot of blogs, especially design blogs, you become accustomed to seeing perfect homes.  It’s easy [...]

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