10 Amazing Foods You Can Make With Dandelions

...too bad Seth just sprayed all of ours...

1. Syrup
2. Wine
3. Jelly
4. Sauteed Dandelion Greens
5. Fritters
6. Cream of Dandelion Soup
7. Tea
8. Dandelion Greens and New Potato Gratin
9. Soup
   
10. and of course, Salad

Creative Recycling in the Garden

The following items can be repurposed in the garden - saving you time weeding and watering - all while being environmentally friendly!

Paper plates and coffee filters
Reuse slightly used paper plates and new coffee filters as weed blockers! Cut in from the edge and make a hole in the center. Then wrap the plate/filter around your plant!

Milk jugs and 2L soda bottles
Both of these can be used as extra protection for plants. Simply cut the bottoms from the jugs and place over your small plants. To keep them from blowing away, poke holes in the sides and stake down with wire hangers cut long enough to shape as a hairpin.

Use soda bottles as a watering conservation system. Poke 3 or 4 holes down one side. Bury the bottle up to the bottom of it's spout, making sure to positon the holes toward where the plant will be. Use a funnel to fill the bottles with water and/or fertilizer.

Toilet paper and paper towel tubes
Use these as seed starting pots! Cut each 'pot' to about 2 or 3 inches tall. Place on an old baking sheet, fill with soil and plant your seeds. When seedlings are ready to plant, push the plant down through the ring slightly (about an inch) and plant your seedling with the ring around it. The buried part of the ring with act as protection against cutworms and the upper part serves as protection for the seedling.

Newspaper
This can be a great timesaver for weeding! Dedicate some time before you plant to bury several thicknesses of newspaper in the pathways of your garden. This will keep weeds out and water in. And in a year or two the newspaper will decompose, making it a much more Earth-friendly alternative to plastic.

Use newspaper to make Biodegradable Plant Pots - this is probably a bit late, since most seedlings should have already been started by now, but better late than never!

Old t-shirts and pantyhose
Reuse these for tying up plants. They will hold the plant, yet stretch just enough to not damage the plant.

Space saving tips:
*Plant pole beans in a spiral - use heavy wire fencing as your trellis.
*Use your chain-link fence as a trellis for vining plants.

Here are some helpful sites for gardening and canning:
Better Homes and Gardens - Gardening site
Home Preservation
USDA - Gardening

Restoring Order: Kitchen Cabinets, Counters and Laundry Cabinet

This week my focus started with the kitchen counters - mainly removing all the things that we don't need to be out. My goal was to have only the coffee maker, spice rack, utensil basket and over-the-sink plant stand remaining. I had to find a new home for everything else - which was a HUGE challenge, since we are so limited on space. (or perhaps it's that we I have so much junk that I just can't seem to let go of!)

But, in order to clear the counter, I needed to rearrange the contents of the cabinets (and a drawer), so everything would fit! Here are the before and afters of the cabinets:

(I know these aren't very impressive, but we had our tupperware in two different places and now it's all in one, the blender was a pain to get in and out of the cabinet and now it's not, and now all of our rarely used small appliances are in a separate cabinet (not shown) instead of sitting on top of the cabinets.)





Then I was able to finish clearing the counter of random clutter:



I think the cleaning bug bit me pretty hard, because I also cleaned and organized the laundry cabinet:



For next week, I'm hoping we get the kitchen and living room completely painted, I want to organize under the kitchen sink and the space around the microwave needs an intervention!

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This week Rebecca is hosting the Restoring Order meme. Visit her to see everyone else's decluttering problems solved!

Graham Cookies

Yesterday I decided it was time to bake some more graham crackers!

Any "safe" baker knows that you should be sure you have all your ingredients before starting your recipe. I, apparently, am a rebel baker. I did not check my ingredients and I ended up with only half the amount of flour I needed.

But, the damage was done and I figured I may as well see what I could do with the dough I had before me.


(thank goodness I had some wonderful help!)

The dough was more of a cookie dough consistency, so I thought: why not make cookies? I wanted them crisp like a cracker, so I decided to spread the dough out on my silicone mat.



Voila! Graham cookies were born!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup milk
sugar (optional)


Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream together the shortening and brown sugar. Add flour and baking powder, alternately with the milk.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Use a silicone baking sheet or grease your cookie sheet very well.

Drop "cookies" onto sheet, spreading out flat with the back of a spoon or spatula. Sprinkle with sugar (optional, but very much recommended!).

Bake for 10-12 minutes. (Your cookies will look a little soft, but don't worry, they harden up pretty fast once out of the oven.) Place on cooling rack to...well....cool.

If/when I make these again, I may experiment with substituting coffee for the part of the milk!

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If you are wanting more easy and few-ingredient recipes, head on over to Paige's Place for Five Ingredient Fridays!