A Meal without Wine

A fun way to dress up a large, blank spot is with some word art.  Look online and find a phrase you love that fits perfectly with your mood or space.  Our wine fridge was looking like a black hole in our family room.  I happened by chance across this saying and found it was perfect for the wine fridge.  I had some white Oracal 631 in my stash and used my Silhouette Studio to design the word art and the Cameo to cut it out.  Tip:  Put a cut line across the page between your words -- weeding in sections is a lot easier than trying to be careful with the whole design at stake!

 

 

Cheers!

 

Dehydrated Lemons

Hey, Everybody!

 

I bought a food dehydrator a couple weeks back and have been experimenting with different kinds of veggies to make some nice, healthy snacks.  First, I did cucumbers.  Two cucumbers was perfect.  I washed them good and sliced them up thin (about an 1/8th or so) and soaked them in vinegar for about an hour or so while I went and did my exercising at Curves.  My dehydrator has 4 trays so everything fit on them nice.  I sprinkled them with dried dill and garlic powder, but I forgot to salt them too.  After all was said and done (8 hours seemed just right), they were nice and tangy but really needed the salt too.  Next time, I'm going to do the cucumbers with malt vinegar and sea salt.  Mmmmm....

 

Next, I did green zucchini.  I soaked these in vinegar too, sprinkled salt,  garlic powder on them.  I took them off at 5 hours, not as much moisture in them I guess.  Tasty snacks, but needed more salt.  Eggplant was next on the list to try.  I had had eggplant roasted in the oven before and it was horrible.  Just couldn't get around the spongy texture.  But, I decided to give it another chance and put it in the dehydrator.  Salt, garlic powder and paprika and off they went for 8 hours.  Not bad at all.  Still needed more seasoning and they were good with some ranch dressing to dip them in.  Note to self:  Don't be shy with the seasoning.  Load them up with flavor!  So, that's what I did with my last zucchini batch; salt, garlic powder and Parmesan cheese.  Darn good for sure!

 

Next, I dehydrated lemons.  The house smelled so nice and fresh all day long.  They dried up perfect and crunchy, and super tangy with all that nice condensed flavor in them.  Afterward I put them in the food processor and pulverized them to little bits.  I had some small, half pint canning jars in the back, so I put my lovely lemonness in one of them and thought the jar looked a little naked.  I opened up my Silhouette program and found some cute designs to use for a print and cut to make a label for the top of the jar and a cute lemon tag to match.  I even made some for the limes and oranges I have dehydrating now.  These will be a perfect addition to my pantry.  Now, when I need a sprinkle of lemon or lime or orange for pasta or salad dressings, a teaspoon of the dried stuff will be perfect and loaded with flavor.  Love it!

 

These would make a nice gift for someone too!

 

Stay crafty, my Friends!

Wine Cork Decor

We have an abundance of wine corks in a cute container on the counter.  Had no idea what to do with them all.  Searched Pinterest and came across an idea for those décor balls that you see on a coffee table or in a large glass vase.  Hmmm.  The wheels in my head turned quite a bit, then I headed to Walmart's craft section and found a pack of Styrofoam balls.  I think they are about 4" in diameter.  Got out the hot glue gun and glued the corks to the balls (and burned my fingers in the process too!).  After they were done, they looked goofy.  Just wine corks glued to a Styrofoam ball.  What do I fill in the gaps with?  Back to Walmart and in the floral department I found sheets of moss on clearance.  Jackpot!  I cut the moss into small squares (maybe 1" or so) and used small straight pins to pin them in the gaps between the corks.  Took forever, but the result was much better!

 

 

 

I see Christmas decorations being my next wine cork craft -- Stay tuned!