Making Pesto

This is the last time of the year to collect your basil before it dies down. After you’ve collected the seeds for next year (as shown on my 8/17/13 blog post) gather a bunch of leaves and make some pesto. It’s a wonderful addition to a dinner gift. A little pesto, some pasta, bread and wine in a basket makes a great house warming or hostess gift.
Pesto is so easy to make. Here is a simple pesto recipe from Ina Garten.
Pesto:
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup pignoli (pine nuts)
3 tablespoons chopped garlic (9 cloves)
5 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups good olive oil
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Place the walnuts, pignoli, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process for 15 seconds. Add the basil leaves, salt, and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is thoroughly pureed. Add the Parmesan and puree for a minute. Use right away or store the pesto in the refrigerator or freezer with a thin film of olive oil on top.




You can store it in a glass jar in the refrigerator or put it in a plastic container and freeze it.

photo credit: CK Worley

Wash the leaves, dry them with a paper towel and store them in the refrigerator. As long as they stay dry they will keep for a few days until you're ready to use them.

Everything is relative. And every triumph, problem, fear and experience becomes bigger or smaller depending to what you compare it to.
by HENRIK EDBERG

The Gift of Salad - Inexpensive Gift #7

You can give the gift of winter salads for just a few dollars! You can grow one salad every other day for two people. Just pinch off the leaves and watch it grow back. Make sure you check out my blog on Sowing Seeds at
http://growitfirst.blogspot.com/2012/02/grow-it-first-with-ck-worley-sowing.html
You don't have to buy expensive seed started kits to start seeds.



For this project I used a square plastic water bottle so it will not roll over.
I laid the empty bottle on it's side and cut the top off with a pair of scissors. I put some drainage holes into the bottom of it with a screw driver. Make sure the top is on tight before you fill the bottle with soil. I planted Buttercrunch and Endive lettuce in the bottle. I also put the top of a swiffer box on the bottom of my makeshift pot to catch any run off. This is the best and most economical way to plant and recycle.




I have seen people claim that they can grow celery from the cut off end of a celery stalk that you buy in the store. All you have to do is put it in a little water and it will happen. I was skeptical so I decided to do it myself.




At first the celery did grow and it was pretty impressive.
After 2 months it was obvious something else needed to happen for this plant to survive. It needed soil. So I took one of my old clay pots and painted it red with a black belt. I have a hole puncher and used that to punch out some dots from an old Avery label I had. (it’s sticky on one side) That is what I used to make the belt buckle holes on my pot. I put a coffee filter over the hole in the bottom of the pot so prevent the soil from leaking through then added some packing peanuts in the bottom before filling it with soil.


You can make an old pot look just like new with a little paint.
I used Espoma Garden Tone and some Soil Moist to mix with the soil and planted the celery. I love Espoma products and the Soil Moist will keep the plant watered even if you leave it for a while. I think this celery has a real chance now. If it does continue to grow, I’ll hang some ornaments on it and give it as a little Charlie Brown Christmas kind of tree.
I looked at some of the clay pots they have at Walmart and those ran around $2 plus you had to buy the little tray that goes underneath. That stuff probably won’t be around at Christmas time though so the water bottle idea is a good one.

Here is an update on the celery plant. Today is July 21st 2014 and it's still growing and almost ready to pick. I wonder if I had planted it in the garden earlier if it would have been ready sooner.



Remember - You can change or decide to stay the same - There are no rules in this life but those you place on yourself to limit your growth.

Redneck Wine Glasses - Inexpensive Gift #6

I’ve been catching up on the Duck Dynasty on A&E. My sister Donna got me hooked on the show. They have all kinds of Duck Dynasty gifts you can buy for Christmas on their site.
One item I saw was their Duck Dynasty “Redneck” wine glasses. They are selling Kerr canning jars on top of wine glass bases. They include the sealing jar tops so you can save your wine for later. Pretty funny! Here is a video clip from the show.

http://shop.history.com/duck-dynasty-redneck-small-wine-glass-set-set-of-4/detail.php?p=447292&v=aetv_show_duck-dynasty#tabs

They sell 4 glasses for $51.89 plus $7.95 shipping charges.

So off I go to the Dollar Store to find the supplies to make my own red neck wine glasses. If I wasn't able to find what I wanted at the Dollar Store I would have gone to Old Time Pottery or some other place that sells discounted glass items.

photo credit: CK Worley

I found 4 small candle stick bases and 4 canning jars with tops. This will be more than $5 but less than $51.89! So far I’ve spend 8 dollars. Granted these jars are larger than the small Kerr jars that the folks at Duck Dynasty use so the lids may come in handy!

photo credit: CK Worley

I had to go to Walmart to find glass glue. This glue is specifically made to glue glass together. I felt that would be the safest way to go. Loctite glass glue sets in 15 to 60 seconds so you have to be pretty accurate. Let it stand for 1 hour before you move them and cure for 1 week before you can wash them. The glue costs about $2.50. It depends on where you shop and what state you live in.

photo credit: CK Worley

Wash and dry the jars and candle stick holders. I put them in the dishwasher. You can leave them plan if you’d like. If you use a Kerr or Ball jar they have their names embedded in the glass and you can’t do anything else with them. You can leave these generic jars plain if you'd like but they are smooth and that means I can paint them!

I’m going to use the same technique I used with all my other painted projects in this series so please go back and review the directions before you begin. http://www.growitfirst.blogspot.com/2013/08/grow-it-first-with-ck-worley.html

photo credit: CK Worley

I decided on a very simple Duck Dynasty design. The Duck Commander logo minus the letters and the circle. This was really easy to do with my Deco pen. I taped the logo inside the jar and traced the duck with my pen. No brushes required.



I baked and cooled the jars and then glued the tops to the bottoms. I did this upside down so I could use a level to ensure that the glasses sit on the bases evenly. That was the trickiest part. First I put some glue on the base and place it on the bottom of the glass. After I use the level and waited a minute or two I added more glue to the edge of the jar and the candle stick bottom to ensure they will stick and not come off.

photo credit: CK Worley

There you have it. Redneck wine glasses. Of course you can use them for iced tea as well. Total cost around $2.50 a piece.

Spice Stocking Stuffer - Inexpensive Gift #5

This will be a perfect stocking stuffer for a college student or someone moving into their very first apartment.
I found approximately 156 spice suppliers in the United States. Spices may be packaged by different names but they come from the same places. So this is my premiss for buying spices at the Dollar Store. Paprika cost one dollar there or you can get Spice Island Paprika for $4.56 at the grocery store. Are they the same? Maybe not. Can you taste the difference? Perhaps. But in order to keep this gift an inexpensive one we are betting that they are of the same quality. Also, make sure to check the expiration date before you buy. The jars I picked up have expiration dates of 2015 or 2016. That’s good.




I found some of these cool plastic containers at Staples for 50 cents each. They are supposed to be used for paperclips and thumb tacks but I’m going to make a neat stocking stuffer with them. You can use any little stackable container. I found these in the school supply section.
Always wash things out before you begin. Better safe than sorry.
Choose spices that will look good together. Don’t put a garlic powder next to an onion powder. Try to make the color and texture interesting.
After decided which spices to use make labels on your computer or write on some white duck tape to tag each spice. Writing on the plastic is difficult and will be hard to read once the spices are in the containers.
Pour the spices in the corresponding jars. Now stack them on top of each other. The Lock Ups will snap into place. They are ready to slip into any stocking or wrap with ribbon to make a special gift topper.
The best part is they don’t take up much room and if you’ve ever been in a college dorm you know that space is hard to come by.
The containers were 50 cents each and they hold a half container of spice so each Lock Up cost about $1 per jar. You can make them as tall as you’d like.




$4 for the one on the left and $6 for the one on the right.


“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci

Hot Chocolate Snowman - Inexpensive Gift #4

I needed to figure out what to do with all those other jars that came in the pack I bought at Walmart. After all, I used just two of them for the Teachers Gift post (Inexpensive Gift #3). I thought it would be sweet to make something just for fun. You can use baby food jars or any jars you have around the house.
I’m going to stack 3 jars on top of one another and fill them with fun hot chocolate stuff. I’ll make two of these so I’ll use 6 jars all together. First and always wash out the jars. You don’t have to sterilize them for this project.




I painted two jars with snowman faces. I gave one a traditional carrot nose and the other a round clown type nose. Next I took 4 more jars and paint buttons on them. Remember, we are using the same acrylic paint that we’ve used for Inexpensive Christmas Gifts #1 (Glass plate painting for kids) and #2 (Painted candle stick holder). We are also going to bake the glass in the very same way so please review those posts before you begin.
We will glue 2 of the lid seals to the jar tops. Remember to be careful if you are using a hot glue gun because the metal will heat up. You won’t have to do this with the other 4 lids and tops unless you want to but since we are glueing hats on the top jars it would be best to seal them together.



Next take some material to make the snowman hat. I had some foe leather scraps from when I recovered a chair so I used that. Use any material you have around. If you don’t have material around you can use felt or paper.
Trace the lid to make a top for your hat. Glue a strip around the outside of the lid. Next trace a bigger circle to create the lip of the hat. I used a cardboard coaster we got when we went to Biltmore Estates and ate lunch at Cedric’s in the Village. (3-12-13 blog post)
Don’t glue this larger piece on. It will screw onto the jar opening with the lid.
I’ll try to guesstimate the price on each of the snowmen. We already determined that the jars cost 58 cents each. I bought a big bag of mini marshmallows but only used a small portion of them so I’ll guess 15 cents per snowman. The white chocolate morsels can be between 2.50 and 3.50 per bag. All depends on what brand you choose. You may even decide to use peppermint instead of chocolate which would bring the cost down. I used half a bag of white chocolate per snowman. I used Publix brand Hot Chocolate Mix which cost $1.97 for 10 packs. One snowman will use 5 packs. You can use fancier stuff but it will cost you. So I’ll guesstimate each snowman will cost about $4.12.



Once the jars are filled you can stack the jars and glue them together. You’ll still have to be careful with them so the little guys don’t come apart. I used some of the same cloth I used for the hat for the belt and I had some red ribbon with wire in it I bought two Christmas’s ago so I used that for the scarf. You can use any ribbon you'd like. Just remember to always save ribbon. It's so handy and doesn't take up much room.

And I'll leave you my friends with this quote:
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.
Booker T. Washington

More money saving tips very soon.

Teachers Gift - Inexpensive Christmas Gifts #3

This is especially good to make for teacher gifts, for kids in college or anybody really.



I went to Walmart and found half pint canning jars. They came in a 12 count box and cost $6.97 (58 cents each). I also bought some honey at $4.08 (16 ounces), 84 cents for 2 lemons and $2.00 worth of ginger (about a finger sized piece) and a box of pectin (about $2.50 a box). You’ll get two 1/2 pint jars out of these few ingredients. Each gift should cost about $5.29.

Always wash citrus before you eat or cook with it - Wash the ginger as well. While I was in the store I saw a guy put a piece of ginger right up to his nose to sniff it and then he put it back. YUCK!

I’ll sterilize the jars using the instructions from my August 21,2012 blog called “Making Peach Jam.” You may want to review that blog post before beginning this one.

It wasn’t hard finding this recipe online. It’s everywhere! I did have trouble finding the exact amounts. I followed one recipe but the syrup never jelled. So I got new seals and sterilized the jars again. (You can only use the seals once) and this time I added more pectin (which totaled one box). I had to cook the ginger and lemon in with the honey because it was already mixed from my fist attempt. I think this is best so it worked out alright. The flavors kind of cooked in together.



Instructions:

In a small saucepan heat the honey, sliced lemon and sliced ginger.
Add pectin (6 Tablespoons or one box) and cook on high, allowing it to boil for about 3 minutes.
Pull the lemons and ginger out of the honey and add two drops each of  Lemon and Ginger Essential Oils. You can get more information on how to purchase these oils by emailing me at settersrun360@gmail.com.
Add a few new lemon slices to the sterilized jars and pour the honey mixture over the lemon.
Once the jars are sealed put them back into the pot of water and boil for 10 more minutes.
Take them out and when you hear the top pop then you know the jar is sealed.
Cool and put in refrigerator.
Since I cooked the lemon and ginger in the honey I didn't add any extra ginger to the jar. I think it will be easier to use without having to fish around the ginger pieces.



The Jar: First I tried to put labels on the jars but they were cold so that didn’t work. I just made tags on card stock on my computer with the directions on the inside. I drew a bee and flower on the front with an ink pen. I used a simple piece of raw hide to finish the gift. You can use any kind of ribbon. I keep ribbon from packages I receive so I always have some around.
Here are the directions:

“When you feel a scratchy throat coming on take a spoon full of this jell and add it to a mug. Fill the mug with hot water and stir until dissolved. Now you have a nice, hot and tasty drink that will sooth that sore throat.”
KEEP REFRIGERATED

In my research I found this bit of important information. You may need to include this at the bottom of your directions.

Warning: Ginger has some blood-thinning properties so if you are on an aspirin regiment consult your physician before using this mixture.

I hope that you and your children enjoy making this gift. More to come!
Write me for more information at settersrun360@gmail.com