Strawberry Sour Cream Bread

So it's that time of year when farmer's markets and grocery stores are practically giving away strawberries.  Seriously, two pounds for $4.99?  Four, one pound clam shells for $5.00?  I've taken advantage of these prices and have been making Strawberry Sour Cream Bread.  I've been baking this from this recipe since 2008 and have recently tweaked it to use Greek yogurt.

Gather your ingredients:

Mix it all together per the directions below and it looks like this:

Pour into your prepared pan:

Bake for about an hour:

Strawberry Sour Cream Bread

½ cup unsalted butter

¾ cup granulated white sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups All-Purpose flour

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ cup sour cream/Greek yogurt (plain or vanilla works)

½ cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

2 cups strawberries, chopped

Preheat oven to 350.  Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Beat in the vanilla.  Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a separate bowl.  Mix 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Mix ½ of the sour cream/yogurt into the wet ingredients. Mix 1/3 of dry ingredients into the wet.  Mix the remaining ½ of sour cream/yogurt into the wet ingredients.  Mix the remaining dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Fold in the strawberries and pecans.  Pour batter into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.  Bake until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, about 60 minutes.

Thankful Thursday: King of Pops

I am thankful for King of Pops Chocolate Sea Salt popsicles.

(Enough said.  Right?)

Earth Friendly Weed Killer

As you can see, we have a brick paver patio.  We love our patio, but sometimes weeds find their way through the brick pavers.  Since we don't want to use chemicals out there that might harm kids and pets, I was looking for an all natural, Earth friendly weed killer.  Of course, I Googled it and discovered that regular white vinegar would do the trick.

Since I had this All-Purpose Cleaning Solution already mixed up, I tried the citrus infused vinegar first.  It didn't work.  Next, I tried full strength vinegar.  That did the trick!

You can see it dried the weed right up.  Then I could just pull out what was left.

Now as for the moss...that's a debate we're having in our house.  I like the way it looks between the pavers, but The Husband doesn't.  Any opinions out there?

Link parties:
It's Overflowing

Greener Life: Composting

My granny is resourceful.  She saves money; she saves bread bags; she saves food scraps.  And I'm a little ashamed to say, I used to snicker thinking about her "saving habits." But as I've grown older, I must admit that I am beginning to be a lot more like her.

One of the reasons she would save food scraps is because they make great backyard garden fertilizer, (well, after it's decomposed).  As I've become more conscious of where my food comes from, how it's grown, and the impact our agricultural choices are making on the environment, I'm realizing that in a lot of ways, Granny had it right.  Grow at least some of your own food; use what you have; waste not; want not.  Compost.

And so, I've joined the ranks of "those people who compost."

It's easy . . . and it's not.  I've read a lot of books and articles on composting, and there are different ways to do it: cold compost, hot compost, worm bins, ratios of brown stuff to green stuff.  AUGH!  I almost didn't begin the process thinking I could so easily screw it up.

But then I remembered Granny and her granny and her granny's granny . . . who all probably composted and didn't have a book to tell them how to do it.

So, I put a pot with a lid next to my sink and began filling it with my fruit and veggie scraps.  And every day or so, I'd dump the pot in an inconspicuous spot in my yard.  I'd mix in leaves.  I'd turn the pile.  And slowly but surely nature began to do it's work, and my pile became compost.

In nine months or so that I've been composting, I decided I was going to stick with this composting routine and chose to upgrade to a compost tumbler.  My family shares a backyard with our above-the-garage-tenant, and I wasn't too sure if she was into my "pile."  But the tumbler looks pretty cool, huh?  I mean, green is in, right?

And hopefully that compost will soon be mixed into my soil and help me grow some beautiful veggies and lovely flowers.  Green thumb, I am not.  So, we'll see . . .

Confession:  I bought some already grown plants, just in case.

And so, if you're interested in learning more about composting, 

here's a great article I ran across recently that you might enjoy: Composting at Home.  

Book Review: The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. by Nichole Bernier

"You could not take a single day or night for granted.  Within every hour, every plane ride, or every routine doctor's appointment was the spark of possibility, the thing that would become your undoing."

Elizabeth dies in a plane crash, leaving her friends and family reeling.  She left behind a husband and three young children.  She also left behind journals, volumes and volumes of journals that she had been keeping since adolescence.  In a note to her attorney, Elizabeth asks that the journals go to her friend, Kate, because she would really know what to do with them.

What happens when we think we know a person, but we don't?  As Kate reads through Elizabeth's journals, she discovers things she didn't know about her friend, huge things.  Elizabeth's innermost thoughts probably mirror many of our own; always striving to be someone different -- better.  Can one really change who she is?  Or are we left to fate and mere coincidence?

I found this to be a fairly fast read and quite engaging.  It reminded me that we can have all the plans in the world, but something might come in and turn that upside down.  It's how we face these situations that shape who we are and who we become.  Like Kate learned, "...the world was a truly unpredictable place, and life didn't follow a benign trajectory just because you ate organic fruits and vegetables and flossed daily."

Thankful Thursday: Starbucks Happy Hour

Here's what I'm thankful for today:

After work, a friend and I are going for a run, then hitting up our local Starbucks for a treat.  I'm hoping the run will burn off the calories!!

Roman Shade from Mini-Blind

Young House Love is sponsoring a Pinterest Challenge where you are encouraged to actually make (not just pin) one of the cool things you've bookmarked on your computer or pinned to your board.  

I chose to tackle this project: Roman Shade from Mini-Blind.  

Can you believe this adorable, fabulous, super-cute Roman shade . . . 

used to be this awful, gross, (cleaning-it-removed-the-paint) mini-blind?

Believe it!  Here's how you can make a Roman shade, too...

(For more detailed instructions, refer back to the originally bookmarked post.)

Remove the blinds from the window and bring them to your trusty work station.  

In my case, that's the kitchen floor.    

There are two sets of strings on the mini-blinds.  

One pulls the blinds up and down (don't cut this one!).  

The other looks more like a ladder (string on front and back with "rungs" 

holding up the vertical blind slats).  

Remove the ladder-like strings.  

Next, pop off the bottom plugs using that great tool "kitchen knife," 

removing the bottom of the blinds, allowing you to remove the excess slats.  

I only needed to leave four slats.  Then, reattach the bottom piece to the blinds.



Measure your window to know how long your shade needs to be.  Lay your fabric down
and cut around the edges, leaving enough on all sides (about two inches) to hem the shade.



The original post said to use hem tape, but since I don't mind sewing, I ironed my sides, 

folding twice (to keep the raw edges inside) . . .



. . . and hemmed them up.



Then you adhere your slats to the fabric with tacky glue, 

spacing your slats evenly between the top and bottom of the shade.



I spread the glue on the rounded side of the blind, 

avoiding getting glue on the cord.



And once everything was dry, I hung it up using the original hardware.



I am so pleased with the results!  

And now I'm off to turn the other 21 mini-blinds in my house into Roman shades . . . :)

Link Parties:

Young House Love Pinterest Challenge
RedBirdBlue
Bower Power
Sparkle Meets Pop