Storing up for Winter: Basil Pesto

Basil is one of the easiest herbs for me to grow, especially since I have figured out it loves full sun. With this new found knowledge I have had an abundance of basil and there is only so much Caprese salad I can eat.  With all the excess basil growing I am on a mission to save it!

The best way to preserve basil is in pesto form, but what I have learned is that pesto doesn't last long jarred. (It last about a week refrigerated). So I have moved on to finding a new way to preserve and boy have I found it! FROZEN BASIL CUBES!

Basil Pesto

2 c. chopped fresh basil
2 tbsp. minced garlic
1/3 c. cashews (or walnuts or pine nuts)
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan
Salt & Pepper to taste
Olive Oil

I use a small food processor to chop up the basil, garlic, cashews, and Parmesan.  After the ingredients are pureed I slowly add olive oil until it becomes the desired consistency.  Once the pesto is at your desired smoothness add salt and pepper to taste.

Once the pesto is finished spoon into a plastic ice cube tray. I measured it out by tablespoon so I will know how much is in each cube for recipes later. Once you have filled the trays drizzle a little olive oil over each section in order to keep in the freezer.  Once frozen solid, pop out of tray and store in a zip-lock bag.

It was so easy and now I can't wait to have fresh pesto in December!

Coconut Oil Popcorn

Popcorn is it's own food group in our house.  Movie nights, afternoon snacks, and Sunday night dinner's popcorn is a staple.  In a recent attempt to eat more pure, I went on a search for a good health homemade popcorn option.  Below is a recipe that I worked up for our us.  Warning! It makes a ton of popcorn but the recipe can be cut.

Coconut Oil Popcorn

2 Tbsp coconut oil

1 c. popcorn kernels

Heat coconut oil in a large skillet to melt and slowly add kernels.  Keep temperature on medium high until kernels start to pop.  Do not leave unattended!  Because my recipe make so much popcorn I start scooping out popped corn to make room for more.  Salt or season as you like and enjoy!

Make your own Taco Seasoning!

Every family has their go to meal.  Something that is easy and tasty.  Our go to meal is practically anything with a Mexican flavor.  With that being said we buy taco seasoning like it is going out of style.  I can generally buy a package of taco seasoning for about $0.48 which isn't that expensive but with the quantity and the amount of preservatives it was about time to find my own recipe.

Taco Seasoning

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. paprika

1/4 tsp onion salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

1 tsp black pepper

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp chili powder

Shake all ingredients together in an airtight container for easy access.  1 tbsp is equivalent to a package of taco seasoning or add to your preference. 

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Fall is my favorite time of the year simply because of the pumpkin flavored everything.  I can hardly believe we are half way through October and I am just now starting my pumpkin baking!  One of my favorite and easiest recipes are pumpkin spice cookies.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. pumpkin puree
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1 Tbsp ground allspice
1 Tbsp ground nutmeg
1 c. self rising flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
This recipe will make about a dozen cookies.  

Cream together sugars, egg, butter, pumpkin, and vanilla extract.  

Combine the flour and spices and gradually add to the creamed ingredients

After adding the flour spoon out onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes.  Let cool before storing in an airtight container.  Our batch didn't make it through the week. 

Someone has her eye on the prize

Upcycling... well.... "Trash"

I have a great mother.  She was always finding fun activities for us to do when we were growing up, and it almost always involved a creative project.  Coloring refrigerator boxes to be play houses, building tree houses, painting old pieces of wood and lots of coloring books, this was my childhood.  Something my mother has passed on to me is the joy of "upcycling."  Upcycling is a new term meaning creating a better purpose for something that is no longer of use or in this case liked.  Growing up we called it "picking up good trash."  Recently we just finished installing our kitchen banquet seating. (Check it out here!) I finally got the booth I wanted but I was missing a couple of chairs to fit around the table.  I searched high and low for affordable chairs but I couldn't find anything I wanted to spend money on.  The upside of "upcycling" is that you do not have to buy anything brand new you use what you have and you make it better!  When I told my mother what I was looking for she said she would keep an eye out. 

Later on that week my dad sent me this picture....  Can you believe that someone would put solid wood chairs and a table out on the side of the road!?  Me either. They grabbed me the two chairs I needed just in time.  

I took the cushions off the chairs and prepped the chairs for painting.  The wood was nice but it would not go with my light and delicate look for my kitchen.  I prepped the chairs by wiping them down and removing all of the hardware.  One chair had a small hole in the side and I filled it with simple wood fill. 

After putting couple coats of my paint on I was ready to reattach the cushions.  I used Behr aqua smoke for the paint on these chairs.  To cover the chairs I bought two yards of fabric from my local hobby lobby store.  This is a canvas fabric so that it is more durable.  You will also need a staple gun.  I love mine! Best craft investment ever!

The cushions on these chairs were gross and stained.  One of the cushions even had magic marker colored all over it.  I scrubbed the cushions down with a detergent mix to clean them up a bit.  

I cut the fabric to the same measurement of the chair plus an inch on each side to be sure I had enough fabric.  If you are acquainted with upholstery then you might not need as much all the way around.  

After covering my seat I was ready to reattach to the chair. These chairs still had the hardware with them so it was a simple reattachment with the screws and a Philips head screwdriver. 

Boom!  Awesome upcycle and with minimum investment.  This chair redo would definitely make mamma proud. 

SNEAK PEEK!  Look what I found this week....

Game Day Jalapeno Poppers

If there is one thing about autumn I can count on it is that football will be on in the Treece house.  Whether it is college game day Saturday or NFL Monday I am craving a game day snack.  A game day favorite are jalapeno poppers!  They are so simple to make and there are only three ingredients.  The recipe below is for only about 10 poppers.

Game Day Jalapeno Poppers

10 medium sized jalapenos
4 oz cream cheese
1 pkg of bacon strips cut in half





Because jalapeno's get almost everything they touch peppery I cut my cream cheese needed and bacon before I start cutting the peppers.

In order to cut down on the heat cut peppers in half and scrape out the seeds and ridges.

Spread cream cheese into jalapeno halves.

Preheat oven to 425 F.  Wrap jalapeno halves in bacon.  You can use toothpicks to hold the bacon in place but I usually don't have a problem just wrapping the bacon around it. Place in oven and let bake for 20 minutes or when the cheese begins to toast.

This easy snack is a great addition to any game day spread. Go team!  

Banquet Seating for a Small Kitchen

When we first started house shopping we were looking for a house with a little bit of character.  What we finally decided on was a home with some character, but then again 75 years is a lot of character. One of the little jewels of our home is the kitchen that hasn't been touched since the house was built.  We have been slowly renovating our kitchen and we finally got to the seating!  I have really been wanting a kitchen nook.  A cozy place to write, read, and drink coffee.  

This is before....

We have been working on the kitchen for months including pulling out the old floor, counter tops and more but the banquet seating is my favorite addition! The corner was already empty dead space so it was simple for me to tape off where I wanted the booth installed.  I had an idea of what the booth would look like but I definitely needed Travis' help and tools. The first big step was going to Home Depot for the materials.  

We saved a lot of time by writing down our measurements and having home depot cut the pieces for us.  The first few cuts are free and after that it was only $0.25 a cut!  Good deal!  Travis built the frame and attached the backer board to the wall for me.  

He started by building a frame out of  2 x 4's and attached backer board to the wall to give the booth more definition.  To seal the cracks in the backer board we used simple painters caulk.

Adding the trim was very time consuming but definitely gave it a completed look.  Next came my part. Painting!  We have a deal he builds I paint! Totally worth it. 

I used Behr paint Aqua Smoke on the backer board and just simple white on the trim.

 I originally wanted to be able to open the top of the booth for storage but that was a little out of the skill set of my carpenter. 

So I decided that a solid top would work just as well and save us some time and trips back to home depot.  After a couple days of staining, painting, and building its done!

I did not want to add cushions but a few pillows made it feel homey and soft.  I am so excited to have it built! I was finally able to move the chandelier over the table and so were all of our visitors over 6 feet tall. 

After all the hard work its great to have the booth ready to use.  I got really lucky and found the table on the side of the road (free!) and painted it with the leftover paint from our kitchen walls. 

Easy Homemade Dog Treats

My sweet puppy is a diva with a capital "D."  She loves getting treats but only wants the most pricey.  It is like she can read the price stickers at the pet store. So I started researching easy dog treat recipes and found a few consistent things that weren't going to work for me. First, they had a million ingredients I wanted a simple recipe, and second most recipes had cheese in them.  My diva pup Nash is probably the only pup who isn't interested in cheese. So what was my number one ingredient?  Peanut butter!  Dogs love peanut butter especially Nash.  

  
Peanut Butter Dog Treats

1/2 c. self rising flour
1/2 c. quick oats
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. milk

*This recipe only make two dozen treats.  I did not want to go overboard with quantity when I have such a picky pup.


1)   Preheat Oven to 375 degrees.  

2)  Mix all ingredients with an electric mixer 

3)  The consistency should be able similar to cookie dough

4) Roll out dough with a rolling pin.  Dough should be about 1/4 inch thick

5) Cut out treats with the cookie cutter of your choice

6)  Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.  Let cool and store in an air tight container.

They were a big hit in our house as well as a big money saver!  She was so excited about her dog treats she snagged one off the table!  Diva!

Homemade Dish Soap with only 3 Ingredients!

Moving into a 75 year old house has its positives and negatives.  Positive, our kitchen still has the original wooden cabinets.  Negative, our kitchen does not have a modern dishwasher.  That is alright, it is just the hubby and I and hand washing dishes isn't too much trouble at this point in our lives.  What has become silly is the amount of dish soap we go through.  Just when I think I have finished dishes I dump out my soapy water just to turn around and find a dirty glass on the counter!  So I have finally perfected my homemade dish soap recipe.  It is affordable and makes just enough to fill a standard Ajax bottle.

Homemade Dish Soap

1 bar of soap (I use goat milk soap)*

4 c. water

2 tbl. white vinegar

Step 1: Grate goat milk soap with an old cheese grater

Step 2: Add water & shredded soap to boiler to melt

Step 3: Pour the vinegar into the Ajax bottle

Step 4: After soap has melted into water and cooled pour into ajax bottle

Mix and enjoy!  This recipe is so easy and the only thing I had to buy was the soap. 

Totally worth it!  

* The goat milk soap is all natural and goes to serve a good cause.