2nd Day of Christmas

Don't Read this if you are my Mom, Dad, or Sister :)

 Welcome to the second day of holiday posts :)
This year, my family and I are giving presents that are either homemade or recycled (meaning something we already own or find at a thrift store). I'm a pretty good cook, so making homemade food items seemed like the most logical thing for me to do (hence the infused vodka from yesterday). I'm putting together a whole baskets of treats for my sister and parents, so you can expect a few more fun holiday-themed edibles. Today, I'm going to share a recipe for apple butter.

Preserves make a great holiday present, because they're food (and who doesn't love food?) but they don't have to be consumed right away- meaning that your gift will stick around for awhile instead of being eaten and forgotten about by boxing day. I don't know about you, but I'd rather get a jar of jam or salsa or tomato sauce over a plate of cookies any day.

A lot of preserves are surprisingly easy too, like this apple butter recipe. I had most of the ingredients on hand already (I only had to buy apples and a couple medium sized jars from goodwill- about 7$ altogether for two gifts- that's what I'm talking about!) and the cooking isn't very involved- you basically just let everything boil on the stove until it turns into apple butter :)

The recipe below is for 1 batch, which is about 2.5 cup or so. I didn't measure, but it filled up one medium-smallish jar with some left over. Feel free to double the recipe if you need more- I ended up making it twice because I had to fill two different jars.

Apple Butter
Ingredients
2 pounds apples (a variety of types is best- I used granny smith and pink lady the first time and granny smith and braeburn the second time)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
pinch salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Instructions
Start by sterilizing your jars. Do this by putting the jars and lids in a large pot, filling the pot with water, and then putting on the stove to boil. Once the water is boiling, let boil for 10 minutes. Then, remove from heat but keep jars and lids in the water until you are ready to use them.

Meanwhile, peel, core, and chop up the apples.

Put the apple in a medium saucepan along with the vinegar and water. Let boil for 15-30 minutes, stirring occasionally and mashing with a fork.

 When the apples are mostly a mushy applesauce texture with only a few lumps, add the remaining ingredients and stir. Continue to boil an additional 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the apple butter is thick.

For very smooth apple butter, allow to cool slightly and puree in a blender or with a stick blender. When apple butter is the desired consistency, remove jars from the water and fill 1/2 inch from the top. Put the lid on very tightly. Return the filled jars to the water and return to a boil. Boil an additional ten minutes.

I'm pretty sure that if you buy your own canning jars they will come with instructions as to how to check that your jars have been properly sealed. I bought mine at goodwill, so I have no such instructions... so, just to be safe, I froze my sealed jars and will thaw them in the fridge before I give them. This also means I don't have any pretty pictures of them al decorated to be given... but I'll fix that later :)

I'll be back tomorrow with another fun craft/recipe/something else holiday-y 

<3

1st Day Of Christmas

Yay!! I can finally start posting all my fun 12 days of christmas posts. Now, I can't afford to make gifts for a ton of people- pretty much just my immediate family, in fact. Regardless, I'm going to have to post disclaimers at the beginnings of some of these posts so that some people don't accidentally read them and find out what they're getting from me haha. So... mom, dad, sis, don't read this until after christmas!

Alright, let's get to it! One of the first things I decided to make this year is infused vodka. Originally I was going to make a whole bunch and give little bottles to all my friends and family, but I'm not made of money so I decided that just my immediate family and one or two close friends will be receiving these.

Aren't they pretty? By the way, please excuse the crappy photo quality in this and the next few posts. Like I mentioned a few days ago, I left my nikon d40 charger in prescott over thanksgiving, so I've had to resort to using stewie's little coolpix. needless to say, they aren't exactly equals when it comes to photography. please bear with me :)

Anyways, I wanted to make two different types of infused vodka. I knew I wanted to use rosemary in one of them, because there are giant bushes of rosemary growing outside one of the buildings on the U of A campus and it seems like a damn shame not to use some of it for culinary purposes.

I decided lemon would be a nice compliment to the rosemary flavor. When I started brainstorming about the second infusion, I knew I wanted it to be very christmasy/wintery/holiday-y. So, I decided to use cranberries, apples, cinnamon, and cloves. Kind of like a mulled cran-apple cider!

I started with plain old 10-dollar plastic handle vodka. I had about 1.5 handles. Now, I didn't want to give my friends and family crap vodka but I didn't have the money to buy something more refined. However, I saw on a Good Eats episode once that Crappy Vodka, when filtered with a run-of-the-mill charcoal water filter, becomes Good Vodka. Hooray! So, I just strained the vodka through my water filter a couple times and it did the trick. I mean, the taste didn't make me want to kill myself so I assume it did the trick. Obviously I threw out the filter after that. No vodka-flavored water for me, thanks!

I kept the vodka in the filter until I was ready to use it. For the first infusion, I used about 4 or 5 sprigs of rosemary and the peel of one lemon. I cut the yellow peel away from the lemon (rather than zesting it) and tried to get as little white pith as possible. I also added the juice of half of the peeled lemon and about 2 tbsp white sugar. I put all of those things in one of the empty plastic handles (I rinsed it out with very hot water first- that's why there is whitish condensation obscuring the view in the next few pictures)

Then, I filled it up with half the vodka- it came to about 3/4 of the way up. I put the lid on tight and shook the handle until all the sugar was dissolved.

For the second infusion, I used one pink lady apple (cored and thinly sliced) and about 1/2 cup cranberries, a slit cut in each one to release flavor. I also added two whole cinnamon sticks and about 5 or 6 whole cloves. Finally, I added about 1/3 cup white sugar- the sugar isn't to make the vodka sweet like a liqueur, more to just bring out the flavors. I repeated the process of filling with vodka and shaking.

I let the vodka sit for five days at room temperature, shaking up each handle a few times every day. I taste tested on the third day and check to flavors and then again on the fifth day before I decided to strain.

In preparation, I set out a large bowl (large enough to contain all the vodka), a mesh strainer, paper towels (coffee filters would work to), a measuring cut with a pour spout, and 8 2.5 oz bottles (cleaned beforehand with soap and hot water).

By this time, both vodkas had changed color. The lemon-rosemary was a nice, pale yellow and the cran-apple spice was a pretty shade of orangish-red. I had already strained the lemon-rosemary vodka when I took this picture, but you can get an idea of how both vodkas looked after sitting for five days:

To strain, I lined the mesh strainer with a paper towel and positioned it over the bowl. I poured the vodka into the strainer slowly, allowing it to filter through into the bowl. I then used a measuring cup with a spout to scoop up the vodka and pour it into bottles.

After everything was strained, I was left with 8 bottles of pretty, lightly colored, wonderfully scented/flavored and perfectly clear liquid.

I decided to decorate each bottle with a navy blue ribbon and a little recipe card for a cocktail that could be made with each type of vodka. Obviously I had to actually test the recipes I had come up with to make sure that they were worth making- and I'm glad I did! I think I came up with some really awesome holiday drinks.

The first recipe is for a Lemon-Rosemary Fizz. It reminded Stewie and I of a mojito- only lemon takes the place of the lime and rosemary takes the place of the mint! It's very simple, very refreshing, and very good. Here's the recipe:

1 oz lemon-rosemary vodka (I used one full shot glass to measure)
3 oz sparkling water
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp honey, agave nectar, or simple syrup (I used honey- delicious)

Combine in a cocktail shaker with ice and STIR, do not shake (shaking with cause the sparkling water to build up gas and the cocktail shaker will explode on you. Trust me). Strain into a glass and garnish with rosemary or lemon zest, if desired.

The second recipe is a cran-apple spice martini. This one was my favorite (stew liked the fizz better I think). It tastes just like how the holidays ought to! Delicious, sweet, slightly tart, and full of warm spices. Here is the recipe:

1 oz cran-apple spice vodka
2 oz apple juice
juice from half an orange

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and then strain into a glass. Garnish with cranberries if desired.

yum yum yum! Well there you have it: cheap, delicious, and easy infused vodka. It's such a great gift! And, I posted it early so that there is still time to make it for holiday presents this year ;)

Happy first day of [blogger] christmas!

<3
Emily

Movie Mondays: Life as a House

Today's movie monday is a movie I know very well. I first saw it around age nine or ten, and it was one of the first R-rated movies I ever saw. You know how sometimes kids will watch a movie and then like it so much they just want to watch it over and over again because they don't know of many other good movies to watch? That's kind of how I was like with this film, meaning it pretty instantly became one of my favorite movies and was rented for any and every sleepover until the only movie store copy was too scratched to watch and we bought our own copy. Because of this, when I think of this movie now it reminds me of a kid's film, even though it's rated R and I technically shouldn't have been able to see it until I was 17. So I'm going to recommend it to you anyways, in hopes that its an enjoyable movie to those who didn't first watch it in elementary school lol.

The film is Life As a House, starring Hayden Christensen, Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Jena Malone. All four of them are marvelous.

 Kevin Kline plays George, a divorced, middle-aged architect who is diagnosed with terminal cancer. With only a few months left to live, he decides he wants his last act to be tearing down the shack his father left him and building a beautiful new house to leave for his teenage son. His son Sam (Hayden Christensen), however, is caught up in a world of drugs, depression, and general teenage angst- the kind that involves hating his parents and his life but still caring about what everyone else thinks. Sam plans on spending the summer getting high in his friend's cabin in Tahoe, and is less than pleased when his father insists that Sam will be spending the summer with him. As the days roll on, however, Sam begins to clean up with the help of his father and the charming girl next door, Alyssa (Jena Malone). Meanwhile, George begins to reconnect with Sam's mother and his ex-wife, Robin (Kristin Scott Thomas). Most importantly, though, Sam and George begin to understand each other and reform the father-son relationship they once had. 

Now, keep in mind that I fell in love with this movie at a pretty young and cinematically inexperienced age, so my opinions might be slightly biased and skewed as to how good this film is. Personally, though, I thought the setting was absolutely beautiful, the characters were pretty well-developed, and a great deal of the script writing was very well done.

Overall, it's a really touching story about love, loss, family, and the possibility to change. I think it just recently went up on Netflix instant, so watch it if you have a chance. Here's the trailer:

Fleeting Life

A boy I went to school with died recently. I didn't know him, but Stewart did, and so did a lot of my other friends. Regardless, it's another name to add to the slowly growing list of my peers who have passed away well before they really should have.

Life is such a funny thing. We settle into a sense of comfort, believing things to be permanent and sure, but in reality nothing can be sure. When someone dies, especially someone very young, it seems like a wake up call, reminding us that our futures are not secured. We might die any moment. Someone we love might die at any moment, and there may not be any warning.

The fear can be gripping. It's easy to get lost in worry about what might happen. Unfortunately, trying to constantly keep everything and everyone safe from a sometimes harsh and unfair world is not any way to live. So what can be done?

We have to live anyways and accept the inherent risks in doing so. Ignoring the fact that our lives could be swept away from us at any time is the only way to make sure our lives are worth living. It is sad when someone passes away before they have a chance to do all the things they wanted to in the world, but sadder still when others give up the hope and desire to go after their own dreams in an effort to stay safe.

When people my age die, I feel so very sad about what they will not get to experience. I just assume that my future holds grad school, a good job, a loving husband and children... but I, too, could be swept away before I ever get to see any of these dreams materialize. This would be devastating, but I put these thoughts out of my mind so that I can enjoy the life I am blessed enough to still be living. Life is fleeting, but it is also wonderful.

It doesn't seem fair that some people live to be 90 years old while others die before they reach their 20s. The tragedy of Cameron's death can be seen as a reminder of this unfortunate reality, but also as a reminder that we should all be out there, living, loving, laughing, feeling, doing, lest we lose our chance to.

I urge you all to do so.

with love <3

Givaway over at Sometimes Sweet

I keep forgetting to mention that Danielle over at Sometimes Sweet is holding another huge giveaway this month. One very very lucky commenter will take home a ton of amazing stuff, including this gorgeous wooden ring:

head over there now and get in on all the awesomeness!

Be back later with a real post :)

quick update and some tunes for your friday night

not to be redundant, but I'm crazy busy these days! So busy, that it was wednesday before I realized I had forgotten to do a movie monday. total fail! Oh, well, the craziness has pretty much come to a close now- I only have 2 finals left and they aren't until tuesday and wednesday. Other than school stuff, I've been taking care of all sorts of holiday things! I went shopping all over the place to find affordable but still nice gifts/things to make gifts. We went to two different goodwills, ross, 2 different walmarts (a grocery store and a department store), the tucson mall, michaels, joann's, and albertsons. And I'm still missing four things on my list. ah, well. I've been up to my ears in all kinds of fun cooking and infusing and glitter-gluing and I'm excited to show you guys some of the stuff in my upcoming 12 days of xmas posts.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd show you guys a couple videos from a 2-girl swedish band my friend Claire turned me on to recently. I love their folksy style and it seems just right for winter/fall.

although, it's freaking 80 degrees in tucson. wtf?

anyways, here is First Aid Kit- I might go more in depth about them sometime down the road but for now you can just watch and listen :)



aaand a holiday one!



have a great weekend!
<3

Mushroom and Caramelized Onion Galette

It's been a while since a food post, hasn't it? I made this galette (my first one ever!) almost two months ago, but haven't gotten around to posting it until now. I love galettes, because I think they make the perfect appetizer or side dish at a party. Or, you can just cut a big slice, add a side salad or steamed veggie, and you have a filling and comforting main dish! They're also so pretty, versatile, and cold-weather friendly. If you're having a holiday party in the next few weeks, you should definitely make one of these up and bring it!

Oh, and you can pretty much put anything in a galette, seriously. So feel free to make substitutions and be creative.

Mushroom and Caramelized Onion Galette
Ingredients
1 ball of galette crust dough- I used a simple pie crust recipe because I was missing some key ingredients. I highly recommend you use this recipe, though (scroll down for the dough recipe) 
2 medium yellow onions
about 1.5 cups mushroom (I just used a whole one of those blue styrofoam packages)
3 tbsp olive oil
1.5 cups gouda cheese, grated
1/3 cup chopped italian parsley
1/2 can (I'd guess about 1/2 cup or so) white cannellini beans
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper (regular is fine in a pinch, but I had some on hand)

Instructions
1. Begin by slicing the onions into strips. Also wash and slice the mushrooms. Oh, and preheat the oven to 375.

2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet. Cook the onions for about five minutes, then add the mushrooms. Cook until the onions are caramelized and the mushrooms are tender.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the gouda, the white beans, the onions and mushrooms, 1/2 the chopped parsley, the salt, and the pepper. Taste the filling and see if you want to add any spices or additional salt. I don't remember if I added anything to mine, but I bet some sage and maybe some thyme would be good.

4. Roll out the galette dough and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

5. Spoon the filling onto the middle of the galette dough. Top with the remaining parsley.

6. Close the galette by folding the dough over the filling a few inches at a time, creating a pretty pleat.

7. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes. It's done when the crust is golden brown and the filling is hot and slightly bubbly.

mmm. take this or any other galette (they're easy to make up) to a holiday party- everyone will think it's amazing and oh-so-pretty :)

happy holidays! (and happy end of the semester!!!)
<3

Where has the time gone? oh yeah, SCHOOL.

It has been stupidly busy around here lately. It's the last week (technically it's a half-week) before finals, and I've been hard at work doing all sorts of end-of-semester projects, essays, and tests. It has been a total pain. I can't WAIT to graduate and get a job. I like learning and all that, but I think I'm just more cut out for a work environment where I don't have to study useless topics and hand in zillion page essays. Blegh. anyways, all this work has made me one busy student, and I haven't had time to be a busy blogger (which is a much more fun thing to be). When I have had free time, I've been spending it reading the Time Traveler's Wife, playing Mahjong (it's becoming a really nerdy addiction I'm afraid), and other such things. We went to a birthday/irish party on saturday night (it was like st paddy's 3 months early haha) which was fun, although I stayed sober to drive stew and our friend Alex home so after about an hour it was a little difficult to have an intelligent conversation with anyone.

In other news, Stewie got a new job (hooRAY!), and I'm incredibly excited about it (possibly more excited than he is) because it's at a movie theatre just a few blocks from our apartment. This means a. no more wasting a full gallon of gas everytime I drive stew to work and b. free movies/popcorn! Stewie worked at a theatre once before back in Prescott, and I spent the whoooole summer seeing movies for free. Seriously, name any movie that came out summer 08 and I bet I saw it. Anyways, I'm really happy about this. Stewie hated his job at Subway and I'm sure he will really enjoy being back in a theatre again.

So the reason I'm able to write right now is because I just finished my last essay of the semester, a media arts one about the legacy of italian neo realist film techniques throughout post WWII films (including Sunset Boulevard, From Here to Eternity, and Marty). Fun stuff. I'm so glad to be done with it so I can get back blogging and all of you, my lovely fellow bloggers. I'm already having some great ideas for holiday gifts and treats for my twelve days of christmas posts, and I can't wait to get started! Unfortunately, I think I left my nikon charger in Prescott over thanksgiving, so I'm currently without my beloved camera. I might borrow Stew's cannon, but as a warning you should know that any pics over the next week and a half are probably going to be crappy quality. I will try to fix 'em later.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'll leave you with a pic of me two seconds ago, excited about stewie's big bag of green and red holiday peanut m 'n' ms. That boy's a keeper.

<3

Date #3: A Walk to the Bridge

This is one of the ideas on the list of 100 dates stew and i found on the internet:

"36. Find a bridge and walk across it; the view can't be beat."

 Well, there aren't too many bridges in Tucson (unless you count the Interstate overpasses, which aren't really recommended for pedestrians to walk across), but there are one or two in prescott. While we were up there for thanksgiving last weekend, we went to our favorite coffee shop, cuppers, and then walked downtown to the town square and then a couple blocks over to an abandoned railroad bridge that we used to hang out at/longboard to in high school. You have to climb up a dirt hill to get up to the bridge, but it's pretty cool once you're there. I noticed that since the last time I had been there someone had brought up a little bench to sit on. The view from the bridge isn't spectacular, but it's still fun to be up there. Here are some pics!

Most the leaves had already fallen off the trees, but there were a few that still had some beautiful fall color, like the one above. It was reeeeally cold, with lows in the negatives at night time, but I really enjoyed it! The day stew and I went downtown to the bridge was one of the warmer days, and I actually wanted to take off my sweater and scarf to be more comfortable.

All in all, it was another nice, fun and thankfully cheap date :)

<3

Happy December :)

Hooray, it's december 1st! The day millions of people start their advent calenders, cookie and latke recipes start to take over the food blogs, thick fuzzy jackets start emerging from musty closets, and 18-22 year olds start anxiously counting down the papers, finals, and days until their blissful one month long vacation. I for one cannot wait. I've got 4 full days of school left 3 finals, 2 papers, and one module exam until I get to drive back up to chilly prescott and spend a month doing wonderful, fun, stress free things.

I know I say this about every holiday/month/season, but I love December. I love the holidays, with all the hot cocoa and toasty fires and gift giving and decorating and warm clothing. This year my family is doing a recycled/homemade christmas, meaning we are giving each other things that we either a. make ourselves, b. find at a thrift store, or c. already own but don't want or need anymore. This is very good news for me because I'm majorly broke- and while I don't mind getting expensive presents, I always feel kind of guilty about the money spent and much prefer to get something that is inexpensive but made or bought with love.

So I'm really excited about gift giving this year. I think it will be a great opportunity to spend time being creative and thinking of fun and frugal ideas. Also, it means I'll be able to make a lot of edible gifts! Who doesn't like receiving food as a gift? My head is filled with ideas of little jars of apple butter, trays of whimsically decorated cookies, tins of grasshopper brownies, and little antique bottles of herb and fruit infused vodka or homemade kahlua. Yay food :)

Speaking of all these ideas, I'm going to be doing a twelve days of christmas thing here on GO1000F. Now I did a bit of research to find out exactly when the twelve days of christmas are, and it turns out it's from Dec 25th-Jan 5 (the time between when Jesus was supposedly born and when he was visited by the wise men) but it seems a bit counterproductive to post 12 christmas themed posts in the days immediately following christmas, don't you think? So I'm just going to start on Dec. 14th and finish on the 25th. I don't know exactly what all these posts are going to include, but I can say there will be at least 3 or 4 cookie recipes, some hand made/cheap gifts, maybe a couple christmas movies, and probably some other stuff. haha. Anyways, I hope you stick around to see the stuff I come up with :)

That's all for now, it's time to go make a stir fry dinner and keep playing mahjong (my newest addicting method of procrastination). I'll be back in the next few days with stew and my third date post, a cold-weather/holiday party recipe, and some other things. Happy humpday lovelies!

<3