Veggies At Your Beck & Call

Here's a little tip I learned from a friend:

When you buy celery to use as an ingredient in soups, stews, chicken salad, etc., Chop up the whole bunch of celery and freeze it! It will be ready for you to grab at a moment's notice! You'll only have to get out the knife or chopper and clean up your mess once.

This also works well for carrots (although they tend to brown) bell peppers, hot peppers and onions.

For best results, chop your veggies, place on a sheet pan or tray that is lined with wax paper, parchment or plastic wrap (whatever you have handy) and freeze for an hour or two. Remove veggies to a gallon freezer bag (you may want to double the bag for peppers or onions) and there you have it!

I don't know about you, but I think it sure beats buying celery to make one dish and letting the rest rot in my crisper! I'm stocking my freezer up for the recipes I'll be sharing with you in the next couple of weeks! Make sure you stay tuned!

Cocktail Sauce

This pic is from our fishing trip in Canada this summer. We fried fish a couple of times and they were AWESOME!

Some people like a good tartar sauce with fish, but I prefer cocktail sauce. My recipe follows:

Cocktail Sauce

1 Bottle Chili Sauce (found near the condiments)

2 T Horseradish

1 to 2 tsp Lemon Juice

Generous pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients well. Refrigerate until served. Refrigerate leftovers. Can be stored in refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

Make It from Scratch #30

*Updated* I apologize for some of the links not working this morning. They're fixed now*

There are so many delicious and creative entries this week that I thought I'd get right to it with no beating around the bush!


Ya feelin' crafty???

Y-2K Hippie tells us all about Milk Paint!

Bridget gives us Kids Craft: Making Handmade Soap posted at .."And Miles To Go Before We Sleep...".

Joanie presents Painted faces, a tutorial posted at Nini Makes.

Lara Berch schools us in Collages posted at Lara Berch Tutorial.

You decide, Fused Pendant- Finished or Not? posted at the Michon Jewelry Blog.

Cindy gives us a pattern for an ultra-cute Ribbon Sling Bag at MyRecycledBags.

Delilah shares My Pink T-Shirt posted at her new blog junky love in freehand.

Need a quick clothespin holder? Quilter Mom tells us how she came up with hers in Make it from scratch! posted at The Patchwork of Life.



Ya feelin' hungry???

Joanna made M&M cookie bars posted at Sunflowers in my Kitchen.

GP teaches all about The Chicken or the Egg ? and gives great scrambling tips posted at Fish Creek House - INNside Innkeeping.

Something I have yet to try, The Nourisher presents How to Make Sauerkraut posted at The Nourisher - Editor's Blog.

:: Suzanne :: presents a yummy, easy and colorful fritatta posted at :: adventures in daily living ::.

Heather presents a healthy option to boxed croutons with Cheap and easy: Crispy, crunchy croutons posted at Home Ec 101.

Laura Williams presents Laura Williams' Musings: Slow-Cooked Sloppy Joes posted at Laura Williams' Musings.

Deputyheadmistress presents For the Juicers Among Us posted at The Common Room.

Terry presents An All-American Classic - Mac -n- Cheese posted at Mom On Wheels.

Stephanie presents Canning & Freezing Pumpkin posted at Stop the Ride!.

Loni presents Hashbrown Potato Pancakes posted at Joy in the Morning.

Delilah tells us how I made PUMPKIN stuff from scratch!!! posted at The Miller Way....

Melissa presents Reducipe - Chicken Tortilla Soup posted at A Penny Closer.

I share how I made my own experience making Flat Bread.



Feeling hungry AND crafty???

HowToMe bakes it all in How to make a Custom Birthday Cake posted at HowToMe.

With the 4th installment in her mouthwatering and visually appealing series, Tiffany presents Bento #4 Cucumber Rolls, Shrimp, and Edaname posted at Bento Lunch Box.

Melanie Rimmer presents a unique creation, Bean Sprouts: Alun's Tea Wine posted at Bean Sprouts.

Megan Crow combines recipes and crafts at Budget: Wedding Gift posted at That's Swell.



I don't know about you, but my creative juices are flowing and my tummy is rumbling! Thanks so much for visiting today!

If you haven't already, get started on your entry for next week. Joanna at Sunflowers in my Kitchen is going to be our gracious hostess! You can even submit something you've already posted! Submit your entries at the carnival submission page.

Reminder

Just a quick reminder that I will be hosting the Make It From Scratch Carnival here tomorrow! Be sure to come back and check out all of the awesome entries!

Flat Bread

I wanted to try making my own flat bread. A simple search online turned up dozens of recipes and I decided to try this one. If you don't want to go clicking back and forth, here it is as it appears on the site:

This is a great, easy flat bread recipe that makes a delicious side dish to any meal. These can be used for making pita sandwiches, pizza or pretty much anything.

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups flour
1 cup ice water
3 tablespoons shortening
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of baking soda

PREPARATION:
Combine all ingredients and form into a dough. Cut into 4 or 5 equal pieces. Roll out to a thin 8 inch circle. Prick the surface of the dough with a fork and cook on an oiled hot griddle. Turn with a spatula. Watch these flat bread disks closely because they cook fast. Serve warm.

I've had the recipe laying around for a couple of weeks intending to make them when I got the time. I had my griddle out this morning to make pancakes with my homemade baking mix and I figured it would be a great time to try the flat bread out.

Here is the dough:
It literally only took a couple of minutes to assemble the simple ingredients and make the dough.

The recipe suggests dividing the dough into 4 to 5 equal pieces, but I divided mine into about 6 to make slightly smaller portions.

I set my griddle to about 375 degrees and placed the doughs on one at a time. They cooked up fairly quickly- about 1 minute each.
I enjoyed the taste and got great reviews from Mike and Matthew as well. We just ate it plain to start with, but there are so many possibilities for serving this wonderfully easy bread. My first plan is to make flat bread pizzas with them. What would you use them for?