Autumn Wreath

So I had a slight panic attack a few days before Thanksgiving because I had so much to do, and I still didn't feel like what we had going on in the house was welcoming enough for the season. So, what did I do? I added about ten more crafts and do-it-yourself projects onto my already long list of things to do. In the end everything worked out, but it made the days leading up to T-Day a little more hectic.

One of the projects that I made was and autumn wreath. We have been needing a seasonal wreath all fall, and I chose to make one at the end. It was pretty inexpensive and easy, so it was well worth only a week or so of display before it goes into storage until next fall.

Here is the final result. Below is the how to for the fabric flowers.

I first found two "fallish" fabrics. I chose burlap and a white canvas-like (but not as thick or expensive) fabric. For both fabrics, I actually just used what I had left over from making table placemats. Cut the fabric into rounds pieces. You can play around with the sizes, but for the wreath, I wanted to bigger pieces. The circles I used were a little smaller than the size of my palm.

To start the flower, take one of the circles, pinch the center and pull the outsides up.

Hot-glue the center to another round piece of fabric. Keep adding more and more pieces until you feel like your rose is full.

Voila!

I added the fabric flowers to some faux fall flowers that I got on sale at Jo-Ann's for about 5 bucks. I also found the twig wreath at Jo-Ann's for $7 and the welcome sign which I spray painted white for $3. Since I used the scraps of fabric I already had, the whole wreath costs me about $15, and only took about half an hour to assemble from start to finish.

I very fall-like welcoming wreath for the front door. Now I just have to figure out what I am going to do for a Christmas/winter wreath. Hopefully I can get this one done more than a few weeks before the end of the season. : )

Until next time...

Thanksgiving 2011

When the blog is quiet, life is not. It has been a while since my last post, but the Zerizef household has been bustling. We had my sister, her boyfriend, Nabil's uncle Greg, and a few friends over for Thanksgiving dinner. I have been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the last six years. I started cooking when we couldn't afford to go back to Wyo for fall break my junior year of college. I hosted the "Thanksgiving for Lost Souls" and invited all of our friends who also could not go home. Since then, I have perfected the art of the cooking turkey, and not to brag, but my turkey is amazing. Juicy and delicious! ...sorry I'm not giving away any turkey secrets this year.

This is the only pic of the turkey I got this year. : (

I feel a little bad for Nabil's sister, Nora, and my sister, Sydney, because as of right now, I have no intention of not cooking Thanksgivingdinner, ever. I will secede Christmas, but I love cooking for Thanksgiving. I start looking forward to it about two months beforehand. We eat appetizers all day while watching football, and eat dinner around real dinner time. I have no idea why most people eat dinner in the early afternoon. It is my favorite day of the year, and I want to spread it out as long as possible. : )

Since I was busy cooking and preparing, I couldn't get too many pictures but if you check out my good friend Brooke's blog, she will likely post her pictures soon.

Fall flowers at the table



I made the placemats myself (how-to to follow), and everyone got a jar of homemade apple butter to take home.

The tablescape

Nabil, Sydney, and Jacob getting a pre-turkey nap.

Another pic of the centerpiece flowers.

Luke chilling with the pups while we're waiting for the turkey.

I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving as well! Nabil and I have had kind of a rough year this year. We are both in the middle of our "quarter life crisis". Trying to figure out our next career moves has not been easy, but we still have so much to be thankful for. While our career path is frustrating right now, we both have jobs which many people can't say this year. We also have great friends and family who give us unconditional support. Most of all though, this year (as with every year), I am so thankful to have a husband who I love so much and who has been my unyielding support system for the last nine years. He is incredibly intelligent, hard-working, and loyal and I am so thankful that he picked me. I am one lucky lady.

Kale Chips

Believe it or not, the Zerizef family has a few food weaknesses, one of which happens to be chips. We love chips! Chips and salsa can literally be a Wednesday night dinner (on a bad week). We have been trying to layoff, because apparently they are not very good for you. What?! Who knew.

One of Nabil's friends from work told us about making kale chips. I didn't even know what kale was until last summer when our friends Brooke and Luke made it in their garden. Apparently Wyoming doesn't get any kind of green out of the norm. Anyway, we tried them, and they were awesome. Crispy, crunchy, and very healthy! We may even turn to kale chips all the time.

This is what kale looks like. Turns out you can get it at the grocery store.

These were also very simple to make. I all did was take the stems off the leafy greens, tear them into smaller pieces (making sure the thick stem pieces were not included), spread them out on the baking sheet, sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and oven roasted them on 350 until crispy.

Yum!

I know that this sounds a little weird, but it was delicious and super easy.

Until next time...

Banana Oat Pancakes

Ummm... These pancakes were so delicious. Nabil even got seconds ...and thirds! I got the base of the recipe from Epicurious, but I changed it a bit to fit what was in the fridge and to cut down on the cals. Enjoy!

1 1/4 C wheat unbleached flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 C old-fashioned oats

1 1/4 C Almond Milk

3 medium mashed ripe bananas
2 large eggs, beaten to blend

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
a pinch of fresh ground nutmeg

Mix first three ingredients in a small bowl with a fork and set aside. Combine oats and milk in large bowl. Let stand until oats are soft, about 15 minutes. Mix in mashed bananas, eggs and cinnamon. Gradually stir in dry mixture (batter will be very thick).

Preheat oven to 250°F (to keep cakes warm while cooking second and third batch). Spray skillet with olive oil or Pam to prevent sticking. Heat burner to medium-low heat. Using generous (aprox. 1/4 cup) batter for each pancake. Cook pancakes until brown on bottom and some bubbles begin to break around edges, about 3 minutes. Turn pancakes over. Cook until brown on bottom and firm to touch in center, about 3 minutes (pancakes will be thick). Transfer pancakes to baking sheet; place in oven to keep warm. Serve pancakes with syrup and, if desired, berries, bananas, or powdered sugar.

Update (02/26): I recently used this recipe but added a few other fruits. To do this I used the same recipe (I only had one large banana, but if I had another I would have used it as well) and added a handful of different berries to the batter before cooking.

 
It is a great way to add another serving of fruit to an already healthy/hearty breakfast. I prefer the taste to strawberry, but both options were delish.

Enjoy!!

Until next time...

Lazy Hazy Fall Weekend

This past weekend was the best kind of weekend. It was relaxing, but we also didn't sit in front of the TV all day. We were productive but able to recover from the work week, and most importantly, we were able to wear out the dog. Nabil was able to work on one of our house projects (blog update on this when it is finally finished), and I was able to make some yummy fall food (posts to follow later this week). We also had a couple gorgeous fall mornings so I was able to get some great fall shots. You guessed it. This post is a quick photo diary of our wekend. Beware, there are a lot of Zizou pictures in this post.

One of the good things about renting is that we don't have to rake up all the leaves. And with five trees in our backyard, that is a great thing. We call the 'ol landlords when all the leaves have fallen, and goodbye leaves. Until then, we have a ton in the side yard. Zizou has a great time playing with them all.

What a cute little face.

So many leavesto munch!

Awww

Cutest dog ever!

taking a little nap behind the child gate

and then taking a little nap with dad

Sunday I made bananna oat pancakes (recipe in the next post)

Sunday Nabil had his soccer game so Zizou and Olive had a chance to wrestle.

It is the sweetest thing when they share water

...and on to the soccer game.

Nabil glaying in the gaps. They never stood a chance.

My good friend Brooke watching the pups and making sure they behave.

Halftime Huddle

Josh running circles around blue.

...just a little offside

Zizou ended the game in timeout.

Spicy Chicken Chili

During the week, I'm all about quick and easy meals. We try our best to eat healthy, but when things get hectic and crazy being healthy is tromped by feasibility. I recently found this recipe on Pinterest, and it turned out to be delicious, healthy, and super easy. Perfect for a weekday dinner. There was even quite a bit left over for lunches and future frozen meals. Here is what I did:

1 chopped onion

1 can (16 oz) kidney beans

1 can (16 oz) black beans

1 can (16 oz) tomato sauce (one 8 oz can will make it less soupy)

2 cans (~ 30oz) diced tomatoes with green chillies

1 can whole corn kernels (drained)

1 packet taco seasoning

1 T cumin

1 T chili powder (cut this in half if you don't like spice)

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Place all ingredients in the crock pot and stir. Make sure chicken breast are on top. Cook on low for 10 hours, or on high 6 hours. About half and hour before serving, take the chicken out and shred with two forks. It is so tender, it will easily pull apart. Place shredded pieces back in the pot and stir. That's it! Enjoy. : )

Apple Cinnamon Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

There are a few things that are indicatively true about having an abundance if apples in the fall. Number one, they make a great ingredient for fall desserts, and two, they are made better with caramel. Okay, that last part I just added because I love caramel. Seriously, what isn't made better with caramel? The answer that you are looking for is nothing. Caramel can make anything better. In fact, tonight I just botched a sweet pumpkin dip recipe, and I may just add a little caramel to make it edible.

Back to the apples. I do have an abundance of apples after going to Sauvie Island a few weeks ago, so I needed something to make that seemed fallish. We all know I have a giant sweet tooth that is the size of my entire mouth, so a dessert seemed to be the obvious choice. My mom makes a fabulous bread puddling which I have been meaning to make, but I decided to update the recipe a bit with apples instead of raisins. It turned out amazing.  I will definitely log this in the keeper pile. Below is the how to. It is actually pretty simple although it seems intensive.

Here is the inspiration for the recipe. Apples and cinnamon bread.

What you will need:

Bread pudding
2/3 of a loaf of cinnamon bread (you may also use Texas toast or french bread) cut into 1-inch squares
4 whole eggs (I took out 1.5 of the yolks to make myself feel healthier)
1C sugar
4C Almond Milk (you may also use whole milk)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

Sauteed Apples
2 large seasonal apples (granny smith works best if you are getting them out of season)
2 T butter
2 T brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Caramel Sauce
1/2 C butter
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C heavy whipping cream

To start, mix all ingredients except the bread in a large mixing bowl. In a large bowl, pour the mixture over the cubed bread (shown below). Fold the bread using your hands or a large wooden spoon until all the pieces are soaked. Let this sit for about half an hour. In the mean time, saute the apples.

To saute the apples you will first need them pealed and cut into thin slices. I like to cut them with the hole in the middle, but you can do whatever you'd like. Over medium heat, melt butter and brown sugar. Once melted at the apple slices. Saute until the apples are soft. It is necessary to stir often.

You can assemble the pudding into layers. If you are baking a big dish (i.e. 9x9 pan) add half of your bread, then half of the apples. Add the remainder of the bread mixture and then the last of the apples on top. I used individual baking dishes. If this is the case, use the same assembly, but make sure to even the liquidy and chunky pieces between dishes. Once assembles it should look like this:

At this point, you can either bake it right away, or keep it in the fridge overnight. To cook, bake on 350 for 45-60 minutes or until the top is golden brown. When the dish has about 20 minutes left, make the caramel sauce to allow for time to cool.

To make the caramel sauce, add all ingredients in a sauce pan. Let boil for four minutes or until mixture starts to slightly thicken stirring frequently. Then, let cool. I had no idea it was this easy to make caramel before making this recipe. It was so easy to make this, I will probably never buy caramel again. I was so good too! I kept what was left over in the fridge and used it for ice cream sauce. Okay, technically, the sauce didn't make it that far. I actually used it for finger sauce...

Some of these ramekins I waited for 24 hours to bake. I just left them in the fridge, and I have to tell you, I think they were better the next day. I think waiting for the bread to fully soak is the trick. It is more custardy, so if that is what you like in bread pudding, it was worth the wait. This was great with just the caramel sauce, but it would also be good with a bit of vanilla ice cream on top.

Yum!

Until next time...

Occupy Portland

Don't worry, this post isn't a political stance. We all know that I can go off for a few days on my feelings about the Occupy movement, but for the blog's purposes, I won't. Since my audience is few, I will not divert anyone away. However, no matter where you lie on the spectrum of politics, you cannot deny that this is a powerful movement. Tens of thousands of people from all over the country have come together for one purpose. They are in different cities, but stand united to have their voices heard. They may be a little unorganized, and kinda smelly (it has been three weeks of camping in the park). Last week I ventured downtown to check out the happenings.

This post is simply a window to view a piece of the movement, Occupy Portland. The first group of photos are from the park camp ground. The next are from one of the rallies downtown.

The entrance to the park.

The outside of the park. 

They have an entire community; a first aid tent, a wellness center, a community garden, etc.

The community theater

I have to be honest, going through the camp was a little... interesting. There seemed to be a limited assortment of people. Tents and free food seemed to attract quite a big homeless group. The rally had a much wider range of people.

The beginning of the rally. People are greater than money.

There was quite a few labor and union groups at this rally.

"A CEO makes more money in 3 hours than I do in a Year... I'm the 99%"

V for Vendetta

A few people got together to donate money to make enough signs for the group, all 7,000 of them. This was one of the signs.

This is the line of police bicycles at the end of the rally. Just in case.

...until next time.