kitchen « ((little fat notebook))

Posts Tagged ‘kitchen’

Spiralizer

laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: kitchen, lifestyle, pictures

22 November 2015

One of the things I’ve wanted to get was a spiralizer to make zoodles. I’m so excited that I have this now! I’ve been spiraling cucumbers for a chilled appetizer and it’s so much fun. I look forward to cooking up some zucchini soon!

Homegrown Collective May 2014 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: food, greenbox, homegrown collective, kitchen, olive oil, pictures, products, projects, vinegar

04 June 2014

Woo hoo, the main projects of this box will be most welcome with some bread! I love carbs of all kinds, but especially a nice piece of bread dipped in olive oil and vinegar. I didn’t realize it at first, but the grapes part of the theme is referring to the balsamic vinegar! I just never made that connection before. These projects are super easy and I can’t wait to outfit my kitchen with more awesome gear.

The Homegrown Collective GREENBOX is $39 per box + $9 shipping (or as discounted as $429 for an entire year, with options in between) and comes with fun and easy projects to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program you can apply to join.

Project #1, foot soak & scrub: I could totally use a good foot treatment. My poor feet are always abused and achy. I love how this remedy for softer feet is so good it’s basically edible! Using the olive oil and something granular, like salt or sugar, I can scrub my feet and soothe them. Then a combination of herbs and salt in hot water make for a healing soak. They included a pumice stone so I can really smooth out those heels. This is going on my list of things to do this weekend, for sure.

Project #2, olive oil & vinegar infusion: The focus of these sheets is definitely more towards the oil infusion and I’m more used to seeing infused olive oil. I don’t really know which herbs might work well with vinegar, so I’m hesitant to try that. I’ll have to do some research and see if their blog provides more insight on that front! When it comes to the olive oil, the possibilities are teeming! I don’t want to go crazy mixing too many flavors, but gosh I want to have all sorts of goodies in there. I’ll have to make a few batches and see what combo I enjoy most. [update: check out the completed project!]

Can I just say I was super excited about the adorable strainer and the bottles?! Thank you Homegrown Collective for providing me with all the kitchen extras I could hope for! I don’t know if these count as two or three projects, but I look forward to them all. I get so happy about the knick knacks and the concept of the projects that I don’t even care about the value so much. After seeing the info card about infusion, I wish they’d also included a project for making a salve, ointment, or rub!

Ready to embark on your own green project adventure? Subscribe to the Homegrown Collective now to join in the fun!

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Homegrown Collective April 2014 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: boxes, condiments, fermentation, food, homegrown collective, ketchup, kitchen, mustard, pictures, products, reviews, subscriptions

02 May 2014

How did the end of the month come up so fast?! Work has really got me off-kilter and I totally didn’t expect this box yesterday. I sure hope I recover enough over the weekend to get one of these projects going. I had no idea that ketchup and mustard were fermented items (though I wonder if the ones with preservatives are still fermented), which I’m kind of fascinated by. I love fermented stuff!!

Project #1, chipotle ketchup: This is what ketchup is made of?! I’ve been completely clueless this whole time and it never occurred to me that it could be fermented. I’m totally intrigued by this fermentation jar too, which is a funny-looking contraption. I’m not generally a ketchup fan, but chipotle ketchup sounds wonderful and making it myself means I’d totally eat it. It’ll be great to have some around the house to use so we don’t need those packets.

Project #2, spicy mustard: Well gosh, I learn some much from all this, like how mustard is good for you. I learned to enjoy mustard a couple of years back when I saw my dad always getting it and now I’m a fan too. Panda and I could certainly use some probiotics in our lives, so I’m excited about this and I’ll start with this fermentation process as soon as I figure out how to accomplish this without a blender (or I might just decide to get a blender…). Recipe calls for 4 cloves of garlic, but I only had three left after divvying the other two to the ketchup project, but I have plenty of garlic from my Blue Apron box, so I’ll use that. [Edit: Errr so I totally had a brain fart and thought they meant a head of garlic when they said clove… as I was making the mustard I suddenly realized how preposterous four whole heads of garlic would be for that recipe and it dawned on me that they actually provided way more garlic for future use!!]

This was another month with only two projects. Perhaps this time it was a space issue? Whatever the case, I love the stuff we did get and it’s so cool to learn about condiments I thought I knew. I’ve always wanted to try making my own pickles, kimchi, and other fermented foods. I’ll have to look up some instructions for those too. 🙂 Here’s the info card about fermentation:

Awaken your inner scientist, crafter, and environmentalist! Get your own fun projects and subscribe to the Homegrown Collective today. It’s totally mind-blowing.

Homegrown Collective March 2014 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: boxes, cheese, cutting, food, homegrown collective, kitchen, knife, knives, panda, pictures, products, reviews, subscriptions

09 April 2014

You know, I’ve been wondering about the dry spell in sub boxes lately and I thought this GREENBOX should have arrived awhile ago. Whatever the case, I’m pleased to have received it today. This month’s cheese theme is very intriguing.

Project #1, knife sharpening: I love this! I’ve never sharpened my own knives before, but I’m sure I could use them better if I did. It’s also nice to get another knife since sharing one with Panda can get tricky when we’re both trying to cook in the kitchen. I’m going to have fun with this one. For some reason it makes me feel like a Japanese sushi chef. I’m sure the gloves and goggles will also come handy in other work around the house in the future.

Project #2, mozzarella cheese-making: I’m generally not that into cheese, but I’ve been getting into it more. This is a perfect chance to explore that type of food and feel like a scientist in the process. I’m also really glad to have a thermometer I can use for food, so I can check the temperature of meat I cook in the future! I’ve never owned this pen-looking type of food thermometer before and I feel so professional just having it. I also had no idea herbs can go into mozzarella cheese, so I’m curious how that will affect the taste.

No third project this time (a first). I wonder if it was because it was hard to keep with the theme or if the costs of all this was already reaching the value they could afford to send. No matter! Onto the info card talking about cheese for this month’s theme:

To get your own awesome green projects, subscribe to the Homegrown Collective today. You’ll feel so much craftier!

365great Day 274: kitchen islands

laelene Posted in 365great，Tags: 365great, condo, features, kitchen, pictures

13 December 2013

My favorite feature about a kitchen is generally whether it has an island. Ever since the house in LA, I’ve enjoyed having one as a gathering spot. I like how you can stand, lean, or sit by it/at it. It’s the type of setup where you can hang out casually and spend time in other people’s company. Of course, being in the kitchen is also a fabulous location within any building – you can eat or drink while connecting with others. I love the little island we get at our condo and I can’t wait to see how we use the space. It’s going to be great!

365great Day 200: loofahs

laelene Posted in 365great，Tags: 365great, beauty, cleaning, eco-friendly, green, health, home, kitchen, nature, pictures, plants, products

30 September 2013

I love loofahs. If you don’t decide to eat them you can just let them dry out and boom, you’ve got yourself a wonderful exfoliating sponge. Not only can you wash your skin with it, it makes for a perfect sponge to clean dishes with. So take your pick on how you choose to use it and then when you’re done just bury it in the ground! A beautifully natural tool for bath and kitchen that will compost away and create no waste when it’s time to get a new one. You can even save the seeds from them to plant yourself for a never-ending supply. Now that’s a great thing.

Homegrown Collective August 2013 projects

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: activities, alfalfa, bath, boxes, chocolate, food, fruits, fun, green tea, homegrown collective, kitchen, lavender, pampering, pictures, relaxing, seeds, snacks, spa, sprouts, subscriptions, treats

17 September 2013

Are you ready to see the results of my Homegrown Collective August box?! I sure had a ton of fun with it. 🙂

the homegrown collective august 2013 products for growing alfalfa sprouts with instruction sheet

I started off with the alfalfa sprouts project.

pile of alfalfa seeds in layer at bottom of glass ball jar

I put in just enough to cover the bottom of the jar.

pile of alfalfa seeds submerged in water in glass ball jar

I then filled with plenty of water to submerge them, though I had some floaters.

collage of alfalfa seeds submerged in water after one day then getting water strained out

The next day, the water had browned and I poured it out. It was hard to get the screen on underneath the lid! It’s a tight fit. I rolled the jar and shook it so the seeds got spread around.

collage of alfalfa seeds sprouted in glass ball jar after two days

By the third day, they’d sprouted! I was so surprised I actually gasped out loud when I saw it.

collage of alfalfa sprouts growing in glass ball jar

On the fourth day they continued to grow and I tried to get the remaining seeds to sprout by giving them more space.

collage of alfalfa sprouts growing in glass ball jar filling area

By the fifth day, I noticed that they had orientated themselves upwards even though there was no sun where I kept them. Guess they just knew which way is up!

collage of alfalfa sprouts full grown in glass ball jar and removed

Just six days in and they were definitely full grown and ready to come out. I let the brown seed covers float up and dumped them out.

tray of full grown alfalfa sprouts with green heads after getting sunlight

I then let them sit out in the sun and the heads went from yellow to green. Ready to eat! I had some but gosh, this was waaay more than I could handle.

the homegrown collective august 2013 products for making green tea & lavender epsom salt bath soak with instruction sheet

Next up was a lovely bath soak to pamper myself!

pile of green tea mixed with fresh lavender for bath soak in muslin bag

I put together a few scoops of green tea and some lavender flowers in the muslin bag and mixed them up.

collage of green tea and lavender bath soak with epsom salts and muslin bag filled with tea and lavender flowers in tub

I ran really hot water, put in epsom salts that quickly dissolved, let the tea bag sit in the running water, and then let the bag float around the tub.

green tea leaves and lavender flowers emptied from inside of muslin bag

After my relaxing soak, I flipped the bag inside out to get the tea out, rinsed the rest off, and let it dry for next time.

the homegrown collective august 2013 products for dark chocolate pomegranate wonder cup snacks with instruction sheet

Finally, I got around to trying the pomegranate chocolate cups!

collage of steps to peel pomegranate from cutting skin to removing seeds and soaking in water

It was a slow process ensuring I got the seeds out as whole as possible, but I was rewarded with a nice pile of them.

collage of melting chocolate, drying pomegranate seeds, and putting pomegranate seeds into paper cups

I don’t have a double boiler, so I melted the chocolate with a bowl in the pot. I boiled the water too much and water got in, but it turned out ok. I nearly forgot to pat dry the seeds before putting them in the cups!

collage of melted chocolate and pomegranate seeds then pouring chocolate over the seeds in paper cups

I poured the melted chocolate over the seeds and just about overfilled the cups. I generously sprinkled the salt flakes on top and put it all the in fridge. It came out looking not much different and tasted fantastic, even with my messed up chocolate.

silicone cat-shaped ice cube tray with pomegranate seeds inside

I decided to have some fun with it and make some with my cat-shaped ice cube tray! I accidentally messed up the chocolate again so it didn’t turn out to well, but I’m totally trying again later. Nom!!

So what do you think? Jealous yet? 😉 I loved each of these projects and will definitely be doing them again. I’m also looking forward to the upcoming box!!

If you’re interested in getting it yourself, sign up here!