Salad Dressing Snob

Oh, for a salad.

Oh yeah! Now that's a salad!

I love a garden salad.  It is one of my very favorite foods.  Ranch is my favorite kind of dressing but I have a problem with store bought varieties.  I think it's the preservitives I can taste but I don't know.  I know I don't like it though so I make my own.  This is what I have been putting in most recently:

Ranch Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup Greek yogurt

oregano

onion powder

dried parsley

minced garlic

paprika

ground red pepper

salt

pepper

I just start putting spices in the mayo and yogurt blend until it tastes good.

Pumpkin Pancakes

I used the rest of the pumpkin patch pumpkin to make divine Pumpkin Pancakes. They were really unbelievably good - and I don't always care for pancakes.

The recipe came from ALL NEW Square Foot Gardening Cookbook by Mel Bartholomew.

Garden Inspiration #1

I really like this stone path.

We spent a bit enjoying Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah about a week ago.
I found this interesting:

And upon closer inspection of a few of the trees:

Already?  I love planning ahead!

Lollipop Costume

Have you ever seen a lollipop run? We had a fun Halloween.

I sewed the leggings and the lollipop itself. I also used a hot glue gun on the twists to save time. But yes, it did still take longer to make than it was worn.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I used my pumpkin patch pumpkin to make enough of Jennifer's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III from allrecipes.com to eat as many as I wanted and have some leftover to freeze for another day.

Yum.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III

Ingredients

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Water Bottle Soap Molds

I think I can find a use for anything. I try hard not to because then I end out saving stuff that I will never get around to making so it really isn't useful. I end out saving trash. This is a time when I did end out using my trash for something useful - and it can still be recycled when I'm done. I cut the top off a water bottle (this one is actually a milk container but it works the same) and poured my soap in and put it to bed. After a couple of days, I had this:

I used a blade to carefully cut the plastic off the soap,

sliced it up and put it away to cure.

Girl Style #2

One of my favorites:

One of my favorites:

Wild Oats

I found a big bag of oats. I mean big. 50 pounds big. And it was less than $20. I had my husband with me and asked him to grab it for us. He looked puzzled, got a little crook in his smile and said "What are we, horses?" He's seen big bags of oats like that were indeed, for horses. It's all right. He'll appreciate these oats. We will use them often not only for oatmeal but for a couple of our regular recipes: Magic Meatloaf and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I'll share the recipes later. Now I'll share how I handled this big bag of wild oats.

Yes, that's right. I tamed those oats into Ziploc bags and they are patiently waiting in our pantry to be eaten. I'm looking forward to it.