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October 2014

Pumpkin Painting 2014

Pumpkin Painting at The Weed Patch

Earlier this Fall we were able to have an epic day. It started with a trip to Craven Farms down in Snohomish. Then we made the trek up to The Plant Farm, a local nursery that we've loved that is closing its doors (*sad*). When we got home, Ben was crazy excited to get started painting his pumpkins.

Pumpkin Painting at The Weed Patch

Pumpkin Painting at The Weed Patch

Before we got to Craven, we explained that we were not going to be purchasing every single pumpkin that we found. Ben insisted that he NEEDED to paint one of every Angry Bird. So we settled on a compromise - he could get the mini pumpkins, and he could get 10 of them. He and Janene dug through the entire field of mini pumpkins and found the perfect ones.

Pumpkin Painting at The Weed Patch

Pumpkin Painting at The Weed Patch

As soon as we got home, Ben vanished to put on some painting clothes, and he set himself up at Janene's art desk. This year was a great learning experience for him, as we covered some technique that gave him better results - he's learning to be patient and to do the job right, instead of rushing through to have a finished "product" that isn't up to par.... *grin*

Pumpkin Painting at The Weed Patch

Pumpkin Painting at The Weed Patch

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Craven Farms Annual Day at the Pumpkin Patch 2014

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

One of the big reasons we made the decision to close our physical storefront and make the move to become an online exclusive retailer is the kids. During the busy season it is always an impossible struggle to simply be there for them - it was not uncommon for us to put in 90-110 hrs / week at the shop, from September through January.

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Despite that, each year we've managed to establish a couple of traditions that we hold very near and dear to our hearts. In the Fall, we go to Craven Farms, not far from us in Snohomish, Washington. We all bundle up and head down to trek through the fields, pose for pictures, check out the animals, and generally make some memories.

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

This year, we actually managed to make it down early (but yes, the blog is pretty late in coming...). It was a spectacularly beautiful day, the kids were super excited and happy, and the memories were stellar. If you saw our "homemade pizza post" - that was how we ended the day that day. Tomorrow's post will show you Ben painting his pumpkins... all the same day. It was a good, good day - and it reaffirmed our reasons for the decisions we've made.

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

Craven Farm Adventures 2014!

We hope you have some traditions of your own, and that this upcoming Christmas season can be a time for making some great memories.

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Local Pickup and Save The Shipping!

Meet Us Locally!

 

When we were closing the store, we promised our local customers we would have a solution to our "in store pickup" option. Many were used to being able to order online and come pick up their order from us, and were interested in being able to continue that with us.

We're so happy to announce that we are now officially offering a "local pickup" again! If you live in Washington State and are willing to meet us somewhere (or, if you are relatively close to us and would like us to drop it off at your home) you can simply select the local pickup option at checkout. We'll get your order together and contact you to arrange a meet.

If you're outside of Washington but will be in the area, contact us and we'll get you figured out!

 

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Marmalade by Judy Havelka (Allure)

Marmalade candles by Judy Havelka are one of the first memories I have of our shop, and I know many of you would say the same.  An absolute household requirement it seems, marmalade candles and rosehips are among the few things that would create a bit of fuss if we ever ran out.  With good reason too!  These just smell SO GOOD.  Everything you want in a warm, spicy, vaguely fruity, country fragrance.  Judy Havelka now goes by the name Allure, but it is the same great candle.

We are fully stocked in marmalade votives, but I wanted also let you know that we have expanded our selection to some new items that you many not be aware of.

Marmaladetarts

Have a wax warmer/tart burner, even one of those Scentsy thingies?  Marmalade comes in wax potpourri!  

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Just break off a square and pop into your warmer to release the fragrance, without the worry of a candle flame.  Same great color and smell, just without a wick!

Marmaladejar

Many have asked for a larger size candle than the mini pillar.  Here we have the Jar Candle!  Comes poured in an elegant reusable glass cup, beautifully packaged in a round black box hot stamped with the logo.  

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Makes a lovely gift!  Depending on conditions, the Jar Candle has a 65+ hour burn time.

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In addition to the scented rosehips, during the fall we also carry the scented pudka pods.  Resembling tiny pumpkins, they are darling!  Use them the same way you'd use the rosehips - displayed in a bowl, glass vase, around a candle in a dish, etc.  Scented in the same marmalade fragrance!

Marmaladepotpourrid

Also during the fall, we have the botanical potpourri.  This is a high quality potpourri folks - no wood chips or random pieces of who-knows-what here.  The marmalade botanical potpourri is made entirely of things you'd find in your kitchen or out in the woods - dried orange slices, bay leaves, star anise, dried citrus peel, and whole cinnamon sticks, all highly scented in the classic marmalade fragrance.  Just like the pudka pods and roseships, it is sold by the cup - we're sure to always include a little of everything in each cup measurement!

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Then we have the old standby, our marmalade rosehips.  Aren't these just pretty?

Marmaladeoil

Need to refresh your potpourri?  Just add a few drops of the Marmalade Refresher Oil.  Judy Havelka/Allure has gone through a few bottle styles over the years, and while this one lacks the country look of old, it is much more efficient.  We found that some of the old bottle styles did not stand up to the highly concentrated oil, and it ate through the dropper lids.  Yikes!  This one is pretty and practical.  You can also place a drop of the refresher oil on a lightbulb, or even on your heat register - anything that has a little warmth that will help release the scent into the air!

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Of course, we can't forget the classic marmalade item - the votive.  Judy Havelka/Allure actually calls this a mini pillar because of it's extra-large size.  Indeed I've had many customers say that they don't even burn these in a candle cup, they just set it out like a pillar candle.  Depending on environmental conditions, the votive candle burns for about 18 hours.

And there you have it!  All the Marmalade you could ever want! :)

 


Homemade Pizza!

Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

Since this school year started, we decided to institute a family pizza night on Friday nights. We enjoy pizza and watch a movie together, and it is loads of fun. But pizza for four once a week can add up, especially for a family with a very tight budget. In a past life, I used to make basic pizza, but I wasn’t sure how homemade pizza would go over with the kiddos. As anyone with kids typically knows, they like what they like, down to the exact flavor and exact brand, no substitutions.

I’m happy to report that our first homemade pizza experience was a complete success in every way. Here’s why it was so great:

  1. Easy - Our 7 year old was able to do about 80% by himself
  2. Fast – it took about 10-15 minutes prep time, and 10-15 minutes in the oven
  3. Tidy – we dirtied exact 5 items in preparing the pizza, including the pan it was baked on
  4. Cost effective – we calculated out the cost of the ingredients that went into the pizza, and compared it with the price of a large pizza at some local pizzerias, and our pizza came out at little less than half the price.
  5. Fun – the kids LOVED the idea of doing it ourselves, and really enjoyed putting on the toppings
  6. Healthy – pizza can be loaded with salt, sugar, preservatives, and other things you want to limit and/or avoid. In making our own pizza, you can control all these things. We used limitedly-processed ingredients, and this is also a great way to sneak veggies into your kid’s diet!
  7. Delicious – homemade pizza is just SO GOOD. It isn’t heavy or greasy or spicy or fatty tasting, as store bought can sometimes be.

Here’s what you need: Frozen or refrigerated pizza dough – Find it in the deli or frozen bread area of your grocery store. Cost seems to range between $3-5 on average. You can also use the pre-made Boboli crust – you won’t have to fuss with rolling it out, but it doesn’t taste nearly as good, plus the ingredient list isn’t as ideal. Frozen dough needs about 4 hours to thaw, or you can thaw overnight in the fridge. In the near future, I plan to try out making my own dough to make this process even more cost effective, but we didn’t have time today.

Tomatoes – this will be your sauce. Choose plum tomatoes, or another “paste” variety, as these have less liquid in them. I use 2 medium tomatoes per one large pizza. In the past, I made pizza using prepared pizza sauce on one and my tomato method on the other, as the crowd I was serving was not thrilled with the thought of anything other than the familiar jarred pizza sauce. In the end, everyone unanimously agreed that the tomato method tasted so much better, and we haven’t bought pizza sauce since.

Cheese - we use mozzarella and some parmesan. You can buy whatever kind you like, pre-shredded or block-style. I was tempted to buy pre-shredded mozzarella to save time, but it was twice the price per pound as block mozzarella. I also timed it - Including the time it took to find the grater, and find/open the new block of cheese, it took less than 2 minutes to shred what we needed for 1 pizza. That is worth saving half the price to me! If you don’t think you’ll use the rest of the block before it goes bad, you can pre-shred and freeze it.
Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

Olive oil & garlic – I usually cook up about ¼ cup of oil and put it in a little glass jar in the fridge to use over time. Plan on using about 1 garlic clove per 1 Tb oil.

Toppings – the sky is the limit: pepperoni, prosciutto, mushrooms, onion, olives, peppers, garlic, spinach, sausage, the kitchen sink, whatever sounds good to you! With each item, you won’t need very much per pizza. If you want green pepper, for example, just ¼ or ½ of a pepper will be plenty. Slice your veggies VERY thinly. Otherwise, in my opinion, they end up tasting a tad dry and undercooked. Another option would be to sauté them a little beforehand. This will release the juices that might make your pizza soggy, and insure they’re fully cooked. Pre-cook any raw meat too, like sausage. You can pre-prep your meat and veggies and store them in the freezer for quick pizza prep!

Here’s what you do:

  1. Slice tomatoes as thinly as possible (a serrated blade like a bread knife makes this a snap). Place on a clean tea towel (or paper towels). Sprinkle with a little salt, and set aside. This will draw moisture out so they don’t make the pizza soggy.

    Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

  2. Roll or pat the pizza dough into a 14-16 inch circle. You can roll with a pin, or just channel your inner Italian mama, pinching and stretching the dough in your hands until it is the right size. You don’t have to treat it gingerly; I beat the heck out of my dough. I often have to set it down to rest halfway through, which helps it stretch out a little better. Sprinkle a little cornmeal on the dough if it is too sticky to work with. When you’re done, sprinkle a little on the pizza pan, then lay on the dough circle. Set aside.

    Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

    Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

  3. Heat olive oil in a small pan over medium heat, and add the garlic (mince or press it). 1 large garlic clove in 1 Tb olive oil will make a enough for several pizzas (or you can use the extra oil for sautéing veggies, using in a salad dressing, etc). Cook for about 30-60 seconds, stirring constantly. Do NOT let it brown (otherwise, start over). Remove from heat.

    Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

  4. Use a pastry brush to brush some of the garlic oil all over the crust, including the edges. If you like a garlicky flavor, include some of the garlic from the oil. For the kiddos, I strained out the cooked garlic, as I wasn’t sure how much they’d like it, and the result was a much more mild garlic flavor.

    Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

  5. Place tomato slices in a single layer over crust, leaving about ½ inch border.

    Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

    Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

  6. Evenly spread shredded cheese next. It doesn’t take as much as you might think, remember it melts. We used about 5 oz worth of mozzarella and parmesan, and it was very cheesy.

    Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

  7. Place your chosen toppings next. Start with a little of each chosen topping. Just take care to not weight the pizza down so much it gets soggy. My kids just like olives and pineapple (gross), and we used about half a can of whole olives that we sliced, and only about ¼ can of pineapple. Cheese alone is delicious, but I also love Italian sausage, mushrooms, and onions shaved SUPER thin.

    Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

  8. Bake pizza in a pre-heated 450 degree oven, and check it in about 10 minutes. The pizza dough package says it takes 8-12 minutes to cook, but our olive/pineapple pizza took 17 minutes before it was done to my liking: bubbling evenly over the entire surface, the cheese had several browned spots, and the crust lifted easily from the pan. Pay attention to the center of the crust, as you want to make sure that it cooks all the way to the center and isn’t soggy there.

    Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

That’s it! I know, that’s a lot of text for something that is supposedly so easy, but I am an overly-detailed person by nature, and I tend to over-instruct. Hopefully you find it helpful, and decide to give it a try! I seriously don’t know why I’d ever plunk down $20 for a store bought pizza again. This was just SO GOOD, cost a ton less, and wasn’t as time consuming as I ever thought. If you try it, let us know how it turns out, and what toppings you used!

Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch

Recipe: Homemade Pizza at The Weed Patch


Tuna & Rice Casserole

Recipe: Tuna and Rice Casserole at The Weed Patch

With fall officially being here, and the kiddos back to school, it just seems time for something that is both homey as well as quick. As is usual with most of my recipes, I threw this together with what I have on hand – measurements are not that important, and there’s lots of room for substitutions.

This is basically tuna noodle casserole. Except that I had cooked rice on hand, so we used rice. You may certainly cook up some egg noodles and use that instead. If you want to use rice, but are in a time crunch, you can use the ready-made kind, like the boil-in-bag.

You may also certainly use a can of cream-of-something soup instead of making the sauce from scratch like I did here, but I make it myself for a number of reasons – 1. It tastes better homemade, 2. It is healthier (Campbell’s has MSG in it, not to mention the salt content), 3. I already have the ingredients on hand, so why buy what I don’t need, and 4. It really doesn’t take very long, so why not? You can also make this gluten-free by substituting a gluten-free flour for the regular flour.

OK, on to the recipe! Here’s what you need:

  • Cooked white rice, about 3 cups or so (we use Calrose, comes in a bag, makes a wonderful sticky-style rice; you can substitute cooked egg noodles)
  • Tuna, white albacore packed in water, 1 6oz can, drained (can sub canned chicken, or rotisserie chicken)
  • Frozen green peas, 1/3 cup or so
  • Roasted almonds, chopped up a bit, 1/3 cup or so (You can sub slivered almonds, this is just what I had. If you don’t want to use nuts, celery diced small would also add nice crunch. I just wanted the extra protein of the almonds)
  • Garlic, 3 cloves, minced
  • White or yellow onion, about ½ of a large one, diced small
  • Button mushrooms, about 4-5 large ones, diced
  • Olive oil, ¼ cup (I know, that seems like a lot, but you’re using it for the roux, not just for cooking the veggies)
  • All-purpose flour, ¼ cup
  • Lower-sodium broth, 1 cup (I used beef, as that’s what I had – chicken or veggie works too)
  • Milk, 1 cup (cream is good too!)
  • Green Onions, 2 or 3, white/light green parts only, sliced thinly
  • Fresh parmesan cheese, about ¼ cup, plus more for sprinkling on top (you can use a different kind of cheese, it’ll just change the flavor a bit; cheddar would probably be yummy)
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (I hate it when people say “to taste,” because what the heck does that mean anyway? Really, I mean just mix up the sauce, taste it, and add however much salt/pepper you want. I added very little salt, but I love pepper. Do what you like!)

Directions:

  1. Dump the cooked rice, tuna (or chicken), green peas (don’t need to be thawed or anything, just dump them in), and almonds into a large mixing bowl. Stir it up, making sure to break up any large lumps of rice or meat.
  2. Heat the ¼ cup olive oil over medium high heat in a 10 inch skillet. Add the onions and mushrooms, sauté until softened (but not browned), about 4 minutes. Add the minced garlic, and stir constantly for about 30 seconds.
  3. Reduce heat to medium, and stir in the flour. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon for about 2 minutes or so to cook up the roux nicely, so it doesn’t taste like raw flour.
  4. Increase heat to medium high and add the broth and milk. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat a bit and let it cook until thickened, about 4 minutes. Stir semi-constantly, so it doesn’t burn. Be sure to scrape up those browned bits off the bottom, that’s your flavor!
  5. Stir in the cheese until melted, then taste it. Add salt, if necessary, and some fresh ground pepper. Stir in the green onions.
  6. Stir the sauce into your bowl of rice mixture. Mix it up well, and then pour into a casserole dish. I used a 7 x 11 inch size, and I did not grease it. Sprinkle some extra cheese on top.
  7. Bake at 350 degrees for about a half hour. Check after 20 minutes – if it is browning too much on top, cover it with some foil.

Sit back and enjoy a cozy comfort food dinner! What's your favorite comfort food dinner for the fall season?

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New Hearthside Plates

We've been getting in a TON of decorative plates and signs from The Hearthside Collection, so I thought I'd show off a few today.

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Love and Ribbon Square Plate

This is a Michelle Kildow design, and features painted "ribbon" around the rim and a heart in the center, with lovey-dovey squishy-huggy text inside.

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Trust Distressed Plates

This is a set of three plates designed by Barbara Lloyd, in a popular black and tan color palette.  They read:  "God's greatest work is when he created the family," "You never know how strong you are until being string is the only choice you have," "I made all of this out of nothing, trust me I can take care of you."

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Boo Burlap Halloween Plate

Here's something fun for fall.  These plates are sold separately, so you can choose which one you want.  They are classic hand-painted Hearthside-style, but they are also accented with little banners of burlap fabric.

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Sneaky Snowman Plate

For a Christmas offering, here's a fun and simple snowman plate!  It is part of an assortment of three plates designed by Michelle Kildow, and again they are sold separately so you can choose which one you want.  Shown in the Grey background plate - we also have a mustard/tan, and burgundy.

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Dreams Distressed Plates, Set/3

Here's another great set from Barbara Lloyd.  Sold as a set of three, they read:  "You are what you do today, not what you say you'll do tomorrow," "Have big dreams, you will grow into them," and "Life - Take the scenic route." 

So, that's just a few of what we've put online lately.  There's tons more, and I've been trying to get at least a dozen or so online each day.  So, literally every day you should see something new!  We have many customers that like to give Hearthside plates and signs as gifts for Christmas, so I'm trying to get everything up as early as possible.

Stay tuned for more! :)


Sparkling Hands

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We have been opening some fun things in the last few weeks, and I wanted to share something with you today - super fun creepy hands, perfect with Halloween coming up this month!  I'm not really sure what they're made of - they're pretty hard, yet slightly flexible too.  

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Not sure if it is a resin or a heavy plastic, but the fact that they are a little substantial adds some variety to what you can do with them.  Someone told me that she saw them mounted to a wall once - the back is slightly hollow, so you can sort of hook them into a screw or hook on the wall, and hang something from them, like a sign, a scarf, or ornament.  

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You can set one on a shelf as a decorative accent, or you can place it palm up and put something nestled in it.  Comes in either black or silver, and is covered in super-fine sparkly glitter.  They look really shriveled and sinewy, and were slightly creepy to open up, but the glitter, as it always does, makes everything all better. :)  You can pick up your own hand here.

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It's kind of fun thinking of all the creative things you can do with these hands - what can you come up with??