Lockwood Farm: Lockwood Farm Online Market - Coming Soon!

As most of you know, I am addicted to lavender. This news couldn't be more welcome!!!! Lockwood Lavender Farm will soon have an online market!  I can't wait for this!!!!

Finally a direct source for some wonderful lavender products.

"Watch for more information on our online market! Coming Soon!"

Santa Fe Green Chile Chicken Stew

I know that for those of you who haven't lived in the southwest as long as I have, this may not be a treat, but if you've lived in New Mexico for any time at all, you have probably become addicted to green chile.

It's a proven fact that the stuff is addictive! REALLY!

We've recently moved away from NM, and while we've had a few friends make sure we don't run dry in the fresh/frozen green chile department, we do have to ration ourselves.  Tonight we're getting ready to make Santa Fe Green Chile Chicken Stew.

You start with a pot of water and some chicken. This time we're using just breasts, but if I find a few whole chickens on sale, that'll work too.  Throw in some carrots, celery, onion (with the skins on to maximize favor and color), a little bay leaf and some pepper and start the cooking process.

It really helps if you have a great stewpot like this one my hubby got for me. When I'm ready, I just pull up the handles of the strainer part, let it drain, and all the brothy goodness is still in the pan!  Great idea.




Pull the chicken off the bones.  You want to make sure you don't overcook the chicken.  Put the bones and skin back in the pot and cook for another hour or two. Be sure to refrigerate the chicken that you pulled off the bones until you're ready to put the stew together.

Here's what it looks like after the second simmer session.

Time to add the roasted green chile.

Make a roux of flour and butter, brown it just a little.

Add to the hot broth and whisk furiously until it returns to a boil.  This is lookin' pretty yummy!

Add the chicken meat back in.

Add the green chile that's been cleaned and chopped.

Warm up some tortillas and settle down for some down home New Mexican goodness.

Bueno!

Reposting from One Simple Country Girl's Blog - Faux Caramel Apples

 A very special thanks to Donna for allowing me to repost this really fun project.  It's fall, it's apple time, and who doesn't just LOVE caramel apples? 

Doesn't this look delicious?????

Here is Donna's site.  She has a wonderful blog.  I'm sure she'd love to have you visit!

http://onesimplecountrygirl.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-tuesday-faux-caramel-apples.html

If you want to have caramel apples on display all the time without worrying about an ant invasion in your home, here's the project for you.  I'm on my way out for some supplies!  Thank you Donna!  I appreciate your generosity.
 

How to Tuesday ~ Faux Caramel Apples

Hey everybody! Whew, I am tuckered out! I really enjoy these long weekends, but it is killer going back to work on Tuesday. One of my jobs is opening and distributing the mail and I also have to do the daily deposit. Well, let me tell ya, having four days worth of mail to do in one day takes forever!!!! Not to mention all the checks I have to sort and batch up. So needless to say, I pay dearly for that coveted holiday break!

When I showed y'all my faux caramel apples, I had a couple of people ask me to do a tutorial on them. I know that most of y'all already know how to do these, but I'm gonna post a tutorial on how I did mine, because it's my blog and I'll post whatever I want! LOL!

Here are the supplies I used: faux green apples (I got mine at Wal-Mart for $1.00 a piece. I've also seen them at the Dollar Tree), craft sticks or popsicle sticks, tan colored craft paint, a plastic bowl with lid, a plastic spoon, Mod Podge Matte Glue, corn cob liter, freezer paper, clear treat bags, and pretty fall themed ribbon.



Step 1: Cut a small slit in the apple where the stem is. I used an ordinary steak knife for this step. You don't have to cut a deep hole. I just stuck the knife in and pushed it slightly. Just be careful!!



Step 2: Insert craft sticks into the hole you just made.



Step 3: Mix glue with the paint in a plastic bowl or plastic cup with the plastic spoon. I used an old Cool Whip bowl because I wanted to keep the leftover mixture to do more apples later and the glue/paint mixture won't dry out if it's covered. The amounts of each you will use will vary depending on how many apples you are doing. For the three I did, I used about 1/3 bottle of glue and just squirted a glob of the paint in. Stir together until well blended. You can add more paint if you want your "caramel" to be darker. Just note: the glue/paint mixture will dry darker on the apples than it appears in your bowl so keep that in mind.



Step 4: Tear off a piece of wax paper big enough to set your apples on and to catch excess drippage. Place each apple on the wax paper and using your plastic spoon, spoon your paint mixture over the top of the apple starting at the craft stick. Let the paint run down the sides of the apple, leaving some of the green showing. I recommend doing a couple of layers because if you just do one layer of the paint mixture, it will dry somewhat transparent. Two layers seem to work pretty good.



Step 5: Take a handful of the cob liter and sprinkle on each apple. These are your "nuts". I had a hard time finding this item locally. I ended up finding it at a Wal Mart in another town in the pet section. I tried using some small aquarium gravel before I found the cob liter, but it didn't look right and was too heavy for the apples. So if you can't find the liter at your Wal Mart, I'd suggest checking with a pet store or maybe a vet's office to see if they can help you. If anybody has any other ideas on what would be good to use for the "nuts", I'd love to hear them!







Step 6: Tear off a fresh piece of wax paper and transfer your apples to it to let them set up and dry for at least 24 hours. Cause if you don't, this is what you will end up with:



Step 7: Once your apples are dry, you are done! I put mine in a clear treat bag and tied them up with some pretty ribbon and a hang tag I made.

Don't touch yet, they're still sticky!

I'd love to know if anyone else makes these!!!  

Hugs,

Kit

The Last of the Fall Harvest

Here are some photos of my son heading out to the garden for breakfast.

These raised beds really can produce!

Getting a closer look.

Gotcha!  Yellow Pear tomatoes and a handful of fresh basil...for a breakfast omelet!

There's really no better way to start the day, is there?

Great Resource for Lavender Lovers!

The following blog posting is from a wonderful lavender farm back in New York.  I so love lavender that I wanted to share my new find with you!

<3

Kit

Lockwood Farm: How to Propagate Lavender

Lockwood Farm: How to Propagate Lavender: "We thought we would try a little experiment this fall in propagating lavender and starting them in a cold frame. Lavender can be pr..."

Summer's Over, Autumn's Here

I've finally located some of the photos from my garden that show some of my favorite late summer and autumn flowers and findings.

These pics were taken the last summer I lived in my beloved log house on the ridge-line in the mountains of New Mexico.

It won't take a genius to discover what my favorite flower is...here they are, my Morning Glories!

Glorious!

 

My Buddy

Just a very quick post today as I'm swamped with assignments...but here's my daughter's cat, O'Malley.  When she's working or at school he becomes very lonely and wants companionship.  As a Maine Coon, he's a dog trapped in a cat's body and he wants to sleep where I'm working. Usually right on TOP of what I'm working on.  Can you resist this face?

Shhh....he's sleeping!

Decorating My Office

Hope whispers Trust

(The tag is missing on the winter fairie)

Bliss whispers Love

We've lived in our new home now for about 18 months. I did paint my office a beautiful "Pond" color...the Eddie Bauer line at Lowe's. A great change from the typical white that I found to be completely uninspiring.

Now, I'm pulling out a few items that make me smile when I look at them. Here are three fairies that I have from the Oregon artist, Colleen Sohn at Canterbury Lane.

Aren't these beautiful?

I adore dolls, and especially love fairies. These are beautifully homespun, and I adore them. I find them to be inspiring, when the rest of the world is working in HTML, and CSS and RSS, and CMS, etc.

 Now, when I need inspiration I listen for the whisper of the fairies and once again there is a smile back on my face and I'm moving forward.

Hugs,

Auntie Kit

Treating Myself to a Pretty Notebook

A Decorated Notebook - Right now this one is my absolute favorite.  I don't know why I love vintage, and lace, and postmarks, and stamps, but I really, really do.  I have such fun making these, and in using them. I feel really privileged when I write in this notebook.  This one I'm using to keep my Auntie Kit and Cousins Blog ideas...How do you like that?  You have your very own special notebook, and it is my favorite! (at least for now...)

Here are the four notebooks that I created that day.  I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!  I feel so much better when I use something that means something to me.  If you're interested, I can post instructions (complete with pics) when I do my next set of notebooks.  Four won't keep me for long, so let me know and I'll be happy to do that with you!

I used to be so utilitarian...but then I discovered how very nice it felt to treat myself to something nice.  I became acquainted with scrapbooking, just about the same time the entire world did, and yet I didn't jump on that bandwagon.

I suspect that I'm actually afraid of getting sucked in, buying too many (more) things that I don't need, spending money that probably should go to buying shoes for my children...OK, so they can probably buy their own shoes now, but you get my drift.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE scrapbooking. I adore looking at finished pages that my friends show me.  I will even go to an occasional scrapbooking party.  But I just can't bring myself to jump on board.

What I WILL do, however, is I will decorate a note book.

I guess I can't quite see why I would spend three hours creating a beautiful scrapbook page that I will only look at for a few seconds each time I flip through a photo album.  But, if I decorate something that I USE every day, then those three hours will be a tangible extension of that creative side of me that tries to hide from time to time.

Here are four notebooks that I created. (Yes, I created them at a scrapbooking party...I will tell the truth, I was supposed to be scrapbooking, but I was SO interested in getting this project done that I simply could NOT stop working on it. I hope my friends forgive me and will continue to love me anyway...)

And not only did I create that one at the scrapbooking party, but I finished a couple others.  Actually, I should go ahead and get photos of those so that you can see that my six hours spent was quite productive. There...photos shot, not the best, but why procrastinate?

Here are closeups of three of the four notebooks I created that day (the closeup of the fourth one is at the top of this blog):

This one was done with a vintage photo, a scrapbooking background page (see, I did SOME scrapbooking), and then the edging is from a napkin with this border.  I just liked how it turned out.

This one didn't come out as well as I had expected.  It was my last one of the day, and maybe it just isn't quite done.  That isn't keeping me from using it!  I LOVE my decorated notebooks!

This notebook was created from some wine napkins that I absolutely adored.  They decoupaged beautifully in place, and then I just crafted the Wine Notes label.  We've recently gone to some wine tasting sessions and the only way I can keep track of things is to take notes.  I used to bring a big spiral-bound notebook, but the presenters always looked so alarmed when I did that...making a smaller, more discrete and tasteful notebook has done wonders in allaying their fears!