Ketchup Catsup Catch Up

I'm a little late in posting this, but last week I made homemade ketchup.
I know, awesome, right? And you're thinking, 'I didn't know you could make ketchup at home!'
Well, you can. And it is so crazy easy, you'll wonder why you haven't been doing it all along.

I didn't make up the recipe. I borrowed it from here.  One day I will actually make my own recipe to suit my own preferences, but for now, this recipe is pretty good.
Recipe below the fold...

Halloween Silhouettes DIY

Around June or July every year, I get the craft bug. And not just any craft bug. The Halloween craft bug. I want to make things to decorate for my favorite holiday of the year.

One year, I made gravestones.
Another, I made witch's legs. (I need to do this again as I've lost my legs (ha ha) when I moved.)
I've made Black Cat signs.

And so on and so forth.
This year, I decided to make three signs. All silhouettes. For Halloween.
Super simple and easy- you can do it, too!

Three wooden plaques from Hobby Lobby (Gosh I love that store!!)
White and Black paint
Brushes
Scissors
Images to trace

I've Got a Blueberry for a Daughter

Well, not really. She's more of a lemon pie- half sweet, half tart, but always delivers.
I was really referring to Willy Wonka, the 1974 version. My favorite. I mean, Johnny Depp is awesome and all, but Gene Wilder will always be Wonka to me. (Violet! You're turning violet, Violet!) Okay, enough with the Wonk-isms.

So- I was pinteresting the other day, and came across a recipe for 2-ingredient lemon squares.  And I thought, I like lemon, but what would happen if I made blueberry instead?  Would it turn out the same?
Or would it blow up because blueberries have some secret chemical in them that when it encounters Angel Food cake mix just goes KaBooM!??! (I don't think they do, but you never know!)

What are the two simple ingredients?

Tomato Basil Garlic Chicken

I am still on my pesto kick except this time, I am not even bothering to blend the ingredients into traditional pesto. Nope. I'm going directly for the ingredients and calling it awesome.

Tomato, Basil & Garlic come together in this beautiful dish.

In this episode of Rave's Pesto Habit, I give you Tomato, Basil, Garlic Chicken, with a whole wheat spaghetti as the delivery method for the pseudo-pesto goodness. Oh can I tell you how delicious this was? Grau said it was 'a keeper' for the recipe book. I love it when he says that. It means I did good!

Pesto Habit

I am on such a pesto kick lately. Seriously- I want everything to have pesto on it- and garlic basil pesto at that. I mean, wouldn't life be so much tastier and happy if it had more garlic and basil in it? Not to mention how healthy it would be! (Of course, I can settle for randomly placed pinata's around to beat on as needed throughout the day, but I digress.)

I'm trying to grow my own basil to support my habit.  Alas I seem to have a black thumb....or the sun rises in the wrong spot. I'm going with it's the sun's fault because really how could I, the lover of all things natural, kill something like a small leafy green such as basil?

But dead it seems to be. Sigh. That just goes to show that my once virent thumb is now a faded memory.  And that just hurts. Really it does. Because some years ago I had 21 plants in my living room alone. That's not counting the plants I had in the planters outside or in the kitchen. Nope. 21 in the living room. I was the Green Queen.

Of course, it could have something to do with forgetting I planted it and therefore it received no water...outta sight, outta mind. I should really put a sign in my window, 'Water the plant, dumbass!' and maybe I can keep the next plant living. Whatcha think?

Pesto Kielbasa Pasta

Go ahead- say that three times fast! Pesto Kielbasa Pasta, Pesto Kielbasa Pasta, Pesto...oh whatever. You get the idea.

I ran across this recipe while surfing the interwebs a few weeks ago. It seemed simple enough but you know me, let's find a simplier way, right?
The original recipe called for added basil, and some oregano, garlic powder and salt & pepper. I thought? Why go through all that trouble? So I made it easier, and slightly healthier, too. Because you know I'm all about the healthy (ok, quit laughing....).