A Note From Zabrina.

Trees: Painting in my studio again.

I started my art studio back up. My kids are gone, married and moved away. My two grand babies are in New York, so my life is in a better place where I can break out the old paint and brushes again. I love to paint. I'm a abstract artist. I love all art styles, but I find that this type of abstract tends to full my passion for color. I adore watercolor but I'm afraid I rather suck at it. I stick with oils and acrylics mostly. I'm doing trees and colors right now. I'm playing with birds as well but my birds end up looking like cartoons, sadly.

I'll keep brushing away at ideas until I come up with something grand.

Busy Day.

What a week of busy work in my kitchen. I wanted to show some pictures of my canning progress so far.

Colorful sweet peppers, Dill Pickles, and Banana Peppers. yay!! Next week, I'll can tomatoes and pumpkin. Note: I should have used gloves to cut the peppers. My finger nails were on fire for two days after I canned two dozen pickled banana peppers. You can bet I wont do that again. Have a wonderful day. Zabrina

DIY Raised Flower Bed For My Small Garden.

We live in Georgia and my yard is nothing but red clay. It's not dirt, it's not soil. Planting a garden in the red clay just does not work. We have to import soil and this just washes away with every rain. A good location for a garden would be right off my deck, away from the dog's yard. We have a ton of bird and rabbits but I'm pretty sure a raised flower bed would still work. Talking to other gardeners in our area I have few ideas now of my own to makes two raised bed which would be easy to put together ( meaning by myself ) Everything you will need you can get at the Home Depot store. Home Depot will cut all the wood for you right there which makes this project super easy to put together. You will need:
32 three inch decking screws.
2 4x4 by 8 non-pressure treated posts: cut into 9 inch sections. you will need
8 3 10x12 foot non- pressure treated boards. Cut one board into 4 three foot section cut the other two boards in half making 4 six foot sections. You will have wood left over. This will make you two six foot raised flower beds. Having them cut at Home Depot makes it easy to get your wood supplies back home. I'm using non-pressure treated wood because I want to use wood that has not been treated with chemicals that will likely end up in my food. twelve bags of top soil in each box with two additional bags of peat moss mixed in. Each box will need 2 three foot boards for the ends and 2 six foot boards for the sides. You'll need 4 of your 9 inch 4 x 4 post for the insides. Use your deck screws to put the box together. Power tools for great for this project. Each bed took me 10 min to put together.

For a last min project two months late, I'm pretty happy over all with how it all turn out. Next spring I'll be ready to have these two boxes filled to the brim with seedlings ready to grow. I might even add another two boxes.

Gluten Free Oatmeal Flax seed Cookies, with White chocolate chips and Cranberries

I love trying to come up with new recipes. Going Gluten Free has it's challanges but I'm always trying to come up with new ideas for the family. Using flax seeds crushed and milled has been an easy adjustment. Using milled flax seeds tastes better and you don't get seeds stuck between your teeth. Recipe 1 Cup Butter ( 2 sticks, room temperature) 2 large eggs (room temperature) 1 Cup of Brown Sugar 1/2 Cup granulated sugar 1 tsp vanilla Cream wet ingredients together in your standing mixer. Dry: 1 1/2 Cups of Pamela's Gluten Free baking mix 2 1/2 Cups oat meal 1/2 Cups Milled Flax Seed. 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp Baking Soda Mix dry in a separate bowl, mix well. 1 Cup white chocolate Chips 1/2 dried cranberries Blend wet ingredients together until creamy, slowly add dry. When mixed together add white chocolate chips and cranberries. Set oven to 325 degrees. I use a cookie scoop to make my cookies. Bake cookie on a cookie sheet. Oven 325 degrees, bake cookies for 12 to 14 mins, and cool on cooking rack.

I have to add that I really like the complement of white chocolate chips and cranberries together in this recipe. I'm calling this my new favorite grown-up cookie. I hope you love this as much as I do.

Dave's French Onion Soup. (GF)

My Husband loves French Onion Soup. For our 27 Wedding Anniversary this year I think I'll make his favorite soup for lunch. Here's how I make this really easy dish. I use my large french cooking cast iron pot. You'll need about 4 large onions, sliced evenly. and a stick of butter. Cook the onions until carmelized ( almost a brown color) This takes about 35 mins and you have to keep stirring. I add about 2 tablespoons of white sugar to speed up the browning process.
When my onions are brownish golden I add 2 tablespoons of oat flour ( keeping it gluten free) and stir the flour to mix it well. I then add 2/3 cup red wine ( I use a really nice Chabernet Sauvlgnon) but you can use what ever you like. Stir around and then add 1 box of beef broth, any brand. Stir and cook for another 20 mins. I cut up GF sour dough bread into cubes and taosted, and then added them to to top of the soup bowl with lots of swiss cheese to go on top. I put the soup under the broiler for a few mins until nice and bubbley brown and then it's ready to serve. See! I told ya it's that easy. Happy Anniversary sweety.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.

Wishing you all a very special Thanksgiving from us to you.