Yarn Giveaway? Count me in!

Here's an awesome yarn giveaway from lanitiumexmachina! I love the dark color variegation.

Click here to enter the giveaway and click here to check out the breathtaking colors of yarn and fiber in the Etsy shop! A winner will be drawn April 22nd.

 
How fun is this? I just signed up for a free giveaway hop that will be all about green / natural / eco-friendly / sustainable gifts for Mom's Day! Its hard for me to remember that this day honors me too, since my little one is only 14 months old. Our recent tradition has been having Mom over for dinner at our house, but maybe I should lobby for dinner out so I get some pampering too :-) On the other hand, dinner at home can be more relaxing if you take the toddler into account! Hmm, that decision will take some pondering...

Some of my favorite blogs, Happy Mothering, EcoCrazy Mom and Simple City Life are excited to bring you the Green Your Mom Giveaway Hop, which runs from May 1, 2012 12:01 AM EST to May 7, 2012 11:59 PM EST and is accepting signups now. Just click the button above.

Remember to come back May 1st and check out all the great giveaways!

Easter Eggs with Natural Dyes

A search for naturally dyed Easter eggs produces A LOT of results and I think that’s great! It was this blog that got me excited about trying it, since she simplified it into recipes. I love the rich colors! I ended up using things I had on hand in the pantry and the freezer. In brief, I boiled the eggs in 2 cups water, 1 Tablespoon white vinegar, and the coloring material for 11 minutes. Then I removed the eggs, strained the dye into a jar, and replaced the eggs. Finally, I let the jars cool, put them in the fridge for about 20 hours, and drained them, letting the eggs dry on paper towels.

Ready to begin. They all smelled delicious while cooking!

Cooling and looking beautiful in the sunlight.

Happy colors!

Yeah, these are dyes--they stain! Next time I will be more careful.

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 Tablespoon dill seed and 1 cup onion skins--my favorite!

1 cup raspberries (to no effect?) and 3/4 teaspoon turmeric.

I am really happy with the results and I look forward to doing it again. Maybe I won't even wait until next Easter, but will work on perfecting my technique (less mess?).  I would have tried more colors but we didn't have many eggs and no immediate gatherings where they can be eaten and not wasted. 

I wouldn’t want eggs to go to waste and what good are natural dyes if you don’t eat the results? So I ate one! I tried the onion/dill seed since that seems like the least scary flavor. There was a faint taste of dill, which was very nice and the egg was delicious with salt and pepper. Of course I’ve already started burping it, but that’s the price I pay :-)

Yum.

Blue looks slightly less appealing, but there was no blueberry flavor.

The little guy liked 'em! And by liked I mean nibbled, squished, smeared, and threw on the floor :-)

I had a hard time throwing away the dyes, thinking I might use them for dying yarn or cloth. But I really wasn't prepared research-wise and I really didn't have enough time, so I put them down the drain. There are certainly more dying materials where they came from!  There are also MANY resources online for using other natural materials as dyes, like this one. 

Which brings to mind... By Annie Claire is a lovely lady who dyes yarn with plants from her land. You should check out her Spring colors; dyed with horsetail, bracken, mint, and daffodils, they are so sweet! And she's having a yarn giveaway!

Home-Brined Corned Beef

In March, when corned beef is on the brain, I was looking to make my own. I love the taste of corned beef, but I often end up with a headache after I eat it—that and ham. Now it could be that the vast quantity of salt that I’m ingesting is making me dehydrated is giving me a headache. And yet, I don’t get a headache when I eat a half (er, whole?) jar of pickles! That leads me to believe that it’s the sodium nitrite that’s the culprit. Sodium nitrite is used to prevent botulism in preserved meats and gives them a pink color. I wondered if I made corned beef that wasn’t pink if it would still satisfy the craving of my few Irish genes. I found this recipe and gave it a try. I used a rump roast instead of a brisket, I didn’t have any juniper berries, and I only let it brine for 7 days. I boiled it for 3 hours and added carrots, potatoes and cabbage for the last 30 minutes.

The brine smelled delicious.

Ready to go in the fridge for a week.

The meat was good and tender.

The verdict? SALTY! Though the aromatics could be tasted faintly at first, you are then walloped in the kisser with salty beef. Only the distinct flavor of the boiled cabbage helped make it an almost-corned-beef dinner. Not as satisfying as I hoped, but a fun experiment nevertheless. Maybe I will try again next year.   

Oh yes, my mom invited us over for a real corned beef dinner. Did I get a headache? That was several weeks ago and I don’t remember!

I dyed Easter eggs today using things around the house like onion skins, frozen fruit, and spices. I can’t wait to see the results tomorrow..hopefully I'm more punctual writing about it!