DIY: Wine box herb garden

Loved this idea from a blog called Apartment Therapy, and thought I would give it a try with my Little from the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona. Whether you're living in an apartment or just have a really small patio/outdoor area, these wine box herb gardens can add to your outdoor decor and - even more importantly - spice up your cooking!

  



You'll need:


- Wine crates
- Power drill
- Thompson's Water Seal (In a spray can)
- Potting soil
- Herbs - seeds or starter plants

Instructions:

1. To begin with, you'll need to hunt for some wooden boxes that will work for you and the space you're trying to fill. Wine crates are all unique and give your garden a vintage, country feel. I found these 12 bottle crates at Total Wine. They only charged me $4.99 for each!

2. Clean off your crates at home. Remove any price tags, unwanted labels and unruly nails or staples. Take out the separators if your crate came with them.

3. Next, using your power drill and a small drill bit, drill holes for drainage in the bottom of your crates. Space your holes about an inch apart.

 






 4. Wipe down your crates with a damp cloth to remove any saw dust. Make sure the crates are dry, and then apply a heavy coat of Thompson's Water Seal. Allow the crates to dry outside for a full 24 hours.

5. Make sure your crates are set up on a pallet, rack or another crates to allow for proper drainage once your garden is planted.

6. Now it's time to pick and plant your herbs! Head to your local garden center and get some advice from the people there about the herbs you're interesting in and how you should group them. Some herbs need a lot of TLC and others pretty much want to be left alone for the most part. Here's a good guide to getting started with your groupings. 

In our boxes, we chose Rosemary, German Thyme and Oregano for one crate, and Cilantro, Thai Basil and Chive Onions in the other. We also grabbed a Sweet Mint to plant in it's own little pot. The first grouping needs very little water and attention. The second needs a little more care. The important part is to research the herbs and plan accordingly. Most herbs need full sun for at least 6 hours per day.

When planting, also make sure to research how much room they need to grow and thrive within the restrictions of your box garden. It's also a good idea to ask the experts at the garden center for advice on proper drainage and mulching tips.

Choose herbs that you use often in the kitchen. You'll be amazed at how fresh and flavorful herbs from your own garden are and how much they add to your dishes!

Storing garbage bags

I got this wonderful idea from a blog called The Family Handyman. I am always looking for a place to put extra grocery bags to use for later. It's annoying and unsightly to have them hanging on a door or hook that's in the way. When I saw this, I was ecstatic.

You need:

1 empty Kleenex box
4 Damage-free hanging strips (I used Command)
Your grocery bag full of grocery bags






Pretty self-explanatory, but here's what you do:

1. Find a cabinet door to hang your box on. You need one where the box will have enough room and not hit any shelves or anything. A great hidden place is the cabinet under the sink.

2. Stuff all of the grocery bags you've accumulated in the box. If you think it's full, keep going. You can fit a ton in there.

3. Place the hanging strips in the four corners of the back of the box.

4. Press to the inside of the door.

Recipes: Banana Peach Cobbler

Time for an easy apartment/boyfriend-approved dessert to go with our appetizer and dinner recipes! If you're like us, you probably try to eat healthy, and buy fruits and veggies. Unfortunately, the fruit doesn't stick around for long unless you freeze it. Our latest overripe bowl of fruit included a couple of peaches, nectarines and some very questionably mushy bananas.

The peaches gave me an idea: Time for some peach cobbler.

(Fortunately, we also happened to have a half-eaten carton of vanilla ice cream in the freezer, but don't worry... we won't tell anyone if you decide to make a trip to the store to splurge on a new one.)

I decided to be bold and throw the bananas into the mix. The recipe was based on this one from allrecipes.com. We ate cobbler for a week (and no, not just for dessert). Try it and let us know if you enjoyed it as much as we did!


Ingredients:

• 4 peaches/nectarines
• 3 overripe bananas
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, sliced and softened
• 1/4 cup boiling water

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Step 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Step 2. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil on the stove. Blanch your peaches and nectarines by placing them in the boiling water for 30 seconds to a minute. Remove them from the heat. Peel, pit and cut them into thin slices. Chop your mushy bananas.

Step 3. Combine the fruit in a large mixing bowl with 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, lime juice, and cornstarch. Carefully - so as not to make the bananas any mushier, mix with your hands to coat evenly.







Step 4. Spread evenly across the bottom of a 2 quart baking dish. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes.

Step 5. While that's baking, combine flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in the large mixing bowl to make the topping. Add softened butter and combine with your fingertips, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in water until just combined.

Step 6. Remove baking dish from oven, and drop spoonfuls of topping over the fruit. Sprinkle entire cobbler with the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Place pieces of sliced, chilled butter in pockets across the topping. Bake until topping is golden, about 25 minutes.









Ta da!

Chair covers do the trick

An easy way to dress up a room is to give your furniture a makeover. And let me tell you, these chairs needed it. They are really huge, comfy chairs we got from boyfriend's mom. They were perfect for the living room, except for one thing: They're ugly. They have a not-so-exciting Santa Fe style pattern that doesn't really jive with the beachy theme we're going for.
 

So instead of paying to have them reupholstered or doing it myself (since they're still really in good condition), I opted to search for some cheap covers. First I measured the chairs. Generally you want the height, the width from arm to arm and the distance from back to front. In this case, we also wanted to make sure we found something that fits a chair with a T-cushion, so we took the measurements of that as well.






Then we started the hunt. I was looking for a tan canvas-type cover with white piping. We went to Bed, Bath  & Beyond and a few other stores before I found something I really loved online on target.com.

The covers turned out great and the living room "space" (as they call it on HGTV) is really starting to come together:

Recipes: Creamy Shrimp Pasta

Here's another favorite apartment (and boyfriend) -approved recipe that's simple and pairs perfectly with the Texas Toast bruschetta I showed you. This recipe is based on another great one I found from the blog By Stephanie Lynn. It's her spin on Outback's Queensland Chicken and Shrimp Pasta (to die for). I've altered some of the ingredients, but you can add chicken to this recipe as well.

Ingredients:

1 pound of angel hair pasta
1 pound of cocktail shrimp (Peeled, de-veined and tail-off - you can buy frozen and thaw)
1 cup of milk
1 pint of heavy whipping cream
1 garlic clove diced
1/2 teaspoon of Mrs. Dash
1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon of onion powder
1/4 teaspoon of Lawry's seasoned salt
1 cup of chilled white wine good for cooking (I used Challis Lane Chardonnay 2009, but use any wine you'll drink so you can finish the bottle with dinner).
4 tablespoons of butter
Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1. Thaw frozen shrimp in a bowl of cold water:

2. Combine seasonings in a small bowl or Ziplock bag:

3. Diced fresh garlic cloves:

4. In a medium pan combine the heavy cream, milk, and butter. Mix in half of your seasoning mixture, and reduce and thicken by simmering over a medium heat, stirring continuously. Don't let the mixture rise to a boil. Once thickened to your satisfaction, remove from heat and set aside:

5. Cook angel hair pasta, al dente.While the pasta is cooking, place shrimp, white cooking wine, diced garlic and remaining seasoning in another medium pan. Simmer on low:

7. Drain pasta and dish into pasta bowls. Ladle shrimp and thickened cream sauce over bed of pasta. Top with a generous helping of Parmesan cheese. Enjoy! 

Easy DIY: Accent pillow recovered

Since we have some cream colored pillowcases and sheets, I was looking for a way to tie those in with our new bedding and bedroom. I saw this great DIY idea to easily recover an accent pillow on an awesome blog called "Organize & Decorate Everything."








Luckily the boyfriend had an accent pillow from his old bed set that we could easily re-purpose without altering the pillow at all. The best thing about this DIY: No sewing, no gluing, no mess.

I went to Joann's on the hunt for the right material. I was looking for something pliable but sturdy with a light cream/off-white background and some character scrawl and colors to pull together all of the aspects of our bedroom. Our bedding and walls are mostly chocolate and variations of mocha hues, but we also have some black, white and colored accents.

Here's what I found:

For an accent pillow of this size (about 1.5' by 1.5'), 2 yards of fabric worked out really well. 

Step 1. Measure fabric to fold over long ways in thirds:

Step 2. Cut off the excess fabric (cleanly, because you'll find it handy later):

Step 3. Lay the pillow in the middle and fold down the opposite ends - opposite from the way you measured the fabric in thirds. If those ends were on the sides, you'll want to lay our the fabric completely and fold the top and bottom into the center of the pillow:

Step 4. Fold the corners of the sides into triangles like this:

Step 5. Fold both triangles into the middle of the pillow to cover the "seam."

Step 6. Squeeze and twist the ends together. Then tuck the ends in under the flaps. 

Step 7. Take your left over fabric strip and fold it long ways in thirds. Pull through the knot you have already created. 

Step 8. Tie a second knot with the ends of the extra piece of fabric to secure the first knot. 

Step 9. Twist the extra fabric so the knot is hidden and tuck in those ends as well. 

...and you're done!

Recipes: Texas Toast Bruschetta

This is the first of some apartment-approved recipes I want to share with you. This can be a meal for one person, or paired with a meal for a dinner for two. It's so simple and delicious. Feel free to adjust ingredients to fit your taste or preferences!

Ingredients:

Texas Toast (or any frozen garlic bread)
Tomato
Avocado
Onion
Pepper jack cheese slices

Step 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and place garlic bread on a cookie sheet. Bake for 4-5 minutes.

Step 2. While the bread is cooking, chop your onion, and slice your tomatoes and avocado:

Step 3. Pull the bread from the oven and carefully top with tomato, onion, a slice of cheese and slice of avocado. (You can add the avocado last if you want them cool).

Step 4. Place back in the oven for 1 minute to melt the cheese.

Step 5. Plate and enjoy! Pairs wonderfully with any pasta.