Tiny Kitchen Tales: Apple Chips

It's fall in Washington and that means that apples are in abundance. So I took a few of mine that were verging on going bad and attempted to turn them into apple chips -yum. These were pretty easy to make -just slice 'em up really thinly, soak them in some water and apple juice and various spices (cinnamon, nutmeg) for ten minutes, strain, lay flat on a baking sheet (if you have a cooling rack, put the apples on that on top of the baking sheet), and bake in the oven at 200 degrees for a good while. Make sure you flip them and keep an eye on them. I flipped mine every ten to fifteen minutes. They're tasty!

Simplifying

I'm moving soon (again, I know) and in preparation for that, I'm trying to really analyze what I have vs. what I need. I've been inspired to do this by quite a few things. That Kind of Woman and Bleubird Vintage are two blogs I follow whose aesthetic I am in love with. Here are a few things I'm doing to weed out the unnecessary:

1. Buffalo Exchange: I've been whittling down my wardrobe to the things that I wear most. This has consisted of taking the things that I no longer wear but still have a good life left in them to Buffalo Exchange, selling my clothes for store credit and using said credit to procure new/used clothes that have more longevity to them. Classic pieces.
2. De-Cluttering: This project I've barely started on but I'm one of those people who has a desk that gets piled with papers FAST. Everything from junk mail, bills, homework, handouts, doodles -they all end up on my desk. A big challenge once I make my way through the slough will be keeping that mess at bay more permanently.
3. Cleaning Up: It's so simple. Just cleaning up after myself has really helped me to see where there I have excess of something. Soon I'll get around to donating some of those ne'er used items to Goodwill.

In the meantime, here are some of the minimalistic spaces that have been inspiring me. Maybe you'll de-clutter too!

All of these were found on That Kind of Woman's blog. Be sure to check out Bleubird Vintage as well as the Free People blog -they're worth the gander.

XO

Tiny Kitchen Tales: Banana Bread

So, I've decided to start a small feature on this blog called Tiny Kitchen Tales. My new apartment has a kitchen with approximately one square foot of counter space. When I moved in, I bought a baking sheet and had to return it because it was too big for my mini oven. Tiny Kitchen. Todays culinary adventure is a classic breakfast staple: banana bread. I've got a thing with bananas where I'll only eat them when they're on the verge of being ripe (still kind of green) and once they're all yellow, I won't touch them. It's a quirk but it makes for quite a few opportunities to make banana bread. So here goes.

If you want to make this you'll need:

• 3 or 4 smashed ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon (or fork), mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Let cool and enjoy! (I made my with 1/2 a cup melted butter... so tasty.)

Creatures

So I've been back home for about the last week and I've been surrounded by more animals than just my sister's dog. We've got horses and a cat at my house (I grew up on a ranch of sorts) and my best friend took me to the county fair last night where there were steers, pigs, ducks, turkeys, lambs, and goats. We spent a lot of time around the pigs -her little brother had to show one for auction. They're very intelligent creatures. 

Charley

My sister has the most fantastic dog. Her name is Charley.