Thrifting

Welcome to Thrifty Thursday Friday! Yeah, I'm a little behind this week. But I can explain! I had a dentist appointment after work yesterday, then I came home to paint the upstairs hallway and thought I'd broken something because the lights wouldn't turn on. I checked the breakers and nothing was flipped. Turns out I was just being dumb - but I needed Tom to come home and tell me that. The lights are on a 3-way switch and the other switch was sitting at the halfway mark. Super easy fix. So it was after 11pm when I finished painting and pulling down tape. But it looks good! It even makes the boring beige carpet look good. What a team player.

Had enough of my excuses? On to my finds this week.

I'm loving this framed mirror. Seven dollars. It's at least two feet square. I walked by it once but I didn't have a cart so I pretended I didn't even see it and just gave it the side eye. Do you do that? There was another lady close by who did have a cart and I didn't want her to know I was interested in it. I'm pretty sure it paid off because when I got my cart and came back she was still there. I know that was disappointment in her eyes as I loaded it up.

I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do with it, whether to paint it or just leave it. I don't even know where I'm going to put it. With my other mirrors hanging out in the spare room? Shhhhhh.

There was a whole shelf of these mdf picture frames. Probably 20 or 30 frames. I took 9 of them. I'm going to arrange them 3 x 3 on a wall in the basement tv room, once it's painted. I think they'll have black and white vacation photos in them. The frames will probably end up white as I'm going for a beachy look for the whole room.

How sweet is this planter, bowl, pedestal, whatchamacallit? I think it was something like two dollars. 

It's a substantial size and really has presence. I'm going to fill it with either a drapey plant, or fruit. Not drapey fruit though, just regular fruit. :-)


Three of Tom's relatives liked the wreath I made for his mom for Mother's Day so much that they asked me to make wreaths for them as well. My first commission! I've been collecting materials over the last month or so and I think I have everything I need. I'm going to use this picture frame and wreath together for one, but I'm not telling you anything else - it's a secret.

I also snagged some paperbacks and another frame for our living room gallery wall. The gallery that might have pictures in it some day. It's on the list, really!

Have you been thrifting lately? Any good finds? I kind of want to go to the Re-store tomorrow but I don't know if I'm pushing my luck with Tom. With the combination of things we bought while in Pennsylvania and my recent thrift store outings, the place is starting to look like a warehouse.

Holy Guacamole!

I know, not the most original title, right? But this recipe is going to change your life! Okay, not really, but it is pretty darn good.

Let me tell you a little story -

There once was a girl who hated guacamole. She avoided it at all costs. It was wet and slimy and mushy. It had no right to call itself food. She wouldn't even eat avocado (which really limited her sushi choices).

Then she started following the Paleo way of eating, and guacamole was something that everyone in the Paleo-know was touting as the ideal snack.  It was full of healthy fat, fibre, and vitamin K, C, and E. She started to think about trying it again, but just thinking about it. No promises were made.

Nearly a year went by and the girl found herself at a mexican restaurant while on vacation. And there she saw guacamole on her plate. She decided to take the plunge. And guess what? She liked it!

Fast forward a week and she had some avocados in her possession, a recipe in hand, and a party to go to where she was in charge of bringing veggie snacks.

She made the guacamole. It was so good she wants to make more. Every day.

The end.


Ummm, that girl was me. (I'm not sure if you figured that out.)

Here is my first attempt at making guacamole. Along the way I learned that while rock-hard abs are good, rock-hard avocados are not. And I got to witness first-hand how an avocado pit reacts with a metal knife (spoiler - it's like something out of a horror movie.)

You'll need:

1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper (or other pepper of your choice), seeds removed, finely chopped
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
4 ripe avocados
3 tablespoons of lemon or lime juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder (or cayenne if you like it hot)
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
salt & pepper to taste

I think what appeals to me are all of the "extras" that are added. I also considered mushrooms and celery. You could even add chopped nuts for a bit of crunch.

You'll want to prep all of your other ingredients before you cut up the avocado. Avocado reacts with air very quickly and will start to turn brown so you want to keep it as fresh as possible.

Once everything else is ready, you can cut up the avocado one of two ways. You can cut it in half, take out the pit, and then scoop the flesh out and into a plastic or glass bowl. Ours weren't ripe yet so that didn't work for us. We had to peel the skin, remove the pit, and then chop up the avocado.

If your avocado isn't ripe enough, you can heat it in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, until it softens up. We ended up heating ours quite a bit and it was still firmer and drier than what you'd see in a restaurant. But remember that story waaaaay up at the top? I was happy it wasn't all mushy.

Add the lime juice into the bowl and mash the avocado with a wooden or plastic spoon. Make it as smooth or as chunky as you'd like.

Add in the cilantro, cumin, chili powder, garlic, salt, & pepper. Mix well. Then add in the onions and peppers. Mix again. Taste it and decide if you want to add more seasoning. Lastly, add the tomatoes and stir gently.

Chill for at least 15 minutes. You can chill your guacamole too if you want.

We had already made cinnamon tortilla chips for some fruit salsa so we just made some extra with parmesan cheese instead of cinnamon.(And honestly, I liked the taste of the cinnamon with the guacamole better.)

Take a 10" round tortilla and brush it with melted butter or spray it with butter-flavoured spray.

I combined sugar and cinnamon and put them in an empty spice shaker bottle. Shake the sugar-cinnamon mixture all over the tortilla, but don't get too heavy-handed.

Take a pizza cutter or a knife and cut the tortilla into bite-sized pieces. Lay them out flat on a cookie sheet and bake them in the oven for 8-10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and let cool.

If making savoury chips instead of sweet, just substitute parmesan, garlic, herbs, or any other spice you favour.

Pull out that fabulous guacamole you just made and enjoy!

You want to know about the pit and the knife though, don't you?  Any place the knife cut the pit would turn bright red within minutes. It looked like it had little cuts all over it that were ready to drip blood. Cree-pee.

Don't think about that any more. Think about puppies and rainbows. And rock-hard abs.

~~~~~

I'm linking up here this week!

Re-use and Re-purpose

Saw this on Mlkshk today.  

source

Pink plastic flamingos! Chandeliers!

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.