Some Colors to Show

Larger Wine Rack: Turquoise

Smaller Wine Rack: Hunter Green

Storage or Shoe Bench: Rustic Old Wood

Important: Please keep in mind that our reclaimed wood comes from various sources and does not necessarily always mean antique wood nor is it always the exact color shown in the listing. Reclaimed wood can vary in color, knots, holes, etc., which is out of our control. All our painted and stained pieces are made from pine wood unless otherwise noted and all painted colors come distressed.

Merry and Bright

Christmas was a quiet time of celebration with our family.  We played games and ate good food and just hung out.  Today was more slow paced which was nice.  I got to sleep in a little longer than usual and then went to the gym for a workout.  Came home and packaged up some orders for shipment and got them off on their way to their new homes. 

Tomorrow will be fun!  I'm excited because we're going with family and friends to our favorite restaurant in Santa Rosa, Bistro 29.  Our good friend's son, Brian, is the owner/chef.  I've mentioned it in another post before.  Delicious comfort food with a nice and relaxing atmosphere with accommodating waitstaff. 

I want to take this moment to say thank you!  We've had a blessed year with our business, Honey's Treasures on Etsy.  My new jewelry cabinet design proved to be a popular item in the shop throughout the year and for Christmas gifts.

There are a few new ideas for furniture pieces and shelving floating around in my head which I'm hoping to get on paper for Michael and have made to add to the shop in 2015.  Fingers crossed. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Michael and Lisa xoxo

Amber Glow

As you can see, it's garbage day tomorrow.  I guess I should've positioned my camera at a different angle. lol

Last Christmas I didn't put up a tree or anything.  In fact, I have a whole attic full of Christmas decorations.  Boxes and boxes of them, it's kinda crazy.  I used to be obsessed with the whole decorating thing and I do miss it.  It's a whole lotta work though and last year I didn't do anything and this year I told Michael that I wasn't going to put up a tree again.  He seemed fine with it until he got up in the attic and grabbed these three woodland trees and brought them down.  Then I knew.  He wanted Christmas in the house. 

I'm really not a bah humbug person, I just don't feel like doing the work of it all.  I have enough work to do.  So I stopped off at Michael's (the craft store) after gym this morning and purchased two boxes of amber lights.  I didn't want bright white.  I wanted mellow yellow.  Now that it's up, I'm okay with it and it is kind of pretty.  Better than not having any tree or decorations up.  At least we have a little.  A little holiday glow.

Sweet Potato Pie with Streusel Topping

For Christmas in 1993 my mom gave me a cookbook by Better Homes and Gardens called Heritage of America Cookbook.  I've kept it in my collection all these years because it has a many beautiful pictures and a lot of interesting history about the early years of cooking in America and where a lot of recipes originated.  Some recipes familiar to me, others not so much.  Every now and then I would pull it off the shelf and read the stories and go through some of the recipes.

Only recently have I begun making some things from it, testing it out.  After all these years.  Only twenty-one years!  ;-)

Here's a new favorite recipe of mine.  I've made it using almonds for the streusel each time.

Sweet Potato Pie with Hazelnut Streusel Topping

1 pound sweet potatoes

1/4 cup butter

Cornmeal Pastry (recipe follows)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tbsp. finely shredded orange peel
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
3 slightly beaten eggs
1 cup half-and-half or light cream
Hazelnut Streusel Topping (recipe follows)

Peel sweet potatoes, cut off woody ends and portions.  Cut into quarters.  Cook, covered, in enough boiling salted water to cover for 25 to 35 minutes until tender.  Add butter to hot potatoes and mash and stir.  You should have 1 1/2 cups mashed sweet potatoes with butter melted in.

Meanwhile, prepare Cornmeal Pastry.  Roll dough into a 12 inch circle and ease into a 9 inch pie plate.  Trim and flute edges.  Do not prick pastry.

For filling: Add brown sugar, orange peel, and spices to potatoes.  Stir in eggs and half-and-half.  Place pastry shell on the oven rack and pour in the filling.  Cover edge of pie with foil strips.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Remove foil.  Sprinkle top of pie with streusel topping.  Bake another 20 to 25 minutes more until knife inserted near center comes out clean.  Cool.  Serves 8.

Cornmeal Pastry:  Mix 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal, 1 Tbsp. sugar, and 1/4 tsp. salt.  Cut in 1/3 cup butter or coconut oil until the size of small peas.  Sprinkle 3 to 5 Tbsp. cold water, 1 Tbsp. at a time with a fork until all moistened.  Form into a ball.

Hazelnut Streusel Topping:  Mix 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg.  Cut in 2 Tbsp. butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir in 1/4 cup chopped, toasted hazelnuts or almonds.

Nutrition information per serving:  456 calories.  7 g protein, 52 g carbohydrate, 25 g total fat, (6 gram saturated) 91 mg cholesterol, 214 mg sodium, 341 mg potassium.

Note:  Since I'm counting my calories and don't want to deprive myself, I cut the pie slices in smaller pieces.  I get 16 slices out of one pie.  Oh, don't forget the whipped cream!

Oak Tree Cabinet in a Taller Size.

Oak Tree Cabinet shown HERE.

Rain Baby

Rainy Thursday.  I've been wanting it to rain for the longest longest longest time.  Sigh.  It's so nice to have some colder weather...and wet.  I love wearing my boots! 

Climbed out of bed fairly early this morning, excited to go workout at the gym.  It feels soooo good to workout and I'm pushing myself harder than ever.  Getting stronger!

Decided to make a pot of homemade chicken and rice soup today and that's simmering in the crock pot now.  Filling the house up with a delicious aroma.  It's going to be some homemade goodness.  I'm not following a recipe, just winging it, which is what I normally do with soups and stews.  I usually (not always) use what I have on hand in the pantry and frig.  Afterward, when it's one of those really awesome dishes, I usually will ask myself, 'Okay, now what did you put in there?'  And I have to grab a notepad to write down the list of ingredients I used as I'm eating it.  That happened recently when I made a pot of chili beans.  I only used a small handful of things and it turned out super duper good.  Michael said not to forget that one and so far, I haven't.

Can you believe next week is Thanksgiving? 

Ninja Cooking System

Link Here.

My daughter and son in law had us over for dinner recently and they cooked chicken tacos in this cook system.  I was curious because I'd never heard of it.  It sounded like a good product and my daughter likes hers.  

I went on Amazon the other day and ordered one.  Tonight I'm cooking in it for the first time, making Lemon Rosemary Chicken.  It has stove top saute, steam, bake, and buffet warming.  You can layer meals, such as cook your meat, vegetables and rice all in one.   

So far, it smells really good and I'm cooking a 6 pound chicken in 1.5 hours.

Oh, one thing I should warn you about if you're thinking of getting one.  You really need to have the unit somewhere that the steam rising from the vent has free room to travel upward.  Otherwise, you'll end up with a dripping wet mess under the kitchen cabinets like I did and had to turn it off, unplug it and move it to the kitchen table.

Morning Hillside Hike

See the trail going straight up to the right of the tree?  That's the trail I like to take and Mike takes the one that goes off to the left and we meet at the top.  I love to climb the steep ones.

The sky was full of clouds and the hillsides were golden.

New Cabinet Sizes and Colors

New Quail Cabinet HERE.

New Song Bird Cabinet HERE.

Oak Tree Cabinet now shown in Beige HERE.

Friday Morning

Yesterday morning we woke up early and hiked Pena Adobe Park.  It was a good day.

The weather was warmer than we both expected and ended up stripping off layers and cramming into the backpack.  

The hillsides were shimmering golden straw.

Find Mike.

Here he comes.

Graffiti art.

A little bit of the unexpected and not a thing to do with the hike.  Here is my new toy T. rex sitting on my coffee table.  I wanted to add a (weird) quirky and fun element to our home decor.  Some day I might even get a little buddy for him.  ;)

By Friday late afternoon I started feeling sick on the way home from the store.  Some kind of bug got me and today I'm still feeling it.  I made some chicken soup today and I'm hoping that will make me feel better by tomorrow. 

I was hoping to be able go to church in the morning and then our friends are having a shower in the afternoon and I really want to go to that, too.  They are going to become foster parents and are still awaiting the child.  They don't know the gender nor the age yet, somewhere between infant and 5 yrs. old.  They're both very excited to be starting this new chapter in their lives and we're excited for them. 

Fall at Lake Tahoe

Michael took me to Meeks Bay for a couple of nights.  The plan was to go hiking and then explore.  The hiking was out as it rained the day we planned on doing that.  Instead, we drove around taking photos and drove into Truckee to explore the shops.  Tons of road construction everywhere in the Tahoe region which caused some minor delays getting around to and fro. 

Gorgeous colors up north.  I'm thinking of doing a few paintings from some of these pictures.

We drove to Mt. Rose to try and capture some shots of the aspen.  The leaves had pretty much all fallen.  I do love how the little leaves dance and quiver all over.  That's why they're called quaking aspen.

First image of the rainbow.

A little closer.

This is the oldest cabin on the lake (next to Sunnyside) and it belongs to my husband's ex-inlaws, The Bidstrup's.