wellness

AIM RECIPE: Scrap Veggie Broth to Perfect Any Recipe

| Alison - Adventures-in-Making


From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

Maybe everyone knows to make their own veggie broth. I didn’t until a couple of years ago when I had a pile of veggie scraps and an aha moment. After a couple of quick searches, I decided to toss everything in the slow cooker and see what happened.

AMAZING happened. I ended up with a complex  unique broth that I was eager to cook with.

Since then I’ve saved almost all my veggie and fruit scraps in a bag in the freezer, and when it gets full it gets turned into what I lovingly call “trash soup”.

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RECIPE: Scrap Veggie Broth in a slowcooker
Author: Alison (Adventures-in-Making)
Cook time:
Total time:
This simple veggie broth will use up all your fruit and vegetable scraps, and make your next meal that much better.
Ingredients
  • 1 Tsp. Salt (to Taste)
  • A Variety of Raw Vegetable Scraps*
  • You can use skins, scraps, and leftover: Zucchini, Greens, Spinach, Okra, Apples, Tomatoes, Asparagus, Artichoke, Peas, Green Beans, Onions, Cabbage, Broccoli, Leeks, Garlic, Peppers, Carrot, Mushroom Stems, Herbs…. almost anything.
Instructions
  1. *Make sure to only use ingredients that you COULD eat fresh. Nothing dirty, slimy, moldy, etc. A little soft is fine. The key to the best broth is variety. Try not to use too much of anything with a strong flavor- but remember that this is a low pressure process. If it doesn’t turn out, no big deal!
  2. Put all your scraps in a slow cooker and cover with water.
  3. Sprinkle salt over the mixture and mix it slightly with a spoon.
  4. Put crock pot on “low” and leave overnight– 10-20 hours– checking occasionally for taste and to stir gently.
  5. Ladle broth over a strainer to separate out vegetable scraps and broth.
  6. OPTIONAL: Simmer the broth on Med/High to condense the soup for freezing. Allow to cool completely before placing in a container or ziplock bag, and freeze until you’re ready. (Make sure to label your container with tasting notes and a date.)
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For my broth today, I had a wide variety of veggies. From highest to lowest volume I used: zucchini, brussel sprout greens, tomatoes, onion, okra, mushroom stems, lemon rind, apple, bell pepper, and basil stems.

Make sure your scraps are clean and in relatively small pieces, then dump them into a medium crock pot,

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and cover them with water.

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Add about a teaspoon of salt (to taste) to the water.

Cover the crock pot, set it on “low” and let it do its thing through the evening and overnight. (It’s good to taste the broth, and stir occasionally to make sure everything is going well. If it starts to get bitter you can either stop the process, or give it some more time to possible cook itself out.)

After about 10-20 hours your concoction will look more like this:

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and will smell up your whole home in a delicious way. Use a ladle to spoon out the broth over a strainer…

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to separate out the broth and veggie chunks. Throw those depleted veggie scraps in the compost and look at what you’ve made!

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Beautiful, complex, broth– a perfect way to start almost any recipe.

Optional: If you want to save the broth for another day, you might find it useful to condense and freeze it. To do this, put your broth in a small pot and simmer on medium-high under a fan.

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Excess water will be released as steam, and after a while you’ll have a thicker, darker condensed broth. (This process can take some time, so I usually plan to do dishes, cleaning, or other kitchen activities while I wait.) Take the pan off the heat.  As your broth is cooling, do a final tasting and label your container (or ziplock bag) with tasting notes and a date.

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Then simply pour the cool broth into your container and freeze it for the perfect recipe. The more broths you make, the more you’ll notice differences in their flavor- making store bought broth seem ludicrous!

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We love adding the broths to everything we cook. It will kick up anything from soup, to sauces, to quinoa, and make you smile. (Promise.)

What I’ve Learned

•I’ve said it before, but variety is really key here. I usually leave a small collection of scraps in my freezer bag for the next broth, rather than using too much of one flavor.
•You may be an onion and garlic maniac, but don’t make a broth out of just those. Other veggies are necessary to cut the bitterness of over-extracted onions. Trust me.
•Good advice from a friend- “If the broth doesn’t taste good, throw it away. Don’t let it ruin a meal.” If your broth turns out weird or bitter, it’s not the end of the world. Try again next time!
•Try out a parmesan rind sometime, but otherwise avoid oils.
•Mellow fruits (like apples) make for a carmelly broth that would be lovely in a lot of dishes. Bolder fruits (cherries, berries, citrus) are best used in very small quantities.
•Some vegetables are stronger than others- broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cabbage can take over a broth completely. I don’t mind, but maybe you do?
•Yum.

AIM TODAY: Be Inspired, Not Intimidated.

| Alison - Adventures-in-Making


From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

***

I’ve been kind of at odds with my work lately, and I’ve been drowning myself in busy work to keep from having to address the elephant in the room- What do I do next? I’ve spent the weeks since the store closed doing anything but the things I need to further my art, and the longer I waited the harder it became to pick up a pencil again. Somehow in that time I became more and more discouraged by the truly awesome work I saw all around me, and I’ve decided it’s time to do something about it.

The internet is an amazing thing for an artist. Snap your fingers (or ask Google) and you have access to a million inspirations and a trillion resources. (Also a gazillion distractions, but that’s beside the point.) You might need to do a broadband comparison before searching for some inspiration, just so you actually get some results and don’t have a slow, lousy connection. A decent broadband connection will also let you use various apps to create art and even have the ability to upload artwork online, whether it’s to a selling site, personal website or any other platform. It’s great that we don’t even have to go to a library or a museum to be exposed to new work or new concepts; it’s just there, in our Facebook feed, for us all to see from the comfort of our own home.

With such luxury, it seems like our possibilities for inspiration are endless, and yet all these amazing things can be just as intimidating as they are stimulating. How can you ever draw that well? Why can’t you come up with the perfect idea? Why should you spend hours on something that they can do without even a sketch?

Thus begins the cycle of stagnation: 1: Get discouraged, 2: Can’t work, 3: Don’t get better at what you do (and don’t get to enjoy the process), 4: Spend more time on the internet looking at “inspiration”…. Rinse and repeat.

So, lets turn this whole thing on its head, and figure out how to see inspiration as just that.

1: Acknowledge talent, and move on.

Even is your first defensive instinct is (like mine) to pick apart the work of other artists, try to instead see what is causing you to react. It’s likely envy, and that’s just silly. There isn’t a finite amount of talent to go around.
If someone is awesome, let them be awesome. Admire what they do, and that they do it well. Move on.

2: Realize that what you like in your work does not have to be what you love in someone else’s.

I love looking at realistic art. I love looking at landscapes that seem to miraculously appear from patches of paint. I like mosaics built from found trash that take on a whole new life in their new format. I have no intention of doing any of those things. I am never happy trying to be realistic. I like lines, not plains; and when it comes down to it, I really just want to make functional art.
You’re no less an artist because you do something differently- obviously art is all about being different. You can be an artist in the kitchen, an organizing savant, an expert at standing on one foot while you knit– and all the while you can love the things you don’t do. Maybe you can love them more because you DON’T do them.

3: Spend a little time looking at things outside of your comfort zone.

I have a long list of blogs in my feed reader and I almost always read the web comics and interior design blogs first. Now, as a dedicated blog contributor I should probably be looking at things that are a little closer to home- but I get inspired by things that are outside of my experience.
You can find inspiration anywhere. In a history book that talks about the mysterious ins and outs of the past. In a mystery novel that lets you see out the eyes of someone else. In a garden reference that talks about permaculture and the growth of magnificent living things. Even in a cute kitten video. (That one’s a little bit of a stretch, but if it feels good it can’t be all bad!)

4: Get away from it all.

If you are seeing too much, close your eyes for a while. Unplug from the constant stream of visual information and take a deep breath. It’s okay. The internet is forever, and you can always go back and see things later. When you’re ready.

5: See your work for what it really is.

I don’t know everything, but I suspect that we mainly make because we are trying to express ourselves. We are trying to show everyone else how we see the world, trying to highlight and solve a problem, trying to learn. So, if someone else is doing that differently, it’s alright.
I am who I am, and you are who you are, and I like it that way.

AIM TODAY: The Magic is in the Making

| Alison - Adventures-in-Making


From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

***

Every month we send handmade badges to our favorite DIY Challenge entries. Rachel has made most of them, because she’s a whiz, and I was too scared to attempt embroidery. When I finally sat down to try* I found myself enjoying the process, and realized that the little imperfections were just fine. They were evidence of my process, and the process is everything.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the little monsters that keep us from creating. The doubt that we feel about our talent and ability, the fear we have that what we make will be judged by others, the comparisons we make to those who we feel are more talented.

Well, those are my little monsters. They make it difficult for me to call myself an artist, even when people specifically ask me if I am. Even when I’m working on rearranging my studio to work better for the way I make things.

But here’s the thing. When I take a step back from my own insecurities I see that for me the value of art isn’t in the product; and it definitely isn’t in the value that someone else places on the product. All the value and happiness is in the making.

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When I’m making something, I get to do all my favorite things. I solve problems, like what tools to use to get the result I want. I teach my hands to move in new ways. I explore the interaction of materials- the way certain paints soak into wood, the way paper is cut by different blades, the way it curls. I train my eyes to see the world differently, to take items out of context, to turn a stick into a story. I play with the sound of words in my head, the picture they can paint with a little touch of color.

So what if all that beauty in my head and in the world turns into something that no one understands but me? Who cares if the end product is less “art” and more evidence of exploration? The magic is the way I feel when I’m working.

What do you think? What part of making brings you the most joy?

*I used a lot of the techniques from Rachel’s Alphabet Hoop Art tutorial, craft felt, embroidery floss, and good ol’ creative drive.

AIM DIY: Love Letter Books for Your Valentine

| Alison - Adventures-in-Making

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From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

Valentine’s Day has always been one of my favorite holidays, probably because I’m a big mush at heart. I like to think of it as the Thanksgiving for love– a chance to tell the people you love how special they are, and how much they mean to you.

This year I thought I’d turn all those ideas into a keepsake– a Love Letter Book that two people can pass back and forth until it is filled with compliments, thanks, and well wishes. It’s a perfect activity for kids or adults, and needs only a couple of basic supplies (and the free templates included below.)

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Supplies

• A few sheets of colored card stock or scrapbook paper for your covers.
• A printer, and some basic text weight paper for your inside pages
• A pair of scissors
• A ruler
• A pencil (preferably a mechanical one, you’ll see why.)
• The template pages below

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There are a couple of ways to transfer the template onto your card stock. You can print directly on the card stock (if your printer is up to that), cut out the template form and trace it onto the card stock, or (as I have done here) use transfer paper to transfer the lines to the paper you will use for your cover.

First I lined up the transfer paper under my template and over my card stock…

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Then traced the outside lines with my pencil.IMG_5768
You can see that I also made a mark where the dotted line was on my template.

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Using that mark, I used a the end of a mechanical pencil (lead retracted) to put a score line into my card stock. That will make for a better fold.

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If you aren’t familiar with scoring- it’s a basic process that pushes down the fibers of the paper, and encourages the paper to fold on that mark. Since I am folding diagonally across a sheet of card stock, the score line makes a big difference.

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After I have scored both sides of the cover, I use the smooth end of the pencil to burnish (flatten) the fold.

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I then used the Page Template to cut out a total of 12 hearts, folded them in half, and made two stacks of 6. These will be the inside pages of our two halves of my heart book.

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I took one stack and lined it up with the fold on one side of my cover.

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I made a tiny snip in the bottom fold of the cover and pages to secure my string.

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I cut two pieces of string/ribbon, 12″ each, and wrapped one around the cover and pages on each side, following the fold.

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Then I tied the string firmly in a knot at the top of each heart, binding the heart books together, and leaving me enough extra sting to tie the book closed.

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Once you close the pages and tie the book up you have a lovely two-part book to decorate and fill with love.

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You can write all the things you admire about your best friend, your sister, your daughter…

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and if you’re lucky you’ll read something just as special in the other half of the book.

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Because Valentine’s Day isn’t just for romantic love- it’s time to show your appreciation of all the people around you.

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But hey, if your Valentine is more of the romantic variety,  that’s okay too.

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AIM TODAY: Resolutions for a Creative 2015

| Alison - Adventures-in-Making

From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

I’m not usually one for New Years Resolutions, because I feel like the best resolutions are the ones you come up with throughout the year- the little pep-talks you have to encourage yourself to look at challenges as possibilities.

But if there’s a good time to put all those thoughts together into one big life plan, New Year may be it. So here’s a list of my goals.

Keep Moving Forward

Sometimes it is so much easier to stand still and let the world settle around me. It’s easier to watch TV than try out new tools, which is a blessing and a curse. Of course, we all need some time to relax and watch television, but we need to find a balance between watching our favorite shows and being creative. Currently, adults don’t actually watch that much television on average when compared to other age groups, according to infinitydish.com (to see the cable tv statistics click here). However, I can sometimes spend a few hours watching my favorite shows, so I need to find that balance. It’s easier to be disappointed with the things you’ve already done than be excited about the things you’re going to do next. But if you stagnate and let life become a series of routines then you will stop seeing the possibilities to grow and explore.

So I’m going to let go of 2014. I’ll remember the good, and sweep away the bad. It’s a new year after all.

Do It Quick and Cheap First

Sometimes the ideas come at me in droves, and it’s tempting to go out and buy every tool or supply I could possibly need. But then I’ve invested money and time in a project that might or might not work out. So I’m going to try to do things on a small scale first. Low pressure and low investment to judge how much enjoyment I’ll get out of a project before I take a bigger leap.

Find New Ways to Save Money at Home

New Year is a great time to reflect on your outgoings and to try to find areas where you can cut costs. For example, a friend of ours recently switched home insurance providers and was able to make a big saving. After comparing a few different insurers and policies online, she decided to get home insurance through simply insurance. Comparison websites are a great place to start when it comes to finding the insurance you need at the best possible price. Home insurance is essential if you want to look after your property, so I must take a look too to see if we can get a more affordable home insurance deal.

Look for Challenges

To keep the ideas from drying up, I’m going to seek out challenges and chances to let my brain run. I’ll keep looking at my trash as a source of art supplies, and seek outside inspiration. (If you’re looking for some help on the inspiration front- join our DIY Craft Challenge.) Rather than buying something, I’ll try to make it first.

Cork Robots. Definitely weird.
Cork Robots. Definitely weird.

Try something weird

I’m going to try to do more projects outside of my normal wheelhouse. I’ll use materials I’m less comfortable with, make things that are more whimsical than practical, and just generally try new things.

Cut Back the Pressure

The pressure to make something (especially to make something “good”) can get so overwhelming that I get the maker’s version of writer’s block. So this year I’m going to practice what I preach and give myself a break whenever I feel like I need it.

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Have More Craft Couseling Sessions

Also known as a PARTY. I’m going to try to have more craft parties with my friends, and do all sorts of things I might not do otherwise. I love being surrounded by other people with the drive to make stuff. (Our craft parties take all different forms, but my favorite have always been the ones where everyone brings something to work on, and shares with the group. Like nail polishin’.)

Don’t be a Craft Hoarder

I love to collect tools and supplies– and that can be a problem when my collections get overwhelming. So this year, I’m going to use minimalism as an inspiration to make more (and make faster.) If I don’t use something in a reasonable amount of time, I’m going to get rid of it. That way I’ve either done something, or I have space to put the next thing I DO make. (Sound familiar?)

Look at Everything

I get overwhelmed by what’s going on in my life. (If I say “I’m just so busy” one more time…) Sometimes that means I start living a more internal life, and stop noticing the beautiful things around me. It’s easier, but it’s not sustainable. This year I want to do more looking. Looking at the weird plants in my yard, looking at the work of artists and crafters– just generally seeing more.

Pay it Forward

Finally, I want to keep building a creative community that embraces our need to make, build, problem solve, prettify… you get the drift. I want to help everyone see the creativity in their lives, and chase away the little voice that says “you can’t do it”. (Because you can. I know it.)

I’m sure I’ll have a million other little rules for myself this year, but I think this is a good start.
What are your plans for 2015?

AIM TODAY: Get your space in order.

| Alison - Adventures-in-Making

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From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

Yesterday I picked up an unlabeled box, fought to pull the lid off, and was greeted by an explosion of confetti.

You might think that’s a funny prank- except that it was me who had the bright idea of putting the confetti in that box in the first place. Dumb. My own prank would have been thwarted by a simple “Confetti” label on the box. Next time- maybe.

If you’re like me, this dreary weather makes staying under the covers all day pretty appealing. I’ve been in kind of a creative rut, and even a self imposed vacation didn’t fix everything. Well, time to try something new…

Order to fight the blues.

It’s time to clean, organize, dump, and declutter. Here are a few ways I’ve been getting things in order:

• Organizing, filing, and labeling my tools and materials. I am much happier when everything has a home. I am ecstatic if that home makes sense and is easy to access. I try to keep my most-used tools handy, and put less-used tools and materials in labeled boxes that will be easy to find when it’s time to use them.
• Trying out those “I bet I could…” projects and tools. I have a tendency to accumulate ideas and materials, but it’s hard to get to everything. If I have little projects that have been sitting in my head for a while, I try to take an afternoon to try them out for real- even if it doesn’t feel like the best use of my time. If the project is a dud (which happens) I’ll know it and be able to move on to other ideas.
• Dumping materials and tools I’m never going to get to, or don’t really want. I’m trying to be really honest with myself about what I really want to spend my limited time doing. If I have a hole punch I will never use, or paper that I abhor, I’m better off passing it onto someone who would like it. If it’s something I saved from the recycling bin (no judgement) then maybe it’s time for it to go back in there… and maybe that “confetti” was really just the holes punched from a binding project.
• Similar to the “I bet I could” projects, I’ve been working on the small quick projects I put off in favor or more in-depth creative pursuits. Framing and hanging posters at my house, designing signage and displays for the shop, etc.

Do you have any tricks you use to simplify your work and your workspace? We’d love to see!

AIM TODAY: It’s Okay to try it Your Way.

| Alison - Adventures-in-Making

IMG_2720_OKAYFrom 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

As creative folks, we know that our work will change over time. We’ll have struggles, and we’ll have breakthroughs.

I feel like I’ve been going through a lot of that lately. I’ve had to make changes to the way I do things to accommodate for my schedule at the shop, and the limited time it’s allowed me for more creative endeavors. All in all it’s been a great experience, and has caused me to grow in directions I wouldn’t have expected. Since we’re focussed on building a creative community here at A-i-M, I thought I would share some of my experiences and encourage you to share your own.

Today I am thinking about…

Trusting Your Instincts

A friend keeps reminding me that “you have to know the rules to break them”, but I’ve always been the kind of person who knows the rules- then sticks to them. My rebellious side would let me break a few,secretly, but the other side would never be happy unless my lines were straight and my skill immaculate. It was tedious, and I was never happy with what I was making.

Because of limiting factors, I started working in a new way. I moved away from the computer and started working extensively in pencil. I would sketch, erase, sketch, erase, until I built up a design I was happy with. It all happened on one pieces of loose-leaf card stock; with a lot of lead, and a lot of erasing.

But I kept questioning myself. What if I was doing it the “Wrong Way”?

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At some point I just decided to forget about it. It doesn’t matter if it’s the wrong way if I am happy with the result. Our satisfaction with our work is the most important outcome. If I was happier breaking a few rules and following my own instincts, then that’s the way it should be.

We have to have the confidence that our way is the right way, for us at least. That means trying new things, and feeling it all out…

but that’s what growing up is all about.

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What do you think? Have you had any breakthroughs this summer? Any projects that surprised you?
Are you trying things your way?