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Family Love Carved Tree

Carved Names Into Tree...

...makes a unique wall hanging

I saw an idea where someone had carved a heart into a tabletop and the idea for this project evolved from there. I've been wondering what to do with some huge logs we had left in the back yard from an old cut down tree. They've just been sitting there forever and I'm so glad I was finally able to recycle it into something fun.

Figure out the size and shape of wood you want.

After we got the cut of wood we liked, time to smooth out all those marks from the chainsaw. This is the hardest, but most important part. Remember, if you stain, it's going to creep into the parts you miss. The bark fell off the sides so I brushed off anything that was loose and just left it.

Mark where you want names with a pencil. Since I wanted the heart to be more prominent and also look like it had been there longer, I used a wood burning tool to go over that part. Then, using a knife, I carved out my kid's names. I wanted it to look like the heart was there first and then we added the kids names later.

When you have it the way you want, stain and polyurethane the whole thing(even the sides). I also added a saw-tooth hanger. Since the wood was a little soft, the tiny nails that came with the hanger to attach it were just sliding out. I had to use longer nails and then bend them up.

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Shrimp in Coconut Sauce

Shrimp in Coconut Sauce

While looking for something new for my Puerto Rican husband, I found this great recipe on the Goya Food website. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs. large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 tsp. GOYA® Adobo with Pepper**

3 tbsp. Olive Oil

2 cups finely chopped onion

3 scallions, sliced very thin, both white and green (reserve 1 tbsp. green part for garnish)

3 cloves fresh garlic, minced

1/2 cup Tomato Sauce

1 cup clam broth(I use chicken broth)

1 can (13.5 fl. oz.) GOYA® Coconut Milk

Accompaniment:

4 cups hot cooked white rice

Directions

1. Season shrimp with Adobo and set aside
2. In a skillet, heat oil on medium. Stir in onion, scallions and garlic and cook, stirring often until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes
3. Stir in tomato sauce and cook for 5 minutes
4. Stir in clam broth and coconut milk, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes
5. Add shrimp and cook, turning once, until shrimp are just cooked through, about 5 minutes
6. Transfer to serving platter, garnish with scallion. Serve with rice.

This is great served with tostones(fried plantains). Recipe HERE

**Goya Adobo is a great all purpose seasoning. I know you might not like to buy an ingredient for for just one recipe that may never be used again, but don't feel bad about getting this one, it's good! We used it for everything from eggs at breakfast to thanksgiving turkey. It's especially good on pork and chicken.

Source :http://www.goya.com/english/recipes/Shrimp-in-Coconut-Sauce

Veggie Pizza

Veggie Pizza

My mom has made this for years and I think it may have originated from Taste of Home Magazine

Ingredients:

• 2 tubes refrigerated crescent roll dough
• 2 pkgs cream cheese
• 1/4 c. ranch dressing(I used creamy Italian because I ran out of Ranch)
• assorted veggies(I use red onions, fresh broccoli, carrots)

Unroll crescent dough and place onto an ungreased cookie sheet, pressing seams together. Bake according to directions until golden brown. Cool. You can see on mine that I didn't push the seams together very good because they separated during baking. No biggie.

Combine cream cheese and dressing in a bowl. Allowing the cream cheese to sit for a little at room temperature will make it easier to mix. Spread mixture over crescent rolls.

Chop veggies into small pieces and sprinkle on top. Keep refrigerated until you serve.

UPDATE: Grow An Apple Tree from Seeds

Apple Tree Update

This is an update to my post from April about how to grow an apple tree from seeds. You can read that post here. I started with about seven strong plants and after giving away a couple, I have three left. One of the three(not pictured) is not as happy as the other two. I'm trying to figure out what to do with that one.

Let me start off by saying that I kill all plants. The fact that there are three still alive is an actual miracle! I can't really say for sure why some of these just wouldn't grow, but I have a theory. The seeds that I used came from two different apples. One was a Granny Smith and one was either a Fuji or Braeburn. I'm thinking one of these types was not good for this project or may have needed a different environment. I have no idea which was which because we had them mixed together.

My trees are different sizes because I was moving them around into different size pots. In my tutorial I said that the trees could be planted outside when they reach 1.5-2 feet tall, but I think I'm going to place them in large pots and keep indoors until next spring. I live in a dry climate and want to make sure they are very strong before I exposed them to the elements.

My family and I have really enjoyed this gardening project and are continuing experimentation with
more seeds we find.

Grow An Apple Tree From Seeds