Ma Petite Chou (or What to Do With All of these Brussels Sprouts?)

When I was a little girl, my mom used that term of endearment with me a lot.

"Ma petite chou?" I would ask.

"My little cabbage head," she would reply.

"Really?" I thought, "that's supposed to be sweet?"

Today Ben and I picked the last of our garden harvest.  These were the only things that have survived the fast freeze that we had.  The freeze that I didn't pay any attention to, and so I missed getting the bell jars over the plants that could have been saved.

So all that was left alive after the freeze were the hardy brussels sprouts.

We picked a bunch. 

Ben eats them raw. 

I wouldn't recommend it, but he says they're good that way.

Seeing them all sitting together in a pile reminded me of my mother's french term of endearment.  

The pile of adorable little green cabbages actually was endearingly adorable. 

(hmm, maybe the reason I took so many pictures of a rather unpopular vegetable?)

I personally love them if they are sauteed with some balsamic vinegar and orange zest. 

But no one else in my family will eat them. 

Well, obviously Ben will chomp on them raw out of the garden, but even my gardening buddy turns his nose up at a cooked brussels sprout.

So perhaps I should make one of these?

image credit

Crazy cool, right?  Reminds me of the wreaths in Williamsburg, VA, all made from winter foodstuffs.  The how to is located here at the lovely blog, Blomsterverkstad.

I'm guessing the general consensus in this household is that I make them into the wreath instead of try and serve the brussels sprouts to them for dinner.

Homemade Lavender Lemon All Purpose Cleaner

 

With a two year old and a 10 month old, we are always pulling out the windex and cleaning up some spill or another.  Besides the fact that we were spending lots of money on cleaner, I really wanted a more environmentally and kid friendly cleaner around.  So I did some research (read "google") and decided that a vinegar solution was what we needed.  But I didn't want to smell vinegar all of the time, so I decided to use up some of that lavender and scent our cleaner.

Click on "read more" to get the how to.

Lemon and Rosemary Roast Chicken in the Slow Cooker

Add a roaster chicken and all of your ingredients are right there in that picture.  This dinner tastes delicious and takes about 7 minutes (really.  that's it.) to prep.  Then, put everything in a slow cooker and by dinner the bird is so tender and amazing.  Cheap meal, tasty meal, lots of leftovers for soup or salad or whatever else you want to make. (Please forgive the sad state of my rosemary.  I live in a climate that is not so kind to the plant over the winter.  It was the best I could clip from  my herb garden :) )

Read more after the jump.

Home Grown Lavender Oil and Potpourri

I love the scent of real lavender, and I have a LOT of dried lavender from my garden.  It's all sitting very prettily in a basket on a shelf just waiting for me to be inspired.  In fact, it's sitting right next to all of the empty baby food jars which are also waiting for some magical inspiration.

So here is my current inspiration: two easy things to do with all (ok, some) of that lavender.

First is an oil infusion which I think I can use for several things.  I'll use it in the cloth wipe solution for Josie's bum.  I'll use it in the bathtub on my sad and dry winter skin.  And I think I'll use it as a hostess gift, too.

Second is an easy peasy potpourri using a baby food jar.

Not that there is too much of a how-to, but read about it after the jump.