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~ Like dew hanging from the tip of a leaf, a single bead or word adds sparkle where there was none. BE the bright!

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Category Archives: cooking

I wrote a menu

04 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, calligraphy, cooking, encouragement, food, Free Idea, nature, photography, recipe

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allsparkledup, food, idea, menu

It’s for a restaurant in my imagination. Outside, surrounded by trees and mountains and seas. The rush of wind and fall of water.
Whole Earth.
Five Courses – Water, Field, Tree, Rain and Root.

A menu for Whole Earth, a restaurant in my imagination.

A menu for Whole Earth, a restaurant in my imagination.

What limits your dreams? What stops you? What if you never quit? In addition to a dozen other professions out of my reach, such as surgeon, lawyer, scientist, glass blower, architect and machine engineer.. I would love to be a chef. Here is a menu for my non-existent restaurant, Whole Earth, with some of the courses. Don’t ever let anyone stop your imagination. You never know how far it will reach.

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Sweet & Sparkling Specialty Sugars for tea and coffee and sprinkling

31 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, baking, cooking, crafts, DIY, food, recipe, sparkling, tea time, tutorial, Uncategorized

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allsparkledup, crafts, DIY, food

So happy she loved the gift I made for her! Specialty Sugars for her tea and coffee and sprinkling on toast, cereal or anything else that needs a little sweet sparkle.

Delicious and beautiful flavored sugars in jars.

Delicious and beautiful flavored sugars in jars.


I bought the decorative knobs and glass jars at Hobby Lobby. It was easy drilling a hole in the corks, using a hack saw to shorten the knob bolt and gluing them together with a few beads.
1-specialty-sugars-s-5648
~ Lavender Sugar ~
I ground up culinary lavender with a mortar and pestle, then put the lavender and sugar in a food processor. The lavender sugar was then layered with crystal sugar in the jar.
2-specialty-sugars-spice-sugar-and-lavender-sugar
~ Lemon Orange Sugar ~
Lemon and Orange zest were placed in a food processor with sugar and ground medium fine. I’ve been making this mixture for years for use in cheesecake because it makes a very fine textured cheesecake. To fill the jar, I spooned in a layer of Lemon Orange Sugar then used tongs to place white sugar cubes against the side of the jar. Then I spooned in more sugar and repeated the layers. Next time I’ll add more orange zest for a darker orange colored sugar.
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~ Vanilla Bean Sugar ~
I scraped the seeds from two vanilla beans and ground the seeds with sugar in a food processor. I used one half of each vanilla bean, split lengthwise, to place in the jar. I spooned in about 1″ of Vanilla Sugar in the bottom of the jar. Then I used tongs and a wood skewer to position each vanilla bean against the side of the jar before adding the rest of the Vanilla Sugar.
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~ Pumpkin Spice Sugar ~
This recipe is something one of my sons and I made up, based on the spice ratio I use in my Pumpkin Pies. We keep this sugar blend on hand to make Pumpkin Spice Lattes, which everyone knows don’t have any pumpkin in them anyway. haha. Still, the flavor is very close to my pumpkin pies, sans pumpkin. To fill this jar, I used a small spoon and a tiny funnel I made from two straws. I can’t explain how I did the design but if you look up “sand art in a bottle” on youtube, you’ll get the idea. The white layer is Vanilla Bean Sugar. The dark brown “spots” in the white layer are pieces of cinnamon stick. I wanted to position the cinnamon stick pieces to look like hearts but the white sugar kept filling in the spaces so it didn’t work out.
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“Necessity is the mother of invention,” it is said. So true. I couldn’t access my precut wood pieces or run a saw so I ended up using the only wood on hand, a 30 year old piece of Sassafrass root from my parents property. It’s been in my tea collection for decades and still has a beautiful scent. I used a small craft saw to cut thin slices of the wood to make the tags. I wrote on them with permanent marker. Now I wonder if I had wood-burned the words in… could the slice of sassafrass be steeped in boiling water to flavor tea? What fun that would be! I’ll have to try it out.

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For each of the flavored sugars, I used one cup of granulated sugar plus the flavoring agent. That was plenty to fill the jar, with a little left over.
8-specialty-sugars-s-5671

9-specialty-sugars-s-5658
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! We sure had a jolly time.

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Woven Tortillas

04 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in cooking, food, Mexican, recipe, tutorial

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Tags

cooking, food, Mexican, recipe, tutorial, woven tortillas

I don’t know what gave me the idea but I was eating a tortilla one day a couple weeks ago and thought it would be great to make a weaving of colored tortilla strips. 
Woven Tortillas
It took a week or so to hunt down colored tortillas. We found the green Spinach Wrap tortillas at Whole Foods and the spicy Habanero Lime tortillas at Trader Joes.

The first Woven Tortilla was made of strips of white and orange tortillas. I cut them with kitchen shears.

Strips of white Mission flour tortilla and orange Habanero Lime tortilla.

Strips of white Mission flour tortilla and orange Habanero Lime tortilla.


The Habanero Lime tortillas were a little smaller than the white Mission tortillas. I ended up using the center section of two Habanero tortillas to get enough strips that were long enough.
2 Woven Tortillas
It was almost as easy as weaving paper strips, but tortillas are more fragile. None broke but I treated them gently.
Spicy Habanero Lime tortillas are woven together with a white flour tortilla.

Spicy Habanero Lime tortillas are woven together with a white flour tortilla.


Brushing the woven tortilla mat with olive oil helped the pieces stick together.
The woven tortilla mat is brushed with olive oil.

The woven tortilla mat is brushed with olive oil.


They still weren’t very stable though so I had to slide the woven piece into the skillet using a big spatula. Once one side was browned on medium heat, I placed another hot skillet over top and flipped it over. That was tricky! The tortilla mat still folded in half and it was a bit of work straightening out the strips.
The woven tortilla mat is lightly toasted on both sides over medium heat in a skillet.

The woven tortilla mat is lightly toasted on both sides over medium heat in a skillet.


Once they were lightly browned, the tortillas were more crisp and held together better. I slid the finished tortilla mat out of the skillet and onto the plate.
Woven Tortillas

Woven Tortillas


Topped with black beans in a taco meat nest, scoops of guacamole and sour cream and a sprinkling of white cheddar, the Woven Tortillas looked and tasted wonderful!
Woven Tortillas, served with taco meat, black beans, guacamole, sour cream and cheddar cheese. Use knife and fork to eat.

Woven Tortillas, served with taco meat, black beans, guacamole, sour cream and cheddar cheese. Use knife and fork to eat.


I tried another method of weaving that stayed together easily. Instead of cutting the white tortilla into strips, I cut slits in it with a knife, then wove strips of colored tortilla through the slits.
Strips of Habanero tortilla are woven through slits in a white flour tortilla.

Strips of Habanero tortilla are woven through slits in a white flour tortilla.


This time, I brushed olive oil on the white flour tortilla before weaving so the oil would help hold the pieces together. That worked great.
Woven Tortillas

Woven Tortillas


Treating the tortillas gently so the one-piece white tortilla didn’t split at the ends, I carefully wove orange Habanero and green Spinach tortilla strips through the slits.
Green and orange tortilla strips are woven through the slits in a white flour tortilla.

Green and orange tortilla strips are woven through the slits in a white flour tortilla.


Woven Tortillas are so fun and festive! Tasty too!

Woven Tortillas are so fun and festive! Tasty too!


These take time so I recommend weaving them ahead of time, wrapping air tight and keeping the woven tortillas in the fridge. Brown them on medium heat right before serving.
Woven Tortillas - great way to add color and flavor to a Tex-Mex meal.

Woven Tortillas – great way to add color and flavor to a Tex-Mex meal.


Lunch was festive and delicious!

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