Super Easy to Make & Crazy Delicious Vegetarian Pot Stickers

Well today was off to a sloooow start on my part since last night I stayed up to watch the Villanova Wildcats win the March Madness NCAA national championship! Wooohooo go Wildcats! For those of you who missed this phenomenal game between Villanova and North Carolina, I have to tell you that it was truly a nail biter. At the end of the game the score was tie at 74 points. Then with less than one second left on the clock, Nova's Kris Jenkins released and hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer to win the championship! Talk about a dramatic finish to their season...take a look!!!

 Congratulations to the Wildcats, it was a hell of a game!!!

OK so now that I have finally pulled my act together, today I am going to share with you my absolute NEWEST favorite snack/appetizer recipe, and guess what...it is super healthy for you! Yes you read it right, a yummy "snackatizer" that is filled with all kinds of heart healthy and antioxidant ingredients.

Take a look at this list!

For the filling...

2 cloves of garlic chopped

1 T fresh gingerroot, peeled and minced

2 T fresh cilantro, chopped

3 scallions, sliced

1 T sesame oil

1 1/2 cups of low sodium black beans, rinsed

1 cup of Edamame's, shelled

one package of Goya Vegetable seasoning

a few splashes of low sodium soy sauce

Wonton wrappers

2 T of canola oil

And for the sauce...

2 T low sodium soy sauce or for a really low sodium choice use coconut aminos

1 T sriracha sauce

1 T honey

In a food processor pulse together the garlic, ginger, cilantro, scallions and sesame oil. Then add the edamame and black beans along with the seasoning package and a few splashes of soy sauce. Once all is blended into a paste like mixture, take your wonton wrappers and curve the edges of them with a pair of scissors so they are somewhat circular looking. Then add a dollop of the bean mixture, about one rounded tablespoon, to the center of each wrapper. With your finger wet the edges with water and close the wrappers up and seal them. I cinched them together with my fingers to give them that pot sticker pouch look.

Heat the oil in a pan until hot and add the little pouches to the pan. Be careful not to let them touch or they will stick together. Cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side and then remove from pan and let drain on a paper towel. In the meantime whisk together the three sauce ingredients and serve with the pot stickers.

Hope you are all enjoying this pretty spring day and don't forget to stop by tomorrow evening at 7pm for another Share Your Style link party!

See you then!!!

XO

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A Spring Day at Valley Forge

As our Easter break with the kids off and Mr. Rosemary Lane home for the last week comes to an end, this past weekend we decided to take a little day trip down to historic 3,500 acre Valley Forge National Park. To be honest it has been decades since I was to the park last, probably not since I was in the 3rd or 4th grade when we visited the park on a class trip.

The park is most significantly known as the site of General George Washington's 1777-1778 winter encampment of the Continental Army. The cabins you see above were constructed of wood and clay, housing 12 men in each cabin. Before the cabins were constructed the army brigades lived in tents.

We witnessed the reenactment of rifle loading process and subsequent shooting of firearms. It took approximately 20 seconds to load and fire thus each patriot would fire three shots off in a one minute time period.

The National Memorial Arch was constructed between 1914 and 1917 in the honor of George Washington. It was dedicated on June 19, 1917. Eighty years later the arch underwent extensive renovation due to it's poor condition. The funds used for the renovation we donated by the Masons and the arch was rededicated in 1997.

General Washington's headquarters, also known as the Isaac Potts House, was where Washington and his family lived during the encampment of the Continental Army. The house at the time was being rented by a relative of Potts, Deborah Hues. The British Military custom of confiscating private homes for their use violated Americans' sense of privacy and ownership. Washington, wanting the support of civilians during wartime, offered to pay for his lodgings and encouraged other generals of the Continental Army to do the same. Mrs. Hues agreed to rent the entire home including all of its furnishings to the General.

 We were allowed to photograph the interior of Washington's headquarters. I am guessing photography was permitted since the furnishings and other items are not original to the house.

Washington's headquarters could be referred to as the "Pentagon" of its time since it was the place where Washington and his highest ranking officers lived and worked.

Next to Washington's headquarters is a mill where iron was forged. In pre-revolutionary times the iron produce in Valley Forge was actually pig-iron, a mid-point product of iron making. Due to England's strict trade policies with its colonies, the colonist were not legally permitted to produce their own "finished" iron products, they had to purchased them from England. Therefore the pig-iron the colonist produced was sent to England where it was melted down and cast into products of cast iron, wrought iron and even steel. Due to the facts that England didn't strictly enforce their policy and that Pennsylvania was rich with raw iron ore, by the time of the Revolutionary war the colonist produced approximately one sixth of the world's iron products.

Cabins built to house the guards of Washington's headquarters.

In 1913 the Valley Forge train station was erected to serve passengers along the Reading Railroad. No longer in use as it was originally purposed, the restored century old station now houses a collection of exhibits highlighting Washington's leadership.

In the winter of 1777 Rhode Island Brigadier General James Mitchell Varnum and his staff arrived at the home of David Stephens. Stephens owned this stone farmhouse in which he and his wife Elizabeth raised their three children. Varnum did not confiscate the home from Stephens but instead, as suggested by General Washington, offered to rent the property and Stephens accepted. Varnum had a highly active office during the encampment, therefore there were many military personnel frequenting the Stephens home.

The Washington Memorial Chapel was built in 1903 to honor George Washington's as well as the entire Continental Army's contribution to our nation and as a wayside chapel for visitors of Valley Forge National Park. It is also the home of the Episcopal parish which worships at the chapel.

The day we were visiting there happened to be a wedding about ready to take place.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of one of our nation's most historical parks. We enjoyed a beautiful day of learning and quiet contemplation. Now it is back to the regular week as the kiddos head off to school and Mr. RL goes back to work.

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful start to this first full week of April!

XO

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Board & Batten Kitchen Island Makeover

Today I am going to share with you the tutorial on how Mr. Rosemary Lane created a new look for our rather boring kitchen island for just under $300. Now the island is fairly large and you can see that it has a 45 degree angle at the far end. The counter top space measures 94 inches at its longest point. Since it is so long we made the decision to paint the island white in an effort to break up all of the honey toned wood of the kitchen cabinets.

Materials used in this project were...

16  3 1/2 inch wide X 4ft. oak boards (one was used to create each box)

1 4ft X 4ft MDF board with 1/2 inch thickness

1 2ft. X 4ft. MDF board with 1/2 thickness

4 inch wide baseboard molding enough to go around the entire island

miter saw

air compressor nail gun

wood glue

white caulk and paint

First we had to remove the old quarter round from around the entire island. (Michael helped with this job.)

Then it was decided to make the sides of the boxes 3 1/3 inches in width. This actually determine how many boxes we would need to cover the back and sides of the island, which when all was said and done it totaled eight boxes. Both MDF and the oak boards were used to create each box. 

The bottom board is MDF cut in 7 1/2 inch wide strips. This is so when the 4 inch wide baseboard was attached there would be 3 1/2 inches exposed to match the width of the oak boarding.

After carefully measuring and cutting all of the boards needed, assembly began.

The board mapping was done very simply in an end to end fashion. No angles were cut except for where the counter took its own 45 degree angle. To the back of each board was first applied a healthy amount of wood glue. Then the board was attached to the back of the existing counter using less than one inch nails. Once Mr. RL was done attaching all of the boards, I sanded down the old finish along with the oak boards and gave the entire island a coat of fresh white paint.

As you can see we have an outlet at the end of the island which was going to interfere with the flow of the board and batten. We thought about moving the outlet box but that seemed like an awful lot of extra work. Instead I found outlet covers at Lowes which had a bit of thickness to it which almost perfectly matched the 1/2 inch thickness of the boards. Mr. Rosemary Lane cut around the outlet cover and then I caulked to blend it together before painting.

The front of the island is all drawers with one cabinet. So I took everything out to the garage to give it a good sanding down

Then with a sponge roller I painted on the white. New bin style drawer pulls from Home Depot replaced the old handles. I needed eight and each pull ran $4.99.

The final step in this process was to add the 4 inch baseboard to the bottom of the island. Here 45 degree angles were cut to match up the ends of the baseboard to create a neat and finished look.

Again the BEFORE...

...and the AFTER

  The BEFORE

The AFTER

In retrospect we could have done the entire island using only the MDF which would have saved us close to 1/3 of the total project cost. However at the time Mr. RL wasn't sure about using all MDF so he went ahead and purchased the oak.

But overall I am thrilled with the pretty board and batten in the bright white. It's funny because in the late afternoon when the natural sunlight hits the island it seems to take on a beautiful glow!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

XO

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