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Hello everyone!  Today’s contribution is brought to you by Stevie Rose of Garden Therapy.  Thanks Stevie!  Not only is Stevie an inspiration to those in the DIY world, she an inspiration to me personally.  With so much creativity it is impossible to stay away Stevie’s blog, Facebook page, Pinterest account, Etsy store and I love tweeting with Stevie on Twitter. From posts on gardening, natural skincare, canning, preserving, down to  free printable labels for your jammy creations, Stevie’s enthusiasm is guaranteed to inspire!

Berry Infused Vodka

If you grow a lot of your own produce, it’s that time of year where we are getting down to the end of the food stores.  While I do love having frozen berries around all winter, they start to taste much less delicious after about 6 months so if there are any left by now, I start using them creatively.  I have my fair share of jam so I thought the best way to use up the remaining berries was to flavour vodka.

To infuse vodka, macerate 3-4 cups of berries per 40oz bottle of vodka.  You don’t need fancy expensive vodka, just basic brands are fine as you’ll add the complex flavour with the berries.  You can also add a few strips of lemon rind, being careful to ensure there is no pith.  A vanilla bean would also go wonderfully with the berries.

Pour vodka over berries in a mason jar, screw on a lid and leave in a cool dark place for 3 days to a week.  Strain off liquid and use the berries in a boozy adults-only crumble or muffin recipe.  Store the infused vodka in the freezer so it’s ice cold when you are ready to make cocktails.

Serve berry-infused vodka as a martini or with soda and some simple syrup.  Garnish with lemon, ginger, or mint for a variety of interesting cocktails.

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Hello everyone!  Today’s contribution is brought to you by  Mike Lieberman – the Urban Organic Gardener.  Not only is Mike an inspiration to those in the gardening community, he is living proof that you can grow food in the tiniest of spaces!  As you read this article, ask yourself the question, Organic:  What Does It Mean To You?

The word “organic” gets thrown around all over the place these days. One of the common stereotypes around those that buy organic are elitists that think they are better than others, but what does that word really mean?

If you look up organic gardening and organic food, you can read how the USDA defines it. Good luck figuring out what that means.

There is no strict definition of what organic means. It means something different to everyone.

Here is what organic gardening and living organically means to me.

There is no strict definition of what words mean. As often happens, words take on different meanings to different people. A universal definition is just hard to agree on. When it comes to living and gardening organically there are so many things that factor into it that are out of our control.

The first example that comes to my mind is our air. It’s not like we can decide to breathe or not breathe the air. Ok, yes you can decide to breathe that air or  not. I’ll let you make that choice and see what happens.

Water is another thing that we have limited control over. Though we can purchase a filtration system of some sort to clean it up.

With that being said, we can control some things, but not all of them.

It’s nearly impossible for us to have complete control over all these aspects. In my eyes, it’s about doing the best that you can do given the circumstance that you are facing. That is how I define organic living.

When it comes to gardening organically, I say that I am. Others think that I’m not since I’m using plastic containers and soda bottles to grow in  that it’s not safe. Therefore it’s not organic.

I might be using plastic containers. I can’t argue with that. Though they are from the containers with the number 5 on the bottom which supposedly don’t leach BPAs. The water I use is filtered, but I put it into a plastic container to water the containers.

The other thing is that I also live in Los Angeles. In case you didn’t know, it’s one of the most polluted cities in the world. Not the United States, but the planet. I’ve opted out of buying one of those large hamster balls to roll myself around in and decided to continue to live there.

Since I’m growing in containers, I’m using organic potting mix. How about people that grow the traditional way in the ground?

Is their soil organic? I’d almost guarantee that toxins are in the soil from the water and environment.

Don’t worry the world is not coming to an end though. Plenty of power still lies in your hands to control certain things. You don’t have to resort to chemical gardening. I say to focus on what you can control and ignore the rest.

That is what organic gardening and living mean to me. It’s anything that I  have control over. I can’t control the air around me (yet). I’m working on that one.

What does organic mean to you?

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Bio

Through his blog UrbanOrganicGardener.com and social media, Mike Lieberman inspires and empowers people to start growing their own food and reconnect with their food source. Lieberman believes that growing just one herb or vegetable will make a difference. It will help to cut back the intensive resources that go into the production and transport of food to our plates. It will also help us to re-establish our connection with food that we’ve lost over the past few years. We are humans. We grow food. Connect with Mike at UrbanOrganicGardener.com, Twitter or Facebook.

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Today’s guest post is brought to you by Chelsea that runs the health and fitness blog over at How Chelsea Sees It.  In addition to being a scientist she strives at keeping fit by regularly running, spinning, dancing, and kickboxing.  Here are Chelsea’s tips for a healthier happy hour, mixed with less calories and a splash of humor…

Hello all you Guys, Gals, Gardeners n’ ummm Guzzlers? (I strive to be an alliteration activist in life)…

When my fellow foodie, Nicky, asked me to be a guest writer for her blog, not only was I beyond flattered but I was OVERJOYED! There’s nothing I love talking about more than food, booze and fitness. That whole “Eat, Pray, Love” craze is cute and all but I’m all about the “Eatin’, Drinkin’ and Runnin’” (not in that particular order of course–not trying to cause cramps n’ such)! Today I thought I’d swing by and share some of my favorite alcoholic beverages for those of you that enjoy that warm fuzzy feeling within, minus the bloating and burping– Lord knows that’s never attractive (or is it?)

I should mention right off the bat that I’m not an avid beer drinker. I can occasionally take a Tangerine Wheat or a Great White down the ol’ jugular but I’m one of those people that burps like a gosh darn sailor and I also like garlic and onions a whole bunch so it’s usually never the greatest combination to have. That being said, I do love me some liquor– vodka, rum, tequila and red wine in particular– so that’s what I’m going to focus on in this blog. We’ll start with vodka.

1. Vodka Beverages (lightened up).

When at the bar, my go-to vodka drink of choice is the “vodka soda with lime” which is basically vodka with a club soda and a lime wedge on the side. This is probably one of the healthiest vodka drinks you could order. Personally, I like to taste the vodka in my drinks, but it took a while for me to get to that point (lots of practice, ladies and gentlemen, lotttssss of practice). If you are not ready to taste your vodka so intensely, I suggest a vodka with sprite or sierra mist (if they have it in diet, that’s lower in calories if that’s what you’re after) with lime. There is just something about a lime mixed with vodka (and tequila) that makes everything feel right.

Another drink you could try is a vodka mojito! I just started getting into this kind of drink after I went to the store and bought too much mint and needed to use it up somehow. If you’re making this drink at home, simply pour your shot (or two) of vodka in a a glass, throw in some mint leaves and grind the booze and mint up with some sort of pestle ( or you could cut up the mint prior to putting it into the glass, just to get the flavors out). Once they’re adequately mixed, throw in a pinch of sugar, followed by ice and fill the rest of the glass up with sprite, sierra mist or some sort of diet version. Top it off with a lime wedge and bam! You’ve got yourself a damn good vodka mojito! Of course light rum can be (and should be, in this case) substituted for vodka.

Next on the list of delicious vodka beverages is The Greyhound! This is a wee bit pricey but super tasty: Grey Goose vodka and Grapefruit juice! Nom nom nom! I’m not a huge fan of grapefruit juice by itself but when mixed with vodka it makes for a very refreshing and buzzy-licious beverage.

2. Rum Beverages (lightened up).

Oh Rum, how I love thee! Sailor Jerry is one of my favorites because it’s 90 proof so you don’t need a lot of it but it tastes cinnamon-y and spicy! One of my favorite chasers with rum is rootbeer. I call it an R&R (rum & rootbeer… OR rest & relaxation, teeheehee)! You can use diet root beer and it will taste just as good– in my opinion. Root beer is one of those drinks that does a wonderful job of coating the hard liquor flavor so if you don’t like the taste of liquor, coat it on up with some diet root beer and it’ll taste fabulous.

Rum and diet coke also works pretty well– most bars don’t have much of a selection of diet sodas, usually just diet coke or pepsi so that works well with rum also. 

The reason I prefer diet soda as a chaser is not even because it lacks calories but more so because it lacks the sugar that causes hangovers in the morning. 

While we’re on the topic of rum, I should mention my new found favorite rum cocktail that I made via Vitamix (any blender will do the trick). Pour in a shot or two of rum followed by fresh pineapples (maybe half a cup? I usually eyeball it), followed by a pinch or two of coconut flakes and finished up with 3-4 ice cubes. Blend that sucker up and you’ve got yourself a tasty and healthy pina colada!

3. Tequila (already lightened up).

Tequila is one of those drinks (in my opinion) that should really only be taken one way– via shot! Sure, you can make margaritas but they always end up tasting so salty or too sweet, and you lose that tequila flavor in the process. Some people like to mix it with orange juice, and I have no problem with that, but again– the tequila flavor is lost! When I do tequila, I do it one way and one way only: with some salt on my right hand and a lime wedge in my left hand. Boom baby! Once it hits your lips, it feels so right I do have to limit my shot intakes, however, because my impatient little self just thinks I can keep on taking shot after shot since the buzz doesn’t kick in immediately, and that’s when we start to have fuzzy nights

4. Red Wine.

Prince was right; red red wine makes me feel so fine. It makes me feel even better knowing that that awesome little resveratrol molecule floating around inside is fighting off those free radicals we all love to hate. Resveratrol is a highly conjugated molecule found in red wine that, when attacked by free radicals, is able to transfer double bonds down to the source of impact and fight off the bad guys just like the vitamin C and alpha tocopherol (vitamin E) molecules do (there’s a little chemistry lesson for you).

Red wine is also great because you don’t need a chaser with it, and it pairs so beautifully with a juicy steak or some dark decadent chocolate–all in moderation, of course. Plus, the buzz is a different kind of buzz; it’s more of a relaxing, happy-go-lucky buzz which feels very calming and is great to bring to parties especially when a girlfriend of yours just went through a nasty break-up

And there you have it, folks! Those are a few of my favorite alcoholic beverages! Not too sweet, not too salty, not too complicated, not too shabby! I know nothing I listed was very fancy, but sometimes simplicity is the best medicine.

And that’s how Chelsea sees it!

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I’m just a 24 year old gal with a major crush on food, and I’ll do everything I can to keep it that way! This means I make it a priority to stay active whether I’m running, spinning, dancing, kickboxing, or keeping up with Tony Horton in P90X. I strive at keeping “healthy” and “scrumptious” in the same sentence when it comes to cooking and baking–but sometimes you just gotta eat dat butta! You might find me interesting, you might not, but either way this blog is here to stay!

And that’s how Chelsea sees it

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Hello everyone!  Today’s post is brought to you by  Andrew Odom – author, designer, community manager, homesteader, and (some would say) dreamer.

 Let’s face it. Herbs can become a bit stale sometimes. And no, I don’t mean tasteless or unpalatable from age but rather stale…as in old from familiarity. Most gardeners begin each spring (or continue in the case of all-season gardiniér) with the usual suspects of basil, chives, coriander, dill, fennel, mint, etc. In fact, I wrote about the herb essential here. But it takes a special person to find multiple callings for the flavorful foliages other than culinary, medicinal, or in some cases even spiritual usage. And by that I am talking about libational use of herbs (and some spices).

That’s right. When your whiskey has become a bit too sour or your Manhattan has begun tasting a bit more like the Jersey Shore, you can use those same dainty, delicate, redolent, botanicals for something a little more mature, if you will.

I encourage YOU to use the five recipes listed below to add a little garden spice to your already “nice” (reference to sugar and spice and puppy dog tails, etc….okay, it sounded better when I said it) to old recipe classics.

Cucumber Mint Gin & Tonic

SERVINGS

1 drink

INGREDIENTS:

2 slices cucumber

3 mint sprigs

3 ounces gin

4 ounces Q organic tonic water

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

PREPARATION:

1. Muddle 1 slice cucumber and 2 sprigs mint in highball glass.

2. Fill with ice.

3. Add 3 ounces gin, 4 ounces tonic and 1/2 ounces lime juice.

4. Stir and garnish with a cucumber wheel.

Pepper Basil Caipirinha

SERVINGS

1 drink

INGREDIENTS:

1 bar spoon white peppercorns

1 bar spoon sugar

1 ounce lime juice

10 basil leaves

2 ounces cachaça

1 basil leaf

PREPARATION:

1. Muddle 1 bar spoon of white pepper corns and add sugar, 1 lime quartered and basil leaves.

2. Add cachaça and 1 ounce lime juice.

3. Shake the mixture and strain into a rocks glass over ice.

4. Garnish with sprig of basil.