Etsy Love- Uncommonly Chic

Earlier this month I decided to treat myself to an early birthday present. (My birthday was on the 9th-if you missed it, that's okay! I accept late gifts)
I'd been watching Uncommonly Chic for awhile. She had posted a Necklace that I loved, but alas somebody was quicker on the draw than I. Finally one day in a posting frenzy she put up a new one, and I snatched it up before anyone noticed it was there. Muhahahaha!

Uncommonly Chic sold something like 30 necklaces that day, but I received my necklace 4 days later, in a cute little box tied up with raffia. I love it! It's not too flashy, but very cute. Just my style. I was very impressed with the quality (especially for the price!) and the quick shipping.

here are some other Uncommonly Chic necklaces that I love:

Sunny


Sarah II


Olive

Her photography is pretty great too. You know exactly what you're getting. (all photos credit Uncommonly Chic)


So if you feel like you need a treat, go visit. You wont be disappointed!

Homemade Spaghetti sauce

In addition to a plethora of zucchini, this has also been the summer of tomatoes. And what a summer to choose for that, due to my tooth problems, I couldn't EAT the tomatoes. Talk about torture, I love a good tomato!

Anyways, my boss told me that I needed to "get on board with this cooking thing" and make my own tomato sauce, so I did!

First, I took my gorgeous Parker bowl (Thank you hub!) full of red and yellow tomatoes and I pureed four of the tomatoes, and chopped the other four.

Then, I tossed some garlic in olive oil in a hot pan.

Then I tossed in both the pureed tomatoes and the chopped, along with some onions and red wine vinegar (and a wee bit of sugar, there was just a little too much bite), and cooked it for about an hour.

Then, I sauteed up some squash, cooked some noddles and poured my sauce over both. Then I drowned everything in way too much feta.



mmmmm. Still, my end review is "Meh, not worth it." I prefer store bought sauce, but IDK, maybe I did something wrong. It just could've been better.

Zucchini Muffins

I hate writing the word zucchini, I always spell it wrong. I wish Dictionary.com kept track of how many times one person looked up a word, I bet I've looked up that one at least 20 times. What can I say, I'm a slow learner!

Anyways, this summer has truly been the summer of zucchini (there's that word again!) we've been given far more zucchini (gah!) than we could deep fry, so I decided to try my hand at zucchini muffins. My mom used to make a bread that I liked, but muffins are so much more portable and handy.

After a little research, I settled on this recipe from Simply recipes. The only change I made was substituting almond extract for vanilla. (I also omitted cranberries and walnuts cause I didn't have any.) I don't know how I ran out of vanilla extract, it's such a staple! And they turned out awesome!


mmm. Also, notice those muffin cups they are in? BUY THOSE. One of my least favorite kitchen chores is cleaning the muffin pan, and these little suckers have cured that for me! You don't need a muffin tin at all, you just pour your batter in the silver cups (that are lined with paper) and throw them in the oven and voila! Muffin tin-less muffins!