Craft Show Photos and Nectarine Citrus Bean Salad Recipe!

I have a really yummy recipe to share with you, but first… last weekend my brother and I did our first craft fair together, and I wanted to share some photos! It went well and we both sold some of our pendants, earrings, and bracelets.

On Saturday, we’ll be at the Hightstown Hometown Harvest Fair, and we have many more shows booked for November and December.

I will definitely be busy this fall making pendants, bracelets, and earrings, but it’s a great creative outlet, so I’m happy to be busy!

Most of the items we had for sale were fused glass jewelry, but my brother also makes copper clay earrings, fused glass dishes, and enameled jewelry which are all really pretty!

You can see how he makes the copper jewelry here. I haven’t tried making those myself, but it looks like a fun process that I would love to try sometime.

As I mentioned in my last post, if you can’t make it out to one of the shows, but are still interested in purchasing jewelry, I do list items on my Etsy shop under the username The Creative Kat. I will continue to add more jewelry, but can’t possibly list everything on Etsy (I make a lot of pendants!). However, if there’s something specific you’re looking for, or even general colors or styles that you’d like to see listed, I would be happy to make pendants in those styles/colors and add those listings for you.

And now, on to the recipe! I made this a little while back while nectarines were in season. If you can still find ripe nectarines near you, this is a really yummy and unique take on a bean salad! The addition of nectarine and citrus provides an unexpected, but really flavorful and slightly sweet addition to the typical bean salad. This would be a perfect dish to bring to a pot luck or to make when having friends or family over!

Bean Salad Ingredients:

3 stalks of celery
1 yellow pepper
1 nectarine
1/4 cup cilantro
1 can kidney beans
1 can chickpeas
1/4 cup corn (fresh cut off the cob or frozen)

Dressing Ingredients:

2 limes
1 lemon
1 Tbsp spicy mustard
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp agave

Directions:

• Chop the celery, yellow pepper, nectarine, and cilantro and place them in a mixing bowl. Drain and rinse the kidney beans and chickpeas and add them to the bowl along with the corn. Stir until everything is evenly distributed.
• Juice the limes and lemon and pour the juice into a separate bowl. Add the mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper, and agave. Whisk up all the dressing ingredients until well combined.
• Pour the dressing over the other ingredients in the mixing bowl. Toss so everything is coated. Serve cold and enjoy!

 

Homemade Rangpur Lime Soda

I haven’t posted in a little while because I’ve been on vacation visiting my sister in Santa Barbara. I’ve been photographing my food adventures and have a backlog of yummy posts for you coming up! My sister made lime soda for me earlier in the week, so I wanted to share this very simple recipe. It’s almost too simple to even call it a recipe. It was really yummy and perfect for the summery warm weather!

My sister used an unusual type of citrus fruit called a Rangpur lime, which is actually a cross between a lemon and a mandarin. It’s originally from India and looks more like a tangerine than a lime since it’s orange. It still has a lime-y flavor though. This recipe makes one medium sized drink. You can follow these basic steps, with any citrus fruit to make your own soda.

My sister also has a Soda Stream, which allows you to turn regular water into carbonated water. It’s perfect for making home made soda. If you don’t have one of these, you can just pick up some carbonated water at the store.

Ingredients

1 or 2 limes
seltzer water/carbonated water
2-3 Tablespoons of simple syrup

Directions

• Juice the lime. If they’re very small, you may want to use 2, but 1 was enough for us.
• Add the simple syrup to taste. Start with a little and add more until it’s sweet enough for you. Stir well.
• Add the carbonated water/seltzer. Stir, and enjoy!

Vegan Thanksgiving Idea – Side Dish – Cranberry Citrus Wild Rice

Here’s another recipe for you to try at Thanksgiving. It’s one that vegans and non-vegans will both enjoy! I came up with this recipe after having something similar at the National Museum of the American Indian. They actually have a pretty good cafe called the Mitsitam Cafe. Mitsitam translates to “Let’s eat!” in the language of the Delaware and Piscataway natives. All the foods in the cafe are indigenous Native American foods from different regions. They even have a cookbook, though it’s not all vegan. If you ever go to the museum, you should stop by the cafe to try it out!

Cranberry Citrus Wild Rice

Ingredients

6 cups of water
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of uncooked wild rice
1 orange
1 lemon
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 green apple
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 tsp cinnamon
dash of pumpkin pie spice

Directions

• Add a pinch of salt to the water and bring it to a boil. Add wild rice and cook for 45 minutes. All the water should be absorbed, but if there’s still some left you can drain it off. Stir the rice and place it in the fridge to cool down.
• Zest the orange and the lemon and then juice them both. Add the zest to the juice. Stir in 3 Tbsp of brown sugar until it dissolves. You can use less if you want it less sweet. You can also substitute agave if you want. Set the mixture aside.
• Chop the green apple into small chunks. You can peel it first if you want, but I don’t. I don’t mind the skin and it adds some color.
• Once the rice is cool, add the juice and zest mixture, the apple chunks, and the dried cranberries. Add the cinnamon and just a dash of pumpkin pie spice. Stir well so the juice coats the rice and the spices are well distributed.
• Transfer to a bowl for serving.