West Coast Granola Goodies- Guest Post by Teresa Reilly

Hi Cozy Rustic friends! 

When my lovely pal Bunny asked me to share one of my DIY projects, I immediately thought to write about my mother's delightfully tasty and ridiculously user-friendly granola recipe.  Instead of spending oodles of money on cereal, I make this recipe every week for my fiance and I to eat for breakfast (he knows I like my granola like I like my men: cheap, easy and full of wheat germ.)  And I wrapped up jars of it and gave it away for Thanksgiving and Christmas presents this year!  It's worth noting: I made batches for vegans and non-vegans alike as it's incredibly easy to adapt to suit your needs.  I hope you enjoy it!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup rolled oats (not instant!)

1 cup wheat germ

1 cup shredded coconut (optional but recommended!)

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup chopped nuts (peanuts are good, but my mom always recommends almonds.  I like cashews too!)

1/2 cup raisins
2 Tbsps chia seeds (optional but gives a great dose of antioxidants!)
1/2 cup oil (grapeseed works great)

1/2 cup honey

1 Tbsp. milk
Cinnamon

First thing's first: preheat the oven to 275 degrees.  Now, mix all your dry ingredients together.  As I said, feel free to add in whatever dry goods that flip your fancy.  I love adding in dried cranberries to the mix when I'm using cashews or substituting walnuts in lieu of almonds. 

Next, mix all your wet ingredients.  You can easily make this vegan by replacing the honey with agave or maple syrup and using almond milk.  Another great addition at this step is adding a drizzle of vanilla extract!

Now pour your wets onto your dry and mix it all up.  Spread it out onto two baking sheets so that there's just one layer of oats.  At this step, I get cinnamon-happy and do one shake of the ol' cinnamon bottle over each pan.  A little bit goes a long way!

Now stick those suckers in! 

 

Toast for 7-8 minutes, then remove from the oven, scrape from the sides of pan and mix it up.  Stick 'em back in!  Side note: your kitchen will start to smell AWESOME right about now.  Repeat 2-3 times more until granola is golden-brown.  (Another way to tell it's done is when the raisins expand back into a grape-shape.)  Let cool for a few minutes, then store in an airtight container.  Eat with yogurt, milk, cottage cheese, over ice cream, mixed with berries...whatever your heart desires.

Or give them away to all your friends and family!  Santa had nothing on me this year. 

Granola is truly the gift that keeps on giving. 

Cheers,                               

Teresa              

  

You can read more about Teresa at her website www.teresa-reilly.com           

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Cozy Rustic-ers!

I hope 2012 is off to a great start for you.

My husband and I took a New Year's
get away to Sea Cliff in Long Island. It is a beautiful little town along the beach.
The weather was so beautiful that we took a walk and had a little photo shoot along the beach.

I realize we are already two weeks into the new year!
 It has been a busy but productive start. 

I've already let go of most of my resolutions/goals. But I decided to 

share (or "come up with") a few that I have for this blog in the new year.

1. Get a New Look

Not sure what this will entail yet, but I think I think the inspiration 

will probably come from my Etsy shop banner. 

2. Invite Guest Bloggers

Want to share a craft, recipe, home design or something cozy rustic with
our reader? Email Bunny at Cozyrustic@gmail.com.


3. Create 1 New Thing Every Month

I'm hoping you will hold me accountable to this! Whether it be a
new recipe or craft...I'm going to make it! And I'm going to blog about it!
Want to join me?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Crafters!

Mailing the Hankie Invites

I've owed you this post for so long!

These are pictures and the "how" behind mailing
my wedding invitations.Or just where I got everything!

  
Envelopes~Paper Presentations 

  My favorite store on my favorite block (besides all my other favs on the block)!
I knew that I wanted something really simple in terms of envelopes. This way the Hankies would be the star. I spent hours at Paper Presentations looking for the perfect envelope and sleeve to hold the invite. I found some made with recycled paper and also bought inserts to line the envelopes.

        

Information Cards~Ruffled & Avery 

I made little cards to go the sleeve with RSVP information. 

Used a template on Ruffled (free download!) and Avery labels for the card.

We skipped Response Cards to help keep things eco-friendly. 

Calligraphy~ Briar Winters

Calligraphy on wedding invitations is beautiful! It wasn't really in our budget. I took a tip from The Groom Says and asked a Bridesmaid, Briar Winters, to pen addresses with her gorgeous penmanship.

Mailing them ~ Bunny Tip


These can be tricky to mail if they are very thick! I took them to the post office and had an employee helped me measure the envelopes thickness with the hankie folded. Normally they were 61 cents, but the thicker hankies ended up being over $1.

 

I was very happy with the way these turned out and my guests loved receiving them!
Are you making Hankie Invites too?

Two Shows Left! Figgy Pudding

Dear Sunnyside and Queens Readers,

I'm in this festive evening of Holiday One Acts at Cafe Marlene! Cafe Marlene is on 49th st bet 43rd ave and Skillman in Sunnyside.

All the info is in the photo below--

Happy December!

Quick and Easy Applesauce

        My father has started a tradition of bringing me seasonal fruit from Randall's Farm and Greenhouse. He usually brings a big box of ripe fruit that my husband and I dig right into. Last summer, Dad brought peaches and we chopped them up together and stuck them in the freezer in a couple giant Ziploc Bags. I eventually made Peach Jam with hints of ginger and mint. It was a riff one of Carrol Luna's recipes.

    This time my Dad brought apples. Macintosh apples to be exact. I was eating two to three apples a day when my husband and I started talking about pies or other ways to preserve these lovelies. I thought about homemade applesauce. As a kid I ate applesauce ALL the time as a snack or lunch side. I've never made it myself, save for that Sunday School class in fourth grade. I remember the huge pot steaming and then getting to eat warm applesauce out of a Dixie cup. In my memory it seemed like a big production. But I did some research and came up with this quick and hopefully healthy applesauce! No sugar or canning required.

Quick and Easy Applesauce

    What you'll need EDIBLE:

3-4 pounds of apples

1 1/2 cups Water

1 Lemon (Juice and Peels)

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Salt

 What you'll need TOOLS:

Knife

Apple Corer

Vegetable Peeler

Large Pot 

Measuring Cup

Potato Masher

Canning Jars or other Containers 

 1~ Wash, Peel and Core the apples. I didn't completely peel each apple. Isn't the skin where all the nutrients are at??

2~ Peel a Lemon so you get at least 2 long strips of lemon peel.

 3~ Add Apples, lemon peel, water, cinnamon and salt to the pot. Add the Juice from about half a lemon.

4~ Boil the apples for about 20-30 minutes or until soft and broken down. I stirred the pot a few times to gives apples on top a chance to simmer on the bottom of the pot!

Bunny Tip - I'm often rushing a project and I was even rushing this sauce! I started the boiling process before all the apples were cored and thrown in the pot. This created a chunkier sauce and we really like it! The apples boil down to sauce quite quickly and you will really notice the change. You should start to see a lovely pink sauce.

5~ Remove the Lemon peels and Apple skin with tongs if desired.

6~Mash!     (My husband helped out on this step!)

7~ Let cool and store.

We were out of canning jars, so we decided to freeze the sauce in small containers that are individual portion sizes.We did freeze one large container for Hanukkah this year!

Ways to enjoy applesauce~

Hot or Cold

All by Itself

with Ice Cream 

as a Snack

with Pork Chops

in Vegan Brownies

with Latkes

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you had a happy thanksgiving!

Ode to Stamps!

Geek Confession: I love Postage Stamps. When I was in fifth grade I started collecting them. My Dad collects stamps too and started me out with a children's stamp collecting book. He taught me the basics about how to soak them to remove the paper envelope. I love stamps so naturally I strike up conversations about them at Pink Olive. I mainly struck up a conversation about these stamps:

 These are the exact stamps I would've LOVED to have used for my wedding! I thought about using Vintage Postage Stamps but didn't know where to get them (Psst-Etsy). Instead I used many current stamps from the Post Office... and they were beautiful.

  I'm stocking up on the Herb stamps above and will probably use them on my holiday postcards (since there isn't a .29 cent holiday stamp).  Here are a few more current stamps I'm loving!

Anytime Stamp

 
Stamps for Save the Dates or Wedding Invitations:

Stamps for Holiday Cards:

All stamps and Images belong to the USPS https://www.usps.com/

PS. USPS....I could use a Holiday Post Card Stamp..for next year...

Martha Stewart Living: Wax Seals

I saw these wax seals in Martha Stewart Living, November 2011.

They used them in gift wrapping but they would also be great
on Wedding Invites, Holiday Cards, etc.

The seal wax is made to go in a glue gun!!! SO EASY!!!

For more: http://www.marthastewart.com/857299/wax-seals

  Image from Martha Stewart Living, November 2011

Black Friday Sale

I'm selling vintage goods in my Etsy Shop: Sunnyside Vintage & Craft. 

And I'm having a sale Black Friday through Cyber Monday.

Code "Gobble" gets you 15% off.

Will be adding more items throughout the weekend!