OwlCat Designs

 

Welcome to OwlCat Designs!

New patterns and other important updates will show up here first, but if you would like to know a bit more, there are several ways to get your hands on some background info and possibly a coupon here and there…

Ways to stay in touch:

You can find my patterns (as they become available) under [OwlCat Designs][1] on Ravelry.
Join our Group OwlCat designs Studio on Ravelry for more info on patterns, help, errata, knit alongs or to share your thoughts and Pictures of finished OwlCat designs Projects!

The best visual way to stay in touch is Instagram. See what I am up to here: https://www.instagram.com/owlcatdesigns

Follow us on facebook: OwlCatKnits

or on Twitter: @owlcatdesigns

 

and you can even sign up to get an email (and email only coupons), every time a new pattern is published: http://eepurl.com/HIXBP

Roasted Garlic Dressing

Let’s face it, most of us like creamy dressings to go with our salads, at least every once in a  while. I have lately been hooked on lemongrass-mint white balsamic from Seasons and could eat salad with just that on it. Yep, nothing else, no oil, just that. It’s especially good on baby spinach with pomegranate seeds. But I digress, back to the subject: creamy dressings. The problem with salad dressing and especially the creamy kind is the caloric impact they tend to have. So you decided to have a ‘light’ lunch, a salad, but guess what, that commercial dressing you just poured on made it have more calories and in some cases more fat than a burger. So what to do? Your ticket is flavor, the more flavor your dressing has, the smaller the amount you need, plus making it at home allows you to control exactly what goes in it. For days like today, when it’s snowing and sleeting, when a cold meals just isn’t the answer you need something hearty that can stand up to a warm winter salad. Greek yogurt provides the creamy texture and garlic and Parmesan the flavor. Slow roasting the garlic makes it surprisingly mellow, totally taking any bite out of the taste. This one will keep in the fridge for about a week (it might keep longer, but it never lasts that long in my house), the only thing is the olive oil gets solid in the fridge, so let the dressing come to room temp before using, or heat like in the recipe above.

Makes about 1/2 cup

Ingredients

  • 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 tbsp cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp grated Parmesan
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 pinch white pepper
  • 3-4 tbsp Greek yogurt
  • (optional) Pancetta crumbles

Directions

  1. Gently heat oil in a small skillet or shallow pan over low (yes, trust me) add the sliced garlic in one layer. Slow roast until starting to turn golden and beginning to caramelize, about 20 minutes, turning pieces over about half way through. Set aside to cool.
  2. In a mini food processor, combine roasted garlic and olive oil from the skillet, salt, pepper and cheese and pulse to blend, then add the Greek yogurt and vinegar and run the machine until well blended and thick.
  3. If desired, stir crumbled roasted Pancetta pieces into the finished dressing (you can cook them in the same skillet you just used for the garlic, no need to add any oil)

Copyright © 2012 Simple Healthy Homemade. All rights reserved

Super Natural Mango Ice Cream

   imageSoft serve state…image…or popsicle, fantastic either way!  

You may have notice that I am obsessed enamored with mangoes. For more on this delicious fruit, see the Mango Cheesecake and the Mango with Sticky Rice posts and a fun side salsa, geeez, I guess I am kinda crazy about them. Since it is really hard to describe a flavor so exotic and sweet that it transports you to faraway places where the sun rises red through the early morning haze and you hear a peacock’s cry in the distance. The view takes your breath away as daylight slowly uncovers the scenery, like unrolling an exquisite silk tapestry…

Well, beyond dreaming, this is not going to get much words from me, except it’ only 2 ingredients and a must-try! No added sugar since mangoes are sweet as a dream, and if you use coconut milk, the whole thing is vegan.

Remember to start this the day before you want to eat the super natural mango ice

Ingredients

  • 2 champagne mangoes, peeled, cut into 1/2″ chunks
  • about 3/4 cups coconut milk (or half & half*)

*If using half & half, the mango ice is no longer vegan

Directions

  1. Chop and freeze the mango pieces until rock hard. (best overnight, but minimum of 6 hours seems to work)
  2. Blend the chopped, frozen mango pieces, until they look crumbly, like such…image
  3. With the machine running, slowly pour in coconut milk (or half and half, if going the dairy route) until the mango crumbles start to blend into a homogenous mass.image
  4. Either serve right away (texture is soft serve) or scoop into a small dish or popsicle molds and freeze until solid. Will keep for several weeks, if you can keep your fingers off of it 🙂

image

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade