Painted Rock Garden Bugs
Fill your garden with helpful insects made from ordinary rocks and paint. Smooth stones with rounded edges make cute ladybugs and bees. A white base coat of paint will make the colors pop. If you make a mistake, simply paint it over and start again.
Materials
Smooth rocks, washed and dried
Small paintbrushes
Acrylic paint in white, black, red, yellow and other assorted colors
Broad-tip and fine-tip black permanent markers
Glue
Googly eyes, optional
Scissors
Sticky notes or plain white paper
Step 1:
Using a small brush, paint the rock(s) white and let dry.
Ladybugs:
Paint the entire rock red (or any other color you like). Let dry. Paint the top third of the rock black or color it with the broad-tip marker. Using the fine-tip permanent marker, draw a line down the middle and add dots for wings. Paint on eyes, or glue on googly eyes.
Bees:
Paint the entire rock yellow (or any other color you like). Let dry. Paint black lines across the bee’s body or draw lines with a broad-tip marker. Cut out small wings from the sticky notes or paper. Glue the wings to the bottom of the rock. Use the fine-tip marker to make the eyes and smile.
Get Fired Up and Move the Cooking Outside
Cooking over a live fire outdoors is one of summer’s greatest pleasures. Happily, it’s also one of the simplest. We have a few tips to share to help make sure your dinner plans don’t go up in smoke.
Start clean
Every time you use your grill, take the time to clean the cooking grate (or grates on a gas grill) before you add the food. Preheat the grill, getting the grate good and hot, and then use a metal scraper to dislodge any bits of cooked-on food. Follow up with a stainless-steel brush dipped in water, scrubbing the bars well. Note: Always check the manufacturer’s instructions for any special-care requirements for your grill.
Season with care
Go easy when applying seasoning rubs. If you press too hard you risk damaging the meat fibers, which can affect the texture, and you also risk overseasoning.
Don’t get stuck
Pat food dry and oil it, not the grill grate, to keep food from sticking.
Put a lid on it
If fat or juices dripping into the fire cause flare-ups, don’t try to extinguish the flames with water. Instead, quickly transfer the food to a cooler part of the grill, if possible, and cover the grill to cut off the source of oxygen.
The most important grilling tool (besides a grill)
Forget about poking at your steak to check if it’s done. A digital thermometer is the most reliable way to judge the doneness of grilled meats. We love the candy-colored Thermopop.
Michelada Recipe
This combination of beer and tomato is popular in Mexico’s beach towns, but it also tastes great when you’re at home cheering on your favorite team. Just be sure that all the ingredients—the tomato juice, beer, even the glass—are well chilled. And be careful, these refreshing cocktails go down dangerously easy.
Michelada
Serves 2
Shopping List
2 limes
2 teaspoons Mexican chile-lime seasoning, such as TAJÍN® brand, or ancho chile powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
4 tablespoons chilled tomato juice
Worcestershire sauce
Ice
12 ounces chilled beer, preferably lager-style
Tools
2 chilled tall glasses
1 Prep the glass rims
- Juice 1½ limes. Cut the remaining ½ lime into 3 wedges.
- On a small plate, stir together the chile-lime seasoning and salt and spread in an even layer.
Run 1 lime wedge around the rim of each chilled glass. Dip the rims into the seasoning mixture to coat.
2 Make the Micheladas
In each glass, stir together 2 tablespoons tomato juice, 1 tablespoon lime juice, and 1 dash Worcestershire sauce. Season the mixture lightly with salt. Fill each glass halfway with ice. Pour 6 ounces beer into each glass and stir gently to combine.
3 Serve
Garnish each glass with a lime wedge, kick up your feet, and chill.
Nutrition per serving: Calories: 120, Protein: 2g (4% DV), Fiber: 4g (16% DV), Total Fat: 0.5g (1% DV), Monounsaturated Fat: 0g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0g, Saturated Fat: 0g (0% DV), Cholesterol: 0mg (0% DV), Sodium: 180mg (8% DV), Carbohydrates: 19g (6% DV), Total Sugars: 3g, Added Sugars: 0g (0% DV). Not a significant source of trans fat.
Bonus recipe—ingredients not included in box.
Summer Grilling, Sun Basket Style
The Game-Changing Grilling Tip to Rule Them All
Fancy tools and tricked-out barbecues can only take you so far. To truly become an expert griller, you must first become a master of fire. The live flames that fuel an outdoor grill require more finessing than the burners of a stove. You’ll have more control if you start by building a fire with two levels of heat—hot, direct radiant heat on one side and cooler indirect, convection heat on the other.
As a general rule of thumb, cook meats that are 1-inch-thick-and-under over direct heat and anything more than an inch thick over indirect heat. One of the benefits of having two heat levels is that you can sear large cuts of meat and whole fish on direct heat, and then move them to indirect heat to finish cooking.
For a charcoal grill, pile the coals on one side of the grill.
For a gas grill, leave one burner off.
Indirect heat: Larger cuts of meat, like pork shoulders, beef briskets, ribs, and whole chickens. Dense vegetables such as potatoes and beets. (Always cover the grill when cooking over indirect heat.)
Direct heat: Ground meat, thinner cuts, like flat steaks and chops, pizzas, fish steaks and fillets, corn, eggplant, mushrooms, and most other vegetables. (Leave the grill uncovered when cooking over direct heat.)
Matcha-Mango Smoothie
This powerhouse blend has everything you need to start your morning right. The caffeine in the matcha works with the tea’s phytonutrients, antioxidants, and amino acids to increase focus and productivity with none of the jitteriness associated with your usual cup of joe. Mango (fiber! vitamin C!), and protein-packed chia seeds help this great-tasting blend deliver the energy you need to get through your day feeling great. Order yours now.
Sun Basket Introduces our Paleo Friendly Family Menu Meal Plan
Beginning this week, Sun Basket is offering Paleo Friendly recipes as part of our Family Menu meal plan. Our kitchen developed these recipes to satisfy parents interested in following a Paleo diet and kids who might be craving a few non-Paleo side dishes. These recipes feature top-quality meats and seafood, lots of fresh organic vegetables, and small amounts of healthy carbohydrates like potatoes, rice, and gluten-free grains. In compliance with Paleo guidelines, these meals contain no soy, dairy, or gluten.
We make it easy to customize these meals for family members who are strictly Paleo and those who enjoy some non-Paleo foods. For instance, strict Paleo followers can skip with tortillas in our Turkey Tacos with Roasted Red Pepper and Cucumber Salsa, and stuff the filling into romaine lettuce leaves instead. Our Chinese Five-Spice Pork Stir-Fry with Cabbage and Red Peppers becomes a Paleo meal if you omit the rice.
You can find these and other Family Menu recipes here.
How to Handle a Jicama
Hard and misshapen with a rough brown skin, jicama looks as much like a rock as it does a vegetable. But you’ve never enjoyed a stone as juicy and delicious as this underappreciated tuber. While it lacks the allure of a blushing peach or a tomato about to burst its skin, when it comes to flavor, jicama can go head to head with any produce in the market.
Popular in Latin America, jicama is typically enjoyed raw, tossed with lime and spices. We serve it that way with our Spicy Chipotle Turkey Chili with Jicama-Radish Salad. Tackling one for the first time can be an intimidating task, but with a sharp knife and a steady hand, it’s easier than you think.
Trim the root and stem ends from the jicama.
Set the jicama flat on one of the cut ends. Using a sharp knife (or a peeler), cut off the tough brown skin.
Cut the white flesh into ½-inch-thick slices.
Cut the slices into ½-inch-thick sticks.
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo Sun Basket Style
Don’t wait for Tuesday, or for tacos, for that matter, to make this dead-simple seasoning blend. Sure, it’s delicious on ground beef, but don’t stop there. Sprinkle Sun Basket’s Taco Seasoning on a cucumber salad, melon, mango slices, pineapple, and jicama sticks, too. Use it to season grilled chicken or fish, stir a little into your Bloody Mary. You get the idea. This stuff is good on almost everything.
Shopping List
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground chipotle
Instructions
1 Blend the spices
In a small bowl, add all the ingredients. Mix to blend.
2 Serve
Add to steak strips, ground meat, tofu, beans, or fish and cook until fragrant and heated through.
Chef’s Tip:
Try using Sun Basket Taco Seasoning when making homemade tortilla chips. Blend it with some refried beans and make a mean dip. Or even spice up your morning scramble!
Bonus Recipe—ingredients not included.
Sun Signs—May 2017
After months of retrograde planets dragging us backwards, things are beginning to loosen up and move forward. Flashes of insight reinvigorate our lives this month. Doors swing open for bright ideas that might actually work. But these breakthroughs don’t come without a few surprises; so make plans but be willing to change them when necessary.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You’re usually tuned into the tangible, but an old ghost rumbling around in the attic might go bump in the night. It’s time to jettison them bones for good. A clean sweep infuses some fresh air at the end of month, getting you to brush up your finances. How about reading something new, like Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits? It might change the way you think about investments…to create more abundance.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Collaborating with your most eccentric and unusual circles can awaken your goals, giving you a new platform to reach your dreams. Two heads (or three or four, for that matter) are better than one. No one appreciates that adage more than you. By month’s end you’ll be most satisfied with a little less conversation and a little more action.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) You’re proving Thomas Edison right—that “ninety-eight per cent of genius is hard work.” A light turns on around your career this month. Just be sure to get to bed early, which will allow your genius to peer out from under that shell. By month’s end, with more attention paid to your dreams, you’ll have tapped insight to side step into a brilliant career.
LEO (July 23-Aug 22) Oh dear lion, your creative life has felt like a grind for a while. You sure could use a break. Things look good for a last-minute, long-distance trip to reset the mental logjam. You’ve put in the work. Now share it across social media—one of those original ideas might go viral. Meanwhile, don’t rule out referring to the occult; you’re reading this aren’t you?
VIRGO (Aug 23-Sept 22) Virgo, it’s really OK to leave behind that card catalogue of family memorabilia you’ve been sifting through. You’ve labeled and tagged everything, now let the burden go. The ground is fertile for family dynamics to begin to shift in a way that’s liberating and for you to release the past and step more lightly into the future. By the end of the month, your career path contains multitudes.
LIBRA (Sept 23-Oct 22) The lines of communication suddenly open up with those unpredictable, hard to please people—you know the ones—who’ve been throwing you off balance. A different perspective is helping you see more eye-to-eye. Now you’re freed to focus on new ways to explore the world.
SCORPIO (Oct 23-Nov 21) Congratulations! Your efforts to revitalize your health regimen are beginning to pay off. As you tune up your body, you’re finding new ways to put your skills to work, which is boosting your self-esteem and helping you build more stable income streams.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22-Dec 21) A sudden revelation around romance reminds you that, ‘freedom’s just another name for nothing left to lose.’ The author of those lyrics, Kris Kristofferson, once said, “Tell the truth. Sing with passion. Work with laughter. Love with heart.” Archers everywhere are following that advice and finding joy (and freedom) in stepping up to the plate. Swing, Sag, swing.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22-Jan 19) Surprising insights on the homefront may rattle the floorboards, allowing you to see under the rug to a new configuration. It’s not exactly Tetris, but you’re able to effortlessly reorganize your space in a way that’s a win-win for everyone. By the end of the month, opportunities abound at work; you’re busy, yet still find time to get to the gym.
AQUARIUS (Jan 20-Feb 18) You’re making serendipitous connections everywhere you go—from the coffee shop and cat lovers meetup to online communities in Cairo. By the end of May, you’re juggling creative projects and have plans to monetize your passions and pay for your plane ticket to Istanbul. That may have sounded crazy to you two months ago, but the gamble you took then may turn out to be a game changer.
PISCES (Feb 19-Mar 20) A surprising twist pertaining to your finances may allow you to pivot (excuse the overused Silicon Valley buzzword) to a new way to make a living. You can uncover fresh resources that may help secure your financial future. To avoid a tailspin, keep your hand on the wheel, pump the brakes, and turn into the curve.
ARIES (Mar 21-April 19) This month, you come out with guns blazing. Don’t forget to ask questions first; and guard your head, as you’re likely to bump it. Your mental energy crackles and original ideas can find wider appeal. But don’t be surprised if your efforts to reinvent yourself take a detour. A long-distance journey or serious study may be just what you need to update your sizzle reel and make far reaching changes.
illustration by @boccaccinimeadows
It’s Your Turn to Make Breakfast
She taught you to put your napkin in your lap, keep your elbows off the table, and eat at least one bite of everything on your plate. Today’s the day to return the favor and let mom know that the lessons haven’t been lost. Treat her to a special meal by turning your Sun Basket meal into a brunch or dinner for her. Try some of our favorite Sun Basket recipes to complement what’s in your box.
Toast to mom with this light, bubbly champagne cocktail.
Make the perfect breakfast in bed.
Gluten-Free Dutch Baby with Fresh Chives
Or indulge her with a bowl of fresh pasta.
Fresh Whole Wheat Penne with Edie’s Caponata Sauce
Whip up a handmade gift for mom, because who doesn’t love chocolate?
Or make our gluten-free brownies for two.
Artwork by Ekström Design
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