A New Year, Same Old Me!

I guess I took a holiday from blog posting. It has been a busy two months with Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, birthdays, parties, baking, crafting, cooking holiday meals. You name it, we’ve all been doing it!

We are in the middle of a wind storm accompanied by rain that has semis overturned, traffic lights out, trees down, electric outages, the whole kit and kaboodle! Nice afternoon for a new blog post.

Recipes

Crockpot Ravioli Lasagna (themagicalslowcooker.com)

• 25 oz. frozen ravioli – DO NOT THAW (I use 5 cheese)
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 cup white onion diced
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. dried leaf oregano (not ground)
• 24 oz. marinara sauce (I use Rao’s)
• 8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese (2 cups)

• In a medium-sized non-stick skillet set to medium-high heat, add the ground beef and diced onion. Add the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano. Cook until the meat is browned. Don’t drain all the liquid off the meat; keep a few tablespoons in the meat to keep it moist.
• Spray the slow cooker with non-stick spray.
• Add half of the marinara sauce to the bottom of the slow cooker.
• Add HALF of the bag of ravioli on top of that sauce.
• Add all of the ground beef mixture over the ravioli.
• Add the remaining ravioli over the meat.
• Pour over the remaining sauce.
• Sprinkle over the mozzarella cheese.
• Place the lid on the slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 4 hours.
• Serve and enjoy!

Notes

I made this slow cooker meal for a meeting at my house when I needed a vegetarian dinner. I used cheese ravioli and added an 8 ounce bag of shredded mozzerella to the layering instead of meat.

Confetti Kielbasa Skillet (tasteofhome.com)

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 7 ounces smoked turkey kielbasa, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1 medium onion, halved and sliced
• 1/2 cup sliced baby portobello mushrooms
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 3/4 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb seasoning blend
• 1 can (15 ounces) no-salt-added black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 package (8.8 ounces) ready-to-serve brown rice
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1/2 cup chopped roasted sweet red peppers
• 4 teaspoons minced fresh cilantro

• 1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add kielbasa, onion and mushrooms; cook and stir 4-6 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer.
• 2. Add broth and seasoning blend, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan. Bring to a boil; cook 2-3 minutes or until liquid is almost evaporated. Stir in remaining ingredients; heat through.

English Muffin Breakfast Pizzas (foxvalleyfoodie.com)

I love to host brunches! For our last one I made this recipe and they were great!

I cheated a little and used a white gravy packet to make the gravy and also was cooking for a vegetarian so I used fake bacon as the meat. I didn’t have cheddar cheese slices so I used shredded cheddar.

• 1 Package of English Muffins
• ▢8 Eggs
• ▢1 lb Breakfast Sausage
• ▢8 oz Mild Cheddar Cheese thin sliced

Sawmill Gravy

• ▢2 cups Milk
• ▢¼ cup sausage drippings add butter if you don’t have enough drippings
• ▢¼ cup flour
• ▢½ teaspoon salt or to taste
• ▢¼ teaspoon pepper or to taste

• Cook meat in cast iron pan until well done. Remove from pan and pour off all but ¼ cup of fat.
• To the meat drippings in the skillet, add the flour. Cook and stir over medium heat 5 to 10 minutes or until mixture starts to turn golden. (This burns away the raw flour flavor which must be done before liquid is introduced)
• Slowly add milk, stirring constantly.
• Cook gravy until it boils and thickens.
• Lightly toast English Muffins in toaster while making gravy.
• Scramble eggs in a non-stick skillet, add a small dash of milk to make them fluffier, if desired.
• Turn oven broiler on high and assemble pizzas on baking sheet.
• Add sawmill gravy to the open faced toasted English Muffin then top with scrambled eggs, slice of cheese and sausage.
• Toast under broiler until cheese is bubbly and melted.

Rainbow Jello Salad

This is an oldie but a goody. If you take it to a potluck everyone is always so impressed with this and it’s pretty! I have made it in a 9×14 pan but also in a trifle bowl.

• 6 boxes Jello (small boxes) Assorted flavors: cherry, lemon, raspberry, lime, orange, strawberry
• 2 cups sour cream Regular
• water

• You will be making two layers from each box of jello. Once you do the first one, you’ll have the technique down.
• Use a clear Pyrex dish. The 9X14 size works great for six colors. If your dish is a little smaller, use 5 colors like I did this time.
• I use a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup to boil my water and a second one for pouring off part of the jello.

Making the Layers

• Put one cup of water in your Pyrex measuring cup and boil the water in your microwave. I used the two-minute setting for this.
• Carefully remove the measuring cup from the microwave and add one package of gelatin. Stir until it is completely dissolved.
• Then measure out ¾ cup of the jello into a second container. To this container, add 1/3 cup of sour cream and whisk until it is smooth.
• To the remaining jello, add 2 TB of cold water and mix.
• Pour this into a 9X13 clear baking dish and refrigerate until set.
• After 30 minutes, pull your dish out of the refrigerator and pour the sour cream mixture over the first layer.
• Place the dish back into the refrigerator for another 30 minutes to set.
• Wash your measuring cups and prepare the next layer of jello the same way you made the first layer — one cup of solid color jello and one mixed with sour cream.
• Pour the clear jello mix over the top of the set layers. Then half an our later, add the sour cream mixture.
• Keep repeating this process until you have all the layers done.
• Cover with foil and refrigerate.

Craftin’ Away

Santa Gnome

To make this project you need two of the Dollar Tree ($1.25 Tree. No! I am not over it!) white Christmas trees, a Santa hat and some to use for the nose. I used one egg holder section from the bottom of an egg carton.

First joined the two trees together by their bottoms with a zip tie. I made one side flat and fanned out the other side to look beard-like. I put the Santa hat on securing it with hot glue. I did have to overlap the hat at the back to make it fit. I used embroidery floss and a needle to make a hanger for Santa at the back of the hat. Finally, I painted the nose a flesh color and hot glued it to the “beard”.

Driftwood Tree

Quite awhile ago my son collected a bunch of small driftwood pieces for me to make a garland for my deck. I saved a bag of leftovers from that project and this year put them to use.

You will need a styrofoam cone or any other cone shaped item as the base. I then used hot glue to affix the pieces to the cone starting at the top. I did have to double some layers to cover gaps and to keep the rough tree shape that I wanted. I just put the beaded garland around it but you could decorate it anyway you prefer. I think I will fashion some kind of star for it when I get it out next year.

Top Hat

I bought this top hat at Halloween time because it just spoke snowman to me and I decorate with snowmen in January and February. I added a bow, a snow fake with a little branch of snowflakes to add some whimsy to Mr. Top Hat.

Watch Snowman

In my Home Bureau group we made these cute snowmen out of watch faces. Each of us put our own spin on how we did it. I used a Dollar Tree silver tray which I painted the center black. I took silve bead garland and hot glued it to the edge of the black painted area. We used 3 watch faces with at least one being a smaller one for the head. They were glued on the tray and then I embellished some. I use an old piece of jewelry for the moon and added a tree. Out of red felt I fashioned the hat. The scarf is a red rubberband and the arms are tan rubber ban pieces. The final touch was adding the snow to the bottom. I used spray glue and covered the rest of the project with a napkin so that the glue only landed where I wanted to put the snow. I quickly shook some snow on and that was it! Rather than hanging I used a plate stand to display my creation.

Ornament Tree

I got together for a little crafting with my friend, Shelly, and we each made an ornament tree. The above picture is of mine. She and I used the same base and stand but different color ornaments.

For the base we found a wooden round that resembled a large wooden thread spool and a simple wood plank. We both painted ours white and added a dusting of glitter. Once those two pieces were glued together we started arranging out ornaments. We just hid the hanger of the ornament by facing that side to the back. It is really simple and yet elegant. Shelly added an angel to the top of the tree but I kind of preferred the simplicity of it as is.

Hacks

• Do you have a coffee grinder? Ever tried cleaning it? I found that filling the well with uncooked rice and running the grinder for a minute or two really did the trick. This is useful to know if you also use your coffee grinder for spices as you won’t mix flavors.
• You know how you get that limescale build up around the bases of faucets? If you pour white vinegar in a bowl and soak a dishcloth or any other rag in the vinegar you can then wrap the rag around the base of the faucet and leave it there for 30 minutes. When you remove it, the limescale is gone! You can also use white vinegar to clean your showerhead.
• Do you have issues with making bows. I just discovered this method!

• Hydrogen Peroxide has many uses. Did you know you can disinfect your toothbrushes and other dental appliances with peroxide? I use it for the toothbrush and the travel case I put my brush in when on trips.
• Here’s a neat use for cornstarch. If your deck of cards starts sticking together due to oils from your hands, just place the deck of cards in a ziploc bag with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and shake! When you get your cards out and shake of the excess they are all set for easy dealing!