Looking Forward to May Flowers

We certainly have had a lot of showers in April and judging by that, we should have a lot of May flowers.

I am going to do a recap of the Eclipse party I had as well as the snacks, crafts and hacks as usual. Where were you for the eclipse?

My son was home for a couple of days and I was able to try some new recipes which I am excited to share.

Recipes

Whole Roasted Cauliflower (ketocookingchristian.com

• 1 medium head cauliflower
• ▢¼ cup olive oil
• ▢¼ cup parmesan cheese, divided
• ▢3 tablespoons butter, melted
• ▢3 garlic cloves, grated
• ▢1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• ▢½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ▢1 teaspoon salt
• ▢½ teaspoon ground black pepper

• Preheat oven to 375°F.Wash your cauliflower and trim the stem and leaves, making sure you don’t cut off any florets.Place the head of cauliflower in a dutch oven, casserole dish or large pot, stem side up.In a small mixing bowl, add in all the remaining ingredients and whisk to combine.Pour half the mixture on the underside and brush to get in between the florets.Flip the cauliflower over, brush the remaining mixture all over the top and sides, making sure the entire cauliflower is coated.Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the cover, increase the temperature to 425°F and bake for another 15 minutes or until fork tender and golden.Allow to cook slightly, then slice into wedges and serve.

The cauliflower came out so moist and flavorful. I would highly recommend this recipe.

Omelet in a Waffle Maker

This was so easy and fun. We really enjoyed them and will definitely do this again.

Crack 2 eggs in a bowl and mix them as you would to make scrambled egss. Then you add any ingredients you desire in your omelet. We used small ham chunks and shredded cheddar but the sky is the limit. Just add what you love. When the waffle maker is hot just pour your mixture into the waffle maker. I did spray my waffle maker with cooking spray. Close the lid and wait for the magic to happen. There is a soft little pop as the egg expands. I checked for the right amount of doneness a couple of times until I was happy and used a fork to remove the omelet. Let me know if you try this. Kids, especially, would love making them!

Black Bean Burger (buildyourbite.com)

• 2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
• ▢½ cup chopped yellow onion
• ▢3 cloves garlic
• ▢1 egg
• ▢½ cup panko style bread crumbs
• ▢½ cup oat flour
• ▢¼ cup powdered parmesan
• ▢1 teaspoon cumin
• ▢½ teaspoon salt
• ▢½ teaspoon pepper
• ▢½ teaspoon paprika
• ▢1 teaspoon chili powder

• Drain and rinse the black beans, shaking off any extra water
• Add the black beans, diced onion, and garlic cloves to a food processor
• Process until the onions and garlic are combined into the beans and no chunks remain. The mixture should resemble refried beans
• Transfer the black bean mixture to a large bowl. Add the egg, bread crumbs, oat flour, parmesan, cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, and chili powder.
• Mix well to combine
• Form the black bean batter into 6 burgers. If you want a thicker burger, you can make 5 instead of 6.
• Coat a skillet with olive oil, and heat to medium heat
• Cook the burgers for 5 – 8 minutes per side, until browned on both sides

These were delish and held together as well as a beef burger and maybe better.

Leave Alone Chicken

2 pounds of chicken breast salt pepper olive oil

You will need to tenderize the chicken breast. If you don’t have a meat tenderizing mallet, just use the bottom of a glass. Once they are tenderized, season both sides with the salt and pepper. Heat your skillet (I used an iron skillet) to medium high. Once the pan is hot, add enough olive oil to swirl around and coat the bottom of the skillet. Gently put your breasts in the pan in a single layer. Cook on one side for about a minute or until there is a little brown. Now turn your breasts over, turn heat to medium/low and cover with a lid. Cook for 10 minutes and using a thermometer, check to make sure chicken is at least 165 degrees. If it isn’t, just recover and cook for anothe minute or two. Recheck and you should be up to temp.

This was so moist and juicy. I will use this method from now on!

Crafts

Bee Wreath

I am sure you won’t be surprised that I made this using a bee wreath form from Dollar Tree!

I used bulky black yarn to go all around the body, head and wings of the bee, gluing where I needed to secure it. I then used regular black yarn to wrap around the antennae. This was difficult and I think if I were to do this again, I would just paint them black. From the thrift store i obtained a black and yellow stripped baby blanket which I cut to fit for the bee body and hot glued in place. For the head I had some black sheets of foam. I cut those to fit and glued to the back of the head as well. I had black and yellow ribbon from Dollar Tree in two styles, polka dot and stripe. I cut those in approximatelly 5 to 6 in pieces usinng the shark tail cut. I twisted them in the center and made kind of a V. Then I glued each of these to the back of the wings. Finally, I added a flower to finish it off. This whole thing was done in under $10.

Beehive Wall Hanging

The hive form came from Dollar Tree as well. I hot glued burlap to the back of the frame. Then used rope to cover the lines of the wreath that give the hive definition. I used that black foam sheet again to make the entrance to the hive and put rope around it. To finish it off, I added a messy bow and some bees.

April Showers Bring May Flowers Wreath

To begin with I wrapped blue yarn around 2/3 of the 10 inch wreath form to mimic the sky. The remaining 1/3 was wrapped in green to symbolize the grass. The yarn was secured using hot glue where needed. Once that was complete I cut clouds out of a white foam sheet and added some gray for definition. I used small jewels strung on thread to imitate the rain. The final touch was to add the May flowers!

Buffalo Bills Shirt

I live in Bills country and you have to have the appropriate attire for football season. I created this shirt now so that come August the the pre-season games begin, I will be ready!

I used my Cricut Explore 2 to create the iron on transfer.

Easter Bunnies

I wanted to do a little something for some friends for Easter and I came up with the idea to make bunnies. The fabric was some I had on hand and so was the ribbon. I made a template and used chalk to trace the shape onto the material. Using pinking shearers, I cut each one out. I sewed them (leaving a little opening to add the stuffing) and stuffed them (after this I sewed up the little opening) and added the ribbon.

Eclipse Party

I had several treats for the event that I want to share with you.

I had a craft, a crossword puzzle, and a worsearch for fun, The craft was a total eclipse on black construction paper showing the corona. I also created mugs using mugs from the Dollar Tree and using my Cricut. The mugs had the eclipse and the date on them.

Eclipse wine provided by my friend, Shelly.

Brownies cut in the shape of suns and moons.

I used crescent roll dough for these.

Hacks

Ever try to put your usb in the socket and it is the wrong way which means you have to turn it over and try again? Mark it with a sharpie marker on the correct side indicating “this side up”.

*I think most of us try to carry too many shopping bags at once to save us a second or third trip to the car. Just use a caribiner to hold all the bags and you just hold onto it.

(peoplish.com)

*Have you ever struggled with putting a new key on your keyring? It turns out that it is easy to avoid that struggle. Just use a staple remover to hold it open and once your key has started it’s journey onto the keyring, just take the staple remover off.

(peoplish.com)

*If your candle has burned down low into the jar and you don’t have one of those long lighters, you can use a piece of spaghetti to light your candle.

(familyhandyman.com)

*If you have seeds left from planting this year you can keep them good for next year by placing them in their packets in a small storage container and add a couple of silica packs which will keep the seeds from germinating over the months. I always save the silica packs from purses and other things I buy because there are many uses for them.

(familyhandyman.com)

I have tried these hacks and they do, in fact, work.

Hope you enjoyed this post and found something of use! See you next month! Don’t forget to leave a comment or two!