Tag: Buffalo Bills

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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!

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Don’t Let January Be Dreary

I hope you had a great holiday season! Ours was hectic, as always, but good. Usually, you have family, friends, great food, sparkling decorations and gifts, so how can that be bad?!

Recipes

My first item to share is a dessert charcuterie board I made for a friend’s birthday and not really a recipe. She loves homemade buttercream frosting so I made it with frosting and a lot of little things to dip in it. The picture is worth several words all ending with “yummy”.

Pancake Mix Cookies (wearenotmartha.com)

  • ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups pancake mix
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.
  • In a stand mixer or in a bowl with hand mixer, cream together butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes.
  • Mix in egg and vanilla until just combined.
  • With the mixer on low, blend in pancake mix until just combined, taking care not to over-mix. Fold in chocolate chips.
  • Place bowl in fridge to let cookie dough chill for about 30 minutes.
  • Scoop about 3 Tbsp cookie dough (I use a #20 cookie scoop) onto prepared cookie sheets, about two inches apart. Cookies will spread a bit.
  • Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies are just turning golden around edges. Let cool in pan for a couple minutes before moving to wire racks to cool completely.

I had some confetti pancake mix in my cupboard and hadn’t used it for its real purpose. I knew that there are several ways to make cookies from cake mix. So I searched and found the above recipe to use with my pancake mix. They turned out really well.

Cool Whip Cookies (breadboozebacon.com)

This holiday I kept hearing about cool whip cookies so I decided to try them. I made them in red and in green. The tops really kind of crinkled pretty so they made a nice addition to my cookie board and the kids really seemed to like them.

  • 1 box vanilla cake mix
  • 1 egg lightly beaten
  • 8 ounces Cool Whip
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Red & green gel food coloring (liquid food color works too)
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Sil-Pat.
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat together the cake mix, egg, cool whip and vanilla. The dough will be thick and sticky.
  • Divide the dough in half and place one half in a second bowl. Add a couple drops of red food coloring to one bowl and a couple drops of green food coloring to the other bowl. Mix the food coloring into each half of the dough. Add more food coloring as needed until your desired color is reached.
  • Put the powdered sugar into a small bowl.
  • Use a small cookie scoop (or 1 tablespoon measuring spoon) to portion the dough into the bowl of sugar. One scoop at a time, place the dough into the sugar and roll it around until it is completely coated. Place the dough ball onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, leaving 2-inches between each cookie. (Seriously, the cookies spread A LOT.)
  • Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the cookies are set. The center of the cookie will still be soft, that’s okay.
  • Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Allow to finish cooling on a cookie rack.

Crockpot Cabbage Soup

I looked at a lot of recipes for cabbage soup, both in a crockpot and on the stove. In the end I kind of took the ingredients from each that I liked and cooked them all on low overnight. It came out great.

small bag of baby carrots or 2 large carrots cut up in chunks 1 small cabbage cut in about 1 to 2 inch chunks 2 cloves of garlic 1 medium white onion chopped 2 stalks of celery chopped 1 large can of stewed diced tomatoes 1 qt. vegetable broth 1/2 t. thyme 1/2 t. sage 1 bay leaf salt and pepper to taste

Grilled Cheese with ……………………………….wait for it…………………..pickles?!!

I had never heard of it before but saw it on a restaurant menu and started wanting to make it. I have now tried it with both dill and sweet pickles. Both are good. You can use pickle slices or I have found the stackers version of pickles to be easy to work with for this sandwich. I drain the pickles and then pat them with a clean paper towel to take some of the liquid away. My personal favorite bread to eat it with is rye but any kind will work. Let me know if you try this.

Hacking Away

*I love my Crockpot and even though I try hard not to let the inside under the liner get dirty it does, somehow, get these brown drips and drizzles on it. You can clean this very easy with a small glass bowl of ammonia sitting in the bottom of the crockpot without the liner in it. Just put the lid on and let it sit overnight. The fumes from the ammonia will make the drips and drizzles easy to wipe off in the morning.

*Have you ever needed sweetened condensed milk for a recipe and not had any on hand? You can make your own. Just combine 3/4 cup powdered milk, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup hot water and blend until smooth. This equals one can of condensed sweetened milk.

*Ever have a smelly sink drain in the kitchen or bathroom? Hydrogen peroxide poured down the drain will get it odor free.

*Do your shoes smell? Put them in a ziplock bag in the freezer overnight. The cold temperature will kill the bacteria making the odor.

*Ever needed softened butter for a recipe and used the microwave only to have it start melting and not just soften? Me! Multiple times. Put boiling hot water in a microwave safe glass. Then dump the water out and turn the glass upside down over the stick of butter (which is sitting on its end). You have perfectly softened butter in a few minutes!

Craft Projects

I used my Cricut to create letters and a design for a Buffalo Bills sign for my door. I actually made two.

In my basement was a 6″ X 1″ board which measured 6 feet. I cut it in half and sanded it. After wiping it off with a damp, lint free cloth, and letting it dry I painted each 3 foot piece white. After painting, I lightly sanded again so the vinyl would have a smooth surface to adher to.

On my Cricut I cut 6″ high letters, H, M, and E. I made sure sure they were 6″ high and 4″to 5″ wide so that they would fit nicely on the board. Online I had purchased 12 different Buffalo Bills designs for $1.99. I brought one of the designs into my Cricut design space and used that for the O. For all items I used permanent vinyl.

The final step was to measure the placement of each item to be put onto the sign. I used chalk to mark my measurements because I could easily wipe it off when no longer needed. I measured 3″ down from the top and placed the H. From the bottom of the H I measured 2″ down and placed the Bills symbol and repeated that process with 2″ between each one which left 3″ at the bottom of the sign. When all the vinyl was on the sign I used my hands to smooth out and make sure the vinyl was attached securely.

Christmas Tree

You know how I love the Dollar Tree stores! Here is a very cheap and easy little piece of Christmas decor.

I bought a wooden Christmas tree form and two of the self adhesive wall tiles you can buy at DT (well, $1.25T). I removed the jute loop from the tree.I placed the two tiles on the tree form in a way in which looked nice and covered the complete piece. Once, I was happy with that I turned the tree over on a cutting board and using an Exacto knife trimmed off the excess. I used the tip of the knife to go through the tile where the hole for hanging was at the top of the tree and then put the jute back through the hole and tied it again. Viola!

Another Cricut Project

I was going a little crazy with my Cricut this Christmas and although everyone my not have one I think these things could be done in other mediums. For instance, rather than use the Cricut for the following project you could paint the letters on the bottles and bake them in the oven to make them permanent. Directions for this method can be found online.

Anyway, I cut out letter spelling “hands” and “dishes”. I happend to use silver permanent vinyl. I made one set with white ceramic pump bottles and one set with black ceramic pump bottles. The bottles I purchased from Walmart for $4.97 each.

I measured down the bottles about 2″ and placed the letters on each bottle. Then I filled them with hand soap and dish soap and they made nice little gifts for not much money at all.

Next month will be here fast and I am already working on some projects for Valentine’s Day. Please leave a comment and let me know if you tried anything in this post or share one of your ideas with me and other readers. See you soon!

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Dog Days of Summer

(The dog days of summer are from July 3 to August 11, who knew the dog days had a specific time period? Not me!

Recipes

Corn and Tomato Salad (iheartnaptime.net)

  • ▢2 cups cooked corn (cut kernals from cob)
  • ▢1/4 cup chopped red onion
  • ▢1 cup cherry tomatoes (sliced in half)
  • ▢1/4 cup fresh basil leaves (julienned)
  • ▢2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • ▢2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • ▢1/4 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
  • ▢1/8 teaspoon pepper (more to taste)
  • Combine the corn, onion, tomatoes and basil in a medium size bowl. Pour the vinegar and olive oil over the top. Season with salt and pepper and stir until combined. 
  • Cover and refrigerate at least 10 minutes before serving. 

*I added a little lime juice to this as well. Delish!

Turn Any Cake Mix Into A Pound Cake (Wilton)

  • Vegetable Pan Spray
  • 1 Package Your Favorite Cake Mix
  • 1 Package Instant Pudding and Pie Filling Mix (4-serving size)
  • 4 Eggs
  • 1 Cup Water
  • ⅓ Cup Vegetable Oil

Use a bundt pan or angel food cake pan for this. You can leave the cake unfrosted or add a powdered sugar glaze. When I made mine I used a butter pecan cake mix. Then I used powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and a little cinnamon to make a glaze which I drizzled on top.

Tik Tok One Pan Baked Mac and Cheese

Instead of repeating the recipe I am going to give you the link so you can see pics for yourself! It was delicious!

https://viralrecipes.com/tiktok-mac-and-cheese/

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (thebakingchocolates.com)

  • 4 ripe bananas, medium or 1 & ⅓ cups of mashed banana
  • ⅓ cup melted butter cooled
  • ⅔ cup sugar or sugar of choice
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1 ½ cups all purpose flour 
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • Preheat oven to 350.
  • Grease your muffin tins
  • Peel bananas and throw them in a big bowl with the melted butter and smash it all together with a fork.
  • Keep blending until the mixture is creamy and smooth, not chunky.
  • Add sugar, egg and vanilla and mix just until combined.
  • Stir in salt and baking soda.
  • Add flour and chocolate chips and mix until just combined. Do not overmix!
  • Divide into muffin tins.
  • Bake until cake tester or toothpick pulls out cleanly for about 18-20 minutes

I made these for a bake sale and they were well received.

Salad in a Jar

There are tons of recipes for putting a salad in a canning jar. I will just tell you the basics and you can experiment.

You always put your dressing in first. Then you put in any vegetables you want that won’t get wilted from the dressing. I put in peppers, celery, cucumbers, red onion, etc. Then you put in your tomatoes on top of all those and finally the lettuce. Screw your top on and refrigerate. When you are ready to eat your salad turn the jar upside down so the dressing trickles through all the fixings. You can shake or stir when you’re ready. Then enjoy.

Hacks!

  • Does anyone use match sticks any more? I use them every once in awhile and in between those times the box they came gets broken down and they end up being loose all over the drawer. Here’s a handy solution.

I just used a canning jar, as you can see, and cut a circle of sandpaper (to strike them on) and inserted it in the ring ontop of the canning lid.

  • Another trick with a canning jar is to use one with either a shaker top or some sort of slotted top like the one below to store twine or jute in. It really makes a nice “dispenser”. I bought the lid at Dollar Tree (well, really, where else?).
  • Have you ever thought of using a swiffer mop with one of the dry pads on it to dust your walls? I have started doing that because I noticed especially on dark painted walls you can see the dust. It works very well.
  • I made some deviled eggs for a picnic and tried putting a little sweet relish in the egg yolk mixture and it was a really nice touch. Let me know in the comments if you have done it before or if you try it now.

Crafty Times

Home Sign

I purchased a frame from Dollar ($1.25 Tree) Tree that had a plain black background with a string of jute and 3 small wooden clips to hold pictures, etc. I removed the jute and clips and placed a section of a map on the black background. This section of the map was the area that included the street where I live. I had a wooden cut out of the word “home”, also from Dollar Tree, which I painted and glued to the bottom of the frame. There was a jute string already on the back of the piece for hanging. It could stand as well but I liked it hanging. I made some for my children as well.

I live in Buffalo Bills country and a friend and I decided to do our own version of a craft we had seen in a store. We purchased one of the bicycle wheel wreath frames, red, blue and white chunky yarn, a small piece of wood, a Buffalo Bills sticker and a string of painted beads. We painted the wood and affixed the sticker to it. Next we cut lengths of yarn and arranged them in a way that we liked. The lengths of yarn were then looped over the center of the wreath form. We glued the wooden piece above the yarn. Finally we cut the string of beads and glued them along the top of the yarn. I plan on using mine on my door. You could do this with any team and their team colors.

This is not strictly a craft but I wanted to share it anyway. I had been looking for a bike to paint completely, even the tires, in one solid color. I planned to put a basket on it and use the basket for flowers. This year at the County Fair I saw a gentleman with a lot of scrap metal on his truck to turn in for cash. I saw a bike that was perfect for my needs and purchased it for $20. This year I decided not to paint it because I liked the muted aqua color it was. I may paint it next year and then again, maybe not. It adds a little cuteness to my yard.

Thank you for reading! I hope you got some good ideas from this month’s post and I love reading your comments! Share some of your crafts and recipes with me. See you next month!

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