Tag: crafts

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March Comes In Like a Lion and Goes Out Like a Lamb……….Maybe

Recipes

Crockpot Chicken Dinner

This is one of my toss it all together, taste test along the way, and have dinner recipes. All ingredients are “approximate”.

3 skinless chicken breasts

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup of white rice

2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables

Water and chicken broth (1 part water to 2 parts chicken broth) enough to cover all ingredients.

Salt and pepper to taste.

I cooked on low for 5 hours

It was delicious and made its own gravy. I ate it just like it was but you could put it over biscuits or potatoes, whatever sounds good to you.

Crockpot Vegetable Soup

4 cups vegetable broth

1 bag of mixed cauliflower and broccoli

1 small bag of mini carrots

1 russet potatoe cut up

1 T. garlic minced

1 onion diced

1 small can of stewed tomatoes, not drained

1 can of tomato paste

2 stalks of celery diced

1 bay leaf

salt, pepper, Italian seasoning to taste

I put everything in the pot and cooked on low overnight. I adjusted the seasoning by added a little more of each and it was lunch! It is always better to start with a little seasoning and then add a little at a time. Once you put it in, you can’t get it out again! LOL

Bacon Wrapped Crackers (peartreekitchen.com)

  • 54 buttery crackers , like club crackers, about 1 ½ sleeves
  • 16 ounces thinly sliced bacon , cut into thirds
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • Take bacon out of the refrigerator and allow to soften slightly.
  • Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.
  • Prepare a baking sheet with sides by lining with non-stick foil or parchment paper. Spray foil or parchment with baking spray.
  • Cut bacon slices into three pieces if using regular bacon, or cut slices in half if using center cut bacon.
  • Wrap one bacon piece around one cracker. Repeat with all crackers.
  • Lay on the baking sheet with seam side down. These can be placed close together, but not touching. Repeat with all crackers.
  • Sprinkle the top of each wrapped cracker with brown sugar. Do not use too much or it will run off and create a hard caramel layer. Repeat with all crackers.
  • Place into preheated oven and cook for 30 to 45 minutes. Longer may be required for crisper bacon.
  • Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.
  • Move to serving tray and enjoy!

Praline Candied Bacon (giftofhospitality.com)

I have not made this but looked up the recipe after I had it at a local restaurant, Music For Your Mouth. It is amazing! This is not their recipe but I am sure it is similar. I am buying bacon today!

INGREDIENTS  

  • 1 lb thick cut bacon
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ½ cup very finely chopped pecans INSTRUCTIONS 
  • Preheat oven to 400°F.
  • Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and top with a wire rack. Lay the bacon in a single layer on the wire rack (it can touch slightly but not overlap).
  • In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, maple syrup, and Dijon mustard. Use a pastry brush to brush the half the brown sugar mixture over the bacon.
  • Bake the bacon for 20–25 minutes, or until the bacon is mostly cooked through.
  • Remove from the oven and flip the bacon onto the other side. Brush the bacon with the remaining brown sugar mixture. and sprinkle the chopped pecans over the top, pressing gently with a spatula to adhere if necessary.
  • Return to the oven and cook until the bacon is very crisp, about 5–10 more minutes.
  • Remove from the oven and let cool slightly. Serve immediately.

Hacks

*I am cleaning pennies for a 50th anniversary gift and this works great. Just put the pennies in a dish and cover with any citrus juice like lemon and add salt. Allow to sit for 15- 20 minutes and then scrub with an old toothbrush to get off all the gunk! Dry with a soft cloth. This works with any coin.

*When reheating leftovers, create an empty circle in the middle of the food. This empty space will help the food heat up more evenly.

*Taking something apart to fix it? Take a photo before you start. This will give you a visual reference when putting it back together.

*Ever get a ring stuck on your finger? Spray some Windex around the area. It will slide right off.

*When making any toasty sandwich like BLTs, place two slices of bread together in a single toaster slot. This way, the bread gets toasty on the outside, but stays soft and chewy on the inside.

*Need a quick measurement but don’t have a ruler? Use a dollar bill. It is 6 1/8 inches long. You can get a rough length measurement that way.

* There’s a trick to keeping your refrigerator clean. Line the shelves with plastic wrap, waxed paper, etc. When there are spills just replace the liner.

*You can take the crumbs left in the bottom of a chip bag and save them in a jar. Just puree them in a blender and they can be used as a coating for fish or chicken.

*Don’t have an apple corer? You can use a winged corkscrew instead. This works great! Try it with baked apples.

*Amazon return bag trick, what you say is this? My hairdresser sharedn this with me. Thanks, Kim! Just watch, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG5M9S56LDM

Craft Cache

It’s been a bit of a crafty time. I either have to give more away or get a bigger house!

Several years ago in a ceramics class did these bird houses. The base they were on broke but I saved them for future use. I finally found a use! I hot glued them to the bottoms of some small clay pots I had and put some moss around the base. I haven’t decided if I want to to any embellishment to the pots or not. I kind of like the plain look. What do you think?

This banner is Dollar Tree (more accurately, Dollar and a Quarter tree but I am not bitter at all! Grrr) all the way! I started with the plain banner and then added some pastel little bunnies that I painted. I had this adorable plaid pastel ribbon from DT too, so I just added a little bow. It is cute and was super quick to make. Painting the bunnies took the longest and that wasn’t too long at all.

This cute little bookmark is made from a square of scrapbook paper. Watch the video to see how simple it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEwl0fvqo18

This adorable carrot was all Dollar Tree too. I started with the wooden carrot cutout from which I removed the jute hanger. I painted the carrot orange, the raised part of the carrot top white and the trim was painted lime green. I then used a dollar tree napkin (that I took the top decorated ply off bottom plain ply) and decoupaged it too the raised carrot top. I used orange burlap ribbon to wind around the carrot, securing it with hot glue. Finally, I added that sweet little bit of carrot ribbon to the top of the carrot. The jute hanger went back on and there you have it!

Isn’t this bunny adorbs?!! 3 of us got together and made these wreaths. The form was a bunny head and ears from DT. First, I wrapped bulky pink yarn that my friend, Shelly, shared with me, around the entire form. You can either tie a knot to anchor the yarn or use hot glue. Next was the black and white check fabric in the center of the ears. I cut two rectangles of the fabric that were slightly larger than the ears and glued them to the back of the ears. After the glue dried I cut the excess fabric off so you couldn’t see it from the front. I fashioned a messy bow using four pieces of ribbon, two black and white check and two pink. The bow was then glued to the wreath slightly of center. The final touch were some flowers in a deeper pink. I took the larger flowers off the stem and hot glued them, centering more toward the left ear. To finish it off, I added some stems of smaller flowers. You can make a jute hanger that will be hidden behind the ears.

The egg wreath form was from, you know where (DT). The rope and embellishments were purchased there as well. I anchored the rope with hot glue and wrapped the entire form with it. The embellishments were added and I made a messy bow from ribbon I had on hand which was glued slightly off center, at the top.

I hope this post finds all of you doing well and that you saw something of interest in it. Share your thoughts, etc, in the comment section and see you next month! Thanks, as always, for reading.

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Hello world!

I’m glad you stopped by! I’m  going to post a new blog entry once a week with the eventual goal of posting twice each week.

The vision I have for the blog is to share little life hacks that I have found and incorporated into my life that save time, save money, make life easier, more organized and add JOY. A part of my joy is cooking and crafting so that will be included too. Hopefully, there will be something of interest to you in each entry.

I would like to share a little bit about myself so that when you stop here it will be like a conversation you’re having with me over a cup of coffee at the kitchen table. I have 5 adult children who live in the area, 3 dogs (yes, I said, 3!), and 1 cat. We, my “pack” and I, live in a small village in Western New York. For all of you who hear New York and think New York City, I am all the way across the state and live on the shores of Lake Erie. It is a beautiful place to live. We usually have hard winters and more than our share of snow (think near Buffalo here) but the Spring, Summer and Fall are amazing! I am even that kind of person that doesn’t mind the Winter! There are a few of us you know.

Having a large family, a home and a career has led me to look for ideas, strategies, and the like to keep my life manageable and with as little stress as possible. This blog is about that search and the things I have found along the way.

There are those of us who thrive on organization and others who strive to be organized. In either case, organization tips are usually of interest no matter where you fall on the spectrum. I have found that if you want more organization in your kitchen and don’t want to spend a lot of time getting there, the simple answer is to cut back on your stuff. That’s right! Eliminate stuff = less to take care of (think less to put away, less to wash, etc.). If you never use more than one frying pan at a time, cut back to one small and one larger one. If you live by yourself and only have company occasionally, limit yourself to four of everything – four plates, four bowls, four glasses, four coffee mugs, four forks…. Well, you get the idea. Less is better in this case. An extremist might just have two of each item. I was being conservative. This approach encourages you to wash your dishes more often. I mean, if you need a knife and you have used 4, better get the dish soap out! It also allows you to have more space for what you do have and immediately things look less cluttered! WIN!!

 

This idea can be carried throughout your home. Just last year I decided I didn’t need four sets of sheets and pillowcases for my bed and various odds and ends of linens. I could get by with two complete sets! It was an epiphany since linen closet space is at a premium in my home. Now, technically, you could get by with one set. You would just have to wash it and put it back on but that is a little too austere for me. With two sets I can remake my bed and not wait for the weekly wash to be done. As an aside,  I purchased two new sheet sets and made them ones that feel good with designs that make me happy!

Let’s stray from the organizing topic to a new cake technique that is on trend. It is called the “naked cake”.  As a long time baker of cakes for weddings, birthdays, and all that jazz, I was taken in by the thought of a cake with less icing. A cake where you actually could see the cake through the layer of icing. Who would have thought! Anyway, I was asked to make a small cake for a wedding reception and I asked if I could do a “naked cake”. The bride agreed and off I went. The cake was a three layer white cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. Admittedly, I used less of the frosting on the exterior of the cake but I did make sure there was plenty in between the layers for the frosting lovers. I used burlap ribbon and silk flowers to decorate the cake and everyone thought it was beautiful. I will share a picture below. Due to the use of the burlap ribbon you don’t see much of the cake showing through the icing but I think you will still get the idea. It was also so much easier and less stressful when I didn’t have to worry about the cake showing through the frosting!

 

Today I leave you with a little “warm fuzzy” in the form of the leader of the pack, Duffy. If this doesn’t make you smile I will be surprised.

 

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