(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!
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!
