Thanksgiving is behind us but I am still eating leftovers! How about you? I have a mix of Fall and a little Christmas to share with you. Hope you find something of interest and useful in this post.
Recipes
Polish Dill Pickle Soup (simplystacie.net)
▢1 yellow onion chopped- ▢2 medium carrots peeled and sliced
- ▢2 celery stalks thinly sliced
- ▢1 ½ cup chopped dill pickles plus ⅓ cup of the pickle juice
- ▢1 ½ lb baby potatoes quartered
- ▢6 cups chicken broth
- ▢1 tbsp sugar
- ▢1 tsp salt
- ▢1 tsp pepper
- ▢½ cup milk
- ▢5 tbsp sour cream
- ▢2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- ▢Fresh parsley for garnish
- Add onions, carrots, celery, pickles, and potatoes to the slow cooker.
- Sprinkle with sugar, salt and pepper.
- Add chicken broth and reserved pickle juice.
- Cover and cook on LOW heat for 4 to 6 hours, until potatoes are tender.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, sour cream and all-purpose flour.
- Add milk mixture to soup and stir to combine.
- Garnish with fresh parsley and serve hot
This sounds unusual but was really delicious. Bonus, Crockpot cooking is my favorite!
Crockpot Bread (diethood.com)
▢2¼ teaspoons (or 1 envelope) active dry yeast- ▢1 tablespoon sugar
- ▢1½ cups lukewarm water, (about 105 degrees Fahrenheit)
- ▢3¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ▢1 tablespoon olive oil
- ▢¼ cup basil pesto
- ▢1 teaspoon salt
- ▢dried parsley,, for topping
- ▢kosher salt,, for topping
- Line a 6-quart slow cooker with parchment paper and set aside.
- Place yeast and sugar in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add water and continue to stir until combined. Add in the flour, olive oil, basil pesto, and salt; stir with a wooden spoon until well incorporated and a shaggy dough begins to form.
- Turn out the dough onto a floured working surface and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is soft and smooth. IF the dough is sticky, add a little more flour, about one tablespoon at a time.
- Place the ball of dough in the slow cooker. Sprinkle the top with dried parsley and salt.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for 2 hours or until golden on the bottom. The internal temperature of the baked bread should register at 200˚F.
- Remove the bread from the slow cooker together with parchment paper and place on a baking sheet.
- Place the bread under the broiler for 3 to 5 minutes or until golden brown on top.
- Remove the bread from the oven and set it on a cooling rack. Let rest until completely cooled before cutting and serving.
When I went to make this, I realized I was out of pesto. I substituted a little water and Italian seasoning. It was very good. My one son even ate it toasted.
Thanksgiving Leftover Stuffing Waffle
I sprayed my waffle maker with pan spray and then put an ample amount of leftover stuffing in it. I cooked it until it was nice and crispy. Then I topped it with leftover, warmed up gravy. Viola!
It doesn’t really photograph well but damn, it was good!
Crafts
My friend Shelly and I got together and made pumpkins out of pretty fall plates . First we bent the plates in half design facing inward. If you do this project do not actually crease the plate. Starting with the first bent plate we glued it to an empty toilet paper roll. We then glued each plate to the next one and the bend in the plate to the tp roll. I finished mine off with a twisted paper bag as the stem and some little bits of decor. Shelly used wine corks for her stem.
Liquor Bottle Pumpkins
I had seen these pumpkins done with Crown Royal bottles. I got my hands on some Maker’s Mark bottles from my son. He didn’t know what size I wanted so he brought me all 3 sizes and of course, I made a set. I painted the bottles with burnt orange chalk paint. It required 2 coats. For the stems, I covered the necks of the bottles by wrapping them with jute. Just to add a little somethin’, somethin’ I finished them off with a little bit of leaf ribbon I had on hand.
Clay Pot Scarecrow
My cousin had seen this project on Pinterest and wanted to give it a try. With it not being the season for clay pots I had to pay more for them than I would normally. I made a mental note to stock up on them this coming Spring from the Dollar Tree in case another project comes up.
To begin with we cut two long pieces of jute and holding them together put a couple of knots in the center. Then we inserted the one end into the top of a clay pot and turning the pot upside down pulled the jute through to the knot. You may need to more than double knot it depending on the size of the hole at the bottom of your pot. Before setting the other large pot right side up ontop of the overturned pot we used some glue like E6000 or gorilla glue of the same type and a little hot glue to hold it until the permanent glue sets. Pull the jute up through the bottom of the other pot and place on the glue area. ouow you have two pots of the same size with their bottoms glued together and two strands of jute coming out of each pot. These pots form the head and body of your scarecrow and the jute is to attach smaller pots for the arms and legs of your scare crow.
To attach the legs and arms (for these you use smaller pots than the ones that formed the body. )you just put the jute through the holes at the bottom of the pots. of the pots and tie a knot inside each when you have the length you want the appendages to be. After that it is all about the decor to jazz it up and the painting to make your cute scarecrow face.
I hope I have explained it well. If not, please leave a comment about what you need clarified.
Now, onto a bit of Christmas (so far).
My Doggie Advent Calendar
Quite awhile ago I had bought a large, industrial kitchen size muffin tin. It was just different and I thought I could do something with it. I had painted the cups with white chalk paint and the project never really came together like I wanted it to. Off to the craft room closet it went. Then this year I started seeing ideas for making pet advent calendars. I thought about the muffin pan and unearthed it. What do you know? It had 24 muffin cups! I had to touch up the paint a little. I then added one treat for each dog to each muffin cup. I ordered advent stickers from Amazon and cork coasters from Temu. I affixed the stickers to each coaster and using double sided tape i covered each muffin cup. There you have it!
Paperback Book Christmas Tree
I removed the covers, front and back from the book and ripped about a third of the pages off the spine. I made 3 different folds on each page to formn the pages into the shape of a tree. Below I have pictures of each fold for you. Once I had folded each page left on the spine I drizzled hot glue around the tree and before the glue set sprinkled fake snow on the tree. I topped it off with a wooden star.
Fold One
Fold Two
Fold Three
Doilly Christmas Tree
At our November Home Bureau meeting we made these cute little trees with doillies from Dollar Tree. (Hey, you knew I would go there eventually!) The doillies come with 4 sizes and 8 of each size. The first step was to fold the doillies in half and then in half again. Using a little dab of glue to hold the folds together. You do this with one of each size. When you choose the color you want your tree to be you just lightly dry brush the one side of the folded doillies. We also added a little sparkly coat over the paint. Before out meeting, we had each painted a wooden rectangular plaque we ordered from Amazon. They were painted white and distressed using the dry brush technique to give it an aged effect. Your next step is to glue the doillies in place in the plaque leaving room for a star at the top and a tree trunk at the bottom. I used a wooden star painted a pale yellow and a little wooden piece for the trunk. You could make a hanger for it or simply lean it up on something.
Toy Soldier Ornament
Wine corks were used for this project. I painted the corks appropriately for the toy solder and added a screw in eye to the top of the soldiers hat. Then I used red and white twin to fashion the hanger. You could do this with a number of traditional Christmas themes like Santas, etc.
Let’s Talk Life Hacks
*If you’re planning a little getaway and need an hotel room, call to the hotel directly. They often offer cheaper prices rather than having to give an agrigation site like Priceline a cut.
*If you want or need to travel by train consider being a Night Owl. Amtrak offers ultra low fares for trips between stations along the Northeast Corridor from 7pm to 7am. You dan go between Philly and Baltimore for only $5 and between NYC and DC for $20. Check it out!
*Take an online or in person driving course and save up to 25% on your car insurance. I did the online one and you can save your progress and come back to it as you have time.
*Consider getting Walmart+. You get free delivery from the store with orders over $35 and free shipping with no order minimum. You can also save on gas and more.
*Rub wax paper on your shower curtain rod so the shower hooks slide smoothly.
*If you’re making bread or a cake in your slow cooker you don’t want condensation dripping on your batter. Place a kitchen towel over the top of the slow cooker and then put the lid on. Problem solved.
*You can make your own cooking oil spray. Use 1/4 cup water and 3/4 cup oil. Mix together and put in a spray bottle.
*Before you grate cheese spray the front and back of your grater with cooking spray. It makes grating cheese and cleaning up a whole lot easier.
*If your drain is clogged or running slower just pour down a cup of baking soda followed by a cup of white vinegar and let it work its magic. I did i with my toilet and had to do it twice but it worked.
As always, hope you enjoyed this post and leave a comment. (I not so secretly love them.) Enjoy this month and if you’re spending it shoveling, I feel ya!
