Wood Beam Chandelier (and other farmhouse projects by Cathy)

Cathy and Al made this light fixture and I am obsessed with it - just look how amazing it is! I want one of these so bad.....they found an old beam on the property (more on that in a sec) and cleaned it up. Carved out a channel along the top for the electrical parts to hide in, and painted the metal brackets to look old. Then wrapped industrial string lights around it and suspended it from the ceiling. Isn't it SO cool?!!!!! If you want more specific instructions I'm sure she'll share, just let me know.

Their son bought a big piece of property outside of Austin, TX that has 2 houses on it, they are in the process of fixing them up to rent - this project is right up Cathy's alley and she's been going to town with so many ideas that I'm just drooling and so jealous over. For instance (I don't have a picture because she forgot to take one), she found an old velvet dress in a second hand store that she recovered dining room chair cushions with! So creative. Oh, and every chair around the old farmhouse table is a different style - love love that.

They painted an old well house like the Texas flag:

Her granddaughter distressed the mailbox and painted the numbers on in this cool font  - obviously craftiness runs in the family:

This is just a couple of their projects, I hope she keeps sending me these great ideas - I'm so inspired (and envious!). Thanks for sharing, Cathy!


one year ago: 2 different versions of remoulade sauce for crab cakes and other seafood
two years ago: coconut cream filled cupcakes - SO good and SO pretty!!!!!

Photo Storage Cheat Sheet

I''m busy in the craft room working on a bunch of things so today I'm just leaving this quick tip about how many photos and videos can be stored on a memory device. Mostly I'm posting this so I can delete it off of my phone, I take ALOT of pictures of random things (so I won't forget) and I'm trying to free up some space - this way at least I'll have the cheat sheet on the blog so I can reference it in the future!

 I can never remember how many photos and video can be stored on a memory device like an sd card or flash drive - saw this in the store the other day and took a picture of it, I have no idea if it's accurate but at least it gives me an idea of what size card I need depending on how many photos I want to save and move off of my computer and phone.

one year ago: an old recipe for chocolate/whip cream/oreo yummy Robert Redford cake
two years ago: repotting plants and using a coffee filter to cover the drain hole in the pot.

Coconut Rum Cake

Here's the coconut rum cake I made for Dave's birthday - he loves coconut and I'll usually make him a fluffy whipped cream coconut covered layer cake but this year we were camping on his b-day so I needed something a little sturdier and easier to transport... this bundt cake fit the bill. And it's SO good, super moist (super super moist - he just finished it up yesterday and it wasn't dry at all...cuz not even my coconut loving hubby is eating old dry cake!), coconut-y and not overwhelming on the rum flavor. What's not to like?

For this cake you'll need a doctored up cake mix, rum syrup that soaks into the cake, then a coconut rum caramel-like chunky topping (it reminds me of german chocolate cake filling minus the nuts). It might seem like a lot of steps but it comes together very easily - don't be intimidated, you can do it!

For the cake:

1 boxed yellow cake mix
1 small box coconut cream instant pudding (or vanilla if you can't find coconut)
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup coconut rum

Mix all together and pour into a well-greased (click here for a quick tip for greasing) bundt cake pan. Bake at 325' for about 55 minutes until the cake is done (stick a long skewer in it to check).

Rum Syrup:

3/4 cup coconut milk
6 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup coconut rum

In a small saucepan stir together the coconut milk and sugar, warm over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved - be careful to not let it boil. Remove from heat and whisk in the rum.

Coconut Rum Caramel Topping:

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
6 Tablespoons heavy cream
6 Tablespoons brown sugar
pinch of coarse salt
1 Tablespoon coconut rum
1/2 cup toasted coconut flakes
2 Mounds bars chopped into small pieces

In a small saucepan combine the butter, cream, sugar and salt; bring to a boil and cook for a couple minutes until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and whisk in the rum. Let it cool and then stir in the toasted coconut and chopped mounds bars.

To assemble the cake:

When the cake comes out of the oven poke lots of holes in it using a wooden skewer - lots of holes means you'll get lots of the syrup into the cake - then slowly pour 3/4 of the rum syrup over the cake letting it all soak in. Let the cake cool in the pan, then invert onto a serving plate and brush the remainder of the syrup over the top. Spread the coconut rum caramel mixture evenly across the top. I sprinkled a little coconut over top just for looks, but it really didn't need it!

S'Mores Cookies

I have been busy all day in the kitchen and am just now sitting down to share with you! It was pouring rain and a little cooler (a little as in 80 instead of 90!) this morning so I was in the mood to bake cookies (and make some other goodies I'll share with you a diff day). Saw this on a site I follow (Mel's Kitchen Cafe) and they got rave reviews so I wanted to try them...we've been camping a lot this summer but so far we haven't made S'mores - these cookies seem like the next best thing to actually roasting marshmallows over the campfire.

I'm a little peeved at Dave because he came in as I was baking them and asked which one he could taste test (he knows to not just grab a cookie, he gets to eat the ones that don't look so great haha) - I gave him one and asked his opinion, he said "well it's such a small cookie I couldn't really get a good taste" so he had another. And said the same thing. Then I yelled at him to please at least slow down and tell me if they are good before popping another in his mouth! I mean seriously, most cookies are good - but is this a 'keeper' good recipe or a 'one time' good recipe? Then LeDonna came in the kitchen and tried one like a normal person and told me they are indeed a 'keeper' good recipe and she wouldn't change a thing - she did say they brought one word to mind..."s'more" (as in she wanted more haha!).

Here is Mel's recipe ~ my changes are that I used store-bought graham cracker crumbs because I happen to have a box on hand; I used coarse salt instead of regular; and I scooped the cookie dough using my small cookie scoop so I have small one- (if you're Dave) or two-bite cookies that only took 9 minutes to bake, and it made over 5 dozen instead of the 2-3 dozen her recipe says.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cup (12 tablespoons, 6 ounces) butter, softened
• 1 cup (7.5 ounces) packed light or dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup (2.5 ounces) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups (8.75 ounces) all-purpose flour 
• 1 cup (4.5 ounces) graham cracker crumbs (about 9 rectangle crackers crushed)
• 2 cups (12 ounces) chocolate chips or chunks
• 1 cup (1.75 ounces) miniature marshmallow bits (see note)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
 
2. Using an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a bowl with a handheld electric mixer, add the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda, and salt. Mix together until very light and creamy, 2-3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until evenly combined.
4. Add the flour and graham cracker crumbs and mix until just barely combined; a few dry streaks are ok.
5. Add the chocolate chips or chunks and marshmallow bits and mix until incorporated.
6. Scoop the dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing at least 2-inches apart.. I like to roll the mounds of dough so they are smooth, but you don’t have to be obsessive like me.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes until just golden on the edges and a little crackly on top. Let the cookies sit for a few minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

note:

About those marshmallow bits, your average mini marshmallows will not work! They’ll melt into huge craters and become a puddly, burned mess ruining one of summer’s most perfect cookies. Trust me, I tried it. Instead, you need marshmallow bits. In other words, dehydrated marshmallows. They should be pretty easy to find. They are often located right by the other marshmallows in the grocery store or by the hot chocolate (another great way to use them, btw), and someone mentioned looking by the ice cream toppings. I’ve also ordered them on Amazon (this brand and this brand – aff. links) and found them in bulk at my local Cash and Carry.

Newspaper Purse Update

This purse made out of lightly laminated newspaper - which is very cool by the way, soft and bendable, made very well with grommet corners and sewn edges - has been in my stash for years, but I haven't used it much because of the ugly black pleather leather-wanna-be handles. Rather than letting it linger longer in my closet or finally getting rid of it, I thought I'd change out the handles and give it another try. I've had some old bamboo handles in my craft closet for a really long time too...so let's put the old bamboo handles on the old newspaper purse and see what happens. (If it's not "voila, a brand new purse that I'm now loving" then it needs to go away.) 

As I may have mentioned before, I'm my Grandmother's granddaughter and take after her crafting approach of "just use whatever is in the craft room instead of going to the store for what you would really like or what would really match..." and found some rope stuff that I think is meant to be a curtain tie-back. Whatever, it's now cord that I wrapped around the bamboo handles to hold it onto the newspaper purse. The ends kept fraying so I struggled to get it thru the handle holes, I found that by wrapping some tape (once again, what was closest to me was some black electrical tape - masking tape or scotch tape would totally work) tightly around the ends let me be able to feed the cord thru the hole. Then I just wrapped it around the bamboo. So far this is so much better than the fake ugly original handles.

Let this be an example and inspiration to change what you don't like to get something better - and hopefully you'll use the item instead of hoarding it away like I do, or giving it away. This took me maybe 10 minutes and it looks way better now!

Next up is figuring out how to make a newspaper tote - you'll hear about it when I do :)

Around The Campfire (week 34)

Dear Campers:

We are camping again this weekend, I'm loving Michigan summer this year - we've been camping a ton (alright, alright, technically it's 'glamping' for sure) and for the most part the weather has been fantastic by the lake, a couple rain days (which made it fun to hole up and read books all day), and not buggy (except those dang spiders, more on that in a sec). Hope you're also still having a nice time even tho summer winding down.

Here's a 'week in review' recap and some random chitchat about the happenings at 'camp' last week.

Posts you might have missed ~
8/19: around the campfire (week 33)
8/20: Marcia's green chili frittata
8/21: t-shirt rag quilt
8/22: buckeye brownie cookies
8/23: freezing tomatoes
8/24: eek - spiders
8/25: skinny margaritas

What's cooking ~

• Dave had grilled lamb chops and potato salad one night when I wasn't home for dinner. He just sprinkles them with seasoning salt and grills, I'm not a fan but he loves them.
• Grilled marinated pork tenderloin, roasted asparagus, orzo mixed with tomatoes, parmesan, coarse salt and pepper, and a little butter
• BLT's made with our fresh homegrown tomatoes - omg, so good.
• Gnocchi with roasted tomatoes, roasted green beans
• grilled strip steaks, iceberg wedge salad
• deli macaroni and cheese, steamed broccoli (I didn't feel like making dinner so Dave went to, get ready for it, Walmart and got just about the cheesiest, creamiest, most delish mac and cheese that I've had in a very long time - whodaknew?)

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy but not interesting enough for an entire post ~

• knock on wood but my homemade spider repellant actually seems to be working! We only had a couple yesterday which is about 50 less than we have had lately!
• tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes - really, my week has pretty much been all about tomatoes and what the heck to do with so many. My super nice neighbor brought over a couple to see if we needed any...uh, nope we do not. But thanks anyway Laura!
• roasted cherry tomatoes - one of my all time favorite ways to eat tomatoes is to roast them at 350' with a little olive oil and seasoning (coarse salt, pepper, sometimes italian blend). they are so good over pasta or gnocchi. 
• golfed with the ladies for their end-of-year banquet (I subbed once this year so was invited to their last night event). I didn't play well (that's what happens when you only play once or twice a year!) but it was fun. My sister's last golf counter pin that I made her is fraying already so I'm going to need to remake it. 
• The coconut rum cake I made for Dave's birthday turned out so good - super super moist and everyone loved it. I'll post the recipe this week. 
• I read 'Commonwealth' by Ann Patchett and loved it. It's a multi-generation story about 2 families, sibling relationships, and how the decisions made changed everyone's path and life. Really good. 

That's all for now - I hope you'll check in this week to see what's going on at 'day camp'; there will be rum cake for sure, and maybe if I can figure out how to arm knit you'll see the project I'm working on for my niece's birthday next weekend (I gotta get busy!). Bye!!

Sincerely,

Your camp counselor - Jill 

Skinny Margarita

I'm not a fan of traditional margaritas - too sweet and filling for me. Get rid of some of that sugar tho and tart them up with lime juice and these "skinny" margaritas are a winner (in my book!).

For each drink mix together 2 ounces tequila, a large splash of lime juice (or 4 lime wedges), a small splash of orange liqueur (like Triple Sec, Grand Marnier or Cointreau), and top with a splash of club soda - pour over ice. So good - light and refreshing (unless you drink too many hahahah, that would not be light or refreshing).

I forgot to take a picture - I don't blend them with ice or salt the rim,  so it just looks like lemonade in a glass. Feel free to put this in a blender with ice for a frozen margarita, and go crazy with salting the rim if that's your thing (to salt the rim: dip the edge of the glass in water or lime/lemon juice, then dip in coarse salt - or coarse sugar...easy).

Eek - Spiders! (and their removal)

The RV is being overrun with spiders and it's driving me crazy. I'm not "afraid" of spiders - unless they are tarantula-sized (and then show me one person not afraid of that!), but I don't want them inside! I'm having trouble sleeping thinking about them crawling on me, so I finally googled to see about ways to stop them from coming in...turns out our RV is not the only one with this problem and there are lots of home remedies that might help.

Spiders apparently don't like vinegar, citrus, peppermint, eucalyptus, and clean/tidy spaces. So I just got done doing what makes sense to me and (1) cleaned the RV nose to toes, top to bottom and (b) made my own spider-repellant concoction that I sprayed around the seals, registers, windows and doors, etc. Dave asked if I followed some recipe, but nope - I'm winging it and we'll see what happens. I'll letcha know Sunday in my weekly "around the campfire" summary how it worked!

In a spray bottle I mixed half white vinegar with half water, then added a few drops of lemon oil, eucalyptus oil, and peppermint oil. It smells nice and clean in here so even if it doesn't keep the spiders at bay at least the RV has a fresh scent! Fingers crossed.

PS: let's not tell my sister about this little spider issue - they are coming to spend the night with us and she does not need to know that we are fighting creepy-crawlies... I'm sure it's going to be fine...

PSS: Today is Dave's birthday - I made him a coconut rum bundt cake that looks fabulous but I don't want to share it with you until we eat it later tonight and I can give you an honest assessment of how it tastes and if I'd do anything different next time. Stay tuned.

Freezing Tomatoes

As I mentioned the other day we have so many tomatoes coming in at the same time I'm getting a little overwhelmed! I mentioned to Dave that I needed to deal with the tomato situation and he goes "I told you, BLT's" - I said there are only so many BLT's that I can eat and he said "well maybe there's only so many you can eat but...'we' can eat a lot of them". Haha, while I do love a BLT especially with fresh-from-the-vine-warmed-by-the-sun tomatoes, there really is only so much bacon one person should eat.

I'm super busy today tho and don't really have the time to "deal" with them - as in, making spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce or chili sauce or whatever. I googled if possible to freeze raw tomatoes and yep, it is - it's ok to freeze them whole with or without the peels, chopped, sliced, or pureed with the caveat that you then can only use them in cooked recipes as they'll be mushy once thawed. Since I was planning to make sauce of some sort with them anyway, freezing them for now will buy me a little time.

I washed and cored them, removed the peels from some and left on for others - I'm experimenting to see which I prefer. Do you know how to easily remove the peels? I slice of the top where the core is (or remove the core), cut an "x" in the bottom of each one, and gently lower them into a pot of hot water. Leave for a couple minutes until the edges of the "x" start to lift, then remove from the water. Let cool until you can handle them before peeling the skin off starting at the "x". In this photo you can see the "x" on the left one, and them starting to peel the right one.

Now I'm popping them whole into the freezer on cookie sheets until they are frozen firm, then I'll transfer them to big freezer plastic baggies. I'll letcha know what I make with them when I have the time!

Bye for now, off to make Dave's coconut rum bundt cake for his bday tomorrow :)

one year ago: buckeyes
two years ago: how to baste eggs

Buckeye Brownie Cookies

For my sissy's birthday I always make some kind of peanut butter dessert - I've done ice cream cake, a peanut butter layered dessert, and buckeyes...she always wants buckeyes! I asked Brooke what I should make for this years dessert and she said "anything with peanut butter. maybe just give her a jar of peanut butter and be done" hahahah. Searching for new ideas of peanut butter desserts I came across this recipe for cookies made out of doctored brownie mix and topped with buckeye filling - sort of the perfect non-buckeye (as in 'I don't have time to roll out and dip buckeyes') buckeye dessert. They turned out great and I'm pretty sure they'll be a birthday request again :)

Buckeye Brownie Cookies

• 1 box fudge brownie mix (19.5 oz)
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350'. In a medium bowl, beat the brownie mix, butter, cream cheese, and egg. The dough will be a little sticky. Scoop the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet, making about 24 cookies. Smooth the edges of each to form a round cookie.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the powdered sugar and peanut butter until it is completely combined. Form the mixture into about 1 inch balls, make sure you have one ball for each cookie. Set aside.
3. Bake the cookie dough 12 minutes, keeping an eye out to make sure they don't overcook.
4. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, press a peanut butter ball lightly into the center of each cookie. Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Melt the 4 oz. of chocolate in a microwavable bowl for 30 seconds. Stir and melt for additional 15 seconds or until completely melted. Spoon over each cookie.

Makes approx. 24 cookies. Store in an airtight container.

Notes: I added a pinch of coarse salt and a handful of mini chocolate chips to the batter. My medium sized cookie scoop made exactly 24 cookies, and I used my small scoop for the peanut butter mixture. Bake these on parchment paper to make clean up a cinch. Also, Dave is allergic to nuts so I made a couple of these without the buckeye topping - that's why the picture shows some plain brownie cookies (which also tasted good). 

click here for original post

two years ago: how to make a directional sign

T-Shirt Rag Quilt

Cathy is helping her granddaughters pare down their clothes and thinking about making them t-shirt quilts for the shirts that are cute or memorable that they are having trouble parting with - that reminded me that I made a rag quilt out of my old t-shirts before I started this blog so thought I'd share it with you (and her). Great way to keep the memories without having to store all the old t-shirts.

I followed the instructions found here at sweet tea in the south; instead of my copying all her directions I'm including the link - just click on it if you want to make one and need more detailed instructions and photos -  I'll just give you the outline of what I did and will try not to be too confusing. This isn't hard it just takes a little time.

I made my quilt out of 20 t-shirts, each cut 12" square (you need the front and backs of the shirts). I also used 1 narrower piece of the shirts for filler 5 pieces (one in each row) to make the quilt even on the edges. For example, in the picture below there is a pink narrower filler piece on the top right, etc.
The quilt example I followed has the squares lined up evenly in rows but I like how the squares look being offset from each other, that meant I needed the narrow fill-in pieces to square the quilt up - you can just line them all up evenly if you want and skip the narrower fill-in pieces! (Once again, click here to see how it looks all lined up.)

In addition to the t-shirt squares, you'll need something to line it with - I used 2 pieces of lightweight flannel, cut the same size, per square. This makes each 12" square have a total of 4 layers. 

A summary to assembling this cute quilt:

• for each square you need a front and back 12" square of t-shirt - note I tried to center the t-shirt logo/words/image in the center of the front square; for the back square sometimes I used the solid part of the shirt, or included a smaller detail if the leftover shirt had something on the front or back that I liked. In the photo above some of the squares are the backs of my shirts (like the number 18, or "coach jill") and some were the front (like the parrot or "frank the tank"). Play with the part of the shirt you really like and is the "memory" part of the shirt before cutting it out, save the rest of the shirt for the back of the quilt. 
• you also need 2 (12") squares of lightweight flannel to go between the front and back t-shirt squares. Cut all the squares out before continuing on. 
• lay out all the front squares on the floor and move them around until you like their placement. I tried to separate the same colored squares to make the quilt more balanced. Then do the same thing for the back squares (making up the back of the quilt). Take a picture on your phone of both sides so you remember where everything goes!

• now to assemble the squares: lay down the back square with the "right" or good side of the shirt facing down, add 2 flannel squares and top with the front square "right" side up. Remember that the bottom square is the back of the quilt so make sure you lay the square down so you'll have any logo or the right side of the shirt facing out. Pin each square together, and then sew a giant "X" thru all 4 layers to hold them together.

• look at the link I posted to see how to do this next part, I'm having a hard time describing how to sew it together. In order to get the front of the quilt to be "ruffled" you need to sew the squares together so that all of the edges are facing the front (you put the bottom of the squares together and sew thru all 8 layers, repeat adding the next square). Sew the squares together going across the row first - example, for the top row I sewed the light pink dance shirt to the black "big blue in the house", then added the white shirt, then the gray toyota shirt and lastly the pink filler square. Repeat for each row, and then sew the long rows together. I sewed 1/2 inch seams, you can make larger seams if you want a bigger ruffle. 

• 
  
  

  

  front of the quilt - all the seams are facing forward

back of the quilt        

• this is the most time consuming part but it isn't difficult - make little notches along all the exposed seams including the edges, once you wash the quilt the notches with fray and curl and make the "ruffle" effect. Once it's all notched wash and dry the quilt - helpful tip that I'm happy I did is take it to the laundromat the first time...there are LOTS of little strings that come off in the initial wash and dry cycle! 

 I love this quilt - it's fairly heavy but in a nice way, and I love that I'm able to preserve my fun and memorable shirts while making way for new shirts in my closet (and eventually to be turned into another memory quilt haha), and it's so easy-care since it's just a bunch of t-shirts!

Marcia's Green Chile Fritatta

Here's the recipe for the green chile frittata that I made last week as a tester for my sister's work thing that changed into her needing sloppy joes instead (click here for that post and to get a great sloppy recipe). My friend Marcia gave me this recipe years ago and it's a favorite - perfect for a dish to pass, or for a buffet because it tastes good hot, cold, or at room temp. Also great for a vegetarian dish (it does have eggs tho), you could always add shredded chicken or chopped ham if you want.

A frittata is sort of like a crustless quiche, it has a firm consistency so it'll hold its shape if you cut it into squares and arrange on a plate. This recipe makes a 13x9 cake-size casserole, if you want to make a smaller one I don't see why you couldn't cut these ingredients in half and bake in a smaller square 8" or 9" baking dish. One more thing - my recipe says 3 lbs of cheese but I really question that amount (3 pounds?!), so experimented with using half that and it's delicious and cheesy, not dry. So I wrote the recipe using 1.5 lbs instead - if you want to see if 3 pounds is even better go right on ahead :)

Preheat oven to 350'

Ingredients:

• 10 eggs
• 3 cans chopped green chiles
• 1 stick butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup flour mixed with 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1.5 lbs (24 ounces) grated jack cheese (or colby/jack, or mexican blend, etc)
• 16 oz. container low-fat cottage cheese

Mix all together and pour into a buttered (or spray with non-stick cooking spray) 13x9 baking dish. 

Bake 45 minutes at 350'. Let sit for 10 minutes before cutting into squares. 

Can be served hot, cold, or room temperature. 

I lined the baking dish with parchment so I could
 easily lift the entire thing out of the dish

Around the Campfire (week 33)

Dear Campers:

Happy Sunday! Everyone here is gearing up for 'back-to-school' - you guys ready? Summer should not be over all ready but that's how it feels. I had a blast taking my niece school supply shopping - I love getting my new folders, notebooks, and pencil fix. She asked why I wanted to take her shopping for school supplies since I don't even have a kid? Hello, did she just meet me? I love love love school supplies :).

Here's a 'week in review' recap and some random chitchat about the happenings at 'camp' last week.

Posts you might have missed ~

8/12: around the campfire week 32 summary
8/13: framed travel coins
8/14: make a tissue paper flower gift topper instead of a bow
8/15: zucchini bread, zucchini cake...you choose. Also a recipe for cream cheese frosting
8/16: sloppy joes with a secret ingredient
8/17: morse code bracelets
8/18: scrambled eggs and toast chicks

What's Cooking~

• grilled steak with caesar salad and steamed green beans from the garden (so fresh, yum!)
• baked seasoned salmon (I'm addicted to Paul Prudhommes Magic Salmon Seasoning - so good!), brown rice, roasted green beans from the garden
• pork chops, butternut spiral salad (we are still in love with this amazing salad!)
• grilled tuna steaks, greek salad (roasted garbanzo beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese)
• grilled marinated chicken (just pop chicken in a big bag with simple olive oil, vinegar, worcestershire, soy sauce, chicken seasoning), cold salad of leftover rice mixed with black beans, corn, tomatoes and avocado dressed with a little olive oil and seasonings. 
• grilled pizza (store bought pre-baked crust topped with sauce, chopped ham, mushrooms, mozzarella and grilled for a few minutes until the crust is crispy and cheese is melted), caesar salad. 

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy but not interesting enough for an entire post ~

• in addition to the 10 strand morse code bracelet I made for my sister, I've made a few more single strands for other people. the others ones I just did a stretchy circle without a clasp. Still obsessed.
• I spent hours helping Dave build a database of charted ukulele chord patterns so he can chart songs for himself and others now. Yes, apparently that's a thing. And it's something he's been nagging asking me to help him with for a while now - it took a long time, was very boring, but it's done. Happy Birthday honey ;)
• we have more tomatoes ripening at the same time then I can keep up with! I love tomatoes but why are they all coming in at the same exact time? A favorite way of mine to eat fresh tomatoes straight off the vine, all warmed up from the sun, is to sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper and either drizzle with a little olive oil or dip into mayo - I know, I know, dipping into mayo is not a healthy choice on my new "common sense" diet so I'm substituting plain greek yogurt and its good. Not mayonnaise good, but good enough and I like it. 
• I read another Diane Mott Davidson "Goldy" mystery book - "Double Shot". The plot is a little dark for a caterer with recipes book, but I enjoyed it. Did I tell you that I've discovered I can borrow books from my library online? If you have a library card go online and see if they have a library app - I have one in both Michigan and Cali and borrow tons of books that way. So easy! I read them on my iPad which isn't my favorite (I love to hold a book) but I'm getting used to the iPad and it's all good. 
• we saw "Crazy Rich Asians" with friends, a funny romantic comedy that we all enjoyed. I read all three books of this trilogy and really enjoyed them. The movie is, naturally, not as good as the book but still fun. 

That's it for this week. Go have a great day, and a great week - my wish for you is the spare time to make something, to be inspired by the blog, and to open your mind and be creative! 

Sincerely, 

Jill - 
your camp counselor :)

Scrambled Eggs and Toast "Chick"

Jen saw this idea in a People magazine and thought I'd like to make it - of course I would, who wouldn't want to eat a super cute chickie scrambled eggs and toast dish for breakfast? I'll tell you who...my husband. I made him this as a surprise for breakfast and he said looked at it and said "what the hell?"

Whatever. I think it's adorable.

This is a fun and easy breakfast idea for your back-to-schooler, or for anytime you want to do a little somethin' extra breakfast...just maybe not for the hubby tho, geesh.

The toast is supposed to look like a cracked open egg but I think they look more like wings - to make them I just cut out 2 circles of toast using a cookie cutter, and cut the tops off in a zigzag. After cooking a couple cheesy scrambled eggs,  set the cookie cutter on the plate and filled it with the eggs so the chickie head would be sort of molded into a round symmetrical shape (you could just mound them into a circle). Add a couple blueberries for eyes and a wedge shaped piece of carrot or yellow cheese for the beak. Add some slices of avocado if you want, then set the toast on top. Easy peasy.


Note: in the inspiration recipe they made grilled cheese and scrambled eggs but I just went with toast. Up to you...

Morse Code Bracelets

Morse Code Jewelry is my new favorite thing to make. I'm obsessed. How fun is this? Do you know that morse code is short and long sounds (represented in print as dots and dashes) assigned to each letter of the alphabet and sent over a telegraph system so someone listening can understand (if you know the code) the message being sent? Yes it's much more detailed than that, but that's all we need to know to make these bracelets!

Using a code chart I found online, I made these bracelets for my sister spelling out secret words and messages that are special between us - most are from silly old stories we have that by just saying the catchphrase of the story brings back the memory of the event. For instance - we were all at one of Dave's pro/celebrity races where celebrities and drivers are all hanging out together in a big tent waiting, just sitting around. Minnie Driver was sitting at a table all by herself, not doing a thing - not on her phone, not reading a book, just sitting there. My sister and nieces approached her and asked for an autograph and Minnie looks at them and goes "later. definitely later". Seriously? If not then, when? Good grief. We haven't liked that actress since then! Anyway - anytime someone says "later" we answer "definitely later", so that is something I beaded onto the bracelet.

I ended up making 10 strands because I was having so much fun and kept thinking of other
funny or sentimental things to bead. Small round beads represent the dots, and long narrow beads represent the dashes - so going by the chart I laid out the beads to spell my messages, then strung them onto stretchy cord. My first thought was to put a clasp on each one of them individually, but when I realized I had 10 of them that seemed a little awkward to put on. So I attached them all together to a big jump ring, then attached a clasp to that - now all 10 are together with one clasp. It's a little big but I love that the entire thing is made up of messages to her. 

Because we aren't going to remember what each bracelet says without a cheat sheet, I typed up what each bracelet says and looks like with the morse code symbol underneath...as long as she has that she'll know which bracelet is which.

Do you love this as much as I do? I keep thinking who else I can make a morse code bracelet with a secret message on it for - maybe even for myself with positive affirmations and all that. Obsessed.

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one year ago: caprese salad (tomato mozzarella salad)
two years ago: chocolate peanut butter layered dessert

Sloppy Joes From Scratch

My sis had a work function and signed up to bring sloppy joes - so guess what I made yesterday? Yep, since I'm her personal caterer/gopher/assistant/slave I made the sloppy joes for her. On the plus side it gave me a chance to experiment on people I don't know and make sloppy joes from scratch which I've never done before, and now I can blog them :) Win-win.

Hold on - I need a break in the post to tell you a backstory: she was originally supposed to bring a dish-to-pass and asked if I felt like making anything, she didn't care what. I remembered a recipe that a friend gave me years ago for Green Chile Frittata and I thought that'd be a great buffet thing for her to take to work, but I questioned the recipe because it says it takes 3 pounds of cheese! 3 pounds? Hmmm, I worried that wasn't right - can anything that fits in a 13x9 cake pan take 3 pounds of cheese? So a few days ago I made a tester run of the frittata and halved the amount of cheese just to see if that was going to taste right - and it does. It is a delicious casserole and I was confident about sending it into work with her. Then she tells me that she doesn't need the frittata anymore, she needs sloppy joes instead. Now you know the rest of the story.

Back to the sloppy's...Cathy told me once that they put grape jelly in their sloppy joe sauce - yep, you read that right, grape jelly! I don't have her recipe but I googled to see if anyone else makes it like that and there are lots of recipes to pick from...I know, weird - right? I combined a few recipes to come up with this one, and fortunately this sauce turned out so good (otherwise I planned to make a store run for Manwich!). I had Dave try it and he said it tasted just like his mom used to make, I take that as a big compliment (Shirl was a great cook!) and it's now a keeper recipe. I'm never using Manwich again, these are SO much better!

Pssst: don't tell my sissy but it's really easy to make homemade sloppy joes - I might have made it sound like I slaved away all day on it but it comes together very quickly ;)

I used 6 pounds of burger so needed a lot of sauce - I made 6 cups and used almost all of it - here is what I will do next time for a smaller batch (if you want 6 pounds worth just triple these amounts!).

Joes:

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• garlic salt

Put the beef and onions in a large skillet and sprinkle with garlic salt, cook over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink. Drain it really well then wipe out the pan - greasy sloppy joes are gross. 

To make them sloppy: 

• 1 can condensed tomato soup, undiluted
• 1 cup ketchup
• 3 Tablespoons grape jelly
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons yellow mustard
• 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed

Mix the sauce ingredients together in a big bowl and taste it - I added a few more dashes of this and that to get it how I wanted. If you like it sweeter add more jelly or brown sugar, more tangy add additional vinegar or mustard. Play with it. Once it tastes good to you, add it to the drained ground beef and cook until it gets hot (or put it in a slow cooker on low for 4 hours). 

For Jen to take to work I put it in a big ziplock baggie (I had a little worry that the bag was going to break open it was so heavy!) and then she transferred the mixture to a crock pot once she got to work. Easier than trying to carry a full crockpot in from the car! 

PS: I'll post the frittata recipe soon - the sloppy joes were a hit but they have no idea how good the frittata was that they missed out on! :)


One year ago: s'more pie
Two years ago: mashed cauliflower

Zucchini Bread or Cake

Mickey asked me the other day if I had a zucchini bread recipe - yep I do - I thought it was already on the blog but I can't find it if it is, so at the risk of repeating I'm posting it because it's a really good one and what's even better about this recipe is that it can be bread or cake!

Mmmmmm...cake.....

Mickey added some mashed banana (and chocolate chips on half) and baked it in a 13x9 cake pan. But she didn't frost it so which is it - cake shaped bread or unfrosted cake? Haha, either way it's so good!!

This makes 2 bread loaves or 1 13x9 cake. (I've also made muffins). If you want it to be "cake" it's delicious with fluffy cream cheese frosting : Mix 4 ounces softened butter and 4 ounces softened cream cheese in a mixer until smooth and blended. Slowly add 2 cups of powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla, beat until smooth and fluffy.

Tissue Paper Flower Gift Topper

I haven't made tissue flowers in a long time (click here for another post) - I didn't have a good bow or ribbon for the big box I wrapped my sissy's gift in yesterday so I quickly made 3 small flowers to tie on top.

Cut a few squares of tissue paper, for these small flowers I cut them approximately 5" square and used 9 squares. Stack on top of each other, accordion fold them, twist a short piece of thin wire around the center, trim the edges either round or pointed, then carefully separate the layers and shape like a flower. I made 3 of them, twisted them together so they looked like a bouquet, and attached to a ribbon that I wrapped around the box. Look how pretty it looks! Very inexpensive, easy, and quick to do - and it's different than a regular ol' bow.

rounding the edges...

...or cutting them into a point gives the flowers a different look.

gently pull up the layers to separate

here I've separated the layers on the left side of the wire, continue with the right side and shape.

twist the flowers together into a bouquet

one year ago: make a personalized shopping bag
two years ago: quebec chicken

Framed Travel Coins

I just saw this on a friends Facebook wall and instantly knew I was stealing the idea! We have so many random foreign coins that are in a baggie - not enough to convert back to USD, plus I like to have them as keepsakes of our trips - so they've just been sitting around. This is just a frame with whatever background you want - it could be a piece of printed scrapbook paper, or you could arrange ticket stubs, maps, etc. and glue them all on a plain piece of paper to lay under the coins, if it will fit in the frame (check that out before you go to all the trouble of arranging the papers - see her note). Brooke recommends you glue the coins to the paper or they'll fall when you lift the frame.  I asked what she used as a background and this is what she had to say:

it's a solid piece, I thought about using postcards but it was going to be too thick so it's just a scrapbook page. I used super glue to attach the coins to the paper. I did have to play around with a few frames to make sure it fit, I didn't like the distance between the glass and coins on a shadowbox but found this frame at JoAnns on clearance and just took some coins with me to make sure the backing fit.

Isn't this a fun, useful, inexpensive (if you already have the coins that is!) idea - in addition to being a great way to display travel memories? Thanks for the idea and letting me steal your photo, Brooke! I literally just saw this idea and am posting it, I'll be making myself one and will show you when it's done. I couldn't wait to share :)

Around the Campfire (week 32)

Dear Campers:

It's been a busy week (can you believe it's already week 32 of the year?) so I thought I'd give you a little 'week in review' recap and some random chitchat about the happenings at 'camp' last week.

Posts you might have missed ~

8/5: creamy cucumber salad (my mouth is watering just thinking about it)
8/6: fixed a bracelet and showed how to use crimp beads
8/7: kitchen tip - how I freeze cookie dough
8/8: Mary's cucumber and smoked salmon appetizer
8/9: made Sarge a dog necklace so he can wear his cute new tag
8/10: making square knots for macrame
8/11: boozy bears - vodka soaked gummy candy

What's cooking ~

• grilled chicken, mozzarella, and spinach brats with grilled zucchini (slice and put in a foil packet with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper - throw on the grill until cooked, we did about 20 minutes and it could have gone longer)
• grilled swordfish tacos (brush the swordfish with a little lemon butter while grilling, serve it with toppings of your choice - we do coleslaw - and warmed corn tortillas)
• grilled pork tenderloin with black bean/corn/tomato/avocado salad
• grilled halibut (last time Dave grilled halibut it broke up all over his grill and he was unhappy, this time we used a grill basket sprayed with non-stick cooking spray) with cauliflower rice and mixed veggies
• grilled steak with mushrooms, roasted asparagus, and iceberg wedge salad
• bbq ribs with homemade coleslaw
• grilled chicken breasts (we've been buying thin cut breasts, regular chicken breasts are so huge lately and they take forever to cook!) with butternut squash risotto (found in the freezer section) and a mix of asparagus, green beans, and tomatoes (beans and tomatoes were first pickings from the garden - yum)

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy but not interesting enough for an entire post ~

• the garden is doing SO good I had to spend some time staking the tomatoes and green beans - the tomatoes have so much fruit on them they are falling over and I'm worried the stems are going to break from the weight. Lucy the parrot was so happy to get the first beans of the season, and Sarge comes out with me every morning to "check the 'maters".

• we spent the first part of the week camping up north and learned this cool trick from our campground neighbors (an actual campground, not the blogs pretend campground LOL) - while floating on the lake the current and waves kept pushing us into shore, but the neighbors were staying in place. Of course I asked how the heck they were doing that and she showed me her trick (maybe this is a wildly common trick but new to me!), they screw one of those dog stake things into the lake bottom and attach bungies to it and then to their float. Genius. I found the dog screw at Walmart along with 2 inexpensive 5' dog leashes, ran the end thru the float handle and thru the handhold loop of the leash, then clipped to the dog stake - no more floating away!

• started "common sense" dieting (pretty much just what it sounds like - eating more of what I know I'm supposed to eat and less of what I shouldn't. Lost a couple pounds and then found them again after eating a gluttonous lunch at The Cheesecake Factory while back-to- school shopping with my niece!
• read 2 books while camping - Still Me (book 3 by Jojo Moyes - The other two are Me before You, and After You - good books!), and Crunch Time by Diane Mott Davidson (she has a whole series of these about Goldy, a food caterer who solves mysteries, and she includes recipes. Sort of the perfect book format hahaha). Both were light easy summer reads that I enjoyed.
• made two stretchy bead bracelets, and worked on a project that I'll show you next week. It's a surprise for my sister's birthday tomorrow so I can't tell you yet! 

Ok, enough rambling. Hope you have a great week, are inspired by what's coming up at blog 'camp', and find time to make something! 

Sincerely, 

Your camp counselor - Jill :)