A Dog in the Blog...on a diet

Hi, this is Sarge. Apparently my mom isn't happy with just making stuff and blogging about it - she is now adding posts from me, the dog. I'm pretty sure this is just so she can say she has "a dog in the blog"...so even though I was busy doing fun stuff like barking at people walking by I'll go along with it this time.

I just turned three (mom made me pupcakes, remember? Click here to see the post) and even though I have a TON of energy and run around a lot, the vet (I really dislike that guy by the way) says I need to go on a diet. Great, now they are trying to starve me! The vet says maybe I get too many cookies, but I hardly get any - apparently you have to be a GOOD dog to get cookies and mom is really stingy with handing them out. To help me lose some weight mom adds canned green beans to my dog food - she just mushes up a handful and mixes them in. She thinks I don't notice, but she is giving me a few less kibble then the bag says I can have - at least I'm getting the green beans to add some bulk and fills me up more. Green beans don't add many calories or have any weird side effects (like do you know what happens when I eat baby carrots? Yep, they come out in big chunks when I go potty! Gross!) but the beans get digested just fine. I get a baby carrot at night when she feeds Lucy, she's now used to what it looks like later when she has to poop scoop after me.

does this make me look fat?

Ok, I gotta go - I think it's time for a nap. Sarge out.

Fruitcake Squares

I know, I know - fruitcake? I saw this recipe and it made me wonder if I've ever actually tried fruitcake or if I just assume I won't like it - cuz really...fruitcake? Well whether or not you like fruitcake you might want to give this recipe a try - they are really good!

You bake a crumbly buttery shortbread first layer, then top with a fruit and nut mixture and bake again. The recipe makes a 13x9 pan but I had my concerns that if I didn't like it what was I going to do with that much, so I cut the recipe in half and made it in an 8x8 pan - I wish I would have made the full recipe though, it went fast.
Note: the recipe calls for "icing sugar" in the crust, I assumed that is powdered sugar and it worked, so go with that.








I used a jar of maraschino cherries (only red, the magazine picture has green and yellow mixed in - only using red tasted good and is still pretty) that I drained and roughly chopped.

I packaged them up in little baggies and took them to the ladies in my tap class - no one had heard of fruitcake like this before and seemed to enjoy them. I will definitely make these again.

Don't be afraid of the fruitcake...well at least don't be afraid of the fruitcake squares :)

click here for the recipe.

Washi Tape Lamp Shade

I have recently noticed that if something stands still long enough in my house it will get decorated...this time the lamp shades in my bedroom caught my attention and I decided to jazz them up with some leftover washi tape I have from making Christmas cards. You can find washi tape lots of places now - not just at the craft store. It's sort of like the duct tape phenomenon, all of the sudden there are tons of patterns and it's everywhere.

The lamp shades I prettied up are large white drum shades, I simply used two different patterns and sizes and taped them around the bottom edge of the shade.

Put the washi tape anywhere on the shade you'd like - whatever looks good to you. Maybe next time I'll try making a pattern, plaid or overlapping stripes would look cool. The tape is repositionable and easy to remove, won't hurt the shade at all and it's not much of a commitment - when you're tired of it or what to change it, it just peels right off.  Well, I should clarify that I've only done this to my shades and it doesn't harm them at all - maybe test yours out on the backside just to make sure it works on yours!

Freezing Meals

I posted about Borchers Breakfast Pie (check it out, so good!) and mentioned that I double the recipe and freeze one. Here is a great way to freeze meals without having to leave your pan in the freezer until you are ready to eat the meal: in your pan or dish put down a large piece of plastic wrap, then layer a long piece of aluminum foil that hangs quite a bit over the sides of the pan. Add your food (in this example I made the second breakfast pie on top of the foil), then seal the food with the overhang of foil (you might need to add more foil to completely seal the top), then wrap the plastic wrap over the foil. Put the entire thing in the freezer (pan and all); after the food is frozen solid, remove from the pan or dish and put in a labeled freezer bag if it fits - if the bag isn't big enough then I wrap again to make sure it is sealed tightly. When it's time to eat the meal, remove it from the freezer, remove the plastic wrap, put it back into the same pan and bake. If you leave the foil on it then you'll have less clean up after baking, but you can peel it off before baking if you'd rather. Handy tip right? It's also nice if you freeze a lot of meals this way, they stack up nicely on top of each other.

put the food on top of the foil in your pan

seal the foil and put the whole thing still in the pan into the freezer until frozen solid. 

once frozen, remove the pan and put the foil and plastic wrap package into a labeled ziplock freezer bag and put back into the freezer. when you are ready to eat it, remove the plastic wrap and put the foil wrapped meal back into the original pan in was frozen in and bake. 

Scrabble Tile Keychain

Made this for a friend that plays a ton of "words with friends" games with me and then got grief when I showed it to my sister because she wants one, and would I put it on her birthday list please - well her birthday is in August and no way I'm going to remember to make her one then so I decided to just make it for her now. Surprise sissy - remember this come August, ok?

I have a bunch of scrabble tiles that I ordered online a long time ago to make another project with but haven't got around to doing yet - if I didn't have them though I would either rob my actual scrabble game (and then forever be wondering where the "J" went haha), buy another game just to have some tiles to craft with, or take the tiles from someone's game that doesn't get played very much (and probably not tell them of course, haha!).


I drilled a very small hole in the top of the tile. I actually figured this out for myself and didn't drill a hole in my finger which is amazing for me the clutz. Dave has a big power drill in the garage and I just found the smallest bit we have - I tried clamping the tile so my fingers wouldn't be near where I wanted to drill but it kept falling over so I just held it and drilled very slowly and carefully, it worked fine and I didn't hurt myself.

 I dipped a small wire eye pin into some glue that dries clear (E6000 is what I have on hand), then inserted it into the hole I drilled (wipe off any glue that comes out of hole around the eye pin). After the glue dried I opened up the ring on the keychain and hooked it thru the eye pin, then closed the ring back together (use either tweezers or small pliers).

Did you know that eating black eyed peas on New Years Day is thought to bring you good luck and prosperity? I'm not entirely sure why that is - but I'm all for bringing good luck and if eating them helps than why not haha! I searched for black eyed pea recipes and settled on making Emeril Lagasse's black-eyed pea jambalaya - it isn't like any jambalaya I've ever had before but that doesn't matter, it is delicious and easy to make.
I made a couple changes - I couldn't find tasso sausage so I used portuguese sausage instead.  I also couldn't find chorizo that was already cooked so bought fresh and cooked it first, it was a little greasy so I took some paper towels and blotted some of the grease out of the pan before adding the other sausages. I was afraid it would be too spicy for me but it just gave it a little bite, not at all too much. I added some cubed ham for texture since the chorizo was ground up instead of in chunks, didn't really need it though. The recipe doesn't include it but after reading the instructions on the bag of black-eyed peas I soaked them in water overnight.

I'm posting this a couple days after New Years so not sure if you will still get the benefits of good luck and prosperity ;) but fortunately this is just a yummy recipe that you should make just cuz it's good! Click here for the recipe. 1/2020 update - I clicked on that link and it no longer takes me to it on the Food Network - hmmm that's weird. I found it on emerils.com and also pasted it here so we will have it for the future!

Black Eyed Pea Jambalaya

• Prep Time: 20 minutes, plus overnight to soak the peas
• Total Time: 1 1/2 hours
• Yield: 10 to 12 servings

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 ounces tasso sausage, diced into small pieces
• 1/2 pound chorizo sausage, sliced in half lengthwise and cut into1/4-inch pieces
• 1/2 pound smoked sausage, sliced in half lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 2 cups chopped yellow onions (1 large onion)
• 1 red or green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 4 bay leaves
• 5 sprigs fresh thyme
• 8 cups chicken stock
• 1 pound black-eyed peas, soaked overnight
• 2 cups long grain rice 
• 1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and chopped
• Essence to season
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 2 tablespoons chopped flatleaf parsley

Directions

• In a large pot over medium heat, add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the tasso, chorizo and sausage, and render for 5 minutes. Stir in the onions, bell pepper, salt, cayenne, black pepper, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme. Saute for 5 minutes, or until the onions are wilted. Stir in the chicken stock and the peas. Bring the liquid up to a brisk simmer, reduce heat to medium-low and cook partially covered just until the peas are nearly tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Stir in the rice, bring the liquid to an intense boil, stir, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Uncover the pot, stir the rice and peas again to evenly distribute the rice, then cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Cook, undisturbed, until the rice has absorbed the liquid, about 10 minutes longer. Remove from the heat.
  Sprinkle the shrimp with Essence to season. Using a large fork, gently fluff the rice and toss the shrimp, green onions, and parsley into the rice. Return the cover and allow to steam (undisturbed), for an additional 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Serve warm.

Hot Buttered Rum

I've been seeing this drink and wondering (a) what is it (b) is there actually butter in it and (c) why would you put butter in a drink? So I decided to try it - there are lots of recipes and different ways to make this, I found a simple recipe here to experiment with.

You make a "batter" of butter, brown sugar, and spices, add that to a mug and top with a shot of rum (or whiskey) then fill up with hot water. Stir until it dissolves.

It's good but you don't really taste butter haha so I was disappointed. It's a good drink for a cold night tho that is easy to put together and is something different. Next time I will put less water in, I think it'll taste better (and maybe the butter flavor comes out more) less watered down.

Happy New Years!

New Years Eve

I'm planning to enjoy this last day of 2015 doing what I love - walking the dog, making stuff, hanging out, eating crab legs and drinking champagne...then tomorrow I will hopefully wake up and start writing my next 365 page book. Happy New Years Eve to you and yours!

PS: a quick tip in case you will also be opening champagne tonight - first carefully remove the cage from the top of the bottle, put a kitchen towel over the cork and grasp the cork thru the towel, then slowly pull the cork out while still holding the towel over it. Yes, popping the cork off and having it shoot into the air is more fun and dramatic, but you'll save yourself the chance of leaving a divot in the ceiling, spraying champagne everywhere, or hitting someone in the face. Don't ask me how I know.

Breakfast Pie

I have had this recipe for years from Borchers Bed and Breakfast in northern Michigan - don't remember how I ended up with it; I probably either asked for it or drooled enough over the pie at breakfast that they gave the recipe to me so I'd stop eating their pie and make my own...not sure. Either way I didn't steal it haha and hopefully they are cool with me sharing it! If you're ever in the area and stay there tell them I'm still making it and we LOVE it :)

This is a great thing to make for overnight guests, a Holiday breakfast, or just when you feel like pie for breakfast (!) - it's hard to tell there is cream of mushroom soup and velveeta in it, I know that might sound a little unhealthy but sometimes it's worth it. I double the recipe and usually put one in the freezer; it also holds well if you want to make it the day before. Enjoy!

layer chopped hard boiled eggs and cubed Velveeta over hash brown mixture

top with puff pastry, here I am trimming the edges to fit. I sealed the edges by
pushing a fork into the dough all around the top. 

brush with an egg wash - I whisked one egg with a splash of milk

delish!

Click here for recipe and notes on changes I make. You can also find it under "eat" on the top of this blog.

http://makemydaycamp.blogspot.com/2015/12/breakfast-pie.html