Around the Campfire 🔥 (week 11)

Dear Campers ~

Happy St. Patrick's Day! The corned beef has been in the crock pot since 6:30 this morning and the house smells great - I hope the Guiness that I added is still good, it's been in the fridge for a long time...I didn't dare taste it tho because I met friends at 7 for our "hour of power" 5 mile hike and didn't think beer breath would be cool! Judging by how the house smells I think all is good ;)

Here's a quick recap on what happened this week at camp in case you missed anything:

Posts~

3/11: DIY carpet freshener
3/12: tip-sy Tuesday: transport a single cupcake
3/13: Island cupcakes, filled with coconut cream and frosted with pina colada buttercream
3/14: Jen reviews "Hello Fresh" in her usual funny way.
3/15: stuffed zucchini
3/16: St. Patrick's Day menu

What's cooking ~

• bbq salmon (baked in the oven with bbq sauce on top like a glaze, so good!), cauliflower rice, creamed spinach
• grilled chicken, black bean/corn/tomato/avocado salad
• pork tenderloin, spaghetti squash with olive oil and parmesan, roasted broccolini
• buffalo burger salad
• bbq ribs (we seem to be making them a lot lately!), coleslaw, sweet potatoes

That's it - gotta go keep working on tonight's dinner and setting the table. Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Jill

camp counselor and sham-rock painter

St. Patrick's Day Plan 2019

I love that St. Patrick's Day is on Sunday this year - we get to have Sunday Supper party edition!

I'm making my traditional crock-pot corned beef, I've posted the recipe before and it's a winner. Soooo easy and everyone loves it. We bought 2 packages of corned beef with seasoning (from Costco, it's really good) for a total of just under 7 pounds, and both pieces will fit in my big crock-pot with the carrots. If you're looking for a dessert idea, I've made this Irish Cream Bundt cake a few times and it's really good, I'm not doing the dessert this year so have no idea what we'll be having!

Menu ~

• crock-pot corned beef with carrots
• oven roasted potatoes - cut in half, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 400' until cooked thru. Toss with a little butter, chopped parsley, additional salt and pepper if it needs it. 
• steamed cabbage - usually I cut into quarters and remove the core; put in a large pot fitted with a steamer insert or wire colander over enough water to steam and not run dry, but not touching the cabbage - you don't want the cabbage sitting in the water, it needs to steam overtop. Cover and steam until tender,  probably about 10 minutes depending on how full the pot is. If it's crowded it might take longer. *This year I'm going to do it just a bit different after reading a recipe online that looks good: chop it into 1" strips and steam it over some of the broth I'll take out of the corned beef in the crock pot and a tablespoon of caraway seeds. 
• horseradish sauce - super simple, just combine equal parts greek yogurt and mayo, stir in  creamed horseradish to taste - and a variety of mustards for the corned beef.
• Irish soda bread - I use Christa's recipe and promised not to share it, but you can find other recipes online. It's a quick bread that is simple to make, loaded with plump raisins and sprinkled with sugar before baking. 

If I decide to make a salad I'll do this all green version we had for dinner a couple nights ago - it has butter lettuce, chopped snap peas, chopped cucumber, chopped avocado, and quartered artichoke hearts mixed together with a creamy mustard dressing. It's delicious!

For table decorations (and party favors) ~

• Attempted once again to paint rocks. This time turned out a little better but I'm resigning myself to the sad fact that I'm not able to paint dots very well. Sigh.                               

these are "sham-rocks"...get it?!! hahahahaha....

• I also have little terra cotta pots filled with shamrocks, clear votive holders filled with dried green split peas with a tea light nestled in, and gold chocolate coins I'll scatter around the table. 

3.16.18: how to make felt shamrocks
3.16.17: make these green tassel earrings for St. Patricks Day (or any time!)
3.16.16: kid coloring page 


Happy moment ~ neighbors black cat sitting on the roof 

Stuffed Zucchini

LeDonna sent me a picture of the stuffed zucchini she made for dinner, I immediately made it for us because it sounded so good and her pic was so pretty. I've stuffed zucchini before but haven't seen the technique used here of chopping up the insides of the zucchini and using it in the stuffing - seeds and all! Delicious.

 

3 medium zucchini (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1/4 cup butter

1 small green pepper, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1 jar (2 ounces) diced pimiento, drained

1 cup herb-seasoned stuffing mix

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat 2 inches salted water (1/2 teaspoon salt to 1 cup water) to boiling. Add zucchini. Cover and heat to boiling. Cook just until tender, 8 to 10 minutes; drain. Cool slightly; cut each zucchini lengthwise into halves. Spoon out pulp; chop coarsely. Place zucchini, cut sides up, in uncreased 11 x 7 x 1.5"  baking pan. Alternatively, you can microwave the zucchini instead of boiling it - put in microwavable dish, cover tightly, microwave 5 minutes. Turn zucchini, re-cover, microwave an additional 2-4 minutes. 

we aren't fans of green peppers, so I substituted
chopped celery to give it some crunch. 

Cook and stir onion in butter in 10" skillet until tender. Stir in chopped pulp, green pepper, pimiento, and stuffing mix. Divide stuffing mixture amount zucchini halves. Sprinkle each with about 1 tablespoon cheese. Cook uncovered in 350' oven until hot and cheese is melted, 25 to 30 minutes. 

LeDonna sent me the recipe from this un-named cookbook,
I don't know who to credit for the original recipe. 

Her photo before adding the cheese. She sliced the zucchini in manageable
pieces before baking it because she was using one of those really big ones instead
of the 3 medium sized the recipe calls for. 

Happy moment ~ saw our neighbor's turtles sitting on their rocks, Leo had his hand on Leona like he was giving her a boost (or telling her to get her big butt out of the way!) 

Hello Fresh...by Jen

So I finally did it.  I bit the bullet and tried the “free trial” of Hello Fresh.

I didn’t go into this lightly- I read the comparisons and reviews on all the different meal delivery services and decided to go with this one.  Why?? Because people put pictures of delicious food from Hello Fresh on facebook and it made me hungry. Another reason?  I’m not a great cook (shocker...my sister got all of the cooking gene) and I thought maybe the family was tired of eating the same basic meals over and over. So in steps Hello Fresh.

First – I LOVE that I got to choose even my free meals.  That was great.  I picked 3 that looked delicious.  Mistake #1- perhaps read the prep first to see if its in my wheel house?

It then arrived in a lovely box with frozen ice packs and individual brown paper bags with the ingredients inside.  All individually wrapped.  Love that.  No sorting through the box to figure out what goes with what.  Very cool.  Also loved that even the spice packets were individual inside the brown paper bag for that specific meal.  Again, no guessing.  Love that.

It all arrived Saturday and I decided Sunday was the day.  I picked one that looks great and am going to give it a go.  Garlic Herb Tortelloni.  Yum.

Only 6 steps and says 15 minutes prep.  Perfect.  

I pull out the ingredients, I start reading the steps.  Ummmmm …  so I can slice veggies, I can melt butter.  Piece of cake.  (darn I wish this came with cake.. separate thought)..

Anyway- There were a few steps I had to google what it meant.  Yes if I looked at my sisters blog I would have seen what exactly a “shallot” was or how to zest a lemon but whatever.  So wondering if the prep time counts my time to google or call my sister/check her blog?

I then gave it a solid effort.  Followed the directions, dirtied a few dishes, and laid it all out on the plates, doing my best to make it look like the picture.  Looks pretty close actually!! That part is shocking!! Oh and the hubby was impressed by the presentation. 

Hello Fresh photo...

...my photo

So bottom line.. I did make a delicious meal.  It was indeed different than what I normally make (not that there is anything wrong with tuna noodle casserole).  I decided though to take my free week of food and not become a permanent paying subscriber.  

Reasons?  

#1. Cost.  $8.99 per serving plus $6.99 shipping for 3 meals a week.  Which is a lot for anyone as busy as we are.  If I lower to 2 meals a week it is $9.99 a serving plus $7.99 shipping.

#2. Helpings weren’t HUGE.  They were just ok.  Absolutely nothing leftover.  We are not big eaters so I actually expected to be really full off one serving.  It was just enough for me.

#3- Not super healthy.  Yes I realize tortellini isn’t going to be healthy.  But really not many of the menu choices were very healthy.  All of the ones I saw were running around 750 or 800 prepared.  That’s a little high for me compared to my norm.  I guess compared to eating out its good (or compared to my tuna noodle casserole) but not compared to my normal meals.

#4. The time it took me to make this.  I was nowhere close to their 15 minute prep.  I spent more than that reading and checking/rechecking the steps.  Oh also, I can order pizza in 2 minutes. 

I do think this would be a good way to become a better cook if that was something you were interested in… which we have firmly established I am not.

So all of these thoughts are based on my first experience.  I still have 2 more days this week of free food.  I’ll let you know how that goes.  Unless of course my sister hates this review and doesn’t want an update.  Or she wants to push me to be a better cook and wants to buy it for me.  It could be like her version of lessons.  In that case, I love it and I’m all in.

Island Cupcakes

One of Dave's ukulele groups celebrated their 17th anniversary last Saturday and they had a potluck - in fact they were so excited about having the potluck they decided to not even bother playing their ukes... they just ate instead hahaha. Gotta love it, that made me laugh - my kind of ukulele group!

I made a cross between my pina colada cupcakes and the coconut cream cupcakes that are still Dave's all time favorites. I've posted a different recipe in the past for pina colada cupcakes but that isn't how I've been doing them now - I've simplified by adding pre-made pina colada mix.

For the cake: I doctored a yellow cake mix by adding an additional egg, substituted pina colada mix for the water and replaced the oil with butter. Bake according to package directions. I made 12 large cupcakes and 24 mini ones (with enough batter left over to make a small 3" cake on the side).

For the filling: Stir together one small package of coconut cream pudding with 3/4 cup water and set aside. Whipping about 1/2 cup heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the pudding and put in a piping bag fitted with a big open tip. Set aside until the cakes are baked and cooled completely.

For the frosting: Beat 1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter until fluffy. Add 3.5-4 cups of powdered sugar (add small amounts at a time or the powdered sugar goes flying out of the bowl), a teaspoon of vanilla, pinch of salt, and 3 tablespoons of pina colada mix. Beat until fluffy and the right consistency to frost the cupcakes, add additional pina colada mix if needed.

To assemble: once the cakes are cooled - for the regular size cupcakes I cut a small circle out of the top and piped some of the filling into the hole, then replace the circle of cake that was removed. You want enough filling so it'll be obvious that it's there but not so much that you end up creating a volcano effect with filling bursting out the cupcake. For the mini cupcakes I inserted the frosting tip right into the top of the cake and squeezed some filling right into the cake without making a little hole first. Once you have them all filled, frost with the pina colada buttercream frosting - sometimes I pipe it on with a decorative tip but this time I just frosted them with a pastry knife and added sprinkles and island-y little paper umbrellas.

oops, this is what happens if you pipe in too much filling!

Check out yesterday's post about transporting a single cupcake, if there are any leftover that is!


3.13.18: shamrock sun catcher
3.13.17: shamrock butterflies and paper garland (why did I post two that day? hmmm...)
3.13.16: crock pot corned beef (yep, I'll be doing it this way next Sunday!)

Happy moment ~ grocery cashier gave me a free bag instead of making me pay for it - he said, and I quote, "you don't have to buy one - you're very pleasant and I'm going to reward you" LOL! 

Tip-sy Tuesday: Single Cupcake Container

Patty couldn't come to Sunday Supper so I packaged up some food to make her a doggie bag - we had cupcakes for dessert (check tomorrow for how to make "Island Cupcakes", they turned out SO good!) and I wanted to include one for her but packaging one cupcake isn't easy - how to hold it upright and not mess up the pretty topping?

Then I remembered this idea I saw somewhere - it's brilliant, easy, and works. Now you can take one cupcake in your lunch (or your kids' lunch if you are sharing the cupcakes) thanks to this simple idea ;) Mmmmm lunch cupcake....

Put the cupcake in a small plastic tumbler, top with a second tumbler and either tape them together or tie something around to hold the top one in place. No smushed cupcake!

3.12.18: make a layered paper shamrock using decorative patterned paper
3.12.17: blueberry chutney (delish with pork tenderloin!)
3.12.16: copycat shamrock shake


Happy moment ~ hello - lunch cupcake, obviously

DIY: Carpet Freshener

I'm super excited about this post - not just because this carpet freshener is so so easy to make, and that it actually works, but mostly because I just learned a very cool trick that I did not know and doubted it would work when I first saw it...I mean, how could I not know this already?

I checked out a few sites online to see if other people making carpet freshener had any different ingredients they add (in addition to how I was going to make mine) and stumbled on this little trick - did you know that the plastic top of a parmesan bottle fits on Mason jars? What? I'm kicking myself for all the tops I've thrown out thru the years, how many shaker lid Mason jars I could be using right now!

Ok, so for the freshener: simply fill a jar halfway with baking soda, add a few drops of essential oils (I used tangerine and lime), stir together. Add more baking soda to the top and a few more drops of essential oils, stir again. Screw on a shaker lid and you're done. Sprinkle the mixture on your carpet, let stand for a few minutes and then vacuum up. It comes up very easily, and there's an added bonus that the inside of my vacuum canister also smells good now!

If you don't have a parmesan shaker top laying around, you can make one (like I originally planned to use before the shaker top aha moment I just had) by cutting a circle to fit the top of your jar and punching a few holes in it before adding a canning ring to hold the paper in place.

not sure why I'm adding this picture - you can barely see the
baking soda sprinkled on my carpet...but trust me, it's there!

Around the Campfire 🔥 (week 10)

Dear Campers ~

Here's a quick recap of the happenings at camp if you missed anything this week (Dave didn't have time for "man-day Monday" last week, hopefully he will get it done for tomorrow!):

Posts ~

epsom salt bath cakes

3/3: around the campfire week 9
3/4: car air freshener
3/5: tip-sy tuesday: prep bowl
3/6: stuffed poblano peppers
3/7: bird newspaper toy
3/8: fabric wallet
3/9: stuffed zucchini

What's Cooking ~

• meatless monday -  brown rice mushroom risotto (recipe to follow soon)
• chicken enchilada suizas, salad (shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, diced avocado)
• grilled tuna with greek salad (cukes, tomatoes, roasted garbanzo beans, feta)
• baked spiced salmon, cauliflower rice, creamed spinach
• Steak, stuffed mushrooms, roasted carrots

Miscellaneous things keeping me busy ~

• finished the self help book I told you about last week - it's called "You are a badass" by Jen Sincero and I liked it! I definitely recommend. I also read "The Fool's Run" by John Camp (who also writes as John Sandford) and enjoyed that one too.
• Started reading the "Thug Life" cookbook which is super funny in addition to having really good sounding recipes, but do not read it if you take offense to swearing - 'cuz they are total potty-mouths! 
• Made 2 more sling bags , one out of oil cloth which I thought might be hard to work with but it turned out good.
• Made more bath salt cakes. 

Have a good, blessed, and creative week! Check back often to see more fun projects, recipes, and whatever else I think to make at camp :)

Sincerely ~


Jill
camp counselor and badass ;)

DIY: Sew a Fabric Wallet

LeDonna has a cute little fabric wallet that someone made for her that she uses all the time - I traced it to make a rough template, and set about figuring out how to make myself one. I used these colorful cotton scraps of material I have left over from making the boho sling bags (click here for that post) and I didn't add any interfacing, so it is very thin and lightweight. I might attempt one out of sturdier fabric in the future but for right now this seems perfect. 

This doesn't take very much material - you only need two pieces of fabric the same size for the outside and the inside wall (I'm calling the yellow dotted piece the inside "wall" because the pockets are going to be sewn to that piece, then sewn to the outside piece), 3 smaller pieces for the pockets, and a bit of velcro to hold it closed. 

My finished wallet is 5 3/4" x 4 1/2" and has three inside pockets. It's a little wider than it needs to

 be, but I feel like if I pack it full I'll want the little extra room for it to expand. 

To make it this size cut:

I used an old gift card to gauge how big the pockets needed to be

2 - 6 1/4" x 5" rectangles - I did a flower print for the outside, and coordinating yellow dots for the inside.
1 - 5" x 3" deepest pocket rectangle
2 - 5" x 2 1/2" for the other two pockets

step one and two

1. Turn down the top edge of a pocket 1/4", iron to make a nice crisp fold, sew along the top edge to hem. Repeat with the other pockets for a total of three top hemmed pieces.
2. (photo above) Lay one of the narrow (2 1/2") pockets on the longer (3") pocket about 1/2" down from the top edge of the 3" pocket. Sew only the bottom of the 2 1/2" pocket to the 3".  You want the pockets to be offset about 1/2" so when you put cards in the slots they are layered instead of all being on top of each other. You'll see what I mean in a minute...

step three

3. Now lay the third 2 1/2" pocket piece on top of the first two, lining up the bottom edge with the bottom edge of the 3" piece. You can now see how the 3 pockets are staggered about 1/2" down from each other. Lay all three pockets on top of the inside wall fabric (the yellow dotted material in this example) all right sides are up at this point. Sew around the outside edges of the pockets and inside wall - you don't need to sew the yellow dotted material where there isn't any other material connecting to it. See the above picture for reference.

step four

4. Pin the right sides together of both large pieces. Sew together leaving a small gap where you'll be able to turn the wallet inside out.

step five

5. Turn the wallet inside out thru the gap, I use a bamboo skewer to get the corners as flat as possible.

step six

6. Iron the entire thing, get it as crisp and flat as you can.

step seven

7. Topstitch the top half of the wallet where the two large pieces joined together, this will sew the gap closed in addition to giving the bag a flatter and more finished look. Don't topstitch the bottom half of the wallet where the pockets are.

step eight

8. Sew a small piece of velcro to the inside flap and top of bottom pocket to keep the flap closed.

LeDonna's - the inspiration for my wallet

3.8.18: wire-wrapped ring
3.8.17: Andes mint cookies
3.8.16: easy art for St. Patrick's day decor


Happy moment ~ a nice surprise in the mail from my sissy, with a note that made me laugh

Braided Newspaper Bird Toy

Lucy is an aggressive newspaper ripper-upper. If there was a contest for shredding paper she'd win for sure - I always compliment her on what a fine mess she's made and what a good nest builder she'd be LOL. To try to get her to stop ripping the papers that line her cage (which makes a big mess of bird poop, fruit, veggies, and newspaper shreds! Disgusting...) I made her a hanging paper braid hoping that'd be more interesting. She loved it - Dave said I'm just encouraging her to shred paper but I think it's a good distraction and she enjoyed it... it still made a big mess of course  but at least it was a clean big mess!

Cut strips of newspaper, clip a few strips together at the top. Braid until about 6" to go and then add in additional paper strips - along the lines of french braiding your hair if you know how to do that. Braid until it's long enough to form into a circle then hold closed with a short cable tie (or twine). I made two circles and joined them together, then hung in her cage. Cheapest bird toy short of pepper tree sticks, q-tips, or any of my stuff that she grabs off the counter before I can stop her!

she has a much larger cage (I call it her condo) that she sleeps in,
but she loves to be in this "baby cage" during the day and we move
her around to different parts of the house. 

3.7.18: healthy cauliflower soup
3.7.17: making breadcrumbs
3.7.16: foam shamrock indoor wreath


Happy moment ~ watching the bird play with the toy I made her, of course!