Barre Workout

My friend Athena is a dance teacher in California - when I'm out there I love to tap with her and my tap friends, she also does barre dance class and a world dance class. One upside to the stay at home world we are in right now is that she has moved her classes to online so now I get to keep doing class with her! She tried having live class thru Zoom and Facebook Live but there is too much lag, so she's now recording the workouts and putting them on YouTube for all to see. Thought I'd share with you today in case you're starting to notice a possible 'quarantine 15' weight gain LOL or if you just want to move and have some fun. I'm new to the world dance class and it's my new favorite - especially since I'm doing it at home with no one except Sarge watching so it doesn't matter if I don't have the moves right hahahaha.

For real - here he is watching Athena on my iPad, taking up my space!

Below is her most recent barre class, search Athena Guinchard on Youtube and you'll find more of her videos. Have fun!




5.14.19: tipsy tuesday: cleaning the microwave
5.14.18: organizing die cut templates for the Big Shot
5.14.17: one of my favorite cakes - raspberry and whipped cream
5.14.16: make a birthday balloon card

Churros

Natalie sent me these pictures of her and Jimi making churros - she said they turned out great and are easy to make. I've never made churros before, I've always thought they'd be difficult but now that she's tested it out I'm not as intimidated to try doing it (and Dave would be thrilled! He loves them).

Whatcha think? This would be a fun (and delicious) boredom buster right?!!

 Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 2 1/2 Tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup flour
• 2 quarts oil for frying
• 1/2 cup white sugar, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine water, 2 1/2 T. sugar, salt, and 2 T. vegetable oil. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in flour until mixture forms a ball.
2. Heat oil for frying in deep-fryer or deep skillet to 375'F. Pipe strips of dough into hot oil using a pastry bag. Fry until golden, drain on paper towels.
3. Combine 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon. Roll drained churros in cinnamon sugar mixture. 

5.13.19: macrame owl (I have him hanging from my rear view mirror, so cute!)
5.13.18: coriander crusted pork tenderloin
5.13.17: parachute cord dog collar
5.13.16: Brooke's emoji cookies

My Sis is Hungry: Pasties

I posted about making pasties yesterday, along with the recipe. Here's a follow up post with my sis's review:

WOW. These look AMAZING. We have had Pastie’s from the UP before and to be honest these look even better than those. Those were brought back by the husband in his hot car in a paper bag but still - these were impressive.

First of all the crust was fantastic.  The presentation was fantastic.  The slits in the top, the pepper and whatever on it. Looks fantastic. Then you get to the contents inside and also amazing. The flavor was great.  The husband would have liked some kind of “gravy” inside so it wasn’t so dry.  Apparently he isn’t understanding the point of a hand held sandwich.  He’s going to have that drip gravy?  Okey dokey.  Seems messy but who am I to judge.  So even while he was inhaling it though and repeating how great it was he kept saying things like “no really, don’t you think this would be great with gravy inside?”.  Anyway.  Loved it. If he really needs gravy he could dip it in some next time.

This was amazing.  Clearly beyond my skill set to make but I will happily test these for her again!

Jill here ~ I'm pretty sure if I put gravy inside a pastie I'd have a 'walking pot pie' hahahah (like a take on 'walking taco'). Hmmm, maybe he's on to something, I might need to see if that works. Of course you couldn't eat it cold or hold it in your hand, but I'm thinking if a pizza can be basically folded in half to make a calzone maybe a potpie can be stuffed inside a crust?

PS: and yes to all you pastie lovers who are yelling "you serve them with gravy or ketchup!!", I did tell them that! Now simmer down and stop rolling your eyes LOL 😂


5.12.19: 🔥
5.12.18: Amsterdam tulips
5.12.17: summer vegetable bake
5.12.16: makeup remover wipes tip

Michigan Pasties

Talking with my mom and she told me about having pasties when she was little and loving them - can't remember why we were talking about pasties hahahah, kind of a random topic. Anyway...she found this recipe online and I said I'd give it a try. I've eaten my fair share of them but have never made them - not gonna lie, they took longer to make than I anticipated, but it just so happens I have lots of time since we are still 'staying home' and turns out it was well worth the time and energy. These are great! I shared some with my sister, who is going to review them later and I'll update when she does, but spoiler alert - I already know she also loved them. (Click here for her review)

Mom emailed me the recipe and had this to say about them: 

We had a neighbor Mrs Christie who lived in the farmhouse across the street (I think she was English) who always brought us over “pasties” that I still remember being the best thing ever. She was very old with a bun and always had a long apron on, I got in trouble for crossing the street to go visit her. Thanks for helping me find a good memory from childhood!

UPPER PENINSULA PASTIES

Ingredients:

crust ~

• 2 cups shortening
• 2 cups boiling water
• 5 to 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt

filling ~

• 6 medium potatoes (about 3 pounds), peeled, chopped into 1/4" cubes
• 1 large rutabaga (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled, chopped into 1/4" cubes
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 pound ground turkey
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped into 1/4" cubes
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to finish
• 2 teaspoons pepper, plus more to finish
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, stir shortening and boiling water until shortening is melted. Gradually stir in flour and salt until a very soft dough is formed; cover and refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours.
2. Combine ground beef and turkey, break into small crumbles. In a large bowl, combine potatoes, rutabagas, onion, meats, and seasonings.
3. Divide dough into 12 equal portions. On a floured surface, roll out 1 portion at a time into an 8" circle. Mound 1 generous cup of filling on half of each circle; dot with 1 teaspoon butter. Moisten edges with water; carefully fold dough over filling and press edges with a fork to seal.
4. Place on uncreased baking sheets. Cut several slits in top of pasties. Brush the tops with beaten egg, sprinkle tops with coarse salt and pepper. Bake at 350' until golden brown, about 1 hour. Cool on wire racks. Serve hot or cold. Store in the refrigerator. 

my notes: In the comments section people were complaining that 'traditional' recipes don't use ground meat but for whatever reason once baked these didn't seem like hamburger to me. I questioned the recipe when I realized the meat didn't get cooked first, it goes raw in the filling and then baked for an hour - thought to myself 'why doesn't the grease from the ground meat seep out?', but it didn't. Also, this makes 12 very large pasties - so big I didn't even eat a whole one for dinner. The recipe states 1 1/2 to 2 cups of filling in each one, but I found a generous 1 cup was perfect. The first one I made I rolled out too thin and used more filling, it was hard to move to the baking sheet, and wasn't pretty - I got better after that. Only roll to an 8" circle, I use a measuring tape to keep them the right size. 

I adapted the recipe a bit and am sharing what I did, click the source below for the original recipe if you want.

recipe found at tasteofhome.com

I took lots of photos to walk you thru the steps:

1. cut the veggies into a small dice, crumble up the raw meat as best you can. you need a very large bowl for this step. 

 

2. I weighed the dough and then figured out how big each portioned piece should be. Each of the 12 pieces was just a touch over 4 ounces

   

3. roll out the dough to an 8" circle, put a generous 1 cup of filling on one half, moisten the edges of the dough to help it seal. I do this by dipping my fingers in a cup of water and running my fingertips along the edge.  

 

 

 4. fold the dough over the filling, press the edges together then crimp with the tines of a fork. put on a baking sheet, cut a few slits in the top, brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper.

 

5. I wasn't sure how to reheat these, the crust won't be crispy if microwaved - so we did an experiment. Jen did oven at 300' for half hour, I did 350' for 20 minutes, and Cathy did 400' for 10 minutes. All 3 worked! 

see what I mean about size? It's bigger than the dinner plate!

 

 I wrapped them individually, put in freezer bags and popped into the freezer for another time. Can't say how they'll hold up doing it that way but since this recipe made so many and they're so big, we can't eat them all at once hahahah!

Around the Campfire 🔥 (week 19)

Dear Campers ~

Here's a quick recap in case you missed anything at MMDC last week:

Posts ~

5/3: 🔥week 18
5/4: Lori's gossamer tree
5/5: germinating seeds part 2
5/6: brookies
5/7: risotto with vegetables
5/8: making soap (a fun boredom buster!)
5/9: email chain recipes

What's Cooking ~

• crock pot pork roast in mushroom sauce, mixed veggies
• potato mushroom soup
• pasties, chopped salad
• chicken noodle soup casserole

Look how short this recap is today! Not sure where the time goes but I have tons to do and not enough time to get it done. The only books I've read are the rest of the True Blood vampire ones so not much to tell you about there...

Come back this week and see what recipes, crafts, etc. I feel like making! Have a great week :)

Sincerely ~

Jill

camp counselor and waster of so much time I don't have time to get actual things done!

Email Chain Recipes

I think I mentioned like a month ago, maybe longer now, about being on an email recipe chain - I don't usually do chain emails but this seemed fun, easy, and a great way to get new recipe ideas. I got quite a few responses, some from people I don't know  - once I sent my recipe and chain request to a few people, those people turned around and forwarded it on to their people, and so on. So when I got the recipes I have no idea which of my friends' friends they came from.  I didn't get one recipe that I wouldn't make or we don't like the ingredients, so I have quite a few new recipes to try - pretty cool, right?

I'm sharing some of the recipes with you today in case you're looking for easy quick recipes (that was the requirement - easy, quick, no rare ingredients).

• PERFECT BLUEBERRY MUFFINS from Sheryl

What I loved about these was the wonderful proportion of blueberries! SO many! From Smitten Kitchen: Perfect Blueberry Muffins

Here's the link: https://smittenkitchen.com/2010/08/perfect-blueberry-muffins/

DO NOT be afraid to add the whole teaspoon of turbinado sugar to the muffin top! The muffins are not sweet!

• MEATLOAF from Natalie

So my simplest recipe, with on hand ingredients is my meatloaf:
1.5-2 lbs lean ground beef
1 egg
3/4 cup oatmeal
1t. Kosher salt
1/2t  each garlic powder fresh ground black pepper
1t onion powder
1/3c milk and 1/3 c ketchup...add enough milk to make it look like tomato soup and whisk together as the first step

1. Whisk the milk and ketchup—it should be runny—add milk until like tomato soup—May take 1/2 c.
2. Add egg and whisk
3. Add spices and whisk
4. Add oatmeal and whisk and let set for 5 minutes to absorb liquid
5. Add beef and hand squeeze until JUST blended.
6. Spray 1.5-2 lb loaf pan and dump mixture in-pressing into corners to remove bubbles...flatten top
7. Add ketchup as a glaze—about 1/4 c. And spread evenly.
8. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes...pull out and drain fat-put back in for 10-15 minutes til glaze is barely browned.
9. Take out and let rest for 10 minutes before cutting/serving. Makes about 8 slices.
We make beef gravy, roasted broccoli and mashed potatoes to accompany:)

• TATER TOT DISH from Candy

1lb. cooked and drained hamburger
1 small chopped onion
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 soup can of milk
Sliced mushrooms(optional)
Garlic salt
Red pepper flakes
1/2 can of green chilies(more or less)
Monterey jack pepper cheese, shredded
1/2 pkg. Tater tots

Layer hamburger, then sprinkle chopped onions, red pepper flakes(just a little sprinkling), garlic salt, chilies, then mushrooms. Then mix mushroom and milk and pour over. Then sprinkle shredded cheese, and top with tater tots. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Serve with sour cream.

• SEAFOOD CASSEROLE from Pam

l box of Angel hair Pasta, 1-2  packages of imitation crab, 1 package of shrimp, deveined and cleaned (20-36), 2 cups of frozen peas, 1-2 cans of cream of mushroom soup, 1 pkg of grated parmesan cheese and 1 pkg of mozzarella cheese.

boil water with salt and cook pasta al dente.  Just before the pasta is done, throw in the frozen peas. (canned peas do not work well with this recipe).  Combine the soup with a little water, it should be thicker rather than a thin consistency.  

Grease a 9x13 pan. toss the pasta, shrimp and crab in a bowl and put in bottom of pan. pour soup mixture over the pasta and sprinkle the cheese mixture on top.  Cook for 1/2 hour to 1 hour @ 350 degrees till cheese is melted and browned.  

• MINI MEATLOAF W/OPTIONS from Lori

• BAKED STUFFED JALAPENO PEPPERS from Dan

- 8 jalapeno peppers, washed, sliced in half length wise, seeds removed

- 8 ounces softened cream cheese

- I cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

-16 slices bacon

Thoroughly mix the cream cheese and Parm.

Stuff equal amounts into the pepper halves. 

Wrap each half with a strip of bacon.

Place in baking dish and bake at 375 until bacon is cooked through.

(Depending on the thickness and leanness of the bacon, I sometimes precook it a little to cook out some of the grease before wrapping peppers).

Delicious as an appetizer or a side dish.

                                                                                   from Bernadette Rice

• FETTUCINI ALFREDO from Kate

8 oz uncooked fettuccine (cook per package directions)

Meanwhile
Combine in a saucepan;

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup whipping cream   over low heat until butter melts
Stir in
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, if you have it
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Pour sauce over hot drained fettuccine noodles and toss well. Serve

I’ve substituted cream cheese,or flavored cream cheese or similar for the butter and Parmesan. Also your choice of additions can be sautéed mushrooms, red pepper, Carrots, peas, chicken; grilled, roasted, canned,etc. many seafoods, shrimp, scallops, etc. whatever you have on hand. 

• CREAMY SPINACH PARMESAN ORZO PASTA from Elizabeth

https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-one-pot-creamy-spinach-parmesan-orzo-pasta-easy-254107

• CHICKEN PARMESAN from Amy

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/223042/chicken-parmesan/

Friday Boredom Buster: make soap

Brooke said to me "we are having a health crisis, we should make soap!" Can't argue with that reasoning - and it's been years since she's made a giant mess  soap so seems like a fun way to kill an afternoon :) Plus we have soap for all the hand washing that's happening!

Really, she used to make soap at my house all the time. Like ALL the time. Dave used to ask why a kid needs so much soap hahahha.

It's very easy but does require some adult help if the kids are young. You chop off pieces of base soap, either white or clear, melt them in a glass container in the microwave, stir in fragrance and color, pour into molds. Pop in the freezer until the soap is firm, remove from molds.

In her younger days B would pretty much stick to one color, now that she's older and can do all of the soap making by herself (while I chopped veggies for tomorrows pasties), she got way more creative by making layers and other decorations in her bars. To do the stripes, just like when you make jello parfaits (remember making jello parfaits? I used to make them a lot!), pour a little soap into the mold and freeze until it's firm before adding the next layer of soap, etc. Or chop up other bars of soap into little cubes and add them to melted soap and let harden. They look super cool when cut open.

We had a fun time hanging in the kitchen, and I can't tell you how great it was when she spilled the soap on the way to the freezer she cleaned it up herself without saying a word to me! Ahhhhhh...

5.8.19: Jen's beef enchiladas

Risotto with Vegetables

Janis sent me this recipe - her husband raves about her risotto so I can't wait to try it! Risotto is not hard to make, but I usually talk myself out of doing it because it's a bit of a time consuming process (unless you make one of the baked or easy versions but that's a post for another day haha!) because you very slowly and gradually add a little stock at a time - which means you are literally standing at the stove for a half hour. I'm a multi-tasker so it's hard for me to not walk away from the stirring! But we love risotto SO much it's worth it when I do decide to make it - and sometimes I can get Dave to do the stirring while I work on other things. After hearing Ron gush about this risotto for so many years I will definitely be making her recipe. Thanks for sharing Janis, and for taking helpful photos thru each of the steps :)

RISOTTO WITH VEGETABLES

  

SERVES 4-6:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

¼ cup chopped onion

1 cup Arborio rice

3 ½ cup chicken stock  (can use 5 cups if necessary)

¾ teaspoon salt

1 fennel bulb, coarsely chopped  (2/3 cup)

6 asparagus spears, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces

1 cup frozen peas

1 small red pepper, peeled and cut into ¼ inch pieces

3 large mushrooms cut into julienne slices

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Heat the chicken stock in a pan on low.  

2.  Heat the butter and oil in a different skillet. When hot, add the onion and sauté for 1 minute.  Add the rice, mix well over medium heat to coat the rice with butter and oil.   Using a ladle or cup, spoon out  ½ cup chicken stock and continue cooking the rice, stirring constantly until stock has been absorbed.  Add another ½ cup chicken and continue stirring constantly until stock has been absorbed.  

3.  While stirring add the fennel to the pan with another ½ cup of the stock.   Continue stirring.

4.  Add the red peppers, asparagus and mushrooms and more stock.  Add salt, and cook, stirring until the mixture is creamy and the rice is tender.  Stir in the peas and the cheese after removing from heat and serve immediately.

This process should take about 25 minutes.

5.7.18: adorable hedgehug cards
5.7.17: coconut curry sauce

Layered Brownie and Cookie Bars

Brooke sent me this a couple months ago before we all started staying home and I just came across it in my messages - it's a quick fun and delicious sounding treat! Here's what she has to say (and this is the only picture she sent, I'm assuming they ate them before thinking to take more photos hahaha):

hey guys! it’s brooke, so i had a friend who made cookie brownies. they were so delicious. she started with a brownie pan and put cookie dough in the bottom and patted it down until it was even across. then she took box brownie mix and poured it on top of the cookie dough in the pan. then she followed the directions on the box for oven temperature and cooking time! they were so delicious. i really recommend you trying it!!

Jill here: I asked a couple questions - 

1) she used a square baking pan

2) store-bought tube of cookie dough

3) mix the brownies together following the directions on the box

also - shouldn't brownie cookies be called "brookies"?! so I should rename this 'Brookies brookies!!! 

5.6.19: tiny macrame plant hangers
5.6.18: polenta parmesan with spinach and white beans
5.6.17: Mickey finds an unusual zucchini planter
5.6.16: RV camping food tips

Tip-sy Tuesday: Germinating Seed Follow-Up

This is part 2 to last week's how to test if old seeds are viable - it's only been 5 days and they're already sprouted, I'm so excited. Yes we could question why sprouting seeds has totally made my day but for now let's just chalk it up to looking for the positives today!! Woohoo!

8 out of 10 seeds have sprouted so far, so that's an 80% success rate - that means I'm good to plant the old seeds still in the packet (along with these sprouted ones of course).

I'm going to stick the pea seeds right in the dirt today; it's a little early for the beans so will plant the sprouted ones in some dirt and leave in the garage by a window until it's a little warmer out consistently, then plant them along with the seeds still in the packet.

How cool, right? I'm so happy. Sigh.


5.5.19: 🔥
5.5.18: 21st birthday 'cake'