Tip-sy Tuesday: dryer sponge fail

I posted about making your own dryer sponges in February (click here), did anyone try it? And if you did, did this happen to yours too?

I used them a few times and they worked great, then one day I opened the container and the baking soda had crusted up making them, I'm assuming, not useful in the dryer! I'm not sure how to stop this from happening, maybe I didn't shake them often enough? So I thought I better warn you - if you make them there is a possibility that this will happen to you too!

And if it doesn't, please let me know your secret 'cuz right now I'm counting this as a fail.

Zucchini Chimichangas

I saw a recipe for baked zucchini chimichangas and even tho I'm not a huge zucchini lover these sounded good to me, so I planned to make them for dinner. That is, I planned to make them until I actually read the ingredients and it's basically just zucchini and onions which Dave isn't going to eat (he doesn't like onions, and onions don't like him back). I still liked the zucchini idea, so I just made up my own filling - and they turned out great. I loved these! Maybe a tiny bit on the dry-ish side without any sauce, much like the baked chimichangas I made and posted not too long ago, but I served them with shredded lettuce, halved cherry tomatoes, and sour cream and didn't miss a sauce at all.

I don't have amounts since I made up this non-recipe recipe - so just eyeball things and make as much or little as you want!

Lay out flour tortillas on a cutting board or clean counter. Top with rinsed, drained black beans and smush them down a little.

Saute chopped zuchhini and corn in a skillet until barely tender and browned, sprinkle with some Mexican seasoning blend or spices of your choice. Divide evenly amongst the tortillas.

Sprinkle with shredded monterey jack or Mexican blend cheese and some crunchy tortilla strips (or break up tortilla chips). Roll up like a burrito (fold short ends in first, then the longer sides) and place on a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake at 400' for 25 minutes until browned and crispy on the outside.

Around the Campfire 🔥 (week 28)

Dear Campers ~

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

Posts ~
7/5: 🔥week 27
7/6: (another) wine cork craft
7/7: tip-sy tuesday: paper towel hack
7/8: sugar cookie mini cakes
7/9: MSIH: bacon lettuce cups
7/10: hungarian sausage and potato soup
7/11: rosemary skewered vegetables

What's cooking ~

• grilled thin chicken breasts, chopped kale salad, orzo with tomatoes
• grilled marinated pork chops, beans baked in marinara, salad
• steak, steak fries, sautéed mushrooms, chopped salad
• grilled mahi-mahi, sticky rice, wilted spinach
• lemon-rosemary rotisserie chicken, roasted broccoli, parmesan couscous w/ peas and pinenuts

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy ~

• read "The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires" by Grady Henrix ⭐️⭐️ weird book that is mostly about housewives and a book club and then takes a super weird turn and becomes a gruesome slasher book. I finished it but it was weird.
• read another weird one - "Oona Out of Order" by Margarita Montimore ⭐️⭐️ I didn't really understand the whole time-traveling she was doing, but even putting that aside it was still weird and I didn't love. 
• found some elastic and made a few more masks with ear loops instead of ties. Way quicker to make that way.
• got a great big hunk of tree trunk up north from the neighbor that was having it hauled away. The park guys had it roped and pulling it out with their tractor when I asked if I could have it. They were happy to only have to haul it across a campsite haha. As soon as I put it by our camper as a cool decoration a lady walked by and gushed what a gorgeous piece of wood it is and that it looks like a statue, I look over and the neighbor is standing there listening and I'm thinking "NO TAKE BACKS!!!" hahahaha! Dave said I should paint it but it's natural bleached tones look great as is. 

Sincerely ~

Jill

camp counselor and random hunk of wood lover

Rosemary Skewered Vegetables

I love kabobs but Dave hates to grill them because they are 'too much work', especially when the food turns on the skewers - I've tried double skewers and even baskets but he still doesn't like to do them. Since my favorite part of a kabob are the veggies, I make these rosemary skewered kababs quite often in the oven. Of course you could skip the rosemary and just thread the veggies onto bamboo skewers, and I do that if I don't have rosemary, but the herb really adds some flavor and make them look pretty and different.

Marinate cut up vegetables - summer squash, zucchini, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, onion...whatever you like. I usually do either olive oil mixed with dijon and sherry vinegar, or olive oil with balsamic and lemon juice; put everything in a large baggie and fridge for about an hour.

Soak the rosemary stems (or bamboo skewers) for 30 minutes. 

Heat oven to 350'. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Thread the veggies onto the skewer (note: if rosemary stems aren't strong enough to push thru the vegetable, poke a hole in the veggie with a bamboo skewer first and thread the rosemary thru that way) and lay on the baking tray. Bake until the vegetables are tender, usually about 35 minutes. 

I forgot to take a picture of these plated and not just on the ugly parchment paper!

Hungarian Potato and Sausage Soup

Al made this soup a couple months ago and I just haven't had time to post the recipe -  this time I didn't forget about it tho,  it's too good to forget! I am a soup all-year- round person so even tho it's summer right now and you might not be craving potato soup I still highly recommend you make this! Or at least bookmark it and make when the temp suits you and you want soup again hahaha. Dave and I both loved, loved this soup and this is a keeper recipe for sure. 

• 3 T. unsalted butter
• 6 ounces smoked Hungarian sausage, sliced into rounds
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 t. salt, or more to taste
• 3 T. flour
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 t. Hungarian paprika
• 5 cups chicken broth, or more to taste
• 2 cups chopped green cabbage
• 1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• black pepper to taste
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1 bay leaf 
• 2 T. white vinegar
• 1/2 cup sour cream, or to taste
• 2 T. sliced green onions (optional)

1. Melt butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add sausage and cook and stir until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove sausage to a bowl, leaving behind any butter in the pot.

2. Toss onion into the pot with 1 teaspoon salt. Cook and stir until onion just starts to turn translucent and picks up a brown color from the meat juices in the pan, 4 to 5 minutes. Add flour, cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic and paprika, cook nd stir until fragrant, about 1 minute, being careful not to burn the paprika. 

3. Stir in 5 cups chicken broth. Increase heat to high and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally so flour does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Stir in cabbage and cook until it just loses its stiffness, about 2 minutes. Stir in potatoes and bring back to a simmer. Add pepper, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf plus a splash of chicken broth if desired. Bring back to a simmer. 

4. Stir soup and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are very soft and tender, about 30 minutes. Add sausage and vinegar and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste and adjust for salt.

5. Remove from heat and ladle into bowls. Garnish with sour cream, green onions, and cayenne pepper.

Note: Al couldn't find anything at the store called Hungarian sausage, so he substituted Eckrich smoked sausage.

recipe from allrecipes.com

My Sis is Hungry: Bacon Lettuce Cups

Jen needed a dish to pass and asked if there was anything I wanted to make for her to take (insert eye roll hahahha) so I prepped these easy lettuce cups for her and had her assemble them; I wasn't sure how long beforehand they could be made and not get soggy. It's hard to give away a half-done dish, I'm a control freak and wasn't sure she'd put them together the way I intended LOL, but some things are out of my hands and these lettuce cups were one of them. I did the cooking and chopping the day before, put everything in individual baggies, delivered them... and then let them go ;)

Ingredients:

• 1 pound thick bacon, cooked and chopped into bite sized pieces
• cherry tomatoes, halved
• boston lettuce leaves (I used the small cup shaped little inner leaves from 2 heads)
• buffalo wing sauce (I bought 'mild' but it was still spicy)
• crumbled blue cheese
• blue cheese dressing (I make my own by combining light mayo, plain greek yogurt, low-fat milk, a little ranch dressing, salt and pepper. Once it's the consistency I want, add small crumbles of blue cheese)
• balsamic vinegar glaze (boil balsamic vinegar in a little pan until it reduces and gets thick - or you can buy it now in a little bottle)

The rest was up to her, here's what she has to say:

About 4 hours before we ate them, I mixed bacon with wing sauce, divided it among the lettuce cups, husband helped out and “sprinkled” with blue cheese - way too much blue cheese. Then we added 2-3 tomatoes to each. I drizzled half with blue cheese dressing and balsamic reduction, the other half left without extra sauce. Some people added a little blue cheese dressing to theirs but it made it too messy that way. 

They taste way better than they look. Actually they taste way better than I thought they were going to taste. All the toppings were super random and it isn’t anything I would’ve ever put together or thought would actually be good, and even after they were all put together and they looked kind of fancy I still didn’t think it was gonna taste any good. The husband gives it an eight, I give it a nine because I really thought they were great. 

Had lettuce left so the next day mixed buffalo sauce with leftover chicken breast - was out of blue cheese so used feta - still delicious.  

idea came from country living, I adapted it a bit!

Sugar Cookie Mini Cakes

I have been wanting to make these mini cakes since 2014 - technically that's not true, I saved this idea  on my computer in 2014 and then promptly forgot about it. As you know I have a gazillion pictures and ideas saved just waiting for me to find them again, and I finally made this one. It is SO easy - just about the easiest birthday cake ever (short of buying one, or having your sister make one for you!); it's literally stacked soft sugar cookies and frosting. C'mon, everyone can do this one!   

                             

I bought a package of lemon Lofthouse cookies and made a batch of my homemade buttercream frosting, you can just use a can of store-bought frosting if you want. Using a round cookie cutter, cut each cookie a little bit smaller than their original size - that makes them exactly the same size for stacking, and also cuts away the edges that aren't as thick as the middle of the cookies. Put two cookies together with the frosting on the inside and gently push to stick them together. Frost the sides and top, add sprinkles. See - easy, peasy!

idea found here

Tip-sy Tuesday: Outdoor Paper Towel Holder

I can't tell you how many times I hear "get me a paper towel" when D is outside the camper...insert eyeroll because geez does it get annoying LOL! I saw this idea somewhere so can't take credit for it, when I was at the store the other day they had a bunch of flag holders by the cash register and I remembered the idea to put a paper towel roll on a flag holder stuck in the ground. Problem solved.

I made sure to put the roll on so the wind wouldn't unravel it - and for a whole day the paper towels behaved perfectly. Then I went inside to make dinner and when I looked out later the entire roll had unraveled and it looked like the campsite had been t.p.'d! More like p.t.'d hahahahahah. I'm sure anyone watching it happen thought I was an idiot. Now I've clipped the roll so the paper towel show will not happen again LOL. Might come up with a different idea for keeping them under control, but for now the clip is working.

On another note look at this funny picture of Sarge who is fascinated with the camper washing machine - like he's never seen the washer at home?

RV Living: (another) Wine Cork Cork Board

So the new RV 'needed' a little cork board to hold our keys and a few doodads (you know me and my love of wine cork crafts - so we don't live anywhere without a wine cork cork board!); I brought a big plain framed cork board and a bucket of wine corks up north camping with me figuring I'd have lots of time to sit outside at the table and design it. Well two things happened: 1) it's windy by the water and things kept flying around and 2) I was busy digging up rocks and didn't have time or patience to sit down and make a big cork board. So I sort of 'cheated' and only made a small wine cork cork board and glued it to one side of the big board, then stuck hooks on the other half. Its fine, but looked half done to me and was too big for the space. Fast forward a week later when I went to the store and bought a small framed cork board and did it the 'right' way and am much happier with the outcome.

First I painted the frame a coral-y color because the oak original frame didn't look great in the camper. Then I played with the design, I haven't done one laid out like this before and the smaller framed board was perfect for this layout. Then hot glued them all in place. Voila - the perfect size board completely covered with corks. Instead of trying to mount this on the camper wall (I have no idea if I can pound a nail in these kind of walls, and it seems a little heavy to try to hang it with velcro or common hooks), I found a big plate stand and it's perfect to hold up the board.

the original one that looks half finished - first I glued the corks to a piece of thin
cardboard (I robbed it from a cracker box), then glued the cardboard to the cork board. 

Around the Campfire 🔥 (week 27)

Dear Campers ~

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

Posts ~
6/28: 🔥 week 26
6/29: RV privacy curtain
6/30: tip-sy tuesday: tension rods
7/1: molasses sugar cookies
7/2: pompom earrings
7/3: patriotic donut pops
7/4: happy Fourth of July!

What's cooking ~

• grilled steak, roasted smashed baby potatoes, cucumber and tomato salad
• grilled tuna, orzo with tomatoes and parmesan, sautéed spinach
• grilled marinated chicken, potato salad, caesar salad
• lamb chops (D does these when I'm at golf league, I'm not a fan!), creamed spinach
• grilled halibut, couscous, roasted asparagus

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy ~

• at the campground again for a few days, still working around the campsite weeding, edging, and making things pretty.
• spent waaaaayyyyy to much time in the sun and have been dealing with a sunburn all week - I should know better, right? My sis and I dug up big rocks from the beach and lined a couple areas around the campsite and I lost all track of time. I'm peeling and still burned underneath the peel 🤦‍♀️ good grief. 
• read John Sandford's latest Lucas Davenport series "Masked Prey" ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I'll give it a 4 mostly because I love the Lucas Davenport character and don't really care what the plot is. It's not a great plot tho, just sayin'. Too political for me, but still, it's Davenport so I'm happy. 
• made a couple things for the trailer that'll I'll post this week - little things that are easy to do!

Fourth of July at the lake - full moon and new camping friends

Hope you had a great week, and a fun Fourth. Stop by this week to see more fun projects, recipes, and whatever else I can think of to make at MMDC!

Sincerely ~

Jill

camp counselor and stupid sunburn sufferer