Crochet Cat Basket

 2 things happened for me to make this basket:

(1) I still have leftover yarn on my desk from making the cutie owl basket, and I'm too lazy to put it away.

(2) I made a few masks to send to my friend Janis (who is also a cat lady - not so much a 'crazy cat lady' but more a lady who likes cats hahahaha) and the idea to crochet her a cat basket to send the masks in popped into my head. 

At first I was just going to wing it and make up a pattern based on the owl but then I googled 'crochet cat basket' wondering if anything would come up and sure enough - I'm not the only person who had the idea! I based mine on a pattern found here  at Woolstreet.ca, but I didn't add the face and I did half double crochet stitches. 

This was very easy to make and came together quickly, and it's pretty cute too. The ears remind me of Sarge so I'm going to make a black one next and see if I can make it look like a scottie :)

Oh, and Brooke is the one that came up with the idea to keep masks in a basket by the front door after seeing my owl (and my craft room full of masks and mask-making supplies hahah). Good idea BL! 

Here's the instructions in case the link doesn't work:

The yarn is held double to make the basket sturdy.

The finished size is about 8 inches wide and 6 inches deep.

Materials used:

-10 mm crochet hook
-125 grams of Cozy Wool™ Yarn By Loops & Threads- held double in the colour of your choice (any chunky wool can be used in place here )
-Worsted Weight yarn for nose and whiskers in the colours of your choice
-Tapestry needle
-Scissors

*This pattern is crocheted in spirals except for the ears.

Pattern:

1. Holding yarn double, sc 6 in magic ring (6)
2. *inc * repeat around (12)
3. *sc, inc* repeat (18)
4. *sc 2, inc* repeat (24)
5. *sc 3, inc* repeat (30)
6. *sc 4, inc* repeat (36)
7. sc tbl all around

8-16 sc all around.

DO NOT FASTEN OFF

Ear 1:

1. sc 5, ch 1, turn (5)
2. sc 5, ch 1, turn (5)
3. dec, sc, dec, ch 1 turn (3)
4. dec last 3 stitches together (1)
5. FO

Ear 2:

Skip 5 stitches starting from bottom left of Ear 1.
Connect yarn using slip stitch and repeat instructions for Ear 1.

Finishing:

Holding a single strand of yarn, starting in the bottom left corner of Ear 2 (left ear), slip stitch all around. As you reach the ears, single crochet 2 in the points of each ear.
FO and weave in all ends.
Embroider nose, whiskers and eyes if you wish.

🔥Around the Campfire (week 42)

 Dear Campers ~

Here's what you might have missed this week at camp:

Posts ~

10/11: 🔥week 41

10/12: pineapple jack o'lantern

10/13: tip-sy tuesday: easy chicken teriyaki

10/14: chewy granola bars

10/15: black and blue jam

10/16: rainbow popsicle sticks

10/17: baked breaded scallops

What's cooking ~

• chicken coconut curry (from costco, so good), basmati rice, roasted green beans
• air fried shake and bake chicken, roasted baby carrots, chopped salad kit
• sushi, chicken teriyaki, sesame asian salad, sticky rice
• steak, veggie tots, roasted broccoli
• stuffed salmon, wilted spinach
• grilled swordfish tacos (grill with lemon butter, break up and put in warm tortillas, top with coleslaw)

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy ~

• Made a few more masks - now that I found adjustable ear loops I can make them SO much lighter and faster. 
• Crocheted a cat basket to hold masks (or whatever). 
• Bought a Cuisinart toaster oven air fryer and am trying to figure out the whole air frying thing. I did shake and bake chicken for the first thing and it didn't work very good - maybe the breading? Idk but I'll keep playing with it! Will keep you posted, I'm attempting home made french fries today :)

Dave sent me this, so true hahahahaha! 

Hope you had a great week - stop back often to see what other fun things happen at MMDC!

Sincerely ~

Jill

camp counselor

PS: happy birthday mom!! 

Panko Crusted Baked Scallops

I love scallops but very rarely make them for some reason...until I found this recipe and now they are a go-to staple! We've had good luck with Costco scallops - we divide the big package into 2 small freezer bags and freeze until ready to use; they thaw pretty quickly and I usually have the rest of the ingredients on hand so it's a good last minute dinner. 

1-1 1/2 pounds large sea scallops (16)

1/2 t. coarse salt

1/4 t. coarse pepper

1/4 t. paprika

1/8 t. cayenne pepper

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

4 T. parmesan cheese, grated

2 T. unsalted butter, melted

2 T. olive oil

Preheat oven to 400'.

Dry scallops with paper towels and remove any attached side-muscle on the scalp by pinching it off.

Combine the remaining ingredients, stir until combined.

Place the scallops in a 2 quart baking dish, cover with the bread crumb mixture.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the topping is browned.

Popsicle Stick Rainbow

Here's another kid craft that Brooke whipped out for me (click here for the Frankenstein one), this one is a rainbow with clouds - easy and cute! Thanks B! Here's what she did, in her words:

hi guys! it’s brooke! today i made this super cute rainbow with clouds out of popsicle sticks to sit on my desk! i thought it was so cute and it was so easy to make! all i did was take 6 popsicles sticks and markers and colored each of them a different color then i use a plain stick and cut it in half and glued each half on the back of the rainbow at the top and bottom to hold it together. then i let it dry and while i did that i cut out clouds out of white paper. after the sticks were dry i flipped the rainbow back over and glued the cloud on the top! i hope you loved this as much as i did!

"Black and Blue" Jilly Jam

I love making jam, and making up fun names for my jams is a big part of why I love it hahaha. For years and years I've been making 'Jilly Jam' with silly names like 'berry peach screech' and 'so good it's scary blueberry' or 'berry barbie' (strawberry rhubarb); this time I wanted to combine black and blueberries and make 'black and blue' jam - and it turned out amazingly good! Like so so good I couldn't wait for breakfast toast and jam the next morning. 

I have no idea where I got it but in my cooking stash is 3 boxes of pectin of "Pomona's Universal Pectin" for lower sugar recipes, I followed their basic instructions with a couple changes. Here's what I did:

• 6 cups mixed black and blueberries
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 3 teaspoons pectin
• 3 teaspoons calcium water (came in the box with the pectin, I've never seen that before)
• 1 teaspoon butter, optional (it helps cut down the foam that forms when boiling the fruit)

note: I like my jam to be chunky so I don't mash the fruit too much, I chop it with one of those handheld circle things (know what I mean? I have no idea what it's called - it's a sharp ring with a handle). You can totally mash it to your preference tho, a potato masher works good for that. 

Put the fruit, lemon juice, and calcium water in a pan and bring to a full roiling boil. Meanwhile combine the sugar and pectin in a separate bowl. Once the fruit is boiling add the sugar/pectin mixture and stir vigorously for a couple minutes until the sugar is dissolved, add the butter if you have a lot of foam. Remove from heat.

Ladle the jam into sterilized, hot jars (if you have a canning funnel it'll keep things way cleaner) leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims with a wet paper towel, top with a hot canning lid, screw on the ring. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes, carefully remove the jars (I use long tongs) and set aside too cool. When you've heard the jar make a  'ping' sound you know they've sealed. Push the center of the lid, it should not have any give - if it does then it didn't seal and you need to store those jars in the fridge.

This recipe made 6 small jars of jam (I like to put jam in the really small jam jars, I think 4 oz?, when I have them - so I made 3 small jars and 6 mini jars), plus a little bit more that I just put in a covered container in the fridge (pictured above). 

Note: I didn't write out all the canning instructions, you can go online to see more on prepping to can (sterilizing jars, putting the lids in a small saucepan of hot water, having a large pot of water boiling to be ready to process the jars once you've filled them - none of it is hard, I just don't want to type the whole thing and instructions will come in the pectin box!)

Chewy Granola Bars

Kyle and Mickey were road-tripping back home and I thought they needed something to munch on - I'm sure I'm not the only person who gets in the car and immediately says "I'm hungry", right? These bars are no-bake which is great, and apparently traveled well because Kyle said later that he was still really enjoying them and asked for the recipe - sounds like a keeper granola bar recipe!

I based these on a recipe found here, I'll give you that and then see all my changes below.

• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 T. coconut oil
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/2 t. sea salt
• 2 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup chopped almonds
• optional: 1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

My notes: 

-I used 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1/4 cup mixed nut butter

-I sort of cleaned out the pantry when I made these so added chopped chocolate covered almonds instead of plain, added dried berries, cherries and chopped dried apricots, used coarse salt, and added some chocolate chips and butterscotch chips to the top. You can really vary your add-ins with this one. 

Instructions:

1. Line an 8x8" or 9x9" baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Stir the peanut butter, honey and coconut oil together in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches a simmer. Continue to simmer for 1 minute, stirring often so that the bottom of the mixtures doesn't burn. Remove from heat.
3. Add the vanilla and salt, stir until combined. Add the oats and almonds, stir until completely combined. Stir in whatever other ingredients you are adding.
4. Press the granola firmly and evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. (it helps to use the bottom of a glass or measuring cup to press it down so it's nice and flat). Sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top if you like. Then cover and refrigerate the granola bars for about an hour  or so, until they are chilled.
5. Use the parchment paper to lift the bars out of the pan and transfer them to a cutting board. Cut into bars.

store in sealed container for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. 

Tip-sy Tuesday: Easy Chicken Teriyaki

I made this to go with our sushi tower non-birthday dinner (way back in August!) because P requested 'meat on the side' of her sushi, and chicken teriyaki seemed like it belonged on the same plate hahaha. And oh my gosh it turned out great and it is so simple which makes it the perfect 'meat on the side' dish!

Cut up chicken breasts in bite-sized 1" pieces. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat, add chicken pieces but don't crowd the pan (leave space around each piece). Brown for about 3 minutes, turn each piece over and brown for another 3 minutes or until the chicken is cooked thru. Remove from the pan if you have more chicken then the pan could hold. Continue frying the chicken pieces until they are all cooked adding more oil as needed. Once all the chicken is cooked, add it all back to the pan and stir in enough teriyaki sauce to coat. Done! Serve with additional sauce, sticky rice (or sushi towers) and roasted broccoli.

A little secret - I made this 2 hours before people came over and put it in my smaller crockpot on low and it was perfect. Didn't dry it out at all, and I was able to clean up the splatter from frying before everyone arrived.

Note: I used store-bought teriyaki sauce because it was a very hectic day, but I thought about making it from scratch because it doesn't sound hard - here's one recipe I thought about trying:

• 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 1/2 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 2 tsp peeled and minced fresh ginger
• 2 tsp peeled and minced fresh garlic (2 cloves)
• 2 tsp cornstarch

Whisk ingredients together in a small bowl; add to the cooked chicken and cook until thickened 30-60 seconds. 

recipe found here

Pineapple Jack O'Lantern

I love this idea from BHG.com  - carve a jack o'lantern face into a pineapple instead of a pumpkin. How cute would this be on a Halloween dinner table or dessert bar at a party? Now it didn't turn out exactly like their pictures but that's only because I've never done it before and learned a couple things - if I wanted to carve a second pineapple it would be much better the next time around! 

1. Draw the face on with a marker, cut on the lines

2. Put the pineapple on a plate or something to catch the juices.  Cut off the top and hollow out most of the pineapple meat - just like if you were doing a pumpkins push the carved pieces out (eyes, nose, and mouth). 

3. Insert a candle

4. Replace the top. 

1) they make it look very easy to remove the pineapple meat from inside the pineapple but it wasn't. I ended up hacking away at it with a knife and then scraping with a big spoon. Be forewarned that it isn't coming out in one pretty piece hahah. Doesn't matter in the long run, but don't want you to be surprised or frustrated.

2) second thing is I made the eyes and nose too close together - it would have been fine on a smooth pumpkin but the bumps in the pineapple skin caused the cuts between the eyes and nose to open up even tho I didn't cut thru the space between them. Does that make sense? Whether it does or doesn't trust me and space the eyes and nose farther apart hahahah. 

bhg 10/19 click here

🔥Around the Campfire (week 41)

Dear Campers ~

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

Posts ~

10/4: 🔥week 40

10/5: crochet owl basket

10/6: tip-sy tuesday: dilly bean hack

10/7: creamy polenta with garden tomato sauce

10/8: MSIH: zucchini bread cookies

10/9: Grace's stitch doll

10/10: bacon-wrapped cocktail sausages

What's Cooking ~

• steak, roasted baby potatoes, chopped salad
• tuna noodle casserole, wilted spinach
• grilled chicken, wonton ravioli with pesto, green beans
• crab legs, broccoli slaw, sourdough bread
• pork chops, sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli
• chicken sausage, beans baked in marinara, wilted spinach

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy ~

• I canned a few things that I'll be sharing with you soon - jilly's jam, pickled red onions, pickles, and pickled green beans (instead of 'dilly beans' I'm calling them 'jilly beans' hahahah)
• made a few masks, including the creepy clear front kind
• started putting the garden to bed, even tho my tomatoes still have flowers and green tomatoes. I'll give them a few more days before I crush their little dreams ;)

Very quick recap today, we are heading to the lake to wrap up things at the camper. It's chilly and overcast but there's lots that needs to be done - so gotta keep moving instead of blogging. Stop back this week for more fun projects, recipes, and whatever else I can think to make at camp!

Sincerely ~

Jill

camp counselor

Bacon-Wrapped Cocktail Sausage

Al and Cathy brought these bacon wrapped mini sausages as an appetizer for dinner one night, like everything they make we loved them and devoured them and then I asked for the recipe - here's how to make them in Cathy's words (note: she texted it to me and I asked a couple questions about the bacon and what kind of sausages, in case you think you're missing part of a conversation you are hahaha): 

Wrap bacon around sausage. Mix brown sugar with cayenne pepper. 

The recipe ratio was  3/4 cup brown sugar to a half a teaspoon of cayenne. Al used way less cayenne because he thought it was going to be too hot. Roll the sausages in the sugar mixture and bake at 350° for 30 minutes.

Al partially pre-baked the bacon (maybe half way) before he wrapped the sausages.

He used little Smokies. After he wrapped the sausages he actually put them back in the oven for a little bit so that the bacon could get warm and possibly allow the sugar to stick better. But it still didn’t stick that well

The brown sugar would probably have stuck better to raw bacon or if the bacon is moist enough from its own grease it would probably stick good too.