Welcome to day camp - it's either a place for you to get inspired and want to make stuff, or a place where I can show off the cute things I've made since my family is tired of my texting them pictures every day! Just like camp I do all kinds of fun projects - crafts, DIY, bake, cook, garden and more - and can't wait to share them with anyone looking for ideas.
That’s it for this week, believe it or not still no computer! Hmmm…which is worse - still no computer or having a needle stuck into the end of my nose? That sounds like the game “would you rather” hahaha, both are painful! Have a good one, see you next week!
I haven’t made this yet and even tho it’s only 10:00 in the morning it sounds good haha and since I have all the ingredients maybe I’ll make it later! I don’t have an exact recipe, I saw the ingredients on a menu somewhere and snapped a picture of it so I could recreate at home. I think this sounds like a “recipe” you can make to suit your taste.
Combine hard apple cider (like Angry Orchard) with a shot of whiskey (like Jack Daniels) or bourbon; add a splash of sour apple pucker and cranberry juice.
If it isn’t sweet enough I’ll add a touch of superfine sugar or simple syrup. Maybe I’ll make it fizzy by adding some club soda. Sounds like a good fall cocktail. I’ll update with a pic after I make it. Happy Saturday!
I recently read something in a book that hit me like a lightening bolt - one way to finish unfinished projects is to abandon them.
If that isn’t an “ah ha” moment for me I don’t know what is. It NEVER occurred to me that I could finish a project by walking away! Genius.
I immediately applied my new-found inspirational tidbit to that latch hook rug that I have been working on and off for years! Remember that beast? (Click here for the post from 6/18) Yes it’s fun, and easy, and would probably be really pretty when I finished it but I now feel like I have permission to walk away from it! I hope someone at Goodwill will enjoy and finish it - more power to them haha!
I saw this recipe and immediately thought of my sis - I texted asking her if she wanted to try 'buffalo chicken casserole', it's a pasta dish with chicken and sauce...before I finished telling her what it is she wrote 'you had me at buffalo' hahahha. Because it makes a 13x9 pan I decided to split it in half and Dave and I would also have it for dinner - a bold choice for me because I do not like spicy or hot but was hoping the cheesy sauce would cool it down. This is fantastic! I thought because I liked it so much it might not be 'buffalo-y' enough for her - here's what she has to say about it:
We have a group of friends who regularly get together. One of those ladies brings Buffalo Dip every time. If she ever tries to not bring it we whine and pout until she changes her mind and brings it.
The husband doesn’t love it the way I do just to be clear. Anyway.. the point of my tribute to my friends delicious buffalo dip is that this pasta dish reminded me of that. No, I didn’t dip chips in it, yes I ate it sitting down scooped onto a plate (not standing around a crock pot like a vulture).
THIS. WAS . DELICIOUS. Even the husband liked it. I think what he liked about it is that it wasn’t a strong buffalo flavor. It was a “hint” of buffalo. The perfect amount of buffalo.
The husband loved the way it looked (like mac n cheese), there was some blue cheese sprinkled on top which also appealed to me (yum). My sister does something great with her chicken (its like shredded) which gave it amazing texture. I love pasta in general but the hint of buffalo sauce, blue cheese, and her great chicken was amazing. One other comment the husband made was about what appeared to be tiny pieces of carrot (guessing). We were trying to figure out what those were- he proclaimed it good be rat poisoning but it was so delicious he would eat it anyway). HAHA
He gave this one a 9 ½. WOW! I think that’s his highest rating yet. Hopefully it wasn’t rat poisoning…
BUFFALO CHICKEN CASSEROLE
6 servings
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat a 13- x 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Prepare pasta in a large stockpot according to package directions for al dente. Drain pasta; return to stockpot, and set aside.
2. While pasta cooks, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large saucepan over medium. Add flour; cook, whisking constantly, until golden brown, about 1 minute. Gradually add half-and-half, whisking constantly; cook, whisking often, until mixture is thickened and coats back of a spoon, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low; gradually add 2 cups of the Cheddar 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until melted and smooth after each addition. Remove from heat; whisk in hot sauce, sour cream, Worcestershire, and salt. Pour sauce over drained pasta in stockpot; add chicken, carrots, and celery, and toss gently to evenly combine. Spoon mixture into prepared baking dish.
3. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over low. Stir together melted butter and panko in a small bowl. Sprinkle casserole evenly with remaining 1 cup Cheddar and panko mixture. Bake in preheated oven until casserole is golden brown and bubbly, 25 to 30 minutes. Sprinkle evenly with blue cheese, and garnish with celery leaves. Serve hot.
my notes: I pretty much followed this recipe as written other than I used a triple cheddar blend and didn't garnish with celery leaves. I chopped the celery and carrots very small and added them to the pasta before draining so they'd have a minute in the hot water - it seems to me like they might have been too crunchy if not par-cooked for a minute. For the chicken: put boneless skinless breasts in a stockpot, cover with water. Add a spoonful of chicken bouillon, sprinkle in some poultry seasoning and whole peppercorns. Bring to a boil, turn down and cook until the chicken is done, drain. Let it cool and then shred.
1) did you know you can roast seeds other than pumpkin? Yes you can! We had an acorn squash the other night for dinner and as I was cutting it I thought how much the squash seeds look just like pumpkin seeds - I googled just to make sure and yep, you can eat other squash seeds like acorn and butternut.
2) I’ve toasted pine nuts and garbanzo beans in a skillet vs. roasting in the oven so I figured I’d try toasting the acorn seeds. And it worked great - fast and the clean up was really easy.
Use whatever recipe you like when roasting the seeds in the oven - there’s lots of versions. For these I melted a butter/olive oil in a skillet, added the seeds and sprinkled with seasoned salt, cook over medium heat until the seeds are toasted and crunchy. You can sprinkle on more seasoning if you want, I finished with a pinch of coarse salt. Remove to cool.
Note: start with very dry seeds; I cleaned off all the pulp and rinsed them well, then spread out on parchment paper over night to dry. If you dry them on a paper towel they’ll stick, just warning you - ask me how I know haha.
I’ve said it before, and will say it again - I can waste time like nobody’s business. ‘Cause why would you have all the buttons mixed together in a container when you could spend waaaaay to much time sorting them?
My sis hasn’t been sharing her Hello Fresh or Home Chef recipe cards with me lately because she’s now hoarding keeping them for herself in a binder (she tosses the ones they didn’t like and is keeping the favorites). I borrowed the binder and am going to try to recreate some of the ideas - Hello Fresh and other meal delivery services send their own spice blends and other ingredients so I wing it and see if I can produce something similar (or if not similar at least tasty haha!). Today it’s this recipe for mustard pretzel coated chicken - oh and for the record, I’m not writing what their recipe says since I’m not copying it exactly, I’ll tell you what I did:
1/4 cup Brewpub style mustard
1/3 cup pretzel crumbs (I crushed up Dots Homestyle original seasoned pretzels)
Olive oil
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast or 1 pound boneless pork chops
1. Preheat oven to 400’.
2. Pat chicken dry and place in a baking dish. Spread mustard evenly on chicken, top with pretzel crumbs, pressing gently to adhere. Then drizzle with 1 t. Olive oil.
3. Bake uncovered until chicken reaches a minimum internal temp of 165’, 20-25 minutes.
Note if using pork chops, follow the same directions but cook until pork is done and reaches a minimum internal temp of 145’ 23-27 minutes.
Dry rubbed pork tenderloin, acorn squash, green salad
That’s it for this week - can you believe my computer is still at the fix-it shop? Since September 20th 🤦♀️ I’m still pecking away with 2 fingers on my iPad…ugh…hope you had a good week and will stop back often for more projects, crafts, recipes, whatever else I can think of to make at camp! Bye!
Cleaning out my craft room and found some “treasures” I didn’t remember having - like earring parts with little clasps on the ends, I don’t know when or why I bought them or what I intended to make with them…and then I found 2 super cute owl pendants that aready have jump rings attached…and then I made the worlds easiest earrings! I should probably be embarrassed to make the worlds easiest earrings by hooking the pendants to the clasps and not assembling earrings from square one - but I’m not embarrassed at all. More like super proud of myself for being lazy enough to make cute earrings with no work I golfed hahaha.
I haven’t made this yet but I’m going to this weekend so I’m sharing it early - I’ll update with a picture after I make it. It’s a Joanna Gaines recipe so I know it’s going to be good - and I really like the technique of baking it in a pan instead of individual shortcakes, that much quicker to make! I will probably sprinkle the top with coarse raw sugar before baking, I usually do when making shortcakes.
1 1/3 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 t. Baking powder
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 t vanilla
3 cups assorted fresh berries
Whipped cream
1. Preheat oven to 350’ Grease and lightly flour an 8” square or round cake pan.
2. In a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, and baking powder. Add milk, butter, egg, and vanilla. Beat with a mixer on low until combined. Beat on medium 1 minute. Spread batter in prepared pan.
3. Bake about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Loosen sides of cake; invert onto plate. Cool 30 minutes more. Cut into squares or wedges; split pieces in half crosswise. Serve with berries and whipped cream.
Update 11/5 - I made the shortcake and it turned out great! I love making one big one instead of individuals, I followed the recipe other than sprinkling with coarse raw sugar before baking (same thing I do when I make individual shortcakes). Very moist and stayed fresh for a few days in the fridge.
