Around the Campfire (week 39)

Dear Campers ~

Happy last day of September! It's my BFFE's birthday (Happy Birthday Mary!!); it's cold and rainy here (in the matter of a few days it's suddenly Fall - last weekend was hot and humid!); ukulele hoedown was last night - perfect chilly weather for a big ol' campfire, snuggling in blankets, and singing songs with Dave playing the uke..fun! I love fall :)

Here's a recap of last week to catch you up:

Posts you might have missed ~

9/23: around the campfire (week 38)
9/24: jute wrapped flameless candle
9/25: make a photo collage
9/26: german chocolate cheesecake
9/27: morse code bracelets with matching strands
9/28: chicken parmesan stuffed portobello mushrooms
9/29: rhubarb pudding

What's Cooking ~

• chili with corn muffins
• grilled steak, spinach cheese stuffed portobello mushrooms, wedge salad
• spaghetti squash with homemade spaghetti meat sauce (still all about those tomatoes!)
• chicken parmesan stuffed portobello mushrooms with steamed broccoli 
• pork chops in mushroom soup 'gravy' over rice, steamed greens beans and spinach 
• grilled mahi mahi (use a grill basket so the fish doesn't break apart!), rice, sautéed spinach 

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy but not interesting enough for an entire post ~

• started a bunch of crafts that I'll share soon!
• updated our ukulele songbooks for the sing-a-long party last night. latest addition has 61 songs and most of them are '60's because that's what Dave likes to play hahaha. I'm working on getting him to add more traditional campfire songs but he's resistant ;)
• tomatoes! 
• checked out 4 books from the library but no time to read this week.
• no time to read but I did finish watching "Making It" - did you know there was a show on this summer about crafty people being challenged to make stuff? The competed for the title "Master Maker" - I wanna be a master maker! Can't believe they didn't ask me to be on it  LOL. It's pretty good if you're into that kind of thing...I love challenge design, cooking, fashion, etc. shows! 

Can you believe tomorrow is October?! Yikes, I just realize (once again) I haven't started any Holiday projects yet...good grief I'm behind...

See ya next week - so far I've got some craft things to show you, a cookie recipe with a funny story behind it, and my sister has blogged about pumpkins (this should be good, right?!). Bye!

your camp counselor, Jill

Rhubarb Pudding

Dave's aunt gave me a bunch of recipe cards years ago - a couple of them are "chicken tetrazzini for a crowd" which for some reason (uh, how 'bout because it serves 20-25 people!) I've never made, "Shirl's coconut crunch dessert"(it's Dave's moms recipe that I'll share another time), "hot fruit", and this one for "rhubarb pudding" that I make quite often when someone gives me rhubarb. Don't know why it's called pudding - it seems like rhubarb crisp to me, but she calls it pudding and so will I :) I'm just remembering another recipe I have for Apple Pudding (click for that post) and it's a cake...hmmmm what am I missing with this whole "pudding that isn't pudding" thing?



Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white sugar

• 3 cups diced rhubarb

• 1/2 stick butter, softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup flour

Beat the egg, salt, and sugar together until light lemon color. Pour over 3 cups diced rhubarb in a bowl, mixing well. Pour into a greased 9"x9" pan. 

Mix together the butter, brown sugar, and flour until it makes crumbs. Sprinkle over the rhubarb mixture and bake 1 hour at 350'. Serve warm.

Note: I added about a cup of frozen raspberries to the rhubarb this time - yum!

Chicken Parmesan Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

The grocery store had these giant portobello mushrooms on sale, standing in the aisle I googled what I could stuff them with and came across a chicken parmesan recipe that looked great so that's what we had for dinner! This was very easy to make - and if I would have used cooked chicken like the recipe calls for it would be a super quick meal...I had Dave grill some thin chicken breasts to use in the recipe so that added a little time (but the hot freshly grilled chicken was excellent!).

I tweaked the original recipe a bit, will give you how I did it; if you want the original source and pictures click here.

• 1 pound thin chicken breasts (brush with olive oil, season with lemon pepper, grilled and chopped into bite sized pieces). Note you can use whatever cooked chicken you want!
• 4 large portobello mushrooms, wipe clean with a damp paper towel
• large handful of chopped fresh spinach
• 1 cup pizza sauce (you can substitute marinara)
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400'.
2. Scrape black gills out of mushrooms with a spoon and remove stem.
3. Place mushrooms on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, gill sides up.
4. Top each mushroom with some of the spinach, bake a few minutes until the spinach is wilted and the mushrooms start to release their juice. Carefully drain off what liquid you can without the mushrooms falling off the baking sheet.
5. In a small bowl combine the chopped chicken with sauce and parmesan, stir until well combined. Note if it seems dry add a little more sauce. 
6. Pile the chicken mixture evenly on top of prepared mushrooms. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. 
7. Bake for a few minutes more until tender and the cheese is melted, about 10-15 minutes.

Mixing Morse Code Bracelets with Coordinating Beaded Strands

Well that was a really long title and sort of sums up this post...I made 3 morse code bracelets for a birthday present and then made 6 other beaded ones so she'll have a wrist full of them that can be worn all together or separately. You know me, once I start I don't know when to stop! HA!

These turned out so pretty that other than the morse code messages that are specifically for her, I wanted to keep them! I did them in shades that make me think of my friend -  blues, creams, gold and silver, a little green...was going for a beachy vibe. All of them are on stretchy cord except one that has bigger pearly stone beads that made it a little heavier so I strung it on beading string and attached a clasp in case it was too heavy for stretch cord.

German Chocolate Cheesecake

Every year I make LeDonna something German chocolate for her birthday - in the past I've made layered cake, bread, stuffed cupcakes, this year I decided to try a German chocolate cheesecake (because I'm now on a cheesecake roll). I was a tiny bit hesitant to experiment with a different recipe after the other two (plain and strawberry swirl) turned out so flawless (!) but knowing that it was going to be topped with a thick layer of coconut-pecan frosting I wasn't as worried about it cracking.

It's a similar recipe though with 4 eggs and a bit of flour (or corn starch) and her technique is along the same lines with turning the oven off for a bit, and then cracking the door for a while before removing it from the oven to cool. This one also turned out great tho - no cracks, creamy and smooth and very rich. My new-found love of making cheesecakes continues!

Before I added the frosting I weighed the cake because it's so heavy and I was curious - 4.5 pounds. And then I added the frosting and weighed again - 6 pounds! 6! Goodness. I texted LeDonna that she needed to have a party to have help eating all of this dessert ;)

I looked at a bunch of different recipes before deciding on this one from Life Love and Sugar, click here to see the original source. I didn't change a thing so am just copying her recipe for you (and me, so I don't misplace it for next time - and there will be a next time!). Oh wait, I did change a couple things - no drizzle of chocolate sauce, I used unsweetened coconut flakes, and I made the filling in a food processor because I read somewhere that doing that versus in a mixer creates less air in the filling which helps keep down cracking. Don't know if that's true, but it didn't crack so...

You make a crust out of oreo cookie crumbs - I bought a small package of oreo thins and put all of them in the food processor, it took the whole package which was 40 thins to make 2 cups (actually it was 39 thins because Dave ate one before I could stop him!).

INGREDIENTS

COCONUT PECAN TOPPING 

• 4 egg yolks
• 12 oz can evaporated milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, cubed
• 2 2/3 cups sweetened shredded coconut
• 1 1/4 cups chopped pecans

CRUST

• 2 cups Oreo crumbs (leave filling in Oreos)
• 4 tbsp butter, melted

CHEESECAKE FILLING 

• 24 ounces packages of cream cheese, room temperature (three 8 oz packages)
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 oz german chocolate, melted
• 1 tbsp flour
• 3 tbsp cocoa
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

COCONUT PECAN TOPPING 

1. In a large saucepan, combine the egg yolks, milk and vanilla and whisk until well combined.

2. Add sugar and butter and cook on medium heat for 12-15 minutes, or until thickened (almost pudding-like) and golden brown, stirring constantly.

3. Remove from heat and add coconut and pecans. Mix well.

4. Allow to cool completely.

CRUST

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.

2. In a small bowl, combine crust ingredients and mix well.

3. Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

4. Bake crust for 10 minutes then remove and set aside.

5. Cover the outsides of the pan with aluminum foil and set aside.

CHEESECAKE FILLING

1. Reduce oven to 300 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, blend the cream cheese, sugar, chocolate, flour and cocoa with an electric mixer until combined (Use low speed to keep less air from getting into the batter, which can cause cracks). Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

3. Add eggs one at a time, beating slowly and scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition.

4. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed until well combined.

5. Put a little bit of the cheesecake filling in the bottom of the crust. Then add about 1 1/2 cups of coconut pecan topping and spread evenly.

6. Pour remaining cheesecake filling into the springform pan and spread evenly. The pan will be very full.

7. Place springform pan inside another pan. Fill outside pan with enough warm water to go about halfway up the sides of the springform pan. The water should not go above the top edge of the aluminum foil on the springform pan.

8. Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

9. Turn off heat and leave cheesecake in oven with door closed for 20 minutes.

10. Crack oven door and leave the cheesecake in the oven for another 20 minutes or until set. This cooling process helps the cheesecake cool slowly to prevent cracks.

11. Remove cheesecake from oven and chill.

12. Once the cheesecake is completely cool, remove springform pan sides from cheesecake and place cheesecake on a serving plate.

13. Top cheesecake with remaining coconut pecan topping and drizzle with chocolate sauce.

#lifeloveandsugar.com 

one year ago: paper sunflowers in wine corks
two years ago: wood box with chalkboard message
three years ago: the hulk sized zucchini!

Framed Photo Collage

When rearranging, paring down, and cleaning up my office the other day I decided to take down these two old messy crammed full plain old brown bulletin boards that have been hanging on my wall so long I don't even notice what's on it anymore - I also took down a big pretty framed bulletin board that I held a few cute cards that I was saving.... time to simplify and clean these 3 cluttered things up!

First I removed everything from all 3 and sorted out the pictures from the "stuff" that I had pinned up - here comes the hard part: rearranging the photos to fill the framed bulletin board instead of having them pinned up willy-nilly took quite a bit of time. I found it was easier to lay the board on the floor and work on tacking the pictures up instead of doing it while the board was hanging on the wall, except once I thought I had everything the way I wanted and stood it up of course things fell! But I just tacked them again (and better) and then hung it back up. This makes me super happy to look at now - all these great memories displayed in a much more organized way. The other stuff I either moved someplace else or got rid of!

It's a little thing, but it's what I made today :)

Jute Wrapped Candle

I have a big ball of jute twine left over from making that plant hanger for the RV last week - and there's this plain white boring flameless candle kicking around the RV that I thought about returning to the store because it's nothing and we don't have room in the camper for boring nothing fake candles....except what if I wrapped some jute around said candle?

So much better. Boring candle got a new lease on life in the motorhome :)

I used the same technique I just learned to make a wrapped knot for the hanger, worked perfect for this candle - I tied the ends in the front instead of clipping off, it'd look just as good without them tied since this knot leaves things looking so neat and finished.

Easy Peasy fix. Try it!

Around the Campfire (week 38)

Dave took this gorgeous photo of a hummingbird in flight,
I printed and hung it over a really ugly framed
picture that came with our RV.  Now I can look at this
beauty instead - so much better!

Dear Campers ~

Congrats to Laurie Steiner for winning the 3rd anniversary of MMDC celebration drawing! Thanks to everyone for commenting, posting, and sharing about the blog - I appreciate all y'all!! Here's a recap of what happened around camp this week:

Post you might have missed ~

9/16: around the campfire (week 37)
9/17: giant candy card
9/18: plant hanger
9/19: strawberry swirl cheesecake
9/20: winner of the anniversary celebration drawing
9/21: rhubarb bbq sauce
9/22: Cassie's flower arrangement

What's Cooking ~

• steak and romaine "wedge" salad  - replaced the iceberg in a traditional wedge salad of halved cherry tomatoes, blue cheese crumbles, bacon bits, balsamic glaze, ranch/blue cheese dressing, with sliced steak overtop
• chicken quesadilla with chopped lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, salsa, sour cream
• grilled canadian bacon and mushroom pizzas with tossed salad
• bbq ribs (on the grill), coleslaw, green beans
• leftover meatloaf with tomato jam on the side, veggies
• grilled spiced rubbed pork chops, butternut ravioli, chopped kale salad
• chicken parmesan stuffed portabello mushrooms (I'll share this recipe soon, it's a keeper!)

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy but not interesting enough for an entire post ~

• believe it or not, I am still harvesting (and roasting) tons of tomatoes! And they are still flowering so if it stays warm we'll have more for a while longer...the beans have about had it and didn't do nearly as good as the 'maters. But that's ok - if I had to deal with as many beans as I have tomatoes we'd be in big trouble.
• read another murder-with-recipes book, this time by Joanne Fluke (title is something about wedding cake) and it wasn't very good, but I got lots of cookie recipes to try so not a total waste of time!
• made yet another morse code bracelet
• made yet another cheesecake - this time German Chocolate (I'll post it this coming week). I'm on a cheesecake roll now that I've figured out the tricks! 
• camped for a few days - you can tell by the menu above which days hahaha. 

Hope you have a great, busy, creative, fulfilling week! As usual it's busy around here -  so far I know there is an upcoming recipe you're going to want to see, a new jewelry project I made up all by myself ;), and we're having a "Ukulele Hoedown" (yep, I said 'ukulele hoedown'). See ya!

Sincerely, 

Jill

 your camp counselor

Cassie's Flower Arrangement in Glass Bottles

Cassandra asked me to help her arrange a huge assortment of artificial flowers she bought to go in her new salon bathroom - she is renting space in a strip mall that started as a plain old white box and she has been fixing it up over the past few month. She has built partitions, striped some walls, painted one wall the most beautiful deep teal/green/stormy blue color that I'm now obsessed with and trying to figure out where I can paint it in my house (!), hung a pretty chandelier, ombre'd  the walls in each cubicle...so much work and it's really turning out nice. Anyway, she wanted something on the wall in her bathroom and bought a flower holder that is a bunch of little bottles in a wooden holder and all these flowers. When I saw how many flowers she had I thought no way they would all fit in the vase but guess what - we just kept building and adding and used them all. Normally the rule of thumb is to not have the arrangement be more than 1 and 1/2 times taller than the vase, these flowers are taller than that but after standing it on the back of the toilet it fills up the wall and the scale doesn't look 'off' to me! Goes to show you - sometimes rules are meant to be broken :) Do what looks good to you, that's what matters.

Rhubarb BBQ Sauce

I posted a recipe for rhubarb bbq sauce in 9/15 when I first started the blog (click here for that post) and it's a really good recipe but I decided to play around with it a bit and came up with this doctored version. I'm working my way thru our freezer trying to use things up so I used 6 cups of rhubarb for this batch of sauce and ended up with a lot - so I'll put it in the freezer and then probably post about it later when I'm trying to use up frozen foods again! Sigh. So far we've had the bbq sauce with grilled pork chops and chicken - it's sweet (in a good way) and the dijon, red pepper and hot sauce give it a little kick (add more if you like it spicier!)....mmmmm!

1 T. olive oil
1 small chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
6 cups diced frozen rhubarb
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 T. cider vinegar
3 T. worcestershire
2 T. dijon mustard
2 T. molasses
1 teaspoon paprika
salt and pepper to taste
a big pinch of crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
few dashes of Frank's hot sauce, to taste

Heat oil, cook onion and garlic a couple of minutes until translucent. Add other ingredients and cook at a simmer for about 45 minutes. Puree until smooth in a food processor. Refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze. I didn't measure but I'd guess it made about 6 cups.

here's the original recipe which is also very good:

1 T. olive oil
1 small chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
2 cups sliced rhubarb
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 T. cider vinegar
2 T. worcestershire
1/4 t. pepper

Heat oil, cook onion and garlic a couple of minutes until translucent. Add other ingredients and cook at a simmer until rhubarb is soft, about 10 minutes. Makes 2 cups. Refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze.

And The Winner Is...

Thanks to everyone who entered the blog's 3rd anniversary celebration drawing for a gift card ~ play the video to see who wins!



For whatever reason I haven't figured out, I'm not able to reply to comments on the blog (ugh, it's bothering me so much!) so I will contact the winner on Facebook to get the address to send the GC - Congratulations!!

Strawberry-Swirl Cheesecake

Last week I made "perfect" cheesecake with blueberry and strawberry sauces, I mentioned then that it was so easy to do I turned around and made another cheesecake the next day - here it is! This one is is swirled with strawberry glaze and has a chocolate crust instead of graham cracker.

 I'll be honest, the filling of this one is delicious (just like the original one) but I prefer the graham cracker crust to the chocolate - I was thinking chocolate and berry, that goes together, and I wanted to experiment with a different crust...but next time I will do this exact filling in a graham crust and it'll be the bomb. I'll give you the chocolate crust recipe that I found on Food Network from Bobby Flay, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it and it did taste good, if you want to try it. If you're like Dave and I and prefer the graham one I am also including that one below. I used the same recipe for the filling as the "perfect" one last week, which I'm reposting, with the addition of a few spoonfuls of strawberry glaze or seedless jam.


Ingredients ~

 for the crust:

• one 9 oz. box chocolate wafers (I found them by the ice cream toppings)
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 stick butter, melted

for the cheesecake:

• 2 pounds full-fat cream cheese (4 8oz. boxes), room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice (optional)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk (save the white for another use)

Directions ~

for the crust:

1. Spray a 9" springform pan with non-stick baking spray, line the bottom with parchment (optional)
2. preheat oven to 325'
3. add the cookies and sugar to the bowl of a food processor and pulse to fine crumbs. Drizzle in the butter and pulse until the crumbs are completely coated with the butter.
4. Press the crumb mixture firmly into the bottom of the springform pan. Bake until set, 10-13 minutes (or 15-18 minutes if you're using a 10" pan). Let cool completely on a rack. 
5. 
   
   

for the cheesecake: 

• Cut two large pieces of foil and place them on your work surface on top of each other in a cross. Place a piece of parchment on top of the foil (so there are 3 layers total). Set the springform pan in the middle and fold the edges of the foil up and around the sides of the pan. The foil gives you extra protection against water getting into the pan during the water bath step. 

• Mix the cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. (Or use an electric handheld mixer and a large bowl.) Mix on medium-low speed until the mixture is creamy, like thick frosting, and no lumps of cream cheese remain. Scrape down the beater and the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

• Add the sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla, and beat on medium-low speed until combined and creamy. Scrape down the beater and sides of the bowl with a spatula.

• With the mixer on medium-low speed, beat in the eggs and the yolk one at a time. Wait until the previous egg is just barely mixed into the batter before adding the next one. At first, the mixture will look clumpy and broken, but it will come together as the eggs are worked in. Note: you don't want to over mix it once you're adding the eggs - it creates too much air in the batter and that could lead to cracking. Be gentle with this step.

• Scrape down the beater and sides of the bowl with a spatula. Stir the whole batter a few times by hand, being sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated. The finished batter should be thick, creamy, and silky. Don't worry if you see a few specks of un-mixed cream cheese here and there; they will melt into the batter during baking and won't affect the finished cheesecake. 

• Put the batter in the fridge for at least an hour to chill it. 

• Pour the batter over the cooled crust and spread it into an even layer. Run a knife thru the batter a few times to release air bubbles. 

• Put a few spoonfuls of strawberry glaze or seedless strawberry jam on the top of the batter and run a knife top to bottom and side to side thru the glaze to create a marbled pattern. Don't do this too many times or it'll get all muddled together. 

• Transfer the pan to a roasting pan or other baking dish big enough to hold the springform pan. Have a few cups of hot water standing by. 

• Put the roasting pan containing the cheesecake into the oven, carefully pour hot water into the roasting pan being careful not to splash any water onto the cheesecake. Fill the roasting pan about half way up the sides of the springform pan (I used about 2 cups of hot water). This is creating a "water bath" for the cheesecake. 

• Bake for 55-60 minutes (for a 9" springform pan. You'll need to adjust the time for different sized pan). The cheesecake is done when the outer two to three inches look slightly puffed and set, but the inner circle still jiggles (like Jell-o) when you gently shake the pan. Some spots of toasted golden color are fine, but if you see any cracks staring to form move on to the next step right away.

• Leave the cheesecake in the oven. Turn off the oven and crack the door open (or prop it open with a wooden spoon). Let the cheesecake cool slowly for 1 hour.

• Remove the cheesecake from the oven and from the water bath, unwrap the foil, and transfer it to a cooling rack. Run a thin-bladed knife around the edge of the cake to make sure it's not sticking to the sides (which can cause cracks as it cools). Let the cheesecake cool completely on the rack.

• Chill the cheesecake, uncovered, for at least 4 hours or up to 3 days in the refrigerator. This step is crucial for letting the cheesecake set and achieving perfect cheesecake texture - don't rush it.

• Take the cheesecake out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before you plan to serve. Untold the cake and top the cheesecake just before serving.

Dave liked it with blueberry sauce on top!

optional Graham Cracker crust:

• 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 5 tablespoons melted butter

1. Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter together. 
2. Transfer it into a buttered pan (or spray with non stick spray) and use the bottom of a glass to press it evenly into the bottom. I didn't spread them up the sides but you can if you want.
3. Bake at 350' for 6 minutes; remove from oven and let cool before filling.

click here for last week's perfect cheesecake recipe with graham crust
click here for blueberry and strawberry sauces
click here for original source of Bobby Flay's crust




one year ago: how to make paper mugs
two years ago: stretchy bracelets with words
three years ago: make a dog crate cover

Plant Hanger

 Woke up in the RV this morning with the urge to decorate - I'm sure you're aware there isn't much space in here so my options are limited (which I'm pretty sure is one of the main reasons Dave likes camping - he hates when I redecorate!). While sitting at the banquet table/daybed eating my breakfast and looking around for what needs to be fixed up I got the idea to make a plant hanger for this little fake plant that's sitting on the table - just sitting there, and you know my motto...'if it sits still long enough, it's going to get decorated' hahaha! Dave went with me to Walmart to look at my material options - I thought I was going to make it out of white macrame looking cord or rope but D found this roll of jute really cheap and since he wasn't making a fuss about my making the hanger I "let" him pick the jute. When I was done and he came in to look at it he said "aren't you glad I picked that jute out?"...awwwww, cute.

This literally took me a few minutes to make, especially since it's not perfect and I'm ok with that. The knots should be even around the pot and they aren't - but guess what? No one cares, and no one will notice. And if they do? Guess what? I don't care LOL!!! Seriously, it's the camper. And it's fine. Actually it's more than fine - it looks good! I will probably take it down when we are moving,  Sarge and Lucy sit on the bench right next to the table and this hanger might become a swinging weapon once we are traveling...yikes. How bad would I feel!

I measured how long I wanted the hanger to be - there's only room for about 18" - so cut 8 pieces of jute 36" each (double the length you want it to hang). Fold in half and either insert a ring or something to hang it by, or create a loop out of the 8 strands, which is what I did (mostly because I'm in the camper and don't have a ring handy). Following some very simple instructions I found online,  I wrapped a piece of jute around the looped strands to create a knot to hold it in place. I'm just going to copy the instructions, click here for the original source and pictures:

HOW TO TIE A MACRAME WRAPPED KNOT ~

• Place the short cord over your looped cords with the short tail to the left, a loop pointing down, and the long tail to the right.

• Wrap the long tail around the looped cords and the loop of the short cord. Continue wrapping the long tail, pulling tight and leaving the bottom loop of the short cord uncovered.

• When you are happy with the length of your wrapped knot, thread the long tail through the loop at the bottom.

• Pull up on the short tail to tighten the knot and pull it underneath the wraps.

• Clip the tails as close to the knot as possible.

To make the hanger:
Divide the 16 cords into groups of 4;  measure how far down you want the knots to start (somewhere around the top of the planter) and using one group of 4 strands make 2 full square knots. Repeat with the other 3 groups of 4 strands so you'll have a total of 4 groups of 2 full square knots. Then split the original 4 strands in half and make the next set of knots using the 2 right strands of one group and the 2 left strands of another, repeat with all of the strands. That was long enough for my hanger, you can continue making groups of knots if you want yours longer; I cut another short piece of jute and holding all of the free hanger ends together made another wrapped knot that holds the pot in place.

There are lots and lots of instructions on how to do this online - these are very simple and basic knots!

DON'T FORGET - YOU HAVE UNTIL 5 PM EST TO ENTER THE DRAWING FOR A GIFTCARD TO CELEBRATE THE BLOGS 3RD YEAR ANNIVERSARY!! Click here for the "rules".


two years ago: Steve's baked macaroni and cheese...just about the best thing ever!
three years ago: laundry room hanging rack

Giant Candy Card

Cathy made this huge standing card for her neighbor's surprise birthday party and I love it so much I want to share - mostly so I'll remember how she did it and can steal this idea in the future!

To build the card she found a big piece of coated board in her garage that just happened to function like a white board - she can write on it and wipe it back off, perfect. You could also use a big piece of cardboard or something like that, you'll just not have the option of messing up and re-writing when you are designing it.

Then the hard part - coming up with what to say and where to add the candy bars in place of words. To start she bought all kinds of candy with names she thought she could use - Snickers has new packaging out right now that has perfect words on the front like "denied", "flustered", "awkward" that she used to make her card really funny.

She typed it up on the computer first in order to edit and change things around before starting in writing and taping the candy to the board.

The card reads:
"Turning 60 is nothing to 'snickers' about. The 'basic' truth that can't be 'denied' is: you are getting older! Your joints may start to 'crunch' after your morning walk and you may move like 'turtles' the rest of the day. So when you start feeling like a 'hot mess' because your 'butterfingers' keep losing your keys - don't worry, your mind isn't playing 'twix' on you - you have just become a 'space cadet'. Don't be 'flustered' when your 'whoppers' turn into 'raisinettes' and your 'whatchamacallit' needs 'extra' attention. It may be 'awkward' but you've 'tackled' bigger and harder problems. Even when you're old and grey and your 'payday's aren't producing 'mounds' of money we will still think you're a 'hot tamale'! Your 'sugar babies' and the rest of us (I think it's?) 'troublemaker's wouldn't trade you for a '100 grand'! Not now, not ever! Happy Birthday Cindy. We love you so 'munch'!

note: I might not be using the right words for a couple of these, it's a bit hard to read and even tho I saw it in person I can't remember exactly! But you get the drift ;) Isn't this so cute?!!

Dave kept trying to get her to change a couple of the sentences so he could eat the Mounds and 100 Grand bar LOL!

DON'T FORGET - YOU HAVE UNTIL 5 PM EST TOMORROW 9/18 TO ENTER THE DRAWING FOR A GIFTCARD TO CELEBRATE THE BLOGS 3RD YEAR ANNIVERSARY!! Click here for the "rules".

one year ago: goat cheese spread with apricots
two years ago: German chocolate cake

Around The Campfire (week 37) and Anniversary Drawing

Dear Campers ~

Three years ago today: it all started with sprinkles

Guys! Today's the 3rd Anniversary of "Make My Day Camp"!! Last year I said I couldn't believe it was 2 years already, the year before that I couldn't believe I made it 1 year... and now 3 Years!! That's crazy.

Thanks to everyone who reads and follows the blog, both here and on Facebook - I so appreciate your comments, likes, shares...whether you've stuck with me the whole time or have just discovered MMDC, I'm glad you're here!! Let's have another drawing to celebrate - I'll send a $25 Michaels gift card to the winner. Leave me a comment below (remember I can't comment back tho, something's wrong with it!), give my blog name to someone who hasn't discovered Day Camp (honor system, I'll believe you if you say you did), leave a comment on the blog Facebook page, or share the blog Facebook page on your Facebook wall - let me know that you did one of those things (or more! If more then you'll be entered more times!) and I'll put your name in a hat for a random drawing on Tuesday 9/18 at 5pm EST. Good luck!

Here's this week's recap and some random chitchat about the happenings at 'day camp':

Posts you might have missed~

9/9:   around the campfire week 36
9/10: arm knit an afghan
9/11: blueberry sauce
9/12: how to make the perfect cheesecake
9/13: make a card with gift holder on the inside
9/14: how to use a Big Shot
9/15: my sister's favorite birthday gift

What's cooking ~

• meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies
• grilled tuna, sticky rice, steamed spinach (and a piece of cheesecake!)
• bone-in grilled chicken breast, roasted beans and tomatoes, cucumber salad
• steak, roasted baby potatoes, romaine wedge salad
• spice rubbed pork tenderloin, butternut squash ravioli, roasted asparagus
• spaghetti squash, roasted cherry tomatoes, grilled thin chicken breasts

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy but not interesting enough for an entire post ~

• Made 2 birthday gifts (can't say what, they haven't received them yet!) and I love them both, that's a good feeling!
• Not gonna bore you with more tomato talk but for the record I'm still knee-deep in them.
• Read "Deep Freeze" (Virgil Flowers series) by John Sanford
• Spent 2 hours organizing my beads - I should have taken a picture, they were everywhere!