Confetti Gift Wrap

Check out this cool new wrapping idea I found while surfing the internet the other day - so easy and so fun! Wrap your gift in a solid color paper (that was my hardest part, most of my paper is patterned), then wrap with clear cellophane leaving one end open; insert confetti, tape the end closed, then shake the present to distribute the confetti. Love it - and it's perfect if you're shipping a gift, no smashed bow!

                                    

PS: it's my BFFE Mary's birthday today - not telling what's in the box but I'll tease her with the outside for now 😂

It's easy to make confetti - cut up little bits of colored paper, hole punch assorted shapes in different colors, add some sparkle with glitter paper or bits of tinsel...whatever you have on hand!

click here for the original source

9.30.18: 🔥
9.30.17: drying herbs
9.30.16: cauliflower pizza
9.30.15: photo vase

Around the Campfire 🔥 (week 39)

Dear Campers ~

Computer seems to have fixed itself after last Sunday's boycott! Whew. Here's a quick recap of what happened at camp this week in case you missed anything:

Posts ~

9/22: week 38 🔥 computer problems!
9/23: driftwood art
9/24: tip-sy Tuesday: did you have a power outage?
9/25: banana poppy seed muffins
9/26: alfredo and pink sauces
9/27: make a flip book
9/28: banana-coffee non dairy ice cream


Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy ~

• read "The Proposal" by Jasmine Guillory ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2,  pretty standard chick lit but quick, entertaining, albeit predictable, read. "One plus one" by Jojo Moyes ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really liked this story about a single mom doing the best she can and her happy ending love story. Another pretty standard chick lit quick read but I liked it. Also tried to get into "The Marriage Clock" by Zara Raheem but just couldn't, there were a bunch of people waiting for it so I let it go early. If you read it let me know if it gets better and I should have stuck with it!
• we were camping for a few days, weather getting cooler which is so nice for fall camping. It rained quite a bit tho so I didn't really do much cooking or crafting stuck in the RV. I haven't got any good recipes for cooking in my little RV kitchen - need to work on that.
• sad news for the week is that Nick the fish died in a tragic tangle with the filter. PSA: did you know that fish can get sucked to the filter? I did not. I was super sad so we went and got another fish - this time it's a "Dalmation Molly" named Spot. Wish me (and Spot) luck with the filter this time. 

  

  RIP Nick the fish

Hope you had a great week - stop back this coming week to see more fun crafts, recipes, and whatever else I think to make! It's almost time to start breaking down my garden, it's still producing tomatoes but the beans have given up - I do have peas that are making a comeback now that it's cooler but I don't know if they'll have time to produce before it gets too cold...yikes, winter is coming people! 

Sincerely ~

Jill

camp counselor and fish lover (whodaknew?) 

Banana-Coffee "Ice Cream"

I found this recipe on 'my crazy good life' and since I have a surplus of bananas right now I thought I'd give it a try - I'm not a banana lover so wasn't sure I'd like banana ice cream, Dave does love them tho so it's safe to say that if I didn't like the "ice cream" I'm sure he'd eat it. Plus I'm only out a couple bananas if it's gross...

Nope, not gross! It's actually really good, banana flavor and all. This took literally a minute to make, plus freezing time, and for a sweet treat that is really healthy* you can't beat it. Well you do beat it to make it creamy, but you get my drift. I'll stop talking now - make yourself this non-dairy ice cream and see for yourself. 

                          

Original recipe:

3-4 sliced frozen bananas

1/4 cup strong espresso coffee, cold

honey/sugar

1/2 t. vanilla or coffee extract

Add a bit of sweetener to the coffee, to your liking.

In a food processor, add frozen bananas, coffee, and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth and creamy. Freeze for 1 hour. 

My changes ~ I made this in my Ninja blender,  used 2 1/2 whole frozen bananas and enough coffee to make it the correct texture. I used caramel flavored coffee, didn't add vanilla extract because I had flavored coffee, and drizzled honey in to make it just a tiny bit sweet.

*unless you don't like the sugar in the bananas, but I feel like hey, it's a fruit - and really, am I gaining weight from eating too many bananas or might the culprit be the wine I drink? Yep, not blaming the bananas.


9.28.18: chicken parmesan stuffed portobello mushrooms
9.28.17: my baking center
9.28.16: pumpkin nutella cookie bars
9.28.15: pumpkin tower

Make a Flip Book

I told you I'm volunteering again at the elementary school right? Yep - so much for "retirement" hahahah. Anyway - I printed, cut, and assembled these flip books for Miss Jenna and the other 1st grade teachers and love the idea so much that I am stealingborrowing the idea and sharing with you! These are for 1st grade math problems but I can think of lots of different things to create using this technique - gift certificate booklets, recipes, schedules, party planning, holiday checklists, whatever!

 

We used 9 different colors of paper to differentiate each page of the flip book - the bottom (dark green) sheet is 8.5 x 11" standard size paper, then each sheet layered on top is one inch shorter than the one under it. To break it down (because I am lame at describing my instructions!):

Mauve header/top sheet - 8.5 x 3"
Dark blue - 8.5 x 4"
Bright green - 8.5 x 5"
Orange sheet - 8.5 x 6"
Purple sheet - 8.5 x 7"
Blue sheet  - 8.5 x 8"
Hot pink sheet - 8.5 x 9"
Yellow sheet - 8.5 x 10"
Green sheet is 8.5 x 11"

First up is laying out each sheet so the information for that page is within the correct measurements for that page - For example, you'll be cutting the top mauve sheet 3" long so everything needs to fit in those 3"; next page will be cut at 4" long so lay out your page information within those 4", and so on for the remaining pages...make sense? Check out the photos below to get a better idea of what I'm trying to say - each of the 9 pages is a different length. That's going to be the hardest part - figuring out the layout for each of the pages. Once you have that done tho the rest is easy - print out each page and cut into the appropriate lengths. Stack each page on top of each other in order by length of the page, and staple at the top.

Aren't these fun? Of course I made 80 of them so not exactly "fun" hahahah, but I do enjoy this idea!

Alfredo and Pink Sauces

I forget how easy it is to make homemade alfredo sauce - you only need 5 ingredients and 5 minutes. Perfect, luscious, creamy alfredo sauce...how I love you. Sigh. 

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat. Add cream and simmer for 5 minutes, then add garlic and cheese and whisk quickly, heating through. Stir in parsley and serve. 

Now that you've mastered alfredo sauce, change it up by stirring in a big spoonful of red sauce - voilà, pink sauce! Yummo. 

9.26.18: german chocolate cheesecake
9.26.17: paper sunflowers
9.26.16: wood display box 
9.26.15: how to use a hulk sized zucchini

Banana-Poppy Seed Muffins

Before Ron, Janis, Patty and Ed came to visit a couple weeks ago, we made a Costco run and I'm not sure why but Dave thought we needed like 10 pounds of bananas (or however big that super-size bunch of bananas is from there!).

Guess how many bananas we ate? If you guessed none then you are correct. Cue up me searching for recipes using bananas....I picked this one because it called for 4, along with whole wheat flour so I can pretend they are healthy (ignoring the stick of butter). These turned out really good, and I only had like 6 more bananas leftover so win-win for me ;)

Ingredients:

• 8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened; plus more for greasing the muffin tin
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 T. poppy seeds
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup cold milk
• 2 t. vanilla 

Preheat oven 400', put an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Grease six big muffin tin cups with butter (or spray with non-stick baking spray). 

Whisk the flours, baking powder and soda, salt, and poppy seeds together in a medium-size bowl.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, until you get a creamy and fluffy texture that is light yellow in color (about 5 minutes). Add the bananas, mixing at high speed until the bananas are blended with the butter and sugar. With the mixer speed on low, beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the milk and vanilla.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet on low speed just until incorporated. Do not over mix.

Scoop batter equally in the cups of the muffin tin, fill each almost to the top. Bake 35-40 minutes (*see my note) until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool. 

*note: I don't have a big 6 cup muffin tin so made 6 small loaves instead, they only needed about 23 minutes to bake. Good thing I was paying attention and checked them at the 20 minute mark!

from 'once upon a tart' cookbook ©2003 (FYI: I just learned how to make the copyright symbol on a mac - hold down the option key and press "g")

Tip-sy Tuesday: power outage tip

Has this ever happened to you? You've been away for a few days and upon returning home realize you lost power at some point but don't know for how long? Then you have to wonder if everything in the freezer stayed frozen, or did it thaw and refreeze?

Here's a super easy tip - freeze a small plastic glass of water; once frozen put a coin on top of the ice in the glass. If you suspect you had a power outage check to see if the coin is still on top of the ice. If you lost power for long enough the ice would have melted and the coin would fall to the bottom of the glass before re-freezing. This will give you a better guesstimate if you need to throw out the contents of your freezer and fridge. Which is awful but better than getting sick!

9.24.18: jute wrapped candle
9.24.17: bacon cheese ball, buffalo cheese ball
9.24.16: ice cream container tip

Driftwood Art

We were walking in the campground one morning and saw a woman wielding a hot glue gun outside at her picnic table - a woman after my own heart! How could I see someone crafting while camping and not stop to ask? She showed me a gorgeous driftwood wreath she was working on, then generously took me inside her RV to show me some other projects. Before going inside she said "now don't judge, it's a little messy because my husband is gone for the week so I was able to spread all my stuff out - I just have to put it all away before he gets back" and then we walked in...and omg there's driftwood on every. single. surface. of her motorhome. Like everywhere! Some might see a mess and chaos, but no judging here - I was in awe and in heaven. Amazing!

She walks the beach every morning collecting pieces of driftwood, dries and bleaches it, stores in tubs (or all over her RV!) until she is ready to create her next piece. She had a bunch of completed pieces in her RV, what she showed me are just beautiful - she has hanging pieces, mobiles, wreathes, vases, crosses, all kinds of other art pieces like fish, anchors, Christmas trees...just about anything she can think of she has made - and they are gorgeous. So inspiring. Don't think I didn't have a moment of "oh man, I'm totally going to do this" but that would be weird and awkward in this small campground (once we leave here tho all bets are off hahaha, I would love to make driftwood art!).

I asked how she decides what to make, she said she just let's the wood and God speak to her - apparently she wasn't particularly crafty but after struggling with some health issues she started walking and collecting beach finds, and something guided her to start creating. She has turned her passion into a business and sells her art in local stores and at art fairs - she is incredibly thankful that she was guided and inspired to turn beach walks into art and that in turn has led to her being able to sell and create more. Cool, right?

To see more of her artwork click here for her facebook page, or here for the website.

9.23.16: painting pottery with Brooke
9.23.15: candy coated marshmallows

Ugh, computer issue!

Hi campers!

I would normally be posting a recap of what you missed at camp this week but my computer is apparently on strike and not letting me do what I need to do! If I can get it cooperating later today I’ll give you the recap, if not hopefully it’ll be back to work after a relaxing day off today haha!!

I can at least tell you there were some great recipes like antipasto salad, German chocolate poke cake, and hairy pretzels (yup I said hairy pretzels haha); Ronda inspired me to make a new gift box; if you’ve ever wondered which apple is good for what there was a chart on ‘Tip-at Tuesday’; oh, and Macey won the 4 year anniversary drawing! Congrats Mae, I forgot to tell you LOL! I’m not able to link the posts from this week, but go scroll them on the blog to see them all.

Fingers crossed I can blog tomorrow! Bye!

Sincerely ~


Jill
Camp counselor and non-computer-savvy blogger

Antipasto Pasta

I bought 1 and 1/2 pounds of deli roast beef for a 'my sis is hungry' dish I wanted to make before realizing the night I was going to give it to her was the same night as her women's golf league banquet - so she wasn't going to be home to eat it. Great, I now have a ton of roast beef to figure out what to do with! Before I stuck it in the freezer to deal with later, she asked if I wanted to make a dish to pass for the banquet, didn't care what I made other than it needed to be a main dish - so I googled for ideas using deli roast beef (I'm smart like that hahah!). I've never had pasta salad with roast beef but that's kind of what I was looking for and found a recipe on Food Network for orecchiette salad with beef that gave me the inspiration for this salad. I adapted their recipe quite a bit based on what I had on hand - it reminds me of an antipasto appetizer platter so that's what I'm naming it, it was that or "kitchen sink pasta" ha!

Antipasto Pasta

• 1 lb. pasta (note: I can't remember the name of the one I used, it was a small tube with ruffles - wait, I just looked it up and it's called 'campanelle' pasta)
• 1 container of tiny mozzarella balls, halved
• 2 cups marinated artichoke hearts, chopped, along with some of the oil in the jar
• 1 small jar roasted red peppers, cut into small pieces
• 1 small bunch asparagus, cut into bite-sized pieces, roasted
• 1 cup corn kernels
• 3/4 lb. thinly sliced good-quality deli roast beef, cut into small strips

• olive oil
• lemon juice
• dijon mustard
• creamed horseradish
• chopped basil
• coarse salt, pepper
• Italian seasoning

Cook the pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse in cold water to stop it from continuing to cook. Put in a big bowl; drizzle with flavored oil from the marinated artichoke hearts, sprinkle with coarse salt, toss. 

For the dressing: Combine olive oil, lemon juice, dijon, and spices to taste, and toss with the pasta. I didn't measure the dressing amounts - I'll guess 1/3 cup olive oil, 2 T. lemon juice, 1 T. dijon, 1 T. creamed horseradish, 2 T. chopped basil, 1 T. Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste. You might need more so have extra ingredients on hand just in case (I'm saying that if you only have exactly 1/3 cup olive oil in the bottle you might need to run to the store!) - and all of these ingredients can be changed to your preference. 

Mix the dressing into the pasta, toss to coat. Add the other salad ingredients, toss again. Adjust the seasonings to taste, chill until ready to serve.

9.21.18: rhubarb bbq sauce
9.21.16: sprinkles no-bake cheesecake
9.21.15: german chocolate cupcakes

Hairy Pretzels

Hairy what now? I get why they're called that but not sure I would have named them hairy pretzels LOL. Really, that doesn't make them sound nearly as delish and addictive as they are!

I got this recipe from Mrs. Green at school, she has made them so many times she doesn't measure the seasonings, I looked up other recipes for them online and found one on allrecipes.com that calls for 3/4 c. oil, 3 T. garlic powder, and 3 T. dried dill weed so I went with that. Personally that was too much seasoning for my taste; the flavor is great tho and I will absolutely make them again using less of the spices.

Her instructions: 

Mix packet of ranch dressing mix with garlic powder, garlic salt, dill weed and oil of choice. Reddebacher Popping Oil is best, but I’ve used part that and part olive oil before, too.

Mix all well and drizzle over large bag of pretzels in a bowl you can cover with a lid

Gently roll the bowl around often throughout the day and pretzels ready 12-24 hours...longer the better - the pretzels soak in all the goodness 

9.20.17: funfetti cake dough brownie layer cake

Cardstock Gift Box

I haven't made any of Ronda's cute gift enclosures lately - she is so creative and has shown me so so many different ways to make boxes, envelopes, pouches, etc. (so many I kind of forget about how many different ones I've learned!). I caught her doing a facebook live video the other day showing yet another gift box, this one looked so easy and quick to make that I immediately ran to the craft room to whip one out for a gift that I'm giving at a party tonight.  Turned out so cute, and came together so quickly, that I have to share with you. The only thing I changed is the little decorative thing on the front - I don't have the daisy punches that she used so I winged it with what I have on hand. How useful and cute is this box? I will not be forgetting about this one, I can imagine using it all the time. Ronda made a video and it was very easy to follow, I'll try to do the same with pictures. Check it out:

You need an 8.5 x 11" sheet of cardstock for the box itself, and a 6" square of decorative paper for the front and back panels of the box.

Score the cardstock at 2" on the 11" side, turn and score the other side at 2", 5 1/4", 7 1/4", 10 1/2"
Cut off 1/2 inch across the top but keep the strip for the end.
Cut the decorative paper in 2 pieces 3" x 5 3/4".

Fold all of the score lines a bit so the paper is flexible. Cut the score lines up 2" to meet the long score you made the length of the paper. Remove the little 1/2" strip along the side.

Run adhesive along the 1/2" side and across the flap below it. Before assembling the box, glue on the 3 x 5 3/4" decorative paper panels. Fold the box into shape, tuck in the 1/2" strip and glue to the other side. Fold in the short flaps, then the flap that has adhesive on it, then the other flap to create the bottom.

To finish - fold the strip that you cut off in the beginning along the score lines, put glue on both ends and wrap around the box. Add embellishment of your choice - Ronda made a cute sunflower out of 4 punched flower pieces and a brown circle for the center;  I layered 3 flower pieces (curl the edges a bit using a bone folder or wrap around a pencil and attached a gem for the center. Stuck on the front using dimensional foam squares so it stands out a bit from the box.

The top of this box is open so you'll see whatever you put inside it. Ronda's example had a gift wrapped with cellophane with the ends sticking up out of the top - so cute.

9.19.18: strawberry swirl cheesecake
9.19.17: paper mugs
9.19.16: Steve's mac and cheese
9.19.15: dog crate cover

German Chocolate Poke Cake

I've been making LeDonna some sort of German chocolate dessert for a few years now - hopefully she still likes German chocolate because I haven't even asked her if she wants a change hahaha. This year I wondered if a German chocolate poke cake was a thing...and sure enough, found lots of recipes for it. So that's what I did and it turned out amazing, although I had my doubts...

It took much longer to bake then the recipe called for and I really worried that the cake would either get dried out from baking longer, or not be baked thru because it just never felt done. I pulled it out after 50 minutes with fingers crossed it'd be good. And luckily it turned out great. I didn't weigh it but it's seriously heavy; my friend Sydney (she's 8) tried to lift it from under the table where I had it "hiding" during dinner and struggled to pick it up! It's very dense and rich, almost brownie like but very very moist.

I followed a recipe I found here for most of it, but I did the ganache layer using my standard recipe.

Ingredients:

Cake ~

• 1 box Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
• 1 (3.4) box Chocolate Fudge Instant Pudding
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 T. vanilla
• 1/4 t. kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, plus an additional handful for garnish on top of the frosting if desired

Filling ~

• 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk

Ganache ~

• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 8 oz. (1 1/3 cups) semi-sweet chocolate bar, chopped or chocolate chips

Frosting ~

• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• ]1 t. vanilla
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 cup chopped pecan pieces
• 1 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (note you can use sweetened but I prefer unsweetened - this cake is already so sweet)

Cake directions:

Preheat oven to 350'.In a large bowl, combine all of the cake ingredients until fully mixed and pour into a greased 13x9" pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes (as I noted above, this easily took 50 minutes and still seemed like it might be underdone but I pulled it at 50). Remove from the oven and poke holes all over the cake with a big skewer. While the cake is still hot, pour and spread the sweetened condensed milk over the top of the cake, it will soak in while the cake cools.

Meanwhile, while the cake is baking and then cooling, prepare the ganache by heating the heavy cream in a glass measuring cup in the microwave (or on the stove top if you prefer). Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl, pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted. Let it rest for a while, it'll thicken up as it cools down. Once it's thick and creamy, spread evenly over the top of the cooled cake.

Top with coconut-pecan frosting and sprinkle on additional mini chips if desired (I like how it looks). Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Frosting Directions:

Combine the evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter, vanilla, and salt in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens, about 10-12 minutes. Remove from heat.  Add the coconut and pecans, stir to combine. Set aside until ready to use. Before putting on the cake, give the frosting a good stir to loosen and fluff it up a bit. 

I have to tell you that I had the nicest compliment from a stranger about this cake! We took it to a restaurant for her birthday and gave pieces of it to the waitstaff (I always try to leave some cake since they usually bring extra plates, a knife, and silverware which is just more work for them!), the manager came to the table and asked who baked the cake, he wanted to shake my hand and say it was the best cake they've ever been given and everyone was in the kitchen devouring it. Hmmm, now that I'm writing that, it's occurring to me that maybe it's the best because no one has ever given them cake before? Whatever, I'm taking the compliment hahahah!

9.18.18: plant hanger
9.18.15: laundry room tip