TBT: Ham Butter (and Ham and Egg salad)

Here's my duh move for the day - I was flipping thru my old cookbook (remember some of the other 'throwback Thursday' recipes I've made from the cookbook? One was for 'alligator pears' - I'll put some links at the bottom so you can check them out again) looking for more recipes that I want to make. I came across one for 'ham butter' and since I have a package of ham cubes and boiled eggs I thought I'd give it a go. Here's where the duhhhh comes in - which part of 'ham butter' made me not realize there is actually butter in this until I already had the ham, eggs, and pepper in the food processor? 

The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of butter mixed together with ground ham and egg yolks! What the...

I could not bring myself to put the whole 1/2 cup of butter in cuz that just sounds gross. I did however add 1/4 cup of soft butter and olive oil spread (Costco, it's the best); not sure how much the extra butter would have changed the outcome but I did not particularly like this recipe and I'm pretty sure it's because I couldn't stop thinking about eating straight butter. 

I decided to turn this into more of a ham and egg salad by adding extra hard boiled eggs, ham, mayo and mustard, and chopped celery. That tasted much better (I just accidentally typed 'tasted much butter' LOL); I gave it to Dave for lunch and told him it was a little experiment - shhhhh I did not tell him about the butter hahahha - and he liked it. So there you go - maybe if you didn't know it has butter in it then it tastes good hahahahah.

Here's the recipe from 'The American Woman's Cook Book' from 1938 if you want to know what ham and butter combined tastes like:

• 1/2 cup cooked ham
• 1/2 cup butter
• yolks of 2 hard-cooked eggs
• pepper

Grind the ham and pound smooth with the butter and the yolks of the eggs and season with pepper. 

other 'Throwback Thursday' posts - I'm not sure why I quit doing these posts, they're fun:

alligator pears

cardinal salad

french dressing

orange cranberry ice

peanut butter stuffed potatoes (yep you read that right)

pear salad (the first of the TBT posts)

potted ham

southern spoon bread

9.30.20: german chocolate bars

9.30.19: confetti gift wrap

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

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here's my super secret recipe for the cookies I left as a bribe for my neighbors (read yesterday's post about how lame I am). I've been making these for years, the original recipe calls for raisins but that's just wrong (in my book LOL) so I substitute with chocolate chips. 

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. salt (I use coarse)
• 3 cups oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked - I use old fashioned)
• 1 cup chocolate chips

1. heat oven to 350'
2. beat together butter and sugars until creamy.
3. add eggs and vanilla; mix well.
4. add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well.
5. stir in oats and raisins; mix well.
6. drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet (I line with parchment paper).
7. bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown (I measure the dough using my small cookie scoop and they bake for approx 8 minutes).
8. cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to a wire rack.

Makes about 4 dozen. (using my small cookie scoop I get about 56) 

PS: ok, ok, this is not a super secret recipe - it's straight from the canister of Quaker Oats! 

Tip-sy Tuesday: make a paper plate bowl (and a story about my neighbors!)

Quick little small world story and a gift hack for today -  my sister and b-i-l moved to new seats for MSU football, got chatting with the people sitting next to them and figured out they live right across the street from us. Random, right? What are the chances? And then get how lame I am - they've lived there for over a year and even though we wave I've never talked to them. So when Jen was telling me all about my nice neighbors I'm feeling like an idiot for not welcoming them to the neighborhood!

Although side note - in my defense they did move in around the start of Covid and then they put in a pool so I felt like if I went over and introduced myself at that point it was going to look like I just wanted to swim at their house LOL. 

Yesterday I made some cookies and a note saying 'how bad I feel for being so lame and here's some cookies so you'll forgive me' hahahha. I wanted to just leave them in their mailbox as a little surprise, and made a bowl out of a paper plate for the cookie container instead of just putting a baggie of cookies in the mailbox. 

This takes just a minute to do. Think of the plate as having 4 sides and fold the 4 edges into a square. Make 2 cuts on the edges across from each other, creating 2 flaps. Fold the flaps in, then fold the sides of the plate over the flaps and tape to hold in place (I tried using a stapler but that didn't work very good). Check out the pics for a visual of what I'm trying to say:

This is actually cuter in person then in the above pics - the cookies weren't bulging out of the bowl like they appear to be doing here hahahah. I thought about tying a ribbon around it but decided this was enough. 

Kyle's Charcuterie Board/Centerpiece

Kyle made me this board and it's so cool I had to share - it's meant to be a charcuterie board (you know, loaded up with meat/cheese/fruit/etc) but it's so pretty I didn't want to store it out of sight and turned it into a centerpiece for my dining room table. 

He cut out 2 circle wells to hold small glass jars for sauces or whatever - for the centerpiece I put small votive candles in the jars instead. I love this SO much - it's decor for most of the year, then a practical serving piece when I make an appetizer plate. 

🔥 Around the Campfire (week 39)

 Dear Campers ~

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

Posts ~

9/19: 🔥week 38

9/20: 30 minute tomato sauce

9/21: tip-sy tuesday: microwaving couscous

9/22: crockpot london broil stroganoff

9/23: necktie pillow

9/24: sprinkle sandwich cookies

9/25: chocolate sandwich cookies

What's Cooking ~

• tuna noodle casserole, roasted green beans
• grilled marinated chicken, chopped kale salad, steamed broccoli
• pasta with 30 minute tomato sauce (see above), green salad
• grilled pork chops, roasted baby potatoes, roasted green beans
• chicken pot pie
• lobster ravioli (Costco) with alfredo sauce, caesar salad

Note: it was a 'comfort' food kind of week! Fall is here and brought a couple chilly, rainy days - we don't usually eat pasta 3 times in a week...

That's it for this week - hope you'll stop back often to see more recipes, crafts, whatever I can think of and have time to make! Have a great week!

Sincerely ~

Jill

camp counselor

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

In addition to yesterday's sprinkle sandwich cookies I also made this chocolate version for LeDonna's b-day. It's just double chocolate cookies (I used a mix) filled with chocolate buttercream, rolled in toasted coconut and chopped pecans.  

I forgot to take a picture before packaging them up for her, I opened the bag before she left and snapped a    quick one so you can see the final product! 

Toasting the coconut and pecans really brings out their flavor and only takes a couple minutes. You can toast them in the oven on a sheet pan,  but since I didn't need a large amount I toasted them in a pan on the stovetop, low heat, stir often and watch closely so they don't burn. 

Sprinkle Sandwich Cookies

I usually make something German chocolate-y for LeDonna's birthday but this year asked her if there's something else she'd like since another good friend made her a German chocolate cake and I kinda figured there's only so much German chocolate cake one person can eat for their birthday hahahha. She requested cookies, and left what kind up to me. 

I was inspired to make these sandwich cookies after visiting a local bakery while cake testing for Mickey's wedding and spotting something similar in the counter - their's were huge tho and even tho I know LeDonna likes sweets I can't imagine how many servings one of the bakery cookies would be hahahah, so I scaled these down!

Make sugar cookies using whatever recipe you like (or cheat and buy a mix like I did LOL) and add sprinkles to the dough. I used my medium cookie scoop and dropped the dough onto parchment lined baking sheets, bake and cool. Match the cookies up as best you can, frost the bottom of one cookie and top with another cookie making a sandwich. Roll the edges in sprinkles. In the above picture I experimented with how much frosting to use, I ended up going with more frosting like the cookie on the left.

Good thing L likes sweets cuz as I'm assembling them I'm thinking 'here, let's put some sugar on the sugar and roll in more sugar' LOL!! Super sweet!

Necktie Pillow

Here's a fun thing I made a long time ago - even tho it's not new it's still a fun project to make use of old ties. Dave has SO many ties from corporate life that he no longer wears, I wonder if he'll give me a few so I can make more of these tie pillows?! 

These are pretty, colorful, interesting, and unique items to decorate with, but also make a nice memory gift if someone you know retires or no longer needs all their old ties - wouldn't this be a cool retirement gift? Sort of like a memory quilt, only with neckties (and much quicker to make than a quilt hahaha).

Depending on the width of the ties you are working with, cut them into lengths and piece together. These ties were quite wide so I alternated wide part at top with wide part at bottom to make the pillow top as square as possible. Sew together however many you need to make the desired size of the pillow leaving a a couple extra inches on all sides; once sewn together take a straight edge and trim all 4 sides to make a square leaving a seam allowance so you can attach the tie pillow top to the backing of your choice. I cut the same size backing out of fleecy material, sew front and back with right sides together leaving a gap so you can turn the pillowcase right side out. After turning it right sides out, stuff with the filling of your choice and hand sew the gap shut. 

 

Crockpot London Broil Stroganoff

It's Fall y'all! I love this time of year so much - and eating comforting meals like this london broil stroganoff seems perfect right now (ok, well it sounds perfect anytime of year to me, so maybe I should say it seems more 'appropriate' when it's starting to get cool out hahha). I wanted to try making it in my crockpot so googled for recipes and didn't find anything I thought was perfect, what I ended up doing is sort of a mash-up of a few different ones. I will say that it didn't get as creamy as I like, in the future I'll drain some of the liquid off before adding the cornstarch slurry (the thickener) - but the flavor is really good and because it's a crockpot meal of course it's very easy!

• 1-1/2 to 2 pounds of London Broil (the label on my package says 'top round roast london broil') 
• 2 packages sliced mushrooms
• 2 t. garlic powder
• 2 t. onion powder
• salt and pepper
• 4 cups beef stock
• 5 T. cornstarch
• 4 T. water
• 8 oz. sour cream
• cooked egg noodles 

1. Season the meat all over with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Put it in the crockpot, add the stock and mushrooms. Cover.

2. Cook on high for 1 hour; then reduce heat to low. Cook for 6 hours (longer is ok). 

3. If there is a lot of liquid (use your judgement, the next step will help thicken the liquid but if you have too much liquid there's only so much the cornstarch can do hahahaa) maybe drain some off before proceeding. Mix the cornstarch and water to create a slurry, slowly mix into the crockpot about 30 minutes before you are ready to eat. This will help thicken the sauce. When adding the slurry the meat should be very tender and fall apart into smaller pieces pretty easily. Turn the crockpot back to high and cover. 

4. Once the sauce has thickened, add the sour cream and mix well. Check seasoning and add more salt and/or pepper to taste.  Serve over the cooked egg noodles. 

Tip-sy Tuesday: microwaving couscous

We were at the RV last weekend and can't use the stove because of an issue with the propane regulator something something I lost track and not exactly sure what is wrong but there's a problem hahah - so we have been either grilling or microwaving (our camp neighbor Ginny volunteered to boil water anytime for us to make pasta or whatever, thanks Ginny). We had grilled salmon and salad, I was really hankering for a couscous mix but it only has stovetop directions - and here's the point to this post, I made it in the microwave and it totally worked. So - today's tip is the knowledge that you can easily prepare a boxed couscous mix in the microwave by boiling the water, oil, and spice packet in a big glass measuring bowl until hot (I did 3 minutes), remove from the microwave and stir in the couscous, cover and wait 5 minutes for the couscous to absorb the water. That's it! I will probably make it this way from now on and skip doing the stovetop. Don't have a picture - do you make couscous? If so, that's what it looks like. If not, you probably aren't still reading about my microwave discovery :)

PS: I have no idea why there are meme's for boiling water? LOL! 

30 Minute Tomato Sauce

I've had this recipe on hand for years, I have no idea where it came from but it's super easy and adaptable, and I make it often. I don't always use canned tomatoes (it's a great way to make homemade sauce when fresh tomatoes aren't available), this time I made them with plum tomatoes from my garden and it's delicious. You can change it up by adding spices (good old Italian seasoning would obviously be perfect) or fresh herbs.

• 1 T. olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 cups canned plum tomatoes 
• 3 T. tomato paste
• 1/2 cup chicken broth or water
• 1/2-1 t. sugar
• salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the garlic and chopped onion. Cook until onion is wilted. Add canned plum tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Add 3 tomato paste, 1/2 cup chicken broth or water, 1/2-1 teaspoon sugar to taste, salt and pepper to taste. Continue to cook for another 15 minutes. Adjust seasoning as desired. 

Note: if it's too chunky you could blend it in a food processor or blender (or immersion blender) - we like it chunky, the fresh tomatoes don't cook down as much as the canned version. When using fresh I add more than 2 cups; this is a very changeable recipe and I just eyeball how many onions, tomato paste, and broth I add, Oh, and I don't peel my fresh plum tomatoes but you certainly can if you wish!

If I make extra sauce or just made this to use up an abundance of tomatoes and am not planning to eat it right away, I put it in a quart sized ziplock baggie and freeze it flat. Once frozen you can stand it up to file away in the freezer which saves lots of space. 

🔥 Around the Campfire (week 38)

 Dear Campers ~

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

Posts ~

9/12: 🔥week 37

9/13: chocolate cola cupcakes

9/14: tip-sy tuesday: truck bed organizing 

9/15: year 6 enter to win

9/16: blogiversary!

9/17: winner winner (and a couple happy birthdays)

9/18: crochet afghan (no space double crochet v-stitch)

What's Cooking ~

• baked bbq salmon, parmesan couscous, roasted broccoli 
• grilled homemade thin crust pizza (buy the shell, top with your choice, grill until cheese is melty and the crust is crispy - easy and delish!), chopped salad kit
• grilled chicken, tomato/cuke/feta cheese salad
• meatloaf, mashed cauliflower, mixed veggies
• grilled halibut, coleslaw (I mix fresh shredded cabbage and carrots with store bought coleslaw), warm corn tortillas 
• chicken enchilada suizas, shredded lettuce/tomato/avocado, sour cream side salad

Started working on taking Brooke's senior pictures, here's a couple favorites from our first attempt: 

That's it for this week - we are up north camping and it's sooooo beautiful out - sunny, light breeze, low 70's. Gotta go enjoy the last of Michigan summer while I can. Stop back often for more projects, crafts, recipes, chit-chat - whatever I think of to make at camp next week! Bye!

Sincerely ~

Jill

camp counselor

Crocheted Afghan (for Brooke)

True story - Brooke loves an old afghan that I crocheted a million years ago and asked if I'd make her one. 

She asked me in 2019 and I started it right away...

and then put it down and forgot about it until last December when I thought I'd finish it and give it to her for Christmas...

and then put it down and forgot about it until her 18th birthday a couple weeks ago. I actually finished it this time, when she opened it I asked if she even remembered she wanted one hahahahah - she said yes and immediately got in a comfy chair and put it around her and the dog. After she opened it one of her sisters said 'wait, I didn't know we could ask for an afghan!' and put in an order LOL.

I said 'sure, I'm happy to make you one' - but chances are she won't get it for 2 years - apparently that's how long it takes me ;) 

I crocheted this using a no-space double crochet v-stitch pattern, then did a simple shell stitch along the two short ends to give it a more finished look. 

Winner winner...(and happy birthdays)

Today's post is a non-post 'cuz we decided last minute to head up north for what looks like an amazing end-of-season northern Michigan beautiful camping trip. 

Congrats to - drumroll please - my niece Mickey on winning the blogiversary raffle! She's tried every year and finally won - now maybe she'll stop whining about it LOL. Yay Mick!

Also - happy birthday to my little sis Allyson in Tennessee, and to LeDonna in the U.P. (hey, that rhymes haha) Hope you both have a great day filled with fun, friends, family, and maybe donuts!!! 🎈🧁🎁🎉

Blogiversary

Is 'blogiversary' a word? It is now hahaha - today marks the 6 anniversary of the blog! So happy blogiversary to Make My Day Camp :)

2188 posts, maybe they're not all amazing but I'm so happy you've stuck around to read about all the projects, crafts, stories, cooking and baking, friends and relatives, pets, etc. that I've got going on in my little corner of the world! Hopefully you've been inspired and amused along the way. Thank you ❤️

This calls for a celebration for sure - leave me a comment below or on the blog facebook page by tomorrow morning at 10am est and I'll enter you in a blind drawing for a $25 gift card to Michaels (Joann and Hobby Lobby are options too - your choice!). Good luck!

WooHoo for free craft money and for your celebrating 6 years with me - in case you're wondering, it all started with some sprinkles (click for that post). 

Year 6!!

I have to admit I completely forgot tomorrow is Make My Day Camp's 6th anniversary! As usual let's hold a drawing to celebrate! I appreciate you reading my blog - whether you've been reading this whole time or if you just found it - and I want to 'reward' one of you hahaha! I could send something I've made instead, but a gift card is much easier to mail LOL. If you want to enter to win a $25 Michael's (or JoAnn/Hobby Lobby) gift card, leave me a comment here on the blog or on our Facebook page and I'll draw names Friday (9/17) morning at 10am EST. Good Luck! 

This post is from 9/15/16 - nothing has changed since I posted this 5 years ago so I'm going to share it again - : 

So tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the blog... I can't believe I've done this for a year already! I'm pleasantly surprised that coming up with enough posts for the year wasn't hard at all, and it's flown by -  my phone and iPad are still full of inspiration photos, ideas, and recipes - everywhere I look it seems there is something I want to make, bake, try, and do - so I'm going to keep creating and posting, and hopefully you'll keep reading and be inspired to make stuff. I LOVE when you guys comment or privately tell me that you are following the blog (I can't tell who reads it unless you tell me or leave a comment on the blog or Facebook) - it's fun to know you are out there! Blogging makes me happy because it's a great way for me to share all of the things that keep me busy every day, and if you get an idea or are inspired by something then I'm happy to be sharing.

I can't even tell you how true every one of these are - this is my life!

Thanks to everyone for reading my blog, for all of your comments, for all of your private messages, and for your support - it means SO much to me! In return I'll do my best to keep making, creating, baking, snapping, planting, fashioning, arranging, exercising, decorating, mixing, and entertaining you the best I can :)

9.15.20: strawberry cheesecake poke cake

9.15.19: 🔥week 37

9.15.17: wall decoration by Brooke

Tip-sy Tuesday: Truck Bed Organizer

 2 things brought this handy tip about: 

(1) I have a pickup truck (named Junior).

(2) I am short.

When you have a pickup and you put stuff in the bed and then drive around, things go flying everywhere, and when you are short you can't reach anything in the bed that isn't about a foot from the tailgate. So I came up with this organizing system that has made my life soooooo much easier! I saw rubber totes at Costco for around 8 bucks and thought maybe they'd work for my idea - I didn't measure first but for $8 I figured if they didn't work I'd find another use for them, I got lucky and they are the perfect size! I put them side by side across the bed and hooked 2 bungies right behind them to hold in place. It's created 2 cubbies for containing groceries, etc. and now I can reach everything without having to climb into the truck bed 👍

There are a couple small holes in both sides of the bed, the top one is large enough to hook the bungie into but the lower one is too small. I found a couple eye hook screws that fit and I can hook the lower bungie to it. Ignore the net, that was my first attempt and organizing but things slid underneath it - I don't know why I took the picture with the net still there hahah! 

Chocolate-Cola Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for Dave's ukulele group to celebrate their 12 year anniversary, and they turned out great. The 'secret' ingredient (well not exactly a secret since I put it in the title) is coke - I'm not sure that you can tell it's in them but they're really good so maybe that's the reason! I also filled them and made chocolate-cola buttercream frosting - yum. I don't like chocolate cake but the filling and frosting make these just about irresistible hahaha. 

Cake:

• duncan hines dark chocolate fudge cake mix
• 1 small box instant chocolate pudding
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup coke
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil 
• 1 t. vanilla
• big handful of mini chocolate chips

Mix ingredients together, bake according to package directions. Let Cool. 

Once completely cool scoop out a little cake from the top of each cupcake (if you made regular size cupcakes, if you made mini cupcakes then don't remove cake). An easy way to do this is to use the large part of a big metal cake tip, push it into the cupcake, twist and pull to remove a circle of cake. 

Filling:

• 2 boxes instant chocolate pudding (I used 1 box chocolate and 1 box white chocolate pudding)
• 2 cups cold milk

Whisk pudding and milk until dissolved. Let sit for a minute to thicken. Put into a frosting bag fitted with a large tip. Pipe some filling into each hole you made in the step above, then put the cake plug back in the hole.  If you made mini cupcakes you can stick the tip right directly into the top of the cupcake and gently squeeze. Then frost with buttercream frosting, add sprinkles if you're in the mood! 

Frosting: 

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperaaure
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• a couple Tablespoons coke
• a couple Tablespoons milk, half and half, or cream
• pinch of coarse salt

Blend all ingredients together until creamy, fluffy, and smooth. Note: I didn't use all coke for the liquid thinking it might be too sweet - but you make it however you want!