Baked Egg Cups

If you have a few extra minutes to spare for breakfast (or lunch, or dinner!) try making these egg cups, they're easy to put together and take about 20 minutes to bake.

The basic recipe is to spray small glass ramekins with non-stick spray, line with 2 or 3 thin slices of ham, and break an egg in the middle. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and bake at 350' until the egg is done to your preference - I do about 20 minutes and the white part is cooked thru and the yolk is set but soft (not runny).

Variations: sometimes I add some chopped spinach and a little cheese before adding the egg, or skip the cheese on top (it tastes fine without but the egg looks weird, see my pics). Change it however you want!
Easy, healthy, and something different for breakfast.

without cheese on top - I know they don't look it but they are cooked thru!

ham and egg baked with cheese on top

see, the egg looks better with cheese on top - but taste wise it doesn't need it. Your call!

Karen's Peach Cobbler

I met a new friend earlier this year that lives in the south and she shared her famous peach cobbler recipe with me - since she's in the best area for peaches she should know what she's talking about! I will not pass up the opportunity to beg people for good recipes ;)

I'm going to be honest with you - I have not had good luck making this, tried twice and while both times it tasted great it just isn't right. (click here for my post on how to easily get baked on peach cobbler off the dish!). First time I think I used a baking dish that was too shallow and it went over the sides - I also added blueberries (because of course I couldn't leave the recipe alone, duh what was I thinking?) and maybe that changed it. I did use the full 2 cups of sugar and found that too sweet for my taste, so the second time I reduced the sugar amount... maybe that's why it didn't work this time either? Maybe I should just follow the recipe exactly?!

What I really like about this recipe is that I've never seen this technique for making cobbler before and it's interesting. You melt the butter in the dish, pour the batter over the butter without stirring, add the fruit topping without stirring. When it bakes the batter puffs up all around the fruit so the fruit ends up on the bottom and the top is now the cobbler crust part. Pretty cool.

Karen sent me a picture of her cobbler and it was beautiful of course - so don't let my botched attempts stop you from trying this...but maybe just follow the recipe as is!

first try...

second try...tastes good but still not right. 

PS: her nickname is "Turkey Karen" because she works for the National Wild Turkey Federation, I had no idea there even was such a thing! Judging by the number of wild turkeys we have in the neighborhood I'm thinking their conservation goals are working haha!

Kitchen Tip...make cleaning baking dishes a little easier!

I attempted to make Turkey Karen's famous peach cobbler again (will post that later) and the results were again less than stellar - I do not know what I'm doing wrong - but what I did get is this post about how to remove baked on food a little easier so it wasn't a complete failure. Always lookin' on the bright side hahaha...

Dave's aunt shared this tip with me years ago and I do it ALL the time - maybe you already know it but I didn't so I'll share. Rinse out as much food as possible (without scrubbing too much, it's not necessary!), add a big squirt of liquid dishwasher detergent (not dish soap, use the kind that goes in the dishwasher) and fill up the dish with cold water covering as much of the baked on part as possible. Let it sit overnight (I don't know how long it actually takes, I just always do overnight it seems) and the next morning the burned/baked on bits will just wipe right off - seriously, how great is that? Sometimes it requires a little elbow grease to get it completely clean but usually I can just wipe it right off. Try it peeps, it's a good thing :)

add liquid dishwasher detergent and cold water

ta da! 

Fall Ball Jars

Made these for Ronda's Fall seasonal display table - planning to fill them with popcorn kernels and a tea light. All I did is wrap a corn husk around a small Ball jar and hold it in place with a piece of masking tape (it's about the same color as the corn husk, you can stick it with whatever you want tho). Tie a piece of burlap ribbon over the corn husk . Glue letters (I used some letter die-cut things and the Big Shot and punched out the letters  "F.A.L.L." from Stampin' Up paper that Ronda gave me - you could cut them out by hand of course). Because I don't know when to quit I also stuck in a couple cute little feathers I had left over from another project and were still sitting on my desk -- yup, I haven't been following my new "finish what you start" rule and there's stuff everywhere hahaha. Oh well, in this case I was inspired by the feathers that I was too lazy to put away...so that's a good thing. Just this once :)

Kyle's White Chicken Chili

"Kyle made a BANGING white chicken chili recepie he can send you if u want". 

I got this text from Mickey the other day - and of course I wanted the recipe, duh. Made it for dinner and yep, it's really good! His recipe wasn't clear on amounts so I winged it, do the same depending on how much of the spices sound good to you. I used 4 cans of beans, 1 can of mild green chilies, 1 teaspoon of all the dried spices, 3 bay leaves, 8 ounces of shredded monterey jack cheese, a big handful of chopped cilantro - and no tabasco. Change it up however you want!

WHITE CHICKEN CHILI: 

Sauté one large onion and 4-5 garlic cloves in olive oil/ butter. Or a little of both. 

Add in salt, pepper, quite a bit of cumin, coriander, paprika, bay leaves, and red pepper. continue to sauté until onions and garlic are tender.   

Add a cup of chicken stock and simmer. Add two glass jars of white northern beans undrained. 

Use a rotisserie chicken, remove skin and break apart meat and add to pot.(you can bake your own chicken and use that as welll)

Stir everything good. 

Add a block of Monterey Jack cheese, cilantro, and two cans of green chilis. 

That's it! Asadero cheese is good on top. As is crushed tortilla chips. You can also add a little tobasco as well depending on how you like the spice!😅

Dad Leonard's Sweet Dill Pickles

Tesha was talking (more like raving) about these pickles - her father-in-law makes them, they are the best thing and highly addictive, she eats them by the bowl full, and if anyone asks what she wants for her birthday she always says she wants a jar of these...and that of course made me want to make them asap to see what the fuss is about. Well, she's right. They are very simple, very addictive, and I totally get why they would be her birthday request. I have made two big jars in a couple weeks, can't keep them in the house they are so good - and yep, we are eating them by the bowl full for a snack!

1 jar (46oz) Vlassic Kosher Dill pickles, drain and rinse pickles and the jar.

In a saucepan bring to a boil for a couple minutes, stirring to dissolve:
   2 cups sugar
   1 cup water
   1/2 cup white vinegar

Chunk up the pickles leaving them in pretty big pieces, return to the clean jar. Pour the hot liquid over the pickles, screw the lid back on tightly, turn upside down and put in the fridge for 24 hours. Turn right side up and enjoy.

They are super crunchy, a little sweet and still have a little dill flavor - unlike any pickle I've ever had. Try these and let me know if you're hooked now as well!

Scarecrow Curvy Keepsake Box

I'm new to the whole Stampin' Up paper crafting business and have just discovered this "curvy keepsake" die cut thing that works with my Big Shot. It cuts out 2 pieces that form a small box and after googling for ideas I've found so many cute ideas.  I don't own it (yet) but punched a few out while at Ronda's studio - I thought I'd try my hand at making a couple different ones for her fall seasonal display table - the first one I made is this scarecrow,  decorating it with things I have on hand: corn husk hair, a feather, googly eyes, and twine. Isn't it cute?! These would make great place card holders for Thanksgiving...hmmmm, I might have to make more....;)

Chain Garland

Helping Ronda at her Stampin' Up studio is so much fun and fills me with creative ideas. But having said that, it is also causing me to have a little OCD problem - I cannot bring myself to waste paper or supplies, or throw anything away that might be "useful"...so I end up bringing home all sorts of scraps of paper, bits of ribbon, empty ribbon rolls...you name it and I've thought "I can make something out of that"! Needless to say, I have a whole bunch of little bits of stuff everywhere in my craft room!!

A super easy quick thing I made out of strips of leftover paper is this fall colored chain garland. I "rescued" lots of little strips from Ronda's recycle pile (conveniently they are all fall colored and go together, beauty of Stampin' Up seasonal papers - it all matches!), not sure what she trimmed them off of but they're all the exact same size so I didn't even have to trim them - ahhhh, I love a craft that almost makes itself ha! You will most likely have to cut strips to equal size, but really - that isn't hard. To assemble the chain you just start with one strip, curl it into a circle and staple it closed. Then thread the next strip thru the first circle and staple it into a circle. Continue until it's as long as you want, then find a cute place to drape it - maybe your mantel, from some sticks in a vase,  or over a bathroom mirror...you get the idea. Cute, easy, cheap, quick - and it used up a few of the little scrap papers I have!

Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Yum! That's all I'm gonna say...other than you gotta make these!

For the cookies I just made a batch of Betty Crocker Pumpkin Spice cookies (they are a seasonal item - it's a mix. Click here for a different time I made them with cream cheese frosting), using my small cookie scoop to make small round dough balls. I got 42 out of one mix (so that'll make 21 mini whoopie pies), bake according to the package directions.

For the filling:

Beat together 1/2 cup shortening, 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1Tablespoons milk (more if you need it for consistency) until light and fluffy. Then beat in 1 small jar of marshmallow fluff (7 oz.). Using the same small cookie scoop, put 1 scoop filling on the underside of one cookie, then top with another forming little whoopie pies.

Again, yum.

took these to a party, added some mummy pretzels and the
whole thing was gone SO fast! Click here for the pretzel how-to. 

Wine Cork Pumpkin

Have you seen the blogs Facebook page? Right now there is a picture across the top that says "Drink your wine. We have crafts to do" -  hahah! You know how many corks I have saved up for projects and here is a very cute fun easy one to do with a few of them.

Try to find a bunch that are the same length, for this size pumpkin I used 25. Paint one end orange (or whatever color you want your pumpkin, you could even just leave it unpainted and have it be natural cork color) and let them dry. Lay out what your pattern is going to be to create the pumpkin shape, I did 4 on the bottom, then row of 5, row of 6, row of 5, and the top row 4. One cork is them stem, I didn't bother painting that one. Hot glue the corks together, I found it easier to glue it while face down, that way the front of the pumpkin stayed completely straight - versus trying to build the pumpkin from the bottom up (make sense? see the pics). After the 5 rows are glued together, stand it up and decorate the top - I cut out a couple leaves from leftover patterned paper from Ronda and Stampin' Up and glued them under the stem cork. Tie a piece of twine, burlap, or ribbon around the stem. So cute! You could also use this as a trivet if you lay the pumpkin down - click here to see a different version of a cork trivet that I made last December.