Flag Door Hanger

I saw something like this online (probably Pinterest) and filed it away in the crafting part of my brain (which is about 95% of my brain haha) for a later date. Well, cleaning up my craft room I remembered I still have leftover material from my Patriotic Wreaths and this idea popped up in my mind. 

This came together so quickly - just cut 26" strips of red and white material and tie them to a hanger. Then cut 18" of blue material and tie in between the red and white strips on the left side.

I added some ribbon and pompom trim to finish it, but not sure it really needed it - you know me tho, never know when to quit haha! 

I hung it on the door going into the house from our garage where it'll be protected from the weather - hoping it doesn't fall off the hook...if it does I'll close up the hanging loop with pliers.

one year ago: painted mason jar with paper pinwheels
two years ago: healthy berry trifle

My Sis is Hungry: Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

AHHHHH.. my sister making me dinner.  How I love it.  When she didn’t make it for me one week the husband and teen both asked where the Sisters dinner was.  The problem is they asked this while in the process of eating the meal I created.  Rude people. 

Rude. 

Anyway, they were excited to have a meal to review (which turns out is different than the critique’s they give my meals on a daily basis).. insert eye roll here. Lets cut right to the ending.  This meal was delicious. It looked like tuna noodle casserole (aka ugly pile of mush) but was fantastic.  It got high reviews all across the board.

Brooke’s first initial bites got a typical teenager response of “kinda good” .  Which for a 15 year old is high praise.   She didn’t love that it had celery.  “too much celery” was her thoughts.  She wished it had broccoli instead.  I’m sure that would have been just as good.  She also wished it had cheese.  She then got up and added some cheese to it and decided it wasn’t necessary and was just as good without it.  I also tried it with the cheese just to test it and agree with her - not necessary because it was delicious without. 

The husband also liked it a lot.  He gave it a “pretty darn good”.  Again high praise.  After he ate 2 servings of it he commented that he hopes it was healthy.  If it's healthy he gives it an 8.  If not healthy that takes it down to a 7 ½.  He has to save those extra calories for his bag of dorito’s as snack later.  As a separate note, he doesn’t like rice but for some reason in this mush of sauce you honestly couldn’t really even pick out the rice.  It could have been pasta.  It was all just a serving of mixed flavors. 

All in all this was really good and we liked it all around.  It had plenty of sauce and seemed like something I could actually make for my family.  I’m sure if I made it though they would ask where the Sister meals were, but still worth a try.

CHICKEN AND WILD RICE CASSEROLE

Ingredients:

• 1 6oz. package long grain and wild rice mix
• 1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
• 1 stalk celery, chopped (1/2 cup)
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 10.5 oz. can condensed chicken with white and wild rice soup or cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
• 2 Tablespoons snipped fresh basil or 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey
• 1/3 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Prepare rice mix according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350'F. In a large skillet, cook onion and celery in melted butter over medium heat until tender. Stir in soup, sour cream, wine, and basil. Stir in cooked rice and chicken.
3. Transfer mixture to an ungreased 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake, uncovered, about 35 minutes or until heated through.

Makes 4 servings. Per serving: 468 cal, 43 g. carb, 29 g. pro.

*Jill here - I used a 90-second microwavable bag of Uncle Ben's long grain and wild rice mix, low-fat cream of chicken soup, light sour cream, rotisserie chicken, 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning blend, and grated parmesan. It seemed a little bland (before baking) and since it's for my sis (and we know they like things not bland haha) I added a few dashes of Frank's hot sauce, coarse salt, and coarse pepper, oh - and I sprinkled some garlic powder on the onions and celery while they were cooking. 

original recipe found here. 

Cherry Pie Cookies

I bought cookies last week (gasp! shocking I know) because I was in a hurry and needed an easy quick dessert - "Michigan Cherry Pie Cookies" caught my eye; judging how quickly they were consumed I thought I'd try to recreate them myself this week. I looked at the list of ingredients on the label, but of course couldn't find a recipe that seemed right so I winged it and made this recipe up which I don't think I've ever done before...they didn't turn out at all like the store-bought ones hahaha but they do taste good and are fortunately totally edible.  What I'm not a fan of is the texture - they are quite cakey-soft and that's not my favorite cookie texture, but the flavor is good and so far no one has complained about them (and they would for sure!).  I think I added too much baking soda/baking powder -  I'll definitely experiment with this recipe again and shoot for more of a crunchy/chewy texture. For now tho I'll share what I did, mostly so I'll remember, and if you like soft cake-like cookies these might be for you!

Preheat oven to 375'

Beat until soft:
   1/2 cup butter, room temperature
   4 oz. softened cream cheese

Gradually add:
   1/2 cup white sugar
   1/2 cup brown sugar

Blend until light and creamy. Beat in:
   1 egg
   1/2 cup sour cream

Sift together in a separate bowl:
   1 1/2 cup flour
   1 teaspoon ground ginger
   3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
   1/2 teaspoon baking soda
   1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Add the sifted ingredients to the butter mixture and beat until smooth. Stir in:
   1 cup dried tart cherries (approximately, I used a small bag of mixed tart cherries)

Drop by small spoonfuls (I used my standard cookie scoop) onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 375' for about 8 minutes until lightly browned on the bottom, remove to a baking rack to cool.

Makes about 40 small cookies.
 

Tip-sy Tuesday: Vegetable Gardening (tip to produce more fruit)

Saw this on Facebook so it must be true 😉

Mix together in a spray bottle: 1 teaspoon Epsom salt and 4 cups warm water. Spray on plant and then again 10 days later. If this actually works the claim is that the plants will produce more fruit due to the boost of magnesium, especially works for tomatoes, peppers, and roses.

I'll try it, shouldn't hurt anything and I'm all for producing more fruit!

Wire Basket with Ribbons

A $3 wire basket, a bunch of random ribbon and trims, and some hot glue turned into a fun project!

Bought the basket before I knew exactly what I was going to do - it might surprise you but I have a surplus of random ribbon...so...this happened:

Experimented with different ways to get the ribbon to hold - didn't like using liquid glue, and also didn't like seeing the underside of the ribbon when looking down into the basket. So I cut each ribbon long enough to go from side to side with extra to wrap the inside sides of the basket - make sense? By tucking the ends of the ribbon under the bottom and then weaving it thru the wire holes the ribbon stayed in place. When I finished weaving all the ribbons I went thru and hot glued the ends in place.

started with liquid glue but changed my mind...

This isn't hard to do - just weave ribbons thru vertically, then weave in more horizontally - play around with different trims and ribbon sizes. The number of spaces on the basket made it impossible to weave every row alternating under and over - so I just winged it (or wove it) the best I could.

this photo shows you a better example of what I mean by tucking
the ends under the inside of the basket, you can see one tail end by the above arrow

once you've woven all the ribbons go thru and hot glue the
ends down, trim off the extra if necessary

I finished by leaving the two horizontal row ribbons really long and tied them together in a big bow.

Around the Campfire 🔥 (week 25)

Dear Campers ~

The what you missed recap, if you missed anything, at camp this past week:

Posts ~
6.16: 🔥 (week 24)
6.17: paper tropical flowers
6.18: tip-sy Tuesday: balsamic reduction
6.19: owl cupcake cake
6.20: my sis is hungry: posole
6.21: Lego key holder
6.22: Karen's layered taco dip

What's cooking ~

• grilled chicken breast, cauliflower veggie tots, roasted asparagus
• bbq ribs, kale salad, apple-raspberry pie
• grilled steak, stuffed mushrooms, cauliflower veggie tots (twice this week, they're so good - find them in the freezer section), caesar salad

Miscellaneous things keeping me busy ~

• camped for a couple of days at the beginning of the week, that's why we had pie one night - there is a tiny local store right by our campground and Mar, the owner, makes the best mini pies! I've never had apple-raspberry, yum. Dave says he is limited to one mini pie a week but is nice enough to give me a taste (of the filling, I'm not a crust fan) LOL. 
• read "Furiously Happy" by Jenny Lawson who struggles with mental illness - this memoir is at turns very funny, very disturbing, a bit ridiculous, raunchy, kooky, and highly readable. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Also started reading #2 in the Clan of the Cave Bear series The Valley of Horses. 
• Forgot to tell you last week that I read "All We Ever Wanted" by Emily Giffin - interesting storyline but didn't love it, although I finished it so will give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️ unlike "Family Trust" by Kathy Wang that I couldn't even finish (which doesn't happen very often!) 
• Took 'Nick' the fish camping with us - I thought he could hang out in a clear tupperware thing for a few days but he got all weird so we bought a small 1 gallon tank for him to camp and travel in...my .22 cent goldfish is now up to like $80 bucks in tanks, nets, cleaning stuff...always something. 
  

Check back next week for a couple crafts, a couple recipes, probably a review by my sis, and who knows what else! I'm still playing with my new-found, newly-organized Legos so we'll see if anything post-able happens :) Have a great week!

Sincerely ~

Jill

camp counselor and mini pie taster 

Karen's Layered Taco Dip

Karen brought this to a party at my sister's and it's so good I asked if I could please have the recipe (oh yeah, and also if I could give to you guys too, promise I didn't even think about keeping this a secret just for myself haha). And to make it even better, she serves it in a wide, shallow dish that I'm obsessed with and on the hunt for one like it. I didn't take a great picture, it's a large round shallow ceramic sort-of pizza dish - love.

Mix together 8 oz. sour cream, 1/4 c. miracle whip, and taco seasoning.

Layer (in whatever dish you want but I'll say it again, her shallow dish is perfect):

• refried beans
• guacamole
• sour cream mixture
• shredded cheese
• chopped tomatoes
• chopped green onions
• black olives

Serve with scoops. Mmmmm...

Lego Key Holder

Well, well, well...apparently I really do have too much time on my hands. 'Cuz after organizing an entire large box of jumbled Legos from Cathy, I googled for things to make with them and found the idea for this simple key holder - and I have SO many right now that I'm pretty sure I can make anything I want. (Except for a unicorn I saw that needs white round legos that I don't have which bums me out but I'll get over it.) After following the example idea - which is cute as is and you could leave it alone right here - I had to bling it out...because hello, look at all the fun flowers, flags, and little bits of pieces parts I have!

copied the idea I saw here...

which is pretty cute...

...then I jazzed it up!

I've said it before - I can waste time like nobody's business 😉

Side story - showed my new key holder to Dave, he picked it up and one of the keychains fell off, he goes "uh oh, sorry I broke it". Ummmmm, no, they're Legos, just stick it back on - and he didn't know how!!! The poor deprived man has never played with Legos before! So sad...hahahahha

My Sister is Hungry: Chipotle Sweet Potato Vegan Posole

Irish Stew?  Is that what my sister said this was called?  Whatever its called we loved it.

First of all I didnt tell the husband “stew”.  He likes soup.  So when he said “oh yay! Soup!” I didn’t correct him.  As he started giving his feedback though I realized I should have told him because his first comment was that there wasn’t very much broth.  Nope.. not a lot of broth in stew.  HAHHAHAHA..  his second comment was that she should have cut the carrots up smaller.  Nope, not carrots.  Those are sweet potato chunks buddy.  (insert eye roll here).  Again I didn’t correct him.  If I said sweet potato he would have immediately said he didn’t like it (like a small child).  So ok.  Note to Jill- those carrots were in too big of chunks. Haha.

Overall we loved this.  It was thick enough that it felt like an actual meal (which is what I don’t like about soup). I like to chew my food.  I also loved how spicy this was.  Just enough.  Some folks might have thought too spicy but for us was just right. 

This stew with a piece of bread was a perfect delicious meal.  It also was just as delicious reheated the next day- love that also.

*Jill here: No, it isn't Irish Stew - I guess I need to make her that so she knows what it is haha. I didn't tell her it's actually "Posole" because I don't know what that is so she sure isn't going to - ok, I just googled it and it means traditional Mexican soup. I just learned something!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium poblano pepper, seeded and diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 (14 oz.) can fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 (14 oz.) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (14 oz.) can hominy, drained
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile powder (or to taste)
• 1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced (about 2 cups)
• salt and pepper to taste

for serving (optional):

• lime wedges
• fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Coat the bottom of a large pot with olive oil and place over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and poblano pepper. Saute for about 5 minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the garlic and saute for about 1 minute more, until very fragrant.
2. Stir in the broth, tomatoes, beans, hominy, cumin, oregano, chipotle chile powder, and sweet potato. Raise the heat and bring to a simmer, then lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, until the sweet potato is tender, about 20 minutes. 
3. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.
4. Ladle into bowls and serve with cilantro and lime wedges (if using).

4 servings

per serving: calories 378, fat 9.8g, carb 58.5g, pro 15.7g

Notes: I had canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce left over from making the Honey-Chipotle Chicken Pasta Salad so I substituted that instead of using a poblano pepper and chile powder as called for in this recipe. I also substituted chicken broth for the veggie broth - which obviously makes it not vegan now,  but since I'm not vegan I'm ok with that. 

found at www.connoisseurusveg.com

Owl Pull-Apart Cupcake Cake

I absolutely love how this pull-apart cupcake cake turned out, and it wasn't hard to make at all (bonus).  There are lots of inspiration photos online, this is how I made mine and I think he's adorable. You could easily change the colors and candies that you decorate with tho if you want him to be different - use your imagination! I will say that I think the extra individual owls are a little scary looking, I might not make them in the future - or maybe decorate them another way LOL. 

Bake whatever flavor cupcakes you want, the owl as shown took 14. Make a batch of buttercream frosting (see below) - spoon out a small portion to leave white for 4 cupcakes making the eyes and feet, and tint another small portion orange for the 3 cupcakes in the center of his body. Add cocoa powder to the remaining frosting and frost the rest of the cupcakes. Arrange the cupcakes on a large tray like in the picture above:
top row - 2 white cupcakes
second row - 1 chocolate, 1 orange, 1 chocolate
third row - 1 chocolate, 2 orange, 1 chocolate
fourth row - 3 chocolate
bottom row - 2 white

Put the cupcakes tightly together, then blend all the edges adding more frosting as needed to fill in gaps around the cupcakes - making it look more like a whole cake instead of individual cupcakes.

To decorate as shown:

•  chocolate wafer cookies for the wings, base of eyes, half pieces for the eyebrows
• gummy life savors for the second part of eyes, topped with an M&M
• cut an orange gummy candy into triangles for the beak, and yellow gummy candy into strips for the feet. 
• sprinkle coconut and mini chocolate chips over the body. 

The remaining baked cupcakes can be turned into individual owls as shown by using half pieces of wafer cookies for wings and smaller pieces for the eyebrows, smaller triangles of orange gummy for the beaks, skip the feet. Or if you don't need that many owls you can always freeze the unfrosted cupcakes for later!

Buttercream Frosting:

-1 stick soft unsalted butter

-4 cups confectioners sugar

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-pinch of coarse salt

-milk or cream (a couple tablespoons, add a little at

a time until you get the right consistency)

cream the butter until smooth, add the

remaining ingredients and beat until smooth

and fluffy.

6/19/17: how to distress jeans
6/19/16: gnocchi with tomatoes and snap peas