Crochet Cat Basket (2nd version)

Here's the last of the crocheted animal baskets I've been making - a couple days ago I posted the 'Nahla' dog basket I made for Macey, and since I made a pet basket for one niece I thought I'd make a cat one for another niece and her new kitten, Tula. This is similar to the one I made for Janis (click here for that post) but this one is bigger and based on the same pattern that I used to make the black dog one. There will definitely be more crocheting of baskets in the future, they are simple and pretty quick to make - plus they are fun and cute! Right now I'm taking a crochet basket break and working to finish two afghans I've been avoiding for way to long hahaha. 

(Skinny) Skillet Chicken Parmesan

 This is another delicious looking recipe from Macey - I love the idea of putting the chicken and sauce over vegetables and cauliflower rice instead of pasta. Good job Mae! Here's what she did, in her words:

In case the text is too small, here's help:

Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, oregano and brown them in an ovenproof skillet. Spread basil pesto, parmesan cheese, and marinara over the chicken and place the skillet in a hot 350' oven and cook until the chicken is done. Add more cheese, fresh basil, fresh tomatoes on top if you like. Serve the chicken and sauce over top of sautéed medley of veggies (she suggests onions, spinach, red peppers, tomatoes, basil, Rotel mild chile tomatoes, and cauliflower rice). 

Yum, this sounds and looks amazing - thanks for sharing Mace!

Dog Crochet Basket

A while back when I made the crocheted owl basket and small cat basket I sent a picture to the fam and Macey made the comment that if I made the cat one in black it would look like her dog Nahla - so I did. And it does hahaha. I added a bit of fringe at the ears this time to make it resemble a yorkie, isn't it cute? It's much bigger than it looks, it's about 10" wide and tall. 

I combined the pattern for the owl basket found at bhg.com, and the cat basket pattern found at woolstreeet.ca to come up with this dog basket. 

Lemon Honey Dijon Chicken

It's my self-proclaimed 'healthy week' - here's the first of the dishes I made this week. Dave and I both loved this recipe and will definitely make it again - easy and healthy! 

I served it with beans and kale but it wasn't necessary!

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest 
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
• 6 skinless bone-in chicken thighs 
• 3 sprigs rosemary
• 1 large fennel halved and sliced 
• 1/2 onion sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions:

• 1. In a large resealable bag, combine the honey, lemon zest, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, garlic powder and 1 teaspoon salt. Add the chicken thighs to the marinade. Seal the bag and massage the chicken with the marinade to coat well. Marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes or up to 4 hours in the refrigerator.
• 2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking.
• 3. Add the rosemary, fennel and onion in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Drizzle with the oil and season with the remaining salt. Toss well to coat. Spread the vegetables evenly over the bottom of the pan. Place the chicken pieces on top of the vegetables allowing the marinade to drip off before adding to the pan. Bake for 50 minutes, basting with any remaining marinade every 10 minutes for the first 20 minutes. The chicken should be golden brown and cooked to 165 degrees F. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving topped with the softened vegetables.

my notes: I used skinless boneless chicken thighs. Omitted the onion. Baked for about 40 minutes. To serve I scooped the veggies with a piece of chicken on top, then drizzled with a little of the pan juices. Click here to see yesterday's post on how to work with fennel.

4 servings

318 calories per serving, 20g carb, 34g protein

click here for original source 

.20 - crocheted messy bun hat

.19 - 🔥week 2

.18 - lentil gravy

.17 - bath bombs

.16 - cover a side table

Tip-sy Tuesday: fennel

I forget about fennel. Don't know why that is, every time I have it I love it! You can do a ton of things with the bulb like shave it and eat raw in a salad, wedge and roast it, slice and bake it, even the pretty fennel fronds are edible. I saw a healthy chicken recipe on Giadzy that includes sliced fennel bulb so I picked one up, that led me to thinking maybe you've noticed fennel in the store or farmers market because it's pretty and unusual but didn't know what to do with it? Today's tip is an easy one - how to use fennel.

Maybe preparing it is obvious, but I'm sharing anyway - to slice/wedge/shave for a recipe, just cut off the top fronds, trim the underside, remove the core, then have at it according to the recipe. You literally just lop off the top. Don't throw the fronds away, if you don't want to eat them then put them in a vase of water and enjoy as a decoration!

Tomorrow I'll share a chicken and fennel recipe that is delicious! Click here for the recipe 'lemon honey dijon chicken'

.20 - 🔥week 2

.19 - sour cream chicken enchiladas

.18 - sweet dill pickles

.17 - what to purge list

.16 - closet organizing

Creating a Schedule...

Ok guys, I don't know about you but wintertime and covid is making my days all mush together and I'm finding that not following a schedule is not good for me - I'm getting lazier and lazier, and more of a procrastinator every day! Even tho my days are basically open and I can do what I want when I want, I'm spending whole days not actually doing anything and I don't like to function that way. So, I know I've talked about this before, but I'm making myself a schedule. Like making a chart and filling it in with a cleaning schedule, tasks, exercising, practicing the piano, blogging, crafting, etc. I could do this with a planner but I really enjoy having a color-coded weekly chart to follow - the visual helps me. How about you? Are you finding yourself floating thru the days thinking you should be getting something done but instead are killing time by making color-coded charts to follow hahahahah? 

I'm not showing you my actual chart because it's made up dumb things that I want to get done; I need to establish a better routine so the sheets actually get changed on Monday, I do laundry twice a week, the bathroom gets cleaned on a regular basis, etc. Even things like 'water plants' and 'clean up emails' are getting scheduled. Yes, I realize this is not an actual schedule that has to be followed like if I was working in an office and had meetings, etc., but this will definitely help me get back on track to having a productive day, feeling better about myself, and getting shizzle done!

I created a table in my word processing app, filled it in and printed it out. If you want or need to establish a routine for yourself you can do a color-coded table if that's your thing, write down on a piece of paper setting goals and tasks on each day of the week, write it in a planner - whatever system works for you! 

This is sort of a non-post post but it's what I made at camp today :) Have a great day!

PS: it's also self-proclaimed 'healthy week' which I haven't done in forever, I have a couple really good recipes to share this week that are delicious and good for you! Healthy week means I need to drink more water and less alcohol, get on an exercise schedule, stop snacking and make good food choices! Bye!

🔥Around the Campfire (week 2)

Dear Campers ~

Here's a quick recap of what happened at camp last week - I'm just realizing it was all food and 3 of the days were guest bloggers! Yay, I do enjoy guest bloggers hahaha!

Posts ~

1/3: 🔥week 1

1/4: Jen's pork steak in cast iron skillet

1/5: tip-sy tuesday: proofing dough

1/6: povitica (apple cinnamon filled bread)

1/7: no-bake cookie bars by Brooke

1/8: tortellini in creamy tomato sauce by Macey

1/9: pub beer cheddar cheese

What's Cooking (menu ideas) ~

• lemon honey dijon chicken 
• grilled pork chops, roasted butterkin squash, broccoli
• tuna, roasted garbanzo beans, caesar salad
• baked chicken breast, cauliflower parmesan 
• bbq ribs, roasted baby potatoes, chopped kale salad
• stuffed salmon (Costco), roasted asparagus
• meatloaf, mixed veggies, mashed cauliflower

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy ~

• this is the first time we have been in Michigan for the winter in a good long time - and I'm not complaining about the cold except my craft room is over the garage and not insulated very well...not insulated very well at all!! I've been trying to turn on the space heater every morning but it takes hours for it to warm up, literally it's been in the low 40's every morning in the craft room! I'm telling you this to justify why I posted only recipes last week hahahah, it's tooooooo cold to make anything in my dedicated craft space - so yesterday I had the excellent idea to move a work table into the house where it is warm. I'll still have to get my supplies out of the craft room but at least I have a space to work now while it's SO cold in the craft room!
• read 'Dark Matter' by Blake Crouch. Um, I think I liked it? I mean, I didn't understand half of it but the pieces that I followed I liked hahahha. It's a science fiction alternate reality thriller - if you're into that, and if you're smarter than I am about quantum physics then maybe you'll love it more than I did! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
• also read 'What Happens in Paradise' by Elin Hilderbrand, book 2 in a trilogy about a woman who finds out her husband was living a double life, and her 2 sons that each have their issues, so they all go to the Virgin Islands to figure out what the heck their husband/dad was involved in - it's a decent beach read (are they still called 'beach reads' if you read them snuggled in an afghan in the winter? haha) that's entertaining enough to stick with but not so great you are going to want to buy the book - perfect easy read that you should just borrow from the library. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2. 

That's it ~ hope you had a great week, you're staying healthy, staying creative, staying warm! Stop back next week to see more fun projects, recipes, whatever else I can think of to make at camp! Bye!

Sincerely ~

Jill

camp counselor

.20 - sweet and sour cabbage

.19 - watching for happy moments

.18 - savory monkey bread

.17 - kitchen tip, date your spices 

.16 - bean and vegetable soup

Pub Soup

My sis and b-i-l came over to watch Michigan State play and I'd been wanting a reason to make this soup (I wasn't sure Dave would like cheese soup and didn't want to end up eating it all myself hahahah); we had this cheddar beer soup and a make-your-own sandwich bar and I am so surprised to say how much everyone loved it! Like "this is better than a restaurant" loved it. I was a tiny bit embarrassed to tell them it's just doctored up cheese soup from a can after they were all "this is the best ever" LOL. Seriously, make this soup - then run out and re-buy the ingredients so you'll be able to make it again very soon (at least that's what I did!).

Ingredients:

• 3 cans (10.5-oz each) condensed cheddar cheese soup
• 1 can domestic beer
• 1/3 cup real bacon bits
• 8 oz. package shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 t. crushed garlic
• 1 t. coarsely ground black pepper, or 1 t. seasoned pepper
• 3 T. sour cream to top each bowl of soup
• 3 T. bacon bits for garnish, if desired
• 1 T. finely chopped fresh parsley for garnish, if desired

You can use a crock pot or make this soup on the stove.

If you are using a slow cooker, spray the inside of the crock with nonstick cooking spray. If using a large saucepan on the stovetop, there's no need to spray the inside. 

1. Empty the soup into the crock or the saucepan. Stir in the beer and mix well; add the bacon bits, shredded cheese, garlic, and ground pepper; stir or whisk the contents until thoroughly combined and smooth. 

2. Cook on LOW for approximately 2 hours until piping hot. If making on the stovetop, heat over medium, stirring frequently to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan, until hot. 

3. If the soup is too thick, add a little heavy cream to thin it slightly; if too thin add more shredded cheese.

4. Ladle into soup bowls or large mugs, spoon a dollop of sour cream in the middle of each bowl, sprinkle with bacon bits and parsley if using. 

note: twenty-two percent of the alcohol is gone in twenty minutes if the soup is heated to one hundred eighty degrees. Using a pan that has a large surface area will help cook out the alcohol faster.

from 'Raspberry Danish Murder' by Joanne Fluke

Creamy Tortellini with Sausage and Veggies

This is from my niece Macey and looks (and sounds) amazing - I want to eat this right now and it's 10 o'clock in the morning hahahha!! Yum. Thanks for sharing Mae!

I love how she sent the recipe and photos to me, in case you can't read it (and I can't make it any bigger) I rewrote what she did - note she also cooks like I do, not following an actual recipe just winging it!  

Creamy Sausage Tortellini with Spinach, Mushrooms and Sun-dried Tomatoes

• Italian Sausage links, cut into small pieces and cook in a pan until done
• fresh spinach
• chopped sun-dried tomatoes 
• tortellini stuffed with spinach and mozzarella cheese

Combine the above ingredients, then make a sauce from:

• one can of chopped tomatoes with their juice
• a splash of heavy whipping cream
• mozzarella cheese to taste
• spoonful of sour cream

She wrote that she doctored with random seasoning's she found in her bf's cupboard - so season it to your liking. Try Italian seasoning, garlic salt or powder, any Italian herbs like basil, thyme, oregano, etc. or just salt and pepper. 

Can't wait to try this - I'm a sucker for all these ingredients (a girl after my own heart!). 

No-Bake Cookie Bars by Brooke

Brooke brought me a couple of these bars - she made up the recipe herself and quite truthfully I had my doubts but she's right, they are delicious. Not super sweet and we're thinking the melted chocolate is what holds them together, Jen loves them so much she wants to make them herself but is trying to find something a little healthier to bind them (I say go for the chocolate but that's just me hahahah). Good job B! Here's what she did in her own words:

Hey guys! I made no bake cookie bars! They are so good! I used 2 cups of oats and then 1/2 a cup of peanut butter and 2 tablespoons of honey. Then I melted 1 cup of chocolate chips in the microwave and added it to the bowl and mixed it all together. Then I put it in a bread pan and let it sit for an hour or so. Then I cut them up! They were so delicious!