Open House Party Favors

Look how cute these favors are - my sis made stickers that say 'kissing high school goodbye' and filled small bags with kisses, tied with a little gold twist. We put them in a metal bucket for people to take when they left the open house last night (or ate on site, all good haha). Such a fun idea!

6.11.21: prosciutto, cheese and fig crackers

6.11.20: veggie stuffed peppers by Jen

6.11.19: tip-sy tuesday: organizing spare buttons and extra threads

6.11.18: road trip survival kit

6.11.17: perfect grilled chicken marinade

6.11.16: how to make glitter balloons 

June 10th (thru the years)

Open house is tonight, we are crazy busy getting set up so I'm just taking a quick minute to share some other posts from this day thru the years! Gotta run!

6.10.21: air fryer frozen salmon 

6.10.20: hidden painted rocks

6.10.19: wine cork flower wreath

6.10.18: mini-sample hoarder

6.10.17: planting tomatoes 

6.10.16: paper circle garland

Tip-sy Tuesday: stuffed mushrooms

This tip-sy tuesday post comes to you this week on Thursday hahaha, things are a little hectic around here so we have to wing things. Setting up for Brooke's open house today, I literally have 5 minutes to write a post!

Yesterday I shared how to make crab stuffed mushrooms, a little tip for making the smaller sized button mushrooms is to place them in a miniature muffin tin while baking them. They won't tip over that way and it's easy to store and transport 'em. It's a little tip, but a helpful one hahahah. 

Didn't take a picture so imagine what a stuffed button mushroom looks like in the small cups of a mini cupcake tin! 

6.9.21: champagne cupcakes

6.9.20: tip-sy tuesday: multiple ways to make pesto

6.9.19: 🔥week 23

6.9.18: packing tip - pillbox jewelry holder

6.9.17: outfit idea - cuffed jeans and t-shirt

6.9.16: garden update 

Crabby Fun-guy

We love the 'crabby mushrooms' at a local restaurant (Maru), so when the fam came over the other night for sushi bowls and teriyaki I decided to take a stab at making the crab stuffed mushrooms. Of course I can't steal their name so we thought up our own version and my sis said 'Crabby Fungi' (fungi being mushrooms) which sounds like crabby fun-guy so that's the name that we settled on hahahah. 

I used clean button mushrooms, I don't see why you couldn't use another type of mushroom like portobellos. Remove the stem and hollow out a portion of the inside to form a cup.

For the filling - I combined 1/3 block of softened cream cheese, 1 can of crab (well-drained), 2 T. mayo, dash of worcestershire sauce, and 1/4 cup grated parmesan. Stir to combine until smooth. Fill the mushroom cups with the mixture, bake at 375' until filling is hot and melted. 

To make it like Maru does, I served them over some mixed greens with teriyaki sauce on the side. Yum.

Brooke loves crabby mushrooms so I was excited for her to try them, knowing she'd be honest haha, and she said they're just as good as the original - maybe even better. Woohoo!! 

6.8.21: tip-sy tuesday saving the bees

6.8.20: Tip-sy Tuesday: stovetop toasted garbanzo beans 

6.8.19: ice cream sandwich cake

6.8.18: travel blog: Germany to Sweden

6.8.17: Cathy painted over a painting

6.8.16: mini cheesecakes 

Open House Neighbor Gift

In advance of Brooke's open house I made cookies (double chocolate and chocolate chip) for the neighbors and sent this little poem - just trying to be neighborly and give them a little warning! 

In case you can't read it, it says:

We're having an open house to celebrate our niece

It'll be in our side yard (once we chase out the geese!)

Friday night the 10th, from 6 to 9 o'clock

a tent, lots of people, and cars around the block

If there's any inconvenience, we want to apologize

We hope it all goes smoothly (and don't tick off you guys!)

As a thank you in advance, I made you some cookies

Hoping you don't mind our party for Brookie. 

6.7.21: card with belly band

6.7.20: 🔥week 23 

6.7.19: macrame shell holder

6.7.18: travel blog: Norway to Denmark

6.7.17: brownie strawberry skewers

6.7.16: roasted garbanzo beans

🔥 Around the Campfire (week 23)

Dear Campers ~

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

Posts ~

5/29: 🔥 week 22

5/30: Memorial day '22

5/31: Brooke's taco dip

6/1: Tesha's sugar-free almond joy cupcakes

6/2: baked donuts

6/3: 30-day arm challenge

6/4: herb garden pallet

What's Cooking ~

• grilled marinaded chicken breasts, parmesan couscous, sauteed peas and tomatoes  
• grilled pork tenderloin, roasted broccoli, arugula salad with mushrooms 
• steak, steamed green beans, mashed potatoes 
• steak and chicken salad  (using up leftovers!)

awwwwwww...I will totally do this for Sarge if he ever
needs a ride, he LOVES chasing UPS Paul's truck! 

That's it for this week - stop back often to see more crafts, recipes, tips, whatever else I think of to make at camp next week! Bye!

Sincerely ~

Jill

camp counselor

6.5.21: wedge salad dip

6.5.20: family recipe book

6.5.19: skinny chunky monkey cookies

6.5.18: how to pack for an ocean cruise

6.5.17: college 'survival' kit

6.5.16: greek salad

Pallet Herb Garden

I originally posted about making a pallet garden in '16, 6 years later it's seen better days - the landscape fabric that I used to hold the dirt in is ripping out in places and some of the wood is falling apart - so I gave it a remake by removing all the dirt and stapling on new fabric. It's back to being just like it was in '16, and I planted it with my herbs this morning (2 kinds of basil, parsley, cilantro, green onions and thyme). 

Here's the original post on how to make your own pallet garden:

My niece saw this idea on Pinterest last year and got both of us a small pallet so we could each make one. I love this idea - it's pretty simple to do and works great for planting small things like herbs or flowers. It was a success and I just replanted it for this season - it's propped outside of our kitchen so it's handy to grab herbs when I need them.

I figured out where I wanted to put the planting areas on the pallet, one side has 4 boards across but the other has 3; I decided to plant in the top and bottom and leave the center open, with the 3 boards being the front so I can access the planting spaces.

landscape fabric

The pallet is open in the middle between the front and back boards with a board running down the center, so to make a box for planting and to keep the dirt in the box I cut a double sized piece of landscape fabric, folded it over so it's double thick, and used my staple gun to attach it to the bottom side of the top boards (I made two different "boxes" on the top on either side of the middle board) to create a planting box. Repeat for the bottom two boxes. I now have 4 small spaces to plant in. I put the staples close together so the fabric wouldn't sag and holds the dirt. There is probably a "better" way to create the planting box, maybe nail pieces of wood between the pallet boards for the box base, but I was winging it and saw this fabric in the garage and thought I'd give it a try. It works!

underside of the top planting space

looking into the top planting box

Then just plant with whatever you want and whatever fits - I bought a couple plants (basil, lemon thyme, pineapple sage ) and also planted some seeds (parsley, arugula, cilantro). Last year I planted some marigolds in one box but this time I'm trying arugula and cilantro instead. My little pallet garden is so cute!

6.4.21: cricut for a yeti

6.4.20: old fashioned beef and noodles

6.4.19: tip-sy tuesday: sorting socks

6.4.18: june challenge - no shopping

6.4.17: orzo pasta salad

6.4.16: whiskey sour lite

30-day Arm Challenge

Yes, I know today is National Donut Day - but I haven't done any fitness challenge in forever so when I came across this 30-day arm challenge I figured no time like the present to do it! I started this morning, anyone need arm work and want to do it with me? Here's the link that has video examples of each exercise so you don't have to try to guess what 'zottman curls ' is haha, click here or find it at health.com 

6.3.21: peanut butter cheese ball

6.3.20: MSIH: banana oatmeal cookies

6.3.19: wine cork keychain

6.3.18: beach scene in a box

6.3.17: tequila with citrus fruit

6.3.16: amazing (Legends) race (kid party idea)

Baked Donuts

I just heard on the radio that tomorrow is National Donut Day - WOOHOO!!! This news makes me happy and sad at the same time - happy because, hello, donuts (!) and sad because I don't eat donuts unless it's my birthday (sad sigh). But I'm back to happy because I can share this great recipe with you and you can whip up your own baked donuts lickety-split! Head's up you'll need a donut pan, but other than having to go to the store today to get that, this recipe is easy and quick. Yum, I'm jealous y'all might be eating these tomorrow...

This is a repeat post from 2017:

We were invited to friends' for dinner and I asked what I could bring. Cathy said "nothing" but I said I was going to bring something so she might as well tell me what...they are about to go on vacation and she didn't want to eat any heavy dessert so I searched Pinterest for something on the lighter side and came across this recipe for baked donuts - ok so maybe that's not "light" exactly, but it's lighter than fried donuts hahaha!

I've never made baked donuts before and kinda thought they might just end up tasting like cupcakes with a hole in the middle and was SHOCKED that they ACTUALLY taste like a donut! Woohoo! I wish I didn't know this - now I have the pans and they are really easy to make so I'm worried I'll make them all the time! Yikes. On the plus side, this recipe only makes a dozen so I can only go so far eating them...;)

I found the recipe here - it's almost identical to the recipe that comes with the pans other than she topped with sugar. I love the texture the crunchy sugar adds and I think brushing them with butter (don't tell Cathy that part please!) before rolling in sugar really helped make them moist and delish! I coated the bottom along with the top of the donut because in her picture thats what it looks like she did even though the directions don't say that. YUM.

Completely random thing before you read the recipe - I have no idea if my first sentence "we were invited to friends' " is correct! Is it "friend's"?. How to pluralize in this sentence? I cannot even find the answer on google. My editing skills are lacking on this one. Anyone know? I almost re-worded it to "we were invited to Al and Cathy's for dinner" but then I decided what the heck - friends' it is until I hear otherwise.

um, no they are not.

Ingredients 

• 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon freshly-squeezed lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• FOR THE COATING:
• ½ cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted

Instructions

1. Adjust oven racks to center position and preheat oven to 425°F. Spray two 6-cavity donut pans with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour and cornstarch. Whisk in sugar, baking powder, and salt until well blended. Stir in buttermilk, eggs, butter, lemon juice, vanilla, and lemon zest until batter is smooth and combined, but do not over-mix. Evenly divide the batter between the prepared donut pans.
3. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes until the edges of the donuts begin to turn a light golden brown and the tops of the donuts spring back when lightly touched. Allow donuts to cool for 5 minutes in pans before turning them out onto a cooling rack.
4. In a mini food processor, combine the sugar and lemon zest and pulse until finely ground (you may simply stir together the sugar and zest if you don't have a food processor). Place the melted butter in a shallow bowl. Dip one side of each donut in the butter, and then press into the sugar/zest mixture. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes

The cornstarch lightens up the texture of the donuts, akin to using cake flour. If you prefer, you may omit the cornstarch and increase the flour to 2 cups.

6.2.21: yeti gift 

6.2.20: tip-sy tuesday: whipping egg whites

6.2.19: 🔥week 22

6.2.18: message box

6.2.17: outfit tip - full pants with t-shirt

6.2.16: tomato container garden

Sugar-Free Almond Joy Cupcakes

Tesha made these cupcakes and shared what she did - along with a little 'tip' on what she should not have done! I don't have a picture but I think it's a simple visual - chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and an almond half on top (use your imagination hahaha). 

I'll tell you what she did, but don't follow these exact directions until you read the 'tip' below! 

Mix a sugar-free chocolate cake mix according to the package directions. Fill the cupcake cups with half the batter, add a spoonful of the filling*, top with remaining batter and bake according to the box. Cool completely, then frost with sugar-free chocolate frosting and top with half an almond. 

*FILLING: mix a small box of sugar-free white chocolate pudding with milk according to the package directions. Let it thicken, then stir in unsweetened shredded coconut.

TIP: when she added the filling before baking the cupcakes the filling burst out the top and made a mess! She ended up scraping off the filling that baked out before frosting and they still tasted great. To save the mess - bake the cupcakes without adding the filling, then after the cupcakes have cooled scoop out a small divot from the top and add filling to the hole. Replace some of the cake you removed, then frost. Click here to see another post on how to do that. 

6.1.21: vanilla cupcakes with marshmallow filling

6.1.20: wine cork plant markers

6.1.19: race day photos

6.1.18: spiller, filler, thriller

6.1.16: cookie dough cupcakes