🔥 Around the Campfire (week 47)

Dear Campers ~

Here’s a quick recap of what happened at camp last week I came you missed anything:

Posts ~

11/13: 🔥 week 46

11/14: bird of paradise painting

11/15: seeing eye person

11/16: double chocolate zucchini muffins

11/17: msih: Italian sausage pasta

11/18: grandma Jan’s barbeque (sloppy joes)

11/19: giraffe cork pencil topper

I had a super busy week and didn’t cook much so I’m skipping menu ideas this time! We are off to Tennessee for a few days and instead of new posts I’m going to re-run some Thanksgiving ideas for you, especially how exactly I make my turkey and gravy - pretty foolproof methods in case you need a refresher (since we only make a turkey once a year I always go back and reread how to do it!).

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL! 

Sincerely ~

Jill

Camp Counselor

11.20.21: how to roast a turkey (oh funny, I just told you I’d rerun that one but here it is from last year haha so nevermind, just click the link to read that one!)

11.20.20: apple pie and ice cream hack by B

11.20.19: fall tutu wreath (I ended up putting this on top of a basket and it looked so cool!)

11.20.18: make a pumpkin vase
11.20.17: yarn wrapped wheat
11.20.16: Jen's spinach salad
11.20.15: leaf lantern

Giraffe Cork Pencil Topper

I came across this when cleaning out my desk drawer, completely forgot making these a long time ago with the kids. We did other animals in addition to this cute giraffe but I don’t have pics and can’t remember exactly which animals - I feel like there was a lion but that’s the only other one I can think of.

Might be a fun Thanksgiving craft if you have kids or fun adults that want to make one - there’s cutting and gluing so use your judgement regarding how much help kids will need.

I took lots of pictures so hopefully you can see what I did since I didn’t take step-by-step instruction pics.

To make this giraffe (see pictures Thru out): paint a wine cork orange, add dabs of brown paint for the giraffes spots. Cut a piece of black fringe about 1.5” long and 3/4” wide, make little cuts to fringe it and glue to one end of the cork to make the giraffe mane, just fold it so some is on the top of the cork and the rest is along one end. Cut out 2 small ear shapes from a different color felt and glue on either side of the mane. Glue on googly eyes. Cut a bit of the cork out of the underside and hot glue to the top of a pencil. Wrap a small piece of chenille stem (pipe cleaner) around the pencil underneath the cork. 

11.19.21: cauliflower mac and cheese

11.19.20: loaded brownies

11.19.19: TT: roasting squash

11.19.18: wrapped pumpkin decor (hint - it's toilet paper!)

11.19.17: Al's smoked brisket

11.19.16: glass block 'Fall' 

 

 

Grandma Jan’s Barbeque (Sloppy Joes)

I volunteered to bring sloppy joes to a get together at my sis’s thinking I’d make my favorite recipe (click here for that post) but she said that if I didn’t make them following Grandma Jan’s recipe then Jeff would be super bummed. Well we all know I’m a pleaser so of course I’d make her recipe (plus selfishly I knew I’d be able to blog another recipe for sloppy joes hahah!). Her recipe card actually calls this “barbeque” but has sloppy joes in parenthesis - I’ve never heard sloppy joes called bbq so do what you want with that info haha.

Here’s her recipe as written:

• 1 lb. ground beef round
• 2 large onions, diced
• 1/2 cup catsup
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 T. Worcestershire sauce 
• 2 T. cider vinegar
• 1 T. sugar

Brown meat in frying pan until no longer pink. Drain off grease. Put a paper towel on a plate and add hamburger, paper towel will soak up the rest of the grease. Put hamburger back in the pan, add the diced onion and the remaining ingredients.

Freezes well, make a double recipe and put in freezer for another meal.

So I didn’t exactly follow this recipe (don’t tell Jeff!); I made 4 pounds of burger and cooked the onions in with the meat - I only used 1 large onion and diced it very small, I just drained it really good without putting it on a plate, sprinkled with coarse salt. After removing meat from the skillet I added the sauce ingredients and heated it over low just to melt everything together and then put the meat back in the sauce and stirred until well-combined. I put the mixture in a crockpot on warm for the party. It’s very good! 

I forgot to take a picture, it looks like sloppy joes! 

11.18.21: porcupine meatballs

11.18.20: loaded cream cheese brownies

11.18.19: scalloped carrots

11.18.18: 🔥weekly recap
11.18.17: how to make a paper box
11.18.16: silhouette art by Brooke
11.18.15: roasted cherry tomatoes

Italian Sausage Pasta

Here’s another recipe that I loosely followed from one of my sis’s Home Chef recipe cards - I wouldn’t have thought to bake the casserole without browning the sausage first, they say to just crumble it on top of the pasta and bake - who knew?! Dave and I really liked this, read below for Jen’s review. Here’s what I did to make this almost copycat version:

• 4 oz light cream cheese
• 1/4 cup seasoned croutons, crushed
• 1/4 cup herb butter (I mixed a teaspoon of Italian seasoning into softened butter)
• 4 oz baby spinach
• 8 oz cooked pasta (recipe called for fettuccini but I used curly cavatappi pasta)
• 8 oz marinara sauce
• 8 oz Italian sausage, removed from the casing if using links

Preheat oven to 425’. Place spinach in a baking dish, top with cubes of cream cheese. Add the cooked pasta and marinara sauce. Crumble the sausage into small pieces and place evenly on the marinara. 

Bake uncovered until sausage reaches a minimum internal temperature of 160’, 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and stir in the butter until combined. Garnish with crushed croutons.

before baking, with the raw sausage on top

herb butter

You can also try this with sliced flank steak (cook to at least 145’, 15-20 minutes), ground beef (20-22 minutes) or ground turkey (20-25 minutes or until no pink remains).

Before I show you her review here’s a funny story - while making this I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be spicy enough for them so I liberally sprinkled the dish with chili pepper and red pepper flakes, hoping I didn’t add too much! Here’s her review:

So I’m always afraid to give a negative review – for fear my sister will stop cooking for me.  This one isn’t really “negative” but its not glowing. (like the buffalo chicken one was- go look that one up). Anyway- back to the topic. So this pasta was “ok”.  To be honest and fair my sister did ask if I wanted spicy sausage or regular.  I said regular was fine but that might have been the problem?  It was just kinda ok.  nothing special.  The flavor was ok, just a little blah for me.  She did give me a big blob of flavored butter I had to stir in after cooking-so that automatically combined with the sausage made me feel a little nauseous and like I needed to go for a run- but yet the butter wasn’t enough to give it great flavor.  After trying as is I added red pepper chili flakes which did make it better. 

So, hopefully my honest review doesn’t make my sister not cook for me again.  My advice is to make this – but choose the spicy sausage when you do!

11.17.21: chocolate zucchini brownies 

11.17.20: TT: cast iron pan info

11.17.19: 🔥 week 46

11.17.18: homemade applesauce

11.17.17: planting tulip bulbs

11.17.16: pet food and holidays - do and don'ts

11.17.15: Thanksgiving tree

Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

I made these muffins which do not taste like muffins - they taste like cupcakes without frosting. You decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I’ll tell you that everyone who tried them on my end loved them and didn’t care if they’re called muffins or unfrosted cake hahah! I pretty much followed this recipe using 1/2 all-purpose flour and 1/2 whole wheat flour, canola oil, and added mini chips along with regular.

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup (159 g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, or half milk/half sour cream
• 1/4 cup neutral-flavored oil or melted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup (142 g) all-purpose or whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup (43 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups (about 283 g) shredded zucchini
• 1 1/2 cups (255 g) chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS 

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. (If using dark coated muffin tins, preheat to 325 degrees F.) Add liners to 12-cup muffin tin or spray muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, buttermilk (or sour cream/milk), oil or butter, eggs, and vanilla until well-combined. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Stir until just combined and a few dry streaks remain.
• Lightly squeeze zucchini over the sink by handfuls to wring out excess water. Add to the bowl with the chocolate chips. Stir until the zucchini and chocolate chips are evenly mixed (but try not to over mix or the muffins might be dense instead of light and fluffy).
• Portion the batter evenly into the muffin tin, filling the cups about 2/3 full. Depending on the size of the muffin tin, you may need to bake a second batch (the recipe makes between 12-16 muffins).
• Bake for 17-19 minutes until the tops spring back lightly to the touch. Let the muffins cool for 2-3 minutes in the pan before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.
  
  
  

Found here at Mel’s kitchen cafe

11.16.21: Cincinnati chili 

11.16.20: cast iron pizza

11.16.19: corny corn bread 

11.16.18: pinecone wreath

11.16.17: doggie pupcakes

11.16.16: fall circle garland

11.16.15: DIY cookie stand

Seeing Eye Person

Mark and LeDonna’s dog, Boomer, is 15 and doesn’t see so good anymore - one day LeDonna was joking that instead of having a “seeing eye dog” she was Boomer’s “seeing eye person” and hello, I knew right then I was making her a shirt with those words! Look how cute it turned out and I’ve seen her wear it quite a few times. I just cut the words out with my Cricut and ironed it on a tank top. Easy!

11.15.21: pinecone wreath with feathers

11.15.20: 🔥 week 46

11.15.19: green bean salad

11.15.18: pinecone birds

11.15.17: Brooke's nutella mug cake

11.15.16: deviled egg short-cut (I do this all the time!)

11.15.15: Thanksmas

Bird of Paradise Painting

Cathy sent me this before and after painting she did and I’m super impressed. I love that she isn’t afraid to take old pictures and just paint over them! I’m too chicken to do that (plus I’m not a painter so I would totally be ruining whatever I tried to paint over haha), but she said “can you believe I used to have the rocking chair picture in my living room?” so I guess she figured she didn’t have anything to lose…yeah even painting over something I no longer liked is too scary! 

Here’s what she did to take the rocking chair picture to this new beautiful bird of paradise painting:

I started out by taking the nails that were in the canvas out. Then I painted the whole canvas with white ceiling paint. I had a picture of what I wanted to paint so I sketched it out on the canvas with a pencil. Then I proceeded to paint over all my pencil marks. I did the bottom leaves first and they ended up too big which forced me to modify the picture some. 

11.14.21: 🔥 week 46

11.14.20: picked red onions

11.14.19: MSIH: pumpkin snickerdoodles

11.14.18: pinecone owls

11.14.17: kid craft: decorating apples

11.14.16: curvy keepsake box turkey

11.14.15: wine and design: fall centerpiece

🔥 Around the Campfire (week 46)

Dear Campers ~

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

Posts ~

11/6: 🔥 week 45

11/7: mustard pretzel crusted chicken 

11/8: button storage 

11/9: skillet toasted squash seeds 

11/10: msih: Buffalo chicken casserole 

11/11: unfinished projects

11/12: apple cider whiskey cocktail

What’s Cooking ~

• Grilled halibut stack 
• Burger salad 
• Chicken and refried black bean enchiladas with green salad
• Italian sausage baked pasta 
• Steak, scalloped potatoes, roasted broccoli
• Mini ham and mushroom pizzas, Caesar salad

That’s it for this week, believe it or not still no computer! Hmmm…which is worse - still no computer or having a needle stuck into the end of my nose? That sounds like the game “would you rather” hahaha, both are painful! Have a good one, see you next week! 

Sincerely~

Jill

Camp Counselor

11.13.21:  individual pumpkin pie shortcut 

11.13.20: coin jar by B

11.13.19: candy corn cone

11.13.18: pinecone turkeys

11.13.17: crocheted beanie

11.13.16:  spanish rice

11.13.15: crocheted dog scarf

Apple Cider Whiskey Cocktail

I haven’t made this yet and even tho it’s only 10:00 in the morning it sounds good haha and since I have all the ingredients maybe I’ll make it later! I don’t have an exact recipe, I saw the ingredients on a menu somewhere and snapped a picture of it so I could recreate at home. I think this sounds like a “recipe” you can make to suit your taste.

Combine hard apple cider (like Angry Orchard) with a shot of whiskey (like Jack Daniels) or bourbon; add a splash of sour apple pucker and cranberry juice.

If it isn’t sweet enough I’ll add a touch of superfine sugar or simple syrup. Maybe I’ll make it fizzy by adding some club soda. Sounds like a good fall cocktail. I’ll update with a pic after I make it. Happy Saturday!

11.12.22: charcuterie number boxes 

11.12.20: pine nut pilaf

11.12.19: TT: how much turkey?

11.12.18: herb bubble bread

11.12.17: stuffed spaghetti squash

11.12.16: caramel apple shots

11.12.15: pumpkin roll

Abandon Unfinished Projects

I recently read something in a book that hit me like a lightening bolt - one way to finish unfinished projects is to abandon them. 

If that isn’t an “ah ha” moment for me I don’t know what is. It NEVER occurred to me that I could finish a project by walking away! Genius.

I immediately applied my new-found inspirational tidbit to that latch hook rug that I have been working on and off for years! Remember that beast? (Click here for the post from 6/18) Yes it’s fun, and easy, and would probably be really pretty when I finished it but I now feel like I have permission to walk away from it! I hope someone at Goodwill will enjoy and finish it - more power to them haha!

11.11.22: creamy chicken and rice soup

11.11.20: chessman banana pudding

11.11.19: pony bead Indian corn

11.11.17: DIY paper bows

11.11.16: mosaic project by B

11.11.15: fleece scarf