Simple things

ISO 100, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/50 sec

 

Day 2 of Capture Your 365!

 

It has been so cold here in the mornings! From our kitchen window, we can look out and see our frost covered glass patio table. This morning, there just happened to be a couple of leaves on the table and it hit me...I just had to take a picture! I probably should have attached that 50mm lens that I am borrowing, but I really didn't want to have to go back out into the cold to take another picture.

 

We really didn't have to go anywhere today and I am thinking we are going to wait until next week to resume our school schedule. So today, Kelsey and I watched all of Anne of Green Gables - The Sequel. It was such a nice, lazy day together, just us girls. We also learned that it was National Cream Puff Day, so Kelsey made cream puffs this afternoon and they were amazing! I may just count today as a school day after all :o)

December Photo Project - Day 23

This year, we changed up the traditional Christmas chocolate fudge recipe. Kelsey thought it would be a good idea to experiment and try to make cookies and cream fudge.

 

We started out with the basic fudge recipe: sugar, butter, and evaporated milk. So just follow the recipe for heating up those ingredients. I have always used the stove top version of the recipe, so make sure you have a candy thermometer on hand. Make sure you have a bag of white chocolate chips, one jar of marshmallow creme, vanilla extract, and about 16-20 crushed up oreos ready. Once the sugar, butter, and milk mixture has reached the right temperature, take the pan off of the stove top and add the whilte chocolate chips. Stir until the chips have melted. Then add the marshmallow creme and vanilla. Once the mixture is nice and smooth, stir in the crushed oreos. I like a pan with aluminum foil to make it easier to remove and cut up the fudge.

 

You can leave the pan on your counter to cool, but I really like a nice cold piece of fudge, so I put the pan in the refrigerator to cool.

 

Hope you enjoy the recipe!

December Photo Project - Day 20

Tried a new recipe tonight - Chicken Potpie Soup

 

Since my husband had two servings, I think this recipe is a keeper... :o)

 

Have you tried a new recipe lately?

 

December Photo Project - Day 17

Gifts for Kevin to take to his work

 

Today I was able to bake some biscotti to go with the chai tea mix. While I was out shopping a couple of weeks ago, I found some cute 1/2 cup containers which I thought would be perfect to give the chai tea mix in. Kelsey helped me bag up the biscotti and get the bags ready. Each bag contains one printed copy of the recipe, one container of the chai tea mix, and 2 pieces of biscotti in a snack size bag. We took some fancy scissors to cut the top of the paper bags, folded them over and put two hole punches toward the top of the bag. Threaded some red ribbon through the holes and tied a bow.

 

What homemade gifts are you making this week?

December Photo Project - Day 10

I just love this chicken enchilada recipe!! It is even easier to make when you have shredded or chopped already cooked chicken in your freezer.

InstaFriday!

Have you had a chance to pop over to Life Reaaranged yet? I am really enjoying taking the time to recap my Instagram photos each week!

Here we go...

 It was a Pinterst week around here! Kev cut and put together this mason jar box project for me, so I spent time this week finishing it up. To give the wood a weathered look, you start by staining the wood with a somewhat dark stain. Since the stain has to dry, of course we move onto other things...

 

So about mid afternoon on Monday, Matthew mentions that he has to bring something to his Italian class the next day. Good thing he knows his way around the kitchen. He actually made biscotti and impressed his teacher!

Getting really tired of pale hospital green paint in my bathroom. It is the only room in the house that hasn't been repainted since we moved in here 6 1/2 years ago. Not really sure if I want to go with these colors yet...

 Happy Compassion mail day! I received a letter from Abner this week!



Finally finished! One summer afternoon, Kelsey and I found a cute tear-off pattern sheet at Michael's. I thought, that would be a really cute blanket to make! Three months and over 200 rows later, it is done! Now to decide what to do with it, Kelsey thinks I should save it for one of my future grandchildren. Not sure if I should hang onto it for that long...

Kelsey and I enjoyed fall tea and cookies one afternoon this week. The last few days have been unseasonally cool, overcast, and a little gloomy. Looks like our normal October weather will be returning soon... :o)

Mason jar crate done! After the stain, you spray paint the wood with an antique white paint. Then you sand off most of the spray paint to give the wood that 'weathered' look. I forgot to take a picture of the box with the jars and flowers in it! I was hoping to use it as a centerpiece for our table, but it is larger than I anticipated...still trying to decide where it will live...

Yesterday brought use a sprinkle of rain, so we lit a few candles. Kev and the kids made this tea cup candle for Mother's Day, isn't it cute? :o)

 Pinterest Party treat! Vanilla Chai Cupcakes

 

Since I had 2 cups of hot tea yesterday, I starting searching on Pinterest for mug cozy patterns. Found this one which is actually a mug cozy coaster! So quick and easy to crochet, I made 2 yesterday!

 Got together with some of the young ladies from our church for our first Pinterest Party! We each brought our own project supplies and spent a few hours this afternoon working on one of our Pinterest pins. We have already scheduled our next meeting we had so much fun!

 

I had planned on working on this project, but I didn't have the right color paints at home. So a little last minute scrambling and I was able to work on these which will be new ornaments for our Christmas tree this year.

It was a pretty busy day around here, but we made time tonight to work on Christmas cards for unsponsored Compassion kids. This is something we did last year too. If this is something you might be interested in doing, be sure to leave a comment and I can get the information to you.

So how was your Instagram week? Be sure to link up with Life Rearranged to share your Instagram week with us!

Home Ec Day

One of the nice things about homeschooling is the opportunity we have to set aside the books every now and then and work on some fun projects!

On Saturday, Kelsey spent many hours working on her quilt project. She said something to the effect of, "I like working on projects on Saturdays because I have more time to work on them. During the week, I don't have enough time to work on projects." So I told her that we can always put the books away during the week and work on special projects.

This morning Kelsey decided that today would be the day to finish up her quilt! All that was left to do was attach the binding. After I rotary cut all the strips for her, she did all the sewing for the binding. Then we pinned the binding to the quilt, so she could start sewing that on. Once the binding was sewn on to the front of the quilt, then I spent time pinning the binding so she could 'stitch in the ditch'. I prefer to hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt, but Kelsey didn't want to spend that much time finishing up this project.

Once she was done with her sewing, a little repair needed to be done. While I did a little repairing for her, Kelsey made dinner for us! Pioneer Woman's Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce!

 Here is the finished quilt!

 

And here is the finished pasta dish!

 

She even helped out with some of the laundry today too! I believe I will give her an 'A' for the day!

 



A little bit of meal prep

Over the next two days, I will be helping out at the Compassion table at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. I am really looking forward to sharing our Compassion story with the people in attendance and praying that many children will be sponsored!

Since these next two days will be long days away from home for me, I wanted to take some time tonight to prep a couple of salads to go with dinner the next couple of nights. Kelsey was a great help getting everything ready! I found both of the recipes in one of my Gooseberry Patch cookbooks.

Our menu is pretty simple for the next few days.

The first salad was a Crunchy Strawberry Salad. I did make one substitution by using chow mein noodles instead of the ramen noodles. Since we won't be having this until Friday with pizza, we will wait to mix in the dressing and the noodle/walnut mixture.

 Next we have a Greek Salad with cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, Kalamata olives, and feta cheese. I love using a homemade dressing since I know what is going into it. I did find a similar recipe on one of my favorite go-to recipe web sites. The one I made did not include garlic or bell peppers, two things I love! I may have to give this other one a try next time!

Even though it was a little warm this afternoon, I went ahead and baked up a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies. Of course I brought a couple of cookies along with me to the conference to enjoy! This recipe is from America's Test Kitchen. I had printed out the recipe when we still had cable TV and they had featured the recipe on the show. You currently can't get the recipe unless you join their membership (which if you just want to join the trial to get the free recipe, I don't think you will regret it!)

What type of meal prep do you do during your busy weeks?

Making good use of that Costco chicken

Going through my Food Network magazines, I had found a recipe for a BBQ Chicken Pizza that sounded really good. So I pinned it on my Recipes I Want to Try board.

Yesterday, while we were at Costco, I picked up one of their roasted chickens knowing that the pizza would be perfect for dinner tonight.

I have some garlic shoots growing in my garden, so I added some chopped garlic shoots to the top of the pizza. This will definitely be a repeat recipe at our home.

There was still quite a bit of chicken left on that chicken, so I added it to a stock pot and will be making chicken broth. It will make some great soup this weekend since we are expecting quite a storm again.

How do you stretch out a whole chicken?

Today's kitchen line up...

Tomorrow, we will be having dinner with some friends and I was asked to bring dessert. Browsing through Pinterest, I had found a recipe for these Lemon Tea Cookies. I thought they would be really nice to have with a cup of tea after dinner. I have to say, I was not impressed. They were very dry. I didn't even bother making the glaze for them. We might just have to stop at Costco and pick up an apple pie for dessert instead.

Dinner tonight, however, included 2 tried and true recipes from around here...Irish Soda Bread and Split Pea Soup.

Until a few years ago, I don't believe I had ever had Irish Soda Bread. I used to get a yearly calendar from Gooseberry Patch that had a new recipe each month. As far as I know, we are not Irish, so we don't really get into the whole Irish dinner celebration, but it is fun to make something different for St. Patrick's Day.

The Split Pea Soup recipe comes from Cook's Country. For a while I was receiving their magazine and I used to watch their TV show when we still had cable. I was so glad we still had some ham in the freezer to add to our soup for tonight.

I did add some new recipes to my Recipes I would like to try Pinterest board today though. My sister renewed my subscription to the Food Network magazine for me for my birthday. So instead of tearing out magazine pages, I have been finding the recipes on the Food Network web site, then pinning them on Pinterest. In fact, I think we need to try this pizza recipe really soon!

Do you have a new recipe you would like to try soon?

Favorite Photo of the Week

Tonight was taco night. Last week when Kelsey and I were grocery shopping, I was able to purchase one package of corn tortillas and got the second one for free. So I knew we would be making our own taco shells. I wasn't really wanting to fry them in oil tonight, so I looked for a recipe to bake them in the oven. I was so happy when I found this recipe.

After reading the reviews, I decided not to place them directly on the oven racks to bake them. So with a little creativity, I came up with the idea in the above picture to bake them properly. I probably could have baked them just a little bit longer, but everyone really liked them!

Pasta Fagioli

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/88904268@N00/386956914/

I just love a hot bowl of homemade soup in the winter time!

A while back, I had seen a recipe for Pasta Fagioli on this crockpot blog. Since I am not a big crockpot fan, I went on a search to try to adapt the recipe for the stove top. After making a couple of changes, I was able to come up with this recipe:

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 pound Italian sausage

1/2 red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, sliced

2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

4 cups beef broth

1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce

2 t oregano

1 T Tabasco sauce

1/2 t salt

1/4 t pepper

1/2 cup pasta

Saute beef and Italian sausage until meat starts to brown. Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes, beef broth, oregano, salt, pepper, pasta, sauce, Tabasco, and pasta. Simmer until carrots and celery are tender, about 45 minutes.

This recipe is more than plenty for the four of us for dinner as well as one night of leftovers. When I feel really ambitious, I made a double batch and freeze 2 meals worth in freezer bags.

Chipolte...one can goes a long way

Browsing through Pinterest has been a fun way to find new recipes. Found one last week and it was interesting reading the comments. The recipe calls for 1-2 chipolte peppers, but some people didn't read it correctly and put in 1 to 2 cans of chipolte peppers. Yikes!

The first recipe we tried was Mexican Lime Chicken Soup:

Source: rachaelraymag.com via Yvonne on Pinterest

This was the one where you want to make sure you only use 1 to 2 chipolte peppers, not 1 to 2 cans! I didn't care for working with the boneless, skinless chicken thighs, so I will probably use chicken breasts in the future. Also, we added frozen corn to the soup and I am thinking some beans would be a nice addition too.

Since I now had more chipolte peppers and sauce to use, I was on the hunt for another recipe using chipoltes. I was so glad when I saw a friend pin this one:

Source: bumbleberrynotebook.tumblr.com via Yvonne on Pinterest

Spicy Chipolte Chicken Pasta! This is suppose to be like what they serve at The Cheesecake Factory. I have never been to The Cheesecake Factory so I had nothing to compare it to.

The recipe involved many steps and lots of dishes:

I changed up the recipe a little bit. Asparagus was $4.99 a pound at the store this morning, so I used broccoli instead.  I had red and yellow bell peppers, so I used them both. We didn't add the frozen peas, but I an thinking that frozen corn might be good with this one. Also, because Kevin really likes chicken, I used twice as much chicken as the recipe calls for.

Paired with salad and a roll or some bread, this made a very filling dinner. Plus we have enough left over for another night's dinner and Kevin to have leftovers for lunch.

Now to find more recipes to use up the rest of the can of chipoltes!