DD#39; Tuesday Trigger ~ Cross My Heart and Cakes in Jars by Nota Baker

Ah, the blessing of a new week.  Hello, Monday!

 

Did  you miss me yesterday?  I was pretending to be something I'm not, which is a world-rewound baker and Food Network cooking show hostess.  We'll get to all that, if you have time to sit back with a tall Bev.  This is a VERY long post, photo-heavy.

 

But first, after the frivolity in the kitchen, I made a card.  Since you are prolly here for the card and not the baking since this is a card blog and not a baking blog, then I'll start with how my day ended.

 

I happened to see the current Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World when I was over there reading the wonderful interview featuring my friend, Geri (Manitoba Stamper), who is the current Moxie Fabber!  Oh, yes she dii-idd!  And so fabulously well she did ~ high five, Geri!

~~~

The Tuesday Trigger is thus: 

It's so cute.  I used the dipity fitting colors from this week's Dynamic Duos challenge of pool party and pink pirouette.

And made this:
 

It ended looking more like a billboard than a chair, but that's okay.  It's an advertisement for love and it's what my trigger trigged, so thaz whah happened.

 

~~~

 

Next, in case you want to click out, please let me introduce you to our two new friends standing over by the background papers.  We are so, so fortunate to have Barb Murphy from Barbles (Kinsale Creations) and Jill (JD) from Ribbon Inspired.  It is a delight for me to bring you two more wonderful blogs!  You will see lots of incredible inspiration when you visit them!  Thank you, Barb and Jill, and welcome on board the cray-cray crafting train!

 

~~~

 

So, okay.  Last Christmas I made yummy Cranberry Hootycreek cookies and put them in Mason jars as gifts.  It was really fun and in that link is a link to an awesome food site.  Well then, my friend, Kim of Cupcakes, Cards, and Kim told me about this fun cupcake you make in Mason jars.  Even though the original recipe idea is for making peppermint cupcakes as Christmas gifts, Kim made them last year as little Valentine gifts.  Well, I was all over that.

 

Kim sent me the link, which I patiently waited until yesterday to try, just in time for Valentine's Day.  The recipe is from the sensational Our Best Bites website.  Here is a picture of them from their website: 

Aren't they lip-smackin' adorable?

Mine, not so much.

Here we have the ingredients all lined up because after several years of cooking, I decided 14 times was one time too many to get half-way through making something and find out I didn't have all the greedy ants.

You can also see my little jars greased and floured, although the recipe says you don't have to do that.  I'm old school and I got an A+ in "Don't Take Chances."  Next to the jars is the chocolate sauce.  Bottom left is the batter.  Bottom right is the batter poured into the jars.

Happily, I put the pan in the oven.  Immediately, I realized I hadn't added the melted chocolate to the batter and I whirled around and whipped open the oven door to pull out the cookie sheet only to realize, additionally, that a cookie sheet gets boiling hot after only TWO SECONDS in the oven and who needs fingertips on their right hand anyway?

(Too bad I forgot how grateful I was for pot holders just last Thursday!)

BTW, here I am just before all that came down, with photographic evidence of how happy I was that my little jars were all ready for the oven.  See, behind the green colander full of lids, that bowl of chocolate and beside my right elbow that tray of jars all battered up and ready for the oven?  What a dope. 

And, yes, I'm a dope without a stitch of makeup on, which should tell you right there that I'm no TV food show hostess.  So what?  Who cares?  LITS!  Oh, but, girl, you better believe I was holding that right hand in a towel for a whole different reason two minutes after that picture was taken! 

Moving on.  Mister jumped in to help, adding the chocolate to the jars,

coz he's a chemist and a pro at measuring and pouring and doesn't have shakey hands like some of us.  I stirred it in with the end of a wooden spoon and it was all good. 

~~~

After you bake them and cool them, you add a layer of chocolate ganache, so these are really choco choco latte cupcakes!

~~~

On to the frosting.  This type of frosting was completely new to me.  Following directions, I started the process by cooking flour and milk on the stove, just like a roue for a white sauce.  It ends up like this:

Then, if you're lucky like me, you have your Mister reach up to that top shelf you rarely use and you bring down the electric mixer you own.  The mixer you got for a wedding present 42 years ago.  The mixer someone left the price tag on and you can see it cost a whopping $12.97 and it still runs like it's brand new!

Then what I did was, I took the bottle of food coloring that is colored red and I poured it into my fluffy sugar and butter mixture.  I also dropped the top in the bowl.  Little Miss Perfect in the back of my head whispered, "Why is the top of the red food coloring bottle yellow?"  I completely ignored the little pest and charged up the beaters. 

YELLOW?!  Shizazz!  Well never mind, back into the cupboard I went, grabbing the bottle of RED food coloring and in the end the frosting was a beautiful bright rose color, even though it looks like a disgusting orangey coral in the pictures.  You have to trust me on that.  Doing the cooking thing first and then mixing that in with the butter/sugar?  YU-UM.  It ends up like whipped cream, not that cloying sweet you sometimes get with frosting.

Of course we had to try it, just to make sure it wasn't poison!

~~~

Then I went and made a card, but first I noticed something cool.  I know a lot of people are suffering with Mother Nature's antics and I'm sorry about that.  I know we are blessed to live here, but we have had lots of freezing temps, which is unusual for us. 

So in the morning the birdbath is frozen solid, as evidenced by the dinosaur egg placed on top.  (Just kidding, I wanted to see if you were still reading.)

and, yet, look at the joy the afternoon brings!

~~~

And so it goes.

Here is the link again for the recipe from the Our Best Bites website. I would love it so much if my friend Kim, whose website banner includes the word "cupcakes" for heaven's sake, will make them again this year and post pictures of how they are supposed  to look!!  Or you!  Give them a try and let me know how it went for you, please.

As for me, I'm pretty sure that our local bakery needs my business!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy your day. LITS!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

 Paper:  PTI white, SU! pool
  party and pink pirouette
Stamp: Azad Earles B029
Netting and flowers from
  snippets drawer

 



A Mason Jar Recipe, a Cool Food Website, and Ramblings

Hi There!

 

You are either up to your eyeballs in alligators still prepping and preening and fretting and fussing to get everything done for Christmas and you'll never see this post, or you are taking a break, or you are calling it quits, game over, good enough, and you're putting your feet up and blog-hopping.  Hello!

 

Food Matters

 

I wrapped the last present yesterday, the cards are sent, and I actually got some baking done for the neighbors!  (Truth be told, I baked several times in the last week, but Mister has eaten all the treats as fast as I can bake them!  Not counting the twenty two I had to eat strictly in the interest of poison prevention science.) 

 

I wanted to find a recipe to make up some cute mason jars and I came across Cranberry Hootycreek Cookies In a Jar.  Here is one of my cute finished quart jars.

 

Since that recipe only makes 18-24 cookies, I went to find a website with a full-size recipe because I flunked math.  Well, girl, I have to share the remarkable website where I found my recipe!  It's called Beth's Favorite Recipes and oh my chowder and crumpets, she is quite the proliftic cook!!  You'll want to visit!

 

So here are my "Cranberry Hootycreek Cookies."

 

Seriously, Hootycreek!  Not named by me, it already existed.  I don't know where it came from, although it probably has some meaning.  If I didn't already want to talk about other things today, you know I would make up an exciting background history!  They are sooo yummo!  You can click on the link above to get the recipe.

 

~~~

 

Help Out If You Can

 

I've been working on cards for children to send to Amber's Damask Love "Drawn Together" love-raiser mentioned in my post here.  Some may feel that sending cards is just a burden to the town, because the cards all have to be surveiled.  The Drawn Together program will amass the cards and Amber will take care of sending them to Newtown in a large package. I was really moved by the underlying idea Amber had when she formulated her Drawn Together program. 

This program is not about sending sympathy cards to the families of the slain children (which, please, can be nothing more than a blessing to them).  This program is about the surviving children of the town~the other elementary school children who went to Sandy Hook Elementary School and survived the massacre, but whose friends were killed.  If there is enough participation, the program will reach out to other impacted children in the surrounding Newtown school districts.  All of these surviving children will live with this trauma for the rest of their lives.  It cannot be a burden to send cards and art kits to these children to help them articulate their feelings and to let them know that they are special, too, and that they are in our thoughts and prayers as they struggle in the months to come.  IMHO.

Here are a couple of the cards I've made so far.  I'm making four of each card.

 

 

I think some little girls like froggies, but I am going to make a few non-froggie ones as well.

~~~
 

Helping Our Package Employees (HOPE)

 

Besides baking, and making cards, and other random acts of kindness, I am starting an international program of HOPE to help our package delivery personnel.  Over the years, I have become more and more aware of a need for a fund-raiser to supply our Postal, UPS, and Fed-Ex workers with sports equipment.  Day-in and night-out, these hardworking people move our packages so that they arrive safely at our homes or places of business.  These workers spend their breaks on loading docks or in windowless rooms in the backs of buildings.  As such, is it any wonder that they recourse to using our packages as sports projectiles as a way to blow off steam and get some exercise?  To wit:

 

 

Whoot can blame them?  Please click on this stink to send money or new or used hard balls, soft balls, soccer balls, footballs, foosballs, and yarn balls.  Your support is appreciated!  Your fragile purchases will henceforth arrive in tacked. 

 

As time and volunteers allow, there are future plans for a subchapter to be formed focusing on "Front Door Accuracy," in the hope that you will no longer have to dive into the nettle bushes to retrieve your packages.  We will be looking for experts in DRT (Doorknob-Recognition Therapy) as evidence is wide-spread that all doors have some kind of doorknob / handle.  It is unclear in the medical community why delivery persons are lacking this normally innate knowledge and eyeball-focus recognition.  I will provide further updates in the new year and, again, thank you for your support.

~~~

 

Madge

 

Our friend Madge never fails to rock the "What It IS, Man" humor!  And I'd like to thank my friend, Sandee, from In The Hills of North Carolina for posting this funny, which I have lifted to share with you in the event you didn't see it at her place:

 

 

Of course, IRL, Christmas is not weird when we pause to remember the true meaning.

~~~

 

Okee-doodle, poodle!  That's quite enough ranting and rambling for today.  I'm going to go finish off my kid cards on this rainy day and be thankful that the Mayans got it wrong!!  They got it so wrong, I just looked out the window to find a faint rainbow arcing from sill to sill.  Awwwwww.

 

I hope you, in whatever level of chaos you are in, will enjoy your day.  No, seriously, enjoy your day!

 

As always, thank you for stopping by to visit. Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

ColourQ 155 and Retro Sketch 30 ~ Thank you!

A Where-Did-Monday-Go Hello!

Was your Monday memorable?  Maybe I should keep for myself one of the journals I make and put a lovely lapel on the front called "Memorables."  It might be nice to collect them, like marbles.  I love marbles and I hope never to lose mine, as you'll see later. 

I survived yesterday's molar crowning by the DDS.  Turns out Novocaine makes me want to bake and there I was with half a case of pears which were all going yellow at once.  I've never cobbled, crumbled, crisped, or buckled pears before, but when I found this recipe for a Peach and Raspberry Crumble, I was intrigued, so I rolled up my elbows and ooh la la:

Double-Dog-Dangit, razberries are SO good in crispy, crumbly, buckles!  I had no idea.  I've mixed cranberries with apples, and blueberries with peaches, but never razberries with anything.  (BTW, I didn't have fresh citrus on hand per the recipe, so I just used the dry citrus peel spices in the leettle jars and lemon juice and it was super fine.)

~~~

I went to a great workshop last week so my card for you today is a thank you card I made after wards for the fab hostess, Sara.  I'm entering it in ColourQ challenge #155* and Retro Sketches challenge #30 by Wendy.

My card:

I love this sweet image for Sara.  Walking up to her front door for the first time, I noticed she had a child's swing hanging from a tree in her front yard.

~~~

Speaking of marbles, I have a childhood memorable of my friend's father who used to scare the crap out of me the few times I went over there to play.   Her name was Glennie June and her parents were very old.  Glennie June had a sister who was in high school for heaven's sake!  Her father had a booming voice and one time he walked into the kitchen where we were having Kool Aid and he yelled at his wife, "Emma Louise, you have lost ALL your marbles!"

She whipped around and whacked him with good nature, but not before I saw the look of fright sweep over her face.  I was conflicted between thinking it was cool that an old lady still collected marbles and thinking it was weird that an old lady still collected marbles. 

Either way, I knew that for some reason it had scared her for a second, so after that I made sure I kept track of ALL my marbles.  I still have them.  Even my special bottle of metallic marbles. 

They are ready for playing, proudly on display as memorables on either side of my Lil Bo Peep pitcher, and proof that I still have my marbles, no matter what Mister says.  However, one of these days I'm sure the twins will sell me my own marbles out of one of their cardboard retail shops, which would be proof that I'm wrong and, in fact, I have lost my marbles!

~~~

Arteests, head's up!  We have another new crafter come to follow along with us!  Please welcome Sandy of Simply Sandy!  Thank you, Sandy!  She's just made a crack-up card featuring Captain Von Undervare! 

~~~

Enjoy your day and make it memorable!   As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Paper:  SU so saffron, old olive,
  rich razzleberry, pale plum;
  Stampland glossy
Stamps:  Stampingbella ars 102,
  "Matilda on Her Swing"; and Penny
  Black 00107D "big thanks"
Ink:  Marvy and SU markers
Su  punches

*So, turns out I should have posted first and then baked yesterday as I went and missed the deadline for the ColourQ challenge.  I'll link it later during the After Tour so it's all good.

Color Throwdown 202; LIM Week 78 ~ Sketch; and Summer Tomato Recipe

How You Doing Sunday?

We went over to have dinner with the kids yesterday and to see DDIL's sister and her husband who are visiting from Minnesota for a few days.  We haven't had the pleasure of their company for many years, so it was great!  They have eight children and Papa and I are their adopted grandparents!  Sadly for us, but happily for the parents, the kiddies didn't come along this trip. 

Halfway home, I nearly lost the hearing in my left ear as I smacked myself for not taking a single picture!  Everyone there should smack themselves, too, because they didn't think of it either.  At least Papa and I can blame it on age! 

I thought about finding a picture somehere here on the Intertube and saying it was us, but I think I'm allergic to something in my garden.  I've just been out gardening for a couple of hours this morning and my left eye is now watering and burning.  (Could it be a delayed reaction to whacking my own self in the head hours ago?)  So anyway, let's hop back on the focus train, shall we?  Because of my eye, my vision is blurry, so I'm not inclined to go off searching for a picture of fake relatives.

I can, however, present you with a card I made, which just might be the reason you stopped by.  Today I made another UBERCAS card for two challenges:  a sketch challenge and a color challenge.  The perfect combo.

The yummy colors come from this week's Color Throwdown (CTD202) challenge:

 ~ and the sketch comes from this week's Less Is More (Week 78) challenge, hosted by the talented Mandi and Chrissie.

 ~ and my card:

UBERCAS.  The sentiment sticker background color is more Razzley Berry IRL. 

~~~

With tomatoes  and basil coming in (here at least), I want to share this incredibly delicious stew.  It is SO, SO easy!  The source is Sunset magazine.  It sounds funny to eat stew or soup in the hot summer, but this heats only long enough for the cheese to start to melt, so it's petid.  Also, ours is always more juicey and soup-like than they show in the picture.  Which is what you want because the juice is amazing and perfect for warm, crusty bread!

Warm Tomato and White Bean Stew

Ingredients

3* pounds ripe tomatoes, rinsed
About 1/2 cup slivered fresh basil leaves
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced or pressed
About 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
Fresh-ground pepper
1 can (15 oz.) white (Cannellini) beans, drained and rinsed
8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, drained and cut into cubes (1/2 in.)
About 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Crusty bread.

* Personal note:  We find that we prefer the recipe when we use closer to 2 pounds of tomatoes for a better ratio of tomato, to bean, to cheese.

Click to see savings

Preparation

1. Core and dice tomatoes. In a 4- to 5-quart pan, combine tomatoes, basil, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper to taste. Let stand until tomatoes are very juicy, at least 15 minutes.
   
2. Set the pan over medium-low heat and gently stir in beans. Stir occasionally until mixture is warm to touch, about 5 minutes.
   
3. Add mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Gently stir just until the mozzarella has softened and starts to melt into strings, 2 to 3 minutes. Taste and stir in more salt if desired. Spoon stew into shallow bowls and top each serving with a sprinkling of more basil and parmesan cheese.

~~~

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!   As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Paper:  SU very vanilla and pool party

Stamp:  SU, unknown (old) set

Ink:  SU rich razzleberry; PTI Hawaiian shores

Sticker sentiment:  K & Company

Bling: Crystal Affects

Ham and Vegetable Soup for a Small Army

A couple of days ago I posted a picture of my lunch:

and the recipe was requested.

1 pkg (1 lb) Great Northern beans

1 ham hock
2 boxes (32 oz. each) chicken stock (organic, if possible)
8 medium potatoes, diced
8 ribs celery, diced
8 medium carrots, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 (29 1/2 oz) cans of plum tomatoes (I used Trader Joe's)
2 packages of Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix
2 T. pepper

Soak beans overnight in a large soup pan.  In the morning, rinse.  To the beans, add the chicken stock and the ham hock and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Remove the ham hock to cool.  Separate the beans and the stock by draining the beans through a colander so you end up with the broth in one bowl and the beans in the colander.  Return the broth to the pan, set aside the beans.  (Setting aside the beans at this point, while the vegies are cooking, keeps the beans from overcooking and getting mushy.)

To the stock, add the vegetables*.  Cook for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Remove the ham from the ham hock, dice, and add to the soup.

Cut the canned tomatoes into bite-size pieces and add, with the juice, to the soup. 

Return the cooked beans to the soup.

Add the two packages of Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix and pepper. 

Simmer until the soup has heated through.  Serve with crusty, warm bread and butter.

(*For quicker cooking, place the diced vegies in a two-cup glass measuring cup, microwave two minutes, and then add to the broth to continue cooking until done.  It works out that two cups is about the measurement of each vegie in the recipe, so I diced the potatoes, nuked them, dumped them in.  While they were nuking, I diced the celery, then nuked them, etc.)

That's basically it.  Normally I add a bay leaf and peppercorns when I cook the beans and ham hock, but this time I didn't.  You can.  You can also add any other vegies you like or have on hand.  I think I had a half a green pepper so I diced and added that.  You can also omit the potatoes if you feel that having both beans and potatoes is too much starch.  Where I come from you can never have too much starch, except maybe in your shirt collar.

This makes an enormous pot of soup!  To make it easier to handle, I divided the stock, beans, and diced ham in half after they were cooked.  I then made twin pots, one for us, one for a friend, adding half the vegies and seasonings to each pot.  You could also freeze one-half at this point and then add the remaining ingredients at another time and have a "fresh" pot all over again.

It's also, by the way, a thick and hearty soup.  If you like it brothier (could be a word), you could add more chicken broth, water, tomato juice, wine ...  How can you not love making soup?!  It's so fun to be creative and so hard to make it wrong.  The only thing really original about what I did was using the Good Seasons dressing mix.

If any of you chefs out there see anything that sounds askew, let me know.  I just typed this up from my memory and you all know how reliable that is ~ not to mention my typing!

Wing it and enjoy!