Vintage Halloween

Wednesday, September 26, 2018 No comments
 One of my current obsessions are old cardboard holiday cutouts.  I found this little pumpkin on Etsy sometime last spring....because it's never too early to start planning for fall.  I wanted to give him a home amongst my blowmolds this Halloween.
I also have been on a garage purge, and I found this old frame in my garage with some fun molding, so I used a can of dollar spray paint from Walmart to transform it, then framed the old pumpkin cut out that I taped to a piece of scrapbook paper.  It was a super simple transformation, and it helped me give an old frame new life!

Magnolia Mac and Cheese

Monday, September 24, 2018 No comments
I got the Magnolia cookbook b/c one of my friends had it at her house and I flipped through it and was so impressed by how easy the recipes were, and it turns out (so far), everything I have tried has been A)  Easy, but more importantly B)  Delicious.  The nutmeg in these macaroni really made the flavor pop.  Now....back to my research!
Magnolia Macaroni
Ingredients:  24 oz macaroni noodles, 1/2 c. unsalted butter, 1/4 c. flour, 1 T black pepper, 1 t. salt, 1 t. ground mustard, 1 t. nutmeg, 2 c. milk, 1 lb Velveeta cheese (chopped), 2 c. sharp cheddar cheese (grated), 1 c. Gruyere cheese (shredded)
Instructions:
1.  Boil macaroni in salted water according to package instructions.
2.  In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in salt, pepper, mustard, and nutmeg.  Add milk and cook until bubbly and thick.  Add Velveeta cheese and Gruyere cheese.  Cook and stir until cheese is melted.  Stir in pasta.
3.  Top with 2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes until cheese is melted.

Caramel Apple Salad

Friday, September 21, 2018 No comments
I realized calling this a 'salad' is a far stretch, but there are at least 2 healthy ingredients in there, and a salad is a salad is a salad, so.....leave your judge-eeee opinions on some other place.
I've been determined to make one of everything caramel apple right now, and so I had a lot of left overs from the last 17 caramel apple recipes and realized I could make this recipe (originally from The Gunny Sack).
It says it serves 12, but....who are these people?  They need to learn to up their portion size.  Maybe 8?
So if you are looking for a non-salad salad that could be called a dessert, but doesn't have to be, so let's not go there, try this one!
Caramel Apple Salad
PRINT HERE
Ingredients:  
Sugared Pretzels:  1 c. pretzels (roughly chopped-measure after chopping), 1/2 c. chopped pecans, 3/4 c. brown sugar 3/4 c. melted butter
Cream Cheese Mix:  8 oz cream cheese (softened), 3 c. diced apples (I peeled mine), 1/2 c. caramel sauce (I just grabbed the already made kind in the tub near the apples), 3 c. whipped cream
Instructions:  
Sugared Pretzels:
1.  Mix together the pretzels, pecans, brown sugar, and butter.
2.  Spread on a large baking sheet (I lined mine with foil).  Bake at 400 for 7 minutes.
3.  Cool and then break into small pieces.
Cream Cheese Mix:
1.  Beat softened cream cheese until smooth.  Add in caramel sauce until smooth.
2.  Fold in whipped topping, apples, and sugared pretzels.

One Pan: Bacon and Biscuits

Wednesday, September 19, 2018 No comments

These aren't blog quality photos, but I'm just over here living real life and I want to remember this trick.  I have a friend who is a GREAT cook and she is always telling me about tricks she does.  I've been wanting to try this one out forever, and it did not disappoint.
-Take a large sheet of foil and line a pan.  Place bacon on the pan (not touching).  Place it in your cold oven, turn it to 400 degrees and bake for 20 minutes.
 -Pull out your back.  Take frozen biscuits and dip them in the biscuits-dip both sides in the pan and cook according to directions in the same pan.  You don't need to soak up the grease, the biscuits are doing that for you (unless you just have ridiculous amounts, but....we are already kind of being ridiculous).
-Cook according to your bags instructions.
These turned out so delicious.  It's definitely not healthy, but sometimes...that's the best kind of breakfast.

Emmy Award Party

Monday, September 17, 2018 No comments
I headed to GMT today and shared some last minute Emmy Award watching party ideas. The concepts work for any awards party, and most of the things I pulled from around my house.
 I printed off pictures of all the different shows in the running for best Comedy, and I put them on toothpicks, and then tossed them in these little top hats I found at the party store (I saw that idea on pinterest).  You could also make your own top hats with paper.
 I also made some ballots to follow along, and then plates using some dollar store black plates, and striped papers I attached with the brad on the side so it opens and closes like a director's clapper.
Last up I made a little popcorn bar.  I pulled a bunch of seasonings, chocolate chips etc from my pantry.  It's  DIY flavor station using pantry finds.

Caramel Apples

Friday, September 14, 2018 No comments
 One of my favorite desserts is carameled apples.  When I was little I used to eat them all the time....and by eat them, I mean scrap the caramel off with my teeth.  Now that I'm older I still do that, but I also take a moment to feel thankful I still have my teeth to do the scrapping b/c heaven knows I haven't been kind to those two front teeth!
I've even made carameled apples in the past....but I only vaguely remember it and I remember the caramel running off.
I'm sure it was a complicated recipe, but in my old age, when I'm not feeling grateful to have teeth, I also look for simpler solutions, so.....apparently you can melt a 14 oz bag of unwrapped caramels and 2 T of water over low heat, coat your apples, and there is not dripping away (assuming you use a dried apple).  One bag does 6-8 apples assuming you don't eat half the bag before you dip the apples.  Not to say that happened, but, if it did happen, you'd only be able to make 4.  And....I totally count this as one of my fruits.

Vintage Fabric Projects

Wednesday, September 12, 2018 No comments
 I always see adorable old quilt tops and old fabrics when I'm out in about.  I'm sure if I dug deep enough in my closet I'm the owner of some of these fabrics.
I was recently shopping at several stores and saw some really cute ideas for using these fabrics in fun ways.
 At one antique store, they took old quilt tops, cut them into triangles, sewed the edge with a zig zag stitch and then sewed them to seam binding to make a banner.
 I also saw this adorable yoyo banner. They made oversized yo yos and sewed a rough circle around the middle so it layed flat, and then sewed together the yo yos to make a banner.  I'm definitely going to be using this onw in the not too distant future.  It's so quirky and adorable.

Onion Rings

Monday, September 10, 2018 No comments

Onion rings are so simple to make, but I rarely make them b/c oil is not my favorite house odor, but sometimes, it's worth it.  I made some last week for a Labor Day get together, and nobody complained about the scent because they are soooooo good.
If you've never made these...or really any fried friend (fried pickles, anyone?), the process is the same.
I soaked rings of onions I sliced about 1/2 inch thick in buttermilk overnight.
When I was ready to make them I pour about an inch of vegetable in a pan and set it to high (so however big your pan is, you need almost an inch of oil so your rings are able to float).
I put about four cups of flour and 4 T of seasoning salt into a dish.

I took the buttermilk covered rings, tossed them into the flour mix until they were well coated.  Then I put them in the hot oil.  Once one side in golden brown (about 3 minutes), turn them over.  The second side usually doesn't take as much time.  I put them on paper towels to drain the oil and added a little more salt.
These were gone so fast I never got a good picture, but....it was worth the effort and the house odor.

Caramel Cookie Bars

Thursday, September 06, 2018 No comments


I like to eat icing with my icing.  In other words, I have a sweet tooth.  These bars are so sweet they even made me pucker in the best way possible.  The caramel centers reminded me of some toffee treats I had in Ireland, but the sweet cookie dough were all American.  This will definitely stay in my rotation.  I say caramel is the candy of September, but I think I can convince my theme loving self to let this recipe make an appearance in other months.  I found the original recipe at A Spice Perspective.

Caramel Cookie Bars
Ingredients:
Cookie Layer:  1 c. butter (softened, but not melted), 1 c. packed brown sugar, 1/2 c. sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 t. vanilla, 1 t. kosher salt, 1 t. baking soda, 2 1/2 c. flour, 2 c. semisweet chocolate chips
Caramel Layer:    10 oz soft caramels (unwrapped), 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
Instructions:  
1.  Heat oven to 350.  Line a 9x13 inch pan with foil on the bottom and up the sides.  Spray it liberally with cooking spray.  
2.  Use an electric mixer to mix the butter and sugars until fluffy (about 2 minutes).  Add the eggs, vanilla, salt, and baking soda.  
3.  Add the flour a little at a time.  
4.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  
5.  Press half the dough into the bottom of the pan.  
6.  In a medium sauce pan mix the sweetened condensed milk and unwrapped caramels over medium.  Stir until the caramels are melted and the filling is smooth.  
7.  Pour your caramel mix over the pressed cookie dough.  

8.  Drop the remaining cookie dough in small clumps over the top of the caramel mix.

9.  Bake for 30 minutes (until the center is set).
10.  Cool completely, lift the bars out of the pan with the edges of the foil and cut into squares.
*The original recipe says you can freeze these.  Thaw individually and eat them later.  As if any of these will make it to my freezer....



Freeze Ahead Breakfast Tacos

Tuesday, September 04, 2018 No comments
 I'm still working through the ingredients in my freezer I need to get rid of so I can refill it in hopes of all those snow days this year will bring.  Next up were these roasted potatoes from Trader Joes.
 This is not an ad, it's just an attempt to make space.  I cooked up the potatoes according to the package, and then I layered them with cheese and eggs inside tortillas.  It's important that you layer it cheese, then eggs, then potatoes.  This keeps the tortilla from getting to soggy.  In addition, let both the eggs and potatoes cool for about 10 minutes before you fill them up so they don't steam up the tortillas and make them ultimately soggy.
I rolled them up and tucked in the sides.  I wrapped each in foil and froze them and then I can pull them out one at a time to heat them up in the microwave.  I always eat mine with salsa because it was a condition in my Texas birth certificate, but....easy and filling breakfast are ready to roll this week.  I used half a package of potatoes, 5 eggs (cooked with a little milk), and about half a cup of cheese, along with 7 tortillas.  So, if you had a full package double that.  Basically, you do you (whatever that means), but it's a simple breakfast for using up eggs that are about to expire etc.