Puzzle Pieces Card

This card was seen on Pinterest and I tracked it back to Clips-n-cuts.   I used a puzzle piece from a really old Cricut cartridge, My Community, and Make the Cut software to make mine using my Expression.  But, there's a free SVG file on Clips-n-cuts for anyone that isn't using a Cricut to do their cuts.

Vinyl Sign

I made this sign for my son's new apartment, wrapped it and forgot to give it to him while he was here yesterday.  He'll have one more present to open next time he's at our house!

Make The Cut software was used to lay out and cut the letters from black vinyl.  The background paper is from a stack by Paper Studio.  The frame is a 12 x 12 one from Michael's.

Getting Back to Card Making

Today is December 25th and I'm so glad that Christmas is now behind me!  I stopped making cards right after Thanksgiving to give myself a break and plenty of time to get things done for Christmas.  At the time, I was getting burned out doing the cards and needed a break.

We celebrate Christmas with my extended family on Christmas Eve and spend Christmas day just relaxing around our house.  So, I decided to scroll through my folder of card ideas and saw this simple butterfly card.  The original was seen on Splitcoast Stampers.

I used an EK Success 3 step butterfly punch, Stampin' Up cardstock, a white gel pen and a Cuttlebug folder. The stamping was done with Memento Bamboo Leaves ink. 

Funeral Sandwiches and Sopapilla Cheese Cake

 ***edited 12-25-2012 to add:  The sandwiches taste really good!  Everyone liked the cheesecake squares and agreed that I could reduce the sugar in the filling and they'd be even better!***

Funeral Sandwiches
Ingredients

    1 12 count package Kings Hawaiian Rolls
    12 slices swiss cheese
    12-16oz thin sliced ham
    1/2 cup butter melted
    1 tsp ground mustard
    1 tsp poppy seeds (optional)
    2 tsp onion flakes (or 1 tsp onion powder)
    2 tbsp worcheshire sauce

Instructions

    Slice all of the rolls in half and place the bottom halves in a 9x13 baking dish.
    Place ham and cheese on the bottom of the sliced rolls. Cover with the top half of roll.
    Mix together the remaining five ingredients in a small bowl and spoon over the tops of the sandwiches.
    Let sit overnight or a couple of hours.
    Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 for 15 minutes or until warmed through and the cheese is gooey and melty.



Sopapilla Cheesecake


    2 cans Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
    2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese
    1 cup sugar
    1 tsp. vanilla
    1/4 cup butter melted
    cinnamon and sugar

Instructions

    Unroll and spread 1 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased pan.
    Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls.
    Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture.
    Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
    Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.




I have never eaten the Funeral Sandwiches, just saw the recipe online and they sound interesting. The name comes from the fact that people make these and take them to dinners after a funeral. Joy Warburton Tracy made them for a luncheon and says they're really very good, so I'm taking her recommendation and doing these for Christmas Eve dinner.

 The Sopapilla Cheesecake was one of the dishes brought to Shirley's Christmas party.  I thought it was a really good dessert since it's not overly sweet and it has cream cheese in it! 

Making Cinnamon Rolls This Week

It's been a while since I've played in my kitchen so I decided to make cinnamon rolls this week and try a new recipe to make them.

A while back I did a blog post about the Easiest Bread I've Ever Made and I decided to see if I could adapt it for a sweet roll.  For my first trial, I halved the recipe and doubled the amount of sugar it called for in  the dough.

The recipe performed great.  The rolls were good, but the dough was definitely more for bread than a sweet roll.  I was hesitant to add any additional sugar to the dough thinking it would affect the yeast's rise, but, I should have added more sugar inside when I rolled them up to cut.  We liked them and thought they were just sweet enough.

For my second trial, I used the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe that she showed on her TV show a couple of weeks ago.  Either I misunderstood the amount of butter and sugar she calls for, or she's got a trade secret on how to keep that much inside the dough when you begin to roll it up jelly-roll style.  

The dough portion was wonderful, but the full cup of sugar inside makes the rolls much too sweet for us.  This recipe makes a LOT of  rolls if you cut them 1/2" thick as she recommends.  I did half the dough per her instructions and half with less sugar and butter and I cut them about 1 1/4" thick.  These turned out more to our liking, but still too sweet after adding a simple powdered sugar glaze.

I wound up with SIX eight inch round cake pans of rolls.  Thank goodness three of our neighbors were home and Fred showed up just in time to deliver them!  Then I gave the fourth pan to my great-nephews to enjoy, leaving us with just two!

Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Rolls   

Heat to just below the boiling point:
1 quart milk
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar

Cool to lukewarm and sprinkle 2 packages yeast over the top. Let stand 1-2 minutes.

Stir in 8 cups all purpose flour.  Mix well and let rise 1 hour.

Add 1 more cup of flour combined with 1 heaping teaspoon of baking powder, 1 scant teaspoon of soda, and 1 tablespoon salt.  Mix well.

Divide dough in half.  Roll out each piece about 30” long.

Spread each half of the dough with 1 cup melted butter, 1 cup sugar and 1/8 cup cinnamon.

Roll tightly and pinch to seal the seam.  Cut in ½” slices. Let rise for 20 minutes. Bake at 375°  for 15 minutes.   You can fit 7-9 rolls into an 8” round cake pan.  This recipe makes 6 pans full of rolls.



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As soon as we recover from our sugar coma, I'm going to cut the PW recipe in half and try this again!  So, look out neighbors, there are more rolls heading your way soon!

Charger Plate With Vinyl Images

My first try using Make The Cut to arc lettering.  It was pretty simple once I figured out the instructions from a video on Youtube. 

I made three of these for my sisters.  Each one is a little different.  I think I like working with vinyl!  There may be some home dec projects posted in the near future!

Delicata Squash With Bacon

A friend was talking about making this dish from Delicata squash a couple of weeks ago.  I'd never heard of that variety of squash and had to Google it to find out more about it.

Yesterday, while walking through a local grocery, I saw them and decided to try this recipe out on Fred.

I had read online that the squash was easy to peel but that step's not necessary since the peel is edible.  I chose to peel mine rather than ingest any type of coating with which the shipper might have coated it.

This is based on a dish seen online.  There were no ingredients list or written directions so I just played it by ear.  The result is surprisingly tasty; even Fred said it was good!

DELICATA SQUASH WITH BACON

2 Delicata squash, peeled, seeded and diced
8-10 slices of turkey bacon
1 bunch of green onions, sliced
salt and pepper

Fry turkey bacon until just before it's completely done.  It will continue to cook when you add it to the squash.

Remove bacon from skillet and dice , wipe skillet with a paper towel.

Add 2-3 teaspoonsful of vegetable oil, squash and onions.  Cook over medium high heat until squash is almost tender.

Add diced bacon, salt and pepper to taste and continue to cook until squash is tender.

This squash tastes remarkably like diced potatoes when it's cooked this way.  This dish would make a good breakfast, in my opinion.  It might even be good with some cream gravy poured on top!

I still can't believe I used turkey bacon!  But, that's what was in the original recipe.

Nugget Tins for Christmas

The tins were bought as part of a group buy on Facebook.  By the time I used all the tins I ordered, I was sick of making these things!  But, they turned out cute and will be a good thing to use to put some cash in for gifts.

Goodies From the Party Last Night

Here are photos of some of the items from last night's party. 

 It took me some finagling to get this tin of recipe cards.  This item was from the auction.  I kept bidding on boxes that looked the right size to have one of these inside and getting something else.






Kimmy Bagwell and I swapped one of our auction items.  She wanted the greeting card set I had and I wanted the tin.  A win-win situation for us both!

Shirley makes a huge batch of Hurricane punch every year.  This year, surrounding the punchbowl on the sideboard, she had personalized glasses for each of us.  No more lost cups!

 A close up shot of the Shrinky Dink charm she added to our pens in our gift bags.  We had to have these to play a couple of the crazy games she had planned.

Each of us got a snow filled glass ornament in our goodie bag.  She personalized them with our first initial;  there's some bling and a snow white feather attached on the top.  She even made the box to store these in.





Shirley's annual party is one of those "you had to be there" situations.  I can attempt to tell you how much fun we all had, how hard we laughed, the embarrassing photos, videos and emails that went out, and how pretty her house looked and you'd still only get a smidgen of what went on.  I'm hoping after she rests up for a day or two that she'll write a post on her blog and provide detailed information and some photos.

You know it's a great party when you have guests that fly in from Florida, Texas and Arizona just to attend.  Kimmy Bagwell drove all the way from Austin, TX and Robyn Abbott all the way from Clinton, OK!  It's definitely worth the trip to attend!

Okieladybug's Eighth Annual Girlfriend's Christmas Party

Tonight was Shirley's annual Christmas party.  This is a party that she plans for all year and boy did we all have a great time!  I laughed so much my cheeks still hurt!

You would not believe the gifts we were able to buy with our Santa Bucks during the auction! Shirley works all year making items, then she wraps them and auctions them off to us for the Santa Bucks she provides us.   I got just what I wanted!  A full set of Shirley's handmade cards, a recipe tin she made that's full of her candy recipes on decorated cards and a card kit (but I had to buy that from Carrie Elmore! lol!)

It's a little after 1 a.m. and I just made it home.  I'm too tired to make photos of my auction items tonight, so that will be my post for tomorrow.

We played Dirty Santa with gifts we'd all brought and this year there was very little stealing.  My gift is absolutely perfect because it has kitchen items in it.  So glad Robyn Abbott found those cute measuring spoons and hot mits.  I needed some new Christmas things for the kitchen.

Helen Edwards brought her new I-pad 3 and shot tons of great photos.  I'm hoping that she and the others who took photos will post them online so I can see all of them.  We even had some fun at Carrie's expense by sending one photo to her husband just to prove she made it to the party.  We'll have to wait to see what his reaction was! LOL!

Thanks, Shirley, for putting on such a great party.  You invite just the right combination of people and we all have a great time!  I'm already looking forward to next year's and hope I didn't get eliminated off the guest list!

30 Minute Gift

A little vinyl and just a few minutes time and you have a cute bank.  I did several of these for the older great-nephews and grandkids.  I'll fill them with candy and some cash for Christmas gifts.

Wipe Off Board

Another idea seen on Pinterest that I had to do!  I used 5 x 7 easel frames, added a bow and attached a dry erase pen to the outer edge of the frame and inserted a piece of notebook paper inside the frame. 

These would make great co-worker gifts since the easel stand on the back would keep the frame upright on a desk top. 

If you live close to a fabric shop or somewhere to buy craft supplies, consider yourself extremely fortunate!  The town I live in is so small that the only resources here come from the Dollar General store or WalMart.  So, my choice for ribbon to use on these was severely limited!

The frames I chose have the silver pearl border around the glass area so these didn't need any additional bling--which is a good thing, because I'd have to drive over 25 miles to the nearest shop that might have some!

These are so simple and quick to make that I may have to start a new series and call it "30 Minute Gifts"!