Mickey Mouse Card

Using a Mickey Mouse image found online, I did a print and cut with my Cameo and pop dotted it onto layered white and red circles for a mat.

The white background was embossed using a Swiss Dot Cuttlebug folder.

The circle border was done with an EK Success punch.

Who knew? Hot Water Pie Crust

Guess I've been making pie crust the wrong way all these years.  Every cookbook, cooking show, and pastry recipe tell you to (1) never over work the dough (2) use only cold shortening and (3) cut the shortening into the flour until it makes a crumbly mixture.

This recipe just tosses all those requirements right out the window.  The boiling water as well as the mixing process should have developed the gluten in all purpose flour and made the crust tough--but it definitely didn't!

I made a "fold over" apple pie to test the crust recipe.  While it was baking, I rolled out strips of the leftover dough, spread melted butter over the strips and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top.  My momma used to do this with leftover crust and it was always a treat for us kids.

After baking the strips less than 10 minutes at 350°, I was surprised just how flaky the crust turned out.

This short cut method for making crust is now going to be my "go-to" recipe.  I used my Kitchenaid mixer to blend the boiling water into the shortening, then stirred the flour in by hand.  I did add some additional boiling water to get the dough to the right consistency to roll out.

 HOT WATER PIE CRUST

¾ cup shortening
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. milk
¼ cup boiling water
2 cups all purpose flour

In a large bowl, combine shortening,
salt, milk and boiling water.  Whip with
fork until smooth and creamy.

Add 2 cups flour and stir with round-the
Bowl strokes until all flour is incorporated.

Makes crust for one double crust pie.

Cutout Heart Card

Seems like forever since I've made a card!  It's been over a month since I've had either the time or energy to work in my craft room.

This card was inspired by one seen online.  Using my Cameo, I cut the heart opening in the dotted cardstock. The heart shapes were embossed with the Brocade Cuttlebug folder.   Then I added a shadow layer to the heart out of the darker pink cardstock, a couple of flowers and a bow.

After adding the pink and off white cardstock underneath the cutout I decided it was too plain so I added some pen work and Pearl Pen dots.

Tax Season 2015

Since I closed my business almost five years ago I've spent my time doing things I want to do when I want to do them.  Most of my days have been spent making cards for Operation Write Home and spending time with the light of my life, Cooper, our three year old grandson.

It occurred to me that being at home and not around people was the main thing I missed most since retiring.  Since I've done accounting and tax work for over 40 years and had worked for H & R Block in the past, I decided to work during the 2015 tax season.

In order to become up to date with all the new tax laws and changes I spent about two months taking online courses and tests and began working in the local office in January.

Going from doing virtually nothing all day to working 8-9 hours a day has been quite a change.  There is a great group of people in the office and the owner is a good man to work for so it's been fun although tiring.

Tax season is winding down now and I'm looking forward to getting back into my "no routine".  It's been a pleasure to work with my co-workers and I've enjoyed the challenge but I'm ready to get back into spending my days being retired, again!

An Old Favorite Cookie Recipe

My momma used to make these.  Fred's mother did too.  They're one of the easiest cookies to make and the recipe calls for ingredients I always have on hand.  Since Fred really likes these, I made a batch this afternoon.

CHEWY CHARLIE COOKIES

1/3 Cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4  cup corn syrup
1/2  cup milk
1 1/2  cups sugar
1 1/3 cups peanut butter
1/4 cup margarine
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups rolled oats

In a heavy saucepan over low heat mix first
5 ingredients.  Bring to a rolling boil.
Boil 1 to ½ minutes.  Remove from heat
and stir in peanut butter, vanilla, margarine
and oats.  Stir well.  Drop by rounded
teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper and allow to
cool and become firm.
Makes 40 cookies.

Meatball Pie With Biscuit Topping

A super simple, fast recipe that is very filling.  Makes 4-5 generous servings.  I fixed it tonight and "cheated" by using canned biscuits rather than making them from scratch.

If you use canned biscuits, start by cooking the meatballs at 450° as the recipe says, then lower the heat to 400° when you put the biscuits on top so they don't burn before they're completely baked. 

Tonight I heated the carrot, potato, sour cream and soup mixture in the microwave until it was hot before pouring it over the meatballs.  I didn't think it would heat thoroughly in the short time it would take to bake the canned biscuits.  Had I made scratch biscuits, I wouldn't have lowered the oven temperature or heated the mixture up.

I also used a cookie scoop to make the meatballs.  I placed them in the bottom of the pan directly from the scoop, much faster than shaping them by hand!

You can substitute two cans of mixed vegetables for the potatoes and carrots.  Drain one can and use the liquid in the second can. 


MEATBALL PIE WITH BISCUIT TOPPING

1 lb. ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. dried parsley
6 T. sour cream, divided
1 can Cream of Celery soup
1-16 oz. can sliced carrots
1-16 oz. can sliced potatoes, drained
Biscuits for topping

Heat oven to 450°.
Mix beef, onion, parsley, 3 T. of the sour cream, salt and pepper
and shape into 1" meatballs.
Place meatballs in 13 x 9 pan and bake 8-12 minutes.
Mix remaining sour cream, undiluted soup, drained potatoes and 
carrots with juice and pour over meatballs.
Place biscuits on top of meatball mixture and bake 15-20 minutes 
until biscuits are golden brown.

Blue Card With Red Flowers

The overlay  is vellum embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.  I added some white gel pen dots and used Pearl Pens for the flower centers.

Baby Girl Card and First Birthday Card

Zero Carb Pizza

This would be worth trying!

White Bean and Chicken Soup

WHITE BEAN AND CHICKEN SOUP
1 lb. Ground chicken breast
¾ cup diced onion
2 stalks celery, diced
2 small carrots, diced
1 can Great Northern beans
1 can Swanson chicken broth
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. oregano

Brown chicken with onions, celery and carrots.
Add beans, undrained, chicken broth, garlic and
oregano.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer 15-20 minutes.

Pinwheel Birthday Card

The paper I used for this is from Making Memories, Sarah Jane, Children at Play.  I'm pretty sure Shirley and I picked this up at Tuesday Morning a couple of years ago since I have so many sheets of the same design.

I fussy cut the pinwheels from the reverse side of the striped paper and stamped the candles and sentiment.

The sentiment and the pinwheels are pop dotted for dimension.

Blossom Punch Card

The flowers were done with SU's Blossom Punch.  The stamped image is from the Mixed Bunch stamp set.

Beef Tips and Noodles

It's a cold, cloudy, dreary Sunday and comfort food sounds like it would hit the spot.  Beef and noodles seemed like a good option so I experimented with my usual recipe.  The recipe calls for Worcestershire sauce, which I am not a big fan of in beef dishes.  It makes a recipe taste too sweet. I tried various combinations of soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and red wine and decided the soy sauce and red wine was the way to go.

Then I had to tweak it a little more and tested it with seasoned salt and garlic powder.  After numerous combinations I came up with the following:

BEEF TIPS AND NOODLES

Dredge cubed beef in flour, salt and pepper.
Brown beef in hot oil.
Add 1 can Swanson beef broth and
   1 can Campbell’s French Onion soup
   1 can Campbell’s Beef Broth
    ½ can water
Dash of Seasoned Salt
½ cup Lambrusco wine
5-6 drops of Soy Sauce
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper

Let simmer until beef is tender.  Add egg noodles and cook
until noodles are tender.

We prefer having the noodles cooked in the broth rather than serving the beef mixture over cooked noodles.

Microphone Card

The vintage microphone and the music symbols are clip art images found online.

Coffee Bean Card

The background paper is from Graphic 45.  I stamped it with a coffee bean stamp.

The sentiment was done using Silhouette software print and cut. 

I traced the coffee cup and did a print and cut on it also. 

The cut out shapes were shadowed using the offset feature in the software.

This card could be used for just a note or maybe even a Valentine.

Candy Hearts and Cupcake Card

Make The Cut has been my preferred software program ever since I began using it with my Expression.  I love how easy it is to use and got comfortable with its capabilities.  Even after I purchased a Cameo, I continued to use Make The Cut rather than learning how to use Silhouette software.

Since doing print and cut has become so popular, I've decided it's time for me to get serious and learn as much as I can about the Silhouette program.  Thanks to a Facebook friend, Kat Schrieber,  the past couple of days have been really fun since she spent some time teaching me shortcuts and tricks.

It still takes me quite a while to do things I want, but it's getting easier.  This card uses what Kat taught me yesterday.

I traced the cupcake image, did the print and cut and then I traced it again and was able to separate the cupcake liner from the top and did another print and cut of that image.  That gave me the cake portion to pop dot onto the full image and provide more dimension to the card.

The candy hearts are also clip art images that were done with print and cut.

I embossed the white mat underneath the cupcake with a heart folder and added a pink and brown mat.

Everything is sitting on top of a paper doily.

The dimension of the card shows up better in this photo. 

I know I have barely scratched the surface of what the Silhouette software can do.  For now, I'll continue working with clip art, doing print and cut, and learning how to break apart and color clip art images.  Once I have that process down, I'll move on to something else---like maybe point editing.  Right now, that just sounds too complicated!

Red On Red Valentine Card

I used a couple of shapes from Cricut cartridges for the mats, the photo corners were punched and then I added some pen work on the mats.  The sentiment was printed using Hallmark Card Studio and Amazon BT font.  The red globe image was found online.

Vintage Light Bulb Card

I saw a card like this in the latest Stampin' Up catalog.  Once again, their stamp image isn't available as a digi, so I found one online and used it instead.  It was a simple matter to curve the text around the light bulb image in Hallmark Card Making software.

Chili Recipes

A couple of weeks ago, I searched high and low for these recipes.  I knew they were hand written on lined paper and the last time I had seen them they were tucked between two cookbooks in the kitchen.  I found them tonight, typed them and saved them in a recipe folder on my computer.  Maybe next time I get the urge to use one I'll be able to find it!

    WHITE CHILI

3 cups cooked white beans
2 cups chicken broth
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup white wine
1 tsp. cumin seeds—if using ground cumin, use less
1 tsp. oregano
½ tsp salt
½ tsp. sage
½ tsp. thyme
½ tsp. marjoram
6 jalapeno pepper slices

Combine 2 cups beans, 1 cup broth and pepper slices
In blender and process until smooth.

Heat 1 cup broth, 1 cup beans, wine, onion, garlic and
seasonings in 2 quart saucepan.  Brinkg to a boil.  Add
Pureed bean mixture and heat thoroughly.







VEGETABLE CHILI

 1 ½ T. vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup diced carrots
½ cup chopped red or green pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 T. chili powder
¾ tsp. salt
¾ tsp. ground cumin
dash red pepper flakes
½ tsp. ground oregano
1 can tomatoes
2 cups black beans, drained  (I prefer to use white beans)

Saute vegetables in oil until tender.  Add remaining
Ingredients and simmer for a few minutes.

Good Times Card

The sepia photograph and the clock image were found online.  I stamped a clock face over the photograph and added punched photo corners so it would look like an old fashioned scrapbook.  The background paper is from Tim Holtz.