Happy {Love} Birds

 

Good Morning! I'm over on the WPlus9 Blog today sharing a few fun ways to package up your Valentine treats.  I've used the new Happy Birds stamp set and dies as well as a set called Biggest Fan that was FREE with a $60 purchase.  I also baked up a batch of My Valentine's favorite cookies.  I've made these a hundred times and they are always a big hit! 

 

Molasses Cookies
Yield
4 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)
Ingredients
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup molasses
1 large egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 10 ounces)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Cooking spray

Preparation
Combine brown sugar and shortening in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add molasses and egg; beat well. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through salt), stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until blended. Cover and freeze 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375°.

Place water in a small bowl. Place granulated sugar in another small bowl. Lightly coat hands with cooking spray. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Dip one side of each ball in water; dip wet side in sugar. Place balls, sugar side up, 1 inch apart, on baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 8 minutes. Remove from pans; cool on wire racks.

Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2005

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

Neenah Cardstock, Neenah Heavyweight, Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb, 25 pk

Inkadinkado Clear Acrylic Blocks, Small and Medium

WPlus9 Design Studio Clear Stamps, Happy Birds

WPlus9 Design Studio Dies, Happy Birds

WPlus9 Design Studio Clear Stamps, Borders & Backgrounds 3

Memento Ink Pad, Tuxedo Black

WPlus9 Design Studio Dies, Unforgettable

COPIC Sketch Marker R35, Coral

COPIC Sketch Marker R29, Lipstick Red

COPIC Sketch Marker R24, Prawn

*Affiliate Links Used

Make Each Day Brighter

{Original Blog Post}

 

Good Morning! I've been busy lately working on projects for the WPlus9 August Release coming up next week.  I thought I'd pop in and say 'Hello' and share a throwback to August 2013.  This is a project I made for a PTI Blog Hop.  This floral set, called Rosie Posie, is one of my all time favorites! 

 

 

 

Last night we had a family dinner.  My parents were coming over so my dad could dye my hair {he was a hairdresser for over 40 years} so I told him I'd cook him dinner.  Then, we found out that my mom's latest CAT Scan came back clear! So, to celebrate, I also had to bake something fancy for dessert.  I decided to make Italian Cheesecake and Polish Pischinger. 

 

Thanks so much for coming by today.

What are you working on?

 

Cardstock: WP9 White, PTI Hawaiian Shores
Stamps: PTI Rosie Posie, Simply You, Happy Trails
Ink: PTI Hawaiian Shores, Enchanted Evening, Simply Chartreuse, Plum Pudding, Royal Velvet
Dies: PTI Rosie Posie, Tag Its, Happy Trails
Other: MME Enamel Dots

Potato Crusted Quiche {FIF #149}

 

My husband is a great cook.

He just has that knack for combining ingredients

and making something delicious, usually without a recipe.  There have been a few....flops,

but most of time we are both surprised by how deliciously it has turned out.

 

 

Today is a SNOW DAY!

We got about 8 inches of snow overnight.  Needless to say, my school was cancelled.

Ryan stayed home too, because he hasn't been feeling well and why take chances with dangerous roads?

 

 

To start our morning off right, he decided to make a quiche.

While I don't have Celiac Disease, I do have issues with digesting gluten and avoid it whenever I can.

This quiche has a potato crust instead of the standard quiche crust made with flour.

This morning it not only came out delicious, but so beautiful I had to share.

Look at those curly potato slices!

 

Here's the recipe in case you're interested:

 

3 potatoes peeled and sliced on a mandolin

1/2 chopped white onion

8oz frozen broccoli florets thawed

1/2 cup grated cheese of your choice (we used a combo of gruyere and swiss)

4 eggs

1/2 cup milk (we used almond milk)

1tsp vegetable shortening

1tbsp olive oil

salt

pepper

 

 

Coat the inside of an 8inch (x 3inches deep) baking dish with vegetable shortening.  Line the inside of baking dish with sliced potatoes that have been tossed in olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. Overlap layers of potatoes on bottom and sides of baking dish.  Usually two layers.  Bake crust only for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. 

 

Combine grated cheese, diced onion, and broccoli florets in a bowl.  Season with salt and pepper. Beat eggs in separate bowl adding the milk to mixture.

 

 When crust starts to brown on the edges remove from oven and add broccoli mixture and pour eggs over evenly.  Place back in oven for approx. 45min or until browned on top. 

 

Let stand for about 15 minutes before serving.

 

Enjoy!!

 

Don't miss new pins added to the Friday Inspiration File...#149!

See you later.

I'll be in my craft room!

Snowy Saturday

I made this card for my cousin's bridal shower. I used a flower technique by Dawn McVey. I used white paper then airbrushed the petals lightly with the Copic airbrush system. It is very subtle, but shows up more than the photos let on.

We had a lot of fun playing with Lady in the snow...

...after we ate some delicious pancakes. We needed energy for all of the shoveling we had to do. About halfway through, our neighbor came by with his snow plow and took hours off of our work in about 3minutes! Sweet.

It has finally stopped snowing, but not until hours after this photo was taken!

Homemade Marshmallows

I used this recipe to make my own marshmallows. I wanted to try out the recipe to see how they came out before I made them as gifts. I used just a flower cookie cutter I had on hand to see how well they could be cut into shapes. I had originally planned on giving them in a snowflake shape. They came out really great. They were much easier to handle than I had anticipated. I think, though, that I will just cut them into cubes like these pictured below. I like the way they look and there won't be any waste. The cookie cutter left too much marshmallow wasted.

Have It Sweet

Have a great weekend. We might get some snow tomorrow!
Perfect for hot chocolate and marshmallows;)

Pumpkin Cheesecake With A Gingersnap Crust

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who are celebrating today! We are getting together with family. Ryan made this insane Pumpkin Cheesecake. I can't wait to try it. It cracked on the top, but I'm sure it still tastes great.

I picked up some David Wiesner books from the library to share with my nephews today. I hope they like them as much as I do.

I Can't Cook

I can, however, make a mean cucumber salad. Everyone loves it and it is my constant contribution to a BBQ of any kind. So I made it to bring to my aunt and uncle's house yesterday. It's a recipe from a cookbook my mom gave me before Ryan and I got married. Betty Crocker's Bridal Edition. It has a lot of other information for us non cooks such as, explanations of why certain ingredients are used and substitutions you can make etc..

Cucumber Salad
2 medium cucumbers
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup water
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
chopped fresh dill or parsley if desired

1. Slice cucumbers
2. Mix all ingredients above (except dill) and pour over cucumbers.
3. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
4. Drain liquid and add fresh dill

I made the cute little pinwheels to make it more festive. Ryan laughed because he thought cucumbers were not exciting enough to warrant such fanfare. I ended up poking them into the brownies that my mom made:)

This has been in my head all day. I love it.

Winter Break

Winter break has officially begun. The kids at school have been so excited these last few days. It has been almost impossible to get them to sit in their seats long enough to get anything done. It is so nice to have this time off. Tomorrow we will be going to visit my nephews and help them make cookies for Santa and give them their gifts.

Oh yeah, did I mention the cabinets are in? Ryan, his dad, and his brother installed them this weekend. We still have some work to do, like the molding and kick plate. We will be ordering our counter top on the day after Christmas because they are running a sale.

We are getting there. I tried another cookie recipe that went over well. I tried two actually, but Ryan said the other ones tasted like dog treats!:) I think I used too much flour. I didn't realize until after that the recipe said to spoon the flour into the measuring cup rather than pack it in. Oh well, they looked cute.

The other cookies turned out delicious. They are Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies from Cooking Light. They are not too peanut buttery, which I like. Ryan liked them a lot too. The favorite so far is still the Molasses cookies though. I'm making more tomorrow.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies:

Yield

3 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 large egg
• 12 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 2/3 cups)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate mini chips

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth.

3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture, stirring just until combined. Stir in mini chips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on 2 baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

128 (32% from fat)

Fat:

4.5g (sat 1.1g,mono 2.2g,poly 1g)

Protein:

2.3g

Carbohydrate:

20.5g

Fiber:

0.6g

Cholesterol:

6mg

Iron:

0.8mg

Sodium:

106mg

Calcium:

16mg

Kathy Farrell-Kingsley, Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2008

Molasses Cookies

photo from myrecipes.com

A new recipe to try. Ryan really likes molasses, so I thought I'd try to make these molasses cookies for him. I'll let you know how they turn out! The kitchen is painted!! I decided to go with Pale Bamboo from Behr. I love the way it turned out. We are going to start putting in the hardwood floors tonight. I'll post updated pictures soon. Here's the recipe. Let me know if you try it.

Yield
4 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

Ingredients
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup molasses
1 large egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 10 ounces)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Cooking spray

Preparation
Combine brown sugar and shortening in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add molasses and egg; beat well. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through salt), stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until blended. Cover and freeze 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375°.

Place water in a small bowl. Place granulated sugar in another small bowl. Lightly coat hands with cooking spray. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Dip one side of each ball in water; dip wet side in sugar. Place balls, sugar side up, 1 inch apart, on baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 8 minutes. Remove from pans; cool on wire racks.

Nutritional Information

Calories:
66 (27% from fat)

Fat:
2g (sat 0.5g,mono 0.7g,poly 0.5g)

Protein:
0.7g

Carbohydrate:
11.8g

Fiber:
0.2g

Cholesterol:
4mg

Iron:
0.5mg

Sodium:
67mg

Calcium:
12mg

Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2005

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

I got this recipe from Cooking Light. It is so good and easy to make. I made it yesterday and the house smelled delicious. I hate to cook, love to bake. I am lucky to have a husband who enjoys cooking (most nights) and is really good at it. He just has instincts for flavors that go well together that I just do not have. Baking on the other hand is fun. I just don't do it that often because I love sweets and I will pretty much eat it ALL. This recipe is pretty guilt free as far as deserts go.

Enjoy!

Yield
32 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup fat-free vanilla pudding
4 large egg whites
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in chocolate chips.
Spoon batter into 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 152 (30% from fat)
Fat: 5g (sat 1.2g,mono 2.5g,poly 1.1g)
Protein: 2g
Carbohydrate: 26.5g
Fiber: 1.1g
Cholesterol: 0.0mg
Iron: 1mg
Sodium: 137mg
Calcium: 10mg

Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2004

I also used my Papertrey Ink stamp set to wrap the other loaf as a gift for friends who, since the accident last week, are lending us their truck until we find a new car.