Recipes Tuesday - Apples for Alll

Can you catch the theme for this week??

Follow the links for the original recipes on http://www.allrecipes.com/

Sarah's Applesauce
4 apples - peeled, cored and chopped
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1.In a saucepan, combine apples, water, sugar, and cinnamon. Cover, and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, or until apples are soft. Allow to cool, then mash with a fork or potato masher.
 
Notes from me:  I reduce the amount of water to about 1/4 - 1/2 cup as I like a thicker sauce.  I also cook for a longer peirod of low, not sure if this helps the flavors meld or not.  I also run the cooked apples through the blender or food processor so for a smooth sauce.  I also don't measure my cinnamon..I just go by smell :)
 
 
Bonus Recipes - I have not tried this yet but am going to tomorrow with the abundance of applesauce I have
 
Applesauce Bars
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup applesauce
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons margarine, melted
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

2.In a medium bowl, mix together the butter, brown sugar and egg until smooth. Stir in applesauce. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice; stir into the applesauce mixture until well blended. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

3.Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Cool in the pan over a wire rack.

4.In a small bowl, mix together the confectioners' sugar and margarine. Stir in vanilla and milk until smooth. Spread over cooled bars before cutting into squares.

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Apple Fest and the Quest

We visited a local apple farm this past Saturday for the annual Apple Festival.  It was raining that day, that misty one minute downpour the next type of rain, but we ventured out anyways..it was a one day thing and we didn’t want to miss it.  All in all it was a nice time, they had a petting farm that was fun for E, she ran around calling the goats puppy, over to the lama that was having a sneezing fit, and of course the cow that liked to lick.  I’m really hoping that next year there will me more to it, for all the hype that I kept hearing about there was really not much to do for the $3 a person to get in.  I also decided to pick some apples while we were there, that was fun and I ended up with a huge bag of apples ending up being 24lbs, not bad at all for $8.  I will up to ears making applesauce and hopefully some sautéed apples to can.

 

Onto the quest, I have a new goal for the store this week.  My plan is to hit 50 items by the end of the week.  I am at 39 right now.  I have 10 items ready to list including 3 new bath puffs, 3 new soap savers (in fun colors), the first snowman hanging, a set of gift tags, a new doily, and a set of dishcloths.  So, that leaves one new item to create or find that I haven’t listed already.  I’m very excited about reaching this new point. 

Items listed over the weekend (click on the picture to view listing):

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Wordless Wednesday..I have always loved this one

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Recipe Tuesday, Chicken Pot Pie

This is a staple in our house during the fall and winter months.  Unless we are serving this for company, we usually skip the crust.  Orginal Recipe Found Here at http://www.allrecipes.com/



PREP TIME 20 Min , COOK TIME 50 Min , READY IN 1 Hr 10 Min
Original recipe yield 1 - 9 inch pie

.INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed

1 cup sliced carrots

1 cup frozen green peas

1/2 cup sliced celery

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon celery seed

1 3/4 cups chicken broth

2/3 cup milk
2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts



..DIRECTIONS

1.Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)

2.In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.

3.In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.

4.Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.

5.Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

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The Rag Quilt

Happy Monday.  I have taken on a rather ambitious project for me.  I am making my daughter a rag quilt for when she moves into her toddler bed.  After some searching I realized there is not a lot of toddler bedding unless of course you want character bedding (which I don’t, and she hasn’t gotten into anything yet).  So after reading another person’s blog about doing a rag quilt, I look up the information and decided I could handle that, after all there is no binding which is what always put a stop to my  past quilting projects.  I spent a couple hours yesterday cutting the squares from the fabric I already have.  I still need to get a few more fabrics as well as more flannel.  I will keep you all posted on the progress of this project.  
The inspiration fabric.  I have had my eye on this fabric for years but never had a project for it, and lavender seems to be dd’s favorite color.
The rest of the fabrics and flannel, for the flannel I have a combination of light pink, lavender, and white. I think I have about half of the squares cut.
I would glad for any tips that you might have to share.

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A Last

Finally...the kitty set is complete. I just relisted these yesterday. I'm offering free shipping through the end of day 9/19/09. I am so excited to be offering the full set now.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28757499

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Wordless Wednesday

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Recipe Tuesday, Parmesan Noodles, with Chicken and Mushrooms

Okay, so I am trying to do some fun daily features to at least cover some of the days.  Goodness, I know my life is not something to try inspiration from to write daily or at least more often.  So, I have decided to do a recipe Tuesday and pull recipes from my files or things that I just make up as I go along and were a success.

Today’s recipe is something that I just randomly through together last night and it turned our really good. It’s a very basic pantry style meal using items most of us having already. This super simple meal comes in well under $5.00

1. 1 Chicken Breast
2. 1/4 cup Italian style dressing (I used Kraft Parmesan Romano)
3. 1 cup sliced Mushrooms
4. Pasta-Roni Parmesan Noodle
5. 1 1/3 cup water
6. 2/3 cu milk
7. 2 TBSP butter/marg
8. 1 TBSP butter/marg
9. 1 TBSP oil
10. 1 clove garlic

First I poured the dressing over the chicken breast and baked about 30mins (it was still frozen) or until almost done.

When Chicken is done and cooling, prepare noodles following the instructions on the box.

Meanwhile, heat up 1 TBSP butter and 1 TBSP oil in a separate pan, smash garlic to peal and release then put in pan.  Sautee mushrooms and chicken.  Remove garlic when done.

When the Noodles are done, dump them in the post with chicken and mushroom.  Toss to mix and serve. 

This is great with a salad, your choice of veggie (we did corn), and maybe some garlic bread. 

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Another Monday

Good Morning All and Happy Monday to you. It’s the start of another fabulous week and you never know what could happen.  You never know, maybe some major buyer will come along and buy out Etsy..lol  I can dream can’t I.  So anyways, I hope you all had a great weekend.  It was nice for us, just laid low and hung out.  I set aside this past weekend to work on custom orders that need to be out the beginning of Oct, almost done with one.  I will hopefully finish it up today. I’m going to be using this week to finish up all of the almost finished projects I have sitting around.  So, keep an eye out for the last two kitty towels (just need to paint the kitty’s and all will be done), the first snowman (again, just need to finish painting, this turned out adorable), and will be listing a set of potpourri dishtowels that I just completely forgot about listing. 

As for a personal note, I’m really excited to have a new friend (I know pathetic right), she moved here just a few weeks before we did as well, her daughter is a couple days younger than ours and we seem to have a lot in common. I am very excited can’t you tell. MOPS (Mothers of Preschools) also starts this week which I will be leading my table..that is always a great time and such an encouragement.  I’m going to be working on setting up some goals for myself in this coming week.  Going to try to set up a schedule that will actually work to keep things done around the house as well as get back to some of the things that have been left in the background in the wake of my Etsy goals.  With that said, I think I will bake some cookies today, not a pack I pulled out of the refrigerator but some real cookies.  I’m thinking oatmeal peanut butter.  I always try to make them healthy with whole wheat flour and I use splenda, so I don’t feel bad when I eat them all..lol   Ah well, I’m off to make a list of things to do for the day, I hate having items on a to do list so that guarantees I will get things done. 

Have  a Great Day.  

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The Tough Stuff

Dh and I made the tough decision the other day, now we just have to put into to action. We are going down to a one car family.  It was a really hard decision because Dh’s car is his baby, it’s the car he’s always wanted (at least the low end version), however, things are tough and we have to do what we have to do.  Dh has been driving 5-6 hours every other Saturday plus working 8 hours, just to bring in extra money for us to survive, we realized how horrible that is this past week when the job he was suppose to do isn’t ready, which means he won’t be going and I really have to do some finagling to make things work.  So, in all it will work out just fine, he has a work van he will probably be able to take home, and if not, I will just have to get our little one up and take him to work the days that I need to car.  I guess things are what they are and there is nothing we can do about them, and sometime you just have to take a step backwards in order to take a few steps forward.

On to happier subjects; I listed this fun hillbilly wall art piece yesterday.  Hand Embroidered using a vintage pattern, used cotton batting, card stock, and wood embroidery hoop to frame it.  I left the wood bare to keep the rustic feeling. I also antiqued the cotton fabric.

The other piece in the set:

If you are in the market for fabric, don’t forget to check out my fabric destash   http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5948874&section_id=6386204

Also, we are at 99 shop hearts, the 100th heart will receive 25% off the order today 9/10/09.

Thank you for stopping by.

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Happy Labor Day..one day late

Good Morning to all, and Happy Labor Day although it is a day late and Happy Tuesday.  I hope you all had a fabulous long weekend.  For us, it was very uneventful.  The only thing we did all weekend was go to church.  I am very excited about that though.  I young lady that I met at story time came.  She is also from Michigan, and her daughter is only a couple days younger than ours.  This is a very exciting thing for me.  Everyone I  have met so far either have much older children or much younger, so it’s great to have an opportunity not only for me to make a new friend (which I desperately need..yes I’m willing to admit it, I’m almost desperate for friendship) and for our little one to make a friend. So, hopefully she will call me and hopefully we will be able to set up a play date.  Other than that..we did nothing.  It was wonderful.  It gave me plenty of time to finish/start some projects.  I will be framing the second of the hillbilly collection, I have finished the stitching on the 4th kitty towel, I am over halfway done with the stitching of the first snowman, and I worked on 3 custom orders this past weekend – finishing one and getting a small start of the two that need to be complete by the first of October.  So, for doing nothing it was a very successful weekend. 

Somme quick things that I have listed since the last time we spoke.

Made to Order Baby Blanket, you choose the colors, 36 x 36 $24.00

Fabric, Flat quarters $1.50 each:

 

 

Thanks for reading and I would love to hear your comments.  :)

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Hillbilly

So..today I really don’t have too much to say, so I’m wondering why I’m even writing.  Maybe I can do a quick update. 

I am very excited about having gotten the 4 sales this past weekend, this is going to help buy my daughter a new pair of shoes, but beyond that I’ve been able to start picking up different supplies, and I have to mention it’s 40% off coupon week at hobby lobby.  Very exciting because that is just down the street from my house rather and has more stuff than the little Joann’s that we have (I really really really miss my Joann’s Ect that I had 5 mins from my house before we moved). So anyways, the only bad part is I have to go in there everyday to pick up an item to get the 40% off, one per customer per day.  My biggest problem is decided what to buy, whether I should stat stocking up on some Christmas yarn, or stocking up on flour sack towels (which I did already pick up the pack to complete the kitty set, that should hopefully be posted next week).

I did get posted the first of the hillbilly collection of wall hangings I’m going to be doing.   These are a lot of fun.  The pattern is a vintage Aunt Martha pattern and I antiqued the fabric before embroidering.  My later thought was that I should have antiqued it after I embroidered it but you live and learn right.  I’m working on the second one of the collection right now and am hoping to have it posted before the end of the week.  From there I’m going to make a quick switch over to the final kitty and then do up a couple snowmen hangings as well.  

So, that’s my ramblings for the day..a whole bunch of nothing really. Have a great day!!!

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