Friday, November 29, 2013

Greatest Queso

The Greatest Queso That Ever Lived

Ingredients
1 block (32 Oz. Block) Velveeta Cheese
1 package (8 Oz. Package) Cream Cheese
1 can (10 Oz. Can) Rotel
1 can (10.75 Oz. Can) Cream Of Mushroom Soup
1 pound Ground Beef OR Sausage (or A Combination Of Both)
1 Green Onion *Optional

Instructions
Brown ground beef or sausage (or both) in a pan over medium heat and set aside. Cut up the Velveeta and cream cheese into cubes and place into a crock pot. Pour in the Rotel and the cream of mushroom soup and stir ingredients together. Place the crock pot on low setting for an hour, letting the ingredients meld. After about 30 minutes, add the browned meat and continue to let cook, stirring as needed.

Monday, November 25, 2013

50 Different Foods You Can Put in a Jar

50 Different Foods You Can Put in a Jar

This post is dedicated to all the glorious foods … You can put in a jar: desserts in a jar, bread in a jar, appetizers in a jar, meals in a jar, drinks in a jar… I think you can pretty much put anything in a jar and it instantly becomes a million times cuter!


Friday, November 22, 2013

No Fuss Turtle Cake

No Fuss Turtle Cake

from kraftrecipes.com


No-Fuss Turtle Cake recipe


photo by:kraft
A scrumptious turtle cake with no fuss required? Yup. Four ingredients. 15 minutes of prep. Get started!
time
prep:
15 min
total:
1 hr 38 min
servings
total:
16 servings

what you need


1
pkg.  (2-layer size) chocolate cake mix

1
tub  (10.6 oz.) COOL WHIP Chocolate Whipped Frosting, thawed

3
Tbsp.  caramel ice cream topping

1/2
cup  chopped PLANTERS Pecans  (or add some candy Heath chips)

make it


PREPARE cake batter and bake as directed on package for 13x9-inch cake; cool completely.
SPREAD cake with frosting; drizzle with caramel topping.
SPRINKLE with nuts. Keep refrigerated.

kraft kitchens tips

HOW TO DRIZZLE CARAMEL OVER CAKE
Drizzle caramel topping in even parallel lines down length of cake. Pull tip of knife crosswise through caramel lines to make decorative design.

Friday, November 15, 2013

Yummy and Easy Beignets



EASY BEIGNETS

from: The Southern Lady Cooks  

Easy BeignetsWe Southerners love beignets!  If you have ever been to Cafe du Monde in New Orleans and had their famous chicory coffee and beignets you know what I am talking about.   A beignet is a pastry made from dough and deep-fried then rolled in confectioners sugar. (A doughnut without the hole)   This is an easy way to make these little treats and you won’t be able to stop eating them!  A great family activity because children love them as well as adults. I am posting two recipes here.  One is made with canned biscuits and the other is made from “scratch” with flour. They are both good and great with coffee, y’all!
Chocolate Beignets 
1 regular can of biscuits
chocolate chips
 oil for frying (enough to make about 2 inches of oil in skillet or deep fryer)
powdered sugar
chocolate syrup
Spread each biscuit into a circle and add 4 chocolate chips and fold the biscuit in half, pressing edges together. Drop each biscuit into oil around 350 degrees.  They will come to the top as soon as you drop them in oil.  Turn to brown both sides and remove from oil with slotted spoon.  Have a bowl of powdered sugar ready and roll hot beignets in sugar.  Drizzle with chocolate syrup. Makes 10 beignets.  Enjoy!
We like these with and without the chocolate syrup.  You can also make these leaving out the chocolate chips for just plain biscuit beignets.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Garlic Parmesan Crusted Potatoes

Garlic Parmesan Crusted Potatoes



Garlic Parmesan Crusted Potatoes
Recipe:
Serves 4
4 medium baking potatoes, halved lengthwise ( I used Maine White Potatoes)
2 ½ tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 TBSP Zesty Garlic Seasoning

½ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
 and a few turns of the pepper mill
Chives, optional
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Coat the bottom of a 13×9-baking dish with the olive oil, and then evenly distribute the grated Parmesan over the olive oil. Sprinkle Zesty Garlic Seasoning over the cheese. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper.
Place the potato halves, cut side down, on top of the cheese mixture and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the potatoes are very tender when pierced with the tip of a knife. Precise baking time will depend on the thickness of your potatoes.
Cool for five minutes before serving. Remove to a platter with a metal spatula, and garnish with snipped chives, if desired. Leftovers are equally delicious reheated in the oven or eaten cold, my son will attest to this!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Resin and Glitter Enamel Earrings Tutorial

Jewelry Making Daily

Faux Plique-à-Jour Enamel: Make Colorful Earrings Using Resin and Glitter
www.jewelrymakingdaily.com


I love this resin project by Tom and Kay Benham, Contributing Editors to Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist magazine. It combines a simple but fun jewelry-making material--resin--with a more serious technique--metalwork--along with my favorite supply of any craft: glitter! I love how the resin holds the metal shapes in place, floating in the open-back bezel. This is a great example of creating an open-back bezel for resin using tape, too.

I strongly recommend reading the directions all the way through to get a general idea of how the Benhams created their earrings; then, if you're already comfortable working with resin, making ear wires, etc., you can simplify the process and possibly skip some of these steps/materials.

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Photo by Jim Lawson.
Project photos below by Tom & Kay Benham.
Colorful Resin Earrings
By Tom & Kay Benham
Originally published in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist, October 2009.

A friend's new pendant immediately caught our eye. At first glance we thought it was a piece of enamel--but then she explained that she had recently created it in a resin workshop. She had added some glitter to the resin to create the enamel effect. We were so intrigued that we had to give it a try.

Working with resin wasn't as easy as we'd initially thought. We experimented with several resin systems and colorants before deciding on this project, a pair of earrings that give the impression of plique-à-jour enamel (open on both sides), using transparent resin in place of enamel. The resin holds the wire design in place once it cures. The addition of fine glitter creates a stained glass effect with the open back letting the light shine through. Best of all, no kilns necessary!

Materials

24-gauge sterling silver strip: .020" x .125"
28-gauge fine silver bezel wire: .013" x .125"
sterling silver seamless tubing: .188" OD x .156" ID
18-gauge sterling silver round wire
double-sided carpet tape
two-part epoxy
work lamp
ICE Resin *
mixing cups and spatula
eye dropper
assorted colors of fine glitter
Renaissance Wax
assorted pliers and files
jeweler's gram scale
tube cutting jig
jeweler's saw and blades
flush cutter
cup bur
pencil, paper for layout
beeswax and tumbler for finishing
wooden toothpicks
acetone
soldering setup (torch, tips, striker, flux, easy solder, soldering block, quench, pickle)
* We chose ICE Resin because of its ability to produce a glistening dome finish.

Steps
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1.    Once we agreed on our design, we used tracing paper to create our pattern. With fingers and an assortment of forming pliers, create frames of earrings from lengths of sterling silver strip, similar to forming a bezel. Mark and cut strips, then file ends square.
2.    Solder outer frames using easy solder. Quench, pickle, rinse. File and sand solder joint smooth.
3.    Again using fingers and an assortment of forming pliers, this time with lengths of fine silver bezel wire, form each partition piece to fit pattern. Take time to adjust and readjust each partition until satisfied that it fits pattern snugly.
4.    Use tube cutting jig to cut four .125" lengths of sterling silver tubing. Two tubing lengths will create the openings for the ear wires; the second set will be used to create two teardrop shapes--which we formed with our small needle-nose pliers.
5.    Mix up a small batch of two-part epoxy to secure each intersection to the outer frame. Apply epoxy to each joint with the tip of a wooden toothpick; then place assemblies under work lamp to allow the epoxy to properly cure. We did not bond the teardrop shapes or the ear wire openings at this time.
6.    Place a strip of double-sided carpet tape to a sheet of paper, then remove release strip from top side of carpet tape. Carefully press each assembly onto the tape to seal the bottom so it won't leak when liquid resin is poured into each cavity. Press small teardrop shapes and pieces of tubing for ear wire openings onto tape according to the pattern.
7.    Carefully weigh equal amounts of resin and hardener with jeweler's gram scale.

8.    Mix resin with spatula for two minutes per manufacturer's recommendation. Because we wanted our earrings to match, we mixed a batch large enough so that we could fill comparable partitions in both earrings in one application.
9.    Add glitter in small amounts using a micro-spatula. Add glitter in several small batches, rather than adding too much to avoid having to mix up another batch. Mix glitter thoroughly into resin after each addition.
10. Using dropper, add each batch of resin in appropriate cavities. Fill cavities only 3/4 full to allow for final doming layer of clear resin. Clean eye dropper with acetone between each resin batch.

Editor's Note: The final layer of resin not only creates the dome effect but also provides a backup to the epoxy connections and helps hold the entire assembly together. I don't recommend skipping this step.
11. Allow resin to cure at room temperature for one hour according to directions. Place assemblies under work light for 24 hours. Then turn light off and allow resin to cool to room temperature before proceeding.
12. Mix a large enough batch to dome both earrings at same time. Again, with eye dropper, add resin slowly and carefully so it domes up. Don't allow resin to flow over sides. Allow resin to cure at room temperature for one hour, and then place under work light for 24 hours. Remove from light and allow to cool to room temperature before removing tape from back. Avoid touching the resin surface as it can acquire fingerprints for several days before it is fully cured.
13. Create ear wires with 20-gauge sterling silver round wire. Round each end with the cup burr lubricated with beeswax before shaping. We placed the ear wires into a vibratory tumbler for a couple of hours to work-harden them. Before attaching earrings to wires, apply a coat of Renaissance Wax to protect resin surface. --Tom & Kay

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Print on Post It Notes

PRINT ON POST IT NOTES



I first saw the idea to print on post-it notes on Kristen's blog "Inkablinka"....(here).  It got me thinking it would be fun to make little post-it note handouts for various reasons.  I'm in the process of making Sunday School handouts for 2012 for the 12/13 year old's using post-it notes.  I created a few templates that I thought I would share....in case you'd like to make your own.

http://c586412.r12.cf2.rackcdn.com/threebythreetemp.jpg     http://c586412.r12.cf2.rackcdn.com/twobyonehalf.jpg
    3 x 3 Template - Click here                   2 x 1.5 template - Click here
STEP 1 - Open your file and print it BEFORE you start working on the file.  You want a blank template to start with so you know where to put the post it notes to print properly.

STEP 2 - Keep the same file open and type your message or notes in the first box.  Copy and paste your text into the remaining five boxes. 

STEP 3 - Before you print, put a post it note on each box of your template.  Put it face down on your printer and print as you normally would.  Your message/note should be within each of the six boxes (as pictured below).

http://c586412.r12.cf2.rackcdn.com/threebythreetemp2.jpg        http://c586412.r12.cf2.rackcdn.com/threebythreetemp1.jpg

STEP 4 - Finished!  Peel off post it notes and place in scriptures, dayplanner, calendar, etc. 

Let's say you've printed a set of notes as a reminder for an activity, choir practice, etc.  I have made a template you can use (below) that can fit the post-it note.  All you do, is open it in Word and type your information in the white box.  Print it out and place your post it note in the grey box.  Also, if you don't want your text to have the box around it, just double click on the line and select "no outline".

http://c586412.r12.cf2.rackcdn.com/postitlargetemp1.jpg    
Don't forget template 1 - [doc] [docx]


http://c586412.r12.cf2.rackcdn.com/postitlargetemp2.jpg
Don't forget template 2 - [doc] [docx]

http://c586412.r12.cf2.rackcdn.com/postitlargetemp3.jpg
Don't forget template 3 - [doc] [docx]


http://c586412.r12.cf2.rackcdn.com/postitlargetemp4.jpg
Don't forget template 4 - [doc] [docx]




Friday, November 1, 2013

Sweet Corn Quiche

Sweet Corn Quiche

from egglandsbest.com
Use fresh corn on the cob when it's in season for this tasty dish.
Sweet Corn Quiche
recipe by Eggland's Best
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
40 mins
Yield: 8 Servings
  • Vegetarian

Ingredients

  • 1 refrigerated pie crust
  • 5 Eggland's Best eggs (large)
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup skim milk
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, low-fat
  • 1/2 cup sour cream, fat-free
  • 1 1/2 cups corn kernels (if frozen, thawed)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F; roll out pie crust and place in 9" deep dish pie or tart pan, and prick bottoms and sides with a fork.  Pre-bake crust for 8-10 minutes.
In a medium-size bowl, mix melted butter, salt, eggs, sour cream, and skim milk; whip until fluffy.
Stir in shredded cheese and corn.
Pour into prepared pie shell; reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until eggs are set.

Nutrition

Serving size 1 Serving
Calories234
Fat13g (51% calories from fat)
Cholesterol125mg
Sodium486mg
Total Carbohydrate20g
Dietary Fiber1g
Protein8g