I decided to throw my own birthday party this year. After 21, birthdays aren't so special, so I decided to make it special myself. I am having my own tea party and chocolate swap. I requested that all my quests bring a bag of Treasures or Nuggets to share (hopefully we'll get a variety). We'll trade chocolate and make a box for the little bits of heaven. We are also going to make a card. I encourage each of you to treat yourself to a special birthday this year and enjoy it with your friends.
My mom had a good idea that I also encourage you to adopt on your birthday...instead of a present, ask your quests to bring a donation to a local charity. I requested breakfast bars for our students that don't always get to eat breakfast at school.
The following are my b-day projects Hope my quests like them. :) My Invitation
Chocolate Box
This is a matchbox type box. I looked the Stampin' Up! catalog for how the template looked (p. 201 of current catalog). Hopefully someday I can have my very own Big Shot and dies, but for now I make my own. I love the little flower. I got the super easy idea from Inking Idaho. I also had to use my favorite chocolate stamp. It's so true.
Card
This is another one of my favorite stamps.
"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends leave footprints in your heart." Eleanor Roosevelt
I think the card needs a little something extra, just not sure what it is.
Project for my hubby
My husband is taking classes right now to become a x-ray tech. I'm very proud of him. When he asked for a gift card holder for his teacher, I jumped at the chance to make something special. This is a super easy gift card holder. I LOVE the little flower. This flower idea came from Carrie Stamps. It is definitely a keeper of an idea.
Cut your paper 4 3/4"x4 3/4". Score at 1 1/2 and 3 3/4, turn and score at 5/8 and 4 1/8. Round the corner as shown in the picture. Cut a strip of coordinating paper 2" x 5 1/4". Wrap the strip around the holder and tape ends together. Attach flower.
Hope you have a super day and take some time to create.
I've had a fun time making Valentine projects. Crafting/baking is really a good stress reliever. If only I had someone to pick up after me. The following are this year's Valentine projects. Enjoy and maybe you could tweak them for St. Pat's day. :)
Grandma Ruby's Famous Sugar Cookies - Project 1 of 4
I really like this sugar cookie recipe for many reasons. Mostly because it's my Grandma's. She's a great cook and baker. I also like it because it's a quick and easy recipe and it makes a lot of cookies. It's definitely not low calorie with two sticks of butter and a cup of oil...but nothing with sugary goodness is low calorie. I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as I do.
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of sugar
2 eggs
1 cup oil (I used canola)
1 t. butter flavoring (I ran out and didn't use any in my last batch and they tasted fine. I do like them with though.)
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. salt
5 cups flour
2 t. baking soda
2 t. cream of tartar (this gives them a little bite, kind of like a snickerdoodle)
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, oil and salt. Then add flavorings. Combine dry ingredients and add to other mixture. Mix well. Chill if you'd like, but not necessary.
Make dough into small balls (I used the med. Pampered Chef cookie scoop). Roll in granulated sugar. Flatten with small glass on your cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. Less time for a soft cookie, more time for a crisp cookie.
Make approx. 6 dozen cookies.
Milk Cartons and Holder - Project 2 of 4
I found this project on my favorite blog Inking Idaho awhile back. I bought the tutorial for $3.95. All of her tutorials are well worth the money. These cartons are mini versions of her design that I designed. I got all four cartons out of one piece of 8.5x11 cardstock! I am stingy with my Stampin Up! paper. I put jelly beans in them for my Secret Sister.
Candy Matchbooks - Project 3 of 4
Most of my projects I find on other people's blogs. Couldn't tell you exactly where I found this one, but I know I've seen it several places. Sizes vary depending on what kind of candy that you're using.
Cut paper 3 1/4 x 7 1/8"
Score at 3/4, 4, and 4 1/4"
I made these for my fifth grade daughter's class. I really enjoy making my girls special things that nobody else will have. I hope it makes them feel special.
Gum Holder - Project 4 of 4
This cute little project is from the blog Impressions by Rochelle. She has a lot of gift ideas on her site that are easy to make. I used her directions except in place of her word window punch, I used the scallop border punch. I only did this because I don't have a word window punch. The scallop punch worked great and it was a nice decorative touch.
These were for my husband's class. He is taking courses to become an x-ray tech. He printed off the clipart for me as I didn't have any medical themed stamps (Although I think I have almost everything else under the sun. :)
I found five stick packs of Trident at Dollar General for about $1 for a four pack.
Hope you've enjoyed my Valentine's projects and I hope you take some time to create this weekend. God Bless you and your family.
Jennifer
While searching for Valentine ideas, I came across a cute one on Leeann Greff's blog. I modified it a bit and came up with this...
What do you think? Super cute and best of all easy. Here's the directions if you would like to make some yourself.
Cut out a 4 1/2 inch square of paper. Score the square at 1 1/2 and 3 inches. Turn the paper and score again at the same measurements. Punch a hole at each corner.
Using square scallop punch, punch out four pieces of paper and adhere to 4 1/2 square.
Cut a 12 inch piece of cordinating ribbon and thread through holes as shown below.
Place a sucker in the middle. I purchased some nice 1 1/2 inch ball shaped suckers at Dollar General for $1 a bag. Tootsie Pops or Blow Pops would work too. This is how I tied mine and it worked great.
Using the circle scallop punch, punch a circle out of cordinating paper and punch as shown below.
Attach stamped image punched out with 1 3/8 inch circle punch and then thread over sucker stick.
Told you it was super easy. :) Now only 24 or so more to make.
Winter is the perfect time to cook up a pot of your favorite soup. I came across a recipe for black bean soup, doctored it up a bit and thought I'd share. I liked it so much, I made two batches this weekend!
Dump the following ingredients into your slow cooker. Cook 6-8 hours on low or 3-4 hours on high.
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups chunky salsa
1 tsp. garlic powder
Top with one or more of the following: cheese, sour cream, avocado, cilantro, etc.
If you're a child of the midwest you've probably enjoyed a bierock at some point in your life. I make a point to enjoy them as often as I can which meant that I needed to find a recipe to make them. Enter my mom's friend Wanda Jane and we have a DELICIOUS bierock recipe that is too good not to share with the world or at least my sister who reads my blog. So, enjoy.
Tupperware Bread
(This is a to die for bread recipe. Easy and yummy!)
375 degree oven, bake time approx. 16-20 minutes for rolls or bierocks
9c. flour
1 1/2 c. warm milk (scalded and cooled by adding the next ingredient...water)
1 1/2 c. water
1/2 c. sugar
1 t. salt
4 eggs
2 sticks butter or margarine
2 pkgs. yeast
Put flour into large tupperware bowl. Make a "well" in the center of the flour. In separate bowl, beat the eggs ans set aside. In a small bowl, place 1/2 c. sugar and add the 2 packages of yeast. Mix gently, set aside. Scald the milk, and add water to cool.
In the bowl with the eggs, add the scalded milk (now cooled). Add salt and mix with fork. To this add the sugar and yeast mix, stir with fork. Pour this mixture into the flour well. Do not mix or stir!! Seal, burp (the bowl, not yourself, unless you feel the need) and set bowl into a sink of warm water for about 30 minutes. The seal should pop off when it's ready.
After 30 minutes, add 2 sticks of melted butter. Now mix the entire bowl of ingredients. Once again, seal, burp and set bowl in a sink of warm water for about 30 minutes. Once again the seal should pop off.
On a floured counter top, knead the dough lightly...roll out and make what you'd like. Proceed as you normally would for any yeast bread recipe...make, let rise, bake and eat!
Bierock Meat
4 lbs. hamburger
4 c. cabbage, chopped
1 c. onion chopped
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper (I like a lot more pepper in mine, so taste test your meat to see if you need more pepper)
Cook hamburger, onion, cabbage, salt and pepper until browned, and cabbage is limp. Roll out dough and cut into large squares. Put 1/2 c. meat mixture in center of dough. Pinch closed. Bake until browned, approx. 16 minutes at 375 degrees. Brush tops of bierocks with melted butter right out of the oven.
For those of you, like me, that need extra directions. Here you go. For the dough...
Divide the dough in half once it's all mixed. This makes it much easier to work with.
Roll the dough into an appox. 16 -24 in square. (or as much of square as you can get, mine generally look like the state of Texas)
The dough needs to be about an 1/8 of an inch thick, maybe even a tad thinner. You don't want it so thin that you can see through it or that it break when you construct your bierocks.
Cut dough into about 4" squares with a pizza cutter.
For the filling...
We put about a 1/2 cup of filling in ours. We used the large cookie scoop from Pampered Chef.
Put the filling into the middle of dough square.
Pull the opposite corners of the square together and pinch the dough together. Do this again for the other corners.
Pinch the seams shut. It should look like a big X on the back.
Put the seam side down on the greased cookie sheet.
Repeat this process for the remaining squares.
Storage and reheating
For easy storage, we place each bierock in a sandwich size Ziploc bag, then place six bierocks in a gallon size bag and into the freezer they go. When you want to enjoy bierock goodness, take a bierock out of the freezer and wrap in a damp paper towel. Place in the microwave oven for about 1 minute depending on your microwave oven.
When we make bierocks, we usually make a lot so we can freeze them. Our latest batch consisted of 3 1/2 batches of bread which made....drum roll please...9 dozen bierocks!!! There was three of working on the project, so we each got three dozen to take home.
Let me know if you make any and how you like them! For even more yummy goodness, we use this same bread recipe for cinnamon rolls.
I was never one for hot tea until I visited my sister in England earlier this year. Since then, I've had several tea parties and learned to love the English treat with a little sugar and milk. Though Chai Tea is probably not necessarily English, it still has tea as an ingredient and it's very yummy. The following is the recipe that my mom and I used for Christmas gifts this year and it won't let your taste buds down.
Instant Chai Tea Mix
1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup powdered nondairy creamer
1 cup French vanilla-flavored, powdered nondairy creamer
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoons cloves
1 teaspoon cardamom (we made one batch without, but I do like it better with cardamom)
Mix all ingredients except spices in large bowl. Stir in spices and mix well. In blender or food processor, blend 1 cup of the mixture at a time until well blended. Do not skip this step. It gives the tea a great consistency and it dissolves well in water.
To make a cup of tea, place 3 heaping teaspoons into an eight ounce mug of hot water.
Calories approx. 80 per cup.
The following are pictures of how I packaged it as gifts.
Brownie Pops are one of my favorite treats to make. Here are some step-by-step directions.
What's needed
Mini Muffin Pans (I use Pampered Chef and some cheapy ones. Cheapy ones work fine)
Small Pampered Chef Cookie Scoop (Not a have to have, but quite handy)
Brownie Mix (I use the Betty Crocker 13x9 mix)
Chocolate Melts or Chocolate Bark
Sprinkles
Brownie Pop Sticks (Available at Hobby Lobby or other craft stores)
4x6 Treat Bags
Stampin Up Circle Scallop Punch
Stampin Up 1 3/8" Circle Punch
Hole punch
Coordinating Papers
Your choice of ink
Your choice of stamps
Ribbon
To Make Brownies
Follow the directions on your brownie mix
Spray your brownie pans with cooking spray
Use small cookie scoop to put batter in the pans. Should fill approx. 48
Cook for approx. 10 minutes at the temperature your mix recommends
Cool for 3 or 4 minutes
Use a butter knife to run around edges of brownies being careful to not tear the brownies up
Remove brownies from pans to cooking racks
Sticks
Turn all of the brownies over with the larger side facing down
Melt chocolate
Spoon a dab of chocolate onto the top of the brownies
Insert a stick into the center of each brownie
Let the chocolate dry
In this picture I didn't put the chocolate on the top before I put the sticks in. (I forgot and had to do it after the sticks were in. What a pain!) Putting chocolate on the top before you put the stick in helps hold the stick in place.
Sprinkles
Melt Chocolate
Hold a brownie pop at a 45 degree angle
Roll the edge of the pop in melted chocolate then roll in sprinkles
This is a matchbox type box. I looked the Stampin' Up! catalog for how the template looked (p. 201 of current catalog). Hopefully someday I can have my very own Big Shot and dies, but for now I make my own. I love the little flower. I got the super easy idea from Inking Idaho. I also had to use my favorite chocolate stamp. It's so true. 
My husband is taking classes right now to become a x-ray tech. I'm very proud of him. When he asked for a gift card holder for his teacher, I jumped at the chance to make something special. This is a super easy gift card holder. I LOVE the little flower. This flower idea came from Carrie Stamps. It is definitely a keeper of an idea. 
Cut your paper 4 3/4"x4 3/4". Score at 1 1/2 and 3 3/4, turn and score at 5/8 and 4 1/8. Round the corner as shown in the picture. Cut a strip of coordinating paper 2" x 5 1/4". Wrap the strip around the holder and tape ends together. Attach flower. 
