Be My Valentine??

I have an enigmatic love for Valentine's Day cards.  I mean, I haven't had a huge number of people to make Valentines for since I was in elementary school.  Yet, every year, I still find myself wildly attracted to all of the new Valentine's Day paper-crafting products available in the stores.  (I'm in love with all of the heart-themed home decorating stuff, too, but that's a whole 'nother blog post.)  And, usually I end up buying a few new things and making waaaaay more Valentine cards than one gal could ever need or use.

As far as this year, let me just say that if you haven't been to Michael's lately, you should definitely go!  They have a fantastic selection of Valentine products out this year, from new paper pads to 3-D embellishments to sparkly rhinestones in pinks and reds.  I went a little bit overboard this year and bought lots of new stuff, so I thought I might as well showcase some of my recent cards here on my blog.

The two cards in the top photo are among my favorites, mostly because I love that green checked paper from K&Co.  It's from a pad of papers designed by Kelly Panacci, and I used the same pad for almost all of the cards featured in today's post.  The green checked paper is already printed with cute swirls and flowers along the sides and bottom of each sheet, so these cards were a simple matter of cutting the paper in an attractive way and adding a few additional embellishments, such as dimensional flowers with sparkly centers and 3-D greeting labels.  Oh, for the card on the left, I used my newest Martha Stewart edge punch.  It's called the Loop Double Edge Deep Edge Punch (say THAT five times in a row!), and I had coveted this great punch for literally months before I actually broke down and bought it.  And now, boy am I glad that I did!  It works great and punches very easily, even through thin cardstock.  It's pretty intricate, so I'm guessing that it won't go through super heavy cardstock, but I'm fine with that. 

 

 Here are a couple more cards, where I incorporated some of my new purchases with some scraps and older things I had lying around.  The bird stamp is from Michael's as well, it's one of their wood-mounted $1 stamps.  The bird's body makes the shape of a heart, perfect for Valentine's Day!  For this particular image, I stamped with waterprook black ink and used regular old watercolor paints to color it.  I used that edge punch again, too, and gave it a different look by adhering a strip of narrow ribbon right down the center.  Below is a close-up of the 3-D key sentiment on the card on the right.  Oh, and I could get away with the circles of green dotted paper (cut from scraps) because that multi-heart paper actually has some pale green hearts in it, although they are difficult to see in these photos. 

 

Above are a couple more cards that feature mostly my new supplies, although the puffy heart embellishments on the card on the right are actually from my stash.  The package has some crazy colors of hearts in it, so up til now, I hadn't used too many of them.  But, as it turns out, they go great with some of the papers in my new Kelly Panacci pad.

For whatever reason, I am still loving banners and flags on both cards and scrapbook pages.  I suppose they've been done to death, but I'll confess that I'm not tired of them yet.  I saw the basic design for the card on the right in the January/February issue of Paper Crafts magazine, and what caught my eye was that the flags were different shapes and sizes.  So I played around with the design a bit and came up with these two cards.  The sparkly flowers are Jolee's, and they are currently one of my favorite card embellishments.  They seem to go with everything!  Oh, and the red rick-rack is a leftover bit from a sewing project that I'm currently working on.  I hope to show the finished item here on my blog very soon.  

So, let me know.  Are you as crazy about as Valentine's Day as I am?  In parting, I'll tell you one thing that I do that actually helps me use all of the Valentines that I make almost every year.  I don't stamp or print any sentiment on the INSIDES of my cards.  Instead, I leave the insides blank, so they're more like notecards.  I have a couple of people in my life that I send snail mail to on a regular basis, and making my Valentines into notecards allows me to get a lot more use out of them.  And since I'm trying to be more frugal these days, along with everyone else, that makes me happy. 

Too Much Chocolate Cake

Hmmm, I probably shouldn't be posting a chocolate cake recipe in mid-January, should I?  I mean, everyone is trying to lose weight and get healthy, and all of that.  Ok, so maybe this isn't the best timing, but the next time you NEED to make a chocolate cake for some occasion (like, maybe, Valentine's Day?), I highly recommend this one.  It's truly delicious and the name says it all.

Too Much Chocolate Cake

1 package devil's food cake mix

1 6 oz. package instant chocolate pudding mix

1 cup sour cream

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, and water.  Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into a well-greased 12-cup bundt pan.  Bake for 50-55 minutes, until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool cake thoroughly in the pan for at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate.  Glaze with Satiny Chocolate Glaze.

Satiny Chocolate Glaze:  In a double boiler over hot, but not boiling water, combine 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, 3 T. butter and 1 T. light corn syrup.  Stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth, then add 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract.  Let glaze cool a bit until it has thickened, but is still warm.  Spread warm glaze over top of cake, letting it dribble down the sides.

I love bundt cakes (even though they are kind of dated) because they are easy to tote to another location, and they are super easy to slice.  Thus, they are the perfect type of cake to take to a work celebration.  Now, truthfully, you can use any good glaze recipe for this cake, you don't have to use the recipe that I gave.  In fact, this cake would be delicious with a different flavor of glaze, such as vanilla or raspberry.  Notice how, in these photos, the glaze has dripped perfectly down the sides of the cake, stopping before it made messy puddles on the cake plate.  There is a trick to getting glaze to do that.  The trick is that the glaze has to be fairly thick when you put it on.  Remember that it's going to be dripping down a surface that's close to vertical, so you want whatever glaze you make you to be just thin enough that it will drip somewhat, but not so thin that it will make it the whole way down the side of the cake.  Experiment with one section of cake, and if the glaze isn't thick enough, either wait til it has cooled a little more, or if you are making a glaze that uses confectioner's sugar, simply add more sugar to make the glaze thicker.

I like to top the cake with chocolate sprinkles (as I did here), chopped nuts, or something along those lines.  Again, not completely necessary, but it really adds a nice, finished look to the cake.

 

If you'd like, you can serve this cake with fresh berries, such as raspberries or sliced fresh strawberries.  Because this cake is sooooo chocolaty, the fruit makes a nice contrast in taste and texture.  But, however you serve it, enjoy!  And no, you don't have to tell anyone that this fabulous recipe starts with a BOXED cake mix!  Oh, I should probably add that this recipe originally came from allrecipes.com, which is one of my favorite recipe sites ever.  If you haven't ever checked them out, I highly recommend that you do.

Rag Quilt for My Dad

 First of all, Happy New Year! I was pretty bad last year with keeping up with this blog, and my NY "resolution" is to try to do a better job with that in 2011!  I actually really like blogging and showing projects and how-to's and recipes, I just don't have a good handle on fitting blogging time into my schedule.  So that's what I'm going to work on in the new year.  That being said, for my first post of the new year, I thought I would show off the rag quilt that I made my dad for Christmas.  I really wanted to do more homemade gifts this Christmas, and I've actually had it in mind to make my dad a rag quilt for more than a year.  In fact, I bought the fabric right after Thanksgiving LAST year (in 2009), and just never got around to doing anything with it then.

To begin with, a rag quilt is really just a blanket made of three layers of flannel blocks that are sewn together with the seams on the OUTSIDE.  After all of the seams are sewn, you clip all of the seam allowances with special clippers.  Then when you wash the quilt, the seams allowances "rag" and they develop a wavy, soft, comfy look.  The HUGE advantage of a rag quilt is that it isn't anything like a traditional quilt, so it goes together in a very short period of time.  There are lots of people on the internet who say that they can make one in a weekend.  For me, that would be pretty ambitious, but it's true that these quilts are relatively fast projects.

I got interested in making a rag quilt after reading this blog post:  Rag Quilt  If you Google "rag quilt," you can find all kinds of pictures and posts and videos.  But, what I really loved about the blog post that I linked is that it gives MEASUREMENTS and ACTUAL DIRECTIONS.  Most posts give information about making a rag quilt, but they don't give specifics.  I like specifics.  They make my life easier!  After reading through all of Kelly's fabulous directions and looking at her photos, I decided to just make my quilt using all same-size blocks, instead of making some "4 square" blocks like Kelly did.  My reasoning was just that I wanted to keep things as simple as possible.  I also made my quilt a little larger than the ones that Kelly did, as my dad is a big guy, and I wanted something that he would really find useful.  So, my quilt ended up being made out of 8-1/2" blocks, with 8 rows of 6 blocks.  That's a total of 48 blocks, and since I was using three different prints, that's 16 blocks of each print for the front of the quilt.  The "middle" layer of the quilt I made out of white flannel, and the back (which is visible in the photo above) is a pale blue.

Here's a photo of my flannel squares all stacked up, after I was finished cutting:

 

And here is a close-up of the three fabrics that I chose.  Now tell me that that skiing moose fabric isn't the cutest thing you've ever seen!  One word of advice -- I chose a stripe (the moose) and a very "even" pattern (the red snowflake print) as two of my fabrics, and that probably wasn't the best idea for a novice like me.  The reason is that when you cut the fabric, it's easy for it to get off-grain just a little bit.  While those small variances wouldn't be noticeable in a small, all-over print, they are noticeable with plaids, stripes, and the like.  I did have this problem to some degree -- some of the red snowflakes squares are "off" just a little.  But, I decided to just not worry about it and maybe do a more careful job of picking prints next time.

As I said, you can read Kelly's blog for complete instructions on cutting and sewing a rag quilt.  She gives some tips along that way that are very helpful, too.  For example, it's definitely worth it to buy special "nippers" to clip the seam allowances, rather than using regular scissors.  The nippers are spring loaded, so they are MUCH easier on your hands and wrists.  These were a necessity for me, as I have arthritis in both my hands, but I'd recommend them for everyone.  They were around $20 at Jo-Ann's, and I used a 50% off coupon, so the nippers were less than $10.  Totally worth it. 

The other thing that is really, really helpful when doing a rag quilt is using a "walking foot" to sew the seams.  I resisted this idea, until I saw what a walking foot really does.  It helps keep all of the layers of fabric together as they are sewn together by the sewing machine.  That sounds like a small thing, but when you are sewing two blocks of a rag quilt together, you are sewing SIX LAYERS of flannel together!  Without a walking foot, it will be hard, if not impossible, for all those layers to feed into the machine evenly.  I have a Kenmore sewing machine, and I found a walking foot for it right at my local Sears store.  In fact, for $30, I got a boxed assortment of different feet for particular tasks.  Again, totally worth it.  If you can't find a walking foot for your exact sewing machine model, they do make generic ones, but I can't speak to how well those may work.  The big secret for me with the walking foot was to GO SLOW.  I got the best results when I sewed my seams slowly and carefully. 

Ok, last photo.  This is a picture of what the "ragged" seams look like when the whole quilt is finished and has been washed.

 

See how the seams get kind of wavy and raggy-looking?  Really a cute look!  Oh, one last comment.  Most people (including Kelly, I think) will tell you NOT to wash your fabrics before you cut, because you will get the best results with "ragging" when you have unwashed fabrics in the finished quilt.  I somehow didn't read this advice, and I washed everything before cutting my square.  I was worried about the flannel shrinking too much and I wanted to know the real size that my quilt was going to end up being.  I have to say that I don't think it probably made that much difference that I washed the fabrics first.  The clipped seam allowances still frayed and ragged beautifully.  So, I'd say to do whatever you feel most comfortable with as far as washing your fabrics first.  I think your quilt will come out fine either way.

So, the final bit of this story is that my dad LOVED his quilt!  My dad is at that age where he is very, very hard to buy gifts for.  He doesn't really go anywhere, and he leads a quiet life.  He lives far away from me, so it's not like I can take him to dinner or do personal things with him.  So all of the types of gifts I used to get him when he was younger just aren't good choices anymore.  I confess that I really wasn't sure how well the rag quilt would go over.  But, Dad told me that he likes to take a nap every afternoon, and he had been thinking that he needed to get a warmer blanket to throw across his legs when he napped.  Well, problem solved!  There's not much warmer than three layers of cuddly flannel!

Bottom line -- this is a pretty easy project and you end up with a GREAT finished piece, with big impact.  You do have to take your time when cutting the blocks and also sewing, but the end result is worth it.  I bought a TON of flannel and Jo-Ann's Black Friday sale this year, and I'm planning on whipping up a few more of these quilts to give as gifts next Christmas!

Denim Circle Quilt

The quilt pictured above is a Christmas gift for my 10-year-old son, Brian.  He loves blankets and always cuddles up with one when he watches TV or reads.  So, earlier this fall, I got the idea into my head to make him a quilt.  I started it in early September and I finished it (finally!) over Thanksgiving weekend.  It's pretty big -- about twin bed size, so Brian could use it on his bed if he wants to do that.

What I made is called a denim circle quilt.  I got the idea from a thread on a scrapbooking message board.  It's one of those quilts that is put together differently than you'd think, and isn't nearly as difficult as it looks.  It's actually made with circles of denim (LOTS of them!) which are sewn together side to side.  You then add print blocks in the center of each circle, pin the edges of the circle over the blocks and use a close zig zag stitch to encase the edges.  There is no batting at all, so in that sense it isn't a "traditional" quilt.  Also, you can make this in pieces, which made the project much more doable for me. 

The website that I got the instructions from is here:  http://www.straw.com/equilters/library/jeans/jeans_gallbaros.html  I did things a little bit differently, in that I used somewhat bigger circles and squares than suggested in the instructions.  Also, I bought a plastic quilting square which I used to mark the middles of the circles, and I bought a gizmo to help me mark and cut perfect circles.

Here is a picture of the pattern that the stitching creates on the back of the quilt.

 

I just love the flower/circle pattern of the stitching!  Anyway, if you decide to tackle this project, you'll find that people online always describe this as a project for someone with no sewing experience.  If you've really never sewn before, I wouldn't recommend this as a first project.  While it's not difficult, it is very time consuming, and you really have to be careful about matching the circles correctly or the rows don't fall into place as they should.  Also, I made this quilt in six sections (which the website suggests), but putting those six sections together into the finished quilt was quite an endeavor.  I've NEVER made a quilt, and I was somewhat unprepared for how bulky the whole quilt was, and how difficult it was to feed it smoothly into the sewing machine.  If you're like me and have never tackled a quilt, I suggest reading some general quilting tips because it really helps to find out how other (experienced!) quilters deal with some of the difficulties.

Geez, I'm probably making this sound harder than it was!  It was actually a really fun project, and though it was a little more difficult than I'd thought it would be, I learned a lot while doing it and the finished project looks great (if I do say so myself).  Certainly, this is easier than a traditional quilt, so don't hesitate to give it a try!

Paradise Pumpkin Pie

 

Since it's almost Thanksgiving, I thought I'd share a favorite holiday recipe of mine.  You know, pumpkin pie is one of those things that isn't easy to improve on.  I mean, for years I (like millions of other people) used the recipe on the back of the Libby's label, and my pies always turned out great.  But then, a few years ago, I noticed this recipe for Paradise Pumpkin Pie on Allrecipes.com and decided to try it.  Let me put it this way.  Oh.My.Gosh.  This pie truly is "paradise."  My family likes it so much that it's now my staple pumpkin pie recipe for Thanksgiving.

First I'll share the recipe, and then I'll give you a second idea for serving it.

Paradise Pumpkin Pie

1 refrigerated pie crust

Cheesecake layer:

8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg, beaten

Pumpkin layer:

1-1/4 cups pumpkin puree

1 cup evaporated milk

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

 1/4 tsp. salt

Pecan Streusel Topping:

2 T. flour

2 T. brown sugar

2 T. butter, softened

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Fit pie crust into pie plate, then refrigerate.  To make cheesecake layer:  In a medium mixing bowl, beat cream cheese til smooth.  Beat in sugar, then add vanilla and egg.  Beat mixture until light and smooth.  Spread into pastry shell and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  To make pumpkin layer:  In a large bowl, combine pumpkin puree, evaporated milk, eggs, both sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  Mix until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.  Pour pumpkin mixture over chilled cream cheese layer.  Cover edges of crust with aluminum foil.  Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes.  Remove foil from edges and bake an additional 30 minutes.  While pie is in the oven, mix up the pecan streusel.  Combine flour and sugar in a small bowl.  Mix well, then add softened butter and stir til combined.  Mix in pecans.  After pie has been in oven for 55 minutes, remove and sprinkle topping evenly on top.  Bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Here is what the pie looks like just out of the oven.  The picture at the beginning of the post is a cut slice, showing off the pie's two beautiful layers.

The one thing that is somewhat tricky about this pie is the topping.  Because you don't put it on until the pie has been baking for almost an hour, it can be very difficult to get it to "stick."  The reason is that, like any custard pie, pumpkin pies "puff" somewhat once they've been in the over for awhile, then they settle after they're taken from the oven.  Because the pie will be rather puffy after 55 minutes in the oven, the topping has a tendency to roll off the sides.  One thing that helps is making sure the pecan pieces are chopped very small, and that all of the topping ingredients are well mixed.  You can also try adding the topping a little bit earlier in the baking process, but it may brown too much if you do it this way.  I just kind of deal with the topping, trying to keep as much of it on the top of the pie as possible.  The topping is super yummy and frankly, it's worth fussing with it a bit.

Here's another option, though.  If you want, you can skip the topping altogether and serve the pie with a delicious Maple Praline Sauce (recipe below).  It adds a similar kind of flavor to the finished pie.  Or, if you're really feeling indulgent, you can add the topping to the pie as called for, AND serve it with the sauce!

Maple Praline Sauce

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 tsp. maple flavoring

1/4 cup sour cream

In skillet, melt butter.  Add pecans and toast over medium heat about 5 minutes.  Add sugar, syrup and flavoring; cook and stir another 2-4 minutes until sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat; stir in sour cream.  Serve warm with Paradise Pumpkin Pie.

The great thing about this pie is that it is close enough to a traditional pumpkin pie to not ruffle the purists who might be at your dining table, but it will still satisfy those who like to try something just a little bit different.  In any case, I HIGHLY recommend this pie.  In fact, writing this post, I'm wondering if maybe I need to make a "test" pie before Thanksgiving . . .  You know, just to make sure it's as delicious as I remember!

Fall-Themed Cards

You know, I always try to tell myself that I don't really like fall, because it means that winter isn't very far away.  But, in truth, I really DO like fall.  The gorgeous colors of the leaves, the start of a new school year, the crisp air, that special smell in the air -- I love them all.  I also love fall activities, like college football, pumpkin carving and apple picking.  And, I have to say, fall definitely motivates me in a creative sense.  I'm not really one to make a ton of spring-themed cards or craft projects, but fall always seems to get me going.  In the stores, I find myself reaching for adorable pumpkin- and leaf-themed embellishments, whether I need them or not!  So, when I was home with my sick little guy the other day, I decided to whip up a few notecards featuring some of those new embellishments, and using warm fall colors like gold, brown, green, and pumpkin orange. 

For the sunflowers on the two cards above, I stamped images on mixed media paper and colored them in with Copic markers.  I then cut the images out and simply glued them to the card fronts.  I love to just play around and experiment with my Copic markers, so I'll often stamp a whole series of images on a sheet of mixed media paper and just try out different color combinations and ideas for shading.  Failures get tossed, and images that I like usually end up being cut out and put into a basket near my scrapping area, where I'll see them the next time I decide to make cards.

I've been LOVING embellishments from K&Co. lately, including their package of fall borders, like the pumpkin border on the card above.  All of the borders are self-stick, and feature just a little glitter for a bit of added panache.  The leaf border on the "Capture the Joy" card below is from the same package.  The vellum titles are all from a package that was in the dollar section at Jo-Ann's.  The leaves on the cards below, and the pumpkin and leave on the "Friend" card above, are all from a package of K&Co. layered, 3-D embellishments.  I always look for these kinds of embellishments because they make fantastic, quick cards.

  

Notice that for the "Together" card above, I cut some of the pumpkins from that same border but just adhered them individually onto the card.  I like that I was able to use the very same supply but give the card a whole different look.  For the two cards immediately above, I used up a few really old items, including some scraps of one of my favorite KI Memories paper from years ago.  Nothing like combining old and new items and making things work together.

Fall inspires me in the kitchen, too.  Once the weather gets colder, I find myself searching for new recipes to try for soups, stews and breads.  I'm sure I'll have some new ones to share with you soon! 

Book Journal

Well, unfortunately, it's been awhile since I've posted.  I was sick with a lingering virus most of September and just couldn't keep up with daily responsibilities, much less anything extra.  But I've been wanting to share this project that I recently got started on.  It's a book journal, and it's something I've been thinking of making for a long time.


I'm kind of strange about reading -- I pretty much only read "classic" literature.  My reasoning here is pretty simple.  The "classics" are supposed to be books that, for one reason or another, have stood the test of time and continue to have something important to offer readers, right?  Since I am a slow reader and don't get many books finished in a year, I figured I might as well devote my time to tackling some of the great books that (as an English Literature major in college) I was probably supposed to read, but never did.  I had the idea of starting a book journal quite awhile ago, but never got around to actually making one.  I thought it would be kind of neat to have a place to record my own personal thoughts about the books that I've been reading.

Finally, a few weeks ago, I dove in and got started on the journal.  Mine is housed in a 6x6 album, just one I had left over from the days when I used to make lots of little albums in this size for baby gifts.  I had a simple K&Co. one with a "map" cover sitting in the drawer that I decided to use for my book journal.  At some point, I might embellish or change the cover, but for now, it's fine.  I thought the map could signify my reading journey, or maybe that's a little too corny.  A major selling point for me is that the album has 20 interior page protectors, twice as many as some others, plus it has a post binding so I can add additional page protectors in the future if I want to.

Anyway, the photo above is the inside cover page of the album.  I decided to keep it very simple and just call the album "Books I've Read."  The week before, I had been playing with my new set of Copic markers, coloring stamped images, so I had the blue and purple butterfly image sitting on my craft table and decided to use that for the cover page.  I chose the Quickutz font "Blossom" for the title because it's a font I happen to own in three sizes.  Ok, I don't just "happen to" own it in three sizes.  It is my all-time, hands-down favorite font so I own it in about every format that exists.  I used the "grand" size font for the title page.  

For the inside layouts, I decided ahead of time to do a two-page layout for each book.  I created a template for my comments in Word Perfect (yes, I know, I'm the only person that still uses this software but I prefer it over Word, which I am required to use at work).  My template has spots for the name and author of the book, the date that I finished reading it, my reasons for picking up the book in the first place, and then of course a large area for my thoughts about the book.  I decided that for the left-hand side of each layout, I would simply take a photo of the book and mount it on cardstock along with a die-cut title and a flower or two.  Again, super simple, but I think it looks nice.  I used my smallest size Blossom font for the book title, to ensure that it would fit in the space.

The photo above is the layout that I made for Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," which I read this summer.  My 16 year old son read it in his English class last year and was very moved and affected by the book.  So much so that he kept insisting I had to read it, which I finally did.  My second layout is below, featuring "Anna Karenina."  By the way, if you've read this book, I'd love to hear your comments on it!  I decided to read it because many people say it's the best book ever written.  I kept thinking, how can I go through life when I haven't read arguably the greatest book ever written?  So if I had a bucket list (which I don't, because I abhor that term), I guess I would be crossing "read Anna Karenina" off of it.

Another thing that motivated me to finally get the book journal started was that a friend at work and I are planning to read Tolstoy's "War and Peace" together over the winter.  She'll be reading it on her cute little Kindle, while I haul the 1,200 page volume around.  In any case, we plan to meet each week to talk about what we've read, and I found some discussion questions online that we'll use as starting points.  Before we start "War and Peace," though, I have to finish D.H. Lawrence's "Women in Love."  Let me just say that it's a strange book, and it's hard to read, so it's taking me even longer than normal to finish it.  In any case, I really did want to keep the layouts in my book journal simple so that when I finish a book, I can just pull up a template, write down my thoughts, take a photo of the book cover, and have a finished layout to add to the album in no time.

Have you made a book journal or a similar kind of project?  Many years ago, when one of my primary hobbies was counted cross-stitch, I kept an album of photos of projects that I'd finished and given away as gifts.  Even now, I love occasionally looking through that album and remembering those special pieces.  If you've done an ongoing journal like my book journal or cross-stitch journal, I'd love to hear about it!  For now, though, wish me luck in getting "Women in Love" finished and into the book journal!

Easy Dinner: Asian Beef with Snow Peas

With the kids about to go back to school, I to back to many of my tried and true weekday recipes.  We always seem to have a lot going on on weekday evenings, so I like to have a stash of quick and easy recipes that I can turn to on those nights.  Asian Beef with Snow Peas is one of those recipes -- in fact, the thing that takes the longest about this recipe is making the rice!  (More about that later.)

First things first.  You've probably noticed that even though today's recipe is titled Asian Beef with Snow Peas, those are NOT snow peas in the picture above.  It's broccoli.  Which brings me to another thing I LOVE about this recipe -- it's pretty easy to substitute something else for the snow peas if you don't happen to have any of those on hand.  Okay, first I'll give you the recipe, and then I'll give a few helpful tips.

Asian Beef with Snow Peas (adapted from a recipe on allrecipes.com)

3 T. soy sauce

2 T. rice wine

1 T. brown sugar

1 tsp. cornstarch

1 T. vegetable oil

1 T. minced fresh gingeroot

1 T. minced garlic

1 pound beef round steak, cut into thin strips

8 oz. snow peas

Hot cooked rice

In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, rice wine, brown sugar and cornstarch.  Set aside.  Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over medium high heat.  Stir-fry ginger and garlic for 30 seconds.  Add the steak and stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until evenly browned.  Add the snow peas and stir-fry for an additional 3 minutes.  Add the soy sauce mixture and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Lower heat and simmer until the sauce is thick and smooth.  Serve immediately over hot cooked rice.

Now for a few tips.  When I make this dish, the first thing I do is start the rice.  I use a small electric rice cooker, which I just love.  The rice always comes out perfect, and I love that you just load the rice and water in there, turn it on, and let it do its thing!  I've found that rice takes about 35 minutes in the rice cooker if I'm starting with cold water, so that's why I start the rice first.  Once the rice is going, I cut the meat, mince the garlic and ginger, and cut the cleaned snow peas in half.  Of course, you could do these tasks ahead of time, too, and just keep the chopped ingredients cold in the fridge.

Although the recipe itself calls for round steak, I personally recommend using a better, more tender cut of meat.  The meat only cooks for a few minutes, so unless it's a tender cut to start with, it won't be deliciously tender when the dish is done.  I like to use a sirloin cut for this recipe, and of course you want to find a piece of meat with as little fat as possible.  Cut all of the visible fat off the meat before cutting it into thin strips.

There is a lot of temptation to "fool around" with this recipe, because it's so darned simple.  Every time I make it, it surprises me that it doesn't call for onions.  I, personally, try to resist the temptation to mess around with this recipe too much, because its simplicity is really what makes it so great, and so perfect for a school night dinner.  Adding more ingredients or more vegetables translates into more prep time, and more cooking time.  And, the thing is, this recipe is REALLY good just as its written.  Once those few ingredients are combined, they produce an amazingly tasty dish.

Oh, one more word of caution.  I wrote down 1 tsp. for the amount of cornstarch, but you may want to experiment and see if you prefer to use a little more.  Frankly, the sauce will not really get "thick and smooth" using only 1 tsp. of cornstarch.  So I'll sometimes us a little more than this.  And, make sure you lower the heat after you add the sauce mixture, because cornstarch does its magic at lower temperatures.

Finally, in case you were wondering, yes, this is a pretty healthy recipe.  If you use a good cut of beef and trim away the fat, and are careful to stick to using 1 T. of oil for the stir-frying, a serving of this dish (minus the rice) has only 218 calories and 7.5 grams of fat.  Now that's a weeknight dinner that any mom could love! 

Ribbon Storage Solution

Most paper crafters that I know have lots of ribbon, and I'm certainly no exception.  I've accumulated tons of different colors and styles over the past few years.  I love to use ribbon on scrapbook pages and cards, tie lengths of it to the binder rings of mini albums, and use it to make Christmas ornaments.  But, as you know, anytime you get a lot of something, storage becomes an issue.

I struggled with how to store my ribbon for a long time.  I generally buy rolls of ribbon rather than short pieces, so initially, I kept all of my ribbon on the rolls and just lined them up in a shoebox.  That worked okay until one shoebox became two, then three, and then . . . well, you get the idea.  Then I saw online where someone had wound all of their ribbon onto wooden clothespins and put all of the clothespins into a big glass jar.  The colorful jar full of ribbon was very eye-catching and actually looked pretty out on the person's work area.  I had access to some huge glass jars, so I decided to go this route.  It took a really, really long time, but I wound all of my ribbons onto wooden clothespins and secured the ends with straight pins.  I loaded them into a couple of big glass jars and they were not only accessible, but they added a nice decorative element to my scrap space.

After awhile, though, I started to dislike the jars.  They took up a LOT of space, and to really look through my ribbon, I pretty much had to to dump all of the filled clothespins out on the table.  I just wasn't loving this storage method any longer, and started to look for something new.  I bought one of those soft, clear plastic ribbon "purses" that has holes all over the sides, because I thought that method would be portable.  You thread one length of ribbon through each of the many, many holes in the container, and basically you can take your whole ribbon collection with you.  While the container really does hold much more than you'd ever suspect, it really isn't made for a ribbon collection like mine.  What I mean is that the "ribbon purse" method works best if what you have are a bunch of individual lengths of ribbon, say a yard or so each.  It doesn't work so well if you have really, really LONG lengths of ribbon, like a whole spool's worth (i.e., anywhere from 3 to 8 yards).  So, I abandoned that method, as well.

Finally, I stumbled upon a thread on my favorite message board about storing ribbon, and someone mentioned ribbon cards, the method that I am currently using.  While I suppose you could be green and frugal and cut your own cards from leftover cardboard, I highly recommend these little beauties:

They are sturdy cards specifically made for wrapping ribbon, and while the picture shows the cards meant for 1/2" ribbon, the company, Magistical Memories, makes various sized ribbon wrapping cards.  And I'm going to be honest here, it's those notches on the cards that make ALL the difference.  After surveying my ribbon stash, I bought a package of each size of cards from the company's website, and an extra package of the 1/2" cards, because I have more ribbon that width than any other size.  I then organized all of my ribbon by size and by color, and started wrapping the ribbon onto the cards.  The notches on the cards make this truly easy, although it takes awhile if you have a ton of ribbon like I do.  Ok, now, here is the BEST PART of this ribbon storage method -- the Magistical Memories cards fit PERFECTLY into plastic shoeboxes on their sides.  So I just "filed" each ribbon card away and I managed to get my entire (huge!) ribbon collection into two plastic shoeboxes.  With additional empty cards on hand, my collection can still grow and not become too unwieldy.  When I'm working at home in my craft room, I can just pull out my shoeboxes and find the ribbon that I need.  But when I'm going to crop, I can just pull a couple of cards of ribbon in the colors that I'm working with and throw them into my bag.  I can take a whole selection of ribbons with me, without taking up much room in my bag.  Love that!

I have my shoeboxes of ribbon stashed neatly under a storage drawer system in my craft room, and it's a great, out of the way place for them.  Did I use my ribbon stash more when I had the bright clothespins staring me right in the face?  Maybe, but for my craft room and the way I work, the ribbon cards are much better.  I couldn't be happier with this solution, and I encourage you to give it a try if your ribbon stash needs some taming!    

Chocolate Caramel Chex Mix

I'm something of a Chex Mix fanatic.  Only, not the kind you buy in bags at the grocery store.  The best Chex Mix is the kind you make yourself at home; the bagged stuff just isn't the same.  And, while I love good old original Chex Mix, I discovered last year that General Mills has a Chex Mix contest every year, and they publish the three recipes that are determined to be the best.  All of the recipes from past years are available on the Chex website.  Which is exactly where I got the yummy recipe for the concoction pictured above called Chocolate Caramel Crunch Chex Mix.  (I'll admit that I modified the "official" recipe a little bit.)

I'm going to confess here that I'm not a fan of Muddy Buddies/Puppy Chow, the typical sweet/chocolatey Chex-based treat.  That stuff always tastes too sweet and seems to have sort of a "gloppy" consistency.  So, when I wanted to make Chex Mix last week to take into work for a chocolate-loved friend's birthday, I decided to try the chocolate-caramel recipe.  Now, forgive me, but until I saw this recipe, I had no idea that there was even such a thing as Chocolate Chex.  But, now that I've been enlightened, I can see making this snack mix on a regular basis.  It helps that it's super easy to make, too.

Chocolate Caramel Crunch Chex Mix

9 cups Chocolate Chex cereal (the whole box)

6 T. butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 T. light corn syrup

1/4 tsp. baking soda

2 cups honey-roasted peanuts

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Place cereal and peanuts in a microwave safe bowl.  In another bowl, combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup.  Microwave on high for about a minute and a half, until the butter and sugar are melted and everything can be stirred together.  Stir in the baking soda, then pour mixture over the cereal and peanuts and mix well, until evenly coated.  Microwave on high for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring well after each minute.  Spread mixture out onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper to cool.  Allow to cool for about 10 or 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, microwave white chocolate chips for about 90 seconds, stirring at each 30 second interval, until chips are melted and smooth.  Do not over-microwave!  Drizzle the white chocolate over the snack mix on the cookie sheet.  After all of the white chocolate has been drizzled on, using a spatula, turn and stir the mix to break up any clumps of white chocolate, and to ensure that all of the mixture gets some of the white chocolate topping.  Allow to cool completely, until the white chocolate has firmly set up.  (You can place in the fridge for half an hour or so if you want to.)  Before serving, break mixture up with your hands, as necessary, into small bites.

Let me conclude by saying that this was a BIG hit with my co-workers.  Several people commented that it was yummy without being too sweet, an assessment that I'd have to agree with.  So, next time you're craving a chocolate treat, give this snack mix a try!