4th of July Kids Crafts

I've seen the cutest 4th of July craft ideas while scrolling through blogs. If you're looking for a way to decorate your house for the 4th, try out some of these.

ScrumdillyDo's Spinning Fireworks using a salad spinner

The Crafty Crow's list of July 4th projects

Celebrations' Lawn Rockets

Kaboose's Patriotic Flower Pot Candle Holders

Patriotic Bubble Wands

Uncle Sam's Hat Treat Cups

Alice

I just heard of the greatest website, Alice.com. During my big monthly grocery trip last night, my daughter was a bear. She was tired, so she was in no mood to be patient. But we were out of milk, eggs, and bread, so the trip was a must. Anyway, I was standing in line trying to prevent her from throwing everything out of the cart thinking, "I wish I had a personal shopper to do this for me." I hate grocery shopping. I always have, but adding a 15-month-old to that trip makes it even less appealing. This morning I ran across this website. It is great. Go check it out. You pay a little more, but the concept is phenomenal. You enter the products you use, the frequency you purchase them, and they remind you when you're due. They also find all of the coupons associated with the items in your products list to alert you when you can save. Oh, and shipping is free! Awesome.

Best Burgers Ever

We've been experimenting with all of our garden veggies and herbs a lot around here, and this is, by far, our favorite experiment. I made some sliders with basil and chives, and they're a hit. Here's how:

Best Burgers (Sliders) Ever

1 lb ground beef

1 bunch basil

1 bunch chives

handful of mozzarella cheese

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper

Dump everything into a bowl, and mix by hand until everything is evenly distributed. I use Rachael Ray's tip to divvy up the meat. She presses it into the bottom of the bowl and scores it with her hand to get an even amount of meat into each burger. I made 6 small patties because a normal-sized burger is too much for me. Grill on each side to your desired doneness, and enjoy! I served these with grilled onions, colby-jack cheese, and on homemade buns (recipe can be found here).

The many, many leaves of basil

My basil plant (bush!) is out of control. It's grown to 2 feet high and is as big around as a beach ball. I've harvested basil just about daily to encourage it to grow wider and not tall and stalky. I've made everything from my basil chicken previously posted to marinaras, spaghetti sauces, lasagna, and everything in between. I've given it away and, ultimately tossed some which grossely conflicts with my pioneer tendencies. =)
Anyway, my sister had the best idea for a way to preserve the fresh basil. She suggested chopping it and freezing it in ice cube trays. I did, and it worked perfectly! I used my first few cubes in dinner last night. Just clean it, chop it up, spoon it into ice cube trays, cover it with water, and freeze. You can do this with any fresh herbs. Freeze mint into ice cubes, and use it to cool off iced tea. Freeze fresh cilantro, and use it for your salsas. The possibilities are endless.
Thanks for the great tip, Amy!

Sandy Feet

I'm taking a break from my all-day cooking session to share this with you. While I was waiting for my pot to come to a boil, I was flipping through July's Parents Magazine and saw the cutest thing. This is a kit to carry with you to the beach to make a keepsake out of your child's footprints in the sand. What a great idea! Of course, you could save yourself a little bit of money and buy plaster of paris to do this on your own. But this comes with all the tools you'll need for mixing, and it's packaged in the sweetest bucket. This would make a great gift idea too. You can buy them here. Isn't it precious?

A House Staple

When I was in college I lived in a sorority house my sophomore through senior years. One night Chris dropped in and cooked dinner for me. Thankfully he had enough supplies to feed the entire house, because the scent of his meal travelled upstairs causing everyone to come out of the woodwork. It was such a fun evening, and everyone in the house fell in love with him then and there. He made simple quesadillas, and we've had them at least once a month ever since that evening in 2000. Here's the basic recipe:

Chris' Quesadillas

flour tortillas

chicken, fully cooked

salsa

cheese

butter

Directions:

Shred, chop, or dice your chicken. In a skillet over medium heat, combine chicken with as much salsa as you like (we usually use about 1/4 - 1/2 cup to each chicken breast), and cook until bubbling. When the salsa has reduced and thickened, turn the heat to low.

Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Butter one side of each flour tortilla. Put the tortilla buttered-side-down in the heated skillet, and sprinkle with cheese. Add a scoop of the chicken and salsa mixture, and spread to cover. Sprinkle again with cheese, and top with another tortilla buttered-side-up.

Cook on each side until the tortilla is browned and crispy. Slice and serve with sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo (make your own by mixing 1 chopped tomato (seeded) with 1 chopped jalapeno, 1/4 diced red onion, 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, salt, pepper, and the juice of half of a large lime), or cilantro.

In these quesadillas, I used my own homemade salsa. Here's the recipe:

1 large can of diced tomatoes (you could absolutely use whole tomatoes here too)

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

1/2 sweet onion

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 jalapeno*

salt and pepper to taste

Drain the tomatoes, but reserve the juices. Add the tomatoes to a food processor or blender. Add the cilantro. Grate the onion and garlic, and add to the tomato mixture. Then, finely chop the jalapeno, and toss it in. Pulse the mixture, and add the juices back to your desired consistency. Then add salt and pepper to taste. Since all of the ingredients are pre-chopped or grated, the food processor only serves to meld the flavors, so do not overmix. Store in the refrigerator up to 1 week (although I've never had this last even 2 days!).

*Obviously you can change this to meet your taste for spiciness. I usually seed the jalapenos and remove the white parts before I chop it up. Using 1/2 seems to be very mild, and even Hannah enjoys this recipe.

My Garden Mutt

I've been really busy lately, so there's been a lot fewer posts over here. We had a tornado last week, so we spent quite a bit of time cleaning up. We were housesitting next door, and we spent almost every waking moment swimming in her pool which she so graciously offered. Tomorrow is Chris' birthday (it's a BIG one!), and Sunday is Father's Day. Plus we're going away for our anniversary in a couple of weeks, so we've been swamped.
The garden certainly hasn't stopped producing in the meantime. I don't think I've shared this, but I have a pile of grass and weeds that I've pulled out of the garden sitting just outside the fence. I haven't moved it because I noticed a vine growing awhile back, and I thought I'd wait to see what it was. I planted everything in the garden from plants I purchased except for the pumpkin, green beans, and sweet peas. I thought at first that it may be a pumpkin seed sprouting, but I just can't figure it out. The vines look exactly like the cucumber, the leaves are a mix between the watermelon and the zucchini, and the flowers look nothing like any other plants. Now it's producing fruit, so I'm curious to see what that turns out to be. It is, by far, the biggest plant in the yard. So incredibly strange. We refer to it, lovingly, as our "Garden Mutt." Any guesses as to what it could be?
More garden progress:
Look at these creepers! There's no longer room between them to walk. Crazy.
Finally we have 2 sugar snap peas. Unfortunately the plant is succumbing to the heat and is almost all dead, so these are probably the only two we'll yield. Bummer.

Here's the first squash. We finally have some female flowers on the zucchini, so I expect those to spring up any time now.This morning while I was watering, I reached down to move some of the watermelon vines that were trying to overtake the squash, and I found these cuties! I've never grown watermelon before, and I'm so excited to watch them develop. The bottom picture is a watermelon about the size of a golf ball. So fun.

Family Cookbook Cranberry Spread

Ingredients:

1 pack cream cheese 1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp orange juice concentrate
Zest of 1 orange ¼ cup pecans, finely chopped
¼ cup dried cranberries crackers

Directions:

In an electric mixer, combine cream cheese, juice, cinnamon, and sugar. Fold in orange zest and pecans. Refrigerate. Serve with crackers.

Family Cookbook Green Bean Casserole

Chris got this recipe from a potluck at work. It is probably the most high-calorie green bean casserole recipe I have ever seen, but it is absolutely worth it once a year on Thanksgiving. =)

Chris' Green Bean Casserole

3 cans French cut green beans, drained
½ lb. Velveeta cheese, sliced
6 oz. sour cream
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 packages Town House or Ritz crackers, crushed
2 sticks of butter
Garlic salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix sour cream, mushroom soup, and garlic salt and pepper. In a baking dish, layer the green beans and soup mixture, and top with the Velveeta cheese slices. Melt butter and mix with crushed crackers. Spread cracker mixture on top of cheese. Bake at 350o for 30-45 minutes until golden brown.

This also works great with light sour cream, light Velveeta, Reduced Fat Ritz and margarine substituted for the originals!

Teeny Tiny Knitted Flower Pattern

My sister has started making adorable hair bows recently. She's building up quite a stock, and she'll sell some Wednesday. We talked this morning about coming up with some knitted flowers to adorn the hair clippies. The problem with free patterns online is that they are intended for personal use only. Therefore, it would be a breech of the rules to use them for the clips she's selling. So I set to work creating a pattern of my own. And, in case you're wondering, I welcome you to use this pattern however you see fit. If you'd like to knit a handful of these and sell them at a craft fair, you have my full permission. And while we're on the topic, that goes for any and all patterns I share on this blog. If I have borrowed a pattern to reprint on this site, I've had permission to do so, and I will always indicate that. In that case, please refer to the author's rules. Anyway, enjoy, and please let me know if you make these or have any trouble or questions!

Size 0 needles, 4-ply yarn

CO 10 stitches

Turn and knit into the front and the back of the first two stitches.

*Leaving the remaining stitches on the needle, turn and purl 4.

Turn, and knit 3

Turn, and purl 3

Turn, and knit 3

Turn, and purl 2 together, purl 1

Turn, and knit 3.

Pass the second stitch over the first, and repeat. One stitch remaining on right needle.

Knit one, then knit into the front and the back of the next stitch. Repeat from * 4 times until one stitch is remaining. Pass the tail of the yarn through the stitch, and sew the ends together to create one round flower.

Family Cookbook Focaccia

Focaccia Bread

Ingredients:

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp salt
1 tsp white sugar 1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme ½ tsp dried basil
1 pinch black pepper 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water 2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese


Directions:

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, sugar, yeast, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, basil and black pepper. Mix in the vegetable oil and water.
When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Punch dough down; place on greased baking sheet. Pat into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Brush top with olive oil. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Family Cookbook Recipes

A few years ago when my cousin got married, I compiled family recipes in a scrapbooky recipe book for him and his wife. I meant to also create one for each member of the family, but I just haven't done it yet. I'm not a scrapbooker, sadly, so that kind of thing is really hard for me and time consuming. Just the other day I got the idea to just post all of the recipes here to benefit everyone. I have no clue what the frequency of posting these recipes will be, so if you're a family member and have a request, let me know, and I'll get to it. Have fun on your sneak-peek into our mostly German-inspired family cookbook.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

Heavy whipping cream Chocolate chips

Directions:

This recipe calls for a 2:1 ratio of chocolate to cream. Heat one part cream in a sauce pot. When it reaches a boil, remove from heat, add two parts chocolate chips and cover. Let stand 5 minutes. Remove the lid and stir with a whisk until all of the chocolate is incorporated.

Notes:

I use this recipe for chocolate fondue as is. You can also use it to make chocolate covered goodies by dipping in the ganache, placing on a wax-paper-lined cookie sheet, and refrigerating until solid. (I would recommend using ¼ of the whipping cream for chocolate-covered things.) If you whip the ganache, it can also be used for icing on cakes. I make this all the time for various things.

Green Beans and Almonds

I love to cook for people. I think one of the best ways to bless someone is to deliver a hot meal that's been lovingly prepared. Do you know a new mom, someone who has lost someone special to them, or someone going through tough financial times? Call them and tell them not to plan anything for dinner - that you're bringing them a meal. It will knock their socks off. Here's one of my favorite sides to deliver.

Green Beans and Almonds

2 Cups of fresh green beans

1/4 cup sliced almonds

2 Tablespoons butter

a couple shakes of your favorite salt-free seasoning (I use McCormick's garlic and herb)

Fresh ground black pepper

In a skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Add almonds and seasoning, and cook about 5 minutes (enough to lightly toast the almonds). Add the green beans, and toss to coat with the butter and the seasonings and almonds. At this point, I go two ways. If I want the green beans to be more crunchy, I just cook them uncovered until they reach my desired consistency. To give them more of a steamed consistency and meld the flavors better, add about 3 tablespoons of water to the bottom of the pan, and place a lid on top. Check them every couple of minutes. Just before they're done, remove the lid to let the water steam out. Enjoy!

Teacher Gifts

This is such a great idea! Let me know if you need any last-minute coffee cozies, and I'll whip them up.

Free Mulch

We have tons of projects going on in our backyard. I've been adding up the amount of mulch or other ground covering (pebbles, pea gravel, etc.) we'd need, and it's enormous. There used to be a place in town that had a pile of free mulch, but it's no longer there. So I did some reasearch. I called a local landscaping company that trims and removes trees and stumps. They deliver free mulch when their truck is full. But you have to take the whole load. It was a lot more than I imagined, but we've already made a huge dent in it, and we've offered it to our neighbors who are using it as well. Need a ton of mulch? Call your local tree-trimming company.

Today's Garden

In addition to the basil chicken, we just enjoyed our first cucumber yesterday. Yum! Hannah loves cucumbers, so we were equally excited. Several have asked about our enormous mulch pile. It is very slowly dwindling. We offered it to all the neighbors, and they've helped themselves. We mulched the garden, and now we're preparing a giant planting bed around the perimeter of the back yard. We'll use it for Hannah's pool, a future swingset, and our Adirondack chairs and fire bowl. We haven't made much progress, so I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Can't wait to use these green beans in my green beans and almonds recipe!

2nd cucumber almost ready to pick

mulched

Sticker Prompts

My nephews helped me demonstrate this idea. Grab a handful of plain white paper (I keep a pile of printing mistakes by my printer and often use the back for doodling) and some fun stickers. Put the sticker somewhere on the paper, and have the kids draw a picture around, but including the sticker. It's fun to put the stickers in an unlikely place. For example, I put a sticker of a t-rex at an angle toward the middle of the page. My 5-year-old nephew decided the t-rex was climbing a mountain. Since there was at least half of a page underneath, he drew all sorts of underground life (worms, bugs, tunnels, etc.)

Want to take it further? Turn the paper over, and draw squiggly lines to create a puzzle. Cut along the lines, and voila! Don't be jealous of my amazing drawing skillz. =)

Creamy Basil Pesto Chicken

My basil plant in the garden has gone crazy. In the past years I've let it get too tall and stalky, and the basil is useless. So I'm trying to harvest it regularly so it continues to do well. I wanted to create a dish that was mainly basil since it's one of my favorite flavors. Just as I don't follow patterns well in sewing, I highly prefer to just dump and throw things into a pot instead of following recipes. Wonder what that says about me. =) The problem is, when I love something I've created, I often forget what I did the next time I want to recreate it. So I'm trying to be better about writing things down. This was dinner last night, and I loved it. If you're a huge basil fan too, try it out and let me know what you think.

Creamy Basil Pesto Chicken

3-4 Tablespoons of basil pesto (recipe to follow)

1-1/2 cups of half and half (you could use heavy cream or even milk instead)

1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 chicken breasts

kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Preheat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add butter and olive oil. Meanwhile salt and pepper both sides of the chicken breasts. Saute them in the skillet for 6 minutes on each side or until cooked through. In a mixing bowl, combine the pesto, half and half, cheese, and salt and pepper. Pour into the pan, and let cook over medium-low heat until the sauce thickens (approx. 5 minutes). Serve over your favorite pasta (I used 1/2 box of penne cooked al dente).

Alicia's Basil Pesto

Huge bunch of basil (probably about 2 cups)

1/4 cup chopped pecans

2 garlic cloves

kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

olive oil (approx. 1/2 cup)

In a food processor, pulse basil, pecans, garlic, and 1/4 cup olive oil until finely ground. Add olive oil to your desired consistency. Then season with salt and pepper to taste.

You can use this pesto on pasta, to marinate chicken, or spread on crusty bread. You can add flavors as you wish to make it spicy, sweet, or more garlicy. =)

Silly Lunch

Every week or so I get the privilege of pulling out my pre-K teacher ideas with my nephews. Last week my two middle nephews (ages 3 and 5) came over for the afternoon. I had a picnic lunch planned and packed, but the weather was HOT, and the allergens were in full force. So we ate inside instead. I searched for some fun ways to dress up a regular picnic lunch, experimented, and here's the result. Please feel free to copy!

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich (flatten with a rolling pin, use a cup to cut into a circle, then add ears (the cut-off corners of the sandwich). I peeled a carrot with a vegetable peeler for hair, added strawberry and chocolate chip eyes, a blackberry nose, and an orange wedge mouth. Make sure to serve it with ranch to dip the "hair."
A side of applesauce topped with sliced strawberry stars, red raspberries, and sprinkles.

We had very little leftover. =)