Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Recipe Catch Up and Spring!



I have a few recipes to share. 3 of them I made over a month ago... I just found the pictures and realized that I hadn't posted about them yet. And instead of typing out the recipes here, I'll just post the links to where I found the recipe. I'm pretty sure I followed these pretty close to what was in the original. (Then again, it has been a month...)


The first is Faux Thin Mints.  This is the one recipe where I really wanted to do some tweaking.  They turned out alright, but there was something missing.  And to tell the truth these pictures were taken before I was completely done.  I actually ended up putting more chocolate on top.  I think some of the first things I would try differently would be to completely coat the cookie in chocolate - and use semi sweet chocolate instead of milk chocolate, and maybe add a bit more sugar to the dough mix, and bake them longer than I did.



Second we have the Homemade Oreos.  These really deserve a post of their own.  They were wonderful.  The frosting for the middle will certainly be seen in my kitchen again.  Probably on top of someone's first birthday cake...  Also, definitely check out the rest of the blog where this recipe was found - I have found many good recipes there.















Third is another round of Banana "Ice cream"  I added some frozen blue berries, raspberries, and cranberries to the mix. (Not too many, or it won't get creamy.)  Also, if you let everything thaw just a bit it makes blending it up into a cream easier.






Last is the newest one I've tried, Homemade Cheddar Crackers.  They didn't turn out like I had hoped, but they tasted great.  I think I needed to roll mine out thinner, and I didn't use the flour it called for, so that might have been an issue.  My crackers were not very crunchy at all.  However, they did get the stamp of approval from my husband and oldest son - so that's success in my book. :)






Now that spring is here it feels like there is so much more to do:  Start the garden, work in the flower beds, keep up with the Quilt A Long, several trips, spending lots of time playing outside with the boys, hanging laundry outside, taking walks, running outside, Grilling!! (hope to try a bunch of new recipes to go with our new grill), spring cleaning, the list could just go on and on. It should be a great spring!











Saturday, March 20, 2010

Quilt Along Week 4 and New Work Space!

Here are last week's blocks. These were fun to make. :) I'm having a lot of fun trying all these new blocks that I haven't done before.





My wonderful husband has been hard at work transforming our laundry room into a guest bedroom and crafting area for me - while also keeping it's laundry room function. He built me a great work area desk and shelving. I can't wait to move my stuff in, but I need to wait until the drywall is done on the other half of the room. Pictures of that to come later.

Here is where some of my crafting gear resides at the moment. (On an aside, I got that great wooden high chair for $4 - yay!) I don't think many people could say they have cleaned baby food off their cutting mat...



And here is my new space!! I'll post more pictures once I'm officially moved in. :)
(have I mentioned how wonderful my husband is? :))

Testing Picture Uploading Options

Just testing something out. Enjoy some vintage Nicole and Nathan. (and my daddy. :))


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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Quilt Along Week 3


I'm all caught up on the Quilt Along. Looking forward to this week's block.


Sunday, March 7, 2010

Quilt Along Weeks 1&2

I decided to join a quilt along a while ago, and it started about 3 weeks ago. I've been a little behind, but tonight I finished the first two weeks sets of blocks. Overall I really like how it is turning out. Just don't look at all the corners too closely... :)

I was a little bit out of line with the guidelines in some areas. We were supposed to pick up a Moda Layer Cake, but instead i just got some yardage of some fabrics I liked, so as a result there is alot less variance in color throughout my blocks. Also, we were supposed to get a solid, but I got a polka dot (on the advice of a close friend and relative. :)) So far I like how it is turning out. I'm looking forward to tackling this week's block (which was posted this morning.) If you want to join, all the tutorials are here at PS I Quilt.

Hoping to post more often - we'll see how that goes.