More crafty business

Went to a friends house and we made these stunning little roses! Again with some felt, scissors, and hot glue gun. Cut out a circle of any size depending on how large you would like your rose to turn out. Then cut the circle into a spiral leaving a little circle in the center. Roll from the end to the center and glue the center to the back of the rose. Sounds hard, it's not just do it and you will see what I mean ;) We made little headbands for our little girls! I took mine home and made lapel pins for myself and my sister-in-law and Mother-in-law. My friend made a million of them and glues them onto a wreath, her hands hurt.

A fall wreath after Christmas?

I made this. Supplies: 4 colors of felt, metal wreath from JoAnne's, glue gun and sticks, pen, scissors.

I had all of my stuff ready and I knew more or less what I wanted to do but then I realized I had no idea what a leaf looked like. I googled it on my iphone. Thank goodness for iphones. I found something Canadian and a few drawn leaves. So I combined them and drew the first one freehand and traced the rest. The hardest part is the cutting and cutting and cutting... Then you position and glue! Super easy and cheap and kind of cool. Looks like I might have to make one for Valentines Day!

Potato Latkes

Potatoes + fried = good. Made potato pancakes tonight! I shredded 5 potatoes an onion, 3 carrots, and 3 cloves of garlic...thank you food processor. I added 2 eggs, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. I know, breadcrumbs. Did not have matzo-meal, (We are not Jewish so don't know what I am doing) and I am pretty sure I made it not kosher because the bread crumbs most likely came from leavened bread. I did not think it through until the crispy, salty, amazing little pancakes had disappeared. Amazing. Eat them with sour cream and apple sauce, eat them all. Make more. We also had some leftover chicken soup and a small salad. "Gather round the table I'll give you a treat, dreidels to play with and latkes to eat!" Happy Hanukkah!

Thanksgiving Pies

I don't make pies unless they are frozen pie shell and pour kind of things. However this year my good friend gave me a great cookbook with an amazingly easy pie crust recipe and this monster apple pie recipe. I did it. I made the pie dough, I rolled it out, I peeled and sliced the apples, I crimped, egg-washed...and we have pie. Barefoot Contessa is her name and her pie crust just works. I changed the inside a little. I omitted allspice, only because I did not have any and when I went to get it everyone else apparently needed it too because the store was out! I like my apple pie tart, crisp, not too sweet, not to spiced up, and buttery; this pie delivered just that. Oh I added a little butter as well. I guess you could say I made it my own but I followed the recipe for the most part, in baking you can't mess with the science! My husband likes his apple pie, super sweet, gooey and tender so this was not his favorite. More for me!

Now the pumpkin pie he was all over. Again I used a recipe (baking), thank you Sandra Lee, not my favorite food network personality but this pumpkin pie RULES! It's her pumpkin cream pie. It's just different from regular pumpkin pie that you notice how much better it is but it still looks and tastes like the old standard enough so you don't feel like you are missing out on the tradition. A little cream cheese, heavy cream and we are in Thanksgiving nirvana. The trick is to make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature or it won't incorporate and you will have little white lumps. I did not have pumpkin pie spice so I used separate spice and again no allspice! My two year old ate most of the pie! She did not like the crust so I ate her crusts and gained a few...thanks ladies! Good pies!

Breakfast for dinner disaster

Just a disaster. I burnt 4 of the pancakes, and all of the eggs. At least the bacon was adequate. What was to be pumpkin pancakes, omelets and cheddar cheese and strips of bacon turned out to be a few edible and okay pancakes and some bacon, no husband home in time, a huge burnt pan mess, and me feeling very crappy. You can't win them all. At least my little one came over and said, "Mama, don't be sad!" and gave me a big hug.

Boo-licious Dinner

I am back! Really busy, long and hard month. Time to start a new one. Welcome November! But back to October for this post. Halloween dinner...I had ideas of black spaghetti noodles with cream sauce and orange bell peppers with sauteed chicken in wine. But that was too much work to tick or treat and cook. So I used the oven! I popped a whole chicken in the oven with 2 onions, 6 cloves of garlic, baby carrots, thyme, salt, pepper, olive oil and Dr. Pepper. That's right, I said Dr. Pepper. Oven on 350 and out the door we went to get our Trick or Treating on. Three hours later, I took the chicken out added mushrooms and orange bell peppers upped the temperature to 410 and back in in went and I started a some white rice and 20 minutes later is was awesome. The sauce reduced, the peppers and mushrooms cooked and the chicken rested. We where famished! My favorite part is the orange and black Halloweeniness of it! I love Halloween!

I wonder...

I wonder how many blogs there are that have one or two posts on them and then the blogger never blogged again? I hope mine will not be like that. I've made it to five!