Countdown to Christmas

 

Can you believe that Christmas is less then 10 days away?  Have any of you bloggers finnished or even started with the shopping for your children or family members? 

Well,  if you said 'yes' to any of this, a Matt and I are about done with everyone, exept for 2 or 3 people in our family.  If you said 'no' to both, I am sure you are not alone to many individuals that like to wait until the last minute to get that "great" deal.  

No matter where you may be within the United Sates or anywhere in the world,  you will have enough time to get your family the "best" gift.  Just make sure you research the best deals within your area.  If you go to your favorite store. 

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For teachers and directors for child care, your child can decorated their own Christmas card and hand made gift.  If your child is in elementary school, you may want to do the same thing as far as making a card or going to your local dollar store/dollar tree or dollar general and purchasing a glass cup,plate or making a little gift basket just to wish the teacher a "Happy Holidays".

Another idea is to bake cookies for the individual that have made your year or if the individual has been around for many years.  Since allergies to nuts,dairy or other ingredients for their favorite cookies, there are many alternatives to replace the allergic ingredients.  But make sure you do your homework first.  

Tomorrow I am going to share a "egg free" sugar cookie recipe that I have found.  Stay tuned for tomorrow.

Happy Holidays

~Nicole

Peach crisp...

This past weekend was very productive by baking up the rest of the canned peaches.  (All 9 1/2 cups of it). I am sure many of you baked apple crisp before, the ingredients will stay the same but the fruit is a little different. 

Once you get all the ingredients together such as the brown sugar, butter and oatmeal in the bowl, stir everything up until it's combined.  Since Emma wanted to help out she decided she wanted to pour everything in the bowl and stir away.  

I must admit that she did great, minus the flinging of the spoon,  it looked good.   Since my recipe called for 2/3 cup of butter ( which I used) next time when I make something like this,  I would use 1/4 cup or couple of tablespoons.  

Since I wanted to think outside the box a little bit,  I used one of my many large bowls instead of a shallow casserole dish.  Yes it worked out jut fine, but I made sure that the oatmeal topping was divided instead of having all of it on top.  

After spraying the dish with cooking spray,  I put about 1 1/2 cups of peahes in the dish topped it with 1/2 cups of the oatmeal topping, poured the remaining peahes and topping for the top layer.  Threw it in the oven at 375 for 45 minutes or until the topping was crisp and brown. 

I know the picture above looks a little like oatmeal with peahes, but it turned out pretty good,  despite the fact that there was a little too much butter in it. 

Share with me some other "fruit" crisps that you have made.  And what were the pros and cons when making it and serving it to the family?  I would like to hear from you.

~Nicole 

               What you need:

2 cans of peaches

2/3 cup of butter at room temperature

1 cup of dry oats

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 cup of brown sugar packed

Preheat oven to 375.  Mix sugar, butter cinnamon,  dry oats and butter until it's completely mixed.  Spray pan and add peaches then the oatmeal mixture.   Bake for 40-50 minutes.  Or until golden brown.  

If I missed some ingredients,  just follow the apple crisp recipe that you use.  

Happy baking

Cricut Mat and Tacky Spray. A Pinterest keeper

I am sure many of us own a Cricut machine.  Wether it may be the mini or the newest Cricut Expression, but the 9.99 and up cutting mats can be a little expensive even when the mat is used all the time.

A few months ago I needed to save a little bit of money and reuse the mat in some way, especially keeping the adhesive side sticky.  So I decide to look on Pinterest to see what I can do to make use of the Cricut mats.  Low and behold, I found that using Krylon Tacky Spray and blue painters tape does the trick.  

Rubbing a magic eraser to get the old adhesive off the mat and spray where the current adhesive was and wait 1 to 2 hours to dry before using the mat.  Well since I had no magic eraser to take off the unsticky adhesive, but I did have the painters tape and the spray adhesive I wanted to see how it worked.

Well, it worked just as good even if I had no eraser to work on the mat.  But if you have extra Mr. Clean magic erasers, go right ahead and use them.  (Before taping and spraying of course)  When using the spray, make sure that you do this in a well ventalated area, like outside or in the garage.  (when living out in the Midwest, the weather likes to make tricks on us especially during the fall and winter months)

The life time when using this spray will last just as long as purchasing a new mat.  But please make sure that you place the plastic on so dust or other small things will make the mat less sticky.
Feel free to comment on this and let me know what other adhesives you have used in the past.

Until next time and happy crafting!!

~Nicole

Sunday Funday Split pea soup

Today was one of my days where I had to do something with a bag of green split peas.  The only items that I didn't have was onion and celery.  Of corse I had about 1/4 cup left of chopped carrots left in the fridge so I decide to use the rest.  

The most less exiting thing about these little peas is that when you rinse and go through them,  they will fall out of the strainer and into the sink.  A couple of missed peas will not me missed, I promise you.  

What I did a little different this time is I used 4 cups of veggie stock and one cup of water after adding the peas and carrots.  

Of corse the water and stock will give it some flavorto the soup.  After the broth and water was added,  I just added a little of sea salt in. 

Let the soup cook for 6-8 hours until the peas have become more soft when you stir.  When it's all done you can add some black pepper and eat it with your favorite bread and butter on the side.  Lunch or dinner will be waiting the same day or left over for the week.

Let me know what other favorite things you put in your soup.  Love to share other ideas. Does not hurt to try different things, right?

~Nicole. 😊

Cinnamon and sugar tortillas

Today was one of those chilly days where I needed to work-up something good, not just for me but for my kids.

Every time they come home, the questions are asked each and every day, "What can I have for a snack?"  As a good parent that I am, I would give them a few choices but their heads would shake in dis believe.  So I came up with a way to make sure they may like it and dip them in their favorite fruit salsa or just plain.

Preheat the oven to 375

What you need to get is just a plain tortilla shell.  It could be whole wheat too if you have it in the pantry.  Put a tablespoon of olive oil and spread it around the shell until it is covered with the oil.  You may also use melted butter or coconut oil. The sky is the limit.  

Since I mixed 1/2 cup of white sugar with a teaspoon of cinnamon and a dash of pumpkin pie spice, I sprinkled it all over the shell.  Pop it in the oven for about 3 to 5 minutes until crispy

When i took it out of the oven, it looked like a baked so papilla but with out the frying.  The possibilities are endless.  For dipping sauce, you can use honey, chocolate sauce or eat it the way that it is.  But make sure there is enough for everyone.  Because you never know when the kids or spouse wants more.

Enjoy and happy baking..

~Nicole

You will need

1 package of tortilla shells (small or large)

tablespoon of your choice of oil/butter

cinnamon and sugar 

*preheat oven to 375.

mix together cinnamon and sugar

oil or butter the shell

sprinkle the sugar mixture on top

bake for 3 to 5 minutes or until the shell is puffy.

Eat and Enjoy.

Home made carmel sauce. #love the fall

Last week I posted a recipe on chocolate sauce, but today it's all about the carmel sauce.  Even though you like to see step by steps on how to make anything from scratch.  But accidentally my photos were deleted from my phone.  

But before I made the recipe, I googled to see how and how much ingredients I should use since I was limited on sugar and other things that I may need.  But low and behold, I stumbled upon a blog by frombrighteyedbaker.  So I asked my blogger friend Alexandra if I could use her recipe on my blog.  And the only things that you really need is white sugar and milk and a dash of sea salt.  If you have rice milk or other milk such as unsweetened almond milk, let me know and give me your thoughts.  

What you would need is:  

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 1/4 cup of milk  (of your choice)

1/2 to 1.4 teaspoon of sea salt.


Once you put the sugar in a medium sauce pan on medium heat you want to make sure that the sugar is level with the pan.  Once everything is heating up, the sugar will turn a light brown carmel color.  (about 5-8 minutes) What I did was once the sugar melted a little, I tilted the pan to get the liquid with the white sugar.  Or use a rubber spatula to mix the sugar well.

Once all the sugar is caramelized make sure the heat is off and  add your milk.  Since I added skim milk, it bubbled up to the brim of the pan, but pour slowly.  Once I added the milk,  stirred over the sink  until the bubbles subsided in case if it went all over the stove. After adding your 1 1/4 cup of milk sprinkle and mix in the sea salt. Just an F.Y.I, the skim milk became lumpy after a minute adding to the melted sugar.  If you do any other milk it should be okay.


In the past when making carmel sauce, I just added 1/2 stick of butter instead of the milk.  Yes it was a little different taste wise, but the milk is a better add in.  In the future, I am going to try almond milk unsweetened and I will comare the difference between the skim and almond milk.  

This recipe is excellent for coffee, ice cream topping or a dip for your fruit.

I would like to thank Alexandra for letting me share her recipe with all of you. 

~Nicole~

#DIY Chocolate Syrup

Today was one of the days where I have to experiment with chocolate powder, white sugar and water. I know what some of you are thinking,"That does not seem like a good combo".  Well if you are a chocolate fanatic like I am once in a great while, you will love this recipe.  

You will nee to have 1/3 cup  of unsweetened cocoa, 3/4 cup of white sugar and 3/4 cup of water.

Mix all 3 ingredients in a medium sauce pan and boil for 5 minutes or until the mixture is at the right consistency.  When working with sugar you want to make sure that you stir and keep an eye on your chocolate syrup so the sugar does not burn on the bottom of the pan.

After 3 to 4 minutes it will bubble up and become a little more thick than runny.  Once you feel that the thickness is to your liking, let the syrup cool before putting it in an air tight container.  If you are using a small glass container, let it cool completely before pouring in the glass.  Chances are if you transfer the hot ingredients to the glass, it will shatter due to the heat of the ingredients.  After it's in the container of your choice, put it in the refrigerator till future use.

When making this syrup, my kitchen and living room had a chocolate aroma. This syrup can be used as a dipping sauce for your favorite fruit, drizzled over oatmeal or in your coffee. Or it can be a gift for a co-worker or a teacher.

Why buy store bought syrup when you can use the most basic ingredients right there in your kitchen.

Feel free to use this recipe and share with family and friends.

Take care,

~Nicole