My First TN - The Wild Hare Kit Club

     I can't believe I am going to say this but I did my first ever traveler's notebook spread and I LOVE it. When this trend first hit the scrapbooking industry I said: "That is NOT for me".  Boy, was I wrong? I have been wanting to do a cooking/baking theme scrapbook but doing a big album seemed unrealistic since it would take a lot of real-estate. 

   So here is my first TN spread in my cooking theme book. All items used on this page was included in my September's kit from The Wild Hare Kit Club. Plus, I even used this month's sketch as my inspiration. You can check out the sketch and a more detail post here. 

Supplies: pattern paper (Jillibean Soup, Pinkfresh Studio, and Pebbles), die cuts (Pinkfresh Studio), and stickers (American Crafts and Pinkfresh Studio)

   As you can see I even used a puffy sticker on the spread. I love that the Pinkfresh studio puffy stickers are not bulky. 

Lemon & Custard

   Last month was the yearly making of Packzi, baked filled doughnuts.  I try to document this baking treat every year. It is the only time of the year there are doughnuts in the house. 

Supplies: pattern paper (Crate Paper and American Crafts), stickers (Fancy Pants Designs, Pink Paislee, A Beautiful Mess and Pink Fresh), ephemera (Canvas Corps.), doily (DoodleBug Designs), flair (Clique Kits), die cuts (Pretty Little Studio), frames (Crate Paper and Heidi Swapp), tools sewing machine and Minc) and sequins (SpiegelMom Scraps)

   Here is a closer look. I am loving the mirror stickers.

   I love the splatter, sequins scatter and the mix sewing machine stitching. 

Loving - Food Edition

   I am sitting here at my desktop smelling barbecue sauce cooking, pickles marinating and bread rising. The house is smelling wonderful as you can imagine. As I was hobbling around the kitchen (injured big toe, I think it is out of joint, again), I thought I should share food post.

   If you know me, you know I hate summer because of the heat. However, I love all the yummy homegrown organic produce I get at the farmer's market twice a week. I always joke saying I am Cinzori Farm's best customer since I always get so much every week. I buy a ton since I freeze for the winter months, veggies, sauces, puree, etc. When I say I love to cook I take it to a whole another level.

Last week, I was in the mood for egg rolls, which has been years since I had one. To satisfy that hunger I went to the internet to find a egg roll wrapper recipe. I am happy to say I found one that I love. The dough is very easy to make and even easier to work with. The trick is to knead it well
 http://chinesefood.about.com/od/dimsumeggrolls/r/eggrollwraps.htm
I may or may not have made these things twice within a week. I blame my mom for that, she LOVES them.
For the filling,
Small head of cabbage, shredded
4 large carrots, julienne
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
salt to taste
oil, butter and ghee
Directions:
1. I first boiled the cabbage for 15 minutes. I do this because cooked cabbage is easier to digest.
2.  In a tablespoon of oil saute the carrots for about 5 minutes, they should be a bright orange. Add in garlic and cook until toasted but be careful not to burn it. Add in cabbage and lit that cook down and get a little crisp.
3. Add ginger and salt to taste.
4. In each wrapper place about 2 tablespoons of the filling and roll.
5. In a skillet add a tablespoon of oil and sear the egg roll on all sides. Place on cookie sheet when done. Once they are all seared.
6. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 or until filling is hot.

Fataya...What?

   This post is might have some errors in it since I am currently typing this with one hand. The other hand is occupied with a 16 pound dog that is being held like a little baby. He is doing fine now and is off on all meds.

   Today's post I will be sharing a more time consuming recipe that happens to be of my mom's favorite food and is something we have to have for the holidays. It is a Lebanese dish called "Fataya", think hand meat pies that are loaded with lemon juice, olive oil and spices like cinnamon and all spice.

Ingredients for dough:
8 c. flour
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp. salt
3 c. water heated to 110 degrees
1 package of yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)

Ingredients for filling:
2 1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
3/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
2 1/2 Tbsp. salt
3 Tbsp. cinnamon
3 Tbsp. all spice
2 large onions, chopped
3 lbs. ground meat (I use ground turkey)

Directions:
1.Pour water in a large mixing bowl. Dissolve yeast and salt. Let it get foamy about 5 minutes.
2. Mix in oil. Add the flour and mix until it starts climbing the dough hook on the mixer.
3. Let it rest in a warm draft-free spot until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.
4. Divide the dough into 36 rolls. Place on greased cookie sheets, cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
5. While the dough rest cook the meat.
6. Once the meat is done add in the seasonings, onions and lemon juice. Cook for about 5 minutes until most of the liquid is gone.
7. Stir in olive oil.
8. Take one roll and flatten it out on a floured surface. Take 2 tablespoons of feeling place in center of dough, then pinch half of one side together, and then pulled the center of the open flap up to the triangle tip and sealed up the two new sides, to form these lovely little triangles. Place on a greased cookie sheet that has sides. Bake in a 400 Fahrenheit oven for 20 minutes.

Tip:
To make it simpler and skip the dough making. Just use the Rhodes rolls frozen roll dough.

Thanksgiving Prep

   Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Like many people this day involves a lot of cooking. This week I decided to do some of the things that would make my life easier since I have a birthday already to do on Monday. Today's foodie post is going to be about how I have been prepping for Thanksgiving and give you some of the recipes that I have did this week for it.

   On Tuesday, I made the bread for stuffing. My favorite recipe for bread making is found in the Kitchen Aid stand mixer manual. You can find it here on page 49. 

   On Thursday if was time to do the crusts for the cheesecake and pumpkin pie. This is the first year of making these ahead. First, I made a graham cracker dough (recipe can be found here). Cut the recipe in half for one cheesecake or do like I did and make half of it into crackers. I make my own crust because I always burn the crust if I use all ready made crackers. To remedy that problem I just roll the dough out on some wax paper to the size of the pie plate. When it is do the desired thickness and size I just roll the paper and crust jelly roll style, wrap the roll in foil and place in a freezer bag.
For the pumpkin pie crust I just used my favorite crust recipe that has never failed me. Can be found here. I rolled, wrapped and froze it the same way as the cheesecake crust. Now I just have to take them out of the freezer Tuesday night so I can make the desserts. With either of these crusts I don't pre-bake them before adding the filling.


   The only thing I can do before I do a lot of the cooking on Wednesday is do a deep cleaning of the stove and oven. Luckily, my brother helps me on this.

Spaghetti Squash Mac & Cheese Style

  I know it has been a couple of weeks since I posted a recipe. I came up with this run during my break. The photo I am sharing is something more soupier since I added too much milk when I did it. I am sharing the ingredient measurements for one that is more like a mac & cheese are suppose to be. 

A few weeks ago, I bought a spaghetti squash at the Farmer's Market and I knew I wanted to try to make a mac & cheese style since my brother loves my homemade macaroni and cheese. 

First, you need to prepare the squash and I used this recipe here to cook it. 

Ingredients: 

1 small spaghetti squash

1 c. milk

1 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. flour

1/2  tsp. salt

1/4 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp basil, dry

3 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded

 Directions:

1 First cook the squash.

2. In a small saucepan cook the butter and flour to make a rue. 

3. Add in seasonings and milk. Cook and stir until it thickens. 

4. Once that is hot stir in cheese until it is melted.

5. Toss over squash . Pour into a greased baking dish and cook at 400 for 15 minutes or just until top is golden. 

Hope you enjoy this recipe. 

Farmhouse Color Challenge

   Every week Canvas Corp Brands highlights a color palette. This week's palette is inspired by Farmhouse. I played along this week and added my own tweaks to it. As in instead of a deep green I went with a brighter version. 

  

Supplies for Canvas Corp Brands

Pots & Pans ivory

Sangria- Glimmer Glaze 1 oz

Mantis- Chalkboard 2oz

Rich Brown- Plain Jane Simply Sheer 2oz

Santa's Journey 8x8 Paper Pad (48 sheets)

Take Our Breath Away Gypsy Moments

Chocolate & Ivory Dot Reverse

Recipe Card Farmhouse Kitchen Tags (10pc)

Printed Tags - Gourmet

 Other supplies:

kraft cardstock (The Paper Studio)

doily (Doodlebug Design) - not in photo

mask (Prima)

pom-pom trim (Simplicity)

I am going to share with you the steps on how to create this page. 

Step 1. Mist the background paper with the Plain Jane mist. Splatter the Mantis chalkboard mist. Highlight some of the baking terms and items with the glaze.

Step 2. Add your cardstock and pattern papers.

Step 3. Mist the doily mask with the Plain Jane and chalkboard mists.

Step 4. Adhere polka dot paper and burlap. Use a nice thick liquid glue to adhere the burlap.

Step 5. Use the same glue to adhere the tags onto the fabric area. You can use regular adhesive for the one that is touching the paper.

Step 6. Tie twine to the recipe card and slide behind the top layer of pattern paper. This will be where you can write your recipe out on or the journaling.

Step 7. Add my all time favorite embellishment, a doily.

Step 7. Adhere mat and photo.

  This page is about a new recipe I found on Pinterest for Quinoa Pudding, think rice pudding. I made it last year for my mom on Mother's Day. She loved it.
   I would love to hear from my readers on how you like the step-by step photos on how I created my projects. Is there too many pics or steps, should I combine steps, etc? Am input is greatly appreciated.

Good Eats - Sketch #406

When it comes down to any holiday meal my family turns it into a big feast for the four of us and a dog. However, on Thanksgiving we have cut back from years past. We use to do an lebanese dressing but ended up using those seasonings in the meat fatya. Because it has changed I thought it would be worth documenting how our Thanksgiving feast is now.

 Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts and The Paper Studio), pattern paper (Echo Park and My Mind's Eye),stickers (American Crafts, Me & My Big Ideas and Pebbles Inc.), washi tape (My Mind's Eye and We R Memory Keepers), flair (Zappy Dots), sequins (Hobby Lobby), wood veneer (Studio Calico kit), border (Fancy Pants Designs), enamel dots (My Mind's Eye), chipboard (Um Wow Studio), pen (Project Life), journaling cards (Project Life), punch (We R Memory Keepers), ink (Quick Quotes)electronic die cutter and cartridge (Provo Craft) and doily. 

   Here is a closeup on the title. The "Good" I created a little banner with washi tape and outlined it with a pen. Because I have a lot of packs of stickers with letters are missing and mixed the stickers together but kept them in one color but with different tones. 

Thanks to my friend's great genius mind (Kelly), she shared how you do a mini album with journaling cards and washi tape. I translated that to my layout so I could write down the recipes of the food on each card. Now, I just have to figure out how much of stuff goes into my dressing. I do a lot of eyeballing when I cook. In other words, I am the only one who knows how to make it.

That is it for today, I need to hurry and finish typing this so I can get ready to do some work with my dad. He is putting flooring in and I am painting. 

Yumminess

Hope everyone's 4th went well. Yesterday, I spent a lot of the time in the kitchen cooking up a storm for my four member family.

The food consists of:

Baked chicken with homemade barbecue sauce

Roasted veggies

Mac & cheese

Baked beans

Garlic biscuits

Now on to the sweet treats:

Red, White and Blue popsicles (made from fruit)

Brownies (coconut and plain)

Greek yogurt cheesecake

Everything I made was from scratch.

My favorite thing was the cheesecake since it came out so creamy and had such a great flavor. I think it tastes better than the traditional cheesecake and the bonus is it does not have all that fat.  I know fat is good for you but in this house if my dad likes it he goes a little overboard. Plus, regular cheesecake causes his back to go out. 

I combined two recipes make this. The crust came from this one and the filling came from this one. I also added the zest of one organic lemon to the filling.
Tip: make your own greek yogurt with plain yogurt by lining the bottom of a strainer with a coffee filter. Pour a carton of yogurt in it and cover with another filter. Place over a large bowl and let it drain overnight to a day. For this I used a caton and a half so I need to drained it in two strainers. I think it taste better than the store bought kind. It is not as tangy. 

Here is how it looks.

News and Roasted Veggies

  My news is about one of my Artfire studios ( Critter Crafts) I have recently decided to close it and move all my pets items over to MJ's Kraze. This means that you can shop from this one studio to find handmade items for you and your pet. This does not mean that I am trying to get rid of pet items. I am still adding new pet items to MJ's Kraze. I just wanted to simplify my life so I had more time creating.
  As I promised I am going to show how to make these veggies that my dad just can't get enough of.

Property of MJ's Kraze

Ingredients:

2/3c. extra virgin olive oil
5 large zucchini 
2 large onions                                       
4 - 6 garlic cloves
3 T. dried parsley

3 T. dried oregano

2 - 3 t. salt ( I used kosher) 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 450.

2. Peel and slice zucchini in half. Then cut them in to about 1/4" planks.3. Cut onions in half and cut in 1/4" slices.
4. Mince garlic cloves.
5. Mix all the ingredients together.
6. Spread everything out on two large baking sheets in a single layer.
7. Cook for 15 minutes, after 10 minutes flip the zucchini. Veggies should be soft.

Here is the finished product. YUM.  Property of MJ's Kraze

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you had a great Independence Day.

Fourth of July.

  Happy Independence Day everyone. I just wanted to show off a card I made using red, white and blue.

Property of MJ's Kraze

This card is just made out of plain cardstock, stickers, a star punch and adhesive jewels.
I love to cook and you sure can tell that since I make everything from scratch, including the barbeque sauce.   
   My 4th of July food is potato salad, barbeque turkey, and strawberry pie and I think my dad is going to talk me into making some roasted zucchini. I think he is addicted to the oven roasted veggies.
I will post some pictures soon and maybe I will let a couple of the recipes out.
So what are you having?
God Bless you and America. Let freedom reign..