Friday, September 14, 2012

Reusable and Recycle Friendly


I am hoping most of you know what pinterest is? If not you will be amazed. The way I see it is it is a large free virtual magazine. You can search for things, browse, post, and follow your friends or those who you are inspired by. This site truly opens the doors into the craft world, many blogs and the peoples voice. Pinterest can help you find ideas, inspire you , cause depression I have heard this from friends, or pass your day way (just keep pinning,pinning and pinning). I have made so many more things just because of pinterest. I like to try new things; from recipes and craft projects, to making crafty presents and party ideas. 
This is the reason I am blogging about a reusing and recycle project  . I found this online and then had to find the correct site to get the details to actually make it. I call the milk carton tote, but you can call it what ever you want. The basic idea had me, and so I waited for the perfect jug of milk to be gone. It was so easy and free except the cost of milk which we buy anyway and even the Velcro closures but I had some already.  My only problem was that as soon as I wanted to use that milk jug, no one wanted to drink milk that week so it took longer than I had hoped. 


As you can see from the photos a few cuts and some Velcro you have a d.i.y. sandwich tote, or snack case. Amazing, it wipes clean and you can wash in the top rack of dishwasher with out the heat on just because it can warp. But again, I am happy with it. Yes it will not hold soup but that is what mason jars are for.  I think if these would get lost in a school lunchroom its not that big of a deal the no sew Velcro dots come in packs of 24 for $3.00 dollars about the cost of some of the two piece Tupperware sets.
Cute and affordable. 
Reduce Reuse and Recycle 

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Gluten Free Recipe


Gluten-Free Quinoa Pizza Nibblers

  • 2 cups cooked quinoa
  • 2 large eggs ( helps keep together)
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 3 cloves of minced garlic
  • 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
  • 1/2 of chopped tomato
  • 1 cup chopped pepperoni slices or any topping you prefer
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp dried crushed oregano
  • gluten free pizza sauce for dipping

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Mix together all ingredients, except pizza sauce, in a medium mixing bowl.
3.  Distribute mix into a greased mini muffin tins, filling each cup to the top  and press down gently to compacted. You can make them into a pizza balls too by using  a dough like scooper pressing tightly before releasing and then when baked add a little flag style tooth pick for easy dipping. This makes about 36 in the tins or 40 balls. 
4.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.

These are perfect for my gluten-free family members. I am so happy about the Appetizer style recipe.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Pumpkin Season


Picking a Pumpkin in PA 2009
     Every year Pumpkin time nears I get so excited because you see every item pumpkin  flavored available. I know I do use pumpkin in the can but it is not the same as roasting a pumpkin yourself. Who am I kidding? The pumpkin from a can is so much easier when you cannot find pumpkin! Now I am talking 100% pumpkin not the pumpkin pie mix. My friends and I a couple years ago would find pumpkin in the store and buy a case at a time to split because it was so hard to find. So I stock up year round so I never run out, and have enough for the holidays; Thanksgiving, The Cookie Exchange, scrapping get togethers, Bon- fires, and Christmas.
     Here is a set of recipes I just made that you can add to your cookbook! It was actually inspired by two things. DD aka Dunkin Donuts and My Hubby. Since I love Pumpkin flavored coffee and I also I got an email telling me Pumpkin Coffee was now available; I had to make a coffee run. So David and I had errands to run so we made the stop. I was surprised that not only had DD come out with the coffee but all pumpkin inspired line. Coffee drinks, Ice Cream, Cream Cheese, Muffins and Donuts were all calling my name. I controlled myself and only ordered a few of these items. I had a mission to only buy the coffee, but the bagel with pumpkin smear called my name a little louder than all the others. As we headed to our next stop, I could not wait to try the bagel with Pumpkin cream cheese, right there in the car. Now I had it on a plain bagel toasted because I was not sure what it would taste like. It was better than I imagined and I was talking about how great it was and that David needed to try this right now! David does not cream cheese, sour cream, plain yogurt, ricotta cheese, yet his favorite food is lasagna and I do use it, or even cottage cheese. Any way I had him try it and he says " Babe, you could probably just make it. " I all the sudden was on cloud nine. Duh! Of course why couldn't I make it. I just had never considered making it. I felt excited and dumb all at the same time. After the errands I made one final stop to pick up half an half for the pumpkin coffee and cream cheese and a few extra cans of pumpkin.
My niece playing with the "pupmikin"seeds
2009 at Great Nana's House
     So this is what I came up with now the only reason I added sugar was because of my brother who also likes to add his tidbits of info as I am getting ready to start something said " You may want to add sugar or something...". So my original intention is to just add a 3/4 cup of pumpkin to one block of cream cheese and some pumpkin pie spice. BUT I decide to look up a recipe online. There was two one that wanted brown sugar and maple syrup...sounded too sweet. Another recipe that was calling for 1/4 cup of sugar... also too much sugar for my liking. So I came up with these two and both are equally awesome.

Pumpkin Pie Dip/Spread

1/2 cup of canned pumpkin
1 block of cream cheese room temp.
3/4 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp of vanilla
1/8 of  a cup sugar

I whipped it in the blender til all fluffy and lighter in color. This was great as a spread on bagels, used on cut up apples too. Much more of a dip.

Now this recipe is just a little different but gives a more savory style cream cheese taste and great on bagels.

Pumpkin Paste

1 cup of pumpkin
1 block of cream cheese
1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp of cardamom
1/4 tsp of ginger
1 tbsp of dark brown sugar

AMAZINGLY great! This recipe I did not whip. I turned the mixer on and let the cream cheese mix a little to make sure it was not cold  and added the sugar to the cream cheese til it was mixed in. I mixed all the spices into the pumpkin first and then folded in the pumpkin and just mixed til all combined. It was richer in color and much more savory.

 Happy Pumpkin Season!



Monday, September 3, 2012

September Crafting


So I really have not blogged since after the Fourth of July and yet I am keeping busy with the craftiness. Some birthdays and some Etsy orders keep me busy too. Well if any of you know about Tim Holtz; you may follow his blog or know of his awesome tag challenge if you will. I challenge myself anyway. He changed from doing the 12 days of Christmas to doing one tag month.So you don't have to do all Christmas related tags. Even though it would still be a cool idea to do both but that is sooo many tags! I have been watching and saying "oh wow'" I have to try that out. Well This month I saw it, AND was like totally in need to do this. It was so easy and only one ban-aid through out the process, believe me this is normal for me. Here is a link to his blog and please use his step by step instructions.I try to incorporate some of the items he uses but then spin it to be more my style. Hence the reason my tag looks crazy bright! The instructional pictures are awesome.  September Tim Holtz Tag






You can make this alone or or if you lucky like me you can craft with a buddy! I now feel like this technique will help me in so many steam-punk style cards and ATCs(Artist Trading Cards). I am so excited to have another crafty way to make something. BEWARE... Do not try smoothing out the edge of aluminium tape that you just cut with scissors, using your fingers!  Have a blast. Oh and you may a see a few posts about pumpkin related items soon; you know because its that season. Tootles!