greetingarts

a rafter of turkeys

Got stung by a bee on my right hand Saturday around noon, and it just now stopped looking like a balloon and I can finally say it's about 98% back to normal.  Of course, then I went and snipped a piece out of my middle finger on my left hand about ten minutes ago.  Sigh.  Sometimes I feel like I should just call it a day and crawl back into bed.

Anyhow, luckily I'm not hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, and I got all of the supplies ready in advance for the craft I taught to Rebecca's 2nd grade class this afternoon.

The girls helped me get 25 kits put together, complete with all the ingredients...  One sandwich creme cookie, some candy corn, a chocolate bell, two mini M&Ms of the same color, and a cinnamon red hot.  Add a dollop of chocolate frosting, and you end up with a cute little turkey guy.

If you don't have mini M&Ms, you could use mini chocolate chips, too.  I got the idea here.  And *my* very own brilliant idea was to use the containers from my kids' favorite Shrimp Wonton Soup (can you tell they love it?  Why yes, I had no problem coming up with 25 containers!), because they were too good to just toss in the recycling bin.  This afternoon, the kids constructed their turkeys on top of the flipped over lids, and then when it was time to go home, they just turned the empty containers over so that those became the lids and the lids became the bottoms, and brought them home that way.  Hmmm.  Doesn't sound so earth-shattering when I write it all out, but I thought myself quite clever...

Here's the other art project Rebecca brought home, a recipe for leftover turkey casserole, in a cute, decorated turkey paper bag.  I definitely moved up this year, not like when she was in Kindergarten and her father and I didn't make the Top 5.  No, this year, I made it on to every single feather.

Happy Thanksgiving, whether you're American or Canadian, or not.  Because, really, there's always something to be thankful for, isn't there?

no random number generator for me

Lately, I'm figuring out I'm a pretty low-tech kinda gal.  Excel is nearly giving me a migraine (I think I'm going to scrap it in favor of pen, paper and a calculator), and it took me nearly an hour to format a simple little table in Microsoft Word.  So when it came to picking a winner, I just wrote the names down with a Sharpie on little strips of paper, folded them in half, and threw them all in a spider basket for the girls to choose.

Don't worry, this is just the mixing part.  Right after this picture was taken I made Rebecca close her eyes.  And the winner is... Katie!  Whoo hoo!  We've been blog friends for years (?!) now, and I'm hoping she'll post a picture of her little cuties eating those grit cakes she plans on making with the egg molds.

Thanks to everyone who played along, it was fun hearing from a lot of you for the first time.  Hope it helped to break the ice, I look forward to hearing from you more often!

yummy bear & bunny eggs, want one?

It took me only about six years to realize that the Korean supermarket almost right next door sells those really cute Japanese bento box accessories and things that make kids' lunches a real treat.  Colorful plastic picks for fruit or cheeses, reusable bamboo utensils and kid-sized chopsticks, and molds for rice and eggs.

I really hoped these would turn out decent, that they wouldn't be too fiddly and difficult to work with.  And guess what?  They were a breeze!  I've shaped rice with them, too, and everything comes out great.  So happy! 

I did some searching on the internet and found a few tips for using these molds.  You want to shape your eggs while they're still hot, and the molds should be wet when you start so nothing wants to stick.  After you put the egg in (a smaller size works well, I used the Large ones from Fresh & Easy, they're a bit smaller than Super AA or Extra Jumbo or whatever they have at the huge supermarket chains and Costco), I dropped the whole mold into a bowl of iced water for a few minutes.  The eggs popped out with no problem whatsoever.  The only slightly less-than-easy part is that you kind of need to have the egg yolk more or less in the center of the egg, and that can be achieved by turning and rolling it in the water while it's boiling.  I did the dishes as I was cooking the eggs, so I reached over and spun them with a spoon every few seconds or so.  No big deal.

I was so pleased with the way these worked out that I went back and bought an extra set of the bunny and bear molds to give away.  I figured, I've had so much luck and happy mail lately, it's time to return the favor.  I'm resisting the urge to turn this into a Box Tops giveaway, but I *am* still the Box Tops lady and if you have any you don't need for your own kids, please, please consider sending them to me, don't throw them away!

Anyway, leave me a comment if you'd like to have the egg mold, I'll probably pick a winner over the weekend.  No hoops to jump through, no questions to answer, I'd just like to know how many of you are out there... and maybe how you found me, how long ago?

Oh, and isn't that cursive handwriting fabric cool?  I think I'll make a journal cover out of it.  Or maybe a lunch bag.  Oh, who am I kidding?  It's going on the shelf and will be lucky if it gets cut and put to use before Jessie starts 3rd grade.

gummy yummies

I'm trying to clean out my pantry lately, because we have too many old boxes and cans of things that haven't been used in ages.  Cous cous, Spam, some things I don't even recall buying.  Dear sister, did you give me a box of instant flan like a decade ago?  I think I moved it here from our old house.  I don't even *like* flan.  Maybe I should give it back to you at the baby shower...

Anyway, so I was looking for a way to use up the box of lemon-flavored Jell-O and found a recipe for gummy candy.  Unfortunately, I can't remember where I found it so I can't link to it, but I do remember what the ingredients were.

 

1 package of instant Jell-O, any flavor (you'll want to use the kind that has sugar in it, no need to be healthy here, you are making gummy candies, after all)

3 envelopes of unflavored gelatin

a generous 1/3 cup of water (that means put a little bit more than 1/3 of a cup)

You melt all of the ingredients together in a small saucepan, then spoon into your molds.  I used some IKEA silicone ice cube trays (filled only halfway) and a chocolate candy alphabet mold.  I had to work quickly, since this stuff really is sticky and starts to get difficult to pour.  But I'm sure you can remelt it by heating it up again, too.  When they've solidified after just minutes in the refrigerator, you just pop them out and into the nearest open, impatiently waiting mouth.  I didn't have any trouble removing them from the molds, since they're rubbery and bendable (both the molds and the candies).

This totally reminds me of the Rainbow Finger Jell-O my mom used to make for potlucks when we were little.  Almond (white) Jell-O and layers of red, green and yellow goodness.  It was always so hard for me to wait for each color to solidify.  Rainbow Finger Jell-O and watermelon baskets, those were my mom's standbys.  Remember, Mom?

The girls had a great time with this, although Rebecca now says (after greedily licking the spoon and fighting over the saucepan), that she doesn't like the taste, just the smell.  That's quite all right, Jessie likes the gummies enough for both of them and will be more than happy to eat the whole batch herself.

cupcakes for dinner

April Fool's Day!  Good excuse to have some fun.

I made the girls (and Daddy, too) cupcakes for dinner.  Meatloaf batter, mashed potato frosting, minced carrot sprinkles.  Really fun and Rebecca ate two.  Extra bonus, the meatloaf cupcakes bake in 15 minutes, instead of the 55 minutes that a regular meatloaf takes.  I just might do this more often.

Celebrate something every day, right?

last of the valentine loot

Before I say goodbye to Valentine's day, I forgot to show you some things we made.

A mousie for Rebecca's teacher, based on Robert Mahar's pattern.  I used two layers for the heart on the bottom, to give the mousie something more substantial to stand on, and so the cute Swiss cheese holes would show up better.

And for the principal, librarian and other staff, Jessie helped me dip some store-bought cookies in dark chocolate and fancy them up with Valentine sprinkles. 

She took some Princess valentines and drew a little happy face in the "To" section, and painstakingly printed a "J" in the "From" area.  So sweet.  This one was one of her last, she was getting really tired.  She made around 25, and we gave all but one away.  I wish I'd thought to take a picture of the whole batch, I can't get enough of her cute little scribble faces with the huge eyes.

Quite a haul for her first valentine party, don't you think?  Enough loot to rival Halloween... almost.

after-Christmas sale on cranberries?

If any of the grocery stores have them on sale, I'm there.  People, you must try this recipe.  I mean, it can hardly even be called a recipe, it's so simple.  Water, sugar, cranberries and a stove.  They turned out so well, are so festive, and took a minimal amount of effort. 

Even my husband, who really doesn't get all fired up about anything that isn't red meat or seafood related, could probably have devoured at least half a bowl of these little gems on his own.  And quite possibly did.

I've got one more bag of cranberries in the fridge, and I'm totally making more of these for New Year's Eve.  Won't you join me?  I'm telling you, you won't be disappointed.

artichoke head

Happy Earth Day!

For dinner, we're going to eat the largest artichokes I've ever seen.  I think it's going to take at least an hour to steam, and maybe about that long to eat... dipped leaf by leaf into a little sauce made of mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  So yummy!  And guess how much they cost me?  $1 each.  A dollar!

Too bad I missed National Artichoke Heart Day on March 16^th.  Oh well, I guess we're making up for it today.  Better late than never, right?

all over the place

That's me lately, totally disjointed, flighty, can't seem to settle on anything.  Does anybody else ever get like this?  I'm in some sort of dejected, dissatisfied funk, even though there are at least a dozen different things I could be working on.

A little bit of sewing, another block from Ramblin' Rose Meets Jamestown.

Putting together some crocheted hexagons for a baby blanket to give to charity by the end of the month.

Test knitting for a talented designer.

Trying to wrap up some embroidery I started many, many months ago.

Entertaining the girls with nests made from white chocolate and crispy chow-mein noodles, decorated with jellybean eggs, colored sprinkles and more chocolate.  At least this was one project we did manage to finish.

putty in her hands

First, let me say thank you to all of you who sent me comments and emails about Becca's dental appointment today.  I was getting seriously worked up about it (gee, I wonder where Becca gets all her anxiety from?), but aside from the fact that she ate two bites of a friend's peanut butter cracker at snack time when I *told* her she wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything after breakfast, and had a mild panic attack when the dentist was in the middle of filling one of her cavities, she was such an amazing little trooper.  I think what bothered her most of all was the cotton roll they put in her mouth to prevent her from accidentally biting her own lip or cheek while it was numb.  She can't stand to look silly, or have people make fun of her, and that cotton sticking out of her mouth just about killed her. 

But I did my darnedest to make her happy for the rest of the day.  First stop was Pinkberry for a dentist-approved cold treat, and then we went home to take advantage of some Jessie-free time and made some Valentines for Rebecca's class party tomorrow.

Using the recipe found here, we made homemade clay.  I did all the stove top stuff, and Becca measured all the ingredients, added the red food coloring, and kneaded the dough.

She tried using the rolling pin, but turned out to be a little over-zealous, leaving some parts paper thin, so I was quickly assigned that job.

We used cookie cutters to make heart shapes, and bagged them up in Strawberry Shortcake ziptop baggies, with a special one for the teacher.

I let her eat a Cup O' Noodles on the coffee table in front of the television, I let her get away with no bath before bedtime, I read her the book she chose as she snuggled in her bed, eyes closing before the last note of her favorite song was sung.  She's still my baby, and I'm so relieved that this dental appointment went so well.  One down, two more to go...

Oh, and by the way, I'm not getting all my Typepad comments emailed to me lately.  Some are coming through, but not all.  So if you've recently commented and I haven't replied, please don't be offended or think I don't care.  I do, very much!  Frankly, your words and the friendships I've made through blogging are really what makes this worthwhile and rewarding for me.  I treasure every single person that passes by here, even if they choose to remain silent.