Pirate Party

Before I jump into the party ideas, I wanted to post a picture of my zucchini that I've picked so far. I have three and I think that might be enough to make plenty of chocolate chip zucchini nut bread. I'm going to make some and depending on how many I get, I'm going to take the zucchini plant out and try to plant something else. Anyway, here's the picture:

They're a good size. I'm excited!

OK, I have decided to throw a pirate party in October. I have lots of ideas, but I want more so for a couple of days, I'm opening up the comments to anyone who reads this so you don't need an account to respond. Anyway, heres the plan...I want to make treasure maps for all of the kiddos. All of them are too young to read so on the map I'm going to have pictures. I've already figured out how to make a map look old, but I need clever little rhymes to go with the pictures. For example: one suggestion that I found is a rhyme that went something like this "To find your next clue, as good pirates know, look where all the vegetables grow". And on their map they would have a picture of a pumpkin or something and they would look for the pumpkin and it would be in the raised garden. When they find the pumpkin, they'll pick out part of the pirate costume and they'll get the next clue. But I don't have any other rhymes for other areas of the yard. So, you're job is to help me come up with rhymes :) I have a shed and a swingset in the backyard that would be pretty easy clues, so a rhyme that will lead them there would be awesome! I was reading on FamilyFun's website and one of their ideas is to have them "walk the plank". So I need a rhyme for that too. I will set out a little swimming pool and fill it with blue and white balls and put a little stuffed crocodile in it. I will put step stools on either side of the pool and place a wooden "plank" that they'll have to walk across. Once they get to the other side, they'll receive a hook and the next clue. I think four clues is enough for them to go through. Their last clue will take them to the front yard where I'll have a lot of straw scattered all over and X's for each child (according to their favorite color), but before they can start digging for their treasure, they need to throw some food to the crocodile. The crocodile will be a basket covered with green fabric and teeth that I'll attempt to make.  I will make the "food" for the crocodile, which will basically be beanbags (wouldn't it be cool if I could find some Captain Hook fabric?). The little one's will have to distract the Croc with food before they can go get their treasure.

For the pirate costume stuff, I'm thinking a tri-corn hat (I found instructions on how to make them), eye patch, hook, belt and foam sword, and maybe a toy parrot in a cage. They would get the parrot after they feed the Croc because he will be holding the parrots captive!

One of the mom's that will be here is a pastry chef, so she'll be providing the dessert and I'll ask her to make it simple so I can post it here for anyone who wants to make whatever she makes for themselves.

So those are my ideas. If anyone has any other cute ideas, that would be great!

Apple

Thanksgiving in a Bowl

In one of my previous posts I mentioned Thanksgiving in a Bowl. I decided to make that for dinner so I'm going to show you how to make it. It really is one of the easiest meals you can make and it packs a lot of flavor. I know it's the middle of summer, and a big Thanksgiving meal is the last thing on your mind, but trust me on this one. I think you'll love it! One little tip though...if you have it, use reduced sodium creamed soups. I didn't once and it was too salty. Here's what you need:

2-3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
swiss cheese
2 cans of condensed cream soups (I used one cream of chicken and one cream of mushroom)
1 box of Stovetop Stuffing, moistened

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease casserole dish, I used a 13x9 dish.

 Add shredded chicken to the bottom.

 Top with condensed soups, then add the cheese.

 Spread stuffing all over the top and bake for about 30 minutes or until stuffing starts to brown.

That's it! Add some cranberry sauce to the side and a veggie and dinner is done! I always have chicken breasts cooked up and frozen, so this meal is put together in about 10 minutes. Can't really beat that! I don't usually like Stovetop Stuffing, but it works in this recipe. You have to use swiss cheese, it makes a difference. I've tried other cheeses, but it does not taste as good. Another thing I've thought about trying is adding the cranberry sauce to the layers, but haven't done that yet because if it doesn't turn out I haven't had a backup meal :-)

Anyway, I hope you like this recipe. Enjoy!

Apple

Peach Cobbler

This peach cobbler recipe is like none I've ever seen. This is my grandma's recipe and it's delicious. My husband even said it's the best peach cobbler he's ever tasted. My grandma didn't go overboard with a lot of different spices in most of her fruit pies. She just let the fruit make the pie. This recipe is old school. It may not be for everyone, but I think it's the best!

I bought peaches that weren't ripe and let them sit for a while to ripen. Apparently I waited too long and they turned to mush, so I didn't have as many peaches that I would normally to make a cobbler, so this is more like a peach cobbler pie. Here's what you need:

Pie crust (again, I used my trusty crust here)

12 peaches, pitted and sliced
3-4 cups of sugar, depending on how tart your peaches are or how sweet you want it.
1 cup water, you can use less if your peaches are extra juicy
3-4 Tbsp flour, again this depends on the juiciness of the peaches
1 tsp vanilla
butter to dot the peaches with

Preheat oven to 375. Let bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Start checking at 45 minutes.

For the crust, I LOVE crust, so I add a bottom crust. My grandma never did. She also didn't do a lattice top, but I like the lattice. If you don't like as much crust omit the bottom crust. Here's what I did:
Roll out your top and bottom crusts as you normally would for any pie. With another piece of dough cut it into strips maybe 1x2 inches. Place them on a cookie sheet and stick them in the oven at 375 for about 10 minutes. These are going to be the dumplings for the cobbler. While these are baking, work on the filling.

Mix the peach filling together and add half of it to the dish with a slotted spoon. Dot with butter.

 Add dumplings

Add remaining peaches

Cover with top crust and pour remaining juices over the top. This will make it beautifully golden and even more delicious.

Take out of the oven and let cool for at least an hour. My husband rarely waits longer than that before he's asking when am I going to slice it. You might want to wait longer to be sure everything is set. 

Be sure to put a cookie sheet beneath the pie to catch any drippings. Enjoy!

Apple

Laminated Paper Crafts

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my laminating machine. Well, I'm finally posting a few of the things I laminated. Here they are (everything is printed on cardstock):

I went to nickjr.com and found these Max and Ruby paper dolls. I laminated them, cut them out and stuck them onto some "scenery" with double sided tape. For the scenery, I just used blue construction paper and cut green construction paper to look like grass. I glued the "grass" onto the blue paper and laminated it. To make the outfits stick, I just use the double sided scrapbooking tape on Max and Ruby and stick the clothes on. I haven't had any issues with the tape coming off. 

Here's another Max and Ruby craft. This one is nice because it teaches shapes. My little one is really good with shapes, but I still like to use it just for fun because it's kind of like a puzzle. 

 This is obviously a number caterpillar. I got this guy from DLTK's website. I haven't finished cutting him out yet, but when I do I'm going to do the same thing as I did with Max and Ruby. I'll create a background and he can be put together in order in the grass or something. He will be attached with the double sided tape too.

 Back at nickjr.com, I found these Blues Clues cards. Again, I laminated them and cut them out. I took out my handy dandy hole puncher (did you notice my cheesy Blues Clues lingo?) and punched a hole through each card. I cut a piece of yarn and tied them all together. I use these cards at night to show that after everything is done, it's night-night time.

I also went to Disney Jr's website and printed out a Jake and the Neverland Pirates treasure chest and coins, but haven't gotten to laminating the coins yet. I'm not going to laminate the treasure chest because I'm not sure how I'd be able to fold it to put it together properly.

So that's what I've been doing. Everything has turned out great so far. I hope these are some ideas you can use for your little one.

Apple

Plants Week: I have know idea!

Last night I was in the kitchen making my yummy peach cobbler (I will be posting that later this week). When I was getting ready to put it all together, my husband came in from the backyard and asked me if I had seen the zucchini. I said, "Yes, it's getting huge." He told me that he wasn't talking about the plant itself, but the actual zucchini. I was so excited because I didn't know that any had actually grown yet. I ran out of the house like a crazy lady because I was so happy. Last year we tried to grow them and our garden was so overcrowded, all we got was huge leaves. So this was a very exciting moment for me :)



These two are the biggest so far. I'm going to leave them until some of the other ones get a little bigger.

Here's another one. Can you see it? It has the flower on top. There are a total of three like this, but this is the biggest. So overall I have five zucchini growing!



While looking around we found some tomatoes growing too. We couldn't get a good shot of them, but here's what we could get:

Do you see them? They're tiny, but they're there!

I love watching these things grow. I was so excited, I went to get my neighbor (she's a garden lover too), to show her my plants. I found another zucchini plant growing by the tomatoes and was a little confused because I know we only planted one. When I looked a little closer, I saw that the other plant that came with the plant we actually planted had taken root and was growing from the little container it came in! I didn't want this extra plant, so I gave it to my neighbor. When my husband took it out, it had one little root that was actually in our soil. Who knew these plants were so hardy? Apparently not a novice gardener like me ;-)

Apple



Strawberry Cream Pie

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend. Our weekend was a little frustrating because I hate running around all day. On Saturday we were out all day going from store to store and on Sunday it was the same sort of day, only we went to church first :) Monday was a fulfilling day because a lot of housework was accomplished. At the end of the day, I made a yummy Fourth of July meal which always includes BBQ and macaroni salad (or potato salad) and this time the dessert was Strawberry Cream Pie. I first tasted this pie about five years ago at Bob Evans (I don't care for that restaurant, but hubby wanted a Thanksgiving style meal, and this was before my Thanksgiving in a bowl recipe. I'll post that recipe in the future). Anyway, they had this pie and it was pretty tasty. But a whole pie costs close to $15 which is ridiculous, so I figured out how to make it at home. Here is what you need:

Graham cracker crust (store bought is fine)
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 small container of Cool Whip
1 c powdered sugar
strawberries
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
vanilla and lemon juice (optional)
whipped cream (for garnish)

Cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar. If you want, you can add a splash of vanilla and lemon juice at this point. Fold in the Cool Whip. Pour into graham cracker crust and refrigerate. I put mine in the freezer for about 30 minutes to help speed up the process.

I made my graham cracker crust. Here's how I did it:

1 sleeve of graham crackers (about 1 1/2 C)
6 Tbsp of butter, melted
1/4 C sugar

Mix everything together and press into pie pan. Bake at 375 for about 7-8 minutes. Let cool before adding filling.

For the crust I let my pan cool just enough so it wouldn't crack in the freezer, then I put it in there to cool down enough to add my filling. After I put my filling together, I just added it to the crust and put it back in the freezer. Make sure it doesn't freeze though because it will be nearly impossible to cut a slice that has any crust on the bottom. Before serving, mix granulated sugar and strawberries together. Add to pie and garnish with whipped cream. Enjoy!

After we ate, we went to see fireworks. It was a really nice day!

I like this shot. Doesn't it look like a flower?

I really wish this picture turned out better because these were cool to see. It looked like it was raining fireworks. They let off a few of the "raining" fireworks so that it looked like a tree. It was pretty!

 

Apple

Flower Petal Backpack

Here is the backpack I was telling you about. I got the tutorial from here. It is super cute. Mine looks pretty much like hers, but thats ok. Covering the front only took about 30 minutes, but the sides took a little bit longer. My backpack had a sort of "leather" piping that I had to cover with ribbon and a pocket that I wanted to keep open. The bag took me probably an hour and a half from start to finish. My little one LOVES it! I bought a $5 color your own backpack from Michaels and flower petals for $5 from Hobby Lobby. But it's adorable. Here it is:

The reason why you can see the darkness beneath the backpack is because the flower petal was flipped up.  Once it's flat, you can't see any of the bag beneath.

Apple