Shop, make, bake...

The holidays crept up SUPER FAST this year. I can't believe there are only 10 days left until Christmas. People are almost starting to panic that their holiday shopping is not done. I am CLOSE to being done. There are just so many people to remember....Teachers, Aunts & Uncles, 2nd Cousins twice removed, your sister-in-law's boyfriend (is he even COMING to Christmas). It's overwhelming when you make a list of everyone to buy for.

If you are around the Peoria area and shopping for your mom, girlfriend, sister, friend, or other lady in your life, you have to go into my favorite shop, Relics. It is one of Peoria's best kept secrets, on Adams across from Hardees, next to Cracked Pepper. I tell everyone to go there if they like adorable housewares, vintage conversation pieces, affordable jewelry, books, and funky stuff. Crossing my fingers that my husband will go there and pick out Christmas gifts for me. Absolutely anything will do, but I love the jewelry...hint hint honey.

Homemade presents are cheaper (most of the time) and go over pretty well. I am crocheting my fingers to the bone to try and get gifts done. This site, The Crafty Crow, has great ideas for handmade ornaments and other gifts. I love the ideas for gifts that kids can make. Next week the kids are off school, and we always make some handmade ornaments to handout to relatives. I think we are going to make the bell flower ornament.  Although I really love the little owl ornament from that artist woman blog. So I might have just showed some of you your presents...whoops.

 Last year I made treat bags with Chocolate Chip Biscotti, a few fancy Tea Bags, and some candy, to pass out to extended family, friends, teachers, and people I worked with.
Here is the yummy Biscotti recipe I used. It was super easy, if you are good at burning chocolate chip cookies then you can make these! They are also vegetarian!

• 2 cups all purpose or whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, semisweet or milk chocolate
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 squares of semisweet bakers chocolate

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together dry ingredients and chocolate chips. Add eggs and vanilla. Knead dough on a floured surface a dozen times or so. Form the dough into a long log 2 inches wide and 15-16 inches thick. Place long on baking sheet coated with nonstick spray. Bake for 30 minutes, remove from oven and let cool. Cut diagonally with a serrated knife, into 1/2" slices.  Change heat to 325 a d bake for 10 more minutes, then flip the slices over and cook for 10 more minutes or until golden and crunchy. The centers may look a little soft, but will harden as they cool.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave, following directions on the package. Allow chocolate to cool but not harden before dipping one side of the biscotti into it. Place cookies on wire racks, chocolate side up, until cool. Place in airtight container to store. Dip in your tea or coffee and enjoy!

Good luck with finishing your holiday shopping, making and baking! 

Costume Bonanza

  

 Halloween is my favorite time of the year. It is over and I am a little depressed, but I can look back at all the awesome photos I took and feel a little bit better. Pretty much the only time I use my sewing machine is to make Halloween costumes. This year Charlie wanted to be a mummy and Jack wanted to be a ninja. I was hyped up to make both. I know I could have bought them both, but I love the challenge of creating something from nothing. The ninja costume I sewed out of a shiny black material, added a patterned black band for a belt, and a red sash. A black set of long under-ware went under his costume. I found a simple way to make a ninja mask out of a black t-shirt. My husband helped Jack make throwing stars which we attached with hot glue. The ninja swords he broke after the first time wearing his costume...they were cheap plastic. His crotch ripped out of his pants the first time he jumped into a ninja crouch, but I was ok with that, since I have no formal training in sewing, and my sewing machine decided to stop working. I hot glued them back together.

For the Mummy I took tips from a cool website. I tore the gauze material into strips, dyed them with tea, dried them in the dryer (BAD idea. Next time lay them out to dry), and hand stiched most of them to his white long under-ware. I learned that you can NOT actually wrap the strips around the long under-ware or it will not come back off your child. So instead I draped and pinned each one and stitched it into place. Charlie was pretty patient for a 5 year old boy! He had to try the costume on about 4 times. We ended up hot gluing on the final strips and the spider on. The headpiece was pretty fun to make. My grandma recommended making a paper mache base. I measured Charlie's head, blew up a balloon to that same size, then used loads of modge podge to glue on cheesecloth. Once it dried I popped the balloon and sewed the gauze strips onto it. It turned out comfortable and awesome. Charlie got a lot of compliments at school on his awesome mummy costume, as did I!

 The kids had a blast at school, at the Water Street Spooky Fiesta, where they saw the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile and ran around like spooks! Then of course there was trick or treating. There are a few houses that go ALL OUT for Halloween, decorating their entire yards and front porches. I want to be one of those people someday.

I also saw lots of great adult costumes at my work,all Halloween weekend. Below are some of the best costumes I have seen. Many are my friends. Great costumes guys! My husband and I are in there as hobo clowns. I found most of the pieces for our costumes at Goodwill. I also attached lots of patches and altered my dress to be puffier. I was pretty proud of our makeup too, especially my husband's. He won the costume contest at Rhythm Kitchen Music Cafe for his awesome costume!

Until next year, HAPPY HAUNTING!

First chili cookoff - some tasty stuff

Earlier this fall, we had a chili cook-off to celebrate the end of summer, beginning of fall, and my husband's 31st birthday. A few people brought chili, a few brought soup, and a few brought some other delicious creations. We had some really good entries! we had everything set up with signs and people painstakingly voted on their favorites. First place was taken by Kelly with her Polish Mistakes, neither chili or soup, but totally scrumptious. Below are some of the winning recipes.
 Polish Mistakes by Kelly S
(seen on the photo to the right at the bottom left side)
I used 1lb turkey sausage (you can use regular sausage and ground beef)
1lb ground chicken meat
1 medium onion chopped
oregano
garilic salt
velvetta cheese
rye cocktail bread (small squares)

Preheat oven 350
Brown the meat with a little olive oil and  add onions
Add oregano and garilic salt to taste (don't have exact measurments)
add the velvetta cheese until melted(i used about 1/2-3/4 of a block of velvetta chesse cut into cubes)
Stir together until well blended
Add a spoonful of mixture to each cocktail square and place on cookie sheet
Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes until toasted and enjoy!

Chipotle Chili by Joe H.
1 LB Ground Meat

1 Red Onion, Diced

4 Garlic Cloves, minced

1 Can Diced Tomatoes with Jalapeños, Drained

1 Lrg Can Tomato Sauce (~30oz)

1 Can Light Red Kidney Beans, Drained, Rinsed

1 Can Dark Red Kidney Beans, Drained, Rinsed

1 Chipotle Chili Pepper, Minced (or Chipotle Chili Pepper Powder)

1 Bay Leaf

Chili Powder, Salt & Pepper

 

Brown the meat and season lightly with chili powder, move meat to crock pot and leave about 3 tablespoons of fat in pan. Sauté onions and garlic in fat until soft, add to crock pot. In crock pot, add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, beans, and chili pepper (or 2 teaspoons of chipotle chili powder, to taste). Add bay leaf, 4 tablespoons of chili powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low at least 5 hours. Add more spices to taste.

 

Chilli Mac-Attack  by Me! (first photo at the top)

1 onion chopped

1 green pepper seeded, veins removed, and chopped

1 pound of ground beef or turkey

1 packet of chili spices

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 large can of tomato juice

1 can of chopped tomatoes in their juices

1 can of black beans (drained)

1 can of red kidney beans (drained)

1 can of chili beans in seasoning

1 Tbsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste & macaroni and cheese, prepared as package says. 

Brown meat in a large pot, drain off grease. Add onions, garlic and green peppers. Cook for 4 minutes or until they have softened a bit. Then add spices, tomato juice, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil then turn heat back down and cover and let simmer for 20 minutes. Add the beans and let them heat up for 5 minutes or so before serving.  Scoop some mac and cheese into the bowl, then top with chili and add some crackers or cornbread to the side. This kid-friendly chili-mac attack, is the only way I can get my kids to eat chili, and also by crushing up the beans so they are hidden in with the meat. Its good with shredded cheddar cheese or sour cream. 

Thanks for submitting recipes friends!

Halloween Costumes

How excited is everyone for halloween? cause at my house we definitely are! Halloween is like Christmas for us!

I am making costumes for my boys and my husband and I. So far they are going well, I am almost done with the kids costumes. Last year I made the boys' costumes also-Spongebob and Patrick Star. I submitted their costumes to a coolest homemade halloween costumes website. There are tons of great ideas for halloween costumes there. Homemade costumes are my favorite!
Last year our friends had some GREAT costumes. I am so excited to see what everyone comes up with this year.
So what are YOU going to be for Halloween? Are you making or buying your costume? What is the best costume you have seen?

Yo Gabba Gabba T-Shirts

For Charlie's 4th birthday we decided to do a Yo Gabba Gabba theme. That should not surprise those of you who know me, I am as obsessed with that show as Charlie is (maybe more). There is nothing about that show that is NOT awesome....best kids show ever!

Anyway, I have been working on some homemade decorations for the party for a month now. I had tons of ideas for party games, a cake, decorations and so on, many which I saw on Gabba Friends. My main project was making t-shirts for all the kids attending the party.

First I looked at the characters and made rough sketches for the shirts. I bought bright colored shirts at a local craft store, once I had polled the kids' parents for their shirt sizes and favorite characters. Each shirt was a basic color of the character- yellow (Plex), green (Brobee), Blue (Toodee), Pink (Foofa), and Red/Orange (Muno). That background color was their "body" and I painted each face on the shirt! I used freezer paper to make a face stencil, referencing my sketches for help. I cut out the areas that would be painted on, eyes, mouth, ears, or other distinguishable features.

It is helpful to have a piece of cardboard or a t-shirt form (found at craft stores) to hold the shirt in place and to keep the paint from bleeding through. I used regular acrylic craft paint.
Placing the freezer paper stencil on the shirt (slick side down) where I wanted it, I ran a hot iron over the stencil to affix it to the shirt. You only have to hold down the iron for a few seconds and the paper is lightly attached, it is super cool! Next I just painted in the eyes, noses, and mouths, and let those dry. The eyes took a few coats of white before the background was covered. When doing multiple coats, I stuck a paper towel between the shirt and cardboard to prevent it from gluing itself to the cardboard and ripping off once it dries (learned this the hard way). I let the shirts dry for a few hours, or overnight, then pulled off the stencil to reveal the face. Some things I hand-painted on, once the face was dry-pupils, teeth, flower accents. It took about 1 week to plan, get supplies, and then paint all the shirts.

The birthday boy had Muno with a few extra accents!

Muno and Brobee were the most simple, and definitely the most hug-able.


Plex was the most complicated, but turned out super cool.

Lots of the girls wanted Foofa, since she is PINK!

My oldest son wanted DJ Lance, so I improvised and hand painted him without a stencil.

My husband and I had to have shirts too, so I chose Toodee and he chose Muno (well I chose for him).

I rolled up the shirts and tied them with a ribbon and name tag.

The shirts were a huge success, the kids and parents loved them. Made a great "treat" for the kids to all take home and enjoy.

RAZZLE DAZZLE!