Craft Hope

Hello-
I usually share a funny project or meal that I've been working on on this blog. I will continue to do that but today I wanted to share something that someone else is doing.

Today I came across Craft Hope http://www.crafthope.com/2012/01/project-16-the-littlest-warriors/ Craft Hope is a project that shares handmade gifts with those in need. The posts I read brought tears to my eyes.

I wanted to share this site because today, on Valentines day I realize how lucky I am to have three little people and a husband in my life that I love so much and that love me back. I also realize how lucky I am that they are all very healthy and happy. Unfortunately, this isn't true for everyone.

Craft Hope's current mission is to provide handmade bags and beanies for children undergoing cancer treatment.

Please visit the Craft Hope website to see if you can participate in their mission.

I'm hopefully going to make a football beanie (or maybe a couple) and a t-shirt bag or two to send along. If you aren't a big sewer but want to help anyway, check out the t-shirt bag, they look very easy to make
http://www.leethal.net/zine/?p=1344 (No sewing option)
http://www.instructables.com/id/FASTEST-RECYCLED-T-SHIRT-TOTE-BAG/ (this one requires very little sewing)

You can also find videos on making these bags on Youtube.

Cookie Cups

Anyone with children knows the danger of a car ride. No, I'm not talking about an accident, no, I'm talking about something much worse. The not a nap, nap. It happens when it is right around nap time and you have to get from someplace home and the kids fall asleep for a very short time. No matter how hard you try, you can't get them into bed without waking them up. And then they are up. You know the truth, they didn't really nap, but to them, that nap was just the refresher they needed.

Saturday Susan and I went to Boone and were coming home right around lunch time. The plan was to stop at McDonald's so the kids could eat and then if they napped on the way home at least they got some sleep. Well for whatever reason McDonald's was really crowded so we were just going to eat at the one at home. This change in plans meant that the kids were going to ride in the car for about 20 minutes right around nap time. That would be death to any nap that afternoon and we were having a play date so they needed naps. My solution was to stop at the gas station and get the kids some cookies so they would eat their cookies and stay awake. Brilliant! One problem, the gas station didn't sell the cookies in a cup. I knew that just giving the kids a handful of cookies could only end in disaster so, I did what any desperate mom with a pink Swiss Army knife would do, I made some.

When I got to the car I think Susan was a little worried because I turned the car off and started attacking some empty cappuccino cups with my pocket knife. I was too busy to explain what I was doing so she was just going to have to wait a minute. After I finished cutting the cups up and put some cookies in them my madness made more sense.

And it worked. The kids ate their cookies and stayed awake until we got to McDonald's where they ate a surprising amount of food. They did have the rest of their cookies on the way home (keeping them awake across time). I think Catherine was excited because when she left the van she only had 1 cookie left but when she got back in there were 2. Little did she realize we just switched sides of the van so she was actually eating Carter's cookies.

Here are the very fancy cookie cups and some little people enjoying their treats.

Frosting Fudge AKA Pinterest Fudge AKA...

Two Ingredient Fudge AKA Was This Really That Easy Fudge AKA No Freaking Way Does This Really Only Have Two Ingredients Fudge.

I think you get the point.

The Pinspiration for this fudge was this blog post http://cookiesandcups.com/strawberry-2-ingredient-fudge/

Sorry for the delay in posting the link. I had to look it up on my Pinterst board and well, you know what happens when you sign onto Pinterest...time escapes.

While I really like the concept of the strawberry fudge and thought it was super cute, I just wasn't sold on the strawberry part. Sometimes artificial fruit flavor just isn't my thing. But sometimes it is, I can't explain it so I'm not going to try. Anyway, I thought I this could be a way of combining three things I love and always make me happy peanut butter, chocolate, and Pinterest. I filed that thought away until I could make some fudge.

Well, my friend Susan came over the other night for a very exciting dinner of crockpot ham and potaotoes and asked what she could bring. Now, the usual response is either wine, cupcake vodka, or dessert. This time I said "Hey, how about we try that Pinterest fudge I pinned and you repinned. Want to bring the stuff for that. Well, since it involves three things she also loves (peanut butter, chocoalte, and Pinterest) she was on board.

We ate dinner and paitently waited for the kids to go to bed (seriously, just go to bed already we have fudge to make) and then got to cooking...if you can call it cooking.

Here are the supplies:

A bag of peanut butter chips

A can of chocolate fudge frosting

2 glasses of Big House Naked Chardonay

(the only Chardonay I like)

Now please note, we used store brand supplies and it didn't matter. You don't have to go all fancy pants and buy the expensive name brand stuff. You could, but then you would just be showing off. If you are going to do that you should probably just go ahead and buy expensive wine and wear diamonds while you make this stuff. And then you should probably call it "Fancy Pants Fudge" because you were being fancy pants when you made it.

Ok, I'll stop now.

All you do to make this great fudge is melt the peanut butter chips in the microwave. Now remember 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, stir until it is all melted. Chips won't look like they are melted when you use the microwave, you have to stir. If you just keep microwaving you will end up with a burnt, nasty, smelly mess. Not good.

Once you have the chips melted stir in the frosting until it is well blended. Pour into a greased pan and let set for about 30 minutes. Or, put it in the freezer until it is set enough to eat. Please don't ask what size pan. I think the recipe calls for a 9x9. I couldn't find my 9x9 or 8x8 but I did know where the approximatly 8x6 was, so I went with that one. I think just about anything smaller than a 9x13 would work-it just depends on how thick you like your fudge.

And here it is:

Please note the lovely cake plate. I started cutting squares to put all nice on the plate so I could have a pretty picture. Then I found the fudge wasn't really set up so it wasn't coming out of the pan in nice neat squares, it was taking long, and well we didn't want to wait. So, Susan had the brilliant idea of just putting the pan on the cake plate. That way I still get credit for trying.

I love this fudge. The peanut butter was very subtle but still there. You could use any combination of chips and frosting to see what would happen. And if you wanted it to be all fancy pants you could add nuts, or chips, or whatever. You could also line your pan with parchment or wax paper so it would come right out and you could cut it in nice squares. Yeah, I know, pretty fancy pants.

Ham and Broccoli Casserole

Ok, so I know what you are thinking. "Another food post. Seriously? I mean this is supposed to be 52 Weeks of Crap, not 52 Weeks of What I Make for Dinner." And I agree, when I started this blog I really had intended for more of the posts to be about craft project. But then reality set in. The reality is that I don't always have time to work on my craft projects but I always have to make dinner. And if you ask my children they will say that sometimes dinner can certainly be considered crap. I usually don't think so, but sometimes it is true. We aren't going to talk about my attempts at baked mac and cheese. But I will say this "Someday mac and cheese I will win!" But for now we aren't talking about it.

This casserole is really good. However, I do admit it isn't a meal you can feel good about feeding your family if you are really concerned about nutrition. Which I am, but sometimes you need to make things that you can feel good about because your family actually ate it. Plus, this has broccoli so it is kind of healthy.

I must say that I did not come up with this recipe, but for the life of me I cannot figure out where I got it. I had it posted as a note on my Facebook page and it just took me 10 minutes to find it with the new timeline view. But I found it, phew. It would have been a sad day if I had lost this one.

Here is what you need:

2 1/2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni

3 cups chopped broccoli

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

2 cups cubed cooked ham

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

2 tbl dried onion

1/2 tsp pepper

2 cups crushed potato chips

Cook the macaroni. In a large bowl combine the broccoli, soup, ham, cheeses, milk (now this is funny I'm copying the recipe which calls for milk but I have no milk on the ingredient list...well, skip the milk, I didn't use it this time), onion, and pepper. Drain the macaroni and add to the ham mixture.

Place in a greased 9x13 pan and top with chips. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes (just until it is hot and bubbly-this will depend on your oven).Ok, so when I made this I doubled it, so the recipe you have is doubled. If you double this you will have A LOT of casserole. Which is fine if you want to freeze one or have teenager boys in the house. I use frozen broccoli and pour the hot water over the broccoli to thaw it. Also, I add a bit of cheese on the top before I put the chips on. Who doesn't love a little more cheese? Finally, last time I made it I think I added an extra can of soup because it didn't look wet enough. Maybe it was because I didn't add the milk.

Once again, this is a casserole not rocket science, so don't make it too difficult. Coming up with ideas for dinner is hard enough, actually making dinner shouldn't be.

I'm pretty sure there was something else I was going to share, but I can't remember what it was. So, it couldn't have been too important, right?

Oh, I remember! I wanted to confirm that I didn't say this was a healthy dinner :)

UFP #1-Quilt Top

I love to quilt. I love picking out the pattern, figuring out the fabrics, cutting it, and putting it together to see what I came up with. The problem is time. With the little people it always seems there is something else to do. I find the best time for me to get any quilting done is when I go to a two day mini retreat at the local quilt store. This is a fun time to do nothing but sewing. Plus, when I get stuck there are lots of people there to help. I do admit, I have major sewing machine envy when I go to these retreats, but I'm getting over that.

The last retreat I went to I started a Twister quilt. This quilt is super cute, looks way hard, and is actually pretty easy. This website shows a tutorial on how to make a Twister quilt http://www.joscountryjunction.com/?p=1148 I can't remember the brand for the tool or I would link to that page. Essentially you make a quilt, cut it apart, and then make a new quilt. I went home from the retreat with the cut up quilt ready to be resewn. I got the strips made but didn't get them put back together for a long while. This quilt top became my first UFP (Unfinished Project).

This is what I started with

Basically it was strips that needed to be sewn together. I had a couple already put together, but about 6 left to go.

This is what I ended with It is pretty hard to see all of it because it is big, but I love this quilt. I think the colors are amazing and it is just so few. I'm so glad I took someone's suggestion and put the pinwheels in a row, I think that really makes the pattern pop.

So, the quilt top is complete. That moves the quilt from an UFP to a MFP (Mostly Finished Project). Now comes the part I do not like. I have to quilt it. I get so nervous when I have to do this part. When I took my first quilting class and we were being shown how to finish our quilts I nearly cried while I was quilting it because I was getting so anxious. Then the quilt I was working on had to stay in my car for a couple of weeks because I didn't even want to look at it. I did finish quilting it with a much easier pattern, but it is still an UFP because I don't like hand sewing the binding. I love making quilt tops, not so much the rest of the process.

I have everything I need to finish this up sitting on my table at home. I hope to get it quilting this week/weekend and the binding on next week so I can have this be completely finished. It is going to be tough, but I'll make myself do it. Now, if I can just keep this cold that sent me to bed at 8:30 last night away, I might actually have a chance at getting things done.

Crap I Wouldn't Have to Make

While reading one of my favorite blogs "Real Mom Kitchen" (www.realmomkitchen.com) I saw that she is having a give away for a gift certificate to Olive Garden. Now really, who doesn't love Olive Garden? Plus, if I won I totally wouldn't have to make dinner.

So, one way to get an added entry is to blog about the contest. And that is what I am doing.

If you have a few minutes, head on over to Real Mom's blog. It has some really good looking recipes. I know I've made stuff from her blog but now I can't think of what it was. But whatever it was, I'm sure it was good :)

Latte Mix

You know there is something really nice about waking up and starting your day at 5:45. You have such a chance to get things done and have the rest of the day to just relax.

WHATEVER! It is freaking 6 am and I would much rather be in bed. As for getting things done, that might happen...in an alternate universe. My problem is that I have two little people who want to help with whatever I'm doing and I can't run errands because when everyone is dressed and fed it is still on 7:30 and places aren't open yet. Really annoying.

Mornings like this call for one thing. And since it is frowned upon to mix up some pineapple upside down cake and leave the kids with a snack in front of the Wiggles, I'll have to settle for some coffee.

This year I decided that I'm really going to try to save money by not buying fancy (or even regular) coffee on campus. I'm going to make it in my office instead. So far this has been going really well. Then I decided I didn't want to spend as much on latte mix that I have been so I should probably just make my own. So, I did. If I can find the receipts I'll do a price breakdown, but if I can't we'll just say it is less expensive. I really am pretty sure it is.

So, here is what you need:
Side note: Is it really necessary for the Wiggles to go a cover of the Banana Boat song? Apparently it is. And my kids like it because Wags the Dog has a starring role.

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog:
1/2 cup instant coffee
2/3 cup sugar (no pictured...when I took the picture I knew I was missing something)
1/2 cup dry milk
1/4 cup powdered creamer
1/4 cup (about 1/2 small box) instant pudding

Mix everything together in a bowl and then put it in the blender and blend until it is a fine powder. Blending it will keep it from separating as you store it.

I made two flavors, French Vanilla and Butterscotch. I really like the butterscotch. But you can use whatever flavor or flavor combination of pudding you would like. You can also add cinnamon or nutmeg or whatever to add to the flavor.

I like how customizable this recipe is. In the future I would like to make some decaf (a few too many cups of this is not a good thing) and maybe some sugar free using Splenda and sugar free pudding. I'm not sure if you would still use 1/2 a box of pudding or the whole thing. It might involve some experimentation.

Also, a Cookie Butter jar from Trader Joe's is the perfect size for holding this mixture. But I don't suggest you go out and buy any cookie butter for the jar. Not that it isn't amazingly good, but because I need to go get some and I don't want them to be out :)

Ok, I'm going to see what else I can get done while the little people enjoy their cereal and the Wiggles.

I just realized I didn't tell you how much to use. It is about 2 tablespoons to 3/4 cup hot water.