Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

Wow, what a fast year this has been! I appreciate the quickness if only because it's been a pretty tough, lean year. Money's been tight & work has been slow so I'm looking forward to a new year with a brighter future for everyone.

Bleaker times aside, I'm as thankful as ever. As long as I have my family, good health for all of us, the home that we love and my pupper Maisy, what elese could I need? Well...food - but in all honesty, I could use less ;-)

I wish anyone and everyone who reads this blog nothing but happiness and full tummies tomorrow! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

TP & PT @ TG!

What do toilet paper and paper towel rolls have to do with Thanksgiving? Everything when you can create an entire Pilgrim Population out of them!
I mean – is this just one of the cutest little guy ever?! You can make him for yourself with the empty rolls, some construction paper, a black felt tip pen and some glue! I have to admit, my daughter and I made these years ago – but they are sturdy and store easily for use year after year. I don’t have patterns for you, but just eye-balling these is pattern enough really… I don’t remember where I originally saw this fun project…in a magazine? Online somewhere? Wherever it was, my daughter and I were able to easily create our own little village of people!
The turkeys are made with small pinecones and a few of those sponge/foam sheets from your local arts-n-crafts store. It’s good to have a hot glue gun for the turkeys too.
I know times are tight – so if you don’t have the meant to get the materials for the turkeys (you might already have everything on hand...I did!), the smiling Pilgrims and Indians will bring smile to your diner’s faces all the same.

And…..
You can even make napkin rings!
I adore these and they are So perfect on my Thanksgiving table!
This is the perfect weekend arts-n-crafts project for the whole family – and you’ll have a super fun, homemade centerpiece for Thanksgiving come Thursday!

Like I said, I don’t have exact patterns for you but here are directions from my head. Please…don’t over-think any of this. It’s an easy project and there’s no exact way they have to look – just have fun with it!

Materials for Pilgrims/Indians
6 empty toilet paper rolls (to make 2 Indians, 2 girl and 2 boy Pilgrims)
Construction paper – various colors:
light pink or flesh/tan (for skin)
black & white (for Pilgrim clothing & hair)
yellow, orange & brown (for Indian clothing & hair)
Black, fine tip, felt tip pen
Pink felt tip pen
All-purpose glue

Cut a 1 ½ inch wide strip of paper long enough to wrap around the TP tube for the character’s face and glue it in place (tip, I cut all the pieces – faces, clothing, aprons etc. - out first then glue everything on assembly line style). The piece used for the clothing obviously needs to be big enough to cover from the bottom of the face to the end of the tube and needs to wrap around the tube as well. The black on the Pilgrim can be left plain as you’ll glue a ‘bib’ on each and an apron on the girls. On the Indian’s clothing, use the black felt pen to draw on a beaded necklace. For the apron on the girl Pilgrim, you more or less cut a half circle and give it a scalloped edge for decoration - make it join in the back. Cut an oval, then cut the oval in half for the ‘bib’ part of the Pilgrim outfit. Draw little black buttons on with the felt pen. Also draw on the facial features – you can be detailed or simple like the ones shown above. For rosey cheeks, color the tip of your finger with a pink felt tip pen and lightly blot your finger on each cheek. For the hair on the girls and Indians, cut a rectangle 2 ½ inches long and wide enough to span from one side of their face to the other – make vertical cuts for the ‘strands’. The boy Pilgrim should have bangs and shorter hair – so cut a 2 inch long strip that wraps around the tube, then cut out a section for bangs so his face will show, then make the vertical cuts for the ‘strands’. Lastly, headgear… For the Indians, cut one or two small feather shapes and glue in place. Then, cut a ½ inch strip that will wrap around the tube. Before gluing in place, use the black pen to draw a zigzag decoration. For the girl pilgrim, cut a rectangle 4x3 inches and fold a ¼ inch ‘cuff’ along the 4” side. Bend the shape into a cone by overlapping & gluing the two 4” corners opposite the cuff side. Let dry. When dry, squeeze a thin line of glue along the top rim of the girls ‘head’ and place her hat on her head, gently pressing. Let dry. For the boys hat, cut a 2 ½ inch tall strip long enough to wrap around the tube. Glue in place. The trickiest part is brim… Draw the circumference of the tube onto the black paper. Draw a smaller circle about an 1/8 of an inch inside that circle and a second circle ½ outside of it. Cut out using the outside circle as your guide, then cut out the middle using the inner most circle as your guide. Then, every 1/8 inch or so, make tiny snips from the inner circle to the original circumference circle line. Bend all the snipped ‘tabs’ up in the same direction and slide onto the Pilgrim boy tube, stopping where his face begins. Bend out each tab and put a tiny dot of glue on each, then press the tab in, attaching it to the form of the hat. Decorate the hat with a white strip and yellow buckle. Let dry.

For the napkin rings, cut 6 to 7 equal size rings from two, empty, paper towel rolls. Cover each ring with a strip of paper - make them all the same or use all different fall colors! Cut out fall leaf shapes by hand or use a small cookie cutter as a pattern. Cut out one acorn shape for each ring from brown paper, then draw the top of each acorn with a black felt pen. Glue two leaves on to each ring (make sure the leaf colors are different fro the ring!) then glue on an acorn to each ring as well. Let dry.


Materials for turkeys:
One pine cone for each turkey
Hot glue gun and slue sticks
Sponge craft sheets – red, yellow, green, orange, white & brown
Black felt tip pen

Cut five ‘feathers’ for each turkey – one from each color. Cut two white eyes per turkey as well as one wattle (that hangy red thing), one yellow beak and one head. When cutting the head shape, make it approx 3 inches long with a rounded head shape at one end and a tapered straight edge at the other end. Glue on the eyes, wattle and beak – draw pupils on the eyes. Set each pinecone on its side on your work so it sits still and sturdy. Once level and sturdy you now know what will be the bottom and top of your turkey. Using the hot glue gun, pipe a blob of glue near the front of the pinecone, down inside the ‘shingles’ and push the tapered end of the head shape into the glue and hold till set. Pipe blobs of glue toward the back of the pinecone, again down inside the ‘shingles’ and stick a ‘feather’ into the glue and hold till set. Follow by more glue and another color fo feather, slightly overlapping the first feather and repeat until all five feathers have been attached (you might want to stick the feathers in the pinecone to dry set them before gluing them). Let dry.

Have fun!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Hearty Lentil Chili....

Continuing on our path to better eating, I perused some lentil recipes on the Taste of Home website a couple of weeks ago. I came across several recipes that sounded really good and finally got around to making one last night: Lentil Chili. I tweaked it a little bit in that I made it thicker by adding a slurry of flour and water and I also added a can of butter beans. I’d have added more beans, but for some crazy reason, I was down to just the single can in my pantry. I let the chili cook quite a bit longer than the 30 minutes the recipe called for as it took right around 50 minutes to an hour to get the lentils as tender as I wanted them – and they still had a bit of a bite. Best surprise about this recipe – the hubs loved it! He said it was great as well as a ‘keeper’ which was terrific to hear because this recipe has just 278 calories and 5 grams of fat for a cup and a half and an unbelievable 12 grams of fiber! This was so good and perfect for the windy, rainy weather we’ve been having – snuggle up to a hot bowl soon!
A few other ingredient changes I made... I used turkey sausages with the casings removed because it's what I had on hand rather than regular ground turkey meat. Turkey sausages come in all sorts of flavors so if you go this route, pick a fun flavor to give your chili extra zip! I also had a partial container of beef broth to use up - it measure out to just under two cups, then I just filled in with the chicken broth. Lastly, besides the slurry I said I made to thicken up the chili and the addition of the butter beans, I added a good tablespoon and a half of freshly minced garlic - gotta have garlic in chili. You can add or remove these items from your chili as you please :-)

Hearty Lentil Chili

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound lean ground turkey
**I used turkey sausages with the casings removed
1 can (49 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth
**I used 16 oz beef broth and filled in the remainder with chicken broth
2 cups lentils, rinsed
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 medium onion, chopped
1 ½ tablespoons fresh minced garlic
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons flour whisked into 1/3 – ½ cup water
1 15 oz can butter beans - rinsed

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a large pot and cook turkey meat until no longer pink. Drain and set aside. Drain and rinse butter beans and set aside as well. Cook onions and garlic in same pot for about 4 minutes over medium heat, season with salt and pepper. Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, broth, lentils and seasonings. Bring to a boil, then cover and let simmer 30 minutes. If you want your chili thicker, add the slurry and let boil once again. Return chili to a simmer for another 20 minutes. Check tenderness of lentils - if to your liking, add in turkey and butter beans then heat just another 5 minutes or so until entire mixture heated through. If lentils still have too much bite, continue to simmer, covered, checking every 5 or 10 minutes, adding the meat and beans once lentils are tender.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cocoa Brownies

I looove homemade brownies. My gramma made homemade brownies and they were so much better than box brownies. Now, there are good box brownies, but to me, there is always an underlying gummy, globby texture and slightly plastic chocolate taste. And - don't get me wrong, I've eaten plenty of box brownies....plenty.

When my daughter had two friends over to watch movies this past Sunday afternoon - I wanted to make them a tasty treat and brownies are always a crowd pleaser. I have to admit that my initial thought was, 'do I have a brownie mix?' But then my very next thought was, 'no way! Scratch brownies!'
I pulled my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook off the shelf - her Cocoa Borwnies are the
very best scratch brownies. They use cocoa powder and to me, they are perfect. Cocoa is so light and delicate that it melts velvety smooth when it comes into contact with any heat - be that from friction while being mixed or as it's chocolatey essence comes alive in your mouth.
What's best about these brownies is that not only are they to-die-for delicious, but they are super fast-n-easy; containing ingredients almost every single person has on hand at any given moment. Betty does list folding in chocolate chips and walnuts and I like both just fine - but here, I omit them. I must have these brownies smooth like silk. Begin by combining the sugar, softened butter, vanilla and eggs. Mix until well incorporated.
Next, add the dry ingredients. Mix until combined. I like to finish the mixing by hand just so there are no tiny balls of cocoa powder left.
Once smooth, spread the mixture in a greased 8 x 8 pan, then slide into a preheated 350-degree oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool as long as you can stand it - 'cuz the heavenly, chocolate aroma will be tickling the air! - then cut into 16 squares and enjoy every melt-in-your-mouth bite!
Cocoa Brownies
Ingredients
1/2 Cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa
3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
(1/2 cup chocolate chips & 1/2 cup walnuts nuts if so desired)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat butter sugar, eggs & vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients until well blended. Spread in greased 8 x 8 pan and bake for 25 - 30 minutes

Thursday, November 5, 2009

20 and counting...

Every one of the 28 spaces in the frame shown above is filled with a fun and treasured memory spanning the hubs and my 20 years of marriage - November 4th was our 20th wedding anniversary!

The hair styles change - so do our wasitlines and the shape of our faces - but one thing that's constant...our commitment and love for each other and our life together.

Has it all been roses? Let me answer that with another question......is anyone's marriage all roses?! Everyone has a rough patch now and then - but I'm so proud that we've weathered every storm and come out laughing - and still loving. Besides, any dark cloud that has ever passed over has been surrounded by far many more blue skies.
So - here's to a terrific 20 years and everything that made us what we are, who we are and put us where we are. I love my husband, I love my daughter, our dog, our home and our life.

Let's dig in to number 21 :-)

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Pumpkin it up!

With it being the onset of 'eating season', my household wants to try to enjoy the flavors of the holidays without all the fat. My daughter and I made the pumpkin muffins shown above, just last night. They were sweet - but not too - moist, filling and....low fat! At 155 calories per muffin (the recipe makes 9), they have 4 grams of fat but also 4 grams of fiber (and they 3 points each for those of you who count) - that's dang good...and so was the taste!
Paired with a cup of coffee and a banana this morning, one muffin made a great breakfast that was a welcome change from cold bran cereal.
Try these terrific muffins and soon you'll be enjoying the flavor of the season without all the guilt!
Pumpkin Oat Bran Muffins
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups oat bran
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 egg whites
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup fat-free milk
2 tablespoons canola oil
Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites, pumpkin, milk and oil until well blended. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Coat muffin cups with cooking spray; fill half full. Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.