Friday, October 29, 2010

Feature Friday - Halloween!

Fun.
Retro.
Cheerful.
I love Halloween!
  1. Retro Orange & Black Full Apron - Lovers Dovers Clothing
  2. Fleece Ghost Poncho - Izzy B's Stuff
  3. Trick or Treat Snoopy - Barnaby Huxley
  4.  Franko Sock Monkey - Suzanne's Stuff
  5. Lips Flexible Mold (this reminds me of the wax lips I loved as a kid) - ShopSakura
  6. Candy Corn Fudge - Paula's Shop
Hope you guys liked this weeks feature Friday and everyone has an awesome weekend!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Whole Lotta Whole Grains

Millet.
What is millet you say.
An ingredient in bird feed for one. But also a pretty awesome grain.
I haven't always been blessed to have the wide view of food I now have. Growing up my culinary exposure ran about as far as the San Francisco Treat and Hamburger Helper could throw me. So lets just say I had no idea about a lot of food stuffs.
One day I was invited to stay and eat supper at a friends house. All was well until I saw what we were having.


And as you can see by my beautiful illustration, her whole family laughed at my ignorance and I quickly found a good excuse to leave....then made sure to never agree to stay for a meal again for fear of not knowing what the hell I was eating.
Now thankfully I'm pretty proud to say I not only usually know at least a little something about most fruits and veggies and food stuffs in general but I'm pretty sure I can make a more awesome Eggplant Lasagna than my childhood friend's Mom any day of the week.

But that's not what this post is really about. This post is about millet and hopefully expanding your food knowledge. On one of my many ventures into health food I stumbled upon millet. At first I really didn't know what the heck to do with it except sneak it into things instead of rice or along with rice in order to bump up our whole grain intake. But eventually I started finding more ways to use it. One in particular is my very favorite way! It makes an awesome nutty tasting muffin that's perfect for breakfast on the run but especially good served with blueberry preserves.
Millet Muffins
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup millet
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup soy milk (1tbs vinegar added) *or 1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup dried or frozen blueberries or cranberries
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flours, millet, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix the soy milk/vinegar mixture, egg, applesauce, and honey. Stir buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture just until evenly moist. Fold in dried fruit. Transfer batter to the prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
 So there you go! Healthy delicious and now you can say you know what to do with millet if you ever have the need to :)

Friday, October 22, 2010

What do Bingo and Feature Friday have in common? + Giveaway Winner Announcement!

I ♥ them both and they're both part of today's post! 

Last night I had the pleasure of joining my Mom and Sister at a neighboring towns VFW for a few games of Bingo. I've never actually played Bingo before (excluding the peppermint candy Bingo we used to play in elementary school) so I was pretty excited and also feeling a little bit nostalgic too. See when I was a kid my Mom LOVED Bingo  (still does) and she was pretty lucky at it too if my memory serves me right. She was certainly lucky last night, she won twice! But long past are the days of my mom toting me to her Bingo games at one venue or another where my jobs were exactly two things; carry the bingo bag and get her coffee when she started running out of steam.So last night walking into the Bingo hall I felt a little empty handed without the bingo bag to carry. But we had a blast and all of us won at least once except my sister though I'm sure she'll have her win next time ;). BTW Bingo ladies are a riot and I ♥ them too!

So the theme today in honor of all the awesome new friends I made last night is...

  1. Vintage Tin Bingo Box -  Pip and I
  2. Vintage Bingo Game Piece Ring - Kyle Looby Jewelry
  3. Bingo Book -  Another Work in Progress
  4. Bingo Bank Handmade Stoneware - Shars Art Pottery
  5. Antique Bingo Cage - Blue Belle Bazaar
  6. Bingo "I came to win" Button - Creative Clam 
  7. Sister Ivana Wynne, the bingo player - Nun of a Kind

AND now for our giveaway winner announcement! Drumroll please..........KD Design Studio is our winner Yay!
Ms. KD I'll be contacting you shortly to get your address!

Thanks everyone for entering & have a great Friday and fun weekend!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Sugar Cookies are the Debil


Ever since I the very first time I saw The Water Boy anything that gives me any kind of trouble gets called the devil (pronounced with a "b" instead of a "v") and up until 2 years ago my husband and I had this conversation every year...

Hubs "When are you making your Halloween cookies?"
Me "Never! I hate them and I'm never making rolled cookie cutter cookies ever again!"
Hubs "But you say that every year."
Me "I really meant it last time, sugar cookies are the debil and possibly the death of me."

Every year even though I would swear never again, I'd decide its was a good idea to make cut sugar cookies. Something about their festive little shapes and all the sparkly colored sugar and royal icing just sucked me right in like a big gaping black hole. And then I would say "what the heck I'll try again" and have a melt down again.

I'm a good cook and a darn good baker but for some reason I could never never never seem to get the dough right for cut out cookies. The dough would be too dry/wet/warm/soft/whatever it wasn't ever right. Truth be told I don't really even like sugar cookies much...give me a p-nut butter cookie, chocolate chip cookie or better yet a combination of the both and I'm a happy girl! I do love how festive they are though and being able to share them with friends and family and they just really remind me of making them with my mom as a child so there's all kinds of sentiment behind them. AND I just couldn't let something so small as a teeny tiny cookie call me out. So every year I'd try again, somehow fail and end up with a big ball of dough in my trash can.

Then I found this recipe, I can't tell you what is different about it from the others I tried mostly because I threw them away/burned/stomped on them as soon as my attempt failed. But I know it works and I get perfect cookies every time now!

Ingredients:
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough
Directions:
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Mixing on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week. 

So, off to make my yearly cookies to share with friends and family (if any make it past the Hubs) & Happy Thursday to everyone and good luck to all that entered the giveaway! A winner will be drawn tomorrow morning, I can't wait!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Feature Friday Double Time + Giveaway Alert!!


Last Friday was a bit of a scramble for me so I missed my FF post. Sooo I'm making up for it here with two feature boards plus the onset of my shop's very first giveaway! For my features this week I've got two totally different themes going on; one something of a masculine gift theme since tomorrow is my Pop's birthday and the other a mix of some more my fall-ish vintagey feeling things I've happened upon this week.

1.Shirt and Tie Card - FlyAKite
2.Cash Register Cuff Links - KD Design Studio
4.Red Leather Sketchbook - DanielHeywood
5.10 #s Hard Candy Lollipops - SweetLollipopShop
6.Beer Word Ring - Kablamindustrie
7.Nerd Herder Wallet - rockitbot 

2.Owl Pillow - birdenvy
4.Dates to Remember Book - KandiceInWonderland
 7.Tangerine Carnival Tickets - papertreats
8.Carved Wood Sign Oz - SignsofaDaydreamer

Now it's giveaway time!! I first thought to myself, "I should probably wait until I have a few more followers before I do a giveaway ." But then I thought, "Pfftt what the heck I'll do it anyway and see what happens!It'll be fun anyway, right? Right!" So without further nonsensary....Here's how to enter:
1. Leave a comment on this post = 1 entry
2. Share this giveaway on Facebook with a link to this post = 1 entry (please leave a link to your post)
3. Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post = 1 entry (again, leave a link to your post)
    That's a total of 3 entries available per person! The giveaway is open now through October 21st and on that next wonderful day (Friday) I will announce one lucky winner (picked at random) of the items shown above from my shop plus a couple extra little goodies!

    I've also been a busy little bee adding new items to my shop this week too...


     Good luck to everyone! Be sure to tell your friends so they can participate in the giveaway too and have a great weekend!!


    Thursday, October 7, 2010

    Is That Cinnamon I Smell?

    Know what I mean by those things you have to do every year when the season changes? Surely I'm not the only one that has certain seasonal rituals that if not done you just don't feel quite right.

    Every year when the season starts to change I turn into something like a kid watching the clock waiting for school to let out. I get so excited when the first cool evenings of Autumn arrive! For me it signals the beginning of all the fun things I love to do...dragging out decorations, baking loads of stuff that smells warm and comforting and all cinnamon-y and whatnot, and the return of yummy pumpkin bagels to my favorite shop across town.

    It's been a little hectic around our house the past week so I've just now gotten our Halloween decorations out. It never seems like its going to take very long but I sometimes forget that I seem to "collect" another few bits and pieces for the next year....like this funny little guy...
    In the midst of all the decorating and other excitement going on I've been working on a few new things for my shop! I've been trying diligently to get prepared for the holiday season...which alternately seems to be a non-alarming distance away yet somehow rocketing toward me. This will be my first holiday season on Etsy and two of the things I'm totally excited about adding for the season are ornaments and bows. I'm something of a Christmas ornament fanatic and love making them to give as gifts during the holidays so I'm definitely stoked to be offering them in my shop this year. I've got my Mom to thank for the bow idea though, growing up she always found the neatest ways to make a simple package look special! So I'm always looking for a cute way to add a little something to my gift packages. Here's a quick peek at one style of bows I'll have available...
     Before I wrap this little ditty up I wanted to let you guys know that I've got a giveaway in the works that I plan to have sometime within the next two weeks! So keep an eye out for it and let your friends know so they can participate too :)

    Tuesday, October 5, 2010

    Front Page!

    One of the coolest things happened this morning all thanks to lapetitcoquette. I was so excited this morning,  when opening Etsy's front page I find my paper rosette bobbies staring back at me!! Such a treat :D

    Friday, October 1, 2010

    Feature Friday

    I guess the State Fair being in town this week has brought out the kid in me cause there is something decidedly whimsical and fun about the Friday pics this week! I haven't yet been able to entice the Hubs to go yet and I'm running out of time but I think I may be able to get him there with the promise of a turkey leg and funnel cake on my tab.....we'll see.

    In the mean time hope you like the features this week and have a great weekend!

    1. Bite Size Oak Leaf Sugar Cookies - sugarandflour
    2. Fox and Forest Studs - Joannarutter
    3. Hand Printed Brown Paper Bags - contemori
    4. Felted Relaxing Soap - SoFino
    5. Silk Rosette Headband - frostingcoutureshop
    6.  Chocolate Nut Caramel Apple - SinnersSaintsSweets