Barefoot Bloggers-Shrimp Bisque

First I want to say I never win raffles but I guess if you participate in enough you will eventually win...Thanks to Foodieblogroll and Jane Doiron I just got my copy of Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms.  It has a lot of good tips on how to make ahead and freeze or even just refrigerate earlier in the day or day before.  A lot of things I have blogged about but new recipes to try.  Now if I could just win a new car or room makeover:)




This weeks Barefoot Contessa recipe was Shrimp Bisque.  I have never even thought of making this until the challenge given by Jennifer of Our Blessed Home.  I am not a big creme based soup girl but this was pretty good.  Very simple as well.  I found boxed seafood stock at Whole Foods so I did not have to make that.  I also used the whole can of tomato paste thinking it would give a less creamy taste. It makes a pretty pink dish if you want something special for Valentine's day.   The kids moderately enjoyed it, I should of halved the recipe which would have been easily done, they basically tasted a little of the broth and picked out the shrimp.

 It was not so good left over a few days later!!

Cookies In a Jar-Any holiday treat

What a better way to say thank you to a teacher, babysitter or neighbor this valentines then cookies in a jar.  This is an activity the kids can help with if you don't mind a little mess on the counter and the recipient can choose when to make the sweet treat!!  The kids used the leftover foam hearts from the heart garland to make valentines for their teachers which also serve as the directions tag!

Any large jar will work, we used old pickle jars, marinara jars and larger sized natural peanut butter jars.  I have also used large cello bags (clear gift bags), not as pretty presentation but just as tasty result.

Just be sure to press the ingredients lightly with each layer addition.

TIPS:

Obviously this recipe can be adapted for any occasion.  We also tend to use whatever we have in the pantry to equal the 1 1/2 cups of chips. (m&ms, toffee bites, white chips etc...)

If you don't have fabric, a cupcake liner will work on smaller lids.  Just glue it on.

I bought 1/2 yard of fabric at JoAnn's and it cost 1.75, will make a lot of covers!!

I used a canning funnel to help keep the mess down, seemed to work well for the kids.

Email me if you want any of the templates, still trying to figure out how to post them.

Cookies In a Jar Recipe:
Make 1 gift jar
Prep time 10 minutes
 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1 cup Semi sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup quick or old fashioned oats
1/2 cup peanut butter, white or semi sweet chip, M&M's, raisins, or nuts

Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.

Layer the ingredients in a 1 quart glass canister or jar in the following orde (from top to bottom): Granulated sugar, the 1 cup of chips, the brown sugar, flour mixture, oats and 1/2 chips.  Tap jar gently on the counter to settle each layer before adding the next one.
Cover: attach baking directions to jar.

Make a fun sticker label and baking directions tag to make it personal for the occasion:

recipe for baking directions:

heat oven to 375'.  empty contents of jar into large bowl.  add 1/2 c softened butter, 1 slightly beaten egg and 1 tsp vanilla extract.  stir until well mixed.  drop dough by heaping tsp 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  bake 8-10 mins or until edges are lightly browned. remove

from cookie sheet to wire rack. makes 2 doz

"Playdough" Heart Cookies

The kids will gobble up this edible playdough cookie and have fun mixing the colors.

I will for warn you, this is a fun but slightly messy activity.  The adult might want to be in charge of mixing the colors of cookie dough.  Also I think next time I will use more contrasting colors.  The kids thought it was cool to see the what happened when you rolled out the colors.  This recipe also can be done in advance as sugar cookies freeze wonderfully.

Separate your favorite sugar cookie dough recipe into 3 parts.  Add enough food coloring to achieve your desired color.

Randomly place pieces of the each color dough together to make one big ball.
Refrigerate at least two hours.

Gently roll out the dough to the desired thickness, about 1/4 inch.  Cut out the dough shapes using cookie cutters and bake for 6 to 8 minutes or per recipe directions.
You can pick up the scraps and re-roll, just beware the colors will change slightly.

Now to add an additional touch add some fun words and serve.  You could even make the hearts larger and put each child's name on them for a school treat.

Recycled Crayons for Valentines Day

Want a inexpensive Valentine treat to send to your children's class?  You probably have everything you need already in your house.  My youngest son's preschool has a lot of food restrictions so I thought I would make something non food related to send.  Plus this activity gave my kids a chance to clean out their craft drawers in search for the broken crayons.

We all have bunches of broken crayons that are too little for the kids to use.  Time to clean out the crayon box and make new ones.
Have your children peel the wrappers, which can be a little daunting.  I had my little guy sort them into colors as a little learning opportunity!!

Decide if you want to make single color crayons, mixed colors or layered.  Since I have made the multi color ones before I thought I would try to make the layered variety.  I did not work out as well as I thought, but I think it was because I was not patient enough to let them cool long enough.

For the layered ones you may want to grate or cut of the crayons into small pieces so they will melt more quickly.

Place 2 cupcake papers or 1 foil holder  into a pan, (I used a mini cupcake pan).  Place your cut up crayons and glitter (optional) into the papers and heat in a 225 degree oven for 5 mins.  Checking frequently as they can burn.

Allow to cool and peel them out of the papers.  For layered ones, allow each layer to cool completely b/f adding the next one.

I then made my own Valentines on the computer to display our creations.  I had my son draw a little crayon picture and then scanned it onto the computer.  "I crayon not stop thinking of you" and "you make my day colorful" were some of my sayings.

After I made these I saw the cutest heart silicon molds at JoAnns and Michaels but I did not have enough crayons to do a second round.  After I posted these I saw Target has silicon heart pans for $2.50 in their dollar area!!

Valentines Day Banner

As I was wondering around JoAnn Fabrics looking for some fabric for another upcoming project  I ran across these glittered foam hearts.  Another project I was thinking of including me making a  banner with wooden cut outs that I had to glitter myself.  Well like always everything is always on sale there so I could not resist the pack of 24 for 4.00.  I figured I would use as many as I needed for my banner and then the kids can use the rest of card making supplies.
 This was much simplier and I think just as cute!

Simply decide what phrase you would like and print out the letters on your computer.  I made the letters 2 1/2 inches tall.  Cut them out and paste them onto your hearts.  Using a hole punch, make a hole on the edges of each of the  hearts.  String ribbon through the hearts and hang.  Make sure and measure the space you wish to hang before cutting your ribbon.
That simple.

So what is your favorite Conversation Heart saying?

Barefoot Bloggers-Indonesian Ginger Chicken

This is the first time since November I have gotten around to this but this week's recipe was Ina's Indonesian Ginger Chicken posted from Todd from http://acookingdad.blogspot.com/.   The recipe called for whole chickens but I thought it would be easier for me to just use chicken breasts with the bones in them.  The hardest part of this recipe was grating the 1/2 inch of ginger.  The easiest way to peel it is to use a spoon.  I also have frozen any extra I have in the freezer.  It is a little mushy when it defrosts but if I am not using it I hate to waste it.  Also since I was making 2 recipes that day that used garlic and used my mini food prep. to cut up a whole bulb of garlic and put in in the fridge.

I liked this recipe because I was able to prepare the marinade the day before and not worry about what was for dinner the next day since it was already soaking up all the goodness in the fridge.  I served brown rice for a side.  This was simple and quick outside of the long marinade.  I would say it was good I would not say it was fantastic.  I am not sure if that is because I usually don't eat the skin and that is where all the flavor was?  I did pour some of the juice over the chicken and rice for more flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 cup honey
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup minced garlic (8 to 12 cloves)
• 1/2 cup peeled and grated fresh ginger root
• 2 (3 1/2 pound) chickens, quartered, with backs removed

Directions

Cook the honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger root in a small saucepan over low heat until the honey is melted. Arrange the chicken in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan, skin side down, and pour on the sauce. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover the pan, turn the chicken skin side up, and raise the temperature to 375 degrees F. Continue baking for 30 minutes or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh and the sauce is a rich, dark brown.

quick tip-leftover Poinsettia Plants

Well all of my christmas decorations have been safely tucked away for several weeks now but I can never seem to allow myself to throw away a perfectly good plant.  A few years ago I thought I would try to keep it for the following year by strictly following the daunting directions requiring 14 hrs of complete darkness etc. to only find a green plant at christmas.  I kept it growing like this for 2 years and this year I did not take it out of the greenhouse b/f our first freeze.
This year I also received a beautiful one from a florist which I know cost more than the ones at Lowes that I usually pick up!
Anyway, you may start getting sick of that bright pink or red  plant in your house, reminding you of the hectic days.  Well you now have a great resource for cut flowers around your house.

Simply cut the stem the length you need and put a flame under the cut side of the stem.  This will cease the white liquid from oozing and place in your vase. Once cut they should last about a week.  I think they look totally different this way!

Coming next week is the start of Valentines Day activities and hopefully I will be back on track with my Barefoot Contessa recipes.

How to repurpose a lamp

We recently did some decorating for my daughters room and I just could not spend anymore time looking and paying for new things.

 I looked in our attic and found a lamp just sitting there gold in it's glory. I thought to myself why can't I just spray paint it and get a new lamp shade.
I was impressed with the results but thought I would go a little further and embellish the lampshade with some fringe. This is where your under budget can get over budget. Fortunately this trim only cost $8.00 a yard so it was affordable.

 
I was also pricing desk chairs and was amazed that a child's chair was over 200 dollars. I went to an antique store that does alot of the refurbishing already, called Through the Garden's Gate, and found this hot pink chair. It was obviously once a different color but a fresh coat of paint and it is a new piece of furniture. More importantly, it was sturdy and only 60 dollars. A new fabric seat for $10 and we have a brand new look.

Also from the same antique store I found this refinished chest for my bathroom a year ago. Much cheaper than something off the market plus I am saving some trees!!

Next time you are in the market for a new furniture or accessory item, look in your own house or second handstore and think outside the box. What will this piece of furniture look like in a new color!!

Let it snow or at least pretend with these snowman cookies

You may live in a place where there is more snow than you ever want to talk about or maybe you are somewhere that snow never falls.  Today they were predicting 60% chance of snow in our town and in the wild excitement of my children, I decided to make something just incase we don't get it.  (at the time of this post it was down to 30% chance)

These little snowmen are an appropriate activity for ages 2 to adult.  I got a kick out of picking out candies and decorating one too.  You can use a homemade sugar cookie recipe or the premade tube of cookie dough for this recipe.
If using your own recipe you will want to form it into a log and chill slightly.

Cut the dough into 18 slices (that is what the premade tube took).  Then cut each of the slices into 3 pieces of different sizes.  Roll each of the pieces into a ball and flatten slightly.
You will want circles approx. 3/4 inch, 1 inch and 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet about 1/4 inch apart.
Make sure each snowman is 2 inches apart.

Bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes.

Once cooled frost the cookie with a glaze of 2 cups confectionary sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 Tbs. of milk or water.  Mix this together and slowly add additional tablespoons of milk until the glaze is a spreadable consistency.
Add the adornments quickly as the glaze will harden.

Have fun with the candy choices, you may have everything you would want in your candy jar or left over from the holidays.  We used fruit roll ups for scarves, pretzel sticks for arms and brooms, spice drops for noses and hats, brooms tops and buttons, m&m's and mini chocolate chip cookies. A cupcake tin makes a great container to split up the different candies and you don't have to worry about it breaking!

Here the creations that came from our house.

Not in the mood to make cookies, why not place 3 graduated scoops of vanilla ice cream on a plate and let the kids go crazy with the candy.  The cold will feel more like snow!!  Thought of this as I was writing and unfortunately I don't have any ice cream in the fridge....

Start of a new year and documenting the past

First of all I want to wish you all a Happy New year!!   Firstly, check out your community for ways to recycle that christmas tree into mulch.  Excited to see Richmond is doing it this year again.  Ours however goes into my huge mulch pit in the backyard.
Secondly, one of my motivations for this blog was to get write out my Grandparents and mother's recipes I was given when I was married.  The original form of a binder and looseleaf paper inserts is failing me after 10 years.  This year as we celebrate the start of a new decade I am committed to getting through many of those recipes of past decades and make a more permanent and organized document. So basically every time I post one of the recipes, I am killing two birds!!

Because it has been sooo cold these past few days I thought I would start with a warm and easy soup recipe.

Grandma's Passta di Piselli
or Ceci (garbanzo bean ) and Pasta soup

2 cloves of Garlic (minced)

¼ cup of Olive Oil

2 Carrots-chopped

2 Celery Stalks-chopped

1 Small Onion- chopped

Small can of Tomato Paste

1 cup Chicken or Beef Broth

1 tsp. Salt

½ tsp Pepper

¼ tsp Oregano

2 tbls.Parsley

1 C Broken Macaroni

1 15 ½ oz. Can Ceci beans (Garbanzo Beans)

Directions:

Saute’ onion and garlic in olive oil.  Add Carrots and Celery and cook until tender

Add tomato paste and oregano and cook about 10 minutes.  Add broth and remaining seasonings.

Stir and cook until it comes to a boil.  Add chick peas with it liquid from the can.  Break think spaghetti into soup and cook intil pasta is tender. ( You can also cook pasta separately and add to soup after drained)

If soup is to thick you can add more broth.