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Recipe of the Week: Clover Cookies

March 7, 2008 12 Comments

Hello everybody. I’m proud to say that this is my 100th post! (yea!) It’s a small step for some, but a pretty big step and a great beginning for me. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you guys will continue to come back and read all my future posts.

Now it’s time for the recipe of the week. This week’s featured recipe is from Martha Stewart. On her website you will find not only the recipe but a video showing you how to make the cookies. Even if you have written instructions it’s always a plus to have a visual.

These Clover Cookies are cute, sweet, and fun! And you don’t have to be an artist to decorate them! The recipe is for St. Patrick’s Day (or spring, in general), but it is yet another recipe that can be applied to any holiday. I wish I had this recipe back around Christmas or Valentine’s Day! Enjoy and Good Luck!

Makes 50
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Green sanding sugar

Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl; set aside. Combine butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment; cream on high speed until fluffy. Beat in eggs

Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in two additions, mixing until well combined. Mix in vanilla. Divide dough in half, and cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out 1 piece of dough on a lightly floured work surface 1/8 inch thick. With a 3-inch cookie cutter, cut out 25 rounds. Working with 1 round at a time, place clover stencil on top; sprinkle surface with sanding sugar.
Arrange rounds on parchment- or nonstick baking mat-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes, or until ready to bake. Repeat process with remaining dough.

Bake, one sheet at a time, until edges just start to brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks. Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Filed Under: cookies and candy, desserts, Misc Holidays, Recipe of the Week

Cute Easter Crafts

March 5, 2008 4 Comments

I’ve been preoccupied with a lot of stuff lately and just haven’t had as much time to post. I’d been planning to do some posts for Easter and St. Patrick’s Day since they are both coming up this month, and somehow I almost completely forgot until I looked at the calendar today. Well, anyway decided to start with an Easter Craft Post. I figure if anybody actually wants to use these ideas, I should put them out early on. I found a lot of cute ideas and am posting some of my favorites. Under each pic you’ll find a link to the actual instructions for the project, along with my comments and ideas.

I love this idea. This is a great project for home and Sunday school class. To keep costs down for a big group, you could use disposable cups instead of the clay pot, and foam balls for the head instead of wood. Either way, it’s a great craft for Christian kids & adults alike.

This one is too cute. I love the colors! It’s also great that it’s made from egg cartons. This would a cute art project for homeschoolers or regular school. Each kid could bring their own carton from home, or the teacher could collect them from family & friends.

There’s just something about chicks/peeps that I like. (and not just the marshmallow ones) This
is a good craft for all ages. The kids will love it!

Flower Pot Bunny

This was a little harder, and you need a hot glue gun, so adults will have to help the kids to do this one. I also think this would be a cute thing for craft moms to make for their kids as a present. Very nice!

Nest of Peeps

I can almost hear the chirping! This would be great for school, scouts, or home. Love it!

Easter Peep Card
I may have overdone it with the peeps, but I thought it would be good to put a card idea in here somewhere, and I thought this was the best one. Again, this is a great project for all ages and you could use this idea for school, church, or just about any group. The same concept could also be used to create a bunny card. Just use white cotton.

Filed Under: crafts, Easter

Menu Plan Monday

March 3, 2008 1 Comment

Hello all. Hope you all had a good weekend. If you haven’t done so already, check out last week’s recipe of the week for Chicken Florentine Casserole . It’s a great one! Now on to this week’s menu. I have a couple of new things to try, along with some “old faithfuls.”

Monday – Cheesy Chicken & Pasta (this is one of those Campbells box dinners)
Tuesday – Baked Fish (w/ lemon), Steamed vegetables, Green beans, Hushpuppies
Wednesday – Country Fried Steak, Mashed potatoes, Peas, Bisquits
Thursday – Leftover Buffet
Friday – Chicken Soup w/ sandwiches
Saturday – eat out
Sunday – Chicken Rarebit (new recipe) w/ french fries or chips & dip

For other meals and menu suggestions, visit orgjunkie.com.

Filed Under: menu plan Monday

Recipe of the Week: Chicken Florentine Casserole

February 29, 2008 1 Comment

This week’s recipe comes from All Recipes. It is for Chicken Florentine Casserole. Personally I’d leave out the mushrooms, as my husband and I aren’t too fond of the vegetable (except of course as an ingredient in cream of mushroom soup.) I’d also suggest adding angel hair pasta. Users of the All Recipes sites have made some other suggestions about the recipe that you may want to read as well.

Anyway, I don’t really eat spinach, but I love Spinach Dip, and one day when I went to each lunch with my mom at her resturant, she was having Chicken Florentine. The item was not something that was on the menu, but she told it could be made quite easily, topping a piece of grilled chicken with spinach dip; it was made even better by mixing some spinach dip with some pasta, and placing the chicken on top. I decided to try it, and I loved it. Last week I decided to search for a spinach dip recipe as well as a recipe for chicken florentine. This was seemed to be one of the easiest and most appetizing of all the ones that I found, so here it is. I hope you like it!

INGREDIENTS
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup butter
3 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 (13.5 ounce) cans spinach, drained
4 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
2/3 cup bacon bits
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place the chicken breast halves on a baking sheet; bake 20 to 30 minutes, until no longer pink and juices run clear. Remove from heat, and set aside.
Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stirring constantly, mix in the garlic, lemon juice, cream of mushroom soup, Italian seasoning, half-and-half, and Parmesan cheese.
Arrange the spinach over the bottom of a 9×9 inch baking dish. Cover the spinach with the mushrooms. Pour half the mixture from the saucepan over the mushrooms. Arrange chicken breasts in the dish, and cover with the remaining sauce mixture. Sprinkle with bacon bits, and top with mozzarella cheese.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes in the 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) oven, until bubbly and lightly browned.

Filed Under: casseroles and quick meals, Recipe of the Week

Sweet Thursday: Why eat Chocolate Cake when you can have Chocolate Chocolate Cake?

February 27, 2008 2 Comments


This post is two-fold. It is an opportunity to tell you about one of my favorite desserts, but it’s also a chance for me to tell you about a couple of great organizations.

I couple of weeks ago, I told you guys that I was attending the The Arc of Morgan County’s “Kids on the Block” Chocolate & Dessert Festival. The Arc is an advocacy organization that works with people who have diabilities & provides counseling and assitance to their families. The Kids on the Block is an organization that began in the late 70s, and one of the things it does it that it travels around and does puppet shows at schools and other locations. The shows are aimed at promoting tolerance and understanding to those who have disabilities. And they promote positive behavior, with an anti-gang, & anti-drug & alcohol message. I remember being a kid in elementary school and seeing the show at a few school assemblies. It was entertaining & it was also a learning experience. Little did I know of how big the organization would be and just how much they were doing, even beyond the puppet show.

The festival I attended takes place each year just before Valentine’s Day. Local businesses participate and bring desserts to be sampled, which gives them promotion, and visitors purchase a ticket to come in and sample all the great food, and all the money goes to charity. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Now just so you know I am not affiliated with O’Charley’s. My mother is employed at O’Charley’s, however, she does not even know I’m writing this post. Anyway, this year the O’Charley’s booth featured Key Lime Pie & O’Charley’s Chocolate Chocolate Cake. By the way, the Key Lime Pie is outstanding. It tastes like something your mom or grandmother would make, and I highly recommend it.

As for the Chocolate Chocolate Cake…yum! I love this cake. It is one of my favorite desserts to get a resturant and overall one of my favorite desserts period. It almost has sort of a dark & decadant taste to it, but it is also sweet & rich. I sometimes tell my husband, “I have to get a bite of icing to tone down the richness is of the cake.” And the great thing about this cake is that you can get it to go, and it’s good just out of the refrigerator, & it’s also a great dessert to heat up in the microwave. (I prefer it cold personally) And as far as resturant desserts go, this is a way better value than most. One slice is big enough to share between at least two people if not three or four. In fact I went out to lunch with 3 ladies that I worked with, and we all split a piece of the cake and still had a little left over. I will say, the cake may be a little rich for some, but if have a sweet tooth and you’re a chocolate lover, you’ll like this cake.
If you’re interested, check out O’Charley’s menu & current specials:
O’Charley’s Desserts – (I recommend the Cinnamon Sugar Donuts & the Caramel Pie as well)

Filed Under: Causes/Charities, desserts, Sweet Thursday

Safety Concerns & The Magic Eraser

February 26, 2008 2 Comments

A reader left an interesting comment about the Magic Eraser product view that I posted. The comment stated that the Magic Eraser contains formaldehyde; this concerned me, and so I decided to check it out. I responded to the post in the comments section, citing statements made from the Mr. Clean website, but for some reason whenever I try to post the link on the comments page I cannot get the entire link to come up, so I decided to post it again Here.

Here is some of the information from the site:

“A recent television broadcast may have raised concerns about an ingredient in Magic Eraser. Be assured Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is completely safe when used according to directions, and poses no health risks or safety concerns. Here are some facts about the ingredients used in Magic Eraser:

The ingredients in Magic Eraser have been safely and commonly used for many years in a wide range of household products.

Formaldehyde is not and has never been an ingredient in Magic Eraser. One ingredient in Magic Eraser (formaldehyde-melamine-sodium bisulfite copolymer) contains the word “formaldehyde” in its chemical name. However, this ingredient is not formaldehyde and poses no health or safety risks. (Think of this name like “sodium chloride”, which is table salt. Sodium by itself can be dangerous, but sodium chloride – salt – is safe.).

Magic Eraser is considered non-toxic. As with any sponge-like product, when swallowed this product may block the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, we do advise to keep this product out of the reach of children and pets to avoid accidental ingestion – it is not a toy.

It is possible that formaldehyde may be present in minute, trace amounts as a result of the manufacturing process. Even then, the amount present is significantly lower than standards established by governmental agencies and trade associations, and is actually less than what is found in indoor air.

In fact, no ingredients in Magic Eraser are subject to any health-related labeling laws in North America or in the European Union.”

Of course, you can do the research and decide for yourself whether you want to use the product. For other information on safety, see the following:
http://www.homemadesimple.com/sites/en_CA/mrclean/ME_Truth/index.shtml

Filed Under: cleaning, product review, safety tips

Menu Plan Monday

February 24, 2008 2 Comments

Hello everyone. I’m happy to say that my menu last week was a success. And the white sauce I made turned out to be delicious. I’ll be sure to post the recipe in the near future. Now moving right along to this week’s menu. I’m planning to make few of mine & my husband’s favorite dishes this week, and I’ve also found a new recipe to try for Chicken Florentine (which will more than likely be an upcoming recipe of the week, so stay tuned!)

Monday – Grilled chicken sandwiches w/ fries.
Tuesday – Chicken & Dumplins w/ pinto beans & cornbread (one of my fave meals)
Wednesday – Chicken florentine casserole w/ steamed vegetables (new recipe!)
Thursday – Ham steak & leftovers from Tuesday & Wednesday
Friday – Pizza
Saturday – eating out, probably Chinese or Applebees
Sunday – Cheeseburger Macaroni, corn & veggies

For more menu planning ideas, go to orgjunkie.com

Filed Under: menu plan Monday

Product Review: Cleaning Up with the Magic Eraser

February 23, 2008 6 Comments

The other night I walked outside to look at the eclipse and a bug flew in from outside. Without thinking I picked up one of my husband’s black tennis shoes and went in for the kill. Unfortunately I completely missed the bug but did manage to cream the wall, leaving a small black scuff mark. Dissapointed with my efforts, I decided to leave the bug killing to my husband, and I meanwhile went to retrieve the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. My husband used this product in his delivery business whenever a customer’s wall or floor accidentally got marked or scratched, and I found one in his tool bag one day and asked about it. He said I could take it in and try it. So the other night it seemed like the perfect time.

To use the magic eraser, you simply run water on the sponge, squeeze it out, and rub it over the mark. And it really is like magic! With very little effort on my part, the mark came right off. I then went through the house looking for other marks. We just moved in to our home back in January, and I knew of several small marks that I had seen on the walls, so I inspected each and every room and took care of all the marks. What a great tool to keep walls and floors looking clean and new! And finally I took it into the bathroom and used it on the tub, and amazingly it took the soap scum right off!

The product is also said to be good when used on stoves, microwaves, and other metal kitchen appliances, as well as plastic furniture, your child’s swing set & other outdoor playsets, and even the interior console, dashboard, and hubcaps of your car. Oh, and it removes crayon too. (I know that’s got to be a plus for some of us.)

I think this product is a must to have on hand. Without a doubt, this product does what the commecial says it will do, and it is a great value for the money! I will definitely buy this product again in the future

Filed Under: cleaning, product review

Recipe of the Week: Maple Pork Chop Dinner

February 22, 2008 3 Comments


Okay, here’s something a little different for this week’s recipe. This idea comes from Pillsbury. This is a good meal that you can make in very little time and without dirtying up a lot of pans. It’s also a nutritious meal choice especially if you add another side item such as green beans, spinach, or turnip greens. Try it out and let me know how you like it!

5 (3/4-inch-thick) pork chops
Salt
Pepper
1(17-oz.) can sweet potatoes, drained*
1(16.3-oz.) can Pillsbury Grands Refrigerated Buttermilk Biscuits
3/4 cup maple-flavored syrup

DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 400°F. Spray large nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Heat over medium-high heat until hot. Add pork chops; cook until browned on both sides. Place pork chops in ungreased 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with foil. Bake at 400°F. for 10 minutes.

Remove pork chops from oven. Move pork chops to one side of pan; drain and discard drippings. Arrange sweet potatoes around pork chops. Separate dough into 8 biscuits; arrange in pan next to pork chops and potatoes. Drizzle syrup over pork chops, potatoes and biscuits.

Return to oven. Bake, uncovered, for an additional 17 to 20 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown and pork chops are no longer pink in center. If desired, brush biscuits with additional syrup before serving.

Filed Under: casseroles and quick meals, Recipe of the Week

Simple Solutions: Creating a Shoe Station

February 20, 2008 1 Comment

Items that have a tendency to continously clutter a home week after week are those which we use on a dailybasis, and one of the main culprits in our house (as well as others from what I’ve heard) is shoes. I know I can be the worst when it comes to walking in the door, sitting on the couch, and taking off my shoes. Then the shoes will either stay there until I wear them again or until I look around the room and realize that my pair of shoes now has a few pairs of friends in the floor with him. Home Sanctuary had a post a few weeks ago where she challenged visitors of her site to go through the house and pick up shoes that are laying about and put them where they belong. She even titled her post “Do Centipedes Live Here?” I couldn’t help but find this a little humorous. Anyway, her post got me to thinking about how I could avoid the centipede question and avoid constantly cluttering up the house with shoes.

First I try to make it a goal to scan the living room every couple of days and put away shoes or any other items that don’t belong, which I have found is good habit to get into, saving you a lot of time and work in the long run. But then I came up with another solution as well. For those of you who have kids (which means there’s a lot more shoes left out in the floor) or for those of you who never know when you’re going to get some last minute company, and for those who, like me, occasionally overlook/forget about the shoes in the floor, here’s another solution: Create a shoe station.
This is a designated “temporary” location for shoes. It can be a basket/hamper, a trunk, a canvas bin, a halltree or bench. (basically any kind of container that doesn’t look too awkward to have in your living room/den or by the door or entryway of your home.)

You can encourage your kids to either put their shoes in their room or to put them in the “shoe station.” This way the shoes won’t clutter up the house, and you avoid having a kid who can’t remember where they put their shoes. This is also a helpful tool for moms. Rather than picking up all the shoes and taking them back to the room of the person they belong to, you can place them all in your shoe station, and your kids can get them out later. Additionally I recommend checking the bin/basket about once a week to make sure it isn’t full, and whenever you find that it is full you can have everyone to come get his/her shoes to put away in their own closet.

Filed Under: cleaning, organizing, Simple Solutions
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