Beautiful Christmas Pillows ~ From a Re-Purposed Skirt!

So I was cleaning out my closet recently, and came across this skirt that I've never worn! It was given to me in a bag of used clothing a few years back. I was trying things on, making piles of 'give away', 'too small', 'too large'... (Ok, so this last pile wasn't very large. Enough said.)

ANYWAY, back to the important stuff... I found this skirt and I actually tried it on before I realized it had some tan paint all over it, in places not seen from the front view. I loved the ribbon embellishments and not seen in the photo are the sequins and beads that are decorating it, also. I immediately realized I would never be able to wear it with the paint on it, but I could turn it into a Christmas pillow!! I was so excited! I could see it in my mind already. I ran the idea past my youngest daughter. She thought it was a great idea, only she suggested I make two smaller pillows instead of one larger pillow. Even better! So off to my craft room I went!

I started by trying to steam out the deep wrinkles. It didn't work as well as I wanted it to, but I figured if I stuffed it full enough it may not even matter. So now it was time to start cutting.

I cut the upper part of the skirt off, which included the waistband and the pleats. I also salvaged the zipper and the inner lining. (To use later...on another project, hopefully!)

I cut the front section in half up the middle, cutting the back of the skirt at the same time. I measured the two sections (right and left) and trimmed them up to be as close to the same size as possible.

Then I turned them wrong-side out, and started sewing. I started with the bottom, where the original skirt hem had been. Then up the left side, then the right side. Then I sewed along the top about 1/3 of the way. Then I sewed from the other side along the top edge about 1/3 of the way, leaving about a 1/3 opening in the middle for turning and stuffing. (The edge that's facing the snowman mug is where I left an opening.)

I had this bed/chair thing I was given from my Dad. It was only used a few times, but since I also had no use for it... I decided to make use of the insides! (I also plan to save the outside tan corduroy for another project.)

So I turned the pillow pieces right-side out, pulling them through the opening I had left earlier. I used a chop-stick that I inserted through the opening and helped to shape the corners before I started to stuff.

I then started on the bed/chair. I cut a slit along a seam to get out the stuffing and try not to ruin the large pieces of corduroy.

I just started pulling clumps of stuffing out and put them inside one of the pillow pieces, stuffing until quite full.

I then hand-stitched along the small 1/3 opening I had left earlier and... ta-da! The finished pillows!

Beautiful! All ready for Christmas and they didn't cost me a cent!

Homemade Foam Soap

What a quick & easy $$$ saver!!

This is so easy and quick and will save you lots of $$$$!

What you'll need:

(1) 1 new or used foam soap container (I purchased mine full of soap, used the soap, then made more!)

(2) Any liquid soap/body wash/dish soap/ baby wash, etc without moisturizers or lotions. (If you can't see through the soap, it won't work well in the pump.)

*Optional (3) Another cool option is to simply purchase clear liquid soap refill containers and add a small amount of food coloring to make the soap match the room it will go into!

STEP 1: Clean out used container.

STEP 2: Add: 2 tablespoons liquid soap of your choice & 2/3 cups water. If you're adding coloring, do it now. Just a few drops at a time.

STEP 3: Put the lid back on and gently agitate, mixing the soap with the water without creating lots of bubbles.... DON'T SHAKE!!! Or you can just use a straw or chopstick to gently mix,.. even a butter knife will work.

That's it! Enjoy your super cheap and highly color-coordinated homemade foam hand-soap! (Whew...tongue twister!)

Harvest Spice Pancakes

Boxed cake mix, an egg & applesauce. Delicious!

So my husband gets the credit for these delicious pancakes....(thought I'd just get that out of the way now!). He's a big fan of pancakes, and we've had a few variations over the years: whole-wheat, buttermilk, cranberry~orange (made with craisins and orange zest or extract) and of course chocolate chip, pecan, etc. But one day he asked me if I could use a spice cake mix to make pancakes. I thought, "Why not?" I mean, they turn cake mixes into everything else...if I just used the mix itself as my dry ingredients and add the required wet ingredients.... mix it into a batter. Ta-da! Yummy pancakes. Right!? So off to the store I go...

Ingredients:

1 box Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix
1 egg
1 snack cup applesauce, sugar-free (1/4 cup)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

I decided to add the flaxseed just for the health benefits. No one ever seems to notice it's even in there, and it's so good for you!

Mix all ingredients until well combined. Add more water if your batter is too thick. Cook. Enjoy.

The pancakes turned out great, so much more flavor than a regular pancake. Doesn't need syrup or butter since it was so tasty, but I think my husband used it anyway! By the way, he loved them!

Sausage Stuffed Shells with Fresh Ricotta

Quick & easy weeknight meal.

This recipe can be duplicated by merely viewing the photos... nothing mysterious about it. But very tasty! I had made fresh Ricotta and wanted to try it in a savory dish instead of a dessert.

Ingredients:
1 pound Spicy/Hot Italian sausage, bulk
1 pound Mild Italian Sausage, bulk, recipe
1 box large pasta shells
1 recipe fresh Ricotta, recipe
12 ounces fresh marinara
Garnish with mozzarella and fresh Italian parsley

STEP 1: Start water to boil noodles. Once water has come to a boil, add pasta. I drizzle a bit of olive oil into the water to prevent the shells from sticking to each other. Boil for about 10 minutes, checking often for doneness.

STEP 2: As soon as you put your water on to boil, start cooking the sausage in a skillet. Break all the sausage into large pieces to help it break down, then as it continues to cook, continue breaking it up with a wooden spatula until the pieces are fairly small. Cook until no pink is seen and meat is done. Set aside.

STEP 3: When pasta is done, drain. Place several shells into a 9x13" baking dish. Add a spoonful of the cooked sausage and a generous dollop of fresh ricotta. Continue until shells/sausage are gone.

STEP 4: Preheat oven to 400*. Drizzle marinara over all shells and garnish with shredded mozzarella.

STEP 5: Heat in oven until mozzarella is melted and shells are heated through. After plating, garnish with Italian parsley.

Homemade Ricotta!

In July, my oldest daughter & I signed up for an online cheese-making class that would begin in August. (We were both so excited because we had been talking about making cheese for years. My daughter had made homemade buttermilk countless times for cooking, and we had heard about kindergarten classes 'shaking' their way to homemade butter (which we have not tried) but still we held back.

Fast forward a few years... One day my oldest son & his wife took my husband & I to dinner where this Italian restaurant featured their fresh, in-house, homemade mozzarella. (I had never heard of such a thing.) It was delicious! I was hooked! I was determined to make homemade cheese. If they could do it, so could we!

I'm sorry to say over a year passed since that dinner with our son. Then my daughter, Laurel, happened across this online cheese-making course. She loves all things relating to food, and even has an awesome food blog called California Laurel. It was while she was getting her daily 'fix'...(reading other folks recipes/blogs/etc.) that she came across this. Another blogger mentioned something about cheese-making. She discovered Cheesepalooza. It was, and I quote from her blog, a 'world-wide cheese-making class that would take place over the internet. Each month a new cheese would be attempted by the participants.' She told me about it & said she was signing up..."You want me to sign you up, too. Right?".  I didn't have all the details yet, but if I was going to learn how to make cheese by the time this was all over,... I'm in!

Our 'classroom' textbook & most
 recent love...

After signing up, the first thing we needed to do was buy our textbook: a beautiful cheese-making book written by Mary Karlin that I would have bought just to look through & drool over the photos! It's a beautiful book and the information in it is absolutely fantastic!


Next, I started reading the book itself, trying to understand a little more about the mysteries of cheese-making. Laurel had already gone ahead & made her first cheese, Ricotta, and posted some awesome recipe uses on her blog, including Baci di Ricotta, pictured here......

Baci di Ricotta, an Italian doughnut made mostly of deep-fried Ricotta
sprinkled with powdered sugar. Recipe here...

......and my favorite, a delicious & refreshing concoction that she didn't even bother to name but includes fresh slices of peach, pecans, fresh chopped basil all atop a piece of bread with a smidge of honey drizzled over the top. It was delicious! (Pictured below)

The complete recipe for this tempting dish can be found at California Laurel.

Almost waiting until the end of the month, for fear I hadn't yet read all I needed to read or would bungle this up somehow, I finally attempted to make my cheese....

I started yesterday, a bit late in the day. I was so nervous. I had thought about making cheese so often. I really wanted this to work out well, knowing that I am one of those people who gets defeated a little too quickly. Especially with something as daunting as cheese-making! But, in the end, all went well and I'm ready to start September's recipe! But first things first... let's make some Ricotta!

I found my citric acid in the canning section of my grocery store.

Ingredients:

1 gallon pasteurized whole cow's milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1& 1/2 teaspoon citric acid powder
2 teaspoon kosher salt (Non-iodized), divided

Combine all ingredients into pot, except 1 teaspoon salt. Whisk to combine.

STEP 1: Heat the milk, heavy cream, citric acid and only 1 teaspoon of the salt in a non-reactive stock pot, on medium-low heat. Whisk thoroughly...

Use a rubber spatula to stir. Here I was just curious about how the curds were doing...

Heat to 185* to 195* F. This took me about 30 minutes.

I stirred this to try and capture a photo showing the separation
 of the curds & whey on the right. Sorry, I couldn't quite capture it. 

NOTE: My thermometer stopped working during the heating! I was told by a reliable source you can just "eye it"... watch for the curds starting to form and separate from the whey and the whey will become a 'yellowish-green color and just slightly cloudy'. As soon as you've seen these signs, remove from heat....

...Cover and allow the curds to sit, undisturbed, for 10 minutes.

I folded my cheesecloth over onto itself as many times as possible,
yet leaving it large enough to cover the strainer.

STEP 2: While waiting for the curds to start forming, and to reach the desired temperature, ready your draining equipment: Place your strainer over a large bowl, or bucket large enough to catch all the whey, and your cheesecloth folded over on itself to form a nice tight weave, placed over the strainer. Don't forget your skimmer (or ladle!).

I used a ladle since I don't own a skimmer.

STEP 3: Ladle everything from the pot, into the cheesecloth-covered strainer. (Don't forget to have a pot placed under your strainer to catch all the liquid, which is the whey and can be used as a starter for more cheese or it can be used in your compost pile! Check out this website for more details: http://homesteadingthebackforty.blogspot.com/2008/05/another-whey-to-fertilize.html)

Tie up the opposite corners to make a pouch for draining the cheese.

STEP 4: Tie up the four corners of the cheesecloth, starting with the two opposite corners first.....

..... Then tie up the remaining two corners, making a nice pouch.

I used the largest wooden spoon I own as a hanger to help strain the cheese.

STEP 5: I then allowed my cheese to drain for several hours, until it reached the consistency I wanted. I waited until my cheese was done draining and added the remaining salt. Here is the finished product.....

Tasting Notes:

Appearance: A bit wetter than store-bought Ricotta; medium-sized curds.
Nose: Very subtle
Overall Taste: VERY creamy and quite delicious!
Sweet to Salty: Sweet
Mild/Robust/Pungent: Extremely mild!
Mouth Feel: Thick and creamy... reminds me of cream cheese.

STEP 6: ENJOY! Make one of the previous delicious dishes featured by California Laurel (above) or try the following dish. Refrigerate any unused Ricotta in a non-reactive, lidded container.

Sausage Stuffed Shells with Fresh Ricotta, drizzled with Marinara.

Sausage Stuffed Shells with fresh Ricotta. Recipe here.

Homemade Butterfinger Candy

Homemade Butterfinger takes just a
few simple ingredients!

In my never-ending quest for candy recipes, I was delighted to come across this one for Butterfinger,  & knew I had to try it! (Another Pinterest find!)  It only takes a few ingredients and was actually pretty easy. I didn't use the same chocolate as the original recipe because I prefer a mix of my own.... but basically it's the same recipe.



Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups candy corns (16 oz. bag)

1 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 cup semi-sweet morsels

1 cup milk chocolate morsels

STEP 1: Melt candy corn in a glass bowl at 30 second intervals, stirring after each, until completely melted.

STEP 2: Add in peanut butter. Mix thoroughly.



The candy centers, as they cool.

  STEP 3: Pour into a prepared 8"x8" pan, lined with foil and sprayed with a non-stick cooking spray, like Pam.



Cut into longer bars or just into bite-sized pieces.

STEP 4: Allow to cool to room temperature. Once cool, cut into bars or bite-size pieces. Refrigerate in a ziplock bag for 2 hours, or until cold and firm.

STEP 5: Microwave 1/2 cup semi-sweet & 1/2 cup milk chocolate morsels in a glass bowl, for 30-second intervals, until melted. Stirring after each 30 second interval.

STEP 6: Prepare your dipping area: Place a sheet of waxed paper or parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Get out your candy centers that were placed in the refrigerator. Bring your bowl of hot, melted morsels to your dipping area, along with 2 dinner forks. (Yes, dinner forks!)



Just dipped Butterfinger candies...not quite dry!

STEP 7: Working quickly, drop your first candy center into the bowl of melted chocolate. Using a fork, flip the candy over to coat other side. If any candy is still exposed, use your fork to push some chocolate over the exposed areas. Obviously, any area not covered with chocolate now, won’t be covered later. I use two forks now, and once I have lifted the candy up with my right fork, I gently tap that fork on the side of the bowl to help any dripping chocolate to fall back into the bowl, and I then go to place the candy on the parchment or waxed-paper covered tray, using my left fork to help to slide it off, trying not to damage the chocolates’ surface too much. (To view photos of this method, click here.)

*This is not a professional approach to candy dipping, by any means. There are candy-dipping ‘forks’ and other useful utensils available at most craft stores. For technique, you may want to peruse some websites that have step-by-step photos or even a video. I use this method because the Internet was not around when I first started making candy! I gleaned what I could from every book, article and recipe and came up with this method, which works for me.



All finished & ready to eat!

STEP 8: Continue working until all candies are coated with chocolate. If your candy centers start to seem a bit soft, just place them back in the refrigerator, or only take a few out at a time. Again, remember to work quickly since your chocolate is easiest to work with when warm and will become harder and harder to work with as it cools down. If your chocolate does become too hard to work with, simply reheat at 30 second intervals. One or two 30-second zaps should be all that’s necessary. Once your chocolate supply seems too shallow in your bowl, use the remaining morsels, melt in microwave & continue to coat the remaining candies.

STEP 9: Let cool in refrigerator, or if you’re in a hurry, the freezer works great! Once your chocolate has set, remove from tray and place in an air-tight container. I like to place small pieces of waxed paper between each candy. I then place them back in the refrigerator. 

ENJOY!

Interested in other Homemade candy recipes? Click here to try Twix or Peppermint Patties.

Photo Tile Coasters



Quick & easy project to give as gifts or keep for your own~

I know this idea has been around for a while, but it's my first time to try it out. My son and his wife gave us our first grand-daughter this past fall. They had also just purchased their first home. I thought it would be ideal to make them a set of tile coasters with pics of their beautiful baby girl.... to protect their new furniture. They were planning to go with black & white for a majority of the living space, with a few different shades of pale greens for a bit of color. I thought the black & white photos would look great!

Supplies:

A set of 4"x 4" white ceramic tiles.

Black & white photos cut to fit on tiles

Mod Podge, Hard Coat

Sponge paintbrush

Felt or cork to protect the bottom

STEP 1: Make sure your tiles are free of dirt or any oils. Using Mod Podge, apply the photos to the tiles, according to manufacturers instructions, being careful to center them on the tiles. Allow to dry overnight.

STEP 2: For my tiles, I was going with the black and white theme so just carried that over by painting a black line around the outside edges of each of the tiles. Once dry, I sprayed 2-3 coats of an acrylic sealer. Allow to dry between coats.

STEP 3: Hot glue a matching square of felt or cork to the bottom of each tile to protect your furniture from any possible scratches the tile might make. I chose a felt bottom.

I used some felt that went with my black and white theme...

...then I just hot-glued the felt to the underside of each tile...

Lastly, I painted the date each photo was taken on its' edge,
just because I know I'll never remember!

For another tile coaster idea using napkins, click here.