Soup Supper: Cowboy Stew and Cornbread

Brrrrr! It's been chilly here (I know, if you live up north you're calling me a sissy!). I cook a lot of soups and stews in the fall & winter. This also gives me an excuse to make cornbread.  They're so easy because you can ad lib on ingredients or change the type of beans (or meat or other veggies) if you have a preference. Just use what you have! Soups are easy to cook in the crock pot too.

This is the chili sauce I use but Heinz is good too. Look for it near the ketchup.

Everything combined and simmering in the dutch oven.

I used to have a recipe for Cowboy Stew that uses chili sauce. Moving several times, I've misplaced some cookbooks. Well, technically I haven't lost them. I have them somewhere in the black hole that is our storage unit. So I did what I usually do when I don't have the instructions or I've never done it before....I WING it! I have a habit of making up my own recipes. I like to grab whatever is in the pantry (it's a long drive to town!). So here is my rendition of Cowboy Stew. I've never found another recipe that uses chili sauce. My "new" one does! You can find chili sauce in the ketchup aisle. I use Kroger brand but Heinz makes it too.

Cowboy Stew

- 1 lb. ground beef (or ground turkey)
- 5 medium potatoes
- one 12 oz. bag frozen crinkle cut carrots (or if you want to use fresh, baby carrots)
- one 12 oz. bottle chili sauce
- 1 beef  bouillon cube
- one 15 oz. can pinto beans, drained (you can sub chili beans, baked beans, etc)

Peel and cut potatoes into large bite-size pieces. Place in large saucepan with carrots and enough water to cover. Add beef bouillon cube. Par-boil ( until they're almost soft when you poke them with a fork). Meanwhile, brown ground meat in a dutch oven. Drain fat and return meat to dutch oven. Add entire bottle of chili sauce. Add entire pan of potatoes, carrots, and cooking liquid. Stir. Add beans. Simmer about 15 minutes or until potatoes are completely soft. I serve mine with cornbread but the stew is good with yeast rolls or biscuits too! This makes a dutch oven full, 6 servings if you're really hungry. And you will be when you smell this cooking!

Thought I'd make you hungrier and get really close up!

Smells Like Fall Y'all! Our Favorite Muffins

Our favorite breakfast muffins: chocolate chip pumpkin spice muffins (yes,  I know, that's a long name for a recipe. That's why I call them favorite muffins!)

Biker Chick

I had a very busy weekend coming up and the "bug" hit me! No, not a stomach bug, the "crafty bug". 

It seems to hit me at the most inopportune times. I had 2 baby showers to go to, a t-shirt quilt to finish, house sitting for a friend, fabric and thread to pick up, drawing a pattern for a lap top back pack. Then there's the issues of the family wanting to eat and have clean laundry (so demanding aren't they!?). I found a blog: www.sweetaprils.com with a cute idea for a diaper bike. I was looking for a twist on the diaper cake for the shower gifts and this was really cute! I made some changes in the details but followed the general assembly directions. My niece, Amanda, has a jungle theme nursery and my niece, Nicole, has a frog theme nursery.  Here are some changes I made below. 

The original directions are on : www.sweetaprils.com.  

Amanda's diaper bike with a lion

Oh Baby!

Baby girl quilt made from onesies

Close-up of square on baby girl quilt

Baby quilt for a boy with camp fleece back. Dad likes to hunt! The plaid shirt squares were from one grandfather who passed away before the baby was born. Camo square, as well as the "Screamin' Eagle" patch, from other grandfather. I made a matching throw pillow too. Baby will have a memento to treasure from his grandfathers.  

The back showing the camo fleece

Skirting the Issue

Fun, bright, and modern print for the skirt

We've all seen this issue, ugly school bathroom! Paint the walls, add cute modern artwork, and cover the utilitarian sink (with all of it's plumbing glory showing) with a fun, bright fabric skirt. I sewed velcro to the skirt and used double-sided mounting tape to attach the other side of the velcro to the sink.    

Complete the Look

Re-covered dining room chairs

This is the same dining room I posted about a couple of weeks (I think!) ago. I made the curtains with self-border made from the reverse side of the fabric. We considered some sort of trim but when I swathe back of the fabric, it was just as pretty and finished-looking as the front! I just folded, pressed, and top-stitched along the lengthwise fold. These curtain panels were double-width so they were still really full even when I used about 5 inches of fabric on the inside edge for the border.  

Pinterest Is Making Us Fat!

Close-up of the finished crescent cinnamon rolls. I had to put this one first! It looked the yummiest!

Ok, I confess, you CAN get healthy recipes from Pinterest but what's the fun in that? I like to try new things, change it up a bit. My husband would be satisfied with the same 4 or 5 things every week for dinner I think (the man orders the EXACT same thing in every Mexican restaurant we go to without ever looking at a menu). I love all sorts of food. I love cooking all sorts of food. That's probably why I have several boards dedicated to recipes with a huge variety of recipes. I do eat healthy for the most part but sometimes I hear the siren call of something sweet. I also love to make breakfast.

Canned cinnamon rolls cooked in a waffle iron (they don't look too bad)

They were hard like hockey pucks but if I make them again maybe I'll take them out of the waffle iron sooner. 

I've tried some real bombs too. The mac-n-cheese in the crock pot  (lumpy, dry), making waffles out of canned cinnamon rolls (like hockey pucks), man-pleasing chicken (way too much mustard didn't please anyone!) just to name a few.
So lately I have found some I really liked (and tweaked the recipe just a touch). The crescent cinnamon rolls from howto-simplify.com were easy enough but had too much cinnamon. I made mine bigger. Also, when you slice them it helps immensely to chill the rolled dough then slice with a serrated knife. They kind-of mush together and lose their shape if you don't.

On the left, the dough un-rolled, spread with butter, sugar, and cinnamon. On the right, rolled and sliced.

This plate didn't last long!

Simple but Elegant

Dining room curtains have a 4 inch self-border in the inner edge.  That's where the fabric is turned "inside out" to make a contrasting border.

This is a close-up of the dining room curtains. I should've taken a better close-up to show the border better. The fabric is a textured matte gold and the border (or wrong side of the fabric) is a shiny gold.

Bathroom curtains with ruffle top (with our spokes-model, Tina!).

Close-up of bathroom curtains, black shantung silk with fleur-de-lis embroidered on fabric .

Bedroom curtains: I added gold bands to the blue curtains to make them longer. The rod is mounted higher than the window to make the window seem taller. This was an alteration. She had the blue curtains already but didn't like how short they looked. 

Throw pillows I made to match.

Up to My Eyeballs in Quilts!

This is a college quilt. The squares on the left edge are 4 smaller squares comprised of the four directly to the right of those. I used the backs for the larger squares and the left square is what was on the front of the shirt. 

Pillow Talk

I like making throw pillows. There are so many options for shape, trims, colors. I always make my own piping and I have been known to make 50 (yes, fifty!) yards of piping at a time. Most of the time when I make that much piping, though, it's for cushions. But it's not that difficult to make and adds another dimension or accent to the pillows. Take a look at these!

My latest project: down-filled throw pillows!

Bright coral linen fabric, almost a burlap woven texture

Close-up of the fringe I used. Most of the top "tape" portion was sewn inside with just the fringe and tassels showing 

Floral throw pillow;  the striped and dot fabrics behind it were for the window valances.  

The paisley pillows have a cord edging on them

Reversible cushions with coordinating reversible pillows

More pillows with cord edging

The blue pillows are a silk shantung and the gold are a velour with a cheetah design cut in the fabric.

Orange linen pillows

Brown/cream check pillows in back; blue tapestry/scroll design fabric pillows with piping made from brown/cream check fabric

Wrapped Up in Memories

This is my busy season, more-so than Christmas. Graduation! I guess that's my excuse for not posting much lately. I'm good at multitasking but working and writing at the same time...well, it gets complicated. As if my life isn't complicated enough!
So, to explain my title. It has a double meaning. You can get wrapped up thinking about fun times, hard times, friendships and family, and accomplishments. I've always loved scrapbooking, digging out photos and remembering the occasion. I confess I'm photo-crazy. I love taking photos, looking at them, giving them away, and keeping them for my scrapbooks. I've always been that sentimental, collecting ticket stubs, napkins, souvenirs. I started doing scrapbooks while I was still in school, before the huge craze it is now! When a good friend of mine showed me a photo of a t-shirt quilt and asked me to make one for her son I said "why not!". I've never been afraid to sew something I've never made before. I can look at a photo of something and copy it easily.

High school football theme t-shirt quilt

Quilt close-up showing the grey fleece back

High school, vacation, sports memories

College fraternity quilt

So, back to the t-shirt quilt. They're squares of memories you can snuggle under. I make mine with a micro-fleece backing instead of muslin. It's super-soft and warm, comes in tons of colors, and eliminates the need for that bulky batting. This time of year I get a lot of orders for graduation gifts. I just love to see what they pick as favorite t-shirts to put on the quilts. It's something different every quilt and each shirt has a special story, a special meaning. This is something they will always treasure. That's why I love making them.  

Not Your Mama's Birthday Cake

A big scoop of deliciousness: Butterfinger Cake. This is definitely not your mama's birthday cake! My son always requests Butterfinger cake for his birthday .  I like to make it because it's easy but it tastes better if you make it a day or half day ahead of serving. You need yellow cake, a large tub of Cool Whip, 6 large Butterfinger candy bars, 1 cup powdered sugar, and 1 stick of butter (melted).

Here is a layer of the cake crumbs

Close-up of the crumbled candy bars on top

The finished cake

Spring has Sprung

The front of the blanket is the print material, the back is a cotton chambray

This pic shows the overall design on the front

Close-up of the pattern of front fabric

Crazy Baker

We're having a bake sale Saturday for my daughter's dance team and I thought I would try some new recipes and 1 or 2 "tried-n-trues". I found a recipe for Lemon Poppy Seed Loaves from cooks.com. It calls for fresh lemon zest and fresh lemon juice for the glaze. I "had to" make an extra loaf for home. This is one of my son's favorite breads/muffins.

Our "keeper" loaf of Lemon Poppy Seed Bread 

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Loaves with Lemon Glaze 

The pumpkin cake with apple cider glaze is a combination of Pinterest (sorry, can't remember the source but more than several people have pinned it) and my own glaze recipe. I've made this lots of times and it's easy with just 2 ingredients, canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) and yellow cake mix. The glaze uses more ingredients! In place of milk, I use apple cider with the powdered sugar and vanilla. So... I forgot the apple cider so I made maple butter glaze. I just made it up as I went along and, YAY!, I remembered the measurements so I could tell you! Two cups of powdered sugar, three tablespoons of maple syrup (in place of some of the milk), one tablespoon milk, one teaspoon vanilla, two tablespoons melted butter. Stir with a whisk.
The sausage/cheese muffins came from makingahouseahome.blogspot.com. I had a hard time finding a recipe that didn't call for cheese soup (not a favorite ingredient of mine and I never have any in my pantry). This one calls for milk but no soup. Bingo!

Pumpkin Cake with Maple Butter Glaze

 

Sausage Cheese Muffins

Mini loaves wrapped and ready to sell

Ready for the bake sale!

My daughter loves to make candy bark so she made white chocolate bark with mini m&ms