Sympathy Card for a Female, #3

One of my husband's cousin's wife recently lost her mother. Here is the card that I made to send to them to let them know we were thinking about them.

I used the stamp set called "Thoughts & Prayers" from Stampin' Up. I also used their scalloped oval punch and regular oval punch and their markers to color in the stamp. Cardstock is Bazzill and ribbon is from Jo-Ann's. I also used Versamark ink and lightly sponge the edges with a sponge dabber.

I hope that you are having a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by, have a crafty one....Mary!

Cincinnati Chili

Top picture is the chili plain, the bottom picture is the chili with chopped onions and shredded Cheddar cheese sprinkle on top....YUM!! Serves four adults

Well with cooler weather soon approaching, I thought a good chili recipe was in order. I've been making this chili for about 15 years now. I found the recipe in a cookbooklet (you know, the ones by the check-out lane at the grocery store) called Fast and Healthy. The original recipe calls for ground turkey but hubby veto that ingredient ages ago, so I use lean ground beef instead. I don't know if they serve chili like this in Cincinnati, but we sure do enjoy it. It is not a overly spicy chili but you could easily make it more spicy by adding more cayenne pepper to it.

Cincinnati Chili

8 ounce uncooked spaghetti
1 teaspoon oil, only use this is using ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
1 pound lean ground turkey breast, I use 93% lean ground beef
1 tablespoon sugar
3 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
1 - 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes, undrained
1 - 15 oz. can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Heat oil in large nonstick saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until hot. Add onion; cook 3 to 5 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in ground turkey breast; cook and stir until no longer pink. Add all remaining ingredients except kidney beans. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 10 to 30 minutes. Add kidney beans; simmer until thoroughly heated. While this is simmering, cook spaghetti to desired doneness, as directed on package. Drain.
To serve, spoon spaghetti into 4 individual soup bowls or unto plates. Ladle chili over spaghetti.

When I serve this I offer chopped onions and shredded Cheddar cheese to put on top of the chili.

When I brown the ground beef, I add my chopped onions at the same time and omit the oil.

Hmmm...this is making my mouth water, now I need to go make some....talk to you later....Mary

Birthday Card for Friend

Hi! Today I'm sharing a card that I made last week. I forgot that we were going to a suprise 60th birthday party and I hadn't made a card yet. So I had to make one really fast as we were going to the party in less than an hour. It took me about 15 minutes to make this one. Now I don't like doing that but you do what you gotta do. The bad part is though, the party was for someone who works for Hallmark Cards here in Kansas City! YIKES!!! Talk about pressure to make a really nice card...I tried my best. I hope she liked it!

I used a stamp set called Watercolor Trio by Stampin' Up and also a scallop punch by Stampin' Up. The paper is from Archiver's. I used my Big Kick and Nesties to make the embossed square where the image is stamped and lightly sponged the background too. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Thanks for coming by to see me....have a crafty day...Mary

Applesauce Bars

Hi everyone! Hope your day is off to a great start! I've got my dinner cooking away in the crock-pot and I mixed up some Applesauce Bars for my husband to take to work tomorrow for goodie day, they are celebrating the promotion of two co-workers! These bars a very easy to put together and are very moist. My husband prefers that the bars to be refrigerated but I like them room temperature (I like the cream cheese icing to be soft). You can add nuts or leave them out, they taste great either way.

Applesauce Bars

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup nuts, chopped your favorite

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 eggs, beaten slightly

2 cups applesauce, I use the sweetened kind

1 cup vegetable oil

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir in eggs, applesauce, oil and nuts, until well blended. Spread batter into an ungreased 15" x 10" x 1" cookie/baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool. Frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 - 3 oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 pound box of powdered sugar

Cream together the cream cheese and butter; add vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar until all added and well blended and a spreading consistency. Frost bars. Optional, sprinkle frosted bars with more chopped nuts.

These taste better is made the day before serving.

Hope you give these a try, they are oh so good! Mary

Ham Bone Soup

I think that I promise to post this recipe awhile ago on this post here:http://maryscraftroom.blogspot.com/2010/05/tangy-buttermilk-cheese-bread.html. Now that some of you are enjoying cooler weather in your part of the country (not here yet, yesterday is was 90 degrees), I thought you might like a good soup recipe. Why is it that we think we can only eat soup when it is cold outside? Haven't figured that one out yet. Anyway, I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and have enjoyed it for a couple of years now. Hope you all will like it too, and I serve this with cornbread or the Tangy Buttermilk Cheese Bread, YUMMY!!!



Ham Bone Soup



1 ham bone with some meat left on it

1/2 medium onion, diced

1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes with juice

1 (15.25 oz.) can kidney beans, I rinse mine

3 potatoes, cubed I use medium to large one, depends on how much you want in it

1 green bell pepper, seeded and cubed, I don't add this so I'll put...optional

4 cups water *

6 cubes chicken bouillon *



Place the ham bone, onion, tomatoes, kidney beans, potatoes and green pepper into a 3 quart or larger slow cooker. Dissolve the bouillon cubes in water, and pour into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on Low for 7 to 8 hours.



* Now I get lazy sometimes and use chicken broth either in the can or those cardboard box thingys, I just make sure that it equals to what the recipe calls for, which is 4 cups and it works great for me. If I'm home on the day that I make this, I put everything in a large soup pot and let it simmer for an hour after it comes to a boil. After an hour, I pull the ham bone out and pull the ham off the bone and put the chopped ham back into the pot and simmer until we are ready to eat, maybe an hour more. I also add 1/2 to 1 cup celery, chopped, 1 cup carrots sliced, and a can of green beans, drained and some chopped garlic, about one teaspoon.



If you don't like kidney beans, use ones that you like, I've use butter beans before and it was just as tasty. Oh, and I have made this with honey baked ham and it doesn't make it sweet at all.

Wishing you all a great week ahead.....Mary

Sympathy Card for a Male

Well as you can see from the post title, I needed to make another sympathy card, this time for a cousin who loss her father-in-law. I tried to make this card more masculine. This card is made based on a sympathy card that we received after the loss of my husband's mother, thanks Chanda for your beautiful card. I used chalks for the background, this created a soft, muted look. I than used my Stampin' Up stamp set called "Thoughts & Prayers" for the image and sentiment on the front. Hopefully this will be the last sympathy card that I need to make for awhile.

Hope you all have a great week-end.......Mary

Sympathy Card for a Female

Hello to all of you today. Today I'm sharing a sympathy card that I made for our neighbor who loss his mother last week. Ask any card marker and they will all agree that sympathy cards are the hardest cards to make. While this is a part of life, it is still a difficult card to make as you know someone is mourning the loss of a love one.

For this card I used a Stampin' Up stamp set called "Close As a Memory". I used my Stampin' Up markers and color directly onto the rubber and huffed onto the stamp to re-moisten the ink, than I added some ribbon. I love the soft look of the pastel pink and green together.

Thank you to all of my blog followers for dropping in to see me, I appreciate it very much!

Mary

Oven S'Mores

Oven S'More's

Hershery chocolate bars
marshmallows
graham crackers

Today I'm going to share a recipe that I'm sure that we've all had as children growing up either as family campers or as scouts...S'More's!!! There is just a slight twist to this version of this treat, you don't need a campfire anymore to enjoy them! A couple days ago, I received this recipe in my e-mail mailbox from Our Best Bites (here is the link to her recipe):
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/08/candy-bar-oven-smores.html
Now when I made mine the other day, I did it the old-fashion way with the Hershery's chocolate bars, instead of the peanut butter cup or the Rolos. I didn't make mine like she did, I took my squares of graham crackers, laid six on my toaster oven tray, than my chocolate square on top of the cracker, than two marshmallows side-by-side on top of the chocolate. I put the toaster oven on broil and slid the tray into the toaster and let the marshmallows get brown on top (this also made the chocolate really gooey). When the marshmallows are to your liken, pull them out, transfer to a plate and place another graham cracker square on top and squish it together! What a yummy mess you will have!! Both my husband and daughter really enjoyed this simple treat!

Halloween Fry Boxes

Hello! Hope you are enjoying your week-end, mine is going to be very busy!

I wanted to show you some fry boxes that I made. These are just too cute and simple to assemble too!! I found the template on Splitcoaststampers,

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/templates-f143/qbees-fries-box-template-t227056.html The two middle boxes have Martha Stewart stickers on them! I mounted the stickers on a scallop punch piece and under the scallop I put a belly band around so the scallop would show up better. Of course I used some of my extra spiders, minus the peppermint patty. Would be a fun treat to give to your special friends or co-workers at Halloween! I've also have seen these fry boxes made up for different holidays to, think Christmas, Easter, for Thanksgiving place setting, etc.

Give them a try they are so very easy to make...have a crafty day....Mary

Frankie Pail and Spider Treat

Hi!! Well I'm on a Halloween roll right now! Today I would like to share two little items that I made last year. The first one is the Frankie Pail. I found this pail at Target in their $ spot, when I saw it I knew it would look cute as Frankie! The eyes and nose are made with circle punches, mouth free-hand with a Sharpie and his hair is a Martha Stewart punch-Drippy Goo. This would be cute to put on your desk filled with miniature candy bars for your co-workers! The spider is also made with punches. I used scallop punch, corner punch (Stampin' Up) and circle punches. The body of the spider is York peppermint patty (cover by the scallop punch). Last year I had alot of "spiders" on my mantle!!

Thanks for visiting................Mary