Storybook Woods

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I set up my blogfeeder so you can be updated through your e-mail. Just go to this image down on the left side of my blog, click on the image and then you can sign up to get my posts e-mailed to you. I hope this works for all of you xoxox

Nach-Yo Salad

 

For lunch lately this salad has been my favorite thing. It is easy, cheap, healthy and yummy. This is my version of nacho salad. Nacho salad is usually a whole lot of nacho and very little salad, except of a pile of shredded iceberg lettuce. I loved the idea but wanted, well, some veggies. So here is what I did.

1. Pre-heat oven 350

take a baking pan and spread some taco chips and sprinkle grated cheese over the top. Bake 5 minutes till chips are toasty and cheese is melted.

2. While the chips are in the oven, roughly chop up veggies and toss all together

cabbage

green onions

jicama

radishes

cilantro

3. Take toasted chips and set on a plate, pile chopped veggies in a heap on top. Squeeze some lime juice over the whole thing and garnish with half avocado.

Now you could do anything with this salad like add bean, shredded chicken, sour cream, olives. If you want more of dressing on the veggies, go for it. Change up the veggies to your liking. But I think the cool, crunchy veggies on the crips chip layer with melty cheese is soooo good.

Now go make your own salad because this is nach-yo salad xoxoxo

 

ps. thank you Angie for the name ;)

Cheap Necklace Trick

 

I LOVE fashion (I secretly want to be Emily at Some Girls Wander, oh and a lot younger ;) I could spend every day shopping and did before hubby and kids. But I just do not have the bucks to support my addiction. So I have to get creative, reuse, think cheap. My favorite way lately is jewelry.

 

I bought this chain with the idea I was going to make a necklace. But one day with no time, wanting something, I just grabbed it, wrapped around my neck and added a pin. How easy, how inspiring, how may different necklaces could I make from one chain? Ever changing with my whims. Pretty good for $3.00 bucks.

 

Now I am obsessed. Have you been to look at Joanne's and Michael's jewelry section. There is so many wonderful pieces of chains, finds, etc. I even got a black Eiffel Tower, that I just added to my collection. (Although one day I may run a length of narrow black ribbon though it and wear it as a necklace) Most pieces are under $5.00 and with a 40% off coupon, yahoo. You can make a cameo choker.

 

For the necklace at the top (and yes, I love you readers, I actually put a picture on me on my blog. Akk were did all those gray hairs, wrinkles, saggy eyes come from ????) I took a safety pin, attached one end to the chain, ran the chain to the back so you do not see the safety pin.

 

Took a pin I love (this sweet pin is from Cassi, thank you xoxox) ran it though the other end and attached it, so you had two different chains, at different angles.

 

A long vintage pendent.

 

Heck, even a cuff bracelet. Wouldn't pretty pink ribbon woven through the links make a gorgeous belt. Akkkk, I can not stop myself. Girl, you need to go get some chain xoxox

Lemon Ricotta Cake w/ Strawberry Sauce

 

Part of craving spring for me is things like asparagus, lemons, stuffed Easter eggs, fresh peas, rhubarb. I want light and fresh food in the spring. I am sooo done with Beef Bourgougnon and am throwing lemon peel in everything. This cake is very spring to me, light, creamy and lemony.

Plus this is my lazy version. A lot of ricotta cakes have whipped whites and I just did not feel like whipping whites. How I kept the cake light, is to use very little flour and lots of eggs and ricotta. The texture is a bit hard to explain it is different from any other cake. It is extremely moist, a bit crumbly and as I said very light.

I served it with strawberry sauce but Chloe loved it plain. I think orange or lime zest would be good. to.

Lemon Ricotta Cake w/ Strawberry Sauce

Cake

1 cup ricotta

1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 TBL vanilla

the zest from one lemon

a pinch of salt

1/2 cup flour, white or whole wheat pastry (and no this is not a missprint, it is only a 1/2 cup )

1 TBL. baking powder

Pre-heat oven 325

In a electric mixing bowl mix together ricotta, sugar, eggs, lemon peel, vanilla and salt. The add flour and baking powder. Pour batter into a greased 9" round cake pan and bake till center when inserted with a skewer comes clean, about 25-35 minutes.

Strawberry Sauce

Take one cup of fresh or frozen strawberries, add 1/4 cup of sugar. Simmer till strawberries have collapsed and juices are running. Taste and see if you need more sugar. Add that and simmer a minute or two more. Cool and then refrigerate.

Silhouette Cake Plate Tutorial

 

I am really addicted to cake-plates and could never have to many. I have been wanting to make some. In trying to reuses what I have, I came up with this silhouette cake plate using the top of an old popcorn tin, a candle stick and a plastic cup.

1: I painted the tin lidwhite. It was took a couple of coats of acrylic paint. It was still bit streaky. But you do not see the pained part, so that is fine. The candle stick was not tall enough, so I glued a plastic laundry soap cup to the top of the candle stick. The side pieces will cover it up.

 

2: For the top I printed the image (Down at the bottom of the post. Click on image and save in your picture) I measured my tin and figured out what size picture would be best. I cut it out the image to fit the top, spread basic white glue over the top of the tin and pressed down the image. I keep the lid face down to help it dry without out bubbles.

One thing about the image, because I printed the image myself (instead of using a printed image) I can not get it wet or the ink will run. You could take an already printed silhouette or cut out a silhouette from black paper, if you do not want to worry about the ink running. Or come up with a way to cover the image.

 

3: On the side of the lid there is a lip and the side images would stick away for the tin. So I glued rick-rack to fill in the side and it gave it a finished looked to the cake plate.

4: I printed the three ladies above full size on a piece of card stock. I need to print three sheets. I followed the curve of the ovals, cutting them out with pinking shears. I glue along the top of the three ladies and attached that to the rick-rack.

For my top it took two sheets of ladies and just one extra lady to fill in the back. Play with how to lay them out and overlapping them. It is easy, you will just have to see what will best fit around your lid.

 

All these words make it sound to complicated but really it is not. I hope this inspires you to look around your house and see what you can come up with. I would love to see it if you do xoxox

 

I Hate Being Busy

 

Akkk I am too busy to post (I know I am posting right now but this does not count  ;-) so to make up for my lack of posting, go to Print A Day for some pretty lace notepaper to download. I will be back soon xoxoxo

Okay I Lied

I do not know if you remember, but on Valentine's day I posted this tutorial of a squirrel Valentine and said I wish I could make each of you readers one. Well I had not actually done one yet. Now I have  and you will just have to make your own ;-) I have a whole new appreciation for anyone who does paper-cutting. Not that it was impossibly hard, but it was not super easy either. I just had to frame my heart (after all that hard work!!!) I was inspired by Tompson Family-Life frame. I took a old, ugly, brown frame, painted it, added the buttons and spools, I am very happy with it .

PS. the sweet gnome tassel is from talented Selia, thank you xoxoxo 

Looking For Spring

 

I have been craving spring, besides a flower or two there is no sign of it in my yard. So I decided to search my own home for signs of spring. The pretty pillow is made by Paula xoxoxo

Speaking of pillows, Kari & Kijsa is having a pillow parade.

 

 

 

 

Swetpea, Petunia and Miss. Berry

Auberne` has made strawberry softies for her shop, Greenwood Sisters.

Miss. Berry is a deeper red strawberry with pale pink eyes

Petunia is a bright red strawberry with lavender eyes

Sweetpea is a bright red strawberry with light blue eyes

All softies are hand sewn with wool felt. I had to up the price of the softies, because shipping was a more then we thought. They are $8.00 w/ free shipping

Good job sweetie xoxox

Breakfast Casserole

 

As I have said before on my blog, as much as I love to cook, I hate cooking breakfast. It takes me awhile to wake up ;-) Having guests last week, I wanted to have breakfast for them without having to do too much work. I had muffins, overnight baked oatmeal, etc. But I wanted a dish that was savory, not sweet, some protein. I was looking at breakfast casserole that used potatoes (I had a bunch on-hand) most used frozen hash browns. The problem with hash browns is they are out of my budget and not as healthy as a plain old baked potato. 

So I came up with this dish. I baked potatoes the day before and mixed all the other ingredients in a baking pan. I even set up my food processor the night before to grate the potatoes. In the morning I grated them skin and all, mixed the potatoes in the egg mixture and baked.

I did not "gourmet" up this dish, I thought my in-laws would like it basic better. But you could do anything. I think chilies and Monterey jack cheese would be good. I would love sun dried tomatoes, grilled artichokes hearts, lemon peel and goat cheese. But what I am trying to say, is use this recipe as a start point and gussy it up.

Breakfast Casserole

3 baking potatoes, grated skins on, baked and chilled overnight in the fridge (see note below)

6 eggs

1/2 small container cottage cheese

1 cup grated cheese, I used sharp cheddar

crumbled cooked sausage or bacon

1/2 cup chopped green onions

3 finely chopped garlic cloves

salt and pepper to taste

Night before mix all ingredients in a baking pan, (except potatoes if they are not cold). Cover with foil. In the morning if you have not grated the potatoes, do that and add to egg mixture. Cover again and bake 350,     1 hour -1 1/2 hour or till egg is cooked. This sounds like a long time, but when I checked mine at one hour it was not cooked. So check in an hour and see what it is doing.

Note:It is important to grate potatoes cold, if they are not cold you will have mashed potatoes. Potatoes can be baked several days ahead and kept in the fridge. I use my food processor to grate my potatoes.

Auberne` Has Been Creative

 

Thank you for all the well wishes, I had a lovely time. I have to say I am quite blessed because I have the kindest MIL. She is always encouraging to me, calls me her friend as well as a daughter. She also adores her granddaughters and is always encouraging in all their endeavors. I never hear one word of criticism from her (which as a homeschooler, it is so nice to do not have to deal with them being unsuportive). Auberne` was showing her all she had been doing and I thought I would share with all of you.

Auberne` finds hand sewing softie very interesting. She is always looking for real things she can turn into a softies. One of her favorite books is Pride and Prejudice. She copied the front and side of the book on fabric and made a softie. You can even open the flap and read the first page. She discover writing on fabric is not as easy as she thought. But I told her to remember all she has learned, it will make her a better "craft-er" in the future.  

For Valentine's day she made her father a Hobbit pipe from clay. She also constructed a holder from bark and a branch.

 

 

For me for Valentines day she made this pin cushion, that you tie onto the machine.

 

Another softie she made for her bed is a crown, she collects crowns.

 

For her sis she made a Jawa with chocolate chip cookie. You should have seen the sand-crawler box she made to wrap the gift. She even had Star Wars music playing in the background.

 

Also banner for her Star War pins. Keep up the creative work sweetie, I love to see your out of the box creativity xoxoxox