Strangely Good and Wonderfully Familiar

We had extra fresh cranberries in our freezer, which I had no idea what to do with. I bought cranberries to make potpourri for Christmas, but otherwise I had no idea.

So, I stumbled across this pin from Recipe by Photo and thought the idea was interesting.  So, I borrowed the Boozy Cranberry Recipe and then made two different hoagie recipes - one strangely good and one wonderfully familiar.  We wrapped each one in aluminum foil and heated them for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

Overall,  my sandwich was good, but very sweet.  And hubby loved his.  So, we'll get it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Strangely Good Cranberry Brie Hoagie

First you have to make the boozy cranberry sauce.

Boozy Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 12-Ounce Bag Fresh Organic Cranberries
• ½ Cup Sugar
• 2 Large Oranges
• 1 Shot Triple Sec

Directions

1. Half the oranges. 
2. In a large mixing bowl add the sugar and juice the orange halves.  
3. Add the Triple Sec and whisk together the juice and sugar mixture so that the sugar is mostly dissolved.
4. Add in the fresh cranberries. Mix the cranberries so they are lightly coated.
5. Place the cranberries in a baking dish or on a shallow cookie sheet.
6. Bake the cranberries at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. When they have wilted, broken open, take them out. 

Sandwich

Ingredients

• Boozy Cranberries
• Brie
• Whole Wheat Hoagie

Directions

1. Layer the cranberries and brie on the whole wheat hoagie.
2. Wrap in aluminum foil.
3. Bake in oven at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes.   

Wonderfully Familiar Sandwich

Ingredients

Deli Ham
Sliced American Cheese
Hoagie

Directions

1. Layer the cranberries and brie on the whole wheat hoagie.
2. Wrap in aluminum foil.
3. Bake in oven at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes.   

Healthy Or Naughty..Your Choice

I wanted to do something a bit different for our last party.  So we did a dessert bar.  And so easy for big gatherings - like Easter...

Main choices - brownie bites, cubed angel food cakes, and sugar cookies

Spreadable Toppings - peanut butter, chocolate butter, caramel sauce, and whipped cream

Other Toppings - orange slices, pomegrantate seeds, apple slices, blackberries, blueberries, sliced strawberries, crushed candy cane, and chocolate chips.

Guests simply make their own dessert bowls up.  Looks good and is easy to do.

Five out of five in our book!!

Apple Topping for Pancakes

Have alot of apples and running out of ways to use them.  I found myself in this spot a few weekends ago.  And I hate for food to go bad.

So, I found this recipe on Pinterest and was intrigued. So, I whipped it together when we had some guests over for breakfast.  They loved it!

 Warm Apple Topping

Ingredients
4 medium apples, peeled and diced into bite sized pieces (any good baking apple will do)
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon maple syrup (optional)
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. In a small pot over medium heat, mix together the cornstarch and the brown sugar. 
2. Add all of the ingredients except for the butter and  stir to combine. 
3. Bring to a boil and let boil for at least a minute then reduce heat and simmer until apples are tender (about 8 minutes). 
4. Add the butter at the very end and stir to combine.

We gave it a 5 out of 5 stars.  Enjoy.

Wrap Presents to match the Party Theme

We were invited two little boy birthday parties over the past few weeks.  We have some standard gifts that we tend to give - books.  I love books and am a big proponent of the "you can never have too many books" club.  But, I wanted to dress them up a bit.

The first party was a pirate party.  So, I wrapped the box in a brown shopping bag and then used my new Silhouette to create pirates.  I downloaded this little pirate boy.  I had to ungroup the object and then move the parts of the boy onto different files.  I printed three different colors of the boy -- red (for the shirt and smile), beige (for the skin), and black for the rest.  It came out great.  I also created two Xs for the treasure hunt part of the gift.  I  found a treasure chest and printed it out of the beige paper.  I try to send paper through the Silhouette only once and I hate to waste it.

And now for the second party, he had a dinosaur theme.  So, I downloaded some dinosaurs from Silhouette and cut one for each letter of his name.   It came out so cute.  I wrapped it in white craft paper and then added the dinosaurs.

Supposedly, you can run the paper through the printer and put the letters on with the printer.  Then, you run it through the Silhouette and it cuts out the shape.  I haven't perfected that yet, so I hand wrote his name and the from part of the dinosaur.  I then ran the dinosaurs through my sticker maker - and they easily stuck to the paper.

They both came out cute and added a little something to the gifts.

Heart Attacks - My First Silhouette Craft

So my amazing DH bought me a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas - wow, I am a serious fan!! So far, it has been so fun!

First - what's a Silhouette?  Several of my friends asked the same question when I was telling them how excited I was about it.  This is a cutting machine.  Basically it will cut out whatever I ask it to cut out.

So, for my first project, I made Heart Attacks to mail to my grandparents, my friend stationed in Baghdad, and one of my cousins in college. I got a gift card for their on-line shop and downloaded the girl with heart design into my Silhouette.  You can see how the machine cuts out parts.


I then had to take the pieces and glue them together - this created several different girls.

Note: If you are a Silhouette user, I found organizing the designs into separate color files allowed me to get the dresses, hair, etc... in the colors I wanted.  I fill the paper up since it seems each piece of paper can only go through the cutter once.  I ended up with extra pieces, but I just kept them for another day.

Then, I downloaded a cool font off the internet.  I found this font on Pinterest but really you can use any font.  The Silhouette will cut out almost every font - but it helps if it's not too "delicate" - the thinner, the harder it is to remove from the Silhouette mat without damaging it.  (As I said, I am still a beginner).

I then had the Silhouette cut hearts out of tons of different papers - different sizes and styles.  I just downloaded one sheet of heart designs from Silhouette, broke it apart, and then manipulated the hearts to fit.  I used 12x12, 8x10, and 8" squared papers.  Double-sided paper works best for this type of project.

I bought these heart envelopes at my local post office.  Packed it all up and off my "heart attacks" to bring a little cheer to someone's day.

Hug T-Shirt - Bringing Joy to Another

For the holidays, I wanted to make something for my nephew's other grandma.  She had a rough year and I wanted to give her something sentimental.  But I am not the greatest crafter , so I came up with the idea of a "hug t-shirt" - basically what it's like when a child hugs you.

So I had my nephew (her grandson) hug my husband and I traced my nephew's outline - the hands, the face, etc...with chalk.  And then I used puffy paint for the actual outline.  I then added his name to the front of it.

I think it came out cute.  I hope it brings a little joy to her life. 

Crack Bread - And No, We're Not Kidding!

We love this bread - made it several times.

I got this idea from Pinterest.  It's a great recipe from iheartnaptime.  I, however, did some tweaking and below is our cheesy bacon "crack" bread.

And we gave this recipe a 5 out of 5 stars!

Crack Bread

Ingredients

• 1 sourdough loaf of bread
• 1/2 cup basil pesto found near dairy
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese grated
• 1/2 cup Parmesan grated
• 1 tsp italian seasoning

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice bread vertically and then again horizontally so that you have one inch squares.
3. Spread basil in between the sliced bread.
4. Combine cheese and seasoning in a medium sized bowl. Place cheese in between each slice.
5. Cover bread with foil and bake on a lined sheet for 8-10 minutes.