Friday, June 28, 2013

Crochet Bead Bracelet

For my first project I wanted something simple that was inexpensive and quick to make.  This is what I came up with.  A bracelet that is easy to personalize by simply changing the bead color or the yarn color.  Here is what you need to know to make it:

You will need:
size 3 crochet thread or size 10 thread doubled
50 size E (6/0) glass beads
size B crochet hook
fastener of your choice

Directions:

String 50 beads onto your thread.
leaving a 6 inch tail, chain 53
single crochet in the second chain from the hook.  
*single crochet in the next chain. slide a bead up.  single crochet in the next chain.  The bead will set on the back of your work.  Repeat from * until all beads have been used.  single crochet in last chain.  
Chain 1 and single crochet in each stitch down opposite side to the end.  
Chain 1 and continue around.  Fasten off leaving a 6 inch tail.
Use the tails to secure your bracelet fasteners to each end.


See?  Simple, easy and quick.  


Until next time,

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Garlic Bread Sticks

Poor planning on my part created this recipe. I schedule the family meals a week in advance and go shopping all at once. Wednesday nights are typically meals that can be cooked pretty quickly and easily, especially on school nights, so that we can get to church on time. H and J get home from school around 4:30 and we are out the door shortly after 6:30 pm so if I want to get to talk to them about their day and not have to eat while standing up it's got to be quick.

 Anyway, I had spaghetti on the menu. Nothing fancy. Jar sauce that we spice up and dry noodles and garlic bread or bread sticks. Usually we pick up an italian or french loaf on the discount bakery rack and season it up for semi-homemade garlic bread or some discount bread sticks. None this week, which didn't concern me since I was SURE I had something in the freezer. Only I didn't. So I fell back on a recipe for Pretzel Bites I found on the web and played with it. This is what I came up with, and let me tell you - no more store bought bread sticks for us! 



  You will need:
1 1/2 cups warm water 
 1 Tbsp honey 
1 package yeast 4 cups flour (possibly more) 
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted 
1 Tbsp kosher salt 

 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted 
1 Tbsp garlic powder 
pinch of salt

  Directions: In a large bowl or stand mixer put the first 3 ingredients. (be sure your water isn't too hot, between 110° and 115° is best)  Let this sit for 5 minutes.  You are wanting the yeast to bloom.  Then add the next 3 ingredients.  This should give you a pretty thick dough so you may need to add extra flour.  Knead for 5 minutes either by hand or use the dough hook on your stand mixer.

Lightly grease a large bowl and place your dough into it.  Turn so that the greased side of the dough is up.  Cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm place to rise for about an hour.  Dough should double in size.  


Divide dough in half and on a lightly floured surface pat and stretch each half into a rectangle that approximately measures 7 inches by 12 inches.  Using a knife or pizza cutter cut into strips.  I usually cut the dough in half along the 12 inch side (2 six inch pieces), then each 1/2 in half and then cut those halves in half.   Place strips onto a baking sheet.  You can get a little creative here.  We sometimes twist the dough first or roll it a little.  If you like light and fluffy bread sticks allow them to rise a second time for about an hour or until doubled.  If you are impatient like me you can skip this for some chewier breadsticks.

Mix the last 3 ingredients together and brush each breadstick with the mixture.  Bake in a 400° oven for about 15 minutes.  Brush with remaining butter mixture and enjoy.  

Makes 16 bread sticks.

Until next time,

Friday, June 21, 2013

Project OCC 2013

For the last couple of years I have been donating shoe boxes filled with toys and supplies to Samaritan's Purse for Operation Christmas Child.  This is a project that Samaritan's Purse has been doing since 1993 and they have distributed shoeboxes to over 100 million boys and girls.  Each shoebox opens a door to share the Gospel with a family and to show them that God loves them.  It is a project that has been very close to my heart.

This year I have decided to include more handmade items in my shoe boxes, and that is what this project is all about.  As I find cute, easy, handmade item that can be placed in a shoebox I will feature it both here and on my Pinterest board here.  If you have some suggestions I would love for you to leave them in the comments.  Be on the look out for them the rest of the year!

Find out more about Operation Christmas Child by clicking here and visiting Samaritan's Purse.




 Until next time,

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Tea Time

Recently Princess and I were playing "neighbor" (which is pretty much what it sounds like, we pretend to be neighbors) and having a tea party when she asked why we don't have real tea parties. Hmmmm...... I couldn't really answer that. So I decided we would start having real tea. But being more of the commoner than the high born tea crowd I had to do some research. What do you serve at a tea party? Did you know that there are two types of tea? There is "low" tea and "high" tea. Usually when we think of tea we are thinking of low tea which includes the sweets like crumpets and jam or lightly sweetened scones. High tea includes meat treats. We were having low tea! Again, being very tea uneducated I had to research what crumpets and scones were. I was a tad disappointed to discover that crumpets are very similar to english muffins. I like my english muffins but I wanted something special for tea time, so I checked out some scones. Scones are basically sweetened biscuits. That sounded more like what I wanted for our cup of tea! My first batch was just a simple raisin scone. It was okay and we were all pleased by it but not really wowed which surprised me given that it was from our Good Eats chef Alton Brown.

You can find this recipe here.

So when we finished those up I went searching for another and I think we have found it.  It has apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and they are yummy yummy yummy!  Here is that batch:


My 15 year old son have even decided to join us for low tea just so he can eat some of these!  The good news with that is that we are having Bible study during low tea too!  He is one of those guys who has all the head knowledge but hasn't surrendered yet so this will allow us to talk a little more about God and who He is.  Woohoo!  And if you are interested in this recipe you can find it over on Simply Scratch by clicking here.

But I have to run now.....it's tea time!

Until next time,

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Baking Day

I am on a domestic diva kick. Mr. Sunflowers has been watching Alton Brown's Good Eats ever since we found it for free on Amazon Prime. Our list of "to try" recipes has grown tremendously. Last week we watched an episode in which he made oat bread ( Oat Cuisine II ). We have been eating whole wheat/whole grain breads for some time now and love it. So we decided to give this recipe a try. To be honest I was a bit scared of it. I have no luck with yeast breads, especially if it requires two rise sessions. My first successful attempt was the pretzel bites and that was only a single rise. Still, I hit the store and began the process. After mixing and 10 minutes of hand kneading this is what I set aside to rise:
After punching it down, placing it in the pan in the fridge for its 8-15 hour second rise and then baking, this is what we had to eat:
and it was YUMMY! I am currently waiting for my second batch to rise. I think our days of buying bread at the store are done! If you want to give it a try you can find the recipe on Food Network here.  Until next time,