Whirlpool of Imagination

Ghostly Goodies

Alright, I'm putting Christmas on hold (for just a short time) and getting back to Halloween. I'm in the process of trying to figure out what treats to send in with the kids for school. I had the pretzel bags and grabbed some Peeps and thought I'd see what would happen when the two met.

Here is my ghost treat topper. The stamp is from Papertrey Ink. What I like about these is I can use one, two or three of the ghosts and just cut the bag down to the size I want.I'm thinking if I make these to send in to school, I might just cut it down to one ghost.

Here's close up.

And here's a bunch that I'm uploading to the store tomorrow.

Did you have a crafty Sunday. Me? Not so much but there's always tomorrow. Have a great night!

A Marriage of Cookies and Brownies

I sort of kept my word - I did finish the card I had started yesterday and I am posting. But I'm not posting the card. It needs to be photographed and uploaded so that's tomorrow's job. But because I'm extra nice, I am sending you to my lollipop blog ----------------------------------------------------------------->

with the recipe for these (post for July 2nd).

All I have to say is yum.

Easter Sweets

Hello everyone! Today I have some Easter treats for you. This week my Anti-Card Challenge over at Splitcoast involved making some sort of candy treat for Easter.

This little bunny image is from Whimsie Doodles. As soon as I saw it, I just knew I have to make up something with it! The words read, "I never met a jelly bean I didn't like". The bunny is colored with copic markers.

Copics: C2, R11, R29, G05, B18

The candy bag measures 4.75 x 3 inches and contains 53 jellybeans. (Who knew there were so many companies who make jellybeans nowadays???Took me forever to grab a bag!)

These bags have been popping up in projects at Splitcoast and they are just so much fun! I got these at Clearbags. The stamp is from Studio G and is colored with copic and prismacolor markers.

Copic: G19, BV13, B32, RV21        Prismacolor: deco aqua

These sleeves hold 23 M&M's, if you were wondering.

Alrighty, it's almost bedtime for the kids here so I'm off to get the bedtime routine going. Have a great night!

Oh, okay, one more PTI Valentines....

I have had this one on the back burner for a week or so but since I'm in the Papertrey Valentine mode, I thought I'd trot this one out. I had a vague idea at one point of doing these for the kid's valentines. I don't think now I'm going to do these although since I haven't actually worked on the Valentines yet, I guess anything is possible.

First, you need some pillow boxes and super duper cute Valentine M&M's.

 

Then you add a bit of ribbon and the Papertrey Valentine images.

And you end up with super cute Valentine treats. The images are stamped with Memento tuxedo black ink and colored with the markers in yesterday's post.

On a side note, I'm not sure if those M&M's are extra yummy or if it's just that I haven't had M&M's in a while but those Valentine ones are super duper yummy (what????You can't make these without a bit of snacking.)

Hope you have a fantastic night!

Peppermint Patties Rock

One of my favorite candies are Peppermint Patties and they do say that dark chocolate is good for you so these much be healthy, right? Last year I made the different cute little gifts with my round nicely packaged patties. And then the company had to go and change the packaging. I thought I was sunk - how would I do those cute little bags this year with these candies? I first tried just taping the edges in and still making them circles. This made them too bulky and they wouldn't fit into my pretzel bags.  I realized that they were thinner than the bags so I was determined to make this work. So I went rectangular. Here's a (horrible, oops) picture of the set of them.

I will show a close up of each color further in this post so keep reading (well, only keep reading if you are even remotely interested in these). I used my rectangle scallop nesties for these but if you didn't have the nesties, you can certainly just cut rectangles. It's slightly less cute (I first did it this way) but not that much so. The snowman block is 1.5 x 2 in so just cut your rectangle accordingly from there.

The snowman is from Imaginescence and is stamped with palette noir ink. I usually would use my memento but I didn't want the words to show up and it was easier with my noir cube. The snowmen are then colored with copics and finished off with stickles.

Before I show you the individual pictures, a word about the patties. There is a lot of extra wrapping along each side of the patty. I was able to cut off about 1/4" off of each side with opening the seal of the patty so they were still safe for hygiene purposes. This helped them be the exact height of the nesties.

 

Copics used: YR16, B26 stickles: arctic ice

Copics used: YR16, R29  stickles: candy cane

 

This one is my favorite. Copics used: YR16, G28  stickles: eucalyptis

The pretzel bags and bells came from Michael's. I just picked ribbon that matched and threaded it through the bells.

I brought these in to school today for smaller gifts for the specials teachers and such. They were a big hit and I will most definitely make these again! And that is that - all gifts are made and distributed so I can relax tomorrow, Christmas eve. I will show you one of the gifts baskets I made tomorrow so see you then. Have a great night!

How About Some Cookies?

Hi all! I just got back from a cookie swap/girls night out. Think wine, some appetizers and at least 25 different types of cookies. My basket full of cookies is residing in the refrigerator right now - come on over for a treat!

I couldn't decide what to make. All last week, I was trying different recipes to see what I felt would "work". I landed on White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies. It's got oatmeal - it's got to be healthy, right? Here's the recipe card on the 5 dozen cookies I made yesterday.....

I wasn't sure if we needed to bring a little card identifying our cookie and you know I couldn't resist doing a little crafty something. I am officially loving using binder clips for everything. I think now I can use this for pictures so it has several uses.

The picture totally blurred out the word but it just says the name of my cookie. I started out deciding that I wanted that shape nestie as the word holder. I measured it (2 x 1.5 in) and created a text box in word. The hardest part of the whole thing was deciding what font (and I did mess up the first time because I put the words too low forgetting that the clip would cover the bottom). Once printed out, I used painters tape to keep the nestie in place and ran it through my wizard. The clip is covered with Bobunny patterned paper and then a white poinsettia made with my Shapabilities. I saw the white poinsettia on SCS on knew I had to go with that. And voila, pretty way to identify your cookies.

And if you'd like the recipe.....

White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

     2 cups all purpose flour     1 tsp baking soda
     ½ tsp salt                1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
     1 cup packed brown sugar   ½ cup sugar
     2 eggs                    ½  tsp vanilla extract
     ½ tsp almond extract       2 cups uncooked oats
     1 package (12 oz) white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well. Add extracts. Stir in flour mixture just until combined. Stir in oats and white chocolate chips. Spoon heaping tablespoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet, about 1 in. apart.
Bake 16-18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes on pan. Remove to cooling grid and cool completely.

Sweet Potatoes Anyone?

It's that time of year........are you cooking the regular Thanksgiving sides or are you trying something different? Thanksgiving is our holiday to host so I face this dilemma on a yearly basis. While my family is fine with the repeats, I like to shake things up a bit once in a while. I'm thinking that I need sweet potatoes, two ways this year. I recently tried out a new sweet potato recipe and it went over big in my house. I thought I'd share it with you.

Apple Sweet Potato Casserole

3 cups sliced, peeled tart apples

3 cups sliced, peeled cooked sweet potatoes (I baked them)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon allspice

3 tablespoons butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Layer half the apples and half the sweet potatoes in a buttered casserole dish.

3. In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, nutmeg, salt and allspice.

4. Sprinkle half the nutmeg mixture over the sweet potatoes and apple.

5. Dot casserole with half the butter.

6. Repeat process with the remaining ingredients.

7. Cover with foil and bake 15 minutes.

8. Remove foil and baste with pan juices.

9. Bake uncovered, 15 additional minutes.

As a side note, when you bake sweet potatoes, poke holes in them and place them on aluminum foil. They will drip and that will make a mess of your oven.

Do you have any great Thanksgiving recipes that you are trying this year? I would love to hear about them.

Explosion of Cucumbers

This week I have given up. On trying to do any stamping with the kids home, that is. It's their last week before school starts and we are either running around or, if we are at home, the exuberance factor shall we say has completely messed with my mojo. They start back on Monday and I am going to just sit in my studio and reacquaint myself with all my toys that day!

So today I thought I'd offer up a recipe instead. Right now gardens are spitting out squash, zucchini and cucumbers faster than they can be eaten. Well, not my garden. My thumb is the polar opposite to green. I once killed a cactus. Yep, a cactus. But I know enough people who can actually grow things to receive all sorts of goodies this time of year. The problem is what to do with them all. Here's a quick and easy cucumber recipe that we make quite often. It can be found in the Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites cookbook by the Moosewood Collective.

Cucumbers Vinaigrette

2 med. cucumbers, peeled

1/4 cup cider vinegar

2 tbs sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground dried mustard

ground black pepper to taste

Slice the cucumbers crosswise into 1/8 - 1/4 inch rounds. Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt and mustard in a serving bowl. Toss the sliced cucumbers and add pepper to taste. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to use.

*Note: I very often will double this recipe when we have a lot of cucumbers.

It was Fate...

Remember my blueberry picking adventure earlier in the week? I have to give a big thank you to Rebecca for posting a blueberry recipe for me. I am definitely going to give it a try. But I did try a different one this week and thought I'd share. The very day I went blueberry picking, in the mail we received the latest Family Fun magazine. I turn to the recipes section and there was a recipe for Summer Fruit Crisp. It was fate! The recipe looked fairly easy so I got brave and had the kids help me with it. They did a good job and I was able to pawn off the job of spreading the topping onto the blueberries off on them!
Here is the recipe (which can be found in the August 2009 issue of Family Fun):

Summer Fruit Crisp

Topping Ingredients:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup quick cook oats
1/4 cup flour (I used whole wheat flour since we don't buy white flour)
5 tbs. unsalted butter, melted (we only have Smart Balance but it worked like a charm)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. salt

Fillings:
5 cups fresh fruit (I used all blueberries)
3 tbs. brown sugar
1 tbs. flour (whole wheat again)
1 tbs. orange juice
1/2 tsp. orange zest~optional (I didn't do this)

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine all the topping ingredients in a medium sized bowl.Mix it with a fork, pastry blender or your fingers until it forms clumps.
3. In an 8-in square pan, gently toss the filling ingredients. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit.
4. Bake for 40 minutes, until the fruit is bubbly and the topping is crisp. Let the dish cool for 15 minutes before serving. (This is a good idea ~ the first time we made it, we couldn't wait and it was very oozy).

I'm no food stylist but here it is fresh from the oven. I made a second batch today which is already almost gone. Good thing though because the kids went blueberry picking and brought home over 5 pounds of blueberries!

Have a great night!

Can I Bring Anything?

With Memorial Day just a few days away, I start to break out my summer recipes so today I thought I'd share one with you. This is a great recipe for the hot weather, it's healthy and its a great one to bring to other people's bbq's too.

                   Southwest Bean Salad

1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained

1 med red pepper, diced   

½ med red onion, diced

6 tbsp red wine vinegar   

3 tbsp olive oil   

1 ½ tbsp Splenda               

2 tsp crushed garlic       

¾ tsp cumin      

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp red pepper           

½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

 

Place beans, pepper and onion in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, oil, Splenda, garlic, cumin, salt and red pepper. Pour over salad and stir to coat. Add fresh cilantro and stir once more. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

We make this recipe all summer long and its always a big hit. Rarely do I make a single batch of this. Most times its at least a double batch and I've been known to even triple the recipe. This is also a great recipe several days later. In fact it's in my refrigerator right now. Mo had me make a triple batch of this last weekend and we've been eating it all week. Enjoy!