Bags and Rags Tips: home made

Showing posts with label home made. Show all posts

Blueberry Oatmeal cookies

Happy President's Day! I LOVE Monday Holidays, don't you? One more day to sleep-in, and enjoy the kiddos being home. When my kids are out of school, we usually bake something fun. Unfortunately, I haven't been to the grocery store all week, so we needed to bake something with the ingredients we had on hand.

Cue...Oatmeal Cookie Recipe...

1 Cup Shortening
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour, scooped and leveled
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. hot water
1 1/2 Cups quick rolled oats ( I substituted blueberry flavor oats here)

Directions:
Cream shortening, add sugars and cream until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla:

Add flour and salt, then add soda that's been dissolved in hot water; blend. Stir in (blueberry)rolled oats:

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheet/ungreased cookie sheet about 1.5 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until barely browned and still a little puffy.

Remove to wire rack to cool.

These cookies were so simple to make, and yummy! Crispy-ish on the outside, chewy on the inside.

One Dollar Wednesday...framed card

This was, by far, my easiest One Dollar Wednesday project. I love it when I can find simple, inexpensive, little crafts to add to my home.

This one started with these darling Valentine's Day cards that I found at the Target Dollar Spot~~LOVE that place!

(please forgive this picture...every time I loaded it blogspot flipped it...but you get the gist)

I picked up a couple matching frames at The Dollar Tree, but knew their color had to be changed.

Out to Spray Paint place for a coat of primer....

and a couple coats of Fire Engine Red!

I framed up my cute cards, and ended up with this...

and this...

What do ya think? Easy, quick, and cute...can't ask for more than that!

Dippy Dogs

Do you believe it, between all of the fun things we have been doing, I finally managed to get a post up! Woo hoo! Last month when I visited my parents in Southern Utah my Mom gave me this....

As my parents get older my Mom is cooking less and isn't needing all of her kitchen appliances anymore. I received the fryer and her popcorn popper, both of which I was super stoked about. I have to be careful, fried food isn't the healthiest, but I have some theories regarding it. First- I try to have good eating habits 90% of the time, the last 10% is reserved for fun, fatty, unhealthy food, because you can't miss out on life. Second- If you're going to have fried food, make it yourself. You know what is going into it, and no matter what it tends to be slightly healthier.

The reason my Mom actually gave me her fryer was because we were talking about must have summer treats. I was talking about feeling guilty for buying Otter Pops, and my Mom told me what I mentioned above. She was right, what is summer without Otter Pops, snow cones, and corn dogs. I was aching for a good home made corn dog, I am sorry, but the ones you buy in the freezer, YUCK! I am talking the good corn dogs, the kind you get on the pier in Santa Cruz, made fresh juicy corn dogs. Growing up, my Mom made everything from scratch, and corn dogs were no exception. Naturally, she had the recipe for me, we made them for dinner last night, and my husband loved them. He loved them so much he even talked about them on Facebook!

Dippy Dogs

1 1/2 Cup pancake flour.

(My Mom doesn't buy special flours, so here is how to make pancake flour: 1 1/4 C flour, 2 TBSP sugar, 1 TBSP baking powder, and 1/2 TSP salt. If you are using this instead of pancake flour, just use this formula instead of the 1 1/2 C, does that make sense? Use this mixture in ADDITION to the rest of the ingredients in this recipe.)

1 TSP sugar

1 1/2 Cup milk (I would actually recommend probably 1 1/4 Cup, I haven't tried it yet, but my batter was a little thin, I would like it thicker.)

2/3 Cup corn meal

1 TSP salt

Around 15 wieners

Mix ingredients until you have a smooth batter. The secret of making the batter stick to the wieners is to heat the wieners in hot water then remove from water and dry thoroughly with a cloth. Insert sticks into wieners, dip in batter, and fry in hot, deep fat. (I used Canola Oil, it worked perfectly.)

If you are going to make your own corn dogs, go all out, get the good stuff, none of the mystery meat. Get the 100% all beef franks. We LOVE the Hebrew National.

I used my kitchen aid mixer to mix the batter, worked like a charm.

I didn't realize until we started that we didn't have much oil. To solve that problem, I cut the franks in half, so they were mini dippy dogs.

I brought water to a boil and threw them in, sticks and all, for about 1 to 2 minutes. I dried them thoroughly with a dish towel.

Soaked them in the batter, nice and thick.

I placed them in the fryer using silicone tongs. Make sure you have silicone so they don't melt. Mine are these from IKEA. I set the oil on the 350 degree setting. It was perfect. They sat in there for about 3-4 minutes, just until they were golden brown. I would assume you could try this in a saucepan with oil, if anyone attempts it, please let me know how it goes!

Here are the finished dogs, they were sooooo good. I served them with fry sauce, I also like them with ketchup or mustard.

Nothing says summer like a good corn dog! What do you think!?!

Healthy Homemade Popsicles

Yesterday it FINALLY felt like Summer, pretty much we just skipped Spring all together and went straight to Summer. It was 87 degrees, it hasn't been 87 degrees, since October 3, 2010, yeah people that is 8 months. Usually in the Spring we get some nice 70 degree days, not this year, lots of rain, and the temperature pretty much hung out in the 60's. WHEW, enough of that rant, the real reason I am telling you all of this is because Summer time brings a whole new batch of fun recipes! I have been wanting to try this one for awhile, the 87 degree day finally made me get around to it! I picked up some Popsicle molds from IKEA for $1.49, they go fast at my store, I was only able to get one set, I will have to scope them out early next year to get another set.

I found this yummy recipe in Wholesome Meals for Babies and Toddlers, it said it serves 4, but I am not sure how they are calculating that. It made about 12 Popsicles.

Strawberry Yogurt Pops

2 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

generous 1 1/4 cups thick plain yogurt

3 TBSP runny honey

a few drops of vanilla extract

Put all ingredients in the blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into ice pop molds and freeze until solid.

This recipe is super simple, here are my notes. First, since it is a little early on strawberry season, mine were a tiny bit tart, we like sour stuff around my house, so we were fine with it, but if you want them a little sweeter, you may want to wait until further into the season. Next, because we like things more on the sour side, I chose no sugar added plain Greek yogurt. I try to use Greek in any recipe that calls for yogurt because it is so much healthier. It is tart though, so to get members of my family to eat it plain I have to mix in fruit or grams. Lastly, I used local honey. Local honey is supposed to help combat allergies, and this house is full of allergies. I don't think you can get more local than my honey, it is from my sister in law's bees. I froze them over night, so I may or may not have had one this morning for breakfast, but they are healthy, so I don't feel so bad. :) If you have a hard time getting them out of the molds, just run them under cold water for about 5 seconds, they came right out.

In the recipes' notes it says you can use any fresh fruit you have in season. I am excited to try lots, blackberries, peaches, raspberries, I can't wait for the Farmer's Market to start on Saturday!! If you don't have molds, you can also just whip this up as a smoothie, it is quite runny though, so in that case, you may want to add more yogurt.

Do you have any fabulous Summer recipes? Please share!

Dry Erase Menu board

Today I thought I'd feature a craft that my baby sister made. She's a newlywed, and just starting to get her little house in order. She has some great ideas, and I thought this was one of them. She originally saw the idea on make and takes.

She started with a simple black 12X12 picture frame that she picked up for just a couple bucks.

She added a pretty piece of scrapbook paper from her vast collection.

Then she just used stickers to spell out the days of the week.

Here it is all finished. Doesn't it look cute with my teapot?

One Dollar Wednesday...my snowman spoons

I'm late in posting this morning, but I'm late at everything this time of year. So much to do, so little time!

I found these great vintage spoons at a thrift store... they were 4/$1.00, so I thought they would be perfect to use for One Dollar Wednesday. Now, I am not suggesting that spoons bought at thrift stores are good for eating from...but they are perfect for crafting.

Out to the Spray Paint Place for a coat of metal primer, and a quick coat of "snow" white.

Add an orange carrot nose with a permanent marker...

and additional details with a fine point Sharpie.

Cut four rectangles from scrap fabric,

and fold up the very end of the fabric to form a little rim for the hat.

Attach to the spoon with a dot of glue.

Complete the hat by gluing it together in the back, and adding a little yarn tie to the top. Now bend back the spoon~ the hardest part of this entire craft!

Hang the happy little guy on the tree for a season of snowman smiles!

Last Minute Neighbor Gift Idea: Homemade Candied Almonds

Even though I rack my brain and try to make a list of every neighbor/friend I want to give a small holiday goodie to, I still am bound to forget someone. Then my doorbell rings and it is my cute neighbor with a treat for me and I am scrambling to find something to give in return. It always happens this last week before Christmas too, so whip up a batch of these homemade candied almonds to have on hand for a quick exchange! I actually made these this year for some of my neighbors who have to have "gluten free" due to allergies. One of the BEST parts about making these is the smell, it will make your entire house smell like Christmas with the yummy cinnamon smell. These are way cheaper than the ones you buy in the mall, I get the 3 pound bag of almonds at Costco, I think it is around $10. This recipe requires a lot of stirring, I recruited my strong husband to help.

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com, I have included a TON of pictures, I wish I would have these, I had to learn how to do this recipe the hard way, by ruining a batch, boo. If you just keep stirring this recipe is SIMPLE.

Candied Almonds

1/2 Cup water

1 Cup white sugar

1 TSBP ground cinnamon

2 Cups whole raw almonds

Combine the water, sugar, and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil; add almonds. Cook and stir the mixture until the liquid evaporates and leaves a syrup like coating on the almonds. Pour the almonds onto a baking sheet, lined with wax paper. Separate the almonds using a fork. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.

****The "syrup like coating" is misleading, keep stirring, you want them to be dry and have a crystallized coating. Below is the recipe in photos.

Mix your ingredients and bring to a boil....

Add the almonds and keep stirring...

It will start to thicken a little, keep stirring....

More stirring....

This is what I thought is a syrup like coating would be, DO NOT STOP HERE, KEEP STIRRING...

The sugar will start to stick to the bottom of the pan, that is OK, you're not done yet, even when it looks like this, KEEP STIRRING....

When your almonds look like this, you are done!

Pour them onto your baking sheet and let them cool....

I had some decorating bags that I decided to put them in....

I think they worked well, I made sure to tie a bow over the logo, so you don't see it. I found some cute cone ornaments I had bought at IKEA last year to put them in.

I think they turned out cute, and they were yummy!!

Merry Christmas, 5 days left!!

One Dollar Wednesday....Christmas Countdown

Have you been counting down the days until Christmas? Or have you been enjoying your advent calendar? My One Dollar Wednesday craft today is a Christmas Countdown.

This is where I started: baking sheet, garage sale stickers~ Dollar tree; gingerbread cookie stickers~ Joann's; number stickers~Honk's dollar store. I pulled the spray paint from my ENORMOUS spray paint collection.