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A Hint of Spring

Hi, friends!!  Can you believe the warm weather that we had a few days ago?  The warmer temps melted off all of the snow!!  Yayyyyy!!  This is what I have longed to see for a looooong time.

NO SNOW!!!

Yep!  It's all melted!!  I am SO glad that the snow is all gone.  And do you know what I discovered after the snow melted?

My daffodils and hyacinths are starting to pop up!!  Woo Hoo!!

I know, I know....I'm not going to get myself too excited since tonight we're suppose to be under a Winter Weather Advisory with a mix of snow, sleet and rain!  UGH!!  Plus, the other day, my local weatherman pointed out that the average snowfall in the month of March is 11", so I know we're not done with snow!  But, come on Spring!!  I know your just around the corner!!

After I heard that news, I decided to take a little trip to Amish country with the hopes of getting cheered up by seeing some spring displays and I sure wasn't disappointed!   The shops were brimming with spring goodies!! I went with a list of things in particular that I was looking for, but ended up coming home with a few spring things that I couldn't resist instead!! 

Here are some pics of what I brought home:

A few faux potted plants and a bunch of greenery.

I bought a couple bunches of ivy and  yellow flowers.  I just tucked them in this basket, for now, for photo purposes.

I picked up some hand-dyed wool fat quarters and a couple yards of blue calico fabric.  I also bought Family Heirloom Weaver's new Angstadt pattern table square, which I absolutely LOVE!!

I also hit a couple of antique stores where I found a pair of pewter salt and pepper shakers and this plastic horse.  You're probably wondering what I'm going to do with the horse!  Well.....I have a project in mind.  I'm not sure how it'll turn out, but I'll let you know if it does!  lol

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For Valentines, we celebrated on both Sunday and Monday.   On Sunday, with the whole family, we grilled lamb chops along with roasted red potatoes and onions as well as roasted butternut squash. For dessert I made a double layer chocolate cake that is a recipe from the Barefoot Contessa.  Yummmm!!  On Monday, Brittney had to work, so I made Chicken with Mascarpone Marsala Sauce, which she doesn't care for.  It's a recipe from Giada de Laurentis/Everyday Italian.



Chicken with Mustard Mascarpone Marsala Sauce

1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, each breast cut crosswise into 3 pieces

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 T. olive oil

5 T. butter, divided

3/4 c. chopped onion

1 lb. cremini mushrooms, sliced

2 T. minced garlic

1 c. dry Marsala wine (I use sweet Marsala wine)

1 c. (8 oz.) mascarpone cheese

2 T. Dijon mustard

2 T. chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

12 oz. dried fettuccine

Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.  Heat the oil in a heavy, large skillet over high heat.  Add the chicken and cook just until brown, about 4 minutes per side.  Transfer the chicken to a plate and cool slightly.

While the chicken cools, melt 2 T. of butter to the same skillet over medium-high heat, then add the onion and suate until tender, about 2 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and garlic and saute until the mushrooms are tender and the juices evaporate, about 12 minutes.  Add the wine and simmer until it reduced by half, about 4 minutes.  Stir in the mascarpone and mustard.  Cut the chicken breasts crosswise into 1/3" thick slices.  Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the skillet.  Simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat until the chicken is just cooked through and the sauce thickens slightly, about 2 minutes.  Stir in the chopped parsley.  Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add the fettuccine and cook until al dente, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.   Drain.  toss the fettuccine with 3 T. butter and season, to taste, with salt and pepper.  Swirl the fettuccine onto serving plates.  Spoon the chicken mixture over top.

 

Beatty's Chocolate Cake

Butter, for greasing the pans

1 3/4 c. all-pupose flour, plus more for pans

2 c. sugar

3/4 c. good cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 c. buttermilk, shaken

1/2 c. vegetable oil

2 extra large eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 c. freshly brewed hot coffee

Chocolate Buttercream, recipe follows

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Butter 2 (8 inch) round cake pans.  Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.  In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla.  With mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.  With the mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.  Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.  Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely. Frost when cooled.

Chocolate Buttercream

6 oz. good semisweet chocolate

1/2 lb ( 2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 extra large egg yolk, room temperature

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 c. sifted confectioner's sugar

1 T. instant coffee powder

Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.  Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes.  Turn the mixer on low, gradually add the confectioner's sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy.  Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water.  On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended.  Don't whip!  Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

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Until Next Time. . . . .Kris

Do You Have Your Funnels Ready?!!

Remember in one of my previous posts I had posted pictures of some funnels that I had purchased from a couple of antique shops in Amish country and I said that I had a project in mind for them?

Well......this is what I made with them!

What do you think?  I'm pretty excited with how they turned out!

If you would like to learn how to make one for yourself, you can find a tutorial in the Spring issue of A Primitive Place magazine.  If you don't already have a subscription, you can click HERE and order yours today!!

Until Next Time. . . . .Kris



A Little Bit of Christmas

Hi, Everyone!  I just wanted to share a few pictures of my Christmas decor.  I have a few areas that I still need to tweak and will share pics of those later.

I had a wonderful surprise in the mail the other day!  My sweet friend, Janet (winterwillowprimitives), made this beautiful pinkeep.  Isn’t it gorgeous?  Thank you so much, Janet!  I’ll treasure it always!

 

These are couple of trees in my Dining Room.

 

 

My kitties have been having a field day with the grapevine on the tree.  The bottom is almost bare!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking!!

Until Next Time. . . . .Kris

Prim Turkey Project and Broccoli Casserole

Happy Friday, friends!!  It’s that time of year again where things are a little busy around here.  Besides working on a few projects, I’m also hoping to get my bedroom painted and the carpets shampooed before Thanksgiving weekend when the Christmas decorations start going up.  My goal is to have the bigger projects done by the first of December so that, hopefully, I can relax and enjoy the days leading up to Christmas!  We’ll see!!  LOL   It seems to be the same old cycle. . . . when one project gets completed, another one pops up!  I 

Here’s a simple little project that I made the other day.

 

If you’d like to make one for yourself, simply click on the pattern pieces to enlarge the pictures and print out. 

  

Materials needed:

osnaburg fabric

polyester fiberfill

brown craft paint

1/4” dowel rod ( 2 - 7” pieces)

4” 1 x 4 pine board

feathers ( about 11 or12)

peppercorns

red wool/homespun

sandpaper

Cut out the pattern and trace onto a doubled layer of osnaburg fabric.  Sew along the marked lines, leaving an opening at the bottom.  Cut out the turkey, leaving 1/4” around the edges.  Clip curves.  Turn right-side out and stuff firmly with fiberfill.  Sew opening closed.  Paint the entire turkey with brown craft paint and let dry.  Sand the entire turkey to give it an aged look.  You can grunge yours at this point, if you’d like, but I didn’t grunge mine.

Stain or paint the dowel rod pieces to use as legs.

Using scissors, poke  holes underneath the turkey’s body (approx. where marked on pattern).  Add craft or hot glue onto one end of each dowel rod and insert into the holes. 

Center the legs on the base piece.  Mark and then drill where you want the holes.  Sand the base piece thoroughly and then stain or paint; let dry.Add glue to the ends of the dowel rod and insert into the wood base.

Poke holes in the back end; add glue to the end of each feather and insert into openings.  I did these one at a time, gaging where to place each feather.  I used 7 feathers.

Cut the tip of 4 feathers to approximately 3” in length.  Peel some of the feathers off the bottom to expose some of the quill.  Approximate where you’d like to place the side feathers and poke holes.  Add glue to the ends of the feathers and insert into openings.

Cut out a wattle from red wool or homespun fabric and glue to the end of the beak.  Finally, glue on peppercorns for eyes.

This week’s recipe that I want to share with you is one of our favorites that I make every year for Thanksgiving and is very easy to make.

Broccoli Casserole

Mix together:

1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen, chopped broccoli, thawed

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 (8 oz.) can creamed corn

1 T. grated onion

1/4 tsp. salt

Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350°.

Melt 3 T. butter and add 1 c. herb stuffing mix.  Set aside 1/3 cup.  Combine broccoli mixture with remaining stuffing.   Bake for 20 minutes.  Crumble reserved 1/3 c. stuffing and 1/2 c. French-fried onion rings (crushed) on top.  Bake for 15 minutes.

As always, if you’d like to participate or see other recipes in Colleen’s (And Baby Makes Five) Homemade Holidays Recipe Swap, click on the picture below.

 

Well, that’s all for this week.  Thank you so much for stopping by!!  Hopefully, next time, I’ll have a few pictures of  my Christmas decor!

 

Until Next time. . . . Kris

We Started Decorating for Christmas

 

Well. . . . . .sort of!  lol

Last year I spent a lot of time decorating the main living area and didn’t really get around to decorating down stairs.  I was trying to simplify my Christmas decor and boxed up the stuff that I wanted to get rid of.  One day, my hubby took it upon himself to   decorate the Family room using the things in the box.  (So much for trying to get rid of stuff!  lol)  He joked that, from then on, he was going to take over the Christmas tree down stairs and start decorating it with Cleveland Browns and Cavaliers ornaments. 

I’ve been picking up ornaments ever since.  It’s been tough trying to find Cavaliers things…..there isn’t much available.

Instead of decorating one tree, I suggested doing two.  The reason being….I don’t think brown, orange, wine, gold and blue would look good together, plus, we have more Browns items than Cavs!  lol

My hubby was all excited with all of the things I found and since both sports seasons are upon us, we put the trees up already!  Besides, they’re more “sports” trees rather than Christmas trees!!  lol  It’s kind of hard to tell in this picture, but the taller tree has orange lights with Browns ornaments and the smaller one has red and yellow lights with Cavs things on it.  We’re still on the lookout for more ornaments along with something for tree toppers.  They’re lit up faithfully every night, whether a games on or not!

 

 

 

 A while back, we got together with Chuck’s sister and her family to go apple picking and then went back to his niece’s house for dinner and to watch the Browns football game.  She made a lot of great food, but one dish that I absolutely loved was her Rosemary Butternut Squash Pasta!!  It was SO good!!  Hers looked a lot prettier than mine….I don’t think I was gentle enough stirring in my butternut squash.  It kind of got “mushed”!  lol  But it still tasted wonderful!!

Rosemary Butternut Squash Pasta

1 lb. penne pasta

3/4 pkg. cream cheese

1/2 c. grated fresh parmesan cheese

1 large butternut squash

1 large yellow onion, diced

3/4 c. roasted walnuts

1 T. fresh basil, chopped

2 T. fresh rosemary, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425°. 

Cut butternut squash into 1” cubes and mix with diced onion.  Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast for 40-45 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook pasta and drain; reserving 1/2 c. of pasta water.  Combine pasta, cream cheese and parmesan cheese in large bowl; add a little pasta water until a creamy sauce forms to cover pasta.  Gently mix in squash mixture, walnuts, basil and rosemary.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

As always, if you’d like to participate or see other recipes in Colleen’s (And Baby Makes Five) Homemade Holiday Recipe Swap, please click on the picture below.

Well, that’s all for this week.  Thank you for taking the time to stop by!  I really appreciate all of you!!  :o)

Until Next Time . . . .Kris

Christmas Sweets and a Couple New Purchases

Okay…..I’m going to try to participate in Colleen’s (andbabymakesfive) recipe swap again.  I haven’t been very faithful in posting on my blog lately, so I’m hoping that this will keep me inspired to make a weekly post!!  Sorry, but I tend to get caught up with life and don’t always remember to take photos, let alone, take the time to post about the things that keep me busy!  And I HAVE been busy doing A LOT of tweaking.  But I’m not quite done, so I’m not posting any pictures until I am!  lol

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I love to go antique shopping and part of the fun is finding the right piece at a great price.  I’ve had my eye on this little dresser at an antique store near by me for quite some time.  I’ve been looking for something to replace a table that is in my entryway.  I was kind of hesitant paying the price that was marked on it, not sure if it was what I really wanted  I panicked one day when I went in and found it was gone!!  The woman working in the store said that the dealer had taken it to an antique show, so I figured it was gone for good.  I was so happy to see it the next time I went in.  The price was not marked on it any more, so I wasn’t sure if it had changed or not.   After waiting a couple weeks of trying to get a price from the dealer, I was really surprised to find out that the price was only HALF of what he was asking for before!  SOLD!!  The waiting was worth it!  The only thing, though, was that when I got it home, I didn’t care for it in my entryway at all, but in my Living Room instead!

 So here’s my new little dresser!

 

I love the handles on it!

 

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Here are a couple of sweet treat recipes that have been  favorites of ours from past Christmases.  I used to make the Peanut Brittle along with hard tack candy and caramels every year for the holidays, but have cut down on the amount of goodies that I make because I tend to make way too much!  lol   I’ll share the recipes for the hard tack candy and caramels at a later date.

Peanut Brittle

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. water

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 c. water

1 c. light corn syrup

3 T. butter

1 lb. unroasted peanuts

Butter 2 cookie sheets; keep warm.

Mix baking soda, 1 tsp. water and vanilla; set aside.  Mix sugar, 1 c. water and corn syrup in saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, to 240° on a candy thermometer.

Stir in margarine & peanuts.  Cook, stirring constantly, to 300°.  Immediately remove from heat and stir in baking soda mixture.

Pour half of the mixture onto each cookie sheet and quickly spread about 1/4” thick.  Cool; break into pieces.

Kahlua Fudge

1 1/3 c. sugar

7 oz. marshmallow creme

2/3c. evaporated milk

1/4 c. butter

1/4 c. Kahlua

1/4 tsp. salt

2 c. semisweet chocolate pieces

1 c. milk chocolate pieces

2/3 c. chopped nut

1 tsp. vanilla

Line 8” square baking pan with foil.

In 2 qt. saucepan, combine sugar, marshmallow creme, milk, butter, Kahlua and salt.  Bring to a rapid boil, stirring constantly for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat; add all chocolate.  Stir until melted.  Add nuts and vanilla.  Turn into prepared pan.  Refrigerate until firm.  Cut into squares.

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If you’d like to participate or see other recipes in Colleen’s Homemade Holiday Recipe Swap, click on the picture below.

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This morning, Chuck and I had the fun opportunity of going to the Simple Goods Show in Mt. Vernon.  It was about an hour and a half drive and the temperature went from 35° down to 24° by the time we got there!  We had to wait about 1/2 hour until the doors opened and let me tell you, it was freezing!!   There were a few unfortunate souls that had booths set up outside, so while Chuck stood in line, I went and checked them out.  I also ran into the hotel right next door to use the restroom (and to get warm!) and ran into Karen (my colonial home) and her husband, who were staying at the hotel.

I also ran into Lisa (prims from above)who was there with her hubby, son and mom, as well as Stacey (farm wife prims).  We didn’t get to talk very long due to the fact that the place was VERY crowded and I kind of felt like I was in people’s way.  It would have been extremely difficult trying to get any pictures because you could hardly even get into some of the booths!  It was still a wonderful show, but I seriously hope that they move it to a larger place.  There wasn’t much space between the booths and, at times, you couldn’t move anywhere if someone stopped to look at something in front of you. . . .you had to wait until they were done looking.  And you know how we women like to check out our prims!  lol  We were all done in about 1 1/2 hours and by the time we left, it had cleared out quite a bit (along with a lot of prim goodies!)  These were the only purchases I made, due to the fact that  I couldn’t get into some of the booths and by the time I could, things were picked over.

The lamp is from Carriage House Lighting.  I saw this at Country Gatherings the last time I was in Berlin (amish country) and really liked it, but wasn’t sure were I would put it.  I’m glad I waited, because it was $20 less than what CG wanted for it.  The santa came from Arnett’s Country Store.  I’ve always tried to win one of their infamous santas when they would hold online sales, but was never quick enough to email my response. . . .then I found out that CG carries them pretty much all of the time!  lol   I have never bought one due to the fact that I’ve usually spent my money on other prim goodies that CG offered.   I forgot that Arnetts were going to be at the show and by the time I got over to their booth, most of the santas were already gone.  I was lucky to get this one and then I had to wait in a LONG line to pay for him!  It was a very popular booth!  The candle came from Old Mother Hubbards.  That was Chuck’s purchase.  The man LOVES candles and is always picking up different ones and smelling them.  This one smells wonderful!!  Kind of a caramel/hazelnut scent.  It’s been burning since we’ve been home!  lol

 

Well,  that’s all for me this week!

Until Next Time. . . .Kris