Hawaiian Rolls

Mmmmmm......rolls right out of the oven.  The smell is heavenly and it is so hard to wait til they cool slightly before tearing into them.These are Hawaiian rolls, similiar to the King brand that is so famous.  I followed this recipe to the letter and they came out perfect.  That so rarely happens to me. 

These remind me of the Amish rolls we get here in Ohio (except for the pineapple flavor) so I think with a few tweaks I could come pretty close.  I see lots of rolls in my future!  Diana

Quick Tea Towels

Do you love pretty tea towels but are like me and have ugly stained dish clothes that you can't take anywhere!  I am sure I can't be the only one.......So I finally decided I could make some pretty vintage towels and not give them away as gifts.  I WOULD KEEP THEM FOR ME!!!  So here they are, all finished and ready to sit, looking pretty, on my counter or nestled in a basket.  I can't tell you how easy these were.  The fabric comes already hemmed on the long sides so you just cut to lenghth and hem the two ends.  I got the fabric at Miller's Dry Goods and Fabric because we live very near to their store.  I am sure other good fabric stores carry it but Miller's does have an online store too.  Check them out for some great selection of towel fabric. 

I went teal, yellow and rose because it looked so pretty.

I think I am going back soon and get more for a table runner or maybe some placemats.  Diana

Crab and Potato Soup

Oh what to do with the leftover imitation crab from last nights quiche?  With the wind howling and raindrops falling off and on all day, soup seemed like the perfect answer.  Here is an adaption to my favorite potato soup, except I use crab instead of bacon.

Crab and Potato Soup

2 tbs butter

3 c. potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 tbs. diced onions

Melt butter in medium saucepan.  Add onion and potato and cook over med low heat until potatoes begin to be tender and are brown, about 15 minutes.  Add 1 tbs water, cover and cook until potatoes are completely tender.  This will also loosen some of the crispy stuff on the bottom of the pan.  Yum.

2 c. milk (part cream)

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese drenched in 1 tbs flour

salt and pepper

8 oz. imitation crab chunks

Add milk, salt and pepper to saucepan.  Heat and then slowly add cheese until melted.  Add crab and continue heating soup until desired consistency. 

I think I like this even more than my go-to  potato soup!  It is so good......Serve with some home made sourdough bread (don't we all have some just hanging around the kitchen?) and prepare to swoon.  Diana

Crab Quiche

I have been making this quiche for years and finally decided to write down the recipe before I forget how to make it (my mind is doing a lot of forgetting lately). 

Put 2 cups grated Monterrey jack cheese in the bottom of an unbaked pie shell.

Scatter about 8 oz. imitation crab chunks on top of the cheese (I say "about" because it is my cat's favorite treat, next to bread, and she always gets a few chunks)

In a bowl, mix 2/3 cup heavy cream with 4 eggs (mine are large cuz that's the way the girls lay them), 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg and a dash of cayenne pepper.

Pour egg mixture over crab and cheese.

Bake at 375 for 35 minutes or until set. 

 

Let cool.

Can be served warm or cold.

This is a very mild flavored quiche and is great for dinner, lunch or even breakfast!  Hope you like it.....I know I do.  Diana

Jean Apron

Waste not, want not.....isn't that what we used to be taught before we became a throw away society?  Well I had that old saying in mind when I decided to repurpose my FAVORITE pair of old jeans.  While sorting the laundry I noticed I could definately see light through the seat of my pants!  I was getting ready to toss them when I caught myself and said to my husband, "I think I can use these for something".  He looked at me funny but he has learned it is best not to go there.....  So I stuck them in my sewing room to wait for inspiration and yesterday it finally came.  An apron.  Yeah!  Cuz we all know how much a country girl loves another apron!  It just took some scraps of fabric and liberal use of my scissors and my old jeans will see many more years of use.After trimming my jeans' ahem "seat" to a cute little curved shape, I cut 2 strips of pretty fabric 5 inches by 45 inches.  Sewn end to end to make one 5 by 90 inch strip and folded in half length wise I now had a generous pleated flounce.  I took another 2 strips of coordinating fabric cut 4 inches by 22 inches to make the waist ties.  These were also folded in half and sewn along one short and one long edge.  Turned right side out, these were attached to the waistband. 

Here is a view of the bottom edge with ruffle attached.  I top stitched on the jean side to keep it all tidy.

Here is the wasteband on the wrong side with the ties sewn on.  You can also see how I finished the side edges.

I serged the pleated ruffle to the jean bottom.  Makes a much nicer finish since it might be seen.  Now I have a great little apron, with pockets, that is both cute and durable.  And free!  Diana

Country Getaway

Our little cabin is really coming along.  This last weekend we got the ditch in for the water line, along with the pipes.  It took a while but now we have running water to the toilet and an outdoor spigot.  Next will be the kitchen sink (what a blessing that will be!!!) and then the shower and bathroom vanity.  But for now we are enjoying having a working toilet......especially in the middle of the night!We stayed the night so my husband could get an early start on turkey hunting.  With the fire roaring and a blowup mattress, we had a very comfortable night, though we could have used one more blanket since it got down to the mid 30's that night!

This is my favorite place to read, wrapped in the blanket my sweet grandmother crocheted us for extra coziness. 

The next day I took this picture.

The farm across the road has a number of horses that have learned I always have a treat for friendly country neighbors.

While it is still too cold for a dip now, this is the swimming hole that will be calling our names in the heat of summer.

Our creek has two springs that feed into it so we have running water all year.

I mowed the fields while my husband worked on the plumbing last week and it looks so pretty now.  But the running toilet still is my favorite part!   Diana

Fairy Door

We all know that Santa comes down the chimney but how does the tooth fairy get into your house?  Through a fairy door of course!I picked up an unfinished wooden door at the craft store and after some thinking (one can't be too hasty about these things) I decided to make my door look like it was straight out of an old english cottage.  I faux painted gray stone for the walls and step and painted the door a cheerful green.  I white washed the door so it looked like it had seen many years of use.  A few spots of moss and a little grime (green and brown paint) helped age it too.

For now the door sits up high on a shelf in one of our guest rooms.  But it may move from room to room as the need arises.

Here is a shot of the stone step and the hardware on the door.  One strange fact about this door.  Only wee little fairies can open it.  I guess they have a key or something.  Diana

Queen Bee Pillow

The other day I was at my local quilt shop when I noticed some lovely linen for sale.  Got to have it!  And I knew just what I would do with it!Since moving to Ohio we have kept a few hives of honeybees and I have become enamored with everything bee related.  Now I had the perfect fabric to embroider a queen bee design I had gotten from Urban Threads.  Because the weave was pretty open, I sewed a pillow form so the stuffing wouldn't show.

Here is a close up of the design.  The bee, crown and scroll are superimposed over some french writing.  So pretty.  Diana

Fabulous Find Friday 12

I have a terrible confession to make.......I am basically a lazy person.  I would much rather surf the net and dream of all the craft projects I want to make......someday, than actually DO ANYTHING......especially housework.  ESPECIALLY HOUSEWORK!  So while I manage to keep the house looking OK, I am terrible about the details, like sweeping under appliances or dusting baseboards.  I know, I am horrible....and I feel horrible for admitting this out loud.  So when my daughter told me about this super cool lady that would email me everyday with words of encouragement and a chore that would help me have one of those houses people could drop by and I wouldn't die of embarrassment.....I jump right in and signed up;  And it is free!  Her blog is called Flylady and she is wonderful.  She does send a bunch of emails (like about 8 a day) for some of her other offers but no biggie BECAUSE everyday I get a chore that I can check off and feel good about.  Superior actually.  I now am organizing my house, one day at a time.  Diana

Carrot Cake Cupcake

See what I gave to a few friends this Easter.  Carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting topped with homemade chocolate carrots as decoration.  The cupcakes were all packaged in these cute little cupcake boxes!

 I had ordered some royal icing carrots from King Arthur's Flour for about seven dollars.  When I opened them I found that there were only 8 in the package.  Now I love King Arthur's Flour like everyone else but these little suckers were almost 1 buck a piece and that was without shipping!  And I had planned on making 30 cupcakes.  Do the math.....  So I got out my food safe mold putty and.....

I stuck four carrots into the soft putty and then let it dry to a flexible mold.

Then I removed the carrots (broke two in the process......) and poured candy melts into the little cavities.  I popped the filled molds into the freezer for about three minutes and CAREFULLY renoved the candy carrots.  I only broke a few in the process so they were much sturdier than the sugar ones.

I didn/t have orange candy melts so I mixed red with yellow and they looked great when they were done.  And cost a lot less than a dollar a piece!

Here are the finished cupcakes.  Some went to my neighbor, some went to a few friends and the rest were our Easter dessert.

I put the ones for my friends in cute cupcake boxes,  I then wrapped a ribbon around the box and used a homemade sticker to seal the ribbon ends together.  They looked special and were delicious as well.  Diana

Chalkboard Bunnies

Quick and easy Easter craft.  In fact my granddaughter did most of it!  We took craft cutouts from Pat Catan and glued a small block of wood on the back so the bunny could stand upright.Then we sprayed the entire thing with chalkboard spray paint.  It only took a few coats to get complete coverage.  That's it.  They cost less than 1 dollar each and look cool.  And the best part is that you can write anything on them.  Names for place settings, greetings for your guests or anything really.  These will look cute at the table.  Diana

Charm Quilt

I have never made a "charm" quilt before.  It just seemed unnecessary to have someone else cut out squares.  And expensive.  But when I heard from Sage Endeavors that she had successfully purchased fabric online and how wonderful it was and that the site was having a sale.......well, I love a sale.  So I bought a charm pack and a layer cake pack from  Green Fairy Quilts.  I am now sold on both precut fabric and this online store.And they are having another sale right now!  But back to the quilt.  I turned one charm pack into this sweet little lap quilt for our quest room.  And I loved having the squares cut for me.  Let's face it, they do a much better job of getting them all the same size.  So I have one less thing to worry about.   And somebody else figures out which fabrics look good together!  Win-win situation.

I found the border  and backing fabrics at my local quilt store.  Green Fairy Quilts' fabrics are current so you can get matching yardage at fabric store easily.  This quilt only took about a day and a half to make and that included machine quilting and sewing the binding by hand.  I love it!  Diana