Holiday Pre-Game

The holidays are upon us – it’s time to stock up on flour, sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, the list goes on. I’ve been getting a head start on holiday baking – I’ve made three batches of Chex Mix and some Becky Droppings (details below).

No slacking here! I’m in the middle of sewing some dresses and making Christmas presents for the nieces, nephews and neighbors, AND working on an awesome vintage Advent calendar. My mom has been crafting for years; back in the 70’s she bought and made a kit from Lee Wards for an advent calendar for a wall. The project as a whole is about 90% felt and 10% sequins and beads – that is some math I can handle. Since the calendar is made from a kit we don’t have a pattern. So I put my graphic design skills to work and made a pattern – I’ll try to post some photos in the weeks to come. The parents haven’t decorated for Christmas yet, so I haven’t been able to snap a photo of what my final product should duplicate. 

You may notice some disdain in my tone that my parent’s haven’t decorated for Christmas yet Please know that my tree is up and the lights are on – it is beautiful. This is my first year with my own tree, so I will be borrowing some decor from my mom. But I don’t remember the last time she put the good HOMEMADE ornaments on the tree, so it’s not like I’m borrowing decorations she normally puts up!

These are Becky Droppings. You probably have another name for them, but that is the Ray Family traditional name. This is a no-fail recipe – even if you don’t follow the recipe (which I rarely do), they will turn out fine. Also, you cannot stop at one. See that pan above? Those were made two hours ago. There is one left. Good luck. 

Ingredients:

• 1 c sugar
• 1 c white syrup (or dark syrup, it really doesn’t matter)
• 1 1/3 c peanut butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4+ c of Special K ish cereal, or whatever your generic brand alternative is

Directions

Bring sugar, syrup and vanilla to a boil. Boil/heat until sugar is dissolved. Turn off heat and add peanut butter, mix until smooth. Add cereal. Stir, evenly distribute cereal and coating. Spoon into droppings on waxed paper. Eat. 

Pumpkins and Pork (and brownies!)

The First Annual SKRS Pumpkin and Pork was a success! The neighbors treated us to smoked pork and baked potatoes, and then, we carved pumpkins!!! I should have snapped a picture of the pork, but I didn’t. I was too busy inhaling it. (Thanx Matt and Kelly!)

Pumpkin Guts

Who gave Schaef a knife?!

Working hard!

 

Also, working hard. Just not with power tools. Or following a pattern.

 

The final product! Look how talented my friends are! I'm not even going to tell you what pumpkin belongs to who, but I will tell you that I tried to carve a sock monkey into my pumpkin.

With Halloween just around the corner, I had to make just one more Halloween dessert! I was perusing World Market a few weeks ago and came across a packaged product just like these Rice Krispy Treat Eye Balls. <<Insert FAIL here>> How in the world do you roll RK treats into balls? I don’t understand. Epic fail. So… those balls turned into just clumps of RK treats, covered in white bark and drizzled with frosting. Also, I needed more mallow. My RK treats are heavy on butter. 

My mom had sent me a photo with some super cute Spooky Brownies! I renamed mine Scary Mallow Brownie Monsters! It’s a giant mallow on top of a brownie, smothered in frosting. Cute huh?!

 

Scary Mallow Brownie Monsters

True Story: I was taking the monster’s photo in the kitchen, with bad photo lighting, so I had no other choice than to edit in Photoshop. Note: the monsters look much scarier in the edited photo

 

Be careful, the monsters will get you! Rar!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pork and Beans Cake

 

Yes, you read that headline right – it really does say “Pork and Beans Cake” – and it’s AWESOME.

A coworker sent me the recipe, not because she knows how much I love beans, but because she knows I love to bake and try different things. 

You can't even see the beans!

Ingredients

• 1 15oz can pork and beans
• 1 8oz can of crushed pineapple
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup veg oil
• 4 eggs
• 1 T vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 T Baking powder
• 2 T baking soda
• 1 T cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Drain some of the bean juice and mash beans until pureed. Add pineapple (do not drain any juice), sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. Mix. Add flour, powder, soda, cinnamon and salt. Blend for two minutes until smooth. Bake in well-greased jelly roll pan for 30-35 minutes. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

This cake is awesome!!! My roommates love it too. It has a carrot cake consistency, and if you didn’t tell anyone it was made with pork and beans, they would never know. I think the next time I try this, I’m going to use baked beans. If you try it, let me know what you think!

Next up is a bag I made a few weeks ago. I fell in love with the tree fabric immediately. It has a vintage feel, colors, with a modern twist – save the trees! The Tree Tote is fully lined, top band made with double sided biased tape, and the same belt/luggage strapping used on my plastic tote bags.

Tree Tote

Tree Tote lining

Easy Pumpkin Butt Cake

Hello! Fall is in full swing; and I’ve been doing lots of baking to prove it! 

I came across Two Ingredient Pumpkin Cake and Easy Pumpkin Muffins on AllRecipes and fell in love. The first recipe calls for a spice cake mix and a can of pumpkin cooked in a bunt pan (hereinafter referred to as “butt” pan). The second calls for a white cake mix, spices and pumpkin cooked in a muffin pan. Here is what I did:

 

Gigi's Super Awesome Easy Pumpkin Butt Cake

• 1 box of plain cake mix
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1 can of pumpkin

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Batter will be thicker than your “normal” cake batter, but should be thinner than say, pizza dough. Thick is ok! I was nervous about it at first, and I thought my mom was going to sneak a couple of eggs in but I followed the recipe and left it as is. I evenly dispensed the cake into the butt pan. Cook the cake for 25-30 minutes, I *think* it took close to 30, and I probly could have left it in for another minute. As soon as I took it out, I spread some orange frosting on top and let it drip over the sides. 

I cut into the cake at work the next day and was a little nervous. This is a new recipe! Should I really be trying it out at work?! But all was well It should have been a good indicator when my whole car smelled like delicious pumpkin! Despite the thick batter, the cake was very moist. Also FULL of flavor. I think this would make a GREAT breakfast cake, for holidays or just any day!

Last week I wanted mini cupcakes and had some leftover frosting to use. I didn’t mix the frosting to make one color, but rather let it stay marbley. The results were great. Some had chocolate frosting, and some had coconut on top! 

 

Marbley Cupcakes

Coconut Cupcakes!

Halloween Cupcakes V1.0

IT’S HERE! IT’S HERE! IT’S HERE!

October first is hours away (or already here, depending on when you read this) – do you know what this means?!?! Holiday season is ***almost*** here! Ok, not here here, but so close I can almost taste it…! 

I just love Halloween. I rarely dress up or even go to Halloween events, I also don’t like scary movies but I love the idea of getting to dress as someone else. Last year I did dress up – twice in one day! My employer at the time had a costume contest (was there really a contest, or did we all just dress up? During the day, I went as a Radio Account Executive from 1982. In the evening, I wore my classic Ginger Spice costume (which is what I default to most years).

halloween 2008

My boss has promoted me to Official Holiday Decorator (also, official pot luck organizer, but that’s for another day , so I’ve been gathering my Halloween decorations and purchasing some new items to decorate the office – pictures to follow next week.

What better way to get everyone into the Halloween spirit than eating festive Halloween cupcakes? I did some Google image searching and found a lot of great ideas, there are some creative cupcake decorators out there! I bought a box of Halloween FunFetti cake mix and colored it orange. Then I added filling. You may remember my Rainbow Cake where I used my Perfect Cake Filling.

 

Add filling! Perfect Cake Filling: 8oz box of cream cheese, 1 package of instant pudding, 1/3 cup of milk, 8oz (1 container) of whipped topping, 4tsp flavoring (optional, use any flavor - I choose orange extract this time)

 

I picked three easyish and cute cupcakes – Dracula, eyeball and spider web. My mom was a big help! She is a AWESOME cake decorator, so she is always in charge of getting the first layer of frosting on. Hopefully someday I will be able to put frosting on dessert like she can.

 

Dracula, eyeball and spider web cupcakes!

My sister in law is an eye doctor, I hope we got the blood shot eyes correct

Dracula was the toughest. We used this FANTASTIC black icing, but it was a little runny for his hair. The plastic container had a round tip, but we needed one with texture. Once we got his eyes and pupils on him, he turned out pretty cute  

The spider is actually a plastic spider ring. I choose teal frosting for the base because it was prettier than plain white.

Yum! I can’t wait to eat these… and I hope my coworkers enjoy them as much as I do!

Fall Fashion

Market Day came and went… Thank you to everyone who came out! I’ll be back in October, but probly not again anytime soon. It was an interesting experience, but people just really weren’t buying. The majority of the crowd was 65+, not the demo to purchase recycled tote bags and clutches. It was a little disheartening seeing people buy items:

• That have been on the market since my mom sold crafts (which was like 10 years ago)
• fleece scarves
• glass outdoor hangy things
• strings of beads

Assuming that I don’t sell anything in October either, I’ve got plenty of tote bags to use as Christmas gifts. Also on a happy note, Now I’ve got lots of time to get to sewing clothes. Then Christmas gifts for the kids. And then it will be knitting/crocheting season!

So, I did get a chance to make this dress a few weeks ago. 

 

McCalls 9542

It doesn’t look as cute on the manni, but it’s pretty cute on the pattern. I can’t wait for it to cool off just a little so I can finally wear this and pair it with brown tights and gray boots. The pattern included some flowery brooch thing, but I just added my own leaf pins, which I think compliment fall very nicely.

The pattern was pretty easy. The pleats took the longest. What you can’t see in the photo is the back, there is a round bottom panel that connects the back body, sleeves, and collar. It contains two of them actually, to hide a bunch of seams. One of the panels called for slits on each side of the panel to a certain circle, but it didn’t make any sense when I actually sewed it, the slits were on the outside of the dress and visible. So, 75% done and I decided to take that whole panel out and switch it with the one without cuts. There was one other pattern issue with the main back panel and how it connected to the sleeves, but I worked around it.

The fabric is from Walmart. I feel odd purchasing fabric at Walmart, but it was exactly what I was looking for and only like $2 or $3 a yard! What’s a girl to do in that situation?! Anyways, I promise not to make a habit of it, I still buy my supplies mainly from the fabric stores. 

I <3 this next one!

 

McCalls 8920

This is the second jumper I’ve made with this pattern. I used bright owl corduroy from JoAnns for this beauty I fell in love with this fabric as soon as I saw it, it is SO fun and cute! I love this pattern, it’s really simple and doesn’t take long at all. I will be pairing this with pink tights

September Market Day Preview

Whew! I have been sewing up a storm, getting ready for Market Day. If you’re in Des Moines this coming weekend, you will definitely want to check it out. Learn about Market Day and RSVP to Market Day on Facebook.

I will be selling little makeup bags for your purse, recycled clutches and recycled tote bags! Today, my favorites are the clutches, because there are so many fun embellishments involved – I’ve had a blast collecting trims, buttons and charms. I could spend all day describing the products for sale, but I’ll let them do the talking. Click on any of the photos to see the Flickr set (includes more photos!).

 

Makeup Bags - all cotton with button closures.

 

These are the clutches - the yellow one is my ABSOLUTE favorite, and I secretly hope no one buys it so I can carry it around.

This one is called "Ice Ice Books" Click on the image for more photos!

Blue Ribbon Winning

Whew! August went FAST! It was filled with the Iowa State Fair, family germ sharing (flu, anyone?), working, training for Hood to Coast and finally vacation (by far the best part!)! With all these activities something had to be neglected, and unfortunately, it was Aunt GiGi’s Craft Corner. But don’t worry, my fall schedule is jam-packed with creative goodness! I’ve got YARDS of fabric to sew, BOXES of plastic bags to fuse and lots of ideas for Christmas presents… It’s going to be a fun ride!

[This is a very long entry!]

Let me just start off with a big CONGRATS to Daniel Ray for sweeping the Dutch Oven Cooking contest at the 2009 Iowa State Fair! [Read the official press release] He entered the two dutch oven categories, main dish and dessert and won first place for both! This was his first year entering anything at the fair; a few months ago I had to remind and convince him that he wanted to enter

For the main dish, he entered Italian Sausage and Vegetables. The judges LOVED it, especially how spicy it was.

Dutch Oven Italian Sausage And Vegetables

Ingredients:

• 2        Large Onions, 1/4” slices 
• 4        Potatoes, 1” cubed 
• 1       lb Carrots, cut to 1” lengths, or baby carrots, 3 cups 
• 1 1/2 lb Italian Sausage Links
• 1/2     Bell Pepper, Julianne
• 1/4     lb Mushrooms
• 1/2     Cup White Wine
• 1        Can (6 oz) Tomato Paste with Italian seasoning
• 1        Tbsp Minced Garlic
• 12-15 oz Water to cover
• 1        Tbsp Vegetable Oil
• Salt and Pepper to Taste 

How to Prepare:

1.  Brown sausage links in a 4 Qt. Dutch Oven in the vegetable oil with 16 coals underneath and 8 on top.  Remove and set aside.
2. Preheat the same 4 Qt. Dutch Oven to 350° with 10-12 coals on top and 16-20 coals underneath.  You will have to add coals later to keep it cooking.  Slice onions and arrange to cover bottom of Dutch oven. Cube potatoes and layer them, carrots, peppers, and mushrooms on top of onions and cover with wine, tomato paste, and some water.  Salt and pepper it to taste.
3. Cover and place on coals until liquid starts to simmer. When liquid is simmering, add sausage and juice and return to heat. Add coals to top.  Simmer until potatoes and carrots are tender.  About 1 hour. 

 Next Up: Pineapple Upside Down Cake

At this time, the judge was admitting that he could not find anything wrong with the cake, but desperately tried to.

Dad with his blue ribbon winning cake

Dutch Oven Easy Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Briquettes: 24 | Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 25 to 35 minutes | Yield: 8 servings 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup Butter
• 1    Cup Brown Sugar, packed
• 1    Can (20 oz) Dole Pineapple Slices, in 100% pineapple juice
• 22 Maraschino Cherries, approximately, (10 oz Jar)
• 1    Pkg. (18.25 oz) Duncan Hines Pineapple Supreme Cake Mix
• 3    Eggs
• Juice from Pineapple Slices plus enough water to make 1 1/3 Cups for cake mix 

How to Prepare:

1. Line a 6 quart, 12-inch cast-iron camp oven with non-stick tin foil. Melt the butter over 24 hot coals. Sprinkle the melted butter with the brown sugar.  Let it simmer for a couple of minutes. Place the pineapple slices over the brown sugar and reserve the juice. (There should be room for 8 slices, 1 in the center and 7 around the outside.) Place a cherry in the center of each pineapple slice. I also place a cherry at the intersection everywhere three pineapple slices intersect and around the outside.  More is better.  Let simmer for about 5 more minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the cake mix, eggs, and reserved juice and water. Stir for 2 minutes. Spoon batter over pineapple slices and cherries.
3. Cook over 6 coals, transferring 18 coals to the lid, for 25-30 minutes. (35 minutes for me.) This is 350°F in a regular oven.
4. When done, a toothpick inserted in the cake’s center will come out clean.  Remove the lid, remove the camp oven from the coals, and let it stand for 5 minutes.  Use heavy cooking mitts or heavy cooking gloves and place the cast iron pot on one hand.  Place a large cookie sheet on top.  Place your other hand centered on the cookie sheet and carefully but quickly turn it over. 
5. Carefully remove the non-stick foil.  Replace any pineapple slices that may have stuck to foil. Serve warm. 

Note:  As delicious as the cake is itself, the best part of the pineapple upside-down cake is the topping: brown sugar, butter, maraschino cherries and pineapple.  To get a topping that’s slightly caramel-y and not mushy, let the topping cook just a bit being careful not to burn it, until just before you add the batter.  (I start the topping and while it is starting to cook I prepare the cake batter.) 

Congrats Dad! These ribbons are well deserved. I think you should start practicing for next year's contest NOW! I'm hungry!

Iowa State Fair Entries

It’s fair time again! For years I’ve been telling my mom that I wanted to enter stuff in the fair – stuff, anything, anything just to say that I did it; This year I finally did! The Iowa State Fair is probably the highlight of my summer. The food is delicious, the people are hilarious and you get to really celebrate Iowa with entertainment and displays. 

I entered 6 items in the Fabric and Threads division. They were due August 1, so I spent the last two weeks in July frantically sewing to get them done. I will plan a little earlier this year My hope was to get a ribbon, any ribbon, just one – even if it was a participation ribbon. My mom crushed my dreams a few weeks ago when she reminded me that this wasn’t 4H anymore and they don’t give ribbons to everyone. She also said something about being adult and sucking it up, I may have ignored that last part. 

Drumroll please………… I got two ribbons!!! My plaid jumper one an Honorable Mention and and my Spring Ruffle Top won 3rd place for their categories! My mom mentioned that she recognized a lot of names on the entries – of people she used to be in the sewing guild with. She hasn’t been in the sewing guild in like… 15 years – so I was definitely competing with people who actually know how to sew. Probly not competing with a lot of people who just really started sewing 5 or 6 months ago.

 

Simplicity 2856 - Entered in the Blouse category

Simplicity 3835, entered in the dress category - Great pattern once you can figure out the collar, love this and plan on making 10000 more.

 

Chop Top Frock, entered in a new recycled clothing category - When I got home and edited this photo, I realized that the second place winner was one of my mom's friends. Not happy about that, I told my mom to make sure and mention to Mabeth that it's her fault I didn't get a ribbon in this category

 

Recycled Plastic Bag, entered in the Purse and Tote category

 

McCalls 8920, Honorable Mention in the Jumper Category - This jumper pattern dates back to the mid '90s - I'm thinking like 1996ish. I wanted to make a jumper to enter in the Jumper category at the Iowa State Fair, but didn't want to hassle with a zipper. Super simple, pull over the head jumper. And I must say, I totally rocked the matching plaids on the side seams.

 

Spring Ruffle Top, Third Place in the Woven Shirt Category - This is pretty much the exact same Spring Ruffle Top that I made previously, only I used the black and white starburst fabric instead.

And to celebrate my ribbon-winnings, my mom bought us cake

I forgot to mention that I took my friend Lindsay along to the Fabric and Threads preview before the fair. She loved it. She’s not a sewer, but she loves the fair and appreciates the hard work that went into all of the entries. I feel like I crush her spirit when I told her that most quilters do not hand quilt anymore. She was very disappointed to find out it’s all done by machine. She did find a couple of hand-quilted quilts and she felt a little better.  :-) I think she should take up the lost art of hand-quilting.

If you’re going to the fair, make sure to visit the Fabric and Threads display on the top floor of the Varied Industries Building!!!

A New iPod Accessory

A few weeks ago I bought some new headbands from an Indie craft sale. One of them has half a teal zipper made into a flower. It looks really cool, and I was really inspired to create my own! Then I opened the latest edition of SewStylish and what was the first project? “Feather Fascinator: Create a headband adorned with colorful feathers” A sign? Obviously.  

I bought some headbands from the D-Tree and started digging through my stash. I had three headbands to work with, and for the focus pieces I choose buttons, Worry-People dolls and my first edition iPod Shuffle. The shuffle died a few years ago and is all rusty on the USB end, obviously I wasn’t going to get rid of it. I was planning on making it into a brooch, so this seemed like a much better project. 

Ingredients: felt, feather boa, rick rack, headbands, buttons, iPod, Worry-People, ribbon. You also need hot glue, I also used mod podge.

The Final Products

Button Headband: Lots and lots of white, cream, black, brown and gray buttons - so it can be worn with anything. Used lots and lots of glue. I may regret that later, but I made a good attempt to clean it up.

Worry People Headband: Cut a strip of purple linen fabric from a dress I made last week, mod-podged it to the headband, then added yellow and green rick rack. Then hot glued on the Worry-People

 

iPod Shuffle Headband: Headband is covered with a piece of white ribbon, then added a layer of leather-like sequins, then the felt/feather/tool/springy things and the iPod. I scratched the back of the iPod with a pin so that the glue would hold better than it would on the smooth surface. This one is my favorite.

What would be some other fun things to put on headbands? Sometimes I just pin a brooch on for a one-time wear. Maybe other specialty buttons, old earrings…