Late to the Party...

 

............the food party that is over at Kathy's at Hummingbird Studios at the Lake... Thank you to those who visit me late. :)  A couple of weeks ago i made my son in law his favorite cake.. Since i'am on this baking 'quest'.. i didn't want to make him a box cake.. nope, nope, nope...  I was going to do it from scratch.. His favorite cake is a yellow cake with chocolate frosting.. Never made one in my life... maaaybe a box cake a looong time ago but never from scratch... I found this recipe on Pinterest... Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting.  You can check it out.. I was not that impressed but I must say that it all got eaten.. most of it by the Birthday boy.... The cake came out kinda heavy and a little dry.. and the icing.. well... lets just say most of us are not Dark Chocolate eaters... we are Milk Chocolate eaters.. So for me the icing had a 'wang' i just didn't care for... If anyone has a yellow cake and chocolate icing recipe they love and would like to share with me it would be much appreciated and i can try it again.. I have no idea if it was me or the recipe.. I hope you all are having a great week!! Hugs! deb

PS... If you'll pop in here you can see what i entered in the Art Competition here at the Stock Show and Rodeo... No word yet on how i did... It doesn't open for visitors until Friday.... stay tuned... 

8 Chances............

.......   to bring home a ribbon!!!! One.. colored pencil drawing.'You are my sun , my moon and all my stars... ' LOVE that... 

Second is a woodburned owl... with some blue colored pencil... He's my design.. and i'm ridiculously proud of him as he is my first attempt at something other than just burning a silhouette.. 

Third is going in the competition under 'Papercraft'.. Its a Vanilla Extract box that i decorated... You've heard of 'Find your tribe.'? Well this is 'Find your flock' lol.... 

The back.....

And fourth... Meet Hermie.... I poured him at the craft department on the Air base here...He's painted in greens and some copper and i made his eyes shiney while the rest is matte..

Side view! 

5th... is another drawing with colored pencil... My fav on here is the light pole... I see another drawing of the light pole in my future.. the vine and flowers came out really good... 

6th..... is a tree... A magnolia seed pod tree....Air dry clay is holding it in the pot... those are airdry clay little balls in the pot.. And the pot is on a wood block I painted the tree my favorite shade of green and put little glass beads in the holes.. I love it! And surprisingly my husband loves this one.. lol 

7th is a wreath.... These are cedar roses... I was taking a walk and suddenly roses were everywhere.. all over the ground! So i came back with a bag and picked them all up.. thinking i would do 'something ' with them!  I had some leftover moss from another project... It was serendipity!  

And finally another craft i'm ridiculously proud of... My embellished snake... He's about 32" long... just under the max length of what i can enter in the show.. Found him at an Estate Sale... He's made of wood and painted peach... But i took him home for $4 ...

Flattened out some airdry clay.. You know those covers that go on fluorescent lights? Well they have texture and i had a piece of one and used that to put texture in the clay.. wrapped it around the snake.. painted it black then added all the embellishments.. If you look you'll spot the little flowers that come off of hummingbird feeders!  There's gems and gears and arrows.. keys...

I dusted him off real good.. I may do a little more tonight before i have to turn everything in tomorrow... The earliest i could find anything out about ribbons and such is April 1st... But they will be on exhibit from April 1st until April 17th.. Cross all your fingers and toes ... Fingers , Toes, and Eyeballs...!! Have a great weekend!!! Hugs! deb

A Spring Trip to Fredericksburg............

Without going into detail.....its chaos at my house right now...so .... hubs and i decided to take a trip to Fredericksburg, TX... Cringing at the gas prices we hit the road....... Fredericksburg is also the closest place we can buy the Sugar Free A&W Rootbeer we like so much.. So we stocked up..  We walked around the Trade Days which is a huge fleamarket/antique market that is set up in and around 6 remodeled chicken houses.. Then we strolled up and down mainstreet stopping at our favorite stores.. and found a new to us restaurant to grab lunch... 

We literally had to go down , down, down... a little hole in the wall , but you know they are some of the best places to eat... 

                    I'm sorry about the glare in the next few photos... 

                      I'm not even sure if you can read the menu.......

After some debate we chose 'The Kraut'... thinking a sampler plate was a good way to try out a new restaurant...  

Then i forgot to take another picture until we were almost done eating.... geesh.... Well as you can see it was pretty darn good... lol   However after spending 3 years in Germany years ago we are always looking for good German food... While this was good food it did not taste like the German food we remember... 

Maybe one day we will win the Lottery and fly back to Germany and enjoy the German food the way we remember it.. Thanks for stopping by on Kathy's Food Wednesday! Hope your having a great week!! My next post will show everything i'm entering into the Art and Craft show. I have to turn it all in on Saturday... Hugs! deb                 

Painting with My Granddaughter....

 

I tend to paint flowers while painting with my granddaughter... She's 3..... Her joy right now is from playing in the water container while Grandma paints... lol 

I made  a PostCard and BookMark from my painting session... Hope your having a Happy Day! Hugs! deb

Sick Over Here..............

 

What? Two years dealing with Covid and not one sniffle.... and now...

UUuuughh... just uuuuuggghhh... stuffy head/nose, sore throat, little cough... blech..... So here's a quick Food Wednesday post to join in  over there at Kathy's blog Hummingbird Studio at the Lake. 

Hope you all feel better than i do.... and ... I hope the pics this time are self explanatory.... Add a little kimchi , well alot,  and that was our meal... YUM! Do you like kimchi? See ya next week bright eyed and bushy tailed!! Hugs! deb 

One Becomes Four............

 

..........I LOVE to paint on cereal box chipboard.  Somehow it doesn't feel so 'precious' to me as a canvas... I buy the BIG boxes of cheerios for hubby and i and they cut up beautifully for use as a canvas and even a small side to make a bookmark or some such thing... 

One cereal box side became 4 postcards!

I made a boo boo though...  I didn't let the clear coat dry long enough before i put it under a heavy book to make it flat... and it STUCK!  I have to admit i was a little devastated as it was a lot of work went into that.. and i knew there was no way i could paint over that and hide it. It actually tore the cardboard... so i had to think of other ways i could cover it up and still use the card.....so

Bees and washi tape to the rescue!!!

I kinda like it on there... I put some 'wink of stella' glitter on the bee wings and well... i just couldn't stop so the succulents got some glitter too... I'm just a glitter gal... Glitter makes everything better...lol 

So glad you stopped by today!!

Do you like to paint on chipboard? 

Hugs! deb

Adventures in Baking............Bran-Rolls

 

Here we gooooo!!  If you'll remember from a previous post i mentioned i wanted to start baking again... I've missed it!  Surely my diet can handle one baked bread item and one sweet item a month... thats the plan!   First recipe in the Bread section of the book is an All-Bran Roll..... 

Never had a Bran Roll in my life as far as i know... You?

Now i'm reading the recipe and all it says is one cup of All Bran...hmmm... for those that don't know its a type of breakfast cereal... really hard and crunchy..high in fiber..  I got to wondering if i needed to crush it up you know... Didn't say to... But i figure what the heck.. can't hurt... right?!  So i did... 

Above is the boiling water, shortening, sugar, All-Bran, and salt.... Looks appetizing ! ... ummm ... noooo 

Next it was time for the yeast.... YIKES!... I have never worked with yeast before in my life... I have to admit yeast intimidates me... The directions say dissolve yeast in 1 cup of warm water.. let rise for 5 min... Now i KNOW in the back of my mind after watching a bajillion baking shows that yeast needs sugar... But it doesn't saaay that... So going off script here i add a little sugar in there too... Right? Wrong? i have no idea but above is the action i was getting.. 

Add the eggs and yeast to the All-Bran mix and stir... 

Now i'm suppose to cover and refrigerate overnight.... WHAT? I thought the dough had to be warm to rise... but hey i'm back on script and following directions... 

In the morning i pull out the dough , separate it into rolls and place on buttered cookie sheets... and let it set for 2 hours... I honestly expected them to rise more... nope... should they have?? 

About 18 minutes in the oven... they look yummy and they are rising some... YES!

Honestly they look good... Next time i make rolls i will work harder to make them pretty... this time i was too freaked out trying to do the yeast right...lol 

But for now they taste good!  I gifted everyone i know with Bran Rolls... lol  A funny gift to be passing around...lol But no way did i want all that bread in the house... Thats the rule... I'll bake but i have to give most of it away... I tell everyone once or twice a month bread and dessert is on me!! :)   Don't forget to go check out Kathy's Food Wednesday over there at Hummingbird Studio at the Lake... Thats where all us 'Foodies' are gathering... Hope your having a wonderful start to your week! Hugs! deb

Games............

 

Do you like to play games???  I guess i'm really thinking board games here but really any kind of games.... I LOVE to play games... always have... As a child i was basically an 'only child' or the only one living at home as i had MUCH older brothers and not alot of friends... and my Mother and Father were not interested in playing games... So my desire to play games went unsatisfied....

For a short time in my married life hubby and i would play cards with some friends... Mostly  'Spades'... have you heard of that?  We were stationed in Germany  and some military friends of ours would get together one night a week and play Spades.. It was great fun!! And i miss it to this day... 

Not long into our married life hubby informed me he really doesn't like to play games....(Apparently at a young age his stepfather drove everyone crazy playing games so hubby was burned out on games... just my luck) You can see in the picture above the games i bought to 'entice' him....  And ofcourse i played with my young daughter... but she soon reached an age to 'old ' to play games...

Speaking of other games.... do you remember the childhood games... of ... 'Red Light/Green Light,  'Mother May I?',  'Freeze Tag', and the list goes on... I wonder if kids still play those today?? Some favorites of mine are Monopoly.... Trivial Pursuit... Clue! .... remember 'Trouble' ?  Parcheesi... 

These days i can get hubby to play Seek and Find games on the computer... Have you ever played those??? So much fun! Its really the only computer game i play... Hubby used to play some computer games but he said they've gotten so complicated he doesn't enjoy them anymore...  Do you like to play games? Board/Computer ? What are or were some of your favorites?? Hugs! deb  

Hi My Name is Deb and I'am a .......

 

....... Recipe Hoarder!!!!   Or... a recipe collector... you can decide by the end of the post...lol  ... Honestly i don't cook or bake all that much.... But i have a ton of recipes... 

And if you look close you can see what i tend to collect... 'Fix it and Forget it' meals... slow cooker meals... throw everything in and walk away... now thats my kind of cooking...lol

And MORE.....

Now the ones that actually make it to a recipe card... well those are my tried and true recipes... And i make them fairly often or at least around the Holidays... 

I do however LOVE to bake... but to watch our waistlines and health i don't do it too often.... This year 2022 I have set and intention to bake one bread and one dessert/candy per month... I have truly MISSED baking... Above are torn pages from a recently acquired Martha Stewart magazine... This girl is gonna bake! Even if i have to give it all away and only enjoy a little for ourselves... Hopefully it will make someone else happy and satisfy my need to bake.. I need to adopt a few families and provide dessert for them .... lol Now you may be wondering where am i getting these Martha Stewart magazine clippings.... well..... 

Somebody on Craig'sList was practically GIVING them away!!! I'am a huge Martha Stewart fan from back when she was hugely popular... I love her recipes and crafts and gardening... And now i like to use some of the photos in her magazines for collage... So win win.. .But you tell me... Hoarder or Collector... lol  Hope your having an awesome week... If you like food don't forget to check out Kathy's Food Wednesday!!! Hugs! deb