Recycling The Plastic Container

The final product!

This craft is so easy a caveman could do it! Where have I heard that before.....?


I've been saving large plastic containers that previously held pretzel sticks, nuts and animal crackers. These are nice sized covered jars and it seems a shame to just toss them away. I saw something in a home craft magazine that was a variation of this using glass canning jars which have a two part lid. In that craft, the jars were used to hold a home sewing kit and the lid was covered in much the same way as I will explain below but padded so that the lid did double duty as a pin cushion. Pretty clever!

Start with a container like this.

I didn't have any canning jars available so I'm using the aforementioned plastic containers. 


Supplies: 

• Any plastic container with a screw-on lid
• 10" fabric square (approximately, for one jar lid)
• Tacky glue sold in craft stores
• 1/2 yard of ribbon for sides and bow (measure width to size of jar lid)
• Other decorations are optional

Directions:

• Remove the lid and on the reverse side of a small piece of fabric, trace a circle using the lid as a template. Cut fabric 1/4 inch larger and make slit marks from the cut edge to the pencil line all the way around about every 1/2 inch.

• Using tacky craft glue, apply a thick line of glue all the way around.
• Position the fabric over the plastic lid and  press slit sides to the plastic lid. (This will take a few minutes, keep working the fabric glue and re-stick if it still pops up) Note: the glue will dry clear so don't worry if it's a bit messy looking.
• Cut a length of coordinating ribbon (satin o grosgrain work well) and adhere to the side of the lid. Make sure the ribbon is wide enough to cover sides.
• When dry, make a small bow and glue that to the front of lid. Use other decorations (buttons, sequins, rhinestones) if you want to enhance further.
• When you decide what the contents will be, make a label on your computer in similar colors for the side of the plastic jar.

Painting Using 'Used' Canvases

Step one: Purchase a reduced stretched canvas.

In my early artist days I loved to paint. Once computers came into their own and I learned how to create electronic art, I veered away from actually putting brush to canvas. I had a family by then and the price of oils or acrylics (my choice), brushes and the stretched canvas itself became a luxury I couldn't afford.


Even today, with the kids all grown, I still balk at the price of some of the items necessary to create a painting. That is until I thought of a clever idea!


I like to shop in HomeGoods (seriously, who doesn't?) and one day, browsing the clearance racks, I found a painting on stretched canvas that was reduced. I'm not really sure why ( I suppose it just didn't sell)  but I thought that if I painted over the original painting with 'kill' paint, I would have an inexpensive blank canvas to do my own painting. The benefit of doing this is to get a nice sized canvas that would probably cost twice as much in an art supply store. In this case the canvas was 2 ft. x 4 ft., a size that fit a spot in my kitchen perfectly.

Step two: Paint canvas with kill paint 

and sketch the new illustration

Step three: Have an unveling 

for your new masterpiece!

My subject was going to be a fun portrait of our cat Buster who died earlier this year. The kitchen was his haunt and we wanted to create a memory in the room he loved the best. After the canvas was painted white, I sketched the illustration and painted it using acrylics and colors that compliment the kitchen decor. 

Buster is back and I saved a lot of money!

Biscuits: Autumn's Ultimate Comfort Food

I've been making a lot of soup lately and love doing it, but for a long while I've wanted to make my own biscuits as an accompaniment but put it off until today. My mother used to make biscuits regularly and I always remember how pleasing they were,  warm and fragrant from the oven. Why did I never make them for my family?

I came across an article in a magazine with several recipes for biscuits and I suppose that that and the cold, nasty weather we had in New York today, was all the impetus I needed to start baking. Biscuits are not only used for soup or other dinner entrees but can also be used for breakfast with egg and bacon, butter or jam. Yum!


Biscuits are really quite easy and can be changed up in a variety of ways. I'm posting a basic recipe that was seriously delicious but will list some other variations hat you might want to try.


Basic Biscuits
Makes 6-8


Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream (variation: buttermilk or 2% milk)


Directions: 

• Preheat over to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar)
• Add butter (cut into small pieces) and using pastry blender, cut butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
• Add the cream (or other variations) until dough comes together.
• Place on lightly floured surface knead and roll out to a one inch thickness.
• Use a 2.5 inch round biscuit cutter to cut the biscuits

Bake for 20 minutes until tops turn light brown.

My optional topping: 

I added 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon rosemary, 1.2 tablespoon parsley.

Brush tops of biscuits with oil mixture

Easy Christmas Breakfast: A Make-Ahead Egg Casserole

We were invited to our friends' house this weekend in upstate New York. About two and a half hours north of New York City, we encountered beautiful countryside, mountains, rivers and streams and though most of the leaves had changed by this time there was enough natural beauty to appease the most disappointed  'leaf-peeper' in the group.


Our host and hostess are skilled entertainers and served us delicious meals with an ease and efficiency that made us forget that we were all watching our weight in anticipation of the holidays.


Saturday breakfast was a delightful affair starting with challah bread french toast, fruit, bacon,  a multitude of fresh pastries and a one-dish egg scramble that was assembled a day ahead. It is this entree that is the subject of today's blog post.


If you celebrate Christmas and Christmas Eve like my family does..this recipe is for you! The casserole that follows easily feeds about 10 people and can be put together the night before for an easy and satisfying  pop-into-the-oven breakfast on Christmas morning. I've read and made variations of this recipe and will include them so you can decide how to proceed but in any form, 'Fancy Egg Scramble' is almost fool proof. 


Fancy Egg Scramble
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1/4 tablespoon pepper
2 cups milk (or 2 cups light cream)
1 and a half cups shredded American cheese (or cubed cheddar cheese)
1 cup diced Canadian bacon (or diced ham)
1/4 cup chopped onion
16 large eggs


 FOR TOPPING
(variation: Instead of topping: Add 2 cups cubed day old Italian bread to egg mix)
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/4 teaspoon paprika


Directions:

• In fry pan combine butter, onion, flour, salt and pepper until onions are translucent.
• Remove from heat and in large bowl, add milk, cheese and eggs whisking them together.
• Add bacon (and/or bread if you choose)
• For topping: Saute butter and breadcrumbs until moistened.
• Pour egg mixture into buttered rectangular baking dish. Top with breadcrumbs and sprinkle with paprika.
• Bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes checking for a lightly browned top and inserting a knife to make sure the eggs are cooked.

Political Speak: Words to Vote By

At the end of this political season, here's a few words we've probably heard over the last couple of months/weeks/days. These all appeared in today's New York Times. See how you do.


intransigence
a. unable to travel 
b. inflexible
c. uneducated
d. not hospitable


apolitical
a. not political
b. one who runs for political office
c. kind of a map
4. expressing regret


fundamentalism
a. investment strategy
b, easy to understand instructions
c. religious movement
d. getting back to basics


coalescing
a. growing together
b. living together
c. mining carbon
d. respecting natural resources


fusty
a. party-pooper
b. irritating personality trait
c. braggart
d. musty


probity
a. political investigation
b. serious discussion
c. honesty
d. sure thing




ANSWERS: 

Intransigence

 b. inflexible: refusing to agree or compromise; uncompromising.

apolitical

a. not political: of no political significance.

fundamentalism

c. religious movement: a movement in American Protestantism that arose in the early part of the 20th century in reaction to modernism and that stresses the infallibility of the Bible not only in matters of faith and morals but also as a literal historical record, holding as essential to Christian faith belief in such doctrines as the creation of the world, the virgin birth, physical resurrection, atonement by the sacrificial death of Christ, and the Second Coming.

coalescing

a. growing together: into one body

fusty

d. musty: having a stale smell; moldy.

probity

c. honesty: Integrity and uprightness.

Christmas Stockings: Creating Family Heirlooms

Stocking detail: the small dots are sequin indicators.

When my three children were born, my sister-in-law made personalized stockings for each of their first Christmases. These stockings (which incidently stood the test of time) were made from felt kits, lavishly decorated with sequins, pom-poms and ribbons and have become a happy and nostalgic part of our Christmas decor. When my first two children married, I decided to continue the tradition by making similar stockings for my son and daughter-in-law. Not a problem. The kits come with complete detailed instructions, all of the supplies including needles and can be done by hand.

Then happily came the grandchildren. Sewing  a stocking for the first, 5 years ago, didn't present a problem but the second, two years after was the beginning of my sorry backlog because by then my hours at work had changed and my sewing time became limited. Also, feeling guilty, I had decided to make one for my husband as well and two in one year was one too many.  They're really not hard to make but procrastination is sometimes my middle name. Then my daughter and son-in-law had twins!

My future project! Christmas 2015!

We have friends who are nice enough to invite us to their country home a couple of times a year  Our hostess is a knitter as are the other invited guests (and I'm not) so I decided to take along my stockings to work on as we gab, gossip and eat and eat and eat! My progress was slow (did I mention the wine?) but as this Christmas holiday approaches, I'm within sight of completing the last of the stockings (they're all sequin-ready) and as luck would have it, we're headed for the country this weekend. 


If you're looking for a project or to start a heirloom collection for your family, I recommend these stockings. The kits are available online (some are better than others and price is usually the indicator of quality) and you really don't have to be serious sewer. 


Not wanting to leave myself out, I purchased a very complicated "Nutcracker Suite' themed stocking but I am vowing not to start it until the grandchildren and husband stockings are completed. Some websites follow where the stocking can be purchased.  2015 or bust!

• http://www.anitasarts.com/bucilla-needle-crafts-felt-applique-c-17_18.html
• 
  
• http://www.bucillachristmasstockingkits.org/
• 
  
• http://www.plaidcraftexpress.com/dept/Christmas+Stockings.aspx?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&keyword=g+felt+christmas+stocking+b&gclid=COC4nuCahqUCFYpa2god01dyPg

'When The Frost Is On The Punkin...'

James Whitcomb Riley by John Singer Sargent

In my junior year of high school, New York State required all students to take an English Regent to test our proficiency in the subject. One section of the exam was recognizing and completing lines of poetry and we spent the better part of the year reading and memorizing whole stanzas, lines and authors. My third year English teacher was a nun, Sister Michele, and she drilled us so well that to this day I can recite parts and in some cases entire  poems that were part of the curriculum.


Around this time of the year, I always think of the poem 'When the Frost is on The Punkin' by James Whitcomb Riley. I liked it back then and still do because the imagery of the words painted such a realistic picture in my mind of a Midwest farm complete with corn-husky dialect in the days before winter set in, so unlike the area and people where I was growing up on Long Island.


What I didn't know was that this poem had a story, one that's meaningful today. A story of this poet as a  young man with a dream and the tenacity to follow it despite misdirection, setbacks and parental disapproval but ultimately a story of a chance event that changed the course of his life. This is from jameswhitcombriley.com

There is an interesting incident about how Riley’s job was once saved because he had written “When the Frost Is On the Punkin, and the Fodder’s In the Shock.”  It is in a book written by Riley’s friend John A. Howland entitled, “James Whitcomb Riley: Prose and Pictures.”

     Riley, as a young Greenfield man, had had a hard time finding a niche in the world since he did not care to follow his father in the practice of law.  He sold Bibles, painted signs, entertained in a medicine show, always coming to a dead end.  His mother died in 1870 and he felt he could not bear to stay in Greenfield so he went here and there seeking newspaper employment.  He ran into E.B. Martindale of "The Indianapolis Journal" whom he later called, “my first literary patron,” who added him to the staff of the paper to write poetry.  Some of these poems appeared on the first page of the Journal under the nom de plume “Benjamin F. Johnson of Boone,” supposedly an old farmer.  As they were well received, Riley emerged from under his disguise, writing poems such as “When the Frost is on the Punkin.”

     In a short while after Riley joined the paper, a gentleman named Halford was appointed manager of the Journal.  One of his first ideas was to cut down on expenses of the paper, and he was considering Riley as his first victim to get the ax.  It so happened that a political convention was held in Indianapolis at this very time.  One of the candidates nominated for office was a big burly fellow who had never made a speech in his life

     When he got up to accept his nomination, his mind went blank and he could not utter a word.  The pounding and cheering went on until in desperation he blurted out, “The ticket you have nominated here is going to win “when the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.”  This Riley poem had just been published a few days before. in the newspaper.

     The applause that greeted these words showed that most of these prominent men had read Riley’s work and approved of it.  Halford kept him on, and he became an established poet. 

      Riley saved his job by a landscape!

Here then is the poem. Keep an eye on your pumpkin for surely in the next few weeks the frost will appear and the golden days of autumn will be behind us with the long stretch of winter ahead.


When the Frost is on the Punkin
by James Whitcomb Riley


WHEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then's the times a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here--
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock--
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries--kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below--the clover over-head!--
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

Then your apples all is gethered
Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;
And your cider-makin' 's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too! ...
I don't know how to tell it--but ef sich a thing could be
As the Angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me--
I'd want to 'commodate 'em--all the whole-indurin' flock--
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!