Here is something I was busy working on this past holiday season! All in all I made 3, two turned out awesome… one not so much (I’m keeping the dud).

Felted Scull Potholder/Trivet, pattern from Stitch ‘N Bitch Crochet

Before Felting

After Felting

Pretty cool eh? This guy ended up in my sister-in-law’s stocking!

I varied it a bit from the actual pattern, instead of two squares crocheted together, I just felted one square (the first attempt to felt two together came out a bit thicker than I wanted).

Slow Cooked Sloppy Lentils

I love my lentils and this is by far my most favorite recipe. They can be slopped on bread for a sandwich, or served in a bowl with some cheese as a chili like soup!

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 red or white onion (small dice)

1 bell pepper (small dice, any color sweet pepper works)

1 anaheim pepper or jalapeno (small dice)

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 & ½ cups dried french green lentils (brown lentils work too) rinsed

One 28 oz can crushed or diced tomatoes

3 cups water

2 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon whole grain mustard

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

fresh ground black pepper

6 buns (we used New Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro buns)

1 tablespoon butter (for toasting buns, optional, and if your feeling wild, grate some aged white cheddar on top too!)

Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan on a stove top over medium heat, then add the onion and peppers, cook until softened or until onions turn transparent (about 5-10 minutes), add the chili powder, stir then turn off the heat.

Get out your crock pot!  Add the warm onion mix to the crock pot/slow cooker.  Then add your lentils, tomato’s, water, soy sauce, mustard, brown sugar, salt and grind in some pepper (basically everything else), stir all ingredients till well mixed then cover with lid and cook on low heat for 6-8 hours(french green lentils take longer then brown ones). Remember NEVER TAKE THE SLOW COOKER LID OFF!

If you want to make this recipe without the crock pot/slow cooker, just combine ingredients in a large pot on low, stirring every now and then till lentils are cooked through (about an hour or so).

Once  the lentils are done, or you are ready to eat, slice the buns, butter and then toast them under your broiler!

Recipe Adapted from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker

This recipe was inspired by Sew Liberated’s post, I saw her Tortellini recipe and had to try it out! After several months of testing and mixing it up a bit, I’ve  nailed down our version of the recipe.  It’s a hit with everyone (although Etta eats the tortellini & peas and leaves the rest for me) and a super quick dinner.

This recipe is the most requested one I have! It was originally from food network, but I’ve changed it so much (FOR THE BETTER), that I think it deserves it’s own post!

• 1 (1 1/2 to 2-pound) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes, we grow ours and store in the pantry over the winter
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 cups whole milk
• Pinch nutmeg
• 12  lasagna noodles
• 2 1/2 cups grated cheese (your favorite blend, mine is whole-milk mozzarella, aged white cheddar & Parmesan).
• 1 small container of ricotta cheese

Directions

SQUASH PUREE: Heat a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the water and  squash . Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer over medium heat until the squash is tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly and then transfer the squash to a food processor (or blender if you don’t have a food processor). Blend until smooth.

NOODLES: Cook the lasagna noodles according to directions (I normally start the squash & noodle water at the same time). When the water is boiling I start the cream sauce (next paragraph).

CREAM SAUCE: Melt the butter in a heavy medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the milk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, whisking often, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the nutmeg. Cool slightly. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, to taste.

Preheat the oven to400 degrees F.

ASSEMBLY TIME: Lightly butter a 13 by 9 by 2-inch glass baking dish. Spread 3/4 cup of the sauce over the prepared baking dish. Arrange 3 lasagna noodles on the bottom of the pan. Spread 1/3 of the squash puree over the noodles. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of  cheese mixture and 1/3 of the ricotta. Drizzle 1/2 cup of sauce over the noodles. Repeat layering 3 more times, reserving a little cheese for later. If you have extra squash puree we freeze ours for the next recipe, or freeze in ice cube trays for a quick baby snack!

Tightly cover the baking dish with foil!

Bake the lasagna for 50 minutes.

Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses over the lasagna. Continue baking uncovered until the sauce bubbles and the top is golden, 10 minutes longer. Let the lasagna stand for 15 minutes before serving (if you can bear it).

This recipe does use almost every pan & pot in the house (okay I’m exaggerating, only 3 plus the food processes) but it’s SO worth it!

ENJOY!

DISCLAIMER: If you consider yourself a coffee snob or coffee enthusiast, you may want to navigate away from this page. What I’m about to share with you might be hard to handle.

You’re at the office, it’s about two hours till the day’s over, YOU NEED COFFEE, but not just any coffee you need that magical mystical chocolaty mocha.  Your stuck AT your office, breaks are over, there’s no way for you to obtain a “quality” mocha before you break down into a pathetic mess of mocha cravings.

Enter the latest greatest instant office mocha.

You’ll need three ingredients for this crude yet effective drink.

Here comes the technical part, add HOT water & stir.

Enjoy.

An amazingly delightful mocha, instantly! Just hide the evidence, and don’t tell your coffee enthusiast friends!

Yay! For the New Year! The best thing about the new year for me is the New Calendar and the annual Switch-a-roo! What is the Calendar Switch-a-roo you ask?

Well, do you have problems remember birthdays? Anniversaries? Any holiday??! Well the Calendar Switch-a-roo is the cure all for all those brain deficits!

Calendar Switch-a-roo

Step by Step Instructions

1. Take your old calendar down
2. Buy or make your new calendar
3. Lay both calendar’s side by side on your kitchen or dining room table
4. Now, go through each month and write down all the birthdays, anniversary’s and other important life events that you happened to scratch onto your old calendar during the past year!  OR Log-in to your favorite social networking site, and write down all the birthdays of people who you deam worthy enough to give a birthday card or present too. Now write these names on your new calendar on the date of their birthday or anniversary!
5. Once all your dates are transcribed (I use one  colors for birthdays, and another color for anniversaries.. etc), hang up your calendar.
6. Now, look at it every now and then, and you’ll know when it’s time to start sending those belated birthday cards (or e-cards).
7. Repeat, every year.
8. You can even add new birthday’s and annual events (like your favorite movie festival, or opening day at your local skating rink), as they happen, then next year you’ll know about it too!

Now, the next time you hear someone say, ” I can never remember Birthday’s” tell them about the great Calendar Switch-a-roo!

Side Note: The past two years we’ve had the “official” Ansel Adam’s calendars, and we were surprised to find that yes, they are cheapskates they repeated the same images on several months! Sometimes the same months! Although it was pretty cool to find in the 2009 calendar a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, and then in 2010 calendar a picture from the same spot, pre-bridge!

Not everyone likes to announce how old they are, but little miss Etta does!

This shirt was her Christmas Present from Mama! I got the idea/insperation from this Etsy Store Happy Family, they make the cutest “Birthday” shirts that just say the kid’s age “1″ or “2″. My pocketbook can’t really afford to buy one, and since I knew how easy it is to make one myself, I just had to wait for nap time!

How To: I used my large set of foam alphabet stamps, and some very handy Speedball Fabric Screen printing Ink. I  spread out a dollop of the ink on a flat old plate, and spread it very thin, then stamped the letters in it like it was a stamp pad (and test blotted them on some scrap fabric). I flattened out the shirt, and put a piece of paper in the shirt (so the ink wouldn’t run through) and stamped away! It was finished in minutes. Once the ink dries, it just needs to be set with an iron for about 4 minutes (with a piece of paper between the iron & shirt, so the iron doesn’t get super inky). If your super crafty, you could use a large erasers and carving tools and carve your own font set, but I’m not that industrious!

Now, if she would only stay still so I could get a photo!

On a little downtown stroll two weeks before Christmas, I stopped at my favorite fabric store Fabric of Vision. After a bit of browsing the owner asked me if I wanted a quick fun demo for a last minute gift. Did I!?! I hadn’t even started my crafty Christmas projects  yet. Sixty seconds later I was hooked and ready to go home and make some colorful pinwheel fabric coasters! I purchased two little packages of 5 inch square cut out’s (42 per package) and booked it home to start crafting! Thankfully the little one fell asleep on the car ride home, too! It was fate!

Here is what they look like all done!

Step 1) Cut out 5 fabric squares 5×5, or purchase from your favorite craft store.

Step 2) Fold & Iron 4 of the squares in half, with right sides facing out.

Step 3) Place the square that has not been folded, face up. Carefully arrange the four other squares on top of the face up square, like the lid of a box folded.

Step 4) Pin & sew around all the edges, trying to keep the square shape intact. Below is the front view of the coaster, with all edges sewn up.

Step 5) Trim edges and then turn inside out, and iron flat.

Step 6) Enjoy your work, below is the backside view of my bright set! My sister in-law and I cranked out about 14 in a hour! It’s a really quick fun and easy project!