Gingerbread Bars

If you haven't yet discovered Pinterest, run in the opposite direction, QUICKLY!! If you think Facebook is a big time-suck, Pinterest eclipses it by a factor of a hundred! Anyway, I found this recipe for Gingerbread Bars on a blog I saw on Pinterest called Jamie Cooks It Up, and they are exceptionally delicious. In fact, I don't think my family even knew about the first batch I made! I also made a recipe for Christmas using a boxed gingerbread cake mix, and this homemade version is significantly more delicious. I hope you will enjoy these as much as we have - my family DID get to eat some of the second batch!

Gingerbread Bars:
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cup flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cloves

Cream Cheese Frosting:
4 ounces cream cheese (half a brick), softened
2 T. butter, softened
2 cup powdered sugar
1 T. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
dash salt

1. Pour the melted butter, sugar and molasses into your stand mixer, or large mixing bowl. Beat until well combined.
2. Add the egg and beat until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl toss together all of the dry ingredients.
4. Pour the dry ingredients into the mixer and beat, just until combined.
5. Spray a 9x9 pan with cooking spray and press the dough into it.
6. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, do not over bake. Stick a knife into the center of the bars. If it comes out clean, remove the pan from the oven and let it cool completely. The bars will continue to cook a bit as they cool. Once frosted the bars will be put in the fridge for an hour - this will also help the bars to set up and not be too doughy.
7. Mix all frosting ingredients together in your stand mixer. Beat until nice and smooth.
8. Spread the frosting over the top of the cooled bars. Refrigerate for one hour, cut and serve! Store leftover bars (if there are any!) in the fridge or freezer.

Cornbread Dressing Casserole

My sweet mama has been making this Cornbread Dressing Casserole for several years and it has become one of the dishes I look forward to every Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year, she was sick, so I was in charge of making it. Compared to other dressing and stuffing recipes, I think it is very easy, and the addition of bacon makes it delicious! Enjoy!

Cornbread Dressing Casserole

4 slices bacon
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups self-rising cornmeal mix
2 cans (15-oz.) cream-style corn
1 cup sour cream
1 stick butter, cut into small pieces
3 large eggs, beaten
2 tsp. dried parsley
1 T. poultry seasoning or sage
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook bacon till crisp then drain and crumble, reserving 2 T. bacon drippings in skillet. Stir in onion and celery and cook till translucent, stirring often. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Stir together cornmeal mix, corn, sour cream, butter, eggs, parsley, poultry seasoning, and pepper till well combined. Stir in onion, celery, and bacon. Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 casserole dish and bake 45-55 minutes till lightly browned or till knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Ashley's Alouette Potatoes

Several years ago, my friend, Ashley, made a delicious potato dish for our Circle Christmas luncheon and ever since then, I have referred to them as Ashley's Alouette Potatoes because they contain two containers of that delicious, spreadable cheese! This is definitely not an everyday kind of recipe, but it's a wonderful dish to look forward to on special occasions. Slicing the potatoes on a mandoline is a must since the dish is layered - they would never get done otherwise. Just be careful - mandolines are super sharp! If Alouette cheese isn't available, you can use Philadelphia Cooking Cremes with equally delicious results. Enjoy!

Ashley's Alouette Potatoes

3 pounds of potatoes, peeled and sliced thin on a mandoline
1 pint whipping cream
2 containers Alouette garlic & herb cheese spread (or 2 containers Philadelphia Cooking Cremes)
Cayenne pepper
Salt & black pepper
2 tsp. dried parsley (or 2 T. fresh parsley)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix Alouette cheese and whipping cream on top of stove until melted. Add parsley, cayenne pepper, salt, & black pepper to taste (this sauce needs to be very salty). Alternate layers of potatoes and sauce in a greased 9x13 casserole dish. Bake for 40-60 minutes.

PTI December Blog Hop - Holiday Leftover Challenge

There's nothing like the hope of winning a free stamp set from Papertrey Ink to get my after-Christmas creative juices flowing! Today's challenge is to use some Christmas leftover to create a project. Not a FOOD leftover, although there are plenty of those hanging around, but wrapping paper, bows, ribbon, tags, and any of the assorted paper items you have lying around the house. I went for the easy, obvious paper scrap - wrapping paper! I know you've seen this card format on my blog before and it's one of my favorite. I also love the stacked medallion with the
sentiment on it. Whoever came up with this stacked medallion idea is a genius in my book. It's one of the easiest embellishments you can make for your card front and it's fun to mix and match all those punches I know you have lying around in your craft room!! I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you'll have a CRAFTY new year!!

Merry Christmas Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Since I haven't been papercrafting much lately, I thought I would post some of the recipes I made for our Christmas Eve dinner. Strawberry Pretzel Salad is a Paula Deen recipe so you know it's going to be good . . . and fattening! The saltiness of the pretzels blends deliciously with the sweetness of the strawberries and the creaminess of the cream cheese and Cool Whip layer. While this is a perfect holiday recipe, it's also delicious in the summer or anytime! Enjoy!

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

• 2 cups crushed pretzels
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 
  
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 (8-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 
  
• 2 (3-ounce) packages strawberry flavored gelatin
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 (10-ounce) packages frozen strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

   

2. Stir together crushed pretzels, melted butter and 3 tablespoons sugar; mix wel l and press mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until set. Set aside to cool.
4. In a large mixing bowl cream together cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Fold in whipped topping. Spread mixture onto cooled crust.
5. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in still frozen strawberries and allow to set briefly. When mixture is about the consistency of egg whites, pour and spread over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until set.

Make Merry!

At my stamping group's Christmas party, my friend, Mary Ann, had this beautiful card for us to make. We got this stamp set, Berry Christmas, at a SU! Regional in Chattanooga several years ago, and it is one of my favorite Christmas sets. I think Mary Ann did a great job on this card and, even though it's a little late in the game, I hope to make a few of these to send this Christmas. And if not this year, there's always next year!! I hope to post more in the next few days, but in case I don't get to, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Background Basics: Christmas

My stamping group had a little Christmas get together on Sunday and we each brought a stamp set we no longer use for a little Dirty Santa game! You know how it works: everyone draws a number; #1 goes first and picks a wrapped present from the pile; then #2 picks either from the pile or "steals" from #1; and so on. I picked what I consider to be the BEST stamp set, which turned out to be 2 stamps sets - PTI's Merry Little Christmas and Background Basics: Christmas. I put on such a show and looked so pitiful that nobody stole my sets and I am so delighted because they totally rock!! I consulted the PTI website for ideas on how to use the sets and found

this beautiful card by Lisa Johnson using A Wreath for All Seasons and Background Basics: Christmas. I am thrilled by how mine turned out!! I got out all of my Christmas paper to see what color scheme would look best. I LOVE this older paper from Stampin' Up! You just can't beat striped for Christmas! I sent this card to one of my nice stamping friends who didn't steal my sets! :D I can't wait to create more beautiful projects with my new Christmas stamps!

Super Crafting Day!

Yesterday was a super crafting day for me and boy, did I need it!! Morgan has had a terrible ear infection and is now better, so I was able to take advantage of my stamping group's little get together. We made some BEAUTIFUL cards! My contribution was a card using one of my favorite PTI stamp sets, A Wreath for All Seasons. I took my inspiration from a card that I found on SCS. It is such a versatile card! In fact, I made one variation yesterday that would make a beautifully simple Christmas card and today, I made a slightly different variation for a sympathy card! I'll post some of the other cards we made in the next few days.

My other crafting adventure took place at Spirited Art, a newer business in Knoxville where ordinary peeps with little or no painting talent (that's me!) along with those who are more adept at painting (a girl named Emily who sat across from me!) come together to create beautiful paintings. The instructor guides you through the entire process, step by step, and it's a lot easier than it looks! Last night's project was a bird's nest with robin's eggs and it was so much fun! My eggs looked a little, um, how shall I put this, suggestive when I first drew and painted them, but I worked on them all night until they looked much better in the final product. The nest was so much fun to paint - very free form, lots of random brush strokes, nothing too precise, just like I like to create!! Remember my love for the stamp set Branch Out?! :D This was my second attempt at Spirited Art and while I'm no ringer, I have been happy with both canvasses. Bailey and I are planning to take a class together soon. I can't wait to see what we create!! Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

We started by mixing bright blue, white, and a bit of yellow to create what was supposed to be robin's egg blue, but I never got mine that shade. I really like this blue, though! This is the background for the bird's nest that we painted within the white space.

Next, we drew the eggs. Mine are obviously sub-par and I HATED the bright blue outline. I worked all night to get them to look better.

This is when it became fun!! Lots of random brushstrokes and Xes in a dark brown that we made by mixing brown and a little black.

My finished masterpiece!! We added a mustard yellow paint to a gel medium for texture and then we took the wooden end of the paintbrush and sort of scribbled in the paint for even more dimension. Very cool!

Halloween 2011

October is by far my favorite month of the year and it seems to come and go so quickly every year. This year, I made a conscious effort to celebrate this glorious month in as many ways as possible. I made the cutest owl cupcakes that we shared with Bailey's teachers and our friends at my parents' church, and I made candy corn shaped cookies that turned out to be tasty. I love filling our hutch with all of the decorations I've collected over the years. This year, I added a banner to the mix and I love how it looks in the living room. And after a super fun night of trick-or-treating and eating with our friends, the Duprees, I had to make an adorable thank you note to send, hence the ghosts in the pumpkin patch! Hope you had a wonderful Halloween and a fabulous October!