Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Free Range Chicken

If any of you are interested in purchasing free range chicken, check out this blog site Home Roots Farm for more information.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Bread in a Bag...Fun for all

So first off I have amazing sisters who are really talented. Today my sister Alisa watched little L for me while I took my other two to get cavities filled. As I left she said, why don't you just stay when you get back and let the kids play.

Well, when we arrived back at her house she also had her other niece and nephew from the other side of her family playing as well. So we had 9 kids totally - 8 who can walk. She decided it would be fun to make Bread in a Bag with the kids. I thought it would be crazy and maybe a bit of a disaster.

It was a little crazy but so much fun and the kids loved it. It was so fun to watch them punch their bags of dough and then to try to knead. We ended up with way too much flour on some and not enough on others, but all the loaves turned out and her house smelled of fresh baking bread. So for all those of you interested....here is the recipe. It was a fun way to spend part of an afternoon. Thanks Alisa and hope all of you Enjoy.

Bread in a Bag

Ingredients per bag
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 (.25) package rapid rise yeast, or 1 TBLS
1 cup warm water
3 tablespoons non-fat dry milk
3 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Directions
1. In a large resealable freezer bag, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, yeast and warm water. Squeeze most of the air out of the bag, and seal. Squish with your hand until the well blended. Set aside to rest for 10 minutes at room temperature, or until bubbles appear.

2. In a separate bowl, stir together 1 cup of flour, dry milk, and salt. Pour into the resealable bag, then pour in oil. Squeeze out most of the air. Seal, and squish until well blended. Add the last cup of flour to the bag, and continue mixing in the same manner until well blended.

3. Remove the dough , and place on a floured surface. Knead for 5 to 8 minutes. Form into a small loaf, and place in a greased 8X4 inch loaf pan. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise for about 30 minutes, or until your finger leaves an impression when you poke the top of the loaf gently.

4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake the bread for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Simple Decorating with Red, White and Blue

I love summer and I love decorating during the summer. Nothing sings more to me of summer than the combination of Red, White and Blue... here are a few things around the homestead that were super easy and inexpensive to decorate with...hope they help you with some fun ideas.
Here is a new wreath I made. It cost me $3 and I LOVE it so much. It is a foam wreath from the dollar store, brown coffee filters from Walmart, and a package of Floral Pins from Walmart. You just fold the filters into in to make a triangle, almost like you are going to cut a snowflake and then pin them into place and fluff. It is a fun project that takes less than an hour. We had a super fun girls night with the amazing women in my family last night. I learned how to make these lollipop's out of a strip of fabric and hot glue. You can use them on headbands...like in Amelia's Etsy shop....check out her shop. Or you could put them on anything. I LOVE them tons.
My darling sister in law Brynn hosted our event and had all the supplies to make fun banners for the 4th of July. Here's Miss Vintage G's. She did this all by herself.


I found these super cute tray's 2 for $1 at the dollar store, the small vases, candles and decorator sand also came from the dollar store. I think they turned out cute with a little ribbon around them.




This is my center piece for my table. The flags were 3 for $1 in Target's dollar section. I found the metal bucket there as well. Filled it with floral foam and rocks and Presto a cute centerpiece. I have it sitting on a Milk Glass plate that my brother found at DI. It is broken where and so I just added the red ribbon and tied a bow over the broken section.



Here is my banner. It was so much fun to make. Brynn and her sweet mother cut out the letters and flags using their Cricut. Then we just embellished with scrapbook paper. So easy, and it was a fun project for us to do so we could just visit.

Happy 4th of July Week. Stay tuned for other fun ideas for this week.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Alice in Wonderland Birthday Party

So for my birthday this year we did the Alice in Wonderland Theme. Here is our Cheshire Cat. It actually was hanging in the tree, but I didn't get a picture of him there. We found him at JOAnn's for $2.00 on sale. Here is the party table. This was another party we had hoped to have outside but inclement weather moved us inside. The paper lanterns have lights in them and I found them at the Dollar Store. My son E, made the sign by himself. Since my hubby was in charge of food we did a BBQ. Bet this is the first Alice in Wonderland BBQ party.

The pink and white table cloth was actually some fabric I found at the Thrift Store and washed. The patterned print are squares I had. The party hats we found at JoAnn's... This was my birthday cake, Angel food cake and berries....yummy.

Our Theme. The topiary in back I put together. The heart topiary came from Tai Pan Trading and the vase was 1/2 at Hobby Lobby.



Another view of the topiary. Our white rabbit was my Nana's and the watch face was my Great Grandfathers that I just hung on some ribbon.





The plate stacker I found at the Thrift Store and painted black, the plates are also from the Thrift Store as are the Tea Cups which I picked up for 33 cents each.




These are Kool-Aid drinks for the kids.


Flamingo Straws for the grown ups from the Dollar Store.


We had pink lemonade for everyone else.

Over all a Very Fun party. And I had a great time coming up with the Theme.

Friday, June 4, 2010

June Adventure Ideas on World of Wonder

Hey Check out the World of Wonder site. It is back up and going...click here for some fun Summer Adventure ideas. World of Wonder