January 19, 2012

Red Lobster Recipes


I love when I go to a restaurant and find a meal that I love.  I really enjoy googling the name of the dish on the internet and finding a "knock off" recipe on a recipe website.  You know - one of those that say - just like Chili's Southwestern Eggrolls.  FYI - my eggrolls or that recipe was just WRONG.  However, when I looked at the Red Lobster website today to try to figure out the name of this drink that they have that I love, I saw the tab that said "recipes and tip".  HUH?  Yep that is right.  Red Lobster has some of their many wonderful recipes online for the taking.  Here's the link.  If you find a favorite recipe and make it, comment and let me know how it went.  I am leaning toward making the Maryland style crab cakes.  YUMMY!

January 13, 2012

Jelly Roll Quilt

For those of you who don't know, this is a quilting jelly roll.
 
Prior to getting a sewing machine if you had asked me what a jelly roll was I would have said "I don't know but it sounds yummy!"  or "I bet they have them at Shipley's".  I am SO sure that there are so many more sewing terms that I have no clue about but that is for a later time and date.  
I was at Joann's one day and came across a jelly roll.  It looked so cool!  PRE-CUT FABRIC!  So I bought one.  But I did not know what to do with it.  Russel and I laid out a few different "designs" with the pieces that all ended with me saying "Do you know how hard that is going to be to sew?"  So I did what any tech savy (HAHAHA) person would do.  I looked it up in a google search.  If you look up Jelly Roll in google search you are going to get some links that show yummy things like this:
 So I went to the next best thing to google for crafty people - Pinterest. 
When typing jelly roll into the Pinterest search I got all sorts of different ideas for using my jelly roll.  On the Heirloom Creations blog I found just what I needed - a jelly roll quilt. 

So this is the start of my Jelly Roll quilt....or maybe I should say this is what started out as a Jelly Roll quilt that is be converted to a Jelly Roll / Block quilt.  Here is the video on youtube from the blog above. Jelly Roll Race It is women from a quilting circle having a Jelly Roll quilt race. I only partially read at the beginning on the video therefore my quilt had to change a little.  They said to only use one jelly roll....if I had read the next thing it said 40 pieces end to end.  I didn't read that and Joann's "jelly roll" didn't say it wasn't a full size roll.  So I started my quilt.  I sewed all 20(that's what comes in a Joann's jelly roll) pieces end to end and started my creation.  I was so excited.  But it just kept getting smaller and smaller. So then I determined that my jelly roll wasn't up to snuff.  So IMPROVISE.  I got another small jelly roll and started a second mini jelly roll quilt.  Then I got the coordinating solid fabrics and blocked my two mini quilt toppers together.  It's coming along nicely.  I think I will block around the edges and finish it off. I'll post pictures when I have done more.  I would tell you what size this quilt is but truth be told - I have no clue.  I told Russel that surely hoped that I never had to make a specific size quilt because every one that I do make isn't the size that I think it is going to be.  I guess I learn - eventually.  

I hope that you all have a good weekend.  

January 7, 2012

Heavenly Cookies

I know that I haven't blogged since Mid December and that we are full into the first week of January but I am going to make it up today with a GREAT recipe.  I am calling them Tina's Heavenly Cookies.  I really have no idea of what they are called but they are certainly heavenly and I got the recipe from Aunt Tina so I though my invented name fit.  
Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix (we also tried this with strawberry cake mix and it was yummy)
1 8 oz bar of cream cheese softened
1 stick butter softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
Confectionery sugar


Mix all ingredients (less the confectionery sugar)together in bowl.  I didn't even use my mixer just a fork.


Once mixed well, put a top or platic wrap over the container and set it in the fridge.  Refrigerate for at least two hours.  I let one batch sit over night in the fridge and it still did well so you can make these up in advance. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Remove the dough from the fridge and roll into one inch balls.  Then roll each ball in the confectionery sugar and place on a lightly greased cookie pan.
Pop them in the oven and bake at 350 for 12 minutes.  
I sifted a little extra sugar on top while these were still warm.  ENJOY your extremely yummy cookies with a big glass of milk. YUMMY!
Stacey