Arts and crafts

Last week I volunteered at the Mill Creek Metroparks Ford Nature Center.

Isn't their building just beautiful? I love it. It's old, secluded, and has tons a history and character.

I am hoping to be more involved with the nature center in the future...so involved they might actually cough cough PAY me. But....their budget is of course slim to none as of right now even though they are down two positions. Curse the bad economy!

I was called upon to help sort and label the over 400 photography entries to their annual photo show. I moved to the area a bit too late to enter myself, but I had such a fun time sorting and admiring it made up for it. :)

Next, on the list. Valentine's Day decor! Woo Hoo.

This is a "fire and ice" crystal vase my mom got me for some reason. Don't get me wrong, I like it. But often I don't really know what to do with it? So....this year I was thinking that I would like to put something valentines-y as a center piece on our new coffee table. I thought of this vase....and....of all things....FLOWERS.

If you don't already know. My aversion to flowers runs deep. Very deep. I used the minimal amount of flowers at my wedding the mothers would let me get away with. Greg has only bought me flowers once, when he proposed. Because I dont like flowers! I think they smell bad. All of them. And I don't have allergies. Just a prejudice against these silly things that grow out of the ground.

So what did I think of when I wanted a V-day centerpiece? Flowers. I don't know why. I don't like flowers. (have we established that?) So since, I don't like flowers....I don't know why I thought it would a good idea!? But I did. And I had a Michaels gift card that had been in my wallet for about 3 years. (seriously.)

So. Off I went. I bought the silly little flowers you see my picturing here, and I brought them home to chop up. They were a dollar a bundle. Since I had a gift card, it really didn't bother me. I spent $10 on them all.

Apparently normal scissors wouldn't work. Luckily I have a burley husband who owns amazing pliers that cut flowers like the best of them. ;)

Macey didn't want Tuna to feel left out, so she brought him some flowers.

The white ones (I don't know what flower they are supposed to be...yes I worked at a garden park and don't know all my cultivated species. The shame!!) stuck out too far. So I chopped down the scraggly ones.

My finished product on my coffee table. I really actually don't like it. But for some reason feel slightly satisfied that I arranged it myself. It is absolutely the day that pigs fly.

These are pine cones. In case you've never seen one before. And at dollar general this week, all their Christmas items still left were only 25 cents! Woo Hoo! So even at the general, these were originally 4 dollars. So I bought two bags for .50

This cute little doggie jar was a quarter too! Apparently it used to have a lid with a dog on it. But for a quarter, I like it enough. I also got some grape vine "brooms" for a quarter each, but they are not pictured. They will go great for Halloween and Christmas too! :)

This is the wreath above my couch. I got it a yard sale for 2 dollars I think. I love it.

At Michael's, I also bought some cutie little fake cardinals. And now one of them is hanging out in my wreath. In case you forgot. Or didn't know....I love birds. I hate flowers. Love birds.

Speaking of which...I went to my first mahoning county audobon meeting last week too!! Met some amazing people that I am way excited to go birding with in the spring! Also really excited to be a in a much greater shore bird habitat than I was in Dayton. It's gonna be a good migration.

Next.

This heart was 50% off, so I got it for two dollars. I love it.

But how could I love it more??? Why I just add a bird of course!!

I walked into my kitchen thinking how am I gonna secure the toule on here...oh great! This bread twisty that is sitting out will work great. Hot glued and perfect. 


This cardinal is actually about half the size of the one I put on my big wreath. In case you can't tell. Yay for hanging hearts and birds.

And finally we're at the end!
I went grocery shopping today...so get ready! Tomorrow or Wednesday I'll post my marathon grocery day!

Hope you enjoyed my long picture blog.
Much love,
Little Tuna

Cinnamon Scones

A few weeks ago, I made cinnamon scones for Tuna and I for a Saturday breakfast. YUM.
Got the recipe from Money Saving Mom
Who got it from The Coupon Project

His parents are coming to stay the night tonight before they head up to Canada to see his g-pa.

So tomorrow I will again be trying these scones for breakfast.

Also, I am running low on powdered sugar but have plenty of the regular stuff. So I put some in the blender and voila! Powdered sugar. Obviously if you use sucanat (unprocessed sugar) it does the same and it's not bleached. I don't have any sucanat on hand however, so bleach for breakfast it is!

Recipe follows pictures. 

You can use whatever flour you have on hand. Though I might not recommend entirely whole wheat, maybe half and half. I've used all whole wheat in some recipes and the result is a little bit bran like. So unless it's a recipe that compensates it, I would go for half and half, can't taste the difference. But use unbleached flour if possible. It's better for you. Also, don't smoke. I hear it causes bad breath.

Mix up your powdered ingredients and then cut the butter into it. You can use a fork. I just found the pastry blender worked faster!

Just the yolk. (almost spelled it yoke. but if I were talking about oxen, you probably wouldn't be reading this)

Keep the white for later. 

This is the egg yolk, honey, and "buttermilk". (again, I used milk and lemon juice!)

This is Big Tuna and Puppy Macey on a lazy Saturday morning.

 

Aaaand form your ball. 

Flatten the ball, place on greased pan, and cut it in equal slices

Now it's time for the egg white. Brush onto the top of the scones. Yes...I am using a BBQ brush. It's about two feet long. But I don't have a small one, and this one gets the job done so why buy one!?

MMM. Cinnamon-sugar goodness. (you could use half low-calorie sweetner if you wanted. Not the same texture but wouldn't change the taste much.) 

Can you smell the cinnamon? oh yea.

Icing topping.

Check out that baby. It's flaky, cinnamon-y, goodness.

Here's the directions:

Scone Ingredients:

2 cups flour (I used unbleached, but you could use half whole-wheat, half unbleached)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 egg, separated
3 Tablespoons honey
1/3 cup buttermilk (or 1/3 cup milk mixed with 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice)

Crumb Topping (can be adjusted to your liking):

1-2 Tablespoons turbinado (or sugar)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Glaze Ingredients (can be adjusted to your liking):

1 cup powdered sugar 

1-3 teaspoons milk (enough to make a glaze)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.

Separate the egg white and yolk. Set the egg white aside.

In a separate bowl, mix egg yolk, honey and buttermilk (or milk/lemon juice mixture). Add to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Form dough into a ball on a floured surface. Roll or pat out to half an inch in thickness and eight inches in diameter. Cut into eight equally-sized pieces.

Transfer to a greased baking sheet. Whisk the egg white until froth forms and brush over the tops of scones. Mix turbinado and cinnamon together and sprinkle over egg-white-topped scones.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

Mix together powdered sugar, milk and vanilla until glaze forms. Drizzle over scones after they bake.

Have a great weekend!

I got some smokin dollar store deals, and did a few valentine's crafts this week. I will post them sooner rather than later hopefully.

Love,
LT

Italian Turkey Meat Balls

Earlier in the month, save-a-lot had frozen ground turkey for 1.00 per lb. Needless to say I stocked up! I bought six lbs which I figured would be gone most likely by the end of the month, maybe into Feb a bit.

(Tuna and I are normally big into ground venison (deer meat) but this year with all the crazy work schedules and moving across the state of Ohio, he didn't have much hunting time. So no deer this year. And we only have like 3 packs of venison left! So stocking up on cheap ground meat is a priority for me these days!)

I've used 3 lbs so far and have been really pleased with the taste and quality of the meat. Turkey is very juicy/moist without the extra fat of beef.

This post I will share the easy and delicious turkey meat balls!

I've also made teriyaki burgers and ranch burgers with the meat and both of those were a hit too.

(Maybe sharing those later :)

I got the recipe from all-recipes. This will be a theme. I use all-recipes for about 70% of my new recipe cooking. It's extremely user friendly and I highly suggest it. You can see ratings and read reviews about each recipe that help make each one the best they can be. Plus they have great features like a "recipe box" to save your faves, and an "ingredient" search so that you search for recipes that include things you have in your kitchen and exclude things you don't! It's great.

Onto the recipe.

This can be used with any ground meat you have on hand, beef/chicken/turkey, whatever!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (20 ounce) package ground turkey
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• My Additions: Fresh Garlic/Onion to taste, or garlic/onion powder to taste
• Basil/Cilantro/Oregano to taste

Let's just be honest! The basic recipe is just that...basic! So make it your own. I added some garlic/onion powder because it's what was fastest and a few extra Italian seasonings. Get creative! Add whatever you think would be a tasty addition!

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with the olive oil, and place it in the oven while preheating.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the ground turkey, egg, and bread crumbs using your hands. Using an ice cream scoop if possible, form the meat into golf ball sized meatballs. Place about 1 inch apart in the hot baking dish. Press down to flatten the bottom just slightly.
3. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn them over, and continue baking for about 5 more minutes, or until somewhat crispy on the outside. Serve with pasta and sauce or however you'd like.

Gather em up!

 Talent....to pour and take a picture ;)

Amazing Amish egg. Each with date stamp :)

Ice cream scoop em up


Before

After...mmm
Remember. These are home made meatballs. They don't look restaurant perfect...but they are also not pre-packaged microwaved meat blobs! Their imperfections make them that much better :)

 Slap em on some pasta, or a sub, or whatever tickles your fancy!

Fast, easy, delicious dinner. Yummo! (we're BIG spaghetti people, so it was a nice change to the normal)

Macey from her post while I make dinner. She's dying to go play!

Macey had her first puppy class yesterday. She did great. She's the youngest in the class, which means she has learned the least amount of bad habits already. She is so focused, it's humorous. Like a true beagle, when there is food involved she can't keep her eyes away from the commander! She had a blast.

We've had a great lazy Sunday. Went to church this morning, and came home from some left over chicken corn chowder. Took Macey for a walk but other than that just listening to the games on the radio and playing some online settlers! ;-)

Also, BT and I have finally finished watching the Indiana Jones series. Harrison Ford has a such a special place in my heart! Honestly....I hope they make one more before he kicks off. ;)

Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend as well.

LT

Candy Bar Cupcakes

My first recipe blog! Woo hoo! A milestone I'm sure ;)

Candy Bar Cupcakes 

These egg-free cupcakes turned out pretty tasty. Overall I would give the recipe a 3.5/5

Why? Well…I was pretty much not impressed with the "filling". The filling does contain and egg, and it really just turned out to be a pretty flavorless layer in the cupcake even though it had candy bar in it. Not that impressive. What I did like about them was the chocolate cupcake recipe itself is pretty tasty and doesn’t have any eggs in it which really helps with the calories. Pair the cupcake base with a creamy raspberry or orange cream filling…oh yea!

So we’ll see what I come up with later in life on how to perfect this, but for now I’ll share this version with you. 

I’ll post the whole recipe and directions first so you can copy and paste if you want, then give you pictures and steps after that. 

From “Healthy Cooking” magazine

CUPCAKES

1 cup sugar

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk on hand to 1 tbs of lemon juice)

¼ cup canola oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup baking cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp. salt

FILLING

6 oz fat-free cream cheese

2 Tbsp confectioners sugar

1 egg

2 snickers candy bars finely chopped

FROSTING

1/3 cup butter, cubed

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

3 Tbsp fat-free milk

1-1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1. In a large bowl, beat the sugar, buttermilk, oil and vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into sugar mixture until blended.

2. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg; mix well. Stir in candy bars.

3. Fill paper-lined muffin cups one-third full with batter. Drop filling by tablespoonfuls into the center of each cupcake and add another layer of batter.

            *note, the instructions say the cups should be about half full. Mine were ALL the way to the top before I new what was going on! The batter is thick and making room for the filling is not an easy task. Mine were full and turned out with big tops but they were still tasty. So careful if you’re looking to make small cupcakes, use small spoonfuls!

           Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cook completely.

4. In saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in brown sugar. Bring to a boil; cook for 2 minutes stirring occasionally.

         

           *note, 2 minutes was NOT enough time for my boil. The icing turned out tasty but it did not hold its form like the picture in the magazine showed. I would boil for more like 3-4 minutes if I tried this again to help it set stiffer.

           

            Remove from heat; stir in the milk, then confectioners’ sugar. Cool until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Frost cupcakes. 

If you don't have buttermilk, (who does?) and don't wanna buy it specifically for this, I suggest using 1 cup of milk to 1 tbs of lemon juice. Mix together and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Gather the ingredients!

Get out your fabulous-o mixing bowls! (or whatever you have in your kitchen. Though I suggest colors because they make mixing that much more fun ;)

 1st mixing step- sugar, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla 

2nd mixing step- flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, beat into 1st mixure

 

Crush up your candy bars! (I used a butterfinger instead of two snickers)

If your cream cheese is straight from the fridge (like mine was) put in the microwave for a few seconds until it's softened enough to beat it.

 

My amazing-ly HUGE amish eggs from a local grocer. Got the 12 box for only a buck! woo hoo

Pretty liners can really help a so-so looking cupcake ;)

1st step in filling the tins

(oh yea, the recipe calls for "muffin tin" I obviously used regular cupcake because that's what I have. Is there a difference? I don't know. But that could attribute to them being such big cupcakes!?)

2nd layer- filling

3rd layer- what you don't see is that I used so much batter that I didn't have enough to cover two of the cupcakes! haha. part of being in the kitchen is making mistakes!

The butter and brown sugar boiling (my suggestion is more than 2 minutes!)

The cupcakes, and the two misfits :)

The frosting. I even used a frosting bag and tip for these! As soon as the icing was from the fridge (I placed it there to hurry on the "setting") it became soft and runny. So I really should have just iced them with a knife and saved the effort but oh well! Live and learn.

And to finish it off, Macey with her favorite toy. Adding that shoe string to the froggie was the best thing to her since peanut butter stuffed in her kong toys! She drags it around the room constantly. This is her quite konked out after running while mommy was making cupcakes in the kitchen :)

Love,

LT