Organizing My Decorative Stuff

I recently changed out the items on my dining room hutch, so I wanted to find a way to organize and store the items that I removed.  We are still working on finishing the upper cabinets for my pantry, and this is where all of my seasonal decorative things will be stored in the future, so it will be great to have everything ready to put away when they are done.  I decided to use plastic storage boxes because they will stack and keep everything safe.  I found these boxes at IKEA for $3 each, which makes them very affordable!  Nine boxes will fit into each of the cabinets, so that will be a lot more storage than just using the single shelf in each cabinet.  I started with the three in the picture, but now I need to go back and get more boxes!!

I'm excited every time I figure out how to organize something new - it's silly but fun!!

Have a great day!
Beth

4th of July Mini Pies

I made these little cuties for the 4th. I love this basic tart dough recipe from Pampered Chef. You can bake these and fill with what ever you want from sweet to savory. I found out you roll and cut the dough as well.

You will need a mini muffin tin, tart shaper or some thing rounded and small that will fit into the wells. Small biscuit cutter or small star shaped cutter. Medium size bowl and small scoop.

Ingredients *

1/2 cup of softened butter
3 oz cream cheese softened
1 cup flour

Pie filling

Combine butter, cream cheese, and flour well. With the small scoop fill the wells, shape the dough by pushing in the center with the shaper to make space for the filling. Fill with your choice of pie filling.  *I just realized I tripled the ingredients because I threw in the whole block of cream cheese (I often do this) so I just made more. Which means I had left overs for the cut outs on top. So you can double or quarter the recipe so that you can have a little extra for the top. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until browned around the edges.

Enjoy!

Cheddar Drop Biscuits

I'm so excited that Felicia and I decided to start using our cookbooks on a regular basis!!  We have a lot of really great cookbooks that we never use, because Pinterest or internet searches are just so convenient!  I love  Pinterest, but I either need to stop buying cookbooks or use them...so, we have a great way to search our cookbooks for recipes (I wrote about it last year, you can find the post here) and now we have a fun way to explore different cookbooks each month.  We decided that we would pick a cookbook each month, and we would each pick four recipes to make and share (one each week).  I have to say that I am already glad we did this - my very first recipe is amazing!  

Felicia already shared that this month our recipes are from Mad Hungry Cravings by Lucinda Scala Quinn.  I chose the Cheddar Drop Biscuits...they were so good I couldn't stop eating them!  They were even better the next day as a breakfast sandwich with egg and bacon.  I was very sad that I only had 1 left to have for breakfast!!  I think I might try making frozen breakfast sandwiches with these in the future...

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch cayenne pepper (I actually used paprika instead)
6 tbsp cold butter, cubed
8 ounces sharp white cheddar, shredded (I think any kind of cheese would work)
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
3 tbsp chopped chives

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Combine the dry ingredients in the bowl of a mixer.  Add the butter and mix on low until small pea sized lumps are formed.  Using a spatula, stir in the shredded cheese.  Using a low speed, add the buttermilk and chives and mix until the dough comes together.  Drop the dough into baking sheets with parchment paper, leaving 2" spaces between.  Using 1/4 cup measurements you should have 16 biscuits.  Bake for 12-15 min until golden brown.  

Amazing...can I say that enough to get you to try making these yourself??  These are so good I have made them twice in a week - and eaten way more than I should (stupid scale)!!!

Here are the rest of the recipes we've made from this cookbook:

Creamed Spinach

We would love to here about your favorite recipes from cookbooks!  Comment and share!!

Have a great day!

Beth

Creamed Spinach

Beth and I decided to cook from our cook books! We love Pinterest but we have all these books and it is time to start using them.

Beth bought a wonderful subscription online to catalog our books and have the ability to search for recipes and ingredients minus the instructions.

We chose a favorite, well they are all my favorite, Mad Hungry Cravings by Lucinda Scala Quinn. We are going to do a recipe a week from her book for 1 month.

Then the next moon will be a new book!

Today I made creamed spinach!

I didn't realize how much spinach is 2 1/2 pounds. So I cut the amount in my recipe by quite a bit. I need to keep enough for our drinks in the mornings. The recipe turned out super cream and it is so tasty! Even the kiddo went back for more, that's saying something!

You will need a big pot, a colandar and a large skillet.

Ingredients

8 oz spinach (if you have more by all means do more)
3 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
Salt and pepper
A pinch of nutmeg (I didn't use this)

First rinse the spinach, don't dry, the water on the leaves is enough water for the spinach to steam with. Place spinach in a pot and cook over medium heat with the lid on. When the leaves have cooked down, drain and squeeze out the liquid.

In the large skillet melt butter over medium heat, add flour and whisk for 1 minute. Add milk and continue to whisk. Turn off heat add salt, pepper and nutmeg if using. Add spinach and enjoy!

This isn't her exact recipe, we'll say this highly inspired and slightly adapted.

Refrigerator Bran muffins

I was excited about this recipe...still am! Although I would make some slight changes just so that I am super happy. Change #1 would be that I would crush the flakes a bit. The kind I get are huge. So there's giant pieces when you take a bite. Awesome flavor though, just for picky texture people it doesn't work! Change #2 is I would cut this recipe in half for my small family of 3. We just couldn't eat that many. If you want a great size recipe for a bake sell this would be perfect.

I got the recipe here. She says she puts the batter in her 8 cup bowl and keeps it in the refrigerator, the liquid alone almost filled an 8 cup cup bowl. So I think that was a typo! This makes a lot! It should keep in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. I figured I can make them on Mondays, when I'm all out I will make the batter the Sunday before.

My son loves these even with out the blueberries. I have to tell you though He went nuts for them even more.

Ok for real now, let's get to the recipe!

You will need a big bowl and a lined or greased muffin tin if you plan on baking some now. Preheat the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ingredients

15 oz bran flake cereal
5 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
5 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups buttermilk
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups raisins or craisins optional
Fresh or frozen blueberries optional
Chopped pecans options

This is where I would put the bran flakes in a gallon size bag and take a rolling to it! It shouldn't be dust but definetly broken. In a large bowl sift flour, baking soda and salt. Add cereal and stir. Combine buttermilk, eggs, and oil pour over cereal mixture. Stir until combine. You scoop into prepared muffin time top with raisin, craisins, blueberries or nuts if desired. Bake for 20 minutes and cool for 10 minutes.

Place batter in refrigerator. Use within 2 weeks. No need to stir, just scoop out what you need and put the batter back into your refrigerator.

I can't help it, I have all muffins with butter, try it! So amazing!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as we did!