Two great gift ideas....

I have a few really good friends this month who are celebrating birthdays, so I needed to come up with a couple of ideas for gifts. I painted this unfinished wood frame with craft paint, hot clued a bow, a flower, and covered the middle with a piece of burlap, then added a W patch that I found at a craft store. It was very simple and cost less than $10.

For something a little nicer I found a glass dome added a bow and teacup to make it look not so plain.

So easy to make a lasagna in the crock pot.....

I'm posting this recipe as a request from a friend....hope you all love it as much as I do!


1 lb. ground beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
1 large jar spaghetti sauce (such as Ragu in the 1 lb. 10 ounce jar)
1 package (8 ounces) no-boil lasagna noodles
16 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
1 lb. ricotta cheese
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan/Romano cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
Brown the beef, onion, and garlic in a little oil in a frying pan. Drain off any grease.
Add the spaghetti sauce into the browned meat mixture. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, milk, and egg. Beat until thoroughly mixed and smooth. Then mix in the mozzarella cheese and the grated cheese, so that all the cheeses are combined.

Grease the slow cooker/Crock Pot with some vegetable shortening on the bottom and sides.

Put about 1/4 of the meat and sauce mixture in the bottom of the slow cooker/Crock Pot. Put a layer of noodles on top of that (break or cut them if needed). Put about 1/3 of the cheese mixture on top of that. Then repeat with sauce, noodles, cheese for another 2 layers. Top with meat sauce. Cook on low for 4-6 hours or until noodles are tender.

Cute picture frame I made

I made this picture frame and if I don't say so myself, I think it turned out pretty cute.....thinking about adding a monogram instead of a picture. Watch for more ideas...

Vacation Memories

The kids cut up an old map and glued it to compasition notebook, so that they could spend some time writing this summer. What better to write about other than our trip to the beach? All this writing about the beach made us hungry for a snack, so I made these cute sand dollar sugar cookies by using a basic sugar cookie recipe and adding slithered almonds. Here's a good recipe for yummy sugar cookies....


2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup butter, softened 1 1/2 cups white sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Redecorating my $99 dining room hutch

I'm beginning to collect too much glass apothecary jars, oh wait there's no such thing as too many..

Great recipe for a not so traditional cole slaw!

2 bags of slaw mix
1 or 2 large cucumbers
1 bunch of green onions

1 C vegetable oil
2/3 white sugar
1/3 c distilled vinegar
3 tbl onion powder
3 tbl garlic powder

mix all ingrediants and serve chilled!

Yummy Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Yummy oven roasted tomatoes! I love to make these tomatoes at the end of the week when I have a few extra and don't want them to go bad, and they are super easy. Just cut the ends off of a few Roma's and cut them in half, place them on a cookie sheet drizzled with olive oil, then top them with some garlic powder, kosher salt, and pesto, bake on 325 for 2 and 1/2 hours and they're done! So easy and so yummy! I love to slice a french baguette toast it with some fresh mozzarella and then top it with one of these tomatoes, and so does my family!

I'm so sad that I don't own a house with a huge front porch to decorate. I do make the best of it by pretending that my entry is a porch, here are few pics of how it looks now......