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Archive for January, 2009

Super Bowl Snacks

posted by cindylouh on January 30th, 2009 | party ideas, recipes |

First up is the best ball watching dip out there!

buffalo-dip

Spicy Buffalo Dip

2 - 8 ounce packages of cream cheese (softened)

1 cup bottled Ranch Salad Dressing

1 cup Louisiana Hot Sauce

2 boneless chicken breasts, cooked and chopped OR 2 cans of chicken drained

Soften cream cheese, mix together all ingredients and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes until bubbly.  Serve with celery and Chicken in a Biskit crackers.

Next up, these lightly seasoned pretzels make a great crunchy snack!

pretzels

Honey Mustard Glazed Pretzels

1 - 15  to 16 oz bag mini pretzels

1/4 cup honey

3 Tablespoons Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp dried mustard (you can add more if you would like a more mustard flavor)

2 Tablespoons butter (melted)

Melt butter and mix in other ingredients.  Pour over pretzels.  Place pretzels in a large pan and bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from oven and separate pretzels before completely cooling (they have a tendency to stick together while cooling).

Have a fun Super Bowl!

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Happy Kansas Day!

posted by cindylouh on January 29th, 2009 | kids crafts, Uncategorized |

We are celebrating with sunflower cupcakes today!
sunflower-cupcake-3

I took melted almond bark and colored it with Wilton paste color for the petals and used melted chocolate chips for the center. I drew out the sunflowers and then covered my paper with wax paper. The sunflowers were just a "guide" to keep me from getting too far off track.

Here is the sunflower template I used.

sunflower-cupcake-toppers-supplies

I filled ziploc bags with the melted candy, snipped of a tiny corner of the bag and piped the melted candy.

sunflower-cupcake-topper-piping

Once the candy is completely cool and hard you have a sunflower cupcake topper!

sunflower-cupcakes-3

You might also be interested in this fun sunflower cake made from Twinkies or these sunflower cupcakes!

Happy 148th Birthday Kansas!

Crochet Heart Garland

posted by cindylouh on January 28th, 2009 | crochet |

Crochet a festive garland for your home!

crochet-heart-garland-3

They work together quickly!

crochet-heart-garland-1

You will  find the basic heart pattern at Suzie's Stuff among many other great patterns.

Use size J crochet hook and worsted weight yarn.

Heart

Round 1

Chain 4.  Make all of the next stitches in the first chain. 3 trc, 3 dc, chain 1, 1 trc, chain 1, 3 dc, 3 trc, chain 2 slip stitch

Round 2

Chain 3, in first trc make sc and hdc, in next stitch 3 hdc, in next stitch 2 hdc, sc in next four stitches, chain 1 dc in trc, chain 1, sc in next four stitches, 2 hdc in next stitch, 3 hdc in next stitch, hdc and sc in next stitch, chain 3 and slip stitch in center

Round 3

Chain 3 , sc in  top of chain 3 from previous row , sc  in each stitch all the way around (until chain 3 from previous row).  I chained one at the tip of the heart to get around the point easier. At beginning of chain 3 from previous row chain three and slip stitch in center of heart.  Pull  the loop to the back and fasten off.

Inspired Crochet Designs wrote me and said that if you make the following changes on Round 3 it will keep the top of the heart from curling.

Round 3

Chain 3,  sc in  top of chain 3 from previous row , 2 sc in next stitch, sc in next stitch, 2 sc in next stitch, then sc in each of the next stitches until point of heart, chain one for point, sc in next five stitches, then sc in next st, 2 sc in next stitch, sc in next stitch, 2 sc in next stitch, chain three and then slip stitch in center of heart.  Pull the loop to the back and fasten off.

crochet-heart-garland-21

Garland

Chain 45, in top of heart sc, chain 6, sc in top of  other side of the heart, chain 12, sc in top of heart, chain 6, sc in top of other side of the heart, chain 12. Repeat until all hearts are joined, chain 45 fasten off.

Let me know how it goes!

You can find more ways to celebrate Valentine's Day here!

Good things come in small packages!

posted by cindylouh on January 27th, 2009 | recipes, valentines |

I know I have talked about this pan for the past two years, but I can't stop.

cheesecake-pan

It makes the most insanely cute cheesecakes. With just a few ingredients you can have a show stopper dessert!

mini-cheesecake-1

This year I tried  the Caramel Chocolate Seduction recipe from King Arthur Flour recipe data base.

mini-cheesecake-1a

It is delicious! I forgot to get the chocolate cookies for the crust (I would have bought chocolate graham crackers or animal crackers) so I used  8-10 Oreos for the crust and omitted the sugar.

mini-cheesecake-2

Would you like to make these mini sweets? King Arthur is giving one lucky reader a Mini Heart Cheesecake Pan. Please leave a comment before Sunday at midnight and I will randomly choose one VERY lucky reader to win this cool pan!

Happy Australia Day!

posted by cindylouh on January 26th, 2009 | Uncategorized |

In honor of our sweet friends Rob, Andrea, Matt and  Bella and you Australian blog readers, we will be celebrating Australia Day here in America with a couple of our favorite Aussie Books and some delicious ANZAC Biscuits.

We love, Koala Lou by Mem Fox and Pamela Lofts.

koala

This book is a wonderful reminder for children that they do not need to do anything to earn their mother's love.  A very sweet story with beautiful and expressive  illustrations!

Hear Mem Fox read Koala Lou,  here.

Another good book is Draw Aussie Animals by Marion & Steve Isham.

drawaussieanimalscover

The book includes simple illustrations for drawing 14 extinct Australian animals.  You can find lots of free activity pages at their website. Your kids can draw this Tasmanian Devil, similar to one in Isham's book.

Have a happy day!

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