Digi Day

Two weeks ago, I did a little mention of Photoshop Friday on Wednesday. Ha ha, that's so weird. Remember? Well, today is Wednesday! I told you I was going to remind you. You get a tutorial, template, and digi supplies to make a layout for one dollar today. It's a mini lesson on a photoshop technique. I really love them. Go here to purchase. This week the lesson is on creating clipping masks. You learn this in the classes but if you don't plan on taking the classes and you don't know how to do this, you need this tutorial for sure! I love clipping masks. I use them on every layout.

Also, Jessica is re-releasing her Now We're Rocking Class. This is the second in her Digital Scrapbooking Photoshop classes. It is the same content as the previous class but updated and with new digital goodies.

You learn how to make all 4 of these layouts. The knowledge you gain is worth every penny. I promise. Notice on the first layout you learn selective re-coloring. Love this technique.

Last but not least, here is my layout for the week. The majority of the products are by Echo Park. Echo Park is teaming up with JessicaSprague.com. They are a relatively new company in the scrapbooking industry. You can buy their papers at your local scrapbook store or through JS.com in digital format. I think it's great some of these companies are catering to all scrapbookers. Look for another big name coming to JS.com soon. Fun Fun!

You can find these credits here.

Have a beautiful Wednesday!

Canning Pickled Beets

I used to be scared of canning.  I remember as a child watching my Grandma and Auntie can everything from their gardens.  And reading through Grandma's journals, she even canned deer meat and fish!  Nutso!  I don't think i'll try to can meat products.  Sounds disgusting.  Anyway...It always looked like such a long process, and hard work.  I didn't start doing it on my own til I married Jason.  His mom and sister invited me to help with canning homemade salsa.  It was A LOT of work, but when it was all done I felt so proud of all the cans we filled and adding to our food storage.  Now I do quite a bit of it by myself.  I've done tomatoes, dilly beans, applesauce, pickled jalepenos, and pickled beats.  Everything has tasted delicious so far, so I must be doing something right.  The feeling of accomplishment when your done is what keeps me doing it.  So this year was a first for pickled beets.  It took quite awhile, and was kind of messy, but well worth it.

The recipe I used for my first time was from this website.  I've done a few other recipes from their site, and loved the results.  I like that they have a chart of processing times too.  It's very informative and who doesn't love pictures of every step?!

 Aren't they pretty?!

If you have a favorite thing that you love to can please let me know.  I always like to try new things.  Email me at aerykat at gmail dot com. 

Monday Matchup

Please forgive us for our lack of posting last week. As Erica mentioned we were very busy taking care of our Grandpa's funeral arrangements, helping where we could, and just being with family. It is such a joy being together but sad also because of the circumstances. We lost our Grandmother a year ago and was expecting losing Grandpa. We are so happy they are together again.

Anyway, we are back at it this week excited to share more with you. I love cookbooks. Love them. At the library or book store you will most likely find me in the cookbook section. I would be a collector if I had the space to accommodate. Someday. Right now I check out cookbooks and take them back usually unwillingly.

Well this week I chose for Monday Matchup to make a new cookie we've never made before. I headed to the library and picked up The Best of The Pillsbury Bake-Off Cookies and Bars. I actually like these types of cookbooks because the recipes come from every day cooks like you and I. You can find great recipes in these books and you can find some doozies. So, I was a bit worried how these would turn out. I chose the cover recipe (you can't go wrong there!) which was Caramel-filled Chocolate Cookies and got to baking. Basically they are a chocolate cookie with pecans and a Rolo or 2 Milk Duds in my case pressed in the center. They are topped with a pecan/sugar mixture and a white chocolate drizzle. All in all I enjoyed these. I'm not a nut lover but tolerate them. My kids don't care as long as it has sugar. I will definately put this in my own recipe book.

You can find the book here. Thanks!

Caramel-filled Chocolate Cookies

2.5 cups of flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 t. baking soda

1 c. sugar

1 c. packed brown sugar

1 c. butter softened

2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 c. chopped pecans
1 Tbls. sugar
48 Rolos or Milk Duds
4 oz. white choc. or Vanilla Almond Bark

In small bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, and baking soda; set aside. In mixer cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs and mix. On low speed at flour/cocoa mixture until blended then add 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes for easier handling.

Heat oven to 375. In small bowl mix remaining 1/2 cup of pecans and 1 Tbls. of sugar. With floured hands, shape about 1 Tbls of dough around each caramel, covering completely. Press one side of each ball into pecan mixture. Place nut side up on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 7-10 minutes or until set and slightly cracked. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.

Melt white chocolate or Almond Bark and drizzle over cookies. Enjoy!

Hi! Erica here.  I decided to do a Heath Bar Cookie.  I found the recipe here. 

It was fun doing something different.  My norm are chocolate chip, peanut butter, and sugar cookies.  I think I found a new favorite.  I needed to get some cookies baked for our neighbor who had earlier purchased my daughters 4H sheep.  And I think these were quite the treat!  I loved how the toffee melted on the bottom of the cookie and got crunchy again once the cookie had cooled.  Yummy!  You have the option to use the full candy bar or just the bag of toffee bits.  I did the full candy bar, because the bag of toffee bits didn't have the chocolate in with it.  Gotta have the chocolate.  To crumble the candy bar I used my marble rolling pin and rolled over them a few times.
.

Here's the recipe
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped Heath Bar pieces (Eight 1.4 ounce bars)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine Heath Bar pieces and chopped walnuts. Set aside.


Beat together the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, and vanilla.

Alternatively mix in the Heath Bar mixture and the flour mixture, a third at a time, until well blended. Chill cookie dough for at least 30 minutes (better an hour).

Preheat oven to 350°F. On cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpat, spoon out the cookie dough in small 1-inch diameter balls (size of a large marble). Place dough balls 3 inches away from each other on the cookie sheets.

Good stuff!  I didn't do my cookies as small as it suggested.  I did them a normal cookie scoop and I thought they were perfect.  I got about 3 dozen. 

:o)

The Best DANG Brownies

First of all, I need to apologize that we aren't doing our "Monday Match-Up" this week.  Our beloved Grandpa passed away, so we will get to it next week for sure.

My family is all in town and we've been getting together every night for dinner.  So I decided to try these out on them and I think they were a hit.  They were pretty easy to throw together and quite delicious!  The pan disappeared fast.  I will for sure be making these again, and I think replacing 1 bag of the semi-sweet chocolate chips with another kind would be a fun experiment.

 *Monica's in town, so she took the picture for me.*  :o)

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 c. butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
4 TBS water
2-12 oz packages of semi sweet chocolate chips
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and mix to combine.
In a large sauce pan, melt butter with sugar and water.  Bring to just a boil and remove from heat.  Stir in one bag of chocolate chips and vanilla.  Stir til completely melted.  Whisk in 1 egg at a time mixing well after each one.  Slowly blend in flour mixture and then add remaining chocolate chips.  Pour in greased 9x13 baking dish and bake 30-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Make sure it's just not chocolate from the chocolate chips.  Let it cool atleast 2 hours.  ENJOY!  :o)

Friday Favorites

I'm obsessed with food blogs.  Not just any food blog though...they have to have awesome recipes that I can see myself making in my own kitchen and ingredients that I can find in my local grocery store.  They also have to have great pictures, where I can see the detail of the food.  That sounds awful, because I don't take that great of pictures yet.  I'm working on it.  So this week, i'm am featuring Our Best Bites.  I love this food blog.  They always have awesome recipes and they taste awesome too.  I've tried a few and were very happy with the results.  So go check them out, and try some of their recipes.  I'm sure you'll be blog stalking them like I do.  :o)

Here's a couple pictures of my favorite recipes

Buttermilk Pancakes

Buttermilk Syrup

Grilled Garlic Balsamic Asparagus

Delish Rolls

And I haven't tried this one, but I think I may...my pregnant brain won't quit thinking about it.

Pineapple Batido

Click here to go see their fun blog.

Digi Day

Credits Here.

Just so you know. Every Wednesday at JessicaSprague.com you can purchase what is called Photoshop Friday for ONE DOLLAR. (I have no idea why Photoshop Friday is on Wednesday but let's look past that.) Why is this so great you may ask. Well, you pay a buck and you get a tutorial, a template, a printable instruction sheet, and all the supplies to make a layout. One dollar people. You can't beat that.

The above layout was done using Photoshop Friday No. 12. The lesson was on rounding corners. Past lessons have included making scuffy edge photos, making a storyboard, curving your journaling, using brushes, and many more.

The bad thing is it's Thursday and you missed it. The good thing is, a new one will be available next Wednesday and if you really want a past one you can pay $3.99 for it. You can find them here.I love these little lessons. I'll give you a reminder next Wednesday. ;)

Martha Stewart Flourless Chocolate Cupcake

Because of our move I got a little behind in my Martha Stewart Cupcake Club. June's cupcake was the Strawberry Cupcake. That will come later this month. July's cupcake was the Flourless Chocolate Cupcake. When I first picked up this book and flipped through it, this one caught my eye. I had never tried this before and was excited to see my results.

The cupcake is super easy to prepare. I melted butter (mmmmmm....butter) and semi-sweet chocolate chips on the stovetop over simmering water. It made a smooth chocolate. Yum.

Beforehand I had separated three eggs. The yolks were wisked into the chocolate and the whites were whipped up with some sugar to stiff peaks.

The whites were then folded into the chocolate.

And then scooped into cupcake liners.

These baked at a low temperature for a longer period of time. They rose really high then sunk at the end of the cooking time.

It looks like a flop but really it's supposed to look like that!

Once they were mostly cooled. We put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in and enjoyed! I really enjoyed these. They had a crispy top and a small layer of fudgy cake at the bottom. I would definitely make these again. You can find the recipe HERE!

Monica :)