Over the Kitchen Counter: Angie's Place for Cooking and Crafts

Cricut Crayon Box

Here's another cute project using the Tags, Bags, Boxes & More cartridge with the Cricut.  You can make them any size to fit the treat you are going to put inside.  Lots of fun to decorate any way you want and very versatile for adding goodies: candies, photos, small cards, etc.  You can change it up by adding a window, holes for a ribbon handle, or embossing.  I plan on taking one to the hospital each day for my mum with some sort of little surprise inside.

Banana Chiffon Cake

I don't think I have ever made a chiffon cake before but when I had some over-ripe bananas to use up, and was completely bored with banana loaf and muffins, this light and tender cake was the result.

Chiffon cakes are closer to a sponge cake than a butter cake.  The dry ingredients are combined and then vegetable oil, eggs yolks, and flavouring are added to a well in the centre.  Beaten egg whites are then folded into that mixture and then the batter is baked in an UNGREASED pan to allow for rising and inverted cooling.  The cake is massive!

Lemon chiffon is probably the most common flavour of this type of cake but mocha, orange, chocolate, and banana are other options.  It is very important to cool the cake upside down in the pan.  When you remove it from the oven invert the pan on top of a bottle neck (I used a glass vinegar bottle) and allow it to cool completely.  To remove from the pan, loosen sides with metal spatula and shake the pan slightly.  I covered my cake with vanilla frosting, which went well with the banana flavour and everyone loved it.  Make sure to cut your cake with a serrated knife to avoid squishing the airy slice. 

   

Banana Chiffon Cake

2 cups flour

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

5 egg yolks

1/3 cup water

1 cup banana puree

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup egg whites (about 8)

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

 

325 degree pre-heated oven.  Ungreased 10" tube pan.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Make a well in the centre.  Add vegetable oil, egg yolks, water, banana, and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until firm but not dry.  Fold batter into egg whites with a rubber spatula.  Pour batter into ungreased tube pan.  Bake on bottom rack of oven 65-70 minutes until cake springs bake and cake tester comes out clean.  Invert cake on bottle and cool completely

Cranberry Orange Loaf

 One more cranberry recipe - this time for a nice cranberry orange loaf. Tart and delicious with a cup of coffee and a great way to use up leftover fresh or frozen cranberries.

Cranberry Orange Loaf

1/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

juice of 1 orange and water (or juice) to make 3/4 cup

2 cups flour

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

grated rind of one orange

1-1/2 cups whole cranberries, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

350 degrees F for about 1 hour in 9x5" greased loaf pan

Emergency Kit

This time of year I like to re-stock my emergency kit.  I keep 3 bags in the basement: one for food, one for clothing and hygiene products, and one with supplies (radio, batteries, utensils, cards, notebook, pen, etc.).  In the unlikely event of a weather-related emergency (or worse!) it is a good idea to have enough supplies to support your family for 3 days.  Each fall and spring I will take out the food and bring it upstairs to actually use and replenish the kit with fresh goods.  It is important to stock things your family will actually eat, so if you know they are never going to stomach canned stew don't put it in there!  Under a stressful emergency it will be even less likely that they are going to savour the prospect of kipper snacks.  I put in things like soup, granola bars, apple sauce, canned fruit, instant hot chocolate, crackers, puddings, nuts, peanut butter, canned spaghetti - trying to account for the food groups as well as possible.  Don't forget jugs of water - aim for at least a litre a day per person, powdered milk or a carton of UHT milk, drink mixes, tea or coffee.  Don't overlook your pet if you have one, canned foods and dry treats are a good idea.  I always save the little napkin packages from hotels or take-out food that have cutlery, salt and pepper, coffee whitener and sugar and throw those in there too.  Fortunately I haven't had to use my kit and hopefully never will but it is always better to be self-sufficient and prepared for an emergency.

Remember:

• water
• food
• clothing
• first aid kit
• plan: meeting place, system of communication, identification

You can check with the local Red Cross, Government agency, or Health Unit for more information and to get a complete list of recommended items and tips.

New Home

  I did my best with this little card...but I still don't really like it!  I used the Wild Card cartridge to cut it out at 5" on the Cricut; card stock layer, patterned paper layer, roof layer, door & window layer...and even a shrubbery couldn't salvage it from its kindergarten-er look - no offense to kindergarten-ers!  I thought the little key charm was a stroke of inspiration but my sister will probably throw it all out anyway!  Well, making the card kept me busy waiting for the microwave installers all afternoon...who didn't show up.  Hmmm...one of those days! ;0) 

Argyle Card

  I really like how this card turned out.  I cut the Argyle card and envelope at 4-1/2" on the Cricut using the Wild Card cartridge (page 33 in the handbook).  I cut the icon from Old Olive Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up and the shift-icon in Chocolate Chip dsp.  I cut the liner for the envelope in Old Olive as well, which is great because it is 2-sided so both the diamond cut-outs and inside of the envelope are pretty.  I stamped the image using the Pocket Silhouettes stamp set, first in River Rock ink and then again in Old Olive for a shadowed look, then punched it out with a 1-3/8" circle punch.  I popped the layer up with a dimensional and added some ribbon.  Very cute card and you could easily make it very masculine - always need those cards for the men in our lives!  Have a great day!

Cherry Pie on their Faces

One of my all-time favourite children's books is Richard Scarry's The Great Pie Robbery.  We had a lot of fun years reading this book to our own children.  It is about Sam Cat and Dudley Pig and their hunt to find some pie thieves...well, you can imagine that this is right up my alley. There are so many cute details in the illustrations that you have to take the time to discover, for example a truck full of oranges gets squished and there are oranges every where...and one banana!  My favourite page is where Sam and Dudley follow the thieves into a restaurant.  The waiter asked them what they wanted.  "Two thieves with cherry pie on their faces," said Dudley.  "I don't know if we have any thieves," said the waiter, "but we do have all kinds of other people who have cherry pie on their faces."  Hilarious!  
I won't spoil the ending (check out the local library!) but the thieves punishment really hits home!  I thought of this story while I baked a cherry pie the other day. I like to make it with fresh sour cherries (they usually come in a big bucket at the grocery store only for a short time while in season) but since I didn't get any this year here is a short-cut I used which turned out very well.  I used my regular pie pastry (when you make one batch, make another in the same dirty bowl and then freeze the second set) and used a can of cherry pie filling mixed with a large jar of sour cherries (I found mine in the imported foods section.  I think they were from Poland).  Not only did this more than double the amount of cherries (those pie filling cans are more goop than fruit and pretty skimpy at that), it cut down on the sweetness a lot (pie filling goop is almost 100% sugar - way too sweet for my liking).  I did a lattice top, which looked so pretty, and we enjoyed the yummy pie with vanilla ice cream.  Excellent!  

Christmas Favours

Someone on youtube wanted to see these Christmas party favours I made for my table last year.  I used the Tags, Bags, Boxes & More cartridge with the Cricut, choosing the tree box.  I had to make about 16 of them which used a lot of card stock and they were pretty labour intensive to assemble and decorate as I stamped, embossed, sponged, coloured, and glittered!  The stamps were from an old Stampin' Up set that matched the small tag punch.  Very cute!  I filled the treat boxes with holiday M&Ms...which everyone loved, but they just tore into the boxes to get the surprise! The boxes ended up kind of destroyed but I just couldn't bear to throw them out so I put them in a bowl and kept them.  I will never use them again but when I just photographed them a red M&M fell out...ya, I ate it!  And yes, I know it is 10+ months old!  The point is that there are lots of cute boxes to use on this cart for table/party favours for any occasion.  I will just pick a simpler design this year and keep the embellishments to a minimum since they are not really appreciated.

Wow!  It's a big deal getting a hip replacement.  We were at the hospital for just over 4 hours for instruction from nurses, occupational & physical therapists, lab work and x-rays.  It is going to be a very slow recovery and will take lots of help.  All I can say is take care of your hips, ladies!! 

Cold and Cuddly

I made this cute card with my new stamp set - I just love the ice block!  I stamped my bear in Baja Breeze and then dabbed him with 2-way glue and dazzling diamonds.  I had some old scraps of Frosty paper from Creative Memories that I used for the designer paper layer on my Whisper White card stock.  The silver ribbon was perfectly suited to go with this chilly card with a warm sentiment.

Will be in the hospital with mother for most of the afternoon for her pre-op stuff.  Only a couple weeks to go until surgery day...gulp!
 

Cranberry Coffee Cake

This fabulous coffee cake is perfect for this time of year.  Made with tart cranberries, it makes a lovely treat to take to your holiday hosts or serve up to afternoon guests.  It is so simple to make and you can certainly change up the flavour by using raspberries or blueberries instead of the cranberries.  Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!

Cranberry Coffee Cake

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup milk

1 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen

Topping:

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup butter

greased bundt/tube pan, 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes