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

Afterschool Snack: Yogurt Parfait

  We are big yogurt eaters but sometimes the kids get bored of individual containers of the flavoured kind.  To jazz things up, I will make them yogurt parfaits instead.  I simply put a layer of vanilla yogurt in a pretty ice-cream glass and then add a scoop of thawed frozen berries (usually strawberries or raspberries).  Then I fill the glass to the top with a berry yogurt and top with pieces of granola (or here I used toasted wheat germ).  I've seen these parfaits at the coffee place for a couple bucks, so it's much more economical to just make them at home - fresher and tastier, too!  This is a great, nutritious snack for the kids and you!

Pizza Cutters

We love to make homemade pizza and cutting the pies is an easy task when you have the right tool.  I have several pizza cutters, from the standard stainless steel cutting wheel on a handle, to a traditional single-blade mezzaluna (Italian for the half-moon shape of the blade).  My favourite is the smaller silver-handled one in the centre, it fits my hand well and has a good, sharp blade.  The large mezzaluna is great for chopping up herbs as well.  If you enjoy making your own pizza (or even bake up store-bought frozen pizzas, for that matter), it's worth the investment to get a good pizza cutter.  Much better than a knife, (which moves back and forth in a sawing motion), the pizza wheel applies pressure vertically to avoid dislodging the toppings!

Cherry Chocolate "Brownies"

  This recipe came from my 101 Brownies book but I put the name in quotations because it is more of a cake to me than a brownie.  It's also a cheater recipe in that it starts with some ready-made ingredients, to which you add fresh ones, but the result is so tasty that no one will care if it wasn't made 100% from scratch!  Sometimes we all need a short-cut now and then...
 

Cherry Chocolate Brownies

1 package devils food or chocolate cake mix

1 can cherry pie filling

1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

2 eggs

350 F, 9x13" greased pan, 25-30 mins.

Icing:

1 cup sugar

5 Tbsp butter

1/3 cup milk

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate

Gypsy

The timing of this story is the funny thing.  Even though the Gypsy (the hand-held design studio for the Cricut) has been available since last year, I never really took much notice of it because I thought it was too complicated, time-consuming, and unnecessary.  But on Friday, for some reason, I started to re-think that reasoning and investigate a bit more.  I watched some videos by bloggers who use it and my interest was piqued.  I decided I would add this to my wish-list and thought no more of it.

Then when we went out of town on Saturday for my DD's university audition (it went well) I popped into Michael's, as I always take the opportunity to do when I am near one and have a 40% off coupon, walked in and saw a Cricut display.  Obviously, I was immediately drawn to the table since the main goal of the trip was to check out the prices of my coveted cartridges (Just Because Cards and Create A Critter).  And there on the table was a Gypsy, all hooked up to the Cricut Expression, live and in person, just dying to be tried.

But the funny part of the story, and I smile when I think about it, was the demonstrator.  Dressed in a sweet Provo Craft apron, Gypsy in hand, was...oh my gosh, FABIO!  You know the guy...romance novel cover model, Can't Believe It's Not Butter dude.  Complete with long, wavy, dirty-blonde hair, tight t-shirt and big biceps, this big guy started asking me if I knew about the Cricut.  Well, this was just too interesting to pass up (and I really love to talk to any body!) so I told him I had it already and was looking at the Gypsy.  He actually was very informative and friendly, and showed me some quick features.  He welded the word tree with an icon of a tree and proceeded to cut it out.  Well, I could see before he started that the card stock loaded on the mat looked pretty thick.  When he tried to get the cut off the mat, it wasn't cut all the way through.  "I guess I didn't have my pressure set high enough", he said.  (It was only on 2!).  I mentioned that I often use multi-cut with thick card stock.  So he reloaded the mat and re-cut the image he'd created.  But he used the same place on the mat, didn't re-adjust the pressure, and I just knew there was no way in heck it was going to cut in the same exact spot again (he didn't even use "reload last"...so I was kind of laughing inside thinking this will never work, poor guy.)  Of course, when he unloaded the mat the whole thing was just double-cut slightly off of the first attempt and it was just a mess!

I asked earlier if he worked for PC, Michael's, or independently...turns out these demonstrators are contracted and are trained briefly on the products.  He told me he got to take all the stuff home to play with and he'd made little cards and tags to show.  He was very sweet and really tried and I just thought the whole thing was so funny!  (And what a great job - I'd like to do that!)  Regardless of his struggles, I got to hold the Gypsy and it confirmed my desire to get one.  I've (of course) now researched it endlessly, found the best price, read the on-line manual, watched advance demo videos, and discovered a couple bloggers who do some wonderful tricks with it.  Now there's just that little matter of the money...
 

Greek Garlic-Lemon Potatoes

  I had just the right ingredients left over this week to prepare a Greek-inspired dinner and the best part of that (for me) is the potatoes.  The recipe for these Greek Garlic-Lemon potatoes came from a Greek friend, about 25 years ago, and I have been making them ever since.  They roast up so lovely, and the lemon, garlic, and oregano lend a fantastic flavour and aroma.  I usually serve these potatoes with moussaka but this time I bar-b-qued some pork tenderloins that I had marinating
in olive oil, lime juice, garlic, and a couple tablespoons of oregano.  Mmmm, delicious!  I rounded out the meal with a big Greek salad, full of salty feta cheese.  The potatoes take 1-1/2 hours of high-heat roasting but as the star of this meal, they're worth the time!  

Greek Garlic-Lemon Potatoes

6 medium potatoes, cubed

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1-1/2 tsp dried oregano

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 cups hot water

chopped fresh parsley

Toss together potatoes, juice, oils, spices, and garlic in deep, flat roasting pan.  Add water.  Bake uncovered 1-1/2 hours at 475 F.  Stir every 1/2 hour, add more water if needed.  During final 1/2 hour allow water to evaporate.  Garnish with parsley.

 

Welcome Baby

  My new great-niece is such a gorgeous baby and I wanted to dedicate an entire scrapbook page to just one adorable photo of her.  I used some Sweetpea dsp as a background and layered it with some patterned dsp on which I used the scalloped-eyelet edge punch.  The satin ribbon and some pearls add a bit of girlish softness to the page and I will add a small journal box with the baby's details on the right of the photo.  The butterfly and title were cut using the Calligraphy Collection Cricut cartridge.  This particular cart has the 5 different fonts, a card, various shape icons, and a TON of expressions and words - six pages worth!  Just great...:0)

Depth on a Scrapbook Page

I wanted to convey the feeling of being under the sea when I scrapbooked these photos from the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.  The underground viewing area of the aquarium is supposed to be like the ruins of the lost city - it was pretty cool!  I used some patterned paper from the Primary Tropical Additions set from Creative Memories and just cut along the decorative border line.  It's kind of hard to tell in the photo, but I then popped it up with some Foam Squares to give the page some depth.  Adding the photos underneath the border helps accomplish the same look. 

Complete Salon Manicure

I do not usually wear nail polish on my finger nails, mostly because I don't have the time for all the steps of a proper manicure (plus base coat, 2 colour coats, top coat) and when I have invested the time (or money for a pro manicure) I get frustrated by the chips that inevitably happen within a day.  It doesn't help that I am constantly washing my hands, doing dishes, loading laundry, and cleaning - all things that are hard on your nails.

However, while on vacation and taking a break from the hard labour, I grew my nails and found a wonderful new Sally Hansen polish that has "all 5 steps of a salon manicure in 1 bottle".  This toluene, DBP and formaldehyde free formula (not sure what a couple of those are, but they sound like stuff you'd want to avoid!) covers the base coat, strengthener, growth treatment, colour, and top coat all at once.  I applied it in the hotel room only an hour or so before bed, thinking I'd end up with sheet impressions on my nails in the morning.  The polish goes on so quickly and smoothly, and has a nice wide, flat brush.  I did two coats, which took no time at all, and it dried really quickly.  NO lines, no streaking!  I must say, it lasted almost a week with no chipping!  When I did take it off, my nails had grown so nicely and that's all the incentive I need to quit picking them and keep going!  If it's quick to do and lasts a week, I think I can maintain the routine and keep my nails looking presentable.  I bought 2 more bottles when I got home (I was pleasantly surprised to a) even find such a new product in Canada, and b) get it at the same price as Wal-Mart in the States - $6.99 or less!  Not bad for 5 products in one!  It comes in 42 shades and I'm looking forward to trying some more of them ( there are some pretty funky ones for summer!).   You can check them out here.

P.S. There is a really fun feature on the Sally Hansen website where you can virtually try on all the different colours.  You pick your skin tone, nail length and shape, and then pick the different shades and see how they look.  It is really helpful to get a visual and you can try some colours you wouldn't usually, - I've already written down 3 colours I want for sure!  Check it out!  

Videos on ifood.tv

As you may know, I have had to remove a lot of my old videos from youtube since they contained copywritten background music.  Some I have been able to re-edit and some must be filmed entirely from scratch again.  As my crepe video is featured today on the home page over at www.ifood.tv, I thought it was a good time to remind you that you can still catch ALL of my videos, including the ones with music, right there on my ifood channel.  You can search for them or see the listing here.

I have been super busy with catching up from vacation, both with my own stuff and my mother's!  Plus, it's tax time, spring cleaning (ok, I really haven't done much of that yet!), and I am realizing that feeding 5 people, 3 meals a day takes up a lot of time!  It's great that I am able to gather the family together for almost every meal but the prep and clean-up leave only a couple hours in between their various departure and arrival times to get everything else done!  Where does the time go?  But I am hoping to grab an hour this aft to do a little crafting - I've been focused on scrapbooking all my vacation photos but I really would like to sit and stamp a few cards - it's been a while and I still haven't even experimented with my new products yet!  I did order some sentiment stamps from AmyR Stamps.  Her Big Words and Handy Additions Sentiments stamps look so versatile and pretty and are a great deal in the set over at All That Scraps.  I'll definitely share them with you when they arrive! 

Life Is A Beach Photo Card

  Today's video shows how to use the Photo Card Creative Feature key on the Life Is A Beach cartridge with the Cricut Expression.  I was very happy with the effect created with the layered cut-out available with each card icon.  It's simple to showcase any photo you'd like to include on a card and a unique way to share your memories.