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

Spooky Inspiration

Just about to spend the day working on some Halloween crafts...nothing like a morning walk in the cemetery to get you inspired!

  

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

This is the perfect time to re-post my Chicken Noodle Soup video.  This easy and economical soup is the ideal comfort food to savour, especially if you've picked up a cold virus!  Science has proven that there are definite benefits to 'from scratch' chicken soup and at the very least it's a delicious way to get warmed up...enjoy!

Pierogi

I can't quite remember when or where I started eating pierogi, but it certainly wasn't while I lived at home growing up.  I imagine I may have had them at a Polish restaurant we used to go to during the university years and I certainly know I have prepared them for dinner for decades.

Although I have made these little potato-filled dumplings from scratch, I usually just buy them frozen - they are pretty basic and taste almost the same as homemade.  Basically, they are small circles of unleavened dough filled with various things - the most readily available being mashed potato, usually with cheddar cheese.  You can find them in the frozen-food section, in a bag, and they are not very expensive.  I preferto boil them first and then pan-fry them with sliced onions in a bit of butter and oil.  I serve them with sour cream.  Pierogi (they can have many different spellings, eg.perogi, pirogi) make an economical, easy, and tasty dinner.   My DH and I really enjoy having these for dinner...and my daughter counts them among her most favourite things to eat.  My son?  Not so much...

Dorm Treats

I showed you the POST-IT NOTE keychains I made for my daughter's dorm-mates, as well as the cookie bags with the chocolate chip cookies (I threw a Chocolate Chip Banana Bread in there as well!)...well, I couldn't just hand them over without a little thought to presentation, so I added a few, cute surprises and came up with this basket of goodies:

Each roomie got a little Beanie Baby friend (I actually went back to the store and got another tiger to replace the monkey...they are so soft!), the cookies, monogrammed keychain, and 4 little bags of candy.  I added the Good Luck card in the centre and wished them all well for their first year of study.  I was really excited to give them the basket! 

Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

My kids never complain about banana cupcakes, especially if there are chocolate chips involved.  These wonderfully chocolate individual cakes are perfect for the lunch box or as an afternoon snack.  Adding the chips to the top of each cupcake helps stretch them further and makes sure they are evenly distributed.  Boy, they smell really good when they come out of the oven!

Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

1 cup mashed bananas

1 cup milk

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp vinegar

1-3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

400 degrees F, 15-20 mins.

Cheerful Fall Treats

I thought this pair of maple leaves was the perfect paper pieced item to adorn the candy favours I gave to my scrapping friends.  The paper is from the Cheerful Power Palette (Creative Memories) and the icon is from the co-ordinating Cheerful Seasons Cricut cartridge.  The colours of the paper go well with the Sour Patch Kids candy!

Cookie Bags

One of my favourite things about stamping is being able to make pretty packaging for my baked treats.  I love to give away all sorts of yummy cookies and loaves from my kitchen so the Yummy stamp set (Stampin' Up) is one of my most-used images.  I stamped it in Chocolate Chip ink and then punched it out with the the Tag Maker punch from Creative Memories.  I inked the edges of the tag and added a little white paper flower (also from CM) to cover the staple, and then a faux pearl in the centre.  The waxed bags are perfect to hold buttery chocolate chip cookies - no mess seeps through and they look like they came straight from a professional bakery.  I used my medium ice-cream scoop to make the cookies really big and delish, and two fit perfectly in each bag (you can see the video for one of my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipes here.)  The perfect treat for the dorm room girls...  

Banana Bran Muffins

You know I'm always looking for ways to use up over-ripe bananas and get more fibre in our diet and eat more chocolate, so here's a recipe that takes on all three quests.  I thought these Banana Bran Muffins were pretty good but DH said they tasted "healthy"!  Hmmm, well he also said that if one was looking to eat more fibre and didn't care for bran cereal 'straight up', then these muffins would be a good choice - and an easy, portable way of achieving that goal.  I like that they have the addition of cocoa powder for a hint of chocolate, subtle as it is.  Nice for a change of pace from a regular bran muffin and certainly easy to make, I'd still rate this healthy recipe with a thumbs up.  (Maybe a handful of chocolate chips in the batter would raise his rating up a bit!) 

Banana Bran Muffins

1 cup flour

1 cup all bran cereal

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp cocoa

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup sour milk

1 cup mashed bananas

400 degrees F, 25 minutes

   

Ring Holder

I know some times people like to remove their rings before doing the dishes or mixing up ground beef, but I cringe when I see those beautiful engagement and wedding rings perched on the edge of the sink or tossed on the counter where they could so easily be forgotten, mistakenly thrown away with the garbage, or lost in the shuffle.

I have had this little glass ring holder since I was a teenager and it is the perfect place to store my rings in the kitchen.  I keep it at the very back of the counter, near the wall (and away from the sink), behind the cutting board where I do most of my mixing.  It's easy to remember to take off my rings when I see it, and also reminds me to put them back on when I'm done!

You can pick these up at most jewelry departments and they are not expensive.  It's just a simple gadget that keeps your valuables safe and sound while you're working in the kitchen. 

Post-It Note Key Chains

I have made these adorable Post-It Note key chains several times.  The design comes from Angie over at Chic 'n Scratch, and you can see her video on how to make them here.

For my key chains, I used the Joy at Christmas stamp from the Perfect Punches set for the scalloped border.  I used the Lovely Letters Alphabet for the monograms, and eliminated the dotted circle stamp from the Think Happy Thoughts set that Angie used since it was too small for my letters.

I made these to take along for my daughter's room-mates on our first visit to the dorm.  I'm sure they can make use of the Post-It Notes for jotting down phone numbers!