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

Tiny Pan

I love this little non-stick pan I picked up.  I actually bought two of them and they are perfect for all sorts of small cooking jobs in the kitchen: toasting spices, sauteing onions or garlic, melting butter.  Our favourite way to use this pan is for frying eggs for egg muffin sandwiches for breakfast.  It is the perfect size (I think it's about 4" in diameter) to cook the egg in a neat 'n tidy circle - ideal for topping an English muffin or bagel.  The pan didn't cost much at all (from the discount home accessories place) and is just a fun way to cook up a little somethin'.

Rum-Frosted Brownies

These Rum-Frosted Brownies sounded delicious and different so I eagerly whipped up a batch for a weekend dessert.  Well...I used actual rum in the frosting as was written in the recipe...and all I can say is it was a good thing it was the weekend!  I enjoy the flavour of rum but these puppies almost put me over the limit - they were really strong!  The brownies themselves were moist and fudgey and I did like the frosting layer with melted chocolate spread on top, but next time I make them I will use the non-alcoholic substitute of milk and rum flavouring!  (No complaints from hubby while eating the 'real thing'...and we didn't even let the kids have any!)

Rum-Frosted Brownies

1 cup butter

4 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, greased 9x13” pan

Melt butter and chocolate in saucepan. Remove from heat and cool. In large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla. Stir in chocolate mixture. Fold in flour. Stir in pecans and spread in prepared pan. Bake at 350 for 30 mins. or until firm on top. Cool before frosting.

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 (one pound) box powdered sugar

3-1/2 Tbsp rum

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Beat 1/2 cup butter, sugar, and rum. Spread over cooled brownies. Melt chocolate and 2 Tbsp butter and spread evenly over powdered sugar mixture. Sprinkle chopped pecans over chocolate. Let stan until firm and cut into bars

* substitute rum with 3 Tbsp milk and 1-1/2 tsp rum flavouring.

Baked Lemon Sponge in the Crock Pot

I've shown you chocolate cake in the crock pot and Lemon Sponge Pudding in the oven, now I've got a Baked Lemon Sponge in the crock pot!

Very similar to the oven version, this cake is so simple to prepare and bakes up effortlessly in the slow cooker.  By simply setting the baking dish into the crock and adding hot water you create a bain marie...and the pudding cake steams while creating a delectable sauce right in the same dish!

This is a fabulous dessert - light and flavourful.  If you like the taste of lemon you will adore this all-in-one easy recipe.

Baked Lemon Sponge

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 Tbsp lemon zest

3 eggs, separated

1 Tbsp melted butter

1 cup milk

1 Tbsp icing sugar

1. Combine sugar, flour and salt. Stir in lemon juice, zest, egg yolks, butter and milk.

2. In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff...fold gently into lemon mixture. Pour into 6 cup greased bowl (or souffle dish) and cover tightly with foil (use an elastic band to secure). Place in slow cooker and pour in enough hot water to come 1” up sides of bowl.

3. Cover and cook on high for 2-3 hours or until topping is set and light and fluffy. Sift icing sugar over sponge before serving.

Family (Today Is...) Scrapbook Page

My layout today is for photos from our family gathering last Thanksgiving.  We took a series of outdoor group shots of all the family and each individual group so I chose 3 to highlight on the page.  The green paper from the Enchanted Power Palette went perfectly with my photos and there was a title sticker (Family) I could use too.  I layered the designer paper (including 2 embossed papers and one I cut using the Picket Fence Border Maker), with photo mats for each picture.  Next, I added a piece of fluffy cord using my old sewing machine and a zig-zag stitch.  I made the title box using the sticker and a journal box I cut out from its mat, added some sparkly epoxy stickers, and I finally used the fun Date Smash Stamp!  (I had a little trouble stamping it nicely - how do those librarians do it!?!?! lol!) so I had to re-stamp it on another piece of paper and use my Modern Label punch to punch it out and cover my mistake.  I popped the whole title/journal box up on dimensionals.  The page is simple but I love it!

Economy 16-Patch Quilt Video

Here's another video in my Quilt Series...this time I'm showing you the Economy 16-Patch quilt I finished in March.  I really love how this one turned out and (even though I say this with almost all my quilts! lol!) it's one of my favourites!  I love the clean lines and pebbly texture!

Perfect Points Sampler Progress

Last month I showed you the first couple of blocks in my Connecting Threads Perfect Points Sampler quilt.  I've been working very hard and here are some of the blocks I completed:

After the Flying Geese and Diamond-in-a-Square blocks of Lesson 1 came the Square-in-a-Square.  This one didn't turn out too badly but I did end up having to re-cut my 3rd round fabric because I didn't make it the right size.  This was the last block for Lesson 1.

Lesson 2 had two block patterns to complete - the Snowball block and Sawtooth Star blocks, which are then joined together to form an illusion.  The fabric I used for the Snowball blocks had stripes in it so when I sewed the triangle of it to the Sawtooth Stars, the stripes were going perpendicular!  The stars were quite tiny to piece together as well but the overall effect at the end still worked!

For Lesson Three we moved on to the Bear's Paw and Friendship Stars.  No surprise here - MORE POINTS!  I didn't like working with triangles to begin with so this quilt-along took a lot of effort for me to enjoy!  I kept on going even though things were getting very difficult!

The Bear's Paw is a lovely block although the triangles are so tiny!  I'm glad I picked up a smaller rotary cutter when I was away - it helped a lot trimming those tiny dog ears!  Unfortunately , I had to sacrifice some of the points when I joined up all the quadrants of the Bear's Paw but it still looks pretty cool!

I actually really liked the Friendship Stars block as well and, even though I also lost points on this one, it actually turned out to be the correct size.  That was my issue with most of my blocks: if I sewed and trimmed to finish with the required size of block, I had to sacrifice my points in some cases...or vice-versa.  If I tried to maintain the points the block did not finish at the right size.  Hmmm...I really didn't think this was going to go together in the end!

So that's it for now on my Perfect Points Sampler.  I'll show you more progress in a couple of weeks.

Enchanted Power Palette

The new Enchanted Power Palette from Creative Memories is sooo pretty!  I bought the whole kit so it has all the components: paper, stickers, embellishments, etc.  I love the gorgeous paper in this line - it is double-sided and embossed and the colours are beautiful!  I am going to be inspired to get some more traditional scrapping done when I pull out all these supplies and play!

Craftsy

For the past few months I've been showing you the blocks I've made for the free Block-of-the-Month class I joined through Craftsy.  I have really enjoyed following along with Amy Gibson and really love the Craftsy format!

Sure enough, taking the FREE class inspired me to browse through the Course Catalog - a very dangerous activity for someone like me who is a) easily influenced, b) loves to learn new things, and c) loves to be on her computer AND on-line shop!

I found myself wanting to take every course I looked at and read all the descriptions and watched all the sampler snippets of video.  As my first paid class, I decided on the Machine Quilting course taught by Wendy Butler Berns.  Although I have completed more than several quilts on my own, I really just learned by myself and figured there were bound to be lots of tips and tricks I could garner from an expert!  The Sample Previews are very enticing and cut you off right at the 'good parts'...I couldn't stand the suspense and had to find out for myself what the next sentence/tip/step was!

I love the Craftsy format because you can watch the videos as many times as you want, stop, review, rewind, and you 'own' the class forever!  You can print the course materials, take video notes (which are linked to the spot in the video so you can go back to them any time), ask questions (and actually get an answer from the instructor), give and receive feedback from the teacher and other students, and post photos.  Also, you don't have to schlep your supplies anywhere and can wear sweatpants while you are in class!

Almost every time I've been on the site the classes have been 'on sale' - usually 1/2 price ($29.99 in most cases) and they have sent me a few promotions with even better offers.  After you take one class you can take the next one for $25 and can sign up for discount offers on materials.  You can also get links to discount classes through some of their YouTube videos or through the instructors' web pages.

I really am pleased with the course so far and the way Craftsy operates.  It's perfect for me and the way I like to learn - both with visual demonstrations and written material, with lots of opportunity for interaction for questions and answers.  If you are interested in learning I highly recommend the Craftsy platform.  There are a wide variety of classes to take and many interesting categories to choose from!

Carrot Wheat Muffins

 I made these awesome Carrot Wheat Muffins and then...we ate them all before I remembered to take a photo!  But I still wanted you to have the link for the recipe so I used the photo from the Milk Calendar website.  The muffins are nutritious, easy to make, and yummy to eat!  Check out the recipe, HERE.

Easy-to-Bake Chicken

I don't often get 'fancy' with weekday meals but this recipe for stuffed chicken breasts seemed pretty do-able and I had all the ingredients waiting in the fridge.

I pounded out the chicken breasts between 2 pieces of plastic wrap using the smooth side of a meat tenderizer mallet.  I layered on fresh cooked spinach, ham slices, and strips of red pepper before rolling them up.  (I didn't bother with toothpicks - simply set the rolls seam side down in my baking dish).  The alfredo cheese sauce is simple to make and delicious on the bed of pasta but mine turned out a bit thinner because I only used 2% milk in place of the whipping cream.  These went over quite well with the family and made a special dinner for a Tuesday night.  You can find the recipe, from the Milk Calendar, here.