Ingredients: 1 8 oz pkg softened cream cheese, 1 small container of sour cream, 1/2 c salsa (or to taste), 1 packet of taco seasoning, lettuce, cheese, tomato, olives
Are you rushing for your breadbox yet? (Yeah, I said breadbox. I own one, but I think, other than my grandma, I'm the only person on the planet to actually own a breadbox. Anyone wanna prove me wrong on that one?) You'll be on an all carb diet after you try this stuff.
Ingredients: 3 cups lukewarm water, 1-1/2 tablespoons granulated fast acting yeast (2 packets), 1-1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt, 6-1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached all purpose white flour
Directions: Warm up the water to 100 degrees. Add yeast and salt to the water and put it in a 5 quart container that has a lid. Mix in the flour all at once. With a wooden spoon. It's done being mixed when everything is uniformly moist. The dough will be wet and loose and this should take like 90 seconds. Put the lid on the container but don't seal it. A tiny bit of air circulation will help the dough rise. Allow the mix to rise at room temperature until the dough begins to collapse, about 2 hours. If you let it rise longer it won't hurt the dough, so no worries. Then put the dough in the fridge for at least 3 hours or overnight. Put a piece of parchment paper down. Divide your dough into 1 pound pieces (about the size of a grapefruit). Your mix should make about 4 loaves. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball as you go. Put flour on your hands if it gets too sticky. The top of the dough should be smooth and tight. Put the dough on the parchment paper. Let the loaves rise for 30-40 minutes. Preheat a baking stone on the middle rack of the oven for at least 20 minutes at 450 degrees. Put a container on the bottom rack with water in it. This will help keep the dough moist and beautiful and amazing. (If you don't have a baking stone, you can use a baking sheet, but you will not get the crisp crust on the bottom. You will still have a great loaf of bread.) Dust the loaf with a little flour and slit the top of the loaves with a knife. This helps the loaves "bloom" in the oven. Bake at 450 F for about 30 - 35 minutes, depending on the size of your loaf. Make sure the crust is a deep golden brown. When you remove the loaf from the oven, you will hear it crackle for a while. In baking terms, this is called "sing" and it is exactly what you want. Allow the bread to cool for the best flavor and texture. It's tempting to eat it when it's warm, and that's fine, but the texture is better after the bread has cooled. Store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded (with a hole punched in the top) container and use for up to 14 days. Every day your bread will improve in flavor. Cut off and shape more loaves as you need them. When your dough is gone, don't clean the container. Go ahead and mix another batch - the remaining bits of dough will contribute flavor to the next batch, much like a sourdough starter does! Bread is best eaten the day it is baked. Leftover baked bread is best stored at room temperature, unwrapped. Simply place the cut side of the bread on plate or counter. If your bread is gummy on the inside, try either increasing the amount of flour by 1/4 cup and/or increasing the baking time by 5-10 minutes.
Good Housekeeping's pizza crust recipe
For anyone who doesn't know how to do them, I'm going to tell you the easiest way to do them. Put some chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or cup. Nuke at 30 second intervals, stirring between each. When melted, dip your washed and dried berries. Place on wax paper to harden. It works best if the wax paper and whatever you line with the paper has been in the freezer - the cold will help it harden. If you want to drizzle with contrasting chocolate, just put some of the melted stuff in a Ziploc, snip the very corner, and drizzle away. Let harden, and enjoy!
All I did was pour the juice into the molds and freeze it. I could have chopped some berries and added them, but I just wanted the straight juice this time. Unfortunately, the extreme heat and humidity means they don't stay frozen very long up on removal from the freezer, so the final product is kind of lumpy. But it's delicious and I wanted to eat the whole tray of pops all at once.
Directions: Put sugar, milk, butter and cocoa in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook for 90 seconds. Remove from the heat and add peanut butter, oats and vanilla. Stir until well combined. Drop by the teaspoonful (or in my case, tablespoonful) onto wax paper and let harden (this is the time consuming part). Then try not to eat them all in one setting.
I'm not going to do a how-to on this one. It's pasta salad. You cook pasta and put in veggies and eat it. I will tell you what I used, though. I decided to use a teeny little pasta called tubettini. We were bringing this to a party with little kids, and I thought the small pasta would be fun for them. Plus, it's cute. Also, you can tell I went heavy on the salad and not so much on the pasta part. I put in corn, black beans, carrots, cucumber, broccoli, and snow peas. I dressed it with just a teensy bit of garlic olive oil. I'm not a fan of pasta salads that are covered in dressing. I prefer mine more dry, I guess. I think it gets enough flavor from fresh veggies. Anyway, it was a beautiful salad and the kiddos loved it. The adults couldn't get enough either, so I'll label that one as a success.
Directions: Dice and mince the crud out of everything. Obviously, the size of chunk will depend on the ingredient. The garlic and jalapeno will be much more finely diced than the tomato and cilantro. All of this is to personal taste, so make it as chunky or as fine as you'd like. And, if you like more or less of something, well, add more or less of it. I like a juicy salsa, so I squeezed my tomato chunks a little after chopping them, but if you like a less juicy option, leave that part out. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil (I used my garlic infused olive oil - zing!) and top with salt. Make sure you have enough chips, though, because you'll want to eat all of this in one setting.
Time Needed: 20 minutes
Time Needed: 5-10 minutes
Directions: Melt your butter and bring to a boil or heat your oil until it ripples/shimmers in a large saucepan or soup pot. (That's right, I said soup pot - in my opinion, it works way better than a saucepan!) Pour in the popcorn and sugar and stir. Cover. When the kernels start to pop, shake the pot every few seconds to mix the pot and keep the popcorn from burning. As soon as there's a layer of popped kernels covering the bottom (and if you're brave enough), open the lid just enough to fit in a wooden spoon and stir until popping slows to about the speed you'd take it out if you were using a microwave popcorn bag. Stirring helps to keep it from burning, which I definitely did the first time and totally want to keep you from doing because it stunk SO badly. Once the popcorn is done, immediately pour into a bowl (to keep it from burning) and put in the salt. Toss the popcorn to evenly distribute the salt.
And then... time yourself to see how long the popcorn will last. I'm serious. My husband hates popcorn, and he requested that I make this the next two days after I made it and still talks about it. My bf Monica said she had dreams about it the night after she ate it, and she said her husband, who also hates popcorn, hogged the bowl when she made a big batch of it the next day. Seriously, you are gonna love this business. Delicious!
You see, this whole flop thing got started when I visited this site and saw these flops. I decided to try them, and then invent three bajillion of my own.
Basically, thread the fabric into the toe slot (as in the 3 previous flops) and tie/glue it off. Then, tie two knots starting 1 inch above the flop. Then thread through the side holes, tighten to however tight you need them for your specific foot, and tie/glue off. And then make your friend Heather model them for you, but only after you bribe her with brownie banana splits. :)
Directions:Cook fettucini. Drain well and place in warm serving dish large enough for tossing. Add crumbled bacon, sausage, onion, cream, grated cheese, raw eggs and snipped parsley. Toss until fettucini is well coated. Add salt, pepper and red pepper to taste. Serve immediately as pasta becomes gluey rather quickly.
Flip #3 time. Take a piece of fabric and roll it up like a cigar (since I know so much about cigar rolling and all). Loop it into 5 pieces and glue it to the back of a big flat bead. Then glue that to the strap of your flip. For security, glue a scrap of fabric to the back of the strap and the back of the bead. Super easy, super fun, and super cute!
Time for flippy #2. This starts the same as flip 1. Tie off the flop under the toe strap, but this time, tie a knot about an inch past the top of the flop. Take an extra piece of fabric and create loops on the side straps, and thread the fabric through the toe straps through these. Take the extra fabric and create a bow on the sides. Add an extra piece of fabric across the top of the foot to keep the flop tight, and there you go. So fun!
It's summer. That means flip flops. And that means crafting flip flop straps. So here's flip #1 - the beaded flip flop. Cut out the plastic strap and cut 2 pieces of fabric. Thread them through the toe strap and tie them off. Glue if needed. Thread on the bead, and then thread the straps through the side holes. Put your foot in the sandal to measure how tight you need to tie the straps, tie them off, and voila! The easiest pair of flips ever. And super cute, too!
Then I traced the etching in marker and put pictures of all of us behind the glass, and voila - a personalized picture frame for Dad.
Happy Father's Day
