My "Other" Mother

My mother-in-law is turning 60 this month (June 21st to be exact).  We are doing something special for her birthday and as one of her gifts, friends and family are writing letters to her to be placed in a scrapbook.  I'm not very good at writing letters, I have a hard time putting my thoughts and feelings into words.  I was looking around online, trying to find a poem or saying that would be nice as my contribution to the scrapbook.  Let me tell you....there are some very cheesy mother-in-law poems.  And then I found the poem "My 'Other' Mother".  There were different variations, so I put together bits and pieces from them and came up with something I liked.

I didn't want to just type up the poem with a nice font and then print it.  Using Picnik (LOVE this site...I have a membership but you can use some of the program for free), I came up with this:

I thought this poem was perfect and I love how this came out.  Simple and personal.  Hope she likes it!

Tater Tot Casserole

I haven't made tater tot casserole in a long time.  And when I do make, I always think something is missing.  Before making it last night, following the usual recipe, I did a quick search online and found a recipe that sounded really good.  So here is my Day 13 for 30 Days of Creativity - Tater Tot Casserole.  I also linked up to the Craft-o-Maniac Monday Link Party.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef or turkey
chopped onion (as little or as much as you like)
8 oz. sour cream
1 c. shredded cheese
1/2 bag of tater tots
cream of chicken soup
seasonings (I used salt, pepper, and garlic)

Pour a little oil into a large skillet and start cooking the onion.  Add in the ground beef (or turkey) and cook until there is no pick, season the meat.  While the beef (or turkey) is cooking, in a separate bowl, add the soup, sour cream, and cheese.  Once the meat is cooked, remove from heat and stir in the soup/sour cream/cheese.  Place into a baking dish.  Top with tater tots and place in oven.  Cook for about 30 mins. at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  Serve and enjoy!

Note - our oven never seems to get the tater tots crispy, so we used the broiler for a few minutes to get them crispy.

And here I am with the final dish!

Leggs likes to 'help' me in the kitchen...he watches closely, hoping I drop something for him to eat.

Ice Cream, Sugar Hand Scrub and Hot Dogs

Here we go...I'm going to use this to catch up through Day 12 (minus Day 8's project, I can't post that until the weekend).  Day 9 through Day 12 involved ice cream, hand scrub and hot dogs.

Day 9 - Sugar Hand Scrub

Spring means allergies and allergies means sneezing and itchy skin for Heather.  When it's allergy season, I get really dry and itchy hands.  I haven't found anything that helps heal my hands.  I was looking around online to find a hand scrub just to try get rid of the dry skin.  I found a few recipes for some hand scrubs and thought I would try one.  For the one I made, I used 3/4 c. brown sugar, 3/4 c. white sugar and 1/4 c. olive oil.  I mixed everything in a canning jar.  I added a little more olive oil after everything was combined in the jar.  I tried the scrub on my hands and it was okay.  It made my hands nice and smooth, but didn't help with the really dry patches.  This scrub can also be used as a body scrub, which I haven't tried yet.  But I'm sure it will work great.  And if any of you have suggestions on how to help my hands, please share.  I would love to hear them!

 Day 10 and 11 - Key Lime Ice Cream

Jeremy and I were given an ice cream maker right after we were engaged, about four years ago.  We never used it.  Sad, I know.  I was going through google reader the other day and saw a recipe for key lime ice cream.  I love anything key lime, so I knew I had to try this.  It was super easy, just add the ingredients to the bowl of the ice cream maker and run for about 25 minutes.  It didn't fully freeze the ice cream, so I put it in a freezer safe bowl and froze over night.  This ice cream is delicious!  And now I want to try some more ice cream recipes.

And now I think I need some ice cream. :-)

Day 12 - Hot Dog Johnny's

I really don't like hot dogs.  I'm not sure what it is, I just don't like them.  But on Sunday, we went to Hot Dog Johnny's on Route 46 in Buttzville, NJ (yes, there is a Buttzville in New Jersey).  Hot Dog Johnny's was founded in 1944.  The menu is simple - hot dogs, french fries, pickles, soda and milkshakes.  Their birch beer is awesome!  Since they only sell hot dogs, I ate one, with lots of ketchup, mustard, relish and onion.  I didn't get any pictures of the food, but I took some of the building and signs.  If you're in the area, definitely stop by.  It's a pretty cool place and right on the river.  Great place to stop!

4th of July Bunting

Banners and buntings seem to be all over the crafty blogging world.  The one's I usually see are for baby and kids rooms, and I don't have any children.  But when I saw this tutorial, I was in love and wanted to get sewing right away!  The only thing I changed on mine was that I used a pinking shears to cut the fabric so the edges won't fray.  I also used some jute string that I had instead of the yarn.  Oh! And I used a compass to trace a half circle on the fabric to cut out.  I have to say, it worked well except that my fabric marker did not fit in the pencil holder side of the compass.  But the pencil worked just as well.  I will definitely be using the compass in the future!

I really like how this bunting/banner came out.  It was a quick project and not much fabric is needed (1/3 yard of each).  Now time to start working on these for all holidays!  And this is my Day 7 of the 30 Days of Creativity.  I'm getting caught up!  I also linked up to Craft-o-Maniac Monday Link Party!

Crawfish and Cookies

The next few posts are going to be catch up for the 30 Days of Creativity.  I knew this would be difficult for me!  Each day I have tried to do something creative, either cooking, sewing or taking pictures.  So here we go!

Day 4 and 5 - Crawfish Festival

June 4th and 5th, my family and I volunteered with the local volunteer fire department to help them sell and serve drinks at the Michael Arnone's Crawfish Fest.  We've been helping for a few years now and have a lot of fun.  This is one of the main fundraisers of the year for the fire department, and the more drinks we serve, the more money they get.  It's a long two days, but we get to meet some awesome (and interesting) and people, listen to some great music, and know we are helping a good cause!  Oh...and we get to eat the awesome Louisiana food!!


Bayou Bar - Our location



One of the many bands that plays over the weekend.

Day 6 - Trader Joe's

For the past few weeks I've been working for a new client and travel at least once a week for meetings.  On my way back from some meetings, I pass Trader Joe's.  Normally, I don't shop there because it's so far out of the way to do my normal grocery shopping.  But I figured since I was driving right by on my home from work, why not stop.  And I did.  And I found the most amazing cookies ever!  I usually don't like pre-packaged chocolate chip cookies, but the other pre-packaged things I have gotten at Trader Joe's, I've loved.  So I bought these.  And then couldn't stop eating them.  Best cookies ever!

And there are three days of 30 Days in one post.  I know...kinda boring and lame...but that's what those three days consisted of.  I do have some cooking and sewing projects coming up shortly.  Two of the projects I can't post until later on this week.