Spicy Sausage & Rice Soup

My very most favorite time of year is fall. There are so many wonderful things about fall in the North East... jeans & flip flops, pumpkin anything, humidity free days and chilly nights, and a rekindled love of my stove. It seems at the first sign of fall, without any planning, I find myself making soup. The other weekend I made three kinds of soup!!! I just couldn't stop myself.

One of the reasons I love making soup is the flexibility you have when making your brew. You can take a look at what you have on hand, gather complimenting indgrediants, and throw them in a pot. Viola, soup!

Of course there are some basics that I try to keep on hand through the fall - onion, celery, carrot, garlic and chicken stock - to name a few. With these basics you can develop just about any soup.

This weekend I had all of the above and some Hot Italian Sausage that I wanted to use up.
And just like that, Spicy Sausage & Rice Soup was born.

Spicy Sausage & Rice Soup

3 celery ribs
3 carrots
1 onion
3 T. basting oil from Wegman's ( grapeseed & canola oil, dried thyme, oarsley, garlic)
4 hot Italian sausage links
1 large can crushed tomato
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
1 c. rice

Dice extra small - celery, carrot, onion. Saute in stockpot with basting oil until soft.
In fry pan, cook sausage through breaking into small crumbles. Drain.
Cook 1 c. rice with 2 c. water for 20 minutes or until water is absorbed. Let cool.

Add cooked sausage, tomato, and chicken broth into veggie mixture. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Add cooked rice to soup when served.

** Do not add all of the rice to the pot if you are not going to serve the entire batch. The rice will continue to absorb the liquid when stored and become soggy.

Lil' Lovie Dolls

Just finished up a batch of Lil' Lovie dolls to take to Jennybean in Lancaster. Thought I would share since they looked so cute all lined up in a little row. You can also find these sweeties in my Etsy shop. They are perfect for little babies hands.

Grow your own Green Onions

Yet another great idea from Pinterest.

Given my floral background and knowledge of plants I'm ashamed I didn't think of this one on my own but thanks to Homemade Serenity I can share this idea with you.

When you buy green onions use what you need and then put the bulbs into water and watch them grow! I changed the water every few days to keep it fresh and left them in a sunny window.

I'm sure at some point the bulbs runs out of energy but in about 10 days I had enough to use. Genius!

S'mores on a Stick

I have really developed a wonderful problem. Like so many, I am totally addicted to Pinterest! It is the greatest thing ever and I think nothing of spending an hour "pinning" while my hubby watches a crappy football game. And now that football season is over there will be even more opportunities for pinning during basketball, golf, PSU wrestling, oh my!

So I decided to try these cute little s'mores on a stick for Nathan's first sleepover. It really wasn't a sleepover but they pretended with jammies, movie, popcorn, video games, stay up late, and then parents came to take them home to their beds. It was genius really.

This idea was pinned from Pretty Foods & Pretty Drinks blog, check it out!

So gather some marshmallows, chocolate wafers, graham crackers, lolly pop sticks, and your favorite helper and have some fun!

Dip the lollipop stick into the melted chocolate and then press into a marshmallow. This will keep the marshmallow on the stick when you dip it into the chocolate to coat.

Use a piece of Styrofoam to hold your pops as you work.

Once you're finished with the first step let the chocolate harden. Waiting is tough! I popped them into the freezer to move things a long for a few minutes.



Then dip the marshmallows into the melted chocolate. We sort of rolled them against the edge of the bowl to get the excess chocolate off. Otherwise they dripped and made a tasty mess.

Immediately roll the chocolate covered marshmallow into the bowl of graham crackers. I kept the crumbs coarsely chopped for a more chunky look. It was also nice because you got more graham in your bite!

Enjoy!!! And watch out for the helpers, they're sneaky.

Sunglasses Case Tutorial

I don't believe I had ever owned a nice pair of sunglasses. Generally I get the $15 Target variety and treat them like crap. They float around in my purse getting scratched by whatever. The last pair I replaced actually had the tint scratched off the lens! So today I decided enough is enough. I've got skills, and 10 minutes. I can fix this problem.

So I cut a strip of fabric with pinking shears wide enough to accommodate my shades and twice as long, plus an extra two inches. I also cut a piece of Warm & Natural quilt batting the same width and length minus the extra two inches. And I cut two pieces of magnets 1 1/2" long.

I layered the batting on the wrong side of the fabric centering so there was an extra 1" of fabric at both ends. Then I lined up the magnet at the one end of the batting in the center of the strip.

Next, fold the fabric over the magnet and sew. Repeat at the other end as well. Be sure that your magnetic sides face each other so they stick.

Then, fold right sides together and sew both sides.

Turn right side out and use the end of a paint brush to push out the corners.

This is what your closure will look like.

Ta Da!!! Sunglasses case, just like that.

And a cutie pie just for fun!!!









Chocolate Frosting

It's hard to believe but my baby is turning one year old!!! This week has been full of party planning, lists, decorations, and gifts. Tonight was the night for daycare treats. I decided on chocolate cupcakes, in part because that was the box mix I had in the pantry, and also because as much as I wanted to give into my laziness and go to the store, it was cold and rainy and I just didn't feel like making the drive.

For the frosting, I have tried many recipes. In years past I've opted for a cool whip style frosting because I like that it's not too sweet. Tonight I decided to again attempt a butter cream style frosting. I think I just may have come up with a combo that I really like - sweet but not too sweet, chocolaty but not too rich.

Here's my recipe...

4 c. confectioners sugar

4 T. coco powder

1 stick butter, room temperature

4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 t. vanilla

1/3 c. milk

1 c. mild chocolate wafers, melted

In mixer, combine first 6 ingredients.

*** I measured out 1/2 c. milk and added it slowly to get the thickness that I wanted. I have learned from experience that it's very hard to thicken frosting once you've added too much liquid.

Then while mixer is going, slowly pour in chocolate and allow it to mix in thoroughly.

I used a piping bag with no frosting tip to get a nice thick swirl.

Enjoy!



Holiday Oreo's

For my son's Halloween party at daycare I signed up to bring cookies. I realized that weekend though that  I really didn't have time to mess with making something from scratch. So I opted to dress up some Oreo's with chocolate and sprinkles. This is something that he can help out with and we were finished in 15 minutes.

You will need:

Oreo Cookies
Milk Chocolate (wafers or chips)
Sprinkles
Wax paper, Saran Wrap, Parchment or Freezer Paper
Cookie Sheet

First, line a cookie sheet with paper you have on hand.

Next, melt the chocolate in the microwave. Stir a few times during the melting process to distribute the heat.

Get dunking...