Quickie Summer Fun Crafts

With the summer coming to an end you might be running low on some boredom busters. We’ve still got another month of summer before we head back to the classroom in September so I’m looking for as many ideas as possible!

The one activity I truly love is J’s summer community program he’s joins through the school. It’s a free and voluntary program managed by a small group of school officials and volunteers. The kids are dropped off at the local school for three hours twice a week to socialize, play, go on field trips, and do other fun things. They supply the kids with a snack while they go over character enhancing lessons like sharing, manners, eating well, etc. J really enjoys the time with his friends without mom hovering and I enjoy the quiet time here after a week of frantic summer activities.

Here’s a couple of projects J’s done this year at his summer community program you might enjoy.

Treasure Hunt (Two versions of this game)

Version 1

Grab an empty bottle, any size will do, and a few odds ‘n ends that will fit into the top opening pretty easily (hook free fishing lures, craft pom poms, sequins, rubber bands, foam pieces, small toys, even coins). Fill you bottle 3/4 of the way with sand, dry beans, rice, bird seed, anything on hand you have that’s cheap to buy or replace! Add your goodies, cap it and give a good shake. Challenge the kiddos to finding a all the treasure pieces. Make a game of it by seeing who can find them all the quickest.

Version 2

Grab another empty bottle, food coloring, some oil (any cheap clear oil will work), and more water proof goodies. Fill the bottle a little more than half way with water. Add food coloring of your choice and swirl it to evenly mix it. Add your water proof trinkets like plastic toys, sequins, rubber bands, etc. Top off with oil, cap and shake.

Make Your Own Chia Pet

Grab a plastic cup, grass seed, potting soil, markers, and an old pair of panty hose. Use the markers to decorate the plastic cup as desired and set aside. Cut the legs off the panty hose about 4” to 6” from the toe. Drop in your grass seed then pack in the potting soil. Tie off the end of the panty hose. Dunk the soil filled panty hose in water until the potting soil is thoroughly moistened. Place some water in the cup and put the panty hose ball (seed side up) on top of the cup and watch the grass grow. As long as the pantyhose  touches the water in the cup, it will draw the liquid into the soil.

What are you guys doing to keep the summer boredom blues at bay?

Jenn is a stay at home southern mom raising her kids in Northwestern Minnesota with her trucker hubby. She loves to cook, craft and blog. Soon she’ll be going back to school for a new adventure in Graphic Design. You can find recipes, crafts, parenting strategies, budget tips, product reviews and fabulous giveaways on her blog, Frugal Front Porch.

How To Wrap A Gift

So you might be thinking wow Rina...this post might be more suited towards the Christmas season, not the summer season!

Except that summer season is the prime wedding season. And weddings usually involve gifts, right? Not to mention there's always a birthday or anniversary gift to package!

In any case, I know that I'm always having some sort of trouble when wrapping gifts so when I saw this tutorial in one of my free magazine subscriptions I knew I wanted to share it with you, as well as preserve it for my use too!!

So first step is to find a box for the gift. Wrapping an oddly shaped item or heck, even just trying to wrap something simple like a mixing bowl can be difficult but! Put that item into a box and suddenly your task is way, way easier. Got a box? Oh! Grab some double sided tape, too. Okay. Let's get wrapping.

Step 1:
Lay the boxed item face down on top of your chosen gift wrap, leaving the paper attached to the roll. Cut the wrapping paper along one side, ensuring you cut a wide enough sheet to cover both sides of the box.


Step 2:
Stand on the same side of the table as the roll of gift wrap and pull the paper snugly up and over the far end of the box. Affix with double sided tape and crease the paper along the edge of the box.

Step 3:
Unroll the gift wrap and bring it to meet the already wrapped portion of the box. Cut paper from roll, and leave about and inch of overhang. Fold that inch under and crease along the fold. Affix using double sided tape.


Step 4:
Concentrate on one of the open ends of the box. Push the sides of the paper in towards the box, creating four 45 degree angle flaps. Crease along each flap.


Step 5:
Fold down the top flap. Crease quite sharply along the top of the box and crease again where the gift wrap meets the bottom edge of the box. If you'd like, trim the paper along that bottom crease. Affix to the box with double sided tape.

Step 6:
Fold under any excess gift wrap on the bottom flap so it lines up neatly with the top of the box. Affix double sided tape to the bottom flap, then fold over the top flap and adhere.

Step 7:
Repeat Steps 4-6 on the other end of the box. Finish by running your pinched thumb and forefinger along the edges to create sharp lines.


Ta da! Stand back and give yourself a hand - seriously though, how professional does that look?!? If you'd like, you can attach ribbon or some other sort of decoration but I'm fairly plain and simple so I'd typically just add a card or note of some kind to indicate who the gift is for, plus a few personal lines to the receiver.

I'm Rina and I usually blog over at Gotta Little Space - come say hi!!

Carnival #178 - Summer Garden Chicken

Welcome to the carnival! The Make it from Scratch carnival is your chance to share your projects. I hope you join us by linking up at the bottom of this post.

 
 My garden is at a point right now where everything is producing, but nothing is producing quite enough to can or freeze. This leaves me with a refrigerator full of a variety of fresh vegetables, and calls for a little creativity to be sure that none of that fresh from the garden goodness goes to waste. Stir fry is a good way to use up a variety of vegetables. So are soups and casseroles, but those really aren't all that appealing to me in the humid 90+ degree heat we've been having.

Inspired by the Campfire Chicken at Cracker Barrel, I decided to try what I'm calling Summer Garden Chicken. Truly, it is only a chicken, a bunch of vegetables, and a little spice. It is my favorite kind of "recipe" (if you can call what I'm about to give you a recipe,) one that is very flexible to suit your tastes, and uses up what you have on hand.

Summer Garden Chicken
A whole chicken
Vegetables, cleaned and cut into pieces
Salt, pepper, red pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rinse chicken and  place in the middle of a 9x13 pan. Put vegetables in around the chicken. sprinkle everything with salt and peppers. Cover tightly and bake for one hour or until the chicken is done. 

To save heating up the house, this dish could easily be done in the crockpot. It would also work well on the grill. My grill has temperature control issues right now, so I've only tried this in the oven. I used garlic, onion, green pepper, tomato, potato, carrot, eggplant, corn, and green beans in the meal pictured above.

What are some of your favorite ways to use up odds and ends vegetables?


Stephanie is a mom, homeschooler, homesteader in the hills of West Virginia. Find more of her adventures at Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood.  



LINK UP YOUR PROJECTS!


Carnival Guidelines:

Link up your recipes, crafts, garden projects, yarn creations, home improvement, or other d-i-y posts. Posts about making something, or helpful resources and tips for making things are what we are all about.


Please link directly to the post, not to home page of your blog. Kindly link back to the carnival with twitter, stumble and/or from your blog.

Stuffed Pattypan Squash

I've been getting a lot of pattypans from my farm share lately and have been trying to figure out a way to use them. You could stuff just about anything in these but here's what I did. Try this and see what you think.

• 6 pattypan squash, stem and blossom removed
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 cup sprouted mung beans
• 3 sun dried tomatoes, diced
• 1 Tablespoon capers, chopped
• 1 cup diced mushrooms
• 1 1/2 cups prepared bulgher wheat
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Bring one inch of water to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add squash, cover, and cook for 10 minutes, or until a fork can pierce the stem with little resistance. Drain, and slice off the top stem of the squash. Use a melon baller to carefully scoop out the centers of the squash. Reserve all of the bits of squash.
3. Saute onion in olive oil. Add garlic, saute for 1 minute or until fragrant, add mung beans and sun dried tomatoes.  Saute for a few minutes, add mushrooms, saute until they give up their water, add capers and heat through.  Add bulgher wheat and heat through.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stuff each squash to overflowing with the mixture, and place them in a baking dish. Cover the dish loosely with aluminum foil.
5. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until squash are heated through.

This recipe is easy to scale up or down. If you're cooking for one, try one or two of these in the toaster oven.

Do you have a good use for pattypan squash? I'd love to know about it!

Yummy Tuna Cups – Easy Kid-Friendly Party Food

Trying to feed the four fellas nutritious meals isn’t tough. The tough part is keeping things interesting both visually and in flavor. Most kids love tuna fish sandwiches but how boring! It’s just two slices of bread with some tuna smeared in the middle. We eat with our eyes, kids more so than adults. If you have a kiddo that’s not crazy about tuna, egg salad, or pimento cheese or any other sandwich filler you might try presenting it in a toasted cup. 

Making a toasted cup takes ZERO culinary skills but offers high visual impact. Perfect when your trying to win over a little one with a new creation. It’s also the perfect handy food for summer picnics and parties!

Simply cut the crust off your favorite sliced bread and roll flat with a rolling pin (or the heal of your hand). Cram form the flattened bread into the cup of a cupcake tin by pressing the bread carefully but firmly to conform to the tin. Bake them on the middle rack of a 350 degree oven for approximately 10 minutes or until the edges are toasted brown and the base of the cup is no longer soft.

I filled these little delights with tuna. I drained two cans of chunk light tuna and gently folded in about 1/2 cup of mayo, a heavy squirt of mustard, 1 clove of garlic finely minced, a heavy pinch of salt, a tablespoon of lemon juice and about a dozen diced bread n’ butter pickles. Garnish with a sliced pickle and serve with a fresh fruit salad for a fabulously tasty and healthy lunch. (This made 10 cups.)

 

BTW-These tuna cups converted the only one of the four fellas who “didn’t eat” tuna. Now he loves it!

How do you get the kiddos to eat something they usually “don’t eat”???

Jenn is a stay at home southern mom raising her kids in Northwestern Minnesota with her trucker hubby. She loves to cook, craft and blog. Soon she’ll be going back to school for a new adventure in Graphic Design. You can find recipes, crafts, parenting strategies, budget tips, product reviews and fabulous giveaways on her blog, Frugal Front Porch.

Carnival #177 - Hot Pepper Jam

Welcome to the carnival! The Make it from Scratch carnival is your chance to share your projects. I hope you join us by linking up at the bottom of this post.

I remember the first time I encountered hot pepper jam. It was at a Tastefully Simple party, and the whole notion of hot peppers in a jam seemed completely foreign to me. Yet, when they served some of this jam over a block of cream cheese with crackers, I knew I had to try it. It was a surprisingly delightful experience. I have been a fan of pepper jam ever since.

So, when I began growing my own hot peppers, I knew just what I wanted to make with them. This recipe is adapted from the hot pepper relish recipe included in the Sure-Jell package.

1 package Sure-Jell
5 C sugar
1 C cider vinegar
4 C finely chopped peppers. (The recipe called for a mix green, red and jalapeño. I used only hot peppers. About 3 C jalapeño and 1 C banana peppers.)

Mix peppers, cider and Sure-Jell in a saucepan. Measure sugar out into a separate bowl. Bring pepper mixture to a full boil on high heat. Stir in sugar. Bring back to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Stir constantly. Ladle into hot jars. Boiling water process for ten minutes. Yield: 4 pints.

Some tips: Wear plastic gloves when working with the hot peppers. Seed and remove the membranes of the peppers if you don't like a lot of heat. The jam made with all the seeds and membranes removed has a wonderful flavor, but hardly any heat. Leave a few seeds to kick it up a bit.

Uses: Pepper jam is great poured over a block of softened cream cheese and served with crackers. It can be used on sandwiches like relish, or as a dipping sauce. I think it would be delicious over chicken too.

Stephanie is a mom, homeschooler, homesteader in the hills of West Virginia. Find more of her adventures at Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood.

LINK UP YOUR PROJECTS!


Carnival Guidelines:


Link up your recipes, crafts, garden projects, yarn creations, home improvement, or other d-i-y posts. Posts about making something, or helpful resources and tips for making things are what we are all about.


Please link directly to the post, not to home page of your blog. Kindly link back to the carnival with twitter, stumble and/or from your blog.

Saucy Ginger Orange Turkey Tenders

I found a turkey breast on sale at the grocery store for a heck of a deal last month. Feeding the four fellas can easily break the bank so I look for deals EVERYWHERE on a variety of products. I don’t normally make turkey since I often associate it with the holidays. Since it’s not the “right season” for turkey I was in the mood for something light and tasty. After some pondering I came up with a great way to prepare the turkey completely different from my traditional basting/baking method.

First I carefully removed the turkey breast from the breast bone. This left me with two large breasts. I put one in the fridge and the other was sliced into turkey tenders.

In a separate bowl I poured a cup of orange juice (I had a little left in the fridge) and mixed in a squeeze of lemon juice, a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of ground ginger and a palm full of garlic powder. I allow the turkey tenders to marinate in the orange saucy goodness for at least 30 minutes.

Over medium heat, pour about a tablespoon of EVOO into a sauté pan and pan fry the turkey tenders a few minutes on each side. Reduce the heat to medium low. Pour the gingered OJ into the pan with all the turkey tenders and allow the sauce to reduce while ensuring the turkey tenders are cooked through.

When the sauce is thick and bubbly, remove from heat and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy! The kiddos loved it and half a turkey breast fed the five of us!!! Not a bad deal!

Jenn is a stay at home southern mom raising her kids in Northwestern Minnesota with her trucker hubby. She loves to cook, craft and blog. Soon she’ll be going back to school for a new adventure in Graphic Design. You can find recipes, crafts, parenting strategies, budget tips, product reviews and fabulous giveaways on her blog, Frugal Front Porch.