Family Reunion Time!

Hello my friends!

No cards to share today (OMG falling so far behind!  LOL)

It's that time of the year when my family (Mother's side) celebrate being blessed with such a large family and have our annual THREE day Family Reunion.  Yep!  Three Days!

This is the 27th year we have shared the fun over an entire 3 day weekend.  With such a large family (45 FIRST cousins [of which I am one!] and many, many more 2nd, 3rd, 4th cousins) we needed to extend the time to accommodate everyone's schedules.

But on Sunday, EVERYONE comes together to share the love and food!

And food there is!  OMG!!

This year I decided to make the rolls my Uncle Hen used to bring to our reunion before his passing in December, 2012.  So to honor him ... here is what Mark & I worked on yesterday.

There are a couple unique features of these rolls!

1.   it's a recipe that Uncle Hen came up with that mimicked the rolls his mother (my grandmother) used to make when they were growing up.

2.  they are baked in empty (and of course washed, lol) tuna cans

So that is how we made them too and it works GREAT!  Let the fun begin ...

  Mark & I make a good team in the kitchen!  He's great at mixing up the recipes and making sure the measurements are correct (had to do a little 'tweaking' on Uncle Hen's original recipe).  And I don't mind getting my fingers gooey, making a mess and cleaning up when all is said and done!  LOL!

We worked on these from 10 am to 3 pm and it was certainly a lot of fun!

I think Uncle Hen (real name was Clyde) would be proud!

We have modified the original recipe (which is for a single batch which makes 1 dozen rolls) ... some in large tins/some in small tins.  To a larger batch recipe which makes 3 dozen (small tuna cans).  This larger recipe worked perfectly since I'd been saving our tuna cans for awhile now and I had just enough. 

These rolls are SO GOOD!  A bit sweeter than a regular roll!  Very airy & good!  YUM!

Well, I'd better get going.  I have a bit of a drive and we're eating at 2 PM.

But before I go I do have a favor to ask of you ...

For those who believe in the power of prayer, please keep my grandson Jonathan's friend Kameron in your prayers.

The boys were starting a bonfire last evening to celebrate the beginning of their senior year this coming week and a bike race that Jon is participating in today when Kameron was burned quite badly.  He is undergoing treatment at the Akron's Burn Unit for 2nd & 3rd degree burns.

Please say a quick prayer for him!  Thank You!

As always . . .

Crafty in the Kitchen Today!

Hello my friends ...

Sorry I haven't had much paper crafting to share with you this week (I'll take care of that NEXT week...LOL).  It's been crazy busy around here with my freelancing job with JoAnn Fabrics Headquarters and the Annual 3-Day Morgan Family Reunion being this weekend!

I was down at the reunion spot last evening (held on a 100 acre farm my oldest 1st cousin owns) with several more of my 1st cousins (I believe there are [were] 47 First Cousins from the original 12 Morgan children).  And, for the last 26 years we've had a Friday night/All Day Saturday 1st cousins reunion followed by a FULL FAMILY REUNION on Sunday.  

Everyone brings a covered dish and this year I decided to make some of the dessert recipes from our Morgan Family Cookbook.  Cousin Nancy, myself and my daughter Carolyn decided back in 2004 to pull together a Picture/Story/Cookbook for this amazing large family before it was too late.  At that point in time, we had already lost 5 of the original 12 children and with the recent passing of Aunt Ruth, there are only 2 of the original 12 remaining.  My mother and her youngest sister MaryJane.

Anyways ... as some what of a tribute to these fabulous folks, my daughter & I decided to pull recipes from this awesome cookbook and recreate them for the reunion this year.  Especially since we realized last year that the dessert table was pretty sparse after the loss of our Aunts who always provided those yummy treats.  Carolyn is making 2 recipes from the 'Cookie' section and I was to make 2 recipes from the 'Dessert' section but I ended up doing 3 ... what can I say ... they all sounded so good!!

Selection #1 was Aunt Marc's Pistacio Tube Pan Cake

 

Selection #2 is Aunt Elizabeth's Pineapple Dump Cake

And, last by not least, Aunt Marie's Lemon Cake Supreme

The surprise is hidden INSIDE on this one!!  They all smell so YUMMY!!!

I pointed out in the above photo 'My Mom' ... she is presently 83 years old and doing GREAT!  She still works 2 part time accounting jobs and sings with her friend Pam (who plays keyboard) at several nursing homes around the area as well as Treasurer of the church and sings in the church choir.  This lady lets no moss grow under her feet and is a true inspiration to us all!

  Unfortunately, all of her siblings in this photo have passed away now and she misses them all so much!  You can't grow up with EIGHT sisters and THREE brothers without having an extremely close bond!

Well ... baking is done and ready to pack up for the big EAT FEAST (Reunion) tomorrow so maybe I can now take a little time to get creative in my crafting cave.  

Hope you're having a FABULOUS weekend!

Be sure to TELL and SHOW those around you how much you love them ...  

they won't be here forever!!!!

God Bless You All!!

As always . . .

OH ... and just so you know ... the morning glories are still going strong!  They were so pretty when we pulled out of the garage this morning to go to breakfast that I just had to snap a few photos with my phone.

Do you remember this photo from last month where they started to vine up around my Home Sweet Home plaque?

 Here's what they look like today!

Can you find the plaque now?? 

 I know they are taking over but I just don't have the heart to tear them out yet!  Maybe in October ... or November ... for sure before the snow flies!  LOL!  They are just too pretty and make me smile!

Bruschetta with Cherry Tomato Tapenade

Just a quick post this afternoon (before my guests arrive) to share with you a recipe my hubby made for our lunch yesterday.  I had mentioned this to a friend and she was happy to hear I was going to share it here on my blog.  If you try this recipe let me know what you thought!  We had it for lunch again today!!

Bruschetta with Cherry Tomato Tapenade

Recipe originally by Fabio Viviani ... modified/IMPROVED by Mark Pavlick

Ingredients:

2 cups cherry tomatoes (you can use red & yellow - we just used red)

1/2 cups kalamata olives, pitted

6-8 green onions, chopped

1/3 cup pine nuts (toasted)

fresh ground pepper and kosher salt

8-10 leaves fresh basil, torn, plus more for garnish

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

2 oz. block Parmesan cheese, cubed, plus additional Parmesan for grating

1 Italian or French baguette

1 or 2 cloves of garlic 

Method:

Place the green onions, pine nuts, pinch of salt/pepper, olive oil, garlic and Parmesan cubes into a food processor and PULSE to chop.

Add the tomatoes, olives and basil to the food processor and using the PULSE button on your food processor, combine and chop the ingredients until well combined.  Be careful NOT to OVER-PROCESS!

Remove the tapenade to a medium sized bowl.  Drizzle with a touch more olive oil as needed and combine.

Preheat a grill pan over medium-high heat.

Slice the bread on an angle in generous, uniform pieces.  Top with olive oil and a light sprinkle of salt.

Place on the preheated grill pan and cook until grill marks appear.

To Serve:

Top each warm slice of grilled bread with a generous amount of tapenade.  Garnish with chopped basil, fresh ground pepper, a drizzle of olive oil and freshly grated Parmesan.

This is such a yummy treat!

We felt the recipe had enough basil in it that we did not add any additional to the top and as you can see, the cubes of Parmesan in the recipe will melt nicely when heated.

I used my counter top convection oven for the broiling.  Didn't take but a few minutes.  Yesterday I gauged the time by the melting process of the SHREDDED cheese on top ... today I GRATED the cheese so I had to keep a closer eye on them.  Probably no more than 5 minutes ... depending on your oven.

 ENJOY!

I'd better get back to the kitchen and help hubby prepare for this evenings grilling dinner and guests.  

Please come back tomorrow when I have another Crafty Secrets project/tutorial to share with you!

Hope to see you then!

As always . . .

Getting Crafty in the KITCHEN . . .

Happy Sunday to you!

Did my title get your attention?  Well I must confess ... it was NOT ME who was getting crafty (creative) in the kitchen!  It was my dear sweet husband Mark!  He's a very good cook and since he retired last July, he's been spending more time in the kitchen being creative!  

I've shared some of his cooking with you before so I hope you enjoy this one too!

This time around, it is 

FRESH CORN, BACON & POTATO CHOWDER 

with BEER BREAD

This was MY bowl at dinner tonight!  YUMMO!!

(Original Recipe)

10 ears corn  (2 large bags of frozen corn)

8 cups water

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups diced red onion (about 2 medium)

3 cups diced celery (about 6 ribs)

2 1/2 cups chopped red bell pepper (about 3 large)

6 cups diced red potatoes (about 10 medium)

1 T fennel seed

1 T celery seed

1/2 T red pepper flakes

3 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill (dried dill weed)

6 slices bacon, cooked until crispy, drained & crumbled

Shredded white or yellow Cheddar cheese

1. Cut corn kernels off cobs.  Place cobs in a large Dutch oven and cover with 8 cups water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered 20 minutes.  Remove cobs and discard.  Set cooking liquid aside.

2.  Melt butter in Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add onion, celery, bell pepper, potatoes, fennel seed, celery seed, red pepper flakes and corn kernels.  Cook until onions are tender and vegetables are fragrant.  Add liquid from cooking corn cobs and heavy cream.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until potatoes are tender.  Just before serving, stir in dill.  Garnish with crumbled bacon.

Mark only made HALF this recipe and it made plenty for a couple of meals for two people!

Makes 16 cups.  Serves 16

Nutritional facts per serving:  410 calories, 25g fat, 8g protein, 43g carbohydrates, 6g fiber, 130mg sodium.

My husband like most good cooks, starts with a basic recipe then tweaks it to make it his own!  On this recipe, Mark stayed pretty true to the original with just a few changes which I have identified in RED print above.

As you saw in the recipe title, I also mentioned that we had BEER BREAD with our chowder.  Well, he kind of cheated on that one!  It is actually a boxed mix from a company called Tastefully Simple.  I actually bought this product through a 'house party' that one of our neighbors had but I see you can actually buy it online.  Here's a link to the Bountiful Beer Bread Mix.  Their stuff is really good ... you'll have to check it out!

Another recipe Mark made last week (that had been bugging him to try) is called Bob Evans Reuben Casserole.  And, yes, you can get the recipe from the Bob Evans website and HERE'S THE LINK so you can print it out for yourself.

Makes a large casserole (3 meals for the 2 of us!)

The classic flavors of a Reuben sandwich -- corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese -- baked in a casserole.

I will tell you, his twist on this one is:

 he reduced the mustard, 

added horsey-sauce, 

used homemade mashed potatoes and 

added Panko in with the Shredded Swiss Cheese.

Well that's it for me today!  I hope you'll stop back tomorrow when I will have more Paper Crafts to share with you.  The Crafty Secrets Linky Party is tomorrow so I'll have fun creations to share!  Hope to see you then!  Have a fabulous day and as always . . .

A Recipe to Share

Good Evening All!

I hope you're having a wonderful day!  

I've been extremely busy this week and hubby has been a huge help with creating most of the meals.  Today he wanted to play with the new food processor my daughter bought us for Christmas and decided to buy a head of cabbage and make coleslaw.  So I told him to save the outer leaves and I would make Pigs-In-A-Blanket 

 ... aka Cabbage Rolls 

 ... aka Stuffed Cabbage.

Here are the ingredients I used:

Outer leaves from 1 head of cabbage (7-8)

Ground Meat ( 1#)

Boil In A Bag Rice (1 pkg)

Home canned Salsa (1 pint) ... you can use store bought.

Place your leaves in a large pot, cover with water and boil (about 5-7 min) until the leaves become transparent and pliable (be careful NOT to overcook).

In a bowl combine your ground meat & cooked rice.  

I added a touch of garlic powder & onion powder.

Place 1/2 of your jar of salsa in the bottom of a casserole dish and reserve the other half for over top of your cabbage rolls.

Once your cabbage leaves are precooked ... transfer them onto a cookie sheet covered with paper towels to drain and cool down a bit so you can handle them.

You'll want to remove the center (stem part) from each leaf then cut the remainder of the leaf in half which gives you 2 rolls from each leaf.

Place a spoon full of the meat mixture into one end of the leaf and roll up.  

Place 'end flap DOWN' in the dish to help keep them closed.

I had a few extras so I just placed them on top of the bottom layer.

Once they are all rolled and in the dish, cover with the remaining salsa (might need a little touch of water if your salsa was super thick like mine) ... then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Oh Why Not! 

I added some Mozzarella cheese to the top before baking too!

Place in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes and Viola!

DINNER IS SERVED!

HIS PORTION . . .

MY PORTION . . .

See ... I do more than just make pretty cards!  LOL!

Hope you'll try this recipe and if you do, please come back and leave me a comment ... I'd love to hear from you!  

Thanks for stopping by and as always ...

Hubby's At It Again . . .

Yes, but today we were BOTH in the kitchen having fun!

We had already planned on making the Cranberry Relish for our Thanksgiving Dinner at our daughter's but we also decided to make a batch of Peanut Butter Fudge ... YUMMO!!!

Feel free to use either of these recipes but PLEASE STOP BACK and let me know IF YOU DO!!  

Here ya go!

FRESH CRANBERRY RELISH

RECIPE:

1 bag (12 oz) whole cranberries

2 navel oranges

2 cups granulated sugar

Chopped Walnuts

Wash & separate cranberries, put through grinder 

(food processor or blender).

Wash oranges, quarter and remove any seeds then put thru grinder (including the skins).

Add sugar and mix thoroughly.

Add walnuts and let sit.

BEST if made a day or two in advance.

I have made a double batch so I can share with other family members and freeze some for a later date.

PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE

RECIPE:

2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup milk

Boil (stirring constantly) until soft ball stage.

Remove from heat and add:

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup marshmallow creme (I used 7 oz)

2 cups creamy peanut butter (I used Skippy)

Mix well. Spread in 8x8 pan.  ENJOY!!

It's always so much fun to not only share the goodies you make over the holidays with friends & family ... but also to share the recipes.  I hope you give these a try ... I know they are a couple of my families favorites!

See you tomorrow for Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge and The Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge!

Happy Crafting (and Cooking/Baking).

Darlene