Sewing and Cooking

Today makes day 18 our school system has missed for snow. We received five inches of new snow over the past 24 hours. This has been the prettiest snow as it was fluffy, heavy flakes that stuck to everything.
I used this time off to do some crafting. I made this Carolina bag. (By the way, congratulations Tarheels on your win over Miami last night!) Notice it has one of my new labels "Gayleblee Designs".

I am very excited about my new labels. I ordered them from Jennifer's Jewels on Etsy. Thanks Jennifer they are great.


I also made some delicious blueberry muffins. This is the best recipe ever, and so easy. I will be putting the recipe on my pages so look for it. I promise you will love it too.!




I have included a picture of my snowman collection. This is a tribute to all the snow we have been having. The snowman on the far left is a creation that Em made a couple years ago in art class.
I hope you enjoy your visit. I will respond to all email and comments.

Happy Crafting, Sewing, Cooking, Living!!!

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New Granny Square Pattern

As the snow continues and we now miss our 16th day of school, I continue crocheting, knitting, cooking and washing dishes. Above is picture of the "Solid Granny Square" that I am hoping to work into a pillow cover. The pattern came from Heather's blog The Little Tin Bird @ www.thelittletinbird.uk.co. Thanks Heather.
A big "yum yum" goes out the Lucinda Scala Quinn for her "Honey Mustard Chicken" recipe from her latest cookbook "Mad Hungry Feeding Men and Boys." It has become my new go to cookbook.

Will It Ever End????

We finally went back to school today on a delay schedule. We missed two full days for snow. The forcast is for more snow and ice coming in on Thursday night with as much as 4 inches of ice and then snow on top of that. With another wintery blast expected for Tuesday. I feel like all I have done is cook and wash dishes. My children get up from one meal asking what we will be having at the next meal and what time it will be served. Thank you Lucinda Scala Quinn for your new Mad Hungry Cookbook. It has saved my family from the rut of eating what from my repitore of recipes. I have tried many of her recipes and have been very pleased with the results. They have been easy to follow with fairly simple ingredients and things that teenagers will eat. Kudos!
I am posting a picture of my oldest K. who enjoyed the last snow we had, he couldn't resist taking a dive in the powdery snow that piled up on our back deck.

Feeding my man, boys and girl.

I have embarked on a journey. I am working through a new cookbook. "Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys" by Lucinda Scala Quinn. I used a recipe she published in the Everyday Food Magazine that came from this cookbook. Then a week or so later I saw her on the Martha Stewart Show promoting this book. Well the quest was on, I had to have it. I found it last weekend and the week has been filled with planning for the big cook this weekend. So far I have made: Breakfast burritos pg. 23, Spainish frittata pg. 27, Aunt Patty's coffee cake pg. 46, chicken enchiladas salsa verde pg. 133, Basic beef stew pg. 152, and Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies pg. 252. My children have liked the recipes. Their favorite was the cookies of course. It was the one recipe they all liked. My oldest is the pickiest eater in the bunch. He is a processed food junkie. He didn't like the breakfast burritos because he didn't like the chizoro sausage, so next time I will probably use a good American sausage. He also didn't like the frittata this morning because it was cold. The recipe said it was good hot or cold. He slept too late and that is his problem. None of them where especially crazy about the Green enchilladas. My middle child said "I don't like my main course concealed in a green sauce." For those of you who watch the Andy Griffith Show know where that line comes from. Tonight we will have the Basic Beef Stew. I will let you know how that goes over.

OAMC "Once a Month Cooking"

I recently became very interested in OAMC. I have very little time in the evening to prepare a meal from scratch. It seemed we were always pulling through the drive thru of some fast food resturant. I felt very guilty, giving my background is in Family and Consumer Science. So I did some research on OAMC and hit the ground running. I compiled my recipes, made my list and did the "big shop". I spent about $220 for a family of five and that made 23 meals. I marked my calandar with days I knew we would have to eat out because of late ballgames and we are usually out of town on the weekends so we are forced to eat out. I was very proud of myself, I got all of the meals cooked and a couple of lunches and still manged to make it to three basketball games. I am working on next months menus now. I hope to add a few more lunches and maybe some breakfasts. I would love to have some new recipes to add to my collection. So if you would like to share, please do.