Irish Corned Beef and Cabbage

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A traditional St Patrick's Day dish I make every year.  

But first, what is Corned Beef?

Corned beef is made from a beef brisket that is cured or pickled in brine. Brine is just salt water.

In North America, corned beef dishes are associated with traditional Irish cuisine. However, there is considerable debate about the association of the corned beef and cabbage dish with Ireland.

The World's Longest Yard Sale

The 127 Yard Sale

The weather has been in the '60s here in Ohio and spring is in the air so yep, I'm daydreaming about gardening and yard sales!!

The World's Longest Yard Sale is also known as The 127 Yard Sale or The 127 Corridor Sale and is a 4-day event every year. The dates are always the first Thursday of the month of August, from Thursday to Sunday.  And that's 4 whole days of yard sale heaven!

If you are a yard-saler, antiquer, flea-marketer, thrift store shopper, or anything in-between, you will love this!

Texas State Flag Quilt

My daughter Jami and her husband Donnie and their kids moved to Texas for a job in 2009.  

I hate that they're so far away (I'm in Ohio) and that I don't get to see them much. 

But we have taken numerous trips to Texas and we think it's a nice state to visit. We've even been to the Dealey Plaza and the Grassy Knoll in Dallas.

I'm a new quilter, I have only been making quilts for family members for the last year.  I decided to make Jami and Donnie one as a Christmas gift.

Best Ever Monster Cookies

I make these cookies for many different holidays so this week they're for Valentine's Day!

Monster Cookies are not new and the recipes for making them are endless. Probably 95% of my cookies are homemade, but sometimes you just need a quick and easy recipe. 

I decided to come up with my own version of Monster Cookies which are easy and great to throw together when we have unexpected visitors or to serve at club meetings or any other last-minute function.

The Mercantile

A few years back I received The Pioneer Woman's first cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, as a gift for Christmas. 

I love it and have since bought for myself or received as gifts all her other cookbooks!

The Pioneer Woman or Ree Drummond also has her own blog and recently opened a shop called The Mercantile in her hometown of Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

Ree and her husband Ladd purchased an old red brick building in downtown Pawhuska and had it completely remodeled.  

And the results are stunning. 

I just love old red brick buildings and am always so happy to see them rescued from demolition.

Fran's Holiday Cheese Ball

We've purchased or made from scratch and tried many different types of cheese balls.  A cheese ball is nothing more than a mixture of cheeses, maybe with chopped veggies and a few spices rolled into a ball and served as a dip with crackers.

It's an appetizer that's been in and out of popularity many times but still seems to hang in there.  

Even though a cheese ball may be considered sort of retro by some, it's one appetizer you can be sure of.  And there's an entire book devoted to it.  The book, Great Balls of Cheese by Michelle Buffardi has more than 50 savory and sweet cheese ball recipes!

Cookie Cutter Christmas Ornaments

I make Christmas ornaments every year for my kids and a few family members. It all started as making ornaments only for my kids, but then I started making two or three extra to give as gifts, and that has now grown into a yearly family Christmas Ornament Exchange!

It usually takes me lots of thought and planning to settle on just the right ornament to make. 

A few I've made in the past are Vintage Paper Ornaments,   Beach Ornaments with sand and shells from St. Augustine, Florida, a Flag of Ohio ornament, and Felt Snowman ornaments.

Elizabeth's Breakfast Casserole

I created this Breakfast Casserole by changing a recipe I found in an old Betty Crocker  Bisquick Cookbook years ago. 

The original recipe was for an Impossible Taco Pie or Impossible Seafood Pie, something like that.

And we seem to go back and forth on the name, either calling it a Breakfast Casserole or a Breakfast Quiche.

Grandma Coy's Caramel Chocolate Bars

This recipe came from my mother-in-law Coy. 

She cut it out of a magazine years ago and has been making them for holidays and her grandkids ever since. 

My son Daniel especially loved these delicious cookies and Coy always made sure to bring him a special container all his own.

Sadly, Coy recently passed away, so I wanted to share her cookie legacy and recipe.

Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake

 

I had a request to do a blog post about this cheesecake because the kids think it just delicious!

I found the original recipe for this decadent cheesecake in a Paula Dean Cookbook, but for time and convenience sake, I made a few small changes to make it lots easier.

For one of the changes, I use a pre-made graham cracker crust and I use a bottled caramel sauce instead of melting caramels. 

I also add a little vanilla. We just love our Homemade Vanilla. 

Maple Leaf Quilt Block

I'm in the middle of sewing a Farm Girl Vintage quilt using patterns from the Lori Holt quilt book called Farm Girl Vintage. 

I'm making the quilt blocks that relate to my own little farm, like a bee, black cat, chicken, strawberry,  pumpkin, and tractor. 

I have multiple sugar maple trees in my yard and in late winter I tap those trees to make real maple syrup. So, of course, I want a maple leaf block in my Farm Quilt.

DIY Costume Awards

We have a fall / Halloween party every year and everyone comes in costume although it's not mandatory.

Our Halloween parties started as a children's Halloween party when my kids were little but it has now evolved into a kids-adult-family party.

Back then I would give out prizes for the top-voted costumes but we haven't had a costume contest in years.

                                 

Well my daughter Alexis asked me to revive the costume awards tradition. So this year we had a costume contest, complete with voting jars for each category, and slips of paper and ink pens for everyone to pick their favorites.

Halloween Costume Ideas #4

Well, here we go again!
It's everything fall and pumpkin at our house this time of year and we're busy trying to get all the decorations set up for our annual Halloween Party. We encourage everyone to come in costume (but it's not mandatory) and surprisingly, many people create homemade costumes, which I love.

My kid's costumes have been DIY for years and even before the term DIY was invented. Now that they're grown, they're carrying on the homemade costume tradition.

Child's Batman Quilt

My recently finished quilt was a request for a one-year little boy's Batman quilt. 

I'm not really into Batman or any superhero fandom so after finding a batman print fabric, I used Google to come up with coordinating colors. 

The original request was just no blue colors.

There are actually a few Batman costumes, with the newest one clad in all black. I'm old school and I grew up with the vintage batman.

                  

Sausage Corn Chowder

I make this soup 3 or 4 times a year, but mostly around fall when the days are cooler and also during cold winter months.  

And it's usually always a requested food for our Annual Fall Party.

The original recipe came from a 1992 cookbook called Campbell's Simply Delicious Recipes I found at a second-hand store.