Scrappin' without Scraps

Birthday Recipes

Today happens to be my birthday and I thought I would share some favorite sweet recipes with you.  And guess what - it's snowing!  Woo hoo!  Great present eh?

These are a couple of my favorite recipes.  I adore the Strawberry Banana Bread and it comes out well even if you use frozen strawberries which makes it easy to make whenever you want.  The Kugel recipe is from my mom who always referred to it as "Noodle Brunch Dish" and by any name it is wonderful.  And then there is Robert Redford in a Pan - need I say more? 

Click on the title to download the full sized version which you may keep and print out.  Enjoy!

Mom's Kugel

Credits:  Corina Nielsen's Illusive kit and file tags; font is Adee 1

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Strawberry Banana Bread

Credits;  A Thing Called Spring by Karah Fredericks; Kristen font

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Robert Redford in a Pan

Credits: La Cremerie Fraise by Katie Pierat; fonts are Cinda, Handage, Dirty Ego

Behind and Before

Credits: Say What by Amy Teets paper; stamp and file tie by Kim Hill; buttons, ribbons and tag by Corina Nielsen; frames by Khristy Shcmidt; flower and word art from OScraps grab bag

Spring and Snow

It is, of course, officially spring.  At least according to the calender and the American Cancer Society who is doing their annual Daffodil Day fund raiser today.  So some homes will have a touch of spring today.

Meanwhile, on the ground, there is still snow.  This has been the snowiest winter in a long time.  Enough to break some records .  Currently we are at 112" of snowfall in Concord, which is the official snow measuring station for NH. And last week we were in something like 8th place. But the snow this week has moved us up to 4th place.

1) 1873-74 122.0"

2) 1872-73 115.0"

3) 1995-96 113.2"

4) 2007-08 112.0"

5) 1886-87* 111.0"

6) 1887-88* 111.0"

And there is another storm headed our way next week.  Plus snow in NH in April isn't that unusual - one year we had a huge storm on April 1 (no joke).  So we have time to break the records.

If they took official measurement in the state in places other than Concord, the record would already be history.  Here's a snow map of New Hampshire and you can see the northern areas have already broken the record with Diamond Pond being the winner at 197 inches as of the end of February.

So now, although I am quite sick of the snow, I say let's go for it!  One more big storm next week; let's break the record and be done with it.  Time of move onto other things..like spring!

The World is Round

 

Another one of my favorites.....

Credits:

Diets, Calories, Weight etc

For quite some time I've been intrigued with creating recipe cards digitally and have used this blog to provide them for free.  And it is amazing at how many people download them which is very cool. I started doing them to preserve recipes we use all the time or ones that are special for my family.

But then last year DH decided that it was time to lose some weight.  Being the lovable geek that he is, he went around this by researching various options.  I've long been a fan of Weight Watchers  but he decided to do something much more radical which he recently posted on his blog Unpopular Ideas.  You can read about the Southern NH Beach Diet. - the title is a tongue in cheek reference to the fact we live in southern NH, near a lake.  And if you would like to delve into the biochemistry behind it you might read The Calorie Fallacy, though I will warn you that it is a very long post.  It is an interresting read and follows his usual pattern of coming up with interesting and sometimes unpopular ideas.

At any rate I can tell you does work - he has lost a lot of weight.  Sadly being a computer geek doesn't burn much in the way of calories but this diet does seem to work for him.  It did mean changing our dinners a bit and interestingly enough one of my best sources of new recipes has been Weight Watchers which seems to be avoiding carbs now too. It gives you something to think about....

St Patrick's Day Recipes

Being half Irish, I just have to do St Patrick's Day and share some recipes.  The menu is predictable - Corned Beef (with cabbage) and Irish Soda Bread.  A some Toll House Cookies which have nothing what so ever to do with being Irish - they just are good!

I'm not a big fan of cabbage and it does sort of stink up the kitchen a bit but I have found that leaving it out makes the corned beef taste different.  Cooked cabbage is slightly sweet and I think that balances the somewhat fatty nature of corned beef.  So it's worth putting up with the smell for sure.

Just click on the title to get the full sized recipe card which you may download and print out.

Corned Beef

Credits: papers from Illusive and Everyday Solids by Corina Nielsen; ribbon, brushes and plaque from Spring Essence DST March kit by Tracey Ann Robinson; font is Addel

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Irish Soda Bread

Credits: papers and elements by Carrie Stephens from her Lucky Day kit; file tags from Illusive by Corina Nielsen; fonts are Painty Paint and Adeel

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Toll House Cookies

Credits: Papers from Wishful Thinking DST kit by Misty Marede Designs; Scrap Girls recipe stamps; spoons by Coreen Silke; font is Handage and Offshore Banking Business

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Two More for the Crock Pot

I found this version of Tzimmes at the Wieght Watchers web site.  I love that it can be done in a crock pot which is a lot less expensive than running my oven for a few hours. 

Just click on the title to download a full sized version of the card which you can then print out.

Brown Lentil Soup

 

Credits: Cinnamon Tea by Cory Gammon; font is Handage

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Tzimmes

Credits: Illusive by Corina Nielsen; fonts are Handage and Stamp Act

Some More College News

This is quite the year.  First there is visiting and deciding on colleges; then there is writing essays and filling out applications.  We're fortunately way past both of those things and now are at the waiting stage.  The closer it gets, the harder it is for all of us.  Usually content to let mail build up for a day or two, we are now checking the mailbox every day.  Thick letters, thin letters - there doesn't seem to be pattern.  But this weekend brought two new acceptances - University of Vermont (UVM) and Hofstra. The latter was sort of a safety school (though proximity to NYC was a large attraction) but then yesterday's mail brought word of a merit scholarship.  In fact a very generous one. So now that  bumped it up a bit to the let's-take-another-look-at-it-in-the-spring list. It might be a busy spring but at least UVM and Hofstra aren't far away.

We went to the school musical (Teen was doing sound) and I was chatting with one of the mothers whose DD wants to go into musical theater.  In addition to applications and interviews, her daughter has to audition.  So her acceptance isn't based on scores and essays but rather on a 2 minute monologue and 32 bars of music.  Yikes - I should be thankful that my DD wants to do sound and not be on the stage.  Talk about pressure.  And they are still running around doing auditions - they have one this week. 

When did it ever get to competitive?  And how is it that we put so much pressure on these kids that they have to declare a major like musical theater vs film before they are 18.  I know this year is the biggest applicant pool ever for colleges which ups the ante some but how many of us went to college with a clear idea of what we wanted to do?  Gee - not me.  Heck, I didn't even graduate with a clear idea of my career path.  I'm actually thankful that my DD wants to major in English and be a writer because what she is looking for is a good liberal arts school.  And that means she will have the freedom to take a wide variety of classes and try areas that she's never been exposed to academically.  Who knows what she'll do - and it may well be writing - but at least the options are there. 

Okay...I'll stop ranting ...time to check the mail box.... 

Fast and Easy

That's what we all want dinner to be - fast and easy.  The trouble is that sometimes fast and easy is anything but good for you.  All the take-out options on my way home seem to abound in fat and calories.  But often at my house we are dashing out for rehearsals or evening meetings so I have two tried and true recipes that I can count on...

Pad Thai is a somewhat americanized version of the classic Thai dish and thanks to the International aisle of the local Shaw's supermarket I can keep the indigents easily at hand.  I keep boneless chicken and fish fillets frozen - both are easy to thaw by soaking in hot water.  The peanut sauce, coconut milk and noodles are easy to keep on hand and here are the ones I use

Now for the recipe - real Pad Thai calls for bean sprouts which is something I rarely have on hand.  Though healthy, they are don't keep very well so I just added more rice noodles to my recipe for Pad Thai.  But if you have them, just cut back a bit on the rice noodles. 

Just click on the title to download the full sized version of the card which you can then print out.

Pad Thai

Credits: DST monthly kit called Wishful Thinking by Misty Mareda; fonts are Handage and Batik

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Fast Fish Curry

You can easily use boneless chicken for this one too. It is good either way but the curry actually hides the fish so it's a good way of sneaking fish into your menu even if your family isn't wild about fish. LOL

Credits: Windsong by  Anne deJong and Marcie Reckinger; font is Handage

Enjoy!!

Believe in Dreams

Credits: Kim Hill's papers and elements