Announcement

While I really want this to be more a craft blog, I'm going to have to take a small hiatus and turn it more into a life blog until March. I'm leaving for Dallas this week and when I return, I'll start working non-stop on some competition cakes. I'm really wanting to win first place this year in my division so I'm going to have to stop all other crafts for awhile and I can't show what I'm doing for the cakes! I know people probably won't seek me out and spy on me but I'd rather just show you later when they are finished.

So hopefully in March I can pick up with a ton of tutorials and other fun things.

I'll leave you with one of the best sites on the web.www.etsy.com

It's full of homemade items, millions of them to be exact. Anything that you could need or want can be found here, handcrafted by a small artisan. No huge commercial products here. It's great! Go check it out and find someone to support today!

Hidden Goodness and more!

Someone in my house is a very picky eater. I'm not going to point a finger at HIM or tell you who it is.... but HE is picky. He will only eat a few vegetables, actually three or four that I can think of off the bat. Corn, celery (raw only), carrots (raw only), and broccoli are the veggies of HIS choice. And of course, little kids can sometimes be picky as well.

So how can I make sure that they are getting their daily dose of healthy veggies? You hide them!! You can buy cookbooks telling you how to hide veggies in foods but I'm not really interested in taking it that far. The only weapon that I need in a healthy hiding arsenal is my Pampered Chef Food Chopper. I know that a few other companies make food choppers now but Pampered Chef is the best in my personal opinion.

The way that I usually hide veggies in a pasta dish is to select several veggies and chop them to bits and then put them in my pasta sauce. No one in my family has ever noticed that they are there. If there are big chunks of veggies in the sauce, His Royal Highness will pick them all out and place them on my plate. So get out your chopper and just take out your frustrations for the day. Then place them in the sauce to simmer until softer and no one will ever know. It'll be our little secret. Don't tell His Royal Highness!

Bread Update

I know that you just couldn't live without knowing the rest of the bread story. Well, it turned out not to be a brick after all. The crust was pretty crunchy but not a chewy crunchy, which is great. The inside was nice and fluffy and it had a great taste! I'll try it again when I can find my large loaf pan and maybe give you the recipe if it works out. It's the perfect snack when you smear it with a ton of cream cheese, don't ask me how I know that. Just trust me.

Suzy Homemaker

I tried to be all Martha Stewart-ish this morning and make homemade bread to go along with dinner tonight. I'm thinking that it's not going to turn out. The recipe said that the dough should be sticky and soft yet mine resembles a brick and weighs about the same too. It's rising right now so we should know in about three hours if I'm going to have new building blocks for the girls or dinner for tonight.