Baked Crab Rangoon

Now that it's getting chilly (mmmmm, totally craving some chili)...

I wanted to share a super duper appetizer. 

This is a crowd favorite fer sure. 



Kraft Baked Crab Rangoon

1 can (6 oz.) white crabmeat, drained & flaked

4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese softened

2 green onions thinly sliced

1/4 cup KRAFT Light Mayo Reduced Fat Mayonnaise

12 won ton wrappers

HEAT oven to 350°F. MIX first 4 ingredients. PLACE 1 won ton wrapper in each of 12 muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray, extending edges of wrappers over sides of cups. Fill with crab mixture.

 Enjoy! 

They are amazing, and so much healthier than the traditional Crab Rangoon! 

Some COLTS Love

It's heeeerrrrrreeeee!  Yep, football season.  The most wonderful time of the year that involves lots of good friends and good food and good football.  Usually in that order.  For me anyway.  I love my Colts, but I can usually get distracted by the food table... eating and talking.  Anywho, how much I love appetizers is definitely not the point here.  The point is that for almost the whole duration of the yucky-sloppy-dirty-snow season you know you have something to look forward to every week. 

And thank goodness, because I am not a fan of the dirty snow season.   
And, does anyone out there NOT think my kid is ADORABLE in his jersey????? 
That's right, silence.  You all think he is a super cutie, as you should.

And this is probably the last time he'll be so excited to be out with his parents.
(nerd alert!)
hehe toooootally kidding.

I mean look at that giant cheesy grin!!!!

So for the Super Bowl 2010, I whipped up this little banner for our party. 

 I found the fabric in the remnant bin at Hobby Lobby for super cheap... on super bowl weekend people!!  I snatched it up, along with some plain white cheap fabric for the back and some white bias tape and had this made with time to spare!

Is the picture quality really really poor?  Huh.  I hadn't noticed.

Next up with my super-cheap-remnant-bin Colts fabric...

a kitchen towel for one of my favorite people. 

She let us stay at her house recently and I brought this and a bottle of wine as a thank you.  She's the biggest Colts fan I have ever known!! 

I hand embroidered the 'We Believe!'.  I heart making towels...
And believe it or not, I have more Colts fabric. So this isn't the end. Muahahahahaha.
I'm thinking some coasters are up next. 

But let's not get tooooo crazy.

We don't live in a man-cave, nor do I want to.

I'm talking some small Colts 'touches' brought out just for game day.

You know,
 
For the food.

We're gonna party like it's your birthday!

One of Jack's favorite little friends, Ava, just turned 2!! 

Here they are getting a wagon ride...

  This little cutie LOVES PINK... her favorite color... so I made a few PINK things for her big day.

a PINK crayon roll...

a PINK owl pillow...

PINK hair clips...

And a PINK shirt!  Here is the little cutie in the shirt I made for her!

And a few close-ups of the shirt...

I've never made a shirt before and it was actually less fun than I thought it would be.  I'm really not good at using patterns, so my Mom helped me a TON!  Thanks Mom!  :)

Earring holder!!

Two exclamation points in the title because

 I AM EXCITED ABOUT THIS ONE, PEOPLE!

Here is my brand new earring holding hanging on the bathroom wall.  As you can see, it's also a ring and/or bracelet holder (right on the shelves) and a necklace holder on the sides!

Curious how I did it?

See below!

 

Here is how she started...

 It's obviously a wine box and unfortunately not the cool antique looking kind.  Garage sale purchase= 1$ (holy wow, I totally overpaid for that!  If you're interested, the story is below)

I stood it on end and hot glued teeny tiny (1/4") dowel rods in the gaps where the shelves go.

 

  Then I had my hubs attach some small hooks to the outside top... next I primed it...

 

Spray painted it an oil rubbed bronze...

(let dry)... and done!

It's everything I ever hoped for in an earring holder! Hehe!  :)  But really, I do love it lots.  And for only needing a few small supplies to fix up my dollar wine box... it's perfect!  And hey, if you love wine like I do, then start looking for some wine in a case and make your own.

The story:

I'd been thinking and thinking and thinking about a place to hang my 'fish hook' earrings.  They were previously in a pile next to my jewelry box... and that's no place for a earrings to be.  

Back up two months and I'm at some garage sales with my friend and my mom. 

It was the end of a long couple hours and at the very last house I spotted this wine box.  And it's nothing special... particle board... Robert Mondavi (oh, but I do like Robert Mondavi).  Anywho, I asked the lady how much?  She told me 1$, and what did I do???  I paid her a dollar! (what the who??? It was the heat! It was getting to me!) Argh!  I was so mad at myself the instant I pulled out a dollar and handed it to her... come on, I always negotiate prices!  Literally!  But, I was hot and tired and ready to go and I just handed her a dollar. Still trying to get over that one.

So, I had no idea what to do with this thing, but I figured it could sit on something and hold another something, somewhere (right?). 

 Let me sum up (Princess Bride anyone?)

 ...and then my lovely earring holder was born.  

I only wish it had more color.  But here is the problem, our bathroom (and bedroom for that matter) are still white.  No color there.  And we do plan on painting them someday and I just don't know what color, so I decided to leave it pretty neutral so I don't have to paint over it someday.

So, can any of you creative minds think of what I could do to add a little something (I'm not crazy about adding a busy design to the back, behind the earrings, because I love how the earrings just pop out against the dark color) to make it more pretty?

I think I have what, 2 maybe 3 readers now?  So, I expect a comment from each of you!  Hehe.

Thanks in advance! 

Poundcake = Buttertastic

Q-  When you need a pound cake recipe, what should be your automatic first thought?

A- Paula Deen. 

 So that's where I went for a 'Happy Birthday' pound cake for my sista.   And, why yes, her pound cake is the most buttertastic and delicious I have ever had!

 And the best part is, it's easy like Sunday morning.

Mama's Pound Cake

Ingredients

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, plus more for pan

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

With a mixer, cream butter and shortening together. Add sugar, a little at a time. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl and add to mixer alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour. Mix in vanilla. Pour into a greased and floured tube pan and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Perfect as written!

And it certainly wouldn't be pound cake in the summer if we didn't have fresh blueberries and strawberries and oh yea, homemade whipped cream.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Happy Birthday Jenny!

Bibs, Burps and Boppys (oh my!)!

Lately, I've been making all of the above for some various kiddos... shown below are for a precious baby due September 12th this year.

Here is the beautiful mommy-to-be, my oldest friend in the world (literally, we've been friends since I was 2 and she was 1!) holding up a dog print bib (for age 5-6 months and up) and burp rag.  See, we don't know whether this little one is a boy or a girl, but we do know that he or she will love dogs because this baby already has a big dog/brother named Bean. 

And this is the proud daddy-to-be, who is in an awesome band called The Steel Wheels.  He plays the mandolin and sings and is sooooo talented!  Check them out! Here, he is holding up a music print bib and burp rag combo.

And here we have a Boppy cover.  My first one! (*sniff*)  I really loved making this and even loved it more because I had all of this fabric on hand- all I had to buy was the zipper (some where around $1.50) and do you know what these covers usually cost???  Up to $25 each!

Wowza! 

So, in other words, if you see a Boppy cover on a baby registry,

contact me to make one for you! ;)  

Oh, and did I mention how well my fabrics were lined up?  No? Oh, well, take a look!

 (as it turns out, I'm pretty proud of this bad boy, just sayin')

Here is another bib/ burp cloth combo!

Close up of the music set!

And, finally a close up of the dog print.

(These are the most cheesy cell phone pics ever!)

Cupcakes FORE my husband!

I know, I'm a nerd.  I ran across these on-line somewhere (sorry, I have NO idea where!)... and had to make them for my golf obsessed hubby's birthday.  His degree is Professional Golf Management (and business, whew!), so you can see why I made them.

Tee-hee. He liked them!

A little pointer for your future reference:  try to avoid using expired food coloring.  When I realized it was expired (too late), I went ahead and used it and it was kinda weird, it turned the buttercream icing into a few shades of green.  But thankfully the green sprinkles covered that right up!