Bookmarks

I love these Strawberry Pillows. I’ll probably cheat and use felt like I did for my carrot tutorial.

At a local festival My mom bought each of the kids a pvc pipe bow and arrow for $5 each. I found this tutorial to make your own.

Yes, please.

I love this cookie tray revamp from Cathie Filian.

I have binders all over the kitchen filled with recipes. I love this idea for sprucing up the binders.

Love this wreath.

Recipe Roundtable-Easy Cobbler

You know when you open a Martha Stewart Living or Better Homes and Gardens, there’s always an editorial of beautiful people in crisp linen shirts enjoying a beautiful meal in the middle of a beautiful field?

Well, this is how we do it Missouri style.

In the driveway!

I think we had just as much fun, if not more!

No crisp linen shirts here. In fact no shirts at all!

I had some blackberry tarts frozen, so I heated them in the oven and served them with vanilla ice cream.

The neighbors brought this amazing peach cobbler. Its so simple I thought I’d share the recipe with you.

Ingredients:

Stick of butter

2 cups of fresh or frozen fruit or more (whatever looks right)

1 cup of self rising flour*

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 350. Place stick of butter in 9×13 pan and place in preheating oven to melt. In a bowl lightly stir together self rising flour, sugar and milk. After oven in preheated and butter is melted dump fruit over butter. Pour batter over fruit and bake until batter is golden brown and fruit it bubbling hot. Best served with ice cream!

*If you don’t have self rising flour, you can make your own by adding 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt to a cup of all-purpose flour

For more Recipes head over to Big Binder.

Bookmarks

I love homegrown tomatoes, so I will be canning as many as I can to use during the 10 mos they aren’t available. Fresh preserving has some great tomato recipes.

I love this quilt binding technique.

These “cupcakes” would make great teacher gifts or party favors!

I love this spiderweb potholder.

I LOVE this skirt. I can’t wait to find time to make one!

I love this rack for an animal themed boys (or girls) room. I also love the comments about using the backs of the animals. If you’ve ever read a TILT post of mine, you’ll also know I love that they suggest having a cold beverage while making this!

I’m in charge of craft night at the kids’ school. This sharpie tie dye will be awesome!

This wreath would make a great engagement or wedding present.

Recipe Roundtable-Bruschetta

Ingredients

4 tomatoes, chopped and seeded

Hand full of basil cut chiffonade style

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

French baguette

Garlic powder

Salt and Pepper

Slice baguette into 1/2 inch slices, arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet. Mix  1/2 cup of olive oil and two teaspoons of garlic powder in a bowl. Brush both sides of baguette with olive oil mixture. Broil until golden brown. Repeat on other side.

Mix chop and seeded tomatoes and basil in a bowl.  Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

*If you’d like a little extra garlic kick, add a tablespoon of minced garlic to the bruschetta.

*You could also add some cubed fresh mozzarella, shredded mozzarella or sprinkle with grated parmesan.

For more Recipe Roundtable visit The Big Binder.

Off to Market

Just A Reminder

Tomato Fest is this Sunday. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun! If I wasn’t stuck behind a booth all day, I’d join in on the tomato dodge ball!

If you make it, make sure you stop by and say hi!

Here’s something I whipped up to commemorate the activities.

Things I Love Thursday-Black Bean Salsa

Ingredients:

2 Can of black beans

4 medium tomatoes

1/2 red onion

Handfull of chopped cilantro

1 chopped jalapeno

Tablespoon of minced garlic

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients and serve with tortilla chips

*It would also be delicious with some roasted corn.

For more TILT head over to the Diaper Diaries.

Burp Cloths

I’ve been cranking out burp cloths for all the babies that are coming.

A reverse applique “r”

Felt tree with bluebird

Blackberry Jam

After I had my first go at canning, I was hooked.

I usually eat or serve blackberry jam at least once throughout the day, so I thought it would be more economical and healthy to make my own.

I came across some wild blackberries that needed to be used immediately at a local farmers market. It was a challenge not to eat all 4 lbs or so before I preserved them!

At  the nearest supercenter I found some reduced sugar pectin. It allowed you to control the amount of sugar you added to the jam. The recipe for blackberry jam called for up to 3 cups of sugar, so I halved it. Honey could also have been used as a sweetener, but I was afraid of what it would do to the overall flavor of the jam.

Piper Ann had a playdate on jam making day, so I decided to get the kids involved. They had a blast mashing up the berries.

(even Oliver wanted to have a stab at mashing the berries)

Mashed berries

Water Bath

Jam

Have I mentioned that I’ll be at Tomato Fest on Aug 22?!

Things I Love Thursday-Strawberry Lemonade

It wouldn’t be a TILT post if it didn’t involve alcohol, so here we go.

We had a big party here a couple weeks ago for my Father-in-law who just turned 70. In addition to the typical beer and wine, I wanted a fun drink. I came up with this Strawberry Lemonade.

Ingredients:
Big jug of rock gut vodka
Small container of strawberries
2 bottles of Simply Lemonade
Cucumber (yes, I said cucumber)

1. Take the jug of vodka remove the plastic pour spout and pour some out (of course don’t throw it away)
2. Remove hulls from the strawberries, cut in half and put into vodka
3. Let sit overnight. Its kind of amazing what happens, initially the strawberries sink, as they lose their color they float!
4. Rinse cucumber and slice into thin slices.
5. In a large container, preferably one with a spigot, mix strained vodka, both lemonades, and cucumbers.
6. Stir and serve over ice.

I love the earthiness the cucumbers add to counteract the sweetness of the lemonade. Its a great drink to serve on these insanely hot days.

Here’s a little hint: Save the lemonade bottles, so you can conveniently save the unused lemonade in the fridge.

For more TILT check out Jill’s blog at www.thediaperdiaries.net.