CrockPotting Blog

I saw Stephanie on Rachael Ray's show a couple weeks ago, since she made a resolution to use her crockpot every day for a year and blog about it. She was getting over 4000 hits per day before she was on TV. I wish I found her blog sooner. I am really enjoying it and have already tried a couple recipes. (the 5 layer brownies and chicken nachos). Go here and check out her blog. She makes me laugh all the time and tells if the recipe was good or a flop. She is quick to write back when you email her, too. I shared the crockpot recipes I have on my blog with her.

Breakfast Pizza

1 lb. breakfast sausage, cooked and crumbled
1 tube crescent roll dough or pizza crust
6 eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp. Homemade Gourmet Grandmother's Sunday Roast Seasoning
2 c. shredded Cheddar

Cook, drain, crumble the sausage. Turkey sausage is a great substitute. Unroll the dough into a rectangle on a cookie sheet. Use fingers or dough roller to smooth out and seal seams if using crescent dough. If using a pizza crust, create an edge to keep egg onto crust. Beat 6 eggs in a bowl w/ Grandmother's Sunday Seasoning. Pour onto crust. Spread cooked sausage on top, then add cheese to that. Cook in preheated oven at 35o Fahrenheit for 10-15 min.

I made this Saturday and it was so simple. I think I will cook the meat up ahead of time to make it even quicker next time. It was a hit w/ DH and DD decided not to try it, but I know she would like it. She is not a morning person!

This double page layout is the beginning of the pages for DD's 1st birthday party (and she just turned 3!). We did a Hula theme w/ decorations and DD's and my clothes. No one else dressed the part. She had a cake w/ Lilo and Stitch on it and a surfboard. I used the SU set Do the Hula for invitations. I did this layout for a VSBN challenge on SCS to grab items to use in only 3 min. and complete the page in only 1 hr. I did get the left page in an hour, but I needed about 30 min. to do the right page. So, I guess I did the challenge, since each page was under one hour.

Products used: CTMH Giggle Alpha, black ink, SU Simply Scrappin' kit, metal edge tags, hemp

Wheely Special Cake

I found a great cake in Parents magazine to make a that looks like a ferris wheel. All you need is a cake mix (I did 2), frosting, food coloring (they recommended paste for more vibrant colors, but I used what I had), Runts candy (2 boxes), gum drops, Rainbow Twizzlers, 20 Dum Dums suckers, 7 C. Rice Krispy Cereal, 4 Tbsp. butter, 1 c. melted white chocolate chips, 10 oz. marshmallows, 4 wooden skewers, 4 blue paper cupcake liners, a 9 inch round cake pan, and pyrex bowl to bake the cake in. I placed the domed cake on top of a 9x13 cake for extra stability & more servings.

So, put wax paper in the bottom of the round cake pan & grease the sides well. Melt the butter & marshmallows on low heat in large pan. Remove from heat. Color orange w/ food coloring and stir in. Add 1/2 c. melted white choc. chips & 7 c. Rice Krispies Cereal. Stir well. Put into cake pan, pressing firmly to make a solid wheel. Refrigerate at least 30 min. to set up.

Bake cake in greased & floured bowl - I used 2 qt. Pyrex. Must be ovensafe. Bake in 350 preheated oven for 40 - 50 min. Test w/ cake tester or toothpick to make sure it is done. Let cool in bowl several min. Run rubber spatula around edges to loosen from bowl. Place cooling rack on top of bowl & flip them both together. I also make a 9x13 at the same time. Baked 9x13 according to directions on the box.

Remove cereal treat from pan and put on a plate. Cut Twizzlers into 12 4 1/2 inch strips. Melt remaining white choc. chips (1/2 c.) and put into sandwich zipper bag. Snip sm. piece of bag at corner. Use it to attach Twizzlers into spokes. Place a gum drop (I used Dots candy) in center of wheel. Pipe white choc. dots on edge to attach Runts. Put in fridge to set up for 5 min. Carefully, flip & repeat on other side.

Tint vanilla frosting w/ red food coloring. It will come out pink unless you use paste food coloring. DD's favorite color, so I didn't mind the pink. Frost cake on cake plate or serving platter. I frosted the 9x13 first, then transfered the dome cake to the top using a spatula. Before transferring the dome cake, cut a notch out of the top to hold the wheel 2 inches wide by 3 inches long by 1 inch deep. Frost cake. Arrange runts around the edges. The sample in the magazine only had orange and green pieces around the base of the cake and had red, yellow, and blue around edge of the wheel. DH only found Tropical flavors, so we made do w/ different colors.

While wheel is on plate, attach 4 cupcake liners w/ dum dums suckers (5 per cup). We attached the cupcake liners w/ a small pieces of wooden skewer first, since it is tapered at the end. It was much easier to attach. After you get your people in their seats, attach 4 skewers in bottom of wheel about 1/2 inch apart from each other. Leave 3 inches of the skewers showing. Stand wheel into cake notch. Frost any imperfections around the wheel if your notch is a bit too big.

Attach wheel to cake. I recommend you do this after your guests arrive, since the humidity or wind in our case, may make it hard to stay up more than 30 min. Oh, walk very slowly w/ cake to the display table, because it feels like it will fall off.

And the winner is..

mistigoguen is #14 & she is the winner. I do not know how to get a random # generator, so I had DH pick a #. Please give me your address. email me at shaykarena@yahoo.com

Sorry for the delay, but w/ storms, and prepping for dd's b-day party, I had no chance for computer time for 3 days.

Blog Candy is here

I hope you like the blog candy. There is a spool of striped grosgrain ribbon, a card made by me, a round accordian album ready to be altered, dragonfly embellishments, and a set of clear flower stamps. I will draw a number from all those that post on this post. Please include email address or check back for the winner. I will draw a name on Fri. June 27 @ 10 PM EST. While you're here, please take a look around. I love comments on my work and pictures. Good luck!

Blog Candy

It is DD's 3rd birthday, so I will try to add the blog candy this weekend. I thought it would take longer to get 400 visits.