Category: Tidbits

Posted on September 7, 2007
Filed Under Tidbits

Ok, here we go.
My 2 questions I got hung up on are solved (sleeping over things is always a good idea)… who will be the judges and will I make everything to test it?
The answers: 1. Who will be the judges? YOU GUYS!!! 2. Do I make everything? Nope. YOU do!!!

Make Real Food Look Like Something Else

Yeah, that’s the name of the contest.

Rules:
1. It has to be edible, or at least most of it.
2. The idea doesn’t have to be original. (Should that be classified as a rule? )
3. YOU or someone in your house has to make it… no just scanning in a picture from a magazine or something!
4. All entries have to be submitted on or before September 24 by sending me a picture of it.
5. You can enter as many times as you want.
6. Anyone can enter… you don’t have to be subscribed to seasoned_to_taste or even have a xanga site. BUT, if you are subscribed, you will automatically get an extra point (vote from me) when counting up how many votes each picture got.

How it should work:
You make something, take a picture of it BEFORE your kids eat it, and send the picture to me. You can send it by email kaylouann@gmail.com (if you have my regular email address, go ahead and use it instead of the gmail one).
On September 25, I will TRY to get all the pictures loaded onto my site. They will be numbered, but anonymous. Then, you can look over them and vote only once for your favorite one, either by messaging me or in a comment (it’s up to you if you want your vote to be private or not). You can vote through October 1, then on October 2, I’ll announce the winner. If there is a tie of more than one winner, I’ll put the winning names into a hat and have my 4-yr-old pick one out.

If you win, I want to post:
1. A picture of you
2. Your first name
3. The state or province that you’re from
4. A little description of HOW you made what you made (if it’s not obvious)
5. A link to your site, if you have one

And, of course, in every good contest, there is a PRIZE :
The winner will get a
Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator !
Comes with 6 different tips… 2 star tips, round tip (good for writing), half moon shell tip, drop flower tip, and a bismark tip (for filling bismarks). The ideas are endless! Decorate everything. Fill twice-baked potatoes and deviled eggs to make them look more attractive. If you were creative enough to win this contest, you should be able to think of lots of ways to use it! And if you already have one or don’t want one, enter anyway! It’s brand new in the box and would make a great birthday gift for your mom or a wonderful wedding gift!

Now for those of you who like ideas, here are some…
1. A cauliflower bride (no, I’m not kidding). Carve a zucchini in to a cone shape, put cauliflower florets on with toothpicks. Her head is a small onion. her hair is carrot shavings, her arms…)
2. Meatloaf cake. This is an April Fool’s thing. Shaped like a two-layer cake, the meatloaf looks like chocolate cake and the mashed potatoes look like frosting. And it’s decorated!
3. Flower pot. Chocolate cake mix baked in a muffin tin. Take one muffin and wrap fruit roll-ups around it to resemble it being in a pot. Flatten gumdrops and cut out flower shapes and leaves and make them stand up in the “dirt” (choc muffin) with a pretzel as the stem.
4. Shaped cakes.

I know I have pictures of these things in a stash of stuff in my cupboard. I’ll go see if I can find them.

Found some…
The meatloaf cake. And, by the way, that little taco salad is chocolate ice cream topped with yellow and green-colored coconut, marichino cherries, Cool Whip, and cut up black licorice, all in a waffle cup.
The flower pot. This picture is Lexi ‘s prized possession (because she wants to make them sometime) that Tiffany got ahold of and crumpled and ripped, causing some tears.
A shaped cake. Inside the tent is solid cake, the orange is marzipan… kinda fun stuff to work with, although I didn’t make this tent cake! The only time I used marzipan was on Lexi’s 1st birthday cake…

So, let’s have fun! I can’t wait to hear from you! If you have any questions, just ask… I’ll quick make something up.

Sigh! This site is sadly lacking in attention! Or maybe you noticed that. Or maybe your summer is busy enough that you didn’t notice it. Yeah, I hope that’s the case.

Maybe you put up a KITCHEN CLOSED sign over the summer. I might as well have done that!!!
I want to get back into cooking and baking more and just let the spiders and clutter and kids take over the house and just let stuff fall out of the closets when I open them and let the weeds grow in the garden… oops, I don’t have a garden, and let the fingerprints on the windows and throw dieting and exercise to the wind and just bake and cook and eat to my heart’s content!! Ahhhhhhh!

I haven’t made anything lately worth documenting!! And when it was worth documenting, I was in a tearing hurry (always in a hurry!) or my camera batteries were dead (that was some delicious moist cheddar biscuits that I made last week and I had no AAs in the house!) or I had already featured it. Like, the ham…
That is just the easiest thing to make and it makes a splendid meal. And one 6 lb. bone-in ham is big enough for 3 meals for us… Make the ham and cut slices off for the meal. Then after you’re done eating, cut as many more slices off as you can and that’s enough for another meal. Then, get the rest off (little pieces) and save them to throw in a casserole or soup (3rd meal). I just throw the frozen leftover ham slices in the crockpot with a bit of water and it’s good and moist and so handy… its already sliced!

Our most common supper is chicken breast, veggies, and either potatoes or rolls, but often both. The chicken breast is either done on the grill or in the frying pan. I don’t bread it, just thaw it in the microwave if it’s frozen and fry it or grill it (with seasonings), then we eat it with Famous Daves BBQ sauce. We have this at least once a week. And it’s so common that I never took a picture of it! Do you have a favorite or common meal that you often make? Or maybe you’re an adventurous cook who rarely makes anything twice.

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I have a few contests in mind to choose from, but I need to figure out details like judges and if I’m gonna make each recipe to test it or what! For example, a ‘best cookie’ contest… if even 10 of you would participate, we’d have cookies sticking out of our ears around here! So, more contest info later.

…sit down for a cup mug of tea…let’s chat…

I’ve been tagged to list “7 things about me” by lovetocraftnread (don’t miss her site! She’s very creative and does beautiful work!!!).

I only know a fraction of the people who are subscribed to me, and I know a lot of you don’t know me, so I’ll tell you some about me. Then, because in a good chat, I don’t want to do all the talking, I want you to do your share of talking too. So I’m tagging ALL 197 of you who are subscribed to this site… tell me at least one thing about you, preferably 7, but in case that scares you off, I’ll settle with one… or five.

1. I’ve lived in WI all my life. It would feel weird to live anywhere else. I absolutely love Wisconsin… ok, yeah, I do complain about the cold during the winter, but even at 20 below, you could offer me a permanent home in the warm sunny south and I most likely wouldn’t take you up on it. Now a second home down there just for over the winter… that’s different… that’s my dream someday.

2. I married my highschool sweetheart… I wasn’t allowed to date until I was 18. The day before my 18th birthday, he asked me out on a date for ‘tomorrow evening’. Crazy how we knew each other so well, but suddenly on the first date, the air was changed somehow and it felt new and exciting and I was actually nervous. We now have 2 girls (a 4-yr-old and a 15-month-old), plus 2 babies in Heaven via miscarriage. We are just coming up on our 11th anniversary on August 3. This site is just for cooking, I also have a personal site… kaylouann

3. I am a Christian and go to a Mennonite church. If you’re not familiar with Mennonites and want to know more, message me and I’ll tell you about us. I’m very open.

4. I know for a fact that I’ve cooked more meals in the last 4 years of our married life than I did in the first 7. Before we had children, we both had full time jobs and we mostly ate out. That was so fun and relaxing. I didn’t like to cook and wasn’t confident about it, and when we’d get home after 5:00 or later, the last thing I felt like doing was cooking. We lived right in town too, so it was very handy.

5. My weakness is chocolate. MILK chocolate. I make a point to keep it out of the house if I’m trying to lose weight. If I’m not trying to lose weight, I make a point to keep it IN the house and my supply well stocked! I KNOW I could really floor you with how much I can eat at one time and still feel fine. Same with chocolate chip cookies. Just can’t leave ’em alone.

6. I have a part-time job doing design work… making brochures, ads, flyers, and maintaining our company website. I love it. I use Corel Draw. It’s such a perfect job for a stay at home mom. I can work in my pjs if I want to and I don’t need to get a babysitter. I have a dream that when the girls get older, we can have our own design firm. Neat thing about that is it wouldn’t have to disband when they leave home because it can be done from any computer in the world, thanks to email and internet.

7. I love scrapbooking. Wish I’d have more time for it, but that’s not something that’s screaming for attention to get done. My albums just silently get farther and farther behind when I have a scrapbooking lull. I’m working on an album for each of the girls, plus a family album. Also, sometime in the future, I want to do a cookbook that’s a combination of a scrapbook and this site… I’d put in only recipes I’ve done, complete with progress pictures, the recipe, and the finished product, and a review of what I thought about it, plus an excerpt here and there from you guys off of here (after you’ve made it and commented on what you thought of it). There would be one recipe per page in an 8 1/2″ x 11″ book. Not sure when that’ll happen, but it’s exciting to think about anyway.

Ok, your turn… Where do you live? What about your family? What’s your food weakness? What are your hobbies? Do you have dreams?    Can’t wait to hear from you!!!

Posted on January 13, 2007
Filed Under Tidbits

23 answers… very entertaining and interesting! Some were written humorously  and some ideas are very original and creative. Thanks alot for participating!!!!!! Here they are:

“I have one spot of everything .  Maybe I should get professional help…”

“I do apples so its red, green and I have added some accents of black to.”

“My kitchen has white walls.  The curtains are  blue, yellow, and white flowers with green leaves.  I made the curtains from the centerpieces that were on our tables at our wedding. That is about all I have as far as a theme.”

“yellow/sunflowers and it was inspired because we remodeled an old house that came with quaint yellow counter tops and yellow appliances… thankfully they all croaked.”

“dark weird looking olivish color and I really do like it. This may sound weird but all the accents are a dark country red. There is no bulkhead so the top of the cabinets are open and I have baskets, stars, old jars filled with beans, a watering can, an old bowl, red and white beady things and stuff like that up there. That’s my favorite part of the kitchen, the stuff I can stick along the top. :)”

“no color theme, but I have old kitchen ‘tools’, etc. Our house is a very old log house, and our kitchen used to be the back porch, so one wall in our kitchen is the old log look! That goes pretty well w/ our decor. 🙂

“Do you know what color “Butte Rock” is?! ha I actually would call it “Pumpkin Spice”. I like fruit , and there’s fruit on my china, so I have some fruit pics on the walls and also some of the fruit china and some antique fruity-looking pieces are displayed in a corner cabinet. Accent colors are green and blue. The soffit is stenciled with this verse: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” ”

“we redid everything just a few months ago. The cabinets were once an ugly dark brown stain- we painted them white, then sanded the edges off a little to give it an antique look . The walls we painted dark red, the countertops are the old ones ( tannish/brownish color) , and the floor is dark tan. It looks MUCH better in my opinion! I’m sticking with the country-style look with stars, antique-looking things, (plaques,etc). I’m sticking in a few black accents here and there, too.”

“oak cabinets with a ginger glaze, dark handles and a Victorian looking faucet , white trim and light tan walls.  No decorations.  I don’t really know what I want to do.  I’m kind of thinking bright bold Aztec colors, but how does that go with the faucet?”

“mostly neutral, with dusty rose accents .  I have golden-pecan stained oak cabinets with a little rail around the top (open area above), where I have baskets, jar candles, greenery, and those jars filled with flavored vinegars and vegetables.  Oh, there’s a rooster cookie jar, too.  The solid surface tops are white with specks of color in them–the dusty rose, Williamsburg blue, etc.  I have rose-colored Tupperware canisters and rugs the same color.  My appliances are black and stainless steel .”

“my kitchen is done in grapes . I have a grape/ ivy wall paper border, grape valances at the windows and grape canister set and other grape nic-nacks.”

“My kitchen is apples . I love it! I have collected a lot of apple things from Home Interiors over the last number of years. Mostly at yard sales or things I “earned” from having a party. I use the red and country blue, though, rather than the green.”

“I have a coffee theme and also a few little “fat” chefs. I love coffee shops and Starbucks so I decided to do my kitchen along that line. I have little coffee signs on the walls and empty mocha bottles and coffee cans sitting in the window.”

“My kitchen is black & white with sunflowers !”

“My kitchen in the house we just move out of was oak and white farmhouse style with yellow and red apples. It was so bright and cheerful. But I am going with an entirely diferent theme in the new house. It is going to be kinda old world vineyard look. Light and dark cabinetry with tile. the colors are aged stone, kinda sage/olive green and burnished red, with an olive and herbed oil theme.”

“ivy & birdhouses for now, who knows what it will end up being, I move to much! 🙂 But sometimes I’m fooled for a minute and think my kitchen theme is junk mail, stray toys, and stuff (sitting on my counter….waiting…)!!!”

“For the “theme colors” in my kitechen just ask Freida…. it’s a very bad multi-colored wall paper theme ”

“My kitchen and dining room are red.  Like a dark brick red .  I decorate with teasets/china and also antiques.”

“My kitchen? It is galley style with limited wall space so there is no theme, simply green . The backsplash is a dark “Riverbank” and the cupboards are Very pale “sitka” or something.”

“My kitchen started out as blueberries and strawberries , but since that was a hard theme to find, I soon ended up using a fruit theme – with berries still be the main theme.”

“We have a clock with cows on it and a wooden cow face shape given to me by a dear friend many years ago. (I used to collect cows.) I have a wooden decoration on my counter that talks about apple pie with vanilla ice cream and caramel. Having had that combination before – and loving it! – I couldn’t pass up that decoration.”

“right now it has fruit wallpaper (which isn’t that bad but it is not me at all) and then I have lots of sunflower decorations(what my old kitchen was). So it doesn’t look all that great but I hope to redo it one of these days.:)”

“I have a coffee theme.Also I love the enamelware things to…but this kitchen is smaller than the last.I’m still figuring out how to get my old stove in the kitchen!”

Just a few comments: The grapes kitchen brought back memories… that’s what my kitchen was in our first house after we got married. My sister has a coffee kitchen and gets lots of compliments on it. I loved the ‘junk mail, stray toys, and stuff’ comment… so true! Should see my kitchen sometimes, seems like that type of stuff is more over-powering sometimes than Coca-Cola! My mom has apples… they live on an orchard too. Someone mentioned a rooster cookie jar… my aunt has rooster decor in her kitchen. I always thought that was so neat and original. The old kitchen tools one with the log wall, I’d love to see! Can’t tell you enough how interesting this was to me! I hope you found it interesting too!

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Now, to spark some nostalgia… What certain dish does/did your Grandma make that you love or that she’s well-known for?

It seems like Grandmas often have something like that, and they should, what with all their years of experience!   The first thing I thought of was my Grandma Graber’s brown sugar pie . I love it and she makes it about every time the family gets together because everyone is crazy about it. My cousin can make it perfectly now and it turned out perfect for me the last time I made it! Grandma gave us some tips (like beat the eggs like crazy and get it out of the oven while it’s still a little jiggly), which really helped… I flopped that pie so many times, just ask Shannon! He had never heard of it before. Maybe you never did either. I’ll have to feature it on here… and hope it gets right again *fingers crossed*!

When I asked Shannon about his grandma, right away he thought of 1 thing from his one grandma and 2 things from his other grandma. One of the things was pig stomach . Ever have that? It was a new thing to me, but it’s very good!

So, let’s hear about your grandma’s cookin’!

I won’t be featuring a new recipe right now. I’m just going to throw a couple pictures up here and put a new recipe or 2 up later.

GRILLING

 This is Shannon and his brother Preston making Shannon’s baked beans on Thursday morning. My mom added them to our T-giving menu this year. Yes, it involves the grill… that’s a bunch of steak chunked up to throw in and a couple other meats. I can’t feature that recipe. Why? Shannon’s answer to people who ask for the recipe is: “I could tell ya, but then I’d have to kill ya.” …he is, of course, just kidding… I think.

I know the ingredients, but not quantities. I’m pretty sure Preston knows the recipe by heart, but he won’t tell you either. He’s Shannon’s grilling buddy. You know, the whole concept of men and food in the same sentence was always a very common one to me, but the concept of men and helping make food was foreign… until I got married. Shannon and I have lots of fun together making meals. There’s something very attractive to me about a man who likes to cook, especially grill. Besides, it’s so fun to work in the kitchen with a guy, and just watch him… if I’m chopping up a green pepper into a million teeny little pieces, what do I use? A small knife or a food chopper. What does Shannon use? A huge clunky knife! But I must say, he must have good coordination because I tried it Thurs morning and nearly cut my finger holding the pepper several times …yeah, peppers go in the baked bean recipe, and jalepenos too. Ok, no more ingredient give-aways on that.)

After Shannon and Preston got done making the beans, they got a bar-b-que cookbook (we have pretty many barbeque/grilling cookbooks, including “The Barbeque Bible”) and sat down with it at the bar and were making comments like, “We should try that sometime” and “This says to smoke the brisket for a minimum of 8 hours”.

 This is a picture of the pork chops on the grill Wed evening when we had our open-faced pork chop sandwiches. Shannon said that sometime he himself would do the feature on here for those sandwiches.

Well, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I want to put a couple new recipes up on here tomorrow afternoon.