{Recipe} Spicy Potato Roast

I was in charge of a vegetable for Easter Sunday.
I wanted to try something new and delicious.
When I saw a recipe for Crispy Potato Roast over at Smitten Kitchen...
That was the recipe I just had to make.

This was such an easy recipe to execute.
It would also be really easy to eat the entire pan.
I can't wait to play with different flavor combinations!

Spicy Potato Roast
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients
5lbs Gold Yukon Potatoes, peeled and sliced
4 Tablespoons Olive Oil, divided
4 Tablespoons melted Unsalted Butter, divided
2 Shallots, sliced
Sea Salt
Red Pepper Flakes
Cayenne Pepper (optional)
8 Sprigs of Fresh Thyme

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
After peeling and washing the potatoes, slice them with a mandolin 1/8" thick.
Peel the shallots and slice them with a mandolin 1/16" thick.
Melt the butter and mix with the olive oil.
Pour half of the mixture into a 9x13 glass dish.
Sprinkle some sea salt, a light layer of red pepper flakes, and the faintest dash of cayenne in the dish.
Place all of the potatoes vertically in the dish... there should be three rows.
Separate all of the shallot rings and randomly push them in between each of the potatoes.
Sprinkle any leftover shallots on top of the potato dish.
Pour the rest of the oil/butter mixture on top of the potatoes.
Sprinkle with more sea salt, red pepper flakes, and a dash more of cayenne.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, them place the sprigs of Thyme on top.
Bake for another 15-30 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
If the potatoes brown too quickly, cover with foil to prevent burning this delicious dish.
Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

{Recipe} Bunny Bait

I hope everybody had a safe and sunny Easter.

We had tons of fun... 

Especially because Matt was able to take off work for the family festivities on Saturday.

I wanted to make all of the little kiddies THESE cute treats, but mine melted while in the oven:(

I was able to whip this versatile treat up in no time to take it's place.

You can make this for any and every holiday.

Bunny Bait, 

Reindeer Bait.

Leprechaun Bait...

Basically slap any holiday with the word BAIT, and a festive treat is born;)

Bunny Bait

approx. 10 cups Popcorn, home popped

3 blocks White Almond Candi Quik, chopped

1 teaspoon Shortening

3/4 cup Ghiradelli White Chocolate Chips

Toll House Easter Mini Morsels

Pink Sanding Sugar, large

1 package Peanut Butter M&M Eggs

Directions

Pop popcorn.

Melt the Candi Quik, white chocolate, and shortening in the microwave until just melted.

Don't overheat or it will scorch.

In a large bowl, drizzle white chocolate mixture over popcorn and lightly stir until coated.

Stir in M&M's.

Spread out on wax paper.

Sprinkle on the sanding sugar and mini morsels.

Let the white chocolate harden, then carefully break into pieces.

Watch it disappear, and just try to leave it alone:)

Reality Check-

I used what was on hand, thus why there are two different kinds of white chocolates.  I had the Ghiradelli, left over from THESE and the Candi Quik from THIS 

For me, the best part of this treat is the crunch of the sanding sugar with the popcorn.  It makes it more fun to eat, and makes it look pretty too.

I got the mini morsels last year and have been saving them for a Spring treat. They stored great and added a little pop of color.

The shortening is used for thinning the chocolate.  If you want to keep it out, be prepared for a thicker pour and/or less coverage on the popcorn.

You can add the mini morsels at the same time as the M&M's.  A lot fell to the bottom of the bowl, since I added them once the popcorn was spread on the wax paper.

{Craft} Shabby Chic Key Decor

Want to make a simple decoration,

That costs less than $4...

And less than 20 minutes to make?

This Shabby Chic Framed Key works great for 

Valentine's Day

Easter

& Spring decor.

I made it in time for Valentine's Day.

I guess I could say it is the key to my heart, but I painted one of those for Matt last year.

{Supplies}

1- Off White IKEA Frame- $1.99

1- Brass Skeleton Key- Michael's $.75 with coupon

1- 1x36 in Coordinating Tulle Strip

1- 4x6 Piece of Scrapbook Paper  

{Directions}

 Take the back off of the frame

Remove the glass

Place scrapbook paper in the frame, and place the back back on

Fold tulle in half, and tie a slip know with it on the wall hanging bracket

Flip the tulle to the front of the frame, slip the key on, and tie a bow

Trim the tulle until symmetrical once you have the key hanging to desired length

Display and enjoy this Shabby Chic little piece of decor.

Not bad for $3 and 20 minutes of nap time.

I started and finished this project during the kids' Saturday nap after working overtime. 

I was still able to take a nap at the same time as them... 

Now that's what I call speed crafting with high impact:)

Linking to~ Two Yellow Birds Decor, Ginger Snap Crafts

Easter Sketches

Scroll down to the next post to see the WINNERS of the Amula Designs Giveaway... or click HERE

I wanted some little Easter sketches to go on the cornice box above the big picture window in our living room.  I found these oval picture frames at Micheal's for $1 a piece.

I just barley put any Spring-y stuff up... and now that it is, it will probably be there until Fall:)

Supplies I used was~

2 oval frames

Watered down Robin's Egg paint

Watered down Pink Melon paint

Burnt Umber Brown paint for antiquing

Prisma Color Colored Pencils (use what you have on hand)

Artist's Chalk (use what you have on hand)

Q- Tips for brushing on chalk

Total cost for me- $2

The little chick is my favorite.  I drew both of these to have a kind of washed out, watercolor effect.  I actually wanted to paint them with my watercolors, but I was all out of the proper paper.

Sorry the pics are all so grey.  If I put the proper exposure on the camera, for the paper to appear white, it would make my faint little sketches disappear:)



Burlap and Fabric Rosette Wreath

I wanted something fresh, Spring like, and BRIGHT to hang on our front door.  I was hoping that by completing this project, it would ward off any future snowstorms. (It didn't work... it snowed all weekend)

 I really like how it turned out, even if it didn't possess magic weather stopping powers; and at least something productive came from being cooped up like a prisoner all weekend.



{Supplies}

1~ 12 inch grapevine wreath

5~ 1/4 yard fabric scraps

3~ 18 inch pieces of white floral wire

1~ string of coordinating beads

1~ 8x10 piece of white felt

glue gun and glue sticks

pair of sewing scissors

two hours of crafting time

This project cost me nothing, because I had everything on hand.  A local craft store went out of business last year, so I was able to get some of the supplies less than a $1 {wreath and floral wire}  The fabric was from my stash as well as the beads. 

If you used craft store coupons and hit the sales and 2fer days, you could make this project for less than $10.

There are many tutorials all over the web on how to make fabric rosettes.  I just kind of did my own thing... but THIS is a good tutorial that even shows you one way to add more fabric to make a larger flower.  My MIL used THIS tutorial for Rolled Fabric Flowers.

After a rolled my flowers and glued them onto the felt, I cut and molded the floral wire until I had the look I wanted.  I slipped the beads onto the wire, then placed a strip of hot glue 1/4 inch from the tip of the wire.  As I lightly pushed the bead toward the top, it created a small bead of glue that added a decorative touch; while also sealing the bead to the wire.  Once the glue had hardened to all of the beads, I placed the wire on the back of the felt, and LIBERALLY covered it with glue.

 NOTE~ You will have to hold the wire in place for a couple of minutes until the glue hardens... otherwise the wires will dry askew and not rest flush with the felt.

Once it has hardened, tweak and arrange the beads the way you want them.

I love that the first thing out of Abbie's mouth when she saw it was, "It's pwetty! Pwetty cowors." Then she tried to eat it, thinking the beads were sprinkles:)

This is easy and budget friendly enough to make one for each holiday.  Halloween colors are enticing me; and I have a jelly roll of Merry and Bright Christmas fabric, that would make a great Christmas wreath.  Another project where options are endless.

Create & Share

Spring? Maybe? FINALLY!

The spring weather is finally here. I made the SPRING blocks at the beginning of March, put them up, and waited for it to stop snowing so that I could post about it.
These are some of the decorations I put up for Spring and Easter. This time of the year is one of the rare moments that I actually like pastels. Before we know it, it will be Summer weather and back to the bright, vibrant colors.

Birds Nest Easter Cupcakes

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter and General Conference weekend.

For Easter I made Robin's Nest Cupcakes. I found the cake recipe over at Homemade By Jill. When I made them, they had such a great smell because of the almond extract. I am still searching for a white cake recipe, but this one was adequate. I used the White Chocolate Frosting tinted a pale yellow. For the nest's I used bran and milk chocolate melts topped with the Cadbury Eggs. It was very easy to make the nest's, and next time I might try mixing it with toasted coconut or chinese noodles.

Asher enjoyed the cupcakes as well. The mini cupcakes were the perfect size for him; because when I wasn't looking he bit the frosting off of two of them, and the head off of one Peep.

I also made some chocolate dipped peeps. My husband thought me evil, because he couldn't leave them alone. Once I got him and Asher away from them, I made a bunch more to bring to the festivities. The main purpose of the Peeps was the fact that you can buy sugar free ones too. I bought one pack of the sugar free that I dipped in sugar free chocolate. This made it so my dad and grandpa got a little treat as well. I don't particularly care for the sugar free chocolate, as it is very dark, but it served it's purpose.

Before the milk chocolate melts hardened, I poured on some fun Easter sprinkles. The best thing was, at the end of day, there were none left to tempt me:)

The Hunt Is On

For the Annual Joy Family Easter Egg Hunt, I made some treats for all of the little grand babies, and my own babies:)

My mom used to make these bunny "suckers" when I was growing up, and I wanted my kids to have some of the same memories. We aren't going to make a big deal with the Easter Bunny side of Easter. That isn't where we want the focus. We are going to set it up much the same as Christmas, but the Annual Hunt tends to happen a couple of weeks before Easter making it significantly easier to focus on Christ.

Supplies You Need:

Hostess Ding Dongs

Pipe Cleaners- extra fluffy

Royal icing- plus piping bag, coupler, and tip #2

Sucker Sticks

This is so easy! I only had tip #5, so too much royal icing came out at once, causing the lines to bleed into each other. Now I have tip #2 which will allow for more precision, detail, and finer lines. My mom always did buttercream frosting, but I want to get more efficient with royal icing and used this project as practice. They are little kids they won't care:)

Just put the sucker stick in the bottom of the Ding Dong

Fold two pipe cleaners in half so that it looks like an ear and twist the bottom

Tint your icing to desired colors

Use the icing to create desired pattern

You can and should practice first as the Ding Dongs are not forgiving to repeated erasing:)

Next time I will tie a ribbon on the sucker stick to prevent the Ding Dong from sliding, and to give the bunny an appealing bow tie.

Using leftover sugar cookie dough, and royal icing for more practice.

Easter Egg Cake

I have always liked to work with cakes; I have been doing them since I was four. (Someday I will dig out the picture, it's soooo pretty and not at all messy looking:) It doesn't mean that they always turn out, but the process is fun to learn. For Asher's first Easter I wanted to make a cake and so I thought it up and created it. I just used...

*Two Wilton 8 inch rounds

*Wilton cake colorings (all the springy colors)

*A batch of homemade cake frosting

*One box white cake mix

I used white cake mix because I wanted to dye the batter kind of rainbow like. I learned that there needs to be a lot more cake batter colored to actually show up. Once the cake were cooled a sliced off the tops, frosted the middle, and fused them together. I then decorated the outside and made it Easter Egg-y. It tasted very yummy and was a pretty good attempt after being on a cake baking hiatus for a while. Eventually I will take some of those cake making classes all of the craft stores offer, but for now I will teach myself and get help from my mom.
EnJOY.