new favorite hobby: digital scrapbooking!

In the beginning...
I've been a paper scrapbooker for 16+ years (sheesh, that makes me sound old. And YES that's half of my life!) and have oodles of supplies and goodies. I've made some pretty cool pages, scrapbooks, and even little gift books. I just love putting it all together, documenting the story and having the satisfaction of seeing it completed!

I guess I've been doing some "digital scrapbooking" for about 5 years now, that is, if you count Shutterfly photo books as digital scrapbooking. Most of their books I've made have been CUSTOM path, but a couple have been with their SIMPLE PATH. I think this is how I became interested in digital scrapbooking.


Anyway, early this year I started tinkering with Photoshop, and then blog design, and digital scrapbooking all along the way. I LOVE it! I love how quick and cute the pages are! I can keep them super simple or jazz them up a bit, or a lot! I'm mainly using templates that i just "CLIP" my pictures and papers to. It makes it so easy, and that's what I love MOST about it. These templates and a lot of the papers I use are part of Becky Higgin's "Project Life" way of scrapbooking. (I have some of her products in regular paper form used in a few albums too. This is a genius concept! Her products are now available on Amazon.com, and are coming to many stores- Hobby Lobby, Michael's, and even a few little shops. She has a store locator on her website.)

Since I've started this digital scrapbooking, in January, I've done Alivia's whole year of 2012 (in about 4 months time)! That's a huge time-saver, as compared to the paper scrapbooking I've been doing. Maybe I'll get back to the good old-fashioned way of my original scrapbooks, but while I have my busy little kids, I'm using my Project Life paper supplies and albums, and making some digital pages to print and slip into their albums too. IT'S WONDERFUL and it makes me so VERY happy! I'm all about gettin' it done and this way works well for me!


Here's a taste of some of the pages I've done.

strawberry sauce

The boys and I went strawberry-picking on Thursday. I was planning to use the berries to make my Strawberry Syrup that we LOVE, but I hate having to strain the strawberries and get rid of all that yummy berry flesh, so I thought I'd give this recipe a try. It's another good one from Our Best Bites. It's also in their 1st cookbook.

I'm glad I tried it! It's delicious! It's wonderful on pancakes, over ice cream, add some to your yogurt, and I'm going to have to try making a strawberry milkshake with it too! Yummmmmy!

Strawberry Sauce

1 pint strawberries

1/3 c. white sugar

1 tsp. almond extract (OBB's favorite) or vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Wash strawberries and remove stems. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can roughly chop the berries, but I say you’re already feeling ambitious enough by making your own strawberry sauce. So don’t sweat it.
2. Combine berries, sugar, and extract in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for five minutes, stirring/breaking strawberries up with a wooden spoon constantly.
3. After five minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly (if you have a glass blender jar) and a lot (if you have a plastic blender jar). When cool enough, transfer mixture to blender and pulse until desired consistency is reached 

Notes from Our Best Bites-
Wanna know what to do with it?
–Make banana splits with this and Sara’s hot fudge sauce
–Drizzle over plain ol’ cheesecake
–Spoon some over this ice cream, with or without the cinnamon (depending on how brave you’re feeling)
–I’m envisioning this sauce atop a pizzookie with sugar cookie dough and lemon ice cream
–My proudest use of strawberry sauce: mix a couple of tablespoons (depending on the size of the glass and your own personal taste) with this fresh-squeezed lemonade for strawberry lemonade. So so so so good…
–Chocolate waffles, anyone? If that’s not your thing, you could put them on your favorite French toast, waffles, or pancakes. Speaking of French Toast- try this one!
–Drizzle over angel food cake and add a dollop of sweetened whipped cream.

The cookbook recipe of this also says-
It stores well in the fridge for 1 month, or freeze for up to 3 months. I have about 5 c. of it in my freezer! What a tasty treat at my disposal!

pizza sauce

I've been in a kick using one of my Our Best Bites cookbooks lately, so I naturally, had to try their recipe for Pizza Sauce. It uses some of the garlic bread seasoning I had mixed up, and it tastes really good! I may switch from my old recipe to this one!

Pizza Sauce
Recipe by Our Best Bites

Ingredients:
1 6-oz. can tomato paste
6 oz. water (just use the empty tomato paste can)
3 Tbsp. garlic bread seasoning
1 Tbsp. sugar or honey
3/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)

Instructions:
Empty tomato paste into a bowl and add water a few tablespoons at a time, stirring constantly until combined. Add remaining ingredients, stir to combine, and allow to stand until ready to use. Covers two average-sized pizza; freezes extremely well for up to 3 months.

garlic bread seasoning

I tried this recipe from Our Best Bites. It's very similar to the Garlic Butter Spread I've used many times before, but I like that this makes a big batch, I can freeze it and then use it to season some pizza sauce, or use it with garlic bread, or even add it to chicken or fish! 

Garlic Bread Seasoning

1/2 c. powdered Parmesan cheese
2 tsp. Kosher salt (you may want to start with 1 and sample since parmesan can vary in saltiness)
2 Tbsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. basil
2 tsp. marjoram
2 tsp. parsley

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients in a jar (preferably one with a sprinkle top) and shake. Well, don’t shake until you’ve put the lid on, but I assume most of you are smart enough to figure that out! :)
2. Sprinkle on top of breadsticks or combine 1 1/2 Tbsp. seasoning with 1/2 c. of softened real butter and spread on a loaf of French bread (cut in 1/2 lengthwise). Wrap in foil and bake at 375 until butter’s melted. If you want, you could also pop it open-faced under the broiler for a few minutes so it gets brownish and crispy.

dabbling in blog design

I've been blogging since August 2008 and I love it! It's a great way for me to stay up-to-date with everything. Every year I've printed out my blog into book form, and then refer back to it later for our scrapbooks and family albums.

With my blog, I always like changing my backgrounds and font colors, etc. according to holiday or color scheme or whatever. But I've always been interested in learning MORE about this whole "world". So I registered for this class  "Bloom Your Blog: Beginning Blog Design". I love the whole Jessica Sprague website and I've taken some of the digital scrapbooking classes, Photoshop Basics, etc. classes on there, along with shopping at her digital shop (which can be dangerous!).  ;) More on that to come another time...

Here's the Class Synopsis for the "Bloom Your Blog" Class:
In this video-based course, you'll learn how to create a cohesive look and feel for your blog, and how to use Photoshop to create the "bits & pieces" that every blog needs. You'll learn how to:

• Identify the basic vocabulary of web design
• Use brainstorming, mood boards, and worksheets to design a cohesive look and feel for your blog
• Set up your blog with a simple, flexible template you can customize
• Create a new blog header
• Create a custom background, and the bits-and-pieces that every blog needs
• Perform basic edits on photos
• Create a watermark
• Integrate widgets into your blog
• Create ads and blog badges to share your blog with others
• And so much more!

This class was a lot of fun! I didn't do everything she taught in class (like add a button to connect to my Pinterest or Facebook accounts, etc.), but I made a lot of other great changes.

1. I modified/tinted my own background and made my own header (that was a big TA-DAH moment for myself. Really tickled about it.)
2. I learned more about adjusting widths of the columns, and learning a little bit of the technical side of things, although I think I'd actually like to go in MORE depth to learn even more about it.

Call me a computer nerd, but it's kinda fun for me. Takes me back to 7th grade in Dr. Moore's computer class when I first dabbled in computer design and computer code. (I haven't thought about that class...probably since 7th grade, but this experience brought it back.)

Overall, it was a fun experience. I like learning this kind of stuff! Another great thing about these classes is that they're available to you forever and ever to refer back to and take again. ;) Pretty cool.

PS: I've you automatically get my blog updates and don't actually see the WHOLE blog, click here and see what it looks like.

crockpot mac & cheese

I don't know how it is that this recipe hasn't made it to my blog before! This is a family favorite! I've been making it for over a year now. I guess I've always thought "Oh yeah, I use that recipe all the time. I must've blogged about it before." Well, I finally checked to make sure and it was NO where to be found on here! I take this to our family gatherings and it's a big hit every time! Write this one down! Perfect for your summer BBQs and you don't have to heat up the house for it!

(uber-cheesy) Crockpot Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:
1 lb. rotini or noodle of choice, cooked according to package directions (I prefer rotini because there are so many places for the cheesy goodness to hide)
Slow cooker plastic liner** A MUST- can you imagine cleaning this dish without a liner? What a sticky mess!

Cheese sauce:
1 stick of butter
1 can (14 oz.) evaporated milk
1 can Cheddar Cheese Soup
2 slices swiss cheese
3 slices American cheese
1 lb (yellow) sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 t. salt
3/4 t. pepper
1/2 t. ground mustard
1/4 t. nutmeg

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
2. While pasta is cooking, place slow cooker liner over slow cooker insert. Set aside.
3. Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add milk, cheddar cheese soup, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Whisk to combine. Bring to a boil briefly (you don't want it to burn on the bottom), then remove from heat and stir in cheeses.
4. Pour cheese sauce over noodles. Stir to combine, then transfer to lined slow cooker.Cook on low 2-3 hours.
5. OR pour into a greased 9x13 pan, cover with foil and bake @ 350* for 30+ minutes.

This is a DEFINITE crowd pleaser AND it warms up really nice the next day- just drizzle a little water before you heat it up and sauce is just as creamy as the 1st serving!

what's cookin?

Here's some of what's been cookin' in our kitchen the past month or so. Enjoy!

Baked Spaghetti
Italian Sausage & Mushroom Bake
Roasted Asparagus
Slow-cooker 20 Garlic Chicken
Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu
Mozzarella Ham Stromboli
Strawberry Cupcakes
Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken
Pizza Pull-apart Bread - I modified the original recipe and it was an EPIC FAILURE! :P I hate it when dinner turns out like this. I will not be trying this again, even with the original recipe. PASS!
Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Taco Soup
Baked Ravioli
Pizza Hut Pan Pizza
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos
Baked Ziti
Sugar Cookie Bars