Summer Napkins

I was going to do a post about something I

made for our Son and DIL but I haven't given it to them yet.

 I never know when our DIL is going to check out my blog posts.

It's something that our DIL wanted to know if I could make,
so no posting early because I don't want to spoil the surprise!

I will be meeting with them next weekend

so I will be able to share it with you then.

I promise that this will be the

last post about strawberries this year!

I actually made these strawberry linen napkins back in May.

I just never got around to posting how I made them.

Here is a closer look at them.

Aren't they lovely?

And they are machine washable!

I made 8 of these all white linen napkins about 2 years ago

and had them tucked away in a drawer.  I knew eventually

that I wanted to add a design to them, I just wasn't sure what.

So there they sat for 2 years.

When I spotted this strawberry image on the Graphic Fairies website,

I knew just what I wanted to add it to.

I made a set of 4 strawberry linen napkins!

If you can iron and cut with scissors,

you can do this also.

Here's how I transferred my image

onto the linen napkins.

I picked up this Transfer paper from Joann Fabric's.

As you can see, you can add your image to whatever

fabric item you would like to decorate.

Decide what image you want to use and

print the image onto the transfer paper

following the enclosed instructions.

(the instructions are very easy to follow)

*Make sure you reverse your image before printing*

After your image has been printed

and allowed to set, it is time to cut

out your image.  You want to make sure

that you cut very close to the image,

otherwise your image will look like one

of those fake tatoos, and I'm pretty sure you

don't want that look!

You want your image to look like it was painted on.

Simply place your image onto your fabric item

face down and iron in place.

Slowly peel off the backing paper to reveal your

new creation.

That's  it!

A beautiful new creation!

Wasn't that simple?

This project cost me a total of $2.00 to make 4 beautiful linen napkins!

Try finding that kind of deal for 4 high end, custom made linen napkins!

That's it for this week.
I'm off to work on another project!

Until Next Time,

Veronica

Schmears

Schmears?

What the heck are Schmears?

Flavored Butter?

Do you know what Flavored Butter is?

What about Cream Cheese Spreads?

All of these are considered Schmears.

Get it?  You schmear these on rolls, bagels,

sconces, hot biscuits or whatever you desire.

Have you ever went to Texas Roadhouse and

had one of their warm rolls with the Cinnamon Honey Butter?

Who am I kidding.  Who can eat just one roll!

Oh My Sweet Country Cooking Goodness!

I had a block of cream cheese in the refrigerator that

I wanted to use up.  Since we picked SO MANY

strawberries again this year I thought that I would

make some Fresh Strawberry Butter to top my

morning Blueberry bagel with.

No boring bagels in this household!

As you can tell I use a heavy hand when I apply my

Fresh Strawberry Butter to my bagels!

Granted I don't eat these every day,

usually just on the weekends.

These will hold me off until Lunch time

when I will eat a small salad.

Am I making you hungry yet?

Schmears are so incredibly easy to make,

but be careful, these are additive!

Here's how I make my Fresh Strawberry Butter.

Gather your ingredients and a Food Processor.

Add your softened butter and cream cheese to the food processor.

Pulse to combine until you have a smooth and creamy consistency.

Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth,

making sure to scrape down the sides.

That's it!

Place into a covered container and refrigerate to chill.

You can make your Schmears with whatever fruits, nuts or

vegetables you like.  You can even make them low fat.

Just replace the full fat cream cheese with reduced fat cream cheese.

There is nothing better than Homemade Schmears!

At least in my opinion.

Of course I'll share the recipe.

Fresh Strawberry Butter

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature (if using salted butter, omit adding salt)

4 ounces cream cheese (can replace with reduced fat)

1/2 cup ripe fresh strawberries, diced

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon jiuice

Add softened butter and cream cheese to food processor and pulse until you have a smooth consistency.

Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth, making sure to scrape down the sides.

Place into a covered container and refrigerate to chill.

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

Red, White and Blue Turnovers

Happy Independence Day!

Are you celebrating Independence Day?

I didn't feel much like doing anything this
year so we will be staying home and
enjoying the beautiful weather.

I was able to bake a Patriot dessert though.

This is my version of a Red, White and Blue dessert.

I made Turnovers using strawberries, blueberries and cream cheese,

Hubby's favorite combinations of fruits and cheese.

Oh My Sweet Liberty are these ever GOOD!

And since it's Independence Day I pulled

out my Independence Hall Staffordshire Ironstone plate to use.

What a perfect match of Red, White and Blue!

Turnovers are so easy to make.

I know, I know, I sound like a broken record.

I'm always telling you how easy everything is.

But it's the truth!

You don't have to stuff your Turnovers with

just fruit.  You can use veggies, meats, cheeses,

or whatever your little heart desires.

Stay with me and I'll show you just how

easy these are to make.

To get started you will need a package of Puff Pastry Sheets.

You can find these in the frozen dessert section at your local grocer.

And your fillings of choice.

Remove the Puff Pastry sheets from the box and thaw out.

Once thawed, open each sheet and cut into 4 squares per sheet.

Add a dollop of cream cheese mixture onto each square.

Add a spoonful of fruit.

Dip your finger in the fruit juice and spread a line of juice

around the outside edges of the square,

this will help seal your turnover.

Gently fold from corner to corner, creating a triangle.

Dip a fork into the fruit juice and crimp the edges together.

Brush entire top of pastry with an egg wash mixture.

(egg white with a little water or milk)

Place onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake.

THAT'S IT!

Remove from oven and let cool.

I drizzled the tops with a simple Lemon Glaze.

Hubby couldn't wait for these to be done.

He said that they smelled so good baking,
and I totally agreed with him.

He didn't even complain that I was baking

when it was 91 degrees outside.

Thank goodness for central air!

Here's the recipe!

RED, WHITE and BLUE TURNOVERS

TURNOVERS

1 package puff pastry sheets, thawed

1 and 1/2 cups chopped strawberries

3/4 cup blueberries

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

 4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg white, lightly beaten

GLAZE

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon milk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Remove puff pastry from package and thaw out.  Cut each sheet into 4 squares (you should have

8 total squares), set aside.

In a medium size bowl, mix together chopped strawberries, blueberries, granulated sugar and cornstarch. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese until smooth.  Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until combined.

Add a dollop of cream cheese mixture to each puff pastry square.

Add a spoonful of fruit mixture to each square.

Line outer edges of puff pastry with fruit juice and fold over and crimp with a fork dipped into fruit mixture.

Brush each pastry with egg wash.

Place onto lined baking sheet and bake for 17-20 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool completely.

GLAZE:

Mix powdered sugar, milk, lemon juice and vanilla extract until combined.  Add more milk if needed.

Drizzle glaze over each pastry top.

                                                                           ENJOY!

Have a safe and happy Independence Day!

Until Next Time,

Veronica

We Be Jammin'

Well, I was able to get Hubby's Strawberry Jam made.

It's a good thing we went to the strawberry patch again

on Thursday because today was the last day for strawberry picking.

Strawberry season only lasts about 2 weeks, any longer and the

berries are slim pickin'.

I wanted to get a picture of Hubby eating his jam

but he's a little camera shy.

So you will have to just enjoy the pictures of the jam I made.

Doesn't it look yummy?

It is beyond yummy!

The good thing about this jam is once you get it made

you can eat it immediately!

It can be refrigerated up to 3 week,

or placed into the freezer for 1 year.

If you are like this household it won't last a year,

let alone 3 weeks!

Would you like to know how I make this super easy jam?

No more standing over a hot stove to make jam!

Simply crush, stir and freeze.

Ya gotta love that!

Follow along and I'll show you how.

This is the magic to making this jam.

I pick this up in our local grocery store.

You can find this in any

grocery store in the canning section.

I used half pint and pint size jars to put my jam into,

but you can use any type of freezer container.

Add 1 1/2 cups of sugar into a large bowl

and add the packet of Freezer Jam Pectin.

Stir mixture to completely combine.

Add 4 cups of crushed fruit of choice.
*If you don't have fresh fruit you can
substitute frozen and get the same results.

Stir mixture for 3 minutes.

Ladle Freezer Jam into clean freezer containers,

making sure to leave 1/2 inch headspace for expansion.

Place lids on and let set for 30 minutes to thicken.

Serve immediately, refrigerate or freeze.

THAT'S IT!

Wasn't that easy?

From one packet I got 2 pint jars and 4 half pint jars of jam.

It doesn't get much easier than that!

Oh the sweet taste of Summer!

I mailed a couple of jars of this jam to my FIL

because I know that he LOVES this jam,
and a couple of jars were given as
Thank You gifts.

These make wonderful gifts!

So go make some jam and share the sweetness!

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

The Shortness Of Summer

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there!

Oh my golly gosh!

We are already in the middle of June

and tomorrow is the first day of Summer!

And with Summer beginning that means

STRAWBERRY PICKING SEASON!

We look forward to strawberry season every year.

Strawberry picking season is in full swing around here.

Hubby and I went strawberry picking on Thursday

morning before we headed off to work.

It took us 10 minutes to pick 20 pounds of strawberries!

Yes, you read that right.

That's how polluted the strawberry plants were!

Oh, and the strawberries were HUGE!

The thing about picking so many strawberries

is I have to clean them.  I don't mind doing this

though because I LOVE strawberries!

You should see me when I clean them.

Did you ever watched the Lucille Ball show?

Do you remember the episode where Lucille and Ethel

worked at the chocolate factory?

Yep, that's what I look like when I'm cleaning strawberries!

As fast as I'm cleaning them I'm shoveling them in my mouth!

It's a good thing we pick a lot of strawberries!

Hubby couldn't wait until I was done.

He wanted some strawberry shortcake!

Usually I make biscuits for the strawberry shortcake,

but Hubby decided that he wanted Angel Food cake instead.

Luckily for me I thought ahead and grabbed a cake at the store.

I had to quick take my pictures for this blog post.

The shortcake was starting to topple.

It still tasted YUMMY though!

Now that Hubby had his Strawberry Shortcake,

he decided that he would like to have some Strawberry Freezer Jam!

Looks like I'm headed to the strawberry patch again

to get more strawberries!

Tomorrow the days start getting shorter!

So get out there and enjoy the Summer while it lasts.

Have a happy and safe Summer.

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

Why Didn't I Think Of That!

We tend to wash our hands a lot around here.

Our kitchen sink has a built in soap dispenser

that is a handy little thing to have.

I love this thing except for one little thing.

The bottle that holds the soap is too small.

I am constantly having to refill it.

I went to refill it the other day and the

top of the bottle was broke.

A while back I came across a simple solution to my

problem of constantly having to refill my bottle.

Now was the perfect time to put it to use!

I removed the tube from the bottom of the dispenser

and took the pump part of the soap dispenser

down to our local hardware store and

purchased a hose that fit tightly onto

the base of the dispenser.

The hardware store sold the tubing by the foot.

I purchased 2 1/2 feet and it costs me $1.09.

I always keep a big bottle of  hand soap on hand to

refill the soap dispenser.

Once I had my new tubing attached to the soap dispenser pump,

I removed the lid from the big bottle of hand soap

and had Hubby drill the hole big enough to fit the tubing through.

I placed the lid back onto the big bottle of  hand soap

and placed the bottle under the sink in the corner where the

soap dispenser is. I reattached the soap dispenser with the

tubing and measured to make sure the tubing was long

enough to reach the bottom of the bottle of hand soap.

I cut the tubing at an angle and placed it inside the

hand soap bottle.

No more having to stand on my head to unscrew the small

soap dispenser bottle to refill!

 This 64 ounce bottle should last us a while!

I pumped the dispenser about 30 times before the soap

started to come out.  Once it starts you should be good to go!

I LOVE this idea!

It works like a charm!

Hubby didn't think this was going to work because it

was too far from the pump.

What a BRILLIANT idea.

Why didn't I think of that!

Such a simple thing that saves so much

time and frustration!

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica